Archive for 'January, 2010'

Anytime you open up a Pro Tools session you need to ask yourself this question: Am I going to be recording, or editing/mixing? The answer to this question will determine how you adjust some crucial settings in the software to optimize your Pro Tools system. Let’s take a brief look today at tweaking the Playback Engine in order to get the most out of your computer while recording.

Reducing Latency

If you are using Pro Tools to record for example (perhaps you’re sitting down to take the One Song One Month Challenge and you want to lay down your main guitar parts) then you want as little latency as possible. What is latency you ask? It’s the time it takes for your audio to be converted to digital information (in your audio interface), run through your software, then turned back to an analog signal coming back out of your audio interface. The result…an annoying echo or delay effect that throws off your timing.

Some interfaces have a workaround for this on the actual unit itself (the Mbox 2 Mini for example uses the Mix knob to counteract this). But one thing you can do in all Pro Tools systems is to reduce the Hardware Buffer Size. To do this, simply navigate to the Setup menu and choose Playback Engine.

If you have something like 1024 samples in the H/W Buffer Buffer Size drop down, then click on it and choose the lowest sample number available to you. It might be 128 or maybe even down to 32. Choosing a lower buffer size will noticeably reduce your audible latency and make recording much better. On the flip side if you need to edit or mix, you’ll probably have error messages pop up with such a low buffer size. Simply change it to the highest option available (1024 is good).

Your House In Order

While you’re at the Playback Engine settings you should also confirm that your RTAS Processors drop down is set to the appropriate option (this depends on your computers CPU of course). And as far as the CPU Usage option, I recommend you don’t go much higher than 85% as you need your CPU to also efficiently run your operating system in the background as you are recording in Pro Tools.

Nice And Easy

Voila! You have quickly optimized Pro Tools using the Playback Engine settings. Little tweaks like this go a long way in ensuring a smooth and enjoyable Pro Tools session. Enjoy!

I’ve touched on click tracks before briefly, but in light of some comments I’ve received after launching the One Song One Month Challenge, I decided I should outline a little more in detail why I think you will be better off learning how to play with and use click tracks in your recordings. Below are three questions to ask yourself to see if having a click in your sessions will help you. Let’s take a quick look…

Do You Plan On Recording Parts One At A Time?
Unless you have the space and gear to do a full “live” recording of your band all at once, you’re more than likely going to be multi-tracking each part one or two at a time. A typical scenario is to lay down your drums, then bass, guitars, keys, vocals, and so on. The best way to not “get lost” later when you add more parts is to have a quality guide track setup. And probably the most important element of the guide track is the click track.

When “punching in” to redo parts or to just record one section of a song at a time, you really need to hear a few bars of the song leading up to the desired point in order to “get in the groove”. Having a click allows you (or the engineer) to give the musician exactly the number of measures he or she needs as pre-roll and more importantly it helps you to see in Pro Tools when the punch in point is coming on the track. It gets you ready to hit that record button in other words. It’s hard enough to try and “read” wave forms on a computer screen, but having a click as the backbone of your song allows multi-track recording to be a breeze.

Do You Plan On Using Loops, Drum Machines, or Timed Delays?
More and more these days loops and virtual drummers and drum machines are being incorporated into “live” recordings. Sometimes they are even the featured instrument. If you ever hope to bring some of these musical elements into your sessions you’ll need to have recorded everything else to a steady tempo. Obviously a click track is the best way to do that.

In most DAWs, once you set the tempo you can view your session in some kind of grid mode that gives you a visual of bars and beats in the waveform view. If you’ve played to this grid, then bringing in a loop is easy: just drag it in to the bar/beat marker you want and it will play perfectly alongside your “acoustic” audio. Also if you like to use delays on guitars, vocals, etc. then you can have them “timed” to quarter notes or eighth notes and you’ll know that they will line up nicely with your tracks.

Do You Want Editing To Be Faster And Easier?
Sort of a sarcastic question I know, but in all seriousness editing is so much easier in a program like Pro Tools when you’ve recorded your tracks to a click. And I’m not just talking about advanced drum editing or other slicing and dicing. Even basic editing moves become a breeze. Ever need to copy and paste a vocal line or guitar riff? With a set tempo you can just drag the set measures you need (bar 1-4 let’s say) and you’ll know that your recorded part will line up perfectly in it’s new pasted spot (bars 5-8). Once you’ve experience editing without a click compared to with a click, you’ll understand the difference.

It’s Worth The Initial Pain
Most people don’t argue these reasons for using a click, they just simply don’t like having to play with one. My advice for you: stick with it. It’s worth putting up with the initial struggle and fight with the metronome, but once you’ve practiced with it enough you will start to improve your timing and you won’t even notice the click as much.

And really, isn’t improving your recordings worth just a little challenge?

Happy New Year’s everyone! It’s hard to believe a whole year has flown by…again! Well to celebrate and to kick 2010 into high gear right away, I’ve decided to give you a challenge. That’s right. I want to challenge you (and me) to write/record/produce more songs this year than last. I want you to prove to yourself that you can and will make more music this year…BEFORE this year gets too busy. To do that I have created what I’m calling simply “The One Song One Month Challenge”.

Here’s what’s going down: every Friday (starting today) I will post a tutorial video of me going from the beginning of producing a song in Pro Tools to finishing a mix…in one month! There are 5 Fridays in the month of January so there will be 5 videos. Your challenge is to watch them each week, then take the weekend and following week (whenever you have time) to move forward on the challenge. By the end of the month you will have written and created a new song and gotten a jump start on music making productivity in 2010!

Here are the categories for each week:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mix and bounce for the web

I won’t be able to go into great depth in these videos so consider them more of an outline and a jumping off point. My hope is that this challenge may be just the “boost” you need this year. So without any delay let’s dive into the first week of the challenge. Enjoy the video below…and please don’t hesitate to comment with any thoughts or questions. Here’s to a productive and happy 2010!