machine HQ blog

machine props

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 08:26:00 +0530

After the vintage films and audio drama posts of the last couple of weeks, arg/machine decided to...

Vintage Radio: Terrors

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:47:00 +0530

Ooh! Now that [above] is what is referred to around machine HQ as a “scene of crime”. Someone’s...

amber print

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0530

Looking at these machine HQ blog pages, arg/machine recently felt that while there have been no...

machine apparel returns...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:05:00 +0530

Ooh! So retro, that header… Well, it’s been a really long time since machine apparel, the apparel...

machine props

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:54:00 +0530

After last week’s machine HQ guide to free audio creation and processing software, arg/machine...

machine-made music

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:08:00 +0530

Going over the posts published over the last month or so, arg/machine realized that it was time to...

Free fonts: seen @ machine HQ

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:01:00 +0530

This post was originally scheduled for next week, and is making its appearance earlier than...

machine props

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:03:00 +0530

Nothing else seems to be ready here @ machine HQ, so it’s got to be… yes, another machine props...

After the preceding machine props post, arg returns to the...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:32:00 +0530

After the preceding machine props post, arg returns to the machine HQ blog with another short track concept that… well, arrived while he was jamming happily on his notebook/laptop a few days back. He had been trying out various basslines over a funky beat, when he felt an urge to hear what the whole thing would sound like with a lead melody thrown in.

After trying out various lead sounds, he decided to introduce a mellow alto saxophone and, before he could even say “smooth”, this concept was more or less ready! It only needed some backing synth pads and once these were added, all arg had to do was to insert a few ambient sound effects here and there…

And here it is, good reader, a new smooth/pop/jazzy/chillout track concept from arg and machine HQ. As always, it can be played using the familiar SoundCloud player located at the top of this post.

Gear used…
As usual, we now look at the various software synthesizer and effect plugins employed in this short excerpt. The backing synth pads use the classic Square I free softsynth, the bass sounds were generated using a demo version of B Station and the lead alto sax uses a demo version of Saxlab. The electric piano is Synth1 [playing a suitable sound/preset from the previously-shared machine HQ Synth1 presets], while the drum sounds were generated using the free Drumatic drumsynth. As for the ambient sounds, these were generated with a demo version of Chromaphone.

Apart from those mentioned above, the excerpt also uses various other audio processing and effect plugins. For more information on these, see the free software page here.

In conclusion…
So is this short excerpt for “friends and well-wishers” [more info here]? It is, but only as long as everyone keeps in mind the Some unexpected results… section from the first half of this earlier post.

The updated announcement:
And to wrap up this post, arg/machine would like to mention that the situation he’s been in for more than a decade now [see posts on this page] has not improved. His final attempt at resolving this “situation” can be found in this updated machine HQ announcement. Thanks.

Note: As it has been for over a decade, machine HQ still remains open to honest and mature discussions to seek mutually-beneficial solutions to the issues mentioned in the posts linked to in the paragraph above. Let’s all see if this offer of a civilized solution-through-dialogue is accepted this time…

machine props

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:01:00 +0530

It’s been a while since arg/machine published a machine props post. So, after last week’s audio...

machine HQ: Haunted?Over the last few days, something really...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:05:00 +0530

machine HQ: Haunted?
Over the last few days, something really weird has been happening @ machine HQ. While working, arg/machine has been noticing – at the peripheries of his vision – vague, menacing shapes and ominous shadows flickering along on the walls. Accompanying these are eerie wails and scary deep-throated rumblings that seem to come out of nowhere!

“Poltergeists! What a stroke of luck!” was arg/machine’s initial reaction. And then he discovered that it’s actually Lazarus Machine – the machine HQ rockers. Upset at being ignored, the said rockers have been lurking around machine HQ in an attempt to attract arg/machine’s attention. So to avoid another hypothetical confrontation with them [read about the last one here], arg/machine stopped what he was doing and invited the band into the studio for a chat…

Inside machine HQ studio with the band…
Lazarus Machine: Dude, we’ve got another concept that we want to work on…

arg [happily]: Right. Let’s see what you got…

Lazarus Machine: And listen dude, we want to put in a… a “spoken word” intro for the local losers that have been doing so much damage to machine HQ, okay?

arg [touched]: Why, that’s so thoughtful of you guys! And what do you want to say in this intro?

Lazarus Machine: Well dude, it’ll be right there upfront: before the guitars come in and all. We’ll say “DIE, YOU LOSERS AND SCUM!” [very pleased with themselves] How’s that?

arg [hesitantly]: Um, don’t you guys think that’s a bit… uh, strong?

Lazarus Machine [taken aback]: Strong? STRONG? What is wrong with you, dude? These losers have cost machine HQ over ten years already, they won’t compensate for the losses they’ve caused, they refuse to discuss the situation like civilized people and they try to ruin your day, every day! [looks challengingly at arg]

arg: Well, yes… but hear me out guys: how about using something else for that intro? You know, instead of that… um, “DIE, YOU LOSERS AND SCUM” bit? Like something that lends itself well to a variety of possible interpretations and something a little more refined?

Lazarus Machine [snickering]: “Lends itself well to a variety of possible interpretations…” You always talk like a book, dude? [laughter, accompanied by band members giving each other high-fives et cetera]

arg [sardonically]: Well, here we go again: amusing anthropomorphic depictions of my own thoughts deriding me…

Lazarus Machine [convulsed with laughter]: “Amusing anthropomorphic depictions of my own thoughts…” Dude, stop! Don’t talk like that, or all this laughing will kill us… And “deriding”? Does anyone even say “deriding” these days? [even more laughter; one member – the drummer – slides off his couch and rolls on the floor, guffawing hysterically]

arg [very angry]: Okay, so you guys want to know what I’ve got in my mind for this track? Or do you want to continue with the comedy? You say you’re a… a “heavy-duty tech-metal band”, right? So quit fooling around and be serious for a change, okay?

Lazarus Machine [becomes serious; one member wipes tears of laughter from his eyes and helps the drummer back on to the couch, and then all of them get into their very intimidating heavy metal attitude]: Okay, show us what you got…

arg [brisk and businesslike]: To begin with, machine HQ is grateful to you guys for your concern and support. [pauses and smiles at the band] Next, here’s what we’ll do: a few days ago, I saw some spoken word samples on the Net, among which there was one I liked – it said “Burn the system!” But instead of simply using that sample, I think I’ll say the phrase myself through a vocoder for a nice tech effect. [pauses] What do you all think?

Lazarus Machine [interested]: A vocoder? Interesting… [whispers among themselves] at least he won’t sound like a book…

arg: I heard that!

Gear used…
And now that you know how this week’s tech metal excerpt came about, let’s move on, good reader, to the gear used in its creation. The lead in the tech half uses the free Triangle softsynth routed through a limited-functionality demo version of Predator, which is used here as an insert effect. The brief pad sounds use a limited-functionality demo version of V Station. Meanwhile, the metal portion of the track uses machine HQ’s old copy of Guitar Rig for the guitars, and the ambient hum/buzz heard occasionally in the background were created with a demo version of Granite.

Note: The tempo/play-speed effects use free plugins from illformed.org; but more on them later…

And as for the that spoken word intro, arg/machine used a demo version of the Image Line Vocoder, within which he employed his voice as the modulator and Synth1 – playing the hard rock synth preset from the previously-shared machine HQ Synth1 presets – as the carrier.

Besides those mentioned above, the excerpt also uses various other audio processing and effect plugins. For more information on these, see the free software page here.

Finally…
So is this short excerpt for “friends and well-wishers” [more info here]? It is, now that the excerpt has become a good, hard and fun tech-rocker with the removal of the originally-suggested spoken word intro [see above]… but only as long as everyone keeps in mind the Some unexpected results… section from the first half of this earlier post.

Well, after all the theory and exercises on subtractive sound...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:29:00 +0530

Well, after all the theory and exercises on subtractive sound synthesis in the free machine print eBook on sound design [see here], arg/machine decided to do some practical stuff: like make some music…

Sifting through the source files of unfinished jams @ machine HQ, he came across a partly-done reggae concept that had only a bassline and beats in place. It seemed pretty funky, and so arg/machine thought it’d be fun to do a little experiment: to try and combine – or perhaps weld – it with/to a soft rock concept that he’d been working on over the last few days.

The result was the experimental soft rock & reggae concept, a short excerpt from which can be heard this week by using the familiar SoundCloud player at the top of this post. The said experiment begins with an acoustic guitar-bass guitar-synth pads-&-beats section. This then gives way to the aforementioned funky reggae groove, before “returning” for the last few bars. Also included are a few sound effects to help facilitate the transitions and make them… well, smoother.

Gear used:
The reggae half of the excerpt uses the free Square I softsynth from Cakewalk for the reggae accents and the bassline, while the soft rock section uses the free JXSynth for the pads an old copy of Guitar Rig for the acoustic guitar and bass parts. Both halves use the free Drumatic drumsynth for the drum sounds.

Besides those mentioned above, the excerpt also uses various other audio processing and effect plugins. For more information on these, see the free software page here.

And now: more sound stuff…

In the recently-published machine print eBook on sound design [link elsewhere], arg/machine had included spectrum analysis of a few of the presets programmed therein. He decided to take the opportunity provided by this week’s audio post to… well, show those unfamiliar with such visual representations of audio what this soft rock & reggae excerpt “looks” like. Note: As mentioned in the eBook, a spectrum analyzer “displays a moving trace of the audio signal. Colour hue represents intensity [volume], vertical axis represents frequency and horizontal axis represents time.”

The screenshot above shows the first few bars of this excerpt as they appear within a spectrum analyzer. The instruments that produce lower frequencies – such as the bass guitar – appear as orange/yellow streaks at the bottom of the spectrum; mid-range frequencies [generated by the synth pads, in this case] appear further above [in red], while the acoustic guitar – full of high frequencies, as it is – appears as thin blue vertical lines. Note: the fainter blue lines are the echoes produced by the mild echo/delay effect applied to the acoustic guitar.

Of course [and as can be seen in the analysis above] the instruments’ frequency ranges do overlap: the acoustic guitar sound also contains lower frequencies, just as the pads generate some higher frequencies as well. And this is where the process of mixing becomes crucial: processing the output of each instrument so that they all sound good [and distinct] in the final track.

The updated announcement:
And to wrap up this post, arg/machine would like to mention that the situation he’s been in for more than a decade now [see posts on this page] has not improved. The final attempt at resolving this “situation” – from his end, that is – can be found in this updated machine HQ announcement. Thanks.

A new machine print eBook…

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:50:00 +0530

After the new Making music the arg/machine way post [see here] arg/machine decided to extend the…...

machine-made music

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:28:00 +0530

Well, it’s time for another Making music the arg/machine way post [see older posts here], and...

machine presets

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:56:00 +0530

As far as desktop music composition/production is concerned, arg/machine has been doing it for over...

machine props

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0530

Well, arg/machine returns to the regular machine HQ blogging schedule with a new installment of...

Revised terms

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 06:41:00 +0530

Well, arg/machine decided to begin 2013 with an announcement. But first, as a quick reminder of...

As mentioned previously, arg/machine recently downloaded a load...

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0530

As mentioned previously, arg/machine recently downloaded a load of free “noise makers and noise shapers” for use in his music creation/production activities. The out-of-turn blog post that follows owes its inception to these – it was while auditioning some of these recently-acquired softsynths that arg/machine came up with a new synth-&-bass-guitar jam, a short excerpt from which can be heard on this page. As always, it can be listened to using the familiar SoundCloud player [top].

The lead melody was the first to… well, arrive, and the beats, the bass guitar hook, the pads and the wah chords were added later to give this impromptu composition a semblance of completion. It’s titled more jammin’ in the tradition of a few earlier compositions with which this concept shares the circumstances of its origin: they all evolved out of the process of auditioning softsynths.

Gear used:
The lead melody uses a limited-functionality demo version of SuperWave Performer; the bass guitar uses a custom stomp-compressor-bass-amp+cabinet rack setup created in arg/machine’s very old Guitar Rig plugin, the pads are courtesy of Synth1 softsynth and the wah chords were played on the mda ePiano routed through the LFX1310 wah effect unit [more details on these here and here respectively].

Of course, other effect/sound processing plugins were also employed to further enhance/process the outputs of these softsynths. More details about these can be found in the posts on this page.

Note: Don’t forget to check out arg/machine’s previous [and funky!] A few of my favourite dings… post, in case you’ve missed it.

Finally…
And that’s it for this post. So is this short excerpt for “friends and well-wishers” [more info here]? It is, but only as long as everyone keeps in mind the Some unexpected results… section from the first half of this earlier post.

A reminder:
And now, to wrap this post up, arg/machine would like to mention that the situation he’s been in for more than a decade now [see posts on this page] has not improved. As a result, sentiments and decisions stated in the first half of the groovy reggae post remain unchanged as well. Thanks.

A few of my favourite dings...

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0530

After the routine machine props post last week, arg/machine opted for a simple and short one this...

machine props

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:49:00 +0530

Well, yes: this is going to be another of those machine props posts, and that’s because arg/machine...