The first (small) surprise was that all the music you purchase through Google Music WOULD NOT count against your 20,000 song limit on your cloud locker. Amazon is doing something very similar with their Mp3 store where all the music you purchase from their music store will not count against the allowed storage space for the account. Its not a huge announcement, but it is a nice way to push you towards buying music through Google as opposed to iTunes or anywhere else.

The second (larger) surprise was the announcement of a mobile web player app for Google Music, clearly specifically targeted at iOS. It is designed very well and works the same as the stand alone app for Android. During the Beta, I tried using the web app for Google Music on my iPad several times, and while it was technically useable, it was very hard to control and had a lot of quirky problems. But thats to be expected, Google never said it was going to be a pleasant experience and it was in Beta after all. And on a side note, the redesign of the music app is beautiful. As nice of an upgrade the Google Music player was to the standard Android music player, this redesign might be even nicer and more pleasant to use.

The third (huge) surprise was the announcement of the indie Artist Hub. Google will allow artist to upload and sell their own material directly using Google Music. The artists can set their own price for albums and tracks, and after a one time fee of $25, will receive 70 percent of all sales made. This is a much better deal for indie artists as opposed to iTunes, which has a lot of red tape to go through for independent artists. Gigaom.com has a great post on the financial side of the Artist Hub. And if you want to get even more excited about this, watch the video Google published on the Artis Hub info page.

Google Artist Hub pages have the potential to become THE place for artists to be online, and sell their music. If you ask 5 bands where they want people to go online to hear their music, you very easily might get 5 answers. Soundcloud, Facebook (music on Facebook is a train wreck) Reverbnation, iTunes, Band-camp all are good options but independent artists will not go to the trouble of update and maintain each profile. Google Music has so much going for it for indie artists, with the sharing of purchased music to listeners friends, the great financial incentives, and the power of google behind it? this is a huge win.

If you are an artist and are reading this, stop for a minute and think about this. There are at least 140 million Android powered devices out in the world, and 550,000 being activated daily.. Every one of those people with an Android device is literally one click to the Market app away from being able to purchase your music.. of which you would get 70% of the sale. Interested now?

Thought so.

The Avenues is an up and coming, San Francisco based, Rock N Soul band. I have had a great time working with them over the past couple months recording and mixing their first demo CD titled “Alleyways”. The name of this song is Alexander Salamander.

If you would like to listen to “Alleyways” in its entirety, including the full length version of this song, Click Here.

So about a year ago Avid dropped Pro Tools 9 on the world. Lots of anticipation was built up around the launch and it was a huge success with lots of major improvements. This time around with the release of Pro Tools 10, there was clearly not as much energy. I was personally caught off guard by the release. In fact, I learned of the release while browsing through my RSS feeds via Flipboard on my iPad. My first impressions was utterly void of that wow factor, especially compared to all the awesomeness that 9 brought. But with more research and actually getting to play with it for a while, I have seen (some of) the light.

Here are my favorite new features found only in Pro Tools 10

32-bit float

Being able to work in 32-bit float is a great because it gives the user so much headroom. The resolution of the audio you can start with, work with, and finish with is going to be a lot higher. Also, this 32-bit float extends to plug-ins, which is awesome because that means you no longer have to dither, going into and out of plug-ins.

Support for different file types within a session

In Pro Tools 10 you can now import audio files that vary in bit depth and format, into the same session without converting them. So, if you have a 24-bit session up, with .WAV tracks, you can easily import a 16-bit, AIFF file and not have to slow down to do any conversion. Pretty handy.

Real-time fades

This should have been a feature in Pro Tools 9, but better late than never I suppose. No longer will Pro Tools prompt you at the beginning of your session asking if you want it to find all 78 fade files that it lost. Why? Because they are not going to be individual files anymore! all the fades will be done in real time! which is cool if you are like me, and want to loop a section of a song to be able to fine tune where that fade exits in real time. Now its possible!

New AAX plug-in format

Pro Tools 10 has a new plug-in format called AAX. Its not super relevant right now, but as plug-ins go 64-bit and we move away from RTAS, AAX (which supports 64-bit) will move into the spotlight more. Its good to see Avid on top of that one.

Downmix plug-in

Downmix plug in does just what it says (and what Logic has been able to for for years) and that is take mixes, and mix them down. You can take your 7.1 and 5.1 mixes down to stereo, and your stereo mixes down to mono. Good, useful stock plug-in.

Export to iTunes

This is a nice feature, nothing more nothing less. You can now export directly into your iTunes library and easily burn a disc if you like. Most of the things I bounce will wind up in iTunes anyway so it does save a couple steps (which is always a good thing).

Channel Strip plug-in

The new Avid Channel Strip plug in that now comes stock with Pro Tools 10 is a very nice plug-in both visually in terms of UI and sound quality. You have access to Filters, EQ, Dynamics, and Volume and can easily change the order in which they occur within the signal flow of the plug-in. I have been a fan of the Renaissance Channel Strip by Waves, and this seems to be of similar quality with a few extra features, such as the ability to put this on a full 7.1 surround channel.

Global solo and mute indicators

Working on sessions with over 40 tracks is a regular occurrence. Another regular occurrence is me spending time trying to figure out what track I muted, or what track is soloed. At the top of the edit window now will be a mute and solo button that will light up if either are engaged. Clicking the buttons will unmute and unsolo those tracks that were affected.

Clip Gain

Clip Gain sounds like something to avoid right? why would I want to add gain to a clipping signal? well, just know that Avid is referring to “regions” as “clips” now. “Oh.. that doesn’t sound so bad now” No, it doesn’t! Clip Gain is a really simple way to even out the levels of individual audio regions (again, now called clips). I wasn’t too sure this was something I (someone who primarily mixes music within Pro Tools) would get much use out of but after playing with it I had plenty of use cases for it, the most immediate of which would be evening out different takes of the same vocal lines comped together.

All in all a very solid upgrade. I know many people were disappointed by the release, I think they thought (as did I initially) that a release worthy of the title Pro Tools 10 should have had a little more sexy inside. But after playing with it I’m sure those feelings will fade and PT10 will be viewed as a good upgrade to an already great product. And besides, Avid basically told everyone not to get too excited with the only visible change to the packaging from the 9 to the 10 box being the actual “10″

Now (mind you, leaving Sprint is not an option), what to replace it with? An Evo? It was pretty enticing with its huge screen and the 4G speeds. But no, after my experience with HTC and their poor Sense user interface, I figured it would only be a matter of time that the faster Evo would be slowed to a stop. Next I thought about stepping away from Android completely, stick with the Hero in hopes of the next generation iPhone being released on Sprint? Switch back to a “feature” phone with no fancy smart phone capabilities? Heck, even BlackBerry even crossed my mind (Windows Phone 7 never came into play).

I then began thinking about all my past cell phones that I had liked, and I came to two realizations. 1, All the previous phones I had loved were Samsung and 2, The HTC Hero was the only phone I had ever had that was NOT Samsung. So it seems I had already made my mind. And once I started looking at Samsung, I found and really liked the Nexus S. It was the official Google phone, meaning the phone had just pure Android running on it, and not only that, but the latest version of Android, which is something that was and still is not an option when running with a HTC phone (how can HTC be releasing phones today with 2.2 Froyo? thats embarrassing). Sprint then dropped the news that not only would they be carrying the Nexus S but they would be adding 4G capabilities to the phone. That made the decision to grab the Nexus S 4G as easy as it was to dump the Hero.

It has been seven full days of using and playing with the phone, and I have to say this phone is worth every cent of its retail price and maybe then some. The first thing you notice when playing with the phone is its amazing Super AMOLED screen, it looks really sharp. Then after staring at the screen for a while, I began playing with and setting up the phone. Boy, I sure had forgotten how nice Android is, all the amazing widgets and apps, and all the customization and full app integration that can take place, its just a flat out awesome OS.

I am writing a piece next week on my Top 10 features of Android, and I wont reveal them all now, but one that is just too amazing to leave out of this first review is the mobile hot-spotting. The ability to have a bubble of wifi with me wherever I go for no extra charge is fantastic. And when I am lucky enough to be in a city where there is 4G coverage, that feature is even sweeter. Another nice thing is the ability to secure the wifi with WPA2 security. Android has enough security problems in the Market, so its nice to eliminate the security holes where you can.

The phone is really easy to live and work with. It is very light (4.6 ounces I believe), fits great in your front pocket, and the form factor feels good in your hand. The battery life is good. Not great like Apple iPhones, or amazing like iPads, but a solid good. I have used it frequently and consistently over the past week and have made it through the days without needing a recharge. To me, it seems a lot of the battery life depends on the screens brightness, more so than normally with smart phones. But that’s very easy to control if you install the power manager widget.

The camera on the rear of the fone is quite good. While many phones coming out are up to eight megapixels, the Nexus S 4G is sporting a five megapixel camera with a single (although very bright) LED flash. But when to cameras on cell phones, I use an entirely different set of criteria to judge its quality. How fast does the camera app open? How long is the delay between when I click to take the photo until the picture is taken? And can I get a clear image of whatever I am trying to photograph? I have a quality DSLR for taking beatuiful photographs, but when it comes to mobile photography, it really comes down to capturing the moment. The camera on the Nexus S 4G is exactly what I need with a fast opening camera app, quick response time and clear display. I have posted two photos on my Flickr page (titled “Handshake Line” and “Kitchen Table”) demonstrating the cameras capabilities.

All in all the Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint is a fantastic phone running a slick operating system. The next time I am looking for a new phone I will first look at Samsung.

Digital Audio Workstations, or DAW’s, are incredible tools. They have made high quality music production a possibility for anyone with the desire to do so, primarily because of the relative low cost and high production output of each program. With a noise floor much lower (almost non-existent) than the quietest of quiet tape machines as just one of the instant advantages, along with much stronger processing and editing power, it is clear why every major studio is sporting one type or another of a DAW. But with so much power at ones fingertips, it is easy to imagine a possibility where the power could be over used.

With programs like Beat Detective and Auto-Tune being used so frequently, the integrity of the music created with the aid of those tools is being called into question. Many music fans are of the opinion that artists don’t have to be able to sing in key or play drums in time anymore. While I know this is not the case, I do understand where these feelings have come from. Just watching demos for programs like Melodyne, and seeing audio being dragged up and down in pitch as if it were a game, is enough to make your head spin. And then to hear music from the likes of T-Pain and Owl City, both of whom use of Auto-Tune is completely over the top and irritatingly unnatural sounding, it is easy to see why these tools would be viewed negatively.

But as an engineer I can assure you that these programs are not the enemy, in anyway. First, I would like to address those who criticize T-Pain and Owl City types for their use of the vocal effect Auto-Tune. These artists are not claiming to not use it, and in fact, both artists purposely record the way they do so they can use it in a way which gets them the effect we are all so familiar with. It is not a natural sound, no one is claiming it is, and it isn’t supposed to be. Second, in the most common use of touching up vocals and guitar solos with unwanted sharp or flat notes, you have the tool at your finger tips, use it if it can help make the song better. I mean, nobody ever hesitated to throw a compressor on when a compressor is needed, right? This is the same idea.

Now is not the only time when the integrity of produced music was ever called into question, in the late 70′s when Steely Dan recorded their Aja album, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker decided that they were tired of the bleed into the microphones on the drum kit when it was being played. Ex. They did not want to hear the snare drum at all on the rack tom track, which if you have ever mic’d a drum kit, you know thats pretty much impossible to do unless you have a drummer play the whole song on each drum and cymbals individually. Well thats exactly what they did. Now, this sounds like it wouldn’t cause much of a fuss with most people. But not my friend Emiliano, he again believes that it is cheating to record this way, he wants the recording to be done as it would be played live, on every drum head all at the same time. Even Hootie and the Blowfish were even involved in “questionable recording techniques” in the 1980′s. In the 80′s music that was on beat, very tight musically, almost robotic if you will, was very popular. Hootie and the Blowfish tapped into that “tight” “regulated” sound by recording with all the parts worked out on a keyboard. Then taking the output of the keyboard and feeding the key input of the gate on whatever channel they were recording on. So you would have the bass player playing his parts as tightly as he could but even if he did not stop right on time, then the gate would close. They did this to every instrument they had in their arsenal and in return creating the tight poppy, sound they were looking for.

As far as I am concerned, if the song can be made better then as the editing or mixing engineer I am obligated to do so. And I will have no second thought about “ruining the integrity of the music” with my plug-in and editing technique choices.

Much more to come..

10. KVR Spring Reverb- Looking for spring reverb? Look no further. Very simple reverb unit that does one thing, and does it very well. Spring reverb is (to me) just part of the sound of a lot of guitars and I don’t feel quite right about any selection of reverb until I at least try this effect.

9. SonalKiss StereoTools- Great tool for doing any stereo widening on both mono and stereo tracks. And it works just as great on an entire mix to really get that “beyond the speakers” feel for your work.

8. 608 Delay- I know what your thinking, “delay? Isn’t it digital? If it has feedback, delay time, tap input and a mix level… What difference could there be between delay units?” The plain and simple difference is the 608 has so many adjustments that it is more than just a delay, it is indeed more of a creative tool than any other unit around right now. Give it a try and you will see.

7. Lexicon PCM Native Bundle- The best sounding hardware reverb units come from Lexicon, and same goes for the DAW world. Plain and simple.

6. Sound Replacer- A great plug-in that is as easy to use, as it is useful. Not happy with a kick drum sound you recorded? Throw Sound Replacer on it, select a sample you would like to have play over your kick, set your threshold and move on to the next track! Once you master its basic uses, try using it to create interest and emotion in songs with automation.

4. NoNoise- Annoying hisses on guitar amps irritating? low hums during dialog making it impossible to hear what is being said? Thats where NoNoise comes in handy. Whenever I am given sessions that I did not record, more than half the time NoNoise is used in some application or another to eliminate sounds within sounds. There are a few other applications that do the same thing, but from my experience there is nothing that does a better job without degrading the quality (particularly the high end) of the sound you are after.

3. Hybrid- Top of the line synthesizer. Perfect for anyone just getting into synthesis and advanced users, with the new update and the new Multi-Square waveform and several new waveforms you can introduce into the signal, you can create an endless amount of awesome sounds.

2. Waves Tune- AutoTune? or Melodyne? BOTH! Waves Tune combines the best of both pitch correcting programs. Yeah theres an ethical debate about tools like this (which I will go into deeper in another blog post) but the fact is, clients request it, it is something that is needed in your tool-kit today.

1. Reason- Easiest pick for top instrument. Reason is of the greatest music creation tools ever created. Couple that with the power of Logic or Pro Tools or Propellerhead’s own Record (which I love!), and virtually any idea can come to fruition.

10. Maxim- Easy to use limiter, can be used in AudioSutie and RTAS. It processes the signal quickly and efficiently. A must have for anyone who has clients that want to hear a mix at a good level, without much hardcore compression from the Limiter.

9. C1 Gate- Gating (along with filtering) is one of the most important parts in cleaning up a mix. A lot of times it is skipped by some beginning engineers because it can crush and create all new sounds, as opposed to get getting ride of unwanted ones. But the Waves C1 Gate makes it really easy to do just that, hold the part of the signal you want, then shut the door on the rest.

8. Renaissance Bass- A psycho-acoustic plug in for your lower frequency sounds. Perfect for throwing on a bass guitar to bring it out in a mix. With the frequency slider, you can pretty much decide where you would like the bass to sit in the mix. Whether you want it higher up so your bass can pop on computer speakers, or if you want to throw it down to the sub, it can be done with Renaissance Bass.

7. Focusrite d2 EQ- It is a must for all engineers to have a liner-phase distortion EQ in their arsenal. Intentionally introducing degrading distortion into a signal is not something that sounds correct when you think about it. But, it is something that we, as long time music listeners, have become accustomed to because it has been used in mixes of millions of records. Perfect for getting that “pro” sizzle on drum cymbals.

6. Ampeg SVX- Don’t have an SVT Classic head and an 8×10 cab to run your bass through? No problem. As soon as you throw this on your bass track, it instantly sends you into the world of Ampeg. With all the different combinations of heads and cabs and stomp boxes, you can get your dream bass set up all with this plug-in. Only complaint is, I wish there was an option for more of a room sound.

5. RCompressor- My go to compressor. Straight forward design , very fast compressor, will deffinetaly pump up the sound of any drums (specifically kick and toms) and guitars. I have not be able to find an application where it does not work great.

4. Inflator- Charles Dye said of Lo-Fi “the way to make a good sound BAD.” Well Inflator is the opposite. Not happy with a guitar sound? Vocals need something extra? Throw inflator on it and you will be very impressed and satisfied with its ability to turn any recorded round into “what it should” sound like.

3. Tube Saturator- Wave Arts Tube Saturator brings that warmth that is associated with running a signal through a series of tubes. Perfect for a kick drum, bass and electric guitar, also you can get a really nice vocal distortion if you desire. There is also a setting “Warm-up a mix” that, if thrown on entire mix, really does just that!

2. Analog Channel AC2- Hands down the best tape emulator on the market today. Lately I have been hitting my drum sub mix with it, and it brings that delicious tape saturation and compression that rolls off a tiny bit of the highs, and really helps clean up the bottom end.

1. EQ-3 7 Band- The staple EQ for me. As an engineer that uses subtractive eqing, there are little to no complaints what-so-ever. It has a phase switch, filters, make-up gain, very narrow Q’s, and lots of attenuation for all bands. Rock solid EQ.

Earlier this week I wanted to go see Tron Legacy, So I drove out 20 miles or som from my house to meet up with a friend to see it at a movie theater we both selected because it stated clearly online that it was in 2D. But upon arrival the ticket taker informed us that it was in fact in 3D, her exact words were “its in 3d, is that going to be a problem?” Now right then my friend and I should have just left. We both thought long and hard about leaving, but decided to go ahead. Yes, we made the conscious decision to pay more, to allow the movie theater to slash the amount of enjoyment we would have at this movie. My head hurts..

After sitting down in the theater, we both realized problem one. The glasses on our faces, were not only uncomfortable, but actually cut off about 15-20% of our view of the actual movie screen. You can not sit in the first 10 rows of a theater for a 3D movie without losing some vision of the picture.

About ten minutes into the previews, which were all for movies in 3D also and cut so that the most annoying parts of the 3D experience were jammed in your face (think balls coming out at you, swords piercing the screen, etc..) I took the glasses off to give my eyes a rest. Thats good right? when your customer wants a break only a few minutes in, from whatever you are presenting them with. I know when I produce a record, I want the listener to reach the volume just a few minutes after turning it on, because all the irritating noises I kept in the right channel are killing their ear drums. Not.

So, now we are about a third into the movie, and I have completely given up on using my glasses. I have made the decision to watch the movie almost completely out of focus, instead of the eye gauging 3D gimmick, that is also at least 30% less bright. That is something I dont feel anyone thinks about in regard to 3D. It was as if I put on a light pair of sunglasses, it has always been the case with 3D movies and their glasses but it was very evident in such a dark movie like Tron.

When the movie was over and we walked out, normally the time we critique audio or visual flaws (the friend I saw it with is a graphic artist with a degree in motion graphic design) nothing was said about the quality of the film itself, instead it was all on the unenjoyable presentation and style it was delivered. 3D, we swore, is something we would never do again. But as I stated, I said that previously before this trip to the theater.

There is no reason the movie industry would be pushing 3D on the public for anything other than protection against pirating. It is a total gimmick, it cuts the visual quality of the picture in half, hurts your eyes (I’m almost certain it is doing physical damage to my eyes) and is being used on movies that gain nothing from being in 3D (The Green Hornet? really?). For my money, there is nothing better than a good, crisp 2D image (have you seen some of the 4k things around now? wow). Instead of using 3D only to punish pirates, it could potentially be used to enhance the experience but I really don’t think anyone in Hollywood cares one ounce about the experience we get at the movies, as long as someone cant record it with a video camera and upload it to the net, Hollywood is happy.

Please 3D movies, Stop.

Upon ordering the update, I was thrilled and oozing anticipation for all the wonderful things that Pro Tools 9 could be bringing. I thought surely this would instantly increase my ability as an engineer 10 fold (kidding). When it was delivered however, I waited to install it because I had a session coming up and didn’t want to dive into a whole new version of PT and possibly risk some backwards compatibility issues with the older PT version at the studio. And as it turns out it was a good thing to wait until my schedule wasn’t so pressing to install it because unlike I previously said, Pro Tools 9 is not just an update, but it really is a brand new program. And figuring this out, led into the first dip of the roller-coaster..

The first problem I had was with the interface and Pro Tools seeing each other. Now I know most of you might be thinking, “hey, did you install the new drivers?” and the answer is yes, yes I did. I did not however run something called the Setup Assistant, I still am not sure what that is or what it did, but I do know, that I never had to do it before. The second problem was not really the direct fault of PT9, but it was a problem created by the new PACE iLok requirement that Avid integrated into Pro Tools 9. I do not like the face that Avid was playing the “now, no hardware needed to run!” line as much as they were, when they were actually requiring you to buy ANOTHER, new piece of hardware. Kinda sends the wrong message and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Anyway, I was faced with a dilemma of buying another iLok at my local Guitar Center (with a discount) OR wait a week and pay twice as much for the new iLok 2. Ultimately, I decided to save a few bucks and support my friends at GC Concord.

After all the setting up was finished, and I opened a session with 9 for the first time, I browsed around and explored the new features (specifically ADC) and boy oh boy is that a cool thing to see in your Options drop down. Another nice feature is the huge increase in bus count, that is something that was long overdue since the number of inserts was increased from five to ten back in LE8. And the final new feature I tested during my first session was the bounce to MP3 option. It did exactly what it is supposed to… until you try to record (and on a few occasions play anywhere) in the session after the bounce had been completed. The first time I got an error message saying something along the lines of the internal sample rate of the session had been changed. Originally I thought it was just a small bug I stumbled on, because I had intentionally bounced an mp3 with a different sample rate than the audio files in the session that I was using, but I then tried bouncing with the same sample rate and I got the same error behavior (session freezing) with no error message. I have tried to get the error message again but I have not been able to. Anyone else get this error?

I have also found that the out of the box default output of tracks to “Bus 1-2″ to be somewhat annoying, but that is something that can and was changed easily. Something that is not as easily changed is the I/O settings of a session. It is no longer a one click fix to change I/O Settings, while this is nice and does offer a whole much more flexibility and compatibility, I find myself not being happy  by this reduction in convenience.

All in all I believe this is a giant win for Pro Tools and engineers who use Pro Tools. Being able to run a PT session on a laptop (with ADC) monitoring through the 1/8th out headphone jack, with nothing but your iLok plugged in, is a huge break through. Although it has some bugs, like any early version of a piece of software, it will be polished and eventually worth every penny.

10. Output to Tracks/Cleaner Routing

9. iLok PACE Copy Protection

8. Increased Audio and MIDI track count

7. Ability to Import and Export to AAF

6 . Support for ASIO

5. Export to MP3

4. Increased Internal Mix Bus Count

3. Automatic Delay Compensation

2. Stand Alone Application/No Mbox Needed/Portability

1.+Complete Production Toolkit2 = Complete Pro Tools HD Round Trip Compatibility