DigitalMusicDoctor.com Blog

Mixing & Mastering – Know It All! (V4)

DigiMusicDoc — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:32:55 +0000

Mixing & Mastering – Know It All! (V4)

We recently released Version 4 of our popular course Mixing & Mastering – Know It All and I thought it would be a good idea to discuss some of the new content. When we first developed this course almost five years ago, it was still common practice to use a separate Digital Audio Editor for mastering. Thus we featured Sony Sound Forge, Adobe Audition, and later Apple Soundtrack Pro. But music making technology changes rapidly, and by now there is no real need for the musicians who want to master their own mixes to invest in separate software. Many Digital Audio Workstations already contain mastering tools which can be supplemented by mastering plug-in suites. Thus with this version of the course we have dropped the use of separate Digital Audio Editors for mastering and use only plug-ins.

Mastering Tools — Plug-Ins Only

Our two featured mastering plug-in suites should come as no surprise: iZotope Ozone and IK Multimedia T-Racks. We have used these suites in previous versions of the course, but now have expanded our discussions of them. The two suites take very different approaches to mastering. Ozone emphasizes a very precise, analytical approach, whereas T-Racks emulates analogue plug-ins that have been popular for mastering for many years. There is no single best approach–it simply depends on the methods you feel most comfortable with.

iZotope recently released Version 5 of Ozone which has the same overall structure as previous versions, but incorporates a number of new features that we explore in the course. It also supports a new and improved graphical user interface. There is also now an advanced version with additional features, including the ability to use each module as a separate plug-in. The suite includes an equalizer, reverb, and harmonic exciter, as well as multiband dynamics and stereo imaging processors.

iZotope Ozone 5

IK Multimedia upgraded T-Racks from the classic plug-in suite several years ago and continues to add new plug-ins which are available separately as T-Racks singles. You can use these plug-ins individually or as a chain in the T-Racks rack which also has a very useful set of metering tools. We use the Classic Clipper (a soft clipper harmonic generator), Linear Phase EQ, the Classic Compressor, and Metering Module.

IK Multimedia T-Racks

In the past we have used plug-ins from the Waves Gold Bundle for both mixing and mastering and continue to do so. We have also expanded the use of plug-ins from two other respected plug-in manufacturers: Voxengo and PSP Audioware. For Voxengo we have added the Drumformer, TransGainer, and SPAN. Although the Drumformer is oriented towards drums, it is also a good general-purpose multiband compressor. The TransGainer is a transient shaper and SPAN is a free spectral analysis and metering tool. We also continue to use the Elephant limiter and the MSED mid-side encoder-decoder.

Voxengo Drumformer

For PSP Audio we have expanded the use of the Neon EQ modules and MixSaturator harmonic generator as well as the Vintage Warmer mastering compressor and tape saturation module.

PSP Audioware Neon EQ

Audio Environment-Back to Basics

In addition to the fancy new tools, we have not neglected the basics. The Audio Environment tutorial now includes a discussion of studio monitor setup and calibration as well as an expanded discussion of Decibel definitions.

iPhone Decibel Meter Pro

Mastering Levels

We have also expanded the discussion of mastering levels to include a number of examples from popular songs as well as debunking the myth that mastered levels should be loud enough to stand out in radio broadcasting.

Pop Song Audio Levels

Radio Broadcast Levels

Mastering Expansion

There is also an extended discussion of mastering dynamics including the use of upward expansion to salvage an overly compressed output as well as the use of parallel compression.

Dynamics-Upward Expansion

Repair and Restoration

The one exception to the use of plug-ins is the tutorial on audio repair and restoration where we use the popular iZotope RX application for the discussions on noise reduction, de-clipping, and spectral edits.

iZotope – RX Advanced

In Summary

Here is the YouTube preview of the new course, as well as a listing of the most notable updates and changes. As usual we have updated the software used for the demos to the current version.

Although we use state of the art mixing and mastering software, this course has always been about principles, not products. Thus we do not emphasize the specific use of a product but rather the mixing or mastering principle being demonstrated. Mixing and mastering are not esoteric black arts. Any musician who spends some time with this course can create mixes and master them with professional-sounding results.

Music for Media – Creating Music for Film, TV, and Games

DigiMusicDoc — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:35:01 +0000

Music for Media – Creating Music for Film, TV, and Games

We recently released a new training course Music for Media-Know It All! designed to help musicians create music for film, television, and games. Over the past decade the opportunities for generating revenue from the conventional pop music genres have declined dramatically. Thus many musicians are looking for ways to expand the scope of both their business and artistic recognition into other areas. Creating music for film, TV, and games offers the conventional pop musician a wealth of additional opportunities. Our Music for Media course encompasses five broad areas:

Industry Overview
Composing and Producing
5.1 Surround Mixing
Video Synchronization
Game Audio Tools

This blog discusses the contents of each of these areas.

Industry Overview

The business model and processes of creating music for film, TV, and games are very different from conventional pop music. Thus we begin with a brief industry overview which explains the differences. This section also introduces prominent composers in each of the three media fields.

Composing & Producing

The fundamental role of music in any media is to enhance the emotion that an audience or a game player is experiencing. Thus first we explore techniques for how to compose and produce music for a number of common emotions. There are specific techniques in both theory and harmony as well as arranging and orchestration that can be used to create different types of emotions. Here, for example, is a YouTube video excerpt from the course of techniques that can be used to create music for a comedy scene.

Music for film, TV, and games sounds different than conventional pop music, and there are specific arranging and production techniques used to create that type of sound. For example, here is a YouTube video excerpt from the course of one of the techniques, “Hollywood Power Scoring.”

Whatever techniques you may use for creating music for media, there is no substitute for listening to the music that is created for major media productions. Thus we also include a discography of music cues arranged by the different emotions that provides links to examples from prominent composers.

While big budget media productions use live orchestras or bands, a high percentage of film, TV, and game music is created using synthesizers, high-quality sample libraries, and digital production techniques. The course also addresses the important issues in digital production as well as providing market surveys of the more popular sample libraries.

5.1 Surround Mixing

The next two sections of the course provide technical tutorials on 5.1 surround mixing and video synchronization. In each section there is an overview of the issues involved as well as technical tutorials for five different Digital Audio Workstations: Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic Pro, Sonar, and Digital Performer. There are example projects included for each of the DAW’s. For example, here is a YouTube video of an excerpt from the overview tutorial on 5.1 surround mixing.

Video Synchronization

The section on video syncing concentrates on how to sync a MIDI music cue with a video scene by making tempo adjustments. Included in this section is a valuable tool, the Media Cue Calculator spreadsheet, that enables you to easily calculate the exact tempo necessary to sync a music cue. The Media Cue Calculator handles both simple cues as well as complex cues which have multiple time signatures and multiple tempos within a single cue. The spreadsheet has been created in Open Document Format and can be used with Open Office software which is available as a free download.

Game Audio Tools

Although the same technique for composing and producing music for film and TV can also be used for games, the method of integrating music into a game is totally different. We explain those differences in an introductory tutorial and then provide some practical examples with technical tutorials for using FMOD Designer, a popular Game Audio Tool. For example, here is a YouTube video from an excerpt of the tutorial on using the FMOD Designer Music View.

Background Knowledge

Although this course is intended to be an introductory course to creating music for film, TV, and games, it does presume a fair amount of knowledge and experience in creating conventional pop and/or orchestral music. As shown in this chart, if you do not have a background in some of these areas, we offer other courses to provide the necessary background in most of these areas.

Expand Your Market

Creating music for film, TV, and games is a very different world from creating conventional pop music. That being said, the skills you currently have for composing and producing pop music can be easily parlayed into the media field. Mastering the details of creating this type of music can expand both your artistic influence and your marketability as a musician.

FL Studio 10 – Moving Towards the Mainstream

DigiMusicDoc — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:04:57 +0000

FL Studio 10 – Moving Towards the Mainstream

ImageLine recently released FL Studio 10 and we have now added a new training course for FL Studio 10 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. This blog discusses the new features and functions included in that release. FL Studio has always been a product that defies many of the conventions of traditional DAW’s. There are several changes in this release that move more towards mainstream DAW features.

Patcher – Combined VI and FX Rack

The most notable new feature in FL Studio 10 is the Patcher, which allows you to create combinations of virtual instruments and FX. The Patcher is roughly like the Ableton Live Rack. There are several ways you might want to use the Patcher: (a) You can create a MIDI channel in the Sequencer and use the Patcher to route your MIDI sequence to multiple instruments simultaneously. By doing this you are creating a fuller, more robust layered sound – a technique which we discuss at some length in our Digital Producer Course. (b) You can add multiple FX to a sound by inserting the Patcher into a Mixer track. You might want to do this rather than using the Mixer track insert slots because you can insert FX in parallel and also save FX combinations for use in other projects. Typically a given type of sound will always use the same FX, for example EQ and compression on drums, no matter what instrument you are using. Thus in this case you could build and store a preset for drums. There is one important limitation to the Patcher that you should be aware of – the Patcher does not support Generators that depend on channel presets for configuration. Thus many of the bread-and-butter instruments used in FL Studio such as the 3XOSC, the TS404, and the DX10 are not available. If you want to layer instruments from these plug-ins you must use a Layer channel as we discuss in the Virtual Instruments tutorial. We have created an excerpt from the course as a YouTube video which demonstrates an example of using the Patcher.

Improved Memory Management – A Step Towards 64-Bit

FL Studio still runs as a 32-bit program which means that it has only 2 gigabytes of memory available, even if you are running 64-bit Windows 7. While 2 gigabytes may sound like a lot, virtual instruments with large sample libraries and projects with large audio files can quickly use up this amount of memory. Thus FL Studio has included two workarounds to alleviate this issue. The first is a 64-bit plug-in wrapper which can also be optionally used for 32-bit plug-ins with large memory requirements. This wrapper launches separate processes which give you an additional 2 gigabytes for each 32-bit plug-in and 192 gigabytes for each 64-bit plug-in if you are running Windows 7. To deal with large audio files FL Studio will optionally stream them from disk which gives you up to 2 gigabytes per file. I do need to point out that, as of the time this tutorial was created which was soon after the initial release of FL Studio 10, the 64-bit wrapper did not work with a number of plug-ins that we tested. Our experience has been that this is not uncommon for the initial release of plug-in bridging routines, so hopefully the compatibility will improve over time. We have created an excerpt from the course as a YouTube video which demonstrates how to take advantage of these memory management features.

Pattern Block Elimination – Conventional Timeline Sequencing

Pattern block elimination is the best example of what I meant by saying that FL Studio is moving towards mainstream DAW features. In previous versions of FL Studio, there were two windows in the Playlist, one for Pattern Blocks and the other for Pattern Clips. In this version Pattern Blocks have been completely eliminated. If you open a project in FL Studio 10 that was created in a prior version, the Pattern Blocks are automatically converted to Pattern Clips. These new Pattern Clips are basically MIDI clips with a MIDI note of Middle C for each step that you’ve activated in a pattern. While it’s nice to be working with only clips, these new clips are not overly useful if you have multiple step sequencer patterns in a Pattern Clip since they all use the same note, unless, of course, your pattern was created from the Keyboard Editor or the Piano Roll. ImageLine should consider allowing users to specify different notes for each sequencer pattern.

FL Studio 9 – Pattern Blocks

FL Studio 10 – Pattern Clips

Automatic Delay Compensation

FX plug-ins usually create a certain amount of delay in a track. If that delay is significant, your tracks may sound out of sync with each other. Most DAW’s automatically compensate for this delay. Previously in FL Studio you had to enter any delay compensation manually. With FL Studio 10 you can enable automatic delay compensation. If you don’t agree with the amount of delay compensation FL Studio has automatically calculated you can turn off automatic delay compensation and still enter the amount manually.

Mixer – Automatic Delay Compensation	Mixer – Manual Delay Compensation

Score Export

You can now export a Piano Roll sequence as a PDF file for printing. When exporting, you have to option to set a key signature and a time signature. However, there are no other options (for example, clef) available. This feature gives you an easy way to quickly create individual parts for a jam session.

PDF Score Export

Still Moving Forward

Here is a list of all of the new features, and we have also updated our DAW Shootout for FL Studio 10. Although, as with other DAW releases this year, this new feature set is rather modest, it’s encouraging to see that ImageLine is still investing in improving the product – especially since, as with previous upgrades, this upgrade is free.

Cubase 6 – Incremental Improvements

DigiMusicDoc — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:55:32 +0000

Cubase 6 – Incremental Improvement

Steinberg recently released Cubase 6 and we have now added a new training course for Cubase 6 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. This blog discusses the new features and functions included in that release. Unlike the new releases of Sonar and Pro Tools earlier this year which concentrated mainly on software restructuring, this version of Cubase does come with quite a few new user features. However, many of them are basically incremental improvements to existing functions.

Sonic SE – A Long-Needed Multitimbral VI

The most useful new feature in Cubase 6 is Sonic SE, a synth/sample-player, based on Steinberg’s HALion Sonic. The functionality of Sonic SE is the same as Sonic, but the instrument library is more limited. Nonetheless there is quite a good selection of quality instruments. Previously, other than a few older synths like Mystic and Monologue, Cubase only offered HALion One. HALion One had a good selection of instruments, but was not multitimbral. Thus trying to use this virtual instrument for a project with a lot of MIDI tracks quickly burned up computer resources. Sonic SE includes its own mixing and FX functions so you can use it independently of the Cubase mixer, but I still advocate keeping the mixing in Cubase. It also includes some useful facilities for direct mapping of instrument parameters to Quick Controls, so you can manage the synth in real time from a MIDI pad or keyboard. We cover the use of Sonic SE in our Virtual Instruments tutorial.

HALion Sonic SE

VST Amp Rack – An Industrial-Strength Guitar Rig

The other outstanding new feature in Cubase 6 is VST Amp Rack, an industrial-strength guitar/bass rig. Previously Cubase had included Ampsimulator which offered a choice of amps and speaker cabinets, but wasn’t really in the same league as the guitar rigs available in Sonar and Logic. Amp Rack not only offers a good selection of amps and speaker cabinets but also a section for adding FX either before or after the amp as well as a section for positioning and mixing speaker cabinet microphones. The FX include both conventional FX such as chorus and stomp box FX such as wah-wah. How does Amp Rack sound? I’ve seen several debates about that subject, but it’s really a matter you should decide for yourself. We have an example in our Listen & Compare section.

VST Amp Rack

Multitrack Quantizing – Keep Your Drums in Phase

Multitrack Quantizing is useful for aligning multiple audio tracks to the same beat grid simultaneously. This feature is mainly oriented towards projects using drum kits for which each drum kit piece has been recorded separately. Unlike a similar function in Logic, the transients in each track are not independently quantized to the same grid. Rather the quantizing is applied to slices that are common across all grids. This approach is oriented towards maintaining the phase relationships among the different kit pieces from a recording session. However, the disadvantage is that, depending on the slicing priorities, you may or may not perfectly quantize all of the tracks. We discuss how to use Multitrack Quantizing in our Time and Pitch tutorial.

Multitrack Quantizing

LoopMash 2 – More Music by Twisting Knobs

This release of Cubase introduces the third iteration of LoopMash. The basic idea behind LoopMash is that you can replace beats in a sample with similar beats from other samples. How do you determine what similar beats are? LoopMash automatically does that for you by analyzing the beats in other samples and ranking their similarity. All you have to do is decide how similar you want the beats to be which you can do simply by moving the similarity sliders for the replacement samples. Obviously this type of manipulation is oriented towards creating performances in real time. I must admit that while it’s an interesting idea, I have a difficulty taking it seriously as a way to create music.

LoopMash 2

VST Expression 2

VST Expression 2 consists of two enhancements: Note Expression and Expression Map Import. Note expression provides the capability of adding panning , tuning, modulation and other such expressions to individual MIDI notes. So, as shown in the example below, you can varying the tuning of a single note in a chord. Expression Map Import allows you to create instant Expression Maps by importing the articulations contained in an instrument definition. Expression Maps are great when you are creating projects with instruments that rely on articulations such as slides for a guitar or marcato for a violin. Basically you can add articulations from any of the MIDI editors using the articulation names instead of trying to remember which MIDI note or controller value is used for the articulation. I discussed Expression Maps in an earlier blog, Cubase 5 – Loop & Remix Bonanza, when the feature was first released and use them frequently in symphonic work with East-West Symphony Orchestra and Kontakt. However, I’m somewhat less enthusiastic about these two enhancements. For starters they are optional facilities in the new VST 3.5, and I have my doubts about how many other manufacturers are going to incorporate the concept in their virtual instruments. Despite similar names for expression, the Note Expression feature is not a part of the General MIDI Standard, so you can use it only with VST 3.5 instruments that support the capability. We discuss how to use VST Expression Maps and Note Expression in our MIDI Editing tutorial.

VST Note Expression

Interface Redesign and Drum Replacement

There are two other enhancements, Interface Redesign and Drum Replacement, that I’ll discuss simply because they are mentioned in the Steinberg marketing for Cubase 6 and might need some interpretation. The Interface Redesign is not a major makeover like Sonar Skylight, just some tweaks here and there. One of the interface enhancements I find particularly useful is the addition of an Inspector to the MIDI Editor. As shown above, there are now dropdowns for Expression Map, Note Expression, Quantize, Transpose and Length. The Quantize, Transpose, and Length make working with MIDI tracks a lot easier. Drum Replacement is somewhat of an overstatement. Don’t expect a Drumagog or even something similar to the drum replacement function in Logic. This is simply the ability to create MIDI notes from transients in an audio track with velocities based on the audio amplitude, a fairly common feature in other DAW’s.

Course Enhancement – Audio FX Tutorial

In addition to incorporating all of the new features in Cubase, there is one major enhancement to our course that I should mention. In the past we have discussed how to use particular audio FX in the tutorials where we need them. Since we frequently change mixing, mastering and other examples, this resulted in somewhat of a hit and miss coverage of the Cubase audio FX. Audio FX are an essential ingredient in any DAW, so we have now created a separate tutorial which shows how to use all of the major FX in Cubase.

Audio FX – All Together Now

Still Moving Forward

Here is a list of all of the new features, and we have also updated our DAW Shootout for Cubase 6. However, the new features did not change the ratings in the shootout because all of them are improvements to existing features that we already give Cubase credit for. As I said in an earlier blog, The End of the DAW?, we have probably reached a point in the evolution of the current DAW technology where there is very little left to improve. Thus mature DAW’s like Cubase have a real challenge in finding significant new features to incorporate. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to see that, unlike some of its competitors, Cubase is still working on solid user enhancements.

Digital Audio Workstation Shootout 20 — The End of the DAW?

DigiMusicDoc — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:16:17 +0000

Digital Audio Workstation Shootout Version 20 – The End of the DAW?

We recently updated our Digital Audio Workstation Shootout to incorporate the changes in Avid Pro Tools 9 and Cakewalk Sonar X1. These new versions mark the first time in almost a year that any major DAW has been upgraded. All of the DAW producers seem to have hunkered down, waiting for the economy to improve. You might think that both Cakewalk and Avid would have packed their releases full of new tech toys to entice buyers back into the market. But that didn’t happen. The most striking thing about both of these releases is that, although they incorporate major software changes, neither of them introduce any significant new user functionality. Let’s examine the substance of these two new versions because I think they signal a major shift in the focus of the DAW market.

Pro Tools 9 – Adjusting the Structure

Here is a list of the major new features in Pro Tools 9. I consider the first two as basic structural changes which will allow Pro Tools to compete more effectively in the DAW market for project studios. Especially in this market segment, Pro Tools is no longer in the position that it can dictate that you must have an Avid audio interface in order to use the software. Thus supporting ASIO and Mac Core Audio was practically inevitable. Combining LE and M-Powered is long overdue. The differences have always been largely superficial and mainly were the result of inter-divisional squabbling within Avid. All of the other new features except DigiBase Catalogs are not really new features. They are functions that are now available in Pro Tools at no extra cost. In the past you either had to pay extra for these features or upgrade to Pro Tools HD to get them.

Sonar X1 – Borrowing from Apple Logic and Pro Tools

Skylight is the most visible change in Sonar, and has been hailed by the tech mags and Sonar geeks as a great new and more logical way to organize your workflow. "Logical" is in the eye of the beholder. However, Skylight is clearly modeled after the Apple Logic Pro workspace. The new two-channel Inspector on the left is a carbon copy of the design in Logic, and the Browser on the right closely resembles the Logic Media Area. The MultiDock at the bottom is very much like the area at the bottom of the Arrange Window in Logic, and the Control Bar at the top provides much the same functionality as the Logic Toolbar. "Smart Tool" is a term that has been used in Pro Tools for a long time, and the tool functions in much the same way as the Pro Tools Smart Tool. The Track Edit Filter in Sonar provides the same functionality as the Track View Selector in Pro Tools. There are only two really new features in Sonar X1. ProChannel is a new channel strip with yet another assortment of compressors, EQ, and tube saturation. FX Chains allow you to maintain groups of FX, much like Track Templates.

Sonar X1 Skylight	Logic Pro 9 Workspace

The Technology Life Cycle

So why would two major upgrades of market-leading DAW’s provide so little new functionality. One answer is that there is very little left for improvement in the current DAW model. There is a concept, the Technology Life Cycle, that has been kicked around in technology circles for years. Every technology, whether it’s telephones, computers, the internet, or whatever, has a life cycle. The most exciting time for a technology is in the introduction and growth phases. During that time new features create excitement and generate new sales. However, as a technology matures, the value of new features becomes marginal and interest wanes. When Microsoft introduced Windows 95, people waited in line all night to get into a store to buy a copy. Now when Microsoft introduces a new operating system the reaction generally runs from indifferent to negative.

It is pretty clear that most DAW’s have reached to maturity phase in the Technology Life Cycle. There will always be the Sonar and Pro Tools and other DAW fan boys who lobby fervently for minor enhancements and go "whoo hoo" when the next release arrives. But DAW’s no longer drive significant advances in digital music, and there is a real question as to how far can current DAW technology be extended.

Yet old technologies also have a habit of giving birth to new technologies. Out of plain old land-line telephony came cellular phones. Out of desktop computers came mobile computing devices. Will there be a new paradigm of making digital music or do we even need one? While I doubt it’s the total answer, products like Ableton Live, while it lacks some basic features of a traditional DAW, provide an intriguing glimpse into the future.

Digital Producer (Version 3) – Digging Deeper

DigiMusicDoc — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:30:36 +0000

Digital Producer (Version 3) – Digging Deeper

We recently released Version 3 of our popular Digital Producer course. Even though the general topics are the same as Version 2, we wound up adding about 80 minutes of new content which explores these areas in a lot more depth. I thought it would be worth discussing the rationale for some of the subjects that we added. Here is a summary of the most significant changes:

Jazz & Orchestra – Most New Toys

The Jazz & Orchestra section of the course has the most new toys and now includes the East-West Play Symphonic Orchestra, Native Instruments Alicia’s Keys Piano, and the Vir2 Mojo Horns. Adding these virtual instruments allowed us not only to demonstrate direct comparisons of performance quality, but also explore some of the topics in much more depth. For example, velocity compression is an important component of piano performances. We compare the effect of velocity compression on both the Alicia’s Keys Yamaha C3 Neo grand and also a Yamaha C7 grand from the Synthogy Ivory Collection which was used previously in the course. The Alicia’s Keys virtual instrument has received quite a bit of press, mainly because of Ms. Keys’ personal involvement in the product. Technically, the piano is solid, having been created by Thomas Skarbye (a.k.a. Mr. Scarbee), a noted Danish sound designer, using the Native Instruments Kontakt sampler. Here is our YouTube video which compares a performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-Flat (which was also a pop music standard during the Big Band era) with passages played alternately on the Alicia’s Keys Yamaha C3 Neo and the Synthogy Ivory Yamaha C7.

The other major addition to this section is the East-West Play Symphonic Orchestra. Previously our discussion of articulations for orchestral instruments used only the Native Instruments Kontakt Vienna Symphony Library. This time we show direct comparisons of the articulations used in the two orchestral ensembles. Incidentally, the East-West Play virtual instrument is fairly new and, although you will get varying opinions, in the past seemed to have quite a few bugs which made people shy about using it. Personally I was also very frustrated with Play until version 2 came out about midway through the preparation of this update. In my experience version 2 has been more stable and has much better memory management. Here is our YouTube video from the course which provides a direct comparison of the articulated versions of the Kontakt Vienna Symphony Library and the East-West Symphonic Orchestra performing the Overture from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.

Guitar & Bass – Solo Guitar & Big Bass

The Guitar & Bass section has the largest increase in content and now contains over 50 minutes of material. In the guitar tutorial we added a segment on articulations for solo guitar playing, and also expanded the discussion of guitar FX to include Native Instruments Guitar Rig. The discussion on solo guitar playing features MusicLab’s RealStrat and the Strawberry Guitar from Orange Tree Samples.

The bass tutorial, however, probably has the most interesting new examples, adding a discussion of acoustic and electric bass articulations as well as a segment on synth basses. We needed to update from Spectrasonics Trilogy to the new Trilian bass instrument anyway, so we expanded the discussion to include the use of bass articulations.

Spectrasonics’ Trilian

The segment on synth basses is entirely new, and here we show how you too can be a sound designer by recreating the bass patch used for Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”. The patch was originally created by Red One, the producer of “Poker Face,” for the Apple Logic ES2 synth. The signature quality of this sound belies what is actually a rather simple design that you can recreate fairly easily, and we demonstrate how to do that using Native Instruments Absynth.

Logic ES2 Synth – Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” Bass Patch

Back to Bassics – Madonna’s “True Blue”

And speaking of bass, we have always covered FM synthesis in the tutorial on synthesizer techniques, but frankly in a rather dry fashion. This time we brought some life to the subject by looking at some of the patches for the legendary Yamaha DX7 FM synth which was hugely popular in the 1980′s. The architecture of the Native Instruments FM8 is based on the DX7, and this software synth can also import DX7 sysex patches directly. The original DX7 sysex patch banks can be found all over the internet, so you can easily create the sounds that were used for many of the hit songs of that era. We recreate the chord progression and beat for Madonna’s 1986 hit “True Blue” using the FM8 and also provide a detailed analysis of how the DX7 bass patch that was used is created.

Native Instruments FM8 – Yamaha DX7 Bass Patch

Vocal Chorus – In Perfect Harmony

Given all of the discussion in the popular press these days about Autotune, we have added Autotune alongside Melodyne in our discussions on vocal processing. We also explore another Antares product, Harmony Generator, in demonstrating how to create a vocal chorus which we compare to Waves UltraPitch. From a musical standpoint Harmony Generator is very sophisticated and allows you to create harmony using both scale intervals and chords. However, I was somewhat less impressed at the quality of its pitch shifting.

Antares Harmony Engine EVO

Get in the Groove – Apple Logic Groove Mapping

In prior versions of the course we used Sony Acid Pro to discuss audio transients, warping, and related topics such as groove mapping. Interest in Acid Pro seems to have waned, so this time we’re using the relatively new Apple Logic Flex Mode. The terminology for these topics differs slightly among DAW’s but the principles are exactly the same. Logic’s approach to audio transients and warping is very straightforward and you can easily translate it to similar functions in Pro Tools Elastic Audio, Cubase Audio Warp, and Sonar Audio Snap. This YouTube video is an excerpt from the tutorial on pitch and time stretching techniques.

Not Just a Toy Show

The table below summarizes how the content distribution of the Version 3 course has changed from Version 2. Although we did invest a significant amount of resources in demonstrating the latest and greatest music software toys, the real accomplishment of this version is the increased depth we present on how to use them.

Digital Arranger – Completing Your Musical Ideas

DigiMusicDoc — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:02:25 +0000

Digital Arranger – Completing Your Musical Ideas

We recently released a new training course Digital Arranger-Know It All! designed to help people create songs for production on a computer. This course is quite different from our other courses which focus primarily on Digital Audio Workstations and other music software. Composing and arranging, no matter what environment you are working in, is less about technology and more about the application of music theory, harmony, and grooves to create various genres and styles of music. I’m going to cover some of the highlights of the new course in this blog.

Theory & Harmony – The Basic Building Blocks

The creation of a song, digital or otherwise, usually begins with someoneâ€™s inspiration about a single element of the song: melody, lyrics, beats, or chords. Arranging is the process of expanding that initial idea into a completed work.

Harmony – Chord Leading Guidelines

Any arranger needs to understand music theory and harmony. Thus the first section of this course provides the essential background in both theory and harmony needed for arranging. We start with the basics of scales, keys, and chords, and then move on to present some of the most common chord progressions that have been used in songs. Then we discuss melody writing, how to integrate melodies and chords, and chord substitutions.

Scale and Chord Contructors

For some of you scales and chords will be old hat. However, if you’re new to the subject, all of the permutations can be rather daunting. If you are still getting comfortable with music theory and need some help from time to time, we have also included automated Scale and Chord Constructors courtesy of Teoria.com. These two tools allow you to quickly create scales and chords in any key.

Teoria.com – Chord Constructor

All too many times people study theory and harmony by itself and never make the connection to the next logical step of actually using the principles to create arrangements. We bridge that gap with a number of examples of chord progressions that have been used to create songs. Here is a YouTube video showing excepts of our Rock and Pop examples.

Creating Songs & Arrangements

Theory and harmony are a warm-up to the heart of the course: creating arrangements for songs in various genres and styles. Throughout the course we use the model shown below for creating a song.

Song Writing Model

Music Genres – The Big Seven

Arrangements are usually created in a particular music genre. In this course we review seven of the most common genres: Pop/Rock, R&B/Urban, Jazz, Rap/Hip-Hop, Latin, Country, and Dance/Electronica. As with just about anything in music, the best way to learn the nuances of a genre is by listening. To that end we have included a discography for each of the seven genres. A discography that is just a list of songs can be a rather dry document. Thus for each of the songs in the discographies we have provided links to music videos on YouTube.

		Discography
		Country

		Selected Artists & Titles
Traditional		Jimmie Rodgers	T for Texas	1928	YouTube
		Roy Acuff	Wabash Cannonball	1938	YouTube
		Gene Autry	Back in the Saddle Again	1939	YouTube
		Eddie Arnold	Cattle Call	1955	YouTube
		Tammy Wynette	My Man	1972	YouTube
		Dolly Parton	Jolene	1974	YouTube
		Willie Nelson	On the Road Again	1980	YouTube
		Garth Brooks	The Thunder Rolls	1991	YouTube

Contemporary		Shania Twain	Any Man of Mine	1995	YouTube
		Dixie Chicks	Wide Open Spaces	1998	YouTube
		Kenny Chesney	Big Star	2003	YouTube
		Toby Keith	Honky Tonk U	2005	YouTube
		Rascal Flatts	What Hurts the Most	2006	YouTube
		Keith Urban	I Told You So	2007	YouTube
		Carrie Underwood	Last Name	2008	YouTube

Selected Styles
	Western Swing	Tex Williams	Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!	1947	YouTube
		Bob Wills	Texas Playboy Rag	1945	YouTube
	Rockabilly	Johnny Cash	I Walk the Line	1956	YouTube
		Elvis Presley	Hound Dog	1956	YouTube
	Bluegrass	Alison Krauss	The Lucky One	2001	YouTube
		Rhonda Vincent	I’ve Forgotten You	2005	YouTube
	Country Pop	Eddie Arnold	Molly Darling	1948	YouTube
		Kenny Rogers	Lady	1980	YouTube
		Taylor Swift	Love Story	2008	YouTube
	Country Rock	Rolling Stones	Honky Tonk Woman	1969	YouTube
		Eagles	Lyin’ Eyes	1975	YouTube

Three basic elements of any genre are rhythms, chord progressions, and instrument ensembles. For each of the seven genres there are discussions of these three elements which include a number of examples. Files for these examples are included in three different formats: MIDI, MusicXML, and Finale. The MIDI files can be imported into any Digital Audio Workstation and the MusicXML files can be imported in score format into any product that supports MusicXML such as Cubase, Sibelius, or Finale.

Genre Examples – R&B/Urban

Finale files can be accessed with the Finale Reader. The Finale Reader is a free download from the Finale website and allows you to view an example in score format, print, and also play it using the General MIDI music instruments available on any computer. All examples are presented using both notes and guitar tablature.

Finale Reader – Rock Example

Groove Kits – Rhythms & Chords

For each of the seven genres we have also included Groove Kits. You can think of a Groove Kit as a starter set of the elements needed to create an arrangement in a certain genre. Each Groove Kit contains a set of MIDI drum grooves provided by Groove Monkee. Groove Monkee offers an extensive array of MIDI drum grooves with General MIDI drum note mappings.

Groove Monkee – Drum Grooves

The Groove Kits also contain a set of bass grooves for that particular genre as well as rhythm grooves for both guitar and keyboards. Finally, if applicable, the Groove Kit also includes typical chord progressions for each genre.

Arranging – Virtual Instruments & Techniques

In the Arranging section we present brief market surveys of the virtual instruments available for each type of instrument. This section also introduces some of the production techniques used to create digital music such as articulations and chorus and ensembles. Both the market surveys and the production techniques are subsets of the more extensive discussions presented in our Digital Producer course. This section also covers automated arranging tools, although the discussion is fairly brief simply because there are very few automated tools that are widely used for digital arranging.


Selected Virtual Instruments – Guitars
Product	Company	Included In
RealGuitar/RealStrat	MusicLab	-
Raging Guitars	Big Fish Audio	-
Ministry of Rock	East West	-
Halion One	Steinberg	Cubase
Dimension Pro	Cakewalk	Sonar

Selected Virtual Instruments – Bass
Product	Company	Included In
BASiS	Vir2	-
Trilian	Spectrasonics	-
Bass DVI (various)	SONiVOX	-
Bassline	MOTU	Digital Performer

Selected Guitar/Bass FX Emulators
Product	Company	Included In
Amplitube	IK Multimedia	-
Guitar Rig	Native Instruments	-

Arranging – Structure, Balance & Voicing

Finally we discuss the last two considerations in creating a song: Structure and Balance. The discussion on structure covers the various parts of a song such as the Intro, Bridge, and Chorus. The tutorial on balance demonstrates the importance of positioning your tracks correctly both in the audio frequency spectrum and avoiding conflicts in musical activity as well as voicing.

Instruments – Fundamental Frequency Ranges

Digital Producer & Digital Arranger

One question you might have is what is the difference between Digital Arranger and our Digital Producer course. Digital Arranger shows you how to create MIDI parts for various music genres, whereas Digital Producer explains how to turn these parts into killer backing tracks. As I mentioned, we do include a small subset of the digital production techniques and virtual instrument market surveys from the Digital Producer course. However, a complete understanding of digital music production is a separate subject which merits an entire course. The Digital Producer course also includes techniques for audio pitch shifting and time stretching. Thus the two courses are designed as a complementary pair for creating digital music, and are available in various combos and bundles along with our DAW courses.

Pro Audio Bundles

Develop Your Songs

Transform your musical ideas into complete arrangements.

Know Your DAW

Your DAW is your axe. We help you understand the nuts and bolts.

Create Killer Tracks

Learn how to create tracks

that get noticed!

Polish Your Sound

Take your sound to a pro level with our mixing and mastering techniques

Digital Performer 7 – New Mixer, Guitar Amp & Score Features

DigiMusicDoc — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:17:13 +0000

Digital Performer 7 – New Mixer, Guitar Amp & Score Features

MOTU recently released a new version of Digital Performer, and we have now added a new training course for Digital Performer 7. The most notable improvements in this upgrade involve the Mixing Board and the QuickScribe score editor as well as a set of guitar and bass amp simulation plug-ins. This blog covers the highlights of these new features.

Mixing Board – A New Look

There are several new features related to the Mixing Board: the Channel Strip as well as new EQ and Dynamics controls and features. The Channel Strip is a separate window which displays one-channel slice of the Mixing Board and changes depending on which channel is selected. For those of you familiar with Logic or Cubase, the Channel Strip is basically the same as the Inspector in those DAW’s. In both the Channel Strip and the Mixing Board, you now have thumbnail views of selected EQ and Dynamics plug-ins which allow you to view and control the parameters without opening the plug-ins. We have created a YouTube video of an excerpt from our training course which explains how to use these new features.

11 Guitar & Bass Plug-Ins – Presets Not Included

This past year seems to have been the year for souped-up guitar rigs. Both Pro Tools and Logic included fancy plug-ins for guitar and bass amp simulation, pedals, and speaker cabinets in their last update cycle, so I guess Digital Performer decided it was time to jump on the bandwagon. The Custom ’59 Amp includes both power amp and pre-amp presets. There are also nine different pedals and stomp boxes. The Live Room G speaker cabinet simulator gives you a choice of different mics, mic placements, and cabinet models. If you’re a guitarist, you can have a field day putting together a rig with all these choices. But for the rest of us there are no factory presets like you have in Logic or Amplitube that will give you a realistic British Crunch or Surfer Rock sound, so you may feel a little lost. How does the sound of these plug-ins compare with the competition? We have added a Digital Performer guitar rig to the Amp Simulation section of our Listen & Compare feature so you can decide for yourself.

Guitar Amp, Pedal and Speaker Cabinet Plug-Ins

QuickScribe Editor – Lyrics & Chords

MOTU also added something for those of us who like to work with MIDI tracks as a score. There are new lyrics and chord tools for the QuickScribe Editor. In the past you could always use the text tool if you really needed to enter lyrics and chords, but it was a pretty clumsy solution. The lyrics feature has both a direct entry tool and a lyrics window. You can paste text into the lyrics window that you copied from a document and then auto flow it to the score. The chords feature allows you to both enter chords symbols and also automatically transpose them.

QuickScribe Lyrics & Chord Tools

The Laundry List

For the record here’s a summary of the new features listed by MOTU. For what it’s worth, I’ve also seen several discussions in both the Motunation and Gearslutz forums praising the stability of Version 7. Personally I’ve never had a problem with stability in Digital Performer, but some people are claiming this release is a marked improvement.

Sound Forge 10 – Building on Strength

DigiMusicDoc — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:38:27 +0000

Sound Forge 10 – Building on Strength

Sony recently released a new version of Sound Forge, and we have now added a new training course for Sound Forge 10. Sound Forge, like most Digital Audio Editors, is a mature product. Thus the new features and functions are relatively incremental. Nonetheless, these enhancements do add significant value to this audio workhorse. We cover the major new functions in-depth in the new tutorials, but I’ll go over the highlights here.

Disc-at-Once – Instant Multitrack CD’s

One convenient new feature is Disc-at-Once, which allows you to burn a multitrack CD directly from Sound Forge. The Sound Forge bundle already includes CD Architect which is a separate application for creating CD’s. Even though CD Architect is integrated with Sound Forge, it is more convenient to be able to burn a CD with a few tracks (such as you might want to do to prepare demo) directly from Sound Forge. We have created a YouTube video of an excerpt from our training course which explains how to use the Disk-at-Once feature.

Event Based Editing – Mark Your Changes

Â Another convenient feature incorporated into Sound Forge 10 is Event Based Editing. Now anytime you make a change to the audio in a data window, such as copying, pasting or increasing the volume, Sound Forge creates an event which marks the area that has changed. This facility makes it easier to go back and tweak the change if necessary, since you can easily recall the exact areas that have been modified.

Event Based Editing – Event Tool Selection

Zplane Elastique – Time & Pitch Tool

As any of you who work with time stretching or pitch shifting audio are aware, it can be very difficult to achieve quality-sounding results when making such changes. Thus in Sound Forge 10 Sony licensed time stretching and pitch shifting technology from Zplane Development to augment its existing plug-ins that perform similar functions. There are many such plug-ins available these days, so the proof of the pudding is how well this one compares to the competition. We have added Zplane Elastique to the time stretching and pitch shifting sections of our Listen & Compare feature so you can decide for yourself. If you are interested in the subject we include a more detailed examination of the issues associated with time stretching and pitch shifting in our Digital Producer course.

Zplane Elastique – Time Stretch & Pitch Shift Plug-In

iZotope Mastering Suite – More Plug-Ins

Â Sound Forge 10 adds two mastering plug-ins, a spatial imager and an exciter, from iZotope. Several mastering plug-ins from iZotope were already included in Sound Forge, all of them scaled down versions of the Ozone Mastering Suite marketed by iZotope. The exciter is a collection of tube and tape saturation algorithms, which are usually referred to as “warmers” rather than exciters. Typically such plug-ins generate mild harmonics which many people find pleasing and thus add warmth to a mix. We have a more complete discussion of this type of effect in our Mixing & Mastering course.

Mastering Exciter – Tube & Tape Saturation

The spatial imaging plug-in uses mid-side processing to control the width of a stereo image. You can use the principle of mid-side processing to separate a stereo mix into center and side components. In some circumstances you can effectively adjust the relative volumes of these two components to change the perceived width of the mix. Once again, we have a complete discussion of the use of mid-side processing in our Mixing & Mastering course.

Mastering Imager- Stereo Width

The Laundry List

For the record here’s a summary of the new features listed by Sony. As you can see, there are also quite a few process and editing/workflow enhancements. Although over the years, many of the functions originally performed only by audio editors have been incorporated into Digital Audio Workstations, Sound Forge continues to be my “go to” app for serious audio editing and processing.

FL Studio 9 – More Plugs, Fewer Bugs

DigiMusicDoc — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:22:27 +0000

FL Studio 9 – More Plugs, Fewer Bugs

ImageLine recently released a new version of FL Studio, and we have now added a new training course for FL Studio as well as updating our DAW Shootout. This new version has a few new plug-ins and major features as well as a long list of minor enhancements and bug fixes. We cover the major new functions in-depth in the new tutorials, but I’ll go over the highlights here.

Side Chaining – Catching Up

Side chaining has been a fairly recent addition to many Digital Audio Workstations, but practically all of the DAW’s that we cover have incorporated it. And now you can add FL Studio to the list. In general side chaining allows you to route the output of one channel to a second input on another channel which is typically used to control the actions of a plug-in. The most common use is probably ducking. A simple case of ducking is lowering the volume of the music when someone is speaking. We have created a YouTube video showing how to use side chaining in FL Studio 9 to lower the volume of a guitar when the vocalist is singing. Side chaining is also commonly used to create a pumping effect in dance mixes which we demonstrate in our Mixing & Mastering course.

Vocodex – New & Improved Voice Mangler

The folks at ImageLine obviously like vocoders. FL Studio already had the Fruity Vocoder, and now it includes Vocodex, which is a more deluxe vocoder. Vocoders typically extract the intelligible content from a voice (the Modulator) and combine it with another sound source, such as music (the Carrier), to produce a robotic-sounding voice. They are fairly common in pop music and have been used by everybody from Pink Floyd to Madonna. Vocodex adds a number of new and interesting functions for voice mangling as well as a built-in synthesizer and keyboard to generate chords as a carrier. We have a more complete discussion of vocoders in our Digital Producer course.

Vocodex – A Second Vocoder

Fruity Stereo Shaper – Swiss Army Knife for Stereo Imaging

The Fruity Stereo Shaper is a new mid-side processor. Once again FL Studio already included the Fruity Stereo Enhancer which performs a more limited subset of the same functions. Any stereo signal can be separated into Mid and Side components and recombined. There is a recording technique based on this principle, and it is also the basis for creating wider stereo images or moving the sound around spatially in mastering. It is is also the underlying technology in the products that claim to extract or remove vocals from a mix. The controls on the Stereo Shaper are deceptively simple, and in fact you can perform a large variety of Mid-Side processing tasks. However, frankly I’m not sure what the average user would do with it other than the same kind of stereo widening that is typically done in mastering. We have a more complete discussion of Mid-Side processing in our Mixing & Mastering course.

Fruity Stereo Shaper – Mid-Side Audio Processor

Riff Machine – Instant Composing

Need a new riff, but not up to composing one right now? Not to worry. Just fire up the new Riff Machine in the Piano Roll Editor and tweak a few parameters to create a MIDI riff. There are quite a few options to play with: Note Progressions, Chords, Arpeggiation, Mirroring, Levels (Humanizing), Articulations, Grooves, Fit Chords/Scales. Several of these have factory pattern libraries.

Riff Machine – Automated Riff Generator

Autogun – 4 Million Presets and Counting

So now that you’ve used the Riff machine to automatically create a new riff, you need to find a unique sound for it without manipulating a lot of synth parameters. Just use Autogun, the new synthesizer which boasts four million presets. Autogun is derived from two other plug-ins that ImageLine sells separately: the Ogun synthesizer and the Maximus mastering processor. (Actually, the effects processing is based the Soundgoodizer which in turn is based on Maximus.) With that many choices, you’re bound to find a sound you like.

Autogun – Mini-Ogun + Mini-Maximus

The Laundry List

For the record here’s a summary of the new features listed by ImageLine. We have also updated the DAW Shootout for FL Studio 9. The addition of side chaining slightly improved the score. However, the new plug-ins had no effect since FL Studio already had the bases covered by similar plug-ins. ImageLine has a long-standing policy of providing all upgrades to FL Studio free, and thus Version 9 is free to existing customers.