Music Technology News and Trends

MOTU is now shipping BPM Version 1.5, a major update of MOTU's rhythm production virtual instrument and UVI sound library for Mac and Windows. BPM 1.5's expanded library of more than 19 GB of kits, patterns, samples, loops and instruments covers dozens of new musical styles, such as big beat, dancehall, dub, electro, hard trance, house, drum 'n' bass, progressive, and others.

Abbey Road Studios in London reports that the facility has taken delivery of four NTP DAD AX24 8-channel AD/DA converters. All four will be deployed for recording sessions as microphone preamplifiers and analog-to-MADI interfaces, and operated in conjunction with Abbey Road's Pyramix digital audio workstations.

On August 24, the Audio Engineering Society's New York Section will host a 40th anniversary salute to Electric Lady Studios and the legacy of Jimi Hendrix. The guitarist celebrated the opening of his Electric Lady Recording Studios at 52 West 8th Street in New York City's Greenwich Village on August 26, 1970 and passed away on September 18, 1970 at the age of 27.

Classic ‘80s reverb in your DAW!

BPM 1.5's expanded library of more than 19 GB of kits, patterns, samples, loops and instruments covers dozens of new musical styles, such as big beat, dancehall, dub, electro, hard trance, house, drum 'n' bass, progressive and others. New software features include enhanced support for hardware MIDI controllers, a Note Repeat function and bank effects that can be saved with kits.

Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, has appointed industry veteran Doug Simpson (pictured) to spearhead a new sales initiative specifically geared toward providing the Las Vegas market with special access to all of GC Pro’s services, with a particular focus on the hotel/hospitality industry. GC Pro Director Rick Plushner made the announcement.

The Zildjian company, which has manufactured cymbals since its founding in 1623, announces the Gen16 Digital Vault, offering authentic, high-resolution acoustic samples of the company's most coveted, exclusive master "reference" cymbals, along with rare, limited-edition cymbals that were never available to the public. The company states that each cymbal has been hand-selected by Zildjian's Master Cymbal Tester, Paul Francis, from the "cymbal vault" at the company's workshop in Norwell, Mass., and meticulously recorded by John Emrich.

This Wednesday, August 4, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (Eastern), the Sennheiser Sound Academy will offer a session on key practices, topics and trends in the installed sound/systems integration business at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Times Square, New York City. This seminar is intended for worship leaders, system operators, mixers and technicians.

Check out new releases from top artists as picked by the EM editors for the August 2010 issue

Read Electronic Musician tips and techniques on using Reverb Plug-Ins for audio design

Electronic Musician looks at the production of Casiokids Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar 2010 Album

Tips and Techniques on Bouncing Tracks in Korg Kaossilator Pro Loop Recorder

Learn how to use FXpansion BFD2 drum sampler for your next audio project.

The BR-800 battery-powered digital recorder allows for up to four tracks to be recorded or eight tracks played back simultaneously, plus an additional stereo track dedicated to the built-in rhythm generator.

DJ Aquilina has recorded and created a collection of Deep House samples for Loopmasters, providing producers of Deep, progressive and minimal house and techno music with a range of samples.

Do you find your percussion isn't punchy enough?   Or that your vocals are wildly varied in volume?   Never fear - compression is here...

What is Compression?

You can think of a compressor plug-in as a virtual studio engineer with his hand on the volume knob - if the volume is too loud, he (or she, we don't discriminate!) will turn down the volume by a defined amount, depending on how loud it is.

This results in quieter sounds appearing louder, without increasing the volume of the sounds that are already loud.   This is used often on vocals in popular music, where it can considerably increase their clarity.


What can you do with Compression?

There are several controls found on conventional compressors...

Threshold - This is the level in decibels (dB) above which the volume is compressed.

Ratio - This is the ratio that determines how much the signal should be compressed.   A ratio of 5:1 means that if a signal goes over the threshold by 5dB, the compressor will reduce the signal to 1dB over the threshold.   Simple!

Attack - This is how fast the compressor kicks in after hearing a sound over the threshold - if it is long enough, this can result in really punchy initial hits, then compressing the tail ends of sounds; very useful on percussion.

Release - This is how fast the compressor kicks in after hearing a sound under the threshold, increasing the volume to the threshold level.

Soft/Hard Knee - This determines how smooth the compression is - the "Knee", or response curve, is less audibly noticeable when it is smoother, but takes longer to compress the signal as a result.

Gain - This allows for the entire volume of the signal to be increased or decreased.


Some useful techniques

1. Side-Chain Compression

By running another signal into a compressor with a "Side-chain" function, you can achieve a pumping effect used in countless electronic music productions, where a kick drum, for example, will make the rest of the music duck down under it rhythmically as it is played.

2. Over-Compressed drums

Want that insane, loud drum sound?   Try a really high ratio, a really low threshold, a really fast attack and as much gain as you can get away with without the sound clipping and distorting.   The result?   A crazy, noisy sound that is great for more energetic music!

3. Glitchy Percussion

Where compression is conventionally used to bring up the tail end of drum hits, you can do quite the opposite - by reducing the threshold considerably with a high ratio and having a short attack that allows just a fraction of the signal through, you can get some sweet clicky, glitchy percussion!

Are you always on the lookout for ways to improve your studio, but not so frequently in possession of the cash in order to do so?

Then here are a few suggestions for tweaks you can make to your music making menagerie with little or no money...


TVs are for more than Hollyoaks...

Has your favourite show just finished, or you've found yourself on YouTube more than ITV?   Use your old TV for massive second monitor!   Most TVs purchased in the last 5 years will probably have a monitor input, so give it a try and you'll have extra space for your DAW to stretch its legs!

They can also be great for putting lyrics on for vocalists to sing along to, or for watching YouTube videos when you're supposed to be finishing a song.


Windows ninety-what?!

Remember that old PC that just couldn't handle your entire soft-studio?   Well use your Old PC for VSTs!   Using programs like "FX Teleport", you can easily network up your old computer and start using it to make your software run faster!

Just assign those CPU-intensive VSTs to the old computer and watch as your host machine speeds away and your creative workflow follows suit.   Just imagine getting high quality multisamples like Synth Bass Analogy without having to worry about the associated computing cost!


It's not very roomy...

Constructing a makeshift Vocal Booth from duvets, old mic stands and willpower can result in much less roomy recordings from your microphone!   That once echoey overtone will be no more and you can rely on your plug ins to define what room that recording is in!


Take care of yourself...

...and you'll take care of making awesome music!   eBay a comfy office Chair (Or "borrow" one from your day job) and not only will your back thank you, but so will your ego.   Making sure you're comfortable is one of the most underrated parts of studio design!


I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you can look around and convert old, unused bits and bobs into studio gold; just be creative and unafraid of sellotape!

Are you always on the lookout for ways to improve your studio, but not so frequently in possession of the cash in order to do so?

Then here are a few suggestions for tweaks you can make to your music making menagerie with little or no money...


TVs are for more than Hollyoaks...

Has your favourite show just finished, or you've found yourself on YouTube more than ITV?   Use your old TV for massive second monitor!   Most TVs purchased in the last 5 years will probably have a monitor input, so give it a try and you'll have extra space for your DAW to stretch its legs!

They can also be great for putting lyrics on for vocalists to sing along to, or for watching YouTube videos when you're supposed to be finishing a song.


Windows ninety-what?!

Remember that old PC that just couldn't handle your entire soft-studio?   Well use your Old PC for VSTs!   Using programs like "FX Teleport", you can easily network up your old computer and start using it to make your software run faster!

Just assign those CPU-intensive VSTs to the old computer and watch as your host machine speeds away and your creative workflow follows suit.   Just imagine getting high quality multisamples like >>>>Synth Bass Analogy<<<<< without having to worry about the associated computing cost!


It's not very roomy...

Constructing a makeshift Vocal Booth from duvets, old mic stands and willpower can result in much less roomy recordings from your microphone!   That once echoey overtone will be no more and you can rely on your plug ins to define what room that recording is in!


Take care of yourself...

...and you'll take care of making awesome music!   eBay a comfy office Chair for under £50 (Or "borrow" one from your day job) and not only will your back thank you, but so will your ego.   Making sure you're comfortable is one of the most underrated parts of studio design!


I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you can look around and convert old, unused bits and bobs into studio gold; just be creative and unafraid of sellotape!

In 2007, the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing and BMS/Chace, a leading media data management firm, partnered with the Library of Congress to create both a standardized approach and a software model for gathering and managing metadata for recorded music. The resulting metadata standard, dubbed CCD (Content Creator Data), and accompanying studio collection application, were previewed June 14 and 15, 2010, in New York City at the DDEX (Digital Data Exchange, LLC) Plenary and NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Digital Task Force meetings.

Warner Music Nashville (WMN), the Nashville-based music operations of Warner Music Group Corp., announces that Rod Riley has been named president and CEO of Word Entertainment, WMG's Christian music division. In his new role, Riley will oversee Word's entire operation, including A&R, sales and marketing, music publishing, distribution, church resources and artist services.