DiskFaktory - CD DVD Duplication Replication ProfessionalsJason Cole (230)  DiskFaktory` Tracker Software – The Beginning of Software Music SequencersPosted Wednesday, January 24, 2007 (1 year 163 days ago.) Viewed 79 times. Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples on a timeline across several mono channels. The interface is mainly numeric, notes are entered with a computer keyboard; with the parameters (effects, etc) being entered hexidecimally (numerically). A full song consists of several multi-channel patterns held together via a master list. There are several elements common to any tracker program: samples, notes, effects, tracks (or channels), patterns, and orders. Samples - A sample is a digital sound file of an instrument, voice, or other sound. Note - A note designates what frequency a sample is played back at. Effect - An effect is a special function applied to a note. Common effects include vibrato, arpeggio, and portamento. Track - A track is a space where a sample is played back. Modern tracker software offers a virtually unlimited amount of tracks to use. Pattern - A pattern is a grouping of simultaneously played tracks that represent a full section of the song. Order - An order is a part of a sequence of patterns which defines the layout of a song. The History of Tracker Software The term “Tracker" comes from a piece of software called “Ultimate Soundtracker", the first tracker software. It was released in 1987 by Electronic Arts for the Commodore Amiga. The general concept of how the program works; by step-sequencing samples numerically, can be found in sampling work stations as far back as the late 1970’s. Most early tracker musicians were from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia . This may be attributable to the close relationship of the tracker to the demo scene, which grew rapidly in Scandinavian countries. It grew very popular with home audio recording fans, as it did not require the expensive wavetable sound cards to function. During the 1990’s, after the invention of the Sound Blaster line of sound cards for the PC, tracker music gravitated over from the Amiga. The Gravis Ultrasound, which continued the hardware mixing tradition, with 32 internal channels and onboard memory for sample storage offered unparalleled sound quality and became the choice of discerning tracker musicians. Modern software and hardware has grown to the point of making tracker software obsolete, but it still lives on. It is used primarily in modern video games as well as a number of indie games. The tracker’s stigma of being complicated and difficult to learn is being discarded as the new tracker programs are becoming more and more user friendly. Tracking has recently enjoyed a mild resurgence as people begin to appreciate the importance of laying down music as quickly as possible. Some modern musicians that use trackers as part of their audio production process include, Brothomstates, Bogdan Raczynski, and Venetian Snares. Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Mastering offer great professional mastering services and information regarding audio engineering and CD mastering in California . Get the professional cd mastering information you are seeking now by visiting http://diskfaktory-mastering.com/evaluation.htm 
Permalink Comments (0) Audio Effects – Vocoder and Auto-TunePosted Friday, December 15, 2006 (1 year 203 days ago.) Viewed 484 times. Alright, thanks for coming back for my next installment in this article series concerning audio effects. In the past few weeks we have covered quite a few commonly used effects, such as reverb, delay, flange, and compression. These effects all have wide scopes of usage, and are probably used on a daily basis in most modern recording studios, on a wide range of different musical styles. We were discussing the basic functionality of each effect, leaving you to decide if and how you would end up using it in your own production process. Today we’ll be moving on to a couple of other types of effects, which are probably less used that the others we’ve talked about. Don’t let that fact deter you from reading any further, as these two effects; vocoder and auto-tune, are both very flexible and powerful tools for you to add to your studio arsenal. So, please strap on your learning cap and follow me. Vocoder The vocoder (its name being derived from “voice encoder") is a speech analyzer and speech synthesizer. It was originally created for use as a speech coder for the telecommunications industry in the 1930s. It was used for secure radio communication, where voice has to be digitized, encrypted and then transmitted on a narrow, voice-bandwidth channel. The way that the vocoder works is that is finds the basic carrier wave that the human voice produces. This carrier wave is at the fundamental frequency (the lowest frequency in a harmonic series). Is is then measured how its spectral characteristics are changed over time by recording someone speaking. This results in a series of numbers representing these modified frequencies at any particular time as the user speaks. To recreate speech, the vocoder simply reverses the process, creating the fundamental frequency in an oscillator, then passing it through a stage that filters the frequency content based on the originally recorded series of numbers. For musical applications, a source of musical sounds (such as a guitar) is used as the carrier, instead of extracting the fundamental frequency. The vocoder is famous for creating robotic sounding voices, and has been used in film to create; surprisingly, robot voices. Auto-Tune Auto-Tune is used for correcting pitch in vocal and instrumental performances . It works by employing digital signal processing algorithms (many which are drawn from the geophysical industry) to continuously detect the pitch of a periodic input signal and changes it to a desired pitch. The harmonization is intended to increase the musical quality of a vocal track without revealing the singing as processed. This works well in a studio environment to correct the performance of vocalists and musicians, after they have recorded their takes. It has also been widely used with extreme parameter values to create a distinct electronic vocal sound. This wraps up the 5 th installment in the DiskFaktory Mastering article series on audio effects. Today we covered a couple of the more fun to work with effects, in my opinion. I myself have learned quite a bit writing today’s article, and I hope you feel the same way. Now we’re much better prepared to create a symphony of robot voices. Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Mastering offer great professional mastering services and information regarding audio engineering and CD mastering in California . Get the professional cd mastering information you are seeking now by visiting http://diskfaktory-mastering.com/evaluation.htm
Permalink Comments (0) CD Burning – The Differences Between Track-at-once and Disc-at-oncePosted Friday, December 15, 2006 (1 year 203 days ago.) Viewed 183 times. All of us who own a personal computer have burned at least a CD or two in our days. Being able to download music and create your own mix CDs has been one of my favorite features since the beginning. Software such as iTunes and Nero has made this task even easier, pretty much doing all the work for us. All you need to do is insert your CD-R into your CD burner, pop open either one of those programs, drag in your audio files, and hit the burn button. In a couple minutes your CD is ready to go. But wait a second, what about these options like burn speed, and should I choose disc-at-once or track-at-once? Well, today we’ll be attempting to get to the bottom of one of these confusing options. We’ll be discussing what the differences are between these two CD burn modes; track-at-once and disc-at-once, and to decide which one is the right option to choose for your project. Track-At-Once This is the first option that was introduced when CD duplication software was first created. With this mode, each time a track is finished burning, the laser recording the information stops. When it stops, two run-out blocks of data are written. After that, one link block and four run-in blocks are written when the next track begins to record. With track-at-once, you may burn both data and audio on the same disc. These blocks in between tracks are not a problem when data is being read, but you may hear a click on some CD players when playing back audio. This is something that may cause you problems if you are having your disc mastered and duplicated or replicated at a professional facility. In that regard, track-at-once is best suited for CDs for personal enjoyment. Disc-At-Once This burn mode takes all of your data, be it audio data or regular data, and burns it all to disc in one big block. No gaps are added between tracks, the laser never stops burning the data to disc. This is a newer feature, which should be an option in most modern CD burning software. One option you have with disc-at-once mode, which is kind of interesting, is that you can place allows any amount of audio data (or no data at all) to be written in the "pre-gaps" between tracks. With this option, you can place track introductions between each song. This is cool, because you can create “hidden tracks" on the CD in the pre-gap areas, that are only accessible by rewinding backwards into the pre-gap area. This is the ideal choice for CD masters that will be going to a CD duplication or replication house. I hope that this fully explains these two different CD burning modes for you, or at least explains it enough for you to successfully create your next CD mix or master. I was going to leave out explaining burn speed for another article, but it really is simple enough to explain at the tail end of this article. Basically, your burn speed should be 15-30% of the drive's maximum capacity . I.e. For a 52x burner, the optimal burn speed would be from 12-16x. It’s as simple as that. Thanks for reading this article, and best wishes on your next project! Jason Cole and DiskFaktory offer great tips and information regarding CD Duplication . Get info about DVD Duplication as well by visiting http://www.diskfaktory.com/tips/CD-duplication-tutorials.asp
Permalink Comments (1) Setting Up Your Own Internet Radio StationPosted Friday, November 03, 2006 (1 year 245 days ago.) Viewed 111 times. Radio has been lagging for some years now, seeming to be a dinosaur compared to streaming internet radio, podcasting, XM satellite radio, and the plethora of other technologies that have reared their heads in the past 10 years. One of these new technologies is basically the same thing as old-school AM/FM radio, and that is internet radio. They both serve the same basic function, except with internet radio, you can set up your own station and play the music you want to play. I find this to be really exciting. So, with this knowledge in hand, how would one go about setting up their own internet radio station? Internet radio stations use streaming audio technology to deliver audio content to your listeners. Basically, streaming audio is a more efficient and effective solution for delivering audio content. Instead of someone having to download the full audio file to listen to it, it is “streamed" off of a server so the end user can listen to the content live instead of having the file’s data stored on their computer. There are special servers that deliver streaming media, and most ISPs have streaming media abilities, so you need to ask your internet provider first to make sure that you’ll be able to do so. This tutorial is concerned with setting up and working a internet radio station utilizing pre-recorded content. (You can also broadcast live, but that’s another tutorial in itself.) So, let’s jump right into what hardware you’ll need to get going. Gear you’ll need to get going: 1. CD Player – You’ll most likely be using and audio player on your computer, such as Real Player. You can set-up your playlist as you see fit. Some ISPs offer streaming radio services that utilize your media player playlist to figure out what you want played, and when to play it. You will need to check with your ISP to find out the details, as every one is different. 2.CD ripping software (To gather your audio files) – I personally use Windows Media Player to rip my audio cds, it seems to be the easiest I’ve come across. Please keep in mind that there are special rules for broadcasting copyrighted content, and you will be liable if you broadcast any copyrighted content. 3.Audio editing software – If you decide to record anything yourself, station identification bits and the like, you’ll need a microphone too. I use Sony Soundforge for any audio editing, as it’s a very simple, intuitive program. This will also benefit you if you’d like to censor any of the songs, or add anything to them. It also helps out if you want to cut down on the song’s file sizes. You can pull a .wav file into Soundforge and output a compressed MP3 file in seconds. 4. A standard hosting account with an ISP – Every ISP is different, so you’ll have to check with yours. All you really need to ask is if they support streaming internet radio, and if they do, you’re good to go. This is a very simplified guide to setting up and internet radio station, but it should be an adequate primer if you have no knowledge of streaming internet radio. There are many programs out there, free and paid, that will help you get the job done too. There is a great repository of resources over at http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/software/multimedia_goodies.html that I suggest you check out. Anyways, I learned a lot writing this article, I hope you learned just as much reading it. Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Jams offer free downloadable music videos and music lyrics. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting DFJams.com.
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