Learn a new instrument - Musical Creativity 21

I hadn't planned to write this article now, but after helping a friend go shopping at the weekend, I felt I had to write it soon. In short, learn to play a new instrument. I've still got some more emulation ideas to write about, but they will wait for a later article.

Why?

In as much the same as learning to emulate an instrument can aid inspiration, so can learning to play an instrument in its own right. In my opinion, it can provide more inspiration. I've mentioned before I'm a guitarist, but even learning the bass helps me focus on what will work when mixing the instruments together. Understanding the bass lines and how they fit to the drumbeat, e.g. ahead, in the pocket or behind, helps me figure out the style of guitar I'd want to add over the top. Learning keyboards and piano gives yet a different view again.

There are other points to learning another instrument.

Benefits:

• Can provide relief or a change of scene
• Sense of achievement
• New skill
• New people to meet
• New opportunities for collaboration
• Different mindset
• Additional influences
• Additional creative outlet
• In the longer term, won't have to hire session musicians for that part that needs recording
• Able to communicate better when directing other players of that instrument
• Better understand the limitations of the instrument
• Quicker to try out ideas, rather than borrowing kit and/or player
• There are secondary benefits, e.g. shared experience of learning an instrument with another family member

Concerns:

• The hardware costs
• Takes time to learn
• Take time and money to learn properly (paying for tuition)
• More clutter in the studio or at home where you'd be learning
• Perhaps more distraction from your writing workflow
• It will hurt a bit at first as your body adjusts to playing the instrument. Depending on the instrument, could be your finger tips, your arms, your cheeks, thigh muscles. Don't let the pain continue though, see below about being taught.
• Depending on your mindset, it may provide yet another strand of Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
• There are secondary concerns, e.g. impact on family life if you're spending a lot of time practising, annoying the family/neighbours with the harsh sound that new learners create.

When should I start?

Now's a good as time as any. And I mean that. I bought my first electric guitar and amp almost 20 years ago. It cost about £250. That money 20 years ago was worth a lot more than now.

All I received for that outlay was a:

• new Yamaha RGX211
• 2nd hand Laney Linebacker 30W amp
• cheap cable
• red fabric strap

Think I even paid extra for a rectangular wooden case.

The guitar was cheap, essentially a super-strat copy. Nice for the price, but I quickly grew out of it. Listening to it now, the sound is very thin and raspy. But this was in the days before Yamaha released their first Pacifica range. That range revolutionised the budget end of the guitar market, providing a level of quality and playability that was unheard of unless you were extremely lucky with your Squire. If only I could have waited 5 years.

The amp, well, it amplifies the sound. It's scratchy. Sounds like a horrible transistor amp. The distortion distorts the guitar sound in the way that only cheap 80s amp did. Oh well, better than nothing, but only just. Built to last and it was just about portable on a bus when necessary. Good to sit on, if a bit uncomfortable after a while.

I stopped using both after a few years. Actually I reckon I'd outgrown them after 6 months or so, but I didn't have the finances to change until a few years.

How does today's starting kit compare?

I mentioned I was taking a friend shopping. He wanted to start playing bass and budgeted for around £250-300. Same as I did 20 years ago, except that the £250 I spent them would be worth £500 or so now (don't know exactly, it feels like double though). And what's he get for the money?

Wow! I wish this kit had been available when I'd started learning. Actually I didn't see anything of this quality even 2 years ago when I was looking at basses.

We came across:

• new Spector Performer 4 electric bass guitar
• new Ashdown Perfect Ten 30W bass combo

Price for both was about £260 before negotiating or adding about other items such as cables, straps, stand, tuner, strings etc.

And the quality? Wow. Again

The bass is the budget end of the range, but it felt better than most basses twice its price. Smooth playing action and a very nice feel to the back of the neck. The passive pickups fooled me at first, I thought they were low-powered active pickups. Instead, there just a better quality than I'd expected to see at this price range. The result was a nice range of tones from the pickups and eq. Nicely built. Looks nice as well.

The amp was on about 6 out of 10 for the volume, so I wouldn't expect it to be able to get much louder. It still shook your trousers though! More important was the sound quality. It sounded nice, like a studio amp. There was no built-in compressor, the only gimmick was a deep switch, which proved not to be a gimmick since it did add a nice warmth. The amp would struggle alongside a drummer, actually to be honest, I think the amp would be useless and inaudible against a rock drummer. That's why they have louder amps. But to play at home and jam with a guitarist or singer, it's great. It even looks nice and is one of the most acceptable to be left in the lounge.

And those prices are new, if you're just starting out, then second-hand may be more appropriate. If I look at other instruments, I largely see the same effect. The cost to buy a good starting kit has really lowered. Want to buy one that will last a while longer as you grow with it, then you may only have to spend £50-100 more depending on the instrument and the retailers around you/internet availability. That's an incredible difference compared to 20 years ago.

How to start?

There's one thing I'd recommend; there's always someone you can learn from in person. Being self-taught is great, but you'll also teach yourself bad habits. Actually, you probably won't notice them or even learn them, they'll just be the way that you learn the instrument and some will hurt, maybe even permanently. Having a professional teacher set you on your way will at least increase your chances of getting it right and decrease the chances of doing yourself any damage.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

What do you need to start playing the bass? - Musical Creativity 22

Let's start with a list and I'll break it apart. It will be useful as a checklist if you're thinking of starting out or if you're thinking of buying a gift for a bass player. With the technical advances over the last couple of decades, the price has dropped so that beginners can achieve a nice sound at starter prices.

Starter kit:

• Bass guitar
• Amplifier
• Lead
• Strap
• Strings
• Case
• Stand
• Optional: Strap Locks
• Pick or plectrum

Bass Guitar:

This is the easy no-brainer requirement; to learn bass, you'll need a bass. It gets more difficult straight after that. What type of bass do you want? 4, 5 or 6 string? Active, passive? P or J-Bass? Short-scale or long-scale?

Have a think of bassists who you like. What do they play? Most live hard rock is done on a P-bass so it cuts through the mix. It's not necessarily always the case, there are enough exceptions to that rule. For recording, a jazz bass or a hybrid with a one jazz and one set of p-bass pickups maybe more appropriate. Do some research into the different types and how they sound. Any shop salesperson should at least demo the differences to you especially if it's obvious you can't play for yourself.

If you've no real idea after that, then the safest option would be a 4 string Jazz bass. Wherever you decide to progress to after that, at least you'll have a basic bass.

Play (or at least hold) the bass as you'd like to be able to play it, e.g. sitting or standing. Does it feel comfortable in that position or does it keep slipping? When sitting, would you use a strap? It does help keep it place more.

Amplifier:

If you're just into recording and you've got a good DI route through your DAW/multitrack/mixing desk, then you don't actually need an amplifier. You could just plug into the interface/board/outboard DI and go from there.

Assuming you want to hear yourself sound a bit more like a bass at the time of recording, or if you're like a lot of people, just want to learn a bass without recording it, then you'll need an amplifier. There is a lot of information around about the differences between amplifier types. We'll keep it brief here. Suffice to say that there's usually an amplifier section comprising a preamp and a power amp, usually with some eq and then there's a speaker section comprising the speaker and cabinet. When the two are together in the same housing, it's a combo. If you're starting out, it'll probably be a combo unless you've got the money for a separate head and cab.

For a transistor amp, 30W is about the minimum. 10W and 15W exist, but there's more potential of you getting fed up with the sound and the instrument. If you can stretch to more, then better. 300W seems to be about standard for playing with a drummer. Some, more efficient amps will work even at 150W or 200W but you'd need to check. Bear in mind that, assuming energy efficiency, 100W is only twice as loud as 10W. If you're thinking about valve amps for bass, then you're not in the beginner league anymore. Although I was looking at the new breed of 7W all-valve guitar amps and wondering if I could plug a bass in and use a 15inch speaker cab. 7W valve can be very loud.

Some features may see on your amp:

• eq or at least bass, middle, treble so you can shape the tone of the bass. Generally though, how does it sound with all the eq flat?
• input gain - basses have a lot of dynamic range, so if you're plucking hard, then the ability to turn the input gain down would be useful
• output volume - the main volume for the amplifier
• headphone socket - usually disengage the speaker (not always, so check), useful for quiet rehearsals, also for a cheap quality direct out
• direct out - for passing the signal from the preamp out for recording or for input to a slave amplifier.
• tuner - some amplifiers have tuner built in. More common on guitar amplifiers than bass
• tuner out - to connect a tuner to
• effects in/out or send/return - to connect effect processors/pedals in the loop between preamp and power amp stages
• speaker out - to power an external speaker from the amplifier. Not sure why a beginner amplifier would benefit from this. I can't imagine a 30W bass amp being able to drive a 15 inch speaker that well
• handles - often an afterthought when buying, but how are you going to carry the amp? Can you lift it safely? Can you get it up and down stairs or ilft it in and out of your car safely?
• DSP Effects - effects built-in to the amp that colour the tone of your bass guitar sound. Often not worth the hassle of having them. The quality of the effects used to be awful. But I've been surprised by the quality of amps and basses recently, so maybe these are now adequate.
• Limiter/Compressor - used to be only available for the more expensive amps, but I've noticed that even some of the budget Laneys have limiters built-in. These are very useful, depending on your playing style.

Also have a think about where you're going to put the amp. Will it fit? I've measured them up before to check sizes.

The combo pictured on this page is an Ashdown Perfect 10. It's a 30W transistor bass amp and has a nice set of features, great for a beginner and sounds nice too.  

Lead:

You'll need a lead to connect the bass guitar to the amplifier. It's a mono signal usually with a jack at both ends, although I have seen XLRs used as well, but not on beginner-level kit.

Get a decent lead, you don't need a branded, moulded, super-duper lead with extra-special directional, silver cable. Get a decent, nice thick lead that doesn't look like it will snag. If it's got some heavy-duty screwed-on plugs on the ends, it's usually a good sign. I've had my main guitar lead for 15 years. Still going, although I think I may need to replace the plugs now. I'll get some proper (non-fake) Neutriks. No point using anything else.

Strap:

I think this one's down to personal preference. I look for a bit of padding at the shoulder and end holes that don't look they'll stage to warp with the stress of a moving bass guitar.

Strings:

Actually, I don't have much to say about these. There's a lot of debate about which is the best type, let alone best brand. Check the bass forums around and see for yourself. I find that bass strings will last a lot longer than guitar strings, not only before they break (rare), but also before they begin to sound too muddy. Strings are nearly always a lot cheaper online than in shops. However, if you can get some thrown in to sweeten the deal, then do so. Check the condition of the strings on the bass before you buy, it maybe that you'll have a fair few months left in them.

Case:

Any guitar deserves a hard-case. I'm adamant about that. But I also see the advantages of a good quality gig-bag. I'd never use the nylon bags that usually come in starter kits. Sometime hard-cases for bass won't fit width-wise in most cars. That caught me by surprise when I tried to take my bass guitar to a rehearsal. So I used the relatively sturdy gig bag instead. The gig bag is also more useful for carrying, coming complete with shoulder straps, a variety of handles and accessory pockets. I like Warwick's Rockbags.

Stand:

Ok, you're busy playing bass and the doorbell rings. What do you do? Go downstairs with the bass on, clunking the neck into the staircase and doorframe, knocking everything in sight and a few things you didn't see? Or place it against a bookcase and answer the door, only to hear it slip and crash to the floor. If you're engrossed, chances are you'd leave the door anyway and carry on playing. But that's another story. For the sake of £10-20 get a stand or at least a wall hanger (although I don't know what they do the neck). Check that the stand fits the bass before you leave the shop. Sounds odd. I've seen my bass fall through the amps at the bottom of a stand before (luckily onto carpet) and I've seen stands that grip at the next but don't extend far enough for a long-scale bass.

Strap Locks:

I believe that every guitar and strap should come already equipped with these. Even better if we could have one standard so that if you forgot your strap, you could use another lying around. Unfortunately, there are several standards including some augmented plastic washers that I wouldn't even call straplocks.

The proper metal straplocks provide a sturdy, almost failsafe (like most in things in life, it's not completely failsafe) way of connecting the strap to the guitar. I've caught too many guitars as the strap has pinged off and the guitar's started to fall to the ground. I've seen a few that weren't caught and ended up being dented. Not good. They cost about £10-£15 for four pieces. Two to attach to either end of the strap and two to attach to the guitar. You have to unscrew the existing strap lugs and screw the new ones in. If you're lucky, they'll fit nicely. If you're not, then you'll need to fill the gap. Even on a Les Paul, I had to resort to this. My method was to take sawdust and PVA woodglue and put a tiny amount in the hole with a toothpick. Then screw the new lug in. It's worked for the last few years without any problem.

Sounds a lot of bother, but for a maximum of 30 minutes and a small outlay, I'm not watching the strap and worrying if it's going to hold. For every guitar I buy, I use the Schaller straplocks. The only decision I have to make is which colour.

Picks:

This divides bass players. Do they play finger-style, thumb-style or with a pick. I use all three. Even if you play finger-style, you may come across the need for a pick at one point or another. There are some rhythms I think can only be played with a pick. I'd dread to try them finger-style. I could hit the same pattern and rhythm, but the accents would be different. For bass you need a thicker pick than on electric or acoustic guitar. I like the Stubby from Jim Dunlop. I like the dent which is great for getting a good grip with. As for electric guitars, the pick material and attack makes a difference to the sound.

In total:

The above should be the minimum you'd be looking to come away with from a shop if you're into the usual learning and rehearsing onto aiming to play with others. If you're tight on budget, decide which activity you want to forego. For example, if you need time to learn before you play with others, then you may not need a bag/case for a while.

Future kit:

• Better amp and speakers
• Compressor
• Preamp
• More and better basses
• other fx processors/pedals
• new pickups

I'll leave this section for another day and another article.

Motivation:

Whatever kit you buy, it's down to you to learn how to play the bass. Regular lessons and a practice regime work well. If you're still not improving as you'd like to (and you think you're realistic), have a look at the social blogs on the right-hand side for quick hints.

Other References:

You should have a look at How to buy a bass. This goes into more detail about the bass itself. There's a lot of useful information, fortunately I don't see anything contradicting what I've written here either, so that's good. I've got one main addition to this, check that all the strings play open without clanking against the frets. A couple of the basses I played the other day couldn't do this. I was appalled.

A nice simple guide explaining the major differences can be found at Thomann

Want to understand whether you'll benefit from compression or not, then look at the Bass Players Guide to Compressors

Want to check reviews, then the first place is Harmony Central. Actually, I usually recommend this as the first place to look for anything related to musical instruments.

There are a lot of bass-related sites out there, there are a few here:

http://www.activebass.com/

http://www.bassplayer.com/

http://www.studybass.com/

In my experience, the best nuggets of information are on the sites and interviews of professional bass players.

Then there's the usual magazines you can find in most stores

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Bass Emulation - Musical Creativity 23

Try to emulate a bass guitar using another instrument

Which Type?

Pianologist has some very good hints on emulating bass using a keyboard.

One of the things to decide is whether you want it to sound like a bass guitar or not. Synths have a lot of bass patches and depending on the style of music, some are more suitable than others. I'm not saying anything revolutionary here, just as always, decide if it's meant to emulate, replace, hint at a bass guitar.

Use a Guitar

I've used a guitar to roughly emulate an electric bass. I liked the result, but it didn't really sound much like a real bass. I don't suppose I expected it to. Fortunately the softer sound that was produced worked better than expected. I tried replacing it with a bass later on. I'd recorded the guitar direct as I may do for a bass. I'd added a tube emulator (Silverspike's Ruby Tube worked well for this sound), added some subharmonics (can't remember the effect I used) and applied eq for a more bottom-heavy sound. I wasn't going to try and emulate the clack of the strings being plucked. I also added a mild speaker emulator for some extra depth, the speaker sound is not as important for a bass recording as for a guitar. I also processed it through a mild chorus, again for some extra depth. To finish, I passed it through a gate, then compressor so that I could achieve a sound that had a slow attack and release. This gave the result I was looking for of a nice bass sound with a medium attack. It still had some of the characteristics of a guitar, but didn't have the boominess or artifacts that result from pitch manipulation. 

Bassists play differently 

This is an important point to remember, especially for guitarists. Bassists are not just guitarist who only play 4 strings, one at a time. A bassist will strike notes in different places to a guitarist. It's generally quite easy to spot a guitarist who's just picked up a bass to fill in for a missing bassist. They'll usually play on the beat and choose the root notes. A bassist will adapt their playing around the beat to either relax the music or add more excitement. The choice of notes from an experienced bassist will be well beyond the guitarist who's playing bass. This above any other characteristic will set good bassists apart from guittarists. Watch the ghost notes and passing notes, especially as they skip from supporting one chord to another or as they progress a rhythm change. 

I think that there's only two things you can do to cover that gap:

1) listen and analyse some of the great players - understand what they do to make their sound. No matter how much a budding guitarist may concentrate on their tone, with the bassist, it's more about style of playing. There are a lot of sites, either owned by or dedicated to famous players. You can learn a lot from them.

2) practice over and over again

Each bass is different

In a way, if you're aiming to emulate the perfect bass sound, then you're trying to aim for a moving target. For any given song, the perfect sound would be different. And ask several people, get several answers as to what's perfect. Have a think about what's included in a bass, such as the woods, strings, amplifier, style of playing and focus on one particular type.

Emulating Drums - Musical Creativity 24

Following on from the previous article on emulating bass, this article is about emulating drums and mainly about emulating drummers.

I'm of two minds when I emulate drums. I'm either:

1. aiming for a realistic drum sound or
2. aiming for a drum sound that doesn't need to sound like a real drum

The first aim involves working with compromises. Ideally, I'd be better off recording a good drummer playing an acoustic kit in a nice-sounding room with great mics, preamps, etc. That's not always possible. And the aim maybe to have something ready very quickly, so I turn to emulating a drummer.

The second aim is more useful for generating percussive elements that fit tonally into the music but with a different impact to that which I could achieve with a normal drum-kit. I'll discuss those in a separate article.
In this article, I'll stick with (1) achieving a realistic drum sound.

Loops

My short piece of advice is to use drum loops. Use some decent quality loops with sufficient rhythm variation and inherent tonal consistency and many would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a drummer and a loop. If they can tell the difference, it's either a bad set of loops or user error, e.g. you've used the same loop too often in the song. After, how could they tell the difference since it would have been a real drummer who recorded the loop in the first place.

Midi

The long answer is for when you don't have any suitable loops, including if you don't have any loops. Then you'll probably be resorting to midi to trigger drum sounds in a sampler. There are some tricks to make it sound more realistic.

Play like a drummer

Drummers have a maximum of four limbs. That's an immediate restriction of 4 items being hit at any one time. Can be more than 4 note polyphony though due to layering and the release of certain instruments (e.g. cymbals). Actually the right hand can hit the rim and the head of the snare together, but that's a bit of an exception.
That's the first restriction. If you want it to sound like a drummer, then limit it to four hits at a time.

Layout

Also look at the layout of a traditional drumkit. For a right-handed drummer, the right-hand usually crosses the body and plays the hi-hat, while the left-hand plays the snare. Either hand is used for the toms and cymbals. And either hand can add to the other hand to double up on the snare or hi-hat. Different styles call for different arrangements. That's the traditional pop/rock layout and handling.

Watch the combinations

The short closed hi-hat sound is formed by the right-hand hitting the hihat while the left-foot holds the hi-hat closed. If the right-hand is hitting the snare, toms or cymbals, you can't get a closed hihat sound. If would be the gated half-open sound caused by the left foot lifting the top hi-hat and then pulling it down. It's a weaker sound than closed hi-hat. A rock drummer may have a much more ringing open hit-hat sound, especially for keeping up with doubletime kick and snare patterns.

Would a drummer alternate?

If the pattern relies on 16th beats on the hi-hat, then the drummer would most likely alternate hits between the right and the left hand. I know of four ways to implement this:

1. Look at each hihat hit and manually change alternate hits to use a different hi-hat sound
2. For using a sampler such as Kontakt 2 or Kontakt 3, you can write a script to alternate between the left and right sounds of the hi-hat with each hit. You could get even more serious and tie it into the snare hits (assuming that a snare hit would be left-hand and hi-hat would be left-hand). The more you think about it, the more you can write.
3. Use logical processing on the midi file so that it separates out alternate notes. Rather than processing every alternate note, it may be easier to divide your bar into two sets, those corresponding to the beat and those on the off-beat. Then alter the two sets separately.
4. Use a drum-specific software plug-in that will calculate which sound should be played. This is what the brain unit of most electronic drums should be doing, interpreting the received notes so that they sound more realistic.

It also applies for other drums as well, not just the hi-hat.

The Machine Gun

The bane of a lot of 1980s pop was the electronic snare that sounded the same no matter how hard you hit it. Hit it in a quick repetition and it sounded like a machine gun. There was just no flexibility. Drum synthesizers and samplers have come on a long way since then, but unfortunately some interfaces do not make it obvious to avoid. It's not specific to snares either; hi-hats, toms, anything hit rapidly and repeatedly risks introducing this effect.

Similar to the methods for alternating the hands, I can think of 4 ways of implementing this:

1. Look at each hihat hit and manually vary the velocity of nearby hits. If there are left and right sounds for the drum, then alternate them as a drummer would. Also vary the timing slightly, too regular and it may sound artificial.
2. For using a sampler such as Kontakt 2 or Kontakt 3, you can write a script to alternate between the left and right sounds of the hi-hat with each hit. You could get even more serious and tie it into the snare hits (assuming that a snare hit would be left-hand and hi-hat would be left-hand). The more you think about it, the more you can write.
3. Use logical processing on the midi file so that it separates out alternate notes. Not sure how effective this is for avoiding the machine gun effect. Largely depends on your the processing options offered by your DAW. Again, similar to the approach for alternates above, it may be worth dividing your bar into two sets, those corresponding to the beat and those on the off-beat. Then process the two sets separately.
4. Use drum-specific software plug-in that calculates the appropriate velocity or sample layer. This is what the brain unit of most electronic drums should be doing, interpreting the received notes so that they sound more realistic.

Ghost Notes

What makes a real drummer more interesting than a basic drum pattern is the presence of ghost notes. This is where the drummer would lightly hit a drum, e.g. the snare, but not as a focus of the rhythm. Often these pre-empt the main snare hit, almost leading into it. The ghost note would be short and lower in volume than the main hits. The ghost notes don't just have to pre-empt the main hits, a drummer will include them in to vary up the patterns and to add spice to the rhythm. If they're occurring in the same place in every beat, then they're probably not ghost notes but an integral part of the pattern. I've always seen ghost notes as being variable throughout a song. Due to the varying lower volume, if you're not listening carefully, some ghost notes would end up being imperceptible.

Try listening to a jazz drummer, especially if they're playing a simple blues rhythm. You'll notice the ghost notes more when the rhythm is simpler.

Accuracy

This is one I have issues with. How accurate does a human drummer need to be? If you look at recordings of a good real drummer, there's a lot of variation in how accurately they hit compared to the beat. But it will still sound in time. The issue I have is that it's against my understanding that being inaccurate is the right thing to do, just feels wrong to admit that, but it seems that being slightly inaccurate is the way to play. Goes to show that none of us are perfect. I tend to keep the main beat very close if not exact and vary other hits. And I always think about using groove features or humaniser functions.

In the Mix

The drums coming out of most samplers are still a raw instrument sound. There may be some reverb and compression but do they suit the music you're writing? If not, remove them and add the processing you want to add. More so, you may want to change the sound of a single drum, e.g. wanting to compress the kick drum more and add more of the click from the beater with eq. If so, then it's best to separate out the drums into separate outputs. You can then modify the sound of the individual drums to suit your tastes.

While you're at it, decide how you want the drums to sound in stereo. Are they all central? Or should it be set out from the drummer's or the audience's perspective. Then group them back together for drums for ease and so you have the option of processing the drums as a whole.

Other techniques

Harmony Central has some great suggestions for more advanced techniques. The concept of mute groups looks especially useful.

Reference CD

What should drums sound like? If you're aiming for realistic drums, then you'd do well to start with some reference files

There is some interesting information about the Led Zep sound over at Guitar Player

Learn to drum (even if only in theory)

Have a look round for lessons on the rudiments of drumming. Being armed with this information will help you create more realistic drum loops. I learnt by sitting in front of a kit twice a week and getting a few pieces of advice every month. No proper lessons. Even so this basic introduction helped me understand no end what it means to create a drum track. Understanding what constitutes a basic beat is the starting point. Try starting with these:

• Drumlessons.net
• Rockdrummingsystem.com
• Expertvillage.com

Shavano has an old but still useful article for anyone wanting to program drum midi patterns

Drum Plug-ins

I mentioned drum plug-ins above. I don't use the more advanced plug-ins so I can't really comment beyond that I've heard some very positive reviews including from some good drummers. From the demo samples I've heard, they introduce a level of realism that is difficult to achieve on your own with midi programming. There's a range of drum plugins offering different functionality.

The simplest are just sample triggers where you select the samples to be played and place them on a midi track. This is the basic type that you'll find with a lot of DAWs. If you're lucky, you can select from different drum sets, create your own, change the relative volume and/or pitch levels or even modify the envelope of the individual drums.

More advanced plug-ins allow you to select more authentic-sounding drumsets, designed to sound like specific Pearl or Ludwig sets and so on. They'll also give you the option of room sounds, microphone types and microphone placement. Extra features include the ability to blend the mic mixes. As they get more advanced, the plug-ins interpret the midi input into something more like what a drummer would play. This is the type that interest me more than others.

• Fxpansion.com
• Toontrack.com

Some include drum patterns in a variety of styles, giving you the ability to compose the song's rhythm very quickly. They may even include intro and fill patterns. Remember the basic sampled drumkit on the old casio homekeyboards of the 80s? Well, this feature's a more advanced and flexible version of that. It's ok for using when keeping a beat, especially as a more interesting clicktrack, but I wouldn't use them in the end product.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Get some direction - Musical Creativity 25

Having someone else suggest the idea will probably take you to places you haven't been before.

For the pro and semi-pro, this is just routine. If you're not, then maybe you don't know what it feels like to have deadline and direction from someone else regarding your music. It's odd at first and may take some time and a few attempts to get used to.

No Failure

Assuming you've not entered into anything contractual, then at worst, the output will be unfinished or bad. You won't have failed, but instead you'll have learnt that you need to change the way you do things in order to achieve what you want. You may also have learnt the current limits of your knowledge and capabilities. That alone is worthwhile. Especially if you can learn it before you end up in contractual situations.

If it works out nicely, then you'll have produced exactly what was required of you or better still, you may have surpassed their expectations. Having the skill of understanding requirements and producing results to suit is again valuable.

Ask Others

Jeff Yates, over on his Facebook page, has taken the approach of asking for fans to name the title of his next song. I'm hoping he gets a serious response, he's a good songwriter and deserves a worthy subject to write about. I think today's the last day for responses and the voting starts tomorrow.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Change Key - Musical Creativity 26

I've written about starting in a new key and also about change in the process of composition before. In this article I want to bring the two together and discuss changing keys within a song.

1. Adding a level of excitement
2. Changing the mood
3. Bring the song's key to match the range of notes and timbre achievable from available instruments

I'm undecided whether (1) is just a subset of (2). But it happens so often, I may as well treat it separately.

I'm against the idea of changing key within a song when it's used solely to fill-out the song and prolong the end. If that's the only reason, then don't bother, it smacks of a lack of creativity.

But back to the two or three good reasons.

Excitement

A common technique is to raise the key by a tone or semitone immediately after a chorus, bringing in the new verse in the new key. This is the most common usage within pop/rock music. You can hear it in a lot of songs where the last verse and chorus are up one a key from previous. Sometimes it's just the chorus that's repeated in the higher key.
Taking it a step further, you can change the key several times in the same song. But beware, it can get tiring. At some point is has to end.

One good example is the Snake by Al Wilson. Listen after the chorus for the descending riff that leads into the new key for the following verse. In this case, the song itself is good enough not to need the key changes, but they do add to the experience when you listen to the story. Better still if you're dancing to it.

For a whole load of great examples, listen to the soundtrack for the musical Hairspray. Better still watch the Hairspray DVD. What I've noticed is that the DVD sounds better than the soundtrack CD but I don't know why, possibly just the dynamic compression and how the vocals are clearer in the DVD. That may just be a matter of being able to watch the lips as well. I've yet to listen to the DVD without watching it to test that possibility. Several songs in that movie have key changes, one of them towards the end has several. It almost becomes a game of "spot the key change" every minute or so.

For a more common example, listen to virtually anything by Westlife. Note when they stand up from their chairs and do the arms-wide-open thing? That's usually the key change. It's pure emotional manipulation but it works for them. I don't like that type of key change. The song should have ended some time before the key change, but I'll say it again, it works for them.

Mood Change

You don't have to add a key change solely by going up a semitone or two. You can go down by the same amount or more although that's a lot rarer. You can also change between major to minor keys. Common is the change between a minor to a major key showing the journey the composer wants to take you on, sometimes reflecting the achievement of the main actor or the success of the story. This is the tonal modulation and doesn't require that you change the key, but change the tonal centre instead. Rather than go into this here, there are some good online sources of musical theory, specifically about modulation:

• Harmony.org
• Theory on the web
• Wikipedia
• Howmusicreallyworks.com
• AndyMilne

To include other instruments

Each acoustic instrument has a restricted range. That means if you want to use a trumpet, then you're stuck with the notes that can be played on a trumpet, otherwise it's not a trumpet. Good samplers will restrict the range so you don't go beyond the range of the sampled instrument. They should also allow you to deviate and play the trumpet sounds at a different pitch beyond which the trumpet can physically do. It won't sound exactly like a trumpet (mind you, neither do a lot of sampled trumpets anyway) and you can't play it with a trumpet, but you have the artistic license to play as you see fit.

But assuming you want realistic instruments and accurate recordings, then sometimes you have to change the key to include certain instruments in the registers that sound right. I'm not convinced changing key solely for this purpose is beneficial, but I can see places where it could be. I actually have a piece at the moment that I'd like to include the lower notes of the trumpet, but not any other brass. I just can't find a tone and balance that I'm happy with for trombone, tuba, horns. I'm pretty sure it's a trumpet I need, but to do so I think I'm going to have to change the key to suit. In my particular case, I may to change the key for the whole song.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

So what do you do in the new key? The easy option is to play what you've already played but in the notes of the new key. It's a coward's way out and on its own isn't really creative. However as a lot of pop bands have shown, it's a comfortable experience on your listener.

More interesting is to use the key change to successfully introduce a new theme or convey a different mood. It's more difficult, requires being more creative, but does mean that you'll be giving the audience something more than just slightly altering what you've already done.

And then where?

It doesn't have to end on the second key or even a steady upwards staircase of keys. Take some time to think about moving back and finishing the song in the original key, using the key changes as modulation within the song.

How to achieve the key changes

Rather than re-recording parts just to see if it will work, most full-featured DAWs have a couple of options. Transposing midi is usually easy, just copy the part to a new part (or region) and either drag all the notes up or down or use the transpose setting for that part. Some allow you to change key within the midi programming environment.

For audio parts, you can try the DAW's internal pitch change processing on the new part. If it works and you want to keep it, you've can listen attentively for artefacts and realism so you can decide if the processed file will do or if you need to re-record it. I prefer to record the new part afresh but it's not always possible, e.g. if I don't play that instrument or don't have access to the same exact instrument, signal chain and acoustic space.

A few things to watch out for when changing the key in either of the above ways:

1) You should be making changes only to new parts, just make sure you're not changing the pitch of your old parts.

2) If you're changing between major and minor keys, then watch for the harmonic content. Better pitch shifting routines (whether midi or audio) should allow you to state the new key and scale.

3) Ensure that the pitch correction routine is for musical content, some of the pitch change, time-stretching have specific algorithms for percussion. So choose the one most appropriate to your content.

An easy way

Try the dominant seventh approach detailed at guitartools.co.uk

Edit

I'd written the above article, then came across this site at GearChange.org. I generally agree with most of the site, especially the Westlife comment in the FAQ. I think saying that it's in "no way inventive, interesting or acceptable" is too broad though. Some of it seems to depend on how you define the truck driver's gear change. Whatever the case, the muso article is a great starting point for examining the concept.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Improved Use of Gates - Musical Creativity 27

I've taken a detour from writing about timing for a few articles and there are a couple of points still to say about that (but for another article). I'm also planning some articles on creative uses of processors and effectsbut that's a short while away, while I prepare the audio samples so I can explain it better.

In the meantime, I saw a post over at thestereobus.com about using gates for enhancing the sound of kickdrum.

It's a good article and I like it. I especially like the reminder about mixing the gated sound with the original signal. Parallel routing is something I use often to blend in processed and unprocessed sound.

"At 0ms this sounds pretty ridiculous and unnatural"

That's good advice if you want to ensure fidelity to the original sound or at most enhance it. If you're using the gate more creatively, it's at least worth trying the ridiculous settings. Sometimes they just work.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition. 

Lock the Bass in - Musical Creativity 28

Following on from the article about using gates on drums. I want to describe the main reason I use gates and that's to lock the bass into another pattern such as the kick drum.

It's quite a common use for a gate and when set well, it's subtle and almost unnoticeable, but definitely noticeable when you turn the effect off. It's simple to set up although it does involve a few steps.

The Set-up

Let's say we start with two tracks:

1. Channel 1 is the drums. Most likely a stereo set from a loop/drum plug-in or a submix from acoustic drums
2. Channel 2 is the bass guitar. Most likely mono (although a blended mix of mics/DI etc could also be used

The channel order's completely up to you. The only reason I've mentioned track numbers here is so that it's easier to refer to them as I type.

The 1st Gate

We'll put a send on Channel 1 (drums). In Logic, let's say that we send the signal to Bus 1. I usually set it 0dB (that's n oreduction or gain on the send in Logic) most of the time and pre-fader unless I need to process the drums a lot.

Now we go to the send channel (Bus 1). If you've got the drums playing, you should see the meters for the Bus channel moving in sync with the drums. We only want the bass to be in sync with the kick drum, not the whole drum kit.

We now insert the gate on the send channel Bus 1. Set the gate so that it only triggers on the kick drum. If there's a monitor function so you can hear what the gate responds to, then use that. When you've got the setting, stop the send going to the main output or mixbuss. We don't need the sound as an output into the main mix. You should see Bus 1 channel's meters respond to the kick drum only now.

The 2nd Gate

Now go to the bass channel (Channel 1) and insert a noise gate there. You want it to trigger when there's a bass signal so set the threshold accordingly. I usually have the signal reduction set to only -2dB or -3dB. The reason for that such a small dB reduction is that the gate will always let the bass signal through, but will also let the extra 2dB through when the kick drum triggers it. To do that we put Bus 1 as the gate's sidechain.

The Result

Listen to it now and the bass should be accentuated with the kick, giving the impression of being locked-in more that it was previously.

Quick settings in Logic

Setup the gates as above and select the Isolate Kick preset in the gate. Listen to the signal with the monitor function. Actually you can do without this and use the meters instead if you can hear the kick well enough. Change the eq filter and threshold so that only the kickdrum comes through - usually this means reducing the High Cut almost to its lowest level so that it doesn't pick up the snare and bringing down the threshold until the kick triggers the gate. Turn off the monitor in the gate and change the output of the aux channel so that it has no output.

For the gate on the bass, select the Isolate Bass preset. Change the sidechain input to Bus 1. Set the threshold so that the bass always comes through and set the reduction to -2dB.

Why 2 gates?

I find it to be a lot more accurate. It's possible to route the Channel 1 (drums) to the sidechain input of the gate on Channel 2 (bass). You can then change the eq setting so that only the kick drum comes through. But I've always found that there's a little bit of leakage from other instruments doing it this way and rather than just have eq filtering out the drums, I like having the 1st noise gate isolating thekick. At least that way, I can decide whether I'd prefer to miss a few hits of the kick or have it respond to a few hits from the snare as well, depending on how tight the threshold and eq values are.

Other ideas

Vary the reduction amount to get a more dramatic accent until it quickly starts to have a detrimental effect rather than being a positive creative tool. But as always, try it, it may prove useful to you.

You could also switch the gate for a compressor (and again use the Bus 1 as the sidechain input) for the opposite effect. It might sound like it wouldn't work since it would decrease the bond between the kick and bass. I find it useful when the kick has a tone of its own that I'd like to come through. In that case, the bass and the kick together may be too much so using the compressor allows the kick to shine through.

I think you can do something similar by using a positive value in the reduction. This is where the terminology gets confusing: to increase the non-triggered volume, have a positive number for the reduction (i.e. it's not a reduction anymore). To think around this, interpret the reduction value as what the gate does to the non-triggered signal.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.  

Focus on the Rhythm - Musical Creativity 29

Which is louder, the hard-struck ringing chord or the palm-mute?

I answer both to that question. Let's look in some more detail.

The open, ringing sound starts with a short attack, with the low frequencies marginally occurring before the treble (due to the stroke across the strings). After the initial attack, there follows a very quick decay, a short period of sustain and a longer release. The length of the sustain depends on a number of variables, including the guitar materials, the diameter, materials and freshness guitar strings, amplifier gain, microphone technique and above all, the player. A lot of the time, there may be no sustain at all, just a prolonged release.

The palm-muted chugg is a very short attack mainy in the mid and low frequencies. The treble is more often missing because of the palm-mute which absorbs the ringing of the strings, plus it's mainly effective only on the lower strings. The attack is followed by a quick release. There's a quick decay, hardly any sustain if any at all and no release. It's almost an on-off sound and appears as a spike in the recording.

The comparison

Assuming that the guitarist uses the same sounds, the single ringing chord is louder than the single palm-mute. Both in the peak reached at the attack and the sustain and release.

Let's take a typical situation where the ringing chord plays on 1 and rings through to 8, to start again on the next bar's 1 and so on.

Ringing: 1....... 1....... 1....... 1.......

The chugg would start on 1, repeat on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and continue on each 8th note.

Mute: 12345678 12345678 12345678 12345678

The palm-muted chugg works out apparently louder than the ringing chord because the following attacks of 2-8 are louder than the sustain and decay of the ringing chord. In addition, the palm-mute focusses on the lower frequencies reinforcing the 8th rhythm. Assuming that other instruments (e.g. bass and drums) are also playing to the same rhythm, then the guitar starts to take on more percussive effect.

The diagram below is a simplified view of what I was describing above.

How can we use it?

I've always found it odd that a chords played with a palm mute sound louder than chords played ringing. They're a lower volume in isolation, but add volume by repetition.

Change an instrument from following the sequence of chords as they progress across bars/meters to following the rhythm. This works well if palm mute is a regular beat such as eighths. But also works well when there are staccato, off-beat rhythms.

It's a technique I use on a couple of the tracks in my band's live set to liven up an ending. Used correctly and it's a good way to introduce energy to a song. I also use it occasionally at the end of rock track if I want it to end with more energy than it started.

This was brought to back mind when I heard Blind by Breed 77 again and I was dissecting the ending of the track. As well as having multi-tracked and syncopated vocals, the guitars change focus from long-sustained chords to percussive strokes.

Not just guitars

It doesn't have to be guitars, other instruments can do the same, synth patches can be used in the same way, so can changing the arrangement of orchestral instruments as you resort to double-basses and cellos of a string section to provide the staccato notes. In these cases, the amplitude envelope will not be the same as for a guitar, so the sustain may well as be infinite (e.g. in the case of continually-bowed strings or synth pads).

Compression

When I've patched a compressor into the guitar track, I watch out for the continued signal reduction if the compressor's hold value merges into the next note, e.g. above 200ms and it's likely to be continually reducing the signal.

If I've patched a compressor/limiter into the stereo output bus, then again I'm watching out for the continued signal reduction. Yet I'm also listening for pumping if I've got more drastic compressor settings since the guitar may start trigger that effect.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Use a compressor to break-up the signal - Musical Creativity 30

The main function of a compressor is to reduce dynamic range. They're not just used to increase perceived volume so you can achieve the loudest CD on the planet. That's in itself is worth remembering.

Most have a make-up gain/volume knob. The most common setting is to have the compressor set to reduce the volume above the threshold, resulting in the peaks being levelled out. That reduces the overall volume of the signal, so the make-up gain is increased to "make-up" the difference.

You can also increase the make-up gain beyond that to end up with an even louder signal.

Turn it Down

But it works the other way around as well. Turn the make-up gain down below the level of the incoming signal.

Now for mixing, turning it down isn't that useful. You can always use a gain plug-in or better still ride/automate the faders. Actually, that's a general rule: if you just want to change the volume of a channel, use the faders, not a compressor.

But for live use or for recording a guitarist, the compressor's volume/gain knob is useful for reducing the output signal from a guitar as well as increasing it. It does have other characteristics though, although they add a good quality to the sound.

It starts with the setting of the clean channel on a valve amp. You mileage may vary with solid-state/hybrid amps, some are better at tube emulation than others. At least try one that uses a tube preamp.

1) To move into distortion

• Set the amplifier's clean control just under the below where it starts to breaks up. It should have a nice clean sound when the compressor is bypassed.
• Set the compressor's gain to increase the level marginally above the input signal.
• Turn on the compressor and it drives the amplifier into a creamy distortion.
• You may have to adjust the make-up gain to get that distortion. We're not talking about 6 dB of difference here, probably just 1-2dB.
• The sustain introduced by the compressor gives more potential for holding notes longer.  Set just right, there's little noise introduced.

2) To clean up the sound

• Set the amplifier's clean control just above the level where it breaks up.
• At this point there's that distortion again, but without the sustain and sonic characteristics of the compressor.
• Set the compressor's gain to just below the input level
• Turn on the compressor to reduce the overall signal level of the guitar, resulting in a cleaner tone.
• The compression element of the compressor introduces a fatter, jazzier tone to the clean channel.

It's not just a question of volume

The compressor is not being used solely as a boost/cut for the volume. If I wanted just a volume change, then I'd use a boost pedal or a volume pedal. If I've set the output signal closely enough to the input level, then the guitar's signal still comes through, in a reduced dynamic range, but close to the original volume of the guitar. By doing it that way, I can get a nice and usable variety in the tone, either moving into or out of the break-up range of the amplifier.

Why not use the guitar's volume knob?

This depends on the guitar. On most of mine, reducing the volume knob even by a fraction cuts the treble output from the guitar more than the middle or lower frequencies. I do use it to regulate volume and tone but I'm aware of the skewed effect it has on eq.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.