|
I am hoping this is an easy to answer question, but in truth I'm not sure. Is there a program I could find (either free or for not a lot of money) that would allow me to cut out instruments from a song? I think I read once that music these days is recorded with multiple tracks layered one on top of the other, and if that's the case I was hoping I could just cut a track here or there. I'm only looking to do some simple "remixing", if you can even call it that, for personal reasons.
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 04:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
If you are looking for a click click done kind of thing, it doesn't exist. Certainly the instruments are on many different tracks in the studio, but once it's delivered to you it's all been mixed down to stereo and there is no way to easily undo that. Obviously there is processing you can do to try to isolate particular parts of the song if you want to do a bootleg or whatever. In general you need to invest a fair bit of effort to get useful results and it will never be perfect. I hate Audacity but it is free and ought to have the basic tools you need (EQ and maybe mid/side conversion). Really the most important part is finding a spot in the song where what you want is as isolated as possible already. breaks fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Apr 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 05:24
|
|
|
You can sometimes get the isolated individual tracks though (or groups of them), especially since things like Rock Band and Guitar Hero need those separate tracks and they have a ton of songs. You can find a lot on YouTube even, really it depends what you want to work with. Again not a one-click solution but it shouldn't be hard to just open a few files as separate tracks, they should pretty much be good to go
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 14:22
|
|
|
I am curious then, how do professionals go about isolating tracks? There's a hundred million different remixes in the electronic music world, and whether they're mish mashing voice and different music, or taking out sounds altogether, it usually sounds good. Is there a hardware solution instead that works better, or have they worked in the medium so long they just know what to do in their given software?
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 18:36
|
|
|
breaks posted:If you are looking for a click click done kind of thing, it doesn't exist. Certainly the instruments are on many different tracks in the studio, but once it's delivered to you it's all been mixed down to stereo and there is no way to easily undo that. Audacity's not a great choice because you can't adjust fx parameters on the fly, and that's pretty important for dialing in specific EQ frequencies. Any DAW with a parametric EQ should be usable, Reaper is inexpensive and has a generous evaluation policy. There have been various "vocal remover" technologies throughout the years that rely on the fact that usually the lead vocal is centered exactly in the center of the stereo image of a track, while most everything else is panned somewhat to the left or right. You can then use phase cancellation -- inverting the phase of the waveform of one stereo channel -- which will theoretically cancel out anything which is equally present in both channels. In a complex mix, this isn't perfect, it'll color the rest of the track and suck out a lot of low end (since the kick drum and bassline are also at the center of the stereo image), but can still help. Voxengo makes a free mid-side encoder/decoder plugin if that capability isn't built into your DAW. It's also very important, if you're going to play around with mid/side trickery, to use an lossless (.wav) source file: the lossy compression in an mp3 doesn't faithfully preserve the stereo image and makes most of these techniques impossible. MadBimber posted:I am curious then, how do professionals go about isolating tracks? There's a hundred million different remixes in the electronic music world, and whether they're mish mashing voice and different music, or taking out sounds altogether, it usually sounds good. Is there a hardware solution instead that works better, or have they worked in the medium so long they just know what to do in their given software? Professional producers are provided with the "naked" tracks by the label, they don't really do the isolating themselves. You *can* often find instrumental or acapella (vocal only) mixes of songs, but if you want something more specific than that, sometimes the best solution (if, say, you just want a little piano riff or something) might be to enlist somebody to help you recreate the sound from scratch. h_double fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Apr 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 19:15
|
|
|
Also it's not to say that you can't do a good bootleg by taking samples from a stereo track, it's just that there's a fair bit of work and effort involved. You have to do a good job of picking what to sample (take stuff from breakdowns, intros, outros, and other sections where there isn't too much going on), cleaning it up (if you want a vocal and it has drums under it, get in there and manually duck the stuff between words, etc), and then using it in your track by putting noisy samples in busy sections of your own track that will mask the junk, making sure you aren't playing notes or rhythms that clash, and so on. There are also some clever/expensive tools you can use these days, like Unveil for deverbing things, maybe even Melodyne can help sometimes.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2013 20:16
|
|
|
Okay ML - help me out. Especially if there is a better thread than this for my question - please direct me there. My band (http://music.mkndr.com/) has 4 dedicated vocalists, and as we are starting to play more shows, we are trying to get our in-ear monitor setup all... set up. The singer and I REALLY want to get our hands on an old Mackie HMX56 or something similar, but they are just NOT AROUND anymore. Basically, we'd love a simple solution for everyone to have their own headphone mix without running a million aux tracks. Are there any other similar products out there at the moment, or are we stuck lugging our big mixer onstage or figuring out a potentially expensive software solution? Again, please direct me to the right thread if this is not it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2013 04:08
|
|
|
What's the easiest way to measure the output of my pickups? I was flipping through all my humbuckers today and, somehow, it felt like the standard Epiphone alnico 5's were hotter than Duncan Distortions which doesn't seem right...
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2013 04:23
|
|
|
Stick a multimeter on the leads and check the ohms. If it is a 4 conductor you have to combine the wires on each coil to get the whole pick-up as opposed to each coil separately. You have to take the pick-up completely out of the circuit to get an accurate reading.
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2013 23:06
|
|
|
Thumposaurus posted:You have to take the pick-up completely out of the circuit to get an accurate reading.  .
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2013 23:44
|
|
|
I have a two part question. First, I remember there being an ask/tell topic about a guy who worked as the head sound engineer on a cruise ship, does anyone have it bookmarked or archives and could possibly locate it for me? I'd be very grateful! Second question pertains to the first, anybody have experience as a cruise ship musician? I've heard a few mixed reviews on the subject and was hoping to gather some more information on the subject since I'm seriously considering it as a future prospect. Anything would be helpful, anecdotal stories, friends of friends, etc. Fake edit: most of the requirements for applying for these types of gigs require a video of yourself playing, can anyone drop some info on me about that? I only have my space-phone as a video recorder but I have a pretty nice digital audio recorder, would it be acceptable to use both then just dub the audio over the video from my audio recorder? I'd let them know of course, I'm just wondering if that'd be an acceptable way of submitting a video. Wouldn't want them thinking I just dubbed Wynton Marsalis(not that I'm even remotely comparable to Wynton) over my home video, haha. Fake edit 2: I know there are companies that hire musicians for cruise ship gigs, musiciansonboard.com for example, anybody know any more off the top of their head? Again I'd be very grateful.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2013 16:44
|
|
|
Johnny Truant posted:I have a two part question. First, I remember there being an ask/tell topic about a guy who worked as the head sound engineer on a cruise ship, does anyone have it bookmarked or archives and could possibly locate it for me? I'd be very grateful! I remember reading this thread a while ago, so I looked it up. Here you go. I'd be interested to hear what people have to say about your other questions!
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2013 17:06
|
|
|
I just bought a cajon, does anyone have any recommended learning resources (books, dvds, websites)? I've been looking around myself, but there doesn't seem to be anything with high acclaim.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2013 19:44
|
|
|
Johnny Truant posted:I only have my space-phone as a video recorder but I have a pretty nice digital audio recorder, would it be acceptable to use both then just dub the audio over the video from my audio recorder? I'd let them know of course, I'm just wondering if that'd be an acceptable way of submitting a video. Can't you just record the video and the audio at the same time and then sync them up afterwards? I don't think you need to specifically mention the fact that the audio they are hearing did not in fact originate from the mic on your smartphone, and if you did both sides in one take you wouldn't have any visual inconsistencies that would make them think something is amiss.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 06:12
|
|
|
What is this thing called? Did he build that himself or do they come pre made? I'm sure there's software that does the same poo poo but also is not as good for reasons XYZ. What software is it, and what are reasons XYZ? What does that thing offer that a modern multi channel looping pedal with effects (like the Boss CR-300) doesn't and vice versa? TY music goons. I lurked around the table to ask the guy these questions but he never showed up again after he was done with his show.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 16:19
|
|
|
It's a eurorack modular synth. There are a wide variety of pre-built modules available, I think all the ones in that case are, but there is also a solid DIY community if you are into that kind of thing. Either way, you buy or build a case and some modules and then put the modules into the case yourself most of the time, though some manufacturers offer prebuilt systems (for example). There are some modular plugins available, like Sonigen Modular, Vaz Modular (quite old now), herw's Reaktor ensembles, the Arturia moog modular plugin, I'm sure there are others. These inevitably have less of a variety of modules available, tend towards including only the more "vanilla" modules, generally don't handle high rate modulations well, and of course you have to interact with it using a mouse and keyboard which is IMO much worse. On the other hand they are polyphonic, whereas hardware modulars aren't. It's a completely different thing from a looping pedal, there is no point in comparing them. breaks fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Apr 27, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 16:43
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:I'm sure there's software that does the same poo poo but also is not as good for reasons XYZ. What software is it, and what are reasons XYZ? If you have some music software that runs VST plugins, check out Aalto (there's a free monophonic version called Aalto Solo) or u-He's ACE (which is payware, but there's a demo). There are two big advantages to a hardware system like a Eurorack. One is the interface, being able to get hands-on with all those knobs and patch cables can be really inspiring. The other is that analog hardware just sounds good, and simulating that faithfully in software is very very CPU intensive -- so much so that it's not really feasible to emulate a complex setup like the one in that photo, even on a high-end PC. Sheep-Goats posted:What does that thing offer that a modern multi channel looping pedal with effects (like the Boss CR-300) doesn't and vice versa? Basically, each of the rectangular panels in that rack is a separate module, which can be one of a few categories: - an oscillator (tone generator), which can be tuned to different frequencies and produce different waveforms - a filter (a guitar wah-wah pedal is a good example of a filter, it's something that colors a sound by stripping out or enhancing certain frequencies) - a modulator, like an envelope or LFO (low frequency oscillator). A modulator is something which changes another parameter over time in a programmatic way. If you can imagine a device that rocks a wah-wah pedal back and forth at a regular rhythmic rate, that's a modulator - effects, which can be standard guitar pedal stuff like delays, reverbs, flanger, chorus, etc. If you think of each module as something like a single guitar pedal, that's not a bad analogy, with the addition that the knobs on each pedal can also control and be controlled by the knobs on other pedals. Anyway, hang out in the Synthesizer thread if this stuff interests you, there are plenty of people who will happily talk your ear off about it. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
jarjarbinksfan621 posted:I just bought a cajon, does anyone have any recommended learning resources (books, dvds, websites)? I've been looking around myself, but there doesn't seem to be anything with high acclaim. If you find some good resources, could you send me a PM with the details?
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 20:58
|
|
|
Thank you Breaks and H Double. I never did any music as a kid and I recently got a guitar to play around with so I'm mostly just curious for now, also my free time now is probably going to disappear on me come August, so I'm going to keep it a little limited. What's a ballpark price for something like that?
raton fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Apr 27, 2013 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 22:54
|
|
|
You can get your foot in the door with Eurorack for around $1200-1500 (Pittsburgh Modular sells this setup for $1700) and the sky's the limit from there. http://www.analoguehaven.com/ is one of the most popular Eurorack sellers, you can poke around there to get an idea for what kinds of modules are available and what they cost.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2013 23:15
|
|
|
What is the effect that produces a sound quality like a really low-bitrate MP3 (twinkling, low-fi strings/pads in the backing track of, for example, this song and many others on this album) without that unpleasant underwater flubbering? Is it just a matter of converting samples to really low-bitrate WAVs or what? I've heard the effect used extensively in the last decade or so but I've never been sure exactly what's going on. The highest-profile occurrence I can think of is in the piano elements of Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys - Empire State of mind. If there's even just an official name for this technique that I can go look up somewhere else, I'll take it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2013 21:36
|
|
|
tehloki posted:What is the effect that produces a sound quality like a really low-bitrate MP3 (twinkling, low-fi strings/pads in the backing track of, for example, this song and many others on this album) without that unpleasant underwater flubbering? Is it just a matter of converting samples to really low-bitrate WAVs or what? I've heard the effect used extensively in the last decade or so but I've never been sure exactly what's going on. The highest-profile occurrence I can think of is in the piano elements of Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys - Empire State of mind. If there's even just an official name for this technique that I can go look up somewhere else, I'll take it. I suspect most of that is just EQ and artful use of compression. You could also try a little bit of chorus or a bitcrusher (which lowers the bit rate of an audio stream on the fly, you don't have to manually convert the wavs). Remember that if an effect gives you high end shimmer that you like, but you don't like what it does to the low end, just use a highpass filter or EQ to cut out the undesirable low end stuff, and then mix in enough of the unprocessed signal so it doesn't sound thin or unnatural.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2013 23:58
|
|
|
tehloki posted:What is the effect that produces a sound quality like a really low-bitrate MP3 (twinkling, low-fi strings/pads in the backing track of, for example, this song and many others on this album) without that unpleasant underwater flubbering? Is it just a matter of converting samples to really low-bitrate WAVs or what? I've heard the effect used extensively in the last decade or so but I've never been sure exactly what's going on. The highest-profile occurrence I can think of is in the piano elements of Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys - Empire State of mind. If there's even just an official name for this technique that I can go look up somewhere else, I'll take it. I can't watch the video now so I'm not sure whether this is really what you're talking about, but I think you might be looking for a bit-crusher? In any case, it should be easy to find a freeware VST to play around with to see whether it's what you need.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2013 01:59
|
|
|
The Bunk posted:I can't watch the video now so I'm not sure whether this is really what you're talking about, but I think you might be looking for a bit-crusher? In any case, it should be easy to find a freeware VST to play around with to see whether it's what you need. Yes! That's it, thank you.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2013 06:57
|
|
|
Anyone know of a cheap or hopefully free Transcribe! like program for mac?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2013 02:57
|
|
|
My question might be a little broader than the scope of this thread, but I really have no idea where to begin. I'm a vocalist, bassist, and beginner guitarist, and I want to start a band. Thing is, I don't have any friends who are even a little bit musically inclined, the only responses I've gotten on Craigslist postings were spam, and I'm not near enough to anybody in the playing with each other thread. There are a few open mics around here, but I don't play guitar well enough yet to perform at them; my producer's the one who plays guitar on the songs I've recorded. (I have to go to a studio because I don't have the money for my own recording equipment.) I've considered the idea that it might be easier to join an already existing band, and I've got it as an alternative in case this turns out to be too difficult to swing. I'm going to ask for help from my producer tonight, but if anyone here has any advice they can give me, I can't even say how much I'd appreciate it. Thanks, ML.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
Do you take lessons? Group lessons? If I were in your shoes I'd be going after those people for "jam sessions" and then converting them into a horrible garage band.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2013 22:36
|
|
|
Jazz Marimba posted:I remember reading this thread a while ago, so I looked it up. Here you go. I'd be interested to hear what people have to say about your other questions! Thanks for the link, exactly what I was looking for. RandomCheese posted:Can't you just record the video and the audio at the same time and then sync them up afterwards? I don't think you need to specifically mention the fact that the audio they are hearing did not in fact originate from the mic on your smartphone, and if you did both sides in one take you wouldn't have any visual inconsistencies that would make them think something is amiss. Uh.. that's what I'm talking about. Recording with my smartphone, then using the audio from my digital recorder....
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2013 17:44
|
|
|
I posted this in the piano megathread but I just realized it hasn't been active for weeks so maybe I should post this here instead! I'm a drummer but I've been messing with piano on and off for a while, I've never taken lessons (other than sitting around watching Jordan Rudess videos) or really gotten into it but I was wondering if anyone could take a quick look at my technique. I feel like there's something I'm doing wrong. I generally only use my pinky on my left hand when I'm doing octaves but otherwise it's just sorta sitting there being weird. Is that normal? I guess I'm just looking for a general overview of my playing from someone who's a lot better than me  Double Bass fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 18, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2013 20:40
|
|
|
Johnny Truant posted:Uh.. that's what I'm talking about. Recording with my smartphone, then using the audio from my digital recorder.... Sorry when you said dub it over I had assumed you would be doing two separate takes, doing the video first and then overdubbing the audio at a later session, which may have introduced little timing inconsistencies, otherwise why would you need to let them know the audio was from a different source? As far as they know you just have an awesome AV recording rig, there's no need to specify the equipment you used.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2013 03:07
|
|
|
What speaker or speakers would work really well for DJing hip-hop at house parties? I do have a pair of Yamaha HSM50's that are definitely loud enough but I don't think they have enough bass and aren't durable enough to withstand being lugged all over the place.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2013 01:07
|
|
|
terre packet posted:What speaker or speakers would work really well for DJing hip-hop at house parties? I do have a pair of Yamaha HSM50's that are definitely loud enough but I don't think they have enough bass and aren't durable enough to withstand being lugged all over the place. Look for PA speakers rather than studio monitors. The Mackie Thump is one I'd look at, Behringer also makes some that are rated decently if you're on a budget (or check your local Craigslist for PA stuff). Honestly it's tough to get truly  levels of bass without 15" drivers or a separate subwoofer, but that might be overkill for a lot of house parties -- just keep in mind that bigger drivers = more low end at all volumes.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2013 02:26
|
|
|
h_double posted:Look for PA speakers rather than studio monitors. The Mackie Thump is one I'd look at, Behringer also makes some that are rated decently if you're on a budget (or check your local Craigslist for PA stuff). Thanks! I'll go check the TH-15A out in person. I'm not on a budget -- would a single TH-15A be enough for most people's living rooms or should I get two?
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2013 02:50
|
|
|
terre packet posted:Thanks! I'll go check the TH-15A out in person. I'm not on a budget -- would a single TH-15A be enough for most people's living rooms or should I get two? Yeah I think one would be good for an average living room. You could always add a second one if you wanted to play someplace a little bigger (where stereo would be more important). A pair of those with pole mounts would make a great system for something like a pool party.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2013 23:02
|
|
|
Awesome, thanks again for the advice.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2013 23:09
|
|
|
Does anyone happen to know whether it's possible to resell a copy of Pro Tools/what that process would involve? I picked up a copy of PT M-Powered 8 a couple years ago to use with my MobilePre USB but I recently bought an MBox 3 Mini with PT Express so I've suddenly got an extra iLok 2/M-Powered 8 license just laying around and I'm not quite sure what to do with them.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2013 23:23
|
|
|
Jotun posted:Does anyone happen to know whether it's possible to resell a copy of Pro Tools/what that process would involve? I picked up a copy of PT M-Powered 8 a couple years ago to use with my MobilePre USB but I recently bought an MBox 3 Mini with PT Express so I've suddenly got an extra iLok 2/M-Powered 8 license just laying around and I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Try this?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2013 04:55
|
|
|
Has anyone here had any luck using Gigasampler / Gigastudio sample patches on a Win 7 64 bit architechture? Ever since Tascam dropped support for Gigastudio 4 and sold the rights to Garritan I'm having a hard time finding a good ASIO sampler to use. I've tried Synthfont, which reads .gig files, but has issues with some of the larger files I currently own. Aria player - unfortunately, isn't able to read my .gig files. Any thoughts / suggestions would be greatly appreciated - thanks!
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2013 15:49
|
|
|
Guigui posted:Has anyone here had any luck using Gigasampler / Gigastudio sample patches on a Win 7 64 bit architechture? Ever since Tascam dropped support for Gigastudio 4 and sold the rights to Garritan I'm having a hard time finding a good ASIO sampler to use. I've tried Synthfont, which reads .gig files, but has issues with some of the larger files I currently own. Aria player - unfortunately, isn't able to read my .gig files. Have you tried G-Player? Also if nothing else you should be able to use something like Chicken Systems' Translator to convert .gig to Kontakt or some other format.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2013 21:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
So I'm looking into getting some equipment to record myself playing trumpet, a preamp and microphone, specifically. I've been told the M-Audio MobilePre USB Preamp is a good device, but I was also looking at this puppy... http://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-2i2...ords=usb+preamp ...anybody have any advice/tips and tricks to picking out a preamp? As for mics I was recommended a Shure PG57 Dynamic Mic because it was affordable. I have a digital audio recorder, specifically the Zoom H4n Digital Recorder. I was wondering if I'd be able to plug that in to my preamp and just record with it... that's a viable option, right? It has both XLR and 1/4" outputs I'm pretty sure. Can you tell I'm very technically ignorant when it comes to most things musical? Haha. All the reviews for these three products were good, I was just hoping for a little more info on them before I spend my monthly allowance.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2013 00:14
|
|