Bill Jones Music Studio

Cubase Studio 5.5 comes with a project assistant utility.  This is a series of templates.  One of those templates was for mastering your final mix-down files.  I am use to using an external program for mix down but wanted to see what I could do inside the primary Digital audio workstation (DAW).  Well, when the template opened up it also opened audio plug-ins for Stereo Enhancer and VST Dynamics.  I normally attached this to inserts associated with each track but this was different.  They were linked to the Stereo Out Bus.  I could not find how they were attached.   After much reading I finally discovered that they are attached inside the MIXER utility.  Just go to the “E” button on the far right and that lets you access the VST Output Channel Settings.  Here you can add inserts for all audio flowing out of the Stereo Out Bus. 

Once the VERSE background is established then you can copy the harmonic part/bass part to VERSE_B and layer on a fresh lead guitar.  Next, a good CHORUS is created and then duplicated to the second occurrence of CHORUS.  The BREAK is always difficult to create because it must fit the style of the song and yet give a break to repeating melodies in the VERSE and CHORUS sections.  The INTRODUCTION and END are normally melodic variations of the VERSE.  A lot of times, it’s easier to just use fade in and fade out for the intro/end.

What Makes Templates a Good Thing?

Why should you use templates?  Well, it’s as simple as this.  When you come into the studio you are excited to create something.  If you have to establish a song form, find drum tracks the complement each other, and establish which instruments you will use your enthusiasm will be gone.   If you don’t have any zip in your step, your creativity will be over and a song will not be created.  With templates, a song can go from idea to posted on MySpace in just a few hours.  And it will be fun also!

My daughter, Rachel, has a web site that features her artwork.  She has updated the format… looks great!

rachelcreates.com

Cubase, an Advanced Music Production System offered by Steinberg, has been my tool of choice for many years.  I finally upgraded from a earlier version when I wanted to take advantage of the Intel Core i7 2.66 GHz Processor.  With the most recent update to version 5.5, Cubase uses all 4 processor cores.  This means that when you have many tracks of music running at the exact same with real time effects processing the program will not freeze up and fail. 

I didn't like the way the song sounded on my small laptop speakers.  The bass was totally missing!  So I boosted the bass up along with the drums, pulled back the lead guitar volume and boosted the backup guitar.... I also added small room reverb to the lead guitar and "slap back" reverb to the backup guitar.... One last thing, I dropped the fade-in but kept the fade-out.... now for the laptop speaker test.