Get Up and Go—Meet Mbox 2 Micro

Transcription

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DIGIZINE
Fifteen
Winter 2008
EDITOR’S NOTE
A Good Live Show
Editor in Chief
Dusty DiMercurio
Contributing Editor
Elise Malmberg, Kris Fong
Contributing WRITERS
Randy Alberts, Greg Chin,
Dustin Driver, David Franz,
Rob Kelly, Joe Gore,
Kris Fong, Bill Murphy,
JoE Silva, Greg Thomas,
Rich Tozzoli
CREATIVE Director
Jason Lakis
DESIGN Director
Van Chuchom
GRAPHIC Design
Sean Kelley
Staff photographerS
Gabe Echeverria,
Anthony Gordon
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Alex Steinhart
[email protected]
A few weeks back I went to see a band that’s signed to a friend’s label. While I’m not exactly
a huge fan of their music, I was thoroughly impressed with their live performance. The whole
band—especially the lead singer—were totally into their tunes; myself along with the rest of
the audience were right there with them.
Typically there are a few things I consider when evaluating whether or not I want to see a
music act live. The obvious first and foremost: Do I like their music? Do I foresee their music
translating well in a live setting? Is there something I think I’ll get out of their live performance
that I don’t really get out of listening to their music on CD or MP3? Perhaps they’ll change
the arrangement of their songs to spice things up, or maybe even try out some new material
they’re working on to see how the audience responds.
Of the various reasons why I may or may not consider going to see a band live, one thing is
for sure: I want to see the musicians get into their performance. Unfortunately, there have
been too many times where I’ve been disappointed with a band’s live show—even bands
whose recorded music I love. In my experience, a lack of enthusiasm or interest from the
musician’s side in what they’re playing gets immediately picked up on by show-goers, and
is a sure way to jeopardize an audience’s interest in the show.
The importance of putting on a great live show can be paramount to gaining new fans.
Of course the music should be great, and it’s a bonus when it is. But when I pay to see a
live performance, the role of the music itself is almost of secondary importance; the main
thing that draws me into a band’s live act is if they’re into it. If they’re not—or at least not
pretending to be, somewhat convincingly—chances are I won’t get into it either. But when
a band puts their heart into their performance, they may just succeed in the seemingly
impossible: turning someone who may not truly appreciate their recorded music into a
fan—one that will gladly show up the next time they come around.
Dusty DiMercurio
Editor in Chief
artist Relations
Anthony Gordon
PUBLISHER
Paul Foeckler
DigiZine
c/o Digidesign, a division of Avid
2001 Junipero Serra Blvd. #200
Daly City, CA 94014
©2008
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, Beat Detective,
Bomb Factory, Command|8, Control|24,
C|24, Cosmonaut Voice, D-Command,
D-Control, D-Fi, 003, 003 Rack,
DigiBase, DigiDelivery, DigiRack,
DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, DV
Toolkit, Eleven, Hybrid, Maxim, Mbox 2,
Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2 Micro, Mbox 2 Pro,
Musition, OMF, PhotoScore, Pinnacle,
Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools
Ignition Pack, Pro Tools LE, Pro Tools
M-Powered, Pro Tools Method One,
Pulsar II, QuickPunch, Reel Tape Suite,
RTAS, Scorch, SignalTools, Smack!,
Solaris, SoundReplacer, Sputnik,
Strike, Structure, Studiophile,
Surroundscope, Synchronic, TAMPA,
Tel-Ray, TL Space, Transit, 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.
DAVE’S DIRT
The New Creative Flow
This issue we’re covering a lot of new products and ideas. Last time I gave you a sneak
peak of Pro Tools 7.4 and its Elastic Time features, which will revolutionize your work with
loop-based audio and tempo changes directly inside Pro Tools. It’s great to be able to fluidly
audition new bits in tempo, then work with Elastic Time using extremely high sound quality
algorithms tweaked specifically for different types of material. This is a major enhancement
to working creatively in Pro Tools, and I hope you find it as interesting and useful as I do.
Eleven, our ultra-realistic guitar amp emulation plug-in, is an innovation that we’re truly
proud of. We have taken the “cloning of tone” to the next level, spending more than a year
on the R&D, and modeling every component within and outside a collection of great amps.
This includes painstaking emulation of speaker cone breakup, cabinet resonance, power
amp sag, and “ghost note” harmonics, along with convolution modeling of various cabinets.
(There are a lot of picky guitarists working at the company, and they’ve been waiting for
the right moment to exert, uh, extreme control!)
Another thing that’s great about Eleven is the way the plug-in responds to you as a player—
it acts so much like a real amp that you might forget you’re playing with a plug-in at all.
All of this translates into recordings with greater definition and integrity on multiple guitar
tracks—unlike other emulations I’ve used, Eleven doesn’t fall apart in the mix. It’s really a
fantastic and creative tool for any kind of sound-mangling (not just guitar).
There’s also Mbox 2 Micro, which includes expandable Pro Tools LE software, plus high-quality
monitor outputs. This is a portable Pro Tools playback system for laptops on the go—something
a lot of us have wanted. Micro even has a volume control for your headphones. Nice…
Finally, there’s C|24, our new midrange, full-on mixing console/control surface—read on
about this innovation in this issue and on our website. There’s a lot going on, so I hope you
enjoy the new creative flow from all of us here at Digidesign!
Dave Lebolt
Digidesign General Manager
www.digidesign.com
DIGIZINE
03
DIGIZINE
Winter 2008
Fifteen
Eleven
06 Behind
See What Went on Behind the Scenes to Create 16 UNKLE: Choose Your Weapon
James Lavelle and Richard File Take Pro Tools
to the Desert to Hammer Out War Stories
20
54
60
64
68
WORKSHOPS
Stryke Sessions: Drum Programming with Xpand!
Guitar Tools: A Guitarist’s Guide to Eleven
MIDI Ditty: Using Elastic Time in Pro Tools 7.4
Groundwork: Mastering Fades and Crossfades
Mbox 2 Micro
Ultra-small USB Pro Tools LE Solution Enables Playback, Editing, Sequencing, and Mixing On the Go
26 Gear at a Glance
33
Caught by the Fuzz
ORKSHOPS
Digidesign’s New Guitar Amp-cloning Plug-in
44 Pro Tools Personal Studio Systems
See Why Fuzz.com May Just Be What’s Needed to Rescue the Music Biz
C|24
Meet Digidesign’s Sleek and Stylish New
24-fader Control Surface for Pro Tools
COLUMNS
12
39
Accelerated Studio: Full Sail: Empowering Students with a Real World ICON Education
The Graduate: Elliot Carter
DEPARTMENTS
10
36
Developers News: The Latest Digidesign Development Partner News
Plug-in Centerfold: : bx_digital, RNDigital Signature Bundle, Structure, and Virtual String Machine
DIGIZINE
04
48 50
Make Your Mark
Microsoft-Sponsored Tour of Events with
Four Creative Technology Leaders
Sibelius 5
The Fastest, Smartest, Easiest Way to Compose Music Just Got Better
SPECIAL FEATURE
Behind
The Making of a Modern Classic
The quest for tone is a lifelong journey for many guitarists. Finding the
right guitar—or guitars—is just the beginning. Each amp and cabinet
adds a new spectrum of tonal possibilities. And of course, when it’s time
to record, the selection of microphone and mic position adds another
set of options. Though the journey can be a long one, access to the right
equipment can turn the quest for tone into a creative experience.
The new Digidesign Eleven amp and cabinet modeling plug-in offers
guitarists—as well as vocalists, keyboardists, drummers, producers, and
engineers—new avenues in the continuing quest for tone. Unlike previous attempts at amp and speaker modeling, Eleven goes far beyond
sounding “sort of like” the real thing. A comprehensive approach to amp
and cabinet cloning brings players a much wider range of nuances from
an impressive collection of classic gear and newly designed creations.
Most importantly, those nuances allow players to interact with the
equipment just as they would with real amps and cabs. With Eleven,
individual expression is in the driver’s seat on the road to tone.
DIGIZINE
06
Designed by Musicians
The Digidesign musician-engineers who developed Eleven understand
the quest for tone through their own personal experience. Chris Townsend,
one of the lead engineers on the project, started to craft his own guitar
effects in college. “I bought this digital signal processing evaluation
board that you could connect to your computer,” he says, “and I wrote
guitar effects algorithms, like echoes, reverbs, and even distortion algorithms. I didn’t really have a master plan—I just wanted to be able to use
it as a guitarist. I owned a small Mesa Boogie tube amp, and I thought
it would be cool if I could make that distortion sound on my DSP board.
But it took me ten years to get there.”
Bobby Lombardi, who studied composition and psychoacoustics before
beginning his tenure as Senior Product Manager at Digidesign, understands the value of tone for composing. “The way a guitar and amp
work together and react as a single instrument can really inspire you to
create,” says Lombardi. “That’s a vibe you just don’t get from a lot of
existing software and hardware modelers.”
By Greg Thomas
First Steps
Digidesign recognized the growing demand for
guitar amp and cabinet emulating plug-ins years
ago. “For a long time, Line 6 Amp Farm was the
only TDM guitar amp simulation plug-in,”
Lombardi recalls. “So we encouraged the development community to work on some new products
to give users additional options—and we thought
we could contribute to that field as well.”
The Digidesign team began the Eleven project
by evaluating other plug-ins and a wide range of
hardware modelers. “We bought all these hardware
units and figured out what each one got right and
got wrong,” says Lombardi. “In some cases, there
might be a box with really good speaker modeling
but bad amp modeling. But unfortunately, many
of them don’t let you bypass the section you don’t
like to build a perfect hybrid.”
Looking under the hood at specific algorithms
wasn’t always an option, but Townsend researched
patents and did a lot of listening to figure out what
accounted for the successes and failures. “With
some of the hardware units, it seemed like they
took a soft clip model and placed an EQ tone stack
in different places within that model to change the
sound,” says Townsend. “They didn’t really model
each part of the amp. This challenge we took very
seriously when developing Eleven.”
In Search of Amps
The next step in developing Eleven was acquiring
the best possible collection of classic amps and
cabs. “We tried to purchase each amp from a
golden year of production,” Lombardi notes. “We
weren’t going to model an amp produced during a
year in which cost reduction measures were taken,
because when components are changed, it can
affect the sound. For the Marshall JCM 800, for
example, we were really specific: We wanted an
’81, ’82, or ’83.”
Just locating the desired amp was tough enough, but
the Digidesign team also made sure the amps
and cabs hadn’t been modified in any way. “All
serial numbers had to be checked out,” says
Lombardi. “We had to make sure the parts in
that vintage amp truly came from that vintage
amp, and not from some other scrap amp.”
Townsend examined each component in each
amp, making sure it matched the original
schematic. “Sometimes the schematics had
mistakes!” he says. “The official Fender Tweed
Bassman schematic, for example, was wrong.
Fender had updated the tone stack without
changing the schematic. For others, like some
of the Marshalls, we couldn’t get accurate schematics for every year. Marshall had a very small
operation back then, and there were component changes from year to year—even week
to week. So we had to do a lot of research to
make sure everything was where it should be.”
Ultimately, choosing one amp or another
required some serious listening. “In every
aspect of this project, listening was
crucial,” says Townsend. “We listened and
listened some more until we had the bestsounding amps.”
Comprehensive Modeling
Digidesign went to great lengths to model
essentially every component in each amp.
“Chris had to get in there and get his hands
dirty on every little piece, doing volt measurements to create the model,” Lombardi says. “It
was an incredibly painstaking process. He created models for the tubes, tone stack, power
supply, preamp, power amp—you name it.”
By modeling each of those components,
Eleven provides players with a much more
authentic re-creation of the original amp
control set than other amp simulators.
“Diehard tone seekers who want to experience the VOX AC30 or Marshall Super Lead
will be able to dial up the same settings on
Eleven as they would on the real amp,” says
Lombardi.
The Digidesign team also emulated aspects
of amps and cabinets that are frequently
overlooked in other modeling units, like
power amp sag and speaker cone breakup.
“There are some classic guitar tones that
come from speaker cone breakup,” explains
Townsend. “With a guitar speaker, you’re
feeding a wide bandwidth signal through a
12-inch speaker, and different parts of the
cone move differently. One part might be
“With Eleven we used
our ears as the guides,
always making sure the
final result was musical,
not just mathematical.”
Townsend at work modeling an amp for Eleven.
DIGIZINE
07
SPECIAL FEATURE
To achieve maximum realism, Digidesign developed an entirely new amp emulation approach in which every stage of the amp’s signal path is modeled.
DIGIZINE
08
moving out while another is moving in. That
happens all the time, even at low volumes.
When you drive the speaker hard, those cone
breakup modes change non-linearly. It becomes
a chaotic system, and the result is part of each
cabinet’s unique tone.”
The cone breakup model proved to be one of the
toughest aspects of the project for Townsend.
“Once we understood how a speaker actually
works, we came up with a model to try to emulate that chaos,” he says. “But we also used our
ears as the guides, always making sure the final
result was musical, not just mathematical.”
Cabinet Convolution
Eleven uses a convolution process to capture the
sound of each speaker cabinet through a wide
variety of mics. To make sure the Digidesign
team captured the sweet spots of the amps, they
hired an expert guitar recording engineer, John
Cuniberti, whose engineering work at the Plant
in Sausalito, CA, and elsewhere has spanned
three decades, and includes artists from Stevie
Wonder to the Dead Kennedys. For the Eleven
project, Cuniberti’s engineering work on six Joe
Satriani albums was an important credential.
“We went into the studio and had John set up
the cabinets and mics,” says Townsend. “We
played actual guitar tracks through each one
until we found the perfect position for the mic.
Then we measured the frequency response
using test signals. The measurements we made
were at real-world volumes, usually in excess of
120 dB, to get the most realistic results.”
It sounds straightforward, but the Digidesign
team had to repeat this process for each
cabinet, with a large collection of mics in
a variety of positions. “Yeah, it was a little
time-consuming,” laughs Lombardi. “We also
captured about three or four signals per mic,
per position. Then there was a lot of listening
to find the best one.”
But the resulting sounds are completely pure,
Lombardi says: “The impulse responses that we
created from these recordings are absolutely
unadulterated. What you’re getting is the sound
of that speaker through that mic. You’re getting
the vintage cab sound, with no EQ applied.”
The Flexible Classic
Given the number of guitar amp models,
speaker cabinet models, and microphone
models available in Eleven—let alone all the
tone adjustments available within each model
—players have an enormous number of tonal
possibilities at their fingertips. And should they
need even more options, both the guitar
amplifier and speaker sections of the plug-in
can be bypassed independently. “There are really
a number of complex routings you can try,” says
Lombardi. “You could use your own amp and
send the signal through an Eleven cabinet.
Or you could use the amp without the cabinet.
You could even take the output of your amp,
bypass the speaker cabinets, and send the output to a couple of Aux Input tracks in Pro Tools,
then use multiple cabinets with multiple
instances of the plug-in, or multiple mics
on the same cabinets. It’s really endless.”
“The Digidesign team
emulated aspects of
amps and cabinets that
are frequently overlooked in other
modeling units, like
power amp sag and
speaker cone breakup.”
Though Eleven offers an impressive array of
amp, speaker, and mic combinations, it’s easy
to find the exact sonic configuration you’re
looking for.
“With some other modelers, I’d tweak the parameters endlessly or run through every preset,
but still feel like I’m listening to the same sound
with different EQ,” notes Townsend. “In the real
world, every amp is capable of a huge range of
sounds. That’s the way we made Eleven.”
“Every amp in Eleven is an actual amp,” says
Lombardi. “It’s not just one tone that an amp
is known for. With Eleven, you get the tone of
that amp when it’s cranked down, cranked up,
or at different tone settings. You have access
to every little nuance in the actual amp.”
The extensive work that went into producing
Eleven enables players to interact with it in much
the same way as they would with real amps and
cabinets. “There’s an organic feel to Eleven that’s
really cool,” says Lombardi. “With real amps,
the tone produced differs from player to player.
Think of how different the VOX AC30 sounds
on a Beatles tune versus a Radiohead tune.
And that tone changes even more through the
expressiveness of each individual player. It’s that
responsiveness, that interaction, that we were
after with Eleven, and I really think we nailed it.”
A Token Legal Disclaimer: Please keep in mind
that Eleven is not connected with, or approved
or endorsed by, the owners of the AKG,
Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Neumann,
Royer, Sennheiser, Shure, Soldano, and VOX
trademarks. These names are used solely to
identify the guitar amplifiers, cabinets, and
microphones emulated by the Eleven plug-in.
DIGIZINE
09
DEVELOPERS NEWS
Ableton
Live 7
FXpansion
BFD2
Ableton Live 7 renews the core of Live with enhancements to the audio engine, including 64-bit mix
summing, new and improved devices with side-chaining
capability, better MIDI timing, and hardware integration.
Also included are frequently requested features such as
time signature changes, video export, multiple automation lanes, and much more.
RTAS
www.ableton.com
www.fxpansion.com
Brainworx
bx_control
Garritan
Authorized Steinway Piano Sample Library
FabFilter
TDM, RTAS
RTAS
Bx_control is an M/S matrix tool with built-in
M/S stereo width control and Mono Maker. Chain
any multi-mono plug-in into the bx_M/S system
with two instances of bx_control. Solo buttons
(M/S/L/R) make this an ideal control listening tool
for any stereo master section.
FabFilter Pro-C
The Authorized Steinway Piano sample library is a new
software instrument that accurately captures the sound
of a Steinway & Sons Model D concert grand piano with
unprecedented authenticity and musicality.
www.brainworx-music.de
Eiosis
E2Deesser
BFD2 is the latest update to the popular software drum
production environment. New features include a redesigned user interface; 55 GB of new drum kits recorded
at AIR Studios; flexible routing and submixing; built-in
EQ, compressors, and other effects; and advanced editing, performance, and humanization functions.
www.garritan.com
IK Multimedia
SampleMoog and AmpliTube Metal
RTAS
TDM, RTAS
The E2Deesser features Eiosis’ patented, exclusive processing structure and algorithm for de-essing. It allows
independent processing of sibilants inside vocal tracks
in an extremely easy-to-use and efficient manner.
SampleMoog™ gives you 16 highly acclaimed Moog
synthesizers, meticulously sampled and expertly programmed by IK and Sonic Reality’s sound designers.
There are over 600 multi-sampled sounds with over 1,000
preset patches, totaling more than 4 GB of samples.
FabFilter
FabFilter Pro-C
AmpliTube Metal is a new plug-in entirely dedicated
to high-gain/heavy metal gear with an arsenal of 36
highly sought-after modern/vintage amp and distortion
stomp-box models spanning the history of heavy rock
from the late ’70s through the ’90s.
RTAS
www.ikmultimedia.com
www.eiosis.com
FabFilter Pro-C is a professional compressor plug-in
with very high-quality sound, flexible routing and side
chain options, and various beautiful program-dependent
compression styles. The innovative user interface and
animated level display make compression with
FabFilter Pro-C easy to grasp for anyone.
www.fabfilter.com
Minnetonka Audio
AudioTools AWE
AudioTools™ AWE is a stand alone, automated audio
workflow engine for editing, format conversion,
encoding, plug-in processing, and processing through
external I/O devices that can process thousands of files
in a single job.
Flux
Pure Limiter
www.minnetonkaaudio.com
RTAS, AudioSuite
Modartt
Pianoteq
Flux has incorporated all of its knowledge about
dynamics management to produce the cleanest and
most artifact-free limiting processor. Pure Limiter is
intended for the very last stage of the processing chain
for mastering, and it preserves the audio integrity
despite acting like a brick-wall limiter.
www.fluxhome.com
FXpansion
BFD2
RTAS
Using breathtaking technology, Pianoteq delivers the
future of digital pianos using physical modeling instead
of recorded samples, and offers extraordinary playability and expressiveness. Pianoteq creates the piano
sound in real time, adapting itself to what the pianist
does at the keyboard.
Modartt
Pianoteq
www.pianoteq.com
now shipping from
digidesign development partners
DIGIZINE
10
Overloud
Breverb
Native Instruments
KONTAKT 3 and GUITAR RIG 3
Sonalksis
TBK3 Über Compressor
RTAS
RTAS
The latest version of the KONTAKT software sampler
comes with a massive new instrument library; a new,
versatile sample editor; innovative freeform “zone envelopes;” several improvements to the database, browser,
and the user interface in general; and much more.
The Sonalksis TBK3 Über Compressor is a dynamics
processor that takes advantage of the digital domain to
extend analog circuit designs far beyond their normal
physical capabilities. It can be used to bring lackluster
sound back to life, or to creatively mutate audio into
apocalyptic soundscapes.
The new version of the GUITAR RIG 3 digital guitar
studio adds four new amp models, six additional
stomp and effect models, a redesigned Rig Kontrol
audio interface/controller pedal, a new patch library,
and much more.
www.sonalksis.com
www.native-instruments.com
TDM, RTAS, AudioSuite
Overloud
Breverb
RTAS
Breverb is a high-end algorithmic reverberation plug-in
that faithfully re-creates the sound of revered hardware
reverbs while keeping the CPU load very low. Breverb
combines a unique, intuitive hardware-like user interface with the flexibility of a well thought-out software
plug-in and uncompromising sound quality, offering
much more flexibility than a convolution reverb.
Included in the URS M series bundle is the rare Motor
City Equalizer, which digitally re-creates the legendary
seven-band passive equalizers used by Motown staff
engineers. Also included: the Vintage Cinema Equalizer, which digitally re-creates the even rarer six-band
passive equalizers used for film and professional
cinema in the 1930s.
www.ursplugins.com
Waves
GTR3
www.overloud.com
Propellerhead Software
Reason 4.0
The latest version of Waves’ virtual guitar amp and
effects software features an updated user interface,
new bass amp models, new guitar amp models, new
stomp effects, a ToolRack for drag-and-drop of stomps
and amps, custom presets, and a stand alone mode.
The new version of Reason software features Thor, a
highly sophisticated, superior-sounding synthesizer;
the ReGroove mixer, a new way to adjust the rhythmic
feel of tracks; RPG-8, a versatile arpeggiator; and a
completely rebuilt sequencer coupled with many
other workflow enhancements.
RNDigital
URS
M series EQ Bundle
www.propellerheads.se
Spl-izer
RNDigital
Spl-izer
RTAS
The Spl-izer is a multiband signal processing plug-in
that divides a signal into different frequency bands
and applies processing to each band individually. It’s
an adjustable three-band, 24 dB-per-octave FIR (Finite
Impulse Response) frequency splitter that allows the
three bands to be isolated and routed to aux or instrument tracks for separate processing.
www.rogernicholsdigital.com
www.waves.com
zplane.development
vielklang
Vielklang is an audio harmonization instrument that
allows the quick and easy creation of natural-sounding
backing vocals, brass sections, and other harmony
parts with up to four voices. Rather than synthesizing
plain parallel voicings, vielklang takes into account the
melodic context to create a chord-based arrangement,
and is, thus, able to produce musical harmonizations
instantly.
http://vielklang.zplane.de
For more information about development partner
products, visit www.digidesign.com.
URS
M series EQ Bundle
Digidesign does not provide support for, or test the
performance specifications of, any non-Digidesign
products. Please contact the relevant developer for
additional information or support. All features and
specifications are subject to change without notice.
DIGIZINE
11
ACCELERATED STUDIO
DIGIZINE
12
Full Sail
By Randy Alberts
Empowering Students with a
Real World ICON Education
Passing Disney World, Universal Studios, and
NASA’s Cape Canaveral en route to Full Sail
Real World Education’s 178-acre campus in
Orlando, Florida, most wide-eyed recording school
enrollees—be they from Boston or Barcelona
—have no idea how much their lives are about
to change. And that’s before they even push
their first ICON fader in a lab session.
“It’s a big eye-opener once they get here,” says
Bill Smith, Full Sail’s recording arts program
director. “They’re coming to a place where,
for the first time in their lives, nobody will tell
them they’re spending too much time working
at their computer or listening to music. But no
matter how cool the ICON or any other piece
of gear is, our staff outshines the equipment.
It’s the teachers that take these students on an
amazing journey that makes all the difference
in their careers and lives.”
Founded in 1979, Full Sail today is home to over
5,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and as
many as 45 countries, all eager for careers in
music, film, games, broadcast, animation, design,
and live sound. The school houses more than 50
multimedia classrooms and 100 assorted studios,
production suites, sound stages, computer labs,
and live venues. It offers seven on-campus and
online Bachelor of Science and Associate of
Science degree programs, plus a newly launched
Master of Entertainment Business degree. Rolling
Stone ranked Full Sail alongside Juilliard School
and Berklee School of Music in their “Best Music
Programs” list, and Shift Magazine says that, after
MIT and NYU, Full Sail offers the “#3 New Media
School in the World.”
Our students spend a lot of time working with
Pro Tools, and there’s absolutely nothing they
can’t do with the ICON. Compared to other
DAW control surfaces, it’s like the difference
between using a calculator and a G5!”
An ICON in Every Lab
At any given time, there are 2,000 Recording
Arts students learning to record, edit, mix and
master in Full Sail’s studios. Over the years,
these world-class facilities have also played
host to numerous professional clients, including
Stevie Wonder, Disney, and Creed, who mixed
their multi platinum Human Clay album in
Studio B.
Full Sail’s array of Digidesign gear includes 17
ICONs, 25 Control|24s, and 25 Command|8s
controlling close to 100 Pro Tools|HD 2 and
HD 3 systems, all connected to an Avid Unity
server. The school’s commitment to all things
Pro Tools is simply a reflection of the realworld toolsets students will encounter in their
careers after graduation day, Smith says.
“Students often refer to the ICON in sciencefiction terms when they first use it,” says
Smith, a Full Sail graduate himself, who
started out as a lab specialist at the school
17 years ago. “They’ll say, ‘This thing is so Star
Wars, man!’ It’s clear that the ICON is handsdown their favorite control surface. It overcomes all the limitations and frustrations of
using lesser surfaces to work with digital audio.
The ICON is an ideal tool for teaching the art
and craft of recording at Full Sail, Smith adds.
“From an educational standpoint, using the
ICON in a manner reminiscent of a traditional
console is a tremendous asset for us. It’s all
about the ICON’s flexibility. Let’s say we’re
“Our students spend a
lot of time working with
Pro Tools, and there’s
absolutely nothing they
can’t do with the ICON.”
–Bill Smith, Full Sail
teaching how to do an ADR session. We’ll
configure the console perfectly for ADR work,
and the students instantly understand it. The
ICON’s configuration illustrates this kind of
setup in a way that is obvious for them to
quickly grasp.”
DIGIZINE
13
ACCELERATED STUDIO
During the next lab session, in the same suite,
using the same ICON, an instructor may quickly
configure the ICON for music production. If
students are confused by the way faders and
knobs are arranged for different tasks, the
teacher can instantly reconfigure the ICON
to look and feel like an analog console. In this
way, teachers can provide direct, practical
illustrations of how to use the same ICON for
different applications.
happens when they sit in on a friend’s Foley
lab, or hear a band rehearse in the Full Sail live
venue, or happen upon one of Full Sail’s four
Avid film program labs.
“We can make these transitions so quickly,
from one desk configuration to the next,” Smith
explains. “The ICON allows us to tailor the work
surface on a day-to-day or even a class-to-class
basis. We can do an ADR session, a music editing
or mixing session, and a Foley session all in the
same place, because we’re using the ICONs for all
that stuff. It’s great! We can instantly reconfigure
the surface in countless ways to give our students
the best working environment to learn the new
concepts they’re being taught. Sitting at the same
ICON every day while it’s being reconfigured for
all these different tasks—which would require
moving from one room or building to another
with traditional consoles—makes students all the
more comfortable in learning these new tasks.”
technologies and equipment they must
expertly absorb by graduation day—including
Digidesign’s state-of-the-art ICON console.
Campus Life in the Recording World
Freshmen at Full Sail often change their majors
once they’ve seen all the different degree
programs the school has to offer. Maybe it
Those who choose the Recording Arts
program are gradually exposed to new technologies and gear with each new class they
enter. The courses are designed to introduce
students to the astounding number of new
Classes in a Palace of ICONs
Imagine the thrills each Recording Arts student
experiences at Full Sail, especially during their
first few months there—walking from Studio
A, Studio B, and the Digidesign Pro Tools Labs
over to the Analog Mix Lab, the Post Suites,
the MIDI Lab, Audiotronics Lab, and finally, into
the Mix Palace.
“We have ten traditional studios and 50 learning environments in total,” Smith says, “including
a space we call the Mix Palace. In it are 24
small control rooms, 12 of which have an ICON
running a Pro Tools|HD 2 system with full surround mixing capability. In this amazing facility,
each student has their own ICON to complete
their objectives for a given course. One day
they’ll be told to edit some vocal tracks, the
next day to work on some sound design and
effects, and so on. With all the students using
their own ICONs at the same time, it’s a great
learning experience in there.”
The energy in the Mix Palace must be electric,
especially the closer it gets to finals week and
that first real-world gig.
“It’s crazy walking through that lab, with all
that stuff going on at the same time,” Smith
agrees. “Half of the Mix Palace is used for
music production, and the other half is used for
post-production. On any given day you’ll pass
one guy mixing a Harry Potter clip on his ICON,
another mixing a jazz record with his, another
chopping up some hip-hop, and then someone
else next door using their ICON to cut sound
effects to an X-Men clip. One student will grab
another and say, ‘Hey, come over here and tell
me what you think of this mix,’ then another
will say, ‘Check out this vocal comp I’m building
up,’ and so on. Everyone is learning, but it’s
also a lot of fun here at Full Sail!”
www.fullsail.com
DIGIZINE
15
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
Get Up and0SO1]\b`]Z4`SOY
Go—Meet Mbox
2 Micro
4SSZZWYSg]ç`SZ]aW\UQ]\b`]Z]Tg]c`Q`SObWdWbg-BVS\R]a][SbVW\UOP]cbWb
2WUWRSaWU\¸a\Se!^`]TSaaW]\OZ[caWQQ`SObW]\e]`YabObW]\\]b]\Zg^`]dWRSa
bVS^S`TSQbdSVWQZST]`g]c`Q`SObWdWbgWbVSZâR`WdSWb
:Ogg]c`VO\Ra]\!O\RSf^S`WS\QScZbW[ObSQ]\b`]Z]Tg]c`[caWQOZS\RSOd]à
5]OVSOR(@WRSd]Zc[S]\[cZbW^ZSbÒQYaaW[cZbO\S]caZgASbOÔ\^]aWbW]\eWbV
bVSbeWab]TOY\]P;cbSa]Z]O\R`SQ]`RS\OPZSbÒQYaeWbVbVS^caV]TOPcbb]\
=^S\O\RbeSOYdW`bcOZW\ab`c[S\baO\RSTTSQba^ZcUW\aeWbV]cbbVS[]caS3dS\
OaaWU\O\Re`WbSOcb][ObW]\RW`SQbZgT`][bVS!Q]\b`]Zac`TOQS7TQ]\b`]ZWa\¸b
O\WaacSQVSQY]cbbVS!@OQYeVWQV^`]dWRSabVSaO[Se]`ZRQZOaa7=eWbV]cb
You know what they say about all work and no play? Well, now
all you
The newest addition toCÒQY[]c\bOPZSW\bS`TOQS
the Mbox 2 family, Mbox 2 Micro is an ultra-small,
bVSQ]\b`]Zac`TOQSW\Oab`SO[ZW\SR
Jacks and Jills of the Pro Tools world can put yourself into a whole
USB-powered Pro Tools LE device that lets you work with live- and studio‘nother scenario. Forget about being tethered to a dark, windowless
recorded Pro Tools sessions—or create loop-based or virtual instrument>`]B]]Za:3a]TbeO`SW\QZcRSR&aW[cZbO\S]caQVO\\SZa]T7=
recording studio, post-production facility, or home studio working on
driven music—anywhere you and your laptop travel. About the size of a
=dS`$dW`bcOZW\ab`c[S\baO\RSTTSQba^ZcUW\a/2/BA>274;727
sessions. Digidesign’s new Mbox 2 Micro allows you to venture out into
typical USB flash drive, Mbox 2 Micro offers high-quality 24-bit/48 kHz
O\RE]`R1Z]QY7=4Oab4W`SEW`SQ]\\SQbW]\
"PWb'$Y6h`Sa]ZcbW]\
the great outdoors and edit, sequence, and mix Pro Tools sessions anysound through a 1/8-inch stereo output for headphone or speaker monitorwhere inspiration takes you.
ing, and a handy volume wheel for quick headphone adjustments.
>]eS`SRPg>@=B==:A:3
DIGIZINE
16
RWUWRSaWU\Q][ %/dWRBSQV\]Z]Ug7\Q/ZZ`WUVba`SaS`dSR/dWR2WUWRSaWU\!!@OQY>`]B]]ZaO\R
>`]B]]Za:3O`SSWbVS`bÒRS[O`Ya]``SUWabS`SRbÒRS[O`Ya]T/dWRBSQV\]Z]Ug7\QW\bVSC\WbSRAbObSaO\R]`
]bVS`Q]c\b`WSa/ZZ]bVS`bÒRS[O`YaQ]\bOW\SRVS`SW\O`SbVS^`]^S`bg]TbVSW``Sa^SQbWdS]e\Sà>`]RcQb
TSObc`Saa^SQW¿QObW]\aO\RagabS[`S_cW`S[S\baO`SacPXSQbb]QVO\USeWbV]cb\]bWQS
The Mbox 2 Micro doesn’t include audio
inputs—if you’re looking for an analog recording
solution, check out Mbox 2 Mini (or another
member of the Mbox 2 or 003 families) at
www.digidesign.com/protoolsle. But for mobile
Pro Tools editing and mixing, MIDI and loopbased composition, or live performance, the
Mbox 2 Micro’s size and features are hard to beat.
Sunscreen Sold Separately
Can’t head out of town for a weekend getaway because you’ve got to finish mixing a
session? Push that regret aside. With Mbox 2
Micro, you can leave your usual Pro Tools
interfaces behind, tuck Micro into your pocket,
pack your Pro Tools sessions on your laptop,
and use the world as your new control room
or editing suite. Whether you’re flying 25,000
feet above ground or camping 5,000 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon, simply plug
Mbox 2 Micro directly into your laptop’s USB
port, open a session, and get right to creating!
Mbox 2 Micro comes with award-winning
Pro Tools LE software and over 45 effects and
instrument plug-ins, enabling you to work
with sessions as you normally would in the
studio, with access to many of the same professional effects and virtual instruments. (For
Pro Tools sessions with sample rates above 48
kHz, you’ll need to down-convert the sessions
To help get you started, Mbox 2 Micro comes
with Xpand!, Digidesign’s inspiring sampleplayback/synthesis workstation. Built for
songwriters, composers, DJs, electronic musicians, music producers, and sound designers,
Xpand! comes with over 1,000 high-quality
patches, putting a wealth of sonic options right
under your fingertips to craft anything from
pristine-sounding acoustic instruments to complex synthesized soundscapes to loop-driven
techno tracks. And when you’re ready to add
some professional polish, a great collection of
included Bomb Factory and DigiRack plug-ins
awaits, offering powerful effects and utilities
that’ll bring your mixes to life.
“For mobile Pro Tools editing and mixing,
MIDI or loop-based composition, and live
performance, the Mbox 2 Micro’s
size and features are hard to beat.”
prior to editing and mixing them with Mbox 2
Micro.) Mbox 2 Micro even supports Digidesign’s
Music Production Toolkit and DV Toolkit 2,
enabling you to work on larger projects with
up to 48 stereo tracks.
While you’ll have to spring for your own sun
protection, Mbox 2 Micro is fully protected by
its own robust, anodized aluminum casing,
which can withstand all the knocks, bumps,
and fun-in-the-sun it encounters during your
travels. And the convenient end cap keeps all
the lint, crumbs, and other grungy bits in your
pocket or bag away from the all-important
USB connector.
Mix Last Night’s Show on the Road
If you’re a sound engineer on tour with
Digidesign’s VENUE live sound system,
Mbox 2 Micro makes it easy to edit and mix
your live recordings while you’re on the way
to the next gig, or in the comfort of your hotel
room. Whether you recorded the shows on a
Pro Tools|HD or Pro Tools LE system, Mbox 2
Micro allows you to open and work with the
sessions outside your usual rig. And because
many of the plug-ins you used during the live
shows are also available as RTAS plug-ins for
Pro Tools LE, you’ll be able to use much of the
same professional effects with Mbox 2 Micro
in the tour bus as you would with VENUE in
front of the stage.
Create Music Anywhere
While Mbox 2 Micro is an output-only audio
device, it also serves as a highly portable
music creation studio for all of you electronic
musicians, beat masters, composers, and DJs.
You can easily capture amazing virtual instrument performances in Pro Tools, sequence
loops and virtual instrument parts, or play virtual instruments (such as Digidesign’s Velvet
or Structure) live onstage. You can also route
compositions from your favorite ReWirecompatible applications right into Pro Tools.
For more information about Mbox 2 Micro,
visit your local Digidesign dealer or check out
www.digidesign.com/mbox2micro.
DIGIZINE
17
The new vintage.
Introducing the
PULSAR II
Small-Diaphragm Studio Condenser Microphone
The USA design team that brought you the award-winning Sputnik™ condenser delivers
again with the new hand-assembled Pulsar™ II. Top Los Angeles session engineers are
likening this small capsule condenser to the Neumann KM84 and KM184—only with
more open top end similar to Schoeps.
professional small-capsule condenser microphone > flexible applications
3/4”, 6-micron Mylar evaporated-gold diaphragm > high sensitivity
solid brass backplate > natural, transparent sound
transformerless Class-A FET electronics > low distortion
switchable 10dB pad and 80Hz high-pass filter > adaptable
Specifications:
frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz
sensitivity: -37dB @ 1kHz, 0dB=1V/Pa (13.8 mV/Pa)
max SPL: 134dB at 0.5% THD, 144dB with 10dB pad
equivalent noise: 16dBA
Matched Pairs
For great stereo imaging, Pulsar II is also available
in pairs matched within a +/-1dB tolerance—at
no additional premium (bracket included).
Award-Winning Technology with Classic Soul
M-Audio fuses the best qualities of history’s greatest microphones into a new generation of unique tools.
Designed in the U.S.A. and hand-assembled in limited quantities, our award-winning mics merge
vintage design principles with modern technology for sound that’s both familiar and original.
M-Audio microphones bring new creative resources to even the most robust collections.
Multi-Pattern
Large-Diaphragm
Condenser Microphone
Multi-Pattern
Large-Diaphragm Vacuum
Tube Condenser Microphone
Large-Diaphragm
Condenser
Microphone
Each M-Audio microphone comes complete with mount, case and more.
Visit m-audio.com for more iknformation and a comprehensive microphone application comparison chart.
© 2007 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, M-Audio, the “>” logo, Pulsar, Luna, Sputnik and Solaris are either trademarks or registered trademarks
of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and in other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. This product is not connected with, or approved or endorsed by, the owners of the Neumann and Schoeps names.
www.m-audio.com
Never let it be said that James Lavelle takes the easy way out. As an
artist who makes creative expression his own personal battleground,
Lavelle has overseen the birth (and death) of abstract hip-hop, the rise
(and fall) of his influential Mo’Wax imprint, and the uneasy and nearconstant evolution of his collaborative UNKLE project—all while
pursuing a relentless touring schedule on the worldwide DJ circuit.
“Pro Tools is at the
heart of everything.”
–Richard File
The good fight continues with the 2007 release of War Stories—UNKLE’s
third album, and the second (after 2003’s Never, Never, Land) that Lavelle
has undertaken with production partner Richard File. Forged by the most
eclectic and hard-rocking incarnation of the group to date, the 14-song
set features contributions from Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age),
Robert Del Naja (a.k.a. 3D of Massive Attack), Ian Astbury (the Cult), Gavin
Clark (Clayhill), Dave Catching and Brian O’Connor (Eagles of Death Metal),
the Duke Spirit, Autolux, and many more. It’s a far cry from the project’s
1998 debut, Psyence Fiction—but the album still retains the unexpected
twists and turns that have been an UNKLE hallmark since the beginning.
“It would be impossible to not think about what you’ve done before,”
Lavelle says. “You’ve always got those influences, and a lot of what
you’re doing is in many ways a reaction to, or against, certain work or
certain feelings. But the idea with this record was to have a blank slate
creatively, as far as the writing influences were concerned, and just
throw whatever we liked into the pot.”
DIGIZINE
22
West Coast Warriors
Opting for a change in location to get the ball rolling, Lavelle and File
left their London digs to hook up with producer Chris Goss (formerly of
Masters of Reality) in Los Angeles. The two had been introduced to Goss
through another Brit émigré, the Cult’s former lead singer Ian Astbury—
but Goss and Lavelle also shared connections with other musicians on the
“desert rock” scene, including Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh
Homme. Goss had produced and played on numerous projects for the
Queens (and for Homme’s previous band Kyuss), and Homme himself
appeared on UNKLE’s Never, Never, Land.
“About six months before we started on the record, we did a test track,
‘Burn My Shadow,’ with Ian on vocals and Goss producing along with
us,” File recalls. “James and I spent five days in the studio just building
the track from scratch. Twiggy [Ramirez, formerly of Marilyn Manson]
was there as well—he played some bass—and James played some
percussion. It was a great experience. Being away from home in a new
studio and a new environment was great to start with, and I think that’s
reflected on the album.”
The dark, spacious, heavy rawk sound of “Burn My Shadow” was an apt
precursor of things to come. Lavelle, File, and Goss soon moved their
base of operations from Goss’ studio in L.A. to Dave Catching’s Rancho
de la Luna studio in Joshua Tree. From there, a revolving cast of guest
players turned the sessions into a free-wheeling exchange of ideas.
File’s deep familiarity with Pro Tools|HD quickly became an asset, especially when the work involved quick beat sequencing or editing sampled
and live drums. “Pro Tools is at the heart of everything,” File explains.
“Even if I’m using the MPC or another machine—say for on-the-fly drum
sequencing, where you’re just isolating the best bits and then re-arranging
them—it always ends up in Pro Tools, usually very early in the process.”
Beat Juggling
Although many of the drum tracks on War
Stories were played live, with session drummer
Dave Henderson handling most of the work,
File would often turn to Pro Tools to beef up
parts of the kit by layering new sounds on
top, or to reprogram a section altogether. On
Gavin Clark’s “Keys to the Kingdom,” an insistently throbbing bass line creates a foundation
for a loosely syncopated drum pattern, which
gave File room to get creative with his edits.
“That song actually started with the drums,”
he recalls. “Dave had played a bunch of stuff
one day, and one of those beats turned out
to be the basic ‘Kingdom’ beat. I cut that up
and added some sampled hits to the snare to
give it more of a clunking sound, then a few
accents to make the kit a bit more exciting.
Then Dave played over the top of that groove
again, just to give it a bit more movement, so
it didn’t seem too much like a loop.”
With a four-on-the-floor kick driving the song,
drummer Carla Azar gradually gets busier,
moving from half-time to double-time—a
transition that sounds live, but was actually
sequenced. “I re-programmed the half-time
drums she’d played earlier on,” File says. “It
was really just a matter of creating the new
groove by chopping up and repeating a few
small sections, which is something that always
seemed pretty surreal to me about using
Pro Tools—it’s so easy to manipulate a sample
in so many ways. Carla told me, ‘It sounds
like something I’d play anyway,’ and that was
exactly what I needed to hear.”
File tends to bounce any incoming drum tracks
down to a stereo pair before he edits, which
might create problems later on if it weren’t for
the inherent ability of Pro Tools to group tracks
for editing. “If I was working with a sample,”
File explains, “I’d only get a stereo pair anyway,
so sometimes I like to treat drums like that. It’s
a commitment thing. You could be scratching
your head for hours over eight separate drum
mics—so why do that when you can deactivate the eight mono tracks and edit the stereo
pair instead? Then if you need to, at any point
during mixing you can go back to the original
mono tracks and they’re all edited as well,
The beat processing grew even more complex
with “Persons and Machines,” a loping, almost
tribal-sounding rock groove that features the
keening pyrotechnics of Autolux. Lavelle came
up with an organ melody to start, then went
back and forth with File to build the song
into a standard verse-chorus structure before
handing it over to the band.
“They recorded live drums, vocals, guitars, and
bass,” File says. “When we put their Pro Tools
session in with ours, we thought the sounds
were great and there was no need to rerecord anything. There were some backing
vocals that the band wanted panned over
to one side, and I think from there it was a
natural thing to keep the track as a spacious,
3D piece of music.”
DIGIZINE
23
which is just unbelievably useful. Even if you’re
working on a smaller LE rig, which I was at
certain points back at home, the fewer tracks
you have to look at, the more you can focus on
what’s important in the mix.”
No Speed Limit
As is usually the case when mixing live performances with sampled elements, pitch and
tempo became the yin and yang of the
arrangement process on War Stories—especially
when melodies and key changes needed to be
precisely matched. “Restless,” which features
Josh Homme on lead vocals, is a mid-tempo
head-nodder that picks up speed in the last
section, but does so with a natural feel that
recalls the extended funk and psychedelic
rock jams of the ’70s, when a band would
gradually play faster as they soaked up the
trance-like energy of a repetitive groove.
“Actually I wanted that track to be like ‘Pass
the Mic’ from Check Your Head,” says Lavelle,
citing the Beastie Boys classic. “It has that
kind of feel about it—there’s a looseness in
the way the bass works, so we wanted to
do something similar. In the end I think Rich,
Josh, and Chris Goss all played bass, with different bass lines in different places, and even
at some points with two bass lines on top of
each other. So there’s a lot going on there.”
The root of “Restless” is a sample of an obscure
’70s glam band called Mustard. File took
small bits from the original song and made a
composite loop to use as a jumping-off point.
“Near the end of the song, there was another
loop that I could get,” he continues, “but I
realized they were at different speeds. I knew
we had to find a way of getting from one to
the other, so I used [Serato] Pitch ’n Time—the
part of it where you can literally tell it, ‘I want
to go from this speed to this speed in this
much time.’”
File assembled 24 bars with Pitch ’n Time,
using the program to ramp up seamlessly from
about 109 to 120 beats per minute. When it
came to syncing the existing live performances
with the changing tempo, Pro Tools helped finish the job. “With bpm changes within a track,”
File explains, “if I couldn’t lock the other parts
to grid in both stages, then I’d still be here
doing it. So once we started putting beats over
the top and tightening up the instrumentation,
if it weren’t for Pro Tools’ ability to determine
which part was which tempo, we wouldn’t
have been able to lock anything to grid—it
would have been a complete nightmare to
edit. So those features were important,
especially with that track.”
a record. It’s hard to analyze, really, because
I sort of go with the flow. But War Stories is
a personal thing—there’s no question about
that.”
Bill Murphy is a regular contributor to Remix, and
Guitar World’s Bass Guitar magazines. He is currently working with Teo Macero on the legendary
Columbia producer’s upcoming biography.
Up from the Dunes
Except for one track, “Twilight”—a sleepy,
dubbed-out techno cut that recalls Mezzanineera Massive Attack and was built up via
several DigiDelivery file exchanges between
Lavelle and Robert Del Naja—the entirety of
War Stories maintains a hard rock edge that
sets it apart from past UNKLE releases.
Relying more heavily on live performances
and an almost completely improvised style of
songwriting, Lavelle and File used Pro Tools
much as an old-school rock band would have
used a tape machine: to record everything
and edit the pieces into a cohesive whole. But
they also relied on Pro Tools as a creative tool
in its own right, whether manipulating beats
on “Persons and Machines” or transforming
tempos on “Restless.”
Still, in the end, atmosphere trumps technology.
“I think music is about how you feel emotionally,” Lavelle says. “Obviously we were in the
desert, so that’s a big influence on the guitars
and the aggressiveness. But it’s also in the
space and the melody of the record. Everything in life that goes on, from relationships
to visuals and sounds—you put all of it into
DIGIZINE
25
GEAR AT A GLANCE
PRO TOOLS
PERSONAL STUDIO
SYSTEMS
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.
MBOX 2 MICRO: $279 (U.S.)
Mbox 2 Micro is an ultra-small USB Pro Tools LE editing and mixing
solution for Pro Tools users on the go. It’s also ideal for loop-based
and virtual instrument composition, or for use as a Pro Tools playback
solution in a live setting.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Includes Pro Tools LE software and A.I.R. Xpand!
Ultra-portable, anodized aluminum design for on-the-go editing,
mixing, and music creation
High-quality sound up to 24-bit, 48 kHz
1/8-inch stereo output jack for headphone or speaker monitoring
(no audio inputs)
Convenient volume wheel for quick headphone adjustments
Powered by USB (USB 1.1 connection, includes USB extension cable)
MBOX 2 MINI: $329 (U.S.)
Mbox 2 Mini is the smallest, most affordable Pro Tools LE recording
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 2 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.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
DIGIZINE
26
Highly portable: powered by USB
Professional sonic performance
Zero-latency monitoring
Mic, instrument, and line analog inputs
Integrated S/PDIF digital I/O and MIDI 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.
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.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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
003 RACK: $1,295
MBOX 2 PRO FACTORY: $899 (U.S.)
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.
(U.S.)
Designed with both recording and performing musicians in mind,
003 Rack is an affordable FireWire-based Pro Tools solution that
packs a powerful pro recording and production system into a 2U
rackmountable interface.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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
003 RACK FACTORY: $1,695 (U.S.)
For only $400 more, 003 Rack Factory includes the 003 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.
003 FACTORY: $2,495 (U.S.)
The 003 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 003 Factory plug-in bundle. 003 also features a standalone MIDI
mode, allowing it to be used to control your favorite MIDI-compatible
instruments and applications.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Comprehensive Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2 Pro 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 (003 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
27
GEAR AT A GLANCE
PRO TOOLS
SOFTWARE
PRO TOOLS LE SOFTWARE
Mbox 2 MIcro, Mbox 2 Mini, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Pro, 003 Factory, and 003
Rack 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.
• 45+ professional effects and instrument plug-ins included
• ReWire support
• Works on Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac OS X computers
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
•
•
•
•
DIGIZINE
28
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
PRO TOOLS IGNITION PACK 2
All Pro Tools LE (except Mbox 2 Micro) and Pro Tools|HD systems include
Pro Tools Ignition Pack 2, featuring an impressive collection of composition
and production tools to get you started with creating right away.
Propellerhead Software Reason Adapted (ReWire)
Ableton Live Lite Digidesign Edition (ReWire)
FXpansion BFD Lite (RTAS)
Digidesign Xpand! by A.I.R. (RTAS)
IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE (RTAS)
iZotope Effects (RTAS)
Celemony Melodyne uno essential (ReWire)
Way Out Ware TimeWARP 2600 Lite (RTAS)
Arturia Analog Factory SE (RTAS)
Pro Tools Method One instructional DVD
One-year membership to Broadjam.com
M-Audio ProSessions SE sound library
One-year subscription to Sonicbids.com
Free GarageBand.com contest entry
Free Digidesign plug-in with Pro Tools education
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.
•
•
•
•
•
Designed specifically for Pro Tools
8 touch-sensitive faders, 8 rotary encoders
Focusrite onboard monitoring section
Big, bright backlit LCD display
Simple USB connection
MUSIC PRODUCTION TOOLKIT: $495 (U.S.)
The Digidesign Music Production Toolkit includes a full range of professional music tools that expand the creative power of your Pro Tools LE
or Pro Tools M-Powered system.
•
•
•
•
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
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
29
GEAR AT A GLANCE
PRO TOOLS
LE SYSTEMS
Mbox 2 Micro
Total simultaneous channels of I/O
0/2 (output only)
Mbox 2 Mini
Mbox 2
Mbox 2 Pro
003 Rack
003 Factory
2/2
4/2*
6/8*
18/18* 18/18*
# of analog inputs/outputs
0/2
2/2
2/2
4/6
8/8 8/8
# of mic preamps
N/A
1
2
2
4 4
# of instrument DIs
N/A
2
2
2
4 4
Phono preamp
No
No
No
Yes
No No
48V phantom power
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes Yes
Maximum resolution
24-bit/48 kHz
24-bit/48 kHz
24-bit/48 kHz
24-bit/96 kHz† Alternate source inputs
No
No
No
No
Digital I/O No
No
S/PDIF (2 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels) MIDI I/O ports
No
No
1-in/1-out
1-in/1-out
Word Clock I/O
No
No
No
Yes
1 (1/8”)
1 (1/4”)
1 (1/4”)
2 (1/4”)
No
No
No
Yes
USB 1.1
USB 1.1
USB 1.1
FireWire
# of stereo headphone outputs
Foot switch input
Connection
Power source
USB 1.1
USB 1.1
USB 1.1
FireWire (requires 6-pin cable) or
included power supply
Integrated control surface
Standalone MIDI mixer mode
Rackmountable
Software included
Additional included tools
24-bit/96 kHz
24-bit/96 kHz
Yes Yes
ADAT (8 channels) S/PDIF (2 channels) ADAT (8 channels)
S/PDIF (2 channels)
1-in/2-out
1-in/2-out
Yes 2 (1/4”)
Yes Yes
2 (1/4”)
Yes
FireWire
FireWire
Internal power supply
Internal power supply
No; supports
Command|8 &
Control|24
Yes; support
Command|8 &
Control|24
No; supports
Command|8 &
Control|24
No; supports
Command|8 &
Control|24
No; supports
Command|8 &
Control|24
No; supports
Command|8 &
Control|24
No
No
No
No
No Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes No
• Pro Tools LE
• A.I.R.
Xpand!
• 7 Bomb Factory
plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins
• Pro Tools LE • A.I.R. Xpand! • Reason Adapted • Live Lite Digidesign Edition • BFD Lite
• Analog Factory SE • AmpliTube LE • TimewARP 2600 Lite • Ozone 3 Lite • Trash Lite
• Spectron Lite • Melodyne uno essential • 7 Bomb Factory plug-ins • 39 DigiRack plug-ins
• Pro Tools Method One Instructional DVD • M-Audio ProSessions sound libraries
• Broadjam.com memebership • Sonicbids.com membership
• GarageBand.com contest entry • Free plug-in with Pro Tools training
• All listed on the left
plus 003 Factory bundle
• Synchronic
• TL EveryPhase
• TL Utilities
• iLok USB Smart Key
• Additional sound
libraries
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.
DIGIZINE
31
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b]QVO\USeWbV]cb\]bWQS
By JoE Silva
SPECIAL FEATURE
Caught
by the
General-interest social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace
have their uses, but musicians may be far more excited by what’s afoot
at Fuzz.com. Since early 2007, Fuzz has positioned itself as the best
social networking site for musicians—a place where artists can promote
themselves, get their music out to existing and potential fans, and track
their careers, all from a single platform.
The industry-savvy types at Fuzz have firsthand experience of the trials
faced by today’s emerging artists. They know what it’s like to be on the
road, to fret over record sales, and to come to grips with the reality that
sometimes artists just aren’t fairly compensated for their efforts.
Fuzz’s mission is summed up in a manifesto with bullet points like, “We
believe music companies should empower, not frustrate,” and “We believe
artists are the economic foundation of the music business and should be
compensated accordingly.” Strong words for an ailing industry!
As a technology platform and e-commerce site, Fuzz also has some
heavy hitters on board—like Fuzz co-founder Chris Skarakis, formerly
Google’s director of business development, who initially brought
Herman into the company.
Take Maureen Herman, Fuzz’s senior director of business development.
Formerly the bass player for power trio Babes in Toyland, she remembers
what it’s like to have worked hard and come away with not all that much.
“I was in an indie band on a major label from that whole signing frenzy
around the time of Nirvana,” Herman says. “So I’ve seen a lot of bands
get kind of screwed or mishandled. I became aware that artists tended
to get the crumbs that were left over. Fuzz’s mission is to turn that
upside down, so the artist gets what’s due to them.”
“We were at Lollapalooza in ’93, and I came home with $400 and had
to borrow rent money from my mom,” Herman recalls. “After everything
was paid for, the band was left with very little. So despite being on the
cover of Entertainment Weekly that month, I was completely destitute.
That kind of always stuck with me.”
Fuzz’s current 20-person staff has created a one-stop online solution
for bands to manage all the revenue streams their projects can create—
including an in-house label. “Part of the idea of the label was to offer bands
a variety of à la carte services,” Herman explains. “Maybe we just do some
press for them, then turn that arrangement into a full-service label.”
DIGIZINE
33
According to Herman, Fuzz members deal with people, not “net-bots,”
making Fuzz more organic and hands-on than some other social networks.
“Our staff has been reaching out to bands they consider ‘influencers,’
along with newer, younger bands,” she says. “We help them create their
pages and give them advice on the best way to write a bio, or how to
upload their songs. The response has been incredible. People can’t believe a real person is there. And that’s been a really great differentiator.”
Recently, well-known musician Tom Morello took advantage of Fuzz’s
offerings to promote his solo project, the Nightwatchman. The Rage
Against The Machine/Audioslave guitarist found new fans through Fuzz,
while his management was able to track the project’s success and
adjust his campaign accordingly.
“It wasn’t a Rage Against The Machine tour,” Herman observes. “In a
way, it was like he was a new band. We have an artist dashboard that
tells you where your strongest fan base is, based on buys or people who
have added you as a favorite band. Maybe you’ll wind up taking more
t-shirts to Texas. Or if you don’t have so big of a following, maybe that’s
where you want to put more of your marketing efforts. It takes a lot of
the guesswork out of how to reach your largest natural audience.”
It’s not just established artists that have found success through their
association with Fuzz. Herman points to the site’s current number-one
artist, Sarah Bettens from Los Angeles. Since releasing her album Shine,
Bettens has done a European tour and received an offer to headline the
Belgian Crammerock festival in late August.
“She did a self-produced record and was able to sell and promote it on
Fuzz.” Herman says. “It’s really about the effort you put into it, and how
we can help with resources as they’re needed.”
In the future, Fuzz will add ticket sales and other tools to augment the
assets the site already offers. “We’re developing a resource section for
musicians that has a mentoring kind of feel to it,” says Herman. “Even
though we embrace the DIY ethic, our view is ‘Do it yourself—but you’re
not on your own.’ It’ll be a place where bands can get tips on gear, and
learn how to do a good soundcheck or how to self-record. It’s a very,
very important initiative, and we feel strongly about it.”
“We’re very supportive of people being able to record less expensively
than they have in the past,” Herman notes. “I just did an interview with
Steve Albini, and he was talking about Pro Tools, and how young bands
now have a chance to begin their careers on their own—whereas before,
they’d have to wait for someone to be interested enough in them to be
able to fund a recording. Going back to the idea of ‘Do it yourself, but
you’re not on your own,’ I think Digidesign provides a lot of support
through their tutorials and other tools in a way that’s similar to how we
do things on our end.”
“The response has been incredible.
People can’t believe a real person
is there.” –Maureen Herman, Fuzz
As an artist finds his or her musical footing, working in a portable, easyto-approach environment can be crucial to snaring those creative sparks.
With Pro Tools, for instance, a new band can immediately begin working
in the same industry-standard environment as top professional studios, at
a fraction of the cost. And because almost every Pro Tools setup comes
with its own tutorial DVD, bands can be up and running in no time.
“Being able to get something recorded affects the access that these
younger bands have to new audiences,” Hermann says. “That’s one of the
reasons why we’re happy to be associated with Digidesign and Pro Tools.”
But perhaps the final word on what Fuzz is all about comes from one of the
site’s founders, who knows firsthand what can lay ahead for new musicians.
“We’re flipping this thing on its head,” says former Smash Mouth drummer Michael Urbano, who has also played with groups like Third Eye
Blind and Sheryl Crow. “We’re giving artists the freedom to do their
thing, and to do it in a right-sized way. We’re not going to spend a
million dollars to shove your song down someone’s throat. So do your
thing, and we’ll help you. If it works, great. If not, hey, it’s both our fault,
because we’re partners. We don’t own you. We don’t rule your every
move. We only want to work with people who have a problem with
authority anyway. They never need their hands held.”
Maureen Herman of Fuzz
DIGIZINE
35
PLUG-IN CENTERFOLD
Brainworx bx_digital
To begin with, bx_digital is
a powerful, fully parametric
EQ, offering seven bands of
filtering in its TDM version
and five in RTAS. There’s
also a de-essing section,
plus “bass shift” and “presence shift”—single-knob
“intelligent equalizers” that
raise certain frequencies
while lowering others. But
that’s only half the story.
The plug-in also splits
all incoming signals into
mono-summed and stereo bx_digital is a unique equalization tool that splits stereo signals
difference signals, with
into summed-mono and stereo-difference tones.
each routed to its own
independent EQ section.
According to Brainworx, such
M/S processing is a secret
bx_digital, a new plug-in from Germany’s Brainworx,
trick of many great mastering engineers.
bills itself as mastering software, though that de(Those engineers certainly kept it secret from
scription suggests both more and less than it delivers.
me!) But just a few minutes of fiddling reveals
This is strictly an equalization tool, with none of the
some of the cool possibilities afforded by this
compression or limiting you’ll find on mastering
scheme. For example, you can heavily de-ess
plug-ins such as TC Electronic’s MD3 or Chandler’s Masa vocal (which tends to reside on the mono
tering Pack. But this software incarnation of Brainworx’s
side) without compromising the sizzle of
hardware boxes does offer powerful and creative toneleft- and right-panned cymbals. Adjusting the
shaping tools you simply won’t find elsewhere.
relative M/S blend can widen or narrow a mix,
exaggerating or diminishing ambient reverbs
and delays. Meanwhile, a “Mono Maker”
control makes everything below a specified
frequency into a mono signal—a valuable
function for anyone mastering electronic
music to vinyl.
I also got great results using bx_digital on
individual tracks, especially guitars. The
bass shift knob is perfect for tweaking those
problematic low mids—and you can do it via a
single knob, as opposed to skittering between
the bass and low-mid bands. It’s also great on
the output of any track with ambient stereo
effects, letting you dial in the optimal balance
of spaciousness and impact.
bx_digital is less complex than it may sound—
in fact, its manual is a mere 13 pages. The RTAS
version lists for $398, while the TDM one goes
for $795. You can purchase full licenses online
at the DigiStore, as well as short-term rentals.
There’s more info at www.brainworx-music.de,
including a video tutorial.
www.digidesign.com
GForce Virtual String Machine
Hancock,
Kraftwerk, and
Bowie. In the
’80s they were
embraced by
Ultravox, Joy
Division, and the
Cure. And lately
everyone with an
interest in vibey,
low-tech sounds
grapples with
these gizmos—
for example,
Beck, Air, and
Goldfrapp.
Some of these
timbres have
been available in
GForce’s Virtual String Machine resuscitates the analog string synths.
various sample
libraries, but
they’ve never
received the star
There’s good cheese and there’s bad cheese, but
treatment GForce gives them here. In that regard,
GForce’s latest virtual instrument is gourmet cheese.
VSM recalls GForce’s stunning Mellotron clone, the
M-Tron. The VSM sound set is no less encyclopeVirtual String Machine is a sample playback plug-in
dic. They’ve conjured 17 string synths, from the
that reanimates the analog string synths of the
popular Solina and ARP Omni to the lesser-known
’70s. Just about anyone who had a large synth colCrumar Multiman and Eminent 310.
lection during that decade used them: Pink Floyd,
Jean Michel Jarre, Genesis, Gary Wright, Herbie
DIGIZINE
36
VSM lets you layer two synths in independent 49note banks. Each bank offers the controls you’d
expect on a vintage model: ADSR amp and filter
envelopes, phasing and chorusing controls, filter
cutoff and resonance knobs. You can save twobank combos as patches, and there are hundreds
of preset patches.
The sound quality is stellar. GForce plug-ins always
seem to boast above-average impact and presence, and that’s definitely true here. At the same
time, you get the warts-and-all quality that makes
M-Tron so gratifying. These sounds aren’t uneven
and out-of-tune like many Mellotron sounds—
they’re synths, after all—but they have a wonderfully lo-fi character, alternately wheezy, cheesy,
sad, and sweet. With the VSM’s layering capability
you can generate much more complex tones that
you could get with any vintage string machine. Or
you can just call up an Elka Rhapsody and revel in
the homely wheeze.
Since VSM’s sounds are stored in a single proprietary 2.5 GB file, there’s no downloadable demo
version, but you’ll find scads of audio examples
at www.gmediamusic.com/gforce/StringMachine.
Virtual String Machine runs as on RTAS plug-in on
all current Pro Tools systems.
www.m-audio.com
By Joe Gore
Digidesign Structure
Structure users will have lonely
brooms. This sleek, smartly designed RTAS sampler is destined
to please the two main type of
sampleheads: those who simply
want a great playback module,
and diehard tweakers seeking
wild new sounds.
The Structure interface has a clean,
modern look, with key functions
organized under tabs. If you simply
want to load a sound, there’s
no visual clutter. If you want to
venture deep, your path is clear.
And the main edit window, a visual
nightmare on most samplers, is
resizable—what a luxury to spread
it across a large monitor!
At times, Structure is a sampler
that feels like a synth. The interface
includes six “Smart Knobs” assign Digidesign’s Structure is a smart, sleek sampler uniquely
able on a per-patch basis. It’s easy
optimized for Pro Tools.
to link one or more parameters per
knob, creating patches that breathe
like instruments. Other performanceAll of today’s samplers sound pretty much the
friendly features: the ability to control parameters
same—what you load is what you get. What distinvia key switching, MIDI processors, and a boneheadguishes them are the user experiences they offer.
simple MIDI Learn function. You also get dozens of
Are they a pleasure to work with, or will they make
integrated effects, including impulse response reverbs.
you curl up in the broom closet and cry?
Structure has an integrated, searchable sample
browser with metadata support—and you’ll probably need it, since the program comes with 20 GB
of sounds created by EastWest and Digidesign’s
A.I.R. team. (Highlights include the acoustic drum
kits and orchestral sounds borrowed from the
Quantum Leap library.) You also get install discs
for a 30-day demo version of Goliath, EastWest’s
40 GB sound collection.
Structure supports SampleCell, Native Instruments’
Kontakt 1 and 2, and Apple Logic’s EXS24 sample
formats. At the same time, it’s optimized for
Pro Tools, so you’re pretty much guaranteed the
greatest stability and efficiency available within the
application. Additionally, you can create sampler
instruments simply by dragging Pro Tools regions
into Structure, and control the instrument via any
Digidesign control surface or MIDI controller.
Structure lists for $499. It also has two
smaller siblings: Structure LE comes with 3 GB
of sounds, omits some editing features, and sells
for an attractive $149. Structure Free comes with
just under a gigabyte of samples and lists for an
even more attractive $0.
www.digidesign.com
RNDigital Signature Bundle
Hey, I love faux-analog plug-ins as much as
the next geek. But do you ever find yourself
wishing for plug-ins that exploit the unique
possibilities of the digital domain, instead of
merely simulating an analog experience?
Wish no more. This suite of seven plug-ins
from famed engineer Roger Nichols is breathtakingly powerful and creative. Several of the
plug-ins do things no other software can do,
yet are so immediately useful you may wonder
how you ever got by without them.
Dynam-Izer, a unique multiband
compressor, is just one of the innovative plug-ins in RNDigital’s
Signature Bundle.
Take Detailer, which blends multiband limiting
with psycho-acoustic enhancement designed to
clarify the center of a mix. Applied judiciously,
the effect seems to bring the midpoint of the
stereo field closer to the listener, inserting a
pleasant pocket of air between the center and
sides for a more three-dimensional soundscape.
As a result, you can push the limiter without
inducing soggy highs or a flattened image. Detailer is intended chiefly as mastering software,
though I got great results using it on guitars,
keys, and drum submixes.
Dynamiz-Izer is another multiband dynamics
processor with a twist: Instead of breaking
the signal into bands according to frequency,
it does so according to their levels. You might, for
example, emphasize the ambience in a recording
while leaving the main signal relatively untouched
by compressing lower levels more strongly than
loud ones. Conversely, you could flatten the loudest
parts of a track while gently squeezing the delicate
bits. Depending on the setting, the results veer from
subtle to psychotic.
And speaking of multiband processing: Another
highlight is SPL-Izer, which splits any signal into low,
mid, and high bands, which you can then route to
individual aux tracks. Add reverb only to the highest
frequencies of a vocal, or apply three different fuzz
effects to independent bands within a guitar part.
Has any audio utility ever been so fun?
Also included: Finis (a potent brickwall limiter),
Frequel-Izer (an EQ-matching tool), Uniquel-Izer
(a sort of workbench for constructing custom EQs),
and Inspector XL, a collection of large, high-res meters. All deserve more praise than there’s room
to squeeze in here.
The RNDigital Signature Bundle lists for $999. The
plug-ins are also sold separately. Download the fully
functional 14-day demos and check ‘em out.
www.rogernicholsdigital.com
DIGIZINE
37
By Dustin Driver
THE GRADUATE
Elliot Carter
Chief Engineer, Echo Recording Studios, Atlanta
In high school, Elliot Carter’s career counselor
advised him to become a sound engineer.
It’s a high schooler’s dream career, second
only to Hollywood stuntman or maybe space
shuttle pilot.
There was just one problem: “I didn’t really
know what a sound engineer was back then,”
says Carter. The high-school senior DJ’d in
his free time and knew a lot about music, but
had virtually no experience in recording. “It’s
funny now, but that career aptitude test was
big for me,” he says.
Today, Carter is the chief engineer at hip-hop
superstar T.I.’s Echo Recording Studios in Atlanta, one of the best recording studios in the
South. But he didn’t get the job overnight. It
took some hard work, and Pro Tools training
at Florida’s Full Sail multimedia college.
After his fateful career counseling revelation, Carter discovered Full Sail, one
of the best places to learn about
being a sound engineer, through
family. “My uncle studied
show production and recording there,” he
says. Full Sail has offered degree programs
in multimedia arts—from sound mixing to
animation—since 1979. Today the college has
about nine full degree programs, including
a Recording Arts program that features full
Digidesign-certified Pro Tools training.
“I signed up for the recording program after I
toured the school,” says Carter. “They taught
me everything, from the basics of recording
to advanced Pro Tools techniques.”
Full Sail Ahead
Full Sail can turn pretty much anybody into
a recording pro. The school starts with the
bare-bones basics, teaching students about
outboard gear, patch bays, mixers, and the
fundamentals of recording a clean track. Then
the program delves into the intricacies of
digital audio recording, something that Carter
had little experience with.
“I was your average computer user,” he says.
“I knew how to do a lot of things on a computer, but recording wasn’t one of them. Full
“Pro Tools is the industry standard, and you
have to know it inside and out to get
anywhere in this business.”
DIGIZINE
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THE GRADUATE
Sail really takes you through the basics, starting
off with applications like Acid Pro and Sound
Forge. But they really hammer Pro Tools from
then on. Pro Tools is the industry standard,
and you have to know it inside and out to get
anywhere in this business.”
Carter immersed himself in courses from
Pro Tools 101 to Pro Tools 310M, the most
efficiency. “They always told us to be quick,”
says Carter. “The quicker you get, the faster
your session will be done. The quicker you
can work with someone, the more they’re
going to want to work with you.”
Full Sail also teaches its students how to
function as full-fledged independent studio
engineers. “We learned all the technical
a Pro Tools 310M certification in 2003. Then he
was free to pursue a high-powered career in
the recording industry. “I moved to Atlanta on a
hunch and got a job at the local Guitar Center,”
he says. “I sold Pro Tools setups to local musicians and studios. It wasn’t really glamorous,
but it helped me network and eventually got
me a few engineering jobs.”
Echo Recording Studios
advanced course offered, and learned the
real-world recording techniques that would
eventually land him a gig in the industry.
“We worked five days a week, and toward
the end we were doing session recordings,”
he says. “The instructors at Full Sail are all
sound engineers and studio experts, and they
teach you exactly what you need to know to
do well in a pro studio environment.” That
means, for the most part, speed and
aspects of recording, but we also learned
how to market ourselves—from building a
website to writing resumes. You need to
know how to do that, because a lot of us start
out as freelance recording engineers. When
you come out as an engineer, you’re on your
own—you’re your own boss. If you don’t know
how to market yourself, you’ll be done.”
Stepping Into the Studio
Carter earned his degree in Recording Arts and
It sounds clichéd, but one thing did lead to
another, and by networking with local producers, Carter eventually got a gig working on T.I.’s
album Urban Legend. “‘ASAP’ was the first song
I worked on,” he says. “I’ve been working with T.I.
ever since at Echo.” It’s a full time job and then
some—T.I. never sleeps. “He has a very serious
work ethic, and when a project comes up, we’re
working on it ‘til it’s done, regardless of the
time,” says Carter. The engineer is on call, ready
to dash into the studio at a moment’s notice.
DIGIZINE
41
THE GRADUATE
In fact, that’s how he got his nickname. “T.I.
called me into the studio late one night to
work on a project,” says Carter. “We were
there until sunrise, basically. When the record
And a wondrous workflow is needed at Echo,
as Carter realized when Wyclef Jean visited
the studio to lay down some tracks. “He came
into the studio at about 4 p.m. and we were
“When I look for help, I look for
Full Sail grads, or at least people
who are Pro Tools-certified.”
label asked me for my name, for the credits, I
told them ‘Mr. 4:30 a.m.’ I meant just for one
of the songs, as a joke. They put it on every
song I worked on, about 18 of them. Now the
other engineers give me a hard time if I leave
the studio before 4:30 a.m.”
Carter’s Full Sail training tends to pop up
when things get hectic. “You learn so much
in the classes that you think you’ll never be
able to remember it all,” he says. “But when
you need the knowledge, it’s there for you. It
comes to the surface right when you need it
and you’re able to handle things like a pro. All
the little obscure tips and tricks they teach
you come in handy.”
There are five staff engineers at Echo, including Carter. Almost all of them have some sort
of formal Pro Tools training. “And when I look
for help, I look for Full Sail grads, or at least
people who are Pro Tools-certified,” says
Carter. “There’s really no substitute for that
kind of training. It’s necessary to have those
skills if you’re going to work in a professional
studio. Our entire studio evolves around
Pro Tools and Digidesign.”
In the future, Carter plans to keep up the
blistering pace at Echo. Atlanta is one of the
recording industry’s fastest-growing hotspots,
and he doesn’t see things slowing down. “We
get requests and inquiries daily,” he says. “It’s
really amazing the amount of music that’s
coming out of Atlanta these days. It’s one of
the best places for an engineer like me to be.”
Pro Tools and ICON
Carter does most of his work on a Pro Tools|HD
Accel system and a 48-fader ICON integrated
console. The top-notch system lives in Echo’s
main studio room, a hub of creative energy
and productivity. “Very few studios in Atlanta
have this setup, and a lot of musicians and
producers want to work with us because
we have the ICON and ProTools|HD,” says
Carter. “It’s insanely powerful. I can throw 100
plug-ins up if I wanted to. We really have no
limitations with this system, and it shows in
the work we produce.”
The engineer feels right at home behind the
vast console. “I’ve always been an ‘in-thebox’ mixer, so the ICON was a logical step for
me,” he explains. “I’m a big fan of the custom
fader groups. It all lays out the way I left it. I
can pull the tracks of a verse up on the first
group, the chorus up on the next group, or
whatever I need for any project. It really does
wonders for my workflow.”
Training Matters
As for all the other Full Sail grads following in
Carter’s footsteps? “They’ll really have a step
up on the competition,” he says. “With the
training they get, they’ll really be able to get
into this business.”
T.I.
Dustin Driver is a freelance writer in Berkeley,
California. He is obsessed with good stories,
inspirational people, and technology.
working until almost 11 a.m. the next morning,” he says. “We don’t have any windows or
clocks in our studio, and we just kept working. No one got tired so we just kept going.
We ended up recording seven songs in three
days. It was the most intense weekend I’ve
ever experienced in the studio.”
DIGIZINE
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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
C|24
Sleek, Stylish, and In Control
It’s a good feeling to be in control—and now you can do it in style.
Digidesign’s sleek new 24-channel C|24 control surface provides
direct, hands-on control of Pro Tools mixing, recording, editing,
routing, and automation functions—and its sexy, low-profile exterior
looks great in any mid-sized studio or control room, without
commanding a lot of real estate.
Along with its wide array of surface controls, C|24 offers 16 highquality analog preamps (via DB25 connections) and a 5.1 analog
monitor section to use with your Pro Tools I/O, ensuring superb
sound for professional music and post-production projects.
As the natural evolution of its predecessor, Control|24—one of the
best-selling control surfaces in its class—C|24 integrates the latest
advancements in Pro Tools software with still more new features
and improvements. The result? An incredibly powerful and richly
featured control surface that’s easy to use and sensibly priced for
Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools LE users.
DIGIZINE
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DIGIZINE
45
Get a Grip on Your Mix
Forget about pointing and clicking with
a mouse: C|24 lets you control a serious
number of Pro Tools tasks simultaneously,
right from the surface. Grab the 100-mm,
touch-sensitive, motorized faders to ride
volume levels with confidence and ease.
Quickly adjust plug-in parameters and
sends with a twist of the rotary encoders,
and get instant visual feedback through the
11-segment LED rings. Scrub through audio
with the super-responsive Jog/Shuttle
wheel. Dictate channel commands with
dedicated controls for Mute, Solo, Channel
Select, Input, Record, EQ, Dynamics, Insert,
Send, and Automation functions. You can
control groups, edit data, manage windows,
and perform many other functions through
dedicated buttons. And a Soft Keys section
ensures support for the latest advanced
automation features in Pro Tools.
Superior Mic Preamps and
Professional 5.1 Monitoring
C|24 isn’t just about controlling tracks—
you can connect mics, instruments, and
line-level devices directly to the control
surface’s DB25 audio inputs, via optional
C|24 Cable Kits. C|24 features 16 highquality, low-noise, transistor-hybrid
preamps—each with a high-pass filter
and variable input gain—that outperform
those on Control|24 with regard to gain,
frequency response, and signal-to-noise
ratios. It also houses an eight-channel
stereo line submixer, which can be routed
directly to the integrated monitor section,
making it easy to mix signals from
outboard instruments and gear.
section; 5.1, LCRS, and stereo presets for
easy integration with Pro Tools; output
metering for stereo and surround-sound
operation; trimmable inputs and outputs;
talkback latching and Auto Talkback
modes; and more. And the built-in talkback
mic and remote talkback and listenback
inputs make it easy to set up two-way
communication for your recording sessions.
Efficient Console Ergonomics,
Beautiful Design
C|24 gives you high workflow efficiency in
a sleek and stylish package. While it offers
more dedicated controls and features, it
retains many of the same proven workflows, making upgrading to C|24 an easy
transition. Flip mode makes it easy to
switch encoder functions to the faders,
while dedicated Bank Select and Nudge
buttons enable easier Pro Tools mixer
navigation. C|24 also offers an updated
transport section for machine control
integration; Windows Configurations and
Memory Locations modes for creating,
editing, and recalling these settings; an
LED timecode display that shows absolute
time, SMPTE, Feet/Frames, and Bars/
Beats; and a jog/shuttle wheel for
scrubbing, editing, bank-nudging,
and navigation.
Sporting a sleek, industrial design and
a stylish, dark graphite casing, C|24 fits
right in with traditional and contemporary
studio décor. The control surface occupies
a small footprint, offers an ergonomic
design with a comfortable front bolster,
and allows for better placement of your
computer monitor and speakers, thanks
to its low-profile meterbridge. C|24 also
features an intelligent switch design with
bold graphics, making the layout easy to
memorize and navigate. And the bright,
easy-to-read, 55 x 2 LED scribble strips
provide a six-character, dual-row display
per channel for instant verification of
channel names, plug-in parameters,
sends, panning, and other editing
functions.
For more information about C|24 and
other Digidesign control surfaces, visit
www.digidesign.com.
The monitoring section in C|24 has been
completely redesigned and improved,
providing many features found on
Digidesign’s top-of-the-line ICON console
systems. C|24 features a professional,
integrated 5.1 surround analog monitor
DIGIZINE
47
SPECIAL FEATURE
Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, and Softimage pair insider
advice with technology training in four-city tour
On October 3rd, the excitement in Boston was palpable. As thousands of fans
watched the Red Sox take the first game of the American League playoffs,
aspiring musicians and filmmakers eagerly checked out the starting lineup of
the Make Your Mark tour.
The roster boasted top names in video, music, and 3D production, providing
a rare opportunity for up-and-comers to connect with established professionals
and gain valuable insights into launching or furthering their own careers.
Guests also experienced the most advanced digital content production tools
on the PC platform, and explored ways to express their creativity through
Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, and Softimage technology.
After the Boston University event, the Microsoft-sponsored tour landed in New
York at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, then proceeded to the Los Angeles
Film School before concluding at San Francisco State University’s downtown
campus. Each event featured premier local talent, plus members of the Avid,
Digidesign, M-Audio, and Softimage teams. Many guests took advantage of
DIGIZINE
48
the diverse offerings, attending breakout meetings presented by companies
previously unknown to them. Two composers even connected with filmmakers at the event and arranged for their music to be placed in upcoming films.
Avid executives Nancy Hawthorne (interim CEO) and Greg Estes (Chief
Marketing Officer) kicked off each event with a welcome address, introducing all
the companies that make up the Avid family—including Digidesign, M-Audio,
Softimage, Sibelius, Pinnacle, and more. Each city offered an industry roundtable titled Making It: Insider Advice on How to Stand Out and Get Noticed. The
panels featured representatives from the SXSW Film Conference and Festival, Independent Film Channel, Modus FX, WHISKYTREE, Artists & Directors
Cooperative, and Santa Monica College—plus renowned remixer/producer and
composer Carmen Rizzo and music industry consultant Tim Sweeney. The discussions delivered practical advice on career-building, fostering relationships,
keeping up with technology, fueling passion, being original, and persevering to
the end. At the conclusion of each roundtable, guests attended their choice of
focused breakout sessions.
Avid
M-Audio
In Boston and San Francisco, extreme sports filmmaker Dan Moses explained
how passion and persistence were key to making his dreams reality. He asked
to shadow respected TV and film production pros—and soon the industry took
notice of his tireless attitude and willingness to tackle challenging projects. This
put Moses on the fast track: He moved quickly from one professional gig to the
next. In addition to having the right attitude, Moses explained how cuttingedge HD workflows—including the Avid Media Composer software editing
system—would greatly benefit tomorrow’s filmmakers.
In Boston, Grammy-nominated Carmen Rizzo held the audience captive
during his Professional Remixing and Production Techniques demonstration, then happily fielded a steady stream of questions about his tools of
choice: Torq DJ software and Pro Tools M-Powered production software.
His Redefining the Studio presentation focused on the flexible combination
of Pro Tools M-Powered and M-Audio interfaces, and was met with equal
enthusiasm.
At the New York stop, Shelley Westerman (additional editor on Robert Pulcini’s
Nanny Diaries) talked about her long journey to carve out a career in the cutting room. Her key advice—never turn down any job, and approach all work
with a positive attitude—was supported by years of personal experience. After
working at the Fed for eleven years, her first industry jobs included menial PA
work and assistant positions on Velvet Goldmine and You’ve Got Mail. She persevered, making key connections and continually moving upward. Westerman
also provided helpful advice on using the Governor’s List and IMDB to find crew
opportunities. She discussed the importance of learning both Avid and Final
Cut Pro, but emphasized she could only hire someone with Avid experience.
In Los Angeles, editor/producer/director Karl Kimbrough (Alter Ego Films)
delivered a high-energy presentation on the five things he wished he had
learned in film school: First of all, persevere. Second, pick a path—either take
a job in the business to get experience, or focus on long-term goals while
working outside the industry. Third, take any job to get in the door, but move
laterally to specialize in an area. Fourth, be sure to understand business—taxes,
contracts, and estimates—and run yourself as a company. And last, build and
maintain relationships with everyone you meet, from filmmakers to lawyers
and advertisers. Kimbaugh played a variety of film and commercial clips to
illustrate his personal journey.
Digidesign
The Rondo Brothers—the nom de guerre for the musical team of Jim Greer
and Brandon Arnovick—have enjoyed a varied career as recording artists,
record producers, session musicians, and film/commercial composers. On the
Make Your Mark tour, they hosted two interactive workshops, demonstrating
how they use Pro Tools to compose, record, and remix music.
Facing a group of Pro Tools neophytes in Boston, the Rondo Brothers wowed
the crowd with a demo that emphasized the ease of using both traditional and
virtual instruments. They created beats on the fly using the Strike virtual drummer and demonstrated Pro Tools’ powerful MIDI functionality with the Hybrid
high definition synthesizer—two plug-ins created by Digidesign’s A.I.R. group.
A volunteer from the audience improvised a fantastic bass part, and the Rondo
Brothers added his performance to the song.
After a short break, Greer and Arnovick demonstrated how to create a killer remix
using Pro Tools. Their upbeat, fist-pumping song added to the sense of excitement at the event. Demos in the other cities featured the same combination of
music creation and remixing, with new musicians contributing in each city. In
Los Angeles, a bassist and guitarist from the audience improvised and recorded
a track. In sunny San Francisco, a volunteer laid down a keyboard track. The
event closed with giveaways of Digidesign’s Velvet, Strike, and Hybrid plug-ins.
“Make Your Mark offered me
a broad look at all its creative
software and tools—and I made
some very good contacts today.”
—Make Your Mark attendee
In New York, musicians packed both of Rizzo’s breakout sessions. After
Rizzo talked about the mobility and versatility of M-Audio recording interfaces, a guest picked up the pocket-sized Transit and asked, “So you’re
telling me that all I need is this little thing here, and I can use Pro Tools?”
“And headphones,” Rizzo replied with a laugh.
During his remixing session, Rizzo ReWired Torq into Pro Tools M-Powered
and demonstrated how you can take a loop (or vocal part) and instantly
tempo-sync it with Pro Tools M-Powered for instant remixes. The
attendees left the clinic feeling inspired to check out this dynamic
technology combo for themselves.
Softimage
In Boston, Marc Bourbonnais—president of the Modus FX digital production
studio—represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the
Softimage breakout session, Todd Akita of the PSYOP advertising/animation
agency shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some
of the world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola, and
more), and provided advice on building a successful career using SOFT
IMAGE | XSI 3D software.
In the New York panel discussion, Chris Johnson from Topix, a Torontobased post and animation boutique, shared how he leveraged his knowledge
of 3D into a career creating visuals for major television advertisements.
In the breakout session, Softimage guest presenter Youngwoong Jang
related a moving story of how he used SOFTIMAGE|XSI software to illustrate
his journey to America from Korea. Instead of letting his loneliness consume him, he channeled his emotions into creative expression through the
software—and went on to win the 2007 Student Academy Award for best
short animation.
In San Francisco, Softimage guest presenter Jonathan Harb (CEO and
Creative Director, WHISKYTREE creative services agency) told the panel
how he networked in the industry to land a job at Industrial Light & Magic,
then eventually went on to start his own business. In the breakout session,
Harb provided inspiration and practical advice to the group of aspiring filmmakers and students. Many attendees had never considered how 3D could
elevate their filmmaking, but left understanding how SOFT IMAGE | XSI
3D software is a great way to bring their creative visions to life.
The L.A. event drew a savvy audience of students from the Los Angeles
Film School. In the panel discussion, John Norris of Artists and Directors
Cooperative provided advice on breaking into the industry. Guest presenters
Raffael Dickreuter (XSIbase.com XSI community site) and 3D application
engineer Peter De Lappe discussed how to use XSI software to pre-visualize
locations, or even replace shooting in distant or fantasy locales. Many of
today’s films are pre-visualized in 3D so convincingly that the pre-viz data
is used to track camera positions and show the actors where to stand. By
examining films like 300, attendees learned that they could shoot their
actors on green screen and add realistic environments to forego expensive
on-location costs.
DIGIZINE
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Pro Tools Enthusiasts:
Meet
Sibelius 5
Like all the products in the Digidesign family, Sibelius 5 notation
software incorporates the latest technologies and user-requested
enhancements—and now it’s even easier to use.
Before looking at the new features, let’s review some recent
history. When Sibelius joined the Avid family, they built a handy
feature into Pro Tools 7.3 called “Send to Sibelius.” Selecting File
> Send to Sibelius in Pro Tools automatically launches Sibelius.
After choosing a sound source such as the included Native Instruments
Kontakt Silver sound library, Sibelius displays MIDI instruments from
your Pro Tools session, neatly laid out for you as notes on a page of
music—complete with titles, tempos, and key signatures.
Let’s say I want to create notation of a MIDI cello line so a session player can play it from the sheet music. I load a cello sound
into Pro Tools, record the line into my session with a MIDI keyboard, select Send to Sibelius, and wham—it opens up my cue in
sheet music form, which I can then print. If I make a change to
the part in Pro Tools, I need to resend it to Sibelius—but the title
on the notation reflects which version it is. So if my “E Major Cue
2” was exported five times, the final title would read “E Major
Cue 2.5.” Very cool indeed.
Sibelius 5 comes with a 3 GB
collection of sounds—more than
150 of them.
Don’t just think orchestral parts—it’s also great for bass lines,
keyboard chords, vocal melodies, and even guitar parts
(Sibelius displays guitar tabs as well). And with a free plug-in
called Scorch (available at www.sibelius.com/products/scorch)
Sibelius lets you share your notation online for others to view,
print, transpose, or play. What’s cool about this is that the user
doesn’t need Sibelius—only the Scorch plug-in.
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You can check your
work in Sibelius by using the included sound
library. Sibelius 5 comes
with a 3 GB collection
of sounds—more than
150 of them—called the
Sibelius Sounds Essentials. You can use these
sounds with Kontakt
Player 2, and even burn
MP3s and reference
CDs. The sounds come
from such well-known
libraries as Garritan
Personal Orchestra,
Jazz & Big Band, Garritan Concert & Marching
Band, the Sibelius Rock
Figure 1: The Send to Sibelius option
& Pop Collection, and
in Pro Tools.
M-Audio, plus pitched
and unpitched percussion from Tapspace
Virtual Drumline. And Sibelius plays back standard notation symbols in your score, so don’t hesitate to include that crescendo or
glissando. It’s even smart enough to change a playback sound to
pizzicato if it’s indicated in the notation.
In addition to the included library, you can now use any VST or AU
instrument to play back your work. By opening the Playback
Figure 2: A MIDI cello line displayed as musical notation in Sibelius.
By Rich Tozzoli
Devices menu (Play > Playback Devices), you can set up the sounds
you prefer from each instrument, such as the Appasionata strings
from Vienna Symphonic or the Brass from EastWest Quantum Leap
Orchestral (my personal favorites). You can also assign your favorite
VST or AU effects in the Playback Devices Effects tab. Sibelius 5
includes a brand-new mixer, and the effects you choose appear on
the mixer’s Master Insert (for use on the entire mix), or any of the
four effects busses (for individual instruments).
Another of my new favorites in Sibelius 5 is the Ideas hub. Since
I’m relatively new to writing music within Sibelius (versus within
the Pro Tools environment), the Ideas hub offers a nice spark of
creativity. Ideas are for capturing your musical ideas as small snippets that can be tagged, stored, managed, and recalled. Clicking
the Ideas button on the toolbar opens the Ideas window onscreen.
easily recalled from the library anytime it’s needed, and used “as
is” or edited and placed anywhere within your music. This feature
is perfect for film scores that use variations on a central theme.
Besides making it easy
to capture your own
ideas, Sibelius provides
over 2,000 ready-made
musical phrases. These
color-coded ideas range
across many styles and
instruments (including
drums). I use them not
only for creative inspiration, but also as a “study
guide” to learn more
about writing music.
To find a style or sound,
type keywords into the
search field at the top of
the Ideas window. For
example, when I type in
Figure 4: The Ideas hub in Sibelius.
”joyful,” Sibelius presents me with a selection
of rhythms and parts.
Mousing over each idea displays a text box with information such
as key, time signature, tags, and harmonic content.
Figure 3: Assigning effects to playback sounds in Sibelius.
Anything you select in the score can be captured as an idea,
including chord changes, melodies, multiple instrument parts, and
even text. Capturing your own ideas is as easy as selecting the
material (which is clearly outlined with a light blue box) and pressing SHIFT + I—or just choose Edit > Capture Idea from the pulldown menu. From there, you can add or edit info about the idea,
including name, tags, time signature, tempo, and date. It can be
For those of you (like myself) who sometimes feel overwhelmed
looking at page after page of sheet music, Sibelius 5 has another
cool new feature called Panorama. When you press Shift + P or
select the Panorama button in the toolbar, the score appears as
a single page on an infinitely wide piece of paper. In other words,
it bypasses the traditional page formatting setup.
Panorama shows the clefs, keys, bar numbers, and instrument
names in blue as you navigate around the score. Any key
changes are indicated in the margins.
DIGIZINE
51
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Panorama works hand-in-hand with the Focus On Staves feature
in Sibelius 5, which lets you view only the parts you select from
a full score. You can now zoom in onscreen to full-page size on
selected parts, and quickly move to any measure by dragging
the blue scroll bar at the bottom.
Figure 6: The Panorama onscreen display option in Sibelius.
There are many other new features in Sibelius 5 that can help users of all levels, from beginners to advanced. There are new fonts,
extra music symbols, and Opus Note Names, which let you write
the names of notes inside the actual notehead. You can import
lyrics from a text file—Sibelius will even split them into syllables
for you. Capo chord symbols can be added for guitar parts, and
you can transpose parts to different keys. And of course, there is
Universal Binary support for Intel Macs, including Mac OS X Leopard.
Check out the tutorial videos for yourself at www.sibelius.com,
and let Sibelius 5 help you learn something new!
Figure 5: The search function in the Sibelius Ideas hub.
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workshop
stryke sessions
Drum Programming with Xpand!
Figure 1: Xpand! has over 1,000 patches to choose from, including a wide range of great-sounding drum kits.
Real-Time Properties gives
you nondestructive, real-time
control over five different
MIDI events: Quantize,
Duration, MIDI Delay,
Velocity, and Transpose.
DIGIZINE
54
Greetings and salutations everyone! Welcome to another installment of
Stryke Sessions, DigiZine’s helpful guide to creating electronic dance
music with Pro Tools.
First, I want to thank you all for the great emails and feedback I’ve been
getting. There’s a lot of good stuff to dig into, and I’ll do my best to
cover as much as possible. There are so many exciting things happening
with Pro Tools today that it gives us a lot of options to explore. From the
Elastic Time features of Pro Tools 7.4 to going ultra-portable with the
Mbox 2 Micro, it’s a very exciting time to be creating music in Pro Tools!
By Greg “Stryke” Chin
Figure 2: In Xpand! you can choose different drums, change tuning, and specify cutoff and decay/release.
One of the things many of you have emailed me about is how to handle drum
programming and sequencing in Pro Tools. I thought it would be a great idea
to dedicate this issue’s column to this process. Let’s take a look, shall we?
One of my favorite things about Pro Tools is the ability to start creating
right out of the box. Many of my current productions feature drums from
the Xpand! plug-in created by Digidesign’s A.I.R. group. Xpand! is all over
my upcoming album, The Narrowest of Paths, on Plastic City. This plug-in
comes with every version of Pro Tools, and is a very formidable ally for
songwriting and sequencing. Let’s see how to combine the power of this
plug-in with the strength of the MIDI engine inside Pro Tools.
Making Custom Kits in Xpand!
I begin by finding some drum sounds that fit the bill—never a problem
with Xpand!, since it comes with over 650 MB of audio goodness. That’s
more than a thousand patches, sounds, and combinations, including
several great-sounding drum kits. However, I’m a bit picky when it comes
to using kits, and often like to build my own. Luckily, the A.I.R. team has
made it easy to quickly edit existing drum kits to your liking.
Let’s start by picking a drum kit in Xpand!. Open Pro Tools and instantiate
Xpand! on an Instrument track, then navigate to the pull-down menu to find
Xpand!’s preset kits (see figure 1). For example, I might choose the Pop Kit.
In Xpand! each kit is broken up into different parts. Part A in Xpand! is a kick
selector, part B is the snare selector, part C is the hi-hat, toms, and cymbals
Figure 3: Assigning MIDI tracks to Xpand! in Pro Tools.
selector, and part D is the natural percussion selector. We could switch each
selector out with something else if desired, but let’s leave them as is.
What we will do, however, is choose different sounds for our kicks,
snares, and so forth. Let’s start with the kick. Click on the part A button.
Once selected, the grey area of the button turns yellow. The middle
section of the button is blue if the part is active (if it’s black, the part is
muted). Once part A is selected, look to the top section of knobs, where
DIGIZINE
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next MIDI track and record the snare for the same two to four bars, then
continue doing this with the other parts to build a groove.
Don’t forget one of Pro Tools’ most powerful features: Real-Time Properties,
which can really enhance your MIDI workflow. Real-Time Properties gives you
nondestructive, real-time control over five different MIDI events: Quantize,
Duration, MIDI Delay, Velocity, and Transpose. Gone are the days of having to
stop playback, select the area you want to process, choose your event, and
destructively process your MIDI. Now you can change these events on the fly!
Quantize is my favorite property to play with as I build my groove. I can swing
my hi-hats all I want. Digidesign even includes popular swing algorithms from
the MPC2000, Logic, and Cubase in Pro Tools. So for those of you who love
your old Akai MPC swing feel, it’s right there at your fingertips in Pro Tools!
Figure 4: Arranging drums in Pro Tools with Region Grouping is a snap.
Now that we have a solid groove, with everything set up as separate MIDI
tracks, our next step—arranging—becomes a thing of beauty instead of a chore.
you can choose different kick drums, change their tuning, and even
specify their cutoff and decay/release (see figure 2).
A Beautiful Arrangement
Remember, the kit is laid out in a General MIDI-styled layout across the
keyboard. As you select sounds in the top menu, you’ll see the actual note it
corresponds to. The kick selector, for instance, is set to notes B0 and C1.
After selecting your kicks, tuning them to your liking, and tweaking the cutoff and decay/release (if desired), continue going through the other parts
to do the same for snares, hi-hats, and the rest of the kit. Don’t forget that
Xpand! offers two effects sends per part, so you can really spice things up.
Once you’ve finished building your kit, you’re ready to go. Easy, isn’t it?
Now, let’s get to creating some drum sequences that will be sure to light
up dark dance floors worldwide.
Tracks and Tracks and Tracks
Now we’re ready to start banging out some four-on-the-floor action. But
wait—Xpand! isn’t multitimbral, so how are we going to separate all that
drum goodness for easy sequencing?
Very simply, that’s how. We already have Xpand! instantiated on an Instrument track, but we’re not going to use that track for our sequence. Instead,
we’ll create individual MIDI tracks for each instrument in the kit. That way, we
can record all the drum parts separately, which comes in handy when it’s time
to arrange—we’ll have a much better visual of what’s going on in the song.
Once you’ve created your MIDI tracks, assign them to Xpand! (see figure
3) and we’re ready to record. Typically I start with the kick drum on my
first MIDI track. I record-enable it, use a one-bar countoff or MIDI “wait
for note,” and record two to four bars. Once that’s done, I jump to the
Our groove is solid, and we’ve added bass lines, synths, and other auditory
goodies. Now it’s time to arrange. First, make sure that the MIDI Track
View is set to Regions for all tracks. This way we’ll be able to handle
the sections with ease. Using a really helpful feature in Pro Tools called
Region Grouping, we can take pieces of audio and/or MIDI from different
tracks and move them around as one piece.
To do this, select all the pieces of MIDI and/or audio you want to group
together by holding down your Shift key and clicking on each region. Next,
press Control-Alt-G (PC) or Command-Option-G (Mac), and the selected
regions will become one virtual piece. You can now copy and move this
group around without having to worry about selecting all the separate pieces
each time. This makes arranging a snap (see figure 4). If you need to ungroup
these pieces, just use the Ungroup Region command: Control-Alt-U (PC) or
Command-Option-U (Mac). There you have it: You’re arranging like a pro!
Wrap It Up
Out of the box, Pro Tools give you a very wide and exciting palette with which to
create. With practice and a good sense of organization, you can begin creating
speaker-busting electro, techno, and house drum grooves with the best of them.
Always keep in mind that organization is key. But the sky’s the limit
when it comes to options for new sounds and instruments. If you feel like
diving deeper into editing and creating your own drum kits from samples
and using multi-MIDI channels, check out Structure, the A.I.R. groups
amazing professional sampler, which we may cover in a future session.
Till then, get to creating!
I look forward to your letters and comments. As always, please feel free
to email me at [email protected]. See you soon!
DIGIZINE
57
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workshop
guitar tools
Eleven: A Guide for Guitarists (and Non-Guitarists)
Digidesign recently unveiled Eleven, their first-ever amp-simulator plugin. It comes in both TDM and LE (RTAS and AudioSuite) versions, which
list for $595 and $395, respectively.
You can read elsewhere in this issue how Eleven was created and why
it sounds so good. The focus here is how to use the thing. I don’t mean
how to operate the controls—a chimp could master the simple UI in minutes. Rather, we’ll talk about how to get the most from Eleven’s modeled
amps. We’ll look at how these amps have traditionally been used by
guitarists, and how you can deploy them in unexpected ways, especially
on instruments other than guitar.
DIGIZINE
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If you’re one of those six-string geeks who think they can name the
power tubes used in the 1962 Fender Twin Reverb, you might not want to
bother with this article. (And if you read the last sentence and exclaimed,
“Idiot! There was no 1962 Fender Twin Reverb,” you can definitely blow it
off.) If, on the other hand, you’re a) a guitarist with a less-than-encyclopedic
amp knowledge, b) someone who records guitarists, or c) anyone interested in exploiting the unique tonal qualities of amp-type distortion, EQ,
and compression, you may pick up a trick or two.
By Joe Gore
Simplicity Itself
Eleven’s design philosophy differs from that of most other amp-modeling
plug-ins. Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, IK Multimedia’s Amplitube, and
McDSP’s Chrome Tone all aim to simulate an electric guitarist’s entire
signal chain, including stompboxes and post-amp outboard effects.
But Eleven is amps, the whole amps, and nothing but the amps. There
are no effects, no tuners, no extras. Eleven deploys all its processing
power on generating insanely realistic simulated tube-amp tone. (For
more on how and why the Digi dudes did it, see Greg Thomas’ “Behind
Eleven” article on page 6 in this issue.)
Set-up and model selection couldn’t be simpler: Whack a few loud
chords and set the input level. Choose an amp model and simulated
speaker configuration from the pull-down menus. Turn up the Speaker
Breakup slider to see if it adds anything nice. Browse the virtual microphones. Beyond that, it’s all about the amp controls, which faithfully
mimic those of the modeled amps.
Amp Savvy
•
Explore Eleven’s ability to mix and match virtual amps and
cabinets. Example: Once you find an amp sound you like, sift
through the cabinet settings. Don’t forget to try “against type”
pairings, like running a tiny combo amp through a 4x12 stack, or
forcing a fire-breathing metal amp through a single retro speaker.
• Remember, post-amp EQ and compression are essential to most classic electric guitar tones. You may not be able to get the tone you want using Eleven’s tone controls alone.
•
You can disable Eleven’s amp or speaker simulations. Turning off
the speaker section produces harsh, almost digital-sounding
distortion, which can be cool at times. Conversely, the speaker
emulation without amp simulation can lend subtle distortion and
EQ contouring to otherwise inert tones. Try it on synths.
•
Guitar cabinets (and their simulations) are not hi-fi affairs. They strip off lows and highs and introduce nasty midrange spikes—
which is why they’re cool. Anytime you have a keyboard sound that won’t sit in the mix, try running it through this sonic trash compactor.
•
Eleven is the first plug-in to model speaker cone breakup and include it as a discrete parameter. But despite the big slider that controls it, it’s a subtle effect, adding a bit of thumpy mass,
especially to high-gain sounds. Try various settings, but don’t be
surprised if things sound pretty good at any setting. Speaker breakup consumes CPU, so you may want to turn it off if it’s not adding anything.
•
Eleven also lets you select virtual microphones. The perceived contrast between mic models can vary among amp models. In general, the dynamic mics are a little “harder” sounding, with the Shure models a bit brighter than the Sennheisers. The condenser mics tend to be warmer than the dynamics. The R121 model mimics a warm Royer ribbon mic.
Before surveying Eleven’s amp clones, a few general tips:
• The amp controls are extremely interactive. Changing gain can change the perceived EQ. Changing the EQ can alter the gain. And so on.
• Your input level is also a tone control. Adjusting it can drastically change the overdrive quality.
• Don’t forget to try turning the gain controls down. Eleven’s default setting can be a bit heavy for clean-toned sounds.
• Be aware of the amp models’ gain structures. On some amps the two channels are wired in series, while others are parallel. You may be combining the sound of both channels, or using one to drive the other.
•
High-gain doesn’t necessarily mean high impact. It can be fun to max out the gain knobs, but the results are often mushy and
over-compressed. A common scenario: With everything turned up
to 10, the guitar sounds ballsy by itself but loses impact as soon as
you combine it with bass and drums. Remember, those Led Zeppelin and AC/DC guitar tracks are almost never as distorted as you think they are.
Eleven is amps, the whole amps,
and nothing but the amps.
DIGIZINE
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guitar tools
Meet the Tone Clones
Eleven lists its amp clones in chronological order. So will we.
The 1959 Tweed Lux setting emulates a Fender Deluxe, a small combo
amp old enough to have been used by as many lap steel and accordion
players as guitarists. It has fewer lows than the other models—even when
routed through a large cabinet model, the lows are rather farty (not
necessarily a bad thing).
Maxed-out, it gets plenty aggressive—Neil Young pretty much proved
that point. The channels are wired in parallel; pulling either one all the
way down yields single-channel operation. Guitarists usually play through
the instrument channel and turn the tone all the way up, since the EQ
circuit has no effect on the mic channel. (Yes, people actually used to
plug an instrument and a high-impedance mic into this modest amp.)
Sometimes it’s cool to exaggerate the amp’s limited frequency range by
rolling off lows with a downstream EQ. The Tweed Lux is a great choice
for distorted vocals.
The 1959 Tweed Bass emulates a Fender Bassman. Despite its name, bassists almost never use this amp. Instead, it’s become a gold standard for
blues and roots-rock guitar tone. The 4x10 speaker configuration delivers
ringing, articulate highs. Try lowering the default gain levels, making up
the difference with the master output. This amp is another great choice for
vocals where you don’t want an obliterated industrial sound, just an edgy
presence. Turn both gain controls down to about 2, and then edge the
bright channel up if you want a bit more treble bite. The same low-gain
setting is nice for vintage-style keyboards too. Try the 4x10 configuration
on other amp models whenever you seek extra clarity and bite.
The 1964 Black Panel Lux emulates a “blackface” Fender Deluxe, regarded
by some as the best-sounding American combo amp ever. Stevie Ray
Vaughan, Tracy Chapman, and Mark Knopfler have all used it to great
effect, and its tone still feels modern. It boasts lower lows and higher
highs than the early tweed models, plus a gorgeous tremolo circuit. It
provides a smooth transition from clean to overdriven sounds—some
players like to perch the gain on the edge of overdrive, regulating the
amount of distortion by touch. This model is also great for adding edge
to squeaky-clean keyboards without stripping away quite as many highs
and lows as the tweeds. It’s also surprisingly effective on drums, especially
when paired with the 4x12 Classic 30 speaker model.
The 1966 AC Hi Boost emulates a Vox AC30, the British Invasion amp.
This amp delivers explosive highs that with an almost electrical crackle—
think the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man.” The Cut control nixes highs. Most
DIGIZINE
62
guitarists use the Brilliant channel and play with little cut (that is, with
the knob to the left). Again, the channels are in parallel. Try cranking
Brilliant, then dialing in some darker Normal to see if it adds anything
nice. This model gets pretty nasty on non-guitar sources, which makes it
great for intense synth leads. It’s probably a bit too diffuse for percussive
sounds, though it’s nice on bass if you want a broad, splattery sound. The
bias tremolo circuit differs from the opto one of the Fender models. It’s
a bit thicker, with a hint of phasey modulation. AC30 devotees include
Brian May, Jimmy Page, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell, and Radiohead’s
Johnny Greenwood.
The 1967 Black Panel Duo emulates a Fender Twin Reverb, minus the reverb.
It’s a clean machine—one of the cleanest tube guitar amps ever. You
have to push it hard to obtain distortion, and a rather nasty distortion at
that. It was a favorite of the late-period Beatles, and contrary to popular
belief, Jimi Hendrix used it on many of his studio recordings rather than
the Marshall amps he favored in concert. It was the amp of choice for
many ’60s and ’70s keyboardists. It still sounds great on electric pianos,
clavinets, and combo organs, and it can add instant depth and attitude
to ho-hum virtual instruments. It’s got great frequency range for a guitar
amp, and it’s quite nice for synth bass sounds. Vocals too.
Here’s the Beef
Now we proceed to Eleven’s clones of macho rock amps. Most of these
provide thicker distortion than the previous amps. The distortion can
be too thick for many non-guitar applications, unless you’re going for a
totally blown-out sound. Executive summary: More mass, less definition.
Eleven includes two cabinet simulations based on Marshall 4x12 speaker
cabinets, the most popular configuration for high-gain amps. The Green
25W emulates a cabinet stocked with Celestion Greenback speakers; the
Classic 30 model mimics a cab with Celestion Vintage 30s. Classic 30
has the strong midrange spikiness that partially defines the classic rock
Marshall sound, while Green 25W sounds relatively neutral.
The first Marshall amps were—to put it charitably—inspired by the Fender
Bassman. But by the mid-’60s, they’d created a sound world of their
own. Eleven’s 1969 Plexiglas is based on the 100-watt JMP series amp,
nicknamed “plexis” after the Plexiglas-backed control panels. Plexis
are an iconic sound of classic rawk—think Hendrix at Woodstock, Mick
Ronson with Bowie, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, live Led Zeppelin—the list is long.
While plexis are justifiably famed for their “turned up to 11” timbres, don’t
neglect their underexploited clean tones. For example, try turning off the
High Gain channel, raise the Normal channel to its midpoint, and make
up the volume with the Output knob. Be sure to experiment with the
tuneful midrange control—you can think of it as a “bite” knob. For even more bite, try pairing this
amp with the Tweed Lux speaker emulation.
The 1982 Lead 800 emulates the Marshall JCM800, which largely defined the sound of ’80s metal—
this is the Mötley Crüe machine. The parallel channels of the plexi Marshalls are replaced by a
series pair, yielding greater sustain and saturation. The JCM’s magic lies in the way the amp retains
punch and focus, even when maxed-out. Experiment with the subtle balance between the preamp
and master volume controls. Or on second thought, don’t. Just turn ’em up. For a good buzz-bass
sound, try it through the 4x10 cabinet, which adds a nice low-end focus.
The 1985 M2 Lead setting emulates the Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+. The Mark-series Mesas are all about
series gain stages. Their signature sound: thick, sustained lead guitar sounds à la middle-period Santana.
This model is great for adding bulk to weedy-sounding synth lines. It’s also effective on vocals at lowgain settings. (If you need extra definition, switch to the Dyn 57 mic model for its pointy upper-mids.)
The 1989 SL-100 Drive, SL-100 Crunch, and SL-100 Clean emulate a Soldano SLO-100. While the
amp’s fizzy highs were a signature sound of ’80s hair metal, you don’t have to dig Warrant and
Great White to get off on this boutique sound, especially since Eleven includes a model of a custom
mod devised by guitarist Warren Haynes, activated by turning off the bright switch on the Drive
channel. This setting tames the amp’s brilliance, producing warmer, more dynamic tones. The
SL-100 CL model is terrific on vocals and other clean sources.
The 1992 Treadplate Modern and Treadplate Vintage model a Mesa Dual Rectifier—one of the
definitive ’90s hard rock sounds. When aggro guitarists use the word “chunk,” chances are they’re
referring to this amp’s characteristic low-mid resonance. The Modern model has hyped highs and
scooped mids, while Vintage is more akin to an older Marshall. This amp serves up more sheer mass
than any of the other models, though that density doesn’t always translate in the mix. But for maximum wallop, try here first.
Finally, Eleven includes two home-brewed amp models: 2007 Custom Modern Overdrive, and Custom
Vintage Crunch. The Custom Modern model sounds a lot like a customized Lead 800, but with
less quirky resonance. They’re great if you want clobbering gain, but desire a slightly more neutral
sound. Custom Vintage Crunch is a nice synthesis of the early Fender sounds, also minus their
quirky resonance. They’re good choices if you want tweed-like sound with trem. It’s a pleasantly
humble sound after all that testosterone!
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.
A Token Legal Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that Eleven is not connected with, or approved
or endorsed by, the owners of the AKG, Celestion, Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Neumann,
Royer, Sennheiser, Shure, Soldano, and VOX trademarks. These names are used solely to
identify the guitar amplifiers, cabinets, and microphones emulated by the Eleven plug-in.
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Elastic Time in Pro Tools 7.4
Elastic bands are useful because they stretch easily and bind things
together. The same might be said of the latest version of Pro Tools.
Thanks to the new Elastic Time features in Pro Tools 7.4, you can make
your band elastic (or your string section, movie soundtrack, ADR loop,
or anything else you might like).
Digidesign’s Elastic Time feature set combines the usual elegant simplicity in design with supreme versatility, speed, and power. The new Elastic
Time features are available in Pro Tools LE, M-Powered, and HD. Much
of the Pro Tools code has been streamlined, tweaked, and improved to
make these new real-time functions possible.
The clue to Elastic Time is in the name: Your audio can be manipulated
by tempo, duration, timing, and feel to facilitate anything from subtle
time corrections to drastic tempo-stretching to instant multitrack
quantizing. You can create seamless varispeeding for special effects, or
conform audio to meet the needs of complex audio post tasks such as
resolving different audio and video speeds.
How Does It Work?
Elastic Time begins with an analysis of the audio file or selection you
wish to work with. The audio’s transients—sharp attacks such as snare
hits or footsteps—are detected and mapped, and time-stretching algorithms and editing features are used to expand or condense the audio’s
duration. The existing transient detection techniques employed by Beat
Detective and Pro Tools’ Tab to Transient function have been further
refined, making for a very aggressive and super-accurate transient
detection scheme for the Elastic Time features. The same improved
transient detection is also now available in Beat Detective on HD
systems (and LE and M-Powered systems with either of the Toolkit options), Tab to Transient, and Separate Region at Transients (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Beat Detective’s new Enhanced Resolution mode.
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This highly
aggressive detection can be tamed
using “Sensitivity”
controls found
in a new Elastic
Properties window
(see figure 2). The
analysis of the
transients is completely editable
via a new Analysis
Track View, giving
you a “best of
both worlds”
Figure 2: The Elastic Properties window.
scenario where
every transient
can be easily found, but any false ones can be quickly corrected or
ignored—an especially useful feature for audio with fewer or weaker
transients. This produces better-sounding, more accurate results when
you warp audio or conform it to a tempo map.
The Algorithms
You can even control how Elastic Time sounds. There are five different
algorithms to choose from via new plug-ins that can be previewed or
selected on a track-by-track basis through a drop-down menu in DigiBase.
These algorithms can be applied with either Real-Time Processing or Rendered
Processing (see figure 3). One thing cool about Rendered Processing mode
is that your rendered audio still maintains full elastic editing functionality
while also relieving the host CPU from real-time processing tasks.
By Rob Kelly
Figure 3: The Elastic Time track-based
pop-up.
The Polyphonic algorithm
is a good generalpurpose choice for
complex, polyphonic
material.
The Varispeed algorithm is a special mode where pitch is linked to time,
simulating the behavior of a tape machine.
The Rhythmic algorithm
sounds best on material
with strong transients,
such as drum loops.
The Elastic Time plug-ins are available only from the Elastic Time button
on each audio track—not from the normal plug-in slots in the mixer.
They are very simple in terms of tweakable parameters to optimize the
sound (see figure 4).
The Monophonic algorithm is a good option
for audio where one
note at a time occurs,
such as a vocal line.
It’s designed to keep
formants intact.
DigiBase and Elastic Time
The X-Form setting is the best-sounding algorithm of the lot, but is not
real-time. It requires rendering of the audio.
Within DigiBase, any audio file can be analyzed for transients, and a
check mark is shown to the left of the file. If a tempo is successfully
detected, its icon in the DigiBase “Kind” column will change from
sample-based (the blue clock) to tick-based (the green metronome),
as shown in figure 5.
Figure 5: Elastic Time analysis in DigiBase.
Figure 4: The Rhythmic and X-Form Elastic Time plug-ins.
If, like me, you have around four billion drum and percussion loops, you
can set the analysis going and do them all in one batch, so you only have
to do this once. You can then preview any of your loops and have them
automatically conform to the session tempo, in sync with session playback.
The DigiBase “Context Preview” feature enables you to play any audio file
in time and in sync with your song. Or to put it another way, you can audi-
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midi ditty
tion loops on the fly, in perfect sync with your session, regardless of the
loop’s source tempo—an extremely creative writing feature!
For Pro Tools|HD systems, DigiBase no longer uses Direct I/O to audition
audio—like other versions of Pro Tools, it now uses DAE playback. This
means there’s no lag when switching between DigiBase and the Edit/
Mix pages in Pro Tools. Other useful enhancements include DigiBase
metering/volume control and stereo audition of split stereo files.
Should this analysis not be completely accurate, the event markers can
be manually edited, created, or removed in the track’s analysis view
(see figure 8), available alongside standard Track View options such as
volume and waveform.
Warp Options
Warp view is used to add warp
markers and compress or expand
the timing of the audio. Event
markers can be transformed into
warp markers by double-clicking
on them, and new warp markers
can be created independently
of event markers. A third type
of warp marker is a tempo event
marker: These are automatically
generated warp markers for tickbased Elastic Time, and are used
by Pro Tools to conform the audio
to the session’s tempo map.
Back to the Bendiness
Elastic Time has still more twisty tricks up its sleeve. When you drag
and drop audio from a browser to the timeline, if you’ve hit the Conform
to Session Tempo button (see figure 6), the file automatically warps on
import to conform to your session’s tempo map.
Figure 8: Choosing warp or analysis Track Views.
Figure 6: The Conform to Tempo and DigiBase Metering/
Volume controls.
When non-analyzed audio is dragged or recorded onto an Elastic Timeenabled track, it temporarily goes offline while a transient analysis is
performed (a process that’s near-instant for short regions). This creates
event markers within the newly inserted region (see figure 7) to indicate
where Pro Tools has found transients in the waveform.
There are three methods by which
audio can be warped: Telescope,
Accordion, and Range. Range
warp mode (see figure 9) is very useful for making corrections within one
section of a longer phrase. Think of the Pro Tools timeline as a wooden
ruler, the audio as an elastic band, and warp markers as pins. You can use
one warp marker to fix a point of the band (audio) to the ruler (timeline),
insert a second marker to pin down another point, and add a third pin
equally between them, but then move it and place it closer to the second
pin to stretch (expand) the audio between the first and middle pins and
relax (compress) it between the middle pin and the last.
Telescope warp is like a straight time stretch: You can drag an event
marker at the beginning or end of a region while keeping the other end
fixed, so the audio expands or compresses linearly in one direction, like
a telescope being opened or closed.
Accordion warp, as the name implies, lets you fix a single warp marker that
acts as an anchor point within a region, and stretch or squash the audio
equally on either side of the marker by dragging either end of the region.
Figure 7: Elastic Time analysis and warp markers.
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Any region that has been warped gets a new warp icon, visible at the
top right of the region in any region view. Any warping can be easily
removed via a Remove Warp command.
By Rob Kelly
Samples vs. Ticks
Like regular audio tracks, Elastic Time tracks can be either sample- or
tick-based. Sample-based Elastic Time-enabled tracks let you apply
real-time or rendered Elastic Time processing by editing in Warp view,
applying Quantize, and using the TCE Trim tool. However, as mentioned
above, tick-based Elastic Time tracks also automatically apply Elastic
Time processing based on tempo changes. Your audio stretches to
follow any tempo events you might subsequently add, even allowing
continuous changes such as accelerandi and ritardandi to be drawn in.
This is a great way to fit pre-recorded music to a re-cut picture.
Figure 9: Using Range warp mode.
Figure 10: Quantizing Elastic Time.
The ability to quantize Elastic Time is a very cool feature. Like Beat
Detective, it allows you to correct timing in audio files, but does so without the need to slice the audio up into regions first. You can also use
Groove Quantize to change the feel of Elastic Time—a very quick and
easy way to re-groove your whole song (see figure 10).
This concludes our look at some of the major features of Pro Tools 7.4—
though there are many others I don’t have time to mention. Elastic
Time’s flexible implementation should make it a very useful tool for both
music and post production, not to mention opening doors to all kinds of
new sonic creativity. Stretch away, friends!
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groundwork
Mastering Fades and Crossfades
Fades and crossfades are essential editing moves for any Pro Tools music
or post-production project. They’re great for eliminating unwanted pops,
clicks, and sudden sonic changes at region boundaries, or for creating
special audio effects. Let’s look at some the best ways to use fades and
crossfades quickly and effectively in any type of Pro Tools project.
Fade Basics
As you probably know, fades are used to gradually adjust the volume of
a region up (for a fade-in) or down (for a fade-out). Crossfades combine
a fade-out and fade-in simultaneously to smoothly merge two overlapping regions of audio together. When you create a fade or crossfade, it is
written to your hard drive and stored in the “Fade Files” folder within your
session folder. When you play your session, Pro Tools reads and plays
back the fade files from your hard drive. But Pro Tools can recreate your
fade files even if they get lost or damaged, because the fade information
is also stored within the session file.
Fades can be created at the beginning or ending of any audio region.
Crossfades are made between two overlapping audio regions. To create
a fade, first click and drag with the Selector tool to select part of a track
that touches or crosses one region boundary, or select across an area
where two regions overlap to make a crossfade, as in figure 1.
Figure 2: The Fades dialog box.
Figure 1: Without a crossfade, this edit will create a nasty pop sound.
Next, choose Edit > Fades > Create, or press Control + F (Windows) or
Command + F (Mac). The Fades dialog box will open, as in figure 2. In
the Fades dialog box, you can 1) audition the fade by clicking the speaker
button in the upper left corner (or pressing the Spacebar), 2) change the
view options of the fade using the buttons below the Audition button,
3) choose the shape of the fade-out (Out Shape) and fade-in (In Shape),
4) choose and link the slope of the fades (Equal Power or Equal Gain) or
unlink them (None), 5) decide whether to add dither to the fade, and 6)
use your mouse to click and drag on the fade curves to draw your own
fade shapes.
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The Link parameter in the Fades window enables you to link the fade-out
and fade-in slopes used in a crossfade. Choose Equal Gain to create a
smooth, linear crossfade that won’t increase the gain at the region boundary. Choose Equal Power for the crossfade if you notice a drop in volume
at the region boundary. Choose None when you want to edit the fade-out
and fade-in separately.
Press Control (Windows) or Command (Mac) while dragging to edit the
fade-out section of a crossfade. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac)
while dragging to edit the fade-in. (I find the Equal Power crossfade to be
useful for most applications, so I keep it set in my Default Fade Settings.)
Finally, check the Use Dither box when fading in from silence or fading
out to silence to improve audio performance. Why not make the smoothestsounding fades that you can?
To set your Default Fade Settings, choose Setup > Preferences and click
on the Editing tab. On the upper right side of the page, you’ll see buttons
for Fade In, Fade Out, Crossfade, and REX/ACID. Click any of these buttons and the Fade window opens, allowing you to save your Default Fade
By David Franz
Settings for each application. I recommend setting these up before starting any heavy editing in a session—it’ll save you time in the long run.
Use the Wicked Smart Tool
Now that you know the basics about using fades and crossfades, let’s talk
about ways to increase your editing speed when making fades and crossfades.
First, try the Smart tool. Press the button directly below the Selector tool
in the Edit window to activate the Smart tool. With the Smart tool active,
you can create fades and crossfades just by clicking and dragging, without having to open the Fades dialog box.
To create a fade with the Smart tool, place the cursor near the top of a
region boundary on an audio track. The Smart tool turns into a fade-in or
fade-out icon. Move the cursor to the bottom of a region boundary and
the cursor turns into a crossfade icon. When the Smart tool becomes the
fade or crossfade tool, just click and drag to make a fade or crossfade, as
in figure 3. The fade or crossfade is made automatically using the Default
Fade Settings in the Editing Preferences page.
Figure 3: Use the Smart tool to automatically create a crossfade.
With the Smart tool still active, you can change the length of the fade
or crossfade. Move the Smart tool to the beginning or end of a fade or
crossfade, where it turns into the Trim tool. Now you can click and drag to
adjust the length of the fade or crossfade, as in figure 4.
The Finer Points of Crossfades
The length of a crossfade affects the sound of an edit. It’s often a good
idea to create very short crossfades to retain a natural-sounding transition
between the overlapping audio regions. On some sounds, a long crossfade may overlap the regions too much, producing a noticeably artificial
sound. For example, if the crossfade on a bass track extends too long
before the beginning of a note, you may hear two separate note attacks
when there should only be one. However, longer crossfades may work
better on tracks without percussive attacks, such as synth pads or legato
string sounds.
fades are great for
eliminating unwanted
pops, clicks, and sudden
sonic changes at region
boundaries, or for creating
special audio effects.
To maximize the smoothness of an edit, place edit locations and crossfades right before large transients in the waveform. The amplitude of the
waveform is often smallest just before the transient, and the edit is more
easily disguised. This is particularly true for drums and other percussive
instruments, as in figure 5.
Because crossfades are created by fading between overlapping audio
material, a crossfade cannot be performed on regions that do not contain
audio material beyond their region boundaries. In other words, there
must be sufficient underlying audio beyond the region boundaries to
generate the fade-in and fade-out components of a crossfade. If this is an
issue when you’re trying to make a crossfade, Pro Tools alerts you with a
warning and asks if you’d like to “Skip Invalid Fade(s)” or “Adjust Bounds.”
Click “Adjust Bounds” and Pro Tools will automatically move the placement and length of the crossfade so that it is valid, if possible. If it’s not
possible, the crossfade won’t be created.
Figure 4: Use the Trim tool to adjust the length of a crossfade.
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Fade shortcut: Create a fade without opening the Fades dialog box by
pressing Control + Start + F (Windows) or Command + Control + F (Mac).
This command uses the last selected fade shape.
Delete a fade: Click on a fade to select it, then right-click it and choose
Delete Fade from the pop-up menu.
Pro Tools can recreate your
fade files even if they get
lost or damaged.
Figure 5: Place your edit and short crossfade right before a large transient.
Fade Quickies
Here are a few quick tips for even more speed and power with fades and
crossfades in Pro Tools:
Group fades: Create a fade on one track in an active group, and the same
fade is also assigned to all the other tracks in that group. This is true for
all audio tracks in active region groups, too.
To be efficient, set up
your Default fade settings
and use the smart tool to
create and edit fades and
crossfades.
AutoFades: Pro Tools|HD users can automatically apply real-time fade-ins
and fade-outs to all region boundaries in a session. The fades are not
written to disk. Instead, they happen in real-time during playback, and
do not appear in the Edit window—thus they only get recorded when
you Bounce to Disk. To set the length of your AutoFades, choose Setup >
Preferences and click on the Operation tab, then enter a value between 0
and 10 msec in the Auto Region Fade In/Out Length. When you click OK,
the AutoFades are applied to all appropriate regions, and the AutoFade
value is saved with the session. This can be a huge time-saver.
Fade Out
You now know enough about fades and crossfades to make every edit in
your session smooth as silk, and as unnoticeable as you want it to be. To
be efficient, I recommend setting up your Default Fade Settings and then
using the Smart tool for creating and editing your fades and crossfades.
Use batch fades, AutoFades, and keyboard shortcuts to edit even faster
with fades. Good luck, and happy fading.
Like what you see in this column? Check out my book, Producing in the
Home Studio with Pro Tools (3rd Edition). It’s filled with recording, editing,
MIDI, mixing, and mastering techniques using Pro Tools, and includes a
DVD with loads of instructional videos and example sessions. You can
also study Pro Tools production techniques with me online at
Berkleemusic.com in the Producing with Pro Tools class.
Batch fade: Create crossfades between multiple regions on one track
at the same time by selecting all the regions and pressing Control + F
(Windows) or Command + F (Mac).
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