Then and Now Moment (AKA My Gear Is Too Good!)

I've been considering how the landscape of home recording has changed and evolved over the past 20 years, and we have come a long way. We now have more recording power and flexibility in our home studios than the top professional studios had available back then. Back then, the enemy was signal degradation and tape hiss. Now we actually have folks working hard to build effects to add in "better" artificial tape hiss to too-perfect recordings.

Yes, we have come a long way. How many tracks can you record at home? I routinely use 30 or 40 individual tracks in REAPER. The capacity is only limited by the power of your machine and how much horsepower each VST or VSTi or audio track need to process, and I've never dogged out my machine while doing real work.

But something feels different when I record and build songs in my studio. It has taken me a couple of years to put my finger on it, but I think I know now.

This is something that I feel made me stronger in the late 80s/early 90s. I had less power then. I had a LOT of systemic constraints. This forced me to get to the meat of what the music was trying to do, rather than allowing a lot of fluff to drift in and change my focus.

Fewer Channels
When you have fewer channels, you have to think more about how to accomplish the desired effect. My old studio was based on an Amiga 500. The Amiga had 2 left channels and 2 right channels. All 8-bit audio. That's it. Anything else had to be driven from outboard MIDI gear. I added a Yamaha RY-30 Drum Machine to take care of the bottom end (16-bit sounds!), but everything else was through the Amiga. 2 Left, 2 Right. And it worked. I made songs that sounded a hell of a lot bigger than you would expect. Occasionally, I would share a channel, but for the most part I kept it straightforward. Four instruments, usually 2 being a stereo-paired lead line that mirrored each other (with a slight offset so you added a spatial element/echo to the sound.)

Samples, Not Instruments
Another big difference between then and now is Virtual Instruments. VSTs, one of the most popular formats for Virtual Instruments, weren't released to the public until 1996. Prior to that you either had hardware instruments (i.e. real stuff), or you used audio samples. It seems to me that creating samples is a dying art. I don't mean just recording a bit from another artist and using it. I mean taking a raw sound into an audio editor, twisting it, rearranging it, and making it something fresh and new that has NEVER been heard before. Then load it into your music program and do something with it.

Back in the old days I had a portable tape recorder (you remember cassettes, don't you?) that I would wander around recording random sounds with it. Then I would sample those sounds into the computer and see what I had actually captured. When I sound "jumped out" at me, I put it through the meatgrinder to make it even more unusual, more me.

I think many of us have fallen into the trap of "needing" Virtual Instruments for just about everything. It can be useful, or it can be a crutch. The sounds made by a VST are the same sounds everyone else with that VST has to use. It's a shared experience. Sure, you can morph the sound by adding more VST effects onto the basic instrument. And more VSTs.

Personally, I prefer to find a basic sound from a Virtual Instrument, record it, and then bring it into Audacity and corrupt it into something that is wholly mine. I can (almost) guarantee than nobody has ever taken the same source sound through the same "audio meatgrinder" I use. Since it is an organic, seat-of-the-pants creation, I would be hard pressed to duplicate a sound that I made previously.

Final Thoughts
As old Uncle Ben used to say, "With great power comes great responsibility." We don't need to be responsible, do we? So try a little experiment on your next project. Try to limit yourself to a set number of tracks. 4 or 8 tracks - the classic tape capacities. Can you get the song you're after if you can ONLY use 4 tracks? I'm willing to bet you can get a stronger song in that 4 or 8 track space. You might just surprise yourself at how much "waste" there is in your recordings.

Before the haters bring it: Don't get me wrong, I love (free) VSTs. They give us the options that we never really had in a small home studio before. I couldn't afford to buy another keyboard to get that ONE new sound I was looking for. You made due with what you had. Now we have so many options to choose from, we often get caught in the "chasing the perfect presets" in our VSTs, instead of chasing the perfect song. If you can't find it, make it.

Read the full post here!

Native Instruments' Holiday Selection 2009 - free download

For the holiday season, Native Instruments is giving away a special free instrument pack, HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009, for their successful KORE 2 PLAYER. Don't have KORE 2? You can download the player for free, also directly from Native Instruments. It functions both in standalone and as a VST/RTAS plugin. You have to get an activation code via email, but their registration process is really simple and painless. (Less than a minute total time invested).

If the demo songs on their site (made with ONLY sounds in this pack) aren't enough to spend a few minutes downloading this, I would be surprised. This is available for both PC and Mac platforms.

You can get both downloads here.

(No idea how long they'll have it available. It was posted on NI's site on Dec. 17, 2009. Presumably through at least New Year's Day, but maybe longer, maybe shorter.)

From the Native Instruments site:
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Native Instruments is happy to present to you a free instrument made up of premium sounds from highly-successful KORE / KONTAKT instruments. HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 is a full-featured production-ready sound library that includes 45 Kore Sounds® with 360 Sound Variations, drawn from 12 different KORE / KONTAKT instruments. From classic sampled instruments to futuristic soundscapes and poly-effects, HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 brings together the cream of this celebrated and diverse range.

For use with the free KORE 2 PLAYER:
No previous product ownership is required to use this instrument – simply download both the free KORE 2 PLAYER and HOLIDAY SELECTION 2009 for free, and get started!
Download free KORE 2 PLAYER for Mac or PC.
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Demo Track: (E)motion Violation

Many years ago, I had a band/project with an ambitious, excitable young man named Matthew Schultz. As my long-time readers will recall, Matt died this summer. (See my post about it here.)

I mentioned the one and only full studio-produced vocal demo we recorded, a song called "(E)motion Violation". I had written it about a year before, and we were making plans to record a full EP, when circumstances led us down two different paths in life.

I present to you, for your listening pleasure (hopefully), that rough demo. You can download or listen to it here.

Listen to it, share it, but please leave the authorship (in the ID3 tag) intact. I retain all rights to the track, so if you want to use it in your project, let me know. I'm sure we can work something out.


How It Was Made
The song was composed on an Amiga 500 (with a whopping 1 MB of RAM, and two floppy disk drives!) Most of the main instrumentation is done with samples.

The guitar is a single sampled powerchord recorded through the headphone out jack of a Gorilla Tube Cruncher amp with the gain cranked up. The tone is also helped by the 8-bit sampling on the Amiga, since it dirtied up the tone that much more. That one powerchord was then played as a sample up and down, to make the main guitar riffs.

Drums were played through a Yamaha RY-30 Drum Machine (the best machine on the planet!)

The bass synth line was originally done on a Casio CZ-101, but since it was having power problems when we went into the studio, we used a nice synth that was resident in Pumpkin Shell Studio. All that we really needed was a deep growling bass line, and it was perfect.

Everything was controlled by the Amiga running MED 3.20 at 16 tracks. For those unfamiliar with the Amiga, there were 4 sampled audio channels, 2 left, 2 right. To achieve the studio mix, we ran it though about a dozen times, recording one voice at a time. We were able to slave the Amiga to the studio controller, so we could keep the multiple takes in sync. It was in the mix that we were able to take the mono voices from the Amiga and pull them out as stereo tracks, which helped fill it out considerably.

Once we had the instrumentation laid down, Matt tried a few vocal takes before he hit on the right sound for the lead vocals. (If you listen carefully during the chorus, my own vocals are hiding in the background behind Matt's. I had a little different cadence to my vocals, so it provided a nice thickness to the chorus. Not quite gang vocals, but just a hint of extra grit.)

The recording engineer & producer on this track was Richard Schultz, then proprietor of Pumpkin Shell Studio (Matt's older brother). The whole studio experience was wonderful and Rick has always been more focused on music as a creative art form than as a business. In addition to being the producer/engineer on this track, Rich is one of my favorite indie musicians. (Shameless plug: Rick's web site is at: http://richardschultzmusic.com)

Since the questions always gets raised: where did the samples come from? "Official" and "Model" were word samples from George Carlin. The two "Fear" quotes were from some talk show around 1990 (probably The Jerry Springer Show), from a guest who was attacking the polygamist way of life. The laugh was, I believe, from a Man-O-War track. (Matt found that one.)

Lessons I Learned From This Demo
A huge lesson I have learned, in retrospect, is how big the song sounds, yet the gear that it was created on is an absolute laugh by today's standards. We had so little room to expand, we had to be more creative and inventive in how we achieved the sound we wanted. Now, in this world of infinitely multi-tracked DAWs, it is easy to get lost in the sea of options and spend more time playing with the song than actually creating it.

Food for thought: Each and every one of us has, sitting in front of us, more audio technology than was used to produce the entire catalog of the Beatles. Yet so many home studios are used as little more than beat boxes and loop machines. Before you're tempted to dial up a preset on a VST to be your lead voice, try making a sample that is more uniquely YOUR sound. It's one way to stand out. That's what I was doing with this song back in the day. The sampled guitar, played within the tracker was unlike most of what was expected in that day and age ('91 or '92).

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the track. What do you think works? What doesn't work for you? I can take criticism, as long as it's constructive.

Read the full post here!

G2M Giveaway - Winner Announced

The G2M Giveaway is over. The winner has been chosen, and the prize has been delivered to the winner.

The winner of the Sonuus G2M is Alex D. of Moreno Valley, CA. Thanks for entering, Alex, and enjoy your G2M! Due to delivery issues, a new winner is being chosen. I will update after delivery is confirmed.

The winner of the Sonuus G2M is Paula H. from Garden City, Michigan. Congratulations, Paula!


Thanks to everyone who entered!

For those who are interested, winner selection was aided by Random.org, a wonderful site for generating random selections.

Read the full post here!

Gear Giveaway: Sonuus G2M

I am pleased to announce our first gear giveaway on Troll Cave Music. We will be giving away one brand new Sonuus G2M Universal Guitar To MIDI Converter to a lucky visitor. (If you're not familiar, check out the Troll Cave Music review here.)


The people at Peterson Tuners were kind enough to provide the prize for this giveaway.

Rules
* Entries will be accepted by email only, between September 1, 2009, and 11:59 PM CDT on October 15, 2009.

* Giveaway is open to residents of the United States 18 and over only.

* Entries must be sent to trollcavemusic@gmail.com with "G2M Giveaway Entry" in the Subject line. The body of the email must contain your first name and a simple "Yes" or "No" as to whether you would like to be added to the Peterson Tuners email list.

* One entry per email address.

* One prize will be awarded. A brand new Sonuus G2M Universal Guitar To MIDI Converter, Approximate Retail Value $129.00.

* All submissions will be used for this giveaway only. The only entry information shared will be your email address, provided to Peterson Tuners, only if you choose to subscribe. At the conclusion of the giveaway, all submissions will be deleted.

* Potential winner will be randomly chosen from all valid submissions. Potential winner will be contacted by email within 24 hours of the close of the contest. If a response is not received within 3 days (72 hours), Troll Cave Music reserves the right to pick another potential winner in their place.

* Winners name (First and Last Initial) and City, State will be published on Troll Cave Music when eligibility has been confirmed. If the winner wants additional "bragging rights", they may optionally provide a photo for posting with the winning announcement.

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Gear Review: Sonuus G2M - Universal Guitar to MIDI Converter

The world of digital audio is really split into two different types of signals, and it can be hard to get a handle on it for the novice home recorder. The first, audio samples, is the easiest to understand. You record something, and it is stored in a format that sounds like what was put into it, like vocals, guitar, etc. The second type is MIDI. It can be confusing, because the term MIDI is used for both the interface and the data that describes what should be played. You really don't have a lot of crossover between the two worlds, since one is the sound, the other describes how to make the sound.

The one type of crossover that we have seen in recent years is the MIDI guitar. You play it like a guitar, but it sends out MIDI signals. These signals can then be used to control something totally different - a synth, a sample player, a piano, etc. These are very cool and full of possibilities, but they are expensive and usually require a special guitar or permanent modifications to your guitar. It seems like the cool toys are out of reach for the low-cost or frugal home studio.

Enter the Sonuus G2M. Billed as a "Universal Guitar-to-MIDI Converter" and retailing for around $100, the G2M aims to fill that gap in the affordable hardware department. I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks experimenting with the G2M, and I will be sharing my experience here.

Descriptions First...
The G2M is a pretty simple box with a 1/4" Input Jack, 1/4" Thru Jack (for direct routing to your normal signal path), and a standard 5 Pin MIDI Out Jack. There is also a "Boost" switch that amplifies the signal within the G2M, in case your input level is a little low. The "Clip" LED shows when you are clipping the signal (not a bad thing in this case), which you should run your signal so you occasionally clip so you know the G2M is getting a hot enough signal to interpret correctly. However, not having a needle gauge or digital readout of the level, this is only a ballpark accuracy measure for the overall signal strength. There is also a strobe tuner function built into the power light. The slower the light flashes, the closer you are to a standard note tuning. Nice, but that's not the primary purpose of this box. The unit is powered by a 9V battery only. There is no wall wart power supply option, but this isn't a major issue since the battery life is boasted to be about 70 hours. I have played with the G2M a lot, and still haven't run my 9V down, so I tend to believe their claims in that respect.

What Are The Specs?
Note Detection Range: E2 to E6
MIDI Latency: 16 ms to 30 ms (depending on note and characteristics of input signal)

How Do You Use It?
This is possibly the simplest box to get running. Insert a 9 Volt battery, plug a guitar to the input, a MIDI cable in the output leading to a MIDI Interface, and you're in business. Set up something to respond to the MIDI signal on the other end, whether a MIDI keyboard that accepts a MIDI In, or to your DAW, with a VST plugged in and "listening". Play your guitar, and see what happens.

Does It Really Work?
Yes, it really works. I've experimented with a few instruments, and the claims are true, to a point. What's important to remember is there are a few caveats that Sonuus is very up front with making clear. First and foremost, this is MONOPHONIC ONLY. Any attempt to play chords or multiple notes at the same time will scramble the signal and confuse the G2M. This is the one major concession made by having this box sit after the guitar. Since the signal from the guitar is a blended tone of all notes currently sounding, it becomes muddled in the line, and the G2M can't separate it out. Secondly, it works best with MIDI patches/VSTS with a pitch-bend range of + or - 2 semitones. Anything more sensitive is prone to a wobble to the sound. Thirdly, playing in a higher octave will result in better tracking of your notes. Since higher octaves are thinner, sharper tones, they are interpreted more accurately than lower bass tones.

My Guitar Experiences
I was off to a bad start when I first started using the G2M. It is a good idea to read the Sonuus G2M Guide available at http://www.sonuus.com/g2m_guide.html. In the Tips & Tricks section, it explicitly identifies piano sounds as sounding strange with a warble. Not having read that yet, I started with a piano patch. It resulted in tones that we used to describe as "alien" sounds. However, once I switched to a different VST to play through, it worked great. I really enjoyed the experience of playing live through the Prophanity (currently without a web site) and Oddy-Free synths. These are both modeled after classic modular synths (the Prophet V and ARP Odyssey Mk. II). Both of these synths had amazing responses and a really nice "feel" to the sound when triggered by the G2M.

Now I must admit, I have had some difficulties with the G2M, but they have mostly been my fault as a player. I'm a rather sloppy guitarist, with a lot of excess noise coming off the other strings. The G2M picks up the additional sloppy hits, completely misunderstands them, and I get strange high notes popping into the stream, usually about 2 octaves above what I'm playing. Some palm muting at all times helps, but being a clean guitarist helps even more. I feel like I'm becoming a cleaner guitarist the more I play through the G2M.

I have also had issues with the too-accurate capturing of the notes. It tracks so well, that slight warbles in the notes are translated as pitch bend parameters that are transmitted in the MIDI path. It is this accurate detection of pitch bending that causes piano VSTs to freak out. If you really want piano, you can remove the pitch change information from the recorded MIDI. (In Reaper, you can do this in the Piano Roll. Change the bottom "levels" frame to show "Pitch". If you hold down your right mouse button and wipe across these Pitch levels, it will erase them all, and the sound will clean right up). This doesn't help live situations, but for recording, it will work.

I'm always skeptical when a piece of budget hardware claims to have a low latency, as the G2M does, with the stated 16 ms to 30 ms. I don't have an accurate bench test in my gear to determine the actual latency, except for audible comparison. I have to say that it performs similarly to both POD Farm and Guitar Rig 3, which clock in around the 30 ms total signal time. The latency is low enough that it isn't really noticeable. Of course, there is also the fact that I can't play fast & clean at the same time, so it's possible I'm not pushing the speed threshold where latency might throw you off (i.e. in speed metal shredding).

Alternate Controls
When I first heard about the G2M, my first though went to the "undocumented" options. It takes an audio input. What about other audio sources?

I have tried a Bass guitar, and it is a bad idea. Since the G2M responds best at higher pitches, the bass is mostly out of range. In my testing, I couldn't play a note lower than D on the second string of the bass. Strings 3 and 4 were completely invisible to the G2M. And what I could play was tracked very badly, with a lot of extra blips where it tried to read the harmonics as the note. Worth a try, but not worth using.

The best alternate success I have had was with a microphone. Using a moderately cheap 1/4" mic plugged through to Prophanity and Oddy-Free (in REAPER), the result was delightful. It reminded me of playing with a vocoder with the original voice 100% consumed by the rest of the sound. I also found it to be really fun to control the Delay Lama with the microphone to G2M path. For the most part, though, the more precise the sound from the VST (where all notes really sound distinct - like bells, piano, etc) the worse the performance when using a microphone. I think the human voice has so many pitch variations that it becomes a little too dynamic for the G2M.

My G2M Wish List
A few things I would have liked to see on the G2M:
* Controllable Sensitivity Range (to help sloppy players!)
* Polyphonic ability (Melodyne developed a system that can break apart chords into component notes, so it is technically possible)
* Variable boost control
* External power pack option

Final Thoughts
I really like the G2M and the possibilities it opens up for the home studio. There are definitely limitations and some performance considerations that must be made in a trial and error method (like which VSTs sound good with it), but I still think this is worth the $129 retail price for this little box. I have been listening to more experimental music lately, and this could easily find its way into the toolkit of any glitch, noise, or aggressive electronica project, especially when used as a sidekick process to a vocoder, since you can get really wild effects when you push the G2M to its limits (and beyond).

When used according to the instructions, this can be a nice tool for a guitarist if they play fairly cleanly and monophonic. I think the monophony is the greatest limitation. If you can work with that one concession, this box performs exactly as their claims. As this is the first product from Sonuus (a U.K. based company), I am eager to see what they come up with next.

Disclosure
In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided a review unit by Peterson Tuners, the exclusive distributor of the Sonuus G2M in the United States and Canada. This was a loaned unit only - I had to give it back. There have been no incentives, financial or otherwise, provided to me for this review. (i.e. I didn't get a thing from them except the opportunity to play with this gear)

Read the full post here!

Guitar Rig 3 GO - free for a limited time!

Anyone who has looked into Guitar amp and effect modelers knows that Native Instruments' Guitar Rig is one of the top players in the field. The biggest problem I have with the modeling software is that it is expensive enough that most home studios can't necessarily justify buying more than one. True, the modelers are a lot cheaper than buying the physical gear that they model, but as my regular readers know, I'm focused on the best gear for the lowest cost.

So I'm happy to share the new that for a limited time, Native Instruments has made available a free version of Guitar Rig, Guitar Rig 3 GO.

Free? What's the Catch?
As you might imagine, it's not the full version. Instead, you get a single stack of Guitar Rig components: Skreamer (distortion), Lead 800 amp, Lead 800 4x12 cabinet, and Delay Man (chorus & vibrato). Also included are the tape deck (for playing an mp3, aif, aiff, or wav file into the rig), and a tuner. Also, there are a dozen presets already in the browser. You can also create your own rigs and save them. So you're getting a single rack of Guitar Rig gear - which is pretty good, since in the real world, most of us have only one rig to play through, too.

How do I get it?
Guitar Rig 3 GO is being offered in conjunction with ESP Guitars. To get to the download, you must go to ESP Guitar's site here, and enter their contest to win an ESP Kirk Hammett LTD KH-602 guitar (MSRP $1,599.00 , street price $1,200.00). Follow the instructions to download either the PC or Mac version. They will email you the registration code and download link.

How do I use it?
Guitar Rig 3 GO comes as both a standalone and a plug-in version. When you operate in standalone mode, you can switch to a 30 minute demo of the full version of Guitar Rig 3, so you can get a good taste, if you want to upgrade. The plug-in mode (32 bit VST), works great in REAPER. Drop it on your track and go. I've used it along side POD Farm (and even in the same fx chain with POD Farm) without any problems.

How Long Does This Last?
The bad news is this promotion is only good until September 30, 2009. Be sure you go to the site and get your copy before then. Check out all the details at: http://www.espguitars.com/news/news_guitarrig.html. Make a note of the code at the bottom of the first screen. You will need that in order to get Guitar Rig 3 GO.

Read the full post here!

Troll Cave Gear

I've had a few questions recently about what gear I'm currently using in my studio, so I thought it was about time to give a quick breakdown on my studio equipment. I will update this list as I add or remove gear.

Guitars
Washburn Idol Series WI-64
Samick Strat (80's vintage, I think)
Daisy Rock Wildwood Artist Acoustic/Electric
Daisy Rock Mojo Jojo Guitar (for decoration, mostly)

Bass Guitar
Canvas Bass CTFB10

Microphones
Peavy PVi2 Microphone (XLR)
Battlerap.com branded microphone (1/4")
Radio Shack Realistic micphone (1/4")
3 or 4 random generic PC microphones (mini plug)

Interface Hardware
Line 6 UX1 (Blackface)
M-Audio KeyStudio 25
Steinberg USB-2-MIDI Interface (2 x 2)

Misc. Guitar Hardware
Danelectro Black Coffee Metal Distortion Pedal
Epiphone Studio 10S practice amp

Monitors
Audiovox Home Theater System (junk, but it's all I have)

Computers
Dell 3.4 GHz Hyperthreaded CPU, 3 GB RAM (primary), Win XP SP3
Compaq 1.4 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM (slave), Win XP MCE
Dell 933 Mhz CPU, 512 MB RAM (slave), Win ME

Software
REAPER (primary DAW)
Psycle (nice retro tracker)
Audacity (sample editor)
Session (junk)
MIDI-OX (great for monitoring MIDI signals)
MIDIYoke (virtual MIDI cables to connect MIDI programs)

VSTs
I have a massive collection of several hundred VSTs (all free except for POD Farm)
My current favorites are:
POD Farm
Independence Free
ShortCircuit 1
Tweakbench plugs
GTG plugs
Kjaerhus Audio Classic series
ArcDev Noise Industries plugs


If you are interested in finding out more about any of my gear (buying recommendations, reviews, etc) drop me a line.

Read the full post here!

In Memory of Matthew Schultz

Faithful readers, bear with me, or skip this post. There will be no tips and tricks in this post, but perhaps a few memories and food for thought in the grand scheme of things. I do feel the need to say goodbye to an old friend and pass along what I have learned about life, death, and how the choices we make affect everything. If you choose to join me, you are more than welcome. If you pass by without a glance, I understand.
On Friday, June 5, 2009, Matthew Schultz drown in the Missouri River. He was an old friend of mine, though we hadn't seen each other in a decade. He and I formed a band while I was in college and he was just out of High School. We had 3 names, as the writing and demoing process went: Wampa Spectrum, Wombat Spectrum, and Susperia. (We always preferred Wampa Spectrum, but figured if we ever released an album, George Lucas might take us down for using "Wampa".) Anyway, I was the principal songwriter with my Amiga-based studio (running OctaMED, with a Yamaha RY-30 Drum Machine and Casio CZ-101 keyboard slaved to it). He was the impetuous kid I met at work who styled himself to be somewhere between Paul Stanley and Rob Zombie - he was neither, but his voice really worked well with my writing style.

We started to cut our demo in Pumpkin Shell Studio (owned by musician extraordinaire Richard Schultz). We completed one rough demo for the song "(E)motion Violation". This has been my favorite song from my catalog for a long time. I recently began to re-make it in my current studio, because state-of-the-art home recording has come so far since that demo was cut in 1995 or 1996. I cannot continue on that project at this time. The rough mix with Matt singing will stand. I plan to release it here in the near future.

Anyway, we had compiled the songs for an EP. We had it priced out, planned out, and were going to start auditioning local guitarists to replace some of the scratch guitar samples I had used. I took a vacation, he had a change of heart during that time, and we called it quits. End of the band, end of my music for many years. We exchanged emails once in a while for a couple years, but then he disappeared for a while, and I had no idea where he was until last year. Yet I put off getting in touch with him, and now it's too late to send him an email.

So what, right?

Here's what: I went to the Memorial service his brother held for him (on the shore of the Missouri River, close to where he died). I only knew a couple people there, but most were from Matt's life after I lost touch with him. Everyone said the same basic things about him - his quest for knowledge, his drive to pursue his dreams, the way he was on a journey through life. There were Rocket Balloon Races, Belly Dancers, Singing, Glow Sticks, Drums, and a solemn sing-along of KISS' "Shout It Out Loud", all in Matt's honor.

Near the end of the memorial, I realized that the person they were talking about was not the same person I remembered. All the talk of his being on a journey, and his journey had come to an end in the river. It was then that I realized that I knew Matt at the beginning of the journey, when he was still the impetuous kid idolizing his big brother and not yet seeking answers to the big mysteries. He had grown, evolved, and pursued a life much bigger than any normal life.

And that's when I realized why learning about Matt's life in the past ten years and his untimely death shook me up so much: I could have been him. He pursued some of the same topics I myself had been studying earlier in life. He chased his dreams. I took the safe path: went to college, got a steady job with a conservative company, got married, had kids. Safe across the board.

Matt lived life boldly, and he died boldly. He left his mark on all the people he ever met. I am known as being more reliable than spontaneous. Matt's death is a wake-up call to me in a lot of ways. I know I need to live life more fully, instead of putting it on the "to do" list. Pursue my creative goals doggedly, not passively. That's not to say I'm quitting my job and running away from responsibilities. It's about unlocking the passions and the fires that burn inside. If we don't fan the flames, the dreams will die in a vacuum.

Adding a little more kindling to my "wake up call" - the day before I learned of Matt's death, I was in a car accident that left my car pretty much totaled, but somehow I walked away from with only a slightly sore arm and shoulder. (I was hit directly in the driver's side door and the car was thrown a considerable distance.) I have been living a safe life. Even when bad things happen to me, they happen to me safely.

Matt lived a spontaneous life, and a spontaneous decision to wade into the Missouri River led to his death being broadcast on the evening news. I envy Matt his choices in life. It's not often that we can see a glimpse of what we might have been had we made different choices. I have seen that alternate history of my life, in the shapshots of Matt's life. And the single biggest impression I saw of Matt's adult life is how many people he touched, and how deeply he connected with life on every level.

Although I regret not getting to see the "upgraded" Matt of the last ten years, I cannot dwell on it. I am assimilating what I can, and will move forward with more purpose in my life. I will straddle the line of the safe and the unsafe and grab for that brass ring.

I'll miss you Matt. We all will.

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Gear Review: REAPER v.3.01 now available!

REAPER has now released version 3.01, and there are some nice changes to it. There is so much new about it, it's hard to know where to start. REAPER's website (http://www.reaper.fm) also has been given a very slick overhaul that now screams "I am a serious contender!". They also appear to have raised the prices slightly (now $225 for full commercial and $60 for discounted) and gotten away from the previously confusing "commercial" vs. "non-commercial" terminology. Basically, if you use it for yourself only, as a business with less than $20K annual income, or are a educational or non-profit, you qualify for discounted pricing. And they still adamantly refuse to engage in any strange copy protection schemes. It's the honor system, folks!

My favorite new features are probably the addition of Automation lanes and the ability to have multiple MIDI items in the editor at the same time. However, there's a lot of other goodness packed into version 3. I'll try to give my take on some of the features here. The full feature list for version 3 is at http://www.reaper.fm/whatsnew-300.txt.

Automation Lanes
Automation lanes are a really nice feature that already exist in a lot of other major DAWs, so seeing REAPER add them is a great step forward to full equality. In prior versions, you could see your automation lines as overlays over the track itself. If you were trying to automate a lot of parameters on the same track, it got rather messy and I was always either having to memorize exactly where I was shifting other parameters, or when I displayed multiple lines at the same time (for reference) I was always grabbing the wrong line (i.e. changing the wrong setting). Now with Automation lanes, the automation parameter lines appear as separate sub-track "lanes" that you can display, hide, or bypass on an individual basis. With all of the parameter-heavy VSTs and VSTis out there, this is a great thing.

Edit Multiple MIDI Items
It's sometimes hard to keep track of what is going on between different MIDI tracks. Previously, to edit multiple MIDI tracks, you had to open separate MIDI windows and fiddle with the window sizes so you could get everything on screen at the same time. As of version 3, you now have options in the "Options" menu of the MIDI window named "Reuse MIDI editor for multiple items" and "Reuse MIDI editor for multiple items, keeping items as secondary". The first will just reuse the window. No big surprise there. The second one - wow. It will shade the notes and parameter settings (like velocity) for any items in the window that are not currently active. The really nice thing about this is that all MIDI items are shown in proper time-context. In other words, all notes are exactly where they should be in relation to one another. This is great for trying to harmonize different synths together - you can actually see what you're doing without a lot of trial and error. You can switch between which MIDI item is active in the window by either using the "Filter" button in the top left, or by simply clicking on a note from the item you want to edit. The clicking on a note can be problematic in a couple of ways - you can't directly write a note over the top of another MIDI item's note, since it will select that track instead of putting down a note - and you can't always see the other item's notes if the current track overlaps. But really, these are spatial issues, not UI issues. I'm loving it!

Multiple Tabbed Projects
Another exciting improvement is the ability to have multiple projects loaded at the same time. This is handled beautifully by the addition of a simple tab control at the top of the screen. Obviously, this adds load on your system as you add more simultaneous projects, but the flexibility this allows is so much better than the prior one-at-a-time design.

A Lot More...
There are so many improvements, many behind the scenes performance upgrades, it is an exhausting list to read. There are a lot of MIDI enhancements (MIDI sysex is now fully supported, for example). Ther are also quite a few general performance enhancements to make REAPER play nicer with some potentially unruly plug-ins. And a lot of memory management improvements. Bottom line: you need this upgrade. If you're not a current REAPER user, now is the perfect time to jump in and try it out. The trial version is NOT time limited or crippled in any way. You've got nothing to lose, and version 3 continues the trend of growing stronger and more powerful with each release.

Read the full post here!

Improving Your Drum Track, Part 1: Getting Started With Independence Free

In a home studio, it is easy to make electronica, techno, and dance tracks. There is an expected level of machine-like precision to the music. Perfectly accurate precision and artificial drum beats are readily acceptable. (Let me go on record with a disclaimer: making those forms in a home studio are easy. Making good or great tracks is another story. I am not trying to downplay the level of artistry involved. I saw Aphex Twin spin live in the mid 90's, so I can appreciate the level of complexity of the art form.)

Where it becomes much more of a challenge in the home studio is when you're trying to sound like a traditional band (guitars, bass, drums, vocals). There is some level of trickery that is required to achieve your desired sound for all of these instruments. Right now I want to focus on the difficulty of drummers. Much like Spinal Tap, I have always had a hard time keeping a drummer on call. And then you have the acoustic issues of sound isolation, excess mic bleed, having enough mics and inputs to record the whole kit, complaints from the neighbors, etc. As usual, I will be focusing on use of this within REAPER.

My Dream Drums, For Now
Years ago, I had a Yamaha RY-30 Drum Machine. Bought it used for $330 in about 1993. Like an idiot, I sold it around 1998. Now they're hard to find, but it had very sweet sounding drum kits. Their natural kits were extremely beautiful, using 16 bit samples at a time where the average home user was rocking out to 8 bit. Listening to old recordings I did with that drum machine make me once again regret having parted with it. I have been working to try to achieve the "is that a real drummer?" sound and feel using only free tools.

This is the first part of an ongoing series of posts that will be focused on the best tools I have found to "fake a drummer" and how to tweak your drum tracks to get the "real" drum feel.

Yellow Tools Independence Free
One of the best all-in-one packages I have found so far is Yellow Tools' Independence Free 2.0. As the name implies, this is the free version of their very robust sampler tool. There's a couple features disabled in this version, and the bundled sample library is "only" 2 GB of data. The "Basic" version ships with 12 GB of samples, and the "Pro" version ships with a whopping 70 GB sample library!

My initial goal is to have one or two good "natural" kits. Included in the free 2 GB library are 6 acoustic drum kits, so there are plenty of options. The kits have multiple velocity samples for each sound, so there's more detail than your average single-sample kit.

So What's Missing?
The Free version lacks a couple of major items. The most notable is the lack of ability to import your own samples. The other is the lack of ability to import 3rd party VSTs. Of course, if you're hosting this in your own DAW (like REAPER), that's not really a problem. You can add your VSTs to the chain after Independence Free, and have as many add-ons as you want. Lacking the ability to import your own samples is more of a concern if you want to branch out into custom kits. Later in this series I will tackle this issue with another tool.

How Do I Start?
You can start by going to Yellow Tools' website at http://yellowtools.com. Under their "Products" section, you can find Independence FREE. You'll have to register on their site to download it, but registration is free. All of this is detailed on the page. (Alternately, you can pick up a copy of the UK magazine "Computer Music", which comes with a DVD that includes the "Independence Free CM Edition". Same thing, with an extra logo on the UI. You will still have to register on the site & download the instrument files separately, however.)

When you install it, the installation location is for the standalone app only. It will prompt you separately for the location for the VST. Either install in with your other VSTs, or add a path in REAPER's VST configuration screen to find it. Either way, the next time you boot REAPER, you should see a new entry in FX "VSTi: Independence Free (Yellow Tools) (24 out)"

Starting Simple
To start a simple track in REAPER, open a new project. Insert Independence Free as a VST, and then open it. Your first view is probably going to be overwhelming. This is a very complex and sophisticated interface. Since we're starting simple, look for the layer controls. There will be a highlighted item that says "01 click here to load instrument". When you click on it, you will get a popup menu. Select "Load Layer". When the standard file requestor opens, navigate to the "Independence Free - Instruments" folder, and then into "01 Acoustic & Electronic Drum Kits". The .ytil files are the ones you care about. Select "Acoustic Drum Kit 1.ytil", and click "Open". Now your Drum Kit is ready for you on MIDI channel 1.

If you want to hear the sounds in this "layer", click on the "Mapping" button at the top of the VST's display. You will get a piano key layout, with colored bars representing the samples. If there are breaks in the line, that represents different samples used for different velocity ranges. As you can see in this kit, there are 11 velocities for B1 and C1, which are your kick drums. You can play the samples on the keyboard by clicking on them, but it is not going to be easy to trigger at varying velocities that way. It's easier using REAPER to control it.

Close the FX chain window and insert a "New MIDI Item" in the track where you set up Independence Free. Hit some notes, and you'll hear your new drum kit. How simple is that?

Ummm....What Happened To My Octave?
The first thing you might notice when you compare Independence Free to REAPER's piano roll is that the octave notations don't match. What Independence Free calls C1, REAPER calls C2. This is a common problem across music apps, because of differences in opinion on what octave is considered to contain middle C. You have 2 options: make a mental note of this difference, or reconfigure REAPER to honor the offset.

To reset REAPER to use the same notation as Independence Free, go to Options->Preferences->Media->MIDI. The option "MIDI octave name display offset: 0 octaves". Change the value to -1. Now REAPER will call the notes the same as Independence Free. This change only affects the labeling in REAPER's piano roll. The same/correct MIDI note numbers will be used regardless of this setting.

What Now?
Start experimenting with the kits available and see how good the samples are. Be sure to vary the velocities, so you can get the full impact of the multi-sampled drums. So far I've been quite happy with the kits in Independence Free. Keep in mind that this is a sampler tool, NOT a drum machine. Look at all the other instruments that come bundled with it. They are of equally high quality and very useful in their own right.

Up Next...
In Part 2, we will go into more features and uses of Independence Free as a drum machine, including adding effects, using multiple ins and outs to minimize CPU usage, and some other random tweaks.

Read the full post here!

Site Review: Tank-FX.com

In any reasonably priced studio (home or pro), one of the elusive sounds is reverb. Sure, there are any number of free reverb effects available, both software and hardware, but they all fall a little short of the ideal mark: real echoes in a real environment. Sure, you can get those echoes by recording vocals in a bathroom (a la Jim Morrison), but that is really impractical for most reverb needs. Some effects are getting closer (like convolution reverb) but there is a lot of CPU power you'll eat in a hurry when you use one.

I have recently found a German site that is a really fresh take on the problem of reverb. Tank-FX (http://www.tank-fx.com) is a site with a unique claim - they will play your sample in a concrete water tank and record the resulting sound. As their subtitle says, it is "Non-Virtual Reverb".

The Tank
My apologies if I get any of these details wrong - the details on the site are only in German, and I'm at the mercy of a semi-garbled translation by Babelfish. The tank itself is part of the Oberhausener train station, built in 1932, and was originally built to hold water that was used to refill steam locomotives. This tank is massive - 11 meters (36 feet) tall, 7m (23 feet) in diameter. Look around the site (especially the tab "aufbau", which translates as "structure") for pictures of the tank that they're using. Massive. Somehow, the operators of the site were able to get the permission to install speakers on the bottom of the tank and suspend microphones in the top of the tank. This is all wired to a Unix server, and suddenly you have a new FREE reverb toy online.

How To Use It?
This is really simple to use. Click the red "Record Sample" button at the top of the screen, and you get a clever rack-mount style interface. Samples are by default Normalized, but you can skip this with the "Bypass Normalize" button. Output format is selectable as MP3, FLAC, or Ogg-Vorbis formats. You also select you Wet/Dry mix.

When you hit the "Record" button, you are taken to another screen where you Browse to select your upload file. Uploaded files must be WAV files. This seems odd, since you can't get the output back as a WAV file, but we can still work with it. In a non-user friendly move, the "Do It" button is instead labeled "Submit Query". Then you wait for it to do its job and it gives you a file back that you can do a "Save as..." to save locally.

My Experiences So Far
I've been playing with Tank-FX for a couple days, and the results are pretty good, with a few words of caution. First, I have had mixed results when using any wet/dry mix. It seems that even a 50/50 mix causes the dry to seriously overpower the wet. I think the much lower levels of the wet sound are not properly compensated for in their mixing routines.

I have also found that as of this writing, the right channel is basically dead. You get a wash of static and only a faint trace of the sound. This was done with 100% wet signal, so you can hear the tank by itself. It's fairly simple to pull the MP3 output into Audacity and split the channels (and discard the right channel), and the sound really jumps out at you.

My recommendation is to run everything at 100% wet, strip the right channel, and mix it back to the original either in Audacity or within your DAW.

I have also seem on their comments board some people have gotten unwelcome environmental sounds back in their samples. Mostly banging, most likely from construction or other heavy equipment in the general area. This seems to be more of a problem if you're running sounds during the daytime (in Germany) and not a problem if you're running during German night hours. Do a little time research, and you should be fine.

Limitations
The limitations on the Tank-FX site are fairly few. You have to upload in WAV only. The file cannot be more than 60 seconds. Output in MP3, FLAC, or Ogg-Vorbis only. The space is a single defined BIG space, so you're only getting BIG reverb.

Yet, it would seem that all of these limitations still beat the heck out of digital fake-reverb if you're going for the big hall reverb sound. Of course, this is not the type of reverb you'd want to put your whole track through, but for enhancing a specific instrument, voice, or sound bite, this is a great option.

Wrap-up
I honestly think Tank-FX is one of the coolest net freebies I have ever come across. The limitations are really a lot less than your average free VST's limitations. And there is no "this is nice, but how about pay for more options" angle that we have all grown so accustomed to seeing. Check it out and give them praise on their board. This is one site that deserves to get some positive credit.

Read the full post here!

Sell Your Childhood, Buy Your Future

As I have worked on building my home studio, the one question I have kept coming back to is the ultimate issue of cost. As long-time readers know by now, my desire is to get the best studio for as little money as possible. I think most (if not all) aspiring musicians start with the same basic idea: I will invest money now, and make my money back when my album is released and sells a million copies (or a hundred copies, for those who set their sights more realistically.) The main problem is that it doesn't always work that way. We spend a little. And then a little more. Eventually, we have a studio that cost as much as a car, and we still haven't made a dime on the album we are still working on. I'm there with you, brothers and sisters. Recently I've been on a budgeted buying binge. (I apologize for the excessive alliteration there. It couldn't be helped.)

Sell First...
So what is my advice? Sell Your Stuff. I don't mean sell your studio gear - that will be worth its weight in gold when you finally release your album on iTunes. But we all have various and sundry things we have been collecting (intentionally or otherwise) over the years, and we don't really need it all, do we?

In the modern age, when we talk about selling, we are inevitably talking about two places: eBay or craigslist. I'm personally not a fan of the whole free-for-all that is craigslist, so I avoid it. But eBay is a great place to sell your extra stuff. Look around your home. I'm sure you can find any number of things you wouldn't miss if they were to find a new home. Outdated video games you haven't touched in years. Old, out of print books. CDs, especially boxed sets. Old computer hardware. Seriously, there's a market for everything on eBay.

Since I began trying to tip the financial scales toward breaking even (in the last month), I have sold enough items to almost completely pay for my current studio gear. And there's not a single item I've sold that I will ever miss. The biggest question to ask yourself is which is more important: making the best music you can, or holding on to that Playstation 1 game that hasn't been played in 8 years? I can't answer for you, but for me the answer is a resounding MUSIC!

...Then Buy
Of course, it's not just about getting people to pay way too much for your old junk. It's also a great way to get the gear you want cheaply. You need to be a little smart about what you buy, but you can find some great deals. For example, I got a great deal on a new Canvas Bass Guitar for $71.00 (with free shipping) recently. Even buying a entry-level Bass from a traditional retailer will set you back twice that. (Side note: I'm loving the Canvas Bass, model CTFB10. I'm not really a bassist, but it plays exceptionally well and the pickups have a great tone. But I digress.)

Buyer Cautions
There's a few things to keep in mind if you're buying music gear on eBay, or from any second-hand establishment for that matter.

1) Beware Fakes - If you can buy a $1,000.00 guitar for $50.00, it's a fake. There is no way you're getting a real 70's Gibson Les Paul for under a grand. Period. If you're not sure, Google it and compare photos to see if anything looks wrong - especially detail like logos and designs on the headstock. That's where a lot of the fakes get the visible details wrong.

2) Buy economy - Buying lesser known brands is often better, since there is almost no profit margin in making fake versions of $200.00 guitars.

3) Beware Used Software - If you're buying gear than includes software, make sure it isn't something that requires a registered serial number with the maker, or you might be SOL. Used gear tends to be already registered to the prior owner. So if you buy a Line 6 UX1, for example, you must be the owner registered with Line 6, or you may be prevented from downloading Pod Farm (or GearBox) software. Personally, these are items I will only buy new in box because the headache isn't worth saving $20 on an already reasonably priced piece of gear.

4) Make Sure It's Compatible - If it's recording hardware, you can get screaming deals - just make sure it's compatible. A good example is the wonderful MOTU hardware. The older, non-Firewire hardware is still great gear. But it needs a PCI card interface. Many of the auctions I've seen on eBay include the MOTU PCI-324 card, which runs on a different voltage level than most modern PCI slots, so it won't work. You'll need the PCI-424 card, which if you are the registered owner, you can buy direct from MOTU for $295. Or buy one on eBay for slightly less than that. So a screaming deal on an original MOTU-2048 is dampened considerably if you have to shell out another $300. to make it work on your system. You MUST do your homework to avoid getting the shaft on these "good deals".

5) Buy From Established Sellers - If a seller has a lower feedback rating, I'm always a little nervous, even if it is all positive. You never know how serious they are. Now, if they have a 100+ feedback score, you know that is a much more serious seller, and more likely to be treating their transactions as a business.

6) Does it pass the Sniff Test? This goes back to #1 above. If the deal is too good to be true, it might be. If something feels wrong about the seller, move on. (I made that mistake once - and 3 weeks later I'm still in limbo as to whether I'm ever going to get the item.)

Bottom Line
Yes, I know this post is probably coming across as an eBay advocacy lesson. Probably so, since I'm spending a lot of free time working with eBay, and I'm getting sucked into its vortex more each day. But at the end of the day, I know that auctions are short-term commitments. If you lose your motivation to sell, and want to get focused back on music, you can be free and clear within a week, with no lingering after-effects like other "make money now" schemes.

As all of us struggling to get our music made properly in our home studios know, there is almost always someone who is keeping tally of how much we're spending on our gear. Wife, mother, husband, child, landlord, collection agency, etc. The only way we can dig ourselves out of the bottomless pit that is our home studio is to offset the expenses with an income. And I, for one, am willing to sell my childhood for a new pair of reference monitors. I'll keep selling until I get what I need. Of course, if you have a spare set of KRK Rokits that you'd care to donate to the Troll Cave, drop me a line. I'm always open to donations.

Read the full post here!

POD Farm supports REAPER...finally

The music-makers have finally been heard! As of the Pod Farm 1.03 update, the POD Farm plugin now works in hosts that use a 64-bit VST engine. This includes REAPER. So now we not only can skip the whole "VST wrapper" annoyance, it also means we can now access the Automation parameters in Pod Farm. Yes, we can finally "knob twiddle" POD Farm from within REAPER.

There is a big learning curve on the automation, however. I say this because every possible parameter appears in REAPER, whether it is in the current effects chain or not. Since POD Farm allows you to have 2 effects paths at the same time, this means there is also 2 of everything. Users with lower screen resolutions might have some difficulty in REAPER, since they all appear in a single window.

Even so, this update means that POD Farm users can finally get the full power while using REAPER. You can get the update by using the Line 6 Monkey to update your software.

Read the full post here!

Gear Review: Line 6 Pod Studio UX1

If you've been reading here for a while, you know that my previous guitar recording interface, the Lightsnake, had some serious limitations and generally left me pretty unhappy with the results. I can say now that the Lightsnake has been retired, and has been replaced with a Line 6 POD Studio UX1. After playing with it for about a week, I think I've seen enough to give it a proper review.

The Hardware
To kick things off, let's look at the box itself. The UX1 connects via USB, and all power is handled through the USB cable - no additional power supply needed. On the front of the box, there are 3 ports; one XLR jack, one 1/4" unbalanced instrument input, and a 1/4" headphone jack. On top of the box are a power light and 2 knobs: Mic Gain and Output. No big surprises in the function of each of those items. The back of the unit has jacks for two 1/4" analog outputs, two 1/4" Line Inputs, one 1/4" Stereo Monitor line in, as well as the USB socket.

As you might imagine, you can record from any of the inputs, except the Stereo Monitor line in - that acts as a pass-through for anything you want to show up in the mix but not be part of the "recordable" input.

Sound Card
Oh, did I mention it functions as a complete sound interface, including output? That's right. It comes with its own ASIO driver which you can easily tap into with most any audio software that supports ASIO. When I connected REAPER to the "ASIO UX1", then ALL of my audio output from REAPER was directed at the UX1. I have read where this can be confusing if you don't think about what you're doing, but it's a good thing. In my case, I have a moderately cheap sound card in my PC. With this, I don't really have to worry about upgrading that card, since I'm bypassing it for my audio work.

Latency? We Don't Need No Steenking Latency...
One admirable trait of the UX1 is that it is able to pass through the input audio to the output WITHOUT waiting for the PC to handle it directly. This gives you effectively zero latency in the monitors, even if you have a relatively high latency setting in the ASIO driver itself.
From my testing on an existing project, I have reduced the slips and stutters in my system from being a frequent occurrence to flawless audio by incorporating the UX1 into my setup.

Is It Clean?
If you read my review of the Lightsnake, you'll know it was a dirty, dirty interface, with odd pulses of interference and general noise. The UX1 suffers from NONE of those problems. Line 6 boasts a greater than 100 dB signal to noise ratio, and I believe it. Running the same spectrographs on the signal from the UX1 yielded a much cleaner signal, with a slight noise level in the lowest extremes of the graph, but nothing audible and it was a steady baseline, so it essentially vanishes when you record.

Bundled Software
The POD Studio UX1 comes bundled with 3 programs: Riffworks T4, Ableton Live Lite 7 Line 6 Edition, and POD Farm. I haven't played with Riffworks yet, and I already know that Ableton is a very cut-down version of that program, supposedly tailored to the hardware bundled with it. Considering this is stripped even further than the LE version, I'm not too interested in it. POD Farm is where the real second stage fun comes in.

POD Farm
POD Farm replaces the former Gearbox software that used to be bundled with Line 6 interfaces. The idea and many of the features are the same, but POD Farm has a much slicker interface. POD Farm includes a stunning array of software models of amps, effects, and cabinets that you plug together in a very obvious signal chain on screen. These are mostly based on real gear, including Marshall's JCM-800, Fender's Deluxe Reverb, and even the Orange AD30TC. They give cute names in the program, but they are very forthcoming on what the sounds are modeled after on their web site. Anyway, you have pretty much the gauntlet of gear to work with - certainly more than the home studio could ever hold much less afford - and there are additional model packs available to buy from Line 6 in case you are craving more gear. While more options are always better, I'm sure what I have will more than meet my tonal needs for quite some time to come. POD Farm also allows you to break your signal into dual signal chains, so you can get some really powerful and wild sounds going.

Playing Standalone
POD Farm works great as a standalone program. It gives you some nice options - like sending not only the fully processed signal out (to your DAW), but also sending the unprocessed/raw signal out (to your DAW) at the same time. So you can record the completely dry signal at the same time you record it fully effected, and also be pushing the signal out to your studio monitors via the 1/4" outputs in back. I'm loving it!

Playing As A Plug-in
Pod Farm as a plug-in needs a little work at this point. As of this writing, POD Farm 1.02 is the current version, and it has a problem in about half of the major DAWs on the market. Apparently, if your DAW has a 64-bit plug-in host (and no 32-bit host as a fall-back), then POD Farm will crash. Yes, REAPER is one of those affected. The workaround to this is to use a VST Wrapper to act as a middle-man between REAPER and POD Farm. I've been using ACON's EffectChainer, and it works OK, but you are left with the inability to use any Automation ("knob twiddling") on anything inside POD Farm, since the DAW can only see the EffectChainer, not POD Farm itself. Line 6 has posted in their forums that this issue has been logged and is on the "to do" list. Hopefully this problem is resolved soon, since "knob twiddling" is often needed.

Standalone and Plug-in Together
I like to use both versions together. I record through the standalone version into REAPER (monitoring the processed signal and recording the dry signal) and having a plugin on the recorded track with the plug-in version of POD Farm replicating what I was doing with the standalone version. This gives me the flexibility to change the sound after recording, but not having to rely on just hearing the dry tone while playing. In this fashion I can also record the wet signal at the same time, so it gives you a lot of configuration possibilities.

Tone Port vs. POD Studio
If you've looked around, there is a TonePort UX1 as well as a POD Studio UX1. The hardware is exactly the same, except the TonePort has a red faceplace and the POD Studio has a black faceplate. The only real difference is in the bundled software. If you have a TonePort, it comes bundled with the standalone version of GearBox, you can upgrade for free to the standalone version of POD Farm, but you'll have to buy the plug-in version of POD Farm. Both versions (standalone and plug-in) of POD Farm come bundled with the POD Studio. To save yourself time, I'd suggest the POD Studio UX1 over the TonePort UX1, not only because it will save you some time, but also because the black faceplate looks much cooler than the red.

Bottom Line
The bottom line is that you owe it to yourself to buy a POD Studio UX1 (or the big brothers UX2 and UX8). The Line 6 POD Studio UX1 is a simple box with a simple purpose - which is does amazingly well. It sells new for around $149.99 at most shops, and it is fabulous. The hardware is solid and very clean, and the software so thoroughly exceeds my expectations that I am becoming inspired by the wide variety of tonal possibilities. The only difficulty I've found at this point is that POD Farm offers so many options, I'm spending more time fiddling with new sounds and not enough actual work on recording. If you need to record audio, you need one of these. Trust me.

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Welcome to 2009, it's nicer here.

The Troll Cave fell into a lull in December, in case you missed me. Between a lingering illness and the general insanity of the Thanksgiving through New Year's holiday season, there hasn't been much time for music. That should change in the coming weeks, as I have some new gear on its way, including a Line 6 POD Studio UX1 interface. I'll be posting a thorough review of it soon.

Also in the works for the months ahead are VST reviews/recommendations, a ReaMote tutorial (slaving other computers to take some of the load off REAPER), and how to wrap a cranky plugin to work where it doesn't want to.

Thanks for keeping up with me - drop me a line (send an e-mail, post a comment, etc) if there are other topics you want me to cover. I'll give it my best shot!

Read the full post here!