Logic Pro

Logic Pro Logic Pro is not only a top of the line MIDI sequencer, it is one of the most under rated digital audio workstations out to date. Logic lives up to being the platform of the Mac OS X. Making its way to the scene in the mid 80’s, Logic Pro has competed with all the top digital audio workstations. The platform for Logic Pro has similar feature with Garage Band, and FL Studios. Logic Pro seems to have an easier platform for a producer or mixer to navigate. With your Mac, you can connect your Logic Pro program with Apple’s GarageBand and work on both programs together. Logic runs at a low fair price of $199 at your Apple store or online. That is a great price for the quality what all you are getting. Logic Pro comes with a huge catalog of loops, sound, real instruments, processors, and effects. Logic Pro is a good program if you would like to do MIDI sequencing because you can open a new file in Mac and in PC. With FL Studios, that’s not possible. So if you are thinking about getting a new program to serve the place of your digital audio workstation, you should start by checking out Logic Pro.

Native Instruments

Native Instruments Native Instruments is the top manufacturer for hardware and software computer based audio. Native Instruments allows you to take any sound, or instrument, and create your musical art. Native Instruments is packed with a wide range of effects, instruments, and many presets to get your skills up if you’re a novice. Native Instruments began as a program, combining cool synthesizers and big effects. Today, Native Instruments is full of new instruments, way more effects, and allows you to insert your own sounds. I know it seems like Native Instruments can do it all but it can’t. Unfortunately Native Instruments does not allow you to do full on recording. On the upper hand, you are able to import your audio files, and edit, or mix your music and sound how ever you please. Native Instruments has two main products for your studio, The MASHINE, and the TRAKTOR. The MASHINE samples like an MPC, and has its own variety of up to date sound POP, ROCK, to DUB-STEP. The MASHINE has been Native Instruments’ top selling product since its introduction in 2009. The MASHINE has become popular amongst young beatmakers. I had the pleasure of being present when Jeff the Chef put on a demonstration at Rap Factory last summer. The kicks are warm and the snares are crisp. The perfect combination for hot a 16. The TRAKTOR is more of a DJ tool than a mixer/MPC. The TRAKTOR works as a virtual DJ. When you plug it in, all your music from your itunes will be available for use. Native Instruments is a new Product, with many more ventures to create. Although the brand is young, it already has begun to make a name for itself.

FL Studios is not only a Digital Audio Workshop, is famously known for being a top of the line VST Instrument. FL studio also known as Fruity Loops has been used by some of the industry top electronic musicians. The unique thing about FL Studios is they use there own software editions for you to play with. When they first took off in 1997 they were not as successful as other programs. But for the years to come, they would expand they product to huge demographics and take command of the recording industry’s software area. Thing began to really take off for them as soon as the joined teams with Image Line and they began adding more VST, Recording Software, digital instruments and more to the program. Now FL Studios has opened an avenue with apple creating the FL Studio Express edition. The Express edition allows you to have Fruity Loops on your phone, iPad, and iTouch. Having FL Studios around at anytime is always a plus. You can mix on the go, its affordable, and it’s easy. If you are a sound engineer and you would like to stay original and mix to perfection FL Studios is the program for you. You’ll get to explore all of their plug-ins, play with there Virtual Effect, create your own samples, and surf all there synthesizers.

GarageBand

GarageBand is a mainstream Digital Audio Workstation, which is used throughout the recording industry a lot. GarageBand is offered to all apple users once they purchase any iMac or Mac book products. This allows users to begin recording, mixing, or creating virtual track through MIDI editing. GarageBand comes with many features including; Audio recording with playback & multi track audio, enhance audio using delay, reverb, distortion, or filtering, and the ability to record in both 16-bit and 24-bit audio resolution. GarageBand comes with a variety of software instruments. They range from electronic sound, hip-hop sounds, a wide range of synthesizers, and many realistic sampled instruments. Offering these sounds allows you to hook up your MIDI controller and start “processing” music through your MIDI keyboard. If you’d like to record live instruments, GarageBand has Live Guitar Features as well. They having many guitar amplifiers installed into the program so that you may be satisfied to your preference. If you would like to mix your sound up, they allow the user to apply up to five simulated affects onto your virtual sounds. If you would just like to edit some sounds, you are able to upload WAV, MP3, or AIFF files and add edits to them. Lastly, if you’re looking for an industry standard program look no more. The Mastering area is fantastic.

Digital Performer

What's the business DAW World? I recently received a few comments and I will answer them one post at a time, so stay tuned in to get my feedback on your comment. First off I would like to address my main man DJ KC about a workstation called Digital Performer. MOTU's Digital Performer actually has more history than I thought. Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) created "Professional Composer" for Apple Macintosh back in 1984. That was one of Apple's first application programs ever. A year later the MOTU crew dropped Performer, a music sequencer that was also Mac based. Performer was designed to arrange and perform with synthesizers that were compatible with MIDI. Since MIDI has many features complicated features, Digital Performer was introduced in 1990, and helped unlock many capabilities in MIDI. Interesting enough, DP was originally designed as an extension of Digidesign Audiomedia hard disk recording system, which became Pro Tools. As earlier stated, DP worked extremely well with MIDI, users could record their MIDI instruments and mix with live audio recorded in the studio. Since computers at that time (early 90's), weren't fast enough to handle such capabilities, DSP co processor cards were needed to maintain a functioning audio recording. DP fell off the radar as Pro Tools took over the DAW scene, but was rewritten and introduced in 2000. Digital Performer has created several versions in the last decade, all written for Mac OSx and version 10.5. DP8 was recently released in October 2012, with Mac and Windows 7 version due soon.

Getting the most from Pro Tools Setup 2 
  What's up DAW World? I would like to continue where I left off on the last blog. If you recall, we were discussing how to get the most from your Pro Tools setup. On the memory side, RAM plays a big factor. Since Pro Tools has a limitation of 32 bits, the program can only access 4GB of RAM from your computer. Memory usage is shared by the OS, plug ins, editing and recording regions, etc.. With that being said, the actual RAM available is more like 2 to 3 GB. The infamous memory errors codes such as "low memory error-108" and "critically low memory" are tell tale signs of low RAM. I have researched a few tips for your convenience to lessen the chance of you receiving these codes. If you do receive these codes, don't panic, try a few of these tips to reduce RAM usage.
   1. Use the "thin all automation" function. Excessive breakpoints in playlists can eat up significant amounts of RAM.

   2. Reduce the number of playlists in the session.

   3. Reduce the number of regions in the session.

   4. Reduce the number of undo steps, especially in sessions where region groups are used, or you're using lots of automation AND playlists.

   5. For sessions with virtual instruments - some virtual instruments don't unload their RAM after being deinstanciated. The workaround there is too low and the session needs to be reopened.

   6. Reduce the number of virtual instruments overall- or commit the audio to a track, remove the virtual instrument, save, quit, and reopen the session.

   7. Along with #6- using VEP or ReWire to host RAM killing virtual instruments, can reduce the overall Pro Tools RAM usage, which allows you to use more virtual instruments.

Hope this post can help my fellow up and rising engineers who have had issues with memory errors. One last tip I just recently learned. Outdated/ incompatible plug ins will cause issues. Be sure to keep only compatible plug ins in your plug ins folder. Peace, love, and DAW World............

Get More Performance from ProTools

What's up DAW World ? I'm back with a few tips to get the most from your Pro Tools system. We all know the processing power of our computers is the key to how well the Pro Tools system will perform. The hard drive has lots of work to do, audio processing duties, data management, routing, driving the screen and so on. Hard drive bandwidth can be an issue, you might be able to play back a session with 24 tracks, but the system may slow down if you do lots of editing or add lots of plug ins. Let"s start at the Playback Engine window "under the Setup menu", various settings to gain extra performance is done here. CPU usage limit can be set to as high as 85% . But that only leaves 15% to handle all other duties, like displaying meters and graphics, controlling automation, and dealing with MIDI.You should allow 35% to handle those processes. Remember using fewer RTAS  plug ins lets you set lower CPU usage limits.Your computer will let you know if your CPU usage limits are too low with a -9128 error.Try lowering the CPU usage limits by 5-10 % if this happens. Also, reduce H/W buffer size while recording to minimize latency that will cause monitoring problems. Raise the buffer size when you come to mix so that you can run more effects. Ok DAW World that's it for today. Tune in to my next blog for more tips. Peace, love, and DAW World!

We're back on DAW World! Sorry for the lapse in time folks. Apparently Ive been writing blogs but not publishing them. Sounds dumb right? I have my moments. But to get you caught up, last week I interviewed Jake "Naughty" Mr. Nice. Nice is a long time intern at Minbal Studios on the west side of Chicago. Minbal has made a name for themselves recording major and up and coming rock bands. They use Pro Tools 8 HD to record. I have had the privilege of recording in Minbal for a couple sessions. My group SHOTTAZ WORLD recorded songs for our soon to be released mixtape HII LIIFE, at Minbal. I must say the place is impressive, even though its located in the notorious Humboldt Park neighborhood. Minbal has a Quad 8 Ventura 24 track mixing console, and an Apogee interface for the  Pro Tools set up. Not only are the booths and control room spacious, but the live room for bands is huge! They've got the standard seperate kitchen too. Nice gave a sweet tour of the place and I noticed a sizeable inventory of band equipment too. Snares, cymbals, kicks, and guitar amps were in abundance. This studio has it all if you're a band member who needs a spare anything. But since my crew was there to rap and sing, we appreciated the vast space to lounge in while waiting to record. We were even able to use the place for video footage which you can view on youtube, SHOTTAZ WORLD- CRIME SWAG. hey come to think of it Jake has a short cameo in the video too!  Check out the interview and video if you get a sec. Peace, Love, and DAW World...... 

Whats up DAW World! Check out my interview where I discuss Pro Tools and the state of computer music. Its short and sweet, and sticks to the script. Hey, feel free to suggest a few workstations that Im not familar with. I just left a studio where the session was recorded on Digital Performer. Im always interested in what other engineers use to record. Next blog we'll get back to those keyboard shortcuts. Peace, love, and DAW WORLD!

              Greetings fellow audio engineers. For my first blog on DAW WORLD I want to give a big shout out to Pro Tools I  think that most audio professionals would agree that Pro Tools is the most popular workstation in the industry. Recording with Pro Tools can become more productive using keyboard shortcuts. One way to be efficient, is to purchase a computer keyboard with the command shortcuts printed on it. Check out the The Avid Store @ http://Shop.avid.com/Store/product. Tune in to my next post for a few of my favorite keyboard shortcuts. Peace, Love, and Pro Tools.