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Riff Of The Month: Daft Punk - Get Lucky (TG242)

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:40:00 GMT

Read more about Riff Of The Month: Daft Punk - Get Lucky (TG242) at MusicRadar.com

Learn Nile Rodgers' funky guitar riff that's guaranteed to be the soundtrack to the summer of 2013.

Download Total Guitar issue 242 for the accompanying explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio (http://www.zinio.com) from 10 June 2013.

'Get Lucky'
© Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers

Tutor: Jamie Hunt
Videographer: Martin Holmes

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Creating a great bass guitar sound

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:48:00 GMT

Read more about Creating a great bass guitar sound at MusicRadar.com

Here we look at how you can take your cleaned-up bass guitar recordings and use amp emulation software to craft great tones.

Software enables us to record, edit, tune, shape and manipulate guitar sounds quickly and effectively, and that includes bass guitar. Today's amplifier-modelling software emulates such classic amp rigs as Ampeg's SVT (IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX) and more boutique offerings like Mark Bass (Overloud's Mark Studio 2). These often include bass-specific effects pedals as well as cabinets, both contributing to the overall sound.

You learn more about recording and mixing bass guitars in Computer Music issue 192, on sale now.

Read more about Creating a great bass guitar sound at MusicRadar.com

The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:06:00 GMT

Read more about The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson at MusicRadar.com

Rhythm has joined forces with Drum Guru to bring you exclusive drum lessons with the biggest drum stars on the planet.

This week, US drum teacher and clinician extraordinaireDennis DeLucia gives a lesson in essential rudiments, specifically the Single Stroke Roll.

Click here for the lesson.

Drum Guru is the drum lesson app for iPad and iPhone, bringing you lessons from some of the greatest ever players including David Garibaldi, Tommy Igoe, Mike Mangini, Steve Smith, Steve Gadd, Chad Smith, and Mike Portnoy, on everything from rudimental concepts to shuffles and how to play individual tracks by those artists. Check out www.drumguru.com for more, and happy playing!

Read more about The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson at MusicRadar.com

The A to Z of computer music: D

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:20:00 GMT

Read more about The A to Z of computer music: D at MusicRadar.com

Learn more computer music lingo as we explain principles, techniques and tools of the trade, this time focusing on the letter D.

DAC

Audio signals in your computer (or any digital audio device) are shuttled around as digital data. In order for them to be played back on speakers or headphones, or sent to devices like outboard effects or a mixer, they need to be converted to an analogue electrical voltage. This is done by the Digital-to-Analogue Convertor (DAC) in your computer's audio interface (whether it's an external USB/FireWire unit or just the built-in headphone socket.)

The 'opposite' of a DAC is an ADC, which converts analogue signals to digital.

DAW

Digital Audio Workstation. This is a digital system for recording, playing back and editing audio. That system could be a dedicated piece of hardware (such as the hard disk recorder/mixer combos that were popular in the '90s) or - much more likely these days - a computer-based setup.

For a computer to be used like this, it needs some DAW software, and today's DAW applications go far beyond basic recording and editing, with features like effects, plugin support, virtual instruments and MIDI capability.

Popular DAW packages (eg, Logic, Sonar, Cubase, Ableton Live, etc) offer practically everything you need to make a complete piece of music in any style.

Note that the term DAW has a dual meaning: some producers consider it be your whole computer music setup (computer, audio interface, software, etc) while for others the software is the DAW. We stick to the (now prevalent) latter definition.

Decay

The tail end of any sound as it dies away to silence. Decay is also the 'D' in ADSR - a type of envelope found in synths and other musical devices.

Decibel (dB)

A measurement of the level of a signal relative to a reference level. Many types of signals can be measured in decibels, but here we're talking about digital audio signals, and the reference level for this is 0dBFS - the maximum a digital system can output (and input) before clipping occurs (note that clipping generally doesn't occur inside the DAW due to the use of floating point signals for processing, which do not clip at 0dBFS.)

For instance, if a signal peaks at -12dB, its loudest peaks are 12dB below 0dBFS - increasing its level by, say, 15dB would cause it to exceed 0dBFS by 3dB, clipping the peaks of the waveform upon playback.

Note that an increase of 3dB results in a doubling of 'power' (decibels are a logarithmic unit), while boosting by 6dB doubles the 'height' of the waveform. Decibels are the usual unit for specifying cuts and boosts, often with a - or + to indicate which (eg, -6dB is a 6dB cut.)

dB/octave

In filters, the dB/octave rating indicates how 'steeply' the frequencies in a signal are reduced beyond the cutoff point. So, with a 12dB/octave filter, each octave beyond the cutoff point is reduced in level by a further 12dB.

Filters are sometimes instead specified as having a number of 'poles', where 6dB equates to a 'pole', so a 24dB/octave filter is known as a 4-pole filter.

Decoder

When audio is encoded to MP3, OGG, FLAC or any other compressed format, it must be decoded back to normal uncompressed digital audio for playback.

The term is also used in reference to mid/side processing, where a stereo signal is converted (encoded) into mid (mono) and side (stereo) signals for processing each individually, before being decoded back to stereo for playback.

De-esser

An effect used to reduce sibilant vocal sounds (such as 's' and 'f'.) Some de-essers reduce the entire signal's level when sibilant frequencies are present; others use EQ or multiband processing to cut only the sibilant range.

Delay

This effect delays the input signal then plays it back after a user-specified interval - an echo, in other words - with an optional feedback loop enabling the output to be fed back into the input for repeating delays that get quieter (decay) over time.

Common features are ping-pong mode, causing echoes to 'bounce' between the left and right speakers; filtering in the feedback loop, so echoes become progressively darker, brighter, etc; host sync, for echoes that are locked to the rhythm of your song; and multitap operation, which lets you run multiple delays of varying timings at once.

Some delays mimic old-school hardware tape delays, where changing the delay time adjusted the speed of a loop of tape, causing the pitch to change.

Delay can also refer to the latency in a digital recording/playback system.

Check out The ultimate guide to effects: delay for more.

DI

Direct Input or Direct Injection, this refers to plugging a guitar or other instrument directly into an audio interface, rather than running it through an amplifier first. A clean, DI'ed guitar signal, for instance, is used as the input for virtual guitar amplifier effects.

Digital audio

Audio can be 1) A soundwave that travels through the air 2) An electrical signal that passes through wires and electronics 3) A digital audio signal in your computer.

The first two of these are analogue - the signal can be thought of as a continuous curve/line with effectively infinite resolution - you can always zoom in further to see the waveform in greater detail.

In practice, analogue systems aren't perfect; for instance, some background noise is unavoidable. Digital audio is different; the signal is not continuous but consists of 'slices' - samples - made at regular intervals in time (the sample rate, usually 44,100 samples per second.) In addition, there's a fixed number of amplitude values that each sample can be assigned to (the bit-depth, eg, 16-bit gives us 65536 possible values.)

Digital audio can be very precisely manipulated, and it's free of interference and background noise (well, sort of - see Dither.)

If analogue audio is a smooth curve on graph paper, digital audio is a series of points dotted on that curve at regular intervals at the nearest grid division. There's a misconception that this means digital audio must be stepped/jagged, but a DAC's reconstruction circuitry ensures that, when converted back to an analogue signal, the audio has a perfectly smooth curve.

Directional pattern

AKA 'polar pattern'. The angles from which a microphone is able to pick up sounds define its directional pattern. See also: Cardioid.

Distortion

In music production, we usually mean harmonic distortion, which introduces harmonics musically related to the source frequencies.

Distortion is also the name of a common effect that applies strong harmonic distortion, often inspired by guitar pedals. Saturation and overdrive are other sources of harmonic distortion, though they are generally less overt than effects specifically labelled 'distortion'.

In addition, bitcrushing and sample rate reduction, while not giving harmonic distortion, are largely thought of in the same category, as tools for dirtying-up signals in a useful way.

Distortion may also refer to the overloading of an input or output in a damaging way (ie, digital clipping, which is rarely desirable.)

Check out The ultimate guide to effects: distortion for more.

Dither

Random noise added to a signal in order to "disguise" ugly quantisation noise caused by a reduction in bit depth - for example, when converting a 24-bit audio file to a 16-bit one.

More accurately, it's essentially the conversion of one form of digital noise into another that's more pleasant to listen to. Dither is often an option in the export settings of your DAW.

Driver

In computing, a driver is a software layer that sits between the operating system/applications and a piece of connected hardware, such as an audio interface or MIDI keyboard, enabling the two to communicate.

With audio interfaces, a chief concerns is reducing latency, and to that end, a 'serious' driver such as ASIO (Windows) or CoreAudio (OS X) is best. Most modern audio interfaces of any quality support both.

In loudspeakers, the driver is the speaker cone and the electrical mechanism causing it to move, thus creating soundwaves.

Drum machine

A device that mimics the sounds of the drum kit and other percussion instruments, using either synthesis or sample playback, usually including sequencing for creating rhythms with them. There are many plugins that emulate classic drum machines such as Roland's TR series.

Dry

In effects, the dry signal is the effect-free input signal; the wet is the signal with the effect applied. In some effects (eg, reverb) the 'dry' signal is mixed with the 'wet' one to achieve the desired amount of the added effect, and there's usually a dry/wet control for the user to set this.

Dry also describes a sound with little or no reverb/ambience, ie, sounding as if it was recorded in a 'dead' room.

DSP

The manipulation of a digital data signal - including audio - is known as Digital Signal Processing. Effects plugins, mixer EQs and timestretch algorithms are all examples of DSP.

DSP also refers to dedicated Digital Signal Processor hardware, such as Universal Audio's UAD-2 series. With UAD-2 DSP hardware connected to the computer, UAD-2 plugins are loaded as normal in your DAW, but the actual processing takes place inside the DSP hardware, thus reducing the load on the computer's CPU.

Ducking

The process of one signal being reduced in volume by the presence of another, either by a fixed amount or dynamically, where the signal is ducked more when the control signal gets louder.

Ducking can serve all manner of purposes, from making a bassline or synth pad pulse in time with a kick drum to lowering the volume of a music track in a radio broadcast when the DJ talks.

It's usually done using sidechain compression: in the radio example, the DJ's voice feeds into the sidechain input of a compressor (as well as its mixer input,) while the music feeds into the same compressor's main input.

When the voice hits the sidechain, the compressor responds to it by dropping the volume of the music track.

Dynamic mic

The most affordable type of microphone, dynamic mics work like a loudspeaker in reverse, converting movement of a diaphragm by sound waves into a high-gain signal that doesn't require pre-amplification before being connected to a recording device or processor.

Dynamics

The changing volume of a sound over time, and how loud or quiet it is in relation to other sounds and itself. Dynamics processors - including compressors, gates and transient-shaping effects - manipulate these aspects.

Read more about The A to Z of computer music: D at MusicRadar.com

Creative looping video guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:56:00 GMT

Read more about Creative looping video guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings at MusicRadar.com

Looping pedals have been with us for a while now, finding favour with everyone from buskers to stadium rockers. Listen carefully, and you'll notice the best players go well beyond looping basics, using the technology to make one guitar sound like an orchestra, create multi- layered soundscapes, or build whole song structures out of interconnecting loops.

A virtuoso player, Alex Hutchings is an avid user of looping technology. He has helped Boss develop some of its most innovative products, and is an international clinician for the Japanese brand - so he knows his tech, too. In this video, he gives us a five-step tutorial to get you looping more creatively than ever before.

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Read more about Creative looping video guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings at MusicRadar.com

Creative looping guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:56:00 GMT

Read more about Creative looping guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings at MusicRadar.com

Buy Guitarist on Apple Newsstand.
Subscribe to Guitarist magazine.

Read more about Creative looping guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings at MusicRadar.com

8 mastering myths debunked

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:04:00 GMT

Read more about 8 mastering myths debunked at MusicRadar.com

Future Music separate the mastering myths from the audio truth that you need to know in this eight-slide gallery of top mastering knowledge.

Read more about 8 mastering myths debunked at MusicRadar.com

FM's guide to mastering: Using mid/side EQ

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:34:00 GMT

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Using mid/side EQ at MusicRadar.com

Using a Mid/Side EQ can be very useful in the mastering process. Basically it splits a stereo signal into 'Mid' and 'Side' channels. Now, the Mid is all the mono information, that is to say everything which is identical in the left and right speaker, and the Side channel is the opposite: It contains any information which is different between the left and the right speaker.

You will find that bass and drums often reside in the Mid channel whereas wider elements, such as stereo reverb and pannedelements, will be found occupying the sides. It's incredibly useful sometimes to have a listen to this split signal on a stereo song as it gives you an opportunity to get a glimpse 'under the hood'. Maybe there is some strange resonance that is problematic only in the Mid channel that you can get rid of with a surgical EQ with a narrow Q cut, while leaving the nice sides alone. Maybe you wish to roll off the bass in the Side channel – to tighten up the low-end and focus that kick drum.

1. Pro-Q is a great EQ from FabFilter which has Mid/ Side capabilities. Simply switch to Mid/Side in theChannel Mode section, then you can EQ the Mid and Side separately. In this instance I have rolled off the low-end in the sides, with a smooth 6dB per octave curve starting quite high up, while the mid is EQ'd slightly differently: rolling off with a steeper curve and a little boost on the subs before the cut.

2. You could give the sides a boost in the high-end to bring out the intricacies lurking in the reverbs andeffects. When used subtly this can bring out a bit of shine in the top-end and help open up the track. It's useful to be able to test whether this high-end boost sounds better on the sides alone, the mid alone, or the mid and side combined. It gives you more flexibility as a mastering engineer to have these extra options available to you.

3. Here is the resonant frequency adjustment option we discussed earlier in action. I'm removing a little bit ofresonance from a problematic frequency, but only in the mid channel, while leaving the sides untouched. This adds another level of control to your bag-of-tricks as a mastering engineer, and gives you much more precise and flexible EQ options when dealing with problematic frequencies than just a standard EQ.

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Using mid/side EQ at MusicRadar.com

FM's guide to mastering: Dynamic EQ

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:16:00 GMT

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Dynamic EQ at MusicRadar.com

Dynamic EQ really is a versatile and useful tool, and for many producers it can be a fantastic, and much-needed, problem solver. In short, it is a virtual processor which can be used for eliminating the shortcomings of static EQ by providing a dynamically applied equalization to your work.

It combines multiband compression and EQ, and can be a powerful tool in many ways. For example, removing problematic frequencies, boosting a weak kick drum, de-essing, or toning downa troublesome element that is causing you problems when it's playing in the song. Dynamic EQ works just like a regular static EQ, except for one important thing – you can set a compression threshold, so only when a specified frequency rangepasses over that threshold it is reduced or boosted accordingly by the desired amount.

For example, if you cut a frequency in a dynamic EQ, it won't apply that cut until the frequency crosses a threshold. This can be exceptionally usefulin toning down a hi-hat that's too loud, for instance, or for reducing the volume on a very resonant tom drum that only occurs every-so-often in your track.Let's take a second out and look at the possibilities of the dynamic EQ a little more...

1. In this song I'm using a great Mid/Side dynamic EQ from Brainworx called bx_dynEQ, and by sweeping about with an extreme boost and a narrow Q (and threshold all the way to the right), I've found that there is a problematic resonant frequency at 349Hz, and it occurs once every four bars. I'm going to remove some of this frequency, but I only want the EQ cut to occur when the sound plays.

2. I switch the EQ to 'Cut' and reset my threshold to 'off'. Then, slowly move the threshold to the right until I can see the narrow red cut begin to take action once the sound is playing. This tells me I'm targeting the right frequency, as it only seems to spring into action once the sound is playing, and when the sound isn't playing there is no movement at all. I've successfully targeted a specific frequency that was a little overbearing.

3. However, in this next image, I've done the opposite and used the dynamic EQ as an expander, and boosted the sub in the kick drum every time it plays, while also sucking out some of the bass in the sides each timethe kick hits. This only springs into action when the kick crosses the threshold, so it's not the same as using a standard static EQ to simply boost the low-end, as it is specific to parts of the song where the kick is in action.

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Dynamic EQ at MusicRadar.com

FM's guide to mastering: Understanding parallel compression

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:24:00 GMT

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Understanding parallel compression at MusicRadar.com

Parallel processing is a powerful weapon used by many mastering engineers. This process involves duplicating the signal, i.e. having two versions of the same song (let's call them 'A' and 'B'), and then very heavily compressing signal B while leaving signal A untouched by compression.

As a result you turn the negative implications of compression around into upward expansion. Signal A's dynamic range remains entirely untouched, which is great, and it becomes complimented by the heavily squashed signal B, which can really 'beef-up' the overall impact of the song. It's kind of like having an ugly wingman to make you look good.Signal B is only there to compliment signal A and so not much of signal B is needed to have a nice effect.

Let's see how it's done...

1. In your choosen DAW, add a compressor to your track. Make sure the audio is passing through the compressor completely unaffected, like here: ratio 1:1 and threshold 0.

2. Duplicate the track, add a group to the project, and assign the output of the two tracks to the new group.This combines the two signals.

3. Now it's time to squash the life out of track B. Consider what effect you'd like to achieve. Would youlike the drums to become a bit punchier? If so, a slower attack time may help allow some of the peaks through.

4. Blend to taste with the volume fader. A good tip is to start with B fully turned down, close your eyes andslowly turn it up until it feels right. Remember you won't need much of B to achieve the desired effect. It's only intended to add support and strength to A.

5. Remember to volume match. The way we have set up our signal flow here will mean we need to createanother clean version of the song as a reference track. Here I've turned down the group 'combined signal' by 0.7dB. We can see the peak values are each hitting -5.3dB.

6. You can achieve very different sounds by changing attack and release times. If the track feels a little weaktry an fast attack on B's compressor and fast release, removing all transients on B. When this is added to track A then, it can provide a bit of reinforcement.

Read more about FM's guide to mastering: Understanding parallel compression at MusicRadar.com

The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:26:00 GMT

Read more about The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson at MusicRadar.com

Every other Wednesday, Rhythm and Drum Guru will be bringing you exclusive weekly drum lessons with drumming greats, and this week it's the return of Journey and Vital Information's Steve Smith. This week he discusses the influence of the great Tony Williams.

Drum Guruis the drum lesson app for iPad and iPhone, bringing you lessons from some of the greatest ever players including David Garibaldi, Tommy Igoe, Mike Mangini, Steve Smith, Steve Gadd, Chad Smith, and Mike Portnoy, on everything from rudimental concepts to shuffles and how to play individual tracks by those artists. Check out www.drumguru.comfor more, and happy playing!

Read more about The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson at MusicRadar.com

Future Music's guide to mastering: Understanding dynamic range and compression

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Read more about Future Music's guide to mastering: Understanding dynamic range and compression at MusicRadar.com

Check out the video above to hear Conor Dalton, a mastering engineer who runs Glowcast Audio Mastering, explain dynamic range and compression.

Conor Dalton

What is mastering?
"In my experience there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the world of mastering, its capabilities and its limitations. I'd describe it as the last link in the music production chain, somewhere between a final mix and a completed project, where audio can be optimised through subtle processing, errors checked and all involved made to feel good. It's the process of creatively enhancing audio before preparing and transferring recorded audio to a device such as a CD or vinyl – and not a chance to remix or fix an otherwise bad recording."

"This master is the copy from which all further copies are created."

What does mastering include?
"Mastering is the final chance you get to sonically change your music through techniques such as EQ and compression and the last chance you get to bring out the best of your sound. As a mastering engineer it's my job to make all the individual elements of the song gel together in harmony, as well as balancing the song tonally with EQ and removing minor flaws such as pops and clicks.

"As I've already implied, if your mix has problems, you're going to struggle to get an amazing sounding mastered record. Mastering isn't the place for fixes, rather it's the art of balance: audio feng shui, if you will. That means that it can never make a bad mix good, but it can certainly help make a good mix great. When mastering for CD, tracks are also spaced with appropriate distance between them so the whole album flows well artistically and ISRC and UPC/EAN codes can be embedded if necessary. Then the 'master' is created, for example a digital WAV or AIFF file, CD or vinyl.

"This master is the copy from which all further copies are created. The goal of mastering is for the finished songs to sound great on any sound system, whether that's a stadium live rig, or a home stereo. You want mastering to be mainly constructive instead of corrective: you want to be enhancing the audio, and not spending all your time fixing mistakes that occurred during the mix. Therefore, it's essential to get your mix sounding just the way you like it to the best of your ability before mastering.

"Your job when applying creative processing techniques in the mastering stage is to recognise the point at which you have successfully pushed the audio to its optimum position, before the sound begins to deteriorate through over-processing. It can also include adjusting stereo width, surgical EQ to remove unwanted resonances, and limiting, for example."

"Understanding your options and limitations is the essence of mastering."

Can you make my track loud at the mastering stage?
"Yes, but something you must understand is that loudness comes at the expense of dynamic range. Mastering is not just simply making something loud. I get asked a lot if I can make someone's song 'as loud as' another artist and one of the most common problems I encounter from tracks I get sent as a mastering engineer is over compression on the mix to achieve loudness.

"Loudness is really an illusion, as we all have volume control on our hi-fi or stereo: I chat some more about this on the video tutorials with this month's magazine. While it's often desirable to aim for competitive loudness, it's not wise to completely kill the dynamic range of your song in order to achieve it. When you reduce the distance between the loudest peak and the quietest sound through compression to achieve loudness you can achieve a 'fuller' sound.

"However, if you tread too far and over-do it, then you're sacrificing some of the essential and powerful peaks for the benefit of the quieter sounds, and as a result you compromise some sonic integrity to achieve that loudness. Understanding your options and limitations is the essence of mastering."

Metering can play a vital part in keeping dynamic range in check

Understanding dynamic range

"Understanding dynamic range is essential to achieving a good sound. It's the difference and distance between the loudest peak in the track, and the quietest sound. Compression reduces this distance to achieve an overall feeling of increased 'loudness'. Now consider this analogy: imagine the dynamic range of the human voice in everyday conversation.

"Remember that the human ear naturally prefers some dynamic range in music."

"The loudest sound in a conversation is a scream, and the quietest sound is a whisper. If you were to reduce the distance in volume between a shout and a whisper, your whole conversation may become more up front and in your face, more exciting, and the whisper easier to hear at the expense of subtly toning down the screaming just a touch.

"However, consider the implications of pushing it too far. The screaming is toned down, meaning less impact and severity and the whispers become inappropriately loud, meaning no more secrets: your conversation becomes less expressive, emotive and articulate if you reduce the dynamic range too much to achieve an overall loudness.

"When using compression, remember that a volume boost or cut added by the compressor is deceiving."

"It's exactly the same for music. Your job at the mastering stage is to recognise what compression (if any) is needed, and how much is appropriate before the audio begins to deteriorate and the sonic integrity is compromised to achieve loudness. Remember that the human ear naturally prefers some dynamic range in music, and an overly loud and compressed sound is very fatiguing to listen to after a while as it lacks depth. Imagine a roller coaster that didn't go up and down, but rather just coasted along on a straight line high up in the air, it wouldn't be very exciting would it? It's the ups and downs in music (and roller coasters) that excite us, so if everything is pushed to become loud then the importantelements of the song that should be prioritised will lose impact."

Tip: "When using compression, remember that a volume boost or cut added by the compressor is deceiving. It's good practice to always volume-match your output with make-up gain, so make sure the compressed and uncompressed signals are the same volume when you flick on/off on your compressor. This way, you only hear the effects of compression and not the unhelpful change in volume, which can trick you into thinking that because the compressed signal is louder it's 'better'. This is a good way to maintain sonic integrity when adjusting dynamic range through compression."

Can I master my own music?
"Of course you can, however, one of the major benefits of having your music mastered professionally by someone else is for a fresh set of ears to provide a new perspective on your music. We all know that feeling when you've been listening to your track for weeks and you just can't tell if creative processing changes are required anymore. This is where a fresh perspective can be essential: A first impression often can reveal a lot about your audio."

Read more about Future Music's guide to mastering: Understanding dynamic range and compression at MusicRadar.com

The A to Z of computer music: C

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:26:00 GMT

Read more about The A to Z of computer music: C at MusicRadar.com

We unleash a concentrated cavalcade of definitions, cluing you in on some of the finer points of MIDI, filters and microphones.

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Cardioid (pickup pattern)

A microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern is more sensitive to sound coming from directly ahead than from behind it, as shown in the diagram above. In short, whatever you point the mic at comes out loudest, and whatever's behind it is most strongly rejected.

Carrier signal

In applications of modulation such as AM/FM or a vocoder, a carrier signal is modulated by another signal (the modulator,) resulting in an output that responds to both signals. In a vocoder, the carrier signal is the sound you want to effect (typically a synth sound,) while the modulator signal (usually a vocal) has the characteristics you want to apply to the carrier.

CC (MIDI)

A MIDI CC (Control Change aka Continuous Controller) is a type of MIDI data that's used to control parameters like modulation, volume, pan and sustain. When you see a MIDI controller with knobs and faders, those generally send out MIDI CCs. Once you've set up your software to receive the corresponding CCs, you can use the physical controls to manipulate things like volume or filter cutoff, and record your movements. MIDI CCs can also be programmed using the mouse.

CD (compact disc)

CDs themselves are increasingly obsolete, but CD-quality audio is still very relevant, being the standard quality for audio consumption. Specifically, we mean a 16-bit signal with a sample rate of 44,100Hz (44.1kHz).

Cents

A unit used to divide musical pitch. Semitone = 100 cents; Octave = 1200 cents.

Channel (audio)

Audio signals are described as having a certain number of channels. For instance, mono audio has just one channel; stereo has two; while surround sound audio might have 5.1 channels (five 'full range' and the '.1' containing low- frequency information only, for the subwoofer.)

Channel (mixer)

In your music program (DAW,) audio from various sources (eg, recorded audio tracks, virtual instruments, real instruments/mics connected to your audio interface) flows through channels in your DAW's virtual mixer, ultimately arriving at a destination (typically a channel called the 'master', which is fed to your audio interface's output.)

Each channel has its own settings, such as volume, panning, insert effects, send effects levels, and so on. Several related channels may be routed to a group channel (aka group bus) for broader control.

The terms 'track' and 'channel' are often used interchangeably. While they are technically different, they're so intrinsically related that it's rarely a source of confusion, and the context almost always makes the meaning clear.

Channel (MIDI)

MIDI data can be sent on one of 16 channels. This was very necessary in the bad old days of hardware because typical setups sent the same MIDI data to all devices. Your devices would then filter just the MIDI notes (and other data) intended for them, eg, bass on channel 1, lead on channel 2, etc.

In modern DAWs, you can usually send MIDI to specific devices, so you may not actually need to worry about channels at all.

As well as so-called Channel Messages (Note On, Note Off, Pitchbend, Control Change, etc), MIDI can also send System Messages, which all MIDI devices in the setup should heed.

Chorus

This effect duplicates the audio signal, then delays one version by between 15 and 35 miliseconds, modulating the time/tuning of the delayed signal to give an effect similar to unison, where multiple instruments play the same thing. Chorus can be thickened further by using more of these delayed voices, each with slightly different delay, modulation and panning values.

Clicks/pops

Digital clicks and pops can occur whenever there is an abrupt change in the signal level. This may happen if you cut the start (or end) of a piece of audio at a point where the waveform is not at or near-zero. When played, the signal will jump immediately from zero to the waveform's starting value, sometimes resulting in an audible click. The solution is to make your cuts at zero- crossing points, and/or to use short fades and crossfades when editing audio.

Clipping

If you've ever tried to push digital audio to its loudest, you'll have heard the distorted sound of the signal 'clipping'.

An audio interface can reproduce a maximum signal amplitude of 0dBFS (dB Full Scale). If the signal is pushed louder than this on your DAW's master channel, the data for the top and bottom parts of it will be 'clipped' off and lost - as pictured in the diagram above.

The same happens when audio is saved to an integer format such as 8-bit, 16-bit or 24-bit. Floating point formats (eg, 32-bit float) can store data above 0dBFS, but it would still clip upon playback unless you reduce its level first.

While individual audio tracks in a project may not be so loud as to clip, multiple tracks played together may result in a rise in level to the point of clipping. Clipping may occur momentarily, as a fast, high peak that we may not always notice. Fortunately, most DAWs indicate clipping with a red light in the mixer or transport. Clipping is commonly prevented using a brickwall limiter.

Comb filter

When a signal is mixed with a slightly delayed version of itself, the result is a cancellation of certain frequencies at regular intervals due to phase interaction. For example, delaying the signal by 1ms will create frequency 'dips' or 'notches' at 500Hz, 1500Hz, 2500Hz, 3500Hz and so on, creating the spectrum's resemblance to a comb. The effect can be intensified by applying feedback to the delay.

Chord

Two or more notes played at the same time.

Combo input

Audio interfaces may be furnished with XLR inputs, jack inputs or a mixture of the two. A combo input does exactly as you'd expect – it allows you to insert either of the two into one socket, though not at the same time, of course.

Compression (codec)

Audio file formats like WAV/AIFF can offer pristine sound quality, but they can also be very large. For convenience, audio is compressed into a smaller file size using codecs such as the ubiquitous MP3 and the free-to-use Vorbis (aka Ogg Vorbis.)

These aim to remove parts of an audio signal that listeners would - in theory - not be able to hear anyway, thereby reducing the space required to store the audio.

Naturally, the resulting decoded audio is not the same as the audio that went in; we call this lossy, as opposed to the lossless nature of WAV/AIFF.

In practice, this aggressive removal of parts of the audio signal can be audible, and the quality of the compressed audio depends mainly on the target bitrate (measured in kbps.)

A 128kbps MP3 is easy to spot, whereas a 320kbps can be practically indistinguishable from the WAV source. Beware of using these files for music-making, though, as processing can expose their hidden lack of quality.

Compressor

One of the most important audio processors to get your head round. Music is a mixture of quiet and loud parts (dynamics) and, in simple terms, a compressor will act to reduce the difference between them, reducing the dynamic range.

Use compression to:

Reign in a sloppy performance, bringing the levels of the notes to similar levels
Add more perceived power to a signal
'Glue together' an entire mix or a sub-group of
tracks such as those of a drum kit

For more on the finer points of compression, check out Computer Music 170's huge compression feature. Or for more background on dynamics processing, read the ultimate guide to effects: dynamics.

Condenser microphone

Rather than the moving magnetic parts of a dynamic microphone, a condenser (sometimes called a capacitor) microphone uses two charged electric plates to create an electrical signal from sound. While generally more expensive than a dynamic mic, a condenser performs better at higher frequencies, providing a lighter, airier sound. Note that condenser mics must be used with a mixer or audio interface capable of providing phantom power of 48V.

Convolution

Convolution allows us to take a sampled 'snapshot' of a process (ie, an effect) and apply its characteristic sound to another signal. Think of it as a sort of sampler, but one that samples an effect rather than actual sounds.

Note that convolution only works fully for so-called linear processes; non-linear aspects such as distortion, dynamic response or modulation will not be captured. Typical uses of convolution are for emulating speaker cabinets, EQ curves and the reverb of actual rooms. A captured 'snapshot' is called an impulse response.

Core audio

The under-the-hood audio system in Mac OS X and iOS, this provides a built-in solution for smooth, low-latency audio playback, MIDI, processing, etc.

CPU

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is your computer's calculating brain, often referred to as the 'processor'. The rate at which the CPU can perform calculations is given in GHz (billions per second.) Most modern CPUs consist of a number of 'cores', essentially duplicating the processing circuitry to allow multiple calculations to be performed at once.

Piling on too many plugins can tax your CPU, often indicated in your DAW by a CPU meter. If you max out your CPU, you can expect the audio to break up and stutter as the computer fails to keep up. You can alleviate the situation by disabling some of the plugins (just bypassing them doesn't always work) or freezing particularly intensive tracks.

Crossfade

Just as the end of an audio sample can be faded in or out, two audio samples can be 'crossfaded' together, bringing the volume of the first down as the volume of the second rises. This is good for seamless looping of samples, avoiding clicks and pops that could occur between two parts.

Crossover

Splits a signal into two or more frequency bands that can then be processed separately before being recombined. The split occurs around a designated crossover frequency.

Cutoff/centre frequency

The frequency at which a filter will come into effect. For instance, take the example of a high-pass filter that has been set to 'cut off' at 800Hz. Regardless of how steep the filter's slope is, the cutoff frequency of 800Hz is the frequency at which the signal has been reduced by -3dB.

Read more about The A to Z of computer music: C at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal riffing (TG241)

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:23:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal riffing (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Tone set to scooped, distortion cranked to meltdown -- it's time to learn a riff that mixes three essential heavy techniques

Download Total Guitar issue 241 for the accompanying tab and explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio from 13 May 2013.

Tutor: James Uings
Videographer: Martin Holmes

Full tab and audio for Bonecrusher

You'll find the full track, backing track and tab for Rockschool's Grade Two piece, Bonecrusher, below. Clicking on the links will stream the audio/open the tab. Alternatively, you can download then all by right-clicking and choosing 'save as' or 'save target as', depending on your choice of browser.

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher full track (right-click to download)

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher backing track (right-click to download)

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher tab (right-click to download)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Read more about VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal riffing (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Riff Of The Month: Limp Bizkit - Ready To Go (TG241)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:40:00 GMT

Read more about Riff Of The Month: Limp Bizkit - Ready To Go (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Master the slick Whammy pedal guitar lines in Wes Borland and co's 2013 single, Ready To Go

Download Total Guitar issue 241 for the accompanying explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio (http://www.zinio.com) from 13 May 2013

Tutor: Jamie Hunt
Videographer: Martin Holmes

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Read more about Riff Of The Month: Limp Bizkit - Ready To Go (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: RGT Grade Three Rock - Rhythm playing (TG241)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:24:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: RGT Grade Three Rock - Rhythm playing (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Kick your chord-based rhythm playing into touch as TG continues its series on RGT's Grade Three improvisation tests

Download Total Guitar issue 241 for the accompanying tab and explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio from 13 May 2013

Tutor: Chris Bird
Videographer: Martin Holmes

Audio for Grade Three Rock improv track in C major

You can stream and download RGT's Grade Three Rock track in C major below

Clicking on the link will stream the audio in a new window. Alternatively, you can download the track by right-clicking and choosing 'save as' or 'save target as', depending on your choice of browser

RGT Grade Three Rock improv track in C major (right-click to download)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Read more about VIDEO: RGT Grade Three Rock - Rhythm playing (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: Essentials guitar lesson (TG241)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:03:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: Essentials guitar lesson (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Put a little bit of creative flair in your rhythm playing with TG's easy pedal tone riffs

Download Total Guitar issue 241 for the accompanying tab and explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio (http://www.zinio.com) from 13 May 2013

Heavy metal riffing

Pink Floyd style riff

Tutor: Chris Bird
Videographer: Martin Holmes

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Read more about VIDEO: Essentials guitar lesson (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up (TG241)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:43:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

Get your fingerpicking up to speed as TG takes you through the main parts of Ben's hit single from 'Every Kingdom'

Intro/Verse

Chorus

Middle

Tutor: Chris Bird
Videographer: Martin Holmes

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Read more about VIDEO: Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: Andy James Guest Lesson (TG241)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:35:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: Andy James Guest Lesson (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

The sacred mother tongue guitarist unveils some of his tricks and tips on improvised heavy metal soloing

Solo 1/intro

Solo 2/verse

Solo 3/chorus

Tutor: Andy James
Videographer: Martin Holmes

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Read more about VIDEO: Andy James Guest Lesson (TG241) at MusicRadar.com

How to mix a track with headphones

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:29:00 GMT

Read more about How to mix a track with headphones at MusicRadar.com

There are many differences between experiencing a track on speakers and on headphones.

If you only ever use headphones for mixing, it's all too easy to misjudge your mixes. Common mistakes include making the stereo field too narrow, and not splashing enough reverb onto vocals and synth parts, leaving them overly dry. Judging how much of any effect to use should be a decision that's made through listening on both cans and monitors.

A well produced track should sound great on everything from laptop speakers to a high-end hi-fi. Don't forget: just because you can mix on headphones doesn't necessarily mean that you should.

That said, there are techniques that can help you mix more accurately when using just a sat of cans. On the next few slides we'll guide you step-by-step through the process of mixing a track without using monitors.

For loads more on working on headphone check out the May issue of Computer Music (CM 190) which is on sale now.

Read more about How to mix a track with headphones at MusicRadar.com

Free Drum Lesson of the Week

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:07:00 GMT

Read more about Free Drum Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

Every Wednesday, Rhythm and Drum Guru will be bringing you exclusive weekly drum lessons with drumming greats, and this week it's the turn of Journey and Vital Information's Steve Smith, who reveals his approach to one of his incredible drum solos.

Read more about Free Drum Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

Free Drum Lesson of the Week

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:47:00 GMT

Read more about Free Drum Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

Every Wednesday, Rhythm and Drum Guru will be bringing you exclusive weekly drum lessons with drumming greats, and this week it's the turn of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' funky monk, Chad Smith. Here he shows you how to play the groove from 'Ready Made' from the Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium.

Read more about Free Drum Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

Free Lesson of the Week

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:40:00 GMT

Read more about Free Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

Every Wednesday, Rhythm and Drum Guru will be bringing you exclusive weekly drum lessons with drumming greats, and this week it's the turn of Mike Portnoy, who talks about one of his greatest influences, John Bonham.

Read more about Free Lesson of the Week at MusicRadar.com

11 Ableton Live 9 tips and tricks

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:26:00 GMT

Read more about 11 Ableton Live 9 tips and tricks at MusicRadar.com

The long-awaited ninth version of Ableton Live has been with us for a month now.

We've had plenty of time to get to grips with all the new feature like Audio-To-MIDI conversion, the Glue Compressor, the revamped EQ Eight and all the MIDI editing tweaks - to find out what we make of them all, read of Live 9 review.

Here we bring you eleven tips and tricks aimed at helping you to work smarter and more creatively, and to get the most out of all of Live 9's new features.

For loads more on working with Live 9, including in-depth tutorials related to each of the headline features, check out the May issue Computer Music (CM 190) which is on sale now.

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Mix with your eyes

Good mixing is all about making space for your parts. EQ Eight now offers a large and clear display and analyser to apply to every channel, without causing much CPU strain. The note value display is useful for making space for an instrument whose notes you know. If you're trying to make space for your bassline in, say, a string chord, it's easy to notch out those notes by sight.

Electronic body music

Try writing an entire track using your mouth, a mic and Convert Audio To MIDI. So, humming, singing, whistling or even scatting all your musical parts and beat-boxing your drums. It sounds quite contrived, but you'll quickly realise how much more expressive many of us can be when we use what is, for most of us, the most direct path from our imagination to realisation.

Finders keepers

Use Audio-To-MIDI on some complex solo instrumental music such as energetic piano jazz and then cut out the tasty little fills, flourishes, slides and descending segues that are so hard to program by hand. Convert them to MIDI, then pop them all in their own folder with a link in the Browser's Places. Now you can tailor the notes to your own tracks.

Kick it off in Arrangement View

If you usually start tracks in Session View, try a more conventional approach using an eight-bar loop in the Arrangement View and then transfer it to a Scene. This way you can create less blocky and linear eight-bar loops, since it's easier to insert gaps and mid-loop variations in Arrangement View.

Modulate using Max

Remember that you can use the Max For Live MIDI devices to modulate other devices. This could be an LFO modulating the rate of a step-sequencer or the wet/dry control of a Convolution Reverb or Buffer Shuffler - just go nuts. And don't forget to experiment with the full range of controls on the modulation source (such as the aforementioned LFO.)

Clean then convert

When converting audio to MIDI, it is often useful to gate the audio, for cleaner results. Alternatively, if it's part of a full and busy loop, slice the audio to a sampler track, delete all but the notes you're after, freeze and flatten the result and then convert it to MIDI.

Mirror your MIDI

If you have a one-bar MIDI riff or other part playing over eight bars, try using the MIDI drag and reverse to create a backwards version for the eighth bar. This is even more effective when the riff is obviously ascending or descending, like an arpeggio.

Key knowledge

Spend some time learning the new key commands. There aren't so many as to be off-putting, but they can dramatically speed up your workflow.

Make it Max-only

If you're a Suite owner, try to make a track using only Max For Live devices (external samples are allowed!) Whenever you can't find something you need, try to make it. This is a great way to get to know what Max offers and how you can adapt its devices.

Master the MIDI functions

Ignore the new MIDI functions at your cost. Duplicate Loop will almost certainly be the most commonly used, but the transposition section will probably be a close second and third. Even if the old way of transposing is second nature to you, do yourself a favour and learn the new method.

Keep your Places tidy

The new Places section in Live's Browser is very handy, but many of the benefits are lost if you let it get cluttered. Remember: it's just as easy to remove folders from Places as it is to add them, and it doesn't delete the data, just the link.

Read more about 11 Ableton Live 9 tips and tricks at MusicRadar.com

VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal tone and powerchord riffing (TG240)

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:44:00 GMT

Read more about VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal tone and powerchord riffing (TG240) at MusicRadar.com

Dust off your distortion pedals as TG introduces a new guitar grade series that starts with some Pantera-style metal!

Download Total Guitar issue 240 for the accompanying tab and explanation - available in the UK and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch and Zinio from 15 April 2013.

Tutor: James Uings
Videographer: Martin Holmes

Full tab and audio for Bonecrusher

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher full track (right-click to download)

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher backing track (right-click to download)

Rockschool Grade Two Bonecrusher tab (right-click to download)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Read more about VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal tone and powerchord riffing (TG240) at MusicRadar.com

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Riff Of The Month: Daft Punk - Get Lucky (TG242)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Creating a great bass guitar sound

The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson

The A to Z of computer music: D

DAC

DAW

Decay

Decibel (dB)

dB/octave

Decoder

De-esser

Delay

DI

Digital audio

Directional pattern

Distortion

Dither

Driver

Drum machine

Dry

DSP

Ducking

Dynamic mic

Dynamics

Creative looping video guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings

Buy Guitarist on Apple Newsstand.Subscribe to Guitarist magazine.

Creative looping guitar lesson with Alex Hutchings

Buy Guitarist on Apple Newsstand.Subscribe to Guitarist magazine.

8 mastering myths debunked

FM's guide to mastering: Using mid/side EQ

FM's guide to mastering: Dynamic EQ

FM's guide to mastering: Understanding parallel compression

The Wednesday Free Drum Lesson

Future Music's guide to mastering: Understanding dynamic range and compression

Understanding dynamic range

The A to Z of computer music: C

Cardioid (pickup pattern)

Carrier signal

CC (MIDI)

CD (compact disc)

Cents

Channel (audio)

Channel (mixer)

Channel (MIDI)

Chorus

Clicks/pops

Clipping

Comb filter

Chord

Combo input

Compression (codec)

Compressor

Condenser microphone

Convolution

Core audio

CPU

Crossfade

Crossover

Cutoff/centre frequency

VIDEO: Rockschool Grade Two - Metal riffing (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

Riff Of The Month: Limp Bizkit - Ready To Go (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

VIDEO: RGT Grade Three Rock - Rhythm playing (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

VIDEO: Essentials guitar lesson (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

VIDEO: Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

VIDEO: Andy James Guest Lesson (TG241)

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar

How to mix a track with headphones

Free Drum Lesson of the Week

Free Drum Lesson of the Week

Free Lesson of the Week

11 Ableton Live 9 tips and tricks

Mix with your eyes

Electronic body music

Buy Guitarist on Apple Newsstand.
Subscribe to Guitarist magazine.

Buy Guitarist on Apple Newsstand.
Subscribe to Guitarist magazine.