Ug AY (0), MO ess) =H ems AU AU cr Vd) 2 TV een COMPUTER cry an ie S i CS Tenn AM caste Ours Ae Ee MAKE MUSIC NOW Cateye The complete guide to CeMPRESSI@N All the advice, techniques and audio examples you need to take your tracks to the next level 1] Using noise, trackpad MIDI control, live eo eae EU Ta) STONEBRIDGE cd 1000+ exclusive samples t y LY No scg Ne ee ae rc | PSE fel(ele Vleciasye\ae)prelt Sea Brecon) PEE elect icy Piao) ed \No} Ss(ettortes, intact) to keep your signal pathnice and clea within your DAW, and ts ikely that everything in your setups processed completely aly until the sgnal reaches our speakgs (GY wortdmags however and there are various reasons why You ‘might want to reintroduce abit of tinte your pristine mses First background noiseand distortion are essential ngreients for emulating ‘A bit of crunch 7a period recordings. To this end, wellshow you how to mimicthe sont by-products of vinyl playback and multtrack tape recording Second, Abitof crunch and gt ust the thing for bringing power to all sors of instrumentation, from drums to gultars and even vocals. Soi you want to bring back some ot the desirable noisy ambience of yesteryear. You ow have the opposite problem to the engineers ofthe past How do youeffectively add noise toa ‘ean recording without turning into a cstorte. Cluttered mess? We're here to provide the answer, revealing over the next few pages how tose effects and samples to arty up Your mixes, giving them Increased power, punch and presence. Most ofthe techniques we're demonstrating here can be carried outin any DAW, and well point you inthe direction of some great free luis that wil help you add some rea ith to Your tracks Check out the HTML fle on them DvD forsome quick inks. COMPUTER MUSIC / 391 ial a ; Audience participation Thesound ofan enthusiastic audience nas aways had its place in record production. from Classical recordings. complete with thenoise of the concert hal patrons, to happy hardcore tracks made to soundasif ravers are chanting along. Nowadays it would be unusual to record vocal without a soundproof booth and acoustic Shielding to minimise reflections and nose, but Intheir 70s heyday. disco producers thought othing of throwing the whole band and vocalist, together in the stud to record everything in Justone take laughter, lapping andl ‘ith audi signals often remaining within the confines of the computer from the start ofthe production processto the very end ital too easy to keep your racks tree ofthe sounds of the ‘utsie word, However, adling the noise of an audience or other performance‘elated ambience ‘an give the musi added ite imparting an authentic real-world fel ‘Another reason to add crowd noise sas a sgnpost to Incicate to listeners ina dancefioor setting when they shouldbe clapping or cheering along. Particularly notable practitioners of this technique are German hard dance act Scooter, ho use tin quite iteally every track they ‘make, cropping chants, clapping and recordings, ‘ofthe crond singing along ito the mic Alte other end othe scale, subtle use of bar ambience with ight chatter and laughter can be hheardin many Hed Kandstyle house racks Barely noticeable the balance between the ‘music and the background amblence gives an Impression of good times and a relaxed crowed enjoying chilled beats. These tracks are perfect fer beginning oFthe-ight warmup sets Keep it real When you're thinking about adding this kind of roise, consider the ebb and low of what the Crowd might doing at any given pointin the Course of your track. This will help you maintain realistic sense of perspectiveand stop you filing every corner of your tune with cuter ERSTE asin crovcincise toa isco track For example, not many people willbe dancing ‘throughout a drum ree breakcown, but there might be plenty of lapping. stamping of feet (onthe beab and chatter Later, when the beat kicks back in the sound of taking we minimal ‘aspeople wonitbeabletohear each other over ‘the music. Talo your programming andthe volumelevels of your amblence accordingly. It'saso important to watch the EQ levels of the background chatter. Too muchlowend rumble will muddy the bassiie and emasculate ‘Your kck drum. Usea low-cut titer todo away ‘with everyting below around 300H2 youre ‘Worried about this. High frequencies above ‘around Sk can also be removed, as these wonttravelina noisy ba or club. ‘Uniess youre going for analkout assault on the senses keep the noise eve high enough to bbe heard but low enough not to beintrusive. necessary. use sidechain compression on the bassline or kick automatically ducking the volume during more bass‘neavy moments Wve gota funky asco track going fon.towhichwe want a some European ambience I's treesound.orgto therescue we sarehfor French bar ans ‘woo crowd sound tlayer over the to. Gudioon neem DVD Discotwav) ‘Te bar ambencels mona We copy tana plceiton twotracs, panned sigh ltt andright To gvethe fenbuenceastere eet wera the start Sno pints the sample diferent for tachtrac The woo sounds azo mono, Soweadd achorusat high itenstyto, Wwdenthe sound (Auco: lecozarav) Wenced some clapstowards the end ofthe rack encourage our steners todothesame We use sfree ‘multsampled Kontakt path calle Snaps [nd Gaps wuccnesamples com! ‘etal aed inrocicethemint the mic ‘wth inereasing veloc and ose ting (Guo Diecodwav)Chain reactions ‘These days we producers haveltpretty good Interms of noise, what wth the majority of our signal chain being vitualdigital However the analogue recording setups ofthe past would fall prey toa considerable amount of electrical hhum an feedback rom the numerous tubes, Capacitors and transformers found nthe typical Sluco. This was never more the case than wen recording instruments with oweampitude ‘output signals, which required preamps to raise the signal to an acceptable level for mixing. ifyoure looking to recreate the sonic effect of aparticular vintage recording technique, ts ‘very setulto think about the signal chain found Inananalogue studio. Let take a 70s vocal part asanexample Vintage vocals The vocal would most ely berecordedina wooden boot wa icropone so you might Choose boxy sounding revert stro wth anda vintage mcropione emulaton plugin ibetnaps via convolution processor. Inthe analogue studi thesigal woul then need be preamplited androutedt the mixing desk, which wouldinroduce some electrical note {nd compcesion asthe signal passed tough itebultinvale ampliters This eect could be emilated using a nots samp anda vintage Compressor plugin Asa iting ouch 3 late Teverb might be adie othe vocal -and once again suchetects canbe emulated ung ‘ntagestvie plugins ‘The signal path would degrade sight at every stage. andso by thetime twas recorded totape (mimicked with saturation plugin, of course), t would have picked up plenty of background noise. Most plugins feature wet! ry level controls that let you determine how severe the degradation youre emulatingis so Yyourcan achieve anything from a subtle classic ‘ibe to flat old-school over saturation, Gritty guitars Gitar signal chains are potential ever more ompicated han vocal ones. 28 Ne vibration of thestrngs ft capturedbyapleleup and ten fedtoa guitar amp beforebeing recorded with 2 microphone and routedinto the mixing deck. ‘The multe of erent combinations of Pickup amp cabinet andmicmakes endless Eombinavons of guitar sounds posible Most Davis these daysinchde highrquaty guar cnentated plugins ofp You emulate tis enabling the application of are of vet tie and amos Your DAW s beret of uch Guitar Rig.1K Multimedia AmptTube 3, Studio Devi Virtual Guitar Amp land other products oftheir ik are well worth investigating. Layering alooped electrical hum sample into ‘atrackis easly done Simply connect jack lead toan input on your audio interface, hold your finger over the tp and te ing and recor the resuiting sound. Watch your speakers though, ‘8 you might end up generating some pretty ‘massive transients s0 keep the volume turned down. Leads belng plugged and unplugged can ‘180 make for Interesting sounes, Most household applances (especially fridges) produce background noise. too, which can easy be sampled Inserting this kina of electrical feedback into your tracks can make for lots of interesting effects especialy If youre working in hiphop or any ofthat genre's tishoots. Dubstep basslines also benelt from plenty offowend hum, andelectrcalnoise ‘makes a great alternative toa simple sine wave Te ticks touse hum and noise sparingly as ‘genuinely ereative tool Experiment wit dierent amplcabmic combinations “inderestte sounds onloguesetopsusings seacatedpockope suchas K Mulimedo> AmpiTbe Hanging on the telephone Over the years, artists have used allsorts of crazy techniques tomould distinctive sounds using the various diferent types of loudspeaker nexistence Leslie cabinets with rotary speakers were used withthe earliest synths tomodulate basic waveforms, and the employment of diferent cabinets and speeds could produce everything from slight tremolo oful-on flanging effects There are plugins out there toemulate this sound, butbecarefulwhen using them, as they can cause stereophase cancellation -check yourmixin mono to Pinpoint any disappearing audlo ‘Audio output equipment like phones, walkie-talkie or megaphones anbevery effective when itcomesto creating an Intimate sound. For agreat example, takea listen tothe vocals from The Buggles'1879 Me your vast sound hey re “singingtvough telephone tcestes ‘lobal smash Video Killed The Radio St ‘which were recorded using heavy bandwidth limiting. This technique stil very popular ‘and you'llheartelephone-style vocals. peppered throughout the ecent history of opand urban music. Using fitering can lsohelpto disguise a dodgy performance. To get started with this effect seta band- ass EQor iter toallow only the 500Hz- 2kHzrange through andbiterush the signal toB.bitresolution I ou'reafanofthiskind ‘ofprocessing but don't want to haveto put any etfortin,Audioease Speakerphone 21s ‘vintage speaker modeling VSTIwitha ‘comprehensive selection of patches, inckiding imitations of portable audio ‘devices, PA systems and cabinets. Withjust ‘afew cick, ean emulate speaker effects {romany eracr environment. & tu ‘COMPUTER MUSIC Si646650006 Using impulse responses You're probably already familiar with the use of captured impulses within convolution revert plug-ins torecreate physical spaces, but Impulse responses (Rs) canalsobe ‘Used to faithfully simulate the sonic ‘ualites ofall manner of gear, Including speaker cabinets, hardware effects boxes and miles. These impulse responses ape the response of sald equipmentand typically have very short tall, leaving you ree to add asecondary reverb without any unwanted crosstalk occurring between the two waveforms. Just remember to adjust the pre-delay timing of your secondary reverb so that thts after the firstiRhas finished. ‘You can getstarted inthe wacky world of convolution effects with theem Studio's Reverberate CM (on theem DVD), which includes selection of ampsimulation impulse responses. Aquick search online reveals plenty of fee impulse responses, which can be loaded into ‘any convolution reverb plug-in. Head to wwwgrecorede/IRfor good collectionof guitaramp Impulses. The KVR forums alsohost alscussions of IRs and whereto ‘download them, withthe most comprehensive such thread found atwweutinyurl.com/3t7zswu. Excellentsite wwwielibrary.org provides hundreds of free impulse responses, including thosefor ‘microphones, preamps and other ‘musical gear. Thesiteoffersahandy cnline preview for eachone, enabling you to hear how they soundon drums and vocals. ‘Bear inmind that pretty much any WAV flecan be usedasan Impulse response ina convolution reverb plugin. So, don'tbe atrald ‘twexperiment with signals that ‘weren'tactually designed tobelRs Yyoumight ind thatthey'rejust the {cket for your track! net WorldMags MUSIC 800% Oe San Were going to recreate the chain of equipment commeniy found between ‘guitar anda lve venues PA system. Fest ‘ndalituepptcnoendto simulate seme whammy tor moverent(Audioonthe Er en Welnsert couple of guitar pedals Intotnechaincourtesyof Logics buttin Pedalboard plugin We tweak the Daramaters of Monster Fuzz andthe Ezhoto taste ensuring tat the echo s Seto Syne to tempo (Aude GIwaW) 660666606-=:016 usc \Wecallupon Reverbaate CM again toemulteamie placed infontotthe $entive condenser sk the would fever be used tomike up gitar amp buttsounce great s0 why nt eh? Gio isa0) eepthe levelsconsstent Then we “emulate the guar pickup using Logis ‘Overrive plugin Trsintrducesaitle tortion othe signal eo. GA2na¥) 66555005 Inanormal guitar signa chante amp would beet so weuse he [AMP S478 impulse rom our own Reverberate Cl pluginton thee DVD) boosting onthe guar the clip isstarting tomavout our mae output owe ‘reduce thelevelatouchto prevent ipping (Ado. Gav) Fiat we recreate the pic! space thatthe gular setups bang ployed ‘using analgoritimicreverd We alin 23100% Wet evel and 75%Dry witha Reverb Time of 28 anon nia Delay ‘1 t00me emulate cavernous space stmt guitarist fray fromthe tener Audio HEN)Now that you know how tointroduce abit of audio muckas part of an emulated recording path, there's another linkin the chain of crty Seeds to consider the recording mecium set When the CD format was inrosiced in the 80s was heralded a the tt one that wouldrt grade signal quay overtime or through repeated paying Toall intents and purposes. (CDisthecosest commercial thing to lossless audio reproduction that we have, The format has defined the modern istening experience’ resulting in an expectation of pristine cleanliness nda totaliackof noise. ‘AS weve already discussed, though. such noise can bea positive thing. adding warmth and characte to atrack So, lets investigate how totake our playback signalsackin ume, tothe days before the compact dsc came along and ‘made music playback so shiny. The vinyl frontier Every format prior to CD from wax-eyliner to lant track cassete ad ts own unique sonic fingerprint and particular audio artifacts. 50. you must make sure oinclude these noises when emulating a particular format, and the easiest way ste simply overlay a bed of background noite audio alongside your chosen track La'take vinyl asan example: Al youneed todos samplea section ofan old record the space between album tracks or example and layer it into your mix We've Included a few viny rolse WAVs on this month’ DVD ta get you started. Lay them out ona seriesof tacks and adjust the levels of dust, electrical hum, ‘mechanical noe and scratches to taste. ‘As wells the effects weve already mentioned, vyoucan create the impression of aparicularly Wellwornls by EQing out the very top and bottom ends and increasing the distortion. you don't want to record vil crackles yourse, we ecommend the excellent fre Vinyl plugin from wwwizotope.com. This combines all of these effects nto one module. including the ability to cain diferent eras ad turntable Speeds. Cubase features the Grungelzr plugin, Which works ina similar way. Finally, don forget that if youre trying to realsticaly emulate any form of reproduction prior to the 60s, your track ought to bein mono. Tape heads When comes to emulating the sound a taped recordings, the mechanical and electrical noises Involved ar ver similar to those of vinyl. but vith fe adetions. The wow and hatter of ape heads turning at nconsistent speeds canbe Gi woriuntags Emulating vinyl and tape ‘ns out there that will dothejob for you therange freebies on ofer at wwe. Interruptor.ch include a wow!ittor simulator for example ‘Other characteristics pecullar to tape recording include saturation bleed and print through. There are plenty of Saturation plugins out there, many of them ree, so download afew and see what you can do with them. Dont. go ‘crazy you want the effect tobe ite ‘Crosstalk between tracksis another consideration, With multitrack tape Fecording, each tracks printed side by sie on a huge reel of magnetic tape, resulting ina certain amount of bleed between thetracks i you want tobe really thorough about the authenticity ‘of your emulation, youll be happy to ther thats possible to mimic the cross talk between tae prints using tape saturation plugins and some eating in thearrange window of your DAW. The idea isto emulate the magnetic fields bleeding from one tape layer to ‘another whieh canbe heard very, ery Subtly before and after the original ‘Signal. Todo this, use a tape saturation delay plugin set very ow in the mixto trigger a single delay after two seconds for the postsignal echo. Render this track (minusthe original signaD and copy ittwo seconds ahead ofthe Corina to create the pre-echos. Be careful. though. as this technique Invariably muds the high-end frequencies and reduces the stereo spread of your track that all sounds ike abit of fat. youll be glad tohear thats much {easier (and alot more fur to pick up an ‘ld tape machine online, record your More dirty deeds We've uted alotof plug instoroughen up ur audio signals throughout thisfeature, butthere area few processing techniques that warranta more detalled look. ‘Biterusher plug-ins are your friends when IRcomestocreating dirty effects. llDAWS ‘come with them builtin, and there are plenty offreebles at wwwitinyur.com/3u3Ingr to play with. Most operate nasimilar way-the ower the bit depth and the higher the drive settings, themore degraded your sounds willbecome.Setthe wetlry mix at 50/50 to da sparkly top-end to pads and vocal. ‘Tomakelindividualinstruments sound ‘astressed’use your sampler to pitch ‘mutisampled solo patches up by three or four octaves, then play them ower down the keyboard. This willmake thelr short sounds ‘massively timestretched and thus more ‘granular while retaining the same length Try thistechnique with plano patchin your sampler, seting the global tuning to #36 and then playing three octaves down, WorldMags ts similar effect canbe achieved by ‘manually timestretching audioina DAW ‘or audio editor. A short one-shot sample stretched over alongrange(over 200%) ‘willstart to break up and sound more grainy. Ityour DAW offersarangeot timestreteh algorithms, use one to stretch the sample ‘andthen adfferentonetoreturnittolts ‘riginalength. A rhythmic o'beatsicing” algorithm will dea great jobofintroaucing ‘artefacts into the audio when lengthening the sample, and whenthe audiols timestretched backtolts orignal length, ‘some of this graininess willbe retained ‘Simply exporting and re-importing audio Into-and out of our DAW Ge, resampling ~ s0e p12) willalto adda ton of gitit your ‘export settings arelow enough. Loge, for ‘example, willow MP3 export at bitrates ‘aslow as 32kbps and WAVsat&-bit depth ‘atasample rate of 1,025kHz Settings ke these will deliver somereal dirt to your bounced samples. & COMPUTER MUSIC FS wii wiseTHE SOUND OF SILENCE Insparse tracks ~ especially ambient or ‘orchestral ones the background sour nearsilencein between instruments playing ‘anbelayered into the mix to inerease the ‘authenticity of the recording or add some ‘warmth, Orchestrator David Hearn - whose ‘reditsinclude The Chronicles OfNarnia~ Produces orchestral mock-ups for directors Inpost production, Inwhichhealways Includes the low-levelroom ambience of an ‘orchestra imply sitting in ther seats. Try this {tick yourself by takingaa portable digital recorder and capturing the sllence'insome eal spaces of our own with friends. You might eel bit stupid standing there saying nothing while the recorder does its thing. but {ryhard not tomakenoise forthe sake oft. ‘The recordings will never be truly silent, and this barely discernible ambience can really help tocreateamore realistic soundscape. CHECK YOURSEL! W's easy to get caried away adding distortion and noise plugins and lose sightof your ‘figinal sound, Continuously monitoring an A/Bmix and switching efectsin and out will help youtto keep perspective on the overall ‘ound and ensure thatthe essence of your track doesn'tbecome lost under the weight ‘ofall those grungy effects. REVERSE EQUALITY ‘Weallknow that can bring a dullsampleto Ifeby emphasising ts key frequencies, soit ‘stands oreason that you can reverse this Ideato bring out the dit. Boost the ‘noisy’ ‘areas of asample-elther the top-end hiss or low-end ramble totransformanice sound. into anasty one. CONTRAST IS KEY your whole track s particularly grimy, give thelistener abreak by witha few seconds of ‘clean’ audio, perhaps on abreakdownor bridge section. Removing all the nasty effects ‘and using acoustic instruments for ashort time provides. good contrast and will make the return toa dity section very effective. BOOST YOUR C ‘Try boosting or normalising very quiet ‘samples or even just quiet release talls-in JANCES eee Ba Cand [Add rebiesence" when isturents ore playing pce your vackina consistent amblentspace ‘aos or normative quiet sample orrver tate ‘moan the abtoron they contin ‘extreme ways toring out the low-level hum ‘and distortion already present in the sound. ‘This works particulary well with releasa/ reverb tails hat have been recorded in thelr typleal acoustic environment tke string oF ular ROMplers with naturalroom reverb. INANDOUT Playing samples out of your speakers and recording them backinto your DAW viaa ‘microphone makesforacheapandeasy way tocteatearough, gritty sound. Indeed, tile ‘even more effective with any blown speakers Yyou may haveing around. ust point the ‘microphone at your monitors and hitrecord, but keep an eye on your levelsto prevent feedback: of alternatively crank up the ‘Volume to ampiityit NO CLEANING ZONE Ityourrelifting samples rom tape and vinyl there's noneed to cleanthem up withnolse reduction. Leave the audio artifacts and ‘errorsintactand you'lachieve far more ‘groovy and authentic ibe. GET ON THE TUBE Don't beatrald to ripsamples trom YouTube ‘and other low-quality online sources as long you keep itlegal,of course) There are plenty of great videos of enthusiasts showing off their retro synths, so plunder thelr videos for short snippets of cassie sounds atlow bitrates. HIFIAND LO-FI ‘Combinelow- and high-quality amples a Instrumentsin one track toadd variation to ‘your tunes. Dirty lead synth ines over crisp basslines and beats work well, as do distorted beats combined with lish string pads. You ‘canalso experiment with using diferent ‘effects on one element of our mix. For ‘example using overdriven vocals nthe verses ‘andarelativey clean sound during the chorus ‘willbe far more interesting tolisten tothan Justone efectallthe way through the track. MAKE SOME SPACE you're mixinga track with ots of dirty ‘elements,’ even more important than tusual to try and create'space'for each Instrument as they're battling increased nolse and hurm. You may be familiar with the Idea of carving eachinstrumentits own {frequency range using EQ cuts and boosts, but youTlfind that nolsy samples generally needa narrower EQrange to stop thenolse {rom bleeding into other parts.So, use high ‘and low-cut filters judiciously. Using rever® ‘on the master bus canresultina wash of nolseif you've got alot of dirty elements, soset your reverb times carefully. anditin ‘doubt use alittle on justa couple of tracks to Prevent making amess of yourfinal mix.cm