Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Beathawk to Cubasis comprehensive production tutorial part 2
I have to freeze all the tracks and then I'll upload the cubasis file to dropbox and include it in the section below the video.
I'm also going to upload just the finished song as a video. This was a lot of work, not only to make it sound the way I wanted, but also to break down everything I did...twice, because I accidentally deleted all the video footage when I was almost done the first time.This particular track turned out to be Psy Trance.
And for the finished track:
Comments
Whoa... 39min. was gonna watch at work!
But scrobbled through a bit. Tight work, mate! Thanks!
Gonna check it later today
Thank you very much. I now have the project for download as well. I'm not sure there are many producers willing to give away all their production techniques, but from the beginning I've said that I would reveal how I do things and I'm staying true to that philosophy, that there are no secrets as far as I'm concerned, just tools that we can all share to make more music. This took me a lot of work and I have yet to figure out the perfect workflow, so it doesn't take me so long.....In the meantime, if anyone has a suggestion for a song tutorial I can tackle in the future, based on a specific popular genre. I may even first analyze a popular artist and their techniques and then try to duplicate the vibe and show how I do it. Maybe a Daft punk song? Main stream pop meets EDM? anybody?
Good part 2, Marc. Very instructive.
thank you very much, any ideas on what i should do next?
Well, effects are a pretty weak link for me. Probably for a lot of others as well.
Good suggestion.
Limiter vs compression for example.
Guitar players seem to understand the logic of ordering their effects effectively. Can you suggest what order to place the effects in when recording various tracks and when doing the final mixdown?
Well the number one truth here is that often less is more. I think compression is a tricky thing, because ultimately music should have dynamics, getting louder and quieter at times and too much compression robs music of it's dynamics. Modern music is as a whole a lot less dynamic than it use to be, so in truth I rarely use compression unless I have to and if I have to then I messed up. I think considering the dynamics of your song should be a planned thing. I think it is often the last thing one decides after realizing it's missing in the music, but it doesn't have to be. Dynamics make huge difference in capturing the listeners attention, and also effect the longevity of their listening. The reality is, if you you hammer people , your listeners, with a nonstop loud barrage of intertwining instruments, they will turn the music off sooner. This will physically wear out their ears much sooner.
That said, in the signal chain, I would put compression first or as close to the original unaffected sound as possible. That way the sound stays more pure and the compressor doesn't have to work as hard to do it's job effectively. The next thing I would suggest is practice making your ears hear what compression does. Take a track and solo it. Then add compression. Try extreme settings and then try turn them down slowly, looping small sections and listen to what it's doing. Try using it on sounds that decay quickly, vs sounds that decay less quickly. Figure out what setting make things sound unnatural, for instance, compression has the ability to really mess with the sound of cymbals on a drum kit or in a mix that has drums or crash symbols.
The right settings can pull the whole kit together, the whole mix together and enure things don't get too loud or too quiet, kicking in when either of those are might otherwise be the case, but the wrong settings can destroy the mix or sub mixes with the audio behaving in very un natural ways, so take the time ahead of time, before you have a mixdown due you promised someone, so you aren't ever throwing it on there willy nilly hoping it's helping your mix. The good thing is most plugin compressors have presets created by audio engineers and they are titled appropriately, so take a preset titled "cymbals" or" acoustic guitar" and take a look at the settings and then try creating the opposite effect, try to ruin the sound and the dial it back until you are on the edge of disturbing your baby, your creation and take a mental note...ah, this is what compression does at this setting.
Lastly go and watch some videos on youtube where people demonstrate some of what I've been trying to use as examples. Compression is probably the number one misused effect and in many cases you just don't need it. Instead you need to be in control of your dynamics as you are recording.
You should be conscious of how loud or quiet you are as a singer for example. Ask yourself, are you too loud too often, up and down like crazy, ie too dynamic, and notice that your instrument, even your voice can have a different tone at different volumes. Be more conscious of dynamics in your music and in your life. Not everything should always be on 1 or 10 or even wildly fluctuating. Balance is a great philosophy, no matter how you slice it.
I'll talk more about other effects in the future, but lesson number one is right here.....I hope people who are mystified by compression can read this and maybe now move in the direction of tackling their fear of compression or lack of compression and get in the habit of educating yourself regularly, by asking questions like this, but mostly, go hands on and get the experience yourself so you don't have to take anyone else's word for it. I don't know much about compression based on what I've been told, but I know a lot about it from experimenting with it myself and taking a proactive approach in understanding this very valuable tool and also how to avoid having ot need it. In the end compression is not natural. It dones't exist in nature. But self control, conscious control of dynamics is something we humans do have power of . Ok, stepping off the pulpit and going back to making music!!
does that help?