Haunted House Records

Out Now : Dark Places - Dark Cinematic Soundscapes Sound Library

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 0:0:0 Pac

I am pleased to announce the release of my latest sound library called Dark Places. This library features 191 drones, soundscapeas, atmospheric effects and impacts designed to add tension to your music productions, or film/TV projects.

http://www.hauntedhouserecords.co.uk/SoundLibraries/ViewProduct/DarkPlaces

I am running an introductory offer on this library where you can purchase it for £19.99gbp instead of the full price of £24.99.

You can listen to the demo and get some demo samples at the above link.

Product Description
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Enter a world full of evil textures, twisted drones, and noise soundscapes designed to scare the hell out of any mortal. Dark Places features 191 twisted drones, and soundscapes ideal for music productions from dark ambient, dark electronic music through to Rock and Metal.

Dark Places is also ideal for use in your film and TV productions for adding that cinematic edge to your horror music, thriller music or any other scene that requires tension build ups.

Dark Places has been created by veteran sound designer Stephen Haunts. Stephen is no stranger to the darker side of music and has produced dark ambient albums that have received excellent reviews and acclaim. Stephen hasn't just stopped at music releases. He has produced dark cinematic soundscapes to the film industry as well as the BBC.

If you want your music to have that sinister edge or your horror / thriller films to scare the living daylights out of your audience then look no further than Dark Places.

This library features:

    - 147 Soundscapes and Drones.
    - 24 Weather and Atmospheric sounds effects.
    - 20 Impact sound effects.
    - 24bit 44khz Wave Files

Interesting Interview with Richard Devine

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 0:0:0 Pac

I found an interesting interview with Richard Devine today. Being a sound designer my self I really appreciate the kind of sonic decimation that Richard produces.

The interview gives a good insight into his working practices and talks also about algorithmic composition.

Ableton Libe 8 Quick Tips Video

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 0:0:0 Pac

Here is a cool tips video for ableton live I found on you tube. I knew a lot of these already, but I still found some interesting techniques in here.

Ableton Live may look simple on the surface but it really is an advanced sound design and music production powerhouse!!

Sneak Preview of latest Sample Library, Dark Places

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 0:0:0 Pac

I am getting ready for the release of a new sound library called Dark Places. This album contains nearly 4 gig of Dark Ambient/Cinematic soundscapes. Great for adding tension to your tracks or perfect for film/tv work.

Here is a sneak peek demo song.

The library should be out within the next few weeks.

Toxic Beats : Over 60% Saving. £4.99 instead of £14.99

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Fri, 1 Jul 2011 0:0:0 Pac

I have just launched a great special offer for my Toxic Beats sound library. From now until Monday 18th July you can buy Toxic Beats for only £4.99 saving £10.00 of the full price.

Toxic Beats presents lots of distorted, dirty and brutal kick and kick free beats and also 28 distorted and processed drum kits.

This library was already excellent value for money and this 2 week sale makes it an absolute steal!! You can use this library for many genres from Industrial, EBM, Techno, Electro Rock or any other form of harsh electronic music.

Sounds of Mummy : Womb Sound Ambient Album

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Thu, 9 Jun 2011 0:0:0 Pac

For the last few months I have been moving the Haunted House Records website over to a new server and completely redeveloping the site to use a custom content management system.

As part of this move we effectively took the Sounds Of Mummy website off-line. I have now put this product back on-line so the digital version can be purchased.

Sounds of Mummy is an ambient project I worked on a few years ago that simulated the sounds an unborn baby would hear in the womb. This disc can be used to calming new born babies who won't sleep. We used this to great effect to help calm my daughter in the first 6 months. It worked great!!! This album also makes for a really chilled ambient listening experience and has be bought by people who don't even have children. You can check out the recordings at the Sound of Mummy product page.

Social Network Interview with Trent Reznor

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Fri, 3 Jun 2011 0:0:0 Pac

Here is an interesting video interview and studio video with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The vid is from back in February but I came across it earlier today :-)

From this video I can honestly say I would really like a swarmatron synth :-)

Review : Frontier Designs Alphatrack

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Fri, 3 Jun 2011 0:0:0 Pac

Review Model : Self Purchased

Overall Score : 9 out of 10

PROs

Small desk footprint
Fast and Responsive flying faders
Lots of programmability
Useful screen for feedback
Touch Sensitive controls

CONs

Feels cheap in the hand
Very light
Drag strip takes a little getting used too

For a while I have been searching for the ultimate DAW controller. Initially I looked at some of the larger control surfaces from companies like Mackie, but I really didn't want a huge box on my desk. I work mainly in the box these days so I am keen to get away from large bulky mixing units.

For ages I just worked with the mouse and never really considered the single fader control surfaces until I read a post on the Reaper forums where someone was raving about them.

After looking a little deeper their seems to be 2 choices, the Frontier Designs Alpha Track and the Presonus Faderport. I was initially struck by the cool design of the FaderPort and the specs out-match that of the FaderPort. The only thing that concerned me was reading reports of a grounding issue that can make the screen on the device act a bit crazy. This worried me, but I decided to buy the unit anyway. If it exhibited the grounding problem then I would have just sent it back. There are hacks you can do to get around the problem, but I am not prepared to do that.

Once the Alphatrack turned up I was immediately struck by how light it was. Personally I like my hardware to have a little weight behind it, where as this just feel incredibly light in your hands. Some people may prefer this, but I don't.

The unit was very easy indeed to setup and it draws its power directly from the usb port which saves on cables. The unit is equipped with a single motorized, long-throw, 100mm fader, three rotary encoder knobs with integral push-switches, 22 buttons (with 21 status LEDs) and a horizontal, ribbon-controller-style pad for shuttling the timeline cursor through the song.

You can also use two fingers on the strip at the same time, to control the shuttle speed. A 32-character backlit display shows current parameter names and values, and there are direct mode buttons for controlling pan, sends, EQ, plug-ins and automation. The three rotary-encoder knobs are touch sensitive, so the display changes in a context-sensitive way when you adjust one. The knob functions are linked to whichever control mode has been selected using the buttons below. For example, in EQ mode, you can scroll through EQ bands and adjust all the necessary parameters.

A shift button extends the feature set, allowing eight function keys to be accessed and providing alternative functions for the transport controls in some DAWs. Dedicated record, solo and mute buttons reside alongside the fader, which always relates to the currently selected DAW track, bus or output. Note that in some DAWs, such as Logic, the mute and solo buttons control the DAW's mixer-page channels and not the Arrange page mutes and solos, the reason being that Logic can have multiple tracks on the Arrange page relating to the same mixer channel, so you need to be able to solo them individually. A jack socket on the rear panel accepts an optional standard momentary-action footswitch jack for hands-free punch-in recording.

The Alphatrack works with pretty much any DAW on the market. I have personally used it with Ableton Live, Reaper, and Cuabse 6. Setup in each DAW is very easy and Frontier Designs even have lots of help guides on their site for different daws.

The device feels very nice to use and everything is laid out logically. I am left handed which causes a slight problem as I need to use the device and mouse both with my left hand, but I just get on with it. Some other musicians I know who use it are right handed and they use the mouse with the right hand and the Alphatrack with the left, and the seem to really like this configuration.

I have been using this device for a couple of months now and I certainly couldn't imagine living without it. So, if you are on the look out for flying fader but don't want to use up loads of space with a larger control surface then this device is certainly for you.

9 out of 10

Review : Tascam DR-07 Field Recorder

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Fri, 3 Jun 2011 0:0:0 Pac

Review Model : Self Purchased

Overall Score : 7 out of 10

PROs

Sounds good for the price
Small
Well laid out screen
Easy to use

CONs

Feels cheap in the hand
Handling noise is a real issue if not mounted.
Supplied wind shield is useless

This review initially appeared on my old blog back in 2009. Since developing new blogging software for this site I decided to move the review over to this blog as this is still a very popular budget field recorder.

The other day I had a new portable field recorder turn up, the Tascam DR-07. This recorder has only just been released and is actually their entry level model sitting below the Tascam DR-01. I initially liked the idea of this recorder because it is nice and small so I can carry it with me everywhere.

I used to own a Zoom H4 recorder which was a pretty good recorder but it looked really weird. I know looks are not everything, but it did actually matter when trying to record in a busy location as it drew attention to itself which isn’t good when you are trying to be discreet.

As far as features go, this device has everything you could need to get sounds recorded and none of the nonsense features that other recorder seem to come with. The Tascam can record up to 24bit 44khz and it comes supplied with a 2 gig card in the box which I was impressed with.

The DR-07 has a built in set of condenser mics that can record in stereo. There is also a mic input and a line in socket. Both of these are the smaller 1/8? jack sockets.

The device goes from off to on and ready to record in under 5 seconds which isn’t too bad. To start recording you press the Record button once to arm the device. From here you can get your levels correct. Once you are happy with the levels you can press record again to start recording.

From the menus you can adjust different settings for recording like changing the mic gain, setting a low cut filter if you are recording in an area with wind or low frequency rumbles, and set the auto gain control. The only thing I didn’t like about the default settings was the fact auto gain control was turned on by default which I didn’t realize until after I checked my first test recordings at a train station where I could hear some pumping sounds as the compressor kicked in.

The menu system is very easy to navigate and feels very natural with the iPod syle rotary dial. The DR-07 does have some features that I will never use like looping and variable speed playback, but in all honesty I wont touch these, I just want to record sounds.

Another annoying but non deal breaking feature missing is that you cant seem to rename the audio tracks in its file system. The files are named sequentially like DR00001.wav. Certainly not a show stopper as when I have finished recording I just speak into the mic the location of the sound.

In the box you get the recorder it self, a set of manuals, a foam windshield and a USB cable.

Overall I am very impressed with this device. It doesn’t cost a lot (150 sterling), it is light and fits in the hand nicely. It is small enough to be discrete also. The sound quality from the build in mics is excellent and your recordings will have a great tonal character. I also bought an Audio Technica ATR25 shotgun mic to use with the device, but haven’t really tried it out yet.

Overall Score : 7 out ot 10

Amon Tobin Extended Live Trailer

steve@hauntedhouserecords.co.uk (Stephen Haunts) — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 0:0:0 Pac

I came across this cool video today showing the set design and technical preparation for Amon Tobins new Tour.

The set looks amazing and I found it very interesting to see they were using Derivatives Touch Designer to program and control the visuals. Touch Designer is a tool for authoring interactive visual art. It is used by a lot of live acts. I remember seeing a Richie Hawtin video video that showed how he used it for his plastikman tour. I'll see if I can find the video.

What I find interesting is how they have managed to line up and sync the visuals to the stage design. I think I'll have to see where Amon is playing in the UK and try to get tickets.