Thu, 15 May 2008 Check out www.MMwOSX.com for new links including a list of Logic 8 Books the MMwOSX YouTube Channel and information on my new book Introducing Reason 4. Category: Blog -- posted at: 9:06 AM Comments[0] |
Wed, 2 April 2008 Installment 18 gives you the lowdown on where exactly the podcast and blog have been
for the last few months, includes a review the very cool Apogee Duet audio
interface and, as usual, some great free
music software for OS X. Comments[0] |
Wed, 2 April 2008
Hello and welcome to installment 18 of Making Music with OS X. This time around I'll be
giving you the lowdown on where exactly the podcast and blog have been
for the last few months, talking about some new projects that I have in
the works, giving you a quick review the very cool Apogee Duet audio
interface and, as usual, I'll be covering some cool free
music software for OS X. ---------- New Website First order of business is to let you all know about the new website for Making Music with OS X. You can find all of the new blog entries, show notes and previous podcast installments of Making Music with OS X at www.MMwOSX.com. I've also been working on a major update/overhaul to my website cliff truesdell dot com. As a result I've been deleting some of the older pages, including the links to the free loops I've been giving away as well as the free loop, virtual instrument and plug-in effects links. All of those links have also been posted www.mmwosx.com and you'll find them just below the blog entry for this installment. ---------- Introducing Reason 4 The main "reason" that Making Music with OS X has been out of commission for the last few months is that I've been working on a new book called "Introducing Reason 4." This new book is a complete beginner to intermediate level look at Propellerhead's Reason 4 virtual studio software. It includes chapters covering all of Reason 4's new features, such as the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator, the Thor Polysonic Synthesizer and of course the program's very cool new sequencer functionality. I'll be talking a lot more about the book in the coming weeks and probably devoting some future installments of MMwOSX specifically to working with Reason. You can find out more about the book at www.IntroducingReason4.com. The book will be out on April 7, 2008 and it's already available for pre-order on Amazon. If you pre-order on Amazon you'll get an additional 5% off the already low, low price. I know, I sound like one of those cheesy guys on TV... Find out more about Introducing Reason 4 here. The book also comes with an included CD that has lots of example files to guide you through the various tutorials you'll find in each chapter. As an extras bonus there's a free ReFill containing exclusive REX content from www.BeatHive.com. Digital audio educators, bloggers and magazine writers, please feel free to hit me or the people at Sybex publishing up for a review copy. you can contact me here at me new email address: cliff at mmwosx.com Speaking of Amazon - for those of you who still haven't purchased a copy of my first book "Mastering Digital Audio Production" there are lots of new and used copies for sale on Amazon and prices start at around $15. - a pretty good deal for a $40 book. Mastering Digital Audio Production ---------- MMwOSX YouTube Channel Making Music with OS X now has it's own YouTube channel. This is something I had talked about in earlier episodes and have finally gotten around to. There are 4 videos up there right now. the first is a look at one method that I use for quickly creating loops using Ableton Live and Reason 4. There's also a three part series on creating Apple Loops with Reason, including exporting, audio editing and using the Apple Loops Utility. I'll be adding more videos in the coming weeks so be sure to head over there and take a look. www.youtube.com/mmwosx. ---------- Ableton Live 7 Videos I've also been working on an update to my video title at HowAudio.com on Ableton Live. They'll be posting that soon over there. In the meantime you should check them out and take a look at some of the new titles they've got. I've just finished watching the Battery 3 and and Axiom 61 titles, which are great. There's also very cool titles on B3 organ drawbars, acoustic guitar miking and a lot more. www.HowAudio.com ---------- BeatHive Store My loop store over at BeatHive.com is now officially up and running. It's called "Mission Control," named after my sunny little home studio in San Francisco's Mission district (even though I'm actually on the other side of the country right now, but that's another story...). I've posted about 80 loops over there so far and I'll be adding more every week. Be sure to check it out here: www.beathive.com/shops/missioncontrol ---------- Apogee Duet Review As part of an ongoing attempt to make my studio at least somewhat portable I recently purchased the Apogee Duet audio interface. This is an amazing little device and iif you are interested in combining high quality and portability in an audio interface the Duet should be high on your list of devices to check out. The Duet comes with a breakout cable with 2 1/4 inch instrument inputs and 2 XLR inputs. however, it's not possible to use all four at once - you can only use any 2 at a time. This is great for recording say, acoustic guitar with one microphone and voice with another or recording one instrument at once. It's probably not the interface you are going to want if you are recording a complete drum kit or a live recording situation that requires multiple inputs. Installing the Duet was very easy. Just a quick trip over to www.apogeedigital.com to download the drivers and software and from there it was pretty easy to get up and running. The Duet comes with it's own software called Maestro. Once installed Maestro starts up automatically when you start your Mac. You can make adjustments in the Maestro Control window to choose which inputs (1/4 inch or XLR) are active, turn on phantom power for your condenser mics, adjust volume levels and more. One nice feature is the ability to save and recall configurations. For example - attached to the breakout cables I have 2 condenser microphones a bass and an electric guitar. Since you can only have two active inputs at any one time I have 1 configuration for the two condenser microphones, for recording acoustic guitar and vocals. Once those tracks are done I can go to the Maestro File menu and quickly choose the configuration for electric guitar and bass, and then record those tracks. I could just as easily create more configurations, such as one for vocals and electric guitar or vocals and bass. The Duet has been specifically touted as integrating seamlessly with Logic and GarageBand, and this is definitely the case. Getting a up and running in Logic 8 was as simple an experience as I've had. Ditto with GarageBand, though I haven't spent much time with GarageBand and the duet. The Duet has also been absolutely a breeze to work with in Ableton Live 7. Looking at photos and reading descriptions online I was a little concerned about the unique hardware aspect of this device. It doesn't look or operate very much like the standard M-Audio or Digidesign audio interfaces I've worked with before. After working with it for just a few minutes it became very clear that the it's sturdy, solid, well-built and not at all complicated. As far as audio quality goes, I can't compare it to my previous other interfaces right now because I don't currently have access to my Pro Tools rig and I'm working on an entirely new system with entirely new gear (a story for a another day...). However, a quick look around the Web will tell you that the general consensus is that this thing sounds great, especially in comparison to many other audio interfaces. I definitely wouldn't disagree. You can find pictures and product information about the Duet at www.apogeedigital.com/duet. ---------- The Free Kore Player One of the coolest new free virtual instruments I've seen in a while is the free Kore Player from Native Instruments, released just last month. This is available as free download from www.native-instruments.com and can be expanded with a variety of Kore Soundpacks, all of which are pretty inexpensive. The Kore Player is a big file and when I first when to the NI site to get it the download took a loooong time. I have seen an email from Native Instruments about a faster d/l being availble, which is good. It is a free instrument and therefore somewhat limited in the number of availble patches, but the ones it comes with are for the most part very good. There's some nice "standard" instruments, like organ and acoustic bass along with some cool synthesizer patches and soundtrack-y ambient pads. There are some very good drum kits included and the Kore Player can also be used as an effects processor, though there are a very limited number of effects settings that come with the free version. I've posted an overview tutorial movie on the Kore Player on the Making Music with OS X YouTube channel. www.native-instruments.com ---------- That's all for now - thanks for stopping by! Cliff email me: cliff at mmwosx dot com Category: Blog -- posted at: 11:47 AM Comments[0] |
Wed, 12 March 2008 This list is a compilation of some of my favorite free plug-in effects and virtual instruments. For more complete lists check out these links at www.dontcrack.com: Free
Virtual Instruments Free Virtual Instruments: Remedy (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Virtual synthesizer. Orca (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Virtual synthesizer. Free, but requires registering for the Fxpansion forum. Crystal (AU, VST) :: Virtual Synthesizer. Ticky Clav (AU, VST) :: Virtual clavinet/keyboard. Scroll down the page to download. Da Hornet (AU, VST) :: Virtual Synthesizer. Scroll down the page to download. Zoyd (AU) :: Virtual Synthesizer SampleTank 2 Free (AU, VST, RTAS) :: The demo version of IK Multimedia's virtual sampler. Click the "Download" button at the top of the page to download SampleTank 2 Free and the included sounds. Sonik Synth Free (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Virtual synth workstation. Click the "Download" button at the top of the page to download Sonik Synth Free and the included sounds. Free Alpha (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Virtual synthesizer. The "little brother" to LinPlug's Alpha3 synth. Universal UVI Player (AU, VST, RTAS, MAS) :: This is essentially the demo for the UVI soundcards virtual instrument library.Follow the instructions on this page to install the player and demo files. Free Plug-in Effects: Nomad Free Bundle (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Modulation effects :: Scroll down to the "Discontinued" section and click on "free bundle information." Vinyl (AU, VST, RTAS, MAS) :: Lo-fi Vinyl simulation plug-in. Luxonix LF-1310 (AU, VST) :: Multiple effects unit that lets you combine 3 effects at a time. Supaphaser (AU, VST) :: Phaser/modulation effect. Donationware - if you like these plug-ins please make a donation to the the author. Inspector (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Spectrum Analyzer plug-in Ambience (AU, VST) :: Excellent reverb plug-in. Other nice plug-ins on this page as well. Donationware - if you like these plug-ins please make a donation to the the author. Pluggo Jr. (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Plug-in suite with 12 free effects. Scroll down the page and click on the "Pluggo Jr." link. King Dubby (AU) :: Delay plug-in based on analog echo units such as the Echoplex and Roland Sapce Echo. Fuzz Plus (AU, VST) :: Virtual distortion/fuzz pedal. Fish Fillets (AU, VST) :: Compressor, De-Esser and Expander Plug-ins. Green Oak (VST) :: 6 VST plug-ins for OS X. SSL LMC-1 (AU, VST) :: Compressor Frohmage (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Filter plug-in. Free, but requires registering for the site. KR Phaser (AU, VST) :: Modulation/phaser effect. Massey Plug-ins (RTAS) :: Aside from the freeware THC distortion/stompbox plug-in there limited functionality working demo versions of 4 great RTAS plug-ins. FreeG (AU, VST, RTAS) :: Gain/fader plug-in Freesound Bundle (AU, VST, RTAS) :: A suite of 5 free plug-ins. Black Water Reverb (AU) :: Reverb plug-in. A VST version exists somewhere. Please email me if you know where to find it. Super DestroyFX (AU, VST) :: Some very cool "different" plug-ins. Also more here, as well. Expert Sleepers (AU, VST) :: Scroll down the page a bit to find some very cool free plug-in effects. Classic Tools (AU, VST) :: Some very cool plug-ins, including the excellent Analog Delay. Donationware - if you like these plug-ins please make a donation to the the author. Category: Blog -- posted at: 11:09 AM Comments[1] |
Wed, 12 March 2008 Loop
Resources ModernBeats
Acid Loops Dooley
Drums Beats
and Samples Category: Blog -- posted at: 10:38 AM Comments[0] |
Wed, 12 March 2008 This is the first post of a few that I'll be doing here to replace some of the pages over at clifftruesdell.com. These are direct links to all three collections of free loops I posted in 2007: Download Free Apple Loops Download Free Acid loops (.wav format) Week Two: Download Free Apple Loops Download Free Acid loops (.wav format) Week One: Download Free Apple Loops Download Free Acid loops (.wav format)
Category: Blog -- posted at: 9:09 AM Comments[0] |
Fri, 2 November 2007 Download Chapter 9 - Virtual Instruments from Mastering Digital Audio Production: The Professional Music Workflow with Mac OS X by Cliff Truesdell Download Chapter 9 Free Here This chapter covers all aspects of using virtual instruments on OS X computers including: Using virtual instruments in Ableton Live, Logic, GarageBand and Pro Tools. Using virtual synthesizers, virtual samplers, virtual drums and virtual amplification, including various plug-in formats (RTAS, VST, Audio Units) file formats and the basic synth parameters and signal routing found on most virtual instruments. Programs and plug-in including Absynth, Crystal, Minimonsta Minimoog, Arturia Analog Factory, SampleTank, Kontakt, PianoTeq, Guitar Rig, BFD, iDrum, Battery and more. Lots of links and resources for free and demo virtual instruments! More info here: www.MasteringDigitalAudio.com Making Music with OS X Blog and Podcast Category: Blog -- posted at: 3:15 AM Comments[2] |
Sat, 27 October 2007 Category: Blog -- posted at: 8:36 PM Comments[0] |
Thu, 18 October 2007 New Ableton Live video course/contest for a free month pass to HowAudio.com,
Reason 4 review, more free
loops from www.BeatHive.com, new software releases
including WireTap Studio,
AudioCodex Beta and Digidesign's new virtual amp plug-in "Eleven." Comments[0] |
Thu, 18 October 2007  Welcome to installment 17 of MMwOSX. This time around I'll be giving away a free month pass to HowAudio.com where you'll find my new Ableton Live video course, reviewing the latest release from Propellerheads, Reason version 4, doing a quick intro and recap for any new readers/listeners, giving away more free loops from www.BeatHive.com, and covering new software releases including Ambrosia Software's WireTap Studio, a new beta version of the AudioCodex program and Digidesign's new virtual amp plug-in "Eleven."---------- HowAudio: Ableton Live Videos and Free Pass Contest I've just finished a series of video tutorials called "Ableton Live: Basics" for HowAudio.com. The course includes over 5 and 1/2 hours of information, concepts and in-depth coverage on using this amazing music creation and sequencing program. You can view the complete course, including free access to the Quickstart movies at: www.HowAudio.com A subscription to the site costs $19.95 month and gives you access to the entire constantly expanding HowAudio course catalog, including lots of great videos on Pro Tools, Digital Performer, how to relic a guitar, drum tuning and much more. Yearly subscriptions are also available. As a way to get you all over to the site to check it out I'm going to give away a free pass to someone who can answer the following question: How many Quickstart movies there are for my new Ableton Live video course at HowAudio.com? Once you've been to the site and checked it out, go to the show notes for this episode at http://macmusic.libsyn.com and send me an email with "HowAudio Contest" in the subject line. I'll randomly choose the winner from the correct entries received before October 22nd. So if you're reading this after October 22nd 2007 please don't send me a contest entry email! By the way - if you're interested in checking out Ableton Live you can go to www.Ableton.com and download a free demo version of the complete program. Then check out the free Quickstart movies at HowAudio.com to get an idea of just a few of the things you can do with Ableton Live. ---------- BeatHive - More Free Loops and Podcast This episode's collection of free loops from www.BeatHive.com is now up on my Web site. You can find them here: Free Loops From Beathive BeatHive also has a great podcast called Making Music (no relation) and the current episode has the first of a two part interview, actually more of a conversation with me and BeatHive's Kenny D., where we talk about a number of things including strategies for creating loops and making music in general. You can find BeatHive's making music podcast on iTunes and a direct link here: BeatHive Podcast As always I've been posting a few random new loops over at www.SoundSnap.com. Along with my stuff there's thousands of other free loops and sounds - well worth checking out. My Loops on SoundSnap ---------- WireTap Studio Ambrosia software has just released WireTap Studio, an update to their WireTap program that allows you to record audio from any source on your Mac. Wiretap Studio comes with an audio editor, an audio player, Audio Units support and more. This an application that I've always enjoyed especially for sampling DVDs and recording streaming audio off the Web. Their Web site is here: WireTap Studio ---------- AudioCodex Beta I got an update from the folks at MachineCodex.com about their software, which I believe was called Machinehead when I reviewed it a few episodes back but is now called AudioCodex. This is a really interesting piece of software, described as "an alternative media player for Mac OS X." I keep coming up with new uses for this thing, including opening up loop files and mess around with them. Today I started using it to slow down songs in my iTunes library without changing the pitch, which is awesome for trying to figure out complicated guitar and keyboard parts. The current version is public beta 0.93b and it's free but expires on October 30. No doubt they'll have a new version up by then so be sure to check them out at: www.machinecodex.com ---------- New Guitar Amp Plug-in From Digidesign Pro Tools users can download a 30-day trial version of Digidesign's new virtual amplifier called "Eleven." I've installed it and checked it out very quickly by A/Bing some tracks against Amplitube and I wasn't blown away by the included presets, but then again I've never been a big fan of virtual amplifier presets. Once I've had a chance to tweak with the settings I'll come back and say a bit more about it. Feature-wise and looks-wise it seems to "stack" up pretty well l against the competition - it'll be interesting to see what the price tag on this one will be...hopefully there'll be a free 'lite" version coming along at some point. Digidesign ---------- Reason 4 Review A few weeks back Propellerheads released the latest version of their virtual studio software, Reason 4. I was able to get my hands on the upgrade just over a week ago (from a very cool store here in San Francisco called Robotspeak). The biggest change is probably the redesign of the Reason Sequencer. A lot of people were critical of the Reason Sequencer found in earlier versions. Personally, I was OK with it. At least until I started working with Reason 4. The redesign is pretty severe, some much so that there's going to be a bit of a learning curve involved for anyone who's used earlier versions of Reason. Some the familiar functionality has been moved from the Sequencer to the new floating Tool Window. The Sequencer now creates "clips" automatically for any recorded or drawn performances. There's new pattern sequencing functionality as well. A lot of this has taken some getting used to but all in all it's a much better set up and much easier to use once you get the hang of it. There are 3 videos dedicated to the new Sequencer on the Propellerheads Web site. Definitely check those out The only new instrument is the Thor Polysonic Synthesizer, which is pretty amazing. lots of features including a huge range of different Oscillators, Filters, a built-in delay and chorus and a ridiculous number of routing options. Reason 4 also adds a long hoped for feature - the RPG-8 Arpeggiator. The other big new feature is the ReGroove Mixer which you can route any or all of your tracks through to add subtle or drastic rhythmic variations or create completely a different feel for your tracks. And finally they've made some very nice additions to the Reason Factory Sound Bank. Lots of new excellent sounding NN-XT patches, new REX loops, Redrum kits and more. If you already a registered owner of Reason 3 you should definitely go out and get the upgrade to Reason 4, it'll be the best $129 dollars (plus tax) that you'll spend on digital audio software this year. Find out more about Reason 4 from www.propellerheads.se, including upgrade options and deals for owners of earlier versions or Reason Adapted. ---------- Recap For New Listeners For those of you who are new to MMwOSX I wanted to give you quick rundown of what's going on around here. I started this podcast in April of this year (2007) to coincide with the release of my book Mastering Digital Audio Production: The Professional Music Workflow with Mac OS X. In the book I cover the entire range of music software for OS X Macs including DAW programs like Ableton Live, Logic, GarageBand, Reason and Pro Tools, virtual instruments, samplers, using ReWire, plug-in effects, working with loops and more. Basically, everything from setting up a studio for making music to mixing and mastering. This blog and podcast were started as a way to keep up to date with the programs covered in the book and with the new software that's being released all the time. I also figured this would be a good way to expand on some of the things I covered and cover some things I missed in MDAP. You can find out more about the book at: www.MasteringDigitalAudio.com You can also download a free chapter - all of chapter 9 "Virtual Instruments." There's also more links to free loops, free plug-in instruments and effects and other OS X audio resources at my Web site www.clifftruesdell.com. ---------- That's all for this installment. Thanks for reading/listening - I'll be back soon with more updates, tips, information and free stuff... -Cliff Category: Blog -- posted at: 6:34 PM Comments[0] |
