Home Recording Weekly

New products and more

2012-01-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some products that are in the works, and hopefully coming soon to the Home Recording Weekly blog. I can’t wait to start shooting some more demo videos for all of you, and what better products than these new offerings from Propellerheads and Toontrack!

From Propellerhead….

I love drum refills, and Propellerheads refills are some of the best sounding that I have ever heard. Compile that with such an incredible ease of use, and we have some home runs on the way! I am talking about Alt Drums Refills with Ryan Greene.

Check out what Reason/Record users can look forward
to!

Here is a link over to their product page, for a closer look. These are broken
down into three different packs, each with three kits each.

From Toontrack music (available starting Feb.7^th) comes EZ Mix2.
This is the second incarnation of a great product. Mixing is not an easy task,
and can take years to get the hang of. Let’s not discuss the small fortune it
takes to collect the hardware or software plug inns that mixing requires.
Toontrack has taken all of the learning and the fortune out of the equation! EZ Mix is a series of “one slider” effects that are easy to use, and make our tracks sound killer!

Here is a link over to a great video for EZ Mix 2!

In closing, I would love to add that this is a very cool time in recording. I have been working on a remake of an old tune, with a friend of mine. We recorded this track a long time ago, and it has gotten lost with the passing of time. With recording where it is today, and the help of the
web, we are able to bounce files back and forth, across the country. I am having a blast collaborating with my friend, and can’t help thinking about where things are heading. The site we are using to upload tracks back and forth is Dropbox. It is free, and worth checking out too!

Current exciting sites and news too.

2012-01-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

Pardon my absence, and if you have read or found the information in this post, than perhaps you might pardon that too.

To begin today, Graham, over at The Recording Revolution has begun a wave of awesome mixing tips for the month of January. He is posting 31 mixing tips in 31 days. His tips are amazing, easy to follow, and will bring you great results. Check out his YouTube page for a lot more videos too!

Next, one of my all time favorite guitar, bass, and amp companies, Carvin, is about to release a new version of their amazing Legacy amps. Due for release at the 2012 Winter Namm show, I can’t wait to see what they have come up with to make this amp even better.

Well, back to being a new dad. This is the reason behind my absence. However, with being a stay at home dad, I do have moments of time that I fine to spend on my guitar playing. What have I been up to? How about learning my scales. I have been working through that long awaited task,
and am so proud of myself for taking this on. I could always figure out a scale, on a must play basis, but knowing them from memory has always gotten away from me. I started with two scales, the Blues and the Pentatonic. Lately, I have been spending my “found moments” on the Major scale. What an amazing thing to finally get into! A fun way to spend a Maine winter too!

A dedicated controller for Reason!

2011-12-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

New
from Nektar, a “all-in-one” controller for Reason and Record!

Here
is the press release, and You could win one for yourself too!

Nektar Technology, Inc. - December 19th, 2011 (ictw) - There have been already a lot of rumors about it, now it
is official: Nektar, the California based new brand for Advanced Control * Enhanced Workflow
Controllers announce Panorama P4, the first dedicated
Controller Keyboard for Propellerhead Reason. This couples with a great prize
competition. Musicians can win the very first Panorama P4 rolling off the
production line, by submitting their competition entry at www.nektartech.com.

Panorama P4 is Nektar’s vision of how a great
controller keyboard should work. As there are many controllers on the market
already, it is still a challenge to find one that offers the feel and flow of
operating the software, as if it’s hardware. Panorama P4 uses a communication protocol that has been
custom designed for Reason 6, putting control - every control - at the
musician’s fingertips. Panorama, in addition, of course also features traditional MIDI controller capabilities, including a
MIDI output, so its possible to switch between the virtual and a hardware
instrument rack in real-time. Panorama P4 really provides access to all areas. 

Panorama P4 will be shown to the public for
the first time at the NAMM Show 2012 in Anaheim, January 18th – 21st 2012 at
booth #4912.

Now it is possible to win the first ever made
Panorama P4. And the rules are simple: Answering the the questions and
including one’s real name and email address. The competition
will run until NAMM and if more than one submission got all answers right,
Nektar will pick the winner through a random draw. As there is one question
even Nektar do not know the answer to yet, everybody is invited to make a good
guess.

Panorama is expected to be available in Q1
2012. Price tba.

More Information you can find at: www.nektartech.com

2011-10-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

Buy Toontrack Music'c latest EZX® expansion, Americana, before the end of October 2011 and automatically enter the competition to win a hand carved, custom designed and one of a kind guitar. On top of that, once you've won - we will have your name or custom inscription carved in the pickguard. How cool and unique is that?

VIDEO

Contest Rules:
• To be eligible to participate, a copy of Americana EZX must be registered to your personal Toontrack account before the end of the month of October 2011.

• Any place of purchase is valid

• Only new copies apply (second hand owners are not eligible to enter)

• One lucky winner will be randomly picked from all copies registered from September 30 through October 31 2011

Follow this link for more information about Toontracks EZX® Americana expansion pack.

Review of Billy Penns’ “Guitar Set UP Guide” E-Book.

2011-09-25T09:10:00.001-07:00

From the creator of the popular 300 Guitars website comes a new E-book that perhaps every guitar player should have.

This is one thick “E-book”. How about 46 pages of knowledge, packed with great images, relevant video links, and so, so much more!

However, before I take you any further, perhaps I should explain both “who is Billy Penn”, and “why it is that we should we take his advice?”.

In Billy’s own words and with paraphrasing too…….

“I began my career as a guitar (and amplifier) tech out of necessity and pure love for the instrument. As far back as I can remember I was always interested in how things worked, came apart and went back together………..

Around the age of 19 I got a job at Kramer Guitars in the stock room which was right next to the repair department. I used to hang out and watch to see how some repairs were performed. As I got older I started playing in bands but my full time day gig was as a Union Electrician. My band mates and their friends would give me their broken guitars and amps and I would fix them. I couldn't decide which I loved more, playing them or fixing them. So I decided that it would be cool to be the best I could be at both……….

I then worked in various music stores doing repair work. I actually created a repair tech job at Outlaw Guitars which specialized in vintage guitars and amps. I got an education of a lifetime there working on all the different prized gear you can think of. I used to stay late and open every amp and guitar to see how they were built and how they all were different. I really got more interested in amps during this time and decided to start a boutique amp company.………

Around this time the playing bug started to gain strength and I found myself touring for part of the 90's and spending a little time in Nashville. Being on the road and in the studio was another great education. This was the other side of the bench as I like to call it. Needless to say I took care of everyone's gear but I didn’t mind at all. So after about 20+ years working on countless guitars and amps (some pedals too) and having my own “Pennalizer” brand of amps I decided to go online with my passion and started 300guitars.com…….I actually have my own band called the Inside Drivers and play gigs regularly and record. I like to keep that aspect of myself “plugged in” so I can constantly learn more music and come up with ideas to better help players with my services.”

Now, back to the review…….

This E-book is geared towards electric and acoustic guitars, but not the types with “floating trems” and locking nuts. There will be another E-book coming soon which will cover these types of guitars.

As a guitar player, band member, songwriter, and over all guitar enthusiast, I have always wondered just which important guitar adjustments I should try to make on my own. With much regret, what I found out was that this information is “trade sensitive”, and that no guitar tech seems willing to just give this knowledge away. My guitars just seem to fall out of perfect setup as the gigs pass, and my guitars never seem to play the same ever again.

Billy Penn makes no bones about giving us the exact and precise information that we all need, and wish to know. Such knowledge is vital to the way that our guitars “play”, feel, sound, tune up, and perhaps most important of all, how long our guitars will last. It is like having a guitar tech with us, for as long as we keep our E-book Guitar setup guide that is.

Within the pages of this E-book, Billy Penn teaches us how to perform the most vital of guitar adjustments. Billy teaches us how to adjust our guitars’ intonation, truss rods, radius, action of the strings, pickups, and all of this with exact precision! The information that I have always tried to obtain is “just what substances should be used to polish all of the different types of guitar finishes”. Well, that is also in this excellent guide E-book!

Billy lists the best possible tools that we should have available before we begin our guitar work. He details what the work space should look like, what it should contain, and as we read along he details lot of great tips. Great tips that we can all use to make our job a lot easier.

All of the fine measurements are in this E-book, along with a lot of images, video links, and knowledge that most “techs” do not like to give away. Thanks Billy Penn, for helping all of us guitar players! At $4.99 this is a steal, and a must have!

Winner for August songwriting contest!

2011-09-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, one more month has passed, and one more songwriter has won.

Congrats to Genta Tamashiro, and a job well done!

I love this tune, and the story behind the song. Here is what Genta has to say about the song “ Left in the past 2”……

“Hello my name is Genta Tamashiro. I am from Denver, CO but I am currently going to college in Hawaii at the University of Hawaii. I went to Denver School of the Arts (which is a public school with emphasis on the arts in Denver) for middle and high school where I studied music. I recently started recording music and I love it. I have no formal training in recording or audio engineering but I hope to go to school for it soon. At the moment all I use to record is a copy or Logic Studio that was given to me from a good friend, an input box to hook up my mic to my laptop, and a Shure SM58 microphone.
After much deliberation, I decided to send you this song I made that I call Left In The Past. I started making this song after a rather intense dream I had a few months ago where I was a soldier in some great war just to come home to have my wife leave me for being gone for so long. It is a strange dream considering I'm only 19 years old and have never been married! Never the less, it was a very strong dream and one of the very few that I can remember after waking. The song depicts one specific scene in my dream where my now ex wife is walking away from me while for some reason I do nothing to stop her.
All the instruments in the song are played by me and all the vocals are me as well. The drum kit is not live but a used a series of sampled sounds. The marimba you may hear is a MIDI instrument inside Logic and the guitar is live. I hope you enjoy my song. I have more songs as well in many different styles that I would love to enter if possible, if not, I would still love to have you hear them if you wanted to, I am always looking for feedback in the music that I make. :)
Thanks A lot,
Genta Tamashiro”

Enjoy your prizes Genta!

2011-07-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

Home Recording Weekly Songwriting contest winner for July.

This past month saw all sorts of entries. I got some musicals, some country, and some of that good ole’ rock and roll.

This is the song that “caught my ear”, and I fell in love with the “hook”. Congratulations, Cherell Willams, on a job so very well done!

Here is what Cherell Willams wrote to me……

“I am an amateur songwriter but not a performing artist. I spent years throwing away songs and recently I wrote a song and did my first home recording with the help of my husband and I was like "Wow, I finally wrote a song I actually like LOL ;) We didn't have everything we needed but we used what we had and did the best we could with what we had. We had a regular old mic (we wanted a condenser mic), no pre-amp, and an acoustic guitar that rattles a bit and is not warm sounding at all. So it's basically a good quality song but the mix is not a very good mix. It definitely needs to be recorded over but I'm still proud of it LOL :)

We look forward to upgrading and getting little home studio up to par so we can produce a better quality recording. I'm excited now!

In my recording of "It's a new day" I played the guitar I'm not a professional guitar player by the way. I can play a few chords and a few songs. I'm not a vocalist but I do what I can. Didn't have anyone to sing the song for me, so I sang it myself and my husband who is a very talented singer help me with the background vocals.

My influence is just music itself. The genres I like to call my songs are "Positive". Just positive, simple, clean music along with some contemporary Christian. I just hope my music will be a positive, encouraging, uplifting influence to many. I desire to have my songs placed in T.V./Film. Can you imagine movies without music! The music is what enhances the plot. Can you imagine a world without music!

Thanks

Willams~Songwriter
www.broadjam.com/rellspositivemusic”

Here is a list of prizes that Cherell has just won!

1) A 30 day, Full Access pass, to Groove 3 training videos. With new titles like “Reason Instruments volume 1”, and “Reason Instruments volume 2”, and my personal favorite “Mixing Rock”, there are videos waiting for you, and your musical journey!

2) From Bias, a copy of SoundSoap 2! This is such a perfect tool for video, music, mastering, and on and on!

3) From The Sound Guy, SFX Machine Pro ! A wonderful plugin for any application. Need effects? Here they are!

4) From LoopMasters, how about some DVD’s full of professional loops and samples! These are the best of the best!

Thanks for all of the amazing entries, and there is still one more month of contest left to enter! Good luck to you all! Please refer to the post that details the rules for entering!

Missing blogger!

2011-07-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you have noticed that the posting has slowed way down? Well, I have been very, very busy!
We were married on the 9^th of July, and I was supposed to play this song during the reception.

I wrote this when we were first going out, but the song would not play at the reception. I suppose I spared her, but I wish it would have played! The song is called “Kickin it forever with you”, and I hope that you like it!

Propellerhead Reason Disco School Refill.

2011-07-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that someone out there has heard my list of wants. Well, not only have my wants been heard, but they have been delivered to me! I am talking about the new Reason Disco School refills.

I am always sampling parts right from disco albums (Give me some Abba and the BeeGee’s). This is easy enough, well now that I have figured out how to rip my favorite parts from vinyl. I end up using all sorts of hardware (turn tables, mixers, pre-amps, ect.) and software (like Propellerhead Recycle). This whole affair is fun, and it works, but it is far from perfect.

One of my major complaints about ripping right from vinyl and then making it into samples and/or loops is that you can only get what is on the vinyl. For example, if I hear a cool horn part within a song that I like, I will sample it. But what if the horn part is in the middle of a song, and also has a bass, some drums, and guitars playing too? Man, I want those horns. Problem is that I can’t get the horns, and only the horns. I get the horns, but I also the bass, drums, guitars, and all of the other parts that are included in the section that I have just sampled. Stripping away all the unwanted instruments is simply impossible. We all have our little bag of tricks that we use to “remove” unwanted frequencies from our samples, like using gates, EQ’s, filters, and everything else. However, this does not do the job of removing instruments and other tracks from our samples.

Well, this problem has been addressed by Propellerhead software. The Reason Disco School refills are hot. Included in the refill pack are complete songs, track by track, but only if you want it that way. Each individual part is also available, and in either the whole part on tracks, or as loops! This is just like having the original master mixes right in our hands. No, scratch that, it is having the original master mixes right in our hands! Add whatever you like to your mix, remove what you do not like. Drop in any and all of the loops that you like (to taste), and then add your own tracks on top. Maybe your original tracks just need some retro polish, disco style. This is versatile, and very well set up. This is easy to work with, and very fast to apply. This is Reason Disco School refills.

After listening to the included content, song by song, I realized there was a lot in the Reason Disco School refills pack.

However, with all of my praise for the Reason Disco School refills, one thing became clear to me over time. I would not call this a bad thing, but it might be to some of you. If I listened very close to some parts (tracks or loops) I could hear other instruments in the background. I will bet that Propellerhead software either recorded these songs live, or they tracked them with monitors playing back for the session player. This is not unusual at all. The point is that a little bit of microphone bleed, between certain instruments is often captured.

Would most folks notice this microphone bleed? No. This is a common thing to deal with in studio situations, and most studios go to great lengths to try to eliminate any microphone bleed at all. They use devices like gates, directional microphones, and even isolation material to try and stop things like the snare bleed from entering into the bass cabs’ microphone. You may never even know that it is there, for about 90 percent of the way that most folks use these samples and loops, but when solo’d, one by one, and while listening very hard, I heard some microphone bleed. Did it ruin the whole deal? No. Am I upset, or even unhappy in any way? Nope. I am still in total and complete love with this refill pack, and would highly recommend it to my best and closest buds. I just feel that I must pass on just what I hear, and just what I think about any products that I post about.

The bottom line? If you are like me, you will want the Propellerhead software Reason Disco School refillspack. If you sample any disco at all, you will love the Reason Disco School refills pack. The bass riffs are fresh, and every instrument is well sampled and well played. The drums alone are worth the asking price. Sprinkle in some of the “most disco” guitar parts that I have ever heard, and you have one awesome refill pack! Get it, you will love it! This pack is well laid out, easy to use, and solves the biggest problem that I have ever came across when sampling from records! Thank you so much Propellerhead software , now I can have my cake and eat it too!

Big news from Propellerhead software today!

2011-07-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, from Propellerhead, Reason version 6 has been announced!

New in Reason 6
Combining all the features from Record, Reason version 6 adds audio recording and editing, along with Propellerhead's acclaimed mixing console with masterfully modeled EQ and dynamics on every channel, multiple parallel racks, Line 6 amp models, new effect devices plus additional features. New creative effects designed for inserting directly into instruments and tracks include: Pulveriser, sound crushing effect with crunchy compression, dirty distortion and flexible modulation; The Echo, advanced stereo echo with modern delay and analog tape echo emulation: and Alligator, a three band pattern gate for complex rhythmic texturing. Interface enhancements, high definition audio transpose and true 64-bit compatibility highlight other new feature improvements.

But, as if that is not enough, Propellerhead software has also announced their new Balance audio interface. This is very big news indeed. A lot of my blogs’ readers have asked a lot of questions about just which interface I feel is best to partner up with Reason and/or Record. Here is a link to the spec page. Wow, and just check out the all of the input options onboard of the Balance audio interface too!

Balance, a two-in by two-out audio interface for Mac and Windows, is designed for the single person operated home/project studio. Fully USB 2 powered with separate volume controls for monitors and headphones, it contains 8 input connections to keep all instruments, mics and devices connected and ready to record with the press of a button—without software pop-ups or control panels. The included Reason Essentials packs in all the recording editing, effects, instruments and mixing tools needed to create great sounding tracks.

Lastly, a stripped down, but very powerful version of Reason has been released too, called Reason Essentials. This is better than Reason Adapted ever thought about being.

Just for the record, with no Propellerhead pun intended, please keep the song entries coming in! There are still two more months of the Home Recording Weekly Blog Songwriting contest going! I still have prizes to give away to some songwriting subscribers!

Winner of the June Songwriting contest.

2011-06-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Alex Brown! The winning tune for the first leg of this three month long contest is titled “ I know it’s true”, and it caught my attention for several reasons.

Alex writes……

“I am 15 years old and I started playing piano at age 12 and now I play guitar, drums, and bass. I got really into music and recording, and so I started a band, and we practiced almost every day on the weekends. We also started recording a lot. I started working on a lot of solo work the past year and writing songs, and I recorded this one in my room. I used Logic Express 9 to record it and a midi keyboard and an old vocal mic my dad gave me. I turned my room into a little, mini home studio that I recorded it in. I wrote and recorded this song in one night, and I played all of the instruments by myself! Thanks again for taking the time to listen it means a lot! I hope you like it! “

Like it? Nope, I love it!

VIDEO

First of all, the guy is only 15 years old! Secondly, the piano “hook” is simply wonderful. I do not ever wish to consider the quality of a recording for the contest, but the quality here is not bad at all. What a great flow of medley and vocals. I love this tune, and have added it into my own Ipod. Great job Alex Brown and friends!

Here is the list of prizes that Alex has won, and the prizes for the next two month long songwriting contests.

From Bias, a copy of Bias Soundsoap2 pro. From Loopmasters, two”artist series loop and sample DVD packs. From The Sound Guy, a copy of their SFX Machine Pro plug in. From Groove 3, a full access, 30 pass to training videos!

Next up, send in your songs for the month of July! For the complete list of the easy, simple, must follow rules, follow this link!

Toontrack Musics Chuck Ainlay EZ Mix

2011-06-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

The other day I received a copy of the brand new Chuck Ainlay EZ Mix preset package from Toontrack. After a few long mix sessions using it, I decided to shoot a quick demo video for it, and the amazing sounds that it produces.

Part 1

Part 2

If you wish to obtain professional mixing results as fast as possible, this is your EZ Mix preset pack! Available at the Toontrack website for 29 U.S. Dollars!

Thanks for stopping by!

Two new tools from IK Multimedia

2011-06-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

IK Multimedia announces 2 new mixing legends as add-ons to T-RackS: Black 76 and White 2A
Available as single plug-ins or integrated within the new 64-bit T-RackS® suite of mixing and mastering processors

May 2011, Modena, Italy – IK Multimedia is proud to announce the release of two new T-RackS mixing plug-ins that are modeled on two of of the world’s most renowned analog compressors: the Black 76 Limiting Amplifier and the White 2A Leveling Amplifier. These prestigious effects are available as single plug-ins for the most popular DAWs, or they may be integrated in the new T-RackS suite of mixing and mastering effects, now updated with 64-bit compatibility, both in standalone and plug-in modes.

The Black 76 Limiting Amplifier is modeled after what is probably the most used, most known, most wanted, and most universally recognized compressor / limiter in the audio industry. There are probably no professionally created records without tracks using this unit! It’s a true legend and a piece of history. The engineers that made this FET based compressor reached a level of cleverness and magic that only true visionary geniuses can achieve. While there are many revisions of this hardware, IK Multimedia modeled the LN version, revision E, because it's the one that has the most sonically recognized and wanted character, thanks to its input transformer and class A output stage.

This compressor can be used on literally everything: drums, drum sub-mixes, vocals, bass, guitars, piano, choirs, brass, strings, etc. It adds its sonic footprint to the sound that for many reasons simply makes music sound better. Vocals, for example, will gain presence, consistency, clarity and punch in a way simply not obtainable with other units. Drums will gain power and density with total control over the level of "snap", and guitars will get a magic midrange zone that makes them truly sing. The Black 76 is a must for mixing, but thanks to the perfectly stereo linked version provided with the MS option, it can also be effectively used for mastering if used with care!

The White 2A Leveling Amplifier is based on a legendary vintage unit that is entirely tube-based. It’s a totally different device in terms of construction where all the compression magic happens inside an optically coupled element formed by a fluorescent panel and some photocells: the famed T4A element. There is no electronic circuitry involved with the compression itself. It's just a tube amp with photo-resistors, lit by a fluorescent panel driven by the output signal. At the time of this invention, there were not many ways of making an audio compressor: only variable-mu and optical. Optical was the simplest one, and if proper elements for both the light emitting panel and the photocells were matched, magic happened.

Originally intended for use in broadcasting, it immediately became a truly signature unit for music recording and mixing. It’s a must-have for both tracking and mixing vocals, but it’s also tremendously effective on electric bass, upright bass, piano, winds and many other tracks where you need a gentle compression with great warmth and consistency. This is one of the few units in the audio industry that nobody will allow to be substituted for anything else.

Two years in the making, these two units have challenged IK Multimedia’s superior modeling capabilities and pushed them to the extremes. These units have been modeled down to the finest detail in each of their stages, matching all the controls and their behavior, including the ultra-accurate VU-Meter response. Perfected with countless measurements and A-B listening sessions, IK has produced two of the most realistic emulations available in software so far. Other companies have attempted this with average results, but with the Black 76 and the White 2A, it doesn’t get better when it comes to classic analog-modeled plug-in compressors.

Both the Black 76 and the White 2A are available as single T-RackS mixing plug-ins for all popular DAW platforms in RTAS, AU and VST formats. They also give the flexibility to be perfectly integrated with the T-RackS suite of effects as they can be opened inside the T-RackS twelve-slot, serial-parallel processor chain, both in standalone and plug-in modes, taking advantage of T-RackS advanced routing, metering and preset capabilities. With the addition of these two new classics, T-RackS users will have a total of 12 superior dynamic and EQ effects to choose from, including a full-fledged professional metering suite for all of their professional mixing and mastering needs.

Furthermore, T-RackS and all its effect processors have been updated to version 3.5 – now supporting all 64-bit DAWs – and the update is available a free download to all existing T-RackS 3 Deluxe, Standard, shell and Singles users.

The T-RackS 3.5 standalone application is fully compatible with the new ARC version 1.3, which also adds native 64-bit compatibility.

Pricing and availability
The Black 76 and White 2A cost only $99.99/€74.99 each (excluding taxes) and are immediately available as a download from the IK Multimedia online store or from selected music retailers carrying the T-RackS 3 singles in Multi-box format.

For more info:

http://www.t-racks.com/black76
http://www.t-racks.com/white2A
http://www.t-racks.com/singles
http://www.t-racks.com

Toontrack Songwriters drum pack 3

2011-05-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

Toontrack Songwriters drum pack 3 review/demo.

Once again the creative minds over at Toontrack have put together a midi pack for all of us songwriters! Songwriters Drum Pack 3 is only 29 dollars, and chock full of great drum lines. The video posted is a listening to the midi found within Songwriters Drum Pack 3. I am using Superior Drummer in order to audition the midi files, and I am employing Platinum Samples, Joe Barresi “Evil Drums” for the samples!

This midi pack is just as chock full of great midi as all of the other midi packs found over at the Toontrack website. Sit back, and let me take you through some of the midi drum lines found within…….

H.R.W. Songwriting contest is running again this summer!

2011-05-06T07:06:00.001-07:00

Once again, I am proud to announce that the Home Recording Weekly blog will be hosting a songwriting contest. Some great and very cool prizes will be awarded each month to one lucky winner, and for three months in a row!

The last time that I ran the Home Recording Weekly blog songwriting contest, I was sort of fooled. Listen, some feelings were hurt, and I personally, was among the hurt. If you have “farmed out” any of the recording, mixing, or mastering of your song entry, out to a professional facility, then please do not enter this year’s contest. This is for the songwriter recording right at home, using only what they have at their disposal. You can, of course, have friends play different instruments, sing, and help with any duties that you want, as long as they are not hired or professional in any way. Like I said, I was fooled last year, and I ended up giving away prizes to semi-pro folks, prizes that someone could have really used. The winner that I am writing about was not playing by the rules, and they probably never used the prizes either. I can only learn from my mistakes, and learn I did.

With that said, let’s see the prizes…… Here is the list as it stands now. Please do not “get upset” if I decide to add more prizes to this list. I love giving things away so much that I just might drop more cool prizes on the winners, and as the contest goes on.

First on the list, how about a copy of Bias Sound Soap Pro 2! What a great tool to use in order to clean up your individual tracks, master your audio “voice over’s”, and anything else “audio cleaning” that you can think of!

Second up on the list of great and very cool prizes, from the good folks over at Groove 3, how about one months’ full access pass, for all Groove3’s content, like “Mixing Rock with Kenny Giova” and “Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks 3 Deluxe with “, by Michael Costa! Get “your learning groove on” in the comfort of your own home. What a great idea and what great products!

From my good friends over at LoopMasters, how about two “Artist series” loop/sample CDs/DVDs ! Follow the link to see the selection to choose two products from. I love the LoopMasters refills, samples, and loops, click here for my video!

From The Sound Guy, how about a copy of their SFX Machine Pro! This is a very cool plug in that specializes in providing that “audio polish” that I love so much. Check out my demo/review video by following this link.

So, here are the rules.

If you are interested in entering one of your songs then you must follow these very simple steps. First, subscribe to the Home Recording Weekly blog. You can do this right from the blog itself. Look for the “Subscribe tab” and enter your information. I will not send you anything, however, the blog will now arrive as email.

Next, email your song to me, as an attached file, to Steve@itmaine.com , as either a .wav, mp3, or whatever format you have it in, and please title the email as “song entry”. Let me know as much about you in the email as you can, i.e. who you are, who played on the song, what is about, ECT., just so that I can pass it on to my readers. I will not pass on email addresses or any other sensitive data, but make sure to include links for you and/or your band.

Lastly, just sit back and wait. Home Recording Weekly arrives as an email, now that you have subscribed, so simply wait to hear what is happening with the contest. I will email the monthly winner, prior to the announcement post, just to make sure they are fine with me posting their song on the Home Recording Weekly blog. Good luck, and please, please, please, if you are a semi pro, pro, or working for a pro, please do not waste our time. We are looking for unsigned acts or solo artists to have a chance at winning some cool gear here. We are hoping to keep things as fair as possible, and I will be checking up on the entries a whole lot better this year.

So, gather up your friends if you need to, get out the “audio polish”, and get your mixes together. I will be calling for your submissions soon! The first months’ contest will end with a June 30^th deadline. The month of July will be next, and last of all, one more contest for the month of August!

Problem solved, by IK Multimedia of course!

2011-04-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

One of the newest and coolest things in our world are the iPhone, iPad, and all of the musical apps that go with them. These apps are getting very realistic, with everything from guitars, guitar amp sims, pianos and organs, and vocal altering masterpiece apps. One of the main reasons that I have stayed away from all of these apps is due to the problem of not being able to save and then use our material; after a long session of writing with them. Well, that is not the case any longer. I welcome the iRig Recorder! Thanks to IK Multimedia for understanding our needs and our wants!

Here is a link to the new video for the iRig Recorder.

The iRig Recorder organizes your recordings by date and time and also tags them with a geographic location for easy and reliable file management of your recordings. Export your files via email, Wi-Fi, FTP and iTunes File Sharing in a variety of sizes and formats (including CD-Quality uncompressed audio- 16-bit 44.1 kHz). This is cool for all of you field recording junkies, or you “on the go” interviewers!

iRig Recorder features:

Convenient, easy-to-use mobile recording and editing app: just launch the app and press record. The perfect companion to iRig iMic for your podcasts, interviews, concert and field recordings. One-touch recording with real-time monitoring. Intuitive, non-destructive editing tools to cut, crop and loop your recordings. Pitch and time–based effects include changing the speed of your recordings (without affecting pitch) to adapt your content to other media such as audio and video. Organize your recordings by creation date and tags with geographic location. Eight intelligent effects processors automatically optimize your recordings – no audio knowledge required.

iRig Recorder App is available for $4.99 / €3.99 from the App Store on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore

Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks 3 deluxe, from Groove 3.

2011-04-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

The bottom line is that we can all tell when a song is fresh off of a 4 or 8 track recorder. Think “demo tapes” here. The difference is always stellar when we, next, pop in a CD that has been mixed and mastered by the “big major suits”. The mixed and mastered CD music is deeper, wider, and way more polished, to say the very least. But just what exactly goes on while our much loved music is away at the mix and mastering process? Thanks to Groove 3 for giving us the answers.

Recently, I detailed the “Mixing Rock” with Kenny Gioia, from Groove 3, and could not praise it enough. The exact same marks are to be given to Groove 3 for their brand new Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks Deluxe, by Michael Costa. To learn why, let’s break our process down. But before we do that, let me detail a disclaimer.

When I started recording, so many decades ago, there were no computers to assist us. We recorded, and then sent our mixes to the mixer, and then on to the mastering guys. Today we have Pro Tools to record, mix, and to master with. We also have such tools as IK Multimedia T-Racks 3 Deluxe to mix and to master with, and Groove 3 videos to hold our hand through the process.

O.K., back to our song writing process…. As the song in our head comes together we start thinking about, or we start “hearing it” as a completed master piece. Most often our song idea takes shape on a piano or a guitar. This is not always the case, especially in today’s’ world of computer assisted loop based music, but for today’s’ post it will work just fine. Next, we close our eyes, and here it as it might be played live, with some additional instruments lending a helping hand. Right, next, lets “get it down on tape”, as we say.

So, first we write a song, and then we start recording the tracks full of drums, bass, guitars, vocals, and on and on. Once we have a hard drive fully packed with tracks and tracks of well written music, what do we do next? Mix young man, mix! Make sure all frequencies are well represented, and that all of the music is just so. Then, we make it less of a kinetic art form and more a chore by writing automation. We write effects to track, fade-ins and fade-outs, mutes, solos, and pans. We use such tools as compressors, EQ’s, Limiters, and all of the other great tools that come in IK Multimedia’s T-Racks 3 Deluxe. Are we done? Nope, not just yet. We want each song of our album to “fit together”, right?

Next is the mastering process. This is a place where less is more, and one move will effect another quality of our song. Sound bizarre? Let Michael Costa hold your “mouse hand”, as he guides you through all of the different tools of the trade (found within IK Multimedia T-Racks 3 Deluxe), and just what they do, and how to use them. Get your tracks loud, EQ’d, thumping, and as wide as they deserve to be. This is a very cool way to learn. I have spent many a long night watching Groove 3 videos, and each and every one of them is amazing. They are very well recorded, written, and full of great tricks and information!

The great selection of videos that Groove 3 delivers in “Mastering with “ are: “Intro to T-Racks 3, Introduction to Mastering, The loudness wars, EQ, Linear phase EQ, Dithering, MS Process, Multi-Band Dynamics, Parallel Processing, Compressors in series, Stereo width, Stems, The power of comparing, Let’s do some Mastering!”. Is that like the list of everything that you have ever wished to know? I ask you that, because it looks like my list too!

To just say that I know more about mastering, after watching Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks Deluxe, by Michael Costa, is a little bit of a fib. I know a lot more about mastering! I also know a lot more about using all of the tools found in IK Multimedia T-Racks 3 Deluxe package, and the art of using tools in order to get the best possible sound.

Soldano and Orange amps from the IK Multimedia Custom shop!

2011-04-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Not only can you now download Amplitube 3 for free, but you can add amps, stomps, cabs, and rack effects like an “ala carte’” system, as you want them.

Leave it to IK Multimedia to make shopping for gear more fun and easy! Introducing the new IK Multimedia Custom Shop! Well, I took a little trip to the shop, and I was pleasantly rewarded. Brand new in the Custom Shop are some amps, mics, rack effects, and new stomps. What is cool is that you can (of course) purchase or try out any of the amps, mics, rack effects, and stomps currently available in any of the IK Multimedia products such as Metal, Ampeg SVX, and Jimi Hendrix. Plus, there are some new faces.

The new “tube amps” in the IK Multimedia Custom Shop! are a few Orange amps (Tiny Terror, Rocker Verb 50, the AD-30TC) and a Soldano SLO-100 amp. These are a warm welcome, with no pun intended. As you will see and hear in the video that I have posted, these amp tones are right on and they work as their real cousins might.

I love the little things that are well represented here, like the quality reverb found in the Orange 50 rocker amp. Simply put, it is just a very well done reverb, and that means a lot to me.

Let me have your attention for another second here, and let’s check out the attention to detail found on the face of the Soldano SLO-100 amp! Just like the original, there is a clean/crunch switch included. More to the point, it sounds familiar and awesome in clean mode, and even better while in crunch mode. The sustain that this amp seems to incorporate is very realistic, as are the harmonics and the slight “hot feel” that it gives to my guitars’ pickups. I just love the tones that I am able to conjure up from this warm rocker. The clean tone is very “tube like”, and can be used with your guitars’ volume to dial in that sweet spot. The crunch is a sonic treat for the 80’s rocker in us all too. Let us not forget the overdrive/normal switch, which again, is just like the real deal, and it works and sounds like the original too. Lastly, as for the switches that is, is the Bright/Normal switch. Yes, it works and sounds like the real deal. Hey, go ahead and check it out, for yourself, for free!

Next, I would love to thank a couple of fellow bloggers for putting one of my songs on their podcast. The Homemade Hit show played a loop based song that I put together for my (at the time) girlfriend. Thanks so much Tony and Dave! You guys rock, and we all listen to the The Homemade Hit show as often as we can!

Recent music news to share.

2011-04-14T18:36:00.001-07:00

IK Multimedia is proud to offer a FREE upgrade to the new AmpliTube 3.5, a fully functional version of AmpliTube 3 with all features, a selection of 24 free gear models and the new Custom Shop, a brand new way to try and buy single gear models of legendary brands à la carte to build a truly custom tone.

The Custom Shop includes officially certified models from legendary brands such as Fender^TM, Orange®, Ampeg®, Soldano^TM and many more. Here is a link to see some of the new stomps, new amps, new rack effects, and other new gear.

Here is a link to see the new video about the Custom shop.

Here is a link to where you can learn more about Custom Shop from IK Multimedia.

Toontrack has released a brand new midi pack, named “Blues midi pack”. You can hear audio samples by clicking this link, and you can see the video for Blues midi pack by following this link. The midi files are played by Hans Lindback, and it appears to be the real deal, and covers many blues styles. What else could be as cool? Well, how about a price tag of only 29 bucks?

New guitar Bridge ideas

2011-03-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Leo Fender came up with some very innovative ideas. He first designed, and then improved upon, many electric guitar designs, pick up systems, and related parts. However, with the passing of time, new ideas pop up from time to time, and then things just change. Take for example guitar tremolos.

Leo Fender had some great tremolo ideas in his time. My personal favorite design is the string thru body, but that is not the only tremolo idea that Leo had. In my opinion, the single most important idea that he came up with is the tremolo and the tremolo bar. He came up with the idea of using a tremolo bar in order to create those diving sounds. The design has been used for decades and decades, but time has shown that it has some flaws.

To begin, with the tremolo bar, came some minor tuning issues. You see, each time that the string tension changes, the tuning is altered. To remedy that problem, folks have added tilted head stocks, added “string trees”, re-designed bridge parts and pieces, added springs to the rear of the tremolos, and on and on. The radical idea of completely locking the strings “in tune” came along (via the locking nut and the floating tremolo), and that seemed like the final answer. But, even that idea seems to be tweaked every few years or so.

So, lets take a look at some of the newest tremolo designs. Several new tremolo designs come to mind, and they each solve different problems, and use different approaches in order to reach the “stay in tune” dream.

Super Vee

As taken from the Super Vee website:

“ Our "Drop -In" Double-Locking Tremolo System that Does Not Require Any Permanent Modifications to Your Guitar. Patented Design Features makes the Super-Vee Dive-Bomb Proof with zero-friction action. It Always Stays in Tune.”

Trem King TK-1

As taken from the TremKing website:

“The TK-1 is a drop in replacement for most vintage style tremolo units. Some routing inside the spring cavity may be needed on certain models. Installation instructions and a template showing the necessary cutout is provided with each unit.”

Stetsbar Pro2 S-Style

As taken from the Stetsbar website:

“Stetsbar is the modern, professional, linear tremolo system that retro fits to stop tail, hard tail, Tele and Strat style guitars without any modification - no new holes, no routing! Hi-tec micro roller bearings combine with a bridge that moves with the trem to give the Stetsbar unrivalled pitch range and stability for its class coupled with a extremely smooth up and down action. With a straight forward, rapid fit to guitars like the Gibson Les Paul, SG, ES335, Flying V, Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster and many more, Stetsbar is the trem of choice for professional and amateur guitarists worldwide and - with the OEM version - for guitar builders who need the best. Available in four models and gold, nickel, chrome and black finishes, now is the time to experience the difference that Stetsbar will bring to your guitar!”

Wilkinson ATD HT440 self-tuning hard-tail guitar bridge

There is not much to be found on line about these little gems. Here is a Youtube page about guitars with them installed.

Monthly wrap up...

2011-03-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to clean up my hard drive and desk top by posting these “review type” videos.

The links for the products mentioned in the video post are...

Rock Solid Guitar Stands

KRK KNS 8400 Headphones

Bongo Ties cable ties

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to subscribe today!

Guitar stands from Rock Solid.

2011-03-15T10:05:00.001-07:00

No matter the environment that you are putting a Rock Solid guitar stand into, you can find a complimentary color stand! The all wood construction is solid, and the finish is a very smooth, and stunning finish! Top it all off with an instrument gripping, rubber-like material just so that your prized instruments will not move, nor will it scratch your finishes! A well designed, well made solution for your cramped music rooms!

Rock Solid guitar stands come in three different colors, Ivory, Dark Cherry, and Honey.

IVORY Dark Cherry Honey

So what more do you need? Get rid of your clutter, toss out your unstable guitar stands, and get your Rock Solid guitar stand today! Free up some valuable space in your home, recording nook, or studio!

Groove 3, “Mixing Rock ”......O.M.G.!!!!!

2011-02-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you where you can go to “get your learn on”, find those loops that you need, or find some fun and cool apparel...... Groove 3

Groove 3 has a ton of great training videos, for musicians of all types, and all of which are top, top, top quality!! These training videos cover lots of topics such as some of the most commonly used DAW's, all sorts of plug ins (from Superior Drummer 2.0 and Auto tune , IK Multimedia plugs, right on down to Waves Plug ins, and even Melodyne), and also production, recording, and mixing videos. Heck, they also sell loops and even T-shirts too!

Introducing “Mixing Rock”, from Groove 3. But what is it, and what is included?

A training video, as taught by Multi-Platinum Engineer and Producer Kenny Gioia .

Mixing Rock contains 37 video training tutorials, with almost 7 hours total run time!!!!!!!!!

Mixing Rock is great for the beginner to intermediate producers and engineers.

Mixing Rock viewing Options: Online, Download, Boxed Disc, and iDevices.

“Mixing Rock ” is broken up into “categories”. It is almost laid out as a book might be, and in a perfect working order. The list of categories goes like this:

Introduction

Organize the session

Groups, Busses, and Effects

Technical issues

Basic Vocal/ Drum mix

Bass and keys

Guitars

Piano and mutes

Final vocal mix

Automation and final mix

Each “category” contains video titles underneath of itself. For example, under the category of “Organize the session”, the different training video choices are:

Markers

Track naming

Color coding

Track clean up

Re-Ordering tracks

I have been watching, no, scratch that..... I have been learning a lot as of late. I have been absolutely engrossed in these training videos, and just let me add that for all types of musical know how, Groove 3 is the place to be. The quality of the training videos found there is simply amazing, and the content is wonderful, and jam packed too!
Have you ever wanted to stand behind a rock and roll mixing engineer, and have him explain clearly each and every process as he mixes a song? If so, Mixing Rock is the training video to get.

It is all very well laid out. In fact, it is shot just as Kenny Gioia likes to work through a song mixing session.

Mixing Rock starts with a likely scenario. A mixing engineer (possibly you) gets a song emailed to him from a recording studio that needs to be mixed. Kenny Gioia , then, starts to work. Work begins by “setting it up” in Pro Tools. Learn how to quickly figure out just what is happening in a song, how to label the tracks so that you know what and where they are, and when and where to add some basic panning and volume adjustment.

As a note, I picked something very cool up from the very first video. Right from the start you learn just how important the “quick” keyboard shortcuts are. Making your work as fast and as easy for yourself as possible seems to be the name of the game here. Don't miss-read this, the pace is not too fast for the viewer to catch on, but, instead, Kenny Gioia shows you how to get around your mixes quickly. Weather mixing is a career or a hobby, you will want to make routine edits as fast as possible.

Kenny Gioia speaks as he works. I became completely engrossed in the Groove 3 training videos for this very reason. What am I learning? Well, Kenny Gioia actually tosses in a lot of extra information about just what it is he is adjusting, how it is done, and why he is doing it. Very well done! I am learning a lot of time saving tips, or new and quicker ways to edit my tracks. I am learning how to properly pan my tracks in order to get a nice, full, and exciting mix. I am learning to use busses and sends while mixing, just to make life a lot easier. I am sure that if you spend your days mixing songs as a profession, then speed is your friend. I do not spend my days just mixing, but I will now use these tricks to both speed up my work flow, and make life easier and less confusing while mixing.

Things started to change for me by the fourth video. I was starting to learn bigger things, things that I have been doing myself, but just not as well as I could have been doing them. I learned a lot about using templates, effect sends and returns, and even about the “solo safe” trick found in Pro Tools. Let's not forget all of the things that I did not know too, like the pre/post fader tips that I learned in this one single video. This is all very big for me, as I need to squeeze every bit of power out of my software, and into my mixes! This alone was worth the price of Groove 3 “Mixing Rock ”.

I thought that I knew a lot about using, or creative application of effects. I was wrong. I have now (since watching “Mixing Rock ”) learned four times what I had ever known before. Kenny Gioia is a master of his craft. Not only does he know how to make great effects loops, but he shows the viewer how to make the best effect loops by just being creative with your DAW's features. Brilliant stuff here. This is what separates “Mixing Rock ” from any other training video that I have ever watched.

I get a lot of compression questions here at the Home Recording Weekly blog. I like to think that I have compressors understood, and I still think that I do. However, I learned how to use all types of compression while watching “Mixing Rock ”, as well as how to use multiband compression, and all in order to get that polished professional sound that we all want so badly. This video will take some re-watching, but that is the best part about Groove 3 training videos, and Mixing Rock , you can watch them all again and again.
This sort of intense learning continues on and on, as you continue on with the videos in Mixing Rock. Some of the ongoing topics range from timing issues, and fixing timing issues using elastic audio, and all about fixing them in multi mic'd sessions mind you! Tuning minor vocal issues are addressed, and in the spirit of teaching, the great tips continue. Through out these videos, Kenny Gioia not only opens up most of his favorite plug ins to enhance and/or fix tracks, but he delivers some very solid tips on some of the most commonly used plug inns. Plug ins that we probably all have, or we all have access to. Little tips, and great big tips alike, and these are the things that make Mixing Rock shine.

Kenny Gioia explains why he mixes the way that he does. He mixes the main vocal first, and then he jumps on to the drums. This particular mixing order never made sense to me, but Kenny explained just why he does this, and now I will do it his way too. It is all about getting a great, “matching space environment” sort of feel, and he gets it that way with you looking over his shoulder. Thanks so much Kenny Gioia!!!

Overall, besides learning more than I thought ever existed, Kenny Gioia shows us how to get every single ounce of sound and tone out of our tracks by using every trick and every plug in that he likes to use. He uses and teaches us how to apply sends, returns, tracks of all types, buss tracks, groups, fades, Elastic Audio, all sorts of effects from echo to ping pong delays, delay compensation, Transient modulators, EQ's, EQ's that act as Gates, Compressors, panning, low and high pass filters on EQ's, and just about everything else that you can (or can not) think of.

Kenny Gioia sets up his effects as a template, which I found interesting. He explains why he chooses to do things this way, and then continues on mixing. This comes back and makes perfect sense towards the end of the Mixing Rock training videos, as he automates the effects with us. So, if you don't think things should be done this way, just sit back and let Kenny Gioia show you how, and why he does it like he does.

Not only does Kenny Gioia add the “sonic magic”, but he demonstrates the techniques he has learned along the way as he works. He “tunes us in” to how we can achieve tight, and right sounding tracks using modest effect levels. I loved watching Mixing Rock the first time through, and I will continue to love it as I watch it again and again. I want all of this precious information to stick in my mind!

Some things that I have never done, but now feel confident doing are applying parallel bus compression, adding drum hit samples to multi mic'd drum sessions, using delay compensation, and writing automation. What an incredible look into a great rock mixing session! I really enjoyed learning how Kenny Gioia uses automation to make a song “Breathe”, or to come alive. Kenny Gioia also details the many different ways that he writes automation, which I needed to see. I use automation, sure, but just not as creatively as Kenny Gioia does. I will from now on though!

Here is the bottom line...... Groove 3 has a whole inventory of amazing training videos. A lot of “learning” mixing engineers, right down to hobbyist folks just like You and I, can learn a lot from watching Mixing Rock . The training video is the best way to learn, in my humble opinion, well, other than being able to actually be there and ask questions. The video and the audio quality is top shelf, and the price is very low. You get a whole lot of incredible information, from a professional (Kenny Gioia), for a low price. What could be better?

Last of all, if you can't decide which items you want, or you are like me and want them all, you might want to opt for a subscription, in the form of an “All acess webb pass” from Groove 3 . All acess webb pass start at just 29.99 for a full 30 days! How much could you learn in 30 days? A lot!

Subtractive EQ practices, High and low pass filters.

2011-02-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

This post is meant for the person that has some great songs recorded, and is looking to apply some better EQ prior to mastering their new song. I hope you enjoy this post, and if you do, please let me know about it. I will post more of these types of posts if folks like them.

These days, I get a lot of folks visiting this blog, and quite a few are looking for information about “additive and subtractive EQ procedures”. Today I would like to discuss some subtractive EQ procedure examples, focusing on High and Low Pass Filters.

But before I get too far into High and Low Pass Filters, let me stray off the beaten path for a moment, and give you some great advice. You can't put lipstick on a pig. Yep, that's right. That saying means that if your song is poorly recorded, then no amount of EQ will make it sound good. Go back now, and re-record those troubled tracks. A bad take is a bad take. I know because I have tried to “polish a turd” before, and it still looked like a turd.

Now that those harsh words were typed, let us get on with a quick lesson on frequency metering. “Why?”, you ask... Well, you can't remove any unwanted frequencies unless you know where they are located. I am not talking about a tracks gain level meter, or a master faders' gain meter, but a frequency meter.

IK Multimedia T-Racks S3 deluxe freq. meter

Placing a frequency meter across a single track shows just exactly what is happening, sonically, within that track. The frequencies (on most frequency meters) are laid out from left (lower frequencies), to right (higher frequencies). The more of a particular frequency present within a track, the more “bars” will be present in that section of the frequency meter. This has little to do with measuring a tracks' “gain” or “volume”, but, instead, measuring just where, and how much of each frequency are present within the track or tracks.

Another great idea is to put a frequency meter across a master fader. Solo each track to make additive or subtractive adjustments, and then “bring in” the other tracks, one at a time. Continue to watch the meter as you “un-solo” the tracks, and keep a sharp eye on just what is happening within the meter. Notice which tracks bring in that unwanted frequency boost. Which tracks, when played together, seem to send the levels “into the red”, so to speak. This is the best way to analyze the bass and a kick, together and separate, within your songs. This method also makes getting a great overall mix a snap.

First up, the High Pass Filter...

Let me be the first to tell you that a High Pass Filter is often called a Low Cut Filter. A Low Pass Filter is also called a High Cut Filter. These are examples of calling the same thing a different name. Let me explain why, as I detail what all of these filters are.

OK, let's say that today you are tracking a new song, consisting of 4 tracks, and all with just one microphone. The first track is a drum kit. The second is a guitar. The third track is a bass. The final track is a vocal track. Short and sweet, right?

However, without you even noticing, your neighbor is mowing the lawn today. There seems to be a motorcycle pass by your house every half hour too. Plus, you can't hear it, but passing trucks keep on hitting the same pot hole, and all of this creates some awful low end energy. Track after track, this low end frequency energy (or information) builds up, until the song is finished. Each track solo'd seems fine, but when played all together the low end just sounds muddy. This is from the build up of low end frequencies within your tracks.

What can you do to help avoid all of this? Simple! How about using High Pass Filters on each of your tracks?

But what is a High Pass Filter?

High Pass Filters work on a simple premise. Basically, a High Pass Filter lets only the high frequency information pass through the filter un-touched. The low frequency information, however, is not allowed to pass through the filter. You tell, or set the filter to start cutting back at a particular “cut off” frequency. All that you need to do is to “tell” the High Pass Filter what this “cut off” frequency is. Then, all of the sound information higher than this setting (or cut off frequency) passes through the filter, and all of the sound information below this cut off frequency is cut. By the way, most of the low end rumble that we all cut out of out tracks can not be heard with our ears (roughly below about 20HZ or so). However, it adds up with each track and before long it begins to sound like “do-do”.

There is no particular “magic setting” for using High Pass Filters on your tracks. Each track is different! My advice is to start at the lowest “cut off” setting (so that the filter is not even working) and slowly move it up, until it sounds as you want it to. Solo the track as you do this, but make sure to bring in each of the other tracks, one by one, just to make sure that it still sits well in the mix. Know exactly what information you are removing. Study your tracks' frequencies with a meter: both before, and as you adjust the High Pass Filter. Solo the track as you adjust the settings of the High Pass Filter, but un-solo it just to double check that it sits right with all of the other tracks in your mix.

Using High Pass Filters has become a “must do” with me, as long as the track was recorded with a microphone. A lot of other instruments could benefit from High Pass Filters too, like bass, guitar, and snares. Problem is, too much High Pass Filter can be bad.

This brings me to the next topic for this post, the Low Pass Filter. Just think what the opposite of a High Pass Filter would be, and that is a Low Pass Filter. The idea, here, is to get rid of any unwanted, and pesky, high frequency audio. These high frequencies can certainly add up to spell disaster too, even perhaps more noticeably than low energy audio can. Tracks with “too much high frequencies” can sound distorted, or “tin like” and will just sound un-professional.

Once more, almost any track can be a good candidate for a Low Pass Filter. Most often I place a Low Pass Filter across acoustic guitar tracks, piano tracks, vocal tracks, and lots of other tracks too. The repeated truth, here, is that independently each track might sound rather acceptable. But, as each track that has too much high end adds up, what you will have is treble distortion!

I know this because I did this time and time again! I would blame the distortion on an over EQ'd hi hat, and then re-eq the hats. But once I played the freshly eq'd song the distortion was still there! Then I went through and listened to each track solo'd, but I just could not find the culprit. Sure enough, as I un-solo'd the track, I would hear it happening. What was going on?

The answer was that I was looking for was to add a simple Low Pass Filter to each of the tracks. This not only fixed the problem, but it even added some high end clarity. How, you ask? Well, without the distortion on the high end of things, the high end could now be heard more clearly.

So, what is the magic frequency that one should set the Low Pass Filter to “cut off” at (or start working at)? Well, I do not know. Each track, just as each song, is different.

With the track solo'd, I start at the highest frequency setting for the low pass filter, and then slowly start working it down. Once it sounds perfect, I stop. Next, I add in other “like tracks” one by one, to check that it still sounds good. Next, I like to add the other tracks and make sure it still works in the mix. Keep in mind that “like tracks” (like acoustic guitars for example), can have an additive eq effect when recorded with the same microphone, and so bringing them in first is a good idea.

Thanks for stopping by the Home Recording Weekly blog. Your input matters here, so please leave it here. You might also want to head over to my YouTube channel and check out some of my other video posts. Subscribing to the Home Recording Weekly blog is another great idea, as missing out on cool demos and reviews just sucks!

KRK KNS 8400 Headphone review

2011-02-22T09:40:00.001-08:00

If you can not afford a pair of mixing studio monitors, or if you can not have a “loud mixing set up”, then here is your solution! KRK KNS 8400's.

I have a “nice” pair of headphones that I use to record and mix with. I paid quite a bit of money for these headphones because I wanted a pair of headphones that gave an honest rendering of my music, as I laid tracks down. The headphones' manufacturer claimed that these were perfect for “exact representation” of studio editing and mixing use, but that is far from what I got. These “expensive” studio headphones give a more “flattered” representation of the tracks. As recording musicians, we do not want a flattering representation at all. We need to keep things as exact as we can. If we don't have things as they really are then we get mixes that just do not sound right as we continue laying tracks on top.

I solved this problem, some time ago, by getting a great pair of monitors. I got a pair of the KRK Rockit 8 G2's, and I was now in “exact representation world”. These monitors give a very exact representation of just what we have tracked. But, once again, a problem popped up. I can't record late at night, or with others in my living space, at least not with the KRK's thumping! So, back to the headphone search....

The KRK brand is known for exact representation of recorded music, no matter the KRK product. How could their headphones be any different? Come to find out, their headphones match quite nicely to their monitors! What I hear through the Rockit 8 G2's is very close to what I hear through the KRK KNS 8400's! In fact, it is extremely close to the same! This is so very important to me, just so that my mixes remain consistent. But this isn't the only reason you need to get a pair of the new KRK KNS 8400's. Nope, check this out....

Just like you, while recording music, I keep headphones on for hours at a time. The problems that come along with this sort of "long duration of use" are profuse sweating of the ears, the uncomfortable feeling that comes from wearing bulky and heavy studio headphones, and lastly, ear fatigue. So, how do the KRK KNS 8400 studio headphones compete with others when it comes to these issues? Well, with these issues in mind, let me tell you that the KRK KNS 8400 studio headphones rock!!!

I have to say that comfort wise, when they are on my head they feel like just air! A lot of attention, in the design, went to the comfort of the wearer of these great headphones! The ear cups are not plastic, and do not “sweat” like my other expensive pair of “studio” headphones do. The KRK KNS 8400's are snug, but not bothersome or bulky at all. They do not get in the way, and they seem to be right on, weight wise, just so that we know that they are actually on our heads. Ever try to answer the phone with your headphones on? I have, and you might do those sorts of things with the KRK KNS 8400 studio headphones on your head. That is a good thing.

Let's talk about another very important, and perhaps the most important, quality that recording studio headphones need. That is isolation.

My other “expensive” studio headphones, that I used to wear, promised great isolation properties. But still, the music coming through them could be heard bleeding into every track that I used them on, well, as long as a mic was in use. The headphones just could not “hold back” the backing tracks that I need in order to record other parts. With every track, the backing parts, along with a “live” mics' information, could be heard. Simply put, I could always hear the music coming from the headphones bleeding into the microphone, and then into the tracks. The KRK KNS 8400 studio headphones do not leak like that at all! With an ISO value (isolation ability) of up to 30 DBA, these will not leak into your tracks. So long irritating leakage!!!

So, what are you waiting for? Go out and get these great sounding studio headphones! They are actually reasonably priced, and can be used for all types of listening! They shine in the studio, but are great for Ipods and whatever you need great headphones for.

Here is a great video, from KRK, featuring the KRK KNS 8400 studio headphones

Using Gates for obtaining better audio.

2011-02-16T23:08:00.001-08:00

Gates (also known as noise gates) are yet another handy tool for removing unwanted noises in our audio. Gates usually are “set” to activate, or engage, much like a compressor or a limiter might, once a certain “threshold” of signal is reached.

Let's try to keep it very simple, and think of a gate as a simple on/off switch. Like a simple toggle switch, this switch is either “on” or it is “off”. This switches' normal state is “off”, and when it is “off” it does not allow any audio signal to pass through it. When this switch is turned to “on”, audio passes through it. Once our audio signal reaches a particular level, or “threshold”, our switch turns itself to the “on” position. While this switch is “on”, it allows audio to pass through it. This switch also has a threshold dial, but I could not work that into my “simple switch theory”. But, this is how a noise gate works...... well, somewhat.

As I stated above, our audio signal had to reach a particular level, or “threshold”, in order to turn it self to the “on” position. Some gates react to certain frequencies, instead of volume levels. Make sure that you are aware of what type of gate it is that you are using.

This simple gate, in the image, is either letting audio through it, or no audio at all. What happens when we set the “threshold” to just above a breath level? You guessed it! No audio will pass on through the gate, and on into the amp and speakers. But, when the signal reaches above a breath, the audio passes through the gate. This is handy for a vocalists microphone, as the breaths will not be heard, but the singing will pass through the gate, and be heard by all.

Gates usually are used with one primary function in mind. That function is to rid a track of some “unwanted noise”, weather that noise is direct or via a microphones' bleed. For example, how about a microphone placed inside a kick drum that bleeds in the snare. This might make for trouble when recording the entire kit. Gates are used when recording, after a track has been recorded, and in live situations too!

Here is a cool video that demonstrates a gate, in action, reducing unwanted mic bleed. You see, the other drum kit pieces are entering this particular microphone, and putting a gate across the mic input sort of deletes this “un-wanted” mic bleed.

Getting deeper into gates......

You see, setting the threshold, to the exact frequencies where the other kit pieces are bleeding into the track, and then cutting it back can make them almost disappear.

However, this is not the only use for gates. Another, and very creative use for a gate is to “turn on” an effect, or a series of effects, once a certain threshold is reached. This could be set up to add reverbs, delays, or compressors to a vocal, but only at a precise volume level, and higher. This gate is set up in a “parallel” type of arrangement. This means that the main signal is always heard, and the (gated) “effected signal” is added to the main signal, but only once the gates' threshold is reached. Once the level of the main signal is lowered back down, below the threshold, the (gate) effects are turned off.

This very thing can be heard in action on a lot of well recorded, live acoustic performances. For example, an accoustic version of RadioHeads “Karma Police”, as performed by Howie Day, has this type of parallel gate effect.....well at least I think it sounds as if it does. Once Howie gets to the chorus, the vocals hit that threshold, the gate opens, and the effected signal joins the overall mix. But once that particular loud lyric part is over, the vocal is returned back to an “un effected” signal. This trick is great if you are performing without a sound person manning the mixing console. There is also a great looping pedal performance at the ending of the song that is worth checking out.

If you have done this very trick with gates before, then please let me know about it. Write me an email, or simply post the information on this blog post! I would love to hear all about it!

Toontrack Rock Song midi pack

2011-02-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

I love to write music.

Usually just a certain riff from the guitar or some chord progression from the piano catches my attention, and then blossoms. Then, as I try to get to sleep, it takes shape in my head. But, by the time I should be fast asleep, the song has a verse, chorus, bridge, and some rough vocal ideas. So, pushing sleep aside, I get up and start to record it before it is gone forever.

It comes in waves for me.

Sometimes the process of putting a song togather is painfully slow, sometimes it is blazingly fast. Sometimes it is as if I can't get one part down before the next part is perfected in my head, and it too will need to get recorded or it too will be lost. Yet, at other times, the next piece of the puzzle just will not go into place. No matter what I try, it just does not fit. Sometimes it is a bass line that fights with me, but most of the time it is a solid drum score that eludes me.

I love being able to audition drum lines using midi drum libraries. I can't always find that “perfect line of midi”, if there is such a thing, but I can usually get very close. I can always go back and move midi notes around, like moving a snare hit to a rim hit. I can also chop up the midi information to make things fit better. So, let me introduce what has become my favorite midi file library to start my search in.

Rock Songs, from Toontrack, is the songwriters dream. As taken from an email that Toontrack sent out, “Rock Songs midi pack, Played by Swedish powerhouse drummer Owe Lingvall...... Rock Songs MIDI pack comes stocked with a variety of songs in different feels, styles and tempos. Part from the individual, full 4-8 bar song structure building blocks (verse, pre chorus, chorus, bridge, fill etc.), it also includes each entire performance from start to finish as a Jamtrack, which means you can fire that up and jam along to the original take right away.”

Let me elaborate some more, and explain what I like about Rock Songs midi pack. I like that it is set up as songs are. You can quickly and easily select from different “variations” of the same part, for the verse, chorus, and so on. This is what makes finding that particular sound fast. Perhaps verse two needs some more cymbal work, or more toms, or some off the cuff snare hits.....it is all in here! Customizing the midi is a snap, and before you know it, a song is born! Top it off with a nice selection of fills, taken right from Rock Songs midi pack, and it is done!

Rock Songs contains the following.....

Approximately 450 individually played files

Full intro / verse / pre-chorus / chorus / bridge / fill sections & variations

Full Jamtrack of each song performance

Ballad / Halftime / Midtempo / Uptempo / Shuffle variations

With a price of only 29 Dollars, what else are you waiting for? Go get it!

Bias SoundSoap2 product review and demo.

2011-02-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

Need a way to remove those pesky “pops” and “crackles” from your vinyl records as you record and chop it up to make your new loops? Looking for an easy way to clean up the noise that your video camera makes as you record videos for YouTube? How about a way of removing your guitars' single coil hum from your tracks? Here is the easiest way to do these tasks, plus so much more!

Bias SoundSoap2 is very helpful, and a very useful tool if you record sound at home. It can be used as a stand alone unit, VST, and as RTAS, or as a “plug in” right within your DAW.

In my own case, I use it to clean up any and all unwanted audio noise from my tracks, within my songs. However, if you are making movies that contain some bad audio noise, SoundSoap2 can be a blessing for that too! Trust me, I use it for that also! My video recorder is not the best one to be using.

Ground hum, broadband noise, electrical pops, and crackles can ruin an otherwise great take, and/or a great recording. I can't count the times that a record players' constant crackle has left a potential loop useless. How about the times when the hum that a single coil bass/guitar pickup makes simply drains the enjoyment out of a cool lick? Well, no more! I have a new weapon in my arsenal, and it is SoundSoap2!!!

One very handy thing about SoundSoap2 is the many ways in which it can be used or applied. When it is applied across master faders in your DAW, or music software, it can clean up all of the tracks togather, nicely. When it is active on a single track, all by itself, it can clean up any unruly audio for that track. Bias SoundSoap2 can work in “stand alone mode” too. I use it in stand alone mode when I need to clean up my movie audio files. Yupper, using SoundSoap2 makes audio clean up a snap.

If you need to “get deeper” with your noise reduction, and simply need a more refined tool for removing your unwanted noise, then I must tell you that Bias makes a SoundSoap 2 Pro. This monster is more adjustable, with tons of different parameters for you to tweak. Keep a sharp eye out for a review/demo post/video covering the Bias Pro version of SoundSoap2.

If you have the tools to record songs, or videos, and you are less than pleased with your finished audio, then take it to a professional level with Bias SoundSoap2 .

You can get a free 14 day trial of Bias SoundSoap2, just by following this link.

BONGO TIES

2011-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

A cool new item for all of your music cables!

Bongo Ties!

My home is completely overrun with cables of all sorts. I have microphone cables, guitar cables, power cables, extension cables, and lets not forget that I am a photographer too, and there are just as many cables associated with that trade.

I have no room to hang a cable rack in my home, so I have tried everything in order to avoid having one big “cable knot” in my home. Lets' see, I have tried rubber bands, wire bread ties, Velcro strap thingy, and even hemp twine. Nothing seems to be rugged, quick, or easy to use.

Well, now my life is a snap! I use Bongo Ties for all of my rolled up cables! I love them! But, the uses do not stop there! Wherever you need a third hand, Bongo Ties can help. I use Bongo Ties to hold flashlights, microphones, and flash strobe units in place.

Here is a link to the Bongo Ties website. Plus, you can find them on Ebay, and other places found on the Bongo Ties website!

Bobby Jarzombek metal midi groove library demo.

2011-01-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

Played by Bobby Jarzombek (of Halford, Spastic Ink) so you know that this library rocks! This library, from the good folks over at Platinum Samples, is composed of over 1,670 MIDI files (over 3,430 bars of unquantized grooves), and you will find just what you need, or are looking for.

Formatted for BFD2®, EZdrummer®, Superior Drummer®, Addictive Drums®, Cakewalk® Session Drummer™ & *General MIDI Standard MIDI Files (all included).

Includes 24 complete Metal & Rock performances performed by Bobby Jarzombek, plus this midi library includes stadium endings too!

Played in 4/4 with straight, triplet & swing feels in tempos ranging from 92 to 298 BPM, and this library ships with all sorts of alternate brass, snare, and all of the other kit piece midi!!! This means a ton of features to play with!

If metal is your choice, You owe it to yourself to head over to Platinum Samples and get this midi library!

Amplitube, Amplitube 2, the Irig, the Imic, Vocalive, the Iklip, and the Ipad.

2011-01-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

Tech toys gone wild!

Not to “date” myself, but I can recall when the newest great thing was perhaps the Tascam four track recorders that could put our very own rough home demos right onto cassette tapes for all to hear. Yep, cassette players were the “boss” in our car audio syatems, so the you can see how the fit was perfect! Imagine, hearing yourself while in your own car!

Then, a new word, “Digital”, was spoken in some circles, but to me it seemed more like just a passing phase. How could ones and zeros record music? Wow, have things changed, and in a big way.

The home recording nut, now in search of a way to obtain great demos, just has so many paths to take these days! In fact, it might sometimes seem like too many paths. That is where I hope to help out. Let me shine some light on the newest and coolest things these days. Music gear for the Ipad!

IK Multimedia started out with some very cool stuff for the home recording nuts, and for our computers. However, with the realization that so many of us want to play wherever we happen to find ourselves, IK Multimedia quickly filled the niche with some very cool toys for our mobile devices like Iphones and Ipads. IK Multimedia has also pushed into the live show arena with such cool new products as the Imic and Vocalive too! With the Ipad, much more “real estate”, or a larger surface area for our fingers, became available and IK Multimedia has filled up that space with some great new apps.

IK Multimedia started out with some the best amp modeling software we could find for our home computers, of which, has grown into Amplitube 3. But, as fast paced as we try to be, we find ourselves missing practicing and playing as we are (all to often) away from our homes and/or practice space. The Ipad is a great device for entertaining ourselves, or as a great new tool for all of us musicians. Folks are finding cool new ways to incorporate their Ipads into their recording ventures and their live gigs. It is not uncommon these days to see an Ipad controlling such live show duties as guitar tones, vocal effects, sound mixing, and so much more. Wow.

Today, I want to show you what IK Multimedia has available for you singers, guitar and/or bass players, musicians of any type, lecturers, photographers, and this list goes on and on. Please, all of you live gigers and/or home recording nuts that are seeking a large screen and a “hands free” way to position and then hold onto your Ipad, please let me have your attention.

OK, so what happens when you combine the Irig , Amplitube, or Amplitube 2, perhaps the and the Ipad? Great new things!

Amplitube and now Amplitube 2, is down loadablee for both the Iphone and the Ipad, and the download can be found here. The Irig is a guitar/bass interface for the Ipad and/or the Iphone, and it can be purchased right here. The Iklip is a device that lets us mount our Ipads to any mic stand, and it can be found here. The Imic and Vocalive apps are both new from IK Multimedia, and the links given will take you where you need to go in order to learn more about them.

Some great ways to use the Iklip with your Ipad might be to hold your scanned sheet music, run your new IK Multimedia Vocalive app, run Amplitube , Amplitube 2 , or, well, the possibilities are endless! Whatever you use your Ipad for, Iklip is here to help!

Leave it to IK Multimedia, a forward thinking company that puts musicians first, to come up with such cool new ways to jam and sound so good!

IK Multimedia iRig Mic and Vocalive

2011-01-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the dawning of a new age.... There is an app for that.

iRig Mic features an highly unidirectional condenser-electret capsule for both close mic and long distance mic conditions, plus a dual mini-jack connector for real time monitoring with headphones, mixers, powered speakers or PAs. A three-level gain switch allows instant adjustment - from soft speaking to loud playing.

iRig Mic will ship in the first quarter for only $59.99/EUR 49.99 (exc. Taxes) from IK music and electronic retailers worldwide. Pre-orders are already available.

VocaLive is the first professional vocal processor app for practicing, performing and recording on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

VocaLive offers a suite of 5 dedicated real-time vocal effects for singers and vocalists including pitch correction, choir harmonizer, voice doubler, vocal morpher and de-esser plus 7 effects tailored to vocal processing - reverb, EQ, compressor, delay, envelope filter, chorus and phaser - these can be combined in a 3 processors vocal rig.

Joe Barresi Evil Drums SDX Review

2011-01-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

From the folks over at Platinum Samples, comes a new twist on a great product. I am talking about Evil Drums SDX. The “SDX” signifies that it now works with Toontracks Superior Drummer 2.0, within Pro Tools, as an RTAS plug in. These are great times....

So let us ponder something........

If we asked one of the hottest recording engineers in the biz (Joe Barresi) to record some of the most awesome, and perhaps the most popular drum kits of all time, using his favorite recording gear (mics, consoles,ect) in some of his favorite recording spaces, how do you think that little project might turn out? Hot, right?

Well, this is better than hot, and the whole recording industry knows it too! Truth be known, the industry has been using the Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums samples on a lot of very popular hit records, and for some time now. Joe Barresi simply did an awesome job, and he used the best, most sought after gear in the biz to record the kits and samples. This is the best drum sample library out there, period!

On the Joe Barresi short list are such acts as (and in my own order) Tool, Anthrax, Clutch, Queens of the stone age, Bad Religion, Weezer, and Pennywise. Believe me, that is just to name a few.

The Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums SDX package has this to say “Joe Barresi is synonymous with Rock having engineered and produced some of today's greatest rock bands. Featuring an ominous 6 full drum kits, 6 additional kicks and 6 additional snares, the Joe Barresi Evil Drums expansion pack is unlike any other. Recorded at two legendary rock studios onto analog tape using Studer tape machines, Neve consoles and his own crazy assortment of outboard gear, Joe Barresi has captured a diverse ensemble of drum sounds to create a unique and exquisitely evil expansion pack.”

The Joe Barresi Evil Drums sample pack ships on five DVD's, with a whopping 39 gig (full install)of samples. There is a smaller install version as well, with much less space required. It took some time to download onto my laptop, but that time is just money in the bank. These samples blew me away!

What else can I say about the Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums sample pack? Well, I must say that as I work with it, it really feels as if I am in the studio room, and the drum rooms too! I can't explain it to you in any other way. As I closed my eyes, I felt as if I were right there, in front of the console! That is how awesome the the Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums samples are recorded, and how amazing they sound!

The bottome line..... If you already own Toontracks Superior Drummer 2.0 and you happen to be looking for the best drum samples ever recorded, then rush out and grab your own copy of Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums SDX and then get ready to be blown away! The Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums are also available for other formats, like BFD, so make sure to check out the Platinum Samples Joe Barresi Evil Drums website for other versions!

Happy NEW Year!!!

2011-01-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Thank You Everyone!!!

With the arrival of 2011, I felt the need to try to recognize all of you that made a difference, and to say “thanks for stopping in every now and then”.

So, just what has happened over the last year to deserve such a post as this?

Well, in January of 2010, The Home Recording Weekly blog was sitting at a mere 170 visits each week, and that was on a good week. There were no video demos on the blog yet, and the readers simply had to “take my word” about the products that I reviewed. So, drastic times called for drastic measures, as they say.

In January of 2010 the Home Recording Weekly blog found its way over to the YouTube site, and created its own YouTube channel. There, it enjoyed a somewhat slow start, but, however, one by one, the visitors found there way. I started to see some traffic before very long. In just this one year, the YouTube traffic has clocked in some 20,000 visitors! To that I thank each and every one of you!

The color scheme of the blog changed rather all of a sudden, and a new logo came out of nowhere. Let's face the facts, the old green look was not growing on me. I hope the new look is fine with all of you that have been here long enough to have noticed the change.

Over the 2010 year, the Home Recording Weekly blog held six, month long songwriting contests, and gave away some cool prizes to the winners. Thanks for all of the awesome song contest entries, and a big thanks goes out to IK Multimedia and Toontrack software for donating all of the great prizes too! I can't wait to launch the songwriting contest again this year! Stay tuned for the contest start date, and the rules for entering this year!

Throughout this last year the Home Recording Weekly blog has also made its way around the web. You can find (both) snippets from; and links to; the Home Recording Weekly blog on such websites as KRK monitors, HomeGrown Premium Sound, 300 Guitars, Toontrack, Voice Counsel, and the SFX Pro's website. That is a big deal for me, and I would love to just say “thanks for all of the cool attention”!

Platinum Samples Steve Ferrone Midi Groove Library review!

2010-12-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

With over 660 Midi files (over 3200 un-quantized bars of grooves), of which 17 songs and 9 additional groove variations, The Steve Ferrone midi groove library is one big library!

Who is Steve Ferrone you ask? Well, with gigs alone as a resume, how is a client list containing such groups as Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Eric Clapton, Average White Band, Johny Cash, the B-52's, and a whole host of others? Yea, I thought that would speak for itself.

Here is what the Platinum Samples website had to say about the The Steve Ferrone midi groove library …...

“This multi-format collection includes grooves formatted for BFD2®, BFD Eco®, EZDrummer®, Superior Drummer®, Addictive Drums®, Cakewalk® Session Drummer™ as well as General MIDI Standard MIDI Files which can be used with any GM compatible drum software or hardware --- this includes drum machines and synthesizers which have drum sounds.

Platinum Samples are one of the foremost producers of drum samples in the world, with over 50 years of experience in the professional music industry. The Steve Ferrone MIDI Groove Library was recorded over a two-day session by Steve Ferrone on a Yamaha DTXtremeIII Special electronic drum set.

Optimized for 1 Kick, 1 Snare, 2 Rack Toms, 2 Floor Toms, 1 Hihat, 3 Crash Cymbals & 1 Ride Cymbal”

For the demo video, here, I opted to open up Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0 in Pro Tools LE 9 and loaded the Joe Barresi Evil Drums SDX sample pack from Platinum Samples. Let me add that a post covering the Joe Barresi Evil Drums SDX sample pack from Platinum Samples is in the works, so please don't forget to keep returning here to see that post. Next, I opened up The Steve Ferrone midi groove library and then “went through” the midi files.

Amplitube 2 for the Ipad, from IK Multimedia!

2010-12-28T08:10:00.001-08:00

Please check out this sick video from IK Multimedia!

Home Grown Premium Sound and the LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack.

2010-12-26T15:52:00.000-08:00

So, Who is Home Grown Premium Sound , and what do they do? Glad you asked me that, as there is so much to tell.

To begin, Home Grown Premium Sound makes (and sells) Refills for Reason and Record. The software Refills that they make certainly makes our looping a lot more fun, and a lot more sonically pleasurable.

Here is a common problem that we all come across. Way too often, I have written some music that I like using Reason and/or Record. The loops that I write are cool enough, but they can seem too digital, or perhaps not phat enough to jump out at the listener. The music is catchy to me, but it just does not “bounce”, or hit me like it should.

One way to address this common problem is by adding EQ's. Adding EQ's to bring up the lows, the mids, and the highs, although time consuming, works, but be careful! This solution also adds gain to these frequencies, thus taking away a big chunk of the much needed overall headroom. Using EQ's to boost frequencies will make your tracks dip into the red. Now distortion is introduced into the mix and that ruins this whole attempt of making better sounding music.

There must be a way to bring our loops, and/or entire tracks more “up front in a mix”, but without making them too hot, too distorted, or without taking up most of the much needed headroom. Well, Home Grown Premium Sound is on this, and they have a brilliant solution for this very problem!

Home Grown Premium Sound is a very freakin' exciting company because helping fix this sort of problem is their specialty! Obtaining warm, hot, and up front mixes is now a snap if you are using the LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack.

The LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack contains seven effects in all, which all help to bring your (perhaps) stale, flat loops and/or (perhaps) complete tracks to life. Once more, these tools help us by adding that certain sonic bliss to our material, but without adding to the overall gain of these tracks, leaving us a lot of headroom! Impossible? Nope, in fact, here, check it out.....

Using the great sounding filters found inside the LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack is easy. Hey, what could be easier than opening up and then tweaking a Combinator patch?

Note: A “Combinator patch” is simply a way to create and then save a whole assembly of Reason audio devices, like instruments and effects. Combinator patches help to make life easier because our device racks and cable routing for each instrument or instrument effect can become very confusing days after you have created it. So, one can open up all types of devices, work at routing all of the cables, tweak the knobs till it is just right, and when they are all done they can simply save it as a “Combinator patch”.

The cool part about Home Grown Premium Sound and their LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack is that all of the work that goes into sketching out and designing these awesome Combinator patches (and everything else from cable routing to face plate design) is all done for you, and all you need to do to obtain great sounding tracks is open any one of these great sounding products and “tweak away”.

Here is a list of just what comes with the LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack

Isolators: Isolate 3, and Isolate 4

Filter Maniacs: AF900, and Dusty Nine-Fitty

Vinyl Temptation: 3 vinyl emulation effects

As taken from the Home Grown Premium Sound LO-Fi Maniacs Refill Pack website:

“There are total of seven effects, in three different types, packed as one refill for your convenience.

The refill comes with 2 types of isolators, 2 types of lo-fi filter module emulations, and 3 types of turntable emulations.”

Stomp Box Refill Pack Available now!

IK Multimedias answer for the Ipad!

2010-12-25T10:20:00.001-08:00

New gadget from IK Multimedia is perfect for you home recorders, and live players!

From the IK Multimedia website...

“The iKlip was designed with musicians and presenters in mind.

Multi-angle adjustment allows precise positioning for optimal stage or studio viewing.

Provides both landscape and portrait orientation of the iPad.

All iPad controls, buttons and connectors are accessible.

Can be mounted on the vertical stand or the horizontal boom.”

Win one of eight autographed signature Crybaby wah pedals from Dunlop!

2010-12-21T19:18:00.000-08:00

Have you entered this awesome giveaway?

Autographed Crybaby Wah pedals include the Eddie Van Halen signature Crybaby, Dimebag Darrell signature Crybaby, Buddy Guy signature Crybaby, Jerry Cantrell signature Crybaby, Kirk Hammett signature Crybaby, Slash signature Crybaby, Zakk Wylde signature Crybaby, and a Classic signature Crybaby autographed by Jim Dunlop himself!

Four tracks of mobile recording for under 10 bucks?

2010-12-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

TASCAM has introduced its Portastudio™ application for the Apple iPad™, bringing 30 years of easy-to-use home recording to the popular device.

Portastudio is based on – and nearly the same dimensions as – the TASCAM Porta One four-track cassette recorder that revolutionized recording in 1984. The Portastudio app records four tracks, one at a time, with VU meters and a cassette transport contributing a vintage vibe. When a production is complete, the app can mix your recording to a stereo track that appears in iTunes.

A four-position selector switch assigns which track Portastudio records to, and input trim and limiting are applied to the input before recording. Audio can be recorded form the iPad's built-in microphone or a microphone plugged into the headset jack. The iPad will record from the built-in microphone if standard headphones are plugged into the jack. Pan, level, high and low EQ are available for mixing, and mixes are saved as CD-quality WAV files inside iTunes.

Portastudio by TASCAM is available now on the iTunes App Store for $9.99:

A cool way to get better at the guitar!

2010-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Agile Partners and Guitar World have come togather to give us “Lick of the Day”.

As taken from their site.....

“Guitar World Lick of the Day is a must-have app for guitar players who want to continuously improve their guitar playing skills and broaden their repertoire in a fun and engaging way. Developed by Agile Partners and Guitar World, the world’s best-selling guitar magazine, Guitar World Lick of the Day is a universal app that provides a ground-breaking approach to guitar instruction on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The app delivers a new and challenging lick to subscribers every day, with a one-of-a-kind feature set that enables guitar players of all skill levels to learn licks in a variety of styles.

Guitar World Lick of the Day is a free app that comes with five licks (including a lick by Zakk Wylde) so you can check out the app’s instructional content and amazing features on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. One-, three- and six-month subscriptions can be easily purchased from within the app to receive a new and challenging lick every day, seven days a week.

Lick Of The Day from John Berry on Vimeo.

KRK VXT 4w demo

2010-11-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

KRK VXT4 w's

Sexy..... Stimulating..... Fun to be around.....

Does this describe your computer speakers?

If it does not, then perhaps it is time for an upgrade. Those few choice words certainly help to describe what I have recently hooked up to my computers' speaker outputs, but there are so many other words that also help to describe the KRK VXT4 w's, so many in fact that I am struggling on where to even start.

Since we recording nuts opt for recording file formats and/or sample bit rates as large and as fast as our machines can accept, and it is such an important part of our music recording/tracking/mixing work flow to make sure that our creations are just perfect, shouldn't our main computer speakers be able to match these highly selected specks? We spend so much time at our computers watching movies, gaming, and listening to the beloved MP3's, why not get all that you can from the computer itself? After all, the sound is there if you only have the right speakers to push it out to our ears.

Behold, the KRK VXT4 w's.

Before I even had a chance to un-box the KRK VXT4 w's, I couldn't help but notice a few things about these quality speakers. Just like any other KRK product, the KRK VXT4 w's are very, very well made! The KRK VXT4 w's are rather hefty too, weighing in at about a solid 17 pounds each (in the boxes) and the KRK website weighs them in at 14 pounds (out of the box). The KRK VXT4 w's white enclosures stand out against the common sea of black computer parts and computer screens, and the yellow cone of the KRK VXT4 w's is striking, if not a form of modern art; to the musicians eye anyway. All of you Apple computer owners will be one step closer to an all white recording environment too.

In the KRK VXT4 w's box you will find a power chord, the manuals, an 1'8^th inch male stereo plug “into” a pair of ¼ inch mono jacks, some screws and an Allen wrench tool. The screws and the Allen wrench tool are for a more “complete look” if you decide to remove the protective grills, or screens. Now that they are un-packed, lets hook the KRK VXT4 w's up and see what happens!

But wait, what is this? Within seconds of setting the KRK VXT4 w's up, another sweet surprise “came into light” as I turned them on for the first time! That surprise is the fact that the KRK logo lights up. This is a rather nice touch, just so that we can tell (at a glance) if the KRK VXT4 w's are left on or not.

So, how do the KRK VXT4 w's sound?

I decided to play some reference CD's through the KRK VXT4 w's first, just so that I would know where they stood. The list included Supertramps' “Breakfast in America”, and right up to Rage Against the Machines' “The Battle of Los Angeles”. Not only was every nuance of the recordings illuminated, but new things were heard for the first time. I was actually hearing amp and guitar combinations that I had missed before! I found myself un able to get out of my chair, because I was wrapped in a warm blanket of amazing quality audio.

Next up, I decided to listen to some of my favorite television shows, (off of the web) through the KRK VXT4 w's speakers. This proved even more interesting, as once again some new things were brought to my ears attention for the very first time. I could here the “dead people laughing” in between the jokes, and with more clarity than I had ever known before. I could here character voices better, and with an uncanny clarity that I had not known prior. The KRK VXT4 w's speakers are (without any hesitation from me) a very worthy investment. If you spend a lot of time in front of your computer; ie watching “Last night on T.V., HULU, or YouTube videos, than you owe it to yourself, and to your ears, to get a pair of these KRK VXT4 w's speakers.

There is a lot going on “behind the scenes”, or on the back of the KRK VXT4 w's . There are a lot of switches and knobs found on the rear of the KRK VXT4 w's speakers. Here is a list of the features found on the back of the KRK VXT4 w's speakers.

First up, on the back, the KRK VXT4 w speaker has a “System Level Adjust” knob for evening out the two gain levels of a pair. A trio of multi position micro switches is next. The first switch is for a ground lift, the next 3 position switch manages the “clip indicator/limiter”, and the last of the three switches turns the “Auto mute” on or off.

The “Auto Mute” feature reduces power use when no signal is detected. Inputs are supplied via an XLR ¼ inch trs combo inputs. Last of all a simple on/off switch rounds out the features on the back of the KRK VXT4 w.

Overall, each KRK VXT4 w stands 10 inches tall, by 7.37 inches deep, by 7 inches wide. Each KRK VXT4 w sports a 4 inch woven Kevlar woofer and a silk dome neo tweeter. Each speaker is bi-amplified with a 30 watt (woofers) amp and a 15 watt (tweeters) amp built into the KRK VXT4 w. They sit perfectly on any desktop, and are just what the sound doctor ordered for your listening pleasure! Either go find a store that has them on display for auditioning, or else just trust me and go out and get a pair of the KRK VXT4 w's today!

KRK 8 G2 Monitor review.

2010-11-19T09:29:00.001-08:00

A tradesman is only as good as the tools that they use. I have heard “that one” a million times over. Now, however, and for the first time, I understand just what that saying means. From this day on, in my little corner home studio, I have the best tools! They are KRK 8 G2 monitors.

Today, I have “heard” my very own music for the very first time. I have opted to toss out my “el-cheapo” studio reference monitors and install a much better pair of studio monitors. I then opened up a work in progress, and “took a listen”. As I worked along, I asked myself a couple of questions; like “Would I be able to hear a difference?”, and “Would I be able to “hear” something new?”. I would find out in a few moments, as I turned the new monitors on, just what folks mean when they claim that “getting a good pair of quality monitors is just as important as getting a good quality microphone”.

I can't simply put into words just how much of a difference there now is in the quality of the music that is coming out of the KRK 8 G2 monitors! Every little nuance of the music is clear and audible now, where as before it was all “missing” in a way. All of this time I thought that I could hear what was happening within my mixes, and now I know that I was wrong. Could this even be possible? Had this quality of “sonic-ness” been eluding me all this time? The one thing that I can say with words is that “I can now achieve much better results due to the ability to actually hear what is sonically happening within my songs”. Yes, I have the right tools now.

Let me tell you about what has become the most important studio upgrade that I have made in a very, very long time. I am talking about the recent addition of a pair of KRK 8 G2 monitors.

Yet another old piece of advice that was given to me a long time ago is, “crap in, crap out”. This advice has led me on a mission to obtain better instruments, better microphones, and a better DAW system. However, I stopped there and continued on with less than desirable monitors. These “less than” monitors were actually tuned to sound sweeter. This alone is why my mixes sounded so darn good in the home studio and yet so bad in the car. I needed to hear what was actually going “to be heard”, raw as it was, and not some engineers idea of a sweet eq'd addition to my overall mix.

With all of the attention we give to recording with the best possible gear, top of the line plug ins, and the highest sample rates, to then mix down using the best possible bit rates and conversion file types, isn't it worth it to “hear” what you actually have, and with as amazing detail as possible?

I could go on and on about just how good my original music sounds while pumping through the KRK 8 G2 monitors, but that would be a given. Any review or advertisement for the KRK 8 G2 monitors will tell you that much. I want to explain how “different” my original music sounds pumping through these monster monitors.

I have never quite “felt” the kick drum “thud” and the bass “woof” before. Notice I chose the word “felt”? I knew that the kick drum and the bass were both working their way through my old monitors, because (although whimpy) I could hear them if I tried hard enough.

The KRK 8 G2 monitors have a way of projecting the kick drum and the bass woof to the listeners ears, but also to his or her chest. I had not ever felt results like this before, but it makes such darned good sense. This is a pleasant thing to boot, as high volume levels are not necessary for mixing (like before I installed the KRK 8 G2 monitors). I liken the difference of the quality of the overall sound detail of my old monitors to my new KRK 8 G2 monitors to the difference between the usual “acoustic night” at the local coffee shop, and a stadium concert featuring a full blown metal band. Perhaps that will “paint the picture” of what I am trying to relate about actually “feeling” the kick drum and the bass woof with the KRK 8 G2 monitors.

And now for the guts of the KRK 8 G2 monitors. First of all, you know quality when you feel it. These babies are hefty, weighing in at 26.1 pounds each! This comes from a quality, well built product. Video shielding is built in too, so forget the “colored hot spots” on your tv's or monitor screens.

The back of the KRK 8 G2 monitors has some knobs and switches, so lets see what is there. First up is the usual on/off switch. This is in part of the internal amps, “amps” as in two! One amp is 70 watts for pushing the glass aramid composite woofer. The second amp is 20 watts, and is for the neodymium soft dome tweeter (with ferro fluid). Peak volume is rated at 106 decibels, so make sure to hang on! Inputs are either an XLR jack, an ¼ inch mono, 10k ohm, jack, or one unbalanced RCA jack.

The two “dial type” knobs are for (top) high freq adjust, and (bottom) volume level. The HF adjust is a “pre-set” type, with four positions. This adjusts the monitors to your listening environment, with settings of -2db to +1db of HF gain.

The front of the KRK 8 G2 monitors is as pictured in the images found on this post, but with a little bonus. The KRK logo actually lights up, which I found to be a cool feature. I know at a glance if I left them on by accident (or not). This was not the case with my old monitors.

Wrapping up this review, I need to put into words just what these monitors have done for me, and my music writing/recording process. This is a tough thing to relate. I will attempt to explain, though, so you can all understand where I am coming from.

When tracking, my “input instruments” are now a lot more precise. The old monitors could not “dial in” on what was exactly happening in this important process. Now, however, I can easily hear where a high or low pass filter is needed, and applying such filters is a snap. Compression can now be applied with accuracy, and can be “heard” in my mixes. Where as before I was adding unnecessary EQ boosts and EQ reductions just to get my inputs to translate after the fact, only finding out that I blew it, later, while listening to the finished mix in the car. How much is this worth to you? Again, “crap in, crap out”.

Mixing is no longer a chore, but a fun process! I find myself tweaking what has been tweaked, just because the detail and clarity of the KRK 8 G2 monitors allow for this sort of thing. I now trust what I am now hearing, and it relates as I mix my tracks down for other stereo systems. Before, it was a crap shoot, but not any longer. Look, if you want to stop wasting time and get the best tracks, mixes, and finished exports possible, upgrade your monitors! They are a very important link in your chain of tools. Your music is important to us all!!! When affordability is an issue, like to all of us home recording nuts, KRK delivers the most “bang for the buck”, hands down, time and time again!

Do yourself a favor and listen to a pair of KRK 8 G2 monitors for yourself. You will hear just what I am writing about. You can thank me later! Please stay tuned for a demo video that is in the works. I want to give you all a listen, using a decent microphone.

Drum solutions

2010-11-12T07:58:00.001-08:00

Multi Tracked drum “Drops” anyone?

Nasser Bouzida started out as a session drummer for Londons Blow Up label both in the studio and in their club. He was soon signed and allowed to indulge in all things retro. Nasser takes us back to swinging Sixties with a mix of soundtrack beats, laid back Blue Note grooves and vintage Funk.

First of all, please note: All samples here are provided as multiple mic ‘stems’ from the original recording sessions which you can reload into your DAW for complete control over the sound and mixdown. You are not supplied with a collection of finely edited short loops, these are multitrack recordings brought to you and so for each loop you get multiple files from different mic positions which can be quite large. The flexibility and usefulness of the Drumdrops multitrack series is unprecedented and allow total freedom on the sound and groove in modern music applications and provide a full Drumloop for a reasonable duration so that you ca easily chop and edit the mulittracks to create your own authentic beats and songs. Drumdrops Mutlitracks will work with Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools Elastik Audio, and also you can import the files into Ableton and Reason, Sonar and all other software music applications.

15 drum tracks of retro classics ranging from 76-164 bpm in multi-track format. Organized by bpm in convenient session folders each containing separate Kick, Snare, Hat, Stereo Overhead, Toms, and Mono Room tracks.

Recorded and mixed on a 1970s Neve console, analog tape, vintage microphones and outboard gear including multiple Pultec equalizers, Fairchild compressors, Ludwig and Gretsch kits were used with vintage Zildjian cymbals and snares by Ludwig, Rogers and Slingerland.

Listen to the preview samples to find the Drumtrack/s that you require and purchase the appropriate pack/s for your music. Download the files and import into your DAW.

Become the recording engineer as you get full access to all the Mic recordings used in the session, change the mix, delete tracks and create your own mixdowns and loops for original flavor and professional results every time. Use the included Drumdrops tempo map so your sequencer or DAW follows the timing and groove of the drumloop, to ensure you get excellent results every time.

Drumdrops multitrack downloads are all easy to use; all audio files start from the same point, Tempo mapped ProTools LE, Logic 6 and Cubase SE session files are included and the files are supplied with 16-Bit .AIFF previews for easy auditioning, and MIDI files with tempo map info for importing to other DAWs.

See http://www.drumdrops.com/ for more background information or download the product pdf for more info on the techniques involved in recording and utilizing these awesome loops and samples.

Other drum pack offerings from LoopMasters......

World Drum Sessions Vol 2 Balkan Drums

DrumDrops in Dub 1

Cool new gear alerts.

2010-11-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just to pass on some cool news, let me show some cool stuff that is now available.

Toontrack music releases Metalheads EZX.

As taken from the Toontrack site...

“One world-renowned drummer, Tomas Haake, member of the extreme metal band Meshuggah.

One in demand producer, Daniel Bergstrand, whose mixing and producing credits include the likes of In Flames, Strapping Young Lad, Soilwork and Meshuggah, just to name a few.

Two Incredible drum sets, assembled and recorded to metal perfection, ready to bring your metal productions to the next level. And, for the first time in Toontrack history, we’ve included Separate mix channels in the EZdrummer mixer, containing kick and snare drum samples designed by Daniel Bergstrand, that augment these already amazingly recorded drums.

Twelve classic Meshuggah songs, captured flawlessly via MIDI by Tomas Haake himself, organized both as full songs as well as song parts so you can customize, dissect and use his grooves and drumming brilliance to inspire or create your next grand metal composition.

This is the next step in the evolution of Metal drum production tools.”

You can hear some of the Metalheads EZX samples here.

KRK releases the new VXT4W Audio Monitors. Geared for the music and movie aficionados and passionate gamers, here is a professional grade sonic percision in a compact and affordable package.

“This is the computer audio monitor for those who really care about their music,” offered Tim Dorwart, CEO of The Stanton Group, parent company to KRK.

“Those that watch movies or are computer-based gamers will be thrilled at the sound quality that these small monitors deliver. Listening to music at a computer is the equivalent of a recording engineer working at a console where the speakers are in close proximity, i.e. "near-field" monitoring. Being paired with a computer on a desk or workstation is the ideal application for KRK’s VXT4w given its compact form factor. The monitor’s high-headroom allows the user to experience sonic clarity across the entire audio spectrum—with an affordable price tag!”

TASCAM INTRODUCES TG-7, TC8 TUNERS

Wide-format Tuners Provide Big Display, On-stage or Off

TASCAM's TG-7, TC8 TUNERS tuners combine fast pitch detection and a 5" wide backlit LCD display to help musicians dial into perfect pitch. The TG-7, designed for guitar and bass players, has a 1/4" in and thru and fits perfectly on pedalboards and amplifiers. The TC-8 is tailored for band and orchestra players with alternate tuning scales for period instruments. Both tuners have a built-in microphone and powerful metronome with internal speaker.

The tuner in the TG-7 and TC-8 uses high speed processing to calculate the pitch. Four tuner modes allow up to 1.25-cent steps on the display for maximum accuracy, and the tuner can be calibrated to an installed piano. They have desktop feet with a clip to attach to a music stand, and a tripod mount is also built-in. The metronome on the TG-7 and TC-8 can be set to various beat accents, and tap tempo allows the musician to find the tempo marking for any song.

The TASCAM TG-7, TC8 TUNERS will be available from select TASCAM retailers in December 2010.

AskVideo instructional DVDs for Reason 5 and Record 1.5.

AskVideo Reason 5 DVD

Over 7 hours of instruction on Propellerhead's Reason 5 by Morgan Pottruff. Whether you're a seasoned Reason user, or just picked up the program last week, you'll find all the info you need to take your knowledge to the next level.

AskVideo Record 1.5 DVD

Over 3.5 hours of instruction on Record - by Morgan Pottruff, aka Morg. This DVD is packed with tons of information, and Morg will walk you through everything this program has to offer in an easy to follow, step by step manner.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce that AmpliTube 2 for iPhone is now available on iTunes app store!

2010-10-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

Have Your Guitar Recording Studio Always In Your Pocket.

This is a major update to the leading guitar amp and fx system for iPhone and it is one of the most powerful music creation apps available.

When combined with the iRig interface adapter, you can now take with you a complete effects rig, a powerful mobile recording studio and a superb practicing tool, all in one!

Here are the new free features included with AmpliTube, LE and FREE:

New recorder with insert FX and re-amping

New speedtrainer to slow down/speed-up imported songs

Enhanced sound quality derived from AmpliTube 3

Import songs directly from your iPod library on your device

Import songs directly from iTunes with file sharing

Export recordings to iTunes as WAVs with file sharing

Send recordings by email as MP3s

New preset naming

New set-up panel with input/output settings and metering

Now settings can be retained after closing the app

Keep playing with the app in background with multi-tasking

And to expand your recording and playing capabilities even more, here's what is new as in-app purchase:

New 4-track recorder with pan, volume, send FX and insert FX + New Master FX section with Reverb, EQ and Compressor (available for only $9.99)

5 New Stomps effects suitable for playing or recording guitar, bass or any other type of instruments or vocals: Compressor, Reverb, Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ and Limiter (available for only $2.99)

Review of “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”, by Bobby Owsinski.

2010-10-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have reviewed books in the past. Also, in the past I have used many a good ole' book, as reference guides, as I learned how to use new recording software and/or musical recording equipment. I use books for vital information about scales, musical theory, and just about every musical topic that you can name. None of which have been so simple for me to consume knowledge from, or as easy for me to understand as “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”, by Bobby Owsinski and published by Cengage Learning, has. This is a powerful statement for me to make, so let me explain what I mean.

I knew enough about mixing and mastering to be dangerous. The more that I learned about mixing and/or mastering the more confused I became, and the more questions I had. I had all sorts of questions about when to use “limiters” or “compressors” to clean up a track, and what about using EQ's when it comes to perceived levels of frequency? Yep, with each new thing that I seem to learn, two more questions pop into my mind.
With just the very first time that I thumbed through “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”, Bobby Owsinski, I had most of these answers! Bobby Owsinski relates to us the “overall art of mixing and mastering” with explaining (broadly) just what mixing and mastering is. He does not try to over complicate a single thing, even though with his background and experience, he certainly could. I understood just what he had to say, without any new questions!
Bobby Owsinski has been mixing and mastering for a very long time. He “speaks” the same language that all of us recording nuts speak. He has a way of explaining things simply. With each paragraph that I skimmed, the mystery of mixing and mastering seemed to dissolve.

Bobby Owsinski starts “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”, with explaining just what each unit that ships in IK Multimedias T-Racks does, and how to set it up for best use. This section alone is a worthy read, and worth the price of the book alone!

Bobby Owsinski explains just what turning each knob on the T-Racks devices actually does. Bobby Owsinski explains when to use just which device and how they are most often used in mixing and mastering. Keep in mind that the whole time he is speaking as a musician, so I seldom needed to re-read a single sentence of “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”. However, you will want to re-read this because this is awesome stuff!

Next, Bobby Owsinski actually answers the very questions that we all want to know. Things like “at what stage is a song considered ready for mixing?”, “When, and exactly what do I compress”, “How do I set up the compressor, and which type of music do I compress differently”, etc. Have you ever asked questions like these? Well, ask no more. Just read what Bobby Owsinski has to say.

Not only does Bobby Owsinski answer these all too common questions in “Mixing and Mastering with IK Multimedia T-Racks, The official guide”, but he has a way of conveying confidence to the reader! His simple way of looking at mixing and mastering really conveys inspiration. For the very first time, instead of thinking the usual “That mixing voodoo magic is way too complicated, and better left up to the engineers to accomplish”, I actually thought to myself “Hey, I can really do this!”. I was gearing up to mix my own music!

Next, as the book reads, is a section dealing with proper monitoring. A simple enough topic, but with huge results! I decided to implement Bobby's advice when it came to monitor placement. He discusses how to “listen” to our music, and also how to practice listening to music prior to a mixing session. Bobby writes about placing monitor speakers as to better hear what is happening. By doing this very step, using Bobby Owsinskis exact measurements, I could not believe the difference in separation and spacial quality of the music coming out of my monitors! In fact it made many prior unheard mistakes become glaring issues. Now I know what is meant by the term “the sweet spot”, and will have better mixes from here on.

Perhaps the chapter that has become my favorite to read and re-read, is titled “Using T-Racks Dynamics during mixing”. I can't tell you the amount of “aaahhhhaaaa” moments I have had. Bobby Owsinski also explains which T-Racks devices “sound” better when placed onto certain types of tracks.

This chapter was quickly followed up with Chapter Four “Using the T-Racks EQ and Metering during mixing”. These two chapters together have changed my process for the better. Bobby Owsinski explains what to look for while using the meters, and how to get the best sound out of what you have, and all the time while using T-Racks devices! Who knew that I had what it takes to better mix all along?

Bobby Owsinski makes sure to explain that each song is different, each genre needs its own unique set of adjustments, and that the most important piece of gear is our very ears. Bobby details the simple tricks that we can all do in order to tune up our ears before each session.

The over all theme here is that Bobby Owsinski not only gives us the information that we so desperately crave, but he also writes as a musician. He inspires confidence into the reader as he relates that this can actually be done at home with T-Racks! He just has an uncanny way of sparking that flame of confidence in the reader, and he actually manages to relate the mixing and mastering processes as a “You can do this” type of task. Well done!

Propellerheads Record drum takes demo!

2010-10-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to “take” the all new Record Drum Takes refill from Propellerhead for a spin. I am completely open to new, perhaps better sounding and easier to program, drum solutions. This is new ground for me, at least when it comes to using Record. Let me explain the “reason” for posting this thought, and please excuse all of the puns.

Record has already brought me much enjoyment. Record has shaved a lot of time off of my creative process, to say the least. One (and perhaps the only) minor complaint that I have with Record and/or Reason is the sampled drum sounds found within.

I find myself using the ID8 inside of Record to quickly “sketch in” the drum lines. This is fast enough due to Rex loops and midi, but this approach often lacks the specific details that I wish to accent in my drum lines. Often times I later re-visit the drum line and change from the ID8 to a couple of Redrum machines. This allows for much more realistic drum lines, better sampled sounds, more control of the samples, and it comes with all of the midi editing features that I love so darn much. However, as a “realistic sounding drum junkie” the Redrum machine, sometimes, just does not cut it. Especially when I am looking for realistic “rock and roll drum kits”. Welcome Record Drum Takes!

First of all, we are not talking about midi information or Rex files here. We are not dragging midi into a player and then selecting drum samples for the midi to trigger. Propellerhead has done their homework, and they have come up with a cool idea for their drum Refills, which is Record Drum Takes. Multi “microphone'd”, multi tracked recordings of drums! Yes, real drums!

Downloading the “Alt Rock” Record Drum Takes refill took a few moments. This usually means that a lot of information is being downloaded, and a quality product is on its way. I get cautious when plug inns don't take very long to download. Record Drum Takes Refills come with a lot of information alright, so let me explain what I have found.

The information is not so much in a ton of drum lines to choose from. However, the drum lines that you get are very well recorded, using tons of perfectly placed microphones. Each “drum line” is very well recorded and they open up into in Record like a real session would in any studio session. In fact, each “drum session” contains such extras as room mics, overhead mics, a “compressed mic channel”, and the usual microphone placed on each piece of the drum kit.

Each microphone has its own “channel” on the mixing console just like a real professionally recorded drum session would! There is a lot of information here, in Record Drum Takes , and the beat goes on.......

There is a lot going on inside of Record Drum Takes. The Record Drum Takes “drum sessions” open inside of Record in a rather brilliant way. The different styles of a session are laid out as intros, verses, choruses, bridges, and so on. At the tail end of each drum session you will find all sorts of drum rolls and fills. You simply edit the lengths of the parts that you wish to use and then add the fills where you want them. So very simple!

However, using all of the usual copy/paste/select sort of edits that I usually perform while in Reason and Record ,(while using the Record Drum Takes Refill) took a few minutes to understand. In fact, it is different that what I was used to. This was entirely my fault, though, as I was in the middle of a “Cool new software rush”.

Since the drums are actually recorded in a multi track format, with actual microphones running all over the kit, you must select/copy/paste the entire “stack” of tracks as a whole. Each drum and/or cymbal hit is picked up on many of the different tracks, through each of the microphones. At first, this sent me into a confusion due to drums being heard where I did not want then to be heard after I edited a part. Then.....it hit me!

I was dealing with the real deal here! Mic bleed is a real thing that happens as we record drums in recording studios, and Record Drum Takes is just that. So, make sure to delete/copy/paste/select the entire row (top to bottom) of drum microphone inputs as you work with the Record Drum Takes. Just to put what I am saying in another way, if you like the hi hats in one part of the drumline, and you decide to copy it and paste it into another part of your song, then you must use (copy and paste) all of the tracks (snare, kick, room, etc) in the copy and paste.

Now that I understand where I was getting muffled drum hits (or ghost notes)from, I corrected my mistakes. Now I find working with Propellerheads Record Drum Takes the only way to go! The drums being edited are real, they are played by real people, and they are recorded in a real studio.

Lastly, Record Drum Takes has an embeded NNXT, as a seperate instrument. The good folks at Propellerhead thought to include this NNXT set up with all of the drum hits laid out across your midi keyboard. This makes for easy adding of last minute cymbals or whatever else you might need. Plus, the bonus of getting these midi notes right on a grid, plus quantizing them, is alweays a joy.

The Record Drum Takes work in Record just as you think that they might. If you have ever used a mixing console to record multi-tracks of drums, then you will feel very comfortable using Record Drum Takes Refills. Record uses the best possible approach when it comes to use. The mixing console is the best recognized item in a studio, and we all know how to use them.

Propellerheads Record Drum Takes is a home recording/multi trackers dream. I now have a choice, well, when it comes to drums anyway. I have “midi programmable” live samples that I can program in Pro Tools, or I can add real multi track drum scores into my recordings. It will be interesting to see which way I go from here!

Propellerhead has a very cool idea in Record Drum Takes. They sound amazing. They are easy to use. I love how I can perform simple EQ and compression tasks to these drum tracks (just like in a studio) and get the exact results that the pros get. These recorded drums are of professional quality! I ask you all, “what else should we be placing into our recordings but the best?”.

2010-10-17T12:56:00.001-07:00

Here is my first video review for Propellerheads Record 1.5 and Reason version 5. This video is only 10 minutes in length, but that is enough to get my likes and dislikes across.

The next post will cover Propellerheads new Drum Takes for Record 1.5. See you then!

Please do not forget to enter to win your very own Irig from IK Multimedia, and me, the Home Recording Weekly blog! Follow this here link to learn how easy it is to enter!

Propellerhead Releases Record Drum Takes vol. 1–3

2010-10-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Three new ReFills bring multitrack live drums for Record

Propellerhead Software today announced the immediate availability of Record Drum Takes—big league rock and pop multitrack drums played by skilled session drummers for Propellerhead's brand new recording software Record. Record Drum Takes builds a steady foundation for any rock or pop creation.

Each Record Drum Takes ReFill arrives in Record song format with two separate three minute backing tracks of live drumming, organized in classic song form with intro, verse, chorus, bridge and breakdown, fills and variations. Alt Rock comes with hard-hitting, American drums with lots of attitude inspired by alternative and college rock, Folk Rock brings a large, warm sound, with plenty of room, while Dry Indie provides two classic, laidback, dry and distinct indie pop drum tracks.

The differently styled tracks in the Record Drum Takes ReFills all come as multitrack recordings, allowing users to freely shape the drum sound by adjusting the levels of the independent kick, snare, hihat, room, ambient and other microphones. Cut across all eight drum tracks to arrange and rearrange once the drum sound has been mixed to perfection. Play along to the Record Drum Takes drum arrangements, or paste them into an existing song. The entire drum mix will follow right along, and utilizing Record's automatic time-stretch, Drum Takes instantly adapts to the song’s tempo.

Included with the Record Drum Takes ReFill are also multisampled versions of the kits, for adding that extra snare or crash cymbal right where it is needed.

Although recorded using state of the art technology in a professional recording facility and performed by an experienced drummer with an unmistakable feel for music—the playing in these Record Drum Takes ReFills is sparse and to the point: a perfect foundation for any alternative, pop or rock production.

Pricing and availability....
The three Record Drum Takes ReFills Alt Rock, Folk Rock and Dry Indie are available exclusively for download through Propellerhead’s web shop today, at EUR €29 / USD $29 each. http://www.propellerheads.se/record-drum-takes

IK Multimedia Releases “Mixing and Mastering with T-RackS -The Official Guide”

2010-10-12T12:36:00.001-07:00

Learn mixing and mastering from world-class pro-audio author, producer and engineer, Bobby Owsinski

IK Multimedia and Course Technology PTR/Cengage Learning are pleased to announce the release of the official mixing and mastering guide for the award-winning T-RackS software, “Mixing and Mastering with T-RackS, The Official Guide”, written by world-renowned pro-audio author, producer and audio engineer, Bobby Owsinski.

“Mixing and Mastering with T-RackS, The Official Guide” offers home studios, pro musicians and engineers a personally guided tour of T-RackS 3 software from studio legend, Bobby Owsinski. In this inspiring 192 page pro-audio guide, they will learn how to professionally polish their recordings and mixes with T-RackS 3 mastering software, giving them the techniques needed to achieve the professional sound quality required to finalize their audio productions – from studio to radio, podcast, television or feature film soundtracks.

Featuring T-RackS 3 software modules, this essential pro-audio handbook teaches musicians the full spectrum of all types of audio processing from the most widely used signal processors, as Bobby Owsinski demystifies the real usage of compressors, limiters and EQs, all while providing real world examples of their sonic effects. “Mixing and Mastering with T-RackS, The Official Guide” includes the crucial principles of mixing and mastering audio, with techniques such as: how to prepare the environment and mindset for mixing, and how to set up the studio for optimal monitoring. Not only that, but Bobby Owsinski guides the reader step-by-step and clearly explains the mastering world, providing solid advice on “gluing” audio tracks together to create the feel and mood that musicians and engineers want to hear from their mastered audio files and recordings.

Chapters Include: Mix Preparation, Monitoring, Using T-RackS Dynamics during Mixing, Using the T-RackS EQ and Metering during Mixing, Mix Buss Compression, Preparation for Mastering, Introduction to Mastering, Monitoring during Mastering, Metering, Mastering, Mastering with T-RackS 3 and Exporting Your Project.

“T-RackS is a simple yet powerful app that has all of the features you need to do a great mastering job. One of the things that’s makes all T-RackS versions so popular is the warm analog sound that the processor modules provide, since they closely emulate the circuitry of some of the vintage hardware devices that many pros have come to love. Modeling the sound of a piece of hardware is not a trivial process, but IK Multimedia gets better and better at what amounts to a new art form.” Bobby Owsinski, award-winning songwriter, producer, engineer, and author of audio handbooks

Pricing and Availability:

Bobby Owsinski’s new book, “Mixing and Mastering with T-RackS -The Official Guide” can be purchased directly from the IK Multimedia web store (http://ikmultimedia.com/Sales.php , or through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and from select IK Multimedia music instrument retailers and distributors around the world for a list price of $29.99 U.S.D. (excluding taxes).

For more info and a 10-day, fully functional trial version of T-RackS 3, please visit:
www.t-racks.com/download .

SERJ TANKIAN LAUNCHES “DISOWNED INC” REMIX CONTEST

2010-10-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Serj Tankian, Propellerhead Software and Electronic Musician would like to invite fans to get creative and remix "Disowned Inc.", a track off of Tankian's new album, Imperfect Harmonies.

Beginning right now, Propellerhead is offering a fully functional trial version of its newly released Record Software to the first 500 people to download from the link below.

Participants of the contest will also be provided with a link to download the instrumental and vocal stems of “Disowned Inc.” to begin their remix and will have until November 7, 2010 to submit their entry.

Entries will be judged by Serj's record label, Serjical Strike. Serj will pick the 1st and 2nd place winners amongst the 5 finalists.

The Grand Prize will include the Full Suite (Reason and Record) from Propellerhead Software + a signed copy of 'Imperfect Harmonies' + a Serj Tankian t-shirt. The runner up will win the Reason Propellerhead software + a signed copy of 'Imperfect Harmonies' + a Serj Tankian t-shirt.

Good luck everyone!

Go here (link to https://www.propellerheads.se/userReg/index.cfm) to create your Propellerhead User account (If you already have a User Account, you do not need to create a new one).

Download the Record software here (link to http://www.propellerheads.se/download/record/).

Email contest@serjicalstrike.com after you have downloaded the software to receive your unique code to unlock all the features of Record and receive your download link to the audio stems for “Disowned Inc.” within 12 hours.

Create your remix as a wave/aif file and then convert it to an mp3 format (no larger than 6mb).

Submit your entry to remixsubmission@serjicalstrike.com by November 7, 2010.

Serjical Strike will announce the 5 top finalists as well as the 1st and 2nd place winners on November 22, 2010.

Record 1.5 review.

2010-10-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Upon opening and installing Record 1.5 and Reason 5, I was helplessly pondering the question of “Would this software actually change the way in which I record?”. After spending many long weeks using Record 1.5 and Reason 5 at the recording desk, my answer is a loud and proud “Yes!!”. Let me explain ...

I decided to spend some time working with this incredible, and very powerful software before posting a single word about it. You know, just so that I could “get to know it inside and out before I dare to compare it to the whole Pro Tools thingy”. So, I decided to clear my current “project list” and to spend some time creating some new music, using nothing but Record 1.5, Reason 5, my M-box as the audio interface, and some instruments like an electric guitar (via direct-in) and an acoustic guitar via some condenser microphones. Everything else would come straight from Record 1.5 and Reason 5.

To begin, I am extremely impressed! In fact, more impressed than I ever thought that I would be. Let the “ever loud fact” that I have not opened up Pro Tools, at all, since I first opened up Record 1.5, stand for just how impressed I am. Propellerhead has found a way to include the quick passed recording and editing tools of their Reason software and placed these work styles and tools into Record 1.5.

Perhaps the single most important fact that impresses me the most with Record 1.5, is the speed in which I am able to get audio recorded. It is captured before it is ever forgotten.

The three main “screens” or areas that you work on music within Record 1.5 are very comfortable to work with, very well laid out, and every bit as realistic as one can ever hope for! This only adds to the speed of a session, as I felt rather familiar using Record 1.5, right from the start. This software has completely changed the way that I audition new ideas, and for the better!!!

The second most important fact that I love so much about using Record 1.5 is just how great this freshly recorded audio sounds!

The EQ section is very well laid out, and also offers a high pass filter and a low pass filter right at the top of the track on the console! Then there is a compressor section, effects routing, and lastly the usual panning dial and volume sliders. You see, Record 1.5 has been designed with the home recording musician in mind. The main section, or one of the three main screens, of Record 1.5 is set up just like a mixing board found in every recording studio that I have ever been in. Modeled after a professional mixing console, Record 1.5 makes it a snap to get my tracks, and my entire mixes, tight and right, right from the get go.

Whats more, Record 1.5 is set up to work like Reason in certain cases. What I mean is that one can quickly solo a track, and “loop play” it back. This makes for dialing in a tracks EQ a cinch, and then combining it with the other tracks (sonically) a breeze as well. It is these little ideas that are worked into Record 1.5 that make it so darned comfortable, and so quick to use.

The ID8 has become my newest very best friend!

This creative tool lets me get my ideas down fast; so they are not lost. Plus, the ID8 is easy to use when I re-visit these first ideas and build upon them. The ID8 can be drums, pianos, and many other “quick writing instruments” that one might need in a hurry. Within each instrument type, there are several different selections for them, right on the instruments face plate! For example, if you choose drums with the ID8, you can quickly select from acoustic kits, electronic kits, and techno kits. This makes writing easy and fast, just what I like!

Now, with Record 1.5, creating a track to record on, adding the instrument you wish to record with, and then recording your parts can be done with two or three mouse clicks. This is true for midi instruments and analog instruments alike! Wow, this is refreshing!

Included in Record 1.5 are POD guitar and bass interface modules, with great sounding amps, speaker cabs, and effects. This makes “plug and play” truly possible. Once more, I can now record a guitar track in mere seconds, and then work with it just like it is midi!

That is what I said, “just like audio is midi”. This is just one more feature that I just love, love, love. Because of this single feature, I will have a hard time ever learning to record without Record 1.5.

Arranging your music is just one more of the many fast and the easy things to accomplish while using Record 1.5. With the unique “blocks” option, and the whole Reason-like song line interface, moving entire sound clips is easy! Re-arranging your music becomes a simple task, as well as the usual copying and pasting of clips.

What's more, Record 1.5 seems to know just what editing task it is that you are doing and/or just what it is that you want to perform. I found that in the older versions of Reason, I struggled with many of the (copy, paste, etc.) tasks. Record 1.5 seems to follow along with your edits, and puts the cursor just where I needed it to be. It is uncanny, in fact, how well this software works along with the music writer/editor.

So, now that I have explained my favorite things about Record 1.5, the question still remains. Is Record 1.5 as good as ProTools?

I shall answer this in two ways. First of all, we must ask “as good as.... at what?”. If I were to choose only one of the two programs for getting music down quickly and easily, it would be Record 1.5, hands down. If we are talking about minute mixing and/or mastering to video, then Pro Tools wins, hands down.

Record 1.5 will be my “go-to” program from now on, for roughing out songs. I will (from today on) choose Record 1.5 for writing, recording, and mixing all of my new songs. However, I will then “dump” them into Pro Tools for all of the extreme editing and/or mastering, as well as the ability of using all of my much cherished plug ins. I simply like my Toontrack and IK Multimedia RTAS plug inns way, way too much.

Free iZotope Vinyl Plug in

2010-09-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

A very cool, and free, plug in from iZotope.

Izotope makes some very good plug ins. From their Alloy mixing plug in to their Vinyl plug in, they are all top notch products.

Izotope has a plug in for some of your virtual instrument demands, right down to a plug in for whatever it is that you need to fix too! A quick visit to their site will fill you all in on just what they have to offer! I wish to discuss one of their free offerings, Vinyl.

Izotope Vinyl is available for free, from their site.

What is Vinyl? Glad that you asked. Vinyl is simply a re-creation of vinyl defects and noises of “yesteryear”. This plug in is a complete blast to play with, and it sounds very authentic. There are eight sliders, four knobs, and two switches on the interface of Vinyl. The first group of sliders raise or lower the levels of “mechanical noise, wear, electrical noise, dust, scratch, and warp depth”. Adding these vinyl throwback sounds to your “clean” digital recordings is now a snap.

The next two sliders all by themselves are the input gain and the output gain. There are two knobs labeled “amount” which work as independent levels, or gains. One of the two switches selects either mono or stereo, and the second selects weather it is bypassed or not. Lastly are two more knobs. One of these two knobs selects the RPM speed of the record that you are selecting noise from (i.e. 33, 45, 78), and the last knob selects the “year” of the sample. This last “year” knob acts as a pre set EQ of sorts, along with other effects, it makes the noise more date specific in sound.

So, if you want a new sound source to play with, and one that is of great sound and quality, head over to Izotope and download Vinyl, for free, today!

IK Multimedia iRig give away!

2010-09-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

IK Multimedia and the Home Recording Weekly blog join forces to give away an iRig!

Rules for entering.....

First, simply subscribe to the Home Recording Weekly blog, and then send in your name, in an email to me, at Steve@itmaine.com. That is it! I simply need your name and email to contact the winner! Sorry, contest entries only from the U.S. and Canada accepted.

On November 1^st I will draw one lucky name “out of a hat”, and then announce this as the winner, all live in a video on the Home Recording Weekly blog.

Here are the links, (Here and Here), to download the free Amplitube apps for the Iphone/Ipad.

“AmpliTube iRig is a combination of an easy-to-use instrument interface adapter and guitar and bass tone mobile software.

With AmpliTube iRig, you can plug your guitar into your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad and jam anywhere with world class guitar and bass tone right in the palm of your hand - from the leader in studio-class guitar and bass software.

Simply plug the iRig interface into your mobile device, plug your instrument into the appropriate input jack, plug in your headphones, amp or powered speakers, download 'AmpliTube FREE' version for iPhone or for iPad, and start rocking!

You’ll have at your fingertips the sound and control up to 4 recombinable simultaneous stompbox effects + amplifier + cabinet + microphone just like a traditional guitar or bass stage rig!”

To learn more about the IK Multimedia iRig, please visit the IK Multimedia link provided.

Thanks for entering, and good luck to all of you!

EQ for mixing purposes.

2010-09-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Bass and Kick drum.

I started this very blog for two overall reasons. The first reason was to gain as much knowledge as I possibly could about home recording and mixing. I have learned a lot along the way about mic technique, and I have learned a ton about all sorts of “plug in” tools that are out there. This blog has been both a blast and a God send.

The second reason that I started Home Recording Weekly was to simply pass on what I have learned, in order to help others obtain the best possible recordings that they can get. I wish I had a blog just like this one as I started to learn how to record music at home.

Perhaps one of the most important things that I have learned about mixing is that each instrument or sound has its own “frequency space” that it lives in or occupies. You may have seen the charts that detail the frequency ranges on a line and then list the instruments underneath the frequencies that the instruments most often “live in”. Any two sounds, or instruments, that “over lap”, or live in the same frequency, can quickly “add up”. This may cause your speakers to “fart out” each time that these frequencies sound. Perhaps, once again, the most common example is the bass and the kick drum. The bass might sound great by itself, and the kick sounds great all by itself too, but together there is just way too much common frequency level going out to your monitors. A lot of my old recordings suffer from this “farting out” syndrome. But I am learning as I go.

Here is a copy of just one of these charts. Downloading this image will allow you to increase its' size. Look at the over lapping of frequencies, and make a mental note.

A great way to think of an EQ is as simply an amp or an attenuator for frequencies, and not an amp or attenuator for signal levels.

Adding some EQ might seem like an easy way to boost a signals' overall level within a mix, but be warned, it can ruin a good mix too. Adding too much EQ to any one particular Frequency area of an instrument and you might overpower another instrument within the mix. And EQ'ing out too much detail can cause a thin or a weak signal level.

Look out, and listen for any over lapped frequencies in your mix. You can actually hear this happening as one instrument will tend to get lost in the mix, or it will “fall back in the mix”. Plus, things may get muddy sounding in your mix as one instrument enters the song. These over lapping zones require some special attention to detail.

There are two ways to use some EQ while mixing. These two ways are “additive EQ” and “subtractive EQ”. Before I go any further, a spectrum annalizer will show you visually just what is happening within a mix or a soloed signal. Using a spectrum annalizer will help you to see what frequencies are “captured” within a signal, and just how much of a level to that particular frequency area is being heard.

Additive and subtractive EQ......

Additive EQ'ing adds a boost to certain frequency levels within a signal. This type of EQ'ing can bring an instrument more “forward” in a mix. But be careful, too much additive EQ and things can get muddy, or other instruments will “fall back” into the overall mix. A level of discipline is needed in order to not over do it with additive EQ.

Subtractive EQ can help to accomplish two things. First, it can help to remove any unwanted frequencies from within a signal. Secondly, it can lower certain areas of frequency level from within a signal in order to bring another instrument “forward” in the mix. Some most popular “EQ'ing tools” for subtractive EQ'ing are notch filters and hi and low pass filters.

Here is a look at a typical session, as being EQ'd at mixing.

As taken from the Sweetwater “Tech Tips” page

“ A common trick to getting a full sound between kick and bass while retaining clarity is to boost the lows on the kick (60-80Hz) cut the low mids anywhere from 150Hz to 400Hz (sometimes called the mudrange) and boost the highs at around 3000Hz. This will provide a solid low end, remove some of the mud in the midrange and accentuate the attack of the kick pedal on the drum.

For the bass, we do pretty much the opposite; cut the lows where you boosted them on the kick (60-80Hz) boost the bass at around 120 - 150Hz which will provide a full bass sound (while occupying the frequency space we made by cutting the kick drum in this range), and boost the highs at around 900Hz since bass also provides information in that range as well. In short, we are emphasizing the frequencies that are important to the sound of each, while cutting the frequencies where they can conflict. Try this technique. You'll get a full bottom with a clear thump with a defined attack in the kick and a clear, full bass.

Another important thing to keep in mind is what we said earlier about the most power in the mix coming from the low end; EQ is frequency dependent amplification, which means that we are boosting the power of a particular frequency. Too much boost can result in either distortion or less headroom in the mix for other instruments, so use it sparingly. If you're boosting a frequency in one instrument, you should cut that frequency in another instrument, as our kick and bass technique describes. Overall, EQ is most effective as a subtractive device, not additive.”

Just to shed some light on the importance of the high, mid, and low frequencies within the kick drum, check out this great video......

Winner of the fourth songwriting contest

2010-09-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

And the fourth winner is.......

The fourth and final (until next time) Home Recording Weekly songwriting contest has come to a close. A great big “Congratulations” is going out, from me, to Brandon Kinross, for taking the months' prize with his great song titled “Imagination”.

Brandon writes.......

“'Imagination' was recorded in my bedroom like all the others on my reverbpage (link below). I have a very basic recording setup at the moment. Which includes a Cort acoustic, a Vantage electric and Orange crush amp. Its nothing fancy but it allows me to capture my ideas before they float on by. As a result many of my demos are raw and in their purest form. Sometimes it makes it a little tougher to give the rock songs the *umph* they need, but with enough post production you can still produce a demo you can listen to and share. Three cheers for drum loops and keyboard bass!

This song started out with just a basic unplugged live track. The main vocals and acoustic are performed by me, and the organ and harmony are by Mr. Bob Pompei. I think our voices work really well together and I thank him for adding an element to the song that I wouldn't be able to achieve alone. It really made the song shine. Every now and then you write a song that doesn't need any fancy sound effects or drums added. 'Imagination' stands out as one I would like to keep simple when the time comes to record it professionally. It was inspired by someone special but I apply it to many of the people I miss.

Songwriting is an addiction I love feeding. I'm the type of person that would leave a crowded room and sneak off into the bathroom, so I could call my answering machine and hum myself a song idea to save for later. I wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of the night if I let it get away! In that spirit I try to record as much as possible. I hope to experience some real studio time one day and give many of these songs the justice they deserve.

To learn more about me and what I do, I welcome you to come find me on www.reverbnation.com/brandonkinross, or any of the links below. I have a huge variety of bedroom demos posted from Rock, to Pop to acoustics, ballads and even electronic instrumentals. Download them, share them, and sing them in the shower! I write almost everyday and new songs are posted weekly. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact or Facebook me.

Thanks for listening!

Brandon Kinross”

Reverb - www.reverbnation.com/brandonkinross
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brandon-Kinross/234328233866?ref=sgm
Youtube - www.youtube.com/brandonkinross
Myspace - www.myspace.com/brandonkinross

A very good job indeed! This is yet another awesome quality “bedroom recording”, which I just love to get in the mail. The harmonies in “Imagination” are sounding like those of the band Extreme, as in “More than words”, and this song just flows real nice. Well done!

But wait......., what's this? Two contest winners?

Well, sort of.. How about another great big “Congratulations” for Fragile Transit, for their song titled “Blew me away”, which is a winner too!

Fragile Transit writes......

“Thank you for your interest in Fragile Transit. The Songs submitted to you were recorded in my home studio using 2 Presonus firepods and Cubase 5. The mics are Apex 435(vocals), Shure sm58's(Vocals), A Samson 5 kit plus 2 audio technica condensors for overheads. Guitar Tokia SG, amp is a Peavey Delta Blues 15" combo. Drums are Sonor 3005 maple. Ibanez bass DI in.

Guitar/Lead Vocals - Josh rude

Recording/Mixing/mastering/bass/BG Vocals- Steve Seltenrich

Drums - Gary Stalwick

These "demos" have created quite a buzz and have landed us a full length album session at PM Recording in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

BIO

Fragile Transit is a hard hitting trio from Outlook, Saskatchewan that have been compared to greats such as ZZtop, Judas Priest, GreenDay and Van Halen. Their mix of Rock, Blues, Swamp, and just a splash of Metal is what gives them the edge and manages to bring every crowd to its feet.

Fragile Transit are currently in studio with producer Josh Palmer and are working on their second recorded release in 3 years. They plan to follow up the debut of their new album “The Ride” with a rigorous tour schedule through Canada and the United States.

Fragile Transit was formed in 2007 by guitarist/vocalist Josh Rude and bassist/vocalist Steve Seltenrich. They were able to recruit long time friend Gary Stalwick to fill the position as drummer. With the trio complete they immediately got down to work writing original songs and showcasing their talent to the local scene in Saskatoon, opening for recording artist Mobile and working with other great talents such as Inward Eye, Whole Lotta Angus, Wide Glide, New Rock Underground, Tim Vaughn, Josh Palmer and Mr. Brownstone. It was not long before they were headlining all over Saskatchewan.

To feed their Rock ‘n’ Roll addiction, Fragile Transit has recorded a 5 song Ep, toured Saskatchewan and headlined venues like The Roxy and Buds On Broadway. They also appeared on the Shaw Cable television show “Stripped Down”, placed 3rd in Saskatchewan Band Warz and support the Relay For Life cancer fundraisers. Currently they are in pre-production of their new album “The Ride”.”

Steve and Stacy have entered this Fragile Transit rocker more times than anyone else has entered, and have been in second place each time that they tried. Well, darn it, they need to be recognized! What a great rock and roll tune indeed. This will stick in your head, so be warned! Good job!

Thanks for a great time, and a successful first run of the Home Recording Weekly songwriting contest! I will be holding off for a short while before starting the contest up again. Thanks for all of the great entries, and for all of the fun emails. You all rock! Please remember, just because you did not win does not mean that your material isn't good, it all was very good!

Blog notes...

2010-09-10T13:47:00.001-07:00

First, Faze Action and “The nu sound of disco”.

My good friends at Loopmasters are very “hip” to have enrolled the brothers Lee to complete a funky and eclectic royalty free sample collection, Faze Action. These are killer loops, with all sorts of sampled sounds. Make sure that you check out the link, and listen to a demo or two.

The Home Recording Weekly song writers contest is quickly coming to a close. If you have been waiting to enter, then please, wait no more. I dont want you to miss your chance of winning. There will be more contests in the future, with some awesome prizes for the winners, but for now it will be closing. Thanks to everyone of you that entered, and a big thanks to IK Multimedia and Toontrack for supplying you with some great prizes.

Keep a look out for perhaps a new “how to video” all about mixing and EQ, in the very near future. Also some demos showing Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0 , and how I like to work with it are in the works, and also some new demos dealing with Propellerhead Reason 5 and Record 1.5 are in the works too. I look forward to posting, and I hope that you will join me as they get posted!

10,000 Views strong!

2010-09-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Some few short months ago I decided that this blog needed to be heard! Reading “text” reviews about musical devices and plug-ins just wasn't cutting it. But just exactly how I could get audio to come into your homes wasn't very clear. Then, in a split second, it came to me..... YouTube video!

Well, I started to post some very simple videos about everything that I felt needed to be heard by the good people that follow the Home Recording Weekly blog. Armed with a simple video camera, and some basic editing software, I dug in. I certainly do not think that an Emmy or an Oscar award is coming, nor am I comfortable as I shoot video, but they can be quite fun to shoot.

At first, I could not believe that folks were actually watching the videos that I post! Next came some comments, and then subscribers too! You can imagine the shock that I felt!

So, without boring you all to tears, I just need to say a very loud “THANK YOU” to all of you for my first 10,000 views! You all rock!

Local spots filmed by Taylor Swift and crew.

2010-08-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

The newest video of Taylor Swift ( song titled “Mine”)was shot here, in Southern Maine, in some of my favorite spots! Taylor shot this video in Kennebunk Maine, and in KennebunkPort Maine, just to name a couple locations. I noticed the film crews some time ago, and then heard whispers about who was in town. What a good job they all did to show my haunts as pretty as they have!

DrummerTracks Series

2010-08-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Song-length drum tracks from Sonic Reality!

Hey, do you want to play or practice your guitar or bass “in time”? Check out these drummer tracks from Sonic Reality.

Taken from the IK Multimedia website.......

“DrummerTracks™ is a series of 10 style-based titles offering multiple song-length drum tracks performed by top studio drummers, and recorded in world class studios by sound powerhouse Sonic Reality, to be used as play along tracks for the AmpliTube range of software and mobile apps.

Distributed exclusively by IK Multimedia they offer guitarists, bassists and any other musicians a new way to play along with drum grooves. Unlike other play along grooves, DrummerTracks™ have been produced to sound exactly like classic albums of yesterday and today using the same state of the art equipment and sometimes even the original drummer and producer/engineer!

It’s like playing along to the drum tracks extracted from your favorite albums. A wide variety of styles ranging from Classic Rock to ProgRock to Blues, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Country and more are available. It’s total inspiration wherever you go. Fills and variations for verses, choruses and/or challenging jam sections happen automatically just like they would with a live drummer.

Import DrummerTracks™ into AmpliTube SpeedTrainer in Mac/PC or iPhone/iPod/iPad to play along or use then in your preferred DAW sequencer - simply hit play and start rocking! You can use it for practicing, playing, composing or just to have fun! An ideal source of inspiration with high-quality and ultra convenient sound content that can have a large variety of use in your studio computer or in your mobile devices.

Each title includes 10 or more drum tracks in 44Khz/16 bit Wave format, and over 500MB of samples, for only $29.99/€19.99 each.”

Largest drum machine ever built!

2010-08-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this? I want one, well, and a monitor that big would be cool! Forget dance as we know it, why not “dance” our own music?

Propellerhead Software created the biggest drum machine ever built (no small feat) and projected it onto a building in Stockholm. This is super cool.