Sound designer, technologist, and remix artist Francis Preve sends us some gifts of techno and technology to celebrate his first solo release. For your brain, we’ve compiled the tutorials he’s been working on for Beatportal, which together provide a really great look at some basic music production skills. For your ears, we have his new Ableton-produced single “Caboose” which, coupled with a Josh Gabriel remix – and a free iPhone ringtone exclusively provided to CDM by Josh’s label Different Pieces.

Being a technologist often makes actually finding time to make music a big challenge. But I’ve always been impressed at Fran’s ability to do both. Whether this is your type of music or not, it means that when he talks about techniques, he’s talking about stuff he actually applies in his work – and he has eight Billboard Top 10s to prove his remixing skills, including one for Justice. Here’s what he had to say to CDM about making Ableton Live into a way of reimagining just two samples into a whole track:

The interesting thing about the production of Caboose is that – with the exception of the drums – it was made entirely from two very short vocal samples, entirely in Live 7. There were no third-party plug-ins or softsynths. Every sound was either looped and effected, or placed in Simpler and sequenced, or ‘Sliced to MIDI’ and manipulated. Even the bass is that same vocal sample, tuned down two octaves, distorted, then filtered and compressed. The process itself was so much fun that I’ve since incorporated aspects of it into the follow- up tracks I’m working on now.

In the meantime, Francis has compiled for us a complete index to the tutorials he’s been developing for Beatportal, including synthesis, sampling, effects, Reason’s new Thor synth, and other skills:

Francis’ Tutorial Series for beatportal.com

Fran has worked as a sound designer on Ableton products and the Korg Legacy Collection and OASYS. Here, though, he starts at the beginning. Beatportal has indexed those stories before. But having made a giant map of the Kore tutorials we did recently – and planning to do similar “indexing” – I asked Fran to make a custom, compact list for us so you can easily get at what you need.

Subtractive and analog synthesis

• Introduction to Synthesizer Programming, Part 1
• Introduction to Synthesizer Programming, Part 2
• Some call it analog: How subtractive synthesizers work
• Oscillators: Essential Waveforms
• Oscillators: Mixing and Blending
• Filters: The Wow Factor
• Filters: Going Deeper
• Understanding Envelopes, Part 1
• Understanding Envelopes, Part 2
• Essential LFO facts
• Grasping MIDI Controllers

Introduction to sampling

• Sampling Essentials – Part 1
• Sampling Essentials – Part 2

Tutorials on Reason’s Thor synthesizer

• Stealing Thor’s Thunder – Part 1: Oscillators
• Stealing Thor’s Thunder – Part 2: Filters
• Stealing Thor’s Thunder – Part 3: Modulation

Introduction to effects (series in progress)

• Tutorial: How to use compression
• Tutorial: How to use a delay
• Tutorial: How to use a noise gate
• Tutorial: How to use reverb

Production Master Classes (tips/tricks roundtables with established producers, series in progress)

• Production Master Class: Intros and Outros
• Production Master Class: Kick and bass
• Production Master Class: Hi-hats and top-loops

See also Francis’ book, which I know at least some CDM readers have previously said they really enjoyed. (I have a copy here, it’s pretty excellent!)

Exclusive CDM Ringtone

You know you need some techno when someone calls your iPhone, so here’s an iTunes-format ringtone:

Caboose_The_Ringtone.m4r [Free download from CDM]

Enjoy!

Composer, musician, and sound designer W. Brent Latta knows something about sound design, currently working professionally on sound for games with Amaze Entertainment. As an enthusiast of what it takes to craft sound, he’s put together a list for us of where to go to learn more and hone your abilities, from fundamentals to the specifics required by film/video and games. -Ed.

Sound design is a fundamental aspect of nearly every form of digital media, from music production to games to commercial radio. Sometimes seen as a ‘dark art’, sound design can also be viewed as difficult and mysterious, often deterring would-be creators. Here are 15 sound design resources to help rookies and veterans alike.

Fundamentals

The fundamentals of sound design rest firmly on the core fundamentals of audio engineering. Without a working knowledge of basic audio engineering, your road to becoming a sound designer could be a long one. Here are some resources to help get you off on the right foot.

1. AudioTuts.com is a great place to start learning basic and advanced techniques for audio production. Even if you have no interest in producing music, taking the time to work through both sound design and music production tutorials will quickly give you practical, hands-on experience with the techniques you’ll need to get your sound design career moving.

2. Sound On Sound has a voluminous archive of audio, music and production tutorials. These range from the most fundamental techniques of sound synthesis, all the way up to specific techniques using outboard effects processors.

3. Digital Pro Sound has a nice archive of tutorials and articles covering a range of applications, plug-ins, and general techniques.

Sound For Film

Sound for film has a long and proud history, with a level of camaraderie and support that is not often found in other aspects of various media industries. As sound designers, we are fortunate to have a plethora of amazing individuals who help promote our work, keep us informed, and help us keep up on the latest and greatest news and tech. Here are a few film-specific sites that are worth checking out.

4. FilmSound is perhaps the most comprehensive site on the web regarding the topic of sound and music for film. Contributors include legendary sound designers such as Randy Thom, Ben Burtt and Walter Murch. There’s even a section specifically for beginners!

5. FilmSoundDaily is relatively new to the blogosphere, but is highly recommended for unique, personal approach, its thorough interviews, and plenty of audio and video content.

6. SyncSoundCinema is an interesting blog covering field production and recording. Product reviews and announcements, as well as industry commentary make for a useful daily read.

Sound For Games

Now that we’re moving into my neck of the woods, I’m happy to share with you some of my favorite sites covering the topics of audio for games. While many of the techniques are the same, the specific application of sound in games can vary widely from film, television and radio. Here are a few sites to give you a head-start on audio for games.

7. GamaSutra is one of the premier sites on the web for news, articles, interviews, and industry reports on games. Their archives are replete with interesting game audio articles covering a range of topics including adaptive music, voiceover recording, production pipelines and development methodology. In addition, Gamasutra has sections devoted to job-hunting and education, for those who are just getting started.

8. GANG is the Game Audio Network Guild, is the largest game audio community in the world. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion, education and growth of the game audio community. The majority of the resources are available to members-only, but with the recent site overhaul, there are a number of new features that are available for those who are interested in joining but want more information first.

9. Music4Games is devoted to all aspects of music for video games, including soundtrack reviews, interviews with top composers, and even reviews of software used frequently in the production of game music. This is a great site for learning about the movers and shakers of the game music industry.

10. IASIG “exists to allow developers of audio software, hardware, and content to freely exchange ideas about improving the performance of interactive applications by influencing hardware, software, and tool design.” Comprised of a wide variety of individuals from across the interactive entertainment industry, the IASIG has working to improve the lives of game developers and game audio designers for over 13 years.

11. sound-music-interactive-games is a blog I recently stumbled upon. While much of the content is linked from other, previously mentioned sites, it is all focused on game-audio, and contains thoughtful and amusic commentary from Richard Stevens.

Communities and Lists

I’m happy to say that the sound design community is generally welcoming, informative, and a fun place to work and play. Here are some great places where you can begin to network with fellow composers and sound designers. As a general rule, newbies are welcome in all of these communities, though the signal-to-noise ratio here is very high. Posts are almost always ‘on-topic’, and searching the archives for previously answered questions is mandatory.

12. GameAudioForum is an excellent place to learn, share ideas, and network with other game audio professionals.

13. GameAudioPro is a Yahoo! mailing list devoted to learning more about sound design for games. While there isn’t a much traffic here as on GameAudioForum, this is a great way to stay connected if you don’t want to spend a lot of time searching through web forums.

14. sound_design is another Yahoo! discussion group. This particular group is a veritable who’s-who of the film, television and game sound world. The level of professionalism here is extremely high, and while rookies are welcome, asking rookie questions is somewhat frowned upon, as most rookie questions are readily answered elsewhere (in the archives or on other websites). I’ve been a ‘lurker’ on this site for two years and have yet to ask a question. Even so, I’ve learned a great deal by simply reading the posts of others.

A Random Must Read Site

15. USO is a site with a wide ranging scope covering topics such as sound design, production, technique, interviews and digital signal processing. This is one of my favorite daily visits, with a great sense of humor, and reverence for audio creators everywhere. Highly recommended! Ed.: I agree — this has long been on my blog RSS feed! -PK

Your Favorites?

Do you have favorite websites, mailing lists, or forums that cover the topic of sound design, production, recording, foley or audio for games? If so, let us know in the comments!

Software Review: Mixxx Open Source DJ Software [Vinyl Project]
Previously: Mixxx, Open Source DJ Tool, Adds Vinyl Control

He does, however, wonder if a controlled operating environment would help. As it happens, I’m testing Mixxx on just such an environment, the custom-Linux UMPC Indamixx. Stay tuned.

1. A podcast episode with music made entirely on the Optigan, Mattel’s bizarre “optical organ” of the 70s. (See Optigan.com for more on that.)

2. Stefan Goodchild’s blog, aka “Stabilizer”, who’s on Peter Gabriel’s multimedia team (nice work if you can get it), and — in addition to having lots of wonderful goodies built in Mac/Windows music patching software Plogue Bidule, is hard at work with something featuring lots of light-up buttons, evidently Monome-inspired.

I should add something to this discussion, so I’ll add this: Optigan is how you spell it, not Optigon or anything sounding like octagon. That’s it. I’m turning into a copy editor.