In terms of setting up Rewire, the later versions don’t require much work on the users part at all. In basic terms, the

system configures itself when you launch both ProTools and Reason. All that really leave for you to do is select the routing of audio and MIDI. I’m currently running ProTools 6.7LE and Reason 3, so the following guide is largely based on that setup.

Step one: Launch Pro Tools. In terms of Rewire, there is only one rule. Make sure you launch the master (or host) application first. When you go to close your programs, Pro Tools will warn you if you are trying to quit while Rewire (and Reason) is still running.

Step two: Launch Reason. Reason detects that ProTools is already running and loads itself up to run as a client (or slave). The Reason Hardware Interface module will indicate that Reason is running in Rewire slave mode.

Step three: Create Rewire inputs in Pro Tools. Inputs are accessed from RTAS plug-ins inserted in standard audio tracks or aux input tracks. If you are a on a budget like me, and only have LE, you should use aux input channels, whereas if your in the big leagues and are using TDM you’ll probably need to use record-armed audio tracks.

Step four: Connect something in Reason. When using Rewire it sometimes makes more sense to connect your Reason sound modules directly to the interface module so they are routed directly to individual channels in Pro Tools. Otherwise you'll end up with two mixers to deal with which isn’t ideal, and can end up coloring your sound more than you’d like.

There you go, that’s all there is to it. Now you can play and record using Reason as if it were just another instrument.

Have you ever wanted to apply an effect to just one frequency of a track (eg. all high frequencies)? For example, you may want to apply flange to all the high frequencies on a certain track. Here's one way to go about it (I'm sure there are others).

EQ the original source sound into two bands, using a hi and a lo pass filter. Have them set up so that prior to adding any other effects, the two of them have the same frequency response as the original (eg. don't add any colour to the sound). One of the keys to this, it to avoid setting the resonance too high.

Now create a rack, put these into two chains, and effect the band that you want to. Play around with that and see what kind of wacky sonic adventures you can get yourself into.

This is another one I picked up off the web somewhere, most likely a forum (I used to have a habit of doing a copy/paste when I read something cool and/or useful). This isn't so much as scratching, rather it is simulating the sound of scratching. It will never replace the real thing, but might be enough to get you back on the creative path if you've hit the wall.

First up make an audio track and set it to 'resample', then mute everything other than your drums. Use session view to sample a one bar clip of your beat.

Load the sample into the simpler. Make a loop, setting the length to 1%, and set the fade all the way up. Set the sample start to 50%.

Now you'll need to draw an automation ramp for the sample start. Set the range from -50% to 50%. Now play your drum loop with the simpler. If you've done everything correct up until this point then it should all be sounding relatively pretty normal.

Now you need to create some patterns by playing around with the sample start and transpose to create vinyl style stops, scratches and those old school granular time stretches.

Now you just need to sample these patterns, move them around to arrange them, and cut them up to make fills. Done.

I read this interesting interview with recording guru Chris Lord-Alge on the DiscMakers website. The whole interview is pretty good, but I found the most interesting section was when he was asked to share some of his techniques for getting the best sounds from electric guitars as possible.

You want the guitar player to get the sound s/he wants. I find smaller amps are easier to control and have a more personal sound than big racks and 4x12 cabinets. There's a special tone with amps that have just one speaker or with little 50-watt amps. At high volume, smaller amplifiers give a bigger sound than big amps most of the time. If you go back to Allman and Clapton on "Layla," they used little amplifiers like Fender Champs and it sounds pretty damn large.

I like to pick a few amps first, then put a some mics in different positions because they will become your equalizer. Usually, I'm close to the amp. I haven't found many advantages to putting the mic far back unless the guy has the amp on absolute stun. If you use a 57, 421, 414 and Telefunken 251, and put those four close to the amp in different positions and bring them up on faders, you'll find they have different EQ curves. So rather than jamming one mic in front of the amp and grabbing the EQ and going, a couple of mics will give you better tone without the EQ and all the phase problems you get when cranking up the EQ.

If you want to get even more esoteric about it, you can try different mic pre-amps. If you're running multiple mics, you'll want the same mic pre's instead of combining different ones, because that'll give you even more phase problems. Try different ones until you come across the perfect sound.

If I use just one mic, my first choice is a 57. And depending on how spanked or compressed you want the sound, you have an array of compressors. Usually, I start with a Fairchild for guitars because that's best for something fat and chunky. A UREI LA-3 is my second choice.

Also, you're going to get a better sound recording electric guitars on analog than digital. If you're going digital, you may want to use a bit more compression than normal, maybe dial more low-end because digital is like a clear pane of glass. And it's important to make sure the guitars have been set up well, that the intonations are in good shape so the players are not having a tuning nightmare. A lot of guys run across a problem where they can't keep the guitar in tune and that kills the whole process. The general rule is find one good tuner and use it for all the guitars, bass and otherwise.

I purchased Absynth 3 around twelve months ago. I've played around with it quite a bit, but to be perfectly honest, it's never been a 'go to' program for me. I do like it's ability to create evolving soundscapes, but over all, I just haven't found the interface all that user friendly. This is a big problem for me, as I'd rather be spending time making noise as opposed to trying to figure out what function does what.

With the release of Absynth 4, I'm starting to weight up whether or not it is worth my while to upgrade. Native Instruments have listed a range of improvements that have been made to this new version. Some of which are listed below. Read the rest of this entry »

If you play around with Ableton Live and haven't heard of Kid Beyond, then you've probably been spending too much time making beats, and not enough time doing important things like surfing the net! Kid Beyond is one of the Ableton Live poster boys.

A hard core Ableton Live user, Kid Beyond is a beat boxer that uses Ableton Live to loop and layer his own beats and sounds. As well as recording he also performs live. Here's a video from YouTube showing what came be done with Ableton Live, using just the software and a microphone.

This is a pretty cool effect, one I picked up off a forum somewhere, sometime ago (either Harmony-Central or Ableton Forum).

Load up a something with a lot of rhythmic content as well as tonal. The more the better.

Turn loop on.

Set start to 50%. This will allow you to modulate the loop fully.

The loop parameter should be set between 50-60% for the smoothest results.

The length should be somewhere between 1-5%, and the fade set to 100%.

Press a key and listen. It should sound like a soft buzz, nothing special at this stage. Once your start playing with the 'start' knob, you should hear something resembling a time stretch effect, very gritty! The trick is that, as your playing with the time stretch, this means that you can easily be sync your new beast to your project tempo!

Now try resetting the start knob to 50%.

Make a new midi clip for the simpler instrument. Draw an envelope for the start parameter, making it the same length you want your loop to be (eg. one or two bars). Draw the envelope from -50% to +50% in a simple ramp.

Press play.

Every sound you play should now be in sync with the project. You can use this effect for a lot of varied stuff, but my personal favorite is to use it with drum loops. It can totally mess them up!

Are you running ProTools using Mac OSX? Ever tried to bounce a track to disk only to receive the unhelpful message - "Could not bounce to disk. Neo Access error"? Well surprisingly, this error has nothing to do with the Matrix (note nerd reference there).

I've received the Neo Access error a number of times now, and it took me a little while to solve the drama. Here's how to solve the problem.

In Mac OSX:

1) Double-click each of your hard drives/volumes on your system and drag each folder called "Digidesign Databases" to the trash. There will be one on the top level of each drive/volume.

2) Go to your MacIntosh Hard Drive (your system drive)\Library\Application Support\Digidesign\Databases and drag the "Volumes" folder to the trash.

3) Empty the trash and restart the computer.

The Database files will automatically be rebuilt the next time you use Pro Tools, eliminating any corruption of the files (which apparently what the Neo Access error is all about). So there you have it. I hope this saves someone else the frustration that I went through before I found out about this simple fix!

The new Nine Inch Nails album is getting closer to release. As he did with a couple of the tracks from With Teeth, Trent Reznor has released "Survivalism" in Garage Band format for people to create their own remixes. Personally I had a lot of fun playing around with "Only" in Acid Pro, and I'm looking forward to playing around with "Survivalism" as well!

Visit the official Year Zero page to download "Survivalism" in Garage Band format now.

When your preparing to hit the recording studio, there are more things to consider than simply turning up on time (although obviously that's important!). The Hometracked blog has posted some basic (might I suggest commonsense?) tips, that point out a couple of the often overlooked things that you should be doing prior to hitting the 'record' button. Check it out.