JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum What did you do this week?

OK, so it's TOO quiet in here. Who's been doing something in the studio?

I bought a new British mag called "Music Tech" at my local Borders (only two issues out so far) and got a demo of a program called Arturia Storm on the accompanying CD. It works with both Macs and PCs.

I've been playing around with it for the past couple of hours. It's very interesting: a little like Reason, but even more dance/trance/loop oriented. They have a "Wizard" that walks you through creating House, HipHop, Trance, or whatever type of euro-sequenced pop you might have in mind, although the demo version is very limited (no save or export available).

I could see where it could be used for scoring techno/dance music to film, or for the basic tracks and structure for a song in that style.

Anyways, I don't know how useful it would be for real tune/songsmiths like us, but it sure is fun to play with.

Oh, and I bought the brand new Jewel CD. I really like it: interesting production - a little Dido influence it seems. Jewel's an incredible songsmith. I think every song opens with a "picture" line - something you can visualize.

I'm also converting some cassette tapes I have into CDs so I don't wear them out. That's rolling as I write this...


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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

[This message has been edited by Lwilliam (edited 06-09-2003).]

Hi Larry,

I have been setting up my new basement studio. Just got a newer PC, IBM 2gig P4 with 256 ram. I took my usb 2.0 card out
of my older pc and put it in this rocket.
If you remember I bought a external 40 gig
7200rpm with usb 2.0 a few months back.
Man what a difference going from a 733mhz
to a 2000. I have been testing out all
the software. Everything seems to run well
even the programs that don't say they can even run on XP. I took a song that had a worst case scenerio which maxed out and dropped out at every turn running multiple pluggins and hit play on cakewalk. THe CPU
level and the memory levels never went over
15%. It just blew me away! I can actually
use 32 stereo tracks now if I needed and
run any plugin I want too.
Know if i can just stop tweaking and start
recording....

David
http://www.daviddouglaswright.com

I've been working on mastering a couple of originals (or as close as I can get to mastering) I have a TC Electronic Finalizer (the older 48K version) that I use along with Mackie HR824's. Ironically, owning it has made me better at mixing over the years, but I still use it for things like frequency dependent compression and such.
I am always amazed at what the thing can do and usually have to pull myself back from over-tweaking. Supposedly it also has excellent A/D D/A converters so I also use it as a go between while mixing off of the Mackie 32 X 8 to a stand alone Marantz burner. And if you really want to squash the hell out of your dynamics - it will do that too. :-)

I've been recording new songs. I'm finally super facinated by high def recording (96/24). So I've been putting my Taylor, songwriting and other new gear through the paces. Recordings at this quality sound stunning! All while I dally about planning a tour for late summer early fall.

Not to mention that I just did the Surround Sound mix for a DVD called the Kings of Hip Hop due out later this year.

Been a busy couple of weeks.

Jody

I supriemly crashed my computer... so I reformated it. Took me 45 minuets to do so. Including reinstalling all the recording software, resetting up OMS, and redoing the DSL. I lost about 3 gigs of audio, but I did manage to save some of the more importatnt bundles between crashes, so I consider myself pretty lucky.

Sometimes we need to just take a Technology
free weekend and stare at the campfire....
I had to mess with the bios settings on mine
and I loss the use of my a: (which I never use) and accidently turned off the keyboard
access in bios so I know can't get back to the bios settings to change them back.
IBM sent me a new hard drive. But do I want
to screw with loading everything back on...

Cars and Computers always have something wrong with em....

Cars and Computers.
Maybe a title of a song..

David

I installed a wi-fi card in my DAW computer so I can transfer files to and from my other household computers using the wireless network I have, for FTP'ing to my web site, and general backup.
Of course, my DAW can now access the internet through my DSL connection, which isn't always a good thing :/

------------------
Later,

Pat

"I had to mess with the bios settings on mine" David, are you glutton for punishment or what?

Kaboom: major bummer!!!! Just having to re-install OMS and check it with all my programs and synth modules would would call for an "It's Miller Time" afterwards.

I actually forgot about my other studio stuff this past week (I guess I was bored yesterday):

1. mastered a live concert CD for a client
2. recorded a gospel tune for another - had six vocalists quadruple-tracked to get that big gospel choir sound
3. started working on a hiphop tune for another client
4. re-wrote some lyrics for one of my own pop tunes - I want it to be alt/pop for this one
5. Started writing a new R&B tune - have some slammin' basic tracks at this point
6. recorded a 10 song demo for another client (guitar/vocal)
7. archived about 10 CDs worth of data from my hard drive (I was running REALLY low on disk space)
8. I have a new studio client tonight who also wants guitar lessons
9. Scheduled a writing/production collaboration with an old acquaintance I recently ran into

Oh, and upgraded a client's PC from 98ME to XP and fixed everything afterwards.

I guess I've been busier than I thought...this is GOOD!

...well, back to work.


------------------
Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

Larry

I just took a peek at your website. Love the "I know the buzzwords and I have them"
part.

Mike

Larry,

Man your a busy guy.
If you want to get even deeper on the Bios subject. There is a 3 pin connector on your
motherboard called CMOS. You can take the
connected pins of one and two pull them out and connect them to two and three.
then you start up the system... wait for a serious of beeps and power down again..
Put the pin back to the one and two connection and wallah...
Learned that today by IBM tech support.
I am done tweaking the system bios
I think I'll just leave it alone for a while.
Bios is scary to play around in but not
as scary as the keys and registry in Windows... YIKES...
I like my aix/unix box that I use at work
it is a heck of alot more stable. It should be at the near 20,000 price range...

David

I mowed the lawn.....
Finally got the 12:00 on my vcr to stop blinking..(I unplugged it)
Bought a bottle of that Charles Shaw wine everybody has been talking about..$2.99 for a lovely Chardonnay...I recommend everybody try it
Bought the Hillary Clinton book...my wife started reading it..sez it's pretty good..
Changed the brand of cat food I've been buying..my girls are getting a little fat..
Looked at my guitar several times..

I'll spend next week trying to figure out what DavidW and the rest of you are talking about !

Bob Young

ROTFL!!! Bob, that was funny - I especially liked your VCR solution. I recently had to switch to "Science Diet - Sensitive Stomach LIGHT" for my two studio cats (one likes to nap under the keyboard stand).

David, I've replaced my share of CMOS batteries, but didn't know that little trick with the jumper. I'll have to look that up in one of my hacker books. I've been known to touch up a registry key occasionally, but I really try to avoid it. I think I'd rather do a bungie jump than run regedit - although the adrenaline rush is similar.

Pat, I'm running an 802.11b connection on my PC as I type this. Did you get the faster "g" version or the "b"? I still need to get an Airport card for my Mac. I still string a 50ft Cat5 cable from my Mac all the way over to the cable modem when I need it to access the Internet.

Mike: thanks. Some people just want to hear what kind of equipment you have instead of listening to what you do with what you have. I have to admit that I've bought SOME of my equipment mainly because of the brand-name recognition factor. I can't say I've been disappointed in any of it, although I could probably have bought stuff that sounded just as good for around half the cost by getting lesser-known brands.

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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

[This message has been edited by Lwilliam (edited 06-11-2003).]

Ha Ha Bob... Lwilliam is right about OMS.. so all ya gotta do when you hear someone talking about OMS just moan and groan a bit and hand them a beer (or get out of there fast)! I lucked out this time, the first time I tryed it, I was throwing things for a year. This time it went without a hitch, go figgure!

BOB,

The Hillary BOOK! Your not going to suck me
into what I think about that book.
I would prefer a coffee table book about coffee tables.
Anyway I tried to mow the lawn but it won't
stop raining around here...
And I love cats.. dead ones...
I am a dog man myself.
And that wine sounds real crisp and dry
almost french.. Oh yeah, I hate the French..
My blinking VCR has been replaced by a DVD.
I wish I could reset the Bios on my brain.
David

Hi David..

glad to see you're still up to your old ways...
I'm different than you...I generally don't have an opinion about a book until I've actually READ it !

But that's OK...sorry you love dead cats...I don't care for dogs much but I don't want to see them dead !

The Charles Shaw is really nice..a great bargain...I don't buy much Freench wine..not cos' I hate the French but I do have some favorites wines, all from California and Australia.
Can't beat that price on the Charles Shaw..If you have a Trader Joes near you I know they carry it.

Hello to your wife, I hope she is not still vomiting at the sound of my name !

Bob Young

Bob,

I don't really like dead cats. That use to be a bumber sticker from the 80's.
Hey if you are ever east of Illinois and can
spend a couple more bucks on a bottle of wine. Pick yourself up a bottle of Bully Hills "Love your Goat" Red. No joke!
Here in upstate NY we have a lot of Finger lake wine tasting trails. Probably second
to California in wineries.
Bully Hill use to be called Taylor and now is probably the coolest winery around.
Check their site out.

http://www.bullyhill.com

David

Thanks dave ..Taylor used to be a popular brand around here..
I'm not a wine specialist by any means but I do like a good glass of wine !

I'll try to find that Buddy Hill..

thanks Junior !

bob Young