5 Essential viewing for the recording industry

If you ever find yourself in a studio, there are certain things required (to understand all the jokes):

You should have watched This Is Spinal Tap at least once.

You should have heard The Troggs Tapes.

You should understand why we need more cowbell.

You should also have knowledge of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Chappelle’s Show, as these will be quoted often.

Also recommended is Confessions Of A Record Producer and Assistant Engineers Handbook.

Let us know if there are more we should know about.

Have a _____ week. (I’ll let you decide)

Posted in Commentary; Rants and Jokes, Video | 1 Comment »

Understanding Pro Tools Systems

This is a very brief overview of some of the differences in Pro Tools systems, there are many.

There are currently three versions of the Pro Tools software, each running on different hardware systems.

Pro Tools HD – For Digidesign TDM systems (HD Accel, 192 i/o, ICON)

Pro Tools LE – For Digidesign USB/Firewire Audio Interfaces (digi 003, MBox 2)
Pro Tools M-Powered – For M-Audio Audio Interfaces (Projectmix i/o, delta 1010)

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Free Plugin Of The Week – Kjaerhus Audio Classic Series

Every Monday I highlight free plugins new and old that are worth checking out. See all posts in the Free Plugin Of The Week Series.

The Kjaerhus Classic series are a set of free plugins that are simple and very usable. They are some of my favorite plugins for a few reasons, they are easy to use, have low cpu usage, and while they aren’t the cleanest, they sound very cool.

I often use the Classic Compressor on kick samples and bass, the Delay goes well with synths and I often use the Master Limiter before posting a song online.

Kjaerhus Audio – Professional Audio Plugins: Classic Series

[edit Nov 2011-The Kjaerhus Audio website has been down for some time, the download can still be found in a few places]

Posted in Free Plugin Of The Week, Software, Virtual Effect | 1 Comment »

Year Zero multitracks

In case you haven’t heard Trent Reznor has release the next series of multitracks for anyone to download. This time he is releasing them in both Logic/Garageband (aif) and WAV formats. What is interesting is that to distribute these large packs he is using bit torrents.

Apple files are on yearzero.nin.com

WAV files are on The Pirate Bay.org

Nine Inch Nails – My Violent Heart multitrack audio files

Nine Inch Nails – Me, I’m Not multitrack audio files

Nine Inch Nails – Capital G multitrack audio files

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Using Reason With ProTools

As you may know, Protools has the capability to “rewire” additional software to work within the ProTools environment. It is a very useful feature, that can streamline workflow so you are not constantly switching hosts, use additional effects not normally available in ProTools, or to create an advanced guide track such as a beat created in Reason.

ProTools LE comes bundled with Reason Adapted for Digidesign. A stripped down version of Reason, limiting to only one of each effect or instrument rack. Using Reason with ProTools via Rewire is very easy to do.

In a ProTools session (don’t start Reason), create a stereo aux track (so that a voice is not used up) and in the plugin list select multi-channel plugin; Instrument; Reason Adapted for Digidesign (stereo). Don’t be alarmed by the error messages that will pop up, this is due to conflicts with ProTools and Reason trying to use the same MIDI keyboard control surfaces.

In addition to Reason opening, you will see a rewire plugin that allows you to select which output from Reason will be heard in ProTools. You can have only one Reason session open, but you can have multiple rewire plugins listening to different outputs of the Reason ‘hardware interface’, For example you can have the REDRUM output directly to 1 and 2, and Dr. Rex to 3 and 4 etc., each coming back on a stereo aux track in ProTools allowing you to mix these tracks as you would recorded audio.

I recommend mixing down and recording these tracks from Reason to a stereo audio track, because when bouncing to disk, it will be much safer, and easier on your system this way. I do find that Reason uses less CPU running as a Rewire client than it does as a standalone program.

I can’t teach you how to use Reason other than that, however Matt may be be persuaded to share some tips.

Posted in Pro Tools, Reason, Software, Tutorial | Comments Off

Reason… a look at the surface (Part 1) ReDrum

Alright, I have been slacking so this week I am going to give a little bit of an overview on Reason 3.0…. I know, its nothing new, but i figured i would run through a series of quick tutorials of the functions of everything in Reason. alright, lets begin.

Reason is in itself very simple….so easy a caveman could use it

It is a collection of synths, drum machines, effects, sequencers and a few other goodies… the difference here though is that unlike in realty, you can duplicate your items as many times as you would like (think of a sampler or drum machine crossed with a rabbit!) and use them in any kind of chain you would like… making the possibilities limitless.

I will discuss the ReDrum module this week.

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