MUSICLAB

Tag: VST

  • Live Recording from within your DAW

    Live Recording from within your DAW

    While traditional studio recordings provide the luxury of multiple takes and post-production editing, capturing a live performance brings a distinct charm that’s hard to replicate. The unfiltered essence of a sound’s chemistry, the real-time interactions, and the genuine connection with the music come alive on screen, giving a taste of what it’s like to be front and center at a concert.

    I don’t think there’s any doubt about. But how to do it that on a computer? Even in digital world you need “cables” to connect the audio output of your DAW to the software you use to record, whatever it is. If you are on Windows, the operating system will probably not help you and will make the use of an audio router almost essential, and you will have to have the patience to align the various software regarding Sample Rate, latency, USB buffers, etc. etc.

    Furthermore, Windows has the unique ability to reset your audio preferences with each update, find out why. So if you had set your preferences manually you will find them back with the default Windows setting, which almost never coincides (for example, I record at 24 bit/48000 Hz but Windows regularly sets 16 bit, even if the sound card driver says otherwise). The worst thing is that Windows also resets the preferences regarding the so-called audio Exclusive Control, so something that used to work no longer works.

    I mean, you’ve prepared your performance and all kinds of drugs are pushing into your brain and lo and behold, you press Record in your recording software and… error. “The recording device is not responding”. It’s not nice. Coitus interruptus of the worst kind.

    But there is a way to solve the embarrassment: record directly from within your DAW. Fortunately, there are VST plugins to do this.
    Personally I use MRecorder by Melda Production, the free version.

    Very simple but effective, with a series of options (some only usable with the paid version, but not essential for my use).

    MRecorder interface.

    It is a free plugin, downloadable with the MFreeFXBundle by Melda Production (38 free effects, not to be underestimated). And that’s the end of this problem. Put it in the main stereo mix bus on DAW mixer and live free.

  • A Irish Harp

    A Irish Harp

    If until July 3rd you feel like Alan Stivell himself, Native Instruments is giving away a not bad Irish harp.

    Kontakt 7. Library.

    “Whether you’re keeping things traditional or warping sounds further, IRISH HARP offers warm, lush, rich tones captured from a 34-string neo-Irish harp. With a range of scales, phrases, effects, and controls, it’s got all you need to craft authentic and unique performances for composing, beatmaking, and everything in between.”

    https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/irish-harp/

    I recommend watching the video, it’s not a little game

    Karaoke moment

    Tri martolod yaouank
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Tri martolod yaouank o voned da veajiñ

    Tri martolod yaouank
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Tri martolod yaouank o voned da veajiñ

    O voned da veajiñ, gê
    O voned da veajiñ

    O voned da veajiñ, gê
    O voned da veajiñ

    Gant ‘n avel bet kaset
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Gant ‘n avel bet kaset betek an Douar Nevez

    Gant ‘n avel bet kaset
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Gant ‘n avel bet kaset betek an Douar Nevez

    Betek an Douar Nevez, gê
    Betek an Douar Nevez

    Betek an Douar Nevez, gê
    Betek an Douar Nevez

    E-kichen mein ar veilh
    Tra la la, la la la la
    E-kichen mein ar veilh o deus mouilhet o eorioù

    E-kichen mein ar veilh
    Tra la la, la la la la
    E-kichen mein ar veilh o deus mouilhet o eorioù

    O deus mouilhet o eorioù, gê
    O deus mouilhet o eorioù

    O deus mouilhet o eorioù, gê
    O deus mouilhet o eorioù

    Hag e-barzh ar veilh-se
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Hag e-barzh ar veilh-se e oa ur servijourez

    Hag e-barzh ar veilh-se
    Tra la la, la la la la
    Hag e-barzh ar veilh-se e oa ur servijourez

    Pelec’h ‘n eus graet konesañs, gê
    Pelec’h ‘n eus graet konesañs

    Pelec’h ‘n eus graet konesañs, gê
    Pelec’h ‘n eus graet konesañs

    E Naoned er marc’had
    Tra la la, la la la la
    E Naoned er marc’had hor boa choazet ur walenn

    E Naoned er marc’had
    Tra la la, la la la la
    E Naoned er marc’had hor boa choazet ur walenn

  • How to use my computer to make a recording studio? (4: Virtual Instruments – VST)

    How to use my computer to make a recording studio? (4: Virtual Instruments – VST)

    In this serie:

    1. Introduction
    2. The audio intrface
    3. The DAW
    4. Virtual Instruments (VST)
    5. Effects
    6. Cables&cables

    In previous episodes we talked extensively about virtual instruments, or VSTs. But what exactly are they?

    Virtual studio technology (VST) is a digital interface standard that is used to connect and integrate software audio effects, synthesizers and effect plugins with recording systems and audio editors (DAW). VST is basically a software emulation of hardware synthesizers, instruments and samplers, and often provides a custom user interface that mimics the original hardware down to knobs and switches. It provides recording engineers and musicians access to virtual versions of devices and equipment that might be otherwise too expensive or difficult to procure, or that are inexistant on marker as hardware.

    There are many types of VST plugins, which can be mostly classified as instruments (VSTi) or effects. VSTi does exactly what its name implies, as it emulates different musical instruments so that the recording engineer or musician does not need to procure the specific instrument or find someone who can play it. Modern VST plugins provide their own custom GUI, but older ones tended to rely on the UI of the host software.

    Steinberg released the VST interface specification and SDK in 1996. They released it at the same time as Steinberg Cubase 3.02, which included the first VST format plugins: Espacial (a reverb), Choirus (a chorus effect), Stereo Echo, and Auto-Panner.

    Steinberg updated the VST interface specification to version 2.0 in 1999. One addition was the ability for plugins to receive MIDI data. This supported the introduction of Virtual Studio Technology Instrument (VSTi) format plugins. VST Instruments can act as standalone software synthesizers, samplers, or drum machines.

    VST have a story: in 2006, the VST interface specification was updated to version 2.4. Changes included the ability to process audio with 64-bit precision. A free-software replacement was developed for LMMS that would be used later by other free-software projects.

    VST 3.0 came out in 2008, and VST 3.5 in 2011. In October 2011, Celemony Software and PreSonus released Audio Random Access (ARA), an extension for audio plug-in interfaces, such as VST, allowing greater integration between audio plug-ins and DAW software.

    VST 3.6.7 came out in March, 2017. A long story that make this technology solid and tested.

    There are three types of VST plugins:

    • VST instruments generate audio. They are generally either virtual synthesizers or virtual samplers. Many recreate the look and sound of famous hardware synthesizers.
    • VST effects process rather than generate audio—and perform the same functions as hardware audio processors such as reverbs and phasers. Other monitoring effects provide visual feedback of the input signal without processing the audio. Most hosts allow multiple effects to be chained. Audio monitoring devices such as spectrum analyzers and meters represent audio characteristics (frequency distribution, amplitude, etc.) visually.
    • VST MIDI effects process MIDI messages (for example, transpose or arpeggiate) and route the MIDI data to other VST instruments or to hardware devices.

    VST plugins often have many controls, and therefore need a method of managing presets (sets of control settings).

    Steinberg Cubase VST introduced two file formats for storing presets: an FXP file stores a single preset, while an FXB file stores a whole bank of presets. These formats have since been adopted by many other VST hosts, although Cubase itself switched to a new system of preset management with Cubase 4.0.

    Many VST plugins have their own method of loading and saving presets, which do not necessarily use the standard FXP/FXB formats.

  • How to use my computer to make a recording studio? (1: introduction)

    How to use my computer to make a recording studio? (1: introduction)

    In this serie:

    1. Introduction
    2. The audio interface
    3. The DAW
    4. Virtual Instruments (VST)
    5. Effects
    6. Cables&cables

    It is a legitimate question, in fact a computer today can be used to create a recording studio to create even complex works which until recently would have required the use of a real studio, equipped with gigantic mixers, multitrack recorders reels and every blessing tools.

    However the response to this question is long, and therefore I will divide it into different parts.

    introduction

    The recording studio is a fundamental part of music production process, as it directly influences the quality of your final product, let’s say the record.

    These studios each have a distinctive sound, influenced by available equipment and recording environments (it’s easy to imagine that having a large room to record in will produce a sound with unique natural reverb, for example). 

    Over time some of these studios have become legendary, for example the Abbey Road Studios or the Sarm Studio, used by very famous bands (Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley tell you something?).

    Furthermore, each of these studios had several legendary sound engineers, able to manage and create great works such as Atom Hearth Mother or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and many other works that have made the history of modern music.

    Thus the combination of studio equipment and sound engineer was a fundamental must for any artist who wanted to try their hand at making the fundamental album of their artistic career.

    The studio itself was equipped with gigantic mixers, huge multitrack reel to reel tape recorders, walls of audio and effects equipment, miles of cables. The musicians and sound engineers communicated behind a large window, which divided the musician from the actual studio.

    A legendary multitrack Otari MX 80 Tape Recorder

    All of this equipment had one thing in common: they cost a fortune and to be able to afford to do a studio production you had to have a fat wallet (here come the legendary producer, a guy that have the ability to find the money needed for pay the studio).

    Each instrument had to be recorded on a single track in order to be able to mix it with the rest of the instruments later, but the tape recorders and magnetic tapes of that era had physical limits, so the sound engineers had to resort to particular tricks such as bounce, transferring some tracks to a single one to free space on the tape. There was no copy/paste, and in the case surgical cuts of the tape were used, which was glued to the joint with adhesive tape. To record complex arrangements (think for example of those of the historical Pink Floyd) the life of the studio was not easy at all.

    Life wasn’t easy even for aspiring musicians: to spread and sell your work you needed at least a recorder, and a Revox or a Teac cost a kidney at the time. Billy Studer, the inventor, was very happy dude.

    Then a miracle happened: in the early 1980s Tascam’ produced a small integrated portable studio, called Portastudio, mixer and 4-track recorder on the then common cassette tapes. Incredible. 

    The recording quality was certainly not that of a studio, the cassettes were certainly not equivalent in frequency response to those of an Ampex tape, but who cares! For an aspiring musician it was an epic step forward. Or at least for me it was

    The home-recording wave, which allowed musicians to cheaply record and produce music at home was started, and is cited as one of the most significant innovations in music production technology.

    I was the lucky owner of a Portastudio, and enjoyed it very much.
    However, for now we are talking about analog sound on tape recorders, but the first computers for music are arriving, which record digitally.

    Atari 1040 ST come in 1985, and the game change again. Its MIDI ports and VST technology will change the way music is produced forever. But this is the next episode.

    Before go at Part 2, please look the following video, he explain a lot on recording process on a computer. Next step we need to talk about weird stuff like MIDI, VSTs and DAWs, so follow the given links to start understanding what they are.

    We don’t want to be amateurs who just push the button, do we?