![]() ![]() For expressive players, MPE has arrived with a solid implementation that makes it easy to visualise and edit parameters. For edit hounds, to go with comping, there’s also linked editing and a scale highlighting option for note editing. However, it seems that Ableton has made sure to throw in at least one compelling feature for every taste. I’ll readily concede that what makes the upgrade worth it for me (ahem, comping) might be a waste of time, and therefore money, to you. Right off the bat, Ableton Live 11 is worth it for me. Could you really be bothered upgrading if it’s going to mean any deviation from your normal routine? There’s the price associated with the risk of adopting new software too early. There’s the actual price, you know, the money thing. Happy dubbing.Any ‘whole number’ DAW release comes with a price. We’ve gone for a quick ramp-up and then a smooth decline across our eight-bar loop.įeel free to automate your delay, change the timing (dotted eighth notes are great for dub), and play with the saturation amount for a dirtier sound. You can now draw in automation to control the amount of send over time. Right-click on the send dial again and choose Show Automation In New Lane. Let’s use automation to control the feedback over time. You should hear the delay feeding back into itself. Press play and slowly bring up the send dial. Make sure it’s going to the same send as the channel where your delay is set up. In Live, enable the send dial by right-clicking on it. Next, we need to create a loop by routing the channel back into itself. ![]() We’re using Ableton Live’s stock limiter. First, let’s put a limiter at the end of our send channel with a hard ceiling of 0dB. The details of how to do it may be different on yours so please consult your manual if you’re not sure.īefore we start, it’s important to state that feedback can get out of control in a matter of milliseconds, so proceed slowly and gently to avoid damaging your ears, speakers, or both. Let’s create a feedback loop to emulate the self-oscillation of tape echoes. ![]() So far, we have a very nice, warm delay, but it’s not particularly exciting, is it? It’s time to bring feedback into play. For even more authenticity, add a sample of low-level white noise to your project. Top Tip: Tape also had a certain amount of unavoidable hiss. Lastly, we engage the Analog button for extra warmth. We also roll off a little of the low end around 200Hz just to keep it from clashing with the other low frequencies in the track. We play it by ear and cut highs around 5kHz. There’s more to it but this is really beyond the scope of this tutorial. Half-inch stereo tape (that is, two-track) will have higher fidelity than half-inch 16 track tape, and much more than four-track cassette tape. Tape speed is traditionally measured in inches per second (or ips), and the faster it is, the more highs it preserves. If you’re going for authenticity, you need to consider both tape speed and width. How much of the highs to roll off depends on a number of things. We’re using Waves H-EQ for this, but again, any EQ plugin will work. Tape naturally rolls off highs so to create a realistic emulation, we’re going to need to dampen the upper frequencies. One of the hallmarks of analogue hardware is warmth, and this is true for tape echoes as well. Here’s the delay with added pitch modulation: Experiment and see what sounds right for your song. We’ve gone for small, authentic changes but huge changes in pitch could be useful as well. How much wobble to use depends on how broken you want it to sound. We’re using the Smooth pitch shift algorithm to best emulate old motors on a tape machine.Īs wow and flutter is often intermittent and unpredictable, we’ve drawn in pitch changes in a haphazard manner. To achieve this, load a pitch shifter plugin after the delay. But for producers of the digital age, these imperfections can add character and vibe. For engineers of the time, it was a massive headache. When the motors start to wear out, small changes in speed can result in momentary imperfections in pitch. Think turntables, tape decks, and even VHS players. Also known as wow and flutter, pitch wobble is common in analogue machines with rotating components. Next, we need to add some pitch wobble to our homemade tape delay. ![]()
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