Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano Demo

Hey kids. Here' s a short demo featuring our new Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano VI. This sampled piano is the same one used on Adele's hit song, "Hello". This is actually a very versatile piano in that they've sampled it using various combinations of close and room microphones. I love it.

Waves Abbey Road Plate vs UAD EMT 140 Plate!

Heres' a quick demo comparing the Waves Abbey Road Plate and the Universal Audio EMT 140 Plate reverb plugins. I'm sending audio to both plugins simulaniously from a Rhodes piano and a Snare Drum. I'm then muting and unmuting the output of each reverb every few measures. I tried to match each verb's sound as best I could, but didn't get too picky. I realize they're not "identical" sounding, but, they're fairly close;-) As always, demo this stuff for yourself and see what you think!

VIs used in this video include:
Velvet (electric piano),
Steven Slate Drums SSD4 using the stock "Liverpool Tight"kit

Other Waves plugins include:
CLA Mix, SSL G Channel, Slate Tape and Isotope 7 Maximizer

Logic 10.3.2 MIDI Plugin Freeze Bug Workaround!

Have you discovered the dreaded Logic 10.3.2 muted audio after you try to freeze a MIDI Channel strip bug? I hadn't until recently as I rarely have to freeze my MIDI tracks. I was trying to freeze a Waves Grand Rhapsody piano one day and couldn't do it as after each attempt I didn't hear anything. It wasn't until I discovered that the MIDI Plugin I had inserted was the culprit. Here's a workaround until Apple fixes the problem. Incidentally, possibly the more obvious workaround is to just bounce in place the MIDI channel strip and then disable the instrument.

Got Talkbox? Make one using Native Instruments Guitar Rig!

A few years ago I did some experimenting with Native Instruments Guitar Rig and automating some formant filters. This FX gave me a sort of old school Talk Box sound.

Click here to download the NI Guitar Rig preset and enjoy the video below for an in-depth tutorial on how to get this up and running using Logic.

New Logic 10.3 update is great except for Track Alternative bug!

Disappearing Track Alternatives
The new Logic 10.3 update was unleashed last week and we love it…kind of. It's overall a fantastic update and introduces a bunch of new features. A favorite new enhancement is something I've longed for since I "switched" from Digital Performer to Logic many years ago; The ability to make another underlying "playlist" ala Digital Performer or Pro Tools. Apple calls this feature "Track Alternatives". Unfortunately theres a big bug whereas when one does an edit to the top most "Track Alternative" track, the hidden Alternatives may disappear. The work around is to always show the hidden Track Alternatives while doing any kind of editing. In the long run this isn't very practical so I'm hoping that this gets fixed in the next update. I made a video documenting this bug and hopefully will prevent others from losing too much hair over this issue.
Update: As of the latest 10.3.1 Logic X update, this bug has been squashed!

Happy New Year 2017! Check out these killer guitar player demos!

Guitar Demos!

It’s a few days into the new year and I’m busy writing and recording some great electric guitar demos. A few years ago I bought a Kemper Profiler Amplifier. The Kemper is basically a computer type guitar amp that’s soul purpose is to capture the sounds of real amps and store them so that one can have virtually any amp with them at any time. Many people (including myself, Dave Chamberlin) “profile” their own amp collection and store it in their Kemper. This is great as it allows one to recreate their exact guitar sound at a later date, even if they’ve sold their original amp (which I’ve also done). There are many great commercial resources for these profiles. I’ve invested in a ton of them and enjoy the variety. One of my favorite commercial vendors is a company out of Germany called “Soundside”. I’ve created demos for many of their amps for use on their website. Check out the sound samples below. Keep in mind that I wrote and recorded these demos in under 2 hours each! It’s also a reminder that when you come to DBW that you have an excellent studio guitarist at your disposal;-) Thanks for listening!

Warning, Mad Scientist Stuff!

Those of you who know me know that I like to run musical “experiments”. Well, many times I’ll run actual real experiments. Especially when it comes to my guitar sound. Lately I’ve been doing some subtle mods to my 92’ Les Paul Standard guitar. By swapping out the tone capacitor I can easily alter the sound of my guitar. I documented one such “experiment” below. If you’re still awake after the video give yourself a gold lollipop!

In The Studio, August 2016