JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Microphone and Vocalist Forum Do "Home Budget" preamps do anything for vocals?

Practice makes perfect.....the more time you put in the easier and better it becomes.....BUT remember the weaknesses get less the more often you practice in these areas.......the more times you try solos the better they get. You have to manage your time so that you can give your best .......you must have a team so that THEY can help you exploit your strengths and help fill the areas in which you are weak.
Now a word about Mark. He has come a very long way in a very short space of time and I am glad he is finally getting the recognition he deserves.....He is very very talented in many areas.......BUT......his success is not just down to his musical and songwriting talent.......it is mainly due to a lot of very hard work and time spent learning the various OTHER skills needed to produce recordings..... this is a lesson for us all to learn.

I know about Mark. I have heard his recordings, and who knows, I might even do a collab where he provides a track and I come up with something

His greatest strength is that he's good, and he comes from the old school of musician/songwriter...advantage number 1. and he didnt just open a songwriting book and say "hey maybe ill start writing today" He's been at it for a long time, it's evident.

Ive been learning how to craft songs formally and informally for years, prolly decades. Being new on a songwriting board doesnt mean one is new to songwriting.

I too was big on the teac and tascam cassette recorders, and talk about getting your moneys worth, I wore that thing down to the ground, I still have hundreds of recordings of stuff that coule be recycled today.

Likewise there are people who have been on songwriting boards seemingly forever, and they never get any better.

talent plus hard work is a great combination

Thanks for all the props!

I'll say it another way, to anyone here who plays or sings: I think the most important thing you can do, if you have the slightest ability or desire for it, is to learn how to make a simple recording sound good at home. Get that basic ability down--a clean recording of something simple--and you can make things happen.

Here's one way to begin:

A DAW (Recording software)
An interface
A good microphone (Begin with an SM57, I say...move up later)
A MIDI keyboard controller

That's all you need at first. With those four tools, you can make just about any sound under the sun. All the rest is coloration. Focus on recording things cleanly and mixing them down to proper levels, and you have submission material.

That was my challenge, and that challenge leads to a lot of creative activity--lots of new reasons to write new music.

And check out this latest cool plug-in for people who don't play piano: http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/ezkeys/

So I say learn to record yourself digitally! It is a lot of fun, and opens up a lot of doors for old songs to find new opportunities.

The sweetwater people must have me on speed dial, they call me all the time. Funny thing is I havent bought anything from them.

"Did you get our latest catalog? I hope you see something you like, and if you do give me a call, id be glad to help you"

I will check out that plug in, I suck on piano.