17 September 2010
Bent 6 is rising from the ashes
Or at least full of drywall dust. Finishing off the drywall in the next couple of days. Hoping to be operational within a week to a week and a half!
28 May 2010
Embarking on new projects
I'm happy to be working on another production for American Blackguard. I'm currently composing the score to a short ("Bringing Daddy Home: The Call"). I'm thankful for laptops considering the current state of the studio!
27 May 2010
Studio Update
Most of the drywall below 4 feet from the floor is gone. Found mold. I think I got it cleaned out, but you never know...
Uggh...
Projects waiting, working to get up and running asap.
Uggh...
Projects waiting, working to get up and running asap.
05 May 2010
Bent 6 setbacks
Bummer! You may have heard about the flooding in the Nashville Tennessee area. It shouldn't have been such a big deal for us personally as Bent 6 is in a basement of a building on a hill. However an estimated 18" of rain in a weekend caused saturation of the ground to such an extent that the effective water table rose into the studio.
We had to tear out all of the laminate flooring (currently warped and laying in the driveway) and are trying to dry out the rooms as quickly as possible. Thanks to all the great folks who are lending us extra dehumidifiers!
We had to tear out all of the laminate flooring (currently warped and laying in the driveway) and are trying to dry out the rooms as quickly as possible. Thanks to all the great folks who are lending us extra dehumidifiers!
13 March 2010
Choosing a DAW system, part I
Choosing a DAW is a tricky situation these days. To be honest, most everything on the market does 90% of the functions you need in an everyday situation. What it comes down to is particular features you need, look & feel, and computer system you want to use.
Obviously most of the DAWs available are for Mac and PC systems. I personally have spent the last 20 years working on Mac-based DAWs, so that's where my expertise really lies. However, I'm not a snob about it. A computer is a tool. If I were to find I needed to use a DAW that was PC only, I wouldn't hesitate. Besides, I've been hearing good things regarding Windows 7.
Let's start with the Mac.
Pro Tools On the Mac, the biggest player is Avid/Digidesign's Pro Tools. It is available in three variants, the fully professional TDM systems known as Pro Tools HD, the mid-level systems (which are more than capable for 90% of users) referred to as the LE rigs, and the M-powered systems which run on select M-Audio hardware.
Pro Tools (which is up to version 8.x as of this writing) first hit the scene in late 1991 and was a Macintosh only system consisting of software and matched hardware. The hardware consisted of at least one I/O breakout box and a card (or two, or three...) installed inside the computer. Digidesign developed this method to provide the computer horsepower needed to process the audio and do the internal mixing on computers which, by all rights, shouldn't have been able to do so at that point in time. (My first PT rig, from 1995, ran on an 80MHz computer with 24MB of RAM... Really.)
This methodology came from Digidesign's background. They first provided replacement sample chips for the Linn Drum and other drum machines. Later, they created software called Sound Designer, which allowed you to off-load samples from your Emulator II (or others available at the time) to a Mac where you could do visual editing, looping, and all of those other things that were nigh impossible on the samplers of the day. (For an exercise in masochism, try multi-sampling on an Ensoniq Mirage without a computer.)
In the tradition of cutting out the middleman, Digi realized that what they had could be even more powerful if they removed the sampler from the equation and allowed recording and playback directly from the computer. This required some hardware acceleration and specialized I/O, but was the germ of a successful product they called Sound Tools. Quite simply, it was a rather nifty stereo editor that allowed playlist editing and application of DSP effects. It even allowed for SMPTE/MTC sync so engineers could off-load tracks from tape, edit, and place them back onto the tape for mixing.
Now, what Digi was doing wasn't anything new. Sonic Solutions (as I understand it, a spin off of Lucasfilm's SoundDroid project) was doing the same thing with a Mac at a higher price point. Studer, Waveframe, Fairlight, NED, Otari, and many others were providing proprietary systems that did similar work at substantially higher price points.
What Digi did with Pro Tools was to bring an advanced multitrack editing and mixing platform to the Mac for a comparably lower price point. It took until version 3 to truly be successful (or indeed, really usable) but they solidified their market position by adding 3rd party developed plug-in effects. This allowed developers to create plug-ins for the Pro Tools system that users could use to create a customized system just how they needed it to be! Once the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in hit the market, Digidesign had established their dominance in the market, which they have managed to maintain to this day.
Today's Pro Tools systems range from the high end HD (TDM) rigs which still feature DSP-accelerated effects as well as cpu-based computer hosted effects processing to small one or two input systems utilizing only cpu-based effects. As you can guess, the price points vary dramatically from $200ish on the low end, to systems running above $50,000 for a full-blown professional rig.
Pro Tools, being the industry juggernaut, has taken a lot of flak, regarding their usage of proprietary hardware and interfacing. Some of this is deserved, but in their defense, this has reduced the variables in setting up a system and typically leads to stable Pro Tools systems. As of late, a number of companies have been offering Pro Tools interfacing directly on their converters (Apogee, Lynx, Digital Audio Denmark, and others - although it is typically a pricy option) and SSL has even created a Pro Tools to MADI box for studios with large digital consoles.
At the last minute, it occurs to me that Pro Tools is available for the PC as well. I don't believe I've ever actually put my hands on a PC-based Pro Tools system. I'd be interested to know the differences.
We'll continue with the Mac DAWs in a future post.
Obviously most of the DAWs available are for Mac and PC systems. I personally have spent the last 20 years working on Mac-based DAWs, so that's where my expertise really lies. However, I'm not a snob about it. A computer is a tool. If I were to find I needed to use a DAW that was PC only, I wouldn't hesitate. Besides, I've been hearing good things regarding Windows 7.
Let's start with the Mac.
Pro Tools On the Mac, the biggest player is Avid/Digidesign's Pro Tools. It is available in three variants, the fully professional TDM systems known as Pro Tools HD, the mid-level systems (which are more than capable for 90% of users) referred to as the LE rigs, and the M-powered systems which run on select M-Audio hardware.
Pro Tools (which is up to version 8.x as of this writing) first hit the scene in late 1991 and was a Macintosh only system consisting of software and matched hardware. The hardware consisted of at least one I/O breakout box and a card (or two, or three...) installed inside the computer. Digidesign developed this method to provide the computer horsepower needed to process the audio and do the internal mixing on computers which, by all rights, shouldn't have been able to do so at that point in time. (My first PT rig, from 1995, ran on an 80MHz computer with 24MB of RAM... Really.)
This methodology came from Digidesign's background. They first provided replacement sample chips for the Linn Drum and other drum machines. Later, they created software called Sound Designer, which allowed you to off-load samples from your Emulator II (or others available at the time) to a Mac where you could do visual editing, looping, and all of those other things that were nigh impossible on the samplers of the day. (For an exercise in masochism, try multi-sampling on an Ensoniq Mirage without a computer.)
In the tradition of cutting out the middleman, Digi realized that what they had could be even more powerful if they removed the sampler from the equation and allowed recording and playback directly from the computer. This required some hardware acceleration and specialized I/O, but was the germ of a successful product they called Sound Tools. Quite simply, it was a rather nifty stereo editor that allowed playlist editing and application of DSP effects. It even allowed for SMPTE/MTC sync so engineers could off-load tracks from tape, edit, and place them back onto the tape for mixing.
Now, what Digi was doing wasn't anything new. Sonic Solutions (as I understand it, a spin off of Lucasfilm's SoundDroid project) was doing the same thing with a Mac at a higher price point. Studer, Waveframe, Fairlight, NED, Otari, and many others were providing proprietary systems that did similar work at substantially higher price points.
What Digi did with Pro Tools was to bring an advanced multitrack editing and mixing platform to the Mac for a comparably lower price point. It took until version 3 to truly be successful (or indeed, really usable) but they solidified their market position by adding 3rd party developed plug-in effects. This allowed developers to create plug-ins for the Pro Tools system that users could use to create a customized system just how they needed it to be! Once the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in hit the market, Digidesign had established their dominance in the market, which they have managed to maintain to this day.
Today's Pro Tools systems range from the high end HD (TDM) rigs which still feature DSP-accelerated effects as well as cpu-based computer hosted effects processing to small one or two input systems utilizing only cpu-based effects. As you can guess, the price points vary dramatically from $200ish on the low end, to systems running above $50,000 for a full-blown professional rig.
Pro Tools, being the industry juggernaut, has taken a lot of flak, regarding their usage of proprietary hardware and interfacing. Some of this is deserved, but in their defense, this has reduced the variables in setting up a system and typically leads to stable Pro Tools systems. As of late, a number of companies have been offering Pro Tools interfacing directly on their converters (Apogee, Lynx, Digital Audio Denmark, and others - although it is typically a pricy option) and SSL has even created a Pro Tools to MADI box for studios with large digital consoles.
At the last minute, it occurs to me that Pro Tools is available for the PC as well. I don't believe I've ever actually put my hands on a PC-based Pro Tools system. I'd be interested to know the differences.
We'll continue with the Mac DAWs in a future post.
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