Music Tech Focus 36. Ableton Live 9 2014

Welcome MTF
Welcome
to Ableton Live 2014, the latest Focus from MusicTech. Im assuming that, as
you are reading this, you use Live or indeed Ableton as many users are now
calling it for music production, so you already realise what a powerful tool you
have at your disposal. The idea of this focus guide is to help you access that power
and use the software to its full potential. Weve therefore included everything from
compositional
workshops
where we cover
genres including techno and dubstep
to technique workshops, where we
explore many major features of the
software. With more than 50 pages of
walkthroughs Im hoping that your
music production skills will improve as a result. And if they do, weve even included features on how to
promote your resulting tunes on-line, so you are hopefully holding everything you need to improve your Live
life. Enjoy the issue and, as ever, let me know what you think at the address below.
We will help you access the

power of Live and use the
software to its full potential
Andy Jones Senior Editor

andy.jones@anthem-publishing.com
Multimedia Editor Alex Holmes

alex.holmes@anthem-publishing.com
MUSICTECH FOCUS MAGAZINE
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Publisher Simon Lewis

simon.lewis@anthem-publishing.com
Editorial Director Paul Pettengale
paul.pettengale@anthem-publishing.com
Senior Editor Andy Jones
andy.jones@anthem-publishing.com
Ads: Di Marsh
di.marsh@anthem-publishing.com
Contributors
Grant Bridgeman, Mark Cousins, Keith
Gemmell, Alex Holmes, Hollin Jones, John
Pickford, Huw Price, Liam OMullane
Art Director Jenny Cook
jenny.cook@anthem-publishing.com
Managing Director Jon Bickley
jon.bickley@anthem-publishing.com
Licensing enquiries Jon Bickley
+44 (0) 1225 489984
www.anthem-publishing.com
Art Editors Kai Wood, John Thakray
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Digital/On-line Editor Andy Price

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MTF Contents
Issue 36
Ableton Live 2014
BECOME AN
ABLETON LIVE
EXPERT NOW!
Ableton Live is a special piece of music production software so weve
put together this special issue of MusicTech just for it. We have Live
workshops, genre tutorials, reviews of the latest kit and features
detailing what to do with the tunes youll make as a result of reading it!
Feature
MTF Workshops
Start here
Compose and experiment in

Ableton Live p18
press record
Get Your
Music Online
The best sites, self promotion and

the DIY route to publicity p34
4 | Ableton Live 2014
FOCUS
Audio recording and editing

in Live p22
and mix
Mixing tips in Ableton Live p52
Contents MTF
MTF Feature
Master your
music
A complete guide to giving your

music the pro edge p61
MTF Issue 36 Full listings

FEATURES
006 | 50 Ways To Supercharge
Your Sound
034 | Get Your Music Online
061 | Mastering In Software
072 | 20 Ways To Supercharge
Your Computer For Audio
LIVE PRODUCTION WORKSHOPS
018 | Compose and experiment
022 | Audio recording and editing
026 | Using audio and Instrument
Racks in Live
030 | Converting audio to MIDI
046 | Clip experimentation in
Session view
MTF Feature
Supercharge your
computer
for audio production p72
049 | Collaboration in Live

052 | Mixing tools and techniques
056 | Composition and sound
design with Push
068 | Mastering in Live
SUBSCRIBE
108 | to MusicTech here
WORKSHOPS: GENRES
082 | How to produce dubstep
088 | Produce drum n bass part 1
Supercharge your
sound
with these 50 tips p6
091 | Produce drum n bass part 2

094 | Produce techno part 1
REVIEWS
110 | Rob Papen Blue synth
110 | Novation Launchpad Mini
115 | Best Service Cantus vocals
116 | Heavyocity DM-307 drums
118 | Toontrak EZDrummer 2
110 | Softube Console 1
122 | Korg Taktile 49 keyboard
123 | Mini Reviews
MEET THE ABLETON TEAM!
128 | Jesse Terry talks Ableton
Live and Push
YOUR DVD
130 | Whats on your MTF DVD
MTF Interview
Jessie Terry
Meet the Ableton team p128

FOCUS Ableton Live 2014
|5
MTF Feature 50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound
50 YOUR SO
WAYS TO
FOCUS
50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound Feature MTF
SUPERCHARGE
UND
BEEF UP YOUR TUNES

AND STAND OUT NOW
Turning a good sound into a great one isnt as hard as you might think. By following a few
simple rules and employing some choice techniques, you too can get a unique and
memorable sound for your tracks. Hollin Jones explains how...
FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 | 7
SOUND SELECTION AND TWEAKING

BE CHOOSY
Tracks can fail to reach their full potential when you
simply settle for the first preset you come across. Many
producers rarely do this and can spend a whole day agonising
over getting a single sound just right. You dont necessarily
need to go that far, but if you have doubts about a sound,
consider getting rid of it and finding something better. If
nothing in your plug-in is doing the trick, try a different
instrument. Some people use only a couple of sounds out of
the hundreds provided with a synth.
01
MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDS

That synth bass patch that comes with Logic might
sound good, but its likely that hundreds or even thousands of
other people will have used it already in their productions.
Making a patch your own can be as simple as changing a filter
or oscillator and resaving the preset. If youre feeling
adventurous, virtually all synths let you design a sound from
scratch. This can be much easier than you might imagine and
will help you get a much more unique sound overall.
02
LAYER SOUNDS TOGETHER

You can do this when sequencing, but many
instruments, such as software synths and keyboard
workstations, allow you to use several layers of sound
mapped across a MIDI keyboard. By taking a patch and
adding more layers, perhaps blending in some attacking or
pad-like sounds, you can make your instruments sound fuller,
bigger and more interesting. If your plug-in doesnt allow it
natively, get the same result by duplicating the MIDI part and
assigning the copied part to a new instrument in your DAW.
03
Most soft synths make it easy to tweak patches or design sounds

from scratch this is a good and fun way to find a more unique
sound for your productions.
SUPERCHARGE TIP
DONT BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT
Some of the most interesting music comes about when producers and
composers blend sounds that wouldnt at first seem like they would work well
together. Obviously, this can be a fine line to walk, and its as easy to get it wrong
as get it right. However, some really interesting results can be achieved by mixing,
say, orchestral and synth sounds, or electronic beats with acoustic guitars and
that sort of thing. The flexibility of DAWs means its easy to quickly load up a cello
or an 808, then swap it out for something else if its not having the desired effect.
04
ADD MOVEMENT
Many patches are stationary, meaning the sound has no
movement. But adding movement can make patches much
more interesting and bring a greater sense of rhythm to a
track. The most common way to do this is to use modulation
inside a synth via a mod matrix of some kind. A good example
05
would be the use of LFOs to modulate the cutoff filter in a

dubstep patch. Envelopes and even control-voltage signal
can be used for the same effect, and many software synths
make this easy to achieve.
AUTOMATE INSTRUMENT PARAMETERS
This applies to both hardware and software instruments
and is an alternative method of dynamism to a sound. All
DAWs support automation and if youre controlling external
kit this can be done by using MIDI CC channels routed out of
your computer. Try automating filters, oscillators, octave
settings, FX parameters and more to liven up your sounds. A
related trick is to use MIDI effects like arpeggiators and
randomizers to add variation to programmed
synthesized sounds.
06
Automating
instrument and effect
parameters is a good
way to create more
interesting parts.
07
Reasons Thor synth is

a good example of an
instrument that lets
you easily route
modulation sources.
Real hardware
instruments can
lend a more
authentic sound.
AIM HIGH
If you record a cheap instrument thats in poor
condition its going to sound bad and no amount of
processing trickery will truly hide that fact. While we cant all
enjoy playing guitars, keyboards and drums costing
thousands of pounds, you should try to beg, steal or borrow
the best kit you can for a recording session. The usual
suspects here are cheap drums and poor-sounding
keyboards or synths, especially piano patches. If youre
recording in a studio, try to use any kit they may have if it
offers a better sound than yours.
08
FOCUS
TRY TO USE REAL KIT

Software is excellent and has all kinds of
benefits, but its great to use real kit if you
have the opportunity. As well as imparting
a more real or human sound to a track, it
also means you are likely to get a more
50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound Feature MTF
You dont have to be an expert

to build your own sampled
instruments from scratch
distinctive and unique overall feel. This doesnt mean
everything has to be hardware a lot of musicians and
producers will mix together both real and virtual sounds. Try
recording some real percussion, for example, or using a
vintage synth to provide a bit of atmosphere. It can make a
big difference.
ADD SUB AND NOISE
Synthesised sounds are by their nature quite clean as
they remain inside the electronic world. Most synths enable
you to add some extra signal to make a patch more complex
and this can be a good idea to try. As well as adding more
oscillators using different waveforms, you often get the
option to add sub and noise. Sub will insert a frequency
several octaves below the note you play, while
noise lets you blend in some white
noise to fill out the sound.
Multisample your own

instruments and find
a sound that is
uniquely yours.
09
Many synths let you

add sub and noise to
patches which can
add depth.
SAMPLE YOUR OWN

INSTRUMENTS
This isnt as complex as it might
sound, and tools such as Kontakt,
Reasons NN-XT, MOTUs MachFive
and others are geared towards
helping you to create your own
instruments. Sample individual notes at different velocities
to build up full instruments or record drum hits to make your
own kits. Tools like ReDrum, Maschine and others mean that
you dont have to be a programing expert to build your own
sampled instruments from scratch.
10
ISOLATE YOUR AMPS

Guitar amps, when cranked up, generate a fair amount
of vibration and this can muddy the signal that is picked up
by the mic. The same is true of bass amps, which can really
shake the floor. By placing an amp on a crate or a sturdy box
you can isolate it from pumping lots of sound into the floor
and hopefully get a more accurate tone. You might also want
to take a direct out from the amp when recording and capture
it to a separate channel. This will give you more options when
it comes to shaping your guitar tone later.
12
RECORDING AND PERFORMANCE TIPS
SUPERCHARGE TIP
LEARN ABOUT MIC PLACEMENT

The location and angle of microphones when recording
can make a real difference to the end result. At one extreme,
adding room mics to a drum recording setup will give you
more air to blend in with the tighter, drier signal you get from
the close-mics. At a simpler level, adding a second, off-centre
mic when recording a guitar amp will enable you to capture a
thinner tone to complement the louder, thicker one your
direct mic will be picking up.
11
GIVE THE VOCALIST SOME REVERB

This might sound obvious but its overlooked
surprisingly often. When a singer is performing, by default
they hear a dry version of their own vocal in the
headphones. This is actually quite unnatural and can affect
the quality and nature of the performance. Its much better
to provide them with some reverb on the signal, which you
would usually not record but supply as an insert on their
monitor feed. In bigger studios this is easy enough to
achieve, but in smaller setups you might need to use an
interface with dedicated DSP-powered effects to do it, such
as Yamahas N-Series.
13
Incorporating older
technology into your
recording workflow
can bring
unexpectedly
interesting results.
BE EXPERIMENTAL
Theres a lot to be said for trying out new things when
you record. Indeed, history is awash with examples of bands
making odd choices, such as setting up the bass in a
stairwell or the drums outside and getting great results
despite the apparently adverse environment. Bear in mind
that it wont always work sometimes it will sound plain
awful. However, you should learn some interesting tricks and
in the process get a more unique sound. Too much isolation
can suck the energy out of a performance, so consider
putting the band members in the same room when
recording, even if this means potentially more bleed between
the microphones.
14
BE A MUSICAL MAGPIE
Modern kit is extremely clean to record through, so to
get a more unique sound you can use older gear, which tends
to have a way of colouring whatever you put through it. This
could be as simple as recording through an old broadcast
mic, routing sounds through crusty old outboard, or using an
analogue desk or even a tape machine or old sampler to
process sounds before routing them back into your DAW.
15
EMBRACE THE CHAOS

Although a significant part of music is accuracy, it can
be liberating to go in the opposite direction and introduce
some randomisation into your projects. This could be as
simple as using an arpeggiator to generate some MIDI
sequences or re-sampling loops or beats into a tool such as
Native Instruments Maschine or an MPC unit and resequencing them on-the-fly. Its the digital equivalent of a
guitarist layering up tons of delay and feedback and just
going with whatever transpires.
16
CAPTURE EVERYTHING
Its a strange fact, but people sometimes give their best
performances when they think theyre not being recorded.
Without the perceived pressure of this being the take,
performers can do something unexpected, more
spontaneous or interesting than they would ever do when the
pressure was on. So its worth recording everything, even
warm-ups, although you probably shouldnt tell the
performer youre doing it as this negates the exercise. Ideas
captured in this way might be used or serve as reference for a
better way to sing or play a part.
17
SUPERCHARGE TIP
PHYSICAL SPACES USING TECHNOLOGY
18 SIMULATE
If youre not able to find unusual physical spaces such
as cupboards or bathrooms to record in to get specific
sounds, just record as cleanly as possible and re-create
those environments afterwards using effects. By using
effects such as Speakerphone, EQ, reverb and physically
modelled reverbs and other plug-ins, you can place sounds
inside virtual spaces in order to simulate a sound being
close up, far away or in very precise locations. Some
higher-end physically modelled effects even contain
impulse responses from specific locations, such as
Carnegie Hall or the Sydney Opera House.
Using tape emulation

on groups or across
the master buss of a
project is a clever way
to add human feel to
otherwise sterile
digital recordings.
USE A CLICK TRACK

This is a slightly contentious issue
since some drummers seem to think of a metronome as
some sort of admission of failure on their part. If your
drummer can keep perfect time by themselves, thats great.
To achieve similarly great consistency, however, it can be wise
to use a metronome or click track routed from your DAW to
feed to your drummers headphones. As well as ensuring no
19
Some people give their best

performance when they think
theyre not being recorded
Knock together some
beats or sequences in
a mini sequencer and
you may be surprised
at how good the
results can sound.
Dont overthink it!
speed-ups or slow-downs, this will mean that programming

and quantizing MIDI parts over the top of the drum takes
should be trouble-free.
SORT OUT YOUR STUDIO FOLDBACK
This can be a tricky one, since it might be in the hands
of the studio rather than your own. When performing in a
studio, many people use headphones to hear a monitor mix
of everything else thats going on. If this mix is a bit on the
quiet side, as it often can be, it makes it difficult for a
performer to really get into their stride and let rip. Try to get
the monitor mix as loud and as punchy as possible (this may
involve beefing-up your headphone amps). A good foldback
system will always make life a lot easier for the people
playing and singing.
20
CLEVER USE OF EFFECTS

KNOW WHEN TO USE REVERB
Reverb can be great, but its very easy to use too much
and end up with a washy, far-off sound. Unless thats your
ultimate goal, go for much shorter reverbs that dont muddy
your mix. Some modules let you control the EQ of the reverb
and this can be really handy, especially for reining in an unruly
top end and preventing the shimmering effect that can make
a sound a bit too 1980s. Its rare that you would leave a sound
completely dry, although this can be an interesting approach
if youre looking to get a very specific kind of sound.
21
BE CREATIVE WITH EQ
EQ isnt just for taming unruly sounds it can also be a
creative tool. One of the more interesting uses for it is to
22
FOCUS
Feature MTF
well. Using compression pedals on guitars and

basses prior to recording is an interesting way to
tame the sound before it is captured.
create a phoneline-style effect for vocals,

drums or guitars by dropping out all but the
upper-midrange frequencies. The resulting tinny
effect can be heard on many records and is a
good trick for adding a little extra something to
the feel of a track. Its also easier than trying to
record from a phone, although this is also
possible of course.
DO DELAY
Echo and delay are excellent for thickening
a sound or creating the illusion that a sound is
bigger than it actually is. Use short, double-tap
delays to thicken-up percussive sounds, or
longer, multi-stage delays to create more
atmospheric, swirling effects. A short delay on a
vocal can sometimes be more effective than
reverb, since it adds body without adding space.
As such its a popular trick in hip hop production.
A bit of
delay, carefully applied, can make tracks sound deeper and
move involving.
GO OUTSIDE THE BOX

Plug-ins can do a lot of the work for you, but
it can be handy to incorporate hardware effects
into your projects as well, as these often have a
more unique sound. You can record through them
in which case they are permanently imprinted
onto the take or, perhaps more usefully, plumb
them into your system and apply them as inserts
post-recording. Many DAWs now support the
incorporating of external effects directly into a
project so you just need to work out the wiring
and ports to get your classic guitar pedal working
on your vocals.
25
23
LEARN ABOUT COMPRESSION

Everyone knows you need to use some compression in
projects, but its important to know when to use it. Bass and
drums usually benefit from a little more compression than
average, as can vocals. A little compression applied across
many tracks can result in a smoother and more coherent
overall sound. Trying to simply compress the master channel
is unlikely to sound great, although applying compression to
groups or busses can work
A phoneline EQ
preset is a good way of
quickly making a
sound tinny.
24
Tools like NIs

Maschine can help
you mash-up and
revitalise existing
samples.
GET A LITTLE CRAZY

There is an increasing number of mash-up-style effects
on the market and these greatly simplify the process of
cutting-up and generally mangling your sounds with a few
clicks while keeping everything in-time. Plug-ins like Turnado,
iZotope Stutter Edit, Effectrix and the like are astonishingly
powerful and allow you to do in seconds what would once
have taken hours. Best of all, theyre nondestructive, so if you
decide to change the way your drum part is being sliced,
reversed, delayed and scratched, you can at any point.
26
AMP IT UP
Simply boosting the volume of sounds rarely makes
them sound better, but running them through an amp
simulator often does. By introducing digitally created
overdrive and distortion you can push a sound and make it
warmer, more gritty and earthy, but without risking pushing it
too hard in the mix. This applies to any sound in fact,
guitars are probably the least interesting source to try amp
sims on. Stick them on vocals, drums, horns, samples and
anything else. Use subtle distortion or push it hard depending
on what you want to achieve.
27
AUTOMATE EFFECTS
Plug-in effects support automation just as well as
instruments do and it can be a great way to liven things up.
Instead of having a reverb stay the same across the duration
of a vocal, why not try having it more intense at certain
points? Alternatively, have a delay suddenly cut into a guitar
or keyboard part. If youre working with hardware effects you
can still achieve a similar result, although you will have to
manually turn controls up and down as a track plays and
record the results.
28
SUPERCHARGE TIP
EXPERIMENT WITH SURROUND SOUND
This is a bit of an unusual one since it requires you to
have at least as many physical outputs with connected
speakers as channels you want to work with. But working
with surround sound perhaps for games, movies or TV
can be a really interesting way to go beyond basic left/
right stereo and get really creative with sound placement as
it relates to the listener. Many classic albums have been
remixed for 5.1 surround, and most flagship DAWs
enable you to work with it
pretty easily,
so its a good
one to look into
if youre
thinking about
getting more
experimental
with your
productions.
29
Mash-up plug-ins like Turnado give you a whole

suite of crazy effects in a single window.
Surround can be
tricky to work with but
ultimately really
rewarding in how
creative it lets you be.
USE TAPE SIMULATORS

Not to make things sound wobbly, necessarily, but to
impart a sort of warm glue to your sound. Many producers
find that while getting hold of a real tape machine is fairly
impractical, a decent tape-simulation plug-in can do the job
just as well and with far less hassle. Adding small amounts
of wow and flutter can make a sound appear less digital and
processed. You could apply it to just the drums, or apply it to
the entire mix at the mixdown or mastering stages depending
on how you like to work.
30
SEQUENCING AND EDITING

SUPERCHARGE YOUR SAMPLES
Many people have a sample collection of some sort,
even if its only the ones that came bundled with a DAW. Over
time these can get a little tired and you may stop using them.
A good trick to revitalise them is to slice them up and
re-sequence them so that they sound completely different.
Tools such as Maschine and AKAIs MPCs can do this, and
instruments like FXpansions Geist and Propellerheads
ReCycle or the new slicing tools in Reason 7 are adept at it
too. With fairly minimal effort you can make your old samples
sound new again.
31
AUDIO PROCESSING
32 USE
Not as in effects, but as in the Tools menu. Digital audio
is infinitely malleable and edits are generally nondestructive.
Its easy to pitch- and time-stretch audio loops or recordings,
reverse them or cut them up to change them and make them
sound more interesting. Tools like Melodyne or VariAudio in
Cubase or Flex Pitch and Time in Logic make it simple to edit
notes within polyphonic audio clips. In Reason 7, recorded or
imported audio is automatically time-stretched to fit a
project (and sliced up, too). Audio is now almost as flexible as
MIDI, so take advantage of that fact.
Some people prefer

old-style sequencing
approaches, so why
not give them a go and
see what shakes out?
Many DAWs incorporate tools

that let you manipulate notes
within recorded audio parts
DOUBLE-TRACK
Double-tracking used to be a trick employed by
producers to beef-up a sound, which involved recording a
second copy onto the master tape (typically vocals or
guitars). In a DAW its incredibly easy: simply select a track
and choose Duplicate. Of course, initially this will just make
33
Arranger tools like

Blocks in Reason let
you try out multiple
arrangements with
the minimum of fuss.
SUPERCHARGE TIP
TRY A NEW WAY OF WORKING
You might be comfortable with sequencing in a certain
way, perhaps using blocks of data in your favourite DAW. But
this can also lead to complacency and doing things in the
same way. For a new approach, consider using a different
tool to compose with and see where it takes you. For
example, if you always work in Logic, try sequencing a song
with Maschine instead. Old-style sequencers encourage
different working methods from timeline-based software.
35
the part louder overall, so you need to go a little further. You

could pan each copy of the track differently to create more
interesting stereo effects, or process one copy differently
from the other. EQ and effect it so it has a different feel, then
blend it with the original version. This is a good way to
quickly get a bigger sound.
EXPERIMENT WITH ARRANGEMENTS
This is a lot easier than it used to be thanks to the
flexibility of DAWs. Tools such as Cubases Arranger track and
Blocks mode in Reason enable you to create multiple
on-the-fly arrangements without having to copy and paste
sequencer data. Find one or more that you like and youre
often able to render them out to new project files, saving a
huge amount of effort. You can easily, for example, make a
radio edit and then a full-length version and even extended
mixes, all without having to laboriously copy and paste.
34
36
USE ADVANCED AUDIO-MANIPULATION TOOLS

Many DAWs now incorporate tools that are able to
identify and let you manipulate individual
notes within recorded audio parts, and
third-party tools such as Melodyne let you
do this too. As well as letting you do clever
stuff like turning songs in a major key into
a minor key, the technology has other
benefits, such as the ability to extract
pitch and micro pitch to MIDI. This allows
you to do things like double-up a
recorded vocal part with a keyboard part,
or match a drum part to a guitar riff. All of
these can be handy for getting a bigger
sound overall.
EMBRACE THE FLEXIBILITY OF DIGITAL AUDIO

Once upon a time, making edits involved splicing tape
together. Now its a very different world. Even a modest
37
FOCUS
Feature MTF
computer can handle running loads of tracks, so you have

complete freedom to duplicate and layer parts. Try pitchshifting duplicated vocal parts to create harmonies, using
parallel compression techniques to get a New York sound, or
creating atmospheres and layers via extreme time-stretching.
GET REMIXED
Thanks to modern technology, remixing is easier than
ever and it can be an excellent way to explore musical ideas
that you might not have thought of yourself. There are many
examples of remixes that are better or more successful than
the original track, and a remixer will often go in a musical
direction that gives a track a completely new feel. You can
supply them with a project file or, more likely, a folder of
printed audio stems complete with tempo information.
38
OUTSIDE THE BOX

39 THINK
Many hardware instruments, especially older ones, have
an onboard sequencer. Were talking about drum machines,
workstations and samplers such as AKAIs MPC series. Their
sequencers often have a unique sound and feel that you dont
get using the MIDI and quantizing tools inside computer
software. Some developers, like AKAI, have even re-created
their hardware in software form for the iPad. By basing a
track on a hardware-sequenced beat or composing entirely in
hardware you can often get a more unique sound. A good
example is DJ Shadows Endtroducing, which was created
entirely on a sampling drum machine and has a unique feel.
ADVANCED MIDI TOOLS
40 USE
Were all used to arpeggiators and quantization, but
some DAWs have more advanced MIDI tools that let you filter
and work with MIDI tracks in more unusual ways. Cubase, for
example, has a Logical Editor that is able to perform an action
on specific notes, perhaps changing the velocity of every fifth
note, or remove all accidentals. Theres also MIDI
compression, which equalizes the velocity of selected notes.
There are quite a few such commands and although slightly
esoteric, they can be useful in batch-processing MIDI parts
for interesting results.
Tools such as
Melodyne, seen here
integrated into Sonar
X3, are a good way to
reach inside existing
audio parts and
manipulate them.
Fader creep can become

problematic if taken too far and
result in clipping of the signal
USE GROUPING
In those situations where you have multi-source
instruments such as a multitracked drum kit, its often a
good idea to create a group channel and route all of the
constituent drum channels (for example) to it. In this way you
can submix the drums correctly and then, in the main mix,
simply bring the entire kit up or down as required in the mix
with a single fader while maintaining the correct balance
between all of the different drum mics. Whats more, as an
added bonus you can process the entire kit through an effect
using just a single instance of that effect instead of creating
multiple copies of it. Of course, each individual channel can
still be effected if necessary before it is routed to the group
as well.
43
MIXING AND MASTERING

USE THE FREEZE FUNCTION
Your DAW almost certainly has a Freeze function and
this is great for squeezing the maximum level of performance
out of your system. If your computer is struggling to run all of
the tracks in your project, freeze instrument and effected
tracks to simple audio parts and you will be able to load up
more plug-ins. Its not that more necessarily means better in
this situation, but sometimes you might need ten instances
of that great synth, and this is the best way to keep things
running smoothly.
KNOW WHERE TO PUSH

During mixing you may find yourself gradually nudging
various faders up in an attempt to make certain sounds
louder. This fader creep can become problematic if taken too
far and result in clipping of the signal. Keep an eye on the
master fader for any peaks and be careful to avoid red lights
on faders in any track (and especially the master fader).
Remember that you can squeeze the track at the mastering
stage, so as long as the levels are healthy during mixdown, it
doesnt need to be super-loud.
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Use your DAWs

Freeze function to
reduce the load on
your computer.
Classic tools like AKAIs MPC represent not just

another kind of vibe, but a different approach to
programming music.
Metering the output of

your projects gives a
better idea of whats
really going on and lets
you push the track or
rein it in, depending on
whats required.
headphones to see if any problems leap out at you. They

almost certainly will too much bass, not enough vocal and
so on. But this is part of the process and lets you go back and
fix it before everything is nailed down.
USE PARALLEL COMPRESSION
Some DAWs, notably Reason 7, support the creation of
parallel channels directly in the mixer. In others its possible
to achieve the same effect by doing some creative
duplication and routing of tracks. The idea is to take the clean
signal from one track and route it to another channel, which
you then process differently. Typically, this involves applying
hard compression to it to provide a pumping or squashed
47
An audio analysis plug-in will

provide an accurate display of
whats really going on
effect. This track can then be blended with the original to
create a fuller sound. You can keep going from there, too,
creating more than one parallel channel from the same
source to get a really big effect.
USE AN ANALYSER
They might not sound as exciting as delays or
distortions, but audio analysis plug-ins can be crucial in
helping you squeeze more volume out of a track, whether at
the mixing or mastering stages. You tend to base your
perception of volume on looking at fader levels and using your
ears, but there are many potential points of confusion, such
as volume knobs on speakers and interfaces being set
incorrectly. An analysis plug-in strapped across your master
buss wont affect the sound but will provide an accurate
display of whats really going on, helping you to understand if
youre pushing too hard or not enough.
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DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP

Even if youre an experienced producer, a second pair of
trusted ears never hurts when youre mixing. If you work on a
project for days, weeks or months you can really lose
perspective and your judgement can be impaired. By getting
the opinion of a second person, perhaps the studio engineer,
you might be able to identify
deficiencies in the mix that
werent initially apparent to
you. They may know a trick
for sidechain-compressing
the bass or for adding air to
the vocal track that adds
that little extra something
to the sound.
KEEP VOCALS AUDIBLE

This might seem like a rather obvious point, but for any
music that involves vocals they need to be as audible and
clear as possible but without sticking out of the mix too
much. Achieving this is almost entirely down to proper EQ
and compression settings, but you can also help by
identifying the frequency range of the vocals and then
looking for any other elements that might be fighting for
space with them. These might include midrange sounds
such as guitars or keyboards, and you might want to EQ
those sounds accordingly to make a space for the vocals to
shine through.
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TEST YOUR MIXES

Your tracks might
sound amazing over the
studios 5,000 ATC
monitors, but most people
will be listening to them on
something considerably
less high-end. Of course,
you cant account for
everyone who might have
some dreadful bass boost
turned on, but you can at
least play test mixes over a
range of speakers and
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Use grouping to gain better

control of larger projects with
multitracked sources.
FOCUS
Reason 7 features
parallel channels,
which are useful for
getting a big sound.
Feature MTF
SIDECHAIN-COMPRESS WHERE APPROPRIATE

If youre working with electronic music you may be
familiar with the concept of bass sidechain compression.
This is how the classic pumping effect of many club tunes is
achieved. Use a sidechain-capable compressor on the bass
track and feed it from the kick drum track, setting the
threshold and ratio controls appropriately to achieve the level
of pumping that you want.
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Limiting is essential,
but understand how
youre shaping the
sound if you want to
get optimum results.
Use sidechain
compression to
achieve that classic
pumping effect.
SUPERCHARGE TIP
KNOW YOUR LIMITERS
Limiting is the last stage of the mastering process (and indeed the last stage
of the whole production process) so its vital to get it right. Its tempting to slam a
track really hard and get maximum clout from it, but this isnt usually the most
sensible approach. Think carefully about whether youre squeezing all the life out
of the signal and, if necessary, back it off a little. Supercharging a sound doesnt
necessarily have to mean pushing it as hard as possible it can mean getting the
correct amount of life or power from it. Indeed, this should be your goal. MTF
50
MTF Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
Ableton Live Become a Live Power User
Compose &
experiment
What do you do when you run out of ideas and hit that brick wall in composition? Experiment!
Liam OMullane guides you through Lives tools for experimental work
here are many moments in music composition

when you might feel the need for experimenting,
or using tools you might not normally turn to. You
could be suffering from writers block and not
know where to take your work next, or perhaps
youre stuck on the first idea and need something to kick
start it all off. Or maybe you are nearing the end of your song
writing and feel the track still needs something better
within it. Theres always the option to step away from your
work and think about new ideas, but the only problem with
On the disc
Accompanying
project file included
on the DVD
You should see this as a

challenge: how far can you take
an idea to create a new one
this is that it might not take you into any
new territories it is still you and
probably the same thought processes
you always use, after all! Experimenting
is a much better way and opens up
many new possibilities and could result
in some of your most unique work yet.
This doesnt mean that your musical
integrity is compromised in any way.
Youre simply leaving an interpretation
of your work in the hands of somewhere
else, just as you would if you
collaborated with another person. The
FOCUS ON MAKING THE

MOST OF YOUR EFFORTS
Live has one of the simplest ways of dealing with
the individual contents of a project. At any given
time you can search the contents of another
project in the Live browser and drag any tracks or
individual clips out and into your currently loaded
session. This also works in reverse, so if you have
a good idea but it may not suit the current project
youre working on, grab the top of the track or a
clip respectively, then drag it to a sensible place
for easy access in the future. I have a folder called
song ideas which I drag every unused idea into.
Live also lets you preview these ideas in tempo
with your project, meaning you can audition your
own ideas in the same context as you would with
audio loops.
FOCUS
main different is that youre collaborating with your

computer, but like working with other people, you still get to
approve, dismiss or amend any ideas put on the table.
There are many times Ive completely re-worked an idea
to see where it could go and Ive rarely found the efforts to
be worthless. These changes might transform a lifeless idea
into something much more upbeat, or create various other
instances of an idea I can use for variations or fills at the
end of a phrase. So try not to be too precious when going
through the techniques covered in this workshop. You
should instead see this as a challenge: how far can you take
an idea to create a completely new one? The process can be
quite inspirational and potentially give you a new key part to
your latest work. MTF
Composition & Experimentation in Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Experimental MIDI
Well start with some of the most musical forms of manipulation,

for when you dont want to move too far away from a musical
structure you may have already created. Under the MIDI effects tab
you will find many tools to play with. Were starting with the
Arpeggiator which is useful for quickly transforming simple ideas into
something more animated.
Weve gone from an incredibly simple melody with a single note

per beat to a flourish of notes using two arpeggiators. This
arpeggiator began its life from the C Major Walk 16th Grooved preset
which we then modified through changing the rate for faster runs and
transpose was changed from major to minor to suit the existing
melody more.
We then placed a second arpeggiator device and tweaked this to

produce more movement to the melody. For further changes to
this set-up you can feed the arpeggiator more notes using a chord
device. You then just move the Pitch dials for each note you add and
tweak until you like the results.
Another way to explore new possibilities is to use a Random

device which, as youd expect, creates random events from your
existing MIDI material. Tweak its settings so the Chance amount is high
for less repetition, then experiment with other parameters.
To record the results of any experimentation with MIDI effects,

add a new MIDI Track, select the output of the track you want to
record from the top MIDI From menu, then select Post FX so all your
processing is captured. New MIDI clips will be created when you record
with all the new content as notes, meaning you can manually edit
these parts to perfection.
Dont think that this type of experimentation is only reserved for

melodic work. Try dragging these effects to your drum ideas.
Because drum kit layouts rarely use all of the MIDI notes available,
youll need to bare this in mind when you tweak parameters otherwise
the majority of the notes being created could be triggering nothing.
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FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 |
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MTF Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
MTF Step-by-Step Creative audio processing
Certain aspects of audio processing are considered mixing aids,

like compression, EQ and so on. But other effects can become
part of your creative process. For instance an immediate and drastic
way to change your ideas into something rhythmic is to add an Auto
Pan device.
You can take this a step further by automating its sync value so
rhythmic changes become an integral part of your idea. For quick
automation either hit the Arrangement Record Button in arrangement
view or the Session Record Button for session view. Then tweak away
to record your movement.
Auto Pan works best on sounds with a constant output whereas

delays can be useful for the opposite situation when you have
more sporadic notes. Try adding a Simple Delay device and exploring
the Delay Time values, press Link if you dont want a stereo effect and,
of course, explore automation too.
The time aspect of your ideas can also be manipulated through

the use of Lives Beat Repeat device. This can add a mash-up/edit
like aspect to your work so it saves the need for you to get heavily into
editing for a quick re-work. Explore the library presets, especially
Deconstruct which will heavily change your current sound.
For musical pitch changes to an audio file over time you need
to automate the clips Transpose control. But for sound-design
styles of pitch change, try Frequency Shifter as this doesnt keep
the harmonic relationships intact which adds a nastier tone to
your sounds.
Thankfully turning any audio processed into a new, rendered clip

is much simpler than working with MIDI effects. Just Right [PC] /
Ctrl [Mac] + Click the top of a track in session view or its header to the
right in arrangement view. Select Freeze Track from the menu, then
right click again and select Flatten.
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Composition & Experimentation in Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Max For Live devices
For those who own Live Suite, you can use many of the Max for
Live devices for experimental work as well. A good starting point
is Mono Sequencer if you dont have anything created already. Its a
monophonic step sequencer but its Random button is the real winner
for unexpected results.
The Random button randomises whichever of the five tabs are

selected at anytime - Pitch, Velocity, Octave, Duration and
Repeat. If youre close to getting something you like, keep Random set
to a lower percentage, but if you want complete change with each
click, set this to 100%.
Drunk Again is an interesting device as it adds Randoms rapid

repeats of notes within the playback of your MIDI clip. Its best
recorded for a while to capture the magic moments. We like this on
percussion parts to help them get the glitch treatment.
Instant Haus is another interesting device as its designed to

drive kick, snare/clap, hi-hat and percussion parts for immediate
house music. Run this into an instrument and you might get results
similar to Mono Sequencer, but the random section includes groove if
you want to explore timing.
When it comes to adjusting parameters over time there are a few

tools with Max that allow you to do this, with an added twist of
being able to use another sound as the trigger for the sound youre
focussing on. Alongside your melody idea, set up a drum source. Here
were using a simple drum loop.
Under Audio Effects in the Max for Live folder, grab an Envelope
Follower and drag this to the drum track. This will follow the
rhythmic amplitude changes of the drum sound. You can then click
Map followed by clicking the parameter you wish to control to connect
them together.
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FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 |
21
MTF Technique Audio recording & editing in Live
Audio recording
and editing in Live
Whether you intend to record a multi-miced performance or just the odd found sound, youll
need to understand how recording and editing works in Live. Liam OMullane explains...
ike many aspects of using Ableton Live, theres

more than one way to skin a cat, and when it
comes to recording audio, the main options are
whether to record in Arrangement or Session
View. The first two walkthroughs opposite and
over the page will guide you through both approaches, but
like the different approaches to editing described in the
third step-by-step, one size does not fit all.
So take the techniques discussed onboard, but its only
through repeated use that youll gain a personal context for
their use. This time is needed to decide which approach
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Its not until now that weve

focused specifically on the
recording process itself
best suits your own preferences for workflow and the tasks
you will typically undertake. For instance, pitch-correction
(covered in the third walkthrough) can be applied by using
many of the excellent Warp modes available. While these
will allow you to preserve the timing of your recordings, a
side effect can be that the sound quality is compromised
as it stretches or condenses your audio to keep it in-time
after re-pitching.
You can minimise this by using different Warp modes on
either a global or edit-by-edit basis as required, but the
good, old-fashioned vari-speed approach can also come in
handy when you want to completely avoid any time-
FOCUS ON CUE MIXING

When recording, you may need to create a custom headphone mix for a
performer that differs from the mix you want to listen to as you record. This
headphone mix could include lots of reverb for a vocalist, helping them to feel
comfortable while performing, and perhaps a loud melodic instrument to help
them stay in-tune. A drummer may want everything but themselves in their
headphones as their drums are already loud enough. Whatever your
requirements, you will most likely need to route the Cue output of Live to the
relevant output on your interface to feed the headphones. This needs to be a
different output from that used for the Master output of Live, otherwise it will
merely copy the main mix. The Cue output will play back any pre-count and the
metronome, if required, but it can also send other audio from your project to the
performers headphones. A Cue option appears above the Cue level control after
selecting its separate audio output settings. When enabled, this will turn all
solo buttons into a headphone icon. For quick set-up you can simply enable the
relevant icon to send those channels to the headphones. For an independent
mix of tracks, send only a single return track to the Cue out and instead use the
other tracks send controls to blend the desired balance of instruments to the
headphones via this return track.
FOCUS
stretch-based artefacts. But this isnt artefact-free, either,

as the sound will suffer from timing distortions as you alter
pitch. So after hearing the differences between the two,
youll have a better idea of which approach is the most
appropriate for the task at hand.
Before hitting record, also make sure that youre set up
for the desired bit-depth and sample rate. Bit-depth
dictates the available dynamic range in your recordings,
with 24-bit being a typical choice. Sample rates represent
the highest frequency limit (once halved) of your
recordings, and there are all sorts of arguments as to
which setting is best. In general, the higher the fidelity you
want, the higher the sample rate needs to be. Orchestral
recordings tend to be recorded at 88.2kHz or above. Most
electronic music can be set to anywhere from 44.1kHz and
above. Sample rate can be altered after opening
Preferences from the Options/Live (PC/Mac) menu and
selecting Audio from the left-hand tab. For bit-depth, click
the Record Launch Warp tab. MTF
Audio recording & editing in Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Recording in Arrangement View
You can choose to record in both Session and Arrangement

Views. This can be when Live is already in the middle of playback
or you can use a pre-count to count in the start of both recording and
playback at the same time. The metronome button has a menu for
tailoring the duration of pre-count for the performers needs.
To capture a natural performance, its best not to focus on

smaller sections and loop around them. Instead, use Live in a
purely linear mode by making sure that Loop Switch is disabled, then
record the performance from start to finish. This will result in a much
more natural-sounding recording than working in small sections.
If you want to record multiple takes with this non-looping

approach, its best to record each new take to a different track.
You can then accurately split each part by disabling Snap To Grid from
the Options menu and using Split from the Edit menu. The [0] key can
be used to disable takes when determining the best ones.
If a performer cant quite nail a full take or did a good job but
small sections might benefit from a re-take, you can use Lives
punch-in/-out function. Click and highlight the area to focus on and
select Loop Selection to move the Loop Brace. Press the Punch-In/Out Switch (in yellow) to map to the Loop Braces start and end points.
Recording will now take place only between these two points.
Another approach is to track multiple recordings by cycling over a

small section repeatedly. This is useful if you want to ad-lib and
try out multiple different ideas. Start by looping around the area of
focus, then record various times until you think there are sufficient
decent parts to work with.
The audio clip that youve recorded will have an internal Loop
Brace thats the length of your clip. To audition the other takes,
simply move the Loop Brace around to change the content of the clip.
This avoids the alternative, lengthy approach of moving and extending
the clip to gain access to the other takes.
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MTF Technique Audio recording & editing in Live
MTF Step-by-Step Recording in Session View
Session View can be useful for Arrangement View-like cycle

recording, except that clips are recorded to separate slots, which
keeps things easier to deal with visually. If you intend to work in a
linear way you can simply hit record in an empty clip slot and record
continuously, then drag the file into Arrangement View for editing.
Multiple takes can be recorded separately by creating multiple

tracks with their Arm buttons enabled. Then, as long as Start
Recording on Scene Launch is enabled from the Preferences menu,
you just trigger a scene to start playback and recording of your
multiple takes. Alter each clips Loop Brace position as in Step 6 of the
previous walkthrough so that they represent each take.
Now that you have your recordings, you can either drag them into
Arrangement View for editing, or use an exclusive method within
Session View. This technique is much more hands-on and less
graphically-based. Once youve set up your Loop Braces to represent
each take, drag the recordings to one track so you can play back only
one take at a time.
Highlighting your recordings, open the Launch Box, enable Legato

mode and set Quantization to none. Legato allows you to move
from playing one clip to another without losing the playback position.
This lets you jump between one take and the other like a manual edit.
The lack of Quantization means launching of clips will be immediate.
Next, assign computer keys or MIDI notes to each clip using

either Key Map mode or MIDI Map mode from the top right of the
screen. Now you can launch the takes with your fingers and jam out
potential edits of the recordings. We find that this helps you listen to
how the edits alter the performance, and you can practice until you
think it sounds right.
When youre ready to commit your compiling to Live, hit the

Arrangement Record Button to capture your performance in
Arrangement View. From here you can fine-tune and edit between
parts. Drag the takes back to Session View if necessary after
consolidating it to a new audio file via the Edit menu.
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Audio recording & editing in Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Editing techniques
There are several key tools youll need to work with when editing
a performance. If youve already comped from various takes youll
have multiple clips sequenced one after another. Live will
automatically smooth-out the edits youve made with a crossfade. To
view and edit these, select Show Fades from the Create menu.
Fade-ins/-outs can also be controlled in this way.
When trying to improve the timing of smaller edits, rather than

trying to move the clips, move their content instead just grab
the Start Marker in the Sample Editor window to move the content and
disable Snap To Grid for more accuracy. Re-size the clip to avoid
abruptly chopping off the sounds start or end points.
Disabling Warp mode from the Sample View allows you to

re-pitch your audio clips for correction purposes using varispeed. This means that the audios duration will expand or contract as
you go down or up in pitch respectively. Use the Transpose and Detune
amounts to correct your audios pitch.
Lives Warp mode can be used when you want to edit the timing
within an audio clip but leave the pitch information intact.
Pseudo Warp Markers will appear above the waveform in the Sample
Editor. These can be double-clicked and dragged to condense or
expand the clips content.
Like tuning a non-warped clip, Transpose and Detune can be

used with Warp mode enabled as long as its set to anything but
Re-Pitch mode. Finer tuning through Detune is best for minor
corrections, but this can have only a static setting per clip, so Split
each area to be corrected and set the Detune on a part-by-part basis.
If you plan on warping a multi-audio recording like drum mics or

various instruments from a live performance, first ensure that all
audio to be edited is the same length (Consolidate all pieces to a new
length from the Edit menu if needed). Highlight the parts, edit one
clips Warp Markers and the others will follow. The striped pattern
across the top of the clip confirms you are in a grouped Warp mode.
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MTF Technique Audio & Instrument Racks
Using Audio &

Instrument Racks
Many people will recognise a Rack as they are used extensively in Lives library content, but
learning to build your own is essential for fluid workflow. Liam OMullane shows you how.
bleton Live has quite a few features not found

in other DAWs, and Racks is one of them. At the
most basic level, Racks are containers that
enable you to rack together MIDI, instrument
and audio devices. A Rack containing internal/
external instruments is called an Instrument Rack; a Rack
of standalone audio processing devices is an Audio Rack.
However, Racks are more than an easy way to bundle
multiple elements into one easily saveable and therefore
recallable package. Racks give you the option to run their
internal signal paths in parallel or in series, which offers a
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Racks are more than an easy

way to bundle multiple elements
into a saveable package
FOCUS ON USING EXTERNAL HARDWARE
Lives External Audio and Instrument devices enable you to create
default presets for your outboard processors and sound sources
respectively. A sound being triggered by MIDI or passing in and out of
your computer as audio will always incur a little delay time. However,
you can offset this for instruments by setting them to play something
percussive on the beat, then enable Lives metronome and change the
Hardware Latency value to get both playing in time. This is set to
milliseconds by default but you can click the ms box to switch it to
sample increments for a higher resolution of detail.
The same technique can be applied to External Audio Effects by
playing a percussive audio clip that matches up with the metronome,
and the majority of external sources will need some housework
processing to get the best out of them, such as EQ and compression. By
Grouping them into a Rack along with an external device you can create
a more mix-ready preset to work from. If this is set up correctly you can
enjoy seamless integration of your hardware within Live at a
moments notice as you work.
FOCUS
huge range of options. In fact, the only real restriction you

may encounter will be maxing-out either your CPU or RAM,
but this isnt anything that any computer user hasnt had
to factor into their workflow before.
In this tutorial well be using Live-only devices that are
quite economical in terms of CPU requirements. Its only
when you start stacking large numbers of third-party,
resource-hungry instruments and effects that youll
perhaps need to be a bit more conscious about what you
use and why. If processing power does become an issue,
make use of Lives Freeze feature to render the live
processing as temporary audio. When youre ready to
commit to ideas, we encourage you to then Flatten them
into newly rendered audio files. You can then perform any
additional editing in these audio files while freeing up
computer resources (both of these functions are accessed
from the Edit menu).
Racks can be used at any point throughout the
production process, and typical uses include stacking
layers of synths for huge, epic sounds, applying go-to
parallel processing such as compression and distortion,
mid-and-side processing, and building interesting musical
tools for new ideas or exploring intricate audio-processing
chains for sound-design tasks.
As you can see, there are multiple uses for these tools
and well now go on to explain some of the most important
aspects of Rack design. If at any point you get lost or are
stuck for inspiration, we recommend that you have a look
through the Live library for Audio, Instrument and MIDI
Racks. From here its easy to explore and modify
an existing Rack. MTF
Audio & Instrument Racks Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Audio Racks: advanced control
Create a Rack by either dragging a preset from the Live Browser

or using Group from the Edit menu when an existing instrument
or effect(s) is highlighted. Each internal audio channel called Chains
will now be visible. There will be only one by default, but more Chains
can be created by clicking in the empty space below and choosing
Create Chain or Duplicate a Chain from the Edit menu.
There are two reasons for parallel processing, the first being to
audition various approaches for processing audio. This approach
lets you try out different techniques/processors and generally explore
the possibilities for each element in your mix. Use Solo to move
between each Chain; when youve decided which treatment to go for,
delete the other Chains to avoid unnecessary processing.
Reason two is for parallel processing, with typical uses being for
compression/saturation. This is set up by keeping the first Chain
as-is and adding a second Chain to process in parallel. Chains can also
be used to split a signal into its components: by frequencies using
multiple Multiband Dynamics devices; by mid-and-side components
using the Utility devices Width control at 0% and 200% respectively.
Chains can also be used to create different sonic states to move

between, such as a lighter verse and heavier chorus treatments.
Create the two treatments, using Solo to focus on each one like before,
then open the Chain Selector Editor by clicking on the box labelled
Chain. Looking like a samplers key-range editor, this allows you to
move the assignment of each Chain to a different area horizontally.
If you move the Zone Blocks for each Chain so they arent
overlapping, the Chain Select Ruler above them (in orange) can
be moved from one sound to the next. When using Zones in this way,
effects with tails like reverb or delays will die out naturally. To blend
between the two, drag the Zone Blocks across the full range, then drag
the Fade Range shapes so they oppose each other to create the fade.
All Racks have Macro controls that you can assign most
parameters within a Rack to. If you right/[Ctrl]-click (PC/Mac) on
the Chain Selector Ruler it can be assigned to a Macro and then
assigned to a MIDI controller. Multiple assignments can be made to
one Macro, so explore different combinations of assignments, ranges
and the directions in which they move.
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2014 | 27
MTF Technique Audio & Instrument Racks
MTF Step-by-Step Instrument and Drum Racks
Instrument Racks work in a similar way to Audio Racks and are

useful for stacking sounds for density and depth, or setting up
different sounds to move between dynamically. To create something
big, take the same approach of using multiple Chains and layering
contrasting sounds. The MIDI Pitch device is useful here for quickly
finding the best octave or harmony for each new Chain.
Instrument Racks have more options than Audio Racks when it

comes to using Zone Blocks and fades. Use Velocity to create
layers with expressive control from a MIDI keyboard, or Key to create
tonal changes up and down the keyboard. Here weve added a bass
layer to the lower keys of a melody line; the fade enables it to blend in
at the bottom of a descending passage.
Macros can be very useful for creating consistency in an

instrument performance. For instance, if you want to use drastic
effects such as a high-pass filter that removes the bulk of the body
from a sound, you can offset any loss in presence by increasing the
volume of a Utility device as the filter cutoff is increased.
Drum Racks have the added bonus of an internal Sends and

Returns setup. This is great for achieving polished production
sounds within your Rack. First enable the Show buttons for Sends and
Returns (at the very left of the Rack). Drag the required effect to the
area labelled Drop Audio Effects Here a Send amount will appear on
the Chain List that can be used to feed the effect.
As these effects are internal, you can sub-process all your drums
as one, helping you to achieve a cohesive sound by processing
both the drums and reverb with tools like compression. If you want to
drive an effect thats already set up in Lives main Return Tracks, right/
[Ctrl]-click in an empty Chain area and select Create Return Chain. This
can then be routed to the relevant Return Track.
A hybrid approach can be used to combine steps 4 and 5 by

initially using Return Chains within the Drum Rack. When youve
decided on your choices, drag-and-drop the internal Return Chains to
the main Return Track area in Live. This wont carry across the Send
amounts, which youll have to reapply from the main Sends section of
the Drum Racks channel in Lives mixer.
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Launch your
sound with:
ULTIMATE CONTROL OVER

ABLETON LIVE
Focus more on your music and less on your laptop.
Seize control of everything in Ableton Live. Mixer, effects and instruments:
get hands-on control over it all.
Switch between tracks and devices at the push of a button. Tweak your mixer with
LED-enhanced knobs that change colour to show pans, sends and device control.
Combine with Launchpad S for extraordinary simultaneous control over your
session view and mixer.
Producing the perfect mix has never been easier.
www.novationmusic.com/launch
MTF Technique Audio to MIDI
Converting
audio to MIDI
Live has some of the best tools for turning an audio file into MIDI to reflect its musical
content. Liam OMullane shares his preferred techniques for getting the best results.
he ability to slice-up audio and retrigger it

creatively from MIDI is nothing new Live has
had this functionality for a while now in the form
of its Slice To New MIDI Track function and its a
feature that should never be overlooked. More
recently, Live 9 added Convert To MIDI to its toolkit, which
translates the musical content of an audio file into MIDI.
Convert Drums to New MIDI Track lets you detect an
audio files rhythmic content and then loads in a basic
drum kit to play it back. This does a pretty good job of
picking the right drum sounds and is handy for starting a
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Beatbox, hum, whistle or sing

ideas and then convert them
into usable MIDI data
song with the right drum style for a given genre. Convert
Harmony will detect chords; Melody detects monophonic
melody content. The cleaner the pitch and transient
information in the source audio, the better the
transcription results will be. But, as always, there are ways
of helping the computer to do a better job if youre faced
with a less-than-ideal situation. Well show you how to
achieve the best results while suggesting some
experimental uses for the process as well.
It can be easy to dismiss this feature as a simple
transcription tool, but its eye-opening when you realise
how it can enhance your music production. If you want to
remix someone elses music, you can quickly create the
FOCUS ON EXPERIMENTATION
There are many ways to use and misuse the Convert To MIDI tools that Live offers
beyond practical transcription. Try converting one instrument type to another, such
as drums to a melodic bass part. This is the quickest way to get an in the pocket
bass line that immediately works with your drums in a tight and percussive fashion.
You may need to edit the notes to suit your taste, but thats all for creating a good
drum-and-bass combo. You can also develop this with more information between
the fused rhythmic elements, making the bass more of a lead feature a perfect
building block for the rest of a song!
Melodic passages can become drum parts as well if theres sufficient rhythmic
information for Live to interpret. The drums sounds that are triggered may be a bit
unpredictable, but if theres an interesting rhythm in the part, you can loop it and then
move the notes to explore what drums sounds work best. If the drums are too sparse,
this is a great time to take the idea further through the use of editing or perhaps
some of Lives MIDI devices. If the notes are long enough, an Arpeggiator device could
be triggered to add yet more rhythmic information. Theres a huge amount of
possibilities here, and were sure that youll find this process a new way of
jump-starting your creativity.
FOCUS
MIDI parts for lead lines, drum grooves and so on

(depending on the clarity of the source material) to use
with your own choice of sounds. Other peoples music can
also be used as a starting point to generate your own ideas
very useful when you want to create something
spontaneous and different from your usual work.
As a person whos always made noises with my mouth
since I could speak, this feature now allows me to record
as I beatbox, hum, whistle or sing ideas and then convert
them into usable MIDI data. I can finally use my primary
instrument to interact with the computer as well as pick
up my trusty guitar from time to time to try out different
ideas. Were in an exciting time for music technology and
Convert to MIDI is one of the reasons for this, so lets look
at how to get the most from it. MTF
Audio to MIDI Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Fine-tuning the Audio to MIDI process
Audio-to-MIDI conversion begins by right/[Ctrl]-clicking (PC/Mac)

an audio file within Live, its browser, or by dragging and dropping
an audio clip over a MIDI track. After selecting the approach you prefer,
you can check the accuracy by soloing both the original and converted
tracks by [Ctrl]/[Cmd]-clicking both tracks solo button.
Live uses transient information to determine where each note or

beat begins, and this audio example is very distorted and lacks
clear transients. If you hover above the waveform in the Sample Editor
youll see Lives Transient Markers. These can be clicked and moved
while holding [Shift], deleted, or new markers can be added by holding
down [Alt] as you double-click anywhere within the display.
If the speed of a musical passage causes issues with the

transcription process, slow it down by pressing the Halve Original
Tempo button (labelled :2) to make each note and transient more
drawn-out. Make sure that the clip is set to the Re-Pitch Warp mode as
other modes usually distort the content of your audio (although
experimentation is always encouraged).
Now that the pitch is easier for Live to detect, you help further by
using a Gate device to create clearer transients before
conversion. Set the Gates threshold low enough so that each note
opens the Gate, then Freeze and flatten the file (from the Edit menu) to
create a new piece of audio for Live to analyse before trying to convert
the file again.
When youre focusing on a specific area from a larger piece of

audio, click and drag to highlight the portion of audio in focus
before converting to MIDI. This is great for working with sketched audio
ideas that dont follow Lives tempo, such as a sketched idea sung into
your phones recorder. You can then sort out the timing as part of the
editing process after converting to MIDI.
The timing of a MIDI clip can be expanded or condensed using

MIDI Stretch Markers, which appear when you highlight multiple
notes to edit. Select All from the Edit menu to correct the whole piece
while moving the markers at the start/end of your pattern. If the timing
is out, highlight those notes and condense/expand them as necessary.
Select Quantize from the Edit menu to further tidy up the part.
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MTF Technique Audio to MIDI
MTF Step-by-Step Remixing with Audio to MIDI
The results you get from using Audio to MIDI with commercially
released material can vary. This is because the sound source will
most often be less clearly defined than recordings made with a single
instrument. This can be due to many layers of sounds playing at once,
or heavy mix processing like resonant filtering. Try to find the
cleanest-sounding part in a song to start working from.
The cleanest part of this song we can find for its chord
progression is in the breakdown before a vocal sings on top of it.
The problem is that it has a loud white-noise impact effect at the start,
which as you can see almost completely prevents Live from detecting
content for the first two bars. First well try some EQ work to help Live
focus on just the melodic content for this section.
Weve tried a general EQ treatment which we then flattened to

the audio before conversion. This helps Live to detect more chord
information for the third bar than before. The first two bars, however,
are still pretty garbled, so a different approach is required. Weve
instead listened through the whole piece to search for the missing
chords elsewhere, with less background information.
The missing chords are repeated at the start of the second half of
the piece as well, so weve copied it from there for the beginning. If
you cant find another usable piece in the song, search for the sound
you dont want on its own (if available). This can then be layered over the
problem layer with its phase reversed for cancellation on playback
using a Utility device. Youll need to export these tracks as new audio.
Unless youve got a very clear and simple piece to transcribe

youll need to do some tidy-up work to the MIDI thats created.
First there may be some unwanted notes to remove. If theyre within a
cluster of notes, enable the MIDI Editor Preview headphone icon in the
top-left of the editing window. This allows you to hear notes as you
select them. They can then be deleted if they sound out-of-tune.
For further tidying you may need to edit the start/end points of
notes as well. This can be a manual edit (by moving and dragging
the end points of individual or grouped notes) or an automated task via
Quantize Settings from the Edit menu. If you want a continuous, fluid
monophonic melody line for a portamento effect, use the Legato button
in the Notes box of Clip View so the notes slightly overlap each other.
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MTF Feature Get Online
MTF Masterclass DIY Promotion
The internet can be the ultimate advert for your music. Rob Bo
offard explains how to get the
best from it and create the ultimate web presence for your sound
FOCUS
Get Online Feature MTF
ard as it is to believe, there are still some musicians with very little
online presence. The chances are you are not one of them, but there
might be areas you have missed and this feature is designed to help you
fill in the gaps.
First you need to upload your music to a streaming service - anybody
who tries to find your music needs to be able to do so instantly, listen to it instantly,
find more of your stuff in moments and be pointed to where to buy it. Soundcloud is
by far and away the best service for this: it lets you upload your tracks immediately,
each with its own dedicated player. Youre also able to embed the player in other
websites you have access to, which is the perfect way transport your tunes online.
As a bonus, Soundcloud looks really good.
Outside of places like iTunes and Spotify (which well get to in a moment) youll
also want to investigate online storefronts. Bandcamp is easily the best place to
create one of these, and you can see how to set up a profile on the site in one of the
step-by-step guides in
this tutorial. The key here
is to have a good mix of
stuff available for free,
and stuff available for sale
itll hopefully keep
people coming back.
There are other
services worth looking at,
too, especially if youre a DJ. Mixcloud is an online radio service geared to providing
user-generated content. You can upload your own mixes, collections and radio
shows for people to stream. This can be a fantastic promotional tool for you to use;
combine it with things like Twitter to spread the word, and you have a very powerful
way of getting your music out there.
Social networking is (very obviously) worth looking into as well. Arial Hyatt, who
we speak to elsewhere in this tutorial, knows a lot more about it than we do. Shes
got plenty of tips for how to master Facebook, Twitter and the like.
Its also worth setting up Google Alerts. These are dead easy to set up, and every
time someone mentions you online, Google will email you telling you where. Follow
these up a simple tweeted thank you or an email can help build relationships.
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2014 | 35
Home front
So thats how other sites can represent your music.
Now its time to make sure that the online presence
you control is taken care of.
It is absolutely staggering how bad many
musicians websites are. Many rely simply on a Tumblr
account, or a Facebook page, both of which are terrible
ways to showcase your music.
You need a good website we cant stress this
enough. It needs your own domain name attached to it,
and it needs to showcase what you do. It does not
need to be complicated to do the job, nor does it need
to be expensive. There are several great free website
builders available, like Moonfruit or Weebly. In another
step-by-step, we show you how to create one.
But a word of warning. Your own domain name will
cost a little, even if the website itself is free. They have
to be registered, which is a pain but does mean that
you own the name. And if you do have a little bit of
money to spare, hiring a web designer is a very good
Dont just rely on Tumblr;

build your own website
using a free website builder
like Moonfruit
MTF Step-by-Step Setting up a Bandcamp page
Bandcamp is arguably the best place to

set up an online store for your music.
Signing up and creating a page is pretty
straightforward, so what were going to focus
on is creating a page that really stands out.
Clicking Artist Signup takes us through to the
standard form page. Punch in your artist
name and contact details, pick a genre and a
domain name, and youre set.
Next step for our made-up folk-metal act

Viking Cleavage is to add a track, or an
album. Well just add a track for now to keep
things simple. On this screen, youll see the
options for how you want your track to be
formatted. Were going to make this one
available for free although weve decided to
make fans part with their email address in
exchange. By the way, you need a Paypal
account. Dont argue. Itll make your life so
much easier.
A key to a good Bandcamp page, or any

online store, is the details. Add a
description of the track, any lyrics, and a good
set of credits to it. Put your contact details
here, too. Regarding album art: make sure
every track and album has one. If you dont
have a designer handy, use Creative
Commons to find a suitable image. The
search site will throw up plenty of options
you can use free of charge some are better
than others!
Well now be at our main page. This is

what your fans will see when they visit.
Again, everything is in the details: make sure
you upload a striking banner image across
the top, and put your contact details in the
main body of text at the bottom of your track
description. That includes Twitter handle
and email, as well as links to any other sites
like Facebook.
Keep an eye on your stats. Theres

nothing here yet, since weve just
uploaded our track, but if you have a
Bandcamp page then these are something you
should check on a daily basis. Pay particular
attention to the Map tab this will show you
where your plays are coming from, which is
very handy when deciding who to target in your
promotional efforts.
Bandcamp also gives you 200 free

download codes for every track or
album you upload perfect for online
promotion. If youre planning on emailing
journalists or DJs, be sure to include one of
the codes theyll be able to pick up the
music in any format. Youll find the download
codes option in the Tools menu, and there are
plenty of other useful bits there too. Think
discount codes and private streaming.
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idea. They will do things you cant do yourself. Sites

like PeoplePerHour often have great designers
available for reasonable rates.
What do you need on your website? Again: nothing
fancy: a short bio, plus some videos and audio
examples, including links to buy. A regularly-updated
blog can be a good idea too, even if its just some
examples of things that inspire you. And contact
details you would be amazed at how hard some
musicians make it to be contacted. But if a journalist
happens on your music and cant contact you, theyll
pass by very quickly. So make sure your contact details
are on there, and check your email regularly!
Its also worth putting together an EPK - an
Electronic Press Kit (we showed you how last month).
This is simply a zip file containing your bio, some
high-resolution photos, those crucial contact details
and perhaps some reviews your music has received.
Make this downloadable from the site, and attach it to
any emails you send out.
MTF Pro Tip An easy gig?

O No gigs booked? No problem. Nothing stops you from hosting your own shows
online, getting fans to log onto Skype or Google Hangouts to watch you perform.
If you feel like making a little cash doing this, services like StageIt let you set up
a video stream, and act as a box office for your fans. Dont try and attempt this
unless you have a fair few fans, however an empty venue still hurts whether its
real or digital.
We mentioned photos. Get them done good ones,

too. A good set of press shots are something you will
use again and again. We almost guarantee you know
someone who can take great shots everyone thinks
they are a pro photographer these days so ask them.
They might even do it for free for their portfolio
Then of course, theres SEO Search Engine
Optimisation. It refers to the process of making sure
your site pops up at the top of search engine results.
Its a real dark art, and we could take an entire tutorial
explaining it, so well leave it to you to decide how
much of it you want to do. In this case, wed suggest
getting a professional in, but be careful: SEO pros are
expensive, mostly because they do things no-one else
seems to know how to do.
The bottom line: you need to make sure your music
and your artist details are as accessible and
attractive as possible. Anybody who goes looking for
you needs to find you in seconds.
MTF Pro Tip reward your fans

O Explore slightly unusual social networking ideas: for example, check out
FanDistro. It rewards your fans for sharing your music with their friends, and if
any sales come from those shares, your fans get free merch and a sum donated
to their chosen charity. Anything that rewards your fans for being fans is always
good, so thinking a little differently can really pay off in the long run. Check out the
tools sites like Facebook offer too.
Arctic Monkeys know

how to get a good press
shot done. And black
and white still works.
FOCUS
MTF Pro Tip Go mobile

O Got a website? Smashing. Does it work on mobile,
too? It should. Your mobile site doesnt have to be

as feature-packed or full-on as your real site, but it
should work, and it should include basic items like
contact details and audio of your music. There are
plenty of site creators that let you build one; make
sure you test it on as many different devices as
possible. Theres nothing more irritating than losing
a fan because they cant access your music, even if
youre not likely to know this has happened.
MTF Spotlight Interview
The social
media expert
Ariel Hyatt is a one-stop-shop for online expertise. Heres how
she does it...
riel Hyatt has no illusions about the difficulty of what

she does. Shes a digital PR: the company she founded,
New York-based Cyber PR, specialises in online publicity
across social networks. For a price, she and her staff
will step up to handle your digital output, working on everything
from Twitter and Facebook feeds to websites.
Shes become something of an online guru for social media,
writing articles, filming videos and hosting discussions on how
best to go about it. Shes not afraid of controversy, either: a few
years ago, she started a service, ReviewYou, which connected
musicians with writers. The scribes would pen them reviews they
could use in their press kits. It met predictably, it must be said
with some derision from the New York press.
Social networking is a little like Tetris its easy to pick-up, but
nearly impossible to master - and turning those Twitter followers
and Facebook fans into actual purchasers of your music can often
be extremely tough. Its for these reasons that people
come to Hyatt.
Whether or not you decide to

pass over your online output to another company and
many musicians dont there are certain things to bear in
mind when considering a strategy. Numbers, Hyatt says, matter
less than youd think: On Facebook, your number of fans
means nothing. What matters is the number to the right of it:
people talking about this. Thats the number that needs to be
focussed on.
Numbers of fans mean

nothing; its what theyre
talking about that does
Its the content, she says, that determines how many people
will engage with your music. This applies whether you have fifty
followers or fifty thousand those Likes will only turn into Buys if
you have a compelling story to go with it.
When Hyatt and her team took on rock act Chaser Eight, they
soon discovered that a member of the band had been in drug
rehab. Cyber PR asked him to share his stories on various blogs,
creating a successful campaign around their music. Finding this
story, she says, can often be quite tricky, but its a key part of any
strategy. We get a lot of resistance from our clients, saying, I
dont understand why my lifestyle or religion or gluten-free
lifestyle or children or yoga practice has to do with my music, she
says. And on the subject of PR she adds:
This is not a God-given talent. Its a learnable skill. Its a
process. Go easy on yourself if it doesnt come naturally.
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 39
Online moves
There are plenty of places to upload your music online
whether to showcase it, sell it or get it reviewed. In
fact, there are so many of these sites available that it
can often be a nightmare trying to work out which ones
to use.
Here are some of the better ones and what theyre
best for. Weve referenced a few elsewhere in this
guide, but there are plenty of new faces too.
that can be stored in your account. Create your

account today and you are ready to go!
We say: An alternative service to Soundcloud. Worth
investigating if youre looking for something different,
but while it has similar functionality, Soundcloud just
feels more professional.
Soundcloud is the best site to
start with, and it looks great too.
SOUNDOUT
Soundout.com
@Soundout
They say: SoundOut is the market leading research
and audience insight tool for new music that
guarantees accurate and objective insight into your
music, 100% powered by real music fans. SoundOut
will help you select your strongest singles, decide
where to focus your marketing effort and identify
which demographics you should be targeting.
We say: Judging by their reports, they give you some
pretty thorough data. Be warned: the service does
cost. But if youre looking to control every aspect of
your promotion, its well worth checking out.
MUSIC XRAY
Musicxray.com
@Musicxray
They say: Music Xray is a platform where artists can
SOUNDCLOUD
Soundcloud.com
@Soundcloud
They say: SoundCloud is the worlds leading social
sound platform where anyone can create sounds and
share them everywhere. Recording and uploading
sounds to SoundCloud lets people easily share them
privately with their friends or publicly to blogs, sites
and social networks.
We say: Youre looking at the gold standard for
uploading music in a shareable format. Simple,
brilliant and works just about everywhere.
MIXCLOUD
Mixcloud.com
@Mixcloud
They say: Mixclouds mission is to deliver great radio,
for everyone. We are re-thinking radio, joining the dots
between traditional shows, Podcasts and DJ mixes.
We say: Mixcloud is best for when youve got a mix or a
podcast youd like to upload. Its not so good for
individual tunes, but when used in conjunction with
Soundcloud its brilliant.
BANDCAMP
Bandcamp.com
@Bandcamp
They say: Discover amazing new music and directly
support the artists who make it.
We say: Its templates are limited, but youre not going
to find an easier way to sell your music online, or track
where the sales come from.
YOURLISTEN
Yourlisten.com
@Yourlisten
They say: Upload music and audio for free with no
size and time limits or limits on the amount of uploads
FOCUS
MTF Pro Tip Reveal all?

O If your studio sessions are entertaining, why not think about streaming them
live? Services like Ustream or Google Hangouts are perfect for setting this up. Its
good if there are plenty of people in the group the back-and-forth on songwriting
alone can be brilliant but even if youre working alone, you could still keep up
a running commentary on what youre doing. This is not something you need to
do 24/7, but trying it out once a week can draw in people curious to see how your
music works. Give it a try.
submit their music directly to Industry Professionals.

When you submit to an opportunity, your track goes
directly to the decision makers: no middle-men, no
pre-screeners, just a direct link between artist and
Industry Professional.
We say: Hmmm. Indie acts or those from niche genres
are unlikely to get much here, but its an active site and
has some big names attached to it.
musicians to be who they are while maintaining

creative control over their music and financial control
of their sales.
We say: Erwhat? Get past the jargon, and youll find a
site that acts in a similar way to OurStage, although
the presentation leaves a little to be desired.
PLEDGEMUSIC
Kickstarter.com
@Kickstarter
They say: Were a home for everything from films,
games, and music to art, design, and technology.
Kickstarter is full of projects, big and small, that are
brought to life through the direct support of people
like you.
We say: Crowdfunding, tried and tested. If youre
confident that a wider audience will support your
work, and youre prepared to graft bloody hard to make
it happen, dive in.
Pledgemusic.com
@Pledgemusic
They say: PledgeMusic is the most creative and
interactive way for you to be part of your favourite
artists journey in releasing new music. Through
PledgeMusic, artists create new music projects, and
when you Pledge on a campaign, you gain access to
new music as well as exclusive content and often
experience the creation process alongside the artist,
all before the album officially hits the masses.
We say: Kickstarter for music. The advantage? Narrows
the audience, connecting you with dedicated fans of
your genre.
OURSTAGE
LASTPASS
Ourstage.com
@Ourstage
They say: OurStage is a site that brings artists and
music fans together in a truly democratic environment.
For artists, OurStage is a place to make your music
available to your fans, to find new fans, and to have
your songs independently judged in competitions for
some pretty great prizes.
We say: The site rewards fans for reviewing your music,
so its an attractive proposition. The design is fresh
and funky, and weve heard good things from those
who have sent their music in.
Lastpass.com
@Lastpass
They say: Designed by web enthusiasts and skilled
application developers, LastPass was created to make
the online experience easier and safer for everyone.
We say: Why are we recommending a password
management site, you ask? Because being hacked
sucks. Lastpass is, hands down, the most secure way
of managing passwords known to man, and essential if
youre signed up to lots of sites.
KICKSTARTER
Kickstarter: use if you are

confident and dont mind
working hard
A password site. Youll need it
MADELOUD
Madeloud.com
@Madeloud
They say: MadeLoud.com is a music website that
incorporates the content of an indie music publication
with the services of an online music retailer. Our intent
is to create a site that empowers independent
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 41
Audio visual - Then there are videos

Its possible to survive in the music business without
YouTube videos. If you have music so good that it
makes grown men weep tears of joy, then you can do it.
If youre not quite there yet, wed suggest making sure
youve got some footage handy.
It can often be incredibly daunting to create a video,
especially if youve never done one before. The good
news is that videos dont have to be complex or
difficult to get the point across. You know your music
best, so you may already have an idea of what youd
like to see when it plays. If you have a little bit of a
budget, then things get a lot easier to manage, as you
can hire people who actually do this.
There are, however, some great low-budget or
no-budget ways to make a video. For his single To Be
Continued, rapper Evidence grabbed his video camera
and went to a theme park. He got on a roller coaster,
then rapped the song to the camera as he went
through the twists and loop-de-loops. At the time of
MTF Step-by-Step Creating a website
Its very tempting to sign up for a Tumblr

account and leave it at that. But having
your own domain name and website can
really give you an edge, and with so many
ways to create slick websites available now,
theres really no excuse. Were using
Moonfruit here, which allows us to create a
basic template for a website. Its nothing too
fancy, but then, it doesnt need to be.
If you can make a track in a DAW, youll be

able to figure out how to arrange the
elements in a site builders. Most of the time,
its a case of relabelling things, moving them
around, adding and shuffling pages and
putting things where you want them. Moonfruit
is no exception, and if you get stuck youll find
that most site builders have a comprehensive
help section.
A mistake that budding web-designers

make is not keeping things simple. You
dont need a complicated website. Really,
what will someone come to your page to do?
Listen to music, find out who you are, maybe
watch a few videos, reach out over email.
Thats it. So before you get carried away with
adding things in, remember that youll be
more effective and save yourself a lot of
work if you keep it simple.
One of the best reasons to have a

website is that you can blog. Doing so
regularly will increase your Google visibility,
and give your fans a reason to keep coming
back. But be warned: sometimes, the
blogging tools on site builders arent great, or
can be a pain to update. One strategy might
be to open a Tumblr or a Wordpress page,
and simply direct the blog link on your site
there. These services are dead easy to
upload to, even on the move.
Watch out for storage limitations, and try

to avoid uploading enormous images and
other files. If youre using a site builder for free,
expect there to be a limit on how much you can
upload a gigabyte might seem like enough,
but trust us: its not. However, if you keep your
music and videos hosted off-site on YouTube
or Soundcloud, for instance then you
shouldnt have too much trouble displaying
them on your site, even if youre uploading a lot
of them.
Finally: the domain name. Ours is

currently www.vikingcleavage.
moonfruit.com. Thats fine, but it lacks a
certain something. The bad news is if we
want our own domain name, well need to buy
it. Sites like 123-reg.co.uk will let you
purchase a name for a relatively small fee,
and even if youve used an external site
builder, you can set up a redirect so that
whenever anybody punches in the name itll
take them right to your site.
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writing, the clip has clocked nearly a million views on

YouTube. Or how about Karmin a single camera,
filming a shot of the husband-and-wife duo singing
and rapping, became a total online sensation.
Videos can give your music an exposure that simply
cant be beaten, especially if they go viral. You can
never quite work out how people are going to respond
to something and never, ever read the YouTube
comments on anything. Seriously. Youll want to burn
your eyeballs out.
Follow these tips, and stay focussed on getting your

music heard, and youll come right. Perhaps the most
important thing is one we havent mentioned yet:
adapting. Circumstances change, new opportunities
come up, and there will be times you need to move
quickly not to miss them. Not everything weve written
down here will cover that, but were pretty sure you
can handle it on your own from here. MTF
MTF Pro Tip Use the data

O Your budget shouldnt be the only number youre concerned about. You should
be looking at website analytics too: how many people who arrive at your site come
from your home country, how long they stay, what they look at. Google Analytics
is the obvious jump-off point, and its very easy to install. You might also want to
look at something like Next Big Sound, a service dedicated to producing numbers
for musicians across all forms of social media. Youd be amazed at what your data
can tell you, so dont neglect this.
MTF Technique Clip experimentation in Session View
Session View has numerous uses in Live 9 , both practical and creative.
Liam OMullane explains how you can use and abuse the properties
of audio and MIDI Clips to make music in a different way...
o far in this issue weve looked at the various

different tools for creating music in Ableton
Live, most of which can be used in either Lives
Arrangement or Session Views. This instalment,
however, focuses on tools that are available
only when using Clips in Session View. Arrangement View is
a linear overview showing tracks running vertically in rows,
while time goes from left to right. Session View, on the
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
For higher levels of interactive

control its worth investing in a
dedicated controller
other hand, takes a different approach, displaying tracks
vertically like channels on an audio mixer. Slots are placed
vertically down each track, which can be used to
launch MIDI or audio Clips. You can choose to
trigger an entire row of Clips at once referred to
as Scenes or launch them individually. Well first
look at how you can interact with one or more Clips
for experimentation, then explore how to develop
ideas so that Scenes can be expanded into
potential new song sections.
Scenes or individual Clips can be launched
using the mouse, mapped keys on your computer
keyboard, MIDI keys or buttons. Mapping manually
FOCUS ON EXPERIMENTATION
The majority of this tutorial focuses on modifying individual
Clips to create variation. Although some of the techniques will
yield a degree of randomness, they are mostly concerned with
making precise changes through editing. If you want to take a
different approach to achieve new results or, indeed, youre
looking for a different way to sequence Clips Follow Actions
are worth exploring.
Follow Actions are essentially a rule system that you can
apply to any Clip in Session View to dictate how the playback
of one Clip will lead into the playback of another. They can be
applied only to Clips residing on the same track, therefore only
one Clip can play at any one time. The positioning of the Clips
will determine how they are grouped if theyre placed on the
same track and in consecutive Slots ie, if there are 20 clips
running down a track, an empty Slot between the first ten and
the second ten will result in them being grouped into two lots
of ten, and the Follow actions will only ever communicate with
the other Clips in the local group of ten.
FOCUS
this way is set up using either

Key Map or MIDI Map modes
respectively. When enabled from
the Options menu, you can then assign Scene Launch or
Clip Launch buttons to a fixed mapping. This is a good
approach for quickly trying out new ideas or for triggering
specific assignments within a prepared performance,
though youll usually delete the assignments when they
are no longer needed.
When either Map Mode is enabled, four new assignable
buttons appear below the Scene Launch area on the
right-hand side of Lives display. When mapped, these
allow you to select Scenes using either assigned up and
down controls or a rotary encoder to scroll up and down.
You can then use a special Launch button that simply
triggers the scene currently highlighted.
This approach is open to anyone with a standard
computer keyboard or a MIDI controller, but for a higher
level of interactive control its worth investing in a
dedicated controller. Abletons own Push is the Rolls-Royce
of options as it controls Session View and plenty
more, making composition, sound design and
mixing all feasible with minimal computer
interaction. Other candidates include the Novation
Launchpad or an AKAI APC-type product, which
offer different levels of control but still let you
navigate Session View for Clip/Scene launching.
But irrespective of how you want to interact with
Clips and Scenes, the techniques here will
enhance your ability to jam in Session View. MTF
The first parameter to understand is the Follow Action
Time, which, like loop length, determines the length of a Clips
playback until the Follow Action is implemented. This
measures in bars, beats and 16ths and will then move to the
Follow Action chosen from the A or B dropdown menu below.
Underneath the two Follow Action menus is a Probability
setting that by default is 1 to 0 meaning that for every use of
As Follow Action, there will be zero uses of Follow Action B; 1
and 1 will make them alternate between each other.
The next setting to explore is the Follow Action itself.
There are too many options to go into here, but there are two
simple ways to achieve unique results. The first is to set all but
the last Clip to play the next Clip using the Next Action, then
set the last Clip to play the first. This will create a playback
loop from top to bottom of all Clips in the group. Experiment
with the duration of the Follow Action Time for changes to
rhythm and time signature. The second approach involves the
Any Follow Action, which sets up your Clips for random
interaction. We like to use this on sound layers that sit further
in the background of a mix for ever-changing layers of detail.
Clip experimentation in Session View Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Experimenting with Clips
One way to interact with Clips is by changing their Launch mode

behaviour. Unsync the Clips Launch quantization from Lives
Global quantization this gives you more expressive settings, such as
16ths, without affecting Lives global setting. Open the Launch box in
Clip View by clicking on the small L symbol, then select from the
Quantization menu.
There are four Launch modes to choose from. Trigger is the

default mode, simply launching a Clip. Gate gives momentary
launching while you hold the Clips Launch button; Toggle flips between
playback being on/off with each launch. Repeat creates a stutter
effect during playback while the Launch button is pressed, which then
reverts to normal playback (like Trigger) when released.
Experiment with Launch modes to determine which one works

best. If more than one sounds good, duplicate the Clip and give
them custom modes to move between. The next way to manipulate
multiple instances of a Clip is to explore Start Marker positions. These
are the small markers above the waveform/MIDI grid in Clip View and
they too can be customised for multiple instances of the same Clip.
You can immediately rework ideas when three or four duplicated

Clips are set up with different Start Marker positions. The next
level of manipulation comes from experimenting with loops on certain
Clips. With the Loop Switch enabled, resize the Loop Brace above the
waveform by dragging its edges or using the numerical values below
the Loop Switch button.
Start Markers take on a new life here as they can be placed

before a Loop Braces position or at any point within it, so explore
letting normal playback run into a short loop later on in the Clip. In this
way, short plays of this Clip will sound normal; longer runs into the loop
create a sound effect.
If you want to keep the relative Clip playback position as you

move from one Clip to the next, Legato mode can be used in much
the same way that a synthesizer will use legato to move from one note
to the most recent one hit, no matter how many are being held. For
instance, launching a new Clip on the second beat of the bar will
resume playback in the next Clip from the same position.
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MTF Technique Clip experimentation in Session View
MTF Step-by-Step Developing Scenes into full ideas
You can extend the duration of MIDI or audio Clips for developing
ideas, but they need to be approached in different ways. A MIDI
part can be duplicated using the Dupl. Loop button, then you can
manually edit your new MIDI data to create more interest. Because
audio Clips are single audio events that are played back, a different
approach needs to be taken to create variation within Session View.
To vary audio over a longer duration than the audio itself you need
to create automation loops for variation that can act
independently. By opening the Envelope Box (press the small E symbol
in the bottom left of Clip View), you can choose a parameter to edit
from the Device and Controller dropdown menus. Each envelope can
be given its own loop length by changing the Linked button to Unlinked.
Regardless of an envelopes duration, rounded loop lengths will

allow you to create predictable changes to your Clips. This means
that the envelopes loop will stay in sync with the musical phrase of the
Clips audio. Start by creating a gated sequence select Clip from the
first menu, then Volume Modulation. Use Draw mode (Options menu)
to edit the envelope and turn the sound on and off rhythmically.
A modulation envelope uses the current minimum/maximum

range available from a parameters current position. Because our
Clip volume is at 0dB, our envelope can control infinity up to full volume,
but if the Clip volume is lower, wed be limited to its maximum setting.
For other effects automation, Absolute makes more sense as each
edited envelope will control the parameter.
Warp Markers are a useful tool for adjusting the timing within an
audio loop. These are created after double-clicking above the
waveform display in the Clip View window and can then be dragged
around. Automation that is linked to the original audios duration will
follow Warp Marker manipulation. Explore this for interesting ways to
edit audio and effects processing at the same time.
For less-synced changes to your ideas over time, think of

envelopes as looping LFO. Create an envelope with a less
musically related duration so that it overlaps in different ways every
time the audio loops. For instance, automate the movement of a notch
filter for five beats to create a sense of constant movement in a sound
as it plays.
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Collaboration in Ableton Live Technique MTF
Collaboration in
Ableton Live
So much can be done with one computer these days that you can forget
that other humans are around to collaborate with. Liam OMullane shares
various ways to get social with Live
ne of the strengths and weaknesses of todays

all in-the-box, computer-based studios is that
you can do it all by yourself. Composing,
producing, DJing, remixing and even jamming
with yourself are all possible, but in this
workshop, were looking at working with others and how
Live can be set-up to do just that. Even when collaborating
in the studio, its easy to overlook the various ways you can
both work at the same time, rather than taking it in turns to
hop on and off the computer. In its most basic form, you
can assign two different MIDI controllers to control an
instrument each. This gets better when theres more than
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
It gets better when two of you

can jam out ideas with one of you
taking an engineering role
two of you as you can collaboratively jam out ideas
together while one person takes the engineering role and
tweaks the sounds. You are then also geared up to
immediately record any ideas as they arise.
The next level of collaboration is to work with someone
else running Live. This can work great in both the studio
and live environments, and its a situation when youll
usually opt for syncing two or more bits or gear together
so they lock together by tempo and, when required,
playback positions. Our Sync Between Two Machines
walkthrough shows you how to sync two computers
running Live. This can be done via 5-pin MIDI cables if you
FOCUS ON MANUAL SYNC

As automatic sync can be less than ideal in certain situations, there may be times
when youd just prefer to manually beat match with another Live user just like a DJ
would beat-match one record to mix at the same tempo with another. If youre jamming
with other musicians who are playing without a metronome, you may also need to
manually sync to their current tempo to take advantage of Lives tempo syncd effects,
or to capture a recorded loop on the fly. The main way manual beat-matching of Live to
another electronic source differs to working with more freeform tempos is
that youll have to micro manage your tempo for the latter, whereas
electronic source work will be more of a set and forget situation.
When matching to another Live user, the simplest option is to
run at the same BPM and after launching the second computer to
sync with the first, use the forwards and backwards nudge
buttons to perfectly align both computers. These are located to
the right of Lives tempo readout and can be mapped to MIDI for
easy control in a live situation.
When you want to try and sync with someone elses tempo which isnt known, the
have the interfaces available, or

you can use an ethernet or
Wi-Fi based network. Well
show you the basics of making
a network function as a MIDI
interface for OSX as well, but
youll need additional software
to perform this task on Windows
and this is beyond the scope of this workshop. Help can be
found however at the following link http://www.tobiaserichsen.de/software/rtpmidi/rtpmidi-tutorial.html. Just
download the rtpMIDI software which pretty much mirrors
the OSX interface and follow the instructions.
The final option is to use a manually-controlled form of
tempo sync which will really test your rhythm skills. Some
people will use these manual syncing techniques to beat
match machines, but in most cases its reserved for
working with human performers whose timing can be
much more freeform. On the topic of sync again, the
quality of automatic tempo matching can vary depending
on the gear being used and the way they are hooked up.
Although Wi-Fi is the simplest method, its also
unpredictable and has a less than ideal performance
wed only use this when caught short of other options in
rehearsals or the studio. Working with 5-pin MIDI has
worked fine for us so far and the best results come from
running both computers from an external MIDI clock. But
this is an additional investment, so wed only recommend
going down this route if you are not satisfied with the
results using the techniques discussed. If youre new to
the world of sync, try out Wi-Fi first as it comes at no cost
you can then explore the finer syncs in life! MTF
first option to try is the Tap Temp (TAP) button to roughly set Live to the correct BPM.
This alone will be enough to use tempo-based effects if youre using Live as a creative
mixing device. If you want to run Live to launch clips in time with the other performers
then youll need to either then take over in terms of tempo by introducing something
with a beat for them to follow, or you could capture part of their performance to
loop via recording a clip in Session View or using
Lives Looper device.
| 49
MTF Technique Collaboration in Ableton Live
MTF Step-by-Step Sync between two machines
Regardless of how youre connecting up your MIDI data from one

computer to another, the basic set-up of routing MIDI clock from
the master computer to the slave is the same for running between two
instances of Live. Open Preferences on the master computer and
select the MIDI Sync tab. The data will control the slave so enable Sync
from the Output of the MIDI port connected to the slave.
The slave is set up in the opposite way so, under its MIDI Sync
preferences, Enable Sync for the MIDI input to receive the MIDI
clock data from the master. The Clock Sync Delay allows you to offset
the timing of the slave so it can be aligned with the master. Playing the
metronomes on both makes it easy to judge when youve got the timing
right, using a loop like a breakbeat to make it easier to hear.
Two different types of MIDI clock can be chosen for the output:
Song will give out the tempo along with a current position in the
Arrangement View. Pattern gives out tempo and beats which means
changing your playback position on the master wont affect the slave.
Use Song mode so you can move around an arrangement on both
computers. Use locators from the Create menu for easier launching.
The master computer should have an on-the-beat light flash in

the Sync Out indicator. Then after enabling the EXT button on the
slave, its Sync In indicator should flash when pressing play on the
master. Now your two computers should sync. It takes a few seconds
to truly lock together, so sync playback first with no clips playing, then
launch your first clips in unison for a clean sounding start.
MIDI information will appear in Live when using a 5-pin cable, but
youll need to set up MIDI when using Wi-Fi or ethernet. Go to
Applications/Utilities Audio MIDI Set Up. Select Show MIDI Window.
Double-click the Network box for the MIDI Network Set-up window
and click the plus icon under My Sessions. Enable this session in the
top right, then repeat the process on the slave computer.
When the slave is ready, you can connect to it from the Directory
window of the master. Youll know when they are connected as
the computer will appear in the Participants window to the right. The
latency can be adjusted from here as well but its slightly limited as
you have to enter numeric values rather than having the option to click
and drag for easier control like in Live.
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Collaboration in Ableton Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Live jamming and processing
If youre in sync with other people either through a manual or

automated sync set-up, you will be able to take advantage of
Lives tempo syncd Session View and Devices. The first level above
simply cueing clips in Session View is to capture someones elses
audio as one or more clips to play with. To do this, first create a new
Audio Track and name it to be relevant to the source it will record.
Set up this audio channel to record the correct input from the In/
Out settings which you can reveal from the View menu. If you
dont want to hear this input signal until youve recorded it into a clip,
set Monitor to off. But if youre using Live as a mixer youll need to set
the Monitor to Auto so the live input is always heard until a clip is
recorded and then played which then overrides that input.
When recording external sounds, capture a sequence and then

modify it. The other option is to record the sound across a few
clip slots so you can then immediately re-work it to creatively trigger
them. To trigger the slots quickly youll need to set the Global
Quantization setting to a higher resolution like 1/4 and then hit record
on each clip slot one after the other running downwards.
Another way to re-work a freshly captured piece of audio is to use

time manipulation device effects like Beat Repeat. In the Audio
Effects library folder, under Performance and DJ, the Knob 1 Super
Looper is a great device for controlling loop length with a single dial. The
default Live library doesnt have a great range of performance tools like
this so its worth searching online for devices other people have made.
If you need to rehearse before everyone hears it, you can use
Lives Cue function. Set an output on your interface for the cue
output. Then click the Solo mode button to turn it into Cue mode. Now
press the headphone icon for the track you want to preview and
disable the tracks Activator button so its muted from the main master
output until youre ready to play your work to the world.
If you are using Live as a mixer you can be part of a jam by

processing effects in real time. EQs, compressors etc can be left
to their static settings, but Auto Filters, Auto Panner, Redux and delays
are all great tools to manipulate on someone elses sound. If you want
to capture these for use later, set the Monitor to In so the live input is
always heard while you record in the background.
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MTF Technique Mixing tools and techniques
Mixing tools
and techniques
When it comes to mixing, Live offers both classic and contemporary mixing
tools for a variety of sonic options. Liam OMullane walks you through his
main choices of devices and editing tools to make your mixes shine
ixing is a process that can happen in one or

two stages of the music production process.
The first stage is creative and composition
based, where people may mix as they go.
Here theyll solely concentrate on mixing as
the track comes together with possibly a separate
tweaking stage at the end.
The second stage is after the composition is complete
and sounds are in place, to then mix with a subjective
outlook. Some people will ignore major mix decisions until
this stage as it gives them the most mix options as
possible while they only have their mix engineering hats on.
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
It is a good idea to try and

separate your mixing stage
from your creative stage
Although mixing has creative sound design aspects, it also
has many practical tasks and assessments that need to be
carried out. With your creative hat on, you can find this
difficult to do, so if you stop to take care of these matters,
it can have a negative affect on your creative workflow. So
FOCUS ON EXPANDING YOUR GO TO TOOLS

The library of audio effects in Lives browser offers a good range of functional and
creative mixing tools to choose from. EQ Eight and Compressor/Glue Compressor are
the most obvious choices for frequency and dynamics control, but there are many
other devices which are worth exploring for frequent mixing tasks.
Although you can use a low- and high-cut EQ to bracket a sounds frequency range
using an EQ Eight, a Cabinet device can achieve a similar effect with much more added
character. This is partially due to its narrower frequency bandwidth that creates a
telephone like effect. But this can be balanced with the original signal using the dry/
wet control to return a sense of fidelity. The range of the bandwidth restriction, or
bracket, is selected through the speaker setting. Transient smearing is at its most
affective when you select a dynamic mic from the microphone
list and explore its position.
Cabinet adds an element of
dynamic control as part of its
processing as well, but other
options like Saturator and Dynamic
Tube devices can do this while
offering a different character. Use a
careful balance of drive and output
you can either go for a
fully-processed and clipped sound,
or balance the dry/wet amount for a
balance of the original signal to retain
some dynamics.
Reduxs Bit Reduction can be used
to reduce a sounds dynamic range, but it will
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there is a good reason to separate these two mixing

processes if you can.
To help commit to this separation, its worth rendering
out all of your tracks to new audio. This helps you decide
when youre truly ready to mix, while also removing the
temptation to tamper with compositional aspects during
the mixing stage. Rendering out your audio also frees up
computer resources which means more processing power
for plug-ins. Finally, if you intend to send your work out to
be mixed by an engineer, this process will create files that
they can use.
To export your projects tracks to new individual audio
files, highlight the duration of the whole song and then
select Export Audio/Video from the File menu. This opens
up a large range of options and we recommend you remain
at Lives native bit-depth of 32-bits, and stay at the same
sample rate youre working at. The sample rate youre
currently using is signified by having a small speaker icon
next to it. The only other option that needs configuring for
this task is the Rendered Track menu (all other options
should be disabled). Select Individual Tracks for rendering
and then select a new, clean, mix project folder to put
them in after clicking the Export button. You will now have
a new file for every track which can be imported into a new
project. Until next time, happy mixing MTF
create a dirty, lo-fi characteristic. This can be useful for giving one or two sounds a
distinct tone of their own in the mix. Harmonics can also be introduced using
Downsample when set to use its Soft mode. Use a very small amount to introduce a
glassy sounding top-end for dull sounds.
Whatever tools end up being your favourites, save some time and create a
default processing chain by Right [PC] / Ctrl [Mac] + clicking on a tracks name. Here
you can save a default opening state for future new MIDI or audio tracks. After loading
in your preferred mix-tools to a track, select Save As Default MIDI or Audio Track
respectively. Now all new tracks will be created with this chain of
devices pre-loaded.
Mixing tools and techniques Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Processing, side-chaining and automation
Although Lives Compressor Device is perfectly functional, Glue

Compressor can be used to add some character for dynamic
processing. Glue is a great channel, group and mix buss compressor
with its SSL-like smoothing effect. Enable the Soft Clip function and
explore driving the signal using the Makeup gain for a hot sound. You
can always then use the dry/wet dial to make this a parallel effect.
If you need to remove unwanted sounds, try editing the unwanted

portions out rather than using a gate device. This offers a higher
level of individual control to tidy up audio over a more set and forget
approach used with a gate. After highlighting the portions you dont
want, delete them, then select Show Fades from the Create menu. You
can now drag these start and end fades to suit each audio event.
As compression is the process of level control, you can also

control dynamics using Lives editing functions. You can automate
volume, but this limits you for making level adjustments down the line.
Instead, add a Utility Device at the end of the Tracks processing chain,
then automate its gain parameter. For more natural automation
changes, hit Alt on automation lines to drag and create curves.
Use an EQ Eight before any processing to remove unwanted

frequencies. Add another at the end of the chain for re-balancing
the frequency curve of a sound. Check unnecessary bottom-end that
needs removing using the analyser on the first EQ. The second EQs
analyser monitors how your processing is affecting the frequency
content useful when trying to fill out holes in your mix.
Many devices have the ability to be side-chained, so respond to

the amplitude levels of an external signal. Most people only use
these on single or grouped sounds, overlooking the option to
dynamically control ambience effects. Try adding a compressor to
each Return Track and set them to take Audio From the drum group.
This make your mix move with a pumping, rhythmic sound.
Those with Live Suite can get creative with side-chaining using
its Max For Live based Envelope Follower. Place this on the track
to be the source sound for side-chaining, then click map before
clicking a parameter you wish to control. This moves in time with the
audio events on the track with the device on. Use a multimap device to
multiply and started mapping this source to various destinations.
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MTF Technique Mixing tools and techniques
MTF Step-by-Step Advanced and unique processing
An Overdrive device is useful for thickening up the harmonic

content of a sound. First, find the right frequency area and width
of focus using the devices bandpass filter. Then control the density of
distortion using drive and its brightness using tone. Finally, compress
the signal as required using the dynamic amount, then dry/wet can
blend the processed signal to taste.
Another option for thickening up specific frequencies is the Vinyl

Distortion Device. The tracing model graph can be used in much
the same way as the bandpass filter on an overdrive device. Its the
pinch graph below where things get interesting as harmonics are
distributed across the stereo plane, making it useful for also
enhancing its stereo width.
We discussed setting up mid and side processing using Audio

Racks in Part 5 of this series. This simple process lets you add
different processing to the middle (mono) and sides (stereo difference)
for a higher level of control. To get used to how these sound, after
setting-up, solo each one and play with their respective balance to
hear which part of the sound each chain represents.
If you have a stereo signal, a good way to enhance how stereo it

sounds is to compress both the mid and sides of the signal
separately. This way you can reduce the dynamic range of the sides so
the stereo aspect of the signal is more consistent in volume. Raising the
level of the sides will then make the sound more stereo than mono.
Another good place to consider processing mid and side signals

on their own is for ambience effects. Try using a different reverb
device, or Max For Live Convolution Reverb on each signal with unique
settings. This creates a much deeper and engaging ambience
soundfield. A shorter decay time on the middle and longer on the side
works well for an enhanced sense of stereo spread.
Lives Vocoder device can function as a noise based exciter. With

the carrier set to noise, the reverb-like noise effect can have its
decay time altered using the release value. After setting the device to
40 Bands for the best fidelity along with a maximum frequency range,
explore the depth and formant controls to tune its noise to best suit the
source sound and EQ it to taste drawing into the filter bank.
01
03
05
FOCUS
02
04
06
MTF Technique Composition and sound design
Ableton Push Workshop
Composition &
sound design
Learning to use Push entails more than simply understanding its functionality.
Liam OMullane shares his essential techniques for kicking out some jams.
ince its release, Push has slowly become an

integral part of our studio set-up. Although it
does have a few weaknesses in terms of
complete software control for more in-depth
mixing features, its strengths win us over when
it comes to song composition. We write electronic music of
varying genres and Pushs hardware-led approach takes us
back to a workflow we miss from older times. Working
without a computer screen is liberating, and the added
focus you have on judging ideas and sounds by ear, as
opposed to visual cues, cannot be underestimated.
More recently our challenge has been to use Push
exclusively from start to finish with zero direct interaction
with our computer. As youll find out, although this does
include a certain amount of library, template, plug-in
preparation and workflow alteration in some cases, the
freedom of writing and arranging with such an instrument
connects you to the music at a deeper level than you may
have experienced before as an electronic musician. So join
FOCUS ON...THIRD-PARTY PLUG-INS
On the disc
Accompanying
example audio files
included on the DVD
Although there are a few preconfigured Instrument and Audio Rack libraries to use with some of
the more popular AUs, VSTis and VSTs (such as Push VST Bridge from www.craftedsound.com,
and www.freelancesoundlabs.coms products, for instance), the majority of third-party plug-ins
need a bit of prep before you can go screenless with Push. To make your instruments as
Push-friendly as possible, drag them into a Live Set, Group each one from the Edit menu,
Rename this newly created Audio or Instrument Rack with the same name as your plug-in, then
click the Racks disk icon to save it to your Presets folder in the User Library. Push can now
access these plug-ins from the Live Library, which means you can load them at will when required
through Pushs Display Browser.
This technique works fine if the parameters of the plug-in are already showing in the
Parameter list (which is accessed by clicking the small triangle in the top-left of the device). If
they are not you will need to manually add parameters by clicking the Configure Mode button in
the top-right of the device, then move any parameter from the plug-in itself to add it to the list.
Push can access up to 128 of these parameters, spread over 16 pages, and as long as your
plug-in enables each of its controls to be mapped this can often be enough to fully
program the device from Push alone. Sadly, Push is still at its
most featured when using Lives own
devices, and preset access
is not yet supported for
external plug-ins. But, if
an instrument plug-in
supports preset access
via MIDI you can use a Max
for Live device such as
DialToProgramChange
from the www.maxforlive.
com library to change
presets from Push and
integrate that device into
your Instrument Racks
before saving them. If you
have a preferred starting
point with certain plug-ins,
this is a great chance to save a configured
state before saving your Racks.
FOCUS
us as we share our experience of using Push for composing,

arranging and designing sounds.
Drumming up some ideas

You can begin a song with any instrument, and in this
particular workshop were beginning with the drums. Your
genre of choice will dictate how in-depth you get with the
sound design aspect, but well usually focus on patterns
and groove before getting too deep into the sonic aspects of
it all. Plus you dont always know what sound to go for until
other instruments are in place because its at that point
youll get an idea of the mix space each sound dictates and
you can make the appropriate decisions.
Some drum patterns can begin from playing with pads,
especially if youre keeping your options open for genre;
other times you might immediately dial in the tempo and
then step sequence the core drum hits to get a beat started.
With the latter theres no need to enable the metronome as
your first beats will provide the backbone rhythm for you to
place everything else around. If youre playing with ideas
from the pads, however, explore this for a while so you know
what pattern you want to record while also feeling the
tempo you want to work at. Then press the Tap Tempo
button for a few bars so Live can sync the tempo, then
enable the Metronome and record your ideas.
From here you have various other ways to work with your
drum ideas as you add and edit them. Our preferred method
is to add new sounds and explore their position to get a
groove going. Although you can, of course, apply swing
quantization to ideas you play in, we get much more
surprising results when using the swing amount as a
performance control while playing-in new parts using
Pushs Repeat mode.
This doesnt have to be a continuous running rhythm, just
the odd two or three hits here and there with a varying swing
If youve got any external gear set up in the studio, make full use of it via
Lives External Audio Effect and Instrument Devices. Instruments can be
set up easily but controlling their parameters via MIDI CCs can be tricky.
The simplest approach weve found is to use a Max for Live device that
offers parameters that output custom CC numbers based on your
preferences. You can then save these into an instrument rack when one or
more are set up for your favourite parameters to access from Push.
Composition and sound design Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Capturing external sounds
Its important to have your library in good order when using Push as you
cant organise it in any way from Push itself. Plus its always counter
productive to deal with production admin when in creative mode, so
library prep is essential! Try to use logical folders based on grouped
instruments by type or their sonic nature. As the Places section of Lives
Library is right at the bottom of Pushs Display, we advise you give certain
folders of priority a numeric start to the title. This means that when you
wind down to your Places Folder at the bottom of your Push display you
can access your own custom folders almost immediately.
amount can really get feet tapping. This works great for any
incidental or sporadic percussion work.
Nudge is another favourite option for us but dont be
tricked into thinking its just for moving one sound at a time
holding down multiple steps in the sequencer will group
hits to enable changing their position as a whole by turning
the Nudge encoder. When there are a few good drum ideas
going on in one or more clips we like to use Mute to audition
more stripped-down versions of the patterns. You can then
Duplicate your clips and replicate these new combinations
by using Delete and touching the unwanted drum pad. This
approach should get you some very dynamic-sounding
patterns and a good collection of clips to create variation
throughout your song.
The sound of individual hits isnt a priority at this stage,
as we can hot-swap pads and replace them with other
samples or drum synths later down the line. Max for Lives
Drum Synth devices are a handy tool for sculpting and they
easily integrate with Push.
Push isnt reserved for working as a standalone, in fact with the right
starting template you can record external performers to integrate into your
jams from a variety of soundcard inputs. Whether you want to record instrument
ideas, sing a vocal line or grab some percussion to add some human dynamics
on the fly, start with an Audio Track with the appropriate audio interface input
selected in the Audio From menu.
01
A tune a day
Like drums, the process of composing melodies and chords
can be an explorative one, and this is when Pushs Scale and
Key functions really shine. We like to develop ideas on the
pads and then explore pitch changes by switching key while
still playing the same patterns or shapes with our
FOCUS ON CREATING TEMPLATES AND

STARTING PROJECTS
There are two ways of starting with the optimum Live Set for your own
Push preferences. The first approach is to save a default template from
Preferences followed by hitting Save Current Set As Default under the
File Folder tab. This is effective as a global starting point, but if youd
like multiple set-ups to choose from save multiple Live Sets and be
sure to lock them as read-only in your OS so youre forced to save them
under a new name upon each use. This avoids the risk of overwriting
them by accident.
What you decide to add to your starting templates is quite open, but
we have a few suggestions. If your library is well organised you
shouldnt need anything in the way of initial instruments as they can be
added from Push when needed; however, if you want any type of
creative routing in your work this needs to be set up beforehand as
Push cant access track or side-chaining routing by default. This is
something we imagine will be addressed in the near future.
If you have a certain number of instruments you tend to work with
then this can be another reason for pre-loading them into your
template for the best workflow.
If you wish to record sounds from external sources, as with our
Capture External Sounds walkthrough, set up a unique track per input
on your audio device. This means all of this is to-hand without touching
your computer and works around Pushs routing limitations.
In order to record audio with minimal background bleed youll need to set
up your interface to monitor the backing track via headphones while you
mute your main speaker playback. There are a few ways to set this up but the
simplest and quickest way is by setting up a Return Track in Live that is always
muted. This can be used to feed a headphone-specific balance of sounds via
the individual Sends.
02
When it comes to recording, you simply Solo the Return Track, Arm Session
Recording on the track you want to record to, and set up your headphone
balance with the sends so as not to disturb your current mix. You can of course
run this Return Track directly to another headphone output on your interface if
available, or even multiple Return tracks for independent headphones mixes for
different musicians.
03
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 57
MTF Technique Composition and sound design
MTF Step-by-Step Re-sampling techniques
Step automation is a very powerful feature for Push and automating

different start points of samples, different transpose settings, ADSR
stages and so on can create amazing drum and melody sounds that
live and breath throughout your tracks. Dont forget to add audio
effects as creative processors to automate as well they can be very
powerful tools for sound design and hold multiple steps at the same
time for longer fixed automation steps.
fingers. If you just want to jam, set a new clip to record

and capture your session, edit it using Clip mode and
Loop Position to vet your efforts and focus in on your
best ideas.
If you are open to a more interactive experience,
explore some MIDI devices and craft their output by
automating parameters. We also like to use a classic
drum sync technique for bass parts by duplicating the
drum track to make a copy of its clips on a new track.
This clip can then be used as a basis for your basslines
rhythm. Hold Delete on the drum pad of any sound that
plays any overly busy material, as we want just core
aspects of our drums to trigger the bass.
Now Browse for an instrument to replace this new
tracks Drum Rack and you have a rhythmic but not yet
musical bass part. You cant edit the pitch of a MIDI note
in situ using Pushs step sequencer, so replacing one
note for another will lose any groove you crafted from
your drums. As a work-around we added a Pitch MIDI
Device and then step-automated its Pitch parameter to
create a musical bassline fitting the existing groove.
This requires a good ear as theres little visual feedback
for musical information.
Melody is either a hands-on process of
experimentation with the notes themselves or a
marrying of note and sound-design choices. You may
find you leave this stage of the process with a very
strong musical idea, or you need to develop some
sketches with potential as you interact with timbres
and additional rhythmic aspects through the next stage
of sound-design and automation.
With a capture track loaded into your Live set and its Audio From set to
Re-sample, you can re-sample your master output at any given time which can
be a great way to commit certain layered sounds to new clips. Just solo out the
relevant tracks and then hit record on the Capture Track.
01
We love creating synth samples using this method: start with a single synth
sound, add some Amp Simulation from Audio Effects Racks, then do a few
automation passes and static parameter tweaks to create something interesting.
When recorded, these re-sampled clips will appear in your Current Project folder
in Pushs Browser.
02
Automatic for the people

In todays electronic music, sound design is a balancing
act to strike alongside good, solid musical ideas. You
may start by building sounds and then crafting them
into a catchy melody, or vice versa, but they can both
have a strong influence on each other throughout most
genres. Even with a few basic ideas laid out as clips
across a few scenes, the following techniques can help
push things forward to some musically and texturally
interesting results.
Many automation workflows are available through
Push, and a handy feature to help capture potential
automation sweet spots is to Double a clips length
multiple times before recording automation passes.
FOCUS
Now you can load these onto individual Drum Pads within a new Drum Rack.
You can then go and re-sample a new sound, or load the same clips onto
different pads and alter their pitch, sample start position and so on. This is just one
of many ways to create new ideas and re-edits of the same patch.
03
Composition and sound design Technique MTF
PXT opens up many more

options for Push users,
which are great for
reworking ideas on the fly.
FOCUS ON UPGRADING YOUR PUSH ENVIRONMENT
If, like ourselves, you cant help but yearn for more functionality from Push to emulate
the more in-depth functions normally accessed from your computer then there are a
few options available to upgrade your Push environment. Max for Live devices are the
easiest way to start, as many are free and you should be familiar with using them
already. Our essential recommendation is the Push-Global Quant 1.2 device. Place
this on your Master Track and then hold Select to access the Global Quantization
menu using the Tempo encoder. Now you can launch clips in Session mode with a
higher resolution, which is great fun for a spontaneous jam.
Although Aftertouch is featured on Push its a greatly unharnessed power. It can
be assigned to any parameter using the Max for Live Expression Control device
included with Live Suite, but this can be tricky to control as it reacts the moment a
pad is struck. To avoid this problem, Push Pack for Aftertouch from
www.subaqueousmusic.com gives you the option to control aftertouch after either a
slight delay time or after a threshold of how hard you push down on the pad after the
initial strike. This gives practical control of this great feature and is a highly
recommended download.
There are many written and hacked scripts for the older generation of Live
controllers such as the Launchpad and APC40, but two we recommend that are
directly designed for Push are the PXT-Live ($19.50) and PXT-Live Plus ($16.50)
scripts from nativeKONTROL. These enable the user to have access to a much higher
level of control to Live. They are accessed via Pushs User mode and a combination of
Shift, Session, Note and Select enable you to access different aspects of the scripts.
The big difference is that you can select input routing options, side-chain routing for
third-party plug-ins, track labelling, and there are also various methods for creatively
working with clips and chords. This only really touches the surface of what PXT truly
offers and its something we now use on a regular basis, and best of all normal Push
behaviour is always available by just flicking out of User mode when required.
Now youll have freedom over multiple passes of the

original clip, each time moving different parameters to
find what might make or break a sound. Then you can
hone in on the best bits, Duplicate them to a new clip,
loop them and hit Double to extend these best bits to
edit further.
Per-step Automation is a valuable resource for more
immediate and short-lived changes to any step on the
grid. Select a Device to automate, hold down a step in
the step sequencer and alter the parameter value for it
from Pushs display. This is where sound design gets
Designing sounds and jamming

with Push should result in you
creating a unique instrument
very interesting and greatly integrated into the rhythmic
aspect of any part. Imagine whats possible here: you
can drag various Audio Effects into the track and just
punch in effects processing at different stages within a
clip, then you can Double this clip and look to further
edit the automation, or keep it in place and then edit the
notes of the instrument to see how they create new
sounds through these effects.
Note that Repeat and Pad Pressure (aftertouch) can
be used for a creative combination of modulation and
automation at the same time. Using Note Repeat to
trigger both notes and an envelope stage of an
If youre going to be busy with both hands when recording then make
use of Fixed Length mode so you can pre-trigger clips a bar or two
before performing (dependent on your Global Quantization settings)
and have recorded clips automatically stop recording. Another
option is to record a long pass and then use Clip editing from Push
and set the Loop length to the duration of your idea, then move the
Loop Position parameter to listen through and select the best take
within the clip. You can then hit Double to extend on this best take.
instrument like a slow attack filter sweep, results in

Note Repeat suddenly becomes very expressive. This is
just retriggered modulation, but you can then vary the
shape of the envelope to get all sorts of groove- and
timbre-shift changes.
The aftertouch aspect of Note Repeat outputs
velocity changes, which works very well when mapped
to something other than volume. Expression Control is a
great Max for Live device for this, and can be easily
mapped and saved into an Instrument Rack for this
purpose. Though this can be done by sequencing a
pattern first then playing with envelope aspects, having
one hand rhythmically trigger and manage Pad Pressure
and your other hand control encoders makes this a very
performance-led creative technique.
Of course automation isnt the entirety of sound
design but it will play an integral part in keeping
movement and interest. Throughout the process its not
uncommon to also redesign the source material as you
go via synthesis or sample tweaking. Its a feedback
loop of creativity and a common method for creating
longer sections for your music.
Pushing onwards
We often push the idea on our readers to work alongside a track that
inspires you. This is easy with Live as it is so tempo-sync driven,
which enables you to use your own work against a reference track for
a stark comparison. If all tracks (including Returns) are mapped to
one side of Lives Crossfader, assign the reference track to the other
and MIDI Map the User button on Push to the Crossfader. Now you
can flip to your reference material at will by holding down the User
button, then release it and youll be back listening to your own work.
There are countless ways to create music with Push

many more techniques than we can cover here. Due to
Lives extensive library integration and unique Max for
Live devices, sound design and jamming with Push
should result in you creating your very own unique
instrument, and therefore your own signature sound.
Exploration isnt just recommended, its required. MTF
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 59
Mastering in software Feature MTF
MTF Feature Master your music
Mastering is the vital last step in the production process, and with so many software
solutions around, its easier than ever to get involved. Hollin Jones explains all
he evolution of music technology in recent years has seen mastering,
once seemingly the most mysterious of processes for the uninitiated,
become something that almost any producer can do for themselves.
Thanks to powerful computers, advanced applications and plug-ins,
the tools needed are now far more accessible than they used to be.
Plus theres a greater
understanding of what
mastering is and how to go
about it. It does, of course,
remain as much of an art
form as it ever was, and
simply having the tools is
meaningless if you dont
know how to use them or you lack the musical judgement to make the right
creative decisions.
In truth, with a little guidance most people can create great-sounding masters,
and the good news is that your DAW provides almost all the tools you need to do
so. There are some specialised suites and plug-ins that will make your life easier
if you have the option of using them, and a decent set of monitors and a
sympathetic listening environment are also crucial to any mastering session,
61
MTF Feature Mastering in software
regardless of whats going on inside the computer.

But the great part for producers of any level is that
mastering in software is now accessible to all.
What were going to do is take you through the
process, from mixdown to selling your music online,
and show you the key stages youll need to go
through. As with any creative process theres the
caveat that every piece of music is different and
needs to be mastered according to its own unique
characteristics, but underlying this is a common set
of techniques that will help you get a great, radioready sound.
Blue Cat Audio makes some

excellent analysis and metering
plug-ins that provide an
amazingly detailed view of
whats really going on inside your
audio signal.
Whatt is mastering?
Before talking about how to master audio its
important to understand what the term actually
means. When you work on a track you are
concentrating on recording, editing, programming
and arranging it, and when you come to mix it
whats important is the relative balance of all the
different elements. So youre EQing the guitars a
little here, automating the vocal a little there and
adding reverb so that everything blends together,

and so on. What youre not doing at any of these
stages is worrying very much about the gain and
power of the track as a whole. Of course you want it
to be loud enough, but during mixing your only real
concern as far as the master fader goes is that
nothing is clipping or peaking and nor is the master
level too quiet.
The goal of mixing is to get the perfect blend of
sounds, and the final step of the production process
is mastering. Here you take your mixed-down stereo
file (or possibly some stems, though this is a little
more complex) and process it as a whole using
specific kinds of effects to try and achieve a solid,
MTF Technology Who needs record labels?

Its never been easier to sell your own music online, with more
services than ever enabling you to have a presence on major digital
music stores such as iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and others. As well as
getting your music into these
stores they also usually provide a
centralised hub for managing
earnings from your music and
downloading sales reports, so,
for example, you can see which
stores are performing the best
and in which regions of the world
youre selling the most.
Although services like these
will rarely screen music based on
genre (unless its a very genrespecific service, of course), there
are audio quality barriers to
entry. These arent hugely strict
(any halfway decent production
ought to be sufficient), but
producing a good master will
help a lot with the saleability of
your music. Digital distribution
services are likely to reject
FOCUS
anything thats ridiculously quiet, or that has digital clipping

anywhere in it.
There are a fair few of these services around and most charge a
one-time fee for uploading your
music. Some charge an ongoing
admin fee, so look for one that
doesnt unless youre sure you will be
earning a decent amount from sales.
Mondotunes.com is pretty good
and only charges once, and you
should also look at CD Baby, Ditto
Music, and ReverbNation. Of course
you can sell music yourself using the
excellent Bandcamp.com, which has
become the go-to self-publishing
platform for musicians, and also
showcase your stuff on SoundCloud.
Theres never been a better time to
sell your own music online, so its
vital to get the best-sounding results
in order to maximise sales potential.
MondoTunes is one of the better digital
distribution services as it only has a one-off
initial charge.
MTF Step-by-Step Mastering a track using Ozone
Load up your stereo mix in a DAW and

create an instance of Ozone. Start with
a preset that sounds close enough to what
you want, and then make the necessary
tweaks. You can cycle through presets while
auditioning the track, and dont be afraid to
try one or two whose names might not
automatically match your style of music.
01
Go through each processing stage and

activate the ones you want to use, setting
parameters as you go. Here we have dialled in
some EQ to pull specific sounds up in the mix a
little. Using a wide Q value for an EQ point
creates a broader EQ curve and a narrow Q
value means that only a very precise frequency
is affected.
02
powerful gain level and an EQ curve that perfectly

sweetens the signal. The aim of mastering is to make
the track sound as good as it possibly can on all the
playback devices on which it will be listened to.
As you can imagine this is something of a tall
order since there are many possible ways to listen to
music: from a car radio and phone earbuds, to
high-end hi-fi systems and everything in-between.
Nevertheless, if you get your master right you will
achieve this seemingly impossible task. Mastering is
the very last step before your music is released to the
world, which is why its so vital to get it right.
A lot of producers, even some at the top of the

industry, now work almost entirely in-the-box, which
means that music is started, worked on and finished
without ever leaving the computer. This has a
number of benefits, not least that it greatly reduces
Tech Terms
OA/BING
The process of temporarily
muting processing to hear
the original version of the
signal and judge how you are
changing it. Also applies to
comparing your work-inprogress with commercially
mastered material to help
decide if youre heading in
the right direction.
OSTEMS
Groups of tracks that bear
some relation to each other,
eg, drums, guitars or vocals.
Stem mastering enables you
to alter the balance of these
elements during mastering,
which isnt otherwise
possible if you have a stereo
file to work with.
The Maximizer section is where the

limiting takes place, and here you
should set your output level to 0dB or -0.1dB.
Then use the Threshold and Margin sliders to
drive the input level up against the limit to
squeeze more gain out of the track. Use your
judgment and leave some dynamic range so
the track isnt being squeezed too hard.
03
the amount of physical equipment you need to do

your job. For those of us working in home or project
studios its very useful to be able to do everything on
one setup.
All major DAWs, such as Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools
and Reason, now make mixing in-the-box a powerful
experience. Although its possible to layer up lots of
plug-ins on modern systems, its strongly advisable
to separate the mixing and mastering processes
because they have two distinct and different aims.
Mixing is about balancing the elements of a track,
and mastering is about affecting the overall sound
once the mix is done. You will probably spend a fair
amount of time on your mix, and possibly go slightly
mad from listening to the same track hundreds of
times, so its a very good idea to leave a little space
between the two processes. Have at least a night off,
preferably a couple of days, before you come back
and start mastering. Its also a good idea to master
tracks in the same sessions if they are destined to
end up on the same album so theres an overall
coherence to the sound.
What you should end up with after a mix session
is a track or a bunch of tracks that sound well
balanced and hang together nicely. You might have
also already used a little master buss compression
during mixdown, which is a good trick to give a kind
of audio glue to your mixes and magically bind
everything together.
When you export a mixdown you will have a few
options. The most common technique is to export a
stereo audio file at the same quality as the sessions,
which might typically be 24- or 32-bit, and any
sample rate from 44.1, 48 or even 96kHz. Dont start
reducing quality during mixdown, as its much better
to keep everything at maximum and compress web
versions and so on much further down the line.
Some producers will mix down a collection of
stems for mastering and this is technically fairly easy
IK Multimedias T-RackS is a self-contained mastering suite whose
modules also work as plug-ins. It has a nifty loudness suggestion
feature so you can master appropriately for a specific genre.
63
MTF Technology On the move? You can still master!

Mastering hasnt just made the leap from professional to home
studios, its now even possible on iOS too. There have been advanced
DAW apps on iOS for a couple of years and its possible to use insert
effects in those, just as on your own desktop, to perform mastering
tasks. Cubasis, Auria,
GarageBand, NanoStudio and FL
Studio Mobile HD are just some of
the apps that will enable you to
do this. With advanced
technologies being developed for
iOS all the time, things such as
Audiobus and Inter-App Audio
now enable you to stream audio
between apps without having to
export it from one to the other.
Perhaps the most interesting
development has been the
release of a couple of dedicated
iOS mastering apps. Positive Grid
produces Final Touch (10.49), an
excellent iPad-based mastering
solution with a slick interface
that has a maximiser, pre- and
post-EQs, four-band dynamics,
stereo imaging, reverb and dither, and is perfectly optimised for the
touch interface. Far more advanced than you might expect, it has
detailed controls for every aspect of the mastering process as well
as great metering and comprehensive import and export options for
putting music directly online.
Alternatively, an app called Audio
Mastering, also for iPad and priced at
8.99, has a more scientific interface
but is nonetheless very powerful. It
has a parametric EQ, stereo imaging,
multiband compressor, reverb, stereo
imaging, maximizer, spectral analyser
and more, and has basic and
advanced control modes.
Just as with your computer you
will want to use a proper audio
interface and serious monitoring in
order to get the best possible results,
but its interesting to know that you
can now master on iPad using very
similar tools to those that you would
use in your studio.
and running it through some effects. As you might

imagine, though, some apps are better than others. A
simple wave editor that can load plug-ins will do in
a pinch, but a pro audio wave editor is preferable
because it will usually have a more efficient way of
handling plug-ins, looping, metering and the like.
Steinbergs WaveLab for Mac and PC is designed
specifically for mastering, and Sonys Sound Forge is
another excellent choice both have some great
built-in processing and editing tools. Sound Forge is
now available for Mac too, though it is rather
different to its PC sibling.
Mastering is also possible using your DAW by
simply creating a single audio track and then using
insert effects on that channel or the master buss to
process the mixdown that you import. Any major
to do by using mixer grouping and batch exporting

from a DAW.
Stems are groups of tracks that all have a common
theme as defined by the producer, so for example you
might export drum stems, guitar stems and vocal
stems for mastering. The idea is that this affords you
more flexibility during mastering because you are
able to vary the levels of the different stems (which
you cant do using a stereo file of the whole track),
effectively tweaking the mix even after mixdown.
Its an interesting approach, although it does add
an extra layer of complexity to the mastering stage. If
youre fiddling around by altering stem levels you
might get bogged down in changing the mix instead
of focusing on the mastering processing. Technically
its not so different from stereo mastering, its just
that you load up four or five synchronised audio
tracks and route them all through master effects
instead of just the one. Potential problems can arise
from giving yourself too many options, so consider
whether you trust yourself enough to get the mix
right and use a stereo file, which is usually simpler.
Of course if you are mastering material that has been
mixed by someone else, getting stems will give you
more flexibility in the event of a poor mix.
You can master in various different kinds of software

since its really just a case of loading up an audio file
FOCUS
Final Touch is a dedicated and powerful

mastering app for iOS.
Using master buss compression,

such as here in Reason 7, can
help to glue a mix together and
mean that less compression is
required at the mastering stage.
DAW will enable this, and as youre not going to be

using any MIDI or arrangement tools the only really
important thing to do before you start is make sure
the project settings match those of the audio you are
importing so that no unexpected format conversion
takes place. Although the vast majority of mastering
effects come in plug-in format there are some
dedicated mastering apps as well, probably the most
complete of which is IK Multimedias T-RackS CS,
which has some excellent tools and is a staple of
many peoples mastering setups.
Its quite possible to master using the bundled
plug-ins that come with your DAW, though these will
of course vary in quality depending on how high-end
the software is. The core effects you will need are
compression, EQ, limiting and ideally some stereowidening and metering tools as well. The major DAWs
such as Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools and the like come
with most of these. Others can be added for free, but
if you are doing serious mastering its worth looking
at some more heavyweight plug-ins. Suites such as
iZotopes Ozone or some of Waves plug-ins are great,
and not just for mastering but for general tracking
and mixing tasks as well.
S uee
Sq
eze th
the
e soun
nd
Theres no strictly defined order in which to start
processing your master but many producers like to
FabFilters Pro-L is a great

limiting plug-in that can be used
to squeeze the maximum
amount of power out of your
tracks without crushing them.
Tech Terms
ODITHERING
Changing the bit depth of
audio, say when mixing down
from 32-bit to 16-bit, can
introduce distortion into the
signal. Dithering adds noise
thats more or less inaudible
to our ears in an attempt to
minimise this.
OGLASS MASTER
An increasingly outdated
concept, the glass master is
the master copy of a digital
album that is used to press a
large number of CDs from.
Your pristine, full-quality
digital files that result from
mastering fulfil much the
same role.
begin with compression. If you have applied master

buss compression during mixdown you may want to
go a little easier during mastering so as not to
over-compress or pump the sound and risk sucking
the musicality out of it. Used carefully, compression
is an excellent way of pulling together the louder
and quieter parts of the signal to create a more even
feel, ensuring that quiet bits arent inaudible and the
loud bits dont deafen you. Listen to any track where
a singer practically whispers one line then screams
the next and yet both seem weirdly about the same
volume: thats compression doing its thing.
With mastering you want the compression to glue
the whole signal together and smooth out the peaks
and troughs but without sounding artificial. As

such its usually better to apply a relatively gentle
amount with a low-ish ratio and an attack time thats
not too quick. When you apply a compressor across
the whole signal it has to deal with everything from
the bass to the crash cymbals, so using a decent
quality model is preferable.
Singleband compression is common but you can
also use multiband compression if you feel confident
enough. Multiband compressors enable you to set the
crossover points and compression levels for several
frequency bands independently, so you can effectively
pull different bands up or down selectively. Though
different from EQ this can be a very useful trick
because it helps you to deal more effectively with
rogue groups of sounds. For example, if the bass is
too loud in the mix, using EQ to take it down might
lessen the power and impact of the track, but using
multiband compression to control it serves to level it
Tech Terms
OMULTIBAND
Any processing that works
across several frequency
bands, usually with
adjustable crossover points.
Compression and EQ are the
most common multiband
types and are both used
extensively in mastering.
off rather than knocking it out and should also help it

to blend with any nearby frequencies.
Bec
come the equalizer
With your audio glued together by compression its
time to use EQ to sweeten and balance the sound.
You will invariably find that a little EQ during
mastering can really help, even for a track that has
been mixed well. A parametric EQ is a good choice as
it provides a nice visual representation of the EQ
curve and will have multiple points and Q controls.
The aim of mastering EQ is to pick out certain
elements of a track and then either back them off or,
OMASTER BUSS
The stereo output of your
DAW through which the whole
signal passes. During the
mastering process this is
where you would normally
place the effects, although
they can also be used as
inserts on your single audio
track if you are only working
with one track at a time
instead of stem mastering.
A good parametric EQ will serve

you well for mastering. If your
budget stretches far enough
then Steinbergs Portico 5033 EQ
is an excellent choice.
DAWs on the iPad such as Auria have advanced insert effects sections
that you can use for mastering on the move.
more usually, enhance them by pulling their

frequency up a little. The Q settings of a parametric
equalizer are particularly useful here because they
control the width of the area around the EQ point
and thus the amount of frequency to either side that
is affected.
So to perform a broad boost to the lower mids,
for example, you might use a wide Q value and a
gentle rise in the gain. To isolate a single sound such
as a guitar, use a narrow Q value and pull the sound
up or down, leaving similar sounds to either side
relatively untouched.
As good as your mixdown is you will always find
small improvements that can be made at this stage,
especially when the other mastering effects have
changed the character of the sound in their own
ways. Because you are applying an EQ curve across
the whole track you can control the feel of the
soundstage much more easily. There are some
commonly used techniques here in addition to
sweetening the sound, such as performing a very low
bass roll-off to deal with any sub sounds, and either
adding or cutting very high frequencies to add
sparkle or remove hiss.
Ta
ake it to the limit
The third core process in mastering is limiting,
which means driving the input level of the signal
while ensuring it doesnt exceed a predetermined
level. The goal here is to squeeze as much gain and
power out of the signal as is appropriate but without
causing it to clip and without crushing it so it
becomes dull and lifeless. Limiting comes at the end
of the processing chain because anything placed
after it could interfere with its operation by
negatively affecting the signal.
At their simplest, limiters just have input and
output gain controls. You need to set the output level
to 0dB or just below, say -0.1dB, in order to ensure
that the signal will not exceed this level and thus not
clip. Use the input gain level control to drive the
FOCUS
MTF Technology To really understand your masters, you need to check the meter
When mixing and mastering you spend a lot of time looking at the
master level meters in your DAW or on your mixing desk. This is
indeed where you can see if your signal is too loud or quiet, but it
offers only one kind of visual feedback.
To fully understand whats going on you will need to use some
more advanced metering tools. These can be applied as inserts
across your master buss and dont process or change the sound,
they simply analyse it. Your DAW may come with an analysis
plug-in or two but there are excellent third-party models
available too from the likes of Blue Cat Audios Analysis Pack and
Waves Dorrough Meter Collection and PAZ Analyzer.
What you gain by using proper audio analysis tools is a better
insight into the way the frequencies in your master are really
behaving. When you listen to sound through loudspeakers it is
being affected by all kinds of factors including the character of
those speakers, their placement and proximity to walls, and your
position relative to them. For example, bass can sound very
different depending on how you stand in relation to the speakers.
By analysing the sound before it leaves the computer, plug-ins
can show you whats truly happening across the frequency
spectrum with phase issues and so on, and enable you to correct
these during mastering.
The modules in T-RackS CS also work individually as well as in a suite,
and can be loaded into any DAW.
signal until you get a solid and consistent level,

which means your level meters are spending a lot of
time up near 0dB.
The aim is to bolster and boost the sounds gain,
and careful limiting is the reason so many
commercial tracks sound much louder than those
produced in home studios. Its also the culprit behind
the loudness wars where commercial studios have
tended to limit harder and harder, a phenomenon that
Tech Terms
IN THE BOX
Any production that takes
place entirely inside the
computer. Increasingly
popular as a standard
working method, some
producers start, work on
and finish off whole tracks
without ever leaving their
digital environment.
MASTERING SUITE
A collection of plug-ins or
processing modules that
collectively make up a
mastering chain. Typically
comprising EQ, compression
and limiting they may also
have stereo widening and
mastering reverb too.
reached its nadir with Metallicas Death Magnetic, an

album so tiring on the ears that some listeners
actually sent it back.
Its quite possible to over-limit and crush your
signal, either by running the output level over 0dB or
more likely by driving the input gain too hard. If your
level meters are consistently hammering up against
the zero mark, step back and listen to whether your
track is in fact being squeezed too hard. You dont
want to suck all the dynamic range out of it because
this kills its musicality the levels should have a
little movement left in them.
Its generally accepted now that the loudness wars
went too far; its not necessary to crush your tracks
to death, just use some judgement in balancing a
strong level against retaining the right amount of

dynamic range.
Best of the rest

As well as the processors mentioned above you may
also want to use stereo widening, and some more
advanced metering can also help. Stereo widening
should be used sparingly because it can quickly start
to really mess with the soundstage if you push it too
far, seriously altering the mix. Its good to use a
stereo widener with low and high controls and a
configurable crossover point so you can keep the low
end tight and centred while adding a little width to
the top end.
Regularly A/Bing your master both with its dry,
unprocessed signal and with commercially mastered
songs in a similar style can be invaluable in helping
keep you on the right track and getting the best end
results. Youll also need a decent set of monitors
because you need as accurate a picture as possible of
how your master is shaping up. And preferably get
yourself kitted out with a really good set of
headphones, since many of your listeners will
experience your music this way.
When your master is done you can export it out to
a stereo file and then top and tail it in a wave editor
to deal with any errant reverb tails or clicks. Before
signing off on a master its vital to listen back to it on
as many systems as you can in case you find that for
some reason the bass disappears on an iPhone, or the
cymbals are way too loud on a car stereo. Stuff like
this does happen and its well worth going back and
refining the master to account for it.
With a little practice and the right set of tools you
can use mastering to really enhance the finished
sound of your tracks. MTF
67
MTF Technique Mastering tracks in Live
Mastering
tracks in Live
To give your tunes the ultimate professional edge Liam OMullane

shares some Live-specific techniques that can be essential when
it comes to mastering your own music
ell, this series has been quite a journey.

Weve covered a large range of bestpractice for using many of Lives unique
features, and we hope you now have a
handful of songs youd like to polish-up
and stick in that folder named Finished Tracks. But
although the mastering process can be applied reasonably
well through your own studio set-up with software we
encourage you to consider outsourcing this process if you
plan to release this material commercially. There are many
reasons for doing this, with the core points being:
1. An experienced mastering engineer can offer a level of
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
There are a few ways to

enhance your masters with
analogue-style enrichment
subjectivity you will never experience when youve also
created and produced the music yourself.
2. A professional engineer will have a well-tuned room that
makes it easy for them to spot problem areas in your mixes.
3. The quality level of the gear available at many traditional
FOCUS ON COPING WITH MULTIPLE TRACKS

The main focus of mastering is placed on the task of processing one
track on its own, but this isnt the only thing to take into consideration.
If you are planning on releasing an EP or an entire album youll need to
master your multiple tracks in sympathy with each other so they have
an overall cohesion.
With multiple tracks comes an issue of navigation, as youll need to
regularly compare one track against the others to check for consistency.
This is best dealt with by setting different Locator points and assigning
them to key commands to move around Lives Arrangement View with
ease. Right [PC] / Ctrl [Mac] + Click on the Scrub Area below the
Arrangement View timeline and select Add Locator. These can then be
renamed from the same + Click menu and assigned to computer keys
using the Edit Key Map option from the Options menu.
If you start to label up the start, breakdown, main section, outros
and so on of four or more tracks, assigning these to individual keys
becomes a bit cumbersome to manage. In this case the Next and
Previous Locator buttons are the best options to move around many
different Locators. These two arrow symbols sit either side of the Set
button, which appears in the top right-hand side of the screen when
Edit Key Map is enabled. Just assign these to two keys to move back
and forth with ease as you work.
The launching time for Locators is controlled by the Global
Quantization chooser menu next to Lives Metronome in the top
left-hand corner of the screen. Change this to None if you want to
immediately switch from one locator to another, rather than wait for a
tempo-based launching time.
FOCUS
mastering houses is usually out of most peoples reach due

to the high cost.
This last option is food for thought if you work 100%
in-the-box, as it may be the only time your work has the
chance to pass through an analogue signal path. This type
of processing can help you get a more rounded tone and a
greater sense of depth, which, as weve already mentioned,
will be applied by someone with very experienced ears.
But paying out for mastering isnt always an option, and
although a full guide to mastering in Live is beyond the
scope of this single sitting here, we will cover various
techniques that make great use of Lives unique devices.
Although Live doesnt offer much in terms of vintage
emulation, aside from its SSL-modelled Glue Compressor,
there are a few ways to enhance your masters with some
analogue-style harmonic enrichment.
As you explore the dynamic, frequency, stereo-width
and perceived depth aspects of your material when DIY
mastering you will always start to hear what may have
needed more attention at the mixing stage. You can then
always re-visit these Live projects for correction, which
provides an element of ear training required to improve
your overall production skills. So even if you plan on
outsourcing your mastering needs, a bit of DIY can be a
great learning experience. MTF
Mastering tracks in Live Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step EQ, dynamics and saturation
Youll often want to restrict the extremes of the top and bottom
ends. If theres bass energy lower than the lowest note this can
be limited using a x4 Low Cut filter. Removing this also helps achieve a
slightly higher output level. Use a x4 or regular High Cut to restrict the
top end and tame the very high frequencies, through to a more obvious
roll-off around 15-16kHz for a cut-to-vinyl tone.
Narrow-band subtractive EQ can be useful if you have a build up

of unpleasant resonances. Use a parametric (Bell) EQ with
additive Gain and sweep the Frequency to hunt out the problem area,
then use the Q control to choose a width that doesnt boost more than
the area needed. Reset the Gain back to 0dB and use negative Gain
until the resonance is reduced enough so its no longer an issue.
Although rhythmic, peak-based compression can be good to help

bring out drum-track transients in your songs, to increase the
body and energy of your song you might need a mild, non-rhythmic
type of dynamic control. Lives Glue Compressor is a good choice here
with a ratio of 2:1, and little to no Threshold applied, a few dBs of gain
reduction can help your songs sound more glued together.
A simple way to firm up and thicken your bottom end is to use

Lives Overdrive device to add subtle distortion. Be very careful to
use low Drive, Tone and Dynamics settings, as the signal can break up
very easily at the cost of your audio quality. But with its Bandpass EQ
set to focus purely on the low end, this device can add a really solid
weight to your songs.
For harmonic enrichment in the top end, Saturator tends to do

this job better than the often brittle-sounding Overdrive. The
presets within Lives library are a good place to start, with Hot Tubes
and Warm Up Highs being our personal favourites. Remember to keep
exploring the right balance of Dry/Wet while you work, as its very easy
to add too much.
Corrective rebalancing of the tops, lows and mids can be made

using High Shelve, Low Shelve and Bell EQs, respectively. Be
careful to adjust the Gain level of the EQ when making either additive
or subtractive adjustments so your levels stay at their optimum. Any
mid-range adjustments are best made with a wide Q, so the overall
balance isnt distorted too much.
01
03
05
02
04
06
| 69
MTF Technique Mastering tracks in Live
MTF Step-by-Step Width and depth
Fine-tune the stereo width by switching an EQ Eight into M/S

from the Mode menu. This enables you to EQ the Mid and Side
parts of the signal individually. Increase stereo width by slightly
boosting the tops in the sides with a High Shelve EQ, then use a Low
Cut EQ so the low end only passes down the Mid signal. Use Audition
Mode to hear where the Low Cut frequency should be set.
Another way to enhance your stereo width is by adding

harmonics to the side signal. A Mid and Side Device is included
on the DVD which splits the signal into a Mid and Side Chain within an
Audio Rack. You can then add processors to either Chain. Drag a
Saturator with a high Drive amount to the Side Chain, and set the Dry/
Wet balance so the stereo is enhanced without sounding too distorted.
A subtle reverb can be used to place a dry-sounding mix into an

audible space and add depth. This needs to be done subtly, so be
careful with your Dry/Wet balance. Weve gone for a medium room and
used the Reverb devices Lo Cut on the input to avoid muddying up the
low end. Live Suite owners should explore the Convolution Reverb in
the Max for Live browser for a more natural sound.
The previous technique can be taken a step further by only adding

the reverb to the sides, maintaining a dryer sound down the centre
of the mix. When applying reverb to the sides be careful to experiment
with applying it before or after the Utility device, which removes the mid
part of the signal. In most cases its best to add the reverb to be
pre-Utility, and then balance the Dry/Wet to taste.
You dont always need to increase the width of a mix, though,

especially when matching multiple tracks for an EP or album. To
control the balance between mid and sides, a single Utility device can
be very helpful. Use values on the Width parameter of lower than 100%
to narrow your stereo spread towards mono at 100%.
A final way to achieve a sense of depth is to push back the pokey,

boxy-sounding part of the lower mids. This will generally live
below 500Hz and will sound unpleasant when boosted using additive
gain. When this area has been identified and the Q amount is wide
enough to only boost the offending range you can use subtractive Gain
settings to achieve a more scooped and deeper sound.
01
03
05
FOCUS
02
04
06
MTF Feature 20 Ways To Supercharge Your Computer For Audio
MTF Feature 20 ways to
SUPERCHARGE YOUR
COMPUTER
FOR AUDIO
Get the best computer you can for music production! they say.
But Hollin Jones disagrees. You can easily spruce up your existing
system for audio work, and it wont cost you a fortune
ts a fairly safe bet to assume that most of the people

reading this make music using a computer as the
heart of their studio. And while there may be lots of
outboard and instruments thrown into the
equation, the computer is the nerve centre the
brain that ultimately runs the session. As computers
have become ubiquitous in the pro audio world, it has
become increasingly important to understand how
they operate and how they do their job. Where once an
Atari just ran your MIDI, now a Mac or PC handles
every aspect of the production process.
FOCUS
They might be giants

Although almost infinitely more powerful and stable
than they were just two decades ago, computers are
still complex machines that need to be treated
properly. Pro audio work is one of the most demanding
things you can ask of a computer, short perhaps only
of 3D video processing. And although computers have
become much faster, our expectations of what we
should be able to achieve with them have gone up as
well. So where once youd be grateful to run a couple of
virtual synths, now were prone to loading up lots of
20 Ways To Supercharge Your Computer For Audio Feature MTF
You can easily do the following

techniques to get a much better
performance out of your music system
multi-GB sample-based instruments without giving it
a second thought.
All of this is fine as long as your machine can cut it.
There are very important considerations that come
into play when buying a new machine: Mac or PC, how
big should the hard drive be and what format, how
many cores to go for and how fast should they be. For
many people, however, getting the best performance
out of the hardware you already own is a more
pressing issue.
Luckily, its not as daunting a task as you may have
imagined. Many people that take a computer to a
specialist believing it to be on its last legs are amazed
to discover that after a spring clean or the fitting of
some more RAM its as good as new, if not better.
Make the most of what you have

You dont have to be a tech wizard to optimize your
computer for audio performance, and a lot of the tips
well show you are actually free and involve no
expense. One thing that is important to stress before
you start, however, is that you should always maintain
current backups of your system, especially before
starting to delete files or make changes to hardware.
Also if you are not confident in swapping RAM or hard
drives its well worth the small cost of getting a
professional to do it, as this should avoid any slip ups.
On the whole though, most of the following tips and
techniques are things that you can easily do yourself
and they will help you get the very best performance
out of your music system.
| 73
The old debate
PRO TIP SOLID

STATE DRIVES
SSD drives use no moving
parts and as such are much
faster than conventional hard
drives and use less power.
Though more costly, their
price has come down a lot and
they are easy to fit to any
computer that allows user
access to the drive bay. Once
youve gone SSD, everything
else feels incredibly slow by
comparison.
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR HARDWARE
The bits that make up your computer will
determine how well it performs
Lets get one thing straight at the outset: your five-yearold PC or a cheap, off-the-shelf laptop is probably not
going to be all that much cop when it comes to running
big music projects in the latest DAW. Budgets are always
an issue, but just as you wouldnt expect an old banger to
win a Formula 1 race, a basic computer isnt going to deal
with the rigours of pro audio production. If you are
buying a new machine, youll have the chance to specify it
properly for audio work and if youre upgrading an
existing machine you should know which components to
pay particular attention to.
Slightly controversially, although Macs are comparatively

more expensive, an off-the shelf Mac will provide a better
all-round solution for many users, thanks to the excellent
build quality and the stability of Mac OS X. If on the other
hand you prefer much wider customization options or
perhaps use a Windows-only DAW, a PC can offer more
bang for your buck.
The CPU is the brain of your computer and any half
decent machine will now have a dual core processor at
the very least and probably a quad core one if youre going
for a more serious setup. Opting for the fastest clock
speeds usually adds greatly to the price, but software is
increasingly well optimized for multicore processing, so
you might be better saving that money for other
components that will make more of a real world
performance difference. Intels i5 processors are good but
the i7s admittedly more expensive are great. In a
full-fat system you might even get Xeon processors.
Dont forget
Memory, also known as RAM, is also crucial as the more
you have, the greater the headroom in the system. Data
stored in RAM is accessed very quickly and DAWs and
virtual instruments love it. 8GB should be considered a
sensible amount, preferably 16GB or more for a
heavyweight music setup. Hard drives are also common
The faster the clock speed the

higher the price, but you might be
better off saving that money
performance bottlenecks. A standard 5400RPM drive
will feel horribly slow, so go for a 7200RPM drive or
preferably a solid state (SSD) drive. Upgrade your existing
drive if its old, slow or otherwise creaking. Theres other
peripheral stuff like optical drives, screens and
connectivity, but these are the most important things to
look at when considering how well your music system
is performing.
PRO TIP
RAM IT HOME
RAM used to be really
expensive but now its much
more affordable. Most
computers allow you to
manually upgrade the RAM,
and www.crucial.com is a good
place to look. A few thin
laptops, especially those from
Apple, dont allow user
upgrades so you should
specify as much as you can
afford while ordering the
machine.
PRO TIP CONNECTIVITY MATTERS

Though USB2 is everywhere, consider what ports your computer
has. All Apple models now have Thunderbolt, and ports like
FireWire, USB3 or eSATA can be added to desktop PCs via expansion
cards. USB2 is the baseline standard, though adaptors do exist to
connect some older equipment to newer machines. Some are
completely incompatible though, so always check before buying.
FOCUS
THE ONLINE NI MASCHINE TRAINING RESOURCE
Want to really
learn your music
software?
Complete Beginners and Advanced

*V\YZLZMYVTJLY[PLK[YHPULY
Rob Jones, as well as courses on
Music Theory, Mastering,
Producing House and
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:;<+@>/,5 >/,9,@6<302,
)65<::(473,:>0;/,=,9@*6<9:,
PRO TIP USE WHATSIZE

WhatSize for Mac ($12.99, free demo available) is a kind of
advanced file browser thats focused on displaying the size
of every item on your hard drive. As well as letting you sort
any list by size it helpfully colour codes so the biggest items
are clearly visible. You can delete items from inside the app
and perform useful tasks like finding duplicate items.
CLEAR OUT THE CLUTTER

Streamlining your system can really help with
performance
As hard drives have got bigger in recent years there is a
tendency to store more and more stuff on our computers,
particularly as much of our content like photos, music
and films is now digital rather than existing as physical
media. As with all technology, however, there are limits
as to how much a drive can store before it starts to affect
the overall running of your system. One of the most
common causes of slowdowns and errors is when a boot
drive has become stuffed with content to the extent that
Windows or Mac OS X can no longer effectively use it to
store temporary and memory files, which will quickly
degrade performance.
A good rule of thumb is that any boot drive (the drive
on which your operating system is installed) should have
at least 20% of its total space free to ensure smooth
running. When your apps start to request more memory
than you have installed, the OS uses the hard drive for
swap files, a workaround to keep things running when
RAM is low. This is much slower than real RAM and
when theres little free space, the system has to hunt
around on the drive for areas to put it. Windows 8 and OS
X 10.9 do a good job of managing RAM using some clever
PRO TIP
MEASURE YOUR
WINDOWS DISK
WinDirStat (free from https://
windirstat.info) is a file size and
type viewer for Windows that
analyzes your disk hierarchy and
displays a list of its contents in one
of three views: Directory, Treemap
or Extensions. This helps you to
identify large areas of disk taken up
by files or folders and make a
decision about what to do with
them.
PRO TIP
ONYX FOR MAC
OnyX (free from http://www.titanium.
free.fr) is an excellent system
maintenance tool for OS X that allows you
to tweak the appearance and behaviour
of the Finder as well as clearing out the
many caches and logs that build up over
time. Run once every few months it can
help to reclaim a few GB of space and fix
crashing or troublesome apps.
tricks, so if youre running these systems you will find

RAM issues occur less than on earlier versions, but
nonetheless a full boot drive is never good.
Nap those apps

There are some hard and fast rules for maintaining a lean
system that optimizes the space you have available to
you. Obviously, dont install applications and libraries
that you dont plan on using. Or if you do install them and
find you never use them, uninstall them. Just trashing an
app folder rarely makes for a proper uninstall as apps
scatter content all around your system folders. Use
something like AppZapper for the Mac, Windows
Uninstall tool or the uninstaller that is provided as part
of many apps installers. On a related note, dont run apps
that you dont need. Any running application makes use
of system resources that you would prefer went to your
DAW. OS X 10.9 has App Nap which is able to mitigate this
to an extent but its still better not to open apps that
youre not using.
PRO TIP SAFE AND SOUND

Although some files can be safely moved off your boot drive its
not recommended to actually track audio to a USB connected
drive and certainly not to a wireless drive. Any latency or
potential connection issues can cause a recording to fail, so its
a good idea to record everything to your internal drive and then
decide later whether to move it, perhaps after your project is
completed.
PRO TIP CLEAN UP WITH CCLEANER

CCleaner for Windows (https://www.piriform.com) is able to scan
your system for old and unwanted files as well as caches and other
clutter and delete them. As well as generally speeding things up and
reclaiming some disk space this can have the benefit of fixing
issues with corrupted apps, apps that wont boot and so on.
FOCUS
Many music applications and instruments come with

a large amount of sample-based content and this can
easily run to many GB in size. A few years ago it was
common to recommend offloading this to a second
A drive should have 20% free

space to ensure smooth running
internal hard drive, though with tower machines now
outnumbered by laptops and all-in-ones like iMacs (no
Apple model now officially allows the fitting of a second
internal drive) youre much more likely to be putting it on
a USB or Thunderbolt hard drive. Sometimes this can be
done during installation, by pointing the installer at the
external drive. In the case of DAW content like the stuff
that comes with Logic or Cubase, it can be better to leave
it in its original location to avoid getting error messages
every time you boot up.
Its also worth clearing out files you no longer need

and apart from shifting big libraries off to external
drives, you can use an app like WhatSize (Mac) or
WinDirStat (Windows) to display your drive
hierarchically by size. You might find a folder full of
movies you had forgotten about which can be thrown
away. Some apps, particularly video-editing packages,
can store large scratch or render files which may be
eating up space. Operating systems also store a lot of
cache and other files, many of which can be safely deleted
with an app like OnyX (Mac) or CCleaner (Windows). As
ever, make sure you have current backups before
tinkering with your system.
Not just audio

Its often not DAWs or instruments that are the biggest
offenders when it comes to taking up space, but music,
photo and video libraries. If your machine is meant for
music production you should probably prioritise that, and
transfer your consumer media libraries to an external
drive. One good solution is to use a NAS or another
wireless drive for this kind of content because they tend
to be very spacious, can hide away next to your wi-fi
router and the latency of connecting wirelessly isnt a
problem. Find where your library lives and perform a Get
Info or Properties command on it to see how big it is. You
might be surprised that iTunes or movie libraries can get
really huge.
PRO TIP KEEP IT SIMPLE

Although most DAWs come with a lot of content, you dont necessarily have to
install it all right away. Logic, for example, lets you manually choose which content
to download from the web at any point. Consider doing a lean install initially, then
re-running the installer later to add the extra content if you decide you need it.
MTF Pro Advice DIY electronics

Adding RAM shouldnt
require a degree in
electronics but if you want
to go further, youll need to
know components and
follow circuit diagrams.
You might also need to
know how to solder and
how to diagnose faults.
Most importantly of all,
you must appreciate and
understand the physical
dangers involved in
working with electronics. If
you have never tackled
something like this before,
wed suggest honing your
skills with some cheaper
and easier projects.
SAFETY WARNING
As always, we should
caution you that working
with some electronics

presents the
possibility of
receiving a
potentially fatal
electric shock.
Ensure that the
power supply is
switched off
whenever you
are working on
the circuit
board. If you are
testing for
voltage
readings or
faults, the
power will need
to be switched
on, so ensure you keep
one hand firmly placed in
your pocket
while probing.
| 77
STORAGE OPTIONS
Choosing the right hard drive can make all the
difference to the performance of your system..
Hard drive speed can make a world of difference to the
every-day performance of your music setup. While raw
CPU speed is important for processing effects and
achieving a low latency, the speed with which your
computer can read and write to its hard drive is
massively important for launching apps, streaming
samples and handling all kinds of file operations.
The majority of computers still come with a
conventional spinning hard drive. These are fairly
affordable and come in large capacities of 1 or 2TB, or
perhaps 500GB for a lower spec machine. So
they are great for storing lots of large files,
though a 7200RPM speed should be
considered for decent performance. 10,000
and even 15,000RPM drives exist, though
mostly for larger machines rather than laptops. The
performance of these drives is perfectly acceptable for
many people, especially if your work isnt hugely taxing,
say perhaps running some Propellerhead Reason or
Ableton Live projects.
Solid State Drives have no

moving parts so read and write
speeds are incredible
Dont move
Solid state drives (SSDs) use Flash memory chips rather
than a head and platter to store and read data. They
have no moving parts so they are more power
efficient and their read and write speeds
are incredible, especially for large
individual files. The PCIe-based SSDs
in the top end Retina MacBook Pro,
for example, is able to read and write
at around 700MB per second in real
world situations.
Although you pay much more per
gigabyte, SSD drives have fallen in
price and are a dream to work with for
more demanding users. If you specify
PRO TIP A TOWER OF POWER

Apple no longer makes tower systems since the demise of the old
Mac Pro but specialist PC builders definitely do. The advantage of
a tower is configurability you can add multiple internal hard
drives, lots of RAM and PCI cards to expand your I/O. As far as
drives go, look for a decent SSD for your boot drive so that
Windows will run nice and quickly and then add one or two
additional internal drives running at 7200RPM and with capacities
of 1TB or more. You might use one for backup and one for
recordings and samples, for example. Apples Mac Mini and iMac
can have their drives beefed up as far as a 3TB Fusion Drive in the
case of the iMac which should provide a good balance of speed
and storage to deal with anything you can throw at it.
FOCUS
PRO TIP THE IDEAL MOBILE SETUP

Many people run mobile setups these days thanks to the incredible
power of modern, well specified laptops. An SSD drive is ideal here,
because it saves battery power while offering amazing read and
write performance. The only issue is space, and you can expect
around half the storage youd get from a similarly priced spinning
drive. However you can add a capacious and inexpensive USB2 or 3
external drive to store all your movies, sample libraries and
backups and get the best of both worlds. Apple only builds a single
model with a conventional drive now, though the multitude of
specialist audio PC builders will be able to stick a fast and spacious
drive into most Windows laptops if you prefer. A few are even able to
fit an SSD and a spinning drive, at the cost of the optical drive which
is used less and less these days anyway.
one during build or upgrade your existing drive, youll

probably wonder how you ever lived
without it.
Almost all laptops and all-in-one
systems like the iMac and Mac Pro
only allow one internal drive, but
tower PCs still allow multiple
internal drives to be fitted so a good
solution can be to use an SSD for the
system drive and much larger
additional internal drives for extra
storage. Apple makes the Fusion
Drive for the iMac, a clever hybrid of
both drive types, which can help.
Adding an external hard drive is a
good move for any system, with
spacious USB2 or 3 drives now very
affordable, and Thunderbolt
versions also appearing, but at a
higher cost.
Wireless drives like NAS
systems are great for backup
though not ideal for storing samples
due to the latency involved in
loading samples from them over a
wireless connection. Connecting
the drive via Ethernet is always an
option, of course.
BACKING UP AND DATA

MANAGEMENT
PRO TIP KEEP

REGULAR BACKUPS
It might not sound glamorous, but having a good

backup system can really save your bacon
We have looked up to this point at what you can do to
upgrade, clear out and spec your music computer for the
best possible performance but having a proper backup
routine is just as important to the ongoing health and
security of your system. Back in the bad old days,
operating systems and applications were much less
reliable and data loss was not uncommon. A bad crash
could take down the system and lose your work or worse
still, fry a hard drive. Things are much better these days
but its still quite possible to accidentally throw
something important away, or suffer a crash or a theft
and lose your projects. The good news is that backing up
is easier than it has ever been.
Always back up regularly, and

especially before performing
any system changes like
updates or clearing out or
uninstalling things. On
occasion, a system update, for
example, might break your
audio driver or your DAW or
favourite plug-in, and you dont
want to get stuck waiting for a
fix. With a new backup you can
roll back to the previous
version, if you really have to.
Getting your back up

There are some good general rules for backing up and
some platform-specific techniques, which we will talk
about in a moment. Whatever system you are on it makes
sense to keep copies of installers on a separate hard drive,
complete with copies of serial numbers and individual
updaters in case of problems. Rolling back to a previous
app version can be tricky if the developer doesnt make
old versions available for download. Its a good idea to
back up sample libraries as well, though you really only
have to do this once if the library isnt likely to change.
Consider duplicating it to an external drive initially and
then saving modified files to a new location as you go. By
using a big backup drive say 2TB or so you can back up
incrementally without ever running out of space.
PRO TIP
CHOOSE WISELY
Backup drives dont
necessarily need to be as fast
as hard drives inside your
computer because they are
used much less intensively. So
a decent USB2 or 3 external
drive with a high capacity of
1TB or more, connected to
your computer whenever
backups are performed
should be fine for most things.
Some backups are bootable
meaning you can actually run a
system off them, but this is
generally only for
emergencies.
Mac OS X has Time Machine which is an excellent

built-in backup system. It works incrementally which
means that after your first backup of the entire system, it
only backs up changed files so each backup is relatively
small. It works with any connected or wireless hard drive
and you can even use multiple drives, maintaining an
up-to-date backup on each one for added security.
The beauty of Time Machine is that when you go to
your backups you can pull any individual file back to the
present, recovering a version of a Logic file, for example,
that you may have modified or deleted since the last time
you backed up.
The system also creates a fully bootable backup and
this means that even if your system dies or is stolen, a
PRO TIP TAKE CARE WHEN

EJECTING
Always eject your backup drive properly, and
never just pull out the cable. Although modern
operating systems are pretty good at dealing
with errors, the best way to corrupt a drive is
to unplug it without first ejecting it from the
Finder or from Windows using the mouse. This
could destroy your precious backups, so you
have been warned!
| 79
working version can be restored, byte for byte, onto a new

drive or Mac.
And on Windows
Windows has its own backup system. In Windows 8.1
this is twofold : File History and System Image Backup.
The former creates ongoing backups of your documents
to an external hard drive and the latter creates a complete
backup of the whole system. System Image Backup also
works in Windows 7, and this version of the OS also has
Backup and Restore which can be found in Control Panel
> System and Maintenance. There are a number of
third-party backup apps for Windows as well such as
those from Acronis, Norton and Paragon, all of which
offer various backup methods.
Although whole-system backups are generally too
large to be performed online (though this is possible with
some tools), people increasingly use cloud services to keep
backups of smaller bundles of data. You might, for
example, keep local physical backups of the whole system
but also back up individual things to Dropbox, Google
Drive, iCloud or SkyDrive. Or indeed one of the many
other commercial cloud storage services.
Imagine you have been working on a Pro Tools project
and want to make doubly sure its safe. As well as a local
PRO TIP USE EMAIL OR CLOUD BACKUP

Email services like Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo store attachments on
their servers so emailing files to yourself is a good way to quickly
back things up if you dont have time for a full backup immediately.
This is fine for files of 10-20MB or so but for anything bigger you can
use Dropbox, Google Drive or another cloud file storage system. Its
quick and easy.
With broadband, spacious hard

drives and modern backup tools,
theres no reason to lose data
backup, copy the project folder to the cloud, making sure
all audio files are included. It might be a couple of
gigabytes but this is increasingly realistic as an upload
size with modern broadband.
Some cloud services like Dropbox offer watch folder
functionality, which can be really useful especially for
music backups. As well as your music project folder, if you
specified your plug-in settings folders to be watched for
example you could ensure that any new presets you
PRO TIP MANAGE YOUR BACKUPS

When your backup drive gets full, your system might start deleting
the oldest backups but should warn you before it does. Many
systems like Time Machine allow you to copy an existing backup to
a new drive, either a larger one to continue the same backup or to
archive that backup and start a fresh one on a new drive.
FOCUS
created during a project would be backed up to the cloud

automatically. This requires a little work in identifying
the folders, of course, but its worth considering. The
majority of DAWs allow auto-save and versioning too, so
its a good idea to set up your specific DAW to
automatically save as you go, and perhaps even have
those files watched for auto-upload too. With fast
broadband and spacious hard drives as well as modern
backup tools like all these, theres no reason to lose any
data ever again.
PRO TIP CONTROL WHAT IS BACKED UP

Time Machine on Mac OS X lets you delete every instance of an item
from your backups if youre absolutely sure this is what you want.
Enter Time Machine and locate the file or folder, then right click on it
and select Delete All Backups. If you have accidentally been
backing up a large folder of temp files for example, this will reclaim
you some space.
FIX THE MOST COMMON

STUDIO PROBLEMS
PRO TIP FREEZE

TRACKS
Most DAWs allow you to freeze
tracks : to render down versions
of tracks with instruments and
effects as simple audio tracks,
and temporarily disable other
processing. This is better than
exporting a version of the track
as you are able to unfreeze and regain editability at any point,
though both techniques will work to lessen your CPU and RAM load.
If youre suffering from these frequently

encountered issues, help is at hand
Anyone who has worked in tech support with a focus on
the pro audio world will probably be able to name the top
few problems that they see day in and day out. Latency is
a big one the gap between playing a sound while
recording audio and hearing it back through your
headphones or monitors. As long as your audio interface
drivers are up to date and well-written (which most are
nowadays), this is usually a case of finding the optimum
balance of CPU usage and audio buffer size. In your
DAWs audio control panel, setting a buffer size of 256
samples or thereabouts should offer very low latency at
the cost of some more CPU usage. Go lower for better
latency, and raise the buffer when mixing and you want
to divert that CPU power to running plug-ins. Consider
getting an interface with Direct Monitoring, which
bypasses this problem by feeding the sound back to you
before it has been passed to the computer. Finding the
right buffer setting should also deal with dropouts, pops
and clicks in playback.
quit them if necessary.

Crashing apps are often outdated, so make sure you
have the latest version thats designed for your OS
version. DAWs can crash because of outdated or
incompatible plug-ins and while some like Logic will scan
and disable any bad ones to prevent this, you should
Treat your computer well

dont overload it and restart it
and it will return the favour
Quick start guide

Slow startups are usually caused by over-full hard drives
or rogue startup items, so in OS X, go to System
Preferences > Accounts and remove any unwanted Login
Items from your account. In Windows, go to the System
Configuration tool, find the Startup tab and disable
anything you dont need. Both of these should speed up
login. Slow general performance is often the result of
insufficient RAM, so use the Activity Monitor app (Mac)
or open the Task Manager in Windows to see what apps
or processes are using RAM and CPU resources, and force
always look for a specific plug-in thats causing a problem

and disable or delete it if an update is not available. As
good as modern systems are, our expectations of them
rise in line with their specs, so remember that even a
good machine has limits. Treat your computer well
dont overload it with rubbish, restart it now and again
and freeze tracks when necessary to make the best use of
its resources and it will return the favour. MTF
PRO TIP
STAY UP TO DATE
Its worth updating to the latest version of the OS that will
comfortably run on your hardware. Mac OS X 10.9 for example has
many optimizations for maximizing resources like App Nap,
memory compression and Safari Power Saver. Windows 7 is
significantly more power efficient than its predecessor and
Windows 8 is also generally kinder to memory hardware.
PRO TIP TURN OFF

BACKGROUND TASKS
While backing up is important, it does use
system resources, as do renders, file uploads
and other similar tasks. You dont want this
stuff kicking in when youre trying to record
audio at low latency, so keep an eye on what is
running and schedule anything that can be
put off for later.
| 81
MTF Technique How to produce Dirty Dubstep
Technique How to produce
Dirty Dubstep
Fierce yet clear, loud but clean Liam OMullane and Christopher Pearson guide you
through the process of creating the harder edge of this contemporary genre, their main
point of call being the fundamentals of bass design
ubstep is a genre thats morphed from its

dubbed-out form over the years and since
splintered into two distinct camps. For the more
meditative and deeper experience, artists such
as Burial, Phaeleh and Mala fly the flag, sticking
to the genres original principles of a mix with depth, space
and general musicality. Over the years and more recently in
the mainstream, a louder and more aggressive influence
has taken hold. The driving force behind this new breed of
dubstep include Skrillex, Zomboy, Excision and Flux
Pavillion to name a few. Although terms like EDM and
brostep are often frowned upon due to their buzzword
nature, this is the musical style we are focussing on in this
five-part feature.
On the disc
Accompanying
example audio files
included on the DVD
Set your DAWs tempo to

140bpm and lets explore the
components of the dirtiest of
dubstep basslines
Like any bass-orientated electronic genre, there are
rules that apply across the board in terms of composition
and production. These aspects will be highlighted when
relevant, but our real aim here is to educate you on the
standard tools for crafting a heavy dubstep track, whilst
FOCUS ON...GUIDE DRUMS
Though were starting our track off from

bass-design onwards, its good practice to get
some basic drums in the mix for a guide as you
go. The basic requirements are a kick and
snare with some form of cymbals/percussion
to add a further sense of rhythm. Anything
busier than this could be too much information
at this stage and influence your choice of
sounds, so remember to try to keep it simple
Though your first drum sounds can be sparse,
they still need to be appropriate for the genre.
Keeping things simple weve used a quick
double layering technique with an acoustic
sounding drum kit from BFD edited to add a
sense of space and texture. Weve then layered
synth drum sounds for that much needed
weight and impact using Tremor. Our hi-hat has
been chosen simply to be clean and minimal.
This is all we need to then start creating our
first bass elements. In terms of programming,
its a good idea to create a pattern thats longer
than just a short, looped bar - a longer and
more varied drum pattern will encourage you to
find the right rhythms then create a more varied bass section,
which in the long run, will avoid too much repetitiveness.
FOCUS
offering a variety of techniques you can use to create

something original. It would be pointless to give you a full
how-to on todays sound as the leading artists will have
moved on by the time youve learned your trade. Although
todays sound is of importance, do try to keep an open mind
and fully explore our suggested practice in your own way.
This is key, as a lot of the best ideas and sounds will come
from happy accidents and a pursuit for originality. So set
your tempo to 140bpm and lets begin by first defining the
essential components for the dirtiest of basslines.
Bass: defined
The word bassline when used in bass music may differ to
your own definition, so its important to understand what it
means in the context of a dubstep track. Although a sub
bass is used to pin various instruments and sounds
together so they have an even sense of low-end weight
what people consider to be the bassline can be a large
range of musical, noisy, discordant and SFX sounds. If we
break down the elements that form to make a dirty
bassline, there are no set rules and this is why
experimentation is so important. Though less common in
use today, a single bass sound can be the singular feature
of a track, but this does require a huge amount of creative
programming to give it the variation it needs to hold the
listeners interest. The more common approach today is to
work between at least three separate sounds with
contrasting timbres, then after establishing an initial
How to produce Dirty Dubstep Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Vowel bass foundation with FM synthesis
Not all FM synthesisers are equal and some techniques might

translate differently from one to the next. The fundamentals
however, are the same. Sytrus is one of our preferred options
because it allows control of individual partials (harmonic frequencies
above the fundamental).
idea, use internal modulation and automation to twist

and take their tone into different areas for maintaining
listener interest. Though dirty bass might be fierce and
in your face, a constant barrage of a singular distorted
synth will lose the listeners interest quite quickly
through monotony. Bass design is about building the
right sounds, but before you lay down a single note,
you need to be thinking ahead for how youll create
bass dynamics.
Our first oscillator begins its life as a sine wave-based sub. Sines are a clean
source meaning frequency modulation is easy to hear and therefore control in
finer detail. The sine is pitched to E1 or 41.2034Hz this will sound much higher when
we apply frequency modulation. The second oscillators pitch is the same as the first,
but slight detuning can be used to create movement.
01
Dynamics
When designing a bass sound, asides from the technical
starting points well discuss next, be mindful of your
options for twisting and turning a sound. When
balancing parameters of a synth or subsequent creative
audio processing, take note of parameters that create
either a subtle or severe timbre shift. These can then be
either internally modulated within your synth or
sampler so they respond to MIDI note information as
you play, or you can program them within your
sequencer through automation or MIDI CC data.
The more common

approach now is to use
at least three sounds
for you bass
In the interests of workflow, make use of macro
options within the instrument itself or your DAW so
multiple parameters can be controlled at once. If you
dont decide on the best parameters to modify, or group
them up in this way from the start, youll soon find
yourself swamped with confusing movement data. This
will always cause problems when it comes to
arrangement and further editing of your track, so do treat
this as an essential part of the initial creative process.
As the parameter combinations of synths and audio
effects are infinite, lets look at the standard options we
always consider when creating a bassline sequence.
The first choice is what register you want a sound to live
in. Even though the sub bass may stay in the same
frequency area, a lot of dynamics can be created by
Our second oscillator is set to modulate the frequency of the first oscillator
using a triangle wave. This imposes new harmonics which thicken up the sine
wave. If you can control oscillator partials, raise the 32nd to add a new fifth octave
pitch to the triangles shape. Otherwise, add a 3rd triangle oscillator up by five octaves
to modulate the 2nd.
02
Moving the modulation amount for the second oscillator will now create a basic
vowel sound. Next add another oscillator to create high information for a sense
of air. Pitch a different oscillator (weve used a square) up by 64 semi-tones and add
modulation depth to taste.
03
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 83
and noise like. This is a big reason why FM and additive

synthesis are used so much in todays production for
dirty-sounding bass. Uneven clusters of harmonic
content that are static or move over time are all used
against each other to create the type of textures the
older generation often dismiss as noise. But its this
contrast of tuned and none-tuned sounds that are
essential in creating aggression, abrasion and a
generally up-front energy that still retains a sense of
movement and depth.
FM design
Bass Processing
There are two different categories you can put

audio processing into when it comes to bass:
creative and mixing. Creative processing can be
a fundamental part of a sound or punched in on
occasion to create a timbre shift for dynamics
and variation. Amplitude modulation is a popular
choice at the moment and can be achieved
through a tremolo effect or LFO controlling a
synths amplitude. At slower rates youll hear a
detectable rhythm, but get the rate above 20Hz
and youll hear a distortion that creates edge
with a soft characteristic
As long as youre processing the mid to high
frequency part of your bass sounds (i.e. not
processing the sub-bass) the options for creative
processing are endless. Dry/Wet reverb control,
strong phasing, guitar distortion and glitch-like
effects are tools which feature in dubstep on a
regular basis. So the more you experiment with
the less common options, the better.
Mix processing involves the use of EQs and
dynamics processing to balance each sound to
fit comfortably within the track. We generally
used multi-band processing that also includes
an element of saturation. FabFilters Saturn,
Image-Lines Maximus and iZotopes Alloy 2
are good examples for their sonic quality and
uniqueness in character. This allowed us to firm

up certain areas of the frequency spectrum and
add harmonic information per-band or mid and
side plane as required. For EQ balancing you
shouldnt need to do any major removal work to
remove brash frequencies. If youve got too much
grit, go back to source and find what element of
your synth or plug-in chain is creating it and tone
it down!
Wherever possible we like to group types of
sound together. Not just for aesthetics and
housekeeping but mainly to give groups of
sounds their own identity and colour in the mix
to help them stand out as a unit. For example,
all bass sounds will go to a bass group and
be compressed, EQd and mastered as a unit.
This solidifies its range and defines its space,
allowing other groups to cut through around
these main bass elements.
Bear in mind that its always good practice to
pick out similar sounds. So rather than grouping
everything musical to a single music group,
think about dividing them by their transient and
timbre nature. For example, we wouldnt group
pads and guitars together as theyre so different
sonically. If picked instruments are grouped, we
can then accentuate frequencies that are plucky
with EQ and add transient processing if required.
The sub is essential as it

carries the weight of the track
and the frequencies you want to
come from the sub woofer
alternating between a low and high pitched instrument.
For instance, one sound can be very low-end orientated
which leaves space in the mids and top-end of the mix.
Another sound can have lots of mid and top info so its a
fuller-sounding part and the third sound could be
scooped in the mids by being a sub with a thin sound
that plays towards the top-end of the mix very much
akin to classical music.
The nature of each sounds frequency content is
another element to explore for dynamics. Fundamental
waveforms sine, triangle and saw waves are pure,
slightly and very harmonically-based respectively. The
harmonics are even so they create a pleasant, defined
musical pitch. Square waves also carry pitch clearly, but
they consist of odd harmonics which means they sound
big and hollow. These waveforms can be used in modern
dubstep, but they will be a point of contrast against
other, much less musical components. These
instruments are a counterpart by being non-musical
FOCUS
To start with a solid foundation, we use a sine wave

based oscillator. A pure sinusoidal waveform is the
most clean, and therefore most powerful wave we
can create and being infinitely smooth, it has nothing
but its fundamental frequency to impart. The sub is
essential as it carries the weight of the track and the
frequencies you want from sub woofers to rattle the
audiences nose cartilage.
On its own, a sub instrument can be nice but our
examples throughout the article contain sub, mid and
high range information. Sometimes well achieve each
bass instrument with more than one layered source, but
its entirely possible to create large and complex
patches within a single synthesizer. In this particular
Experiment with different processing on your grouped bass sounds

to fill or create space to all sounds as a whole. This will help unify
them and put them in their own space within the mix.
When experimenting with audio processing, or any onboard synth

modulation, its worth trialling a sound to see if it works better when
re-sampled into a sampler or kept live. Playback speed alters when
playing a sample higher or lower and this adds a character of its own
to a bass idea.
Re-sampling and Slip Editing
A good way to get creative with an existing idea is to re-work it as

a new sample. This can be done in various ways depending on the
tools available in your DAW. All DAWs can bounce audio and this is
the simplest way to re-sample. Once bounced, you can chop and
re-edit the sample, or use slip editing to move the start position of
the audio within the audio clip. This changes the content but the
clip itself stays in place on the grid. This is good way to encounter
happy accidents and is most commonly used on long pieces of
audio recorded when jamming with a synth and its parameters.
genre, FM synthesis seems to be the main staple for

bass creation. Because of how FM synthesis works, it
becomes very simple to create complex, warped
sounds. In fact, even when basses are created in other
types of synthesizers, its usually an FM technique that
will make the sound fit the genre. For instance, NIs
Massive, although subtractive, uses phase modulation
Though were focussing on FM synthesis for most of our bass design, additive synthesis is a great option
for different textures. It allows complex waveforms to be built from many sine waves just as real sounds
are in the natural world. But its the unique approach it takes to synthesizing sounds and its interface that
will encourage unique results.
operator, set to sine and keep it modulation free. This

means we have all elements of the sound available to
play in one instrument.
FM synthesis allows us to
create warped tones a sine
wave adds more harmonics to
create a new waveform
to create similar-sounding effects.
FM Synthesis allows us to create very warped tones
by using oscillators to modulate other oscillators. A sine
wave set to modulate another will impart new even
harmonics which in turn create a new waveform at the
synths output. But detuning the modulating oscillator,
or changing its wave type, it will venture into noisy and
unpleasant timbres. Sweeping the amount of
modulation being applied is key to achieving the FM
bass sound used countless times in this genre. So be
sure to explore tuning, waveform choice, waveform
phase and additional oscillator routing to move away
from the norm.
For example, a few of our bass sounds use ImageLines Sytrus with internal modulation amounts being
used for movement. After exploring some strongsounding parameters to automate, we then mapped
them across an X/Y controller within the synth. These
X/Y parameters are then mapped to our host software
as two automation lanes to keep life simple. To find the
sweet spots of where the X and Y best overlap, we
started with random automation data, then fine tuned
the automation until we achieved a groove and
interesting timbre shift against our varied drum track.
To underpin an FM instrument with a clean sine
wave to emphasise bass, we can simply enable another
FOCUS
Musical keys
Food for thought

In this tutorial weve covered the very essence of what
this genre is about bass! You should have the tools
and basic understanding of FM synthesis to explore or
use to try and mimic our example sounds. You can
explore different styles of guide drums at this stage to
help expose new potential vibes, but thats for a future
article! MTF
Due to the sound-design biased nature of the

more extreme end of dubstep, musical keys
are difficult to decipher and follow. Pitching
sounds, re-sampling them, pitch-bending etc
can result in the end result, often venturing into
non-western scales and microtuning. But an
important factor is the choice of root notes
that you base your sub bass around and its
closest harmonics.
Most club sound systems have a bass roll-off
of around 40Hz which means pitching your sub
bass any lower than this can cause a less than
universal translation from one venue to the next.
In some cases this means youll hear no sub at all
if your choice of key is too low. On the opposite
side of this, going too high can leave your track

lacking in any low impact information when
compared to other music in the mix. Also bear
in mind that sound systems are EQd to sound
pleasant for their environment and genre; boosts
and cuts will be applied in the expected sub
area, kicks, snares and even where cymbals are
expected to fall. For all of these reasons, bass
genre artists have naturally fallen into using the
keys of around E, F and G.
You can test this phenomena by running
reference tracks through a spectrum analyser
to study where their keys lie. Even individual
sounds are becoming standardised to frequency
so mixes tend to have a unified and equally
musical sound.
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MTF Technique Producing drum n bass
Technique Genre focus
Authentic and original

drum & bass Part 1
Arguably one of the most difficult electronic genres to master, D&B veteran Liam OMullane
explains the core techniques for achieving an authentic production sound.
longside genres such as techno and trance,

drum & bass is one of the more mature styles
that has constantly pushed the boundaries of
electronic music production. And although
many people regard dubstep to be the most
innovative and perhaps less rules-driven genres of modern
times, D&B started its life in much the same way.
During the first half of the 90s, a large part of the rave
scene was splintering off to become hardcore, and as
another offshoot of this development, jungle was born. From
jungle through to its evolution into D&B in the early-to-mid90s, the genre has always pushed the boundaries in terms
of how technology can be used creatively.
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Your key focus should be to

experiment until you stumble
on something unique
In this two-part series we will be looking at the four core
elements that apply to all the sub-genres that have emerged
over the years bass design, drum production, decorative
sounds/melodies and arrangement dynamics. Unless you
are planning to produce yet another formulaic track in a bid
to compete with the existing big commercial tunes around,
FOCUS ON
PROGRAMMING DETAILS
Although copy and paste are functions that
are embedded in modern computing life,
using them or a duplicate-part function as
a general writing and arranging technique
isnt the key to achieving tracks with a deep
sense of detail. However, were not saying
that you cant start a general idea as a loop,
but you should definitely keep the loop
minimally short 1, 2 or 4 bars before
extending the idea. Anything longer will
invite you to be lazy when it comes to
adding variation and detail to your work at a
later stage. Instead, try to expand an idea by
writing new parts one after another. You can
copy smaller sections from the content of
previous parts, just try to avoid global
copying of all parts and their content. A
better approach is to pinch and borrow
little bits here and there, then vary them as
you progress.
FOCUS
you will be aiming to create music that will have the

necessary production values to sit happily in your list of
respected artists. But in a genre this mature, many styles
and ideas have already been done to death, so you will also
need to strive for originality in your work.
Your key focus should be to experiment until you stumble
on something unique, so the bass and drum techniques
were about to discuss will give you the baseline knowledge
needed to successfully take an exploration into sound, then
package that into a balanced musical production. It can take
an artist years to craft and perfect the sound that ends up
defining them, so dont expect to bang out deep, detailed
tracks which conjure up vivid imagery to the listener after
just reading this. But do note that although there are many
tutorials out there that aim to teach you how to sound like
big-name artists who already own the rights to the sound
theyve carved in the genre if you stick with the
fundamentals we cover here youll find it much easier to
take experimentation and make it work as a finished track.
So set your sequencers tempo to between 170180BPM
(depending on your mood!) and lets get started. MTF
Producing drum n bass Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Drum work
The only requirement for the main drum sounds in D&B is that
they need enough presence to sound strong enough on their own
before you add decorative sounds. For the kick and snare were starting
with two samples chosen for their weight and good transient snap.
Weve then programmed four bars with variation.
From here were going to explore layering possibilities to lend an

individual tone to our drums. Due to the faster tempo in D&B than
other genres, its important to keep the lower-frequency elements
quite short in duration. Keep a keen ear on this by using fades or ADSR
amplitude control. These can be used to carefully tighten each new
sound as you add it.
When adding new drum layers, utilise high-pass, band-pass or an

EQ filter to remove any unnecessary frequencies that may clash
with other drum sounds and mix elements as the song progresses.
Weve achieved a woody-sounding kick and piccolo snare tone were
happy with by creating a few layers, but dont be opposed to changing
sounds as your song and mix demand.
Anything from hi-hats to sliced breakbeats can be used to add

more rhythmic information to your core sounds. A filtered break
slice is often used as a textural layer to the kick and snare, but weve
used it between the main hits in a sparing fashion and filtered them so
they dont sound too dominating. Also try high-pass-filtering long
sounds to give a sense of space to your drum sound as a whole.
As you may have guessed, layering is going to play a pretty large

part here too. Weve duplicated our lead track, which gives us six
saw waves to play with. Its sounding really nice and buzzy now, so we
dial in a little reverb to give it even more space and character. We dont
actually have our lead playing all the time rather, it kicks in every
second bar or so.
Although the commercial side of D&B became very loud over the
last decade, modern underground releases allow more room for a
mix to breathe. So dont overdo processing like limiting, hard-clipping
or any other effects designed to max-out a signal. Try achieving more
power by sidechaining sounds other than your kick and snare having
these drop by just 24dB is enough for a solid yet dynamic sound.
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MTF Technique Producing drum n bass
MTF Step-by-Step Bass design and re-sampling
Whether you plan to keep an instrument live throughout the

production process or intend to re-sample it (which tends to be
the case in D&B), both approaches start with a sound source of
discernible pitch or more noise-like and pitchless character. The latter
can be achieved with drastic pitch variations or heavy use of FM,
ring-modulation or any other heavily discordant processing.
Theres no set rules for the type of waveforms you can select here,
but youll generally find that a bigger sound is achieved by using
square waves within your mix of synth layers. Saw waves offer a lot of
edge that cuts across a mix; highly pitched sine or triangle waves are
useful for achieving softer tones. Make sure that you also explore the
best octave for each layer as you stack synths or oscillators.
The next step is to add movement to your sound. The best

starting point is to play with any controls as you listen for
something interesting. Use the more coarse-sounding changes to
develop a unique character. At this stage, try to assign an envelope or
LFO to these parameters so they can be triggered as you play.
If you plan on re-sampling your sound, this is the point at which

you can pile on processing effects without worrying about getting
in a tangle with automation later on. Explore parameter changes with
effects as you did in the last step and record them as automation.
Common effect choices are phaser, notch-filtering and stereo width/
widening tools. But here, anything goes.
Re-sampling is the most practical way to deal with these large

effects chains and automation recordings. Before sampling,
explore the best note to record as some will have a certain sonic
sweetness over others. After recording them into your DAW, drag the
audio into a sampler and explore the possibilities with this (and any
other re-sampled bass sounds youve created).
A designated sub-layer is essential for the low-end weight

needed in D&B. These are often stacked sine waves with
octave- or harmonic-based intervals. Alternatively, triangle waves can
be quite useful when low-pass-filtered for a thicker sound. Keep the
sub as a separate instrument rather than a layer with other sounds so
it can either play in unison or be varied from the other parts.
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Producing authentic drum & bass Technique MTF
Authentic and original

drum & bass Part 2
Following on from the creation of drum beats and bass lines in Part 1, Liam OMullane turns
his attention to the vital elements of melody, atmosphere and arrangement techniques.
his second instalment builds on the knowledge

gained in Part 1 for creating original-sounding
drum & bass tracks. But while the drums and
bass are at the heart of D&B, its also important
to consider the melodic and perhaps not so
melodic parts youll need to create. Depending on the
direction you want to take your work, you may need to create
huge atmospheric soundscapes for a dark, techy, sci-fi
movie-like track; if youre creating a more musically driven
piece, you will need decorative melody information in the
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Were arming you with the tools

youll need to take creative ideas
and make them work as a song
form of arp synths, pads and so on. Even the most minimal
forms of the genre have elements that sit in the background
behind the more obvious foreground sounds, and this is
where your mixes can gain a sense of depth.
First well look at the approach (and perseverance) youll
need to take when it comes to sound-design. Using a
multi-layered approach of processing, rendering, editing,
reprocessing and re-editing, its important to remember that

although this may bear no fruit to begin with, pushing
forward past poor initial results is the only path to creating
something genuinely interesting. Creating perfect and
unique sounds through sound-design and mix-processing
as well as re-sampling techniques can be slow at times, so
keep an open mind as you work and be patient it can take
anything from 20 minutes to over a day of trying out ideas
until you stumble on that golden nugget!
When youve got your ideas together, start to think about
your arrangement; here well be exploring a few ways in
which you can take your ideas and work them into a playable
structure. Theres no strict form that a D&B song must take,
but do keep in mind that the majority of your audience will
hear your music in a DJ-mixing context, so its important to
make it suitable for both club and radio play as well as
maximising on the moments when the song might be
present in a mix alongside another track.
But as we stated in Part 1, were arming you with the
tools youll need to take creative ideas and make them work
as a song not how to churn out yet another bandwagonchasing club-banger. So turn on that sub, shut out the
daylight and do whatever else you need to do to get into a
creative headspace. MTF
FOCUS ON PERSEVERANCE & NEW SOUNDS

Sound-design is an integral part of D&B and there are many approaches to creating something
unique and engaging for your tracks. Although sound quality is important in all
aspects of music production, sometimes the audio
quality of your source material is less critical when
its being used as a trigger for heavily processed
audio. In fact, itll often be a more suck-and-see
approach that youll need to take: starting with a
selection of sounds, trialling various processing
chains, applying automation and exploring whats
possible. If you keep the processing live and in real
time you can always swap-out the source sounds to
see how they are affected by the processing.
The audio for this tutorial employs various
stages of processing and should give you an idea of
how you can approach this technique. Starting with
a few randomly chosen bass guitar slide samples,
the material is processed three times to create
contrasting results. These include a combination of
reverb, saturation, frequency-shifting and
white-noise vocoding. Certain parameters are
automated and edited to try to gain the most tonal
change for each sound within the phrase. EQ is used
to re-balance the sound and reduce unwanted
frequencies, then all three results are rendered into a
new audio file to be treated as a new source sample. This is then
chopped-up and edited into something of interest. By listening to this audio you can hear how
these techniques can yield surprising results that are drastically different from the source.
| 91
MTF Technique Producing authentic drum & bass
MTF Step-by-Step Decorative sounds and melodies
Depending on the vibe of your track, you can choose to fill the
background with melodic pads, pitched FX, drones, atmospheres
or a mash of the lot. Weve chosen to create a sinister pad as a tension
layer for the intro by playing discordant notes, layering sequenced
sounds underneath the louder synthetic strings (for movement) and
automating the pan position of the quieter layers for stereo interest.
For atmospheric sounds you cant go wrong with long doses of

reverb, with a mostly wet balance to achieve a diffused tone.
Anything goes for the sound source. We used pitched percussion in the
main section and a saw synth for the intro to create a huge, horn-like
sound. We automated the reverbs Freeze function to extend the tails
and changed the room size, all of which adds detail for the listener.
For radio-friendly styles, melodies usually require straightforward

synth sounds. These are readily available in many synth libraries
and can be customised through layering and editing. For deeper styles,
try working with less conventional sounds. Weve layered a blend of
bells, cowbells and claves and added a tom underneath for continuous
punch and weight throughout.
Once youve created a few background sounds, render them

down to audio for further editing. This is a simple way to create
the much-needed variation within a track and is an economical use of
the sounds youve already spent a lot of time perfecting. These can
then easily go through further generations of manipulation without
taxing your computer too much.
Stabs are useful for announcing new sections or to insert

sporadically to create tonal contrast when everything else drops
out. Stabs are easy to make as they require just a good dose of
layering, spreading of pitch and creative panning if you want stereo
width. Again, explore the most unexpected sounds in your library and
use mistuned layers to give denser, moody and less-musical tones.
As your mix builds up, use a fine-tooth-comb attitude to justify

each and every part to avoid unnecessary clutter. Remember to
replace sounds if needed as you develop the mix to give everything the
space it needs to breathe. We went through various bass sounds, kicks
and snares to maintain clarity as we developed our ideas. If it helps,
save a new project version before making drastic changes.
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Producing authentic drum & bass Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Creating arrangement dynamics
When you want to develop an idea into a good 16 bars or more, a

balance between creating an interesting sonic tapestry while
being sensible about your approach needs to be struck. By this we
mean not keeping hundreds of tracks running with live effects and
automation throughout the project. When you have the sounds you
need, render them down to audio to make your project easier to handle.
Breaks and pauses are needed not only during full breakdowns.
These are great dynamic tools for momentarily throwing the flow
in a groove, creating lifts before a new section, and adding durations of
space to break up a busy track. Focus on short sections to figure out
how many elements can be removed for a drop in energy. Mute send FX
such as reverb and delay through automation to achieve digital silence.
A high-pass filter will lift the low end from single sounds, groups
or the entire mix before a new section to make it seem heavier.
This technique can also be applied to parts in full song sections to
create more space in a mix for busier sections. For example, a lead
synth might have its full frequency content allowed in a breakdown,
but is high-pass-filtered on the drop to accommodate new content.
A D&B tracks arrangement is not set in stone, but the basics of

intro, breakdown, drop, counter sections, 2nd breakdown, drop,
alternate sections and outro is a guide if youre unsure. If you make the
intro rhythmic it will be useful to a DJ for mixing, but a more important
feature is a unique sound or melody. This acts as an audible signpost
for an audience to know that your song is currently being mixed-in.
There are many ways to continue an idea after the first main
drop: exploring bass tones over time; melodic progression; drum
sound switch-ups (switching from one tone to another); stripping back
to a more sparse section or a completely different style to push the
song in an unexpected direction. Explore a few options, save them as
different projects and do some trial arrangements to see what works.
The outro serves the same purpose as the intro but in reverse.
While its tempting to simply copy and reverse the parts in the
intro, try to use it as another dynamic tool. This part of the track will be
the last piece heard as its mixed over someone elses intro, so create
excitement by using a different combination of previous parts and
re-editing or introducing a new element to sign-off with.
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MTF Technique Producing techno
Producing techno
in-the-box Part 1
A genre that has influenced so many others over the years, techno is still the vibrant techbased music it has always been. Liam OMullane gets you started on writing your own.
rom its infancy in the late 80s right through to

the present day, techno has maintained the two
key aspects that make it easy to define: a driving
heartbeat-like pulse thats provided by a
pounding kick drum; and an almost futuristic
sound sculpted through sampling, synthesis and other
sound-design techniques. Techno is a fascinating genre as
it manages to simultaneously paint vivid imagery in the
listeners mind, while also engaging the body through
hypnotic hooks.
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Technology isnt merely the

means by which we create
and finish music
The thing that makes these hooks unique to most other
genres is a lack of traditional musical content. In techno,
hooks are usually created from sounds and pitches that
work well together, rather than using the traditional
western scale. Its therefore the sounds and rhythms that
well be focusing on in this first instalment of the series.
When writing a techno track, its important to
understand that technology isnt merely the means by
which we create and finish the music in techno, the
FOCUS ON GROOVE AND FEEL

The groove of a techno tune is an essential element that requires great attention to detail. Although
the pulse throughout a techno DJ mix may seem relentless, the individual feel from one tune to the
next provides the variation a DJ needs to use it as a dynamic tool. In the right
hands, these grooves can be used to control a crowd
and take them on a hypnotic journey.
Groove can be added globally in most software
sequencers and swing amount is a good starting
point before getting into other groove-based
techniques. First create a simple drum pattern
comprising kick, clap and hi-hats, then dial in the
amount of swing that seems appropriate. As you
add more sounds, continue to alter the swing
amount until you require unique timing changes on
a sound-per-sound basis. At this point its best to
turn off your softwares quantize function and
explore shifting the notes for a single sound in
finer increments. Loop around the pattern and use
a MIDI encoder or key commands to control your
movements in an incremental fashion. This helps
you to make an educated decision as you clearly
hear the results of each minor change.
The next level of detail is where you dig deeper and shift notes around on an
individual basis for variation. Be careful here, as its quite easy to undo the overall groove youve
established. Make minor changes and keep looping to hear how it affects the overall groove.
FOCUS
technology is the instrument! Effects such as delay are

used to create interesting rhythms from short blasts of
sound, which are then experimented with to create a
songs main elements. Its this creative and progressive use
of effects processing that forms the non-human aspect of
the genre thats so engaging, resulting in sounds that the
real world cannot emulate.
Although techno started life in hardware samplers,
synths, mixers and drum machines, today its
commonplace to create a track by working completely
in-the-box within your software of choice. Although Im
describing techniques using my preferred software
Ableton Live each technique can be replicated in all of
the major DAWs around today. Audio examples are provided
on the DVD to give you an idea of how these techniques can
be applied, but asides from the core aspects of song design
that makes techno the genre it is, the application of these
techniques is open to interpretation.
Your first consideration should be to focus on the timing
of your parts, creating a groove that your listeners can lock
in to. Although there are also many sound-design aspects
to focus on as we move forward in future instalments, after
reading the following techniques for groove, drums and
decorative sounds, you should be in a position to get the
feel of your initial ideas right. Next time, well look at taking
your sound-design further, working sections into an
arrangement and finishing a mix to complete a track. So
set your BPM to 120 or more and lets get started... MTF
Producing techno Technique MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Drums and rhythmic editing
As in many genres, your choice of kick tone is dictated by the

nature of your bass instrument. If the bass sounds only on the
off-beat, when the kick doesnt play, youre free to choose any kick you
like as frequency conflict is not a concern. If they sound at the same
time, youll need a kick with its main energy below around 50Hz so a
bass can sit above it (or vice versa).
The clap is generally used to reinforce the 2nd and 4th beat of the
bar while the kick plays on every beat (this can be quite open in
terms of its sonic character). Use the pitch of the clap to tune it to your
existing drum sound as you work. Either create a close and punchy
sound with a small amount of reverb, or EQ-out the lower end and add
a long reverb for a larger, cinematic-type sound.
Reverb is a handy tool for creating interesting and dynamic

backdrops in your mix when used as an insert effect on a single
sound. The simplest technique is to automate between the dry/wet
amount mostly dry for light ambience; mostly wet for dominating a
mix. Either do this gradually throughout a longer 1632 bar phrase for a
gradual crescendo, or quickly over the last few bars as a fill technique.
A more complex reverb technique involves rendering a mostly

wet, long reverb as audio. You can then edit it creatively as you
would any other sample. This can involve simple looping to retain the
density of the reverb as a constant backdrop, or in-depth, rhythmic
programming of the audio for interesting changes behind your sounds
in the foreground.
Decorative rhythm sounds are usually minor elements in a mix,

but in techno they are often treated like a lead instrument. That
being said, a 16th hi-hat pattern is usually used to glue the drums
together, create a feeling of momentum and help to drive a track. They
will need to be clearly heard throughout, so use a combination of
sound source, pitch and EQ to find a sweet spot in the mix.
Although parallel compression is a good way to achieve a higher

sense of energy, parallel distortion can be used to create a dense
wall of frequencies; you can then use EQ to tune it into an available
space in your mix. This is great for a high-octane, fizzy-sounding mix.
Generally speaking, the higher the gain, the lower the distortions
output needs to be as it becomes less dynamic and more noise-like.
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MTF Step-by-Step Decorative sounds and control
Theres no fixed approach to finding the right sounds to base your

track around, but wed recommend focusing on the rhythm first
before spending time exploring sonic possibilities. For simple variation
as you work and to help your programming duplicate the sound a
few times and change the start point of each copy.
When youve created a sequence youre happy with, experiment

with either a single sound or a combination of contrasting tones.
A single sound can be given sonic variation over time to add interest,
which can be as simple as a slight, fine pitch change. Weve used the
cents control on a sampler for our tuning change, which is hard to
notice at first but can be heard when removed.
Delay is a good way to add a further level of variation to your

sound, but be sure to leave gaps in your sequence so the effect
has space to be heard. Work in milliseconds rather than sync amounts
as M/S offers a much finer level of control in terms of time (and
therefore groove). When automated, changes to delay time are also
smoother to listen to as you move from one groove to another.
Delays can be coloured with mix processing just like any other
sound. Weve added chorus to ours to smooth out transients as
well as give them a wider stereo spread. Like parallel distortion, were
bracketing the delays with EQ to tune them to a suitable space within
our mix. All of this processing helps to give the delays a unique
character, making them a feature of the mix.
If you want to explore different sounds within your sequence,

there are no rules as to what they should be. Instrument stabs,
drums, foley samples, SFX or recordings made from the objects around
you are all fair game. The main requirement is to find a group of sounds
that contrast with each other, while helping to accent the dynamics of
your rhythm.
When using different sounds for a sequence, it can be difficult to

create a sense of equal power and clarity. These sounds are one
of your lead instruments, and in turn they need to sound unified. This is
where group processing is useful, bringing an element of similarity to
each sound. Vintage EQ, compression, distortion and modulation
effects are all good starting points for achieving a consistent tone.
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Back Issues MTF
Available as both printed and digital editions complete your collection!
Producing techno
in-the-box Part 2
The process of making this futuristic-sounding genre continues as Liam OMullane moves
on from drums, percussion and groove to look at creating and developing song sections
lthough techno is a genre that was invented by

humans controlling machines, last time we
explored how important the human element of
groove can be when programming electronic
drums and percussion. Other sound-design techniques
were covered as well, but in this second instalment were
looking at layering sounds to create various song sections.
All of this is leading towards the next part in this series,
when well look at arrangement editing before we finalise
everything with a mixdown.
On the disc
Accompanying
on the DVD
Breaking away from the

western scale is important for
creating a sense of depth
The melodic elements created in the following two
walkthroughs consist of arps, bass lines and atmospheres.
While these are melody-based, dont forget the importance
of creating some discord within your song. Breaking away
from the often pitch-perfect western scale is important for
creating a sense of depth and darkness. Luckily, this isnt
too difficult to achieve if you use the following simple-yeteffective techniques.
Melodies can have a looser sense of pitch if you use glide
or portamento settings on your synthesizers or samplers. A
longer glide time means that shorter notes within a busy
rhythmic pattern will not quite meet their intended pitch; if
short enough, they will merely move towards the note like a
FOCUS ON...VOCAL PROCESSING

Although techno isnt a genre thats known for using vocal elements as a main focus within a track,
some choice spoken-word samples or short sung phrases can work very well if used tastefully. In
theme with everything else in the genre, vocals are usually given an electronic production vibe,
either through the use of intricate effects and edits or processing in order to transform a vocal into
something more futuristic-sounding. Delays and reverbs are good to pepper additional information
between a vocal phrase and will make them sound larger-than-life. Pitching vocals down is a
simple but effective way to get a darker vibe, but dont go too mad or it will sound like an R&B track.
Other useful effects that most people will have in their toolbox are ring modulation, frequencyshifters and modulation effects like chorus and phasers. These can all create severe pitch and
frequency-based changes to really mangle up the human voice. Another severe processing option is
a vocoder effect, as you can use any carrier signal you want to be manipulated by the vocal as it acts
as a modulator. White noise as the carrier creates ghostly spoken words; a simple but raspy
low-pitched saw wave synth can create an aggressive robotic sound from any vocal. As the carrier
signal can be anything you want, put your sound-designer head on and explore whats possible.
Other creative flavours of vocal processing are also worth exploring, like Bitspeek, from Sonic
Charge. This uses the same technology as early 80s speaking computers, but has enough
user-editable parameters to craft some incredibly unique and sinister tones from any vocal source.
FOCUS
string being bent on a guitar. This creates a sense of tension

and can be utilised on elements such as our 303 acid bass
line and arpeggiated melodies.
If you have multiple instruments in your track, try
offsetting their tuning from each other. Most synths and
samplers have a master tune control that can be tuned by
cents to make them slightly sharp or flat in relation to the
rest of the songs global tuning. Again, this will help to
create a sense of edge.
If you explore the techniques covered here along with the
detuning techniques for sound-design discussed previously,
you should have the skills to create some very darksounding techno. When this is bundled with the songsection construction techniques were about to cover, you
should be in a position to finalise and edit an arrangement
by the next instalment. So, lets look at some more
techniques to help move your techno track further forwards
in its creation. MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Creating new song sections
Our initial idea is quite minimalist a kick, clap, hi-hat, bass and
off-beat percussive sound. This serves to establish a groove that
we can build on with a monotonous bass line that has only two notes.
For the first layer, weve experimented with additional melodic content.
This is a good time to use step-sequencing, adding one note of an
arpeggiated piece at a time to slowly build up your idea.
Next weve chosen to explore some other potential sounds while

our arp pattern runs in the background. A Juno bass and 303 acid
sound work really well, so for contrast were using both (the same
pattern but using one for a call and the other for an answer). Both
sounds lend themselves well to filter cutoff automation, so this gives
us a simple way to create sonic variation over time.
Now one section is in place, its time to work on alternate sections.

As the main section is quite minimal, well contrast it by passing
the same bass line through a guitar amp/cab simulator. This thickens
the midrange with additional harmonics while also removing the low
end for a sense of lift. Weve also created stereo contrast by processing
the left/right channels to differ from the normally mono bass sound.
Well create another breakdown with even more sonic density to

give us more options when it comes to arranging. An atmospheric
tone to serve as a backdrop will provide a full-frequency fill and create
a darker mood; exploring extreme down-pitching of samples is good for
creating low, sci-fi-like rumbles. Add distortion to create new higher
harmonics as youll lose them when severely pitching things down.
As an alternate version of our high bass layers from Step 2, well

go for a new layer to replace them with a different sonic
characteristic and rhythm. This allows us to place them in the
arrangement as we deem fit based on the energy levels needed. This
sound ended up being a classic rave stab that was filtered using an
envelope-modulated high-pass filter.
We have enough high-energy sections now, so this is a strippeddown idea for a break before the main drop. Its just a kick, some
new atmosphere sounds for contrast and a vocal sample weve created
using the techniques discussed in the Focus On... box. The atmosphere
is musical this time and plays in a different key from every other
section, so it helps the track to move from one key to another.
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Ableton Live 2014 | 99
MTF Step-by-Step Automation
Like most electronic genres, its common to begin the techno

writing process with a main section. This allows you to establish
a hook and production sound, which you can then work backwards
from to extend into an intro. This usually involves stripping elements
from the main section so theres less energy in the intro. Snippets of
sound from the main section act as a teaser to the listener here.
After deciding on your first main section, find some special FX

layers that work for adding variety over a 1632-bar section. This
can include an impact sound for the beginning, like a large-sounding
crash, a white noise sweep, or a drum sound passed through a long
reverb. By printing these to audio and reversing/re-pitching them you
can create various lead-in/lead-out sounds for each section.
Once youve applied the last technique to a few sections youll

have sounds to use as teasers in your intro. These sounds can be
programmed in a less busy manner as one way to hold back from their
use in the main section, or can be made to sound less exciting through
subtractive effects like a filter. Its all about figuring out different ways
of holding back whats to come.
As you lay out the drums/other sounds for your intro, you may find
a need for more melodically driven sounds. This is fine as long as
you keep referencing your main drop to ensure youre not stealing its
thunder. Time locators can be useful for this so you can jump from one
section to another. Here weve gone from adding a small two-beat arp
line to it being repeated and edited to build up to the first breakdown.
Controlling and withholding drum energy can be an important

factor for your intros progression. This can be a simple matter of
borrowing rhythmic parts from other sections and stripping them back
if needed. As before, keep referencing the main sections to make sure
theyre not prematurely raising the energy in the track.
Youre building the intro as a means to arrive at the already

established destination of your main section, but ideas you have
for the intro can often indicate a better direction for your main section
to go in. After weve worked on our intro it sounds like too severe a
switch when the melody of the main drop begins, so weve re-edited
the first play of the drop to play down the melodic aspect even more.
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Producing techno
in-the-box Part 3
In this penultimate installment of our techno production series, Liam OMullane guides you
through the finer aspects of variation and sound-design.
ere nearly at the end of our journey, having

developed some solid musical ideas in part 2
of this series. Now these ideas need fleshing
out and generally improving as the reality of
our arrangement and ideas become clear. Techno has no
hard rules in terms of arrangement, just that songs usually
pass through one or more ideas with a sense of progression.
This can be achieved through rhythm and note
programming, but more often than not is carried out through
manipulating the timbre of sounds as they groove.
On the disc
Accompanying
example audio files
included on the DVD
The mixdown stage shouldnt

completely overturn a track
and its content
Our initial ideas from part 2 have been modified,
shortened, repeated and, in some cases, deleted altogether
something that can sometimes be necessary when youre
aiming for an end result thats better than just OK. As is
usually the case, a fresh session helped us see where some
ideas could be taken and highlighted other things that
simply werent going to work.
Although were going to treat the process of mixing down

as a separate task in the final part of this series, we have
already created a fairly solid balance of sounds to work
with. Aside from some pretty huge-sounding ambience
effects that weve used to create a distinct division between
foreground and background sounds, the majority of the
mixs balance comes from the right choice of sounds.
Theres no mass-layering techniques used in the drum
design, for example, just simple trial and error to find the
sounds that slot together best. Explore a sounds tuning and
octave choice to see if it will slot into the mix aesthetic
youve already established if it doesnt, you have the
choice of taking the song into a new direction that suits the
sound youre introducing, or simply ditching it and moving
on to find something more suitable. Theres no right or wrong
way to do this, which is why our song has mutated a fair bit
from the ideas first outlined in part 1. Just be mindful to not
let a new sound unbalance a mix thats already established,
and dont expect us to look at fixing poor sounds in part 4.
The mixdown stage shouldnt completely overturn a
track and its content (unless thats the aim for creative
reasons); it should instead be an opportunity to tighten up
the tracks energy, maintain clarity and in turn help the
tracks arrangement make even more sense to the listener.
Until then, lets focus on a full arrangement. MTF
FOCUS ON...MAKING IT ALL BREATHE

Although certain sonic nuances are dealt with at the mixing
stage, the grooves in techno are a marrying of melody, rhythm
and sound-design. This means that all of these factors are part of
the composition process and must be applied before mixing.
Weve already covered obvious methods of manipulation in parts
1 and 2 of this series these included re-sampling parallel
effects for independent editing, making your own lead-in/out
sounds, and dynamically controlling reverbs used as inserts to
move a sound from the foreground to background over time.
Now think about some more subtle ways to move and
animate your sounds as they play throughout your track. For
instance, we used a narrow EQ boost to find a pleasant higher
harmonic on the bass line and then jammed with the gain control
throughout the tune to give it more movement and dynamic
overtones. We performed the same task for the acid line with a
notch EQ and also slightly modified the parameters of effects like
a bitcrusher and so on.
This is when using a MIDI controller can help as you can play
these parameters and capture your performance. We used this
technique on various sounds, including automating a live filter
performance on our intro arp synth and atmospheric sounds as
well. Just remember that although extreme variation can create
large shifts in dynamics and tonal changes, these more subtle
approaches to altering sounds over time is essential to go from a track that sounds flat to
something that has a higher level of energy and interest for the audience.
FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 101
MTF Step-by-Step Developing ideas further
If youve decided to repeat some sections to make them longer,

think about how you can edit certain sound layers in and out.
Weve used the acid line from the last tutorial to create a break in the
middle of two repeats. We also removed the bass track at this point so
theres a sense of lift, as the tune sounds less full and dominant. The
bass seems heavier for being muted for a brief moment.
Another way to create variation is to apply an effect in a way that

makes a small sound become larger to fill out your mix. You can
use a dry/wet control, auxiliary send or frequency filtering to hide/
reveal the changes over time. Here weve applied parallel processing of
a wet reverb, which is filtered to create a rhythmic backdrop. Weve
automated various controls for a deep, moving background.
You can steal an idea to help out another weve chosen to

create a more dramatic segue from the short vocal break by
adding another bar and a build-up sound. This sound is based on the
same MIDI pattern as the bass afterwards, but weve assigned the new
clip to a less dominant, percussive sound. With automation applied,
weve created a sense of movement to get from one section to the next.
Setting up different echo sends that have individual delay times

lets you use incidental sounds to trigger interesting rhythms in
your most minimal sections. To create a much denser tail to the sounds
and in turn a more interesting stereo spread weve also used some
of our existing send FX to get a thicker texture, enabling a tiny sound to
create a huge ambient and rhythmic texture.
To get to and from a section or to vary whats already in place, its

worth treating your drum and melodic patterns as you would an
audio loop. Weve created a build by grabbing a beat of our drums MIDI
clip and repeating it a few times at different speeds until the new
section begins. You can also introduce melodic ideas by slowly looping
their first half or quarter and eventually revealing the whole melody.
Playing around with ideas as loops can also help you to come up
with interesting cross-layers and rhythms where the loops dont
overlap each other immediately. This is very effective in techno, with
percussive sounds used to create more groove. We found that one of
our deeper sections had space for a percussion sound, and looped it to
an irregular measure that we looped every four bars.
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MTF Step-by-Step Animated backdrops and textures
Another dynamic tool within a mix can be a manipulatable

backdrop tone or drone. Weve covered this already in a basic way
for mood, pads and other sounds, but this time we want something
that varies over the whole track. Grab a few of the main sounds from
the track and copy them to a temporary area. Youll want more melodic
and noise-based sounds here than full rhythmic sections.
Now create a range of send effects on auxiliary channels to feed

from these sounds and create multiple senses of depth. We like
the high-end reverb plug-ins here, and also some distortion. If you set
the reverbs decay times long enough, you can create 3264-bar
sections that will have constantly changing tonality.
Now its time to make this sound manageable by exporting the

main mix output to a new file. Load the exported file into your
project and remove the parts used to make it. Next, explore pitch- and
time-manipulation and dont be afraid to re-edit and re-render your
processing as necessary.
The backdrop needs to be fairly consistent in volume so theres a

constant bed of sound to carve some movement out of with
further processing. With careful application of compression and other
dynamics plug-ins, you can squash your decaying sound and turn it into
solid levels of sound. You can repeat this process to create a second
backdrop if you want more distinction between sections.
When youve created your textured backdrop audio files, lay them
across the track and lower the level so you can only just tell
theyre there when you mute them. This is how subtle this backdrop will
be, but you should feel like a sense of size is lost from your mix when its
muted. You can use the hide-and-reveal techniques covered in parts 1
and 2; we suggest a low-pass filter to enhance your arrangement.
Weve run through the track while capturing MIDI control of the
filters cutoff frequency so theres a constant sense of movement
in the track. We dont want any repetition or looping, this backdrop
track should help you create gradual builds to aid your arrangement,
like an exponential raise of the cutoff towards the end of a section.
Jam and play rhythmic ideas that bounce off the other content.
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FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 103
How to produce
techno Part 4
Its time to put our techno tune to bed. Liam OMullane fine-tunes the mix, getting it up to
scratch and ready for commercial release.
ell, it has taken a while and our track has

moved in various directions, but were now
going through the final stage of our journey
through the art of producing techno in-the-box.
Last time, we had the full arrangement laid-out and a fairly
respectable-sounding mix now its time to finalise our mix
and call our track finished.
Its been a couple of weeks since we last worked on our
project and we can now clearly hear various aspects of the
mix that need tightening up. This tutorial will focus on
On the disc
Accompanying
example audio files
included on the DVD
Its important to keep focused

on creating a mix that sits well
with your peers
selling the arrangement thats already in place using a range
of mix tools, some of which are very simple, like volume
automation, and others which are a bit more complex.
Well be explaining various applications for sidechain
compression so youll need a sidechain-capable compressor
(most DAWs have these). Simply set it to listen to the
external key-input; this is used to trigger the compressor. For
instance, you could use a kick drum to trigger a compressor
through its key-input thats actually processing other
sounds. Just place it over an individual sound or a group and
those sounds will duck in volume whenever the kick sounds.
FOCUS ON...GETTING THE MIX RIGHT

Although we classed our arrangement as finished in the last instalment of this
series, following a subjective listen a few weeks later, we identified a few things that
we could do to enhance the arrangement throughout the mix. These are less about
editing the musical aspects of the track; more about making decisions as to what is
and isnt the main focus within our mix at any given moment.
For instance, the pitched-down vocal plays only a few times in the track, but its
alongside the atmospheres and other sound FX that appear more often than not. So
to make the vocal more of a feature when present, weve used the vocal to sidechain a
compressor placed on our atmos sounds, so theyre ducked out of the way. Another
example of where weve had to enhance the arrangement is the off-beat percussion
part. This has a parallel layer of filtered, distorted reverb that creeps up in intensity
during its first musical section. It gets more present through the filter being raised in
the next section to make it more of a feature. It turns out that this effect sounded
even better in the second section when we muted the original dry percussion part. It
draws focus to the distorted reverb as well as removing the sharp percussive element
of the dry signal for the new section, so it has a greater contrast to the section before.
A final decision we made was to put work into the clap sound as the mix was
lacking midrange punch. The clap is a repetitive, pulsing element and it wasnt getting
through the mix clearly. With some EQ exploration, layering, re-balancing and a reverb
for ambience, we found a space in the mix where it could cut through a lot more clearly.
FOCUS
We also use mid-and-side processing quite a bit, so you

need to understand what this is. The mid is the signal that
has the same information on the left- and the right-hand
channels of a stereo sound. So to your ears, this is the
centre of the stereo signal. The sides are the elements of
the left and right signal that differ; as a result, you hear
these as the stereo elements of the sound. For an enhanced
element of mix processing, were splitting these into
separate components to apply different treatments to.
Separating mid and side is simple in some DAWs; for
instance, in Live you can split a signal into two copies using
Chains in Audio Racks. You can then drag a Utility device to
each one and have the width set to 0% on one and 200% on
the other, creating mid and side signals respectively. Other
DAWs may require a different approach, but the simplest
way is two make two channels for one sound source and
add a mid and side splitting plug-in. The Brainworx bx_solo
plug-in is one of a few free options to use for this task.
Some words on good practice when mixing. First, make
sure you use well produced tracks as reference material.
Second, it can be useful to occasionally add a basic
mastering chain to give you a sense of how your mix could
sound after professional mastering is applied. Reference
material is important throughout the song-making process,
but even more so when mixing to keep you focused on
creating a mix that sits well with your peers. When using
mastering processing, be careful not to check your reference
material through the same chain, otherwise youll be chasing
your tail, trying to match material that has been mastered
twice once by the label, then by your own chain. MTF
MTF Step-by-Step Tightening-up the mix
The kick sounds far too forward and out of character with the rest
of the elements in the mix, so weve decided to locate the
lower-mid knock sound that lives around 200Hz and the midrange
click at around 600Hz and pull them back with subtractive EQ. The
sub-bass and its decay feel a little low in volume, so weve gone for a
broad EQ boost to enhance the existing sub content.
To give the kick a sense of impact weve added some pretty heavy
compression, blended in with the original using a dry-wet control.
This is the simplest approach to achieving parallel compression and
with a short attack and release, the compressed signal performs a
quick down-then-up volume movement. Dont set the attack too short
or youll dip the volume too early and lose the transient.
With so many layers in this track, its time to get things organised.
This will let us know whats going on between the sounds and
allow us to apply further processing to give them more separation. The
categories have been divided into groups and labelled as bass/arps,
drums, rhythm (excluding main drums), atmos and vocals. Now its
time for some character-processing.
When youve got sounds into their respective groups, experiment

with tonal processing to add individual character per group. This
can be a variety of processing types, but vintage emulation is our first
choice. It will impart additional harmonics through saturation, so if you
choose a different flavour per group, its easy to achieve contrast in a
mix. EQs, compressors, saturators and so on are all worth exploring.
The key rhythmic aspect is the kick, so weve grouped other mix
elements into two categories. One is for key sounds that are the
melodic content, the other is for decorative sounds. Add a compressor
to each group and have them listen to the kick via the sidechain.
Decorative sounds will duck the most when the kick plays and well use
light compression on the key sounds so the movement is less obvious.
Our main sounds now have a sense of movement, but the

ambience effects also need rhythmic control. Weve grouped our
effect return tracks to one new group and added a compressor. Like the
group sidechaining, this compressor will make ambience effects duck
when the kick plays. Weve gone for quite a lot of gain reduction so that
the ambience really moves up and down in time with the track.
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FOCUS Ableton Live
2014 | 105
MTF Step-by-Step Enhancing stereo field and depth
There are two sections that scream out to be stereoised. These

are the 303-type parts and the 16th hi-hats. The 303 is mono, so
weve used a separate EQ shape on the left and right audio channels to
create stereo spread. The EQ originally swept around the midrange of
the 303 to create movement, so weve duplicated this for both channels
while keeping them unique on either side so the stereo effect is not lost.
The hi-hats consist of two layers: one is constant, playing 16ths,

the other is used occasionally as an accenting sound. Weve left
the accenting hat as it is and created a left and right channel for the
constant hi-hat to process independently. There are many ways to
process a signal for stereo spread, but weve chosen to use different
flavours of saturation for the left and right channels.
For stereo control weve enhanced a section where our rave riff
comes into the mix for the first time. It already has a stereo sound
and along with fading-in its volume, weve added a stereo width control
to automate over time. Now the riff fades in and goes from mono to
wider-than-normal stereo towards the end. This wider sound loses its
power, so weve also raised the tracks volume to compensate.
To create contrast, its worth looking at where you can clear up

layers of sounds or effects to strip-down parts of a mix. We have a
snare sequence that plays a roll while rising in pitch to go from one
section to another. But with so many effects being used by other sounds
at the same time, weve chosen to manually duck the ambience effects
so the new section is established with a much dryer, cleaner sound.
Another trick to create movement is to make either the mid or the

side of a stereo signal pump in time with the track. Our drums
and atmos tracks are the only stereo mix elements that run throughout
the track, so weve set up a compressor on the side signal of our atmos
track and set that to pump to the kick drum. Again, this will orientate
more aspects of the mix around the pivotal pulse of the kick drum.
A final trick to immediately widen a mix is to reverse the channels

of your ambient effects. This will make ambience panning oppose
that of the source instruments, so there are two positions per panned
sound in the mix. Because weve already grouped our send effects, we
can just swap the channels over on the group either using pan controls
or, in this case, a left and right channel-swapping plug-in.
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108
| January
2011
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MTF Reviews Rob Papen Blue II
MTF Reviews
Hardware
Software
Mobile Technology
this thing is huge, but despite all of

these features it is still surprisingly
easy to get around.
Samples
Choice
For PC
& Mac
9/10
ROB PAPEN
Blue II
Blue was released in 2005 and won the hearts of many, including
MTF editor Andy Jones. Will their love affair be reignited with v2?
Details
Price 109 (upgrade
from Blue 35)
Contact Time+Space
01837 55200
www.timespace.com
Minimum system
requirements
PC 32-/64-bit VST
and AAX for Windows
Vista or higher
Mac 32-/64-bit AU,
VST and AAX for
Mac OSX 10.6+
Key Features
O FM, subtractive,
phase
distortion and
wave-shaping
synthesis
O 2 analogue-style
modelled stereo
filters
O Sequencer
O Arpeggiator
O 4 FX processors
ts hard to believe that the first

version of Rob Papens Blue was
released way back in 2005. Its
ability to cover so much ground with
its so-called Cross Fusion Synthesis
won it many fans. It came with FM and
subtractive synthesis, plus add-on
phase distortion and wave-shaping,
making it a kind of best of of electronic
music-making. Indeed, it stayed on my
computer for many years and was, for a
long while, my go-to synth (sorry, I hate
that expression too).
It slipped from my hard drive during
a major computer upgrade but I
remember the original for its wide
variety of consistently great sounds
that all blended seamlessly in any mix,
so news of its sequel is very welcome
indeed. And my interest was piqued at
the NAMM Show back in January when
I saw, from a distance (you couldnt get
close for all the people watching), a
demo of Blue II, complete with fancy
bouncing ball graphics.
FOCUS
Blue II is quite definitely maintaining

that Cross Fusion Synthesis angle with
the subtractive, FM, phase distortion
and wave-shaping of the original plus a
lot more besides. It has six oscillators
which use any of these synthesis types
alongside new sets of sampled
waveforms. Then there are a couple of
Easy times six

The synths front panel is easy to
understand from the off. All six
oscillators are laid-out in channels, like
a mixer. Each has tuning and waveshape parameters to control plus, of
course, the volume of each part. The
real beauty begins when you select the
original waveform its like lifting the
bonnet of your car for the first time and
discovering a monster engine. Or, in this
case, 12 monster engines
Yep, there are a dozen different types
of source waveform to choose from:
anything from analogue, through
spectral through to a whole range of
sample waveforms. The analogue
section itself has 15 different
waveforms to choose from and the
additive a mere 39! So what Im
attempting to say is that the building
blocks in this synth are many and
varied, but multiply that lot by the six
oscillators and you have an enormous
synth with enormous potential.
The layout loveliness continues with
the destination options. As with
choosing your source waveforms, click
in the Dest window and select one of 11
destination options. With each oscillator
you can choose to send the signal
through one of two filters, one of four
effects engines, two of the effects
engines or simply all four of them.
So you can already get a pretty clear
picture of Blue II. Lots of oscillators,
each with lots of different waveform
categories, each with lots of waveforms,
lots of destinations to send them to
(including the two filters) and lots of
effects to splash across the lot. Lots
then. With all this in mind were
expecting a huge array of very varied
sounds. And, of course, this is Rob
Its like lifting the bonnet of

your car for the first time and
discovering a monster engine
filters with 27 different filter types, a
big set of effects processors (each
offering 35 FX types), a huge (and I do
mean huge) collection of presets, an
onboard sequencer and arpeggiator,
loads of modulation possibilities and it
nicks the XY pad feature from its Blade
relative (youll find more on that
connection in the boxout). On paper
Papen. Were surely not going to be

disappointed by the quality as well as
the quantity, right?
Do everything
So were not even into the sounds yet
and we can already see that this synth
does loads, almost too much. And
sound-wise there are almost too many.
Rob Papen Blue II Reviews MTF
The XY Vector synth

Click on the XY button and a new part of Blue is revealed, albeit one
taken from Robs Blade synth. On a simple level, the XY pad lets you
move a ball between the first four oscillators of the synth, increasing
volume as you move towards each corner. You can record these
movements and make it part of the sound (which works particularly well
when you sync it to tempo).
However, the fun really starts as you can also assign eight of any of
Blue IIs parameters to up and down movement (four each) and left and
right movement (again four each). So while you veer widely between
sounds you could also be opening the frequency or sending to an effect,
detuning, whatever you want. There are different preset movements to
load in like the one shown (left) where, as you can see, Ive sent a whole
sequence of notes into a square-shaped spiral and each circle on the
spiral represents a different note from the sequence. Its an exceptional
tool and often mesmerising. Just dont use it while taking any illegal
substances; you might end up staring at it all day...
The XY Vector area allows notes (the light blue balls) to follow either preset or user created paths
that veer between 16 sets of parameters, four on each side of the screen, as shown above.
When I reviewed the Yamaha MOXF

hardware workstation a couple of
issues ago I was almost overwhelmed
by the number of presets on offer and
Im getting that feeling now. There are
25 banks each with 128 presets, which
adds up to a mighty 3,200 presets
(including the sounds from the original
Blue). Not all of the preset slots are
filled there are quite a few empty ones
for you to fill with your own creations
but theres still a good couple of
thousand-plus to get your teeth into.
Like I said, potentially overwhelming.
Fortunately, the sounds are arranged
by category, but its a little like Rob didnt
quite know how to label them. Should
he do it by sound type? By programmer
name? By genre? By tempo? What the
heck, do it by all of the above! So it might
seem a little random at first but lets
dive in, because theres a lot of
swimming to do.
Were not going to describe each and
every sound here, just attempt to give
you a flavour of what is going on.
Basically, Rob clearly wants this to be
the only synth you use, so like The MOXF
and like the Roland FA-06 I reviewed the
following issue there is something for
everyone. Unlike those, there are fewer
real sounds apart from a keyboard
category that has some nice electric
pianos and real keyboard sounds. There
are also some proper choirs and some
fantastic strings, but the rest
concentrates on proper synth stuff
and lots of it
The first three banks are pad
sounds. What really comes across here
is the fact that there are six oscillators
on offer as many utilise at least three of
them to get lots of movement and
variation. For those of you old enough,
its like going back to the digital synths
of the late 80s, when the programmers

put in mighty performance presets that
stretched the very specs of the
hardware. Here there are plenty of
those even though Blue IIs engine is
hardly trying barely ticking over if I
want to really stretch that car analogy
thing too far.
Genre sections include a couple of

hip hop banks and a drum&bass one, all
with a good variety of sounds including
plenty of big basses and leads. There
are also percussive banks and several
named ones, some of which contain
among the best sounds in Blue II really
dirty, in-your-face presets that inspired
me well into this marathon session of
preset auditioning.
So all of that leaves me pretty much
zero room left to talk about the
sequencer and arpeggiator. Both are
Rob clearly wants Blue II to be the

only synth you use, so there is
something for everyone
Anyway, theres tons of emotion,
oodles of atmosphere and some
incredible richness. You might even I
never thought Id say this want to pull
back and turn off a couple of oscillators
on some to make them sit better in your
mix as they are so big, otherwise its hit
one note, instant Vangelis.
As you step through the four bass
banks (two analogue, two digital), the
synth moves from the late 80s through
the 90s, noughties and very much more
up-to-date with some absolutely huge
presets that would easily carry a tune
from any era. The digital basses are
surprisingly, how should I say, undigital? Some are massive, so if youre
expecting a load of DX7 bass sounds
which I admit I was you will be
pleasantly surprised.
The lead sounds, again, are nice and
up-to-date although I was less
enamoured with the sequencer sounds.
Some were so short in duration that,
even within a sequence, they simply
sound a bit, well, bitty. The same could
be said of the Arp banks, although with
three of these on offer there are far
more hits than misses.
surprisingly fully featured, the former

allowing you to use Blue II as a
standalone music-maker, but it
undoubtedly sits well with any
sequencer as possibly being the only
synth youll need.
Like I said earlier, Rob Papen has put
so much into it thats clearly how he
wants you to use it, so it could be my
go-to synth again, much like v1. I cant
believe I said go-to synth three times in
one review, mind... MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Loads of flexibility
+ The XY pad is a particularly
welcome addition
+ Loads of features, but
+ Very easy to use
+ Huge variety of sounds
- Huge number of sounds can be
somewhat daunting
Blue II is any synth you want it to be
and a lot more. A worthy and cheap
upgrade to the original and one that
will have you tweaking, bouncing
and playing for many a year.
9/10
| 111
MTF Reviews Novation Launchpad Mini
Alternatives
The Launchpad S (150) was
already very portable but
has larger pads that make
performing much simpler. Abletons Push (429)
is very much the de rigueur Live controller
and has a ridiculous amount of flexibility. The
QuNeo, from Keith McMillen, (199) is another
controller that features a greater range of
options than the Launchpad Mini.
NOVATION
Launchpad Mini
Novations new slimline Launchpad is aimed at the iPad

Generation. Andy Price gets mobile
Details
Price 79/$99/98
Contact Focusrite
01494 462246
Web
http://uk.
novationmusic.com
Minimum system
requirements
PC Windows 7
Mac OSX 10.7
iPad2 or later is
recommended, iOS 5
Key Features
O 185 x 185 x
16mm
O 428g lighter
than an iPad!
O Draws buss
power from iPad
or Mac/PC
O Fast response
time
O 64 LED pads
O 16 performance
buttons
arly last year, Novation revealed

the Launchpad S, a bells-andwhistles version of the original
Launchpad that included FL
Studio support, brighter pads and a
much smoother experience all round, so
it was something of a surprise to hear of
yet another iteration of the Launchpad
some five months later. This latest,
re-sized model was revealed as part of
a trilogy of announcements that
expanded Novations Launch range. The
compact MIDI keyboard Launchkey Mini
was also announced, as was the mixer/
controller Launch Control (well be
bringing you reviews of both in
upcoming issues).
Novation promoted the trio with a
slick and focused marketing campaign
that emphasised the appeal of
composing in the great outdoors, the
companys target audience being the
iPad Generation a roaming horde of
homeless nomads who never know
when inspiration may strike, be they on
a park bench, in a taxi or halfway up a
flight of stairs.
The Launchpad Mini is perhaps the
most user-friendly of the three, and one
that is perfectly suited to this kind of onthe-go music-making, yet also works
just as well in a home studio context.
Like its siblings it features 64 bright,
three-colour pads (arranged 8 x 8) that
activate loops, effects and sounds, with
a lightning-fast response time (despite
not being velocity-sensitive). The
customisable performance buttons
that run down either side are labelled
AH and 18. The unit draws power
FOCUS
from your iPad or computer, so leads

that would nullify its mobile nature are
absent. While the Launchpad Mini
fluidly connects with Live, FL Studio and
DJ software such as Serato and
Numerology, whats integral to the iPad
Generation ethos is the interaction with
the (free) Launchpad for iPad app.
Connecting to the iPad is
straightforward, but you will need to
purchase the iPad Camera Connection
Kit (25), which mind-bogglingly isnt
included in the box.
Pads to Pad
Once connected to your iPad,
Launchpad Mini becomes a versatile
instrument, triggering the Launchpad
apps vast range of loops and samples
that come courtesy of Loopmasters,
although with a recent app update, its
now possible to add your own to the
app. You can import WAV and AIFF
samples organised by bpm via a
DropBox account to create whatever
libraries you want.
In a studio environment the
Launchpad Mini works well, boasting
effortless integration with Live 9. Clip
and scene triggering in Live is a doddle;
controlling volumes/sends feels natural
and is an organic way of interacting with
your projects. The Launchpad Mini
comes with Ableton Live Lite, so if youre
new to the DAW you wont feel left out.
Noticeably, Novation has done away
with the Ableton branding that the
Launchpad S sported, going instead for
its own logo and imagery. Users of FL
will enjoy using the Minis grid to
activate loops and samples; you also get

packs of custom overlay stickers to
make things more straightforward for
both FL and Live. Adding the Launchkey
Mini to your studio setup very much
completes the Novation jigsaw;
however, the Launchpad Mini is a useful
standalone tool as it is.
We first got our hands on the newly
announced instruments in the Launch
family at the Novation stand at this
years BPM Show and had a wonderfully
fun time, triggering loops with the
Launchpad Mini while constructing
elegant melody, lead and bass lines with
the Launchkey Mini, then tweaking
filters and effects with Launch Control.
The harmony between the instruments
in the Launch family is something that
Novation has been keen to trumpet, and
when all three are working together you
can understand why. The three
instruments, although all good in their
own right, click together well, resulting
in a highly versatile control system that
inspires new methods of composition
and performance possibilities.
One downside of the smaller pads is
that they could be more difficult to
trigger those with bigger fingers might
need to be careful not to trigger two at
once. But overall our experience with
the Launchpad Mini was a good one. Its
remarkably simple to use and
undeniably fun, practical and intuitive,
with plenty of options to satisfy your
creativity even on the stairs! MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Live and FL Studio integration
+ Compact size
+ No power lead required
+ Impressive bank of
performance-aiding effects
+ Colourful LEDs useful for
low-lighting scenarios
- iPad CCK not included
- Requires more precision to
operate in a live environment
than its bigger brothers
A wickedly fun mobile controller,
with all the features of its larger
padded brothers but for a fraction
of the size.
8/10
Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Reviews MTF
AUDIOTECHNICA
ATH-M50x
Details
Price 159, 179 for
ltd edition blue/brown
Contact
Audio-Technica
0113 277 1441
Web www.
audio-technica.com
Audio-Technicas M50 headphones are a standard feature in many

studios, but you asked for more, and AT answered that call by
adding an x to M. Andy Jones does the can-can
T
Key Features
O Type: closedback dynamic
O Driver diameter:
45mm
O Frequency
response:
1528,000Hz
O Max input power:
1,600mW
O Impedance:
38 ohms
O Weight: 284g
O Cables: 1.2m
& 3m straight,
1.2m coiled
he entry-level set of headphones

in Audio-Technicas new range
the ATH-M20x have already
been tested by us and scored a
very good 8/10 and our Value Award. To
be honest, though, its the ATH-M50x
that weve been looking forward to more
as this is a re-imagining of one of the
most popular studio headphones, the
ATH-M50. And when I say re-imagining,
what I mean is that AT hasnt totally
redesigned them from the ground up
why do that with such a successful
product? but instead kept the best
bits and added what youve asked for.
Detachable cables were a big ask
and you get three of them: a 3m
straight, 1.2m straight and a 1.2m
coiled, my personal favourite for studio
use. (Im one of these people who
clumsily gets cables tangled together in
any situation, so having one that coils in
on itself, keeping away from all other
studio devices, cups of tea OK, cans of
beer and other cables is a godsend.)
Next up are 90-degree swivelling
earcups for one-cup monitoring or
DJing, plus what AT describes as
circumaural design contours for

excellent sound isolation. So while
these arent active noise-cancelling
headphones, they certainly do a good
job of excluding a lot of it. As I type this I
can just make out my tap-tapping on
the keyboard and the annoying,
yapping dog next door has become less
of a future dog murder victim. The
phones themselves have 45mm
large-aperture drivers that deliver a
15Hz to 28,000Hz range and this is
where AT has been wise the same
coveted sonic signature.
Add x to excellent
Lets check this signature out. First up, a
couple of mixes Im working on kind of
ambient house stuff with lots of deep
basses, heavy kicks, pads and strings.
These tracks were mixed on Unity Audio
Rocks and the M50xs tell me I did a
pretty good job with a great set of
monitors. The arrangement sounds
lush, deep and very wide. Initially on one
of the bass parts I hear a very slight
tingling, almost a buzz, so at first I think
its a very slight fault in the phones.
However, what theyve actually picked

up is some very slight distortion on one
of the bass parts. On closer inspection
in Logic I see that this part is just very
slightly hitting the red, so I notch it
down buzz off. Impressive stuff.
On to some different tracks and a
quick blast of Modeselektor some of
the best-produced music, in my opinion
and Im hearing detail Ive not heard
through my Bose headphones
(especially down at the bass end, which
is strong but not overwhelming). Again,
the stereo spread is astonishing and Im
starting to realise why these phones
have such a good rep with mix
engineers as Im hearing new life in
music I thought I knew well. Id mix on
these any day.
Some more delicate, more acoustic
music is in order and I turn to Talk Talks
I Believe In You, the same track I played
through my Rocks when auditioning
them. Not only did it make my arm hairs
raise but my leg hairs, too, at the time
yes, the very reason I plumped for the
Rocks. So do I get the same reaction
using these? Oh yes
On to some of my old 80s favourites
and Uncertain Smile from The The is
next, and these phones are so honest
that they pick up hiss in the intro Ive
not heard before as noticeably. OK, so
sometimes things can be a bit too
clever by half
If ever you want a set of headphones
to use late at night listening to your best
music, these will have you in tears in
seconds. But, more importantly, for
producers they will enable you to
produce such music in the first place.
Theyre accurate, practical, sound
excellent and will have you fixing bits of
your mix that you thought didnt need
fixing. I also had them on the entire time
while writing this review and
experienced no discomfort whatsoever.
Simply superb. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Excellent sound quality
+ Exceptionally honest
+ Great value
+ Great for mixing your music...
+ ...and for listening to everyone
elses
- The colour of the limited edition
brown/blue ones may not be to
everyones taste.
They take what some see as an
industry standard up a notch. These
are among the best headphones
you can get for your studio.
10/10
| 113
Best Service Cantus Reviews MTF
Alternatives
There are plenty of
sampled choir
collections out there
as well as the odd
VSTi choir generator
(Magnus Choir,
$39.90, for example),
but none offers
quite the same
degree of flexibility
plus the ability to
create words and phrases. That ability comes
from Best Services own products, one such
being Shevannai, but that is Elvish.
BEST SERVICE
Cantus
For PC
& Mac
With Cantus, Best Service continues to release intriguing and

high-quality libraries. Andy Jones dons his cloak
hould the name Eduardo

Tarilonte be unfamiliar to you,
let this sentence be his
introduction. He is the man
leading Best Service into fantasy land
and is behind the amazing libraries
Forest Kingdom 2, Desert Winds and my
personal elven favourite, Shevannai.
This man creates legendary sounds and
is fast becoming a legend in sound
design because of it.
Cantus is the latest in his vocal
series a Gregorian choir library that
focuses on mystical, monk-like voices
from the Dark and Middle Ages. Like
Shevannai, it includes words and
phrases in this case you get 400
phrases, 20 Gregorian chants and a
word builder with 24 words, three
articulations and 120 syllables.
Combine that with five legatos and you
have a powerful voice tool.
The choir used for the recording was
a proper Gregorian choir the Schola
Gregoriana Hispana, who have been
singing for 25 years with conductor
Francisco Javier Lara. I say proper as
Eduardo Tarilonte believed that to get a
true Gregorian sound, he would have to
use a Gregorian choir rather than a
normal one attempting Gregorian and
missing its subtle nuances.
He also recorded the choir dry,
stating: Gregorian music and reverb
are good partners, but I didnt want to
tie the recordings to any special room
sound. There are so many impressive
reverbs out there that I have chosen to

allow you complete control to adjust the
reverb sound to your own taste. I
wanted you to feel the cold breath from
the mouths of the monks singing in
those cold monasteries. I hope you feel
the same goosebumps I feel.
Can do
And so to the collection. Its a 2.6GB
affair available on disc or download.
Having a new Mac its the latter option
for me, and after a quick unpack the
now usual add library in Kontakt 5 I
was up and running.
The library is set out in two folders:
Monks and Soundscapes. The Monks
folder contains two subfolders: Cantus
The Monks and Cantus Chants. The
former contains the a, e, i, o, u legatos
and 24 common monk words, such as
mortis and deus. You select between
these with the green keys and play
them in different pitches with the blue.
Theres also a Words Builder a cool
tool that lets you to take the 24 words
and create new ones by patching
together 120 syllables. Youll probably
end up with some real Latin words, but
with so many additional slots to fill with
whole words and syllables, Im also
guessing youll end up with a lot of
nonsense unless Latin is a superflexible language. Either way, to these
ears (it was German all the way at our
school) it all sounds just like you would
expect to hear down the cloisters.
Key Features
O 2.6GB
O 5 Gregorian
legatos (a,e,i o,u)
O 24 words, 3
articulations
O Words split into
120 syllables
O 20 Gregorian
chants split to
400 phrases
O 20 soundscapes
Details
Price 159
Contact Best Service
+49 (0) 89 45228920
Web
www.bestservice.de
Minimum system
requirements
PC Windows 7
Mac OSX 10.7
Back to that reverb point Eduardo

made earlier: I thought we might end up
having to add reverb but there is a
suitable amount included (only the
original recordings are dry) plus a level
control to add/reduce it. You can also
control other parameters, like start,
length, volume and attack. Its a flexible
and creative vocal tool thats capable of
creating a lot of different Gregorian
vocals from seemingly few ingredients.
Next up its Cantus Chants with a
similar concept, this time with whole
songs chosen by the red keys (from a
choice of 20) with each blue key playing
a phrase of that song in the same key.
There are 400 phrases in total, making
up over an hour of music.
Finally the Soundscapes, with 20
pad/vocal sounds to choose from.
These are a mix of atmospheres and
chants, some menacing and all with the
option to mix up the four elements that
make up each one, add effects and
change other parameters. I like this
section but its not as varied as those
youll find in Shevannai.
You cant fault the recording, nor
how Cantus has been put together. You
can build your own words and phrases
and there are some great soundscapes
to add atmosphere. Its narrow in focus,
for sure, but it sets out to achieve
Gregorian atmosphere and succeeds,
doing brilliantly what it says on the tin.
Or Abbey. Bona quidem valde. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Excellent quality
+ Word Generator is very flexible
+ Menacing soundscapes
+ An hour of chanting
- Narrow focus
Were huge fans of Best Service and
the directions in which the
company is taking music-making
plus the fact it is prepared to
produce niche libraries like these.
Cantus is another winner.
Octo/10
| 115
MTF Reviews Heavyocity DM-307
enabling you to establish a completely

different drum sound for every 16th
division. As youd expect, the Step
Sample parameter is a great source of
pseudo-random rhythmic madness,
but its also equally useful as a means
of occasionally switching a snare or
kick drum sound throughout the
duration of a loop.
In total, the DM-307 includes more
than 180 Kit Grooves all grouped by
musical genre, with some particularly
great examples in the Dubstep and
Industrial Edge folders. Its also
interesting to note that the Grid can be
triggered in a number of different ways
from your DAW using either B1 to
trigger the complete five-voice pattern,
or individual notes as part of the same
MIDI octave if you want to trigger each
voice lane by itself. When coupled with
the Trigger-FX options and Amp
Sequences (which well come to in a
minute), you really start to release the
live potential of the DM-307.
Beat head
HEAVYOCITY
DM-307
For PC
& Mac
Following Damage and the AEON series, can the DM-307 live up to
Heavyocitys high production standards? Mark Cousins finds out.
Details
Price $299
Contact via website
Web
www.heavyocity.com
Minimum system
requirements
PC Windows 7*
Mac OSX 10.7*
*Kontakt 5.3.0
Key Features
O 7.5GB data
(4.8GB on disc)
O 3,600+ samples
O 1,500+ NKIs
O 300 performance
multis
O Standalone, VST,
AU, DXi, AAX,
RTAS formats
eavyocitys adrenalin-fuelled
sound libraries have received
plenty of praise over the years,
demonstrating a consistently
powerful cinematic sound alongside
some ingenious approaches to
exploiting the dexterity of Kontakts
playback engine. The DM-307 is the
companys latest release, pitched as a
modern groove designer and arguably
representing an extension of and
complement to some of its existing
rhythmic libraries (Damage and AEON
Rhythmic). However, as the modern
groove designer tag suggests, the
DM-307 is considerably more than just
a collection of pre-recorded loops, so we
decided to take a closer look.
On the grid
Arguably the key factor that marks the
DM-307 out from Heavyocitys previous
offerings has to be the new Grid
interface, found as part of the Kit
FOCUS
Grooves instruments folder. The Grid

works as a form of five-voice drum
machine, enabling you to sequence and
abuse the collection of single-shot
sounds included in the library.
Ultimately, it means that the DM-307 is
steeped in creative potential, especially
by comparison to many loop-based
libraries, with the various sounds and
pre-programmed rhythms being just
the starting point in terms of what you
can achieve with it.
Delving a little deeper into the
Grid-based instruments included in
DM-307, its interesting to note how
much thought has been put into its
feature set. For a start, rather than just
being a one- or two-bar sequence, you
can actually chain together a total of
eight 16-step sequences, opening up
the potential for long and complicated
rhythmic patterns. We also enjoyed the
fact that each track lane has a unique
Sample Select parameter for each step,
Beyond the Grid-based instruments

theres plenty of additional content that
further extends the possibilities offered
by the DM-307. The Kits folder, for
example, provides an alternative means
of accessing the single-shot drum
sounds used to power the Grid presets,
as well as an additional collection of
impacts and FX sounds that add instant
aural interest to any trailer-like
composition. The Kits are ideal if you
intend to sequence the DM-307s drum
sounds from your DAW, especially when
using the Element Kits, which present
the sounds by type, so that an
instrument contains just snares, for
example, or only kicks.
As well as the 80 Kits, the DM-307
also includes 1,200 tempo-synced
loops, much like those included in
Damage or the AEON Rhythmic
collection. As youd expect, the loops
sacrifice some of the creative potential
of the Grid system, but given that theyre
presented in both in their complete form
(as part of a suite of loops) and as a
series of element-based loops, theres
still plenty of potential in terms of how
you layer and trigger the rhythmic
elements. Add to that an intriguing Loop
Mutator as first introduced in the
AEON series and youll find yourself
having plenty of fun.
A new departure for Heavyocity is in
the Multi patches, of which more than
250 are included with the DM-307. The
Multis illustrate how various instances
can be layered together, with a number
Heavyocity DM-307 Reviews MTF
Alternatives
Released just a month or so before the
DM-307, iZotopes Break Tweaker (189)
shares many similarities to the DM-307,
although there are some important
conceptual differences. On the whole,
Break Tweaker is a plug-in first and a sound
library second (the same is true in reverse for the DM-307). As such,
Break Tweaker can perform some amazing feats, largely in relation to
glitch and stutter treatments, but it possibly misses out on the breadth
and quality of sound content included in DM-307.
The Advanced Trigger FX are switchable real-time effects offering incredible scope for creative and
intuitive sound-tweaking. You can modulate the effect changes via a 32-step sequencer.
of great Artist Multis produced by the

likes of Kaiserdisco, Martin Eyerer and
Uner. Not surprisingly, the Multis also
showcase the DM-307s application in
dance music, with plenty of four-to-thefloor action. However, its worth noting
that youll need to run the Multi
graphics installer (found in the
DM-307s Library folder) for the Multis
to display correctly, otherwise the
interface will look distinctly grey...
Trigger finger
Users of Damage or the AEON
collection should be well aware that
Heavyocity has developed one of the
most feature-rich sound-managing
engines to ever grace a Kontakt library.
Rather than facilitating the static
application of distortion, filtering, delay
and so on, Heavyocitys sound engine
makes the process considerably more
dynamic. Trigger FX, for example,
enables you to add or remove FX blocks
on-the-fly using a MIDI keyboard, even
triggering an individual step sequencer
for each FX block. Theres also an Amp
sequencer as well (again, MIDItriggered), which enables you to gate or
stutter the sound in a rhythmic way
an effect thats often used to great
effect in many film trailers.
For instant gratification, the large
Punish and Twist controls found on the
Main page are great fun, arguably
making use of a hybrid of effects such
as compression and distortion (in the
example of Punish) to create a powerful
and contemporary sound. Interestingly,
on the rare occasion that you find the
DM-307s output slightly too harsh, its
well worth turning down these controls
slightly, as many of the instruments

have a certain degree of Punish
applied by default.
Although its hard to criticise such a
deep and complex sound engine, the
only possible issue for new users is the
between inspiring sounds and being a

musical tool that you can adapt and use
to your own creative ends. Its also
arguably Heavyocitys most musically
diverse tool to date punchy and
contemporary enough for hard-edged
electronica, dubstep and drum & bass,
but also equally adept as a tool for
soundtrack composition, which has
been a staple part of Heavyocitys sound
and approach from the start.
Price points
While the DM-307 isnt the cheapest
drum library going, theres little doubt
that youll need to spend several
months exploring its various Kit
Grooves, Loops, Multis and single-shot
Kits before you run out of inspiration.
Heavyocity has developed one of the

most feature-rich sound-managing
engines to ever grace a Kontakt library
time it takes to fully understand the
power behind the DM-307. Indeed, given
the immediacy of the sound content, its
conceivable that many users simply
wont have the requisite inquisitiveness
to delve deeper, which is a shame as
theres so much to discover.
Drum power
As with Heavyocitys previous offerings,
DM-307 demonstrates both an
aggressive, upfront contemporary
sound as well as illustrating just how
much can be achieved using Kontakts
sound engine. Inevitably, its hard not to
draw some comparisons with iZotopes
Break Tweaker, as both products are
based round a five- or six-voice step/
drum sequencer. However, although
Break Tweaker undoubtedly has the
better engine behind it (especially in
relation to its unique glitch and stutter
effects), the DM-307 wins hands-down
when it comes to the library content.
Pleasingly, for a market saturated
with instant one-finger gratification,
DM-307 offers an ideal balance
Even then, some quick experimentation

with the Loop Mutator or The Grid will
immediately yield new sounds. Having
set a high standard with both Damage
and the AEON series, therefore, the
DM-307 more than meets the levels of
excellence weve come to expect from
Heavyocity, and may well prove to be the
companys finest and most flexible
library to date. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Powerful, contemporary sound
+ Build your own loops using the
Grid feature
+ Superb audio-mangling effects
+ Great range of single-shot
sounds and FX
- Deep and complex interface
The DM-307 offers a killer
combination of cutting-edge drum
sounds and internal stepsequencing thats perfect for
hard-edged electronica or
aggressive cinematic scoring.
9/10
Method Spot
In effect, the Loop
Mutator works like
a form of
arpeggiator, offering
some radical ways
of re-sequencing
the included loop
content. Holding
down a single note
reveals the basic
premise, with Loop
Mutator appearing
to jump around
different steps of
the loops, as
defined by the Step
Loop parameter.
Add more keys or
modify the Step
Length and Step
Velocity parameters
and the effect
becomes even
more interesting.
| 117
MTF Reviews EZdrummer 2
TOONTRACK
EZDRUMMER 2
For PC
& Mac
Toontracks latest revision of EZdrummer has plenty of bold and

innovative new features. Mark Cousins finds the perfect beat.
ver the last five years the

virtual drummer has evolved
from an instrument that (at
best) sounded like a real kit, to
a tool that forms the backbone of your
rhythm section. So weve come to
expect more from our virtual drumming
software not just a collection of MIDI
loops, but integrated mixing software,
kit customization and more besides.
Even the off-the-shelf DAW has got in
on the act, with Logic Pro Xs Drummer
feature being one of the best integrated
solutions weve seen, so any virtual
drumming software offering something
new has a lot of work on its hands!
EZ does it
As one of the more cost-effective
solutions on the market, Toontracks
EZdrummer has built up both a large
user base and accompanying sound
library. Borrowing many features from
Superior Drummer 2.0, EZdrummer
offered immediate, great-sounding
results with the minimum of fuss.
However, with the world of virtual
drumming moving so fast, it was clearly
time for a refresh providing a tool that
still had the same immediacy as
EZdrummer but with a host of features
that made the end result even more
closer to a real drummer!
EZdrummer 2, therefore, has a
wealth of new features under its sleeve,
not to mention a new set of core drum
sounds. Importantly, for those that have
FOCUS
assembled a large library of expansion

packs for EZdrummer, its worth noting
that existing libraries will load
themselves into the new engine,
complete with updated graphics, mixer
settings, and of course, the allimportant MIDI grooves.
EZdrummer 2s core library is
divided between modern and vintage,
with the modern kit being recorded
through a Neve 88R and TG12345
consoles, while the vintage drums were
tracked through a rare REDD console.
All the kits covering selections from
DW, Gretsch, Yamaha, Ludwig, Sonor,
Tama and Brady where recorded by
Chuck Ainley at Mark Knopflers British
Grove Studios. Alongside the main kit
sounds, theres also a sprinkling of
percussion sounds including shakers,
tambourines and claps which add
extra flavour to the main kit.
Alternatives
XLN Audios Addictive Drums (179) is popular,
easy-to-use virtual drumming solution, with a
range of drum kits and MIDI grooves. As with
many other virtual drumming solutions, the
notion with Addictive Drums is that chosen
loops are dragged-and-dropped into to your
DAW for further editing and refinement. On
the plus side, you get access to more internal
signal processing options, although this
arguably adds complication to those that
simply want a great sound with the minimum
of fuss. Compared against the shiny new
EZdrummer 2, though, its showing its age,
especially with respect to the loop browsing.
Finding your groove

Although well return to the sound of the
kits later on, arguably the most useful
improvements to EZdrummer relate to
the use and selection of the MIDI
grooves and, latterly, the means of
sequencing these loops into a complete
performance. Of course, the majority of
virtual drumming software (and the
original EZdrummer) offers little more
than a means of browsing integrated
MIDI content, with the resultant song
being created by dropping the MIDI
loops over to a track on your DAW.
Subsequent edits, therefore, require

extensive editing in your DAW, often on
a note-by-note basis.
As with Logic Pro Xs Drummer
feature, EZdrummer 2 realises that
means of sequencing the drums is as
important as the sounds themselves.
As a result, EZdrummer 2 includes a
number of tools from a more intuitive
means of finding and selecting grooves,
through to the ability to modify them on
a musical level that makes the
process of drum sequencing infinitely
quicker, without sacrificing your
all-important creative input.
Looking first at the selection
process, easily the most ingenious and
revolutionary features has to be the
Details
Manufacturer
Toontrack
Price 99
Contact Time + Space
01837 55200
Web
www.toontrack.com
EZdrummer 2 Reviews MTF
HANDS ON
Rather than simply adapting the existing MIDI data, the Amount
parameter uses a special algorithm to either add or subtract notes from
the existing performance. As such, Amount can be thought of as an
intelligent control, adding additional beats particularly ghost notes
that a drummer would play to add density and movement to the
pattern. Even adding new parts of the kit works in this way, adapting the
existing MIDI groove in a way the mimics a real performance.
The kits in
EZdrummer 2
offer a wide range
of sounds for various
genre types.
Tap 2 Find option found under the

search tab. Rather than wading through
thousands of MIDI files by name, Tap 2
Find lets you suggest a basic rhythm,
which EZdrummer 2 uses to find an
appropriate series of matches from its
library. You suggest a rhythm by
recording a short two-bar loop, either
by tapping on an attached MIDI
keyboard, or by clicking on the drum kit
elements on the interface. Once youve
inputted your suggestion, EZdrummer 2
finds a series of best match loops
ready for your approval.
Song smith
Once youve found a basic loop, youd
expect to drag-and-drop the MIDI file
over to your DAW, but in EZdrummer 2s
case, we can use its own integral song
track to piece together a complete
performance. Dragging the loops into
the Song Creator, for example, instructs
EX Drummer 2 to create a series of
variations, covering Intro, Verse, Bridge,
Pre Chorus and an Ending, which can
then be organised onto the track lane.
Alternatively, drag the various library
loops onto the song track, assuming
you want a more radical change
between the sections of the song.
The advantage of keeping the song
sequence inside EZdrummer 2 is that
you get more editing options to refine
the drum phrases in a quick, intuitive
way. Clicking on a region in the track
lane, therefore, lets you edit the MIDI
performance using the kit as a visual

guide, rather than having to reposition
MIDI notes in a DAWs Piano Roll editor.
For example, the Power Hand lets you
re-position the driving force of the
pattern (usually the hi-hat) to a new
part of the kit like the ride cymbal, for
example, or a floor tom. Likewise, an
Opening Hit assignment also lets you
mark the start of the phrase, usually
with something like the crash cymbal.
You can also add new additional kit
elements into the phrase, as well as
adjusting the density and velocity level
on a drum-by-drum basis. For example,
selecting one or more toms will add
some tom movement, while you could
tweak the Snare Amount control to add
more ghost notes, and maybe lower its
velocity slightly for less power on the
upbeat. You can also augment the
pattern with three percussion sources
clap, shaker and tambourine again,
simply by clicking on, and adjusting the
relative icon and its parameter set.
When youre finished, simply export
the song as a MIDI file (or drag-anddrop it into your sequencer), or export
as an audio file, assuming youre using
EZdrummer 2 in its standalone mode.
Sound of the drums

As youd expect, the sound of the two
kits covers a suitably broad enough
spectrum to make them versatile
across a range of genres. The Modern
Kit sounds tight and focused, but add
some room ambience and the sound
becomes pleasing looser. Likewise, the
Key Features
O New audio
engine
O Improved groove
browser
O An all-new sound
library
O Song creator
O Tap 2 Find
Vintage kit seems softer on its

transients, which when combined some
natural room ambience, really helps
produce a natural lifelike sound.
Although the mixer offers full control
over the level of each kit elements, you
dont get the same level of edibility
when it comes to the application of
signal processing. Ultimately,
EZdrummer 2 is designed as a tool with
immediacy in mind, and in that respect
the handy macro controls over
controls like Dynamics, Reverb Time
and Mic Bleed provide enough control
without getting bogged down in detail.
Should you really find the need to
process sounds using you own choice of
EQ and so on, theres always the option
of running the individual channels out
to discrete outputs in your DAWs mixer.
An EZ life
With so many great sounding virtual
drumming solutions, its interesting to
see how much attention is now being
diverted to the usability and musicality
of the instrument as well as its sonic
performance. Aspects like the Tap 2
Find feature, therefore, as well as the
powerful integral sequencing features,
really mark EZdrummer 2 out from the
crowd, and certainly offer a host of
intuitive musical possibilities that go
above and beyond what weve come to
expect from a virtual drummer. More
than just an update, EZdrummer 2
defines the next generation of virtual
drumming software that many will seek
to emulate. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Powerful and intuitive virtual
drumming
+ Musical control set
+ Nice balance between
contemporary and vintage kits
+ Works with previous EZX libraries
- Limited access to internal signal
processing
The new kits sound great, but its
the much-improved browser and
flexible internal sequencing
features that really sets
EZdrummer 2 apart from the
competition.
9/10
| 119
MTF Reviews Softube Console 1
SOFTUBE
Console 1
Softube has launched a hybrid hardware/software mixing system.

Mike Hillier finds out if this is the one
Details
Manufacturer
Softube
Price $1149
Contact Softube
sales@softube.com
Web
www.softube.com
Minimum System
Requirements
PC
Windows support to
come
Mac
Mac OSX 10.7, VST,
AU or AAX host (32 or
64-bit), spare USB 2.0
port, 1200x800 screen
resolution
e first saw the Console 1

over a year ago, at
Musikmesse 2013, and
the concept was creating
quite a lot of buzz around the halls.
Since then Softube has been hard at
work refining and perfecting the
Console 1, ready for release.
Unlike most control surfaces the
Console 1 does not use a variation of
MIDI, such as HUI, to control your DAW
and plug-ins. In fact, it doesnt even
attempt to control your DAW and
plug-ins at all. Instead the Console 1 is
designed only to control its own plug-in.
However, the Console 1 plug-in is a
complete channel-strip designed to be
placed as an insert on all your channels,
enabling you to perform your entire mix
from the Console 1 hardware, without
having to resort to mouse or keyboard.
Console action
Key Features
O USB control
surface
O SSL 4000 E
channel strip
emulation
O Transient shaper
The plug-in itself is slightly unusual in

that the plug-in window only shows
some very basic controls the channel
number and a solo safe button. You can
show the state of parameters from the
plug-in window, but its a bit small and
fiddly. Instead, Console 1 has a separate
FOCUS
unique GUI layer, which pops up taking

over the whole screen showing all the
parameters. This can be resized, for
example, to the size of your other
plug-ins so you can show several
simultaneously. We did find that if you
click on the GUI at any point then your
DAW is no longer the active application,
and so your key commands no longer
work including even basic controls
a parameter on the hardware, or push

one of the buttons. It is a shame the
controls arent touch sensitive, as you
have to start twisting a knob, or push a
button to bring up the GUI, but you can
just press the Display button, which
doesnt affect any of the parameters.
Along the top of the controller are a
series of buttons, 1 through 20, that are
used to switch the controller from one
channel to the next. Whichever channel
is active here is the channel that the
controller will be assigned to, not the
active plug-in in your DAW. This can get
a little confusing at first, but soon
becomes second nature.
Its not always easy to know what
instrument is on what numbered
channel, so Console 1 enables you to
name your channels in the plug-in.
This means typing in the name of
each channel a second time
(assuming youve named all your
channels in your DAW you have,
havent you?). The exception to this is in
Presonus Studio One 2, and soon in
Cubase and Nuendo, where the DAW
provides the name to the Console 1
plug-in, saving you the time. Softube
tell us they hope to roll out this
functionality to more DAWs, but this
requires changes to be made to the
DAW software as well as the Console 1
software, so is dependent on the DAW
designers as much as it is to Softube.
A walk down the strip

Console 1 has five primary sections,
first an input section which has an
input gain, high- and low-pass filters,
and polarity switch. This then feeds the
Shape, EQ and Compressor sections,
and finally into an output stage which
has Drive controls, pan/balance,
volume and solo/mute switches. This is
Based on the SSL 4000 E,

there isnt true like-for-like
functionality it does more
like start/stop. Thankfully, you should
never have much call to click on this GUI
as all controls can be accessed from
the hardware. Furthermore, it isnt
strictly necessary to have the GUI open
at all, as there is some visual feedback
on the hardware. Our favourite way to
work, once wed got used to the Console
1 was with the display in Auto mode
this mode shows and hides the GUI
layer automatically whenever you alter
a fairly comprehensive channel-strip,

and the Console 1 even enables you to
route the filters to only the dynamics
side-chain and not the direct signal,
and to change the processing order,
placing the EQ before, between, or after
the Shape and Compressor modules.
The console strip in Console 1 is
based on an SSL 4000 E studio console,
but modules can be swapped out for
any of Softubes other EQ and dynamics
Softube Console 1 Reviews MTF
Alternatives
The Console 1 brings a unique hybrid approach to mixing, but you can get
great results by using any hardware controller. The Avid MC Control is
one of the most advanced, using the EuCon protocol rather than a MIDI
based system, such as HUI. But HUI systems shouldnt be overlooked,
and the newly announced Behringer X-Touch is certainly one to consider.
characteristics of this Drive distortion,

from bassier distortions to one end and
more high-end distortions to the other.
Fingers on the buzzer
After working for some time with Console 1, it became much like using a real mixing console with you
becoming less reliant on the computer screen and just working with the hardware no bad thing
modules. Unlike the other modules

however, the SSL E channel-strip wont
be available outside of Console 1. While
based on the SSL 4000 E, there isnt
true like-for-like functionality and in
most cases there is actually greater
functionality in the Console 1 than in a
true SSL 4000 E channel-strip. The
Shape module, for example, misses the
range knob of the SSL 4000 gate,
doesnt have the fast-attack option, and
provides soft- and hard-knee modes
instead of the hardwares Expand and
Gate modes which change the ratio.
But it also adds a transient shaper,
which is unique to Softube, and makes
up for the missing gate features.
The EQ is based on the E 242 black
knob EQ module which was developed
in 1983 with Sir George Martin for his
SSL console at AIR studios. The 242 EQ
is known for its aggressive tonal
controls, with plenty of available gain,
and steep filtering. This is the EQ design
that SSL continues to use on its
E-Series EQ modules. The Console 1
captures the aggression of these curves
fantastically, and even enables you to
switch the high- and low-bands into
additional filters, which can be very
handy if you are using the Input module
filters for keying the sidechain again

an option not available on the original.
The compressor section includes a
mix knob, enabling you to achieve quick
parallel compression without the need
for additional channels again a
feature not present on the original
consoles. The SSL channel compressor
is a fantastic and versatile tool, which
can be used to tame almost any
incoming signal. With a low ratio and
slow attack it can be almost completely
transparent, but increase the attack
and you can get some very aggressive
compression. On stereo channels the
compressor doesnt quite have the glue
that the later G-series compressor was
famous for, but it has a similar vibe, and
mixing into the Console 1 across your
drums buss can get them sounding
punchy with very little compression on
any individual channels.
To emulate the harmonics and
non-linearities of the SSL 4000 E
consoles, Console 1 has additional
Drive and Character controls on the
output section. Pushing the Drive
control emulates driving the line-amps
of the SSL console hard, while the
Character control changes the tonal
Our initial experiences with the Console

1 left us a little perplexed as to why
Softube had chosen such a tough route,
designing a controller that used its own
application layer, rather than just a
simple MIDI controller designed for the
plug-in. But as we got a few mixes
under out belt with this system, the
controller become a part of our
workflow. The initial set up is a little
fiddly, but this should get better over
time as more DAWs support the system
directly, and once youre set up and the
software is on every channel. It
becomes much more like mixing on a
real console. You dont notice the screen
as much, and you get used to switching
the channel on the Console 1 hardware
and just working, without ever letting go
to use the keyboard/mouse, except for
the odd additional plug-in much as
you might work with a real console,
adding occasional plug-ins to your mix
as and when you need them.
Automating becomes simpler as you
can now grab a bunch of controls
simultaneously and draw in your
automation, straight to your DAW the
best of all worlds. The addition of a
fader instead of the output volume
knob might have made the Console 1 a
little more like the real thing, especially
for automating levels, but were happy
using the it alongside our existing
controllers to bring a little extra
hands-on depth, without the physical
space required for a full console. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Great tactile response
+ SSL 4000 E emulation
+ Expands with Softube plug-ins
+ Great transient shaper built-in
- Time consuming to set up
- Limited to Softube plug-ins
- Limited to EQ and dynamics
- No fader
Softubes Console 1 is refreshing in its design, taking a

modern approach and combining it with some classic mix
tools so can it be the best of all worlds?
Softube has developed an

interesting and fun to use mixing
controller, putting the most used
controls back at your fingertips.
8/10
| 121
MTF Reviews Korg Taktile
Alternatives
Arturias KeyLab 49 is another 49-note
controller of a similar price but its trump card
is that it concentrates on being a hybrid synth
rather than performance tool. Its more of a
sonic beast as it comes with loads of synth
sounds,and you get as many knobs, pads and
sliders but no Korg X-Y touch pad. Well be
looking at it in more detail next issue.
KORG
Taktile 49
Were all soon going to be buried under a huge pile of controller

keyboards and studio monitors, but can Korgs Taktile kick this
invasion off with a bang? Andy Jones dons helmet
Details
Price
279 (streeting 259)
Contact
01908 304600
Web www.korg.com
Key Features
O Keyboard:
49-key semiweighted,
velocitysensitive
O Arpeggiator:
6 types, 50
rhythms
O 16 velocitysensitive trigger
pads
O 8 x switches,
sliders and
knobs
O DAW transport
O 2 x wheels
(pitch bend and
assignable)
O Touch pad: touch
scale, control
and track pad
modes
O Connections:
USB, assignable
switch and
pedal, MIDI In
/ Out
O Dimensions
(mm): 750 (W) x
290 (D) x 83 (H)
O Weight: 3.8 kg/
8.38 lbs
t the Frankfurt Music Show in

April, where most music gear
companies announced their
yearly releases, it seemed
that pretty much everyone was
releasing one of three types of product:
monitors, MIDI controllers and keyboard
controllers. So MusicTechs monitor
tester Huw Price has enough work to
keep him going until retirement, and as
for that mountain of controllers, were
going to pick and choose the most
interesting over the next few issues.
So first up we have Taktile from Korg.
Its a USB keyboard controller available
in 49 and 25 keys, with Triton models
coming out later this year featuring
Triton a sound engine which were quite
excited about. We have the 49-key
Triton-less version on test here and
even though it might not have any
sounds, there does appear to be plenty
on offer to control whatever you use.
Out of the box it acts as a DAW
controller for Cubase, Logic, DP, Live,
SONAR, Pro Tools and more, while a
Kaoss X/Y touch pad adds some Korg
brilliance for loads of real-time
performance options. Taktiles being
touted as fun, functional and cool (the
promo video features a player with
baseball hat, beard, short-sleeve shirt
and tie so it definitely ticks that last
box) so lets get in and get controlling.
Light and easy

First up its lightweight yet solid, two
ticks I need in a controller. Textured
beige plastic covers the back and sides
FOCUS
to give it a modern feel. Connections are

on the right side rather than the back
which may or may not be a good thing
depending on your set-up (it works for
me as it sits to the left of my laptop).
Knobs, sliders and switches feel solid
not too loose nor tight although the
faders may be a tad short for some.
As is the USB cable that connects to
you computer (luckily it is to the left of
my laptop as stated!). Connect that
though and the unit powers by USB
with a small screen to the right of the
main X/Y touch pad revealing which of
16 editable scenes (set-ups, basically)
you are in, and which pads, sliders and
controllers you are using. Its small but
all the detail is there.
Setting up with your DAW shouldnt
be a problem. With Cubase, for example,
dial the Cubase scene on the keyboard
and set it up as a Mackie Control. Its
similarly easy in other DAWs although I
had to download a plug-in for Logic. No
effort though: install it, Logic sees
Taktile as a device and suddenly you
can control eight channel faders at
once with dials controlling pan and
switches controlling mute and solo
brilliantly easy and one of the quickest
and most successful set-ups Ive had
with a controller and Logic.
Another very neat feature is that
when you hit the Trackpad button the XY
pad in the middle of Taktile acts like a
mouse pad so you can use it to move
your cursor, click and you even get
familiar Mac swipes great in Logic to
navigate around its windows and a
feature that made me feel very at home.

And talking of XY, Taktile really
comes into its own when you make the
most of this central controller. First up
when playing an instrument you can
select a scale type (35 to choose from)
and key using the +/- buttons and
perform with it, playing notes or chords
(or, of course, just drum sounds) with
the 16 pads. The Value Slider then lets
you add to the richness of these chords
by stepping up or down. The arpeggiator
can also be operated here on both the
touch or trigger pads. You select the
pattern number and again play by note
or chord. Finally you assign control info
here for control change messages on
the F1-F8 function buttons or
TouchPad. Obviously this opens up the
keyboard to controlling all sorts of
external features including synthesiser
parameters and effects so its easy to
go to town performance wise.
And in truth these added extra
features take Taktile beyond other
controllers as there are so many
performance options that they open up.
And then it has those great
real-time options and superb DAW
integration, and I havent even
mentioned the software bundle which
includes Korgs M1 Le software, EZ
drummer Lite, Lounge Lizard Session,
an Ableton Live discount coupon and
Reason Limited, which is enough to get
anyone going from scratch. So there
might be a lot of controllers on the way
but Taktile has set the bar high a great
package and performance tool. MTF
MTF Verdict
+ Very easy DAW set-up
+ Superb performance features
+ Sturdy and light
+ Fun to use and play
+ Good software bundle
- Connections may be inconvenient
- Short cable and faders
- Bit plasticy
A very versatile and useful
controller with lots of performance
options that takes it beyond a
typical keyboard controller. Cant
wait for the Triton version.
8/10
Reviews MTF
Chris Octane Presents Drum & Bass Core

Manufacturer Loopmasters
Price 29.95 (download)
Innovation
Contact info@loopmasters.com
Web www.loopmasters.com
he latest artist pack from

Loopmasters sees producer
Chris Octane delve into the
darkest recesses of his studio
for a unique collection of twisted neuro
bass lines, glitched-out drum and
bass-style breaks, and moody pads,
leads and fx.
Theres around 1GB worth of loops
and hits, presented in Wav, Apple Loops
and REX2 formats, with other options
also available from the Loopmasters
website. Most of the loops are divided
into bass, breaks, music, and perc
folders, with a further folder containing
10 construction kits of short tracks and
drum ideas. From the off, its clear to
see that Octane is a bit of a scientist
when it comes to production and sound
design, as every loop and sound is
meticulously worked over and crafted.
The bass loops are particularly
impressive, with unique and warped
riffs in constant movement and
Key Features
O Breaks, bass,
music loops
O Drum/inst hits,
121 patches
O 24-bit Wav,
Apple Loops
and REX2, or
Live and ReFill
processed through an array of

different distortion, saturation and amp
effects to give maximum impact
through the speakers. Some also have
separate layers alongside the full bass
loop, which gives an interesting insight
into the production process. On to the
drum and percussion loops and theres
a surprising amount of variety, from
140bpm glitch dubstep grooves, to
faster 170bpm live breaks, with plenty
of original and quirky rhythms and
sounds thrown into the mix. Also of
interest are the music loops that
combine deeply spooky and eerily
Leap Motion Controller

Manufacturer Leap Motion
Price 79.98
Contact via website
Web www.leapmotion.com
eap Motion Controller is a tiny

device that weve been itching to
play with since we saw the first
promotional videos. This was
because it seemed to offer low-latency,
hands-free control that could really
benefit those in the studio or onstage.
The device can detect between your left
and right hands, X, Y and Z movements,
tilting of your wrist, finger movements
and more. For detection it effectively
creates an invisible half-sphere on your
desktop for you to interact with.
Innovation
Key Features
O Hands-free
operation
O 80 x .7mm in size
O Large range of
apps in Airspace
O Supports MIDI
and OSC
O Includes both
short and long
USB leads
The unit plugs in via USB and, after

the Leap Motion software is installed,
you can visit the Airspace app store and
explore whats on offer. There are plenty
of cool apps available but well focus on
those that might benefit your musicmaking. Many apps in the music
category are little more than toys
which we soon realised within a minute
or so but one app that is causing a
stir is Geco MIDI ($9.99), which enables
you to set a custom MIDI CC output for
any of the available hand movements
and gestures.
After watching a few tutorial videos
it is easy to grasp how Geco MIDI works.
A solo button per assignment can be
used so you output only one MIDI CC as
you try to assign it to a parameter in
your MIDI-mappable software or
device. This is a great feature and
avoids a lot of potential misfiring of
other CC messages.
As with all new technologies,
controlling Leap Motion takes practice.
We soon learned that its best to keep a
body-widths distance between your left
and right hands so they dont falsely
beautiful pads, with more snarling and

raspy synth lines.
Alongside the loops youll find a
large collection of bass and lead hits
and multisamples, plus fx, percussion,
and a superb folder of crunchy and
interestingly-processed drum hits.
There are plenty of rhythmic variations
on the same bass and lead sounds,
which offer an easy way to craft
complex neuro bass patterns. However,
at times, as with the rest of the pack, we
found some of the sounds to be a little
too complex and evolving, arguably
making it hard to process further and
make your own.
Although the unique programming
and heavy processing in this pack may
prove a little too off-the-wall for some
users, this is the very definition of
cutting-edge production. MTF
MTF Verdict
Occasionally overly complex but,
overall, a dark and original
masterclass of exquisite
production and inspiring hard
-edged sounds and loops.
9/10
trigger each others assignments. After

20 minutes or so of having your arms
held out you do start to feel some
muscle-burn in your shoulders, so there
are the physical demands to get used to
as well. However, we managed to set up
interesting expressive setups such as
filter cutoff via the left hand and
saturation via the right.
The response time of Leap Motion is
impressive and is always the make-orbreak aspect of any audio control
system. The detection is also quite
sensitive, which enabled both slow and
controlled or fast and rhythmic
detection with a high level of accuracy.
With two assignments per hand we
could easily control more parameters
than is possible using a conventional
controller, and with time you may find
you can master the control of many
more assignments. MTF
MTF Verdict
Hands-free, multi-gestural control
that will augment any studio or live
setup for high levels of expression
and something visually stimulating
for others.
9/10
| 123
MTF Reviews
CONDUCTR
Manufacturer Patchworks
Price 15.49
Contact via website
Web www.conductr.net
t the moment, Ableton Live is

probably the most-supported
DAW in terms of customised
controllers. Even before
Abletons own Push instrument came
into being, various hardware and
iOS-based systems have been created
to control nearly all aspects of Live. One
of the latest releases for this task is
CONDUCTR, aiming to offer liveperformance control from your iPad.
The competition for iPad-based
control of Live is pretty stiff. There is
already an all-bells-and-whistles
option in the form of an app called
touchAble. This gives you control over
Live as if your computer is in front of
you. Version 1 of touchAble has been a
great success, and the forthcoming v2
looks like it will take things to the next
level in terms of control and a userdefinable GUI design.
Key Features
O Specifically
focused on using
Live for live
performance
O Runs on iPad 1
upwards
O Full, half or
quarter screen
split based
interface
O User-definable
modules
O Click and
add custom
parameters
from Live
Liine has also recently released

LiveControl 2, which is technically free
but does require you to own the pricy
Lemur app. This also offers a good
degree of control and gives you plenty
of input options for composition.
So, does CONDUCTR offer anything
new when it costs just a snippet under
the price of touchAble? Well, yes, but no,
as it actually offers less than the other
two, but this is intentional: CONDUCTR
focuses purely on controlling Live in live
performances. It also offers this in a
customisable way: rather than just
chucking all options at you to figure out
and use as you find relevant, you build
the controls you need, bit by bit. This
can also be done with Liines app and
the forthcoming touchAble release,

but CONDUCTR lets you simply click
and move the parameters you want
from any relevant plug-ins within Live,
making the task simple to implement.
Setting up requires installing server
software on your computer, then
connecting to your computer via Wi-Fi.
We really enjoyed the interface layout
as it can be split into four areas,
dividing the screen into quarters. These
can be magnified half- or full-screen
as required. The only issues we had with
the app were a few screen glitches on
opening, resolved by rotating the iPad.
Also, the landscape layout worked in
only one orientation which happened
to be upside-down with our iPad case/
stand (these should be addressed in a
forthcoming update). Overall, this app is
a good consideration if you want to
perform live with a simple interface to
work with and minimal clutter. MTF
MTF Verdict
A great start for this new app with a
strong focus on controlling only
what you need, when you want to, in
a live performance.
7/10
Hero3+ Music
Manufacturer GoPro
Price 359.99
Contact 44-20-70849725
Web gopro.madison.co.uk/
ow heres a novel idea, but

you may want to get in there
quick to take advantage of
it. GoPro cameras have
quickly made a name as the go
anywhere HD camera system youll
find them strapped on all sorts of
sports equipment and they can capture
pretty much every extreme activity you
can think of. But this new Music bundle
takes the black edition camera on
stage, designed, as it is, for bands to
capture every angle of their
performance. The clip-on camera
comes with a Flex Clamp, mic stand and
two instrument clips to allow it to be
clipped to anything musically. The uses
for this kind of camera in a live situation
are obvious. You could, for example,
have the somewhat intimate images of
a close-up on the vocalists tonsils or
guitarists plank beamed to a larger
screen for the audience to wonder at, or
FOCUS
Key Features
O 1080p camera
(1920x1080
resolution)
O Auto Light
mode
O Flex clamp
O Mic stand and
2 instrument
mounts
even have every band member strapped

in to record a live video. Scatter a few
among the crowd and you have an easy
and unusual recording of a gig at
several angles (up to 50 can be
controlled remotely over WiFi).
But, like we said, youll have to get in
there quick as this is the obvious angle.
Better, but less obvious ideas include
having several placed in your writing
studio to capture song-writing sessions
for blogs for your fan base, or even life in
the van on the road. In use, its simple to
operate with great results. You could get
away with one camera and a lot of play
throughs to record your bands videos,
but youll want more than one

eventually, so the cost could add up.
The only other downsides are the
extra cost of a microSD card, and that
head strap would have been a great
inclusion, otherwise its a futuristic
pointer for band videos to come. MTF
MTF Verdict
All aspects of a bands life could
come alive with these cameras,
whether you are famous already, or
in search of gimmicky videos by
which to become famous by.
8/10
Reviews MTF
TMA-1 Studio (Young Guru)

Manufacturer Aiaiai
Price 183/250Euros
Contact +45 35 34 63 54
Web www.aiaiai.dk
iaiai has already made a

splash with the TMA-1 DJ
headphones and is now
entering the studio with two
models: the TMA-1 Studio and Studio
Young Guru.
Headphones are, of course,
incredibly cool these days and
associate them with a name and they
suddenly become even cooler. Young
Guru is a Grammy-award winning
engineer who has worked with Kanye
West, Jay-Z and Drake so certainly has
the credentials. You pay an extra 50
Euros for his name which gets you a
lighter set of phones and a straight plug
rather than the angled one on the
original. Otherwise the feature-set is
similar, with interchangeable ear pads,
a flexible headphone cable (our
favourite type), a three-button remote
cable, plus a carry pouch (not as
Key Features
O Transducer:
Dynamic,
closed
O Driver Unit: 40
mm
O Impedance:
3210% Ohm
O Frequency
Response: 20 to
20kHz
O Total Harmonic
Distortion:
<0.35%
O Weight: 180g
protective as it claims
being, well, a pouch rather
than the plastic solid
case youd find with a
Bose, for example).
You also get the
signature Young Guru
sound which actually
isnt so much about the
sound but more about
the phones ruggedness for
road use and comfort, both
of which we can report as
being very positive these
are a joy to wear and very
solid with a design that any
Scandinavian country would be
proud of.
The sound too is spot on. The
Studio and DJ TMAs are already
making their mark here and these are
as good. Clear, true, honest and great
for mix monitoring and even the odd
mastering job. Wed never buy a set of
phones just because someone famous
has endorsed them but these, and the
other TMAs, are justifiably winning lots
of friends inside studios and out. MTF
MTF Verdict
Forget the name and feel the sound
quality and comfort. Aiaiai is
making big waves in the headphone
market and with the TMA-1s its
easy to see, and hear, why.
8/10
Toll - Historical Bells Collection

Manufacturer Sonokinetic Ltd
Price 60
Contact via website
Web sonokinetic.net
he Dutch samples library

developers Sonokinetic can
usually be relied upon to come
up with something a little
different whether it be an orchestral
phrase library like Minimal or a Middle
Eastern instrument collection such as
Sultan Strings. For their latest release,
Toll, theyve been climbing cathedrals
(on the inside we hope) and risking
deafness sampling sixteenth and
seventeenth heavy cast bells. The
complete 3GB collection covers a
variety of European bells as well as
recordings of South East Asian
ceremonial bells from countries such
as Vietnam and China.
Programmed for Kontakt 4.2.4 and 5
there are four main categories:
Carillons, Historical Bells, Silk Road
Bells and Tower Bells. With a range of
five octaves and a wonderfully
Key Features
O 8 bell sets
O 600+ samples
(3+GB)
O Full round robin
O 4 IRs
evocative sound the familiar peal of the

Carillon (church bells) is the star of the
show as far as we are concerned. Two
versions are available, hard and soft.
Both are beautifully pitched and just
the job for adding a touch of grandeur
to all kinds of production styles.
While the Carillons are perfect for
melodic work, the Historical and Silk
Road bells are tuned in a pre-modern
fashion and suited to adding dramatic
production effects. The Cathedral Tower
Bells, too, are very weighty sounding.
The main UI is simplicity itself
although, because of the small text and
murky icons its difficult to read exactly
which bell collection is selected. Other
controls include release tail length, EQ,
reverb selection and round robin. Four
adjustable reverbs are included.
Round robins are well catered for
and they cycle for each key for a natural
playback. Which sample is playing can
be observed by following a marked MIDI
key towards the bottom of the keyboard.
A useful feature is the option to repeat a
sample (freeze), exclude one or mark a
sample to play first in a chosen RR set.

We cant fault this collection. Large
historical bell samples are quite hard to
come by and for the money, Toll is hard
to beat. The exquisite sounding
Carillons are easily worth shelling out
the asking price for. MTF
MTF Verdict
An excellent set of large historical
bells suitable for many types of
production, the highlight of which
are the Carillons.
9/10
| 125
MTF Reviews
BIAS for iPad
gate and room sections, plus eight

Quick Snap slots for flipping between
presets. Tap the Settings icon to be
taken to a rather cool customisation
section, where you can tap and drag to
reorder any of the components in the
signal chain, including preamp, EQ, tone
stack, power amp, transformer and cab.
Tap on any of these to edit it
Manufacturer Positive Grid

Price 10.49
Contact via website
Web www.positivegrid.com
ositive Grid makes a range of

guitar-centric software
and hardware
products centred
on the iPad platform, and its
latest is BIAS, an amp
designer, modeller and
processor for the iPad 2 and
later, and requiring iOS7.
Processing guitars through
an iPad is nothing new, but
the company firmly believes
that BIAS has more focus on
the achieving of great guitar
tones than its competitors.
It certainly looks good,
and there are nine presets
categorised by type covering
blues, rock, metal and more.
Along the base is an
omnipresent toolbar with in/
out volume controls, configurable noise
Key Features
MTF Verdict
O Multiple virtual
components
O iPad 2 or higher
O Highly
configurable
O Excellent sound
Say it very loud probably the best

guitar amp sim on the iPad today.
10/10
Drumming for Dance Music

(EDM) with Paul Kodish
house, breaks and drum & bass. Paul
Kodish takes you from the basis of good
technique for ergonomics and stamina
to understanding rhythmic measures.
For stick techniques, single- and
double-stroke approaches are covered
and given context to when theyre most
useful in electronic music. Heel-andtoe techniques are also slowed down so
you can learn to create the sometimes
intricate rhythms required.
Pauls
Manufacturer Producertech
Price 49.95
Contact via website
Web www.producertech.com
arious drummers have

managed to bridge the gap
between live performance and
electronic music. Notably, Clive
Deamers work as the backbone of
Portishead and Roni Sizes Reprazent in
the 90s showed us that there is a place
for human groove in electronic music,
both in the studio and onstage. There
are a handful of contemporary
drummers who shine in Clives footprint,
the most well known being Andy
Gangadeen, KJ Sawka, Jungle Drummer
and Paul Kodish. Between them, these
guys have performed live for Pendulum,
Chase & Status, London Elektricity,
Apollo 440, DJ Fresh and Destroid.
This streaming online course is
purely about drumming for electronic
music, focusing on hip hop, dubstep,
FOCUS
Key Features
O 43 videos
O 170 minutes
O 5 electronic
music genres
O Backing track
audio. Live, Logic
and Reason
session files
O Performances
available as
audio and MIDI
from the gorgeous interface, and tap

and drag to swap components and
change settings.
There are 36 amp models included
as well as different tube and
transformer types and behaviours as
well as a nifty drag-to-position mic
interface that enables you to change
the tone easily. You can save setups and
send them to JamUp XT, the companys
other guitar performance app, and it
works with GarageBand for iOS via
inter-app audio. All major iPad guitar
interfaces are supported, too.
This is an excellent guitar processor
thats highly configurable but easy to
use and has a powerful, meaty sound.
Youll believe that the company spent
some considerable time getting the
tone just right, and some of the demos
on the website are simply blistering. For
the price its an absolute bargain one
that will have guitarists of all kinds
riffing like mad. MTF
presentation style is quite informal,

throwing in various useful tidbits of
information as they become relevant.
This makes the course feel more like a
long one-on-one tutorial session, which
we think works well when learning a
new instrument.
After 11 videos on technique, the
skills are then put into context for each
genre. A nice progression of intricacy
develops with each video, while Paul is
careful to slow down trickier parts so
they are easier to grasp.
We chose to review this course as
we thought it would offer education to
drummers, programmers and engineers
alike. Although this does turn out to be
the case, its more focused on core
drumming techniques for those at the
earlier stages of playing. However, the
techniques are solid and will help
beginners to focus on the right area if
electronic music is their thing. MTF
MTF Verdict
The price is fairly high, but beginner
to intermediate drummers will
benefit greatly from Pauls shared
professional experience.
9/10
Reviews MTF
Spirit Professional
Manufacturer Focal
Price 249
Contact SCV London 03301 222500
Web www.focal.com
fter 25 years of experience in

speaker design and
manufacturing, Focal has now
poured its expertise into the
design of a new pair of flagship
closed-back studio headphones.
Provided with both coiled and straight
cables, you also get a 3.5mm-to-1/4inch jack adaptor and a carry pouch. The
straight cable is for mobile playback as
it includes a remote with onboard mic
for hi-fidelity conversations.
As soon as we picked up the
headphones we noticed the slick finish
and robust build. That being said, they
are also incredibly light; alongside their
soft yet firm cups they are perfect for
long sessions as we experienced no ear
fatigue or headaches when using them.
After using these headphones for a
few weeks to ensure they were
bedded-in, we selected a range of
Key Features
O 255 grams
O Sturdy build
O Straight and
coiled cables
O Comfortable
design
different listening materials to see how

they fared under their final test
conditions. First up we listened to a
classic pop album that had a good
balance of both loudness and depth. A
soft female lead and backing vocal
which usually smear into one in our
experience suddenly gained another
degree of separation. Listening to some
classic jazz recordings also revealed
this detail within a nice sense of depth,
enabling us to discern the tiniest
nuances in room sounds and platereverb tails.
Novation Launch Control

Manufacturer Novation
Price 79
Contact Focusrite 01494 459920
Web http://uk.novationmusic.com
ovations recently released

Launchkey Mini and
Launchpad Mini were
essentially smaller, more
compact versions of products that
were already popular and widely used,
and now we have Launch Control, the
third release in the companys range of
Minis. With 16
assignable knobs
that can operate
a variety of DAW
controls
including
filters, levels and
panning along
with eight
buttons that can
trigger clips,
loops and
samples (not
forgetting the
directional
Key Features
O Up to 448
controls
O 16 assignable
knobs
O 8 LED pads
O Fast response
time
O Draws buss
power from iPad
or Mac/PC
O Comes with
Ableton Live Lite
controls located on the right-hand side

of the unit that can move the control
grid) the possibilities that Launch
Control opens up are vast, particularly
for those who want to get more
hands-on during live performance.
Another thing to mention is the
exceptional build quality of the small,
rectangular box. The knobs are soft yet
have substantial resistance on turning,
and like the Launchpad Mini, it is
incredibly light and has no trailing
power cables as it runs on buss power.
We next tried them out with some

harder-edged metal and the midrange
crunch of the guitars came through
quite well, though due to the nonfatiguing nature of Focal products,
extreme metallers may crave a little
more bite. However, the contrasting
dynamics of drum cymbals were well
portrayed and we trusted our
perception of the mix overall.
Turning to electronic music, we tried
some deep trance and enjoyed the wide
stereo field, which has convincing
placement within it. True to the nature
of Focals, you do feel like youre within
the mix rather than it being to either
side or in front of you, and the only mix
aspect that didnt come through 100
per cent were some rhythmic sub parts
on one track in particular. In general,
though, the bass response has an even
reach down below 30Hz and the timing
is very tight. MTF
MTF Verdict
A well designed, accurate and
versatile pair of headphones that
wed feel confident using for both
long tracking and mixing sessions.
9/10
Novation encourages using the

Launch Control in tandem with the
other Launch products and, most
importantly, the Launchkey/pad iPad
app, which we must stress now
features the ability to import your own
loops and samples via Dropbox. We
tested the Launch Control with the
aforementioned app/pad controller and
found it to be a very useful addition
for live performance, Novation clearly
hopes that youll use the Launchpad
Mini to trigger your loops and samples,
while the Launch Control will be the
primary parameter and studio workflow
controlling mechanism. With Ableton
Live it also works a treat.
However, if youve opted for the
Launchkey Mini we cant really see any
reason for buying this separate control
box, for it too includes a range of
parameter-adjusting knobs and
controls unless, of course, you wanted
that little bit more flexibility. MTF
MTF Verdict
A well-made controller that adds
an extra degree of creative
dexterity to Novations iPad-based
and Ableton Live-using performers.
8/10
| 127
MTF Interview Jesse Terry
MTF Studio Session
Meet The
Ableton Team
Ableton product specialist and former artist relations manager Jesse Terry talks Push, Live
and introducing his heroes to each other
MusicTech Focus: Tell us a little about your

background and about your career in the audio
industry?
MTF: Tell us a little about some of the artists

you have worked with and what they have
brought to Ableton and vice versa?
Jesse Terry: I'm a musician first and have played guitar all my
life. In high school I interned at a big recording studio
(Ruffhouse Records) where they made great albums by
Cypress Hill and the Fugees among others. Back then I had a
cassette 4-track to learn about recording at home, and
recorded myself and my band. Those days were different,
what with having to bounce down tracks and worry about
cassette quality. In university I started to study up on a bunch
of genres of music and music technology. I got into the
software side as the Apple G4 made much more possible on
my computer and then started to write reviews for music
magazines, and in particular became the Music Technology
editor for XLR8R magazine.
JT: Its always inspiring to see how different people are using
Live, and also fun to get to hang out with some heroes. I am a
huge Herbie Hancock fan and got to sit in on his soundcheck,
alone in an auditorium and it was pretty powerful. He uses a
really complicated Ableton Live rig with Max For Live plugins
to quickly jump to different areas of his set to power his solo
shows. I also am a fan of Flying Lotus and I had the secret
wish that Herbie would record some Fender Rhodes on a
Flying Lotus album, so I introduced them and Herbie is
indeed on Flying Lotuss upcoming album! It's very cool to
link up my heroes (it sounds fantastic by the way). Flying
Lotus has helped us to uncover bugs in arrangement view
and usability issues in Live that we hope to improve on.
MTF: How did you become involved with

Ableton?
JT: Around Live 2, I got a review copy of Live and loved the
potential for live looping and recording. By Live 3 I was
hooked and had ditched my DAW, and was using Plogue
Bidule to get around Live's lack of MIDI. I was using Live a lot
on stage with a band and to record with. I wrote some
favourable articles about it, and I guess kissing ass gets you
everywhere! My writing caught Abletons eye and I joined
around Live 4 as a product specialist. Since then I've edited
movies, was Artist Relations Manager, worked with getting
Live Lite to our various partners, and then have settled into a
product design/project management role with the APC40,
the Bridge and now Push.
MTF: Explain your role at Ableton - what is it

you do day to day?
JT: I work remote from Philadelphia, so a morning is filled
with meetings, working on coordinating the design and
implementation of various features of Push at different
levels. To make a successful product, you need a blend of
viability, feasibility and desirability, and in many ways my job
is making sure all of those things are on track for a product.
So I work with software developers, feature designers,
industrial and visual designers, our sales team and
manufacturers to make sure we get an exciting product out.
FOCUS
I mean, no one asked for

Push, this came from
trying to imagine a better
way to create music!
Ive met some other great people using Push as a
songwriting tool on the road, like Thom Yorke and others who
are inspiring in a visionary way like Bjork. She was really
interested in changing time signatures and tempo by
relabelling scenes, a technique which made its way onto
Biophilia. Probably the artist I hang out with most is DJ Jazzy
Jeff because we live near each other, and because he is the
classiest dude, willing to freely share his feedback,
knowledge and experience with the history of drum
machines, samplers and beatmaking in general. I love this
kind of artist the best, the artist who holds nothing secret,
and wants to help and inspire everyone around them. Its also
kind of badass he can give me the same samples, the same
plugins and the same techniques and he will still make a
beat ten times better than me. Talking to people like Jeff,
Image Michael T Regan
King Britt, Diplo and Q-Tip, and DiVinci from Lauryn Hills
band inspire us to think about certain ways of working with
Push and how we might improve it in the future. There are
hundreds more whose feedback, complaints and praise help
us to make Live better.
MTF: Do you incorporate a lot of artist feedback

into the software and hardware revisions?
JT: Sure, we do a ton of user testing with famous and non
famous users in our lab or in the field. I dont think we
prioritize artist feedback over our general user base, but it
does bring some weight when you can help an artist, at the
same time as your general user base. We have to balance
between taking in wishes and trying anticipating underlying
user needs, because often what is asked for does not really
help the root problem they are trying to solve, and we
definitely dont want to add complexity to our product when
there may be a simpler solution. I mean, no one asked for
Push, this came from trying to imagine a better way to
create music!
MTF: In terms of Live what questions do you get

asked the most about the software, and how do
you answer?
JT: Im not sure where to start here! There are so many
different wishes and complaints and praise in all forms
about all kinds of features, from basic to the nitty gritty API
questions. I cant really ever say what's coming in the future,
but I always take down the questions and we process them
and weight them when prioritising new or refined features.
MTF: Tell us about your involvement with Push ?

JT: I am responsible for the overall vision of what Push should
do, working in conjunction with our CEO Gerhard, who has
the vision for the entire company. So, along with Gerhard and
a dedicated team of great developers and designers, I helped
design a lot of the functionality, and worked on the workflows
Jesse Terry with

rapper and hip hop
producer Warren G
we wanted to cover. In the beginning we designed it with

hacked together controllers and MIDI buttons attached to
Legos, so we could move things around and get the
ergonomics right. The parts Im particularly proud of is the
melodic layout for folding notes in key, and the drum layout
which combines step sequencing and playing. A lot of blood
sweat and tears went into those parts, with many night
playing with prototypes and thinking about how it could
be improved.
MTF: Can you give any hints at all about any

plans you have for the software and hardware
for the future?
JT: I think with something like Push, it does creation with
MIDI (drums and Instruments) very well. Personally it has
changed the speed and excitement with which I make music,
and I know a lot of users and artists feel the same way - it
has been received far beyond our expectations. But it opens
up a lot of doors as to what more it could do, or how it could
be streamlined and improved, to expand and refine upon its
current workflows.
MTF: And anything that you would like to see

personally - a dream wish list if you like?
JT: I wont go into it, but lets just say I have spammed our
company with 1000s of wishes in my time here. The hard part
is refining these into something useful. When I started here,
Id write pages of complicated solutions, but nowadays I try to
think really hard about the specific problems Im having. As
our CEO Gerhard Behles once told me, after one of my
lengthy emails, the best wishes fit in the subject line of an
email. This changed how I approached my inter company
spamming technique. Generally, I get frustrated in places
where I have to do too many steps to do a frequent action, or I
am hindered or confused by things that are inconsistent.
There is a lot that we are currently working on that I am very
excited about. MTF
| 129
MTF On Your DVD
With masses of features and an ever-expanding library

of instruments and Max4Live devices, Live 9 is a deep
and complex beast of a DAW. Whether youre looking to
record instruments, write a dance masterpiece or
create a live DJ setup, Live and the Push controller/
instrument have plenty to offer, and weve compiled a
host of content to help you get the most out of them.
Theres over three hours of tuition videos, the latest
software demos, freeware plug-ins, and promo videos.
Theres also plenty of royalty-free loops, samples and
Live devices, and finally all the files you need to follow
along with the workshops at home.
MTF On the disc Over three and a quarter hours of pro video tuition
LIVE-COURSES.COM
Producertechs Rob Jones gives a useful
introduction to Live 9 with an overview of the
main windows and features. Theres also a 10
minute video by producer Paul Maddox that
looks at building an old school house beat
from scratch using Push.
RACKS AND CLIPS

Groove3 has provided a whole load of pro
videos taken from its Live 9 Explained and Live
9 Racks Explained tutorials, which includes
chapters covering routing and monitoring,
clips, freeze and resample, rack types, and
drum rack chains.
REVERB, DELAY, COMPRESSION & EQ

Six more chapters from Groove3 to help
you understand early reflections and
secondary reflections in reverb, delays,
advanced compression parameters,
multiband compression techniques, and
mastering compression.
LOOP+
Two videos of production tips including
a look at splitting up your audio into
frequency bands so that they can processed
independently, and also a Quick Tips on using
subtle pitch bend automation on bass lines
to add character and sonic interest.
POINTBLANK MUSIC SCHOOL

London-based Point Blank Music School
takes a massive tip filled journey through two
epic videos totalling nearly an hour and a half.
Course tutors Freddy Frogs and Sie MedwaySmith explore preparing a mix, thickening
drums, getting creative with Racks and more.
LOOPMASTERS SAMPLES
A hand-picked library of royalty-free
samples in 24-bit Wav format including many
taken from Break Symmetry DnB, CAPSUN
Chill Trap & Future RnB, Deep & Raw Techno,
Double Tiger Horns of Dub, Puncture Kit, and
Synth DNA Korg MonoPoly.
01
04
FOCUS
02
05
03
06
On Your DVD MTF
MTF Your Disc

MTF DVD36 Ableton Live 2014
PROMOTIONAL
VIDEOS
Weve got over 800MB of

videos showcasing the
latest plug-ins and
hardware including a
range of cutting-edge
hardware synths and
software instruments
from Rob Papen,
Toontrack, Elektron,
Native Instruments,
Sonic Faction, Best
Service and Roland. Youll
also find high-quality
audio interfaces and
monitors from Apogee,
Universal Audio, and
Genelec, plus top of the
range software and
hardware controllers
from Korg, Novation,
Patchworks, Zero Debug,
and Ableton.
For PC & Mac
MTF DVD 36
Ableton Live 2014
COPYRIGHT ANTHEM PUBLISHING 2014
FAULTY DISC?
Check www.musictechmag.co.uk for known issues
Return to: Anthem Publishing (disc returns),
Suite 6, Piccadilly House, London Road,
Bath BA1 6PL, UK
SOFTWARE DEMOS
If youre looking to
supplement Live with
some extra tools, then
why not try out the latest
plug-ins. From innovative
synths, to analogue
modelled, classic
processors, weve
rounded up a range of
demo and freeware
software for you to try
out. Youll find plenty of
creative effects,
samplers, beat creation
tools, filters, synths, EQs,
compressors and more to
help you compose and
fine tune your tracks.
For PC & Mac
USING OUR
WORKSHOPS
Whether youre totally

new to Live or a seasoned
pro, weve got a host of
Live and Push workshops
to help you improve your
programming, mixing and
mastering skills, plus
genre workshops on
creating techno and
drumnbass tracks.
Where appropriate youll
find hi-res images,
project files and audio on
the disc so you can follow
along at home. Be sure to
copy all the files to your
computer before opening
a project.
YOUR DVD CONTENT FILES
ZIP FILES
To maximise the amount of content we can bring you on
each DVD, the video, tutorial and samples files are
supplied compressed (zipped). Mac users should be
able to decompress ZIP files simply by double-clicking on
them; PC users may need to download a utility such as
WinZip (www.winzip.com).
TUTORIAL FILES
The software tutorials that feature in each issue of MTF
are almost always accompanied by files and audio so you
can work through them on your system. These files are
zipped to reduce the space they occupy on the DVD.
MTF DVD 36
Ableton Live 2014
LOOPS, RACKS &

DEVICES
To give your inspiration a

bit of a boost, weve
rounded up a whole load
of royalty-free samples,
Max devices and
instruments for you to
use within Live. There are
plenty of useful tools
from Sonic Faction,
Puremagnetik, Sample
Logic and more, plus a
whole load of chunky
beats, live percussion
grooves, synth riffs
and MIDI melodies
courtesy of
Loopmasters,
Equinox Sounds, and
Beta Monkey Music.
COPYRIGHT ANTHEM PUBLISHING 2014

FAULTY DISC?
Check www.musictechmag.co.uk for known issues
Return to: Anthem Publishing (disc returns),
Suite 6, Piccadilly House, London Road,
Bath BA1 6PL, UK
Download them to your hard drive and unzip them to

access the individual files (remembering to eject the DVD
to prevent your computer from slowing down).
WHAT IS ROYALTY-FREE?
Any MTF DVD content marked royalty-free can be used

in your own original compositions (even commercial
ones). You may not, however, resell these samples in any
other form.
DEFECTIVE DISCS
endeavour to supply you with a replacement disc

immediately. Please note that were unable to provide
technical support for the software on the MTF DVD
please check our website at www.musictech.net for any
known problems.
MISSING YOUR DISC?
If your disc is missing, contact us at editorial@anthempublishing.com with your full postal address and the
issue number.
In the unlikely event that your disc is defective, please

return it to: Disc Returns, Anthem Publishing, Suite 6,
Piccadilly House, London, Bath BA1 6PL. We will
| 131

Music Tech Focus 36. Ableton Live 9 2014

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Welcome MTF

We will help you access the

Andy Jones Senior Editor

Multimedia Editor Alex Holmes

Publisher Simon Lewis

Art Editors Kai Wood, John Thakray

Printed by Polestar UK Print Ltd

Digital/On-line Editor Andy Price

Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd

London SE1 0SU Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3300

Ableton Live 2014

Compose and experiment in

The best sites, self promotion and

Audio recording and editing

Mixing tips in Ableton Live p52

A complete guide to giving your

MTF Issue 36 Full listings

049 | Collaboration in Live

091 | Produce drum n bass part 2

Meet the Ableton team p128

MTF Feature 50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound

6 | Ableton Live 2014

50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound Feature MTF

BEEF UP YOUR TUNES

FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 | 7

MTF Feature 50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound

SOUND SELECTION AND TWEAKING

MAKE YOUR OWN SOUNDS

LAYER SOUNDS TOGETHER

Most soft synths make it easy to tweak patches or design sounds

would be the use of LFOs to modulate the cutoff filter in a

Reasons Thor synth is

8 | Ableton Live 2014

TRY TO USE REAL KIT

50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound Feature MTF

You dont have to be an expert

Multisample your own

Many synths let you

SAMPLE YOUR OWN

ISOLATE YOUR AMPS

RECORDING AND PERFORMANCE TIPS

LEARN ABOUT MIC PLACEMENT

GIVE THE VOCALIST SOME REVERB

FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 | 9

MTF Feature 50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound

EMBRACE THE CHAOS

Using tape emulation

USE A CLICK TRACK

Some people give their best

speed-ups or slow-downs, this will mean that programming

CLEVER USE OF EFFECTS

10 | Ableton Live 2014

well. Using compression pedals on guitars and

create a phoneline-style effect for vocals,

GO OUTSIDE THE BOX

LEARN ABOUT COMPRESSION

Tools like NIs

GET A LITTLE CRAZY

Mash-up plug-ins like Turnado give you a whole

FOCUS Ableton Live 2014 | 11

MTF Feature 50 Ways To Supercharge Your Sound

USE TAPE SIMULATORS

SEQUENCING AND EDITING

Some people prefer