| ActiveDen | Flash Marketplace |
| ThemeForest | Web & CMS Themes |
| GraphicRiver | Graphics, Vectors & Icons |
| VideoHive | Motion Graphics & Projects |
| AudioJungle | Loops & Effects |
| FreelanceSw | Freelance Jobs & Community |
| Rockable | Books & How-To |
| Creattica | Design Community |
| Mac.AppStorm | Mac Apps |
| Web.AppStorm | Web Apps |
| WorkAwesome | Be Awesome At Work |
| Envato | About Us |
| More Coming Soon! |
September has vanished and October has arrived—the year is slipping away. September has been an exciting month, and a month of change. The Envato Marketplaces have had a major redesign, we re-launched the "Open Mic" series where you get to have a say, and published a pile of tutorials, articles and sample packs.
Here is a summary of the last month, and some thoughts about the next. And stay tuned for an announcement of a new Tuts+ initiative starting this month.
This week we saw the launch of a total redesign of our marketplaces, both in looks and functionality. The response has been overwhelmingly positive! If you're not familiar with the Envato marketplaces, take time to explore them, starting with AudioJungle.
In the last three years our Envato Marketplaces (FlashDen, ThemeForest, GraphicRiver, AudioJungle and VideoHive) have grown like gangbusters, with big communities, huge libraries of files and lots of activity. So when we set out to redesign them earlier this year everyone on the team knew it was going to be big. What we didn’t realise was HOW big it would eventually get! Today it gives me great pleasure to show you …
Most of you are here because you make music, and want to learn. Workshops let you learn by submitting a song or track, and getting feedback from your peers here on Audiotuts.
So far we have run six workshops, but the last one was done back in March due to a lack of submissions. I'd love to revive the interest in running regular workshops - if the submissions keep coming in, we'll run one each week.
Interested? You can learn more from
This month we re-launched our "Open Mic" series, and each Tuesday have asked for your input on a question or issue. It has been great to read your responses.
If you've missed the series, you can read the responses here:
This month's Plus program featured three bonus tutorials and two sample packs. To learn more about what you get as part of Audio Plus, read this.
This Plus Pack download contains 25 Abstract Textures and Drones from Audiotuts+ author Toby Pitman. They are ideal for all sorts of applications including Motion Graphics, Flash websites, game development and TV/Film scores. They are made entirely from scratch using a range of audio processing techniques. Detailed instructions of how to use the loops have been included.
In this week’s Audio Plus content, Joel Falconer teaches you how to make the most of Pro Tools 8’s new MIDI editing features. While the tutorial is focused on Pro Tools, the concepts covered are relevant to those interested in using other DAWs for MIDI sequencing.
In this week’s Audio Plus content, Björgvin Benediktsson teaches you how to use loops for post-production of soundtracks. “Bear in mind that in the following examples I am using Logic, but you can use whatever DAW you want, if it has believable synths and you have enough loops.”
This week in Audio Plus we have 47 ‘junk percussion’ samples from Audiotuts+ author West Latta. The pack includes simple EXS24 and Kontakt banks for easy playability.
In this week’s Audio Plus content, Bobby Owsinski explains when, why and how to effectively use effects while mixing.
This month we have seen a large number of tutorials on synthesizers and MIDI.
This screencast is the first tutorial in a series on synthesis. This first installment shows a basic guided tour of Subtractor in Reason and covers oscillators, filters and envelopes.
Metasynth has been around since 1999 but has so far remained a bit of a secret to most people. It’s ‘paradigm-smashing’ tools allow you create sounds that no other synth or software could even dream of doing. In this tutorial I’ll give you quickstart tour and some examples and show you why Metasynth is the coolest piece of software you’ll ever own!
Have you ever wondered how your favourite dance music producers create those amazing sounds that make you jump on the dance floor? This tutorial will teach you how to design from scratch a DnB trademark, the reese bass, and how to reproduce the infamous hoover sound, introducing you to the technique of resampling.
In this week’s Audio Plus content, Joel Falconer teaches you how to make the most of Pro Tools 8’s new MIDI editing features. While the tutorial is focused on Pro Tools, the concepts covered are relevant to those interested in using other DAWs for MIDI sequencing.
Velocity is a useful piece of data and being able to edit it easily is important. It can be used to control dynamics, filters, multiple samples and a variety of other functions. Understanding all of the options available to you for editing velocity can help you decide which tools to use for different circumstances.
MIDI control surfaces are very useful – they allow you to reach inside your DAW with something other than your mouse, and make music in ways that feel more natural. They give you greater control and more flexibility when playing and producing music.
Recording vocals can be one of the more challenging tracking phase processes you may run into. If it wasn’t enough of a tough cookie in the studio, you can be sure it’s a daunting task in a bedroom. The sad truth is that you can’t get pro quality vocals happening at home. But you can improve the sound by a mile if you’re armed with a few tricks and tips, and that’s what I intend to give you.
Reason 4 has some great instruments and processors. Scream 4 is one of the standout plug-ins in Reason’s arsenal and can create some really extreme distortion and saturation effects. One of its lesser known modes is the tape compression setting, this can work wonders on just about any sound but really shines on drums.
You’re in a darkened concert hall, your favorite band rocking out on stage. You are close enough to the stage to realize that the band-members are enjoying themselves immensely on stage, smiling to each other, locking into a groove that’s so tight it sounds like it could have been taken off their studio record. You look to the side of the stage, following the guitarists line of sight and spot a guy off the side of the stage. Who is that guy? That guy is the monitor mixer.
Quality costs. And if you’ve decided to spend over USD$1000 on an audio interface, you’ve decided that when it comes to music you’re serious about quality. By making this decision, you have left a lot of compromises behind: just about any audio interface over $1000 will be at least 24bit/96KHz, have a generous number of inputs, and have good quality audio to digital converters. And there are very few USB interfaces over $1000 – almost all have low-latency Firewire or PCI interfaces.
The equalizer is an important piece of audio technology. As one of my Conservatorium tutors once said, when you’re setting up a session, adding an EQ as the first insert is almost as essential as creating the tracks themselves. Studio audio isn’t about capturing every frequency of every sound: it’s about creating a polished track that highlights the best of each instrument. Let’s take a look at this basic yet widely misunderstood tool, the parametric EQ plug-in.
Propellerhead’s new killer app Record has finally landed. Its an affordable all-in-one recording and production solution and after spending some time with both the beta and final release, I can safely say its about the most CPU efficient DAW I have ever used. This tutorial will simply walk through the different modules of the monster channel strip in Record’s main mixer.
We’ve published a few lists of microphones for those in the market before, but we’ve never given you a proper introduction to microphones before today. Microphones are generally not well understood and one of those key elements that gives away a home recording is the wrong microphone used for the job. It’s actually quite easy to make microphone decisions if you know the basics, whether you need to pick one out or place it properly.
Home recording technology seems to get better and cost less every year. It puts power in the hands of ordinary people. You’ve probably found this article because you want to get into home recording. We have some basic tutorials and articles aimed at the beginner. This article will refer to many of them, and hopefully give you an overview of what’s involved in getting into home recording.
Last week we looked at how microphones work and covered everything you need to know to decipher how a microphone works from its name. This week, we’re looking at vocal microphone technique: how you might select a microphone for various vocal situations, and how to work with the microphone to get the best results.
This screencast looks at an ongoing project that is now near completion. This stage looks at how to create different kinds of fills to introduce new instruments. It also shows how a little programming can help introduce new sections of your track.
Reason is a great program for percussion, particularly with the ease of use of the Redrum drum machine. However, stock sounds won’t always cut it, so in this tutorial, we’ll look at some secrets for turning those stock sounds into unique masterpieces. Of course, these techniques can be applied to virtually any DAW.
Can the average music listener recognize quality? Can they distinguish a virtuoso from a mediocre musician? Can they recognize a “hit” that will still be esteemed a masterpiece in a hundred years? Does “popular” mean the same as “quality”?
Managing your Pro Tools projects is just as important as knowing how to mix them. Without taking the time to learn these skills, you’ll end up with folders that are gigabytes larger than they need to be, confusing sessions that look foreign when you come back to them months later, and you’ll spend ten times as long working on your mixes. Let’s avoid these problems with some techniques I’ve learned during my time with Pro Tools.
The usage of simple, common time (4/4 time signature, where there are four beats to a measure, and each quarter note gets one beat) is pervasive in Western popular music, including rock, blues, country, folk, pop, and various forms of electronic music including many sub-genres of house and trance music. The four-on-the-floor mindset can be difficult to escape, but every musician and composer can benefit from a study of rhythm that includes a wider variety of time signatures and rhythms.
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