Gobbler – Back up solutions for audio and video professionals.

Through a tweet I hear about Gobbler today. Gobbler is a cloud based file sharing and backup solution for media professionals like musicians, studios, and video editors. Sign up to the site was easy and right now they are offering a 25 GB free account while the web site is in beta testing.

After sign up and confirmation of your email address you must download an application that catalogs your files. I searches your hard drive for session created by your DAW (digital audio workstation.) It recognized files by all the popular recording softwares including Logic, Protools, Garage Band, Cubase, Sonar and more. For a full list of compatible files visit the Gobbler website. When Gobbler has finished searching your computer is shows a list of files you can select to back up. The sessions you choose to back up are then put in a queue or fancy waiting line to be uploaded to the cloud. Once the file is on the cloud the it can be sent to another person by link in an email. The session will also be updated and continuously backed up on the cloud from that point on. One of the best features about Gobbler is it does not do anything while your DAW is open and you are working. It leaves that precious CPU for you to use on your session and plug ins. When your session is closed and you are watching reruns of the Jersey Shore on Netflix Gobbler gets back to work.

Gobbler seems like the backup solution musicians and studio owners have been waiting for. Back up products like Apple’s built in Time Machine are good but the danger lies in the back up being on site. Cloud based back ups are more useful in the case of some catastrophe like theft, flood, or fire. In an event like that your main hard drive and back up drives are in the same place and they will most likely suffer the same fate. Cloud based storage moves you backed up information off site.

I’ll be trying Gobbler over the next few months to back up sessions for my clients. Give it a try while they are still overing free hard drive space. It might not last for

Turn Native Instruments Battery Into an EMU SP1200 or Akai MPC-60

Native Instruments Battery is a sampler specifically used for working with drums. While you can program other sounds into it like basses or keys, its strength is in being able to individually manipulate each sample or “cell”

Battery gives you controls to edit the pitch, volume, attack, sustain and release of each samples as well as many more. One option most people over look though is the “Vintage” button. Enabling this button give you classic sampler sound.

You can select from various ranging from S-1200 Filter off to MP-60. Try the the sample using the different filtering options in the menu and you will hear the dirty vintage inflections each adds to the sound.

The EMU-SP1200 made famous by producers like Pete Rock and DJ Premier was notorious for its 12 Bit sound.Take it one step further and click on the “effects” tab and enable the “lo-fi” effect. By adjusting the amount of “Bits” you can make your sample more gritty and dirty.

Now download the free Drum kit from DrumsAndsounds.com and start making beats. If you have questions or comments be sure to leave them below.

These two video will walk you through how it works.

Part I

Part II

This is a quick snapshot of the mixer. Sorry I did not label it. You can still get a clear picture though. You are only hearing 3 drum parts. Kick Clap, and Hi Hat, but there are many different sounds layered together to make the track sound big.

* Please be careful with your speakers. Professional studios use fuses inline with their speaker systems to prevent them from overloading and being destroyed. All becareful not to have anything sitting on top on your speakers, especially your moms favorite crystal vase. It will fall, It will break. That’s said read on.

The first step to getting better bass in your beats is using better sounds. Its always better to start with a sound that has what you want right from the beginning instead of “ fixing it in the mix. “ If your just trying to add a really low sub bass sound look no further then the sine wave. After you’ve dialed up a sine wave in your synth or sampler begin playing your bass line . Try playing the bass line in a few different areas of the keyboard. While you do this listen to the sound and see where its sound the best. You’ll notice that certain areas of the keyboard have a very resonant and full bass sound while other sound very thin or in audible. Play around until you find what sounds best for your track. Kick drums also sound better pitched up or down sometimes. If you your using an MPC you can assign your kick drum sample to 16 different pitch levels, keyboard beat makers can use the pitch bend or modulation wheel to do the same thing.

The next easy way to build up your bass sound is to layer programs or sounds. To do this play your bass line once into your sequencer. After it is recorded copy the part to different track and midi channel and assign a different sound. You can do this as many times as you like or until the sound is thick enough to blow your speakers. When using different combinations of sounds look for contrast. I usually use two sounds for bass line and kick drums. One sound is usually for the attack or start of the sound. The other sound usually fills the bottom or body of the sound. By mixing a good hard rock kick drum with an old 808-kick sample you get a drum sound that has a clear attack and a killer bottom. This works with bass lines just the same. Try playing a bass line with a slap bass or plucked bass sound. Then double it with a fretless bass sound or sine type sound such as organ, or my secret weapon the general midi “whistle sound” down a few octaves. At least those general midi patches are good for at least one sound.

Tuning is also an important factor in making the back windows of the jeep buzz. At the bottom end of your beat there is no room for clashing kick drums, basses and subs.

If you main bass note or home tone is and E then you want to pitch your sub bass or 808 kick drum to an E also. To find out the pitch of your 808 you can plug it into a guitar tuner. Both hardware and software versions of these can be found for less then $20 dollars online at at your local music store. If your using an acoustic sounding kick drum that’s not really that low this really isn’t that important because it doesn’t coexist in the same space as your groovy sub.
You might notice that after you get this really hip low bass sound going you want to use it non stop in your beat. Don’t . Have your regular bass line playing when ever you want but only use the super bass to accent it. To much low end all the time will make everything very hard to hear. Things have much more impact when they are used sparingly in a track.

At this point you should have some pretty thick bass lines and kicks. If not your last chance to beef up everything is in the mix. Although everyone’s first thought would be to boost all the bass frequencies, such as 40hz to about 200hz , there is another option. Good equalization usally comes from cutting frequencies and slightly boosting. Since your not going to need the high frequencies in your kick drum and bass lines cut them. Try experimenting by cutting the frequencies about 200 or 400hz until something sounds good. Keep in mind that each frequency you cut alters the color or chareteristics of the sound.

If your still have problems making your dad’s house speakers explode its time to enlist some help. There is a plug in for everything. The answer to your prayers will come in the form of Max Bass. Although I won’t go into details about how it works I will offer some advice. Don’t over do it.

An engineer once told me the secret to his bass sound was an old Chinese secret. Until you uncover the mysteries of zen and the art of the low end try some of the techniques above to get your beats bumpin

Questions? Comments, Leave them below.

http://www.gearwire.com/kurtis-dave-huizenga-interview-part2.html

Download - Casio SA-10 Basic EXS | Download Casio SA-10 Ultrabeat Preset

Any one using logic can load the EXS sampler instrument into the EXS24. This will save a few minutes mapping a basic drum kit. You still must download the wav files from the Bedroomproducersblog.com website.

I also added a basic Ultrabeat preset using the same wav files. The Casio SA-10 sounds are super retro when you start playing with them in Ultrabeats step sequencer. IMPORTANT: Remember there are no wav files included here. You must downloads them from Bedroomproducersblog.com. When you load the kit for the first time Logic will locate the wav files for the kits on your hard drive.

Most mixing engineers agree that the vocal is the most important part of the track but there are no hard fast rules when it comes to mixing. Some engineers will work on a mix and start blending everything from the start, others will take the vocal and work on it by itself for hours until it sounds perfect on its own. The way i approach a mix will often depend on the style of music I am mixing. With a style like dance music you might only have a few vocal tracks and if they are not just right there is no place for anything to hide. Hip Hop on the other hand the vocals are still important but the crowd will rock to a beat that is hitting hard weather the vocals are good or not. Hearing the vocal for the first time will also help you make that decision. The better the artists is the less will need to be done to it. No one spent hours editing Frank Sinatra’s vocals in Protools and then pitch correcting them with melodyne or autotune. The recording engineer put a a mic in front of him, he sang and it sounded good. If a vocalist doesn’t not have a lot of talent then your going to start with the vocal. Try both ways and see what works for you. Go slow. Stop and listen.

Peter Weis
Composer, Producer, Engineer

Here is a screen shot of the arrange page.

The actual wav samples can be any place on your hard drive and Logic will find them. The EXS sampler instruments files must be placed in your Sampler Instruments Folder.

1. You can find this folder by going to your Macintosh Hard Drive.

2. Next  open up the folder that say Library.

3. Next open the file that says Application Support.

4. Next the folder that says Logic

5. And finally the folder that says Sampler Instruments.

6. Drag the EXS files you downloaded to this folder.

7. When you open up the EXS instrument and browse your sounds you will now see these new EXS Sampler Instruments in there.

By the way if you haven’t already signed up for our email list make sure you do it now. You get free sounds and updates on new tutorials and tips.