016b

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/rolie/016b" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=cc0000" width="100%" height="81" ]

Here's the second version. A ton of changes. I was about to scrap this song. I then added a cimbalom, hammered dulcimer. It just needed more melody to break up the monotony.

The intro sounds a lot like the Björk song, on the pagan poetry single, Domestica or Batabib. One of those songs is really wet. I used the Sylenth synth with the ARP doves preset. I just love that synth.

I finally made cubase crash, but I don't think it was cubase's fault. It was more of a bug on my part. I tried to drag and drop a sliced event into kontakt. I could do that with groove agent but kontakt doesn't have that 'drag and drop' functionality. I still used kontakt to slice up a drum loop and reamp to different keys. I read this article about how to sound like Squarepusher. Computer Music wrote it but I find it comical that Tom Jenkinson probably doesn't even make beats like that. I think it was just to sell magazines as they put a picture of Tom on the cover, headlining "How to sound like Squarepusher". No one can sound like him. Like trying to sound like Hendrix, Yeah Stevie Ray covered his songs but it doesn't anything like Hendrix. It always sounds like somebody playing Hendrix. I'm starting to sound like a shitty pretentious artist again.

I doubled the acoustic guitar, added another drum track, using CM's "Squarepusher method" lol. Added more sections to mid part. Sometimes I'll be editing something in a loop and that loop will just sound decent. So I Split the event from Loop region and Insert silence and double the loop. Almost forgot, I finally used this Ibanez bass that my cousin traded me. I used to make fun of my cousin Mark because I was jealous of his bass and how he acquired it. His boss just gave it to him. I used to poke fun of him since he doesn't know hjow to play bass yet. Anyways I will trade my 5 string bass and some cash for it. I really like the active electronics on it. That plexiglass 5 string bass I had just didn't sound right. Thought it was broken when no sound heard but it just needed a new battery for the active pu.

Still sounds a little disorganized, Might need a new bassline or mixed better.

016

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/rolie/016-1" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=cc0000" width="100%" height="81" ]
Here's the first version of the song. I started to sound like crap whenever I wanted to add anything. I tried to mix up the melody with mixolydian and lydian scales. Something I've never done before. I've always wanted to learn modes but couldn't really grasp it. Joe Satriani wrote this article in Guitar World. I don't even like Joe Satriani music, I kinda despise guitar wankers. He compared the scales on the same root. He stressed hearing the differences and how the Lydian has a flatted 7th compared to major scale and the Lydian has a raised fourth. ! note changes the scale but keeps that major sound to it. What the hell am I saying, is that right? Did I mix those up.

Cubase again, yeah no crashes in over 2 weeks. This version is pretty stripped compared to 016b. I 'm gonna add more percussion to B.

015

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/rolie/015-1" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=cc0000" width="100%" height="81" ]

Done on cubase. No compression or limiters. Mostly just some eq tweaks and panning. read this article with Rashad Becker about mastering without compression from http://www.monolake.de/interviews/mastering.html. Very inspiring. he has a lot of valid points. I've been guilty about just putting on a mastering plugin like to maximize the volume and take away any sort of dynamic. The tempo is down to 90. Seems like anything I use at such a low tempo sound exactly like ahem, Sigur ros, oh noes. I audio warped the guitar parts that were originally at 120bpm, something I couldn't do in ableton because of artifacts. I could get away with it in cubase. I think I'm turning it a reverb nut.

Heres the long list of reverb plugins Iv'e used,
ArtsAcoustic reverb
IK Classic Studio Reverb
Audio damage EOS
EpicVErb
SIR2
Redline reverb
IR2

Shit in Shit out

014

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/rolie/014-1" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=cc0000" ]

I thought I had relegated to Ableton Live but Steinberg releases a an update to 5.1.1 that officially supports Win7. First time in awhile without crashes. There's a new project startup graphic that seems ok. I didn't really try that hard but it does seem a lot more stable, or maybe it was because I disabled Windows desktop manager. So for now I'm back with the editing power of cubase. I'm also digging the redline reverb. It's just so damn simple and sounds original and doesn't stress my hardware so much.

013b

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/rolie/013b" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&show_playcount=true&show_artwork=true&color=cc0000"]



Mixed 013 much better. EQed all the channels using the Voxengo spectrum analyzer as a guide. I can get a realtime visual of the eq and make adjustments.
Used the frequency ranges I found from Computer music. Mix is much clearer and you can hear a lot of things that were muddied from the original. The first had overwhelming bass that kid of took over the whole track. The Nylon guitar can now be heard during heavy section. Added some hard panning on audio.

Still learning how to mix but I think I'm heading in the right direction, well maybe. I didn't think mixing was this hard. You really need to grasp certain things I would have never learned on my own. The music industry loathes the internet but I think true musicians can really really appreciate the wealth of resources available to them with a click of the mouse. I think Trent Reznor nailed it on the head when he said that the studio isn't just place to record but also create music.

Computer music frequency ranges pdf
Frequency_ranges

Some other useful links
independentrecording.net/irn/resources/index.php EQ charts
recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php The Equalization Primer
ethanwiner.com/equalizers.html The Art of Equalization
recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqfreq.php Equalization Key Frequencies
har-bal.com/index.php?/frequency-chart.php more charts
harmony-central.com/articles/tips/pitch_vs_frequency/ Pitch vs frequency

Ableton live/Cubase hotkey scripts

Well I've settled On Ableton Live for my main DAW . The work flow is very intuitive. The Browser alone is such a treat to locate clips. The workspace isn't cluttered with a ton of windows like cubase. Live also runs a bit more stable than Cubase, crashes just kill any sort of creative mojo. Cubase has superb midi features and transparent audio warping quality. In the end things are much more productive on Live.

One feature Live didn't have was the custom shortcuts, but that has solved by using AHK, autohotkey. Workflow should definitely increase. Found this from the Ableton forums.

Cubase didn't allow custom keys on certain keys eg ` and tab caps lock etc.
Scripted it to allow the tilde key to toggle between two wrokpaces

The Definitive Live Autohotkeys script!
autohotkey.com

Using the script above as a template,i modified my hotkeys. Here's the current script used for Live 8

GroupAdd, Live, ahk_class Afx:00400000:0:00000000:01900015:00000000
GroupAdd, Live, ahk_class Afx:00400000:0:00000000:01900015:02BB05FD
GroupAdd, Live, ahk_class Afx:00400000:0:00000000:01900015:02FF0351
GroupAdd, Cubase, ahk_class SteinbergWindowClass
GroupAdd, Cubase, ahk_class CubaseFrameWindowClass
curMode := 1
return

#IfWinActive, ahk_group Live
{
F::Send ^b
CapsLock::^!b ; Tab = Open/Close browser
LShift & CapsLock::Send ^!l
Space::+Space
F1::Send ^f
F2::+Space
F3::Space
F4::Space
F5::F9
F6::Á
F7::É
F8::Í
F9::Ó
F10::Ú
F11::á
F12::é

;F1::á
;F2::é
;F3::¬
;F4::ó
;F5::ú
;F6::Á
;F7::É
;F8::Í
;F9::Ó
;F10::Ú

!1::
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 21, 118, , 0 ; Live devices browser
MouseMove, 66, 117, 0 ; move to first item in browser
Sleep 200
MouseClick, left, 65, 136, 1 , 0 ; select first item in browser
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

!2::
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 21, 142, , 0 ; plugins browser
MouseMove, 66, 117, 0 ; move to first item in browser
Sleep 200
MouseClick, left, 65, 136, 1 , 0 ; select first item in browser
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

!3:: ;
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 21, 165, , 0 ; browser #1
MouseMove, 66, 117, 0 ; move to first item in browser
Sleep 200
MouseClick, left, 65, 154, 1 , 0 ; select first item in browser
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

!4::
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 21, 189, , 0 ; browser #2
MouseMove, 66, 117, 0 ; move to first item in browser
Sleep 200
MouseClick, left, 65, 154, 1 , 0 ; select first item in browser
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

!5::
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 21, 213 ; browser #3
MouseMove, 66, 117, 0 ; move to first item in browser
Sleep 200
MouseClick, left, 65, 154, 1 , 0 ; select first item in browser
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

`:: ;METRONOME
{
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ; get mouse position
MouseClick, left, 180, 58, , 0 ; browser #2
MouseMove, xpos, ypos, 0 ; return mouse to where it was
Return
}

}


#IfWinActive, ahk_group Cubase
{

myVar = 0

`::
{
myVar +=1
ifequal, myVar, 1
{
send !{numpad1}
}

ifequal, myVar, 2
{
send !{numpad2}
myVar = 0
}
return
}

}

Early takes 1

Early takes, ableton, reaper, cubase. Testing out features plugins, Cubase crashes all the time. Reaper has cool midi features but lack cubase's audio editing power and ableton's easy interface. Ableton lacks midi power and barely gets the job done. If I could only use some cubase's advanced midi editing in ableton then I'd be perfect. Sugarbytes Artillery, Izoptope ozone, Kontakt, sampletank(crashes ableton), tonehammer instruments are superb. Battery for drums seems ok but lacking any 3rd party kits unlike kontakt's endless supply. Cubase has the best Audio timestretching quality, hitpoints and warp sound full unlike the artifacts left from ableton's.

All the remix tracks are form midi songs I wrote circa 2002. I used music masterworks for composition