Ballast Media

I figured out how to do something fun and useful that I thought I’d share.  I wanted to replace a recorded drum track – in this case the kick drum, from a live recording with a sampled kick drum sound.  I used Reaper as the multi-track DAW ($60 for non-profit) and Grizzly (Free) as the Drum Virtual Instrument.  For the sake of this tutorial I’ll assume that you have both installed properly.

1. Initial Track Setup

This isn’t really a step, but it just shows you the initial track arrangement in Reaper.  Notice the kick drum track that we will be working with.

2. Insert Drum Trigger

First we will insert the drum trigger effect in to the kick drum track.  This is the effect that will use the recorded audio to generate a midi trigger signal.  Do this by clicking the “Track Insert FX” area that is the top most part of the track in the mixer view.  Search in the FX dialog for “trigger” and you should see the SStillwell/drumtrigger effect.   Select it and click ok.

3. Insert Grizzly Virtual Instrument

Go to the Insert menu in Reaper and select “Virtual Instrument on new track…”  Search in the dialog for “Grizzly” and you should see the Grizzly Virtual Instrument.  Select it and click ok.

4. Select NO to build routing prompt

You will receive this prompt, but since we are only replacing one track, the kick drum, and don’t need individual tracks for any other sounds, just the default stereo track will be fine.  Click NO.

5. Set the Midi Note

Look at the midi note assigned to Pad 1 in Grizzly.  The default is 36.  Enter this note in to the SStillwell/drumtrigger effect in the midi note parameter.  Here the midi note has been set to 36 in the drum trigger.

Note that in the top pull down of Grizzly you can select different drum kits to obtain a kick drum sound you like.  Click the Play button of Pad 1 to hear the sample.  You can also define your own sample by clicking the folder icon in Pad 1.  I also turn the volume all the way up to 100.

6. Add  track send to kick drum track.

So now we need to create the link between the kick drum track and the Grizzly track.  So, click the “Track Sends” area of the track, which is right below the “Track Insert FX” area.  You will be presented with the following dialog.

Use the “Add New Send” drop down to select the Grizzly track, your setup should now look like this.

7. Adjust the trigger threshold

You should now be able to playback your project and the audio from the original kick drum will now be triggering the sample in Grizzly.  Adjust the Open threshold so that each kick sound causes Grizzly to be triggered, and the close threshold so that background noise doesn’t trigger any sound.

Thats it, you’ve now replaced the live recorded audio with a sample.

Streaming live audio of your worship service can be a great service to people who can’t physically make it to church on Sunday.  Missionaries, shut-ins or even members who have to stay home with sick kids.

Here are 3 simple steps to free audio streaming at your church.

1. Audio source
You need a way to feed audio in to a computer that is internet connected.  You could probably use the built in sound card, but I’d recommend using an external USB audio device for better sound quality.  You may already have these kinds of things laying around your church.

2. Encoding Software
You need to download the free Windows Media Encoder.   This program will take your source audio and encode it to an mp3 stream that can be sent to a streaming server.

3. Streaming Server
You need a streaming server for people to connect to and listen to your audio.  You can obtain this service, free for churches, from www.netbroadcasting.tv.  By sending them an email with your church website, they will setup an account for you.  Its quick and easy and once your account is setup, they will send you an email with simple step by step instructions on how to configure Windows Media Encoder, and also how to get the streaming content placed on your church website.

Thats it!  Happy streaming.

There are a bunch of free VST pluggins available out there, but they vary widely in sound quality.  I’ve recently come across a good sounding “brick wall limiter” pluggin called Barricade.  You can download it from this site: http://www.jeroenbreebaart.com/.

Basically you use the fader on the right to set your “brick wall” level.  -0.3 is usually a good level to keep your track from digitial distortion.  If you want to really maximize your track’s level, you can then turn the gain knob up which will of course make the track louder, but also hit the limiter more often/harder.  I’ve found that this limiter is fairly musical sounding and doesn’t add a whole lot of color to the sound until you really start hitting it hard.  It’s great to add to a narration or voice over track allowing you to get a good consistent level.

If you’ve worked with a sound system you have probably at one point heard a ground loop, but may not know it for what it is.  It usually manifests itself as a 60Hz buzzing sound.  Sometimes you hear this buzzing in the main speakers or monitors, or it may occur on your recording.  So what is it, and how can you avoid it?

A ground loop occurs under the following conditions.

1. Two electronic devices are plugged in to different electrical circuits.
2. The two devices are connected via an audio cable.
3. A difference in electrical potential exists between the two electrical grounds that the devices are plugged in to, which causes current to flow between the two devices through the audio cable.

So what can you do about it?  Probably the simplest solution is to use a “hum eliminator.”  These devices are actually just transformers that physically isolate the input and output.   A transformer is just two coils of wire that are wound closely together so that when a current is passed through one it induces a current to flow through the other wire, even though the two wires are not physically touching each other.  A perfect solution for physically isolating two audio devices that we want to connect together.

Musician’s Friend has a whole bunch of devices under thier Hum Eliminator category.  One thing to be aware of is that transformers have a frequency response characteristic.  Meaning, they can color the sound, or start to roll off (attenuate) higher frequencies.  So, some of the cheaper devices may not give you the best audio fidelity.  I’ve been pretty happy with the Ebtech brand for hum eliminators.

Many churches record thier sermon’s to mp3.  Usually they record in one format, on a CD, as a wave file, or some other method, and then encode to mp3, in a two step process.  I’m always looking for ways to streamline and simplify the process, especially when volunteers are involved.  Here is a way that you can record direct to mp3.  Assuming all goes well, as soon as you press the stop button on the recording, your file is ready to be uploaded to your podcast or website.

I’ve been using the multi-track recording program REAPER for a while now and have been really impressed with it for the price, $60 for non-profits.  Two things make it perfect for the task of recording direct to mp3.

1. It can record direct to MP3.  Not all recording software will do this, usually they record to a native file format and then allow you to encode to mp3.  Sometimes the encoding process can be confusing for volunteers, using Reaper to record direct to mp3 eliminates this possibility.

2. It allows you to record the “output” of a channel.  What this means is that you can apply effects to a channel as it is recorded.  Again, most other multi-track recording programs require you to record the track dry and then in mixdown apply effects to the channel.  Another step eliminated as you can apply compression and EQ as the track is being recorded.

So all this sounds like something that would benefit you, here is how I’ve set it up.  All that is required is a Windows PC with some sort of audio I/O interface.  Just be aware that your computer will have different audio I/O then what is shown here.

1. Download and install REAPER from www.cockos.com/reaper

2. Download the Lame MP3 encoder from http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/.  Use the download entitled “For Audacity on Windows”.  Unzip the file and place the lame_enc.dll file in the program folder where you installed Reaper.  Most likely that is C:\Program Files\REAPER\.  The first time you try and create an MP3 it will prompt you for where the MP3 encoder is located.  Point it to this file.

3. Add a new track (Ctrl+T) and adjust the Record Mode settings.  You access the record mode settings by pressing the button at the very bottom, to the right of the track meter.  (Or you can right-click on the meter itself to get the same thing.)  Select “Monitor Input” and select “Record: output (stereo)” as shown below.  Also, where it says Stereo Input with an arrow to the right, select the audio inputs on your computer that you want to use.  Note that I’m recording the stereo input here so that all the audio information that is being sent to the computer gets recorded.  Later in the MP3 recording it will be converted to mono to reduce the file size, but here we want to record the stereo input.

4. Add any effects you would like to be applied to the recording.  For voice recordings, in this case of a sermon, I usually use compression to keep the volume level consistent.  You can also add EQ and any other of the variety of effects that are available.  (REAPER will use any VST plug-ins you may have.)  To add an effect to a track, click an open slot above the track and you will be prompted for what type of effect you want to insert.  In the image below you can see where I’ve inserted the Reaper Compressor and Reaper EQ.

To accomplish step 3-4 above you can also create a track template to make this easily repeatable.  Right click on the track number and select “Save the selected track as a track template.”  Now, instead of doing step 3-4 as described above you would just go to the track menu and select Insert Track from Template and select the template you just saved.  The track will be added with all of the settings and effects you’ve applied.

5. Set the output recording format to MP3.  You do this through the Project Settings, which you can access through the File menu, or simply by pressing Alt+Enter.  Below you can see the settings that I’ve used.  The important one being of course the “Audio format for new recordings” set to MP3 (lame).  I’ve found that 32kbps works pretty well for a 30-45 minute sermon.  It may sound a bit digitized, but it results in an 8-10MB file which is a pretty reasonable download.

That’s it!  You’re set to record.  Just click the record button or press CTRL+R to begin recording.  There is however one setting adjustment that I’ve found useful if not mandatory to change for long recording times.  You need to turn off the waveform generation.  The waveform that is drawn on the screen during recording is stored in RAM.  If you make long recordings, this can use up a lot of RAM and start to slow down your computer, even leading to drop outs in the recording.  To make this adjustment, go to the Options menu and click on Preferences at the very bottom of the menu.  Alternatively you can just press CTRL+P to bring up the preferences dialog.

Go to the Recording page and uncheck the Show Preview of Recordings checkbox.  Also select build peaks manually.  You can see these settings below.

That’s it!  Happy recording!

I found a neat little free VST Drum Machine plugin today called Grizzly. You can download it here: http://www.majken.se/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=9

I was recording some “cheers” for our VBS this summer and needed something that I could easily create a decent sounding drum beat in. This little plugin worked great in Reaper and didn’t take me (a non musician) long to figure out. My only complaint is that the text in parts of the UI is way to small too read.