In my last post I mentioned an app called Caustic, and I posted the audio of a two bar loop over which I improvised a solo with a sort of flute sound. Well, that little two-bar experiment turned into a (sort of) complete song with lyrics and everything. (I even kept the original solo!)
I learned a lot of stuff about mixing and sound and tried to apply it here. Maybe later I'll share some of the journey with you.
In any case, take a listen and tell me what you think?
If you use Ableton Live, you can pull the project on Blend:
Hopefully my little experiment here will inspire you to go make some music
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
The Caustic DAW
How much would you pay for a digital audio workstation for your phone or tablet? What if you could pair it with a matching desktop program? Well remember rule number 1- Pay for Nothing! Surely a free tool will not allow you to make real music. Surely.
Well if you are just playing around with music and you haven't really gotten your system completely nailed down, you might want to take a look at Caustic, by Single Cell Software . Caustic is an app for Android and iOS. The free version of the app is a full featured demo (with save and export functions disabled). The matching desktop version for Mac or PC is fully functional (including save and export), however with no technical support. That said, the developer provides a comprehensive manual as well as a number of tutorial videos for using the app.
Of course there are limitations, but here's a taste of what you can do. (for free!)
Excusing the amateurish overuse of reverb, you can tell this is more than just a toy. I played all the musical ideas into the tracks using my MIDI keyboard via my USB audio interface. The biggest downer is there is currently no audio recording in this app. However, I think you can creatively use another SingleCell app to record audio and combine the resulting WAV files into Caustic. Since I decided to go ahead and purchase Ableton Live, I did not experiment any further with this app. However, I would expect that this app meets the needs of most beginning home music producers. I think the graphical interface makes it easy to create decent sounds on the several available instrument (which are called "machines" in this app). And one machine called "Modular" provides a unique workspace for additional creative sound design flexibility.
I could tell you a lot more about this app, but you would have so much more fun using it yourself. So go check it out and make some music! And when you're done come back and tell us about it.
Friday, June 26, 2015
A New Experiment
You may recall from an earlier post that I enrolled in and completed an online course called Introduction to Music Production. I highly recommend the course if you are interested in recording or otherwise making music, and you have never really studied the topics. In any case, I really enjoyed the course (although, due to taking a second course at the same time, I had a difficult time keeping up with the deadlines.) To me the most value in the course came from having to absorb the content, and then apply it to your own context (e.g. how to record audio using the tools in your home studio). For most of the course, the best presentation format would have been video. However, I found the process of creating video to be horrendously difficult, until I found a free video editing/video screen capture program called Active Presenter. So for my final assignment I created a video. I had a rough time with making the video due to computer resource limitations that I have now resolved.
Once I completed the course, I told myself that I would go back through the entire course on my own once again, and work more carefully through the assignments. Now that I have this blog space, I have a forum for posting the things I learned. I can make the topics accessible to the average recreational musician. The lesson section of my blog (see the sidebar) is where I'm posting my "assignments" as I would complete them if I were taking the course now. In a way, I am taking the course all over again, but now I can take my time and let the information soak into my mind so I can retain it a little longer. I'm going to try to keep the articles (and videos, if I dare to try again) somewhat brief. Enough to learn something and maybe give you something to look up elsewhere. Keeping them short may require that I write a bunch of articles, so I'll try to organize them into categories the list grows. (As you can see, I'm already starting the categorization. I probably need to learn how to use tags too.)
Along the way, I'll also try to provide links to the work of other folks that I find helpful. After all, I'm no expert. I'm just learning all this stuff. Let's learn together!
Once I completed the course, I told myself that I would go back through the entire course on my own once again, and work more carefully through the assignments. Now that I have this blog space, I have a forum for posting the things I learned. I can make the topics accessible to the average recreational musician. The lesson section of my blog (see the sidebar) is where I'm posting my "assignments" as I would complete them if I were taking the course now. In a way, I am taking the course all over again, but now I can take my time and let the information soak into my mind so I can retain it a little longer. I'm going to try to keep the articles (and videos, if I dare to try again) somewhat brief. Enough to learn something and maybe give you something to look up elsewhere. Keeping them short may require that I write a bunch of articles, so I'll try to organize them into categories the list grows. (As you can see, I'm already starting the categorization. I probably need to learn how to use tags too.)
Along the way, I'll also try to provide links to the work of other folks that I find helpful. After all, I'm no expert. I'm just learning all this stuff. Let's learn together!
Saturday, May 23, 2015
The Reward for Kindness
A few weeks ago, while thinking of more ways to keep from spending more money, I said to myself, "Hey, this clip launching in Ableton Live would be so much easier with a touch screen!" The concept would be similar to the hardware MIDI controllers on the market for Live (e.g. Akai's APC line, or Ableton's Push).
I considered the alternatives: add a touch screen to my existing laptop, purchase a new all in one computer, design a monster computer and include a touch screen like the ones we have at work - all expensive propositions. What about one of those computers that doubles as a tablet (e.g Microsoft Surface)? I started looking around online. I saw a thorough review of running Live on the Surface. Seemed to be some issues. Finally, I wondered if there were any Android apps that function as MIDI controllers. Whadaya know about that? There are MIDI controllers on Android. I also saw a video of someone using remote desktop to run Live from their tablet.
I decided to check out a controller app specifically designed to work with Live. After the 15 minute trial I was sold! Why? At a 90-95% savings over buying a hardware controller, I could have essentially the same functionality. So I went ahead and bought two of the four modules available for the app.
Like all Android apps, there were a few issues, and I had a few questions about using the app. I contacted the developer, letting him know first of all that I loved the app, so that he would understand my questions were not complaints, but observations so he could help me understand which issues were limitations of my hardware, and which may be "features" of the software. I provided a lot of details. I also noted to him that between the time I started using the app and when I wrote the email, I added a faster hard drive and increased the memory on my laptop (that I'm using as my music workstation), and that this improved PC performance resolved some of the issues. I also offered some ideas regarding features I would like to see in the future.
The developer was greatly appreciative of my feedback, and responded quickly with answers, recommendations and intentions to correct some issues. He also offered to provide me the other two modules for free because of my helpful feedback. Sometimes it pays to be kind.
In any case, that app is called LK (available for Android or iPad). Here's a demo of the app.
I actually used this app to rearrange one of the assignments from that Intro to Ableton course. Here's my posting from Soundcloud.
There, so I'm not just talking about it. I'm actually making music. You need to go make some too!
Until next time. . .
I decided to check out a controller app specifically designed to work with Live. After the 15 minute trial I was sold! Why? At a 90-95% savings over buying a hardware controller, I could have essentially the same functionality. So I went ahead and bought two of the four modules available for the app.
Like all Android apps, there were a few issues, and I had a few questions about using the app. I contacted the developer, letting him know first of all that I loved the app, so that he would understand my questions were not complaints, but observations so he could help me understand which issues were limitations of my hardware, and which may be "features" of the software. I provided a lot of details. I also noted to him that between the time I started using the app and when I wrote the email, I added a faster hard drive and increased the memory on my laptop (that I'm using as my music workstation), and that this improved PC performance resolved some of the issues. I also offered some ideas regarding features I would like to see in the future.
The developer was greatly appreciative of my feedback, and responded quickly with answers, recommendations and intentions to correct some issues. He also offered to provide me the other two modules for free because of my helpful feedback. Sometimes it pays to be kind.
In any case, that app is called LK (available for Android or iPad). Here's a demo of the app.
There, so I'm not just talking about it. I'm actually making music. You need to go make some too!
Until next time. . .
Is There a Loudness War?
There's an interesting debate going on in the Music Production world with accusations of sonic sabotage being thrown at your humble music producers. They are being berated for literally squeezing the life out of music. I actually observed this phenomenon during the Intro to Ableton Live course that I took in February. Live is very popular among Electronic Dance Music (EDM) practitioners. In the course, you prepare and submit a track meeting certain criteria, and then evaluate the submissions of five other students taking the course.
I've never listened to this EDM before, so this was quite an ear opener for me; 80% of the tracks I evaluated were of some variant of EDM. How do you evaluate something for which you don't know the rules? And how do you encourage others when their work does not really suit your taste? But I did it. I even listened to and evaluated more than my share on the side.
Anyway, many of the EDM-ites produced their tracks so that their sonic profiles looked like solid rectangles holding max volume from beginning to end. Here's an example from one of my peers:
Being brought up as more of an acoustic musician, I've come to appreciate how dynamics breathe life into most of the music I love and listen to. But with digital recording and mastering, the producer can precisely control and correct every little human "flaw" in a performance.
Apparently, some music industry experts have found that the purchasing masses want to listen to their music really loud. So these experts have coerced their producers to squeeze the dynamics out of the music using such tools as compressors and limiters, and make the recorded tracks as loud as possible without distorting. At least that's what some would have us believe. They call it "The Loudness War". (Google it; it's a thing!) The irony is that in moving from recording on tape to recording in digital space, producers now have a wider space to play in from the quietest sound we can hear (the noise floor) to the loudest we can bear. (One technical term for this is dynamic range.) However, the opponents of the Loudness War claim the producers excessively use compression to force all the quiet sounds to be elevated. Here's an example that tries to illustrate the issue
The problem is, when I listen to the examples of "overcompressed" music, I cannot hear the problem. The music sounds the same to me, with and without compression. In the example above I hear different EQ (high and low frequencies), but I don't hear the loudness or compression issues. It must be like one of those pictures popular in the 90s, where people will swear there's an animal in there, but you can't see it. Then when you finally do see it, you will never again not see it. Like the shark right here in the middle of this picture. Don't you see it?
Likewise, I can't hear compression (but I can see that shark!)
So here's my position on all of this. I'm not planning on getting my tracks played on the radio or making any hit charts. So I will use dynamics as part of the musical expression. Where the use of compression makes sense, I will use it, but I'm not going to try to compete in the Loudness War.
Does it seem to you that music these days seems to be artificially loud? Have you noticed the difference between the loudness of a typical classical track vs. contemporary music? Do you think this controversy is just a bunch of (ahem) noise? I'd love to know what you think.
Until next time, go make some music!
I've never listened to this EDM before, so this was quite an ear opener for me; 80% of the tracks I evaluated were of some variant of EDM. How do you evaluate something for which you don't know the rules? And how do you encourage others when their work does not really suit your taste? But I did it. I even listened to and evaluated more than my share on the side.
Anyway, many of the EDM-ites produced their tracks so that their sonic profiles looked like solid rectangles holding max volume from beginning to end. Here's an example from one of my peers:
Being brought up as more of an acoustic musician, I've come to appreciate how dynamics breathe life into most of the music I love and listen to. But with digital recording and mastering, the producer can precisely control and correct every little human "flaw" in a performance.
Apparently, some music industry experts have found that the purchasing masses want to listen to their music really loud. So these experts have coerced their producers to squeeze the dynamics out of the music using such tools as compressors and limiters, and make the recorded tracks as loud as possible without distorting. At least that's what some would have us believe. They call it "The Loudness War". (Google it; it's a thing!) The irony is that in moving from recording on tape to recording in digital space, producers now have a wider space to play in from the quietest sound we can hear (the noise floor) to the loudest we can bear. (One technical term for this is dynamic range.) However, the opponents of the Loudness War claim the producers excessively use compression to force all the quiet sounds to be elevated. Here's an example that tries to illustrate the issue
The problem is, when I listen to the examples of "overcompressed" music, I cannot hear the problem. The music sounds the same to me, with and without compression. In the example above I hear different EQ (high and low frequencies), but I don't hear the loudness or compression issues. It must be like one of those pictures popular in the 90s, where people will swear there's an animal in there, but you can't see it. Then when you finally do see it, you will never again not see it. Like the shark right here in the middle of this picture. Don't you see it?
Likewise, I can't hear compression (but I can see that shark!)
So here's my position on all of this. I'm not planning on getting my tracks played on the radio or making any hit charts. So I will use dynamics as part of the musical expression. Where the use of compression makes sense, I will use it, but I'm not going to try to compete in the Loudness War.
Does it seem to you that music these days seems to be artificially loud? Have you noticed the difference between the loudness of a typical classical track vs. contemporary music? Do you think this controversy is just a bunch of (ahem) noise? I'd love to know what you think.
Until next time, go make some music!
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Where To Begin?
Before making my hobby resolution, I started trying to use my lite version music software. (My audio interface included Ableton Live Lite for free.) Mind you, I've had this software available to me for nearly 10 years. This time, just like all the other times I tried to use it, I was having a lot of trouble. I couldn't find the sounds I wanted. I had trouble understanding how to record in it. Why doesn't my music sound as good as all the demos I found online. (Yes, I read the manual. Yes, I used the online help and tutorials. Still confusing!) Browsing around the web I found so many almost helpful resources, but for some reason I felt I was missing some key knowledge.
Finally, I found a "music software training" site offering a set of free videos that provided a bit more insight for me. Following these tutorials, I very quickly reached the limitations of my software. I started to realize how basic my free version is. Now I had a decision to make. Do I sink a bunch of money into the Standard version, start all over with some other software, or just give up?
So this was the backdrop, when I recognized that if I was ever going to do anything satisfying with music, I was going to need to do something drastic. This is when I told myself, music will be my hobby. I also told my wife and my daughter, since this decision indirectly affects them as well. At least the effect is supposed to be indirect. (Maybe we'll talk more about that in another post.)
Let me explain what I mean by "hobby". This is not just a thing to do to pass the time. I believe a hobby needs to be creative and productive. It usually needs to be technical in some way, meaning that there are techniques you employ in the creative or productive endeavor. There may be legitimate hobbies that do not include all these elements, but I require all these elements if I'm going to intentionally expend my precious time. Doesn't sound very relaxing? Well think about people who do gardening, quilting, hunting, fishing or golf. When you invest yourself in things you enjoy, you can reap worthwhile inner benefits. So for me, a hobby is actually a serious enterprise. Like any of those other hobbies I named, I can invest some of my time and money into it because I have a purpose in it. I can occasionally violate rule #1 (Pay for nothing) and not lose any sleep over it.
At the same time, it's just a hobby. It's just for me, and I can make of it whatever I decide I want. I don't have to have the latest or the coolest music toys. I don't have to buy the best, when some free or cheap tool is actually good enough. I actually have responsibilities that compete for my time and money. I have other goals and dreams. I don't want to overcommit or overinvest in this thing. But I am serious about what I am doing. I do want to learn. I do want to create.
In the end, I gave myself permission to spend a few hundred dollars on the Standard version of Ableton Live. Less than a week after this, I rediscovered a website called Coursera that has free courses on everything from cooking to programming to history to art appreciation to . . . MUSIC!!! Introduction to Music Production, Introduction to Ableton Live, Songwriting, and more!
I signed up for both the music production and the Ableton Live courses simultaneously (big mistake, I should have done one after the other). With the very first assignment in the Ableton course, I immediately transitioned from thinking "How do I use this software?" to "What do I want to do with this piece of music?" I started with a REALLY SIMPLE two bar, two chord pattern and it EASILY developed into a nearly complete song. After laying down most of the music, lyrics formed in my head. Within one week, in the right forum, with the right information, the right tools, and the right internal motivation I was finally doing what I've wanted to do nearly all my life - making music. How awesome!!! But not only this, the two courses I took required me to find and use tools related to remote collaboration, education and knowledge sharing, all related to life goals I have apart from music.
So now, my "little hobby" has become so much more than just a way to bring a little more enjoyment and satisfaction into my own life. It's become the pathway into EVERYTHING I want to do with my life. So, while I ended my last posting saying that Rule Number 1 is "Pay For Nothing", violating that rule judiciously has actually kickstarted my journey into music creation, production, and beyond in ways I would never have imagined.
I would love to hear your stories about how you made the transition from wishing to doing in some meaningful aspect of your life. How did you overcome your obstacles? What gave you the courage or boldness or stubbornness to press on? What are you trying to do next?
Until next time, go make some music!
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Welcome To My Adventure
I have been looking forward to this for decades. (It's weird to be old enough to say that!) There's never been enough time. There's never been enough money. I never had enough knowledge. But now I am embarking on a most exciting adventure. I am going to be making music.
Late last year in a moment of self pity, I recognized that I rarely take time to have fun. Then I panicked that I could not even think of anything that would remotely be called fun. Finally, I remembered: I love playing music. Though I never make resolutions, I resolved that I will make time to establish myself as a music hobbyist - a recreational musician.
I began my musical hobby journey looking for decent information about recording digital music, especially information about using my chosen digital audio workstation (DAW) software. Most information I found assumed that digital music needs to sound electronic, and seemed to give only a taste of superficial information for the purpose of enticing you to purchase more complete information.
I stumbled across a very useful FREE online course that not only gave me the basic info I was looking for, it confirmed to me the wisdom that you learn best when you have to apply the knowledge, and then explain it to others. That course led me to create this blog site, and also led me to find various resources for demonstrating concepts using video, audio, text and diagrams.
So now, I intend to use this site to demonstrate the things I learn about music production. I intend also to share some of my musings and the ways I think about various aspects of music performance. Hopefully, if you've stumbled here you will find something useful, interesting, even inspirational.
Finally, I would like to leave you with my rule #1 regarding the internet:
Pay for Nothing!
You don't have to spend a fortune to do most of the things you want to do. There are many very useful and powerful tools available online that cost little or nothing. When you are doing it just for fun, you're not necessarily looking for a record deal. But maybe you want a few hints to squeeze the maximum value out of the the tools you already have, and then learn enough to make sensible decisions about when to part with your precious cash in exchange for tools that will actually add the most value to your efforts - that value being measured by your satisfaction with the results and your enjoyment of the entire process.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope to post something at least weekly. Next week we'll start with how violating rule #1 got me off of square 1.
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