February, 2010
Instant gratification is always nice, but taking a few steps to set up your studio before you start recording can pay big dividends when inspiration strikes.
By Emile Menasché
Digital recording tools are amazing creative aids, but they can also be distracting or intimidating. How many of us can say we truly make maximum use of our gear? Often, we get very comfortable with a few familiar features and leave the rest to the side. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if you're getting the end results you're looking for.
However, the next time you feel a little stuck creatively, you might want to take a break from fighting writer's block and spend a little time with your gear. From learning keyboard shortcuts and configuring your MIDI controllers to setting up templates and organizing your audio connections, there are many ways to speed up your workflow so you're ready when the muse comes calling.
1 Use a Patch bay: I'm always surprised to see home studios full of quality audio interfaces—but lacking a central hub for audio connections. A patch bay lets you connect all your gear for its most common role, while still allowing the flexibility to change those connections—without having to crawl behind a rack or mixing board.
Patch bays come in a variety of connection types, but 1/4" balanced or unbalanced is typical for home use. Plugs are arranged in two rows; each has 16-24 columns with connectors both in front and in back. In a "normalled" connection, the audio plugged into a connector on the rear top row automatically feeds the connector
directly below it (Figure 1). This lets you route the output of a mic preamp to, say, Input 1 on your audio interface without having to patch it in every time. The corresponding plugs on the front row let you break that normalled connection. To feed the mic preamp to channel 3, for example, plug a patch cord to the top row of the
mic preamp's column, and run it to the bottom row of channel 3's column. Patch bays can also be used to plug in audio effects, patch in an old tape deck, and more.
2 Get in control: The keyboard may be the dominant instrument for MIDI performance and recording, but guitarists, drummers, classical string, and wind players
don't have to do without their chosen instruments when using a sequencer with synths and samplers.
Guitarists and bassists have two basic options: Buy an instrument equipped with a synth interface (such as Fender's Roland Ready Strat and models from Godin, Parker, Brian Moore and others); or add a pickup such as Roland's GK-3 (Figure 2) to an existing instrument. In either case, these pickup systems can sense each string individually, and output a data signal through a 13-pin connection, which can be used to drive guitar synths or MIDI converters. Roland, as well as German manufacturer Axon, make devices that can generate sound and/or trigger any external MIDI device.
Percussionists also have a slew of options, which we can divide into two categories: compact systems with multiple pads (usually arranged in a grid); and systems that offer the layout and feel of a complete drum kit. Companies like KAT, Roland, Yamaha and Alesis have been especially active in electronic drums, which have become increasingly sophisticated in the last few years. Drum company Pearl recently introduced a new E-Pro Live electronic system designed to turn acoustic drums into an electronic kit. Drummers can also use external triggers (Roland, Pintech, and D-Drum are among the leading manufacturers).
Those traditional rock/pop instruments aren't the only ones that can speak MIDI. Electric violin maker Zeta makes several pitch-to-MIDI converter systems that allow orchestral string players to trigger sounds, while Yamaha (WX5) and Akai (EWI-4000) provide control for wind players.
The key to using one of these controllers is taking the time to optimize it for your sequencer and synths/samplers. Almost any controller will work to some degree with minimal setup—if it sends MIDI note data, for example, it will trigger sounds. But capturing expression in your playing may require more tweaking, and usually this is a two part operation that involves both the controller and the receiving devices. Note that not all settings work for every application, so you'll probably want to store a number of presets in both the controller and the receiving devices.
3 Use knobs and sliders: Whether or not you have a dedicated control surface, it pays to map any knobs or faders on your MIDI controller to your software. The
bad news is that this can take a little bit of time. Many devices come pre-configured for various applications, but to use them, you may have to switch modes on your controller (and if you're like me, you probably don't remember which esoteric key combination accomplishes this). The good news is that most software can "learn" a control and map it to the function(s) of your choosing. This can range from using faders to control mixer volume to setting up a foot controller
to start and stop playback.
Keeping an index card (or several) close at hand eliminates the need to remember your setup. For even more convenience, there's M-Audio's new Axiom Pro 61 (Figure 3) which automatically adjusts to various software applications; you don't need to reconfigure it every time you switch apps.
4 MAP YOUR QWERTY KEYBOARD: All the major Digital Audio Workstations—and a number of other music applications—let users speed their work with QWERTY keyboard shortcuts. Getting to know these can save you time, especially when it comes to things like dropping markers, setting loops, zooming in and out, switching among
windows, and toggling among edit modes. Some programs—Logic being one example— offer advanced hot-key functions that aren't available in any menu.
As with MIDI mapping, most DAWs allow you to customize the hot keys to your liking. This is especially useful when you're switching regularly between two programs that, by default, have different shortcut key assignments (for example, Logic and Pro Tools). For many functions, you can define the hot keys so that the same combinations do the same things in both programs.
If you want to take advantage of these key commands but don't want to spend the next six months trying to memorize them, you can buy specially labeled keyboards showing the default commands for various pieces of software. You can also create your own or get a removable overlay that lets you label an existing keyboard (especially handy if you have a laptop or switch among several apps). A company called LogicKeyboard offers a range of keyboards and overlays for music, video and
graphics programs (Figure 4).
5 Create Templates: Do you regularly use the same instrumentation when you're writing? Are you still wasting time creating a fresh project and configuring the tracks every time you start something new? Pre-configured template files, which automatically load the settings you use most often, will save your time. And while many applications come with some pre-existing templates, there's nothing like creating a foundation that matches your own working style.
You might, for example, use a template file to assign each input on your audio interface to a specific track, add the software instruments and effects plug-ins you find most inspiring, preconfigure connections to ReWire applications, and preload a library of drum loops that you can use in place of a click track. You might even take the extra step of labeling the tracks for the instruments you typically use (vocals, bass, acoustic guitars, etc.) Why? Because DAWs usually name audio files based on their respective track names; if something happens to the project file, you can at least refer to the audio file name and have an idea of what's on the track, instead of a generic tag like "Audio1. wav." Pre-naming allows you to start recording immediately and saves you from the awkward task of typing while playing while you're at your instrument (or ready to sing).
6 Save channel presets: While templates are great when you're getting started, most of us make many changes as a project progresses. Sometimes, we stumble on an ideal sound that we know will work on another project. When this happens, take the time to create and save a preset and store it in your plug-in's file menu. Many third-party plug-ins store such settings in a central location, so that they're available from any DAW on your system.
If you've created a killer signal chain that includes more than one plug-in, your software may allow you to save the entire chain as a channel strip (Figure 5). This preset will not only include all of the software instruments and/or effects loaded into the channel, it will also save the current setting of each parameter.
Combined with a collection of templates, this can be a huge time saver. You can create the basic framework with the template and fine tune it with the channel presets.
7 USE A FILE MANAGER Modern music software comes with tons of content, such as loops and samples. Even if your approach to recording involves little pre-existing material, it's a good bet your hard drive(s) are full of audio files. When you're working on a specific project like an album, this isn't such a big deal; modern DAWs all have decent features that help you track and manage the various audio files and presets that go with a particular song. But if you also use your DAW as a sketch pad, you may find yourself with a whole lot of material you can't find or identify without some major digging. You can use a cataloging program like Portent's DiskTracker (Mac OS X) or Soft Prime's Advance File Organizer (Windows) to scan your discs and build a database—especially useful when you want to know which removable drive holds that incredible jam you captured in 2008.
