Book Description
This comprehensive reference features all the major audio software: SONAR XL; Cubase SX; Logic Audio Platinum; Digital Performer; Nuendo; Pro Tools; Peak; Spark XL; SonicWorx; Audition (Cool Edit Pro); WaveLab; Sound Forge.
If you need advice on which systems to purchase, which are most suitable for particular projects, and on moving between platforms mid-project, this book should be your one-stop reference. Mike Collins is a trainer and consultant who has been tackling these issues for years and his expert advice will save you time and money.
Each section covers a specific system, providing a handy overview of its key features and benefits, including help with setup. "Hints" and "Tips" appear throughout these sections, addressing issues such as how to record drum loops using a virtual drum-machine, recording basslines and keyboard pads using virtual synthesizers, and adding strings, brass or other instruments using virtual samplers. Mike then illustrates how to convert these MIDI recordings into audio tracks to mix alongside vocals, guitars and any other real instruments. The many short tutorials provide both a source of comparison and means to get up to speed fast on any given software.
Mike Collins is a music technology consultant and writer who has been making music in London's recording studios variously as a MIDI programmer, session musician, recording engineer, producer and arranger since 1981. He offers freelance Pro Tools engineering, consultancy, troubleshooting and personal tuition, as well as presenting seminars and lectures on related music technology and audio recording topics. Mike has written over 500 articles for magazines such as Macworld (UK), Pro Sound News Europe, Sound on Sound and AudioMedia, and for Electronic Musician and MIX in the USA.
Mike's wide-ranging career and experience enables him to bring excellent insight from all sides into his writing, from technical detail to creative expression. Starting out as a musician and club DJ in the 1970's, Mike moved into professional recording in the 1980's, initially as a Songwriter/Producer for EMI Records. Later he worked as a Songwriter for Chappell Music; as a Film Sound Consultant for Dolby Labs; as a Music Producer for TV recordings; and as Senior Recording Engineer and Music Technology Specialist at Yamaha's London R & D Studio. Throughout the 1990's Mike worked as a MIDI Programmer on records, films and music tours with bands such as the Shamen and film composers such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Arnold. Mike was Executive Consultant to Re-Pro (The Guild of Record Producers and Engineers) between 1996 and 1999 and Technical Consultant to the Music Producers Guild (MPG), contributing to the Education Group and organising and presenting Technical Seminars between 1999 and 2002. He has a BSc in Electroacoustics and an MSc in Music Information Technology.
Table of Contents
- Cover
- Halftitle
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1: Background
- 1 A Little History
- MIDI sequencers
- Scorewriters
- Hard disk recorders
- More music scoring
- Virtual studios: multi-track audio recording, editing and mixing
- Waveform editors
- Goodbye Studio Vision, hello Nuendo …
- Pro Tools finally becomes professional
- And then came Pro Tools HD, and we waited, and waited, and waited …
- The main players
- Honourable mentions
- Ownership
- Applications
- 2 What’s Out There
- Overviews
- Host platforms
- Audio waveform editors
- Mac waveform editors
- PC waveform editors
- And the rest …
- Music scoring
- How to make comparisons
- Choices
- Which software?
- Mac or PC?
- Part 2: MIDI + Audio Software
- 3 Cakewalk SONAR XL
- Overview
- User interface
- Automation
- More views
- The Process menu
- More menus
- Virtual instruments
- Plug-ins
- Working with video
- OMF import and export
- Conclusion
- SONAR tutorial
- Configuring your MIDI + Audio hardware
- Optimizing for lowest latencies
- Archiving unused audio tracks
- Importing loops
- Working with Groove clips
- Using the Loop Construction window
- Using SONAR’s software synthesizers
- Converting DXi tracks to audio
- Exporting audio from SONAR
- Summary
- 4 Cubase SX
- Overview
- The Project window
- The Sample Editor
- The MIDI editors
- Even more editors …
- Fades
- The Project Browser
- The Mixer
- True Tape
- Autosave
- The menus
- Plug-ins and virtual instruments
- Cubase SX tutorial
- Audio and MIDI hardware
- My setup
- Optimizing for lowest latencies
- Getting started
- Recording virtual instruments as MIDI tracks
- Recording virtual instruments as audio
- Recording audio
- Mixing audio and MIDI
- The Pool
- Inserting audio from the Pool into tracks
- Offline processing
- Freeze edits
- Using Export Audio to create final mixes or stems
- Summary
- 5 Logic Audio Platinum
- Overview
- Setup
- Opening Logic files from other setups
- Audio hardware and Drivers Preferences
- Mac OSX Audio MIDI
- User interface
- Recording basics
- Monitoring
- Monitoring with effects
- Recording with effects
- The Arrange window
- The mixers
- Setting up Instrument channels in the Environment
- The Parametric Channel EQ
- Creating audio input channels
- More features
- Save As Project
- Project Manager
- Freeze
- Offline Bounce
- ReWire 2
- Routing MIDI tracks to ReWire destinations
- Routing audio inputs from ReWire Instruments into Logic’s Audio Mixer
- ReWire Master & Slave
- Audio Instruments
- Conclusion
- Tutorial
- Overdubbing a real bass guitar to double a synth bass
- Editing overlapping regions
- Applying crossfades
- Using the scissors tool
- Moving Audio regions around in Logic’s Arrange window
- Moving Audio regions around using Logic’s Event List
- Moving regions back to their originally recorded positions
- Scrubbing Audio to find edit points
- Accurate editing
- Fixing a note played late
- Fine-tuning edit points (with Update Arrange Position off)
- Fine-tuning edit points (with Update Arrange Position on)
- Bouncing an edited track to disk
- Stop the sequence
- Multiple sessions
- EXS24 Sampler tutorial
- Using the EXS24 Sampler
- Bouncing files to disk
- Creating a Logic Audio Instrument
- Creating a Group
- Multiple Zones and Groups
- EXS24 Instrument Editor
- EXS24 files
- Converting files from Akai CD-ROMs
- Automation
- Editor view
- Controls view
- Troubleshooting
- Summary
- 6 Digital Performer
- Overview
- Freeze tracks
- User interface tools
- The windows
- Control Panel and Tracks windows
- Control Panel
- Tracks window
- Voices
- Voice allocation
- The Mixing Board
- Spectral Effects
- Plug-in effects
- Editors
- The Sequence Editor
- The Event List Editor
- The Graphic Editor
- The Drum Editor
- The Notation Editor
- QuickScribe
- The Markers window
- Soundbites
- The Waveform Editor
- The Chunks window
- The POLAR window
- Open/Save File formats
- The menus
- The File menu
- The Edit menu
- The Region menu
- The Audio menu
- The Project menu
- The Studio menu
- The Setup menu
- The Windows menu
- ReWire tutorial
- Tempo tutorial
- Summary
- 7 Nuendo
- Overview
- Nuendo terminology
- The Project window
- The Sample Editor
- The Audio Part Editor
- The Mixer
- Automation
- The menus
- The File menu
- The Edit menu
- The Project menu
- The Audio menu
- The MIDI menu
- The Scores menu
- The Pool menu
- The Transport menu
- The Devices menu
- The Window menu
- The Help menu
- Video
- Virtual Instruments and ReWire
- Exporting your work
- Nuendo vs Cubase SX
- Tutorial
- Getting started
- Setting up
- Setting up effects sends and returns
- Group channels
- Working with VST Instruments
- Summary
- 8 Pro Tools
- Overview
- The Mix window
- The Edit window
- The Transport window
- The rulers
- Setting tempo and meter
- Using the Click
- New features for Pro Tools 6 TDM
- Browser, browser, browser …
- Editing features
- Playback Cursor Locator
- MIDI features
- Plug-ins and processing
- ReWire
- Saving sessions
- Moving Pro Tools sessions between systems
- Import Session Data
- File import and export
- OMFI and AAF
- The System Usage window
- The Session Setup window
- The menus
- The Pro Tools menu
- The File menu
- The Edit menu
- The AudioSuite menu
- The MIDI menu
- The Movie menu
- The Operations menu
- The Setups menu
- The Display menu
- The Windows menu
- Tutorials
- Importing tracks from CD into Pro Tools
- Import Audio From Other Movie …
- Importing audio using DigiBase Drag & Drop
- MIDI Setup
- Setting up to record MIDI into Pro Tools on the Mac
- Recording onto a MIDI track
- Playing back a recorded MIDI track
- Summary
- Part 3: Audio Waveform Editors
- 9 Berkley Integrated Audio Software (BIAS) Peak
- Introduction
- File formats
- Preferences dialog
- Options menu
- Transport controls
- Audio menu
- Recording audio
- Alternative audio I/O settings
- CD audio extraction
- The user interface
- Waveform editing concepts
- Operational aspects
- Looping features
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Plug-ins
- VBox
- TDM versions
- De-noising
- Level meter
- Audio analysis tools
- Akai CD-Rom import
- Batch processing
- Sampler support
- Playlist features
- Creating a new audio document from a playlist
- Exporting the playlist as a text document
- CD burning
- Using Jam with Peak
- Internet audio
- QuickTime video
- Summary
- 10 TC|Works Spark XL
- Introduction
- File formats
- The user interface
- Transport controls
- Looping features
- The Loop window
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Plug-ins
- Spark FXMachine
- De-noising
- Level meters
- Audio analysis tools
- Akai CD-ROM import
- Batch processing
- Sampler support
- Multi-track operation
- Playlist
- CD burning
- Using an external CD-burning application
- Working with high resolution recordings
- Dither and noise shaping
- Internet audio
- Summary
- 11 Prosoniq sonicWORX
- Introduction
- File formats
- Record audio
- Importing audio from CD
- Waveform editor
- Looping features
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Real-time DSP plug-ins
- De-noising
- Level meter
- Audio analysis tools
- Akai CD-ROM import
- Batch processing
- Sampler support
- Playlist
- CD burning
- Internet audio
- Unique features
- Summary
- 12 Adobe Audition (Cool Edit Pro)
- Introduction
- File handling
- Getting started
- User interface
- The waveform editor
- The Waveform View
- The Spectral View
- Using Edit mode
- Topping and tailing
- Wave Properties
- Looping features
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Plug-ins
- De-noising
- Audio analysis tools
- Batch processing
- Sampler support
- Cue List
- Play List
- Multi-track editing
- The menus in Multitrack mode
- The Effects menu
- Frequency Band Splitter
- Vocoder
- Envelope Follower
- Mixers
- CD burning
- Summary
- 13 WaveLab Audio Editing Suite
- Introduction
- File formats
- Waveform editor
- Markers
- The Edit menu
- Audio Signal Generator
- DTMF Generator
- Databases
- Workspaces
- Backup
- Looping features
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Plug-ins
- De-noising
- Audio analysis tools
- Batch processing
- Samplers
- The Audio Montage
- Grabbing audio from a CD
- CD burning
- Summary
- 14 Sonic Foundry Sound Forge
- Introduction
- File formats
- Extract audio from CD
- Recording
- How to choose an input device and adjust levels
- Waveform editor
- Simple synthesis
- FM synthesis
- Generating telephone tones
- Looping features
- Undo features
- DSP effects
- Acoustic Mirror
- Wave Hammer
- De-noising
- Level meters
- Audio analysis tools
- Batch processing
- Sampler support
- Multi-track operation
- Working with video
- Playlist
- Burning a basic CD
- Summary
- Appendices
- 1 Transferring Projects Between Applications
- 2 Music Scoring with Sibelius
- 3 Music Scoring with Finale
- Bibliography
- Web Contacts
- Index