Guitars
Your guitar tone can change significantly by carving out the correct frequencies and reducing those that introduce unwanted noise. Distorted electric guitars tend to occupy most of the mid-range based on their nature of their sound. This mix was tricky because the band is instrumental and their music relies heavily on the layering of multiple guitar tones.
Rhythm Guitar 1
Here I have chosen to attenuate the unwanted rumbling of the of the low end of the rhythm guitars using the supplied HPF. The bass guitar is rather guitar-like in this song therefore it is important to make room for that. The HPF for Guitar 1 was applied at 50Hz and similarly to Guitar 2 at 47Hz. Why not the exact same frequency you ask? Having the slightest Continue reading “Subtractive EQ Part 2: Heavy Rhythm and Lead Guitars”
Introduction
Equalization is one of the most powerful tools that an audio engineer can get their hands on. Live engineers, post-production engineers, and recording engineers all have their specific uses for it. It’s so powerful that some beginner engineers habitually reach for it without understanding what it can ultimately do to a mix.
Overview
Let’s resonate on the concept of volume momentarily. It is in our human nature to enjoy music at high volume levels. Concerts are a great examples of this. Outdoor festivals and the like tend to blast our eardrums with massive amounts of volume that we cannot experience in any other format. To most, increasing volume directly correlates to better sound. In a mix setting, dramatically boosting various frequencies can be a crutch for inexperienced mix engineers. By increasing the gain of a specified frequency band on an EQ one can subsequently add unwanted gain to the overall mix. Typically the problem that follows is a battle to keep your master fader from clipping and you all of sudden feel stuck in a gain-staging paradox. This can happen to best of us.
In Use
Apply subtractive EQ techniques to your instruments. Instead of boosting your favourite signals try limiting yourself to cutting. We can call this concept “carving”. Let’s take a look at a musical example. This series of articles will demonstrate some key elements of a typical Rock Mix.
Snare
Generally the snare is the focal point of a typical rock oriented mix. I’ve started with all my faders down and raised the snare to a suitable level: 0dBu. This recording was tracked with two snare microphones. The bottom snare microphone captured the sizzle of the snare and the top microphone captured much of the attack.
I sat down with some of my best session players to collaborate on 50 presets for TH2 Producer that are sure to add some grit to your low-end instruments. It’s no secret that my passion is mostly in the Rock and Metal world of music and I’ve felt that Bass doesn’t get enough love in those genres. Below are 5 examples from the Free Download that outline some great Rock and Metal lead, rhythm, clean, and ambient effects and I would definitely pull out of my bag of tricks for a record.
The future is here folks! This means the best pitch correction, time stretching, and audio to MIDI conversion in the business are at your command in SONAR X3 Studio & Producer. Whether there’s a flat note in a vocal, or you want to adjust phrasing, Melodyne makes it a snap to polish your recordings.
By adding support for ARA technology (Audio Random Access), we were able to seamlessly integrate Melodyne Essential into SONAR’s Skylight interface. This means no waiting for data to transfer into the Editor. Simply click to open the audio clip and get to work. To convert audio to MIDI, simply drag and audio clip onto a MIDI track and Melodyne takes care of the rest. And if you are using any other version of Melodyne or plan to upgrade, you get to enjoy the same level of integration automatically.
Songwriters on Songwriting
Check out Disc Makers’ free guide “Songwriters on Songwriting”. In this guide five successful songwriters weigh in on topics such as: how to write a great song, writing through writer’s block, co-writing, finishing a song, and much more!
Z3TA+ iOS now available
The legendary Z3TA+ synthesizer has been used on countless records, and it’s distinctive sound has been a staple of electronic artists the world over. Now Z3TA+ iOS puts the full power of Z3TA+ on your iPad. Packed with hundreds of presets, real-time oscillator modulation, dual mode filtering, and flexible effects. Z3TA+ iOS is the perfect creative toolkit for making music anywhere, anytime Continue reading “Z3TA+ iOS now available for iPad”
Z3TA+ 2’s synth engine can generate sounds that stretch across multiple genres. By utilizing Z3TA+ 2’s advanced modulation matrix we can shape just about everything, even drums sounds.
Sine Wave Kick Drum
Start by initializing your patch. This will return the synth to all of it’s defaults so that you can start from scratch with the sound.
Kick Drums requires a lot of low end. Within Z3TA+ 2 you can produce this kind of controlled low end by using the Sine Waves that are available in the OSC section. We are going for a saturated low end, so make sure to add 3 Sine Waves.
Let’s split up the 3 Sine Waves into Middle, Right, and Left. In order to do this we must first activate the Filter Section, select the “Link” button and turn the Pan knobs on either filter. They will pan in opposite directions.
Afterwards, we can use the Filter Bus on each OSC section to pan the oscillators. Panning two opposing oscillators and then using the “Fine Tune” to slightly detune them will produce a nice wide stereo effect. Do this to both OSC 1 and OSC 2 and keep OSC 3 centered and not de-tuned.
Nile’s sound comes from a mixture of down-tuned riffing, inhuman drum speeds, and lyrical content about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia – making them one of the most technical groups that exists in the Extreme Metal genre. Karl Sanders was gracious enough to spend some time doing an interview with us about his writing process, heavy metal, and SONAR.
1. How long have you been a Cakewalk user? What version did you start with? I have been a Cakewalk user since the mid 90’s, starting with Cakewalk Pro Audio 5. I was writing songs and recording song demos of the early Nile songs that eventually became the Nephren-Ka album. I really went nuts with all available MIDI and audio tracks– adding tons of ethnic instruments and MIDI orchestrations to the record. Then when it came time to tour the album, I had the insane idea that maybe we could have all those extraneous tracks available to us in our live performances if I brought my PC with me and just ran Cakewalk. At that time in 1996-97 this was an unheard of concept in Death Metal and everyone thought I was a lunatic. Nowadays Continue reading “Karl Sanders of Nile talks SONAR and Metal”
If you haven’t heard the Mark Studio 2 Bass Plugin by Overloud then you’re missing out on some incredible sounds to add to your rig. I’ve gone through the Mark Studio 2 plugin and picked 5 stock presets for you to hear. This plugin has everything from ambient driven distant effects to jaw-dropping lead tones. The easy-to-use interface and realistic effects makes it a no-brainer addition to your home studio.
What goes into creating a comprehensive expansion pack? It’s not as easy as it might seem…
If only I’d known what I was getting into…
When I first played the EB 5-String Bass, I loved the sound and wanted to sample it for my own use. In the process, I created a Dimension Pro instrument and made it available for free to the Cakewalk community as a “thank you” for all the support you’ve given SONAR.
But also in the process, I found out the EB uses a unique Tuned Coil Tap technology for the two pickups, yielding a total of eight distinct sounds. I found them all useful, so of course I wanted to sample those before the loaner bass went back.
