iproducer #4 – Unlink and Conquer + Bonus from Gustavo Bravetti on Vimeo.

Exclusive to CDM (and Vimeo), Live guru Gustavo Bravetti offers a deep tutorial in sound creation in Ableton using “unlinked envelopes.” He assembles quasi-modular routings of effects into one another to create some unusual sounds. I think there are some inspiring techniques here, even beyond Ableton Live – I’d watch it even if I weren’t a Live user.

Gustavo writes:

“This workshop demo video is about using Live’s unique clip unlinked envelopes and Ableton’s effects to easily create elaborated sequenced sounds as well as a “how to” create a bass, a tuned bass drum, a clap and hi hats.”

So, what’s the beauty of the “unlinked envelope”? By separating the envelope length from the length of a sample, you can take a sample of one length and modulate it in time independently with an envelope of a different length. A short sample can warp in a longer block of time for more variety – a 1/16th note sample, for instance, transformed over a bar or two. Add the ability to route the envelope into effect modulation, and you can start to think extreme sonic freakiness. Here, that serves Gustavo’s own electronic palette, but it could suit a variety of musical aims.

You can also go the opposite direction: you could take a long sample and modulate it with a short envelope. For instance, you could select a 30-second oscillating texture, and apply a very short envelope, like a single sixteenth-note peak, in order to create an evolving high hat.

You can think of the unlinked envelope as a modulation source for a variety of sonic targets. It could be a short sample, a chain of effects, or a synth. Here, Gustavo sticks to built-in Live devices, but you could easily add your own plug-ins of choice – especially now that Live has added the ability to more easily choose which third-party plug-in parameters you wish to target.

Part of why I say this is about more than just Live is that you can begin to see how thinking in envelopes can make your musical content more dynamic, a technique you can apply to any environment that allows this sort of routing. It certainly illustrates the power of Live in a way that I think a lot of people miss.

To watch the full HD version, head to Gustavo’s Vimeo account.

I’m going to be organizing a compendium of our best Live tutorials soon; if you have external tutorials you’d like us to link up, let us know.

Previous Gustavo-fueled mayhem:
Ableton Live Follow Actions, Dummy Clips, Making Snares
DIY 808, IDM 101
Gustavo Bravetti Show Us How To Glitch out Ableton Live
Hexagonal Sequencer with vvvv, MIDI, Ableton, and Soon Wii, Camera Input
Live + FM8 = Drum Kit Love: Free FM8 Drum Kit Download

“Peak” is a long-standing name in audio editing on the Mac. I recently got to review its latest iteration, Peak Pro 6, for Macworld and Macworld.com.

Macworld Review: Peak Pro 6
Sample editor and audio suite tweaked for pros, sound designers, and podcasters

I still believe audio editors are valuable tools, especially for anyone who spends a significant amount of their time on sound design – whether that’s sound effects or building the perfect drum kit. Peak is an unusual tool, in a way, in that it remains a stereo waveform editor only, whereas most of its competitors have added multitrack compatibility. On the other hand, Peak also bundles an unusually rich set of tools in the box, which explains the higher price of the full-blown Pro versions.

Here’s my breakdown for Macworld:

Pros
Attractive bundle; seamless podcast export; powerful playlist assembly and export; envelopes; deep plug-in routing; fantastic cross-synthesis sonic powers.

Cons
Multi-window UI can be clunky to use; still no real multi-channel or surround support; lacks more full-featured, non-destructive editing; no spectrum view.

I do want to call particular attention to a couple of points:

You can get Peak cheaply if you want a deal. Unbundled, more basic versions run under a hundred bucks, and as noted in comments, you may even snag a deal on an upgrade.

Peak Pro is fundamentally a bundle. The full-blown version may indeed cause some sticker shock, but it’s really about the bundled software – if you want that software, it could be well worth it.

Vbox and cross-synthesis really rock. This is the feature that makes me really, really glad I got to stick Peak Pro on my MacBook. As pictured at top, the combination allows you to route plug-ins in interesting ways and then create routings that are impossible in most other hosts. (Add batch processing, and this gets very interesting, indeed. I’m going to try it on a stack of audio files – I’ll post samples soon.)

All products involve tradeoffs, so as always I try to do my best to characterize the tradeoffs I see. (“This is the perfect tool for everything” is the job of the marketing department.) I’m still particularly fond of the Windows-only Sound Forge (now made by Sony), but Peak remains a strong entry on the Mac. It’s also worth checking out Peak’s nearest rival, Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor, which has been developing by leaps and bounds. The Peak / Wave Editor competition could be an interesting one; they take very different approaches to the problem.

As always, I’m happy to hear what readers and users think.

Bias Inc.

Hands-on control is a wonderful thing, as NI founder and Reaktor “mastermind” Stephan Schmitt noted in our story yesterday on his creation Spark. And LFOs are often not terribly interesting. But even using your feet for modulation, you may eventually run out of limbs. So if you want to record automation but keep the human element, a motion recorder is not a bad way to go. Spark is just out, but our NI minisite writer Peter was so into it that he created a motion recorder for himself just to use it:

BlackBox Recorder: Free Reaktor tool to Enhance Spark and Kore

Now, as it happens, you don’t necessarily have to use this with either Spark or Kore, so it’s worth mentioning here. You will need Reaktor to use the patch, though maybe this will give folks ideas for creating something similar with Max or Pd.

It’s a simple tool, but motion recording can lead to all sorts of other ideas. Got a favorite tool for recording human automation quickly? Let us know.

Reaktor is a massively powerful toolkit for building instruments and effects, but that power can easily be overwhelming at first. Peter Dines has completed a five-part introduction tackling sequencing events. It’s one of the trickier bits, but also the skill that will help you have the maximum amount of fun.

Be a Reaktor Sequencer Ninja

Here are the five parts for CDM’s Kore minisite:

Part 1 – introduction
Part 2 – the X+ module
Part 3 – the event table
Part 4 – the snap array
Part 5 – the mouse area

(See the clocks/events refresher to get going.)

See also: Reaktor forum discussion

Downloadable Instruments, Effects

As you’re learning, it can help to grab more ready-to-use instruments and effects. Here’s a sampling, though of course you’ll find many more in the NI User Library.

Don’t believe the tutorial can spawn new creations? Boombox is a drum machine built with the Roux sequencer macro Peter Dines uploaded for his tutorial series.

Boombox Drum Machine (Direct download link)

HaasCheezburger is a new LOLcat-powered stereo delay effect from Peter.

You can also download Peter D’s Grain Delay effect

Teaser: New Spiral Ensemble

This is an upcoming Reaktor 5 ensemble from one of the great virtuosos of instrument/effect patching (in any tool, not just Reaktor), Lazyfish. The creator of Gaugear and Newschool turns his attentions to a new, swirling, animated modulating synth. It demonstrates what’s possible when you take sequencing to the edge, and has the typically inspiring take on user interface Lazyfish is known for. I’ll be able to share more about this soon, but NI has already said on the forums that this ensemble will be free to existing Reaktor 5 users.

Our own Peter Dines notices the similarity to the Whitney Music Box. The possibilities for where instruments can go conceptually and in terms of interface just continue to unfold.

For more Reaktor getting started resources, see our story from last month:

Learning Reaktor: 10-Step Path to Building New Sequencers, Beatboxes, and Effects

Updated: Native Instruments has announced the SoundPack this comes from, the new Reaktor Animated Circuits. If you don’t own Reaktor (or Kore, for that matter), you can run Reaktor Animated Circuits and get all the sound goodness from SpaceDrone, Metaphysical Function, Skrewell, Newscool, and this new ensemble Spiral Sequencer. But, of course, we think you’ll be even happier if you get Reaktor and start tinkering yourself (and you need Reaktor to see Spiral’s nifty graphics). That’s just how we roll.

How to use it: Spiral is a sequencer, so you do need to hook it up to a sound source. Wondering how to do that? We’ve got a screencast that explains from resident Reaktor guru Peter Dines.

If you do have Reaktor, Spiral is now available for download via Service Center, so have at it!

Now their sleeper hit sampler Shortcircuit is being released for FREE!

Details after the jump.

Yes free folks. In a move similar to Mackie’s back in 2003 when it gave Tracktion 1 away for free, and DiscoDSP’s release of Highlife as freeware last year Vember Audio is releasing as freeware their now aging version 1 in an effort to generate buzz for the forthcoming version 2 (the beta of which is available for free as well).

This is not crippleware. This is the same full version of Shortcircuit 1.1.2 that used to go for $139 just a few days ago. Check the specs:

User interface

Streamlined user interface for fast editing at the sample-zone level.
Fast editing of multiple zones.
“In context”-sample preview.
Extensive drag & drop support (onto the keyrange-view or the list-view).

Sample/Intrument import

RIFF wave-files (.wav) (8/16/24/32-bit & 32-bit float, mono/stereo at any sample rate)
AKAI S5000/S6000/Z4/Z8 .akp banks (partial)
NI battery kits (partial)
Soundfont 2.00 (partial)
Propellerhead Recycle 1 & 2

Sampler engine

High-quality sinc interpolation
Oversampling used when needed to prevent aliasing
Double-precision float math (64-bit) used where it matters (IIR-filters).
Single-precision float math (32-bit) used elsewhere.
Supports any sample-rate.
Max polyphony per instance: 256 voices
Multiple outputs. (max 16 mono AND 8 stereo-pairs per instance)
Supported sample-playback modes:
forward
forward loop
forward loop with crossfading
forward loop until release
forward loop bidirectional
forward shot
sliced (maps slices accross the keyboard)
on release
reverse
reverse shot

2 filters / voice:
Lowpass 2-pole (2 types)
Lowpass 1/2/3/4-pole ladder-filter
Lowpass 1/2/3/4-pole ladder-filter with saturation
Highpass 2-pole
Bandpass
Peak
Notch
Dual bandpass
Dual peak
Comb filter
2-band parameric EQ (2 types)
graphic EQ
morphEQ
mörder OD (overdrive)
Bitf*cker
Distortion
Clipper
Gate
Limiter
Slewer
Microgate (does glitch/loop style effects when the gate is open)
Ring modulation
Phase modulation (equivalent to FM)
Frequency shifting
Pulse oscillator
Pulse oscillator (with sync)
Sawtooth oscillator (with 1-16 voices in unison)
Sinus oscillator

3 stepLFOs / voice. Doubles as 32-step stepsequencer and wavetable LFO.
2 AHDSR envelopes / voice
Powerful modulation system with the ability to modulate itself. Destinations include envelope-times, loop-points in addition to traditional destinations.
Group LFO
Group modulation routing.
Group effects. (2 effects / group)
Effect types:
digidelay (feedback, filtering & optional midi-sync)
freqshift delay
chorus
freqshift flange
digidist
stereo width
MS decoder

System requirements

Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or newer.
Processor with SSE-support (includes Intel Pentium 3 and newer, AMD Athlon XP and newer)
Software capable of hosting VST-instruments.

Get it HERE.

If you play with Shortcircuit and like what you’re hearing please consider picking up Surge and Shortcircuit 2 when it’s released. Cats like these need the support of users like you and me to stay in business. If you’re a PC user, give it a shot… you’ve got nothing to lose!

Even as software continues to flourish, there’s still a great argument for a hardware box that does what you need — especially when that box has extensive feature sets, MIDI support, comes from Roger Linn, and costs US$375. Roger himself writes to let us know about the release of the AdrenaLinn III:

AndrenaLinn III Product Page

Like the models that came before it, the AdrenaLinn III is a guitar amp modeler with modulation and effects. The effects section is what really sets it apart: delays, filter sequences, and modulation are all synced to either the built-in drum machine or external MIDI. MIDI sync, of course, means you could easily integrate this with a software setup with tools like Ableton Live, Reason, or Cakewalk Project5. But it’s also little wonder that Linn, creator of various breakthrough drum machines, would turn a guitar effects unit into a drum machine.

The AdrenaLinn III incorporates myriad improvements over its predecessors, generally making this a more well-rounded unit, with enough effects that it could be an all-in-one solution:

• New effects: Reverb, compression, tuner, enhanced modulation
• New amp models, for a total of 40, Linn Design also says the improved models have better presence/tube saturation/tonal accuracy
• Better MIDI control, now letting you get to nearly all settings from MIDI foot switches and expression pedals, with assignable foot switch functions
• More presets, more drum beats

I look forward to hearing one in person. And this sounds too nice, anyway, to let the guitarists have all the fun — this sounds promising on many other instruments, too. Roger tells us his wife uses her AdrenaLinn with a cello.

Since this really is software running in a box, if you have an existing AdrenaLinn, you can upgrade to the latest model for US$99, which sounds well worth it. We’ve predicted before that more affordable, capable hardware would continue to advance external gear at the same time as computer software develops, and this is another example of how the two can nicely coexist in your setup.

Other gear watching…

I’m more in the AdrenaLinn vein than Line 6 Pods, but if the latter interest you, Music thing gets the scoop on leaked specs on a new model.

Meanwhile, what many are really eager to see from Roger Linn is the collaboration with Dave Smith, the BoomChik. We expect that’s a ways off yet. Okay by me: more time to save the pennies.