Let's Get Virtual: A Low-Stress Intro to High-Tech Instruments Few things make digital-audio geeks hyperventilate as much as the topic of virtual instruments — musical instruments that exist entirely in the software realm. Some replicate vintage synths, keyboards, and drum machines; others dish up completely unprecedented sounds. While a software instrument will never precisely duplicate the experience of interacting with a physical analog instrument, countless musicians have been dumbfounded by just how good the latest digital instruments sound. And exciting new instruments seem to be unveiled every month. And that's not even taking into account the undeniable advantages of software instruments: You can save all settings with your session files. You can automate all their controls. They are almost infinitely expandable. And they cost a lot less than hardware instruments. This month we're going to take a look at how virtual instruments operate within Pro Tools using demo versions of several particularly cool ones: Native Instruments' Battery drum sampler, B4 organ, and Pro-52 synth. You can download them at Native Instrumens Website. (FYI, 'm not being paid to pimp Native Instruments stuff. 'm using their programs because they happen to sound and look great, and their Pro Tools integration is especially smooth.) And while you're in download mode, grab this month's sample session here: Macintosh, Windows. (The "LE Boot Camp 08.02" folder includes a session file by that name, an audio files folder with a single stereo drum loop, and the LE Boot Camp MIDI file.) Two warnings, however: First, these demo versions have several built-in limitations, including short, intermittent audio dropouts and a ten-minute time limit between restarts. Unless you're very fast, you'll probably have to restart Pro Tools several times while working through this workshop. Second, these programs are very addictive. You may find these programs and others advancing to the top of your audio covet list. Connections Pro Tools has two ways of dealing with virtual instruments. In some cases, the instrument runs as a stand-alone program and communicates with Pro Tools via the DirectConnect plug-in. Others, like the three we're using, operate directly within Pro Tools as plug-ins. While you'll definitely need a MIDI controller keyboard to get the most out of virtual instruments, you don't necessarily need one to try this month's workshop, which includes some prefab MIDI files. We'll also check out several ways to make noise and modify it without a hardware keyboard. Start the session
Now add my prerecorded MIDI tracks via the File/Import MIDI to Track command. You should see something like this:
Press Play — all you'll hear is the original drum loop. That's because using software instruments in Pro Tools requires two tracks per instrument. The ones you see contain the MIDI data to drive your software instruments. You also need three stereo aux tracks to return the audio from the instrument to your session. Select the File/New Track command (or better yet, use the key command: Command+Shift+N on Mac, Control+Shift+N on PC). Specify three stereo aux tracks like so:
You may want to decrease the track height so you can view everything at once. You remember how: By click-holding on the ruler and/or keyboard icons between the I/O controls and the edit field. You can change the setting for all tracks at once by holding down the option key while making your size selection. Finally, let's adjust the track order so that the aux return for each of our three virtual instruments sits beneath its respective MIDI track. You rearrange them by click-holding on the track's title bar and dragging it to its new destination. Set them up like this:
Fire up your instruments. Now we have to specify the new instruments in the MIDI and aux tracks. Start with the aux tracks — the virtual instruments don't appear as MIDI track output options until they're inserted into the aux tracks. Click on the first insert button of the Aux 1 track and select NI Battery DEMO (stereo). Click through the demo version disclaimer and voilá! The Battery interface.
Click the Battery screen closed for now. Insert B4 on the Aux 2 track by inserting the NI B4 DEMO (stereo) plug-in, and then close the screen. Do the same on Aux 3 with the NI Pro-52 DEMO (stereo) plug-in. Okay, we're almost there now. Route the MIDI output by selecting the appropriate instrument in the output field of the three MIDI tracks. You'll see three options for the B4, because the plug-in lets you drive the upper and lower manuals and pedals via three separate MIDI tracks. Just select NI B4 DEMO-1 upper. Next, bring up the output levels of the aux track outputs. (When you create a new aux track, it appears with the volume all the way down.) Return the three outputs to a nominal default 0.0 dB level by option/alt-clicking in each of the three output-level fields. One last move: We have to load the Battery drum machine demo bank. Open the Battery plug-in and click on the File button on the middle right side of the interface. Select the Load Kit option, and then navigate to the Soul_DEMO.kit, which you'll find in the Battery PTE DEMO folder you installed. And GO! Bear in mind that you're merely hearing the default sound for the three virtual instruments. Not only are there many more presets available, but each also has extensive controls for manipulating the sounds. For example, loop and solo the B4 and open the plug-in. Click-holding on the NI icon in the upper-left corner opens up a preset menu — check out the sample sounds included with the demo program. Then try pushing and pulling the virtual drawbars and toggling various switches on and off. You may find it easier to tweak tones with the alternate interface that appears when you select Control from the plug-in's View menu.
Now investigate the Pro-52 instrument, a dead-on replica of the classic Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synth with a few cool extras, such as a delay section, tempo-sync capabilities, and the ability to store and recall a lot more programs than the original. Survey the demo presets by click-holding on the arrowheads immediately to the right of the faux-LED program-number indicator. Then try going crazy with the synth controls. If you don't know much about analog synths, a good starting place for sound-sculpting is the filter control section:
Meanwhile, the demo version of Battery only includes the one kit and doesn't let you load your own samples. But you can do a lot of damage with — and to — this one kit. We're not going to delve too deeply into this powerful interface just now, but here's the basic editing idea: Open the plug-in. Click on any square to edit the sample that lives there. Then tweak the tone with the controls below. Make sure to scope out the Shape control (a hip limiter) and the tone-trashing Bits knob.
If you do have a controller keyboard, stop playback and just jam on the instruments. (Make sure you have OMS installed correctly. The software is on your Pro Tools install disc and is also available from Digi's website.) Then enable your controller within Pro Tools by pulling down the MIDI menu bar and selecting Input Devices. You should see a list of all the MIDI devices in your system. Check the box by the name of your controller. Activate Record on the target MIDI track and have at it. Yet another cool feature of software instruments is the fact that you can instantly modify your tones with other plug-ins. For example, beef up the synth bass tone by inserting the 1-band EQ II plug-in and dialing in a setting like this:
And adding the following Long Delay plug-in setting will impart a cool eeriness to the organ track:
There are countless possibilities here, and that's not even taking into account all the trouble you can get into by editing the MIDI data itself — the subject of an upcoming column. In the meantime, tweak on with your freak on. Click here to read previous columns.
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