Side-chaining in SX4

Audiotuts has a pretty clear tutorial on setting up side-chainable plugins in Cubase SX4. It takes you through setting up a few different plugins and is easy to follow.
Side-chaining is a useful technique for creating rhythmical effects in your compositions.

FilePhile

FilePhile is a free file transfer app that lets you transfer files of any size between two computers.
It looks pretty simple to setup and use.

Recording the Beatles

mixonline reports about a panel discussion which took place in the States the other day in which the authors of the book Recording the Beatles discussed their research for their book. They were joined by an engineer from Abbey Road who worked with the beatles and George Martin.

"While a great many entertaining stories were told, there were also solid audio engineering tips for the audience to apply to their own work. Most practical was when Ryan played back audio examples of the before-and-after of George Martin’s famed half-speed recording techniques on songs such as “In My Life” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” He observed that although this process is still available to engineer/producers today, it remains underused, serving as a solid reminder that we can still channel the recording wisdom of The Beatles as we work within our DAWs."

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There is a video available of the session.

Gleetchlab

Gleetchlab is

"a stand-alone software for glitch music authoring and sound design. Gleetchlab is a modular software designed for realtime sound manipulation.
Features include convolution, granular, neural and attractors synthesis, spectral filtering, loop points manipulation, CD skip and wow & flutter simulation, vst plugins hosting, webcam controllers."

I've not had chance to download and play yet, but the features sound interesting and its free!
Might be a useful starting point for anyone interested in starting with MaxMSP to see what kinds of things can be done.

FMOD on iphone

FMOD, a toolkit for the development and creation of interactive audio is now available on the iPhone.
Company quote:

"We’re proud to bring FMOD to this exciting platform. FMOD is a natural fit for the iPhone with its support for sequenced music formats such as mod and midi, compressed samples and small code size. Users can keep it small, or scale right up to take full advantage of the microphone, 3D audio and suite of DSP effects that FMOD natively supports. Being conscious of the budget nature of iPhone development we are also releasing the API at a special iPhone price of $500 per title. This includes the use of FMOD Designer. By combining the power of the iPhone and FMOD we hope to see some really creative programs and hear some great sounding games."

Could be an interesting area for student projects...

Game Audio Explosion

I've just been reading an article posted here which is primarily aimed at game audio, but sould also be useful to people working on sound for film.
Key points:
- It is important that your audio team all understand what their role within the project is and that they all know what is expected of them. This will allow them to focus their efforts more effectively and produce higher quality work. It is fine for poeple to help out with other roles/jobs but ultimately it must be one persons role to oversee each area.
- The planning stage is extremely important. In your planning, think about the characters and locations and the style/type of sounds that would be generated/created by each.
- You can use emotional responses to certain sounds to help people to "understand" the emotional content of a scene quicker and more easily.
- It is very important to consider the frequency response of the sounds that are being created and how these will work when large numbers of sounds are combined. You don't want sounds fighting for the same space within a mix.

The article also contains a few brief tips for creating effective explosion sounds.

Rob Nokes - Sound Seminar

Rob Nokes, a sound recordist and supervising sound editor gives a seminar on sound for film.
He answers the following questions:
What is the job of a sound editor?
In your job what audio is expected of you to deliver?
What happens if you steal sounds?
How do you prove copyright?
In your job what audio is expected of you to deliver?
What bit depth do you record at?
Detail the sound equipment you actually use.
How did you make monster sounds sound real?
What makes a good sound?
Why is it best to record clean?
Is it better to have actors do adr?
Is there another way to avoid adr?
What is 'smoothing' or EQ?
Do you process while you record?
Is it better to have actors do adr?
Is there another way to avoid adr?
What is 'smoothing' or EQ?
Do you process while you record?
What is a series?
How best to record gunshots?
How do you make a sound bigger?
How close to the sound or actor do you record?
Do you change your levels while recording?
How best do you cut background sounds in?
What mic technique would you use to record a room?
How can you control loud sounds?
What is your underwater technique?
How did you create your favourite sound?
Do you record everything?