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Our team’s New Year’s learning resolutions, inspired and supported by the lynda.com library

Published by Colleen Wheeler, content curator | Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

Although the New Year’s resolution lists that proliferate in late December are full of worthy goals, my favorite remains “learn something new.” This time of year, I like the theme of giving in to expansion over contraction, generosity over deprivation, and passion over willpower. The staff, authors, and members here at lynda.com know that our library is a great resource to have if learning is on your life list.

Although many of us on the Content team work in a specific segment of the library, we can’t help but notice the intriguing courses our colleagues are developing in other areas. This year I asked members of the team, acknowledged enthusiasts in their given fields, which areas outside their usual sphere of knowledge are capturing their interest. Here are their answers and some suggestions for where they might want to start (or where you might want to start if you share the same interest).

Morten Rand-Hendriksen, staff author, Web segment
“Over the holidays I want to power through all the photography courses in the archive. Because it’s been a long time since I sat down and really tried to improve my photography skills. I also really want to become a more creative designer/artist, so I’ll be looking into any course that helps me in that respect.”

Recommendation: If you can’t get through the whole Photography segment in one holiday week off, you might try Foundations of Photography: Composition to start. Ben Long teaches principles that definitely go beyond photography into general artistry.

Jess Stratton, staff author, Business segment
“I’d like to learn something for the sake of a hobby this year—getting back into playing the keyboard and recording it somehow, but I don’t know how to start getting it from my keyboard into the computer. I want to check out the course on recording music using an iPad.”

Recommendation: Garrick Chow’s iPad Music Production series is the place for Jess and like-minded musicians. The first course—iPad Music Production: Inputs, Mics, and MIDI—is a great place to start (although if you’re up for playing on an iOS device directly, the GarageBand installment makes making music on your iPad look really fun).

David Franz, content manager, Audio segment
“Social media marketing … I want my music to rock the world! .”

Recommendation: I’ve noticed David isn’t the only musician who knows that thriving in the music business requires a direct relationship with fans via social media. Until David develops that perfect course expressly for musicians, there’s great material for getting started in our Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter course.

Mordy Golding, director of content, Design and Photography segment
“I’ve been teaching myself Processing—the computer language. I’m interested in finding better ways to visualize data.”

Recommendation: A few months ago, our Developer group released Interactive Data Visualization with Processing. Processing is a tool that can literally change data into (beautiful and useful) art.

Elinor Actipis, director of content, Rich Media segment
Doug Winnie, director of content, Web and Developer segment

Both Elinor and Doug mentioned sharpening their advanced Excel skills, particularly with respect to data analysis. (Is it a coincidence that our directors are all about visualization of data?)

Recommendation: Our Excel library is vast and valuable, but for data crunching, one of my favorite courses is Cleaning Up Your Excel Data with Dennis Taylor. Dennis has great tips for efficiently wrangling all those numbers into consistent tables, making analysis both easier and more accurate.

George Maestri, content manager, 3D and Animation segment
Matt Gilbert, associate content manager, Business segment
Jim Heid, content manager, Photography segment

These three content managers from three different segments all mentioned wanting to learn about ebook publishing and iOS apps as content containers.

George notes: “I had a few cartoon pitches that got lost in development when I was at the studios. I figure releasing them as books/apps would be a fun distraction.”

And Jim: “Ebook publishing is hot among photographers. And as someone who grew up with tape recorders, movie cameras, and cameras, I have a lot of “family assets” that I’d like to turn into a little interactive memoir for my family.”

Recommendation: We’ve got excellent courses on iBooks Author, iOS app creation, EPUB with InDesign, and using jQuery in your digital magazine. If you don’t know where to start, Digital Publishing Fundamentals runs down the options you have for turning your words and pictures into electronic works of art.

Links:
• iBooks Author Essential Training
• iOS app creation
• EPUB with InDesign
• jQuery
• Digital Publishing Fundamentals

Rob Garrott, content manager, Video segment
“I’m going to try to get into a bit of coding. I should probably start digging into web coding, but that’s too much broccoli, so I might start with Python. That is a core component of truly advanced 3D animation, and I’ve been afraid to touch it.”

Recommendation: (Mental note: Broccoli is the new spinach!) Many members are happy to jump into Bill Weinman’s Python 3 Essential Training course. For those who want to warm up their veggies slowly, you may try Simon Allardice’s Foundations of Programming: Object-Oriented Design course.

Links:
• Python 3 Essential Training
• Foundations of Programming: Object-Oriented Design

Cynthia Scott, director of content, Business segment
“Top on my learning wish list is the On Camera series.”

Recommendation: The first of this series, On Camera: Develop Your Video Presence, immediately had me thinking of uses beyond straightforward video (it also had me knocking on Cynthia’s office door to share how valuable I thought it was to Business folk). In the days of Skype-based job interviews and high-stakes video conferencing, many of Rick’s suggestions prepare you for time in front of any camera, not just those destined for edited, produced video.

Ben Long, author, Photography segment
Finally, since so many of my interviewee colleagues mentioned Ben Long’s photography courses, I thought it would be interesting to ask Ben himself what he might be interested in learning from the library in 2013. True to his polymathic nature, he mentioned several things from iPhone development to Maya to WordPress. But perhaps he summed up the width and breadth of the lynda.com library (and the voracious appetite of any lifelong learner) when he asked:

“And where’s that course for adding 12 hours to one’s day?”

When we release “Changing the Laws of the Universe,” Ben, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, there’s Time Management Fundamentals.

What are your New Year’s learning resolutions? Let us help you find the lynda.com courses to get you on your way.

Posted in 3D + Animation, Audio, Business, Design, Photography, Video, Web | No Comments »

An introduction to mic types and how they work

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

Have you ever wondered how dynamic, ribbon, and condenser mics vary in function, price, and utility? Or how a mic picks up sound, and how that mic’s pickup pattern might affect its placement in the recording process? In this blog post, I will explore these questions offering visual examples from our recently released Audio course, Audio Recording Techniques.

How dynamic, ribbon, and condenser mics differ

Microphone technology is fascinating. A dynamic mic utilizes a metallic diaphragm that moves a thin coil of wire wrapped around a magnet to convert acoustical energy into electrical energy. In contrast, a ribbon mic uses a very thin strip of aluminum foil as a diaphragm, which enables it to move quickly in reaction to acoustic sound, yielding great high-frequency response. Condenser mics utilize a different setup. They have two electrically charged plates, one that moves as the diaphragm and one that’s fixed. This design allows for the mic to respond well to very dynamic audio signals.

Check out this video from Chapter 2 of Audio Recording Techniques to see the inner workings of dynamic, ribbon, and condenser mics, and to learn more about their characteristics and applications:

How microphones pick up sound

Microphones receive sound either directionally (from one direction only), omnidirectionally (from all directions at once), or somewhere in between. The way a mic receives sound is called the pickup pattern, and four patterns are typically found in mic design: omnidirectional, cardioid, hypercardioid, and figure 8. A cardioid pickup pattern is heart-shaped and enables a mic to pick up audio signals directionally. Thus, when you point a cardioid mic at a sound source, the mic will pick up the sound from the direction of that source, but will not pick up nearly as much sound from sources coming from other directions. Hypercardioid patterns are even more focused and directional than cardioid patterns, and mics with figure 8 pickup patterns record sound from the front and back sides of the mic, but don’t pick up anything on the sides (hence the pattern name figure 8). In contrast, mics with omnidirectional patterns pick up sound equally from all directions at once.

Regardless of the pickup pattern, a mic doesn’t actually pick up frequencies in the exact same pattern. For example, a Shure SM58 dynamic mic picks up lower frequencies in more of an omnidirectional pattern, while picking up higher frequencies in a hypercardioid pattern. In microphone manuals, pickup patterns at different frequencies are often shown as confusing 2D diagrams. Interpreting these diagrams is a frustrating challenge because they’re really meant to show 3D shapes. We took this conundrum into account and added 3D renderings of omnidirectional, cardioid, hypercardioid, and figure 8 pickup patterns to Chapter 2 of our Audio Recording Techniques course:

Audio Recording Techniques goes way beyond the microphone and recording basics. Follow author Bobby Owsinski as he walks through the recording process of an entire song (Simply Falling by the artist Iyeoka) with A-list session musicians in a top-of-the-line studio. Plus, check out the course to learn about recording techniques for all types of instruments, including drums, guitars, keyboards, bass, strings, horns, and vocals, and to see more 360-degree, 3D visualizations, which provide a unique perspective on recording equipment, players, and mic placements.

Interested in more?
• All audio courses on lynda.com
• All courses by Bobby Owsinski on lynda.com

Tags: audio recording, David Franz
Posted in Audio | No Comments »

Playing the Smart Strings in GarageBand for iPad

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Friday, September 28th, 2012

You may find the Apple iPad touchscreen useful for many things in your everyday life, but did you know that you could use it to play violin, viola, cello, and upright bass? Even if you use a different Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for your music production, you might want to consider using Smart Strings in GarageBand for iPad if adding a string part to your songs is something that interests you.

In iPad Music Production: GarageBand, Garrick Chow shows how to play the Smart Strings, including how to play in chord mode and note mode. In chord mode, the chords are made by up to five instruments: 1st violin, 2nd violin, viola, cello, and bass, or any combination of the five. Choose the key of the song and eight chord strips appear, one for every chord in that key.

Tap a chord strip to play short (pizzicato) chords. Slide your finger back and forth across the chord strip to create longer (legato) bowed notes. Adding speed to a finger slide increases the volume of your legato bowed sound. This technique can be used to create string swells.

Switch from chords to individual notes, and you’ll access a fretless neck where you can play one of any of the five stringed instruments right on the screen. Touch a string to play a plucked or bowed note. Drag your finger to slide up and down a string. Or choose a specific scale and GarageBand will only make the notes of that scale available, adding frets to the neck. It might technically be “cheating,” but it sure will make you sound great.

Then there are the auto-play patterns. The patterns are premade string parts in various styles and inversions that you can choose to have all five of the strings, or just your selected favorites, play in.

Watch as Garrick Chow shows you how to get started creating music with Smart Strings in this video from the third chapter of iPad Music Production: GarageBand:

In addition to Smart Strings, GarageBand also has Smart Drums, Smart Guitar, Smart Bass, and Smart Keyboards. In each, Garrick Chow demonstrates how to play and capture great recordings with Smart Instruments, as well as Touch Instruments, and real instruments. He also shows how to edit and mix your performances, and how to export and share your finished tracks with the world.

Music creation has taken a big step forward with GarageBand for iPad. Learn more about this inexpensive yet powerful app in iPad Music Production: GarageBand.

Interested in more?
• All audio courses on lynda.com
• All courses by Garrick Chow on lynda.com
• All iPad Music Production courses on lynda.com

Tags: Apple, Garrick Chow, iPad
Posted in Audio | No Comments »

Using delay effects in Ableton Live 8

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Monday, July 2nd, 2012

Ableton Live is an incredibly versatile digital audio workstation that allows you to be really creative in many different ways. One tried and true creative tool that DJs, mix engineers, and live performers have been using for years is delay effect. Delay effects delay or hold a copy of a signal for a user-defined amount of time, and add a sense of depth or dimension to the overall sound of a song when mixed back in with the un-processed signal. Creatively using delay effect can add depth and interest to just about any song, and the family of Ableton Live delay effects is extensive including both modulation-rich effects like flanging, face-shifting, and chorusing, and modulation-free effects like doubling, echo, and slapback.

When applying a Simple Delay effect in Ableton Live, there are a number of parameters that you have to tweak to create your own unique delayed sound. Above, the Feedback control and delay time settings are adjusted to establish number of repeats and how long it takes for the signal to be repeated.

Using Ableton Live you can apply a delay effect to a single, individual audio tracks, or to Return tracks to create an effects loop that can be tapped into by multiple tracks. When applying a Simple Delay effect, there are a number of parameters that you have to tweak to create your own unique delayed sound. The Feedback control sets the number of repeats of a sound. Delay time settings establish how long it takes for the signal to be repeated, and are often linked to the tempo of the song, enabling you to set the delay time to subdivisions of the tempo (for example, 16^th notes, or 8^th notes). The Dry/Wet parameter controls how much of the original (undelayed) signal is mixed with the delayed signal. Setting your Dry parameter to 100% means there will be no delays heard, while 100% Wet means that only the delayed signal will be heard. Adjusting the Dry/Wet parameter to taste will allow for just the right balance.

A PingPong delay effect enables you to set how you hear stereo delays. That is, you can control how often echoes are heard in the left and right sides of a stereo mix. You can also control the frequency range (EQ) of the echoes with the Filter Delay effect and the PingPong effect. Reducing the frequency content of the delay, often making the echoes sound more lo-fi, is an effective treatment to create separation between the original sound and the delay-effected sound.

Chorus effects utilize very short delay times and modulation to create a slightly detuned “double” of a signal. With multiple “doubles” that are slightly different from each other, the signals add together to create a sound that mimics multiple singers singing almost exactly the same thing (hence the name Chorus). The slight variations in performance yield a thicker overall sound. Adjust the delay time and modulation to taste to achieve a thicker or thinner chorus effect.

In Ableton Live 8 Essential Training, author, and USC professor, Rick Schmunk offers a comprehensive overview of Ableton’s live audio and MIDI sequencing software and the techniques required to compose, record, and edit music, in real time, on stage, or in the studio. In the video below from chapter ten of the course, Rick demonstrates how to set up and tweak several types of delay effects in Ableton Live 8.

Interested in more?
• The full Ableton Live 8 Essential Training course on lynda.com
• All Ableton Live 8 courses on lynda.com
• All courses by Rick Schmunk on lynda.com

Tags: Ableton, audio effects
Posted in Audio | 2 Comments »

Adding a soundtrack to a video with Adobe Premiere CS6 and Audition CS6

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

It’s a fact that Adobe Premiere CS6 and Audition CS6 tend to play nicely together. It’s this compatibility that makes it very easy and convenient to use these two applications together when working on a video project that has any sort of audio component. While Premiere does have some very basic audio editing functions, Audition is a much more fully-featured application for audio recording, editing, and mixing requirements. So, using Audition specifically for editing and mixing dialog, sound effects, music, and foley, is a good way to improve the sound of your video’s soundtrack.

When adding music to video, Audition makes it easy to create fade ins so your music doesn’t come in too quickly, fade outs so the music doesn’t end abruptly, and crossfades to smoothly transition between two pieces of music. It’s also very easy to make volume adjustments, like “ducking” the music track under a voiceover track so that the music doesn’t overpower the voiceover.

Audio fade-in being added to music in Audition CS6.

Audition makes it easy to create fade ins so your music doesn’t come in too quickly, fade outs so the music doesn’t end abruptly, and crossfades to smoothly transition between two pieces of music. Here, we see a fade in being added to a piece of music.

Editing a piece of music is also pretty simple in Audition. Grabbing the beginning or ending of a track to shorten or lengthen it is as simple as clicking and dragging. The snap feature in Audition also makes it really easy to align pieces of audio and video together.

In this tutorial from chapter eight of Audition CS6 Essential Training, author Garrick Chow shows you how to add soundtracks or audio clips to video files that have been imported into Audition—a great demonstration of how to utilize Audition and Premiere together.

Interested in more?
• All audio courses on lynda.com
• All courses by Garrick Chow on lynda.com
• All Audition courses on lynda.com

Tags: Audition, Premiere Pro, Video Editing
Posted in Audio | 1 Comment »

This week’s featured five: Creating, tweaking, and listening to audio

Published by Colleen Wheeler, content curator | Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Over the past several months our growing Audio segment has been adding key courses that aim to teach both the foundations of good audio practices as well as important audio software skills. This week’s featured five free movies were compiled with some help from our content manager for Audio, and lynda.com go-to Pro Tools author, David Franz, and focus on movies that are all centered around a very specific theme: improving the way you interact with your music, and the quality of the sound you create.

Audio soundwave

1. Recording audio in Pro Tools
In this excerpt from chapter four of Pro Tools 10 Essential Training, the aforementioned David Franz shows you how to create a new audio track in Pro Tools. While David takes you step-by-step through the process, you’ll also hear his real-world practical reasons for why one might choose one setting over another. Bonus: You get to hear David play the guitar.

2. Determining the correct listening position for your mixing session
In this video from chapter one of Audio Mixing Bootcamp, industry leader Bobby Owsinski explains how room acoustics can effect your perception of sound, and how to choose the best position for listening to playback. My favorite element of this movie is how Bobby’s explanations are made even more accessible by illustrative motion graphics.

3. Using lynda.com Get in the Mix interactive exercise files
As of March 2012, all of our Foundations of Audio courses in the lynda.com Audio segment now include Get in the Mix high-fidelity interactive exercise files that allow Pro Tools and Logic Pro users to experience hands-on instruction from the course author directly inside their personal Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW. All Get in the Mix exercise files are free to any lynda.com member (no premium membership required). In this movie, Alex Case explains how Get in the Mix files work and the advantages of learning from within your own DAW. If you’re interested in trying out a Get in the Mix learning session yourself, Alex’s Foundations of Audio: Delay and Modulation course includes eight member-exclusive Get in the Mix learning sessions, and two unlocked sessions that are free for all to try (Get in the Mix: Establishing groove with long delays and Get in the Mix: Modulation rate and depth).

4. Getting creative with EQ Curves and the telephone effect
In this tutorial from chapter three of Foundations of Audio: EQ and Filters, Brian Lee White discusses how EQ curves can be used to apply creative effect, or to place an element in a unique space within a mix. Discussing the telephone-effect (aptly named because the effect makes it sound like the signal is coming across on a telephone connection) Brian shows a real-life example of how a classic low-fi sound filter can be used to give you interesting, expressive possibilities.

5. Filtering loops in Pro Tools
In this video from chapter four of Pro Tools Mixing and Mastering, Brian Lee White explains how and why you might need to filter pre-recorded, synth, or sampled loops that you’re working with as part of a larger mix. While those loops are fundamentally designed to hold their own in isolation, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are always suitable as-is for your arrangement. I love how Brian uses a stock photography analogy, pointing out that when you choose a commercial or sample photo, you know you’re going to have to crop, scale, and tweak it to fit your design.

If you’re interested in sampling more of our new Audio segment content, keep in mind that all lynda.com courses have movies that are free to try, even if you’re not yet a member. Just click on any course of interest, and explore the blue links within any table of contents page in our library to watch unlocked videos.

lynda.com free movies explanation.

Tags: Get in the Mix, Logic Pro, Pro Tools
Posted in Audio, Featured Five tutorials | No Comments »

How to use the Pitch tool in Melodyne to tune a vocal

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Monday, May 21st, 2012

Artists use Melodyne for corrective or creative pitch adjustments in nearly every genre of music. When using Melodyne for pitch correction, you may not hear the effect. However, when using Melodyne creatively, the idea is to hear the effect. Regardless of the application, the Pitch tool and its related subtools are often the tools of choice to create pitch alterations in Melodyne.

The main Pitch tool moves notes up or down. You can do this in three ways:

by semi-tone (click and drag the note)
by cents, or 1/100^th of a semi-tone, for finer tuning (press the Option or Alt key and then click and drag), or
by double-clicking on the note to snap it to the exact pitch center

The overarching idea is to move the note either up or down in pitch, depending if the note was originally flat or sharp.

The Pitch Modulation tool is used to flatten or exaggerate the curve of a note’s pitch. Flattening out a note’s curve reduces vibrato, scoops, or pitch bends, or, in contrast, increasing the modulation exaggerates those effects. You can also use the Pitch Modulation tool to create an Auto-Tune effect where all pitches are strictly conformed to the pitch centers, resulting in a tuned robot-like sound.

Screenshot of Melodyne being used to flatten and exaggerate a note.

Two screenshots of Melodyne being used to exaggerate and flatten a note.

The Pitch Drift tool enables you to edit the drift of a pitch from the start to the end of a note without altering the modulation. For instance, if a note starts a little sharp and ends a little flat, the Pitch Drift tool will fix the pitch but keep the natural vibrato in tact, thus effectively tilting the pitch curve of a note to flatten out or exaggerate the curve of a pitch.

The Pitch Transition tool is used to edit the transition between two notes. You can exaggerate the transition, creating a long slide between two notes, or you can minimize the transition, making the transition between two pitches very short and more robotic sounding.

After applying all of these pitch adjustments to a number of notes on a track, what if you want to go back to the original performance on one or more notes? Instead of using the undo command, try selecting the notes you want to return to their original states, then going to the Edit pulldown menu and selecting Edit > Edit Pitch > Reset All Pitch Related Changes to Original. This command resets the pitch of a note back to its original performance state, regardless of when the edit on that note was performed in the undo queue. I find this to be a very handy feature.

In Melodyne Essential Training, Emmy-nominated author Skye Lewin shows us how to use all of the Pitch tools. In this video from chapter three of the course, Sky introduces the Pitch tool and its subtools:

Interested in more?
• All audio courses on lynda.com
• All courses by Skye Lewin on lynda.com

Tags: Auto-Tune, Melodyne, Skye Lewin
Posted in Audio | 1 Comment »

Strategies for using a de-esser to eliminate sibilance

Published by David Franz, content manager, Audio | Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

We’ve all heard that annoying hard “s” sound that happens when a vocal track is recorded with a less-than-optimal microphone choice. That high-pitched irritation is called sibilance and it can be found on all kinds of vocal tracks, whether your recorded voice is singing, or speaking words for a podcast or a book on tape. This challenge is very prominent in the recording world, and for anyone recording an individual with a natural accentuation or particular penchant for emphasizing words that contain the letter “s,” a de-esser can be a welcomed friend of the ears.

Also known as a frequency-dependent compressor, a de-esser is made specifically to only compresses certain frequencies that we want it to reduce in volume, and does not compress the rest of the track’s frequencies. For vocal tracks, this usually occurs in the frequency range between 6-8 kHz. When the de-esser compresses the particularly offending frequency, it leaves the rest of the frequencies in the signal alone, which maintains the natural sound of the original performance.

Knowing how to dial-in the settings on a de-esser is paramount to achieving an improved sound without affecting your vocals in a negative way. In contrast, it is also important to know that pushing the parameters of a de-esser too far can actually result in the creation of even worse sounding “s” frequencies, to the point of giving the vocalist a lisp. While admittedly this can be a great practical joke, it’s likely not an effect you’d like to present to the world on a serious recording.

Besides vocal tracks, other material with high-frequency content can also benefit from the use of a de-esser. For instance, hihats and crash cymbals can produce sibilant frequencies. Using a de-esser to control those frequencies can help to balance the drum mix and make the overall mix sound more appealing.

In his tutorial from chapter five of the Pro Tools Mixing and Mastering course, author Brian Lee White explains in more detail the functionality of a de-esser and demonstrates how it can be used to tweak both vocal and cymbal tracks.

For more training on Pro Tools, check out Pro Tools 10 Essential Training, Audio Mixing Bootcamp, and our Foundations of Audio courses that include our innovative Get In The Mix Pro Tools session files.

Interested in more?
• All audio courses on lynda.com
• All Pro Tools courses on lynda.com
• Foundations of Audio courses from Alex U. Case and Brian Lee White

Tags: David Franz, Pro Tools 10
Posted in Audio | No Comments »