Hugh campbell - Blog

Update: June 2011

2011-06-03T02:24:00.001+02:00

Hugh Campbell Music Update
June 2011

Winter has advanced quickly and entrenched itself deeply here in Johannesburg, however, the icy conditions have provided some fresh inspiration. This month sees the official digital release of Vaughan Phillips – Flatlined 2011 Re-Load which also features remixes by Arkett Spyndl and myself. There are also a few new tracks in the pipeline, of which, a collaborative effort with pianist Michelle Freeman is nearing completion.

Vaughan Phillips – Flatlined 20011 Re-Load

Multitude music presents Vaughan Phillips – Flatlined 2011 Re-Load featuring remixes by Arkett Spyndl and Hugh Campbell. Flatlined 2011 Re-Load is now available from JunoDownload, trackitdown, Ovi Music, Armada and more.

Downloads

My most recent track "Aurora" is available as a free MP3 in the downloads section on my website: http://www.hughcampbell.co.za

Don't forget to join my facebook music page by visiting http://www.facebook.com/hughcampbell.music . And remember to share with your friends!

Take care till next time,
Hugh

Hypernova

2010-10-18T18:49:00.000+02:00

After almost a year of inactivity, I have finally completed work on a new track. "Hypernova". Much has happened during my musical absence. A change in career, new relationships, new friends and a new home to name but a few life-changing events, all of which have inspired a new phase of enlightenment and personal growth as a person and as an artist.

Hypernova is the resulting explosion of these new energies and in it's wake, more projects will follow. The track is available as a free download from my website at http://www.tamusic.co.nr/downloads .

More projects in the pipeline include 2 new remixes of Vaughan Phillips' "Flatlined" and "Into the light" as well as a collaboration with the talented Michelle Freeman a.k.a The Pianist. Details on these and other projects will be available in my next update.

Don't forget, you can purchase my artist album, "The Comedown Machine" from your favourite download stores now!

Take care!
Hugh

How to create the Ducking effect in Sony Acid Pro

2009-10-23T18:39:00.000+02:00

Ducking or Breathing is a very prominent sound in almost every form of electronic dance music today. As an Acid Pro user, I found it a difficult task finding tutorials and methods to achieve this effect, with many producers claiming that it is simply impossible due to Acid Pro’s lack of built in Sidechaining facilities.

So, what do we do when we encounter such a problem? We improvise and emulate! In this tutorial, I will show you how to create the Ducking effect in Acid Pro by emulating the Sidechain process.

Step 1
Firstly, you will need a Sidechain compressor VST. I used the SSS Side Chain Compressor which you can download here for free: http://sonictransfer.com/sss-side-chain-compressor-free-vst-for-windows.shtml

After you have downloaded and extracted the SSS compressor to your VST(i) folder, run Acid Pro and start a new project. Add two tracks to your project;

a pad or lead instrument (this track will later be the receiver)
Audio Example

and a short kick or short percussive sound (this track will become the carrier or modulator)
Audio Example

I’ll discuss the purpose of the 3rd track (a drumloop) later in the tutorial

Step 2
Now we need to create a bus in the Acid Pro Mixer window. Click the “insert bus” button in the mixer window. The new bus appears next to the master bus and is labelled “Bus A”

Step 3
Now that we’ve created a new bus for our project; we need to assign the SSS Slide Chain Compressor to it. Do this by clicking the “Bus FX” button on Bus A and selecting the Sidechain Comp Mono VST in your 3rd party plug-ins list.

In the above screenshot, you’ll see I adjusted a few of the plug-in’s settings. The Attack is set to 0.1 and the Release set to roughly 200 milliseconds. We will adjust the other settings a little later.

Step 4
Now that we have assigned the Side Chain Compressor effect to Bus A, we will draw our attention to the two tracks we added to our project earlier. Select the “Pad” track and route it to “Bus A” by clicking on the blue square button as illustrated in the screenshot. Do the same for the “kick” track.

Step 5
Seeing as we are emulating the Side Chaining process, we somehow need to differentiate between which of the tracks is the carrier and which is the receiver. To accomplish this, we will pan each of the tracks in opposite Left and Right channels. Pan the track “Pad” 100% to the Left and the track “kick” 100% to the Right as illustrated below.

What we have done here, is assigned the roles of both tracks as follows: the “kick” track is now the Carrier and the “pad” track is the Receiver. As you can see, the result is a Mono output in Bus A which has simply been centered. When you hit the playback button, you’ll hear the effect at work as the carrier track “Kick” shapes the receiving track “Pad”, thus creating our desired Ducking effect!

Step 6
To adjust the volume of the Carrier track (the kick), open the plug-in chain in Bus A and observe the “KeyVolume” knob in the compressor window and turn it down completely. You’ll notice during playback that the ducking effect itself remains unaffected on the “pad” track and the “kick” track is now inaudible. Audio Example

Step 7
We finally have our Ducking effect, but it’s still Mono! The simplest way to emulate a stereo effect is to assign another FX plug-in to Bus A. Just as we added the SSS Compressor to the Bus, we will assign the built-in Sony Multi-Tap Delay plug-in, which you will find in the “Sony” folder of your VST browser.

The Multi-Tap Delay effect will be placed after (to the right of) the Compressor in your effect chain in Bus A. Note: if you move the delay plug in before (to the left of) the compressor, the delay plug-in will not have the desired effect! In the multi-tap delay plug-in control, select the preset: “Channel Delay for Stereo Simulation”.

As illustrated above, I changed the pan setting for each tap (tap 1 and 2) from 100% to 50% Left and Right in each tap. I also added the TAL Dub II plug-in after the Multi-tap delay plug-in for added effect. You can download the free TAL Dub II from here: http://kunz.corrupt.ch/?Products:VST_TAL-DUB-II

All Done!
We can now add additional tracks to our project and put the Ducking effect to good use! This is the final product: Audio Example - Final

I hope you found this tutorial helpful!

Update 18 October 2009

2009-10-18T22:30:00.000+02:00

Greetings everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and regained a spiritual, mental and physical balance for the week ahead! It’s been a busy few weeks with new releases on Multitude Music and a few new projects nearing completion.

New Releases:

Morne V feat. Romy Ann – Show me who you are

Fellow Multitude musician and Imaginarium DJ, Morne V a.k.a. Trypsinogen has a brand new release, “Show me who you are” featuring the vocals of the talented Romy-Ann. The release includes remixes by myself, Michael Teixeira and Vaughan Phillips a.k.a. Syntrax. You can purchase “Show me who you are” right now from most major online stores.

Here are a few links:
http://www.trackitdown.net/artist/233763/morne-v-feat-romy-ann.html
http://www.djdownload.com/artist/Morne+V+ft+Romy-Ann/847117
http://www.junodownload.com/ppps/products/1467337-02.htm

The Comedown Machine

My second release on Multitude Music and first artist album, “The Comedown Machine”. This diverse album features various genres and musical styles associated with electronic music. Deep progressive trance tracks like “The Comedown 2009”, “Journey Machine” and a collaboration with the talented Michelle Freeman in “Neon Rising” to the unusual and hard hitting “CX3” and the uplifting “Deus ex Machina”. I like to think of this album as an aural exploration of the various musical styles that have inspired my work over the years.

“The Comedown Machine” will be available on the 30th of October 2009 in most major online stores. You can listen to a preview of the 11 track release on my SoundCloud page by visiting this URL: http://soundcloud.com/hugh_campbell/the-comedown-machine-preview. There you will also find the complete track list. Downloadable album artwork is also available in the “Downloads” section on my website: http://www.tamusic.co.nr .

Until next time, take care and have a great week!
Hugh Campbell

Links:
http://www.tamusic.co.nr
http://www.facebook.com/hughcampbell.music
http://www.myspace.com/hughcampbell.music
http://twitter.com/Hugh_Campbell

Habitual Noise is no more

2009-08-19T09:37:00.000+02:00

Hugh Campbell a.k.a Trance Authority & Habitual Noise. Many would agree that this is quite a mouthful for a musician or band name. I have been working under these aliases for close to 10 years and now; it is finally time to end this chapter.

Being a solo act, the use of an alias was a great way to create music and minimise the effect of occasional scathing reviews and differentiate between individual music styles, adding a unique identity or persona to the work, all in the spirit of experimentation.

I have done a lot of work under the Habitual Noise alias, much of it unpublished and unheard but vital to my growth and development as an artist. Throughout this experimentation, I eventually borrowed elements from this alias and fused them with my other material; hence, eliminating the purpose of the Habitual Noise alias altogether.

So it’s official (well, as official as these things can get) Habitual Noise is no more, let go, fired, sacked, given the boot and unceremoniously dumped into the historical archives. Online profiles have been deleted and musician names edited.

Epitaph for Habitual Noise

"Here lies Habitual Noise,
HN was a pretty cool guy - eh didn’t afraid of anything

HN never won the Internets but tried to at least 9000 times
Hard drugs, hookers and street violence epitomised HN

He will not be missed
May he burn in the fiery depths of hell – hoorah!"

A commemorative set of HN tracks will be made available on my website.

Remix Deus ex Machina

2009-02-28T05:55:00.000+02:00

If there's one thing I enjoy almost as much as creating music, it's doing remixes. A few months ago, I created a track called "Deus ex Machina" a steady trance track which you can take a shot at remixing!

I have compiled a remix kit for the track, containing a whole bunch of samples for you to manipulate, warp, and mangle to your heart's content.

Details and guidlines are included in the remix kit along with a free MP3 of the original track.

I hope you enjoy remixing Deus ex Machina as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Download the remix kit here

Neon Rising with Michelle Freeman

2009-02-01T19:45:00.000+02:00

Neon Rising is a brand new track created by myself and the very talented Michelle Freeman.

The track will soon be made available through Multitude Music and in the meantime, you can listen to it on my myspace profile, my website and on Reverbnation.

Another track nearing completion is "Journey machine" look out for it!

My second release through Multitude Music is well under way - The Comedown machine will feature 11 of my best tracks, many of which have been remastered and reworked!

Take care!
Hugh Campbell

Eve R1 and Multitude Music

2008-07-17T11:01:00.000+02:00

Eve R1 and Multitude Music

It's been a busy few months since my last blog post (April 19, 2008). I have signed up with Multitude music - an independent record label in South Africa. My material will soon be made available on major online distribution websites like iTunes, beatport, Juno and others.

I'll be working closely with fellow Trance producer/composer and multitude manager, Vaughan Phillips in this exciting endeavor so, you can expect me to up my game considerably in the next few weeks and months.

Two months of hard work, late nights and countless cups of coffee and arguing with an inanimate PC have resulted in the creation of my brand new track, Eve R1.

The track has been on my myspace profile for a week now and some people have asked me what the track title is all about. So here's the story...

A bunch of really smart Korean Robotics guys created a robot inthe form of an attractive woman (known as an Actroid) and called her "EveR-1" - she's pretty awesome and creepy at the same time and i felt she'd make a good track!

My obsession with machines doesn't stop there though, work is underway for more industrial oriented music - look out for it!

That's all for now from me - don't forget to subscribe to my blog to get all the updates as they happen!

Take Care, Hugh

Monolith - mangled electronic chaos

2008-04-20T03:45:00.000+02:00

Thundering kick drums, bizarre glitchy-ness and the return of my creepy electronic vocals! Monolith is my new track falling somewhere in the great messy genre pool of IDM, Industrial, Electro and even tribal (who needs genre's anyway?)

Churning out new tracks is becoming a little hard these days with studies, running my own business and this damn straight jacket that chafes. But lots of work is underway for more projects! One of them being a collaboration track with my mate, Michelle Freeman - a highly talented pianist (she's hot! - *drool*)

Remixes, hell, I never seem to stop doing those but sometimes they yield their rewards. I recently entered the Emendy remix competition (Emendy is a music colledge and store stocking equipment for music and post production). I won the competition and received my prize this week - tutorial DVDs on Audio mastering. So now, hopefully, I can brush up on those skills and your ears will stop bleeding!

That's it for now, Hope you all had a great weekend!

cheers,
Hugh

Utopian

2008-03-13T20:07:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone

I have a brand new track available as a free download! It's called "Utopian"

For a higher quality download - visit my website at www.tamusic.co.nr

The Track is also available at the following sites:
podsafe music network
soundclick.com
www.mp3unsigned.com
Facebook
Myspace.com
www.reverbnation.com
musicfreedom.com

Comments and crit are really appreciated as always

Take care and enjoy the rest of the week!

Hugh

Two Red Pills and Updates

2008-03-13T19:08:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone :)

After many months of some creative inactivity, I have finally got back into the swing of things musically. The first of these projects being my newest project - "Two Red Pills". The track is available on myMyspace Music Profile and my website at www.tamusic.co.nr as a free download.

Another track "Perpetual" is also near completion. It's a hard-hitting Industrial Techno hybrid and I'm really looking forward to putting this one out there when it's complete!

There are loads of other projects in the pipeline, such as scores and other musical arrangements for a film and console game soundtrack - I'll shed more light on those as soon as things gain more momentum there.

My website has been redesigned and work is underway for a monthly (eventually more frequent) podcast featuring my personal selection of Independent electronic music from across the globe. The tracklists will be exclusively Independent - no big labels, no bullshit, just great indie music ;)

I'm very new to podcasts - so if anyone has advice and a few tips and tricks - they are really appreciated :)

That's all from me for now!

Take care

Hugh

2008-01-24T19:25:00.000+02:00

10 January 2008
A long overdue greeting!

So.. it's a new year (can't quite recall what happened to the last one..) and, of course, with every new year - there should be a shedding of the old to make room for the new! My website has been updated with a new look and feel and the free MP3 downloads are finally available again (the file hosting service I was using has been shut down recently)

New tracks will be available soon as well, so check out the MP3 downloads section frequently!

Hope you all had a great festive season and best wishes for the rest of 2008 - w00t!

Cheers - Hugh