Saturday, February 13, 2010

Thanks to all of you!

Hello all,

Just wanted to take a moment and say thanks to some great sites that have included my blog. We never know just who is looking at our blogs!

ZT amps.....

Just to the right hand side, on the YouTube link from their main site, boom, Home Recording Weekly. Thanks so much!


Billy is a wealth of knowledge. He posts very informitive videos daily, and has lots to share!

Thanks so much for sharing in the fun!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Soundation Studio

Let me turn you onto something new.

Introducing
Soundation Studio, by Power FX.




What do we have here? Soundation Studio is a very cool sequencer, unlike any other that I have ever come across. Why? Because it is free! Yup, I said free!




How
Soundation Studio works.....


Soundation Studio is a place to make music on the web. Soundation Studio is a free sequencer that works as you might expect. Soundation Studio has a powerful sequencer, 11 real time effects, 3 synthesizers, time stretching, a drum machine and an fully integrated Sound Shop, and all of this for free!


Soundation Studio has over 400 loops on it all ready, and you can purchase more as you need them, right from Soundation! Did I forget to mention that all of these great features, as well as a master volume, can be automated as well?

Included in
Soundation Studio are effects that you know well, like compressors, limiters, distortions, reverbs, and you can use more than one on each track. This is very cool indeed. When your creations are complete, you can store them right on the web too! You can use the songs that you create in your own projects too, by saving them as wave or mp3 files, right on your own desktop! How very usefull!!!

Here is a link to the actual “for sale” loops that work in Soundation Studio. You actually get a lot of bang for very little buck! Each loop library comes with over 20 loops, and is priced under five bucks! Wow, there are five pages of loop libraries to select from too!

Here is the actual Soundation product, free for you to use! Follow this link and spend some time trying this out. You will be surprised at how powerful Soundation Studio really is! Here are some great tut's , from Soundation Studio's blog, dealing with all things Soundation Studio. Here are full song demos, effect demos, and all sorts of useful information dealing with Soundation Studio.


For even more information, Here is a link to their very handy PDF “Help File”. I found this PDF file to be most helpful, and it is where I learned the most about the effects, and saving my new creations.


Thanks for stopping by the Home Recording Weekly blog, and feel free to subscribe today. Comments are always welcome too, if you wish to see a post about anything not covered here.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Signal routing with Amplitube products.

A closer look at the IK Multimedia Amplitube way of dealing with signal chain routing.

IK Multimedia, with their assortment of Amplitube products (Fender, Amplitube, Metal) has come up with a way to switch up your signal routing, in a fast and easy way!



The preset system is as old as the music software technology itself, but we all love it very much. IK Multimedia knows this, and incorporated it into their signal routing options for their software products.

We all know about switching between a “one rig system”, “a complete two rig system”, and everything in between, and the sounds that they are capable of. Amplitube products have a great way of setting up your favorite type of rig, right from the start!

Check out the video!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Zoom H4 Handy Recorder.

The Zoom H4 handy recorder review.

This is not by any means a new product, but a look at one way to solve some current problems that you might be facing.


We often hear sounds in our day to day lives that might make it onto our recordings. Everything from the rhythmic turnings of washing machines to the push and pull of coin slots enter my conscious every time I hear them. Recording these sounds as either wave files or mp3 recordings is a breeze with the Zoom H4 handy recorder.
Recording interviews, conversations, or even our own thoughts is also a great way to use the Zoom H4 handy recorder.



I purchased the Zoom H4 handy recorder for these very reasons, and many more reasons as well. I was having a problem with the audio quality in my videos that I have been posting. The high pitch that my video recorder emits makes its way onto the final output of each video. Most often I cant use a separate microphone/Pro tools input to record my audio because I am using Pro tools in the demo video itself. Something had to give. Hence, the Zoom H4 handy recorder.

The Zoom H4 handy recorder works in two “modes”. These two modes are “stereo recorder” and “four track recorder”. Each mode work as you might guess, but I needed a simple way of recording only two 48 phantom powered mics, panned to the center. The unit came with two AA batteries, a wall wartplug in, a sof case, a tripod mount, usb cable, instruction manual, and Cubase LE software.

The Zoom H4 shines as a stereo recorder, both using the on board pair of condenser microphones (set up in an XY pattern) or using two separate mics plugged into the device. However, the Zoom H4 can be used as a four track recorder as well. This solved a problem for me.....

The Zoom H4 (used in stereo mode) sends the microphone inputs (of a plugged in mic pair) hard left and hard right. This is not what I wanted. When the Zoom H4 is placed into four track mode, I found out that the tracks can be put into “stereo linkable” mode. Hence, two mono mics are recorded in the “center” pan position. Badah bing, badah boom, the work is done.

The on board mics are really good sounding and work very well, and you can plug in up to two inputs worth of gear (guitar, bass, keyboards, microphones, ect). The Zoom H4 has combo input jacks which allow for either male ¼ inch mono jacks, or male XLR mic input jacks. Phantom power is available too, in either 24 or 48 volts!

Please follow this link over to the Samson Audio website to watch a video that lists all of the cool features of the Zoom H4 handy recorder.

The newer Zoom H4n allows the user to use the on board condenser pair of mics along with two other mics plugged into it, and all at the same time. The Zoom H4 does not support this feature. So think about what and how you want to record before you decide to make a purchase. Having three sound sources could be a sale point, versus only having the either/or set up of on board mics and inputs plugged into the unit.

Thanks for stopping by the Home Recording Weekly blog. There are some bad ass recording toys in route, here, so do yourself the favor and subscribe today. Adding the Home Recording Weekly blog to your favorites will work too, just don't miss out on the up coming posts! Feel free to comment on any post that you feel inspired to do so on!