Posts Tagged ‘MIDI’

REASON RECORD REVIEW

Friday, February 5th, 2010

propellerhead-recordPropellerheads Reason programme has been at the forefront of music technology for years now, providing a self contained electronic music package that has been used by millions of home producers as well as a host of professional artists and producers. With its intuitive interface and powerful synths and samplers, Reason set the standard that other DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) had to meet. This was great for dance music production especially, but if you wanted to record audio on your tracks, this would have to be done using another software package, as Reason could not support this. They got round this by creating the Rewire system, allowing you to synch Reason with your audio recording software (such as Cubase, Logic, FL Studio and Adobe Audition). This seemed to work fine, but you would still have to flick between programmes, or bounce your tracks down and transfer them, which is not ideal for the creative music producer.

But now, Propellerheads have released Record, a multitrack audio system with both audio and MIDI capabilities which allows you to record, edit, mix and master your music. Like most DAWs available today, this has a host of effects, EQ’s, filters, compressors, and supports both audio and MIDI recordings. Record is, however, a self contained programme, so is not compatible with 3rd party plugins. This seems to be part of Propellerheads ethos, and works in cutting down on your CPU and it also means everything seems to work well together, with few glitches.

There are three main pages to Record – the sequencer page, the effects rack and the mixer. Each track you create (whether audio or MIDI) will show in each of these pages. Like Reason, you can flip to the back of your effects rack and rewire your set up as desired. As its all based on the old rack set up, with each track having its own channel in the mixer, it is extremely easy and logical to use.

Looking at the MIDI instruments it provides, Record itself comes with just one synth, the ID8 workstation which has just a few preset sounds that you would expect such as bass synth, piano and percussion. And as it does not support 3rd party plugins, your only option to build on your MIDI instruments is to add Reason to it, making it (you guessed it) Reason Record. Reason will run as normal, and you can open all your old projects providing they were made on version 4. You will then get all the same synths, samplers and MIDI editing tools that are available in Reason, which are extremely versatile and intuitive to use. You can build on your soundbank by purchasing some of the Refill packs that Propellerheads provide. Abbey Road Studios, for example, gives you all the vintage keyboard, melotron and piano sounds sampled directly from the studios, which can be loaded into one of their samplers. MIDI editing is very similar to that of Reason, in that you are working with clips, and there are plenty of editing tools allowing you to chop, copy, paste your clips.

Recording audio is made very easy with Record, and shares some similarities with Logic particularly with its comping facility. Set the section you want to record on a loop, press record, and it will create a separate file for each take, which you can then piece together to get that perfect take. Like their MIDI editing, the audio editing works in clips. Again, you can chop, copy and stretch your clips.

The effects that comes with Reason will provide the music producer with pretty much everything they could ask for, and these same effects are included with Record. One of my favourites is the Scream distortion unit, which has 10 different types of distortion available, all of which can be tweaked to your liking. For you guitar players, Record have also included guitar amp simulation pods for both bass and guitar, provided by guitar emulator specialists Line 6. You can choose your amp, cabinet, drive level and EQ, and you can even assign a MIDI pedal to be a wah for example. Finally, there is something called the combinator device, which allows you to combine several different effects into one device providing much better control over your sounds.

The mixer they use is based on the SSL’s 9000K, and its simple layout makes it very easy to use. Each channel has 8 effects sends, with some precise Eqs and filters you can apply on each. Routing your tracks to buses is extremely easy, in the same way that wiring your devices is. Simply press the tab key to see the back of the rack or mixer and you can wire up pretty much any input to an output.recordback

Pretty much every parameter you see on record you can automate, and this is again done using clips on which you can draw your automation. Again this can be copied, pasted and edited to your liking.

If you are looking to record mainly audio, Record will do everything that most DAWs can, and when combined with the effects rack and editing, this is an extremely versatile suite. Combine it with Reason and you get a full music production programme with some of the best software instruments about. Bugs and glitches are common for brand new software packages which tend to get ironed out as they upgrade versions. But as a self contained programme, Propellerheads have minimised this, and very few problems have been reported. As its interface is based on a hardware rack set up, Reason is easy to use and nothing is hidden from the user. This makes things simple and easy to use and also allows the user to get creative with routing and combining devices together. Record have maintained this easy to use interface and so the user can make projects as simple or as complex as they like. For someone who is new to computer music, this is definitely a good package to start with. Reason is taught in many music colleges around the country because it is based on hardware, and once you grab the basic concepts, other DAWs will make much more sense.

Now the prices. Record itself (without Reason) costs £169. If you are a Reason owner already, you can upgrade to Reason Record for £99. (If you are on an older version of Reason, this upgrade package will upgrade Reason to version 4 anyway). The full Reason Record package costs £332.92.

But don’t take my word for it. You can download a demo version from the Propellerheads website for free and try it for yourself at www.propellerheads.se/download.

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Logic 9 Review

Monday, January 18th, 2010

imagesSeptember 09 saw the release of Logic Pro 9, the latest complete home studio software from Apple. This has everything that a music producer could need to create professional sounding recordings, whether you are a dance producer using MIDI instruments, or you have a live music set up you want to record. Here we look at some of its editing tools and instruments that I have found particularly useful, as well as some of the new features they have introduced for the latest version.

Now its only been a year since they released version 8, so it turns out to be an expensive hobby if you want to keep up to date with their latest software. Apart from forking out £408 for the complete package, you of course need to be a smug Mac user with all the right specifications (click here for details). Now I’m a Logic 8 user and am quite happy with its audio and midi tools for the music I make. But after trying some of the new features of version 9, and being a sucker for new technology, I’m seriously thinking of upgrading. I’d better start saving…

Lets start with some of its audio editing tools. Here we find there are some nice features that can make life a lot easier. Set a loop on the arrange page, plug a guitar or microphone in, press record, and Logic will take multiple recordings of each loop, which can then be edited or copied and pasted throughout your track. This really helps in perfecting your takes and requires nothing more than setting the loop of the section you want to record.

But Logic have taken audio editing a stage further with version 9, and have introduced a new collection of tools that allow you to quickly manipulate your recorded audio. This is called Flex Time, and it allows you to speed up, slow down, stretch and shrink your audio. Logic will detect the correct algorithm to use to change the audio (stretching drums, for example, will need a different algorithm to that of vocals) giving you complete control over the tempos of your songs. You can even quantize your audio if you want it to be tighter, or fit a specific groove. These tools are available in Logic 8, but the new version has its own page dedicated to Flex Time which gives a good visual representation and will cut down the number of clicks it takes to perform a complex task.

Another new feature of Logic 9 is its guitar amp simulation and pedal board. Choose from 25 amp heads, 5 EQ’s, 10 reverbs, 25 speaker cabinets and 3 mics to recreate some classic guitar and bass sounds. You don’t have to use this with a guitar – some of the distortion and effects are great to dirty up your drums, synths or samples for example.

For those that like to use MIDI instruments in their music making, Logic 9 has a selection of powerful synths, a drum machine and sampler built in, and is also compatible with AU instruments, if you are looking to build on your home studio using 3rd party applications. Its drum machine, Ultrabeat, is a beast, and gives you complete control over your sounds. You can select Logics drum sounds, or drag and drop your own samples into the machine, and each hit then has its own pitch control, filter, distortion unit, envelope, noise generator, and all of these can be modulated, and routed to its own mixer channel. Although it looks like the Millenium Falcon (as they have crammed so many ways of manipulating each drum sound into one machine), after a bit of getting used to, you will find this an extremely versatile instrument.

Even if you like to use other software programmes to create your music, by routing your tracks through the mixer section of Logic, you can really bring your recordings to life. The effects that come with it include several delay, reverb, distortion and EQ plugins, as well as all your modulation effects (phaser, chorus, flanger) amp simulations and a host of other nifty units. The Enveloper is one of my favourites, you can quickly change the gain of the attack or delay of a drum hit (for example) to give it some real punch, or to soften it up. It’s compressor is also a favourite of mine, in that it has many features including side chaining capabilities (great for those dance producers who want that sucky volume effect), and a mix dial of your compressed to dry sound, which is very useful when experimenting with compressing a full drum kit. The Channel EQ that is on every channel strip is extremely easy and intuitive to use, and will give you complete control over the shape of your sounds. Of course, you should always use your ears when mixing, but it has become increasingly popular recently to use visual aids to help you in your mixing. Just one click on Logics Channel EQ will bring up its analyser will give you a visual representation of the sound that is being generated, which many find helpful for finding problem frequencies.

Every parameter in Logic can be automated. Just press the A button on your keyboard, and a separate arrange page dedicated to automation is shown for each track. You can easily assign a knob or fader on your MIDI keyboard to a parameter by selecting the parameter you want to automate, press control and L, turn your knob/slider, and its assigned. Keyboard shortcuts I have found to be particularly useful in speeding up workflow, and you can quickly find out and tailor your shortcuts in just a few clicks.

Logic 9 comes with a huge collection (around 37Gb) of loops, sound effects and sampled instruments that you can quickly add to your music, which can be great if you are looking for some creative inspiration even if you end up not using the loop for your final mix. They are filed well under name, category (beats, kits, FX, for example) and its original BPM, allowing you to quickly find what you are after. You can search on a keyword, or scroll through the category until you find what you want. So if I wanted a congo loop for example, I can quickly type congo in the search engine, or scroll through the percussion category.

This is just a taste of what you can do with Logic 9 – its a hugely versatile and powerful programme with a manual as thick as War and Peace. The upgrade from 8 to 9 isn’t a huge leap, and I do wonder whether Apple will release a new version every year, just when the students are about to start term. The new features they have introduced are particularly useful for those that work with audio rather than MIDI. I’ve been a Logic user for a year now, and my only complaint (apart from cost) is that it is not particularly intuitive when compared to something like Reason. But after a bit of time with the manual and with some help online (check out Logicninja on youtube), you will find that Logic can pretty much do anything you want it to.

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Instruments of the future…

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Whilst the bedroom producer can compose music with just the click of a mouse, some hands on interaction with your music software will definitely help with the creative process. The keyboard is of course the most common MIDI controller, and they often come with a few knobs, buttons and sliders that you can assign to the parameters of your music software. Whilst this is great for previewing and tweaking your sounds, not all of us are any good at playing the piano. Or you may work mainly with beats or loops and find you don’t have the control you’re after with just a keyboard. Thankfully, it seems there is no end to the types of MIDI controllers out there. Here are a few of the more unusual ones that are out there at the moment…

The ZendrumZendrum

The Zendrum is a funny looking portable MIDI percussion instrument that you wear round your neck (or put on a stand), plug into your laptop, and then you have yourself an electronic finger drum kit. This is great for those percussionists that want to take their electronic beats to the live arena, or for those composers that are just looking for a new toy to help them with their beats. The early designs of the Zendrum in the early nineties by drummers David Haney and his friend Kim Daniel, caught the attention of Peter Gabriel whilst he was on tour. He asked them to design a percussive MIDI wireless system which could be moved around the enormous stage. They did this within three months it was promptly incorporated into the U.S leg of the tour. This led to the birth of the Zendrum Corporation, and generated interest from artists such a Mick Fleetwood, Earth Wind & Fire, and Billy Cobham not only for its visual possibilities on the concert stage, but also the unlimited array of sounds it offers to drummers and percussionists. The key to this is its clever ergonomic design and the extremely velocity sensitive buttons and pads. It has 24 of these buttons and they are all fully assignable to your music software. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to run out to the shops to buy one of these. Each one is custom made, handcrafted, carved from fine woods, assembled and tested by the inventors at Zendrum Corporation. A lot of care and attention goes into the creation of these instruments and for those drummers that want to express their creativity in rhythmic and expressive ways this is definitely worth checking out.

Yamaha Tenori-OnTenori-On

Major Japanese multimedia arts star Toshio Iwai has teamed up with Yamaha to create the Tenori-On, a 16 step, 16 channel music sequencer. At first glance, this looks like a cheap plastic toy with lots of flashing lights. At £599, this certainly isn’t cheap. But its the flashing lights that make this one of the most sought after instruments that is intuitive and provides the user with a “visible music” interface. Select your performance “mode”, press the 16×16 buttons, watch it light up and start making your music. As far as its synthesizer capabilities go, its not the most powerful, with just one oscillator per channel. But if you are looking to creatively combine using a step sequencer into your live performance, this will certain do the job. You can assign separate notes and voices to each “layer”, of which you can have 16 playing all together. Once you have your layers, this then creates a “block” which you can flick between during a live performance. Again, this can be synched to your music software, but is perhaps best for triggering beats, samples and loops rather than using it as a synth. Since its release in 2007, it has generated huge interest from artists such as Bjork, Yoko Ono and more recently little Boots. It is certainly a very striking instrument, and its no surprise that it recently won a place in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Eigenharp PicoPico

Eigenlabs have recently unveiled their Eigenharp Pico, an ultra versatile instrument that offers new and creatively inspiring ways to play your music software. Imagine a cross between a MIDI controller, clarinet, guitar and keyboard, and you get the Pico. It has 18 keys, a breath pipe and a strip controller, and can be used to record loops, program beats, create arrangements, alter tempo, all while playing live. For such a small instrument, it is amazing what this thing can do. Again, all of its controllers are fully assignable to your music software, although this is limited to smug Mac users at the moment. The keys are touch sensitive and are also sensitive to pressure in both directions. So you could, for example, play a note and wobble the key one way to get a vibrato effect, wobble it the other way and you bend the note. Or change these parameters to any others of your choice. As another example you could assign the breath pipe to a wah effect and the strip controller to filter cutoff. Another great feature is that you can assign the notes to play in a particular mode. So you could set it to play only the blues scale, flamenco, major or minor scales, and then every note you play will be in that scale. You might think this is cheating, seeing as you don’t have spend hours learning your scales anymore, but it definitely makes creative composing and improvising easy, even for someone who has no musical training. The Pico is available for £349 at the moment (due to go up to £399 in Feb 2010), and if you fancy taking it one step further, then look at the Pico’s older brother, the Eigenharp Alpha. This is abut the same size as a guitar and has the same and many more buttons and controllers than the Pico. But as you would expect the price also reflects this, retailing at £3950. I can understand why Eigenlabs claim that this is the instrument of the future. They are currently running a competition for Pico players to win an Alpha. Check out their website at www.eigenlabs.com.

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Plugin Review for the Bedroom Producer

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Producing your own tunes in your bedroom on a computer has never been so popular, so with that in mind, SoundFreak is bringing you a review of some current plugins to enable you get better results from your set-up.

Most computer music programmes come with a host of powerful synths, effects units and sequencers that enable the bedroom producer to produce professional sounding music using that package alone. But there are lots of additional instruments and effects out there that you can use to build your virtual studio, providing new sources of sound and inspiration. Vintage synthesizers, virtual analogue compressors, glitchy effects units and classic instrument emulators are amongst the many kinds of plugins that you can add to your library. Before purchasing any additional plugins that take your fancy, I would strongly recommend trying their demo versions first. Here are just a few of my current favourites, all of which are available for both Mac and Windows.

Sampletron

“Tron” instruments first appeared on the commercial market in the 1950’s, and peaked with the Melotron 400 in the 1970’s. You will have heard their use on many famous recordings, the most famous example being the opening few bars on the Beatles Strawberry Fields. This is the classic tron flute, which is still being used by many artists today, over a wide range of genres. Tron instruments are rare and in extremely high demand, so will be in the price range of only the most die hard enthusiasts. But now IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality have created the Sampletron, which combines authentic sounds such as Mellotrons, Chamberlins, and Optigans with its powerful SampleTank engine which will allow you to sonically take these instruments into worlds they have not seen.

The Sampletron comes with over 600 presets from 17 rare and vintage Mellotrons providing a superb edition to any music producers library. You can then time stretch, resample, pitch shift and add effects (chorus, flange, phase, distortion), giving you further options on its sound design that simply weren’t possible with the original instruments.

With over 7Gb of samples that go with it, including drum and musical loops, it is possible to create a full tune using this plugin alone. It is a multimbral instrument, meaning that you assign a different MIDI channel on your DAW to each of the 16 channels of the Sampletron. You can then split your keyboard with the different sounds or layer them on top of each other using their intuitive interface.

The authentic sounds it is capable of producing are extremely impressive. You can hear the tape hissing, and even the odd bummed note on some of the instruments, but this is what gives the tron instruments their character. From film scoring, to hip hop and electronica, this plugin is a must for those looking to add some vintage sounds to their productions. The Sampletron can be purchased online for around £164.

Minimonsta

This virtual vintage keyboard is an emulation of the Minimoog (an analogue synthesizer produced between 1971 and 1982), but with a few additional features that make it a much more powerful synth. If you are looking for that classic analogue synth sound, I can’t recommend this plugin enough. Artists such as Herbie Hancock, Air and Bootsy Collins all used the original Minimoog in their music. This plugin does a great job of emulating the warm sound of that classic synth, and the numerous presets that it includes show off the sounds that this is capable of. Here you can select the original Minimoog patches, as well as some great bass, lead and poly sounds. There is even a selection of Rick Wakeman patches for you to choose from, if that’s what you’re after.

It has all the usual features and more that you would find on the Minimoog – 3 oscillators, a filter and mixer section, LFOs, 10 waveforms to choose from, as well as envelopes and a delay function. They are laid out in the same way as the original, making it easy and intuitive to use once you have a basic understanding of analogue synthesis. But G Force have taken this Minimoog emulator even further, giving the user the option to create sounds that were not possible with the original. You can assign a separate LFO and envelope to almost any of its parameters with just a few clicks of a mouse, allowing you to take your sound design a step further. All the settings can be assigned to a MIDI controller giving you complete control over its sound. The Minimoog became a hugely popular synth not only because of the great sounds that it can produce, but also because of its simple layout, which was easy to understand, and it shaped the way future synths have been designed. The Minimonsta has retained this simple and intuitive layout, but thrown in some extra features, making it a beast of a synth, and one that is practically limitless when it comes to virtual analogue sound design. No wonder their creators describe it as a Minimoog emulator on steroids. The Minimonsta by G Force can be purchased for around £100 incl VAT online.

Automaton

Audiodamage have produced a number of effects plugins, which are great for the dance or experimental music producer who is looking to add that glitchy effect to their music. Their Automaton is my particular favourite. This is a tough effects plugin to describe, as it is based on a mathematical construction called cellular automaton, but the result is an effects processor that harnesses a mixture of chaos and predictability into your music. The principle behind this plugin involves a grid of cells that are in one of two states – dead or alive – and which change in population depending on the rules that you apply. These cells evolve in synch to your host DAW, and trigger effects such as stuttering, bitcrushing, modulation and replicating. The result produces effects patterns that form and dissolve, turn to chaos and back to order, and are constantly evolving.

For stuttering, glitchy beats, I have found this a particularly useful effects unit. By simply inserting this plugin to your drum track, and going through some of the presets, you will see what great constantly evolving effects you can get. Although you may enjoy its unpredictability, it is possible to have more control over when the effects are triggered, using its sequencer. What I love about this is its uniqueness, and the way it can be used subtly in triggering an extra hihat for example, or you can take it to the extreme and generate random IDM madness. You can pick up the Automaton for $49 dollars from the Audiodamage website.

PSP Vintage Warmer 2

This is a high quality digital simulation of an analogue style single/multiband compressor/limiter. If you are looking to add warmth to your recordings with the saturation effect you would expect when recording to tape, I would strongly recommend this plugin. It is also great for finalising a mix and mastering your tracks, and is very easy to use. The presets include those for bass, lead guitar, drum kicks and snare, final mixes and also a mastering first aid setting. Just finding the right preset and tweaking it to your liking can add some real punch to your music. I have always been advised that after you have mixed your track, the mastering should then be done by a professional – a fresh set of ears, and someone who is trained to identify problem frequencies and correct them. But not all bedroom producers can afford to do this, and for me, using the mastering preset on this vintage compressor/limiter and making some fine adjustments can do a pretty convincing job.

The Vintage Warmer has all the usual controls you would expect on an analogue compressor – Attack, Release, Knee control, limiter ceiling and multiband frequency controllers – so if you know your way around a compressor, you will be able to achieve your desired sound easily. This is one of those magical plugins that seems to make it all sound better, even on its default setting and is an invaluable edition to your virtual studio. The PSP Vintage Warmer 2 can be bought online for around $149.

There are thousands of other VST and AU instruments available, offering numerous ways to add some spice and inspiration into your music. If you’re tired of using the same instruments with your computer software then its well worth trying out some third party plugins.

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