DigiZine Fall 2008 by Vudhina Chuchom

DIGIZINE Sixteen

Summer/Fall 2008

EDITOR’S NOTE Creativity On Demand

Editor in Chief Dusty DiMercurio Contributing Editors Kris Fong, Elise Malmberg Contributing WRITERS Randy Alberts, Dustin Driver, Anthony Gordon, Joe Gore, Erik Hawkins, Gannon Kashiwa, Wolfram Knelangen, Jon Margulies, Bill Murphy, Rich Tozzoli CREATIVE Director Jason Lakis DESIGN Director Van Chuchom Staff photographerS Gabe Echeverria, Anthony Gordon ADVERTISING MANAGER Amy Strickland advertising@digidesign.com artist Relations Anthony Gordon

The other night I watched Adaptation, an interesting film about the eccentric screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Tasked with writing the screenplay for a best-selling biography, Kaufman struggles to decide on a concept for his creation. With the deadline drawing closer, and finding himself undecided and hesitant to settle on a singular approach, Kaufman falls into a downward spiral of panic and self-doubt. Staring at a blank page with a looming deadline can be pretty intimidating. Consider the barrage of questions one faces when getting the creative ball rolling: What will I create? Will it be interesting and relevant—perhaps even enlightening? Will others like it? Will I even like it? Will I be able to finish it on time? The first step to answering these questions involves envisioning what the outcome will look like—and it’s here that things can get tricky. I find that if I spend too much time defining the outcome of a creative project, it can be much more of a struggle to get there—or at least get somewhere I’m happy with. Instead, it’s those times when I’m not entirely clear about where I’m headed that seem to bear the most creative results in the least amount of time. Case in point: Opening up our new virtual instrument Transfuser in one of my sessions. Transfuser is one of those virtual instruments that’s so wide open, it will no doubt be used by people in many different ways. My favorite aspects of it involve the cool ways you can quickly manipulate sounds. Rather than using the loops and sounds it comes with, though, I opted instead to limit myself to just dragging in audio files and loops already within my session. With a few clicks of a mouse and twist of a knob or two, I’d totally reinvented the rhythm section in a way that I would have never imagined it developing. The creative process is an elusive path, one littered with many traps and pitfalls. And while mastery of it is a never-ending pursuit, the ability to improve navigating its trenches certainly seems possible. In a deadline-oriented environment, don’t get too hung up on defining where you end up creatively. Instead, focus more on choosing a path and marching. As the creative process unfolds, you’ll likely find it taking you places you never would have foreseen going. And if you’re finding yourself intimidated by the silence of an empty session, try opening Transfuser—and make sure to hold on for the ride.

Dusty DiMercurio Editor in Chief

Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Use of the enclosed software is subject to a related license agreement. Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Sibelius, AudioSuite, Beat Detective, Bomb Factory, Command|8, Control|24, C|24, Cosmonaut Voice, D-Command, D-Control, D-Fi, 003, 003 Rack, DigiBase, DigiDelivery, DigiRack, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, DV Toolkit, Eleven, Hybrid, Maxim, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2 Micro, Mbox 2 Pro, Musition, OMF, PhotoScore, Pinnacle, Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools Ignition Pack, Pro Tools LE, Pro Tools M-Powered, Pro Tools Method One, Pulsar II, QuickPunch, Reel Tape Suite, RTAS, Scorch, SignalTools, Smack!, Solaris, SoundReplacer, Sputnik, Strike, Structure, Studiophile, Surroundscope, Synchronic, TAMPA, Tel-Ray, TL Space, Torq, Transfuser, Transit, Velvet, X-Form, and Xpand! are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/ or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

www.digidesign.com

DAVE’S DIRT Transfusing Technology Every once in a while it’s a good idea to look at what makes us tick creatively, and how technology can either help or get in the way. I have been doing a lot more music recently (returning to my real “core”), and was really blown away when I investigated Transfuser, a new virtual instrument created by Digidesign’s A.I.R. group. To me, it speaks volumes about how technology can help inspire and not get in the way; it’s why I’m still involved in this stuff in a passionate way. Using Transfuser is like having a fluid mini-production studio that never stops. You can create propulsive grooves, and inflect loops or vocal snippets in unexpected ways—like with the magic of Beatcutter, with its unreal combos of Freeze (my fave), Gate, Reverse, and Scratch. As a real-time performance tool, Beatcutter had me smiling. You can drag in material from a file browser or the Pro Tools timeline, and the audio is automatically sliced and diced in real time. The M.A.R.I.O. tool (which lets you randomize and vary drum/percussion or loop slice patterns in an intelligent and musical way) is another thing that really sparked creative ideas for me. You can play patterns via a MIDI controller, manipulate sounds and patterns via drum pads, and remix the results (a built-in idea recorder lets you iterate off what you’ve created), all without stopping your flow. If you haven’t checked out Transfuser yet or seen the Accelerated videos on the Digidesign website, I’d really encourage you to do so. This stuff can totally change the way we do what we do. But beyond choosing a fresh tool like Transfuser, as much as you can get seduced by the Next Big Thing (as we all do), it’s just as valuable to grow more adept at making musical choices. Sometimes narrowing the options and zeroing in on the essence of what you’re trying to do can produce the best results. Over the years, I’ve seen some people slam Pro Tools for messing around with music, and complain about things getting “edited to death.” Obviously, there are different schools of thought on this topic (driven by different aesthetic sensibilities), but I figure you can do whatever you want with it—and that includes old-school, purist, making-the-choicesas-you-go-ness. It’s worth considering what benefits you get when you actually give yourself fewer options, and focus on self-editing and honing in on the core of a composition. This, along with real writing, performing, and arranging skills (at whatever level you’re at), and developing an end vision of where you want your work to go, helps make the “audio movie in your head” become real. Sometimes you don’t know what you want to do until you get there, but when there are too many options, you can get lost. Just some food for thought.

Dave Lebolt Digidesign General Manager DIGIZINE 03

DIGIZINE Sixteen

Summer/Fall 2008

EDITOR’S NOTE Creativity On Demand

Dusty DiMercurio Editor in Chief

www.digidesign.com

Dave Lebolt Digidesign General Manager DIGIZINE 03

DIGIZINE Summer/Fall 2008 Sixteen

Great Transfuser Tour 06 The Hear How Top Artists Respond to Digidesign’s

Innovative New Groove Creation Workstation

Accelerated Studio NightBird: The ICONic Studio at the Sunset Marquis Hotel

Word on Eleven 18 The Check Out the Gossip on Eleven, Digidesign’s

Flight of the conchords Partners-in-grime Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of the HBO smash hit TV show team up with Pro Tools and esteemed producer Mickey Petralia for their first full-length album release

ORKSHOPS 54 58 64 68

Hyper-Realistic Guitar Amp Modeler

WORKSHOPS Guitar Tools: 10 Ways to Make Eleven Go to 12 MIDI Ditty: Transfuser Mad Loop-Mangling Lessons Groundwork: Comping in Pursuit of a Great Performance In The Loop: Remixing in the Fast Lane with Strike and Elastic Time

at a Glance 26 Gear Pro Tools Personal Studio Systems

Tools and Live 32 Pro Prep Your Pro Tools Tracks to Use in

a Live Setting with Ableton Live

COLUMNS 39 47

The Graduate: Lydia Alicia Cristobal Special Feature: DigidesignTV

DEPARTMENTS 10 36 48

Developers News: The Latest Digidesign Development Partner News Plug-in Centerfold: Advanced Room Correction System, Eleven, Speakerphone, and Tube-Tech CL 1B M-Audio M-Pulse: DJ/Producer Chris Alfaro Uses Torq to Craft a New Form of Electronic Hip-Hop

DIGIZINE 04

icon, and motley crue 44 eleven, Eleven and ICON Rock the Latest Motley Crue Album

50 Score! Learn How Composer/Producer Kristen Hevner

Puts Sibelius and Pro Tools to Work in Her Projects

DIGIZINE Summer/Fall 2008 Sixteen

Great Transfuser Tour 06 The Hear How Top Artists Respond to Digidesign’s

Innovative New Groove Creation Workstation

Accelerated Studio NightBird: The ICONic Studio at the Sunset Marquis Hotel

Word on Eleven 18 The Check Out the Gossip on Eleven, Digidesign’s

ORKSHOPS 54 58 64 68

Hyper-Realistic Guitar Amp Modeler

at a Glance 26 Gear Pro Tools Personal Studio Systems

Tools and Live 32 Pro Prep Your Pro Tools Tracks to Use in

a Live Setting with Ableton Live

COLUMNS 39 47

The Graduate: Lydia Alicia Cristobal Special Feature: DigidesignTV

DEPARTMENTS 10 36 48

DIGIZINE 04

icon, and motley crue 44 eleven, Eleven and ICON Rock the Latest Motley Crue Album

50 Score! Learn How Composer/Producer Kristen Hevner

Puts Sibelius and Pro Tools to Work in Her Projects

By Anthony Gordon

SPECIAL FEATURE

The Great Transfuser Tour Top producers and artists respond to Digidesign’s new groove creation virtual instrument

One of the more exciting things about working at Digidesign is getting to see new products being developed. As a musician with a background in writing and performing (as opposed to mixing and engineering), it’s been especially interesting to see the new instruments designed by our German Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group. As I’ve recently seen firsthand, these instruments have also been a source of creative excitement to a lot of producers who, like me, tend to focus on the creative side of recording music. One of the most noteworthy new products from A.I.R. is a new groove creation tool called Transfuser. When I first saw it demoed by product manager Wolfram Knelangen (don’t miss his Transfuser tutorial on page 58), my eyes almost popped out of my head—and my ears were equally impressed. This was the kind of instrument that I, as a musician, had been dying to see Digidesign make.

“This is really ill… it’s kinda blowing my mind right now. It’s dope for production and it’s dope for live, too. It’s just bananas.” —Junior Sanchez (artist, remixer, producer; Madonna, Gorillaz, New Order)

DIGIZINE 06

Transfuser gives you an incredible level of control over loops and grooves. Both Pro Tools novices and advanced drum programmers will find it equally satisfying to use. Getting a groove into Transfuser is as easy as falling off a log: Simply start with one of the grooves included with the program, or drag and drop any of your own loops or grooves into the interface. Once you’ve imported your loop, go nuts. You can use the familiar sequencer to program a groove, randomize the elements (with very musical results), easily change the tempo or swing, replace specific sounds, and even merge components of different loops into a new one. Transfuser gives you precise control over your musical ideas, but it also lets you go crazy and generate “happy accidents.” As a player that tends to embrace the happy accident, I love how creative this program is.

him to work with a ton of other amazing artists, including David Bowie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Most recently he produced Scarlett Johansson’s surprisingly awesome and charmingly weird new album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head. When we dropped by Sitek’s studio, he was hard at work on the new TVOTR record, but was gracious enough to give us a few moments. His studio was rad—it reminded me of a lot of the rehearsal spots you can find in any city in America. This was clearly a studio designed for a band to record music on its own terms.

“This is %*#ing wicked, dude! Now you’re in my territory.” —David Sitek (artist, producer, remixer; TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck)

We hung for a bit before busting out the laptop and firing up Transfuser. Sitek’s first reaction: “This is %*#ing wicked, dude!” Like I said earlier, it’s great to work on new products here, but it’s even cooler to see someone whose music you respect really appreciate the final outcome. “Now you’re in my territory,” said Sitek after we showed him the M.A.R.I.O. randomization features in Transfuser. Our next stop was across the bridge in Manhattan to visit noted producer and remix artist Junior Sanchez at his futuristic, ICON-equipped studio in TriBeCa. Junior is one of my favorite people to work with, but a few other people dig working with him, too—including Princess Superstar, Hot Hot Heat, Shakira, and some upstart dance-music singer who goes by the name Madonna.

I knew that if I was this stoked about Transfuser, some of the producers and artists I work with would go absolutely bananas over it. With that in mind, we planned a little road trip to show some of our favorite music producers what Transfuser was all about. So Wolfram Knelangen, DigiZine editor Dusty DiMercurio, and I hit the road with Transfuser, an M-Audio controller, and an Mbox 2 Micro.

Transfuser in NYC Our first stop was Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where we visited TV on the Radio’s David Sitek at the band’s Stay Gold Studio. Sitek is absolutely fearless with his music (as shown by TVOTR’s latest release, Return to Cookie Mountain), and for someone so clearly on the cutting edge of music, he’s refreshingly unconcerned with musical trends and fads. This creative approach has not only led Sitek to success with his own music, but also allowed

DIGIZINE 07

By Anthony Gordon

SPECIAL FEATURE

The Great Transfuser Tour Top producers and artists respond to Digidesign’s new groove creation virtual instrument

DIGIZINE 06

“This is %*#ing wicked, dude! Now you’re in my territory.” —David Sitek (artist, producer, remixer; TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck)

DIGIZINE 07

SPECIAL FEATURE

“Don’t tell anyone about this yet—let me make a few records with it first!” —Jose “Choco” Reynoso (engineer, mixer, producer; Wu Tang Clan, RZA, Cappadonna)

Sanchez has the underground dance music scene on lock, DJing at some of the illest clubs in America and abroad (including Misshapes NYC and Blow Up SF), but he still finds time to produce white-hot dance floor jams for some of the biggest names in music. Because I love his music, and because he knows what the hell he’s talking about, whenever we have something cool coming out, I try to run it by him. “This is really ill… it’s kinda blowing my mind right now,” said Sanchez when we showed him the real-time loop slicing functions in Transfuser. “It’s dope for production and it’s dope for live, too. It’s just bananas.” As we were doing the demo, Jose “Choco” Reynoso dropped in to see what the big deal was. Choco does most of the mixing for whatever the RZA is working on, including Wu Tang Clan records and scores for films such as Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2. The guy is a Pro Tools genius, and a very respected member of the East Coast hip-hop establishment. “This is gonna shut the game down. It’s over,” he said after his first look at Transfuser. “Don’t tell anyone about this yet—let me make a few records with it first!” Next up was house music producer Jay J in his studio in Manhattan. Jay J is not only a dance music producer and DJ with tons of great records to his credit, he also helped us create a lot of the original content for Transfuser. He hosted a group of ten or so engineers and producers at his place while Wolfram, Dusty, and I hung out and dug into some of the goodness that Transfuser has to offer. “This is just mad… straight up crazy,” said one attendee. We pretty much agree.

“The kids are gonna seriously go off on this.” —Armand Van Helden (DJ, producer)

will be really cool.” The love for Transfuser was blossoming from coast to coast! On our way out of town, Armand Van Helden invited us to drop by his Manhattan studio. Junior had been so stoked on Transfuser that he hooked us up with his friend Armand, so we were now on our way to hang with one of the biggest house music DJs on Earth. Good times indeed! Armand keeps his production style simple— his sessions don’t have 75,000 tracks and his studio isn’t equipped with millions of dollars worth of “pro gear.” But he does have a great sense of what people want on the dance floor, which is why he’s such an awesome DJ and producer. A few simple tools, including a Digi 002 and an M-Audio Axiom 25 at the heart of his rig, some real talent, and the willingness to put in the work can make all the difference. When we showed him Transfuser, Van Helden remarked how intuitive it looked. “The easier you make things, the less complicated you make it to get results,” he added. “I have a lot of people show me different stuff. And lots of times, they’re techie, nerdy cats that are creating this stuff and they want people to dig into it. I’m of the opposite philosophy. Just give me the simple stuff with the option of digging. I just want basic music-making tools.” So how is Transfuser different, we asked? “It’s wide open—it’s like somebody finally simplified your mind. I know that six weeks after this comes out I’m gonna hear it in people’s tracks. The kids are gonna seriously go off on this.” Deciding it wasn’t going to get any better than that for us in New York, we packed our bags and hit the road again.

Los Angeles Meets Transfuser We touched down in LA just in time to get a bottle of whisky to share with our neighbors at the hotel—a group of Swedish models, tattoo artists, soap opera stars, and Madonna’s bagpiper (I am not kidding—this is our job!). After a not-so-good night’s sleep, we headed to a gated studio in the Hollywood Hills to visit with Jez Colin, who records sexy Latin house music under the moniker The Latin Project. Colin has remixed the likes of Bebel Gilberto (with sexy results) and is a Pro Tools wizard who sits on the Recording Academy’s (sexy) remixing board, so I was curious to hear his thoughts on Transfuser. “That is wicked, man. It just sounds great!” he said on first look. “To be able to use this to finish off my next album

DIGIZINE 08

The final stop on our tour was a visit to Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan (a.k.a. The Crystal Method) in their new ICON-equipped facility. For more than 11 years, The Crystal Method have been killing it all over the world with their trademark sound: a mix of hard dance beats and ripping synths, aimed less at the supper-club set and more at the sweating, teeming masses of wide-eyed, hardcore dancing maniacs around the world (the type who tend to leave the club on the late side, if you catch my drift). I have partied my a$$ off to The Crystal Method, and assuming you’ve been to a dance club or a rave anytime in the past 11 years, you probably have too.

“That is wicked, man. It just sounds great!” —Jez Colin (mixer, artist, producer;

The Latin Project, Bebel Gilberto)

“What’s great about [Transfuser],” said Kirkland, “is that those of us who have collected loops and record a lot of our own things can now easily drag and drop them right into Pro Tools, and manipulate samples differently than we’ve ever been able to do before... without having to open up another piece of software. It’s all inside [Pro Tools] now, and that makes things so much easier—and very fluid.” Kirkland’s partner Jordan thought Transfuser was “just amazing... really incredible! It’s infinitely expandable... you can get really deep into it.” Again, we couldn’t agree more. And with that, our trip came to an end. Wolfram returned home to the relative safety of the A.I.R. team in Germany, and Dusty and I returned to our homes in San Francisco to wash the A.I.R.port out of our hA.I.R. Though actually, the first thing I did when I got back to my apartment was to fire up Transfuser and mess around with a few things I picked up on the road. I suspect Dusty and Wolfram were at home doing the same thing.

“It’s infinitely expandable... you can get really deep into it.” —Ken Jordon (The Crystal Method) DIGIZINE 09

SPECIAL FEATURE

“Don’t tell anyone about this yet—let me make a few records with it first!” —Jose “Choco” Reynoso (engineer, mixer, producer; Wu Tang Clan, RZA, Cappadonna)

“The kids are gonna seriously go off on this.” —Armand Van Helden (DJ, producer)

DIGIZINE 08

“That is wicked, man. It just sounds great!” —Jez Colin (mixer, artist, producer;

The Latin Project, Bebel Gilberto)

“It’s infinitely expandable... you can get really deep into it.” —Ken Jordon (The Crystal Method) DIGIZINE 09

DEVELOPERS NEWS

Abbey Road Brilliance Pack TDM, RTAS

The Brilliance Pack provides authentic emulations of the classic RS127 and RS135 “presence boxes,” custom-built by EMI technicians in the early 1960s to supplement the EQ controls on the legendary REDD mixing consoles. These original EQ boxes were used on countless seminal recordings, including almost every Beatles album.

www.abbeyroadplugins.com

MusicXPC Professional M6 and M6x computers

Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp

The new Professional M6 and M6x notebook computers are designed for audio production, and represent a quantum leap in features, with industry-leading standard RAM configurations of 2 GB and 4 GB, respectively. Both models are powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo, and feature a 200 GB SATA 3.0 GB/s 7,200 RPM hard drive.

RTAS

www.musicxpc.com

www.studiodevil.com

Abbey Road

Nomad Factory BBE D82 Sonic Maximizer

Brilliance Pack

RTAS

TC Electronic LM5 Loudness Radar Meter Tube-Tech CL 1B

Grooveboxmusic.com Pro Tools Tips & Tricks with Kenny Gioia Volume 2 Following the success of the first volume, Grooveboxmusic.com has released Volume 2 of these highly insightful Pro Tools tips and tricks.

www.grooveboxmusic.com

IK Multimedia SampleTron RTAS

Antares AVOX 2 RTAS

The second generation of the Antares Vocal Toolkit adds five additional vocal processing modules, including Harmony Engine, a vocal modeling harmony generator that gives musicians, producers, and engineers an easy way to create stunning vocal harmony arrangements in any musical style as well as design unique vocal effects in post-production.

www.antarestech.com

BIAS Peak Pro 6 Peak Pro 6 is a major upgrade to the award-winning sample-editing, processing, mastering, and file-delivery software for Mac OS X. New features include advanced playlist editing and mastering tools; new DSP tools, such as Perpetual Looper and Voiceover Ducking; direct podcast publishing; and much more.

www.bias-inc.com

SampleTron is a virtual instrument workstation that features a nostalgic collection of authentic “Tron” instrument samples. SampleTron offers over 2 GB of sounds, 640 presets, and 260 multisamples from 17 rare and vintage Mellotron and Chamberlin keyboards as well as their derivatives, including the Optigan and Rhythmaster.

www.ikmultimedia.com

TDM, RTAS

This new mono and stereo EQ system includes new bx double-precision filters, effective EQ up to 26 kHz (even in 44.1 kHz sessions), internal M/S features in the stereo version mode (stereo width and mono maker), new Auto Listen modes, and sweepable shifter EQs.

www.brainworx-music.de

Eventide E-Control

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper

iZotope iZotope RX

The Eventide E-Control plug-in provides real-time control of its award-winning H8000 series, H7600, and Eclipse multi-effects hardware processors. If you use Eventide outboard gear in your Pro Tools sessions, E-Control provides multiple parameter control automation and program change capability, which are saved with the session for easy recall from within Pro Tools.

www.eventide.com

LM5 displays Instant Loudness, Loudness History, and True-Peak Level on its radar, which are derived from a new, international loudness standard. The CL 1B plug-in is based upon highly advanced component emulation technology, and brings the legendary analog sound of Tube-Tech’s CL 1B hardware compressor/limiter to the Pro Tools platform.

www.nomadfactory.com

iZotope RX offers new technology to help restore audio, including extremely transparent, natural-sounding broadband noise reduction. Spectral Repair removes intermittent noises and can even close gaps and dropouts. Declipper can heal analog and digital clipping. Other modules include Hum Removal and Declicker.

Pro Audio DSP Dynamic Spectrum Mapper

Terra Digital Audio ML12i Pro C2 notebook series

RTAS

Designed specifically to support Pro Tools LE systems, these notebooks deliver desktop-class performance and upgradeability in a sleek, mobile solution. The base model ships with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 3GB of memory, a 160 GB 7200 RPM hard drive (supports up to 200 GB), and an NVIDIA-based 8600M GT graphic board.

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper provides multi-dimensional control over both the spectral response and dynamic characteristics of audio material, bringing a whole new dimension of facility and artistic ability to the sound engineer. It achieves great results in compression, loudness enhancement, de-essing, and vocal character processing.

www.izotope.com

Massenburg DesignWorks MDW Hi-Res Parametric EQ 3.0

iZotope

iZotope RX

www.proaudiodsp.com

The new MDW EQ 3.0, an EQ with unprecedented clarity, superlative smoothness, and excellent high-frequency response, introduces new RTAS processing with its TDM offering, giving you the flexibility of working with multiple Pro Tools systems.

Toontrack Music

www.digidesign.com

EZPlayer Pro

McDSP DE555 De-esser FutzBox Lo-Fi Distortion Effects NF575 Noise Filter TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite

RTAS

TDM

RTAS, AudioSuite

TDM, RTAS

Brainworx bx_hybrid

Pro Audio DSP

Nomad Factory has partnered with BBE Sound to release the plug-in version of BBE’s Sonic Maximizer, which engineers have used for years to get professional-sounding mixes with that extra sparkle. The D82 Sonic Maximizer plug-in is identical to the original hardware in terms of utility and processing, and can add brilliance, depth, detail, and definition to your music.

Virtual Guitar Amp is a new tube amplifier modeling plug-in designed to emulate 18 distinct vacuum tube guitar amplifiers. It uses a dynamic tube emulation algorithm that sets it apart from other amp simulators, capturing the distortion curves and dynamic characteristics of vacuum tube circuits.

The DE555 is a new generation of de-essing technology, providing transparent, precise de-essing with unique flexibility. FutzBox is a distortion and noise generator plug-in for creating low-fidelity versions of audio signals. The NF575 Noise Filter is a high-resolution filter set designed to remove a wide variety of noise types from audio.

www.mcdsp.com

Softube Metal Amp Room TDM, RTAS

www.tcelectronic.com

www.terradigitalaudio.com

Toontrack Music EZPlayer Pro RTAS

Softube and Swedish metal guitarist Patrik Jensen (The Haunted) have collaborated to develop Metal Amp Room, a virtual guitar amp made for bone-crushing tones. It includes two cabinets, positionable condenser and dynamic mics, and a program-dependent guitar noise gate for slow or fast decay.

EZPlayer Pro is a percussive MIDI engine plug-in that lets you collect and organize all the MIDI on your hard drive. You can combine, layer, and fuse drum and percussion MIDI clips from individual kit pieces to create entire arrangements, and audition them with your favorite drum sampler in EZPlayer Pro before dragging them into Pro Tools.

www.softube.com

wwww.toontrack.com

Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

For more information about Digidesign Development Partner products, visit www.digidesign.com.

RTAS

Sonnox

The Oxford SuprEsser is both a very highly-featured professional de-esser and a dynamic EQ. The combination of an intuitive FFT display and three listen modes enables you to easily see and hear exactly where the problem is, and quickly reduce or remove the offending frequencies.

Oxford SuprEsser

www.sonnoxplugins.com

McDSP

DE555 De-esser, NF575 Noise Filter, FutzBox Lo-Fi Distortion Effects

now shipping from

Digidesign does not provide support for, or test the performance specifications of, any non-Digidesign products. Please contact the relevant developer for additional information or support. All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

digidesign development partners DIGIZINE 10

DIGIZINE 11

DEVELOPERS NEWS

Abbey Road Brilliance Pack TDM, RTAS

www.abbeyroadplugins.com

MusicXPC Professional M6 and M6x computers

Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp

RTAS

www.musicxpc.com

www.studiodevil.com

Abbey Road

Nomad Factory BBE D82 Sonic Maximizer

Brilliance Pack

RTAS

TC Electronic LM5 Loudness Radar Meter Tube-Tech CL 1B

www.grooveboxmusic.com

IK Multimedia SampleTron RTAS

Antares AVOX 2 RTAS

www.antarestech.com

www.bias-inc.com

www.ikmultimedia.com

TDM, RTAS

www.brainworx-music.de

Eventide E-Control

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper

iZotope iZotope RX

www.eventide.com

www.nomadfactory.com

Pro Audio DSP Dynamic Spectrum Mapper

Terra Digital Audio ML12i Pro C2 notebook series

RTAS

www.izotope.com

Massenburg DesignWorks MDW Hi-Res Parametric EQ 3.0

iZotope

iZotope RX

www.proaudiodsp.com

Toontrack Music

www.digidesign.com

EZPlayer Pro

McDSP DE555 De-esser FutzBox Lo-Fi Distortion Effects NF575 Noise Filter TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite

RTAS

TDM

RTAS, AudioSuite

TDM, RTAS

Brainworx bx_hybrid

Pro Audio DSP

www.mcdsp.com

Softube Metal Amp Room TDM, RTAS

www.tcelectronic.com

www.terradigitalaudio.com

Toontrack Music EZPlayer Pro RTAS

www.softube.com

wwww.toontrack.com

Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

For more information about Digidesign Development Partner products, visit www.digidesign.com.

RTAS

Sonnox

Oxford SuprEsser

www.sonnoxplugins.com

McDSP

DE555 De-esser, NF575 Noise Filter, FutzBox Lo-Fi Distortion Effects

now shipping from

digidesign development partners DIGIZINE 10

DIGIZINE 11

By Randy Alberts

ACCELERATED STUDIO

The Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas—located just off Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood—has been a music industry haven for decades, hosting the famous, the infamous, and the would-be famous. Courtney Love wrote a letter to Kurt Cobain on the hotel’s stationery, while the Rolling Stones, U2, and Eminem have all spent time at the hotel’s exclusive “guests and musicians only” bar. But the music scene at the Sunset Marquis goes deeper than mere celebrity sightings by the pool: The hotel has housed its own recording studio since 1993, when Jeff Beck and songwriter/ producer Jed Leiber requisitioned a basement laundry room for a late-night jam session. Over the years, the studio has seen sessions with a who’s who of pop music, from Meatloaf to Mary J. Blige—not to mention many of the industry’s top film and television composers. In December 2007, to commemorate its 15th anniversary, the facility was remodeled, upgraded with a state-of-the-art Pro Tools system, and renamed NightBird. “The original studio was built down here, where the laundry rooms were,” says NightBird engineer Jason Fleming. “In fact, right now I’m sitting exactly where the roadies’ laundry used to be!” He laughs. “The hotel didn’t want that stuff getting mixed in with their guests’ laundry, because the roadies’ clothes were always so dirty.”

NightBird: The Studio at the

NightBird’s current look is a far cry from the original spin-cycle décor. Today’s studio is Zen temple-meets-Star Trek, with racks of vintage analog gear, a Pro Tools|HD 6 Accel system, and a 32-channel ICON D-Control console, which they’ve used nonstop since 2006. The newly revamped studio features a design by Swiss designer Peter Maurer, with trademark aural touches by world-renowned acoustician George Augspurger.

Sunset Marquis Hotel

L>R: Jason Fleming, Dom Trenier, Teddy Riley, John Oates, and Jed Leiber.

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DIGIZINE 13

By Randy Alberts

ACCELERATED STUDIO

NightBird: The Studio at the

Sunset Marquis Hotel

L>R: Jason Fleming, Dom Trenier, Teddy Riley, John Oates, and Jed Leiber.

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ACCELERATED STUDIO

“The speed, ease-of-use, and hands-on feel of the ICON make it all happen,” says Fleming. “We couldn’t work this much, or this fast, with our previous console—or any other console, for that matter. For us, the ICON is the perfect solution for what we’re doing down here.”

ICON: Right at Home Formerly known as The Studio at the Sunset Marquis, NightBird is a joint venture between the hotel and Jed Leiber, son of master lyricist Jerry Leiber. The younger Leiber has co-written and recorded songs at the studio for such artists as Cyndi Lauper and Aretha Franklin; his productions have been nominated twice for Grammy Awards, and won a BAFTA for Best Original Music.

Jed Leiber chillin’ at the ICON.

“Without the ICON, I wouldn’t be able to work as fast and efficiently as I do while maintaining quality.”

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Leiber’s recent ICON-based productions include the opening sequence to the Guitar Hero 3 game, featuring Guns ’N Roses guitarist Slash; a songwriting collaboration for Billy Bob Thornton’s band, the Boxmasters; a new musical based on the film Ruthless People; and the debut album for 17-year-old Tyler Bryant, an extraordinary new guitarist backed by an all-star cast of session players. Leiber is also co-producing, mixing, and playing keyboards on John Oates’ new album, 1,000 Miles of Life. Over the years, Leiber and the studio’s talented creative team have transformed the space into a busy facility specializing in album recording, film scores, and TV music. Many of the studio’s high-profile clients stay for weeks or even months on end, in utter luxury, until their projects

Without the ICON, and the support I’ve received from Westlake Audio and Rich Nevens and the gang at Digi, I wouldn’t be able to work as fast and efficiently as I do while maintaining quality.” are complete. NightBird is, in fact, the only world-class recording facility in the world with a five-star hotel upstairs. Opening day at the revamped NightBird saw Cyndi Lauper tracking in Studio B, while Seal worked next door in the A room with producer Stuart Price. Leiber and his staff have been booked constantly ever since.

The Phantom of the Marquis Leiber loves retelling the Spinal Tap-like tale of the studio’s origins 15 years ago. “After getting politely kicked out of Jeff Beck’s room in the middle of the night,” he says, “we started working in what was then a room adjacent to the Marquis’ laundry room. That room was later expanded to include the space occupied by the washers and dryers. It was my first, and least expensive, studio renovation!” Flying back and forth between New York and Los Angeles, Leiber began to score feature films and work with artists who often happened to be guests of the hotel. Soon the hotel’s general manager, Rod Gruendyke, and its owners approved Leiber’s one-of-a-kind idea: Build a world-class commercial facility beneath the Marquis that would be available to the hotel’s many studio-minded guests. Eventually, that room became so popular that even Leiber couldn’t book time in it. So he built a second room and used it until, once again, its booking schedule left no room for his own projects. “I could use the studio only late at night, so the staff started calling me the Phantom of the Marquis,” he says. “Being a creature of the night, I decided to give the new facility a fitting name: NightBird.” For the current upgrade, after evaluating every console on the market, Leiber decided that the ICON was the way to go. “It includes all the features necessary for a busy and eclectic studio, especially given the wide range of projects and working methods we have here,” he explains. “Digidesign felt they were paving the way for future studio technology with the ICON—an essential business consideration for a studio owner. I have used the console ever since for all my projects, which I often work on concurrently.

Riding the “Elevator” with ICON One of Jason Fleming’s recent sessions at NightBird illustrates ICON’s role at the studio. On a rare night off from the band’s tour, Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden (the group’s lead singer and guitarist, respectively) had only a few hours free to record New York City-based Junior Sanchez’s new pop-electronic dance track, “Elevator.” Given the time—or lack thereof—available to record, arrange, overdub, automate, edit, and mix the song, Fleming and NightBird engineer Steve Sundholm wrapped up their previous 7:00 p.m. session on the ICON in Studio A, then pushed a handful of function keys, turned a few rotary knobs, made a couple of menu selections, and voilà: Sanchez’s “Elevator” session settings were instantly recalled and everyone was ready to roll. “The ICON’s efficiency, especially the instant total recall of Junior’s Pro Tools session from his own D-Command in New York, allowed us to finish that song in less than three hours!” says Fleming. “All of the guitars, the bass, the vocal sections, everything. Before the ICON arrived, if we had used NightBird’s old console to do that song, it would have required practically the same amount of time just to route everything into the console and back out to Pro Tools.”

Dead Executives: An ICON Board Meeting Fleming, Joel and Benji Madden, and several others have formed a bicoastal producers’ collective that meets regularly at NightBird to write and record. Called the Dead Executives, the group works closely on each others’ albums and produces music for other artists and producers in the sonic intersection where hip-hop, rap, rock, pop, and electronic music meet. Sanchez’s “Elevator” is a prime example of what the Dead Executives are up to. Fleming isn’t sure whether to call it rock or not, but he does know that the creative pace they keep at NightBird wouldn’t be possible without their ICON. “There’s a whole new generation of urban and electronic DJs and producers, like the Dead Executives, who are used to the whole hands-on approach of the DJ,” Fleming says. “They’re used to performing and experimenting live with

their sounds by touch, not by mouse. In the studio they can grab, push, and work with the ICON’s knobs and faders in a way that’s similar to how they’re used to working with their DJ gear.” He also points out another facet of the ICON’s functionality, illustrated by the “Elevator” session, that’s changed the way people edit at NightBird. Regardless of seniority or expertise, the ICON takes everyone’s plug-in automation skills to a new level of effects expression. “With the ICON, we automate plug-ins far more than we ever did before,” says Fleming. “Those unique filter sweeps where you’re riding the frequency, Q, and gain parameters of an EQ plug-in during a specific section in a song. Now we can ride and automate all those parameters at the same time, and all in one pass, without having to replay that section over and over again. We couldn’t do that before—we’d have to use the mouse to draw in each sweep of each parameter on separate playbacks of the song section. The ICON makes the art of effects-parameter automation so much more intuitive and creative. We grab, tweak, and sweep through something until it’s completely perfect for whatever the song needs to make it really special.”

ICON: The New Rappers’ Delight Fleming and Sundholm spend much of their time at NightBird introducing an increasing number of artists and producers to the ICON’s delights. It’s likely that T.I., Chamillionaire, Bubba Sparxxx, E-40, Lil Scrappy, Mario, Young Dre, The Truth, and many others have tracked and mixed their first ICON sessions with Fleming or Sundholm at the desk beside them. “Again, the main thing is ICON’s speed when tracking vocals and mixing,” says Fleming. “That’s especially true when working with rappers. A rap session is a really fast-moving session, with a lot more punches in it than any other type of music. It’s like, ‘Okay, go-go-go! Now the next one, and the next one… Okay, now go punch this line in back there, quick!’ We have to stay one step ahead of them in order to capture the magic. Thanks to the ICON, when those sessions are done, the rappers and their

“Our ICON is one less thing that we and the clients need to worry about when it comes to writing, recording, automating, and mixing great music.”

producers rarely have a single problem regarding the efficiency of their session. That feels just great.” Whether it’s rap, electronic, metal, pop, rock, film, or TV, the laundry list of powerhouse clients who’ve recorded “down there” at the Sunset Marquis makes for an interesting contrast with the laid-back, unpretentious California vibe of NightBird’s staff. With the studio’s diverse clientele, the new Zen décor, and the rush of creating some of the world’s most influential music, Leiber and his talented staff could easily have copped a self-important ’tude—but that would contradict what they’re all about, both as people and as music producers. “Our clients—the ICON users—are the most important ingredients of every session we do here,” Fleming says. “We have a professional business here, and we provide a very easy going environment. That’s actually another plus about the ICON’s speed, creativity, and practically maintenance-free operation. For NightBird, our ICON is one less thing that we and the clients need to worry about when it comes to writing, recording, automating, and mixing great music.”

www.nightbirdrecordingstudios.com

“The ICON makes the art of effects automation so much more intuitive and creative.”

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ACCELERATED STUDIO

Jed Leiber chillin’ at the ICON.

“Without the ICON, I wouldn’t be able to work as fast and efficiently as I do while maintaining quality.”

DIGIZINE 14

“Our ICON is one less thing that we and the clients need to worry about when it comes to writing, recording, automating, and mixing great music.”

www.nightbirdrecordingstudios.com

“The ICON makes the art of effects automation so much more intuitive and creative.”

DIGIZINE 15

“I love Eleven. It sounds great, it sounds real, and it’s easy to dial in good tones.”

“It’s a fantastic plug-in— it sounds like other amp modelers on steroids! I am so impressed!”

—Joey Santiago

—Tony Visconti

(guitarist; The Pixies)

The Word on

“Sure it’s got amazing amp simulation and mic placement, but please, people—don’t forget about the blistering shred lead tones! Don’t forget about cramming huge amounts of notes into a small amount of time with the high gain lead tones! But seriously, this plug-in is metal!”

Eleven—Digidesign’s hyperrealistic guitar amp simulator plug-in for Pro Tools—has professionals all over the world putting its real and raw tones to work in their recordings. Check out www.digidesign.com/eleven now to experience for yourself what the hype is all about!

(guitarist; Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, The Panic Channel)

“The sounds in Eleven are incredible; I’m using it on almost every recording.” —Kaki King

—David Bryson

(guitarist, singer-songwriter)

(guitarist; Counting Crows)

“I think Eleven is a fantastic plug-in. It just makes the guitar sound bigger, which I find is brilliant.” —Gil Norton (producer; Foo Fighters, The Pixies)

“Eleven is the first amp simulator I’ve used where you go in, tweak the settings, and there’s your ‘match’... The valve breakup and the speaker breakup deliver an authentic ’60s sound. If you blindfolded me, I’d tell you it was amped for sure.” —Dave Cooley (producer; Silversun Pickups, Darker My Love)

—Brendon Small

“I’ve tried pretty much every amp plug-in there is, but I’d never found anything that simulates a speaker cabinet like this before. It’s really got the bite and the attack that’s missing from most plug-ins, and it’s as responsive to my playing as a real tube amp.” —Dave Navarro

(guitarist; creator of Dethklok/Metalocalypse)

“We’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug-ins, but Eleven is the first plugin that can honestly replace the guitar amp. It really, truly sounds like the amps it claims to emulate.” —James Michael (producer, engineer; Motley Crue, Scorpions, Alanis Morissette)

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(producer; David Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey)

“Eleven has the best AC30 model I’ve ever heard—plus it’s easy to set up and it looks great.”

Tony Visconti photo credit: Kristeen Young

“Eleven is #@*ing awesome. I’m stoked because I was really skeptical at first—I’m a connoisseur of guitar amps, but it sounds #@*ing amazing. I was completely blown away by this plug-in.” —Chris Dugan (guitar tech and recording engineer; Green Day)

“Eleven is sick. Legitimately the best—it’s already my entire teams’ favorite guitar system. I can honestly say that in just 15 minutes of #@*ing around, I already am in LOVE. This is going to be HUGE on the next record!” —Evan Taubenfeld (guitarist; Avril Lavigne)

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“I love Eleven. It sounds great, it sounds real, and it’s easy to dial in good tones.”

“It’s a fantastic plug-in— it sounds like other amp modelers on steroids! I am so impressed!”

—Joey Santiago

—Tony Visconti

(guitarist; The Pixies)

The Word on

(guitarist; Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, The Panic Channel)

“The sounds in Eleven are incredible; I’m using it on almost every recording.” —Kaki King

—David Bryson

(guitarist, singer-songwriter)

(guitarist; Counting Crows)

“I think Eleven is a fantastic plug-in. It just makes the guitar sound bigger, which I find is brilliant.” —Gil Norton (producer; Foo Fighters, The Pixies)

—Brendon Small

(guitarist; creator of Dethklok/Metalocalypse)

DIGIZINE 18

(producer; David Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey)

“Eleven has the best AC30 model I’ve ever heard—plus it’s easy to set up and it looks great.”

Tony Visconti photo credit: Kristeen Young

DIGIZINE 19

Now a certified smash, the show is gearing up for its second season, and the FOTC brain trust—partners-in-grime Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie—have just released their first full-length album on the Sub Pop label. Through it all, with the expert backing of record producer Mickey Petralia and video editor James Thomas, the Conchords have relied on Digidesign and Avid equipment to keep the party airborne. “It’s been pretty crazy,” McKenzie says from Los Angeles, where he and Clement have been holed up working on themes and musical sketches for ten new half-hour episodes. “I think we were a real surprise to a lot of people. It’s such a different experience now from when we were first touring, when no one knew what our songs were about. We absolutely never intended to create a television show out of the band—all the songs and characters, and the style of the show, developed from us performing live over the years.” Although there’s always a shred of luck involved in any breakout comedy hit, it’s easy to see why Flight of the Conchords struck such a nerve with American audiences. The show is filmed in and around New York—primarily on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and in some of the more hipster-gritty enclaves across the river in Brooklyn—and the duo’s deadpan, hilariously artless take on a starving musician’s existence is so offbeat and left-field that it just works. Plus, their songs are exceedingly clever, mercilessly incisive, and downright funny. From the absurdist Serge Gainsbourg-like ramblings and cheesy bossa rhythms of “Foux du Fafa” to the side-splitting raps and drum-machine beats of “Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenocerous,” the Conchords can dish out multiple musical styles on cue to skewer their favorite pop icons, including David Bowie, Prince, Barry White, and Hall & Oates. When it comes to realizing the musical element of the show, FOTC turn to studio genius Mickey Petralia, who has worked on albums for the Butthole Surfers, John Cale, Luscious Jackson, and Beck, to name a few. Petralia manned the controls for the Conchords’ Grammy-winning 2007 EP The Distant Future, and reprises his role on the new album, which

features more refined versions of several songs that have made it to the TV screen in the music video segments written into each episode of the show. “Mickey has always been good at bringing life to our tracks,” Clement says. “When we first started to record stuff ourselves, we thought we’d put an album out, but it would always just seem lifeless, so we gave up and went on traveling around and playing live. But with Mickey, all that changed. He’s great at programming beats and helping us flesh things out—and he’s really funny, too, so when me and Bret are out of joint, he always cheers us up.”

“We absolutely never intended to create a television show out of the band—it all developed from us performing live over the years.”

Digging In with Demos

—Bret McKenzie,

Although some tracks on the FOTC disc (most notably, the Pet Shop Boys nod “Inner City Pressure” and the Prince-ly “Most Beautiful Girl in the Room”) were created from scratch in the studio, much of the material went through a demo phase first. Petralia’s home studio, which is outfitted with Pro Tools|HD and a Digi 002, served as the creative laboratory for Clement and McKenzie to get busy without any distractions.

“We used to do our demos on Mboxes,” McKenzie says. “On the road though, it was always a different story. I had this bag full of cables, an Mbox, and a microphone, but to be honest, I never really got anything done on tour. Theoretically, it should have worked, but it seems that whenever we’ve been touring, we’re too burnt out to get any proper demos done.”

Cruising Altitude By Bill Murphy

Is there any reason why a pair of scraggly, guitar-toting New Zealanders should be able to channel the nerdy quirks and quibbles of the downtown boho lifestyle in New York City? No doubt that’s the question HBO execs were asking themselves when the comedy series Flight of the Conchords made its quiet debut last year. DIGIZINE 20

DIGIZINE 21

“We absolutely never intended to create a television show out of the band—it all developed from us performing live over the years.”

Digging In with Demos

—Bret McKenzie,

Cruising Altitude By Bill Murphy

DIGIZINE 21

This time around, the Conchords found themselves with a solid stretch of time before shooting began in New York. The intention was to finish the album with Petralia in California—a tall order that turned out to be a little too tall. But the group was able to build up a solid stash of Pro Toolsready demos to work from. “A lot of them revolved around beat boxes or little percussion rhythms and loops that they had made,” Petralia recalls. “Then we’d just start piling on. For the most part, I do all my beats, programming, and chopping in Pro Tools. I was a DJ before I got into this, and I have a pretty vast vinyl collection, so once we get an idea of what we want tempowise, we’ll map something out with a beat box—just a click, a kick, and a snare—and then I’ll go into the library and start pulling up beats. I think we only used a straight loop on one song. Usually I would go in and fine-tune and chop the hell out of it—a kick here, a snare there, a hi-hat there—and build our own beat.” On the rare occasions when the original demo survived all the way to the mixing phase, it was primarily because Petralia couldn’t top the original in-the-box arrangement with his arsenal of exotic analog outboard gear. Case in point: “Business Time,” a faux-sexy funk grind backing Clement’s insanely funny Lou Rawls-meets-Barry-White rap. The song was originally released on The Distant Future, and is also folded into the new album. “We’ve already started on the second season,” Petralia says, “and I’m fully aware of the fact that we’re mixing as we’re going. That’s just the nature of working with Pro Tools—you’re constantly building the mix as you go—and the original rough mix we did on ‘Business Time’ really held up. I tried all kinds of tricks with compression and EQ to break it out on the console, and I still couldn’t get it to where I wanted it. So that blew me away.”

DIGIZINE 22

With two separate music-recording workflows going—one for the TV show (11 episodes in a tight five-month schedule) and one for the studio album—Petralia and FOTC were busy, to say the least. Once an episode’s camera rushes were digitized at the standard 14:1 Avid resolution and an edit was turned over using versions of the pre-mixed music, QuickTime and OMF files were exported to Petralia so he would have a locked picture to follow for the music’s final mixes. “Mickey would often show up on the dub stage with the finalized tracks,” says James Thomas, the show’s main editor. “We would cut to another version of the track before that, obviously, so the tempo and everything would be the same, but they’d be working on the mix and the instrumentation right up until the day before the episode’s final mix was done.” These time constraints meant a lot of frequent flyer miles for Petralia. “They would be filming five days a week,” he recalls. “I would fly out for the weekends, and we’d do music for the upcoming two weeks. We’d fine-tune everything—vocals, synths, guitar parts—at Pilot, and then we’d have it on the set on Monday for the show they were filming for that week.” On Flight of the Conchords, many of the duo’s songs provide the grist for music video departures from the storyline that usually occur twice in each episode. The format offers a wide-open vehicle for visual experimentation—particularly when the song itself is as suggestive as “Inner City Pressure,” which came together after principal photography was already underway.

Too Much Pressure

“We had an idea to do a song just about being poor,” Clement explains, “because our characters in the show are poor. Originally, it was going to have a Grandmaster Flash hip-hop feel, but then our director James Bobin [best known for his work with Sacha Baron Cohen on Da Ali G Show] wanted to do a Pet Shop Boys kind of video. We had a look at it and we liked the sound, and liked the subtle English rap as well.”

After the demo phase, FOTC continued work in Hot Pie Studios in Pasadena, where Petralia is a partner. The studio is tricked out with the latest Pro Tools HD software, a Digi 002, and a full load of Digidesign and third-party plug-ins. Once filming began, music production headquarters moved again, to New York’s Pilot Studios.

The video segment for the song appears in Episode 2, “Bret Gives Up the Dream.” It’s a gritty nighttime street treatment of image melts, sequenced by Bobin and Thomas, that makes use of such Sapphire visual effects as BlurMotionCurves and SwishPan. From a sonic stand-

point, the song evolved over time to incorporate nuances that weren’t in the TV version. “We started with the loop and then overdubbed synth pads, synth bass, and some percussion,” Petralia says. “But in the end we thought it was too derivative for the show. We wanted to make it a little groovier and organic, with an electric —Mickey Petralia, bass. There’s a vocoder Conchords music producer in there as well. And the guys are really particular about getting their vocals just right, so we tweaked those a few more times after the show was cut.”

“I use Altiverb and the Digi delays a lot for mixing. Sometimes I’ll put really quick delays on stuff just to give it some room ambience.”

The Whole Wide Room For all their success as a comedy duo, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Clement and McKenzie are compelling songwriters. Perhaps no other Flight of the Conchords song bears that out more than “Most Beautiful Girl in the Room,” a blisteringly tongue-in-cheek acoustic send-up of Prince that also conjures a bit of Midnite Vultures-era Beck. “That was funny in the studio,” McKenzie recalls, “because Jemaine and I are not particularly competent musicians. We can get it together with the singing, but Prince is probably one of the hardest people to emulate in the studio. So we would listen to our track, and then we’d A/B it against a Prince track to see what the difference was. That was probably one of the most disheartening experiences. We thought we had a bit of a groove going, but flip to Prince and he made ours just sound like this crude children’s rant!”

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DIGIZINE 22

Too Much Pressure

“I use Altiverb and the Digi delays a lot for mixing. Sometimes I’ll put really quick delays on stuff just to give it some room ambience.”

DIGIZINE 23

Petralia helped nudge the song closer with some instrumentation ideas and mixing tricks. “First we put a really warm-sounding Al Green kit over the original beat-box loop,” he says. “We wanted it to build, so we made our own tom loop—a Timmy Thomas ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ kind of thing—and then at the end we go to our kit. I’m really happy with the drums on that one. I do a lot of drum bus compression, so I used the Bomb Factory 1176 plug-in quite a bit.” The song presented further challenges when Petralia and FOTC split for Wellington, New Zealand, for the album’s final mixing phase. “The studio was pretty limited,” Petralia says, “but I use Altiverb and the Digi delays a lot for mixing anyway. Sometimes I’ll put really quick delays on stuff just to give it some room ambience. When we originally tracked ‘Beautiful Girl,’ I basically had an SM57 mic on both Jemaine and Bret, between their vocals and the guitar. The song starts with the guitar in the room, and you can hear the drums coming through the speakers and the air in the acoustics, and it sounded really loose. The musical elements changed a few times after that, but we really liked that sound, so to re-create it I used one of the Digi delays on Bret’s guitar.” With work already started on season two, Flight of the Conchords are looking forward to honing their collaborative edge with Petralia. “The tunes were getting better and better the longer we were in the studio,” says McKenzie, “so I feel like now we’re in a good position to hit a new bunch of tunes. We’ll probably have even more fun in the studio creating ideas. ‘Inner City Pressure’ was a song like that—I feel like it opened us up in a way that the older songs didn’t. We would never have done that song in a comedy club, because it relied so much on the studio. So I think this next round will be interesting.”

Cutting the Conchords

James Thomas got his start editing music videos in London before moving into comedy with The 11 O’Clock Show, which featured a then-unknown Ali G, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Years later, Thomas made the leap to film as an editor on Cohen’s hit comedy Borat while pursuing a parallel collaborative path with director James Bobin. “The Conchords format is a hybrid of two things that I really love doing: music video editing and comedy,” Thomas says. “That’s why I was so interested in doing the gig. Bret and Jemaine’s style of comedy is quite laconic, and their pace dictates the pace of the show we put together.” Working at the Avid Unity-based facility at Dakota Pictures in North Hollywood, Thomas and co-editor Scott Davids went slightly old-school on Flight of the Conchords: “We were editing on Media Composers,” he says.“ Scott and I had our own workstations, along with two assistants. All the material was shot at 24P [24 frames per second], but not in high definition. That was dictated by the budget, but as it turns out it’s actually a very good choice for the show. Conchords is not sparkly, spanking, or shiny—everything’s a bit rough around the edges. It’s portraying a gritty New York existence, so that played into the whole feel.” As for visual effects, Thomas often finds himself going back to Glow—which, as he describes it, “basically softens the look to make the picture seem like ’70s porn.” He laughs. “It’s useful because a lot of the Conchords songs have a very retro feel to them. They’re stripped-down and very acoustic, not overly orchestrated, and they’re directly parodying certain styles. So we were conscious of that, and tried to reflect it with the effects we used.”

DIGIZINE 25

Cutting the Conchords

DIGIZINE 25

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• • • • • • • •

Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 software and audio tools 18 simultaneous inputs/outputs Up to 96 kHz sample rate support Multiple mic, instrument, and line analog inputs Integrated ADAT, S/PDIF digital I/O, and MIDI I/O Fast FireWire connection 2U rackmountable design

003 RACK FACTORY: $1,695 (U.S.) For only $400 more, 003 Rack Factory includes the 003 Rack along with over $3,000 in additional professional Bomb Factory and Digidesign plug-ins, plus an iLok USB Smart Key to manage plug-in authorizations.

MBOX 2 MINI: $329 (U.S.) Mbox 2 Mini is the smallest, most affordable Pro Tools LE recording system ever. But don’t let its size fool you; this little box packs the power of a professional Pro Tools LE studio into the palm of your hand. • • • • • • • •

003 FACTORY: $2,495 (U.S.) The 003 Factory system combines a FireWire audio/MIDI interface with an integrated control surface, providing an ideal, finger-friendly music production environment. Record, edit, process, mix, and master your projects with hands-on ease and efficiency while taking advantage of the included 003 Factory plug-in bundle. 003 also features a standalone MIDI mode, allowing it to be used to control your favorite MIDI-compatible instruments and applications.

Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 software and audio tools Compact, rugged design Highly portable: powered by USB Professional sonic performance Zero-latency monitoring 2 simultaneous inputs; 2 simultaneous outputs 1 mic, 2 instrument/line analog inputs

• • • • • •

MBOX 2: $495 (U.S.) Mbox 2 is a next-generation USB-powered audio/MIDI production system that builds on the performance and simplicity of the original Mbox— Digidesign’s most popular personal studio ever. • • • • • • • •

DIGIZINE 26

Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 software and audio tools Highly portable: powered by USB Professional sonic performance Zero-latency monitoring 4 simultaneous inputs; 2 simultaneous outputs Mic, instrument, and line analog inputs Integrated S/PDIF digital I/O and MIDI I/O

Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 Pro software and audio tools Integrated control surface 18 simultaneous inputs/outputs Up to 96 kHz sample rate support Multiple mic, instrument, and line analog inputs

• Integrated ADAT, S/PDIF digital I/O, and MIDI I/O • Includes over $3,000 in additional plug-ins (003 Factory bundle)

M-AUDIO HARDWARE PERIPHERALS

MBOX 2 FACTORY: $595 (U.S.)

M-Audio offers a variety of hardware peripherals that are compatible with Pro Tools M-Powered software, allowing you to choose the interface that best suits your needs. For detailed information on M-Audio peripherals that work with Pro Tools M-Powered software, visit www.m-audio.com.

For only $100 more, Mbox 2 Factory includes the Mbox 2 along with over $1,000 in additional professional Bomb Factory and Digidesign plug-ins, plus an iLok USB Smart Key to manage plug-in authorizations.

* Mbox 2 Pro does not support external sync at 88.2 and 96 kHz sample rates. ** Requires 6-pin connection for power via FireWire.

DIGIZINE 27

GEAR AT A GLANCE MBOX 2 PRO: $799 (U.S.)

PRO TOOLS PERSONAL STUDIO SYSTEMS

003 RACK: $1,295

(U.S.)

• • • • • • • •

• • • • • •

DIGIZINE 26

• Integrated ADAT, S/PDIF digital I/O, and MIDI I/O • Includes over $3,000 in additional plug-ins (003 Factory bundle)

M-AUDIO HARDWARE PERIPHERALS

MBOX 2 FACTORY: $595 (U.S.)

* Mbox 2 Pro does not support external sync at 88.2 and 96 kHz sample rates. ** Requires 6-pin connection for power via FireWire.

DIGIZINE 27

GEAR AT A GLANCE

GEAR AT A GLANCE PRO TOOLS EXPANSION OPTIONS There are a number of different ways to expand the power of your Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools M-Powered system. In addition to the wide variety of Digidesign Development Partner hardware and software products available for Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered systems, Digidesign also offers the Command|8 control surface and the Music Production Toolkit and DV Toolkit 2 options.

COMMAND|8: $1,295 (U.S.) Command|8 puts integrated, tactile manipulation of Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered systems at your fingertips. This space-efficient, full-featured control surface option is suited equally well for space-challenged, multi-room music and post facilities as well as home and project studios. • • • • •

Designed specifically for Pro Tools 8 touch-sensitive faders, 8 rotary encoders Focusrite onboard monitoring section Big, bright backlit LCD display Simple USB connection

MUSIC PRODUCTION TOOLKIT: $495 (U.S.) The Digidesign Music Production Toolkit includes a full range of professional music tools that expand the creative power of your Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools M-Powered system.

PRO TOOLS SOFTWARE PRO TOOLS LE SOFTWARE Mbox 2 MIcro, Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Pro, 003 Factory, and 003 Rack all include Pro Tools LE software: the most powerful, creative, and easiest platform to produce professional-sounding music. Tap the creative power of Pro Tools LE software to compose and record your ideas, then edit and mix your music using the very same tools that top studios rely on to deliver award-winning albums and film sound. Whether you’re new to Pro Tools or a seasoned studio pro, Pro Tools LE software delivers the creative power you need to easily craft the sound you’re after.

• 45+ professional effects and instrument plug-ins included • ReWire support • Works on Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac OS X computers

PRO TOOLS M-POWERED SOFTWARE: $299 (U.S.) Pro Tools M-Powered is a version of Pro Tools software designed to work with a wide variety of M-Audio hardware peripherals. With a nearly identical feature set as Pro Tools LE software, Pro Tools M-Powered software provides owners of select M-Audio hardware peripherals access to many of the same award-winning creative tools that top studio experts use every day to produce professional music.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

PRO TOOLS LE AND PRO TOOLS M-POWERED SOFTWARE • • • •

DIGIZINE 28

Award-winning recording, editing, and mixing features 32 simultaneous mono or 16 stereo audio tracks (128 virtual audio tracks); expandable to 48 stereo tracks with Toolkit options Fully integrated, sample-accurate MIDI sequencing Beat Detective LE groove analysis and correction tool

PRO TOOLS IGNITION PACK 2 All Pro Tools LE (except Mbox 2 Micro) and Pro Tools|HD systems include Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2, featuring an impressive collection of composition and production tools to get you started with creating right away. Propellerhead Software Reason Adapted (ReWire) Ableton Live Lite Digidesign Edition (ReWire) FXpansion BFD Lite (RTAS) Digidesign Xpand! by A.I.R. (RTAS) IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE (RTAS) iZotope Effects (RTAS) Celemony Melodyne uno essential (ReWire) Way Out Ware TimeWARP 2600 Lite (RTAS) Arturia Analog Factory SE (RTAS) Pro Tools Method One instructional DVD One-year membership to Broadjam.com M-Audio ProSessions SE sound library One-year subscription to Sonicbids.com Free GarageBand.com contest entry Free Digidesign plug-in with Pro Tools education

• • • •

More than $2,000 in professional plug-ins: - Digidesign Hybrid high-definition synthesizer - TL Space Native Edition convolution reverb - Smack! LE compressor - SoundReplacer drum replacement tool - DINR LE noise reduction plug-in Multitrack Beat Detective rhythm analysis and correction tool Up to 48 mono or stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz*** Pro Tools MP3 Option

DV TOOLKIT 2: $1,295 (U.S.) The Digidesign DV Toolkit 2 option for Pro Tools LE systems provides a comprehensive collection of tools ideal for producing high-end sound for film or video. • • • • • • • •

More than $1,250 in professional plug-ins: - TL Space Native Edition convolution reverb - Synchro Arts VocALign Project time-alignment tool - DINR LE noise reduction plug-in DigiBase Pro full-featured file management tool DigiTranslator 2.0 for import/export of OMF, AAF, and MXF files Supports multiple QuickTime video clips, tracks, and playlists Time Code and Feet + Frames functions Powerful editing and session management features Up to 48 mono or stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz*** Pro Tools MP3 Option

*** Requires 96 kHz–capable hardware interface.

DIGIZINE 29

GEAR AT A GLANCE

Designed specifically for Pro Tools 8 touch-sensitive faders, 8 rotary encoders Focusrite onboard monitoring section Big, bright backlit LCD display Simple USB connection

• 45+ professional effects and instrument plug-ins included • ReWire support • Works on Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac OS X computers

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

PRO TOOLS LE AND PRO TOOLS M-POWERED SOFTWARE • • • •

DIGIZINE 28

• • • •

*** Requires 96 kHz–capable hardware interface.

DIGIZINE 29

PRO TOOLS LE SYSTEMS Mbox 2 Micro

Mbox 2 Mini

Mbox 2

Mbox 2 Pro

003 Rack

003 Factory

Total simultaneous channels of I/O

0/1 (stereo output)

2/2

4/2*

6/8*

18/18*

# of analog inputs/outputs

0/1 (stereo output)

2/2

4/6

8/8

# of mic preamps

N/A

# of instrument DIs

N/A

Phono preamp

Yes

48V phantom power

Yes

Maximum resolution

24-bit/48 kHz

24-bit/96 kHz†

Alternate source inputs

Digital I/O

No No S/PDIF (2 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels)

MIDI I/O ports

1-in/1-out

Word Clock I/O

Yes

1 (1/8”)

1 (1/4”)

2 (1/4”)

Yes

USB 1.1

FireWire

# of stereo headphone outputs Foot switch input Connection Power source

USB 1.1 USB 1.1 USB 1.1 FireWire (requires 6-pin cable) or included power supply

Integrated control surface

Standalone MIDI mixer mode Rackmountable Software included

Additional included tools

24-bit/96 kHz

Yes

ADAT (8 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels)

1-in/2-out

Yes

2 (1/4”)

Yes

2 (1/4”)

Yes

FireWire

Internal power supply

No; supports Command|8 & Control|24

Yes; supports Command|8 & Control|24

No; supports Command|8 & Control|24

Yes

• Pro Tools LE • A.I.R. Xpand! • 7 Bomb Factory plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins

• Pro Tools LE • A.I.R. Xpand! • Reason Adapted • Live Lite Digidesign Edition • BFD Lite • Analog Factory SE • AmpliTube LE • TimewARP 2600 Lite • Ozone 3 Lite • Trash Lite • Spectron Lite • Melodyne uno essential • 7 Bomb Factory plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins

• Pro Tools Method One Instructional DVD • M-Audio ProSessions sound libraries • Broadjam.com memebership • Sonicbids.com membership • GarageBand.com contest entry • Free plug-in with Pro Tools training

• All listed on the left plus 003 Factory bundle • Synchronic • TL EveryPhase • TL Utilities • iLok USB Smart Key • Additional sound libraries

For information on Pro Tools M-Powered software and compatible M-Audio hardware peripherals, visit www.m-audio.com. † Mbox 2 Pro does not support external sync at 88.2 and 96 kHz sample rates. * Total simultaneous I/O channels requires use of both analog and digital I/O.

DIGIZINE 31

PRO TOOLS LE SYSTEMS Mbox 2 Micro

Mbox 2 Mini

Mbox 2

Mbox 2 Pro

003 Rack

003 Factory

Total simultaneous channels of I/O

0/1 (stereo output)

2/2

4/2*

6/8*

18/18*

# of analog inputs/outputs

0/1 (stereo output)

2/2

4/6

8/8

# of mic preamps

N/A

# of instrument DIs

N/A

Phono preamp

Yes

48V phantom power

Yes

Maximum resolution

24-bit/48 kHz

24-bit/96 kHz†

Alternate source inputs

Digital I/O

No No S/PDIF (2 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels)

MIDI I/O ports

1-in/1-out

Word Clock I/O

Yes

1 (1/8”)

1 (1/4”)

2 (1/4”)

Yes

USB 1.1

FireWire

# of stereo headphone outputs Foot switch input Connection Power source

USB 1.1 USB 1.1 USB 1.1 FireWire (requires 6-pin cable) or included power supply

Integrated control surface

Standalone MIDI mixer mode Rackmountable Software included

Additional included tools

24-bit/96 kHz

Yes

ADAT (8 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels)

1-in/2-out

Yes

2 (1/4”)

Yes

2 (1/4”)

Yes

FireWire

Internal power supply

No; supports Command|8 & Control|24

Yes; supports Command|8 & Control|24

No; supports Command|8 & Control|24

Yes

• Pro Tools LE • A.I.R. Xpand! • 7 Bomb Factory plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins

• All listed on the left plus 003 Factory bundle • Synchronic • TL EveryPhase • TL Utilities • iLok USB Smart Key • Additional sound libraries

DIGIZINE 31

By Jon Margulies

SPECIAL FEATURE

From Pro Tools to Live Enhance your live shows with Pro Tools tracks exported to Ableton Live

Thanks to ReWire, Ableton Live Lite—which is included with nearly every Pro Tools system—can be used creatively and seamlessly in the studio with Pro Tools. But Live is also an excellent tool to help augment your live performances using tracks you’ve created in the studio with Pro Tools. The purpose of this article is to help teach you some of the tricks you need to know to do just this—quickly and easily. To get started, let’s look at a performance situation where drums and sound effects are played from the computer and the other parts are played live. We’ll also assume that the drums were recorded to a click or programmed. If this scenario doesn’t exactly match your needs, don’t worry—these techniques can be applied to a wide range of circumstances.

Ready, Set, Export Before you’re ready to perform, you need to set up the tracks. First, open your Pro Tools session and isolate and bounce down the individual parts for use in the Live set. Let’s assume there are several drum tracks, and also a percussion track or two. This presents us with our first decision: Do we want to combine the drums and percussion, or put them in separate tracks? The answer depends partly on the nature of your performance. If you intend to perform the song just like the recording, you may want to keep the drums and percussion in a single track so you can focus on other

Live is an excellent tool to help augment your live performances using tracks you’ve created in the studio with Pro Tools. DIGIZINE 32

matters onstage. But if you’re performing music with a more flexible arrangement, it may help to have more options during performance. In that case, you might want to keep the drums and percussion tracks separate so you can mix in the percussion only when your live arrangement needs that extra element. Your next decision is whether or not to export the drums as separate files for different sections of the song—one file for the verse, one for the chorus, and so on—or simply export all the drums as a single file, and create the individual sections within Live. Generally speaking, the best approach is to bounce down the whole song to a single file, as this leaves you the most flexibility. Once the audio is in Live, it’s easy to use the file as the basis for multiple “clips” that represent different sections of the song. When you bounce down the drum files, select either Stereo Interleaved or Mono (summed). It’s good to go with mono files whenever possible— they require less disk activity to play back, and many live sound systems are mono anyway. If your session is at 88.2 or 96 kHz, reduce the sample rate to 44.1 kHz. Lower sample rates are less taxing on your CPU, so you’ll have more power to get creative with effects. Once you’ve exported the drums and percussion tracks, it’s time to export the sound effects track. But first, you may need to make some more decisions. For example, if the recorded track is going through an automated filter plug-in and a delay, you might want to remove this processing before bouncing, since tweaking the effects live is a great way to interact with your audio during a performance. Obviously, this decision depends on your music—but it’s good to be on the lookout for anything that helps make your computer tracks more dynamic.

Setting Up Live Once all the parts are bounced down, open Ableton Live. Go to the Defaults tab under the Preferences menu and make sure that “Auto Warp Long Files” is set to Off. We already know the tempo that these files were recorded at, so we don’t need this function. To begin assembling the new Live set, go to the File Browser and navigate to the folder that contains the newly bounced files. Drag the drum track into the Live set (see figure 1) and double-click on the clip to reveal the Clip View at the bottom of the screen. In Clip View, turn the Warp switch on and type your song’s tempo into the “Seg BPM” box. The Warp Mode should be Beats (the default). At the far left of the waveform display there’s a highlighted numeral “1.” If you bounced the drums so Figure 1 the file begins at the beginning of a bar, all you need to do is make sure this “1” is pulled all the way left to the very beginning of the file. If the file has extra space at the beginning, drag the “1” so it lines up with the downbeat of a bar.

Building the Drum Track Let’s assume your song has a basic verse-chorus structure. If that’s the case, the next step is to set this clip up to play the verse groove. Drag the start marker (the right-pointing flag) to the very beginning of the verse. Figure 2 shows you what the clip looks like so far. This is a good time to turn on Live’s metronome and launch the clip. It should start at the verse and play in time with the metronome. If it

Figure 2

doesn’t sound right, make sure you’ve placed the start marker in the right place. Next to the Warp switch there’s a numerical display for the position of the start marker, which makes it easy to see if you’ve missed by a sixteenth-note. If you want the verse section to loop, turn on the Loop switch. You can visually set loop points by dragging the loop brace to enclose the verse section, as seen in figure 3. To create a clip for the chorus drums, duplicate the verse clip by Control-dragging (Win) or Option-dragging (Mac) the verse clip into the slot directly below it. Now set the start and loop points for the chorus. Once this is done, you can right-click each clip and rename it. Now you’re all set to move easily back and forth between verse and Figure 3 chorus. Since both

DIGIZINE 33

By Jon Margulies

SPECIAL FEATURE

From Pro Tools to Live Enhance your live shows with Pro Tools tracks exported to Ableton Live

Live is an excellent tool to help augment your live performances using tracks you’ve created in the studio with Pro Tools. DIGIZINE 32

Figure 2

DIGIZINE 33

SPECIAL FEATURE

clips are in the same track, launching the chorus stops the verse, and vice-versa. At this point you may want to double-check your launch quantization settings. Launch quantization is very important for your underlying rhythm parts; it ensures that playback always starts at the beginning of a bar. Make sure that Live’s global quantization menu is set to “1 Bar” and the launch quantization for both drum Figure 4 clips is set to Global (see figure 4).

Advanced Live Performance Setups Sometimes you need to create a performance setup in Live that has more parts and less interactivity. As shown in figure 6, you can lay out a song from top to bottom and use Live’s scene launchers (in the Master track at the far right) to trigger all the clips as a group as you move from section to section in a song.

Building the Sound Effects Track Now that the drums are set, let’s build the sound effects track in Live. Drag the exported sound effects file into a new Live track, listen to the file, and find a section of audio you want to work with. Line up the start marker with the exact beginning of the sound, and set the end marker to the end of the sound. For this clip, you’ll also want to change the Warp mode to Tones or Texture—try them both out and see which sounds better. Once you’re done with this process, you can create additional copies of the clip that play back from different parts of the file. This is a great opportunity to have some fun with Live’s different Launch modes. Change the launch mode of the clip to Gate. Now the clip only plays back as long as you hold down the mouse button, so it behaves more like a classic sampler; this can be used to create variation during a performance. You might also get some great results using Repeat mode in Live. With repeat mode, you’ll want to change the launch quantization as seen in figure 5. Now whenever you click the clip to launch it, the first sixteenth-note segment repeats until you release the mouse button. To get the most out of this technique in live performance, map the clip to a key on your MIDI or computer keyboard.

Figure 5

To finish the sound effects track, add Live’s Auto Filter and Filter Delay effects by dragging them out of the browser and onto the track. Map the filter frequency and delay parameters of your choice to a MIDI controller, and experiment with different settings. As you can see, in only a few steps we’ve created a very interactive environment that can make your shows more interesting.

Figure 6

Another performance consideration: You may need a click track that goes somewhere other than the main sound system—for example, to the drummer’s headphones only. If you have an audio interface with multiple outputs, it’s easy to set this up in Live. In the Master track there are assignments for Cue out and Master out. The metronome is always sent through the Cue outs, so it’s simply a matter of setting the Cue to an output other than the Master (see figure 7). Now you can send the click to whoever needs it.

Figure 7

If you’re new to the idea of performing with a computer on stage, it should be clear by now that with Live, the options are only limited by your imagination. Just as with any other instrument, performing with Live requires practice, so don’t be discouraged if it seems complex at first—once you’ve mastered a few simple moves, you’ll be amazed by the new musical possibilities you can discover by adding Live to your performances. Take your time, have fun, and happy gigging!

Jon Margulies is a New York-based producer, guitarist, and DJ. He has performed professionally since he was 11 years old, and has worked with some of the best musicians around in a dizzying array of styles. You can catch up with Jon and his many projects at heatercore.net.

DIGIZINE 35

SPECIAL FEATURE

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

DIGIZINE 35

By Joe Gore

PLUG-IN CENTERFOLD

Audio Ease Speakerphone

Digidesign Eleven phrase Esto Perpetua, the state motto of Idaho. Okay, I made up the Idaho wire-stripper part, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find one in there. Speakerphone is a wildly imaginative sound design tool; one that rewards adventurous users with an endless supply of cool and unusual sounds.

Speakerphone uses impulse responses (IRs) to mimic the sounds of almost 300 speakers—including cell phones, guitar amps, vintage radios, car stereos, PCs, electronic toys, and many other devices. You can mix wet/dry levels, customize distortion, and fine-tune EQ, compression, and stereo imaging. There are built-in effects such as Audio Ease’s Speakerphone provides an astonishing array delay, modulation, gramoof IR-based speaker simulation effects. phone, and radio emulation. There’s even a small but It’s a speaker emulator. It’s a distortion designer. powerful IR reverb section (sort of an “Altiverb It’s a sound effects library. And a convolution Lite”), so you can slather convolution reverb over reverb. And an equalizer. And a compressor. And a your convolution speakers. It gets deep. left-handed wire-stripper engraved with the Latin

And who is the target audience for all this inspired tweakability? The likeliest applications lie in film and TV post-production, where evoking sound coming from phones, radios, and the like is a frequent task. With Speakerphone, you can imitate these devices, situate them in a realistic space (a PA in a huge train station, say, or a radio in an airplane cockpit), and then fine-tune your tones in the mix. In addition, Speakerphone includes 5 GB of ambiences and special effects such as applause, street atmosphere, telephone rings, and other relevant sounds. You can “play” the effects within Speakerphone’s sample bay via a MIDI controller, or just drag samples into your Pro Tools sessions. You can also drag and drop new sounds into the Speakerphone library. The plug-in also has countless purely musical applications, from distorting vocals to imparting character to sampled and synthesized sounds. It’s particularly wicked on guitars. While Speakerphone boasts IRs from many guitar amps—both classic and kooky—the static quality of the IR speaker emulations means you probably won’t be substituting Speakerphone for a straightup guitar amp emulator such as Eleven or Amp Farm. But man, the offbeat colors you can pry from this thing! I got particularly inspiring results blending Speakerphone with conventional amp simulations. Speakerphone runs as an RTAS plug-in on all Pro Tools systems, and lists for $495.

www.audioease.com

IK Multimedia Advanced Room Correction calibrated, omnidirectional condenser microphone that ARC uses to evaluate your listening space and calculate corrective EQ curves. Here’s the basic procedure: Connect the mic to your usual I/O and open ARC in standalone mode. As the plugin generates a series of audio pulses, you move the mic around, capturing profiles of the dozen or more spots your ears might occupy while ARC analyzes your studio’s acoustic properties and calculates a corrective mixing. The process EQ curve. only takes about ten minutes, thanks to the ARC interface’s If you sometimes work in less-than-perfect rooms superb step-by-step instructions. (you know—like a normal musician), you might want to take a listen to IK Multimedia’s new ARC Next, save your measurements as an ARC preset. Advanced Room Correction plug-in. You can even save multiple sets. You might, for example, have one for the mix chair and another Or rather, ARC might want to listen to you. The for a “client couch” 10 feet behind it. product includes not just software, but a specially

DIGIZINE 36

Eleven simulates a dozen vintage and modern amps, including the usual quartet of must-have brands (Fender, Vox, Marshall, and Mesa), plus a Soldano SLO and two Digi custom models. On the Fender front, there are two tasty tweeds (a fiery ’59 Deluxe and a sparkly ’59 Bassman) and a pair of high-contrast blackfaces (a suave ’64 Deluxe and a squeaky-clean ’67 Twin). The Vox is a top-boost AC30, complete with that singular biasbased tremolo. The Marshall replicas are a chunky ’69 Plexi stack and a chunkier ’82 JCM800. The two Mesa clones are an ’85 Mark IIc+ (think mid-period Eleven includes realistic emulations of classic amps, cabs, and Santana) and a ’92 Dual Recti mics, plus some unique features ideal for the tonally adventurous. fier (total ’90s dude-rock). And the ’89 Soldano SLO includes a simulation of the “Warren Haynes mod,” which Some amp modelers are complex affairs, offering means you can summon both fizzy hair-metal amp, speaker, and mic modeling, as well as and subtle, boutique-blues tones. stompbox-style effects, post-amp outboard effects, elaborate routing options, and more. Eleven mimics the functionality of the multi-channel Eleven, Digidesign’s first-ever amp simulator, takes Mesas and the Soldano by offering each channel a more streamlined approach, instead devoting its as a separate model. Digi also includes two new focus on delivering super-realistic emulations of a custom amp flavors: Custom Mod has a Mesa stack drool-worthy collection of vintage amps, cabinets, vibe, minus some of the signature low-mid resoand mics. nance, while Custom Vintage has the down-toearth attitude of a ’60s American combo amp.

Need some convolution speaker cabinets to go with that amp? Eleven includes the cabinets most often associated with its amp emulations, along with the ability to freely mix cabs and amps, or disable one or the other. (Try slapping some speaker simulation on that listless synth line.) Eleven also has a unique “Speaker Breakup” control, which allows you to set levels of speaker distortion independently from the amp distortion. To round out the realistic amp recording experience, Eleven offers a handful of convolution mic emulations as well, including dynamic, condenser, and ribbon models; each one can be positioned directly on the simulated speaker cone, or off-axis. Eleven’s set-up couldn’t be simpler: Whack a few loud chords and set the input level, choose a preset, and you’re off. Or for the tonally adventurous, create your own custom concoction by pairing a favorite amp head with one or more speaker cabs, choosing the mic model(s), and fiddling with Eleven’s photorealistic amp controls to suit your level of rebellion. Between Digi’s home-brewed models and the ability to mix and match amps, cabinets, and mics, Eleven will have you coughing up classic tones in seconds, or creating interesting new blends. Eleven runs on all current Pro Tools systems, and comes in two flavors: TDM (TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite) lists for $595, while Eleven LE (RTAS, AudioSuite) sells for $395.

www.digidesign.com

TC Electronic Tube-Tech CL 1B

When you boot up Pro Tools, just insert ARC on your stereo master out and call up your measurements, and ARC applies its customized corrections to your mix. The interface depicts three EQ profiles: your original sound, an ideal flat response, and sound with ARC correction. You can compare Flat and HF Roll-Off EQ curves (with or without midrange compensation to resolve directional differences within crossover systems), choosing the appropriate setting for your studio and musical style. There’s also a trim control that adjusts the corrected level only, so you can compare ARC correction and ARC bypass at equal volumes (correction tends to lower overall levels).

attack and 50-millisecond release. There’s also a unique Fix/Man (Fixed/Manual) ideal for processing subgroups and full mixes. With Fix/Man selected, attack time is locked at 1 millisecond, but release times are adaptive—they’re short after short peaks and long after longer ones. You can fine-tune the prerelease hold time via the Attack knob.

I tried ARC in my home studio, a room whose acoustic treatment doesn’t fully compensate for parallel walls and none-too-high ceiling. ARC revealed a hefty low-mid peak and a 2 kHz dip— your typical, wooly, home-studio sound. With ARC engaged, the sound was flatter, more compact, and very different—different enough to know that there’s some much more careful listening and adjustment in my near future.

But unless you have a humongous Pro Tools system, CL 1B is a compressor you’ll want to reserve for star tracks. On Pro Tools|HD Accel systems running at 44.1 or 48 kHz, you get only two instances of CL 1B per chip. At 88.2 and 96 kHz, you get only a single instance. Also, you can’t control the CL 1B via key input from other sources. Its Sidechain Link controls allow you to slave the left channel to the right, and vice-versa, in stereo instances, but you can’t control the CL 1B via key input from other tracks.

ARC lists for $699.99. It runs as an RTAS plug-in on all current Pro Tools systems.

www.ikmultimedia.com

The sound quality is stellar. You may find you can get musical results from more extreme settings than you’d usually use on a software compressor. And the CL 1B is smooooth (there may even be five or six o’s involved).

Tube-Tech has released its first plug-in: a faithful replica of the acclaimed CL 1B compressor. Denmark’s Tube-Tech has created some of the most revered boutique audio gear available in recent years. Everything they build is tube-based— in fact, one of the company’s axioms is, “We shall only allow tubes to be used in the audio path.” But now Tube-Tech has collaborated with TC Electronic to create a plug-in version of the CL 1B, Tube-Tech’s flagship compressor. It runs as a TDM plug-in on all current Pro Tools|HD systems.

The plug-in’s UI is a photorealistic replica of the hardware original. In other words, the controls are simple, even minimal. You’ll find the expected gain, ratio, and threshold controls, with a maximum ratio of 10:1. Attack is variable between 0.5 and 300 milliseconds, and release is between .05 and 10 seconds.

TC Electronic’s Tube-Tech CL 1B lists for $995.

www.tcelectonic.com

You can dial in specific attack and release settings, or choose fixed settings of 1-millisecond

DIGIZINE 37

By Joe Gore

PLUG-IN CENTERFOLD

Audio Ease Speakerphone

www.audioease.com

DIGIZINE 36

www.digidesign.com

TC Electronic Tube-Tech CL 1B

ARC lists for $699.99. It runs as an RTAS plug-in on all current Pro Tools systems.

www.ikmultimedia.com

TC Electronic’s Tube-Tech CL 1B lists for $995.

www.tcelectonic.com

You can dial in specific attack and release settings, or choose fixed settings of 1-millisecond

DIGIZINE 37

By Dustin Driver

THE GRADUATE

Lydia Alicia Cristobal

You can’t ignore music when it’s in your blood. This revelation struck Lydia Alicia Cristobal in the midst of her nursing career and sent her spinning into a Pro Tools training course at ProMedia Training in New York City. “Music is the fruit of my soul,” she says. “Not having it in my life was just killing me. I knew that one way or another, I needed to get back to creating music. Pro Tools training turned out to be the best way for me.” When Cristobal says music flows through her veins, she means it. The 35-year-old drummer grew up in a musical family in the Philippines. Her older brother had his own band, and Cristobal always hung around during jam sessions. “I loved singing as a kid,” she says. “Having all those instruments around really inspired me. One day I grabbed the drum sticks and never looked back.” The Cristobal family immigrated to New Jersey when the young drummer was 18. She honed her drumming skills and later became a member of the band Kontrapelo. The

group produced an album and toured the Philippines before breaking up in the early 2000s. Then she formed the band GemZen. “I was the drummer, vocalist, and a major songwriter

without music,” she says. “So I decided to do something about it. I renovated my house, which included converting my band rehearsal studio into a recording studio. Then I went

“What I learned on my own was very minimal compared to all the quick editing and proper sequencing techniques I learned in class.” in GemZen,” she says. “It was a lot of work, and eventually the band just fell apart. So I decided to drop my music career and focus solely on nursing.”

down to the music store and just went crazy. I got a Pro Tools LE rig and everything I would need to write and record music. Then I had to learn how to use it!”

Cristobal didn’t get back to music until 2005. “I realized that my soul was slowly dying

The drummer/singer/songwriter opted for the Music Production

DIGIZINE 39

By Dustin Driver

THE GRADUATE

Lydia Alicia Cristobal

group produced an album and toured the Philippines before breaking up in the early 2000s. Then she formed the band GemZen. “I was the drummer, vocalist, and a major songwriter

without music,” she says. “So I decided to do something about it. I renovated my house, which included converting my band rehearsal studio into a recording studio. Then I went

down to the music store and just went crazy. I got a Pro Tools LE rig and everything I would need to write and record music. Then I had to learn how to use it!”

Cristobal didn’t get back to music until 2005. “I realized that my soul was slowly dying

The drummer/singer/songwriter opted for the Music Production

DIGIZINE 39

THE GRADUATE

& Certification program at ProMedia New York. The intense, 112-hour program immerses students in Pro Tools, covering all the basics of music production and recording. “It was the best kind of information overload: nine days straight, eight hours a day, all Pro Tools,” she says.

With her newfound knowledge, Cristobal decided to launch her own recording company —Gem Music Records. She transformed her basement studio into a full-fledged recording studio and office, and began hunting for talent. “I was extremely happy with all the knowledge and skills I gained from ProMedia,

“I always thought I would need millions of dollars worth of gear and several engineers. But with Pro Tools and my ProMedia training, I can do it with minimal staff and resources.” The accelerated program gave Cristobal the knowledge she needed to create an album from start to finish using Pro Tools. “It makes a big difference learning Pro Tools in a class. What I learned on my own was very minimal compared to all the quick editing and proper sequencing techniques I learned in class. It was also great to see my instructor, Terron Darby, patch up sounds from different angles to create a different or better sound. I never would have done that on my own.” Cristobal also learned how to troubleshoot the problems and incompatibilities that can arise during a recording session. “It gave me a whole different perspective on how digital recording is used in the music industry. I learned how truly flexible the Pro Tools system is.” The experience at ProMedia set a new tone for Cristobal’s life. “At first, I just wanted to know everything about Pro Tools so I could make my own music. But being in the class changed my perspective on what recording truly is: It’s an art form. That inspired me to not only make my own music again, but to help other artists record.”

and several engineers. But with my Pro Tools system and my ProMedia training, I can do it with minimal staff and resources. I can help other musicians create their music—there are just so many possibilities now!”

Gem Music Records www.gemmusicrecords.com ProMedia Training www.protoolstraining.com

but creating music for my own personal achievement wasn’t enough. I wanted to share what I learned with others and help them make their dreams a reality.” Cristobal is currently a student at New York University, where she’s studying to advance her nursing career. She’s also enrolled in online courses at the University of Phoenix for healthcare administration. Still, she’s looking to lay down tracks with other artists, and she can see a day when Gem Music Records becomes a full-time gig. “Music is part of me, and I definitely won’t give it up again,” she says. “I’ll continue to work in nursing and healthcare, but not at the expense of my music.” The songwriter sees her studio endeavors as a way to promote good music and keep musicians’ dreams alive. “I’ve always wanted to have my own studio, but I just didn’t think I could do it. I always thought I would need millions of dollars worth of gear, a huge staff,

DIGIZINE 41

THE GRADUATE

Gem Music Records www.gemmusicrecords.com ProMedia Training www.protoolstraining.com

DIGIZINE 41

“We’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug ins, but Eleven is the first plug in that can honestly replace the guitar amp.”

“The ICON helps me make better mix decisions...… I have no desire to ever go back to an analog console.” —James Michael (producer, engineer, songwriter; Motley Crue, Scorpions, Alanis Morissette)

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From a producer’s perspective, Michael says that Eleven offers a level of flexibility that was never an option when recording traditional mic’d guitar amps. “Eleven [along with Pro Tools] gives me a lot more control over the editing process. I can really zoom in on the waveform of a guitar part. More importantly, it gives me the ability to change a part in the context of the mix. Lots of times you work hard to build up a nice musical bed, then you pop the vocal in and it just doesn’t work; maybe you need to try a different cabinet or room mic, whatever. Now I can do that. I can make changes right up until mastering. It’s really a dream come true.”

Michael is equally emphatic in praising his Digidesign ICON D-Control system. Besides the Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M. projects, Michael has also used the ICON for surround mixes of Meat Loaf’s

Three Bats Live DVD. “The ICON has been a real life changer for me and the way I work,” he says. “I was always a mouse-and-keyboard kind of guy, and I’m very quick with editing on a workstation. But I realized I tended to position myself differently for editing than for mixing, and that affected my perspective as a mixer. Now with the ICON, I can edit and mix from a hands-on producer’s perspective. The ICON helps me make better mix decisions.”

He cites the ICON console’s deep integration with Pro Tools software as a sea change from his previous work with large-format analog consoles. “With the ICON, I no longer have to think of the console and the DAW as separate entities,” he says. “My workflow isn’t split between riding the faders for levels and grabbing the mouse to tweak an effect. It’s all one integrated process again. I have no desire to ever go back to an analog console.”

“Eleven has really changed everything for people like myself who work extensively with guitar sounds,” says Michael. “We’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug-ins, but Eleven is the first plug-in that can honestly

Listening to Michael, it’s clear he’s a true aficionado of vintage tube technology. “When I did the Scorpions album, we spent a fortune on renting a bunch of vintage amps,” he recalls. “It’s a great sound, but the result was always a bit hit or miss. That’s the nature of tubes. Sometimes a particular amp is exactly the sound you’re looking for; other times, it’s just not quite [right]. And most of the time, there’s no guarantee you can get that same sound the next day. Sometimes the sound changes even while you’re working, and you’re just praying for 20 minutes more with the same sound. Now

I can honestly say those days are over—I’ve got Eleven.”

Album

replace the guitar amp. It really, truly sounds like the amps it claims to emulate. Many of the older plug-ins are a bit too perfect, but Eleven captures all the little imperfections of those vintage amps. And the microphone emulations are just stunning. I can close my eyes and toggle through them, and it’s just amazing how accurate they are.”

the latest motley Crue

I 3 i a \/ jI &MFWFO y

j y &MFWFO D

As a producer, engineer, and songwriter, James Michael has worked with artists ranging from Motley Crue, Meat Loaf, and the Scorpions to Deana Carter, Hilary Duff, and Alanis Morissette. As a singer and multi-instrumentalist, Michael is a member of rock band Sixx:A.M., with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba. Most recently, Michael completed production of the new Sixx:A.M. album, followed by the latest Motley Crue release, Saints of Los Angeles. Both projects were recorded and produced with his ICON-controlled Pro Tools HD system, and all the guitar tracks for the Motley Crue album were created using Digidesign’s Eleven guitar amp emulation plug-in.

Eleven and ICON Rock

—James Michael

DIGIZINE 45

“We’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug ins, but Eleven is the first plug in that can honestly replace the guitar amp.”

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Michael is equally emphatic in praising his Digidesign ICON D-Control system. Besides the Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M. projects, Michael has also used the ICON for surround mixes of Meat Loaf’s

I can honestly say those days are over—I’ve got Eleven.”

Album

the latest motley Crue

I 3 i a \/ jI &MFWFO y

j y &MFWFO D

Eleven and ICON Rock

—James Michael

DIGIZINE 45

Meet DigidesignTV Sick of the old boob tube? How about sharpening your savvy of Pro Tools news and knowledge by tuning into Digidesign’s own web TV station: DigidesignTV. Ever have one of those lazy days when you don’t feel like doing anything that requires effort? TV is perfect for those days, right? Maybe not, though: Sometimes even wading through the thousands of channels one gets with the average cable/satellite package can be too much work. We at Digidesign have devised a solution just for you: DigidesignTV. DigidesignTV represents a new era of multimedia content we’re focusing on here at Digidesign. Tune into DigidesignTV and you can expect to hear everything from high-profile live sound mixers discuss why VENUE is their console of choice, to watching our very own star Phil Jackson host his series of Pro Tools Accelerated Videos—which are as entertaining as they are educational. As Phil might say: VERY NICE! Tune into DigidesignTV now at www.digidesign.com/dtv and check these and other videos out like them!

The Making of Eleven Eleven is a revolutionary guitar amp emulation plug-in recognized by highprofile and indie artists alike as delivering the sickest digital guitar amp tones on the planet. Hear the behind-the-scenes story of how we went about creating this powerful plug-in.

Evidence: Mixing it Up with Pro Tools Producer, rapper, and one-third of the hip-hop group Dilated Peoples, EV talks about his solo release The Weatherman LP and how Pro Tools LE has revolutionized the music creation process.

Pro Tools Accelerated Videos: Transfuser Digidesign’s newest virtual instrument Transfuser is blowing the minds of artists ranging from David Sitek (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) to the dance music production duo The Crystal Method. Check out how crazy this instrument is with Phil Jackson’s mad Pro Tools Accelerated videos on Transfuser.

DIGIZINE 47

M-AUDIO | M-PULSE

M-Audio Torq: The Future of DJ Technology

Chris Alfaro: Free to Be Creative

hands on every parameter in Torq, including triggering sound clips and one-shots from the sample engine. With all these features in one package, Torq is ideal for spontaneously creating and performing live remixes and mash-ups. Torq also delivers advanced functionality for studio production applications. ReWire support lets you use the software’s powerful built-in effects processing, advanced pitch-shifting, and automatic beat-matching with Pro Tools. You can even process Torq tracks with effects right inside your Pro Tools session. Advanced support for MIDI controllers and vinyl/CD emulation brings the essential elements of DJ performance to the studio, infusing your music with new energy. DJs can use Torq software to revolutionize radio show production. The built-in sampler is ideal for loading up commercials, sound effects, and shout-outs. The effects processing and auto-loop functionality take you beyond simple crossfade transitions without bulky, expensive outboard gear. From college radio to podcasting to national broadcasts, Torq makes it easy to deliver cutting-edge content. As digital technology continues to propel the evolution of modern music, one computer-based DJ program provides the creative tools and production power to set you apart from everyone else. M-Audio Torq software gives you the essential functions you’d expect, like cueing, beat-matching, and mixing—plus a collection of unique features that open up even more creative possibilities. Whether you’re DJing for a dance crowd, performing live onstage, or producing in the studio, Torq empowers you to explore new musical possibilities. Torq software even supports ReWire for seamless integration with Pro Tools systems, forming a complete creative solution for all music-makers.

Whether you’re DJing for a dance crowd, performing live onstage, or producing in the studio, Torq empowers you to explore new musical possibilities. Club, Studio, and Airwaves Torq is the perfect way to create your own style in the club. Torq combines digital DJ software with a powerful remix machine— complete with built-in effects processing, MIDI compatibility, a 16-cell tempo-synced sampler, and support for effects plug-ins. Imagine stacking multiple effects, such as delay, flange, and distortion, while tweaking parameters via mouse or a MIDI controller, such as an Oxygen 8 v2 or Trigger Finger. These devices let you get your

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All-in-One Plug-and-Play Solutions Torq DJ software is available with select M-Audio DJ hardware, including Conectiv and Xponent. The Conectiv interface lets you use turntables and CD players with Torq software, giving you tactile control over digital music files. Specially encoded Torq Control Vinyl and CDs provide a response that’s virtually indistinguishable from standard records and CDs. Torq Xponent is a cutting-edge hardware control surface that includes everything a professional DJ needs to perform with a laptop.

The DJ Experience, Redefined M-Audio’s Torq product line combines digital DJ software with an unprecedented set of production features, revolutionizing the way DJs perform live and create original music. By combining bulletproof hardware with stable and intuitive software, Torq systems provide complete solutions for computer-based DJs. Once you experience Torq’s limitless performance and production options, you’ll never go back.

Free the Robots DJ/producer uses Torq to craft a new form of electronic hip-hop California-based DJ/producer Chris Alfaro is an indie trendsetter who’s redrawing the boundaries of electronic hip-hop. Alfaro has a seemingly limitless knowledge of music, from avant-garde jazz and classic rock to old-school hip-hop and modern electronica. Armed with a massive collection of rare and eclectic vinyl, he slices and dices audio almost beyond recognition, while preserving the distinctive grooves of the records he samples. The resulting tracks demonstrate a unique sound that’s both throwback-retro and freshly addictive. Consider Alfaro’s self-titled solo debut EP, Free the Robots. The record plays like a circuit-bending journey through another time, blending synth riffs, speak-and-spell keyboards, and samples from 1930s jazz records. Alfaro produced and released the album on his own, without label support. Word quickly spread through the underground music community, resulting in heavy airplay on college and indie radio stations nationwide. After several months on the iTunes Top 20, Free the Robots became one of the biggest releases of the year, reinforcing Alfaro’s impact on electronic music. Using M-Audio’s Torq DJ software and Conectiv audio interface, a digital piano, and a variety of effects processors, Alfaro performs live with keyboardist Phil Nisco, synchronizing beats and scratching samples to reproduce tracks from the ground up.

What musical elements make up the Free the Robots sound? My direction constantly changes, but the actual sound of the recordings keeps the flow of my tracks consistent. I tend to keep my sound on the dirty side to preserve the flavor of the original samples. I simply chop, rearrange, manipulate, beef-up, and compose layers using live instruments and heavy drum chops to create harmony within a track. The samples come from just about everywhere—I spend a lot of time lurking and digging around swap meets, record stores, and thrift shops. It’s surprising how much good music is mixed in between piles of Barbra Streisand records and old Journey LPs.

Describe your technical setup for live performances. It’s a two-man collaborative jam session of Free the Robots songs. The set hardly ever stops. I use my Trigger Finger drum pads for manipulating loops and sounds with Torq and Ableton Live. One turntable is set up just for scratching samples, and my partner Phil handles a Nord Electro, digital piano, and a variety of effects processors. Sometimes we switch it up, and I play leads on the Nord while he gets on the drum pads. We like to keep everything moving. The fun thing about electronica is there’s so much you can do without following the norm of traditional instrumentation.

How has Torq impacted the way you DJ? Torq really is the most creative DJ application out there. It works so well with my M-Audio Trigger Finger that it makes DJing more like live production. The simple act of mixing between songs is the main feature of a lot of computer-based vinyl emulation programs—but from a producer standpoint, Torq allows you to do much more. Plus, the Torq control records are made from real vinyl. When it comes to scratching, the accuracy and feel make a big difference.

What are your favorite Torq features, and how do you use them? Quick Scratch, the built-in effects, iPod compatibility, the ability to record an entire performance… there’s just so much. I use looping to create live remixes that elaborate on certain breaks in a song. It’s pretty crazy once you get the hang of it. There are so many features in Torq that everyone can use it in a completely different way. It really just depends on how far the user wants to take it.

“There are so many features in Torq that everyone can use it in a completely different way.” Chris Alfaro’s involvement in the indie music scene goes beyond performing and recording with Free the Robots. He recently joined several other artists in opening the Crosby—a restaurant, bookstore, and live venue in downtown Santa Ana, CA’s Artist Village. It’s a spot where individuals can collaborate, perform, and connect with the local creative community. For more information, check out www.thisisthecrosby.com and www.myspace.com/freetherobots.

DIGIZINE 49

M-AUDIO | M-PULSE

M-Audio Torq: The Future of DJ Technology

Chris Alfaro: Free to Be Creative

DIGIZINE 48

DIGIZINE 49

By Rich Tozzoli

SPECIAL FEATURE

Kristen Hevner:

Scoring with Sibelius and Pro Tools From scoring classical operas in Milan to composing music for indie films and Geico commercials in the U.S., composer/producer/ musician Kristen Hevner turns to Pro Tools to get the job done. With an impressive background that includes a master’s degree in composition from the City University of New York (CUNY) and a certificate in Studio Recording and Post-Production from the School of Audio Engineering (SAE), she brings a variety of sonic skills to every project. But she also relies on another member of the Avid Audio family that works seamlessly with Pro Tools: Sibelius, considered by many to be the world’s most powerful, elegant music notation software.

Unlike many of her peers, Hevner is more comfortable writing music notation via computer or paper than working with MIDI. However, she readily embraces all new technologies—for example, on a score for a recent short film by Kent Johnson entitled The Emperor of Ice Cream, she wrote the main theme on her Pro Tools LE system and created the printed music in Sibelius. “I scored to a QuickTime movie onscreen in Pro Tools, using RTAS versions of [IK Multimedia’s] Miroslav Philharmonik and [Spectrasonics’] Atmosphere,” she says. “This allowed me to quickly make any changes in MIDI that the director needed. Once I was finished, I used the ‘Send To Sibelius’ function in Pro Tools to view and print the final score.”

“When I scored my opera, I could easily jump around the pages and get where I wanted to go very quickly.”

One of Hevner’s favorite Sibelius features is the ability to edit the score by isolating voices within each track. “When you export MIDI from Pro Tools, sometimes there are parts you need to fix due to the translation between programs,” she notes. “You can easily do this by isolating the voices, just by selecting Edit [and then] Filter. This allows you to choose what you want to work on—top or bottom notes, voice 1, voice 2, lyrics, and things like dynamics or slurs. It’s the best for editing and filtering.” As an example of an idiosyncrasy, Hevner says that if you record a piano part with both your right and left hands on a single MIDI track in Pro Tools, it shows up on one staff in Sibelius Figure 1: The voices shown in this after you export it. The example are Hevner’s right- and left- easiest fix is to isolate the hand parts, separated in Sibelius. parts for each hand. “By choosing Edit, [then] Filter, [and then] Voice 1, it’s super easy to edit,” she says. “I can just view the blue notes that show my right-hand performance. If you want to just ‘attack’ Voice 1, and it’s in the same staff as the other voices, it becomes much easier to work with.”

a few measures at a time, in case I missed a sharp or a flat, or entered a wrong note. I also like to have the Navigator window up, especially when I’m working on a very large score. When I scored my opera, I could easily jump around the pages and get where I wanted to go very quickly.” Customizing screen views in Sibelius is simple, Hevner says: “You just go to Window and select any of the choices you want to display on the screen (see figure 2). For example, I really don’t use the Mixer in Sibelius; I use the mixer in Pro Tools. I don’t even want to see it, so it’s not selected. It helps me to streamline my screen, and I can choose what I need to work with on each score.” Hevner’s workflow changes based upon the needs of each project: she may use MIDI in Pro Tools, write in Sibelius, write by hand, or combine all three methods. When working strictly in Sibelius, she first likes to compose in her notebook and make some sketches before returning to the piano to confirm pitches. Next, she enters these ideas into Sibelius. “They may be incomplete at that point, as I may only have three or four instruments written,” she says. “Then I print it out from Sibelius and sketch directly on that piece of paper. Once I’ve gotten a basic piece written, I compose directly in Sibelius without any more sketching.”

Sibelius is also useful for cleaning up unintentional “extra” notes, Hevner says: “If you hold a note for a split second into the next measure, you sometimes get marks that you didn’t mean to have in your score. But it’s easy to fix using this technique. Just highlight the affected measure, choose the Voice, and clean up your track.” Hevner appreciates the ability to customize windows in Sibelius as well. “Just like in Pro Tools, you can choose how to set up your tracks, track views, and heights. It’s great to do in Sibelius. I personally like to see my Keypad and my playback [transport] so I can quickly hear what I’m writing.” Playback is especially helpful for proofreading scores, she observes. “I always have it up, so I can keep editing and listen to

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Figure 2

DIGIZINE 51

By Rich Tozzoli

SPECIAL FEATURE

Kristen Hevner:

“When I scored my opera, I could easily jump around the pages and get where I wanted to go very quickly.”

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Figure 2

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Hevner proofs the composition, ensuring that all the notes are placed correctly, along with sharps, flats, slurs, time signatures, and other elements. “I finish with the final accents, adding words such as expressivo, poco framata, or other little additions that help make the score easier for the player to perform,” she says. “Then I extract parts. I print a full score for each player, and also each player’s individual part. Each musician gets both the full score and their individual part, so they can look at whichever they choose.” Dynamic Parts is a feature in Sibelius that Hevner constantly uses. “It’s another of my favorite features,” she says. “If I wanted to proofread only the violin part, I used to have to extract it from the file to fix it. Now I can just pull down the part I want to work on from the drop-down menu and view it individually. Any note changes I make to the part will automatically update in the Main Score.” And for elements such as Dynamic Markings, they can be updated independently of the score, or vice versa. These part changes are displayed in orange to indicate that they are different from the score—an important visual cue, Hevner adds. “The major danger of not knowing that the part matches the score is that you might be conducting and see a C natural in your score, and they see a C sharp in theirs. So the Dynamic Parts feature has made a big difference in my workflow. I wouldn’t want to work without it.”

“Just like in Pro Tools, [with Sibelius] you can choose how to set up your tracks, track views, and heights.”

workshop

By Joe Gore

guitar tools 10 Ways to Make Eleven Go to 12 and bypass the speaker simulation. Open the other one and bypass the amp simulation. Then insert a reverb plug-in with a good spring sound in the second insert slot, between the two amps (see figure 1). Control the amount of reverb with the reverb plug-in’s wet/dry sliders. It looks a little goofy, but it sounds a-maz-ing.

Eleven Tip #4—Amp Switching

Figure 1: Create killer spring reverb sounds by placing a reverb between two instances of Eleven. “Any fool can make things bigger and more complex,” observed Albert Einstein. “It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.” Given that attitude, it’s easy to imagine that if they’d had Pro Tools in the early twentieth century—and if Einstein had played electric guitar, but was forced to use a software amp simulator because the scientists in the adjoining lab complained about his loud, late-night riffage—the Great Man’s plug-in of choice would have been Digidesign’s Eleven. Because it’s, like, so simple. You don’t need to be an Einstein to look up “simplicity” in a quotation dictionary and slap together a lame-o opening paragraph. Similarly, the non-Nobel Prize-winning physicists among us can find succor in the fact that Eleven is the most straightforward of amp modelers. Rival products boast simulated stompboxes, outboard effects, multichannel routing schemes, and other gewgaws. But Eleven gives you amps, the whole amps, and nothing but the amps (plus, some nice virtual microphones). Eleven makes my coffee machine look like a linear particle accelerator, but you can still use it to craft complex, layered sounds. The following ten techniques deploy Eleven in unusual, sometimes counterintuitive ways. The results range from indispensable classic rock colors to tweaky tones that may cost you your gig. We distort, you decide.

Eleven Tip #1—Mismatched Amps and Cabs When you switch amp models on most amp simulators, the speaker model automatically changes. Say you’re playing an AC-30 model through a

DIGIZINE 54

simulated 2x12 speaker cabinet. Switch to the Marshall model, and the cabinet automatically changes to a 4x12. Eleven does things differently. When you switch amps, the cabinet model stays parked where you left it, which means swapping sounds is usually a two-step process. In the long run, this is a plus. You’ll stumble across some great combinations and learn to use speaker models as EQ tools. Try taking it to extremes: Run a lunkheaded metal stack through the sparkly 4x10 Fender cabinet. Or anchor that tiny tweed combo with a bass-heavy 4x12 cab.

Eleven Tip #2—Invisible Volume Knob A favorite trick of crafty guitarists is to control amp distortion via the guitar’s volume knob. Roll it back for clean sounds, then floor it to jostle the amp into overdrive. If you (or the guitarist you’re recording) forgot to be crafty while laying down tracks, you can add the effect by automating Eleven’s gain controls. Try spiking the Gain 1, Gain 2, or plug-in input parameter a moment before a loud passage kicks in. (Quick automation refresher: Click the Auto button on the Eleven plug-in. Select the parameters you want to add. Click Add. Now the Added parameters appear in the track header’s automation pull-down.)

There’s a certain type of guitar obsessive that uses two or three vintage amps onstage, switching between, say, a Fender Twin for the sparkly bits and a Marshall stack for the crunchy ones. You can do the same in Eleven simply by automating the plug-in’s Amp Model parameter. Or if you want the option of combining the two sounds, bus the dry guitar track to two mono aux tracks, selecting “pre-fader” on the sends and lowering the output of the dry track to zero. Insert instances of Eleven on the two aux tracks, dial in contrasting sounds, and then switch virtual amps by automating the “mute” parameter of the aux tracks. Note how we bussed the dry track to multiple aux tracks, each with an instance of Eleven, because we’ll be using the same technique in the remaining examples.

Eleven Tip #5—Multi-Mic Stereo One great amp recording technique is to mic two speakers of a multispeaker cabinet, often with contrasting microphones. You can then use the similar yet distinct sounds to create cool stereo imaging, or add interest by alternating and layering the two sounds. You can also get the same effect with a pair of aux tracks, each with an instance of Eleven. Try identical amp and speaker settings, but choose two different mic simulations. Contrast is good—try pairing, say, a pointy-sounding SM 57 dynamic model with the cushier R-121 ribbon model.

You can get killer spring reverb tones with Eleven by placing an impluse response spring reverb between two instances of the plug-in. Eleven Tip #6—A Room of One’s Own Another classic rock recording technique is to record an amp through both a close-positioned mic and one situated several feet from the cabinet. You can mimic the effect by setting up a pair of aux tracks with identical Eleven settings, except for contrasting mic choices. Next, insert the Short Delay II plug-in on one of the tracks (see figure 2). Set Mix to 100% and make sure Depth is at 0%. Dial in a delay of several milliseconds, tuning by ear until it sounds cool. When you mix, experiment with relative track levels. Sometimes an equal blend sounds best. Sometimes just a touch of one track seems to focus the other. And sometimes it’s nice to alter the blend over the course of an arrangement.

Eleven Tip #7—Insta-Zep™ Again, set up instances of Eleven on two mono aux tracks, using identical amp and cab settings but contrasting mic emulations. Next, add a nice room reverb after one of the two amps, dialing in a fairly wet direct/ reverb mix. Pan the dry aux track all the way to one side, and the ’verbed track all the way to the other. It’s instant Led Zeppelin II—all you need to add is, you know, good music and stuff. Try adding a touch of reverb predelay and experiment with track balances. It may sound best with just a touch of the reverb track.

Eleven Tip #3—Authentic Spring Reverb You can get killer spring reverb tones with Eleven by placing an impulse response (IR) spring reverb between two instances of the plug-in. Just load Eleven onto your track’s first insert slot and dial in the tone you want. Next, click that first insert slot and copy Eleven to the third slot by Control-dragging (Windows) or Option-dragging (Mac); the settings will be copied along with the plug-in. Open the first instance of Eleven

Figure 2: Simulate dual mic’ing by choosing different mic simulations and offsetting one of the amp sounds with Pro Tools’ Short Delay II plug-in.

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Eleven Tip #4—Amp Switching

Eleven Tip #1—Mismatched Amps and Cabs When you switch amp models on most amp simulators, the speaker model automatically changes. Say you’re playing an AC-30 model through a

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Figure 2: Simulate dual mic’ing by choosing different mic simulations and offsetting one of the amp sounds with Pro Tools’ Short Delay II plug-in.

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guitar tools Eleven Tip #10— Tweak ’til You Squeak By assigning only some frequencies of a guitar track to an effect, you may be able to use effects that would have been unworkable if applied to the entire sound. Totally trashing your tone with sonic degraders such as iZotope’s Trash, Digidesign’s D-Fi, or Audio Ease’s Speakerphone may be a bit much, but a touch of that harsh distortion— especially on highs and upper-mids—can lend character and intensity to straightforward guitar tones.

Figure 3: A tasty tone sandwich—think peanut butter and sardines.

Eleven Tip #8—An Experimental Phase Rule of thumb: Anytime you’re creating a composite sound from a single source, as in the preceding examples, take a moment to flip the phase on one of the tracks. You’ll know in an instant whether the results sound better or worse, and you’ll sometimes uncover cool new colors. The technique can be especially effective when blending clean and distorted layers. One easy way to reverse phase: insert a Trim plug-in on one of the tracks and click the null (O) symbol.

Well, there you go: We’ve taken a simple plug-in and made it bigger and more complex, just like those fools Einstein warned us about!

Eleven Tip #9—Tone Sandwich

Extra Credit

Once you’ve grown accustomed to working with multiple Eleven instances, you’ll probably start creating composite tones by superimposing amp models. You can add an extra layer of control by routing different segments of the tonal spectrum to different amps. Take the sound in figure 3, for example: It blends the corpulent lower frequencies of a modern metal stack with the prickly highs of a Fender tweed. Two instances of the 1-Band EQ 3 plug-in use steep -24 dB filters to trim highs from the stack and lows from the tweed.

Q: Would Einstein have dug brainy laptop electronica like Authechre and Boards of Canada?

For even greater sandwich-making finesse, use Roger Nichols Digital’s SPL-IZER, a brilliant frequency splitter plug-in that sells for around $130. SPL-IZER divides your sound into discrete high, mid, and low frequencies, with all three appearing in the input menu of your aux tracks. It’s like cutting your tone sandwich with a scalpel!

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In figure 4, for example, an instance of SPL-IZER carves a guitar track into three frequency bands, each feeding a separate instance of Eleven. The lows go through a metal stack, the mids through a tweed, and the highs through a bright Fender Twin model. Except the Twin’s speaker modeler is bypassed, replaced by a thin telephone speaker model from Speakerphone. The results sound… weird. But cool weird.

A: No. Insufficient guitar riffage.

Joe Gore (joe@joegore.com) has worked with Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman, Courtney Love, the Eels, and many others. He writes extensively about music and audio, and has interviewed hundreds of the world’s leading players, composers, producers, and technicians. Joe’s latest collaboration is Clubbo (www.clubbo.com), a sprawling “music fiction” project.

Figure 4: An instance of SPL-IZER carves a guitar track into three frequency bands.

A Token Legal Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that Eleven is not connected with, or approved or endorsed by, the owners of the AKG, Celestion, Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Neumann, Royer, Sennheiser, Shure, Soldano, and VOX trademarks. These names are used solely to identify the guitar amplifiers, cabinets, and microphones emulated by the Eleven plug-in.

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Figure 3: A tasty tone sandwich—think peanut butter and sardines.

Well, there you go: We’ve taken a simple plug-in and made it bigger and more complex, just like those fools Einstein warned us about!

Eleven Tip #9—Tone Sandwich

Extra Credit

Q: Would Einstein have dug brainy laptop electronica like Authechre and Boards of Canada?

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A: No. Insufficient guitar riffage.

Figure 4: An instance of SPL-IZER carves a guitar track into three frequency bands.

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By Wolfram Knelangen

midi ditty Transfuser Mad Loop-Mangling Lessons “Herzlich Willkommen” to the first DigiZine workshop on Transfuser, Digidesign’s new loop and groove creation workstation. Transfuser was designed by the company’s Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group, the small team in Germany that has produced virtual instruments such as Xpand!, Hybrid, Strike, Velvet, and the Structure sampler family. As the product manager at A.I.R., I had the honor of watching Transfuser develop from a basic idea into an innovative, easy-to-use tool for working with loops, regardless of musical style. Transfuser lets you build and fine-tune grooves on the fly, with a host of real-time tools for slicing, converting, sound-replacing, and recombining looped audio. It comes packed with nearly 2 GB of loops, developed in collaboration with sampling veterans Big Fish Audio. To get the most from this tutorial, you should be somewhat familiar with Transfuser and know the basic concepts of browsing, loading tracks, and playback. If you’re new to Transfuser, install the software, check out the “Transfuser Guide.pdf” document from the Support section of the Digidesign website, and make sure you watch Phil Jackson’s Pro Tools Accelerated videos on Transfuser (available in the DigidesignTV section of the Digidesign website).

Transfuser lets you build and f inetune grooves on the fly, with realtime tools for slicing, converting, sound-replacing, and recombining looped audio. No matter what musical style you work in, it’s nearly impossible to avoid loops these days. Besides the “classic” loop-based genres like hip-hop, trip-hop, techno, dance, drum and bass, garage, and so on, there’s hardly a piece of popular music today that didn’t get at least a little loop treatment. Before we take off, create (or open) a Pro Tools session, set the session’s tempo to 123 bpm, and insert Transfuser on a stereo Instrument track. For the full experience, connect a MIDI keyboard or other input device— a MIDI keyboard from M-Audio’s Axiom family would be perfect, but MIDI notes and MIDI CC (Continuous Controller) messages from the Pro Tools Instrument track will also do.

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Dr. Frankenstein: Make One Loop Out of Three Transfuser’s Slicer module features a powerful function that analyzes each slice of an imported audio file and gives it a high, mid, or low frequency flag. This makes it super-easy to mute or solo certain instruments within a loop, and comes in handy when you want to combine specific hits from multiple loops like what we’re about to do. Let’s load the following three loops from Transfuser’s factory tracks (select the Tracks and Factory tabs) in the Browser pane: Choose Urban Drum Loops > Urban Loops 101-140 BPM, and drag the following loops to the Tracks pane: • Urb Busy Kick 27 BF • Urban 142 BF • Urban 152 BF When you click the global Play button or play MIDI note C2, all three loops play together in the tempo of your Pro Tools session. But what you’re hearing might sound a bit too busy. To clean it up and use only certain instruments from the three loops, go to the first track’s Slicer module. Disable the High and Mid frequency buttons, and you’ll hear only the kick drum of this loop playing. Go to the second track’s Slicer module and disable the Low and High buttons. Voilà—you’ve removed the snare samples from this loop. Do the same thing with the third track’s Low and Mid buttons to hear only that track’s hi-hats in your fresh, new Frankenstein three-in-one loop.

records Transfuser’s output. When all three tracks are playing, click the Stop button in the Recorder, and then stop Transfuser. You can now just drag and drop the Recorder’s waveform onto your desktop to save it as a .WAV file. Use the Transfuser Tracks pane to re-import the file as a single audio track in Pro Tools’ Edit window for further editing. Try this with other loops: Stack them and mute their lows, mids, or highs as you see fit. Spice them up using Lo-Fi or other effects, and record and resample them yourself within Transfuser. The combinations are endless.

Genetic Engineering: Loop Surgery Transfuser’s Drums module and Drum Sequencer offer even more creative options. Transfuser can extract drum samples and MIDI sequences from plain audio loops, so it’s a snap to rearrange sounds and grooves in an existing loop.

Figure 1

Try this out: Click the Drum Sequencer’s Bypass button to directly play the Drums module using incoming MIDI notes from your controller, starting at C2. This way, you can use the track as a simple and efficient drum computer. Click the Bypass button again before you proceed (see figure 5).

Before we proceed, close all tracks already loaded into Transfuser by clicking the small X symbol in the upper-right corner of each track, so you have a nice empty Tracks pane. Select the Audio and Factory tabs in the Browser, and drag the “Dance 02A” audio file from the “03 Dance Drum Loops” folder into the Tracks pane (see figure 2).

Next, let’s add some effects. Go to the EFX section, click the first Effect insert, and select the Lo-Fi effect from the list. Set the controls as follows: Bit Depth = 2.0 bit, Clip = 20dB, Rectify = 80%, Sample Rate = 1 kHz. This creates a nice, dirty, lo-fi sound. Click the second insert and select the Filter effect. Set its control at will. What you hear now has little to do with the three loops we started with! To create a single, final Transfuser track out of these three source loops, select the Master section’s Recorder (see figure 1), which constantly

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 2 In the Import dialog that appears, select the third option, “Drum Kit and Drum Sequence.” Transfuser will extract the drum samples from the loop and map them to the pads of the Drums module (see figure 3). Information about which sample plays when is extracted to the Drum Sequencer module, in order to replicate the drum loop as closely as possible. Before you start playback of the imported track, click any of the 12 pads in the Drums module to play the extracted samples. Select the Drum Sequencer module to see the extracted MIDI pattern used to rebuild the imported loop. You can add or remove events in the loop by clicking on the Sequencer lanes (see figure 4), or build your own pattern of kicks, snares, and hats to create a new loop.

Now let’s exchange the kick sound. Go back to the Drums module and click the kick pad (C2) in the lower-left corner, then click the Pad selector menu below the pads (see figure 6). From the list that appears, choose 01 Kicks > Kick E80 Fat 03. To choose a different sound, click through the factory kick drum samples with the left and right arrow buttons until you find a preset you like. You can adjust the level and other settings with the Pad controls on the right. Tweak them to your delight.

Figure 5

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Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

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midi ditty the Grabber (hand) tool and drag that slice onto the Drums module in the first Transfuser track. Hold it until the detailed view appears in the Editor, then drop the slice onto the Snare pad (C#2). Now you’ve replaced the original snare sample with the clap slice from another loop.

parameter in Transfuser can be assigned to a MIDI controller—this could lead to some serious tweaking madness. Another way to control multiple parameters at once is to use Transfuser’s Smart Knobs. These reside above Transfuser’s onscreen keyboard. In the first three tracks (Drums, Thin Break, Swirl Loop), right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the FX 2 button (send level to Send FX 2) in the Mix section, and choose Assign to Smart Knob > 1 (see figure 11). Now you can control all three send levels by moving the first Smart Knob.

If you want to replace all the sounds in a loop rather than individual instruments, just find a loop you like (such as one from your own collection) and drop it directly onto the Drums module in the Track section. The Drum Sequencer will keep playing the same pattern, but Transfuser will analyze, extract, and map a new sample set from the new loop in the Drums module. For now, close the second track (Slice Sequencer with Slicer) and let the edited Drum Sequencer with Drums track play. Now let’s use M.A.R.I.O. (Musically Advanced Random Intelligence Operations) to spice up this loop a bit further. Select the Drum Sequencer; the M.A.R.I.O. section appears in the lower-left corner, and the Pattern section is to its right. Click on the second key in the Pattern section (or play C#2 on your MIDI keyboard) to select the sequencer’s second pattern; we want to keep our original loop on the first pattern.

Figure 6

More Transfuser Tricks We’ve already come a long way from our original loop. We’ve reprogrammed its drum pattern, and exchanged the kick drum with a sample from Transfuser’s factory library. Now let’s go a step further and replace the snare drum sample with the old-school drum machine clap sound from loop “Dance 04A.” Load the “Dance 04A” loop into Transfuser and in the Import dialog, select the first option, “Sliced Audio and Slice Sequence.” Select the Slicer module and select the Play tool (see figure 7). Click single slices in the waveform to identify a clap (the third slice, for example). Now select

Figure 7

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Figure 9 If you want to see what M.A.R.I.O. did to your loop, select the Velo(city), Time, Pitch, Filt(er), Dec(ay), or Pan tab above the Sequencer lanes and adjust the results manually (see figure 9). Try creating variations with M.A.R.I.O. for other patterns too. You can use the Pattern octave of the keyboard (onscreen or real-world) to switch between different patterns in real time. If you like what you hear, you can drag and drop the Pattern key to export the MIDI as a file to your desktop, to another Sequencer, or to a Pro Tools MIDI or Instrument track.

Try assigning even more buttons to one Smart Knob—for example, the Decay and Cutoff controls of the first three tracks—and see what happens if you control them all at once. Now you might even MIDI-learn the Smart Knob… ! Right next to the onscreen keyboard is a DJ-style crossfader. Click and drag the slider, or use your MIDI keyboard’s Mod wheel to fade between the tracks that are routed to output busses 1 and 2. You can change the output assignments of each track in the Mix section (see figure 12).

Nearly every parameter in Transfuser can be assigned to a MIDI controller this could lead to some serious tweaking madness.

Got Control? Real-Time Parameter Manipulation

Next, click the Target button to bring up a menu with parameters available for randomization. Select Rhythm, Pitch, Filter, Decay, and Pan (see figure 8). Set the Depth control to 11 o’clock, click the Apply button, and listen. If you want to change anything, use the arrow buttons to go back and forth through your M.A.R.I.O. randomization history. Experiment by using higher Depth settings and choosing different parameters to affect.

Now that we’ve explored some ways to successfully put the loops through the hoops, let’s take a closer look at Transfuser’s real-time performance section. For parts of this tutorial, you will need a MIDI keyboard with rotary controls or faders that can send MIDI CC (Continuous Controller) information. If not, you can use the Pencil tool to add MIDI CC curves to the Instrument track where Transfuser is inserted. For more information on these processes, see the Pro Tools Reference Guide. From the Settings Librarian menu at the top of the Transfuser window, load the 126_Easy House setting. Press Transfuser’s global Play button. Select the Kill EQ option in the Master Insert section. When you click one of the three pads in Kill EQ, the corresponding frequency band gets completely filtered out (or “killed”). Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the Low pad, choose Learn CC, then move any rotary control on your MIDI keyboard to assign it (see figure 10). Assign the High pad to the same control. Now you can filter out the High and Low bands with the twist of a knob. Next, assign the Low-Mid button in Kill EQ to another control on your MIDI keyboard. You can now sweep through the midrange frequencies, creating an effect that’s pretty common in modern dance music. While Transfuser is playing, experiment with the two controls. Nearly every Figure 8

Figure 10

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Figure 6

Figure 7

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Nearly every parameter in Transfuser can be assigned to a MIDI controller this could lead to some serious tweaking madness.

Got Control? Real-Time Parameter Manipulation

Figure 10

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midi ditty Above the crossfader are eight pads that might remind you of the pads on an M-Audio Axiom keyboard. These pads have been assigned to trigger sequencer patterns, so you can start performing by simply clicking around the pads (or use MIDI input). You can change the sequencer assignment of any pad by right-clicking (Windows) or Controlclicking (Mac), and assign a different Transfuser sequencer pattern, or single sample and notes, which can then be arbitrarily triggered during playback.

Get Looped We’ve made some serious progress in the fine art of processing and scrambling loops with Transfuser. We forged one loop out of three and added some bit reduction and filtering to create something entirely new (and ear-frying). We performed some serious audio surgery, enhanced loops with new sounds in the twinkling of an eye, and had M.A.R.I.O. creatively scramble the outcome. And we gained some handy hands-on control over Transfuser parameters, which are even more fun when they’re used in combination.

Figure 11

If you’re still reading, stop now! It’s time to get your hands dirty and blast out some serious tracks with Transfuser.

Figure 12

Figure 11

If you’re still reading, stop now! It’s time to get your hands dirty and blast out some serious tracks with Transfuser.

Figure 12

workshop

By Gannon Kashiwa

groundwork In Pursuit of a Great Performance There’s no question that editing and mixing in Pro Tools is a snap, but editing and mixing are only part of the process of making music—the things that occur after recording. The real key to making great music is capturing a great performance. Whether you’re trying to get the perfect basic tracks, lead vocal, or instrumental overdub, here are a couple of ideas that can help reduce stress, keep the recording process fun, and help you get a naturalsounding recording without killing the music by doing a million-and-one punches. We’ll start with a look at multitrack recording and building good rhythm tracks, and then talk about overdubs. Finally, we’ll outline a few ways to speed up the sometimes tedious process of getting a great vocal.

Using Playlists with Basic Tracks A great way to build up a good rhythm track is to use Edit Groups and multiple Playlists. Using Bars and Beats with a click track, record several takes in separate Playlists in the same location in your session, then edit together the best pieces to create a final composite, or “comp” track. Working with Edit Groups and the Playlist Selector allows you to treat the group as one track, so you don’t have to worry about getting the bass out of sync with the drums, or forgetting to include that cowbell track.

Figure 1: The Playlist Selector.

The basic concept is simple: Playlists enable you to use the same click track, bar and beat counter, memory locations, and reference tracks to record several takes in the same place on the Timeline. As an example, we’ll use a multitrack live drum, a direct-input bass, and a piano track.

Start by setting up your session’s tempo or tempo map, then build your click track and lay down any reference parts you want to include—say, a rough guitar and vocal. Create and name the tracks, then create Edit Groups for Drums, Basses, and Piano. After you’ve set up these groups, create another group that encompasses all of the tracks within those groups—

Figure 2: The Edit Groups.

Setting Up the Overdub Session

this is your Record Master group. Every time you change playlists with the Record Master group enabled, all of the tracks in the group change at the same time.

Before you start the overdub session, create about four identical audio tracks. Make sure you have all of the settings duplicated, including send assignments, levels, bussing, and any inserts you’re using on the monitor path. Create a Mix Group that contains your record tracks, and link the Send and Insert settings but not the Mute, Solo, Automation, or Track Level settings. A really handy feature introduced in Pro Tools 7.2 is the ability to link Send levels and Insert controls within grouped tracks. This feature helps ensure that all of your recording channels stay in sync with one another as you make changes to EQs, reverb sends, and so on.

I like to duplicate the Playlists before I start recording, and save the original track names (Kick, Snare, and so on) for my comp track—it’s much cleaner for mixing. That way, the first tracks you record are named “Kick_01,” “Snare_01,” “Bass Dir_01,” and so on, which tells you that this is the first recording pass or take. When you’re happy with the first recording pass, choose Duplicate Playlist from one of the tracks in your Record Master group, and all of the names will change to “Kick_02,” “Snare_02,” “Bass Dir 02,” and so on. Delete all of the audio from this second Playlist and start recording your second pass in these tracks. Repeat this process until you’re satisfied that you have enough raw material to build a solid comp track.

Next, work on your cue mix. This is what the artist hears through the headphones while performing. Giving your artist a great cue mix is one of your most important tasks as an engineer. People perform a lot better when they hear things clearly, without distortion, and perfectly balanced. It’s also your obligation to protect people’s hearing by practicing good compression and EQ techniques, so that level

Figure 4: When tracks are grouped, they can all be edited together.

Figure 3: Duplicate Playlists to build up enough raw takes for a comp track.

Comping Basic Tracks To build your comp track, just switch between takes on different Playlists. You can disable the Record Master group if you only want to switch between the individual groups, such as Drums, Bass, or Guitars. Since they all play to the same tempo map, you can mix and match groups as needed (as long as the individual parts sound good together and don’t “bleed” to other tracks). Staying in Bars and Beats and using Grid Mode for editing, it’s a simple matter of picking the sections of the takes you want, copying them, and pasting them to the same location in your comp track. I usually grab the pieces I want in Grid Mode, then go back and fine-tune the edits after I’m happy with the raw material. Using Region Groups makes it easy to grab the parts you want. You can assemble several different comps instead of just one, if you wish—how much you want to edit is up to you.

Comping, or compositing, has long been used as a way to improve the quality of vocal performances. Back in the days of 24-track tape recording, we usually reserved several tracks on one of the machines just for the lead vocal. (Sometimes an entire machine would be used just for vocals!)

To build your comp track, just switch between takes on different Playlists.

The artist would come in and record a number of takes, and we’d punch and punch and punch until we had several complete tracks of the song. We’d then sort through them one by one and use mute automation to “play,” or filter, the takes down to the perfect one. Then we’d set up a bus to a comp track and bounce the final take down so we didn’t have to worry about the automation screwing up anymore. It was a LOT of work! This process is much easier to accomplish in Pro Tools, but the underlying concept is still valid even in today’s random-access world: You get a much better and more natural-sounding performance by letting the artist record a complete song, or at least long passages, than you do by punching every other word or phrase. Sure, punching in is inevitable, but if you think about it, most artists are used to performing songs live from beginning to end—the songs have a rhythm and shape, and the energy flows from section to section. Most of the time, singers and instrumentalists are trying to conjure up that special energy within the context of the song when they perform it. So why not let them do the same thing in the studio? Figure 5: To assemble a comp of an entire song, cut and paste the grouped parts into a master comp track.

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Figure 1: The Playlist Selector.

Figure 2: The Edit Groups.

Setting Up the Overdub Session

this is your Record Master group. Every time you change playlists with the Record Master group enabled, all of the tracks in the group change at the same time.

Figure 4: When tracks are grouped, they can all be edited together.

Figure 3: Duplicate Playlists to build up enough raw takes for a comp track.

To build your comp track, just switch between takes on different Playlists.

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groundwork fluctuations in the performance don’t poke out. As a tracking engineer, it feels really great to have people compliment your cue mixing—then you know you’ve nailed it for them, and they’ll play their a$$es off for you! I’ve found that you usually can’t provide a good “more me” mix simply by sending the stereo mix out to the headphones. Every performer has different needs, and they’re all very different from your needs as the engineer. For instance, most singers like to hear themselves loud in their cue mix so that it overpowers the cranial connection they have to their ears. And most drummers need the click track so loud that the headphones practically jump off their heads. Building cue mixes is easy, though. Select the send you want to copy to and then flip the faders of your console so you’re mixing sends instead of the main mix. If you can, have a pair of exactly the same kind of headphones the artist is using handy at the console, and be sure to listen with their cue amp. The last thing the artist wants to hear from you is, “Hmm, sounds fine to me— I don’t know what you’re hearing.” Remember, you’re trying to capture a performance that’s full of emotion, and anything that blocks their flow is bad news.

And Now, Back to Recording Once you have your tracks set up and the perfect cue mix built, you’re ready to go. Try to make sure your pre-rolls are the right length (and consistent each time), and get some great takes. You’ll do some punching for sure, but keep everything you record. Use QuickPunch to get all the magic you can—sometimes the really cool stuff happens when the artist doesn’t think you’re recording. I always have a copy of the lyrics handy, and if I have enough spare bandwidth, I note the take numbers on the lyric sheet next to good phrases as they go by. The producer will often do that as well, so you can compare notes (but only if they ask for your input). Keeping good notes really helps when you’re sorting through lots of takes.

Build the Vocal Comp Track After you’ve done full takes (or whatever you decide to record), you’re ready to build the comp track. Sometimes it’s easier to do this task while the artist is out of the room, so if you’re feeling confident and the vibe is right, ask them if they wouldn’t mind taking a break while you clean things up a bit. You definitely have to handle that request delicately; not all artists and producers go for it. But subjective ears can often make better decisions about what works in a performance and what doesn’t. For the vocal comp track, just duplicate one of your recorded tracks using the Duplicate Track command. Select “Some” under the Duplicate attributes,

Giving your artist a great cue mix is one of your most important tasks as an engineer. choose everything except Playlists, and name the comp track “VocComp,” or whatever you like. This is your “bin” track, so leave it muted. As you listen to each take, just pull the best phrases onto the comp track. I find it useful to leave holes in the original tracks, so you can easily see which take each phrase comes from. I usually keep the breath associated with the upcoming edit, but you can finesse that later, once you’re done building the basic comp. When you and your producer are happy with the comp, you’re ready to bring the artist back into the room and play it for them. Chances are there will still be a few things that make them cringe, but you’ll have a pretty good start on a “keeper” track. For fix-ups, just duplicate the comp Playlist, choose the Consolidate function, and then use QuickPunch. By creating a comp track first and then doing punches on it, you usually get a great performance for about 80% of the track or better—then you just need to do a few touch-ups. Singers have limited endurance, so it’s a good idea to get the most out of them before they can’t sing anymore. You stand a much better chance of getting a good tone and energy match if you get a song completely done in a day. Overdubs are always a lot of work, but you’ll be surprised at how musical the recording process can be when you zoom out and approach it from a broader context, instead of trying to get the perfect take one note at a time. Using the comping features Pro Tools offers can help keep the energy flowing, which will ultimately result in more natural, better-sounding recordings… and make your life as an engineer a lot more rewarding!

Gannon Kashiwa has over 35 years of mixing experience in both professional music and post production, including mixing for ABC and Outdoor Life Network. As a former Digidesign product and marketing manager, Kashiwa was instrumental in the development of Control|24, EditPack, Command|8, D-Control, and D-Command, and has actively helped shape Pro Tools software since 1992. He’s also the co-founder of Rocky Mountain Recorders (www.rockyrecorders.com) and BabyJane Records (www.babyjane.com).

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By Erik Hawkins

in the loop Remixing in the Fast Lane with Strike and Elastic Time When you’re submitting a remix proposal, it’s important to be able to knock out a great-sounding draft quickly. You want to be able to impress your client with a high-quality draft without wasting any time, in case your remix concept doesn’t hit pay dirt. Fortunately, with the Elastic Time feature in Pro Tools (7.4 and later) and Strike, Digidesign’s “virtual drummer” plug-in, you have the best tools available to produce a stellar-sounding draft in no time flat. Digidesign’s new Strike Content Expansion gives you a multitude of classic drum machine samples and inspired electronic beats for Strike that are perfect for remixing. And Elastic Time can tempo-conform an a cappella performance (or any other track) in a flash, with results that blow conventional time compression/expansion methods out of the water. In this article, we’ll go through the process of creating a first-draft remix in an hour or less. If you have an a cappella vocal track to work with, bust it out and follow along. If not, you can find lots of a cappella and promotional breakout tracks (including multitrack stems) online. Some are free, such as the Beastie Boys’ a cappella tracks (www.beastieboys. com/remixer), or breakout tracks from artists signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World record label (www.realworldremixed.com). Others are for sale, such as DRM-free stems of Radiohead’s song “Nude,” which is currently available on iTunes.

verse, chorus, and bridge), place each region back-to-back on the same track. For now, keep the time base for all the tracks set to Samples.

click track (or a very basic drumbeat), and your ears to find the a cappella part’s tempo. It can be a tedious operation, but there’s really no other way. Remember that your ability to produce a great-sounding tempo change is based entirely on the precision of your beat-match, so don’t cut corners.

If you’re working with breakout tracks, make sure that all performances are aligned and in time relative to one another—for example, the vocal and bass loops should be in time with the drum loops. Generally, the breakout loops are already trimmed on the beat, so it’s just a matter of copying or looping them for the duration of the vocal performance (see figure 1). If you’re working with stems, aligning each region to start at exactly the same time usually does the trick (see figure 2).

Applying Elastic Time With your session’s tempo beat-matched to the breakout loops or stems, and these breakout loops or stems trimmed to perfect downbeats, you’re ready to apply Elastic Time.

Figure 3: Make sure your session’s Tempo Conductor is enabled, or Identify Beat will not be available.

Figure 2: We imported multitrack stems for a Radiohead remix that are ready for processing.

the drum-mix stem as the guide to create these loops, and use Tab to Transient to quickly find the downbeats where you should separate the regions. Apply Identify Beat to each loop to generate tempo markers at every two bars. (Though you can use Beat Detective to generate a tempo map, it often ends up being too detailed at this level. The objective here is to simply identify the downbeats every couple of bars, because in a minute, you’ll use Elastic Time to perform a tempo change.)

Ready, Set, Go Start by creating a new Pro Tools session. Import the a cappella file and any breakouts or stems you want to work with. Place each on its own track, positioned to begin at Bar 1, Beat 1. If you have multiple breakout tracks of the same instrument (for example, separate drum loops for the

Before you can apply Elastic Time, you need to analyze the audio region you’ll be working with. To get an accurate reading, be sure to trim the region to an exact number of bars, so that when you loop the region, the music plays seamlessly from end to end without pausing or hiccupping.

Next, determine the precise tempo of the original tracks and synchronize them with your session’s tempo (in DJ-speak, this is referred to as beatmatching). The easiest method is to use the Identify Beat command in Pro Tools. For a breakout loop, it’s usually a simple matter of placing the loop at Bar 1, Beat 1, selecting the loop, and applying Identify Beat (see figure 3). Identify Beat will create tempo markers that align your session tempo to the loop’s tempo. Figure 1: These imported breakout loops for a Blue Man Group remix are all lined up and ready to go.

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If there are tempo fluctuations in the original performance, you will need to break all the stems into a series of two-bar loops (see figure 4). Use

Elastic Time can tempo-conform an a cappella performance (or any other track) in a flash. As soon as you select the Elastic Time algorithm, Pro Tools will begin analyzing the audio. This may take a minute or two, depending on the processing speed of your computer. While the audio is being analyzed, that track goes offline and the waveform turns gray. When the waveform returns to its normal color, the audio has been successfully analyzed and is ready to conform to a wide range of tempos.

Prepare to Analyze

As a rule, breakout tracks are already trimmed to these specifications. For multitrack stems, you may need to use the Tab to Transient function to find the first and last downbeats in the drum mix track, and then trim all the stems to this exact loop. That way, all your stems will have an identical number of bars.

Begin by switching the time base of all of your tracks to Ticks. Then select the Elastic Time algorithm that’s appropriate for each track (see figure 5). Some obvious choices include Monophonic for vocals, Rhythmic for drums, and Polyphonic for guitars and keyboards.

Figure 4: Since Radiohead’s recording of “Nude” contains many tempo variations, we separated the stems into a series of two-bar loops for easier tempo analysis. If all you have is an a cappella vocal, try to find the full mix version of the original song and use this for the tempo map. Import the full mix into your session, trim it to a downbeat, and position it at Bar 1, Beat 1. Then line up the a cappella track so it’s in perfect time with the vocals in the full version. Using the full version as the guide, employ Tab to Transient and then Separate Region to produce a series of loops on which you can apply Identify Beat. Sometimes, no matter how you position the a cappella vocal, it won’t line up neatly with the vocals in the full mix. In this case, your only choice is to use the Transport bar’s Tap to Tempo function along with Nudge, a

For now, keep the Elastic Time processing set to Real-Time, not Rendered. This allows you to try out different tempos without having to wait to hear the results. Once you settle on a new tempo for your remix, switch to Rendered Processing to conserve processing power. To listen to the tracks at a new tempo, disable the Conductor in the Transport bar and use the Manual Tempo Slider. Figure 5: The three Elastic Time algorithms you’re most likely to use for remixing: Rhythmic (drums), Monophonic (vocals), and Polyphonic (guitars and keyboards).

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workshop

By Erik Hawkins

verse, chorus, and bridge), place each region back-to-back on the same track. For now, keep the time base for all the tracks set to Samples.

Applying Elastic Time With your session’s tempo beat-matched to the breakout loops or stems, and these breakout loops or stems trimmed to perfect downbeats, you’re ready to apply Elastic Time.

Figure 3: Make sure your session’s Tempo Conductor is enabled, or Identify Beat will not be available.

Figure 2: We imported multitrack stems for a Radiohead remix that are ready for processing.

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If there are tempo fluctuations in the original performance, you will need to break all the stems into a series of two-bar loops (see figure 4). Use

Prepare to Analyze

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in the loop If the audio starts sounding distorted and warbled, you’re pushing the Elastic Time algorithms too far. Play with the Manual Tempo Slider until you find a tempo that sounds good and works well for the style of remix you have in mind. Remember that you can always create a new double-time or half-time drum track in order to produce a styleappropriate tempo.

Drop the Beat Normally, I’d recommend setting up individual drum outputs in order to have complete control over each drum part in your mix. However, since we’re getting this remix done fast, and Strike has all sorts of wonderful onboard mixing capabilities, Strike’s Master stereo output will do just fine here. Set up a stereo Instrument track and insert Strike. And if you haven’t already done so, make sure that you have the Strike Content Expansion pack installed to take advantage of all the cool drum machine samples and electronic beats. From the Preset Settings in Strike, load a drum kit that works with your a cappella vocal. Audition the kit’s drum patterns by playing them directly from your MIDI keyboard. With Strike, there’s no need to spend time tediously programming beats. Starting at D1 and going up the keyboard to B3, the white keys trigger the kit’s main drum patterns, while the black keys are mostly fills. (To stop playback, press C1.) Check out the presets that have an “E” in front of their names; these are the electronic beats. Once you’ve found a good beat, experiment with the kit’s overall mix using the Preset Mixes. These allow you to load a different mix without having to load a new drum kit (see figure 6). This is a very effective way of trying out entirely new drum mixes—from dirty and overdriven to clean and pristine—in a flash. With your drum kit and preset mix dialed in, sequence the notes that trigger the kit’s drum loops directly on the Instrument track. For example, start with a few bars of D1, add a fill with A#1, then settle into the main groove with D2. With such a wonderful variety of drum patterns at your fingertips, it’s easy to quickly map out an entire drum track, complete with changes, breaks, and fills. Plus, if you need to modify a pattern, it’s a piece of cake to jump into the Style Editor and change the beats for any drum.

Figure 6: Use the Preset Mixes to completely change a drum kit’s mix without changing any of its samples. When your drums are in the pocket, open up a virtual synth, such as Hybrid, and write a bass line. Quickly edit any other breakout loops or stems you think will sound good in your remix. Knock out a rough mix with compression and EQ inserts, and add reverb and delay group effects. Add a touch of mastering to the stereo Master Fader, and voilà! In very little time you’ve created a rough remix that’s more than adequate for getting your remix idea across.

To learn more about remix production, pick up a copy of my book, The Complete Guide to Remixing (Berklee Press). It’s packed full of practical advice about remixing, features tips from the industry’s top remixers (such as BT, Dave Audé, Thunderpuss, and Deepsky), and includes an audio CD with over 50 examples of the remix techniques discussed in the book. You can also study remix production with me online, at Berkleemusic.com, in my Remixing with Pro Tools and Reason course. And read more about music production at my Berkleemusic blog (http://erikhawkins.berkleemusicblogs.com).

Digidesign’s new Strike Content Expansion gives you a multitude of classic drum machine samples and inspired electronic beats for Strike that are perfect for remixing.

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workshop

Digidesign’s new Strike Content Expansion gives you a multitude of classic drum machine samples and inspired electronic beats for Strike that are perfect for remixing.

DIGIZINE 71