Computer Music Sampler

8.2GB

£6.25 / November 2012 / CM184Construct killer DJ

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2CAudio’s third and most advancedalgorithmic reverb B2 (VST/AU/RTAS) utilises

twin reverb engines (based on their Breeze plug-in) that can be configured to create a wide rangeof internal processing structures. It slips inneatly alongside its stablemate Aether as a high-quality alternative, different both structurallyand algorithmically, and targeted equally atthose who like a high level of control and thosewho are happy just to exploit an impressivelibrary of over 670 presets.

The top-left corner of the GUI houses buttonsfor changing views and switching between thetwo engines, A and B. To the right of these arethe three main graphical displays, which showreverb time, the effects of the damping and EQcontrols, and an input/output graph for eitherthe Attitude control (see the box below) or thedynamics section. Engine A’s settings are shownin blue, while engine B’s are green, so both arealways visible in the main displays.

Below the displays lie the Size and Timeknobs, which determine the size of the virtualspace and the reverb time in milliseconds. TheGeometry section contains parameters affectingthe shape of the reverb tail’s amplitudeenvelope, and there are additional controls foradjusting density and diffusion, the rate anddepth of modulation from the built-in LFO, andknobs for setting the Damp, EQ and Attitudeparameters. There’s a Balance slider for setting

the mix balance between the two engines, and adynamics section featuring gate andcompressor effects. A handy global limiter alsoacts as a soft clipper and saturator, beefing upthe sound and keeping levels under control.

Call an ambienceB2’s modular, dual-engine architecturefacilitates the creation of complex combinationeffects within a single instance of the plug-in.While Aether takes a more ‘traditional’ approachto reverb, in B2 you can enable or disableindividual components as required, a structurethat not only allows great sonic control, but alsomaximises CPU efficiency. Strolling through theDual Engine presets demonstrates somepractical applications of this system. Some, likeAether, use one engine for early reflections andthe other for the longer reverb tail; some deploytotally different reverb effects in each engine,arranged in parallel; others use both engines inseries. A further category reverses the stereochannels of one engine, for a discrete, four-channel reverb capable of generating amazinglywide stereo effects.

As you’d expect from the makers of Aether( 156, 10/10) and Breeze ( 167, 10/10), B2sounds fantastic. Lose yourself in the endlesslibrary of presets (accessed via a slick, filterablebrowser) and it doesn’t take long to realise thatthis is a spectacular plug-in capable of

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B2 $250When is a reverb not a reverb? When it’s a “spatial processor”.Marketing BS or technological innovation? Let’s find out…

VerdictFor Fantastic soundEnormous degree of controlTwo independent reverb enginesBuilt-in limiter and saturation effectsMassive preset library

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Twoof the standout features that reallymakeB2 thepowerful beast that it is are theAttitude andCascade controls.

TheAttitudeknobaddsnon-lineardistortion to the signal,with an availableselectionof four different placementmodesand33distortion types.

TheCascade slider enables adjustmentof the engine routing.With the slider set at0 theAandBengines are arranged inparallel, while at 100 they’re fully in series,the output of engineA feeding the input of

engineB. At all points in between, amixofparallel and serial routing is established.Thismeans you could take an input signalinto theAengine, useAttitude togenerateextra harmonics, cascade the resultingeffect into theBengine, then addmoreAttitude to this sound, for extremelycomplexdistortions and intermodulation.Although theCascade control is also foundinAether 1.5, the results are unique toB2,thanks to its two identical engines (Aether’sengines are different to eachother).

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producing an incredibly broad range of effects,from subtle mastering ambiences to zanydistorted echoes, via sumptuous large halls andeverything in between. Whether you’re using itfor music production or sound design, B2delivers anything you could ask of it. With somany excellent presets included and anarchitecture that enables truly microscopicediting, not to mention the dynamics section,the Attitude control and that great-soundingglobal limiter, 2CAudio have come up withsomething that really is very, er, spatial.

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96 / Computer musiC / November 2012

> reviews / 2caudio b2

OFF

LINEMIXINGIN

ABLE

TONLIVE

Originally a tool for arrangingsamples on the fly, Ableton

Livehas evolved into anendlessly flexibleDAW, suitablefor everything fromproducingcomplete tracks toDJing.Onetask that it’s particularly adept atis creatingDJ-stylemixes“offline” – that is, at your ownpace,without thepressure of areal-timeperformance.Whilesome turntable traditionalistsmight not approve, this sort ofmixinghas a longhistory, datingall thewayback to the taped“megamixes” of the80s.

The advantages of offline mixingare many. You can make your mixesabsolutely perfect in terms ofarrangement, tune selection,timing, EQ and volume tweaking.It’s a very different vibe to therough and ready feel of a live mix,but working offline enables theproduction of beautifully craftedmixes that listeners will enjoy timeand time again.

Making your mixes using acomputer rather than decks hasother advantages, too. Byproducing them on your laptop,you can make good use of timethat might otherwise be wasted –lengthy train journeys and rainylunch breaks fly by when you’reworking on a bangin’ mix!

Another bonus is that, if youhave the patience, it’s possible tocreate mixes at a level of intricacythat wouldn’t be possible live,giving you the ability to switch

between genres with ease andeven blur the lines between mixand mash-up by deeply processingand editing tracks, not to mentionthrowing in disparate acapellavocals and samples.

In this tutorial, we’ll show youhow to warp and mix tracksseamlessly in Ableton Live. Even ifyou’ve a Live novice, you’ll bemaking amazing mixes before youknow it! If you don’t have Livealready, then you can download thedemo version for Mac or PC fromwww.ableton.com.

Videos of the tutorials areprovided on the DVD, and we’veeven provided the two bass-heavyhouse tracks used in them in theTutorial Files folder, so that youcan follow along step by step.

Download the videos andtutorial files on your PC/Mac atvault.computermusic.co.uk

download

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76

Before we can make a mix in Live, weneed some music. If you’ve got the

paper version of the magazine, copy theTutorial Files/CMFocus folder onto yourhard drive. If you downloaded the filesfrom our Vault system, they’ll already beon your hard drive. Load up Ableton Live –if you don’t have it, the save-disabled (butotherwise fully functional) demo versioncan be had at www.ableton.com.

1Live’s Session view is great for DJinglive, but for making mixes offline, the

Arrangement view is the place to be. Toswitch to the Arrangement view, pressTab or click the button in the top righthand corner.

2

By default, Live automatically warpslonger tracks, although it often

doesn’t get the warping exactly right.Select the clip and its settings will appearin the panel at the bottom of the interface.There are warp markers all over thewaveform and the Warp button isilluminated – Live has indeed warped thetrack already.

4Live will automatically timestretch clipsto fit the project tempo. Turn the tempo

up to 130bpm, so that’s it’s closer to theoriginal tempo of the music we’re using, bydragging the Tempoparameter in the topleft hand corner of the display.

5

Consequently, the higher metronomenote that indicates the first beat of the

bar is out of the sync with the track. Let’sfix this. Drag above the waveform displayin the sample editor to zoom in on thestart of the track. You’ll see that beat 1 onthe timeline is aligned with the secondbeat of the track.

7Right-click the small grey triangle (atransient marker) above the first beat

(at the extreme left of the waveform) andselect Set 1.1.1 Here. Drag the transientmarker above beat 1.2 to beat 1. The beatsand the metronome should now beperfectly in sync.

8

> Step by step Pitchshifting effects with Polar and Pulsar

The Arrangement view will be familiarif you’ve used just about any DAW:

tracks are stacked vertically and theplayhead moves from left to right as thetracks play back. Drag Push It Higher.mp3 into the Arrangement view.

3

Click the Metronome button to theright of the Tempo, so that it

illuminates. This will help us work outwhether or not Live has warped the trackcorrectly or not. Play the project back byhitting the Spacebar or clicking the Playbutton. We can hear that the track isplaying at the correct speed, but Livehasn’t placed the first downbeat correctly.

6

Turn the metronome off. You mightnotice that the quality of the audio is a

bit off. This is due to the timestretchingbeing applied the track. We can remedythis by changing the Warp mode(currently set to Beats) to Re-pitch. Thishas the side effect of increasing the pitchof the track, which is now being resampledrather than timestretched.

9

videotutorial

> Step by step Warping a track in Ableton Live

videotutorial

tutorial

Files

November 2012 / Computer musiC / 77

focus / make music now <

We’ve warped the track, but if youlisten to the breakdown section that

starts at bar 9, you’ll hear that the slighttiming fluctuations caused by the warpmarkers make the pitch of the trackinconsistent, resulting in a less thanperfect-sounding vocal performance!

1That won’t do at all, so we need totighten up the warping manually.

Right-click beat 1’s warp marker and selectWarp fromHere (Straight). This warpsthe track from just a single warp marker,maintaining a fixed tempo throughout,which eliminates the pitch fluctuations.This only works with sequenced materialthat doesn’t vary in tempo at all (which isfine for most modern dance tunes).

2

> Step by step Fixing warping problems

To ensure the timing of the warp iscorrect and does not drift towards the

end of the song, zoom in on bar 104, whichis the last bar of the beat section, and dragthe transient marker so that it sits exactlyon beat 104. Turn on the metronome andplay the track back. It’s perfectly in time,with no dodgy-sounding tempo changes!

3

videotutorial

Now that we’ve got one trackperfectly synced, let’s add another.

Move Push It Higher so that it starts onthe first beat of the project, then dragVortex.mp3 (by Cubs, aka FeaturesEditor Tim Cant – hear his latest releasesat www.soundcloud.com/timcant) fromthe CMFocus folder onto the secondtrack. Live will automatically turn this froma MIDI track to an Audio track.

1Live will again guess the tempo of thetrack correctly, but it won’t get the

positioning of the first beat right. Repeatthe same procedure as before: Set 1.1.1on the first beat, then select WarpFromHere (Straight). If you like, you can setthe Warp mode to Re-pitch, but as theproject tempo is 130bpm anyway, thisisn’t strictly necessary.

2

We want to mix out of Push It Higherby bar 89, where the half-speed

section kicks in. The intro to Vortex beforethe breakdown lasts for 16 bars, so dragVortex over so that it starts on bar 73.When you play back from bar 73, you’llhear the tracks play back perfectly in sync.

4We’re doing fine in terms of timing, butplaying two loud tracks over the top of

each other like this results in the masteroutput clipping. The easiest way to dealwith this is to turn both channel’s levelsdown to -6dB.

5

> Step by step Mixing tracks together

Live now gets the tempo of the trackslightly out, at 130.26 rather than

130bpm. To set it straight, zoom in andmove the ‘boom’ on the last beat of thetrack to beat 193. Now this track is syncedup correctly. Let’s hear what the twotracks sound like when played together.

3

This makes our mix a little quiet, butwe can get some volume back by

putting Live’s Limiter effect on the Masteroutput and turning the Gain up a bit. Thegain reduction meter will show you howhard the gain is working. Let’s leave theGain at 3dB for the moment. You may wellfind that you get better results using athird-party mastering limiter.

6

videotutorial


> make music now / focus

So far we’ve got two tracks playing insync with each other, but it’s not

exactly a silky smooth mix, and the tracksaren’t in key with each other. We can usevolume and EQ automation to make themix sound much better. Add a Utility effectto the second audio track.

1

This makes the second track come inmuch more smoothly. The section of

the mix after bar 89 doesn’t sound great,and we’ll get much more impact if we’vemixed entirely to Vortex by that point.Drag to select all of Push It Higher afterbar 89, and press the Del key to delete it.

3Add an EQ Three effect to the firstaudio track, and click the GainMid dial

to bring up its automation envelope.Double-click at bars 85 and 89 to createautomation breakpoints, and drag the oneat bar 89 down to -12dB, so that the midsget gradually attenuated over the fourbars preceding the breakdown. With Live’sEQ Three, we can mimic the sort of brutalEQ cuts that are possible with a DJ mixer.

4

> Step by step Making a smoother mix with automation

Click the Gain parameter on the Utilityeffect and its automation lane will

appear on the track. Double-click theenvelope where the breakdown begins, atbar 89, to create a breakpoint there at0dB. Next, double-click the envelope atthe start of the track, at bar 73, and dragthis breakpoint down to -35dB.

2

The mix is sounding smoother, but thebeep from Vortex is still clashing with

Push It Higher. Add an EQ Three to theVortex audio channel, and this time set themid level to automate up from -12dB at bar81 to 0dB at bar 89. This helps make theclash less obvious.

5A good way to help the incoming trackhave more of an impact is to take out

some of the bass in the previous track.Select the first audio track and click theGainLow parameter on the EQ Threeeffect. Set the automation envelope to gofrom 0dB at bar 85 to -9dB at bar 89.

6

In the mixwith Cutline

videotutorial

Genre-hoppingbassmusic boffinsCutline have amassed a followingof over30,000Facebook fans, thanks in part totheir excellent promotionalmixes,whicharemade inAbleton Live.We caught upwith them for a chinwag.

:Whydoyoumakepromomixes inAbleton Live?CL: “For us,makingpromomixes inAbleton is great because youhave somuch control, especially over things liketempoandmusical key.Wemix lots ofgenres, so being able tomashupanelectro house trackwith adubstep trackandkeepeverything in key is vital for us.Wealsomake littlemash-ups to switchtemposduringour live sets,whichworksreallywell.”

: Howwould youmakeamixdifferently offline than in a live setting?CL: “Themaindifference is probably thatyou can take a lotmore timewhenyou’reoffline, getting every soundandmixperfect.We found that trying to replicatethat level of perfectionwhenDJingwasn’tmuch fun. Nowweplay live offUSBdrives, simply because it’s easy andcompact, butweknowyou canachieveamazing thingswhenDJingwithAbleton, if youput thework in.”

:What tips doyouhave for peoplemakingmixes in Live?CL: “Trynot to get frustrated thatAbleton is incapable of finding the firstbeat of a track accurately! Seriously,though, just try tomake thebest of thetechnology. You can really do someinteresting thingswithAbleton.Mash-ups, tempochanges, edits…all of thesethings are just a fewclicks away.”

:Whatmakes agoodDJmix?CL: “For us, it’s about keeping thingsinteresting all theway through. There’s adefinite flowand rhythm to aCutlineDJmix,whichgenerally translates in ourlive shows, too. Themost importantthing is to representwhoyouare andwhat youdo to thebest of your ability.Then let other peopleworry aboutwhether it’s goodor not.”

Findmore about Cutline atwww.facebook.com/cutlinemusic,and checkout their tracks andmixes atwww.soundcloud.com/cutline.


focus / make music now <

Tidy automationAs well as volume and EQ, filter automation can beanother useful tool to help you make slicker-sounding mixes. Whenever you automate aparameter, though, remember to return it to itsdefault value after the mix, so that’s it reset for thenext track on that channel. Either that, or use a newchannel for every track you add.

Sync by tuningIf you’re having real trouble getting Live to correctlyguess the tempo of a track, a quick way to get itroughly right is to turn off warp mode, then use thefine tune control (Detune) to get the track as wellsync’ed as possible. Turn warp mode back on whenyou’re done. Live will ask you if you want to add warpmarkers to keep the current timing. Select Yes, thenfine tune the warp markers manually.

Drift correctionSometimes, when two tracks are broadly in sync,there may still be slight audible drift. You can fix thisby turning off snap (Cmd/Ctrl+4) and manuallyshifting the next Warp marker of the track that’sdrifting to get the transient back in line with the beatgrid. Remember to make sure the part of the trackafter the Warp marker you’ve moved is still in time!

> Step by step Six top tips for making mixes in Ableton Live

Tempo controlSometimes Live will detect a track’s tempo at half ordouble its actual speed. To correct this, use the HalveOriginal Tempo (:2) and DoubleOriginal Tempo(*2) buttons in the Clip editor.

PitchshiftingYou can use Live’s pitchshifting in any Warp modeapart from Re-pitch to get the pitch of one track inkey with another. However, this will causeincreasingly unpleasant artefacts the further youtake the audio away from its original pitch. If possible,try to organise your mix so that the adjacent tracksare naturally sympathetic to each other, thusavoiding the need to pitchshift anything.

Work smarterA crucial part of making a good mix is working outwhich tracks will work together well. The mostefficient way to do this is to warp all the tracks youwant to use, then audition different combinations tohear which mixes sound best before arranging them.You can then fine tune the arrangement andautomation to get the slickest mix possible!

Dealing withtempo driftGenerally, dancemusic that’s beencreatedusingnothingbut electronic/software instruments and sequencingwill be easy towarp, as the tempowon’tdrift or change, and the arrangementwill probably stick to a rigid structure.

Older tracks canbemuchmorechallenging, for a number of reasons.Tunes created in older sequencers (orwithout a sequencer at all) candrift quitedrastically in tempo. This canbecompounded if they’ve been rippedfromvinyl,which can introduce its ownsubtle tempo fluctuations that youwouldn’t noticewhen listening to thetrack in isolation. Also, older tracks aremore likely to have sections of irregularlength,which canbe confusing tomix.

So, howdowedealwith tracks likethis? Let’s take anexample of a dancenumber createdbefore the advent of thesoftware-based studio.ControversybyPrince is based arounda standard4/4rhythmwith no tempochanges orsections of irregular length, soAbletonLivewill guess its tempocorrectly, andit’ll soundokaywhenplayedback alongwith Live’smetronome.However, if youattempt tomix itwith another track,you’ll notice that thewarping isn’tperfect. The trackwill sound loose andragged – surely notwhat Prince intendedfor his super-taut grooves!

Themost straightforward, thoughlong-winded, solution to this is to playthe trackback alongwith another tune,or Syncing 16ths.wav in the TutorialFiles/CM Focus folder. This tight drumloopwill highlightwarpingimperfections in away that Live’s 4/4metronomewon’t. Adjust the timingofthe errant beats yourself, and eventuallyyou’ll have awarpedversion thatwillsoundgreat in themix! Note that trackswith a swunggroovewill obviously veerheavily away fromrigid 16th-notes, sobear this inmindwhenwarping.

Whenworkingwith tracks that drift intempo, youmay find that using theRe-pitchWarpmode introduces audiblevariations in pitch. Theonlywayaroundthis is to gowith anothermode. In thecaseof older tracks, ComplexProwillalmost certainly give you thebestbalancebetweenglitch-freetimestretching andmaintaining thetransients of theoriginal.

When it comes to trackswith irregularnumbers of bars – or in the caseof a tracksuch asChakaKhan’s I Feel ForYou,where the timing completelydisintegrates in places thanks to crazytape editing – the solution isn’t so clearcut.We suggest cuttingout the sectionsthat deviate from the regular eight-bargroove, andusing fades if necessary tosplice the remaining sections of the tracktogether in as seamless amanner aspossible. Not an easy task, though.


> make music now / focus

WhenApple first released the iPad, our dreamofa truly professional handheldDAW looked like it

could finally become reality.Well, itmight havetaken two-and-a-half years and twogenerations ofhardware tohappen, butWaveMachine Labs’awesomeAuria hasmadeour dreams come true atlast. Aswe surmised in lastmonth’s review, it reallydoes turn your iPad into aportable productionpowerhouse,with just about everything youneed torecord, edit andmixprofessional-sounding tracks.

Sure, there have been other iPad apps that couldrecord audio (and some that do MIDI, too, which Auriadoesn’t yet – it’s scheduled to in a future update, thedevelopers say), but Auria is the first to offer certainthings that serious desktop composers have come toexpect. Things like VST plug-ins from names we knowand trust, including WaveMachine Labs themselves,FabFilter and PSP Audioware. In fact, the latter areresponsible for Auria’s superb ChannelStrip andMasterStrip sections, one of which can be found oneach and every mixer channel.

Other headline features include full automation,support for multiple simultaneous audio inputs,plug-in delay compensation, pitch correction andcomprehensive audio editing. Obviously, there’s a lotgoing on here and, truth be told, although the interfaceis very well designed, it can be a lot to take in,particularly for the novice recordist taking their firststeps in music production.

Auria exciterWhether you’re a total beginner or a seasoned pro,we’re here to help you get started with Auria. We’ll takeyou step-by-step through the recording process,showing you how to use many of Auria’s most powerfulfeatures. We’ve been putting the app through its pacessince its release, and have already completed severalfull productions on the thing. Yes, it really is possible,and the software itself sounds truly incredible. We’llshow you plenty of the tricks we’ve learned about it inthe process, including how to get the most out of itgiven the CPU restraints of its host device. We’ll showyou how to record, mix, freeze and automate yourtracks, and how to get them out of Auria and into theears of your ravenous fans. So grab your iPad, slide tounlock, put up a mic (or four) and let’s get tracking!

Grab your iPad and join us as weexplore the innermost secrets ofthis miraculous go-anywhere DAW

AuriA

Download this article’s contenton your PC or Mac at

vault.computermusic.co.uk

download

The guide to


> Step by step First steps with Auria

Auria has no synthesisers, samplers orany other instruments, nor any way to

trigger them as of yet. This is pure audio.However, we can grab some synthy stufffrom another iPad app via AudioCopy/Paste. Here we’ve copied a shortarpeggiator jam we made in the superbSunrizer synth.

1Now we launch Auria. It opens to themixer window of the last project we

worked on. We go to Menu and selectNewProject. This brings up a dialog inwhich we can title our new song, choosethe sample rate and the number of trackswe think we might need to start with. Wechoose 8, but we can add more later.

2Since our prerecorded audio featuresan arpeggiator pattern, we’d like to

match Auria’s tempo to it, so that the barand beat divisions line up correctly. Weknow that the initial patch was recorded at95bpm. Go to Menu and select Settings.Tap the Tempo setting and enter yourdesired tempo in beats per minute.

3

While you’re in the Settings menu, takea look at some of the other things you

can adjust. You can, for example, adjustmixer quality, activate auxiliary delaycompensation, activate record monitoring,adjust SMPTE frame rate and much more.We activate record monitoring and set themetronome to play during recording.

4Tap the X in the upper-right corner toreturn to the main screen. That would

be the mixer, then. However, we’ll bespending a lot of time in the other mainview: the editor. You can access that bytapping the waveform icon, upper-left.Now, tap Edit and select AudioPaste fromthe drop-down menu.

5Our recording is pasted to the GeneralPasteboard, so we roll through the

AudioPaste dial to select it. If you’ve useda different method to copy your file, selectthat one. Incidentally, you can also importaudio via iTunes. Once we’ve got it, we hitDone and our wave becomes visible in themain window, starting at the playbackhead position.

6

Recent updates to iOS have included support forUSB2 class complaint devices via Apple’s CameraConnection Kit. WaveMachine Labs have takenfull advantage of this by giving Auria the ability torecord multiple input channels simultaneously –assuming, of course, that the attached audiointerface is both compatible and up to the task.Therein lies one of the first hurdles for the iPadmultitracker. While there are loads of USB2interfaces out there, not all of them are class-compliant. Any device that requires any sort ofdriver, for example, is a no-go. And devices thatrequire USB power may also not work, thoughyou can possibly get around this using a poweredUSB hub. Keep checking www.auriaapp.com/Support/auria-audio-interfaces, where thedevelopers maintain a growing list of interfacesknown to work and any peculiarities you mightexpect. There’s also an equally helpful list ofinterfaces known to not work with Auria.

We’ve tried a number of interfaces. Our firstcandidate was Alesis’ purpose-built iO Dock. It

worked, with a minor hiccup or two here andthere. However, it provides only a pair of inputs,so while it might be perfect for most tasks, wefound it less than fully qualified for, say, recordinga drum kit. We’ve recommended Alesis’ Multimix4 USB in the past, and it still works, even if it hasbeen superseded by the iO Dock. For most of thewalkthroughs in this feature, we used Lexicon’sOmega, an affordable desktop interface thatoffers four inputs, mic preamps, MIDI andinput monitoring.

If you’re truly serious about using the iPad forprofessional recordings, or you simply need moreinputs, you could plump for a more elaborateinterface, like Focusrite’s Scarlett 8i6 and 18i6, theLynx Aurora 16, or RME Fireface UCX.

While we’re on the subject of compatibility, weshould point out that some users have reportedproblems using third-party Camera ConnectionKit alternatives, so our advice is to stick with theApple original. It’s rather overpriced, certainly,but it “just works”, as they say.

Interfacing Auria

tutorial

Files

Want tons ofinputs for

Auria? Youcanuseup to

18with theFocusrite

Scarlett 18i6


> make music now / the guide to auria

> Step by step Editing audio

OK, we’ve got our clip in (if youhaven’t made your own, you can

import ours – SynthArp.wav - via iTunesor Dropbox, etc). Let’s have a listen. Tapthe Play button in the transport up top. Itdoesn’t begin until nearly a second in. Weneed to edit it. First, though, tap the timedisplay in the upper-left and change it toBars:Beats.

1We need to trim the beginning of theaudio clip. This is detailed work, so we

zoom in very closely, both horizontallyand vertically. This is done by pinching inthe usual way. Now touch and hold thetiny arrow at the lower-left. Touching itselects the clip, and holding brings up alarger grey arrow. Slide your finger to theright to trim the file as required.

2Once you’ve edited the clip to the verystart of the wave, pinch the screen to

zoom back to a manageable perspective.We still need to move the clip to the startof the song. Touch and hold the clip until ared border appears around it. Now movethe clip to the left until it starts at the verybeginning of the song.

3

We also need to trim the end of thefile. We can use Auria’s Snap function

to automatically snap clips and/or theplayback head to a specified multiple ofthe beat or time division. The Snap menujust above the clip is currently set to None.Change it to Bars.

4

Zoom out a bit further and select theclip by touching it. Go to the Edit

menu and select DuplicateClip. A newcopy appears adjacent to the first. There’sa bit of a click at the join, though. Let’szoom in and investigate.

7

Now we can simply tap the ruler at 5:1(bar 5, beat 1) to jump the playback

head to that point. Because we’ve alreadymatched the tempo to that of the clip, weknow that it should match up perfectly tothe same spot in the pasted audio. Have alisten to confirm, then put the cursor backto 5:1 and tap the clip to select it.

5

The problem is obvious. The end ofthe first clip isn’t completely silent

before the next one starts, causing theaudio to glitch. We can fix that by fadingout the end of the clip. Touch the upper-right corner (the small grey arrow) anddrag down and to the left to fade out thevery end of the first region.

8

Select Split from the Edit menu tosplit the audio clip at the cursor

position. There’s a blue outline around thefirst region and no outline around thelater, shorter region. Tap the shorterregion to select it. Now return to the Editmenu and select DeleteRegion. Theshorter clip vanishes.

6

Zoom back out and double-tap theStop button to return the cursor to the

beginning. Now tap the Play button tocheck out your handiwork. Much better!We only faded the first clip, so eitherrepeat the procedure for the second, ordelete it and re-duplicate the initial editedone. Duplicate it a few times.

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the guide to auria / make music now <

Now that we know how to import andedit audio, let’s record some of our

own. Tap Menu and choose InputMatrix.The available inputs are shown across thetop – our interface gives us four – andtracks are displayed vertically. Assigninputs to tracks by ticking the circles.Incidentally, bounces or submixes can bemade by selecting L/R as inputs.

1Tap out of the Input Matrix and openthe Mixer. Tracks are armed by

tapping the Arm buttons at the top ofeach channel. Here, we’ve armed tracks 2,3, 4 and 5, each of which have beenassigned to inputs 1 through 4,respectively. To adjust the input level, tapand hold a channel’s Arm button andselect Set Record Level from the menu.

2

Before we record, we’d like to practicealong with a looped portion of the

song, so we set locators at the start andend of the section we want to loop. This isdone by tapping the ruler above the tracksin the Edit window using two fingers, oneat each desired point. The locators appearand the section is highlighted. ChooseLoop from the Counter menu to activatelooped playback.

3Now we’re ready to record. We tapRecord and Play in the transport and

we’re off. As you’re recording, the trackswill turn red. After recording, Auria willprocess and save the new audio.Recording can, of course, be undone.Here, we’re tracking our four inputs, oneeach for a kick and snare drum, and twofor overhead mics.

4

> Step by step Tracking in Auria

> Step by step Editing multiple selections

Disarm the channels (you can also dothis in the Edit window, but you’ll have

to zoom in vertically to access the button).Once you’ve recorded your tracks, namethem by tapping the blank strip at thebottom of each Mixer channel. Back in theEdit view, we listen to our recordings (youcan import ours, if you like).

1Forgive our amateurish drum tracks –we didn’t have a professional

drummer at our disposal for this session!Anyway, we’d like to split and duplicatejust one section. To do that, we need toselect multiple regions. This is done bytapping the track icon up in the top-leftcorner and selecting the tracks.

2We think the drums sound bestbetween bars 9 and 13, so we snap the

cursor to bar 9, beat 1. From the Editmenu, we select Split, then deleteeverything before bar 9 and select theremaining regions. We place the cursor atbar 13, beat 1 and repeat the process. Tapthe little track icon again to return tonormal selection.

3

Conservation society

If you’re a first-gen iPadowner,Auriamightwell provide thepushyouneed toupgrade. Evenso, newer iPads still only providesomuchpower, andhigh trackcounts,multiple plug-ins andhighquality audiowill leave yourtablet gasping for air.Experienceddesktopproducerswill be old hands at ekingmaximumperformanceout of anoverladenCPU, andmanyreaderswill doubtless haveusedtrack freeze functions to freeupsome juice. Auria cando that, too,but there are otherways toreduce the strain onyour iPad.First, if you’re notworkingonyour finalmix, shut off 64-bitmixing in the Settingsmenu.You candisable effects, too,while recording.

We can take a fewcues fromold-school hardware engineersaswell. For example,we canrecordour effects on theway in –Auria cando thiswith its inserts.We canalsobounce submixesdownas single tracks to freeuptracks andCPUpower. Assigningtracks toGroups andprocessingthemsimultaneously canhelp, ascandeploying your reverb anddelayprocessing as auxiliaryeffects, using sends to feedmultiple tracks to them.

> make music now / the guide to auria


> Step by step Mixing and applying effects

Let’s loop a busy section and go to theMixer. We hard pan our overhead

tracks left and right, and adjust the levelsof each track to taste. Soloing the kickdrum, we hear some bleed from the snare,and the level’s a bit flaky, too. Tap the FXbutton at the top of the track. TheChannelStrip appears. Tap the Bypassbutton to activate it.

1The Expander section on the left is ourfirst stop. We activate it by tapping the

EXP button at the bottom. We activate the-24dB button, and crank the Thresholdup. The Ratio is slammed up to GATE andwe turn the Rel(ease) down, along withthe Range. That cuts out all but the kick.

2Now we activate the high frequencyroll-off by tapping the button in the

upper-right of the EQ section. We use theknob to the left of it to reduce all the highsabove a certain frequency, getting rid ofthe pedal squeak. We activate theCompressor section and adjust the Ratioand Output gain to smooth the levels.

3

Close out of the kick’s FX and solo thesnare track before opening its FX.

Isolate the snare using the Expander. Now,exit out of the ChannelStrip and scroll tothe Master channel. Tap the AuxFXbutton, then the topmost slot to add aneffect. Add the ConvolutionReverb.Crank the Reverb’s Mix knob.

4

Let’s try some automation. We can dothis in real time, manually, or both.

Scroll to the SynthArp channel in theMixer and activate the W button. Now,play the song from the beginning andincrease the value of the track’s Aux 1knob gradually to bring in some reverb.Bring it out before the drums kick in. Stopwhen you’ve got it.

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Close the FX and the Aux FX. Scrollback over to the snare channel and

turn the Aux 1 knob up until you can hearthe reverb processing the snare drum.Nice. Un-solo the channel to hear thewhole song. Not bad, but as you can see,our CPU meter has shot up quite a bit…

5

The track will automatically switch toRead mode. Back in the Edit view,

select Aux 1 from the track’s drop-downmenu. You should see a blue automationline. Select any handle on it by touching itto move it, delete it, etc. New handles canbe added by tapping and holding.

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We can reclaim some CPU cycles byfreezing a track with lots of processing

– the kick, specifically. Tap the kick’s FXbutton to bring up the strip again. Tap thesnowflake button at the right of the faderto freeze the track. The ChannelStrip willdarken to show that it’s frozen.

6

Finally, mix your track and export it viathe MixdownMenu item. You can

send it to a new track, Dropbox and/orSoundCloud as a WAV, AIF or MP3.Obviously, this is only the start of whatyou can do in Auria. Don’t be afraid toexplore and experiment.

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Computer Music Sampler

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