SonicTransfer

Electronic Music Production, Plugins, VST, Melodyne. Celemony Melodyne is about to release a revolutionary tool for producers and remixers. It’s called Direct Note Access (DNA) and it allows you to separate polyphonic audio into adjustable MIDI data. It can take an audio loop that plays chords, separate out the individual notes, and then adjust their pitches, volumes, onsets, and durations. The software is truly jaw-dropping and will no doubt be as useful and prevalent as Antares Autotune. Before seeing this in action, I would have told you that this feat is mathematically impossible.

• Click here to watch the promo video
• Click here to watch the presentation of this software at MusicMesse 2008

Thanks to Chris from RTHM for telling me about this one!

Compression, Mixing, Side Chain Compression, House, Tutorial, Oscilloscope. In the old days, mixing engineers would study the volume meters as they danced along the console. By playing back well-mixed songs, these early pioneers learned how to read proper song dynamics. This skill is invaluable when trying to understand and utilize compression. This article discusses a modern approach to developing the same talent cultivated in the old masters: the ability to create pleasing dynamic compression. For this tutorial you will need:

1. A VST Host (Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, Digidesign Protools, etc.)
2. S(m)execope VST/AU Oscilloscope. Download S(m)execope for Windows / Mac OS X.

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VST, Plugin, Free, Mixing, Oscilloscope.A good oscilloscope is useful in many contexts: synthesizer programming, understanding phase cancellation, compression, etc. Lucky for you, there is a fantastic free digital storage oscilloscope from Bram at SmartElectronix. This plug-in can be dropped anywhere in your DAW’s signal path for quick and easy analysis. You can use this tool to fix all kinds of dynamics-related issues.

Download the S(m)exoscope VST / AU plugin for Windows & Mac OS X.

Pear Cable has been challenged by The Amazing Randi, the well-known skeptic and paranormal debunker. He has offered 1 million dollars if they can prove in a scientific experiment that their $7,000 Anjou speaker cables sound any better than the relatively cheap Monster Cables. I’m very happy to see someone confronting the absurd claims made by speaker cable manufacturers. Remember, music-lovers listen to music and audiophiles listen to speakers.

Happy Producing!

Matt Sonic

Nothing beats the 808 drum machine for a solid, club-worthy low end kick. Its sound is immediately recognizable in all styles of dance music. It is an essential component of every electronic music producers gear collection. For years, musicians have paid large sums of money for the real thing. But, thanks to the D16 Group you can get Nepheton, a VST instrument that faithfully recreates the 808 sound. Best of all, instead of samples, this VST synthesizes the sounds. This allows you the same sound design flexibility enjoyed by owners of the actual hardware.

Nepheton is a commercial VST recreation of the Roland 808 drum machine. It is available for Windows and Mac OSX. Click here to learn more about the Nepheton.

VST, Plugin, Free, Mixing, Frequency, Spectral Analysis. It is often extremely useful to see the frequency spectrum of your individual tracks and your final song. For example, you may want to see if your bass is dipping into the same frequencies as your kick drum. Unless you have perfect audio monitoring equipment and perfect ears, you will need some help to make sure you don’t have overlapping frequencies. There is a free plug-in from Roger Nichols called Inspector that allows you to see the frequencies used by an audio signal. This tool, in combination with a filter or EQ plug-in, allows you to visually sculpt your instrument’s frequencies. In other words, this can help you spot problems with your mixes and improve clarity. Every electronic music producer should have this plug-in in their sonic arsenal.

Download Roger Nichols’ Free Inspector Plugin.

House, Drum n Bass, Producers. These award-winning producers deserve a special notice here on SonicTransfer. As professional Ableton artists, RTHM’s music demonstrates an enormous range of production tricks. They have created tracks for such talent as Mark Farina, DJ Sneak, The Sound Republic, Joey Youngman, DJ Heather, and many more. All of this experience has made RTHM exceptional music producers.

SonicTransfer is lucky enough to have shared countless hours of studio time with RTHM, and many of their techniques can be found throughout this site. By following the SonicTransfer program, you learn the best production techniques used by professional electronic music producers. For more information on RTHM, click here visit the RTHM home page.

Every day we receive lots of emails from wonderful SonicTransfer members. Here are some comments from fellow electronic music producers:
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House, Trance, Hiphop, Drum n Bass, Kick Drum Tutorial. Electronic music productions require strong kick drums. Percussive elements provide the foundation for these music genres and you must master them if you want to produce quality songs. The best way to take control of your drums is to build them yourself. This tutorial will give you the tools and information necessary to reach this goal. For this lesson you will need:

• Ableton Live 6.0 (or newer)
• The SonicTransfer DrumStack Software. Download DrumStack.
• The SonicTransfer Kick Drum Sample Pack. Download the Kick Drum Samples.
• The SonicTransfer DrumStack Manual. View the DrumStack Manual.

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DrumStack Drum Layering Manual & Tutorial. House music, drum n bass, trance, and hiphop need big, loud, powerful drums. The best way to get massive kick drums, snare drums, and hihats is to layer lots of samples together. This technique is used by every major electronic music producer. Unfortunately for Ableton Live users, this useful trick is pretty hard to achieve using the built-in tools. That’s why SonicTransfer developed the first drum layering system designed specifically for Ableton Live users. It’s called DrumStack, and it will rock your drums. To use DrumStack you need:

• Ableton Live 6.0 (or newer)
• The DrumStack Live Rack. Get SonicTransfer DrumStack.

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