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Digizine Winter 2007

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October 2018
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Full Page AD Full Page AD Full Page AD �� Full Page AD EDITOR’S NOTE Twelve W i n t e r 2007 EDITOR IN CHIEF Dusty DiMercurio CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Elise Malmberg CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jim Batcho, Elkie Bavoukian, Dustin Driver, Joe Gore, Erik Hawkins, Rob Kelly, Bill Murphy, Robert Scovill, JoE Silva, Greg Thomas DESIGN DIRECTOR Van Chuchom GRAPHIC DESIGN Sean Kelley STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Gabe Echeverria ADVERTISING MANAGER Alex Steinhart ARTIST RELATIONS Anthony Gordon, Reinel Adajar PUBLISHER Paul Foeckler DigiZine c/o Digidesign, a division of Avid 2001 Junipero Serra Blvd. #200 Daly City, CA 94014 ©2006 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, BX8a, Beat Detective, Black Box, Bomb Factory, Command|8, Control|24, Cosmonaut Voice, D-Command, D-Control, D-Fi, D-Show, D-Show Profile, Digi 002, Digi 002 Rack, DigiBase, DigiDelivery, DigiRack, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, DV Toolkit, Fast Track, FireWire 1814, G7, G-Rack, G-Rack Producer, Groovy Music, GuitarBox, GuitarBox Pro, Hybrid, Maxim, Mbox, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2 Pro, Musition, NRV10, OMF, Ozone, PhotoScore, Pinnacle, Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools Ignition Pack, Pro Tools LE, Pro Tools M-Powered, Pro Tools Method One, QuickPunch, RTAS, Scorch, SignalTools, Smack!, SoundReplacer, Sputnik, Strike, Studiophile, Surroundscope, Synchronic, TAMPA, Tel-Ray, TL Space, Transit, Trigger Finger, 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 The Combo Gift Greetings and welcome to 2007! I hope that 2006 has left you well and with a handful of good stories to tell. And for those of you whose holiday celebrations included a gift exchange, I hope you got exactly what you wanted. But if you didn’t, don’t feel blue; the thoughtful Digidesign creative team has a special gift just for you DigiZine readers: a brand-new look and feel for the ’zine. Special thanks to my pal Sean Kelley for his super-duper hip and fresh designs. Speaking of gifts, my birthday falls right around the holidays, making me what’s sometimes referred to as a Christmas baby—receiver of the infamous “combo gift.” The advantage of being a Christmas baby: I’m entitled to ask for gifts that might otherwise be a little too much to request for either occasion separately—sometimes I even get them too. Often, though, I’ll get the “faux combo gift,” which really only sufﬁces for one gift-giving occasion. But the faux combo gift is not without its upside: it affords the perfect opportunity to rationalize grabbing yourself a little something while you’re out shopping for others. This year’s gift to myself was a simple desktop mic stand. To be honest, I didn’t immediately realize how much of an asset this little mic stand would turn out to be. It’s got a nice, heavily weighted base with an easily adjustable boom arm that hovers perfectly over my computer keyboard and Command|8. Now I’ve got my favorite new mic (M-Audio Sputnik) positioned at the ideal height to holler into when I’m in front of my Pro Tools rig. No more getting up and sitting down while trying to quickly capture vocal ideas—I can now track them right from the driver’s seat. My gift to myself this year was not particularly expensive, nor was it even hard to ﬁnd. Still, I’m hereby elevating my new desktop mic stand to “authentic combo gift” status, thanks to the inspiring and productivity-boosting effect it’s had on my workﬂow. So friends and family of Christmas babies take note: Combo gifts don’t have to be expensive or hard to ﬁnd to rule. And Christmas babies, remember that you’ve got a better excuse than most to snatch yourself that latest software upgrade or happenin’ virtual instrument. Go ahead: spread a little post-holiday cheer your way—you owe it to yourself. Dusty DiMercurio Editor in Chief DAVE’S DIRT All About the Music 2006 was quite a busy year for us! Since releasing one of our most signiﬁcant software upgrades for mixing and post professionals (Pro Tools 7.2), we’ve been focused on expanding the Pro Tools palette for music creation. Our latest Pro Tools software release (7.3) brings some of these goodies to the table, like the ability to perform a lot more functions “on the ﬂy” (i.e., without manually stopping the transport), some new loop composition tools and features, and added customization options such as “Window Conﬁgurations” (a.k.a. screen sets) that can be saved and instantly recalled. On the virtual instrument (VI) front, our Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group now has four VIs available, with their ﬁfth—a powerful new sampler for Pro Tools—being demonstrated at this year’s NAMM show. One of our most exciting VIs is Strike, an extremely powerful and ﬂexible “virtual drummer” plug-in. Strike takes the concept of working with phrases, ﬁlls, and individual hits to an entirely new level, with controls like “Complexity,” “Intensity,” and “Timbre” that you can automate ﬂuidly and dynamically in real time to alter performances. There are also some great mixing and signal processing capabilities built into the plug-in: You can mangle a straight acoustic kit so much that it gets into an entirely new creative space! We also debuted Velvet, a VI focused on recreating the sounds of classic electronic pianos. This simple yet powerful instrument allows you to access far more critical tonal variation when playing, adding a level of control and nuance that you won’t ﬁnd elsewhere. Velvet also has great built-in signal processing, including vintage tapedelay effects, phase shifters, wahs, and much more. Last but certainly not least, you may have heard about a recent addition to the Avid/Digidesign family: Sibelius, the market leader in music notation and learning software. We plan to work closely with Sibelius to broadly address the needs of students and educators worldwide, and to bring some basic notation into Pro Tools in the coming months. I’ll look forward to seeing and meeting many of you at this year’s NAMM. Until next time, we hope you had a great holiday celebration, and that you have as much fun with our new products as we do. Dave Lebolt Digidesign General Manager DIGIZINE 03 Full Page AD DIGIZINE Twelve Winter 2007 PRIMO FOR LIFE 22 Preserving the Hip-Hop Style with DJ Premier 12 ACCELERATED STUDIO FMG Entertainment THE SPEED YOU NEED An Introduction to Pro Tools 7.3 Software MBOX 2 MINI Pro Tools in the Palm of Your Hand WORKSHOPS Guitar Tools Drum Room MIDI Ditty In The Loop 44 50 56 60 SPECIAL FEATURE The Creative World of Hans Zimmer 08 10 18 20 COLUMNS On The Road The Graduate Legal Ease 06 34 42 GEAR AT A GLANCE Pro Tools Personal Studio Systems 26 DEPARTMENTS Developer News Plug-in Centerfold M-Audio M-Pulse DIGIZINE 04 16 32 40 SIBELIUS & DIGIDESIGN Charting a New Course for Music Education 38 On the Road By Robert Scovill ON THE ROAD D-Show 2.5 Software The current D-Show software upgrade continues the evolution of the easiest and most comprehensive digital console software available today. While the latest version contains a number of minor enhancements to the experience of using the mixer, there are a couple of big features that are really going to rock the world of live sound. The ﬁrst of these features is a dramatically enhanced matrix section. This new approach to matrix outputs allows users to select 12 sources via drop-down menus. These sources can be any combination of aux busses, sub groups, left, right, or mono outs, or eight preselected user inputs. User inputs can include any mic- or line-level input with a choice of pre- or post-fade pick-off points, effects returns, and even Pro Tools tracks. This allows unprecedented ﬂexibility and control for the mono matrixes, and enables both the engineer and the artist to adjust settings via Digidesign’s PQ (Personal Q) onstage personal monitoring stations. Essentially, there are an additional eight stereo (PQ) and eight mono twelve-channel mixers available on the console! These are fantastic for additional monitor mixes or system drives—and best of all, not only the levels, but the input choices are discrete for every matrix output, and can change via snapshot recall! This is an incredible amount of mixing power and ﬂexibility at the ﬁngertips of the monitor mixer and the artist. The second feature is new to D-Show software: An Events list has been added, allowing users to easily construct macros using the D-Show hardware and software. Combined with the eight general purpose inputs (GPI) and outputs on the D-Show Proﬁle surface, which can include sent or received simple switch closures for an event, the possibilities of the new Events list seem inﬁnite. With some very simple programming in the Events window, you can perform such actions as “When I unmute this fader, it closes GPI switch #1, which engages Play on the CD player; and when I pull the fader down to inﬁnity, it mutes the channel and stops the CD player.” There are also dedicated function switches on both the D-Show and D-Show Proﬁle surfaces that can be programmed to actions like Pro Tools transport control. With the new Events list, the actions you choose to build are limited only by your imagination and the demands of your production. The D-Show Proﬁle Mixing Surface Let’s move on to the new kid on the block: D-Show Proﬁle. Proﬁle is a size-conscious alternative to its big brother, the original D-Show mixing surface. Sporting 24 input faders in a single non-expandable frame, its footprint is slightly smaller than the D-Show’s main unit. But while its smaller size is a major asset, D-Show Proﬁle offers numerous other advantages as well. D-Show Proﬁle was designed with compatibility in mind—the mixing surface is fully compatible with all VENUE live sound environment hardware. Its tactile interface has been scaled down through reduced resolution metering; it features a single row of encoders, and selected surface switches now reside in software. This ensures that Proﬁle offers all the sound quality, reliability, and features that have made the original D-Show console such a hit with mixers and artists. It’s fully compatible with TDM plug-ins and Pro Tools hardware. And perhaps most importantly, D-Show Proﬁle and the larger D-Show mixing surface share the same D-Show software, ensuring complete ﬁle portability. For users, this means there’s no need to learn new software or workﬂows when moving between these two mixing surfaces; show ﬁles can be built and used on either console at any stage of work. Sound-for-hire vendors can now include a size-conscious alternative in their inventories, without the ﬁnancial demands of purchasing a complete second system, and without sacriﬁcing quality in any way. And for venues with space challenges, such as churches, theaters, and broadcasters, here’s an opportunity to experience the positive impact that VENUE can have on the success of live sound events. Vive le Proﬁle! The D-SHOW PROFILE and new D-SHOW 2.5 SOFTWARE Since its debut in 2005, VENUE’s groundbreaking features have taken the concert sound industry by storm. Now, with the new D-Show Proﬁle mixing surface and D-Show 2.5 software, the VENUE family of products is poised to spread to an even broader range of live sound professionals and applications, including houses of worship, theaters, AV events, and broadcast. So let me take a few minutes and show you around the new digs! DIGIZINE 06 DIGIZINE 07 Accelerated By JoE Silva ACCELERATED STUDIO From Tombs to Tunes As FMG Entertainment’s Tim Grossi and his small crew of engineers grow busier by the day, getting him on the phone becomes tougher. When we do connect, it’s just before Halloween—and as Grossi begins to run down his professional history, it turns out that he has a seasonally appropriate background. But that was several years ago. Now Grossi and his company have built the ﬁrst studio in the Chicago metro area that uses an ICON console for recording and mixing audio. Other studios have set up the high-end Digidesign boards for post production work, but FMG has to turn away clients eager to do tracking sessions at the facility. Grossi’s leap from headstones to test tones was prompted when his wife gave the former musician a recording session as a Christmas gift. Grossi looked at the technology being used in the studio and thought, “I could do this.” He then embarked on an extensive course of research to ﬁnd out what other studios were using before acquiring his own gear. “They’d think we were going to do a session, but I’d be there asking them things like, ‘What key command do I use to do this or that?’ I think it was money well spent. Watching what they did and what equipment they were using helped me make a lot of my decisions. It was right after that that I bought a Control|24.” “I actually went to a number of studios in the Chicago area,” says Grossi. “And if they wouldn’t talk to me, I would buy an hour or two of time and just ask questions, like ‘Why are you using this?’” With that, FMG was on its way. Grossi bought into a company with a small stable of artists they believed were on their way to successful major-label deals, which resulted in FMG securing a lockout situation with Atlantic Records. Grossi has used a similar professional approach on every detail of his studio’s gear. When he buys microphones, he ﬁrst looks at the Billboard charts and researches which ones were used to record the latest Top Ten hits. So when artists arrive at FMG, they’ll ﬁnd that current industry standards are at their disposal. But as Grossi began to expand his business, purchasing a new console became a point of concern. Grossi’s next step was to hire pro engineers whenever he reached an impasse with his recordings, and simply grill them for the answers he needed. DIGIZINE 08 “I began as a programmer, working alongside Peter Mokran and R. Kelly,” Fernandez says. “So I was absolutely skeptical about it, having come from an analog background and working with SSL and Neve consoles. I got my ﬁrst [ICON] demo at NAMM in 2005, but it really wasn’t enough time, and those shows are sometimes difﬁcult places to absorb things. But once we got a good rundown in a more peaceful environment, I was pretty much sold. The skepticism I had at ﬁrst turned into ‘I can make this work.’” For Fernandez, the key selling point was the D-Control’s automation features. “It was really mind-blowing. Especially what you can do with plug-ins, laying them out with the ICON. The hands-on part is really awesome. You can do everything you could ever wish to do with a plug-in. The recall ability is really incredible. Everything is assignable. It’s such a customizable type of environment. With the customizable banks, it’s just an awesome environment to be in.” “I was in the cemetery business,” he says with a chuckle. “That way, I can study which way I want to go,” he explains. “And after visiting a number of studios and looking at both those who were afraid to go to the future and those who were looking toward the future, I decided to go with Pro Tools.” Piloting FMG’s D-Control are two of the Chicago area’s most sought-after engineers, Joey Fernandez and Slavic Livins. Between them, they have engineered material for such artists as Patti LaBelle, DJ Krush, and Keith Sweat. But Fernandez’s experience growing up in the two-inch tape world made him somewhat doubtful about the ICON at ﬁrst. “I knew we wanted something special. I looked at the SSL AWS900 and a lot of other boards, old and new. In fact, I had an old SSL that I sold. It’s a maintenance nightmare—it’s unbelievably temperamental, and you’re always trying to guess what will go wrong next so you can have the parts there. I thought that the 900 kind of puts you in a box. So for me, the future is in the ICON.” Grossi was so excited to bring his ICON D-Control onboard that when FMG took delivery of it at their warehouse, they had it uncrated and functioning before the regional product specialist even arrived to help. “Before anyone from Digi could get here, we were up and running. We couldn’t wait!” he says. Fernandez is referring to ICON’s ability to map all of its rotary controls and any of the eight-fader channels to speciﬁc plug-in functions—all with the press of a single button that takes the user into Custom Fader mode. “Once you get used to the ﬂow and how you can work, it’s nonstop after that. And the great thing about the board is that you can work 16 different ways if you want to. We love it,” he says. The ICON has also proven its ﬂexibility in combination with outboard gear, Grossi adds. “We have a combination of outboard gear and different summing situations, including API modules, etc. If someone wants to use those vehicles they can. But in the end, everything goes through the ICON.” For his part, Fernandez ﬁnds that most everyone who walks through FMG’s door is impressed with the environment. “We had Dave Hollister in here—he used to work with Ted Riley and Blackstreet. He had been working on an SSL, and when I showed him what you could do with the ICON, he was blown away. And that’s the thing. You have to teach people what they can really do in order for them to understand. People who think the ICON is a big mouse have no idea.” Recently FMG has been working with local hip-hop artists, producing music for plays, and taking on mix work from all over the country. FMG has also hosted a new Yugoslavian artist named Tomi that Grossi is convinced is about to break big. “This kid is just amazing. He’s going to be very, very big. He can do urban, pop, everything. He can play the guitar, do all the reed instruments as well as the horns. You name it. I’m really thrilled that he chose our studio. At ﬁrst he did not want to come here because he was looking for a studio that had an SSL. But it was one of those things where we said come in, sit down, and watch what we can do. And he’s never left.” Beyond the local talent Grossi is helping to groom for the future, the word is leaking out about FMG’s results. “We are so busy...I mean, maybe we could get someone in on a Sunday morning, but otherwise, it’s just amazing. I’m getting emails from all over saying, ‘Why can’t we get into the studio? Aren’t we good enough?’ We’re doing mixes from New Orleans, Miami, Cleveland, Detroit, and Atlanta. Now, why are they coming to a suburb of Chicago? It’s the kind of work we’re putting out.” And although they haven’t been in business that long, Grossi is already looking to expand his operation. “We’re planning on expanding in the next year or so, through some outbuildings that I have. I’m trying to ﬁgure out how to convert a cool old barn into another recording space and production area.” As FMG tackles these challenges, Grossi is adamant that Digidesign will be a factor throughout the organization. “Digidesign is working on both ends of the spectrum, the low-end as well as the high-end,” he says. “In fact, we just bought an Mbox 2 for one of the new production areas that we’re setting up!” “PEOPLE WHO THINK THE ICON IS A BIG MOUSE HAVE NO IDEA.” In just three years, not only has Tim Grossi reinvented himself professionally—with FMG’s commitment to ICON, he’s placed his company at the forefront of the recording scene in one of America’s hotbeds of musical activity. “People are just amazed at what we’re able to do in this facility,” he says. “We’re always looking for those things that can help an artist expand and expound on what they’re trying to accomplish. And I think ICON satisﬁes that high-end user. Maybe we haven’t had the board long enough, but I really don’t have a lot to complain about. It works great, and to me, this is where it’s at.” JoE Silva is the host/producer of WUGA’s Just Off The Radar (www.justofftheradar.com). He’s a regular contributor to Music Tech magazine in the UK, and has also written for Remix, Sound on Sound, Future Music, and other periodicals that he can’t generally remember. DIGIZINE 09 Special Features 7.3 By RobDriver Kelly by Dustin SPECIAL FEATURE The Speed You Need: Pro Tools 7.3 Software Over the last couple of years, Pro Tools has introduced numerous developments speciﬁc to music creation. With the new Pro Tools 7.3 update, Digidesign adds a broad range of new features to Pro Tools, with the emphasis on speed. This update is all about speeding up your creative ﬂow. The application feels more ﬂuid, and a lot snappier. In addition to the big new features, there are lots of tidy-ups in areas that previously might slow you down in the midst of putting down your musical ideas. The previous release, Pro Tools 7.2, was a biggie, with literally hundreds of mixing and post production-oriented features (see my article in the last issue of DigiZine for the full review); however, it was only available for Pro Tools|HD systems. Much of the 7.2 feature set has now been rolled into Pro Tools 7.3 software, making many of these tools accessible to users of Pro Tools LE, M-Powered, and Academic as well as HD users. DIGIZINE 10 Faster, Pro Tools! Kill! Kill! Pro Tools 7.3 features a load of improvements for creating new tracks or making changes to the mixer on the ﬂy. In previous versions, you had to manually stop the transport to perform several common functions. This may not sound like a big deal, but it can deﬁnitely slow you down and get you out of the groove, so these features are most welcome. All types of new tracks, sends, plug-ins, hardware inserts, and track I/O assignments can now be made, deleted, copied, or changed without manually stopping the transport. This increases the ﬂuidity and musical adaptability of the program to no end. Creating a new send on the ﬂy when I’m mixing is something I’ve wished for pretty much every time I’ve used Pro Tools—for those mixing with a control surface, it makes Pro Tools feel a lot more like a console. Certain operations that require changes to DSP allocation or revoicing (such as inserting an RTAS plug- in after a TDM one) cause a brief pause in playback, but you don’t have to manually stop and restart. Most pleasing! Speaking of not stopping and starting, the Playback Engine settings now include an option to suppress those annoying RTAS errors in playback that ask you to allocate more CPU power. So if you’re happy to live with occasional clicks and pops, you can push your system over the max while writing and experimenting. I’d advise switching the error reporting back on and converting some stuff to audio before printing mixes, though. Dynamic Transport Mode Perhaps the most exciting enhancements available in Pro Tools 7.3 are the music production-oriented features that’ll get you writing more music faster. Let’s start with the new looping features. When you switch on Dynamic Transport mode from the Options menu, the main Full Page AD Special Features 7.3 Full Page AD SPECIAL FEATURE have to stop and restart to achieve this. There are some clever new key commands to speed your progress further—for example, when you’re working unlinked, the “O” key sets your loop points around your edit selection. Figure 1: Play Start marker and loop points. time-base ruler expands to double height, and a new blue, triangular Play Start marker appears (see ﬁgure 1). Dynamic Transport mode allows you to decouple the playback location from the current selection; it’s similar to using “Unlink Timeline from Edit Selection” in previous versions of Pro Tools. But Dynamic Transport mode is a lot more elegant than just working unlinked (which you’ll still want to do for MIDI work), in that your timeline selection can be freely moved around by clicking and dragging the grey area that deﬁnes the selection. And you can start playback from any point without losing either the timeline or edit selections. YOU CAN SEARCH YOUR PLUG-IN SETTINGS FOR “PAD,” AND DIGIBASE WILL LIST EVERY PAD SOUND IN EVERY VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT YOU HAVE INSTALLED. Dynamic Transport mode adds a subtle highlight to the selection across all tracks, so you Figure 2: The Loop Trim tool. can quickly see your loop points. Finally, a new “Use Separate Play and Stop Keys” preference remaps the zero and Enter keys on the numeric keypad to a traditional sequencer layout for speedy transport operation. You can now make the Pro Tools transport and loop functions work in very similar ways—handy for users familiar with certain well-known German sequencer applications. If you have several ﬁles selected, Normal mode lets you move sequentially through them, previewing them in turn. Loop mode will, er, loop, and Auto mode plays any selected ﬁle without the need to hit the space bar. This makes it much easier to bang through a library of loops searching for the one that works. And don’t forget, DigiBase supports REX and ACID ﬁles, and now automatically previews REX and ACID loops in tempo with your song (an additional column displays their embedded tempos). In 7.3, DigiBase also supports the plug-in preset ﬁle type (.tfx), allowing plug-in presets to be searched and sorted—and with DigiBase Pro, arranged into user libraries. You can search your plug-in settings for “pad,” and The Loop Trim Tool Pro Tools 7.3 also features a new mode for the Trim tool: Loop Trim (see ﬁgure 2), which allows you to instantly turn any region into a loop. You can extend the number of repeats (by dragging the tool over the top right of the region), or change the individual loop duration without changing the total length of the looped part (by dragging over the bottom right). Very cool, very fast. DigiBase Upgrades DigiBase gets several improvements in Pro Tools 7.3, especially in the auditioning department. A new Preview button (see ﬁgure 3) allows users to set various behaviors for Preview, Normal, Loop, and Auto modes. Figure 3: New DigiBase Preview modes. it’ll list every pad sound in every virtual instrument you have installed. Search results can now be sorted by plug-in name and manufacturer in DigiBase, so you can ﬁnd all your Waves telephone EQ settings, for example. These DigiBase enhancements really speed up the process of selecting plug-ins and audio ﬁles in Pro Tools. Your edit selection is displayed numerically in the Transport window—and when used in conjunction with Loop Playback during playback, Pro Tools also automatically updates the loop start/end locations the next time it loops around. Previously you’d Figure 4: The Key Change editor and Key ruler. DIGIZINE 12 Special Features 7.3 Full Page AD SPECIAL FEATURE Notation and Instrumentation Tools Pro Tools 7.3 includes several juicy new instrumentation and notation features for composers and arrangers. For example, a new key signature ruler allows programming of key changes, much as meter or tempo changes are handled (see ﬁgure 4). Figure 6: The Window Conﬁgurations manager. Quick Clicks, Window Conﬁgurations, and More Figure 5: The “pitched track” Playlist option. The Key Change window lets you constrain notes to a key and transpose diatonically (for example, change a phrase from major to minor key). All MIDI and Instrument track types also now have a “pitched” option in the Playlist pop-up (see ﬁgure 5) that can be unchecked to prevent accidental transposition of tracks feeding non-pitched sources, such as drum machines. In Pro Tools 7.3, key signatures can be imported from and exported to standard MIDI ﬁles. Other key-signature related features include diatonic transposition in the MIDI Operations window, allowing you to transpose a part “in key.” Seeing staves, sharps, ﬂats, and diatonic transposition in Pro Tools is a signiﬁcant change that bodes well for future scoring and composition features— a conjecture bolstered by Avid’s recent acquisition of Sibelius, the world’s leading manufacturer of music notation software. (See article on page 38.) The ﬁrst signs of integration are there already: All MIDI and Instrument tracks can be exported to Sibelius at once, or trackby-track. For those who want the power of Pro Tools for recording, arranging, and mixing, but also need to work with dot-reading musicians, this is very good news. DIGIZINE 14 The process of setting up click tracks is now automatic thanks to the new “Create Click Track” command; a new preference also enables auto-creation of a click track for each new session. To get you going quickly from where you left off, there’s also a new “Open Recent Sessions” list in the ﬁle menu. Nice. Pro Tools 7.3 also introduces a set of features to manage Window Conﬁgurations, or screen sets as they’re sometimes called. Any arrangement of Figure 7: New track windows—Edit, height settings. Mix, Universe, plug-ins, etc.— can be stored and instantly recalled, including Show/Hide settings for customizable windows. Window Conﬁgurations provide a slick and powerful way to save and recall the Pro Tools interface in all its many guises, and will have you ﬂying around as you write, record, edit, and mix (see ﬁgure 6). A new Show/Hide Floating Windows command does as its name suggests, and the vertical height of tracks is now user-deﬁnable—or you can choose new “Fit to Window” or “Micro” track heights (see ﬁgure 7). The “E” key, which controls zoom functions, is now fully customizable (see ﬁgure 8). And you can now play notes directly in MIDI Notes view by clicking on the piano roll editor. All this makes the Pro Tools 7.3 UI much more ﬂuid and adaptable to different working methods. Figure 8: Zoom Toggle preferences. Speed and Power There are loads of other new features and improvements throughout Pro Tools 7.3, including memory locations, preferences, PC/Mac drive compatibility, and MIDI region drawing—not to mention all the 7.2 features that are now available for LE and M-Powered users. This is a very musical and speedy release that solidly achieves its goals of making Pro Tools a lot faster, easier, and more intuitive. Rob Kelly is a musician and sound engineer. Previously a product specialist for Digidesign UK, he now works for Strongroom and Air Studios in London. Developers... DEVELOPERS NEWS W – Windows M – Macintosh Antares Audio Technologies Auto-Tune 5 EZQuest Pro Studio RAID Drives KK Audio Desks for D-Command Secrets of the Pros Advanced Pro Tools DVD: Volume III TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite W M The new Pro Studio RAID line is a MultiLane SATA storage solution designed for content creation professionals who have outgrown their current arrays of external FireWire drives and are ready to explore the world of high-resolution media. The storage solutions come in single-channel 1.28 TB, 2.0 TB, and 3.0 TB, and dual-channel 2.56 TB, 4.0 TB, and 6.0 TB versions. KK Audio presents four unique new desks for D-Command consoles. These classic desks combine strength and beauty to enhance your studio, and are available with hundreds of different ﬁnish options and a choice of oak, maple, cherry, or mahogany hardwood trim. This instructional DVD picks up where its highly successful prequels left off. With well over two hours of information, Volume III dives deep into a variety of topics such as mixing and plug-ins, how to use automation in Pro Tools, an overview of control surfaces, and more. Auto-Tune 5 is the newest version of the popular pitch-correction plug-in. It includes an improved pitch-detection algorithm, a sleek new interface, consolidated pitch-tracking control, and numerous new Automatic and Graphical Mode features. Auto-Tune 5 provides more tools for even more natural pitch correction, as well as enhanced productivity and workﬂow improvements. www.antarestech.com Creative Network Design TriggerPak 1.2 and NetMix Pro 3.8 WM TriggerPak expands NetMix Pro into a powerful playout solution for sound effects, music segments, and voiceovers for live TV productions, radio, theater, and live events. NetMix Pro lets users search lightningfast for sound effects, music, or any other audio ﬁle cataloged in the NetMix Server database, and quickly assign audio ﬁles to playlists. www.kkaudio.com www.secretsofthepros.com www.ezq.com McDSP HD and Native Product Lines FXpansion BFD Percussion RTAS BFD Percussion is the ﬁfth expansion pack for FXpansion’s BFD premium acoustic drum module. Featuring everything from Latin, World, and drumkit-centric percussion to junk and kitchenware, BFD Percussion is by turns diverse, outlandish, and inspirational. www.fxpansion.com TC Electronic UnWrap TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite W M Minnetonka Audio SurCode for Dolby Pro Logic II Antares Audio Technologies McDSP is now shipping the McDSP HD and Native product lines, which now include support for Intelbased Macs, improved RTAS plug-in efﬁciency, faster user-interface updates and loading times, and HD Accel card optimizations. www.mcdsp.com Glyph FireWire 800 GT Series Originally developed for TC’s ﬂagship System 6000 high-deﬁnition processor, UnWrap is now available as a Pro Tools plug-in. UnWrap facilitates smooth and fast stereo-to-5.1 up-conversion when there is no time to do a conventional 5.1 mix, or when multitrack source material is nonexistent. www.tcelectronic.com Minnetonka Audio SurCode for Dolby Pro Logic II Auto-Tune 5 TDM (Accel only) W M RTAS W M Toontrack dfh EZdrummer and Superior Drummer Cube-Tec Virtual Precision Instruments Building upon the original FireWire 400 GT Series drives and enclosures, the new FW800 versions offer the newest SATA drive technology and bus speeds roughly double that of FireWire 400. This award-winning software is now available as an RTAS plug-in. SurCode for Dolby Pro Logic II allows game developers, broadcasters, video producers, and audio professionals everywhere to easily encode surround sound into stereo delivery formats. RTAS, AudioSuite M www.glyphtech.com www.minnetonkaaudio.com Grace Design m802 A/D Option Nomad Factory Liquid Bundle II Now available as an RTAS plug-in, dfh EZdrummer is a multi-microphone drum sampler designed for musicians and producers in need of a compact, affordable, easy-to-handle plug-in without compromising sound quality or control. The ﬁrst RTAS version of the Superior Drummer samplers is available for dfh Superior, Superior Custom and Vintage, and Superior Vintage Add-on. RTAS, AudioSuite W M www.toontrack.com The Liquid Bundle II is an ideal suite of effects for sound designers, mixers, and musicians. Plug-ins include Liquid Compressor II, Liquid Delays II, Liquid Gate II, Liquid Mod II, Liquid Phase II, and Liquid Verb II. The plug-ins provide full, warm sound quality, intuitive and simple controls, and CPU resource efﬁciency. Virtual Katy VK CNA www.creativenetworkdesign.com Cube-Tec restoration and mastering tools are used by some of the world’s most prestigious facilities. Cube-Tec has now made Pro Tools versions of their renowned AudioCube noise reduction plug-ins. The ﬁrst suite of Virtual Precision Instrument plug-ins includes DeBuzz, Spectral DeHiss Expert, DeScratcher, and DeCrackler. www.cube-tec.com Doremi V1-HD/LE This eight-channel, high-performance A/D converter option for the m802 remote-controllable preamp system is designed to be seamlessly integrated into a Pro Tools|HD-compatible m802 preamp. The new 24bit/192 kHz-capable A/D converter option represents a new level of sonic performance and reliability for audio professionals. Roger Nichols Digital Detailer www.gracedesign.com The V1-HD/LE provides perfect sync with the Pro Tools timeline via its frame-accurate Sony 9-pin chase mode. The V1-HD/LE is ideally suited for audio post applications in both ﬁlm and television. IK Multimedia AmpliTube 2 Live Cube-Tec Virtual Precision Instruments RTAS W M www.doremilabs.com Drums On Demand Volume 8: More 4/4 More 4/4 features a variety of crossover kits, styles, and tempos suitable for rock, pop, and country songs. Simply ﬁnd the Master Loop that ﬁts your project, and use the other loops and segments in the Song Set to quickly build a drum track that feels and sounds like a live drummer. AmpliTube 2 Live is a low-cost introductory version of AmpliTube 2, the popular guitar and bass ampand effects-modeling plug-in. This MIDI-controllable plug-in includes 15 amp combinations for a wide range of guitar and bass tones, 11 fully conﬁgurable effects, and 128 presets. www.drumsondemand.com www.nomadfactory.com A marriage of the recently-acquired Change Note Assistant with the award-winning VK change-management technology, the new VK CNA product offers all of the VK2 feature and functionality, Change Note Assistant algorithms, and AAF support. Roger Nichols Digital Detailer www.virtualkaty.com RTAS W M Waves Mercury Collection Detailer, the ﬁrst Roger Nichols Digital plug-in to be developed speciﬁcally by Roger Nichols, is a stereo mastering tool or a ﬁnal mix plug-in for the Pro Tools Master Fader. Detailer offers a new way of increasing the “detail” in a ﬁnal mix while still allowing increased loudness. www.ikmultimedia.com www.rogernicholsdigital.com TC Electronic Glyph FireWire 800 GT Series UnWrap RTAS W M TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite W M With a total of 91 stunning processors and more than 200 component plug-ins, Mercury features more Waves in one package than ever before. It includes three new V-Series vintage console modeling plugins, the Diamond Bundle, the L-Series, MaxxVolume, GTR, 360° Surround Tools, Waves Tune and Transformation, DeBreath, IR1 and IR360, and Z-Noise. www.waves.com now shipping from digidesign development partners DIGIZINE 16 For more information, visit www.digidesign.com. DIGIZINE 17 Product Spotlight Full Page AD PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT �� 5" 1.75" Mbox 2 Mini Mbox 2 Mbox 2 Pro Mbox 2 Mini Pro Tools in the Palm of Your Hand Meet Mbox 2 Mini—the world’s smallest, most affordable Pro Tools LE system ever. Whether you’re a singer/songwriter who’s new to recording or a seasoned pro on the go, Mbox 2 Mini packs professional features into a robust, ultra-compact, easy-to-use audio workstation to record and mix music wherever your inspiration takes you. And with its diminutive size, Mbox 2 Mini literally puts the power of Pro Tools in the palm of your hand. Like its siblings, Mbox 2 and Mbox 2 Pro, Mbox 2 Mini delivers superior sound quality and includes plenty of powerful creation tools for composing, recording, and mixing your music. It comes with award-winning, easy-to-use Pro Tools LE software, which provides you with many of the same tools the pros use on major recordings and in ﬁlms. And because Pro Tools is the industry standard, you can use your Mbox 2 Minirecorded sessions in any Pro Tools-equipped studio around the world. Superior Sound and Design Mbox 2 Mini—like the rest of the Mbox 2 family—was designed by Digidesign, makers of professional, industry-standard Pro Tools|HD hardware. That means you can expect premium hardware design, highquality internal components, and superior sound quality and reliability. Mbox 2 Mini supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz audio resolu- DIGIZINE 18 tion, delivering stellar sound at better than CD-quality audio. And its robust metal enclosure can withstand all the bumps and knocks that come with being toted around everywhere you go. Musician Friendly Mbox 2 Mini and Pro Tools LE software are easy to use, meaning you’ll spend more time creating and mixing music than futzing around with convoluted controls and settings. If you’re new to digital recording and wondering how to connect your microphone, guitar, bass, or keyboard to your computer to make a recording, Mbox 2 Mini enables you to easily do just that and capture your performances with amazing ease. Simply attach Mbox 2 Mini to your computer using the included USB cable, plug your instruments directly into Mbox 2 Mini, and you’re ready to rock (or get funky, or scat, or do whatever it is that you do). Plus the included Pro Tools Method One instructional DVD will teach you step-by-step how to record and mix your music with professional results. Everything You Need in One Package Powered by award-winning, easy-to-use Pro Tools LE software, Mbox 2 Mini turns your PC or Mac into a full-ﬂedged recording studio that’s packed with many of the same tools the pros use. Mbox 2 Mini also comes with an incredible software bundle to help turn your creative ideas into reality quickly and easily. The included Xpand! sample-playback/synthesis workstation plug-in from the Digidesign Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group enables you to bring thousands of high-quality acoustic and digital instrument sounds and loops into Pro Tools—from pianos and synths to guitars, drums, woodwinds, and orchestral hits. The free Bomb Factory and DigiRack plug-ins provide extensive processing power to help you get professional-sounding mixes. And the mighty Pro Tools Ignition Pack comes with everything you need to start making and promoting your music, including Ableton Live Lite, Propellerhead Software Reason Adapted, FXpansion BFD Lite, and much more. �� Total Portability Carrying Mbox 2 Mini is an effortless feat thanks to its small size. Toss it in your bag or carry it in hand. Because Mbox 2 Mini is solidly built, it can withstand being jostled and knocked around. And with its USB-powered ability, you needn’t worry about scrounging around for a power outlet to start working whenever—and wherever—inspiration strikes. Mbox 2 Mini gives you the freedom and ﬂexibility to record and mix Pro Tools sessions anywhere you travel—sessions that can be used in Pro Tools-equipped studios around the world. �� Special Feature Zimmer By Greg Thomas SPECIAL FEATURE Collaboration The Creative World of Hans Zimmer Inspiration For Zimmer, the inspiration needed to produce such a steady stream of successes has come from a variety of places. “When I sign onto a project, I become immediately immersed in a new world—whether it’s a movie about pirates or The Da Vinci Code,” says Zimmer. “It’s a bit like going to a foreign country on holiday. You see the sights, and it’s inspiring.” Inspiration also comes from working in an ever-changing array of musical genres. “After I’ve been working on a band-oriented score for a while, I often feel re-inspired to work with an orchestra again,” says Zimmer. “Right now, I’m doing a kind of hybrid score with synth, orchestra, and acoustic elements—that’s the ideal world for me.” Hans Zimmer’s work on ﬁlms such as Rain Man, The Lion King, As Good As It Gets, Gladiator, and The Last Samurai has earned the German-born composer immense respect in the ﬁlm industry—not to mention numerous awards, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, three Grammy Awards, and a Tony Award. But what may be more impressive than his accolades is the sheer amount of music he has created in his twenty-ﬁve-year professional music career. Since his introduction to the music industry as a member of early-’80s new wave band the Buggles (remember “Video Killed the Radio Star?”) and his ﬁrst collaborative efforts on ﬁlm scores in the mid-’80s, Zimmer has composed more than 100 ﬁlm scores—the titles of which are instantly recognizable to pretty much any moviegoer in the last two decades. Recently Zimmer has been in collaboration with Digidesign, offering his years of expertise composing music for ﬁlm to help the company in their continual pursuit to make Pro Tools the most inspiring application for music creation. DIGIZINE 20 It shouldn’t be surprising that Zimmer would want to include electronic elements in his work: Synths and computer music applications have played essential roles in his creative process since the beginning of his career. “I’m a bad piano player, but a good programmer,” says Zimmer. “I was writing music on computers years before IBM invented the PC. In the late ’70s, I had this Roland MC-8 MicroComposer that I thought was great. But you had to punch your notes in with numbers. Eventually I graduated to a Fairlight. So I’ve been doing this a long time, and I still get very excited about it—crafting a sound or using these tools to work on an arrangement.” Today, technology continues to be a source of inspiration and a key resource for composing. “Everything I do begins with a sequencer,” says Zimmer. “Film is a collaborative effort, and I work with directors and editors on a daily basis. By sequencing compositions and playing them back through synths and samplers, I can share ideas very easily. It is an enormous beneﬁt to discuss the music before you go to the scoring session with the orchestra.” The ability to store and instantly recall settings for a large number of cues helps Zimmer share more than just early concepts. “I usually have between 40 and 50 cues in a movie,” he says. “I can recall them instantly just by loading a session—I don’t have to recall where the faders were. Then I can sit with the director and make changes, all without having an orchestra of one hundred people sitting there, waiting to play their instruments.” Zimmer has extended the collaborative process beyond the typical group of creatives with Remote Control Productions, a sort of compositional co-op in the guise of a recording, editing, and scoring studio. “Remote Control Productions is a bunch of composers and musicians at different stages in their careers who like talking to one another and solving problems together,” says Zimmer. “It’s nice to run into somebody and ask, ‘How would you approach this cue? Do you think this sounds good on strings or fuzz guitars?’ To be able to have these conversations and be in a creative environment all the time is great.” While the environment is supportive, Zimmer stresses that individualism plays a key role in producing creative results. “We are deﬁnitely not of the same mind,” says Zimmer. “As artists, by nature, we are contrary—we are anarchists. We have very strong opinions, and that’s what’s exciting. We have arguments all the time about what works and what doesn’t.” Creation While individual composers at Remote Control Productions continue to use a wide range of software tools for their initial sketches, the common denominator is Pro Tools. “Every room has a Pro Tools system for recording and mixing music and playing back video,” says Zimmer. “For us to work with one another and with studios, there simply has to be standardization, and for all sorts of reasons the industry standard is Pro Tools—one reason is that it actually works!” Each composing room at Remote Control Productions has an extended Pro Tools|HD Accel system with a Digidesign Expansion|HD Expansion Chassis, which accommodates PCIbased Pro Tools|HD cards with a PCIe-based host computer. Each room also uses ten 192 I/O interfaces. Composers can feed audio from any source directly to the Pro Tools system to print cues that can easily be shared among the production team. In Zimmer’s case, the audio that ends up in Pro Tools often originates from his famed sample library. Constructed more than a decade ago, this collection of orchestral samples remains a core creative resource for Zimmer. “About thirteen years ago, I sampled all of my favorite orchestral players in London in a great hall,” says Zimmer. “And I’ve been using those samples every day since. It’s fantastic, and unlike a lot of other technology in the past decade, it has not become obsolete.” engineers are recording each sample with many more mics—sixteen, in fact—giving the composer extreme ﬂexibility in using the samples. “The idea is to allow composers and engineers to work with these samples as they would a real orchestra,” says Wherry. “They’ll be able to control the balance between individual mics—including spot mics, Decca trees, and surround mics—so they can customize the sound of the room. They can produce a close-mic’d string ensemble or a gigantic orchestral sound.” Coming Up for A.I.R. Zimmer’s original library was restricted to his own personal use. But through a partnership with Digidesign, discussions about making his new orchestral library available to Pro Tools users are underway. His orchestral library began as a collaborative project between Zimmer and Peter Gorges, then CEO of Wizoo. “Our idea was to stay focused on the orchestra,” says Zimmer. “We didn’t want to create drum samples that could be used for everything, like hip-hop and pop. By limiting ourselves to orchestral samples, we could really focus our energy on getting it right.” “EVERY ROOM HAS A PRO TOOLS SYSTEM FOR RECORDING AND MIXING MUSIC AND PLAYING BACK VIDEO.” Gorges and the Wizoo team now make up part of Digidesign’s Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group, and the steps to producing the next-generation sample library are gaining speed. “The Digidesign A.I.R. group combines many of the people from Wizoo with exceptional Digidesign engineers,” says Zimmer. “These companies have truly put together a fantastic collection of brains. And the fact that many of them are musicians means that they can better understand what a musician wants. There’s a synchronicity. “I’ve been very impressed with what the A.I.R. group has delivered already,” Zimmer continues. “The new Velvet plug-in, for example, is beautiful to play. That’s the philosophy I want this sample library to embody: I want it to be an inspiring instrument.” Evolution Zimmer’s private sample collection has stood the test of time. But a few years ago, he and engineering associate Mark Wherry began to consider updating the library in order to take advantage of the improved computing capabilities and to enhance the quality of the samples themselves. Together, Zimmer and Wherry have embarked on a next-generation library. “Most of the changes will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary,” says Zimmer. “It’s still great players in a great hall, producing a beautiful sound.” Despite Zimmer’s modest claims, the new collection will have two essential improvements over the ﬁrst generation: First, it is being recorded at 24-bit/88.2 kHz for greater ﬁdelity. Second, The exact details of the new Digidesign-Zimmer collaboration are still under wraps, but Zimmer has a clear vision for the new library. “I often think about the grand piano—the piano is such a perfect piece of design. Why can’t our electronic instruments have that sort of elegance?” While Zimmer contributes his extensive experience as a composer, he’s happy to leave the coding to the Digidesign A.I.R. team. “I won’t interfere in that part,” he says. “But I can tell you if it inspires me, and if the end result lets me write a good piece of music. I hope to help create something that will inspire a new generation of composers.” DIGIZINE 21 Cover by Dustin Driver It’s called “the boom bap,” and you know it when you hear it: the 808-thickened boom of a sampled kick drum, followed by the gritty, grainy bap of the snare. As the alpha and omega of hip-hop’s ﬁrst renaissance at the end of the 1980s, the boom bap deﬁned a new direction in urban beat culture, and virtually no one today can lay as lofty a claim to its legacy as DJ Premier. From his earliest studio work with Guru (as the duo Gang Starr) to productions for KRS-One, Jeru the Damaja, the late Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Mos Def, and scores more, Premier has built his signature style on a foundation of funky, propulsive drum breaks, jazzy horn accents, and a meticulously detailed, allenveloping ambience in his overall mix. If it bumps in the trunk but ﬂoats in the headphones, it’s gotta be DJ Premier. After more than two decades, DJ Premier still reigns supreme as one of hip-hop’s elite producers—just ask Christina Aguilera, who recruited him to work his magic on ﬁve key songs for her 2006 breakout album Back to Basics. Known for constantly challenging himself and the status quo, Premier recently upgraded to a fully-loaded Pro Tools|HD Accel system, bringing his Manhattanbased HeadQCourterz Studios even further into the digital realm. Like most of his old-school contemporaries, Premier got his start on a pair of turntables and a mixer, eventually acquiring an E-mu SP-12 sampling drum machine, and later an Akai S-950 sampler and MPC60 workstation. Endless nights inside professional recording studios taught him the subtleties of various mixing desks, analog tape machines, and outboard gear, but it was a session in early 1990 with Branford Marsalis for the Mo’ Better Blues soundtrack that really hit him upside the head. “Branford had an assistant who was actually on [Pro Tools forerunner] Sound Tools when it was a new thing,” Premier DIGIZINE 22 recalls. “We were still going analog to tape, but we were backing everything up on Sound Tools because it was a faster method of recording. I was blown away that that type of software even existed, because I totally was not up on computers, even though I studied computer science in school [laughs]. I’m from the days of different languages, where you had FORTRAN and Pascal, so for a device to record music like that—I was just taken aback.” “i got the control 24 because everything i do is by feel. even with christina’s project, all of our mixes were about feel and not being technical.” It would be more than a decade before Premier would have access to a Pro Tools system of his own, but the die was cast. “Sometimes I’m hard-headed,” he admits, “but I knew the day would come that I’d have to take that next step. I ﬁrst got Pro Tools two years ago, and I would go home stressed that I couldn’t do a session because I had so much to learn. Once my production partner [Charles Roane—see sidebar] showed me a few things, I took off like a rocket, but I still like the feel of turning knobs and touching faders. That’s why I got the Control|24, because everything I do is by feel. Even with Christina’s project, all of our mixes were about feel and not being technical.” When DigiZine spoke with him, Premier was about to install Pro Tools 7.2 on a new Intel-based Macintosh running Mac OS X Tiger, and was looking forward to diving in head-ﬁrst. Even so, he found some time to ruminate a bit on the role Pro Tools technology has played in his creative evolution, and to speculate on where it might take him. DIGIZINE 23 Cover Were the Christina Aguilera sessions the ﬁrst time you used Pro Tools all the way through, from recording to mixing? Actually, the ﬁrst time I really had it down and mixed everything on my own was with Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The day he died, I did the Pop Shots record and turned it in, because of course the label was like, “Yo, we need it right now.” And that was my ﬁrst time testing out a mix. I went to Europe the next day, and obviously they had gotten word that he’d passed away—the audiences there loved Wu-Tang and Ol’ Dirty—and I played the song. I said, “I just did a new song with him last night—y’all wanna hear it?” And along with the emotion of hearing it pumping over the sound system, the ﬁrst thing I said to myself was “Wow—I mixed this myself on Pro Tools.” What was the most challenging track on Christina’s album? “Back in the Day” had a billion tracks. That’s one thing I ought to say—Pro Tools is amazing because it can handle so many tracks. That one had tons of tracks on it because she stacked so many vocals, and I’m not used to that. Even though it’s Pro Tools, it was still a lot to run through. You’ve got to go through each individual vocal and make sure all the stacks are balanced, and then you’ve got to group them. “i like how the technology is preserving our style in hip-hop.” Then there’s a section where I scratch, “Come on, come on, come on.” Usually I would put my own delays on there, with maybe a little reverb, but Christina’s engineer was like, “I can do the delay here,” and he just drew it with the mouse on the screen. I never even knew that was a feature in Pro Tools. We were like, “Damn— we don’t do it that way.” I do mine manually with the actual send level, and I just ride it, so in automation you’ll see the actual knob move on the screen. I think that’s better because again, I have a hold on it, and it’s about having a feel. Which is primarily what you get from the Control|24, right? Exactly. I just love the fact that it gives me that same touchevery-part-of-it access. It actually gave me my conﬁdence back to record and do what I had to do. Just before I got it, I was feeling really stagnated, and I haven’t felt like that in my whole career. And it’s cool that I can automate mutes and sends—at the beginning, I didn’t even know that was possible. I like how the technology is preserving our style in hip-hop, and the Control|24 deﬁnitely has that. When you go by feel, you can tell the difference between that and something technical—that’s if you’re a tech head like we are. I used to be really into equipment, heavy heavy. I’m not like that now, but I’m starting to get back into it because with this whole new technology, I‘ve got to keep up. I don’t have a choice. Believe me, I would have loved to stay analog. I’m one of those people that doesn’t like to change too soon. Musically I’ll change it up all the time, but with the technology, I’m still learning. DIGIZINE 24 Your sound has always had a saturation to it, like you’re slamming your beats into tape and pinning the levels. Can you still do that with Pro Tools? With Pro Tools, it’s almost like there’s no going too far because it ﬁxes it for you, but the only difference is you can tell when it steps in to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got too much going on with the heat,’ and it kind of regulates the temperature, so to speak. That’s why I don’t record hot anymore. I get close to touching it, Dynamic Duo “I think the ﬁrst thing we worked on was a remix for the Janet Jackson song ‘All for You,’” Charles Roane recalls. “At the time I had a studio in Jersey that was outﬁtted with Pro Tools, and he just needed to time-stretch the vocals for a beat that he had created. There was no way you could do that at D&D, so he called me up and asked me if this was possible, and with Pro Tools, of course I told him it was.” Roane had started out in 1998 with Pro Tools version 4 on a Power PC 9600, eventually upgrading to MIXplus version 5.1.3. “It was great,” he says. “Most of the music we did with Christina Aguilera, and some of Premier’s own stuff, was done on that system. I was obviously coming from two-inch tape and older studios before going to that. I was intimidated back then, but obviously it’s just the best, because you’re able to do things so quickly. For Christina’s album, being able to instantly compare different EQ and compression settings in real time was important.” but I make sure it doesn’t tap. And I had to learn that, too. Charles can be very particular about the way I record, but I’m like, “Man, it’s rap music. It doesn’t have to be as clean as the Christina stuff.” On her album, they compressed a lot of my stuff in mastering because I guess they were trying to clean up the grittiness, but that’s what it was meant to be. She may have understood that, but I think the technical guys overdid it. Just because they know all these things about what makes a frequency be what it is in the ﬁnal mastering, that doesn’t always mean it applies to the actual song. Do you use Pro Tools for chopping beats and editing samples? I still use the S-950 and the MPC. Once I have the beat the way I want it, I just want to print it the way it is. If it’s a vocal hook that somebody lays down, it’s easy for me to copy it and move it and have it land in the same spot after the next verse—that I can do, no problem. But otherwise I don’t chop things up in Pro Tools. Since upgrading to Pro Tools 7.2, Roane has hooked up a Control|24 and Digidesign HD I/Os for analog-to-digital conversion, so he and Premier are now operating on essentially identical systems. “When we had different versions of Pro Tools, it still wasn’t much of a problem,” Roane points out. “Premier could just save a session in 6.2.3 and hand it off to me, and I could load it into 5.1.3 and it would show up. The only reason I would do that is because I have some outboard pieces that are hard-wired into my room that I like, especially for vocals. It might have been a little crazy, but I know how my room sounds, and Premier knows how his room sounds, so our method just worked out that way.” You’re also mixing in a lot of your own synth parts and bass lines. Yeah. I’ve always done that. One of Christina’s tracks, “Still Dirrty,” has a bass line I put down with my [E-mu] Planet Phatt. I use the M-Audio Oxygen 8 as a MIDI controller—I love that little keyboard because it’s so versatile. So what’s next for you in 2007? Once I’m on [Pro Tools version] 7.2, I’m all good. I’m gonna have so many crazy plug-ins—way beyond what I have already. It’s almost like I don’t even want to step up yet, but I need to because everybody’s already in the 7 series and I’m not, and I don’t want As Premier describes it, the creative partnership he shares with Roane is almost symbiotic. “I would say from 2001 to 2003, when we did the last Gang Starr album [The Ownerz], Charles and I really clicked on Pro Tools. The last songs we did on that album were done digital because D&D had closed and they weren’t Pro Tools-compatible, so we started working at Avatar Studios and they were strictly Pro Tools.” to be left behind. But right now I’m focusing on my label [Year Round]. I have three artists—the NYGz, Blaq Poet, and a guy named Kalil from Texas. I’m from Houston originally, so I wanted to go back and grab a Texas rapper, and he’s incredible. I’m also producing an album for Teﬂon from the M.O.P. First Family, and F.A.B.I.D. out of the Gang Starr Foundation. They’ve been down with us since day one, and their album is called Smash City. Then I’m working on a new Big Shug album called The Diamond Man, and I have a show on Sirius satellite radio every Friday night from midnight to 2:00 a.m. called “Live from HeadQCourterz”— that’s in memory of my homie who passed away. We’re going live in January to start the new year off, and Shug is actually going to host it with me, so that’s gonna be bananas. Now that you’ve transitioned to Pro Tools, do you have any advice for DJs who are contemplating the same move? Just experiment. Go into different plug-ins and test them out and see what they do, and see how it applies to your creativity. I mean, now that you can actually do everything in your house—you can get an Mbox and you’re up and running—that’s where things are headed. And DJs tend to catch on fast—you just need to know the commands, and then once you catch on, you’re gonna be lightning quick. As a DJ I’ve always been dedicated to strictly breaking new records, and I think that same thing is true as a producer. You have to always be thinking about staying ahead of the game, especially with the technology. Bill Murphy is a regular contributor to Remix, Future Music, and Guitar World’s Bass Guitar magazines. He is currently working with Teo Macero on the legendary Columbia producer’s upcoming biography. These early collaborations set the tone for how the two would work together during the mixing phase for Aguilera’s Back to Basics. “I’m better with rappers,” Premier says, “and Charles is better with singers. So I just told him, ‘You know what? Let’s split the mix. I’ll do all my music, all my scratches and get everything really pounding the way I like it, and you do your thing with her vocals.’ Charles just knew how to make Christina’s voice sound sonically correct over my music.” DIGIZINE 25 GAG GEAR AT A GLANCE MBOX 2 PRO: $799 (U.S.) Mbox 2 Pro is the ultimate high-deﬁnition portable Pro Tools LE system, packing a wide-range of analog and digital I/O connections into a mobile audio workstation. Take it wherever inspiration strikes. • • • • • • • • PRO TOOLS PERSONAL STUDIO SYSTEMS DIGI 002 RACK: $1,295 (U.S.) Designed with both recording and performing musicians in mind, Digi 002 Rack is an affordable FireWire-based Pro Tools solution that packs a powerful pro recording and production solution into a 2U rackmountable interface. MBOX 2 MINI: $329 (U.S.) Mbox 2 Mini is the smallest, most affordable Pro Tools LE 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. Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 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 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 Digi 002 Rack Factory: $1,695 (U.S.) For only $400 more, Digi 002 Rack Factory includes the Digi 002 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. DIGI 002 FACTORY: $2,495 (U.S.) The Digi 002 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 Digi 002 Factory plug-in bundle. Digi 002 also doubles as a standalone 8x2 digital mixer, complete with EQ, dynamics, delay, reverb, and snapshots. Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 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. • • • • • • • • For only $100 more, Mbox 2 Pro Factory includes the Mbox 2 Pro 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 Factory: $899 (U.S.) Pro Tools personal studio systems offer everything you need to create and produce music with professional results—at affordable prices. Whether you’re looking for an all-in-one audio/MIDI solution with an integrated control surface or a highly portable system, there’s a powerful Pro Tools solution designed to satisfy your creative needs. • • • • • • • • Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack software and audio tools 6 simultaneous inputs; 8 simultaneous outputs Up to 96 kHz sample rate support* Powered by FireWire** or included power supply Built-in phono preamp and BNC connectors for Word Clock I/O MIDI I/O with MIDI Time Stamping support Integrated S/PDIF digital I/O Mbox 2 Factory: $595 (U.S.) 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. Includes award-winning Pro Tools LE software Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 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 (Digi 002 Factory bundle) M-AUDIO HARDWARE PERIPHERALS 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. * 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 26 DIGIZINE 27 GAG 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. • • • • • MUSIC PRODUCTION TOOLKIT: $495 (U.S.) The Digidesign Music Production Toolkit includes a full range of professional music tools that expand the creative power your Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools M-Powered system. PRO TOOLS SOFTWARE PRO TOOLS LE SOFTWARE Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Pro, Digi 002 Rack, and Digi 002 Factory 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. 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 • 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 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 Mac OS X computers PRO TOOLS IGNITION PACK All Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools|HD systems include the Pro Tools Ignition Pack, featuring an impressive collection of composition and production tools to get you started creating right away. • • • • • • • • • • Propellerhead Software Reason Adapted (ReWire) Ableton Live Lite Digidesign Edition (ReWire) FXpansion BFD Lite (RTAS) IK Multimedia SampleTank 2 SE (RTAS) IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE (RTAS) IK Multimedia T-RackS EQ (RTAS) Celemony Melodyne uno essential (ReWire) Pro Tools Method One instructional DVD Bunker 8 REX File CD One-year membership to Broadjam.com • • • 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 with Pro Tools LE 7.3 software 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 28 DIGIZINE 29 GAG Full Page AD GEAR AT A GLANCE PRO TOOLS LE SYSTEMS Mbox 2 Mini Mbox 2 Mbox 2 Pro Digi 002 Rack Digi 002 Factory Total simultaneous channels of I/O 2/2 4/2* 6/8* 18/18* 18/18* # of analog inputs/outputs 2/2 2/2 4/6 8/8 8/8 # of mic preamps 1 2 2 4 4 # of instrument DIs 2 2 2 4 4 Phono preamp No No Yes No No 48V phantom power Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Maximum resolution 24-bit/48 kHz 24-bit/48 kHz 24-bit/96 kHz† 24-bit/96 kHz 24-bit/96 kHz Alternate source inputs No No No Yes Yes Digital I/O No S/PDIF (2 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels) ADAT (8 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels) ADAT (8 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels) MIDI I/O ports No 1-in/1-out 1-in/1-out 1-in/2-out 1-in/2-out Word Clock I/O No No Yes No No 1 (1/4”) 1 (1/4”) 2 (1/4”) 1 (1/4”) 1 (1/4”) No No Yes** Yes Yes Connection USB 1.1 USB 1.1 FireWire FireWire FireWire Power source USB 1.1 USB 1.1 FireWire (requires 6-pin cable) or included power supply Internal power supply Internal power supply No; supports Command|8 & Control|24 No; supports Command|8 & Control|24 No; supports Command|8 & Control|24 No; supports Command|8 & Control|24 Yes; supports Command|8 & Control|24 Standalone digital mixer mode No No No No Yes Rackmountable No No No Yes No # of stereo headphone outputs Foot switch input Integrated control surface Software included • Pro Tools LE • A.I.R. Xpand! • Reason Adapted • Live Lite Digidesign Edition • BFD Lite • SampleTank 2 SE • AmpliTube LE • T-RackS EQ • Melodyne uno essential • 7 Bomb Factory plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins Additional included tools All listed on the left plus Digi 002 Factory plug-in bundle (valued at over $3,000) iLok USB Smart Key For information on Pro Tools M-Powered software and compatible M-Audio hardware peripherals, visit www.m-audio.com. † Mbox 2 Pro does not support external sync at 88.2 and 96 kHz sample rates. * Total simultaneous I/O channels requires use of both analog and digital I/O. ** Foot switch input not currently supported; support expected in 2007. DIGIZINE 30 Plugin Centerfold By Joe Gore PLUG-IN CENTERFOLD Digidesign Strike URS Classic Console Strip Pro fun. You can think of this RTAS instrument as a sort of fusion between recent drum-sample instruments (Native Instrument’s Battery, ToonTrack’s dfh Superior, FXpansion’s BFD) and various “intelligent drummers” (pardon the oxymoron). In other words, you can use it as a drum module to play back MIDI tracks, or let it do the thinking for you. First, the sounds: Strike’s 20 GB library (which requires only about 6 GB of disk space thanks to an ingenious proprietary lossless compression technology) features ﬁve immaculately sampled kits of as many as 12 instruments each. Strike also boasts true-to-life leakage and manic multisampling—without the typical velocity layer switching that you might hear in similar plug-ins/applications. You have complete control of not only the drum voices, but also the placement and mix of the virtual microphones. The front panel also includes drive, attack, and dynamics controls that can radically alter your tones. Strike, Digidesign’s new virtual drummer, boasts ﬁve immaculately sampled drum kits, 1,500 preset patterns, and near-inﬁnite tweakability. A ﬁrst encounter with Strike inevitably summons the immortal words of the Bard: “Holy @#$%!” Strike, Digidesign’s new virtual drummer, is simply insane—insanely innovative, insanely useful, insanely If that were all Strike did, I’d recommend it without reservation. But it also includes 1,500 prerecorded patterns grouped by musical style and song structure, which makes Strike the sort of quick-sketch songwriter’s tool that all those hardware workstations dream Over the last year or so URS has won much praise for a series of EQ and compression plugins modeled after classic analog gear. Now they’re unveiling their most ambitious release yet: Classic Console Strip Pro, a TDM and RTAS plug-in that encompasses all the sounds of their previous releases. of being. You switch patterns with MIDI notes—either via controller, or using the buttons on the GUI. For roughing out a song or cranking out quick music cues, this is one of the most useful tools you’ll ﬁnd. And you can really play this thing! Just assign controllers to the Intensity, Feel, and Complexity controls, and marvel as the patterns mutate before your ears. With a little practice, you can create nuanced drum performances from a controller keyboard by selecting patterns with the keys and wiggling a few sliders. Classic Console Strip Pro’s GUI resembles an old-school mixing board input channel, with discrete input, compression, EQ, and ﬁlter stages. More than just a level control, the input section lets you dial in simulated analog coloration mimicking 15- and 30-ips tape machines, Class A transformers, and combinations thereof. (You can also bypass the coloration for an unaltered sound.) While Strike excels at instant drum patterns, it’s also a tweaker’s delight. You can edit the individual patterns—not just the hits and tones, but the way they respond when you manipulate the complexity slider. It gets deep. Strike even includes a built-in EQ section and a suite of insert effects. Priced at $299, Strike is a steal. As the divine Oscar Wilde once quipped, “You’d have to be a total doofus not to snag this thing!” www.digidesign.com Pull-down menus on the URS Strip Pro let you select different EQ proﬁles for each frequency band. a good limiter, perceived volume increases with minimal sonic degradation. And by that reckoning, this is a very good limiter indeed. I think it sounds as good as the $300 one. And the $600 one. Honest. And it’s as powerful on individual instruments as it is on the output bus. Now here’s something to celebrate: a greatsounding TDM/RTAS plug-in that sells for well under a hundred bucks. The L2007 Mastering Limiter is one of four new Pro Tools plug-ins created by Steven Massey. Massey, a veteran of Digidesign and Trillium Lane Labs, has managed to craft simple, effective plug-ins whose utility and sound quality rivals or beats similar products costing several DIGIZINE 32 times more. Massey’s vt3 3-Band EQ, CT4 Compressor, and Tape Head Saturation/Distortion sell for $69 each. The L2007 is Massey’s most “expensive” product—it goes for $89. The L2007 is a look-ahead brickwall limiter, which means it basically does one thing: make stuff seem louder, or way louder. Like most limiters, its controls are simple: You set a maximum output (generally a smidgen below digital distortion) and then jack up the threshold. On Signal routing is admirably ﬂexible. Both the compressor and EQ section include pre/post switches, and there’s a signal ﬂow diagram at the left edge of the GUI that always depicts the current routing. You can position the high- and low-pass ﬁlters independently of the four-band parametric EQ, or use them as part of Strip Pro’s sidechain. (The sidechain includes a listen function.) Classic Channel Strip Pro supports sample rates up to 192 kHz. www.ursplugins.com Digidesign X-Form Massey L2007 Mastering Limiter Top-shelf TDM and RTAS limiting for an astoundingly affordable price. The EQ section does some surprising tricks: In addition to the usual frequency, gain, and Q controls (plus peak/shelving selectors for the high and low frequencies), each band includes a pull-down menu for selecting different vintage EQ models. That’s right—you can assign different EQ proﬁles to each frequency band. The proﬁles include emulations of a 1950s Pultec, a ’60s API, a ’70s Neve, and an ’80s SSL. It’s fun—and a bit mind-blowing—to dial in your desired EQ adjustments, then ﬂick between the EQ models and observe the differences. You can run nine instances of Classic Channel Strip Pro on a single Accel chip and four on an HD chip. If you’re low on chips or host processing power, you can opt to use URS Strip, a light version with only three bands of EQ (parametric midrange and selectable bass and treble), which demands only half as much juice as Strip Pro. Why consider paying extra for an AudioSuite time compression/expansion and pitch-shifting plug-in when Pro Tools already includes those tools? True, in many cases Pro Tools’ stock DigiRack plug-in is all you need to get the job done. But the premium plug-ins let you dial in greater changes of duration and tuning (and modify longer audio ﬁles) with less distortion and fewer digital artifacts. The L2007’s remaining controls are equally effective. You can select from four release settings and four response modes: Loud, Mellow, Smooth, and Vibrant. Loud yields the sort of limiting you hear on most current rock tracks. (“Hey! My album is louder than your album!”) The remaining settings are more nuanced. Mellow manages a touch less upper-end distortion at the cost of slightly less perceived loudness. Smooth has silkier highs, but the dynamic compression is a bit more evident. Vibrant seems to strike a compromise between all of the above. (In Massey’s view, Mellow and Loud are the best choice for ultra-heavy limiting, while Vibrant is best for less-extreme processing.) Digidesign’s X-Form is the latest top-tier duration-and-tuning tool. X-Form lets you alter audio ﬁles by ridiculous percentages with ridiculously little coloration. You can transpose sounds up or down by as much as three octaves, or compress and expand durations by a factor of eight. The sound quality is amazing, even with complex polyphonic material. The L2007 supports sample rates up to 192 kHz on all current Pro Tools systems. And did I mention it costs only $89? www.masseyplugins.com Digidesign’s X-Form is a phenomenal new time compression/expansion and pitch-shifting tool. You’d be hard-pressed to identify digital trickery in X-Form-processed ﬁles, even at such substantial transpositions as a major-third or at duration changes of 30% or so. At more extreme settings, you start to suspect funny business, but that tends to reﬂect more on the source sounds than on the quality of X-Form’s processing. If, say, you shift a full-band track by an octave, it no longer sounds like a real band. But you don’t get the ugly, glitchy qualities you’d expect from such an extreme transposi- tion—it still sounds good. Which means X-Form is a phenomenal sound design tool. Much of X-Form’s ﬁdelity has to do with the way it handles transients. It treats transient and non-transient portions of audio ﬁles separately, preserving the impact of the former while transﬁguring the latter. A Transient control lets you ﬁne-tune the way X-Form interprets source material. Meanwhile, a Formant control lets you dial in naturalistic-sounding transpositions. And you can switch between two independent algorithms for monophonic and polyphonic material. For all its sophistication, X-Form boasts a simple, streamlined layout. Aside from the aforementioned controls, the interface consists solely of ﬁelds displaying the pitch and duration of processed and unprocessed audio. You simply type in your targets using your choice of bars/beats, minutes/seconds, feet/frames, time code, or samples. From workaday tasks like post production pull-up and pull-down adjustments to mind-bending sonic mutations, X-Form delivers great results with minimal hassle. It lists for $495 and runs as an AudioSuite plug-in on all current Pro Tools systems. www.digidesign.com DIGIZINE 33 Graduate By Dustin Driver THE GRADUATE Derek Jones: Filling In the Ga p s Jones is one of uce 30 CDs a year, but Derek Few engineers can say they prod cranks out an asthat io stud atrax, a Los Angeles them: He’s an engineer at Meg h of music,” he says. wort CDs 200 st almo done ’ve tounding number of tracks. “We een 90 and 100 tracks on it.” “And each CD probably has betw tries. Chances distributed in more than 50 coun If that isn’t enough, the CDs are Megatrax underscores it. know ’t didn you if even are you’ve heard a Megatrax cut Need two minutes s, TV commercials, and movies. network dramas and comedie arrangement for your l estra orch ing mov a or e scen of trip-hop for your nightclub covered. crime drama? Megatrax has you uation, Almost immediately after grad a with gig ing neer engi Jones got an company. speech-recognition software atrax. ToThat job led to his gig with Meg systems, day he runs several Pro Tools|HD s, and band rock tets, quar jazz and records composers even orchestras. “We work with do about all over the U.S.,” he says. “We hire studio half of the music in-house—we rm the perfo and in e com musicians to have a 20compositions. One week we’ll the next piece string section in here, and hip-hop. week we’ll be doing country or working That’s one of the reasons I like things. here—we do so many different they have led; onho pige get ios Some stud We get to one type of client and that’s it. s for every posm to mix, remix, and tweak track Jones uses a Pro Tools|HD syste unt of work, and it’s given amo ing ilder bew a It’s on. sible motion-picture applicati ed veteran can stand chops. But even a battle-harden Jones some serious Pro Tools music production , Jones enrolled in the video and to learn new tricks—so in 2006 ram. “It really prog the of e ledg guru-level know school Video Symphony to gain of our CDs, one ugh take me two days to get thro paid off,” he says. “It used to getting more and es class the g s. Now, after takin cutting and mixing all the track s.” hour three in CD a do familiar with Pro Tools, I can n his musical iacal Pro Tools engineer—he bega Jones hasn’t always been a man of recordtask the on took he , mers many drum career as a drummer. And like always get mers drum bands’ demos. “It seems that ing, mixing, and mastering his interested in the more technical ys side of things,” he says. “I alwa s cut the demo tapes for the band rdreco the all up set and I was in, ing gear.” While studying music performance and composition at Boston’s Berklee College of Mud sic, Jones became so intereste in engineering that he decided to switch majors. Unfortunately, ram the school’s engineering prog three l tiona addi an entailed s years’ worth of classes. So Jone r unde r majo own his created nal the school’s ﬂexible Professio posi com g takin ram, prog Music neer. He took his engi an as work to ed need skills he tion and tech classes to get the never earned a certiﬁcation. share of Pro Tools classes, but DIGIZINE 34 do it all.” , Megatrax Thanks to this dazzling diversity places. “I music ends up in the strangest 15 minutes can’t watch TV for more than songs,” without recognizing one of our ic on mus our d hear even “I s. says Jone ng in Paris. French TV when I was vacationi music we It’s really amazing how much record, mix, and produce.” e King and Along with Chief Engineer Eddi Jones is also Ito, o Hirok neer Engi tant Assis rded tracks responsible for mixing the reco ther for toge ons versi us vario ing and splic lengths of different uses. “I’ll make several rent mixes— one song,” he says. “And diffe e without. som , some with vocals or solos Tools Pro use we and , work of lot It’s a for everything.” s-certiﬁed Though Jones wasn’t Pro Tool enough knew he job, the ed land he n whe t profesmos le dazz to about the program Pro Tools using been had “I s. neer engi l siona has a gn idesi “Dig ains. for a while,” he expl I read that and e, guid ence refer e -pag 600 taking cover-to-cover twice before even produced alhad s Jone es.” class the of any Pro Tools bums for several bands and used Still, he had a s. track tless coun pose com to do so much lot to learn. “The program can learn it all on to e ssibl impo st almo it’s that your own,” he notes. Full Page AD 1/3 Page AD Graduate ed his Pro Tools based school where Jones earn Video Symphony, the Burbankfor motion ng editi o audi and ic production certiﬁcation, focuses on mus ses and certiﬁcate cour ing train s Tool Pro s offer picture post production. It e Avid video nals, along with comprehensiv programs for working professio ses. cour hics grap on moti editing courses, and Adobe of intense ins class entails about 24 hours Each Video Symphony Pro Tool into the music ged plun s Jone . days eight-hour struction, broken up into three and 201P, 201M pleting Pro Tools 101M and 101P, and production courses, com Megatrax. at guy s Tool Pro the is s es. Now Jone 210M and 210P, and 310M class says. he es,” piec the job, you learn things in “When you learn something on up with end you but , done job the know to get “You learn what you need to es really ﬁlled in e of the program. These class a lot of gaps in your knowledg what you’ll be know r neve you use ble, beca those gaps. And that’s very valua called on to do in a studio.” en you get to the t solving studio problems. “Wh Jones also learned more abou . “Having that says he s,” work s Tool how Pro upper levels, you start to learn the studio with a 40-piece in re you’ If oot. blesh trou information helps you That’s critical, error message, you can ﬁx it. orchestra and you get a random ey.” mon is musicians to perform, time because when you’re paying atrax CD, a ntly composed a track for a Meg What’s next for Jones? “I rece addition to writIn . says he ng,” posi com more hip-hop song, and I hope to do op cuts and he plans to produce his own hip-h ing more tracks for the studio, g to work inuin cont hile d—w woo Holly in akers work with independent ﬁlmm full-time at Megatrax. S “A FT ER TA KIN G TH E CLASSE AR AN D GE TT IN G M OR E FA MILI A W IT H PRO TO OLS, I CA N DO CD IN TH RE E HO URS.” s. “If you any other profession,” says Jone “Being in this business isn’t like m MIDI —fro hing anyt st know how to do almo want to be busy, you need to you know, more The . rding reco to ng editi drum programming to dialog things about to accept. And one of the best the more work you’ll be able s in all those Tool Pro y appl to how learn taking these classes is that you different environments.” he’s gained eciates the extra speed and skill It’s no wonder that Jones appr Megatrax and my for do I stuff the ween “Bet from his Pro Tools certiﬁcation. including 12 to 16 hours a day, every day, own work, I work anywhere from n’t leave room for does it and , work of lot a like weekends,” he says. “It sounds if I weren’t getit’s fun. I’d be doing this even much of a social life, but for me, ting paid. It’s a passion.” www.megatrax.com www.videosymphony.com obsessed with r in Berkeley, California. He is Dustin Driver is a freelance write gy. le, and technolo good stories, inspirational peop Full Page AD Special Feature Sibelius Sebelius By Greg Thomas SPECIAL FEATURE performance,” says Silver. “That has been the center of most American kids’ experiences. But educators in several states are coming to recognize that developing creative compositional skills can provide a more satisfying and broadening education.” New initiatives in Vermont and Washington State, for example, are helping students explore the imaginative, compositional side of music. “The Vermont MIDI Project allows students to create their own compositions using Sibelius,” explains Silver. “Every term, one of the kids has a chance to hear his or her work performed by a live orchestra—it’s an exciting program. These kinds of initiatives are changing the way music is taught.” Of course, when students are ready to graduate to the professional or semi-professional world of music composition, Sibelius also has a wealth of products to enhance the experience of creating and notating music. G7, for example, allows guitarists and other musicians to chart acoustic, classical, and electric guitar parts. PhotoScore, meanwhile, gives composers and copyists easy ways to transfer printed music to the digital domain using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. As a business unit of Digidesign, Sibelius will continue to offer its full range products and develop new products that address many different notation needs. Building Communities Sibelius and Digidesign Charting a New Course for Music Education The news that Digidesign’s parent company, Avid, had acquired Sibelius—the world’s leading music notation software company—was cause for celebration for many Pro Tools users. A relationship between Sibelius and Digidesign could ultimately provide easier ways to integrate music notation capabilities with Pro Tools software. But the companies’ new collaborations will not be limited to adding a few new features to Pro Tools. According to Sibelius CEO Jeremy Silver, the notation software will also help Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, and Pinnacle add to the rapidly expanding roster of educational products these companies provide for teachers and students. example, Groovy Music, a software series for ﬁve- to eleven -year-olds, encourages children to explore music, learn basic musical concepts, and start composing through fun, interactive games. “We are convinced that enabling children to develop their creative skills at an early age will help them in later life,” says Silver. “We know that not everyone will become a professional musician, but we can help promote creativity in other areas of their lives as well.” “Sibelius software was initially designed as a notation tool for professional composers and arrangers,” says Silver. “But it has taken off in the education market, primarily because it is so easy to use. It has a very intuitive interface. You don’t have to go through a labyrinth of dialog boxes to get to the tools you need.” As children advance in their music education, products such as Sibelius Instruments (an interactive encyclopedia of instruments, bands, and orchestras), Musition (interactive software for learning and testing music theory), and Sibelius Student (featuring the basics for composing and arranging at home) can offer important supplements to classroom-based training. “We ﬁrmly believe that music education in the school environment must be preserved,” Silver says. “The beneﬁts of studying music at school deﬁnitely extend to other subject areas as well. Our goal is to offer fun, innovative tools to contribute to school-based music education.” Though Sibelius’ notation software remains its ﬂagship product, the company also makes other products designed to generate musical interest at an early age, supplement music education, and enable creativity at any stage of a musician’s career. For Beyond developing interactive educational products, Sibelius is also deeply involved in promoting new initiatives for music education to encourage greater creativity. “Traditionally, the biggest focus in U.S. music education has been band Enabling Creativity Sibelius also provides users ways to play, customize, and share their scores online. One such tool is Scorch, a free, downloadable web browser plug-in that lets users access and modify Sibelius scores through a standard web browser. Scorch helps the sheet music community reach new audiences by providing on-demand digital delivery. “The sheet music business was in desperate need of an update,” says Silver. “With Sibelius and Scorch, users can very spontaneously access sheet music online without having to run down to store and buy it—or more likely, order it. We’re working with Hal Leonard and other top sheet music companies to offer more single songs and songbooks online.” Scorch also lets you capitalize on the ﬂexibility of digital scores. “You can easily transpose sheet music into your key, or change the lead instrumentation before you buy it,” says Silver. “You just don’t have that ﬂexibility in the analog world.” In addition, Scorch helps musicians at all levels share ideas about music composition online. “Building communities of users is an important part of what we do,” says Silver. “It’s a natural extension of our work to give users forums where they can talk about the work they’ve done and exchange feedback.” Sibelius has created a community website, www.Sibeliusmusic. com, to facilitate distribution of sheet music for publishers and to help build a user community where users can share, sell, and discuss their compositions. “It’s amazing how many 16-year-old kids in the world have written symphonies,” says Silver. “And they are publishing them on Sibelius music. We have about 65,000 registered users. They chat with one another, share music, and give each other feedback. Helping to build this shared, collaborative environment is really exciting.” very diverse group of users, from copyists at Hollywood movie studios to high schools around the globe,” says Silver. “And we want to make sure that our products continue to evolve to meet their needs. We included synchronized video in Sibelius 4, for example, because we recognized that writing music for ﬁlm, TV, and video is not only the realm of professionals or even college ﬁlm-school students now, but also of high school students.” Collaborating with Digidesign Now that Digidesign and Sibelius are joining forces, what sorts of collaborations should we expect? “The ﬁrst step will be offering educational product bundles,” says Silver. “Bundling Sibelius software along with Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, and Pinnacle products offers tremendous beneﬁts for students and teachers—it will provide easy ways to input music and listen to compositions. It makes perfect sense to combine Sibelius with Pro Tools LE or Pro Tools M-Powered software plus Digidesign or M-Audio interfaces. Digidesign and M-Audio share our vision of offering easy-touse products that inspire creativity. And of course for students, learning to create with these industry-standard products makes it much easier for them to graduate to the next level.” “SIBELIUS AND DIGIDESIGN WILL WORK TOGETHER TO INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES SO THAT PRO TOOLS USERS HAVE ACCESS TO NOTATION CAPABILITIES.” The next stage of the collaboration will be technology integration, Silver adds: “Sibelius and Digidesign engineers will work together to ﬁnd the best ways to integrate technologies so that Pro Tools users have fast and easy access to notation capabilities. That’s the long-term goal.” In the short term, Pro Tools users can now enjoy the new “Send to Sibelius” command built into Pro Tools 7.3 software, which will automatically deliver MIDI and Instrument track data to Sibelius software. Ultimately, integrating Pro Tools and Sibelius software will give users of both products more creative options. “Many people start with audio and MIDI, and then score later; others start with Sibelius,” says Silver. “It depends on your training and how you prefer to create. By working together, Sibelius and Digidesign will give our users even more options.” The excitement behind this new relationship extends beyond the user base to the companies themselves. “The culture of these two companies is really similar,” Silver notes. “A large percentage of both companies’ employees are musicians. We have an immediate understanding of music. By combining our commitment to education and our technological know-how, Digidesign and Sibelius can help foster the development of a whole new generation of musicians.” For Sibelius, keeping in close contact with users has been essential in developing new products and features. “We have a For more information on Sibelius products, visit www.sibelius.com. DIGIZINE 38 DIGIZINE 39 M-Audio M-AUDIO | M-PULSE M-AUDIO | M-PULSE PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 INTRODUCING THE M-AUDIO NRV10: THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN THE STUDIO AND THE STAGE Tell us how you use the M-Audio Trigger Finger when performing with Public Enemy. As a DJ, I want to be able to alter the older Public Enemy tracks live, because you never know what Chuck is going to do. Sometimes when we do “Fight The Power,” we go from “Fight The Power,” the regular version that everybody knows, to the Isley Brothers’ “Fight The Power.” With Public Enemy, it’s really important to be able to move things on the ﬂy. And if we want to transition from one track to another, or just improvise, I can always drag and drop some different elements together and ﬁre it right off the Trigger Finger. Overall, it’s a lot more ﬂexible than having to pull out a CD or grab another record. Moving to the studio side of things, you’ve been using the Studiophile BX8a monitors quite extensively. What’s your opinion of them, and how do your other clients react to them? Oh man, since switching to the BX8a’s, my mixes have become much clearer, and I’ve been able to get a much more accurate idea of what’s happening in the low-end. When we used other monitors, we would eventually get things sounding pretty good, but it took a lot of adjustments and going back and forth to my car. It’s been real refreshing to be able to trust what I hear initially. I still go out to the car and do all that, but now I get what I’m hearing in the studio. The speakers sound really crisp, you can hear the panning correctly, and people are usually blown away by what they’re hearing. If you have muddy monitors, you have to make excuses and say, “Let me adjust the bass” or whatever. And nobody wants to make excuses when they’re playing something back to a paying client. Johnny “Juice” Rosado, Public Enemy’s longtime producer, engineer, and DJ, has always been an early adopter of new technology both in the studio and on stage. Working with all manner of synths, sequencers, and workstations since the days of the venerable Atari ST—as well as logging long hours in some of the top production facilities in the country—Rosado has helped write the book on modern hip-hop production. These days, Rosado spends most of his time in his personal studio working with Chuck D and Public Enemy, producing a multitude of other acts, and squeezing in occasional tours and DJ gigs. But regardless of where Rosado is, M-Audio hardware and software—like Pro Tools M-Powered, Trigger Finger, the Studiophile BX8a monitors, and TAMPA preamp—is always front-and-center. Why is it important to have a Pro Tools system? As a professional producer you have to have a Pro Tools system. Everything I get from other people arrives as a Pro Tools session. And the combination of Transit and Pro Tools M-Powered is fantastic for travel. It’s great to have one interface that allows me to use a variety of software, including Pro Tools. DIGIZINE 40 SINCE SWITCHING TO BX8A MONITORS, MY MIXES HAVE BECOME MUCH CLEARER. Producing and performing music with computers has long required dedicated gear for each task. Musicians need to connect and route a variety of sources to and from a computer, ideally without extra audio interfaces or a standalone mixer. The new M-Audio NRV10 now makes all of this possible, and more. Combining a Pro Tools M-Powered-compatible 10 x 10 audio interface, an 8 x 2 analog mixer, and a dedicated VST-compatible application that turns the unit into a live digital mixer, the NRV10 is designed to be the nerve center of both your studio and your live performance rig. Developed by M-Audio, a company known for empowering musicians via accessible, computer-centric tools, the NRV10 stands apart from other mixers by delivering symbiotic integration with the computer. It’s the only FireWire-equipped mixer on the market that lets you mix and route ten tracks of audio to and from a compatible Mac or PC. Other FireWire- and USB-equipped analog mixers are only capable of returning a single stereo pair, making it impossible to mix discrete DAW tracks for performance or monitoring. And with dedicated EQ and internal effects, the unit allows for CPU-free mixing of DAW tracks for live performance. The NRV10 combines the best features of an analog mixer with proven M-Audio recording technology. How does the TAMPA preamp ﬁt in with your day-to-day work? I use the TAMPA on all my vocals, and I love it. I’m doing DMC’s new album right now, and he’s loving it. Of course, Chuck loves the way he sounds through it, too. I really like the optical compressor on there—it helps to control some of the louder vocalists. And that’s important when you’re doing hip-hop, because some of the guys don’t have a lot of mic control. I’m not a fan of really compressing vocals, but it’s so important to have that little bit of control, and it sounds really good. Obviously I’m used to real high-end mics like Neumanns, and some of the high-end compressors. And with the TAMPA, I can feel conﬁdent about getting that same quality of sound at my studio, and I’m ecstatic over that. Overall, I can’t say enough good things about M-Audio. The price and the quality of everything is just amazing. Get Connected In the studio, the NRV10 lets you keep your favorite audio devices connected and available for immediate recording. The unit includes eight analog inputs, allowing you to connect and monitor mics, guitars, synths, and outboard gear—even with the host computer turned off. And you can instantly record any of these inputs at up to 24-bit/96 kHz via the internal 10 x 10 FireWire audio interface. With the NRV10, you can set up custom monitor mixes, add effects, and record without having to move a single cable. For quick and easy monitoring, the unit lets you return 10 channels of digital audio from the computer and set up a custom monitor mix. The ﬂexible THE NRV10 IS THE FIRST M-AUDIO PRODUCT DESIGNED TO MIX LIVE INSTRUMENTS WITH PLAYBACK TRACKS FROM A DAW. routing and internal effects make it possible to enhance a performer’s monitor mix while recording only the dry track—so you can easily give your vocalist a touch of reverb or chorus while tracking. Live Mix Machine The NRV10 is the ﬁrst M-Audio product designed for the express purpose of mixing live instruments with playback tracks from a DAW. The internal 10 x 10 audio interface allows you to send ten channels of audio from your DAW to the mixer channels on the NRV10. You can process these tracks with the three-band EQ on each channel, adjust levels, and add digital effects. All this processing is independent of your computer’s CPU, and doesn’t affect any mix or automation data contained with the DAW session. Furthermore, the internal routing makes it very easy to send a click track to the drummer’s headphones, or create a custom monitor mix—comprising both live sources and playback tracks—for another performer. In addition to simply returning audio from the computer, the unit makes it possible to process live inputs with your DAW’s plug-in effects. Onstage, you can open a session in your DAW and disable all the tracks that will be played live by the musicians in your band. You can then plug those mics or instruments into the NRV10 and process these live sources with the same effect chains you used in the original recording. Looking for a way to mix and process live sources with VST effects? The unit ships with the innovative NRV10 interFX application for Mac and PC. This application includes compression and expansiongating as well as two VST slots per channel, plus a bundled collection of VST effects including ﬂanger, chorus, distortion, and delay. With near-zero latency and instant recall, interFX turns the NRV10 and your computer into a powerful live digital mixer. As a compact solution for home recording and live performance, the NRV10 offers a collection of features—including Pro Tools M-Powered compatibility—that you simply cannot ﬁnd in competing products. DIGIZINE 41 Legal By Elkie Bavoukian LEGAL EASE Guitar Tablature On Trial Since when did learning how to play a popular song on your guitar become copyright infringement? Isn’t being able to rock out on one of your favorite pop or rock songs the fun part of learning to play the guitar? Well, there is an ongoing legal controversy as to whether or not creating and sharing amateur guitar tablature (or “tab”) constitutes copyright infringement. Tab is a simpliﬁed form of musical notation that tells players where to place their ﬁngers on the guitar, by way of a graphical representation of a guitar’s fret board. Agencies that represent music publishers, such as the Harry Fox Agency, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) have been cracking down on Internet sites that provide tablature since the 1990s, with attacks on tab sites increasing within recent years. Despite this controversy, a random Google search for a tab site will produce a large number of different tab sites. Tablature is popular because it’s an easy mechanism for learning how to play a popular song without actually requiring guitarists to know how to read sheet music. Let’s face it: not everyone who has a passion for music has a passion for reading musical notation. The legal question, however, is: Do these sites constitute a violation of copyright law? As discussed below, the state of the law is still in ﬂux, with arguments being made on both sides of the tab equation. Owners of copyrighted songs, including music publishers, claim that the creation and distribution of fan-created tablature violates the copyright owners’ exclusive rights. Speciﬁcally, the music publishers argue that the tablature for a song is a “derivative work,” because it is an alternate arrangement of the sheet music for a song. Under section 106 of the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. § 106), the copyright owner has the exclusive right to create a derivative work—that is, a version of the work that is derived from the original work. Thus, the music publishers contend that the tablature version of a song not only infringes its exclusive right to create a derivative work, but also causes economic injury by lowering demand for the sheet music or commercial tab of the original work, resulting in a ﬁnancial loss with decreased sales. The opposing argument, from the guitar tablature users, is that tablature falls under the “fair use” defense within the U.S. copyright law under the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. § 107). Simply put, the fair use defense insulates someone who is otherwise an infringer from any liability to the copyright owner. Section 107 deﬁnes fair use as a “limitation” on copyright law, and states clearly that “the fair use of a copyrighted work...is not an infringement of copyright.” Fair use is a complex topic, and there are many cases arguing over what is—and what is not—a fair use. Under section 107, the factors to determine whether tablature is a fair use would include the following: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonproﬁt educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the DIGIZINE 42 copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work. These factors, and others, are applied by the courts after careful consideration and a balancing of all the facts before it. No published case to date has considered the application of fair use to tablature, so it is difﬁcult to anticipate how a court might weigh the factors. Any decision would be based on the speciﬁc facts before it, and application of those facts to the fair use factors. In the interim, until and if a case is decided, one fact is clear: Tab sites are being shut down methodically by music publishers and agencies. Online Guitar Archive (OLGA) was one of the ﬁrst notable shutdowns of an Internet tablature site. OLGA contained many useful guitar music charts, and had been online since 1992. OLGA, like many online tab sites, was closed as a result of a legal threat from the Harry Fox Agency. Many had argued that OLGA should have been protected by the “fair use” doctrine, since the site featured free, user-submitted tablature that was being used for purposes of teaching, research, and scholarship, and was therefore not an infringement of copyright. To date, the music publishers and agencies have not shown an interest in pursuing individual users or creators of non-commercial tabs. Instead, they appear more interested in shutting down tab sites—and thus fans of tablature may ﬁnd their favorite sites shut down, or in the process of being shut down, due to threats of legal action. The future of tab online is hard to determine. One can only wonder if amateur tab sites will go the way of the notorious unauthorized MP3 sites. One distinct difference is that record labels have met the demand for downloadable music by making many “authorized” songs legally available, in good-quality formats, via media outlets like iTunes for a small fee of $0.99/song. If a similar method were made available for guitar tablature, it would allow downloads to be tracked and ensure that royalties were paid appropriately. It is too early to say whether the majority of music publishers will take a cue from the record labels and offer reasonably priced downloadable tablature. Will the fair use argument prevail, ensuring the continued availability of free (if often inaccurate) tablature? Or will the publishers have their way and shut down all Internet tab sites for good, claiming infringement of copyrighted works? Whatever the outcome, it seems a shame to shut down fan-created tab sites that have helped many music students learn how to play their instruments—students who might later become consumers of high-quality commercial tabs. The future lies in the ongoing litigation within the music arena. A token legal disclaimer: This article is not intended as legal advice. Digidesign recommends that you seek the advice of a qualiﬁed lawyer for legal advice relating to your speciﬁc circumstances. The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and may or may not reﬂect those of Digidesign, its advertisers, users, or any one else. Full Page AD workshop WORKSHOPS Guitar Tools By Joe Gore Full Page AD �� guitar tools GuitarBox: The Box That Rocks • An amp simulator. Thanks to a recent ﬁrmware upgrade, you now get models of 40 classic amps (up from 12) and more ways to edit them. It’s a hip palette of vintage combos, macho stacks, and boutique beauties. The sound quality rivals that of the leading software amp modelers. • A multi-effects processor specializing in time-synchronized ﬁlter, delay, and modulation sounds. Like the AdrenaLinn pedal of which it’s a spin-off, the Black Box includes a simple drum machine with basic patterns that serve as scaffolds for erecting head-spinning, tempo-synced textures. (Those ﬂickering ﬁlters and dizzying psychedelic swirls have made the AdrenaLinn a favorite not only with guitarists, but with remixers such as Dan “The Automator” Nakamura.) Meanwhile, the ﬁrmware upgrade increases the number of effect presets from 40 to 121. Last year, M-Audio unveiled the Black Box: a Pro Tools M-Powered interface that incorporates quality amp modeling and built-in effects. Now Digidesign and M-Audio have released GuitarBox and GuitarBox Pro, two bargain-priced packages that bundle a Black Box with Pro Tools M-Powered software and an assortment of pro plug-ins of special relevance to guitarists. The GuitarBox lists for $495, the same price as the basic Mbox 2/ Pro Tools LE system. In addition to the 39 basic plug-ins that come with all Pro Tools systems (plus seven free Bomb Factory plug-ins), you get the G-Rack bundle, featuring nine premium plug-ins. The GuitarBox Pro ($695 list) sweetens the pot with the G-Rack Producer bundle, which adds seven additional premium Amp It Up There are plenty of good software amp simulators—in fact, one of them comes bundled with GuitarBox. But there are two major advantages to tracking via a hardware unit like the Black Box: It frees up power for other plug-ins (amp modelers are CPU hogs), and you needn’t worry about latency. On non-TDM systems, you sometimes have to record guitars while listening to the unappetizing dry sound of your instrument, because monitoring through software amp simulation and effects can introduce enough delay to ruin your feel. But with the Black Box, you can slather on the processing with no latency whatsoever. On the other hand, the key beneﬁt of software amp modeling is that you can change your tone after you’ve tracked your part. The GuitarBox gives you that option with the Bomb Factory SansAmp PSA-1, a software clone of a classic analog amp simulator. Some plug-ins to the G-Rack bundle. �� Granted, most DAW software comes with bundled plug-ins. But the GuitarBox’s G-Rack plug-ins were clearly selected by a connoisseur—every single one can be a vital contributor to great digital guitar tones. Let’s survey the GuitarBox goodies, focusing on what each has to offer the digital guitarist. Black Box Basics You can think of the M-Audio Black Box as three devices in one: • A Pro Tools interface that connects to your computer via USB cable. You can record through a standard guitar cable, or connect a mic via a single rear-panel XLR plug. DIGIZINE 44 �� Figure 1: The swamp-sodden Tel-Ray delay imparts instant vibe. �� workshop WORKSHOPS Guitar Tools Full Page AD guitar tools newer amp modelers may have more bells and whistles, but this thing still sounds great. The coolest feature: multiband overdrive, which allows the SansAmp to mimic many different amp sounds. Filter and Delay But SansAmps are newfangled technology compared to the TelRay Variable Delay (ﬁgure 1). Back in the ’60s the original electromechanical gizmo created primitive delay and reverb effects by—no joke—swirling a transducer around in a can of nasty oil. That weird, wobbly sound, capably cloned here, imparts instant swampy/spooky vibe to even the most prosaic guitar tracks. If you need something closer to conventional delay, try the Moogerfooger Analog Delay, a replica of one of the most beloved (and expensive) solid-state delay units. Its echoes are simultaneously clear and warm. Also famed for fatness are the Moogerfooger 12-Step Phaser, a terriﬁc replica of an analog phase shifter, and the Moogerfooger Lowpass Filter, a richly resonant Minimoog-style ﬁlter. Both sound particularly sweet on guitars. Meanwhile, the Moogerfooger Ring Modulator (ﬁgure 2) is the opposite of sweet—it’s a wicked noise machine that excels at clanking metallic textures and lo-ﬁ muck. Figure 3: TL Space’s impulse response reverbs can cement the realism of digital guitar tracks. Vibrato Vibe All tremophiliacs owe it to themselves to dally with vibrato, tremolo’s quirky cousin. And one of the best ways to get warm, retro-style vibrato is via the Voce Chorus/Vibrato. This isn’t your father’s Flock of Seagulls chorus, but your grandfather’s 1950s wobble—it’s the sound we associate with Magnatone amps and the vibrato circuits of Hammond organs. Also Hammond-inﬂuenced: Voce Spin, a lovely rotating speaker emulation. Guitars and vocals sound fantastic through spinning speakers, as proven by the Beatles, Cream, and other ’60s acts. Reverb Power Retro is great, but some other GuitarBox plug-ins are strictly state-of-the-art. TL Space (ﬁgure 3) is one of the most powerful and ﬂexible reverbs you’ll ﬁnd at any price. It’s a convolution reverb (also known as an impulse response, or IR, reverb), which means it uses recordings of physical spaces and gear to calculate how your recording would sound if it were performed in those spaces or pumped through that hardware. It comes with a nice assortment of impulse responses, but you can add more (like the ones available from the free online library at www.noisevault. com). TL Space excels at mimicking studio tracking rooms, small amp closets, and analog reverb units, all of which can greatly increase the realism of modeled amp sounds. Figure 2: Ring modulators are the devil’s playgrounds—and the Moogerfooger Ring Modulator is more devilish than most. DIGIZINE 46 Power Tools Of course, the GuitarBoxes also include the dozens of plug-ins that come with all Pro Tools systems. You get dynamics processors, equalizers, useful utilities, and effects like reverb, modula- workshop Full Page AD guitar tools tion, and delay. Recent additions include EQ III, a clean and versatile equalizer available in one-band, four-band, and sevenband conﬁgurations; Dynamics III, a powerful suite of dynamics processors, including compressors, limiters, expanders, gates, and de-essers; and Xpand!, a sample-playback/synthesis workstation packed with innovative features. Xpand! boasts over 1,000 preset patches, including acoustic instrument sounds, synths, loops, and more. You can layer up to four sounds, recreating classic tones or sculpting brave new ones. Factor in all the arpeggiation, modulation, and integrated effects sends, and your head starts to hurt. (It might explode altogether once you start combining Xpand! patches with all those other plug-ins.) GuitarBox Pro: Upscale Meets Old-School And what does GuitarBox Pro add to the mix? For a start, a suite of old-school (or pre-school, more like) compressors and equalizers. The Fairchild Bundle and Pultec Bundle are perfect complements to the clean, uncolored tones of Digidesign’s stock Dynamics III and EQ III plug-ins. The Fairchilds can add warmth, smoothness, and a touch of, well, oldness. And while the Pultecs are primitive compared to modern parametric EQs, you may be amazed by how often—and quickly—they get the job done with a few simple controls. Maximize Sound, Minimize Noise Finally, there are a pair of plug-ins to keep your sounds loud and clear: Maxim, Digidesign’s limiter/volume-maximizing plug-in, and DINR, the company’s intelligent noise-reduction tool, a ﬁne remedy for buzzing pickups and amps. M-Powered was already a tempting choice for the Pro Tools guitarist. Thanks to GuitarBox and GuitarBox Pro, now it’s irresistible. Joe Gore ([email protected]) 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. What’s In the Box? GuitarBox ($495 U.S.) includes the following: GuitarBox Pro ($695 U.S.) includes everything in the • M-Audio Black Box audio interface/guitar effector GuitarBox bundle, plus the G-Rack Producer premium plug-in • Pro Tools M-Powered software, including the 38 basic bundle: plug-ins and seven Bomb Factory plug-ins • The G-Rack premium plug-in bundle: • The Pultec Bundle (three vintage-style EQs) • The Fairchild Bundle (two vintage-style compressors) • TL Space Native Edition Reverb • DINR (intelligent noise reduction) • Bomb Factory SansAmp PSA-1 • Maxim (limiter and maximizer) • Tel-Ray Variable Delay • Voce Chorus/Vibrato and Spin • Moogerfooger Bundle (Analog Delay, Ring Modulator, Low Pass Filter, and 12-Stage Phaser) workshop WORKSHOPS Drum Room By Jim Batcho drum room Customizing Drum Performances in Strike To start things off, let’s load up a Preset Setting from the Browser. If you’re in the Style Editor, go back to the main interface by clicking the Exit button, then audition and load the Preset Setting of your choice. For this example, I’ve loaded DrumnBass 175. (See Tips 1 and 2 on page 54.) Once the Setting is loaded, go to the main Style section (click the Style button). Here you’ll ﬁnd a channel-style layout of all instruments in the Preset Setting, where you can adjust individual characteristics. To adjust Pattern arrangements, click the Edit Style button, which takes you to the Style Editor. Notice that the lower Keyboard section remains visible so you can access different Patterns within the Kit. But now, when you click a key onscreen or play a key on your controller, you’re given an editable grid-style interface for each keyboard note’s associated Pattern. (See Tips 3 and 4.) Strike is a bold new instrument plug-in that allows you to create shockingly realistic drum performances. Last time, we talked about loading Kits, tweaking parameters, triggering performance changes, and outputting a ﬁnal multitrack. This time we’ll take a look at designing and saving your own Patterns using the Style section and, in particular, the Style Editor. In addition to the Keyboard section, you’ll ﬁnd two other areas in the Style Editor: the middle Pattern Display (the arrangement of instruments in a Pattern) and the top-level Edit section (where you access the individual notes within a Part). The function of the Style Editor is to edit and arrange the various notes and Parts that make up your Pattern. But ﬁrst, some basic terminology. Strike comprises three overall components: Styles, Kits, and Mixes. A Kit (collection of instruments) and a Mix (all mixing/mic’ing parameters) are fairly straightforward. A Style, on the other hand, has a bit more going on. A Style is a category of drum performance represented by an editable series of Patterns. Patterns, in turn, are comprised of a collection of individual Parts. In Strike, a Setting is the whole enchilada: Styles, Kits, Mixes, Parts, and Patterns. Style Points Styles are manipulated in the Style Editor—the arrangement area of the Style section. The Style section, much like the Mix and Kit sections, is where you alter the characteristics of your Kit instruments. The Style Editor, on the other hand, is a linear arrangement of instruments and their note events, much as you’d ﬁnd in a sequencer or virtual drum machine. The Style Editor is accessed via the Edit Style button located just below the Style button. DIGIZINE 50 Figure 1: The Style Editor interface. Full Page AD workshop WORKSHOPS Drum Room Full Page AD drum room Play the Pattern you want to change (say, key D1). Click “Copy Pattern” at the bottom left of the window. Next, click an open key (say B1) and then click “Paste Pattern.” You’ve now got a duplicate of D1 in another place, and you can get to work customizing your own Pattern. In B1, select the hi-hat Part in the Pattern Display to highlight it. Now select Bridge B from the Parts List. All other Style Parts remain the same, but now you have a different hi-hat Part integrated into your groove. To save the work you’ve done so far, go back to the Style section and click the Save Style button; you’ll be given a Save option in a .tfx format (see ﬁgure 3). Name your new Style and save it to the default Styles folder within Strike. Your saved Style is actually a sort of patch that you can double-click to load again anytime. Because each Style also saves individual Parts, you can also open your new Style by clicking the + next to its name to load only the Parts associated with that Style. Figure 2a: The Parts List pull-down menu shows the speciﬁc Part identiﬁer for Snare 1—in this case, the topmost option, Verse A. The simplest way to customize styles loaded into the Editor is to swap out different Parts using the Parts List pull-down menu (see ﬁgure 2a). The Parts List is a collection of all the various Parts stored within a Preset Style or User Style. Because each Part relates to a particular instrument, you can easily replace these performance arrangements for each instrument. This is handy if, for example, you like a Pattern’s kick and snare Parts, but want to change the hi-hat Part. If the Pattern is set to Verse A and the hat you like is on Bridge B, you can easily combine the two Parts. I recommend ﬁrst making a copy of the Pattern you like, then pasting it to another key assignment in the Keyboard section. (See Tip 5.) Figure 2b: When you scroll over the Pattern key in the Keyboard section, you’ll see that the ﬁrst keyboard note is also Verse A. All Preset Parts are ordered top-to-bottom in the Parts List, and left-to-right in the Keyboard section. DIGIZINE 52 Figure 3: Saving a User Style. Key Changes Let’s modify this Style for the next section of the song. Click Copy Pattern, click key B2 on the keyboard, then click Paste Pattern. B2 is part of the bridge section of the keyboard, so let’s change the feel a bit. One easy way to do this is to copy an individual Part from one instrument type to another. Click the “hi-hats” Part in the Pattern Display, then locate the Copy button in the Part area, at the right side of the Edit section. Click Copy, select the “Trash Ride” Part, and then click Paste. Your hi-hat Part has now been duplicated to the Trash Ride Part (see ﬁgure 4). The Trash Ride instrument is the same, but the Part has changed. You may now delete the hi-hat for the bridge section. workshop WORKSHOPS Drum Room Full Page AD drum room Threshold” menu options. Next, click Exit to go to the Style section page, and raise and lower the Complexity knob for the channels whose complexity settings you’ve changed. (See Tip 6.) This adds a little variety to the performance during playback (negative settings have an inverse effect). If you want to change things again for key B3 (the chorus section), make similar changes using the method outlined above, then save your Style again. Now you’ve got a three-section Style ready to go at the push of a B key. Figure 5: The Edit section shows the muted Trash Ride parts that have been muted to leave room for a couple hi-hat notes. These notes are no longer visible in the Pattern Display. Jim Batcho is a San Francisco–based drummer, rhythm programmer, freelance writer, and sound and music editor for television and experimental ﬁlm. He has a Master’s degree in electronic communication arts with a focus on the representational potential of ambient sound in TV and ﬁlm. For more information, visit www.jimbatcho.com. But let’s not abandon the hi-hat Part altogether. Select the empty Part and we’ll add some notes. Click the Pencil button and draw in a note event at beat 4.1 and another at beat 8.2. Go to the Type pull-down menu and select “half-open” for the ﬁrst and “tip half-open” for the second. Now go to the Trash Ride Part, click the Mute (X) button, and mute notes 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 to make the diamond-shaped notes disappear on these beats in the ride Part (see ﬁgure 5). Now listen back. Switch between notes B1 (verse) and B2 (bridge) to hear the changes from section to section. To add a bit of interactivity while playing back, change the complexity setting for certain notes in your ride and hat Parts, using the “Complexity Figure 4: A hi-hat Part that has been copied and pasted into the Trash Ride Part. Strike Tips Tip 1: Be sure to save any Styles, Kits, or Mixes you may have worked on before loading a new Setting. A Setting comprises the highest structural level in Strike, so loading a new one removes any other data. Tip 2: It’s best to maintain similar tempos between Strike and Pro Tools. If you’re using DrumnBass 175, set Pro Tools to a similar bpm. Tip 3: The Key Follow button must be enabled for such updating to occur. DIGIZINE 54 Tip 4: You can use the Keyboard section layout to mute individual Instruments within a Pattern. In the Style section (not the Style Editor), each instrument channel has a numerical value (for example, Kick is 1 and Snare is 2). The yellow keys in the Keyboard section reﬂect this numerical arrangement. To pause an instrument’s playback, click the yellow key for that instrument. Tip 5: The gray Pattern trigger area of the Keyboard section is split into three areas, each reserved for a different song section—verse, bridge, and chorus. I like to reserve the notes B1, B2, and B3 for my new Patterns. They’re sometimes blank, and I always know where they are in relation to the three sections of a song (verse, bridge, chorus). Tip 6: To add more variation, go to the Main section and increase the Complexity slider (or use your keyboard’s pitch-bend controller). The Main section’s Complexity slider affects all notes set to the selected complexity parameter, not just one part. workshop WORKSHOPS MIDI Dity By Rob Kelly midi ditty Velvet: Digidesign’s Plush New Electric Piano When developing Velvet’s sound, the A.I.R. team employed a combination of high-deﬁnition sampling and modeling technology for a “best of both worlds” approach. This combined approach has several beneﬁts. For example, all the samples remain RAM-based, so you don’t lose disk performance to lots of big samples streaming off disk. And the dynamic modeling makes for seamless velocity response, with a totally smooth change in timbre from very soft to very hard playing (no telltale sample-crossfade points). The electric piano has arguably shaped the sound of popular music as much as the electric guitar and bass. Electric piano’s playability and expressiveness is legendary; its tone can be transformed from a soft background pad to a cutting, hard tone via a different touch on the keys. Dynamic modeling also allows for faithful emulation of all the character and quirkiness of the original pianos. A nice touch is a switch in the setup section that allows you to choose the detail of the samples loaded to RAM, from economy to XXL. If you’re running low on system resources you can conserve RAM and run in economy mode—though of course XXL sounds the best. Velvet Sound Velvet is the most musical virtual instrument I’ve played—it really feels like playing the real thing. Being lucky enough to own a Wurlitzer piano and sharing a house with a Mark 1 Rhodes, I can say with some certainty that Velvet sounds and feels so close to the real thing that it’s near indistinguishable—a very impressive feat for a version 1.0 instrument. DIGIZINE 56 The MKII models the very bright, polished, metallic sound of the Mark 2 stage piano—and begs to be tweaked to emulate the sound of a Dyno-Rhodes. This instrument was modeled with the pickups set close to the tines to accentuate their attack; it immediately reminds me of the sound of an ’80s power ballad. Figure 2: Velvet’s front panel includes the master volume and tremolo effect controls. The fourth piano model is the A200, a simulation of the Wurlitzer electric piano. It’s the only electromagnetic piano type to really compete commercially with the Rhodes. Made famous by Supertramp, and also used to great effect by Beck, it has an aggressive, powerful sound well-suited to pop and rock music. The somewhat clunky mechanical nature of the instrument’s construction leads to certain sonic idiosyncrasies and nuances, adding a distinct character. Accurately simulating the interaction of keys, hammers, tines, dampers, and pickups in a software version is no easy task, but Digidesign’s Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group was more than up to the job. The result: the new Velvet RTAS plug-in. VELVET SOUNDS AND FEELS SO CLOSE TO THE REAL THING THAT IT’S NEAR INDISTINGUISHABLE. Next, we have MK 1, Velvet’s version of the Mark 1 stage piano. It’s a very dynamic instrument that can produce a biting timbre when played hard—great for cutting through a mix, soloing, or adding rhythmic punctuation. Velvet’s Setup Section The setup section contains the nuts-and-bolts controls to build your sound, including settings that affect how the instrument responds to your playing (see ﬁgure 3). Figure 1: Velvet’s architecture and signal routing. Velvet’s Architecture Figure 1 shows a schematic of the signal ﬂow through Velvet’s various sections. Note the separate pickup and mechanical “acoustic” signals, and the fact that the Tremolo and Wah modules can be reordered to achieve different timbres via right-clicking on speciﬁc switches and choosing a different position in the signal ﬂow from the pop-up menu. The Front Panel and the Piano Models Velvet includes four very different-sounding electric piano models, each with its own familiar and distinct character. The SC 73 is modeled on the Rhodes Suitcase 73, with a soft and jazzy sound. It’s well-suited to ballads and jazz, and blends well with other instruments. For an authentic “suitcase” sound, use the SC 73 with stereo tremolo and the cabinet effect engaged and set to large. The Pickup Level adjusts the volume of the “line” signal from the instrument’s virtual pickups. Velvet produces mechanical, acoustic sounds in addition to this pickup signal. The acoustic sound can be heard in isolation by turning the pickup volume all the way down—you’ll hear the sound of the mechanical operation of an unplugged Rhodes. These mechanical sounds are controlled by the next section, Mechanics, along with the volume and an on/off switch that can be set to “Open” to replicate the sound of the instrument with the lid removed. Right-click the Mechanics switch and choose “FX bypass” to bypass the Mechanics signal from the Effects section. To the right of the Mechanics section are the Key Off controls, which affect the amount and type of “key off” noise created when you release a key. The “Stacc” mode enables a special behavior when short notes are played, resembling the way a real electric piano sounds when staccato playing prevents the dampers from cutting off the sound as normal. Right-clicking the Key Off switch activates “pedal noise” that is mixed with both the mechanical and pickup signals. Figure 3: Velvet’s setup section. The Condition control is a very cool feature. Turning the virtual knob from “Mint” to “Bad” condition introduces tuning and tonal anomalies from key to key, replicating the sound of a Rhodes in need of service! This feature is great for adding realism and character. Other functions in the setup section include Fine Tune (assign it to your pitch wheel via right-click for pitch-bend effects), Velocity Curve sliders, and Velo Response controls. The latter two allow you to precisely tailor Velvet’s sound to your playing style and the velocity response curve of your MIDI controller keyboard. Finally, the Timbre control affects the overall sound of the instrument, from soft to hard tones. The Preamp The Preamp (see ﬁgure 4) consists of a one-knob compressor that can be quite aggressive and quickly gives a good “pumping” sound, a tube drive that generates a nice, warm distortion, and an EQ section with parametric mid (try high gain and Q settings and slowly change the frequency for great creative sweep effects—see ﬁgure 6.) There’s also a Level control that can be used for gain makeup and overall trim before hitting the Effects section. The Effects Section Velvet has a dedicated, built-in multi-effects engine containing 16 types of effects associated with the electric piano (see ﬁgure 5). And these aren’t just any effects; the A.I.R. team really went out of their way to emulate the very best classic effects that we all know and love. Figure 4: Velvet’s Preamp controls. Distortion modes include crush, ring modulator, and fuzz. Used in conjunction, Distortion and Wah are particularly effective for DIGIZINE 57 workshop work shops WORKSHOPS MIDI Dity Half Page AD midi ditty funk sounds—or try adding some echo and play softly for ﬁltered, techno-style ambient backgrounds. The Modulation section includes chorus, ﬂanger, and two types of phasers—all of which complement and thicken the tones of the four piano models. The Cab section, which emulates the sound of a speaker cabinet, adds warmth and enhances the character and realism of the sound. The Delay has mono, stereo (ping-pong), and tape modes. Tape mode emulates the behavior of classic Copy Cat/Space Echo delay units, and lends itself well to real-time control of delay time and feedback. Overall, the effects are eminently playable and vastly increase the number of sounds and textures available from Velvet. Presets and MIDI Control Velvet’s meticulously crafted sounds are instantly accessible, without lots of ﬁddly adjustments via a large library of presets. There’s a lot of attention to detail—for example, the Velocity Response and Timbre controls are preadjusted to complement effects settings for maximum expression. Figure 6: Velvet’s MIDI controller parameters are assignable via right-click. Conclusion Velvet was clearly designed and built by people with a detailed technical knowledge of electric pianos, and a love of playing them. This instrument offers four excellent piano models with some amazing extras—for example, the Preamp and Effects sections make Velvet extremely versatile and playable. It’s built for studio and live performance, and makes rare and sought-after sounds easy to achieve for today’s generation of keyboard players. Rob Kelly is a musician and sound engineer. Previously a product specialist for Digidesign UK, he now works for Strongroom and Air Studios in London. Figure 5: Velvet’s Effects section. Presets are grouped into categories according to the four piano models. All parameters are automatable via standard Pro Tools automation, and every control is assignable via right-click to a MIDI continuous controller (see ﬁgure 6), making Velvet even more performance-friendly. DIGIZINE 58 Half Page AD work shops workshop WORKSHOPS In the Loop By Erik Hawkins in the loop Under the Hood of Hybrid Part, and each preset is made up of two simultaneous Parts (each containing an individual patch). A built-in Step Sequencer can be assigned to each Part, and almost every parameter can be assigned to a MIDI continuous controller (CC) for mind-numbing real-time performance control. less of your H/W Buffer Size setting. The audio from your sequenced MIDI performance remains perfectly locked with the groove in your audio regions (see ﬁgure 1). Considering these impressive features, it’s no wonder that Hybrid is ideal for remixing and just about any sort of electronic music production. Best of all, creating your own sounds with Hybrid isn’t nearly as complicated as you might think. Seriously Synchronized No matter what type of music you’re producing, it’s crucial that the audio output of your MIDI sound modules remains uniformly locked to your session’s tempo. The importance of tight MIDI-toaudio synchronization is particularly important for writing groovebased music or remixing (where new MIDI performances are lined up with a song’s original audio tracks). Just a few milliseconds of delay is enough to throw a groove out of whack. Even worse, MIDI jitter can cause a part to be “in the pocket” one moment and out the next, in a completely random sort of way. Digidesign’s Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) group has built an RTAS instrument that’s a serious synth powerhouse and gets great mileage to boot: the Hybrid high-deﬁnition synthesizer. With tones ranging from a classic Moog to an aggressive Access synth, and programmability rivaling pricey hardware units, it’s a steal for just $249. Hybrid’s engine is a combination of classic analog waveforms mixed with digital wavetables. There are three oscillators per MIDI timing delays and jitter have been a problem with MIDI sound modules, especially hardware units, since they were ﬁrst introduced. Most of us have just learned to put up with it and compensate whenever possible using MIDI track offsets. Having dealt with these issues for so long, it’s a pleasure to report that Digidesign has all but eliminated MIDI delay and jitter in its new RTAS instruments (including Hybrid, Xpand!, Strike, and Velvet) when used in Pro Tools 7 or higher software. The result is rocksolid MIDI-to-audio timing that keeps your groove secure, regard- Figure 1: MIDI notes that have been recorded as audio from Hybrid (middle track), and from a hardware MIDI sound module (bottom track). There’s a delay of 384 samples on the hardware unit—that’s approximately 8 ms of delay in a 48 kHz session! DIGIZINE 60 Figure 2: The Learn CC mode allows almost any parameter in Hybrid to be quickly assigned to a MIDI CC number, simply by moving a physical control on your MIDI controller. Grab Some Knobs It’s not enough for a software synth to just sound like a great piece of analog gear—you also want it to feel like one. On a good virtual instrument, the onscreen controls can be easily assigned to any of your MIDI controller’s knobs and faders using standard MIDI continuous controller numbers. This lets you record dynamic parameter changes and create the types of morphing, constantly-evolving sounds that are a cornerstone of good electronic music production. changes between your favorite sets of control parameters. Talk about encouraging your inner control freak to come out and play! Step Sequencer Two-Step Hybrid’s onboard Step Sequencer is a blast for cooking up interesting polyrhythmic loops and beats. It features individual Note, Velocity, and two Modulation Control step sequencers. Hybrid’s tempo is automatically locked to your session’s tempo, so there’s no need to enable MIDI Beat Clock. Simply pressing a note on your MIDI controller starts the Step Sequencer playing. Assigning Hybrid’s controls to your MIDI controller is a piece of cake: just right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the Hybrid rotary knob for which you want to assign a MIDI CC. Select Learn CC from the pop-up window (see ﬁgure 2) to enable the “Learn” mode for that knob. Turn a real-world knob on your MIDI controller and its CC will be automatically mapped to Hybrid’s software knob. Hybrid’s ability to learn any incoming continuous controller data from your hardware MIDI controller is much more convenient than skimming through a manual to ﬁgure out a software knob’s pre-assigned CC, then locating it on a MIDI control surface. Hybrid also features four simultaneous Morph Controller knobs. Multiple parameters in Hybrid can be assigned to any one of the Morph knobs, and the Morph knob itself can be assigned to a CC for remote control, allowing you to manipulate several parameters at once from a single knob or fader. You can even make the values of different parameters move in opposite directions, because morphing begins from a parameter’s last setting. The Morph Controllers are organized into four discrete banks to allow quick Figure 3: Step Sequencer A and Step Sequencer B, shown sideby-side to illustrate a simple four-on-the-ﬂoor beat where Part A is the kick and Part B is the snare. DIGIZINE 61 workshop WORKSHOPS In the Loop Half Page AD in the loop Each Part has its own dedicated Step Sequencer, allowing you to program two separate sequencer patterns in a single Hybrid patch. For example, Part A could be an analog kick and Part B an analog snare in a two-part analog drum machine simulation (see ﬁgure 3). The Sequencer even has a Swing setting to make your patterns groove. A selection of preset MIDI Phrase patterns is also available, and includes everything from arpeggios to rhythmic phrases. The Step Sequencer’s steps can be set to note resolutions ranging from every couple of bars (dependent on your session’s meter) to 64th-notes, including triplets and dotted values. Each step can be turned on or off individually, saving you the hassle of turning down a step’s MIDI velocity just to mute the note. To draw in several steps at a time, hold down the Shift key and drag your cursor across the steps. This is much faster than programming steps one at a time, and is ideal for drawing curves. Each of a Part’s three oscillators can be modulated by a Control pattern (in addition to the Note and Velocity patterns), for a wealth of sonic movement in even the simplest phrases. Fast Patch Changes We’ve all experienced the factory preset that’s nearly perfect, except for that one annoying element. After digging through the patch’s parameters for way too long, we often give up and settle, reassuring ourselves that it’s “close enough.” With Hybrid, there’s no need to settle—it’s a snap to make changes to the individual Parts that make up a patch via the Part On/Part Off buttons, conveniently located at the bottom of Hybrid’s face. From the Presets page, you can dial up an entirely different patch for either Part (see ﬁgure 4). On this same page you’ll also ﬁnd handy global parameters for ﬁne-tuning the Part’s sound, including Oscillator Octave and Tune, Filter Cutoff and Resonance, and Amp Level and Pan. Easy access to Hybrid’s Parts makes tweaking any patch simple. DIGIDESIGN HAS ALL BUT ELIMINATED MIDI DELAY AND JITTER IN ITS NEW RTAS INSTRUMENTS. DIGIZINE 62 Figure 4: In Hybrid, you can easily change a Part’s patch assignment and adjust its global parameters (such as Filter Cutoff, Oscillator Tune, and Amp Level) from the Presets page. Hybrid makes it easy to create your own sounds, whether you’re simply mixing Parts or modulating them individually with Step Sequence patterns—and it’s equally easy to assign MIDI CC numbers to Hybrid’s parameters for real-time control and automation. In short, Hybrid gives you the tools to produce stunningly original sounds quickly. Combined with Hybrid’s spot-on MIDI-to-audio synchronization, this gives you the crucial elements for producing tight electronic arrangements and remixes. If you haven’t checked out Hybrid yet, do yourself a favor and take it for a spin. 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 production techniques discussed in the book. You can also study remix production with me online, at Berkleemusic.com, in the new Remixing with Pro Tools course. Half Page AD Full Page AD Full Page AD Full Page AD

Digizine Winter 2007

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