Virtual Instruments V02#02 April-May 2006

APRI L/ MAY 2006 - VOL. 2 NO.
2
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THE WORLD OF SOFTSYNTHS AND SAMPLERS
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VERY DEEP CLI NI C:
Cubase
SX3
Most excellent tips for
the famous sequencer
Build the revolutionary
multi-machine rig its easy.
REVIEWED:
East West/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra
Professional Expansion Cakewalk Dimension Pro
Mick Fleetwood: Total Drumming Loopmasters Origin
Series: Percussionism, Raw Power, Hip Hop Progressions,
and Polyester Loops Line 6 Variac Workbench
Is Scarbee Imperial Drums XL the
most advanced drum library ever?
WIN a Universal Audio UAD-1 Ultra PAK in our Mungo Giveaway!

2 V I R T U A L I NS T R U ME NT S
From the
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Editor
Editor/publisher: Nick Batzdorf
Art director: Lachlan Westfall/Quiet Earth Design
Ad/marketing manager: Carl Marinoff
Web designer: Denise Young/DMY Studios
Contributors: Jim Aikin, Peter Buick, David Das, Doyle Donehoo, Jerry
Gerber, David Govett, Ashif King Idiot Hakik, Monte McGuire, Orren
Merton, Chris Meyer, Dave Moulton, Zack Price, Frederick Russ, Bruce
Richardson, Craig Sharmat, Lee Sherman, Dietz Tinhof, Jesse White.
Advertising contact: Carl Marinoff 818/590-0018.
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Welcome to the fifth issue of VI.
One of the hot topics for V.I. users these days is net-
working. And before going any farther, I want to empha-
size you should absolutely not get scared if you arent net-
working multiple computers in your rig. You can get a lot
of music out of a single machine, and theres plenty of
great material for you in this issue.
However, the large, streaming sample libraries we
have todaysuch as Scarbee Imperial Drums XL and the
EWQLSO XP orchestra reviewed in this issuecan devour a
significant part (SID XL) or all (EWQLSO XP) of a single
machine for breakfast. And theyre putting the machines to
good use, theyre not being wasteful.
So until the elusive single machine that can do all the
dancing becomes available, it makes sense in a more
deluxe rig to throw multiple computers at the job. And
now that computers have reached the point where the last
generation is still capable of running some V.l.s, thats all
the more practical; you can throw your old machines at
the job instead of sticking them in the garage.
Jesse White, consulting tech to some of the busiest com-
posers in Los Angeles, has contributed an article explaining
one really elegant way to set up a completely integrated
multi-machine rig. Its very clever. The entire thing can
stream into your main DAW, connected by just a single
CAT5e ethernet cable. That single cable carries multiple
channels of audio, MIDI, and the keyboard/video/mouse.
Jesse has actually done this in busy, high-pressure working
situationsits not just theoretical.
Now, many of you arent likely to use four or more
machines. The article is still well worth reading, because
you dont have go all the way with this kind of rig. Theres
a good chance you can incorporate some of its ideas into
your set-up.
For example, did you know theres a cross-platform fea-
ture built into Windows XP Pro (Remote Access) that lets
you share a keyboard, monitor, and mouse over ethernet?
Especially over gigabit ethernet, remote Access is snappy
enough to be perfectly usable. (The Mac client is available
for free download at www.Mactopia.com.)
Or maybe your laptop sits unused in its case when
youre not out sipping cappuccino. Why not just plug in
an ethernet cable, have it come up in a window in your
main DAW, and put it to work in your studio? For example.
Enjoy the issue.
Distributor: Rider Circulation Services, 3700
Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90065.
323/344-1200. Bipad: 05792, UPC: 0 744 70
05792 5 05
Standard disclaimer: Virtual Instruments
Magazine and its staff cant be held legally
responsible for the magazines contents or
guarantee the return of articles and graphics
submitted. Reasonable care is taken to ensure
accuracy. All trademarks belong to their owners.
Everything in here is subject to international
copyright protection, and you may not copy or
imitate anything without permission.
2006 Virtual Instruments, Inc.
Studio Farms
by Jesse White
A completely networked multi-machine studio set-up thats
expandable, safe, and completely streamlined
Letters
Launch
Introductions, updates, news
6
16
10
April/May 2006
V2.N2
Very Deep Clinic:
Logic Audios
Ultrabeat
By Orren Merton
Please dont make the mistake of ignoring this groovy instru-
ment built into Logic Audio Pro. Part 1 of a 2-part
tutorial/Very Deep Clinic
44
Very Deep Clinic:
First DAW
by Nick Batzdorf
A beginners guide to putting together a DAW (digital audio
workstation) for softsynths and samplers. Part 4: plug-in
processors
34
Very Deep Clinic:
Cubase Acumen
by Jim Aikin
A compelling collection of advanced editing tips for the
popular sequencer
Sampling with
King Idiot
by Ahif King Idiot Hakik
Some tweaks for popular libraries show how its possible to
customize programs to your needs
12
24
VI
V I R T U A L I NS T R U ME NT S 5
VI
VI
contents
reviews
30, 42
East West
Quantum Leap
Symphonic
Orchestra XP
By Nick Batzdorf
The second helping of this major
orchestral library rounds it out nicely
Scarbee Imperial
Drums
by Nick Batzdorf
Literally thousands of samples just
for hi-hat makes this one of the most
detailed libraries every sampled
Line 6 Variax
Workbench
by Craig Sharmat
A USB interface and software combi-
nation for Variax-family guitars lets
you recreate vintage guitars or create
new ones in real time
Mick Fleetwood:
Total Drumming
by Chris Meyer
Sony introduces Acid loops of the
famous drummer
Loopmasters
Origin Series:
Percussionism,
Raw Power, Hip
Hop Progres-
sions, and Poly-
ester Loops
by Chris Meyer
Affordable loops in different genres,
each done by producers who work
in the style
Cakewalk
Dimension Pro
by Lee Sherman
This all-in-one sample-based model-
ing synth covers everything from
electronics to orchestral writing
even including a lite version of
Garritan Personal Orchestra
April/May 2006
V2.N2
50
64
20
28
40
42
48
52
random
tip
MIDI Mockup
Microscope
by Frederick Russ
The second in a time-to-time series analyzing composers
MIDI programming techniques: Aaron Sapps Big Apple
Trends
An open letter to detractors of a new musical medium
By Jerry Gerber
The New York drum sound; setting up multi-timbral
Kontakt-family samplers in Logic
Y VI
There are two reasons I subscribed to your
magazine.
1. You stuck up for beginners, for whom
Im just one of many, in your response to the
letter on Networks, notation and no copying
(2-3/06). We beginners need all the basics
we can get. Copying all the Help Chapters in
an application or program isnt going to
make you a geek when the instructions are
confusing or just plain wrong! Books become
obsolete too soon. Tech Support has its prob-
lems. Hence, a magazine, and its articles, is
great for everybody, if everybody is consid-
ered.
2. Jim Aikin. I believe he is one of the best,
if not the best. His honesty in his reviews, and
his ability to write and explain what hes talk-
ing about is the best, in my book. For exam-
ple: if he uses an acronym, hell go the extra
mile and write out what it stands for.
I appreciate that.
Robert Anderson
via email
Well, we generally try to do just a little more
in our Very Deep Clinics than copying help
chapters out of the manual, Robert! But while a
hefty percentage of our subscribers are profes-
sional musicians, of course we dont want to
leave beginners behind. Thanks.
And I have to agree with you 100% about
Jim. Having worked with a lot of writers over the
years, I can tell you theres only a short handful
of them at his level. (No dis to our other won-
derful writers, of course!)
License please
First, when I buy a VST instrument or use a
free one is it legal to use those sounds and
presets in a song commercially? Can I just use
a preset as is, put it on a MIDI track for a bass
line, or just press a key and hold it down, say
for a pad, without tweaking it?
What about these software emulations of
hardware synthscan I use these use these
without any legal troubles? What are their
sounds based onare they taking from hard-
ware or is it a new engine?
Or drum machinescan I make patterns
using a drumkit and modify the kit with other
royalty-free one-shot samples? Do one-shots
need to be copyrighted?
Last, can I use effects processors and their
presets to modify the sounds, or an audio edi-
tor?
I just want to be safe. Thank you, I appreci-
ate it.
Altwisted
New York, NY
VI
l e t t e r s
Letters
write to:
nb@virtualinstrumentsmag.com
Hitting the dash key on the QWERTY keyboard in Pro Tools (not just version 7) toggles between the Waveform and Volume Graph displaysif
youre in Command focus mode, which is the az box near the top left of these pics. If this were a MIDI or new Instrument track, it would toggle
between piano-roll and region views of the MIDI data.
Many DAWs have a similar command to let you automate the volume level, and its a really useful one to become familiar with. If youre just
tweaking a short area, its usually a lot easier to draw in the move than to try and automate the fader in real time.
To switch or cut bait
I wanted to say I really have found VI to be
a great source of information on new sam-
pling technology and artisanship, but more
importantly a very enjoyable read.
Im sure you get this type of questions all
the time, but how do I choose the right
equipment (sampler, library format, DAW)
thats right for me? Ive found VIs reviews
very interesting, but in a way, Im even more
uncertain which sample library, and format to
invest in. Should I keep using Pro Tools and
use VST instrument plug ins, or switch over to
Apple Logic...
Short of being all of your readers personal
studio designer, is it possible to give some
global advice in setting up and choosing suit-
able libraries and samplers?
Thanks for your time, and all the effort you
put into VIits a great magazine.
[I wrote back to ask Christopher about what
hes doing and why hes thinking about switch-
ing from Pro Tools.]
I am a music composer, and also a
Broadcast Post Producer at Berlin Cameron
an advertising agency in New York City. My
interest in upgrading my setup applies to
both creating sound design during the edito-
rial process for our television work, and also
take advantage of some of the more realistic
and robust sample libraries in my composition
work.
My setup includes an OS X G5 2.5 GHz
Dual Processor with Pro Tools 6.92 using a
Digi 002 mixer interface. I use IK Multimedia
Sampletank 2.1 to play the current sampled
instruments I havewhich have been exten-
sively SampleCell libraries. Sampletank was
the only player I could find that could some-
what still integrate the [now defunct
Digidesign] SampleCell format. [Sampletank
imports SampleCell instruments.]
First, regarding music I would love to add
some more realistic orchestral colors to my
compositions. So I guess I am looking for the
best sampler/libraries that I could use with my
current Pro Tools setup. I never have loved
the way the program dealt with MIDI, but I
will give the new Pro Tools 7 a chance, after
your Feb/March review.
In response to your question regarding my
thoughts of switching to Apple Logic, it really
is twofold:
First, Logic has a built in sampler, and very
good sounding jam pack libraries, which are
very easy to use and manipulate.
Secondly, as we have both Avids and Final
Cut Pro systems for our Broadcast work, we
constantly are struggling with workflow and
format issues because of both audio and video
compatibilityobviously, easier to use Pro
Tools with Avid, and Logic with Final Cut Pro.
Apple has made it a point to be less than forth-
coming with code and architecture with Avid
as they are competitors in the video-editing
world. So we will ultimately need to choose
one editing system over another very soon.
I look forward to your input, as well as the
next issue of VI.
Christopher Masters
New York NY
The first answer is that you can continue to
use SampleTank in Pro Tools, Logic, or any other
program, because IK Multimedias instruments
work in RTAS, AU, VST, and the Windows for-
mats. You can also use your Digidesign 002 as
an audio interface for both Logic and Pro Tools,
although its control surface only works with Pro
Tools. Whether you should use Logic or Pro Tools
is a religious question; I personally use both for
different things (as well as Digital Performer and
other programs sometimes).
Advising you about adding better orchestral
sounds is even more difficult, since its highly
subjective. There are quite a few orchestral
libraries on the market, starting at a couple of
hundred dollars going all the way up to about
$11,000and theres at least one on the hori-
zon that may be even more than that. Its hard
to imagine not falling madly in love with any of
the major libraries, so Im confident you wont
go wrong.
Rather than choosing a sampler format, it
could make more sense to choose a library or
libraries first. Besides, most of the libraries come
bundled with their own players anyway, so that
could end the discussion right there. Those play-
ers almost always work in every format, includ-
ing RTAS (for Pro Tools compatibility) and AU
(for compatibility with Logic and other pro-
grams).
So its not like the old days, when people
would decide whether to invest in, say, an Akai,
Roland, Kurzweil, or E-mu sampler, and then
build their libraries in that format. Software
sampling is different, because you canand lots
of musicians douse many formats, even on
the same machine. (There are some caveats and
exceptions, but in general that works very well.)
Also, you can often convert formats pretty suc-
cessfully, either using the samplers built-in rou-
tines or with a third-party utility like Chicken
Systems Translator Pro.
Having said all that, both TASCAM
GigaStudio and Native Instruments Kontakt 2
come with pretty heavy lite versions of
Vienna Symphonic Library. Whether thats
enough for you is hard to say, although if youre
composing for an ad agency your work would
probably justify one or more of the higher-end
libraries.
And thanks for the compliments.
The missing link
In last issues Letters column we gave a link
to Mattias Henningsons site for TASCAM
GigaStudio users (only) to see how to raise
their memory limits with a Windows registry
tweak. That link is old. The new one is
http://www.musikbanken.se/gigastudio or just
http://www.musikbanken.se. VI
VI
l e t t e r s
The short answer is that you really do have
to read the individual license agreements to see
if there are any unique stipulations. Thats why
we usually include comments about the license
in our review boxes. For example, you must get
express permission to use Bela D Medias
Giovani (reviewed last issue) in music library
tracks; Vienna Symphonic Library asks for credit
if their library is used on albums; and East West
Quantum Leaps Voices of the Apocalypse cant
be used in trailers or TV promos.
These requirements are unlikely to apply to
synthesizers, because unlike samples (whether
one-shot, multisampled instruments, or loops)
theyre not considered recorded works. And
while we make no pretenses about being quali-
fied to dispense legal advice, its hard to imag-
ine that anyone would go after the people who
bought a product. But I would be leery of free
samples you download off the internet.
Now, youre allowed to mangle sounds all
you want with effects processors or an editor.
But modifying the sound doesnt change the
license.
Bottom line, when you buy software (which
you dont actually doyou license it), youre
normally licensing it for your creative use. That
means you have the right to use it on your proj-
ects, whether youre an engineer, producer, per-
former, composer, arranger, or what have you.
What you cant do is put it on a machine at
your studio and rent it out.
Dash minus
Id like to commend you on a fine article
about some of the points in Pro Tools 7.0. I
think theyve hit a home run again.
One small point [see fig. on page 6]. You
wrote that the command for toggling the
regular waveform and the volume graph
views is the minus key. Actually its the dash
on the QWERTY keyboard, not the minus key
on the 10-key pad. This is when youre in
Command Focus mode only, of course.
That command also toggles between note
and region views on MIDI and Instrument
tracks.
Eric ET Thorngren
Sausalito, CA
1 0 V I R T U A L I NS T R U ME NT S
Launch
Introductions, updates, news
VI
l a u n c h
Native Instruments KORE Universal
Sound Platform, Kontakt 2 Player
KORE ($579) is an integrated hardware/software system. The
hardware is a controller and USB 2 audio/MIDI interface. KOREs
software is both a plug-in and a host for N.I. and third-party
plug-ins; it can operate stand-alone or in any other host. The
program has sophisticated layering and routing performance
features. N.I.s intention is for KORE to revolutionize live per-
formance with V.I.s, but its also designed for the studio.
N.I. also announced the long-rumored Kontakt 2 player,
which brings brings KSP scripting, 64-part multitimbral opera-
tion, and many other Kontakt 2 features to V.I.s from East
West, Best Service, Art Vista, Fixed Noise, MakeMusic, Sibelius,
Post Musical Instruments, and other companies that license
N.I. players.
www.Native-Instruments.com
Universal Audio Roland RE-201
Space Echo & Classic FX
This bundle for UAs UAD-1 PCI card features plug-in
models of the famous Roland RE-201 Space Echo, which
does tape echo modelingcomplete with wow & flutter,
saturation, a splice point, a spring reverb, different tape
heads, and more. $399 introductory price.
UA is also going to be coming out with software simu-
lations of Neve signal processors, starting with the 1073
Equalizer.
www.uaudio.com
TASCAM GVI GigaStudio Plug-in for
Mac and PC
GVI is a new plug-in sampler instrument powered by Giga
that shares many of the specs of the full GigaStudio 3: up to
96kHz/24-bit sample support, unlimited polyphony, and embed-
ded GigaPulse convolution. The 16-part multitimbral V.I. will ini-
tially be in VSTi and RTAS formats for PC, but theyre also devel-
opingget thisa Mac version.
Furthermore, theres going to be a player GVI version for
third-party license. The first library announced is Sonic Implants
MUSE, a 30GB V.I. of mythological proportions. MUSE includes
orchestral instruments based on their Complete Symphonic
Collection (reviewed last issue), as well as everything else: ethnic
instruments, guitars, basses, pads, drums, and so on. General
MIDI is supported.
www.TASCAM.com www.SonicImplants.com
V I R T U A L I NS T R U ME NT S 1 1
VI
l a u n c h
Berklee College of Music
In addition to being a world-famous college (your editor
happens to be an alumnus), Berklee offers online courses in
V.I.-related topics. These include (some titles abbreviated)
Producing Music with Propellerhead Reason, MOTU Digital
Performer, Desktop Music Production for PC/Mac, Sound
Design, MIDI Sequencing, Hip-Hop Writing and Production,
and Remixing.
Also, Electronica artist Richard Devine, who has remixed for
Aphex Twin and done sound design for Nine Inch Nails and
also for V.I. developer Native Instruments, will be guest-teaching
at the college from April 10 14.
Finally, all incoming freshmen will receive free Submersible
Music DrumCore software as part of their bundle.
www.Berklee.edu 617/747-2247
Digidesign Music Production Toolkit
and DV Toolkit 2
Pro Tools LE or M-Powered 7.1 can now run 48 mono or
stereo tracks at up to 96kHz (up from 16 stereo or 32 mono)
with this bundle, which includes the new Hybrid synthesizer,
TL Space Native Edition convolution reverb, Smack! LE
compressor, DINR LE noise reduction; and the
SoundReplacer drum replacement tool and Beat Detective
tool (the latter two formerly only in the top-line TDM sys-
tems).
The DV Toolkit 2 option for Pro Tools LE also raises the track
count and includes the DigiBase Pro file management tool,
TS Space Native Edition, an option for exporting MP3s, and
everything in the original DV Toolkit: timecode and
feet/frames displays with timecode and video rate pull-up/-
down, DigiTranslator for OMS and AF import/export; DINR LE;
and Synchro Arts VocAlign Project for automated dialog
replacement.
Digidesign also announced the formation of AIR: the
Advanced Instrument Research Group. These people (who
used to be Wizoo, which Digidesign acquired) will be
designing V.I.s.
E-MU Emulator X2 Software
Sampler
The X2 is a PC software sampler with SynthSwipe (automati-
cally samples a MIDI instrument and builds a preset),
TwistaLoop (analyzes audio and breaks it into rhythmic com-
ponents so you can control the tempo in real time with pitch
interpolation), the Morph Filter Designer (same as in E-MUs Z-
Plane filtersmorph from one filter to another), a convolution
DSP tool called Transform Multiply, and a serious synthesizer sec-
tion. $299 street.
www.emu.com
Intel Mac Drivers for MOTU MIDI and
Audio Interfaces, PCIe-424 Card, Ethno
Instrument
MOTUs PCIe-424 card allows their PCI audio interfaces (2408 3, etc.)
to work in the latest G5s. Many companies have announced support for
Intel Macs, but MOTU is at the front of the curve with drivers available
for download for their audio and MIDI interfaces.
Ethno ($295) is a new Mac and PC plug-in or stand-alone instrument
with 8GB of world/ethnic instruments, loops, and phrases. It includes
built-in convolution reverb, filters and LFOs, and a drag-and-drop func-
tion lets you drop loops directly into sequencer tracks.
VI
f e a t u r e
All about
Technically, a plug-in is a little program
that plugs into a big one, in our case a virtual
processor that goes in a DAW (or other host
program, such as Ableton Live or Sony ACID).
People tend to extend that definition to
include anything that gets inserted into a
DAWs channel strip, whether it comes with
the DAW or from a third-party developer.
For example, the thing you insert in order
to stream a program running outside your
DAW, such as Propellerhead Reason using the
ReWire protocol, is referred to as a plug-in
the ReWire plug-in. Apple Logic Audio even
has an I/O plug-in, which is simply a
send/return to external hardware attached to
your audio interface. V.I.s are plug-ins too,
but theyre instrument plug-ins rather than
processing plug-ins.
Plug-ins work mostly in real time, but they
can also be file-based. Examples of file-based
processors are Sound Toys Speed and Serrato
PitchnTime, which do a pretty astounding
job of pitch-shifting or time-stretching/com-
pressing full mixes.
Sometimes its convenient for spot fixes just
to write the processing directly to the file,
rather than automating a real-time processor
in and out of the signal path. Maybe youre
EQ-ing out a short noise in a track (yes, some
commercial sample libraries do have them) or
getting rid of a vocal pop. For that reason,
some DAWs come with both file-based and
real-time versions of the same plug-ins.
Digidesign Pro Tools includes both AudioSuite
FIRST DAW
part 4: processing plug-ins
A beginners guide to putting together a DAW
(digital audio workstation) for softsynths and samplers
by Nick Batzdorf
Processing plug-inssoftware EQs, compressors, reverbs, and
so onare an essential part of V.I. production. For that matter
theyre an essential part of all audio production, and the earliest
ones started appearing shortly after the first DAWs did, launching
a whole cottage industry.
But V.I. production has some unique requirements that dont
necessarily apply, say, if youre recording your band in a garage.
The band members are hopefully listening and responding to one
another, and when you record them you hear everything in con-
text. So for example you can ask the sax player to step back six
inches from the mic.
Not so with sample libraries, which werent necessarily record-
ed with the specific musical context in which youre using them in
mind. And softsynths (except for the sample-based ones) arent
even using recordings as the basis for their sounds.
So its up to us to manipulate the sounds in our songs and
compositions to seem as if they are listening to each other.
Primarily, that means putting the sounds in the right space to
create the illusion, but theres more to it than that.
(file-based) and RTASReal Time
AudioSuiteversions of most of its stock
plug-ins, for example.
Plug-ins can use the host computers pro-
cessing, or they can use add-on DSP (digital
signal processing) cards for their horsepower.
The three examples of the latter are
Digidesign Pro Tools TDM, TC Electronic
PowerCore, and Universal Audio UAD-1.
Plug-ins can also run on external hardware.
Theres a FireWire version of the TC
PowerCore, which lives in a rack unit. The
Israeli company Waves, probably the foremost
plug-in developer, offers two hardware boxes
that run their plug ins: the APA32 and APA44-
M (although they always release their proces-
sors in every format known to man).
You can also run plug-ins in Mackie and
Yamaha digital mixers, Metric Halos FireWire
audio interfaces can run plug-ins
onboardand then theres the Muse
Research Receptor, which is a dedicated com-
puter that hosts V.I.s and plug-ins. It has
some very slick software that makes it con-
nect to a standard computer over ethernet
seamlessly, and it streams into your DAW by
way of its own plug-in.
In all cases the plug-in appears to be run-
ning on your host computer inside your DAW.
The only difference is that the user interface is
a remote control for a program that lives in
an external box or a PCI card inside your
computer. Well, another difference is that in
some cases the host program needs to com-
pensate for a little more processing delay
through add-on or external hardware.
Weve almost certainly left out some
devices that run plug-insour apologiesbut
we dont want to get too far astray from the
topic at hand, which is the essential plug-ins
you should be looking at for V.I. production
and why. That requires a little background
into how theyre used.
Taking stock
You can either run an entire signal through
a plug-in or you can address it with a send,
which is a split off the main signal path (usu-
ally with a volume control in front of it).
Examples of plug-ins that in their traditional
role are used in-line include equalizers, com-
pressors, and gates; these are sometimes
called signal processors. (Were not going to
bother describing what every plug-in does,
since that information is readily available in
your DAW or other hosts manual.)
By contrast, choruses and reverbs are
examples that would normally be placed on a
send, and theyre called effects. You set them
up this way because theyre combined with
the direct signal and the sends level control
makes the relative amount of the effect easy
to adjust, and also because the same effect is
often shared by several tracks (e.g. reverb
several instruments are placed in the same
space).
But given that production is an art rather
than a rigid science, the distinction between
signal processors and effects doesnt always
hold. The Random Tip on the New York drum
sound, page 30, which uses a compressor on
a send, is an example.
The next important issue is whether a
processor is normally intended to be used on
individual channels or as a mastering tool,
meaning on the entire mix. A processor with
a lot of color might be wonderful on an indi-
vidual channel but way over the top on
everything; likewise, a mastering plug-in
might be too pristine to add the character
youre looking for to an individual track.
For example, you can use a peak limiter on
drums to good effect, but its normal applica-
tion is in mastering to allow you to raise the
overall level without having to worry about the
odd stray peak causing horrible distortion. But
here again, since the only rule is that ultimately
there are no rules, the distinction between
mastering and channel plug-ins is fluid.
Just be aware that there are mastering
plug-ins that introduce a larger delay and use
up too much horsepower to be used simulta-
neously on lots of channels. The main reason
for this is that good mastering processors are
designed to a very high level, since youre
running the whole mix through them and
dont want them to ruin the sound quality.
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f e a t u r e
Digidesign's Bomb Factory BF76 is a model of the famous UREI 1176 compressor
McDSP Compressor Bank
EQ
Its normal to EQ sounds to make various
frequency bands fit in a mix, whether youre
working with live instruments or V.I.s. But we
routinely work with sample libraries that were
recorded at opposite ends of the earth, and
EQ is the premier tool for integrating them.
In addition to the garden-variety digital EQ
plug-ins that come with most DAWs, different
ones can sound subtly different (especially
when you use them to boost rather than to
cut). Some of them attempt to model the
thicker sound of a good analog equalizer,
such as the Pultec EQ in the Universal Audio
UAD-1 (the Cambridge EQ in the UAD-1 is
also very good). Others are more surgical,
offering lots of incredibly narrow bands with
radical amounts of boost or cut.
Still others, typically designed for mastering
applications, are designed not to have any
phase shiftthe opposite of the character
EQs. This kind of processor is very useful
when youre playing with the high end on
sampled instruments that are notoriously
unforgiving of EQ, such as piano and espe-
cially sampled string sections. (They typically
sound very synthy with just a small amount of
boost.)
Apple Logic Audio comes with a linear
phase equalizer that sounds quite good. The
Waves Linear Phase EQ from their Masters
bundle works astonishingly well on sampled
strings.
Its a good idea to have more than one
kind of EQ available, both for character and
for transparency.
Dynamics
Compressor/limiters were originally
designed to prevent signals from overloading.
They also produce the smooth, even sound
were used to hearing on recordings.
While compressors essentially lower the
gain really quickly when the incoming signal
reaches the threshold setting, they affect a
sounds envelope, not just its dynamic range.
And they all sound very different from one
another.
Here again, its good to have both trans-
parent and character compressors to use.
Unfortunately, the compressors that come
with DAWs dont always sound all that
goodin fact most digital compressors are
rather weakso there are lots and lots of
third-party comps on the market. To name
just two, I happen to like the Waves
Renaissance compressor as an example of a
good transparent one for individual channels,
and McDSPs Compressor Bank is great for its
versatility and sound.
For mastering, you want a really good lim-
iter. Waves L2 and multiband L3 are two
excellent ones, Ive recently started working
with iZotopes Ozone and been very
impressed, and there are many more. Others
to investigate include IK Multimedias T-Racks,
the UAD-1s Precision mastering processors,
Elemental Audio Finis, Sony Inflator, TbTs
Pocket Limiter, TC Powercore Master X3, and
Wave Arts FinalPlug5. Plus there are proces-
sors included with DAWs (which arent always
the best). This is by no means a complete list.
Reverb
Weve mentioned the importance and cov-
ered the subject of convolution reverb in
more upscale rigs previously. It makes a
mockery of all but the highest-end standard
reverb processors, both plug-in and outboard.
However, computers are now becoming
powerful enough to run traditional reverb
plug-ins that sound good. Unlike convolution
processors, traditional reverbs can place their
parameters under real-time performance con-
trol. Few people use those features in out-
board units; perhaps the convenience of
onscreen control will change that, now that
plug-ins are starting to make that easy. IK
Multimedias CSR is an example.
Also
EQ, dynamics, and reverb are the essential
plug-ins to have in your toolkit, but its no
secret that there are hundreds of great plug-
ins available. Some of them, such as Sound
Toys SoundBlender (one of my favorite
effects-generating processors), cross the line
between plug-in and synthesizerin fact you
can often run signals through synthesizers
and process them with their engines.
There are also amp-modelers, pitch
shifters, pitch-fixers (AutoTune), noise reduc-
ers, and on and on, including a dizzying
array of unusual effects for sound design.
This is just an introduction to that rather
exciting world. VI
UAD-1's Pultec EQP-1A
Waves Linear Phase EQ
VI
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Braving the elements
To start, lets break our network down into
four elements, as shown in Fig. 1
1. This is going to be a high-bandwidth sit-
uation for your LAN (local area network), so
using gigabit ethernet is a necessity at almost
every layer. That means putting gigabit cards
in every computer involved, a gigabit switch
or switches, and I recommend using CAT5e
for cabling.
Youll also want a router if you have an
internet connection. The router acts as a fire-
wall between your cable or DSL modem and
your network. It goes in the last port of your
gigabit ethernet switcher.
2. DAW: the main host machine that youre
going to use for writing and mixing, which is
where you interface to the network. This can
be a PC or Mac.
3. Server: a central node for all the files
that will be referenced over the LAN. This
could be a Mac, but in the set-up here its a
Windows machine.
4. Farm machines: a collection of comput-
ers that are essentially the same and are used
to run plug-ins to decrease CPU and memory
load on the host DAW. These are Windows
machines in the set-up were describing, for
only one reason: so far there isnt a solid and
totally usable software program for Mac that
sends audio over ethernet (taking the place of
audio interfaces on the sending and receiving
machines).
On the PC there is: FX-Teleport, a program
that can load plug-ins over a network reliably
and efficiently. You can get it from
http://www.fx-max.com for prices ranging
from $99 for two machines to $236 for four
(with additional machines $59 each). Theyve
reportedly been working on a Mac version as
well.
If youre already running your main DAW
on Windows and your software allows you to
The ultimate scalable V.I. rig uses multiple computers, all with
access to the same plug-ins and sample libraries on a
server. Its surprisingly easy to set up, and only a single
gigabit ethernet cable connects everything: audio,
MIDI, video, the keyboard, and mouse
Studio Farms
by Jesse White
O
ne day a single computer may have the resources
to run as many softsynths, sample libraries, and
processing plug-ins as we need. Until then, a network of
two and probably more machines is an essential compo-
nent of any serious V.I. studio.
But the reliability and ease of basing an entire studio
set-up around computersand more importantly on net-
worksis easy to overlook when youre designing it. You
have to think of it logically: how can I have quick access
to everything I need at my fingertips without having to
worry about systems crashing or overtaxing my main
computer?
The answer is simple. Distribute your virtual instruments
and effects across a network to decrease load, and cen-
tralize your network around a server so all your machines
can conform to the same data.
If this is done right, you end up with each computer on
your network, or each farm, having the ability to run any
instrument or processing plug-in you have and access
any sample you need. Not only is this convenient, it also
offers some insurance. If one of the farm machines goes
down in the middle of a project, you can simply reassign
the plug-ins to a different one instead of spending pre-
cious time repairing it right away.
load VST plug-ins, at this point youre golden.
If youre using Mac, you will need to add a
middlemanan additional Windows
machine that sits between your DAW and the
farm. This computer loads virtual instruments
for you and acts as a large MIDI instrument
using Music Labs MIDI Over LAN software
(from www.musiclab.com). More about the
middleman machine later.
IP daily
First, use the same Windows user name
and password for all of your machines on the
network. This will make access to their
resources easier.
If you read Monte McGuires Lay of the
LAN article in the 9-10/05 issue, youll
remember how to set the unique IP number
that identifies each machine on the network
so it doesnt change every time you restart
your computer. The default setting is for the
computer to use a protocol called DHCP,
which automatically assigns IP numbers
sequentially to each machine that starts up
(or in some cases only remembers each
machine for a limited amount of time).
That kind of arbitrary numbering wont
work when you need to be able to talk to a
specific machine on the network. To avoid
that, not only would you have to start up
your machines in the same order every time,
youd have to shut them all down whenever
one needed restarting so you could boot
them up in the correct order.
Instead, you want to set your IPs to a static
Class C address as shown in Fig. 2. You can
set this in the Network Connections control
panel (or the Network control panel in Mac
OS X). In XP, right-click on your gigabit card
and select Properties, then open Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP). Here you can set your IP
address by selecting use the following IP
address.
Pick numbers that make sense to you, so
you know how to access each machine. I
selected 192.168.1.9 for the main DAW
because the range of the LAN I am on is
192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254; 192.168.1.1 is
reserved for the router. If you enter a number
and lose your internet connection, it almost
certainly means youre using a number thats
out of range.
Next, install FX-Teleport as a master on
your DAW (or middleman machine). A master
means youll be loading remote plug ins. We
dont need to scan for any network plug-ins
yet, as we have not set up our farm
machines.
With FX-Teleport, your latency should only
be double the buffer setting of the sound
card in your main DAWwhich is comparable
to what it would be if you had sound cards
on both machines. If youre running with a
128-sample buffer, for example, your total
should be around 256.
The server
This is arguably the most crucial compo-
nent in your network, so it has to be built to
be fast and reliable from the ground up. Since
the main job of the server is to share files,
and presumably youll be putting every sam-
ple and instrument youve ever come across
on it, it needs a big hard drive.
In fact it needs a few big hard drives. RAID
arrays are a great way to create large amounts
of space and increase speed by spreading out
data across hard disks. There are several differ-
ent types of RAID set-ups, but my recommen-
dation is RAID 5 for added safety.
RAID 5 essentially lowers the size of your
RAID array by one drive and allows you to
rebuild the RAID if one of the hard disks goes
bad. So if you have a 750GB RAID composed
of four 250GB hard drives and a head goes
VI
f e a t u r e
Cable/DSL
Modem
10/100
Router
Gigabit Switch
F1
Server
Digital Audio
Workstation
Machine Room/Closet Studio
Internet
Gigabit Switch
CAT 5e Cable
Router in last port
F2 F3 F4 F5
F = Farm Computers
Middleman
computer
w/Audio
Interface
or
Monitor
Keyboard/
Mouse
ADAT
Lightpipe
Fig. 1: The expandable multi-machine studio set-up. Just one CAT5e cable connects everything to the main
DAW (unless youre using a Mac, in which case the middleman machine acts as a submixer and you route
audio to the DAW the conventional way and set up an extra computer monitor).
Fig. 2: Setting up static IP addresses so each machines number doesnt change arbitrarily.
bad on one drive, you simply replace the bad
drive and rebuild the RAID (which can take
some time).
Unless the motherboard you use supports a
large enough RAID for what you need, you
will probably need a RAID card. These are
usually PCI cards that go in a slot in your
servers motherboard, and theyre used to
connect all the hard drives. I use the Hightech
RocketRaid 1810A to connect the SATA hard
drives on my server.
Your server is going to need to do some
heavy-duty file sharing, so it going to need an
OS that is specifically designed for that kind
of stress. Windows Server 2003 is an excellent
choice; its very easy to set up, and will allow
many computers to access your RAID effi-
ciently.
Once installed and your RAID is recog-
nized, you should have at least two drives on
your servera C:\ Drive for the operating
system, and your RAID drive (which is really
an array of drives) for your plug-ins and sam-
ples. As shown in Fig. 3, go into the proper-
ties for the RAID drive and enable file sharing,
and give it a name you can remembersuch
as RAID. Again, assign the server an IP
Address that makes sense to you; I use
192.168.1.10 (remember, .9 was the main
DAW).
Now right-click My Computer and select
Properties. Were going to set two things in
this window.
Take a look at Fig. 4. First click on the
Remote tab and enable the check box that
says Allow users to connect remotely to this
computer. This enables Remote Desktop on
the server, so we can control it if we need to.
capable file server for storing and sharing all
your plug-ins and data over your LAN.
Workin on a plug farm
A farm machine is a computer specifically
designed to run plug-ins requested by the
DAW and loaded from the server. It should
have a fairly decent processor and a good
amount of RAM (at least 1GB), but you can
save some money here because it doesnt
need a big hard drivethe RAID array on the
server takes care of that. Id suggest you
install at least a 40GB hard drive to support
the OS, but these days 80GB and larger
drives cost very little more.
Make sure the farm machine is running
Windows XP Professional and not Windows
XP Home. This is important, because it allows
more network features, including Remote
Desktop, a major component of our set-up.
Heres an interesting tip: you only need to
install FX-Teleport (slave) once. When you
install it, select your server
\\fileserver\RAID as the root install directo-
ry and put it into its own folder. Now to add
FX-Teleport (slave) to any new machine, just
put a shortcut to the network executable into
your startup items.
I recommend installing most of the applica-
tions that will be used throughout the farm
on the server; it makes access simple no mat-
ter which machine youre using. Its impor-
tant to map the server drive to the same net-
work drive on all of your farm machines. I use
R:\ as the network drive on my farm. To map
a network drive, go to an Explorer window
and under Tools select Map Network Drive.
Remote Desktop lets you operate the comput-
er over the network using another machines
keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
Now go to the Computer Name tab and
click on the Change button. Give the com-
puter a name like Fileserver. After hitting
OK and letting it restart, you have a large,
VI
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Fig. 3: The server RAID.
Fig. 4: Remote Desktop, a feature in Windows XP but not Home, allows you to share a monitor, keyboard,
and mouse over the network.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 56)
the ambience detail and width. But the big
thing with the Platinum version is being able
to mix and match the three mic positions.
The Close position is especially useful,
because it allows you to add definition and
also create a more intimate sound.
EWQLSO uses Native Instruments Kompakt
players (you can also open it in the full
Kontakt library), which work in pretty much
all the Mac and PC formats. This review was
done on a dual 2.0GHz G5 Mac being used
as a sample-streaming slave machine, but I
also run EWQLSO very successfully on a cus-
tom VisionDAW Windows XP Pentium 4
2.8GHz machine.
Because the release trails (recorded ambi-
ence) continue to ring after you release notes,
this library uses a lot of polyphony, and the
24-bit Platinum version especially is very
demanding of computer resources. Like all
the major orchestral libraries, ideally youll run
EWQLSO on more than one machine in order
to avoid having to load and unload programs
all the time.
Articulations
Rather than coming up with a standard-
ized, methodical list of articulations for every
instrument the way Vienna Symphonic Library
and to a lesser degree Sonic Implants (the
other two major orchestral libraries) do,
EWQLSOs articulation choices are more free-
wheeling. For example, while the same basic
VI
r e v i e w
T
he East West Quantum Leap Symphonic
Orchestra came out a couple of years
ago, and it turned a lot of heads with its
huge, lush sound. Rather than relying on elec-
tronically-generated reverb, EWQLSO is record-
ed from three mic positions in a real concert
hall with natural ambience that triggers when
you release the notes. The result is a finished
sound out of the box, and this library still
gives me an adrenaline rush when I play some
of its soundsits quite spectacular.
Quantum Leap producers Nick Phoenix
and Doug Rogers went back into the hall with
their star engineer Keith Johnson to sample a
whole lot more material, expanding the origi-
nal library from about 67GB to 138GB. The
XP version being reviewed here is the result,
and it contains a whole slew of great new
stuff, the QLegato programs for connected
phrases, as well as some re-programming of
the original library.
Positions
We worked with the top-of-the-line Platinum
version of EWQLSO XP, which is released in 24
bits and includes all three mic positions: Close,
Full (the standard stage Decca tree position),
and Surround (back in the hall). Theres also a
16-bit Gold version that includes all the same
articulations but only the Full mic position,
which is the default.
Judging from the original version of the
library, you should be able to hear a slight dif-
ference between the 16- and 24-bit, mainly in
East West Quantum Leap
Symphonic Orchestra XP
Back into the concert hall to record lots more great stuff
EWQLSO XP add-on, Platinum
version, $2995; 16-bit Gold ver-
sion with one mic position, $995.
(Both require the complete original
libraries; bundle pricing is available
at soundsonline.com.)
Distributor: East West
(www.soundsonline.com)
Platform: Mac OS X or Windows
XP; stand-alone (through Core
Audio, DirectSound, or ASIO) or as
VST, DXi, ASIO, RTAS, or Audio
Units plug-in. Uses Native
Instruments Kompakt player.
License: Challenge/response
installer limited to two unique
installs.
Review by Nick Batzdorf
Giveaway in
Just go to www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com/giveaway
to enter for a Very Good Chance to win.
The
Mungo
VI history.
most
Enter to win a top-of-
the-line $1495
UAD-1 Ultra PAK from
Universal Audio.
The UAD-1 Ultra PAK is designed for the most demanding DAW profes-
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cations and wants the largest and best-value UA plug collection in one
convenient bundle. The Ultra PAK includes the award-winning UAD-1
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stays such as the 1176LN, LA-2A, Pultec EQP-1A, and Fairchild 670. The
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And while youre there, we invite you to take a few moments
out of your schedule and subscribe to our favorite magazine.
Why would anybody want to miss the best writers in the industry, helping you get the absolute most out of
your softsynths and samplers? Youll pay only $12.95 a year (newsstand price: $59.40) or $20 for two years.
Youll be helping us print more issues and more pages, which will only benefit you (and us). Most importantly,
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up in your mailbox.
by Jim Aikin
VI
v e r y d e e p c l i n i c
Set-up
When you load an empty project template
of whichever type you need at the moment,
you may find that you need to customize it
before starting work. I need to tidy up the
Transport, for instance, by getting rid of the
jog/scrub wheel and the Play Order Track
controls. (This is done by right-clicking in the
Transport and unchecking the items in the
menu.)
Switching the Linear Record Mode from
Normal to Merge and the Cycle Record Mode
to Mix (MIDI) is also a good idea. If you neg-
lect to do this, your MIDI parts will be stacked
on top of one another, which will make edit-
ing a bit of a chore, or potentially confusing.
Rather than do these customizations every
time you start a new project, create your own
personal default file for the 16-track MIDI
sequence or whatever template you like, and
save it in the folder where Cubase keeps such
things. In Windows, its in C:/Program
Files/Steinberg/Cubase SX 3/templates.
In fact, youre not limited to overwriting
V E R Y D E E P C L I N I C :
Cubase Acumen
S
teinberg Cubase is one of the most popular digital audio
sequencers on the market. Ive been using the program since
the late 80s, when it was a MIDI-only program for the Atari ST com-
puter. Along the way it led the charge toward native audio process-
ingmeaning that the host computer provides the processing
power that runs the system.
In this article Im going to show you some of my favorite tricks for
getting more out of Cubase. Well look at some workflow enhance-
ments, some editing options, and ways to use ReWire. Most of the
tips will relate to MIDI tracks, because your virtual instruments will be
played by them, but well get into a bit of audio editing too.
I use SX3 for Windows; most of the concepts in this article are
equally applicable to other versions of the program, but youll need
to look through the Operation Manual to find details such as
Macintosh keystroke equivalents.
Advanced editing tips for the popular sequencer
the factory templates. You can create your
own (see Figure 1), complete with pre-loaded
softsynths, effects, and so on. It will be listed
in the box whenever you create a new proj-
ect.
Making arrangements
Cubase displays tracks in the Project win-
dow (which I seem to recall used to be called
the Arrange window). Youll be spending a lot
of time staring at it. Most sequencers have
similar displays, all of them packed with fea-
tures, but Cubase has a few distinctive tools.
The track list can be split horizontally into
two independent panes; its rather like the
split page effect in a word
processor. The button that
does this (see Figure 2) is
located at the upper right cor-
ner of the track name column.
I always set up my window
with the marker track by itself
in the upper pane. This way I
can scroll up or down among
the tracks, and my markers
will stay in view.
Markers can be inserted on
the fly by tapping the Insert
key, by clicking the
Add button in the
Markers window, or
using the pencil tool.
Cubase numbers new
markers starting from
1, so after entering
them I always open
the Markers window
(Ctrl+M) and renum-
ber them starting
with 3. The reason to
do this is that you
can locate instantly to
markers 3 through 9
using the number
keypad. Keys 1 and 2
on this pad locate the
transport to the left and right locate
points, not to markers 1 and 2.
I typically have eight or ten MIDI
tracks devoted to percussionone for
kick, one for snare, one for hi-hat, and
so on. I find this easier than recording
all of the percussion into one track,
even if its all being played by one
software module. When each drum is on a
separate track, I can duplicate a conga or
shaker pattern by itself without having to go
into the piano roll window. By creating a fold-
er track (Project > Add Track > Folder) I can
then keep all of the related tracks in one
place.
After creating a folder track, you simply drag
all of the appropriate tracks into it. Clicking the
minus sign at the left end of the folder track
(see Figure 3) closes the folder so you can see
the rest of the arrangement more easily.
The toolbar across the top of the Project
window can be configured, which is handy
because there are too many widgets in it to
fit in any but the very largest display. You can
right-click on it and check or uncheck items
in the menu, or choose Setup... and add,
remove, or rearrange items in the pop-up edit
box. Some of the items duplicate the floating
Transport window, so if you use that (as I do),
they can be left off of the toolbar. Also worth
noting: number keys 1 through 9 at the top
of the QWERTY keyboard (not the keys in the
numeric keypad) select mouse tools.
Once upon a time, Cubase allowed you to
create ghost parts by option-dragging the
VI
Figure 1: Save your own files in Cubases Templates folder and load
them when starting a new project. (The Nasty Synth Template in this
list is mine, not Steinbergs.)
Figure 3: Folder tracks are a handy way to organize the Project
window. By clicking the minus sign, all of these percussion
tracks can be hidden.
Figure 2: The Project window can be divided horizontally using the Divide Track List button. Here, the marker track is by itself in the upper pane.
right end of a part in the Project window. In
newer versions, that operation creates real
copiesbut the old ghost part function is
still available. Select a part, use Ctrl+K (for
clone, I suppose), and check the Shared
Copies checkbox.
Now all of the repeated parts will be clones
of one another. The advantage to doing this
is that when you edit
MIDI events in one of the
clones, all of the others
will change to reflect the
edits. This is especially
useful with drum parts,
because they tend to be
repetitive.
Lets roll
Cubases piano roll edi-
tor (see Figure 4) has a
toolbar like the one in the
Project window, and it
can be reconfigured in the
same way. While editing,
Im constantly turning
Snap on and off, because
I like it off when Im
adjusting the lengths of
notes but on when Im
adjusting their start
points. The keyboard
shortcut for the Snap but-
ton is J. Another highly
useful key is F (for fol-
low), which turns
Autoscroll on and off.
When a spot that you
want to edit scrolls into
view while the music
plays, press F and it will stay in view.
If youve recorded modulation and pitch-
bend data into the same track, you may want
to view several controller lanes at once (see
Figure 5). To do this, just click on the + but-
ton near the lower left edge. Oddly, Cubase
has no select tool for grabbing a bunch of
controller data, but the eraser tool works for
this: it doesnt actually
erase anything until
you press the Delete or
Backspace key.
You say you want to
grab a controller con-
tour and drag it left or
right? Theres no tool
in the piano roll editor
that will do this, but all
is not lost. Select the
data you want to
move in the piano roll
controller lane and
then open the event
edit window (MIDI >
Open List Editor). The
controller data will still
be selected, and you
can drag it left or right
in the List Editors
graphic display. This
odd-looking display is
left over from the old
Atari days, but its still
useful.
One of the tools at
the top of the piano
roll window is the X
(mute) tool. This can
mute single notes or groups within the part.
This is handy for trying out a drum track with
and without those little extra spice notes.
Muting notes is preferable to deleting them,
because you can change your mind days later
and turn the muted notes back on.
Figure 4: The piano roll window has mouse tools, nudge buttons and other features along the top. By clicking on the right end of a MIDI
note (lower center) you can lengthen or shorten it.
Figure 5: Clicking the plus button below a controller data lane adds a new one. The type of data to be displayed is selected using the
drop-down menu at the left end of the lane.
VI
Review by Nick Batzdorf
VI
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C
onsidering that the hi-hats alone have
as many as 2712 samples, it might be
fair to say that Scarbee Imperial
Drums XL is a detailed library. Actually, its
one of the most sophisticated and meticu-
lously sampled libraries of any instrument.
SID XL is producer Simone Coens updated
version of the original SID. But at 48GB its a
few times the size, it adds several additional
drums to choose from (each captured by 50
billion samples), as well as more features than
you can shake a drum stick ator brushes,
rods, mallets, or any other one of the dozen
weapons played by drummer Elio Rivagli.
SID XL comes in a disk-streaming Steinberg
HALion player. Rather than loops or grooves,
this is a library of individual hits for you to
play/program. However it does come with a
huge selection of great MIDI files from Rivagli.
Those are well worth checking out for ideas
even if you dont use them.
The concept
SID XL has samples of a large variety of
drums, including a DW kit with two different
bass drums, four toms, DW and Ludwig snares,
a Yamaha snare, Remo Rototoms, both 13
and 14 hi-hats, all kinds and sizes of cymbals
including China and sizzle rides, Ludwig
Vistalite toms and bass drumsagain, all struck
with with a myriad of different sticks and tools.
There are a few ways to use SID XL. The
simplest is just to load ready-to-wear,
processed programs into available slots on the
HALion player and put together a kit.
(Programs are individual drums; Banks
are complete kits.) Theres a gigantic variety
of different sounds, from the barely-processed
to electronic-sounding.
But the pice de resistance is the roll-your-
own, completely unprocessed Multimic
Drums. The idea is that you get to mix the
individual drums yourself, just as if theyd
been recorded at an actual studio session.
Extensive mic positions are availableinside
and outside the bass drums, underneath and
on top of the snares, overheads, and so on.
The drums were recorded superbly well in
a nice-sounding room, always in their real
position so you get sympathetic resonances
from the rest of the kit. You can add reverb if
you want more thunder, and if the room is
too small you can combine the recorded early
reflections with the tail from an external
reverb unit. And of course you can combine
processed and unprocessed drums in a kit.
All this is in addition to the controls pro-
grammed into the HALion player. Please refer
to the screen dump. Each Program (i.e. each
drum instrument) in a kit brings up different
parameters to the onscreen knobs above the
keyboard.
In this case, a lower-memory (L) version of
the DW wood snare is selected; you can
adjust the overhead mic volume, ambience
level, top and bottom head mic volumes,
release time (you can gate the snare with
the DCAdigitally-controlled amplifier), and
then you can tune the instrument. If we were
to select the bass drum, the parameters
would include levels for mics inside and out-
side the bass drum, bleed into the snare mic,
and so on.
In addition to being completely flexible,
this is a great practice tool for improving your
mixing skills, in fact it would be ideal for pro-
duction courses. Furthermore, the PDF manu-
al includes an excellent tutorial on mixing
drums. Its succinctonly a few pagesbut
its actually more insightful than anything else
Ive read on the subject.
There two kinds of mappings in the library:
95% GM-compatible ones, designed to
work with Roland V-Drums; and the librarys
own more advanced mappings. The latter are
intended to be played from a MIDI keyboard,
Scarbee Imperial Drums XL
This remarkably detailed 11-DVD, 48GB drumset library has both
ready-to-play GM kits and totally unprocessed multi-mic kits that
you mix as if the tracks had been recorded with a live drummer
Scarbee Imperial Drums XL,
$299
Sonic Network (Sonic
Implants), 561 Windsor St. Ste.
A402, Somerville, MA 02143.
617/718-0202, 888/577-9629.
www.SonicImplants.com
Formats: Steinberg HALion Player,
runs on Mac OS X and Windows
XPVSTi, Dxi, Audio Units,
stand-alone with ReWire
Copy protection: USB dongle
(Syncrosoft).
VI
r e v i e w
which of course has dozens of keys rather
than just a few pads.
SID XLs own mapping takes advantage of
keyswitches, MIDI controllers, sustain pedal
and mod wheel cymbal-choking, and spread-
out instruments that couldnt fit into the GM
standard. For example, snare ghost notes are
on their own keys. Also, the mod wheel is
used to move the stick closer to the center of
various cymbals and hi-hats; different wheel
positions have their own complete set of
velocity layers at different cymbal locations.
(Thats how Coen was able to get the report-
ed 2712 hi-hat samples on just two keys; I
promise I didnt count them.)
The GM mappings use sample alternation
to avoid repeating the same samples, while
the standard mappings have so many samples
that this is unnecessaryyou wont hit the
same one twice.
The player #1
As we discuss the features of this library, its
important to mention the most important
one: Elio Rivaglis control and ability to play
such a huge number of different velocities on
each drum. Thatone assumes along with his
creative input into what to record with what
weaponsis what makes SID XL capable of
so much subtlety.
Even though MIDI has 128 discrete velocity
values in its spec, this aspect of the library is
actually ahead of most if not all MIDI con-
trollers ability to take advantage of it. For this
review I used a weighted Kurzweil K2500 key-
board and an Alesis Photon X25 unweighted
keyboard, but unfortunately not Roland V-
Drums, which one would expect to fare con-
siderably better. Still, its good the library has
the overhead to capture the most response
your controller has to offer.
The huge number of velocities in SID XL
also allows you to get a lot of different sounds
out of the drum instruments, which makes
them fit different contexts. One of the first
surprises for me was that the most powerful,
resonant sound you can get out of a bass
drum is several notches below the maximum
velocity.
The player #2
Once installed, the HALion player has been
solid. Its streaming performance is fine, and it
has some nice features. One of these features
is RAM Save, which listens to your sequenced
drum part and unloads all the samples that
werent triggered to save memory. Given that
the full-memory kits can easily take up
250MB, thats very useful.
But alack, the praise comes with a caveat.
Now, Ive installed other HALion players
and Syncrosoft dongle-protected software on
Windows XP machines with absolutely no
problem.
However, installing this one on the Mac G5
used for this review was not smooth sailing.
Whether that was entirely due to bugs in the
Syncrosoft system or to the player itself is
hard to say, but Id actually thrown in the
towel and reviewed the library in the full ver-
sion of HALion (which did install properly, to
compound all the mystery); it was only a few
days before we went to press that I was able
to get the player to work without simply
crashing on launch. Hopefully that coincided
with the latest version of the Syncrosoft
and/or the HALion player software, but I cant
really explain why it decided to work all of a
sudden.
Its a testament to how great this library is
that Id still recommend it to G5 users in spite
of that.
Unbeatable drums
After playing SID XL for just a few minutes,
some excellent drum libraries pale by com-
parison. Subjectively, the biggest difference
with SID XL is the cymbals, which are usually
the instrument that gives it all away. But you
just play these cymbals while moving the
mod wheel to vary the stick position, and
they sound amazingly realistic.
The last Scarbee library we reviewed was
his Vintage Keys Gold bundle (9-10/05),
about which I commented that this is what
sampling technology is all about. Scarbee
Imperial Drums XL is in the same league. At
$300 its a no-brainer. VI
N
obody knows why its called the New York drum sound, but theres an old engineering trick that will make drums of
all kind (drum kits, taikos, congasanything) sound like theyre being slammed by a huge gorilla as hard as he can.
You can use it to get the pounding movie trailer percussion sound, or just to punch up percussive sounds in general.
Now, compressors are signal processors rather than effects, meaning that its nor-
mal to route the entire signal through them rather than using them on a send-return
path; theyre intended to shape and control the dynamics of a signal (after all, theyre
essentially super-fast volume reducers). But you dont have to use them that wayyou
can combine a drastically compressed version of the original back in with itself. The
source track retains its dynamics, while the compressed track adds slam.
There are no painting-by-the-numbers compression settings for this or any other
trick. But in broad strokes, you probably want the compressor to have a moderate
attack time (maybe 100 milliseconds as a starting point) so the transient gets through.
The release time depends on the drum and what youre trying to achieve. A rela-
tively fast release time will give you a pssht sustained sound, for example, but you
really have to play around with the settings.
If your compressor has hard and soft knee settings, pick the former. Soft knee
means the gain reduction ramps up gradually as the signal approaches the threshold,
but you want it to clamp down right away. Finally, the ratio should most likely be 4:1
or greater, meaning every 4dB over the threshold setting in results in 1dB out.
Its important that your DAW have delay compensation so that the compressed sig-
nal is in perfect sync with the source track. Most do, but if you dont have automatic
delay compensation youll have to bounce the tracks to disk and line them up manu-
allywhich is unfortunate, because you cant really hear the effect properly before-
hand.
Taking the trick farther, you can set up multiple compression busses, each going to
a separate track with an EQ in front of the compressors sidechain input. Each track can then be tuned for a different frequency range and
effect. The sidechain is an input that only goes to the compressors detection circuit; the filtered signal is only being used to trigger the
compression being applied to the regular drum signal. Because theyre not all at the same level, different frequencies cause the compressor to
react differently. It takes experimentation.
Just dont be shythis is not intended to be a subtle trick.
The Slamming New York Drum Sound
random
tip
VI
f e a t u r e
If you dont have those libraries, dont
fretmost of this isnt so specific that you
cant apply the same general ideas to other
libraries.
In the past Ive tried to keep things as gen-
eral as possible, but this time Ill be using spe-
cific terms found in the owners manual of the
software being used. If you still get a little lost
in the text and terms, just look at the pictures
to get your bearings.
String me up
The first sample library were going to have
fun operating on is Sonic Implants Symphonic
String Collection (SISC). If you read the
review in the previous issue youll know that
this library is great out of the box, but here
are some ideas to extend its capabilities.
I should mention that Im using the
GigaSampler 2.5 version of SISC. The library
is available for Kontakt, but these tutorials will
be performed on a version converted via
Kontakt 1 (Chicken Systems Translator will do
a nice job of conversion as well).
Lets get more out of a string effects patch.
Well try some things with the 1st Violins
Part 4: This is not brain surgery! by Ahif King Idiot Hakik
Sampling
with King Idiot
If youve been reading past articles in this
series, you know that Ive been concentrating
on general concepts that can be applied to mul-
tiple sample libraries. This time around Im
going to walk through actual tweaks that can
be applied to specific libraries: Sonic Implants
Symphonic Strings (reviewed in our previous
issue), East West Quantum Leap Symphonic
Choirs (reviewed in the 12/05-1/06 issue), and
the old Peter Siedlaczek Advanced Orchestra
(which is also distributed by East West).
Behind Bridge Random NR program. These tweaks will give you slight
performance variations of the sample(s), being used.
Effects patches such as this one can quickly become stale, as they
sound the same every time. Also note that theres only going to be a
single recording of this type of random effect, and that single sample is
stretched across the whole keyboard. Playing different keys varies the
sample rate, like speeding up a tape recorder, and this kind of pitch-
shifting becomes horribly noticeable when you get too far from the
original pitch. Were going to come up with different ways of varying
the sound.
Check out Fig. 1.
1. Load the program in to Kontakt, and click the Edit button.
2. Open the Mapping editor. Youll notice that only one sample is
stretched across six octaves. (#2these numbers of course refer to the
numbered red arrows in the figures, and usually they correspond to the
number of the step, e.g. this is Step 2 and #2.)
3. In the source module move the playback from DFD to Time
Machine II. (#3) Kontakt will load the whole sample into RAM after
analyzing it.
4. Set the Speed knob to 50. (#4)
5. Add two new modulators to the source module. One MIDI CC #1,
and one Pitch Wheel (adding a second to the already existing pitch
wheel modulator). Assign both of these to the Speed knob. (#5)
6. Rescale the curve of the MIDI CC#1 controller to 25%-75%, and
set the polarity response of the new pitch bend controlled-modulator
to as close to -5 as possible. (#6)
Now go to Fig. 2.
7. Add a Key Position modulator to the Source Module, and assign it
to control the sample start point. (#7)
8. Rescale the response of the Key Position modulator to a very ran-
dom-looking curve, but make sure to keep the values in the positive
side of the percentages. (A trick to do this easily is first set the modula-
tor to be controlled by velocity, draw the rescale curve, then set it to
Key Position) (#8)
9. Lastly, turn off pitch tracking by clicking the Tracking button in
the Source Module. (#9)
Congratulations! Youve just performed a fairly intermediate tweak.
Now let me explain what it does and what kind of results you will get.
When you now play this patch, you can use the mod wheel to con-
trol how fast the sample is played back in real time without affecting
the pitch. Doing this in real time allows you to vary the performance
without it being too obvious and drastic. You can also use a pitch bend
controller to adjust the pitch without drastically affecting the speed.
Lastly, depending on which key you press, the sample will start in a
different place. This adds a degree of randomness when you press a
key, and can even allow you to your own loop by pressing a key,
then pressing another in a legato fashion, effectively eliminating any
form of constant cycling in playback.
The drawbacks to using this method, are that its fairly CPU intensive
and it loads the full sample into RAM (because the Time and Pitch
machine cant stream from disk).
A simpler variation on this tweak to reduce RAM load and CPU load
in comparison to the above method can be performed with the follow-
ing steps.
VI
f e a t u r e
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Expressivo
Lets try another, more musical tweak with this library, using an
Expressivo instrument and Kontakt 2. Many of the people Ive talked to
enjoy the Expressivo Instruments quite a lot but find that they are diffi-
cult to use in a legato fashion. This tweak will attempt to help remedy
that.
1. Begin by loading the 1st Violins Expressivo 2 Layer and click on
the Edit button.
2. Open the Group editor and duplicate both groups with samples
by copying/pasting the groups.
3. Name the Duplicate groups something else (e.g. add LEG to the
end).
4. Open the Mapping and Loop editors.
Now take a look at Fig. 4.
5 Select each region in the duplicate groups in the Mapping editor,
and set the start point to about 1 second for all of them in the Loop
Editor.
6. Close the Mapping and Loop editors
7. Click on Group Start Options in the Group editor
8. Set the original groups so they play only if CC# 64 is between 0
and 64, i.e. if the sustain pedal is off.
Take a look at Fig. 3.
1. Load the program in to Kontakt, and click the Edit button.
2. Open the Mapping editor. The sample will look like it did in Fig. 1,
with its boundaries covering a wide range of the keyboard. Shrink its
boundaries to cover a single note, so it looks like the highlighted sam-
ple in Fig. 3.
3. Duplicate the sample over multiple notes using copy and paste,
manually moving duplicates to new notes. (#3) You can see in the fig-
ure that every one of the regions is pointing to the same sample.
4. Open the Loop editor, and adjust the Sample Start Point of each
region to a different position (varying each by about 1.5 seconds works
nicely). (#4)
5. Lengthen the attack and release times slightly.
6. Lastly, turn off pitch tracking by clicking the Tracking button in
the Source Module.
In this variation you dont get control over speed, but do get the
options to start the sample in random positions and play your own
loop.
Both these methods can be applied to other instruments as well,
even short/staccato patches. All it takes is a little bit of experimentation.
VI
f e a t u r e
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
If you dont have those libraries, dont fretmost of
this isnt so specific that you cant apply the same
general ideas to other libraries.
ADSR in the new groups as well, making legato lines sound tighter.
This will still double the amount of RAM the instrument needs. Heres
a more RAM-efficient variation of this tweak:
1. Load the 1st Violins Expressivo 2 Layer and click on the Edit but-
ton.
2. Open the Group editor and duplicate only the pianissimo dynamic
layer group (labeled VEL: 0-66) with samples by copying/pasting the
group.
3. Name the Duplicate group something else (e.g. add LEG to the
end).
4. Open the Mapping and Loop editors.
5. Select each region in the duplicate group in the Mapping edito,
and set the start point to about 1 second for all of them in the Loop
editor.
6. Duplicate the new group in the group editor and rename it (VEL:
0-66 two), but dont duplicate the samples.
7. In the Mapping editor, copy the regions from the first duplicate
group to the second duplicate group (this is to retain all the same sam-
ple start positions).
Please see Fig. 5.
9. Set the new groups to only play if CC#64 is between 64 and 127
(#9)
10. Make sure only the new groups are checked in the group editor
(#9)
11. Adjust the Attack on the ADSR assigned to volume to 7.0-20.0
(adjust to taste).
VI
f e a t u r e
Now look at Fig. 6.
12. Click the Instrument Options button, and set the MIDI Controller
#64 setting to Controller Only in the Controller tab. (#12)
Now you can move the start point of the sample later by stepping
on the sustain pedal. This will make melodies play in a more legato
fashion. All this is done without editing the samples on the waveform
level as discussed in a previous article, when we discussed headless
samples. Another option would be to decrease the release time of the
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Check out Fig. 7.
8. Open the Mapping editor and adjust the velocity boundaries of all
the regions in the second duplicate group to match the forte layer
(VEL: 67-127). (#8)
9. Close the Mapping and Loop editors.
10. Set *ONLY* the original pianissimo layer group to play only
when CC# 64 is between 0 and 64.
11. Set the new groups to play only if CC#64 is between 64 and
127.
12. Make sure only the new groups are checked in the Group editor.
VI
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instruments modeled alone would fetch
about $500,000 in todays marketplace.
(Estimates used come from the Vintage Guitar
Price Guide.)
Virtual guitars are not entirely new. Roland
pioneered the virtual guitar market with its
VG-8 nearly ten years ago, but this is a whole
new generation. With the ability to interface
with your computer, the ability and ease with
which you can store and share guitars is now
unprecedented. In seconds you could literally
receive a few thousand guitars from a Tibetan
monk who happens to have a Variax and an
internet connection. Receiving a mantra is
probably more difficult.
For this review I used a Variax 600 going
into the Workbench software and then into a
Mac G5 dual 2.7 computer. The 600 comes
with a whammy bar, TRS cable, and a pedal
that supplies an A/B out for an XLR jack that
S
o whats a physical guitar review doing in
a virtual instrument magazine? Well this
aint your grandpappys guitar. Line 6
claims the Variax along with Workbench, a
USB front end box to your computer or pedal
attachment, can not only be your grandpas
guitar but many guitars that currently exist
or an infinite number of custom combinations
of ones that have never even existed but that
you createall from the comfort of your
computer screen.
(You can also use Line 6s PODxt Live or
Vetta 2 as computer interfaces for the
Workbench software and Variax line of gui-
tars.)
In a sense, theres a dichotomy with the
Variax. It is arguably the most advanced and
powerful self-contained 6-string guitar ever
created, and yet all its residing models are
vintage instruments. The virtual electric
Variax Workbench Custom
Modeling Software, $139.99;
requires a Variax guitar such as
the Variax 600 used for this
review ($1119.99 list).
Line 6 North America, 29901
Agoura Rd., Agoura Hills, CA
91301-2513. 818/575-3600.
www.line6.com
Line 6 Variax Workbench
A USB interface and software combination for Variax-family guitars
lets you recreate vintage guitars or create new ones in real time
Review by
Craig Sharmat
services the acoustic guitar models and a
standard ? jack for using the electric models.
Both jacks can be used for all models, but this
would be a typical set-up.
The pedal also houses the power to the gui-
tar in place of using batteries. There is a less
expensive 300 version that is a hardtail (no
whammy) and has a rosewood finger board.
And Variax Workbench 1.5 will be compatible
with the Variax Acoustic 700 model.
Sound and feel
In principle all this is great, but one is left
asking, How does it sound, and how does
the guitar feel? The earliest versions of the
Variax guitar were impressive, but to most
players the feel of the instrument left some-
thing to be desired. Line 6 paid attention and
created a new line of better instruments.
The guitar I used had a maple fingerboard
and felt like a good Fender, a real improve-
ment over earlier Variax models. I was happy
with the feel of the instrument.
Soundwise, Line 6 decided not to lay
chance to your local Mexican Strat, as men-
tioned earlier. In their search for some of the
best and most accurate guitar tones, they
incorporated Albert Molinaro, one of the
worlds foremost authorities and collectors of
vintage guitars, to rent and advise what
instruments to model.
The Telecaster and Strats sound like Teles
and Strats. There are Les Pauls, an ES 175,
Gibson Super 400among other Gibson
highlights that are reproduced faithfully. Also
included are some Rickenbacker and Gretsch
guitars.
It would be good to have more modern
instruments, however. Heavy rock guitars with
dropped tunings are absent. This can be
addressed with Variaxs convient tuning fea-
tures (more later), but the depth of heavy
strings on, say, a metal baritone guitar are not
accounted for, and the different scaling of
some of the more modern guitars makes this
transition technically difficult.
Dropping your own tuning on the Variax
does offer a good metal chord tone, and the
absence of hum from pickups is a great
added bonus. There is also a wide range of
acoustics, from resonators to three sizes of
standard acoustic guitars, a banjo, electric
sitar, two 12-string models, and others.
Playing an acoustic model on an electric
guitar is a little strange feel-wise. My sense
was that these models sounded like a
plugged-in version like youd get directly
from an acoustic guitar pickup, as opposed to
the feeling of air one gets from miking one. I
could see using these acoustics for much pro-
fessional work, but for tracks under scrutiny a
real acoustic will give better results. That said,
I would have no trouble using most of the
Variax electrics the appropriate situation.
To the bench
This is where it gets interesting. With Line
6s Workbench software you can literally cre-
ate an infinite amount of custom guitars, or
retune the guitars that already exist, or both.
This software is elegant and fun, with great
visuals to guide you as you create your per-
sonal guitars.
The recreation process allows you to swap
body shapes, change and move pickups for
different tonalities, alter tone and volume
controls, and alter how the knobs actually
work on the guitar. You can create hybrid gui-
tars, which might be a combination of a Les
Paul body and single-coil Fender-style pickup,
for example.
Then you can detune your guitar to any
tuning and save it so its ready any time you
want. This is also a convenient way to create
heavy metal dropped tuning guitars, for
example. Using a Line 6 Pod XT amp/cabinet-
modeling unit and some dropped tunings,
the Variax slams.
Environmentally friendly
Well not exactly, but having one axe might
preclude you from chopping down more
trees when considering your next guitar pur-
chase. The Variax could be your first and or
last guitar, depending on your needs.
Many VI musicians are not primarily gui-
tarists, but can play enough to lay down
some tracks. Most are frustrated that they
dont have an arsenal of guitars for the variety
of sounds available. The Variax is literally a
one-stop solution.
When creating, its often a hassle to pick up
a guitar, find out its the wrong one for the
song, and try another. With the Variax you
have a plethora of options. You can go from a
Strat to a Hollow body in a second and not
lose your creative juices picking up guitars.
You could even use it as an auditioning
process for the guitars you already own. Even
if you only play guitar occasionally on your
tracks, the Variax can add that needed guitar
touch for almost any guitar application.
In conclusion, the Variax along with
Workbench is a toolshed of some of the finest
guitars ever madeand ones that dont yet
exist. The unprecedented flexibility, great
tone, and good feel makes this a guitar play-
ers dream at a bargain price. Highly recom-
mended! VI
As a guitarist, Craig Sharmats (www.score-
dog.tv) credits include Ronnie Laws (for whom
he served as musical director), the Pointer
Sisters, and Randy Crawford. His list of scoring
credits spans dozens of live action and animated
TV shows, films, trailers, commercials, and most
recently several Playstation games. Craig also
arranged and programmed on Rick Brauns lat-
est album Yours Truly.
VI
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VI
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Mick Fleetwood: Total
Drumming ($59.95 list; $39.95
direct)
Sony Media Software
(www.sonymediasoftware.com/
loop_libraries/).
platform: Mac/PC; Acidized WAV.
license: Free to use as part of a
musical composition; may not be
resold as loops or music beds
except when integrated into your
own works; artists name many
not be used in any way including
in credits or for promotional
purposes without permission of
the artist and Sony.
Review by Chris Meyer
notes to be just as important as the
loud ones.
At the core of the library is the
Grooves and Fills folder, which con-
tains three subfolders: Blues, featur-
ing 120 loops and fills in 14 styles;
Funk, featuring 33 loops and fills in
3 styles; and Rock, which contains
433 loops and fills in 38 styles.
Loops typically range from one to
four bars, with on average an equal
number loop and 1-bar fills per
styleso there is absolutely no
excuse aside from laziness to stick
to the same 2-bar loop for an entire
song.
The drum kit has a nice live
sound with ringing cymbals, a mili-
tary-style snare, tribal toms, and a
kick that sits comfortably between
(and above) a woof and a splat.
There is a touch of medium-sized
room ambience; there is also a folder with a
subset of these loops available dry. As is the
Sony/Acid practice, tempo is not mentioned
in the file names; users of programs such as
Ableton Live will find they range between 80
and 160 bpm (although Live mis-identifies
the correct length and tempo in some cases).
Not to be passed up is the Percussion fold-
er with 63 loops averaging two to 16 bars in
length, including ten excellent full-mix beds,
three very nice skin-heavy Taos Drum loops,
and nicely musical accompaniments played
on gongs, talking drums, and wind chimes.
These are played softly and recorded with
more ambience, meaning they sit right along-
side the drum loops without the immediate
need to rebalance levels. There is also a col-
lection of 120 one-shot samples of cowbells,
cymbals, kicks, snares, and toms (plus a few
humorous studio outtakes of Mick talking).
This is a very nice drum loop library at an
insanely low price. You may not get the sheer
variety you hear in some other collections,
but instead you get very tasteful, realistic
playing with tons of variations to keep things
interesting. VI
W
hen Sony purchased Sonic Foundry
and the rights to Acid several years
ago, some of us feared it might
mean the end of their excellent Loops for
Acid sound libraries. Au contraire. Sony Media
Software has taken them to both higher and
lower levels, cutting the prices of older
libraries (the Classic Collection, with discs
costing $29.95 each) while introducing new
higher quality libraries (their Platinum
Collection) as well as signing on some bigger-
name artists (in addition to their usual collec-
tion of excellent niche-oriented producers).
Perhaps the biggest name theyve signed
to date is Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac
fame. His Total Drumming library fits into
their Standard Collection line (16-bit 44.1 kHz
stereo samples, under $40 direct from Sony).
Many libraries strive to be bigger and louder
than the next guy. Although Mick Fleetwood
both in person and by reputationtowers over
most musicians, both he and his drumming is
tastefully understated. When queried about his
directions at the recent NAMM convention, he
stated that he respects musicians who under-
play rather than overplay, and finds the soft
Sony introduces Acid loops
of the famous drummer
Mick Fleetwood:
Total Drumming
VI
Interface revealed
Fess upwhen you first saw all the knobs,
dials, sliders, and windows contained in the
burgundy majority of the Ultrabeat interface,
you thought that collection of controls
applied globally to the entire plug-in, didnt
you? Well, those knobs, dials, and sliders are
only the synthesizer parameters for the single
drum voice selected in the master section.
Once you recover from that revelation,
youll see its actually quite easy to under-
stand Ultrabeats interface. First, lets take the
outer ring of the interface, the metallic sec-
tion outside the raised areas with the bur-
gundy or black backgrounds.
This section contains the global parameters
and features of Ultrabeat. At the top of the
Please dont make the mistake of ignoring this groovy
instrument. Part 1 of a 2-part tutorial.
Fig. 1: Underneath its science fiction-looking interface, Ultrabeat offers an amazing amount of rhythm sculpting power.
Ultrabeat is an often-ignored gem of Logic Pro 7.
With an interface resembling a navigation panel on the
USS Enterprise, it usually enthralls or intimidates
sometimes both. Were going to demystify one of
Logics most expressive and capable instruments,
as well as going deep into some of its secrets so
you can really get the most out of it.
Logic Audios Ultrabeat
By Orren Merton
outer ring are Voice, Import, and MIDI control
assignment menus. At the bottom of the
outer ring is the step sequencer. Even though
the sequencer only shows the single
sequencer lane of the selected drum voice,
the sequencer pattern itself contains data for
all the drum voices, so the step sequencer
belongs in the global outer ring.
Inside the elevated center section of the
plug-in, the left 25% of the interface consists
of the assignment section. Its main feature is
the Drum Mixer. Starting from the bottom,
the master section contains 25 turquoise (or
perhaps blue) lanes, numbered one through
25 in ascending order, each with its associat-
ed MIDI key to its left. You can trigger each
drum voice either by playing that note on
your MIDI keyboard or by clicking the key on
the lane.
The 25th drum voice is special. Unlike the
other drums, which are assigned to only a
single MIDI note, it is chromatic starting at
C3 and ascending to the highest playable
MIDI note. So while you can only trigger the
lowest note (C3) of this voice by clicking its
key in the master section, you can play this
voice chromatically on your MIDI keyboard
starting at C3.
The final interface section contains all the
parameters for each drum voice, and is
known as the Synthesizer section. Again, the
parameters in the synthesizer section apply to
the currently selected drum voice. These 25
drum voices and their mixer settings comprise
a drum kit. The complete drum kit long with
all global and sequencer parameters makes
up a preset.
Thinking globally
The first control at the top left, the voice
auto select button, allows you to select a
drum voice by clicking its key trigger, either
at the left of each drum lane or via MIDI. This
is a very convenient way to determine which
voice youre editing; if you leave this on while
performing, however, youll wind
up selecting every drum voice as
its performed, which will really
play havoc with GUI updates!
To the right of the import con-
trols are the MIDI Controller
Assignment menus. Ultrabeat
allows you to assign up to four
MIDI controllers, CntrlA through
CntrlD to modulation parameters.
To assign any one of 119 MIDI
controllers, pitch, or aftertouch to
one of these, simply click on the
controller name or downward
arrow to reveal the list of possible
assignments (see Fig. 2).
If you dont know the number
of the MIDI controller you want to
use, the first menu item is named -
Learn-. Just click on the CntrlA pull
down menu and select -Learn-,
then turn the knob on your MIDI
controller you wish to be assigned
to CntrlA. The CntrlA menu will
switch to show you the MIDI CC
that you have just assigned it.
Mixing it up
Click-dragging on the turquoise line under-
neath the name of the drum voice adjusts its
relative level in the mixer. So why dont I just
call it the volume slider you ask? Because
each voice also has a Voice Volume rotary
knob that sets the maximum volume level the
voice can attain after the attack phase of
Envelope 4 (which well explain later).
Be careful to click behind the end of the
turquoise level slider, or youll drag and drop
the drum voice to another lane by mistake.
See Fig. 3. You can also use this feature on
purpose, of course, but the two drum voices
change positions whether or not you intend-
ed that.
The mute, solo and pan controls are self-
explanatory. If you have inserted a Multi-
Channel Instrument version of Ultrabeat
rather than a stereo on, you
can assign a drum voice to
any of the instruments eight
stereo outputs by clicking on
the Output menu. To access
these outputs, use Aux chan-
nels in the Logic
Environment.
Above the 25 drum voice
lanes, the master slider con-
trols the master volume for
the entire plug-in. This is
independent of the channel
fader in the Instrument chan-
nel strip, of course.
Rejuvenation
Ultrabeat has a number of intuitive ways to
change drum kits. You can right-click (or con-
trol-click) on the drum voice name to bring
up Ultrabeats Drum Mixer context menu
(Fig. 4). This menu gives you quick access to
some copy, paste, and initialization settings.
Here you can:
copy the voice and any associated
sequence into the clipboard;
paste just the drum voice in the clipboard
into the selected drum lane;
paste the sequence from any drum lane
into the selected drum lane, or select all
to replace the entire sequence for all 25
drums with the sequence in the clip-
board;
swap the selected drum voice and
sequence with those in the clipboard;
initialize the selected drum voice with a
set of basic synthesizer settings for vari-
ous drum sounds.
Lets say you like the drum kit youre build-
ing, but you think your electronic snare does-
nt quite have the splat youre looking for;
Fig. 2: You assign MIDI controllers to Ultrabeat
using the MIDI controller pull-down menus.
Fig. 3: Swapping drum voices on the drum mixer is as easy as click-drag-
ging one drum voice from one lane to another lane.
Fig. 4: Right-click (or control-click) on the Drum Mixer to bring up
Ultrabeats context menu.
selects it. But that doesnt happen automati-
cally with Auto Voice Select turned off, so its
easy to start adjusting parameters for the
wrong voice by mistake.
Ultrabeats synthesizer section has a pretty
standard subtractive synthesizer signal flow. It
begins with the tone generators on the left
two oscillators and a noise generator. Each
tone generator culminates in an elevated
control wheel that feeds into the even more
elevated Filter section (as does the ring mod-
ulator), which sits in the middle of the inter-
face.
To the right of the filter, Ultrabeat offers
more tone shaping controls and the main
modulators: two independent LFOs that can
either run freely or sync to Logics tempo, two
bands of shelving or parametric EQ, four
envelopes, and the previously mentioned
Voice Volume knob, which sets the maximum
volume of the drum voice before the attack of
Envelope 4. The LFOs and Envelopes arent
technically part of the output section, but are
placed above and below the output sections
Voice Volume knob for convenience.
A twist of the screw
The little silver screws outside the Filter cir-
cle at about 10 oclock and 4 oclock arent
merely graphic eye candy. Clicking these but-
you want to replace it with WaveSnare
from the Technoir Kitit has a great wet elec-
tronic splat texture thats just what you need.
You can replace the contents of one or all
drum lanes using the Import button (Fig. 5)
in the global section above the Drum Mixer,
in which case a file dialog will let you open
the preset from which you want to import
settings. So you select the Technoir Kit preset
and see all its drum voices in the pull-down
menu. Clicking the WaveSnare drum voice
auditions it and selects it. Then you just drag
and drop it onto the appropriate lane, in this
case the one with the electronic snare you
want to replace.
A synthesizer for every voice
To really take advantage of Ultrabeat, you
have to explore the synthesizer section. When
selecting the voice youre going to edit, one
thing to remember is that in Auto Voice
Select mode, soloing or unmuting a voice
Fig. 5: The import pull-down menu shows all the drum voices for the Technoir Kit.
Fig. 6: The red arrow indicates oscillator 1 is routed
through the filter, set to a 12dB high pass filter.
Fess upwhen you first saw all the knobs, dials,
sliders, and windows contained in the burgundy
majority of the Ultrabeat interface, you thought
that collection of controls applied globally to the
entire plug-in, didnt you?
VI
tons determines if the tone generator will go
through the filter or bypass it on the way to
the output section of the synthesizer.
As an example, lets see its effect on the
Init Snare drum voice. Right-click (or control-
click) on the Init context menu item and
select Init Snare from the sub-menu. When
you trigger it, it sounds like a typical 80s
style electronic snare. If you look at the little
red arrows by the oscillators, you can see that
oscillator 1 is going through the filter (set to a
12dB high-pass filter) before reaching the
output (See Fig 6).
Click on the red arrow and it turns off, indi-
cating that oscillator 1 now feeds directly to
the output, bypassing the filter. The Init snare
now sounds deeper, as the low-end frequen-
cies are no longer being filtered.
The mod squad
Nearly everything in Ultrabeat can be mod-
ulated, allowing for some amazingly dynamic
(or insane) drum sounds. The two LFOs, four
Envelopes, velocity, and the four user defin-
able MIDI controllers can all be used as mod-
ulation sources.
Parameters that can be modulated will
have mod written next to them, with either
off or the modulation source written in blue
underneath. Click on the mod parameter to
access the pull-down menu for selecting the
modulation source for any parameter that can
be modulated (see Fig. 7).
Ultrabeat lets you set a maximum amount
that the selected modulation source can
affect the parameter to be modulated. That
maximum amount (or modulation depth) is
represented on the various parameter controls
as a blue slider (matching the blue text of the
modulation source) that appears over the
parameter control track being modulated. As
you adjust the slider, Ultrabeat will display the
exact modulation depth amount in a help tag
(Fig. 8).
Ultrabeats ability to modulate goes even
deeper: you can modulate the modulator!
Underneath the blue mod parameter is the
green Via parameter, which allows you to
Fig. 7: Clicking on the mod parameter opens the
pull-down menu of available modulators.
Fig. 8: Dragging the blue modulation depth slider
sets the maximum modulation amount that the
modulator can modulate a parameter.
VI
Review by Chris Meyer
Loopmasters Origin series
($69.95 each)
Percussionism, Raw Power, Hip
Hop Progressions, and Polyester
Loops
Loopmasters (www.loopmas-
ters.com; distributed in the US by
Big Fish Audio:
www.bigfishaudio.com)
platform: Mac/PC; all feature
Acid-friendly WAV, Rex2, and NNXT
(Reason) .sxt formats; new libraries
also feature Halion, Kontakt, and
EXS24 patches; some also contain
audio versions.
license: Free to use as part of a
musical composition; use in multi-
media projects is limited to original
musical compositions or must oth-
erwise be cleared with the produc-
ers; may not be resold as another
library.
T
he Loopmaster Origin series is very rea-
sonably-priced collection of genre-
focused discs created by an assortment
of producers who know their gamesand
how to cross over to other genres as well. To
give a taste of the series, lets sample four of
the 15 currently available titles.
Every Loopmaster Origin library contains a
large number of 44.1\\kHz 16-bit stereo and
mono loops presented in both WAV and Rex2
formats on a data CD. The libraries also con-
tain a varying selection of single-hit sounds
with corresponding Reason NNXT (.sxt)
patches; later releases also contain Halion,
Kontakt, and ESX24 patches.
More recent libraries also contain a second
CD with either more sounds or a traditional
audio version of the collection. The documen-
tation with each library is very slim (no print-
ed index of the samples), but the CDs them-
selves are well-organized with a useful short-
hand employed for the sample names, includ-
ing the tempo of the loops and/or key of the
pitched samples.
Percussionism, the oldest of the libraries
reviewed here, is (surprise) a library of percus-
sion sounds and loops produced by Harvey
Summers. The loops are organized into 23
folders based on tempos ranging from 60 to
160 bpm. Most folders contain a fully-mixed
percussion bed plus two to five remixes, as
well as breakdowns of the individual instru-
ment tracks (such as bass, snare, different
conga licks, and shaker). A few folders contain
simpler arrangements such as just udus, or
bougaraboo plus bells.
Typical length is 2 or 4 bars. This is aug-
mented by over 350 1-bar shaker, cabassa,
VI
r e v i e w
Affordable loops in different genres, each done by
producers who work in the style
jingle stick, rainstick, and tambourine loops
organized in 80, 100, 120, 140, and 160
bpm folders. Theres also a good number of
single-shot sounds, including over 70
atmospheric percussion samples of gongs,
rainsticks, spring and talking drums, water
bowls, and wind chimes, plus hundreds of
single hits of a wide variety of percussion
instruments with corresponding Reason
patches.
The style of the percussion beds leans
towards heavy African (which I like), although
there are certainly Middle Eastern through
Western styles and influences as well. (If your
tastes lean more South American than South
African, check out the Loopmasters AfroLatin
Producer library.) These parts are not over-
played, making it easier to mix them with
other loops. The recording quality is good,
with a very immediate feel that doesnt lose
the rooms vibe. Overall, an excellent toolkit
to add to your library.
A library named Raw Power brings to mind
heavy metal; in reality it covers a wide variety
of modern rock genres. Producers Jay Price
and Jez Miller have chosen an unusual organi-
zational structure. There are five main stylistic
folders, called Alternative USA 145 bpm,
Artskool 135 bpm, Englands Dreaming 140
bpm, New Wave 120 bpm, and New York
Underground 130 bpm.
Each of these contains folders of roughly
150 mostly 2-bar bass, drums (both patterns
and fills), guitar, and synth loops. But these
are not simple construction kitsfor example
the basses may be synthetic, fuzzed, straight,
or flanged; the drums may be big-room
acoustic kits or techno-processed machines.
Loopmasters Origin Series:
Percussionism, Raw Power, Hip Hop
Progressions, and Polyester Loops
The styles range from the 70s through the
present, solidly anchored in the 80s. Many of
the drum loops in a given folder are related,
although this is not always obvious from their
names.
Most of the guitar and many of the bass
loops are presented in different keys (a big
plus), but you get only a single 2-bar loop for
each key (not great for variety). Finally, a
Toolbox folder contains nearly 200 single-shot
samples and corresponding Reason patches. In
short, theres a lot of material here, but it will
take some thought and work to realize its full
potential. If you are doing short commercials,
or higher-energy trance-like styles (such as
early Chemical Brothers), youll be happy;
those looking for subtle variations to craft more
conventional songs may become frustrated.
The core of the Hip Hop Progressions library
(produced by Hoodoo of the Groove
Criminals) is a set of 30 drum kit folders
ranging from 80 to 110 bpm. Each contains
four programmed 2-bar loops of increasing
complexity, as well as all the samples and
subloops the mixed loops are built from. The
sound is sparse but engaging, each featuring a
big crunching kick and a variety of interesting
ornamentations ranging from normal drum
and percussion sounds through vinyl noise to
kettle drums and other tonal elements.
In addition to this is the Bonus Beats folder,
which contains another 69 highly useable
drum loops ranging from cleverly pro-
grammed, understated beats through big-
room acoustic kits to blown-out distortion-
fests. There are also folders of over 130 bass,
guitar, keyboard, and music loops, again
mostly two bars in length, neatly organized
into tempos of 80, 90, 100, and 110 bpm.
The relative shortness of the loops and lack
of related variations is less of a problem with
this library, because the central genre is based
more around repetition and stings. These
loops are also interesting enough to hold
Multitimbral NI Kontakt-family
instruments in Logic Audio Pro
random
tip
This is one of the most FAQs of all time: Ive loaded several different sounds on different
MIDI channels in Native Instruments Kontakt or a Kontakt family player (like the eight East West
Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra violin programs on the left):
but every time I set up a new track in Logic and change the MIDI channel, the others all
change along with it! Help.
There are two ways to do this. The first one has the advantage of letting you name each indi-
vidual instrument loaded into Kontakt; the disadvantage is that it takes a little longer to set up,
so this is a good idea for a template. You may want to set up a separate layer or layers in the
environment just for Kontakt instruments.
The following screen dump shows three steps, from left to right:
1. Depending on how many channels youre using, create
eight or 16 new Audio Objects (you can use option/drag to
copy the first one). Highlight them all and set their Channels en
masse to Audio Instrument 1 (or whichever one youre using).
Then assign each Object a successive MIDI channel.
2. Insert the Kontakt instrument on one of them. It will now
look like there are (in this case) eight different Kontakts, but
theres only one thats duplicatedexcept that each one is
tuned to a different MIDI channel. Notice that all the faders
move together; well explain how to use individual outputs
later.
3. Name each channel strip however you want.
4. (left) Command/clicking on one of these
channel strips assigns it to the currently selected track in the Arrange window, complete with
the name youve given it. You can audition sounds this way very quickly by command/clicking
on the one you want to listen to.
The other way of addressing the Kontakt instrument (right) is less elegant but quicker:
A. Create the audio object with the multi-timbral Kontakt inserted.
Create a Multi-instrument, name it (in this case Kontakt 1) and cable it to
the Instrument channel with Kontakt inserted.
Now when you click-hold a track in the Arrange window to assign it, all
the sub-channels of this new Multi-instrument will appear in the pop-up.
Accessing a Kontakt instruments individual output pairs is very simple. First, make sure youre a using Multi Channel one
instead of a stereo one. Then assign each instrument to the output pair you want, as shown below (the jazz kit is assigned
to outputs 1&2, the Fat Rock Pick to outs 3&4.)
Now set up a stereo Aux channel for each Kontakt output pair.
When you go to assign the Aux channels inputs, youll see the indi-
vidual outputs from Kontakt in the list.
These Auxes operate independently of one another.
1
2
3
4
VI
f e a t u r e
How do you approach the overall
sequence?
There are four important things to focus on
in an orchestral sequence.
1. Attacks and releases: if a piece is soft and
calls for a delicate entrance with strings, fade
into the note to simulate a softer attack.
Before you release a note at the end of a
phrase, fade out slightly to simulate the ease
in bow pressure. The same goes for wood-
winds and brass.
2. Volume/velocity relationships: most
developers tend to normalize all the samples
in their libraries, so typical crossfade programs
stay the same volume while only the tone
changes. Unless you reprogram the patch so
that the volume matches the given velocity,
you have to ride the cc7/cc11 controller to
maintain that relationship.
(cc means MIDI Continuous Controller, and
here were talking about two sliders
although you could use pedals or anything
else. #7 is Volume, which is usually used to
set an overall level, and #11 is Expression,
which is usually used to ride the level up
and down while you play. Sometimes cc11 is
also set to control brightness.)
3. Transitions: in a legato passage, listen for
any abrupt changes in volume from note to
note. A dead giveaway that a piece is using
samples is when there are inconsistencies like
that.
4. Orchestration and balance: a flutist will
never overpower a trombone section playing
triple forte. Apply that understanding to the
rest of the orchestra and the music will bal-
ance itself.
Do you prefer one particular sampler
format over another?
I have a sequencer PC and two dedicated
Giga machines. Ive yet to come across a sam-
pler format as reliable as GigaStudio. Once
you get it up and running, the performance is
rock solid.
Please tell me about the brass youre
MIDI Mockup Microscope
more
online
www.virtualinstrumentsmag.com
by Frederick Russ
The second in a time-to-time series analyzing
composers MIDI programming techniques
Along with software synths, modern sample libraries
created the new musical medium this magazine is all
about. And as with anything else, making these libraries
sound their best is a real skill.
In this series we take a look at different pieces of
music by people who have that skill and find out what
they did. Youll find the compositions were analyzing
on the VI website so you can download them and hear
whats going on.
Please feel free to email us with any additional ques-
tions you may have. Well pass them on to the com-
posers and print all suitable answers.
Aaron Sapp is a very young and very talented orchestral
composer/sound designer from Florida. He has done extensive beta test-
ing and official demos for several of the major orchestral sample libraries,
including Sonic Implants, East West Symphonic Orchestra, Project SAM,
Kirk Hunter, Dan Dean, Garritan Orchestral Strings, and also Kurzweil.
Aaron has composed music for PSP Game Audio, spent time as an
orchestrator/copyist, and written music for the Videohelper music library.
using in Big Apple: and how youre
achieving your sound. Specifically, lets
start with the marcato brass fanfare in
the first ten seconds or so. We hear
that throughout the piece.
In the first few bars a G13#11 chord
(A/G7) can be heard divided between trum-
pets and horns. The brass is a blend of Sonic
Implants, Vienna Symphonic Library, Project
SAM, and Quantum Leap Symphonic Brass.
Sonic Implants is, in my opinion, one of the
more under-appreciated brass libraries we
have available today.
The inclusion of multiple section sizes for
each instrument allows you to sequence more
correct brass parts. The horn arrangements
in Big Apple sound accurate because the
typical division of six horns in a triad is two
horns per note. Had I used one of the more
conventional horn section libraries, instead of
six horns in a triad, youd hear 18.
Are you leaning upon any particular
compositional or arranging method or
approach? I dont use any method in
particular, just sort of make it up as I
go. Write eight bars, orchestrate, pol-
ish, coffee, eight bars, orchestrate, pol-
ish, sandwich, etc. I guess the benefit
of that (improvising) would be some
spontaneity, but you also run the risk
of the music becoming structureless.
For Big Apple I wanted to go for that
Gershwinesque vibe, so along with syncopat-
ed rhythms in the percussion and brass, I
included jazzy articulations like trombone
glissandi, flutter-tongue, and mutes.
I know youre a trumpet player. How
has that helped in your mockups?
I think playing trumpet has helped me to
understand phrasing in brass better.
Whenever I play an expressive marcato pas-
sage on my trumpet for instance, I notice
there is a slight dip in volume between each
notemaybe even a space. I apply that
observation to marcato brass passages in my
sequences, and it does help to add a sense of
weight and expression to the performance.
Lets talk about the solo trumpet at
0:57-1:02 and the solo bone at 1:02-
1:18. Are these commercial libraries
youre using?
I performed the solo trumpet parts myself.
Its amazing what even a single live element
can do for a sequence. The section between
1:02-1:18 uses East West Quantum Leap
Symphony Orchestra tuba and Sonic Implants
trombones (dont write that high for tuba
theyll curse you from afar).
And the percussion?
A lot of it is from Project SAMs freebies.
My current go-to libraries are SAMs True
Strike and Symphonic Percussion Collection
from Sonic Implants. Both are excellent.
What are you using for strings (sus-
Aaron Sapps
Big Apple
(hear it on www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com)
This screen dump shows the MIDI data in the building horn passage from :43 - :50.
One way to achieve expressive brass lines is to leave a little space between each note to
mimic a brass players ease in airflow when playing bell tone marcato-type lines. You
should also stagger the attack and release length of each note (in harmonic passages) to
vary and smooth out the performance a bit.
At the end of harmonic
phrases (not only brass), I
end notes as per screen
dump 2 for two reasons:
first, so that the release
tapers off smoothly; and
second, so that the ring-
out remains full and bal-
anced, since higher pitches
reverberate longer.
Advanced users will find this simplistic,
but hopefully this dirt-simple program-
ming tip will serve as an inspiration to
composers too intimidated to edit their
samples. The way to turn sustain patches
(with hard attacks) into expressive ones
(with soft attacks) is simply to adjust the
attack envelope in your editor.
The first screen dump is for the piano
dynamic. Youll notice the attack isnt as
abrupt, but still fairly quick since string
players generally dont sweep playing
that softly. The next screen dump is for the fortissimo dynamic. The attack is much wider,
good for sweeping dramatic lines in a moderate tempo.
This wouldnt necessarily work as well
in a faster tempo, since the attacks would
then be too sluggish. Its really up to the
composer to program all the different
tempo variations (maybe three or four
total) and to keyswitch between them in
a sequence. This will result in more musi-
cal string phrases throughout a piece.
Aaron Sapp expounds
VI
f e a t u r e
D
imension Pro is destined to please two
distinctly different kinds of musicians.
Its vast sound library will have obvious
appeal to preset addicts, while its many
sound-shaping tools are a godsend for those
whose first inclination when they get a new
synth is to erase all the presetsi.e. sound
designers. So how well does it succeed at
straddling this fence?
Although it provides a variety of sound-
shaping tools, there are so many sounds on
offer here that most musicians might never
be tempted to create their own. Among the
two DVDs worth of sounds (a staggering
1500 presets) are both realistic and synth
basses, grand and electric pianos, electric gui-
tar, drum kits, a full orchestral suite including
strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion
(drawn from Garritan Personal Orchestra), a
smattering of world instruments, and sounds
and effects suitable for electronica, techno,
and trance.
Of note are the Dimensions, which are
complex layered sounds that really show off
the softwares sound-generating engine. If
youre looking for a replacement for your
aging Trinity workstation, youve come to the
right place. But a number of additions to the
basic sampler paradigm mean this aint your
daddys ROMpler.
Sticking with the built-in sound palette
would be a big mistake. Theres far more
sound-generating power here than in the
average sampler. That power comes largely in
the form of a wavetable synthesis engine,
extensive envelope-shaping capabilities, and
LFOs that sync to tempo.
The software isnt really new; Dimension
has been shipping with Cakewalk Project 5
since Version 2. What makes this a Pro version
is the extended sound library and the fact
that it now runs on the Mac.
Architecturally speaking
Dimension is unique in its use of the open-
standard, text-based sfz format for its sam-
ples. The Sfz format (which supports uncom-
pressed and compressed samples up to 32-
bits in either mono or stereo at any sample
rate) goes beyond traditional sample-map-
ping parameters such as standard keyboard
and velocity splits, allowing for multiple lay-
VI
r e v i e w
This all-in-one sample-based modeling synth covers everything
from electronics to orchestral writing (it even includes a lite
version of Garritan Personal Orchestra)
Review By
Lee Sherman
Dimension Pro, $359
Cakewalk, 268 Summer St.,
Boston, MA 02210. 888/225-3925,
617/423-9004.
License: challenge/response
system for a single machine.
Cakwalk
Dimension Pro
ers, release triggers, cross-fades, legato play-
back, random and alternate samples, and
samples triggered by MIDI controllers.
This flexible sample format provides
Dimension with a powerful jumping off point
for its powerful sound generation architec-
ture. At the core of Dimensions sound gener-
ation prowess is what Cakewalk calls the
Player. The Player can produce new sounds
using one of three methods: sample playback,
oscillator/wavetable synthesis, or waveguide
synthesis.
Dimension breaks sound generation into
four components, which it calls Elements, that
when combined produce some extremely
complex sounds. Each element has its own
player, filter, lo-fi and drive sections, three
EQs, effects, LFO and modulators (pitch, cut-
off, resonance, pan, and amplitude) and each
element can be assigned to a single multi-
sample. Then each element can also be
assigned a separate MIDI channel for multi-
timbral sounds.
The sound from the four elements is mixed
and routed to a stereo output. In addition,
each element processes two stereo effect bus
mixes, which are routed to the two Global
Effects. The output of the two Global Effects is
then added to the main output.
A rather extensive effects section includes
delays, chorus, phaser, detuner, multiple filter
types (lowpass, highpass, bandpass), and
panning. Insert and send effects include bit
reducer/ decimator, 16 filter types, five drive
modes, three stackable parametric EQs, six
delay types, three chorus types, LFO filters,
autopan, room simulation, and modulation.
Effects can be set for each element, and
theres also a master effects section that can
apply reverb, chorus, phasing, or symphonic
resonance to the entire sound.
The Vector Mixer is an extra gain stage
located after the Mix section in the signal
chain. Vector Mixing, first seen in the Prophet
VS and the Korg Wavestation, allows one
sound to be morphed into another in real
time, either by moving the mouse or by
assigning a MIDI continuous controller to a
hardware controller such as a joystick.
Dimension is a sample-based synth with a
number of unique tricks up its sleeve. Besides
being able to play back multisamples based
on standard PCM wave files, Dimension Pro
supports wavetable synthesis and a form of
physical modeling called waveguide synthesis.
According to the Center for Computer
Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at
Stanford University, digital waveguide synthe-
sis models are computational physical models
for certain classes of musical instruments
(string, winds, brasses, etc.), which are made
up of delay lines, digital filters, and often non-
linear elements designed to follow the geom-
etry and reproduce physical properties of a
desired acoustic system.
It is important to note that this differs
somewhat from the approach to physical
modeling used by Logics Sculpture synth or
AAS String Studio, where oscillator, filter, and
envelope parameters are replaced by a math-
ematical model of these components. Instead,
Dimension can use any loaded sample as an
impulse that is directed to a waveguide in
order to emulate the sound of plucked
strings.
50 such impulse files are included with the
program, and more can be added. However,
the program does include a piano
body/damper simulator, which models the
internal strings and body of a piano in order
to generate the resonances (some silent) that
occur between notes when the Sustain switch
is pressed.
The ability to load impulse responses pro-
vides an especially life-like quality to real
instruments, while subjectively falling some-
what short of physical modeling that actually
generates the entire sound from scratch.
While Dimension Pro isnt lacking in more
synthetic samples, Cakewalks recently intro-
duced Rapture, which features a similar single
window user interface and an even more
powerful wavetable synthesis engine, may be
a better bet for cutting-edge electronica and
dance music.
Using it
The onscreen panel has a clean, easy-to-
navigate layout, and most of the action takes
place in a single window that floats above
your DAW. Sounds are grouped logically by
category, and you can use your computer
keyboards arrow keys to move among them.
I especially liked the fact that the program
browser can be torn off and placed anywhere
on the screen, not unlike the tool palettes in
graphics programs. This made auditioning
sounds much easier, a necessity when youve
got so many to choose from!
Tabs across the top of the main window let
you switch between each Element, and in
each section you have full control over EQ, fil-
ters, effects, drive, and modulators for that
Element. Envelopes are dis-
played graphically and can be
reshaped by clicking and drag-
ging on breakpoints. You can
even draw in your own.
Dimension is expandable by
design. You can bring in your
own multisamples based on
standard PCM wave files, and
Cakewalk is promising third-
party sample libraries in the
future.
Given the sheer number of
sounds on offer its not surpris-
ing that Dimension rates high
in providing a well-rounded
collection of samples that will
suit nearly any production.
The inclusion of the Garritan
Pocket Orchestra library allows
for some rudimentary orches-
tration possibilities, but true
composers will want a more
full-featured library.
With all these modulation and effects capa-
bilities, Dimension is particularly good at gen-
erating gorgeous shimmering textures that
would be appropriate for ambient music or
film scores. The presets (in particular the lay-
ered multisamples found in the Dimensions
category) provide a good introduction to
what the program is capable of.
But since even these complex sounds dont
always take advantage of all four elements,
theres plenty of room for experimentation.
Youll definitely want to get under the hood
and do some tweaking. Unlike some other
sample-based programs which require a deep
understanding of the architecture to create
sounds, sometimes something as simple as
copying and pasting an element from one
section to another can achieve a radical
departure from the sound you
started with. I enjoyed loading
in random samples found on
my hard drive and experienc-
ing a kind of serendipity not
usually associated with this
kind of synthesis.
Two categories of programs
deserve special mention. The
Musical Grooves and Drum
Grooves folders contain MIDI
patterns matched to audio
samples that can be dragged
and dropped into your DAW
host.
Available in DXi and VST for
Windows, Dimension is also
long-time music software
developer Cakewalks first Mac
product and comes as either
an AU or VSTi plug-in. Theres
little here to complain about,
so my complaints are likely to
come across more as back-
handed compliments. Since Dimension Pro
offers a sample library that is more complete
than most workstations, Id like to see a
standalone version that could be installed on
a laptop computer for live performance. And
once spoiled by the inclusion of a library of
MIDI loops (why dont more programs
include these?) Id like to see more than the
90 or so included here.
At NAMM, Cakewalk announced version
1.1 of the software which adds RTAS support
for ProTools on both Mac and Windows, an
X64-capable DXi format that runs natively in
SONAR 5 on Windows XP x64 Edition and
allows access to up to 128GB of RAM, sup-
port for alternate tuning, MIDI Learn, and
improved FX. VI
VI
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EWQLSO XP
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20)
articulations are there for all the main string
sections (18 violins, 11 violins, 10 violas, 10
cellos, 8 basses)youll find a selection of
long, short, effects, modwheel crossfade, and
keyswitch programsthe number of pro-
grams in each category varies considerably.
EWQLSO also includes a fair number of
specialized articulations that either work per-
fectly at the tempo/context in which youre
using them, or they dont work at all. The 6-
player French horn section accented
swell/dim is a good example. So depending
on your outlook at the moment, this library
either has a lot of inspiring articulations, or it
requires that you write to its demands.
Of course, the specialized programs are
only an additional featurethe library certain-
ly has enough basic articulations to make it
play your own parts as well. For example,
youll find various short string articulations,
butter legato programs for expressive lines,
non vibrato strings, and so on.
There are also some really nice samples
with just enough articulations to be useful. An
example of this is the 3 cello and 4 violin sec-
tions new to the XP version, both of which
have sustained vibrato and sustained vibrato
modwheel programsonly. Theyre both
quite lovely, and you can do a lot with those
two programs. But if you want to write for
the 3 violin section, you have to write some-
thing it can do.
It takes a little while to mine the depths of
whats included in this libraryand still more
time for some of the implications of what
youre hearing to dawn on youbut youll
discover a lot of great material. That includes
the great new special effects in the XP ver-
sion, such as the Penderecki violin programs,
horn clusters, various bends and random nois-
es, and so on.
QLegato and run simulator
Different developers have come up with
different approaches to the problem of creat-
ing legato phrases (or sections of phrases) out
of individually-sampled notes. One of the sim-
plest solutions is to create headless samples
(see King Idiots column in our first issue)
samples with their attacks cut off so they fade
in, which you use for second and subsequent
notes in a phrase.
EWQLSO XPs approach, called QLegato,
takes that idea several steps farther. What they
did was sample musicians re-attacking notes
with as short a break as possible, so for exam-
ple string players would change bow direction
imperceptibly. Afterwards they edit out the
note that was sustaining before the second
attack, leaving the attack of the very short tran-
sition. The result is a more natural attack than
you get with simple headless fade-ins.
I found the QLegato effect to work okay,
although its somewhat subtle and Id stop
short of calling it the ultimate slam dunk solu-
tion to playing connected phrases. The
QLegato effect seems most effective on things
like solo clarinet and French horn at lower
velocities; what these sounds have in com-
mon is that theyre fairly pure and played
without vibrato.
All your farm computers will be loading
and scanning VSTs from a central pointthe
serverso a global VST directory is necessary.
Assuming that your server has been given the
network drive R:\ you would then create a
folder R:\VSTPlugins.
From this point on, install all your VST
plug-ins into this directory and have FX-
Teleport look here for VST plug ins on each
farm machine. You now have a common net-
work point to load VSTs from, so any time a
new plug is added, all of the farm machines
will see and scan the new addition.
For your samples, create a directory on the
server named R:\Samples and place all your
sample data in that folder. This once again
centralizes the data so every farm machine
can access and stream it to the currently
loaded VST. If youre concerned about server
load, I can say that Ive successfully streamed
samples from one server RAID to ten farm
machines at once without a glitch, all with
FX-Teleport and Remote Desktop simultane-
ously sharing the network bandwidth.
Ethernet hardware
Again, all your switches and networking
cards must be gigabit ethernet rather than
100base-T, or you may
start running into bottle-
necking problems. If
youre going to provide
access to the internet for
your network, make sure
the router is connected
to the last port in your
gigabit switcher so it
doesnt interfere with
traffic (unless its a giga-
bit router, which is
unlikely). Do not use a
10/100 router as a con-
nection point between any computers on
your gigabit LANit will interfere with and
slow down network traffic.
Use CAT5e cables, as this seems to result in
slightly better latency than normal CAT5.
Daisy-chaining gigabit switches to add more
ports is fine, although it can be more conven-
ient having one. 8-port switches arent very
expensive, and it might be a good idea to
have extra ports in case you need them.
Tips
Here are some other settings youre going
to want to make on your slave machines:
1. Follow a sequential IP address and nam-
ing scheme for your farms. Heres an example
of how I name and address machines on my
network.
This keeps your network simple and easy to
reference and remember.
2. Make sure you enable Remote Desktop
on each machine so it is accessible over the
network.
3. Enable Classic Mode file sharing, as
shown in Fig. 5. This makes adjustments to
any drive on your network simple. Go into
Administrative Tools in the control panel and
open Local security policy. Under Local
Policies->Security Options, open Network
Access: Sharing and security model for local
accounts, and select Classic.
Now as long as all your computers have
the same user name and password, you can
access their drives simply by adding a dollar
STUDIO FARMS
VI
r e v i e w
Fig. 5: Setting Security Mode to Classic lets you make changes to the network
easily.
Role name IP address
Main DAW daw 192.168.1.9
Server fileserver 192.168.1.10
Farm 1 f1 192.168.1.11
Farm 2 f2 192.168.1.12
Farm 3,4,5... f3,4,5... 192.168.1.13, .14, .15...
There are some things you can do to
improve the effect, such as inserting short
pitch blips and volume swells at the transi-
tions. And it goes without saying that you
also have to play legato (i.e. the notes must
meet up or overlap slightly) in the first place.
A few instruments, such as the 11 violin
section, have a Run Simulator articulation. It
takes a little bit of work to make the runs
sound like they werent played on the key-
board, but it can be done, especially if you
double the line with another instrument.
New programs
There are lists of all the new sampled
instruments and articulations in XP on
www.Soundsonline.com (East Wests website),
as well as comparisons to the original library.
The additional material more than doubles
the size, so obviously we wont list it all here.
In general, and in addition to all thats
been mentioned, the string programs include
more playing techniquessul ponticello, flau-
tando, Bartok pizz, tremolo, etc. Along with
the wonderful special effects, these are a
great addition to the library. Theres also no
shortage of biting string articulations, for
which I happen to have a particular fondness.
The low stringsand brass for that matter
are great, and in my opinion considerably
better than the high strings. I also happen to
prefer the grittier 11 violin section to the larg-
er one.
EWQLSOs percussion has always been a
strong suit. My favorite of the new instru-
ments is the Mahler Hammer, a big-ass wood-
en mallet slamming an even bigger-ass wood-
en box. The new velocity layers for the
marimba are also worth calling out, as are the
taiko drums, but there are a lot of new instru-
ments here. (If theres a third edition, Id like
to put in a request for pedal-up vibraphone
and chimes samples.)
While the woodwinds overall are not my
personal favorite section in EWQLSO, they do
blend with the rest of the orchestra in sec-
tions very well. And the solo clarinet is quite
good, the piccolo very good. XP includes
some excellent new piccolo effects.
There doesnt seem to be any single area of
focus with the new brass articulations, but
theres no shortage of really good ones. One
example would be the short staccato 6
French horn section, which is a great pro-
gram for the characteristic stab effect. But
then the huge horn section is great anyway,
in fact the powerful brass, especially the low
brass, in EWQLSO is outstanding. I wasnt
able to make the solo piccolo trumpet sound
especially good, but its great having a sec-
ond solo trumpet, and the new solo trom-
bone is far more complete than the original.
So
The XP upgrade makes an excellent library
all the more so. It has a wealth of new articu-
lations and instruments that greatly expand
its flexibility. VI
EWQLSO XP
sign to their drive letter in the network path.
For instance, I can now access the C:\ drive
on f1 simply by entering \\f1\c$ in the
Run command. Sharing does not even need
to be enabled.
Once all the farm machines are set up and
looking at the shared VST Plug-ins directory,
you can return to the DAW. Using FX-
Teleport, you can now scan the network for
plug-ins; all of the farm machines should
return the same ones.
While this is happening its a good idea to
keep an eye on the farm with Remote
Desktop. To connect to a farm machine
through Remote Desktop in the Start menu,
go to All Programs->Accessories-
>Communications->Remote Desktop
Connection. Enter the name for the computer
(e.g. F1) and then proceed to log on to
Windows. Once all the plug-ins have been
found, add them (ADD->) to your sequencers
VST directory and start your DAW software.
The middleman
If you use a Mac sequencer (or a Windows
one that doesnt support VST plug-ins), there
is another option: the middleman machine.
The idea behind this set-up is that every-
thingthe server, farm, and the middle-
manall create one huge instrument.
You can set up the middleman machine
just as you would the DAW as described
above, however its audio will go to your main
DAW (i.e. your Mac) the traditional way:
using an audio interface. Its not necessary to
put MIDI interfaces on both machines,
thoughMusic Labs MIDI-Over-LAN (men-
tioned earlier) can send MIDI between Macs
and PCs over the network.
Youll probably want to use audio interface
with a good number of outputs, probably 16
to be safe. I find the ADAT optical format to
be the most useful, because it uses the least
number of cables. Install XP Pro on the mid-
dleman, and use any good sequencer or host
that supports VST.
In the sequencer or host, you make a tem-
plate of all the VST instruments you want to
load over the farm and assign them to MIDI-
Over-LAN tracks. Their outputs can be sent
back out through the ADAT connection to
your main DAW.
One drawback is that you may need to start
doing some submixing inside the middleman
to accommodate the number of outputs you
have. Eight stereo channels is a good number
of splits, but you lose some of the individual
control on your main DAWs side.
However, a major upside to doing it this
way is that it can significantly cut load time in
your main DAW. If all your instruments are
loaded remotely into a separate template,
then your sequences only need to load MIDI
tracks and host instruments and effects. You
load the template on the middleman machine
once, and unless it crashes, you wont need
to load those instruments over the network
on that machine again.
If youre using a Mac as your DAW, you can
download a Remote Access client from
www.mactopia.com and control your PCs
from your Mac keyboard, monitor and
mouse. Theres also a free cross-platform pro-
gram called Synergy (http://synergy2.source-
forge.net/) that sends just the keyboard and
mouse over the network if you want to use
separate monitors.
Through the ether
The amount of information that gets
passed through the network at the speed it
does is dumbfounding. Essentially you are
going keyboard->DAW->farm->server->farm-
>DAW->monitors so quickly that its inaudible.
Pretty impressive stuff.
As complicated as this may sound at first,
once you grasp how it works, everything
becomes easy to access, control, and find.
Your DAW CPU load should stay significantly
lower, and every plug-in and sample will be
accessible on each farm machinewhich
means faster writing and mixing with less
hassle. VI
Jesse White is a film/TV composer and audio
post engineer. He also does studio consultation
for many composers in Los Angeles. His specialty
is programming custom network scripts and
general system design.
VI
CUBASE CLINIC
Mix & match
Ive never found the MIDI channels in the
Cubase mixer very useful, so I usually turn
them off by clicking the MIDI icon in the strip
on the lower left side. On the other hand,
extending the mixers vertical height in order
to display inserts or EQ (see Figure 6) is quite
useful. You can use the black strip along the
upper left side to choose a different function
(EQ, inserts, sends, meters, etc.) for all of the
channels, or use the drop-down menu hidden
below the little down-pointing triangle to
switch each channel strip to show a different
set of controls.
Mixer set-ups can be saved with the little
page buttons at middle left. These set-ups
dont store the width of the mixer window,
unfortunately, so in a project of any complexi-
ty its probably wise to leave the mixer win-
dow spread to the full screen width. The
mixer can be opened or closed using the F3
key, another shortcut worth memorizing.
Back to the Project Window
More tips on using the Project window?
Sure, why not?
Ive been using the zoom sliders in the
lower right corner for years. I only recently
discovered that clicking in the ruler and mov-
ing the mouse vertically zooms the window in
and out horizontally. (This also works in the
piano roll editor.)
Want to quantize a MIDI part after playing
it? You dont need to open an editor for that.
The just-recorded
part will still be
selected, so hit the
Q key. This will
quantize the part
to the currently
selected quantize
value. The I key is
no longer assigned
by default to
Iterative Quantize
(Cubases version
of move the
notes partway to
the rhythmic
grid), because its
used for setting
the auto-punch in
point. But you can
override that, or
assign some other
key such as Shift+I
to Iterative
Quantize, using
Cubases Key
Commands win-
dow (see Figure
7).
Once upon a
time, each part in
Cubase had its
own playback
parameters, including quantization. No more.
But if youre displaying the event info line at
the top of the Project window, youll notice
that parts can still be transposed and velocity-
shifted individually. Also in this line is the off-
set parameter, which allows events within the
part to be shifted left or right with-
out moving the boundaries of the
part. This is more useful for moving
audio within an audio part than for
moving MIDI (see below). The
shortcut is to Ctrl-Alt-click and drag.
Be reasonable
The great synths and effects in
Propellerhead Reason make it a pop-
ular choice as a ReWire client for use
with Cubase.
The first gotcha to deal with is
the fact that Reason will continue to
receive MIDI directly, as well as
receiving it via ReWire from Cubase.
So if you create, lets say, a
Malstrm synthesizer, then go back
to Cubase and assign a MIDI tracks
output to the Malstrm, the
Malstrm will receive each MIDI
note you play on the keyboard
twice, thus eating up CPU band-
width and creating phasing artifacts.
There are two easy ways to fix
this. First, you can create a
sequencer track in Reason thats not
assigned to any Reason module, and
click the keyboard icon at the left
end of the track to assign the MIDI
input to it. I always name this track
duff track, after the beer in The Simpsons.
The disadvantage to this method is that each
time you create a new Reason module, youll
have to reassign MIDI input to the duff track.
A better choice may be to go into the Reason
Preferences box, choose the Control Surfaces
and Keyboards display, and uncheck your
master keyboard.
Automating Reasons panel controls from
its own sequencer while sending it notes from
Cubase is possible, but if you need to edit
your song by moving sections around, having
the data in two sequencers will get messy. I
prefer to automate Reasons knobs and sliders
from within Cubase.
The difficulty is that (as of version 3.0)
Reason cant map ReWire MIDI to its remote
control input. The solution is to send MIDI
control data from Cubase to Reason not via
ReWire, but using an external MIDI pipeline.
In Windows, you can download and install
MIDI-Yoke NT, which is free. In the Mac, the
Inter-Application Communication (IAC) bus
can be switched on in Audio MIDI Setup.
Once youve set this up, simply tell Reason
to use the external MIDI bus as a remote con-
trol input by right-clicking on a knob or slider
and selecting Edit Remote Override Mapping.
Choose a Control Change type and channel
in this box. Then route a Cubase track to the
bus, assign the track to the correct channel,
and draw all the automation youd like with
the pencil tool.
One thing to be cautious of in this sce-
nario: if Cubases MIDI track input is set to All
MIDI Inputs, which is the default, setting the
tracks output to the external bus and then
Figure 6: Cubases mixer channel strips can be made wide or nar-
row, and the upper part of each strip can contain whatever set of
controls you need. Here, were looking at the sends for Audio 01,
EQ for Audio 02, inserts for z3ta+1 out, and large meters for
Hypersonic.
Figure 7: Many of Cubases commands can be accessed from the QWERTY keyboard
by assigning them in the Key Commands window. Type in your preferred key or key
combination. If its already assigned, youll see the current assignment in the
Assigned to: field. If its available, click the Assign button.
drawing controller data into the track
will lock up Cubase, forcing you to
restart your computer. This is because
a MIDI loop has been created. For
Reason automation tracks in Cubase,
choose a specific MIDI input (if you
want to record the data from a hard-
ware control surface) or Not
Connected.
Since all of Reasons devices, even
the mixers and effects, show up as
possible ReWire destinations, youll
find it easier to sort through the list if
you give the synths youre using sen-
sible names. Note also that while
Reason only sends one stereo audio
output to Cubase by default, this can
be changed by dragging the lower
edge of the ReWire input box to
reveal more audio channels (see
Figure 8). Cable the Reason devices of
your choice to these outputs in the Reason
Hardware Interface, and youre good to go.
Slice & dice
Recently I found myself wanting to use
Native Instruments Reaktors Sinebeats 2 to
make a percussion groove for a tune. The pat-
terns in Sinebeats can be edited extensively,
but making syncopated variations using the
same sounds is not so easyplus I couldnt
figure out how to sync Sinebeats to Cubases
bar lines. If I owned Propellerhead ReCycle, I
could slice the beats with it and then import
them into any REX file player (or into Cubase,
which will play REX files). But I dont have
ReCycle. Not to worryCubase will do the
whole job itself.
To make some useful variations, I first
used Cubases File > Export > Audio
Mixdown function to grab eight measures
of a few different Sinebeats patterns. I
imported these patterns into Cubase tracks
and aligned them with the beat by narrow-
ing the outer borders of each audio part
and then using Ctrl-Alt dragging to move
the waveform within the part.
I opened the sample editor for my first
Sinebeat beat and added Hitpoints to it
(Audio > Hitpoints > Calculate Hitpoints).
Cubase didnt identify all of the rhythmic
points, so I had to switch on Snap to Zero
Crossing in the editor window and then use
the Hitpoint tool to add more slices.
Then it was time for the Create Audio Slices
from Hitpoints command. This separates the
beat into slices, all of them lined up end to
end within the original part. If you need to
change the tempo of a sampled
beat, this is the way to do it. But
the tempo of this beat was already
perfect, because Sinebeats started
out synced to the Cubase clock.
Instead, I started dragging slices
(more or less at random) down to
the second lane in the Audio Part
Editor (see Figure 9). The rule for
this window is simple: only one
waveform will play at a time, and if
two overlap, the one in the lower
lane gets priority. Setting the snap
grid to Events ensured that the
rhythm of the beat wasnt altered
by my edits.
In short order I had a few stut-
tering effects and fills. By Alt-drag-
ging the part in the Project win-
dow, I made copies that could be edited sep-
arately, producing different rhythm variations.
Sequencing cubed
In this tutorial weve only touched on a few
of Cubases many useful features. The main
Operation Manual is almost 800 pages long,
and its only one of half a dozen documents
that come with the program. But you dont
have to read them from cover to cover.
Whenever you see a little downward-pointing
triangle, click on it. Dozens of commands are
tucked away in these local menus. If you
devote some time to learning your way
around, your music is almost certain to
improve, and youll be less frustrated and
have a lot more fun too. VI
Jim Aikin is the author of Power Tools for
Synthesizer Programming (Backbeat Books). He
writes regularly for VI and other music tech-
nology magazines, and also plays electric
cello.
Figure 8: Drag the lower edge of the ReWire audio channels box
to bring more channels into view. Some ReWire clients offer as
many as 64 channels.
Figure 9: After using the Hitpoints functions to slice apart a beat, you can drag slices into another lane to
reorganize the rhythm.
KING IDIOT
VI
3. Set the Volume of the first instrument to -6.0 dB as shown in Fig.
9. (#3)
4. Set the Volume of the second instrument to -14.0 dB. (#4)
5. Click the Edit button on the first instrument.
6. Add a modulator in the Amplifier Module, assign it to Volume,
and set it to MIDI CC#11. (#6)
Thats it. This simple tweak gives you an added level of control when
layering a solo violin over a violin section. Just use CC#11 when doing
soft crescendos and decrescendosthe solo violin will keep playing as
the section gets lighter. With reverb this adds a bit of realism, as if not
all the players are performing the crescendo perfectly in sync, as well as
tricking the ear into hearing other natural sonic occurrences.
You can also use CC#11 as a mixer to balance between the solo
instrument and the section. This is helpful when you want a perform-
ance to have a light touch but still be played in the stronger dynamic
range (with the mod wheel mid-range to full).
Use this trick with the Vibrato Strings instrument and the other solo
instruments. Or use the AO solo strings along with other string libraries,
adjusting the level of the solo instruments to taste.
Slurring your words
A number of people have been amazed with the new
EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs release and have delved
deeply into its word-building features. (The library includes samples of
all the syllables we use and can form words with an included utility pro-
gram.)
Ive developed a little tweak that might give everyone just a tad bit
more control and variety while building words. Its rather involved, but
I think its worth the trouble.
1. Load any of the Utility Multi programs into Kontakt 2. (You can
also use Kontakt 1; just use the structure window to select Groups
instead of the Group editor.)
2. Click the Wrench/Edit button on the first instrument in the Multi.
See Fig. 8.
13. Adjust the Attack on the ADSR assigned to volume to 7.0-20.0
(adjust to taste). (#13)
14. Adjust the Sustain of the ADSR on the second duplicate group to
(minus) infinity. (#14)
15. Adjust the Decay of the ADSR on the second duplicate group to
2.0k. (#15)
16. Click the Instrument Options button, and set the MIDI Controller
#64 Setting to Controller Only in the Controller tab.
17. Save the instrument under a different name (e.g. add Legato
to the end), and reload. (Reloading must be done to ensure all sample
starts are buffered correctly.)
This variation works the same as abovedepress the sustain pedal
and you get a legato-type performancehowever its inner workings
are different. Half of it works exactly the same, and that is the pianissi-
mo layer. The forte layer works differently in that when you play a note
above 67 velocity with the sustain pedal depressed, a short amount of
the pianissimo layer with its sample start point moved ahead is played
along with the forte layer. It then fades out and you only hear the forte
layer.
This only adds 50% RAM overhead as compared to the 100% addi-
tion in the previous method. However the polyphony count doubles
when you play forte velocities.
AOkay
Lets move on to another library and see what kind of damage we
can do there. Advanced Orchestra (AO) was a very popular library
some years ago, before all the bigfoot (huge, streaming) libraries
started showing up. A few people have requested tweaks from me to
make the strings sing a little more and seem less static.
Heres a simple little tweak that doesnt have to be limited to AO.
1. Load the Violin Section Basic Key XFD Instrument.
2. Load the Violin Solo Basic Key XFD Instrument.
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Take a look at Fig. 10.
3. Open the Group editor and select only the nine normal attack
groups (three for each vowel, e.g. oo p, oo m, and ooh f). (#3)
4. Add a modulator to the ADSR assigned to volume, set it to MIDI
CC#73, and assign it to the attack knob.
7. Add another modulator to the same ADSR, set it to MIDI CC#72,
and assign it to the release knob.
8. Rescale the curve of this modulator to 66%-100%. (#8)
9. Set the release knob to 2.0k. (#9)
10. Deselect all the groups in the Group editor
11. Select the nine release trigger counterparts to the normal
attack groups.(three for each vowel, eg. ah p rt, ah m rt, and ah f rt).
12. Add a modulator to the ADSR assigned to volume, set it to MIDI
CC#72, and assign it to the Attack knob.
13. Rescale the curve of this modulator to 66%-100%.
14. Set the Attack Knob to 150.0
15. Repeat steps 3-14 on the second instrument in the Multi.
What this tweak does is give you attack/release envelope control in
real time. Since the ADSR is assigned to volume, you can control the
intensity of the way a vowel is started and the length of its fade out.
This allows for longer and smoother diphthongs without having to
draw the crossfade in the word builder.
You can also add these tweaks to the consonant instruments in the
Utility Multi (Instruments 3 - 5), giving you the ability to smear the
phonetics of the word together. Its even possible to use the MIDI CC
controller features within the word building utility to automate which
vowels you want to affect and how you want to affect them.
Legend of the falls
Next well try something simpler. Well tackle an instrument in the
effects section of the library. By this point you know how to perform all
these steps, so well leave out the details.
1. Load up one of the Falls instruments (e.g. C Alto Falls).
2 Change the setting in the Source module from DFD to Sampler.
3. Duplicate the Group.
4. Click the Reverse button in the source module on the new Group
only.
5. Set the Group Start Options on the original group to play only
with MIDI CC#1 between 0 and 64.
6. Set the Group Start Options on the new Group to play only with
MIDI CC#1 between 65 and 127.
You now have an instrument that can also play a slide up if you push
the mod wheel all the way up, and play a fall when the mod wheel is
all the way down. This new instrument can be used layered underneath
performances to add a fake sliding legato if done subtly.
Do the same to the ahiheh/eeoheh-type instruments. You can use
the natural transitions in these samples as layers as well, adding nuance
to word-building performances and getting more natural diphthong
effects.
King for an issue
Thats it for this time. Hopefully theres enough to keep your brain in
overdrive until the next issue, where Ill tackle some other popular
libraries. Definitely take some time to experiment to and understand
exactly whats being done, and feel free write to VI and share what you
find out.
Next issue: some more solo instruments, and percussion. VI
VI
Now plese refer to Fig. 11.
5. Rescale the curve of this modulator to 5%-100%.
6. Set the attack knob to 1.0k. (#6)
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
VI
MIDI MOCKUP
VI
ULTRABEAT
select velocity or one of the four MIDI con-
trollers from a pull down menu to modulate
the modulation depth of the chosen modula-
tion source (see Fig. 9).
It doesnt stop there. You can also set a
maximum amount that the modulation
source can be modulatedthe modulation
depth for the Via modulatorusing the green
slider that also appears over the modulated
parameters control track (Fig. 10). So the
Mod parameter determines the minimum
modulation, and the Via parameter deter-
mines the maximum modulation that will be
applied to the modulation target.
Time to see this in action. Lets suppose
that we want the pitch of our snare to
increase as we play harder. With a snare drum
voice selected in the drum mixer, click on the
mod pull-down menu under the Oscillator 1
Pitch parameter and select Env1 as our modu-
lation source. Drag the blue mod slider to F3
(+12) as as shown in Fig. 11. At this point,
tains, spiccatos, staccatos, pizzicatos
and tremolo).
Tremolos are from VSL, pizzicatos from
QLSO, Garritan Strings for contrabass/cello
staccatos, and Sonic Implants for spiccatos.
The piano sounds like Bsendorfer.
Are you playing your parts in live?
Michiel Posts PMI Bsendorfer. The piano
part is played in, albeit at a slower tempo. I
think basic keyboarding skills are advanta-
geous in that you better understand the limi-
tations of a piano performance. Ive heard so
many pieces where a composer may over-
quantize and over-sequence a piano part,
therefore nullifying the inherent difficulties an
actual pianist may have had (with the same
piece) in a live setting.
If you play the parts in, youre naturally
including the necessary milliseconds of time it
takes to play a jump from say, C4 to G5, and
therefore adding to the illusion. So in effect, a
programmed version of chopsticks will never
have the magical appeal it does when played
live by a six-year-old.
Your mix here is clean and well bal-
anced. Also, the orchestral instruments
are well placed. What monitors do you
use?
Thanks. I do very basic limiting and EQ
over the entire sequenceraise the highs a
little bit, reduce the lows. No real processing
magic.
And actually Im using one of those $300
home-theater systems I bought years ago
hardly ideal for monitoring purposes. I own a
pair of Sennheiser 580 headphones mostly to
check for clicks and pops, but also to zoom in
on the details of a sequence.
You have a light touch on the reverb.
Are you using a convolution reverb?
What are your thoughts about ambi-
ence in general?
Normally I route the audio through my
Kurzweil K2500 keyboards effects processor
and use the reverb presets there. Ive only
recently dabbled into convolution technology,
but am convinced thats the way to go.
Personally I think people often rely too heavily
on reverb to cover the seams or to save a
sequence. Only when the music is properly
orchestrated and balanced will the reverb be
most effective.
Do you spend a lot of time tweaking?
Its important to learn to program. I cant
stress this enough. I picked up a copy of Dave
Govetts GigaStudio Mastery tutorial and
have managed to turn a number of unusable
patches into some incredibly expressive ones.
Developers simply dont have the time to
create all the necessary patch variations to
satisfy everyones writing style, so its really up
to the composer to do it him or herself. VI
when the attack of Envelope 1 kicks in, it will
raise the pitch by an octave until Envelope 1
decays.
Now lets click on the Via parameter, and
select velocity. Drag the green Via slider to F4
(+24) as in Fig. 12. At this point, the pitch of
your snare will be modulated by Envelope 1
by an octave, and Envelope 1 can be further
modulated by velocity for up to another
octave, which will raise the pitch of the snare
even more.
Max mod
The final modulation source, Max, deserves
some extra attention. This produces a static
modulation thats hardwired to the maximum
possible modulation depth. Since the mod
parameter doesnt actually modulate the tar-
get parameter, the selected Via controller
does all the modulating of the parameter
itself. This way you can have velocity or one
of your assigned MIDI controllers modulate a
parameter directly. Use the green Via modula-
tion depth slider to adjust the maximum
effect that velocity or your MIDI controller has
over the target parameter.
So lets recap all the modulation possibili-
ties. You can modulate a parameter using the
blue mod parameter, then set its modulation
depth with the blue mod slider. Its also possi-
ble to modulate the modulator using the
green Via parameter; you set the Via modula-
tors modulation depth using the green via
slider. And if you want to modulate a parame-
ter directly using the via modulators, assign
the mod parameter to Max.
If that seems confusing, open Ultrabeat
and try itit will all start to fall into place.
Just remember, everything thats blue or
green has something to do with modulating.
Everything thats red has to do with sound
Fig. 9: Clicking on the via parameter opens the
pull-down menu of via modulators.
Fig. 10: Dragging the green via modulation depth
slider sets the maximum modulation amount that
the modulator can modulate the modulator.
Fig. 11: Drag the blue mod slider to F3 (+12).
Fig. 12: Drag the green via slider to F4 (+24).
attention while being sparse enough to layer
easily. Beyond the drum loops, there is a wide
variety of single hit effects, record scratches
(most done to temponice touch), human
beatbox loops, and vinyl crackle beds. A sec-
ond CD contains the samples as audio.
The vibe is immediate and street-wise,
while managing to fold in a wide range of
genres. For example, the instrumental loops
contain acoustic strumming and orchestral
strings as well as psychedelic licks and sci-fi
synth warbles. The result is a lot of material
useful for anything from progressive hip-hop
through downtempo cool lounge to nu metal
and industrial electronica. It is rare that Ive
heard a single library that inspires so many
different compositional ideas.
The newest of the libraries discussed here is
the 2-CD Polyester Loops, crafted by compos-
er, producer, and remixer Jerzy Korzen. Unlike
the other libraries discussed, which are prima-
rily acoustic-sourced, this library was created
almost entirely with soft synths and effects.
The results are considerably more twisted
than your standard techno libraries.
There are two main folders of loops:
Handwashed and Machinewashed.
Handwashed contains 36 bassline, 40 music,
and over 180 drum loops ranging from one
to four bars in length and 80 to 180 bpm in
tempo. The styles range from technotribal to
geeky hip-hop to clockwork industrial to
experimental electronica. They tend toward
the minimal, with many of the drum loops
having strongly pitched elements while the
music loops sounds more like radio waves
from Saturn.
Machinewashed contains 57 music and
nearly 170 drum loops ranging from 70 to
170 bpm, again typically one to four bars
creation. Pretty simple, eh?
Part 2 in the next issue will feature our in-
depth exploration of the synthesizer and step
sequencer. VI
Orren Merton is a pro audio writer whose lat-
est book is Guitar Rig 2 Power, Course
Technologies 2006. He has also written books
on Logic and Garageband.
LOOPMASTERS
long. They are slightly heavier and earthier in
tone, bringing to mind experiments such as a
mind meld between hip-hop and electronica
producers, drum n bass through an acid jazz
filter, and industrial experimentations muted
through a veil of anti-depressants. Very few of
the loops are related to each other, so you
will either need to focus on repetitive trance
forms or layer other loops to add variety.
The loops are augmented by 20 drum
kits, which are folders of anywhere from a
couple dozen to nearly 100 related single-
shot sounds, with corresponding Reason
NNXT, EXS24, Halion, and Kontakt patches. If
nothing else this library will serve as inspira-
tion for budding softsynth programmers.
Although they all come under the
Loopmasters Origin banner and use similar
formatting and naming conventions, each
library strongly reflects the sensibilities of its
individual producers. All Ive heard are worth
their money; some of themsuch as
Percussionism and Hip Hop Progressionsare
truly inspirational in how many useable ideas
and layers they pack onto a single CD. VI
Hello,
I am tempted to become defensive and
angry when someone who has never met me
would be bold enough to call into question
what I do. I could interpret the question as a
threat, as a challenge to my legitimacy, or my
expertise or knowledge.
But I will do nothing of the sort.
You seem to have the idea that as a com-
poser who is dedicated to a new musical
medium, I would presume to think that one
musician could sound as if or sound like a
full symphony orchestra. I have always
believed and still believe it true that one
musician cannot sound like two or more
musicians, and should not attempt such an
impossible feat. The psychological, social and
spiritual energies that flow between musicians
when playing are unique and should be
appreciated as such.
Science and technology have put multi-
timbral musical instruments in the hands of
individual composers, and composers are
responding. When creative musicians dont
sense the enormous expressive and artistic
potential of such instruments I can only con-
clude it is because of an excessive love of tra-
dition, prejudice or even laziness. As a com-
poser, it is my duty to make art, to make
music as effectively as I can, and therefore I
am learning the value and limitations of these
new instruments. I am also rejoicing in their
vast artistic and sonic potential as well. If you
could for a moment empathize with someone
who actually gets profound pleasure working
the way I do, perhaps you could understand.
We can both probably agree that the sym-
phony orchestra has, by long tradition, been
the default standard for multi-timbral musical
expression. I am nevertheless quite open to
discovering through experimentation if deep,
expressive and imaginative musical results can
be obtained with digital instruments. Ask me
in 25 years what my answer is and I will be
happy to tell you what I discovered.
If your motive is to fault me for trying, due
to envy or some other emotional/spiritual
aberration, nothing I can say will allow you to
fully appreciate what I am doing.
But if you are sincere, and you are simply
curious as to how and why a musician would
devote their career and time to working near-
ly exclusively with computers in the studio, all
I can say is follow your heart when it comes
to the most personal and real music you want
to make, as that is what I am doing for
myself.
Best Wishes,
Jerry Gerber
San Francisco-based master
composer Jerry Gerber has
written for film (including
Gumby), concerts, dance,
and interactive media. He has
released eight albums, been a
guest lecturer at various insti-
tutions, he teaches composi-
tion, does recording and mas-
tering, and produces. Currently
hes working on Symphony #6
for the Virtual Orchestra. VI
VIt r e n d s
An open letter to detractors of a new
musical medium from Jerry Gerber

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