Finished VOLTAGE MAN for Voltage Disciple this week and can now concentrate on the forthcoming MSDrums LIVE Pack.If you want some really nice sounding fresh electronic drum sounds and a TB303 emulation check out Voltage Man ,you wont be disappointed.Been listening to Nurse With Wound lately as a cleanse.My Sylvie and Babs vinyl quite often gets a spin on the Vestax and i always leave feeling refreshed.I’ll have what there having thanks.Whats all this nonsense with vampires, you want vampires you say, well read Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series only took him nigh on 20 years to write.F@!#ing great yarn Steve.
Nighty Night
Once upon a time Barry had a mixer and a tape machine and some outboard.He would record stuff on tape and commit it when he was happy.Hell he even cut it with a razor blade to edit it sometimes.Other times he would copy sections from one part of the tape to another cause Barry was blessed with a multitrack tape machine.He used to have to leave it on most of the time cause if he turned it off the tape heads could move and things sometimes just didn’t sound the same.Once he had a song/track laid down on tape he then mixed it ,added some effects from his outboard and polished it up and recorded it all down on to a special 2 track tape recorder.Barry did all this without ever seeing a waveform on a screen.He had to use his ears and feel the music to achieve the sound he was after.Today Barry uses a computer which has replaced all his bulky, heavy lead requiring gear.Barry sees all his sounds in crystal clear high definition.Now Barry can do things with his audio that he wouldn’t had even dreamed of in the past.Barry wishes though that sometimes he could just mix and record without having to look at the screen and feel the music once more.Barry could turn his screen off whilst mixing and this may return a little of the magic he seeks but without a decent controller this may be difficult.How different do you think your music might sound if you couldn’t see it.
Nighty Night
Well Volta is here great.Software from MOTU to control your hairy old monosynth via your audio interface. In my case my beloved Korg MS20.Follow the link to read/learn all.What a shit though it costs $249 american and you can’t seem to buy via direct download only from a reputable MOTU dealer oh and its ILOK copy protection. Oh well you can’t have everything still looks great and to breath life back into the old beasts deserves a mention.As SYIKOM is interested in all things video i will also mention this. The software is free but content pacs cost .Any way the models won’t get addicted to drugs or turn nasty on you.And finally a giant reverb tank that you can record your own samples in. Yeah just what we need. Runs on unix in real time to process your sound in real time.Tank
Nighty night
Compression.
Next to reverb compressors are likely the most important tool to have in your sonic arsenal.Ther basic function is to automatically control audio levels that would be impossible to do by listening and moving a fader up and down relative to the level of the signal one is listening too in order to produce a constant level of sound inspite of the instruments /performers loundness.To put it simply a compressor reduces the difference between the loudest and quietest part of a signal by automatically turning down the gain when a signal exceeds a pre determined level.The part of the compressor that detects this is known as the side chain circuit.It generates a control signal that which is fed into the gain control circuit.When the output signal exceeds the set level a control signal is sent and the gain is reduced.We have to tell the compressor what this level is and this is known as the threshold setting,ie:if the signal goes above xdb turn it down .How much do you want me to turn it down buy our compressor asks?This is the Ratio setting.The ratio amount varies on different models/plug ins but the usual range is 1:1(no compression) to 1: infinity(limiting)never allow the signal to exceed the the threshold setting.Once again to put it simply the higher the ratio the more gain reduction is applied.Hard knee v soft knee.These are more characteristics of the compressor rather than a setting(although some compressors have a hard /soft knee switch or amount knob)Nothing happens in a compressor until the signal reaches the threshold.When it does a hard knee setting slams on the gain reduction where as a soft knee gradually introduces the gain reduction.Soft knee is more for complex mixes where as hard knee is good for slamming drums or audio surgery.Two good examples of compressors in action are Daft Punks music and perhaps the drum sounds on Nirvana’s In Utero.
Attack control is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to impart its gain control.Release is the time it takes for the compressors gain to to return to normal after the input signal has fallen below the threshold setting.Short attack times work good for vocals where as longer attack times are better for percussive instruments.Daft Punk use short release times so you can hear the compressor “pump the signal”If the release time is too long the gain may not have recovered by the time the next above threshold sound occurs.This is where hold comes in but more on that in future blog posts.Here are some settings to help get you started.
Source Attack Release Ratio Hard/Soft Knee Gain reduction
Vocals fast 0.5ms 2:1-8:1 Soft 3-8db
Kik/Sn 1-5ms 0.2s 5-10:1 Hard 5-15db
Bass 2-10ms 0.5s 4-12:1 Hard 8-15db
Mixes fast 0.4s 2-6:1 Soft 2-10db
These are some general guides to settings if you are new to compression and are buy no means suitable for every situation.One must always experiment and if it sounds good go with it in spite of what you might know as the correct use of soap.
In the next lesson we will talk about side chaining, both using a control signal to tell the compressor when to work(Ducking) and with Eq’s to compress only a selected frequency.De essing(vocal stuff to reduce siblence), the hold function and auto attack and release.
Nighty Night
After many years of of working in the world of electronic music/composition and video production. I have succumbed to starting a blog.In this forum i will attempt to express ideas and opinions relating to music/video art ,sound design and
points of artistic interest, including links to interesting material or web pages and or blogs that have little to no interest by the masses.My media is broadcast on U-Tube( see link at bottom of page)
as this seems to be the current best avenue to deliver as opposed to publishing on your own website.Soon to this blog will be stuff with Ableton LIVE , sound design and comments on popular culture,ie i hate this etc.
