Recording Projects

Today we have a couple of things I want to get done:

1. We're going to build the vocal booth together!
2. I want everyone to finish and turn in the edits from the interviews with former slaves.
3. I want everyone to think about and prepare a recording project for next week.

Let's start with the recording project...

So, next week we will be getting into the process of recording audio in a studio-like setting. Everyone will get a chance to run the recording session AND be recorded on the mic.

In the meantime, we need to be thinking about WHAT we're going to record. Now some of you folks already have beats ready to record raps over. If that's the case, are you planning to sing or rap over them yourself? Do you have lyrics ready? Were you planning to collaborate with someone? If you were going to collaborate, with who? Does that person know about the project? Does he/she have lyrics ready?

Today is your time to prepare your lyrics and/or music for recording next week.

What are you going to do if you don't sing or rap? Here are a couple of ideas:

• Record an instrument (e.g. guitar) that you play.
  
• Record an original poem or spoken word piece.
• Record an essay (or college personal statement) that you are proud of.
• If you really can't think of anything of your own to record, find a favorite poem, speech or a part of a book that you can read and possibly put to a beat.
  

Intro to Pro Tools - part 3

Today we're going to be learning more about how to work with audio in Pro Tools:

• Importing audio files
• Copying regions
• Using the Trim tool

Let's start with the first part, Importing. Importing is another way to get audio into your Pro Tools session. To do it, just do the following:

1. Go to File>Import>Audio
2. In the Window that pops up, find the file you want to import and click Convert. Then click Done.
3. PT will ask you to select a Destination Folder where the new audio file will be stored. 9/10 times, it will automatically select the Audio Files folder for you. This is where you want to put this audio file.
   
4. Lastly, Pro Tools will ask you where you want to put this new file in the actual session. You can either put it in the Region Bin, or you can create a brand new track for it. For now, just select New Track and click OK.

So importing is pretty straight forward, right? Sorta?

Now let me talk briefly about how to copy an audio region from one track to another.

There are a couple of ways to do this, the first is to simply highlight a piece of audio with the Cursor tool, Copy it (Cmd-C) and then paste it on the new track (Cmd-P).

Another good one to know is to hold down the Option key and click and drag with the Grabber tool. The only catch to this is that you will copy the whole region, not just the highlighted section, so you may have to split the region first...

Last thing I'm going to mention is the Trim Tool.
The Trim Tool is used for trimming the edges or your regions. It's an easy way to edit little sections of audio and get rid of extra stuff you don't need. The great thing about the Trim tool is that even if you get rid of a piece of audio, you can always get it back by dragging the edge of the region back out.

Interview website: link

Intro to Pro Tools - part 2

So we've figured out how to get audio into Pro Tools (importing, recording) and we've learned a little bit about how PT's folder structure works. But once you've got the audio in there, how do you start working with it? In other words, what are the "tools" of Pro Tools?

There are 6 basic Edit Tools that let you interact with your media in different ways. They are:

1. Zoomer Tool - Let's you zoom in and out around a particular area within a track.
2. Trim Tool - Lets you adjust the left and right sides of an audio region and quickly get rid of the parts you don't need.
3. Selector Tool - Lets you position the playback cursor or select an area for playback/editing.
4. Grabber Tool - Lets you grab a whole region and move it around.
5. Scrubber Tool - Lets you "scrub", or listen closely to a piece of audio by clicking and dragging the cursor over it. Sounds really cool (like a turntable), but unfortunately you can't record it.
6. Pencil Tool - Lets you get in and redraw the waveform data. You mostly use this to repair little pops and clicks in your file. Important: using the pencil tool is a destructive process!

Now in addition to the 6 basic tools, PT also lets you use what's known as the Smart Tool. The Smart Tool gives you the functions of the Trim, Selector and Grabber tools all at once. You move between these tools by moving the cursor over different parts of the region. In addition to the tools I just listed, the Smart Tool also makes it easy for you to do Fades, which we will cover later.

What I do want to cover right now are two basic processes:
1) Creating new tracks
2) Splitting Regions

Intro to Pro Tools - part 1

Congratulations! You are ready to officially start moving into the universe of Pro Tools.

So what does Pro Tools do? Basically, it gives you all the main functions of a recording studio on your computer:

• It lets you record
• It lets you edit
• It lets you mix

Beyond that, though, it also serves as the center of your music production setup. Meaning that it can connect to and control all of your software and hardware instruments using MIDI.

A software program that can do all of these things (audio and MIDI) is called a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

Pro Tools is definitely not the only DAW on the market. Other popular DAWs include Logic, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, and others. Pro Tools isn't even necessarily the "best" DAW. Lots of people feel that other programs (e.g. Logic) are actually a lot better for certain things, like recording MIDI.

So why then does everyone seem to be using Pro Tools these days? Probably a number of reasons, including ruthless marketing tactics by Digidesign. Personally, I think that Pro Tools is laid out in a very simple, straight-forward format. It's easy to look at and get around in.

There are actually two main components to any Pro Tools setup: the software and the hardware interface.

The software is where the actual recording/editing/mixing happens.

The interface is just a piece of equipment that lets you get audio into and out of the software. In our classroom we have two different types of interface: the Mbox2 Minis on the student stations, and the Digi 003 on the instructor station. Even though they look really different, they are still performing the same basic function - audio in/audio out.

Important: Pro Tools will not work if it doesn't have a Digidesign interface connected to the computer!

So today, we're going to do a couple of things with Pro Tools:
1) We're going to record the audio from our sound collecting experiment on Saturday into Pro Tools.
2) We're going to record our own voices into Pro Tools and create audio files that we can use in our beats.

To record from the MiniDisc player into ProTools:

1. Connect the MiniDisc player to Input 1 on your Mbox using the cable provided by the instructor.
   
2. Launch Pro Tools and create a new Pro Tools session: Go to File>New Session.
   
3. Name it like this: City Sounds_11-8-08
   
4. Make a new track by going to Track>New.
   
5. Pro Tools will now have you specify what kind of track you want to make. You want to create 1 Mono Audio track. If you see anything different than this, ask the instructor to take a look. If it looks all good, click Create.
6. On the left side of the track, hit the Record Enable button. It should flash red.
7. Start the Minidisc player and listen to the level going into PT. If it is too low, turn up the Input 1 knob on the front of the Mbox, if it is too high, turn it down. Whatever you do, MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON'T HIT THE RED BOX ON THE TRACK'S VOLUME METER.
   
8. When you get a good level, turn the Minidisc player back to the beginning of the first track.
   
9. Click on the Record button at the top of the Window and then hit the Play button right next to it.
10. Hit Play on the Minidisc player and you should be recording!
11. Let Pro Tools record everything that we recorded on Saturday. When it gets to the end, hit Stop.
12. Save this session by going to File>Save.
13. Save it into your folder and call the session file "(your name)_City Sounds.pts"
14. Give all the equipment to another student and let the instructor know that you are done with this part of the assignment.

Here is today's other assigment:

1. Record 2-3 vocal samples into Pro Tools (the instructor will help you with this).
2. Load your samples into the Media Share folder and copy files into your folder on your computer
3. Open Reason and create a new song.
4. Create a NN19 Sampler
5. In the screen of the NN19 right click and select 'Split Key Zone'.
6. Click on the Key Zone on the left side and click the browse sample button
7. Load one of you two samples
8. Now click on the Key Zone on the right side of your NN19 screen and click the Browse Sample button.
9. Play some of the keys on your keyboard and notice where the pitch changes are happening.
10. Now lets change the key where the sample on the right plays its original pitch.
11. Find the knob called Root Key (under the NN19 screen).
12. Turn the knob until the root key is C4.
13. Your two samples should now play in their original pitches on Keys C3 and C4.
14. Make a beat that incorporates your samples.

History

We have just witnessed history happening. In honor of this notable moment, we are going to spend today using our artistic and musical talents to reflect how we as individuals feel about what has occurred.

Your assignment is to make a beat to go along with President-elect Obama's acceptance speech. Please note that I am not telling you how to feel about this event, I am challenging you to express your own thoughts and feelings through your music. My hope is that we will hear a wide range of musical interpretations of this historic event.

Please do the following:

1. Find the file called "Obama speech.rns" on the Media Share folder and copy it to your computer. (Media Share>Class Materials>Obama speech.rns)
2. Open it.
3. Make a beat to go under it that reflects how you are feeling right now. Include all the things that we have learned in this class so far, including different instruments and FX.
4. Save the file as "(your name)_Obama speech.rns" and put a copy on the Media Share folder.
   

Working with FX (part 2) - Inserts vs. Auxes

So, yesterday we started working with putting some FX on our tracks. We were doing this by directly connecting FX processors to our instruments. Using FX this way is called "Inserting"; you are literally inserting the FX processor in between the instrument and the mixer, like this:

Subtractor -> Scream -> Mixer

There is another way to work with FX, though, that is a little more complicated to explain, but actually a really useful tool for when you're working on your music.

In this method, you connect the FX processor to your Mixer. You can then apply these FX to any instrument coming through the Mixer by turning up the knobs called Auxes.

Aux knobs let you send a certain amount of your signal to the FX processor and then blend the affected (wet) sound with your original (dry) sound. Reason will let you connect up to four different FX processors to the Auxes.

As usual, this sounds way more complicated than it actually is. To use the Auxes, just do the following:

1. Click on the Mixer in the rack to make sure it is highlighted.
2. Go to the Create menu and pick an FX processor (reverb, distortion, delay, etc.). Reason will automatically connect it to the Mixer for you.
   
3. Pay attention to which Aux the processor is connected to. You can tell by looking in the upper right corner of the Mixer where it says "Return".
4. Find the track of the instrument you want to put the effect on and turn up the appropriate Aux knob.

Working with FX (part 1) - basics

So now that we are getting to be experts at putting our songs together we can spend some time concentrating on getting everything to sound just the way we want it to. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add FX Processors to our instruments.

FX Processors are things that you attach to your instruments (Redrums, Subtractors, NN19s, etc.) that change the way they sound. Depending on what kind of music you are trying to make, FX can help your music to sound more exciting (slap!), smoother, or just more unique.

There are lots of different types of FX available to you in Reason. For now, let's just focus on two of them:

1. Reverb - Reverb makes things sound like they are in a big, echoey space like a hallway or a church. It can help instruments or vocals sound more "real", as if they were coming from a real musician playing in a hallway somewhere. To get an idea of what I'm talking about, let's listen to an example of an acapella vocal track that has a lot of reverb on it: link. The reverb processor in Reason is the RV7000. It looks like this:
2. Distortion - Distortion is that gritty, harsh sound that makes things sound more aggressive. It is most commonly heard on guitars in rock music, but it can be put on anything to give it a harder feel. In hip hop, distortion is sometimes used on synthesizers or drums to make them sound more raw and less clean. The distortion processor in Reason is called the Scream. It looks like this:
   

One important thing to keep in mind is that there is usually a knob or a setting that lets you control how much of an effect to put on an instrument. This knob is usually called "Dry/Wet". On the Scream it is called "Damage Control".

Assignment:
Today you're going to use the two types of FX we discussed above in a beat. This beat should include three instruments: a Redrum and two other instruments of your choice (only 1 Dr. Rex please).

1. Start a new Reason file.
2. Create a Redrum and spend 10 minutes making a basic beat.
3. Now create a Subtractor/NN19/etc. and load up a sound you like. Make a short melody (~4 bars) to go with your drums.
4. Now make sure that your Subtractor/NN19 is highlighted in the rack, then go to the Create menu and select the RV7000.
5. Listen to your beat. How does the instrument sound now? If there is too much reverb, turn the Dry/Wet knob towards Dry until you have just the right amount of echo.
   
6. Make create another Subtractor/NN19/etc. and add another few sounds.
7. Make sure that your Subtractor/NN19 is highlighted in the rack, then go to the Create menu and select the Scream.
   
8. For the last step, try putting a Scream, an RV7000 or both on your Redrum.
9. Save the beat to your folder as "(your name)_FX 1.rns"