An old PC laptop could be relegated to the closet or (worse, since it’s highly toxic) landfill. But filled up with tasty freeware plug-ins, it’s a virtual studio full of tools and oddities. Via the feast of gear that is the CDMusic pool on Flickr, our friend Jumahat Leman aka uncle bigbrown artfully captures his budget software setup, described as follows:

• A 4+yrs old Acer laptop (a desktop replacement to be exact)
• Ableton Live 5.01 w/lots of freeware VSTs
• using same earphones/headphones/ToneportGx for recording

** My observation:
If you’re a “free VSTs/plugins” hunter/user like me, there’s tons of them available for download for the Wins platform in the worldwideweb. That’s where “cheap” Mac users/lovers (like me) are at a disadvantage with our OSX. So its always good to have a Wins machine at your disposal…

The Mac doesn’t get left out either, though. A G4 tower has become a virtual guitar stompbox and recording studio:

• 9 yrs old Sawtooth “Earache” G4 Mac
• Ableton Live 5.01 w/freeware plug-ins
• $80 Toneport GX
• old iPod earphones or $50 Sennheiser Headphones (for recording/monitoring/mixing)

**most times i load the “mixed songs” into the iPod to listen/compare/mix and check eq/volume.

(The guitar is a PRS SE Paul Allender.)

If these visuals got your attention, there’s another lesson to be learned here. Not only does this visual illustration give you a sense of what his workflow is about and perhaps passes along some tips, but he uses photos and illustrations as a great promotional tool. It helps that Jumahat is a talented designer. I love his mini-portfolio, below. He also makes wonderful promotional posters and stickers. As I noted earlier this week, the ability to make something visually expressive that is meaningful to your music can be powerful – starting with album art, but going beyond that.

Or, to make a more important point, Jumahat has one of the only tasteful MySpace pages I’ve ever seen — and that’s a feat.

Happy weekend projects to everyone; hope this provides some inspiration.

drechohead, Jumahat’s MySpace page
echoinmyhead @blogpspot, with more visual goodies

Updated: Plug-in List

Now, the answers revealed. (See if you guessed any of these correctly.)

Mac

• Studio Devil BVC (for my guitar needs)
• Togu Audio Line TAL Tube (to “tubify” guitar or other sounds, or “overdrive” them more)
• Togu TAL Dub (for my delay needs)

PC

• BTE Audio Juicy77 (for most of my guitar distortion needs)
• BTE Audio TSS (tube screamer stompbox simulation)
• Audio Damage Pulse Modulator (for crazy sounds)
• E-phonic Retrodelay (for mild delay needs)

ALL of my plug-ins are freeware coz i’m cheap! ; )

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!

basic64 is a free (donations accepted) VST plug-in for Windows. You can see the full specs on the developer site, but let’s skip straight to what sets this one apart:

• Oscillator sync
• Ring modulation
• Pitch envelopes
• Tempo-synced arpeggiator
• MIDI learn on everything

Pretty powerful for free. It’s not a full SID emulation, but then, I think an “inspired” version is better anyway. Now, enough blogging, I’m off to go play with this thing. And yes, lots of weird and wonderful plug-ins is one excellent reason to use Windows, even if just a justification for throwing XP Home on Boot Camp on a MacBook.

basic64 on de La Mancha
and lots of other free/donationware plugs from them

Via the good peoples of Sonic State

There’s a horrible misconception that music technology is the domain of white guys who speak either English or German. (Erm, yes, I don’t do much to counter that — shout out, my nerdy, pale guy friends.)

But think again. One of the best music production sites on the Web in any language is the Spanish-language Hispasonic (and we have a strong readership in Spanish-speaking countries even here on CDM). Clearly, music technology and the Web itself are growing in popularity all over the planet, as diverse communities grow and start talking about this stuff in their native tongues. Hispasonic was already one of the most mature, and they’ve just gotten a terrific redesign (Hispasonic 2.0). In fact, it’s not the absence of these communities — it’s the fact that the rest of us don’t pay enough attention.

Hispasonic is happy to let you share in their success. To celebrate the 2.0 design, they’re giving away a special version of the lovely Nebula Reverb (VST – Windows), complete with eleven presets designed by Jorge Ruiz (a total of 450 MB of presets, downloadable separately).

Nebula HS (Hispasonic Edition) Reverb, Tutorials, Presets

Updated: Just to demonstrate how multinational this effort is, noou notes in comments:

Hey! You forgot to mention that Acusticaudio (the creators of the Nebula plugin) are from Italy! BTW once you learn Spanish the road to Italian is much easier…

Italy is another country that has produced many developers, designers, artists, and musicians who are expressive with technology. (Take that sentence, apply it to multiple centuries, and it’s an understatement for many nations of the world. Except the US; we haven’t been around very long.)

So go have a look. Brush up your Spanish, and check out the tutorial on the plug-in. (The download page is helpfully translated to English.) Subscribe to the RSS feed, and see if some of that high school Spanish starts flooding back. (It’s like riding a bicycle, really.) Just be sure to enjoy it fast, before Elton John demolishes the Internet.

Here’s how to set up your own system in a similar hands-free operation style, for about US$10, without having to solder anything. It’ll take you about an hour once you gather the parts required, or less. No joke.

You will need:

• A QWERTY keyboard, preferably with a USB connector. Otherwise, you’ll have to buy an adapter to fit your laptop, which costs extra. You can get one for $7.50 at AllElectronics.com, but you can find them even cheaper at your local thrift store’s “technology pile.” I got mine for $2.
• A flathead screwdriver.
• Ableton Live. Ed.: Live is a perfect choice here, but you may find this useful with other music apps, as well — or even in a VJ set. -PK
• A free keyboard-mapping utility called Autohotkey (if you’re running Windows). If you’re running Mac, the program to use is calledIKey.

  That’s it. Here’s how to make it go:

  
  

  Above: Steps 1-2. Simple enough.

  1. You’re going to remove a significant number of the QWERTY keyboard’s keys, leaving only those spaced far enough apart to operate with your foot. Identify which keys you want to keep with a magic marker BEFORE you go hog-wild with the screwdriver, otherwise you’ll lose track of which is which. I ended up with 12 remaining keys, in two rows. Your feet may be smaller or bigger, so experiment with it.

  2. Glue some squares of larger, stiff material to the keys to give your foot a bigger target. I used some plastic lenses (20 cents apiece at American Science & Surplus) and hot glue. Epoxy or a plastic welding cement might work better in the long run.

  3. Plug the keyboard into your computer and boot up Ableton Live.

  4. Download and install either Autohotkey (WIN users) or IKey (Mac).

  5. Here’s the almost-tricky part: In Ableton Live, you need to create a new project with six audio tracks. Arm recording on all tracks. Turn off monitoring for all tracks except one.

  6. Use the keymappping function (click the “KEY” button in the upper right hand corner of Live’s screen) to assign a keystroke to each track’s “record/play” button. It doesn’t matter which keystrokes you assign, because we’re going to be remapping them anyways. For this example, the keys I used were !,@,d,h,k, l.

  7. Create a new script with Autohotkey and enter something similar to what’s pictured below. The 12 keys left on your QWERTY should be put at the start of each line. The idea is that as each key is depressed, Autohotkey remaps those into a sequence of keystrokes.

  I chose to have my top row of buttons select the track, delete whatever’s there, and begin recording. The bottom row of buttons hits “play” on the corresponding track, which stops recording and begins looping on the corresponding track. You can re-trigger loops this way also.

  Here’s an image of my keymaps in Live and the AutoHotkey script I made. Pretty simple, all things considered. I would be happy to share my blank Ableton set and accompanying AutoHotkey script to any windows users who need a little help getting started.

  
  

  If you’re running Mac, here’s an idea of what you’ll have to do using IKey. It’s very similar but slightly different. For instance, we permanently glued the shift key down, to skirt some of IKey’s trigger-key rules.
  

  8. Save the script, activate it (you’ll see the AutoHotKey icon appear in your taskbar), and you’re good to go. It’s that easy.

  The end result? Not too shabby:

  You can hear a track recorded by myself and bandmate Cameron Moore using two MIDI-linked Ableton Live setups here.
  Note: Cameron runs Mac and I run Windows, and we had no issues.

  Check the forums for a more in-depth discussion, and feel free to ask questions. Also, if you decide to undertake this project, please post your results!

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  Updates in bold:

  

  Plenty of folks have asked me for advice about their DAW setups over the years. Mostly it has been about the issue of what sequencer software they should buy, or if they should go with a Mac or a Win PC environment (you can guess which direction I try to steer them towards). Occasionally, someone with little or no cash asks me about sites where he/she can download “free” software. Naturally, they almost always mean cracked/illegally copied software… However, since I know more than a few independent software developers, I’m not a huge fan of folks downloading, and then making money with software that small developers depend on to survive. So instead of steering them towards illegal copies of commercial software, I guide them towards totally legitimate freeware that’s often just as good as software that costs 100s of dollars.

  That’s why I created Straight Out of No Cash, to give every Windows PC user a chance to make music using legal freeware.

  In this installment, I’m helping those of you that already have a VST host sequencer, whether its a free tracker or Sonar 6, to all of the instruments, effects, and other gadgets your virtual studio would ever need. Once again, 100% free and legal.

  I’ll start by covering each major instrument category, giving a proper description of each recommended plug-in. [Ed.: Note that for now these are all Windows-compatible; some are also Mac-compatible and I'll update the list within the next 24 hours or so with that information. Some are also direct download links, as far warning; I've indicated this where appropriate. -PK]

  Virtual Analog (VA)

  Asynth & Taurus: Two of the finest analog emulations ever. The fact that they are both freeware is just icing on the cake.

  Synth1: A classic freeware that still holds its own today. If you’re looking for fat analog sounds, go elsewhere. Synth1 is 100% digital in the best (worst) possible sense. It can cut through even the muddiest of mixes like a hot knife through butter. Best used in situations where you want a sound to shine right through with clarity and precision.

  Abakos: A great sounding poly VA with a twist. Using some programming voodoo Abakos is able to play back as many voices as needed using only a flat amount of CPU. In other words, your computer is taxed the same regardless if you’re playing only one note, or 12. Great for those of us with older (or notebook) DAWs.

  Oatmeal [direct download link]: In ironic fashion it was labeled as “yet another bland virtual analog” by its creator, but has since become a bit of a cult favorite on the KVR forums. Not a Synthedit creation. Apologies to Fuzzpilz and all those mislead by my erroneous assumption.

  Lallapallooza Lite [direct download] & Superwave P8: To make up for the Oatmeal faux pas, I’m posting not one, but two really good, really synthedit, and really free JP-8000 “supersaw” style virtual analog synths.

  Ultrasonique: A wavetable synth not unlike some of the classic 80′s/early 90′s digital synths. It features a set of high-quality original waveforms and a step sequencer controller to help create moving pads, textures, and atmospheres.

  Polyiblit: Another classic bit of freeware. The analog workhorse of choice for many cash-strapped producers. Sounds great in a mix with its anti-aliasing oscillators.

  Granular

  Grainz: By far the best freeware granular synths. Combined with a physical modeling oscillator, Grainz can produce a wide range of mild to wild sounds.

  Sampler

  Highlife: I think I’ve said all that I needed to in a previous article. Ed.: Indeed. Adrian says it rocks. Readers say it rocks. I say it rocks. Could even be a reason for Mac folks to boot into Windows.

  Paax: The Foreman to Highlife’s Ali. Was the champ of freeware samplers, and still has some use even after losing the belt.

  SFZ: A great soundfont player and a good compliment to Highlife, as it can load the Highlife made sfz files with a less taxing interface.

  Beatslicer

  H4xx0r: An honest to god freeware beatslicer made with Synthedit. While it pales in comparison to something like Guru or pHATmatik, it can do most of what the pro-boys can with standard wav files, plus a couple of nifty tricks like freely automatable start and end positions for all that glitchiness the kids are so fond of.

  Loop Drive: After the initial publishing I remembered Loop Drive from the Synthmaker homepage. I personally find it very useful in creating FSU granular sounds, but less so for conventional slicing applications as the individual slices can only be triggered from the Loop Drive step sequencer itself (which cannot be automated). The upside is that Synthmaker has generously provided the source .osm file, so those who own Synthmaker can deconstruct the patch and create their own killer beatslicer themselves.

  Drum Sampler

  Grizzly [direct download]: Released as part of KVR’s Developer’s Challange contest, Grizzly is a drum sampler on par with Reason’s ReDrum (minus an internal step sequencer). Not only does it come with all the features for twisted beat mangling, it comes complete with a sweet sample bank that even Battery owners would want to get their “paws” on. (Alright, I’m allowed one bad pun.)

  Drum Synth

  Drumatic 3
  Drumatic VE: E-Phonic has made a name for himself over the years for the quality of his drum synths. His latest, Drumatic 3 & VE are some of the best software drum synths ever made. Nevermind that they were both made with Synthedit. In fact, you wouldn’t be able to tell that they were made with Synthedit unless someone told you. They are that good.

  Dr. Fusion & Rhythms: Odo is another synthedit drum synth legend. Two drum machines, two different approaches to drum sounds. Dr Fusion is a combination drum rompler/drum synth with 20mb of built-in drum sounds. Great for hip-hop or mainstream dance music. For you old school electro/techno/IDM fans, the 100% synthesized kit coming from Rhythms may be more your thing. Rhythms can do all the beeps, bloops, and wiz bangs for your krafty beatbox sounds.

  ERS Drums: a good all around “909″ style box. Like its VA brother Polyiblit, ERS Drums plays nicely in a mix.

  FM Synth

  Oxe: The best Freeware FM synth around since the Hexter VSTi was taken down due to bullshit GPL politics. Dead simple to use (for a FM synth that is). Although it cannot read DX7 patches, with a little bit of effort one can recreate almost anything done with a yamaha fm synth in oxe.

  Hybrid/Modular

  Karma Synth Modular: A great, easy to use modular synth. Perfect for both novices and masters alike.

  Crystal: This baby needs little introduction. The loyalty some have to this free softsynth alone is unlike any I have ever seen for a single instrument (its not unlike the loyalty some folks have to Reason, Pro Tools, Live, or FL). Try it for yourself, and you’ll see why.

  Rock: Hybrid synth with a rough and rugged character. The direct precursor to CoFX/Rob Papen’s Blue, but with its own unique sound.

  Zynaddsubfx [open source]
  You can download the lastest VST version from Don’t Crack. Don’t be scared off by the original coder’s preachy Christian language on the project site. Zynaddsubfx is THE best sounding open-source softsynth out there now. Using a combination of additive and subtractive synthesis, even us heathens can make heavenly sounds in a matter of minutes. Now go make some Satanic Deathmetal with it!

  Other

  Curve: A unique synth that allows one to draw the waveforms for the softsynth’s oscillators. Think of it as reverse additive synthesis. Instead of having control over the partials which result in a given waveform, you have control over the waveform itself, with the additive partials being shown underneath the transparent waveform display.

  Chimera: Majken’s Chimera is something that comes around only once every couple of years. Instead of trying to emulate this analog poly, or that wavetable-based digital synth, Chimera breaks new ground by demonstrating a totally new kind of synthesis. Chimera can best be described as a band-pass filter polysynth. What this means is that instead of conventional oscillators that change their pitch according to a midi note, Chimera has noise oscillators which are filtered by band-pass filters tuned to a given MIDI note frequency. This happens with every (poly) note, and the result is absolutely gorgeous. Even though it is sort of a one-trick pony, its “trick” is done so well that its bound to become a classic.

  And Many More Favorites

  Rather than go on and on about each and every great freeware VST effect out there, I’ll just list out my favorites in each category. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how they will work into your existing studio environment.

  Convolution Reverb
  SIR

  Digital Reverb
  Magnus@smartelectronix Ambience
  KR Micro Reverb
  Glaceverb

  Compressor/Limiter
  TLs Pocket Limiter & Saturated Driver
  W1 Limiter (w/ GUI)
  SSL LMC-1
  Classic Compressor

  Gating
  Sidekick

  EQ
  PushTec [download link]
  Electri-Q – Posihfopit Edition
  NWEQ
  Overtone GEQ
  Classic EQ

  Filter
  Tone2 Bi Filter
  Classic Auto Filter
  Coyote Wah
  Frohmage

  Distortion
  Christortion [download link]
  Fuzzplus 2
  Boogex
  E-Phonic Lo-Fi
  Camel Crusher [download link]
  Juicy 77
  Cyanide 2
  CoFX Lowbit [download link]
  CMT Bitcrusher

  Delay
  Urs’ More Feedback Machine
  E-Phonic Retro Delay [download link]
  E-Phonic Tape Delay
  Classic Delay
  CoFX Tape Delay [download link]

  Chorus
  UKM Chorus 2
  Blue Cat Chorus
  Classic Chorus
  Chorus CH-2

  Flanger
  mdsp Flanger
  Kjaerhus Audio Classic Flanger
  Blue Cat Flanger

  Phaser
  Classic Phaser
  Ultra Phazer
  Bram@smartelectronix SupaPhaser
  NxtPhase

  Pitch
  Choralozoide [download link]

  Vocoder
  Tolcbocs
  Syncoder 32-2

  Mastering
  Stardust
  Endorphin
  The Fish Fillets

  Multi-FX
  LFX-1310
  Charsiesis
  Glitch

  Analyzer
  SPAN
  MDSP@smartelectronix Fre(a)koscope
  Bram@smartelectronix s(M)exoscope

  What’s that? More you say? Well my friend, I can’t do all the work for you. If you want more than what I have listed above, or don’t feel entirely satisfied about my coverage in a given category (organ sounds for example) you can fill in the gaps by doing a little of your own legwork. Here are some resources for more great freeware plug-ins:

  KVR Audio
  Don’t Crack
  Audio Mastermind
  Gersic.com’s free audio plugin database – Another site I remembered only AFTER the initial posting.

  Also check out the free tag and cheap tag here on CDM.

  See you when the next big free/donation/cheapware story breaks…

  Previously

  Straight Out of No-Cash 1: How to Make Hi-Fi PC Music on a Lo-Fi Budget
  Straight Out of No-Cash 2: Free Windows Sequencers/Hosts for Music

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  Welcome back to another installment of “Straight Out of No Cash”. Despite repeated delays, death threats, acts of God, ElectroPlankton, and a laptop catching on fire, I’m finally back to give more bargain basement tips, tricks, and goodies for the Windows-centric set.

  It used to be the case only 5 years ago that one had to spend money, sometimes several hundred for even the most basic DAW software. In recent years however, there has been such a large explosion in the amount of Windows freeware that it’s now gotten to the point where it’s possible to get a pretty good plug-in host sequencer without spending a single red cent. In this week’s article, I will examine four kick-ass free sequencer/plug-in hosts for Windows. Two free trackers, and then two free-while-in-beta sequencers.

  

  Trackers (see Wikipedia, CDM) have had a long and venerable history in computer music, going all the way back to the 8-Bit era of Amiga and Atari. By far the simplest form of computer sequencer, to most modern musicians they look rather strange and alien. Despite the shift towards piano roll multi-track sequencers, many musicians to this day swear by the tracker method for its workflow and low performance overhead. Although not terribly difficult to learn, it often helps if one has a programming background, as a tracker file can look very much like a set of programming instructions. Tunestore.de has a great section for the beginning tracker, as it gives some basic concepts about what tracking is and how one can write music in such an environment.

  Today’s trackers take the old tracker paradigm, and add modern features such as VST plug-in support, audio track recording, automation, and modular patching. Both Psycle and Skale Tracker are modern tracker style plug-in host sequencers with the full range of features, active development, and vibrant communities available for help and advice.

  

  Psycle is similar in style to an older tracker program, Buzz but with integrated handling of VST-plugins (no wrappers), better handling of audio files, and active development so that when bugs do occur there is an actual chance of them being dealt with. Aside from that, they’re pretty similar in that they are modular, have a wide range of third-party native modules, machines, and plug-ins, and a fairly active user community that can be relied upon for help. The major downside is that because it’s both a tracker as well as a modular host, Psycle can be rather daunting for someone new to computer music. Be prepared to spend several days getting one’s head around many new concepts in the working environment. Also, the handling of VST plugins can be a bit wonky at times, so be prepared for the occasional bug or crash when using third party plugs. Check out the Psycle wiki for the current list of problematic VST plugins.

  

  Skale (http://www.kvraudio.com/get/302.html) I would consider to be similar in style to that of FLStudio (“Fruity Loops”), only with a tracker sequencing interface. Like FL, it has a pleasant user-friendly look, pattern-based playlists, inclusion of an integrated sample editor, and can not only host VST plug-ins but be hosted as a plug-in in another host should the user want to take a track to a different environment. Skale’s sampler supports Soundfont, Akai S5000/6000, and Gigastudio formats which is rather nice for a free tool. Skale also comes with its own visualizer and set of games as a quick diversion

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  ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/free-windows-sequencershosts-for-music-straight-out-of-no-cash-2/feed/ 16 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/06/straight-out-of-no-cash-1-how-to-make-hi-fi-pc-music-on-a-lo-fi-budget/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/06/straight-out-of-no-cash-1-how-to-make-hi-fi-pc-music-on-a-lo-fi-budget/#comments Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:04:56 +0000 amqc948 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/06/12/straight-out-of-no-cash-1-how-to-make-hi-fi-pc-music-on-a-lo-fi-budget/ Continue →]]> Ed: Adrian Anders has long been a behind-the-scenes contributor here on CDM, hunting down the best and strangest free and cheap Windows software and tools. Here, Adrian makes a passionate plea for going to the PC side and building a truly affordable computer studio. To get us started, he also has some suggested tweaks for squeezing the most performance out of your budget PC, most of which I’ll certainly endorse (even if I can’t bear to take my computers off the network). I expect some of this should stir up some debate, so feel free to discuss in comments. And yes, if the photo made you wonder, Adrian’s Korg MicroKontrol is evil. -PK

  

  Howdy, folks! I was prompted by Peter to come out from under my bridge — ha! troll joke … funny! — to talk about PC music making. Now, I’m not some music production mogul that can afford the $$$ to purchase, nor do I have enough industry connections to get for free, all the latest toys. But, assuming that I have enough time, I still want to make great computer-based music. I believe that many of my fellow aspiring producers are in a similar position as mine and want to make a big sound with a small monetary investment. That’s why I created SONC: it’s a help guide for those producers who want to make pro-sounding music without resorting to a diet consisting entirely of ramen. Think of it as Low End Theory with more beeps.

  Now, I would like to start out this first column by stating the obvious: PCs are cheap(er), and Macs are $pensive(er?). Of course this is all relative, but consider the fact that you could either:

  A.) Buy an Intel Core Duo Mac mini for $800, or

  

  B.) Roll your own WinXP 64-Bit 2.66 GHz Pentium D computer with 250 GB of space, a gig of RAM, and all the other fixings (minus a monitor and audio card) for about $600.

  You can build this for even less if you do things like cannibalize parts from other PCs, install Linux instead of Windows, and bargain shop properly with Pricewatch.com instead of going to certain eggy online computer stores that are new. (You know…) Should you need help with building your first computer, PC Mechanic has a good online tutorial. It includes the pros and cons of building your own PC and what you should be aware of before starting in on the project.

  Even without a proper a/b comparison (which would require a Macintel desktop), you can see that by simply building a PC you can definitely get more bang for your buck over Macs (talking strictly hardware here). It might not be as cool-looking as your friend’s Mac, and maybe won’t have stuff out of the box like bluetooth and airport express. But on the other hand, a proper desktop DAW doesn’t usually need all of these little gadgets and tools to do the job it was designed for. Ed: Expect this one may start some controversy, so please chime in on comments. I can see pretty strong arguments for either system. -PK

  Which brings us to the second half of this discussion: streamlining/optimizing your DAW. Here are five tips that I’ve found to be very useful for those making music on a WinXP PC (or any platform for that matter):

  

  1. Only install what is necessary for music production and a few basic utilities, nothing more. Programs like games, media-center stuff, instant messaging, file sharing, etc. can put unnecessary strain on your computer. Beyond the chance of spyware/adware clogging up your system, some programs have processes that run in the background at startup and turning them off becomes yet one more chore to do before starting in on music making (not good for productivity). There is also the outside chance of system instability and compatibility issues with your music software when installing extraneous programs.

  

  2. Always keep your DAW off the net or any network beyond what is needed for music production. Firstly, there are security issues, which I admit are more prevalent for Windows than Linux or OS X. I do believe that a Windows XP computer can be reasonably protected on the net so that your average script kiddie would have a fairly difficult time breaking in. That being said, with antivirus, spyware/adware protection, firewalls, and other security measures running in the background, the performance of your DAW would be noticeably decreased if you were to safely put it onto the net. That’s why it’s better to just have your main DAW off the net, with a (slower and/or older) second PC used for web-surfing, games, etc. Furthermore, if you remember to properly screen the files that are brought over to the DAW, you can even avoid installing an antivirus program, as well, which is better for the DAW’s overall performance.

  

  3. Use a second drive or partition for audio storage/projects. It’s better for file organization, performance, fragmentation, and security. Most professionals agree that it’s just better practice to have your audio away from your program and system files. Rather than go into all the technical lingo, I’ll just refer you to this great Sound On Sound article from May of 2005.

  

  4. Whenever possible, use your soundcard’s ASIO drivers over the standard OS ones. Although this applies more directly to Win XP than OS X users, in general, Steinberg ASIO drivers have lower latency (less delay). Ed: This isn’t an issue at all for Mac users, because the OS Core Audio drivers for all OS X-compatible devices are low-latency. ASIO is almost always preferable to other driver choices on Windows. -PK If you’re a PC user and your soundcard does not support ASIO natively, the fabulous ASIO4ALL should help bridge some of the gaps in your card’s performance. However, considering that decent ASIO-supporting cards can be picked up for less than $100 on clearance (and not much more than that when they’re off), there is little reason for bedroom producers to run anything other than ASIO drivers with their DAW setup. Ed: Note that this includes bypassing “class-compliant” drivers on USB devices. For instance, Edirol ships their low-end interfaces with a switch that lets them run without drivers. You’ll want to switch them into the low-latency mode so they opt for ASIO instead.

  

  5. Tweak your DAW’s OS for optimum performance. Pretty much every modern OS can be altered in little ways that can noticeably improve a DAW’s performance. In the case of WinXP, an absolute must is a little utility program called TweakUI, which can be downloaded for free off the PowerToys page on the Microsoft site. You should keep in mind when customizing your UI that anything pretty or animated has got to go. It’s going to make your desktop fugly (even for a WinXP system) but it will help improve your overall DAW performance. Ed: This should be less of an issue with Vista, which will run Aero graphics off the GPU on your graphics card. Then we’ll just turn off the eye candy because it’s annoying. -PK

  A great website for further tweaking (tuning) tips is Musicxp.net. They go into far greater detail on their tuning tips page than I could in a single article. In addition, many of their registry hacks they mention can be safely done using TweakUI, thus minimizing the leetness required.

  That’s it for this first installment of Straight Out of No-Cash. Next week I will have a buyer’s guide for budget host sequencers, as well as some software bargain-hunting tips that are 100% warez free. See you then!

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