Getting started with making electronic music can be expensive and you may ask yourself whether you actually need a MIDI keyboard to make electronic music at home.

I want to get straight to the point and say that a MIDI keyboard is not essential for producing music, but there are a number of reasons why it is great…as well as a few alternatives you may want to consider!

For those of you very new to music production, a MIDI keyboard is generally a keyboard that you can plug into a computer or synth. It won’t make any noises by itself – unlike electric pianos – but it has a huge amount of versatility because it can control anything in a computer.

READ MORE: How to become a power user of your favourite DAW

MIDI keyboards send MIDI messages to the computer which can control pretty much any software instrument (or VST). Whether you have loaded a piano instrument or a dubstep synth, or even an orchestral ensemble, it can be controlled via your MIDI keyboard.

Alongside notes, they can also send other control signals such as faders and playback controls. As you’ll see further down, these can come at a premium, but not a drastic one.

While all good music software allows you to draw in the notes you need with a mouse, having a MIDI keyboard allows you to perform the melodies into the computer and record the grooves more naturally. When playing on a keyboard, you are jamming or performing ideas in real time.

Compare that to inputting the notes manually with a mouse, you can’t do it as the song is playing, so have much less of a feel for the music.

Do you need to know how to play piano to produce music?

No. In fact, almost all of the producers I know aren’t trained pianists. What you will find is that as you produce more and more, you do get better at playing the piano. That is, of course, provided you have been using a MIDI keyboard to record your melodies.

I am by no means any good at piano, but having spent so much of my spare time making music, I am able to play and compose things more or less on the fly with my keyboard. I can’t do anything too technical, but I can lay down the chords needed with not too much trouble.

What you will get good at (quickly) is chords and simple melodies. It is then on to you to determine how much you want to learn. Many producers go their whole lives being unable to perform back their songs on a keyboard, because the computer assistance is so great it means they can get by with minimal skill. (I’m not saying producers aren’t skilled – you still need to be musically talented – you just don’t have to be a proficient pianist to make great songs)

What MIDI keyboard should I get for music production?

I’m going to be really budget friendly with this section, because I know what it was like getting into music little money to waste on frivolities.

Basically, any MIDI keyboard that connects via USB will be best for most producers. There are a few things to consider such as size and the number of keys, and after that, you are just looking at nice-to-haves which will be a case of balancing your budget.

– Mini & Budget

If you aren’t too fussed about the “legitimate” piano experience, you may be good for a “mini” keyboard. These are cheap and compact and have small keys, but they are more than enough to record in the melodies and jam out ideas.

They generally only have a few octaves at most, so don’t expect to play two-handed. But this is good because it keeps size down.

Generally these come with “no frills” but some also have additional knobs or pads to add extra control.

– Normal-sized & Budget

These keyboards generally have 49 keys or more and use the standard key size. Because they are larger units, they are generally more expensive, but have more room for extra controls and even screens.

This is probably the best place to start if you are planning on setting up a space in your house/room for music production. The keyboards aren’t very portable and take up space on the desk, which is something worth considering if you are in a small room.

Generally you will be getting a unit for under £100 and maybe a few nice-to-haves such as pads or knobs, but it will be a simple, basic controller. You may also get some software bundled with some models, which is a very big plus when deciding on what product to buy.

– The Nice-to-haves models

These models are generally a bit more expensive and have a large range of extras on them, from screens to plenty of extra buttons, knobs, and pads.

These are good for if you want extra DAW control and can afford it, but in my honest opinion, they don’t necessarily add much.

I have a MIDI keyboard in this “tier” and I bought it for all the faders and knobs, but I probably use them <5% of the time. If you think they are something you will make use of though, they are definitely worthwhile.

Alternatives to MIDI controllers for music production

One of the best things about making music on a computer is that you aren’t limited. There are many ways to go about the same task, none of which are right.

This is true for controllers too. The main alternative is probably pad controllers such as the Maschine and the Push.

These work with drum pads and have the benefit of being better at drum programming than a MIDI keyboard. You can also assign the pads to musical notes and ply like that.

This has its benefits for those who aren’t keen at the piano and there are many ways to set pad controllers up to lock the player in a single key signature so they’ll never play out of tune.

Pad controllers tend to be pricey, but can also come with their own software. If you are into hip-hop and minimalist electronic genres such as techno and tech house, these may be more suited to you. If you are into more complex melodic compositions, then you may prefer a keyboard controller.

The post Do you need a MIDI keyboard for producing music? appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

When it comes to production tips, you tend to focus on getting the song produced. Producer Chris Lake has shared a trick for the long term, however, that is definitely a must-know for all producers.

Posting on Twitter, the hit producer explained why he can no longer revisit old tracks and how he wished he’s thought ahead.

He said: “Once you finish a track, make sure you back up that project, but take into consideration how hard it may be to open this up in 10-15 years when you could get the rights back to your single (if you released it on another label).

“Often, third party plugins won’t work the same years down the road. It’s best to bounce out stems to audio. You can always open those up in another DAW down the line. I can’t revisit so many of my old tracks because I can’t find the right files / plug-ins etc to open them.“

Other major names in the industry were quick to support his point, including Laidback Luke and Bassjackers.

Lake also said he is planning on producing some video tutorials “soon” on how he approaches his project organisation – this tip will no doubt be mentioned in it!

The reason I’m highlighting this essential grain of knowledge is because it is so easy to lose old work, and it’s something I have had the misfortune of experiencing recently.

Whether you are changing computers or switching DAWs, there are plenty of reasons why files could be corrupted or simply not compatible anymore.

The way DAWs work is they remember all your VST settings and re-load them each time you open the project. If, for example, you no longer have access to a plugin, or have somehow lost a preset, you have no copy of the original audio and have to start from scratch.

The best way to resolve this is, as Lake said, to bounce your tracks and render them to audio. That way, you also have a copy of the audio, which does not depend on software working years down the line.

The post Chris Lake shares crucial production trick to avoid ‘same mistakes I did’ appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

There are many online tools that can automatically master your track, but today I am going to show you a really cool free mastering tool called Matchering 2.0.

Available on GitHub here, Matchering 2.0 is a “novel containerised web application and Python library for audio matching and mastering”. It can be compared to premium tools such as LANDR and eMastered.

Simply put, it will take your mix and make it sound more like a song of your choosing (with regard to the master mix).

What version to choose?

It consists of two parts: Matchering Core and Matchering Web.

Matchering Core: A separate module for automated reference mastering based entirely on open technologies (Python, Numpy), which can be inserted into any program by any developer for free!

Matchering Web: A client for using Matchering Core inside the browser. It turns out that this is a self-hosted LANDR / eMastered alternative!

How does Matchering 2.0 work?

It works by comparing your track (target track) with a reference track (one you have selected that sounds amazing). It will then work on matching the target track’s RMS, frequency response, peak amplitude, and stereo.

It does this with various stages, including normalisation, Mid/Side (M/S) processing, and splitting track and finding section RMS values. Here it takes every section above the RMS value to differentiate drops and breaks from builds. It then matches them to a normalised value.

SEE ALSO: Ableton Utility’s Hidden Mid-Side processing mode

After that, an equalisation stage takes FFT values and detects frequency responses to match them on each, the Mid and Side tracks separately. Providing a “very precise matching of the stereo width as a bonus”.

It then reanalyses the RMS and adds a brickwall limiter, and re-normalises the audio.

One interesting point about it’s process is that at the splitting stage, it splits the song into 15s intervals. It does this because 15s is the length of time for 8 bars (normally changes occur after 8 bars in EDM) at 128bpm.

The developers note that the software could be “slightly” improved by analysing BPM and setting the timing of splits to the BPM instead, however say that 15s intervals actually work and the results are “already good”.

This video shows it in action, and despite deliberate attempts to make it harder, the tool still managed to do a good job of matching the un-mastered track with the reference.

How did Matchering come to life?

I spoke to Sergey Grishakov, a mastering engineer and developer of Matchering 2.0.

When working on mastering songs, he noticed that his “actions are repeated from order to order”, leading him to wonder if he could automate his routine.

That led to the original Matchering arising in 2017. It received some coverage from music sites, but back then it was a paid service.

Sergey explained what happened to the original project: “Our main competitors were LANDR and eMastered. But due to some circumstances (e.g. the lack of investors), we could not compete with them, and the project was closed.”

The project was far from dead though, and received a breath of life when the code was moved onto GitHub. Sergey said it was the right decision, and the project was revived by contributors to the code.

The project was fully reincarnated this year (2020) with Matchering 2.0.

The post This open-source mastering tool is free…and it actually works great! appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Mastering your DAW of choice takes years of practice and use, but there are some shortcuts to help you become a power user.

Today’s guide will talk about the various ways you can become more efficient in your DAW which will save you time and more importantly, let you turn out more projects.

Another key thing here is that having a solid grasp of your DAW means that you will not spend as much time setting up and working through menus. This will help you by preventing ideas escaping as you are fiddling with settings.

1. Learn Shortcuts

Shortcuts are essential for any software but I would argue especially for creative applications. They allow you to get things done quickly and easily.

Every DAW has a range of shortcuts, and while some (like Ableton) aren’t changeable, others allow custom shortcuts.

Consider Reaper for example. Not only can you completely reset all shortcuts to your choosing, you can also chain shortcuts together to single hotkeys.

READ MORE: Ableton shortcuts guide – what are they and when to use?

Regardless of how your DAW approaches shortcuts, one of the best uses of your time is learning them.

In my time teaching people how to use DAWs, one of the main things I’ve seen is that those using shortcuts are seen as wizards by those who don’t. You can really speed up your workflow with them and editing becomes a super smooth process.

2. MIDI Control and Gaming Mouse

Following on from the shortcuts thread, having additional surfaces and controls is a great way to speed up your workflow.

Many professional sound engineers use hardware mapped to their DAW to help with mixing. This hardware normally comes with faders and other tactile controls to accurately dial in settings and commands.

If you have a MIDI keyboard or DJ controller, you will already be ahead, as both can be mapped to various controls and speed up your workflow.

If you are looking for a MIDI keyboard, consider getting one with additional knobs and pads on it so you can add shortcuts to them and speed up the process.

For more advanced control, nothing beats a dedicated mixing controller such as the Akai APC series for Ableton or a surface with motorised faders that react to automation, such as the Presonus Faderport.

Another great option is to get yourself a gaming mouse with additional controls on it. I use this religiously with various software and it makes editing a blast.

Grabbing a gaming mouse with 12-assignable buttons on the thumb may sound like a lot to learn, but it becomes second nature very fast.

Mice like these are fantastic for various tasks and many have several profiles on them so you can have different settings for each application.

For example, I have an editing profile in Reaper which allows me to run certain scripts to remove silence in podcast recordings. I also have one for writing which gives me features such as highlighting whole lines and making them bold and inserting hyperlinks.

Remember, unless you are an avid gamer, you won’t need to splash out for the most expensive options with a programmable mouse, but you should look for quality when buying MIDI controllers.

3. Spend time in the manual

I’m sorry, you probably didn’t want to hear this one, but it works. The problem with a lot of complex software is that there isn’t enough space on the screen to show all features at once.

As such, you may not even know some features exist or how to use them unless you familiarise yourself with the manual.

A good example of this was a previous article I wrote about Ableton’s Utility plugin which has a “hidden” Mid/Side mode“. A lot of readers had no idea it was there and I believe this is Ableton’s fault. It is a feature mentioned in the manual, but the effect appears so simple that most people would skim right over that part.

The lesson is, there are potentially dozens of features like this that you may not know about unless you browse through the manual and find the “secrets”.

The alternative to this is searching the web for articles with the (admittedly clickbait) titles such as “hidden features in Ableton” or “things you didn’t know in Logic Pro”.

4. Spend time setting up templates and custom macros

This can be a major time-saver. Pretty much every DAW allows some form of templates which you can save and load up for each project. This means you can have all the tracks you always start off with ready to go.

If you think about it, every time you start a blank project, you tend to do the same things, whether it be setting up the tracks and sends/receives, or having to add instruments manually.

READ MORE: How to make a super easy podcast editing template in REAPER

If, for instance, you always use Serum in your productions, why not create a default template with five or six instances already loaded, as well as tracks for drums and sidechain routing already dialled in?

Another thing to get on top of is custom macros. Different DAWs do it differently. In Ableton , for example, you can group effects into a rack which has eight assignable controls. In Reaper, you can save your FX into chains.

Remember most of your mixing will start with the same steps. Perhaps you have a high-pass filter above 20Hz then an EQ, then a compressor. You can (in most DAWs) set this up so it loads by default on every new track.

You could also see if your DAW lets you save custom tracks for different instruments. That way you could load up a vocal track with all the effects you need already in it.

Going further, if you use the same singer or instrument regularly, you could even save the same mixing setting within the rack so you don’t even have to mix it from scratch each time.

This can work great with albums, where you want the drums or the singer to sound the same each time.

5. Share your projects and learn from others

Another great trick is one that can be quite tricky. If you can find some friends who use the same DAW as you and share your tracks for them to play with. Not only does this generate endless remix potential, but you also get to see how other people use their DAW.

This is a really enlightening process as you see them achieve the same goals in different ways. It can also highlight some cool tricks which you never knew and gives you plenty of things to chat about.

Collaborating on tracks is another way to achieve this, one idea might be to each start a song and get halfway through then swap projects.

If you don’t have access to projects, there are plenty of templates online which you can use to practice mixing and tweaking, all the while, learning from someone else’s workflow.

The post How to become a power user of your favourite DAW appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Here’s how to use Multi Text in Reaktor to display custom text when you move a knob or other control.

If you are anything like me, editing and creating in Reaktor is as much a process of designing a nice-looking synth, as it is designing a powerful one.

One of the coolest features available in Reaktor is a way to add custom text feedback to replace the default knob values.

This has many purposes, for one, you could have a text box respond with feedback based on your work.

If we consider at a compressor plugin for example, we might want a text box that shows a different explanation when the attack time is slow or fast.

You might want to control an LFO and, as you turn the speed knob, it outputs values such as “16th Beats” or “4 Bars”, rather than just numbers.

This is all possible with Reaktor’s Multi Text.

SEE ALSO: Top tips for building synths and effects in Reaktor

Getting started with Multi Text

Getting started is easy. Simply add it in and connect it to the knob or other event source of your choosing.

Multi Text will not show up unless that event source is connected to other components (which are connected to the output). Make sure that if you don’t have any other parts to your project, you connect the knob to one of the outputs.

You have two options from here, firstly, you can edit in the Reaktor properties menu, secondly, you can edit it as a text file.

I prefer using text files. To do this, simply create a new text file in the project folder (or even on your desktop) and add new words each line.

The first word will match the 0 index, then 1 corresponds to the second word, 2 for the third, etc.

This text file can then be loaded up in the Reaktor Multi Text feature. Make sure you click on Multi Text and go to the Properties menu. You can then open the file directly and it will load the data in.

(You will of course have to do some maths to make sure the knob values of 0, 1, and 2 then correspond with the matching timings listed in the Multi Text.)

Next we can edit the size and look of the Multi Text. You can choose the font and the text size (for all fonts except default). You can also choose the background colour scheme.

Getting creative with Multi Text

I want to showcase a really cool use of the Multi Text feature, it was added to a little synth project I was working on for the Reaktor User Library.

I was making a one-button synth that output random presets and wanted to have a way to show the randomness.

I used the Multi Text to randomly pick a word from a dictionary each time the button was pressed.

To do this, all I needed to do was add a dictionary of words to the text file (each on a new line) and insert a random number generator which would select an index at random.

It is worth noting, as mentioned in the image above, that doing it this way isn’t reversible, that is, the random word can’t be considered a seed.

The synth I had made was one-way, and used multiple Randomise Events macros throughout so even if the same word came up again, it would not necessarily match the same sound as last time.

For that, I’ll leave it to you! The ensemble link is here, please take all the macros and save them for yourself, reverse engineer the plugin, and learn as much as you can from it.

The post How to add custom values with Reaktor’s Multi Text appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Today we are going to look at one of the reasons why Reaper excels at sample production and auto-naming files. The “wildcards” feature is one that solves file management issues and automates a lot of work that you’d otherwise have to do manually.

Wildcards are placeholders for data, so when you are exporting lots of files, you don’t have to type out the data individually.

SEE ALSO: How To Start Mixing a Track in Reaper
SEE ALSO: How to EQ with ReaEQ – Reaper’s Stock EQ plugin

Let’s say you have tracks named bass, guitar, vocals, drums, and synth, and you want to export the individual stems from Reaper, you can simply select the source to render all tracks, then add the wildcard $track in the File name section.

This will automatically save each stem with the track name.

THE WILDCARDS
$project : replaces with project name
$author : replaces with project author (from Settings)
$track : replaces with track name
$tracknumber : 1 for the first track, 2 for the second… $parenttrack : replaces with parent track name
$recpass : replaces with recording pass
$year : replaces with year
$year2 : replaces with last 2 digits of the year
$month : replaces with month number
$monthname : replaces with month name
$day : replaces with day of the month
$hour : replaces with hour of the day in 24-hour format
$hour12 : replaces with hour of the day in 12-hour format
$ampm : replaces with AM or PM depending on time
$minute : replaces with minute of the hour
$second : replaces with second of the minute
$user : replaces with user name
$computer : replaces with computer name

That’s pretty simple, and other DAWs can do that too, but where they start to struggle is when you need lots of different files exported and all custom named.

Probably the main use of wildcards for me is generating lots of sample files.

If I have 100 different samples in a project (lets complicate things and say this project has different tempos throughout too), and they are all for different tracks and styles, I can use wildcards to do it.

I can name a file in the following format:

[tempo] – [instrument] – [take]

This is possible by adding wildcards. To add them, just select them from the wildcards menu and add any text (such as “bpm”) that remains constant regardless of the sample.

$tempo bpm – $track – $filenumber

We could get even more out of this if we start planning ahead too. Knowing that we can use wildcards when exporting, we may also want to group samples by their key signature.

You could either have all the tracks for a certain key signature grouped under a parent track (with the key signature as the name), or you could group them into regions (with the key signature as the name).

$tempo bpm – $parenttrack – $track – $filenumber
or
$tempo bpm – $region – $track – $filenumber

See below for a brief video overview of Reaper’s main render preset options:

The post How to automatically name file exports in Reaper using Wildcards – a great feature! appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

There is something truly magical about musicians who are able to create a song from scratch in real time live. Today I want to showcase some of the coolest live electronic producers who take this to the next level.

All the people featured here are masters of both production and performance (simultaneously) and are a great case study in how an electronic track can be constructed quickly.

Of course, these are just one person’s opinion so if you know of any producers who deserve a massive shout out, or indeed, if you are one, let us know in the comments below!

• READ MORE: Ableton shortcuts guide – what are they and when to use?
• READ MORE: Using grooves in Ableton to tighten your mix

Rachel K Collier

My favourite musician to watch at the moment, Welsh producer Rachel K Collier uses a combination of synths, vocal loops, and samples to construct her music on the fly.

Not only does she have an envy-inducing mastery of Ableton’s performance capabilities, she has a fantastic set of vocal chords which complement her bouncy, poppy sound.

Complementing her performance videos, her YouTube channel also features a variety of guides and tip videos.

Beardyman

You have probably heard of him, you probably know him as one of the best beatboxers in the world. Yes, I’ve included Beardyman, because what he does goes far beyond your normal beatboxing.

Early performances by Beardyman focused on mostly live looping his mouth sounds using Korg’s Kaoss Pads.

As he grew in prominence, he ended up building his own custom setup which uses four iPads and custom looping software.

His performances include major festival lineups and the Edinburgh Fringe, where he takes genre suggestions from the audience and makes crazy hybrids that should never work … but do!

His vast knowledge of music and improvisational comedy secure the performances.

He has even done a TED Talk … not many producers are lucky enough to get that opportunity!

Neon Vines

Texan multi-instrumentalist and producer Neon Vines is another Ableton Live wizard.

Performing with a sweet setup (including a Roli keyboard and the skills to match), Neon Vines combines groovy house with some epic synth solos.

One of the standout features of Neon Vines’s performances are her vocal effects which use effects like Waves OVOX for awesome vocal resynthesis.

The great thing about some of her videos is that they include an analysis of the song after the performance so viewers can learn from her.

Giolì & Assia

Next up, is Giolì & Assia, an Italian duo of producers, multi-instrumentalists, singers, songwriters, record label owners, and DJs.

The pair have a variety of setups, normally including a hand pan and either a drum machine or DJ setup.

What I love about their songs is the simplicity of it. The one linked above has only a drum machine, hand pan, and vocals, yet feels complete.

Their videos are always my first watch when I’m feeling uninspired with a 50+ track song that sounds rubbish, because they give me faith that I can strip back.

Their sound is deep and even when their DJ performances stray into slightly heavier beats, the ethereal sounds of the hand pan ground the music into a mystical motion.

There are few producers who’s music could be appropriate in both a club and a meditation session.

The post Four awesome live electronic musicians you need to check out appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Our last look into Logic’s stock collection of effects saw the Compressor broken down into its many functions. Today I wish to show you the depth of Logic Pro X’s Vintage EQ Collection, and why you should hold off on buying a new EQ plugin.

If you have tried Logic Pro in the past, you would be forgiven for still thinking that it doesn’t offer a lot in the way of analogue “colour” or character, not past Logic’s Compressor at least. 

To get around this you would have needed vintage hardware or expensive plugins to solve the digital “sterility” of recording within the programme. With the introduction of Logic’s Vintage EQ Collection, this is no longer the case!

Logic Pro X’s 10.4 update (introduced in January 2018) was substantial, and with its inclusion of the Vintage EQ Collection it saw three accurately modelled analogue EQs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s added to the programme.

• READ MORE: What are reverse fades and when to use them?
• READ MORE: Wave Destroyer is my new go-to VST for making drums hot!

In classic Logic style, as well as closely mirroring the sounds and functionality of the originals, the EQs boast features and flexibility not entirely possible on the originals in the analogue domain.

Despite this, in the two years since their introduction I’ve found that these plugins have slipped completely under the radar for many Logic users.

This is understandable since stock plugins are easy to dismiss; third-party manufacturers have trained us to believe that their products are some of the best on offer and that DAW developers simply cannot compete.

Or, if a user has already bought into a plugin eco-system, they may not feel the need to check for updates or use yet another emulation.

So what makes these EQs so special? Let’s take a look.

Vintage Console EQ

Anybody familiar with this console will recognise this layout as that of the Neve 1073 channel strip EQ. 

Designed in 1970 by Rupert Neve, this channel strip is a favourite of many engineers on just about any instrument you throw it at. 

This is largely due to the character of its transformer that is often described as “big, fat, and coloured”. 

This EQ features the same controls as the original: a switchable high pass filter, a switchable low shelving filter and mids bell filter, and a fixed shelving filter at 12 kHz.

Where this differs from the original however, is the ability to set the controls to frequencies between the original stepped EQ points, allowing significantly greater control over sonic balance.

Like the original, it also features a drive control which allows you to control just how much of the unique saturation this unit offers is applied. Try it on bass, drum shells, and vocals to add size and life!

Vintage Graphic EQ

The tell-tale knob and colours tells us this plugin is based on the API 560 Graphic EQ.

Introduced in 1969, this EQ has a lot of headroom thanks to the combination of their proprietary components and transformers which results in what API states as better low frequency reproduction and tighter imaging, which gives you that legendary API “punch in your gut” sound.

Where this plugin differs from the original is the “Tune” feature. This allows the user to globally adjust the frequency centre-points of the EQ’s sliders. It also features a drive knob not found on the original. 

Tip: When set to +12 the top filter’s centre-point is doubled to 32 kHz which allows for some really nice subtle boosting of that ever-elusive “expensive airiness”! 

This classic and unique sound makes it an especially appropriate choice for drums and guitars and voice. Not outrightly transparent, it’s best to think of this EQ as putting forward only the best bits of a sound.

Vintage Tube EQ

Last but not least, this emulation is based on a legendary pairing of not one but two EQ units, which can also both be bypassed independently within the plugin.

The top unit is based on the “PulTec” EQP-1A which has filters for the Lows and Highs, while the bottom unit is based on the MEQ-5 which allows for filtering of the Midrange. 

Originally, the EQP-1 was a bespoke design by Eugene Shenk of Pulse Techniques (PulTec, aay!) for a Capitol Records mastering studio, and it was then introduced to the wider studio industry in 1953 as the EQP-1A, following the addition of a tube amplifier section.

Later another tube-amp EQ, the MEQ-5, was introduced and both units became the ideal combination and now tend to live on most mixers’ Master Bus. 

Unless you have thousands and thousands in spare change the original units and even reproductions are virtually inaccessible, so having the sounds and characteristics available to you in as many instances as your CPU allows is a fair tradeoff. 

Not just for the master bus, this pairing is well suited to submixes like a Drum, Cymbals, or Bass bus, with its ability to add excellent beefy lows or super silky highs and mids.

Think of it as adding broad, yet final and subtle strokes of paint to a canvas, the kind that make the sweetest difference.

Tip: If you increase the low boost and cut by similar amounts, the result is not a cancellation as you might think, but a more controlled and focused low end owing to the fact that both filters are of different orders. This is the famous Pultec trick for adding and controlling some serious low end on your tracks!

Output Section

You may have noticed that each EQ has a different setting under the Drive knob and are so named to associate their sound with each particular emulation: Smooth for Neve, Punchy for API, Silky for Pultec. 

Thanks to the magic of plugins, we can actually swap these around in each of the EQs, or even disable them altogether.

Add that to the already increased flexibility of the plugins, we now have the opportunity to process our source material in truly unique ways.

At the end of the Output section we have a gain knob to adjust for any difference in level (handy for A/Bing any processing), as well as the option to switch between Linear or Natural Phase. 

Natural Phase mode allows the signal processing to replicate the phase/time shift to the sound that the original units would impart.

These phase shifts are actually usually desirable and those familiar with the units are used to hearing these shifts as part of the units’ sound! 

For those that argue that these shifts are detrimental however, Linear Phase mode compensates for these phase/time shifts.

However it’s generally recommended to limit use of Linear Phase processing to your sub groups and Mix bus, for minimal global processing and minimal to no “pre-ringing”, which can be even more obviously detrimental in some cases, especially across many individual tracks. 

Closing Thoughts

Hopefully you can now see that Logic does in fact have some great tone shaping options that will help you to bring your tracks that extra bit closer to “alive” and away from what can sometimes be a somewhat sterile experience, it’s a bit of a shame I haven’t heard more people raving about them. 

I suggest you start experimenting with these across your projects, familiarise yourself with them and see what they can do for your music.

The Vintage EQ Collection provides tonnes of variety, flexibility, and it’s absolutely free with Logic Pro X, and who doesn’t love free?

This article was written by Seàn Frost of Frozen Sounds Audio

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The post Here’s what you didn’t know about Logic’s vintage EQ collection appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Today I thought I’d highlight a really cool tool online that lets you enter a phrase and it will find relevant samples of it said in films and TV.

If you are a producer looking for some cool vocal shots or (dank) references in your live DJ set, then this tool – named Yarn – could be very handy for you.

One thing that might be worth highlighting is the legal aspect of using copyrighted samples. The best advice is to simply steer clear of anything you don’t have permission to use.

SEE ALSO: Brilliant FREE key finding software

That said, if you do want to continue forward with this tool, then make sure to be transformative in your use, and be ready to lose profits from your track.

I tested the tool myself and it works really well, not just finding exact matches, but also similar phrases that you could use.

One test involved finding the phrase “I wish you hadn’t done that”, perhaps a sample to trigger when you trainwreck a DJ set.

The results were great:

The site gives you plenty of content to work with and you can simply save the short <5-second clip and take the audio from it.

I also looked for a sample that could be used before the bass kicks in, and again, it delivered:

The post Awesome tool lets you type phrase and find samples of it said from films and TV appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Reverse fades are an important tool for producers to create natural-sounding effects in their songs.

They are very simple to do in practice, simply reverse a clip and record the reverb tail, then reverse it again.

It is great for introducing vocals to a track, by having the sound rise up into the first word.

One of the biggest benefits to creating your own fades over using stock risers is that they are totally in key with your sound.

Because it uses a sample of the incoming audio, it has a familiar tonal quality and doesn’t clash.

Check out the example below for an idea of how it can sound:

When to use?

Reverse fades are great for introducing vocals at the start of verses or choruses. They are generally used as an intro tool for bringing a new sound, but can also be used as custom risers for building up to a drop.

If you use short reverbs, it can be a useful effect for drums, eg, before a significant snare clap.

It can be employed both with subtlety and at the forefront of the track.

How to make a reverse fade

The process is the same for whatever instrument you choose to do it on. I will demonstrate on vocals because they tend to have the best effect, but it works great on drums and other sounds.

The post What are reverse fades and when to use them? appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

Many producers work on the move and freeing yourself from your PC is a must. That is why I want to talk to you about REAPER’s portable install feature, and why it makes it one of the most useful DAWs on the planet.

Picture this situation. You are working on a project and want to take it to your friend’s house, but you don’t have a laptop.

Because REAPER is portable, you can load it onto a USB stick and take your whole studio with you – without even needing a laptop.

The way this works is in how REAPER has been designed. Most software requires installation on the computer and is linked with various folders, registries, and configuration files on the hard drive.

REAPER on the other hand is made so it leaves a very clean footprint – clean enough to be able to run from its files on a USB drive. This was a bit of an over-simplification, but let’s move on.

• READ MORE: How to EQ with ReaEQ – Reaper’s Stock EQ plugin
• READ MORE: Is it OK to use Reaper DAW without ever paying?
• READ MORE: Autosaving in REAPER – The FIRST thing to do when installing

In addition to this, you can add all your VSTs (provided they are .DLL files) onto the USB stick and keep all of your main plugins together as well.

SIDE NOTE: Some VSTs with Digital Rights Management (DRM) may not work with this type of install to prevent piracy. Generally, any VST that uses DRM like iLok or has large libraries attached will probably not work.

How to install Portable REAPER on a USB stick?

Installation is simple and only requires PC users to download the normal installer. When prompted, select Portable Install and install it on your USB stick of choice.

Mac users face additional steps, but it is relatively similar. Drag it into the USB stick of choice and save a blank plain text file into that folder. Rename it ‘Reaper.INI’.

For people who already have REAPER set up on their computer and are looking to copy all their custom configuration onto the portable version, it is just as easy.

Under Preferences, select General and Export Configuration. Then load that into the portable version of REAPER using the same tab, where it says Import Configuration.

The ultimate production USB stick

As you can imagine, this feature of REAPER is extremely useful for people who may jump between many computers. In this case, it might be worth creating a production USB stick.

This stick will have all of your samples, VSTs, and REAPER itself so you can pretty much show up at any computer and get producing.

For this, I recommend a larger USB capacity and USB 3.0 or faster will be best for responsiveness and speed.

Also make sure to have regular backups in the cloud because you don’t want to lose everything by misplacing such a small piece of kit.

The post This feature makes REAPER one of the most useful DAWs in existence appeared first on Audio Ordeal.

One of the most important things to consider when producing music and DJing is looking after your computer and resources. It is essential to keep the disk that the operating system is on as clean as possible for maximum speed.

For this reason, using an external hard drive for your music and sample libraries means that you have a cleaner system, with the added benefit, that you can take your production anywhere.

I recommend you use a dedicated hard drive for all your creative projects because it allows you to keep all you samples organised and portable.

My setup involves all my software, such as Ableton Live, installed on my fast NVMe C drive, but the cost of such a fast SSD in my system comes with a compromise – storage capacity. For that reason, all my sample libraries, as well as Native Instruments libraries and Ableton Packs, are stored on my external 4TB portable hard drive.

This guide will cover some of the best external hard drives on the market today, with the important considerations of speed, value, raw capacity, and portability.

It is important to note that Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) are much cheaper than SSDs but are much more vulnerable to bumps and data loss with vibration. SSDs on the other hand are more expensive, but with no moving parts, they are more durable.

Another trade-off with SSDs is that they have a limited write performance. This means if you constantly replace the data on them, they can degrade. Since we are talking about static libraries which are saved on drives more or less permanently, this isn’t a big issue.

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Seagate Backup Plus Hub USB 3.0

This range of external drive is great with offerings of 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, and 10TB.

At a price of around £17 per TB when comparing the 6TB and 8TB models, you are getting a really good value hard drive.

One of the key features which sets this particular range aside is the additional USB ports on the front, meaning it doubles as USB hub. For many DJs and producers, additional USB inputs to their computer is a must.

The drives also come packaged with Seagate’s backup software and with such a huge amount of storage available, the drive will easily work as a backup device in case your PC gets damaged or corrupted.

Plugable 1TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD NVMe Drive

If you want the fastest speeds available, a good place to start is a Thunderbolt 3 drive. This drive combines the USB-crushing speeds of Thunderbolt 3 with an NVMe SSD inside. This means it is one of the quickest external drives on the market, and is also super compact.

You pay a premium for the SSD technology and will need to make sure your computer has Thunderbolt 3 ports, but its solid-state design means it can handle much more vibration and bumps compared to traditional HDDs.

SanDisk Ultra Fit

While these aren’t hard drives, these deserve a mention for their sheer compactness.

The SanDisk UltraFit series of USB sticks are about as small as USB drives go. You don’t have to be old to remember a time USB sticks were limited to only a few GBs of storage, but these incredible designs go up to half a terabyte in a thumbnail-sized footprint.

They are USB 3 so they run more than fast enough for DJs and production samples and on a price-per-gigabyte scale they are extremely cheap compared to only a few years ago.

While you won’t be able to fit terabytes of samples on them, the higher capacity models have more than enough storage for most DJs and producers. They also work great for producers who want a spare location for their favourite samples, but don’t want to carry their whole library with them.

Silicon Power Rugged Armor A60

For those who travel a lot, or people prone to spilling their drinks on their hardware, the Silicon Power Armor series has your back.

These external drives are “Military-grade” and designed to take a beating. The product meets “US Military (MIL-STD-810G) drop protection standards” and while that doesn’t mean you can use it as a spare ping-pong paddle when it’s not being used, it offers an additional peace of mind.

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