October 16, 2000
    Today an amazing effect : the reverse reverb! Although it can be achieved very easily, this effect can produce very interesting ambiences. The procedure is contained in its name. It could be called reverse-reverb-reverse. Understand ?
    In a wave editor, reverse the sound, then apply a reverb and finally reverse it again. Can you hear it now? Wow! The sound seems to come from somewhere underground! I like to use this technique on a guitar solo and abuse it on sound effects behind the music to create full of strangeness pieces...

October 9, 2000
    The Freeverb direct x plugin sounds really good, even when compared to other commercial reverbs. But some parameters lack. We cannot control the color of the reverb nor the pre-delay. I often use a workaround to get a full of parameters reverb from the Nolv Lowpass, the free plugin AnalogX SampleSlide and the Freeverb. To do so i put these three plugins in the same order as they have been cited into an auxiliary bus of my direct to disk application, configured in post-fader ( Cakewalk, Vegas, N-track allow this ). The dry/wet fader of the freeverb is then set to its maximum and i adjust the desired pre-delay with SampleSlide ( left and right tunings ! ) and the color of the reverb with the lowpass filter. I like to use these settings on a drum part, with a pre-delay set to fit with the tempo (to the sixteenth for example), it produces a really interesting effect.

October 5, 2000
Calculator ... my favorite audio program! This simple instrument is the starting point of almost every song i create, because it allow me to know what is the duration in seconds of every measure subdivision of the song. Why do i need to know that ? The answer is simple : to allow all my delay effects to be in rhythm, and give my song more punch and groove. Hence, instead of giving you a long and boring table conversion, i shall give you a simple and easy to remember formula that converts a tempo to a quarter note duration :

D = 60 / T  = duration of a quarter note in seconds,
D2 = 1000 * 60 / T = duration of a quarter note in milliseconds,

where T  is the tempo of the song. Simple, isn't it ? Now, to have the duration of an eighth note, simply divide this result by 2, and multiply it by 2 to obtain the duration of an half note etc. etc. Afraid to loose your precious table again ? Oh yes, you don't know how to convert the duration of your favorite break beat into a tempo. One more time :

T = 60 / D = tempo of the song,

where D is the duration of a quarter note in seconds. Example : if your beat is composed of two 4/4 measures, its length is eight quarter notes. Thus, divide the length in seconds of your beat by 8 and you will obtain the duration of one quarter note. Then apply the above cited formula and you will obtain the tempo of this beat. Don't loose your time anymore searching your conversion tables, just retain this formula, the calculator is just one click away from your favorite audio application !