Dojo Columnist Bryran Clark at the helm.
The idea is that multiple small improvements over time will produce big results. Legendary British cycling coach Dave Brailsford called this “the aggregation of marginal gains.” His strategy was simple: Focus on getting one percent better in every area related to riding a bike. Within 10 years, the British cycling team went on 178 World Championship races and won five Tour de France victories and over 60 Olympic gold medals. Kaizen, indeed! I’m still amazed when I get sessions from other engineers who have no color-coded recording session tracks, haphazard organization within the session itself, and haven’t saved multiple versions. These are three problems that are easily solved with a bit of kaizen. Tighten up your belts, the Dojo is now open.
Color differentiation reduces your cognitive load and allows for faster, more efficient recording, editing, mixing, and overall session management.
Diversify Your Color Palette
Color-coding recording session tracks is a powerful tool for visual organization. It’s an essential, non-technical practice that can significantly enhance workflow efficiency and track management. In a typical modern recording session, there can be between 30 and 100 tracks, each representing different instruments, vocals, effects, and other elements. Without a clear organizational strategy, navigating through these tracks can become overwhelming and time-consuming.
By assigning specific colors to different types of tracks, producers and engineers can quickly identify and locate the tracks they need to work on, so establish a consistent color scheme for types of instruments.
Here’s mine:
• Drums are always slate blue.
• Guitars are various shades of green because they’re made from trees (of course, almost everything else is, too, but both guitar and green share the same first letter).
• Bass instruments are always brown (because they’re powerful and can make you brown your trousers).
• Synths and keys are various hues of purple (I think of Prince and “Purple Rain”).
• Vocals are always yellow because when you get lost in the stifling dark caverns of your mix and can’t find your way out, focus on the vocals—they will lead you toward the light.
An example of our columnist’s strict session color coding in his DAW.
Regardless of your choices, color differentiation reduces your cognitive load and allows for faster, more efficient recording, editing, mixing, and overall session management. Moreover, color coding helps in identifying groups of tracks that need to be processed together, such as a drum bus or background vocals, thus making it easier to apply group processing and adjustments.
Your layout of a recording session is another critical factor for maintaining organized and productive workflows. A well-structured session layout ensures that all elements of the recording are easily accessible and logically arranged. My tracks have a consistent order: drums at the top, followed by bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals, and effects. There’s no right way to do this, but whatever you do, be consistent.
“I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it.” – Steven Wright
Consistency helps individual producers and engineers to work more efficiently, but also facilitates collaboration with others. When multiple people are involved in a project, establish a standardized layout that will allow everyone to quickly understand the session structure, find specific tracks, and contribute without confusion. Also, a clear layout helps minimize mistakes during recording, editing, and mixing, like possibly overlooking important tracks or processing the wrong ones.
Your layout of a recording session is another critical factor for maintaining organized and productive workflows. A well-structured session layout ensures that all elements of the recording are easily accessible and logically arranged. My tracks have a consistent order: drums at the top, followed by bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals, and effects. There’s no right way to do this, but whatever you do, be consistent.
Consistency helps individual producers and engineers to work more efficiently, but also facilitates collaboration with others. When multiple people are involved in a project, establish a standardized layout that will allow everyone to quickly understand the session structure, find specific tracks, and contribute without confusion. Also, a clear layout helps minimize mistakes during recording, editing, and mixing, like possibly overlooking important tracks or processing the wrong ones.
“Waste Not, Want Not”
One of the most important things to always remember is to immediately save a new version the very first time you open a project or session. That way, if something happens, and it will eventually (I’ve even had session data get corrupted on that specific sector of the hard drive), you’ve left the original session alone. Every time you work on the song, or project, save a new version. This practice safeguards the process and ensures project security.
This is also important during the creative phase when trying out different ideas and arrangements. If a new idea doesn't work out, it's easy to revert to a previous version without losing valuable progress. Furthermore, saving versions at critical milestones—such as after recording, editing, and mixing—provides fallback options in case of technical issues or unexpected problems. And lastly, saving versions creates a chronological historical record of the session's development, which is invaluable for reviewing the evolution of the track, project, or entire record!
Driven by the newly developed Serial GK digital interface, the advanced ZEN-Core engine in the GM-800 unlocks any sound imaginable—from acoustic instruments to classic and modern synths—while high-performance DSP delivers tracking stability and expressive scope never before possible. Users can also expand the GM-800 experience with a growing selection of ZEN-Core content on Roland Cloud. In addition, BOSS has released a variety of complementary products for the GM-800 and Serial GK system, including GK-5 and GK-5B Divided Pickups for guitar and bass, BGK-15 and BGK-30 connection cables, and GKC-AD and GKC-DA GK Converters for interfacing with classic 13-pin GK products.
GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer
Boss and its parent company Roland have been the worldwide leaders in guitar synthesizer innovation for nearly five decades, beginning with the revolutionary GR-500 system in 1977. Expanding and elevating the concepts behind many historic Roland GR products, the GM-800 provides guitar and bass players with cutting-edge creative tools and access to sounds typically only available with keyboard-based instruments.
The GM-800 is built around the expandable ZEN-Core Synthesis System, the sound source found in professional Roland products like the JUPITER-X and FANTOM keyboards and ZENOLOGY software synthesizer. ZEN-Core combines modern PCM synthesis and advanced modeling to provide an infinite playground for sonic discovery. With over 1200 Tones, GM-800 users can play everything from pianos, organs, and orchestral instruments to classic Roland synth sounds like the JUPITER-8, JUNO-106, and many others.
The GM-800 features an intuitive workflow based around Scenes, which contain four Tone parts, a Rhythm part, and a vast selection of synthesis parameters, effects, pitch settings, and sensitivity adjustments. Users can layer Tones to create combined voices or assign Tones to individual strings, such as a bass sound on the low strings and a piano or sax sound on the high strings. It’s also possible to assign Tones to specific fret ranges, a powerful new feature made possible with the GM-800’s advanced pitch detection.
The GM-800 supports an ever-growing range of creative options through Roland Cloud, including ZEN-Core Sound Packs, Wave Expansions, and more. A free Roland Account provides access to essential Roland Cloud services, with additional content available via three paid membership levels. All plans start with a free 30-day Ultimate trial to experience everything Roland Cloud has to offer.
The streamlined GM-800 flows smoothly from desktop operation to installation on an advanced pedalboard. There are four assignable footswitches, plus two external control jacks that each support up to two footswitches or an expression pedal. MIDI I/O is also included for interfacing with other synthesizers and MIDI equipment.
Via USB, users can craft Scenes in detail from their computer using the Boss Tone Studio software for the GM-800. It’s also possible to capture GM-800 sounds as audio tracks in a DAW and use the Guitar to MIDI function to play software-based instruments and hardware sound modules.
GK-5 and GK-5B Divided Pickups
The GK-5 (guitar) and GK-5B (bass) are user-installable pickups designed to drive the advanced Serial GK digital interface in the GM-800. They feature a secure, space-saving connection with a lower profile than previous GK products. The GK-5 works with most standard six-string guitars with steel strings. The GK-5B supports most bass guitars with four, five, or six strings, and the pickup’s internal sensors can be adjusted to accommodate different bridge spacings.
BGK-15 and BGK-30 Serial GK Cables
The BGK-15 (15 ft./4.5 m) and BGK-30 (30 ft./9 m) cables are specially designed for optimum performance with the GK-5/GK-5B and the Serial GK system. Built with premium materials, they feature a flexible design with a woven outer jacket that provides easy handling and rugged durability.
GKC-AD and GKC-DA GK Converters
The GKC-AD and GKC-DA provide easy integration between the new Serial GK system and the analog 13-pin GK interfaces found in earlier guitar synth and modeling products from Boss and Roland. The GKC-AD allows users to drive the Serial GK input on the GM-800 from a Roland GK-3/GK-3B Divided Pickup or an instrument equipped with a 13-pin GK output. With the GKC-DA, users can drive 13-pin GK products such as the Boss SY-1000 or GP-10 from a GK-5/GK-5B pickup or the Serial GK output of the GM- 800.
The new Boss GM-800 and GK system will be available in the U.S. beginning in August as follows: GM-800 $749.99, GK-5 $249.99, GK-5B $299.99, GKC-AD $199.99, GKC-DA $199.99, BGK-15 $49.99, BGK-30 $69.99.
For more information, please visit boss.info.
Some have called the original 90s Meatbox a short-lived and “misunderstood” stomp box. Others found its powerful synth-bass sound and multiple controls confusing. But like many misunderstood artists, the Meatbox steadily gained its own loyal following. When it disappeared from production, fans were left clamoring for more meat to their bass. Now it’s back with the same earth-shaking tones, but in a simplified control layout that’s more user- and pedalboard-friendly.
The two prominent knobs located at the top are Octave and Output, which allow users to adjust the amount of lower octave effect and desired volume, respectively. Below these, the Sub (subharmonic) control increases/decreases the amount of synthesized subharmonic added to the signal. Similarly, the adjacent Low control is used to increase/decrease the low-frequency content of the output, keeping the extreme lows from overwhelming the amp and speakers.
Like the other updates from DOD, the Meatbox stays faithful to the original analog circuit design but now includes true bypass. It accepts a standard 9V DC adapter or battery. With the TRS output, the Meatbox can take on the role of a separate sub-synth, so the deep bass can be sent to the sub-woofers and fine-tuned within the mix. Users simply need a TRS “Y” cable to split the output signal into wet, affected (tip), and dry, unaffected (ring) signals to discover a whole new world of sonic potential.
Meatbox Subharmonic Synth Pedal
For more information, please visit digitech.com.