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Filtered 'drops' are easy to set up and ever -popular. Here, Multimode Filter's Frequency

parameter is being automated.

Dynamic audio treatments can be set up by

writing a few plug-in automation events in theSequence editor.

Saturday 2nd October 2010

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DP Audio Production Tricks : June 2008

DP Audio Production TricksDigital Performer Notes & Techniques

Technique : Digital Performer Notes

DP offers an excellent environment forworking with the little pieces of 'ear candy',such as filtered drops, beat-mangled breaksand reversed audio phrases, that can makesuch an impact in pop and electronicaproduction. We look at some of the techniquesinvolved.

Robin Bigwood

There are many ways to create the pleasing little isolated andinfrequent audio treatments that can keep a track sounding freshand interesting for the listener. In fact, the more you experiment,the more off-the-wall techniques you can come up with. But several

basic approaches stand out as being both effective and easyenough to work with:using plug-ins in real time; applying plug-insoff-line; and combining specific MIDI and audio techniques. All ofthem require that your audio is being handled internallyby DP, soany external soundsources will either already have been recordedinto audio tracks, or will be coming into DP via an audio or auxtrack, prior to being recorded.

Real-time Treatments

One straightforward approach is to use audio plug-ins on individual tracks, aux track submixes, or indeed amaster fader, and to automate their bypass status (and maybe their parameters too) to make themactive for ashort period of time. A common example is the 'thin-sounding intro' — using EQ, you roll off bass and treble atthe beginning of your song, but bypass the EQ when the first verse or chorus begins, to deliver extra impact.Here's how you'd do it (see top screens, opposite page).

1. Instantiate an EQ (perhaps a Masterworks EQ) in an insert slot on a master fader.

2. Set up the EQ so that it has high-pass and low-pass bands enabled, and roll off your frequency extremes totaste, while listening to the intro of your song.

3. In the Sequence editor, insert an automation event to enable the plug-in at the start of the sequence. Dothis by clicking on the Track Settings button next to the master fader track's name, choosing Insert, then thename of your EQ, and then Bypass. This 'loads' the pencil tool with a bypass event, and you choose whetherto write a 'bypassed' or 'enabled' event by clicking in the upper or lower part of the track lane. DP informs youwhich in the Track Info bar (DP4 and DP5) or the Cursor Info palette (DP6).

4. The resulting automation data is shown in its own track layer as a line with breakpoints. If it's dotted,automation is not enabled, and you'd need to switch it on for the track by clicking on the Track Settings pop-up once more,choosing Automation, and clicking Play.

5. Finally,we need to write the EQ bypass event, to restore the normal sound of the mix when the first verseor chorus is reached. Locate to the appropriate point in the track and place the mouse pointeron theautomation line. It turns into a pointing hand cursor and a click now will write the new breakpoint. Drag thisbreakpoint upwards so that it becomes a 'bypassed' event, and you're there.

Playing the sequence should now result in the EQ plug-inautomatically being bypassed and enabled in the appropriateplaces. You could, of course, go on to write more of the same kindof data, to bring back the bandwidth-limited effect later on in yourmix. Also consider trying other plug-ins that suit being suddenlybypassed or enabled. Digital degraders such as MOTU's own QuanJr or the freeware MDA Degrade are excellent for brief, end-of-measure drum breaks, for example, and another favourite is the'knackered LP' effect that can be easilyachieved with iZotope'sVinyl plug-in (also freeware, and in MAS format too). Short sectionsof very heavy reverb also work well — the sudden disappearanceof the tail as you bypass the effect can be startlingly effective. Don'tforget DP5's Pattern Gate either: by enabling most of its steps butsetting the envelope to a fast decay, you can create some very effective 'stutter' effects.

For more subtle and 'evolving' treatments, it's better to automate plug-in parameters rather than just theirbypass status. The classic (and rather well-worn) example is the closing and re-opening low-pass filter sweepso beloved of euphoric techno and its pop spin-offs. For this you use a similar approach to that described

above, but automate a filter plug-in's cutoff parameter with an automation data ramp . Here's how you'dautomate a low-pass Multimode Filter to close from 20,000Hzto 200Hz,before re-opening:

1. Enable Multimode Filter on a master fader track and make sure it's set to low-pass mode, with wet/drymixat 100 percent wet, and resonance to suit. Disable its on-board modulation by setting the range parameter tozero.

2. In the Sequence editor, locate to where the filter sweep should begin. In the master fader's track lane, clickthe Track Settings pop-up, chooseInsert / Multimode Filter / Center Freq and click in the track to write the

Real-timeTreatments

SoundbiteTriggering WithNanosampler

Going Off-line

Devious Means

Respecting TheEdit Grid

Freak Out!

Tools Of TheTrade

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Applying the Reverse plug-in to a 'freezed'

section of a drum track.

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automation event. Don't worry too much about the exact frequency value of the event you're writing,because...

3. Precise automation values (and locations) can be entered numerically. With the breakpoint still selected,click on its value as displayed in the Event Info bar (DP4 and DP5) or Event Information palette (DP6) andtype in the starting value of 20,000 (Hz), then hit return.

4. Now locate to where the filter should be fully closed. Click on the automation data line to write a newbreakpoint and, as you did in the last step, enter the precise value of 200Hz numerically.

5. At the point where the filter should be fully opened once more, click to create another new breakpoint. Forthis one, enter a value of 20,000 again. The breakpoints are connected by smooth ramps, causing the filter toclose and re-open smoothly(see screen at the start of this article).

For greater flexibility when entering and editing automation graphically, you can draw uponDP's hugedata-editing power, using the Reshape Flavor pop-up in the Tools palette to shape your automation line into allkinds of parabolas,cyclical waveforms, or even random madness. See the DP column from June 2005, on theSOS web site, for more suggestions.

Also, as I mentioned above, you don't always have to work with a master fader. You could just as easily applyautomated plug-ins to individual tracks or instruments, or submixed instrument 'stems'. For example, youcould try routing everysingle track in your mix except vocals to an aux track. Automating a filter sweep on theaux track would then isolate the vocals and leave them starkly audible even when everything else was murkyand muted.For that matter, you could have automated plug-ins working on individual tracks, stem mixes and master faders all in the same sequence, to really play around with the sense of scale and coherence of themix. The sky (or, at least, the grunt of your processor) is most definitely the limit.

Soundbite Triggering With Nanosampler

You don't actually need MachFive or any other expensive add-on sampler to do the 'vinyl brake' effectdescribed overleaf — DP5's bundled Nanosampler will do just as well. But for some bizarre reasonNanosampler can't handle split stereo files, so if you try to drag a stereo soundbite into its waveform window in

DP5 you'll only get one of the channels loaded. Rather daft that DP's own sampler can't handle its native audioformat, but there we are! This will probably be a thing of the past if you 're using DP6 and working natively withits AIFF or BWAV (Broadcast WAV) interleaved audio formats, but for a workaround in DP5, select thesoundbite you want to load into Nanosampler in the Soundbites window and export as an interleaved stereofile. Drag and drop this file from the Finder into Nanosampler. It will load in stereo, ready to use.

Going Off-line

For some effects it's essential,or helpful, to not work in real time, and to apply plug-ins as an 'off-line' processto a soundbite or selection within an audio track. For example, this is the only way to work with true reversed(backwards) audio. It's also useful for experimentation with plug-ins that operate somewhat randomly; you can just repeat the process until you get something you like, and then you've got it for good.

The quintessential off-line process is reversed audio, which simplycan'tbe achieved in any other way. It canbe a particularly sweet little piece of ear candy, and is easy to do. In this example, the last few beats of a drumfill are reversed.

With the drum track 'freezed' or bounced on to an audio track,select a region of it that corresponds to the last couple of beats of a

fill before a new section. You could do this by dragging over theregion with the I-beam tool, or with the crosshairpointer thatappears when your mouse pointer hovers over the bottomquarterof a track lane. From the Audio menu, chooseAudio Plug-ins andthen Reverse. Click Apply in the little window that appears. Easy asthat!

Obviously, the musical success of longer rhythmic and melodicphrases, when reversed, can be a bit uncertain unless they'recarefully planned. So one way of retaining something of theiroriginal structure is to subdivide them into multiple soundbites, thenreverse all those soundbites en masse . Taking the same drum fill from a moment ago, here's the alternativeapproach. First, select the scissors tool and manually cut around each visible beat. Or, if your audio has beenbeat-analysed, enable the beat grid (byselecting the blue tickbox at the top-right of the Sequence editor inDP5, or in the Snap Information palette in DP6) and simply drag over the soundbite with the scissors tool, toautomatically make a series of precise, beat-based cuts.

Next, select all the resulting beat-longsoundbites and apply the Reverse plug-in, as before . DP cleverly just

reverses each individual soundbite , rather than reversing their order, and you get your drum fill as it wasprogrammed , but with all the hits played backwards .

Another plug-in I love working with off-line is the Replicant beat mangler, by AudioDamage. It re-sequencesaudio according to various user-definable processes, but always with a degree of randomness. Using it off-line is a way of ensuring you produce something to your liking! As with Reverse, I just chooseReplicant frommy Audio Plug-Ins submenu, but then repeatedly apply it until I get an effect I really like.

Devious Means

If you're up for more of a challenge, you could try some effects that are achieved with a multi-step processinvolving both MIDI and audio.One is the 'vinyl brake' — as if a turntable's drive motor was turned offwhile itwas playing your song. DP has no straightforward way to directly apply the drastic varispeed that is required.But it can be done in another way, using a sampler instrument such as MOTU's MachFive 2. You load thesampler with the section of audio you want to 'brake', trigger the sample via MIDI at the correct moment, andthen use pitch-bend to drop the sample pitch:

1. Bounceyour song to a new audio track, so that it's in your sequence as one long soundbite. Then

instantiateyour sampler on a new Instrument track,and create a MIDI track that drives it alongside.

2. Locate the point whereyou want to place the vinyl brake effect,and use the scissors tool to cut either sideof it, to create a new soundbite.

3. Drag the soundbite into MachFive's keygroup editor, placing it with a root key of, say,C3. Set theMachFive part's Bend range to something suitably large, such as 36 semitones.





Using the edit grids can really assist you

with various selections and edits. Theirtoggle switches are shown here in DP5

(top) and DP6. The DP6 screen grab isfrom a pre-release version, though, so

might be a little different in the finalrelease.

4. Now, in the MIDI track, use the pencil tool to write a new note event, with a pitch of C3, at exactly thelocation where the soundbite you created a moment ago begins. Make its duration as longas the soundbite,too.

5. Use the I-beam tool to drag a selection over the last two-thirds of the MIDI note, then from the Regionmenu choose Create Continuous Data.

6. In this dialogue box, select Pitch-bend, and enter values of 0 and -8192 (the minimum value) in the'Change smoothlyf rom' boxes. Set Minimum value and Minimum time changes to a value of 1, and finallyhitApply. This writes a lot of very smoothly graduated, downward pitch-bend events.

7. Finally,delete or mute the soundbite that you created in step 2. This is now replaced with its MIDI-triggered(and pitch-bent) counterpart. If the effect isn't quite right, try a different bend range,write the pitch-benddatalater or earlier, or experiment with the curvature value in the Create Continuous Data dialogue.

Another combinedMIDI/audio technique you might like to try is a little obscure, but subtly effective. It'sanother reversed audio effect, but it can give results that are smoother and not achievable in any other way.Here's a quick description of what it is and how it works. I'm applying it to a little piano break, but it soundsgreat on drums and almost any other MIDI source too.

First, make a preciseselection of the MIDI events in the piano-track phrase to be treated. It can help if thisbegins and ends precisely on a beat. Now, from the Region menu, chooseRetrograde. This reverses theorder of the notes, so that theyread the same backwards as theydid forwards. Bounceor freeze this sameregion to a new audio track,and reverse the resulting soundbite. Finally,delete or mute the original MIDIevents.

This process restores the correct order of events, but each individual event is heard backwards. It's a lotsmoother and more reliable than bouncing first and then reversing every individual soundbite, and also workswell for more sustained sounds. Sometimes you mayneed to tweak the soundbite's location to restore exacttiming, but it's well worth the effort.

Respecting The Edit Grid

Many of the techniquesdescribed this month involvewriting data or makingselections in Sequence editortracks. If it ever appears thatyou can't select or write whereyou want to, check to seewhether the edit or beat gridsare enabled. If they are, DP willonly let you make selections toand from grid divisions, andyou won't be able to write databetween them either. But gridscan also be your friends. Whenthey're enabled, precise beat-based selections andplacements are much easier toachieve, and dragging over a

soundbite with the scissorstool, for example, willautomatically make a series ofbeat-based cuts that couldtake a long time to domanually.

The edit-grid toggle buttonscan be found in the top right-hand corner of the Sequence editor andGraphic editor in DP4 and DP5, and in DP6 they're located in the SnapInformation palette. You can temporarily toggle their status by holdingdown the Apple key during editing actions.

Freak Out!

As many studio people have observed in the past, some of the very best effects can come from wildexperimentation with signal routingand processing, or even unintended accidents,as you tweak settings inreal time. If you like to work in this way, it's crucial to make sure that you're recording your experiments, asthose mind-blowing soundsgenerated by delays, freezable reverbs and granular synthesis plug-ins are all too

often gone in a flash.

One straightforward approach is to use a completely separate application to record your DP noodlings.Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro is great for this, and any gems that it captures can easily be re-importedinto DP, though they will probably require some editing and then 'spotting' into position.

If you've got a recent MOTUaudio interface, there's another option: in the CueMix Console application there'sa File menu optioncalled 'Mix1 Return Includes Computer Output'. With this selected, you can choose 'Mix11-2' as an input to a stereo audio track in DP, to record both the external signals coming into your interfaceand the output of DP and other applications. There is a potential for feedback, so for safety keep the audiotrack that is recording the 'interface mix' muted while it does so.

Tools Of The Trade

Virtually any plug-in can be useful in some way for the real-timeand off-line treatments suggested this month.But in addition to those I've already mentioned, there are others that stand out as particularly powerful,interesting and colourful.

You can achieve super-saturated, pumping dynamics treatmentswith both the MOTUMasterWorksCompressor and the Limiter. The seemingly simple Chorus,Autopanand Tremolo can produce weirdvibratos, shimmering stereo and rhythmic gate-like pulsations that all work great when used sparingly. Try theEcho and Delay plug-ins for gloriously weird tonal treatments when using short delay times and medium tohigh levels of feedback, especially if you automate the delay times.

Turning to third-party developers, you're spoilt for choiceof unusual, 'out there' processors. The freewareMDSP LiveCut is another beat slicer capable of phenomenal effects, and worth the effort despite itsinoperativebypass and weird off-linebehaviour. Some of my favourite hard-to-categorise textural tools




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include the deceptively simple Audiodamage Vapor, Cycling 74's Hipno suite, dfx's Transverb (anotherfreeware gem), PSP's Nitro and PSP84, and Audioease's RiverRun. For distortion and speaker effects, try outMDA's freewareCombo, iZotope Trash, or Audioease's amazing Speakerphone. Finally, for just plain weird,there's DP's own RingModulator and other frequency-based effects such as the freewareMadShifta (fromhttp://bram.smartelectronix.com) and Ohmforce's Hematohm.

Published in SOS June 2008

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