In this Quick Look Tutorial we take a brief look at the advantages of using send / return FX channels vs simply using insert effects. This specific tutorial applies reverb as a send effect and we look at the processing paths that open up when isolating the wet track, such as allowing you to equalize, compress and gate the 100% wet send effect alone.
For this tutorial we are going to show you how to take a mediocre, boring, flat, or just plain wretched sounding kick drum, and magically engineer it into a bass-rattling behemoth. “But, why should I bother learning how to make my own kick drums?” you ask…Well, because, the kick drum is the corner-stone of almost all modern recordings. Check out any hip hop, rock, pop or dance track on the radio today. Front-and-center is a big, beefy kick. Since the kick drum has such high energy content, it goes a long way towards producing the perception of BIGNESS and LOUDNESS in a track. Often, you’ll have a kick drum in your track that you selected for its character… but then you realize its bass output is no good in the context of the rest of your mix. At any rate, you are unlikely to escape the need to take a kick, and pump it up to the next level at some point during your recording.
Korg is back in the iPad app space again with an “all-in-one” box offering called “Gadget.” With a wide variety of percussion and instrument synthesizers coupled with a fairly robust sequencing engine Gadget eschews the in-app purchasing model in favor of giving you an entire mini-DAW workspace right out of the gate. Gadget is optimized for use with the iPad Air and newest Mini models. Check out the full hands-on with the guys from Sonic Touch in the video below.
As I always like to say: the finger drummer is the new drummer. It’s probably the single best skill worth learning for modern electronic-based music composition. And to this end, we came across a series of fine finger-drumming demonstrations/tutorials put out by appsformusicproduction.com. The best way to learn is by watching, so check out these videos and start practicing!
Some old vintage samplers are still quite popular in music production these days. The Akai MPC is one such sampler, and modern production demands chew up RAM for breakfast so upgrading your memory capacity for your vintage sampler has never been more important. Many of you are a bit nervous about opening up your cold, metallic babies and playing around with their guts, but fear not, the upgrade does not require any technical skills, just a little forethought and care. Here’s a simple tutorial
This tutorial is specific to installing 72-pin RAM (16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 96MB) into samplers such as, MPC3000, MPC2000(XL), Akai S-Series, Korg Triton Series, Yamaha Motif/EX/RS and others. However, many of the principles in performing ram-upgrades in general are covered here. Let’s take a look…
