Home Studio Talk

Vocaloid

2011-01-19T23:22:00.022-06:00

I was zipping around on YouTube a while back and ran across this video called "Vocaloid live concert part 1". I did not understand what was going on in the video and I could not figure out a few things right off the bat.

A) was it a real voice

B) are these holograms

C) are people really at a concert with "fake" people on the stage.

After some Google searches I soon found the answers to these three questions were No, Kinda, and yes.

-Was it a real voice = no

-Were they holograms = kind of, more like a projection onto a clear surface like the projection show on the sheet of water at Disneyland.

- are people really at a concert with "fake" people on stage = yes

Here is a video showing the software in action.

Basically Vocaloid is software that uses a piano roll interface but instead of synth sounds like pianos, violins, and trumpets you get virtual singer's voices like Leon's voice, Lola's voice and Miriam's voice.

You type in the word you want the virtual singer to sing and put the note where you want it on the piano roll and it sings it. It sounds pretty crazy and technically you can now compose a whole song from a keyboard without the use of even one real instrument or even a real singer. Welcome to the future I guess.

Anyway check it out here at their website. You can download a free trial but you only get five words you can use. Kinda funny too, you just get I, Love, You, Baby, and OOhh. Then again if you go to any of todays R&B/Pop stations you might find that you can make a top 40 hit with only those 5 words. Dont be hatin, Im just kidding....kinda.

When you are finished checking out the software just youtube "Vocaloid concert" and see all of the crazy concerts overseas with thousands of people cheering and fist pumping to their holographic heroes on stage. Kinda creepy if you ask me but still kept me clicking on more videos for 20 min or so.

About 90 precent complete...again

2011-01-18T23:21:00.013-06:00

Well, I have spent 2 days in my basement putting all of the stuff back in the studio and hooking everything back up. We (Anthony and I) glued the tiles back on one wall of the sound booth last night. We had to quit after one wall due to the slurring of our words and the headaches from the glue, that stuff is mean.

I posted some pics and will make a video when all is said and done.

I also put a picture of the circuit bent Casio SK1 I built during my 2 years away from the blog. It turned out really cool and I took pictures all of the way through the process. I will make a video of that in the near future as well. It definitely makes some original sounds.

Anyway, thats it for now.

Long live the Republic.

What? I had to use the bathroom.

2011-01-14T22:48:00.005-06:00

So, my last post on this blog was on March 26th in 2008. There is a reason for this. I was about 3/4 done building my studio and we had twin baby girls. It was five months after that that one of the girls ran into some medical complications and ended up have open heart surgery. After that I just took a really long break and now things are better, my daughter is fine and I have finally started getting back into this.

I literally have not been in my studio in 2+ years. I picked up my acustic guitar last year and took off the the Winfield bluegrass festival with a friend and that got me wanting to play again. I recently gutted the whole studio, had the ceilings and wall painted, and added new carpet and trim. That trim went up tonight! I am excited to start over from scratch this time with a new looking room, I hope you dont miss my 1970's harvest gold shag carpet too much. Anyway the room is totally redone and looks great. Anthony is coming by next week to help re glue all of the sound tiles back up since over the last 2 years most have falllen off. I am not going to use the spray glue this time, I had a lot of trouble with them staying on.

So, I am going to try to post at least once every 2 weeks this time but with 3 little ones Im not making any promises.

Oh yeah, I picked up a microkorg last week, havnt even played with it yet. As soon as I do my next post will probably be on that. Picked it up for 125 bucks......sweet!

Heres the new do on the studio, putting everything back in this weekend. Also upgrading the PC but more on that at a later time.

CEntrance MicPort Pro

2008-03-26T22:34:00.005-05:00

Here's a sweet little gadget my father in law showed me over Easter Sunday. It's called the MicPort Pro by CEntrance Inc. It is a 24-bit/96kHz broadcast quality USB mic preamp that is used by many big 3 letter acronym names we all know and love....you know, BBC, CNN, CBS.

This baby enables instant recording with your dynamic or condenser microphones and Windows XP, Vista or Mac OS 10.5. computers. It also features 48V phantom power and headphone output for zero latency monitoring.

This thing is awesome for someone who has a favorite mic and laptop but does not want to pack around a mixer. A podcasters dream. Field interviews. I could go on.

Check out this video of the CEntrance MicPort Pro and see if its next on your list of got to haves.

Mixman DM2

2008-03-14T00:14:00.006-05:00

I ran across this at a garage sale about three houses down from my house. I really did not even know what it was except for the fact that it had something to do with turntables and it was a usb device so it would hook to a PC somehow. I asked them how much they wanted for it and they said 10 dollars. I then asked them if they had the software for it to which they said "whats that" and I said the disc.....long pause.......the CD....longer pause......the DVD. Ohhhh!, no we don't have that anymore, will it work without it? how about 5 dollars? Anyway I got it for 5 dollars, got it home and plugged it into my xp machine and what do ya know, no auto recognize. I didn't think it would but it was worth a try right.

I figured that would be an easy fix right, just go to the manufactures website and get the drivers like every other normal company in the world, no need to finish this sentence huh? It took me over a week of looking on forums and different sites to find a copy of the original software that came with this thing. I finally found a torrent on a forum and it was almost dead with one seeder (thank you unknown seeder whom we will never know who you are, you still rock) it took a week to get the thing downloaded. So I finally got it downloaded and burnt to disc and started playing with it and for a toy(which it turned out to be btw) its was pretty cool but none the less at the end of the day it was still a toy. You could scratch and make some little prefab beats and save them to their own little format for the mixman software and stuff. My kid loves it, but like I said from a musicians standpoint I would call it a toy.

I put it up on my little shelf where I put all of my older drum machines and other stuff that I don't play anymore but I still think look cool just laying around my studio on display. (cmon, you know you do that too) It set there for a month or two and I was looking around the net one day and somehow ran across a website called dm2.proboards23.com.

This website had a whole forum of Mixman DM2 users who used the hacked software called DM2 to midi. It turned the DM2 into a midi controller! I grabbed that thing off the shelf quicker than lager turns to pipì.

I had this thing triggering Ableton live in no time. I used it for about a month and it was pretty cool. Here is Mixmans website if you wanna check them out. I don't know if I would say it something to buy at retail price but pretty cool if you run across a deal like I did or some sweet eBay action. I also found a direct link to get the DM2 to midi software.

To Vista or not to Vista, that is the question

2008-03-04T08:43:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I have posted. I have sat down many times in the last week only to get three words in and hear the words "DADDY COME HERE, or HELP MEEEE ". Anyway, no more excuses, if you have kids then you know and if you don't one day you will say "now I know what that dude with that blog was talking about".

One of my PC's bit the dust 3 days ago. I can't complain since this was one I brought back to life that a friend had retired and it was 8 years old. This time time rather than upgrading it and replacing the HDD I just said forget it and went to work and started looking for something new.

I ended up buying an open box PC (after working around computers they somehow loose their worth like anything else one works around everyday so I just cant pay sticker for a brand new bleeding edge machine anymore). Anyway, like I said, I ended up with an open box PC with a Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 400GB sata HDD, dvdrw, built in wireless g, blah blah blah. It had 2 GB of DDR2 RAM from the factory but it was running Vista so I went ahead and put 2 more in it. Overall I think I got a really nice PC and did not spend over 500 dollars on it even with the extra RAM so I am not complaining.

So now we come to the point of this post. I work with Vista all day long for a living and do not really have a problem with it 99 percent of the time. BUT..... (big word huh) 99 percent of my customers use their computers to surf the net and check email. I and most everyone I assume who reads a blog like this use their computers for more than checking their email so we might run into a couple of snags running Vista. I'm not saying, I'm more like asking.

All the way home I was contemplating removing Vista all together and loading my copy of XP Pro on this machine for a couple of reasons. One is that since I have been playing with Vista for over a year now I am over the initial WOW factor of aero-flip and the windows side bar (that took about a day) so the only thing I would really miss about Vista in comparison to XP would be the search feature. Two is I already KNOW all of my drivers for all of my third party software work with XP. and Three is I just wanna see how fast XP will run with a dual core processor and 4 gigs of RAM.

Now we come to my second delima. The computer that broke is not my studio PC. The PC in my studio is working just fine, it was our everyday user upstairs that broke. It has crossed my mind to take the new bad boy computer and use it for my studio (hence all the talk above about Vista not working with my third party software). Then I woulld use my studio pc for everyday use upstairs. BUT...theres that word again...BUT there is nothing wrong with my studio PC and I kinda believe in "if it aint broke dont fix it". The PC my studio is running on is a P4 2.something with 2 GB of RAM with 2 160gb sata drives in it and I have no complaints. It would also be a horrible pain in the head to reload everything again just to find something with the new machine was incompatible or to find out I did not gain any performance.

SOOOOO this is where my blog will hopefully prevail. Has anybody used Vista with Ableton live or any mainstream DAWs for that matter? Has anyone noticed a difference in you DAW's performance between single,dual,or quad core processors? Any feedback would be great, for now I think I'm just gonna put this thing upstairs and use it to check my Gmail.

I will say that even with Vista this thing seems to fly with all the junk stripped from it and 4 gigs so I'm happy for now even if I am just checkin my mail.

The Continuum Fingerboard

2008-02-21T14:29:00.007-06:00

The Continuum Fingerboard is something I ran across a week or so ago an have been meaning to post about. It looks exactly like a keyboard except it has no white keys, no black keys, and no buttons... Ok, so it doesn't look like a keyboard but it kinda plays like one...well sorta...a little but not really. You will just have to check this thing out because its hard to explain. Here is a video of Jordan Rudess playing one. I'm sure it is a LOT harder to play than he makes it look since this is him completely killing this Korg Triton.

The Board was designed by Dr. Lippold Haken and manufactured by Haken Audio. It is a Midi / Firewire performance controller with one of the most original interfaces I have ever seen.

The Continuum offers real time continuous control in three directions for every finger that is placed on the playing surface. You can slide your finger up and down or side to side kinda like a laptop touch pad to get different sounds and effects. Shake you finger a little on a held note and wallah, instant vibrato. I'm sure once you got familiar with the Continuum Fingerboard you could express yourself with this instrument like no other. It is compatible with any Midi synthesizer, sound module, or sequencer.

Check out Haken Audio's website to get all the info and listen to some audio samples of this amazing instrument.

Ohm from Livid Instruments

2008-02-17T21:43:00.006-06:00

The Ohm is high-quality MIDI instrument designed for real-time audio and video performance. It has blue lighted back lit keys for use in low lit environments such as clubs, and comes in rugged rack mount metal or handcrafted mahogany. It also features a thirty-six button clip bank, high-quality faders and knobs, BPM tap and a DJ-style crossfader.

As a DJ controller, or Ableton Live controller this thing would be awesome. It's mac or PC.

This controller provides both MIDI out and USB connectivity. For me honestly....I just think the thing looks COOL!

It does have a little sticker shock to it with a Introductory Price of $790 but It's no worse than paying $90 for a pair of jeans with holes in the knees that are sold in a store where the music is as loud as a night club....right? Anyway you can check out the Ohm here and be the judge of that.

CD Turntable Refurbishment

2008-02-14T14:09:00.003-06:00

This little guy spent a long time in a night club. I'm sure if this thing could talk it could tell you some stories. In it's stay atop the DJ booth it inhaled a LOT of smoke and had a cocktail or two spilled on it. It's FFW and RWD buttons did not work, nor did the play button. The jog wheel was sticky, and it was just dirty all the way through. I must say it did still play cds even after all of that.

This thing was about to see the trash can when I decided to take a chance on it and see what I could do.

It took about 3 hours of cleaning and soldering to get this thing back on it's feet but when all was said and done it looks and plays like a brand new one.

I had an old broken VCR of my mom's in the trash. (because I had tried to repair it and failed) It had the same kind of buttons on it for the play and FFW as the CD player so I got out the soldering iron and started removing them from the VCR. Once I had that done I removed the gummed up ones from the CD player and re soldered the ones from the VCR on the circuit board of the player. The buttons were a little shorter so I shaved a little of the plastic from the bigger buttons (the ones you actually push, not the ones on the board) so they would go down far enough to make contact.

I cleaned everything up and let the plastic parts soak in soapy water for 15 min. or so. I used a Q-tip and alcohol to remove the pop/nicotine from the places I could not get wet. After all was said and done I basically have a near new Pioneer CDJ100S.

So, as I have said before, don't be so quick to toss that high dollar piece of equipment when it goes down. Digg into it and see what happens, after all if you mess it up who cares, it was broke anyway.

Electribe x 3

2008-02-08T22:59:00.000-06:00

I have been on a scavenger hunt for this trio on eBay for quite some time now and I am finally finished. It took a lot of shopping but I have somehow managed to get all three of these little monsters for the price of 1 (if you were paying retail that is).

eBay is a great place to get stuff for cheap if you are willing to put the time in looking every night until that sweet deal comes along. I got my EA-1 for 60 dollars! I paid 140 for my ER-1 MK2 at a local pawn shop and just today I received my ES-1 MK2 via UPS from eBay that I paid 152 dollars for. All of these retailed for over 400 brand new and the ES-1 still retails for 599.

I cant wait to get all of these bad boys in sync and see what beats I can come up with. The ES-1 is one bad sampler I hear, Ill let ya know once I dig into it. I was looking around online for some training videos on any of the Electribe series but came up with nothing??? If anyone knows of any please let me know. I have the manuals but I like video tutorials much better.

Yeahhhh eBay!!!

Open Lab's Miko LX

2008-02-03T23:42:00.001-06:00

Open Labs has designed the Miko specifically for the electronic artist and lifestyle. It is windows XP based with a 250gb hard disk and does it all. This thing looks incredible. It has built in touch screen, keyboard, and a cd/dvd burner. You can do Composition, Remix, and Performances with this machine.

The Miko is also a complete home theater system including surround sound and dual head video outputs capable of resolution higher than HD. It is capable of hosting up to 250 plug-ins and effects at once, playing over 500-voice polyphony. Hows that for processing power.

This workstation combines the capabilities of a professional musical keyboard, a dedicated DJ section, and control surfaces into one fully integrated-compact package with 64-bit processing technologies plus the ability to store gigs of data like vst's or anything else your pc would do.

Its basically like taking your whole studio with you.

Jonathan Davis of Korn used one of these to do a lot of his music. He plugged his guitar right into it and recorded it on the fly. Timbaland also swears by the Miko. You can plug anything into this like a mic, guitar, etc and record, edit, and burn to cd to have it ready for playing without ever touching a pc. That's a lot from a single piece of equipment no bigger than some keyboards.

The Miko also has a feature called "MimiK" which enables it to clone any digital piano or hardware sound module, even their after-touch and effects. The 15 inch touch screen will allow you to recreate the controls of the hardware that you cloned (sampled). Sweet huh?

Ok here's the kicker.....$3499. It sounds like a lot but if you really think about it you probably have that much tied up with your pc, controllers, cables and all. Anyway this thing looks way cool and I cant wait to try one out. Here is a video of the Miko in action.

LightSnake USB MIDI Cable

2008-01-31T00:03:00.000-06:00

Soundtech Profssional Audio has produced a quick way to hook that older midi device into your pc with ease. Its called the Lightsnake USB midi and its pretty handy to have around.

The LightSnake connects any standard MIDI instrument or controller directly into a computer's USB port. The cable's MIDI I/O allows your computer to control and communicate with a range of musical gear. It also has a feature called "live when lit" where the cable ends glow when properly connected.....Sweet.

They are around 80 bucks and are 10 feet long. They also come with a Sony Media Software Demo DVD that is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.2 and later.

The Hang Drum ? Very cool indeed

2008-01-29T23:59:00.000-06:00

I was sifting through Youtube a minute ago and saw something so cool I decided to post about it right now. I saw this video of a guy with this big metal biscuit looking thing sitting on his lap. He started tapping on it with his fingers and it sounded very similar to the steel drums (or piano drums) you hear in the Caribbean. It is called a Hang drum (pronounced hung) and they are way cool. Right off the bat I wanted one. I looked at some more videos and it just made me want one even more. So its off to eBay, I'm sure there will be some on there......nope. There was one but it had 2 days left and was already up to 3025 dollars! I cant believe an instrument Ive never heard of costs this much.
After doing more searching I found no websites selling them and only a few that even talked about them. I also found that the instrument had only been around since 2000. Its not every day a completely new instrument is created (at least one that is not electronic). The hang made its debut at Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2001. Its design is attributed to the instrument builders Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. Supposedly their workshop in Berne is where every Hang in existence was made. They do not ship instruments directly nor do they sell them through any retailers. (makes ya want one even more now huh?)

Anyway I thought this was a very cool instrument but ill be waiting until others start producing the knockoffs I guess because I don't see me going to Berne or dropping 5000-8000 dollars on eBay for one in the near future.

Oh yeah This guy has a good idea. He made one out of a propane tank for 27 dollars, not even close to the same sound but fun none the less. Here is a video of his "Hank Drum"

IBook G4

2008-01-29T17:27:00.000-06:00

Well I took the plunge last week. We all know I'm a PC guy who knows nothing about fruit but I got a good deal on an IBook G4 laptop last week that I couldn't pass up. I got it home and turned it on and it booted into the very unfamiliar world of OSX. I found myself with that same feeling you get when you cant find your car at the mall, just kinda staring at the screen with my face lit up all blue from the monitor.

Where is start ? WHERE IS START ?? ..... OK, no start. Click this thing.....OK Where is the Internet? ....WHERE IS THE INTERNET ?? My night went on and on like this until 1 in the morning. After a while I started picking up on the whole layout of things and its not as hard as I once thought. I did manage to get Garage Band open and play with it for a while. I must say I was impressed to see that no matter what midi controller I plugged into this thing it never asked for a driver.

Garage Band was pretty fun, especially for something that comes stock on a laptop. ( I assume it came stock, it is used so maybe it doesn't, I don't know? ) Anyway I am not planning on leaving Ableton Live anyway soon.

All in all this little trendy laptop is fun if for know other reason than it's something new to play with. I like the size (it's the 12 in screen) and of course I love the little glowing Apple on the lid, I mean cmon...IT'S A GLOWING APPLE.

Anyway, I'm not planning on switching my PC in the studio to a mac anyway soon but for 200 dollars I figure I couldn't go wrong. btw, its a powerpc 1.33MHz processor with 784 ram and running an OS called Tiger..........ROARRRRR!!

Best Buy meets Guitar Center

2008-01-18T23:08:00.000-06:00

I've been sitting on this post for quite some time now but I guess since its showing up in a few places on the web and on Best Buys website I'm ok to talk about it.

As you may or may not know when I'm not posting about recording music on my blog I'm driving a black and white vdub around Kansas fixing computers and setting up networks for Best Buy/Geek Squad.

One day at lunch I heard some people talking about one of the stores in another city selling full drum sets, Les Paul Guitars, Recording software, midi controllers, etc. I was happy to find out that this is true. I looked around on the web for the last 2 months or so but found nothing much about it until a week or so ago. I found a post about the subject from 2006 which was obviously about one of the test stores but other than that there's not a lot that comes up on the subject.

I found one of the stores that was doing this already and looked up their add on Best Buy's website. If you go to the store locator and type in Riverside California you can look at their weekly add. Most likely toward the back you will see the Music section. There is a wall of guitars, drum sets, a sound room for trying out guitars, etc. I also hear they are really going to get into the computer side of recording and recording software. Anyway, I cant wait until I start seeing my store start filling up with name brands with the likes of Gibson, Roland, Yamaha and others.

I will keep you posted on the brands we are going to sell. I'm hearing rumors of software titles like Ableton, Propellarhead, and Cubase as well.

Circuit bending my Casio SK1

2008-01-16T22:52:00.000-06:00

I was over at a friend's house last year (whaddup Shanthi) and he showed me something that I thought was really cool. He had an old Speak and Spell. Remember those things...." A...E...I...O....U......" even if you are too young to remember them I'm sure you have heard Dane Cook talk about them, If not just Google it. Anyway, this was not just any old Speak and Spell. It had extra knobs and switches all over it and had an Atari paddle controller hooked to it? ? ?

I stared at it for and while and then I just had to ask. What the heck is that? He got all excited and turned it on to show me what it did. "this is my circuit bent Speak and Spell" he said and turned it on and started hitting the buttons. At first it sounded just like a regular one pronouncing the letters of the alphabet just like normal but then.......(drum roll).......then he switched one of the toggles on it and started turning the Atari paddle and it started making some crazy, demonic sounds right out of a Crystal method or Prodigy album. I was blown away, I played with it for 30 minutes or so.

He said his wife found a guy on the Internet that circuit bends toys and little keyboards and she bought it from him. At the time I had never even heard of circuit bending but I bet you can guess the topic I googled when I got home. I spent night after night reading on the topic. I found that the instruments/toys of choice for a lot of people to "bend" are Casio keyboards. The one that is considered the Holy Grail of them to bend was the Casio SK1 sampling keyboard from the early 1990's. I was stoked to read that because, guess what yours truly had in his basement? That's right, I had a Casio SK1 from way back in the day. (brb, my bagel bites are done)

Alrighty, as I was saying I had an SK1. I had to build up my nerve to rip this thing open and start soldering on the board especially since I had done almost no soldering before. I got on eBay to make sure I could get another one if i fried this one. I found that there were a lot of them on eBay but The prices were pretty high and they all had titles like "ready to bend" in them so there is obviously a lot of people doing this. I tossed caution to the wind and dug in.

I found many sites about circuit bending and one dedicated to bending the SK1 with exact directions on how this guy did his. It gave step by step instructions so I pretty much followed them to the t (or tee, or tea ???)

I worked on it for about a week, a little here and a little there and got it all wired up. I added toggles and pots at a lot of bend points and got it making some pretty crazy sounds. The only thing left I have to do is make a case for it now. Here is a pic of a stock SK1. Here is a totally tricked out bent one. Pretty cool huh?

I'll post a pic and some links to some of the sounds when I'm done with it. It's a lot of fun and you can start with any 2 dollar toy from a thrift store and work your way up from there. Give it a try.

Repaired my Electribe for $1.40 and some Research.

2008-01-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

If you read last night's post then you know I was not a happy man when I saw smoke coming from my Korg Electribe ER1 last night. I spent an hour researching to find out anything I could about the problem. I found KorgForums.com (awesome site BTW) and got some answers just by reading older posts.

I found someone who had a Korg Triton that had popped and quit powering up. They found it to be a very inexpensive capacitor that had blown and had someone repair it at a local shop for a little over a hundred dollars.

I do not have a hundred dollars, I have 3 kids instead. I opened up the unit and the first thing I saw was a blown capacitor. Then I went to youtube and found some videos of people soldering ,then I went to some other sites to do the research on capacitors and replacing them. The next day I took the board with the blown cap on it to a local electronics store and showed the tech at the bench. He was nice enough to show me how to do the repair and I bought a new cap for 1 dollar and 40 cents.

It took about an hour for me to fix it but I'm sure it would have taken him 3 min. Anyway $1.40 beats 100 or so and I learned something in the process. I'm sure it is not always this easy but in this case it was so before you toss out an expensive piece of hardware just because it wont come on and smoke rolled out of it get on the web and do some research, It might be worth your time.

HELP! I think I toasted my Korg ER-1 MK2

2008-01-08T11:36:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to plug in my ER1 and I noticed that it did not light up in its normal fashion. A couple of seconds later (like 10) I heard a pop and then saw smoke coming from around the jack where the dc9v adapter plugs in. I immediately unplugged it and shouted an array of words that I will refrain from typing in this post.

I called one of my friends from work who has had an electribe repaired around here before. He said it costs him around 80 bucks. I paid 150 for this at a pawn shop so I'm not sure I want to spend that much on it.

SOOOOOO..... I took it apart like any wanna be McGiver would do.

Inside I can see that the capacitor is popped. It is swollen on top and the plastic coating is ripped down the side. I traced it on the board right to where the adapter plugs in so it is the first cap after power from the adapter.

I am going to try and replace the capacitor if I can find one with the same values, It seems easy to get to and only has 2 solder points. My question is has anyone done any repairs like this before and if so do you have any suggestions before I jump in the water. My other question is do you think that is all that I will need to replaced or is the rest of it fried too. I wonder if since it was the first thing in line after power if it acted like a fuse and stopped the problem there. I also wonder why it popped in the first place?

Anyway any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Ima go cry now.

EZ-poly (1 more freeby)

2008-01-04T23:49:00.000-06:00

Ok before I scare my audience away I promise I am not going to turn this blog into a once a week link to freeware. It has been busy around here because of the holidays and the last 3 posts or so (including this one) have all been links to free stuff. SOOOOO, Ill get back into the swing of things again ASAP and try to mix it up a little. This is not to say that when I find some crazy-coo software I wont let you all know about it, It just means that's not all I will do on the blog.

I ran across this little gem of a VST tonight. I played with it for 30 min. Its called EZ-poly.

It has an 8 step analog sequencer which syncs to your hosts tempo, or can be stepped with each new note. This little guy delivers full-blown leads, weird special FX or expressive pads. Its from a company called Krakli and you can get it and many other free vst's here in the free synths category. Check it out, you wont be disappointed.

The Levelator .... and oh yeah, Happy New Year

2008-01-01T13:02:00.001-06:00

First post of Oh-Eight...Here we go

This next piece of software (which is also totally free, even for commercial use) is awesome. It's called The Levelator and it can make your podcast or speech or whatever....well....well it will just sound better.

It's software that runs on Windows, OS X , or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next. Now you are probably thinking I mean a compressor, nope. It's not a compressor. It's not a normalizer.It's not a limiter. It does contain all three of these though. It seems to do more than most of these tools with one drag and drop of a file. I'm sure you could do a better job by using all of the above mentioned tools one by one in a couple of hours but this is seriously "drag and drop" it does the rest and fast.

Have you ever recorded a conversation, interview or podcast and ended up with different sound levels because of variations in peoples voices or distance to mic, etc. Well this little tool will fix them in seconds.

Anyway, don't take my word for it. Try the Levelator yourself for free. Let us know what you think.

Behold....It's Clapbox (and its free)

2007-12-31T08:48:00.001-06:00

First off, sorry for the slow post. It was Christmas and I have a 3 year old boy and a new set of identical twin girls so I had NO time to post. I did bust out the laptop today and find this. It is a free plugin for Ableton live called Clapbox. I can definitely see where all of the people who use claps in their music could use this at some time or another, especially the hip hop crowd. All you have to do is download the plugin and click on the pack. It will install, Ableton will open up and wallah. Go to the instrument rack and you will have a new instrument there. It is basically a clap sound with parameters that can be adjusted like any other sound. I got some pretty good "claps" out of it so have fun with this one. Here is the link to Clapbox so go get it and get to clappin.

Free Plug-ins from Kjaerhus Audio

2007-12-24T01:42:00.001-06:00

I found a company that has some really good vst effects and the best part about it is they are totally FREE. The list includes a Auto-Filter, Chorus, Compressor, Delay, EQ, Flanger, Master Limiter, Phaser, and a Reverb. All are part of Their Classic series plug-ins and are free for download. I tried some of them out on Ableton and they work Great.

Don't be fooled by the fact that they are free, They sound as good as the ones built into my daw to me. You should check out Kjaerhus audio and download the free plug-ins here. There is also a lot of other vst's on thier site so checkem out.

Download ReBirth 2.0.1. for FREE ...legally

2007-12-21T19:32:00.001-06:00

ReBirth was one of the first successful software synthesizers on the market at one time. On September 1, 2005 Propellerhead officially discontinued the Software Synth that once ruled the among the masses. ReBirth was the start to what we all know and associate with as far as software synthesizer type products today.

Propellerhead is celebrating by opening ReBirth Museum to commemorate its history. They are also making the software available for FREE. Propellarhead says all development on ReBirth RB-338 has stopped. There will be no future updates and no Mac OS X version. All personal customer support of the product will be discontinued. They receive very few questions from ReBirth owners anymore and all of the information they usually provide is now available in the FAQ section on the new ReBirth web site. ReBirth will be given away for free, anyone can download and use ReBirth 2.0.1. The download and instructions are also available on the ReBirth site.

This thing is fun to play with and pretty much just a BAD A@# piece of software. Add the fact that it is free now and you cant go wrong. Download ReBirth . You will have to register on the site first, after doing that (which costs nothing) you have access to all kinds of cool stuff like forums, downloads etc. The same user name and password also works on the Propellerhead Software User Web site.

You Try........You like

AudioCubes ?

2007-12-19T09:21:00.000-06:00

AudioCubes anyone? Don't worry, I didn't know either. It turns out that they are Cubes that are capable of generating and processing audio and MIDI information. Meaning they can control programs like Ableton Live by switching their position in relation to each other.

They will also generate lo-fi sounds without using a computer. They ship with a demo of Ableton live and the software for the cubes plus some loops and samples.

There are some videos on their site. Check them out. I think they would be fun to play with and if you were a live DJ or performer they would spice up your performance but I cant see myself using them in my studio. I will say I have never played with them, Ive only seen them on the Internet so I wont be to quick to judge. That's why I wrote this and gave you this link to their site... so you can go judge them.

Here is a video of them in action.

Casio PT-82 /// A blast from the past!

2007-12-18T20:23:00.000-06:00

Years ago (almost 22 years is a bit more accurate) I got my first electronic keyboard, the Casio VL-1. I was 10 years old and there was nothing any cooler to me. I put it in my book bag and took it to school and had a crowd standing around my desk the minute I got it out and hit rhythm select/start. It starting pulsing away with its blip beat sound and I was king of the classroom for the 30 seconds before the teacher told me to put it away or it would be hers.

I also still have a Casio SK-1 Sampler which I am in the process of circuit bending at the moment. I have finished all of the wiring and soldering but have yet to build a case for it that will hold all of the new buttons, knobs, and sensors I have added, but that will be a different post in the future.

OK, got a little off track there. What I was getting at is that a year or two ago a friend of mine gave me her Casio PT-82 she had from way back. I put in in a closet forever. Then I let my son play with it for a while, but I never really messed with it myself. I recently had a minor surgery and while picking my son up from Grandma's I saw the PT-82 in a pile of toys, I had honestly forgot I even had it. I asked her if I could take it back home and she said sure so I brought it home and dropped 5 double A's in it. It's crazy how we forget just how far we have advanced in technology but trying to play this thing will remind you real quick.

Believe it or not I have been playing with this thing for 3 days now (well, me and the kids). Its amazing how much we get used to the synths and drum machines today that do all of the work for us. With my Korg EA1 and ER1 I can hit play and when one of the pattern starts it sounds so good I really don't have to do anything except add more patterns to it to get something that will still impress people who don't know how they work. I'm not saying that it takes no talent to make electronic music, I'm just saying its getting so easy it makes us lazy. I sat around pushing 1 key at a time trying to get a cool bass line or lead melody and came up with some good stuff that I plan to sample and use in the future. Since it really doesn't do ANYTHING on its own it will be nice to say that the finished product is all my idea and not sampled or a preset sound or pattern.

I don't think I will be getting rid of the PT-82 anyway soon, Its kinda nice to go back in time and play with the synths and boards that got us where we are today.

Dexter DAW Controller

2007-12-17T22:37:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across this last night and I must say this thing is pretty cool. It's by a company called Jazzmutant. It's a multi touch DAW controller. The best way I can describe this thing is that it is like a giant iPod touch screen that controls your DAW.
This is not the first touch screen controller on the market but what is so special about this is that it has Multi touch capabilities meaning that all 10 fingers can be touching the screen simultaneously and moving the sliders up and down just like a real mixer in real-time. This will be great for tasks like leveling multiple tracks. It also has very cool interfaces for adjusting the equalization, panning, and other effects making controlling your DAW a lot more fun and natural feeling.

JazzMutant has gotten together with some of the leading DAW producers so they could better integrate visual representation and two-way communication between your Daw and Dexter. The amount of information shown on the screen of the Dexter at all times is almost enough that you could turn your PC screen off and still control your Daw.
You can see a video of it here, I'm sure you will be impressed. It's kind of like when you look at your Daw and see all of the cool sliders and knobs and wish you could just control them by touching the screen, will now you can.
As far as pricing goes I can’t seem to find any online but I would guess since it is a upgrade of sorts or a next generation of the Lemur from the same company it will probably be around the same price which is a steep $2500…..Yes, you read it right…..$2500.
Anyway check it out here and go to YouTube and type in Dexter DAW and watch the videos and see what you think.

Free drum sample packs

2007-12-12T01:01:00.000-06:00

I found this link in a forum last night while chugging around the web. This guy made samples of his 12 piece pearl master custom drum kit with zildjian cymbals and packaged them up for the world to download and test for free.
He offers the pack in RAW Samples, Ableton packs for the new drum rack in Live 7, and RMIV presets. I downloaded the raw samples and put them into Ableton 6's Impulse and got out my m-audio trigger finger and had some fun. I was banging away for a good 20 minutes adding effects and tweaking the sounds out. The sounds are 24 bit raw and processed Multi Dynamic samples and have a very real sound to them, especially for a free download.
He also offers another pack called Glitch kit one where his samples are created by importing (.txt, .midi, .pdf, ext.) He uses anything he can find as raw 24bit audio Data then he Edits & Tweaks out the samples. I have yet to download this one so I don't know what it sounds like.

You can get the samples here and they are free to download. There is a donate option there but it is not required so check it out if you like using drum samples in your music production process.

findsounds Dot Com

2007-12-03T23:24:00.000-06:00

I read a post in a forum talking about this website where you could find just about any sound effect/sound you wanted. It was described as the Google of samples. I went to the site to check it out and found it was pretty useful. The site is pretty straight forward, you type in a sound you are looking for and it returns a LOT of results. I searched for gunshot and it returned over 200 results.
I will say that if you're doing commercial work I would be a little Leary of findsound's returns as they do just link you to samples found all over the web (which is why they give so many results) and I'm sure that some of the sounds are copyrighted. If you're working on a personal project, it couldn't hurt, but for professional work I would definitely look at the URL of the site the sound came from and find out if it's ok to use them to avoid any trouble.
The cool thing I liked about the site was that you can filter your searches by file types, number of channels, resolution, and sample rate. It will search for AIFF, AU, MP3, and WAVE formats. You can choose between mono or stereo samples and 8 bit or 16 bit samples.

With all of that said if you are needing a sound effect or sample for your music or whatever reason http://www.findsounds.com/ is a quick and easy to use place to find them.

$50 Dollar daw, check out REAPER

2007-11-27T22:17:00.000-06:00

I was looking around online last night and ran across some people talking about a program called Reaper. They were discussing this really cheap digital audio workstation that packed a lot of cool stuff for the money. I also thought it was cool that they were saying the inventor of Winamp created it, which I think rocks.
I went and downloaded it and played with it for about an hour and I must say, NOT BAD. The software is uncrippled, unexpiring shareware for windows. Reaper is available for download without technological limitations for evaluation purposes. Once you have evaluated REAPER, you can purchase a license. Its is 50 dollars for a personal license or 225 dollars for a commercial use license. If you use it past the trial it will still work with full functionality but will make you wait 6 seconds or so every time you open it and remind you to buy it. (cmon now, its 50 bucks)
Some of its features are: 64 bit audio engine, Direct multi-track recording to many formats including WAV/BWF/W64, AIFF, WavPack, FLAC, OGG, and MIDI, Support for VST, VSTi, DX, DXi effects, and it supports running from USB keys or other removable media so its portable too. Like I said, that's a lot for 50 bucks.
It looks pretty easy to use. I only played with it for a little while but I had no trouble finding my way around it. If you are comfortable with recording software you should be alright, if not its a cheap way to get started and who knows, it might be all you will need.
Here are some screenshots.
Here's where ya download it.
Give it a shot.
Tell us what you think.

Ableton Live 7 is almost here !

2007-11-25T13:12:00.000-06:00

Ableton Live 7 is in beta testing for select Ableton 6 users right now. As soon as I heard this I went to the Ableton site to see what was going on.

I was happy to see a lot of changes that should make the program better. Some of the changes include new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, 64-bit mix summing, better midi timing, hardware integration, and video export.

They also granted some of the wishes of the public in this release. Some of these additions include time signature changes and multiple automation lanes.

The 2 things I read that really excite me are the addition of the new "Drum Rack" which streamlines beat production via an easy drag-and-drop interface and most of all the support of native sliced audio and REX files! Now it will be easy to chop up samples using programs like Recycle and save them as REX files which will be importable to Ableton. This was one of the only things I wished Ableton would do and now it seems my wished are coming true.

So keep checking the Ableton Live website to see when the official release is and give it a try when it's available, I know I am going to.

Nine Inch Nails offers Master tracks on new album

2007-11-25T09:45:00.000-06:00

Trent Reznor is offering pre-formatted GarageBand and Ableton Live files for each track contained on the band's recently released album "Y33RZ3R0R3MIX3D", which he's distributing on dvd.
The dvd includes every track from the album in the correct format for GarageBand and Ableton Live. The dvd will also have a demo of Ableton Live on it.
Years ago Trent started releasing master tracks on NIN.com to see what kind of user-generated remixes would materialize from his fans. This spawned a host of remixes with websites and online communities getting involved. The band liked the results and are now releasing a remix album that includes some of this fan-created material as well as the actual multitrack master files for every song from their latest album, Year Zero.
The bands next move is (or was) setting up a site through which fans can share their remixes of their music. That is up in the air at the moment because his former record label feels that if they host a remix site they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing other sites for.
Universal is still allowing them to release the masters which I think is pretty cool since most everyone these days seem to spend more time suing than producing. It nice to see a company chill a little.
Anyway, I'm sure whether its NIN's website or "Joe Anyone's" website we will still start seeing some really cool remixes of the songs off the new album start to surface online in the near future. I think its a great idea. We will get to hear remixes from all different kinds of musicians all with different ideas which will result in a wide variety of remixes all sounding different since it wont be one person doing them all. Who knows, we might get a whole new sound that creates a whole new genre of music.
In the meantime if you like NIN and like remixing music go get the new album and start making your own remixes, I'm sure the masses will find a way to get the remixes out there whether its on an official NIN remix site or not. I think it's a great idea myself and hope they go ahead with it.

Sneak Peak at Denon's DNHS5500

2007-11-24T10:48:00.000-06:00

This is for all of you Denon tabletop cd turntable lovers out there. In the next few weeks Denon will announce it newest cd turntable, the DN-HS5500. It is a tabletop (hard drive) MP3 player/midi controller with the layout and controls of the Denon S3500.

You can view it here:http://www.decks.co.uk/productviewer?productpath=/decks/products/digital_dj/denon/dnhs5500&selectedview=0

Here is the only video I can find anywhere on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udG8phxRtho

It seems they are keeping everything hush hush for now until its debut in December. Ive read that you can start cueing mp3's from the internal drive or external usb devices without interruption which should be pretty cool. Adding a midi controller so you can control you software should make this a pretty popular piece of hardware among live DJ's.

Free Mac digital audio workstation

2007-11-19T09:58:00.000-06:00

First off I want to be upfront about the fact that I have not tried this software out for myself. This is not because I didn't want to but because it's only for Mac and Linux (go ahead mackies,rub it in my face). I ran across this on night while doing research for the blog. I read about it and saw that it was getting a lot of buzz online so I went to get it and that's when I found it was Mac only.
The software is called Ardour. It is digital audio workstation like Protools or Cubase. It is all open source so it is free.
The software's feature are: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control from surfaces like the Mackie Control Universal. This is a direct quote from their website. "If you've been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, or Sequoia, you might have found it"
So there ya go. If anybody tries it out or has used it before please leave a comment so our readers can get your opinion on it.
Here is a link to the download page for it. http://ardour.org/download. Let us know what you think

"

Old MiniDisc recorder = Affordable Portable Sampler

2007-11-13T09:38:00.001-06:00

If you are like a lot of us we all want that latest and greatest in technology. Somewhere around the year 1998 Sony had the next big thing so I ran out and bought a MiniDisc recorder. I bought a home unit AND a portable because this thing was going to be the wave of the future. I think I used it every bit of ten times before it got set on a shelf and started collecting dust with my cassette players.
I was going to put mine on eBay a while back so I did what anyone usually does when trying to find info on a product,I Googled it. Wouldn't you know on the first page I ran across an article talking about the return of the minidisc. I had to read it because I knew they were not making a comeback with mp3 players so cheap.
I read on and it was an article talking about how people who make their own music should buy a minidisc recorder to capture samples instead of an expensive portable sampler. As I read on I forgot all about my plans for eBay and was happy I had never sold them before.
MiniDiscs don’t get scratched like Cd's, and the discs never go bad so they can be written to again and again. Because it’s digital there’s no quality loss with time or playback. There are 60, 74, and 80 minute discs available for a couple bucks a piece. Sony makes a electret condenser stereo microphone for around 50 dollars or there are cheaper ones as low as 20 dollars. They are usually require a battery since condenser mics need power and you will most likely not be near a mixer with phantom power.
The players offer 1/8" stereo inputs and outputs and some have S/PDIF or TOSlink optical inputs. Most recorder models also support the "plug in power" feature which is simply a built-in 1/8" mic preamp for use with passive mics. I will probably get a self powered mic for mine because I've read this really eats the battery life up.
So, if you are one of the unlucky souls who thought you wasted your hard earned money on a dead technology then today's your lucky day. Don't go out and buy that 300 dollar portable sampler, go downstairs and blow the dust off of your Sony MD and start collecting your samples. I know I'm headed out to get me a little condenser mic today and start getting mine.

HUGE glossary of audio terms and acronyms

2007-11-07T22:37:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across this in a forum on http://www.audioforums.com/. It is a HUGE glossary of audio terms and acronyms, and I mean HUGE. This has just about every audio related word in the world plus some more in it. There are lots of words you already know and use and a whole lot more you probably have never heard of.

I spent a long time here and bookmarked it for future use. It's very educational ....plus you can walk around for the next couple of days talking over your friend's heads like you da man :)

check it out here http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/word.php

Flickr's Audio Recording Studio Group

2007-11-05T00:31:00.000-06:00

I found a group on Flickr where people just post pictures from their home studios.
All kinds of recording studio's photos are welcome. I spent quite a while looking through them and even joined Flickr myself and added some.
There are pictures of gear, instruments, musicians, sessions, studios... Just about every kind of picture you can think of that has to do with making music.
Anyway, It was a great find. Check it out http://www.flickr.com/groups/audio/pool/
Maybe you will want to join yourself and add to the collection. Not only will you help it grow but it is also a good place to network with other musicians.

Digidesign's New Mbox 2 Micro

2007-11-02T21:51:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been waiting at an airport or sitting on the couch and wish you could work with Pro Tools? Well now you can, and without a big m-box sitting on your lap and covering yourself with wires.
Digidesign recently introduced the new Mbox 2 Micro. This little bad boy packs an audio interface into an anodized aluminum USB key.You get one audio output: an 1/8″ stereo output jack, upgrading your laptop’s headphone out jack to 24-bit, 48KHz monitoring. This means the Micro is all you need to carry to run Pro Tools. It's basically a dongle with a headphone jack
You get Pro Tools LE, 45 plug-ins (Bomb Factory + DigiRack), and Xpand playback and synthesis, for 279 dollars.
The only downside I see in this is that if you already have Pro Tools LE Is like you are paying 279 dollars for an extra dongle. Maybe they could offer the micro for a lower price to people who already have LE but I doubt it with all of the piracy issues at hand.
So all in all I would say this would be a great little item for those who don’t yet own Pro Tools LE already.
check it out here" http://www.digidesign.com/

Black Violin

2007-10-28T12:48:00.000-05:00

This is something I stumbled across on Youtube. I love it when that happens don't you.
These guys have taken an instrument that we all associate with Godfather movies and elevators and totally re-invented it.
Take two guys with violins (Wil-B “Simply Sick” and Kev Marcus) add a DJ (DJTK, known by most as “Lethal Weapon”) and you get ... Black Violin. Their sound is somthing new, it's a blend of clasical violin and hip hop that is a welcome change in the music wolrd. The video that I saw on youtube was great so it was off to google to find their website which is http://blackviolin.net/.
Check it out, its nice when somthing new and fresh comes around in the music world.

Inside Home Recording's Podcasts

2007-10-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

If you are really getting into home recording this is a must. This site has the best podcast Ive found on home recording. The first time I heard one I listened to 5 more that night.
It's basically a podcast that covers the latest in home studio recording and is hosted by keyboardist-producer Paul Garay and web guy–drummer/guitarist–editor Derek K. Miller.
They Go over a lot of stuff at a great pace that is just right for the beginner or the Pro. I listen every chance I get.
Anyone interested in recording music, podcasts, or other audio should subscribe, even if you’re an expert already. There is a wealth of knowledge in these podcasts and they are fun to listen to. check them out here http://www.insidehomerecording.com/ or if you have itunes just set it and forget it.

RecordingReview.com's Soundcard Wizard

2007-10-20T23:09:00.000-05:00

I recently ran across a cool website with an even cooler program in it that is used to figure out what type of sound card you will need for the PC or mac in your studio. This site has a wealth of information on it for every type of musician. It breaks down into categories for all types of artists with blogs,forums, and reviews of just about everything.
The one thing that I found really helpful on this site was the Home Recording Sound card Wizard. This little program will save you hours of time when trying to figure out what type of sound card you need for your machine. It also has a Beginners mode that will walk you through some questions about what you are needing in a sound card and then will give you a list of all cards that fit your description. This is a great tool that will take a lot of the guess work out of your quest for the perfect sound card. check it out, here's the link http://www.recordingreview.com/soundcard/soundcard_wizard.php

Starting your own Home Studio

2007-10-15T17:46:00.000-05:00

Being a musician in today's world is great. With all the hardware and software available out there the possibilities are endless. 10 to 15 years ago you would have to go pay for studio time in a professional studio to get your music on tape or CD. Now with computers as powerful as they are and all of the the great software we have anyone can get their music heard.

I imagine if you're reading this then you probably already have a computer, so a big part of your studio is already paid for. It's pretty safe to say that any computer three or four years old or newer should be okay to run today's recording software. I would suggest having at least a gig of RAM though.

One thing you will have to buy is an audio interface. There are many types of these, some that snap into your PCI slots on your motherboard just like a normal sound card, some are boxes that use a USB cable to connect your computer, and others use a FireWire cable. The good thing about the external ones that use USB or FireWire is that they will connect to any computer that has one of these ports, desktop or laptop.

Before you buy your audio interface you need to think about how you are going to be recording music. Is it just going to be you, will you be recording more than one instrument at the same time, do you need a midi interface? All of these factors need to be considered before you go and purchase your hardware.
A good website to go to is http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ to learn more about audio interfaces. There are ton of them on there with factory specs for each one. This is also a great site to learn about pretty much all of the hardware and software you might need for your studio. They are always doing reviews of the new stuff that is coming out.

Once you have your computer and sound card out of the way it's time to think about what software you're going to use. There are many out there and it can sometimes be confusing especially when you have salesmen pulling you in every direction. A good thing to remember is that almost every one of these companies offer a trial version you can download over the internet that will let you try out the software for free for a short time period. I would suggest doing this before you go and drop your hard-earned cash on one only to find out you like another one better a month or so down the road.
If you want to get your feet wet without spending any money at all try out Audacity. This is a free audio recording program that really does a great job considering it’s price (free).
You can find it here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Some other (not free) programs that are popular are: Protools,Cubase,Ableton live, and cakewalk.
I’m sure there are many more out there but these are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.

Some software only works with certain audio interfaces. For example, if you wanting to use ProTools then you must have a ProTools compatible interface. So this is something you want to check out before you buy.
Okay now that you have your computer, your audio interface, and your software of choice there’s one more thing we need to get before you start recording. We need something to listen to the music with. I’m sure it won’t take you long to find out that the speakers that came with your pc aren’t quite cutting it.
This is where studio monitors come in. They range anywhere from 100 bucks to well into the thousands of dollars. I have a very cheap pair of m audio monitors that only cost around 149 dollars a pair but I think they work quite well, at least for now. Do a quick Google search on Studio Monitors and you will soon see that there are a ton of them to choose from so it’s all in what you are wanting to spend.
The reason it is good to have studio monitors is because they have a flat frequency response. This means which you hear is closer to what the real mix sounds like. When you use regular stereo speakers it is hard to set up your mid range, bass, and treble. Most regular stereo speakers are built to enhance sound whether it is by giving it more bass, more treble, or whatever. So if you're using these speakers when you are making your music it might sound totally different when you get into another stereo,car,or mp3 player.

Studio monitors are made to put out a flat frequency response. This means no bass boost, no enhancements at all, just a flat, true sound of your mix. Get your music sounding good on these and you should be good to go wherever your music is played.
So all in all if you already own a computer that is not much more than three or four years old. You have an audio interface and some studio monitors. Just figure out what software you want to use and you should be ready to start recording.
I would venture out to say that anymore for under $1000 you can have yourself a pretty nice setup that would do just fine for any musician that wants to get started in home recording. These are good times for musicians, you don’t have to go to a professional studio and pay for studio time. You don't need to "know the right people", with all the Myspaces and Youtubes out there you can go from being the guy with the guitar the party to the next big thing with a little luck.
So get down to your local music store, pick up the things you need, and start recording some music. It's a lot of fun and I'm sure once you get started you won't be able to stop.

Condenser vs. Dynamic microphones

2007-10-12T23:07:00.000-05:00

Let's take a look at both of the microphones and compare their advantages and disadvantages. The most common microphone found in studios is the condenser mic, it has a much greater frequency response. The output of the microphone is louder and has a much cleaner sound to me. One thing I have noticed with condenser mics is that they pick up every little detail. This took some getting used to as the mic would pick up strange sounds your mouth would make, your feet on floor, or any other noise you might make while in the booth.

The main thing I noticed about condenser mics is their price in comparison to dynamic microphones. They are generally a lot more expensive. I have seen them anywhere from $200-$5000 in a local music stores around here. Since I'm not made of money I started with a $200 microphone. Even though it was bottom-of-the-line I couldn't believe the difference in the sound it produced. It was like a whole different person in the booth. His voice had more bass, and more treble. It basically produces a full sound like the person was right there.

One thing about condenser mic you need to know is that they require external power called Phantom power. Most any mixer you buy today will provide this.

There are two kinds of condenser microphones large diaphragm and small diaphragm. The large diaphragm microphones are usually used for recording vocals. You will get a much warmer sound with a large diaphragm microphone.

Small diaphragm microphones are better when you want to record something a wide frequency such as a live taping or a guitar.

One other thing you need to know about condenser microphones is that they are very fragile. Usually one good drop to the floor and you're reaching and your wallet for money to buy a new mic.

Dynamic microphones are used more in live performances or onstage because they can take a beating. These things are like tanks, drop them all you want and they'll still work like new most of the time. They do really well on stage and can withstand very loud yelling and lots of screaming guitars.

The good thing about dynamic microphones is that you can get a good one for around $100. One of the more popular ones is the Shure sm57. I'm sure you will find one of these in just about every professional studio.

So in a nutshell, if you're going to be on stage get yourself a dynamic microphone that can take a beating but when it comes to your booth, grab a large diaphragm condenser mic to get the full rich sound you're looking for.

It's gettin HOT in here...

2007-10-12T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've noticed a lot of people asking about the heat issue.

I'm not really sure what to do about this myself, for now I've just been doing 20 minute sessions.

I've looked on the web and found stuff about venting sound booths but everything is either very expensive or out of my league. There are some prefab booths online that cost anywhere from 2000 - $4000 dollars, they all have venting but none of them say how they do it.

I thought about using computer fans in the top since they are so quiet but that kinda kills the soundproof qualities of my booth. I also thought about pumping AC into it but then again the same problem arises.

If there is anybody out there who has done this before or knows of a link that can help let me know. I would appreciate any feedback , good or bad. A little constructive criticism never hurt anybody right?

Messing around in studio

2007-10-07T17:22:00.000-05:00

Just trying to get the hang of the whole midi, sync stuff. This is not really the kind of music I play but its still fun so I figured I would post it.

When I get comfortable with the recording process I will attempt to record some acoustic guitar and piano or keyboard.

Lots of new videos added to blog!

2007-10-06T00:48:00.000-05:00

I have been up for the last 2 days looking for good videos to embed in the new players on the blog. There are now 4 players with over 90 videos to watch. All videos have to do with home recording and there are a LOT of training videos on there.
There are training videos for Ableton live, Cubase, and Propellerheads Reason plus a lot random videos showing off peoples recording and beat making techniques so get comfortable and have fun.

New video players on blog

2007-10-05T00:02:00.000-05:00

There are two new video players on the blog now. One is called the HST video player which has a bunch of random home recording videos mostly from youtube or Google video and the other is the Cubase tutorial video player which also pulls videos from the internet about using Cubase.
The cool thing about these players is that I am the one who has to go spend the countless hours on youtube, Google video, etc. to find them, then I put them all in one place for you to enjoy.
I will update them as I come across more cool and interesting videos and I plan to add more players on different subjects in the future.
They are pretty straight forward to operate. Hit play, if you don't like the particular video that is playing hit the arrow at the bottom of the player and it will go to the next one. You can also click on the menu button and it will give you a list of all videos on that are on that player and you can pick the one you want to watch from there.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the video players.

Flooring in studio ?

2007-10-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

I am getting ready to rip the old, gold, and very dated carpet out of the room I'm building my studio in. I'm not really sure what I am going to put down yet.
Ive been looking at pictures of studios all over the web and there is a little of everything going on in the way of flooring. Some have carpet, some have hardwood, some even have some sort of rubber stuff going on in them.
Any suggestions to what I should use and why. I was just gonna use carpet. ???

Mac or PC ?

2007-10-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

OK I'm probably gonna get massacred by some people for being a PC guy.........waiting...waiting....cool, no gunfire.
I never used Macs before I got into PC's, as a matter of fact I didn't even own a computer until the last year of the super-awesome windows ME. (what an OS to start with huh)
My first experience on a computer was with the worst operating system ever made. The good thing was I had nothing to compare it to so it was all so new to me it was still great, hindsight is 20/20.

It was less than a year later when xp came out and I have probably touched a computer everyday of my life since then. I first got into computers because of art, not music. I had a friend who was a web designer and I saw him using Photoshop and that was it, I bought a PC soon after and in the 7 years that followed I have been at it full throttle and changed careers all because I saw someone move a person's head to another body. I now work on computers for a living and they are an everyday part of my life.

I remember the first time used a Mac. I was in a Photoshop 7 class I took at a local community college. I seriously had to have someone open Photoshop for me because I could not find the "START" button. Since then my job has made me have to use them on occasion so I'm not so bad with them anymore.

I got into music recording just last year and since I have been fixing PC's for 3 years I already knew a lot about them so I was not about to switch to Mac and relearn everything. When something breaks on my PC I know how to fix it. I can upgrade it with ease and as far as the price goes we all know it's a LOT cheaper than a G5.

Im not a closed minded, die hard PC nut so I started doing research online to see if there was some super underground secret I didn't know about Macs that made graphic design and home recording a breeze. I was thinking if I found one I could tell my wife how I had to have one because I cant do whatever with my PC. I looked forever. Websites,blogs,forums. I found many stories telling the pros and cons of both but most were just opinions and I could not find one strong enough to let me part with 3 thousand dollars.

So, I did what anyone would do. I went to a friend who worked at the local Mac dealer and asked his opinion. He did his job and told me how great they were and how they were made for the kind of stuff I do. He told me that everything is right where you think it should be and they are way easier to work than a PC. That might be true if you were not a windows user and had not already trained yourself that the "x" was in the upper right hand corner.

I must admit, when I saw the G series desktops the look alone makes you want one. They are a beautiful machine to look at. I was also impressed with the whole "swishy" feel of the 'OS.
I still wasn't sure so I told him I didn't know what I was going to do so my friend said "why don't you borrow my Mac book for a week, I'm gonna be outta town anyway". I took him up on the offer. I took the laptop home and put my PC away for a while.

I will say at first it was cool simply because it was new to me but soon the newness wore off and then the frustration set in of not knowing how to do everything. I loaded Ableton live on it and started playing with garage band a little too. After all was said and done I was like YUP....you can record music on these too. I honestly did not see any reason to go drop 3 g's on a new box, buy a new sound card,new software, AND deal with relearning a new OS. I'm sure the Macs work great for recording and graphics. I'm sure they don't get many viruses if any (if I were a virus writer I would target 90% of the population too) All in all they are awesome machines but my whole issue was "what can they do that I cant do with my PC" and I didn't find anything out there significant enough to make me switch.

So for now I'm gonna stick with my PC (and some good spyware protection of course). Maybe someday Ill buy one just to have one but I see no real reason to cross over at the moment.

I would love to read your comments about this, remember I am new to home recording and I don't know a lot about Macs so
I could be missing the big picture. Maybe there will be some comments that could change my opinion.

Studio tour (video)

2007-09-29T01:14:00.000-05:00

I am getting ready to take everything out of here so I can rip the old carpet out and completely refinish the walls. I figured I would shoot a before and after video since I'm kinda documenting the whole process here.

Sorry about the Blair Witch style video, never said I was a Video guru.

I threw a beat on my drum machine and made the bass lines with my EA1 for the background music, hopefully it's not to repetitive for ya.

Roland XP-50

2007-09-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

I bought this board about 10 years ago at a pawn shop. At the time I had never heard the word midi and did not even own a computer, (and now I work for Geek squad???...who knew huh). Anyway, I'm just saying I had no clue on how to do anything with it except play it like a piano.

I put it in a closet for 8 years and almost sold it 2 or 3 times, I'm so glad I never did.

After I started working on PC's for a living I got to hang around a lot of people who messed with midi, once I saw how it worked I drug my XP-50 out of the closet and blew the dust off of it and now I'm building a whole studio. Once again, I'm glad I held onto it. This thing is great. I love the sounds it has in it. It also had a dance expansion pack in it when I bought it so I have some good "Rave,techno-type sounds in it as well.

The keys have a nice feel to them and the jog wheel makes it easy to scroll through your patches. I have not messed with the sequencer much on it since I use the PC to do that part of it.

Here are the specs on the board

64-voice polyphony; 16-part multitimbral capability; 512 preset patches; 8 MB of internal waveform memory
32-bit custom RISC chip
Redesigned 16-track sequencer; 100 patterns
Accepts any four SR-JV80 Series expansion boards
40 insert effects in addition to digital reverb and chorus
Direct-from-disk playback; Realtime Phrase Sequencing
GM/GS Compatible

They are great boards.

You can usually find them on eBay starting around 450 and up based to their condition.

Vintage Synth Explorer

2007-09-27T00:18:00.000-05:00

I really am taking an interest in vintage analog and digital synthesizers. I look on eBay all of the time for them and I am always looking at pawn shops and music stores for whatever I can find.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/ (Vintage Synth Explorer) is a awesome site to learn about all kinds of synths. They have over 500 instruments and counting on their site. There are reviews and info on all sorts synths old and new. Its a great place to read what each one does and will point you in the right direction when it comes time to start looking to purchase.

The site even has "gear for sale" and "wanted gear" sections to buy and sell your instruments.

I stumbled across this site on a Google search a while ago and I just figured I would spread the word, Its a great site and a lot of fun to read about the old synths. Oh yeah, you can also download patches for some stuff there too, check it out.

E-MU 0404 sound card

2007-09-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

This is the card I am using at the moment and I have no problem with it at all. It has two 1/4" analog inputs and outputs, optical 24-bit/96kHz S/PDIF In/Out, Coaxial 24-bit/96kHz S/PDIF In/Out, and MIDI In/Out. Everything I need at the moment.

Its performs great for me and I have no latency problems at all with it.

My only problem is that I'm thinking of moving to Pro tools and I will need an M-Audio card for that. If it were not for that one reason I'm not sure I would even upgrade right now (if it ain't broke....)

I am looking into firewire mixers. I could kill two birds with one stone because I'm using a little 4 channel mixer right now and I do need some more channels. I'm not sure what I'm going to get yet but for 100 dollars if you are just getting into home recording this little card will do the job.

check out the Emu 0404 here http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=10447 In my opinion its a lot of card for a hundred bucks.

Cubase or Protools

2007-09-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

Short post tonight.
I've been using Ableton for about 7 mths and I like it but I'm finding that nobody else uses it and many don't even know what it is. I am really starting to like the sounds that come from hardware synths instead of vst's anyway so I am going to make the switch to either Pro tools or Cubase. I'm pretty sure I want to go with Pro tools but it will cost me a lot more because I do not have a m audio sound card. I have not used either one of them so I just wanted to get some pro and cons of the two.
It seems that Pro tools is more the industry standard from what I have read online. I just don't want to drop and extra 3 to 4 hundred if its not necessary.
Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Got my EA1 today!

2007-09-22T23:18:00.000-05:00

My Korg EA1 I bought off of EBay arrived today...I've been waiting for this for a while. Anyway, This little guy can produce some awesome sounds and I cant wait to get into it. I opened it up and made sure it worked and took the pic so I haven't got to play with it more than about 10 min.

I have been looking for one of these for a while now. They seem to go for around 175 to 200 dollars (used) in the music stores around here but I lucked out and bid the highest on EBay for only 61 dollars! It was so cheap I thought it wasn't going to work when it got here. The only thing wrong with it was the master volume knob and power cord were missing. I bought a universal ac adapter at Best buy for 8 dollars and wallah. I don't really care about the volume knob, you can still turn it if you have to but I will probably set it and forget it anyway and use the mixer to control it's volume.

SO..... keep your eyes out on EBay when adding hardware or software to your studio, if you are patient enough you will strike gold.

Sound booth frame

2007-09-19T22:22:00.000-05:00

This is what the frame of my booth looked like before I hung the Sheetrock. It's 4 x 4 x 7.5 ft.

I thought 4x4 was small until I finished it then I found that 4 ft is a lot bigger than it seems. There is enough room for 2 people to be in there comfortably or one person with a guitar. It seems huge with a single person in there which is how it is used 99% of the time anyway.

I used regular Sheetrock but I used Sheetrock adhesive AND screws to hold it up and help seal it off. I also used insulation between the walls just like it was an outside wall to help keep sound out. The glue helped kill vibration and sound leak but will be a pain if I ever have to replace a piece of Sheetrock. I recommend not gluing the rock to the studs where there are cables running behind it. Everywhere cables run in my booth have a removable,separate piece of Sheetrock that is only screwed in so I can remove it and replace bad cables or add them with ease. After the rock was up I did no mud or tape on the inside since it would be covered with acoustic tile anyway but I did fill the cracks with clear silicon just to seal it off even more. For the window I used 2 pieces of Plexiglas with a 1 in. spacer (piece of wood with foam seals) between them. It seemed to work well and only cost me around 24 dollars for both pieces which is cheaper and easier than glass.

After that I ordered my tile online. It ended up being about 180 bucks but I have quite a few tiles left over (like 25 or so). They came with some spray glue which has not been so good to me. I keep having to re glue them up every so often. I did a post on that last week and someone commented and told me to try krylon. I am going to research it and give it a try because I am getting tired of re gluing the tiles every month or so.

So.... for around 350 dollars in supplies and a little work you can build a sound booth that sounds great if you don't mind sweating a little. I based that figure on the supplies it would take just to build the 4x4x7 booth not the wall you saw in the video on my previous post.

Trigger finger by M Audio

2007-09-18T16:41:00.000-05:00

I came across one of these one day while hanging out at my local music store. I was not planning on buying one nor did I even know what one was but I did have some money burning a hole in my pocket and like always I was going home with SOMETHING that day.

The owner of the store told me how cool this thing would be if I was getting into midi and how each button could be programed to do whatever you want it to. I must say it took a little while to figure out how to set it up but also remember I am new to everything midi so I'm sure someone who is more experienced could breeze right through it. OK, with all that out of the way, I love this controller. The pads are touch sensitive and seem very durable. I bang the crap out of them when using it to control drum programs and it feels very solid. I program all of the sliders to do different things (faders,volume controls,rolls,etc.) This is very easy to do in ableton live,you just put your mouse on the slider or knob in the program you want to program and then move the one on the Trigger Finger you want to assign it to. I picked this up used but still in perfect condition for 125 dollars...money well spent in my opinion.

I'm sure you are realizing that the only reviews I am doing right now are of stuff that I own so naturally they will probably get high ratings. I give this one a 5 out of 5 just like the midair 37. Both controllers are something I now would not want to be without.

Check out the M Audio Trigger finger here

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/TriggerFinger-main.html

M-AUDIO Mid Air 37

2007-09-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

I installed Reason on my laptop and bought one of these little bad boys. I use it ALL OF THE TIME. I can sit on the couch with my laptop on the table beside me and since it's a wireless controller with no cords in my way I just throw some headphones on and I have a blast without having to alienate my wife by going downstairs to hide in my studio. I got it on sale at Guitar Center for 137 dollars and it was worth every penny. Its also great for taking on the road in hotels etc.
Check it out http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MidAir37-main.html
I give it 5 out of 5

Monitor in booth

2007-09-17T12:43:00.000-05:00

This turned out great. I bought a dual monitor card for the PC that is running the daw and now it doesn't take 2 people to record vocals anymore. It also helps when one person is in the booth and the producer is behind the controls because you can see the peak levels and whatever else is going on. We also use it to see lyrics.

Best addition to my studio I've done and it cost me about 250 bucks.

Whats your favorite DAW?

2007-09-17T02:26:00.000-05:00

Just wondering what everyone is using out there. I have been using Ableton live 5 and 6 for the whole 7 mths I've been into home recording. (I know, not exactly vet yet)
I think I am going to switch to pro tools though since it seems to be the industry standard.
I know there are tons out there so let us know what you like and why you like it.

acoustic tiles won't stick!

2007-09-17T01:50:00.000-05:00

I used the spray adhesive that came with the tiles I ordered and it seemed OK at first but after a week or two I always have to re glue them? I put the glue on the tiles and the wall, let it get tacky and it stuck good at first but always starts coming off later. If anyone has used this glue befor or knows of a better glue please let me know because its getting old re glueing them all of the time.

Building a sound booth (video)

2007-09-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

I took a bunch of my videos from the month we spent building the both and spliced them together to show the process from start to current condition. I plan to build a whole home studio but for now I'll just show the booth. I would guess with lumber,Sheetrock,Plexiglas,and acoustic foam I spent about 700 dollars on this project so far. This is not counting cables and wiring which would have cost me a ton if I didn't work at BBY.