1. Singing Lessons: Part 1- Vocal Warm Up Exercises

“This 4 part Singing Lesson video series is a gift from me to all the other singers out there who have shown me such great luv and support. It contains a full vocal warmup with voice exercises that will improve tone, expand your range, and increasing diaphragm control.”

2. Singing Lessons: Part 2 – Freeing Your Voice Range

“This second singing lesson video, we talk about expanding the voice range. These voice exercises will help you sing high notes & have more power and clarity in your singing.”

3. Vocal Training- Warm up Part 3 – Improving Tone Exercises

“By relaxing the throat open, we can improve the resonance and freedom of the voice. These vocal training exercises exercises will bring richness to your tone, and can help to free your vibrato.”

4. Vocal Training: Warm up Part 4 – Throat Exercises

“The combination of an effortless low breath and a fully relaxed throat allows the vocal folds to vibrate freely. The exercises mentioned on this part of the vocal training video aid in training the tongue to remain gently arched upward and forward, while relaxing the back of the throat.”

5. Top 3 Tips To Help You Sing Better

“In this video, I share 3 tips to help you sing better. This is a response to the large number of vocal coach questions I get about the voice. I hope it helps. “

6. Learn to Sing like a Pro! Haley Mcguire

“Hi there, would you like to learn to sing like Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus or me. Fulfil your dreams.”

7. How to Sing Better like Paramore!

“Do YOU want to Learn How To Sing Better instantly, like Hayley Williams or Sing High Notes, Vibrato, Sing Better Instantly?”

8. Vocal Technique: Lecture 1 – Respiration

“This is a series of Lectures designed to give the viewer an insight into the technical side of vocal training. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions here in the comments section or visit my website at www.nicholastamagna.com.”

9. Vocal Technique: Lecture 2a – Phonation

“This is a series of Lectures designed to give the viewer an insight into the technical side of vocal training. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions here in the comments section or visit my website at www.nicholastamagna.com.”

10. Lesley Findlay Intro 1

“Singing Teacher from Montreal, Canada describes some basic points about Vocal Pedagogy or Singing. Vocal Support, Phonation, Vocal Attack, Resonance and Anchoring.”

11. Lesley Findlay Intro 2

“Singing Teacher from Montreal, Canada describes some basic points about Vocal Pedagogy or Singing. Vocal Support, Phonation, Vocal Attack, Resonance and Anchoring.”

12. Lesley Findlay Intro 3

“Singing Teacher from Montreal, Canada describes some basic points about Vocal Pedagogy or Singing. Vocal Support, Phonation, Vocal Attack, Resonance and Anchoring.”

13. Lesson #1 Overview of Pitch Speaking

“Pitch speaking is a very effective way of improving your singing voice. This is an introduction to this method.”

14. Lesson #4 Resonance

“What is resonance and how pitch speaking will help you attain it. Humming is a great exercise.”

15. Vocal Techniques, Exercises, and Tips

“My video that teaches a few things I know, hopefully it’ll help others as well. Teaches scale exercises, proper diaphragm use and how to strengthen it, and also a vocal relaxation exercise.”

Conclusion

So, there you are – 15 different videos all aiming to improve your vocals. Which did you find more helpful? What did you learn? Do you have any vocal tips you would like to add? Let us know in the comments.

This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. They have put their track (and their heart and soul) in your hands to learn and get useful feedback.

• Do you enjoy the song or track itself? Does it have potential?
• Can the arrangement be improved?
• How did you find the mix? What would you do differently?
• What do you enjoy about the rhythm track? What can be done to improve it?
• Is the choice of instruments relevant and effective for the style/song?
• Are the lyrics (if any) effective? Does the style, arrangement and genre of the song suit them?
• Can you suggest any specific techniques that might improve the track?
• Do you have any other constructive feedback?

The Party by Delta City

Artist’s website: olafsmetalface.blogspot.com

Description of the track:

A funky house track that’s in the workings. Would love to get some feedback. My first full song produced in Logic. It’s not mastered and barely mixed.

Download audio file (ThePartyDeltaCity.mp3)

Terms of Use: Streaming only. No download.

Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.

Submit Your Tracks for Workshopping

Need constructive criticism on your own tracks? Submit them using this form.

Photo by Pablo Albacete

Joel wrote a great introduction to microphones a while back where he talked about different types of microphones, their polar patterns and various specifications you need to keep in mind when buying your microphone. During the following article I’m going to continue on the path of the microphone and give you a great beginners guide to using your microphones.

Before I start, let me stress that in the end, it’s all in your ears. Be experimental when you can, move the microphone around wearing headphones to find the so-called sweet spot of the instrument. But to make things a little bit easier, here are some general tips, industry standard work principles and guidelines.

1. Microphone Placement

There are three general categories of miking: Close miking, or spot miking, distant miking and finally ambient miking. Let me explain the differences.

Close/Spot Miking

Close miking is when you use your microphone, you guessed it, close to the instrument. Generally speaking, microphones are positioned 1 to 3 inches (3 to 10 cm) from the sound source. With your microphone really close to the instrument, you get a thick, tight sound that sounds, once again you guessed it, close.

Listen to the string accompaniment of Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles. Geoff Emerick said that he got the tight sound quality of the quartet by close miking every instrument, which was very unusual at the time. (Ref: Behind the Glass, Massey, Howard.)

By close miking you also carefully try to eliminate the reflections and characteristics of the room in which the microphone is in. Many home recordists use close microphone placement only because their rooms sound bad, and they want to be able to get the purest source so they can add whatever reverb sound they want later on. Again, check out another one of Joel’s article where he gives you a few tips regarding how to make your room sound a little bit better when recording vocals, and also check out one of my articles on how to makeshift a vocal booth in your bedroom.

There has to be careful considerations put into the position of you microphone when close miking. Putting it too close to a specific spot on an instrument will only capture that specific characteristic of said instrument, like taking a picture of a tall building holding your camera in landscape view. You either get the top, or you get the bottom. No super cool vacation photo that time.

The same applies to instruments that are rich in harmonic content, i.e. instruments that have a big and lush sound. It’s hard capturing the full body, depth and bigness of an instrument using only one microphone, especially when it’s close to one specific part of the body. That is when you have to resort to either using more microphones, which I’ll get to later, or mike up at a distance.

Distant Miking

Using distant miking, you pull yourself a little bit farther from the source sound. Generally considered, microphones are placed at a distance of 3 feet or more(1m or more) from the instrument. By placing the microphone farther away you capture the full tonal spectrum of the instrument. In contrast to close miking, distant miking picks up the whole instrument instead of just a small part of it.

By putting your microphone at a distance you are also picking up a lot of the room sound you are recording in. The acoustics of the room get mixed in with the sound of the instrument, resulting in a live acoustic sound. If you have an amazing room, this doesn’t need to be a problem because the natural acoustic amazing-ness of the room only enhances the sound.

But, as I said before, many rooms tend to sound bad and only interfere with the sound of the instrument, putting an unwanted room sound on an otherwise great sounding instrument. So try experimenting with distance, walking around the room finding a good spot where you can hear the instrument well.

Ambient Miking

Ambient miking is the technique of putting your microphones at a distance that it almost only picks up the natural reverb of the room you are recording in. Sometimes it’s even at such a distance that it’s not even in the same room.

Say you are recording a drum kit in a tight sounding room but in the hallway outside the studio the drum kit sounds live but distant. By putting up ambient microphones in the hallway you are capturing the drum kit, but you are essentially picking up the reverberations of the hallway leading down from the studio room into the microphones.

When somebody puts up room mics, they are essentially miking up the ambience. Room mics can be put in the corners of the room, where they pick up the overall sound of an orchestra for example, or the room sound of a string quartet.

Ambient miking, mixed with close miking can give you the best control over the sound of an instrument. This gives you individual control over the spot mics, and over the room. Think of it as having two tracks in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, e.g. Pro Tools, Logic Pro etc), one for the instrument (the spot mic) and one acting as the reverb (ambient mic).

Also, if your microphone has different polar positions you can experiment with switching between them, listening to which one sounds best. This doesn’t only work with ambient miking, but distance and close miking as well. A figure eight pattern close miked can give you a tight sound from the closeness of the instrument, but also a live sound from the reflections of the room.

Photo by Pablo Albacete

2. Which Microphones to Use in Which Situations

Spot Miking

You can use all kinds of microphones for spot miking. It just depends on the instrument you are recording and the sensitivity of the microphone in question. Using condensers and ribbons for full-bodied acoustic instruments such as cellos, acoustic guitar and the sort will give you better results than using dynamic microphones that cannot capture the full acoustic quality of these instruments.

Dynamic microphones serve really well when it comes to very loud instruments like drums and distorted amplifiers due to the amount of noise they can pick up without distorting. You can easily put a dynamic mic up to the grill of your Marshall stack without thinking twice about it, but putting a ribbon microphone against a distorted, high volume amp is probably going to destroy it.

Distance & Ambient Miking

When you move a microphone farther away from an instrument, you will need to increase the gain on your pre-amp in order for it to pick up enough volume. The sensitivity of condensers and ribbon microphones means that they need less gain to accurately capture an instrument at a distance.

What this means is that unless you have a really noisy instrument, like drums or high-gain amplifiers, you will need to use condensers or ribbons. Dynamic microphones just lack the sensitivity, frequency response and gain to be able to effectively pick up and instrument at a distance.

3. Combining Microphone Positions

The most effective way to capture the full sound of an instrument is using various microphone positions, each one capturing a different tonal quality. This can include using all of the various distance miking techniques, having one microphone close to the instrument, another one picking up the a little bit of the room and then a third one acting as a natural reverb.

Example, when miking up a double bass you can put a spot microphone close to the body, aiming to capture the sound of the fingers slapping against the strings, another mic at a distance of a few feet capturing the low end, and a third one picking up the bass in the room.

Another way of using different miking positions is using a few close mics, and then one for the room. Consider using a few microphones at different positions around an acoustic guitar for example. Put one one by the sound-hole, another behind the body and a third one picking up the frets. These three microphones, although close to the same instrument are picking up radically different aspects of it. Mix and match these to get a great full and tight sound, and then add another one at a distance for yet another color.

Conclusion

Having a good basic understanding of microphone techniques is crucial to getting a good sound. The age old adage goes, (expletive deleted) in (expletive deleted) out. You can go a long way by using these techniques, setting up microphones where they are “supposed” to be. But the first and last tools at your disposal are your ears, so trust them rather than a diagram with inches, meters and feet.

If an instrument sounds better to your ears when you break all the rules, then fine. If that’s the sound you are looking for, you found it. General microphone techniques work most of the time, and get you at least halfway there. The rest is up to your ears and taste.

(Reference: Modern Recording Techniques, Huber, David Miles. Runstein Robert E.)

It’s easy to lock some piano chords to a drum beat or groove of your choice by using a few simple tricks. We’ll make a simple beat, paint in some piano chords and then lock them together so they groove together by side-chaining.

Side-chaining has been talked about extensively, but this trick is a good choice if you want to get your creative juices flowing with laying down a foundation as fast as possible. Let’s see how we can create a simple groove from long piano chords and a simple drum beat. By getting together a groove and chord progression quickly you can start laying your ideas on top without the basis of the song hindering your creativity.

Step 1: Create a Beat

Let’s create a simple beat. I’m using Logic and I’ve painted in a nice and simple drum beat, a little RnB-ish maybe but that’s cool. That’s kind of what we’re going for.

Listen to the beat here below.

Download audio file (beat.mp3)

Step 2: Paint in Some Chords

I’m not even going to try my hand at playing the keyboards for this part, but rather will I paint in the chords I want. Just a simple four chord progression.

Here is the chord progression. Long chords, nothing interested and fairly boring to listen to.

Download audio file (chords.mp3)

Step 3: Send Your Beat to a Bus

The next thing I need to do is send my beat to an aux bus so I can use the MIDI information from the drum beat. Because my noise gate doesn’t recognize MIDI in it’s side-chain I have to send the MIDI information to an aux bus where the noise gate can pick it up from. If you are working with an audio file you might not have to do this since you can select your audio file from the side-chain instead of the bus I’m creating here.

Step 4: Side-chain Your Noise Gate to the Beat

Slap a noise gate over your piano track and via side-chain let it listen to the drum beat we created before. Tweak the parameters until you’re happy, or copy mine here below.

Now we have those long piano chords synced to the drum beat, making for an interesting rhythm and feel to the track. By having the piano play the chord stabs in time with the beat we’ve created a much more creative and lively basis to the song.

Listen to what we’ve accomplished here below

Download audio file (result.mp3)

Conclusion

It’s easy to use simple techniques like this side chain trick to quickly create a foundation for a song. Now we have something to work with and we can build from there. Now you might build on top of this track until you realize that the piano doesn’t belong there anymore, but it definitely served a purpose in getting your creativity going. Create simple and groovy building blocks like this next time you’re stuck in a rut and you don’t know what to start with. It might help spark ideas and compositions you never thought of.

To learn more about what you get as part of Audio Premium, read this. To take a peek inside this tutorial, hit the jump!

Counterpoint is one of the most rewarding and rich textures in music. Good counterpoint is beautiful, interesting and intellectually stimulating. The great composers throughout history, from Bach and Mozart, Debussy and Stravinsky, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, all share the common trait of a mastery of counterpoint.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Counterpoint?
• Voices
• Intervals
• Consonance vs. Dissonance
• Types of Motion
• Species Counterpoint
• Guidelines
• Independence Between Voices
• A Balance of the Three Types of Motion
• A Balance of Consonance and Dissonance
• A Balance of Intervals
• Avoid Parallel and Direct 5ths and 8ths
• Dissonances Should Resolve
• Outer Voices
• Conclusion

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Each Tuesday we open our mic to readers and lurkers alike to come out of the woodwork and tell us your thoughts and opinion, your experiences and mistakes, what you love and what you hate. We want to hear from you, and here’s your chance.

What musical instruments do you play? What is your favorite? How long have you been playing them?

Do you use all of these instruments in music production, or play some of them only live or just for fun?

Do you have any tips about how to get the most out of your instruments?

Flickr Image by chelseagirl

Author’s Note: Because the nature of this tutorial is an overview, I’ll be making some broad generalizations about what a bassline is, what it does, and how it is used in music. I understand that there is no formal definition for the term, so if you find yourself disagreeing with my statements, please take them with a grain of salt. I’m not attempting to paint anyone into a corner here, but rather give the readers a place to start. Once you know the basics, it is easier to bend and break the rules.

The Fundamentals: Frequency

Before we begin looking at new ways to approach our basslines, let’s first look at how basslines are commonly used, as well as dissect their core components.

Flickr Image by Evi|A|ivE

Put in simple terms, a bassline is any musical line that resides predmoninantly in the audible bass frequencies – beginning at around 20Hz and going all the way up to the mid-range frequencies, perhaps near 5kHz. In terms of octaves, we typically hear basslines that range from, say, C1 to C4. While you can certainly have instruments outside of these ranges, for the most part, basslines will stay within these three octaves.

With notes residing in this frequency range, basslines typically act as the ‘foundation’ for a song. Typically, basslines will contain at least one of the three fundamental notes of whatever basic chord is being used at the time. In this way, basslines not only provide a low-end fullness, but they also give the song motion by implying or dictating chord progressions.

For demonstration, I’ve recorded a very simple (and familiar) chord progression using only piano and bass. The progression is a classic I-V-vi-IV, and the bassline perfectly mirrors the fundamental of each chord, but it does so in the lower octaves (G1 through D2).

Download audio file (simple_bassline.mp3)

Rhythm

To further support the sense of motion we get from the basslines work with chord structures, it is also important to examine the rhythm of basslines. Quite frequently, basslines fall directly in line with the basic tempo and time signature of a song. For example, in Pachelbel’s Canon in D, the most often played bassline occurs every 2 beats (half note) on the down beat (1 and 3), and as suggested above, directly implies the chord progression being used. This is a very simple example of common bass usage, and you’ll notice a striking similarity between this piece and our example from above.

Depending on the style of music, however, we may hear a bassline that is played on the offbeat, or some variation thereof. For example, frequently in trance and house music, the bassline falls on beats 2 and 4, making space for the kick drum which plays on beats 1 and 3.

One other technique that is often used in electronic music such as EBM, Industrial and Synthpop, is the use of basslines playing 8th or 16th note arpeggios. This technique can be heard in a wide variety of tunes, such as this one from VNV Nation (beginning around the 36 second mark).

These are just a few of the days rhythm plays a part in bassline execution. Let’s now take a brief look at a few of these concepts in action to help your basslines shine.

Flip The Switch: On and Off Beats

One way you can experiment with adding variety with your basslines is to switch from using an on-beat to an offbeat (or vice-versa). If your tunes traditionally use basslines that fall on beats 1 and 3, experiment with alternating to beats 2 and 4 for various sections of the song, such as the bridge or chorus.

Here’s an example of our original bassline using offbeats.

Download audio file (offbeat_bassline.mp3)

Note how the feeling of the tune has changed somewhat, even though the notes and chords are all identical.

Another good example of an off-beat bassline, as used frequently in Trance music, is Anjunabeats Volume 1 (Above and Beyond). The bassline comes in around 45 seconds.

Notice how, over the course of the tune, the primary or strong notes of the bassline hit on the offbeats, but there are other ghost notes from the bassline arpeggio that play around it.

Bass As Pad

Another means of mixing up your basslines is to use longer, more sustained tones. Rather than having a bassline where the notes mirror the chord progression exactly, you may have a single note that carries over a longer period of time, while the other instruments in the arrangement display the chord progressiong. Here’s our tune with a long, sustained, static bass note, rather than a progressing bassline.

Download audio file (basspad_bassline.mp3)

This technique is particularly useful if you’re using orchestral or more cinematic elements for your basslines. Long, sustained bass notes from a string section can add drama and tension. A good demonstration of this is Craig Armstrong’s “Laura’s Theme”.

Video: Craig Armstrong – Laura’s Theme (embedding disabled)

Jazz And Funk Elements

One more technique you can begin to explore in your basslines is to begin to introduce more jazz and funk elements. This can be particularly challenging if you’re not trained on a bass instrument, such as the bass guitar. Even so, forcing yourself to stretch and incorporate some new elements can keep your music from getting stale.

Here’s an example of our chord progression with a more interesting bassline.

Download audio file (jazzy_bassline.mp3)

There are many other examples of how jazz and funk bass elements can help spice up a track, so here are a few:

These are good examples of how adding just a little more style and flavor to the bassline of a pop tune can add dimension and depth. There are obviously numerous other examples.

Conclusion

We’ve only scratched the surface of how variations in your basslines can fundamentally change the feel of your songs. As always, I encourage you to experiment with these techniques and others, and come back with questions or examples of how you’ve sucessfully incorporated them into your workflow.

Win Bobby Owsinski’s Book “The Drum Recording Handbook”

For the chance to win Bobby Owinski’s book The Drum Recording Handbook (pictured above) all you need to do is comment. Make sure to include your correct email address with your comment so that we can contact you. This giveaway is open worldwide, but make sure to get your comment in before midnight this Saturday, Pacific Eastern Standard Time.

The Drum Recording Handbook shows you:

• The secret to making your drums sound great even before you turn the mikes on
• Drum tuning tips and techniques from the famous Drum Doctor
• How to improve almost any recording environment cheaply and easily
• How to avoid the drum sound destroyer – phase cancellation
• The ideal mic placement for all the drums, cymbals, and room mics
• Simple alternative miking techniques that work every time
• How to give your drummer a headphone mix that will make him play his very best
• The secret to a great sounding drum mix

Drums are the foundation of just about any kind of music, and a great drum sound is essential to a great recording, but that sound can be elusive. The Drum Recording Handbook uncovers the secret of amazing drum recordings in your recording studio even with the most inexpensive gear. It’s all in the technique, and this book is going to show you how.

And you’ll get some great session advice with interviews from hit maker drummers Bernie Dresel, Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez, Ricky Lawson, Brian MacLeod and Dave Weckl.

The Drum Recording Handbook also contains an instructional DVD that shows the best mic placement for every drum and cymbal, gives you tips on how to get great drum sounds, and demonstrates how to get the best drum mix you’ve ever heard. And as a special bonus, the DVD also contains an interview about drum tuning with Mike White, one of LA’s top session drummers.

A long-time veteran of the music industry, Bobby Owsinski has produced and composed for records, motion pictures and television shows along the way. Currently a principle in the content creator 2B Media, Bobby has also penned hundreds of articles for many popular industry trade publications and has authored several books that are now staples in recording programs in colleges around the world including “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook”, “The Recording Engineer’s Handbook”, “The Audio Mastering Handbook”, “The Drum Recording Handbook”, “How To Make Your Band Sound Great,” and “The Studio Musician’s Handbook.” Bobby is a regular writer of our Plus tutorials.

If you miss out, check it out at Bobby’s website or buy it from Amazon. See the table of contents, read an excerpt, or watch a video preview.

Please note: Envato staff and people who have written more than two tutorials/articles for a Tuts+ site are not eligible to enter.

Step 1

Create a new project, and set up a Subtractor, a Dr:REX, a Spider CV Merger & Splitter and a Thor synthesizer, in that order. When you create the Spider CV unit make sure to hold down Shift so that it isn’t auto-routed. 95% of the time you’ll want to make that a habit, since auto-routing a Spider unit is rarely useful.

Right click the Subtractor unit and select Initialize Patch. This gives you a completely blank synth to work with. Do the same with the Thor.

Step 2

Fire up your MIDI controller or use the sequencer’s Edit view so you can hit keys and listen to the sound of your modifications. Select the Subtractor in the sequencer list so that anything coming from your MIDI controller is going through that device.

Find the Subtractor’s LFO 1 settings section and set them like this:

• Sync on — this synchronizes the waveform to the song’s tempo
• Rate and Amount each at halfway, pointing at 12 o’clock
• Waveform set to Sawtooth (the third option)

Have a listen to the difference between the initialized patch and the modified LFO 1. You don’t have to use these settings, but know the difference between the blank patch and your changes so that you can hear them later in our combined CV signal.

Step 3

Head down to your Dr:REX and locate the LFO on the front panel. I’ve selected the Subtractor and the Dr:REX just to show you that you can use the CV parameters from just about any device; it doesn’t really matter what you usually do with them.

Here are the settings I’ve dialed in here:

• Sync off
• Rate and Amount at roughly 1 o’clock
• Waveform set to Square (number four) — a waveform with very abrupt changes

Step 4

Now it’s time to wire up the Spider CV unit. Flip Reason around by pressing Tab and locate the back of the Subtractor. Under the heading Modulation Out, the Subtractor will have an LFO 1 port.

Before we wire this, locate the Spider CV. On the left half of the Spider’s back panel are the ports for the merger. The right hand side is the splitter. The first four ports are inbound CV signals to be merged, and the dials above the ports act much like audio level faders — they determine how much of that CV signal will be sent through to effect the sound, and you can mix the different CV signals as much as you like this way.

Drag the Subtractor’s LFO 1 modulation output down to the first input of the Spider’s merger side.

The Dr:REX has a similar back panel with a Modulation Output section — connect the LFO output to the Spider’s second CV merge port.

Step 5

Head down to the Thor and play a few notes through it so you know what the blank patch sounds like. Now go back to your Spider CV unit and connect the Merge output to the Thor’s Filter 1 Freq input, which can be found under the Modulation Input list. Your connection should look like this:

If you listen to the sound of the Thor now, it’s totally different, and you can hear both modulations at work: one regular, smoother and repetitive modulation, and a second erratic, abrupt modulation. One sounds like it’s in time and the other owes its erratic sound due to the lack of timing—that’s because we’ve set Sync on for one and not the other.

Download audio file (1.mp3)

Step 6

Now’s a good time to experiment with mixing the CV signals. Try turning one right down so you can hear the effects of the other alone and vice versa. This will give you an idea of which one you’d rather make the predominant signal.

You’ll find that mixing CV signals is pretty much the same as mixing audio levels; you’re pulling some things back while making others more prominent, while trying to achieve an overall balance.

Step 7

Now let’s take a look at splitting CV. Essentially this allows you to take one inbound CV signal and share it among several devices. We’re going to take the combined CV we already have and split it.

First of all, disconnect the Merge output from the Thor’s modulation input and reconnect it to the first input port in the Spider splitter:

I’m now going to create an additional two Thor devices and load them up with basic patches — one will use the default Epic Poly and the other will use Underwater Asgard Pad. I’ve used these because they’re easy for you to find in the default patch folder (and it makes my job slightly quicker!).

Now you want to do what you did before with the Thor device, but three times over, and using the Split A’s outputs instead of the merger’s single output. Connect the three outputs to the three consecutive Thor Filter 1 Freq modulation inputs.

If you create a clip on the first Thor and copy it to the other two, you can hear the CV working in unison across all of them. Here’s what it sounds like when you “synchronize CV”:

Download audio file (1.mp3)

The Spider CV Merger & Splitter is a simple device — but the possibilities for your compositions are almost endless.

Here are five forms and contracts that every musician needs; some you should have ready and printed, on hand around the office (or studio or bedroom…) and others aren’t used so frequently but you should have a document ready to be printed and put into use.

1. Licensing Agreement

While licensing in general is one of the business practices prevalent in the industry that is actually quite profitable for artists, what I’m talking about here is not necessarily about licensing you or your band’s material to others. For that, you want to perform negotiations with professionals involved.

Band members and collaborators come and go all the time, so when your guitarist decides it’s time cross the country, it’s a good idea to have an agreement that will license from that individual the right to negotiate and make decisions for the intellectual property on behalf of that person.

The only other option is to demand they assign you their rights in full, and that’s the kind of chicanery that should be left to the rotting mainstream music industry.

2. Non-disclosure Agreement

Non-disclosure agreements give you the freedom to share your plans with others without fear of that information getting out to the public. While it could still happen, at least with an NDA in place you can get some monetary compensation from the individual through legal channels.

You don’t need to have people sign an NDA just to hear your demos, unless you’re fighting Axl Rose for the World’s Most Paranoid Artist title, but when it comes to topics like your campaign strategy, it’s certainly important if there’s something unique about your campaign. Also, if you’re making a deal with another party, you may want to consider their wishes for confidentiality before informing someone without an NDA.

3. Assignment of Copyright

You won’t usually need the Assignment of Copyright to assign music into or out of your name, but mostly for paramusical elements such as your band logo. When you get that baby designed, you don’t want to take any risks and rely on the subtleties of work-for-hire law; you want to make sure that you own the rights to your logo in black and white.

If you have a copyright foul-up with a song, that’s not so bad. That’s one album or digital release to worry about. Your logo, on the other hand, will be on all your albums, all your posters, t-shirts, mugs and beer holders, and if retroactive royalties are charged, you’re screwed. Get an Assignment of Copyright ready and use it!

4. Live Performance Contract

When you or your booking agent secures a gig, whether it’s at a big venue or just the local bar where they never clean the toilets, always ensure a live performance contract is signed, and make sure that you or your agent can whip out your form before the venue produces one out that favors them.

Freelancers use contractor agreements to ensure they get paid since so many clients will try and get out of it by using lousy excuses like, “We don’t like it.” In freelancing, the agreement ensures you can say tough luck, you ordered it, we made it, pay for it. Since musicians working multiple venues are essentially freelancers, it’s the same thing; make sure venues can’t weasel out of paying you with the old, “we just weren’t into it” line.

5. Band Partnership Agreement

This doesn’t apply to solo artists, but if you’re in a band where all members are stakeholders (rather than a Nine Inch Nails style band-for-hire situation), the band partnership agreement is an essential part of your operation.

The agreement sorts out essential details that can avoid big fights and collapsing bands down the road, such as who has authority and over what, what the band rules are and grounds for dismissal are. It includes information about the rights and responsibilities of each band member, or legally speaking, each partner ( though you can have members who don’t have an interest in the business aspect of the band and essentially serve as contractors), the division of revenue, and the way decisions are made (usually through a voting process).