I find it quite distressing that many software companies have special offers on at this time of year – where do they think I’m going to get the money from? – on products that I really, really want. One company is offering a buy one-get-one-free on sampled instruments, and I’d rather like both the Gamelan and the E-bow sample sets. Except they’re £50 each. I don’t have £50 right at the moment. Don’t they know there’s a Christmas on?

I much prefer the other approach: Give things away. There’s some pretty good, or at least interesting, software being given away this year. Ohm Force have given away a weird synth instrument that I don’t seem to be able to control properly, if indeed you are meant to be able to. I nearly bought this several times of the past couple of years, so I am quite pleased. East/West are giving away a cut-down version of their orchestra plug-in, which normally costs hundreds of pounds. Wasn’t expecting that, am almost giddy with excitement waiting for that to download*. Cakewalk have made some of their more elderly VST effects freeware. Native Instruments have given us more presets for the free Kore player, and I will overlook that one of the patches crashes Ableton Live every time I try to load it; it’s the thought that counts.

That’s what we want at this time of year – free things.

*This may not actually be true

]

“I think um, Germany, like, those guys over there, they’re taking over right now” -DJ Q-Bert

Above quote from the Grandmaster is more than half a decade old, from the retro times when me & my crew used to be involved in dj battles to murk fools. Homeslice RAFIK used to be at the forefront of all the murkage and he even took it a level further after most of us retired from the competition circuit. I’m happy to tell y’all that I enjoy the noble privilege to be the first one to post his latest mix:

DJ Rafik – Hyper Hyper Jungle Jungle

Tracklist:

01. Intro
02. Drop the Lime – Set me free (Zombie Disco Squad Rmx) (edit)
03. Renaissance Man – The Rythm (edit)
04. Solo – Afreaka (edit)
05. Solo – Joga Bola (Riva Starr Rmx) (edit)
06. Lil Silva – Different
07. Tony Senghore – If you came here (edit) /w Hijack – Dirty Soul /w Elefant – Lolita
08. Major Lazer – Hold The Line (Djedjotronic Rmx) (edit)
09. Joakim – Watermelon Bubblicious (edit) /w Retro Grade – Moda /w Ccenturiess – YIMH Rmx)
10. Daniel Haaksman feat. MC Miltinho – Kid Conga (Rob3 Rmx) (edit)
11. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Rmx) (short edit) /w Jamtech Foundation – Hot Fucker
12. MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker (Laidback Luke Rmx) (drums edit)
13. Bag Raiders – Turbo Love (Jan Driver Rmx) /w DJ Funk acapella
14. Human League – Don’t you want me (short ‘just coz it fits in’ edit)
15. Laidback Luke & Diplo – Hey (Sidney Samson Rmx) (edit)
16. Drop the Lime – Devil’s Eyes (Diplo’s B-Live Mix) (edit)
17. Rafik – Rebuke Dem
18. Afrojack – Drop Down (Sidney Samson Rmx)
19. Afrojack – Drop Down (original)
20. Malente & Dex – Lions (Douster Rmx) (edit)
21. Tom Stephan – Turn That Shit Up (Diplo Rmx) (edit)
22. Tiga – What You Need (Zombie Nation Rmx) (edit)
23. Duran Duran – Wild Boys (Rafik’s Live Button Pushing Edit) /w David Guetta Toy-Drums
24. Felix Da Housecat – Kickdrum (edit)
25. Renaissance Man – Aloha
26. 808 State – Cubik (loop)
27. Serge Santiago – Atto D’Amore (Drums)
28. Boys Noize – Kontact Me (edit)
29. Refused – New Noise (Rafik Rmx short edit) /w Big Boi – Kryptonite
30. Bonus Soundcheck: MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Rmx) + Diana Tajtelbaum – Loneliness acapella (Rafik’s Push Buttons live Mash)

Also peep this flick of the Rafmeister’s most recent routine, live-remixing Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beats” and Major Lazer’s “Pon Di Floor” on the latest Native Instruments gear.

I mentioned free Kore Player by Native Instruments previously in my personal log. The registration process is a bit annoying – but nothing that doesn’t work and it really is worth it. Since then NI came with free Kontakt Player (now upgraded to version 4), Factory Selection for Kontakt – but those instruments work in Kore Player too – and recently they delivered just another free Compilation vol. 2 (or Holiday Selection, whatever you like ). This all means that NI offers two lightweighted versions of their products (Kore Player/Kontakt Player) and four sound libraries (counting the one delivered with Kore Player too).

With previous Kontakt Player 3 I had a few issues. There were a few sounds coming with it – but this part of the library worked in demo mode and was disabled after a little while. Not too many sounds, but their “sudden malfunction” rather confused poor nonpaying user. Now it seems that Kore Player 4 shows only Factory Selection and I can’t see any additional demo sounds. While Kore Player doesn’t need to be activated, it was displayed in red in NI’s Service Center (don’t forget to install this with either Kore or Kontakt Player!). Version 4 seems to be OK – nice and green. Factory Selection must be activated and the code comes in the mail. Don’t mix both mails with download links as I did – one of them really has activation key. I even asked their support about the missing code, only to find out later that they don’t support nonpaying users – but they answered me anyway and the information was helpful. Very nice.

You can find a lot of sounds, effects and (most importantly) instruments there – TONS of various drums, basses, abstract sounds, woods… you just have to go through it by yourself! Check the sounds in Kore Player, try to mess with Sound Variations (those boxes A-H), I’m pretty sure there will be something you’ll like. Of course, the whole SW package eats a lot of megabytes (more than a giga, for sure – maybe two, I don’t care actually), but I recommend you: Give it a shot!

For some strange reason I can’t find Compilation vol. 1 on NI page via search feature – also their page is now often down (probably thanks to users hungry for all of this ). But you can always google download of the pack easily. One thing is sure. If I start making some money from music (which I don’t expect though) I’d seriously consider NI software. It is nice and easy to use, there are tons of sounds and VST integration works perfectly – at least in REAPER. Happy holidays!

Native Instruments provides HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 (Compilation Vol. 2 Library once installed), a selection of 40 free patchs for Kore Player (661 Mb of samples). The installer requires an Intel mac, however we just have to modify the script in distribution.dist file (open the package) in order for it to install on PPC mac.

We can listen to audio demos here and watch a great video there (28 minutes length, that demoes all of the 40 patchs, with great stereo sound quality and large image size).

And isn’t that the spirit of the holidays? Wait… Well, anyway, free stuff is cool!

We all know free is a pretty good price, and here’s what the press release has to say, including where to get the presents:

Native Instruments Releases Free HOLIDAY
SELECTION 2009 Instrument

Native Instruments today released HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009, a freely downloadable instrument that
combines selected sounds from the versatile range of KORE- and KONTAKT-Powered instruments. Covering a wide sonic spectrum from sampled acoustic instruments to futuristic soundscapes and radical polyeffects,
HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 provides diverse and musically useful sound material for all kinds of genres, for use with KORE 2 and with the free KORE PLAYER.

HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 includes 45 KoreSounds with eight morphable Sound Variations each, resulting in 360 individual sounds. Concise parameter assignments allow for immediate, intuitive sound tweaking in KORE 2 and KORE PLAYER. Full musical metadata for all presets also lets HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 integrate seamlessly with
any individual collection of KORE-Powered instruments. HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 is available as a free download on the NI website at www.native-instruments.com/holidayselection2009.info.

The young 2007 DMC Champion DJ Rafik is atrue world-class master on the decks, he seems to slip seemlessly between styles and his sets showcase new technology in always mesmorising performances. For this routine, a vocal sample is loaded into the left deck while MGMT’s “Kids” (Soulwax Remix) is loaded in the right deck. Cue points allow one-shot drumming action with the buttons of the MASCHINE controller. Rafik then drops in a custom guitar lick using the Beatmasher and Gater effects in Traktor, controlled via the X1 hardware. The Traktor software along with a whole heap of Native Instrument gear is fully utlised to create an amazing performance.

Check out the video and realise the just how high the bar has been set for making the most of these superb pieces of tech:

You can also see another two vids of Rafik here.

Berlin, Germany and London, UK /Music Industry Newswire/ — Native Instruments today announced a close partnership with Abbey Road, the iconic British recording studios that have shaped the sound of popular music for over 75 years. Combining Native Instruments’ industry-leading expertise in music software design with Abbey Road’s unique engineering facilities, the two companies will create advanced software instruments of exceptional sonic quality and musical value, with the first product scheduled for release in early 2010. [read]

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/producer/powered-by-kontakt/scarbee-jay-bass/?page=1240&utm_source=jay-bass&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=jay-bass-newsletter

O dia das superliquidações – NI liquida synths

Aproveite e corra. Hj é Black Friday, um dia depois do dia de Ação de Graças, o dia das superliquidações nos Estados Unidos.

E a Native Instruments, apesar de ficar na Alemanha, resolveu fazer um ofertão q dura de hoje até segunda dia 30. Só na loja online: Reaktor 5, Absynth 5, Massive e FM8 por apenas 99 dólares cada.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/synthsgiving/

vamos la galera corre logo

Native Instruments today launched “Synthsgiving”, a time-limited special offer that gives musicians and producers access to some of the most powerful software instruments on the market at a drastically reduced price.

Until November 30th, ABSYNTH 5, FM8, MASSIVE and REAKTOR 5 will be available for download purchase in the NI Online Shop for $99 / €99, a discount of up to 75% on the regular pricing.

Check it out here >>

Native Instruments provides special prices (50 to 75% save) from 27 to 30 November, on the following products (available each for 99$) : Reaktor 5, Absynth 5, Massive, FM8. These are download versions only.

First, Antress has updated his Modern pack to 4.75, and with the update come some real sonic improvements in addition to a new plugin or two. He’s really getting better at what he does, I think he’s getting up there with Bootsie in terms of the quality of his releases. Maybe a little more attention to bug squashing could be in order, but they work for most people without problems and the sound quality and versatility of his pack is really nice. A dev to keep watching, for sure.

KVR had their 2009 Developer Challenge, and while all of the entries are worth checking out, there are two stand-outs that I felt I should mention here. First, from the amazing Bootsie, an analog tape simulator that rocks: FerricTDS. It can be used subtly or overtly, and it’s really just (as usual) a pretty astounding freebie, easily on par with commercial tape sims. The second stand-out in the DC ‘09 lineup is HybridReverb, combining IR and algorithmic into one extremely attractive package. It’s not only free, it’s also open source, so free-as-in-freedom software fans take note. As they say it’s not an over-the-top or flashy reverb plugin, but rather an excellent way to exert subtle control over the ambiance of your tracks (provided, of course, you have quality IRs to start with; they have a sizable library of good ones on their main site, but they are not free for commercial usage, unlike the software itself).

A developer of whom I was not aware until today, TerryW, released a plugin on KVR called ReLife, which through some sort of amazing voodoo magic can take over-compressed, squashed material and breathe dynamic transients and separation back into it. As the developer says, don’t expect miracles if there is a lot of distortion from digital clipping, but take it from me, on a lot of material it sounds awfully miraculous. I wish I could post some examples of squashed commercial releases that I’ve processed with it, but as it’s a free plugin perhaps you can do the same yourself. There are a lot of applications for such a plugin in the studio – processing mastered tracks to reinvigorate them with some of the subtleties that loud mastering can eliminate is just one thing you can get from this this simple-to-use plugin. The GUI is just a bypass button and a post-gain control, with an input and output level meter, but the magic under the hood is very impressive.

BlueCatAudio has released a new and improved freeware pack of plugins with very broad cross-platform support, including (beta) RTAS versions, definitely worth checking out! I haven’t got deep in with these at all yet but my initial impressions are positive, this seems like a useful package.

I’ve been helping a gentleman named Efflam dial in some plugins he’s released lately, including the excellent freeware Sansamp G2 emulation, NoAmp, as well as the extremely affordable and quite versatile Fuzz Face simulation, Kung Fuzz. I think he has a good philosophy, keep products simple and make them function as well as possible at achieving their exact goals. His other products include an excellent non-sampled, physical modeling technology Wurlitzer virtual instrument named Blue Reeds which is again quite affordable, as well as a free Pianet-like virtual instrument called Glue Reeds. He’s still busy at work with an upcoming Fender Blender emulation and I’m helping him test something very cool right now which might be of a great deal of interest to musicians, I’ll update when I can.

Gain-heads rejoice, joining LePou’s excellent ENGL preamp sim comes a new, different take on the same idea: TSE X30 testimonials from ENGL lovers over at the Andy Sneap forums suggest that between the two of these plugins, there are a lot of people who won’t be needing their physical preamps any longer at least when it comes to recording. As usual with preamp sims you’ll need to use external cabinet simulation to get a good recorded sound, there are plenty of options available these days.

And work continues on AcmeBarGig’s G-Spot suite, he’s been keeping me updated on its progress and I’ve had several versions which show significant progress toward getting it ready for public usage. I’ll try to get some clips up of the most recent version soon. He’s issued an interesting and perhaps provocative statement over at the GuitarAmpModeling forums inviting commercial software developers to join him in releasing a freeware amp head. Judging from the linked thread, it seems he’s talked with a number of developers who all have great ideas, and he’s trying to get a big community effort going so that some of those great ideas can be realized for the benefit of everyone. I personally wonder how many commercial software makers are going to be willing to get involved, but from what I can tell from that thread it looks like he’s getting some bites, so who knows? Marc Gallo, the man behind StudioDevil, has pledged his support (which isn’t all that surprising, given that he’s had BritishValveCustom out for some time as a freeware product – maybe a new freebie from him will let him flex his muscles some more, he’s a heck of a programmer) and I’m not sure but it looks like Peavey might be interested as well. We’ll see how that goes, I’ll be keeping an eye on things and try to keep you guys updated.

Oh, I almost forgot – Native Instruments has made the current beta version of Guitar Rig 4 publicly available, with quite a number of things in it that seem to me to indicate that really this was their vision for Guitar Rig 4 when it shipped but some things took a little longer to finalize. No problem, happens in the software world all the time, that’s what patches are for – and letting the public get in on the beta means that everyone who just wants to have the most current version with the cool added features (a new amp, master effects section, and others) can get it, while folks mainly concerned with stability and who have more patience can hold off ’til it’s finalized. Nice thinking, Native.

That’s all for now, to all my American readers happy Thanksgiving – I will probably be somewhat out of pocket next week as my wife and I will be going to visit family to celebrate the holiday, but I’ll still be watching things and I’ll try to have an update here or there. I’m rushing now to finalize a couple of reviews for Frugal before we head out tomorrow, very well could be a midnight email from yours truly

P.S. – I’ll work on getting these added to the Freeware page ASAP, whether or not I’ve managed to get the format restructuring done. Thanks for your support, constant readers, you don’t know how nice it is to see you all coming around. This blog is a labor of love and it’s all for you guys.

Did you listen to the sound of NI recently? and were you able to be influenced from them?
I feel that they have already lost it to the production group like the developer of sampling CD. HAHA
No future,No Dreaming and No Reality…Their sounds lose the direction by all elements…

The piano was released from NI the other day. The sound is from my hardware to a bad quality in the sound however in the 90’s.

Field Sound was released from NI the other day. However, I was a quality in the sound that was worse than the library that was recorded with My iPhone and edited.

I think that to the company that sells sampling CD prosper for NI.

Native Instruments announced Sonic Fiction, a Kore Player sound library that features 100 instruments (1 Gb) : Pads & Strings, Soundscapes, Sound Effects, Synths, Mallets, Bells & Keys, Percussion. Audio demos are available, as well as a video. It is priced 79$.

1. 이로서 나도 Native Instruments의 정품 사용자. 어머나.

Absynth는 3을 몇 번 돌려본 것이 전부였는데 기능이 막강하다는 건 알겠지만 내 취향에서 미묘하게 벗어나는 구석이 있었다. 하지만 다시 생각해 보니 이만한 VSTi가 흔치 않지. 또 워낙 싸게 샀으니 이펙터로만 사용한다 해도 본전은 뽑는다는 느낌이다. FM8은 이 기회에 제대로 좀 파보고 싶은 의욕이 있고. 별로 기대 안 했던 Massive가 정말 물건이다. Albino에 빠진 이후 별로 신제품들에 관심이 없던 때에 출시된 거라 들여다 보지도 않았었는데, VSTi를 만지면서 이렇게 감격해 보기는 정말 Albino 2 이후로 처음인 것 같아. 모듈레이션의 가능성이 너무나 방대한데, 유튜브에 올라온 소개 영상을 1달 전에 대충 본 것만으로도 벌써 drastic하게 소리를 바꿔볼 수 있었다. 프리셋을 간단하게 조작해서 내 취향으로 바꾸는 것만 해도 오히려 Absynth보다 훨씬 길이 가깝고.

2. Native Instruments Service Center라는 툴이 따로 깔려서, 제품 등록과 업데이트를 모두 처리하게 돼 있다. 제품 등록은 과거의 챌린지 방식조차 아니어서, 패키지를 처음 인스톨할 때 시리얼 넘버를 입력하고 서비스 센터를 실행하는 것만으로 끝났다. 편하네. 근데 왜인지 업데이트는 안 된다. 다운로드 바가 좀처럼 진행이 되질 않는다. 서비스 센터 자체도 업데이트가 있다고 받으라는데, 100%까지 올라간 다음에 넘어가질 않는다. 뭐지… 하고 건드려 보다 보니 서비스 센터의 정체는 플래쉬 무비 실행파일(충격과 공포). 그건 상관 없지만 왜 업데이트 안 되냐고… 업데이트 내용 중에 윈도 7 64bit 지원이 포함돼 있던데. 음.

3. 게으른 업데이트와 고객 응대로 오만 정 다 떨어졌던 Korg에서 메일이 왔다. Legacy Collection 사용자 여러분, 윈도 비스타와 7 지원 업데이트를 다운 받으세요~, 라고. 비스타 나온 게 언제적인데 여태 고객 문의도 무시로 일관하더니, 그 업데이트를 지금?! 어쨌든 고마운 일이지, 뭐. 그런데 시리얼 넘버 어디 있는지 좀 찾아보고…;

4. Absynth의 PDF 매뉴얼에서 오류 발견. 난 이런 건 진짜 뭐 되게 잘 아는 사람들만 발견하는 건 줄 알았어…;

이거 Native Instruments에 보내면 나 뭐 기념품 안 주려나? ㅇㅅㅇ Native Instruments 포스트잇이라든지, Native Instruments 냉장고 자석이라든지…

5. 디지털 오디오 관련 시시한 떡밥이 있던데, 정말 시시하다. wav 파일을 복사하면 할 수록 음질이 열화된다는 것인데… 차라리 원자력/화력/수력 발전에 따라 음질에 차이가 난다는 미신을 믿지 이건 무슨. 무서운 것은 저 두 가지 주장을 정말 진지하게 하는 사람들이 있다는 것이다. 이래서 내가 오덕(오디오 덕후)들은 상종을 못해요. 디지털 음원이 음질이 “열화”된 결과물이 어떤 소리가 나는지는 알고서 하는 말들일까.

최대한 최대한 양보해서, 파일을 복사하다가 오류가 생길 수 있다고 치자. CD에서 1초를 재생하는 데에는 44.1 khz x 16 bit = 7,056,000 비트가 필요하다. 인간의 귀가, 아주 대충, 20 ms 정도의 차이를 식별한다고 보아도, 7,056,000 x 0.02 = 141,120 비트의 차이가 나야 한다는 거다. 그런데 파일을 복사하면서 1 비트, 1 비트의 오류가 누적돼 141,120 비트 이상의 “음질의 열화”가 이뤄지고, 그걸 인간의 귀가 캐치한다고? 이건 가청대역이 무지막지하게 넓어서 박쥐가 초음파를 듣네 하는 것과도 상관이 없다. 모르긴 몰라도 그런 오류를 듣는 건 박쥐도 사냥개도 돌고래도 못할 걸.

반면 전력에 따라 소리가 다르다는 주장은 차라리 근거 있을 가능성이 조금이나마 있다. 지역에 따라 전압 안정성이 다를 수 있고, 전압 안정성은 음향 기기에 영향을 줄 수 있으니까. 또, 지역에 공급되는 전력원이 다를 수 있겠다. 물론 이 전압 안정성과 전력원 사이에 논리적 연관은, 전기에 관해선 잘 모르지만 상식적인 선에서는, 없다. 사람은 밥을 먹는 존재다, 사람은 죽는 존재다, 따라서 사람은 밥을 먹으면 죽는다, 하는 식인 거다. 그 주장을 한 사람은 강원도에서 음악 들을 때와 서울에서 들을 때가 달랐다고 한 것 같은데, 아마도 기분 탓. 잘 봐줘야 강원도 집과 서울 집의 음향환경 차이겠지. 그래도 이건 미신이라기 보단 오해라고 봐줄 수도 있겠구나.

6. 음악 하는 사람들 중에도 물론 오디오필들이 있어서, 케이블 하나도 까다롭게 고르고 그러긴 하는데… 글쎄 난 잘 모르겠다. 물론 케이블은 DAC와 ADC, 음원과 입력부를 잇는 것이니 디지털보다야 물질적인 특성을 타겠지만, 내가 만든 음악 듣는 사람들이 “퍼프의 음악을 듣는다면 당연히 전압안정기, 매킨토시 앰프, 까나레 케이블은 기본 아닌가요? 세상에, 어쿠스틱 튜닝도 안 한 방에서 퍼프의 음악을 듣는다고요?” 하는 것도 아니고… 당장 케이블 하나보다 훨씬 큰 차이를 가져올 수 있는 세팅들 중에도 현실적으로 갖출 수 없는 게 얼마나 많은데, 음악한답시고 정작 음악은 안 하고 세팅만 평생 하고 있게 생겼냐고. 서류에 서명 하나 할 때마다 어머니가 불 꺼주시고 떡 썰어주시길 기다릴래? 게다가 세팅만 좋다고 좋은 음악이 나오나? (여기서 “장비도 좋아야지”라고 대답한다면 당신도 답이 없습니다. 크.)

7. 최대한 정품만 쓰자는 원칙으로, 이번에 윈도 깐 이후로는 Waves 플럭인을 안 깔고 있다. 알 사람은 알 거야, Waves를 안 쓴다는 게 어떤 의미인지. 전 세계적으로 업계 표준이 프로툴스와 Waves라면, 프로툴스는 일단 비싼 하드웨어를 구매하지 않으면 물리적으로 불가능하고, 크랙으로 손쉽게 깔 수 있는 Waves는 누구나 다 쓰고 유혹 또한 강하고… 뭐 그런 거 아닐까 싶다만서도. 리버브 하나만큼은 싸구려 쓰면 영 아닌 것 같아서 조금씩 써왔는데, 큐베이스 번들 리버브를 비롯한 정당하게 갖고 있는 것들을 조합해서 써보려고 한다. 아직까진 별 문제 없다. 다이내믹 계열은 원래 다른 걸 더 잘 써왔고. Waves 크랙 지웠다고 칭찬 좀 받고 싶은데 어디 가서 얘기하기도 뭐하고.;

Another video made by mangling pieces of video at frame-level. I’ll post a little more info on it in a couple of days.

Native Instruments now provides the 4 pianos from Akoustik Piano separately (79$ each, and about 3 Gb each). The whole can be purchased for 189$.

We can also download Kontakt Player 4 (the installer now requires an Intel mac).

The first foray into controllerism from Native Instruments is a Hot Cue/Effects manipulator which is designed for use with the Traktor family of DJ software. In my opinion I can’t see why a user wouldn’t map these functions to the keyboard in first place, thus saving themselves the £200 asking price of the unit, but clearly Native Intruments feel that people prefer knobs and buttons over keys and trackpad;). The controller is expected to ship early next year to Europe and the US.

Berlin, Germany /Music Industry Newswire/ — Native Instruments today introduced the BERLIN, NEW YORK and VIENNA CONCERT GRAND as well as UPRIGHT PIANO, four software instruments that offer detailed reproductions of some of the world’s most revered pianos. Previously available within the acclaimed AKOUSTIK PIANO, these instruments can now be purchased individually to specifically accommodate a certain sound or musical genre, or as a bundle that offers the full range of piano tones. [read]

or…
“Demos and Our Bright Reflections”
(following Beati Paoli’s songs from inception to adulthood)

||RABBLE ROUSE||

here’s the demo:

this is the first track from the first full length – “A Sense Of Urgency” (buy it here or on itunes). this album was initially started way back in december of ‘06, when we began slowly (very, very slowly) recording bits and pieces of songs that we had previously written or were currently working on. i don’t remember exactly when this song was introduced to the band, but i feel like it was within the first 1o or so songs we worked on.

the demo, like most of the early songs, was written and recorded by uciel on a digital 4-track. he then gave it to greg, who worked up some vocal arrangements. from there, it was laid out for ryan and myself to have our way with. as you can hear, the basic structure never changed, but many things were added, driving the song in a MUCH different direction than where it was originally headed.

the recording of this song started, like usual, with the drums. i can’t remember what mics we had at the time, so i won’t talk about mic placement or anything, however, i do remember that this is one of the tracks from a session where i refused to mic the toms. because of this, the drum mix obviously focused on overheads and room mics. the drums were played, multiple times, start to finish along to a predetermined click track. interestingly enough, after all the effort, there’s only one section of the song where we actually kept the real drums.

i’m assuming the next thing to be laid down would have the bass, as that’s how we did most of the album. we would get the bass and drums really tight and then layer everything on that foundation. guitars would have been next, and i don’t know the effects chains for any of these parts, as i didn’t play any of them (you’d have to ask ryan and cecil), but all said and done, we probably have 5 or 6 rhythm guitar tracks going on. greg then recorded the vocals on top of all this. we have two vocals going on the verse, paned to the left and right, with a handful of effects on each. again, most of this was done on the fly without a lot of planning, so i don’t have notes about what effects in what order. i will try and do better with my note taking in the future!

i know that the solo on the bridge was added later, as there was never originally a solo there. ryan came up with it one day while listening to an initial rough mix and we threw it in cuz it sounds rad. he also wrote and recorded a couple of cello parts for bridge. and speaking of the bridge… that’s the one place where we kept the original, live drum part. however, i ran it through the vocoder of a microkorg which i had programmed. i also manipulated it in real time to make it more interesting.

the rest of the drums were later programmed using multiple instances of  fxpansion’s BFD. the beat is almost identical to the live version, just not actually live, and some of the verse drums were run through effects. i can’t remember the chain, but obviously there’s some delay and filters. i think i tried another vocoder as well.

at this point, we could have been done… but NO! ryan stole a giant old box fan from his parents and we sampled it, processed it, and layered it at the beginning and end of the tune, along with some other machinery and noise. we also used  battery to put in some samples of marching and metal pipes during the chorus. you know… the usual.

and here’s the final product (found on “A Sense Of Urgency“):

scott

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Getting the sounds that you want when writing drum and bass tracks, is often a daunting thing to do. I have learnt a lot from watching tutorials, from different drum and bass producers, all over the web. Not to say that you should just copy them, but there is a lot of information to be passed down, and worth taking in, as it can be just the influence you need.

I have posted a couple of videos by Sub Focus on the newly inserted VodPod in the sidebar. Enjoy, and hope they are of some influence, n matter what genre you are creating.( I sometimes look at house and commercial dance tutorials, despite my distaste for these genres, as it can give you different  ideas for production techniques)