Compressors have become more than just gain control units, they can be just as important as EQs in shaping a sound and sometimes even more so. For the mathematically inclined, a compressor works with a transfer function, or in plain speak, it changes its input in a predictable way. The controls of a compressor help specify this transfer function. The most common controls … [Read more...]
RX2 Advanced – Review
iZotope RX is legendary. Every other week I see a tweet about how it saved someone's job (or life) and in these few years that it has been around it has become a go-to standard for all noise reduction magic, if you can afford it. What makes RX so powerful is the fact that you can get it working really well with just a few parameters while also having the option of diving into a … [Read more...]
A Tremolo AU plugin with Max
Last week I came across a post on the Cycling '74 Wiki about exporting gen~ code into an AU plugin. It looked too simple a process to be true, so I began investigating. After a few hours of work (and some help from the C74 forums because I stumbled across a bug) I managed to get a simple distortion plugin working. The whole process is actually quite simple, after you spend a … [Read more...]
AudioMotors – Review
Thanks to David Nichols @ Track Time Audio for reviewing this. When Varun asked me if I would like to review Audiogaming's "Audiomotors" engine granular synthesis tool, I excitedly agreed as it's a product I was looking into for my own purposes as well. Audiogaming supplied us with a Protools plugin on version 1.0.2 which does have some new features over 1.01, which is the … [Read more...]
3 Deaf Mice: A sound-music game
David Sonnenschein, the author of Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema and founder of SoundDesignForPros.com, has a new project. 3 Deaf Mice is an audio-music discovery game (initially targeted for PCs and Macs) where the mice need help in designing their next hit song. It aims to enhance listening skills and creativity with sonic … [Read more...]
Scaling and Design
In my previous post I mentioned about thinking of sound as data. What is this data? It could be the frequency of an oscillator, the resonance of a filter, the grain size of a granulator, pitch, amplitude...and so on. We could probably fill pages worth of parameters that can either define or control the qualities of a sound. If we can break down such parameters into numbers, we … [Read more...]
An Intimidating Start
One of the things I remember most when I opened up Pure Data for the first time a few years ago was being terrified. A blank and intimidating window stared back at me. I then jumped to Max/MSP, which was a bit easier (because of the interface), but it was still the same problem - where in the world do I begin? Its tough to start any project from absolutely nowhere. Youtube and … [Read more...]