Eleven Rack: The future of DAW Plugins?
Digidesign recently released their new 899$ Eleven Rack hardware product. Eleven Rack provides DSP acceleration of the Eleven guitar amp simulation plugin for ProTools LE and ProTools HD. In a way, it’s a replacement for the Line6’s Pod Xt Pro or Fractal Audio’s AxeFX rack units, but with tighter ProTools integration. Digidesign is following the footsteps of Native Instruments and TC Electronics by releasing hardware racked versions of DSP-hungry plugins.
Market Pressures
It’s no secret that lower prices and powerful multi-core native solutions are threatening the premium 10,000$+ ProToolsHD hardware solutions. By releasing dedicated boxes, Digidesign gets to accommodate low-end ProTools LE users while preserving the high-end ProTools HD market. The boxes are mass-produced in China, so they are just a cheap yet sophisticated dongle for the software. Very much like an iPhone. Genius!
I fully expect to see dedicated rack units for synths, bass & drum plugins. Guitars are first because there’s already a thriving market for such dedicated units. Being able to play live with the same box running the same program used for recording is a definite plus. Amp simulators have started to go beyond trying to emulate real amps and have started to produce sounds of theirown. The Fractal Audio AxeFX is the leading example of such approach.
Automatic Documentation
One feature that got me excited is that Eleven Rack can now save the plugin parameters in the metadata of an audio track (WAV & MP3 files can contain text tags). This means that plugin parameters can be recalled on a region-by-region basis. This form of automatic documentation of rack gear setting is something I’ve been wanting for years. The following video shows you how this is done:
Bye-bye Piracy
A rack version also helps in fighting rampant software piracy, which has affected many plugin authors. Apple are not affected by this since their core business is selling Mac hardware. The more users the better. Therefore, they can afford to reduce prices for Logic and remove complicated software protection schemes such as dongles. Software-only vendors are not as fortunate.
Physical hardware is here to stay. Get used to it.
Nick Troop – The Song Doctor
Nick Troop is a British doctor in psychology doing research on the effect of songwriting on human emotions. How cool is that? In his latest project he constructs the ideal David Bowie song by analyzing hundreds of songs. Obviously, he has no pretension of out doing Bowie using science and technology but the result is quite pleasant.
On his web site, you’ll find interesting statistical facts about Bowie’s lyrics. For example, it turns out that the words Bowie uses also seem to be related to how long his albums stay in the charts. Mhhmm, OK.
For his next project, the good doctor is looking for volunteer songwriters. Visit his research page to learn what it’s all about and maybe do your bit in the name of science.
Google Map As a Cute Toy Robot
Japanese folks love their privacy, sushi and…cute little robots. So Google Japan came out with this super-cute stop-motion animation of wooden toy characters to explain how they collect data in the land of the rising sun. The robot (let’s call him Snoop-the-friendly-robot), is seen removing all private information from photographs and obediently removing specific details when asked through a colorful telephone. Awwwww.
The theme music is appropriate and not too different from what you may hear while listening to Thomas the steam engine. I wonder if someone composed that or if it was automatically generated with one of those arranger keyboard so popular in Italy and Asia. Either way, it must have been fun to play and record.
See Japan? There’s noting to worry about. Google is not Godzilla.
Writing On The Bass
Usually, when we think songwriter, the image that comes to mind is one of an artist alone at the piano or playing an acoustic guitar. Yet interestingly, many bass players are the main songwriters for their band.
The best examples include:
- Paul McCartney (Beatles)
- Sting (The Police)
- Nikki Sixx (Mothley Crue)
- Tobin Esperance (Papa Roach)
- Marcus Miller (Miles Davis)
- Steve Harris (Iron Maiden)
I think bassist have an advantage since they are the “glue” that keeps a song from falling apart. The role of a bassist is to support the chords played by the keyboard and guitar players, while following the drummer’s rhythms. As such they have a unique viewpoint of a song’s landscape. They have to keep the house standing while everyone else goes wild.
Switching instrument is a well-known way to explore new songwriting possibilities. Next time, try the bass and see what happens.
Recession Guitar
In these trying times, some have found new ways of rocking out in style on a budget. After introducing the initial Ikea Guitar, rogue luthier Zachary has discovered that a wooden chopping block could make a great budget Telecaster. I’m not sure about the symbolic meaning of slicing onions on a guitar, but it sure looks cool.
Tarja Turunen – Songwriting Transition
Here’s an interesting scenario: you’ve just been fired as lead singer for popular operatic metal band Nightwish. You are signed to Warner Gernany who sees your undeniable crossover potential. I mean Celine Dion/Sarah Brightman kind of potential. Which stylistic direction do you take on your next album? Metal, opera or pop?
If you’re Finland’s Tarja Turunen, you slowly move your fan base from the niche metal to something more mainstream and hope for the best. Her latest album, My Winter Storm is clearly a transition album and the songwriting reflects that.
In a Vacuum
Most of the songs were written by Swedish A-Ha-esque songwriting team Vacuum (Mattias Lindblom and Anders Wollbeck). Their style is more understated and laid back. To my ears, the Vacuum songs are missing the big choruses necessary for a worldwide pop hit. Gone are the wild guitar solos and progressive rhythmic mayhem of Nightwish. The songs were conceived to focus on Turunen’s immense vocal abilities. Like Kate Bush, she uses her voice for both lead vocals and background atmospheric pads.
Compare the pop opera Metal of Nighwish’s “Nemo” against Turunen’s more serene “I Walk Alone“:
Go West Girl
I hope that Warner give her the same worldwide promotion they gave to Celine Dion in the early 90’s. I also hope she gains access to a wider pool of songwriting talent. Scandinavia has a great songwriting pedigree, but I’d like to see what she can do with some west coast Dianne Warren-esque pop pieces.
Guitars As Art
I’ve always admired the work of master luthier Ken Parker. However, like many guitarists, I’ve always found his guitars to be too “out there” for me. Unlike bass players who are happy to indulge in all sorts of instrument shape, finish and electronics, most guitarists find comfort in 50-year old designs such as the Gibson Les Paul (1951) and the Fender Stratocaster (1950). Even relative newcomers such as Paul Reed Smith (1985) are in fact Gibson design derivatives.
Parker Guitars were sold in 2003 to US Music Corporation (makers of Washburns guitars and Randall amps) who quickly set out to broaden the brand user base by introducing cheaper Korean-made alternatives and more conventional instrument shapes.
The fruit of their latest effort can be found in the Dragon Fly, a morph between a Parker Fly and a standard Fender Stratocaster. I like the result and I wish they could get rid of those silly Piezo-acoustic pickups and put a real Floyd Rose tremolo in there. According to their web site, they have done just that with a Vernon Reid custom model, but there’s no indication about when these new models may be hitting the stores.
Parker guitars have always been expensive pieces of art, but they were the vision of a single man with no compromise to accommodate the various tastes of guitarists. The Dragon Fly is the first step in changing all that.
Naturally 7: No Instrument Required
Naturally 7 is a vocal “band” from New-York where every member plays an instrument with their mouth: mouth beat box, vocal bass, even an aural electric guitar. The amazing thing is that after a while, you forget that they have no instruments and you start getting into the songs.
Take a look at this impromptu performance of Phil Collins’ “In the air tonight” in the Paris subway:
For some reason, they have yet to make it big in the states, but they already have a couple of hits in Europe and are signed to a German record company.
Songwriting-wise, all they need is a multi-track recorder and something to write the lyrics. Right? Well, technically, they are playing vocal harmonies, which require some planning to work well. Basically, every band member plays one note in a chord, thereby producing the same effect as a keyboard or guitar.
Versailles’ Songwriting Aesthetic
My favorite band these days is Japan’s Versailles. They have yet to gain any traction in the US or Europe, but they are in many ways, a sign of things to come. Just like Finland’s Nightwish was the prototype for multi-platinum Evanescence, I believe that western bands will soon start raiding Tokyo for song ideas and looks.
Sound-wise, Versailles plays Visual Kei, a brand of symphonic metal that has been perfected since the mid-80’s by bands like X-Japan. Others would describe them as Dream Theater in drag (yeah, they’re all guys), but they are far more melodic than most progressive bands. For example, there is no unusual timing or chord structure. The level of musicianship is astronomical. Interestingly, they have no official keyboard player despite every song relying on synths and/or strings.
Melody-wise, they use a lot of traditional European top lines. Some melodies remind me of old Joe Dassin or Mireille Mathieu (60’s and 70’s French pop music). Makes sense, since French artists have always done well in Japan. I remember entering a Tokyo shop in 2001 to be greeted with some France Galles.
For all these reasons, I think Versailles is the most concentrated form or international influences I have ever heard. Melodies are back baby!
Before The Music Dies
Not sure how long this will last, but Google Video is now playing the entire 2006 documentary Before The Music Dies. This film takes a look at today’s music business and provides some answers to the following burning questions:
- Why radio sucks.
- Why there’s more teen acts than before.
- What artist should do to have a solid career.
Probably the most chilling moment comes when the film’s producers take a 18-year-old female model who can’t sing and give her a trashy teen song written in 5 minutes. They then proceed to correct her vocals to give the impression that she has talent and film a polished music video that shows her…hum…assets. The results are painfully similar to what Ashley Simpson, Britney Spears or Miley Cirrus have been producing in the past five years. Scary stuff.
The film does end on a positive note and artists are encouraged to do it on their own or band together to form artist-friendly record companies such as ATO Records and Tunecore.
Butch Vig’s Recording Secrets
Super-producer Butch Vig is currently fielding technical and artistic questions over at Gearslutz. Vig is the acclaimed songwriter, drummer and producer behind seminal albums such as Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, Smashing Pumpkins’ “Siamese Dream” and all the Garbage studio albums.
Vig is was one of the first producers to use the ProTools “sound” to his advantage. One characteristic of his sound is the inventive use of rhythm based mixing . This is where several types of drums (live drums, programmed beats & mastered rhythm sections) are playing back in parallel, all occupying their own pocket in the frequency range.
Vig on recording Garbage:
A lot of the Garbage songs had multiple drum sounds…live drums (usually looped and mixed down to stereo, sometimes mono), programmed beats (usually run through an amp or stomp box) and sometimes we would make our own “record”…which means taking a beat, maybe with a bass line, guitar line, or some sound effect, and running all of them through the same stereo effect to give it a “mastered” feel…almost like we were sampling off an old album.
Also, he gave some information on recording the first Garbage album:
In fact, the 1st Garbage album was done in a sort of lofi chain:
We recorded into a 24 track Otari MX80 (I think!) and almost all the tracks except for vocals were run through either an Akai S1000 sampler or Kurzweil K2500…then we mixed the whole thing through the Harrison w Flying Faders.
It wasn’t until Garbage’s V 2.0 that we jumped into Pro Tools!
This explains the constant pulsating rhythm in the first album. These days, the same sound could be achieved by running all my guitar tracks trough a sampling synthesizer like the Korg M3. The M3 has rocking compressor that makes everything sound “pre-mastered” and of course an incredibly rich palette of BPM-synched filters and modulators.
Try it, this may inspire a brand new batch of songs.
Write By Humming
In this interview with GuitarJamDaily, guitar wiz Paul Gilbert discusses a method of songwriting he calls “Write By Humming”:
I would make a backing track and put the guitar down and then get a vocal mike and just sing. I wouldn’t use any lyrics, but just sort of hum melodies that I may want to use. The reason I put the guitar down is because I didn’t want be influenced by my guitar vocabulary. I didn’t want to play the licks that I normally know or gravitate toward because I know them. So write by humming, to me is a very natural way of writing. And after I have something I like, I record it, get the guitar back up and copy what I just sang.
Actually, I’ve been using this method for years and this is in fact the main technique advocated by Jason Blume in “6 Steps to songwriting success”. According to Blumes the vocal melody is the most important part of the song as it is the one people will remember, even when they don’t recognize the words or the chords. So humming a hook is one way to make it more memorable. Plus, it doesn’t require any knowledge of an instrument.
What’s most fascinating is that Gilbert does this to keep his guitar wizardry from influencing the quality of his songwriting. That’s something only a great songwriter can recognize.
