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Please call me for affordable
tuition in Music Technology and Sound Engineering. Lessons tailored to your
requirements. Covering use of microphones, recording and mixing techniques, Cubase,
Reason, Logic, Digital Performer, Pro Tools, sampling, soundcards, sequencing and composition techniques. I'll help you
with what you want and need to know.
I teach privately covering a number of different areas
and programmes, I have taught Music Tech at a few schools in the south and have assisted with teaching part-time at a London music school.
My corporate clients include BBC Worldwide.
Tips
This page will contain free tips covering Sound Engineering and Music
Technology. Including tips for Reason, Cubase, Logic and much more. I will be adding tips
whenever I update the site.
These tips cover the following subjects (click the link to go to the
tip):
Signal to noise ratio; Microphones;
Noise Gates; MIDI
connections; MAC OS X; Mixing;
Cubase SX; MAC; MAC
or PC; G5 and PCI; G5
and Firewire; G4 and Dual Boot; Intel
powered Macs; Windows Vista; Pro
Tools Hardware and Logic on a Mac, New
MacBooks without Firewire; RAM and
Chasing the
Upgrade.
Signal to Noise Ratio
When recording always make sure that the signal you are recording is as high as possible
without clipping.
If you have a good signal then you will have less noise and therefore a better recording.
It's easy with Analog. If
you are close to the top without pushing too hard you're unlikely to ruin a
take. Recording digitally into a computer or hard disk recorder if you push it
too hard you will get potentially take ruining distortion.
Microphones
Use the best microphone you can for the job. For vocals try Neumann, they're expensive but
excellent. Also, more in range either AKG, Rode, Audio Technica or SE
Electronics, amongst many others. Always remember to try them out first. Get one
that suits you or the singer you are most likely to record.
If you use the right microphone you'll get a better signal (see above).
This includes drums!
Noise Gates
When using a noise gate on a track especially drums don't get to the point where
it adversely affects the sound of the drum. If you can't get the drum sound right with a
noise gate, don't use it.
Midi Connections
Please beware of problems with poor quality components, some soundcards use non
standard midi connections and provide problems with reliability.
Mac OS X
If you are using OS X for Mac currently the best version to use is supposed
to be 10.5.6 (Leopard), 10.4.11 (Tiger) or 10.3.9 if you are still using Panther.
Additionally, always be aware of new releases of Operating system software and
don't install it as soon as it is released, this is potentially harmful to your sanity.
And can definitely cost you a lot of time trying to restore information.
Still be aware that not all software/hardware will work with
all operating systems,
for instance there are still some audio interfaces that do not have drivers for
Tiger such as M-Audio Revolution 5.1 PCI cards. I can't believe I'm still saying
this over 2 years later. But at least the Revolution 5.1 will work with Leopard
and the 7.1 works with 10.4.6 apparently. (15/07/09)
Mixing
When you are mixing think in terms of where you want to hear things, not only
from a point of view of panning but also where different instruments fit within your mix.
If you can't hear it why is it there?
Cubase SX
Something they don't tell you... It's just different from VST... To
hear back MIDI when you play your keyboard you either have to press the
"Record Enable" or "Monitor" button. Otherwise you will get
no MIDI signal on a channel and therefore no midi out signal on the transport
bar.
Mac
If you are running a dual boot system (OS 9 and OS X) with both
operating systems on the same Hard disk.
Be careful not to change folder names that relate to one operating
system while working in the other. For example while in OS 9 don't change the
name of the Applications folder for OS X. When you boot up in OS X you may find
that Icons can't see their target programs (? in the Dock) as well as sundry
other problems.
Mac or PC
Systems need to be optimized to record and playback audio. Have you
turned off your screensaver? Will Energy Saver kick in? These are things that
may harm your recordings so make sure your computer is optimized for running
music software.
If you use your machine for multiple functions, what about a
separate
account for music that is optimized?
RAM
Make sure you have enough in your machine. You can get one big sampler
instrument and it can completely blow out your whole song if it can't play back
or even record. I have a couple of EXS 24 samples which use 500 MB of RAM. No
good if you only have 768 MB in your machine, it won't cope...
In Mac G5 you have to put
in new RAM in pairs, so if you want to buy 1GB of RAM then you should buy 2 x
512Mb instead.
Internet
enabled machines
Make sure that the
internet is disconnected and that your Firewalls and virus scanners are turned
off completely before you start using your music software. These programmes get
in the way and will probably cause you all sorts of problems as you try to
record or playback.
But... don't forget to
turn them back on before you go back on the internet...
G5 and
PCI
I just couldn't believe
this but it's true, see this M-audio link.
There are three main
types of G5 out there. Those with either PCI, PCI-X or PCI
Express.
When G5's were first
brought out they moved to a new format of PCI called PCI-X. The Audio interface
manufacturers started making PCI-X cards or fixing your PCI cards so that they
would work with PCI-X. But Apple decided to make one of each new range of G5s
with PCI so that people didn't need to do this. When they got to making just
Dual Processor machines the lowest machine in the range (first the 1.8 DP and
then the 2.0 DP) had PCI rather than PCI-X. Unfortunately, they had made a
machine that would not work with a number of PCI cards on the market. Having
spoken to a tech guy at M-Audio, it would appear that Apple have known for ages
but have not been able to address this issue.
So if you want a G5 and
want to use your current PCI card with a new G5 better to get one with PCI-X and
get your card manufacturer to upgrade it.
PCI-Express is not
compatible with any PCI or PCI-X and there is only one manufacturer with a
PCI-Express interface and that is Digidesign. If you have a PCI-Express machine
you should buy a Firewire interface. Update these are now becoming more
available (for instance MOTU and the 424 card).
G5
and Firewire
Please beware if you have
a G5 with a Firewire 800 and 2 x 400 ports that you can't necessarily use them
all at the same time.
The Firewire bus on my G5
has only got 800 M bits of bandwidth and if you try to run an external Hard
drive on the 800 port and an audio interface on a 400 port, the interface will
only run intermittently. The 800 port hogs the bandwidth whether it needs it or
not. This is a known issue.
The answer is to only run
FW 400 equipment when you are recording or playing back audio.
G4
and Dual Boot
Please beware if you want
to buy a G4 because you want to use it as a dual boot machine (i.e. you want to
use OS9 as well as OS X). There are some G4s out there, I think the last but one
batch that they made including the 1GHz Dual processor, that are not dual boot.
It doesn't matter what you do they won't run OS 9. So if you are going to buy
one second hand, make sure it is already running OS 9.
Intel
powered Macs
The new Macs have arrived
on these shores and they have been making quite a noise. But before you splash
your hard earned cash please take note. They are made in a completely different
way to the old Macs in terms of the processor and therefore their core operating
system is completely different. It may look the same but it isn't.
If you have already
purchased your software (i.e. Logic or Cubase) and other hardware (audio
interface), you must make sure it is compatible with the new Macs. If you have
Logic 7.2 great, if you have earlier versions beware.
Make sure your software
and hardware is going to be compatible, check with manufacturers websites etc.
If you don't check you could end up spending a lot more money than you expected
or end up with software or hardware that just doesn't work.... at least for now.
Everybody seems to be moving in the right direction but who knows how long this
will take. Be prepared.
I can't put an exhaustive
list here so make sure you check first.
Update August 2007 -
Although older versions of Mac software won't work with Intel Macs Cubase 4, DP
5.1 and Pro Tools 7 all work with Intel. So you've got a full set, but don't try
any older versions they just won't work.
Windows
Vista
The new operating system
for PC. Don't jump in quite yet. Check that all your software and hardware are
compatible, most likely that something won't be so stick to XP for the time
being. UPDATE. I say if you can avoid VISTA do I have seen more people with
problems running VISTA than not. It's just harder work for everyone. XP is not
perfect but much better than VISTA. (July 2009)
Pro Tools Hardware and
Logic on a Mac
In my opinion don't. This
set up seems to have compatibility issues. If you look at forums like the Yahoo
Logic User Group people have nothing but hassle with this set up. Drivers that
work with Logic aren't stable with the Hardware and vice versa. There are
stories out there of people who keep 5 versions of the driver on their desktop,
just so when it goes wrong they switch to the next. If you want to use Logic
then don't buy an 002 or whatever. Go somewhere else. If you buy Pro Tools
hardware the software is free, use it. I don't often say stuff like this, it
seems to me that life's too short, you want to use something that is easy to use
and that doesn't drop out every 2 days.
New
MacBooks (December 2008) - No Firewire
The new MacBooks look
great have a new Graphics engine and are faster. But beware the Aluminium models
only have 2 x
USB 2 slots and no Firewire. This is bad for the musicians and video editors
alike that can't afford to buy a new MacBook Pro. If they are improving the
Graphics card to make it better for things like Final Cut, but you've got to
have Firewire for streaming and plugging in your DV camera. Also all the best
Audio Interfaces are Firewire not USB 2. If you want a MacBook with Firewire pick up
the white one or one of the old models before they are all gone.
It's all to do with size
of the machine, apparently they can't fit a Firewire slot on the
side of the new style machine.
Chasing
the Upgrade - a cautionary tale
If you like to keep your
machine up to date with all the latest software please read on.
Like everybody else I
like to keep up to date however, I don't have a limitless pot of money to dig
into and I 'm sure you don't have the time, money or inclination to dig yourself
out of a hole. Be very aware that every time you upgrade part of your system. Be
it a VST instrument or an OS upgrade there is always a chance that something
else won't work and you'll have to upgrade that. You can get caught in an ever
more time/money consuming chase until your machine can't cope. You can see any
number of examples above. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Is the most sensible
approach.
Sure you have to upgrade
sometimes but don't do it when you are just about to start or are in the middle
of a big project.
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or system set up please click here.
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