The Who "Eminence Front" Isolated Keys

Note the VCS3 synth on top of the organ

Here's a piece from a song that you've probably been hearing on television commercials a lot lately. It's the isolated keys from The Who's "Eminence Front" from their It's Hard album (the last with drummer Kenny Jones and bassist John Entwistle).

The keys are pretty buried in the song (although the sequenced synth carries it), so it's pretty interesting to hear just how intricate they are.

1. Listen to how the sequenced synth constantly changes throughout the song in both feel and timbre. This was supplied by Townshend's favorite: the EMS VCS3 (see the picture on the left). Unlike the way most sequencers are used in the studio, Pete Townshend's approach was totally unique in that a sequence never seems to repeat and it carries the rhythm of the song.

2. Likewise, the keys (electric piano and organ) also change with the different sections of the song. They're pretty loose parts in that you'll hear some mistakes (like the second verse around the 2 minute mark) here that you won't hear on the final mix.

3. The song is built around a primitive rhythm machine with is very apparent at the very beginning of the song, but fades into the keyboard mix to where you only hear the kick sound.

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Apple Updates Logic Pro X

Apple's Logic Pro X is not only one of the best music creation tools available but at $199, it's one of the least expensive as well. Not only that, the company continues to provide free updates that always seem to add something useful, like yesterday's 10.2 update.

The big deal with 10.2 is that it adds Camel Audio's (which Apple purchased earlier this year) Alchemy synth. This is a synth with a wide range of talents, from creating sounds using samples and different kinds of synthesis, to multiple filters and modulation options.

Other than that, Logic Pro X 10.2 provides an easy way to distribute directly to Apple Music and its Connect feature, which was also introduced in a Garage Band update earlier this year.

This can be a big update if you want to load all 14 Gigs of available sound files, but be aware that they tend to lean more on the dance music/EDM side of things, which is great if that's what you need.

Here's a video that takes a look and listen to Alchemy.

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Using The 1176 - The Dr. Pepper Setting

The Universal Audio 1176 is one of the greatest compressor/limiters ever made and has been used on countless hits throughout its 50 year history. Here's one of the go-to settings that works like magic on either the hardware or the plugin version.

This is called the Dr. Pepper setting because it takes its name from the old soft drink commercials where it was "Pepper time" at 10AM, 2PM and 4PM.

This is one of the bonus tricks from my 101 Mixing Tricks coaching program. Get 4 more tricks at 101MixingTricks.com.

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Computer Or Bach?

Maybe the robots are finally taking over. Yale computer scientist Donya Quick has developed a program that can create pieces of music that are so close to Johann Sebastian Bach's work that people have trouble telling the difference.

She calls the program "Kulitta" and it can learn the music quickly and create new pieces on demand in a matter of seconds.

In tests over 100 students judged the pieces to be the work of a human, and even some of the experts were occasionally fooled.

Kulitta analyzes the works of a composer then applies the rules it's learned from them when creating a new piece of music.

The one thing it can't do is determine a good piece for a bad one, but that's such a personal thing that even us humans can't seem to agree on.

Quick looks forward to having Kulitta do mashups between genres, with her ultimate goal a combination of Metallica and Mozart.

Could this be a new income source for artists where your musical algorithm is copyrighted and new compositions are created for the listener on the spot? Time to bow to our musical overlords.

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Room Tuning Expert Bob Hodas On My Inner Circle Podcast

This week I'm pleased to have on my podcast the go-to guy that studios big and small use to fix the sound of their rooms - Bob Hodas.

Bob has been tuning rooms for over 20 years and there's nothing he hasn't seen. From big commercial studios (like the famous Record Plant) to home studios to mobile trucks to dubbing stages to home theaters, Bob as tuned them all.

In this episode we discuss some of the common problems that listening environments have, as well as how he goes about tuning a room.

On the intro I'll take a look at the music video site Vevo and why Warner Music might finally sign on, and look a little into the pitfalls of self-production.

Remember that you can find the podcast at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or either on iTunes or Stitcher.

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New Music Gear Monday: Acoustic Power Lab APL1s Speaker EQ

Virtually none of us have a perfect listening environment, which means that there are some anomalies of the room that are preventing us from hearing everything we need to hear. Of course, this is even more pronounced in a home studio, where acoustics are many times just an afterthought. If that's the case, the Acoustic Power Lab APL1s loudspeaker equalization solution might be just the thing to help.

The APL1s is a two channel hardware box that provides and custom FIR filtering to your monitors to better integrate them into the listening environment.

The unit supports 48kHz and 96kHz operation and has a built-in sample rate convertor to compensate for a wide range of additional sample rates. The unit also features an ultra-low jitter clock (external sync is also available), and the outputs are protected by a power on/off anti-pop feature. There's also 16 presets available from a selector on the front panel.

There's also a variety of input and output connectors on the back panel, ranging from AES, TOSLINK, coax, or analog via XLR inputs and outputs.

The measurement software is either APL's own APL Workshop or APL TDA EQ, which is an extra cost. The results of the measurements are then loaded into the APL1s via a USB connector on the front panel.

The AES/XLR version of the Acoustic Power Lab APL1s is available for around $700 US, while TDA EQ software for around $365 US. Find out more on the APL website.

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