Offline bounce, new metering options, work directly with HD video, turbo-fast with all-new Avid Audio Engine. I am excited to use this flag ship of audio-editing.

pro tools 11 features

The so called ‘most powerful digital audio workstation’ (I think this is not PT but Cockos Reaper cause it is much more adjustable and flexible) just got even more powerful. With an all-new, ultra-efficient audio engine, 64-bit performance, and groundbreaking capabilities, Pro Tools 11 enables you to take on the most complex and demanding music and audio post productions with ease, so you can focus on sounding your best.

• Get exponentially more processing power than Pro Tools 10 using the same hardware
• Create bigger, more complex sessions, without holding anything back
• Experience ultra-low latency record monitoring without sacrificing plug-in performance
• Play and edit a wide range of HD video formats right in the Pro Tools timeline

You can get a complimentary Pro Tools 11 upgrade (once it’s available) when you buy, upgrade, or crossgrade to Pro Tools 10 on or after April 7, 2013 and register your purchase.

http://apps.avid.com/protools11/

No matter what, they have the biggest allround plugin packs & you will find them in any studio around the world.
Reason enough to have a look at them or check out their discounts as they change their politics from being highly overpriced to a fairly normal studio plugins price range.

That is not all. After being founded 1992 Waves was one of the first plug-in companies to deliver plug-ins for not only the Digidesign TDM System. In the last 20 years they have stretched the possibilities of effects processing while maintaining a consistently high level of quality. In 2010 they introduced SoundGrid, now at this years NAMM they introduced DigiGrid, a series of products developed in a strategic alliance with DiGiCo.
In early 2012 they received a Technical Grammy from NARAS, along with Roger Linn. Wont be the last price they get for being productive in the Audio world! THX WAVES!

Today we will link you to a nice and informative interview with Amir Vinci, the Senior Product Manager at Waves Audio Ltd.

If you are interested in reading what Amir has to say about the founding of waves, what drove him to join the company or what we can expect next from Waves Audio Ltd. click here.

What do you think of Waves compressors, eqs, delays, reverbs, modulation tools, synths, doublers? Do you use them? Let me know!
If you feel like you need to learn how to use waves plugins, click here.

What is a Delay?

A delay is an audio effect which plays back a part of an audio sample again after a period of time.

Tape delay

During the late 50s – 60s everybody used tape delays. Early models used preamp tube circuitry that added some ‘warmth’ to the sound.

On reel-to-reel magnetic recording systems it was easy to achieve a delay effect by shortening or lengthening the loop of tape and adjusting the read and write heads.

Tape in general has warm and natural sounding delay repeats, which are set by distance changes between the record and playback heads and returning the sound back into the record head multiple times to generate multiple delays.

Tape delay can handle long delay times and it creates a musical effect through “wow & flutter” from the tape itself which is why a lot of people tend to prefer tape delays.

Famous hardware found in studios: Echoplex, Boss RE series, Fulltone TTE, Watkins Copicat

Analog delay

Tape delays are 100% analog but most of the time you will see a difference between tape and analog when listing delays. Analog delays make use of capacitors to store and move an input signal along a line of capacitors. No tape needed. The sound will then be played back the desired number of times. The advantages over tape are much lower costs, more durable construction, and a smaller footprint. Spinning magnetic discs or a rotating magnetic drum were used inside this gear. Analoge delays show a treble loss which degrades with each repeat. This effect gives analog delays their warm sound, and a more natural sound.

Solid state comes up with a bucket brigade delay in the 70s as a mainstream alternative to tape echo.

Digital delay

Nowadays you see them everywhere and every homestudio should have a magazin of useful delay plugins or digital hardware.

The first available digital delay effects in the late 1970s (First was made in 1976 I think) and 1980s were only available in big, expensive rack mounted units which gave this time music a special character.

The first digital delay build in a pedal was the Boss DD-2 in1984. The big rack mounted delay units from that time evolved fast into digital reverb units and multieffects units capable of more sophisticated effects than pure delay, such as reverb and Audio timescale-pitch modification effects.

Digital delay systems samples the input signal through an AD converter, after which the signal is processed and stored into a storage buffer. Now you as user can play back the stored signal due to set up parameters. The processed signal can be mixed with the original dry audio to get the effects you like.

Most systems today have filters and effect mix abilities. Time, onset, level, reverse, pitch and much more of the processed signal can be adjusted in relation to the unmodified audio.

Lexicon, Roland, TC Electronic are 3 of the big names you should remember when it comes to digital reverbs.

When to use what?

Digital delays cut through the mix much better and analog has a natural and warm sound.

They cover different aspects and needs.

For most people the basic difference between analog and digital delay is the clarity of the delayed sound. Digital delays make the repeated sound more like the original signal. Analog delays aren’t as clear as they cut of the highs very fast. The signal gets more distorted and more dark with each repetition.

Which one you like more, and for what application it is better, is a matter of taste and preference. I like analog delays a lot on ambience and urban sounds. Digital delay have a rich, clear quality to them which some people like, some people don’t.

How to use a delay?

First lets deal with some parameters and see what they stand for.

Mix/Level - Controls the effected signal and mix it with the dry (unaffected) signal. 100% wet means only processed signal comes through and no original signal anymore.

Feedback – More feedback means more repeats. Sometimes this is labeled as percentage, db or ms. Is this set to 0 or none, it means it is only 1 time delay.

Time – Delays can be set up to notes (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, …), can be dotted or tripled and for sure they can be set to any ms you like. Some delay units allows to tap the tempo

Type - On some units, plugins or pedals you can choose from different delay modes like classic and modern delay or clean, saturated, reverse delay, pitched delay, tape delay, dual delay, ping pong delay etc…

Rate/Modulation - Delays comes wigth a ‘chorus’ effect sometimes where you can set up the mod rate on your delays. You will end up detuning the repeated audio to give it a more distinct or vanished sound.

Some Tips and Tricks while working with delays:

Always sync to session tempo when working with note delay.

If you have, set up some saturation or distortion effect before or after the delay.

Cut of the high ends and low ends. (Try filtering everything under 500 Hz and above 9000 Hz for example)

Wide up the stereo by using different delay times right and left. Pan a send full to the site or just set up two different parameters in a stereo delay plugin. For example try left 1/8 and right 1/16. Or both sites with 1/4 but different length time or a few ms offset on one site. Try the swing feature provided by some plugins on only one site.

With a vst/au ‘tape delay’ plugin, try to set your delay time to 0 ms for a bit of that tape saturation sound on your track.

Always remember how to calculate your delay times: 60000ms/bpm=X ms/bar

When programming drums, set up a 1/4 Hi-hat or shaker and use two different delays left and right to transform it into a nice 1/16 or 1/32 groove.

Create ambience by using an 1/8 note repeat on one side and a 1/4 note on the other. Do a left to right cross feed to add more stereo to it.

You can hilite parts of your song by just bypass all delay on one phrase or bridge to let it set back in right after to produce a nice air-wide effect.

Make extensive use of parameter automation. Try to automate everything: amounts of repeat, filter frequency, delay times, dry/wet balance or delay bypass and you will give ‘live’ to your mixes and songs.

By programming the delay times while a sound is playing, you can get some weird pitch effects if you set the delay to fast automated changes.

If you get too much phasing or masking effects, try dotted notes for your delay time.

Pitch is a great effect to create some weird spaced out delay effects. Start with a 1/4 delay on an empty songpart and play with pitch automation on the delayed part.

Route other effects to your delay return channel. Try Chorus, Flanger or other modulation plugins.

Make your drums sound clear, deep & phat!

You know already how to use compression, eq, saturation? Move on, this is not for you…… But if you interested in learning how to mix your beats by yourself, watch this tutorial:

Did you check the Soundfactorywomb Facebookpage? Lot of interesting audio stuff and always the hottest news: http://www.facebook.com/soundfactorywomb

Producer of the beat is: EmmJott, from Germany. You can find his facebookpage here
For Testing and buying Schwa/Stillwell plugins: http://www.stillwellaudio.com/plugins… They are worth their money 10 times! Go for them, stick with them, they are better than most of the stuff you will find, believe me! AND they have the best user-producer-seller system you can find. Test the plugins as long as you want. If you love and use them, buy them.

And as always: for website, audio and video design (producing, editing, mixing, mastering), free plugins, free samples and free audio news visit SoundFactoryWomb

Interesting to find out if this first professional DJ software for iPad can create mixes in seconds, like their advertisement is saying.

It syncs to Traktor Pro 2 without any problems, can sync all beat to grid, cue points, BPM and genre tags with your Traktor collection and back.

See Richie Hawtins first day with it at the beach and at the club.

Advertisement is nice, the goal set high… lets see what it brings to the dj table and if the pad in general will be useful in the next 10 years for this kind of production and entertainment.

Do you use it? Would you like to use it? Let me know!

Enjoy!

But you are too lazy to learn the huge software sequencers? Too busy to keep sampling or buying sample librarys? Try this nice audio beat making software for all styles.

You don’t need any experience, just a bit of a musical feeling. You have it in your mind? Then you can bring it on tape, or harddisk.

Jungle, Trance, Techno or HipHop… you are not limited to a genre.

Complicated music theory isn’t needed as well as spending more money on plugins or sounds. This great software makes it really ‘crazy’ simple.

Interface includes Arranger, Sequencer, Mixer, 12 Pad drum machine, keyboard and drag and drop for every move.

Maybe too simple for some people.

What do you think? Let me know!

Blue Cat’s DP Meter Pro (DPMP) is a nice audio analysis tool which combines very useful audio meters with perfect sidechaining controls.

Large statistics displays are included for an overview of a track, while histograms give you a precise measurement of the dynamic range of the track. The graphs show the evolution of the audio envelopes over time, and the mid-side switch lets you verify mono compatibility problems and check the “stereoness” of your audio sources very easily. Whether you are working with mono, stereo or surround tracks, this plug-in will fit into your workflow.

For 49 € you will get an analytic tool you can really use to get informations about the tracks in your productions. If you are an engineer and used to hear what’s the problem… now you can do what you shouldn’t: see what’s going on.

It is fast responding and it looks good.

Let me know if you like it and why.

Made in Reaper with basic step by step processing of a vocaltrack from Jojo Alexis, you can find her Facebook page here 

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Peace

I think there is no way to advertise your software product better this days.

Oh and btw: This one is still going! Check it out fast, I already got me my beloved Samplemoog!  Save 60% off SampleTank, SampleMoog, Miroslav Philharmonik, Sonik Synth and SampleTron, and all Xpansion Tank 2 refills.