THE WORLD'S BEST-SELLING MUSIC SOFTWARE MAGAZINE! cm yA-{c]:} Carr DVD ORGANISE YOUR DAW Workflow-boosting tips to save you time and energy The essential guide 2011 OO0GGE Make state-ofthe-art house music today with our dancefloor-dominating production techniques BEATS AND BASSLINES / ARRANGEMENT AND SOUND DESIGN / MIXING AND MASTERING 7.6GB DVD-ROM MISTABISHI EeLele ele Ue cy CUPL eletencou Led APPLICATIONS, INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS FOR PC & MAC! | STUDIO - 4 |) SAMPLES AND SOUNDWARE EXPERT TUTORIALS Surgical EQ, FM synthesis, perfect cymbals, pitch manipulation and more! 2 By Dm wes TIM HEALEY AND TOMCRAFT ase Mes) reek coeur) Gases STEINBERG HALION 4 ARTURIA SPARK AUDIO DAMAGE PANSTATION ADOBE AUDITION CS5.5, EASTWEST MINISTRY OF ROCK 2 NOMAD FACTORY ECHOES ANALOGUE-STYLE EQ ROUND-UP ‘THE LATEST iOS APPS,If you're not efficiently organised, you could be wasting valuable time in the studio. Reclaim those lost hours today with our tips and advice > HHyouve been reading emfor any length of time. youl know that our primary ralson cfétreisto furnish you with allthetechnical,conceptualand stylistic knowledge you need tomakethe best ‘music you possibly canon your Mac or PC. Tothatend, every month webring you easy-to-follow tutorials onevery aspect ot jowever, we're goin tolook atthe more logistical side of the computer: based studio: the organisational strategies you ‘an putin placeto help you work faster and smarter, Were not talking about puting tacks together in haste, with slap-dash programming andrushied mixing: butrather, gating your ‘computer, DAW software and everything that runs alongside it setup in advance so that Yyoucan speed through the everyday chores Involved in preduction and concentrate onthe Important bit unbriling your creativity. Dont attempt to apply tis advice when youre aring to go with anewideafor a track though. Save te deasherefor when younave some downtime and aren the mood for alittle ousekeeping, as the majority of tis features focused on setting up your system in reparation for your actual musical sessions. ‘We've pt the walkthroughs together in ogke and Cubase, but jst about athe concepts presented are appliableno matter which DAW you happen tobe using As welas plenty of great time-saving ideas, weve also gota ton of tips on how to make the most of your time away from your main workstation. Well show you Row to Setup a portable studio and use storage and ‘syncing to integrate your projects and samples ‘ath yourmain DAW wien you get home again. Weil dipourtoesinto the waters settasciptine, to, explaining how to maintain maximum productivity without becoming sidetracked, So Just tis one. put your talent ar creativity to (onesie and let your OCD side take over. StaralZsced 84 / COMPUTER MUSIC ber 2Storshagscon - Pres Maganiice Dewnined ty Tus POP forse Sort out your sounds Have you ever been unable to finda particular sample that you ust know is. lurking somewhere on your har rive? ‘We're wiling tet that everyone has ‘experienced that tusration atleast once. ‘nile no one enjoys the often Herculean tasko organising their projects samples ‘and ound Horaresinte an easy-navigated ‘system its something that werally cant recommend doing enough You quickly ‘appreciate the worktiow improvement that ‘omes from having everything catalogued and organised properly. enabling you to easly locate every sound in your library Sorting out your samples should beat the top of your to-do list, ass key that they represent the backbone of your studio setup. Methods of categorisation vary from personto person, butit'sa good idea to follow some general guidelines. First. putyoursefin someone else's shoes -idealy, even someone whos not familar with your setup should beable to locate your samples. Thinking ike that wil help youto keep your folder naming ‘conventions ani chovees plain and simple, ‘You could organise your aut clips by ‘category “eg, vocals guitars. breakbeas, {etc~oF you could break them down nto sey, tempo or loop lenat I you write many ‘itferen styles of musi, you could even subdivide your samples by genre Your folder names should be descriptive and short but ry nat to use abbreviations andacronyms, a they can|ust lead to headaches when trying to remember what they mean ater on Don't forget the patches Plugin patches can be calegorisedin thesame way, while most soft samplers - tke Kontakt and HALon- canbe set up so Somewhere on your hard ive Clit ‘Samples 7 watever works for you. Even beter use aseparateharé dvetats edlcatea just to samples. Here. we spit the foldersinto baad groups, ‘tinsraments ten sudviceeag8h intotheinsruments themselves 12 Star by maingan yee 2 Release: Storshilags & Fantaislay alee make music now < that they're automaticaly aware of content anywhere other thanthe default factory brary instal location ‘Many newer ROMpler libraries contain huge amounts of cantent -hundredsot Gigabytes in some extreme cases. Dont lever change thenames of the individual file within these ibrares, as tstop them Working: but douse a separate ROMplar Libraries folder fr allof your ROMplers, oreven aseparate dedicated hard drive NNotonly wil this make your system that bit ore straightforward, butitcould actualy improve your AWS performance: the ‘ealcated drive wi take care alithat sample streaming, leaving your system dive freetodeal With everything else. edited hard rive is also ‘good idea for your other samples, There area few powerful fle-cataloguing applications out there that are specifically {Gesigned to make your sample library more navigabye, We rate AudloFinder for Mac (wwwicedaudio.comy 3 superb standalone app that includes tempo detection ana Auto-renaming among its many, many features. ts a must for Mac musicians with anything more than the mast modest of Sample Ibraries. PC (and Mac) users should Investigate the similar aplication Baschead within proect folders. ts certainly aificutt toreorganise project les onthefly.soits important to get your organisational system sorted betore you start each project. ‘First of al. make sure your DAWs preferences are setup tocreatea now project folder every time you start anew project. Next, make sureit'sset upto copy Imported audio clipsinto that folder rather than referring to the orignal fies in your sample library. Doing this ensures not only that your projects aresel.contained, making them eas transferable to other ‘computers, butaso that any destructive ‘cits you make to your aucio parts dont permanently change your library samples, ‘wnich yout tikely want to use again inthe original state, ‘Any plugan instrument settings used in ‘your projet willbe savea within the project fle, butit’s best practice to future-proot ‘your mivesin case you don'thave access tothesame synths andior samplers if you ‘Grwwbaseheadine com Come backtothe racklnthe tue. When yourtacks complete save Perfect projects separate WA fes of alinstrument tracks Nex, Is time to tackle the organisation of your projects. Depenaing on which DAW Yyoutuse, your project les might already be Infairy good order -some ae better than ‘others when iteomes to auto arranging Hes in your project flder, using the render or bounce function in your DAW. This ensures that even ifyou change your setup inthe future, yout stil ave the raw sounds of these tracks towork wih if you ike We categorise our VST flaer > aiterertyspiting tu into folders ame by genre and then again into (roup and sol instrumantation Your stegorsations may ee sgniieartly fromours, but youn doubt get he ea > Out roe lesare ranged the ths ‘each older snared ater ve son “nd contains he proeet Mets along Srna ofthe backups sampler Instruments undo data and aud fles ‘elated Keeping these alin the same {older wi pay avidends you ever need to copy theprlet toa derent system 3 COMPUTER MUSIC / 55Dream screens So that’s your harddrive sorted out withallot {Yur sounds sensibly organised and easy to 2ecess. Now let's move ono your display. AS ‘muchas youmight it want to hear It as far as screens for music production are concerned bigger is always better We'e taking about screen Teal estate hete- andthe more fit you have. the more tracks, mixing channels and plug Ins youl beable to seeat the same time Ht youre buying anew monitor any time soon, {90 forthe biggest highest resolution model that Yyoucan sensibly aflord If youre ona tight ‘budget perhaps buy a smaller model that you canuse asa secondary display later, once You anatforda bigger one. Both PCs and Macs can ‘extend ther desktops over muttipi screens, although youneeda graphics card with muttiple ‘outputs (which they petty much allhave these ‘ays. Weve usedallsorts of DAW layouts ulising two screens. but we find ourselves returning time ater imeto the most obviously Useful one: one sereen aisplaysthe arrange ‘window, while the other dsplaysthe miter, MIDI plano rol plugin interfaces. ideo playback or sample editor depending on what were ‘working on at any gven time. Making do Ifyou dorthave the luxury of two screens, you ‘anstil greatly speed up yout worktiow by setting up acolection of Screensets (Logie. ‘Workspaces (Cubase) orwhtover your DAW calls the ality to instantly switen between, ‘window layouts atthe press of 2 key InLogle, you setup Screenset by pressing a ‘number key rom t 9, going tothe Windows ‘menutn the toolbar and opening the windows that you want to include the serene. ying them outas youtlike. This setup willbe automaticaly assigned othe previously Selected number key for instant recall Culbase works in pretty much the same way: ‘goto Window»WorkspacesoNew Workspace {nd arrange your windowsas youwant them, ‘The detault keyboard shortcuts to select Timeforaspring-clean 74 onde Thstsasimpl arrangement in Lote {sing ony eg racks Bt enc Stating to getmessyandcontsi. Letssee how somingaeesouring antiy things up enormous. if diferent Workspaces are assigned tothe Num Pad keys: AIST9 (PC) or Cmde-9 Mac). ‘Despite allthis visual xii, youTino ‘doubt nd yoursel spending most of your time In your DAW’ Arrange window. Your DAW has ‘theabiltytorunhundreds of tacks, soits ‘essential that you can easly and instantly Identity them. Atelable system for naming ‘chanaelsis therefore vital. especially i you're ‘working on several projects a the same time. ‘Wellketo keep track names short and sweet {or more simple projects: Vox, Bass, Drums, Breaks, etc. For more complicated ones. ithelps tobe more descriptive: Bass Low Wobble, Vox \Versel High Gated Cymbal Crash, ete Whatever descriptions you choose ae fine as ong as they Tong vo te Key Commands ment in Case sect Flaky ‘Commands n Logie navigate your way {oPreterencessKey Commands Sy Wewantto set upa key commandto ‘addan instrument tack InCubase, Ces the Typetn Key box ait your ‘chosen key combination nour case, ‘nis SOA. | a o eae ar fo gsi Mme a Seno Next we enoose Ade Tracks Instrument rom the meron hele and ek sign in Logic ts process is {he other way round: choose your commana then ice Laem By Key Poattionto assign tt you" chesen combination of key pressor. > Were gina omaha macro that wil open the Key ecto set Quantize ‘Usand quate a selected notes allat {the toucnot ust we butters Open the Key Command eter and click Show Macros a the oltom Next cick New Macro and amet Quantize 74. "Now we need fin theo commands to putinto our mac list. Use theSeareh bon to find he Key editor commana then ck Ada Command Do {he sare withthe Set Quantize tot and (uantizecomerands. SS Now welust ned toassiona > keyoarashorteut tote macro Find inthe Commandist and asin akey ‘wan the Asaignbuton specially {tra Job done! Now whenever You ‘needto quanti toquaternotesallyou hivetadoishitthoee woke 2011 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 57format ‘Storahinge.conn ~ Fes ldaguntese Downioas by Thus POE Quick start templates Weallknow how frustrating its tocomeup witha great idea for a track. oniy to have telsappear nto theether by the time you'veloaded Your DAWand picked outa selection of appropriate instruments You ‘an prevent this rom happening to some.extent by making sure youve gota set of usetl project templates Feady to go. lating you get straight down tothe writing process Some producers don't ike touse templates, as they feel that starting from the same setup every time hhomogenisesthelrtracks. We don't agree. There nothing to stop you Starting your track rom a template then deleting or replacing every ‘element of tas your production takes shape. fusinga template gets you writing quicker. tan ‘only bea good thing ‘Allo the major DAW Ince some kindof template option that tenabes you to save your project settings andusethemas the starting point fornew tracks. Iyouuse ‘mult-output plugin instruments or acomplicated ReWired setup, bullinga basic template san essential task, as such things can betime-constiming tosetup. lookst yourlastten oro tracks ‘and see you can spatcommon Instruments and channel setups, Whatever the genre of music you produce, there are bound tobe Certainintruments that you tend towards. Try te keep things simple: partof the idea behind a template [stat itloads quickly and lets you ‘get your ideas flowing immediately, ‘without any messing about or potential complications. When designing your template, work backwards from the master channel through the auxary bus channels and inaly tothe Instruments themselves.Do you alvaysuse the same mastering plugin? Whack t on the main release) our ideas flov ‘output channel witn your favourite settings or a neutral preset loaded. Heavy user of delay and reverb? Setupa couple of auxbuses with ‘your mast common settings loaded The concept Ind reagy track There arenotad antes res forbuldngtempltesthough The nitty gritty You should obviously include the Instruments and processors that You mast commoniy use Take a Sothat'sthe theory now let's look at some speciic examples youre ‘dance music producer. its more Jea behind ‘than key that you're using plenty cof compression to keep your tracks pumping Bulle this particular Consideration inte your template by adiing a muted 909 kick crum con one channel that feeds into sidechain enabled compressors on allol the other channels ready to apply to your various parts as you bul your tack ityouitend to use the same bulling blocks of instrumentation most ofthe time, designa template with these preloaded atthe right anand volume settings, so that you can focus your attention on the Jess falar elements of your track ityourecora a lotof guitars, you should pretoad your channels with a template is that d lel ing immediately” tight compression effects, guitar amp plugins and pernaps a pedal Doardemulator Finally yourelockingto recora layered vocals. youmay want to setup groups of channels with more natural compression and reverb settings fr your lead and harmonies, perhapsadding doubling plugins withthe appropriate panning in pace Geta (better) grip We've talked great deal about setting up ‘your software s0that you can speed up your ‘music-making, butan atistis only a5 good as. histools. Are yours up tothejob? Let start with thebasics if you use laptop to create music, get yourself amouse. Jabbing ata small touchpad isn the ideal ‘way te control your DAW. Most mice supplement the usualletandright buttons ‘withadaitionalside buttons andalso a serot ‘whee! allot which eanandilybe contigured {or shortcuts fast zooming, et: ‘Analterative|sto control your pointer ‘witha graphics tablet. Many musicians who carry outalotof automation and waveform editing tin that using this kindof control ives greater precisionthan amouse -once You get past the intatlearning curve. Wevelooked at keyboard shortcuts already. and the more serious DAWs make hundreds of them availabe tothe user prepared to learn them. Make this process ‘much easier by replacing or supplementing regular keyboard characters wth shortcut legending. Editors Keys (editorskeys.com) Providea range of options inthis area, supporting allthe major DAWSs. You can buy entirereplacement keyboards wth custom 588 | COMPUTER MUSIC (Rileasie GlordMlags 2 Fantailog ‘AUB sti controter ives you asslgnable buttons ‘nda etljoguneeltortancporteontat printed keys (E100) orstickersetstostapon ‘top of your existing gear (E19. “Another useful addition to your setup ‘could ajog-wiveel for shuttle control Originally designed for video editing this typeof rotary controler can be configured to operateasafastforward/rewind dial among ‘other things. See wwwcontourdesign.com {orinformation on thelr range ot USB shuttles, ‘which start at £40, rStorshdags.con - Pras Miepeniice Downed ty Tus POF tora Home and away _AcalsMPKMinisgreatformaking racks away romyourhome tudlo.though tosses areprety ny So ar we've looked a diferent ways to make Your home studio workfow sicker and faster But what f youre outand about when Inspiration strikes? Thanks to ever-smalier laptops. tablet computers and smartphones ‘making music on the go has never been easier ‘that any music ou make outside your studio ‘envionment can easly be integrated Into your setup when you get ome. Mobile gear Itqoes without sayin that f you can. you shoul be ising sir equpment an software inboth yourstudle and mote setups However, portals key when youteon the move 9 Wsineviablethat you wort be able to match everything Lots tak aout hardwarefst. youte using ataplop. the PU andmemory sould be of high-enough ecto ableto handle your most ‘common ating and ing asks. Tharksto thegutof atfordabieperormance laptops on themarket these days ts need be aban breaker Depending on hating of muse You'remaking,you ight wantto grab youset {external USD MDI contol for knob {wrong and noteinpat you need lize Keys. the WrAudio Oxygen 25 (£99 packs a theessentas into compact uit Wey ie Ismtanissue. youl get better petabity nd Bodododc ded dad dododedede de dag erg nanoteres2controters provide tic keys ‘peasclebderster thoes maniegemmdc onthe sinvlar functions in mint keyboards ke the Akal [MP Mini £69) or thetitchy con Key 49). Dance producers may wellfnd that they dont reed a keyboard at al n which case the Akal LPD8(E35)is a smaller and lignter solution, providing pads ana knobs aplenty. Then theres Kors naneseries of miniature MIDI controler, hich gives you tree great portable options check out www korg.com for more ‘Wie regularly cover IPad/iPhone music making nem so we'renat going togo into Geta here, except to mention the Akai Syntstationd9 (E165) which docks your Pad into fully-featured hardware controler I's 10S CoreNiDI compatible, and so works with most 'MID| apps The Keyboarchas 49 keys, so youll struggle tofitit into rucksack but itcan make ‘good alternative toa weighty synth when igping and recording away trom home. Restraint is key Ontothe software then For maximum ros compatbiy between systems. stck eth the $ameDAW athome and onthe road. your portable devices CPU or hardrvels tugging wath the fu version of your home studio then Consider a ctdown alternative For example, togiestudo witha he bets and wnstes takes upa 47GB sta whereas LogicExoress Is jst 8¢B You should only stl your most inaspensable plugins on your portable syste, especialy when comes to ROMs wich wate up altof space on your ara drive ‘Wi ge mttsomped ROMpLers one clever teksto ten some ofthe alternative Imcrophone poston for your moble setup anda them in when You get Home instead ‘Once youve got your twosystems os siiar as they can poss be se asynlng manager tke Goodsyne wwnigoodsyne-com to ensure that your profect andauco sae nays avallable on botsystems. Thissottware analyses thecliferences baween data ontwoor more tard ves and automaticaly cupheates I sting he preferences tony nude your project and audio es wil help to Keep your tives nie andy Release: Storshings & Fantaslag make music now < the clouds ‘There's beenalotof talk of cloud ‘computing lately, largely thanks to theannouncement of Apple's iCloud service. What cloud computing’ ‘means for musielansisthe ability to tuploadand access content, samples land essions across multipledevices, with everything stored online and ‘requiring just anet connection and password to access, Sounds good, ‘ight? Well kinda. Online storage ‘works really well for smaller files, Duta four-minute 24-bit WAV weighs nat around 70MB -£0 only really usefulfor those with access {ofast, generously capped internet ‘connections while onthe road. While we all walt to see whether ‘or notiCloud isthe next big thing for ‘musicians, there are plenty of other Services to try. Dropbox! fully {featured cloud storage application for Mac, PCand mobile devices, Including the Pad. Onceinstalle,t setsupa dedicated folder on your system into which you simply drop ‘any files that ou want to share ‘botweon your devices. Tefiles then ‘automatically appear inthe same {folder oneach device that Dropbox. Isinstalled on. Youget2GB of free storage, but that's upgradable to 1006B for $20amonth. PCusers can use Windows Live ‘SkyDrive, essentially Microsoft's rivaltoGoogle Docs but with a snazzier interface. The site provides provides25G8 of storagetor tree, although uploads are limited toa rather disappointing SOMB, Amazon hhave recenty thrown their hat into the cloud storage ring with Cloud Drive, which offersSGBforfreeand ‘very reasonable pricing beyond that. There's also. great new service Inthepipeline forMacusersat ‘wwngobbler.com. Designed specifically to back up and share ‘DAW projects, Gobbler automatically locates and archives them. You get ‘S0GBstoragefor free. I's currently Inbetattesting and looks very promising-so keepaneyeonit. 20) | COMPUTER MUSIC | 59CUT EVERYONE ELSE OFF Wsalltoo easy toget sidetracked with ‘email Facebook, Twitter andall hose other endlessly interesting distractions when you're making musi. Needless o say, browsing the web willjust interrupt your flow, so unplug your router and go off the ‘rid fora while. It youreally can'tbear to slsconnect entirely. use a software internet blocker like LeechBlock or SelfControlto tensure thatthe net remains offi during the times you'reat your mast creative. LOOK AFTER YOURSELF "Make sure you've always got food and drink tohand,so that you don" succumb to your SET DEADLINE! ‘You've probably ready got an dea of how long you want your writing session to take, but \ consider splitting your project | Into smaller objectives tomake thetaskmore manageable.need {ofinish this by midnight pretty vague andailttleoverwhelming, a ne canresst thereof clap ‘downthe pub A producer ths {edge intel sta hha 60 / COMPUTERMUSIC / Sec:obe 2 Allin the mind \With your hardware and software organised’ time to get downto the serious business of making ‘music: Having plan inpace before you even touch the keyboard can mean the ditference between a productive session and ‘one that just goes round in icles. Nobody ikesto work under pressure, so making frm decisions bout your ack before you start an payoff inthe long run and will certainly make you more productive. ‘Although itmight seem lke a very oldschool idea, keeping anotepad and penandy on which toot ideas down can be very helpful Made to design Startby thinking about the feel that your want to create for your track, and theefectthat youintend tto have on the lstener-do you want your audience to sit back and eit ‘ut, nod thelr heads apprecatively ‘Sofware he Tut greys ot your computer screen ‘ndreminds youthatts Une testo staring at ‘much more attainable: need my beats WRITE FIRST, EDIT SECOND Get your big. broad-strokes'ideas into your ‘DAW before you forget them. f your software hasa ‘multiple takes function, besuretouse Itwhen recording in order to get the bulk of ‘your track written before your ideas dry up ‘or disappear. Youcan always select your best takes ater andedit the performances totidy themup to your satisfaction. DONT GO PLUG:IN HUNTING Ever decided youneed a particular sound in the middle ofa project. then found yourself, ‘spending thenext four hours searching ‘online for the best new plug-in youcan find to doit? Don't get sucked in. Keepa shopping listof new plug-ins that you need to investigate ‘ona notepad and comeback to them later Velen ele) k and chill out Ice like happy r ‘or dance tke happy maniacs? Decide which emotion your track should convey: sadness, joy tension or maybe just massive party vibes, Now isa great ime to think about the instrumentation Youre going touse. rather than encessly auditioning sounds as yu goalong. Certain patches and ‘Sampies willed themselves to atferent moods soitsa good idea toconsider these objectively at the Start your iting process. So, have a browse through your (now hight organised) sample collection ‘andientify the most appropriate sounds for your production. audienc nod their hee Noxt,have a good think about thestructure of your track We're not talking verse-chorus-verse here, butrather the rise and fa theplacingof the drops, and the intensity ofthe piece. Does your track build up toa great crescendo, ordoesitstayata constant evel ot feroctty throughout? Teeanbe hepfultoinatcate the strueture ofa track by pnyicalty drawing iton paper Don't worry, you dont have tobe Picasso to do this -just roughly eraft an mage that makes senseto youand representshow you intend to ‘work through the composition. when you're not making music, to ensure that your creativity keeps lowing. STICK TO YOUR GUNS Stick to the decisions you make throughout Your project This willsave you dithering over the smal things as your track progresses. Render tracks that you're happy with as you ‘goalongand trash anything that you'renot Sure about.Ifan element of your project doesnt work ater five to ten minutes of Adjustment, chuckit out. FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT Anartistnever counts a workas finished, and the same can go for musicians - you'll always bbeabletofind something to tweak. So, work ‘ona track until you're 95% happy witht then ‘move onto something new. Isalltoo easy to ‘get bogged downinone production, endlessly tweaking every parameter. inthe meantime, other ideas are belng repressed inside your head. So, do the best you can on the track you hhave and don’t agonise over microscopic {etalls-most people won't notice them anyway. Italo always beter to come back. toatrack for mixing and mastering later, when your earsarenttired and you can listen with afresh perspective. FACE YOUR FEARS Sometimesa project willfeatureamixing or editing task that, while essential willbe time-consuming challenge. Perhaps you hhavea tricky vocal tomixoradificult guitar track o lean up. When youfind yourselt facing sucha job, ensure youtackleltfirstso thatits completed and out of our mind. Otherwise, thenagging feeling of ajob unfinished wil disrupt your workflow.em