JuanLittleDevil

The other day while in the studio working with a friend he said to me, “I just can’t work with Logic man, warping loops just sucks!”. I have to agree that to some extent other software might be better suited if working exclusively with loops, i.e, Ableton Live, or Fruity Loops, or Acid even. However, I’d like to give a few tips on how you could speed up your work flow working with loops in logic.

8. Clicking on the loop box located on the explorer bar will loop the selected region or regions until the end of your project.

7. You can loop any midi region, audio region, or folders even just by dragging the upper right corner of the selected region or regions.

6. If you repeat groups of regions over and over again, why not make them one loop? it makes your project much less cluttered and easier to manage. You can achieve this in two ways, one simply “glue” them together, or two, pack them into a folder. Folders are a great way of looping sections of audio which have been split up into regions.

5. You don’t HAVE to work with loops all the time, in fact one great trick to do is loop your region over the time of a phrase, then right-click and select “Convert loops to real copies”. By doing this you can chop up or modify which ever one of those copies you want in order to create fills, drop-outs, or simply add some movement to your phrases.

4. You can apply automation to regions by using the hyper-editor rather than track automation. Doing this is great for ensuring that you control changes are always carried with you when you copy or loop your regions.

3. Creating apple loops can be as easy as right clicking on a region and selecting “Open in Loop Utility”. The process is easy and self explanatory. One thing which sets Logic above Live, is the ability to keep your content organized. So be sure to enter/choose relevant information about the loops you create then add them to your library.

2. Apple Loops can be converted to real audio simply by right clicking on the region and selecting “convert to real audio”. This creates a new copy of the audio so you can modify as you please.

1. Dragging the right corner of a region while holding down option will will apply the time and pitch machine to the selected region. It will also snap to your grid. This to me is one of the most powerful tools yet. It means I can time stretch ANY audio.

Ok good! now go Loopy…

The other day I found this old tutorial from by the covert operators, it’s probably one of the best described examples for making a reverse reverb effect. The steps are quite simple:

1. record the sound you want the effect on.

2. reverse the original sound and apply reverb to the reversed audio.

3. record the “wet” sound from the reverb.

4. discard the original dry reversed sound.

5. reverse the wet recorded audio from the reverb.

6. align the reversed wet audio with your original untouched audio.

Reverse Reverb from Bjorn Vayner on Vimeo.

If you found this helpful I encourage you guys to check their site and check out some of their other tutorials. They have some nifty things to say with regards to music production in Ableton Live.

One of the things I hate the most about backups is not having one when you need it! When it comes to my studio setup, I need to make sure that it is somewhat fault protected, and that I have some kind of archival process. What do I mean by that you say? Well… Let me explain… Imagine the following scenario, you’ve had the great idea floating in your head for the last who knows when but you finally get some time in the studio you loose your main drive. If this is the only hard drive on your computer then, you my friend, “is fucked!” Not only do you not have copies of your “data” but you also need to re-install not just your OS but ALL of your applications, plugins, etc. I recently upgraded from a G5 to an intel based system and trust me I’m still re-installing my software. It is a real pain in the behind to do this!!!

OK so let’s think about this. How do I keep my “data” protected and by data I mean all the audio projects and it’s associated files, and how do I recover from a disaster as quickly as possible so I don’t compromise inspiration? I know some of you are already thinking “what about time machine?” I have one answer for you IO!!! Have you tried scheduling time machine? That’s right it has no schedule, you cannot control when it runs! and when it does it SLOWS DOWN EVERYTHING! Thus not a good solution. I personally want to run my backups when I tell it to! So. Let me show you guys how I solve this problem, keep in mind that there are many solutions and you might know best what yours is. The key point is make sure your data is protected!

I have a dedicated studio machine, it is really kind of a one trick pony. Thus, it only gets turned on when I’m actually making music. This is great for me because that means that everything on that disk is music related and relatively clean. I also make sure to split up OS from the rest of my data. This means that if my OS dies or I upgrade my OS, my data is still on a separate drive so all I have to do is reinstall apps and attach my data drive. But what if my data drive then dies? Well I have a REALLY large drive which I backup to when I startup my system. I use a freeware backup software from LaCie called SilverKeeper. You can get it here: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10097

My OS drive is protected by creating a “clone” of the drive on a regular basis. This can be done with “rsync” or even better SilverKeeper which basically does the rsync but gives you a nice user interface. The drive is copied entirely on boot. This means that if my drive dies, all I have to do is pull it out and restart from the ‘cloned copy’. Additionally I can use this to try out OS upgrades without committing to it simply by stopping the backups while I test so to have a way to rollback. My data drive is backed up to an external disk which I use for archival. That disk is then detached and kept with me outside of the studio.

The cost for doing this is  a couple of hundred dollars if but totally worth it. I should also point out that keeping your data on a separate drive from your OS will help you in terms of IO as your media files won’t have to compete with the OS for scheduling read and writes to the disk.

Moral of the story is… Backup your shit! Keep it handy so you don’t have to re-install and end up wasting time and loosing out on those moments of inspiration.

I know it’s a bit premature, but it’s mostly functional and it IS my first maxpatch so… I figure some of you may benefit from it and some might even be able to help me improve it…

What it is:

LittleDevil -SEQ is a Roland style drum machine sequencer, thought don’t let this full you you can certainly use it for on synths as well. The concept is simple. there are 8 patterns represented by the orange round buttons. Each pattern controls a single drum or key which is assignable via the “Pitch” knob. This means you can put this in front of any drum machine you can control with a keyboard and and use this as a sequencer.

There is also a shuffle section which can setup the style of shuffle and amount all of which is mappable since I’m using M4L objects.

Each step has a velocity/volume knob which is used to set the level of each of the 16 steps. Additionally I’ve put some mute buttons for each step which are mappable also so you can potentially yam a sequence if you map each step mute to a keyboard whatever midi controller.

Overall it’s a simple interface with a simple concept in mind…

KNOWN BUGS: OK here is the catch. Only run one instance per session… it tends to act weird if you add a second instance don’t ask me why, it just does. For some reason if I map the pattern select buttons I have to hit them twice don’t know why it works well in Max but in live it’s all funky. And lastly this tho more of a design flaw (I’m new to this) muted parts reset to 0 value for the velocity/volume knobs if you reload or switch a pattern, while the un-muted steps are fine.

It is still a very useful tool and fun to play around with. I’ve made some really amazing sequences with this little thing and it’s definitely fun to play around with. If you are a Max guru and would like to help feel free to contact me.

– Juan

Download:  LittleDevil-SEQv0.8.zip

*** UPDATED! ***

* Cleaned up the interface up a bit to make it pretty -enjoy.

* The stop and play buttons under the arrow keys have to be mapped manually to the “Stop Clips” and “Launch Scene” buttons on the master track. If you know of a way to do it using just startup scripts please let me know.

Last weekend I found myself on flight to Seattle working on a track and wishing I had the same kind of control I get from my APC40 with my iphone. One of the great things about having a control surface that Live recognizes is that you don’t have to map your controls each time you load a new set. So I did some digging around and found some great articles on using user configuration script with Ableton.

The idea is simple really, since Live 6 Ableton has given users the ability to write configuration files for auto mapping devices to live. Though what you can auto-map is somewhat limited compared to my APC-40, it sure is a HUGE benefit when all you have is an iPhone or iPod touch and your laptop as I did. All you really have to do is edit one file… Well sorta. They trick is Ableton expects midi devices. Luckily for me I already owned a copy of TouchOSC for my iPhone and OSCulator so this was a no brainer.

I created a template for TouchOSC which takes advantage of most of the mappable controls in the UserConfiguration.txt file. The template consists of 5 panes, one for drum pads and transport, one for device control with up to 8 sets of 8 controls just like the APC-40, one for volume and arm buttons (unfortunately no mute or solo), the one for send1 and one for send2. The device control pane is dynamic and works with whatever device you have selected. I used sliders rather than rotary as I find that the sliders are easier to control with your fingers. So far I’m fairly happy with the results, and let me tell you I’m looking forward to my next trip

Drum Pads

Device Control

Mixer (Volume, Master, Arm Buttons)

Sends

Transport

Here is how to set it up!

What you need:

1. TouchOSC (iphone App)
2. TouchOSC Editor
3. OSCulator
4. AbletonLive 7 or higher. (I’m currently running Live 8 and it works fine)

Installing the TouchOSC template:

1. Using the TouchOSC Editor open the file LiveControl.touchosc. You’ll need to make sure that your iPod Touch or iPhone is on the same wireless network as the Editor.
2. One the template is loaded on the editor “Click the Sync Button”
3. Launch the TouchOSC app from your iPhone.
4. Go into “Layout” -> “Add” -> “Computer name” your computer will show up automatically. If it doesn’t then you are not on the same network.
5. Once it’s been copied to your iPod Touch make sure the layout is selected “LiveControl”

OSCulator:

1. Launch OSCulator.
2. Open the file “LiveControl.oscd” (You may want to copy the file to your OSCulator template folder)
3. ensure that OSCulator is working, green means it’s working red means it’s not.

Ableton Live:

The Live mappings live in a file called “UserConfiguration.txt”, the file must be placed in a folder with the name of your device. This device must be named with the same name as it is seen by Ableton Live. To install:

1. Place the folder named “OSCulator” to your “/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 8.0.5/User Remote Scripts” Note that there is a folder for each version of Live installed on your system, so make sure you place it in the correct location. At the time of writing this document I was on Live 8.0.5 so that is what I used.
2. Launch Ableton Live.
3. Open Preferences.
4. Click on the “MIDI Sync” tab.
5. On the control surface pane select your control surface “OSCulator”
6. Select “OSCulator Out” as your Input.
7. Select “OSCulator in (8000)” as your Output.

Download the supporting files:

LiveControl

Enjoy.

– JuanLittleDevil

(originally published Saturday, February 23, 2008)

I recently upgraded to Leopard and tho I love the new interface it has been rather of a pain in the ass to get some programs working happily with it. So I decided to write this entry to address some of the key issues I encountered.

1. Dimension Pro had some install issues. Neither the VST or the AU plugin worked! However, after much frustration cakewalk updated the drivers and got it working as of 2/13/08. So be sure to download and install the latest drivers: while you are at it be sure to update Rapture too looks like they released a new driver for that as well.

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/

2. MultiMix12 Firewire: Audio crackle which was so frustrating has also been fixed I had to download and install drivers for that as well. Installation was straight forward and I have not had any issues since.

http://www.alesis.com/support/index.php

3. SH-201: The most frustrating time I had was upgrading these apps. The issue I had here was not with the driver, that installed just fine, but rather with the Librarian and plugin set. The issue here was that the install script from Roland is looking for the installer.app in /Applications/Utilities/Installer.app and apple has moved it to /System/Library/CoreServices/. The Fix was rather simple tho a bit of a hack.

Symptom: Librarian installer fails with the following message:

The following install step failed: run postflight script for SH-201 Script. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

After looking at the log files I discovered the following:

2/23/08 10:07:50 AM runner[350] postflight[369]: The file /Applications/Utilities/Installer.app does not exist.

I checked this an what do you know it isn’t there. Apple has moved it.

Solution: To fix this open a Termnial and type the following:

1) Create a link to the application. By creating a link rather than copying the app it will ensure you that the Utilities version is the same as the on in CoreServices.

ln -s /System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app /Applications/Utilities/Installer.app

NOTE: if the commands fails rerun the command with the word “sudo ” at the beginning of the line.

2) Then run the installer again.

The installers can be found here:

http://www.roland.com/PRODUCTS/en/_support/dld.cfm?ln=en&dsp=0&iCncd=1076

Reverse Reverb has become a very popular effect, it has been used for vocals in movies, as well as to create tension on incoming audio parts in tracks. It is particularly popular in electronic music. The concept is simple: the reverberation of the sound comes in before the actual unaffected is played. This type of effect however is one that can only be done once the audio has been recorded and cannot be done to a live signal. Reason being that the wet signal needs to be played before the dry (original) audio is played.

Reverse reverb is nothing new it was originally done with tape. Where the recorded audio would be planed backwards and reverb applied to the backwards played audio. The wet effect would be recorded on to a separate track. Both the dry and wet tracks would then be reversed so that the dry plays forwards and the recorded plays on the same direction. The result is an effect where the tails of the wet signal plays before the dry signal. As you can imagine is can be a real pain in the ass to sync, and not to mention time consuming. These days this is an extremely simple task to do.

Reverse Reverb with on Live

1. Create two tracks. Place a nice pad with a long delay on one and a kick drum for your side signal on the other. Set the audio output of the pad track to “Sends Only”

2. Using a group, split the signal by creating two chains with a utility plugin on each and name them as shown above.

3. Each of the Utility plugins should be set to “Left” channel mode for the left signal, and “Right” channel mode for the right. Set the “Panorama” to 50R on BOTH of the chains. You will end up with all the signal for both chains in the Right channel. No worries- it’s intentional as we will be routing the sound of each chain individually.

4. Create three more audio tracks and name each of the audio tracks as shown above. Two of the tracks will be used for the left and right signals from the pad while the other will be used to route the side-chain signal. Set the audio outputs of all three audio tracks to “Sends Only” and click on the “Monitor In” button for all three. Lastly, send the left pad output to “Send A” and the right to “Send B”. For the side-chain, pan the audio fully to the Left channel and send the audio to both “Send A” and “Send B” as shown above.

Side-chaining is a sound routing concept in which the sound level of an audio signal is used to process another audio signal using compression. This is done typically with compressors or limiters. The opposite, however, could also be done with expanders to make the signal louder based on the level of the affecting side signal.

Before compressors had side-chain inputs, engineers could obtain the same result by putting two different signals in the left and right channels of the compressors input but only returning one of the signals back to the board.

One of the most popular side-chaining uses is “ducking”, a process originally used by radio DJs to lower the volume of the music when speaking. The same concept is particularly useful in dance music to get a pumping effect on tracks with hot low end levels. Here long attach and release sounds like pads are configured to duck the kick drum, allowing for the overall volume of the track to be raised. This creates a more punchy sound without adding mud to the overall sound.

There are very few DAW applications that actually allow for proper side-chaining, including Logic, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live. When I first wrote this article Live did not have a compressor capable of providing a side chain line input, many changes have been added to live since. However, some people have requested that I keep LittleDevil-Ducker up. So here it is…

Though the old tutorial on “creative sound routing” has been pulled off the site, you can still download it as a pdf file here. The associated Ableton Live file can then be downloaded here.

Ducker is a tool which I created using iZotope Vinyl. The preset is basically two audio chains used to split the signal then each is panned to its corresponding field. For the side-input, I used the ‘hum’ generated by iZotope Vinyl, which is then modulated in sync to the MIDI clock to create a pulse. The pulse is used on both sides to trigger the compressor on the signal coming in. The pulse is then muted on each channel and the signal is passed through it. Several of the controls from both sides are mapped to macros in order to make changes to the compressor as well as on the pulse quickly and easyily. The result is a totally usable auto ducker perfect for using on 4 on the floor dance tracks and also for introducing rhythmic elements to pads and atmospheric sounds.

download

Pre-requisite:

iZotope Vynil (download for free from the iZotope website: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/download.asp)

Live 6 (preset)

This preset is a drum machine assembled of 909 samples downloaded from hyperreal. Each drum part gives you a selection of samples to choose from and then a set of synthesis tools can be applied to each part, making this the most realistic 909 preset out there. Try it out for yourself!!

download

Live 6 (preset)

This tool is useful for creating rhythmic chirps and pop sounds, as well as modulations. Works best for sounds with long attacks and releases, such as pads.

download