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2011 NAMM: Steinberg Cubase 6 w/ 64-bit Support

Randy Knaub — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:00:28 +0000

We got the chance to see the newest incarnation of Cubase in action at the 2011 NAMM Show, and witness the software in all its 64-bit Mac glory (Woohoo!). Here is Steinberg’s resident Cubase guru, Matt Hepworth, with all the juicy details!

2011 NAMM: SCOREcast Talks with Audiobro About LASS

Randy Knaub — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Okay. Who doesn’t love LA Scoring Strings? [CRICKETS] Yeah… that’s what we thought.

That’s why we were excited when our own Brian Ralston got a chance to chill out with Andrew Keresztes and Sebastian Katz of Audiobro for a few minutes at the 2011 NAMM Show and get the scoop on some upcoming additions to this already incredibly useful string library. Here’s the latest—straight from the source!

2011 NAMM: Sample Logic

Randy Knaub — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:00:44 +0000

In our 5th episode of coverage at the 2011 NAMM Show, we hang out with Keith and Joe from Sample Logic (winners of EM’s Editor’s Choice Award for best sound library) and get a taste of their new Cinematic Guitars library for Kontakt 4.

Have you tried out Cinematic Guitars yet? What’s your take on it? Let us know in the COMMENTS below!

2011 NAMM: MOTU and ADAM Audio

Randy Knaub — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

SCOREcastOnline.com’s Brian Ralston and Deane Ogden visit with MOTU and ADAM Audio at the 2011 NAMM Show.

Are you a MOTU or an ADAM Audio user? Log into the COMMENTS below and share your experiences with these companies.

2011 NAMM: Vienna Symphonic, Synthogy, and more

Randy Knaub — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Take a grand tour of five hot new plugins at the 2011 NAMM Show. In this episode of SCOREcastOnline.com’s show coverage, Deane Ogden hangs out with his pal Mike Babbitt from Ilio Virtual Instruments and gets the scoop on the very latest offerings from Synthogy, Overloud, AAS, Vienna Symphonic Library, and Ocean Way Drums.

Are you already a fan of Ilio’s collection of virtual instruments? Log in to the COMMENTS below and let us know how you’ve used them in your work.

2011 NAMM: A.R. Rahman and Cinesamples

Randy Knaub — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:00:00 +0000

In this first episode of SCOREcastOnline.com’s 2011 NAMM Show coverage, Deane Ogden visits with Academy Award-winning film composer A.R. Rahman about his NAMM Show Top Picks, and sits down with Mike Barry and Mike Patti, the creative wizards behind the Cinesamples brand of sample libraries, to talk about some of their premiere products for 2011.

Log in to the COMMENTS below and let us know what you think about your experience with Cinesamples’ CineOrch and Deep Percussion Beds!

Better Delivery With OMF and AAF

Randy Knaub — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:31:00 +0000

As composers, we are all accustomed to delivering audio (and sometimes even video) information under many different circumstances and in many configurations. As an audio engineer, I am often on the receiving end of this information, and I’ve seen just about every disaster you can imagine.

You are going to see a lot this month about “delivery”—stems, dubs, pre dubs, etc. I want to jump in and give you some info on two delivery formats that you may or may not be too familiar with, in hopes that they will help give you a more solid method for getting your content shipped around the world.

I want to talk to you about the OMF and AAF file formats. You may need to deliver your projects in one of these formats at one time or another in addition to stems, or may receive one of these projects with video, temp music, etc. These files formats are not perfect and may need additional work when receiving one of them. However, learning to utilize each of them can make your deliveries a little more headache-free as well as more efficient on your time. That being said, if you are working on a fairly uncomplicated project, in the end, it may ultimately be simpler to just bounce your tracks individually or to stems based on your clients needs.

Definitions
OMF (Open Media Framework, also known as OMFI—Open Media Framework Interchange) is a platform-independent file format intended for transfer of digital media between different software applications. It was developed by Avid in 1994.

The OMF file format is typically used to exchange data with Digidesign Pro Tools software. The OMF format only supports the exchange of audio data (audio media and the use of this audio media in a project)—MIDI and automation data is ignored when using the export functions. (Pro Tools LE and HD need the Optional DigiTranslator software (~$500) to use OMF or AAF)

AAF is the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), and was developed by the Advanced Media Workflow Association in 2000 to expand on the OMF framework. AAF was created to help address the problem of multi-vendor, cross-platform interoperability for computer-based digital video production.

Wikipedia describes AAF in two parts:

1) Audio, video, still image, graphics, text, animation, music, and other forms of multimedia data. In AAF, this kind of data is called essence data.

2) Data that provides information on how to combine or modify individual sections of essence data or that provides supplementary information about essence data. In AAF this is called metadata. The metadata in an AAF file can provide the information needed to combine and modify the sections of essence data in the AAF file to produce a complete multimedia program.

What You Should Know
OMF/AAF files are platform independent and include metadata, along with the audio and video data, and were originally developed with video editing programs from video post-production facilities. Audio could then be edited and cleaned up, mixed and sent back to the video house with the final video for final layback. You can use these formats for audio-to-audio type scenarios, but be aware that originally the formats where designed to be more a one-way workflow, rather than a back-and-forth one.

The metadata included in the project file is very generic in nature. It does not store any information on plug-ins, or routing of your internal busses. It does not store MIDI tracks, regions and tempo maps. However, track automation and fades are supported, but may not transfer perfectly. Therefore, you may have to consolidate all of your regions before sending the final project or print/bounce your tracks to stems.

Also, save your midi tracks to SMF or bounce them to audio tracks/stems. These SMF’s will include the tempo information of the session.

You will also have the option of (embedding) keeping your audio files within the project or keeping them in their external location. In most cases, having the audio with the project or sequence makes file management easy. File size, can be an issue with embedded files. Pro Tools, for example, cannot read an embedded OMF or AAF larger than 2 GB. Consult your DAW’s documentation for OMF/AAF instructions and limitations.

Try to use BWF (Broadcast Wave files) if you do not currently, for the best compatibility. You may have to convert your audio files prior to exporting the OMF/AAF.

Documentation
Careful marking and documentation is key when using OMF or AAF formats. Make sure to name all tracks, regions, etc. before exporting. Track and session notes/comments do not translate, so write down your session information like (tempo, frame rate, timecode offset, etc) in a text file or PDF and include it with the OMF/AAF project.

Check your DAW’s documentation for exporting/importing OMF/AAF files. Different options are offered, such as converting 24 bit to 16 bit, exporting names, etc.

Conclusion
OMF and AAF may give you many options, but as mentioned above there are many options and potential tweaks that may need to be handled. However, if your client asks for delivery of one of these formats, hopefully you will be armed with more information to be able to deliver.
__________________

RANDY KNAUB is an audio engineer, producer, songwriter, keyboardist, and music technologist. He composes music and sound bites at his northern California studio, and works with local artists recording demos and CDs as well as pursuing corporate multimedia clients. Randy also consults for and beta tests for numerous music software and hardware manufacturers. His clients range from Martin Marietta, McDonalds, The United Way, Colorado Lottery, Visual Communications Group, and Jeppesen. You can find his SCOREcast bio (and links to his other sites) here.

Competing with Technological Assumptions

Randy Knaub — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:30:00 +0000

We have been reading great articles this month on how to stay competitive as a composer, but can technology or the latest sample library or monitors help you be competitive? It could, but it could also bear no relevance whatsoever.

For me being a recording engineer and having to appeal to a wide variety of people means that I need to stay competitive in my gear selection, my rates, my marketing, and my best practices. I can no longer afford just try to compete on my talent or skill alone.

The market branding of technology has both helped and hurt us in this regard. If I say, “ProTools”, you know exactly what I’m talking about and you probably know that it is the defacto standard in most recording studios, post houses, and professional dubbing stages. While there is always a 2nd competitor lurking in the wings, for the most part ProTools is the king. This is not a debate of whether Digital Performer (my DAW) is better or can do the same thing as ProTools, but it’s simply the expectation that this is what you are required to have.

I had someone recently stop by my studio to chat about music and a future recording project. He looked at all of my vintage gear and mic pre-amps. Then, without even hesitating, he said, “So you have Pro Tools right?”

Now, I don’t have a full blown HD system. I have an LE system that I bought for the purpose of being able to open and import other clients PT sessions, but I do not use it as my main DAW. Trying to remain competitive, for a brief moment, I had to put on my selling hat.

“While I do have Pro Tools, I use DP to record everything you need recorded!”

After spending all my money on my gear, I didn’t like the feeling of having to justify myself, but the potentially of having the client leave and go somewhere else solely based on me not having Pro Tools would have been catastrophic.

But by illustration, this is how a competitor could take business from me. A potential client could go elsewhere simply because I don’t have the right microphone or the right compressor. I have had this happen. Again, not because what I had was junk, but someone told someone, who told someone, who read it on the latest audio blog that you have to use a Neve pre amp and an SSL to mix on.

I still have not fully embraced the ProTools regime. Call me a rebel, but this could affect me, or even my chance to go work at another studio. Even if I have over 20 years of recording experience could I get overlooked if I don’t know ProTools? Maybe…

So… do you need more gear, the latest sound library, monitors, or microphone to remain competitive? The answer is that it depends on what your goal is. Think about what you do and what you have to offer from a talent, skill, or business perspective. Weigh the pros and cons of any financial or potential gear purchase. Could this new technology help you? If 9 out of 10 clients keep asking for a specific drum program, it may be worth investing in. If you need something versus wanting something that may in fact make you more competitive, then by all means, carry on my wayward son!

For me, it’s a struggle of trying to keep a certain standard in my own mind as far as a service that I provide, versus the kid in his basement charging $15 dollars/hour.

What about you? Hit me back in the COMMENTS below and let’s talk this through. Is the assumption that certain technologies are a must important to the issue of strong competition? Is it even worth competing if your set-up does not contain a certain “level” of string library or a particular piece of EQ software?

And now… off to buy the new Neve and an SSL!

_____________________

RANDY KNAUB is an audio engineer, producer, songwriter, keyboardist, and music technologist. He composes music and sound bites at his studio, Jireh Productions, and works with local artists recording demos and CDs as well as pursuing corporate multimedia clients. Randy also consults for and beta tests for numerous music software and hardware manufacturers. His clients range from Martin Marietta, McDonalds, The United Way, Colorado Lottery, Visual Communications Group, and Jeppesen. You can find his SCOREcast bio (and links to his other sites) here.

DSP cards and the Universal Audio UAD 2

Randy Knaub — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:30:00 +0000

In keeping with this month’s theme of “Gear and Software”, I wanted to talk a little more about my number 1 “My Perfect 3″ find: The Universal Audio UAD2 DSP Card.

DSP cards for use in DAW’s have been around for a while now, predominantly starting with Digidesign and ProTools, then later came the UAD-1 card from Universal Audio and TC Electronics released the Powercore card around the same time. The Digidesign DSP cards used a proprietary TDM architecture that ran only in ProTools hardware and software. For the rest of us who did not have a spare 10-15K lying around to get into ProTools, we were left out.
When Universal Audio and TC Electronics released their native DAW versions of plugins that could run on their respective DSP cards, this definitely narrowed the gap and gave all levels of musicians and engineers the advantage of offloading plugins from the computers CPU to the DSP card to do the heavy lifting. Aside from the advantage of offloading the plugins to another DSP, the quality of the plugins has increased and the emulations of both vintage and current gear are nothing than stellar.

Universal Audio’s Analog emulation’s in my opinion are the best around. UA being the hardware manufacture of some of the best Analog hardware pieces on the planet did not hurt them in developing these plugins. Devices like the 1176LN compressor, the never forgettable Teletronix LA2A optical compressor, the LA3A, etc, are now available in multiple instance counts in your native DAW host of choice, Mac or PC, AU, VST and RTAS. (For more on Universal Audio’s history please check out their website: www.uaudio.com—history.html)

The Universal Audio DSP card (known as the UAD1) has been around for while and recently got an update in power capability (UAD2). This is one of the first third party DSP cards used to run plugins in native DAW hosts. Most people don’t know, but the original UAD1 card’s chip was actually a graphics chip, (GPU) that was used in some older computers motherboards. UA found a way to harness that DSP chip to run these plugins emulations in great quantity. They later released the ability to run up to 4 cards in a single machine or PCI chassis, significantly increase plugin counts.

Universal Audio originally started out with a limited set of plugins and now have ~50 of the world’s finest analog emulation plugins from Neve, Roland, BOSS, Empirical Labs, EMT, Fairchild, Harrison, Helios, Little Labs, Pultec, SPL, Teletronix and more.

The latest versions of the UAD 2 card, comes in four versions. The UAD2 SOLO Laptop, UAD2 SOLO, the UAD2 DUO and the UAD2 QUAD. These new cards use the latest SHARC 21369 DSP technology from Analog Devices.

The SOLO uses a single DSP chip, the DUO uses 2 DSP chips and the Quad as you can image uses 4 DSP chips.

You can see from this chart the new UAD 2 significantly increases the plugins counts across the board. The UAD2 quad card for example has the power of 10 original UAD1 cards in a single PCIe card slot. Using the Neve 88RS channel strip plugin, a single UAD2 Quad card can have 140 mono instances running on the card. Imagine having the power of a 140 channel Neve console in your studio, with EQ, and compression.

I currently use the UAD2 Quad card in my setup (2.8Ghz- 8 Core Mac Pro). The performance is incredible. I used to have 4 UAD-1 cards and was maxing them out for most of my mixes. Now with the UAD2 Quad card, I don’t even bother looking at plug counts. I just start applying the plugs that I use the most often to my audio and VI channels. As we don’t have time to review all of the plugins that are available on the UAD2 platform, I will list the top 10 that I use on a daily basis:

1176LN

LA2A

Neve 1073

Pultec EQP-1A

EMT250

Precision Limiter

Fairchild 670

LA3A

Neve 88RS

Neve 33609

The technology that we have access to today is sometimes so incredible that we simply take it for granted. In the old school days (my time J), you did not have the ability to use 10 1176LN compressors in your mix. You only had one or two in the whole studio. These DSP cards and more importantly the plugins have given us access to some of the best analog gear made in digital form. I still stand by the less is more rule when it comes to using plugins, and the rule of garbage in garbage out still applies. Spend more time on getting a great sound prior to recording, and then use the plugins as you would a spice. I’ll have a little dash of salt please.

I can highly recommend all of the plugins from Universal Audio. The have bundles so you can just purchase a specific vendor or category of plugins. Your mileage may vary but you will not go wrong using any of these wonderful sounding plugins.

Until next month,

Merry Christmas

Randy

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RANDY KNAUB is an audio engineer, producer, songwriter, keyboardist, and music technologist. He composes music and sound bites at his studio, Jireh Productions, and works with local artists recording demos and CDs as well as pursuing corporate multimedia clients. Randy also consults for and beta tests for numerous music software and hardware manufacturers. His clients range from Martin Marietta, McDonalds, The United Way, Colorado Lottery, Visual Communications Group, and Jeppesen. You can find his SCOREcast bio (and links to his other sites) here.

Collaborating with Technology

Randy Knaub — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

For this month’s column regarding collaborations, I was thinking about all of this great technology these days, the Internet, and how people have – now more than ever – the ability to collaborate at many levels and from any location in the world.

Songwriting, Arranging, and Scoring can now have many different authors if you so desire.

We have the ability to leverage the talents of session players, arrangers, musicians, producers, et cetera to help create great sounding music.

At first you might not embrace this, especially if you don’t want to split credits, publishing, and royalties. So lets assume for this article we are beyond that and you need or want to collaborate, either in the same location or in another state or country.

Let’s look at some workflows that you can use to collaborate.

Methods:

Audio files

Sheet music

Standard MIDI files

Real-time Music Internet services

ISDN- mostly for real time High fidelity recording- Voice over’s, etc

AAF/OMF –an open framework

Delivery methods:

Complete sessions on Hard drives

Sessions via FTP/ Internet

DVD’s

Audio Files:

This is probably one of the most common ways of transferring your sessions. Of course if your collaboration partner is using the same DAW software, this makes it very easy. You can use one of the delivery methods mentioned above and send your whole project including audio files. If you are not using the same software, there are a few other ways: OMF and AAF, which I will talk about more in detail later.

A simple way when dealing with audio files or even MIDI tracks with VI’s is to print all of your VI’s to audio tracks and then make continuous regions of the audio files. Using this method allows you to just drop all of the audio files at bar 1 of your new sequence and all of the files are in sync. You or your collaborator can add you’re new parts; make your parts one long continuous audio file or region, and you’re set to go back to your partner. (Check on the terminology in your DAW regarding the functionality of making continuous regions. Terms like bounce, bounce regions, consolidate region, etc.

Sheet Music- Notation Programs:

This is pretty self-explanatory and is a bit old-school but this is a ways if you need to have specific parts written or orchestrated. More often you will probably use MIDI files. If you use a music notation program you can write in those programs and either send the program files if you share the same program, or send midi files of the new parts that you can import into your notation program.

Standard MIDI Files:

This file format has been around for a while and is a very easy and small format to email around. You can export all of your MIDI tracks and send to your collaboration partner. The down side is that most people don’t have all of the same MIDI modules or Virtual Instruments or sample libraries. So while this method is easy to get the raw data to someone, for them to actually hear it the way you meant it to sound is tough. You can in addition send a stereo mix audio file or MP3 to accompany the MIDI file so they can here what you have done. Open the MIDI file, simply play along recording your new parts, save and email back to your partner.

I have actually used this method to a piano part for a CD track. I received the midi file and MP3 via email, loaded both files, played the piano part as midi, and sent back. They loaded the new tracks and played back my MIDI parts using Synthogy’s Ivory Piano VI . Very Cool!

Real-Time Internet Collaboration Services:

These new web sites and services have recently been popping up in the recent years and give you the ability to play in real-time with others over the Internet while recording. Other sites allow you to have musicians like the drummer from Oingo Boingo or Dean Ogden for that matter, play parts on your session.

Check out these sites:

http://esession.com/home/index.php

http://digitalmusician.net/

http://www.ejamming.com/

http://www.sessionplayers.com/featured_artist_pleim.html

ISDN:

This is used primarily by voice over talent, but also large studios to stream real time audio over the phone lines. ISDN are digital phones lines that can be used for both voice and data.

These are special lines that you need to have special ordered from your local phone company, and they are not cheap. Secondly, you need to have and ISDN CODEC. This is the box that interfaces with your audio gear, then compresses the audio over the phone line back into another CODEC at the receiving studio and out to the mixing board or recorder.

These boxes are in the multi thousand-dollar range. But if your living is doing voice over’s from your home like voice over star Joe Cipriano, then break out the credit card.

OMF/AAF:

OMF (Open Media Framework, also known as OMFI—Open Media Framework Interchange)

AAF is the Advanced Authoring Format and was developed by the advanced media workflow association to expand on the OMF standard.

All of the Major DAW’s support OMF and most support AFF.

Both of the formats allow your DAW or NLE video software to exchange and share session information, which includes audio and video data.

These files are platform independent and include meta data, along with the audio and video data, and were developed primarily to be sent from video post-production facilities. Audio could then be edited and cleaned up, mixed and sent back to the video house with the final video for final lay back. Although you can use these formats for audio-to-audio type scenarios be aware that originally the formats where designed to be more of a one-way type workflow not back and forth.

The Meta data is very generic in nature. It does not keep any information on plug-ins, or routing of your internal busses. It does not store MIDI tracks, regions and tempo maps. However track automation and fades are supported.

So be aware that trying to take your perfect mix in DP and finish it in your buddy’s Logic DAW is probably not realistic. Sending your session to your friend to record a vocal part, edit and send back is more of a likely scenario, as well as basic tracking.

Check you DAW’s documentation for exporting/importing OMF/AAF files. Different options are offered, such as converting 24 bit to 16 bit, exporting names, etc. See below a screen shot of Digital Performer 7’s export dialog box

There are many ways to collaborate online today with technology. Don’t let the technology scare you; embrace it! Let us know what types of collaborations you do online and what methods here or any of your own.

Until next month… Cheers!

Better Mixing Through DAW Control

Randy Knaub — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:00:00 +0000

This month I wanted to talk briefly about DAW controllers and how they can help you in your workflow. You probably have heard of a few models from Mackie including the Mackie Control, and the HUI. Presonus and Frontier Design have entered the market with a single fader unit, and if you’re Houston Haynes you already use the SmartAV Tango controller. Euphonix has also come out with two lower cost versions of their higher-end controllers, the System 5 and MC Pro. These lower cost versions, the MC Mix and MC Control offer a great deal of features for the price.

DAW controllers have been around for a few years now, but have increased in visibility more and more in project studios and composing rigs.

So, what is a DAW Remote Controller? As we started mixing more in the box, the desire to have more analog style faders to mix increased. Using a mouse became a pain for people used to using a real mixing console. Being able to mix via larger sized faders versus using the mouse became a necessity. Also the ability to control the transport functions (start, stop, record) and even control and automate parameters of plugins, enables you to improve your workflow. With that in mind, manufactures started producing these remote controllers that look like some kind of audio mixer but does not pass any audio. They offer various controls for your DAW parameters and transport functions giving you the simplicity of mixing in the box, the control of a stand-alone mixing board, and the flexibility of the computer.

These controllers use various protocols to communicate. Mackie Control and HUI are the most common, as well as proprietary protocols such as Euphonix’s Eucon. These run over MIDI, USB and Ethernet. Some controllers come in a single fader package and most others offer 4-8 channels. Most of the manufactures allow you to expand your control surface by connecting more of these fader units together, building larger 24 channel units.

I just recently in the last two months have started using both of the Euphonix models, the MC Control and the MC Mix, together in my studio. I love these things! Aside from having nice big faders to mix with, I love the control and flexibility these units bring me in my workflow. Now, I have used other controllers in the past, so I am familiar with the overall effectiveness of having one to work with, but let me tell you a few things about these Euphonix models.

The Euphonix artist series has two models: the MC control, which is a motorized 4-fader touch sensitive model with a wonderful touch screen, and the MC Mix which features a motorized 8-channel touch sensitive unit without the touch screen. Both of these units use the Eucon protocol.

Eucon is a high-speed bi-directional Ethernet protocol. You hook these units up via Ethernet directly to your computers Ethernet port(s) or via an Ethernet switch. Speeds up to gigabit are supported. The Eucon protocol is 250 times faster than MIDI. Anybody who has experienced the dreadful MIDI logjam (when MIDI notes can’t be processed fast enough and they end up being fired almost like a machine gun after a period of delay) can testify that having a faster protocol to send data is a big plus. Eucon also offers 1024 steps of resolution versus MIDI’s 128 steps. This gives you more control of your fades with less zipper noise.

The Euphonix MC Control has a wonderful color touch screen and has 12 configurable soft keys that can be configured to use not only specific DAW functions, but also standard file-new, open, and save type commands. They also have bank buttons that let you skip faders in groups of 8. The MC Control also has 8 touch sensitive rotary encoders that can be assigned to control plugin parameters, panning, etc. The MC Mix has in addition to the 8 faders, 8 rotary encoders and 8 displays for surround metering, track names and panning.

The Euphonix system lets you expand up to 36 faders for the ultimate DAW mixing system.

Since the MC’s support the Mackie Control protocol, HUI as well as Eucon, they can virtually control any application that supports one of these protocols. These controllers work on both the Mac and the PC.

So as I mentioned, I have been using these controllers in my studio with both DP and Logic Studio 8 and recently Logic Studio 9, as Logic and DP both support the native Eucon protocol. After adding the controller, the DAW recognizes the MC and automatically maps your channels to the faders in the current session that’s loaded.

My productivity has increased greatly using these controllers. Having the ability to get to certain large groups of channels quickly, and having transport jog and shuttle controls are nice features. Being able to shuttle audio and MIDI back and forth for precise edits really helps. I use the soft keys to add new audio, MIDI and instrument tracks, and the faders are really nice. Having touch sensitivity allows me when working in Logic, to simply touch a fader and the corresponding Logic track gets selected.

For me, using the faders for gain riding my mixes is much easy and fulfilling than drawing it in with a mouse. I do use a mouse for very precise editing, but 90% of the time I am using the faders. I don’t know if I can put a quantitative number to the time I save using these controllers, but I feel myself working much faster. Maybe its just me, but something about having theses controllers in front of me makes me smile. Probably similar to the notion of making your work space an inviting and creative experience. When I sit down to work and these faders start flying around, I get to feel like I’m on the Big SSL 4K, which I have always dreamed of working on. LOL ……I know I am a total techno geek.

I highly recommend anyone not using a DAW controller to look seriously into getting one. It will greatly improve your workflow and give you the flexibility and control of mixing using large touch sensitive faders. Check out the tutorial and mixing videos on the Euphonix website for more information on these specific controllers.

Hit the COMMENTS below, SCOREcasters, and tell me your thoughts on using a DAW controller, and if you are using one already, share with us what value it brings to your workflow.

Happy Mixing!

Should Composers Care About 64-bit?

Randy Knaub — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:15:00 +0000

In my last Tame Technology column I briefly mentioned that I would talk about how we can use our soft samplers to get around the limitation of the 32-bit memory space. What is 32-bit memory space? What is 64-bit? Why do I care?

Well, the short answer is that for most of your work you shouldn’t care, but if you are using large sample libraries, stick around.

Editorial note: I won’t get into all the things needed to make your computer 64-bit ready. There are many great computer articles and discussions based on your type of computer. Suffice it to say, to completely take advantage of 64-bit architecture your machine needs to have 64-bit processors and architecture. You need a 64-bit OS and 64-bit applications, not to mention drivers, etc.

The Details- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit

I won’t make this too technical. In computers we deal with binary numbers and fixed memory (RAM) limitations based on the architecture of your computer. 32-bit architectures and memory space basically gives your computer the ability to use up to 4GB of RAM. Now 64-bit offers 2⁶⁴ addresses, equivalent to approximately 17.2 billion gigabytes, 16.8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM. Now that’s a whole lot of memory… enough to score using every sample library in existence all loaded in RAM.

For everyday use, checking email and reading SCOREcastOnline.com, 32-bit memory is just fine. Only when we start using programs that access large amounts of data, (samples, photos, HD video and geographic type data) we want as much of this data in RAM as possible, so we don’t have to keep going back to the hard drive to get more. By having more RAM available, it’s faster to compose by allowing your whole or majority of your orchestral library loaded and ready to go in RAM for the fastest access possible. Don’t confuse this with disk streaming. (Another way to get large sample libraries to play with limited amounts of RAM.)

Even with these basics, there are always additional technical considerations and exceptions. For example: The Mac platform has touted a 64-bit architecture even though the 64-bit version of OSX “Snow Leopard” is not even released yet. The Mac has been able to address more than 4GB of physical RAM for a while now. The low level kernel and drivers use 32-bits and each process or application can address 4GB of RAM. This is why you can have many applications and large amounts of data open in excess of 4GB.

So your new computer has 8GB of physical RAM, you load up your wonderful template including your soft sampler that you learned from our last lesson. You are working on your score and you need to add another choir section. You load the samples, but now you’re out of memory. You may get a memory error or even an application crash. How is this possible?

I have 8 GB of RAM. Well this is the problem we all face when running 32 bit systems. Even though I physically have 8GB, my application or DAW can only use ~4GB of it.

At this point you may have to try and free up some memory or try to print/bounce some of your parts to audio. This is not a great workflow enhancer. We need a way to be able to load large amounts or samples into RAM to make our jobs composing more efficient and to better improve the workflow.

Enter 64-bit

If you had a 64-bit system and enough physical RAM, you could have enough RAM to load samples to your hearts content. “That’s great Randy, you say, but I don’t have a 64-bit system and I am running out of memory now, what can I do?”

Until you’re ready to move to 64-bit, there are a few solutions that can help you right now improve your sampler workflow, lets talk about one.

Currently, a few Soft Sampler companies have offered 64–bit stand alone versions, (Vienna, Kontakt 3.5 and EastWest Play) but most stand alone 32-bit versions can be used outside or in conjunction with your DAW application. Audio can be routed inter-application with programs like Soundflower or Jack on OSX. But my current favorite is Plouge’s Bidule.

Bidule is a stand-alone audio development platform. It’s available on both Mac and PC and gives you the ability to build DSP based effects, route and playback audio, and use plug-ins and instruments. Bidule also uses the REWIRE protocol to route data between your DAW and Bidule.

I am currently using Bidule to help better my workflow. Using Bidule is essentially allowing me to expand the limitations of my 32-bit (4GB) RAM limitation in my DAW. I have my DAW loaded with a few instances of soft samplers loaded with basic percussion, strings, drums, horns, and other keyboard effects. This allows me some CPU room for audio tracks and other plug-ins to use. I quickly can get close to the RAM limit just in my DAW, even though my computer physically has 14 GB of RAM. So I use Bidule via rewire in combination with my DAW. I’m using other instances of plugs, including Mach 5v2, Kontakt 3 and a few extra drum plugs. This allows Bidule to use its own 32-bit memory space (4GB). This essentially is giving me another ~4 GB of RAM to load my larger string libraries. The MIDI is being driven from my DAW, and the audio is being returned to my DAW all via rewire.

See a screen shot here: http://www.plogue.com/img/ReWireSet.png

Without this handy little application I would have to alter my workflow greatly, slowing me down and hindering the creative process.

There are many ways in which composers are using tools and computers today to get around these limitations of trying to create large sample based mock up scores. Mostly using additional computers. GigaSampler is still being used in these large composing environments, as these machines are used to playback each orchestral instrument. However, most of us do not have the budget to throw money at more hardware. Even though computers and RAM are cheap today, we also need the software and additional audio interfaces as well as mixers, to be able to blend all of these instruments together. Bidule can save you some money in the short term until you’re prepared to and the software companies are ready to move to 64-bit. Don’t let the technology stop you from creating and ultimately disrupting your workflow.

In a few short years we will look back and laugh at these current short term limitations, while you’re loading your latest template that holds 50GB of content all in RAM. Then we will be screaming for faster and larger HD’s and solid state HD’s, but I digress.

Let us know at SCOREcast how you’re dealing with this issue today… what you think of 64-bit technology and other methods of getting the best from your sampler. And as always, post any questions that you may have.

Tame the Template

Randy Knaub — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Every month I will be talking about the technology that we work with on a day to day basis as well as some tips on how to make your experience writing and composing music as easy as possible without letting the technology get in the way.

These techno toys we deal with can be very intimidating at times. Some of us are just not that technical and we don’t want to be, while others love combing through the manual and look forward to the challenges of taking on a new piece of gear. (In a future issue we will talk about GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

So what exactly do we have to deal with in our studios on a daily basis? Computers, mixing consoles, DAW controllers, audio interfaces, microphones, patch bays, word clock generators, stereo recorders, MIDI interfaces, MIDI sound modules, and not to mention all the different pieces of software you may use. And, let’s not forget our countless connections: Analog, Digital, MIDI, Ethernet, Video, Internet, etc. If you’re Deane, you probably have a fiber optic cable connected to your forehead as well.

When you sit down with pencil and paper, notation software, or your DAW, you want to turn on your right brain and go to it without thinking “is this hooked up correctly, how come I can’t hear the percussion tracks, and why are the lights dimming around my neighborhood.” (Unless, that is your mood lighting.)

Joe Trapanese mentions in his column that using templates is key to kicking your project off on the right foot. I have to agree that these are probably one of the most significant timesavers and methods to improve your creative muse.

So let’s talk specifically about the template in your sequencer or DAW. This template is really nothing more than a blank session that you have pre-configured to have all of your tracks/channels, routing, groupings, stems, and effects laid out in a way that makes your workflow smooth. Some composers use predominantly MIDI tracks and few audio tracks, while others use more audio tracks than MIDI. I have composer friends who may have separate tracks for every piece of the orchestra, percussion, and separate drum tracks. This can easily put you over 100 tracks. Do you need just a few key orchestral instruments? Are you composing with guitar and perhaps need 4-6 audio tracks as well? These are some of the questions to ask. How do I work best? What is the end result? A full mockup score to be redone later on during the scoring stage, or is this a lower budget piece that will use everything as played in your DAW. Whatever your result, start by adding these tracks to your blank template.

Before you do this, I recommend you sit down and spend a few hours or more laying out how you typically score and what are the technical logistics of your studio.

Start with a list like this:

Small Orchestral Pop Template

* 5 external MIDI modules with stereo outputs using 2 MIDI channels on each module
* One GigaSampler with 16 MIDI and16 digital audio outputs via ADAT
* 10 internal Soft synths fed to outputs 1-4 on audio interface
* 8 audio channels in DAW for loops, FX, etc.
* All audio outputs run to external mixer
* Mixer control levels and control room monitoring
* Mixer feeds DAW inputs 1-2 for mixdown

A list similar to this can help you visualize exactly what you have and how things need to be connected and laid out in your DAW. Remember, the goal is to make things easy and simplistic.

From here, start to build out your template by adding tracks and testing them. Make sure your MIDI routing is correct and that you can hear the correct synths, soft synths, etc. If you are using a more complex setup, i.e. multiple computers and MIDI over LAN, these things take time to set up and trouble shoot if you encounter problems. So again, give yourself some time to be able to work out the kinks. You’re a composer – you don’t care that you may need an Ethernet crossover cable instead of a straight through, but your gear does.

Make sure to save your template after every modification.

If you’re using a soft sampler, make sure you have the instances loaded and a stereo or multiple output version configured. If you are pre-loading samples, then load them to their associated channels and test the MIDI and audio routing. (In a future issue we will talk about getting samplers to run outside of your DAW and the 32-bit memory limitation.)

If you are using any type of stems or sub groups, get those added in, and make sure your internal audio buses are working correctly. (Tip: Use a pre-recorded audio test tone on your tracks (audio) to test the audio outputs as well as aux and group busing.)

Add any internal or even external effects to your aux sends, individual tracks, groups, etc.

So we have our template saved with all of our tracks, groups, synths, samplers and effects. One last and very important thing we need to do is validate that your CPU is worthy of your template. One thing I like to do as a test is, using a stopwatch, time how long the template takes to open. If you have many soft samplers in your template and they are loading samples, this could take a while depending on your drive speed and whether you’re using RAID or not. This seems trivial but is actually quite useful if you know it takes 3 minutes to open, you could go get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, while you’re waiting. This time is also important to know if you have to make any changes to the audio system settings. In Digital Performer for example, every time you open and close the audio driver settings, or change the buffer size, DP must reload the entire contents of the project, so count on another 3 minutes. This can definitely steal your Mojo. This I know first hand as I am currently in DP therapy for cursing at the computer screen during this time.

Record some MIDI and audio data to make sure the CPU can handle all you’ve just asked it to. You may have to change your buffer while recording and again during playback based on the speed of your system, at which point you can join me in therapy.

So once we have our template finalized and working, we can now start writing that award winning Opus without the gear potentially getting in the way and blaming your soft synth for ruining your Oscar nomination.

Now some of you might be thinking about our good friend Murphy, and saying sometimes he likes to visit at the worst of times. Well, my fellow SCOREcasters, I can’t save you from Mr. Murphy, but I can tell you that by going through this exercise of building your template you’ll have a better understanding of how things are connected. You’ll have documentation and maybe even some type of drawing showing your connections. In the end, this should help you, if….. sorry I meant when you need to troubleshoot your studio setup.

Share with us tips on your templates.

Until next time, happy composing.