Dante Cyborg by Roberto Rizzarto

I recently watched a promo clip by Propellerhead which featured Dave Spoon using one of his software packages of choice (and ours) Reason.

Dave’s track ‘Lummox’ was entirely made in Reason, and it just goes to show that it’s not how may Waves plug in effects you’ve got that’s going to make your tracks any good, it’s how well you know the gear you have and how much care and attention you apply to your tracks.

The clip is a real inspiration and teaches you to really delve into the soft synths you already own. I was already using Reason’s Subtractor a lot, on most of my projects in fact, but other than preset bashing and the odd bit of filter tweaking or modulating, I hadn’t really programmed it that much. After watching this, I realised I had hardly been ‘under the hood’ and so I decided to go back to basics and re-read the manual from the start. Quite daunting, but I learned a lot and I’m far more proficient with the synth now. And yes, that fm knob is wild.

Dave also used the EQ section of the vocoder on his bass sound, which I must admit I am now also doing every so often. It’s great when a sound isn’t quite fitting in the mix, and despite all your eq’ing it’s still not right. Switching in the vocoder’s eq just gives you a totally different perspective and can help you to identify which frequencies aren’t working with the use of it’s huge eq bands.

Adventure Play Music have been strong advocates of not filling up our hard drives with dozens of the latest plug in effects for the sake of it, and this clip reinforces that point. Plug ins are great, but only if you are going to use them. Learning what you have, well, will make you quicker and more versatile in the studio. And once you know exactly what your set up is capable of, you’ll know when it really is time to buy something else.

Enjoy Dave’s track ‘Lummox’ here:

Follow us here:

I am currently doing something of a ‘musical’ spring clean of my hard drive, not least because one particular project has come up which is quite time sensitive, so it’s been very useful to grab half started ideas and work them into finished productions.

Sometimes I’ve discovered an idea I worked on months or years ago, and listening with fresh ears, can instantly hear which direction the track should go in. Funny that when originally working on the project this wasn’t at all clear and forced me to abandon the track.

There is a great six part interview with TV composer Mike Post Mike Post Interview where he tells a story about how the Producer of The Rockford Files insisted Mike name an additional figure to be paid because he, and the TV station owed so much of the show’s success to the music. Mike actually felt a bit uncomfortable about this, but he did come up with a suitable figure (Don’t blame him). This gesture was certainly because of the great writing by Mike, but it’s also true that in isolation the music meant nothing. Only in that exact  programme in those specific spots at that time did the music take on it’s true worth become something really great. On it’s own, as listening music, the pieces may not have made as much sense.

This begs the question, would some of those useless half finished demos on my hard drive take on an amazing new context if the right visuals were found to go with them? Possibly, but not in all cases. And I guess one of the skills of a great TV composer is knowing when something has potential, but must be left on the shelf until the right project comes along, or, just bin it cause it stinks!

Follow us here:

I have had the Ladyhawke album for a few months now and I keep meaning to write a short piece about it to show my appreciation of a well written and well crafted album.

The album is basically a tribute to the Eighties. Once you have started listening and have allowed yourself to re-visit that decade (which takes at least 2 tracks!) you can really start to appreciate how clever an album this is.

I’m not saying it’s my favourite album, and I don’t even like a lot of stuff from the eighties! But this is worth a listen as there are some great tracks on there.

What they have done which is so clever is that they have simulated various sounds, styles, bass lines, melodies, synth lines, lyrics and even the way a track is sung from various 80s hits, spread them out and written a great original 80s sounding song around each one them. And that is quite an achievement.

There is some element in nearly every song that reminds you of a particular track from that era. even though you may not be able to pin point exactly which one. Some of them you will recognise instantly and some will leave you puzzling for days!

Watch out for – Cindy Lauder, The Pet Shop Boys, Bananarama, Bonnie Tyler and most definitely Buggles! Which isn’t strictly 80s but hey….

So put on those leg warmers, back comb your hair and give it a listen!

Follow us here:

Several years ago I heard the ‘Hide and Seek’. I seem to remember this received mixed reactions at the time it was released varying from calling it pretentious sentimental crap to God like genius reducing people to tears.

I liked it, not only because I thought it was quite a moving melody, but because it was a clean vocal only track sung through a vocoder. Perfect for any type of dance production I chose to throw underneath it.

I went about piecing a demo together – took me a while and never really managed to figure out a way to make the chorus work. The verse sounded great though. Anyway it got shelved.

I kept wondering why no one had released a remix of the track and every so often swore I would revisit it.

Anyway I’ve just found this dance remix by Tiesto which is pretty much what I was trying to do, albiet mine was slightly less Trancy.

N.B. For techy nerds, that slightly over the top off beat pulsing sound you hear through the track is side chaining compression at work! Lovely…

And more recently Jason Derulo ‘Whatcha Say’ has appeared which uses the middle 8th from the same Imogen Heap track

A similar thing happened to me years ago with and

Right I’m off home to delete the offending folder from my hard drive.

Note to self: Work quicker!

Follow us here:

I just really enjoyed the film ‘Broken Flowers’ written & directed by Jim Jamusch Brokenflowersmovie which has some great music from Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Astatke

For those who have not seem it, the synopsis is pretty much that Don Johnston (!) played brilliantly by Bill Murray, believes he may have a 19 year old son, and sets about tracking down 4 ex partners to discover the truth. His less than ideal relationships reveal quite a lot about him, his life and his mistakes.

The music by Astatke is basically Jazz based, but coming from Ethiopia, his style has a great edge to it. The music is mainly played while Bill Murray is driving from state to state tracking down his old flames.  The music perfectly fits not only the tedium of the journeys, but also the slightly odd and uncomfortable emotional journey Murray is going on.  If you get chance to check it out, do, it just works. In the meantime, here is the trailer Broken Flowers – Trailer

This also reminded me of another Bill Murray classic (and also for musical reasons) – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou by Wes Anderson. Everyone knows the great response to the music in this film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and this has to be one of my favourite films.

All this got me thinking (and certainly not for the first time) just how influenced my response to music was by what I saw. This is not a new observation, but because of the bizarre and off beat style of Mulatu Astatke, it made me sit up and re-think this point.

Astatke’s music would certainly not be on my radar normally, and if I had listened to it cold, so to speak, I may even have skipped it. Within the film, I not only liked it, but when listening to it again today on iTunes, I was taken right back to the film in my mind. And the amazing thing is, once music has a context like this, I don’t think you loose it whenever you listen to it again, and again and again…

Follow us here:

Compression, compression, compression! There I’ve said it three times – that’s how good it is and how much you need it.

This post is aimed at beginners.

Any musician who has spent any time in a studio (virtual or otherwise) knows the value of dynamics. For those who don’t, or those who are just put off by the strange little boxes with dials on them, this is a light introduction to compression help you get over your fear.

Compressors do exactly that, they compress the sound. You may wonder what use this is? Well if the track or sounds suffer from any of the following, you could improve things greatly by plugging in a compressor:

1. Fluctuating volume

2. Lack of punch or presence

3. Groups of sounds or overall track not gelling together

My software of choice is Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason. Here is a screen grab of one of the compressors in Reason.

Although a small picture, you will be able to make out the various dials and buttons on the front. Hopefully the one in your software  is similar.

Simply put, all compressors have the following:

Input Level = Obvious really, controls the volume level of the incoming signal.

Threshold level = This is more subtle. It decides above what level the compressor will act on the sound. For a biting, hard feel, throw the input level dial to the left so nearly 100% of all sound is compressed. Slacken off and adjust the dial by moving it upwards to the right have have a more subtle feel.

Ratio level = This is a bit more mathematical. Basically for every ‘unit’ of sound, for want of a better word, you decide how many ‘units’ to compress it by. A ratio of 2:1 will be average and quite soft, a ratio of 16:1 will be hardcore. I tend to find 2:1 or 4:1 very usable and easily enough for you to try compression out on your sounds. You can then tweak as you see fit.

Attack and Release decide how quickly the compressor kicks in and returns to normal afterwards.

By way of example, here are the settings I most use in Reason.

For any type of dance, electronic, hard, punchy music, the compressor should be your go-to tool and I typically find a 4:1 ratio, with a nearly full threshold (ie nealy all the way down to the left!), a reasonably slow attack time (to allow the full sound to come through) with a quickish release time (to slap it back down again) works pretty well. Certainly on drums and bass lines, the above settings should get you off to a good start.

With softer sounds like pads and any type of ‘real’ instrument/other more organic genres, loosen everything up a bit.

Above all, use your ears, if something sounds good, disregard anything I’ve said above. All of this also depends on the compressor itself.  They will all have a different feel and sound.

Play around with compressors and you’ll soon develop a feel for when one is needed and when to leave well alone.

As a last tip, slapping a compressor on a signal normally alters the output, so try not to be deceived by thinking your sound is so much better when all you’ve really done is boost the level . Trim the output down so you can A/B and listen to the effect on and off. Some compressors have a Make Up gain button to compensate for any alteration in output volume. It’s probably a good idea to use this.

Slightly more complex options such as Peak, RMS and sidechaining may be covered in another article.

Follow us here: