zirconMusic » tutorials

Hakan Tutorial Video, Otakon Tomorrow

zircon — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:31:57 +0000

If you enjoyed my Super Street Fighter IV ReMix “Time to Oil Up” (feat. Jillian Aversa), check out this video I recorded showing how it was done:

Also, if you have some free time this weekend and live in the Baltimore area, I’ll be attending Otakon starting tomorrow through Sunday. Otakon is one of the biggest anime conventions in the country, but it also has a lot of video game and music elements these days. I’ll be part of an OC ReMix panel on Saturday from 6-8pm. We’ve done 4 of these panels before and it’s always a blast, so come check us out!

Impact Soundworks’ “Koto Nation” Unveiled with Behind-the-Scenes Video

zircon — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:10:21 +0000

One of my big projects over the last year has been the creation of a new sample library for Impact Soundworks. While Shreddage, my electric guitar library, has been a big hit, I’ve had an even bigger project in the works: Koto Nation: Classical Instruments of Japan! Check out some of the behind-the-scenes work on this project at the YouTube video below, and more info after the jump.

I’ve always found traditional Japanese music to be extremely beautiful in its tonality, as well as the instruments used. Many of my tracks have extensively incorporated sampled Japanese instruments, such as Flying Heaven, The Koto Chill and Bushido Blade. I noticed that while such samples existed as part of larger collections, they were all lacking in detail, and very few dedicated collections existed.

Koto Nation is a spiritual successor to the classical Indian instrument library I co-designed, Sitar Nation. Incorporating koto, bass koto (never before sampled) and jiuta-style shamisen, this new library includes thousands of recordings performed by master koto player Masayo Ishigure, who worked with John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma on the score for “Memoirs of a Geisha”!

I’ll be posting more about this massive project over at ImpactSoundworks.com as well as VI-Control and KVR Audio, but I’ll post here again when it is to be released in August!

FL Sidechaining Tutorial, More Text Guides

zircon — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:43:38 +0000

I get a LOT of questions about how to do sidechaining (or, more accurately, sidechaining compression in FL Studio 9. This is a very common effect in dance music, so I recorded a short video explaining how it’s done. Check it out below, or on the Video Tutorials page! I’ve also added two new written guides to the Guides page for those of you interested in the business end of music.

New Written Guides Section Added

zircon — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:40:08 +0000

Are you a composer, songwriter, producer or any other kind of DIY musician, hobbyist or professional? If so, you’ll be pleased to learn about my revamped Guides page! All video tutorials can now be found in the Videos subsection. The new written content thus far is being ported from SoundTempest, but I’m planning on writing and releasing tons of new stuff too.

Got a request for a new guide, tutorial or video? Let me know and post here!

Written Guides for Musicians, Songwriters, Composers & Producers

Video Tutorials

Mega Man 9 Remix: Daft Drafts

zircon — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:56:37 +0000

It’s voting time for week 2 of the Grand Robot Master Remix Battle, and you know what that means: a new ReMix! This time, it’s Cold Man (Mega Man & Bass) vs. Tornado Man in a 70s-inspired disco mix called Daft Drafts. Enjoy!

In addition to the contest, I’ve also been working on a number of other projects (and enjoying a new PlayStation 3.) A few updates on these endeavors:

* There’s a new Zebra 2 video up at the Tutorials page, covering basic patch design.
* My guitar sample library (Shreddage) is almost done and will be released on Feb. 14th.
* There’s a new downtempo CD in the works. Expect some freebies here shortly.

Shreddage – Next-Gen Guitar Samples (+ New Zebra 2 Tutorial!)

zircon — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:08:48 +0000

To all you producers and composers out there: you’re in for a treat! Over the last two years, I’ve been carefully designing, producing and editing a sample library focusing exclusively on electric rhythm guitar for metal and rock playing. My guitarist is fellow OC ReMixer Sixto Sounds (Juan Medrano), a fantastic performer and master rock/metal producer.

The result of our efforts is almost complete, and it’s called Shreddage: Electric Rhythm Guitar: Rock & Metal. You can read more about the library at the Impact Soundworks website, but here’s the summary: it’s a DI (clean), 24/44.1 electric guitar library with 8x round robins, tons of articulations, drop Bb tuning and, well, we think it sounds better than any other rhythm guitar samples out there. Listen for yourself to the demos below!

“Deep Impact” (Guitar Rig 4 + Studio Devil amps – almost all other sounds are from other ISW libraries)
“Shreddage Montage” (various demo clips in various soft amps)
“Shred it to the Ground” (Guitar Rig 4 amps) ((apologies to Nickelback))

You can expect the library to be released in February 2010 for the ridiculously low price of $49.

Also, check out a new addition to my Zebra 2 tutorial series:

2010 – Year of the Zircon (New Tutorials)

zircon — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:37:30 +0000

Happy New Year to all… and a great year this is going to be. 2010 is hereby deemed “Year of the Zircon.” Every week – at a minimum – I’m going to be releasing something new: video game remixes, original songs, albums, video tutorials, articles/guides/e-books, sample libraries, projects, you name it. If you think I’ve been busy before, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

This week, I’m starting off with a pair of tutorials for the Zebra 2 synthesizer, one of my all time favorite plugins. I’ve started with the basics of the synth and its oscillators, but future tutorials will cover just about every aspect of it, as well as some tips on sound design. Check out the first two videos below.