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 Outdated video games you haven't touched in years.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!