I want to talk about what is pretty much agreed to be the foundation of any EDM track, drums and percussion. Specifically I want to focus on setting up your drums in your DAW. This sounds like a no brainer but I’ve seen a few different ways of setting up and using drums in a project and want to go over these ways and point out the pros and cons; and show you the way I ultimately settled on that is the most intuitive set up I’ve found.

Multi Track Setup:

What I’ve seen a lot of producers do is have each individual drum hit on its own sequencer track in a project:

Multi Tracking Drum Samples in the Sequencer.

This does have its logical reasons for doing it this way. You have access to each individual drum hit, you have track automation available on each drum hit independent of the rest. If you look at the mixer you can see you have each drum hit on its own channel strip giving you volume, pan, and insert effects processing on a per sample basis. It looks like an all around great setup.

Cons:

If we look at our setup from a streamlining standpoint however, we can start to see some problems. For starters you are peppering your sequencer with literally thousands of small audio clips for a full song. There is also no simple way to manage these audio clips outside of selecting them and dragging out copies. If you do decide to use your DAWs looping function another problem shows itself. Your audio clip has to be absolutely perfect or else it will get out of sync.

Audio Clip Looks Like It Is Looped Perfectly.

But It Is Actually Not, And Gets Out Of Sync.

Well then, we’ll use virtual instruments! That way we are dealing with midi information in the sequencer. This will clean up our sequencer and allow us to loop and manager our samples accurately while still having all the benefits of multi-tracking our drums. Not so fast, this solves a few problems, but it also introduces a lot. If you are using virtual instruments to manage your drum samples, or even using for synth drums, on a per sequencer track basis you are using up a lot of needless processing power buy having multiple instances of virtual instruments doing a single task (Bass drum, snare drum, high-hat, etc.). If you are not wise in the ways of your software yet, in addition to this you may also be loading up a entire bank of drum samples just to use one or two. This is going to eat through your computers RAM fast.

Loading An Entire Drum Kit Just To Use One Or Two Samples.

So what’s a producer suppose to do? We want to have as flexible a setup as possible which means not having all our drums be funneled down to a single mixer channel strip, giving us only a master volume, pan, automation, and insert effects processing option. But on the other hand we don’t want to have 15 plus virtual instruments running just our drums and percussion.

Multi Channel Setup:

Any drum/sample plugin and DAW that pulls its weight is going to have an option to use one instance of that plugin, but give you multiple virtual axillary outputs into your DAWs mixer. Here you can see the various options available in the drum plugin I use (Native Instruments Battery 3):

Sampler Plugin That Offers Multi Output Configurations.

If we choose the “Multi Output (8xStereo, 8xMono)” option, what this is going to do is instead of giving us one master output into the DAWs mixer, it’s going to give us 16 outputs (eight stereo, eight mono) into our DAWs mixer; all from this one instance of Battery. You can assign each sample its own auxiliary output inside your plugin, and inside the DAW mixer add auxiliary tracks onto the main sequencer track:

Assigning The Outputs For Each Drum Sample.

Assigning The Outputs To Auxiliary Tracks In the DAWs Mixer.

Pros:

The pros of this should be obvious. We again have inside of your drum sampler easy access to each drum hit, in the DAW mixer we have volume, pan, automation, and insert effects processing available to each individual drum hit via the auxiliary channel strips.

Multi Tracking Drum Samples in the Sequencer.

Pros:

Each Drum Hit Is On Its Own Mixer Channel Strip, With Independent Volume, Pan, and Insert Effects Processing.

Each Drum Hit Also Has Its Own Independent Track Automation In The Sequencer.

In the main sequencer window we have a nice and tidy work area that is not drop kicking your eyes with a thousand little audio clips and twenty sequencer tracks. You can assign each drum hit to its own key on the ‘piano roll’ and arrange and build your groves with midi note events.

Your Sequencer Is Not Messy, Making It Easier To Work On Your Track.

Cons:

I honestly can’t think of any. You have everything you gained from multi tracking your drums without any of the workflow or performance hindrances.

Conclusion:

I hope this bit of information helps you aspiring producers get passed any road blocks you may have hit in dealing with this crucial part of any EDM track. If you have been setting up your drums in a Multi Track way before, give this a try and I am confident that you will find its a more streamlined approach.

Next Steps:

• Visit me on ReverbNation or SoundCloud
• I’m available for training, get in touch.

“As a former walk-on safety for the University of Texas Football Team, I understand that it takes hard work and dedication to reach your dreams. This has translated into a passion for fitness and a desire to educate others on the importance of fitness as a part of life”. – From ‘About The Trainer’ on NEDU Fitness website.

I met Martin at my home church in Austin Texas and I was soon after commissioned to give a new face to his personal training business, NEDU Fitness. A design brief was scheduled and from this meeting I was informed a logo that would appeal to a ‘more professional’ clientele was required. The key traits that needed to be conveyed from the new logo mark were:

• Strength
• Professional
• Personal (Experience)

The then current logo was designed by a friend of Martin, but it was rightly felt that it did not have the feel and presentation of a professional logo design which he felt was keeping him from marketing to the desired clientele.

Old NEDU Fitness logo.

Notes from Design Brief with Martin.

From the key words Martin presented at the design brief I set out brainstorming possible directions for his new logo mark. A preference for a logo mark or a logotype was not stated, which gave me both as possible solutions. From my mind map of ideas, I felt a strong bold logotype and a logo mark conveying the personal experience of a personal trainer were the strongest options.

Mind map for NEDU Fitness Logo Design.

Thumbnail sketches of possible logo concepts.

Three logo options were presented for consideration:

Option one featured a stylized ‘I’ that resembles a dumbbell.

Option two featured a logo mark that conveys the connection of a personal trainer experience juxtaposed against a bold typeface.

Option three is a logotype using a medium and bold weight to convey the potential for movement symbolizing weight gain or loss.

Option two was selected as the strongest option that conveyed the desired traits.

New NEDU Fitness Logo by Robert Anthony.

In addition to the new logo, A business card design was also requested.

NEDU Fitness Logo Intro from Robert Anthony on Vimeo.

“Robert Anthony went above and beyond in designing a logo for me that will stand the test of time. He took the time to understand my vision and the logo he design for me embodies my personality and passions.This was not just another creative process but in actuality a journey to bringing my vision to fruition.”

 

 

 

– Martin Chinedu Egwuagu Jr. (“Nedu”) , B.S., CPT

 

Next Steps:

• View my portfolio
• Read more about me
• Get in touch

Patrick is a different kind of youth speaker-think “Dancing With the Stars” meets Tony Robins. His story of hope and determination inspires youth and adults across the country to step out and pursue their own goals while making the choices necessary to achieve those goals. As an award-winning entrepreneur, professional-level dancer and student success author no other youth speaker brings the energy, skills and message that Patrick delivers!

I was supplied the Photoshop file of the original book cover to retrieve some design elements the client wished to keep as well as to pull text from. The client liked the font that was used for the title as well as the decorative elements incorporated into it. Along with some minor changes to the text, a new bio picture was supplied.

Original book cover design:

Updated book cover design:

Do you feel the redesign was a success? Are you in need of a designer to help your vision come to pass? I’d love to talk.

]]> http://robertanthonyperez.com/2012/01/13/book-cover-redesign/feed/ 0 http://robertanthonyperez.com/2011/12/19/8-free-professional-quality-audio-unit-plug-ins-for-mac/ http://robertanthonyperez.com/2011/12/19/8-free-professional-quality-audio-unit-plug-ins-for-mac/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:58:32 +0000 Robert Anthony http://robertanthonyperez.com/?p=497 Lets face it, software is expensive. It is also a necessity more so than a want if you are serious about making computer based music. While there are hundreds of free plug-ins available online, more often than not two problems will arise: One, most of them are for PCs leaving us Mac users feeling left out. Two, most of them are vary poor quality.

Open List: This is by no means a comprehensive list of sites offering free content. Add your favorite in the comments and if the quality is there I’ll add it to the list.

Weekly Archives – iStockPhoto:

I don’t remember how I stumbled across this part of iStockPhoto a few years ago, because it wasn’t until recently that they started advertising the free image of the week on their homepage. Don’t be fooled though! they actually give away more than a free image. On the Weekly Archives page you can download (requires free account) a free image of the week, a free vector of the month, as well as a free video, audio sound track, and flash animation of the month.

Free (Non-Crappy) Stock Footage – Pond5:

Pond5 offers a free weekly video clip, most of the time full HD. You have to be quick on this site though because as I learned when I found it, the clip is up for a week, then it’s gone. Requires free account.

Free Stock Photography – Stock Xchange:

Apparently now owned by Getty Images (learned at the time of writing this), this free version of iStockPh…, er uh, Getty Images offers up some nice stock photography. It requires free account to download.

Free Everything – The -Eezy Network:

A collection of sites that offer up premium Photoshop Brushes, Vector Artwork, Flash Animations, and Website Themes. An account is free but optional.

Free Audio – Freesound.org:

Freesound.org is a massive online library of sounds and audio recording. Anything and everything you can ever need as far as audio samples goes can more than likely be found here. A free account is required to download.

Do you know of any other design resource sites that are a cut above the rest? Share them in the comments below.

Anyways as you can tell by my blatant rambling and lack of a point this post is, as it says in the title, just for kicks. A work habit I find myself in every now and then is to focus on making elements for my work rather than working toward a project goal in itself. Be it stocking up on textures, adding to my personal library of stock beats and loops I make in Logic Pro or in this case, making reusable motion elements for my video work in After Effects. As I’ve said before there is a ton of great quality free content out there, and a few weeks ago I found myself making said motion elements out of some free floral vectors I downloaded from Vecteezy.com.

I recorded myself, start to finish, taking one of the floral elements from Illustrator and turning it into a cool growing floral motion element in After Effects. I’ve always jumped at the chance to see other people work, video, graphics, or audio. I love watching other people do what I do, not just to learn, it just fascinates me for some reason. To get to see how someone else would tackle a problem and compare it to how I would have.

This video below is obviously time lapsed as I didn’t think anyone would sit though close to two hours of watching me screw around on the computer. As much as I love watching things like this, there is a point where even I say “okay, boring”.

hopefully I can keep your attention for four minutes:

There’s a few things you can take from this video. Firstly, design has go to be something you love doing, otherwise you’re probably not going to stick with it. That’s true with anything you do. I think this video shows nicely that, while I was working to some pumping dance music, design itself isn’t exactly a raving party behind a computer screen. It’s work. Long work at times.

Which brings out another good point. Design in any form is a craft where you more often than not get paid for what you know, not so much what you do. It’s the old “Neighbors kid with a copy of Photoshop” argument. Sure he has the capacity to do what I do, but does he know what I know? Can he operate his copy of Photoshop as efficiently as someone with education and experience? Or is it going to take him an hour to crappily do something that should take thirty minutes to do cleanly?

What comes to mind when you watch a start to finish video like this? Is being a ‘designer’ still what you though it was?

Sample Images:

Poster Design for Patrick “Pac-Man” (Click to Enlarge)

Info:

• 24 Images
• 2848×4288 300ppi
• Shot with Nikon D5000
• 144mb zipped

Download Dump Truck Image Texture Pack

Find these textures useful? Post a link of your work using them in the comments below.

I’m by no means a Social Media expert nor am I claiming to be, but as a designer I have an understanding of clean aesthetics and effective design.

One of the purposes of Tweeting, if not the main purpose, should be to get your Tweets heard. Now understand that no one likes a shameless spammer spewing out nothing but self promotions or other content that they have personal gain in. But to effectively offer usable, relevant content to either your customers, potential csutomers, followers or subscribers, you need a way of being found.

For a brand or business, or even someone taking to Twitter to promote oneself; if your Tweets aren’t being heard then Twitter won’t help you no matter how worthy of our attention your product/service is. One of the best ways to make sure your voice is being heard in a sea of shouting people is to use Hashtags. From Twitters support page on using Hashtags we learn:

• People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Think of Hashtags as a sort of net (fishing net, not “The Net” net). When you send off a Tweet, think of it as casting a net into the social waters. The further you can cast this net the better chance you have of catching some fish, or in this case catching someones attention. Another way of thinking about Hashtags is like a light flashing in the dark.

Not only will Hashtags help you find people, but they help you be found by people who are looking for you. Using relevant Hashtag keywords is the key to successfully using Hashtags.

Pictured: How to use Hashtags

A common mistake I see people making is not separating there Hashtag keywords, or even trying to use multi-worded hastags. For example writing #QuoteMotivation instead of #Quote #Motivation or #Great Design. The second won’t really work as it’s more of a phrase than single word. You could write #Great #Design, but then you might be reaching the wrong audience with #Great.

A priceless tool for using Hashtags is Hashtags.org. You can search for keywords and get a graph of their hashtag use. This will help you choose which hashtags will have the largest potential audience, and more importantly the right audience you are wanting to reach.

Pictured: Graph of ‘#Design’. A better keyword than, say, #OMG[BusinessName]IsSoAwsumz!!

Below the graph you will see a timeline of tweets that have the Hashtag keyword in them. This is useful for seeing what type of crowd you are about to walk into with your Tweets. Just because a Hashtag has a lot of buzz doesn’t mean it’s the right crowd for you to mingle in. If you’re selling something you might want to go with the Hashtag that has only a handful of tweets but are from people looking to buy something instead of the one that has a hundred other people promoting their products too.

The good thing about Hashtags is that you can use multiple Hashtags, so no harm in testing out keywords to see which get you a better ROI on your Tweets. I personally like to do some research before I Tweet so I can get as good a response as possible.

And by research I mean spend about 45 seconds on Hastags.org and see which Hashtags are dead and which ones people are using. It’s not rocket science.

For this tutorial I’m using this image offered up by Flickr user ir0cko. As per his request I will not be making a download available for this, but then again isn’t the point of a tutorial to enable you to create something yourself?

You can click on the images to get a closer look. These steps work best when using a white or black shirt. More on that at the end.

Isolate T-shirt:

First thing you want to do is obviously open up the image in Photoshop, then using your preferred method extract the t-shirt from the black background. I used the Pen Tool.

Color Correct:

We need to remove the color cast that is on the shirt. If you look closely you can see a light blue tint to the shirt. To do this I find it easiest to swap the color mode to grayscale then back to RGB. You will get a few dialog boxes asking if you want to flatten, then if you want to discard the color information. Select no for flatten, and discard for the color information. Notice how the color cast has been… dealt with.

Next we want to hit the extracted shirt with some Levels Command to get rid of the gray noise in the shirt. Use the Midtone Slider in the levels dialog box (Command+Option+L) to get it nice and clean.

Create your Template:

Finally we want to create our template. The “hard” part has been done, now it’s just a matter of making a few copies of this t-shirt layer and messing with the blending mode and layer stacking order.

• Create a copy of the extracted t-shirt layer (Command+J) and fill the layer with white while preserving the transparency (Shift+Option/Alt+Delete or Shift+Command+Delete) and name it “Shirt Shape”.
• Create two additional copies of the extracted t-shirt layer (not the one you just filled with white) and group them in a folder called “Shirt Detail”. Name the two layers “Color Burn” and “Multiply”, then set their blend modes respectively. Also order the layers to have “Color Burn” above “Multiply”, and the “Shirt Detail” folder above all other layers.
• Next create a new layer and fill it with white. Add a Color Fill layer style to it and pick a color you like and name it “Shirt Color”.
• Order the layers so “Shirt Color” is right above “Shirt Shape” and create a Layer Clipping Mask with the two layers (hold Option/Alt between the two layers in the layers panel and click).
• Create an empty folder and name it “Your Artwork” and move the layer so it sits between the folder “Shirt Detail” and the “Shirt Color” layer. With the “Your Artwork” folder still selected, load a selection outline of the “Shirt Shape” Layer (Command+Click the layer icon in the layers panel) then click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel.
• Finally for some pizazz make a copy of the “Shirt Shape” layer and call it “Shirt Shadow”. Add a drop shadow with settings to your liking to it and set the fill of the layer to 0%. Make a new layer and fill it with 50% K and put it at the bottom for a nice neutral background. (I have a bad habit of naming my background layers “BG”, if you can’t tell I’m otherwise pretty anal about layer panel organization).

If everything went right you should end up with a layer panel that looks something like this. I added two drop shadow layers for some multiple-light-source goodness.

The ‘Shirt Detail” layers do just what they say, overlay the details of the original shirt onto the artwork below giving a more realistic feel than just slapping your design on top of a picture of a shirt. The color layer meanwhile let you freely change the color of the shirt to an extent. Super saturated colors as well as super desaturated (black) colors don’t play too well with the blending mode layers on top of it. If you want a dark color shirt you can follow the same steps but instead of using the Levels command to push the grey areas towards black, you would want to push them towards white. They would become the highlights instead of the shadows.

One thing you can also do that I find is useful is if you know the brand of shirt you are going to be designing on, the manufactures sometimes make available the CMYK or Pantone values of their shirts, You can easily make a folder with selectable color fills. Here is an example of American Apparel color values.

Find this tutorial useful? Post a link to your designs below.

Included for your enjoyment:

11 Power Lines

8 Solo Birds

High Resolution PNG Files Included

Shot with a Nikon D5000 12 megapixel DSLR and turned into brush presets.

Get it!