Skating Dog Productions – - – - ||| – - – - Media, Music, Gear, Concepts

I just had the opportunity to mix and master the 3rd CD release of german Drum’n'Bass/ Electro/ Goth/ Spoken Word Outfit Oberer Totpunkt. The CD “Stiller Zoo” will be released at this year’s WGT Leipzig, The Wave and Gothic meeting.

For the first time we used the combination Reason/ Record for the entire production. Usually OT’s Michael Krueger (no relation to Freddy, though) programs the entire music content in Reason and then adds Drums from BFD played via his Staccato/ Roland Drum Kit in Ableton Live. These Drumstracks and the Vocal Tracks of writer and speaker Bettina Bormann then had to be manually aligned in the Mixing Program being rewired to Reason.

Now with the prospect to have everything in the same project looked compelling to me and i could persuade Michael to start using Record. Oh, I just didn’t know.

He went totally over the top with it. But great. He used truck loads of Combinator devices, layering sounds over sounds over sounds, added Drums out the wazoo AND came up with a gazillion of Vocal tracks, not only Bettina’s, but guest singers and almost in each and every track the mighty Tim, who created an entire choir on his own by singing bass, bariton and tenor plus falsetto on at least 16 tracks – always.

My brandnew PC was near choking when I tried to play the projects back and I was pretty devastated not knowing how to handle the incredibly huge amount of tracks. Sort of clueless sitting in front of the screen staring at the mixer of Record.

Panicking! We were on a deadline. Was it a wise decision to use Record? During the process I realised, yes, definitely. Because I found out that sometimes it is great to be thrown out of your habits. And to be forced to create your own processing devices and really start to create and not just “activate”.

In the near future I will add some practical tips and insights into various aspects of the entire production, including mastering, into this thread. But for you to get an idea about Oberer Totpunkt, here is the video.
The song is called “Vogelhochzeit” (birds wedding) and is based on a traditional german folk song.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Oberer Totpunkt!!!

And for you to compare, here is the link to the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBeIzHnd8xM&feature=related

  We spoke with Propellerhead co-founder and CEO Ernst Nathorst Böös about the future of music. He has a lot of good food for thought for us. Enjoy!

The following is not politically correct, I just can’t believe it:

 USFO – Our Star for Oslo, the Norwegian City where the next Eurosvision Songcontest will take place.  The history of this event has seen very few great moments for the representatives of my home country. We had reserved the last position quite often for us. That resulted in very weird activities from NDR, the northern german public broadcaster, responsible  of the organization of the local aspects of this contest as there are finding the singers, the songs and organize the preselection shows.

After the very unsuccessful last years, they stopped trusting the taste of the public and “nominated” three singers that could be voted into the final contest. The selection of nominees was “eyebrow raising ” already. Has beens, comedians, wannabes – equipped with songs from the wastepaper baskets of composers – they were that bad, indeed were chosen to represent the country of  Poets and Thinkers in the field of lyrics and music: Songs. Unf……believable.

After disaster struck several times the TV stations partnered with successful producer and TV host Stefan Raab who successfully took the piss out of the german contributions in the late nineties with Guildo Horn, himself and Max Mutzke. They decided to casting show a bunch of new, young talent together and then … yeah … then a song should show up as well and send the package to Oslo to represent german song culture.

Two finalists were chosen by the german public. Two 18 year old girls – who are amazing. Jennifer Braun is a great singer, Lena Meyer-Landrut a real character. The public went for character though, to be honest, Lena always entertained with her weird performance and special way to sing, but hitting the right notes is not her first ability.  Enter the songs: Lena will sing Satellite, Jennifer would have sung I care for you. And they are both VERY mediocre songs. Well arranged and played by the incredible Heavytones, yes. However, the songs, I do not get it. They are more like Soul Tracks, but without a real hook. Sorry, I don’t hear a single. And even on the production which went to iTunes the day after the german final Lena is not really cutting it to make listening to it a pleasure.

Why, why were the songs selected like this? Who selected them? The public just has to choose from what they’ve been presented to. And that looks to me like the emperor’s new clothes. The quality is just not there. Where are all the great song writers? Where are all the great german lyricists? I wish Jennifer and Lena a good start into the music business, but for Lena, I am afraid there is only a position in the lower ranks of the song contest. But, let’s wait what the other countries do have for us. And maybe I am totally wrong any ways.

The first Video for IMSTA, the international music software trade association! It shows a situation where a guy does not want his song to be “just” taken as his studio is taken from “somewhere”!

Celemony Software GmbH today is pleased to invite all registered Melodyne users to participate in the beta testing of Melodyne editor, the first Melodyne product featuring the Melodyne DNA technology. The sales launch is scheduled for the beginning of November and the price will be USD 349,- or Euro 349,-

It’s been a long wait but finally all registered Melodyne customers are able try out Melodyne editor as part of a public beta test. The beta installer is up on the Celemony server waiting to be downloaded and used to change music recordings in a way that has never been possible before.

Melodyne editor represents, in terms both of functionality and technology the latest Melodyne generation and features all the fully mature and proven editing functions which are familiar already from previous editions of Melodyne. Through the integration of DNA, however, even the harmonies in an audio file can be made visible, accessible and malleable – note by note. Users can literally intervene in the chords of their recordings and alter individual notes with them. The implications for the correction and refashioning of audio are simply sensational.

Melodyne editor is designed for the editing of recordings of individual instruments, for example vocals, guitar, saxophone or piano, but good results can be obtained even with complex material such as string quartets. Users can alter the pitch, position and duration of the detected notes, make them louder or softer, copy or cut them and paste them into new locations, and so on. In addition, characteristics such as the formant spectra, vibrato and pitch drift of notes can be modified, as can the pitch, amplitude and formant transitions between notes. Furthermore, special copying functions make it possible to impress selected attributes of one note upon another.

Whilst Melodyne editor, in terms of intuitive access, musicality and sound quality, stands squarely in the great Melodyne tradition, its technical foundations are completely new. The new software basis offers among things optimized multi-threading of which modern multi-core processors can take full advantage. It also allows many improvements in plug-in operation including a freely definable window size, auditioning during pitch editing, scrubbing and “Edit Play” – playback uncoupled from the host.

The beta test is aimed at all registered Melodyne customers. The sales launch in music dealers and the Celemony Web Shop is planned for the beginning of November; the price will be 349 US$ or 349 €.

For more information, visit www.celemony.com

You will find further images and background information at our website under www.celemony.com/press

Company Contact:
Celemony Software GmbH, Valleystrasse 25, 81371 München, Germany, press@celemony.com, www.celemony.com

New software application from Propellerhead puts musicians at the forefront

Stockholm, Sweden (September 09, 2009) – Propellerhead Software today released for sale worldwide Record, the recording software that puts the musician in focus. Record, software for both Mac and Windows, combines effortless recording and a stunning software mixer console with a limitless rack of audio processing gear that builds itself or can be infinitely customized. Over 50,000 users tested Record during its beta test period, which began in May.

“We figured it was time that someone took a fresh look at recording from a musician’s perspective. Not needing to bolt music features onto an aging audio application, we truly started from scratch with full knowledge of today’s computer architectures and capabilities. Record is the result,” says Ernst Nathorst-Böös, CEO. “In short we wanted to do what we’ve always done—help people make more and better music.”

Recording done right

Built for independent minded musicians, Record has the feel of a million dollar recording studio with the streamlined simplicity of a tape deck. For guitar players, the built-in virtual POD® from Line 6 brings a wide range of top quality guitar amps and cabinets. Record’s software mixer’s sound is faithfully modeled* after the renowned SSL® 9000K hardware with flexible routing, full dynamics, EQ, advanced effects handling and complete automation. With its state-of-the-art dynamic multicore audio handling, Record uses a computer’s processing power to its fullest.

Users will never have worry about track counts, latency issues or adding that extra reverb or effect. With a straightforward interface, it won’t get in the way of ideas and will inspire users to make more music.

Seamless integration with Reason

Owners of Reason have seamless integration in Record with their Reason instruments and devices. Not only will Record open Reason files directly, if Reason is installed and registered, all Reason devices appear in Record’s rack without plugging-in or launching a second application. For Reason owners, Propellerhead offers a special sidegrade called Record for Reason Owners that provides a complete copy of Record and updates any version of Reason to work with Record. For new users who want to buy both together, Propellerhead offers Record + Reason Duo, a bundle of both programs in a single package.

Pricing & availability

Record is available for sale worldwide today from authorized Propellerhead dealers and through Propellerhead’s online store: www.propellerheads.se/shop/

Record standalone software:                                      MSRP of $299 USD / €279 EUR

Record + Reason Duo bundle:                                    MSRP of $629 USD / €535 EUR

Record for Reason Owners sidegrade:                    MSRP of $149 USD / €129 EUR

Learn more about Record

To learn more about Record and to see videos and tutorials on its use, please visit

www.record-you.com