[Esoteric Synthesis] What does that thing do?

Let's talk about synthesis, either on a vintage synth or an emulation of one, which I'm sure you have, and if you don't, then get your Linux over to http://bristol.sourceforge.net/ and get some. Here's one that I see on my synths and can always be assured of forgetting what it does, so i'm writing it down for myself for reference. I'm talking about "Key Tracking" or "Key Follow". What is Key Follow (Key Tracking) you say? It's pretty simple. First think of a Flute or some instrument that has a rougher sound in the low register than the bright sound in the high and you'll get the picture. The Key Follow allows you to set your synth sound up so that the timbre is different in the low notes vs the high (or vice versa). Key follow set up in middle or neutral position will not affect the sound. Key follow set high, will mean that the lower you play on the keyboard, the cutoff filter will trigger lower and lower, giving a darker sound. Key follow set low, will give you the opposite, the higher you play on the keyboard the more the cutoff is lowered. Pretty cool for giving the synth sound some feeling to it. Maybe tomorrow I can talk about Velocity.

[Meters] A little thing you better know if you don't

arg! I didn't update this like I said, but I'm getting better..so....
When trying to get the best audio level from recording, somewhere from some to many "engineers" either forget or don't know much about audio metering. When you look at a nice analog mixer with no ADC's or DAC's you are looking at a standard Quasi-peak PPM (Peak program meter). It will show dBvu as the audio strength is measured by the voltage of the electrical signal passing through the mixer. Typically, you can work in this realm and go over 0dB (into the red) and not worry too much about "clipping" (squaring or topping which is distortion in) the signal as long as you don't go too far into the red.
When you look at a nice digital mixer, or work in most software, you are looking at meters which are reading the peak handling of the soundcard which is reading the "Full Scale" that the sound card can handle. That type will show 0dBFS (full scale). Typically you cannot go over 0dBFS and not worry about clipping. Digital distortion doesn't sound warm or good like analog distortion, it just sounds like clicking and zapping.
Basically if you want to understand the difference....a reading of 0dBVU on an analog meter equals approximately -18dBFS (give or take) on a digital meter. On most analog meters they go up to around +9dBVU, which is still about -9dBFS on a digital meter. If you're trying to get your digital meter to read (a record level of) -1dbFS or as close to 0 as possible, that's like spiking your analog mixer up around +18dBVU, well past its tolerances. This is NOT Best Practice, and should be avoided. Look up "Loudness War" for more on this kind of thing.


Analog             Digital (software)
[]+18dBVU!      []0dBFS
[]                     []
[]+9dBVU         []
[]                     []
[]0dBVU           []-18dBFS      
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []
[]                     []

[Let's heat things up!]

I haven't posted nearly enough stuff! I think I'll set myself a little goal of posting some small thing every day, it will be a challenge laid down to myself.  I'd like to start by mentioning that I've posted up to 43 seconds of my B l i z z a r d trailer online. You can view it by clicking on one of the little buttons with the Youtube logo. It's difficult using Logic as the Sound For Picture app. I'd much rather be using Pro Tools but that will have to wait for just a little, since PT10 is now requiring 10.6.8 or 10.7 and I don't have that as an option right now. I am getting better at it. I got my copy of Reason 6.01 and it's awesome of course. I've been using it since version 1. This one has a couple cool new effects and a great new toy called Alligator (It's a multi gate). I'm still in process on the website so I haven't brought it out of 'beta' status yet. So much stuff that I want to learn. HTML5, Java, Lua and Maya scripting pertaining to audio, more on FMOD and wwise. ok I think tomorrow I'll post about meters...sounds like a good topic.