SP1200 Perfect Sampling

Posted February 16, 2011 in production,tutorials by t

The Emu SP1200 was, without a doubt, a milestone in hip hop production (and sampling in general).  Working around its 10 second sample time forced producers to be creative, and efficient.  Out of these techniques to gain more time, a new sound emerged.  By speeding a sample up (for example, playing a 33.3rpm record at 45rpm) and then pitching it back down inside the SP1200, the sampling time could almost be doubled, however if the change was too dramatic, the machine added a unique distortion to the result.  It’s hard to describe, almost like a slightly distorted ring modulation.

That was 20 years ago.  Now, the gritty side-effect created by the SP1200 is a trademark, and recognizable to lots of producers.   Sampling drums and other short sounds into the SP1200 is pretty simple.  On the other hand, applying that grit to samples longer than 15-20 seconds can be a complicated process… but worth the time and effort.  With the steps outlined in this article, you will see how to perfectly apply this SP1200 grit to a sample of any length and then stitch it back together using Awave Studio.

read the full article…

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Promoting Your Album on a Budget (Part 1)

Posted August 15, 2010 in reviews,tutorials by t

As a follow up to my previous article, 8 Tips for Getting Your Music Heard (For Free),I decided to up the ante a bit, and see what was possible with a budget of  $150.  The test album for this experiment is my own instrumental collection of beats, “Instrumentally Sound” by the Sound Scientists.  This series of articles will also serve as reviews on CD Baby, GrooveShark, SoundOut, Jango Artist Airplay and CreateSpace.  At the end of the process I am hoping to get my music into all of the major online stores (iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody) and into regular rotation (or as close to it as possible) on various online radio stations (Pandora, Grooveshark, Jango, etc.).  It’s always great to get feedback too, so the more information I can get about my listeners, the better.

I’m writing these reviews from the perspective of an artist trying to spread their music through as many avenues as possible.  The reviews won’t be based on profits, but on how useful each services proves to be, how easy they are to use, and anything else that impresses or disappoints me.  Seeing how the album is already available online for free in multiple places, it would be a tainted experiment to judge anything based on sales.  Plus, this is not so much about how to improve sales, but how to improve the amount of people that actually hear your album.

The budget I decided on originally was $100, but in order to review more services, I upped that to $160.  There is still plenty you can do for under $100 in order to gain a little more exposure.  The other requirement I have for this series, is that all of the processes must be digital, and all done online.  I do not want to bother with manufacturing, mailing, inventory or any of the overhead that goes along with physical CDs.  Unfortunately, some services (like Pandora) require a physical retail album (complete with UPC) – however there are ways to get around that too, without spending any money out of pocket.

First things first – any respectable artist with an album these days, has that album for sale in iTunes and Amazon MP3 (among other places).  Even if you aren’t planning on making a living off digital album royalties, it’s great to refer people to your work in the same places they get all of their other music.  For this, CD Baby seems to fit the bill perfectly.  The next post in this series will cover the entire process of submitting your music to CD Baby, which includes digital distribution via iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Spotify, Verizon V-Cast, Nokia, Zune, and lots of other services that I hadn’t even heard of.

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Create Your Own Stereo Microphone

Posted June 11, 2009 in production,tutorials by t

What’s better than making your own music? Making your own music, on instruments you also made yourself!

randysstereomicrophone

Randy Sarafan posted a tutorial on how to make a stereo microphone from scratch over at instructables.com, along with an easy step-by-step guide and pictures! Found via the Make Blog.

It has come time for me to update my home recording studio to continue recording my own brand of intergalactic low-fi, disco, funk, folk rock. Rather than spend big bucks on a stereo mic setup that won’t offer me the low quality sound that I am accustomed to, I have decided to build my own for next to nothing almost entirely out of found parts. Now I can get awesome panning effects that can easily be mimicked in software, but never truly replicated.

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PhotoSounder: Photoshop your Beats!

Posted June 2, 2009 in production,tutorials,videos by t

I love finding new ways to manipulate sound.  Whether it’s modifying cheap toys into instruments, new music-tech toys, or in this case, new software.  A few weeks ago, I came across a video on a new program called PhotoSounder, which allows you to edit your audio files in an image editor, like Photoshop or GIMP (or anything else you use for editing graphics).  This opens up a whole new world of possibilities in manipulating sound.  Check out an example of PhotoSounder in action with this video about instrument isolation (full tutorial after the break):

read the full article…

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Sample Chopping in Cool Edit Pro 2.0

Posted May 31, 2009 in production,tutorials by VOiD

Sample Chopping in Cool Edit Pro 2.0 or Higher Part 1:
Chopping up Samples in Cep for use in Samplers.

(All Steps Are Executed in SINGLE WAvE FORM EDITING VIEW)

So you got a sweet sample you recorded in to CEP and now you want to Disect the sample so you can utilize it’s most sufficent parts, how are you going to achieve this? There is a methods I came upon that I found to be the fastest and easiest when it comes to chopping samples in CEP. This method will take a selection you’ve chosen. such as a Bass Drum, and save it to its own file as your choice of format for later use. The First Method is by far the easiest and fastest, plus it’s really easy to organize, in my opinion. read the full article…

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Using Cool Edit to make beats

Posted in production,tutorials by VOiD

For those of you who dont know, Cool Edit 2.0 or higher ( Now known as Adobe Audition ) can be set up into a Fast and Bangin Beat Machine!

The Concept is Simple. If you can set the Time Ruler to Display Bars and Beats, Have the ruler then corespond with the Session Tempo, and then have Samples Snap to the Ruler..you Got a breeding ground for Bangin Beats. read the full article…

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