Side-Chaining and Ghost Notes Tutorial

I have another tutorial video for you.  This video is the last in a series of videos that Urban Francis and I put together, as a techno production project for a track called Hijack.

The track was produced in Ableton Live, and we have all of our Ableton project files available as a free download from Dropbox.

In this specific video, we wanted to explain what was going on with the Side-chain compression.  Eventually, the two of us are going to do a very detailed and complex set of tutorials about compression and side-chaining.  They’re very complicated and moderately advanced topics, and they take a little while to learn to do properly.  However, because we have some side-chaining happening in the Hijack project, we decided that it would be smart to give a brief overview, so any producers who are moderately familiar with Ableton would understand exactly what we’re doing here.

Here's a link to the video:

If you don’t understand what compression is, let’s start there, even though it’s a pretty complex topic.  I tried to do an explanation in my Mastering & Marketing Your DJ Mix video on YouTube, starting at the 21 minute mark.  It’s worth a watch, because of the graphic visuals.  However, let me also try to explain it here.

 A lot of people, when they hear about compression, they get the idea that compression makes things louder.  That’s incorrect.  Compression by itself does not raise the level of an audio signal.  There are several different settings in a compressor, but the main ones are this:

Threshold Value – this is the signal level above which audio is being affected.

Ratio – tells how much the portion of the audio that is above the threshold is getting squished.

Now obviously, if the audio is getting squished, then the audio is getting pushed down from its original volume to a lower volume.  So why, when people talk about compression, do 99% of them think that the audio is getting louder?  That’s a great question, and it’s something that a lot of people don’t understand properly.  First, you need to understand that compression BY ITSELF does not make the volume louder, it reduces the volume.

Now, let’s be honest – in the fight for volume to gain prominence in the listening space, very few people want to reduce the volume of their productions.  So that’s where another setting commonly associated with compression comes into play.  That setting is the make-up gain.

After compression is done, if a producer applies make-up gain to the compressed audio, it brings the volume back up.  A producer may set the make-up gain to the exact amount to bring the peak of the volume back up to where it was before the audio was compressed.  Sounds like a rather useless practice, doesn’t it?  Drop the volume, then raise the volume.

But the key thing is that when the volume is compressed, it is NOT dropped in a linear manner.  Louder parts are dropped more than quieter parts.  Hence the reason that I said that the audio gets squished.  Therefore, the audio now has a narrower dynamic range than before.  The peaks and valleys in the amplitude are not as significant; the changes from the loud parts to the soft parts are less significant.

Since the peak of the volume is unchanged from the original, once the makeup gain was applied, and since the dynamic range from loudest to softest is reduced, this means that the AVERAGE volume of the processed audio is louder.  And that’s the source of the misconception that compressed audio is always louder.  Compressed audio definitely has a narrower dynamic range.  If it is louder, that is only because makeup gain has also been applied.

Side-chaining

Moving on to Side-chaining, the way that side-chaining works, is that you’re taking a signal from somewhere else, and you’re analyzing that signal, and you’re using the analysis of the side-chain signal to control the compressor’s actions on whatever other audio is being compressed.  So in other word’s, the compressor’s actions are being dictated by the energy of the side-chain signal (side-chain audio source) that’s being fed into the compressor.

Remember that the signal that’s being fed into the compressor (the side-chain signal) may have nothing at all to do with the audio that you’re processing.  And also, remember that you don’t have to have a signal being fed into the side-chain.  If you don’t have a side-chain signal, the compressor just works at a steady set of values while it’s processing audio.  Essentially, a side-chain compressor without a side-chain signal is just … a regular compressor.

Ok, so imagine this.  Let’s pretend that the signal that is coming in to the side-chain input of the compressor is some sort of signal that is steady and repeating.  High energy/amplitude (lots of signal) alternating with low energy/amplitude (quiet).  A good example might be a repeating kick drum.  If you keep hitting a kick drum in a steady pattern regularly, then the “signal” (amplitude) is essentially a constantly repeating on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off pattern.  If this signal is what is controlling the compressor, then you’re basically turning the compressor on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off in the same timing and pattern.

Many producers DO use a kick drum as a side-chain signal, so that a side-chain compressor keeps turning on and off in time with the kick drum.  The compressor may be processing just about anything else while it keeps turning on and off.  Maybe it’s processing a synth line.  Maybe it’s processing a background pad.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s compressing some sort of audio, and it’s turning on and off in time with the beating of the kick drum, since the kick drum is being used as the side-chain signal.

A producer can use the kick drum from the track they’re working on, as the side-chain.  But they don’t have to.  They could use a different kick drum track as the signal.  And that other kick drum which is being used as a side-chain signal to the compressor does NOT necessarily have to be audible to listeners of the track.  So a producer could easily have two kick drum tracks in their song:  one that is audible that the audience can hear, and a second one that is not audible to listeners, but which is being used as a side-chain signal.

Why bother using two different kicks?  Maybe the producer wants a signal with a fast release for the side-chain (to turn the compressor off quickly), but doesn’t want the listeners to hear a kick that has a fast release.  Or maybe the muted side-chain kick needs to act as a side-chain signal during parts of the song where there is no kick drum playing.

If a producer brings an extra kick drum (or any other type of instrument or midi notes) into a side-chain compressor, but that audio/midi side-chain signal is not audible as part of the project, the side-chain audio signal is called a ghost signal, or ghost notes.

Using a side-chain to turn your compressor on and off allows you to compress audio when needed, to allow for a different part to shine through a mix, but does not compress the audio at other times.  This gives the producer a lot of flexibility.  It’s much better than if the producer’s only option was to permanently decrease the volume of other parts of the mix.

An advantage of using ghost notes or a muted side-chain signal is that you can have it turn the compressor on and off in any pattern or timing that’s convenient to you.

An advantage of using a regular audio source within the song (one that the listeners hear) as a side-chain signal to affect another track is that the timing may be perfect for your needs.  For example, if you need a kick drum to cut through a synth line, you can play the audio of the kick, and you can simultaneously route that auto into the side-chain of a compressor that cuts the volume of the synth, allowing the audio version of the kick to cut through the mix.

By the way, if you want to see the project that we used as the basis for this tutorial, here's the music video (yes, the full project files for this track are available as a free Ableton or stems download):

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Free Cracked Copy of Microsoft Office?

As most people realize, I'm fairly handy with computers. Like a backyard mechanic who has a whole machine shop in his garage, I like to tinker with technology. Installing RAM and hard drives and tuning up operating systems is actually pretty easy if you've got any common sense, but it seems to scare people off the same way you might be scared to change an alternator in your truck (which incidentally, is also not very difficult). So I get a lot of requests for help with fixing laptops. And the biggest request that I get, about once a week, is whether or not I can give someone a copy of MicroSoft Office.

So to cut down on the number of requests, I thought I'd post a solution right here on my blog. No, I'm not giving out hacked copies of Office. It's a great program, and without a doubt, the combination of Word & Excel is the software suite that I've used more than any other software. By a factor of at least 10x. I think I first bought a copy in 1990 or 1991, running on a 286, when computer monitors were still monochrome and color printers were unheard of, and have upgraded constantly since then. I guess it helps that I'm a perpetual student, so I usually qualify for educational discounts on software.

Anyway, my solution for your quest for a versatile office suite is this: "Open Office."

Open Office is an open source software suite, promoted by Apache, often referred to as "OOo." OOo stands for "Open Office dot Org," not "Oracle's Open Office." Anyway, open source means that it is free. Free does not always mean lower quality. This software has been developed by a team of thousands of developers from around the world, working on it for over a decade, in order to provide a free office suite package to internet users everywhere. It has a significant (and growing) market share, and is available in over a hundred languages. And it is very compatible with most aspects of MicroSoft Office; at the very least, with everything that students would use it for.

OOo consists of a number of modules/programs, similar to MS Office. "Writer" is equivalent to MS Word. "Calc" is equivalent to Excel. "Impress" is equivalent to PowerPoint. "Base" is equivalent to Access. Well, they're not quite the same, but very similar. OOo handles all major file types, including export to PDF's, and has versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Check it out: http://www.OpenOffice.org

Seriously, why perpetuate the distribution of pirated software when you can get the equivalent for free? If you like MicroSoft Office, buy a copy. If you want to save money, use Open Office. More than a hundred million users can't be wrong.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Review of ShuttlePro V2 Control Device

For users who do a lot of video or audio editing, especially with programs that take advantage of "scrubbing" within their editing capabilities, the ShuttlePro V2 can be a nice complement to your existing way of controlling your workflow.  It has a jog wheel, a shuttle control, and fifteen separate user-controllable buttons.  Designed to be used in conjunction with a mouse or similar device, this device will reduce your reliance on the keyboard and keyboard shortcuts.

  

Here's a review video about this device:

A couple of the key points that I love about this Control Device are:
- Appears to be built solidly.
- Doesn't slide around on desk.

One thing I didn't like about the ShuttlePro V2 was:
- I'm just not accustomed to working with a device like this!  But that's a personal shortcoming, not a problem with the control device itself.

ShuttlePro has presets in the control panel for the following long list of programs in a variety of styles:

Adobe Flash
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Audition
Adobe Encore
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Soundbooth
Avid Liquid
Avid MC Adrenaline
Avid Media Composer
Avid Pro Tools
Avid Xpress
Boris Keyframer
Boris Red
Cakewalk Guitar Tracks
Cakewalk Home Studio
Cakewalk Music Creator
Cakewalk Plasma
Cakewalk Projects
Cakewalk Sonar
Canopus DV Rex
Canopus Sonar
Canopus Edius
Discrete 3DS Max
Discrete Combustion
DPS Velocity
Easy Prompt
Finale
In-Sync Speed Razor
Magix Samplitude
Magix Sequoia
Media 100 iFinish
Media Studio Pro
MicroSoft Access
MicroSoft Excel
MicroSoft Outlook
MicroSoft PowerPoint
MicroSoft Word
Pinnacle Commotion
Pinnacle Edition
Pinnacle Studio
Sony Acid
Sony Cinescore
Sony Screen Blast
Sony Sound Forge
Sony Vegas
Steinberg Cubase
Steinberg Nuendo
Steinberg WaveLab
ULead Video Studio
and many others

And of course, the presets are just there for convenience.  You can program your own for any software package that you own.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Learn to DJ with Ableton Live (live real-time performances)

About a year ago, I made three videos to teach people how to produce DJ mixes using Ableton. About 250,000 views later between the three videos (and many more since then), I decided it was time to make more. After all, the original intent was that these were going to be part of a bigger series about how DJ's can use Ableton. You can see those first three videos (and many more related videos) here:  djbolivia.ca/ableton

Although those first three videos focused on studio-based aspects of DJ'ing and Ableton, I just finished up a second series which focuses specifically on live performance aspects of using Ableton. I hope that these are just as popular. Here are the links to those new videos. I



Live DJ'ing with Ableton, Part 1 of 4:

I start off with an overview of what you need to know about DJ'ing and what Ableton has to offer. We cover a review of beat-mixing and the need to understand "warping" in Ableton, a background on what you need to know/learn about audio mixers before you can go any further, and finally, a quick discussion of optional equipment and peripherals that can make your setup more powerful and flexible (ie. headphones, MIDI controllers, an audio mixer, and external soundcard).





Live DJ'ing with Ableton, Part 2 of 4:

This video covers basic navigation of the Ableton software, creating a project, importing tracks, adding effects, and doing simple DJ'ing without cue capabilities. If you know that your tracks are warped properly, and know your music well, the need to cue incoming tracks is minimized.





Live DJ'ing with Ableton, Part 3 of 4:

In this part of the series, we start getting into a proper setup. I cover external sound cards, audio mixers, and external MIDI controllers. I also start to talk about signal routing. Understanding proper signal routing is critical for using Ableton in a professional capacity.





Live DJ'ing with Ableton, Part 4 of 4:

This video covers advanced routing and signal flow ideas and examples, and also covers integrating Ableton with a professional piece of equipment, the Allen & Heath Xone 4D. I use the Xone 4D as an integrated component that contains an external sound card, an audio mixer, and a full-fledged MIDI controller all in one standalone unit.





Live DJ'ing with Ableton, Unofficial Part 5:

I really should have made the series a five-part series. Although technically speaking, I covered everything in the first four parts, this video definitely complements the rest of the series, especially the fourth part. In this video, I walk you through the steps of setting up a project with a slightly different approach than in part four, and then use that project to perform an hour-long set, which then became episode 155 of my weekly radio show, Subterranean Homesick Grooves. This video is produced completely from the DJ's perspective, ie. you'll hear the booth monitor output in your right channel, and the DJ's cue audio in your left channel, so you'll be able to understand exactly what I'm doing.





The Final Result, a Live Performance:

This is the companion video to the previous unofficial "part five" of the series. This shows the same view as the previous video, but this one only has audio for what the dance floor hears. So this is completely just an extra video that you can watch or listen to for fun. No learning here, this is just for relaxing after you've finished studying the other videos!





I have a lot more videos that help teach you about using Ableton Live for DJ'ing.  Find them at this link:

djbolivia.ca/ableton

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Ableton Live 9.0 released

Literally hundreds of thousands of music producers have been eagerly or impatiently awaiting the release of version 9.0 of Ableton Live for about two years now. It is finally available to the public.

Ableton has produced a fifty-minute YouTube video, which you should check out here if you’re an existing Live user.




If you want a quick preview of what the video talks about, and some of the interesting new features, here’s a spoiler list:

- Over 1.8 million people world-wide are now using Ableton to produce music.
- AL9 will analyze an audio clip (say some humming, or a saxophone solo) and extract a MIDI version of the melody.
- Same concept with audio clips as a “convert to drums” option.
- Instrument rack presets now preview in the enhanced Live browser (actual instruments, if you’re confused by thinking this was possible before).
- Three thousand new instrument racks in Live Suite (did I hear that correctly? Three thousand?)
- Lots of new Max for Live effects modules.
- Max for Live is now integrated into Live Suite, not a separate entity.
- Recording of automation in Session view.
- Automation curves. Finally. Both in session clips and arrangement view.
- Real-time gain reduction graph output in the compressor, which can be useful, for example, for playing with sidechain parameters.
- Consolidate a time range in the arrangement view and print all of the data within that range back into a scene in session view. So cool! Essentially, you can create your final song in arrangement view and then quickly re-create it as a number of scenes in session view.
- Single-click to create break-points in envelope editing, a minor detail that I like.

The video also demonstrates Ableton’s “Push,” a hardware controller that might potentially become as ubiquitous to Live as the APC40 did for many producers and performers.

You really need to see that part yourself, rather than have me try to fully describe it. If you didn’t want to watch the entire video above, go directly to the 32:40 mark, where there is ten minutes devoted to describing Push. For the gear junkies out there, it’s pretty slick. And quite intuitive, from the looks of things.


That should be enough to whet your appetite. I did a couple of DJ-related tutorial videos this past spring about Ableton Live 8, which have received over a hundred thousand views already. You can see those by checking out this post. I'll be spending some time in the studio this winter to cover a number of other topics, including:
- Live performance DJ'ing using Ableton Live.
- Creating and programming kick drums.
- Creating and programming bass and pads.
- Producing house/trance/techno tracks from scratch.
- and a whole bunch of other ideas.


For now, check out more at the Ableton website:

www.ableton.com

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Warping Tracks in Ableton Live, for DJ'ing

I just put together an hour-long tutorial video to teach people how to warp tracks in Ableton Live, for the purpose of either performing live, or for putting together DJ mixes. Here's the video:




Essentially, this is a very basic video, so as long as you have a bit of familiarity with any type of audio editing software out there, and a basic knowledge of dance music and DJ'ing, you should be able to understand exactly what I'm teaching. After that, a bit of practice with a few dozen songs, and you should know exactly how to set your tracks up in Ableton.

Once you have tracks that are warped, you'll probably want to either perform live, or use the technology to put together DJ mixes. For my weekly radio show, Subterranean Homesick Grooves, I usually take one of three approaches to putting together a show:

1. Perform live and record the mix, while playing on either pitch-controlled CD players (I have CDJ-2000's) or on vinyl with turntables (I have Technics SL-1200 M3D's). Of the three ways to put together a show, this approach is the most fun and takes the most skill, although sometimes I won't be happy with a mix the first time, and I'll re-record the entire thing.

2. Set up the tracks in Ableton, and then perform live using Ableton and a Xone 4D mixer, with effects set up in Ableton and the MIDI controls on the mixer tied in to the Ableton effects devices. This approach is also pretty fun, and good because it's impossible to screw up your beat-mixing.

3. Set up the track in Ableton, and then lay them out in the Arrangement view instead of performing live, and use automation to control all the effects and volumes and EQ'ing. This does not enhance your skills as a DJ, and it doesn't let you show off your live mixing abilities. However, I have to use this approach to put together a fair number of my radio shows, because when I'm on the road without equipment, I can use this approach to put together a show in a hotel room.

This warping video ONLY focuses on how to warp your tracks, because it's such as important part of using Ableton for DJ'ing. It needed to be a video of its own. However, this is just one step in learning to use Ableton effectively for DJ'ing.  I have about a dozen more videos on this topic, and you can find them all at this link:

djbolivia.ca/ableton

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca