-
CUTTING-EDGEREVIEWS:
Audio Ease Altiverb 5 IK MultimediaSonikSynth 2 KorgLegacy
softsynths Scarbee Vintage Keys Submersible MusicDrumCore
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 - VOL. 1 NO. 2
THE WORLD OF SOFTSYNTHS AND SAMPLERS
www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com
Alesis Photon X-25 MIDI in 3-DCan this much fun be legal?
VERY DEEP CLINIC:Adventures with Ableton Live
Law of the LAN (look Ma, no hardware)
Jordan Rudess ofDream Theater
Mungo giveaway! Win a Stylus RMX Groove Module with all 5
S.A.G.E. Expanders
THE WORLD OF SOFTSYNTHS AND SAMPLERS
Mungo giveaway! Win a Stylus RMX Groove Module with all 5
S.A.G.E. Expanders
-
2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
From the
Welcome to the second issue of VirtualInstruments.
Id like to start off with heartfelt thanks for all theamazingly
positive feedback youve given us. Of coursewe wouldnt have launched
this magazine if there hadnt been a need for it, and we were
confident that alot of people would like it (if for no other reason
thanthat we have such a great team of highly experiencedwriters).
But you never really know what the reactionsgoing to be until its
out there, and your letters andcomments on the internet have gone
way beyond ourmost optimistic expectations.
Now, as a preface to the following I want to stressthat you can
get a lot of music out of a single comput-er; theres no shame in
only running one, in fact filmcomposer Klaus Badelt explained at
great length whyhes doing that in his interview last issue.
However,Virtual Instruments is all about creating music on
thecutting edge, and networking multiple computers isright at the
forefront of the cutting edge.
As we mentioned in our premiere issue, those of usrunning
large-scale compositions are constantly runninginto, and more often
exceeding, the limits of a singlecomputer. Why?
The first reason is that a lot of modern samplelibrariesmeaning
that theyre large and they streamfrom hard diskshave way more
programs than youcan load into a single computers memory, and
youwant to have the programs youd like to try for differentphrases
or fragments loaded and ready to play. This isespecially true if
youre using large orchestral samplelibraries: East West Quantum
Leap Symphony Orchestra(especially the Platinum version, which
gives you achoice of three mic positions to mix and match forevery
program), Vienna Symphonic Library, SonicImplants Complete
Symphonic Collection, plus individ-ual section libraries from SAM,
Garritan, and others.
But for example the outstanding Larry Seger AcouticDrum library
alone can easily use an entire GigaStudio 3machineand its putting
that machine to good use,its not being a pig. Another example:
Prominys ElectricDistortion and Clean Guitar has 30GB each of clean
anddistorted Les Paul electrics.
Its also easy to exhaust a single computers horse-power with a
few complicated softsynths goingsuchas Native Instruments
Reaktorand elaborate mixeswith a lot of plug-ins running can
overwhelm a singlemachine very quickly. Processing and memory
resourcesare a theme youll see recurring constantly in thesepages.
And there are many other reasons for havingmore than one computer,
from needing to run Mac andWindows to having a laptop and desktop
machine thatyou use for different purposes.
So while the idea might seem extravagant to somemusicians,
multiple computers certainly arent onlyfound in the rigs of the
precious elite. Even a five-year-old computer can run a few
softsynths or plug-ins, sotheres no reason not to put it to
work.
None of this is lost on developers, and were seeingan increasing
number of products that connect comput-ers in the studio. Apples OS
X Tiger has both MIDI andaudio networking built in, for example,
and there areother applications mentioned in the article all this
isleading up to: Lay of the LAN, on page 36.
Audio takes a lot of bandwidth if youre running itover a
network, and it really wants to go over a gigabitethernet
connection rather than a standard 100 Base Tone. But how do you
keep the standard ethernet con-nection to your cable or DSL modem
from slowingdown the network? What if you have several
machines?Never mind thathow do you just get your machinesto start
up with the same ID so they show up on thenetwork every time? Most
of us dont have one of thoseproverbial network administrators
referred to in a lotof instruction manuals.
To answer those types of questions, I called upon oneof the
sharpest people I know: Monte McGuire. Monteis a recording, mixing,
and mastering engineer with anMIT technical background. It turns
out that networkingisnt very complicatedat least not the way he
explainsitbut it really pays to have a thorough understandingof it.
I hope this article answers as many questions foryou as it did for
me.
Spectrasonics has kindly donated one of their mag-nificent
Stylus RMX Groove Modules (reviewed lastissue), complete with all
five S.A.G.E. expansion groovelibraries, for the Son of Mungo
Giveaway in the centerof this issue. Its main purpose is to
encourage you tosubscribe, which we consider to be a highly capital
idea.
Congratulations to the winners of our previous pro-motion. Chris
Caouette of Colchester, CT; TonyHartmann of Dallas, TX; and Frank
Karabotsos ofVancouver, BC each receive a copy of the book
VisualMusic by Christopher Brooks(www.KIQproductions.com). Theyll
learn a lot aboutscoring for every medium. Kenneth Kuhlmann of
Turner,Australia wins Chicken Systems Translator
Pro(www.Chickensys.com) for the platform of his choice.His sample
libraries are now portable between manysupported formats. Finally,
Henry Wieczynski of Gdansk,Poland wins a Garritan Personal
Orchestra library. Happycomposing, Henry.
And happy reading.NB
Editor
-
First DAW by Nick Batzdorf
A beginners guide to put-ting together a DAW (digi-tal audio
workstation) forsoftsynths and samplers.Part 1: computer
systems
4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
EDITOR/PUBLISHER: Nick Batzdorf
ART DIRECTOR: Lachlan Westfall/Quiet Earth Design
AD/MARKETING MANAGER: Carl Marinoff
WEB DESIGNER: Denise Young/DMY Studios
CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Aikin, Peter Buick, David Govett, Ashif
KingIdiot Hakik, Monte McGuire, Chris Meyer, Dave Moulton,
Bruce
Richardson, Frederick Russ, Lee Sherman.
PUBLISHING CONSULTANT: Ross Garnick
ADVERTISING CONTACT: Carl Marinoff
818/[email protected]
SUBSCRIPTIONS/ADDRESS CHANGES: 818/905-5434,
1-800/ViMagzn,[email protected]. The best method
is to subscribe via our website: www.VirtualInstrumentsMag.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: [email protected]
WRITING FOR VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS MAGAZINE:
[email protected] or call 818/905-5434
Virtual Instruments Magazine is published bi-monthly by
VirtualInstruments, Inc., 3849 Ventura Canyon, Sherman Oaks, CA
91423.818/905-5434, 1-800/ViMagzn.
[email protected].
DISTRIBUTOR: Rider Circulation Services, 3700 Eagle Rock Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90065. 323/344-1200. Bipad: 05792, UPC: 0 744 70
05792 5 07
PRINTER: Century Publishing Inc.
Standard disclaimer: Virtual Instruments Magazine and its
staffcant be held legally responsible for the magazines contents
orguarantee the return of articles and graphics submitted.
Reasonable care is taken to ensure accuracy. All trademarks
belongto their owners. Everything in here is subject to
international copyright protection, and you may not copy or imitate
anythingwithout permission.
2005 Virtual Instruments, Inc.
Letters
Launch
Introductions, updates, news
6
12
10
Interview:Keyboard HeroJordan Rudess
The virtuoso keyboard player from DreamTheater discusses life,
music, adding V.I.s toa hardware-based rig, and
improvisingorchestral pieces in real time.
20
Very Deep Clinic:Ableton LiveFollowMe, Follow You
by Chris Meyer
Taking some of the pressure out of live performance withAbletons
popular loop performance program.
24
September/October 2005
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V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 5
Sonic Edge in a Virtual World By Peter Buick
Bypassing the preset effects to create a unique sound in
yourproductions.
VI
VI
contents
Sampling with KingIdiot by Ashif King Idiot Hashik
Part 2: Back to the basics and beyondusing traditionalsynth
parameters to bring samples to a new level.
Trends: VirtualInstruments are Free By Dietz Tinhof
Would you send a stranger on an all-expenses-paid vacation?
reviews
42
48
64
16 Alesis Photon X25 25-Note USB
MIDIController/AudioInterface
By Lee Sherman
Two octaves to go: just plug this unitsUSB cable into a
computer, connect apair of headphones or powered moni-tors, and
playwhile waving your handin the air to use its Theremin-like
con-troller.
30 Scarbee VintageKeyboard Collection
By Nick Batzdorf
Four vintage keyboardsFenderRhodes, Wurlitzer 200A,
HohnerClavinet D6, and Hohner Planet Nimpeccably sampled in a
SteinbergHALion player; and a great multi-effectplug-in that
recreates the vintage effectsthat brought these instruments to
life. Astellar library.
34 Submersible MusicDrumCore sound libraryand search engine
by Chris Meyer
A new twist to the idea of a drum looplibrary, starting with
loops by several topname-brand drummers.
40 IKMultimedia SonicSynth2 plug-in synth worksta-tion
By Lee Sherman
A tribute to the fascinating history ofvintage synthesizers, and
an entire soft-ware workstation.
46 Korg Legacy Collection
By Jim Aikin
Three classic synths rise from the gravesounding very much alive
as softwaresynths: the MS-20, Polysix, andWavestation.
52 Audio Ease Altiverb 5convolution reverb
By Nick Batzdorf
The first software-based convolutionprocessor rockets into the
next genera-tion, with multiple position simulation,extensive
control, and many other newfeatures.
september/october 2005
V1.N2
Lay of the LAN by Monte McGuire
The Zen of making many machines become one. How to setup your
network so your internet connection doesnt interferewith the audio
running over ethernet, and other great tricks.
36
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6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
They like it, they really like it
I just got a chance to give your new maga-zine a good
examination. No sooner had Imade a few mental notes about some
relativelyminor areas for improvement (the resolution ofsome of the
graphics in the .pdf file) than youposted the higher resolution
version. Well, thatabout takes care of any possible nits I
couldpickI dont have a single suggestion!Everything about this
looks first rate. Love thelayout, graphics, and the choice of
subjects forthe first issue. I dont think I can recall a
premierissue of any magazine that looked as good asthis one. Keep
it up and the best of luck gettingthe word out! Such quality
deserves success.
Tom HopkinsThe Pacific Northwest
Weve received a wonderfully overwhelm-ing amount of feedback
expressing similarsentiments, and we sincerely appreciate it.
Inaddition to being the ruthlessly capitalisticFortune 500
international conglomerate thatwe almost are, this magazine is a
labor oflove, and your words of support mean a lotto us.
Furthermore, were highly tempted to fillup this column with
nothing but praise. Butwe dont want to put our chances of
receiv-ing more in jeopardy, so perhaps we wont.Well, maybe just a
little:
Klaus Badelt interviewFirst of all let me say that this magazine
has
landed a #1 spot on my personal list of favoritemags. Great
job.
I found the interview with Klaus Badelt inyour 7-8/05 issue to
be quite fascinating and Ieven learned a couple of tricks from it
to incor-porate into my own Logic setup. While I foundthat a large
preloaded template isnt necessarilythe way to go, it did get me
thinking aboutusing features like Channel Strips to create afast
loading and categorized favorites menu.
I would like to point out that you still cancommand-click on an
audio object in the envi-ronment and have your currently selected
trackswitch to that instrument (in the interview hestated you
couldnt do this other than with theold Gigastudio environment he
had).
Knowing the specs of the machine(s) he isusing (or future
interviewees) would be mostbeneficial.
Christopher CaouetteInner Force Music
Thanks for the good words, Christopher.Badelt is using a dual 2
GHz G5 Mac
the older model that can hold up to 8GB ofRAMand believe it or
not he only had3GB installed at the time. But his orchestrallibrary
is a custom one that has smaller pro-grams than, say, the ones in
the ViennaSymphonic Library, so they dont take up alot of memory
(please see Figs 1 and 2).
First, some background on whatChristopher is talking about.
Badelt actuallydoesnt use a large pre-loaded template any-more. His
pallet now consists of Logic channelstrips hes saved. The channel
strips containloaded EXS24 samplers, and hes organizedthem all in
folders so they appear in hierarchi-cal menus. When he wants to use
a sound, heloads the channel strip, which of course auto-matically
loads an EXS24 sampler with theprogram he wants to play.
Christopher, youre absolutely right thatcommand/clicking on a
channel strip assignsit to the currently selected track in
theArrange window. But while this is a great fea-ture and in my
opinion the best way to workwith Logic (since you avoid having to
scrollthrough endless pre-assigned tracks), it doesnt eliminate the
trade-off Badelt madeby switching to a single-machine set-up.
There are two differences between this andhis previous set-up
with 18 GigaStudiomachines. The big one is that you can
onlycommand/click to assign a sound thatsalready loaded into a
channel strip, and bydefinition that limits you to the number
ofprograms/articulations you can load into asingle computer.
VIl e t t e r s
Letters
Fig. 1: Each of the Instruments in this smaller-than-life pallet
in the Logic Environment points to aseparate MIDI port and
channelin this case MIDI channel 1 on a separate Windows machine
runningTASCAM GigaStudio. (Notice the violin icons, and notice how
theyre all grouped inside an ornamentobject.) Command-clicking on
the icon assigns that instrument to the currently-selected track in
theArrange window.
write to:[email protected]
-
8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
Environment layer with iconsis a great way to manage alarge
sample collection inexternal instruments.
For most of us workingwith modern sample libraries(i.e. large
ones), the answeris still to use more than onemachinebut
somewhatfewer than 18.
Size mattersThe mag is great, but the
font is uncomfortably small forme, and I have 20/20 vision.Any
chance that it might beenlarged a bit?
Scott RogersLos Angeles
Thanks Scott. Yes, wevemade it a little bigger this time.The
tradeoff is that we cannow fit fewer words on every
page, of course, but hopefully youll agreethat this is a good
compromise.
Spectrasonics Stylus RMX review
First Id like to commend you for a wonderfuland informative
magazine. I have been readingindustry magazines for decades and
wasrefreshed by all the great articles and in-depthcontent in your
clinics and reviews.
But having recently purchased Stylus RMX, Iwanted to touch on
something that was notmentioned in your RMX review.
Generally the RMX is great!! It sounds good,its flexible,
interactive and the plug-ins are alsotop quality. So, what is my
complaint? Wellits a memory hog. And these days where nearlyevery
virtual playback unit offers direct from diskstreaming, I was
amazed that RMX didnt offerthis feature. I know RMX is a slice
player andthat for certain features it makes sense to keepsounds in
RAM, but when you have other VSTIsloaded into your DAW, RMX can
easily eat up600 Megs just by auditioning sounds. Just tobe clear,
I have more than 2 Gigs of RAMinstalled on my DAW so, its not like
I donthave a lot of RAM installed.
In my case, I have been relegated to usingRMX with an empty
template on my DAW sothat I can record loops and whatnot. I
thenchop them up in Recycle and import them intomy full template on
Nuendo as [Propellerhead
Recycle format] Rex files! All files are accessedfrom the hard
drive, there is no CPU usage, andmost of allno additional RAM
usage! Also,that way I can load Rex files into [NativeInstruments]
Kontakt (for example) and stillhave access to MIDI playability
without RMXshunger for memory.
I think Stylus RMX would be used much morein big DAW templates
if I had a DFD (Directfrom Disk) option. I wonderare
Spectrasonicsgoing to include this feature?
Andrew KLos Angeles
Thanks Andrew, and good point. I reviewedRMX on a G5 PowerMac
with 5GB of RAMinstalled, and it takes up 200 to 250MB onthat
machinefor one program. Thats not amajor factor on this machine,
since the hostDAW (Apple Logic in this case) can accessroughly
2.75GB of RAM. But youre right, ifyou start layering grooves, you
can easily getway up there.
As you know, the problem with convertingthe RMX grooves to Rex
files is that youregiving up all the features that make it
unique:the ability to process (filter, pitch shift, effect,etc.)
down to the individual time slice if youwant, the Chaos intelligent
randomizer, all itseffects, and the convenient auditioning
andlibrarian features.
If you have a motherboard that will allowyou to install 3 or 4GB
of RAM, theres a trickin recent versions of Windows called
theBoot.ini /3GB switch. One member ofSpectrasonics team suggests
you try it if youcan, because it should make a lot more
RAMavailable to RMX.
Normally memory is allocated 50% for theoperating system and 50%
for the user, butyou can change that balance to provide morememory
to your DAW and (since its a plug-in) RMX. Some drivers are
incompatible withthis setting, such as the Digidesign M-Boxdriver,
but most others should work.
I do have to advise everyone not to try thisunless youre very
confident working underthe hood on Windows, because it is
possibleto screw up your machine so it wont startup. We have an
article on this kind of thing inthe works.NB
VIl e t t e r s
His previous set-up had 18 GigaStudiomachines pre-loaded, so he
had a much,much larger pallet at his fingertips. That
wassimultaneously the inherent disadvantage: hehad to load 18
GigaStudio machines when heneeded to go back to a machine and
makeadjustments. And as he says in the interview,thats why he made
the switch.
The second difference between the twoset-ups is shown on the
screen dump on page40 of our last issue (which weve now placedon
our website so people can see the full-sizeversion). Badelt had his
pallet arranged intogroups of instrument icons. Inside a group,each
picture of, say, a violin would to a differ-ent program loaded in
an external GigaStudiomachine.
So saving and loading channel strips is agreat way to work with
large sample collec-tionsand for that matter, plug-in
processingchainsinside Logic. Similarly, an
Fig. 2: Command-clicking on one of theseEnvironment objectswhich
are really channelstrips running EXS24 samplers inside Logicassigns
it to the currently selected track in theArrange window just like
in Fig. 1. This is a greatway to manage a large template without
havingten billion tracks pre-assigned. But note that unlikeFig. 1,
the sample buffers are loaded into thismachines memory, which is a
finite resource. Youduse a combination of Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 to
manage apallet that spans multiple machines.
-
1 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
LaunchIntroductions, updates, news
VIl a u n c h
The latest version 4.6 of MOTUs DigitalPerformer Mac audio
workstation software is afree upgrade for users of DP 4.5. Its
compatiblewith Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4.
Highlights include a new Pitch Automation fea-ture that displays
melodies as piano roll-style notesunderneath the waveform display,
where notescan be transposed and corrected. V-Racks allowV.I.s and
plug-ins to be loaded once and accessedby multiple sequences in a
project. Several clicksounds come with the program, or you can
useany sound as a metronome. The Pattern Gateplug-in adds driving,
pulsating grooves to anymusic. You can now exchange files
withDigidesign Pro Tools and other audio and videoprograms using
the AAF file interchange standard.Film/video scoring enhancements
include multipleQuickTime movies in a single project (one
persequence) and an enhanced Find Tempo window.DP can now bounce
audio tracks to a QuickTimemovie, and the program supports multiple
outputsin Audio Units V.I.s.
www.MOTU.com 617/576-2760
MOTU Digital Performer4.6 upgrade
SoundDesigners.Bizannounces TailVerb,a new Windows RTASplug-in
for DigidesignPro Tools that alters thesend to your
reverb,providing early reflec-tions, tonal characteris-tics, and
extra positionalinformation. This low-CPU plug-in allows you to get
much moremileage out of each high-CPU reverb plug-in instance.
TailVerb combines a single joystick-style interface with
instrument-style presets. In addition to reverb, the plug-in is
capable of someunique sound design effects, including rhythmic
textures that can beused on things like drum loops.
TailVerb comes with some specially-created impulse files that
arecompatible with most convolution processors on the market, or it
canbe used with any conventional discrete stereo reverb.
UK175 inc. VAT / US$275www.SoundDesigners.biz +44 (0) 8 707 707
544
TailVerb Pre-verb
Best Service Ethno World 3Complete and LatinWorld
Marcel Barsottis Ethno World 3Complete is a 5GB+ collection of40
rare ethnic instruments plus all ofvols. 1 and 2. It includes
sounds in avariety of playing styles, loops, licks, andspecial
effects. A Virtual Instruments ver-
sion uses a special version of Native Instruments Komplakt, and
theresalso a TASCAM GigaStudio 3 version; both are $449.95
MSRP.
Latin World is a complete Latin Band laid out on the
keyboard:drum, bass, percussion, bass, guitar, and horns. Loops are
recordedindividually and in stereo, and loops are sorted by style,
key, and har-monic progression. It comes in a Native Instruments
Intakt player for$199.95 MSRP.
www.Soundsonline.com 310/271-6969
-
V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 1 1
GenieSoft Overture 4 notation with a digital audio sequencer
The fact that this header isnt the other way around is the
story:Overture 4 is a seasoned notation program that now has
exten-sive MIDI recording/editing and integrated digital audio.
Version 4 (now for Windows, Mac OS X version with Audio
Unitsupport to follow) is fully compatible with all VST instruments
andeffects. Score markings are translated transparently to all
supportedsample libraries, so for example if you draw in a
crescendo hairpinon a staff assigned to Garritan Personal Orchestra
and reassign it tothe East West Quantum Leap (EWQL) Symphony
Orchestra Goldlibrary, it knows to reassign the modwheel to MIDI
Expression.Likewise, it knows what keyswitch will call up a
staccato articulationin all supported librarieswhich so far include
EWQL RA, Bela DMedia Giovanni, Quantum Leap Storm Drum, and many
others,with more being added all the time.
MIDI editing features are integrated directly into the
score.www.GenieSoft.com 843/832-2365
VIl a u n c h
Finale 2006 includes a Native Instruments Kontakt Player with
100instrument patches from Garritan Personal Orchestra. The
integrationis designed to be seamlessinstruments auto-load into a
Finale score,and no MIDI routing is required. Finales Human
Playback feature hasbeen enhanced to produce GPO keyswitches
automatically in responseto legato, dynamics, and other indications
on the score.
Finale will also support the full version of GPO (a free
Finale-compati-ble update will be available), and Garritans
upcoming Jazz & Big BandCollection.
www.Garritan.com 360/376-5766
MakeMusic! Finale bundles a versionof Garritan Personal
Orchestra
IK Multimedia MiroslavPhilharmonic Orchestra and
Choir Workstation
This V.I. features the orchestral instruments, ensembles,
andchoirs from the famous Miroslav Vitous sample collections,reborn
as an easy-to-use dedicated virtual instrument (using theSampleTank
workstation architecture). Instruments are neatlyorganized, you can
use up to four insert effects, and everythingwas recorded in place
in the Dvork Symphony Hall in Prague.
The introductory price is $399, regular price
$599.www.philharmonik.com 954/846-9101
Spectrasonics New Orleans StrutBenefit Library
Spectrasonics is offering a mini drum loop collection to
benefitthe victims of hurricane Katrina. Its only $25, and 100%
ofthe proceeds go to Habitat for Humanitys relief effort in
rebuild-ing homes in New Orleans and Mississippi. Please
seewww.Spectrasonics.net for further info.
-
VIf e a t u r e
1 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
by Nick Batzdorf
If you picked up this magazine becauseyoure first getting
involved with the worldof softsynths and samplers, were
anticipat-ing that you have a number of basic ques-tions. Is your
computer up to the task? If not,what do you need to make it so? Or
whatkind of system do you need? What else doyou need to make it
sing?
This issue were going to look at the com-puter system itself.
Later well look at soundcards, controller keyboards, and touch
uponspeakers. If we havent answered your ques-tions here, please
feel free to write to us:[email protected].
DedicationAsk any old wife, and shell tell the tale that
you must dedicate a computer to DAW useits bad to run general
programs on yourmusic computer. Shes wrong.
The theory behind the tale is that youregoing to run into
software conflicts, or thatgeneral programs could have some
memory-resident processes lurking in the backgroundthat interfere
with your real-time music work.But even when thats trueand it
usually isnta problem with todays powerful machinesstarting up from
a dedicated system harddrive solves the problem without the
expenseof a whole other computer. And in fact a ded-icated system
drive isnt a bad idea, especiallyfor Windows users who share their
computerswith other people who set their systems updifferently.
Another old wives tale is that you shouldnthave your music
computer connected to theInternet. While you do have to be careful
notto download viruses, chances are that youllneed to go online to
get software updates withsome frequency, and many programs also
usecopy protection thats activated online.
So you actually want your music computersconnected to the
Internetand to eachother, as youll see elsewhere in this issue.
Laptop or towerVirtual Instruments like processing power,
and streaming soft-ware samplers likefast hard disks.Laptop
computersare convenient andportable, but theytend to be a little
lesspowerful than desk-top models and haveslower drives.
The reason laptopsare often less power-ful is that
theyredesigned to empha-size maximum bat-tery life more thanmuscle.
Likewise,most laptop drivesspin at 4200 or 5400RPM vs. 7200 RPMfor
desktop models.That has an effect onthe drives seek timespec; the
faster theseek time, the morevoices (simultaneousnotes) you
canstream andlessimportantlythefaster programs load.
Part 1: Computer SystemsFirst DAWA beginners guide to putting
together a DAW(digital audio workstation) for softsynths
andsamplers
Case, motherboard, CPU, memory,hard drives, and a CD/DVD
drive:
regardless of whether you buy an off-the-shelfmodel, have a
computer put together, put it
together yourself, or buy from a DAW specialist, theres not much
inside a
Windows machine.
-
800.717.3474
/new_instruments/
The most playable string library available. Violin,Viola, Cello
& the oft-omitted Double-Bass likeyouve never heard them
before. 24 bit,multiple microphone positions, played by worldclass
performers. Articulations include: arco,marcato, spiccato, sul
tasto, ponticelli, pizzicato,harmonics, snap pizzicato, FX &
more. Thislibrary delivers realism & flexibility packaged inthe
most creative programming to date.
This is the guitar onslaught youve beenwaiting for! A virtual
instrument guitar doneright, with over 11 gigs of multiple amps
andlevels of distortion, mono and stereo files.Loops that can be
time stretched to matchthe tempo of your tune
automatically,Sustained notes, chugs, hammer-ons, bendsand lots
more, so you can create your ownguitar parts.
The first call for a modern horn Virtual Instrument, perfect for
Pop, Latin, Jazz, Big Band, RocknRoll with its unprecedented sound
quality andprogramming. Trumpet, Soprano Sax,Alto Sax,Tenor Sax,
Bari Sax,Trombone, Flugelhorn and French horn, all in Solo and
Sections.$29995 Kontakt Player (AU,VSTi, DXi2, RTAS - Mac, PC
Standalone Application) GigaStudioListen at
www.bigfishaudio.com/firstcallhorns
Prepare to explore a tactile and expressivefeast, unparalleled
in sampled pianos today.You get two seperate 24 Bit pianos, each
withan astonishing 32 different velocity samples,not only layers,
but 32 DIFFERENT samplesper note, 16 samples for pedal up, 16 for
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-
the major multitrack DAW programs, AppleLogic Audio and MOTU
Digital Performeronly run on Mac; Cakewalk Sonar only runson
Windows; most other DAW software suchas Steinberg Cubase and
Nuendo, andDigidesign Pro Toolsas well as programs
likePropellerhead Reason and Ableton Live, andmany V.I.s and
plug-inshave versions forboth platforms.
So theres no shortage of great music soft-ware for Mac or PC.
Thats no help if youwant to run a specific incompatible programon
your machine, but the old line about therebeing more Windows
software is totally irrele-vant to us.
At the entry level, Windows machines tendto be more powerful,
while Macs have a verynice software bundle that includesGarageBand,
an entry-level program that isabsolutely no laughing matter (see
last issuefor an overview). At the higher end, G5s canaccess more
memory than Windowsmachines.
If you read The World of Softsynths andSamplers in our 7-8/05
premiere issue, youunderstand that modern sample libraries
meaning that theyre large and theystream off hard driveswant
lots ofmemory for loading programs.
MacsAs of this writing, there are Macs
with G4 processors (all thePowerBooks, the eMacs, and theMac
Mini) and Macs with G5processors (the iMac G5 andPowerMac G5). G4s
are good forour purposes, but G5s are better.
You will get some music out ofan eMac, Mac Mini, or
12"PowerBook, but these models allsupport 1GB of RAM (randomaccess
memory) only, which isacceptable but not ideal. 1GB is finefor
GarageBand instruments, forexample, but not really enough torun
state-of-the-art streaming sample libraries. The 15" and
17"PowerBooks use G4 processors, butthey hold up to 2GB of RAM,
whichisnt bad.
The iMac G5s also max out at2GB of RAM, but they have
G5processors in their favor. However,they dont offer expansion
drivebays or PCI slots, so you must useFirewire (preferably) or USB
2 forthat. Thats not necessarily a prob-lem.
If the treasury permits, however,youre best off with a
PowerMacG5. These machines hold moreRAM, are more powerful, have
PCIslots, and have space for an addi-
tional internal drive.The current dual 2.7GHz and dual
2.3GHz,
previous dual 2.5GHz, and previous dual2.0GHz G5 models all hold
up to 8GB of RAM(the current dual 2GHz machine can hold
4GB). Given that a single programforexample your DAW softwarecan
access 4GBof RAM (although you dont see all that), 4.5or 5GB is a
good amount to install.
The OS runs outside that, so anythingmore than 4GB of RAM will
allow you to runother programs. That includes audio pro-grams that
get streamed into your DAW usingthe ReWire protocol (again, see The
World ofSofsynths and Samplers for an explanation ofhow ReWire
works). You can also do thingslike checking your email or opening a
browserwithout quitting your DAW program and having to load all
your samples again.
WindowsThere are more decisions to make with
Windows machines, starting with whetheryoure going to buy an
off-the-shelf comput-er, have one put together for you in a
stan-dard computer store, buy one from a DAWspecialist, or put one
together yourself fromcomponents.
Whats inside a computer is quite simplefrom a mechanical point
of view. You choosea motherboard, processor, case, memory,hard
drives, and probably a CD/DVD drive.And Windows XP Pro or Home.
The trick is knowing what components tochoose. My advice is to
choose a mother-board with at least three memory slots, soyou can
install more than 2GB of RAM (with1GB sticks) if your software
benefits from it.
At todays prices, its simply not worthgoing with anything less
than a 2.8GHz IntelPentium 4 or AMD Athlon 2800 processorthe
lower-priced Semprons and Celerons areunsuitable for DAWs, and
slower processorsare pound foolish. Most people recommend apower
supply that delivers 350 Watts ormore. Well talk about hard drives
shortly.
The way around this limitation is to add anexternal 7200 RPM
hard drive, most likely aFirewire format one, if youre streaming
sam-ples or recording audio on your laptop.Musical activities are
very rough on harddrives due to the constant reading and writ-ing,
and you probably dont want to subjectyour system drive to a steady
diet of that.
Yet another advantage to desktop comput-ers is that they have
room for extra harddrives. They also have slots for PCI
expansioncards, which we use primarily for audio
inter-facesalthough there are also externalaudio interfaces that
connect to the compu-ters USB or Firewire ports.
None of this means you cant do seriouswork on a laptopon the
contrarybut youdo need to be aware that theres a price topay for
the convenience.
Mac or Windows?Sidestepping the religious issues, the truth
is that you can get a lot of music out of a sin-gle Mac or
Windows machine; both are capa-ble of running a lot of virtual
instruments,samples, and plug-ins simultaneously. As to
Fig caption: A PowerMac G5 makes an excellentDAW, and it comes
with Apples GarageBand soft-
ware.
VIf e a t u r e
NOTION 2005 SOUTHEASTERN TOUR
The NOTION team is coming to alocation near you! The
officialNOTION 2005 SoutheasternTour kicks off this Fall withstops
at universities acrossNC, SC, GA and FL as well ashigh schools,
music institutesand music stores. Go to notion-music.com/tour today
for thelatest tour schedule so you canexperience firsthand the
mostintuitive composition interfacewith instant playback by
TheLondon Symphony Orchestra
recorded at Abbey RoadStudios.
1 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 63)
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1 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
Review by Lee Sherman
VIr e v i e w
As V.I.s become more and more popular,hardware manufacturers are
respond-ing with keyboard controllers that aremore and more tightly
integrated with them.The Alesis Photon X25 being reviewed is
aunique example of one that pulls out all thestops.
This 25-key unweighted keyboard con-troller contains a built-in
audio interface and afull complement of programmable buttonsand
knobs, along with programmed presetsand plastic overlays for
several popular soft-ware programs. You just plug its USB cableinto
a PC or Mac, connect a pair of head-phones and/or powered monitors,
and playno external power is required (although youcan also use
four C batteries or an optional9V DC adapter to preserve laptop
battery lifeor use the keyboard stand-alone).
The Photon X25 also adds 3-dimensionalcontrol in the form of a
unique Theremin-likedome, called the Axyz controller (see
sidebar),that works by infra-red. You move your handforward and
back, left and right, and up anddown to control the three
parameters of yourchoice. Axyz was first seen on Alesis Air
FXunit.
KeysThis controller measures 18" x 9.6" x 3.5"
and weighs a mere four pounds. That is sureto earn it a place in
the backpacks of manylaptop musicians, as well as the V.I. rigs
ofmusicians who dont need more than twooctaves for entering music.
For those who do,Alesis also offers a 4-octave version, the
X49,which doesnt have the X25s audio interfacebut adds nine 60mm
faders.
The keyboard has a decent-feelingunweighted synth-action
mechanism,which means that its keys are lighter than apianos. While
this keyboard is velocity-sensi-tive (meaning that its sensitive to
how hardyou play), it doesnt have aftertouch, or pres-sure
sensitivity. Unweighted keys are betterfor playing many types of
parts, such aswoodwind and percussion, while most musi-cians prefer
weighted or semi-weighted keysfor keyboard parts. But a 2-octave
weightedkeyboard wouldnt make a lot of sense, ofcourse.
InstallationAlthough the unit is technically device-
compliant, meaning it installs automatically,Windows users must
download and install theAlesis Photon driver for best
performance.Alesis recommends Windows XP Service Pack2, which fixes
some problems in earlier XPversions.
There is no driver for Mac OS X, and instal-lation is fully
automaticliterally plug andplay. Cubase LE, Apple GarageBand,
andAbleton Live recognized the Photon rightaway when I installed
it, and in fact it showsup in Apples Audio MIDI Setup application
assoon as you plug it in. It also uses CoreAudio, the audio system
built into Mac OS X,which means the latency is low (latency is
theamount of time between playing a key andhearing sound).
A single USB connection carries audio andMIDI between the Photon
and the computer.This is a common approach among recentaudio/MIDI
interfaces, and it really simplifiesset-up for both studio and live
use.
However, the rear panels MIDI In and Outconnections allow the
Photon to function as asimple MIDI interface. It can also control
MIDIdevices directly when necessary, withoutusing a computer as
intermediary.
The rear panel also has a headphone jack,along with inputs for
optional sustain andexpression pedals.
ControlsPhoton X25 includes ten endless rotary
knobs for MIDI control, ten freely assignablebuttons, octave
shift buttons, and an array ofbuttons for recalling, paging
through, and
Photon X25, $199
Alesis
200 Scenic View Drive
Cumberland, RI 02864
401/658-3640
Platforms: USB-equipped com-
puter running Mac OS X, Windows
XP with Service Pack 2. Or any
computer or device with a MIDI
interface.
25-Note USB MIDI Controller/Audio Interface
Alesis Photon X25
Two octaves to go: just plug this units USB cable intoa
computer, connect a pair of headphones or pow-ered monitors, and
playwhile waving your hand inthe air to use its Theremin-like
controller.
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1 8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
VIr e v i e wediting presets. Its appealingly chunky
full-sizepitch and mod wheels glow red when theyveleft the neutral
position.
The Photon comes with presets forSteinberg Cubase LE; Cakewalk
Sonar; NativeInstruments B4, FM7, and Pro-53 instru-ments; Applied
Acoustics Tassman; and theinstruments in Propellerheads
Reason(Maelstrom, etc.). When you switch pro-grams, you simply dial
up the appropriateone with the data wheel and recall it. If
yoursoftware isnt on the list, you can programand store up to 20
additional templates inmemory.
Plastic overlays for the included presets areused to indicate
which parameters are associ-ated with each knob. A Layer button
switchesbetween three layers, and there are lights toindicate which
one is active. This is the equiv-alent of 30 knobs, only it doesnt
clutter thefront panel the way 30 actual knobs would.
In my opinion the real value of thePhoton comes not so much from
the ratherflashy Axyz dome but from the units 360degree endless
knobs. (See sidebar for a sec-ond opinion on the Axyz.) These are
thesame knobs found on Alesis more expensiveIon and Micron synths;
theyre ideal for con-trolling virtual analog softsynths,
becausethey dont have fixed positions and com-pletely eliminate any
stepping when youperform filter sweeps.
The X25s LCD screen is easier to read andprovides more
information than the LEDsfound on most budget controllers.
In and outOn the audio side, the Photon offers 2-
channel, 24-bit 44.1/48 kHz audio recordingwith balanced stereo
audio inputs and out-puts. Connections are made through 1/4"
TRSjacks. These inputs have 30dB of gain, whichis enough for
instruments and line-levelsources but not microphones; for live
record-ing youll need an external mic preamp.
A Direct Monitoring feature routes theinput signal directly to
the output in order toavoid the slight latency you get by
monitor-ing through the computer. The signal stillgets sent to the
computer for recording whenDirect Monitoring is enabled, of course,
soyou have to mute it inside the computer ifyou dont want to hear
it twice when itcomes back again after a slight delay.Similarly, if
youre routing the signal througha reverb plug-in running on the
computer,you have to be sure to monitor the wetreverb return with
no dry signal. This is withall audio interfaces that have a direct
moni-toring feature.
There are dedicated input and output levelcontrols on the units
surface. You can eitherconnect powered speakers (or an amplifierand
speakers) directly to the Photon, or you
can plug the unit into a mixerand, as theinstructions suggest,
plug the output of amixer into the Photon for recording on
thecomputer. The Output knob affects the line-level outs and the
rear panel headphone jackssimultaneously, which isnt ideal.
So how does it sound? To my ears quitegood, especially when you
consider howaffordable it is.
The Axyz controllergimmick or
gimme?Alesis sent us an extra Photon X25 toshoot for the cover
of this issue, andout of curiosity I took the opportunity tocheck
out its Theremin-like Axyz controller.
In all honesty, I was expecting it to be afun but rather
esoteric add-on that youduse partly for creating weird effects
butmainly for looking cool on stage. Not so.It can be very musical
if you have it set tocontrol the right parameters on the
rightsounds. And contrary to my expectations,its not difficult to
use.
The Axyz controller works using invisibleinfra-red light, and
you move your handover its dome in three dimensions to con-trol
three programmed parameters: left toright, forward and back, and up
anddown. If you use it with the NativeInstruments Pro-53 analog
synthesizer,for example, its pre-programmed so theL-R (AB) axis
controls filter cutoff, the for-ward-backward axis (XY) controls
filter res-onance (which sounds sort of like addedbuzziness), and
the up/down axis (Z) ineffect controls the volume.
Its the Z axis that I really like for con-trolling sample
libraries. More specifically,if you set this axis to MIDI cc #11
(expres-sion)the continuous controller youdnormally have assigned
to a slider or themod wheel for riding the volume whileyoure
programming MIDI partsit actual-ly feels like youre conducting with
yourleft hand. The feeling is very natural.
An unavoidable side effect is that mov-ing your hand away from
the Axyz domecauses it to send zero valuestheparameters youre
controlling have no wayof knowing if you want them to stay put.But
once you get used to having to wiggleyour hand after you put it
back (to sendsome MIDI values) before you can hear asound, its not
really a problem.
Of course, the fact that the Photon X25also has standard mod and
pitch wheelsimplies that even Alesis knows that theAxyz controller
isnt for every situation.But its a very welcome addition to
thearsenal of MIDI sequencing and perform-ing tools.NB
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 58)
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2 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
VIi n t e r v i e w
Jordan Rudess has a much wider scope than
most rock stars. While probably best known as a
progressive rock keyboard virtuoso, currently
with the group Dream Theater, attendees at trade
shows have been getting bowled over by his dazzling
demo performances for years. You might see him
improvising orchestral pieces in real time, playing
something one might trace to the Keith Jarrett/Lyle
Mays mold, or just rocking out.
K E Y B O A R D H E R O
Jordan Life, music, and adding V.I.s
to a hardware-based rig
Rudess
Dream Theater: John Myung, John Petrucci, James LaBrie, Jordan
Rudess, and Mike Portnoy
-
V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 2 1
VIi n t e r v i e w
So how are you using V.I.s?Well, Im primarily using virtual
instruments
in the studio at this point. When I play outlive Im not using
them very much. But thislast recording session that I did with
DreamTheater (our new album, which is calledOctavarium) I sort of
delved into them full-speed ahead and ended up having them bevery
influential and important to what I wasdoing.
So that was an interesting period for meIlearned a lot about
whats possible, whatsout there, and ended up using one
particularvirtual instrument very extensively on thealbum, which is
a product called Ivory bySynthogy.
The pianos.That actually was designed by a friend of
mine, Joe Ierardi, who I used to work with atKurzweil, and he
was responsible for theKurzweil piano sound.
When I hadnt spoken to him for a whileand found out that was
what he was doing, Ijust knew that would be amazing. So I
gotinvolved with that from the start. And ofcourse it was. Thats
just a beautiful plug-in.
Then I have some other favorites as well.
Which of the three is your favoritepiano in Ivory?
I like the Steinway a lot, but actuallytheyre all good. The
funny story is that werecording this last album at The Hit
Factory.As part of my world I had this Yamaha grandpiano there,
which is very nice, soundedgreat, and we tried to record it. But it
ended
up being in an A and B comparison betweenIvory and the
Yamaha.
The end result actually sounded betterfrom Ivory. We couldnt
really get the acousticpiano to speak as well on the recording,
sowe ended up using that! We were all blownaway, and every day the
other guys in thebandwho arent that conscious of my sub-tleties and
different sounds were like Thatpiano, its amazing! I used them all
on therecording. It really came through for me.
When youre in the studio you have alot more possibilities. Do
you still goback to the same pallet youve alwaysused?
It really has expanded my pallet of sounds.Its pretty
extraordinary what someoneinvolved in this world can really do.
Thebeauty of it is theres so many possibilities,theres so many
sonic choices out there.
The negative side of it is that with all theseinstruments people
are making that are sopowerful, with limited time in the day,
peoplebuy so many of them without learning howto work any of them
fully.
In the past I would have one hardwareinstrument, and I would
focus on it inside andout and get so much out of it. And now
timeshave really changed, and with all these toolsaround its hard
to do that.
Do you work with a programmer ordo your own sounds?
I program a lot, and I also have people Iwork with. In the
studio this last time I had aguy from Native Instruments named
Matt
Muldover, he kind of helped me get startedon a lot of the Native
Instruments plug-ins. Iwas really interested in Reaktor and
Batteryand Kontakt. I needed to have somebody getme into it
fast.
But Ive always been a programmer as well.I did a lot of
programming for Korg andRoland, made a lot of sounds for them.
Which other instruments are yourfavorites?
One of my favorite things that I gravitatetowards is a
Spectrasonics softsynth calledAtmosphere. I love that, it always
seems tocome up.
I also use the Native Instruments B4 organ.
What about sample libraries?I have the full Sonic Implants set,
Miroslav
Vitous library, all the old ones. A great collec-tion that I use
a lot still is the SpectrasonicsSymphony of Voices, its very
useful.
Do you do everything on onemachine or do you use more?
Just one Mac.
We see you at trade shows improvis-ing orchestral pieces live,
most recentlydemonstrating MOTU or SonicImplants. Thats not the way
most peo-ple wouldor canput orchestralpieces together. You do
overdub in thestudio, right?
I get involved with the world of overdub-bing quite a bit. With
Dream Theater Ill cre-ate something in the studio and theres
noth-ing holding me back from being able to trackwhatever I
want.
Then when it comes time to do it live, Ineed to figure out how
to do as much of it asI can. Thats a whole other involved tripafter
the production for the album is done,the production for live has to
happen.
You just have to boil it down towhats possible?
Exactly, but I do a whole lot of program-ming and try to make as
much possible as Ican. Its not like theres a whole lot of
sacrific-ing going on.
When youre doing those crazydemos improvising orchestral
pieces,how do you set up the keyboard?
When I was doing the MOTU demos, wewere showing off the
performance featuresthat were possible with their software. What
Iwould do is set it up so that different low keyson the keyboard
would bring in different tim-bres.
Keyswitching?Well, sort of. I was able to layer and split
up the keyboard and control it in real timewhich in the MachFive
software is so cool,because you can have, say eight soundsstrings,
choir, pipe organ, you name itandas Im playing and improvising, I
can hold
Rudess does a wide variety of playing when hes not tour-
ing with Dream Theater. Hes recorded and/or performed
with most of the fusion and progressive rock greats (includ-
ing people like Keith Emerson, Tony Williams, Keith
Emerson, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, Steve Morse, Joe
Satriani, John Petrucci, etc.); David Bowie; Enrique
Iglesias;
and the Paul Winter Consort. His discography list scrolls
for
several miles, including everything from solo recordings to
duos to group performances.
Rudess studied classical piano at Juilliard as a child, and
got hooked on synthesizers as a teenager (after persuading
his parents to get him a Minimoog). His approach to synthe-
sizers is unique in that he actually developed technical
exer-
cises to make them speak the way he wanted.
Today he offers an online Conservatory on his website
(www.JordanRudess.com), where theres also an online
magazine, MIDI files of some of his performances, and a lot
more. The website is well worth checking out.
-
2 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
down and play any combination of (in thiscase) keys and have
those bring in the differ-ent parts. Theres an immediateness
thatspretty cool.
So its not keyswitching exactlyYeah, its not so much
keyswitching
because you can press any combination ofkeys down and get these
cool layers.
Ive also seen you demonstrating theSonic Implants orchestral
library. Itslike most modern orchestral libraries,with different
articulations that areonly intended to be used for phrases
orfragments. What types of articulationsdo you set up for playing
live?
They just set me up with a couple differentarticulations of
strings, a couple of differentarticulations of brass, and we just
assignedthose to different buttons on the master con-troller. I was
able to do kind of a similar thingto what I was doing on the
MachFive, but inthis case I was just bringing it in on an out-side
controller.
The Sonic Implants sounds are amazing,and that was certainly
helpful to inspire me toimprovise.
Do you go into the studio with thatkind of set-up already
programmed?
Its a different headspace. In the studio, Imlooking for
something particular. I might say
I need strings, and I need them to be lega-to. So I might just
find that one particularsample. Occasionally Ill perform
somethingthat Ill need the articulation to be a little bitmore
advanced, but often thats not so muchthe case.
On the other hand, I have a lot sounds thatIve made through the
years, on some of myinstruments like my Kurzweil instruments,where
there are tremendous layers and inter-esting things all set up. I
sometimes go tothose to get a big sound or something tex-tured
happeningif I have something in myhead thats not just strings, or a
choirsound.
When I want those, I generally go forsomething that Ive made for
livewhich isinteresting, because for example I have thingsfrom when
I used to do the Rudess/Morgenstein project a lotbig organs,
bigkeyboard sounds. I keep on having morethings to draw from, my
pallet keeps on get-ting bigger.
So in addition to finding a sound on a soft-synth or bringing in
a sample, Ive createdlayered patches that I use livewhich weremeant
to recreate to what I did in the studiooriginally many times.
Do you work with sequencers?I use MOTU Digital Performer. Ive
been
using it for years and years.
Do you sequence parts to use in thestudio when you need more
sophisticat-ed articulations (or advanced ones, asyou put it)?
I definitely play it live. Im more into usinga controller if I
need articulations. Its mything.
I think a lot of us wish we were ableto do that.
Its interesting, my approach is not some-thing that most people
do. A lot of guys inthe studio will sequence it or step-sequenceits
a funny world out there as faras keyboard players go nowadays. Its
eitheryou came into it as more of a pop or rock stu-dio kind of
player, youd basically play a cou-ple of chords, work something out
slow-motion, then speed it up and do what youwant to do, or maybe
youre a classical musi-cian who got into trying to figure out
theorchestrations using a synthesizer.
My background is very different. In someways Im kind of lucky,
because I went toJuilliard and I studied many years of
classicalmusic. Then at age 18 or 19 after beggingmy parents, I got
a synthesizer, a Minimoog.That was amazing to me, and it changed
mywhole world. I developed ways of practicingtechnique based on
what the Minimoogcould doways of practicing scales.
VIi n t e r v i e w
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 58
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2 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
Although I use computers, samples, andvirtual instruments, I
also have a lovefor jamming and live improvisation.Ive recently
migrated from using a sampling
Tips and tricks for making AbletonsLive take some of the
pressure outof live performance.
drum machine to Abletons Live as the center-piece of my
set-up.
However, when I perform its not all aboutthe loops; my attention
is also dividedbetween playing hand percussion and per-forming
dub-style effect processing. ThereforeIve been developing a toolbox
of tricks thatenables Live to take more actions on its own,so I can
turn my attention elsewhere.
Many of these involve Lives new FollowActions feature.
Simple tipsWell start our session with some simple
tricks. Anyone who has used Live knows thatthe main way to
trigger loops in Sessionmode is to click the Clip Launch Buttons
(theplay arrows) to their left. This is what I domost of the time
to switch between variationsinside each vertical Track.
I set the Global Quantization off when newloops trigger to 2
bars, as that seems to bethe smallest atom I break my
arrangements
Follow Me,Follow You
by Chris Meyer
VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c
moreonlinewww.virtualinstrumentsmag.com
-
down to. This gives me an extra measure overthe default of 1 bar
to queue up a new loopand then turn my attention to my hand
per-cussion or effects before it actually switchesover.
To trigger multiple clips together, firstselect them (click on
their names, not theirClip Launch Button, while holding down
theCommand key on Mac, Control onWindows), and then hit Return when
youreready to fire them. If you have a collection ofclips you know
ahead of time that you willwant to fire together, arrange them
intoScenes by placing them on the same line hor-izontally. You can
then trigger all of them atonce using the Master column to the
right.
Sometimes when I trigger a new scene, Iwant one of the
individual tracks to keepplaying the same loop rather than
switching.If you leave a Clip Slot at its default of a StopClip
Button, triggering it will stop playbackon that track. You can copy
the same loop tothe new slot so that triggering a new scenewill
trigger the loop copy, but this may causea longer loop to reset to
its head prematurely.
The cure for this is to delete the Stop Clipbutton from an
otherwise-empty slot: Selectit, and type Command+E on the
Mac(Control+E on Windows). Now if you select anew scene with a
blank slot in any tracks, anypreviously-launched loop on that track
willkeep playing (Figure 1).
loop on the same track after a user-specifiednumber of beats.
This allows you to stringtogether loop fragments to create a
longer,more interesting performanceor moreimportantly, to interject
some variation andrandomness into the performance without
having to programevery action yourself.
For your experimen-tation pleasure, a Live4 Set that
demon-strates many of thesetechniques using thePowerFX loops
thatcome bundled withLive is in theDownloads section ofthe the VI
web site. Illalso give detailedinstructions so you cancreate your
own ver-sions.
Sometimes I indeed want aloop-based track to stop play-ing, but
more gracefully thanjust halting playback before thenext downbeat.
I will oftenpaste single-hit sounds such asa big kick or acrash
cymbal(with Loop andWarp optionsturned off) intothese stopslots to
givethe now-end-ing loops finaldownbeats. OrIll make acopy of
theloop, leaveWarp on (so
the tempo remains correct),turn off Loop, and then editits Clip
Loop End and VolumeEnvelope to truncate the loopafter its first
beat or two(Figure 4).
I occasionally spice upsparser loop sets with a col-lection of
top loops: shak-ers, hi-hats, ride cymbals, orsimilar pulse-like
patterns.Sometimes crossfadingbetween these loops providesa better
transition than jump-ing from one to another.
To do this, I create twotracks, each with the same set of top
loops.Make sure the Crossfade Assign switches arevisible (enabled
under the View menu), andassign one top loop track to A while
theother is assigned to B. Both tracks areassigned to the same
audio output pair. Ithen crossfade between them using theCrossfader
underneath the Master Volumecontrol in Live (Figure 5)much easier
thancoordinating multiple channel faders.
The ghost in the machine
One of the most significant features intro-duced in Live 4 was
Follow Actions: the abilityto have a loop on a track switch to a
different
Figure 1: Five master Scenes intended to be fired in order, from
top tobottom. Track 2 is set to stop when scene 1 is initially
fired, and startits own drum track when scene 2 is fired. The Stop
Clip Buttons havebeen removed for track 2 in the third and fourth
Scenes, so that it willkeep playing (as it has here, when scene 3
was fired). Scene 5 fires a
one-shot end hit on track 2.
Figure 2: In place of a Stop button, consider using a trimmed
copy of the loop, with Warp still on, Loop turned off, and a Volume
Envelope to truncate the sound more smoothly.
VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c
Figure 4: FollowActions only workbetween adjacentclips on the
same
track.
V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 2 5
Figure 3: To crossfade between tracks, enable
View>Crossfader, andenable the A or B switches along the bottom
for the tracks you wish tofade between (not the other tracks). Then
use the horizontal Crossfader
underneath the Master fader to perform the blend.
-
Lets start with the simple example of play-ing a core loop for
three bars, playing a breakfor one bar, playing the core again for
threemore bars, playing a different break, and thengoing back to
the start. Arrange these loopsin linear order in a Live track in
Session mode(Figure 4). They must be adjacent to eachother on the
track; Follow Actions cannotjump over empty or Stop slots.
Select the first loop, and open View>Clip. Ifthe Launch
section is not already visible, openit by clicking on the asterisk
icon at the bot-tom of the Clip section (Figure 5).Immediately
underneath the Follow Actionheader at the bottom of the Launch
sectionare three boxes, which are the Follow ActionTime. These
define how long the selectedloop is to play in bars, beats, and
sixteenthsof a beat. Note that this time can be differentthan the
loops duration! For our example,well enter 3 0 0 to get three
bars.
Then comes selecting the Follow Actionitself. Click on the box
underneath the barsduration, and select Next. This tells Live
thatafter the three bars are up, launch the nextloop in line (the
one underneath the currentloop in the track).
Underneath that pop-up is a box to enter aChance value. This is
a weighting of howoften to take this action. Normally you
wouldleave it at its default of 1. There is an identicalpair of
boxes to the right where you can pro-gram a different Follow Action
(and we will,soon enough); the Chance values then decidehow often
Live decides to take one actioninstead of the other.
Next, select the second loop in lineBreak1 in our example.
Prepare it the same way as
the main loop,except set its FollowAction Time to 1 0 0(1 bar,
no beats, no16ths). The thirdloop in line is a copyof our main
loop,with the sameFollow Action.Finally, the fourthloopour
secondbreakgets a FollowAction Time of 1 0 0,and a Follow Actionof
First. This sayswhen done, go tothe first loop in thischain.
If you have ourexample Set, or havebeen following alongand
created thisaction chain yourself,click Stop Clips tomake sure no
othertracks are playing,and then click theLaunch Button forthe
first loop in thischain (the first clip intrack 1 in our Set).
It
will turn light green as it starts to play, andthe button for
the next loop will start to blinka darker green, indicating it is
queued up toplay after the currentone is finished.Listen; you will
nowhave a repeating 8-bar pattern createdout of three
shorterloops.
Thats nice, but itdoesnt take advan-tage of the mainstrength of
Live: theability to improvisewith loops ratherthan playing them ina
predeterminedsequence. For some-thing a bit moreinteresting,
stringtogether a trio of 2-bar loops in a track.For each loop, set
itsFollow Action Timeto 2 0 0, its FollowAction to Any (theasterisk
icon), and itsChance to 1 (Figure8). Stop Clips, andthen click on
theLaunch button forany of these clips (intrack 2 of our exam-ple
Set).
Live will now playa loop for two bars,and then jump to
VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c
Figure 6: To make Livepick a loop randomly
after the Follow ActionTime is up for the cur-rent loop, set its
FollowAction to Any (an aster-
isk). Note that anycan also mean to playthe same loop again.
Figure 7: A clip canhave two different
Follow Actions. Here,after six bars this clip
can either play the Nextclip (the arrow icon onthe left), or the
Last clipin the stack (the hori-
zontal lines icon on theright). The numbers
below set the Chance itmay go in one direction
or the other.
2 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
Figures 5a, 5b: To set upFollow Actions, open the
Launch panel by clicking onthe asterisk icon along thebottom of
the Clip panel
(a). The first set of numbersare the Follow Action Time;the
pop-ups select which
Follow Action to use (b); thesecond set of numbers
determines the Chance thatLive will take one action over
another.
Maximizing performance in Live
As I use Live to both perform loops and record digital audio at
the same time, I am verywary of overtaxing my laptop or otherwise
tempting it to fail. Here are a few of the meas-ures Ive taken to
make sure I dont run out of clock cyclesor my remaining hairduring
aperformance:
Preload all the samples into RAM by enabling the button in each
clips Sample section.This means Live doesnt have to spool them off
the hard drive during performancewhile it is also busy
recording.
Even then, Live will occasionally gulp as I trigger a new
sample; if possible, afterloading a new set I mute the audio
outputs, pre-fire all of the tracks, stop, and thenget ready to
play.
Longer, non-timed samples such as ambiences (which might
otherwise overflow myRAM) are burned to audio CDs and played
outside the computer.
Record to a FireWire 400 or 800 drive, as this is much faster
than the internal IDEdrives in most laptops.
Try to limit the use of virtual instruments. If possible (such
as with rhythm libraries), I record the output of the V.I. track
back into an audio track in Live and delete the V.I.track. This
means I can use it as a sampled loop that can be loaded into
RAM.
Dont let the laptop go into energy saver mode (which slows down
the processor), orgo to sleep (which occasionally results in loss
of communication to external devicessuch as audio interfaces).
Use power filters and surge protectors at a minimum; go for
voltage stabilizers if possi-ble. It is a well-documented fact that
laptops get stage fright; I believe this is due tothe unstable
power available in most venues. (Did I ever tell you about the time
theyfired up the cappuccino machine and the entire place went
dark?)
-
2 8 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
another loopincluding potentiallythe loop it wasalready playing.
Theblinking LaunchButton tells youwhich loop is next.
This is cute for awhile, but it eventu-ally becomes clearthat
the drummeriswell, random.Real drummers,despite their reputa-tion,
tend to have abit more of a planthan that.
Lets use the samethree loops to createa more realistic pat-tern.
The first loopshould be the maingroove. Lets say wewant that to
play forsix bars; to do that,set the Follow ActionTime to 6 0 0.To
play thenext loopwhen weredone, set theleft-handFollow Action
to Next, and its Chance to 1.Now lets program some
variation.
Set Follow Action B (the right-handone) to play the Last clip,
which is thethird loop in our chain, also with aChance of 1 (Figure
7). When the mainloop finishes, it now has an equalchance of
playing either of our twovariation loops. You can change
theweighting by entering different Chancevaluesthe higher the
Chance, thehigher the probability that particularaction will be
taken.
Finally, set the two variation loops tohave a Follow Action Time
of 2 0 0 (sothey play for two measures), a FollowAction of First
(to return to the firstloop in the chain), and a Chance of 1.Stop
Clips and launch the main loop(in track 3 of our Set). Now you have
amore reasonable drummer, who playsa break at a predictable timebut
whoalso throws in some variation as towhich actual break will be
played.
Our automated drummer is better,but could still stand to be a
little less
predictable about when he breaks into a varia-tion. On track 4
in the online example Set, Iused the same set of three loops, but
pro-grammed the Follow Action Time for each to 40 0 (four
measures). For the main loop, I pro-grammed Follow Action A to be
Any and
Chance A to be 3, which means on average itcould play itself or
one of the two adjacentvariation loops. I then set Follow Action B
to bePlay Again with Chance B set to 1 (Figure 8).
This means there is a 1 to 3 chance thatLive will take Follow
Action B instead of A,increasing the odds that the main loop
will
just repeat itself rather than break into a varia-tion. The end
result is even money (a 2 in 4chance) whether the main loop will
repeat, orplay a variation. These two variation loops arethen set
to jump back to the First clipthemain loopwhen theyre done.
You may have noticed that in the exampleswhere I employed a
Follow Action of Any, Iused the same Follow Action Time for all
theloops. Thats because of a subtle but impor-tant issue with the
Any action: it means play
Figure 8: Here, FollowAction A (the one onthe left) is set to
playAny with a greaterChance of 3, while
Follow Action B is set toPlay Again with a lesser
Chance of 1. Addingthis second action
increases the odds thatthe loop will just repeat.
Figure 9: By employing Follow Actions oneach clip, triggering
Scene 12 (the first hori-zontal set of loops) will cause the rest
of thescenes to play in order automatically. Thesecond set of Play
arrows indicate the next
loops are already queued up.
Follow Actions allows you to string together loop
fragements to create a longer, more interesting
performance or inject some randomness without
having to program every action yourself.
VIv e r y d e e p c l i n i c
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 60)
-
3 0 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
Review by Nick Batzdorf
VIr e v i e w
If youre wondering why the world would beinterested in another
sampled Rhodes, youhavent played the Scarbee VintageKeyboard
Collection. This one is as successfula sampled recreation of an
instrument as theworld has seen.
But the Keyboard Gold Bundle (KGBcom-plete with Russian-inspired
packaging) beingreviewed here is more than a sampledRhodes. It
includes equally impressive samplecollections of all the
instruments listed at thetop of this article, known as the
VintageKeyboard Collection, plus Scarbees VintageKeyboard FX
collection.
DetailThese instruments are recorded extremely
well, and the library has unlooped 24-bitsamples. The Planet N
piano is recorded at sixdynamic levels, the others at from 12 to
20each with its own corresponding release sam-ple. That may be a
record. What really addsto the realism is that theyre mapped to
thekeyboard flawlessly, and you really dont hearor feel the breaks
between sample layers.
Before moving to a Yamaha DX-7, I used aRhodes for writing. The
Scarbee 73 broughtthat instrument right back. You hear thesqueak of
the keyboard, the tines damping
when you release the note, and the gradualevolution from a sine
wave to a growl as youdig in. The release effect is so addictive
that Iused an exciter plug-in to bring it out more.Theres also some
hiss and rumble you canadd to the sound if you want.
The Wurlitzer in this collection sounds justlike the one a
friend of mine owns. Its a dirtier,funkier sound than the
Rhodesalthough theRhodes can get funky too. While I did
wearbell-bottom blue jeans in the 70s, my experi-ence with the
Clavinet is limited to listening tosongs like Stevie Wonders
Superstition. Thisone certainly sounds right, and it feels like
areal instrument. I have to recuse myself fromcommenting on the
realism of Planet N, whichIve never heard. But the quality is just
as highas the other instruments.
The HALion player has some built-in effects,and there are
various programs of all the instru-
ments that use themphased Rhodes, etc.Its
reasonablyresource-friendly, tak-ing up about 70MBitself and
loading a full285MB Rhodes pro-gram in about 20 sec-onds off a fast
SATAdrive (the 285MB isonly the sample starts,of coursethis is
adisk-streaming library).There are 8-layerspace-saving
programsincluded as well.
Vintage Keyboard FXThe Vintage Keyboard FX collection is
remarkably efficient. I used a 2.8GHz Pentium4 (a BYC VisionDAW)
for most of this review,and it only used about 15% of the CPU
withall eight processors running.
Those eight processors are: preamp, cho-rus, compressor,
overdrive, wah, delay, phas-er, amp/eq (with spring reverb), plus a
mastersection that lets you morphglide all thesettingsbetween two
8-unit presets (yoursof the pre-programmed ones). These effectsare
a big part of the classic sounds of theseinstruments.
Theyre very simple to use, they soundexcellent, and the graphics
are cool. Onemodern touch: you can sync them at variousnote values
to the incoming MIDI clock.
Straight up: I wouldnt even consider notspending the extra $100
for the FX, whichpush an already remarkable library over
thetop.
SoNot only does the Scarbee KGB sound like
the real thing, it makes your keyboard feel likeyoure playing
it. This is what sampling tech-nology is all about. n
Scarbee Keyboard Gold
Bundle, $449 (includes FX);
Vintage Keyboard Collection
version (no FX), $349
Sonic Network Inc., 561 Windsor
Suite St. A402, Somerville, MA
02143. 617/718-0202, 888/769-
3788.
Formats: Mac OS X AU, VST,
stand-alone (can be ReWire slave).
Windows XP VST2, DXi, stand-
alone (or ReWire slave).
License: uses bundled Steinberg
HALion Player with USB dongle.
A top-notch sampled Rhodes Stage Piano MK 1 73,Wurlitzer
Electric Piano, Hohner Clavinet D6, andHohner Planet N Electric
Piano in a HALion player,along with a road case full of vintage
keyboard-oriented effects.
Scarbee KeyboardGold Bundle
-
3 2 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
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VIr e v i e w
3 4 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
DrumCore brings a few twists to theidea of a drum loop library.
Forstarters, ten drummers are represent-edJeff Anthony, John
Bishop, TonyBraunagel, DJ Syze-Up (Ned Douglas), SlyDunbar, Michael
Shrieve, Ben Smith, MattSorum, Alan White, and Zorowho cover awide
range of styles centering around a locusof rock and pop.
Each drummer contributed from five to 14different songs, which
typically include vari-ations, fills, and sometimes individual
hits.The vast majority of the loops are two barseach. Their fills
are very obvious (best for sig-naling obvious breaks in a song);
many of thevariations feature major sonic differencesforexample,
with a ride cymbal, or without thekick drum.
Each song was recorded at a variety oftempos, usually in several
5 bpm increments,sometimes covering as wide a range as from60 bpm
to over 160 bpm. DrumCore doesnot offer tempo stretching itself;
their philoso-phy is that you should hear how the drum-mer would
actually play that groove at that
tempoand indeed, it is educational to hearhow a drummer changes
the pattern (such asswitching from open to closed hi-hats) as
thetempo increases. These grooves are wellrecorded, usually with a
big live-but-not-too-loose sound.
The DrumCore software allows you tosearch through the library a
couple of differ-ent ways. You can go drummer by drummerand song by
song, or you can set up searchcriteria for style, tempo, and the
such.Matching candidates are presented for you toaudition. Once
youve selected a loop, youcan export it as AIFF, SDII, or WAV
files.
The slicker alternative is to use DrumCore asa ReWire client for
ProTools, Logic, DigitalPerformer, Cubase, or Nuendo. In this
caseDrumCore plays through the application(ignoring the master
applications tempoitsstill a library rather than a traditional
virtualinstrument); you can either record it in thehost application
or have DrumCore exportthe loop as a region, soundbite, or other
typeof clip the host prefers. All DrumCore sampleswere recorded at
24-bit/48 kHz; it can export
Drumcore
Review by Chris Meyer
DrumCore sound library and
search engine ($249.00)
DrummerPack AL AppleLoop-com-
patible sound library ($49.99)
Submersible Music, Inc.
(www.drumcore.com)
platform: Installer and search
engine require Mac OS 10.2.3 or
higher; DrumCore has a
challenge/response installer limited
to two unique installs.
license: Free to use as long as
not resold as another library.
sound library + search engine
-
V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 3 5
at 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, or 192 kHz in 16- or24-bit depths.
Some grooves have also been translatedinto MIDI files. DrumCore
has a built-in sam-ple player with well-recorded sounds fromeach of
the drummers kits. You can mix andmatch kits to grooves and
rebalance their mixbefore recording them as audio into
yourapplication, or you can export the MIDI datato your sequencer
and use the grooves totrigger your own sounds. This versatility
isnice, although it must be said that the MIDIversions of the same
grooves paled in com-parison to the sampled loops of the real
thingin this library.
Although the search engine gives youaccess to multiple
variations on a groove,DrumCore does not allow you to arrangelonger
scores; you can only export one loopat a time (although a special
dialog allowsyou to repeat the same loop multiple timesin, say, a
ProTools project). This is particularlyfrustrating with their fun
Gabrielizer feature,which randomly slices and re-arranges agroove
(a great tool for those who love skit-tering drum&bass styles);
I wish I couldexport a dozen or so of them at once andsort through
them later in context in mycompositional program.
If youre on a budget and use ApplesGarageBand, Soundtrack, or
Logic, youshould check out the DrummerPack AL ver-sion. It loses
DrumCores search and exportfront end, replacing it with
Apple-standardmetadata, which allows you to search forDrumCore
loops from inside these applica-tions. Instead of the full 8-gig
DrumCorelibrary, you get 435 Megs of 24-bit 44.1 kHzAIFF files,
totaling roughly 450 loops, repre-senting nearly 200 styles and
variations (eachvariation is often performed at two or
threedifferent tempi, which is how you get from200 to 450). On the
other hand, if you wishyou had Apple-like searching of your
ownsample library to export into other applica-tions, the full
DrumCore application allowsyou to load in your own samples and
searchcriteria, potentially making it a sample hub inyour
studio.
I am of two minds when it comes toDrumCore. On the one hand, 8
gigabytes ofwell-recorded loops from ten name drummersis a great
buy for $249, especially with asearch engine and pattern randomizer
thrownin. On the other hand, I found myself wishingfor longer loops
with more subtle variations,perhaps with some parts broken out to
mixand match with other loops. But if youre notinto splitting atoms
when it comes to looplibraries, and are looking for a step up
fromdrum machines or no-name loops whensongwriting, then youll
enjoy this set. n
-
3 6 V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S
become even more essential. The latest devel-oping trend is for
the network even to takethe place of hardware MIDI and audio
inter-faces on each machine (see sidebar: LookMa, no hardware).
How do we keep the internet connection,which has relatively low
bandwidth require-ments, from interfering with the high-band-width
gigabit ethernet connection best suitedfor routing audio through
plug-ins on aremote computer, for example using AppleLogic Node or
FX-Max FX-Teleport? How dowe keep the network running efficiently
andsmoothly?
The answer lies in constructing a customnetwork that can
dedicate high bandwidth tothe applications that need it most. In
this arti-
cle well discuss the nuts andbolts of modern networkingand how
to construct a net-work, complex or simple,that fits your
requirements.
TCP/IP boot camp
TCP/IP is the most com-mon form of networkingused today. The
fundamentalway that machines find eachother is through an
IPaddress, a group of four 8-bit numbers arranged in ahierarchy, as
in the address70.19.167.54.
When you connect to theinternet via your internetservice
provider (ISP), yourcomputer is given an IPaddress from a pool of
IPaddresses assigned to yourISP. And when your comput-er talks to a
web site, thename of the web sites hostis converted into an
IPaddress that is then used toaccess the machine directly.
Given that there are about four billion pos-sible IP addresses,
how does the data yousend get routed to the right machinesthrough
the right networks? There is no suchinformation contained in the IP
address itself.The first part of an IP address stores theaddress of
the network and the last partstores the address of the machine on
thatnetwork. How many of the 32 available bitsare used to identify
the network and howmany are used to identify the machine
The Lay of the LAN
VIf e a t u r e
Networking is an essential part of everymodern studio set-up. To
start with,since so many of our tools are nowlarge pieces of
software requiring frequentupdates, it is very difficult to
maintain a mod-ern studio without a high-speed internet
con-nection. But theres more to it than that.
More and more musicians are relying uponmultiple-computer
set-ups to run large-scalearrangements and mixes that are too big
for asingle machine, making networking is
The Zen of making many machines become one
Fig. 1: Windows XP Properties panel of a built-in 100MB ethernet
port, configured for the
slow generic network 192.168.128.0.
by Monte McGuire
-
depends upon the network itself.In many home networks, class
C
addresses are used. These address-es use the first 24 bits for
the net-work number and the last eightbits for the machine
number.
If a machine wants to talk toanother machine, it first has
todetermine which network theremote machine is on. Everymachine has
a number called thenetmask, a special binary numberthat is used to
identify the net-work part of its IP address. Thenetmask of a
machine on a classC network is 255.255.255.0,since it masks off the
first 24 bitsof an IP address. Combining thetwo numbers, the
logical AND ofa netmask and an IP address,results in the network
address ofthat IP address. (See sidebar:What is Logical AND?)
Returning to our example, ifa machine needs to send arequest to
another machine, itcan take that IP address, logical-ly AND that
address with itsown netmask and compare theresult to the number of
thelocal network. If the networknumbers match, then the other
machine ison the same local network and the data canbe sent
directly to the other machine. If not,the data is sent to a special
machine knownas a router, a machine that knows how toget to other
networks.
This simple but powerful routing mecha-nism, a fundamental part
of TCP/IP, is whatwe will use to set up our network so that
traf-fic will flow through the hardware that ismost appropriate for
our uses while prevent-ing conflicting traffic from sharing
resources.
The network of oneIf you have only one machine attached to a
cable modem, for example, then the machinehas only one IP
address: the one given to itby your ISP. While its possible to
connectyour machine directly to a cable or DSLmodem in this manner,
there is a number ofreasons why its a really bad idea.
First, your machine is directly visible to theentire internet,
since it now has a real IPaddress. That means any hacker on the
planetcan probe your machine to see if it is vulnera-ble to
attack.
While such traffic uses up relatively littlebandwidth and you
might be running firewallsoftware to make these attempts
fruitless,they temporarily distract your computer fromthe other
tasks youre asking it to perform. Ifyour machine is running a
software samplerfor example, then these microseconds of
dis-traction might cause unwanted timing glitch-es. At worst, your
firewall software willbecome outdated and hackers will take
overyour machine. Not good!
Add a routerA hardware router will eliminate these
problems easily and cheaply. Routers are spe-cial-purpose
machines with two ethernetinterfaces, each on different networks,
that donothing but forward data packets betweentwo networks as
needed.
One of the routers ethernet ports acceptsthe externally visible
IP address from the cableor DSL modem, and the other port is used
tocreate an internal network for all themachines connected to it.
The router thengives your machine an IP address on thisnewly
created internal network. This internalnetwork address is special,
drawn from a poolof reserved addresses that cant be
directlyaccessed from the internet.
If these addresses are not directly accessiblefrom the internet
at large, then how can youtalk to the internet? Your outgoing
traffic is hid-den from the rest of the world by the router,which
and pretends that it came directly fromthe router and forwards it
to the internet onyour networks behalf. The internet never seeseach
of your machines directly, but instead seesyour traffic as if it
all came from your router.When packets arrive to your router from
theoutside world, your router remembers whichmachine asked for the
information and sends itto the correct machine.
For most people, this level of networkingcomplexity is enough. A
local network of
V I R T U A L I N S T R U M E N T S 3 7
VIf e a t u r e
Fig. 2: Windows XP Properties panel of an add-on gigabit
interface, configured as a separate high-speed net-work. Note that
the gigabit adapter really only needs the IP address and netmask
entriesthe router and
DNS entries only apply to the other adapter and need not be
repeated here.
Logical and is a Boolean logic function like these functions:
AND, OR, NAND, NOR,XOR.
The and function is true if both its inputs are true. 1 AND 1 =
1, but 0 AND 1 = 0, 1AND 0 = 0 and finally, 0 AND 0 = 0. The or
function is true if either input is true: 1 OR 0= 1, 0 OR 1 = 1, 1
OR 1 = 1.
These functions can be extended to binary numbers with more than
one binary digit. Inthis situation, two words are compared bit by
bit. Some examples:
1111 AND 0101 = 0101; 1100 AND 0101 = 0100; 0000 AND 0101 =
0000
What is Logical AND?Just for fun...
-
than it sounds, although you dohave to do a little planning.
The first task is to pick a networknumber. That might as well be
theone that your router already pickedwhen you used DHCP. You can
tellwhich network this is by pluggingyour computer into the router
andthen opening the Network controlpanel to see which address has
beenassigned to your machine. Or look a