Listen to the Laguna Mix (soriano_lagunamix.mov, Quicktime Format, 1.5MB)

Why was I at the MotoGP this year? And the year before that? I've been an avid motorcyclist for 6 years. Luckily, I call California home and am only about 40 minutes from the Laguna Seca Raceway. During the previous year I was overwhelmed by the intensity of sound at the track and decided this year i would get some live recording. Without earplugs, the sounds are incredibly unpleasant. But after listening to my recordings from this year, I was fascinated by how amazing the sounds were.

I also find it interesting how much we depend on listening to our "machines" to determine whether they are in working order. Even since the industrial revolution the practice of listening to machines to diagnose mechanical faults has been prevalent. A great book on this subject is "Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century" by Karin Bijsterveld. She even has a section titled "Noise Compared to Stench." It's a great read.

Mientras Audacity u otros proyectos se actualizan e intentan alcanzar la potencia de Sound Forge, no nos queda otro remedio que intentar correr Sound Forge con Wine. Lo que hacemos es instalar la última versión de Wine (1.0RC1 en este momento) e intentar ejecutar Sound Forge 7.0a que aparece en la página Wine HQ como "Platinum"

Hemos probado la versión Trial de Sound Forge 7.0, pero no se ejecuta a pesar de que se instala.

El Sound Forge 4.5c se instala y corre bien, pero echamos de menos algunas de las opciones de versiones posteriores, así que, aunque es un excelente editor y ya mejora con creces al Audacity, vamos a seguir intentando instalar alguna versión más moderna.

Respecto al sonido, el wine nos funciona bien seleccionando ALSA en la configuración de Wine, y "Wine Wave Out Mapper" en la configuración del Sound Forge.

La versión 7.0a tampoco se ejecuta a pesar de que aparentemente se instala correctamente, así que optamos por la versión 6.0. Se instala y ejecuta correctamente, tiene la apariencia de versiones de Sound Forge más modernas y tiene más o menos todo lo que necesitamos. Se pueden arrastrar archivos de audio directamente a la ventana, corre fluída y el audio incluso corre a la vez que otros programas como Rhythmbox.

CoolEdit 1.0, 1.1, CoolEdit Pro y CoolEdit 2000 o bien no se dejan instalar o bien una vez instalados no se ejecutan bajo Wine.

Con respecto a Audacity, se nos sigue colgando al poco de usarla, la navegación es poco intuitiva, y la selección, insercción de marcas, posicionamiento y selección entre marcas, así como el zoom, que son las herramientas más importantes de cualquier edición, siguen siendo inexistentes o pobremente accesibles desde teclado, ratón, etc. Mínimos imprescindibles como acceso permanente al zoom utilizando la rueda del ratón siguen sin implementarse, y no se pueden configurar desde el apartado de opciones. Esperemos que pronto podamos hablar en otros términos y exista un editor de Audio para Linux que nos haga olvidar esas odiosas letras pixeladas de los menús de Windows. Además Sound Forge no soporta FLAC ni OGG, y a menudo hay que instalar plugins para que trabaje con MP3, pero bueno, la calidad del editor es indiscutible.

Decir que otros proyectos alternativos a Audacity, si bien algunos se ofrecen más como alternativa a Cool Edit que a Sound Forge, como GNUSound, Sweep, Jokosher o Marlin tienen mejor aspecto y la navegación se hace más intuitiva y lógica en un primer momento que con Audacity, por lo que quizá en poco tiempo podrán competir mejor con Sound Forge. Les seguiremos la pista ya que por el momento son proyectos bastante incipientes.

This post will not go over exact processes and steps to master your tracks. Surprised? Don't be. Mastering is intuitive. There are no set rules for mastering. Anyone who tells you otherwise and says, "Always EQ first, man! Boost the 5K frequencies, then put some compression on there with a 4:1 ratio, etc, etc", DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. You make your own rules on mastering. Every song is unique and needs certain things done to them to make them better. It will not be the same for a every song.

Also, you don't necessarily need to fork over a grand to get your tracks mastered. You can do this from home. If you do it yourself, of course, your end product will not sound as good as a seasoned veteran's would. But, you can still get some decent results. I use Sound Forge 9 and IzoTope's Ozone, as well as some other high-quality compressors, limiters, etc. That's all I need.

1. LISTEN

This is the most important thing to remember when mastering. You would think this would go without saying but you'd be surprised how many don't REALLY listen. Like I mentioned earlier, there are no rules in mastering. Listen. YOU decide what sounds best and what should be done. You can define mastering as what makes a good-sounding mixed-down track sound BETTER. That's it. There are many things you can do to improve the sound. EQ, compression, limiting, de-essing, 'sonic maximizing', dynamics, stereo imaging...the list could go on. But YOU decide what you use on any given track and in what order.

2. BE PATIENT

If you're thinking you can sit down and master a track in half an hour, think again. Mastering takes time. You have to experiment. This could be related to the first tip of listening. If you truly listen, you going to be sitting and staring at your computer screen for hour. The reason for that is because if you really listen, you're going to find things in your mix that you don't like and you're going to want to fix by any means necessary.

Only by experience can the mastering process go at a relatively quick pace. A veteran will know exactly what needs to change in a track and knows exactly how to fix it. Even then, mastering engineers that've been doing their thing for years know the importance of being patient.

Which brings us to our next tip....

3. EXPERIENCE

The art of mastering can't be learned in a day. It also cannot be learned from a book. Indeed, you can get an idea of what mastering IS from a book, but to truly learn the art of it you need to do it yourself and for a long time.

Sit down at your computer and try it yourself. Most DAW's come with built-in effects that can be used for mastering purposes. If you have a dedicated sound editor like Sound Forge, perfect. Start experimenting with your latest musical creation. Find out ways to make it sound better. Think the loud parts are too loud and soft parts too soft? Use compression. Does the mix sound a bit muddy? Do some rolling-off of some of the low frequencies (not much though). Experiment with the 'sonic maximizers' and 'loudness maximizers' and whatever else you can think of.

Only by doing it yourself will you learn to do it correctly. If you do begin to master your own tracks, the training you get will effect all other aspects of your production as well. Mastering trains your ear. By training your ear in this manner, your recordings will sound better from start to finish because you know exactly what you want to hear and know exactly how to accomplish that.

4. KNOW YOUR GEAR

Pretty self-explanatory. If you know your gear inside and out, you know exactly what needs to be tweaked in the mastering process in order to obtain the sound you're hearing in your head. If your track gets too loud and you don't know how to use your limiter, and significantly decreases your productivity and efficiency when you're trying to learn how to use it. The same thing applies to any hardware or plug-ins you own. Know your equipment better than they know themselves (figuratively speaking).

5. RELY ON OUTSIDE SOURCES

This covers a couple different things.

• If it's YOUR music you're mastering, listen to your favorite bands' latest album. Basically, get an idea IN YOUR HEAD of what your music should sound like based off of someone else's sound, but you need to make it unique. Do not mimic or copy someone else. That's not true creativity.
• If you are mastering a client's tracks, communicate with them to get a vision for the end result. This is something so many people forget. If you don't get an idea of what the CLIENT wants, you end up making something YOU want, and the client will not truly be happy. If you want success in your endeavors, if you want to stand out from the rest, and if you want to make an impact on the music industry in your area, TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. You know the saying 'customers first'? It's still true in the music business. It's all about the customers. Give them what they want, and you'll be a success.

Need your tracks mastered? Email Jason with Crave Audio at jasonbnorth@hotmail.com.

Fortunately, it is not so difficult now. The personal computer and selected specified software have changed the world of music upside down. We can now see a flush of music videos and albums from every nook and corner of the world. Music studios are plenty in numbers and are quite affordable as well. Anyone can compose its own music in the way one desires.

Getting even more at easier front, the music can be composed and created at home with just a Personal Computer. Just think of creating something new and you have almost done it! You only need a Personal Computer that would do everything for you to create your own music. It is that simple indeed. You can take help of a microphone and selected specific software to do that.

Professional as well as layperson and recreational musicians are now facilitated with several kinds of relevant tools and software that can create any kind of music they want. You can be friendly with and master any such software with a few hours of sitting and working on it. This would enable anyone with the art of audio editing mixing.

It is important to know how to select the right software for specific purposes. Software like “ Fruity Loops-6 “ is one such useful  music composing tool. A variety of experimentations can be performed with sound and mixing with this software. It has a big bunch of virtual instruments also. All these virtual instruments can be used separately while creating different music tracks.

“Newendo” is also popular music creation software. This program has some spectacular features. Anyone can compose fantastic rocking music with this software.

 Learning some fundamentals of any music and audio editing software is a pre-requisite for someone who is new to this world of music and computers. These basic skills and approaches help you to understand the fundamental and complex features of the software.

After having brushed up with some fundamentals, use of the” Sound Forge” software is strongly recommended. “Sound Forge” is very useful and simple recording software that is easy to work with. A layperson would definitely feel very much comfortable with this software.

Once you are done with some initial experiences of creating, editing and mixing etc. a shift to “Fruity Loops-6” or “Q-base” or “ newendo” would be advisable. Even complex music recordings can be accomplished with these software’s.

This week we did our first interview for the show. It was with Dick Hardt of Sxip Identity, the CEO. Skype was a complete bastard, for what reasons we do not know. In addition to that the audio was less than perfect. As well as that I was learning my way around some new software. All up this meant for me a huge job. It took hours and hours of editing, and re-editing. I had to correct the audio levels and make sense of garbled Skype noise to extract the content. That is an added step that I don't normally have to worry about.

I edited the interview once and on a listen I thought I could do better. I originally edited the raw data in Audacity then on the second I tried out Sound Forge by Sony. The wave patterns are easier to read in Sound Forge I think. That meant the second edit did not take as long. But a lot of the crackles and peaks were taken out. The software is very, very powerful and that meant that I had to learn a lot of new techniques for doing things. The help files are great and that helped. There are a few things that I could not help or eliminate, like the alternating volumes that can be heard. That was a result of the fact that no compressor on earth could have made up for the level differences between us and Dick. But overall the result is great compared to what I had to work with.

Then came the task of throwing it all together. Sebastian and I recorded our bit last night. That went so well it was smooth as silk. We knew our stuff and Seb was a great asset (as always). At one point my web page would not load. It was my story and once Seb knew I was having trouble he just stepped in and took over, magic. It just worked. Then after we finished I started to edit our bit and exported it as a .wav file. I put all the components together in Acid Music Studio, again Sony. It kicks butt and a serious time saver.

Audacity does multi-track badly. So this was a nice change. Again a powerful program and I was pulling my hair out with some things. Like if you change a track from a one-shot as opposed to a loop it changes the way the audio sounds. If it is supposed to be a one-shot, it sounds like crap as a loop. What I did not know was that it automatically loads some sounds as loops. So I spent about an hour trying to find out what the go was with Sebastian sounding like a Darleck! The other thing that this label of loop or one-shot does is changes the tempo of a track. So I was adding audio and it was either too fast or too slow! Again, pulling my hair out but got the two problems sorted when I realised the difference between a loop and a one-shot. Over all though I would say that software is very intuitive and easy to use. Despite my issues, which were minor. Organising and arranging your work is a snap and the ability to zoom and scale is priceless. I can now fit over ten tracks on the one view, much easier.

In addition to this the two programs work seamlessly with each other. Need to edit a track while working in Acid? No problem just open it with a right click on the file name, edit it and close and keep working on the project in Acid, awesome! The only thing that it won't do is encode the .mp3, for that I am now using RazorLame.

RazorLame worked wonderfully. The file was encoded at 64kbps with a 44100khz sample rate. Another first for the podcast. I figure that it is a toss up between file size and quality and marketing. I think a smaller file size might mean more listeners. My only criticism of the file was that some kooky shit happened in that there is a bit of an echo in the first half of the podcast but then the rest is fine. Not sure what that was about but I think it might have something to do with modulation. So I have decided that for the next podcast record we will under level the audio, this will give the final product some headroom and take out some of the fluctuating echo. I say this because the audio of the interview which was under-modulated is fine.

And that's a wrap. It was indeed the trickiest podcast to edit and toped with that was the new software and methods. I am proud of what has been produced. This is why we have a vested interest and maybe you can see why we are passionate about what we are doing. It represents a huge investment of time and energy. The reward is for people to listen to it.

Head on over to The Global Geek Podcast to check out the show!

Patrice Rushen - Number One

Ett instrumentalt stycke som är så chill som det kan bli. Det är ännu en sådan låt som fanns med i vardagen när det begav sig men som man sedan mer eller mindre glömt bort. Klurar lite på om man skulle snickra ihop ett sommarmix med gamla låtar. Har inte gjort nåt mix sen förra våren, fast mest beroende på att jag bytt dator och inte haft en fungerande version av Acid förrän nu. Det är mitt favorit-verktyg när det kommer till att snickar ihop mixar, det ihop med Sound Forge som jag använder för att klippa i låtar. Det roligaste mixet jag gjort tog lite över tre månader och är ett technomix med alla technofavoriter från början av 90-talet. Klippte ner drygt 100 låtar till 900 småklipp som jag sedan pusslade ihop till ett drygt 10 minuter långt mix eller medley som det brukade kallas förr. Att det tog så lång tid beror mest på att jag inte orkar sitta för länge vid datorn så det kanske bara blir en halvtimme-timme per dag. Fast å andra sidan är det inte så dumt för då kan man klura lite på vad man ska hitta på härnäst. Men jag har länge funderat på att göra ett lite mer old-classics-mix så det kanske är dags att börja hitta på nåt.

Tjillevippen

notbugs

Bene, ieri ho avuto questa esigenza. Per riuscire a raggiungere il mio obiettivo ho sfruttato le potenzialità di Sony Sound Forge. Per chi avesse questa stessa mia necessità elenco i semplici ed efficaci passi da seguire:

1. Caricate il vostro file audio su Sound Forge
2. A questo punto dovete marcare gli istanti di tempo che identificano i punti di suddivisione della traccia; vi basta posizionarvi nel punto scelto nella forma d'onda della sorgente audio ed andare su Special -> Insert Marker e così per ogni punto di suddivisione (NB: ricordatevi di inserire un marker anche all'inizio ed alla fine della traccia)
3. Una vota inseriti tutti i marker dovete andare su Special -> Regions List -> Markers to Regions in modo da individuare tutte le regioni della traccia delimitate dai markers
4. Infine per estrarre la vostra suddivisione di tracce non vi resta che andare su Tools -> Extract Regions.

Vi troverete così la vostra unica e lunga traccia audio salvata nella suddivisione in singole tracce da voi scelta.

E' tutto...a buon rendere.

After couple of changes in the concept, Vamshi (Cinematographer) and Harish (Director) my friends from Chennai came up with a concept and asked me to come up with some theme. They were getting ready for the shoot; they had hired the location (house), an actor/model, Camera, etc. They wanted the music to be in hand before they go for the shoot. They were professionals. They were ready with everything. But it was a tight time for me as I was supposed to meet other deadlines at office as an engineer too. Weeks passed and I worked and they dumped 2 tunes. They couldn’t wait any more for the music to come on their hand and they decided to shoot the ad based on the Rhythm of Malayalam song. They completed the shoot and editing with Malayalam song. They gave me the Malayalam song and asked me to come up with a tune in the same Tempo and Rhythm. I was supposed to do music for an already choreographed video. This was not new to me. Quite long back I did music for a play which I never saw. After couple of day’s head scratch I came up with a tune in the same Rhythm and Tempo and it was finalized also. They immediately landed over to Hyderabad with their shoot (which had no sound at all). I was ready with the complete arrangement of the jingle by the time they arrived my home. For the first time I was seeing these guys. All our conversations and conceptualizations were through phone and chat. We immediately hit up with the syncing. I opened up Sony Vegas for Video syncing; SoundForge and GoldWave for Sound Editing and of course my Synthesizer (PSR 3000). We synced 4 cues points and in 2 days we were done. They took the wave file of the synced audio and synced it to the reel. And here is the out put.

The ad was screened to Rajiv Menon. He pretty much liked the ad especially cinematography and music.

Technical Details

Camera : Arri16sr

Format : Super 16

Film Stock : Kodak 250d

Film Edited in : Final Cut Pro

Color Correction : Smoke

Lights : Kinoflo 4 bank and HMI Lights

Music and Video Syncing in : Sony Vegas

One thing that we could have done is voice over at the end for the product shot.