Ame one » Music

Quick Sample Exchange in Kontakt

Ame one — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:15:52 +0000

The buttons to the right of the sample name (highlighted in orange) in the Mapping Editor allows you to switch a zone’s sample for the next sample in the folder that it is located in. Pretty good for exchanging drum sounds, etc.

Self Investment

Ame one — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:45:47 +0000

One day while I was chatting with Nomar Slevik, we got on the topic of “why we are not bigger than we are in music.” We are actually pretty comfortable with our current growth rate but it would be nice to just get that 1 in a million lucky break, cinderella story thing happen. We [...]

New Toys

Ame one — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:04:08 +0000

I recently picked up a couple of plugins for my DAWs. I got the Ultra Analog VA-1 synth and the Breverb AudioMidi.com edition. The Ultra Analog was only $15 and the Breverb was $5. “Why not” I thought, “20 bucks is a decent amount for a synth plugin and a decent lil’ reverb.” It’s not [...]

Japan-Zine Gaijin Sounds Compilation

Ame one — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:49:59 +0000

I’m in the top 10 of the 20 selected tracks of the Japan-zine’s “Gaijin Sounds” compilation. They also gave me a nice little write up in the magazine and on the website. You can check it out at, http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/jz/2111/Gaijin+Sounds . I was surprised that they picked “Berliner.” I never really thought it was that great [...]

Kick Drum Obsession

Ame one — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:56:07 +0000

I see many posts on forums about how to get a kick drum like a certain artist. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. I never really concerned myself with how other people’s kick sound. When I listen to music, I hear the kick and maybe give it a passing thought but overall [...]

The Trumpet Song Rejected

Ame one — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:38:17 +0000

If you don’t know, I wrote a song called “The Trumpet Song.” It’s in the dub plate section if you want to hear it. It’s one of my favorite songs that I have written. It took a long time to write. Originally it was something else but after a few months of working on it [...]

Mystery of Staples Halo mix

Ame one — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:38:51 +0000

If you been following me, you would know that I been handed the task of mixing the vocals for Staplemouth’s forthcoming album. For the past week I been working on this one track called Halo. I started mixing it and then I ended up resetting everything after the second session. �After about 2 sessions of [...]

The morning of parallel nothing!

Ame one — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:56:16 +0000

Last night I was flipping through the old Mastering Audio book by Bob Katz and happened across the section about parallel compression. I like to use it to beef up my drums, however in the mastering concept of parallel compression the compressor is virtually in permanent extreme gain reduction due to the high threshold that [...]

Finally got some inspiration for Cyrus’ drums

Ame one — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:16:15 +0000

Yay! I finally got some inspiration for the drums for the track that Cyrus FX sent me. About a month (more like 2 or 3) I was talking to Cyrus about maybe doing some kind of track together. We talked it over and he decided to send me something that he thought could use some [...]

New album coming soon

Ame one — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:15:40 +0000

I have a new album comingout soon on SIQ Records. It was supposed to be released next month but due to a problem with one of the songs it will be pushed back. The main problem was that we (me, nomar slevik and raystar) were unhappy with the way one of the songs turned out. [...]

Finished a few mixdowns

Ame one — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:35:38 +0000

I finished a few mixodowns this morning and sent them off to Nomar Slevik. I felt like as i progressed through those mixdowns, they were getting harder. By the time I did the lastone today, I had no confidence in what I was doing. Everytime I listened to the track I just felt like something [...]

Day 1: Mixing a track

Ame one — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:44:23 +0000

This morning I mixed down a track that will be on the upcoming EP I’m doing with Nomar Slevik. For some reason I don’t have much confidence in this song yet. I think I am just being hard on myself. I’m sure the mix is fine, but I still feel like there is something wrong [...]

The things I hate about Pro Tools LE

Ame one — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:45:14 +0000

I’m about the do some work in Pro Tools LE. It’s not a bad program, but it’s just lacking in a few departments. Here’s my list of things I don’t like about Pro Tools LE. 1. I’m stuck with the M-Box. It’s not that I don’t like the M-Box, I just view it as a [...]

Do I need to dither when converting to mp3?

Ame one — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:24:36 +0000

I been thinking about mp3 conversion lately. I don’t know exactly how it works. I know the general theory but I don’t know anything else. One of the questions I have always wondered, “Is it necessary to use bit reduction and convert a 24 bit song to 16bits before mp3 conversion?” After thinking about it, [...]

Dither: Does It Matter?

Ame one — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:30:25 +0000

Dither really seems to be this mystery thing in audio that most people don’t quite have a grasp on. You can use math and plot graphs to explain and show what it does. Bob Katz does a wonderful example of explaining dither with math and graphs. Can’t really argue with the math behind it because [...]

BMI Part 3: The Conclusion

Ame one — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:20:02 +0000

Last night before I went to bed I got a couple of emails from BMI. One was my application approval and the other was from Lisa Jacquet. Lisa Jacquet email explained to me that it is BMI’s policy for all artists who reside abroad to fill out a W8 form. At this point I was [...]

BMI Part 2: Response from Smith

Ame one — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:27:43 +0000

If you read the previous post about BMI you would know that I am irritated with them at the way my application process is being handled. This morning, I finally get a response from Laura Smith. Actually two responses. In the first response she tells me that I need to fill out the attached W8-BEN [...]

Another day working the Pro Tools

Ame one — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:39:29 +0000

Today was another one of those days working in Pro Tools. I like the program but it does have some short comings. The fact that there is a track limit in the LE version and it seems to be missing something when I’m mixing. Always some last minute effect that just does not seem to [...]

BMI : Broadcast Music Inc.

Ame one — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:21:14 +0000

Recently I have had the pleasure at getting annoyed with BMI. Before I get into it, let me provide some background to it. At SIQ Records, we are asking all the artists to sign up with a Performance Right’s Organization (PRO). The reason is we are hoping to start licensing music out and for publishing. [...]

Another day of music production failure

Ame one — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:29:35 +0000

Today I started working on this remix of a Nomar Slevik song that I really like. Spent all day working on it. Well more like all day getting my drums and things organized for it. After creating this interesting intro, I realized that it’s just not going to work. The reason is simple. What I [...]

Dither: Which is the best?

Ame one — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:14:54 +0000

Which is the best dither? Truthfully I have no idea. There are several different types available. Before we tackle which is the best dither, let’s examine what dithering does. In short dither is used during bit reduction i.e. 24bit to 16bit. What it essentially does is add noise shaping to smooth out the reduction. It [...]

Missing EXS files after Logic Studio Upgrade

Ame one — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:32:51 +0000

Apparently this is a common problem. After upgrading Logic from 7 to 8, things get broken. During the upgrade things get moved around and because logic depends on a lot of garageband content, some of these files ended up missing. I looked for some way online to fix the problem. Most said to reinstall Logic or to use a program called pacifist to dig out the needed files from the

Logic Studio Presets

Ame one — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:36:30 +0000

Apparently Logic Studio has some new presets. However, Apple also removed many presets that were in Logic Pro 7. I spent the morning moving presets around and installing new (old) ones. If you have any presets saved, you will most likely have to move them to the new installation. You can find them in MAC [...]

Installing Logic Studio content to another location

Ame one — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:18:20 +0000

Being that I don’t have negative hard disk space, I needed to find a way to install the Jam Packs and other audio content to an external drive. I figured that maybe all I would need to do is just put in the Jam pack discs and it would let me install. Wrong, all I [...]

Ame one vs. Logic Studio

Ame one — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:55:29 +0000

Today I finally got around to picking up the Logic Studio Upgrade. It was a pretty good deal. I got it at Yodobashi Camera in Umeda. After using my point card, it came out to be about $28. That’s right $28. I had about $200 worth of points on my card. First impression: That bad [...]

Vintage EQ and Compressor emulations

Ame one — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:42:01 +0000

Every where I look these days online I always see people touting Waves SSL, API and Neve collections. In addition to that there is a constant barrage of people saying URS vintage effects are great. The truth is I don’t really know what to make of all these vintage emulations. I have tried a few [...]

AKG 240s Headphones

Ame one — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:01:30 +0000

Recently I finally got around finishing the mixes for John B’s Hair and the Trumpet Song. I was pretty surprised at the way they came out. I did the mixes a bit different this time. I mixed them using headphones. I always hear and do subscribe to the idea that you should avoid mixing with [...]

Out of phase sub bass

Ame one — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:22:03 +0000

I’m mixing down my latest track and I kept having problems with the bass. It seemed like no matter what I did to it, it just sounded muddy, distorted and just bad. Also I just couldn’t get it to sit nicely in the mix. I was ready to give up on it and call it [...]

Long live the Single, EP’s are the new albums!

Ame one — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:39:43 +0000

Today I had a very interesting and insightful conversation about the music industry. In this conversation I promoting my current standpoint that albums are not the right model for the current times. I feel that EPs and singles are the way to go. Let’s examine the 3 models and you will see that albums might [...]

Change in work flow maybe

Ame one — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:06:53 +0000

I recently finished 2 songs. A nice jazzy ambient dnb track and, to quote my friend’s friend, a “new-wave-breaks” track. The jazzy dnb track took a long time to write. Not because I was stuck, but I think more because, as usual, it started one way and then ended another way. This takes a lot [...]

How to setup Kontakt 3 in Logic Pro 7

Ame one — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:14:24 +0000

I had a bit of hard time figuring out how to get Logic 7 and Kontakt 3 to work together. It all came down to just setting things up right. This is something I never really had to deal with when I was using Cubase. In Cubase you just select your VSTi and it automatically [...]

Native Instruments Kontakt Sampler

Ame one — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:57:10 +0000

Native Instruments Kontakt Sampler I noticed that I get a lot of visitors coming to my website looking for information about Kontakt. I present to you answers to many of the search queries about Kontakt 3. At the bottom of the page there are links to some useful websites. Kontakt library vs EXS24 Kontakt can [...]

Samplers: Kontakt, EXS24, Structure and Ame one

Ame one — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:12:20 +0000

If you have read previously, you would have seen that I was mulling over whether to upgrade from Logic Pro 7 to Logic Studio or upgrade Kontakt 1.5 to Kontakt 3. Well in the end Kontakt won out over Logic. It was a hard decision but over the past few weeks I began to realize [...]

What’s up with posting clips?

Ame one — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:30:05 +0000

These days I been listening to quite a bit of new music by underground artists. Usually I check music on myspace. Today I been coming across alot of dnb guys just posting up clips of their tracks. I understand why they are doing it. In fact there is a whole thread in the grid on [...]

Happy New Year Mr. Reznor

Ame one — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:21:51 +0000

First off happy new year to everyone. May 2008 be a better year than 2007. Today I had the pleasure of reading an interview with Trent Reznor on wired magazine’s website. It made me realize that I’m kind of out of touch with the music world. Mostly the business part of it. So maybe I’m [...]

Logic 8 vs. Kontakt 3

Ame one — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:48:23 +0000

Today I was out in Umeda, doing some Christmas Shopping and was thinking about how I would like to upgrade some certain music softwares. The choices are upgrading to Logic 8 or Kontakt 3. The prices are about the same here in Japan. Both cost about �22,000. I’m still not sure which would be the [...]

My first complaint about my Yamaha HS 50M Monitor Speakers

Ame one — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:00:00 +0000

I noticed recently that people have been coming here after entering the search term Yamaha HS50 in a search engine. I guess this page is not too useful, for that. So I guess I will add my opinion on them. The Following is the original post. The additional information is after. Today I finally have [...]

My EP is almost done

Ame one — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:23:01 +0000

I’m done with my EP. It’s going to be called “AMe one and the depressed robot.” The ep consists of 3 downtempo songs and 1 house song. Everything has been sent off to SIQ Records. Now it’s up to them to get things done. I’m pretty happy about everything. I already got the next release [...]

Sonar 7

Ame one — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:33:24 +0000

Today when I was at SofMap I caught a demonstration of Sonar 7. It seems like a pretty cool program. I have not used any Cakewalk Products since Cakewalk 8. The thing that really impressed me most was the Roland V-Voice Plugin. That thing was bad ass! I wish they would make that into a [...]

Finished My First Pro Tools Mixing Session

Ame one — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:03:22 +0000

I just�my first mixing session in Digidesign’s Pro Tools. It wasn’t that bad. A little different from Cubase SX2. I actually found it pretty easy to understand once I figured out everything I needed to know how to do. One thing that seemed a mystery at first was setting up the sends. Good thing I [...]