PARIS Pro :: E-MU / ENSONIQ

Generally speaking, creating music for hire or even as a hobby can be pretty time consuming. You spend time practicing your instrument(s), writing and arranging to find out that only half of the work is done. If you are working on a demo that needs to go to a lawyer or record company representative, you want that project to sound as good as possible. Doesn't matter if you have a 4-track or if you have a DAW. The music production side is totally different and can be as consuming as the composing and arranging. What I am going to cover in this article is a little of my experience while recording an instrumental song(s) in PARIS, and what one might do when preparing to burn an audio CD of their material.

Just so you know, I used Windows, a P-200MMX (it is not the slowest thing out there, definitely not the fastest though) 64meg of RAM and an IDE hard drive. I used a Mackie CR1604 VLZ mixer, some Sonic Foundry, Arboretum and TC Electronics effect plug-ins, an 8 in card (A8iT), one EDS-1000X and a PARIS III system.

Just so you know, an effect plug-in is a software program that runs inside of a "host" software program (like PARIS or a sample editor) and relies on the computer or host CPU for carrying out its commands. Something like the TC Native reverb or the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in can use up a lot of CPU power. Things will become sluggish and possibly you may experience lock ups and errors (depending on the speed of the CPU and the amount of RAM you have). Maybe a simple chorus or EQ will be less demanding of the CPU. You will be able to use more plug-ins that are simple ones, and obviously less plug-ins if they are more complex effects.

Connections and Setup

Obviously, I had to do my hardware and software installations before beginning. The EDS-1000 only works in a PCI slot on the computer. I gladly took out a networking card that I no longer needed and installed the EDS-1000 into that slot. I also installed a second EDS-1000 (X) and made the proper connections between the EDS's with three ribbon cables according to the manual. The EDS-1000 and EDS-1000X are identical cards. The only difference between an EDS-1000 and an EDS-1000X is that the X version comes with the additional cables needed to connect 2 or more cards together. You might ask, "Why would you want 2 EDS-1000 cards?" The answer would be that you get 16 aux's instead of 8 and 32 live tracks instead of 16. What I mean by "live tracks" is that in PARIS, you get 16 active or live tracks to use until you have to submix (that is, unless you have 2 EDS cards - then you get 32 live tracks). Any PARIS system can go up to 128 tracks no matter what I/O device (Interface 2, Interface 442 or Interface MEC) you have connected to the system. The way the PARIS software gets you to 128 tracks is to sub-mix each group of 16 to get to 128 (If you didn't want to do the math, that is 8 submixes). Something that is great about PARIS, is that it can de-mix a sub-mix. You are not locked into what mixer, effect, or even audio track selections or recordings you have for a sub-mix. They can always be changed and the sub-mix updated.

I installed the A8iT 24-bit 8 input card into my MEC. Be sure that you get the card to slide into the thin white guides that are inside of the MEC. I connected my MEC and C-16 controller to the top (#1) EDS-1000 card and powered up. I used some floppy disk installers that I downloaded from the E-MU / ENSONIQ website. All was okay until I noticed that my C-16 controller faders were not working (nulling). The transport controls did not work either. My problem was user error. I didn't uninstall the older version of PARIS that was on the system first. I also needed to install the most current version of Direct X and Windows Media Player. It pays to read the directions on any download. I installed all of my plug-ins. I did something to be sure there would be no problems with Steinberg Cubase and with PARIS. I found that Cubase had some effect plug-ins as well. I wanted to take advantage of the effects, so I created a new folder on my hard drive and named it VST (PARIS not only uses Direct X plug-ins on the PC, but uses VST plug-ins too). I copied the appropriate .dll files and pasted them into the new VST folder I created. After launching PARIS, I then set my VST Path (Project Window-Settings) to that folder named VST.

Some of you have got to be wondering, "how did you use the Mackie mixer with PARIS?" Here it goes. I figured, hey, I don't want to change the way I work when I am only sequencing or doing post recording work. I didn't want to have to launch PARIS and use it as a mixer just to work out a sequence. How do I get all of my keyboards plugged into PARIS? Patch bay? NO, no, triple no for me. Patch bays confuse me and can sometimes become overwhelming for me. If you do not have the luxury of a mixer with sub groups, that may very well be what you have to do. I was lucky, what I decided to do was to take advantage of the sub grouping on the mixer. I connected each sub group output of the mixer to its own input on the A8iT 8 input module that was in the MEC. With these connections, I was able to connect all of my keyboards to my mixer and continue to work as I wanted and I could also send certain inputs of the mixer to inputs and tracks I wanted to in PARIS without doing reconnections. This was also a cool setup because I got the chance to use my mixer as a phantom power supply, mic preamp, and a means of gain or gain reduction on the inputs going into PARIS.

Sequencing and Tracking into PARIS

I started with a song that I had already sequenced and arranged. I tried syncing a MacIIci to PARIS and I didn't like what was happening. I noticed these little hiccups in my sequences. I then simply "slaved" the Mac to incoming MIDI and not MTC, still had the hiccups. It was not a PARIS problem. It was a combination of several things like an old, archaic version of Logic that does not like to slave to anything and not enough RAM on the Mac. So, I figured, either buy a newer version of Logic and more RAM for the Mac or think of something. What I ended up with was this. I added 1 bar to the beginning of the sequence. I added a click to just the first blank measure. I recorded each track into PARIS with a metronome type click at the beginning of each track. After that was completed, I opened the Editor window in PARIS. I chose the magnify tool and zoomed in to look closely at the tracks. I then used Nudge and Slip in PARIS and lined up the clicks. It was all good! If I noticed some sort of noise on a track or didn't like what was played, I would re-cut the track again until I got it right!

Mixing

Now I was ready to start blending the volumes of the tracks. I got them pretty close to what I thought sounded good. If I noticed some track that was giving me some volume trouble, I compressed it. As an example, my kick drum was kind of soft, then on occasional hits, it would peak out and be really loud. I compressed it at a 4:1 ratio (if it peaks, it will allow that part of the sound that peaked to be 1dB louder for every 4dB increase in volume). I added some "butt" to the kick (Translation: bottom end to thicken the kick drum sound. Yes, that was a pun!) by boosting 80Hz. I used an effect plug-in for that simply because of my lack of knowledge of PARIS. I wanted to boost 80Hz only (I wanted something very narrow). The EQ in PARIS is normally set to Band Pass (meaning that a few other surrounding frequencies will also be boosted when a selected frequency is boosted, that's normal to all EQ's). In my plug-in I could make the bandwidth narrower. In PARIS, Q is the bandwidth control I needed. I could have gotten it as narrow as I wanted it to be in PARIS without having to use a plug-in.

I also wanted no high end to come out on that track. I could have used either a Shelf EQ or a Low Pass Filter. Shelf EQ means simply what it says, when you boost or cut a frequency, it boosts or cuts other frequencies along with it in the shape of a step or shelf. I used a plug-in to get a Low Pass filter, but it all could have been done in the PARIS EQ. There are some squiggly lines in the EQ section called Filter Mode, duh! The Low Pass filter means exactly what it sounds like, it is a filter that only lets "low" frequencies pass. The High Pass filter is the direct opposite of the low pass in that it only lets "high" frequencies through.

I also added higher end EQ to add "air" to some of the tracks by boosting 16K around 3 to 6 dB. The PARIS EQ is more advanced than I thought. Got to read that manual more often!

After this, I decided to pull out some music that most resembled the style of music I was working on. I listened to the mix of that music and compared it to what I had. I know that it is next to impossible to get your mix to sound like a finished CD (on a completed CD there was probably some mastering (EQ and Compression over the entire mix) but get as close as you can. When I say, "compare and try to maybe match elements of a mix," I mean that there are some elements to break down and consider. For example, is the snare drum in your song as bright (EQ) or as loud as the one on the CD? Try boosting an EQ about 5 dB and sweep across the frequency range to find out what certain frequencies do. Do the same for pads, piano, guitar and other instruments. Another trick that took me a long time to understand is panning. I have heard some demos where a person had the snare on the left channel and the kick on the right channel. Unless you are going for some sort of effect or brake down in the tune, I probably would not recommend something like that. You want your mix to be even in the stereo image. That also does not mean that you should not be creative with panning. You can for example, pan all of the drums to one channel and pan the bass to the other channel. Put let's say, a saxophone and trumpet dead center. Now you got that old jazz record panning setup! As another example, I always pan pads, strings and electric pianos "wide" to get the full stereo image. I always pan the acoustic piano wide as well. The Perfect Piano sound I use in my MR Rack is so choice! I want to take full advantage of its panning as well, unless I want it slightly panned to one side. Then, I'll pan one channel full R100 and the other at say L75 or L50. I heard that on a CD once and liked it so much I mimicked it! It is probably a good idea to pan kicks, snares and bass synth and bass guitar dead center. You can pan hats and percussion slightly left or right (of course that depends on your tastes). I sometimes pan percussion a little wider to give them their own space. If your mix sounds all "jumbled up" (not very open), try panning some instruments a little. It will go a long way! Remember that in most good mixes, each instrument has its own space and is not fighting with others (volume and frequency range).

You really only have a few spaces to mix in, left, right, close and far away. We covered some thoughts on left and right panning and covered some basic thoughts with getting a sound to stay "put" with compression. The distance part can be covered with reverb. The wet/dry mix (or balance) of a reverb can determine the distance (close or far away) of that track to the listener. A good example of close mixing is some recent Peter Gabriel, like the CD US. There is a lot of "close" mixing on that CD. Some far away mixing could be something like, most anything from the 80's. A bunch of 80's rock and even dance and R&B had lots of gated reverbs on the drums. Nowadays, lots of things are gritty and close, not too many reverbs with long decays unless it is used as an "effect." As a recommendation, try to avoid reverb on your bass sounds and kicks, it makes the mix mushy sounding. Of course, it depends on if you are going for a certain dramatic effect and your tastes.

I was sure to save my sessions as new names as I went along in PARIS with different mixes. I wanted to be able to go back to the previous version in case I made a mistake. Do not try to do it all in one day. Recording (tracking) and mixing in one day is probably the worst thing you can do. Your ears will be tired, you will be tired. Start fresh on another day.

I normally make changes to a mix and then put it onto a cassette. Run on out to the car with a notebook and take notes. Maybe the snare is too loud, the bass guitar needs some EQ to thicken it up? The Rhodes sound is just buried behind the pads? Take those notes back to the mix and work on it. Maybe pan the pad different from the Rhodes to give it space and make your other necessary adjustments. Go back to tape and back to the car, or a boom box, or even use two sets of speakers in your studio to A/B the mix.

Burn that CD!

In my case I had to get some help from a friend to burn an audio CD. Since I am on a Windows machine, I had to use different software programs to get the whole setup ready to go.

First, I had to do a Bounce to Disk in PARIS. You cannot burn an audio CD from the .paf files on your hard drive. They are just your separate tracks of the project. The Bounce to Disk function creates a Left MONO and a Right MONO file on the hard drive. When you do the Bounce to Disk, it is probably a good idea to set the file type to .wav. That is the file-type that most editors and CD ROM burning software's use on a Windows computer. This is ONLY TRUE if all your files are in 16-bit format! If you have 24-bit files in your project and bounce to .wav, the mix will be truncated to 16-bits. This is a bad thing. If you have 24-bit files, you'll need to bounce to 24-bit .paf mix, then use a utility (like the free one available on the Greatideas PARIS site for PC http://www.greatidea.com/paris/, or Sonicworx for Mac) to DITHER the 24-bit mix to 16-bits. You can dither to any file format, .wav, .sd2, .paf, etc. Those two files have to be "interleaved" into one stereo file by a sample editor like Wavelab Lite (which comes with PARIS). Wavelab Lite is cool also because it opens .paf files. The .paf file is the native file format of the PARIS system.

After the stereo file is created, you then will want to use your sample editor to truncate the beginning of the stereo wave. You don't want to burn a CD with the blank space at the beginning of each song, do you? Nope. So after you trim it as good as you can, then do the same at the end of the file. If you didn't add a fade out in the automation of PARIS, then you will have to do one here in your editor.

In my case I had to do some volume matching and I auditioned the way the CD was going to sound using CD Architect. I tried different playing orders of the songs and adjusted the volume on the songs to get an even flow from song to song. In CD Architect, go to write disk and that's it!

Believe me when I say that this seems like this hug wall to have to climb. Not so, like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get! My first mixes and songs really left a lot to be desired. I am sure I will say the same thing a year from now.

Eric Montgomery is a published author, song writer/producer and an E-MU / ENSONIQ Technical Support Representative.