An old QY10 that I ‘found’ dragged up old memories of Roland 303′s and Yamaha RM1x’s.

It was while I was looking for at 303′s on yout tube that my slothlike memory pulled out a fractured memory of a peice of software that I’d forgotten about.

In 1997 about the time I first touched a PC, the software, Propellerheads, the company that now brings you ‘Reason’ and ‘Record’ – released  ‘RebirthRB 338′  an emulation of the Roland 303.

Now the good news, it’s ‘free’.

How cool is that?

You’ll need to register with The Rebirth Museum

Then you’ll have to download an .ISO image and burn that to CD.

It’s a bit of a rigmarole but you need the cd in order for the software to work.

The software also takes a little getting used to.

I’m not going to write a tutorial just yet. I’m trying to figure out how to use the rewire function.

Problems with vista also – this was fixed by installing as normal then copying the demo file to the desktop and opening that instead.

Navigate to your propellerhead folder and find Rebirth copy the demo song file and paste it on your desktop.

How close the emulation is to the Roland 303 is not my main interest with this software.

I’m a hardware geek so that little monkey will have to be indulged with a visit to Fleabay.

That said ‘Rebirth’ is cool once you get your head into it. Throw some headphones on and get programming.

I’ll be throwing a few tutorials up on how to get the most from this very cool piece of software.

Be cool.

But delve under the hood for a second and you’ll find a multitrack recordig system.

Doesn’t support midi but hey it’s free.

It looks a lot like a basic version of Cool Edit the pre-Audition mulltitracking software.

Does take a lot of setting up, ie the vst needs and extra component installing as does VST support and LADSPA plugins.

They’re all available from the Audacity site anyway.

Download for free Audacity

MU.LAB

MU.LAB comes in 2 flavors: MU.LAB Free and MU.LAB Unlimited.

MU.LAB Free (which is free to everyone!) has a 6 track limit, can only mixdown in 16 Bit and only supports 1 mono out for ReWired devices. But be sure: a creative soul can do A LOT with that!

MU.LAB Unlimited on the other hand can do unlimited tracks, can also mixdown in 32 Bit for more extensive musical productions, and supports all available audio outputs for ReWired devices!

Reaper

The daddy of shareware music creation software, no limits uncrippled and probably the bargain software that pretty much sells itself.

It’s in this list because of it’s rare state of treating it’s users and potential customers as adults.

You get to try it out in full for an unlimited period, it’s then down to your conscience wether or not to buy it.

Brilliant software which is constantly updated and has a very loyal and helpful following who frequent the forums.

Lot’s of musicians these days are making the transition over to reaper and for good reason.

Great sound card and midi support, VST and VSTi supported also.

It’s a breeze to set up and use. Honestly if you’ve used this kind of software before you’ll love it.

And as a bonus there is reamote an add on that allows you to connect to a nother laptop via lan to share processing power, your fx and reaper have to installed on the second machine though.

Add to that rewire and you can’t go wrong.

Try it out and then if you dig it, buy it. It’s only fair.

Download for free here

Download Lame Encoder

It’s a simple task really, if you have both software programs installed unzip the above file into Wavosaurs folder:

C:\program files\wavosaur

If you only have Wavosaur then do as above

If you only have Audacity installed then unzip to:

C:\program files\audacity

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Install MP3 for Wavosaur.

If you try and export from wav to mp3 using Wavosaur a message will appear,

Unable to export to mp3. Make sure the lame encoder is installed.

Download Lame Encoder

As stated above unzip the lame_enc.dll into the Wavaosaur folder on your PC/Laptop, see above for possible location.

Restart Wavosaur and try it again, you will now be able to export to MP3 and Bob will be your uncle, Bob’s nice – he don’t take advantage like Tom, Dick or Harry.

—————————

Install MP3 for Audacity.

Slightly different but the same outcome.

Unzip the above file into Audacity folder or if you have Wavosaur extract there instead as above.

Now start Audacity, open a file and try to export to MP3.

A pop up will appear stating that Audacity does not export mp3 files directly yada yada yada.

At the bottom of this box it asks, ‘Would you like to locate the lame_enc.dll?’

Press ‘Yes’ and navigate to where you extracted you lame_enc.dll.

Once located click ‘ok’ and Bob is once again your mothers brother or indeed brother in law or if you’re from Blackburn, both.

Have fun.

Find VST: Rack and click the button,

You’ve now got the screen below,

Here we can load our vst.

If you’ve got this far and you don’t know where your VST folder is then have a look in either:

C:\VST Plugins

C:\program files\steinberg\vst plugins

C:\program files\vst plugins

If you can’t find it in any of those then you’ll need to do a search.

Once you’ve located your VST – (it’s usually a .dll file) – click on it to load.

You need to do 2 things now, to view VST click view shown in picture below,

In the picture below you can see a box with a tick in it next to the word ‘Processing‘

Make sure that box is ticked, now when you change any parameters on your VST effect you’ll here it applied to the file.

To commit the effect click the ‘Apply‘ button.

VST Fx can be controlled without seeing the GUI.

You can control them within the VST Rack Box:

1. The Slider circled controls the level of the parameter.

2. Choose the parameter to be altered.

Finally to scan all your VSTs you need to change the path.

Goto Options – Editor configuration

Change the Vst path to wherever your VST effects are.

A search or the locations I’ve mentioned before will be needed.

Go back to VST rack and press VST scan,

If you’re sure click ‘OK’ and wait.

If succesful a box will come up saying X plugs detected in x:\vstfolder.

Click ok.

VST list dropdown list in VST rack will now be updated with your VSTs.

Have fun.

If you are unfamiliar with what a batch process is let me explain.

If you need to convert a lot of wav files to mp3 format batch process will automate this for you and save you lots of time.

Batch processing though can be used for a variety of processing tasks like normalisation, conversion of bit rate etc.

To bring up Batch processing in wavosaur you can either

Use shortcut – press ‘B‘ on keyboard or navigate to Tools – Batch processor as seen in the screen shot.

This will bring up a box,

If you take a squizz at the box you can see four elements that have an effect on what we do.

‘Source‘ – this is the folder where all the files you want converting reside – be warned ALL files in that folder will be converted.

Tip 1: Create a folder and copy your files into that – that way you have a backup in case anything goes wrong.

‘Destination‘ – this is the folder where you converted files will be saved – be aware if you choose the same folder as ‘Source‘ your original files will be replaced.

Tip 2: Create a subfolder within ‘source’ folder that way no mistakes – that way you’ve got two sets of backup – it’s up to you but best to play safe.

Remember backup twice and backup again – better safe than sorry.

‘Function‘ – This is the choice of conversion or process you wish to perform.

‘Run‘ – Press this when you’ve made your first three choices – the batch process will then be performed.

Open the file you want to convert to mp3 as normal then choose

File-Export-Export as Mp3.

See picture above.

Choose the bit rate you desire in the dropdown list.

Click ok.

Choose where you want to save file.

Done.

Even though it is offered for free please if you use it make a donation. Software such as this needs to be supported.

If we don’t support projects like this they will die out.

I’ve been using Wavosaur on and off for a few months – moreso recently.

My chosen editor is Audition – but that is on my main pc – it’s an expensive software.

Wavosaur is pretty simple to use – it’s a small file – and unlike other audio editors doesn’t load VSTs on startup, instead you load the vst yourself.

Wavosaur also has a really cool batch processing facility which is dead simple to use and has a few presets already set up.

Over the next few months I’ll be investigating this software more and will throw up some tutorials on how to use it.

‘Wavosaur is a free sound editor, audio editor, wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur has all the features to edit audio (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record, batch convert.
Wavosaur supports VST plugins, ASIO driver, multichannel wav files, real time effect processing.
The program has no installer and doesn’t write in the registry. Use it as a free mp3 editor, for mastering, sound design. The Wavosaur freeware audio editor works on Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Go to the features page for an overview of the software.’

Its warm sound and simplicity of using makes this exciter very suitable

to add some subtle brightness in the high frequencies, and also make the lows more dense.

Apart from the mastering stage, you’ll find that it can also make a good work on individual tracks. – link

Storm Recording Studio -

A set of simple mastering plugins available to download here

Includes an Aural Exciter and Stereo Enhancer.

Barricade -

VST brick wall limiter
JB Barricade is a simple yet effective brick wall limiter.

The gain ride curve is very smooth and its time derivative is continuous,

to ensure minimum distortion and aliasing artefacts.

The gain knob adjusts the signal level before entering the limiter.
For analog-style tube warmth a tube-emulation circuit is provided as well. link

Also available in PRO version.

Also available for download are Vintage Tape Modeller, Psychoacoustic Compressor plus more

Kjaerhus Audio-

The Classic Master Limiter VST plugin is specially designed to boost the overall level of your final mixes,

but is also highly useable on very dynamic instruments.

With just one control on the front panel operation is as simple as it gets;

just turn the Threshold down and hear how your mixes gets louder and louder.

Very high compression ratios can be obtained without changing the balance of the mix. – link

Classic EQ is a 7 Band Stereo Equaliser with a warm analog sound,

well suited to make non-surgical tonal corrections on all instruments, vocals and final mixes.

The passive and additive structure, together with unique “Warm” and “Saturation” algorithms,

produces warm and pleasant sound, just like some of the most expensive vintage gear.

The left and right channels can be adjusted individually or linked together. -link

MDA-VST

VST Pack, contains the following -

BeatBox – Drum replacer
Combo – Amp & speaker simulator
De-ess - High frequency dynamics processor
Degrade - Sample quality reduction
Delay – Simple stereo delay with feedback tone control
Detune – Simple up/down pitch shifting thickener
Dither – Range of dither types including noise shaping
DubDelay – Delay with feedback saturation and time/pitch modulation
Dynamics – Compressor / Limiter / Gate
Envelope – Envelope follower / VCA
Image - Stereo image adjustment and M-S matrix
Leslie - Rotary speaker simulator
Limiter – Opto-electronic style limiter
Loudness – Equal loudness contours for bass EQ and mix correction
Multiband – Multi-band compressor with M-S processing modes
Overdrive – Soft distortion
Re-Psycho! – Drum loop pitch changer
RezFilter – Resonant filter with LFO and envelope follower
Round Panner – 3D panner
Shepard – Continuously rising/falling tone generator
Splitter – Frequency / level crossover for setting up dynamic processing
Stereo Simulator – Haas delay and comb filtering
Sub-Bass Synthesizer - Several low frequency enhancement methods
Talkbox – High resolution vocoder
TestTone – Signal generator with pink and white noise, impulses and sweeps
Thru-Zero Flanger - Classic tape-flanging simulation
Tracker – Pitch tracking oscillator, or pitch tracking EQ
Vocoder – Switchable 8 or 16 band vocoder
VocInput – Pitch tracking oscillator for generating vocoder carrier input - link

- Range of free audio plugins – Compressor, Delay, Chorus and more…

Voxengo

- Host of great free plugins – needs a bit of a search – but worth it.

Kjaerhaus Audio: Classic Compressor, link
Classic Compressor is a classic analog style VST Compressor Plugin with a lot of warmth and punch. Special designed to use on individual Instruments and Vocal, but also useable on your final mixes.

Smooth Compression Ajustable ratio up to limiting Ajustable attack and release times Ajustable knee (hard to soft) Gain reduction LED Presets Ultra low CPU usage Supports all sampling rates Full VST automation

1. Split your vocal track into two sub-groups or tracks, depending on your software. Insert a Classic Compressor on both, loading one with the factory preset “Vocal” and the other with “Vocal Definition”. Boost 100Hz and 10kHz about 10dB shelving on the second group or track. Now mix the two together for a very fat and energetic vocal track.

2. Use our Classic Limiter right after the Classic Compressor to catch the peaks during mix down.

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Endorphin – dual-band stereo compressor – link

Two independent frequency bands (low and high frequency processing)

Switchable stereo or M/S mode operation.

Two basic compressor designs:

1. modern vca mode with soft-knee characteristics and manual time constants. This mode provides an instant response behaviour and deep compression, using a feed-forward circuit.

2. Vintage-style opto (photo resistor) mode, modelled after ancient opto-electrical compressors. The time constants stay manually set, but they are also affected by the signal’s energy. This mode has the typical opto-style ‘overshoot’ on quick transients, this is one of the most gentle compressors you may find. Classical feed-back detector circuit.

Adjustable high-level output stage with analog-style saturation.

While you at digitalfishphones.com check out their fish fillets package

This great package contains – (Blockfish)  Compressor, (Spitfish) De Esser and (Floorfish) a Gate/Expander Device.

—————–

Budget:

Voxengo’s range of VST fx are really worth a look at an affordable price,

Prices range from $49.95 for The Crunchessor

- $69.95 for Elephant

- $89.95 for Marquis

Voxengo – Mix Compressors

Voxengo Compressors

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PSPaudioware:

is a collection of five high-resolution, high quality audio processors designed to improve the quality of your digital audio tracks and mixes (VST and RTAS for Windows; AudioUnit, VST and RTAS for MacOSX UniversalBinary). These processors were not modeled on specific hardware analog processors, but rather on the sound and features of many analog circuits, with the goal of designing processors that can assist you in taming the sterility and harshness that often plagues digitally recorded audio. Don’t let the name of this bundle fool you – while we worked hard to develop a plug-in pack that would help your mixes shine, these plug-ins are high enough quality to be at home in mastering or live tracking situations as well. All plug-ins utilize 64-bit double precision floating point algorithms throughout their entire signal path and support sample rates of up to 192kHz. The kit consists of: PSP MixBass2, PSP MixTreble2. PSP MixSaturator2, PSP MixPressor2 and PSP MixGate2

Check Out Mixpack2 – Priced at $199 it’s well worth a looksy