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Found 14 results

  1. I play and sing Elton John - "Sad Songs" - Cover @Wonfoli Musical Elton John sings Sad songs in 1984. Sad Songs (Say So Much) is a nice song to cover easily. This song is exiting to play it on the piano in live music. In 2021, Elton John released cold heart song with Dua lipa. Amazing cover...Let's guess wich songs ?
  2. This first blog entry is being written just as we see an exciting new development in virtual vocalist tech, with the addition of rapping to Dreamtonic’s Synthesizer V, and on the eve of the release of Toontrack’s EZkeys2. Synthesizer V and EZkeys are two of the products I use in every production I do, and have not only allowed me to reveal my musical voice but also to write songs in record time. Since downloading Synthesizer V in August of 2022, I have co-written 9 vocal songs, handling the music composition and production completely. That’s enough for an album! My previous efforts to write vocal songs have taken months each, as I fumbled my way through the writing and recording process, then re-writing after a vocal session, and then re-recording after trying to fit in a busy singer’s schedule and studio time. Loss of my fresh supply of university trained singers led to me giving up writing vocal songs completely when I changed my career back in 2017. I released a 100% instrumental EP as part of the worldwide production RPM Challenge back in 2021, but there was no question, I was missing something from my musical desires. While some talented a-holes are able to play just about every instrument known to man, and sing with a beautiful tone with a five octave range at that, most of us are not so talented. Back in the 1980’s, I would probably be a tape op, and maybe go on to be a producer. Never a performer. I have played as a side musician on a number of commercial album releases, including one or two popular ones (relatively speaking), but those days are long gone. However, it does highlight a side of song production that has always existed - the use of session musicians. Products like EZkeys are often looked down on by musicians as being cheats, but they are really no different than employing session musicians, and there’s absolutely no need for any animosity toward people who use these products. Whatever tools people use to break down barriers and enable them to get their voice heard has to be a good thing. I’ll use another blog post to explain my process for writing vocal lines in Synthesizer V. While you might think that this is a long winded process, that would be much quicker done by a real singer, the reality is that its the inspiration of WHAT to write that holds up the process. Armed with inspiration, I can write a verse and have it sung back to me in a manner of minutes, and we’re not talking 59 minutes and 59 seconds here… literally 10 or 15 minutes is all I need. Uninspired, it takes a lot longer, and the final production usually needs some clean up, but its really not that involved of a process. Coming up with the ideas is the difficult part, and Synthesizer V helps there too - you can put in a pretty random line and manipulate it to your hearts content, until you have something you’re happy with. It’s not constant re-writes… its manipulation. I wanted to make this first entry pretty short, so I'll leave it there, but if this is something you are interested in, I hope it won't be long before blog entry number two.
  3. Setting up your interface and DAW with Logic Pro X. If you've already purchased or have your audio interface which is the soul of your studio setup, then you've gotten the most important task out of the way. Assuming you already have your Pc or Mac and you have installed Logic Pro X without no error, then you are ready to begin connection/routing your audio interface in your DAW (Digital Audio Work-station). First, Plug your audio interface cable in to your pc/Mac before you open Logic Pro. Tip: After you've installed Logic Pro onto your pc/Mac shutdown. Plug in your audio interface while your pc/Mac is turned off so that when you turn on your pc/Mac your audio interface is connected and in control of your pc/Mac sound card. (helps with making sure your connection has more success rate first time). Logic Pro Startup When Logic Pro is opening it will begin reading hardware, plugins and text data associated with your DAW. If you have any problem and get error message it is usually for installed plug-ins, which is a whole other topic we will discuss in another post. If you have not installed your own VST, DAE, Component (Plug-ins) on your pc/Mac then you'll like be using stock plug-ins installed with Logic Pro during initial installation. If so then Logic Pro should open up to its digital audio work station timeline and editor window. Routing your interface in Logic Pro Make your way to your top left and click on Logic Pro X tab, then preferences, next audio... When you've manage to open up the audio setup window in your DAW then you should see the name of your audio interface's output and input of your device. Make sure your devices input and outputs correctly selected. If so you are good to go and start making professional quality vocals no matter where you are. Tip: WAIT! as an extra to us professionals who know more in-depth about latency or buffer sizes...There's a way to make sure you have no latency issue, (Lagging or delay in live recording time ) Check your buffer size and if your recording vocals the you want to select the lowest buffer size possible which usually for a quality audio interface would be 126 buffer size. you can increase to 256 or 512 based off your interfaces preferences and your experience. 1024 buffer size which is your largest and mainly used for beat production or mixing vocals could be used but again comes with experience of your engine buffer to know your go arounds which we will discuss later on. When recording for the cleanest and fastest signal possible use 126 or 256. Bonus: DAW SETUP: SAMPLE RATE, BUFFER SIZE, AND BIT DEPTH Great Work, Now that you know how to set up your audio interfaces sound card it's time to learn the sauce lol. Recording template set up, plug in chain, busses and routing. I'll save that for the next post for now experiment with the different buffer rates while you rap or sing in the microphone and see which one works better with timing and reaction of your raw vocal to your natural voice.
  4. So, I got a DAW setup - yeh, party time. I got all my plugins to link (well 99% of them) correctly - yeh, party time. I got a Novation Launchpad hooked-up and making noise- yeh, party time. But there hasn't been any time for a party You see 'between' each potential party-time of the first three lines, are a lot of things each respective company doesn't tell you. How could it with all the permutations of OS, DAW's, Plugins, Soundbank file types, Sound Card setups, Keyboards, Controllers etc. Well it could go a long way if truth be told !!!!! Take this Presonus example; they offer you a list of compatible and tested 'external devices'. But if your 'things' aren't in the list, then you set them up manually. To do this you choose which category your 'thing' fits under: New Keyboard New Instrument New Control Surface. But that creates a problem, since if your 'surface controller' acts as a Midi interface and you add it as a surface controller, it will not act as the Midi interface it is supposed to. So you have to add it as a keyboard. They don't tell you that, but they could (and if they do, I haven't been able to find it 'from them'). Then take the Novation Launchpad problem. They made it to work with Ableton Live, so that DJ's could perform amazing live sets. DJ's seems to have united to the Launchpad and have been busy creating various maps etc that will allow them to use it with FL Studio, VDJ and a host of other DJ type programs. But it has the ability to be used like a Midi keyboard, just pads to hit instead of keys, and to organise the pads in the way you want (called mapping). So if you have EZDrummer, you can create a Midi drum track quite easily. But there's little help in this area, probably in one respect due to all the permutations of OS, DAW's, Plugins, Soundbank file types, Sound Card setups, Keyboards, Controllers etc. But it doesn't stop the frustration of knowing it 'will' do the job you want it to do, but taking a lot longer to work out how to. Couple that with the hours spent going through say Youtube and people's so called tutorials that are just them showing off what they can make the Launchpad do without saying how, and finding out way, way down the line about how you setup the wrong permutations of connecting and routing a Midi external device .............. you end up not feeling very much in the party mood. People create these amazing 'map' files, but they seem to omit where you put them to work. All these little types of things just mount up in frustration and time spent tracking down answers that offer solutions aswell as joining multiple forums to ask basic questions that leave you in 'limbo land', as you wait for days for a kind person to answer your question. It's no wonder really that musicians walk away from mixing and production - they'd have no time left to make music So, if you're the kind of person who gets a new toy and opens the box and plays with it without reading the instruction manual first (requiring some doctorate in language interpretation), or you have zero PC / technical skills, or you have no patience .......... I advise you to think carefully before going down this path I mean, install Ableton and be left wondering why the 64 bit version will not utilise your 32 bit plugins, I dare you I bet you're glad this is 'my' mountain to climb now Onwards and upwards ......... as they say!
  5. So I've been a part time user of Studio One for some time now with my last version being 2.5. I had no real reason to change what I was using, but occasionally a new thing will come along that I just cant ignore. Presonus has been making some interesting changes recently to Studio One Professional. The first big one I noticed this past year was the addition of the arranger. The closer you look at this function the better it gets. DAWs have always been able to shift audio around in chunks for arranging purposes. What is different here is the way they have designed the workflow to enable you to move large portions of audio around all at once very easily. Basically you determine which parts of the song you wish to arrange and give them labels. The most common being verse, chorus, break, pre chorus. Once labeled you can move them anywhere with seamless perfection in any order in your song with any number of repetitions. Let's say you want another verse or you don't like where the solo is and you want to move things around. You have 100 tracks you say????!!!!. It couldn't be easier to do in Studio One 3.5. The closest I can come to that in Sonar is I can ripple edit tracks and songs. Not quite as intuitive. I have the matix view which is very similar to Ableton in how it works. So I can do it, but not as easily. The second big thing is latency compensation. They have devised a way to reduce both audio effects and software instrument latency using a new native approach that cuts milliseconds off of latency. As far as I know no other DAW has this. Yes others can set their buffers, but the two are different animals. The new setup has a work around to systems that were held back by a slower internal routing scheme or slower hardware. It is still dependent on your Cpu and interface to some extent, yet it can breathe some life into an older interface. When used with a thunderbolt interface it can scream. I was able to get my old Presonus Firetube studio down to 3ms and 64 buffers. I haven't had the chance to really test it yet, but on paper it looks really good. I just purchased an upgrade from 2.5 to the most recent 3.5 version. Older version won't have this feature. I'll still probably track in Sonar because it's very easy to get good takes using it. Part of that has to do with my eyes liking the graphics and work flow of Sonar. From then on though I'm no longer so sure. SO seems to be leading the pack overall and that's hard for me to say as a partial Cakewalk Fanboy. The tools and layout in Studio One are better for mastering. It's cross platform which doesn't usually concern me as a PC user, however it also means I can share files cross platform. Friends with SO who have a Mac..no problem. If you own a few decent daws you likely really don't need any more plug ins since both Sonar and Studio One are loaded with juicy well done plug ins. I still get the 3rd party ones I think will be helpful. Studio one is tied very well to their Presonus interfaces which takes the quess work out of configuring an interface is using these compatible products. I can'y say the same about Cakewalk with respect to Tascam. Yes almost all interfaces will work in Sonar. It isn't the same as having an interface with control written into the daw. It would only make sense to upgrade my next interface from Presonus. If you get the chance check it out. http://www.presonus.com/press/press-releases/Studio-One-35
  6. Dear Anyone. I'm wanting to learn how to create/find as presets (preferably the latter!) the sounds used by the following two artists:- Yellow Brick Cinema (yeah, track length takes the BLEEP, you'll hear all the sounds in the first 40 seconds or so, though, honest!) and Medwyn Goodall (it's the pad in the middle. You hear it in the first 2 seconds and throughout. I've been told it's saw wave, reverb, low-pass filter but I dunno, I can't get the darned thing to sound like his does and I don't know enough to know why.) Because they're background sounds, they don't have to be on the most expensive VSTs (Yes I expect they're on Omnisphere somewhere, but I can't afford that right now.) Just similar sounds that would be OK to work up into tracks I can put on websites afterwards, really, sounds that do the same jobs as these. Yours hoopefully Chris.
  7. After a two or three year haitus from music I've suddenly started taking on new projects again and had to go through the painful process of updating most of my software to stuff that will run on a 64bit PC. I thought I was going to have to fork out two or three hundred dollars for a DAW. I used Cubase and Pro Tools before, which are very expensive to obtain legally. I decided to try Reaper 4.7 just out of curiosity and found that not only did it have the functionality of my old Cubase and Pro Tools systems but in fact it was considerably more advanced than them in some areas with them being old. And it was only forty quid, which includes updates till the end of version 5. For anyone looking for a DAW it's well worth checking out. It's not a cheap compromise, it's an excellent piece of kit.
  8. Just two days ago Mixcraft released a sales email for price drops. My upgrade from Pro 6 to Pro 7 was $45USD Well worth it. I hate to start off on a negative.... Since I'm using WaveRT and an hdmi output for my audio monitoring the sound is both thin and crackly. That is not the fault of Mixcraft by any measure. Microsoft produces a free alternative to asio and waspi (direct sound) called WaveRT. It's fixed all my latency issues associated with running Win10. However it's not supported by Microsoft which is why many other daw's/hosts refuse to allow it's use for audio / midi. WaveRT will give off crackles if you use another program in the background which taps into audio resources. This doesn't occur if you are only using the host/Daw and close out any programs (including browsers) that may be using the sound card. I plan to try it using my Yamaha THR10 as a monitor/sound card later. (Too much to do today) Because I've covered Mixcraft 6 in great detail in the past I'll concentrate on my findings regarding the Pro7 version. First off... Practically no latency with midi. I've opened up a few of the demo files and played along with some rather extensive pre loaded content. Not even a whisper of latency. Most of this has to do with WaveRT. Though some has to do with a powerful system (Dell i7 3.60 Ghz and 16 gigs of ram. It's simply stunningly fast. Next Mixcraft has added a lot of features borrowed from Ableton Live. Performance view for looping and enhanced quantification, sync and so much more A long time back I was equally fascinated with and frustrated with Ableton live. I'd quite frequently comment that the reason they had crazy cool editing tools was more about how badly it failed with regards to latency in order to get things right the first time. After 10 minutes using performance mode in Mixcraft 7 I've lost any desire to use Ableton Live ever again. M pro 7 pro has added a few virtual instruments and enhanced many of those included. If there is one pet peeve of mine regarding these instruments is lack of fully developed banks./ programs / presets (FXB. While in years gone by I'd love to tweak knobs to find "famous sounds" These days I'm much more content to find a close enough approximation. Like Sonic Projects OPX-Pro I've yet to transfer over my countless third party effects and virtual instruments onto my Windows 10 machine. I often debate which to keep and which to leave behind. Not for storage as much but for ease of access my vst folders are a nightmare.
  9. Mahesh

    Home Recording

    With the advancement of technology, making music has changed from a studio only process to a home affair. Anyone with a computer can now install the necessary software , connect their equipment and start making music at the convenience of their own house. As easy as it may sound, it still takes a significant amount of research and learning about all the different things that go into home recording. This may come off as a struggle at the beginning for a budding a musician or even a long-time musician venturing into computer based home recording. The following article will help you get on your feet and take those first few steps into the journey of home recording. http://www.songstuff.com/recording/article/home_recording/ Be sure to share and like the article if you find it useful. If you have any questions, feel free to discuss it on the Songstuff Community Forums.
  10. One of the most important tools available to a music producer while working on a song inside a studio is compression. Compression is used to control the level of dynamics within a song. A compressor engages itself and brings down the volume/level of the audio signal when it exceeds a set threshold value. There are various controls to a compressor such as threshold, ratio, attack, hold, release, gain and bypass using which one can control how the compressor behaves. In many cases, dynamics within the song is generally considered to be a good thing but taming and controlling the difference between the loudest and the quietest parts in a song may lead to increased presence and more clarity. This article gives you an introduction to compression and its various controls. http://www.songstuff.com/recording/article/compression/ Be sure to share and like the article if you find it useful. If you have any questions, feel free to discuss it on the Songstuff Community Forums.
  11. ...The result of another discussion over on another thread, I thought it might be interesting to look at the current offerings in recording software and see if there are any clear winners. Things have changed a bit over the last several years in regards to the software available. Not all of us have the means to simply buy multiple programs to try. Thankfully there are several companies that offer free demos to try. Some have decided to try cracked software which I highly advise against for not only the most obvious reasons, but also because you essentially forfeit future supports and upgrades...not to mention that sometimes a company will offer a sweet deal on an upgrade if you possess a registered copy of a lower version of the software, in fact, this has been the way I have upgraded several programs...I waited for a sale which always happens, especially around the holidays. If you happen to be shopping for a DAW or recording software you might have started to notice a trend. When one company adds a feature, the competition usually follows up with something similar, so we end up with many similar feature sets on different programs. What you discover to be best for you might not be best for someone else. How can you know what is best? This all depends on what type of music you plan to make since these programs all have strengths and weaknesses. For the longest time all you would hear was pro toosl, pro tools, pro tools....all of the big players had it and used it. Then Avid almost went bankrupt and are still trying to catch up. People who don't understand the technology might think that when Avid/M-audio announced 64 bit software it was some kind of milestone. Many of the big players had already adopted it years ago...64 bit was simply a sales pitch. Pro Tools has mainly one thing going for it right now. Name recognition, and this is slowly going away as users start to see the offerings of other companies.Many smaller studios have abandoned Pro Tools altogether. Logic is another popular player with the Apple and pro recording crowd. Unlike Pro Tools Apple has a very relevant and capable program. Nothing head and shoulders above the other big players though. The main draw in Logic is that it is designed to run on Apple Computers from the ground up.Another big advantage is that it is inexpensive in the DAW world..something like 199.00...absurdly inexpensive for what you get. If you own an Apple computer you would be hard pressed to do better, and it is cross compatible with the lighter Garage Band. The disadvantage being that it only works with apple computers and you can't load a Pro Tools session into a Logic program..Apple- good system but closed system. Under Logic and Pro Tools come all of the other companies who make software for recording... Here are some questions to ask yourself- Do you want to produce or simply record? Do you plan to use a pro studio to complete a project, or do you intend to bring your music to master yourself? Software is simply a tool to accomplish an end...so why make so much of it? Mainly because decent software and the accompanying DAW can be quite an investment, so it pays to investigate the best for you. If you simply need to get a vocal and a guitar recorded, an iPad might even do just fine with a low cost software app in it or Garage band. It's when you start to look at the music as a production that things get a bit more complicated. A certain level of production is now expected or people seldom even listen to it. Within the first few seconds of a recording most listeners have already decided if they want to continue based on the quality of the recording. Comments welcome!!
  12. Share- Some of the functions you really like about the program you use. Here are a few of mine. I use at least four different music software programs, but I use one more than the others. Sonar X3 Producer is usually my go to program, so for simplicity sake I'll tell you why I like that program. Sonar X3 Producer Pretty much everything is drag and drop. If I want to play a certain software synthesizer I simply drag it into the track area and it loads. Both midi and audio can be freely copied and pasted into any other track. Sonar reads both acid and rex loops and comes with Addictive drums 2 a great drum program by XLN audio. The user GUI is very handy since I can drag and resize any window to anywhere. The explorer where loops, synthesizer, midi and effects directories are located is easy to navigate.The GUI also includes color customization so that I can make tracks in any color I desire. Templates are carried to the extreme in Sonar X3. I can make templates of entire project setups or templates of effects chains both in busses and tracks. Sonar X3 has a dedicated addition on each track called the "Pro Channel". The prochannel has reverbs, EQ, compressors, gates and even console emulation built right into it. The Pro Channel can be collapsed or made large, so you can make it larger when you work on it and collapse it when your not. Almost everything on each channel can be automated with external control. So for instance...I can automate reverbs, panning, compression, volume and much much more. Each automation control has an independednt lane which can also be expanded. Since Sonar X3 started as a midi sequencer the midi manipulation it has is second to none. Sonar has what they call " Take Lanes" which are simply the ability to take numerous vocal tracks and they will all be on different levels of the vocal track allowing you to pick and choose the best takes. Sonar X3 Producer has a great keystroke layout so rewind/play/record are all just a keystroke away. Keystrokes can also be programmed in Sonar to your liking. Sonar X3 Producer has rewire allowing it to be used with products like Reason. Sonar has several ways to arrange music. One is the more common Linear way and another is loop based. You can record your own loops and put them in to the "Matrix" or use pre exisiting loops.The Matrix is composed of "cells" and rows which allow you to line loops up in any order to choose. For instance I could make a row of loops for the chorus and a row of loops for the verse in a song and record them all inside the linear view to seperate tracks...in this way Sonar can work similar to Ableton. The loop explorer in X3 will let you preview loops before commiting to them. There is a magnifier so you can get a close up of the data you're working on. Sonar X3 Producer allows substantial use of group based editing..in this way you can perform batch edits to tracks. Sonar allows placement of sends and buses. and easy connection from them to tracks. Comes loaded with some very nice drums/synths and effects. Sonar can map to various hardware controllers and had lots of instrument definitions. Sonar identified my Presonus interface immediately and allows an easy configuration of all channels. Sonar can map a tempo from a track and Sonar will use that tempo as an alignment on all other tracks. Audio editing to tempo in Sonar X3 Producer is not difficult.X3 has the capability to load movies and can be used as a basic music to movie editor composer. The list is too long to tell you all it does in one small article and I haven't set out to itemize every detail. I'm just sharing a few of the particular things about X3 I like. Sonar X3 Producer has proven itself to be a very stable program that very seldom has any problems.I can't wait to see what they come out with in X4! What are some of the features you like about the program you currently use?
  13. A new Digital Audio Workstation called Bitwig has recently been released in the market and I want to know if any of you have had the chance to take it for a ride yet. Seems super promising but hey I'm a sucker for these videos lol Let me know what you guys think. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should. http://www.bitwig.com
  14. Hi I was taking a look at Cakewalk Sonar Producer X2 and noticed that it no longer supports XP, Vista etc. it only supports Windows 7 and Windows 8. I've encountered lots of issues with win7 64-bit & Cakewalk Sonar Producer X1 and audio glitches, a bit better on XP. I'm a long time Cakewalk user (since version 2 of Cakewalk!) so I'm reluctant to change to a completely new platform unless I have to. I did use Cubase many moons ago (on my Atari ST lol), fair to say it has changed somewhat. I guess I have used most of the DAWs available at some point. So far I have yet to try budget/free DAWS and find the user interface that great. The point in this whole post is simple, I'd love to hear of your experiences with the soon to be released (now on pre-release sale to existing Sonar users) Sonar X2 on both Win7 and Win8. A great deal hangs on it for me! Cheers John
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