iZotope/BT Stutter Edit Plug-In and Nord Piano 88 Introduced at NAMM

Gigging musicians will want to check out the Nord Piano 88, which has been designed with live performance in mind. This new 88-key stage piano from Nord weighs in at just 39.6 pounds, but it’s heavy on features.

In addition to 24 banks of 5 programs totaling 120 different program possibilities, it includes modeling of sympathetic string resonance and authentic pedal noise, which capture the realism of an acoustic upright or grand piano. The factory sounds loaded into the piano memory can also be exchanged and replaced with new sounds from the Nord piano library, which are free and downloadable from the Nord website through the Piano 88’s USB connectivity. MIDI over USB is also available with this unit, in addition to standard 5-pin MIDI connectors.

The Nord Piano 88 feature set includes the standards as well, with three bands of EQ, three amp models, six reverb algorithms (two each of stage, hall, and room), and an effects library with the usual suspects. Some handy global and panel options on the unit: the transpose feature, with a range of -6 to +6 semitones, and Kbd touch, which allows you to alter the velocity response of the piano. Finally, the Piano 88 comes with a triple pedal, with sustain, soft pedal, and sostenuto, to make full use of the capabilities of this piano player’s keyboard.

Also announced at NAMM and available now is the Stutter Edit plug-in from iZotope. The result of a collaboration with electronica musician BT (’stutter edit’ is his signature musical technique), the plug-in is a playable effect for laptop performers on stage or in the studio.

The Stutter Edit performs real time audio slicing and manipulation, with gate, pan, delays, filters, and lo-fi settings in addition to the stutter effects. Designed with an intuitive MIDI control layout that allows you to play the effect as if it were an instrument, the plugin allows on-the-spot rhythmic variation effects and sonic coloring.

“Stutter Edit exists because I wanted to step on stage with a laptop and improvise the complex and musical rhythmic effects that sometimes took me days of trial and error to create,” explains BT. “I’m elated to partner with iZotope and unveil Stutter Edit to the world, and I can’t wait to see what other producers, composers and sound designers will do with this insane new effect. I truly believe this will dramatically change the topography and scope of what is possible with live sound design and remixing.”

To hear the full potential of the effects engine, check out this demo video, or listen to audio examples of the various effects on iZotope’s features page. The Stutter Edit will be available for $149 through Feb. 14, and $249 thereafter.

– Mike Bauer for Delicious Audio

For Orchestra Accelerates: Building Up an Online Music Business, the Natural Way

MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN: There’s more than one way to be a rock star. For Walt Ribeiro, Founder of NYC-based For Orchestra, the path to a global music stage is paved with bass clarinets, bowed tremolos – and a brainy, instinctual knowledge of the ‘Net.

Driven with a by-all-means-necessary mindset when it comes to forging a musical career, Ribeiro first made his mark as the “Internet’s Music Teacher,” building a worldwide audience for his online video lessons as he slyly sold his original classical music on the side. But trial and error can be a beautiful thing, and his first venture taught him that there was a more profitable and satisfying outlet for his symphonic talents.

Enter For Orchestra, which unleashes a new orchestral hit pop song arrangement every week onto iTunes, Amazon, and beyond. With a repertoire covering Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi, Weezer, Kings of Leon, Michael Jackson and multiple “guilty pleasures”, Ribeiro’s fast-increasing sales shows that he’s struck a chord. Here, Ribeiro shares his insights on how music pros of all stripes can put the Web to work for their passion.

How did you first get interested in starting For Orchestra?
I released a CD in 2006, and it failed miserably. So then I started teaching music online, which was fun for a bit, but got old because I started feeling like a video editor rather than a musician.

Sometime in 2008 as I was teaching, just for fun I released Jonathan Coulton’s song “Code Monkey” for orchestra, and saw how much his community loved it. They asked for more – that’s when the idea struck me that I should be arranging other songs rather than my own. Plus, it was incredibly fun.

That’s a good, organic way to start a business venture. Once you have an idea, what’s necessary to make a site like this tick?
Doing it every day. Being passionate about it. I also love writing, so my blog has helped a lot because I receive good traffic from people who find my website through search results, and then discover my company.

I also know a little bit about Web design – so that’s huge too, because over time I’ve tweaked my site for better user experience, navigation, aesthetics, and more, which has helped tremendously with sales. And then there’s my understanding of how the social web and certain sites work, so I use them to not only find my audience, but also stay in touch with them.

It helps to be a Swiss Army Knife to get ahead on the Web. On the content side, how do you pick what song you’re going to cover on For Orchestra — what makes the cut?
iTunes is a big teller of what’s going to work. So is Youtube. Lately, I’ve been deciding to arrange songs that are recently popular, so I’ll arrange them within a week or two of being released. This is great because as the search results and interest level of people are highest, my orchestration is a lead to that traffic.

After that, once you’ve committed to a song selection, how do you go about orchestrating and arranging the cover?
I start off with the MP3, sheet music, and sometimes I even refer to tabs depending on the voicing of the chords that a piano can’t tackle. So with my piano and guitar in hand I slowly transcribe and reference the piece into a piano two-hands with vocals.

From there, I arrange it part-by-part for the orchestra. Sometimes I’ll edit sections out, add a section in, slow the tempo, or even have the climactic moment in the piece be performed by a solo flute so it’s the softest part of my arrangement. It’s all about tension and release, and leaving your audience surprised – both in the song selection, and in the final arrangement that they hear.

What a meticulous process, especially if you’re racing to get it online while the original is still a hit. After the orchestration, how do you actually produce the song? Do you ever record live instruments for For Orchestra?
I have never recorded live instruments for any pieces yet. I’m not against it, I just haven’t had to. My current library consists of Sibelius to arrange the piece, then EastWest samples, Digital Performer 7, Grado headphones, and a few plugins for my DAW all running through my MacBook Pro for the production.

What was the most challenging song to orchestrate so far?
BT “Simply Being Loved” and The Roots‘ “Seed 2.0” were both incredibly difficult. The reason for this is simple: techno has so many layers in it – from synths, sound effects, stuttering vocals, and more. And hip hop has very fast, usually unpitched vocals.

As a result, the hardest and most time-consuming part of it all is the transcribing, and making sure you’re getting every last characteristic so that it remains as powerful and brilliant as the original.

Orchestrating isn’t something our nation’s youth is gravitating to en masse, but it certainly seems to get you going. Why do you get so excited about orchestrating in general, but especially doing it for pop songs?
It’s about changing the world. I feel that orchestras today have become “Beethoven Cover Bands”. Could you imagine if every movie theater today only played the same 25 movies in rotation? And people wonder why orchestras go out of business… it’s because there’s nothing innovative about them. With new music would come new ideas, new stories, new performers, new interests – and ultimately, new audiences.

That’s HEAVY. So do you ever get feedback from the original artists on your work — what have they said?
Motley Crue liked my “Dr. Feelgood” arrangement, The Spinto Band told their community about it. I also bumped into Questlove and so I sent it to him, and when I was at SXSW I met Tom Morello and his manager Michelle, mentioned I arranged (Rage Against the Machines’) Bulls on Parade, and they wanted to check it out.

Once a song is complete and out there, how do you market it? Are there a lot of different revenue streams available for these covers?
If you do a recent song, then you pretty much let the search engines do the marketing for you. Then the community takes over, and they’re eager to share such a weird idea to their friends. A lot of it is word of mouth – which, in this high tech, social Web world, is an important point to make: The internet is great, but it’s a destination, not a replacement.

My revenue streams are mainly MP3 sales. It used to be sheet music sales, but now that the catalog is available on iTunes, Amazon, our Website, and more – we’ve seen a considerable jump in sales.

My target audiences are the diehard fans of the arrangements I do. If you’re a Pearl Jam fan and I arrange a Pearl Jam song for orchestra, you’ll love my work. I don’t target classical enthusiasts because they usually don’t like the bands I arrange, but that’s OK with me. I’m more concentrated on bringing in new audiences and sounds.

Besides, I feel it’s easier to get someone who likes Rage Against the Machine to segue into liking Beethoven, than it is for someone who likes Beethoven to start listening to a Rage song. These fans are looking for a fresh take on the song they love. There’s something beautiful about combining the amazing texture of the classical orchestra with today’s music. It’s awesome.

Let’s tawk LICENSING. What are the different kinds of licensing concerns you have to take into consideration for cover songs?
When you first start out, you have to prove yourself to several publishers — that you’re serious and worth their time. Another obstacle we had to overcome was learning what avenues were more profitable among sheet music sales, MP3 sales, merchandise, consulting, freelance orchestrations, etc…

The problem with those two obstacles is that they take time – sometimes a year or two – to overcome, or analyze. Money can solve a website glitch, or an equipment failure, but time is limited.

I use Harry Fox for everything right now because I’ve been using them since day one. I looked into Limelight, but haven’t ruled them out. Synch licensing is difficult because they’re not Compulsory like mechanical sales are. As a result, since some songs have up to five publishers, it can be extremely time-consuming to get all parties together.

Mechanicals give me the freedom to not have to negotiate anything, which is why I generate lots of iTunes sales and more – because I can concentrate on marketing, staying in touch with my community, and creating more content and arrangements for them.

Data is EVERYTHING, right? Since you’ve launched, what kind of reception have you gotten for For Orchestra so far — and what do you envision next?

Great reception – we’re profitable, and grow every month. That alone, is a huge success. As a result, now we can concentrate on performances, new arrangements, and interesting ideas and collaborations. I like the idea of how we’re all starting to move to the cloud — the idea of everything being on the Internet. So I can imagine many group collaborations with the audience in real time – all with our cell phones and computers on stage.

Let us in on it! What would you say are the big lessons you learned from your previous endeavors that allowed you to make For Orchestra work for you?
Don’t assume. Be patient. Be different. And that it’s not only OK to fail – but that it’s required.

On the flipside, I guess the toughest thing is just learning to be happy. Not every crash cymbal is going to be perfect, not every image on the website will sit beautifully with the others, not every song is going to be a viral success. Once I stopped caring about all that stuff I’ve been having lots more fun with it!

Oui, don’t worry be happy! Now, what advice would you have for someone who’s looking to find their own particular niche in our ultra-competitive music business?
Be weird. If its an interesting idea, tells a story, is worth spreading, and is something that makes your eyes light up when you talk about it or do it – then it’s for you. It’s all about niche marketing – I’ve learned to stop trying to please everybody.

Also, it’s not about creating a fanbase – it’s about creating a friendbase. You’re not building a loose community of millions, you should be creating a tight family of hundreds.

We know that music really inspires you – what else gets your mind moving?
I get inspired by thinking about the future. Every arrangement arranged draws another step closer to a concert, great idea, and spreading the orchestra.

A great music business innovator is Jose Antonio Abreu. In a year, he grew one of the best youth orchestras in the world, and changed the landscape of an entire country’s music education, accessibility, and future. So cool.

Does being NYC-based make it easier for you to grow For Orchestra? Or is this a more challenging location to work from?
A lot of my connections have come from me living in NYC. I first moved up here from Philadelphia because many of my sponsors in my music show were based here. After starting For Orchestra, I’ve learned lots of music publishers, independent bands, orchestras, and interesting people were all around me (here in NYC).

There’s something about being in an ecosystem that makes you grow through osmosis. Sure, I could do this in another place, but where else would I draw my inspiration from? Music is a product of our imaginations and our experiences – so to be surrounded by people who want to change the world, take risks, express through art, think big, be weird, and go out and do something new every day – there’s no better medicine for your work and creativity to draw from.

– David Weiss

BT Remakes Mastering at The Lodge with “These Hopeful Machines”

ASTOR PLACE, MANHATTAN: A man capable of making 6,178 stutter edits in one song, it’s easy to see how a micromanager like BT might somehow miss the big picture. But really, it makes much more sense that BT is quickly evolving methods of mastering just as he slowly, surely is evolving the meaning of music.

There was no such thing as “set it and forget it” when mastering These Hopeful Machines, BT’s expansive — and often deeply amazing – sixth studio album (released Feb. 2).  No setting was safe at The Lodge in NYC, where Chief Mastering Engineer Emily Lazar and Mastering Engineer Joe LaPorta would be challenged like never before by a project.

A double disc outpouring of electronic adventures from one of today’s most forward-thinking musical artists, Machines enriches BT’s ability to lovingly lock synths, six-strings, vocals, space, production advances and pure emotion. Songs like the darkly pulsating “Light in Things”, the thickly enchanting “A Million Stars”, and the heartbreakingly  addictive “Any Other Way” dare the new decade to step up.

BT, Lazar and LaPorta told us why this finishing process may be the start of something.

Q: BT, This may sound obvious, but why is mastering essential to the success of realizing your vision for an album?
BT: Especially the way music is consumed now, mastering is both the “glue” and the “shine” that makes a recording sound professional. From a personal vantage point, the complexity and precision of my recording and producing process requires an extraordinary attention to detail in mastering. ALL the songs were mastered as stems and all with dynamic – i.e. changing over the course of the composition — compression, EQ and various other settings.

Q: Emily and Joe — What did you learn from mastering previous projects with BT? Why was it valuable to have worked with him previously?
Emily: Well, I first started working with BT back in 2003. Gaëtan Schurrer, a Lodge client and mutual friend, recommended to Brian (Transeau AKA BT) that he call me to master his fourth album, Emotional Technology.  Since then, we’ve also happily mastered his 2006 release, This Binary Universe and, of course, his most recent release These Hopeful Machines.

When we work with an artist who is acutely aware of what he/she wants from the mastering process, communication is crucial. Having worked with him before made it both easier to understand his needs and concerns, as well as to address them. In working together on previous releases, we’ve built a relationship where we were able to maintain an open dialogue.

Over the years that conversation has spanned a lot of topics from musical to personal, but for These Hopeful Machines our dialogue was filled with creative, technical ideas to try to reach for the sounds that BT was looking to harness. As far as the mastering on this record is concerned, the addition of Joe LaPorta as Co-Mastering Engineer was invaluable. He brought his own sensibilities to the table, and I think we have an amazing end result because of that.

Joe: BT is really a brilliant composer, sound designer, programmer and musician.  He is also technically articulate — I mean, this guy thinks in samples and frames!  Mastering a project with him is exciting because you know that it’s going to challenge the listener and sound like nothing he’s ever done before.

Q: What were BT’s expectations/needs from the mastering for “These Hopeful Machines”? How did both sides communicate about this before the mastering process began?

Emily: There were a lot of phone calls and emails before he even sent us the first mixes.  It is really essential to our whole process to get on the same wavelength with our clients, because as mastering engineers our desire is not to superimpose The Lodge’s aesthetics on top of a record, but rather to facilitate an artist’s ability to lead us to its completion.

BT was really clear about wanting Machines to remain electronic, but to translate a bit differently than his previous releases. With this album, BT stepped into a more “rock”- oriented territory, adding lots of crunchy, distorted guitars and very large-sounding drums.  He really wanted to find a way to enhance that explosive organic rock sound in certain sections of songs — particularly during the climactic choruses — while still highlighting the programming that he is so well known for in others.

With this particular project, BT did a lot of experimentation with us in the pre-production stage to find the “sound” for this record. For example, we played around with printing analog as well as digital source mixes from BT’s stems, and did a whole lot of comparative listening until we found that right “sound.”

Joe: And being that These Hopeful Machines has a lot of material that is very intricate and carefully composed, it was important that we had a very clear idea of BT’s feelings about everything before beginning. One of the most creative conversations for this record started when we began to throw around ideas about using analog tape to achieve some of BT’s desired dynamics, sonic transitions and effects.  I think this was the crucial piece of the puzzle that translated into the punchy, organic sound he wanted.

BT: Well, honestly some of these songs demanded to be printed to tape. It was such a joy to do this — and God I forgot how glorious tape sounds. A plug-in will NEVER sound like that!

Q: I understand there was a pretty unusual workflow to master Machines. How would you describe the way the group worked on mastering the album?

Emily: There were some unique challenges that required some slightly unorthodox thinking to overcome, definitely. We suggested something that we always offer to all of our clients looking for a more analog sound after recording and mixing in a digital world — and discussed the possibility of transferring the tweaked stem mixes in stereo to 1” tape to find the warmth and depth that he was looking for. He was thrilled with the sound for certain sections and yet wanted to retain the digital source mix for others.

Joe: At that point we suggested that it was ALL possible, and we gave him some options where he could hear the different source mixes edited together into one cohesive track. It really worked well and we were all pretty excited editing together analog source mixes and digital source mixes multiple times seamlessly within one song. It was quite the effort, but we’re certain that the masters sound that much better because of it!

BT: Many — if not most — of the songs were mastered in sections. There was a discovery process in even arriving at this approach.

Basically, I would give Emily a song and say, “Let’s try a digital mastering with various compression/EQ settings, and also let’s print it to 1″ 30ips  and try a 1/2″ at 15ips”, or whatever.

We’d iterate on ideas before even touching the song. After we did literally one song like this, I was like, “Wow, Emily I love chorus on version D — the 1/2″ one — but the digital with heavy compression is unreal for verse 1″. We literally ended up making comp maps, cutting together various versions, and even doing overall amplitude rides on these final, and sometimes very complicated, comps. It was CRAZY and to my ears sounds spectacular. The Lodge is the only place that would do something like this with me, and — wow — did it ever make a difference. If they don’t win an award for it, there’s no justice.

Emily: …And BT was also very open to our suggestions regarding his album sequence.

Joe: Yes, with that many tracks sequencing and transitions can be tricky. We worked together on the best possible flow to tell the album’s story, and BT was very receptive to our input.

Q: Drilling down, was there a particular song or songs that stand out to you as good examples of the above?
Joe: That would be giving away some of the fun of exploring the record! It does take away some of the wonder about what you’re experiencing if we point to it, but check out the album version of “Every Other Way”.

Emily: I agree. Or you could also take a listen to “Suddenly” – that would be another good example. I have to say that BT’s vision for this album is to be listened to from start to finish, like people used to do with vinyl. The sequencing was crafted with that in mind.  He named the first disc “Side A”, and the second disc “Side B”.

All I can say is this album is a beautiful journey and each “side” is meant to be listened to from beginning to end.

BT: “Every Other Way” and “Suddenly” — the album versions. They are mastering masterpieces. Emily and Joe are the baddest of all bad asses. The end. No one but them could have done this work.

Q: There were plenty of the BT trademark stutter edits on display. Is there anything that had to be watched out for in particular when mastering songs with a lot of these distinctive sounds?
Joe: Absolutely! There were many, many times we had to double-check whether or not certain sounds were intentional or not.

Emily: That being said, BT is an absolute genius with his programming– he gave us stems for all of the mixes…

Joe: Right…that way if there was ever a question about one of the stutter effects, we could either open up the stem track and check it out or get in touch with him directly.

BT: Stutter edits make mastering harder! Emily repeatedly was like, “Is this three-sample click, right channel, at 9:51 intentional?” Half the time the answer was “Yes”, and half, “No”! It makes it super hard to (have to) stay conscious right up to this album’s final moments of birth. Machines was nowhere near finished until it was mastered.

Emily: This record was a match made in heaven. For us, mastering is a unique combination of two distinct things: the creative with the technical. All music tries to relate some kind of a story to the listener, and we exist to help tell that story.

It felt completely natural to be working on These Hopeful Machines, because, to me, the message of the album focuses on the bridge between the human and the inhuman, man and machine, and what the two can hope to accomplish when working in harmony. In that way the album truly hit upon our mantra as a studio.

Joe: I completely agree. Plus, it’s always great to work with an artist who has such a clear creative vision for his album, yet remains open-minded enough to discover what we can add to take it to the next level. We see mastering itself as really all about that dialogue, that give and take – it’s the subtle blend of technical precision and artistic flair.

Q: Why is Machines an important addition to BT’s catalog, and the musical universe in general — assuming you feel that this album is as big a deal as I do!
Joe: Machines is epic!  The detailed textures and swing variations of “Le Nocturne de Lumière” really stand out to me, and the glitchy drum finale of “Every Other Way” instantly blew me away.  The overall sound design and production techniques featured in this album are inspiring, and I believe it’s probably his most emotional and moving release to date.

Emily: These Hopeful Machines is a fantastic record. I would love to say that it’s my favorite in the catalog, but everything he’s done has always been a groundbreaking awesome step in a new direction, so I can’t really rank them against each other. Both Joe and I were deeply honored to have been able to work intimately with BT on his latest, soon to be legendary, success! – David Weiss