Making Music with OS X

MMwOSX has Moved!

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:06:00 GMT

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.

18 MMwOSX Returns! New Reason Book, Apogee Duet Review, Free Kore Player

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 16:04:00 GMT

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.

MMwOSX Returns! New Reason Book, Apogee Duet Review, Free Kore Player

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 15:47:00 GMT

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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That's all for now - thanks for stopping by!

Cliff

email me: cliff at mmwosx dot com

Free Virtual Instruments and Plug-in Effects for OS X

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:09:00 GMT

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 Plug-in Effects

Free Virtual Instruments

You can find also find lists of both free and commercially available plug-ins for OS X on these two sites:

www.macmusic.org

www.kvraudio.com

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.

Demo And Free Loop Resources

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Loop Resources

Here are some sites that contain downloadable Apple Loops, Acid Loops, REX Loops or links to free loops. Many of these sites contain demo loops for commercial collections. If you are planning on using any of these loops in a commercially available song or for-profit work (soundtracks, TV ads or video games, etc.) be sure to either buy the complete library or check the legal status of the loop files you are using.

Note: Acid Loops will work in any OS X DAW and will usually function just like Apple Loops. REX format loops will work in some programs (Logic, Pro Tools) and not others (GarageBand, Ableton Live). You can convert REX loops to AIFF or WAV format using programs such as AudioFinder and Sample Manager.

BeatHive

ModernBeats Acid Loops

The Tapegerm Collective

Looperman.com

FreeLoops.com

Dooley Drums

Sony Media

Mac Loops

Perimeter Sound Arts

MacIdol

Beats and Samples

Smart Loops

BandMateLoops

PowerFX

Zero G

Pocket Fuel

Session Loops

Breakbeat Paradise

Loops.net

The BBC

TuneUp Loops

Free Acid Loops

Acid Planet

Silicon Beats

Directions In Music

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:09:00 GMT

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:

Week Three:

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)

Free eBook - Download Chapter 9 of Mastering Digital Audio Production

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 07:15:00 GMT

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

New Blog Page

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:36:00 GMT

The Making Music with OS X blog and show notes are moving to a new address:

www.MMwOSX.com

17 Ableton Videos at HowAudio.com, Reason 4, Digidesign "11," WireTap Studio, AudioCodex, More Loops From BeatHive.com

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:48:00 GMT

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."

Ableton Videos at HowAudio.com, Reason 4, Digidesign "11," WireTap Studio, AudioCodex, More Loops From BeatHive.com

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:34:00 GMT

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."

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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That's all for this installment. Thanks for reading/listening - I'll be back soon with more updates, tips, information and free stuff...

-Cliff

16 Free loops from BeatHive, Logic Express 8 and Logic Studio, RAX Audio Unit host, Belkin TuneTalk, Luxonix LFX-1310

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:48:00 GMT

Installment 16 includes free loops from www.BeatHive.com, the return of the Rax Audio Unit host program, Logic Express and Logic Studio 8, the Luxonix LFX-1310 and a review of the Belkin TuneTalk iPod recording device.

Free loops from BeatHive, Logic Express 8 and Logic Studio, RAX Audio Unit host, Belkin TuneTalk, Luxonix LFX-1310

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:05:00 GMT

Welcome to Making Music with OS X installment 16. This installment is my first attempt to catch up with all of the big digital audio changes that seem to be taking place at once these days. Between August and October we'll see (or have already seen) new versions of GarageBand, Logic and Reason, plus all kinds of other new developments from Ableton (Live LE), Native Instruments (Guitar Rig 3!) and much more.

Free Loops From BeatHive

The folks at www.BeatHive.com have very generous offered Making Music with OS X listeners access to some free loops. So for every episode of this podcast, starting with this one, I'll be giving away 15 free BeatHive loops. You can download this episode's loops here:

Free BeatHive Loops

In other BeatHive related news, a couple episodes back I mentioned the BeatHive Making Music podcast. You can find that here:

BeatHive Making Music Podcast

And I believe the next episode will have an interview with me, talking with Kent Carter about my book Mastering Digital Audio Production and lots of information about creating and working with loops.

More Free Apple Loops

I've posted my third and final (for now) set of 50MB of free loops on my Web site. Those are available here:

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

I've also posted some different free stuff on my page at SoundSnap.com and you can find that here:

My Page on SoundSnap.com

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Logic Studio 8 and Logic Express 8

If you thought that GarageBand 08 was going to be the biggest digital audio news from Apple this year you were wrong, like me. Turns out the long rumored and even longer awaited new versions of Logic are here. I won't spend too much time on this right now - I'll have a Logic Express 8 review in an upcoming episode. But I will say that it looks pretty amazing. Most importantly, it looks like they've finally streamlined the darn thing, making it possible to work in a single window, instead of having to work in 3 or 4 or more windows at once. Logic Express 8 has added some features from Logic Pro 7 including the Ultrabeat drum unit, the EXS24 Sampler and Guitar Amp Pro. They've also lowered the price! At $199 this looks like a no-brainer. I'm predicting that this thing is gonna be huge.

Logic Studio looks incredible too. They've included Logic Pro 8, SoundTrack 2 and a new program called MainStage for live performance. The whole thing comes with a giant collection of content (8 DVDs!) and it's $499.

Obviously.

Stay tuned!

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Rax is Back!

One of the programs I covered in MDAP was the excellent RAX program, an Audio Units host from Plasq software. Rax was unfortunately discontinued right around the time the book was released. The good news is that Audiofile Enginerring, whose Sample Manager and Wave Editor programs I also covered, have aquired Rax and recently released the program. You can now find Rax, along with Audiofile Engineering's other excellent software at:

www.audiofile-engineering.com

Rax

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Belkin TuneTalk Review

Finding a way to do simple, low-tech mobile recording has been a giant pain in the neck for me over the last couple of years. my main objectives have to get semi-decent quality recordings of band practices, decipherable recordings of interviews and in a perfect world grab sound effects and real-world noises for ambient music or whatever other uses I might come up with

After a bunch of research I ended up with a Sony MZ-N707 Minidisk recorder. Possibly one of the worst purchases of my life. I'm a pretty smart guy and I could never quite figure out the multiple steps you have to go through to do anything with the MZN707. I think it might have been called the 707 because it took 707 steps to do anything with it. Once you were finally able to do any recording recording you had to use their special (buggy, clunky) software to get the recording on to your PC. Emphasis on PC - there was zero Mac support.

Ultimately I ended up lugging my iBook around and recording into GarageBand using Sony's ECM-DS70P along with Griffin's iMic, a USB connector with an 1/8 input. The iMic is a nice alternative to carrying around an audio interface for my iBook, which doesn't have an audio input. though the iBook's built-in condenser mics aren't too bad in a pinch.

So when it occurred that I should try one of the iPod recording options, the first thing I looked into was the Griffin iTalk, but I was skeptical. My experience with the iMic has been that it works, but it's not the sturdiest piece of plastic and it's a bit noisier than I 'd like it to be. Not too surprisingly, the reviews I read of the iTalk said about the same things, only worse.

However, I did notice that people were saying lots of good things about a similar product - the Belkin TuneTalk. So I took a chance and dropped about 50 bucks on one and I couldn't be happier.

The TuneTalk plugs right into your iPod, where you'd usually connect with your computer or charger. It fits perfectly, even with my thick plastic iPod cover. The Recording quality is pretty amazing, but even more amazing is that live band rehearsal don't overload the built-in condenser mics. Really best quality rehearsal recordings I've ever made, without dealing with multiple microphones and recording devices.

If needed, there's an Autogain button on the bottom of the TuneTalk that can give you a bit of a sonic boost. There's also a button on the side that you can click to go right into record-ready mode.

Finally, The process of getting your recording from the TuneTalk to your computer couldn't be easier. Just connect your iPod to your computer and it asks if you'd like to copy your new voice memos. Pretty easy. Pretty solid and it sounds darn good.

Check out the Belkin TuneTalk here:

Belkin TuneTalk

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Free Plug-ins: Luxonix LFX-1310 and TAL VSTs

The Luxonix LFX-1310, which I mentioned in MDAP is now available for Universal Binary Macs. This is a great VST and Audio Unit plug-in with 24 effects that can loaded up to three at a time. Download the LFX-1310 here:

www.luxonix.com

I also recently came across some very cool free VST plug-in instruments and effects for Mac that I wasn't previously aware of. These are from Togu Audio Line (TAL) and you can find them here:

Togu Audio Line

All of their plug-ins and effects are free, but there is a "Support Us" link where you can make a donation via PayPal if you enjoy the software.

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That's all for this time! Thanks for stopping by...

-Cliff

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops - Pt. 3

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:30:00 GMT

I've just posted a third set of 50MB of free loops. That's a total of 150 MB of loops in both Apple Loops and Acid Loops (.wav) format.

You download all three sets at: www.clifftruesdell.com/mcpreview.html

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

-Cliff

Making Music with OS X
www.MasteringDigitalAudio.com

15 GarageBand 08 Review, SoundSnap.com, HowAudio.com, Structure Free, Ableton Live LE

Sun, 2 Sep 2007 16:39:00 GMT

Installment 15 includes a review of GarageBand 08, information on SoundSnap.com, HowAudio.com and the new software releases Structure Free from Digidesign and Live 6 LE from Ableton.

GarageBand 08 Review, SoundSnap.com, HowAudio.com, Structure Free, Ableton Live LE

Sun, 2 Sep 2007 15:51:00 GMT

Quick Links

www.SoundSnap.com

www.HowAudio.com

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

www.ableton.com

Live 6 and Live LE 6 comparison chart

www.digidesign.com

GarageBand 08

Show Notes

Ableton Live Videos/HowAudio.com

Welcome to installment 15 of Making Music with OS X. As promised I can now start to talk about some of the "big news" I've been mentioning over the past few episodes. I've been working on a couple Ableton Live tutorial videos for HowAudio.com. Ableton Live: Basics, the first installment of a two part series will be up on their site soon. HowAudio.com is a fantastic new site, with lots of cool digital audio videos and more. You can buy DVDs or view the complete HowAudio library by buying a monthly or yearly subscription. They are going to be adding even more new stuff over the next few months. I highly recommend checking them out, viewing some of the demo movies that are there and signing up. As soon as Ableton Live: Basics is released I'll be running a contest for for some HowAudio related stuff so stay tuned for that.

www.HowAudio.com

More Free Apple Loops and Acid Loops

There is yet another cool site for free loops, samples sound effects and more. This one is called SoundSnap.com. I've been posting some of my loops over there as well. For right now everything I'm posting over there is from the free loop collections I've been giving away on my Web site, but I'll be adding some original content up there soon. As of right now there are over 7000 free loops on SoundSnap and thousands more samples and other audio files. It's a great place to share your stuff and find lots of free content.

www.SoundSnap.com

You can find my free loop collections here:

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid loops

New Releases: Ableton Live LE 6 and Digidesign Structure LE and Structure Free

Ableton has just announced a new version of Live called Live LE. While this is a light version of the program, it's still very feature heavy. At the significantly cheaper price of $169 it's a great deal, but there's a few things missing that might make be a deal-breaker for some users, such as lack of ReWire support.

There's a comparison chart here that tells you all you need to know about the differences between the two versions:

Live 6 and Live LE 6 comparison chart

This release shouldn't be confused with the Live Lite versions of Live that come bundled with Pro Tools and many other programs and audio hardware.

Digidesign has just released an LE and a free version of their new Structure RTAS sampler instrument. You can find out more on the Digidesign Web site, including a comparison chart. I've downloaded and installed Structure Free and it's pretty darn cool. Based on my limited experience with the free version, Structure is another excellent addition from the folks a Digidesign. I'll have a closer look at Structure free in an upcoming installment.

GarageBand 08 Review

As I mentioned last week, I've been messing around with the latest version of GarageBand. Here's my review...

The first thing you'll notice when you start the program is that there's no option for creating an iMovie soundtrack anymore, which isn't too much of surprise. GarageBand 3 was a bit clunky for that and I doubt it was a very popular feature. You can still do it, though. Just create a New Podcast Episode and drag your video clips on to the podcast track. GarageBand will change the Podcast Track into a Movie track.

There is, however, now the option to create a session using the new Magic GarageBand feature. As I expected from seeing the demonstration videos, it's not really all that useful for creating original music. But I guess it could be an interesting practice tool if you wanted to create a Magic GarageBand a session, eliminate your instrument of choice and play along.

The way it works is that you choose from one of 9 genres and GarageBand creates a session with 5 different instruments: guitar, bass, drums, some kind of piano or other keyboard and a lead instrument, which were horns in the Reggae and Jazz sessions that I tried out. All of this is visually represented as a stage populated with the various instruments. You can then choose between different instruments and performances. For example you can change the guitar and amplifier model which also changes the melody being played, or you can choose a different type of drum kit or keyboard type. There's also an empty section on the center of the stage, which is for you to select the type of instrument that you are plugging in and playing. Finally, you can then choose "create Project" and GarageBand will create a new GB session with all of your tracks in place.

Honestly, I'm not sure what the point of all this is, except as I mentioned, possibly as a practice tool.

Magic GarageBand actually could be an interesting feature if the tracks it created were Software Instrument tracks. That would allow you to use a MIDI keyboard to play the instruments on each track and create your own parts, using Magic GB as a kind of session template in each genre. As it is what you end up with is basically end up with someone else's song, made up of loops that every other GB user has access to as well. Not a very useful tool for creating original music.

Automation

So far the single coolest feature I've come across in GB 08 is the automation, specifically the effects automation. They've done a great job here. It's very simple: just add an effect to a track, click the view/hide automation button and select add automation from the drop down menu. I was pleasantly surprised to see that each effect parameter can be automated. For example, if you've added GB's built-in Flanger effect you can automate the Intensity, Speed and Feedback settings independently. Even cooler, the automation can be accessed for third-party plug-ins as well. As an experiment I installed the OhmBoyz delay demo, an effect with over 100 editable parameters, and I was able to access all of them for automation.

Next I added LinPlug's FreeAlpha3 free Audio Unit synth and tried automation various parameters. Sure enough I was able to quickly and easily access all of the instruments parameters, creating filter sweeps and even switch oscillator types in real time. Pretty cool. Strangely though, I wasn't able to access the anything close to the same range of paramaters for the included GarageBand instruments. Some of the included instruments allow volume automation and some have Attack and/or Release automation, but that's it.

GB 08 makes automating Audio Unit plug-ins very easy. And there's also Tempo automation as well, if that's something you've been wanting access to.

Other Improvements

Visual EQ: This is very nice. A simple, straightforward, click and drag parametric EQ that comes with lots of presets.

New LCD Display: An improved LCD display that lets you choose between viewing location by time or measure, or displays chord information or project information.

More Effects Per Track: You can add four Audio Unit effects to each a track instead of two.

The Arrange Track: A nice feature that allows you to quickly select entire sections of a song and move them around. Very handy.

Multi-take Recording: Very convenient if you'd like to quickly take multiple passes at a track or an overdub.

Videos and Documentation: For the new user, or the experienced user interested in finding out more about the new functionality, there are some good video tutorials online and a new, very well done Getting Started PDF. Both are accessible from the Help Menu.

What's Not included

There are some things that I was hoping to see this time around which are not included. There are no new instruments, effects or even presets (though there are new Jam Packs to buy separately). There are no new included Apple Loops or even jingles or zingers (does anyone use these?).

The Bottom Line

I'm happy with GarageBand 08, but not nearly as excited as I'd hoped to be. For musicians last years GarageBand 3 was not really a big step forward, though the podcasting features have been incredibly useful to many people. So, while the new automation is excellent, and some of the other new features are very nice, I was hoping that this time around Apple would add even more functionality, specifically geared toward people using GarageBand for original music, such as new instruments, effects and/or improving the program's audio and MIDI editing features. The fact they put so much effort into adding an essentially useless feature like Magic GarageBand is a bit disappointing.

That said, GarageBand is still by far the best deal going for entry-level music software. So if you've never used the program and you are thinking about buying it, then consider GarageBand 08 highly recommended. For existing owners I definitely wouldn't call this an "essential" upgrade, especially if you are just using GarageBand for podcasting - there's nothing really new here for podcasters. But if you use GarageBand a lot, it's still a heck of a lot of fun and there are some cool new features. And if you have been hoping for more control over your EQ options, arrangements and Audio Unit effects and instruments, then GarageBand 08 is worth checking out.

14 www.BeatHive.com, Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops, GarageBand 08, Twisted Wave Audio Editor

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:50:00 GMT

Episode 14 features the excellent loop site www.BeatHive.com, free Apple Loops and free Acid Loops, iLife 08 and GarageBand 08 and the new Twisted Wave audio editing program for OS X

www.BeatHive.com, Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops, GarageBand 08, Twisted Wave Audio Editor

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:26:00 GMT

Welcome to installment 14 of Making Music with OS X. This week I'll be covering a great Web site for loop users and producers called www.BeatHive.com, giving away a bunch of free Apple Loops and free Acid Loops, talking a bit about iLife 08 and GarageBand 08 and reviewing yet another audio editing program for OS X.

----------

As you may have noticed, I've really been dropping the ball on getting these episodes up. Along with being super busy I actually took a vacation last week, something I don't do very often. The good news is that I have a lot of great stuff going on (which I'll be able to talk about very soon) and I've also got a pretty good backlog of software, digital recording concepts and Web sites to cover in upcoming episodes. So please be sure to stick around and check back, MMwOSX is definitely not going anywhere. I'd also like to thank all the patient listeners and folks who bought MDAP who have sent me emails letting me know that they've gotten some good use from the book and the show. If you're new here, I'd also like to mention that I have lots of resources on my Web site www.clifftruesdell.com for Mac audio in general, including links to other digital audio Web sites and podcasts, as well as links to lots of free Apple Loops, plug-ins and effects and more.

BeatHive

I had a very interesting talk with Kent Carter of www.BeatHive.com last night. If you aren't familiar with BeatHive, it's a fantastic site for both loop users and loop creators. If you're looking for a place to buy loops, BeatHive has a ton of loops from a great range of loop producers and the site allows you to easily preview and buy either individual loops or "packs" of multiple loops that form a complete track. Individual loops cost .99 and packs start at 1.99. The site's interface is really cool and makes it very easy to preview and search for specific instruments and genres. You can also search by format (Apple Loops and Acidzed .wav loops), tempo and more.

One of the coolest things about BeatHive is that the site is set up so the loop producers can upload loops, create and manage their own individual shops. Users can browse shops by genre or just go through all of the shops and find a specific producers whose work they like.

If you are interested in creating your own BeatHive shop, get some loops ready and click on the Set Up Shop link. It's also non-exclusive, so any loops you sell on BeatHive can also be sold elsewhere. It's a great way to sell your loops and to promote your loop libraries and it's also a great way to get more exposure for your music and production work.

I should also point out that it's a community as well. In the BeatHive forums you can communicate with other users, post any music you've created with BeatHive loops and get the answers to any questions you might have about BeatHive, looping and music production in general.

If that isn't enough, there's some free content available on the BeatHive site as well. Just click on the Free Loops graphic and sign up for the newsletter to access the loops.

You can also find more free BeatHive loops on the Web at www.iCompositions.com and www.MacJams.com.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/beathiveicroyaltyfreeappleloops.html

Finally, the folks at BeatHive have also started an excellent new Podcast called "Making Music" (we'll be working that one out with our lawyers!). Here's a direct link to the podcast in iTunes:

Making Music Podcast in iTunes

Making Music Podcast Web Page

www.BeatHive.com

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Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

Speaking of free loops, you may have seen my blog entry from last week about some loops that I've created that I'm giving away. I've been working on series of loop libraries (that I'll be selling on BeatHive and elsewhere) and in the process of creating these loops I've got some extra stuff lying around that I've decided to give away for free. Each week or so for the next month I'll be posting sets with of 50 MB of loops in both the Apple Loops and Acid Loops (.wav) formats. Right now there's two weeks worth of loops up there. I've got limited bandwidth so I'll be taking down week one's loops eventually. These are completely royalty-free so you can do whatever you want with them. If anyone out there has some bandwidth to spare, feel free to upload and post them yourselves - just include a link back to the blog page or my Web site.

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

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Garageband 08

I suppose the biggest news in the Mac audio world this past few weeks is the release of iLife 08, including a new version of Garageband. I'll have a full review in the next episode, but I felt like it was important to mention it here and fill you guys in on what's new and how people are reacting to it. First off, the overall reviews of iLife 08 have been pretty negative, mostly based on the experiences that folks are having with the new version of iMovie, which apparently is a complete rewrite and has eliminated many features. Something else that's apparently problematic for a lot of people is that iMovie 08 is not compatible with anything earlier than a G5 processor, though GarageBand and the rest of iLife 08 will work with G4 processors or higher. iLife 08 also requires OS 10.4.9 or higher, which is a bit of a drag for me since I've been sticking with 10.4.8 because of some incompatibility issues with some of my Audio Units. Though it's probably safe to upgrade by now so I guess I'll be doing that this week. Anyway - enough about iLife in general, here's a list of the new features in GarageBand 08:

Magic GarageBand - quickly create backing tracks

Multi-take recording capability

Automation of tempo effects and instruments

Define sections of your song arrangement for easy copying and pasting

Visual EQ: Graphically adjust frequencies for each track by clicking and dragging individual EQ band

As I mentioned, I'll have a complete review of GarageBand 08 in the next episode.

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Twisted Wave Audio Editor

Well there's yet another addition to the already crowded OS X audio editing application field. This is a fairly straightforward and easy to use audio editing app called Twisted Wave. No matter what your primary DAW program I think it's a good idea to have at least one standalone audio editor.

I was surprised to find out how much I like Twisted Wave. As with many of the other Audio Editing applications out there (SoundStudio comes to mind) Twisted Wave is really easy to jump in and use. My always important cross-fading and normalizing functionalities were easy to find and use. Something else I noticed right away - when I went to select a section of a waveform Twisted Wave automatically moved the start and end points of my selection to the nearest zero crossing points. This is a really nice feature that can make editing, copying and pasting audio much quicker and simpler.

The interface is very simple - maybe too simple. There are just a few very basic commands available at the top of the interface window. It'd be nice to see a few more added, or the ability to pick and choose which buttons are visible.

Twisted Wave supports Audio Units (of course) and implementing them is very straightforward. Your AU effects appear in a pop-up box and you can select a section or entire audio file. Click the play button to preview, then click apply to apply the effect. You can also easily create presets called "Stacks" containing multiple effects in any order. VST plug-ins are not supported.

www.twistedwave.com

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Here's a quick recap of some of the OS X audio editing apps I've covered in this blog and in MDAP, along with current prices and links along with muy own rating of each program:

SoundStudio 3 - $79.95
****
www.freeverse.com

Fission - $32
**1/2
http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/

Twisted Wave - $49.95
***1/2
http://twistedwave.com

Wave Editor $250
****
www.audiofile-engineering.com

Sample Manager - $90
***1/2
www.audiofile-engineering.com

Peak Pro - $599
****
www.bias.com

Peak LE - $129
****
www.bias.com

Audacity - Free
***
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Cacophony - Shareware/$25
**1/2
http://www.bannister.org/software/cacophony.htm

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That's all for episode 14 - thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon with more info, tips and concepts for Making Music with OS X.

-Cliff

Email: "cliff at mmwosx dot com"

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 00:38:00 GMT

I've been working on a series of loop libraries but they're not quite ready for prime time. As a result I have a pretty big collection of loops that I'm going to give away for free on my Web site. These loops are 100% royalty-free and can be used in any context you like. Since I've got limited bandwidth I'll be uploading a new 50 MB set every week. Depending on your DAW or format preference there's an Apple Loops version and an Acid Loops (.wav format) version of each set.

You can download either or both set from here:

Free Apple Loops and Free Acid Loops

-Cliff

13 Free Digital Audio Book, Sound Toys, Pianoteq 2.1, Ticky Clav and Cheeze Machine, Machine Head

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:00:00 GMT

Episode 13 features info on a new free digital audio book called "Digital Audio - DIY Now!," updates to AudioFinder and the Sound Toys plug-ins, Pianoteq 2.1 (now in AU and RTAS), the free Ticky Clav and Cheeze Machine instruments from Big Tick Audio Software and a new media player for OS X called Machine Head.

Links:

Digital Audio - DIY now!

Chris Caulder

Michael W. Dean

AudioFinder

SoundToys

Pianoteq

Ticky Clav and Cheeze Machine

Big Tick Audio Software

Machine Head

Email me

12 Virtual Instruments Magazine, TapeOp, SoundStudio 3, The Levelator, SoundMagic Spectral Plug-ins

Tue, 3 Jul 2007 18:33:00 GMT

This installment covers Virtual Instruments Magazine, TapeOp Magazine, SoundStudio 3 audio editing software, The freeware Levelator application and the free SoundMagic Spectral Audio Units Plug-ins.

Virtual Instruments Magazine, TapeOp, SoundStudio 3, The Levelator, SoundMagic Spectral Plug-ins

Tue, 3 Jul 2007 18:13:00 GMT

Welcome to installment 12 of Making Music with OS X. This week I'm going to talk about some cool OS X audio software and plug-ins that weren't covered in Mastering Digital Audio Production and a couple of my favorite recording magazines.

Virtual Instruments Magazine

I just got my first copy of Virtual Instruments magazine today and I'm really impressed. The focus of this magazine is pretty obvious from the name and it's an amazing read. VI is seems like it's geared toward higher end, professional users but there's something in there for digital audio folks at every level. In fact, I think that because it has so much "deep" information it's very useful for people who consider themselves new or intermediate level users because it gives you a lot of insight on how the "pros" are working and using Virtual Instruments, MIDI and other tools. They also cover hardware as well as software and they do a great job of covering tools and concepts that are useful for both Mac and PC users.

Another very cool thing about VI is that as a subscriber you're given access to all of the back issues in PDF format. If you are interested there's also sample PDF of a recent issue on their Web site:

www.virtualinstrumentsmag.com

TapeOp Magazine

You may already be familiar with this magazine, but if you aren't then I suggest you get right over to TapeOp.com and sign up for a free subscription. That's right - it's free. TapeOp is entirely supported by advertising, which might be annoying in some magazines but I actually enjoy looking at TapeOp's ads and imagining that I could someday afford all of the various microphones, hardware and software. Every month TapeOp features interviews with recording engineers, gear manufactures and musicians along with a letters section that answers reader questions, as well as reviews of gear, music and software. There's also a very cool reader forum at www.TapeOp.com.

TapeOp's focus is on recording, both digital and analog. I have yet to read an issue without learning something. Heck, I don't think I've read single article without learning something. Pete Townsend of The Who (who knows a thing or two about home recording) has sent fan mail to TapeOp. 'Nuff said.

SoundStudio 3

One of the programs I didn't cover in Mastering Digital Audio Production but really wish I had is the audio recording and editing application SoundStudio. SoundStudio costs $80 and is available for both PPC and Intel Macs and requires OS X 10.4. I've been looking for an alternative to Audacity recently because I've been having some "issues" with it on my G5. So if you've been frustrated by bugs and crashing in Audacity and you're looking for a more stable alternative and your willing to spend a few dollars you might want to check out SoundStudio. If you have any experience with any audio editing software you'll find that SoundStudio is extremely intuitive. I was able to figure out how to do 90% of what I use an audio editor for without consulting any of the program's documentation. It took me about a minute to figure out how to compress, normalize, cross-fade and export a loop. Though I'm not crazy about how the program handles cross-fading, it gets the job done. It has great integration with any installed Audio Units you may have and you can easily record, edit and export audio into multiple formats.

You can download a trial version and try it out for yourself at:

www.freeverse.com/soundstudio

The Levelator

The basic workflow for this podcast is that I record the spoken word part into Pro Tools then bring that into GarageBand 3 where I add the music, images and links. There is however an intermediate step between Pro Tools and GarageBand and that's a free application I use called the Levelator. Levelator does exactly what the name implies - levels out the audio so my podcasts have a consistent volume level. Since I'm not a professional announcer and I tend to record my segments at different times and often at slightly different distances from the mic the Levelator really comes in handy.

While the Levelator is perfect for well-recorded spoken word, it's not so great for badly recorded or noisy audio. I tried to use it on a job recently where I was cleaning up the audio from some old spoken word tapes that were being transferred to CD and "Levelating" the audio brought up the unpleasant noise any time there was a pause.

The Levelator is freeware and you can download it from www.gigavox.com where you'll also find some other useful links for podcasters and information on the GigVox Media platform.

SoundMagic Spectral Plug-ins

The Spectral plug-ins are a suite of over 22 free plug-ins created by a composer from New Zealand named Michael Norris (I wonder if he's friends with the guys from Flight of the Conchords). These are not your standard delay, reverb etc. type plug-ins. They do strange things and some of them have lots of parameters and sliders to move around. I can't say that I'm even close to understanding what exactly they're doing but they are a lot fun, especially if you like working with random or unexpected sounds. One thing I've noticed is that their is often a fairly significant delay/latency problem with some of the plug-ins. I've found that when working with the Spectral plug-ins that have an FFT or Fast Fourier transform by using those plug-in's FFT drop down to change the default 2048 setting to 512 you can drastically reduce the latency. I've been mostly using these in Live 6 and I have had a couple of crashes and that's something you want to watch out for with any free plug-ins. One final note - these plug-ins require manual installation, which is covered in the included "Installing SoundMagic Spectral" documentation and also in Installment 1 of this blog and podcast.

Download SoundMagic Spectral

More links to free Audio Units (and VSTs)

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That's all for this week. Next week I'll be back with more resources, plug-ins and the return of the Cheap Software Spotlight.

-Cliff

www.MasteringDigitalAudio.com

11 Reason 4, Battery 3.02 Update, Audio Hijack Pro, eSession.com

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:15:00 GMT

Installment 11 of MMwOSX. This episode covers Reason 4, the Battery 3.02 update and new kits, Audio Hijack Pro 2.7.3 and eSession.com

Reason 4, Battery 3.02 Update, Audio Hijack Pro, eSession.com

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:01:00 GMT

Welcome to installment 11 of Making Music with OS X. This week I'll be covering some of the latest software updates, including the upcoming Reason 4, talking about digital audio videos on YouTube and a cool new Web site for online collaboration.

You can find more OS X audio resources and information about my book Mastering Digital Audio Production at www.MasteringDigitalAudio.com
and at www.clifftruesdell.com

----------

New Schedule

First of all you may have noticed that this week's episode is a bit late. I've had a lot of good stuff going on including some projects that I'm sure I'll be talking about in more detail in the weeks ahead. Because things are so busy right now I'm going to be doing this podcast and blog on a bi-weekly schedule for at least the next month or so.

----------

Reason 4

Probably the biggest music software news in quite a while - Propellerheads Software announced today that they are ready to beta test Reason 4. You can find out more at www.propellerheads.se, where they've posted lots of info and some very cool screenshots that you can mouse over and read up on all of the program's new features. Some of what's coming in Reason 4:

*The much requested arpeggiator (finally!)

*A new synthesizer called "Thor" that includes it's own pattern sequencer, modulation matrix, built-in effects and more. This looks just awesome.

*A whole new look and lots of new features added to Reason's sequencer window, including vector automation, tempo and time signature automation and multiple lanes per track.

*A "groove console" called ReGroove for adding a more humanized feel to you tracks.

As I said, there's much more detail on the Propellerheads Web site, including sound samples and videos. Registered Reason users can log in and fill out a request form to participate in beta testing. If I get chosen as a beta tester you'll definitely hear about it. And if you get your hands on a beta copy before I do - shoot me an email and I'll come over and clean your house and wash your car for a year or two...

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Digital Audio Videos on YouTube

I've recently noticed quite a lot of digital audio videos showing up on YouTube, including some very cool tutorials. Many of these are promotion videos from the companies themselves, some are samples from companies like HowAudio.com that offer complete online courses and DVDs and some are user-created demosrations of techniques, tips and tricks. A few are "bootlegs" of commercial videos - don't watch those.

Here's some links to lots of great digital audio content:

Reason videos on YouTube

Ableton Live Videos on YouTube

More Ableton Live Videos on YouTube

GarageBand Videos on YouTube

Pro Tools Videos on YouTube

Digital Performer Videos on YouTube

----------

Battery 3.02 Update

For those of you who own or are thinking about buying the Battery Drum Sampler Native Instruments has released an update to the Battery that contains three new kits, including a kits created by Gorillaz producer Curtis Lynch and industrial music pioneers Einsturzende Neubauten

Battery Update Article

----------

Audio Hijack Pro

In the More Useful Software chapter of Mastering Digital Audio Production I covered the excellent Audio Hijack program. Audio Hijack is very similar to the WireTap program I talked about in MMwOSX installment 4 and can be used in many of the same types of situations. Audio Hijack comes in two versions: a basic version called "Audio Hijack" and a more robust version called AudioHijack Pro. The basic version costs $16 and is very simple and easy to use.If you are looking to quickly capture streaming audio off the Web or from a CD or DVD the basic version is all you'll need.

Audio Hijack vs. Audio Hijack Pro comparison chart

Audio Hijack Pro, which was just updates a few days ago to version 2.7.3 is a very useful application for all kinds of things including recording directly into MP3 and AAC formats, quickly recording your Skype and iChat conversations and recording multiple sources on your Mac into one sound file. For example, if you were doing an interview via Skype for a podcast you could add audio from iTunes or sound effects from GarageBand or another audio program in real time.

You can download a fully functional demo here.

Audio Hijack Pro

Once you've tried it out you can register the program for a $32.

----------

eSession.com

There's a new site that I've been checking out recently called eSession.com. The idea behind the site is that musicians and songwriters can access a talent pool of other musicians, as well as mixers, engineers and producers and then collaborate on-line by uploading audio files and even complete sessions in Pro Tools, Logic, GarageBand and other DAW formats. The way it works is that you can use the eSession interface to browse through their talent pool and once you find a musician or engineer you want to work with you can send them a work request and negotiate a rate for a session or sessions. If you've got the budget they have some pretty big name producers and studio musicians up there.

One of the aspects of this site that's particularly appealing to me is the possibility of using it for online collaboration. You're not limited to working with their high-end talent - you can "invite" anyone who's registered on the site to work on a session and you can invite your friends to join by emailing them directly from the eSession interface. They also offer a number of hosting options starting a $10 a month for 10 GBs of file storage. With all of these options in place this site seems like it could be a great way to collaborate with friends, musicians and studios in other cities and countries.

eSession.com is in public beta mode right now, which means you can create and account and check it out, though all of the features may not be 100% bug-free. If you are interested in the online storage feature: once you've created an account go to My eSession, click on SongSpace and then click on "Up Your Space"

There's also a "live tour" seminar every day at 2 PM Central Time that you can sign up for right on the site's front page.

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That's all for the week - thanks for listening and I'll be back in a week (or so) with more news you can use for making Music with OS X.

10 File Formats, The Home Recording Network, Upgrading Your Mac's RAM

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 03:03:00 GMT

This week's installment covers using various audio file formats and file conversion with iTunes and other audio applications, MMwOSX's addition to the excellent Home Recording Network and my recent experiences with upgrading the RAM in my home studio's G5.

File Formats, The Home Recording Network, Upgrading Your RAM

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 02:44:00 GMT

Hello and welcome to episode 10 of Making Music with OS X. This week I'll be talking about audio file formats and file conversion, MMwOSX's addition to the excellent Home Recording Network and my recent experiences with upgrading the RAM in my home studio's G5.

The Home Recording Network

First off a big thank you to Derek Miller and Geoff Hankerson of the Inside Home Recording and Fundamentals of Digital Audio podcasts, respectively for adding MMwOSX to the Home Recording Network at www.homerecordingnetwork.com. The HRN is 17 different audio podcasts and some of them have been around for a while so there's lots of catching up you can do if you've never been there before. Whatever your interest or operating system, instrument or DAW program you'll definitely find lots of great information up there.

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Contest Winners!

Congratulations to Jeff and Rob the two winners of last week's contest. You guys will both be receiving free copies of Mastering Digital Audio Production. Here's the sound that I recorded outside of my window last week that they correctly identified.

Contest Sound

And yes, that's the sound of a jackhammer on concrete. And I'd especially like to thank the fine folks at the San Francisco Public Works Department for giving me such consistent access to this sound for the last year and a half. It's been a real pleasure to have a combination 7 AM alarm clock, background sound effect and impromptu percussion tracks for any recordings I might be working on.

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File Formats

There are an incredible number of audio file formats out there. You don't see too many of them on a regular basis but over the years many different digital audio file formats have been created. To make things even more complicated, within each format there are always going to be a number of options such as bit depth and sample rate, variable bit rate settings, stereo or mono. There are even subsets of popular file formats that I don't quite understand (if you can tell me the difference between an AIFC and AIFC file please shoot me an email or a link).

So, the point of all of this is that sooner or later you may run across a file or many files that are incompatible with your particular host program. You may want to use a REX (.rx2) file in GarageBand or an Ogg Vorbis file in a Pro Tools session. I've mentioned a few times here that I like working with audio samples from movies. Sometimes for fun I'll use the Internet to search for famous quotes from movies like Dirty Harry or Taxi Driver. These kinds of things can't be used in commercially available recordings but they're fun to work with.

I've found that when I'm using the Internet to search for audio files from movies that they are often incompatible with the programs I'm trying to load them into. This often has to do with the Sample and Bit Rates they've been encoded at and sometime the file formats.

Sound Converter

For quick and easy file conversion to or from just about any format you're likely to run across try the Sound Converter app from www.dekorte.com. For 10 bucks this program is a steal and a good thing to have around just in case you run into a file that you need to convert quickly. There's a list on their Web site of all of the different audio file formats the program can read and export to. The demo version will work on smaller files and give you a chance to check out the program's interface and conversion possibilities.

Download Sound Converter

Batch Conversion

Batch conversion is the process of converting multiple files at once. This is something you might want to do if someone gave you a large collection of loops and samples that weren't loading properly in your DAW or sampler. In my case as I'm working on creating a loop library I'll use the batch conversion in the Apple Loops Utility to create multiple Apple Loops at once. I've also found that Sample Manager and AudioFinder can be very useful for working in the opposite direction, batch converting Apple Loops to WAV loops. The AudioFinder program, which I've mentioned in previous episodes is my go-to for batch converting. Among many other things, AudioFinder can convert files to REX files to AIFF format (and from there to WAV or SD2). Sample Manager can also covert REX to WAV or AIFF, and gives you great control over Bit Depth and Sample Rates.

www.IcedAudio.com

www.audiofile-engineering.com

Using iTunes To Convert Files

Apple's iTunes makes a great Swiss Army Knife for file conversion. For example, depending on what DAW program you're working with, you may or may not have the ability to export directly to MP3 format. My understanding of this is that in order to include the MP3 export option, software companies have to pay a licensing fee for every copy of the software they sell. Digital Performer, and Logic Pro and Express include MP3 export, while Pro Tools users have to pay extra for the MP3 export option. Live, Reason and GarageBand users are just totally out of luck. While the AAC format is great, and I use it a lot (for these podcasts, for example) it's not as universal as MP3 and there are many portable audio devices and some digital audio jukebox programs that don't support it. So, for example, if you're posting songs to Web site and you want to reach the widest possible audience you're going to want to convert your files to MP3. You can also use iTunes to create higher quality or lower quality AAC, WAV and AIFF files. This can come in handy in any number of situations. For example, you can reduce the file size of a podcast by half by converting it to mono and you can quickly convert incompatible WAV or AIFF files to standard Sample Rate and Bit Depths for use in your DAW programs. Here's a quick tutorial on using iTunes to convert file formats:

Use iTunes To Convert File Formats

1. Drag your file to the iTunes Browser to add it to the Music Library

2. Go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced and click on the Importing tab.

3. From the "Import Using" drop down menu select the file to you want to convert your files to.

4a. To convert files to a format that can be used in any DAW program choose "AIFF" or "WAV" and leave or change the "Setting" drop down menu as "Automatic."

4b. To raise or lower the Sample Rate or Bit Rate, select "Custom" from the settings drop down menu and choose your custom settings.

5. Once you've made you adjustments, close all of the Preferences windows and return to the iTunes Music Library.

6. Locate your file in the iTunes Music Library.

7. Choose Advanced > Convert selection to (whatever file type you've chosen in iTunes Preferences)

8. You should now have two versions of the file in iTunes - one will be the new file format. You can find out which is which by selecting a file and choosing File > Get Info. Click the Summary tab and you'll see the file's format and file size.

When you're done, make sure you go back and reset your iTunes importing preferences, otherwise every new CD you import will automatically be added using the settings you've left in place.

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Upgrading Your Mac's RAM

The very first chapter of MDAP is called "Optimizing Your System" and it details various things you can do to get the most out of your OS X Mac for creating and recording music. Probably the single best thing I did for my home studio this year was adding more RAM to my G5. I originally bought my G5 with 1.5 GB of RAM installed, which was fine for a while. I realize that this was a lot less RAM than many people with setups that are similar to mine use. But because of how I was working and the kinds of things that make up my typical workflow I was able to get by without needing too much power. Plus, around the same time that I bought the computer I went way over budget buying new music software. I'm sure some of you can relate...Having to choose between more RAM and buying food, I went with food. With a 1.5GB of RAM I was able to run sessions combining Logic or Pro Tools 7 with Reason and Live simultaneously without too many problems and I rarely ran into situations that my system couldn't handle.

Most DAW programs have a built-in function that lets you know how much of your computer's resources are being used up. For example, in Pro Tools you can choose "System Usage" from the Window menu, in Ableton Live there's a percentage display in the top right corner and in GarageBand you'll see the rectangle at the top of the Timeline indicator turn from clear to yellow to red as your system starts to run out of power.

When I started working with AmpliTube 2 along with either the Addictive Drums demo or BFD Lite things started to get a bit weird. I was getting a lot of error messages in Pro Tools saying that my Digi 002 had disappeared momentarily. I got frozen or hanging tracks (really annoying when you want to record an idea before you forget it!) and I found that I had to restart a lot when things got too slow or hung up.

Finally, when I made the decision to purchase Reaktor I knew that it was time for a big upgrade. I thought I'd take a minute here to share some of the advice that's covered in MDAP and some new things I learned along the way.

Depending on which model of Mac you have, installing RAM yourself may be very easy. However, it's important to take into consideration that installing RAM yourself may void your computer's warranty or the AppleCare extended warranty. On some Macs (such as the new MacBooks) RAM considered a "user replaceable" part and on others it's not. If you don't want to void your warranty, check your documentation, the Apple Web site or talk to your local Apple store or Apple repair technician to find out more information before you attempt to install more RAM yourself.

Make sure you get the right RAM for your specific model and buy it from a reputable dealer. You can buy cheap RAM from a number of places including eBay. Cheap RAM may work out just fine, but then again it may not. Bad RAM can be a giant hassle and lead to all kinds of problems, some of which may not be noticeable at first. I talked to an IT friend who suggested www.crucial.com as a reputable dealer for getting a high quality RAM at a discount price. You can also use the Crucial Web site to quickly find out the right RAM for your specific make and model. Having dealt with bad RAM before I can assure you that the $50 bucks or so I might have saved elsewhere isn't even remotely close to being worth the hassle.

Apple has instructions for installing RAM on different models on their Web site, including detailed PDFs for some models. Here's a link to the Apple Hardware Support page. Select your model and look for the "how-to" link or links.

Apple Hardware Support Page

It's also very important to read the instructions carefully and thoroughly before you start. Installing RAM incorrectly or not following the instructions step-by-step from start to finish can seriously damage your computer.

If you don't feel comfortable opening up your computer yourself, you can also pay someone to install RAM. Check around on this though - I saw an article recently in the local paper about wildly varying rates that different places will charge for this.

With 3GB of RAM installed I'm pretty set for a little while. It's more than enough to get great track counts in Pro Tools and Logic, though I can still max things out pretty quickly with Reaktor. The real shocker for me was with GarageBand though. I've installed a second instance of OS X on an external FireWire drive and I've messing around with sessions in GarageBand with 40+ tracks, with minimal problems.

There's more on RAM, external drives and lots of other information in Mastering Digital Audio Production's first chapter, "Optimizing Your System."

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That's all for this week. Next week I'll be back with some software updates, some interesting new Web sites and resources and more.

-Cliff

Email: "cliff at mmwosx dot com"

9 Free Book Contest! Internet Resources, Free Audio and Video Content from www.archive.org, Focus on GarageBand Pt. 2

Tue, 29 May 2007 21:42:00 GMT

This week's episode covers some Internet resources for free audio and video content, including www.sampleswap.org and www.archive.org, finishes up my two-part Focus On GarageBand series and has the first Making Music with OS X listener/reader contest for a free copy of the book Mastering Digital Audio Production.

My Odeo Channel (odeo/5270ac00e0d668a1)