Information for my Songwriting Elective students

Here’s a good ‘quickstart’ guide for Reaper users:

http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaperQuickstart

Here is a short article by Sound on Sound magazine’s Mike Senior with some tips on the basic hardware you need if you want to mix and record at home.

I personally recommend the Tascam 122 soundcard and a decent pair of headphones.  You can record up to two channels simultaneously with this device, and you can plug a guitar or bass straight into the soundcard-no amp needed!  You can also route midi through it (like a keyboard, for example, or a drum machine) and the whole unite is powered by the usb connection.  Another good option is the Maudio Fast Track Pro, which has the added advantage of four output channels and two insert channels.

If you want to record vocals as well, you should look into buying a studio condenser microphone.  These microphones require phantom power, which the Tascam 122 and the Fast Track Pro both provide.  You can record vocals with a dynamic ‘stage’ microphone like the Shure SM58, but the recordings won’t be as bright.

If you only need to record one mono channel at a time, but still want to use condensor studio microphones, there is a really simple and cheap solution in the Maudio Fast Track MKII which still supports phantom power.

If you just want to record with a regular stage (dynamic) microphone, like the ones we use in the studio (Shure sm58), then these two soundcards will do the trick: Maudio Fast Track USB and Tascam US100, but remember that your vocal recordings won’t have the the same brightness as they will with condensor microphones.

All of the above options allow you to plug your guitar or bass straight into the soundcard.  It is useful to have a soundcard with two inputs if you want to:

-record an audio signal coming out of a keyboard (not usb)

-record midi modules, like an electronic drumkit

-record and play at the same time (ex: one mic on vocals and the other on the guitar)

-record two people performing at the same time

To my students: use the ‘categories’ section on the right of this page to filter out what you’re looking for.  Select the ‘assignments’ category to go straight to your latest assignment.

For this assignment, you will learn how to make the Yamaha N12 communicate with your DAW (Reaper) and use it to do a mix.

You will need to work in the music room to do this (unless you’re planning to buy an N12!).  You will be using the Blues project from Assignmnent 3 for this, as it has 8 tracks which correspond to the 8 channels on the mixing desk, but after that you can try mixing any of the projects or even your own recordings on the N12.  When opening the project, please select the Reaper file “Blues01 for Yamaha N12″.

The notes written below can also be found as a separate document in the dropbox and on the desktop of the pc in the music room.

MIXING ON THE N12

(This is using CR as monitor connections.)

Reaper

-send channels to 1-8 (click on ‘i/o’ for each channel, select send: audio hardware outputs, and select channel 1 for track 1, channel 2 for track 2, etc.)

-you can send effects channels (reaper) to ch 9/10, 11/12 (Monitor) but then you have to do amount of send/rcv in Reaper)

-create a new track in Reaper called “master recording” –input (‘in’) select stereo input ST bus L/R

-set level, pan and eq for each track in Reaper to 0

-mute the stereo output channel

N12

-ON for each channel including master

-ST for each channel including master

-”DAW” lit for each channel (top)

-reverb to ST

-Control Room “ST”  (press “DAW” to hear Reaper mix)

-to begin, set everything to 0 (all reverbs pointing at 12 o’clock, no reverb send, panning in the middle, etc)

-put you stereo master fader at zero DB and set the control room volume at a comfortable level

To solo tracks, either:

-press ‘solo’, but this also cuts out the reverb send effect, or

-deselect the ‘ON’ button on all the other tracks, muting them, or

-turn the faders down on all the other tracks

You should be able to get a mix sounding decent within 5 minutes (much faster than using the mouse!).  Use the mixing desks compression, reverb sends and eq, but don’t overdo the effects.

Don’t forget you can add effects within Reaper too (like for example, a chorus, or a gate) or if you want to get really creative you can send a Reaper fx channel to the mixer’s auxiliary input and then use the ‘aux’ dial on each track on the mixing desk to feed into the effect in Reaper.  You can do this for a whole chain of effects as well.

‘Printing’ your final mix

-Arm your stereo ‘Master Recording’ track

-rewind to zero

-press ‘record’ and let it play to the end.

-don’t forget to save

Once your mix is ‘printed’ you can still add overall effects to it using ‘fx’.  Remember to solo the Master Recording track.

Rendering your mix

-Select ‘DAW’ in the monitoring section of the N12

-solo the ‘Master Recording’ track in Reaper

-Render

This website, which accompanies a book on mixing written by Mike Senior from Sound on Sound magazine, has many projects you can download for free to practice your mixing skills.

(Check out the fourth project in the “Acoustic/folk/jazz/country” section!)

Here you can download an extra extension for Reaper which will give you lots of extra features.

One of the reasons I use it is to be able to write individual project notes per track.  In order to do this:

1.  start Reaper once the SWS extensions are downloaded and installed

2.  select “SWS notes/help” under “view”

3. now select “track notes” on the new window-each track you select will have its own note page

4. you can just leave the notes window open as you work and move it to the side

This is a major assignment, and it is very simple:

• find a musician, singer, ensemble, choir, band, etc
• record them
• mix the recording

Read my tips on recording.

Aim for a quality recording and mix-something you can give to the musician(s) that they can use as a demo.

Keep it simple

When recording, try to keep things simple by only concerning yourself with the signal coming in.  All the skills you have learned so far are primarily for the mixing stage (grouping, effects, panning etc).

Arming tracks

If there is no signal, check your soundcard settings under preferences.  Make sure each track is armed (AR should be red) and the monitoring button is on, so you can hear the track back.  This button is right below the AR button on each track.

Correct level setting

When recording, focus only on making sure the levels are right.  Make sure the signals coming in to Reaper never go above 0db (red) but at the same time they shouldn’t be too quiet either.  I usually aim for at least -6 Db, unless your source is really quiet by nature. 

Input gain control

Use the input GAIN control on your hardware mixer/soundcard to adjust incoming volume.  All the other faders (hardware and software) etc are for the mixing stage.  Avoid experimenting too much with the other settings (eq, compression etc) in the recording stage.

Test recording and doing takes 

Do a test recording.  Listen to it.  Then, if the settings are right, aim to do your recordings quickly and efficiently.  Try to avoid having the performer listen to what you’ve just recorded in between takes.  Aim to do no more than 3 takes (performances usually get weaker after that).  Ask the musician(s) how they feel about each take after each take.  Make a note of this in Reaper (file-project settings-notes).  Tick the ‘show notes on startup’ box.

At ease

Do your best to make the musician(s) feel comfortable about the recording process-most people get a little nervous.  Make them feel like you’re completely in charge of the recording process, and all they have to worry about is their musical performance.  Avoid interfering with the musical side of things unless your performers are clearly struggling with something.  Smooth recording sessions usually happen when everyone sticks to their own job.

Download the Helter Skelter tracks from the server.

Listen to the original mix of the song.

Insert the files on different tracks in Reaper (name and save your project with audio files in the same folder)

Now comes the hard part: listen carefully to the song again.  You’ll notice that the tracks in your project are not alligned.  Try moving each of them around until the song sounds right.  This is an editing skill, which you would normally do before starting a mix and adding effects.

The more you zoom in with Reaper, the more precise your edits and moves will be.  You can use the arrow keys on your number pad to move tracks left and right too.  PC users: use the ctrl button in combination with the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in.  You can also use the arrows in the lower right hand corner of the track screen (above the mixer) to zoom in and out, both vertically and horizontally.

Once you’re satisfied with the results of your editing, try mixing the track and render your mix. 

Good Luck!

(You might find this assignmnent a frustrating one; editing work is often difficult and time-consuming work, and not a lot of fun.  However it is necessary to make sure your instruments are all working together before you start mixing.  The bigger names in the mixing industry all have people working for them who do this sort of boring ‘pre-mixing’ work.)

This assignment’s instructions are very simple, but the execution of it is challenging: you are going to record a song together in stages from your own homes (it is possible to use school facilities in your own time as well).

1.  The drummer will start the project and give it a name

2.  The drummer records a drum track which has a clear structure (beginning, verses, choruses, breaks, end)

3.  The drummer passes a rendered mp3 of his recording on to the bassist (via email).

4.  The bassist imports the drum track mp3, making sure to start the mp3 at the zero mark in his project.  He gives his Reaper project the same name.

5. The bassist records his part to the drums on a new track, following the structure of the song.

6.  The bassist renders a mix of the drums and bass together as an mp3 and sends this to the next person (guitar, keys, vocals, etc)

7.  Each of the above musicians add to the song and render the total mix as mp3s until everyone involved has contributed.

8.  Here’s the most important step for everyone: 

     a.  Mute the mp3 track in your Reaper project

     b.  Now render just your take as a 24 bit wav file

     c.  Bring your wav file to school for the final mix of the song

Don’t forget you can borrow the school’s Tascam soundcards, and we may even be able to negotiate you borrowing a keyboard for a day or two.

For this lesson, you need the mix you rendered for lesson 4 (using gate and comp on a drum recording).  You will be learning how to add a midi instrument, or a software instrument, to the project and use the virtual keyboard to play a bass line in midi.  You will also learn how to edit midi notes and how to apply the same midi notes to a different virtual instrument.

• start a new Reaper project
• immediately ‘save as’.  IMPORTANT: create a new folder within your Reaper project folder and give it a name
• save your project into this new folder.  If you don’t do this, your files will be saved on your desktop or other random places, so always remember to ‘save as’ when you start a new Reaper project.
• import your rendered mix of the drums (a stereo file).  If you want a higher quality stereo file, go back to your Reaper project for assignment 4 and render as a 24 bit .wav file instead of an mp3 and import this.
• read my tutorial on creating a virtual instrument track in Reaper
• select one of the vstis that has Bass presets
• record a midi bass track to accompany the drum track
• try different synths and voices after you’ve recorded your midi track
• double click on the midi track and play around with the editing functions.  You can click on midi notes and drag them up, down or sideways, you can stretch them or shorten then and you can change the loudness of each note
• if you have time, try adding more vsti (each on a new midi track!)
• mix and render

Good luck!  (post a comment on this blog if you get stuck)

Ps: if you have Reaper installed on your USB stick, you can also use any of the pcs with attached keyboard in room 203.  (Programs-Reaper-Install to USB)

Gates and Compressors are effects that can help you control sound levels and dynamics (difference between loud and soft sections.  Reaper has two great plugins that do this:

1. ReaGate
2. ReaComp

• ReaGate is an effect that basically blocks (or mutes) quieter sounds and lets louder sounds through.  You get to decide at what level the gate ‘opens’.
• ReaComp is more complex: it deals with loud bursts of sound, also called ‘peaks’.  It allows you to squash the volume of these louder parts, which in turn allows you to turn up your whole mix without any digital distortion.  Compression, the name of this effect, is a very complex effect with a lot of different applications and sounds.  Don’t worry too much about getting your head around how this effect works this time; we will come back to it.  A good example of one of the effects compression can achieve is the ‘pumping’ sound in some dance tracks: Satisfaction (clean youtube version!)  Listen for the pumping effect around 0.39 seconds.  This is an example of compression used in an extreme way.

One of the great things about Reaper is that a new track can be any kind of track: a folder track, an audio track, a click track or a virtual instrument/midi track.    Here’s how you set up a midi track.  We are going to place a virtual instrument on a midi track in order to add some extra synth sounds to our mix.  There are all kinds of virtual instruments out there, and they include sounds covering most types of instruments, including drums, strings, guitars, and even choir vocals.  Virtual instruments are a bit like the synthesizer settings on a hardware electronic keyboard.

There are several ways to play midi notes to trigger these virtual instruments.

The simplest is to use Reaper’s virtual keyboard.  Go to view-virtual MIDI keyboard (or use the Alt B shortcut in the Windows version).  You can play this using the keys of your regular typing keyboard or the mouse.  The virtual keyboard will disappear when you open other windows, so using the shortcut is probably the most efficient method.  Another method is to buy a hardware midi keyboard (check out the Korg Nanokey for only 35 euros-this is a mini midi keyboard) and connect it simply via a usb port.  A midi channel needs to know where to get its impulses from, so you need to select an input.  Here are a few simple steps to setting up a virtual instrument on a midi channel:

• open a new track (ctrl t) underneath your imported drum track
• select ‘fx’ on this track
• select vsti
• choose a synth (or virtual instrument/vsti)
• (a shortcut to all of this is to right click on the empty track space and select ‘insert virtual instrument on a new track’, or do this in the ‘track’ menu above
• click on ‘in’ on your new midi track, go to ‘midi input’ and select the source you want.  If you are using Reapers virtual midi keyboard then start this up before doing this so it shows up as one of the options.  Often ‘all midi inputs’ works fine too.
• arm the track
• click on the monitor icon so you can hear what you are doing

You are new ready to record synth parts.  There are two great advantages to using midi:

1. if you decide later you’re unhappy with the particular sound you used, simply select a different ‘voice’ in the vsti you’re using, or select a completely new vsti in the fx window.  The midi notes you’ve recorded will play the new instrument
2. you can edit midi notes; in other words, you can correct your mistakes, write new notes with a mouse, and even move notes up and down in pitch.  Do this by double clicking on the midi file you recorded

There are numerous other ways to edit midi notes after playing; you can even ‘quantise’ them to fit the rhythm of your beat.  With midi, you can do a recording to the best of your ability ‘live’ and then go back and fix small timing problems and mistakes without having to rerecord your track.

You can add effects and send effects to midi tracks, and they can be rendered just like audio tracks.  One trick is to render a finished midi track to a stereo audio wav and then import this back into your mix to mix alongside your audio recordings.

Check the Tweakheadz Guide for more information an explanation why midi is not the same as audio.