Here’s another simple but cool MIDI plugin, the pitch plugin. You could always go in and select all notes, and drag them to another pitch, but you could as well place this plugin into the track where the midi clip is running, and change it.

As an example, let’s say you have a couple of bass MIDI clips, in G major. And you have this DJ gig where the track is in F Major. You could drag in the MIDI clips, and just take down the pitch -2 semi-tones, and you are in business.

Or, you have a nice lead, but would like to use the same lead MIDI clip as a bass line, no problems, take it down -12 or -24 semitones, and key in a nice bass sound.

This plugin could also be tweaked with automation in the arrange view, you could open up the automation section and draw lines concerning pitch changes — now, I have a hard time figuring out where to use this, unless it’s a cool effect, but who knows, sometimes good music appears from experimentation.

The SW synth shown is Zebra CM, you could get it from the Computer Music DVDs, if not get one, it’s one of the best free SW synths ever released — and when you get the taste of ZebraCM, get the Zebra 2.0 version that is even more extensible.

Maybe some of you already know, but if not check out the MIDI effects racks (and presets) in the Ableton browser. Just load a track with midi info, and drag the rack or effect into the effect pane, and start tweaking.

For me, presets and racks is a good starting point, but I always go in and start tweaking them so that the outcome is not a vanilla usage of the rack or preset. But it’s a good way to get started.

Note that Ableton is one of the few DAWs where you could actually easily drag in plugins that modify MIDI information, arpeggiators, chord builders and much more. It’s kind of doable in Logic, but you need to learn the Environment world, and I wish it was a quick-start, but that will take a while to get a grasp of. While in Ableton Live, it’s a matter of drag and drop MIDI effects.

Another nice thing with these effects is that you could take older MIDI material that you saved, and reuse it, and most likely with the effects, the output is totally new. Which means that it’s good to save MIDI files from existing productions (note to myself).

Sometimes I don’t think far ahead of the possibilities in Live. I’ve been used to chop audio loops into tiny parts, and sprinkle them here and there, or take four-bar loops and chop them into smaller parts, and rearrange the entries in the arrange view, so that the song has a variation instead of this same boring four-bar loop playing over and over again.

Well, one could do the same thing with MIDI loops in Ableton Live’s arrange view! This makes it possible to make really interesting and variated MIDI sequences inside Live. Just chop and possibly set the loop point for the MIDI clips, as well, as you could loop the MIDI clips in Ableton Live as well.

Another option is to chop a MIDI part, and then go in and select all the notes and push them up an octave, five notes, or so. Or, you could just copy the MIDI track or part of it, and drag it into another MIDI track and another synthesizer. Or, this other track has an arpeggiator Ableton live plugin, or any other of the fun MIDI plugins provided by Ableton.

Then there’s the old trick of taking the bass line, copying it over to another MIDI track, and add another bass line to emphasize it, either with an octave higher synth, or some other sound. Or, you could do it multiple times, hey, now we are into the fat electro house domain!

Anyway, think of the MIDI clips as another way to take such “lego pieces” and arrange them in new configurations.

Here’s a trick that I use a lot in Ableton Live’s arrange view. Usually I want to extend multiple track loops forward in time. But instead of selecting each one and dragging them out in the timeline, I just position the loop point at the end. Then, important, select the loop point so it is hilighted. After this, if you drag one loop forward, all the other loops within the loop point will also be extended.

Very handy, saves me time.

Ok, here’s another good tool for building web sites, use open source blog software such as WordPress. Here’s an example of a site that refers to music, Shift Industries.

WordPress could also be used to set up a net label, actually something I will try to do tomorrow — just need to find a good name for it (more about that later).

Again, you need a little bit admin and configuration skills to set this up, mostly to configure database access. Otherwise it’s very easy to maintain and administer it, or, you could also get a free account over at wordpress.com, but you will not have a lot of upload space for images and music. Worst case you could always upload content on another system, but then make sure long-term that the links don’t break.

There are of course dedicated web site content management systems such as PostNuke, but I think it’s a little bit overkill for getting the data out. At my own sites I have custom made php scripts that I slowly tinker with. However for this forthcoming net label, I thought just to take it simple and just use wordpress to release material over time.

Here’s another tool that we use quite a lot, especially for the record label work and sharing of information. I was looking for way to find or write a custom database system for all the tiny bits of information that we need to share when working with label releases. But I realized after some hard thinking that I rather spend my few spare hours writing new songs than tinkering with a web-based database application that would require constant rewriting and tinkering.

So I just installed a wiki service on our account. I used usemod, been using it since the early days. You could also look at MediaWiki that Wikipedia is running. The biggest difference is that MediaWiki looks pretty, but requires database access (not hard, but another thing to worry about). While usemod is just creating files inside the directory it is installed under.

In either case, this requires some administration work and maybe a little bit custom programming, unless the ISP you are using already provides a wiki service of some kind. Also, you don’t want the whole world to know about your internal releases and other information, so you need to place this under a password protected login.

Anyway, such a freeform database service has so far worked really well for all the work we do concerning keeping track of lots of tiny bits of info — one of those things anyone running a label will notice takes more time than expected.

Actually, let’s go through some cool software that a studio or label could have use of . To start with, I really, really like Voodoopad, there’s a free version and a commercial one. What Voodoopad is a super-smart notebook application, where you could build links between the pages, similar to wiki links. It’s easy to do quick searches across all the pages, and keep track of all kinds of important information. The application also scales really well concerning adding more and more pages.

You could use Voodoopad for keeping track of all kinds of info, serial numbers, tracks on an album, notes about music releases, web urls, and so on and so on.

This is an MacOSX version, but I would think there’s something similar for the Windows platform, too.

Ok, I was watching this youtube movie set from Taxi about how easy it is to make music for TV and films (and make lots of money). I don’t know, don’t like to directly criticize someone directly, but I do think it’s good to have a uniqueness when making film or TV music, instead of just doing like anyone else.

So, as Taxi promised to make a 40 second snippet in 30 minutes, I did this in 20 minutes, composing/mixing/mastering, with me brushing my teeth during the same time, too. Here’s Taxi of the Third (right mouse on the Mac to download). Feel free to use it for any film/TV projects you have out there. It should loop fine, too.

Note I might go in and fix and make it longer, or maybe not, I’m drowning in half-made material just now…

For those who like details, this is a 16-bar song with three themes, 80 bpm, done in Logic (hence why it was so fast to put together). The Pad is an ES2 patch, the drums done with various Ultrabeat sounds, with the intention to hit the oddest syncopes you could do in a minute or two. The bass is from a Zebra 2 patch, and there are some other odd sounds from a Zebra patch, and an EXS24 effect pad. All mixed within a minute using Ozone 3. On we go.

OK, now we arrive at the ultimate way of marketing/promotion. Create your own style. If you are one of the first, you are indeed noticed, provided the style is in fashion, or is noticed.

Let’s look at some historical examples. Jimi Hendrix is for me the one that introduced the guitar-hero-improvisational style of rock. After Jimi Hendrix the guitar music was never the same. As an example, if someone has as many copycats as Jimi Hendrix, it’s a good sign.

Now, Jimi Hendrix didn’t just suddenly get his style, it was a combination of talent, hard work, and willingness to go beyond what other guitar players had done. So you can’t just invent a new style. It’s good to have talent, as well as work hard and experiment, and when you find the formula, fine tune it.

It also means that launching a new style is not a matter of days, it could take months and even years. Furthermore, the more influences you get, the better chance of building a new style, as it’s close to impossible to just invent something, most if not all of music is based on mixing together other styles.

Yes, I’m working on a new style, but it’s not yet complete, so I better not talk about it until the material is available!

Maybe I should switch over to another topic for a while… Let’s go through some interesting ways to use Ableton Live.

Here’s another marketing and promotion tool that works really well: talent.

You know, it’s very, very easy to put together electronica-based tracks today. Long time ago I showed my 8-year-old son how ACID the audio application works, and he put together his own CD with five songs made of various loops. It was OK for an 8-year old musician, but nothing super-astounding.

Nowadays he’s into Flash animation and graphics, and here’s really where his talent is showing, as it’s really hard to put together interesting animation material.

So. To battle in the market wars of today and in future, with millions of tracks released each year, you need to be unique. If you have a talent, especially something that few others have, and it takes a lot of effort to put together, you have an edge. So use it.

One example is voice and singing, and it does not even need to be this kind of perfect voice, more a voice with a character. If you have this, and you know how to put together interesting lyrics, you have a big edge compared with the majority of electronica producers that don’t sing or use voice elements.

Another example is just the artistry of playing instruments, either keyboards or any other kind of odd and interesting instruments. If you could for example use personal bass lines in productions by playing electrical bass, that makes a difference. Or just plain good old chemistry of very good keyboard playing as part of the song, compared with a loop that runs over and over again with 1/16 notes lined up one after another.

Or, if you are a good arranger, go for it, work like any of the good movie composers, make arrangements special and big with interesting elements. Or, if you are visually inclined, work with artwork or videos for YouTube with your music material. And so on.

I do believe that in the age of so many content producers creating material the artists has to be unique. And having plus developing a talent (usually the biggest part is to develop it out) will become more and more critical concerning marketing and promoting your artistry.

Another way to get attention and marketing is to be on a mission. Passion is good. If you ever do job interviews, half is about the passion in the eyes of the one who wants the job. The most glimmer in the eyes, the better for me when I interview. Passion means that such a candidate will put in hours if needed, do team work, do whatever it takes to ship the product, and so on.

Going back to our promotion and marketing track. Someone who has a cause, is on a mission, has a very clear focus. This means that the output and the outcome is very defined. It also makes such projects to stick out from the majority of mediocre material, even if the music is not so elegant, just the cause is the selling point.

Let’s look at some examples. Let’s say someone thinks that drums&bass is the most excellent music, but since Photek days few if any have dared to extend this musical genre. So this person is on a mission to make drum&bass the most excellent music out there, so even average consumers will get interested in this music.

The result is producting such material, finding artists, starting a label dedicated to this cause, interviews, club events, grooming new talent, and so on.

Even better, something like this might start a new musical style that is suddenly very popular, and those who were the pioneers.

It could also happen the other way around, it will take years for this to take off, or there are no visible results along the way. This is again where the passion and dedication will work out long term. So do not worry. Patience will pay off. Even if there are few results, you have an inner peace because you worked on something you truly believed in.

Continuing how to market oneself, and be different. The first obvious angle is to take something that has been done over and over again, but this time do it differently.

Let’s take a topic such as DJ mixes. We are drowning in mixes available online. If I go up on the proton radio forum, I’m drowning in listings and listings of new mixes available from many, many DJs. It’s extremely hard to be heard and seen in such a crowded field of available material. It also shows this new world order where most consumers are producers, and like to produce material, to other producers who also like to produce material.

So you want to do mixes and get others to listen to them? Ok — be different. Examples: make mixes that only have ancient tracks from the eighties with your own drum loop patterns everywhere. Scan for new material from net labels, spend a couple of weeks finding really interesting and totally unheard tracks, and release these. Make 2-minute cuts between every track. Make mixes where a large part of the instruments are real ones, sampled. Make theme-based mixes, such as sunset mixes, mixes about cars…

Make AAC-enhanced files with images embedded, and chapter sections, similar to the extended podcast format. Invent a new kind of dance movement and make mixes around that one. Make a mix where 80% of the material is actually from your own music. Use tools like Ableton Live to the extreme, back to back mixing of tracks is boring, anyone could do that.

And so on and so on. There are examples of similar mixes done by artists such as: Trentemoller, Steve Porter, James Holden, and so on.. There’s a reason these DJ/Mixer/Producers make mixes that people pay attention to.

No more Les Djinns mixes :-).

OK, here’s the first in a series of promotion/marketing posts.

Ok, just now we have a musical world where there’s so much music, commercial and non-commercial, so that consumers have a hard time finding new music and new artists.

Usually they end up purchasing the same old stuff they had before due to this huge platitude of choice.

But those old artists also had problems long time ago even when the amount of artists and bands were much smaller in scope.

So! Be different. If you sound different, have a new angle, new kind of music, it bubbles up automatically, due to the force of it being different. It’s that’s simple. If sound different and unique, it’s your best marketing tool, whether it’s a mix, a remix, new tracks, a new scene show, video editing, movies, art, writing blogs. Be lucky if you are different, just getting there is a lot of pain, and usually at the end you need a lot of courage to be different, too — as the pioneers usually have arrows in their back they also have first access to new land.

If there’s one thing I wanted this blog posting to elevate, it’s just to be different and unique. Start there with your promotion and marketing.

I might even add that in this new age of postmodernist reconstruction of content over and over again, so many computers and little talent, you have to be different in order to have a voice.

Next we will talk about all kinds of ways to be different, even commercially viable solutions.

I’ve been using 24-bit 44.1kHz for any audio material since the first MacOSX computer running audio applications (a 2 x 867MHz PowerMac). I never had any performance problems, and it’s really good I didn’t go down the road of creating and using 16-bit samples. The additional 8 bits give far more dynamics range.

The upper end, whether 44.1kHz or 48kHz, or even higher, is a big topic of discussion, especially in the mastering side. Some think it’s good to have more higher end for especially software synths so that any filtering will happen far beyond the hearing range. Others think it’s overkill. I could live with 44.1KHz, it maps nicely down to CD and MP3/AAC release versions, so there’s one less sampling I need to need or worry about.

Anyway, with most of the material as 24-bit or MIDI instruments, the output needs to at some point be rendered down to 16-bit for CD, MP3/AAC and so on products. This is where you really need to do dithering of the 24-bit material down to 16-bit in the the final rendering. Logic Pro has excellent dithering algorithms you could select. Of some reason Ableton Live still does not have any. I’m using Izotope Ozone for the final dithering from Ableton Live, myself.

So what is dithering, really? The Dithering with Ozone Guide over at the Izotope web site has excellent explanations what is happening. But shortly, if you take down 24-bit to 16-bit, the software needs to approximate values, so it doe something like average, and it makes the transition points very digital and harsh — believe it or not, adding noise up there will make the digital curves smoother, so the ear hears the final result more pleasing.

While you are at that web page, download and read the Mastering with Ozone Guide as well — even if it’s using Ozone as the example, it has tons of excellent advise about mastering, I try to re-read this document every three months or so to keep my mind fresh about mastering issues.

OK, enough mastering posts — marketing next!

Maybe I’ve written about this before, but a lot of work with mixing/mastering has to do with frequency control, just let the right frequencies rule. If each piece of audio fits into a nice niche in the frequency spectrum, and are well-balanced, the whole sounds good. This compared with a muddy final production where everything is fighting about the same, usually middle-range, frequencies.

Another area to work on is the low-end and high end. Few instruments in underground dance music needs to operate below 100Hz — kicks and bass, and even bass does not need to go that low. Maybe in some other productions with natural instruments and Hi Fi you want more energy in the low end to hear all kinds of small nuances, but with dance music you really want the kick to operate with some bass lines down there.

If unsure, put in a high-pass filter on a track and wipe down and see if you hear anything down there. Even if it’s small rumble, all the rumble together makes the low end muddy. This is why I have a starting point template in Ableton Live where most audio tracks have the AU High Pass filter set to cut off at 100Hz.

For the high end, sometimes you also want to cut of the higher frequencies with a low-pass filter. There are some synths in some configurations where you could hear anti-aliasing, so you could chop that off using a low-pass filter.

Another trick I use to annotate the low-end is to have a multi-band compressor operate in the low end, below 120Hz or so, where my drum and bass is operating. This makes the low end pump, something that is very nice with dance music. One has to be careful with this, though. Too much could be too much.