CTC Knowledge Base

by Kari Estes Having recording software readily available to everyone has changed the game of recording. You can potentially record your new single or album in the comfort of your own home.  Commonly, you’ll send off your sessions to a mix engineer to polish. Also commonly, the mix engineer will complain to their friends about how messy the session…

Bouncing In Logic Pro Your Complete Guide by Maya Wagner     The concept of bouncing seems to be one of the most misunderstood and confusing terms for beginners in music production. It seems like every DAW calls this something else, and every DAW has a different way of doing it. Below I have included some frequently asked questions…

By Kari Estes Quantizing audio through the use of elastic audio seems to be the most popular method. While this is a great method of tightening up songs, I have always been left dissatisfied with elastic audio. I find this method to be very touchy, and often leaves behind artifacts or a seemingly half-finished job. Personally, I find quantization using…

Javi Lloret In other daws such as Logic or ProTools, you'll see automation lanes attached to the track you want to automate. Just like this:   However, in FL Studio, things work a bit differently. Just like with Patterns (MIDI Regions) and Samples (Audio Clips), Automation lanes can be placed anywhere in the Playlist (timeline), and can have any…

Automation provides a way to control changes in parameters over time in an arrangement. In Ableton Live, automation can be accessed by pressing the letter "A" on the keyboard when in arrangement view. There are tons of techniques that can be used to write and record automation, so let’s jump in and explore them! Selecting Your Parameter Ableton users…

One of the most distinctive aspects of Ableton Live is its beautifully crafted “Session View.” Ableton LIVE gets its title from this live-looping-based interface which can be used in a multitude of different ways, all super awesome for workflow, composition, arranging, songwriting, beat making, and performing.  Many people have the false belief that…

  INTRODUCTION With the recent release of Ableton Live 11, everyone is raving about new devices such as Spectral Resonator and Hybrid Reverb. And yeah, these are pretty awesome, but there are so many amazing devices that have been out for so long that remain amazing!  One of these Ableton devices is called Drum Buss. It is basically a unique…

Written by Matt Ho and Maya Wagner Logic has SO many tools. The cool thing is, you can actually have two tools selected at a time. When you cmd + click, you can access your second tool. We always have our cmd + click toolset to the all-powerful marquee tool.  What is the marquee tool? The marquee tool is one of the most versatile tools offered by…

No matter what DAW you use, having an efficient workflow is extremely important. Not only does it save you time, but it also allows you to look and feel more professional and advanced when working with others. Not to mention, it lets you put all of your brain’s energy into creativity instead of worrying about the technical stuff. It just feels good to learn…

By Michael MacDonald In this example, I am the vocalist (and no, I am not a Berklee vocalist, just a casual singer who fears recording, haha). I chose a song that I am very familiar with and loaded it into Pro Tools. I made my own soundalike demo of the track and recorded only a Verse and Chorus. The purpose of this is to get an idea of what the vocalist…

By Tristan Klopp When it comes to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), my colleague in the Creative Technology Center, Matt Ho, likes to say, "You can do anything with any DAW." I agree with him, and you (usually) won't catch me claiming superiority for any single DAW. However, we all have our preferences, and each DAW has its strengths. So, I'm going to…

by Blair Pershyn Did you know you could import a movie into GarageBand and score to it? It is in fact possible to bring in a movie, add music to it and export out a new movie clip with your audio in it. In the video below, we go over the features for film scoring in a GarageBand class.