SAE gets into bed with Audiocourses for on-line learning
Posted on April 11, 2008
Filed Under Technical Education | Leave a Comment
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SAE Institute have teamed up with Audiocourses.com to launch a new distance learning education division.
In theory, anyone, anywhere in the world will be able to access the an SAE education… but things don’t really work like that. It’s the practical, hands-on nature of audio courses which make them worthwhile.
Let’s face it, you can find just about anything out on Google for free, including a massive array of tips, tricks and rules of the trade, all ready to be broken.
While SAE in the real world craves dominance, opening up schools on just about every street in the world, its founders are hoping to get a piece of the online action too.
Audiocourses has become a number one location for distance learning with several courses available in areas such as music technology, recording techniques, digital audio and audio for video. In many regards it’s a natural evolution as SAE already provide groundbreaking ‘offline’ courses in these areas, among others.
Audiocourses’ Chris Hambly says:
“The merging of SAE Institute, with its world leading face-to-face brand identity, and AC, with its pioneering methods and credibility for early adoption of online delivery, is a mouth-watering prospect. Bringing together these dominant brands really does provide a win- win situation for students globally, whereby regardless of location the student is able to immerse herself in the world’s best solution for media related education both offline and online. It’s perfect!”
Of course it is Chris…
Inspiration Sounds reviews - Funked Up Acid and Apple Loops
Posted on April 9, 2008
Filed Under Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans | 1 Comment
Jan from Inspiration Sounds was kind enough to let me have copies of some of its latest releases; namely the wonderful Funked Up Apple Loops and Funked Up Acid Loops!
Following the initial unzip into wav files, these loops are just pure quality, with everything neatly labelled; drums, percussion, bass, horns and voice all in their own individual files, and labelled with their individual BPM as they were recorded.
So it’s just a case of drag, drop, try it out. If it’s good, copy it, and paste the hell out of it!
I’ve made a demo track which you can listen to below. All of the instruments on the demo are pretty much straight out of the box - no fx, compressions, EQ - nothing.
The only two things I did to any of the tracks on here are:
1. Time stretch in order to make some of my favourite samples fit into the 120BMP tempo. All the loops that I tried still sounded great after doing so.
2. Cut and splice a couple of bass and horn parts together to get the notes/rhythm I wanted. I did that in Audacity, so it’s about as simple as you’re going to get!
Note - you might hear a horn part towards the end which sounds like I’ve put some ambience on it. Not so. It was just a case of staggering where I inserted the loop by a couple of milliseconds or so.
This was done in about an hour. I’m really happy with where it’s going, and fully expect a chart hit in about 6 weeks.
Enjoy!
Jazzmutant Dexter review
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Computers & Hardware, Digital Demons, New Technology, Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans | Leave a Comment
There’s been a lot of talk for the last 9 months about the Jazzmutant Dexter, and yet the obligitory chinese whispers that come along with this kind of technology haven’t really developed past:
‘Have you seen the Dexter?.. It’s touch screen’.
The videos dotted around on Youtube and various blogs made us literally dribble with the excitement at the futuristic light show that is the touch-screen DAW of the now. It’s currently available for use with Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo and Logic Pro.
In the beginning…
On connection to your computer, the Dexter prompts the user to sync the unit via IP. Connect that up and your main user interface appears before you, and your trousers start to feel the cream.
The 8 channel strips in front of you consist of a meter/fader display a set of Mute, Solo, and Record buttons, which are toggled by one touch. The color of the channel indicates its current state with regards to the aforementioned touch controls.
Switching through the 64 channels is easy, via the 8X8 fader display above your main interface. From here you can choose which of the 64 channels you’d like to assign to which group (if you so choose), although as I’ll point out again later, you can’t save your stored groups. That sucks. As does this fact.
To control more than 64 channels, you have to access the DAW’s interface.
Touch the EQ symbol above each channel fader for a great parametric Q, which has all you need - Gain, Q and band selection. If you’re into EQ automation, you can freeze certain parameters in order to edit certain others, so in essence create a manual ‘Wah-Wah’ sound, and get it down to disk exactly how you want it. This is a very good inclusion.
The main benefit of the Dexter, as I’m sure you’ve read before, is that it is absolutely amazing for surround sound mixing, and this is where it’s true strengths lie - possible taking away hours of work (and doing a damn fine job).
Truly, this editing function is superb, allowing quick and easy experimentation for placing individual tracks anywhere in a 360 degree field. Similar to the EQ, you can then lock these tracks in place, but keep one paramater open, so move everything closer/further away’ from the central point.
If only that was an automated feature too…
I’m at a bit of a loss as to whether or not I like the Dexter or not. On the one hand, it’s an incredibly clever and impressive piece of kit which essentially brings up all your editable parameters onto its tablet form screen.
On the other hand, I somehow expected more to happen. Maybe I expected some built in effects, so that the unit had a character of its own, some reverbs, some compressors and gates to rival the big boys. A medium between your VST plugins and something by Focusrite, whilst offering the versatility of being, effectively, a touch screen monitor.
The bad news is, it isn’t. You can’t assign your variables from the unit, which means you’ll still be switching back to mouse and keyboard quite a bit.
Built in wireless mode would have been nice too, guys, especially for the price.
I’m told by Jazzmutant that there is a software upgrade being worked on right now to sort out the assignable parameters problem, which would go some way to making this unit a lot more popular, I’m sure.
Now, I should make it clear that apart from the aforementioned issues, there is not much that isn’t possible with this unit. But of course, it’s possible to do it without the unit as well 
For instance, (told you I’d come back to this) - you can group your faders for more control on your overall sound, which is a nice little feature. Unfortunately, this isn’t storable (although, again, Jazzmutant is working on it with the software upgrade).
Now, another issue with this little baby is that Digidesign hasn’t allowed Jazzmutant access to it’s SDK, meaning that the controller isn’t supported by Pro-Tools. I can well understand that Digidesign consider the Dexter a threat to its own Pro-Tools supported hardware, and that’s just something everyone will have to live with, although I do feel that if Jazzmutant could focus on developing touch screen technology, it would open up the market an incredible amount.
In summary, the Dexter is a great piece of kit, despite my issues with it, and if the price was dramatically reduced, I would
certainly buy one.
Which brings me to this
I can’t help feeling the Dexter would be of more use in a live environment. Either way, though, I’m pleased to report that you can also install the Jazzmutant Lemur software onto the tablet (as well as!!). This is free, by the way, which does go an incredibly long way to making this unit worth the money.
If that wasn’t the case, I can’t forsee a great end to the review, as it’s the price as opposed to the yet-to-be-fully-developed
product which, for a while, made this unit a mystery to me.
But now you can throw the Lemur into the equation as well, so if you do some sums, the Dexter costs around $400.
Think about that, and you’ve got an amazing bargain on your hands (as long as both are of use to you). See, now I cannot find a single reason not to get one.
Damn you, Jazzmutant.
Transcom Capital completes aquisition of Blue Microphones
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Business News | Leave a Comment
It’s all business news today folks.
Transom Capital Group announced recently that it has completed the acquisition of Blue Microphones
Skipper Wise and Martins Saulespurens, the founders of Blue, will retain an ownership interest in the Company.
Russ Roenick, Managing Director at Transom Capital, said:
“This transaction presents an excellent opportunity to work with the team at Blue to achieve the next stage of growth for the Company,” Mr. Roenick said. “Relationships with major retailers and artists based on its history of design, innovation, and great products. The Company has several extremely compelling growth opportunities.”
“We chose Transom as our acquisition partner because they provide the operational expertise that will allow us to create value while continuing to focus on what we do best – making microphones with the best look and sound in the world,”
says Skipper Wise, President and Co-founder of Blue. “From our first meeting they demonstrated that they really understand our business and were willing to roll-up their sleeves to help us grow the Company.
D&M Holdings Acquires Allen & Heath
Posted on April 7, 2008
Filed Under Business News | Leave a Comment
D&M Holdings Inc has announced the completion of the acquisition of Allen & Heath Holdings Limited.
The acquisition will be accretive to earnings per share in FY2008.
“The acquisition of Allen & Heath is a strong complement to our Calrec and D&M Pro brands,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eric C. Evans. “This acquisition broadens our product offerings to our longstanding DJ customer base and expands our business in the professional market into installed live sound.”
Founded in 1969, Allen & Heath supplies digital and analog consoles through a global sales force to a network of distributors in more than 80 countries. The company operates from its Cornwall England manufacturing facility and has more than 150 employees in R&D, sales, marketing, manufacturing and administrative functions. The Company will continue to be led by Glenn Rogers and its current management team.
“We’re adding another dimension to our position in the professional audio marketplace with this acquisition,” said Evans. “Allen & Heath is a strong brand in the professional live sound performance market and well suited to benefit from the D&M business platform. Like our other premium brands, Allen & Heath can continue to focus on innovation while D&M provides expanded global market reach and other support. We also see useful tie-ins with Calrec, our live-to-air broadcast console brand, and Denon DJ.”
Simon Franglen installs Ghost Acoustic treatment at Air Studios
Posted on April 1, 2008
Filed Under Studio Shenanigans | Leave a Comment
Simon Franglen has worked with the biggest names in music (including Celine, Whitney, and Quincy) and produced one of the biggest songs: the Titanic love theme My Heart Will Go On.
He has just installed Ghost Acoustic treatments in his room at Air Studios and concludes: “it’s made a huge difference and conventional systems were rubbish in comparison.”
Simon Franglen is one of the UK’s most experienced producers having learnt his trade on both sides of the Atlantic. Before producing, he was programming for some legendary names including Trevor Horn, Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson), David Foster, and Quincy Jones.
“If working with those guys doesn’t rub off on you, then you have to be pretty thick!” he laughs.
Fortunately it did rub off and during a 15- year stint in the States and his current residence at the mighty Air Studios, Franglen can now list some huge artists on his CV – including Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton and Barbara Streisand – plus one of the biggest songs of all time…
“My career built up in LA,” recounts Franglen, “and I ended up doing a lot of film work with the likes of John Barry and James Horner who was working on Titanic. James gave me a piano sketch of a tune. He said: ‘I’ve got this tune and I’d like Celine [Dion] to do it’. I’d worked a lot with her over the years so I demoed up the tune, James played it to Celine who liked it and sang on it. It became My Heart Will Go On. I produced that with James and 30 million albums and a Grammy later, the ship sank!”
Franglen has two main studios, one at the Old Tyne Tees TV studios (“where they shot The Tube”) plus a preproduction suite at Air. It’s in this latter space that he has recently installed the Ghost treatment…
“I was unhappy with the sound – it just didn’t work,” he says. “Air is a beautiful old Methodist hall with some preproduction lofts at the top of the building. There are three rooms containing Giles Martin (The Beatles Love Album producer), David Arnold (Bond Composer) and me. The problem with my loft was that it had sloping ceilings with no installed acoustic treatment. I do a lot of 5.1 mix preparation so I needed to get that room sounding right.”
“I read about the Ghost Acoustic panels and realised that they might do the trick,” he continues. “We tried them out as the aesthetics were important as was the ability to control the sound without major restructuring. We didn’t have the space to build enormous traps or reshape walls. We’ve got about 14 panels in there: the bass traps, the ceiling panels, pretty much everything. Putting them up was unbelievably easy. It’s made a massive difference to the sound. First of all the bass is controlled, which is great. Secondly the imaging has improved 100%. Because I’m doing so much 5.1 work you really need a focused sound. There’s so much more control now.”
“It’s really made my pre-prod room into an environment that I can ctually use and feel confident about what I’m hearing. I always take tracks downstairs into the big Air rooms as I still like mixing on the big old desks. Before [installing the Ghost panels] the work wasn’t translating properly but now it is infinitely better. We tried other treatment systems and they were rubbish compared to the Ghost panels.”
Simon is currently working a lot in the pop/classical crossover arena.
“It is one of the few areas in which people still buy a lot of CDs. I’m currently working on tracks for Andrea Bocelli, Katherine Jenkins and others. It’s varied life and career - I’ve done everything from writing the Direct Line jingle 20 years ago to working on ‘Moulin Rouge’. Last year I produced the Rugby World Cup theme for the worldwide networks which involved getting some of the best opera singers in the world together for a big shout-up – great fun and about 90 tracks of vocals!”
Simon’s next mix projects involve doing several 5.1 remixes including some absolute classics like I Heard It Through The Grapevine and Thin Lizzy’s Live & Dangerous.
“I’ll be doing quite a few surround projects this year. Conversely, as a producer, I am scheduled to deliver and mix 53 songs by the middle of May!”
With that much work lined up, at least Franglen knows that, with the help of his Ghost Acoustics treatment, he will get the right sound every time…
London’s Scala gets a new sound system. So why so blue…?
Posted on March 31, 2008
Filed Under Take A Walk On The Live Side | Leave a Comment
The owners of the Scala nightclub in King’s Cross, London, decided the sound system in the main area needed an upgrade. So what do they go for?
I’ll give you a hint. Whoever installed the new rig came out looking like a Smurf.
Yup - Turbosound.
This from ET Now
The original Turbosound Floodlight loudspeaker system was stacked on the stage so for the new system, a flown array was the way forward.
Jeff Woodford of LMC Audio Systems specified the Aspect TA-500 three-way point source enclosure with the two-way mid-high TA-500HM hung underneath as a down-fill. “This combination gives great front to back coverage with the TA-500HMs focused on the sunken dance floor and the mid/HF section of the TA-500 focused at the raised FOH position and elevated dance/viewing area at the back of the room,” said Woodford. “Low bass for both areas comes from the TA-500’s punchy low frequency section. Sub bass for the FOH system is delivered by six TSW-218s stacked on stage three per side.”
More on that over at ET Now.
Dobro from Inspiration Sounds - Producers loops
Posted on March 26, 2008
Filed Under Software And Plug-ins | Leave a Comment
Dobro, from Inspiration Sounds, is a new collection of loops for Producers and Soundtrack Composers looking for a gorgeous atmospheric sound. It features 515MB of Dobro licks and slides performed exclusively by internationally renowned country legend, Bob Dixon.
It features dobro licks and slides in every key at 100BPM and performed by Bob Dixon who has been working professionally on the Country Music scene for 35 years. His credits include ‘The Magic Numbers’, ‘The Kelvin Henderson Band’, ‘Roly Daniels’, ‘The Medicine Bow’, ‘Kalibre’ and ‘Alison Moyet’.
Who is Dobro for?
Inspiration Sounds recommend ‘Dobro’ for Music, TV, Film and Multimedia producers. However, the content can be used in a wide variety of other genres and applications.
Dobro: Specifications
* 515MB Content
* ACIDized Wave Files
* Apple Loops
* All loops are at 100BPM
* Licks in every key (A, B, C, D, E, F,G)
* Slides in every key (A, B, C, D, E, F,G)
* Dry and Processed versions
* All loops sync to BPM
* PC/Mac Compatible
* Royaly-Free (no exceptions)
Dobro: Compatible with all versions of this software:
* ACID
* Ableton Live
* Apple Final Cut
* Apple Garageband
* Apple Logic 7/8
* Apple Soundtrack
* Cakewalk Sonar
* Cubase SX
* Cubase 4
* Cubasis
* Emagic Logic
* EXS24
* FL Studio
* Fruityloops
* Garageband
* Gigasampler
* Gigastudio
* Halion
* Kontakt (all versions)
* Motu Mach Five
* Nuendo
* REASON
* And many more….
Loopmasters to provide Samplepacks for Akai MPC users…
Posted on March 25, 2008
Filed Under Software And Plug-ins | Leave a Comment
In the history of sampling, Akai will surely go down as the company that kick-started the mass use of creative audio mangling. With the S- and MPC-Series samplers they helped define how a generation of producers created ground-breaking tunes that pushed the
boundaries of technology and music, and led the way for today’s Hip Hop, Dance and Electronica movements.
It’s fitting, then, that such a forward-thinking hardware company has now teamed up with Loopmasters, surely the company leading the way in today’s sample creation market. In the wake of the announcement of the flagship MPC5000 – in itself set to redefine the MPC range – Akai announced that Loopmasters have been chosen to provide a range of
exclusive Samplepacks for MPC users.
The first four Samplepack titles are Hip Hop, House, Drum n Bass and Trance & Techno, so cover a wide range of styles and tempos in mainstream dance and urban music. More Samplepacks will be available on a monthly basis from the Loopmasters team who handpick the best producers in the world to produce their copyright free sample collections. Each pack has a huge range of content including patch phrases, single hits, beats, loops and instrument multisamples.
The Samplepacks cost just $49
More information and MP3 examples available on the Akaipro website.
Edirol R-44 4 track field recorder
Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under Take A Walk On The Live Side | Leave a Comment
EDIROL is still in shoving around in the moshpit of field recording technology, and with its new R-44, the company has its most compact, powerful and lightweight recorder to date.
It’s taken just four years for EDIROL to establish themselves as major players in the field recorder market. The ‘R’ range of recorders has already become the industry standard and has been used in every situation requiring professional quality audio recording. Musicians, journalists, podcasters, video editors, educators and broadcasters who need crystal clear, reliable and dependable audio recording have all become fans of the ‘R’ range.
The new R-44 picks up where the R-4 left off – a four-channel recorder that uses SD or large capacity SDHC card storage media for the ultimate in quiet and reliable recordings. It offers very flexible recording options with up to four channels of uncompressed audio available at selectable bit depths (16- or 24-bit) with sampling frequencies between 44.1kHz and 192kHz (stereo mode only). Broadcast wave is also supported and two R-44s can be synced together to offer up to 8-channel recording for surround sound applications.
The R-44 weighs in at just three pounds – despite the metal chassis – for true field recorder strength and features both XLR and ¼-inch TRS jack inputs. The high quality XLR inputs are derived from the EDIROL R-4PRO and come equipped with individual phantom power as well as a limiter. Eleven steps of input sensitivity enable the connection of multiple devices with a variety of input levels from microphones to musical instruments. The high-speed USB 2.0 port allows for quick and easy copy and archive to a computer. Conveniently the R-44 can also operate as a USB host.
Power is supplied by external PSU or onboard AA batteries.
The R-44 also offers comprehensive effects, including limiter, low-cut filter, 3-band EQ, 6-band GEQ, enhancer and de-esser, making it the ideal high-quality recording solution.
The R-44 will be available from March, price £499.
Key Features of the R-44
Records up to four channels of audio at selectable bit rates (16- & 24-bit) and sampling frequencies (44.1, 48, 96kHz – 192kHz for stereo recording only)
Wide variety of input sensitivity levels
Uses SD and SDHC cards for quiet and reliable operation
Onboard effects
XLR and ¼-inch TRS jack inputs
