Let's all go to the chill out room: ambient music is back. Beanbags, brain machines and fractal videos in clubs; the Orb playing space chess on Top Of The Pops; whale noises and the KLF's sheep bleating; T-shirts emblazoned with silver spacesuited DJ Mixmaster Morris's slogan "I THINK THEREFORE I AMBIENT". Among the many "did that really happen? " elements of early 90s raving, the popularity of ambient music ranks high. Of course, there was a rich history of experimentation leading up to ambient's unlikely moment in the spotlight, from the new age movement's rippling meditation tapes to Brian Eno's high-class "musical wallpaper". The rave era, however, pushed ambient to the fore (even if it also engendered a sense of faint embarrassment which led to the genre quickly fading from view).
Until now, that is. And there's more. So why now? Indeed, as Mixmaster Morris says, "ambient never went away; in fact, the amount of albums kept on increasing. " New band of the day – No 886: Oneohtrix Point Never. Hometown: Brooklyn. The lineup: Daniel Lopatin (music, production). The background: Having Antony Hegarty as our temporary editor this week at guardian.co.uk/music has been an education because the acts he's chosen as New Bands have been so varied and vital – and from areas that even a column such as this, with a history of lionising the esoteric (and we don't mean Lady Gaga), might consider arcane.
It's also been expensive, since each of his choices has necessitated a phone call to the person in question to get them to explain what the hell they're about. On the other hand, although it may have cost us a small fortune with them being New York acts, at least our understanding of the city's neo-classical electronic and avant-funk pop scenes has never been greater. Then there was Lopatin's work as Oneohtrix Point Never – particularly the Returnal album, with its title suggestive of an artist operating in the hauntological field of memory evocation. Least likely to: Shag the nanny. DIY Studio Acoustics Tutorial. Creating that pro studio acoustic experience at home is easier than you might think. Russ Hepworth-Sawyer offers some affordable DIY solutions to bring professional studio acoustics and aesthetics to your home setup… We’ve witnessed significant advances in music technology over the past 15 years or so which, combined with ever lowering costs, now mean that many more of us can – and indeed choose to – record at home.
However, there are changes that you will need to make to your home environment in order to get the best sonic results. Fortunately it’s not as difficult – nor as costly – as you might think. Over the course of the following tutorial we’re going to detail some of the problems you might encounter and, of course, the solutions for a perfect mixing and monitoring environment. The most immediate aspect – aside from annoying the neighbours (which is not covered here) – will undoubtedly be the acoustic performance of your listening environment. On Reflection Standing Still Absorbers. Nightclubbing: Berlin’s Ostgut - Berghain Before It Was Berghain.
In conjunction with RBMA Radio’s September pop-up station in Berlin, this month we’re taking a deep dive into German music history. Yesterday, Johnnie Stieler, the former head of the sadly defunct Horst Krzbrg – one of Berlin’s most forward-thinking clubs over the past decade – offered up ten commandments for those thinking about opening up a club in Berlin.
Today, we take a look back at the venue that set the stage for Berghain, the world’s most revered techno club: Ostgut. Berghain in Berlin is regarded as one of the best techno clubs on the planet. We all know the story by now: Parties there run for days. To go to the Ostgut, you had to drive on Stralauer Allee, one of Berlin’s eastbound arterial roads. Getting in was not a big deal as it is today. Getting in was not a big deal as it is today. Nothing concealed that this place was built to repair trains. The outside of Ostgut could hardly be more nondescript. In Mitte at that time, clubbing was not particularly great. The Guide To Sound Effects | Epic Sound. I like to think of such sounds as having two general components: a ‘defining’ one, and an ‘impact’ one. The defining one is what sounds up front and tells the listener what the sound is, especially if combined with picture.
The impact one can be anything at all, designed only to pump up the sound to hyper-real. For defining sounds, simply record what things really are: For a face slap for example, record a real slap, hand clap, slap on thigh, etc. For a body kick, record a fist on chest thud, etc. Other purely impact sounds: kick drum, fist-pound on closet door (tapered), car door slam (tapered), kicked or stick-hit cardboard box, leather belt snap, whip crack, etc. In my opinion, especially what I’m loosely calling the “impact” component can and often should be gain-maximized and mixed with the “defining” so that the defining is still the part that gives the information as to what the sound is. - Clint Bajakian. Compression Techniques - Learn to use compression to tighten, add detail, punch and space to your mixADSR – Synth Sounds, Presets & Video Courses.
What you will learn In the Audio Compression Techniques Course Soundmagus covers everything from basic compression (where you learn the fundamental principles of audio compression techniques) to how to use multi-band compression on your final mix down. The basic techniques covered are as follows: ThresholdRatioAttackReleaseMake-up gain We then move on to show you how to use these audio compression parameters on sounds like drums and bass. This will help you to get a wayward sound to sit correctly in the mix. We show you things like parallel compression (N.Y. compression) for giving your drums extreme punch.
You are shown how to use an audio compressor on a group bus for both drums and kick/bass group. This is normally used in the mastering arena and is shown being used on a finished (mixed down) track. Master The Art Of Compression This course is over two hours long, and covers the majority of scenarios in which you will need to use audio compression techniques. About SoundMagus Simple. [Interview] Seth Troxler | Ticket Arena - Lowest priced tickets. Published on: Thursday 12th September 2013 Earlier this week we were lucky enough to pick up the phone and chat to Detroit starchild and one quarter of Visionquest, Seth Troxler. Chipper as ever, he talked Burning Man, naked epiphanies, Ibiza, switching to vinyl, cooking brain, the pressures of being named RA's Number 1 DJ and more.
Check out the full interview below. You're just back from Burning man again, how was it this year? Yeah, it was fantastic, I had a really good time. What parties did you play at? I played a Disco Knights party, and this Nexus party and another party for Robot Heart. Since you were named number one in the Resident Advisor Top 100 DJ Poll has much changed for you? Yeah, it's kind of funny. But then it's also made people more critical and there's more people coming to see you play who don't really know much about you so it's opened the range a lot. Was that the main reason you switched over to vinyl? Yeah, exactly. So, how've you found Ibiza this year? DJ KOZE // - Crack Magazine. Stefan Kozalla, better known as DJ Koze, does the eccentric musician thing pretty well.
When interviewing him prior to this year’s Eastern Electric festival, we asked him who at festival he was most looking forward to seeing. The answer was a whimsical “me”. Crack took some time aside to talk to Koze to see if we could punctuate the mystique and wangle some biographical details out of the man; peel back the layers of charming eccentricity and get to The Real DJ Koze (whatever that is). Is the lack of information deliberate? “Of course”, he says. This much we do know: Koze started out in Germany’s (then) fledgling hip-hop scene about two decades ago. After buying the music he loved, the next logical step was to start mixing it. Given this experience with hip-hop, we thought we’d pass one of our pet theories across Koze: house and techno producers who started out in hip-hop tend to create more complex rhythms than those that didn’t.
Residentadvisor.net/dj/djkoze Words: Robert Bates. Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette | Music | The Observer. Fifty years ago this month at a radio exhibition in Berlin, a three-inch-by-four-inch product was unveiled. Half a century on, it doesn't look like much. But it was cheap, portable, easy to copy, and these simple, functional qualities held magic within them. They also helped the cassette revolutionise music for the masses, and shaped how music is used socially, creatively and psychologically. CDs and downloads may have long superseded the humble C90, and its obsolescence seemed assured when Sony stopped manufacturing the Walkman in 2010.
But against the odds, the cassette has whirred into fabulous life again, and on 7 September, an international event will celebrate its resurgence. At 25 venues in the UK and 50 others worldwide, Cassette Store Day will showcase the growing trend for cassette-only releases, with big labels such as Polydor and Domino getting in on the act, alongside little DIY startups. 1 The compact cassette is unveiled – and revolutionises the album market. Plug-Ins With Attitude. Classic phase-shifting is a widely diverse sound. From the Bi-Phase, Boss Super Phaser, Phase 90, to the Moogerfooger 12 stage, Small Stone, Trine and many more.
All of which were stacked in our test room, stock room and lining the halls. We needed to be sure PhaseMistress nailed that rich, warm, silky analog sound. We put in tons of styles to emulate all the classics and do some things those old boxes couldn't do, like MIDI sync, and a large preset library. We think you'll agree, PhaseMistress has got it all. Versatile and Creative With LFO, Envelope follower, Random, ADSR and our unique Rhythm Mode we're constantly amazed at all the places our users are putting PhaseMistress to work. Friendly Controls Even though PhaseMistress is deep, we wanted it to be easy to get your sound fast. Extreme Phasing MIDI locked 4 bar sweeps, custom rhythmic patterns, freaky talk box random phase, wide stereo swirls, every phase you've ever heard all in a straight-forward interface with automation.
Audio Damage // Kombinat Dva. From mild tone-shaping or adding a bit of grit to full-on total waveform destruction, Kombinat Dva is a complete toolbox of sonic warfare. With 13 different options in each of the three distortion engines (plus pass-through), Kombinat Dva is capable of sophisticated and unique sounds. Want to add a ring mod to the low end, a mild tube clip to the mids, and a bit-reduction algorithm to the high end? No problem. Want to run your signal through three sine-warps or fuzz algorithms in series? This is your box. Kombinat's signal structure allows for a fairly broad palette of sounds, as each segment of the overall effect is a versatile tool in its own right.
Taken as a whole, Kombinat is a tweaker's paradise, yet designed so that it is easy to just grab one of the 80 presets and touch it up a bit to suit the source material. Crossover: Kombinat Dva features a DJ-style three-band isolator EQ for band-killing effects and extreme tone-carving on the front end. Watch Roska go Against the Clock for FACT TV. 10 Principles Every Producer Must Know To Achieve The Pro Sound | getthatprosound.com. This Manifesto is actually a list of things I’ve been dwelling on and thinking about in various ways for the best part of a year.
It began with asking the question, “What Is That Pro Sound, Really?” –Thomas A. Edison What do you think of when you think of the “Pro Sound”? I’m fairly sure we each have different ideas about it – but this is the point. My impression is there are no definitive rules to music and audio production. But here, I want to go deeper than techniques or particular equipment for a second. Let’s look beneath the surface differences of these, or any other musical styles, and see how an understanding of the fundamental principles of music recording and production are surprisingly universal.
And if you’re a seasoned Pro already, I hope this list will still give you some inspiration and food for thought. 1. Often, when we talk about optimizing, we’re not talking about adding more to make something better. 2. 3. Don’t take my word for it, or anyone else’s for that matter. 50 Pro Tips For Breathing Life Into Your Electronic Music | getthatprosound.com. You know the feeling when you listen to a well-produced electronic track: Everything about it seems to burst with energy, each of the elements twist and wrap organically around each another, giving the impression that the whole track is one big living and evolving ‘thing’.
But when you’re getting into producing electronic – that is, loop or grid-based music – it can be really difficult figuring out how to inject your own tracks with this sort of excitement and life-like energy. It seems on the surface like it’s just a matter of flicking from one repeated/looped section to another: but when you try lining up the blocks of programmed drums and synths in your DAW, the result just doesn’t have the kind of energy and sense of drama that you hoped for. 1. Non-Sync Delay & Reverb Try turning off tempo-sync on your delay effects, and experimenting with longer reverb pre-delay times. 2. A classic trick, but it works. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. The Complete Guide to Mixing Vocals: Dynamics.
[This is the second of a two part guest post by Randy Coppinger, originally published on his site. Check out the first installment covering vocal EQ boosts and cuts.] Compression Effects If frequency cuts are less than obvious, using compression can be positively counter-intuitive. I don’t know any way to write or talk about compression that leads to an ability to use it without actually using it. A lot. The most obvious “result” you get from a compressor is that it turns down the loud parts. If the reduction of the loud parts isn’t so exaggerated that it sounds awful, then turning that signal up can make it seem like it is louder overall. Increasing the perceived loudness may bring other perceptions: more presence, better low level detail, and increased intelligibility. Frankly speaking, bad compression is annoying.
Heavy compression can put things off balance, so that louder parts seem too soft and the soft parts seem too loud. Compression Techniques Limiting 4 dB. Precise audio delaying plugin (AU, VST) - Voxengo Sound Delay - Voxengo.