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!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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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Read the full post here!
Monday, November 9, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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.
Read the full post here!
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