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Archive for December, 2009
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
The other day I was playing around with my bowed cymbals samples and found that they didn’t timestretch particularly well with Elastic Audio or otherwise. I like Elastic Audio for many purposes but I keep running into it’s limitations. Stretching bowed cymbals to 200% is one of them, I later discovered that most other methods aren’t much better either. I’ve created some examples so you can come to your own conclusion about which is the ‘best’ way. As you’ll hear, some of these have the painfully obvious audio equivalent of THIS IMAGE.
Download RAR file with original file and 17 stretched files. 16 bit, 44.1kHz (same as original recording)
- original
- TCE Digidesign
- TCE Timeshift Default
- TCE Timeshift Stereo Mix
- Audiosuite Time Shift default
- Audiosuite Time Shift follow transient
- Audiosuite TimeCompressionExpansion Default
- Audiosuite TimeCompressionExpansion accuracy 5
- Audiosuite TimeCompressionExpansion accuracy -5
- Elastic Audio Monophonic No Event markers
- Elastic Audio Monophonic
- Elastic Audio Polyphonic default no event markers
- Elastic Audio Polyphonic default
- Elastic Audio Rhythmic default
- Elastic Audio Rhythmic default no event markers
- Elastic Audio X-Form default
- Elastic Audio X-Form Formant
- Elastic Audio X-Form No Event Markers
In my opinion and for this specific situation there is one method of stretching that is clearly better, the least “stretch marks” it’s also the most time consuming.
Let me know what you think about the test. What would you like for round 2?
Posted in Samples, Software, Sound Design | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
If you’re looking for a basic library of Orchestral sounds, and free, well now you can get one from Sounds Online. The “Starter” Version of Symphonic Orchestra PLAY Edition is a FREE (after short survey) Virtual instrument with a ton of superbly recorded Orchestral instruments.
Answer a short survey, CLICK HERE, and get a FREE starter version of the most popular professional symphonic orchestra virtual instrument ever made. It works with most sequencer/notation hosts including Ableton Live, Cubase/Nuendo, Digital Performer, Finale, FL Studio, Garageband, Logic, Pro Tools, Sibelius, Sonar, etc. Or you can use it as a standalone application with your music keyboard.
If you like the starter version, you can upgrade to the Gold, Platinum, or Platinum Plus versions. Using the promotional code in your email, CLICK HERE, enter the promotional code and you will see the discounted price. European customers CLICK HERE. This offer expires January 31, 2010.
Of course, if you choose not to upgrade, you get to keep this version which is not time limited, and not copy protected!!
Sounds like a pretty decent deal. EastWest is considered one of the best in this field but the PLAY Engine can be buggy particularly in Pro Tools. I’m currently downloading mine (a couple hours to go) and as long as it’s stable I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.
Let me know what you think of it.
Posted in Free Plugin Of The Week, Samples | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2009
This is a guest post from Geoffrey Granka of Fresh Produce Productions. Find him online at www.freshaudio.ca and @gmgranka on twitter.
Are recording schools worth going to? They can be. The reason most high school graduates go to college/university is not the main motivator for most audio engineering school entrants. The parental mantra of work hard/go to a good school/get a good job simply cannot apply to recording schools. Although it’s a general life lesson, it applies ten fold in the entertainment industry; nothing is guaranteed.
I applied in early 2006 to an Ontario recording college, having already completed a 4 month high school co-op placement at a local studio in Hamilton, Ontario. I had found something that interested me, that I could do for hours without realizing, something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I had also found out there was a lot more to it than I had ever imagined, things my high school communications teacher couldn’t teach me.
What followed were 12 hyper-compressed months of hyperventilation and forced insomnia. And although we were too busy for American pie-styled college parties, friendships were forged and good times were had. Instead we had tales of 8pm until 8am sessions, and sleeping in cars to catch the 8:30 lecture.
The faculty was much the same as any other school, with your modest, experienced engineers balanced with your pompous blowhards. A ton of information is thrown at you, and you’re expected to remember most of it. You’ll learn about digital audio, DAW editing, sunset clauses, and the psychoacoustic effects of sticking a PZM in a wall to substitute for a kick sample. But if you’re in the back of the room playing video games on your laptop, you may aswell not be there.
My class started about 100 strong and about a quarter graduated. Almost half dropped out by second term. This isn’t a diploma you can pursue just to satisfy your parents, or so you can learn to DJ your buddies gigs. There are too may wannabes and not enough job positions to fuck around. Being an engineer or producer isn’t a substitute for being a musician, it’s a separate discipline. The jobs don’t throw themselves at you, and more often than not, you’ll find yourself having to work around the clock to create a job for yourself. And as far as pay goes, if money is what you’re after, Entertainment Law is a fantastic field.
If you go in, unfocused, with a dream of being a rockstar, you’ll come out broke, still unfocused, having only learned that time isn’t for wasting. A valuable lesson, but one not worth the steep tuition many colleges carry. However, if you have a realistic idea of what an engineer does, and your dreams are equally balanced with a plan and an end goal, college is the perfect thing for you. Get to know people, learn their career paths, be sincere and not a kiss-ass, and learn what that thing with all the knobs does. It’s fun, and all of your friends will think you’ve totally lost it.
Audio engineering is one of those fields you can never really know enough about, and no matter what you took in High School, you don’t know the half of it. Recording schools are an excellerated path in an industry that’s all about speed, and it’s a big decision. But if you really want to be an engineer or a producer, it’s practically a necessity. If you’re sure it’s what you want to do, you won’t regret it.
Geoffrey Granka
Fresh Produce Productions
www.freshaudio.ca
@gmgranka
Posted in Commentary; Rants and Jokes | 5 Comments »
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
Recalling the last week of tweets from @theaudiogeek
theaudiogeek
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RT
@allenwagner: We’re about to enter a new decade in the 21st Century. 2010 for Pete’s sake. WHERE THE #$%*& IS MY FLYIN’ CAR?!
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Sober in Northern Ontario. The only one.
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just got home from buying a new bass. WOOT! Music Man Sterling w/maple neck.
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Preparing a set of samples to release tomorrow. Very non-christmassy ones, but very cool IMO. Those who score films should take notice.
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So Christmas was this past week, comment if you got something cool.
Posted in Commentary; Rants and Jokes, Tweetdump | No Comments »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
To be honest I’ve never given much thought to USB mics, I never understood why you’d want one instead of a proper mic and interface. Then I was in the situation where I could buy a Blue Snowflake for just $20 and I opened up my mind a bit. Blue is a pretty respectable brand and strangely less than an hour earlier someone showed me the Blue Icicle which was pretty nice for what it is. The # 1 thing I liked about the Icicle was that there was zero effort required to get it working with a mac and condenser mic. The # 2 thing I liked about it was I could use the built-in headphone jack on the mac for monitoring, essentially using to interfaces at once, it worked just fine.
So a guy offered to sell me his Blue Snowflake for $20, (I think he needed booze or drug money) and that’s a pretty good deal even if I only ever need it once. So the dude that never thought much about USB mics now owns one.
http://www.bluemic.com/snowflake/
So now that I owned it, I needed to figure out if I had any actual use for it and if it sounded even marginally good. My expectations were low, but there are much worse things I could have spent the money on. Let’s look at some Pro and Cons of this particular mic.
Pros
- Very portable, small & lightweight
- Inexpensive
- Very simple to setup
- Sensitive condenser mic
Cons
- Only 16 bit/44.1kHz
- Gain is computer controlled (not that bad with ‘Sound Source’ for mac)
- Thin USB cable will eventually wear out
- Sound quality not as good as a real interface + mic
Possible Applications
- Pre-production demos
- Field recorder for ‘found sounds’ out of my studio
- Skype
- Better mic for screencasting (tutorial vids for you guys)
So how does it sound? Well for under $100 I don’t expect much from anything. This is pretty decent I suppose but I didn’t directly compare it to a proper condenser mic at the time.
Posted in Gear, Review | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Over the past several months I’ve been struggling with my bass guitar tones when recording, fighting with amp sims and trying out every combination of preamp and DI, finally coming to the conclusion that it was largely the bass that was really holding me back from getting the sounds I’m looking for. The bass I had been using for the past year or two was an [amazon_link id="B003UFRWYY" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Ibanez SR 500[/amazon_link], a mid level bass, Mahogany neck and body, rosewood fingerboard and active Bartolini pickups. A nice easy to play bass, but what it was missing is some excitement for lack of a better term.
I guess I can define excitement in a bass guitar as plenty of punch, growly mids and highs, a controlled low end and dynamically responsive. When I’m recording I want as much excitement as possible.
One of the characteristics of Mahogany and Rosewood (read all about guitar tonewood here) is a compressed midrange and reduced highs. That was really working against me in the worst way. So Mahogany was out, and possibly Rosewood fingerboards as well.
Time for a change. That bass went up on Craigslist and was quickly sold. I went down to my local independent guitar shop, The Guitar Shop and started playing everything. I was open to anything not made from Mahogany. I tried several Fender & Squire Jazz basses, a [amazon_link id="B003HDSMM0" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Squire Classic Vibe P-Bass[/amazon_link], a Yamaha BB414 (Actually quite good for the price too), almost all of which would be an improvement tonally, but perhaps not in quality. Then I noticed a couple Sterling basses. Sterling is the new, more affordable line of basses and guitars from Music Man. Music Man makes some seriously badass basses, but they can be pricey. The Sterling line is assembled in Indonesia and inspected in America, this allows them to use quality parts for half the cost.
In the shop there were two very similar basses, they were both [amazon_link id="B001RIY5NM" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Ray 34[/amazon_link] models (MM Stingray design), one was [amazon_link id="B001RIY5NC" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]black with Rosewood fingerboard[/amazon_link], and the other was a natural clear gloss finish with Maple fingerboard. Same price. The Ray 34 model has a single massive humbucker, Volume, 3 band active EQ (High, Mid, Low with center detents). Tonally they fairly were similar, but the natural finish one was a couple pounds lighter and had a touch more excitement. With Swamp Ash I think it’s better to go with lighter (lower on the tree). After going back and forth between those two and the Yamaha I made my decision, made a deal and walked away with the Ray 34 Natural.
It looks just like that, but the color is just a shade lighter, less yellow. Because this is an import model you’re probably guessing that there are some quality or quality control concerns. Well there are, but in this case there are only two very small issues with this particular bass.
As with many brand new guitars the fret edges (especially in the winter) stick out a bit and had to be filed down. They did this at the store for me free and most shops will do this for you if you ask.
The second minor issue was a couple of the screws for the tuners are not in fully and the screw heads are stripped. I don’t think this will affect anything as nothing is loose.
Very minor things IMO. You will want to try these out because the density, weight and tone of Swamp Ash can vary quite a bit.
Included with the bass is a soft gig bag, padded and faux fur lined and 3 hex keys.
Alright, to bring this long post to an end. This bass is SWEET/SICK/AWESOME/ADJECTIVE/CAPSLOCK really it is. A massive improvement.
I highly recommend this bass for recording. Most people will say Fender P bass or Jazz bass…NO, get this one. LOL
Note – This review is after just 1 day owning the bass. I’ll update if I run into any problems or change my mind about it. I’m having a ton of fun with it so far.
[amazon_link id="B001RIY5NM" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Check out the Sterling Ray 34[/amazon_link]
Any questions?
Posted in Bass, Gear, Review | 3 Comments »
