Music Recording Software » Recording Software

How To Produce the Hottest Beats As A Hip Hop and R and B Music Producer

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:12:35 +0000

What makes a pro recording pro? What is the “sound” that the pros get and how can you make your recordings sound more professional? The simple answer is – there’s no simple answer. But with careful listening and a little experience you can create excellent results with modest equipment. Good mixing starts ear ` The first and most important item of equipment is – who knows? Anyone? It’s your ears! Sorry to tell you this, but listening to ten hours of Rave at 110dB will do nothing for them and you might as well give your mix to a turtle as try to mix with misused ears. Listen to commercial recordings of mixes you like, analyse them, listen for the effects and get to know what constitutes the sort of sound you’re after.

Mixing secrets There’s no hidden secret to getting a good sound, but if we had to sum up the secret of mixing in two words it would be this – EQ and compression.

Okay that’s three words. These are probably the two most important tools used by professional producers. However, like any tools, if you don’t know how to use them you’ll be carving Habitat tables instead of Chippendale chairs. That’s where your ears and experience come in. Here we have assembled some production ideas, suggestions, tips and tricks but they can only be guidelines and need to be adapted to suit your material. There are no presets you can switch in to make a bad recording sound good. And if your original material has been poorly recorded not even Abbey Road could salvage your mix. But follow these suggestions and see how much your mixes improve.

Get the level right You can’t push the levels when recording digitally as you can when recording to tape but you still want to get as much signal into the system as possible. This means watching the levels very carefully for clipping, and recording at an even and constant level. Some recording software lets you monitor and set the input level from within. Some expect you to use the soundcard’s mixer while others have no facility for internally adjusting the input level and expect you to set this at source. Monitors

Your ears are only as good as the monitors they listen to. DO NOT expect to produce a good, pro mix on tiny computer speakers. It may sound fine on a computer system, but try it on a hi fi, in a disco and through a car stereo. Oddly enough, you don’t necessarily need the most expensive Mic. Many top artists use what some might call “average” Mics because they work well and get the job done. You can spend a wad on a large diaphragm capacitor Mic (yes, they’re good for vocals) if you have the lolly but check out dynamic Mics which are much more affordable and can be turned to several tasks. Mixing MIDI and audio. One of the great things about computer-based recording is that the parts can so easily be changed, edited and processed. It’s also so easy to combine MIDI and audio tracks and many musicians use a combination of sample loops, MIDI parts and audio recording.

Audio recordings are generally guitar and acoustic instruments such as the sax and vocals. Incidentally, the best way to record guitars is by sticking a Mic in front of its speakers. You can DI them and process them later and this may be cleaner but for a natural guitar sound a Miced amp is hard to beat. It’s not necessary to record drums live and, in fact, it’s difficult to do and retain a modern sound. You can buy off-the-shelf MIDI drum riffs and audio drum loops, or program your own. The quality of the gear which makes drum noises these days is such that anyone with a good riff can sound like a pro. Mixing MIDI As MIDI and audio parts appear on the same screen in modern sequencers, it’s very easy to arrange them into a song. However, when you come to mix everything down there’s another consideration. If you are recording to DAT you can simply route the audio and MIDI outputs through a mixer and into the DAT machine.

However, if you want to create a CD you must first convert the MIDI parts to audio data. The entire song can then be mixed to hard disk and burned to CD. Converting MIDI to audio can have another benefit and that’s the ability to process the MIDI tracks using digital effects. Effects There are three positions for effects known as Master, Send and Insert. Use the Master for effects you want to apply to the entire mix. These will often be EQ, compression and reverb. Although giving each channel its own Insert effects is kinda neat, each one uses a corresponding amount of CPU power. So if your computer is struggling and if you’re using the same effect on more than one channel, make the effect a Send effect and route those channels to it. Many pieces of software let you apply an effect Pre or Post fader. With Post fader, the amount of sound sent to the effect is controlled by the fader. With Pre fader, the total volume level of the signal is sent. Post fader is the usual default and the one you’ll use the most.

EQ is the most popular and the most over-used effect. Yes, it can be used to try to “fix a mix” but you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear as me Gran used to say and what she didn’t know about mixing could be written in the margin of the book of honest politicians. But before you start messing with EQ – or any other effect for that matter – make sure you have a decent set of speakers. Have we said that already? Oh, must be important, then. There are plug-in effects such as MaxxBass which can psychoacoustically enhance the bass frequencies to make it sound better on smaller speakers. However, this is by no means the same as getting a good bass sound in the first place by observing good recording principles. EQ can enhance a mix to add gloss, fairy dust, shimmer, sheen, a sweetener or whatever you want to call it to the final production. It can be done with enhancers and spectralisers, too, although these tend to mess with the harmonics which some producers don’t like. However, don’t dismiss them out of hand. General EQ lore says that you should cut rather than boost. If a sound is top-heavy, the temptation is to boost the mid and bass ranges. But then what usually happens is you start boosting the upper range to compensate and you simply end up boosting everything and you’re back where you started – only louder! The reason why cutting is preferred is that boosting also boosts the noise in the signal which is not what you want. Try it. Boost every frequency and listen to the result. If you think it sounds okay, fine. What do we know? But when you’re fiddling, do keep an eye on the output meter. Boosting EQ inevitably means increasing the gain and it’s so-o-o-o easy to clip the output causing distortion which does not sound good.

Finally, check EQ changes to single tracks while playing back the entire piece. In other words, listen to the tracks in context with all the other tracks. It may sound fine in isolation but some frequencies may overlap onto other tracks making the piece frequency rich in some places and frequency poor in others. Reverb Reverb creates space. It gives the impression that a sound was recorded in a hall or canyon instead of the broom cupboard. Recording lore suggests that you record everything dry, with no reverb, so you can experiment with a choice later on. You can’t un-reverb a track once it’s been recorded. The more reverb you apply, the further away sound will seem. To make a vocal up-front, use only enough reverb to take away the dryness. Vocals don’t want to be mushy (lyrics can be mushy) so use a bright reverb. A common novice error is to swamp everything with different types of reverb. Don’t – it sounds horrible! Mixing down You’ve done all the recordings, done the edits, applied the effects and now it’s time to mix everything into a Big Number One Hit! Before you do, go home and have a good night’s sleep. Have two. In fact, sleep for a week. Yes, we know you’re hot and raring to go but your ears are tired. They’re falling asleep. Listen carefully and you might hear then snore! There is a phenomenon known as ear fatigue and consistent exposure to sound, especially the same frequencies, makes our ears less responsive to them. Goes back to the bit about spending your life in a Rave club – you’ll never be a master producer. If you try to mix after spending a day arranging, your ears will not be as responsive, so do them and your mix a favour by waiting at least a day. Now, go forth and mix! And don’t forget – you get better with practice. For more information about mixing

By: Gus

How to Record video to DVD

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:32:29 +0000

How to Record TV Shows for Youtube and DVD

Why Record TV Shows for Youtube or DVD Well, there are many merits to record TV shows, followed by either burning to DVD or upload TV shows online. Therefore, you can preserve favorite TV shows for a long time, or watch TV shows later in office even if you have not a TV set there. Good idea and being a bad man, huh? Anyway, learn how to record TV on your PC in the cheapest way now!

Connect TV Signal Cable to PC

You need an internal TV Tuner Card or an external TV Tuner to receive the TV shows signal. By doing this, your computer is turned to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). After the TV card or TV Tuner is correctly installed to your PC, connect TV signal cable to computer.

Note that before you buy a TV capture card, make sure the TV signal is Analog TV signal or Digital TV signal. Depending on the situation, you could purchase a Analog TV Card, Digital TV Card or The Combo TV Tuner Card. By the way, many TV tuners can function as FM radios recorder, so that listen music on radio or record music to local disk.

Run TV Recording Software

Most TV Cards include recording software that allows you to capture TV shows to computer. But you could also record with the third-party TV recording software. Some even enables you to edit video, to author TV show DVD menu, or to combine with photo and music, before saving and burning to DVD. For Example, Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder provides a user-friendly interface to search TV channels and to capture TV shows for Youtube in widescreen aspect ratio. The captured TV shows could also be burnt to DVD with dynamic DVD menu to play with DVD player.

If you use DVD Slideshow Builder as TV shows recording software, click Add from Device button and select TV Card as the input source. Then click Settings button beside TV Channel drop-down list and scan TV channel to record. After returning to Device Import dialog, click Record button to record tv shows to import list at the bottom. Finally click Import button to add captured episode show to make Youtube video.

Tips for DVD Slideshow Builder: You could watch TV shows in Full Screen while recording.

Save Video for Youtube and Upload

YouTube accepts a wide range of video file formats. Most television shows recording software could output TV shows video supported by Youtube. However, Youtube now recommends 16:9 (1280×720) high-definition video. If you mainly record tv shows for youtube, ensure the packed software supports 16:9 HD Youtube video output.

* Windows Media Video(.wmv)

* .3GP (cell phones)

* .AVI (windows)

* .MOV (mac)

* .MP4 (ipod/psp)

* .MPEG

* .FLV (adobe flash)

* .SWF (shockwave flash)

* .MKV (h.264)

Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder supports almost all the Youtube video formats listed above (except SWF and MKV). Plus, with the recorded television shows, you could save recorded videos in HD Youtube video, and then upload to share TV shows on Youtube with others.

To upload saved TV shows to Youtube, you only need a youtube account. So, connect to Youtube.com and log in followed by clicking Upload button to walk through the easy steps.

Record TV Shows to DVD

Provided that you are a big TV fan, you will definitely not just satisfied with recording TV shows for Youtube. With regard to those classical and best TV episode shows, Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder gives you the cheapest way to burn TV shows to DVD for long-time saving, and with motion DVD menus!

Useful Tutorials:

How to Make FLV Slideshow

By: Oliver Twist

Guide to Free Rap Beat Making Software

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:37:08 +0000

Every musician on one occasion or another has opened up their web browser and used their favorite search engine to search for free products. If you are into making rap or hip hop beats, then you have probably searched for free rap beat making software. Is it worth your time searching? Here are a few tips as to why it may or may not be worth your time searching. You will get millions of results if you use any major search engine on the net to search for free music programs. Some of the programs that come up will truly be free downloads and others software that you need to pay for. Let’s first tackle the actual free programs: Great for someone just starting out and wanting to learn how to make beats. It gives them the opportunity to not have to spend any money, but they can try out many different programs to see if it is something they will enjoy doing. If you’re looking for rich features, then this is probably not the best route for you to take. Most free software is very basic and hard to use (not in all cases). Most free rap beat making software will have no end user support. If you serious about making music you will at some point to some technical support. Where is a good place to download? I would recommend starting out at a website such as Sourceforge. net. Now let’s take on paid software for making beats: There are too many programs available to musicians today to even try to start listing them. Before opening your wallet to buy anything, you should first see what your needs are. Do you need software that has a sequencer, real-time effects or tone adjustments? You should definitely think about your budget as well. Don’t buy a product that is going to break the bank! Something else you need to think of, is do you need this program to integrate with another piece of recording software you are using? Also, what instruments will you need to be able to hook up to it? Most programs you pay for have a demo you can check out first. Most paid products will also provide free technical support. This is great if you’re in the middle of a recording session and you get a weird error. You don’t need to waste valuable time troubleshooting yourself, just pick up the phone and call tech support. Be sure to take these tips into consideration when either looking to get some free rap beat making software or actually making the decision to buy.

Choosing The Right Recording Studio Tools

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:52:05 +0000

Music recording capabilities and technologies have evolved and changed dramatically over the last few years as heavy mixing boards and other equipment have been replaced, or at least supplemented by portable laptop computers and software programs like ProTools and others.

You may be wondering which types of equipment to buy, whether you need to purchase recording software, and how to set up your own studio to help you take your recording abilities and expertise to the next level. The good news is that you may not even need to buy very many pieces of large, bulky equipment at all. The majority of new laptops are powerful enough to run sophisticated recording software that can easily take the place of traditional equipment, and can allow you to have a mobile recording studio as well.

If you have never used recording software like DigiDesign Pro Tools,Steinbergs Cubase, Apples Logic, Cakewalks Sonar or Abletons Live before, you might want to consider taking a class or receiving online instruction and support. These software programs contain many features, so many that even people who have been using them for years often realize that there were features that they were not aware of until after taking a course. There are many websites that offer online support and instruction, depending on the type of software that you purchase. One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with your recording studio software however is to experiment on your own. It goes without saying that you should get in quite a few practice sessions before you attempt to do a live recording.

Whether or not you decide to create a physical studio in a fixed location is up to you. It may not be necessary if you are planning on traveling a lot, but you will still want to have some basic equipment, including a few high quality microphones. If you are anticipating working on recording projects that will require multiple sessions and or if you are not anticipating that you will be traveling very much, you may want to think about a combination mobile and traditional studio. You can still use your software for the bulk of the work, but you will have the benefit of actual physical equipment as well, and know that you will have a dedicated space to work on your projects.

Regardless of the type of studio that you opt for, you should plan on investing in a powerful laptop computer and a high quality recording software program. You will be surprised to discover all of the truly creative and innovative things that you will be able to incorporate into your recording projects when you use one

By: Jerry Glynn

How to Prepare Your Computer for Recording Music at Home

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:27:26 +0000

Here are tips to improve the reliability of your computer for use as a recording studio for your music.

Working with Audio can place a high demand on your computer’s capabilities – from the CPU to storage and memory.Below are some tips that will increase the performance of your computer and make it less prone to crashes when you are recording or editing your music.

Preparation:

Before you install recording software check the following.CPU speed and memory-

Most modern computers that are only a couple of years old will have a processor that is equal to or exceeding the minimum CPU speed your editing software requires but it is still worth checking – particularly if you have machine that is earlier than this (be aware that processor speed, along with memory will determine how many tracks of audio you can record and the number of effects you can have running simultaneously.

The same goes for required RAM (most good recording programs state a minimum of 512 megabytes) More is better- a gigabyte or higher (in fact increasing the memory of your computer can compensate for a slower processor to some degree and is probably the cheapest way to add more speed to your machine).

Storage space –

In most cases you will have enough storage on your operating system hard drive to install the software and related effects – what I’m referring to is a second drive dedicated to storing your songs and all the files they are created from.

This is a must, because having both your software and songs on the same drive will place a high demand both on your drive and CPU as it tries to find, read and write and execute a program all at the same time from one location.

Also note that music files are large so you’ll need a lot of space – one five minute recording can easily be 250 megabytes or more – multiply that by eight for a song consisting of eight different instruments, (each on an individual track) such as drums, bass, guitar, keyboard and vocals and you begin to get the idea that a 40 gigabyte drive will fill up fairly quickly so go for something bigger (say 150 gigs or larger).

Choose a reliable brand and get an external drive to keep your files backed up.

While we are on the subject of hard drives – if you are planning on using an external drive and writing directly to it, choose a unit that has a cooling fan.

Enclosed drives can generate and trap a lot of heat and if you are doing a long session without much ventilation you can cook your drive and cause it to fail prematurely. (internal drives are less prone to this because they usually receive cooling from the power supply fan and you can mount them in such a way that there is an air gap between each of them for circulation).

Removal or disabling of other programs.

The absolute best computer based recording studios in terms of speed and stability are those that are dedicated units – in other words they are set up to specifically record and edit music.

This means they are not connected to the internet (except for updates and registering the software), they don’t have anti virus running, screen savers or other widgets running in the background that use up memory and CPU.

The result is that dedicated computers are far more reliable and tend to have significantly less problems.Windows is particularly notorious for having many programs running in the background and can cause havoc with your audio work. Mac is less so.Consult an expert when disabling background programs – some are vital for the operation of your computer and should be left alone – others are ok to shut down (you just need to know what can and cannot be touched).

If you are financially able, and serious about recording – try to get yourself a computer just for audio work and keep your current machine for the internet and any other work you might be doing.If you can’t do this and are stuck with just one machine – do the following.

Upgrade the RAM if you need to.

Uninstall any programs you don’t use and do a thorough clean up.

Disable background processes that are not essential to the running of your machine (This applies to Windows only) – again if in doubt get expert help.

Close your internet connection and disable automatic updates and anti virus etc while you are recording (you can re-enable them later when you are done).

Use a plain background as wallpaper.

Defragment your hard drive and (make sure your operating system has no errors first and is up to date) before installing your recording software and any drivers you might be using for your sound card or external inputs.

You are now good to go – install your recording gear and enjoy less problems on a more stable computer.

By: Mark Spivey

processor speed for recording