29
votes
Accepted
How do professional electronic musicians/sound engineers combat listening fatigue?
One of the most common pieces of advice I hear about this is to take breaks. You're right that in some situations (extremely tight deadlines, for example) this may not be practical, but in reality, it'...
- 967
26
votes
Accepted
What is an All-Pass Filter? What are its uses?
Are there any All-Pass filter plugins(AU, VST, AAX)?
The standard EQ plugin of Reaper (ReaEQ, you can also get this as a separate VST plugin) has different modes for the filters (a parametric EQ is ...
- 35.8k
24
votes
Accepted
Why do some virtual instruments sound more realistic than others?
Compressing 30 years of research into a couple of short paragraphs…
Non-percussive instruments are what's known in the trade as "an absolute b**ch to sample" because they can change over ...
- 28k
16
votes
How do professional electronic musicians/sound engineers combat listening fatigue?
Taking breaks has been mentioned, and is obviously a good idea!
Other ideas:
A change is as good as a rest: work an a different project for a while, and come back to the first one
listen to other ...
- 46.1k
14
votes
LilyPond play pitches
LilyPond is not so much a notation editor as a notation compiler, so you're not going to get live feedback. It's sort of like setting everything up and hitting "go" each time you want to see ...
- 3,462
13
votes
One note of chord not part of scale
I'd love to find who it is spreading this 'theory' that notes need to conform to the particular key or scale a piece is in!
When learning about music theory initially - in the early stages - it makes ...
- 198k
11
votes
Accepted
Did people use DAWs or Trackers first in the 90s?
People did use DAWs in the 90s, but in the early to mid 90s, the few DAWs that existed were generally only used by professionals. That is because the processing power of computers was not enough to ...
- 58.6k
10
votes
DAW sounds and sound quality
Given how many DAWs there are, I wonder if I would be able to write something general enough to cover all DAWs, but let me try.
The main function of a DAW is to record, edit and mix audio and MIDI ...
- 17.8k
10
votes
Can I have the output of an audio interface redirected to a headset that's connected directly on the PC?
Your USB headset is a USB audio interface in itself, so what you're trying to do is, use one USB audio interface for audio input from the guitar, and another USB audio interface for audio output to ...
- 28.7k
9
votes
Accepted
What is a quantizing percentage?
Quantizing percentage means how much closer to the quantization grid's perfect timing position the timing (position and/or length) of notes is moved.
0% : the timing is not changed at all. It's a no-...
- 28.7k
9
votes
Why do some virtual instruments sound more realistic than others?
Any instrument that is percussive (you play the note and then there's almost nothing more you can do with it except stop it) is fairly easy to synthesize.
Any instrument where the player forms the ...
- 22k
8
votes
Why get an audio interface if I could just use USB?
I have a USB mic
A USB Mic is basically a mic with an audio interface built in. Of course it's all you need if that mic is the only sound source you need. But what if you do want to record a guitar, ...
- 46.1k
8
votes
What is an All-Pass Filter? What are its uses?
I am going to answer only your first two questions (or at least, I will try).
An audio signal can be seen as a sum of sinusoids. These sinusoids each have an amplitude and a phase. The amplitude is ...
- 5,282
8
votes
LilyPond play pitches
Whereas the layout block \layout{} is used to generate a pdf, the midi block \midi{} will generate a midi file.
Depending on what software application you are writing LilyPond script in, this midi ...
- 14.9k
8
votes
Accepted
How is a small MIDI keyboard mapped to a bass guitar strings?
From your comment:
when hitting these with the mouse on the DAW as in the pictures, I do
not hear the same sound, hence the question.
So, the problem is not knowing about how a bass guitar works, ...
- 28.7k
8
votes
How is it possible to filter either high or low frequencies of a single sine wave?
It is important to note that software synthesizers are not scientific software, instead they try to replicate the sound of "real" synthesizers, and often vintage analogue synthesizers at ...
- 81
8
votes
If I am to use midi keyboard only, do I still need audio interface?
You do not. Actually you probably won’t need anything but the keyboard controller itself. As long as you purchase a keyboard controller that has a USB connection that is compatible with your computer ...
- 28.6k
7
votes
How are synthesizers used in music production?
You can produce music without a DAW, and synthesizers don't have to be played live by a human player. There's this thing called MIDI, introduced in 1982. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI With MIDI, ...
- 28.7k
7
votes
How do rhythm and melody compete and cooperate to define the horizontal space of music?
I believe you're missing an important point: melody is not just a succession of notes, it is a timed succession.
As you pointed out, with the same "list" of notes you can get drastically ...
- 7,322
6
votes
Accepted
How to cut off a pick noise a little bit using an equalizer?
An equalizer works on the complete signal. It's like using a camera filter in order to mask some unwanted detail in a scene you are photographing. A pick noise is a sharp "click". This has a wide ...
- 76
6
votes
Most practical way to compose classical music on PC
What you're describing is a pretty typical workflow. Sibelius is a notation program and isn't that concerned with great synthesis. Reaper is a DAW and isn't that concerned about being an awesome ...
- 22.6k
6
votes
Accepted
How can I automate the arming and disarming of tracks in ableton?
Nevermind guys, I figured it out.
So basically Ableton has a feature where you can map tasks like arming or disarming a track onto a MIDI event (CTRL+M). But it needs to receive that event from an ...
6
votes
Accepted
Panning distorted guitars (get the attack sound)
By copy/pasting the exact same sound to two tracks then panning them hard left & right, you have in fact created a mono sound that just takes up two tracks.
In stereo recording, the very ...
- 28k
6
votes
How do professional electronic musicians/sound engineers combat listening fatigue?
3d12 and topo morto covered most of it, but having a good set of (correctly positioned) studio monitors also makes a huge difference. You can mix more effectively and at a lower volume, and you tend ...
- 161
6
votes
Accepted
Cubase Elements 9 - 4/3 Time Signature
4/3 is what is known as an "irrational" meter. According to the feature request Irrational Time Signature on the Steinberg forum website, Cubase is not able to handle it. However, the ...
- 95k
6
votes
Cubase Elements 9 - 4/3 Time Signature
Following @Aaron's answer, if Cubase doesn't support such time signature, you can still find a workaround by manipulating the tempo.
E.g. if you want to have the 5/4 section in 120 BPM (120 quarter ...
- 17.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Artificially Extended Drum Duration?
I don't know why I wrote all this but here goes:
Note duration in MIDI
The way most synthesizers and samplers (and other similar instruments) work is constrained by the conceptual model behind the ...
- 28.7k
6
votes
How is it possible to filter either high or low frequencies of a single sine wave?
Looking at the posted video, your "sine wave" isn't a sine wave, see the image below. Those small deviations from the perfect sine represent higher frequency components which are audible.
I ...
- 17.8k
5
votes
Does composing and learning music theory solely on DAWs restrict one's learning experience?
Some of your question is about music theory, but I sense it's more about composition and comparing acoustic instruments with the DAW.
I can never manage really emotional songs
If you are still ...
- 59.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Default instruments for FL Studio 12?
There are numerous sounds You can get from the FL Studio's basic installation.
In version 12.1.2, You can find a fine piano on Fl-keys generator (in the plugin browser, go to Installed > ...
- 166
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible