Here's the scenario; You love to sing in the shower, the car, in your room when you think nobody is watching (they probably are). It's fun, it brings out emotion, it's a great pass-time, etc. The problem is, well... you suck and cause dogs and humans to avoid you. Am I hitting close to home on this yet?
This is what used to separate the nationals from the basement bands and created rock Gods. However, the time of the rock God has passed because digital audio and it's editing tools have evened the playing field. Yes, you too can sound awesome when you record yourself singing stayin' Alive for your next videoke upload.
As hard as I fought the urge to use pitch correction plugins when mixing my audio, I ended up using it here and there and now I cannot seem to mix without it as far as any modern sounding mix would require.
Before we get into the comparisons, I want to stress that "Auto-Tune" is a pitch correction product. Others are also pitch correction products. Auto-tune does not mean pitch correction. It's like calling all soda's "coke" or all motorcycles Harley Davidson. It's simply incorrect.
For this comparison I'll be using six well known pitch correction plugins. Auto-Tune 8, Izotope Nectar 2 Pitch Editor, Melodyne, Waves Tune, Gsnap, Auto-Tune EFX 3.
Lets start with the smallest and least capable plugin, which is Gsnap. It's free and also comes pre-installed with Mixcraft.
You won't be manually editing a vocal recording in this one, it's more of a real time pitch correction utility. The one thing it's very good at is the whole T-Pain/Cher overly ridiculous pitch changing trick. Just pull up it's preset called "Less subtle pitch correction" and set your key (unless you are rapping in which key is not a thing).
There's no graph mode for this one and it has just a few basic settings to tweak. For free, it's a useful tool if you are looking for that T-Pain effect explained above.
You can also find Gsnap for free download at the usual vst sites like KVR.
Auto-Tune EFX 3 is a sort of live version of Auto-Tune which is the most similar to the above Gsnap. Which is why I am reviewing it next in this list.
It's best used for following a vocal track or live vocal and fixing it on the fly. The trick is to tweak the settings so it doesn't sound obvious. Once of the features it has over Gsnap is the corrected notes are lit up and displayed on the interface so you know exactly what it is doing to your otherwise Grammy worthy vocal track.
Auto-Tune EFX 3 allows you to select the vocal type (Baritone, Alto, Soprano), the key, scale and a few other functions like humanize.
If you've got a live situation that needs some real time pitch correction, I would look into this one.
This is probably the most capable and easy to use product in the list. Keep in mind that the "essential" version is a light version. If you want full bad-ass-ness you can get their Melodyne Studio which is going to cost you $700
Like some others, you need to "transfer" your track audio to the plugin before working on it. Unless you have Mixcraft 8 or greater, where any version of Melodyne you have installed will show up in the sound editor tab, integrated right into the DAW! Here's a kick ass screenshot to transfer my excitement to you!
Melodyne has these functions called macros (sort of different than a macro I am used to using) where it will automatically change the pitch, vibrato and time of your "blobs" (wave form clumps) to where it thinks they should be. It's right about 8 times out of 10.
This plugin is not for real time use, you need to edit and change the audio within the plugin to hear changes on your next playback.
This one is similar in functionality to Melodyne in that it's a graph, non-real time, editor where you have to transfer the audio to it first.
After transferring, the first thing I noticed is the interface is way too small for me to do any serious editing. It is resizable via a handle at bottom right, but still doesn't quite get there. The other thing I didn't like is the lack of undo, but rather a "history" section showing previous changes to revert to. This is probably just a preference.
You can set vocal range, root note and scale, along with correction strength, speed and other functions. You can also manually drag the wave forms around.
It's a nice and capable plugin, no legit complaints.
From the famous Waves, comes a pitch correction plugin that is again similar to Melodyne. The transfer function is one step easier in that you do not have to do anything but play your track. The plugin will capture it automatically.
It's got all the usual functions such as setting the key, scale, speed, vibrato, along with many options for the vibrato for extra human-like sound.
There's one thing about this one that would keep me from using it regularly, and that is the small interface with no resize option. Which would be fine if you were just going to let the software do everything automatically, but if that were the case, wouldn't you opt to use one of the less expensive plugins like Auto-Tune EFX 3?
I hope this helps you to learn a little about each plugin so you can make a better decision when purchasing. I will say that I use Melodyne regularly because it seems the most capable to me, and because it is integrated into Mixcraft 8, and Auto-Tune EFX 3 fairly regularly.
So stop sucking at singing. Impress your girlfriend, wow your Mom. Get a pitch correction plugin and spare the world your out of key madness :-)
Oh no, who put that picture of the Fridays girl over there?
Of all the questions I get about plugins and how to use them, the elusive compressor takes the cake, hands down, no contest. So why is it that most people don't get it when it comes to compression? To contemplate that question, I looked back at myself when I first started mixing live in clubs when I was 19 (21 if the clubs ask). I didn't know what a compressor did either. Sooo, didn't use it. But as I got better over the years and watched others, I learned what it was supposed to do and how to get it to happen. I think one of the main reasons people don't understand compression is because it's mostly a transparent effect. I remember a guy back in the analog days who told me "If you can hear them working, it's too much". I don't completely agree with that now but it's pointing a noob in the right direction to say that, I suppose.
Now with digital everything these days, it's actually even easier. Some of these compression plugins have so many meters and controls that were missing in the old hardware days, that you kind of can't screw it up. Not to mention the ever popular failsafe called "presets".
The first thing I want to get to is explaining what some of the common functions are in compression tools.
Threshold: The threshold is your desired audio level. The more you turn it down, the more the plugin will compress in an effort to reduce the level of the audio to your chosen level/Threshold
FabFilter Pro-C2
Ratio: The ration is sort of how aggressive the compression will be. If you set the ratio to say 1:1, then the little compressor gnomes will sort of suggest nicely to the audio that it go back to the threshold line if it goes over. But if you set the ratio to 50:1 then the little gnome guys bring their swords and absolutely force the audio back to the threshold line.
Knee: This is how abrupt the transition will be between no compression and when it kicks in. A "hard knee" will be abrupt while a "soft knee" will be more subtle.
Attack: This will define how quickly the plugin reacts when the incoming audio raises above the chosen threshold level.
Release: Release sets how quickly the compression will fade off after it is triggered.
Makeup: Not the kind you wear on your face if you are in an 80's metal tribute, but the kind that brings the output level back up after the compression has brought it down.
Using compression on different types of instruments.
In the video below I show my personal technique for compression on a snare drum, a vocal, a bass guitar and a piano track. Just watching this video should give you a much better idea on how to use compression if you currently have no idea what you are doing.
Using compression on Sub-mixes and Mastering
An awesome multi-band mastering compressor is a must when mastering audio. In fact, it's the only thing I put on a master track other than a frequency analyzer to visualize where my levels are. Using a good compressor on a drum sub or vocal sub is also a must in my book.
The purpose of using a compressor on these types of tracks is slightly different from what we've learned above for individual instruments in that you are now using it to raise the levels and intensity while forcing the audio not to exceed the threshold. Aka "Punch".
Pentode Audio VTC-1
I use a compressor such as the Solid Bus Compressor or the VTC Vacuum Tube Compressor that ships with Mixcraft, for drum subs. Basically just gluing all the drum tracks together, leveling them and adding punch.
For mastering I use either the FabFilter Pro-MB or Yamaha's Final Master. Both are multiband compressors and both do an equally great job. The FabFilter is a bit more comprehensive though. You would use the multiband functionality to compress or intensify at different levels, each band.
Here's a video showing my technique for submix and mastering with Multiband compressors.
I hope I've helped you to understand compression a little better than you did when you started reading this. Load a small project and mess with compression plugins until you get a feel for what controls do what. Happy squashing!
Realistic drum plugins are some of my favorite types of audio software. Not that I dislike a human drummer, it's the production of an acoustic drum kit that throws the stick in my spokes. I've done many acoustic kits and it's completely possible for home studio users to produce professional drum tracks that way, but it takes a lot of time, high end microphones and tons of experience to know how to get the right sound.
Enter the virtual drum instrument for your daw of choice. The cool thing about using a vsti drum plugin is that you can create drum tracks in multiple ways.
Use the built in patterns to build a track
Download midi files from the net and import them into the daw
Use your mouse to input notes and adjust everything from velocity to swing.
Play a midi controller such as a keyboard or control surface
Use an E-Drum kit to play drums as you would on an acoustic kit, but you're getting the sounds from the vsti.
I have primarily used methods 3 and 5 above since I am not much of a keyboard player but I can mouse and I can drum.
What this gives me is near perfectly recorded and tuned drums to mix with. Not only that but perfect timing, none of that pesky human tempo straying ;-)
Here's a video of a song which a human drummer played an E-Kit using Superior Drummer 2 from Toontrack.
To my professional ear, there's nothing "fake" about that, it's a real drummer and real drums.
FYI: That entire recording above was done in Mixcraft by Acoustica
So if you are in the market for a great virtual drum instrument but don't know which is best for you and your budget, I've just so happened to sum up a few of the more popular ones below.
Here's the accompanying video if you want to watch it instead of, or before reading the reviews below.
BFD3 has nice sounding drums and a decent but a bit confusing interface. It doesn't show a complete drum kit for that familiar look, but that is not a necessity, just a convenience.
There are tons of drum kits, drum components to choose from to build your own kit, and effects so customizing is a big part of this plugin.
The mixer is functional but not as comprehensive as some of the others. It's got your basic mute, solo, etc. The mixer also allows you to send any instrument to an output track of your choice. Giving you the ability to mix each on a separate track in your daw.
Addictive Drums 2 is similar to BFD3 in that you can add/remove/alter kit components in a similar
fashion to create your custom drum kit. You can also use the presets or existing kits. The mixer is fairly basic and I did notice that though it does allow you to send each instrument to a separate output, it does NOT allow you to choose the output. It will put them in order as shown in it's mixer. Not a huge deal breaker but I like to have more control than that.
There are not as many effects available in this one as I would like to see for a complete package, but then again I never use them anyway. I like to use the effects that I am used to in my daw, which is why I send each drum out to it's own track.
The sound is great and you've got lots of customization options.
This one is probably the most well known and popular virtual drummers out there. It sounds great and comes with lots of customization options including expandability by purchasing additional drum kits and components. The mixer and effects are pretty basic but are plenty for a home studio user.
I really like the look and feel of this plugin interface, it makes me feel like I am rocking! This plugin has one of the coolest drum kits around called "Drumkit From Hell" which is quite popular with the metal crowd.
As with the other plugins, EZDrummer 2 comes with what they call "grooves" which are pre-recorded midi drum loops and sections. You can use these to build complete songs or use them as templates to alter in your daw. The Toontrack plugins have loads of these, which is a nice feature.
Studio Drummer runs inside the Kotakt Player, which is free. Kotakt is a host for other virtual instruments and it works great. Studio Drummer only has three available kits but you can tune the drums, customize the ring, attack, decay and more. Each kit has multiple versions, such as a garage
kit, arena kit, etc.
The interface has that familiar look but is a bit more complex than a few others. The mixer is nice and has excellent effects such as compression, gate, reverb. Routing each drum to it's own track in the daw is possible but a little more complex than others. One feature this one has that others don't is that it allows you to change the midi mapping to match common formats, making it work with your controller more easily.
For me, this one sounds the best out of all I've used. I do like that large arena rock sound though, which might not be what you need, so check the others out as well.
MT Power Drums is one of the Internet's best kept secrets. It's a FREE drum instrument with multi-output capability and it sounds really good. It's only got one kit and you cannot change the way it
sounds, but for free waddaya want?
The mixer is basic with pan, level, solo and a compressor (sort of). You can assign outputs to any sub track in the daw as well.
It also comes with a library of grooves to build songs or use for starting points.
The nice looking interface and the fact that it is free, allow me to give this high marks.
The first thing I will tell you is that this one is my goto for most projects. The reasons are that it sounds awesome, is more comprehensive and more customizable than it's little brother EZDrummer 2)
I love the look of it and love working with the kit pieces as a familiar looking drum set. Switching
pieces is easier than it was in previous versions as well. Superior Drummer 3 will also load not only it's own add-on kits, but it will load any of the EZDrummer kits you might already have.
The mixer is very usable with lots of functionality, along with output track routing. There are loads of effects such as compression, reverb, gate, delay, filters and many more. They bill this plugin as a complete drum production studio, which it is. You literally do not have to do anything in your daw other than load it onto a track, if that is how you wish to use it. Personally, I use the daw for everything outside of assigning the kit components.
The same impressive array of grooves make this one great for non-drummers as well.
Look and feel: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Tools and effects: 10/10
Mixer: 10/10
Ease of use: 8/10
Price: $209.00 - $419.00
I hope I've helped you make an informed decision on which of these is right for you.
It seems like only 4 minutes ago that some kid contacted me via fb complaining that Mixcraft and his other daw (Sonar) constantly crash. He wanted to know how in the hell these companies get away
with selling software that crashes; how can anyone possibly get any work done? Said kid has had it up to here (envision hand at forehead level) with Windows and the software that's made for it, he was going to buy a mac dammit!
So, anyone just above noob level want to tell us why said kid should chill out and read this article? Yes! Because the crashes are his fault, and Macs are not more stable than Windows based PC's.
Cue the Mac people - The hell you say!
Sorry Mackies, one of the main reason macs are perceived as being more stable is because they support much less in the 3rd party software realm than Windows does. What that means in a nutshell is that Macs typically don't let you install software that isn't written by apple specifically for the mac. Windows released it's code to developers so that anyone with developer knowledge can write and distribute software that will run on Windows. Leaving the decision to install, up to the user, not the OS manufacturer. While that is awesome in most ways, it also means that Bob the developer who writes shady code, can distribute his garbage too. It's Bob's software that causes the issues with Windows.
What about virus's, man? Macs don't get 'em!
Virus developers write their bugs for attention or financial gain.
So if you were about to write a virus to make some cash, would you write it to run on Windows which holds about 84% of the market share, or Mac which holds about 11%?
In short, there are virus's written to attack macs, but much less than Windows because Windows is the popular OS.
So, can your threat to switch to a mac, it isn't going to solve anything and you'll likely be frustrated with the lack of third party software you can get for it.
User related reasons your daw might have problems running on your computer.
Dear Eric, I found this site offering a billion free games in one easy to install flashy looking app. Should I seize the opportunity?
If you have to ask this, put your computer away, you shouldn't be using one.
If you are having to reinstall Windows every other week...you might be the problem. Re-registering all your software 10 times/year is not normal, you need to find the problem and correct it.
Stop clicking everything you see, banner ads can lead to bad places.
If you are about to do something on the computer that causes the angel and devil to pop up on your shoulders and argue about whether it's a good idea, it's not.
Did you know that malware and virus's are illegal? You'd never have guessed right? Since they are illegal, they like to hang out on illegal or questionable content websites, like torrent and other file sharing sites that host content that you are not entitled to download. Porn sites love to push garbage your way as well. Deep or dark web? Don't even think it.
Computer related reasons your daw might have problems running on your computer.
Low system specs
You've read the system requirements for your daw of choice and your computer squeaks by with a hair to spare, yet you still seem to have crashing issues, latency, skipping during playback.
If you are running a single or even dual core processor and minimal amount of RAM (Random Access Memory), then that is probably contributing to, if not causing the problems. Software system requirements are often showing the minimal. If you load heavy plugins or simply build large projects, you'll likely exhaust the computers available resources and get crashes and horrible playback.
Poorly written plugins, freebies from Bob the developer
We all love plugins for our daw, they make our recording software posses a never ending expandability property that keeps it fresh. I personally love to go grab a new graphic equalizer when needed, or a cool virtual drum kit for creating awesome drum tracks. However, I try to stay away from a lot of the lone wolf kind of freebies out there in Internet land. Even if the developer has no ill intent and doesn't try to include malware. There's still no guarantee that he/she has adhered to the VST standard 100%. So if this plugin (lets call it HandyDandyVocalizer) isn't playing by the vst rules, HandyDandyVocalizer may cause your daw to crash, or a track to play incorrectly, or render the mix with a blank track, or any number of undesirables.
There are website out there dedicated to providing downloads for the higher quality freebies, such as VST4Free and VSTPlanet, but you should still exercise caution and put the plugins on probation until they've performed to your expectations a few times.
Cracked Software (Illegal licensing)
If you are in the habit of stealing other peoples hard work and not caring about the health of your PC or other devices on your network? then you might have some illegally cracked software installed. Like plugins, office, photo apps or even your operating system. If this is the case and you are getting issues, then stand up, walk to the garage, get a hammer, hit yourself in the face with it.
Cracked software is almost certain to contain malware, virus's, spyware and more.
Are you thinking any clearer now? Good, moving on.
Outdated Software
Everything that is software needs to be kept updated. From configuring Windows update, to updating
your daw, plugins and hardware drivers. Most software will have a "check for updates" link or button in it's help section. Drivers for audio interfaces can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. Same for video cards.
Remember, updates are released to fix issues!
Low System Resources, Free Some Up
Here's a quick way to increase your computers performance. Use MSCONFIG to stop software programs from starting when the computer is booted up. You'd be surprised at how many programs put themselves in startup when they don't need to be. Check out the following video on how to quickly get better performance.
Restricted Windows User Accounts
Personally, I always run my computers as administrator. Not AN administrator, but THE administrator. I'm techie enough that I can play with virus's and malware for entertainment, so always being logged in as administrator is not a problem for me.
That being said, if your Windows user account is not AN administrator then Windows is blocking functionality from you. Here's a list of common issues I see with peoples computers who run as a "standard" or as I call it "restricted" user.
Cannot seem to register software products. You register, then the next time you run the software, it's back in trial mode or asking for registration code again.
Recording on a track results in a disappearing clip. This is because Windows isn't allowing your user account (running the daw) to write files to the hard drive.
Some plugins don't show up or run correctly
Your daw cannot access the Internet for things such as update checks, loop or sample downloads, uploading to social media sites.
Go into Windows user accounts under control panel, change your account type to administrator.
The Dreaded B.S.O.D.
The B.S.O.D. or Blue Screen Of Death is when your computer suddenly crashes and displays a blue screen full of text data. Error codes and other info here can help techies figure out the exact cause, but generally people have no idea what it all means. Here's a bit of useful info for you, the B.S.O.D. is 99% of time caused by hardware and/or the hardware driver.
With that in mind, the next time you are using your daw and when you hit record, your computer blue screens, don't go raging off to the daw developer website to tell them how crappy their software is.
It's highly likely that when the daw tried to use the audio device for recording, the device had an issue which caused the blue screen.
The solution is to keep the device driver up to date, unplug other usb or firewire connected devices and even try different ports because it could also be the usb controller on the motherboard that has the issue. In which case a bios update and/or motherboard driver update could be your fix.
Latency settings too low for the cpu and audio device driver to handle
If you are using your interface and daw to run a virtual amp for playing guitar through, or playing your midi controller keyboard to record virtual instruments like Kotakt, Pianissimo, or other
awesome plugin. You would likely want latency as close to zero as you can get it. Unfortunately, most devices can only achieve near zero latency, not zero. I've got a pretty high end system and I run about 7ms latency regularly. If I go any lower I start to have glitchy, skipping playback.
So if you are having issues like that, raise the latency/buffers on your device asio driver interface.
Cheapo Generic ASIO Driver with Internal Sound Cards
When you buy a computer, it has what is known as a sound card, installed inside. It's where your speakers are plugged in to. It can also accept input like a microphone or tape deck. you can use those inputs to record to your daw.
Sounds good, right?
A lot of people try using this setup for multi tracking, but end up realizing they need lower latency than the sound card can provide. They eventually end up downloading something called asio4all which is a generic driver which attempts to give low latency to devices that were not built for it.
Asio4all was an ok choice when trying desperately to get water out of a rock back before Microsoft came out with their newer "WaveRT" driver. However, these days there's no reason to try asio4all. You'll get the same or better performance from WaveRT and none of the buggy issues.
Side Note: If you've got an audio interface which tells you to use asio4all, take it back to the store, throw it at the sales guy who sold it to you and buy something else.
Hard Drives and Bad Sectors
Even when brand new out of the box, all disc hard drives have bad sectors. When Windows formats
the drive in preparation for installing the operating system, it sets those bad sectors aside and doesn't use them.
With time, other previously good sectors can go bad, particularly if you lose power often and the drive is shut down abruptly.
Although it's rare, a sector can go bad which contains parts of your daw software, or files it uses, etc. If that happens, it's best to reinstall the daw.
Bad RAM
Though not likely the culprit, it is possible for portions of your computers RAM to go bad. The computer might run fine most of the time, but have issues when you load heavy projects. This could indicate bad ram at a level above the usual 2GB it might take to run the computer for every day use.
Example: If your computer has 6GB of ram in total and uses 2GB just sitting there idle. Then you load a large project which uses 3.5GB of ram on it's own, your upper 1GB of ram might be faulty if this is when you start getting crashes.
Windows uses something called cpu throttling to idle down your processor cores that aren't in use. It's a part of the energy saving blah blah. I've found that this throttling can really cause problems with audio devices and even causing the B.S.O.D. for me by causing the audio device to become disconnected when I didn't touch the computer for a specified amount of time.
I wrote an extensive article for Acoustica on throttling and how to disable it. There's also a very comprehensive pdf there on tweaking your computer for performance.
In closing, just because you were playing an mp3 at the time of the crash doesn't mean windows media player sucks. If you were watching a recipe video for deep fried raccoon bites when you got a blue screen, don't call youtube/google and tell them about it. The problem is underlying and elsewhere.
Keep your computer in good health and make some music!
Over the past few years I've collected quite a few vst guitar amp sims, not to mention bass amp sims which nobody seems to discuss. Sometimes these plugins can get complex and difficult to understand for people who are trying to make the switch from analog to digital, let alone choose one.
Here you'll find pros and cons along with highlighted features and my personal opinion of each. The hope is that this will help you make a decision you'll be happy with for your own needs.
If you want to skip the reading and go straight to the comparison video, it's below.
Some notes before we get into it.
Just because something has a million options, add-ons, settings, doesn't mean you have to use them all.
Presets in these things are a great place to start, many people pick a favorite and make it their go-to guitar or bass tone.
A lot of times there are online communities of users for software like this and people will share their own presets, this is a great way to get an awesome sound without spending loads of time learning every in and out.
Many of these will come in multiple formats. vst, which is for windows daws, stand alone which allows you to to run the plugin without a host, rtas which is for pro tools, aax and others. So you can generally find a version that will work with whatever operating system you have. For this blog, I primarily use vst and vst3.
This is a very popular amp sim, and rightfully so. It's extremely versatile, has loads effect pedals, amp heads, cabinets, microphone types and combos, presets. Also, the "Custom Shop" makes it easy to grab new pedals and things for it if you want more functionality. The one thing that would stop me from purchasing it is that the original purchase doesn't include everything it's got to offer. Every pedal, head, cabinet you add on, costs you more money. It's like a never ending stream of things to buy, sort of like a real amp!
Bias Amp is something I hear the pros talk about all the time, well at least in positive grid videos :-) Personally I don't know anyone who uses it, but according to them, it is the pros choice for guitar amp modeling. Not to knock it because it has all the same pros that others have. Sounds great and authentic, versatile, expandable, lots of effects, heads, and things to play with. Great sounding presets too. The one thing I do not like about it is it is extremely heavy on the computer. Starting the interface lags and seems to take 10 times longer than any other plugin I have tested. An action as simple as turning a knob or changing presets has a lag about it that makes this plugin unusable for me. I suppose if I knew what preset I wanted every time i ran it, it wouldn't be as big of an issue, but I like to adjust and mess with software.
This one is pretty awesome and I know quite a few people who have/use it. I wasn't extremely impressed by earlier versions of Guitar Rig, but version 5 has nailed it. There are options galore, add-ons, heads, mics, cabinets, effects like distortion, delay, reverb, eq, filters, pitch shifting and more, but laid out clearly making it easy to learn and use. Scrolling through presets provides hours of fun and if you don't find one that you like, you weren't paying attention. Guitar Rig 5 loads quickly with no lag and is surely becoming one of my favorites.
I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Peavey was releasing this amp sim plugin. It has some great preset tones and some celebrity named presets which I assume were created either by or to emulate said celeb. musician. This one is lower priced than some others and does include enough to get some great sounds with the initial purchase. It does however, use the online store for extra content, method. The nice thing about it is the content is inexpensive. For example, a pedal cost $3.99.
Revalver loads up extremely fast, no lag at all. Components are nicely drawn and sound great. Naturally the Peavey 5150 simulation is top notch ;-)
A customer introduced me to S-Gear a few years ago, he said it's the greatest metal guitar amp sim on earth. So I tried it and yeah it rocks, especially for the metal tones. I've also noticed that it's clean tone presets are better than most others. I definitely load up S-Gear when doing anything that calls for a metal crunchy, chunky tone. It's pretty limited on components though, there are a few heads, a few effect components like delay, reverb, etc. and then a load of presets. The low cost of this one puts it at the top of my recommendation list when talking to someone who's looking.
Shred comes with Mixcraft Recording Studio and Mixcraft Pro Studio, and was made by a company called Acme Bargig which has since went defunct. You can find shred for free from some archive download sites, but generally it's best to buy Mixcraft and be assured you get the latest version. The link above takes you to a download site which is hosting v1.06 at the time of this writing.
Shred sounds great, it's lightweight and has tons of presets to play with. It doesn't have as many components as some, which is the only con I can find.
I found this one in a forum, a guy had said how great it was so I tried it. I personally do not see anything great about this plugin. The only thing I can get it to do is make my bass louder. The eq seems to do nothing and beyond that, there's only a gain, a volume (which both seem to do the same thing) and a wet/dry mix.
This one is made by a reputable company called Softube, who make lots of other great products. The plugin looks kind of odd since it's more of a picture of an amplifier sitting on green carpet rather than an actual sim of what the amp looks like. This is kind of off-putting to me, I like to feel like like I am using a component, not looking at a picture of an amp on a floor. Outside of that, the sound is pretty good on a couple presets, and there are some cool things like the ability to move the microphone around, switch between three different cabinets and change eq settings. Not the most versatile amp I've used.
Now here's a great bass amp plugin! There's only one head and cabinet to use but the versatility of the two is amazing. Just like your physical bass rig, you can make this sound any way you want by adjusting equalizers (Parametric 3 band with sweeps, and 7 band graphic), compression, contour, low and high boost, gain and more. It's also got different microphones to use and position. I've used this for metal, country, funk and other types of music.
This is my go-to bass rig when recording. I've even modeled my physical bass amp sound after it. The tones you can get are versatile but it shines with gritty, heavily compressed, tough rock and metal tones. VBA Pro only has one head, no pictures of cabinets, no mics, no bells and no whistles. What it does have is sound and that is what's important, right? The 12 band graphic eq is very sensitive and works great for bass tones. It's got built in reverb and chorus for extra versatility. The compression it offers is very aggressive and works great for bass guitar.
Rating 9/10
Cost: $99.00
Pros:
Sound great
Very tough tones
Highly responsive
Inexpensive
Cons:
No pretty cabinets to look at ;-)
Conclusion
Watch the video at the top to hear what these plugins sound like.
I hope I've helped you to decide which is right for you, a lot of them have trial versions as well so don't forget to take advantage of that and try them for yourself.
I've been in the I.T. business for many years, in fact since around 2001 when I started working as a network administrator for my local Government offices after finishing college with a networking degree. Building backup infrastructure was one of my main ongoing tasks at the time, and I've also done some for my current (and awesome) employer, Acoustica. Additionally, here in my recording studio in Michigan, I have around 6 computers running on my local network that all talk to and back up to a local file server which I built.
I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've had people come to me with dead hard drives that contained the only jpg copy of their winning lottery ticket, or something just as valuable. It's amazing to me that anyone would have only one copy of anything digital, knowing that drives break down, tablets and laptops get stolen, cloud services go down or defunct, etc.
Here in the studio, we've had the main recording PC give up the ghost on us twice in the past 5 years. It took as long as reinstalling Windows on a new drive to get back up and running. Basically one day and then time to bring back all the backed up stuff from backup sources.
Setting up a regular backup plan doesn't have to be a pain in the booty, and doesn't need to be expensive either. I thought I would outline and give some pros, cons and resources to different choices as far as backing up your music projects, audio files, vst plugins, and anything else you want to back up.
Backup Media Choices
With some of the information listed here, I hope you'll be able to make the right choice for your recording pc setup.
USB Memory Stick
I've never been a fan of these for backing up anything of importance. Now transferring an mp3 from one computer to another, yes they work great for that.
The only pro of the memory stick is that it's so small and easy to take with you.
Cons-o-plenty
Usually not big enough: Space
Volatile, will most likely and suddenly decide it doesn't want to work anymore at a critical point in time.
Low qualty, dime-a-dozen (many)
The file system on them is usually FAT16 or FAT32 rather than the more modern and reliable NTFS (just trust me on this one ;-)
Read/Write speed is limited by the USB port and stick R/W speed capability
The Cloud
Google drive, DropBox, GMX, One Drive, are all popular and useful cloud services and certainly aren't the only ones available. They are great for backing up photos from your android based phone automatically, or uploading files to share with your buddies and other things like that. However, for a PC hard drive backup, it would be quicker to take out the hard drive and drive it Google HQ and ask the guy at the water cooler to hold on to it until tomorrow.
Cloud services are 100% at the mercy of your Internet connection status and upload speed. Do you know what your upload speed is? Most people when asked what their connection speed is will either say "I dunno" or give a specified (and promised by the ISP) download speed. The upload speed is usually much slower. For example, my connection here (and keep in mind I am out in the boonies!) is 10 meg, or 10 Megabits per second. But that is the download speed, my upload speed is less than 1 meg. Which means if I try to keep a real time sync or nightly backup of my entire hard drive, it would take 400 years and 63 seconds to complete. That's a rough calculation of course :-)
The only two pros I can think of for the cloud is that is off-site, so if your house burns down and takes your studio with it, your backups are still safe. Secondly, you can access the data from any device, anywhere at any time.
Despite the two strong pros, it's a no for the cloud services being used as backup for audio production computers.
External USB Drive
External USB connected drives are a good choice for laptops because the laptop rarely stays in one spot for long and it's not possible to install a second drive into a laptop unless it has a place for one. Not to mention if the laptop is destroyed or stolen, both drives go away with it.
As for using an external drive with a stationary PC, it works but I prefer other means for this type of machine. I'll get to those later in the article
External drives come in all sizes, speeds and qualities. You can get a large, good quality drive for just a small investment
Multiple Internal Drives
This is one of my two backup devices of choice. The con is that if you use a laptop for your studio projects, this method is pretty much out of the question. Oh and another con is that if the PC is stolen, both drives are gone.
Since I have no plans on letting anyone in my studio to steal my computers (I am a home security guy too ;-) I use this method along with the network storage method mentioned below.
A second drive in your computer is great because it's fast, great I/O, particularly if it's solid state. If not solid state, get a 7200 rpm drive. Mine is a 1TB 7200 rpm Seagate drive.
I use this drive for an incremental sync type backup of my entire hard drive every time I shut down the computer. So when I am done working at the end of the day (or 2am), I just shut it down and the backup happens while I sleep. The software I use for that is called SyncBack and I'll go over that in the software section below.
LAN Backup (Local File Server)
Do you have a router/modem in your home? Then you have a LAN. It stands for local are network and simply refers to the small network inside your home or office where all the devices are connected to the Internet, and potentially each other.
If you've got an extra PC that will still run fine with a fairly modern OS, then you have a potential file and backup server. I am not going to go into how to do all that in this blog post, but I will say that it's a great choice for backing up anything.
The only con is that you have a pc running 24/7 on your network, so if you are worried about electricity consumption cost, maybe go with something else. Though the cost isn't much if you turn off the monitor.
With this type of backup you can access your files from any device in your home and also setup your own cloud to access it while you are away. LAN speeds are generally GB (Gigabit) these days with typical Cat5E cabling so file transfers are quick and painless.
Note: Do not expect to do this with wireless connections, they are too slow for huge amounts of data like this.
Backup Software
Here are some products I have used or currently use and my opinion of them and their capabilities/uses.
This is my product of choice for most backup types. They've got a free version that is way too functional in my opinion, I never saw a reason to buy the big brother version until recently I needed a couple extra functions. I have incremental sync jobs set up with this software that check the destination drives for files that have not been backed up yet (new files) and pushes them over. Creating a quick and complete running backup of my drive or whatever files and folder I choose.
Syncback has always been the techie product of choice, so maybe I am just used to it, but it works.
This is a product I used for years to make scheduled clones of entire drives. I've used it on servers at my local Government job as well as at home and early Acoustica. I've also installed the home version for many family and friends. The con with this is that it runs in the background constantly, and I am a big proponent of having as little running as possible on any given pc. If that doesn't bother you ,then this may be your solution.
This one is very similar to Paragon, with many of the same features and functions. I've used Easus products many times and they always perform well. I believe it even comes with a bootable cd maker that allows you to copy hard drives bit for bit without the OS running. There's also a free version but it's less functional.
This is another favorite of the tech community. The company is less commercial and flashy and the software is a little more difficult to setup and use. However, it works great.
I could list a dozen other products but they'd be variations of these in one way or another.
I tend not to use software that comes bundled with external drives or sticks, or with windows. It's all going to be bloated (intrusive and full of junk you don't need). That is why I always choose something I've hunted down and researched myself.
Happy backups people, you've now got no reason to lose your data!
I have a pretty large network of friends, fellow musicians and acquaintances around my area and on social media. So it's no surprise that quite often I am asked by someone who put off getting into digital recording for years, to help them make sense of it all and help them get started.
The one thing I find to be pretty common between them all is that the hardware setup seems to confuse them. Here's a short list of the most FAQ (frequently asked questions).
How do I make it sound good?
What's that box thing do?
Am I going to need more floppy disks?
Where do I plug in my guitar?
If the list above doesn't strike you as obviously sarcastic, then you are in the right place, read on!
Before I give some examples of a few different hardware setup scenarios, I want to give a basic explanation of the chain. In my examples I'll assume we want to record a vocal microphone and/or an electric guitar.
Chain: Microphone - Interface - Computer
That's it, not as complex as you thought is it?
Now that we have an understanding of the basic idea, I'll go into a few different setup scenarios and explain the different connection types. Using that information you should be able to figure out which setup is right for you.
Setup 1 - The popularly experimented with but rarely re-used, Mic in the sound card setup.
This setup is what most people try the first few times they record to their computer. Justifiably so since most computers already have a sound card installed which has a microphone input. So why not use it, right?
There are a couple of problems with connecting your microphone directly to your computers microphone input if you are trying to record music using more than one track.
Sure this setup works fine if you are just recording your voice or other single track project, but that's about it.
Why does this setup suck, Eric?
Here's why: The sound card that comes already installed in your computer is a very low dollar piece of equipment which isn't meant for precise full duplex (simultaneous playback and recording) synchronization. In other words, if you record say your guitar, then go back and record your vocal while the guitar track plays back, they will most likely end up out of sync, making it sound like you have no sense of timing.
PROs
Easy setup
Computer already has the input
CONs
You'll need to get multiple adapters to convert from the microphones XLR type , to the computers 1/8 inch type
No ASIO (Low latency, good sync) driver
Playback/Recording sync is bad
Only one input
Setup 2 - The Ever Popular USB Microphone
There are many USB microphones on the market and many of them are very high quality, nice pieces of equipment. I actually own three different ones which I use for making video tutorials and things of that nature.
USB Microphones are a snap to use because they're what's called "Plug and play". Meaning there's no driver or software to install, you just plug it in to any available USB port on your computer and Windows will install a driver for it automatically and then let you know when it's ready for use.
The issue with these microphones is that again, there's no asio driver, making it rely on Windows wav or wavert drivers to run playback and recording simultaneously. Yep, sync issues again show their fuglyness. That issue alone makes these types of microphones great for doing voice overs, radio or podcast shows, single track recordings, etc. But not optimal for doing multi-track music recording.
PROs
Very easy setup
Most computers have multiple USB ports
Good quality
CONs
Only one input
Playback/Recording sync is bad
Setup 3 - Small USB or Firewire Interface (2 to 4 inputs)
Here's the setup that works best for most home recording enthusiasts. Why? Because it's fairly inexpensive, the device comes with an asio driver making sync issues and latency a thing of the past, and you'll have multiple inputs. These units can range from $50 to $400 depending on features and brand, etc. I really like and recommend the Focusrite 2i2 for this category, the asio driver is excellent and gives me lower latency than some $1000 units I've used, and it's only about $150 bucks.
PROs
Fairly inexpensive
Comes with asio driver for low latency and great sync
Provides the user with multiple inputs
Will usually have a channel input level adjustment right on the interface
CONs
You need to install the specialized asio driver for it. That's not a huge issue but it's the only con I can come up with :-)
Setup 4 - A Familiar Mixing Console and A Higher End Interface
Here's where we start getting into some really nice stuff that is not only extremely functional and versatile for home and pro studio setup, but will give you (The old analog guy) a familiar mixing board to use.
You would use a mixer which has an output for each channel. I actually used a Mackie 16x4 for years like this. It had TRS inserts on each channel, which allowed me to plug a 1/4 signal cable into them half way down, to get a send which I then connected to my interface. You can see it in the picture with me sitting at my recording desk. You can watch me setting levels and things with it in this Rock and Metal tutorial video
The outputs on the mixer would go to your interface, in my case I used two Presonus 8 channel rack mounted interfaces, giving me 16 simultaneous inputs. I was able to adjust input levels via the mixer, along with equalizing and using a hardware compressor. This really refined my signals before they reached the computer and the daw (Mixcraft in my case).
A note on using compression and equalizers on your incoming signal:
If you do not know exactly what sound you are looking for, don't use tweaks like these because they are permanent. You cannot remove them if you don't like the way it sounds later in the mixing process.
PROs
High quality interface with excellent asio driver
Latency and sync issues all but gone
Familiar mixing console for level and other adjustments
Interface may have built in compression and other tools, which are usually very good quality
Can get the interface with just about any connection type you need, IE: USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, etc.
Lots of simultaneous inputs, great for recoding drum kits or full bands.
CONs
You need a mixer, which is expensive unless you already have one
Interface will be higher cost than it's smaller cousins
Interface software is more complex and has a learning curve.
Setup 5 - Mixer and Interface In One (Digital Mixer)
This is my favorite setup now that I've had a chance to check them all out over the years that I have been running this studio. I currently use a Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 in studio and a Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 in the clubs for live sound and recording the artists performance.
This gives me 16 inputs to my daw/computer (daw stands for digital audio workstation, it refers to the recording software, such as Mixcraft or pro tools, etc.).
Each input has built in compression, equalizer, level adjustment, reverb, delay, chorus, and much more, though I generally only use the compression and levelers in studio.
Using this type of interface is very comfortable for both the analog guys and the computer geek who wants to do all the adjusting with a mouse.
PROs
Excellent asio driver for low latency and perfect sync
Very high quality onboard effects
Combines the mixer and the interface into one unit
Can be used for live performance or studio use
Many inputs for recording multiple inputs at once. How many depends on the unit.
CONs
This type of interface is not cheap!
Reviewing The Different Connection Types
There are 5 main types of connections for hooking up an interface to your PC. Simply determine which ones your computer has and then get an interface with that type of connection.
USB - The most common type. Make sure you do not buy something which has a USB 1.0 connection, it will be slow and cause issues. USB 2.0 and 3.0 are best. Note that a USB 3.0 jack on the computer will be blue in color.
Firewire - Also known as IEEE 1394, this type is great at just about any speed. They come in 400/800 and technically advanced 1600/3200. 400 or 800 is fine for you, trust me :-) A 1394 (firewire, remember?) will look like one of these show in the image here.
Thunderbolt - This is a mac only connection type, so unless you're a mac user, don't worry about it.
PCI - PCI is a bus type on your computers motherboard. If you purchase a pci type interface, you will be installing it inside the computer, leaving the connections hanging out the back of the box. I used to use pci interface cards on many computers, they were M-Audio Delta cards, one type was a 1010LT which had 8 analog inputs, and the other was a Delat44, I think that was only two inputs. In any case, M-Audio discontinued them after Windows XP went EOL (End of life), so I had to move on. There are others that are very nice if you are interested in this type of interface.
Ethernet - Ethernet interfaces are great for expandability on a home or pro network. You can easily add more of them as your needs grow. There's software running on the PC which discovers the interfaces plugged into your network via cat5 cables. So you can simply add another one here or there and it shows up as more inputs in the daw. You do need to know networking to some extent to configure and use these, which is why they're not more popular with non-techies.
My Interface Recommendations
I've had a chance to test or use many interface over the years. Whether it's for my own studio, live performances, friends who needed help with theirs, or whatever. Here are some of my favorites that I am sure you'll love if you choose one of them.
A final note: If you are wondering why I have not mentioned Behringer interfaces anywhere in this article, here's why.
Any Behringer interface I've ever tried to use had given me problems. They also distribute a driver called "asio4all" with some of their products, which to me is a complete cop-out from writing their own drivers. asio4all is a generic driver that is free from it's authors website and it attempts to work with any audio hardware. The key word being "attempts".
I don't like to bad mouth anybody or their work, and I have heard that some newer Behringer interfaces are great, I've just never tried one that was. Maybe I'll give them another chance...
This is what used to separate the nationals from the basement bands and created rock Gods. However, the time of the rock God has passed because digital audio and it's editing tools have evened the playing field. Yes, you too can sound awesome when you record yourself singing stayin' Alive for your next videoke upload.
Lets start with the smallest and least capable plugin, which is Gsnap. It's free and also comes pre-installed with Mixcraft.
This one is similar in functionality to Melodyne in that it's a graph, non-real time, editor where you have to transfer the audio to it first.
From the famous Waves, comes a pitch correction plugin that is again similar to Melodyne. The transfer function is one step easier in that you do not have to do anything but play your track. The plugin will capture it automatically.
