Tempus Fugit
I have to write this down before I forget...
30 January 2005

NAMM:: As expected, the NAMM report is delayed again. I caught a bit of a chest cold on the last night (perhaps even on the plane flight back home), and I've been busy with other commitments this week. So, I apologize in advance if this report seems a little less informative than in years past.

Obviously, the big news for me was the announcement of Reason 3.0 at the props booth. Things were buzzing around the booth which featured the cool new display racks constructed from aluminum frames and panels to look like an equipment rack. Judging from the questions being asked, people still don't quite understand what the combinator is. I people are always expecting some kind of new synthesizer device in each major version release, and the concept of the combinator is a tad too abstract unless they are able to see the potential.


The main improvements to Reason 3 is the series of mastering effects including a real compressor! There will be no more complaints about about levels in Reason since now you can squeeze the hell out of the dynamic range in R3 and push the VU up to full scale.

Also, let's not forget Remote, a new technology designed to simplify midi implementation from various keyboard controllers to make the rotary encoders and sliders from different devices easily recognized in Reason. Remote will also eliminate some (maybe not all) oddball control behaviour that people experienced in Reason 2.5.

The sequencer has been modified (although i feel it could use further improvement - perhaps in R4) so now you can record automation on multiple tracks simulataneously! Yes, you can record level changes and filter sweeps all in one pass now!

There is also a significant change to the Factory Sound Bank as well which includes a bunch of new patches for the old devices, new Combinator patches, and a lot of new samples and REX files. This was the big project I've been working on the last few months with an impressive group of sound designers.

Yes, since October, I've been busy working on a sound design project for R3 along with other names you would recognize like Raapie, Eric, and Andras of the Melodiefabriek crew, James Bernard, the Flatpack crew, and others. This is the reason why there have been very few updates in the last half of a year. I had the opportunity to meet GW Childs, who was also involved in the project. GW's day job is with Lucas Arts where he uses Reason on a lot of the games they develop like Knights of the Republic. GW said theres a lot of BV512 vocoder in that game!

My friends from Bitplant made it to California from Germany. It's always good to see Thomas, Wolfgang and Sandra, but nina had to stay back to take care of her new puppy. Since Reason 1.0, the list of clients at NAMM has grown quite a bit, and several companies were displaying products with new Bitplant creations.

At AES in San Francisco, Universal Audio was showing the precision limiter that featured a Bitplant GUI, and at NAMM they featured the Precision EQ and EMT Plate reverb plug ins for the UAD-1. Both of these are also Bitplant creations.

Yes, they've come a long way since the Infernalizer ReBirth Mod!

We dropped by to see our friends at Arturia who had the release of their ARP 2600 plug-in availalble. Once again they had problems with shipping and some of their display material didn't come in until the next day. Sadly, they also had a problem with their Plasma display that burned out when they plugged it in.

We were walking by the Cakewalk booth, and I looked over at the plasma display and saw something that looked like a bitplant GUI. I told Thomas, "That looks like one of yours." and he replied, "Well, Ok. I did not think it was ready for the show." Cakewalk was demoing the new synth for Project 5.

Thomas pictured with his GUI work.

GW introduced me to Mike Prager, author of "Reason 2.5, Power!" who is now working for Cakewalk.


I didn't really look too hard for new stuff, but usually word spreads around the floor about something new and exciting. I hate to say it, but there wasn't a lot of new technology being introduced at NAMM in terms of software, but Additive synthesis looks like it's finally becoming a viable system as computers become faster.

Thomas introduced me to Ben Gillett of Camel Audio. Ben has developed an additive synth plug-in called the Cameleon 5000. Cameleon 5000 allows you to import audio files for harmonic analysis as a template for the resynthesis engine. There's also a morphing feature which allows you to transition between four different sounds--much like the old vector based systems like the TG-33, Prophet VS, and Wavestation. I like this one so much that i bought a copy!

Synful Orchestra from the company of the same name is a VST/DXI plug in that uses a unique technology based on additive synthesis to create an amazingly realistic sounding orchestra. The developer calls it, "Reconstructive Phrase Modelling", and it uses a database of harmonic and noise information that is accessed to build a template of the sound for resynthesis. Synful will read a group of midi note in order to determine how they are played, then resynthsize the sound to reflect pitch and expression changes between notes. Violin bowing, and woodwind chiffs are amazingly natural sounding.

Waves introduced Q-clone at the show which is a very interesting plug-in for hardcore hardware users. This plug uses FIR technology to analyze your favorite Neve, GML, Pultec equalizers, and create a model based on the eq settings. Once the model is set, it can be assigned to a track and the eq can be reapplied to a different track. In essence, your entire PT session can sound as if it's running through very nice equalizers.


Although it's not new, I had a chance to checkout Serato Scratch Studio edition for Pro Tools. Apparently the Studio edition doesn't require any hardware, so you plug the turntable directly into your Digi interface like an 002 or MBox, and you're set.

I can see this as a powerful production tool since you can drag over the beat track from a PT session and start scratching away. It almost makes me want to get a turntable :-)


I'm sure by now, everyone has heard of Melodyne from Celemony Software. It's the really innovative recording and pitch editing software from a small german company that costs about $1000--until now! Celemony has made a "Lite" edition called Melodyne Uno retailing for $199. Now there's no excuse for me not to get it! The Studio edition has also been reduced in price. Celemony also introduced a new sampler plugin called "Liquid" which is based on the melodyne engine. This has a lot of promise in terms of sampler technology!

Lemur Control Surface was being demonstrated at the Cycling 74 booth. This is the controller of the future! It's a touch sensitive LCD display, but unlike other surfaces that require a stylus, the Lemur can receive multiple point messages simultaneously. The control surface design is currently limited to a variety of widget types, but will eventually be customizable. It's interfaced via an ethernet cable using the Open Sound Control protocol. I probably mentioned OSC a few years ago when i took that Max/MSP nightclass at CNMAT.

That Oasys thing is a beast so i ignored it...Even some people at Korg poo-poo'd it because the sound designers didn't push it's limits. What looked really intriguing was the Korg Kontrol49. This unit has full size keys and the drum pad interface. It looks like it will be a popular control station for products like Reason. Especially when Remote features duplex communication protocols to send control name ids back to the slider LCD displays.

The Clavia Nord Modular G2 synths are very enticing. This was the first time i've had the chance to play with one. Clavia was also announcing the demo version of the G2 software for MacOS X.


I must confess that i'm not a huge fan of the Access stuff, but their keyboards do have a really nice feel and their new series of TI keyboards have some intriguing new features. The Access Virus TI is still a virus with USB DSP hosting capabilities. There's a plug-in remote that you access from your sequencer. Whats more is that the Virus TI can act as a 24bit/192khz audio interface as well as a controller and synthesizer. Pictured is the Polar version.

The highlight of the show for me was seeing the Buchla 200e Modular. I was corresponding with a friend earlier that week who told me that Roger from Big City Music, drove from LA to Oakland and back to pick up a unit for display at the show.

Dave Smith Instruments has introduced a keyboard version of the Poly evolver...Yes, it's phat like the evolver, but big with knobs for just about every parameter. Sure it's still only 4 voices, but it's from the legendary Dave Smith...

Metasonix Butt Probe... Well, let's just say that it's another one of those boxes from Eric Barbor with unique graphics and control features that match the unique sound of the device. For those who missed out on the Agonizer, Metasonix has a new batch of "Special Unacceptable Edition" agonizers as well.

The new -- yes new -- Mellotron mk VI! Built just like the classics complete with tape bays! Coincidentally these are also manufactured in Stockholm, Sweden! The new mellotrons feature mechanical and electronic improvements to insure better reliability than the older units, and the tapes from the mellotron and chamberlin libraries have been remastered and made available for these new units.


Now that Apple has aquired emagic, there is a mini mac world for audio geeks at NAMM. I had a chance to see the new MiniMac / G4 Happy Meal. It's a quaint looking little box.

There were some demos about Tiger features for Audio which look really promising including simulatneous support for multiple audio interfaces so you can use different firewire boxes and pci cards at the same time.

Moog Music, Inc. introduced the Voyager Rackmount. These are quite nice especially if you own they keyboard Minimoog Voyager. You can chain controls and get some really fat sounds with multiple Minimoogs.

I also had a chance to play with the new etherwave which is just great. It has CV outputs so you can control your voyager or moogerfoogers using the pitch and dynamics arials.
On a little side note, I was standing outside having a cigarette when this guy approached me for a smoke. I looked at his name tag that said "Hans", and I inquired why his name looked familiar to me. It turns out this was the filmmaker, Hans Fjellestad, the director of the Moog Documentary. We chatted a bit about the soundtrack since Tortoise did a track for the film, and he said it's a beautiful piece that comes at a crucial point in the film. Hans informed me that the DVD will be released sometime in May!


Radikal Technologies occupied the booth next to Moog where Jörg Schaaf introduced his new synth/sequencer box called the Spectralis. This thing uses digital oscillators and analog filters to create a really massive sound along the lines of the classic Waldorf stuff. There's also a sequencer and sampler built in with 64megs of ram which can be loaded via USB or flash memory cards. It's slightly retro, but fairly easy to navigate with the rotary encoders you push to instantly access the menu page on the LCD.

At the end of the show, I ran into my old friend, Garth May, who was at the show with Way Out Ware. Jim Heintz was introducing his own little virtual Arp 2600 plugin called the TimewARP 2600. It looks and sounds pretty damn cool. Ironically, Jim confessed that his filter circuit was modelled after the moog filter and not arp filter circuit. There was a little patent issue where ARP used Moog's famous circuit for the filter. There's probably plans for a future version with an ARP model filter.

I had the opportunity to meet up with a fellow Backbeat books author, Chilitos, who wrote the Complete Pro Tools Handbook. Chilitos and his crew also run the Audio Graph International training center in Santa Monica where they are planning to give lessons in Reason using my book! I told him that I'd be happy to come down and give a lecture one of these days.

We tried to meet up throughout the show and kept missing each other, but I finally met up with Matt from Loopmasters. If you haven't tried their sample libraries, they are worth a look.


19 January 2005

Not entirely happy with the mix of Goh's track, I spent the better part of last week tweaking it and coming up with different variations. In the end, we decided that it was best to leave the untouched track on the REDD47 site, because it better reflects what you would hear recording through the pre.

I've also been busy getting ready to go to NAMM in Anaheim, CA. This should be a busy trip for me, so I'm not sure if I will get around to putting together the usual report. Tage and Stefan from the Propellerheads arrived in the states last week. They were on their Annual "the Puff" rural California tour. They had a gig in Bakersfield last Friday, and I was planning to catch their second gig in Modesto. I guess the Modesto gig was cancelled, so I'll be catching up with them in Anaheim.

11 January 2005

I was back doing some tracking in the Studer Room at the Expression college in Emeryville, CA. hmm, i guess i never talked about the last time I was there since that was a secret project ;-). I guess the schedule is getting really full and my friend, Carson could only schedule us in during the morning from 6:00am to Noon...not exactly musician hours. We were there to record an audio demonstration of the John Hinson REDD.47 mic pre with Goh Nakamura tracking his song "Surrogate Valentine". It's a really nice song with Goh performing guitar and singing - shameless plug - available on his CD, Daylight Savings. We've been trying to get this project done for several months now, and finally our schedules coincided where the studio was available, and Goh, John, and I could all be present. John has been making some modifications to the preamp, so I didn't have one with me for the session. He was planning to bring it along in the morning after doing some tweakhead modifications.

I picked up Carson around 6:30am and we drove over to Emeryville to check in and start setting up. I brought along my AKG C12 vr, and my Apogee Trak2 (since we didn't have time to figure out how bypass the analog stage of Studer Console Converters). Goh arrived around 8:00am and I received a call from John saying that he would be there around 9:30. It seemed a little tight but 2.5 hours seemed sufficient time to do several takes of a 3 minute track. After we got the tie lines set and general mic placement finished, we went out for some coffee while we waited for John to arrive.

9:30 came and went... John had yet to arrive.

10:00 - John still not there... I was starting to worry.

10:30 - John still unaccounted for... I said it would be a waste to not do any recording so we went in started doing some takes of the song. In the back of my mind, i was thinking that Goh should do some warm up takes in the event that John shows up at the last minute.

We tracked Goh's vox through the AKG C-12 VR and his guitar through a Neumann M-149.

Cool tip - Bring along a digital camera to sessions so you can photographically archive mic placement :-)

10:51 - I get a call from John saying that he's in a Taxi and can't find the place...somewhat releived to hear that he's only five minutes away, I gave him directions and ran out to the street to flag him down!

10:59 - John arrives with this box that doesn't even have the top screwed down and is missing some of the controls. Keeping a fairly calm face, I asked John if everything was ok. He tells me that he had been up all night tweaking the box was working on two hours sleep. He had been driving around the neighborhood in a taxi trying to find the place. I felt bad since i gave him weird directions. I wasn't familiar on how to navigate to the facility from his home.

This morning he inadvertently plugged the unit into a 240 volt Step Up transformer and blew Up the power supply! He ended up bringing a prototype of the next generation REDD.47 that he managed to put together that morning with a new power supply design and a modified signal path. Since the enclosure wasn't screwed down, I peeked inside to see some very pleasing hefty caps. As usual, John had a pocketful of spare tubes to tweak with, but we were running short on time.

11:07 - We get in the studio, and get the unit ready to track, Goh. I said that we would need 20 minutes to let the unit warm up, but John informed me that the unit had been running all morning and he was wiring it together live with the 300 volt power supply warming the heaters! So we went right into it, and started doing a few takes.

John and Carson in the control room listening to the vocal takes.

We tried one take with a click track, but the song didn't feel right, so I had Goh lay down the guitar track freestyle before we started dubbing the vocal track and backing vocals. We only had time to do 3 vocal tracks with only one lead vocal. I wasn't too crazy about the tone on the first guitar take, so I popped in to find a new mic placement on the guitar. I found the spot and turned to see Carson giving me the "cutthroat - ok" sign, meaning Stop dammit, that's perfect! We forgot to take levels again, and the first take was a little quite, so we had him do one more, and by the time Goh finished the second guitar track it was 11:58.

Even though it was long day, i managed to work on a rough mixdown of the session on Sunday night. It's basically the raw tracks panned and level automation set in protools. Although tempted to run it through some compression and eq and reverb, I basically left the tracks unadulterated (other than a few timing edits). Goh wants to redo the session because of pitch and timing issues, and i agree that things would have worked better if we had another hour to do a second session, but considering we tracked the song in less than hour, I'm pretty pleased that we managed to walk away with something!

The MP3 file is now online at REDD47.com

7 January 2005 - Whoa another new Year!

I hope everyone had a nice new year, despite the War and Tsunami tragedies. My new years has been busy. I'm stuck doing more community "Volunteer" work because the my predecessors are starting to go into retirement, and I feel somewhat compelled to carry on some of the traditions. Tack on a few other committments and end-of-year work stuff, and this made my New Years pretty hectic. I did manage to have a very nice New Years Eve with my friend at a quiet dinner at our favourite restaurant, Masa's, that turned into a pretty chaotic party.

I had to help out with a funeral this week for a lady in our community who recently passed on. I do this a lot, and so I'm quite familiar with the logistics, however this one was slightly different. Where is this going?, one might ask. Even though it appears to be irrelevant to sound and audio, in the end it is...Normally there is an organist who adds ambient music for the processional, hymms, and recessional, however she was unavailable for this service. So I was appointed as the service DJ. I kept thinking that I should put the tracks on the iPod and have them cued up, but time was short so I just used the CD players. The funeral home has been around for a long time, and they use this fantastic old audio equipment for their PA system, and in the corner I found an old portable Ampex 1/4" tape machine. It's nothing really special and only runs at 3.5/7 ips, but the director is willing to let it go, provided that I transfer the music from the old tapes over to CD for their library ;-)

I've also been doing a favor for a friend, Bill, who has these old cassette tapes of Japanese Folk Music he wants transferred over to CD. Normally i wouldn't do this for anyone, but Bill has been so incredibly helpful to my family, that I wouldn't hesistate to return some of his kindness. I had to dig out the old Cassette deck and had it run through the trak2. These tapes were dubbed from other cassettes, so they needed a little restoration, but otherwise, they sounded fine considering the original recordings were probably 30 years old. Bill's hearing is a little bad, and I joked with him that I could adjust the audio quality so that he could hear them better ;-)

I'm getting ready to go back into the studio to do some production work with a local artist, Goh Nakamura, a fantastic songwriter who has the "Beatles" Vibe nailed! Goh has agreed to let us record and use his songs to demonstrate John Hinson's REDD.47 Mic Pre. We're going to put the tracks up on the REDD47.com site so that people can get a better idea of what the preamp sounds like. This should be pretty cool, but I'm a little concerned about tracking guitars with it, since I haven't had much time experiment with guitars and mics. I'm hoping that John will bring in a stereo pair of REDD47 pres to the session, this would be really cool to mess with!

Back on the electronic front, Mike at Yourbeats.com, has asked me to be a judge for his recent remix contest. The site is pretty cool and provides sample downloads. I did a preliminary listen with my cousins to get their reaction to some of the tracks, but my ears are not quite tuned to their sound system. I took another listen at my workstation but found myself judging the tracks based on a mere few seconds that caught my attention. Inspired from a recent project where people ranked sounds, I devised a little voting system that helped me keep track of points that I like and dislike. This seemed to work out fairly accurately, but it really narrowed the margin between my top choices by a few tenths of a point. Anyhoo, people should just check out the site and sign up for the weekly sample downloads ;-)

26 December 2004 - Happy Holidays!

Yes, it's been awhile since the last entry. I've been totally immersed in a project that has spanned the last few months and it's taken awhile to decompress from this one. I didn't realize how much energy it would require, but rest assured, i'm pretty pleased with the results. After spending just about every day at the workstation, I've had to get away from the box and learn to resocialize with the normal functioning world again, so this holiday has been fairly fun spending time with friends and family. I hope everyone else has had the opportunity to do the same.

So, I guess the big news is that Reason 3.0 has been announced by the Props! There are several new MClass Mastering devices and the Combinator device which all look very enticing. I personally like the fact that there's a proper VU/Peak level meter on the Maximizer module, and a proper compressor module that will let you get contour the dynamics in Reason tracks. This alone is going to make a huge difference. The Combinator looks like it has the potential to be very powerful as well. Anyone who has read Power Tools for Reason 2.5, will understand that I'm a huge advocate of crazy wiring schemes, and the combinator will let you nest some crazy multidevice effects and synth stacks in one neat device. It's almost like the developers were reading my mind ;-)

Anyhoo, the big question for many people is whether or not Power Tools for Reason 2.5 will be obsolete, and will there be a companion or revision for Reason 3.0? Well, i'm not exactly sure yet, because I would hate to have people, who purchased the book for 2.5, feel like they will be getting the same information recanned into another title. Writing a complete revision would be a possibility, however, the likeliest compromise would be the same format and introductions with updates for the new devices and a completely new set of examples that incorporate the new devices. I had written an entire chapter on Mastering with the devices in Reason 2.5 which was not included in the current edition, and this will likely be amended in the second edition. Some information from Power Tools for Reason 2.5 will be omitted in the Reason 3.X title. There are page number limitation and stuff that I have to follow, but of course this all depends on what kind of agreement my publisher offers...

5 November 2004

TXT:: I've installed 2 gigs of RAM into the G5 today, and I've noticed a significant improvement in performance. Now, I can run the 24bit version of Reason Drum Kits without crippling the system. I'm actually quite surpised to hear a noticable difference. The 16bit version of RDK is great, but the 24bit version is really stunning when you start doing delicate dynamic stuff with hi hats and cymbals. I also cleared out the growing rats nest of cables under the workstation. I've moved my old G4 tower into another room and set it up as a file sharing server with no keyboard and no mouse. It just sits on the network via airport, so i can grab old files off as necessary. I left my mp3/aac music library on the old tower and and iTunes not only plays , but let's me rip to the box without problems across the network. It's Amazing how technology has become so streamlined.

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