By Daniel Rothmann (T7) www.t7online.dk

Introduction

So you’re new to electronic music production. You don’t know much about it all, but that’s OK, everyone has been at this point of experience. I figured the best way to start this series out would be explaining basic drum programming. While many may know very little (if any) theory on the subject, drum programming is quite a bit easier accessible than chords and harmony, since it doesn’t require direct acquaintance with music theory. Even for the inexperienced ear, you can usually tell if a rhythm just isn’t right, or sounds strange in some way. During this tutorial we’re going to set you up with the basic tools you need to get grooving. First, let me introduce you to the software.

The software

The two most widely known techniques for producing drums sounds on a computer are drum synthesis and drum sampling.

Drum synthesis is typically a polyphonic synthesizer that comes with a set of preset parameters that you can change to a certain degree. Some of these could be drum pitch, waveform, noise amount, saturation, and so on. Drum synthesizers are similar to regular synthesizers in the way that they generate (synthesize) a drum sound from scratch, live. Generally, drum synthesizers differ from regular synthesizers in the way, that the drum synth generally have some preset parameters that can only be changed to a very small degree. This could, for example, be the pitch envelope of a kick drum. The way the kick drum very promptly (in a matter of milliseconds) drop from a high pitch to a low one in order to generate a ‘punchy’ effect in sound.

Drum sampling is essentially taking a sample (a recording), i. e. an acoustic snare sound or an electronic hihat from a drum synthesizer, and playing it back whenever a certain note or switch is triggered inside the software. Drum samplers usually feature parameters such as individual sample volume, pitch, length, pan etc. Drum samplers differ from the drum synthesizers by not producing any sound from scratch, you utilize a sample that has already been recorded, prefabricated and modify it according to your musical aspiration.

First of all, let me introduce you to the drum sampler we’re going to be working with: Ableton Live’s ‘Impulse’. It is a decent-quality drum sampler, with some relatively typical features (and a few not-so-typical). In eight square slots, samples can be loaded and played back. Each sample has separate controls for pitch, decay, volume, pan, filter, saturation, timestretch and more. Some of these can be affected by velocity (how ‘hard’ the note is pressed on the keyboard, defining the strength of the particular tone) and some parameters can be set to select a random value with each new note. These things can come in very handy when you want to program a bit of variety into your beats.

Let’s get busy

In this tutorial, we’re going to program an electronic drum kit from scratch, using pre-fabricated drum samples from the internet. We’re going to be using Ableton Live’s ‘Impulse’ which is, as I’ve already mentioned, a drum sampler.

1. For legal reasons, I cannot supply you with samples, even if they are available for free on the Internet. The samples I’ve used are from www.Pettinhouse.com, a site that provides free drum samples. I chose their ‘VKE Modem’ drum kit ‘“ You can download it for free here: http://www.pettinhouse.com/html/vke_modem.html.
   
2. Download the drum kit (for NI Battery, even though we will be using Abletons Impulse, the raw samples are in that package) and extract the folder named ‘Modem Kit Samples’ to wherever you like to have your drum samples.
   
3. Open up Ableton Live and make a new MIDI track. Drag Impulse on to the MIDI track. Impulse is located under ‘Instruments’ in ‘Live Devices’.
4. We need to navigate to the place we saved the samples. Use Live’s browser (on the left, named ‘File Browser 1′), and locate the folder.
    
5. For starters, I’ll drag ‘BD_RnB_SS2′ on to the first free slot in Impulse. BD is short for bass drum. The sound is a bit harsh for what I am going for, so I am going to turn Transpose (Transp) down by -2 semitones (st), dial the Volume to -9 dB, and apply a low-pass filter (LP 1). You accomplish this, by pressing the ‘Filter’ button, make sure that Mode is set to ‘LP 1′ and turn the Frequency down to 825 Hertz (Hz). I also turn the Resonance (Res) to its’ minimum, 0.30.
   
6. For my snare, I’ll drag in ‘SD3_Modem’ and turn the volume to -3 dB. Next up I’ll add a clap sound, named ‘Clap’, and set the volume at -2 dB.
   
7. In the next 3 slots, I’ll load in some effects. I’ve chosen ‘SIGNAL’, ‘Tu3′ and ‘Tu’. I pan ‘SIGNAL’ slightly to the left (24L), and turn the volume down to -10 dB. Basically, I used the same procedure for ‘Tu3′, though I pan it to the right (23R), and dial the volume in on approx. -7 dB. I transpose ‘Tu’ up by 8 semitones, and set the volume at -12 dB.
   
8. We are now left with 2 empty slots. I am going to fill one of them with a hihat; The sample I’m using is named ‘Hat’. I find the hihat a bit too deep and harsh, so I turn the Transpose up by 4 semitones, Stretch down to -16% (this will make the sample slightly shorter, using a time stretching technique), Decay down to 120 milliseconds (ms) and Volume to -7 dB. I also throw in a low-pass filter (LP 1) at approx. 9.5 kHz to take off some treble.
   
9. All we need now is our last effect ‘“ Let’s use ‘Crash2_modem’. By itself, this sample does not sound very good. I am going to transpose it and make it shorter, controlled by gate (this means that when the drum note for this sample in the drum editor stops, the gate will cut off any of the remaining sample material that has not yet been played back. It makes us able to create a much ’sharper’ release with this sample). Here is the parameter values I used: Start: 15 ms, Transpose: 7 st, Stretch: 48%, Decay: 9.14 ms, Volume: -21 dB. Remember to press the button that reads ‘Trigger’ so that it displays ‘Gate’ instead. This enables the gate function.
   
10. All we need now is a beat to play back on our new drum kit! I’ve chosen a electro-inspired beat I thought fit for these sounds.
    
11. Finally, I’m going to use a Compressor to get a bit more consistency in volume. I set the Threshold at -19 dB and Output -5.6 dB.
    

Enjoy your new drum kit! You can drag the Impulse instrument back up in your browser and create a preset you can use at another time.

Imagine listening to a recording and half a minute into a song you notice something wrong. You can’t quite put your finger on it; you just can’t feel the instruments, you feel attacked by the singer’s in-your-face voice and everything is just too…..dry. It’s like listening to music in a vacuum. There’s no space.

Although listening to a reverb-free record is nearly impossible, (unless it was recorded entirely in an anechoic chamber), you can still have a really dry record if you don’t put any reverb on anything.

Reverb can be perceived as a glue that holds everything together, yet retains enough space to maintain a perceived distance between each element. It makes a three dimensional picture of the soundscape you just recorded, causing you to feel that you can hear the room accompanied by the instrument.

Different modes of reverb

There are quite a few different types of reverb. You can call them reverb modes, or room types. Some of the more common types include; Room, Hall, Chamber, Spring, Plate, and Convolution. In our age, we have access to digital reverb simulators which can simulate, quite realistically, all of these programmed room or reverb modes. Let’s take a look.

• Room reverb – These types simulate the sound of having recorded something in a room. Whether the parameters are for a big room or a drum room, they usually simulate smaller spaces than their Hall/Chamber counterparts.
• Hall reverb – Rich, warm and big are the first adjectives that come to mind when thinking about Hall reverb. These types simulate halls, whether they be medium halls, concert halls, or whatever lush parameter name the hall has.
• Plate reverb – Plate reverb is a personal favorite of mine for vocals. Live, I propably use it too much, but I just think it does wonder to the vocals, without taking it too far or drowning it in reverb. Plate reverb is basically sound being sent to a metal plate which vibrates back and forth. These vibrations are picked up and transformed into an audio signal. Plate reverbs are very bright but clean, so they suit vocals especially.
• Spring reverb – I was once asked what reverb was when I was fooling around with my guitar. I cranked up the reverb on my small practice amp and then kicked it. “That boing you heard?” “Yeah?” “That’s reverb”. Although true is some form, that boing wasn’t all reverb, it was spring reverb. The reverb found on guitar amps so most usually used for guitar.
• Chamber reverb – In the old days, studios had so called echo chambers. In these chambers they had speakers that they routed the audio signal that they wanted to put reverb on. The signal, be it guitar, voice or whatever was produced through the speakers into the chamber and picked up by a microphone that was positioned to capture the reverb in said chambers.
• Convolution reverb – This is the type of reverb that allows digital emulation of real three-dimensional spaces. If you’re familiar with the famous reverb plugin Altiverb, then you have heard convolution reverb. In order to capture a room’s reverb characteristics, an “impulse” sound is played in a real space, such as an opera house or a cathedral, then recorded into a computer. The impulse sound allows the computer to simulate that space just from the impulse sound. This is possibly the best kind of digital reverb around

So now you know a little bit about the reverb modes you most commonly work with. Below I have brainstormed a few fun tips you can use whenever you like to spice things up.

1. A different take on reverse reverb:
   You all know the classic reverse reverb, where the reverse seems to swoosh in before the phrase of the singer or the hit of the drum. A neat trick for something different is to record an infinite reverb on a different track and then reverse it. For example, say you have a slow intermission type middle part and the part before ends on a snare hit. You can record that last snare hit on a different track with a big cathedral like reverb with infinite decay. Then you can reverse the audio part and put it low in the mix, then you have a weird controlled reverbed ambience filling out your slow part.
2. Gated Reverb on vocals:
   Gated-reverb on vocals is something I think is pretty cool. I think this is used on the song On call, by Kings of Leon. His vocal reverb stays on while singing but cuts off abruptly when he stops. You patch your effect processor to a gate and the sound source is side-chained to the gate. That way, the gate opens and lets the reverb out whenever the singer is singing, but cuts off as soon as the sound level dips below the threshold of the gate.
3. Making things feel bigger and bigger:
   Say you have a really spaced out Sigur Ros rock outro(I’m Icelandic, I’ve got to namedrop here) and the drums are going wild in the end. It can be fun experimenting with automating the reverb so the drums, or maybe only the snare, or everything, whatever you choose, gets bigger and bigger. I know for a fact that this can work wonders live to really give that last song a huge impact on the audience.
4. Pan it:
   Use mono reverbs for a mono sound source and pan them to a different location in the mix. It can give an interesting impression.
5. Put space between source and reverb:
   Using a standard room reverb, adjust the pre-delay to give the impression it is a little big bigger without making it linger too long. On vocals for example, it can give space between the singing and the reverb.
6. Reverb only:
   Send your drums to a big reverb and solo-safe the reverb. That way you are only hearing the reverb and not the original sound source. It can make for a cool fade-in intro for a song. Especially if you add reverse reverb for the change into the real drum kit.
7. Mix it up:
   Use different types of reverb on the same source. Mixing a couple of types of reverb can create an interesting effect.
8. Don’t use any:
   Keep some instruments reverb-free. It can add an interesting contrast to the rest of the song. It can put a solo intrument to the forefront in a special way.
9. Add other effects:
   Add other types of effects on the aux channel where you have your reverb. Try distorting it, phasing it or anything else you can think of.
10. Use REAL reverb:
    Try ditching your plugins and use real reverb. Upload your audio clips to Silophone, an old grain silo that has been converted into a do-it-yourself reverb chamber. You upload audio and it is played back in the empty silo, then recorded and sent back to you as a download.

I’ve decided to do an example of tip #7. I’ve taken a small snare sample and put two types of reverbs on it via an aux send. I used the Logic presets “Ambience” in the Platinum Reverb and the “Short Snare Hall” in Space Designer. Although I am using Logic, any DAW with decent reverbs works just as well.

First audio sample has the untreated snare drum.

Second audio sample has the snare with a tiny bit of ambience reverb. Not a huge difference but not as dead.

Third sample has a snare hall preset. The reverb makes the snare much bigger.

Fourth sample has both the ambience and hall reverb patches together. Notice that the predelay on the ambience preset delays the hall reverb so it enters later than the actual snare hit. Could make for an interesting sound.

Reverb is an instrument of endless debate. Everybody has an opinion of what works best(like in everything else regarding audio). But reverb can often make or break a song, too much fills it with too much space and you can’t hear what it’s all about and too little just kills the emotion of it. So you have to take particular care in your appliance of reverb, and also be open to a lot of experimentation. Since it is such a big topic you are sure to find something interesting in your endeavours.

Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next one to invent the next “reverb studio trick”?

If you stumbled upon this article and like it, please tell the rest of the Stumbleupon community.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/top-10-reverb-tips-and-tricks/feed/ 7 http://emusictips.com/2009/03/creativity-in-the-control-room/ http://emusictips.com/2009/03/creativity-in-the-control-room/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:10:47 +0000 bjorgvin http://emusictips.com/?p=293 by Björgvin Benediktsson

Where the magic happens

From an idea to the finished product, a song or an album goes through many stages. A little ditty in the songwriters head, a rocking riff on the Les Paul or a quiet chord progression on the piano transforms exponentially as more thought and work is put into it.

All of this isn’t done by only the songwriter. There are a lot of people behind the scenes, helping with the process, from A&R scouts to mixers, to engineers, to producers. But how much of the band is left on that CD after it’s been filtered through all those people? How much does a producer change the creative vision the band had?

Do the engineers and producers help or hinder creativity?

There are three primary roles in the recording studio. The artist, the producer and the engineer. All of them play a pivotal role in the production of an album. Sometimes these roles mix together and sometimes they clash. Other times one person performs the role of all three. Let’s take a look at what goes on in each of these roles:

The Producer

The record producer is the person who, on paper, is the one responsible for fleshing out and making a masterpiece out of the creativeness of the band at hand. He’s the savant that knows how music works, how people react to it and how it should sound. He’s the one responsible for squeezing out the musician’s best performance, for generating new ideas, and for making the artist as comfortable as possible while in the studio. Some producers are known for their signature sound, or their knowledge about a certain genre. Sometimes you just have that new band that needs a Ross Robinson type producer to make them sound amazing.

Examples of famous producers.

• George Martin
• Timbaland
• Rick Rubin

The Engineer.

The tech guy. The guy that knows how to capture that sound you are looking for. He knows how to make the guitars sound like dinosaurs and the drums like locomotives. He knows where to place microphones and to connect all the cables.

The engineer knows how to make the guitars sound like dinosaurs and the drums like locomotives

He knows what’s technically right and wrong.
He’s the producer’s right hand, helping him achieve the creative vision he’s seeing for the band.

Examples of famous engineers/producers

• Alan Parsons
• Geoff Emerick

Sometimes, these two jobs are the same person. Producers who are tech savvy enough to know exactly how to capture the sound of the band can fill both roles. Often they are engineers who worked their way up to producer status and end up doing both jobs. I only differentiate these two professions to show you the difference between their job descriptions. But more often than not, they move seamlessly between the two.

The artist

The talent. The new spark of creativity and vision the world has never seen. The musicians girls will cry for and guys will dress like. The poor artists that have slaved away on their music for years before becoming successful enough to be noticed by the big guns. Sometimes, artists double as producers, like Prince. And other times, they are collaborators with producers, joined at the hip in making new and exciting music. These people are the heart of the music industry. The pulse that keeps it all together. Because if it weren’t for all these artist making this music, not only would there be no music industry, I wouldn’t have anything to do.

Some people would think that an artist is perfectly capable of producing, recording and publishing his own stuff, without supervision. And in this day and age some people certainly do, but many producers agree that artists often stand too close to their own songs and do not see the big picture and what they could accomplish with it.

Which brings us to the question: how much creative control should the producer have?

The role of the producer

Since the producer is usually the most knowledgeable person in the studio, hired for his ability to know what works in a specific genre and such, should he be in control?

An underground band finding themselves in a major recording studio because somebody thought they should be recorded and sold will often flip out. The average underground band doesn’t know much about professional recording environments. I remember the shock and awe I experienced when I first saw all the gear the average recording studio has.

Is the artist always right even though he doesn’t know how to work all the studio equipment?

Behind the scenes, engineers and producers are responsible for capturing the best possible performance from the artist

In my opinion, the producer should be there to take care, guide and help the artist in expressing what is already there in the first place. Namely, their own creativity and vision. Maybe the producer has different ideas and more experience in knowing what works and what doesn’t; but ultimately, it’s the artist that should approve of everything. If I were to record my songs with an experienced producer I would listen to what he had to say. Because if somebody is hired to make you sound a certain way or to help you catch that spark, that is to be greeted with open arms.

Don’t shun advice
Appreciate advice and helpings offered by the producer. Only then listen and critically think for yourself if it makes sense or not. The value of advice is that it is a second viewpoint that will help you step outside of your limited viewpoint to see how you can improve.

The producer should be there for you, first and foremost.
They should not boss you around and change your sound, they should show you possibilities and pathways to bring your music to its full potential.

But sometimes things just don’t work out like that. Major labels have always been associated with creative control and in those cases, the producer tends to have more of direct role in
controlling the creativity of the artist.

Underground creativity vs major label control

There is a subtle difference between being able to record whatever you want on your own time and money and being on the major labels’ money-watch.

In today’s music scene, underground bands have almost unlimited freedom to their own creativity. Because today, you can just plug into your home-studio, record your unfiltered creativity and upload it onto a social music network like Myspace or SoundCloud. There, everybody can listen and love your music, and you embrace your own creative right. But when this creativity gets noticed by the major label, in some people’s opinion things start to go wrong.

An average underground band finding themselves on a major label doesn’t have the same freedom in the studio as other better known artists. On a major label you will have a lot of pressure towards success by any means necessary and sometimes these bands are merely clay for the major label to mold and sell as they see fit.

Steve Albini, a modern rock star producer if you will, has been quoted as saying:

“It always offended me when I was in the studio and the engineer or the assumed producer for the session would start bossing the band around. That always seemed like a horrible insult to me. The band was paying money for the privilege of being in a recording studio, and normally when you pay for something, you get to say how it’s done” (link)

In his opinion, the producers and engineers shouldn’t be allowed to make what they will of the band in the studio. The band is there for a reason, and their own creative spark is usually what brought them there. So the producers shouldn’t be allowed to manipulate and destroy their creative spark with an “holier than thou” kind of attitude. They should be there for the bands’ purpose only, making sure what was there in the first place, stays there in the end.

Creative control differs between a major label and an indie one.

In the world of indie there is less pressure on profit, often because there is also less money. Major labels pay huge advances to bands to go into the recording studio with the best producers to publish the new best hit.

Indie labels don’t have the money to match that. They put less pressure on on the band, ironically putting less pressure on their creativity and often resulting in much better music. So you can argue that because the major labels are paying for it, the band is just there to be bossed around and treated as pieces of clay.

The major label wants to see that money back any way they think will be best, but lets not forget that although the record label is putting up big bucks to pay for the bands studio time, it’s only an advance of the bands record sales. So who ultimately pays for the studio time? The band.

Maybe the horror stories aren’t all true. But if you are ultimately paying for an album with your name on it, wouldn’t you want to have, you know, something to say about the production of it? Only one story of a band being screwed over and being left with an album that they don’t like is enough for me to loathe this way of management. The artist should always have the last say in the matter, however big the producer may be.

What do you readers think? What is the role of the producer in your eyes? How much truth is in major label creative crushing? Let me know.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/creativity-in-the-control-room/feed/ 3 http://emusictips.com/2009/03/what-does-pro-audio-have-to-do-with-chess/ http://emusictips.com/2009/03/what-does-pro-audio-have-to-do-with-chess/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:40:07 +0000 bjorgvin http://emusictips.com/?p=212 Pro audio is like a game of chess; the best player always plans ahead

“Planning ahead pushes you toward victory” – Sun Tzu

In the life of a sound-tech, you’ve got your mixers, your cables and your mics. You’ve got your patching, plugging and playing to do and if I told you it’s a lot like chess you’d probably just point a microphone in my face and say “Does this look like a Rook to you?”.

In chess you have to be able to think more than one move at a time. It’s a game of cunning strategy and if you don’t think one step ahead of your opponent he will Sun Tzu you and you will lose the game. Working with audio is similar. You have to think ahead and keep everything in mind. Signal flow doesn’t start and end with you plugging in a cable, or adjusting the gain levels.

You have to think things through right to the end or feedback will win the game and taint your reputation. As Sun Tzu said: “Estimating completely creates victory”.

Thinking ahead and keeping all the factors in mind greatly reduces the “troubleshooting brainstorm” that goes on when something doesn’t work.

It also enhances you ability to think quickly on your feet, getting the show or the recording back on track in no time.

A couple of things:

Where does the signal go?

How many stages does the microphone go through before it hits the desk? Are there outboard effects involved that can affect the sound in some way? Check all of the following:

• power source
• mixer
• plugs
• snake
• monitor mixer
• splits
• microphones etc, etc.

Be aware of the monitors.

If you are controlling the monitors from the FOH (Front of House, the portion of the building that is open to the public), will the monitors be sensitive to you tweaking the gain knob? Be aware of post/pre fader buttons as well. Also, when you have many bands playing, you go through a lot of monitor settings. A good way to store this is with a trusty digital camera. That way, you set all the monitor settings just the way you left them in the sound-check and everything goes smoothly.

Think things through.

When packing for a gig you have to go through everything and make sure you have everything you need. This means writing things down! I don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten that necessary XLR/MiniRCA cable that was desperately needed for the show. Make a list and go through it dilligently.

Have a plan

You have to think about every instrument and have a contingency plan if things go wrong. Extra DI boxes, extra mics, a couple of extra cables. Keep everything in mind and think like a grandmaster.

So there are quite a few things you have to think about before hitting record or giving a thumbs up sign. And before you set up for a new gig or a recording, take some inspiration from the grandmasters of chess and always plan a few moves ahead.

What do you guys think? I’d appreciate all your suggestions in the comments.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/what-does-pro-audio-have-to-do-with-chess/feed/ 6 http://emusictips.com/2009/03/acoustics-part-i-an-introduction-to-resonance/ http://emusictips.com/2009/03/acoustics-part-i-an-introduction-to-resonance/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:21:38 +0000 admin http://emusictips.com/?p=242 Galileo discovered the principles of resonance when experimenting with pendulums

Way back in the old days of the 17th century, a man named Galileo Galilei was fiddling around with a pendulum and discovered that if he gave the weight at the end of the string a tiny push at the right time, it would keep swaying back and forth with minimal energy exertion. He discovered that potential and kinetic energy can be set into motion with just a tiny bit of effort. This phenomenon is what became known as resonance. As it turns out, it’s not just pendulums that resonance is affecting. It’s everything. You could say that everything resonates. This affects us musicians and producers in many ways. For example, your room may have too many resonances in the wrong places, which will mess up audio recordings unless you dampen the sound vibrations with sound paneling or bass traps. But since this an intro, I’m sort of getting ahead of myself, and I will cover the practical side of resonance in Part 2.

Nikola Tesla was the archetype of a mad scientist. He invented alternating current, radio broadcasting, and of course, the tesla coil. He is also the subject of many conspiracy theories.

Several centuries later, another guy named Nikola Tesla had heard of this resonance principal, and dedicated his life to discovering how it could be used. Tesla confirmed that everything resonates when he discovered that a pocket-sized mechanical oscillator can cause buildings to crumble and bridges to tremor through the principles of resonance. All that was needed was a pocket-sized piston-driven oscillator sending tuned vibrations into the steel foundations of a building. The power of resonance lies in its ability to multiply force; Just a little bit input energy results in a lot of output energy.

“Although Tesla was not the first to discover resonance he was obsessed with it and created some of the most incredible demonstrations of it ever seen. He studied both mechanical and electrical versions. In the process he created an artificial earthquake, numerous artificial lightning storms, knocked an entire power plant off line in Colorado, and nearly caused the steel frame of a sky scraper under construction in Manhattan to collapse. Tesla realized that the principles of resonance could be used to transmit and receive radio messages well before Marconi.” link

Everything has resonance. Resonance is the principle behind the rattles and vibrations of idle objects caused by the subwoofer hitting a certain note. It is why you can shatter a wine glass with the right audio frequency and a loudspeaker. When the loudspeaker is oscillating at the frequency of the wine glass’ natural resonance frequency, it shatters. Sound waves are pushing the glass at regular intervals, just like you would be pushing the swing, and that regular interval is the same rate that the glass is vibrating. This causes the vibrations in the glass to keep amplifying until the glass can no longer stand the intense shearing action and it breaks into pieces.

Sound waves propagating through a field of air molecules and reflecting off of square walls

In space, electromagnetic waves are exploding out of stars, propagating infinitely outwards. Once on earth, we can detect these vibrations through our eyes, which are like windows through which a certain band of frequencies can pass through. (Interestingly, our eyes are actually tuned to the atmosphere, because the visible spectrum of light corresponds to the spectrum of frequencies which which pass through the filter of Earth’s atmosphere) We can think of all of our senses simply as vibration sensors that are tuned to different frequency ranges. Our ears sense vibration by directing sound waves towards the ear drums, which are compressed and rarefacted by waves of compressed air molecules. Those little drums in your ears are connected to a bone that wiggles some fluid in the inner ear, which excites even tinier little hairs that send signals to the brain, where that information is finally interpreted into what we know as sound. So, next time somebody asks you “if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” you can say that it doesn’t make a sound! It only causes compression waves through the air. If there are no ears to convert compression waves into sound, you could argue that the sound does not exist at that point in time and space.

Figure 1: A graph of a fundamental frequency along with the second harmonic

Each and every system in the universe naturally vibrates at certain frequencies. Theoretically, there is an infinite amount of resonances in any system. Think about it, your body is made of cells, all which have their own resonance frequencies. Your body, which is composed of many smaller sub-systems, has a resonance frequency, just as an organ pipe or a flute or the body of a guitar has a collective resonance frequency. All objects (also known as systems) have a primary, fundamental frequency, as well as many overtone resonance frequencies. The fundamental is the one frequency at which the system sympathetically vibrates the most. The other frequencies at which the system vibrates are comprised of a series of progressively “quieter” overtone frequencies that also vibrate in resonance, but at a lower amplitudes. These are also known as harmonics. Almost all sounds are composed of a series of frequencies all “riding” on top of one another In Figure 1, you can see that when two or more frequencies add up, they produce a new waveform (the resultant waveform in Figure 1). You can produce almost any sort of sound by adding sine waves of different frequencies together (this is the principle behind additive synthesis.

How to find an object’s resonance frequency

“The easiest way to find the resonant frequencies is to place the object next to a speaker and also place a microphone attached to an oscilloscope next to the object. Have the speaker play a tone at a given volume, and then without changing the volume slowly change the pitch (or frequency). If you watch the oscilloscope you will notice that at certain frequencies the amplitude of the wave, which is proportional to the volume of the sound being picked up by the microphone, will be greater than at surrounding frequencies. These are the resonant frequencies, and are detectable as the sound energy absorbed by the object is re-emitted more efficiently at these pitches. Note that you can perform the same procedure, albeit less precisely, in a low-tech way: try holding a large bowl, or coffee can, or some other object that you are hoping to make resonate, in front of your face. Slowly sing a tone with increasing pitch. If there is a resonant frequency in the audible range, you should be able to hear the tone emitted back to your ears at that pitch. Or if you have a piano available to you, try singing into the piano and you’ll see the strings vibrate when you sing their resonant frequencies. ” link

Well, that just about wraps up what I’ve got to say about resonance. In part two of this article, I will explore how resonance principles can help us make informed decisions about recording audio. Do you have anything to say about resonance? Let me know in the comments!

A humorous look at resonance:




More Resources

• Interactive applet demonstrating a point source wave reflecting off of a wall
• Pythagoras, string vibration, and standing waves
• AbsoluteAstronomy.com on Resonance
• Bio on Nikola Tesla
]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/acoustics-part-i-an-introduction-to-resonance/feed/ 1 http://emusictips.com/2009/03/dealing-with-the-artist-in-a-performance-venue/ http://emusictips.com/2009/03/dealing-with-the-artist-in-a-performance-venue/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:08:18 +0000 bjorgvin http://emusictips.com/?p=203 “The artist is always late”

by Björgvin Benediktsson

There is considerable tact involved when dealing with an artist. Whether it be in a hectic live setting where everything is running late or recording sultry vocals in a cozy recording studio. If some of the below statements offend you engineer/artists remember that I also whine when my vocals sound bad.

The artist is always late

When I started mixing live concerts, underground bands were notorious for always being late. When I said the soundcheck would start at five, this usually meant the first bands showed up at around six. After a while I got used to this as I could use the empty time to set up and linecheck at a relaxed pace. It’s amazing what you can do in an hour if there is no stress involved.

So when the artists finally showed up I had everything set up perfectly without having to show up early to get everything done.

If you find yourselves in this kind of situation, take advantage of it.

Don’t get annoyed at the primadonna attitude of the artist, the artist will always be a special species and you will always have to treat him that way. But don’t let them get in the way of your job.

If you have free time because of the tardiness of an artist:

• Use the extra time to line check,
• Gaffertape the cables to the floor
• Make sure the microphones are correctly positioned
• Mark your mixer well so you can work fast when the soundcheck starts.
• Any other thing you say that can be beneficial to the concert at hand.

The artist is always right

What I mean by this is that you should always do what the artists wants. Because in the end, it’s their concert or record and if they want it a certain way for them to be happy, make them happy. This could spiral out into pretty hard to swallow actions, like making the guitar sound terrible or putting things to the front that you think don’t belong there.

But if the artist is happy with what he ends up with, he will tell people about it in a positive way, and he will talk about you. And word of mouth travels far, and goes a long way in landing you that next gig.

Think about the artist’s needs

When mixing live concerts, you are basically working in the service industry, serving the artist’s needs. I’m not saying you should jump through hoops to get what he wants. But there are certain things you should be aware of when servingthe artist:

• You should always be up to speed to the artists needs.
• Try to make him comfortable on stage.
• Bring extra cables, chairs to sit on, whatever that relates to your job.
• The rule is: Make him comfortable and the gig will run smoothly.

If they complain do whatever to make them happy.

This one relates directly to the previous one. If they aren’t happy, you won’t get the desired performance out of them. Try to do whatever you can if they complain. Most of the time it’s about the monitor sound. A good tip is to sound-check the stage sound first. That way, if the monitors are spot on and the artist is happy, then you can concentrate on the FOH sound without having to go back and forth because the artist is always complaining he can’t hear his instrument. Being efficient reduces sound-check time and gives you more time if things go wrong.

If they ask for something impossible, and they won’t listen to reason, just say yes and then deal with it your own way.

There once was this girl singing with a band and they were rehearsing songs for an upcoming concert. The bass-player told me that she was struggling with some songs and asked that they lowered the key. The bass-player told her that they would do so and then played the song again in the same key. When asked, the girl responded that it felt much better and she could really grab those high notes now. So, when in an impossible situation, just say yes and do whatever sounds best.

Although some of these thoughts are a bit extreme and shouldn’t be taken seriously, sometimes these situations manifest themselves and you are forced to take appropriate measures. Given that my experience is mainly from mixing live concerts, a lot of these tidbits are taken from there.

There are probably thousands of stories out there regarding artist/engineer conflicts. If you have any related stories or similar things to tell, please do so in the comments.

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]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/dealing-with-the-artist-in-a-performance-venue/feed/ 6 http://emusictips.com/2009/03/create-bigger-sounds-using-layering/ http://emusictips.com/2009/03/create-bigger-sounds-using-layering/#comments Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:45:41 +0000 admin http://emusictips.com/?p=188



Download this tutorial as a PDF

Listen to these tracks to see what you will be creating in this tutorial:

Layered Bass:


Layered Chord Synth:


By Daniel Rothmann (T7)

Introduction

At some point in your career of music-making you might encounter the problem that your synthesizers just aren’t sufficient for creating sounds big or fat enough for your tracks. This could, for example, be a really heavy bass or a big lead synth. Luckily, there is a technique of achieving these sounds. That technique is layering.

What layering is all about is pretty obvious, yet many electronic producers fail to apply it to its full potential. In essence, layering is “stacking” synths on top of each other, having them produce different sounds to more precisely achieve output in the areas of spectrum you desire. Let’s say, for instance, you want to produce a really heavy bass sound. This could consist of a sub-bass (clean sinus waves at low frequencies); a middle consisting of distorted saw waves with some filter modulation and possibly a 3^rd synth playing high octaves to the middle waves. Very few synths come with more than 2-3 oscillators (the oscillator is the component of a subtractive synthesizer that produce raw waves from which sound is built), and in this particular case, we will need 5-6 or more. That is why we will need to layer our synthesizers to produce the sound we’re looking for.

Method

Layering can be achieved in a number of ways: The first, and (possibly) most obvious, is to put 2-3 keyboard players next to each other, playing the same melody on different synthesizers. Naturally, this is a very imprecise and probably inefficient method of achieving the sound you want.

Fortunately, the modern day computer has made an unlimited number of totally synchronized keyboard players and an almost unlimited number of synthesizers available for us. The most basic way to layer synths on a computer audio sequencer is to simply create a number of different tracks with different synths on them and insert the same melody on each track. This can consume some time though, and thus we have virtual instruments that can contain (or combine) several synthe­sizers on the same track. This makes us able to play all our different synths via the same keyboard and adjust parameters on all of them by turning one knob. This can be particularly useful when you want to make modulations to the filter cutoff, creating a sweep effect. In order for the effect to be achieved, all filter cutoff knobs must be turned at the same time.

I’m going to show you an example of how you can utilize smart layering in Propellerheads Reason using Reasons Combinator component when producing a big bass sound. This is possible in many audio sequencers – Ableton Live sports the Instrument Rack which has similar features.

Build a big bass using Reason’s Combinator

For this tutorial you will need to have a copy of Propellerheads Reason 3 (or newer). I am going to show you, step by step, how to program a big bass sound using Combinator. You will also need to have some basic knowledge on how to operate Reason and how to program synthesizers.

1. First of all, open up Reason and create a Combinator
2. As you can see, Combinator opens with an initial patch with no containing instruments. This is okay. We’ll start by clicking in the black void inside the Combinator and create a line mixer. I have also composed a small melody in the sequencer to preview my sound.
   
3. Create your first Subtractor. We’ll program it to serve as the sub, setting the two oscillators as sinus, in the octave you wish. Try to set the octave appropriate to the melody you have created, so that it is as deep as possible without being inaudible. Name this synth “sub”.
   
4. Now, create the next synth. We’ll call this one “middle” and we’re going to make it pro­duce a harsher sound using saw waves. I made a slightly detuned sound, ranging in 2 octaves. I added fuzz distortion (Scream 4) and some EQ to take some bass away (it was interfering with the sub). Notice that the melody plays back on both synths at once.
   
5. I’ve continued the process and created 2 additional synths: Square L and R. These are basi­cally the same (except that slightly detuned from each other). They add a bit more power to the middle spectrum. Square L is panned left and Square R is panned right.
   
6. As you can see, I’ve made a few changes to the levels on the mixer in order to get the balance I want.
   
7. Here comes the cool part! We’re going to program the knobs on the Combinator so that we can modulate some of the parameters the synthesizers have in common. First off, let’s make a frequency knob. Untoggle the “show devices” button, and press the “show pro­grammer” button. Here you’ll see an overview of the instruments. Aren’t you happy you named all your synths now?
8. Click the device number 3, named “Middle”. Now, on the right where it says “modulation routing”, press “target” where it says rotary 1 and choose “filter freq”. You have now as­signed rotary 1 (knob 1) to modulate the filter of you middle synth! If you want, you can name the rotary “frequency”.
9. Now do the same thing for Square L and R, assigning their filter freq to rotary 1. Please note that if you have followed my synth programming precisely, you will need to assign ro­tary 1 to “filter2 freq” since I have assigned a notch filter on filter 1 and a regular low-pass on filter 2. We want to modulate the regular low-pass filter.
   
10. Now do the same thing over again, but this time, assign “filter res” to rotary 2 on the respective synths.
11. Save you preset! Congratulations, you have created a huge bass sound in 10 simple steps! In total we needed 8 oscillators for our sound, which is why we had to use layering.

Produce a “chord synth” using Ableton Live 7’s Instrument Rack

Inspired by Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France Etape 1“, I’m going to demonstrate how to build a layered preset that produces big chords from a small amount of input notes. It basically consists of 4 oscillators; 2 square waves with a 7 semitone interval between them, and 2 “resonated noise waves” panned to each side respectively, to generate some depth in the chord.

1. Open up Ableton Live and create a new MIDI channel. From your Live Device browser, drag an “Instrument Rack” to the channel.
2. Drag an “Analog” device into the Instrument Rack where it says “Drop MIDI effects, audio…”.
3. We’re going to program a patch consisting of 2 square waves – the first one will play the actual note we’re pressing on our keyboard or sequencer, and the other one will play a note displaced by 7 semitones (a perfect fifth). I’m going to program mine to have a fast attack, long decay and no sustain. Furthermore, I’ll assign a filter envelope so that the sound will slowly “close itself” as it decays into silence.
   
4. At this point, we want to add another Analog synth to play our “resonated noise” sound. Press the “Show/Hide Chain List”. From here you can get an overview of all the instruments featured in your Instrument Rack. At the moment we only have the one Analog synthesizer we added.
   
5. Add another Analog synthesizer. This part of the patch is a bit trickier to program. Basically what I want to do, is make two noise oscillators panned to each side (left and right). I want to put a powerful resonant filter on them, and have the keyboard key decide the filter frequency. This means that the Analog synth will produce a resonant tone that follows the key that is played through the Live sequencer.
   
6. I’ve turned down the volume on the resonant noise synth to make the patch sound more balanced. Now, put in some simple chords to listen to your patch. I’ve chosen a | Cm | Gm | B^b | Fm | chord progression.
   

7. Now that the patch itself is in order, let’s assign some macros. You can do this very easily. Press the “Show/Hide Macro Controls” button on the left.  All you have to do is right click on a the parameter you want to assign to a macro button and choose “Map to macro…”. I’ve chosen to map my primary synth’s filter frequency to macro 1, the volume of the noise oscillators to macro 2 and some LFO Filter modulation controls to macro 3+4.
       
8. Now you can untoggle the “Show/Hide Chain List” and the “Show/Hide Devices” and have fun with your new combinated synth patch with easily accessible macro controls. If you would like to save your new preset, all you need to do is drag it up inside your instruments list (under Instrument Rack).
   

The tip of the iceberg

Please note that the features I’ve demonstrated in these tutorials are just the tip of the iceberg – there are many other useful elements of the layering devices to be discovered, including key zones, velocity zones and map modes.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/03/create-bigger-sounds-using-layering/feed/ 2 http://emusictips.com/2009/02/killing-your-darlings/ http://emusictips.com/2009/02/killing-your-darlings/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:34:36 +0000 admin http://emusictips.com/?p=180 guest article by John P.

It’s a rainy day, perfect for holing yourself up in your room to work on a new song—and if you’re like most of the music-making world, that means firing up your Mac or PC, connecting your MIDI keyboard, hunching your neck and shoulders, and playing endlessly with your virtual drum machines, pianos, and saxophones.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Computer power has liberated home music producers in too many ways to list in this short article. Pair up some modest multi-tracking software with a basic six-hundred dollar PC and you can create sonic wonders. But this very blessing can be a curse. How would “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” sound if Eno and Byrne recorded it today? It would sure be easier for them. Maybe too easy. Without limitations to overcome, artists get lazy and bored.

I’m suggesting that you step outside of the box—the box being the virtual world where your instruments live, where your tracks are recorded, where your project is mixed and mastered. Aren’t you a little tired of editing those wave forms? Remember that old Tascam 4-track cassette recorder buried in your closet? Dig it out. Get out some real cables, by God. Your hardware misses you.

Or how about a sampler? Right—you already have one. Maybe it’s the NNXT that lives in Reason 4.

Why not get a hardware sampler with some real knobs on it? I’m a big fan of the Roland SP-404. It might sound crazy, but getting away from your computer screen can really help your project. A hardware sampler forces you to make edits with your ears instead of your eyes. Maybe that boring loop will come to life if you feed it into some hardware and tweak it away from the screen. Maybe even run it through some outboard effects. What ever happened to that old chorus pedal that you got for Christmas back in high school? Dig it out and give it a new 9-volt. Make some room on the kitchen table. Set up some real, physical audio gadgets and make some noise. You’ll feel like a kid again, I promise.

When you live inside of the box, you start to forget about the great big world outside. It’s easy. Your virtual guitars sound almost like the real thing. Why bother hooking up your six-string and playing the part live…it won’t sound as clean anyway.

That’s just the point, my friend. Maybe that computer is a little too clean. It might be sucking the life right out of your music.

Hear me out. The box will always be there. One of the most glorious things about the DAW is its non-destructive editing power. You can always go back. But for now, on a rainy day like today, why not dig out the old stuff…send that computer-generated drum loop back in time onto cassette tape…slow it down and make it grimy. Turn off the dbx noise reduction and let it crackle and burn. Ahhh, that’s just the spice your song was craving.

Now you can send your work back into the box. In the same way that travel changes a person, travel changes your sound. Sending your audio out into the real world will change it in subtle ways that you could never dream up in your DAW.

What William Faulkner said about writing applies equally to sound. “You’ve got to kill your darlings.” If you find yourself too in love with a sound, chances are good that you should kill it. Or at least maim it a little.

So take that perfectly clean loop that you love so much and kick it out into the real world. Don’t coddle it. Let it see that life is hard. You might love it even more when it comes back home.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/02/killing-your-darlings/feed/ 3 http://emusictips.com/2009/02/huge-free-audio-sample-library/ http://emusictips.com/2009/02/huge-free-audio-sample-library/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:19:35 +0000 admin http://emusictips.com/?p=178 I just had to make a mention of this great resource available for free: Over 8GB of free samples under creative commons license.

Loops, Grooves, Licks, Stings, Hits, Pads, Melodic Motives/Themes/Phrases, Sound-Effects, City and Country Soundscapes…, Motors, Machines, Toys, Guns, Explosions, Swords, Armor, Cars, Jets, Pot & Pans, Acoustic and Synthetic Noises, Acoustic and Electronic Drums, Voices, Western and World Instruments, Real and Human Animals, Industrial and Natural Ambiences, Film and Game Foley, and more, more, more! This huge collection of new and original samples have been donated to Dr. Richard Boulanger @ cSounds.com specifically to support the OLPC developers, students, XO users, and computer and electronic musicians everywhere. They are FREE and are offered under a CC-BY license for downloading and use in your teaching, your demos, your research, your music, your remixes, your songs, your games, your videos, your slideshows, your websites, and your XO activities. Each of the 7000+ samples is 16-bit, WAV, Mono, normalized to -3dB, and provided at 3 sample rates – 44.1K, 22.5K and 16K.

]]> http://emusictips.com/2009/02/huge-free-audio-sample-library/feed/ 2 http://emusictips.com/2009/02/how-to-control-ableton-live-with-your-iphone/ http://emusictips.com/2009/02/how-to-control-ableton-live-with-your-iphone/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:04:27 +0000 admin http://emusictips.com/how-to-control-ableton-live-with-your-iphone/
With a new iPhone version comes a new method of using it to control Ableton Live. This post is an update to a previous post that is now obsolete. The best new method of controlling your iPhone doesn’t even require you to jailbreak your phone.

Summary:

TouchOSC is an iPhone / iPod Touch application that lets you send and receive Open Sound Control messages over a Wi-Fi network using the UDP protocol. Using this program on your phone along with Osculator for Mac, you can control Ableton Live with your phone.

Requirements:

1. Wireless Router to create a wireless network for the iPhone to send OSC messages through
2. An iPhone with 2.0 or newer software
3. Purchase of TouchOsc and Osculator

Procedure:

First, launch OSCulator and Live.

We will have to configure Live so it will receive and send MIDI events with OSCulator.

In Live go in the Preferences, under the “MIDI Sync” tab and enable the Track and Remote columns for “OSCulator Out” and “OSCulator In” interfaces. This will enable us to record events and send control events to OSCulator as well.



TouchOSC configuration

Now, launch TouchOSC on your iPhone. Please make sure you have version 1.2 installed so automatic configuration will be enabled.

• Click on the button under “Network” and choose the option corresponding to OSCulator (see picture to the right). TouchOSC will automatically fill the fields required for the network communications.
• In the “Port (incoming)” field, enter 9000. This can be actually any port number you wish. 9000 is cool.
• From there your settings page should look like the second image from the top (your “Host” field can be different, due to network configuration differences).

• Select a layout, we will use “Beatmachine”.
• Click on the “Done” button.

We will configure the yellow slider so it can control the volume of the first track in Live:

• Touch the yellow slider to send an initial event.
• The event “/1/fader” should appear in the main window of OSCulator.
• In OSCulator, select “MIDI CC” as Event Type, and “cc0″ as Value.

Now, let’s tell Live we want to use this MIDI control change to control the volume fader of the first track. This procedure also works for any button or control in Live.

• Return to Live, and click on the MIDI button, located upper right. Live turns to MIDI Learn mode.
• Click on the volume fader of the first track.
• In TouchOSC, touch the yellow slider again. This will forward the event to Live, which will learn that we want to use the MIDI control change 0 to control the volume fader. A “1/0″ label is now displayed next to the volume fader, like this:
• Leave MIDI learn mode by click on the MIDI button upper right.
• You’re done!

If you click the volume fader in Live, you will notice OSCulator will automatically detect a MIDI message and will convert it to an OSC message that it sends to TouchOSC running on your iPhone.

That means that TouchOSC and Live are synchronized both ways.

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