Closer look at Cableguys’ VolumeShaper 3
VolumeShaper is a plugin for shaping and automating the levels of any audio signal. From signature pumping effects to extreme gating, from tempo-synced stutter to precise sample-shaping, VolumeShaper provides a wealth of creative musical effects with a visual approach to volume. For Mac and Windows, as VST, AU or RTAS plugin.
New in version 3: A precise oscilloscope for helpful visual control, plus an option to trigger the LFO via MIDI notes.
http://www.cableguys.de/volume-shaper.html
Music by Pangea Dub Force: http://www.pangeadubforce.com
Ableton Live Tutorial – Better Sound with Hi-Quality EQ8
More info – http://bit.ly/w4n2mS
In our new Ableton Live video tutorial series, “Did You Know?”, Ableton Certified Trainer, Dubspot Instructor, and electronic musician Thavius Beck checks out less explored and slightly hidden features in Live. In this newest installment of Did You Know?, Thavius explains and demonstrates an often overlooked an even more often misunderstood feature; Hi-Quality mode on the EQ8.
The EQ8 has a Hi-Quality setting that is not enabled by default. We are able to find the Hi-Quality setting by right-clicking on the EQ8’s title bar and selecting “Hi-Quality” from the contextual menu that appears. Once that has been done, the EQ8 will be in Hi-Quality mode, but what exactly does that mean?
This is a question that took me quite a bit of investigation to find the answer to, and one that requires more explanation than I intended for these particular videos, but this series is all about sharing esoteric knowledge (as it relates to Live of course) so that is what I will do right now.
When Hi-Quality mode is enabled on the EQ8, the audio being fed into the EQ is oversampled by a factor of 2 (meaning the sample rate of the audio is doubled. If your session’s sample rate is 44.1kHz, enabling Hi-Quality will make the audio being fed into the EQ8 88.2kHz). Then the EQ changes are calculated at the doubled sample rate, and finally the audio as it leaves the EQ is undersampled by a factor of 2, or basically brought back to it’s original sample rate.
Why does this happen? It all has something to do with what is referred to as the Nyquist Point. The Nyquist Point is one half of your sample rate, so if your session’s sample rate is 44.1kHz, the Nyquist Point will be 22.05kHz, which is right at the upper limit of human hearing, and just beyond the furthest right edge of our EQ8’s GUI. Any audio that produces a frequency higher than the Nyquist Point cannot be accurately reproduced digitally and will have aliasing or digital distortion as a result.
Because of this, the EQ8’s frequency range was initially limited to 22kHz on the high end (when working on a session with a 44.1kHz sample rate). If your EQ is in normal mode (not Hi-Quality), and you create a notch on the 4th EQ point (reduce the gain all the way on the 4th point), start to increase the Frequency on that 4th point. You’ll notice that as you get closer to the Nyquist Point (22kHz when working with a 44.1kHz sample rate), the curve of the EQ gets squashed so that the curve doesn’t extend beyond 22kHz. Now, enable Hi-Quality mode and try the same thing. Notice how the EQ curve remains intact no matter how close you get to the Nyquist point.
So what does this mean in terms of practical application? Well, it means that you will probably only notice the effect of the Hi-Quality EQ8 if you’re working on a session with a 44.1kHz sample rate, and the improvement will really only be noticeable on the higher frequency sounds effected by the Hi-Quality EQ8. As for specific instances for when you’d want to use the Hi-Quality setting and not, I think that is really for the individual to research a bit further, do a few A/B comparisons, and decide for themselves.
As I was doing my research for this post, I searched a few forums to help me gather the info I needed, and I also reached out directly to the Ableton HQ. Here is a very helpful and informative series of posts from the Ableton forums.
And below is the explanation for the Hi-Quality setting directly from Matt Jackson at Ableton HQ:
“The main difference is that the entire signal is oversampled in high quality mode. Actually the slope isn’t changed.
To get technical, in normal mode with a project sampling rate of 44.1kHZ, you have a nyquist frequency of around 22kHZ, the limit of the EQ. Because – in the design process – the filter is derived from an analog prototype, which has no such a limit, all frequencies (and up to infinity) must be matched to the available frequency range of the digital filter, resulting in the squashed slope near nyquist frequency.
If you look at the EQ in normal mode, you’ll see the filter slopes warp as they get very close to the 22kHZ mark. If you change your project sampling rate to 88.2 or higher, you’ll see that this warping no longer happens.
This is because the nyquist frequency is now much higher than 22kHZ.
The same thing happens when you turn on high quality mode when working at 44.1kHZ. Then Live over samples just the EQ so that the filter gives the correct response all the way to the end. (There is no change in the bottom.)”
Become An Xpand2 Power User In Pro Tools
Xpand2 is FREE with Pro Tools 8,9 and 10, yet so many users don’t realise how powerful it can be.
Russ creates one MIDI track of 4 notes and then makes a whole song from it using just those 4 notes and a single instance of Xpand2.
Learn more about Xpand:
Xpand!™, developed by the Avid Advanced Instrument Research group, provides fast, efficient ways to access and manipulate thousands of high-quality sounds directly from within your Pro Tools® system. Built for songwriters, film composers, DJs, electronic musicians, and music producers — and offered as a free RTAS® plug-in for Pro Tools systems, Xpand! is a sonic powerhouse that will become an indispensable component of your creative Pro Tools environment.
Extensive Patch Library
Xpand! makes it easy to start creating music right away. Equipped with more than 1,000 preset patches, Xpand! puts a wealth of sonic options right at your immediate disposal. Browse the patch database by category to find what you need quickly. Whether you’re looking for a warm pad to fill out your mix, building a new rhythm track for a remix, or composing a soundtrack for a feature film, Xpand! offers a huge assortment of possibilities. Choose from synth pads, leads, acoustic and electric pianos, organs, strings, vocals, brass and woodwinds, mallet percussion, ethnic instruments, loops, and more. Use the presets or make modifications to create distinctive sounds. Save your favorite patches for instant recall.
Robust Sound Engine
Xpand! uses Avid’s proprietary multi-synthesis engine to combine sampled instruments with synthesized tones, creating complex sounds extremely efficiently. Each Xpand! patch comprises a blend of up to four individual “parts,” created with oscillator multi-samples, 32- or 64-step wavetable synthesis, virtual analog synthesis, FM synthesis, or virtual tonewheel synthesis.
The preset patches are excellent starting points, but you can modify patches easily by mixing and matching up to four of the 500 included part presets for millions of possible combinations. Mix a warm pad with a wind chime for an ethereal texture, or combine a drum loop with a bass line and a gated pad for an instant techno track. Xpand! offers 64-note polyphony and is efficiently integrated with Pro Tools software as an RTAS plug-in, so you can run multiple instances on your session to build multi-timbral compositions.
Tweaking Made Easy
Fine-tune the parts further for truly unique sounds. Each part gives you access to six “SmartKnobs” to control the most useful parameters for that part. For an electric guitar part, select an amp, then adjust the distortion level and the amount of fret noise. For a vibraphone, modify the level of mallet attack noise. For a synth pad, tune the sweep rate, effect level, and resonance. Adjust the rotary settings for a tonewheel organ part or change the wah settings for a clavinet.
Each part also includes a built-in arpeggiator and two effects sends. Choose the type of arpeggiation or chord phrase and the note-based rate. Then route the effects sends into the two effect sections: Pick from a full range of reverbs and add delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, vocoder effects, or another effect. Adjust the size and shape of rooms, and the depth and rate of delays and choruses.
Once you’ve perfected the tone of each part, you can adjust how parts blend into the overall patch. Modify the volume, mix, pan, transposition, and effects levels for each part. Set high and low keys for each part to achieve keyboard splits, in which parts are assigned to specific note ranges.
In the Global Mode, use the SmartKnobs to adjust essential sound parameters for the entire patch, including attack, decay, release, cutoff, envelope depth, and fine-tuning.
Click on the mod tab to adjust a wide range of settings for aftertouch and the modwheel. To finalize your creation, save your new patch for instant recall.
Xpand Your Creative Palette
Whether you need fast access to a comprehensive preset sound set or want to create something unique without having to spend hours editing patches, Xpand! offers you an easy way to get started creating with a full range of sounds.
Features
- Comprehensive sound factory for all musical styles and applications
- More than 1,000 factory patches and 500 combinable part presets
- Four layer-able parts for millions of combinations
- Multi-synthesis engine
- 64-note polyphony
- Quick and easy sound tweaking
- Sample playback and virtual tonewheels
- Two built-in effect sections and four arpeggiators/phrase generaftors
- Highly efficient on system resources
- RTAS format
The Fundamentals of Synthesizer Programming Pt. 3
Moog continues its highly appreciated series in synth programming, here’s part 3:
Moog Music Inc. is proud to present Dr. Joseph Akins’ five part series on the fundamentals of synthesizer programming. Dr. Akins is an associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University and strives to teach his students a complete understanding of synthesizers and computers as tools for modern music production. In this five part series Dr. Akins uses a Voyager to teach the process through which a synthesizer’s sound is generated and the techniques needed to program your own sounds and sonic experiments. In part three of this five part series Dr. Akins goes over signal modifiers and filters.
New cat has arrived from Apple – OS X Mountain Lion
Bringing several of the goodies from iOS into the laptop might mean that we will have an even smoother experience when producing music and do import/export of your music between the two platforms.
Subscribe and Like.New Ipad 3 Keynote will upload in this channel soon as it released/
Mountain Lion — version 10.8 of the Mac’s OS X operating system — comes more closely on the heels of its predecessor than other updates. While each of the last four Mac upgrades has come about two years after its predecessor, Version 10.7 was released just seven months ago.
Schiller said Apple was able to get an early start on Mountain Lion because of all the work done to prepare Lion, which reviewers said marked the most sweeping changes in OS X since its 2001 inception. He said the company has so far shipped 17 million copies of Lion, making it the company’s best-selling release ever
The Mavericks Of Sound Design
At the Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina, four of the top Sound Designers in the world discuss their craft, philosophies, techniques and swap entertaining stories about their sound design experiences in a live panel discussion. Features Eric Persing, Diego Stocco, Richard Devine and Scott Gershin.
Reverse Engineering ‘Hoover’ Sound
More info – http://bit.ly/yZ2RPb
In this new video tutorial series The Petti Test, Dubspot Electronic Music Production Instructor, Propellerhead Reason course designer, sound design and sound programmer-extraordinaire Chris Petti will put any sound to test! Petti will be deciphering and reverse-engineering sounds and recordings submitted by anyone from anywhere! If you want to put a sound to the Petti Test, email ThePettiTest@Dubspot.com.
In the first installment of The Petti Test, Chris examines a very popular sound that had been used for decades in electronic music and has most certainly achieved cult status stardom. The sound is most commonly known as “the Hoover”. It has been used all the way around the board for all electronic music styles ranging from electro, dubstep, drum n bass, techno, house, hip-hop, and pop. In this example, I will be looking at its more current usage in the The Bloody Beetroots and Steve Aioki’s “Warp 1.9”.
New Ableton Tutorial- THE SUPER KNOB
Ableton Certified Trainer “Kill Paris” makes The Super Knob
www.soundcloud.com/killparis
Super knob allows you to move around multiple effects in your recording / music creation process still utilizing the same knob
Scale Tuner – Yamaha’s scale tuning application for iPad/iPhone/iPod touch
Scale Tuner allows you to change the tuning of a compatible Yamaha keyboard or digital piano to Arabic or pure temperament tuning. The internal piano voice lets you confirm the scale settings without the need of a connected MIDI keyboard.
Moog and the fundamentals of synthesizer programming
Moog Music has released the first in Dr. Joseph Akins’ five part series on the fundamentals of synthesizer programming, with an emphasis on analog subtractive synthesis.
Dr. Akins is an associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University. In this five part series Dr. Akins uses a Voyager to teach the process through which a synthesizer’s sound is generated and the techniques needed to program your own sounds and sonic experiments.
In part one of this five part series, Dr. Akins gives a brief history of synthesizers, goes over basic synthesizer theory, and overviews basic signal flow.
DATAMASKIN
