Free Rapture Soundbank!

For owners of Cakewalk's criminally underrated softsynth, the fine folks at Muz3um have put together a fantastic, wide-ranging collection of nearly 700 new presets (including 573 new waveforms and 36 new impulse responses) mostly based on waveforms from the classic synths of yesteryear. The bank is free, but note that only one download per IP is allowed.

GO GET THEM!

Very useful MS-20 site

For those left a bit confused by the patch panel and ESP in particular...

http://www.ms20.org/

Slow week...

How'd you spend YOUR weekend? I unfortunately had to have an emergency appendectomy and will be recovering for the next week or so. Because the painkillers they have me on are pretty strong, any updates to the blog this week will be minimal if they happen at all. I hope to be back in full force in a week, though, so thanks for your patience!

Making the Synth Part for Pink Floyd's "On the Run"

Via davidethesea on YouTube:

Can't get the video to embed for some weird reason, so you'll just have to follow this link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ccBoypwQ9zA

An Alternate Approach To Glitching

"Glitch" effects were once solely the domain of the chin-stroking neckbeard set, but as more and more software gurus are releasing glitch effects to the marketplace, this type of effect is making its way outside of just IDM music. The newer generation of glitch effects such as Illformed's Glitch or Sugarbytes' Effectrix allow you to 'sequence' the glitches, providing some control over the chaos. The majority of these types of effects, though, are purely random and thus, when you apply the effect to, say, a drum stem, the results aren't always musically useful, thus requiring a lot of editing. Truth be told, however, I actually prefer the purely random type effects because the results tend to be more interesting. However, if you want to apply these types of effects to something more clubby (as many electrohouse artists are doing these days), you probably want something a little more subtle so that the steady pulse of the beat isn't disrupted. One option to achieve that very easily is to apply the glitch not to the track itself, but to a reverb send. Here's how to do it:

1.) Load up a drum loop on an audio track, or call up a loop player as a software instrument. (Note that you can apply this to vocals, synths, guitars, or anything... the drum loop is just for simplicity's sake for this demonstration.)

2.) On the track or instrument in question, call up an effects send and set the wet/dry mix to around 50%.

3.) On the effects send itself, assign a short reverb, such as a room type reverb. You should now hear your drum loop with the room reverb applied to it.

4.) Now, on the same bus as the reverb, and AFTER the reverb, assign your favorite glitch effect. In my case, I'm using MDSP's excellent LiveCut effect.

If you've done everything correctly, you should hear the steady beat, but with the glitches happening on the reverb bus, thus giving you the interesting effect, but without interrupting the groove of your drum loop. I've posted an example below. The first 16 bars are with no effect, and the final 16 include the more subtle glitching effects via the send.

Logic Tip: Easy Editing With Option-Drag

Since the beginning or recording, editing has been an important part of the process. Thankfully, the advent of computer recording has made the editing process infinitely easier than the days where it was done by physically cutting recording tape with a razor blade and taping it back into the desired location. It's hard for those of us working in the digital age to imagine that the infamous clink/cha-ching rhythm at the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Money" was painstakingly built using this method, but that's the way it was done back in the day.
Nowadays, we have the luxury of completing the same sort of task completely non-destructively simply by clicking a mouse. And with the use of option-drag, Logic users can do it even more easily than before. Here's how it's done:

1.) Select the Marquee Tool (the crosshairs) and use it to select a portion of audio or MIDI you wish to cut and paste somewhere else. Note that this can be of any length, and does not have to be the length of the region itself. (And for purposes of demonstration, it shoudn't be...)
2.) After you've made your selection, switch back to the Arrow Tool.
3.) Press and hold the option key on your keyboard while clicking and dragging your marquee selection to the desired location.
4.) If you've done this correctly, Logic will cut your selection out of the region, make a copy of it, and place it at the new location. Meanwhile, the original audio is left in place undisturbed.

This can be used for everything from compositing, to BT style stutter edits, to even salvaging that one good bit of a MIDI region that is otherwise unusable. And with option-drag, you don't even have to mess with cut, copy, and paste commands, let alone worry about cutting your fingers with a razor blade (unless you're an emo kid, in which case that isn't an advantage at all).

Book Recommendation: This Is Your Brain On Music

Daniel Levitin was a successful musician and producer many years ago. During that time, he gained an interest in the science behind the music he was making. Why do certain songs get stuck in your head? Why are some people able to play their instruments better than others? Why do we hear music the way we do? So, Levitin earned a PhD and became a researcher about the brain and how it 'decodes' music. He's compiled much of what he has learned into this book.

Although the topic sounds like it might make for dry reading, Levitin writes in a clear, concise style that even us dumb musicians can understand and much of what he reveals in the book is truly fascinating. This book obviously won't make you a better musician or songwriter, but it will certainly make you a better informed one!

Human League - Path of Least Resistance (live BBCtv 1979)

Rare late 70's clip of the Human League playing a track off their wonderful 'Reproduction' album. Subject for debate: Which Phil Oakey hairstyle was the worst? The one in this video, or his Bono mullet around "The Lebanon" time period?

Lennar Digital Release Sylenth 1 For Mac

Long a favorite among PC users, Lennar Digital has finally released a Mac version of its famed Sylenth 1 softsynth (whenever I read the name I hear Cindy Brady in my head trying to pronounce 'Silence'). Currently, the Mac version is only available in VST format, but an AU version is promised. The new version 2.0 software offers several new features and enhancements to longtime PC users as well, including:

* Complete rewrite of the user interface and voice management, now fully written in C++ and assembly code.

* Fixes all previous problems (including sound stuttering) with several hosts including FL Studio, ACID Pro and Tracktion.

* Heavily improved loading and initialization times.

* Rebuilt MIDI learn functionality for ALL controls including support for RPN and NRPN messages.

* Onboard preset browser with 4 selectable banks of 128 presets each.

* Onboard menu for loading and saving presets and banks, as well as Copy, Paste, Insert, Delete, Init and Reset functionality for individual presets.

* Fully compatible with older Sylenth1 versions.

* Numerous minor bug fixes and improvements.

* Now ships with a total of 1024 presets divided over 2 soundbanks.

A demo is also available to try

The Shape of Things That Hum

These have made the rounds before, but they are really great and interesting if you are a gear whore. These are video profiles of iconic pieces of music gear that changed the course of music. Includes lots of interviews with people like Arthur Baker, Daniel Miller, and Orbital.

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Roland TR-808 Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Roland TR-808 Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Yamaha DX-7 Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Yamaha DX-7 Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Roland TB-303 Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Roland TB-303 Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Akai Samplers Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Akai Samplers Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Fairlight CMI Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Fairlight CMI Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Vocoder Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Vocoder Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: Simmons Drums Part 1

The Shape of Things That Hum: Simmons Drums Part 2

The Shape of Things That Hum: The Minimoog

Logic's "Hidden" Plug-in Settings

Logic, as anyone who has learned to use it will attest, is a seriously deep program. For most of us, learning Logic is an ongoing occupation. Just when you think you've learned all you need, you discover some function hidden away on some sub-menu somewhere that totally rocks your world and improves your efficiency. So while most Logic users learn to properly utilize some of the program's amazingly high quality built-in plug-ins, many of them never noticed that little triangle at the bottom of some of the plug-in windows.
For some reason, the makers of Logic decided to 'hide' certain plug-in functions. This was probably just to keep the GUI from getting too cluttered, but it's a shame, because a lot of the extended functions are really useful. For instance, on Compressor, you can add in analog style saturation effects which REALLY can change the sound of the compressor. In the EQ effects, you can choose to have the signal analyser display in either Peak or RMS modes. In Tape Delay, you can select distortion level to filth up your sound further.
There are really only a handful of Logic's plug-ins that offer extended parameters, but keep your eye open for that little grey triangle at the bottom lefthand corner of the plug-in window! Clicking it will reveal all the hidden parameters and you're good to go.

Sidechain Modulation in Logic's Synths

By now, you've probably heard of Sidechain Compression. This involves using the dynamics of one audio file to trigger the compressor on a different piece of audio. Usually, this involves using a kick drum to trigger the compressor on a pad or bass sound to make it 'pump' in time with the music. You can hear this technique all over the place in dance music these days, and used tastefully, it can be quite a cool effect.

Apple's Logic DAW was one of the first to allow sidechaining of effects, which helps explain its popularity among dance-oriented musicians. What a lot of people miss, however, is that some of Logic's built-in synths such as ES1, ES2, and Sculpture have the incredibly innovative ability to use a sidechain to modulate various synth parameters. This opens a whole new world in terms of modulation that is musically useful and dead easy to do. Here's how to try it yourself:

1. Open a new project and create one audio track and one software instrument track.

2. Import a drum loop and drag it onto your audio track. Go to the track's output assignment (you'll find this on the mixer channel for the track right above the track's name), and change it to 'No Output'. We want the drum loop to be used for the modulation, but not actually heard.

3. On your software instrument track, call up an instance of ES-2. Load the present 'Wheel Syncer' from the '01-Synth Leads' preset menu.

4. Go down to the modulation assignments section of the synth and count 7 slots over. You should see an assignment for modulating the Pitch of Oscillator 2 (the Target of the modulation) using the modwheel (the Source of the modulation). If you play a few notes and move the modwheel, you can hear how this assignment alters the characteristic 'ripping' sound most oscillator sync type sounds use.

5. Click on the modulation Source (in this case, 'ModWhl') and you'll be presented with a menu of various available modulation sources. At the very bottom, you should see a selection for 'SideCh'. Select this.

6. Now look up at the very top right corner of the plug-in window. You should see a menu for selecting you sidechain source. This defaults to 'None', but we want to change this to be the audio channel with our drum loop on it (most likely 'Audio 1' if you've started from scratch).

7. Now, press play on your sequencer and play a few sustained notes on the ES2. If you've set everything correctly, you should hear something like this:


Please note that your sequencer has to be playing for the effect of the modulation to be heard! The above is just a simple example, but you can modulate virtually anything on these synths using this technique which opens a whole new world of rhythmic textures. Experiment with using different sidechain sources too. Generally, audio with heavily pronounced transients produce the best results, but you need not limit yourself to just drum loops... try using speech as an interesting source as well.

UPDATED TO ADD: I should note that the sidechain modulation I am talking above is not in any way related to what Native Instruments somewhat confusingly also calls sidechain modulation on their Massive softsynth.

Giorgio Moroder News Feature

Interesting, but short feature on the synth legend from 1970's US news show. The narrator reminds me of Ron Burgundy for some reason.

Kraftwerk Interview

Part 1 of a fascinating series of videos from a Kraftwerk documentary from... I'm gonna guess Swedish television? Look for the other parts in the Related Videos...