I’ll walk through a few examples of how gates can be used this way using various DAWs. Even if your software isn’t featured here don’t worry, these techniques are generic and can be translated to pretty much any gate plug-in.

Step 1 – The Basic Gate

As most of you are probably aware the primary use for a gate is to reduce noise and any unwanted signal that is present in your recordings. For example you may have a vocal take with rumble, computer noise or heavy breathing in between phrases. A gate is the perfect tool for removing these problem areas, often with zero impact on the parts you want to keep.

As a gate is really just an automated level control they use very little to no CPU to run. Most DAWs include one or even two gates as standard and these will often be bundled with a number of pre-sets to get you going.

Propellerheads Record’s built in noise gate

As the process of gating isn’t particularly exciting and is often seen as purely a problem solving exercise, the gate can be somewhat overlooked as a creative effect. Let’s run through a few examples of how we can think out side the box, from a simple alternative use for our gate to something a little more special.

Step 2 – Using Gates as Transient Designers

First up let’s take a look at using our gates in an almost traditional way, but instead of reducing we’ll try using it in a similar way to a transient designer. This basically means that we can actually remove parts of a drum track or loop. This can be really useful for cleaning up our overall sound.

Let’s start by choosing a loop with a fair bit of noise present. Here I have chosen a .rex file for speed but of course this technique can quite easily be applied to a drum group / buss and will work equally well on acoustic drums as it does on electronic sounds.

The untreated loop used

The untreated loop:

Download audio file (2.mp3)

As the loop has been loaded in Cubase 5 I have used the standard, bundled Steinberg Gate plug-in. I have started by initialising the plug-in so that no gating takes place and no signal can be heard, this is a good starting point and is often the best way to go when using dynamics processors in general.

The Cubase Gate

The next step is to bring the gates threshold control down until you can hear the peaks of the loop come through. In this case the first peak to show its head is the top of the kick and snare. Keep pushing the threshold until the majority of these major elements are playing but the other sounds are still gated.

The gates threshold being altered

Although we can filtered out many of the sounds in the loop, to make the remaining sounds a little more realistic we have to alter the release and hold times. When doing this try to mimic the actual release times of the drum sounds themselves. In doing this you may get some ‘bleed’ from the other sounds in the loop but this is to be expected and shouldn’t be too obvious in the mix.

The final gate settings

The gated loop:

Download audio file (2b.mp3)

When comparing the before and after you should hear a dramatic change in the loop and using this technique you can slightly clean up your drum parts or completely transform them depending on the intensity of your settings.

Step 3 – Creating Your Own Gated Reverbs

Most fully featured, modern reverb plug-ins will contain some kind of gated reverb effect and they can work really well on short percussive sounds or drums. Although these presets can work well you can gain much more control over this effect if you can create it using your own processors.

In this example I’ll use a single snare sound. You can hear that in it’s dry form it’s not particularly interesting and is maybe a little too dry. By adding a gated reverb we should be able to make the sound a lot more useable.

The original snare

The untreated snare:

Download audio file (3.mp3)

In this instance I have decided to load the sound up in Live 8 and because of this I am using Live’s bundled gate and reverb plug-ins. Again this technique can be achieved using pretty much any reverb and gate combo.

The first thing I did was to add a pretty standard reverb patch to the snare. The decay is pretty long and although the sound is nice as an effect it would be far to long to use throughout a mix and robs quite a lot of the direct power and snap of the untreated dry version.

Basic Ableton reverb patch

The snare with reverb:

Download audio file (3b.mp3)

So that we can achieve the effect and size of the reverb we need to add a gate to the end of the chain. With a super fast attack dialled in, you should be able to play with the threshold to allow the majority of the sound through. The reverb tail will be cut off and stop the sound from becoming to washed out.

The Ableton gate used

The final gated reverb effect:

Download audio file (3c.mp3)

At this point you’ll want to play with the reverb mix, gate release and gain reduction amount. This will allow you to match the reverb time to the snares release and also ensure there are no unwanted clicks and pops introduced by the gating. You can hear that the result is a lively, stereo snare which will really find its own place in the mix.

Step 4 – Rhythmical Gating and Gated Patterns

One of the most creative ways to use your gate plug-ins is to produce rhythmical patterns with them. As a lot of DAWs now feature native side chaining, you can now feed your gate with just about any signal you like. This allows you to use the gate as a sort of automated tremolo or pattern generator. Some really excellent results can be achieved with a little imagination.

Moving over to Logic 9.02, I have loaded up instrument and percussion loops. I have used the more fully featured of Logic’s two gates here as this will allow us a little more control over the finished sound.

Keyboard loop:

Download audio file (4.mp3)

Percussion loop:

Download audio file (4b.mp3)

Untreated basic mix:

Download audio file (4c.mp3)

The two loops used

The gate is placed on the instrument loop and the percussion loop is set to control the side chain circuit. This will allow us to use the peaks of the percussion pattern to activate the gating effect. Once this configuration is set up start to bring the threshold of the gate down until you hear some gating occur.

The sidechain routing

The mix with gating taking place:

Download audio file (4d.mp3)

Once the gating is taking place try sending the percussion to loop to ‘no output’ or a muted group. You should now hear the instrument loop with only the gated effect. This will allow you to make more exact adjustments to the gates settings. Of course you can always leave the percussion loop out of the mix and just use t as a trigger. if you prefer you can program your own trigger part using midi, this will allow a more personalised pattern to be produced.

The Logic noise gate plug-in

The gated loops in isolation:

Download audio file (4e.mp3)

There are a few ways to do this of course and useful methods include using recorded performances, MIDI sequencing and even entire drum loops. All of these techniques can really add to simple beat, but if you are a fan of getting things down quickly and producing really satisfying results, then you may want to try a different approach.

This tutorial looks at how we can build a groove using existing loops in our library without using them in their entirety. The result is an original groove that often feel as if they have been ‘played’.

Step 1 – The Basic Drum Track

For the purposes of this tutorial and to keep things nice and tight, I’m assuming you have already programmed a basic drum loop. This could be a collection of samples, raw audio or MIDI data triggering synths and drum machines. It really doesn’t matter which method you’ve used, as long as the groove is very simple.

The original drum track.

As you can see I have used Cubase 5 and a beat that is constructed mainly of raw audio samples. It is basically mixed and contains very little in the way of groove. The overall feel is solid but some more decorative parts will certainly help make things more interesting.

The untouched mix.

This is often the point when people come unstuck and any extra parts may sound disconnected or forced. It’s important to choose the right sounds and place them carefully. You may have to put more work in here than you have on all the drums so far.

The original, untouched drum track:

Download audio file (1.mp3)

Step 2 – Choosing the First Loop to Edit

When we think about injecting a groove into an existing drum track, the use of loops may not be the most obvious route, but bear with me as everything should become clear!

Start by adding a few extra blank tracks to your project, you’re going to need them. With your new tracks in place start to browse the loops you have in your library or on sample CDs. The trick here is to pick out loops that contain areas that you would like in your track. You don’t really have to like the whole loop, as we will cut out any slices we don’t need.

Adding new tracks.

In this instance I have used a drum loop that contains some percussive bongo sounds. I particularly liked these and thought they would work well as decorative elements in the existing drum loop. I have Rex files here so they are locked to the projects tempo but you can quite easily use raw wav or aif files, you just may need to perform some time stretching.

The first loop ready to edit.

The first loop to edit:

Download audio file (2.mp3)

Step 3 – Making the First Edits

With the first loop in place we are ready to start editing it and cutting out the sections we want to use. At this point your should make sure your snap values are correct. I tend to find that setting them to 1/16th is a good starting point and allows a good balance between accuracy and flexibility.

The snap settings.

Now identify the sections of the loop that you really like and that you think will work well as percussion sounds. These sections by no means need to be single hits, in fact small sections of the performance or loop can work very well.

Cutting out the parts needed.

With these sections cut out we can start to construct the new groove. Start by creating a loop that is around 4-8 bars in length, this will give you a good space to work in and hear the results quickly. Now start moving the remaining sections of the loop around until they fall into places that work with the current drum track.

Changing the loop length.

It shouldn’t be long before you are starting to build up a nice pattern and really adding some funk to your original drums. I find that once you get started the parts tend to fall in to place depending on what they are. This is usually the fun part of the process. If things dont seem to be working at this point you may want to try another loop and repeat the last section.

The new groove emerges.

Step 4 – Fine Tuning

You may find that the sequence you have made now needs some light processing. In this case all I needed to do was cut some low frequencies with a high pass filter but you may feel that some further EQ or even compression is required.

Some light filtering.

I also copied the sequence I made with the edits so the loop was twice as long. This simply gives you more space to work in if you plan to add another loop.

The groove is copied.

The first groove in place:

Download audio file (4.mp3)

Step 5 – Adding Further Parts

To add a second groove I introduced another loop and cut out some more percussive effects. There were some rough edges that were introducing clicks anfd pops straight after the edit, so I exported the sections and introduced some quick fades at the very end of each sample.

The second loop ready to edit:

Download audio file (5.mp3)

A new loop is edited in the same way.

The second group of edits untreated:

Download audio file (5b.mp3)

This is known as ‘bouncing in place’ and is very easily achieved. Simply select the part you want to edit and go to the ‘Audio’ menu. You should see ‘bounce selection’ in there. This is essential for working with Rex files as Cubase and other apps may not let you perform full edits on these files unless they are bounced to a raw format.

The bounce in place function.

The second edit in the mix:

Download audio file (5c.mp3)

Step 6 – And Some FX…

To finish things off I added a few effects. Delay was added to the second loop to give it some space and make the whole thing a little bit trippy.

Some delay is added for space.

I then took part of the first groove and moved it to a new track, this was then treated with reverb to push the sound back and separate it from the rest of the loop. Putting seperate parts of the groove on individual tracks and treating with their own process can really open the sequence up and add a new dimension to the whole process.

And finally some reverb.

Both edits with all effects applied in the mix:

Download audio file (6.mp3)

The main problem here is that most applications use unique file formats that can only be loaded in the specific program you are using. In some cases, such as the Apple loops format, these files can even be dependent on a certain operating system.

If we want to use our locked grooves across the majority of applications we have to opt for a format that most DAWs will load. Although the .REX file format has been around for some time now, it is still arguably the best way of storing our tempo sync-able loops.

Let’s take a look at how they are created, and the ways they can be utilized within different applications.

Step 1 – ReCycle Your Files

When it comes to using .REX files you have a few choices. If you want to take the easy route you can access large collections of ready prepared .REX data using sample libraries. The vast majority of sample collections now have extensive .REX sections containing perfectly edited and ready to load into your favorite DAW or sample player. We’ll look at how in the following sections of this tutorial.

Most sample collections now include large .REX sections.

If you demand a little more control over your samples and want to use your own loops and grooves, then you will need Propellerhead’s ReCycle to make your own .REX files. Although acquiring the application may require a small investment, it is well worth it if you are serious about your grooves and use more than one DAW.

The application itself has a really transparent one-window interface, with an easy learning curve. Once you grasp the concepts, the process of creating your own .REX loops can be mastered in one session.

ReCycle’s clear one window interface.

ReCycle works by adding handles or markers to the start of each transient event. With this in mind, it’s worth experimenting with loops that have clear percussive elements and obvious transients. Drum loops and percussion grooves are the obvious choice here and ReCycle will do an excellent job of adding new markers to these sounds.

The markers are easily added by turning up the sensitivity value using the clearly marked slider. This action will automatically add markers to increasingly more transients as you go. As the space between the markers represents a ’slice’ within the file you don’t want to go overboard.

Initial markers are added by using the sensitivity control.

Once the slices you want have been marked, you are ready to move onto the next step. If you feel there are too many slices, or some hits in the loop were missed by the automatic process, they can be edited manually by changing to the draw tool. Each slice can be auditioned for greater accuracy here by right clicking in the appropriate space in the file.

It’s now simply a case of hitting the Preview Mode button, entering the correct number of bars in your loop, and its current BPM will be displayed. You can now change the loop’s speed and audition your sound at different tempos.

Entering the number of bars.

Previewing the loop at different tempos.

As ReCycle doesn’t actually use time stretching to achieve these changes in tempo, very realistic results can be achieved. The slices within a .REX file are actually moved around like interlocking plates. This is fine when moving to a higher tempo as the slices simply overlap and are played faster. When moving to slower speeds gaps can appear in the structure and these can become audible.

ReCycle combats this problem with the use of its ’stretch’ algorithm. This is not a traditional time stretch, but a method that uses a small portion of each slice, reverses it and adds it to the end of each section. This fills the gaps with similar material and produces a very acceptable result in most cases.

The stretch feature.

With this knowledge you should be able to produce and save a pretty tight .REX file. There are other areas and extra processing that can be achieved within ReCycle, and these will be covered in future tutorials.

Step 2 – Using .REX Files with Reason

Once you have some .REX files, you are ready to import them into different applications. Each DAW has its own way of dealing with .REX information, and it pays to become familiar with each one, or at least the one you use on a regular basis.

As Reason is built by Propellerhead (the same company as ReCycle) you would expect the integration of .REX files to be pretty tight. In fact there is actually a dedicated .REX file player called Dr.Rex. This really is an excellent instrument and not allows you to load .REX files, but also gives you the tools to completely transform them if you wish.

The Dr.Rex player.

The Dr.Rex player has a straight forward but powerful synthesis engine, and the real beauty of it is that both of the envelopes clamp down on each slice independently. This can create some really interesting effects. There is also a sync-able LFO which can be routed to various destinations.

The Dr.Rex synthesis engine.

Once you loop is playing back in a way that you are happy with, a MIDI file to trigger the loop in exactly right order can be generated and easily assigned to a track in the Reason sequencer. It is also easy to export the same MIDI information to another sequencer in Reason via Rewire.

Exporting MIDI from Dr.Rex.

Step 3 – Opening .REX Files in Cubase and Logic.

Opening .REX data in other DAWs is a slightly different process, and perhaps not as straight forward. But don’t worry – it’s not rocket-science either.

One thing to note is that to open .REX data in Cubase, Logic and many other DAWs, you will need Propellerhead’s ‘Rex Shared Library‘ installed. This is a free download.

With the shared library in place, both Cubase and Logic should be able to read and audition .REX files like any other audio. The real difference is when you actually import the audio. As .REX files are made up of slices, the DAW will often present you with a few options on how these slices are handled.

Logic for example will first display a dialogue stating that you are using a ReCycle file, and then a drop-down menu will present you with a number of choices. These include importing each slice onto separate tracks and rendering the file into an Apple loop. The latter is probably the most straight-forward, and will produce a consolidated, single file that will still change tempo with that of Logic’s master clock.

Logic Pro 9’s options for importing .REX files.

Another option is to import your .REX files into some sort of sampler or groove player. In Logic you can use the EXS24 sampler, and in Cubase 5 you can try Groove Agent. Working in this way is similar to using the Dr.Rex player in Reason, and gives you a different angle for working with straight audio conversions. MIDI files can be generated to drive these instruments, and the MIDI can be easily rearranged.

Importing .REX files and generating MIDI with Logic’s EXS24 sampler.

It is worth considering Logic 9’s new Flex tool and Audio Quantize features, as this route may be a good alternative to using .REX files. If you are lucky enough to have the new version you can certainly experiment to see which works best for you. I have Logic Pro 9 up and running here and will be covering these new features in my next batch of tutorials.

Step 4 – Ableton Live and .REX files

Ableton Live works perfectly with .REX files and will load them as it would any other audio file. The only real difference is the fact that the .REX files are immediately treated as warped / elastic audio, and will lock perfectly to your existing project’s elements and tempo.

Ableton Live treats .REX files in probably the most transparent and straight forward way, compared to all the other DAWs mentioned here.

Importing .REX files in Ableton is extremely straight forward.

In these tutorials I use a kick drum to trigger the sidechain and use a piano loop for the processed sound but obviously you can apply this technique to any two sounds you wish. I have also included the project files from each DAW so you can load them up yourselves.

Setting Up Sidechain Routing in Logic Pro 9

Setting Up Sidechain Routing in Cubase 5

Setting Up Sidechain Routing in Reason 4

Here’s a rundown of the different methods we can use to boost the stereo image of both our whole mix or individual instruments. Of course some of these are more sensible options than others when it comes to producing a coherent, intelligible mix. It’s worth taking a minute before you turn your new stereo enhancer plug-in up to 11.

Step 1 – Creating Contrast & Balance

One of the best (but least exciting ways) of boosting the perceived width of your stereo sound stage is to actually use more mono material in your mix. This may seem like a bit of a contradiction but by introducing more mono elements, your stereo audio will be perceived as wider and will make more of a stand in the mix.

Let’s say your mix is made up primarily of stereo files, now these may not have a huge stereo image but nevertheless, they are stereo and will have some sort of spread.

After hearing these stereo sounds for some time the listener will perceive this as the narrowest stereo point, if you then attempt to add a sound with a very wide stereo image, or an effect that widens a particular sound it may go unnoticed as the difference between the new sound and the main mix is minimal. It’s all about perception.

A way to close the gap between these stereo sounds is to decrease the stereo image of some sounds or actually use mono versions. Many drum sounds work really well in mono and not every guitar or synth in the mix has to be spread right across the stereo field or saturated with stereo chorus.

With the width of the overall mix reigned in your stereo sounds will now have much more impact and will become really pleasing to the ear. Stereo enhancers and special effects with a wide image will really jump out of your mix and should give the desired effect.

Step 2 – Using Small Delay Times

An age-old trick used by sound engineers to create a wider stereo image, is to delay one side of the audio using a very small delay time. Plug-ins that induce this sort of delay on either side of the stereo field are freely available in most formats and often come supplied with DAWs as standard.

Logic Pro’s sample delay plug-in

The great thing about this sort of treatment is that it’s very transparent and doesn’t affect your audio in any negative way. It doesn’t detune or heavily process your signal to create the stereo enhancement.

Subtle use of this method and delay times of 5-15ms on either side should preserve your mono compatibility pretty well and you shouldn’t affect the dynamic signature or energy of the original audio. This method can work really well on many different sources but be aware this isn’t an ‘in your face’ effect and if you’re looking for something extreme you may want to check out other routes.

Download audio file (2.mp3)

Drum loop with no treatment

Download audio file (2b.mp3)

Drum loop with delay-induced stereo width

Step 3 – Using EQ and Filters to Widen Your Sounds

Another great way of opening your stereo (or even mono) sounds up a little is to create differences in frequency on either side of the image. This can be achieved using a variety of different processors but does work very well with either an EQ or filter plug-in.

Whether your sound is stereo or mono simply create two mono channels in your DAW and place duplicates of the audio file on both channels. Now pan them hard left and right and place your chosen eq plug in on each channel. It is a good idea to a use a clear graphical parametric model here.

Now try adding 4 – 6db of high mids to one side and removing exactly the same amount and frequency from the opposite side. On playback you will notice a definite difference in either side and a widening of the stereo image. Essentially stereo width is created by differing signals in both sides of the field, so this is one easy way to produce the effect.

Be aware in a lot of cases this is the most subtle way of creating a stereo image. In my example the difference is pretty negligible but in some circumstances this can work very well. Try experimenting with more extreme settings and resonant filters.

Two Cubase EQ plug-ins creating a stereo effect

Download audio file (3.mp3)

Synth line with no treatment

Download audio file (3b.mp3)

Synth line with dual EQ induced stereo width

Step 4 – Dedicated Stereo Enhancers

Of course, there are a number of processors out there that offer a one-stop solution for creating wider and more impressive stereo sounds. Some of these are great when used sparingly but without knowing exactly what is going on under the hood you might want to move with a certain amount of caution, as damage can be done here.

The method used to widen the stereo image often differs from plug-in to plug-in so turning the mix up on one of these bad boys can completely transform your sound. Be warned, you may lose your mono compatibility and introduce phase issues. Warnings aside, some of these plug-ins do sound great and can really add something to your mix.

It’s well worth checking out PSP’s stereo pack, the Flux, and the stereo expansion tools inside iZotope’s excellent Ozone mastering plug-in. There are also some worthy offerings included in popular DAWs such as Logic, Reason, Cubase and Live.

Logic 8’s stereo spread plug-in

Download audio file (4.mp3)

Guitar in mono

Download audio file (4b.mp3)

Guitar with Logic’s stereo spreader

Step 5 – Using Chorus, Unison & Stereo Detune

Modulation effects are still one of the firm favorites when it comes to getting a wide sound. First up you have to ensure you are using a true stereo chorus unit, as not all chorus processors are stereo.

While most chorus, flanger and ensemble plug-ins will make your audio sound great, you may notice that you lose some punch and definition at high levels. This is pretty common and is a pay off for the shimmering stereo effect that a chorus effect produces. Some chorus units, such as the classic Roland Dimension D, are famous for creating thick chorus effects without robbing the direct quality of the dry audio. UAD do a great reproduction of this unit and it’s well worth a spin.

The UAD recreation of the classic Roland Dimension D

Download audio file (5.mp3)

Dry guitar loop

Download audio file (5b.mp3)

Guitar loop treated with Dimension D Chorus

You will find that some instruments will feature dedicated stereo unison effects. These will often have algorithms that filter out the effect on the lower frequencies, minimizing the smearing that can occur in the lows. These effects will also often split the voices of a synth up across the stereo spread, leaving a dry mono version in the center to retain clarity. The stereo unison on the Korg Polysix is an excellent example of this done well.

The Virtual Korg Polysix with stereo Unison controls

Download audio file (5c.mp3)

Polysix riff in mono

Download audio file (5d.mp3)

Polysix riff with stereo unison

Rewire is often underestimated and in many cases goes unused. Using Rewire correctly can actually expand your sound palette, avoid unnecessary rendering and even add extra processing tools to your DAW. Let’s take a look at how Rewire works, some of its history and a few situations we can use it in.

Step 1 – Understanding Rewire

Rewire is a pretty impressive piece of software engineering, allowing MIDI, audio, transport commands and even instrument patches to be transferred between applications. Using the newest Rewire 2, an impressive 256 audio channels and 4080 midi channels, across 255 independent busses can be utilized. That’s more channels than most of us need and certainly enough to handle even the most demanding projects.

Even though it works with cutting edge software applications, Rewire technology is in no way new and is in its tenth year of existence, having been introduced in 1998. Originally developed in a joint venture by Propellerheads and Steinberg, we first saw Rewire appear in the now discontinued (but classic) Rebirth software synthesizer. Since then the protocol has become an industry standard, with just about every major DAW manufacturer adopting it as their primary inter-application streaming method.

If the concept of ‘Rewiring’ applications still seems a little daunting to you just think of it as a virtual patch bay, with ‘cables’ between your audio apps. The real beauty of the system is the diverse types of data Rewire can carry, so sync, transport, midi and audio are all taken care of.

Even in its complexity Rewire is a really elegant protocol, with most of the routing taking place in a pretty invisible fashion, so all you have to take care of are a few basic control panels.

Rewire was first developed to link Rebirth to Cubase VST

Step 2 – Compatible Applications

Rewire and its relationship with most DAWs has really matured over the years. In most cases its integration and performance is rock solid. This pedigree also shows in the long list of applications that support Rewire out of the box. The bottom line is that if you own a major DAW it is very likely to speak the Rewire language.

The list of applications supported is a little long to list here, but you can check whether or not your software is by visiting this page on the Propellerheads site. The list also gives specific details as to which features are supported in each application.

It’s worth mentioning that the slave/host system that Rewire uses at this point, as applications need to be opened in the correct order if things are going to work properly.

One application acts as the host or master, while the other is slaved to it. This means that the host’s transport controls and BPM settings will apply to the slave, so if you hit play on the host the same will happen in the slave. Also audio is streamed from the slave to the host, so if you are trying to get audio from one application to another you need to decide in advance which is the host and which is the slave.

For an application to be used as a host it must be opened first. Any application opened after that will be treated as a Rewire slave. You are not limited to one application here and can open numerous different programs to act as Rewire slaves, but there can be only one host.

The Rewire panel in Cubase 5 running Reason as a slave

Step 3 – Using Rewire to Add Instruments & Features

The main way Rewire is used is to expand the functionality of a piece of software. Let’s say you are working in Cubase 5, and your track is coming along nicely but you want to quickly audition some loops you have warped in Ableton in real-time.

Of course you could import them one by one and re-analyze them using Cubase’s system but this would take time and could slow up the creative process. Alternatively to harness the power of Ableton’s elastic audio functions and to use our previously treated loops, we could simply use Ableton as a Rewire slave.

Once set up you can easily stream audio from anywhere in Ableton to any number of channels in Cubase 5’s mixer. You now have the features of both pieces of software available in one session.

Ableton is capable of being both Rewire slave and host

Just as you may want to share features between DAWs, you may also want to use sounds or instruments to expand you current applications sonic palette.

Using Reason as a virtual rack of sound modules and synths is the perfect example of this. Reason is generally very light on your computers main CPU, so it can be a really wise move to use Reason’s sound sources if you are looking to maximize your machines potential. Rewiring Reason to Cubase or Logic (for instance) can provide excellent results.

The mixing capabilities of the larger DAWs combined with the extensive instrument list in Reason makes a great combo, and remember any of these instruments can be sent to an individual Rewire channel for further processing.

Reason as a Rewire slave

Step 4 – Rewire as Mixdown Tool

Just as some people may want to tap into an application’s instrument list whilst constructing a project, others may feel that they need extra mixing features when it comes to the mix-down and mastering stages. Rewire can really help in this area and if you’re not already using it for this purpose, it may be just the thing you’ve been looking for.

Let’s say you have completed an entire project in Reason or Ableton Live. You may feel you need extra mixing and automation capabilities, with more advanced routing options. While you may love Live’s environment for creating music, Cubase, Logic, Digital Performer or Pro Tools could give you the edge when it comes to mixing your track.

It’s simply a case of setting up Ableton Live as a Rewire Slave and sending as many independent channels as you need into your Rewire host. Of course, you don’t have to send every single channel in your project separately, you could send them as groups. This can save time and still give the required results.

Once your mix is complete, the separate ’stems’ coming into your Rewire host can be bounced for later use and both applications can be saved as usual for instant recall of your mixing session.

Cubase mixing multiple channels from Reason

The routing on the Reason hardware interface

Step 5 – Using Rewire as Vocal Processor

Another more unusual use for Rewire is as a vocal processor connection. Celemony’s excellent Melodyne software and also Yamaha’s Vocoloid can both be connected to hosts via Rewire.

Melodyne provides near perfect pitch correction and formant manipulation and although it comes in plug-in form, the stand-alone version offers a fuller feature set and a more complete interface. When used with a Rewire host the playback of any pitch corrected signals is perfectly synced with your host’s clock. This means you don’t have to render your work immediately and any adjustments can be made on the fly.

The excellent Melodyne studio can used as a Rewire slave

Step 1 – Loopmash

There are three new rhythm based devices included with Cubase 5 which hugely expand the application’s potential when it comes to constructing your own beats. Two of these instruments are drum programming tools and another is a loop manipulation plug-in.

First we’ll look at ‘Loopmash’ which is obviously the loop based instrument out of the three. Steinberg claim this is a ‘first of its kind, interactive loop synthesizer’. A quick glance at the interface will certainly confirm that Steinberg are trying to introduce a new element into Cubase.

The GUI style is similar to some of the newer instruments and plug-ins we saw introduced in Cubase 4. On loading Loopmash you are presented with eight ‘tracks’, the slots within these tracks are designed to represent slices of loops you load into them.

Loopmash

You can load loops into Loopmash in a few different ways. The instrument supports drag and drop, so samples can simply be dropped onto its interface from either the media bay, the project window or from your system’s desktop or finder. This appears to work very well and load times are quick.

Once multiple loops are loaded, Loopmash will give you an alternative take on your audio by switching different slices from various parts of each loop. Loopmash looks for slices with similar dynamic signatures and plays them in place of others. The result is a brand new groove with endless variation.

The whole thing syncs with Cubase’s master clock, so everything you do here will be locked with your project. There are a good number of presets, with audio loops included to get you started or you can use your own material if you prefer. This certainly looks promising — but is it a useful addition to Cubase or just a loop toy? You decide.

Step 2 – Groove Agent ONE

Moving on we come to ‘Groove Agent ONE’, a bit more of a traditional instrument that looks to be Steinberg’s answer to Logic’s Ultrabeat or possibly a virtual MPC. This is a drum machine with some nice editing features that loads AIF, WAV and MPC formats. Each sound loaded can be edited independently, using the device’s internal filters and other sound processing tools.

Groove Agent has a couple of really nice little tricks up its sleeve, including the ability to span samples across its pads by simply dropping grooves onto its interface. MIDI can be generated the other way too and dropped onto midi tracks in the project window.

Groove Agent ONE

Step 3 – Beat Designer

Working in conjunction with Groove Agent ONE, the new ‘Beat Designer’ is an advanced step sequencing system, allowing you to program beats in true drum machine style.

It’s pretty straightforward and transparent but definitely adds a new slant to programming your beats in Cubase. It comes with loads of preset patterns and the ability to switch between patterns easily using keys on your MIDI keyboard.

Beat Designer

Step 4 – New pitch correction and vocal tools

Most DAWs only provide pretty basic pitch correction tools as standard, if any at all. Steinberg are set to up the ante here with a couple of really tasty pitch based tools. For many this will be one of the most important updates of the lot.

One of the two pitch based updates is called ‘VariAudio’ and is going to prove extremely useful to Cubase users who work with vocals a lot. It is built right into the sample editor and allows the user to edit monophonic audio performances in a very similar way to MIDI.

Steinberg’s new VariAudio

Timing pitch and length can be easily edited by moving colored blocks. The pitch and timing of each section can be quantized as can the pitch of an entire part. Other elements such as vibrato and glide can also be transformed with a few clicks. And all this takes place with next to no artifacts, so your original audio should be left pretty much intact.

Honestly, the whole thing looks amazingly similar to the successful Melodyne products, so this may not be as ground breaking as you may think — but the fact it is built right into the audio editor is the impressive part, and this could become an essential tool for a lot of users. Now all we need is for the other DAW manufacturers to follow suit.

The second pitch based update is a new VST3 plug-in called ‘PitchCorrect’. This is not miles away from pitch correction plug-ins in other DAWs or some third party products you may already own. Saying that, it is a nice processor with a slick interface and an impressive sound. The algorithm is based on Yamaha’s ‘Pitchfix’ technology.

The new PitchCorrect plug-in

Step 5 – New Reverb Plug-in

Although the algorithm based ‘Roomworks’ plug-in was a breath of fresh air to many users, a lot of people have been in need of a high quality convolution reverb for some time. REVerence could very well be the answer to your prayers if this was on your wish-list.

REVerence boasts 70 fresh convolution impulses and realistic natural space simulation from small rooms to huge outdoor environments. This can all be done in stereo or full surround flavors. As you can see the interface is really impressive and shows a picture of the location the impulse was recorded and also gives you a read out of the waveform data.

The newly added REVerence convolution reverb

Step 6 – Automation handling and enhanced media bay

The way Cubase 5 handles automation has been updated with a new automation control panel. This allows intricate control over every aspect of your automation recordings and allows the user to lock certain parameters from being changed. This should prove to be very useful when dealing with high track counts.

The new automation panel makes it easy to home in specific automated parameters

The MediaBay section of Cubase also gets a boost with improvements to its search filter, write protection system and the way search results are displayed.

These are just some of the key elements that have been updated and there are a huge number of other improvements in Cubase 5. Some other interesting things to mention are the upcoming 64 bit version of the application for OS X, and support for Vista’s new WASAPI super low-latency audio driver technology. All of these things should certainly make Cubase 5 a contender for one of the best DAWs of 2009.

It may just be that you have a vocal part from another project that you want to use in a remix, and you want to change the timing or duration of some of the words or syllables. In this tutorial I’m going to take a look at the powerful Sample Editor in Cubase 4 and show how we can use the Free Warp feature to alter the feel of a vocal part and also to correct an out of time djembe recording.

Step 1

Let’s start with the vocal track. Here we have a funky backing loop which I’ve prepared, and underneath it a vocoded vocal part. The first thing to notice is that the vocal part is obviously in a different tempo to the backing track, and we can rectify this immediately using the time-stretching tool in the next step.

Download audio file (1.mp3)

Step 2

From the tool tab select "Sizing Applies Time Stretch", then simply drag the sizing handle of the audio part as shown in the illustration. In this example the backing loop has a tempo of 135 and the vocal part has a tempo of 120, so dragging the vocal part’s sizing handle left will speed it up whilst preserving the pitch. Use trial and error with this, and it will soon become obvious when you have used the right amount of time stretch. If you get it wrong just click "Undo" and try again.

Step 3

So no we have time stretched the vocal part and it fits the timing of the backing loop. Let’s take a listen.

Download audio file (3.mp3)

Step 4

I want to experiment with where the vocals fall, and the duration of one of the words. In this step I’ve moved the whole vocal part so that it begins at a point in the loop which sounds more natural. This is an improvement, but I feel that the last word  of the line "I don’t wanna let go" seems to end a little abruptly, so I’ll fix that in the next step.

Download audio file (4.mp3)

Step 5

Double clicking the audio part will open it up in the Sample Editor. Firstly, click on the "Playback" tab on the left hand side. This will reveal some more tabs. Click on "Free Warp". It will be highlighted in blue when it is selected. Turn "Snap" off on the top tabs — snap is useful in some circumstances, but in this case I want full control of the audio warping.

Step 6

From the "Algorithm" drop down menu on the left hand panel select "Vocals". There are different algorithms suited to different types of audio — vocals, mix, drums, etc — so it is important to select the correct one or the process will introduce weird artifacts to the sound.

Step 7

Having listened to the vocal part in loop mode with the sample editor open it is possible to hear and see where the part is that I want to warp. You can also use the scrub tool to double check this. To draw the warp handles (the faint orange lines you can see in the example) just click on the waveform. As I want to stretch out the last word of this phrase, I’ll be dragging the warp handle on the right hand further right. Notice that I have drawn a warp handle at the very start of the phrase as well. This anchors this part of the sample in it’s current position, and if I didn’t do this I would end up stretching the whole of the vocal part rather than just this one phrase.

Step 8

Here it is with that last word stretched out, let’s take a listen.

Download audio file (8.mp3)

Step 9

In this step I’ve just used the scissors tool in the main screen to cut the vocal up so I can copy across part of the phrase to add some variety.

Step 10

I’ve copied the first slice of the vocal, "I", to the start of the track (Alt+Drag to copy). Job done! I’ve added a touch of reverb and delay to the vocal track, so let’s see how it all sounds now.

Download audio file (10.mp3)

Step 11

We’ve dealt with altering the feel of some vocals and using the "Free Warp" function. Let’s move on to dealing with some out of time djembe hits. Here we have a drum track, and underneath it the djembe track. They are both at 120 bpm, but the djembe playing is wandering off time towards the end of the loop (I should have you know my djembe playing is not really that bad, I had to concentrate to play so badly out of time!).

Download audio file (11.mp3)
>

Step 12

Double click the djembe audio part to open it up in the sample editor, and as before, select  "Free Warp" from the left hand tab, and select "Drums" as the algorithm.

Step 13

I’ve clicked on all the significant beats of the djembe track in the waveform image to create warp handles. Although I might not need to move every beat, it pays to draw them all in to anchor them to their positions if I don’t want them to be moved. In fact, only the last four or five beats on the right hand side were badly out of time. They were all a bit late, so I simply dragged the start of each beat to the left slightly until they were falling correctly in time.

Step 14

Here it is tidied up, let’s listen to the new improved version!

Download audio file (14.mp3)

It’s possible that you may already be aware of this type of processor, just by another name. Transient designers have been given names such as transient modulators (Transmods), envelopers and signal modelers. If you are not familiar with this breed of plug-in, it might be possible that you actually have one in your collection without even knowing it.

Cubase and Logic both include Transient designers as part of their plug-in package and it is now possible to purchase high quality processors for this purpose that run on both dedicated DSP platforms and your native processor. Sonnox, Universal Audio and SPL are now all supplying excellent solutions for transient design. There are also a few great free products that we’ll look at here.

Let’s take a closer look at where these processors came from, how they work and see how we can use them in real world situations.

What is a Transient Designer?

If you have never used a transient designer of any kind or are just not familiar with the process, at this point you may be wondering what I’m talking about. Let’s take a quick look at the process and its history.

The first transient designer was designed by Ruben Tilgner using his ‘differential envelope’ technology and the result was a two channel hardware processor released by Sound Performance Labs (SPL) of Germany. The processor used a combination of VCAs (voltage controlled amplifiers) and envelope followers to clamp down on specific areas of a sound’s transient events.

The original hardware (and most software incarnations) only had a few knobs, which controlled attack and sustain. Don’t be deceived by the simplicity, as this processor can solve all sorts of problems and create just as many interesting effects. In fact, when SPL brought out their original transient designer, engineers were so taken with the ability of the unit to completely transform their drum tracks that many of them saw the unit as an absolute studio essential.

How do these things work for us in the mix? Well, essentially a transient designer affects the attack and sustain phase of a sound and are capable or drastically enhancing or attenuating each of these with pin point accuracy. For instance, using a transient designer we’re able to increase the attack of a snare sound or clav pattern, or even reduce the sustain of a live percussion loop to reduce the room sound in the recording.

Of course these things can be achieved with some success using other dynamics processors such as gates and compressors, but you’ll find that once you start using transient processing, the speed with which you can achieve these effects really leave the more traditional methods behind.

Transient designers also tend to be very versatile and are not just limited to drums as is often the misconception. They are just as happy strapped across a vocal or guitar track and can even work wonders as part of a mastering chain.

The Controls

As mentioned previously the early two-channel SPL transient designers only featured two controls, one for attack and one for release. New hardware models and plug-ins that emulate the hardware faithfully also only feature these two controls, but some newer adaptations of the processor sport considerably more tweakable parameters. It is worth noting that SPL now make the transient designer 2 and 4 which can both treat multiple signals at once.

Both the Sonnox ‘Transmod’ plug and Logic Pro 8’s ‘Enveloper’ plug-ins feature interfaces with considerably more controls than the more traditional versions. To make sure that everyone is catered to, the following examples will use several different plug-ins. Obviously the difference in quality between the Sonnox plug-in and Cubase’s bundled version is going to be noticeably different, but the following sections should show that good results can be achieved and that the theory is technically the same across the board.

Adding Punch

Arguably the most common way to use a transient processor is to add punch to a sound by increasing the level of the attack phase in each transient. Pretty much all of the processors covered here will do a good job of this but here I have used Universal Audio’s recreation of the latest SPL transient designer hardware. In this scenario the plug is running from a UAD1 card inside Logic Pro 8.

I’ve taken a simple drum loop that sounds slightly muffled, perhaps due to the recording which normally might get dumped. The SPL transient designer is loaded and a slight amount of attack is added. Life is added to the loop and you can clearly hear the punch introduced to the initial transients of each drum sound.

When adding attack in this way the volume of the signal will be increased, so it’s well worth lowering the output level of the plug-in to avoid clipping. Of course, you could take things much further here if you liked and further processing such as EQ and limiting would help polish things off.

Of course these examples may not show an improvement over the original sound — they are simply here to demonstrate the effect of the process.

Download audio file (drydrumloop.mp3)

Dry drum loop

Download audio file (attackdrumloop.mp3)

Attack drum loop

Softening a Sound’s Attack

The exact opposite of adding punch and snap to sounds involves softening the attack of a sound’s transients. For instance say you record a percussion or guitar part and you find the microphones were too close, or a plectrum was used as opposed to finger picking. You may find these sharper sounds have a little too much bite and cut into other elements of your mix.

Traditionally the solution would be to use dynamics processors such as a compressor or limiter, in some cases the situation might even require going back to the drawing board and re-recording the sound! This is where transient design really comes into its own as a problem solver, it really can save the day when it comes to getting certain instruments to sit perfectly in your mix.

Here I have chosen a synth pattern with plenty of attack and very ‘spikey’ transients. The Sonnox native ‘Transmod’ plug-in is then loaded into Cubase and the ratio control is lowered until we can see the meter showing reduction of the attack phase. The synths aggressive nature is now tamed and would now sit comfortably in a mix with other punchy elements. You can see that even with a processor that features many more controls its pretty easy to get a handle on which parameter does what.

Download audio file (Drysynth.mp3)

Dry synth

Download audio file (Softersynth.mp3)

Softer synth

Removing Room Sound and Effects

Another really useful technique using transient processing is removing room sounds from a recording, or even excessive reverb or delay that may have been imprinted on a file. To do this its simply a case of reducing the sustain control to the right amount. Although we don’t have many controls to think about here its important that you get the settings just right for the sound you are using, take things too far and you can end up with nothing more than a snap from the attack phase of the sound.

For this example I have continued to use the synth pattern for the previous stage. The synth is loaded with a pretty heavy reverb and this could make it drop back in a mix and make it generally less defined. By loading up the Cubase ‘Envelope Shaper’ plug we are able to turn the release setting to a minimum and really pull the reverb effect level down, without detrimentally effecting the actual synth pattern.

Download audio file (Dryersynth.mp3)

Dryer synth

Sustain Effects

By dialling in large amounts of sustain on any of these plug-ins really interesting effects can be produced. Often the result can be comparable to that of driving a compressor really hard. This is certainly more of an effect that a problem solving technique but it can be great for increasing the apparent volume of sounds and imparting some character.

I’ve grabbed a simple rock drum loop for this one and once playing back in Logic I loaded the bundled ‘Enveloper’ plug-in and dialed in some serious release gain. This makes the loop sound huge and possibly not that usable, apart from in an effects passage, but it does demonstrate what happens if you push the process hard enough.

Download audio file (Drybigdrums.mp3)

Dry big drums

Download audio file (Sustainbigdrums.mp3)

Sustain big drums

Of course these examples don’t cover all the ways you could utilize transient designers but hopefully they go some way to showing you what an important mixing tool they really are.

Useful Links and Info

Here are some links to check out for specific plug-ins…

• Sonnox Transmod (Native, Pro Tools and Powercore)
• SPL Transient Designer (Native)
• SPL Transient Designer (UAD1 and UAD2)
• Dominion (free VST Signal Modeling plug-in)

In this tutorial I’m going to look at how we can import such a film into Cubase 4 and compose some music for it. I’ve put together a short nature sequence with butterflies and a spider (this is not going to win any Oscars, but it will suffice to practice with!) and I’ve written an imaginary brief from a producer specifying what should happen at certain timecode points in the film.

By creating a marker track and putting markers at specified points, we will lock the markers to the timecode. We can then experiment with altering the tempo or length of the music, while ensuring that it will always start and finish at the timecode points we want it to.

The emphasis of this tutorial is in showing the technical process rather than writing an award winning score. I have written some light melodic music for the butterfly scenes and a simple dark string piece for the spider scene — you are free to download the timecoded original film and brief and have a go at scoring it youself!

The Brief

We have a short nature sequence which starts with butterflies on a tree. The film cuts away to a scene of a spider on a web, and then back to some more butterflies. I’m looking for light melodic music during the butterfly scenes, maybe using harps, flutes, strings or light synth sounds. The spider scene should be darker and ominous with strings or synthetic atmosphere sounds.

Cues

In timecode, the four sets of numbers indicate the position in the film in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. Our imaginary director has provided us with the following cuesheet:

00:00:00:00 – Start of sequence, something light and melodic and simple should start here.

00:00:18:03 – Start of zoom onto butterfly. The music can come up a step here as the camera zooms in.

00:00:00:28 – The butterfly music should be faded out by this point.

00:00:30:00 – Cut to spider on web, this should be marked by something simple, dark, and ominous.

00:00:58:00 – The spider music should be faded out by this point, or it can ring on until the start of the next cue.

00:01:00:00 – Cut back to butterflies, bring back something light and melodic, similar to opening music, maybe a variation.

00:01:12:21 – Music to finish by this point.

Step 1

Fire up Cubase 4 and start a new blank project. From the track column, add a video track.

Step 2

The film we are working with is in PAL format with a frame rate of 25 fps (25 frames per second). It is essential to go to Project Setup from the Project Menu and make sure that the video framerate is set to 25 fps, or your music will not be properly synchronized with the video.

Step 3

From the file menu, browse for the butterfly film and import the video.

Step 4

Drag the video part so that it starts at bar 2. It’s wise to do this so there’s some space before the video starts for count in and automated effects, but because we have moved the video the timecode in Cubase will not correspond to the timecode displayed on the video. What we need to do is alter the timecode of Cubase so that at bar 2 it reads 00:00:00:00, the same as the first frame of the video. Move the cursor so it is exactly over bar 2, then from the project menu select “Set Timecode at Cursor” and set it to 00:00:00:00.

Step 5

In the transport bar hover over the time display and right click to bring up the drop down menu, then select timecode instead of the default bars and beats.

Step 6

We can see a thumbnail display of the video in the video track, but we want to be able to see a proper preview of the video. From the devices menu select Video, which opens up the preview panel. You can see that there is a timecode display overlaid on the video. The cursor is at bar 2 and the timecode on both the video and the transport bar read 00:00:00:00, so we know that everything is lined up properly.

The preview panel is also useful because if you place the cursor over it and drag left or right, you’ll move backwards or forwards through the video. Similarly, dragging upwards or downwards on any of the numbers in the timecode display will move you back and forward through the film, which is particularly useful if you want to advance one frame at a time by hovering over the frame’s display (on the right of the four sets of numbers).

Step 7

Next, from the track panel, right click and add a marker track.

Step 8

With the cursor exactly over bar 2 use the pencil tool to draw a marker in the marker track. So, the first marker is on bar 2 and at timecode 00:00:00:00.

Step 9

Continue adding markers to the marker track at the timecode points specified in the list of cues. You can use the pencil tool, or advance to the specified timecode and click a marker number (the list of numbers 1-15 on the right hand side of the transport panel) whilst holding down shift. This list of marker numbers in the transport panel also serves as a way of quickly navigating to a particular marker.

Step 10

The marker list on the left of the tracks panel shows the seven markers and their position in bars and beats.

Step 11

Return to the first marker, and click the warp tab on the toolbar at the top right. Notice that the blue area turns burgundy, indicating we are now in warp mode. By holding down shift and clicking with the cursor over the marker, the tempo will be locked at that point creating a new tempo event. In this case it has created a tempo of 120 BPM at that point.

Step 12

Take a look at marker two. We need to adjust the tempo so that marker two falls at the start of a bar/beat/quantize value, so we can sequence the music easily. In timewarp mode, drag a bar to a marker, dragging a point in bars and beats to a point in timecode where we want it to fall. This effectively alters the tempo between markers but means we can move a particular bar/beat/quantize value to fall exactly where we want it to. We can control how the tempo will be effected by dragging a bar or beat from the left or right.

Step 13

I don’t need much of a tempo change here, but just want to get marker two lined up so it falls on a beat or bar, so I just dragged the faint gray line which represents bar 11 to marker 2.

Step 14

After that, we shift click on marker 2 and create a new tempo event at that point of 119 bpm.

Step 15

Proceed with markers 3 and 4, just dragging the nearest bar or beat to the marker as we don’t need much of a tempo change. Shift click on the markers to create new tempo events and lock the positions.

Step 16

I want the section between markers 4 and 5 to be slower in tempo (for the spider music) and through experimentation I’ve found that dragging bar 29 all the way to marker five does a good job of this. Lock the tempo again.

Step 17

I’ve dragged bar 30 to marker 6. Lock the tempo again and create a new timecode event by shift clicking the marker. You can experiment with dragging bars from the left or right, and nearer or further to achieve required tempos.

Step 18

Finally, I dragged bar 36.3 to marker 7 and locked the tempo. Now I’m ready to create music that will be sequenced exactly in time with the events and timecodes specified.

Step 19

I found some patches that I liked from VST synths and composed the first part of the music to represent the opening butterfly scene. At marker 2 a further string sound comes in to mark the zoom on the butterfly as specified in the cue sheet. The music fades by marker 3 as specified.

Download audio file (butterflystrack-s1.mp3)

Step 20

I used some some simple string sounds and a simple melody with a dark feel to represent the spider section. It fades out by marker 5.

Download audio file (butterflystrack-s2.mp3)

Step 21

Finally I created a simple piece for the final butterfly section using the same patches and a similar melody and feel to the opening piece. It fades by marker 7.

Download audio file (butterflystrack-s3.mp3)

Step 22

With the whole soundtrack finished and mixed, I exported the audio mixdown and imported the soundtrack into my video software to mix it into the film.

Download audio file (butterflysoundtrack.mp3)

Step 23

Here is the finished product!

Finished Butterfly Film from AUDIOTUTS Video on Vimeo.

Conclusion

I hope you have found this tutorial useful as an introduction to using markers and timewarping to score music to picture. Feel free to use the included video and brief to have a go yourself. If you have your own piece of video, why not have a go at logging the significant timecodes to make a cue sheet and your own brief? This makes good practice, or you could have a go at re-scoring parts of well known films.