Welcome to another issue of Technolite

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NewsFlash. A big pile of free VSTs and a big competition wil be announced within the next week or so. So stayed tuned to your email for further notice.

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In todays newsletter:

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1. Ableton and the rest

2. Sound Making

3. Your finished product.

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Q. 1. I have two beats at different tempos, like in two songs, how do I remix them?

Remixing two different tempo loops is a very hard process, normally. You either have to slow one down or speed the other up. And if you have drums that are soft, or loops that are quite "swirly/ atmospheric" then that doesn't help.

There are 3 main ways around the problem:

1. You can chop up the loop so that it can easily be fitted into a track, especially a tracker, then you can build the loop up and "remix" the loop by adding other elements into it. It is time consuming, but you have greater freedom in loop manipulation.

2. You can buy something like Ableton Live. This is very funky. It costs £200, but if you have two tracks of different tempos, like in a mash-up, then Ableton is what you need. ALL DJs recommend it. There is no secret to its use, you grab one MP3, throw that into the viewing session, and then you grab another MP3 and throw that in as well. Ableton then uses its clever programming and you have a song that is timed just right. Ableton is predominantly a loop based software studio, and its technology is called Time Stretching. Stretching a loop of different tempo over the same time frame of another loop of different tempo. Clever stuff, if a bit expensive.

3. There is another...very sneaky way, of mashing up two loops of different tempo. I would use this method if I really wanted to use two separate loops in a track. About 80% of my time is shouting at the music screen when things just don't match, even if it is a note out, or a bpm out, it is noticable. The best "free" Time Stretching application out there at present is Sony's Acid Xpress 5.0. You can only save off as WMA or MIDI, but it is the best, and simplest app out there at present. A tutorial is coming in the next couple of weeks on this cool software, so keep an eye on the site.

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Q.2. Sound making.

Sound making, or better still, loop making is the best way to stamp your own "personnal touch" on your music, and not sound like everyone else. There are a couple of ways to do this.

1. Use Tunafish = http://www.brambos.com/ It is a free VST sequencer, this runs "stand-alone" meaning you don't need a host. What is cool about this software is that you can build up some cool loops with additional effects. These then can be ported into Acid or a tracker. A review and tutorial is coming soon.

2. A tracker can also make loops quite easily. This is covered in depth in the Complete Begiiners Bible to Techno Music Making. Check out the guide here.

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Q.3. The Sequencer.

Again there seems to be a large section of the music community that seems to "put down" various sequencers. Fruity Loops came in for a bashing in one magazine, where people stated that "the end sound quality was poor". this is what the programmer had to say:

"Since audio is not visual there are alot of myths about it. All sequencers mix in the same way, and produce the same results. To degrade a sound, the host would have to do it on purpose, which would be dumb. Then you have the plug-ins which don't sound better or worse on another host as they are code and sound the same wherever they go. If they are buggy then they would crash. getting a good sound is an art and has more to do with compression, equalisation and other mastering methods than anything else."

I read another magazine which stated about trackers = "you can create old school greats, 90s style multichannels or bust out an ultra-modern track and more". I doesn't matter what you make music with as long as you are comfortable with it, and you apply the right techniques.

In the next few weeks more sequencers will appear on the site, to take your pick from.