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New Year, New Plug-ins What better way to celebrate the holidays than with digital lust? Specifically, lust for the latest batch of the LE-compatible virtual instruments. We'll scope out a trio of cool ones: Arturia's CS-80V synthesizer, Yellow Tools' Culture percussion module, and Applied Acoustic's Lounge Lizard electric piano. Meanwhile, we'll discuss strategies for using virtual instruments in Pro Tools LE, and revisit that topic dear to the heart of every LE user: Workarounds for those occasions when your musical imagination outstrips your computer's CPU. Cardinal Synth
Download the demo version at http://www.arturia.com/en/demos.lasso?-token.product=cs80v. It doesn't permit you to save your sounds, and it emits an intermittent noise burst, but other than that, it's the full-featured deal. Install. Restart Pro Tools. Create a session, or use the 107bpm beat loop session we've been abusing in recent columns, a copy of which is available here for Mac and Windows.
Remember how to set up virtual instruments in Pro Tools? You need two tracks: a MIDI track to control the synth, and a stereo audio track for it to play back through. Memorize the track-creation key commands: Command/Ctrl + Shift + N opens the new track window: Command/Ctrl + <--/--> selects mono or stereo, and Command/Ctrl + Up/Down arrow scrolls you through the four available track types.
Make sure your MIDI keyboard and/or interface is enabled under the MIDI-->Input Devices menu. While you're there, open the MIDI-->MIDI Beat Clock view and enable the CD-80V, which will let you sync the CS-80Vs delay,
Check out some sounds. The fastest way: Click/hold on the "Bank" button in the plug-in's upper left corner, and scroll down to "All," which reveals nested menus organized by effect category and patch.
I started out by making a simple little 107bpm syndrum pattern using kick, snap, and hat sounds from the CS-80V’s percussion presets: But by the time I'd added a third voice, my laptop was feeling the strain. Bummer — I was just starting to think about all the synth layers I wanted to hear over the beat. The workaround, of course, is to bounce to disk. (Actually, another possibility is to assign multiple timbres to a synth via keyboard splits. But let's focus on the bouncing for now, because it's something that most LE users must do frequently.) Remember the bounce move? First, decide what elements you want the bounced track to include. I merged all three synth sounds to a single stereo track, though you could bounce each one individually if you wanted to reserve more control for later in the mix. Make sure you're hearing exactly what you want before commencing each bounce — turn off click tracks and any other audio material you don't want included. When you select "Bounce to Disk" from the file menu, you get this screen:
Next, give the tracks names that will help you sort them out should you decide to reactivate them. For example, use the same name for the paired audio and MIDI tracks, but with the letters MIDI appended to the latter. Finally, remove them from the session by clicking on each track name in the "Show/Hide" list. Now you have a nice, clean layout — and lots of CPU power freed up for additional overdubs. I'm tempted to keep adding CS-80V tracks — you could construct the wickedest Blade Runner vibe here — but let's move on and check out some other new plugs. Follow the above instructions for setting up the plug-ins and bouncing the tasty bits to disk. Yellow Tools' Culture Culture ($399 MSRP) specializes in percussion sounds. It comes with a whopping nine gigs of samples. There's a great mix of ethnic and orchestral percussion sounds, plus a ton of cool, clanking, clunking industrial junk (barrels, trash cans, watering cans, etc.). It's not a drum kit box, though it does include some fine orchestral snare and bass drum samples. No less remarkable than the excellent samples are the skillful layering and ergonomic keyboard layouts. Culture feels as good as it sounds. Here I created two stereo tracks of metal percussion with Culture: a scratchy metal grid and a noisy thunder sheet: Then I bounced the combined sounds to disk, freeing up power for the next new effect.
Applied Acoustic's Lounge Lizard
It does a fine job of rounding up all the usual Rhodes and Wurly suspects, but it also lets you lead your sounds into unfamiliar territory, thanks to a host of built-in effects and arcane modeling parameters. Unfortunately, Applied Acoustic doesn't yet have a downloadable demo on their site, but they've posted audio examples. Here's another one: One of Lounge Lizard's slickest features is the way it lets you synchronize its tremolo, phasing, wah, and delay effects to your session's tempo. Just make sure you check the appropriate box in the "MIDI Beat Clock" list. Here's how the piano part sounds against the syndrums and metal percussion: I'm stopping here, but there's no reason you should. Once you master the bounce-to-disk move, you can slather on those textural overdubs like the longest-haired of Euro-synth soundtrack dudes.
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