Incoherence: A stereo frequency visualizing mixing aid

I googled across a brilliant looking tool the other day. It's a standalone application for PPC macs called Incoherence from the blasphemously named OMG Audio.

What it does, is listen to incoming audio and plot it on a graph with the X axis representing the stereo field (mono sounds appear in the middle) and the Y axis representing frequency (bass sounds at the bottom). It's a way to visualise the spatial and timbral arrangement of audio in a mix--great for helping to identify and fix masking issues, and for making sure that you're properly taking advantage of the stereo field. This is the kind of meter that the main DAWs should include built-in by now.

Of course Incoherence can be put to good use 'visualising' your own mixes; with an audio piping tool like soundflower you can use it to see the audio coming out of your DAW as you mix. But the blurb on the website points out another very important potential use for Incoherence, particularly for those getting started with mixing audio: It can be used to analyse other people's mixes and to 'see' what they've done.

'Trust your ears' is a mantra you'll hear echoing through most audio forums. What this rule of thumb misses though is that you need to train your ears before you can really trust them. And this is exactly where a tool like incoherence comes in.

Is it really as useful as I hope? I'll know for sure after an Intel compatible version is released.

Until then what are the alternatives?

There's Spectrafoo's 'phase torch' meter, which comes close, but Spectrafoo costs $400. If you own Reaktor there's also FAST meter in the user library, but it's a heavy CPU hog.

Slim pickings!

Consistent mixes with K-14 monitor calibration: Getting started

Here I've made a little video documenting the simple steps I took to get started using the K-14 scale for mixing in a home studio. I've read lots of enthusiastic reports about using this system so I'm giving it a try. YMMV.

As well as perhaps being useful for other people, I'm putting this up here to double check that I've understood the principle correctly. So if you see that I've done something strange please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

For background information on the K-system, and to find out what the fuss is about is see these pages: link, link

Record stop: Turntable pitch drop audiounit plugin for OS X

So I've cobbled together a very simple AU plugin using Sonic Birth.

For a while I had looked around for a 'record stop' insert plugin for OSX, something that I could add to a signal path, which would recreate the effect of a record slowing to a stop when the turntable platter loses power. Bizarrely, Ableton Live (version 7 and lower) offers no way to recreate this effect. Although you can automate transpose of an audio clip, it doesn't allow you to do so if the clip's warp mode is set to Re-pitch, which it would need to be to emulate the slowing platter.

If you'd like to use the plugin, do the following:

1. If you don't already have it, install sonic birth (provides the framework necessary for the plug to work).
2. Install the Record Stop SB component
3. If you want to tinker with the circuit, download the source file

Ableton Live: How to fake groove quantize

Ableton Live (v7 and lower) is lousy when it comes to working with grooves. But there's a workaround that might be useful until Ableton incorporates real groove quantize support in a future version of Live.

The workaround makes it possible to get midi and audio clips to match the groove of a 'master clip'. To get this working you need to set up warp markers on an audio clip and then specify that the clip's warp grid should modify the master tempo of the set. This creates a master tempo automation pattern. The is automation pattern continually nudges your set's tempo forward and back so that the grid lines in the arrange view correspond to the warp points you set up in the master clip.

If that description was a little hard to follow, watch the video below and it will become clear.

Gotchas:

1. If you need to change tempo during a track this method isn't suitable.
2. Be careful that you disable warp on single-hit clips that you place on the timeline, unless you want them smeared as the master tempo changes!
3. Currently, Live only 'notices' the song tempo automation at the beginning of each 16th measure, so you may find in order to transfer a groove at an acceptable 'resolution' it may be necessary to double the song tempo before beginning this process.
4. If you're using tempo synchronised effects (eg. a delay), these will behave unpredictably if your master tempo is fluctuating rapidly.