02594ffirs.fm Page iii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Mastering™ Digital Audio Production The Professional Music Workflow with Mac OS® X Cliff Truesdell Wiley Publishing, Inc. 02594ffirs.fm Page ii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594ffirs.fm Page i Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Mastering Digital Audio Production 02594ffirs.fm Page ii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594ffirs.fm Page iii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Mastering™ Digital Audio Production The Professional Music Workflow with Mac OS® X Cliff Truesdell Wiley Publishing, Inc. 02594ffirs.fm Page iv Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Acquisitions Editor: Pete Gaughan Media Development Quality Assurance: Kit Malone Development Editor: Stef Maruch Book Designers: Maureen Forys, Technical Editor: Scott Tusa Happenstance Type-O-Rama; Judy Fung Production Editor: Rachel Meyers Compositor: Craig Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Copy Editor: Sally Engelfried Proofreader: Nancy Hanger Production Manager: Tim Tate Indexer: Jack Lewis Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico Vice President and Executive Publisher: Joseph B. Wikert Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Cover Image: © Pete Gardner / Digital Vision / Media Project Supervisor: Laura Atkinson gettyimages Media Development Specialist: Angie Denny Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-10259-6 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per- copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 02594ffirs.fm Page v Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing Mastering Digital Audio Production. This book is part of a family of premium quality Sybex digital-arts books, all written by outstanding authors who combine practical experi- ence with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consis- tently exceptional books. With each of our titles on graphics and audio, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the writers and artists we work with to the paper we print on, our goal is to bring you the best books available. I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an e-mail at [email protected], or if you think you’ve found an error in this book, please visit http://wiley.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley 02594ffirs.fm Page vi Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594ffirs.fm Page vii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Acknowledgments First and foremost I want to thank Nate Perry, whose patience, guidance, and friendship have made this book and many other things possible. I would also like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this book a reality, Matt Wagner, Pete Gaughan, Stef Maruch, Scott Tusa, Rachel Meyers, and Sally Engelfried, for all of their excellent help and insight; the people who generously offered their time as interview subjects, Ralph Spight, Blake Robin, Matt Granz and Mark Pistel, Scott and Nate (again); and my great friends, Michael “Deal Machine” Dean, Lynne Hermann, Michael Scanland, Clint Blatchford, Robert Stratton, Ignacio Orellana-Garcia, Jen Satzger, and Michelle Honeck. And, of course, my always interesting and inspiring family, Mom, Dad, Rose, Charlie, and especially my brothers, Daniel and Sam. 02594ffirs.fm Page viii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594ffirs.fm Page ix Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM About the Author Cliff Truesdell is a recording engineer, producer, and musician at Take Root Recording Studio in San Francisco. His credits on dozens of CDs include recording engineer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. Cliff began playing guitar at age 13 and studied high-speed finger tapping techniques with shred-guitar masters Joe Stump and Toshi Iseda and also took some very memorable lessons from Mission of Burma’s guitar player Roger Miller. After studying music education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Cliff moved to the Bay Area in 1998. Acquiring a used PC running Windows 95 from a friend, he began experiment- ing with Sonic Foundry’s Acid program, creating loop-based electronic music. A trip to Seattle to work in a Pro Tools–based recording studio led to a solid conversion to the Mac operating sys- tem. Returning to San Francisco, he began an internship at Found Sound recording studio, learn- ing advanced Pro Tools and recording techniques from studio owner Thom Canova. When Found Sound changed hands in 2002 and became Take Root Studio, the new owner, Nate Perry, eventually realized that Cliff hadn’t left and hired him as assistant studio manager. In 2003 Cliff co-founded the punk/rock & roll band Black Furies; signed to Gearhead Records in 2005, they have released three CDs to date and continue to record and tour extensively. Cliff’s original music has appeared in a variety of media, including video games and professional skate- board videos. Recent credits include contributions the soundtrack for the independent film DIY or Die!, MTV’s Real World and Road Rules, and Bravo’s hit show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Cliff resides in San Francisco’s lovely, scenic Mission district; his current projects include a series of loop libraries and Reason ReFill collections to be released in fall 2007. 02594ffirs.fm Page x Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594ffirs.fm Page xi Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM Contents at a Glance Introduction . xxv Chapter 1 • Optimizing Your System . 1 Chapter 2 • Reason . 21 Chapter 3 • Ableton Live . 69 Chapter 4 • Pro Tools . 107 Chapter 5 • Logic . 163 Chapter 6 • GarageBand . 211 Chapter 7 • More Useful Software . 245 Chapter 8 • Plug-in Effects . 297 Chapter 9 • Virtual instruments . 343 Chapter 10 • Apple Loops . 411 Chapter 11 • MIDI . 457 Chapter 12 • The Laptop Studio . 495 Chapter 13 • Post Production . 515 Appendix A • The Bottom Line. 541 Index . 575 02594ffirs.fm Page xii Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:34 AM 02594.book Page xiii Monday, February 26, 2007 5:12 PM Contents Introduction . xxv Chapter 1 • Optimizing Your System . 1 The Right Memory . 1 How Much RAM? .