CUTTING-EDGEREVIEWS:

Audio Ease Altiverb 5 IK MultimediaSonikSynth 2 KorgLegacy softsynths Scarbee Vintage Keys Submersible MusicDrumCore

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 - VOL. 1 NO. 2

THE WORLD OF SOFTSYNTHS AND SAMPLERS

www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com

Alesis Photon X-25 MIDI in 3-DCan this much fun be legal?

VERY DEEP CLINIC:Adventures with Ableton Live

Law of the LAN (look Ma, no hardware)

Jordan Rudess ofDream Theater

Mungo giveaway! Win a Stylus RMX Groove Module with all 5 S.A.G.E. Expanders

THE WORLD OF SOFTSYNTHS AND SAMPLERS

Mungo giveaway! Win a Stylus RMX Groove Module with all 5 S.A.G.E. Expanders

2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

From the

Welcome to the second issue of VirtualInstruments.

Id like to start off with heartfelt thanks for all theamazingly positive feedback youve given us. Of coursewe wouldnt have launched this magazine if there hadnt been a need for it, and we were confident that alot of people would like it (if for no other reason thanthat we have such a great team of highly experiencedwriters). But you never really know what the reactionsgoing to be until its out there, and your letters andcomments on the internet have gone way beyond ourmost optimistic expectations.

Now, as a preface to the following I want to stressthat you can get a lot of music out of a single comput-er; theres no shame in only running one, in fact filmcomposer Klaus Badelt explained at great length whyhes doing that in his interview last issue. However,Virtual Instruments is all about creating music on thecutting edge, and networking multiple computers isright at the forefront of the cutting edge.

As we mentioned in our premiere issue, those of usrunning large-scale compositions are constantly runninginto, and more often exceeding, the limits of a singlecomputer. Why?

The first reason is that a lot of modern samplelibrariesmeaning that theyre large and they streamfrom hard diskshave way more programs than youcan load into a single computers memory, and youwant to have the programs youd like to try for differentphrases or fragments loaded and ready to play. This isespecially true if youre using large orchestral samplelibraries: East West Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra(especially the Platinum version, which gives you achoice of three mic positions to mix and match forevery program), Vienna Symphonic Library, SonicImplants Complete Symphonic Collection, plus individ-ual section libraries from SAM, Garritan, and others.

But for example the outstanding Larry Seger AcouticDrum library alone can easily use an entire GigaStudio 3machineand its putting that machine to good use,its not being a pig. Another example: Prominys ElectricDistortion and Clean Guitar has 30GB each of clean anddistorted Les Paul electrics.

Its also easy to exhaust a single computers horse-power with a few complicated softsynths goingsuchas Native Instruments Reaktorand elaborate mixeswith a lot of plug-ins running can overwhelm a singlemachine very quickly. Processing and memory resourcesare a theme youll see recurring constantly in thesepages. And there are many other reasons for havingmore than one computer, from needing to run Mac andWindows to having a laptop and desktop machine thatyou use for different purposes.

So while the idea might seem extravagant to somemusicians, multiple computers certainly arent onlyfound in the rigs of the precious elite. Even a five-year-old computer can run a few softsynths or plug-ins, sotheres no reason not to put it to work.

None of this is lost on developers, and were seeingan increasing number of products that connect comput-ers in the studio. Apples OS X Tiger has both MIDI andaudio networking built in, for example, and there areother applications mentioned in the article all this isleading up to: Lay of the LAN, on page 36.

Audio takes a lot of bandwidth if youre running itover a network, and it really wants to go over a gigabitethernet connection rather than a standard 100 Base Tone. But how do you keep the standard ethernet con-nection to your cable or DSL modem from slowingdown the network? What if you have several machines?Never mind thathow do you just get your machinesto start up with the same ID so they show up on thenetwork every time? Most of us dont have one of thoseproverbial network administrators referred to in a lotof instruction manuals.

To answer those types of questions, I called upon oneof the sharpest people I know: Monte McGuire. Monteis a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer with anMIT technical background. It turns out that networkingisnt very complicatedat least not the way he explainsitbut it really pays to have a thorough understandingof it. I hope this article answers as many questions foryou as it did for me.

Spectrasonics has kindly donated one of their mag-nificent Stylus RMX Groove Modules (reviewed lastissue), complete with all five S.A.G.E. expansion groovelibraries, for the Son of Mungo Giveaway in the centerof this issue. Its main purpose is to encourage you tosubscribe, which we consider to be a highly capital idea.

Congratulations to the winners of our previous pro-motion. Chris Caouette of Colchester, CT; TonyHartmann of Dallas, TX; and Frank Karabotsos ofVancouver, BC each receive a copy of the book VisualMusic by Christopher Brooks(www.KIQproductions.com). Theyll learn a lot aboutscoring for every medium. Kenneth Kuhlmann of Turner,Australia wins Chicken Systems Translator Pro(www.Chickensys.com) for the platform of his choice.His sample libraries are now portable between manysupported formats. Finally, Henry Wieczynski of Gdansk,Poland wins a Garritan Personal Orchestra library. Happycomposing, Henry.

And happy reading.NB

Editor

First DAW by Nick Batzdorf

A beginners guide to put-ting together a DAW (digi-tal audio workstation) forsoftsynths and samplers.Part 1: computer systems

4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

EDITOR/PUBLISHER: Nick Batzdorf

ART DIRECTOR: Lachlan Westfall/Quiet Earth Design

AD/MARKETING MANAGER: Carl Marinoff

WEB DESIGNER: Denise Young/DMY Studios

CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Aikin, Peter Buick, David Govett, Ashif KingIdiot Hakik, Monte McGuire, Chris Meyer, Dave Moulton, Bruce

Richardson, Frederick Russ, Lee Sherman.

PUBLISHING CONSULTANT: Ross Garnick

ADVERTISING CONTACT: Carl Marinoff 818/590-0018.CM@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS/ADDRESS CHANGES: 818/905-5434, 1-800/ViMagzn,subscribe@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com. The best method is to subscribe via our website: www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: NB@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com

WRITING FOR VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS MAGAZINE: queryNB@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com or call 818/905-5434

Virtual Instruments Magazine is published bi-monthly by VirtualInstruments, Inc., 3849 Ventura Canyon, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423.818/905-5434, 1-800/ViMagzn. NB@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com.

DISTRIBUTOR: Rider Circulation Services, 3700 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90065. 323/344-1200. Bipad: 05792, UPC: 0 744 70 05792 5 07

PRINTER: Century Publishing Inc.

Standard disclaimer: Virtual Instruments Magazine and its staffcant be held legally responsible for the magazines contents orguarantee the return of articles and graphics submitted. Reasonable care is taken to ensure accuracy. All trademarks belongto their owners. Everything in here is subject to international copyright protection, and you may not copy or imitate anythingwithout permission.

2005 Virtual Instruments, Inc.

Letters

Launch

Introductions, updates, news

6

12

10

Interview:Keyboard HeroJordan Rudess

The virtuoso keyboard player from DreamTheater discusses life, music, adding V.I.s toa hardware-based rig, and improvisingorchestral pieces in real time.

20

Very Deep Clinic:Ableton LiveFollowMe, Follow You

by Chris Meyer

Taking some of the pressure out of live performance withAbletons popular loop performance program.

24

September/October 2005

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 5

Sonic Edge in a Virtual World By Peter Buick

Bypassing the preset effects to create a unique sound in yourproductions.

VI

VI

contents

Sampling with KingIdiot by Ashif King Idiot Hashik

Part 2: Back to the basics and beyondusing traditionalsynth parameters to bring samples to a new level.

Trends: VirtualInstruments are Free By Dietz Tinhof

Would you send a stranger on an all-expenses-paid vacation?

reviews

42

48

64

16 Alesis Photon X25 25-Note USB MIDIController/AudioInterface

By Lee Sherman

Two octaves to go: just plug this unitsUSB cable into a computer, connect apair of headphones or powered moni-tors, and playwhile waving your handin the air to use its Theremin-like con-troller.

30 Scarbee VintageKeyboard Collection

By Nick Batzdorf

Four vintage keyboardsFenderRhodes, Wurlitzer 200A, HohnerClavinet D6, and Hohner Planet Nimpeccably sampled in a SteinbergHALion player; and a great multi-effectplug-in that recreates the vintage effectsthat brought these instruments to life. Astellar library.

34 Submersible MusicDrumCore sound libraryand search engine

by Chris Meyer

A new twist to the idea of a drum looplibrary, starting with loops by several topname-brand drummers.

40 IKMultimedia SonicSynth2 plug-in synth worksta-tion

By Lee Sherman

A tribute to the fascinating history ofvintage synthesizers, and an entire soft-ware workstation.

46 Korg Legacy Collection

By Jim Aikin

Three classic synths rise from the gravesounding very much alive as softwaresynths: the MS-20, Polysix, andWavestation.

52 Audio Ease Altiverb 5convolution reverb

By Nick Batzdorf

The first software-based convolutionprocessor rockets into the next genera-tion, with multiple position simulation,extensive control, and many other newfeatures.

september/october 2005

V1.N2

Lay of the LAN by Monte McGuire

The Zen of making many machines become one. How to setup your network so your internet connection doesnt interferewith the audio running over ethernet, and other great tricks.

36

6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

They like it, they really like it

I just got a chance to give your new maga-zine a good examination. No sooner had Imade a few mental notes about some relativelyminor areas for improvement (the resolution ofsome of the graphics in the .pdf file) than youposted the higher resolution version. Well, thatabout takes care of any possible nits I couldpickI dont have a single suggestion!Everything about this looks first rate. Love thelayout, graphics, and the choice of subjects forthe first issue. I dont think I can recall a premierissue of any magazine that looked as good asthis one. Keep it up and the best of luck gettingthe word out! Such quality deserves success.

Tom HopkinsThe Pacific Northwest

Weve received a wonderfully overwhelm-ing amount of feedback expressing similarsentiments, and we sincerely appreciate it. Inaddition to being the ruthlessly capitalisticFortune 500 international conglomerate thatwe almost are, this magazine is a labor oflove, and your words of support mean a lotto us.

Furthermore, were highly tempted to fillup this column with nothing but praise. Butwe dont want to put our chances of receiv-ing more in jeopardy, so perhaps we wont.Well, maybe just a little:

Klaus Badelt interviewFirst of all let me say that this magazine has

landed a #1 spot on my personal list of favoritemags. Great job.

I found the interview with Klaus Badelt inyour 7-8/05 issue to be quite fascinating and Ieven learned a couple of tricks from it to incor-porate into my own Logic setup. While I foundthat a large preloaded template isnt necessarilythe way to go, it did get me thinking aboutusing features like Channel Strips to create afast loading and categorized favorites menu.

I would like to point out that you still cancommand-click on an audio object in the envi-ronment and have your currently selected trackswitch to that instrument (in the interview hestated you couldnt do this other than with theold Gigastudio environment he had).

Knowing the specs of the machine(s) he isusing (or future interviewees) would be mostbeneficial.

Christopher CaouetteInner Force Music

Thanks for the good words, Christopher.Badelt is using a dual 2 GHz G5 Mac

the older model that can hold up to 8GB ofRAMand believe it or not he only had3GB installed at the time. But his orchestrallibrary is a custom one that has smaller pro-grams than, say, the ones in the ViennaSymphonic Library, so they dont take up alot of memory (please see Figs 1 and 2).

First, some background on whatChristopher is talking about. Badelt actuallydoesnt use a large pre-loaded template any-more. His pallet now consists of Logic channelstrips hes saved. The channel strips containloaded EXS24 samplers, and hes organizedthem all in folders so they appear in hierarchi-cal menus. When he wants to use a sound, heloads the channel strip, which of course auto-matically loads an EXS24 sampler with theprogram he wants to play.

Christopher, youre absolutely right thatcommand/clicking on a channel strip assignsit to the currently selected track in theArrange window. But while this is a great fea-ture and in my opinion the best way to workwith Logic (since you avoid having to scrollthrough endless pre-assigned tracks), it doesnt eliminate the trade-off Badelt madeby switching to a single-machine set-up.

There are two differences between this andhis previous set-up with 18 GigaStudiomachines. The big one is that you can onlycommand/click to assign a sound thatsalready loaded into a channel strip, and bydefinition that limits you to the number ofprograms/articulations you can load into asingle computer.

VIl e t t e r s

Letters

Fig. 1: Each of the Instruments in this smaller-than-life pallet in the Logic Environment points to aseparate MIDI port and channelin this case MIDI channel 1 on a separate Windows machine runningTASCAM GigaStudio. (Notice the violin icons, and notice how theyre all grouped inside an ornamentobject.) Command-clicking on the icon assigns that instrument to the currently-selected track in theArrange window.

write to:nb@virtualinstrumentsmag.com

8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

Environment layer with iconsis a great way to manage alarge sample collection inexternal instruments.

For most of us workingwith modern sample libraries(i.e. large ones), the answeris still to use more than onemachinebut somewhatfewer than 18.

Size mattersThe mag is great, but the

font is uncomfortably small forme, and I have 20/20 vision.Any chance that it might beenlarged a bit?

Scott RogersLos Angeles

Thanks Scott. Yes, wevemade it a little bigger this time.The tradeoff is that we cannow fit fewer words on every

page, of course, but hopefully youll agreethat this is a good compromise.

Spectrasonics Stylus RMX review

First Id like to commend you for a wonderfuland informative magazine. I have been readingindustry magazines for decades and wasrefreshed by all the great articles and in-depthcontent in your clinics and reviews.

But having recently purchased Stylus RMX, Iwanted to touch on something that was notmentioned in your RMX review.

Generally the RMX is great!! It sounds good,its flexible, interactive and the plug-ins are alsotop quality. So, what is my complaint? Wellits a memory hog. And these days where nearlyevery virtual playback unit offers direct from diskstreaming, I was amazed that RMX didnt offerthis feature. I know RMX is a slice player andthat for certain features it makes sense to keepsounds in RAM, but when you have other VSTIsloaded into your DAW, RMX can easily eat up600 Megs just by auditioning sounds. Just tobe clear, I have more than 2 Gigs of RAMinstalled on my DAW so, its not like I donthave a lot of RAM installed.

In my case, I have been relegated to usingRMX with an empty template on my DAW sothat I can record loops and whatnot. I thenchop them up in Recycle and import them intomy full template on Nuendo as [Propellerhead

Recycle format] Rex files! All files are accessedfrom the hard drive, there is no CPU usage, andmost of allno additional RAM usage! Also,that way I can load Rex files into [NativeInstruments] Kontakt (for example) and stillhave access to MIDI playability without RMXshunger for memory.

I think Stylus RMX would be used much morein big DAW templates if I had a DFD (Directfrom Disk) option. I wonderare Spectrasonicsgoing to include this feature?

Andrew KLos Angeles

Thanks Andrew, and good point. I reviewedRMX on a G5 PowerMac with 5GB of RAMinstalled, and it takes up 200 to 250MB onthat machinefor one program. Thats not amajor factor on this machine, since the hostDAW (Apple Logic in this case) can accessroughly 2.75GB of RAM. But youre right, ifyou start layering grooves, you can easily getway up there.

As you know, the problem with convertingthe RMX grooves to Rex files is that youregiving up all the features that make it unique:the ability to process (filter, pitch shift, effect,etc.) down to the individual time slice if youwant, the Chaos intelligent randomizer, all itseffects, and the convenient auditioning andlibrarian features.

If you have a motherboard that will allowyou to install 3 or 4GB of RAM, theres a trickin recent versions of Windows called theBoot.ini /3GB switch. One member ofSpectrasonics team suggests you try it if youcan, because it should make a lot more RAMavailable to RMX.

Normally memory is allocated 50% for theoperating system and 50% for the user, butyou can change that balance to provide morememory to your DAW and (since its a plug-in) RMX. Some drivers are incompatible withthis setting, such as the Digidesign M-Boxdriver, but most others should work.

I do have to advise everyone not to try thisunless youre very confident working underthe hood on Windows, because it is possibleto screw up your machine so it wont startup. We have an article on this kind of thing inthe works.NB

VIl e t t e r s

His previous set-up had 18 GigaStudiomachines pre-loaded, so he had a much,much larger pallet at his fingertips. That wassimultaneously the inherent disadvantage: hehad to load 18 GigaStudio machines when heneeded to go back to a machine and makeadjustments. And as he says in the interview,thats why he made the switch.

The second difference between the twoset-ups is shown on the screen dump on page40 of our last issue (which weve now placedon our website so people can see the full-sizeversion). Badelt had his pallet arranged intogroups of instrument icons. Inside a group,each picture of, say, a violin would to a differ-ent program loaded in an external GigaStudiomachine.

So saving and loading channel strips is agreat way to work with large sample collec-tionsand for that matter, plug-in processingchainsinside Logic. Similarly, an

Fig. 2: Command-clicking on one of theseEnvironment objectswhich are really channelstrips running EXS24 samplers inside Logicassigns it to the currently selected track in theArrange window just like in Fig. 1. This is a greatway to manage a large template without havingten billion tracks pre-assigned. But note that unlikeFig. 1, the sample buffers are loaded into thismachines memory, which is a finite resource. Youduse a combination of Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 to manage apallet that spans multiple machines.

1 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

LaunchIntroductions, updates, news

VIl a u n c h

The latest version 4.6 of MOTUs DigitalPerformer Mac audio workstation software is afree upgrade for users of DP 4.5. Its compatiblewith Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4.

Highlights include a new Pitch Automation fea-ture that displays melodies as piano roll-style notesunderneath the waveform display, where notescan be transposed and corrected. V-Racks allowV.I.s and plug-ins to be loaded once and accessedby multiple sequences in a project. Several clicksounds come with the program, or you can useany sound as a metronome. The Pattern Gateplug-in adds driving, pulsating grooves to anymusic. You can now exchange files withDigidesign Pro Tools and other audio and videoprograms using the AAF file interchange standard.Film/video scoring enhancements include multipleQuickTime movies in a single project (one persequence) and an enhanced Find Tempo window.DP can now bounce audio tracks to a QuickTimemovie, and the program supports multiple outputsin Audio Units V.I.s.

www.MOTU.com 617/576-2760

MOTU Digital Performer4.6 upgrade

SoundDesigners.Bizannounces TailVerb,a new Windows RTASplug-in for DigidesignPro Tools that alters thesend to your reverb,providing early reflec-tions, tonal characteris-tics, and extra positionalinformation. This low-CPU plug-in allows you to get much moremileage out of each high-CPU reverb plug-in instance.

TailVerb combines a single joystick-style interface with instrument-style presets. In addition to reverb, the plug-in is capable of someunique sound design effects, including rhythmic textures that can beused on things like drum loops.

TailVerb comes with some specially-created impulse files that arecompatible with most convolution processors on the market, or it canbe used with any conventional discrete stereo reverb.

UK175 inc. VAT / US$275www.SoundDesigners.biz +44 (0) 8 707 707 544

TailVerb Pre-verb

Best Service Ethno World 3Complete and LatinWorld

Marcel Barsottis Ethno World 3Complete is a 5GB+ collection of40 rare ethnic instruments plus all ofvols. 1 and 2. It includes sounds in avariety of playing styles, loops, licks, andspecial effects. A Virtual Instruments ver-

sion uses a special version of Native Instruments Komplakt, and theresalso a TASCAM GigaStudio 3 version; both are $449.95 MSRP.

Latin World is a complete Latin Band laid out on the keyboard:drum, bass, percussion, bass, guitar, and horns. Loops are recordedindividually and in stereo, and loops are sorted by style, key, and har-monic progression. It comes in a Native Instruments Intakt player for$199.95 MSRP.

www.Soundsonline.com 310/271-6969

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 1 1

GenieSoft Overture 4 notation with a digital audio sequencer

The fact that this header isnt the other way around is the story:Overture 4 is a seasoned notation program that now has exten-sive MIDI recording/editing and integrated digital audio.

Version 4 (now for Windows, Mac OS X version with Audio Unitsupport to follow) is fully compatible with all VST instruments andeffects. Score markings are translated transparently to all supportedsample libraries, so for example if you draw in a crescendo hairpinon a staff assigned to Garritan Personal Orchestra and reassign it tothe East West Quantum Leap (EWQL) Symphony Orchestra Goldlibrary, it knows to reassign the modwheel to MIDI Expression.Likewise, it knows what keyswitch will call up a staccato articulationin all supported librarieswhich so far include EWQL RA, Bela DMedia Giovanni, Quantum Leap Storm Drum, and many others,with more being added all the time.

MIDI editing features are integrated directly into the score.www.GenieSoft.com 843/832-2365

VIl a u n c h

Finale 2006 includes a Native Instruments Kontakt Player with 100instrument patches from Garritan Personal Orchestra. The integrationis designed to be seamlessinstruments auto-load into a Finale score,and no MIDI routing is required. Finales Human Playback feature hasbeen enhanced to produce GPO keyswitches automatically in responseto legato, dynamics, and other indications on the score.

Finale will also support the full version of GPO (a free Finale-compati-ble update will be available), and Garritans upcoming Jazz & Big BandCollection.

www.Garritan.com 360/376-5766

MakeMusic! Finale bundles a versionof Garritan Personal Orchestra

IK Multimedia MiroslavPhilharmonic Orchestra and

Choir Workstation

This V.I. features the orchestral instruments, ensembles, andchoirs from the famous Miroslav Vitous sample collections,reborn as an easy-to-use dedicated virtual instrument (using theSampleTank workstation architecture). Instruments are neatlyorganized, you can use up to four insert effects, and everythingwas recorded in place in the Dvork Symphony Hall in Prague.

The introductory price is $399, regular price $599.www.philharmonik.com 954/846-9101

Spectrasonics New Orleans StrutBenefit Library

Spectrasonics is offering a mini drum loop collection to benefitthe victims of hurricane Katrina. Its only $25, and 100% ofthe proceeds go to Habitat for Humanitys relief effort in rebuild-ing homes in New Orleans and Mississippi. Please seewww.Spectrasonics.net for further info.

VIf e a t u r e

1 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

by Nick Batzdorf

If you picked up this magazine becauseyoure first getting involved with the worldof softsynths and samplers, were anticipat-ing that you have a number of basic ques-tions. Is your computer up to the task? If not,what do you need to make it so? Or whatkind of system do you need? What else doyou need to make it sing?

This issue were going to look at the com-puter system itself. Later well look at soundcards, controller keyboards, and touch uponspeakers. If we havent answered your ques-tions here, please feel free to write to us:NB@VirtualInstrumentsMag.com.

DedicationAsk any old wife, and shell tell the tale that

you must dedicate a computer to DAW useits bad to run general programs on yourmusic computer. Shes wrong.

The theory behind the tale is that youregoing to run into software conflicts, or thatgeneral programs could have some memory-resident processes lurking in the backgroundthat interfere with your real-time music work.But even when thats trueand it usually isnta problem with todays powerful machinesstarting up from a dedicated system harddrive solves the problem without the expenseof a whole other computer. And in fact a ded-icated system drive isnt a bad idea, especiallyfor Windows users who share their computerswith other people who set their systems updifferently.

Another old wives tale is that you shouldnthave your music computer connected to theInternet. While you do have to be careful notto download viruses, chances are that youllneed to go online to get software updates withsome frequency, and many programs also usecopy protection thats activated online.

So you actually want your music computersconnected to the Internetand to eachother, as youll see elsewhere in this issue.

Laptop or towerVirtual Instruments like processing power,

and streaming soft-ware samplers likefast hard disks.Laptop computersare convenient andportable, but theytend to be a little lesspowerful than desk-top models and haveslower drives.

The reason laptopsare often less power-ful is that theyredesigned to empha-size maximum bat-tery life more thanmuscle. Likewise,most laptop drivesspin at 4200 or 5400RPM vs. 7200 RPMfor desktop models.That has an effect onthe drives seek timespec; the faster theseek time, the morevoices (simultaneousnotes) you canstream andlessimportantlythefaster programs load.

Part 1: Computer SystemsFirst DAWA beginners guide to putting together a DAW(digital audio workstation) for softsynths andsamplers

Case, motherboard, CPU, memory,hard drives, and a CD/DVD drive:

regardless of whether you buy an off-the-shelfmodel, have a computer put together, put it

together yourself, or buy from a DAW specialist, theres not much inside a

Windows machine.

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the major multitrack DAW programs, AppleLogic Audio and MOTU Digital Performeronly run on Mac; Cakewalk Sonar only runson Windows; most other DAW software suchas Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, andDigidesign Pro Toolsas well as programs likePropellerhead Reason and Ableton Live, andmany V.I.s and plug-inshave versions forboth platforms.

So theres no shortage of great music soft-ware for Mac or PC. Thats no help if youwant to run a specific incompatible programon your machine, but the old line about therebeing more Windows software is totally irrele-vant to us.

At the entry level, Windows machines tendto be more powerful, while Macs have a verynice software bundle that includesGarageBand, an entry-level program that isabsolutely no laughing matter (see last issuefor an overview). At the higher end, G5s canaccess more memory than Windowsmachines.

If you read The World of Softsynths andSamplers in our 7-8/05 premiere issue, youunderstand that modern sample libraries

meaning that theyre large and theystream off hard driveswant lots ofmemory for loading programs.

MacsAs of this writing, there are Macs

with G4 processors (all thePowerBooks, the eMacs, and theMac Mini) and Macs with G5processors (the iMac G5 andPowerMac G5). G4s are good forour purposes, but G5s are better.

You will get some music out ofan eMac, Mac Mini, or 12"PowerBook, but these models allsupport 1GB of RAM (randomaccess memory) only, which isacceptable but not ideal. 1GB is finefor GarageBand instruments, forexample, but not really enough torun state-of-the-art streaming sample libraries. The 15" and 17"PowerBooks use G4 processors, butthey hold up to 2GB of RAM, whichisnt bad.

The iMac G5s also max out at2GB of RAM, but they have G5processors in their favor. However,they dont offer expansion drivebays or PCI slots, so you must useFirewire (preferably) or USB 2 forthat. Thats not necessarily a prob-lem.

If the treasury permits, however,youre best off with a PowerMacG5. These machines hold moreRAM, are more powerful, have PCIslots, and have space for an addi-

tional internal drive.The current dual 2.7GHz and dual 2.3GHz,

previous dual 2.5GHz, and previous dual2.0GHz G5 models all hold up to 8GB of RAM(the current dual 2GHz machine can hold

4GB). Given that a single programforexample your DAW softwarecan access 4GBof RAM (although you dont see all that), 4.5or 5GB is a good amount to install.

The OS runs outside that, so anythingmore than 4GB of RAM will allow you to runother programs. That includes audio pro-grams that get streamed into your DAW usingthe ReWire protocol (again, see The World ofSofsynths and Samplers for an explanation ofhow ReWire works). You can also do thingslike checking your email or opening a browserwithout quitting your DAW program and having to load all your samples again.

WindowsThere are more decisions to make with

Windows machines, starting with whetheryoure going to buy an off-the-shelf comput-er, have one put together for you in a stan-dard computer store, buy one from a DAWspecialist, or put one together yourself fromcomponents.

Whats inside a computer is quite simplefrom a mechanical point of view. You choosea motherboard, processor, case, memory,hard drives, and probably a CD/DVD drive.And Windows XP Pro or Home.

The trick is knowing what components tochoose. My advice is to choose a mother-board with at least three memory slots, soyou can install more than 2GB of RAM (with1GB sticks) if your software benefits from it.

At todays prices, its simply not worthgoing with anything less than a 2.8GHz IntelPentium 4 or AMD Athlon 2800 processorthe lower-priced Semprons and Celerons areunsuitable for DAWs, and slower processorsare pound foolish. Most people recommend apower supply that delivers 350 Watts ormore. Well talk about hard drives shortly.

The way around this limitation is to add anexternal 7200 RPM hard drive, most likely aFirewire format one, if youre streaming sam-ples or recording audio on your laptop.Musical activities are very rough on harddrives due to the constant reading and writ-ing, and you probably dont want to subjectyour system drive to a steady diet of that.

Yet another advantage to desktop comput-ers is that they have room for extra harddrives. They also have slots for PCI expansioncards, which we use primarily for audio inter-facesalthough there are also externalaudio interfaces that connect to the compu-ters USB or Firewire ports.

None of this means you cant do seriouswork on a laptopon the contrarybut youdo need to be aware that theres a price topay for the convenience.

Mac or Windows?Sidestepping the religious issues, the truth

is that you can get a lot of music out of a sin-gle Mac or Windows machine; both are capa-ble of running a lot of virtual instruments,samples, and plug-ins simultaneously. As to

Fig caption: A PowerMac G5 makes an excellentDAW, and it comes with Apples GarageBand soft-

ware.

VIf e a t u r e

NOTION 2005 SOUTHEASTERN TOUR

The NOTION team is coming to alocation near you! The officialNOTION 2005 SoutheasternTour kicks off this Fall withstops at universities acrossNC, SC, GA and FL as well ashigh schools, music institutesand music stores. Go to notion-music.com/tour today for thelatest tour schedule so you canexperience firsthand the mostintuitive composition interfacewith instant playback by TheLondon Symphony Orchestra

recorded at Abbey RoadStudios.

1 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 63)

1 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

Review by Lee Sherman

VIr e v i e w

As V.I.s become more and more popular,hardware manufacturers are respond-ing with keyboard controllers that aremore and more tightly integrated with them.The Alesis Photon X25 being reviewed is aunique example of one that pulls out all thestops.

This 25-key unweighted keyboard con-troller contains a built-in audio interface and afull complement of programmable buttonsand knobs, along with programmed presetsand plastic overlays for several popular soft-ware programs. You just plug its USB cableinto a PC or Mac, connect a pair of head-phones and/or powered monitors, and playno external power is required (although youcan also use four C batteries or an optional9V DC adapter to preserve laptop battery lifeor use the keyboard stand-alone).

The Photon X25 also adds 3-dimensionalcontrol in the form of a unique Theremin-likedome, called the Axyz controller (see sidebar),that works by infra-red. You move your handforward and back, left and right, and up anddown to control the three parameters of yourchoice. Axyz was first seen on Alesis Air FXunit.

KeysThis controller measures 18" x 9.6" x 3.5"

and weighs a mere four pounds. That is sureto earn it a place in the backpacks of manylaptop musicians, as well as the V.I. rigs ofmusicians who dont need more than twooctaves for entering music. For those who do,Alesis also offers a 4-octave version, the X49,which doesnt have the X25s audio interfacebut adds nine 60mm faders.

The keyboard has a decent-feelingunweighted synth-action mechanism,which means that its keys are lighter than apianos. While this keyboard is velocity-sensi-tive (meaning that its sensitive to how hardyou play), it doesnt have aftertouch, or pres-sure sensitivity. Unweighted keys are betterfor playing many types of parts, such aswoodwind and percussion, while most musi-cians prefer weighted or semi-weighted keysfor keyboard parts. But a 2-octave weightedkeyboard wouldnt make a lot of sense, ofcourse.

InstallationAlthough the unit is technically device-

compliant, meaning it installs automatically,Windows users must download and install theAlesis Photon driver for best performance.Alesis recommends Windows XP Service Pack2, which fixes some problems in earlier XPversions.

There is no driver for Mac OS X, and instal-lation is fully automaticliterally plug andplay. Cubase LE, Apple GarageBand, andAbleton Live recognized the Photon rightaway when I installed it, and in fact it showsup in Apples Audio MIDI Setup application assoon as you plug it in. It also uses CoreAudio, the audio system built into Mac OS X,which means the latency is low (latency is theamount of time between playing a key andhearing sound).

A single USB connection carries audio andMIDI between the Photon and the computer.This is a common approach among recentaudio/MIDI interfaces, and it really simplifiesset-up for both studio and live use.

However, the rear panels MIDI In and Outconnections allow the Photon to function as asimple MIDI interface. It can also control MIDIdevices directly when necessary, withoutusing a computer as intermediary.

The rear panel also has a headphone jack,along with inputs for optional sustain andexpression pedals.

ControlsPhoton X25 includes ten endless rotary

knobs for MIDI control, ten freely assignablebuttons, octave shift buttons, and an array ofbuttons for recalling, paging through, and

Photon X25, $199

Alesis

200 Scenic View Drive

Cumberland, RI 02864

401/658-3640

Platforms: USB-equipped com-

puter running Mac OS X, Windows

XP with Service Pack 2. Or any

computer or device with a MIDI

interface.

25-Note USB MIDI Controller/Audio Interface

Alesis Photon X25

Two octaves to go: just plug this units USB cable intoa computer, connect a pair of headphones or pow-ered monitors, and playwhile waving your hand inthe air to use its Theremin-like controller.

1 8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

VIr e v i e wediting presets. Its appealingly chunky full-sizepitch and mod wheels glow red when theyveleft the neutral position.

The Photon comes with presets forSteinberg Cubase LE; Cakewalk Sonar; NativeInstruments B4, FM7, and Pro-53 instru-ments; Applied Acoustics Tassman; and theinstruments in Propellerheads Reason(Maelstrom, etc.). When you switch pro-grams, you simply dial up the appropriateone with the data wheel and recall it. If yoursoftware isnt on the list, you can programand store up to 20 additional templates inmemory.

Plastic overlays for the included presets areused to indicate which parameters are associ-ated with each knob. A Layer button switchesbetween three layers, and there are lights toindicate which one is active. This is the equiv-alent of 30 knobs, only it doesnt clutter thefront panel the way 30 actual knobs would.

In my opinion the real value of thePhoton comes not so much from the ratherflashy Axyz dome but from the units 360degree endless knobs. (See sidebar for a sec-ond opinion on the Axyz.) These are thesame knobs found on Alesis more expensiveIon and Micron synths; theyre ideal for con-trolling virtual analog softsynths, becausethey dont have fixed positions and com-pletely eliminate any stepping when youperform filter sweeps.

The X25s LCD screen is easier to read andprovides more information than the LEDsfound on most budget controllers.

In and outOn the audio side, the Photon offers 2-

channel, 24-bit 44.1/48 kHz audio recordingwith balanced stereo audio inputs and out-puts. Connections are made through 1/4" TRSjacks. These inputs have 30dB of gain, whichis enough for instruments and line-levelsources but not microphones; for live record-ing youll need an external mic preamp.

A Direct Monitoring feature routes theinput signal directly to the output in order toavoid the slight latency you get by monitor-ing through the computer. The signal stillgets sent to the computer for recording whenDirect Monitoring is enabled, of course, soyou have to mute it inside the computer ifyou dont want to hear it twice when itcomes back again after a slight delay.Similarly, if youre routing the signal througha reverb plug-in running on the computer,you have to be sure to monitor the wetreverb return with no dry signal. This is withall audio interfaces that have a direct moni-toring feature.

There are dedicated input and output levelcontrols on the units surface. You can eitherconnect powered speakers (or an amplifierand speakers) directly to the Photon, or you

can plug the unit into a mixerand, as theinstructions suggest, plug the output of amixer into the Photon for recording on thecomputer. The Output knob affects the line-level outs and the rear panel headphone jackssimultaneously, which isnt ideal.

So how does it sound? To my ears quitegood, especially when you consider howaffordable it is.

The Axyz controllergimmick or

gimme?Alesis sent us an extra Photon X25 toshoot for the cover of this issue, andout of curiosity I took the opportunity tocheck out its Theremin-like Axyz controller.

In all honesty, I was expecting it to be afun but rather esoteric add-on that youduse partly for creating weird effects butmainly for looking cool on stage. Not so.It can be very musical if you have it set tocontrol the right parameters on the rightsounds. And contrary to my expectations,its not difficult to use.

The Axyz controller works using invisibleinfra-red light, and you move your handover its dome in three dimensions to con-trol three programmed parameters: left toright, forward and back, and up anddown. If you use it with the NativeInstruments Pro-53 analog synthesizer,for example, its pre-programmed so theL-R (AB) axis controls filter cutoff, the for-ward-backward axis (XY) controls filter res-onance (which sounds sort of like addedbuzziness), and the up/down axis (Z) ineffect controls the volume.

Its the Z axis that I really like for con-trolling sample libraries. More specifically,if you set this axis to MIDI cc #11 (expres-sion)the continuous controller youdnormally have assigned to a slider or themod wheel for riding the volume whileyoure programming MIDI partsit actual-ly feels like youre conducting with yourleft hand. The feeling is very natural.

An unavoidable side effect is that mov-ing your hand away from the Axyz domecauses it to send zero valuestheparameters youre controlling have no wayof knowing if you want them to stay put.But once you get used to having to wiggleyour hand after you put it back (to sendsome MIDI values) before you can hear asound, its not really a problem.

Of course, the fact that the Photon X25also has standard mod and pitch wheelsimplies that even Alesis knows that theAxyz controller isnt for every situation.But its a very welcome addition to thearsenal of MIDI sequencing and perform-ing tools.NB

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 58)

2 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

VIi n t e r v i e w

Jordan Rudess has a much wider scope than

most rock stars. While probably best known as a

progressive rock keyboard virtuoso, currently

with the group Dream Theater, attendees at trade

shows have been getting bowled over by his dazzling

demo performances for years. You might see him

improvising orchestral pieces in real time, playing

something one might trace to the Keith Jarrett/Lyle

Mays mold, or just rocking out.

K E Y B O A R D H E R O

Jordan Life, music, and adding V.I.s

to a hardware-based rig

Rudess

Dream Theater: John Myung, John Petrucci, James LaBrie, Jordan Rudess, and Mike Portnoy

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 2 1

VIi n t e r v i e w

So how are you using V.I.s?Well, Im primarily using virtual instruments

in the studio at this point. When I play outlive Im not using them very much. But thislast recording session that I did with DreamTheater (our new album, which is calledOctavarium) I sort of delved into them full-speed ahead and ended up having them bevery influential and important to what I wasdoing.

So that was an interesting period for meIlearned a lot about whats possible, whatsout there, and ended up using one particularvirtual instrument very extensively on thealbum, which is a product called Ivory bySynthogy.

The pianos.That actually was designed by a friend of

mine, Joe Ierardi, who I used to work with atKurzweil, and he was responsible for theKurzweil piano sound.

When I hadnt spoken to him for a whileand found out that was what he was doing, Ijust knew that would be amazing. So I gotinvolved with that from the start. And ofcourse it was. Thats just a beautiful plug-in.

Then I have some other favorites as well.

Which of the three is your favoritepiano in Ivory?

I like the Steinway a lot, but actuallytheyre all good. The funny story is that werecording this last album at The Hit Factory.As part of my world I had this Yamaha grandpiano there, which is very nice, soundedgreat, and we tried to record it. But it ended

up being in an A and B comparison betweenIvory and the Yamaha.

The end result actually sounded betterfrom Ivory. We couldnt really get the acousticpiano to speak as well on the recording, sowe ended up using that! We were all blownaway, and every day the other guys in thebandwho arent that conscious of my sub-tleties and different sounds were like Thatpiano, its amazing! I used them all on therecording. It really came through for me.

When youre in the studio you have alot more possibilities. Do you still goback to the same pallet youve alwaysused?

It really has expanded my pallet of sounds.Its pretty extraordinary what someoneinvolved in this world can really do. Thebeauty of it is theres so many possibilities,theres so many sonic choices out there.

The negative side of it is that with all theseinstruments people are making that are sopowerful, with limited time in the day, peoplebuy so many of them without learning howto work any of them fully.

In the past I would have one hardwareinstrument, and I would focus on it inside andout and get so much out of it. And now timeshave really changed, and with all these toolsaround its hard to do that.

Do you work with a programmer ordo your own sounds?

I program a lot, and I also have people Iwork with. In the studio this last time I had aguy from Native Instruments named Matt

Muldover, he kind of helped me get startedon a lot of the Native Instruments plug-ins. Iwas really interested in Reaktor and Batteryand Kontakt. I needed to have somebody getme into it fast.

But Ive always been a programmer as well.I did a lot of programming for Korg andRoland, made a lot of sounds for them.

Which other instruments are yourfavorites?

One of my favorite things that I gravitatetowards is a Spectrasonics softsynth calledAtmosphere. I love that, it always seems tocome up.

I also use the Native Instruments B4 organ.

What about sample libraries?I have the full Sonic Implants set, Miroslav

Vitous library, all the old ones. A great collec-tion that I use a lot still is the SpectrasonicsSymphony of Voices, its very useful.

Do you do everything on onemachine or do you use more?

Just one Mac.

We see you at trade shows improvis-ing orchestral pieces live, most recentlydemonstrating MOTU or SonicImplants. Thats not the way most peo-ple wouldor canput orchestralpieces together. You do overdub in thestudio, right?

I get involved with the world of overdub-bing quite a bit. With Dream Theater Ill cre-ate something in the studio and theres noth-ing holding me back from being able to trackwhatever I want.

Then when it comes time to do it live, Ineed to figure out how to do as much of it asI can. Thats a whole other involved tripafter the production for the album is done,the production for live has to happen.

You just have to boil it down towhats possible?

Exactly, but I do a whole lot of program-ming and try to make as much possible as Ican. Its not like theres a whole lot of sacrific-ing going on.

When youre doing those crazydemos improvising orchestral pieces,how do you set up the keyboard?

When I was doing the MOTU demos, wewere showing off the performance featuresthat were possible with their software. What Iwould do is set it up so that different low keyson the keyboard would bring in different tim-bres.

Keyswitching?Well, sort of. I was able to layer and split

up the keyboard and control it in real timewhich in the MachFive software is so cool,because you can have, say eight soundsstrings, choir, pipe organ, you name itandas Im playing and improvising, I can hold

Rudess does a wide variety of playing when hes not tour-

ing with Dream Theater. Hes recorded and/or performed

with most of the fusion and progressive rock greats (includ-

ing people like Keith Emerson, Tony Williams, Keith

Emerson, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, Steve Morse, Joe

Satriani, John Petrucci, etc.); David Bowie; Enrique Iglesias;

and the Paul Winter Consort. His discography list scrolls for

several miles, including everything from solo recordings to

duos to group performances.

Rudess studied classical piano at Juilliard as a child, and

got hooked on synthesizers as a teenager (after persuading

his parents to get him a Minimoog). His approach to synthe-

sizers is unique in that he actually developed technical exer-

cises to make them speak the way he wanted.

Today he offers an online Conservatory on his website

(www.JordanRudess.com), where theres also an online

magazine, MIDI files of some of his performances, and a lot

more. The website is well worth checking out.

2 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

down and play any combination of (in thiscase) keys and have those bring in the differ-ent parts. Theres an immediateness thatspretty cool.

So its not keyswitching exactlyYeah, its not so much keyswitching

because you can press any combination ofkeys down and get these cool layers.

Ive also seen you demonstrating theSonic Implants orchestral library. Itslike most modern orchestral libraries,with different articulations that areonly intended to be used for phrases orfragments. What types of articulationsdo you set up for playing live?

They just set me up with a couple differentarticulations of strings, a couple of differentarticulations of brass, and we just assignedthose to different buttons on the master con-troller. I was able to do kind of a similar thingto what I was doing on the MachFive, but inthis case I was just bringing it in on an out-side controller.

The Sonic Implants sounds are amazing,and that was certainly helpful to inspire me toimprovise.

Do you go into the studio with thatkind of set-up already programmed?

Its a different headspace. In the studio, Imlooking for something particular. I might say

I need strings, and I need them to be lega-to. So I might just find that one particularsample. Occasionally Ill perform somethingthat Ill need the articulation to be a little bitmore advanced, but often thats not so muchthe case.

On the other hand, I have a lot sounds thatIve made through the years, on some of myinstruments like my Kurzweil instruments,where there are tremendous layers and inter-esting things all set up. I sometimes go tothose to get a big sound or something tex-tured happeningif I have something in myhead thats not just strings, or a choirsound.

When I want those, I generally go forsomething that Ive made for livewhich isinteresting, because for example I have thingsfrom when I used to do the Rudess/Morgenstein project a lotbig organs, bigkeyboard sounds. I keep on having morethings to draw from, my pallet keeps on get-ting bigger.

So in addition to finding a sound on a soft-synth or bringing in a sample, Ive createdlayered patches that I use livewhich weremeant to recreate to what I did in the studiooriginally many times.

Do you work with sequencers?I use MOTU Digital Performer. Ive been

using it for years and years.

Do you sequence parts to use in thestudio when you need more sophisticat-ed articulations (or advanced ones, asyou put it)?

I definitely play it live. Im more into usinga controller if I need articulations. Its mything.

I think a lot of us wish we were ableto do that.

Its interesting, my approach is not some-thing that most people do. A lot of guys inthe studio will sequence it or step-sequenceits a funny world out there as faras keyboard players go nowadays. Its eitheryou came into it as more of a pop or rock stu-dio kind of player, youd basically play a cou-ple of chords, work something out slow-motion, then speed it up and do what youwant to do, or maybe youre a classical musi-cian who got into trying to figure out theorchestrations using a synthesizer.

My background is very different. In someways Im kind of lucky, because I went toJuilliard and I studied many years of classicalmusic. Then at age 18 or 19 after beggingmy parents, I got a synthesizer, a Minimoog.That was amazing to me, and it changed mywhole world. I developed ways of practicingtechnique based on what the Minimoogcould doways of practicing scales.

VIi n t e r v i e w

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 58

2 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

Although I use computers, samples, andvirtual instruments, I also have a lovefor jamming and live improvisation.Ive recently migrated from using a sampling

Tips and tricks for making AbletonsLive take some of the pressure outof live performance.

drum machine to Abletons Live as the center-piece of my set-up.

However, when I perform its not all aboutthe loops; my attention is also dividedbetween playing hand percussion and per-forming dub-style effect processing. ThereforeIve been developing a toolbox of tricks thatenables Live to take more actions on its own,so I can turn my attention elsewhere.

Many of these involve Lives new FollowActions feature.

Simple tipsWell start our session with some simple

tricks. Anyone who has used Live knows thatthe main way to trigger loops in Sessionmode is to click the Clip Launch Buttons (theplay arrows) to their left. This is what I domost of the time to switch between variationsinside each vertical Track.

I set the Global Quantization off when newloops trigger to 2 bars, as that seems to bethe smallest atom I break my arrangements

Follow Me,Follow You

by Chris Meyer

VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c moreonlinewww.virtualinstrumentsmag.com

down to. This gives me an extra measure overthe default of 1 bar to queue up a new loopand then turn my attention to my hand per-cussion or effects before it actually switchesover.

To trigger multiple clips together, firstselect them (click on their names, not theirClip Launch Button, while holding down theCommand key on Mac, Control onWindows), and then hit Return when youreready to fire them. If you have a collection ofclips you know ahead of time that you willwant to fire together, arrange them intoScenes by placing them on the same line hor-izontally. You can then trigger all of them atonce using the Master column to the right.

Sometimes when I trigger a new scene, Iwant one of the individual tracks to keepplaying the same loop rather than switching.If you leave a Clip Slot at its default of a StopClip Button, triggering it will stop playbackon that track. You can copy the same loop tothe new slot so that triggering a new scenewill trigger the loop copy, but this may causea longer loop to reset to its head prematurely.

The cure for this is to delete the Stop Clipbutton from an otherwise-empty slot: Selectit, and type Command+E on the Mac(Control+E on Windows). Now if you select anew scene with a blank slot in any tracks, anypreviously-launched loop on that track willkeep playing (Figure 1).

loop on the same track after a user-specifiednumber of beats. This allows you to stringtogether loop fragments to create a longer,more interesting performanceor moreimportantly, to interject some variation andrandomness into the performance without

having to programevery action yourself.

For your experimen-tation pleasure, a Live4 Set that demon-strates many of thesetechniques using thePowerFX loops thatcome bundled withLive is in theDownloads section ofthe the VI web site. Illalso give detailedinstructions so you cancreate your own ver-sions.

Sometimes I indeed want aloop-based track to stop play-ing, but more gracefully thanjust halting playback before thenext downbeat. I will oftenpaste single-hit sounds such asa big kick or acrash cymbal(with Loop andWarp optionsturned off) intothese stopslots to givethe now-end-ing loops finaldownbeats. OrIll make acopy of theloop, leaveWarp on (so

the tempo remains correct),turn off Loop, and then editits Clip Loop End and VolumeEnvelope to truncate the loopafter its first beat or two(Figure 4).

I occasionally spice upsparser loop sets with a col-lection of top loops: shak-ers, hi-hats, ride cymbals, orsimilar pulse-like patterns.Sometimes crossfadingbetween these loops providesa better transition than jump-ing from one to another.

To do this, I create twotracks, each with the same set of top loops.Make sure the Crossfade Assign switches arevisible (enabled under the View menu), andassign one top loop track to A while theother is assigned to B. Both tracks areassigned to the same audio output pair. Ithen crossfade between them using theCrossfader underneath the Master Volumecontrol in Live (Figure 5)much easier thancoordinating multiple channel faders.

The ghost in the machine

One of the most significant features intro-duced in Live 4 was Follow Actions: the abilityto have a loop on a track switch to a different

Figure 1: Five master Scenes intended to be fired in order, from top tobottom. Track 2 is set to stop when scene 1 is initially fired, and startits own drum track when scene 2 is fired. The Stop Clip Buttons havebeen removed for track 2 in the third and fourth Scenes, so that it willkeep playing (as it has here, when scene 3 was fired). Scene 5 fires a

one-shot end hit on track 2.

Figure 2: In place of a Stop button, consider using a trimmed copy of the loop, with Warp still on, Loop turned off, and a Volume Envelope to truncate the sound more smoothly.

VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c

Figure 4: FollowActions only workbetween adjacentclips on the same

track.

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 2 5

Figure 3: To crossfade between tracks, enable View>Crossfader, andenable the A or B switches along the bottom for the tracks you wish tofade between (not the other tracks). Then use the horizontal Crossfader

underneath the Master fader to perform the blend.

Lets start with the simple example of play-ing a core loop for three bars, playing a breakfor one bar, playing the core again for threemore bars, playing a different break, and thengoing back to the start. Arrange these loopsin linear order in a Live track in Session mode(Figure 4). They must be adjacent to eachother on the track; Follow Actions cannotjump over empty or Stop slots.

Select the first loop, and open View>Clip. Ifthe Launch section is not already visible, openit by clicking on the asterisk icon at the bot-tom of the Clip section (Figure 5).Immediately underneath the Follow Actionheader at the bottom of the Launch sectionare three boxes, which are the Follow ActionTime. These define how long the selectedloop is to play in bars, beats, and sixteenthsof a beat. Note that this time can be differentthan the loops duration! For our example,well enter 3 0 0 to get three bars.

Then comes selecting the Follow Actionitself. Click on the box underneath the barsduration, and select Next. This tells Live thatafter the three bars are up, launch the nextloop in line (the one underneath the currentloop in the track).

Underneath that pop-up is a box to enter aChance value. This is a weighting of howoften to take this action. Normally you wouldleave it at its default of 1. There is an identicalpair of boxes to the right where you can pro-gram a different Follow Action (and we will,soon enough); the Chance values then decidehow often Live decides to take one actioninstead of the other.

Next, select the second loop in lineBreak1 in our example. Prepare it the same way as

the main loop,except set its FollowAction Time to 1 0 0(1 bar, no beats, no16ths). The thirdloop in line is a copyof our main loop,with the sameFollow Action.Finally, the fourthloopour secondbreakgets a FollowAction Time of 1 0 0,and a Follow Actionof First. This sayswhen done, go tothe first loop in thischain.

If you have ourexample Set, or havebeen following alongand created thisaction chain yourself,click Stop Clips tomake sure no othertracks are playing,and then click theLaunch Button forthe first loop in thischain (the first clip intrack 1 in our Set). It

will turn light green as it starts to play, andthe button for the next loop will start to blinka darker green, indicating it is queued up toplay after the currentone is finished.Listen; you will nowhave a repeating 8-bar pattern createdout of three shorterloops.

Thats nice, but itdoesnt take advan-tage of the mainstrength of Live: theability to improvisewith loops ratherthan playing them ina predeterminedsequence. For some-thing a bit moreinteresting, stringtogether a trio of 2-bar loops in a track.For each loop, set itsFollow Action Timeto 2 0 0, its FollowAction to Any (theasterisk icon), and itsChance to 1 (Figure8). Stop Clips, andthen click on theLaunch button forany of these clips (intrack 2 of our exam-ple Set).

Live will now playa loop for two bars,and then jump to

VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c

Figure 6: To make Livepick a loop randomly

after the Follow ActionTime is up for the cur-rent loop, set its FollowAction to Any (an aster-

isk). Note that anycan also mean to playthe same loop again.

Figure 7: A clip canhave two different

Follow Actions. Here,after six bars this clip

can either play the Nextclip (the arrow icon onthe left), or the Last clipin the stack (the hori-

zontal lines icon on theright). The numbers

below set the Chance itmay go in one direction

or the other.

2 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

Figures 5a, 5b: To set upFollow Actions, open the

Launch panel by clicking onthe asterisk icon along thebottom of the Clip panel

(a). The first set of numbersare the Follow Action Time;the pop-ups select which

Follow Action to use (b); thesecond set of numbers

determines the Chance thatLive will take one action over

another.

Maximizing performance in Live

As I use Live to both perform loops and record digital audio at the same time, I am verywary of overtaxing my laptop or otherwise tempting it to fail. Here are a few of the meas-ures Ive taken to make sure I dont run out of clock cyclesor my remaining hairduring aperformance:

Preload all the samples into RAM by enabling the button in each clips Sample section.This means Live doesnt have to spool them off the hard drive during performancewhile it is also busy recording.

Even then, Live will occasionally gulp as I trigger a new sample; if possible, afterloading a new set I mute the audio outputs, pre-fire all of the tracks, stop, and thenget ready to play.

Longer, non-timed samples such as ambiences (which might otherwise overflow myRAM) are burned to audio CDs and played outside the computer.

Record to a FireWire 400 or 800 drive, as this is much faster than the internal IDEdrives in most laptops.

Try to limit the use of virtual instruments. If possible (such as with rhythm libraries), I record the output of the V.I. track back into an audio track in Live and delete the V.I.track. This means I can use it as a sampled loop that can be loaded into RAM.

Dont let the laptop go into energy saver mode (which slows down the processor), orgo to sleep (which occasionally results in loss of communication to external devicessuch as audio interfaces).

Use power filters and surge protectors at a minimum; go for voltage stabilizers if possi-ble. It is a well-documented fact that laptops get stage fright; I believe this is due tothe unstable power available in most venues. (Did I ever tell you about the time theyfired up the cappuccino machine and the entire place went dark?)

2 8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

another loopincluding potentiallythe loop it wasalready playing. Theblinking LaunchButton tells youwhich loop is next.

This is cute for awhile, but it eventu-ally becomes clearthat the drummeriswell, random.Real drummers,despite their reputa-tion, tend to have abit more of a planthan that.

Lets use the samethree loops to createa more realistic pat-tern. The first loopshould be the maingroove. Lets say wewant that to play forsix bars; to do that,set the Follow ActionTime to 6 0 0.To play thenext loopwhen weredone, set theleft-handFollow Action

to Next, and its Chance to 1.Now lets program some variation.

Set Follow Action B (the right-handone) to play the Last clip, which is thethird loop in our chain, also with aChance of 1 (Figure 7). When the mainloop finishes, it now has an equalchance of playing either of our twovariation loops. You can change theweighting by entering different Chancevaluesthe higher the Chance, thehigher the probability that particularaction will be taken.

Finally, set the two variation loops tohave a Follow Action Time of 2 0 0 (sothey play for two measures), a FollowAction of First (to return to the firstloop in the chain), and a Chance of 1.Stop Clips and launch the main loop(in track 3 of our Set). Now you have amore reasonable drummer, who playsa break at a predictable timebut whoalso throws in some variation as towhich actual break will be played.

Our automated drummer is better,but could still stand to be a little less

predictable about when he breaks into a varia-tion. On track 4 in the online example Set, Iused the same set of three loops, but pro-grammed the Follow Action Time for each to 40 0 (four measures). For the main loop, I pro-grammed Follow Action A to be Any and

Chance A to be 3, which means on average itcould play itself or one of the two adjacentvariation loops. I then set Follow Action B to bePlay Again with Chance B set to 1 (Figure 8).

This means there is a 1 to 3 chance thatLive will take Follow Action B instead of A,increasing the odds that the main loop will

just repeat itself rather than break into a varia-tion. The end result is even money (a 2 in 4chance) whether the main loop will repeat, orplay a variation. These two variation loops arethen set to jump back to the First clipthemain loopwhen theyre done.

You may have noticed that in the exampleswhere I employed a Follow Action of Any, Iused the same Follow Action Time for all theloops. Thats because of a subtle but impor-tant issue with the Any action: it means play

Figure 8: Here, FollowAction A (the one onthe left) is set to playAny with a greaterChance of 3, while

Follow Action B is set toPlay Again with a lesser

Chance of 1. Addingthis second action

increases the odds thatthe loop will just repeat.

Figure 9: By employing Follow Actions oneach clip, triggering Scene 12 (the first hori-zontal set of loops) will cause the rest of thescenes to play in order automatically. Thesecond set of Play arrows indicate the next

loops are already queued up.

Follow Actions allows you to string together loop

fragements to create a longer, more interesting

performance or inject some randomness without

having to program every action yourself.

VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 60)

3 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

Review by Nick Batzdorf

VIr e v i e w

If youre wondering why the world would beinterested in another sampled Rhodes, youhavent played the Scarbee VintageKeyboard Collection. This one is as successfula sampled recreation of an instrument as theworld has seen.

But the Keyboard Gold Bundle (KGBcom-plete with Russian-inspired packaging) beingreviewed here is more than a sampledRhodes. It includes equally impressive samplecollections of all the instruments listed at thetop of this article, known as the VintageKeyboard Collection, plus Scarbees VintageKeyboard FX collection.

DetailThese instruments are recorded extremely

well, and the library has unlooped 24-bitsamples. The Planet N piano is recorded at sixdynamic levels, the others at from 12 to 20each with its own corresponding release sam-ple. That may be a record. What really addsto the realism is that theyre mapped to thekeyboard flawlessly, and you really dont hearor feel the breaks between sample layers.

Before moving to a Yamaha DX-7, I used aRhodes for writing. The Scarbee 73 broughtthat instrument right back. You hear thesqueak of the keyboard, the tines damping

when you release the note, and the gradualevolution from a sine wave to a growl as youdig in. The release effect is so addictive that Iused an exciter plug-in to bring it out more.Theres also some hiss and rumble you canadd to the sound if you want.

The Wurlitzer in this collection sounds justlike the one a friend of mine owns. Its a dirtier,funkier sound than the Rhodesalthough theRhodes can get funky too. While I did wearbell-bottom blue jeans in the 70s, my experi-ence with the Clavinet is limited to listening tosongs like Stevie Wonders Superstition. Thisone certainly sounds right, and it feels like areal instrument. I have to recuse myself fromcommenting on the realism of Planet N, whichIve never heard. But the quality is just as highas the other instruments.

The HALion player has some built-in effects,and there are various programs of all the instru-

ments that use themphased Rhodes, etc.Its reasonablyresource-friendly, tak-ing up about 70MBitself and loading a full285MB Rhodes pro-gram in about 20 sec-onds off a fast SATAdrive (the 285MB isonly the sample starts,of coursethis is adisk-streaming library).There are 8-layerspace-saving programsincluded as well.

Vintage Keyboard FXThe Vintage Keyboard FX collection is

remarkably efficient. I used a 2.8GHz Pentium4 (a BYC VisionDAW) for most of this review,and it only used about 15% of the CPU withall eight processors running.

Those eight processors are: preamp, cho-rus, compressor, overdrive, wah, delay, phas-er, amp/eq (with spring reverb), plus a mastersection that lets you morphglide all thesettingsbetween two 8-unit presets (yoursof the pre-programmed ones). These effectsare a big part of the classic sounds of theseinstruments.

Theyre very simple to use, they soundexcellent, and the graphics are cool. Onemodern touch: you can sync them at variousnote values to the incoming MIDI clock.

Straight up: I wouldnt even consider notspending the extra $100 for the FX, whichpush an already remarkable library over thetop.

SoNot only does the Scarbee KGB sound like

the real thing, it makes your keyboard feel likeyoure playing it. This is what sampling tech-nology is all about. n

Scarbee Keyboard Gold

Bundle, $449 (includes FX);

Vintage Keyboard Collection

version (no FX), $349

Sonic Network Inc., 561 Windsor

Suite St. A402, Somerville, MA

02143. 617/718-0202, 888/769-

3788.

Formats: Mac OS X AU, VST,

stand-alone (can be ReWire slave).

Windows XP VST2, DXi, stand-

alone (or ReWire slave).

License: uses bundled Steinberg

HALion Player with USB dongle.

A top-notch sampled Rhodes Stage Piano MK 1 73,Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Hohner Clavinet D6, andHohner Planet N Electric Piano in a HALion player,along with a road case full of vintage keyboard-oriented effects.

Scarbee KeyboardGold Bundle

3 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

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3 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

DrumCore brings a few twists to theidea of a drum loop library. Forstarters, ten drummers are represent-edJeff Anthony, John Bishop, TonyBraunagel, DJ Syze-Up (Ned Douglas), SlyDunbar, Michael Shrieve, Ben Smith, MattSorum, Alan White, and Zorowho cover awide range of styles centering around a locusof rock and pop.

Each drummer contributed from five to 14different songs, which typically include vari-ations, fills, and sometimes individual hits.The vast majority of the loops are two barseach. Their fills are very obvious (best for sig-naling obvious breaks in a song); many of thevariations feature major sonic differencesforexample, with a ride cymbal, or without thekick drum.

Each song was recorded at a variety oftempos, usually in several 5 bpm increments,sometimes covering as wide a range as from60 bpm to over 160 bpm. DrumCore doesnot offer tempo stretching itself; their philoso-phy is that you should hear how the drum-mer would actually play that groove at that

tempoand indeed, it is educational to hearhow a drummer changes the pattern (such asswitching from open to closed hi-hats) as thetempo increases. These grooves are wellrecorded, usually with a big live-but-not-too-loose sound.

The DrumCore software allows you tosearch through the library a couple of differ-ent ways. You can go drummer by drummerand song by song, or you can set up searchcriteria for style, tempo, and the such.Matching candidates are presented for you toaudition. Once youve selected a loop, youcan export it as AIFF, SDII, or WAV files.

The slicker alternative is to use DrumCore asa ReWire client for ProTools, Logic, DigitalPerformer, Cubase, or Nuendo. In this caseDrumCore plays through the application(ignoring the master applications tempoitsstill a library rather than a traditional virtualinstrument); you can either record it in thehost application or have DrumCore exportthe loop as a region, soundbite, or other typeof clip the host prefers. All DrumCore sampleswere recorded at 24-bit/48 kHz; it can export

Drumcore

Review by Chris Meyer

DrumCore sound library and

search engine ($249.00)

DrummerPack AL AppleLoop-com-

patible sound library ($49.99)

Submersible Music, Inc.

(www.drumcore.com)

platform: Installer and search

engine require Mac OS 10.2.3 or

higher; DrumCore has a

challenge/response installer limited

to two unique installs.

license: Free to use as long as

not resold as another library.

sound library + search engine

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 3 5

at 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, or 192 kHz in 16- or24-bit depths.

Some grooves have also been translatedinto MIDI files. DrumCore has a built-in sam-ple player with well-recorded sounds fromeach of the drummers kits. You can mix andmatch kits to grooves and rebalance their mixbefore recording them as audio into yourapplication, or you can export the MIDI datato your sequencer and use the grooves totrigger your own sounds. This versatility isnice, although it must be said that the MIDIversions of the same grooves paled in com-parison to the sampled loops of the real thingin this library.

Although the search engine gives youaccess to multiple variations on a groove,DrumCore does not allow you to arrangelonger scores; you can only export one loopat a time (although a special dialog allowsyou to repeat the same loop multiple timesin, say, a ProTools project). This is particularlyfrustrating with their fun Gabrielizer feature,which randomly slices and re-arranges agroove (a great tool for those who love skit-tering drum&bass styles); I wish I couldexport a dozen or so of them at once andsort through them later in context in mycompositional program.

If youre on a budget and use ApplesGarageBand, Soundtrack, or Logic, youshould check out the DrummerPack AL ver-sion. It loses DrumCores search and exportfront end, replacing it with Apple-standardmetadata, which allows you to search forDrumCore loops from inside these applica-tions. Instead of the full 8-gig DrumCorelibrary, you get 435 Megs of 24-bit 44.1 kHzAIFF files, totaling roughly 450 loops, repre-senting nearly 200 styles and variations (eachvariation is often performed at two or threedifferent tempi, which is how you get from200 to 450). On the other hand, if you wishyou had Apple-like searching of your ownsample library to export into other applica-tions, the full DrumCore application allowsyou to load in your own samples and searchcriteria, potentially making it a sample hub inyour studio.

I am of two minds when it comes toDrumCore. On the one hand, 8 gigabytes ofwell-recorded loops from ten name drummersis a great buy for $249, especially with asearch engine and pattern randomizer thrownin. On the other hand, I found myself wishingfor longer loops with more subtle variations,perhaps with some parts broken out to mixand match with other loops. But if youre notinto splitting atoms when it comes to looplibraries, and are looking for a step up fromdrum machines or no-name loops whensongwriting, then youll enjoy this set. n

3 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S

become even more essential. The latest devel-oping trend is for the network even to takethe place of hardware MIDI and audio inter-faces on each machine (see sidebar: LookMa, no hardware).

How do we keep the internet connection,which has relatively low bandwidth require-ments, from interfering with the high-band-width gigabit ethernet connection best suitedfor routing audio through plug-ins on aremote computer, for example using AppleLogic Node or FX-Max FX-Teleport? How dowe keep the network running efficiently andsmoothly?

The answer lies in constructing a customnetwork that can dedicate high bandwidth tothe applications that need it most. In this arti-

cle well discuss the nuts andbolts of modern networkingand how to construct a net-work, complex or simple,that fits your requirements.

TCP/IP boot camp

TCP/IP is the most com-mon form of networkingused today. The fundamentalway that machines find eachother is through an IPaddress, a group of four 8-bit numbers arranged in ahierarchy, as in the address70.19.167.54.

When you connect to theinternet via your internetservice provider (ISP), yourcomputer is given an IPaddress from a pool of IPaddresses assigned to yourISP. And when your comput-er talks to a web site, thename of the web sites hostis converted into an IPaddress that is then used toaccess the machine directly.

Given that there are about four billion pos-sible IP addresses, how does the data yousend get routed to the right machinesthrough the right networks? There is no suchinformation contained in the IP address itself.The first part of an IP address stores theaddress of the network and the last partstores the address of the machine on thatnetwork. How many of the 32 available bitsare used to identify the network and howmany are used to identify the machine

The Lay of the LAN

VIf e a t u r e

Networking is an essential part of everymodern studio set-up. To start with,since so many of our tools are nowlarge pieces of software requiring frequentupdates, it is very difficult to maintain a mod-ern studio without a high-speed internet con-nection. But theres more to it than that.

More and more musicians are relying uponmultiple-computer set-ups to run large-scalearrangements and mixes that are too big for asingle machine, making networking is

The Zen of making many machines become one

Fig. 1: Windows XP Properties panel of a built-in 100MB ethernet port, configured for the

slow generic network 192.168.128.0.

by Monte McGuire

depends upon the network itself.In many home networks, class C

addresses are used. These address-es use the first 24 bits for the net-work number and the last eightbits for the machine number.

If a machine wants to talk toanother machine, it first has todetermine which network theremote machine is on. Everymachine has a number called thenetmask, a special binary numberthat is used to identify the net-work part of its IP address. Thenetmask of a machine on a classC network is 255.255.255.0,since it masks off the first 24 bitsof an IP address. Combining thetwo numbers, the logical AND ofa netmask and an IP address,results in the network address ofthat IP address. (See sidebar:What is Logical AND?)

Returning to our example, ifa machine needs to send arequest to another machine, itcan take that IP address, logical-ly AND that address with itsown netmask and compare theresult to the number of thelocal network. If the networknumbers match, then the other machine ison the same local network and the data canbe sent directly to the other machine. If not,the data is sent to a special machine knownas a router, a machine that knows how toget to other networks.

This simple but powerful routing mecha-nism, a fundamental part of TCP/IP, is whatwe will use to set up our network so that traf-fic will flow through the hardware that ismost appropriate for our uses while prevent-ing conflicting traffic from sharing resources.

The network of oneIf you have only one machine attached to a

cable modem, for example, then the machinehas only one IP address: the one given to itby your ISP. While its possible to connectyour machine directly to a cable or DSLmodem in this manner, there is a number ofreasons why its a really bad idea.

First, your machine is directly visible to theentire internet, since it now has a real IPaddress. That means any hacker on the planetcan probe your machine to see if it is vulnera-ble to attack.

While such traffic uses up relatively littlebandwidth and you might be running firewallsoftware to make these attempts fruitless,they temporarily distract your computer fromthe other tasks youre asking it to perform. Ifyour machine is running a software samplerfor example, then these microseconds of dis-traction might cause unwanted timing glitch-es. At worst, your firewall software willbecome outdated and hackers will take overyour machine. Not good!

Add a routerA hardware router will eliminate these

problems easily and cheaply. Routers are spe-cial-purpose machines with two ethernetinterfaces, each on different networks, that donothing but forward data packets betweentwo networks as needed.

One of the routers ethernet ports acceptsthe externally visible IP address from the cableor DSL modem, and the other port is used tocreate an internal network for all themachines connected to it. The router thengives your machine an IP address on thisnewly created internal network. This internalnetwork address is special, drawn from a poolof reserved addresses that cant be directlyaccessed from the internet.

If these addresses are not directly accessiblefrom the internet at large, then how can youtalk to the internet? Your outgoing traffic is hid-den from the rest of the world by the router,which and pretends that it came directly fromthe router and forwards it to the internet onyour networks behalf. The internet never seeseach of your machines directly, but instead seesyour traffic as if it all came from your router.When packets arrive to your router from theoutside world, your router remembers whichmachine asked for the information and sends itto the correct machine.

For most people, this level of networkingcomplexity is enough. A local network of

V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 3 7

VIf e a t u r e

Fig. 2: Windows XP Properties panel of an add-on gigabit interface, configured as a separate high-speed net-work. Note that the gigabit adapter really only needs the IP address and netmask entriesthe router and

DNS entries only apply to the other adapter and need not be repeated here.

Logical and is a Boolean logic function like these functions: AND, OR, NAND, NOR,XOR.

The and function is true if both its inputs are true. 1 AND 1 = 1, but 0 AND 1 = 0, 1AND 0 = 0 and finally, 0 AND 0 = 0. The or function is true if either input is true: 1 OR 0= 1, 0 OR 1 = 1, 1 OR 1 = 1.

These functions can be extended to binary numbers with more than one binary digit. Inthis situation, two words are compared bit by bit. Some examples:

1111 AND 0101 = 0101; 1100 AND 0101 = 0100; 0000 AND 0101 = 0000

What is Logical AND?Just for fun...

than it sounds, although you dohave to do a little planning.

The first task is to pick a networknumber. That might as well be theone that your router already pickedwhen you used DHCP. You can tellwhich network this is by pluggingyour computer into the router andthen opening the Network controlpanel to see which address has beenassigned to your machine. Or look a