I’ve been getting a lot of requests for a long time on helping users understand synths, many of you know that I’m a big fan of programming sounds or pimping presets. Rather than concentrate on one synth like Hybrid, Massive or any of the other great VIs, I decided to unpack the principles that will translate onto any VI or hardware synth, so follow this to program anything from Venom to Vacuum and more!

So here’s my latest offering and here’s the marketing blurb from the Groove 3 team.

Have your ever wanted to get under the hood of your synths? Are you tired of using presets and wished you knew how to make the changes needed to get the sound you want? Well look no further. “Synths Explained” is aimed at the beginner who wants to understand what synths are, how they work and how to program them to get the sound you want.

This awesome series by synth master Russ Hughes covers everything from the basics right though to complex sound design including subtractive, FM, wavetable, granular and sampled based synthesis. The series is aimed at anyone who lacks the confidence to start taking control of their synths.

This collection is useful to anyone using synthesisers in their productions and is not limited to any one product. Even better, much of the training is done using the Fxpansion DCAM: Synth Squad synths, specifically so that users can download a fully working 30 day trial and use them to follow along with the video examples.

By the end of this series you will be creating your own sounds and pimping your presets, so get “Synths Explained” today! More here

For illustration purposes onlyIn a bid to keep the Pro Tools community up to date with AAX plug-in development, Pro Tools Expert have created a FREE searchable AAX database.

Avid, Vendors and community members are being encouraged to take part in this excercise, to ensure that everyone in the community is as informed as they possibly can be. More here

In some ways that’s a silly title to this post, as up until now the English speaking part of the blog has been mainly my output, notwithstanding the amazing team who look after the international parts of the blog!

However, not wishing to detract from the main point of this post, I am delighted to announce that Eric Johnson, who up until now has been helping the blog as-and-when, has joined the AIR Users Blog as Community Development Manager.

The Community Development Manager will implement the Blog’s Online Community Strategy, managing engagement and interactivity with its audience, and fostering community spirit. He will also assist in our continuing partner development.

It was during my time in NAMM 2012, that it become apparent what great skills and personality Eric has. Therefore once we returned from NAMM we entered into discussions about his closer involvement. I am so thrilled to have him join the team, the blog was becoming limited by my lack of time and certain skills, (a long list) that I know Eric brings to this role. If nothing else, he is helping translate some of my British into American!

Please join me in welcoming Eric!

Russ talks to M-Audio Venom synth creator Taiho Yamada about the Venom synth, synths and making new sounds.

Click to play

The concluding part of Russ’ session on mastering MID edits in Pro Tools.

There are some concerns from the Pro Tools community about how far Avid have progressed porting their own plug-ins to AAX. I also have confirmation that all the virtual instruments are being ported to AAX. Watch the NAMM 2012 AAX interview here.

Here is the definitaive list of Avid AAX plug-ins ported to date.

• BF-76
• Bomb Factory BF-2A
• ChannelStrip
• Dither
• DownMixer
• Dynamics III
• EQ III
• Impact
• Invert-Duplicate
• LoFi
• Maxim
• ModDelay_III
• Normalize-Gain
• Pultec EQH-2
• Pultec EQP-1A
• Pultec MEQ-5
• RectiFi
• Reel Tape Saturation
• Reel Tape Delay
• Reel Tape Flanger
• Reverse-DC Removal
• Reverb One
• Revibe
• SPL DrumXchanger
• SciFi
• SignalGenerator
• Smack
• TimeAdjuster
• Trim
• VariFi

Third Party vendors committed to the platform so far; PLEASE NOTE SOME HAVE ONLY ANNOUNCED NATIVE VERSIONS SO FAR.

• BIAS
• Blue Cat Audio
• Brainworx (including Elysia, Magic Audio, SPL, and Vertigo)
• Cool Stuff Labs
• Crane Song
• Cytomic
• DMG Audio
• Dolby Laboratories
• DUY
• Eventide
• FabFilter Software Instruments
• Flux
• iZotope
• Kush Audio
• Longcat
• Maag Audio
• Massenburg Labs
• McDSP
• Metric Halo
• Neyrinck
• Overloud
• Pro Audio DSP
• Slate Digital
• Softube (including Summit Audio, Tonelux, Trident, Tube Tech, and Valley People)
• Sonnox
• Sound Toys
• Stillwell
• Waves
• Wave Arts
• Wholegrain Digital Systems

Just a tiny selection of the out-takes and bloopers of Russ Hughes from NAMM 2012. It just goes to show that we all need plenty of takes and some good editing!

WARNING: Some bad language, due to me forgetting who I am, who my interviewees were and even where I was! ENJOY!

I think this guy has spent a week working with the AIR Users Blog team. Sorry for the poor quality, if you want to complain about the quality, then realise this video is about you!

For the rest of you… enjoy!

Avid have taken six awards at NAMM, awards from Sound on Sound, Electronic Musician, TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio and the MRA.

Winning products were;

• Pro Tools 9
• Pro Tools HD Native
• Sibelius 7
• Venue 2.9

More here

I was not sure what to expect from NAMM 2012, I had been told of the sheer scale of the show. I was told there would be a lot of things to see, as well as lots of people to meet.

NAMM is a big show, I only scratched the surface of it, but that didn’t impress me. There are a lot of products, everything from a plectrum to a $100,000 mixing console. Meetings were central to my week, in five days I had 20 official meetings, 2 breakfast meetings with some of the Blog community as well as many interviews around the show.

My lasting memory will be the people I got to spend time with - they made NAMM, which was filled with so many great conversations and much laughter. I spent a lot of time with those from the Pro Tools community as well as many of the great team from Avid. So thank you to all of you who made the trip to be there, to attend breakfast meetings, be subjected to one of my interviews or just shoot the breeze.

NAMM now has a special place in my heart, I will be back!

Russ speaks to Wavemachine labs about their new pro DAW for the iPad.

Those nice guys at Avid gave us two copies of Pro Tools 10 to give away during NAMM 2012.

The answer was Robert Miller of Avid.

The lucky winners are Isaac Halvorson and Daniel McLaughlin - well done!

THANKS AGAIN AVID!

Russ from AIR Users Blog speaks to Waves about concerns from Pro Tools users about Waves’ commitment to the AAX platform and the professional Pro Tools users.

Russ from the AIR Users Blog sits down with Grammy winning producer Noah ‘40’ Shebib and talks about how he produces Grammy winning albums in his laptop using just Xpand and Hybrid!

Those nice guys at Avid have offered us two copies of Pro Tools 10 to give away during NAMM 2012.

Simpy head over to the Avid site and the Pro Tools 10 page. Watch the Frank Filipetti tease video and then answer the question on the entry form here. Who did Frank Filipetti say had sent him a Native card?

Answer here

Check back soon to find out if you have won.

Pro Tools 10