minilogue xd Tutorial/How-to 4: Sequencer, Voice Modes, and Performance Features

Q. Where can I get raw files to practise my mixing?

• Recording

I was wondering where I might be able to find raw tracks that I could use to practise my mixing skills? I've searched on Google and the SOS forums and not yet got very far. Ideally, the type of music I'd like to practice on would be blues, rock, punk or metal.

Via SOS web site

SOS Reviews Editor Matt Houghton replies: Funnily enough, for the Mix Rescue article in this very issue (page 138), both the artist and Mike Senior have kindly agreed to let us make the entire Reaper project available for download. So not only will you be able to practice mixing on it (the full version of Reaper is free to download and evaluate for 30 days, and it's cross‑platform, which means that everyone can have a go, unless you're one of the few who are stubbornly sticking to Atari or Linux!), you'll also be able to take a look inside Mike's mix and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.

As for other sources of raw multitrack recordings, I'm surprised you haven't had more luck with a Google search. Get the search terms right ("multitrack wavs” or "multitrack download”, for example) and quite a few sources seem to spring up, including some commercial artists, such as Nine Inch Nails, who have made material freely available (http://ninremixes.com/multitracks.php), and Peter Gabriel, who has held competitions where he's made material available for would‑be remixers. Good as Google is, trying a different search engine can also throw up some different results.Some commercial artists have made their songs available to download as raw multitrack recordings, which are perfect for practising mixing. This one — 'Hyperpower' by Nine Inch Nails — was originally downloaded for Garageband, but is easily opened and worked on in Logic.

Finally, of course, there are always the potentially rewarding options of tracking some of your own material, working with someone else to track your own material, or getting out and seeing some gigs in the hope of finding a good local band and offering to record them for free!  

Published November 2010

minilogue xd Tutorial/How-to 3: Modulation and Effects

Q. Where can I get raw files to practise my mixing?

• Recording

I was wondering where I might be able to find raw tracks that I could use to practise my mixing skills? I've searched on Google and the SOS forums and not yet got very far. Ideally, the type of music I'd like to practice on would be blues, rock, punk or metal.

Via SOS web site

SOS Reviews Editor Matt Houghton replies: Funnily enough, for the Mix Rescue article in this very issue (page 138), both the artist and Mike Senior have kindly agreed to let us make the entire Reaper project available for download. So not only will you be able to practice mixing on it (the full version of Reaper is free to download and evaluate for 30 days, and it's cross‑platform, which means that everyone can have a go, unless you're one of the few who are stubbornly sticking to Atari or Linux!), you'll also be able to take a look inside Mike's mix and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.

As for other sources of raw multitrack recordings, I'm surprised you haven't had more luck with a Google search. Get the search terms right ("multitrack wavs” or "multitrack download”, for example) and quite a few sources seem to spring up, including some commercial artists, such as Nine Inch Nails, who have made material freely available (http://ninremixes.com/multitracks.php), and Peter Gabriel, who has held competitions where he's made material available for would‑be remixers. Good as Google is, trying a different search engine can also throw up some different results.Some commercial artists have made their songs available to download as raw multitrack recordings, which are perfect for practising mixing. This one — 'Hyperpower' by Nine Inch Nails — was originally downloaded for Garageband, but is easily opened and worked on in Logic.

Finally, of course, there are always the potentially rewarding options of tracking some of your own material, working with someone else to track your own material, or getting out and seeing some gigs in the hope of finding a good local band and offering to record them for free!

Published November 2010

minilogue xd Tutorial/How-to 2: MULTI ENGINE Oscillator and Filter

Q. What's the best way to back up my data?

By Martin Walker

I have a PC running Windows XP, and currently back up my data regularly using copy and paste onto an external hard drive. The problem with my current drive‑to‑drive method is that, in the case of a full windows reinstall, it means that I still have to reinstall some software (and this eats into my downloads and licences from the developers' web site). Is specialised disk cloning or imaging software a better option?

Paul Allerton, via email

SOS contibutor Martin Walker replies:

You're very wise to back up your data regularly, but there's a fundamental difference between copy and paste backups and disk imaging or cloning: the latter takes a snapshot of everything on the chosen partition or drive, including all the hidden and system files, although it's clever enough to ignore such things as huge page files that only contain temporary data, to keep the image file sizes to a minimum.

Each image file is, therefore, a time capsule, since when you 'restore' it your computer will return to exactly the same state it was in when you created that image file, leaving your licensed software intact. Most imaging utilities also offer compression options, typically squashing the data to about half the original size, while still letting you explore and restore individual files contained within.

It's always safest to store these image files onto external media, such as DVD or an external hard drive, to cope with the worst‑case scenario of your entire computer blowing up or being struck by lightning. In which case, when you get your replacement PC, you can restore your external backups onto this and avoid days of reinstalling Windows and applications, and authorising copy‑protected software. However, if, like many musicians, you have several hard drives in your audio PC, you can also store routine images of one drive to another, so that if one drive goes belly‑up, you'll still have a recent image file on your other drive to restore when you've replaced the faulty one.

We explored different strategies for backing up your data in the October 2007 issue of Sound On Sound (see /sos/oct07/articles/data_protection.htm), and it might be worth giving that a read for more information.

There's a bewildering array of imaging utilities on offer, so here's a quick rundown of some of the best alternatives. Windows 7 now includes its own Backup & Restore application that many users find perfectly sufficient, and for Windows 7/XP/Vista a very popular commercial package is Acronis True Image, especially since free licensed versions are available from various hard-drive manufacturers, for use with their own products.

An imaging utility (such as Paragon Backup & Recovery, shown here) will create a complete snapshot of your computer's hard drive and save you having to reinstall software after a crash or drive failure.

There are also various utilities that work with all makes of hard drive and are totally free for the home user. After trying out quite a few, I've ended up using Paragon Backup & Recovery 2010 (www.paragon‑software.com/home/db‑express), which has a free advanced version that is fairly unique among the free utilities in offering an incremental backup option that only stores files newer than your previous image files. I've been very pleased with its clear and easy‑to‑use interface, and my slimmed‑down 10GB Windows partition takes just four minutes to back up to a compressed file of some 6GB.

This free version of Paragon Backup & Recovery 2010 runs on both 32‑bit and 64‑bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, XP and Server 2003/2008. It can create a Linux/DOS recovery environment onto CD, DVD or Flash memory (so that you can boot your PC from these media and restore image files even if your computer refuses to boot up by itself). You can even assign a drive letter to 'mount' an archived partition, so you can access the files within using Windows Explorer. More sophisticated versions are available, but to date I've been perfectly happy with the free one.

Published December 2010

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