Inside the Yamaha QY100, Changing the Battery

This is explains how to change the factory internal battery in the Yamaha QY100 sequencer.

What you need:

CR 2032 Lithium ($2)

Philips head screwdriver

1. Unscrew every screw in the back. A gold colored screw is at the position shown.

2. Pull back the casing slowly to reveal the copper shield. Mind the wires in the bottom right.

3. Unscrew the two copper colored screws which hold the shield down. Open the shield forward, still connected.

4. Push the old battery further into the case from the front (left to right in the pic). Remove the battery. You can also gently use a small screwdriver to pry it loose. Replace with a fresh battery.

5. Carefully re-assemble. Power up. The screen should say “Factory Preset” on its first startup.

DIY Acoustic Insulation Vid

Found on Synthopia. Check out this guy’s blog

Downloadable Frequency Chart (PDF)

Ever needed a guide on frequency to help you mix? Ever needed to know where a sound will fall without looking at the meter?

Print out this chart from Stereoklang (PDF)

While a good start, I don’t agree with it.

Critiques: Sounds starting at 200hz are not warm, as shown. These sounds clear and contain alot of information, some which is harsh! (Snares) Warmth is created under 80hz. You can increase warmth by increasing sub bass. Wheight is also wrong. It should be depicted as 100 hz and up, which is a range that the human body can feel, sort of like getting punched (kick drum attack). The rest in the diagram is OK.

One Key Drum Programming Tips

Ever had trouble timing drums on a keyboard? Use this tip to consolidate your drums onto one key to reduce errors.

How it works: Accents trigger fast snare and bass drum (high velocity), and normal strikes (low to high velocity) just play bass drum and optionally a soft/quiet/blended snare. This allows you to naturally play rock rhythms on the same key and frees up other fingers.

For this to work you’ll need a sampler that supports custom velocity sensitivity and at least two samples per key. I used the V-Synth. I’m sure this will work in Reason or anything remotely modern.

1. Find your drum samples. Bass, Snare etc. Setup zones or make keymappings for drums.

2. Place a Bass Kick – 0-127 Linear Velocity (straight upward graph) on Middle C. This is OSC1 on the V-synth

3. Place a Fast Snare – 100-127 High Velocity (highly peaked graph) also on Middle C. This is OSC2 on the V-synth

Thats it. Now its slightly easier to play rhymthms on a keyboard using a single key.

BONUS TIP: Make a bass drum sound slightly more real! Using a variation of above you can blend a bass drum sample and a soft snare. Why would you want to do this? In real life when you press the bass pedal your resonating the surrounding drums (the snare’s springs). In studios where samples are recorded their goal is to isolate sounds and make sure this doesn’t happen. If your using samples from entirely different kits or electronic drums this method will blend them. If we add a soft snare sample to our kick drum at much lower volume you can blend them like its coming from one drumset. Make sure you use appropriate velocities for this. You don’t want the snare to actually sound like an accent or compete with the real snare.

I hope this helps people make more natural sounding drum rhythyms or inspires someone to do something new with sample layers.

Online Monitor (Loudspeaker) Placement Calculator

This is just about the best online monitor placement calculator I could find. It even has a database of loudspeakers for a projected frequency response. It also accounts for things like chairs, carpet, and floor construction to calculate reverb times. Utterly awesome & free.

Tip: If you need your monitors farther back to the wall than suggested, draw string in a line to the corners of the room from your listening point and then move the speakers back on that axis. This keeps it in the proper distance ratio. Then use this diagram to fine tune and avoid the micro-dead zones (sonar-like lines).

Optimising Your Studio Acoustics with Software

The subject of studio acoustics can seem like black magic – but don’t let it scare you off. You can make easy changes, that could vastly improve your recording and mixing environment, with the help of free or cheap PC software utilities, as we discover this month.

LINK

DIN Sync a TR-808 with Reason

VIDEO LINK:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=95624186019&ref=mf

Ever needed to DIN Sync old gear to Reason? Check out this video where Peff does it with a TR-808.

Send DC pulses from the MOTU interface to Roland 303, 606, 808, 909 etc.

Check out his facebook page for more info & Videos.

By Peff

Make Your Digital Patches Sound More Analog

Here are some quick tips to make your digital patches sound more analog:

1. Don’t Detune, Randomize! The old, common idea has been to to detune one of your oscillators to make it sound more analog. This method does not work because your sound will still be perfectly detuned, and will still have every bit of digital character. Each time the note is triggered it will still be the same. Thats fine if thats the sound you want, but instead, use the Randomize Pitch setting, to set notes outside of their tuned boundaries each time a note is triggered.

Not UFO.

2. Use a little bit of LFO. To further gain analog realism, use an LFO on the pitch. LFOs can be set to sine wave or random. You don’t want to actually hear the result, only give the OSCs some “warble,” so a little goes a long way.

3. Randomize pulse width LFO. Some synthesizers may let you adjust the pulse width dynamically. This could simulate the analog electronics varying the shape and timing of OSC waveforms. I prefer to loosen it up, make it sound duller, or add some variance here.

4. Change the structure of your signal (filter). On digital synths you may be stuck here, where the filter is placed directly after the OSC, but some synths let you reorganize it. Put a distortion effect before the filter. Doing this simulates flaws in the designs of analog synths (like the TB-303) where the signal may be slightly too hot or clipped within the electronics itself. On the roland V-synth its easy to do this. Just select a weak amp distortion, and then place the filter after. Don’t use a hard distortion here or you’ll lose too much character. This is a simple trick which may warm up your filter.

5. Research the specs of similiar analog units. If you can find out the specs of famous analog synth’s filters, you can come close to replicating them in the digital realm. For instance db/octave (#poles) and envelope timing.

6. Use effects: EQ can go a long way in shaping a sounds character and make it unique. A slight chorus effect could mask many sound’s digital properties.

Remember, the only thing that makes a sound digital is when it can be perfectly replicated each time. If you want to be “analog” just avoid it and use some more advanced expression within the digital realm.

Enjoy a truer analog-ish experience on your digital synth!

Cheesiest Stab Brass Contest!

Using any synthesizer you own, we dare you to record a Youtube video or Mp3 of yourself playing your very best original brass preset. A poll with decide who has the cheesiet and most fun sound. When creating yours you should keep in mind these criteria:

• Happiness Factor
• Sound Detail
• Playability
• Usability
• Originality

How to Enter:
Leave a youtube video, mp3 or a link of your entry in the comments. Make it a good musical demo of your preset’s style. Please enter ASAP, anytime before the end date.

Rules:

Mention “Chip Collection Stab Brass Contest” in your Youtube video description or Mp3 tag.
Copies of the “Final Countdown” Stab Brass presets will not be accepted but may be modified.
Do not use factory presets of any kind.
You may use effects.
Only one patch per person
No direct samples! Analog synthesis combined w/ a warped or extremely processed sample are OK (V-synth etc.)

Readers will vote on the best entry. Winner will receive recognition, an image and a link to their site if they choose. Sorry no physical prizes (unless someone wants to donate one). Contest Ends MAY 10th!

Here is a link to help you create a brass sound from an analog synthesizer.

Put your entry in the comments below!

Varying Arpeggio Triplets

Here is my first tutorial with actual sheet music. It is just a musical idea I thought I’d share.

Click image above for higher resolution version.

A nice way to make interesting synth arpeggios is to vary them. On the way down your fingers play all naturals. Two beats later, the arpeggio starts again, and instead of hitting a D, you vary just one note and play a C# instead. This keeps your music more lively, as small changes are noticed by the listener. Using Triplets in 4/4 time also feels slightly more interesting than normal.

Here is the Mp3 to listen to the arpeggio (550kb)
Note: Bassline slightly changed

This type of notation works great with strings and synth leads.

Enjoy!

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