wire to the ear

A few weeks ago I walked out of my apartment in Berlin and down Schönhauser Allee to Alexanderplatz. At Alexadnerplatz sits one of the coolest analog synthesizer stores in the world called Schnieders Buero. It’s full of amazing toys and Herr Schneider loves to show them all to you.

At Schnieder’s I got focused on the Doepfer R2M Midi Ribbon Controller. It consists of a control box and the Ribbon Controller itself. The Ribbon Controller is fantastic. It’s rests nicely inside a sculpted metal bar. The “position sensor” as Doepfer calls is a substantial 50cm long. The sensor is also pressure sensitive. The control box allows you to hook the Ribbon up to any Midi sound source such as a hardware synth, software synth, or effect plug-in. Being that this is a Doepfer product it also allows the Ribbon to control things via CV hence any real analog synth with such inputs.

You may have seen the R2M in a magazine review or on the Doepfer website but oh baby to touch it is to understand. This thing is really fun. It feels great and the pressure sensitivity works as you would want it to. It turns any decent sound source into a nice playable “instrument”. The control aspect and concept reminded me a little of the Perséphoné by EOWave which was also sitting in Schneider’s office.

I began to realize the R2m could breathe new life into my workflow. It can see myself arming a long track in Ableton Live’s arrangement view and rocking out an extended solo part. The control unit allows you to set up different modes such as Trautonium.

“Trautonium” mode: in this special mode only a single note on message is generated when the position sensor is touched. After that only pitch bend messages are generated until the finger is lifted off.”

You can also adjust the Ribbon’s scaling, Pitch Bend resolution, Pitch Bend width, quantization and Gate parameters. Are you getting some ideas yet?

More and more desk and laptop musicians are looking for new fresh ways to interact with there music. I highly recommend trying the R2M out.

There is a small utility application that I can’t live without. It’s from Ambrosia Software and it’s called WireTap Studio. It sits direct center in my dock next to my Ableton Live icon.

It’s purpose? To record any sound my Mac makes. It can record audio coming from the entire Mac or any specific application. After you record some audio it has a nice looking edit window to fine tune your selection. While editing your recorded audio WireTap Studio gives you some nice fade curve options. All your edits are non-destructive so you can go back later if you decide you want something different.

It saves anything you record in a iTunes style playlist. The playlist is a new in this version of WireTap and its a great idea. Throughout your day any audio you come across that you want just go and grab it. Later when your song writing open WireTap Studio and check your playlist for some audio solutions!

WireTap Studio has a nice way to export your audio clips. On the bottom of the playlist window are icons for your hard drive, iDisk, eMail, etc… You simply drag your audio onto them to send said clip to your destination. The cool thing is you can add your own shortcut like your DAW for example. Wiretap also exports in to many audio formats. In the past I would grab audio from online sources but they would be in obscure formats like FLAC, Vorbis, or WMA. Using WireTap Studio avoids dealing with converting issues.

Finally, here is a real world example. It’s lunch time and I grab my sandwich. I click over to Missingtoof.com to see what insane NuRave, Electrohouse from LA I can discover. I come across a song that sucks but there is a wicked short tom fill that blows me away. Quickly I click WireTap Studio and record the fill. Later that day I’m in Ableton Live figuring out a cool way to bring back a verse. Ah yes! I remember that fill from lunch. Pull it into Abeton 7, right click the file and select slice drum,. Live cuts it up and puts it in a Drum Rack. After re-arranging the pattern and adding some effects I’m happy.

Here’s a technique I use on almost every song I record. This step gives me a helping hand in making transitions in the arrangement work. It also can add drama at the end of an important verse. I have a few names for this tactic including the Kickverb, Kickboom and the awesome Thunderverb!

Take the kick drum you are using throughout the track and isolate one hit. Make a new audio track and place the single kick drum on it. Don’t forget to render your kick first if you had some effects on it like compression or EQ. Once on its own channel insert a reverb. I usually go for Alitverb convolution reverb or the Korg MDE-X multi-effect which comes with the Korg Legacy collection. Both those reverbs have colors to them. Next, I render a single kick going through a wash of reverb. Do several bounces with different kinds of reverbs. You end up with Kickverb1, Kickverb2 and so forth. If your song calls for it insert a distortion plug-in after the reverb. This gives you a dirty decaying sound. My favorite distortion plug-ins are Izotope’s Trash and Ohm Force’s Ohmicide. Another thing to try is pitching your rendered kickverb down.

I usually create my Kickverbs after the general arrangement is finished. Then, I place them strategically throughout the timeline. Two places they fit include at the beggining of the chorus and in the verse after you say something shocking or important. You can also start and finish the song with them.

Some other things that maybe obvious that you can do is reverse the Kickverb. Place that “Reverse Kickverb” before the chorus comes in to build up tension. Of course you don’t have to stick to the Kickverb at all because real thunder and explosion samples will also work.

photo credit: caddymob

One of the best things about Ableton Live is it’s mixer’s flexibility. You can route any channel into another allowing for groups, vocoding, Rewire-ing instruments and side-chaining. One often overlooked feature of the mixer is Resampling.

So what is Resampling exactly? This fast and awesome feature lets you record anything coming out of the Master into a new clip. Let’s take a look how this works. First, open an Ableton Live project you have been working on. In Session View hit Command (Apple)-T to create a new audio track. Make sure the In/Out Section is showing. Above the Fader and Send amount knobs and under the Clips you will see “Audio From”. Click to view the drop down menu underneath “Audio From” and choose “Resampling”. Now when you hit play notice underneath where it says Resampling you will see a tiny meter moving with the music. This track will now record anything coming out of the Master.

Why is this good and how would you use it? One example would be to create a crazy fill. Because you Resampled into audio you can now really mangle it. Adding a multi effect plug-in like PSP Audioware’s Nitro or Audiodamage’s Dr. Device will do the trick! Let’s say you have a nice vocal and two back up vocal tracks. They all have different effects on them and also are pulling reverbs and delays from Send Returns. Your 100% satisfied with the vocal sound and want to free up space? You want to have those vocals on together in one audio file so you can create some stutter edits? Resampling is your friend.

How do you use Resampling?

When Apple first released Tiger one feature I didn’t really like was Dashboard. It looked pretty but on my 12″ 867 G4 every time I hit F-12 the computer would slow down to a crawl. Even when the widgets would appear they would all take a good 20 seconds to fill up with whatever info they were grabbing from the internet.

As my computers and internet got faster I started using Dashboard for games like the great Asteroid clone from Christopher Marks. Lately I’ve been adding in useful little helper widgets on the recording studio machine. Here’s 10 Macintosh Dashboard widgets for pro-audio. Please note I took the descriptions of each widget from either Apple.com or the developer.

10. GuitarChords. Just pick a note and type of chord. Then watch as the widget displays how to fret that chord on the guitar. Scroll up the neck and see alternate ways of playing that same chord. Next, press the play button and hear what each of these chords sounds like. When you get tired of that, flip the widget around and change the tuning on your guitar. Ever wondered how to play a E-flat augmented chord in Open G tuning? Now you can find out. Download

9. Scales. Get lazy, and look up your major/minor scales or go crazy and write all your songs in Super Locrian and Six Tone Symmetrical. For a reminder, the widget says “Learn Your Scales”, in case you don’t have a music teacher to tell you that everyday. Also for your displeasure, this widget has the look and feel of Macintosh System 7. Download

8. Chord Reference. You choose a note and chord type. This ergonomic widget will display simply the notes composing that chord on your guitar. Your ear is the limit. This is a port of the original classic shareware for Mac OS in 1994. It hopefully offers an ergonomic interface for chords, one you’ll find useful and easy-to-use. Download

7. ittyBittyMIDI. A Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X that allows you to quickly monitor MIDI signals on your computer. You can use it to either monitor all MIDI devices or Read “10 Macintosh Dashboard Widgets for pro-audio.”

I have been working on a new song called “Born this Way”. It’s a dark tale about a killer who is apologizing for his actions. In the first part of each verse the subject states his sadness. The second part of each verse he details the evil he is compelled to do.

I like the first part of each verse clear, up front and with just a small amount of delay effect. However, when the subject states his evil doings I am looking to add more effects and possibly a second or third voice. To add the harmonies I would normal sing a backing track into the arrangement or possibly use Melodyne. I have been reading reviews of a new plug-in by German software making Zplane called “Vielklang” which creates harmonies in real time on the fly. Most of the reviews have been positive so today I downloaded and tried the demo.

vielklang “thinks musically” and prepares the ground. vielklang by zplane is packed with musical intelligence and music theory: it automatically detects the best fitting harmonies for each individual input melody, and automatically synthesizes up to four voices with the voices not merely running in parallel but with their voicings automatically selected to sound most natural (voice leading). vielklang gives you a natural-sounding result immediately and allows you to concentrate on tweaking the results rather than edit them from scratch as with traditional harmonizers. -http://vielklang.zplane.de/

In Ableton Live you load Vielklang into a MIDI track and to hear it you add an Audio Track and route the MIDI track into it. Open Vielklang and either drag or load an audio file into the plug-in. At first I could not get any sound from Vielklang but after reading the manual I was able to deduce I needed to start playing the song from zero. This worked and then I read the other ways you get Vielklang to play anywhere in the arrangement. It sounds a little fuddy duddy which it is but the end results are good enough it doesn’t matter.

I’m not sure I’m going to use Vielklang’s harmonies in this song but I am going to buy this plug-in. After hearing what it’s capable of I was inspired. Take a listen to a few audio samples:

Vielklang on the second part of the first verse:

Again Vielklang on the second part of the first verse but with a different key:

The song in progress:

photo credit: Dhamma

Writer’s block, distractions, lack of energy, inspiration and goals can all make your day at the studio a drag. Here are 10 ways to stay on target.

10. Drink coffee. The first cup of Joe I ever drank was when I was 35 years old! Can you believe that? I always assumed it wasn’t healthy so why start up with it? I flew to Malta from New York to perform a show and I was completely wiped out. The promoters of the event were waiting for in the lobby of the hotel. They were all sitting around drinking coffee. I really wanted to feel better so I ordered my first cup of coffee ever. First, to my surprise it tasted great. Next thing I knew I was awake and almost euphoric. I saw the light and my life has been forever improved. In the studio I find the best time to grab a hot one is right when your about start arranging. The five minutes to brew one up gives your ears a break and you get zapped with a mind boost right when you need it. Don’t break from music making while you drink it. Sip and move those waveforms around the screen. It works!

9. Pet your pet. We’ve all seen the famous website Catsynth.com right? There’s a reason all those felines are hanging in the studio. Somewhere between ten and fifteen tummy rubs your ears reset and are ready for vocal take two. Don’t worry if your the type of singer that needs Auto-Tune because Felix loves you anyway!

8. Listen to something very different. Four hours into any mixing section and your brain starts to believe it’s being exposed to a torture test of some sort. Stop and click iTunes open and then play the cheesiest, happiest song you can find. Besides realizing how much better any song you choose is better than the one your working on your brain will reward you with some new ideas.

7. Call your mother. Typically, phoning home lasts ten to fifteen minutes. Thats a perfect break time. Mommy’s voice will Read “10 ways to get back on track in the recording studio.”

Die Krupps are a pioneering synthesizer/EBM band from Germany. In 1982 they released what I think is a great album “Volle Kraft Voraus!“. The title translates somewhat into “Advance at full Power!”. About two months ago founding memeber Jürgen Engler sent me an email. He told me they were going to release “Volle Kraft Voraus!” with all new remixes and asked me if I would be interested in doing one. There was one song on the album that I really wanted to remix titled “Todd & Tuefel” and after a few emails back and forth we agreed that would be my choice.

The song has a nice electro style beat with a unique pattern, great verse chorus vocals and a superb bassline driving everything. I wanted to use the same notes as in the original bassline but with new synth sounds. After about an hour of trying to figure out the notes I realized this was going to be tricky. The original bassline was a Yamaha CS15 analog synth through a real analog sequencer. According to Jürgen:

The 16 step sequencer was the most outrageous thing, though… it had the seize of a cupboard! The guy who ran the studio had built it himself… it had a patchboard, kind of like a telephone switchboard… we couldn´t get sequencers in Germany at the time, so that was the only way to record our music.

This explained to me why the bassline sequence was so special. There were some subtle micro-tunings happening that I was unable to copy by ear using standard keyboard keys. So what do to? I realized I needed to take the solo bassline loop and run it through pitch to midi software. Luckily I own Celemony’s amazing Melodyne software and it has Read “Use Melodyne to extract the notes of synth lines.”