Podcast Tutorial Series - Episode 8 - Alternative Plugins

Final video in the series (unless I come up with some changes at some point)  Thank you for watching!

This is an update to my review of the Ozone series.  To see the initial review, please follow this link:

http://www.scorecastonline.com/2014/12/20/review-ozone-6-izotope/

One thing that I can tell you is that since I purchased Ozone 3, which now seems so basic by comparison, it is very rare for me to send any music out without running it through Ozone first.  Usually, if I do, it is more likely to be sound design or something for a quick demo.  Anything that is going to be final audio or an audition piece goes through Ozone first.  Period.  I work with Ozone and RX (another huge program for cleaning audio) nearly every single day in my studio and can’t imagine living without them.

As a side note, Ozone Elements can be a great way to get your feet wet in the world of mastering.  Personally, if you are serious about it, just go for the full version.  It is worth it in the long run. 

New Modules:

These modules have a different look than the others.  They have a crème and gray background that give them a warmer look and let you know immediately you are looking at screens different than what you are used to seeing, if you are a previous user.  You can still setup a chain of up to 6, including plugins not in Ozone.

Vintage EQ (Advanced Only) – Mid/Side or Stereo options as well as low and high boost and cut.  Individual settings are available for Low, Low Mid, Mid, High-Mid, High Boost and High Cut, giving you great dynamic control in shaping your master.

Vintage Tape – I am especially excited to see this addition as I use tape warmers quite a bit in my music, especially in my Mental Sauna series.  Input Drive, Bias (at either 15 or 30 ips) Harmonics and separate Low and High Emphasis settings (with graphic examples showing the extremes).

Vintage Compressor (Advanced Only) – Same view as Vintage Limiter.  Options for mid and side.  Detection Filter. 1) -40000 Hz and -400 Hz (Left and right only), 2) 800 Hz to 9000 Hz and -8 Db to +8 dB, 3) 4000 Hz to 12000 Hz and -8 Db to +8 dB.  Threshold 0 to -60 dB.  Ratio, Aspect and Release.  Modes include Sharp, Balanced and Smooth.  There is also a slider for Gain Make Up (manual or auto).

Vintage Limiter - This is very easy and simple to use with straight forward settings.  View the waveform in two different settings (upper left of screen) Choose between Analog, Tube or Modern.  Set your Floor and ceiling between -20db and 0db.  Decide how much character you want it to have (slow is 10, fast is 0). 

Additions to Previous Modules:

Main Interface (Advanced Only) – A button was added for Codecs where you can set the bit rate from 96 to 320 kps.  MP3, AAC.  Solo Codec Artifacts Preview.  This allows you to preview what your audio will sound like in different formats so you can prevent signal loss in your final.  Each type of coding can make different changes so it is extremely beneficial to be able to prevent that.

*** Make sure to bypass this in your final export ***

It also appears they have expended the export selection from just WAV to also include AIFF, MP3 and AAC.  You can also now add metadata to your track upon export.  That means I no longer have to go back into Sonar, open my track and export it again JUST to add the metadata.  Great, time saving addition.

Dynamics – Added an Adaptive Release mode.  This allows you to automate your release times, which gives you a lot more freedom and control over your sound.

Maximizer – IRC IV (Intelligent Release Control) has been added to the selections.  This has been designed to prevent distortion while allowing you to maximize your volume.  IRC I is the basic model.  It will work quickly with transients and slowly to bass sounds where IRC II focuses more on clarity.  IRC III would be great for EDM and anything that really pumps.  IRC IV builds on III but preserves the detail and less on transients.  Each of these have their own character so play around and see what each can do to your audio.  I don’t like to define things to specifically because it may limit creativity and experimentation.     

There are also additional stock presets to get you started.  These can be great for rush demos and various things but, personally, I find I use them as a foundation and make little tweaks and save as new presets.  Keep in mind that the majority of music I compose is for relaxation and I also do a lot of horror music so my settings and needs may be quite different from what others need.

Additional Notes:

Don’t think of these modules as limited to use in Ozone.  I have often used an EQ or a compressor on an individual track as well.  I can see adding Vintage tape to my master bus or even an individual track if it sounds too cold and digital.

Downside:

I would love to be able to expand this to full screen however, like many tools on our business the user is unable to change the size of the GUI.  I can understand if it causes issues with the performance but, otherwise it would be nice to be able to stretch or shrink it since people sue different resolutions based on their setups.  I don’t know the specifics with Ozone but it seems all the iZotope products I have work in the same manner.

Overall, there are some great additions and certainly a reason to upgrade from previous versions.  If you are stubborn and stayed on Ozone 3, don’t make the mistake I made.  Get the new version ASAP!

A Night at the Edge of the Water: “O” By Cirque Du Soleil

Maybe there is just something about the particular shade of blue that Cirque Du Soleil uses in their promotional material for “O” at The Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, but there is a deep coolness that touches your skin and draws you in to want to know what it is all about.  It had been about 8 years or so since I had seen the show from a seat that gave away a lot of secrets to how this masterpiece is achieved.  When I saw it again last week, I wished I had gone more often.

From what I remember about my first visit, some things in the show had changed.  Not surprising as shows are revamped from time to time.  For one, the sound in the theater is absolutely fantastic.  The music sounds larger than life and was crystal clear to this audio engineer’s ear.  The score by Benoit Jutras has some very ethnic touches among the ballads and power pieces that make a great balance and truly enhance the show.

Equally impressive is the talent on stage and the stage itself, which is constantly transforming.  The timing of the talent was virtually flawless and there are a lot of moving parts to this show.  A great deal of work goes into each and every one of these large scale productions but the water shows have another element (forgive the pun) altogether.

As if all that wasn’t enough, there is a perfect balance of music to show to comedy as a couple clowns bring levity when things are getting on the edge of too intense.

While a bit more expensive (that water doesn’t maintain itself, you know) than the majority of the rest of the shows, it remains a must see for Vegas.  For the best deals, check out www.cirquedusoleil.com and join the Cirque Club for free and doors to special pricing will be opened.

Warning… people in the first few rows may get wet…

Izotope: Iris 2 Review

iZotope Iris 2

There are a ton of synths on the market to choose from and the numbers increase nearly daily.  Many of them are simply reproductions of what has already been done but, every once in a while, something truly unique comes along that you immediately add to your “must have” list.  For me, iZotope’s Iris 2 is one of them.

More than reasonably priced at $149.00, where many other synths in this high powered category are releasing at up to $399.00, there is a lot of value to be had here.  I have always experienced top notch quality from iZotope (See my review on Ozone 6 Advanced) but the quality of the sounds and functionality blew me out of the water.  Even more importantly, at least for me, was how warm many of the sounds are.  Working in relaxation music, as I do, I find a lot of sounds I would love to use but have to do a lot to get the digital coldness out of them.  With Iris 2, I find I have far less work to do, which gets me up and running much more quickly.

While you can pick sounds and start playing right away, iZotope’s typically advanced and detailed features provide the real magic and ability to take sounds and make them your own.  There is always a learning curve with the products this company comes out with but it is always for a good reason.  In this case, a great deal of flexibility.

To be fair and set the proper perspective, I did not work with the original Iris.  My introduction came with this updated version.  Most of the complaints I have found seem to echo the same tone in that they were expecting more from the version upgrade and not what this can do as a standalone product.  Interestingly, there seems to be a general consensus that the sound library is fantastic and that issues from the previous version were properly addressed, which is common for iZotope to listen to their users.

General Overview:

With an 11GB sound library and a slew of effects, oscillators, envelopes, MIDI controls and more, you get a powerful tool right out of the gate.  The drawback being that it is somewhat memory intensive.  A CPU Optimization guide is provided (one suggestion is to hide the interface) to help but, even with that, it does drain my 6 core 3.30Ghz system with 16GB of RAM slightly.  When I want to work on just modifying or creating sounds, I run in Stand Alone mode since there is not always a reason to have my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) running for this part of the process.  Then, when I need to blend sounds together, I load Iris 2 into my DAW and do the fine tuning.
That being said, I think it is worth the extra effort.  The quality and beauty of the sounds alone would make me want to go the extra mile on my system.  The workflow is intelligently designed and the layout makes a great deal of sense

Interface:

Nicely laid out to show all the controls very clearly on one screen.  I like having everything within immediate reach.  There is a lot to know if you want to get into the more advanced functions but that is becoming the trend more and more these days.  You have controls for each individual sample, master controls, an editing section with the ability to zoom in and out, and modulation/keyboard (including the LFO, Envelope, Controller and Macro areas.  Want to see things differently?  You can control the layout to some degree by showing/hiding some of the sections and there is a pop out mixer.

One of the items that is helpful but perhaps also part of the memory drain is the visualization that shows the direction and flow of each sound you have selected.  While this may be helpful in setup, it may not be as useful once you have it dialed in.  The sample menu tells you the direction and flow of the sound but you only see the current sound you are working with or last sound selected unless you use the pop out mixer.

In the general controls, there is a setting to show/hide the help resources menu which, I found extremely useful until I got to know the program well enough.  Those are the text blocks that pop up when you run your mouse over the controllers.  This was initially turned off when I first installed the program.

As I have come to expect from iZotope, everything is color coordinated to allow a quick visual scan of the interface and see how assignments were made.  Each type of controller has a corresponding color that will be used to identify the use anywhere in the program.

Sounds:

The array of sounds is what you have come to expect from similar products.  The categories are Bass, Keys, Leads, Pads and Rhythmic.  In this interface, though, being able to load up to four of them at any given time, allows for a much larger flexibility without having to take up multiple MIDI channels or load more instances of the interface.  It also allows you to blend the sounds together and save them as a new sound that can be recalled without having to find that blend and mix again.  The individual samples come in a wider variety of categories.  You get Abstract, Environments, Instruments, Objects, Synths, Toys and Voice.  Mix and match any of these to create the blends for your compositions. 

Have no idea where you want to start?  No problem!  There is even a random feature that you can use to create a new sound to work with and manipulate to your liking.

One of my favorite features is being able to load my own sounds into Iris 2 and manipulate them with all of the tools provided within the interface.

Effects:

While there is a minimal number of effects on board, I found them to be warm and clean.  You have Chorus, Delay, Distortion and Reverb.  You also have the ability to run the sample 4 different ways: Forwards, Forwards/Backwards, Backwards and Backwards/Forwards.  Each sample can be controlled individually with tuning, pan and gain dials.  There are also master effects as well as per sound effects.

Tools:

You may notice greyed out buttons next to the various dials.  There is an easy to use drag and drop system to assign and control the parameters of the LFOs, Envelopes, Controllers and Macros.  Once assigned, you can adjust by moving the mouse up and down and that will change the positioning on the dial as well.  This makes for quick setups and adjustments.  When you have a tune in your head or want to hurry before you lose the feeling you want to record, being able to navigate quickly and effortlessly can go a long way.  This is the key element into just how much ability is given to the user.  While there are only 3 visible buttons, you can actually assign 4 controllers and view them on the rings surrounding the dials.

Final Observations:

The good:

Very easy to use, a great deal of flexibility over the shape of your sounds to create something unique to you or unique for each project.

Large library with the ability to load your own sounds in.

Nice, clean interface to work with that stays all in one screen but isn’t crowded.  The rings around the dials give you a quick visual reference to what and how you made your assignments.

The bad:

The program itself is a bit memory intensive on the system (at least, as of this writing).  Hiding some of the metering features may help depending on your system.  Perhaps having the ability to turn on/off the visualizations would help but, as it stands, the guide suggests hiding the interface which may be cumbersome for some users.

You cannot hide the Iris2 interface and keep the pop out mixer on the screen, which may be helpful if the interface does drain the system but you still need functionality.

I do wish the visual keyboard was a full 88 keys as there is room for it and it allows the view of the full range of instruments used in the song.  For composers like me who use that method fairly regularly, that would be nice to have, especially since there is room at the bottom of the interface for it.

I wouldn’t mind a flange in the effects portion and a tempo sync ping-pong option on the delay.

In Closing:

As intricate as you can make it, this is still a pretty straight forward synth.  It doesn’t take much to make a sound unique or even just playable right out of the box.  You can go as in-depth as you like but you don’t have to get so technical or feel like you have to be a programmer to make something that you can call your own.  Just remember to save your new sounds!

This program has now become another staple in my studio.  I work with it on a nearly daily bases when in composing sessions.  The warm tonality is a huge draw for me but, of course, that is subject to personal taste.  Depending on the kind of music you are creating, this may be the very program you have been waiting for.

Honestly, at $149, just for the stock sounds alone, it would be money well spent.

As with any iZotope product, there is so much more to go into and if you are considering a purchase, I would highly suggest downloading the test drive from the website and giving it a spin.  (https://www.izotope.com/en/products/effects-instruments/iris/).

Becoming An Indie Film Composer Book

Becoming an Indie Film Composer3^rd (and final) Edition

With a little time on my hands and a huge amount of career growth and experience behind me, I thought it was time to give my book one last overhaul.  As I began to make updates from my apartment outside Los Angeles, finishing in my new place just outside Las Vegas, I began to realize just how far I had come and how much things had changed since first writing the book.  I saw more and more that I had much more to share, so I carefully went through each chapter, updating as I went, and added new chapters as well.

                The biggest need for an update, and not surprisingly, was on the tech side.  When I first wrote the book, I had never even heard of a USB MIDI cable.  Probably because they didn’t exist.  Time for a major update but one I know will also be outdated again in a couple years, most likely.  Fortunately, that is for good reasons as products become more efficient and reliable and expansive, so I am okay with that.  Even still, in recent years, I have read books discussing the days of scoring to picture using actual film reels so I think it will be fine.

                The new chapters include stories from more recent experiences and more clearly defined patch and Cue lists.  There may be some difficulty in the way they appear from version to version and, to accommodate audio book listeners, I have decided to make them available on my website for free and you can get those right now at: http://www.scotthaskin.com/?page_id=165

                In addition to the book, I have also recorded an entire new audio book for three reasons.  1)  Because there is so much new information (it is nearly twice as long as the original) that listeners would be missing out on.  2)  I had many comments that stated they wished I had read it the first time.  3)  It comes out differently when you say it as opposed to writing it.  When writing, I think we can be honest but a little focused on how things sound which, at times, can be a bit unnatural.  When I recorded this, I used the book as a guideline more than reading it directly so it came out to be a different thing.  Both have the same basic information but each is a different experience.

                My experiences and perceptions of my time in Los Angeles are also included.  These are simply my own experiences and how they work with my personality.  100 people could be exactly where I was in the exact same circumstances and have 100 different results.  In any case, it is certainly an insight that you only get if you have been there.

                Overall, I hope this book continues to help anyone involved or interested in the world of film score composition.  It is really a very entry level book in many ways but not only entry level.  I had a bad review on Audible on the original audio book because the reader was expecting something more advanced.  I thought the title stated it pretty clearly but, for those who are looking for something more on how to navigate large studios and record orchestras, this is not the book for you.  You might want to read The Emerging Film Composer by Richard Bellis or a similar book.  There are a lot out there.

                Please feel free to spread the word and let anyone know about this book if you think they could benefit from it.  One of the greatest joys I have had in life in the letters I get from composers telling me what helped them feel not so alone or helped them in a process.  To make a difference in people’s lives is one of the greatest human experiences there is, in my opinion.

                If you have read the book, I would greatly appreciate a review on Amazon and, if you have listened to the new audio book, please leave me a review on iTunes, ACX or Audible.  As of today, the audio book it still in process at ACX, but will be available very soon.

                Currently, the book is available at Amazon (print version and Kindle) and CreateSpace.  I will have a PDF version available shortly for purchase through my website.

                Lastly, I want to thank everyone for all the encouragement and support.  To know that people believe in you and what you are doing is an amazing thing and makes me find ways to work even harder and bring more content out to you!

- SKH 7-21-15