Introduction

Let’s face it, even software versions of synths can look pretty intimidating. That is the benefit of presets though, right? Well, when the newness wears off like it did with your first crush and you begin to feel restless, then it’s time to break away from the safety of the preset.

It’s time to start from scratch and invent your own sound. The only problem is so many knobs, buttons, and options where do you even start?

That’s right, right here. And of course, before we dive on in, it’s education time. 

Moog Synthesizer History

I am going to start with an original classic. The Moog Synthesizer. Moog started his own business in 1953 selling theremin kits. In 1964 the first voltage-controlled subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller was released. In the mid 60’s Moog’s company led the way in the commercial manufacturing of analog synths.

Subtractive – When partials of an audio signal are modified by a filter to alter the timbre of the sound. Starting with a waveform that is being generated by an oscillator, then removing certain frequencies with a filter.

Rather than dissect the monstrous Moog synthesizer, we are going to learn the Mini Moog.

What is Minimoog Synthesizer?

The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970.

Monophonic Definition.

Mono = 1.

Phonic = producing sound.

If you would like to follow along you can download a free Mini Moog emulator. This VST plugin is 32 bit and can be used in most DAWs or stand alone. You can get information on its creator on his website. To start a direct download of this plugin just click here.

Let us begin.

The controllers’ section has 3 functions within it.

1. Tune.

2. Glide.

3. Mod Mix.

1.Tune

This is the master tune knob.
It provides the tuning for oscillator 1.

2.Glide

Glide allows the pitch to transition softly as you change notes. The knob determines the time needed to transition from note to note.

Introduction

Ever want to use a sound that no one else has? To stand out with unique sounds and tones? You can jam pack your sample library by simply creating one sound and manipulating in multiple ways. Some common reasons why people don’t take this route is simple. They just don’t know how or can’t get it to work properly. While it isn’t my most professional sound, as an example for this tutorial I am going to show you how to render a great audio sample using a half full, or half empty, can of Sprite. You can do this with any sound recording. Try a hand clap, or hitting a nail with a hammer, drop a pen on a table, you get the idea.

Using my phone’s voice recorder I placed the can on a table and literally flicked it with my finger.

Next, I emailed the sound clip to my own email and downloaded it onto my hard drive. I know some phones can render audio in a 3gp format that cannot be imported into most DAWs, I have a solution for that as well. There is an awesome free website that will convert your audio files. No registration required.

Free Audio Converter

Converting your sample into usable .WAV format

I will now walk you through the steps for converting your sample into a usable .WAV format. This is the screen you will start on.

1. Select “OPEN” and locate your file.
2. Select WAV
3. Select “CONVERT”
4. 
6. Select “DOWNLOAD”
7. 

Now go ahead and open your DAW. I am using FLStudio, however, the same things I do can be done with any DAW. Let’s load up our original sound. I have renamed mine to “cansamp”.

I have now loaded up my “can sample”. Now to make it unique I am going to add some delay.

Sounds kinda neat. I can now save that clip.(Don’t worry, I will cover proper rendering at the end.) I will now remove the delay and try something else. A flanger could be interesting.

I have taken my “can sample” and instead of a 1 hit, I made it hit several times then applied the flanger. That could make a really cool intro.

I have removed the flanger and am back with my simple “can sample”. Now I am going to try stacking some effects and see how unique I can make this sound. The great thing about doing it this way is that every effect changes the sound to where it is unrecognizable. Whether you can hear it in use at the time doesn’t matter. You just keep experimenting with different effects and always save it. You never know when the day comes that you are looking for a sound and nothing fits and you scroll through your library and find it within all of the custom samples you created.

As you can see I applied a stack of effects.

I am going to do one more.

Doesn’t sound like someone flicking a Sprite can now does it?

Just to test and verify my samples work I am going to load up all of the sounds I captured and make an audio sample. It isn’t a usable track but you get a good idea of how taking just one sound and manipulating it several ways can give you endless options.

Understanding the meaning of VST plugin

Find yourself bored with the stock plugins on FLStudio? Or maybe you need a specific instrument or effect and are not sure where to start. This tutorial will go deeper than the rest by providing honest step by step instructions and resources.

First let us educate ourselves, what exactly is a VST plugin? VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. VST instruments are used to generate a sound. VST effects work similar to effects modules that can be applied to polish the sound. Things to consider when choosing a VST, be sure to check system requirements, some VST’s can eat up your CPU making it difficult to use. Know the source, keep in mind these are 3rd party, while there are a lot of reputable makers, there are some that may harm your system. VST’s are offered for Windows, MAC, and Linux. Windows being the most readily available. Some are free and some can range in price from $10-$500 and up.

How to Install VST Plugins in FL Studio

For those not familiar with VST’s and how to install them I will now walk you through the process. From downloading to moving it to the proper directory, installation and set up. The DAW, digital audio workstation, I am using is FLStudio12. Let’s start with one of my “go to’s” when it comes to VST instruments. MT Drumkit. This is a VST that models a real standard acoustic drum kit. By clicking here the link will take you directly to the download page for MT Drum Kit.

As you can see this VST is available for Windows and Mac O/S. Go ahead and select your version. You will then be able to select your version based on the bits of your system.

*For Windows Users – (To check what bit system you have, right click the start button, and click on system. a page will open and if you scroll down to device specifications and next to System Type you should see 32 or 64bit)

*For Mac Users – Go to the Apple Menu and select “About this Mac”. If you have a Core Duo processor, you have a 32-bit CPU. Otherwise (Core 2 Duo, Xeon, i3, i5, i7, anything else), you have a 64-bit CPU

Locate your download.

It is a .zip file and you will need an extractor open it. If you do not have one do not fear, there are free extractors available.

WinZip for Windows

Winzip for Mac

7zip for Windows

On the zip file itself, right click and extract it.

You want to locate and open your VST folder within FLStudio or whichever DAW you are using. If you have not modified the folder you can locate it by selecting (windows users)

C:/Program Files/Image-Line/FLStudio/Plugins/VST (if you are using an alternate DAW just replace Image-Line with the name of DAW. Inside its contents will be a VST folder.
You will need to copy the unzipped folder and paste it into the DAW VST folder.

Once you are done, go ahead and close out both folders and open FLStudio. In FLStudio, from the top menu, select ADD.

A window will open, select MANAGE PLUGINS

Make sure Verify Plugins is selected.

Go ahead and select Start Scan.Now is a good time to go grab a drink or a snack this will take a moment or 2.

Once the scan is complete you can close the window.

Next, we are going to open up our Plug-In picker menu, if it isn’t already open on the left. From the menu select Plug-In Database.

Right-click on it. When the menu opens select refresh plugin list(fast scan).
Once that is complete you should see MT Power Drum Kit on your list.

Your list can be accessed by selecting Plugin database, Generators, or selecting Plugins, VST from the same menu.
In the event you do not see it, simply exit FL Studio and reopen it.

Troubleshooting if for any reason you have trouble loading, this can be solved by locating MT Drum Kit from the list, right-click, and select, Add to plugin database.

This is a troubleshooting guide for Firewire in Windows XP or Windows 7 with emphasis on its usage in music recording. This guide is not applicable to other operating systems such as Mac or Linux. There are lots of audio interface that is using the Firewire port to interface with the PC.

If you are having issues with Firewire in audio applications; this guide can definitely help.

Most Important Step: Does Windows recognize Firewire?

The first step to any Firewire troubleshooting is to make sure that your operating system recognizes IEEE 1394. OK supposing you have a motherboard with built-in Firewire or a PCI based Firewire, how do you know that it is recognized by Windows?

Actually, it is very simple:

1.) Go to Start – Run and then type this command:

devmgmt.msc

Or you can go to Start – Control Panel – Right click on “System” then go to “Hardware” tab and then click “Device manager”. You get the same results but the long way of accessing device manager.

2.) If you cannot see IEEE 1394 in the device manager and you are sure that you have a Firewire in your computer, it implies that you have issues with your Firewire.

If you are not using an onboard Firewire; you will need to remove the PCI Firewire card and replacing it with other Firewire PCI cards to see if it works. You can also use the motherboard built-in Firewire port if it’s available.

Before removing any Firewire devices in your PC such as your PCI card or replacing your motherboard; there are also cases where the operating system won’t be able to detect Firewire.

3.) Most computers have BIOS admin screen, so you need to login and check your BIOS admin screen (depends on the motherboard model), to check if you have enabled Firewire. If Firewire is not enabled in the BIOS, then your operating system cannot use it.

Below is an example screenshot of an enabled Firewire in ASUS motherboard BIOS screen:

In the above example, it uses the VIA Firewire chipset. It might be a different one in your motherboard. The most important thing to look at your motherboard BIOS screen is the “1394” (regardless of chipsets used) that stands for a Firewire device. Then make sure it is set to “enabled”. If you do not see this under your BIOS onboard devices, then your motherboard does not have a built-in Firewire.

4.) If you are sure that you have IEEE 1394 enabled in BIOS and still Windows won’t be able to detect it (you don’t see it in the device manager). There is a high chance that you have a damaged Firewire.

From my personal experience: I encounter some scenario where I have a dual boot system (Linux and Windows) that uses the Firewire audio interface. Then suddenly it stops working and device manager in Windows is not detecting it.

I completely turn off your computer (as well as your Firewire audio interface) for some time and then boot directly to Windows operating system. Then Firewire appears in the device manager as shown in the screenshot previously.

In this post, you will know the freely available dithering plug-in or tools that you can use in audio mastering. The objective is to provide the best sounding 16-bit audio that you can produce using an open source dithering solution.

As an overview, dithering is added to prevent quantization distortion brought about by reducing bit depth from 24-bits (used during tracking, mixing and mastering) to 16-bits (used during distribution, available in CD audio and MP3 formats).

With dithering, these distortions will be converted into noise. A feature of a dithering tool called “noise shaping” will be used to distribute the noise in a frequency spectrum where human ears are less sensitive. This is usually in the high audio frequency spectrum, starting around 8000Hz or above. Dithering noise distributed at much higher frequencies (e.g. 15000Hz above) is more desirable as human ears are least sensitive in this range.

Each dithering tools whether it’s commercial or open source behaves differently. The quality of the converted 16-bit audio result will depend on the performance of the dithering plug-in you are using.

I included my personal recommendations at the last section of this article.

The Open Source Dithering Tools and Assessing Performance

I did some research and below are the tools/software that offers some dithering solution:

1.) Audacity
2.) MDA Plug-in
3.) Shibatch Audio Tools
4.) Wavosaur
5.) Loser/Asseca
6.) RDR 1.01
7.) Sox

The performance of dithering tools will be assessed in terms of how the noise will be distributed in the frequency spectrum. The evaluation procedure will be as follows:

1.) Use Audacity software as the VST host. And then add the dithering plugin as VST:
2.) Load the high resolution 24-bit/44.1KHz sweep test tone signal. You can download it here.
3.) Apply dithering.
4.) Export as 16-bit/44.1KHz test signal (of course with the VST host dithering off, if using plug-in solution.)
5.) Examine the results. This uses Adobe Audition Spectral View and Audio Statistics tools.

Original Audio and Commercial Dithering Performance

This is the original un-dithered audio sweep tone (starting from 0Hz to 22000Hz at the end of the audio). As you can see, you can only see the white-blue solid lines depicting the original signal. The background is pure black implies that there is no noise involved.

You can click the image to enlarge. Specifically, the x-axis is the time (in seconds) and the y-axis is the frequency of the signal.

Let’s dither this test tone using a Waves IDR (Increased Digital Resolution) plug-in. This is a commercial and popular dithering solution used by several mastering engineers. Below is the dithered 16-bit plot (plug-in setting – “Quantize to 16-bit”):

As you can see, there is now dither noise but it’s nicely distributed (click the image to zoom) in the upper frequency range starting at 12000Hz (very few) with heavy distribution around 19000Hz.

19000Hz is clearly not audible to most human ears and this is a good noise shaping performance

Audacity Dithering Tools

Let start with the most popular open-source audio editing software (version 2.0.2 used); it includes its own dithering tools. In the Edit – Preferences – Quality – under “High-quality Conversion”. You can set the dithering option for Audacity.

The default is NONE, implies dithering is off when you export 24-bit audio to 16-bit. There are three options with its 16-bit dithered response:

a.) Rectangle
b.) Triangle
c.) Shaped – this is the dithering option with noise shaping behavior.

The dithered noise starts distributing (click the plot for zoomed image) at 6000Hz to 12000Hz (thinly distributed); then continued to be heavily distributed above 13000Hz.

MDA Dithering Plug-in

This plug-in currently supports the following options:

1.) TRI
2.) HP-TRI
3.) N-Shape – where noise shaping is implemented. The following is the 16-bit audio dithered response:

It looks better than Audacity although Waves IDR is still better. It starts distributing evenly above 8000Hz.