The Thummer from Thumtronics, I came across this new piece of kit via a post on Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog and I was quite impressed by it. The Thummer has lots of buttons in a new styled layout combined with the abilities to manipulate the sounds it creates via it’s internal synthesizer.

Whether this will take off I’m not sure but but according to Thumtronics they say that it is easier to learn than most instruments due to the layout of the buttons. The layout enables all chords to have the same pattern (shape) of notes and not differing shapes such as on the piano (which have various patterns of black and white note patterns depending on what key you play) or on the guitar with different finger shapes for the different chords.

They also say it is more expressive (than current synthesizers) as the design allows you to hold it in your hands and control the sound via some joysticks where your thumbs are located. It has pressure sensitive buttons and you can also change the make up of the sound it creates via motion sensors. (Wow!) - Check out the vids below to see this in action.

I like the look of this, which is why I wanted to bring it to your attention. I would absolutely love one of these, especially if it had MIDI capabilities (I can’t find anything on the site about this) so it could be hooked up to any piece of software such as VSTis. It’s also a very visual instrument too, due to the motion sensors and so I think it will work well for live bands as the audience can see the sound being manipulated.

Enjoy the videos and check out the The Thummer site for more info and some more videos.

In part 1 I talked about the basic equipment you will need to get started producing your own music and in part 2 I am going to talk about the next important decision your going to need to make which is choosing your software. This is a very important decision and one that as a beginner you should spend a good amount of time thinking about before rushing into any purchases.

I shall mention some software packages in this section but I must point out that every musician is different and whilst some musicians will swear by a piece of software as an essential piece of kit, others will find it to be completely wrong in every way for what they require out of their software. The trick here is to try out demos for each piece of software you come across before buying and research well to make sure it is the right piece of software for the music you want to create. Ask other musicians who create a similar style of music what they use, read the many reviews on the net and try not to be sucked in by any adverts from the software companies (that piece of software might not be the perfect solution that they want you to believe). Also check to make sure that there are not any free alternatives that may be sufficient for what you require.

So what I’m going to do in this section of our beginners guide is to point out the different types of software available, talk about some of the features and give a few examples of software packages for each type. I am not going to choose the software for you or suggest a piece of software as required for your music, that is your job. The best piece of advise I can give you when choosing your software is to choose a package which you think you will enjoy using. If you find that making music becomes a bit of a chore and not fun you will end up either giving up completely or your music and inspiration for the creative process of writing music will suffer.

The Different Types of Software
These following categories are how I would categorize the different types of recording software available today. Some software could be classed in two of these categories, have features like that of other categories or be classed into a subcategory of that category, but these are the top level categories.

Pre-Recorded Loop Based Mixing Software
This sort of software is the most basic type of music software available and so are great for beginners and those not looking for anything too difficult to start with. They are very cheap to buy but are also very limited. They basically work by using pre-created loops and samples usually supplied by the same company in the software or as add-on packs. You can then use mix together these samples and loops to create a track. They are great for young people or those who have no experience with music but if you want to create your own sounds or plan on recording instruments and vocals, this category of software is not for you. This is what I would call music gaming software (yes, some of them are available for Playstation).

Examples of this type of software: eJay

Sample/Synth/Loop Based Sequencers
Software in this category is the real fun stuff, these have nice easy to use sequencers and are more geared towards creating your own sounds using the software synthesizers included in the software (These synthesizers can make a wide variety of good quality sounds and most can easily compete with the hardware synths in sound quality). They also are very sound sample based with extremely good sample manipulation abilities and loads of great effects that can be placed on your sounds. You will need to collect or make your own samples, import them into the software where you’ll be able to use a MIDI controller to play, edit and create some great sounding pieces of music within them.

Some have the facilities to use VST plugins and instruments (Extra effects and virtual instruments) and can also be hooked up to other sequencer software (See below) using a technology called ReWire to create a full blown recording studio environment. This is the category you should look at very closely if it is dance/electronica or sample based music that you will be creating. If your looking to recording instruments only, you may want to skip this category completely. They have a wide range of users as they can be very good for beginners to music production as well as more than capable for producing professional tracks.

Check each piece of software in this category as they can vary a lot. Reason for example emulates a hardware environment extremely well with some amazing instruments, FruityLoops is more loop/sample based but with VSTi support can be expanded in many different ways, where as Ableton Live has been designed with Live Performance in mind and includes multi-track recording.

Choose carefully from this category and try before you buy to make sure that it is right for you. Check to make sure that any included synths can make the sounds you want to produce by listening to examples, synth presets on any demos or other peoples music you know has been created with that software. I must point out that you will find that if you are going to choose to buy software from this category that you may also need to use a piece of Audio File Recording and Editing Software (See below). This is so you can record your own samples as well as clean up or edit any samples you may get from other place such as from sample web sites.

Examples of this type of software: Reason, FruityLoops, Ableton Live

Recording/Instrument Sequencers with Plugin/Extendable Features
This is the category you should be looking at if your music is going to be more recording based. They have great recording facilities and emulate a professional recording studio in a software environment. They can also be extended to allow plugins such as VST plugins and intruments, these are effects and instruments (synthesizers, drum machines etc) that can be added on. There are loads of these available from a wide range of different companies.

These sequencers can usually allow the software from the previous category (Sample/Synth/Loop Based Sequencers) to be integrated into them via the use of a Technology called ReWire (A kind of virtual cable between the different software packages) allowing you to get the best of both worlds. They all offer MIDI support too and with the VST Instruments can achieve the same as the sample/synth/loop based sequencers can, but the enviroments could be considered to be less fun and user friendly. Plus you may have to fork out extra money for the plug ins to get the sound you want.

These pieces of software can range drastically in price and features, so make sure you get the right version as you will sometimes find there are cheaper “Lite Versions” and more expensive “Ultimate Versions”. Think about whether you really need the extra features of the more advanced versions, you may not need them now but in the future may require them so investigate all versions of any piece of software fully.

Examples of this type of software: Cubase, Sonar, Logic

Recording Sequencers with Hardware Interface Options Software in this category is very similar to the category above in that they emulate a professional recording studio but they also have the options to have specially designed hardware interfaces very similar to a classic mixing desk. These link into the software directly creating a very hands on approach. If you go into professional recording studios today this is the system that you will see set up.

The hardware options can be very expensive in this category and so if you are a beginner I would not advise that you go for this type of software/hardware.

Examples of this type of software: Pro Tools

Audio Recording Software
Software in this category is usually seen as an addition to the above categories, as they are used to record and edit samples or individual channels of sound by editing the waveform. They come with effects and processing that can be applied to the sound (although usually not in real-time like the software sequencers above). They can also be used to apply effects and processing to your tracks as a whole when you have completed the track and exported it from other software. (Mastering)

Some software in this category can be used similar to a multi-track recorder, but cannot do nearly as much as a proper sequencer. If you are just looking for something to record a couple of tracks for example just some vocals and a guitar, you may find that a piece of software from this category is all your looking for. I’ve not advised a specific piece of software in this guide but I have to here. Please give Audacity a go as it is Free and is a very capable piece of software and may be perfect for your needs if your exploring this type of software.

Examples of this type of software: Audacity, Audition, Wavelab

Part 2 Conclusion
Hopefully this part of the guide has given you a insight into the different types of music production software available. As I said before make sure you explore all the different alternatives in each category and pick the software that matches what you require. Software is an important choice and a choice you will have to live with, so give it the time it deserves.

Beginners Guide To Music Production - Part 3 - Setting Up Your Studio

Written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

Sine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth are the basic waveforms (a graphical representation of a sound) used in most popular synthesizers. Most oscillators (The part of a synthesizer which generates the basic waveform) can produce all four of these basic waveforms. All are very different sounding and have their own characteristics which can greatly affect the mood of the sound synthesized.

I believe that by learning what each of these basic waveforms sounds and looks like can be a great way for anyone starting out using synthesizers to be able to start learning to hear a synthesized sound and then go on to reproduce that sound on their own.

Below are images of these four basic waveforms as well as audio examples for each.

Sine Wave
The wave that most of use will visually imagine when we hear the word wave. Can be great for producing very low bass sounds that sound smooth.




Square
As the name suggest the waveform looks square and this creates a unique sound compared to the other four waveforms.




Triangle
A triangle wave is a very basic waveform where the pattern rises and then falls by the same gradient creating a triangle shape.




Sawtooth
The dirtiest sounding of the four basic waves, it is named sawtooth because it looks like the teeth of a saw. You can also get a reverse sawtooth waveform where the slow gradient and steep fall are swapped around.




Hopefully this article has allowed you to see and hear the basic waveforms so you can begin to identify them when you hear sounds that have been created using these waveforms as a starting point.

All images of the waveforms are made using Audacity Article written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation

I used to make a lot of hard house music and one of the most common sounds in hard house and similar types of hard dance music is the hoover sound. Even though it is used a lot (sometimes too much) some people have trouble recreating this sound themselves and end up using samples. The original sound was made on the Roland Juno Synthesizer and I’ve even heard of people buying that synth just to create this type of sound and spending hundreds of their hard earned cash in the process. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a basic hoover without a Juno. If your not sure what a hoover synth is then play the sound below.


Click Here To Download Sound

I made that hoover style sound above as an example for this tutorial using the Malstrom and the NN-XT sampler in Reason within a few minutes and I’m going to show you how to get that style of synth sound so you can make all the hoovers you require without a Juno and also so I don’t have to hear a hoover sample that I’ve heard hundreds of times before next time I listen to some new hard house/dance tracks.

The following tutorial is done in Reason but you should be able to reproduce this sound using any synthesizer or softsynth which is good at making some sort of nice fat lead sound.

Creating the Starting Sound
First we need to create a fat lead type sound, I shall leave you to choose one yourself here as most synthesizers should be able to create sounds which are good enough. I used the Malstrom in Reason, I chose the preset in the soundbank called EBM Lead and just turned off Filter A. Here is that sound, so you can get an idea of the sort of sound that you need to start off with.


Click Here To Download Sound

As you can see it’s nothing special, it is in fact just 2 x Sawtooth like waves with one of them an octave lower than the other. There is nothing special about this sound and you can find samples of this sort of sound all over the internet for free. Experiment with different sorts of lead synth sounds as your starting point for the hoover, but to get a real fat hoover you need something that sounds quite fat to begin with. You want to aim for lots of high and low frequencies in there as it will make the hoover sound fatter and more Juno sounding.

Making The Hoover
This is the bit which most people who try to make hoover sounds and fail don’t know about. We need to use a sampler such as the NN-XT in Reason which allows you to use a mod envelope (ADSR) to control the pitch of the sound. I’m sure that there are many other samplers that can do this too.

For this you need to first export the sound from your synthesizer and save it as a sample to reload into your sampler. You want to create a very long sample or create a loop in the sampler so you can hold the sample down for a long time without it ending.

Once you’ve loaded the sample into you’re sampler, you need to make the mod envelope affect the pitch of the sample. For the example I set the mod env to pitch setting to +600cents (about the 2-O-Clock position) on the NN-XT. I increased the attack on the mod envelope to about midway up and the decay just that bit higher than the attack. The sustain, release and hold were set to none.

I also made the sound play three notes at one time to give it more substance, these were C3, C4 and C5 on the MIDI keyboard and placed a notch filter on the sample with the frequency set about half way. Now we have the basic hoover sound, you can now go and add some effects on if you want to make it sound even better.

See it isn’t that hard to create a hoover once you know how it’s done. Hopefully this has shown you that you can create Hoover type sounds very easily and quickly within Reason. You don’t need a Roland Juno or other fancy kit to create one. You can also achieve this with most synthesizers and a sampler with the mod envelope to pitch ability. Experiment with the hoover sounds too by starting with different starting synths, there are loads that can be made. If you use Reason there are some great ones that can be made with the Subtractor and Malstrom as a starting point.

Tutorial written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

VSTi instruments (also known as Softsynths or Virtual Instruments) are plugins which are run by a VSTi host. A VSTi host which usually comes in the form of a sequencer and some of the most popular VSTi hosts are Cubase, Ableton Live, FruityLoops Studio and Cakewalk Sonar. The VSTi instruments add a new instrument to the VSTi hosts which allows for more and different sounds to be produced. If you can't get your head round it then the best way to look at it is to imagine the VSTi host acts like an operating system such as Windows which runs programs which are the VSTi instruments.

VSTi instruments come in different forms but are usually in the form of a softsynth, a synthesizer made in software as opposed to the classic way of making a synth in hardware. Some softsynths can be just as good if not better than their similar hardware versions as softsynths allow for unlimited saving space for presets and sounds as well as the ability to run multiple instances of a single synth allowing two sounds to be played simultaneously.

To allow for ultimate control over a softsynth it is best to use a MIDI controller which allows the softsynth to be used with a hardware interface. This allows for ultimate control of both playing and adjusting the sounds. Settings can be controlled on the screen using a standard mouse easily enough but playing the notes you want will be a bit more tricky.

The great thing about VSTi instruments is that they are cheaper than hardware and you won't have to find more room to store them in the place you use for music making. You don't need any extra cables, plugs or stands. The downsides are that they can take up a lot of system resources on your computer so lots of ram and a good processor are needed, especially if you plan on running multiple VSTi instruments at the same time.

VSTis designed for Windows come in the the form of a .DLL file and for the MAC a .VST file. This file needs to be placed or installed into your VSTis plugin directory or into an appropriately named folder within that directory. Your VSTis plugin directory can usually be set in the preferences of your VSTi host which will then be able to be located and load it up into its own channel ready to be sequenced.

If you don't currently own a VSTi host then I would suggest trying a small piece of software called Savihost created by Hermann Seib. This free software enables you to basically run a VSTi in a standalone state. Whilst this is not the most ideal way to run a VSTi host compared to a sequencer, it does allow you the chance to try out VSTi's before investing in a sequencer or to run them in standalone mode without loading up a full sequencer . To use Savihost just rename the Savihost.exe to the name of the .DLL file of the VSTi Instrument you want to use which should be located in the same directory as the Savihost.exe file.

Download Savihost


If you want to try out a brilliant and free (yes free) VSTi Instrument then you can't go wrong with The Claw from ReFx. You can download The Claw for the ReFX links below.

Download Claw For Windows
Download Claw For Mac
Download Claw Manual

You should hopefully now be well on your way that you can start using VSTis in your music, there are some great ones available and it opens up new doors to lots of new sounds.

Tutorial written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation