- Sampler
- Sequencer
- Mixer
- Effects rack
- Multitrack recorder & Monitors
THE SOUND GENERATORS
The Synthesizer is the basic tool used for sound generation in electronic music production and live shows. There are 3 types: analog synthesizers, digital (virtual-analog) synthesizers and software synthesizers (vsts).
In the begining there were only analog synths. They generally produced a very full sound and all electronic productions of the past were made only with them. The problem with analog synths was in their limitations. Most of them were monophonic and single-timbral. So in order to have more tracks running at the same time in real time, you needed as many synths as the number of sounds that you wanted to play. Pretty expensive business :) Also it was hard to take them to a live show, because they were heavy and many! But it's them that created so many legendary sounds. Nowadays there are very few producers of true analog synthesizers.
After the"fall" of analog synths, digital synths appeared, but most of them were sample play-back. Something that analog synths brought in was missing and many felt that. As a natural evolution the virtual-analog digital synths appeared. They use the same synthesis building blocks as their analog counterparts, some of them even surpassing the old synths in the quality of sound generation and mostly in the diversity of synthesis. Some of them are the equivalent to as many as 16 synths playing at the same time;)
The VSTs or the software synths are software programs emulating real hardware synths, some of them getting very close to the original ones. Most of them cannot get close to the analog synths of the past, not even to the virtual-analogs, even though there are a few plug-ins that are pretty good, being capable of a large pallete of interesting sounds. Their main advantage is the price (cheap to even free) and also the way they integrate with the main software program. Also I have to mention that they can be opened and used simultaneously as many times as the producer likes..., so many synths in just one VST.
Controllers... Sequencers... Samplers.... Synthesizers.....
THE SAMPLER
Another tool for sound generation is the sampler. One reason it was not discussed in the chapter devoted to sound generators is that actually the sampler does not generate itself sound. It only samples (records) sound fron different sources and than modifies it using special parameters like envelopes and filters. Actually this is its special quality, that of recording sounds from a great variety of sources (sounds from nature, voices, drums and any other instruments).
The most known type of sampler is the digital workstation. Everyone knows the casio keyboards for example. In fact all these cheap keyboards are sample playback devices. They contain pre-recorded samples (sounds) that only can be played. These devices are not real samplers. They cannot sample sound and they can't modify it either. Software samplers in generally fall in this category too, the main difference being that they can modify the sound of the samples that are inserted into them.
The other type of sampler (the real sampler) is the one which samples and sculpts the sound. In this category fall the very known and used workstations from Korg Triton series or Roland Phantom series. Also in this category go the Akai MPC series, with one difference: they use pads instead of a keyboard.
THE SEQUENCER
What is this device and why we need it? The machines are playing an important role in our lives more and more. In music one such machine is the sequencer. We can write and play music with it. The are a few advantages using it: first of all all music can be quantized if we want that, we can play more instruments (sounds) at the same time, even to a very high bpm and all that in perfect syncronization.
All these can be done using MIDI messages. Messages that contain the information needed by the instrument to be played. Simply put the sequncer plays at some extent a certain instrument for us, so we can concentrate on other things during production or at a live show. Also the main difference between a midi track and a audio track is that we can still modify the recorded sequence after the recording is finished without being necessary to record it all from the begining.
Especially for electronic musicians, the sequencers are one of the main tools. They fall in 2 categories: software and hardware. The hardware sequencers usually are very precise but because they are missing a great visual interface and because of a bunch of other limitations, they lose the batlle with the software ones. At this moment software sequencers are far ahead.
If we think only of the great visual interface and the endless number of tracks that can be sequenced with them and still they win over their hardware counterparts.
THE MIXER
The mixer, exactly like its name implies, mixes the tracks (the instruments) used in the song. Each instrument needs at least one channel, so of great importance is the numer of channels the mixer has. We can divide the mixers in 2 categories: analog or digital, hardware or software. The capacities of the mixer are proportionally with its price. More expensive mixers have more channels and more controls (like volume, pan, eq, sends and so on). Hardware mixers range from 2-4 channels to 32 channels to professional desks of 100 or more channels. One of the big advantages of software mixers is that the number of channels and controls are as in a professional desk mixer, having the price much much cheaper. The disadvantage is mainly in the physical control, meaning that you have to control everything with the mouse, which is not the best way of mixing. The alternative is the use of a dedicated controller for that.
For the process of mixing, the mixer is of invaluable importance.
THE EFFECTS RACKS
Electronic music without effects equals an impossibility :) One of the most important things in production are the effects. Some example of effects: delay, reverb, flanger, phaser, distortion. The list is quite large. Of course they can be found nowadays as hardware or software. Hardware effects are important in all kinds of music. Again the advantage of software is in the price and portability. One hardware effect can be from 100$ to 1000$ or more, so having dedicated effect racks for each channel would mean very many thousand of dollars and a lot of rack space. All this can be achieved easily with software plug-ins. Like the hardware effects, the software ones can be from very good to worthless. So it all depends of the plug-ins used, some of them being quite good.
THE RECORDER AND THE MONITORS
The recorder is the device that records the actual sounds. It is also known as a multitrack recorder from the number of channels on which it can record simultaneously. The hardware multitrack recorders are pretty expensive and almost extinct. At this time software recorders rule for very many reasons: from price, to interface and the possibilities they offer. Of course here we got recording programs for hobbists and recording software for professional recordings and it's a big difference between the two. If we record using a software program, 2 things are essential: a good, stable computer and a good external soundcard. Also, if we plan to record many external sources simultaneously we need as many inputs on the soundcard as possible.
The importance of good monitors cannot be emphasized enough. No matter how good the tools that are used are, no matter how good producer you are, if the monitors are less than great, you'll not be able to mix and master well the music you have produced. So, good monitors are a must. They will bring you the real picture of what you have created. Good monitors will be neutral, meaning that they will not color at all the sound and will not fatten the lows or any other modification that commercial monitors do to sound.
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