Spatial processors are all the rage. Just about every effects package comes with some kind of "stereoizer" effect. What do these effects really do? How should they be used? And which ones work the best? I spent some quality time getting my head into this technology, trying to understand what these different tools are doing, how they work, and which ones I like the best.

About Spatial Enhancers

Black and Whites is what BitHeadz calls "a tone module on a disc." What is included is an extensive set of acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes multisamples, along with some string sounds for layering, and a runtime edition of the Unity DS-1 sampler engine.

Unity users can also use Black and Whites as a content CD. Once installed to your Unity directories, Black and Whites appears in the instrument drop boxes just like other Unity instruments.

Dream Station, like ReBirth, gives users analog synthesis technology with built-in pattern based sequencing. It adds another layer to the paradigm, however, and allows users to drive the whole operation via MIDI.

Fuzzy, Buzzy, Fat and Fun

My first thought when introduced to GigaSampler was: why do I need this?

I had become accustomed to manipulating phrase and loop construction in ACID, and had really begun doing all my traditional "sampling tasks" in that environment. Imitative synthesis bores me to tears. Or so I thought.

GigaSampler is valuable for phrase-based sampling, no doubt. You can use giant chunks of audio with no limitations beyond drive space. But that's not what GigaSampler is really about.

Let me give you a little hint about Reaktor. You'll go cuckoo for Coco Puffs if you're an under-the-hood type. I'm going to have to write a bit more about Reaktor than some of the other models, just to explain the paradigm.

If you've been following software synthesis for any amount of time, you've seen Generator. The developers at Native Instruments have been woodshedding their synthesis modeling chops for a while. Reaktor is the combination of Generator and their sample-based product Transformator. I evaluated the Windows version, of course, but both Windows and Macintosh versions arrive on the same CD. For those that "studio hop," a very good deal.

Powerful Paradigm

You may wonder why ReBirth would be getting mention here. It's old news, after all, especially to anyone producing dance tracks.

What's important about this synth is that it quite possibly provided the push that started the revolution.

Before ReBirth, softsynths were strictly for the geek and tweak crowd. ReBirth changed all that, and got musicians all over the world to take notice. In its first edition, ReBirth popped onto your screen with the virtual graphic and sonic equivalent of two Roland 303s and an 808.

Retro AS-1 is a fully programmable virtual analog synth. It runs on PC and Mac platforms, and is capable of 32 voice polyphony. AS-1 is nicely appointed for either live use or for multi-channel configuration with a sequencer.

Retro features a single-page mixer app that makes multitimbral operation a snap. Instruments are assigned in a familiar channel strip fashion, one strip per MIDI channel. Retro ships with a Cakewalk StudioWare console as well, for editing within the sequencing application.

SurReal is a straightforward, single-page, polyphonic virtual MIDI module.

SurReal comes complete with the entire Reality sound set, and utilizes the same synthesizer engine and solid latency / polyphony performance that makes Reality such a workhorse. It also may be the very best and cheapest software Soundfont player available. Soundfont support by Seer Systems is as good as gold, and was developed and tested in cooperation with Emu. You can be sure that a Soundfont played on SurReal will be exactly as its author intended.

Reality users may well find themselves looking towards SurReal as a simple, low-overhead way to load up a full MIDI port. For live performance, it's a great front end.

VAZ definitely wins the award for the least-inspiring company name. Lucky for us, they're packing some powerful juice to offset that little liability.

VAZ is rather legendary in old-school softsynth circles. From freeware to shareware to retail product, they've come of age along the timeline of softsynthesis itself. You can download the earlier VAZ products for cheap or even free via their website. These are nowhere near as full-featured as VAZ Modular 2, but are certainly capable of making great sound.

VAZ Modular 2, the retail flagship of the VAZ line, is modeled after the grand modular synths of the late sixties and seventies. The first time I opened VAZ, I immediately was transported back to late nights at the old Electronic Music Lab, patching cords from module to module on the old Buchla, twisting knobs and trying to make that perfect new sound no one had yet coaxed from the the machine.

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Bruce Richardson

Paul Mahern is a bit of a legend to us "Hoosiers" in this business. He has steadily been turning out very well produced, great sounding albums from right here in the heartland for close to twenty years.

Paul started with Indie-Rock bands like Antenna and The Blake Babies. He worked his way up to bands like the Judybats, The Mysteries Of Life, and the solo releases from Lisa Germano (best known as John Mellencamp's fiddle player). Just last year Paul achieved Indiana nirvana by working on John Mellencamp's most critically acclaimed album in years (his self-titled release and his first for Sony).

I caught up with Paul while he was mixing a project on which I had done some playing, arranging and producing. We were in Culver, Indiana at the Storyk Designed Galt Studios taking a break sitting out by the nearby lake. That's when I started the tape rolling.

So, how did you get started in this business?

You won't see software publishers talk about it in their glossy product brochures or on their web sites. I've never seen it listed in an advertisement, and it is rarely mentioned in magazine product reviews. It affects almost everyone who buys software, yet vendors go to great lengths to avoid talking about it. I'm referring, of course, to software copy protection, the audio industry's dirty little secret. Traditionally, copy protection has been more of a burden for Mac than PC users, but I am greatly disturbed by the recent trend of PC programs to start using copy protection too. Let me state up front that I am vigorously opposed to software piracy, and my objections to copy protection are based solely on its negative impact for legitimate users.

Copy protection comes in many forms, and is an attempt by manufacturers to limit the use of their software to people who actually buy it. The simplest form of protection requires you to enter a serial number when the program is first installed. In practi ... Read More »

The time has come, Gentle Reader, for another rant.

I spend a little time out there on the popular Internet newsgroups, chat rooms, and discussion boards, surfing and listening. I like to lay low and read, and just absorb what people are thinking and saying.

Sometimes, the arrogant audio wannabes rear their ugly heads, and start spouting pure balderdash. The wannabes fall into two camps, who I refer to as the C12s and the 57s.

The C12s are the esoteric gear sluts. These are the guys that claim that everything digital sucks. Except maybe 24 bit recordings made at 192 KHz. Everything solid state sucks - all amplification must be provided by vacuum tubes. Pro Tools really sucks. The only good mics to use for vocals are vintage U67s and C12s, and actually, only certain runs of serial numbers within these products. All mixes should sum to mono. You can't get a good recording unless the room you're in has at least a 16 foot ceiling with at least one room dimension in excess ... Read More »

I was fortunate to receive a matched pair of Crown CM-700s for review almost two months ago. I have spent the better part of those months making extensive use of these microphones, and I am happy to report that we have a serious more-for-less contender in these mics.

Robin Hood Brians is a true Texas character. His studio, Robin Hood Studios in Tyler, Texas has been kicking out some of the great music of the last half-century, and has seen countless changes since its inception in 1963.

Over the years Robin has become a kind of folk hero in Tyler, a modest celebrity whose claim to fame to some of the more non-musical locals is that he has a pizza named after him. If you've never heard of Robin Hood, that's probably because, like any good Texas boy, he's not one for tooting his own horn. He never left Tyler for Nashville, LA, or New York; preferring to remain in his home town and just make music. But Robin has left a mark on music, and is a wealth of history, insights, techniques, and down-home storytelling.

Robin Hood Brians

OK, what could be worse than this?

It's 3 p.m., and I'm sitting in a crammed-to-capacity MD80 on a-the runway at DFW Airport. The Dallas sun is beating harshly on our little airbus, which should already be jetting towards Washington DC. Instead, I'm grounded for an undetermined wait. It's hot, and the plane is losing its delightful freshness by the second. They've locked the booze cabinets and posted guards. The pilot is laughing over the PA, saying that the tower has no information but there are about a hundred airplanes ahead of ours. The tower says one might be able to leave every three minutes. I don't do math, but this does not sound good to me at all.

Screw it, I'm entertaining myself thinking about Vegas. No, not that one. I'm talking about Vegas Pro, Sonic Foundry's entry into the professional multitrack market.

Vegas Unvelied

I'm no technophobe. But, I don't like taking unnecessary chances.

Hey, I've been working with computers for 20 years now. I've learned my lessons the hard way. Like waiting for the first maintenance release before upgrading to a new version of ANY software. And letting a few people try something new before jumping in myself.

There's a reason they call it the "bleeding edge." You can get bled to death with new technology. It's a slow, painful death.

So I waited around until a few people had built their own PC DAWs before taking the plunge myself with an overclocked Celeron 300A and fast UDMA hard disks.

I've been really happy with my Celeron system. I get a solid 24 track playback, with a good amount of real time compression, EQ, reverb, and effects throw in. It's a great system, and I giggle when I realize that I only spent a little more on it than a lot of people spent on their Minidisc ... Read More »

The Internet is exploding with music. Currently, MP3 formatted audio is the most popular Internet attraction, offering high-fidelity digital audio at 1/12th the file size of a standard 16/44.1 stereo digital file. As Internet bandwidth grows, we will also have the option of quickly downloading 16/44.1 uncompressed audio.

There is a misconception that the Internet is going to usher in the New Age of free music for all. Any song you want to hear will become free for the listening. There are even other, more misinformed people who point to FM radio and say, "see, music is already free on the radio - MP3 just gives us better-sounding free music." Ridiculous. Music on FM isn't free. You have to pay for it. You pay by listening to advertisements and buying products. Money flows from you to advertisers to radio stations to publishing companies and eventually to artists.

Others point to the record labels who are the chief beneficiaries of the current system and remark th ... Read More »

There is a great movie from the late 1970s called "One Trick Pony." It stars Paul Simon as a folk singer/songwriter (a real acting stretch for Mr. Simon) trying to get back onto the charts. It follows his trials and tribulations, and we suffer along with him, as the producers and record labels turn his wonderful little song into a disco nightmare. There is a terrific final scene where a roll of 2-inch tape is being unwound down the streets of Manhattan.

This movie should be required viewing for all of us who ever sit in the producer's chair. It shows that the best thing you can do for a client is work with them, not against them.

I suppose this could be a pretty gutsy article, after all, I may have to fess up to mistakes of my past. I freely admit to making a few, only because I have learned from them. Thus, I feel I may be able to share the knowledge of my mistakes in the hopes that those up-and-coming producers out there will not be doomed to repeating them.

Pre-Producti ... Read More »

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Bob Lichty

Welcome back to the ProRec Roundtable, the quarterly convention of the ProRec Collective Consciousness. This summer, we have Joel Braverman, Lionel Dumond, Pete Leoni, Bob Lichty, Ted Perlman, Rip Rowan, and Garry Simmons. OK, guys, gloves off. Here comes the topic:

Currently the consumer audio market is being pulled from two directions. The pro audio manufacturers have released Digital Versatile Disc - DVD - capable of better-than-CD-quality 24 bits @ 96 KHz sampling rate. On the other hand, the Internet has given us the less-than-CD-quality MP3 compressed audio format.Over the last year we have seen an explosi ... Read More »

Despite my glowing, youthful appearance, I harbor an ever increasing affinity for what can only be deemed, "old-school ways."

You see, because of the way I tend to work on projects (lay down click tracks and sequences in one place, do tracking at one place, overdubs at a few more places, mix elsewhere), I'm still one of those holdouts with some ADATs and that ancient beast, a mixing console. Yes, while many of my comrades are marching into battle armed with "SCSIs, plug-ins, HUIs, GUIs and LOUIEs," I still love my buttons and knobs and the familiar whir of the tape transport.

So, when the age of the affordable digital console dawned, I was excited. I mean, I may be old school, but I certainly realize the benefits of a good digital console.

The problem is, in these early digital boards, the word "good" just wasn't easily included in the description. These early desks were, shall we say, "engineering driven." Some guys in lab coats in the back rooms of Big Audio Conglomerate, I ... Read More »