In The Mix...

Whew... It's been a busy week for me. Making my best efforts to finish recordings for 3 of my tunes. Not an easy task with a 9-to-5 to contend with, but we do what we must...! I finally finished recording all parts for the songs, and as of last weekend, I am officially in the mixing stage, working every evening when I get home from my job.

Mixing is a crucial part of the recording process that I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I've been struggling with for 15 years now. But for those that have heard my older recordings, it should come as no surprise... The quality of my mixes has always been on the amateur side of town, and that's putting it nicely. It takes a trained and tuned ear, and some degree of skill to create a mix that bears repeated listening. Otherwise, it simply leaves no doubt that you record at home, haha! I feel that if people have to ask if you record in your bedroom or in a "real" studio, then you know you're on to something. That's where I'd like to be someday. Fortunately, I think I made another step toward getting there last week...

Here I'll give a hopefully basic and low-tech rundown of the recording process for those who aren't knowledgeable about how it works. Generally, you start by recording your separate parts that will comprise your musical piece. That can consist of instruments, vocals, sound effects or anything you wish to record as part of your piece. In most cases, each individual instrument or vocal part is given its own separate track. Depending on your equipment, each track can usually be recorded one at a time as overdubs, or all parts can be recorded together live, in the case of recording a band, for example. This process is known as multitrack recording.

Once all parts are recorded, you begin the mixing process, whereby you adjust levels of each track in relation to the others, as well as add EQ and any audio effects that will enhance the overall sound. When you have the mix sounding the way you want, you would then make a 2-track stereo master of your mix, which then allows you to share your music with others, on CD or online. More often than not these days, one is working digitally, so the master itself will consist of an audio file, be it WAV, AIFF, or MP3.

The mixing process can also be referred to a mixdown, because you are mixing several audio tracks (24, 48 or more are not unheard of), down to 2 stereo tracks (1 track for the right speaker, 1 track for the left). Thanks to Surround sound, one also has the option to mix down to 6 or 8 separate tracks, but that's mainly used for those mixing sound for video or feature films. I'm not part of that world, nor do I have a desire to be, at least for now. I have enough trouble mixing down to 2 tracks!

Mixing audio is time consuming, especially if you don't have a clear mental picture of how you want the music to sound. Even the most experienced professional mix engineers will take several hours, even a whole day, to get what he or she is looking for in a final mix, doing multiple versions of the mix for the client to choose from. For those less experienced like myself, the process usually takes several DAYS.

The past week or so has felt like a mission of sorts. This mission has been to tackle long standing issues with mixing my own music. The question at hand was, "What will it take to improve my mixes?" It certainly isn't a question of not having the proper equipment. The current era of technology ensures that high-quality home recordings can be made by nearly anyone with an interest to do so. Like many others out there that record their own music at home, I use multitrack recording software on a laptop, along with a recording interface. That's all I need to do the job, so again, the equipment is definitely not the problem.

For monitoring the mix playback, I use 5-inch stereo monitor speakers. Research, time, and experience have taught me that a good pair of reference monitor speakers with a flat frequency response are essential for creating quality mixes that will translate well to other stereo systems' speakers. By translate, I mean that the music will sound "right" on different types of systems - home stereos, boomboxes, car stereos, iPod earbuds, what have you.

A mixer's best friend (besides their ears).

I'd say that the most important aspect of creating a mix that at least approaches a "professional" level, would be the aspect of clarity. In the past, I'd do a mix that sounded OK on my studio monitors. Next, I'd burn the mix to CD, play it back on another stereo system, and it would sound almost completely different. I mean different in a BAD way. In particular, judging the right amount of bass in a mix was where I invariably had the most trouble. Played on a different system, my mixes always sounded too muffled and boomy, due to way too much low-end. Reducing the low end would often leave me with a mix that sounded thin. It can take a long time to get that right, just starting out. The point being, hearing less than stellar results after long hours of work can be frustrating and discouraging, to say the least.

You typically can hear all the distinct elements of a piece of music in a mix that has clarity. The different instruments and any vocals should not appear to be fighting for the same sonic space, obscuring one another. Rather, each element should have its own space, yet all parts blend together well to form a cohesive whole. In the world of stereo mixing, you often have many different parts that you need to squeeze into the same sonic space between only two speakers!

When those parts share common frequencies, that makes the goal of clarity all the more challenging. On most multi-channel audio mixers (hardware or software equivalent), you will have (at least) controls for adjusting the level (volume) of each individual track, panning (adjusts the track within the stereo spectrum from left to right), and EQ controls. Hands down, the most important things to adjust and experiment with in achieving a good mix. Once those elements are under control, you may have access to audio effects such as reverb and delay that give the audio a sense of space in your track. Compression and limiting, which control dynamics, are equally important. There are many more effects available to utilize, but it's really beyond the scope of this post to go any further into it. I've probably gone too far out there as it is! Hope you're still with me...

Virtual mixer screen in Pro Tools, my recording software of choice.

Which brings me back to my main point. When I have access to all these tools to create my mix, it really comes down to the 2 most important tools of all: my speakers, and my ears. You can have the best equipment in the world, but it won't matter a bit if you have not tuned or trained your ears for this kind of work. Training your ear to make good mixes takes practice, making as many mixes as you need to before you get it right.

That's the lesson I learned this past week, for as many hours as I could squeeze in before having to go to bed and return to work the next day. Working on the first of the three songs, I'm happy to say that I've finally completed a mix that I'm pretty darn satisfied with! Certainly all my past experience helped me get to this point, especially remembering what NOT to do! However, I believe it was increasing my focus and persistence that helped me finally come across to the other side and produce a mix that I could live with. This is not to say that I now know all there is to know about mixing - I still have much to learn and improve on. But I believe that it will make the next mix project that much easier to get it the result I want. That next project is coming up soon, as in next week, if not this weekend! I have two more songs to mix, then I'll finally be able to post them online and share them with you folks out there. No concrete time frame as to when that will be; as I like to say, hopefully sooner rather than later! Till next time...

A book on audio mixing that's provided me with a lot of good info:

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

R.I.P.

For the tools that made tasks in my everyday life much easier to accomplish...

That helped me accomplish things I previously thought were beyond the reach of everyday people...

For the tools I was at times unaware of wanting, but now would not want to do without...

Thank you.

Recording Piano

Back once again, folks. Today, I thought I would share my recent experience in recording some live piano for the first time, for a song I'm working on. "Live", as opposed to simulated, or "virtual" piano. Why is this special, you may ask? Well, because of the degree to which digital technology has advanced, today you can have virtual versions of just about any type of instrument you can think of in the form of software, available at the click of your computer mouse, and a MIDI keyboard or other device, to play the sounds.

One of the most common and most useful virtual instrument sounds is the emulation of an acoustic piano. Not everyone has the means to purchase a real piano, or the physical space necessary to house one! Not to mention forgiving neighbors, accommodating the noise factor... For that reason, virtual pianos are great to work with, especially with the level of realism being achieved, and continues to improve. The downside is what gets lost when playing virtual piano, and the most important element lost is referred to by some players as "feel". The relationship of the hands with the keys, and the response of the instrument are important factors to a piano player. Playing sampled piano sounds from a MIDI keyboard with plastic keys will probably sound perfectly acceptable for the listener, but it will never feel like a real piano to the musician. It is simply one of those things a modern keyboard player learns to live with particularly when playing live, but is often the case when recording as well, especially at home.

The piano, the way it usually looks

So when the opportunity to record with a real piano came about, I jumped at it! The song I'm working on is mostly based around an acoustic guitar. However, I felt that the song would benefit from a piano part in the middle section (a "solo", of sorts). This was great timing, as my recording equipment had all been recently upgraded and tailored to be more mobile. The piano (an *old* Kawai upright) is located in the den of my parents' house. My mobile equipment allowed me to go to them and record with relative ease. The only thing is that I've never recorded one before! So (like everything else that comes up in my life these days), I did some online research to at least get pointed in the right direction. I found a few articles that gave me some ideas on mic placement, to get the best possible sound.

Setting up

I also wanted to have the right type of microphones for the job. However, when it comes to mics, there are usually several options on what to choose. I decided to go with a pair of Samson CO2 condenser mics. They are small diaphragm mics which, my research told me, tend to capture acoustic instruments quite well, particularly the detail in the upper frequency ranges. Since this recording session was a bit experimental in nature for me, I wasn't prepared to spend a whole lot of money. Fortunately, these mics came as a matched pair, with case and mic stand adapters for $119. A pretty good deal, being that mics of this type typically cost at least twice as much, for a single mic! I haven't completed the track yet, so I don't have a final, concrete opinion on the quality of the mics, but based on what I heard from the playback of what was recorded, the sound was decent enough for me. I'm pretty confident that it will be sufficient for what I need on the song.

The piano is not in regular use by those who live in the house, so the furniture in the den is arranged near the piano pretty tightly, as if it were another piece of furniture itself (sorry Mom & Dad). Thus, a little prep work had to be done before I could get down to business. That consisted of clearing away a loveseat and a coffee table to make some room, and setting up some "TV trays" to set my equipment on. Fortunately, an electrical outlet with a power strip was close at hand to plug in my equipment. I also had to do a quick and dirty repair on the sustain pedal of the piano, which was loose. A rattling sound every time I pressed down on the pedal would pretty much ruin anything I tried to record. Some painter's masking tape wrapped around the pedal did the trick quite nicely for muting the offending noise. The pedal also squeaks a bit, but I didn't have time to figure out where it was coming from, so I did some "tweaking" to my playing technique and used it only when necessary. If I get the chance to record there again, that will be next on my list of fixes.

The recording equipment consisted of my laptop (a 15" Apple MacBook Pro), a Digidesign Mbox 2 USB audio interface, an external FireWire hard drive, and the aforementioned Samson condenser mics. As far as DAW software, I use Pro Tools LE 8. They're up to version 9 now, but I haven't gotten around to upgrading yet.

The recording equipment

Ready to record

Concerning mic placement, I set them over the top of the piano with the lid open, strings and hammers exposed. As the pictures illustrate, one mic covered the lower end of the instrument, the other covering the upper end. The mics were slightly tilted to attempt a good blend of both ends of the piano range. Each mic was recorded to its own separate audio track in Pro Tools. The two tracks should give a nice stereo image when it comes time to mix the song.

Once set up, the recording process was pretty much the same as when I record at home - I do multiple takes, and at some point assess how things are going. In a perfect world, I'd be able to perform the whole part in a single take. In almost all cases, it doesn't work out that way, at least for me. So, I record enough takes until I feel I have enough to piece together an entire section that I'll be satisfied with. In other words, I take pieces that I feel are good from the separate takes and edit them together to create a "master" take. It may seem like cheating to some, but this technique has been used by professionals for decades (yes, even before digital recording), so I don't feel so bad, haha.

Mics pointed toward the inside of the piano

Once I did my takes for the middle section, I decided that I should record some chords in the final chorus of the song. I'm not sure that I'll use it in the final version, but I figured it couldn't hurt to record it, since I was all set up to do so. Another round of takes for that part, and I was done. All that remained was packing up the equipment, and putting the room back the way I found it - don't want my folks regretting having me over to record, because of the mess I made. I may want to come back and record again someday!

All said and done, it was a pretty enjoyable experience, and stress-free. First, because I was only recording a couple of short parts. Secondly (and most importantly), because my parents were kind and gracious hosts, allowing me to record for an afternoon in their home. Thanks Mom & Dad!

I Played Guitar This Weekend

for the first time in a month...

and DAMN my fingers hurt!

Time to get my callouses back.  :-b

iPod Resurrection with CompactFlash, Part 2

It's alive!!! Muahahaha....

Well folks, the iPod project is finally complete, and I'm happy to report that the operation was a success! For those who need reminding, the hard drive inside my old iPod (bought in 2006) died earlier this year, and I got the idea from some web articles to replace it with a 32GB CompactFlash card, with the help of an adapter.

But first a relatively brief run down on what took so long to get it done... A few things, really: First, once I initially opened up the iPod, I figured out that I'd purchased the wrong type of adapter to install the CF card with. That turned out to be an easy fix, as I contacted the Amazon merchant I bought it from, and they graciously and easily arranged for an exchange for what I needed. Secondly, not 15-20 minutes after realizing I had the wrong adapter, I messed around and broke the connection that attaches the hard drive ribbon cable to the iPod's logic board. More specifically, I accidentally tore the dang thing off! That pretty much ruined the logic board, so that sent me on another online search for someone who sold replacements. That search led me to iRepair.com, which offered one at a fair price. Thirdly, after the new parts arrived... I got caught up in other things in life, I suppose. Then this past week, I got into some weird sleep patterns, causing me to find myself awake way earlier than I wanted to be. Since I was up and about by 7 a.m. yesterday with not much to do, I figured it would be a perfect time to see if this project was finally going to work...

Let's get it started

The actual job itself was about as straightforward as one could hope for, as long as you start out with the proper tools, which I fortunately did. Since messing around with logic boards was new to me, I looked for some help, which I found at iFixit, another helpful site for do-it-yourselfers. The job started with opening up the iPod (again) with my plastic "spudgers"; special tools that allow you to open the case without scratching or otherwise damaging it. They usually come in a pack if you purchase a new iPod battery, which I was replacing as well, since I had the thing opened up anyway.

Opened up, minus the battery

Once opened, the Torx T6 screwdriver was all that was needed to remove the old logic board. Screws removed, I then had to remove two ribbon cables from the logic board - one connected to the iPod display, the other to the click wheel. There's actually a third, the one that would be connected to the old hard drive that I previously mentioned. But since that was the connector that I ruined, the cable was already out. I always try to learn from my mistakes, so this time I was VERY careful with the other connectors, haha.

Left to Right: iPod screen, top shell, old logic board

Installing the new logic board was a simple reversal of that process. From that point I installed the new battery, which simply consisted of plugging the connector into the logic board, and setting it in place. Next was attaching the CF adapter to the hard drive ribbon cable, then inserting the card into the adapter. That was pretty much it, other than closing up the iPod. Not much to it at all, except...

New battery, logic board and CF adapter installed

Since the CF card took up considerably less physical space than the hard drive, it sort of rattled and flapped around inside, when you shook it. To remedy that (and avoid any potential disconnections from vibration), I re-opened the iPod, cut out a small piece of cardboard to use as a cushion, taped it to the inside of the iPod's metal back cover, and closed it up once again. Sure enough, that did the trick. There's a noticeable difference in weight; the iPod definitely feels lighter in my hand without the hard drive in there.

CF card installed and cardboard in place

Once all re-assembled, I fired it up, and I got the initial Apple logo on the screen that told me that it was powering on, at least. Then my only concern was to see what it would do once I connected it to my Mac. Once connected, the computer recognized it right away, giving me a screen in iTunes, wanting to "set up" the iPod. A text field on the screen said "TRANSCEND" for the "name" of the iPod, which is the actually the brand name of the CF card inside.

Plugged in

I changed the name to "Scott's iPod" - obvious, but works for me.  Anyway, once I clicked "Done", I noticed oddly that it was reporting being formatted for Windows.  I can only guess that since most (if not all) media cards are formatted for use with Windows, that's what it chose for the iPod.  However, to avoid any potential conflicts in syncing with my Mac, I decided to "restore" the iPod, and see if that fixed the formatting. I did so, and the computer instructed me to disconnect the iPod and connect it to an external power charger to complete the process. Connected to the charger, the screen showed the Apple logo once again, along with some weird progress bar at the bottom. Once it was done "progressing", I re-connected it to the Mac, and the format showed up as "Macintosh", this time.

iPod set up & ready to go!

To test it out, I transferred over some Al Green music. Transfers were nice and speedy. Operation of the click wheel through the menus was fine as it was before, and music played just like it should. I haven't connected it to my car stereo yet, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work there as well.

Installing a flash-based memory card with no moving parts, this iPod should last me years and years to come. Battery life should be much improved as well, as it was never all that great when running on the original hard drive. I'm really glad that this worked out though, mainly because I'm attached to this particular model of iPod. Since it's an older model, it's perfect for use in my car. No more carrying around a boatload of CD's!

Besides, in the very near future who knows, one may not even be able to purchase an iPod that only plays music. I also own an iPod touch, which I like a lot. The extra features of this iOS-based iPod (wi-fi, e-mail, web, apps) make it very powerful and useful in many ways. But I suppose I'm "old-school" as well, being the kind of person that prefers simplicity in many cases. A great device that performs one task very well, suits me just fine. An iPod touch in the car would be definite overkill. With the iPod touch at home, and my newly resurrected 2006 iPod in the car, it seems I will once again have the best of both worlds.

Success...

MAC OS X, AT 10

A Happy July to all... A relatively short post for the first of the month, mostly to try to keep the blog current. More posts to come soon...

I wanted to write a few words about Mac OS X, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Quite a feat for any computer operating system, I'd say. Its introduction in 2001 was Apple's first step toward the future of operating systems. Prior to OS X, Apple's computers ran OS 9, which was essentially the same OS they had been working with since the first introduction of the Mac back in 1984. 17 years is a LONG time. Mac OS X was considerably different from its predecessor technically, and was poised to show what a modern OS could offer the end user.

My first experiences with the Mac (prior to OS X) was playing around with my sister's various Macs she owned during the 90's. Then in 2000 I purchased my own computer, a PC running Windows 98 SE. At first it was OK, but eventually problems with malware taking my web browser hostage, and other issues soured my overall experience with the Windows OS. In 2003, I took the plunge and purchased a Power Mac G4, for the dedicated purpose of running Pro Tools LE, a program for multi-track audio recording that I still use today. Even though this Mac was still running OS 9, I was pleasantly surprised by how everything ran smoothly, and how tasks were more closely integrated to make the overall experience better. Once I got additional funds, I bought another G4 (used, refurbished) in 2005, for general everyday use. This particular machine ran OS X 10.3, code named "Panther". After booting up the machine for the first time, I was hooked! At the time I was particularly impressed how the computer configured itself for connecting to the internet! Using Mac OS X and all its native applications was how I imagined using a computer should be. I knew from then on that I would stick with Macs for good, and I have done so up to now, 4 computers later...

That said, here's a neat, geeky little trip down memory lane.  Below is a link to screenshots of every major OS X release, from 10.0 Cheetah in 2001 to the upcoming release of 10.7 Lion.  Pretty cool to see all the changes that have taken place. Enjoy looking at all the "cats"....

Mac OS X turns 10

Apple WWDC Announcements - iCloud and More.

Well, I've had roughly a week to absorb the general "message" given this past Monday, at the Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) keynote presentation in San Francisco. The message that I got from it was that a significant change to personal computing is coming. It may not happen tomorrow or next week, but the change is on its way.

If you have an interest (as well as nearly 2 hours to kill), you can watch the entire keynote here. If not, I wouldn't blame you; they're probably not for everybody. I personally enjoy watching these keynotes, but they do tend to run rather long, and are probably a bit too geeky for those not generally into that sort of thing. To attempt to briefly sum up exactly what was discussed at the keynote, it was 3 upcoming technologies from Apple: Mac OS X "Lion", the new version of their Mac operating system; iOS 5, which runs on their mobile devices including the nearly ubiquitous iPhone and iPad; and their new internet-based service called iCloud.

After watching the webcast of the keynote, the standouts for me were particularly the presentations for Mac OS X "Lion" and iCloud. The iOS 5 presentation was fine, but to me it seemed mostly like it will be an update to simply address some sticking OS issues that users have had with iPhone almost from the beginning, when the first version was introduced in 2007. The one major change that I noticed about the upcoming iOS is that users will no longer be forced to sync data from a PC or Mac. You will be able to use your iOS device as your one and only... device. Finally, no computer needed! One major issue definitely addressed, there.

The new version of Mac OS X, code-named "Lion" (due sometime in July), will be bringing some fairly major changes to the general look and feel of the OS. Apple has made it no secret that many of the new features in the new version of the OS are directly inspired by their experiences developing their iOS, which runs on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apparently their goal is to make the Mac simpler to use and navigate, much like their mobile devices. Finger gestures (familiar to iPhone & iPad users) to initiate commands, and easier access to and management of applications seem to be the emphasis with this new version of the Mac OS. Since OS X Lion is not out yet, we can only speculate at this point whether this shift in approach to the OS will be good or bad; for us users, and subsequently for Apple, as a business. Much of the features demonstrated seem pretty interesting to say the least, so I'm anxious to see how it plays out.

Which brings us to iCloud, Apple's new internet service, included as a component of the new iOS 5. Honestly I'm still trying to completely wrap my head around what they're trying to do with this, but I believe I get the general idea. iCloud offers storage and backup, as well as an easy way to sync all your devices. It's a way to have access to all your data, from any device you may have in your hands at any given time!

The way Steve Jobs explained it, Apple initiated a concept about 10 years ago, where the personal computer would be the "hub" where all of your digital media is stored; music, photos, video, etc. What they hope to do with iCloud is make the computer simply another one of those devices, just like your smartphone, tablet device, what have you. The hub (for most Mac users, Apple is hoping) will now be a data center (or "server farm") they have set up in North Carolina. What they will store there is most if not all of our digital media, especially media purchased from the iTunes store as well as their recently launched Mac App Store. At present, the type of data included for iCloud is mail, contacts, calendar info, iWorks documents, music, photos, apps, and books.

Apple seems to be going in a slightly different direction from Google and Amazon with their cloud computing offerings. The advantage of iCloud appears to be that all your data would be instantly accessible by any of your devices, new or current. The data does not remain in the cloud to be "streamed" to your devices. The data is automatically downloaded (or "pushed") to your devices. The amazing thing is that they will offer this service (mostly) for free.

My opinion is that if these new technologies catch on like Apple would obviously like them to, it's bound to make them an even more powerful entity in the tech industry than they already are. I'm sure there are many who have already found things about the announcement to complain about (mostly because it is Apple announcing it, haha), but the way I see it, Apple is one of the few tech companies out there who are actually creating fundamental changes to not only the technology itself, but in how we interact with it. As opposed to the approach of other companies, who wait to see what everyone else is doing before making a move. But back to Apple, it will most likely be an interesting 6 to 12 months, seeing the public's response to these intriguing new products and services.

Still Here...

Howdy folks... Been a little while since I've posted here, for sure. This one will be more like an update of sorts, compared to my past articles.

I actually have been keeping fairly busy for the most part. In regards to music stuff, I've been working on recording a batch of songs that I've written. Some are old songs in need of updating and improving. Some are more recent, and... I'm still getting down to the business of getting them recorded.

I've always felt various creative struggles in getting my own music together, to the point that I tend not to produce much, compared to others I know and hear about. As a result, my own collection of songs is pretty darn small. I'm definitely not a prolific writer! I find myself going back and forth on how I feel about this. Some days I lament my low output of music, other days I simply accept it for what it is, and be happy that I produce anything at all. It is particularly difficult squeezing in time to work on music when you have a 9 to 5 to go to every day. However, I try not to complain too much because I know I'm only one of millions that are in the same boat.  I just wish someone would fill me in on the secret to getting over that hump. That is, if there *is* one...

Presently I'm in the tracking (recording) and editing stages, and right now it feels like I'm gonna be stuck there forever! That said, things are actually moving along, and progress is being made. Just not as quickly as I'd like, but that's my impatient side talking. These days I squeeze in 2-3 hours' work in the evenings when time, energy and motivation permit, and as much as possible on weekends. With that schedule in place, I hope to have *something* ready for people to hear later this summer. Let's see how I do! If inspiration strikes, I may post some thoughts on the recording process as it moves along.

In more tech related news, I'm curious to see what gets announced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Steve Jobs will make the keynote presentation on Monday June 6th. Confirmed for discussion is Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and something called "iCloud", which it's safe to say that it will be some sort of internet-based storage service. Apple usually will put up a webcast of the yearly keynote, so I'm sure Apple geeks (such as myself) are waiting for Monday's keynote with great interest, to say the least.  Also waiting, no doubt, are the Apple-haters, ready and all too willing to get their Apple-hate on!

Which reminds me of my very first blog post... I've had all the necessary parts to convert my old iPod to flash-based storage for a while now, but I just haven't had much time to sit down and get to work on it. But soon, and that will be another post for y'all to check out in the upcoming weeks.  Until next time...

Home Studios - Less Is More.

My name is Scott... and I'm a recovering "gear-aholic". There, I said it. I've put off this admission for a long time, but there's no denying or wishing away what you know to be true...

That simple statement came into my head today, as I was thinking about my ongoing work on my current batch of recordings. I've been doing this home recording thing for well over 15 years now, and I think anyone who's been into it like I have knows that, over time, you start to accumulate... stuff. Instruments. Amplifiers. Recording equipment. Cables and other accessories. If you're not careful, the accumulation of these things can overwhelm, to the point where it becomes a hindrance to your creativity, instead of feeding and nurturing it. I've battled with this "problem" for years, and I feel it's time to finally do something about it.

I started recording music at home back in the early to mid-90's, and though I was a young musician who hadn't been playing any instrument for very long (and couldn't sing all that great either), I was eager to learn. Eager to create something that was important to me, if no one else. I was also driven by artists like Prince and Stevie Wonder, who played most if not all of the instruments on some of their most popular records. That got me excited to see if I could pull off some of that myself someday.

As my short money would allow, I would upgrade to more and more pieces of equipment. Guitars, effects, amps, drum machines, keyboards. But the game-changer was my first 4-track cassette recorder. It was a revelation AND a revolution! It was the last piece of the puzzle to finally give me at least a taste of the sounds that I was hearing in my head, and it was a great learning experience. But what was an even greater lesson was when I met the bandmates of the very first band I played in. They recorded with 4-tracks like I did. But when they played me their songs... It was an eye-opener, on different levels.

The lesson learned then, was to keep it simple. Less is more. In those early days, I was stuck in the trap of trying to make my music sound like it was played by an entire band, when in reality it was just me, and my fancy equipment. Stevie and Prince did it, I can too, right? Well maybe, maybe not. They were the exception, not the rule. And I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not the exception. But it doesn't mean that I can't make music that pleases me, and hopefully others. We shall see how that goes...

My bandmates' music had simple arrangements, the playing was never busy, always to-the-point. But the music had impact, and "vibe". That's what I'm going after, every time I attempt to record, to this day. And over the years, I've discovered more artists' music that follows that same ideal, so I feel that I'm on the right track. I'm learning that lesson a little more every day.

The "less is more" motto applies not only to writing and arranging. For me, it now applies to the equipment that I use. These days, I'm about getting as much of it out of my way as possible. The technology has now advanced to the point to that you can do great recordings to easily share with anyone (without embarrassment), with a bare minimum amount of gear. As recent as last year, I had 2 computers, a multi-channel audio interface, a mixer, a drum machine, and 3 keyboards. All that extra equipment was getting in the way of me getting much work done at all, resulting in a hard drive full of abandoned, half-done ideas. Today, I'm working with a laptop, a basic 2-channel Pro Tools interface, microphones, headphones, speakers, a few guitars, a small MIDI keyboard, and my voice. That's everything I need to get my ideas across.

From now on, if there's something not right with the music, it's gonna be on me, not on what equipment I feel that I "need," and don't have. The recordings should be able to stand on their own, because of the energy that I put into the music, not the equipment. In that respect, I feel very liberated these days. Freedom is a beautiful thing...

2006 - Bad...

2007 - Worse...

2009 - Worst!

April 2011 - Under control once again

The Joy (and PAIN) of Shielding Your Electric Guitar

Greetings, folks... Here's my first post on electric guitar repairs and/or modifications. There will most likely be more in the future, because ALL of my guitars need some kind of work done on them!

I'm a big fan of Fender electric guitars. The Fender company pioneered a sound for their instruments that has been imitated by countless guitar manufacturers for over 60 years. The major ingredient to this original sound is in their single-coil pickups. For those not familiar with how electric guitars work, a pickup basically serves as a microphone for the strings, to amplify the sound. The single-coil pickup itself has been around long before Fender (since the 1920's!), but Fender's own patented design definitely has a sound unlike any other.

But as any Fender guitar player knows, the major drawback in that pickup's design is that it can be noisy, especially with your amp set at higher volumes. The most common technical term for this noise is "60-cycle hum". It can be best described verbally as a constant buzzing sound. Without going into more technical details (because I can't, haha), basically the pickup acts as an antenna, picking up interference from other electrical appliances or equipment in the general area of where the guitar is located. This interference is passed though the guitar's wiring, out to the amplifier's speaker as noise, or "hum". A combination of those contributing factors can increase the amount of hum, to the point that the guitar may be considered unusable, especially when performing live on stage. And since so many things around us are "electrified", it makes this problem all the harder to avoid!

Because this hum is inherent in the design of the pickup, it unfortunately can't be eliminated completely. Many have worked for years on methods to reduce the offending noise. In fact, elimination of the hum is the main function the design of the double-coiled "humbucker" pickup serves, and it does a very good job for that purpose. You typically don't get any of the described hum from a well-built humbucker pickup, as the two coils work together to cancel out, or "buck", the hum. However, the humbucker pickup sounds somewhat different than a single-coil, which is why many players who love and prefer the "Fender sound" suffer through that drawback of extra hum and noise, doing what they can to work around it.

Through much online research, I've found many articles reporting that electrical shielding can significantly reduce unwanted noise, including the single-coil pickup's forever-present hum. Many sites have documented instructions on how to do this. It's a fairly involved process. You may wonder, "if it helps reduce the hum, why don't the manufacturers do the shielding at the factory during the building process"? Actually many factories do, to a degree, but the shielding I've seen inside my own guitars seems to be minimal at best. If they did better, more thorough jobs in their shielding, I'm sure due to the amount of labor involved, it would drive up the prices of the guitars considerably.

I'd been wanting to give the shielding jobs a go on my own guitars for a while now, and last weekend I finally got down to business. I have a few electric guitars, but my current "main" guitar is a Fender Telecaster. I've had it since 2007, and I decided that it would be the one to start with. After removing the pickguard and control panel, I could see that it would probably benefit from a shielding job since I'm always struggling with the hum problem, especially when recording with it.

It's "business time"

I purchased what I needed for the job from an online store I recently discovered called Stewart-MacDonald, or "StewMac", a supply store for luthiers (makers of stringed instruments). They seem to have *literally* everything a do-it-yourselfer would want in tools and supplies. Some of the stuff they sell can be difficult or impossible to find at a Guitar Center, or similar music store. I was on the site for hours, finding things I could use, stuff I don't necessarily need, but want anyway... I had to get off that site quick, before I gave them ALL my money... They also had a great article with included pictures on how to perform the shielding job.

Shielding Kit from Stew-Mac

The main supply needed for this job consisted of copper shielding tape. Copper is reputed to be best for electrical shielding. The tape is applied to the cavities that are routed into the guitar's body. It is also applied to the underside of the pickguard (that also holds the front pickup), which is screwed into the body. Basically, if all the shielded parts are connected (touching) physically, it creates a ground connection when your guitar is plugged into your amp, thus creating your shield. The article also explained that if you put a small amount of the tape on the outer edge of the cavities, it will come in contact with the tape on the pickguard. Sounds easy enough to do, right? Well I suppose so, if you've done it before... But since this was my first attempt, it took pretty much ALL day! Mainly, because I didn't want to screw anything up - this guitar was NOT cheap...

Opening up the Tele

Copper tape applied to the cavities

Copper tape applied to pickguard

Anyway, the "pain" part of this job came during the application of the copper tape to the pickguard. In my reading, I was warned that the edges of copper tape can be VERY sharp, and to be careful. And I *was* pretty careful, until I ran my thumb along the edge of the pickguard which, itself, is fairly dull plastic. But I forgot that the edge of the tape was also running along that very same edge of the pickguard, when I proceeded to slice a nice clean cut into the meat of my thumb... OUCH!!! And nearly a week to the day after putting a nice slice into my other thumb, in the kitchen... Not a good week for thumbs, I suppose. OK, lesson learned...  I cleaned myself up, and continued with the job.

Flesh vs. Copper Tape - Guess who wins? (photo taken 1 week later)

Well, after putting the guitar all back together, plugging it in and testing it out, I wish I could now describe to you the "joy" part of the process. However, it's really hard for me to tell if there's much of an improvement. I think there may be *some* reduction in hum, but not nearly as much as I'd hoped. If I turn around to a certain position while holding the guitar, it eliminates almost ALL the hum, but that was pretty much always my method of dealing with the hum problem, before the shielding job. To my ears, it does seem a bit quieter in that certain position than before, but that may be wishful thinking, after all that work... Perhaps the copper tape is not connecting somewhere, who knows? All I know is that I'm now burned out on it, so I'm not gonna be taking that guitar apart again any time in the near future, haha...

I will say though, that it was definitely a learning experience for me. As I mentioned, I have other guitars, all of which could probably benefit from these shielding jobs, so perhaps I'll have better success with them, now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing. Until next time...

Amazon & the Future of The Cloud

Another weekend is upon us.  Like most weeks, it felt like I wasn't gonna make it to the end...  Anyway, I thought I'd check in once again with a thought about the future.

With the state of things in 2011, one has several options when it comes to purchasing music. However, the advent of digital distribution of music has made it all too easy to simply give an online merchant your credit card number, and *VOILA*, you're downloading one or more albums' worth of music to your computer (or mobile phone!) within a matter of minutes. Along with high speed broadband connections, they have made it so convenient for us, that not very many of us need or even want to purchase CD's anymore - be it online, or "brick-and-mortar". I'm not telling you anything you don't know already, I'm sure. This is simply a setup for my recent experience in purchasing music online, which was a bit different from my other experiences in recent times.

You see, it all started with the recent release of the new album by Radiohead, which has been a favorite band of mine for some time now. Like many other album releases before it, once again I was confronted by several choices in regards to purchase. I have been an iTunes member since 2005, and it quickly became my primary source for purchasing new music, like so many other folks out there. But as a somewhat older music fan, I still like the (now) old-school method of buying a physical product (almost always a CD these days), which typically comes with artwork and "liner notes" that detail track lists and lyrics, along with musician, producer and other studio related credits. Once I have the CD, I can then export the music into my computer via iTunes. Not to mention that with a CD, I'd also have a physical back-up of the music, should something happen with my computer. These days, if there is a new release by a "favorite" artist of mine, I find myself weighing the pros and cons of buying a physical CD, or buying a download from either iTunes, or more recently, Amazon MP3. For less "important" artists, or those whose music I'm just discovering, I almost invariably go the download route. My method of music purchasing in a nutshell...

The other night, I finally decided to look into buying the new Radiohead album, as it had already been out for at least 2 weeks or so. Digital download or CD? I hadn't decided yet. It was at that point, I discovered an offer that I couldn't refuse... As the first option, Amazon had the physical CD available for $9.99 - a pretty decent price for a new CD in 2011. This particular album is only 8 tracks long, so that may have something to do with it. Anyway, they also had an MP3 download of the album available for $5.99!  I was pretty amazed at such a deal!

Amazon had recently launched their Cloud Drive and Cloud Music Player for their members. You get 5GB of Internet-based storage, free of charge. For those not aware, "cloud" is a modern synonym for "the Internet". I believe you can upload any type of files you wish, but along with the Cloud Player, they are advertising it as a new way to store all your digital music in one place, so you may access it from any computer, or mobile device. If you purchase MP3 music from Amazon, you have the option of having it automatically stored in your Cloud Drive, with the additional option of downloading the music to your computer, so you may have your music both there, and "in the cloud".  Additionally, Amazon MP3 purchases do NOT count towards your Cloud Drive's capacity; only files that you upload from your computer.  Pretty cool!  They have paid options available for more storage. For those of you with Android smart phones, there is an Amazon Cloud Player app available to play your music.

The thing that sealed it for me to buy the MP3 version of the album was Amazon's offer to not only sign me up for their new Cloud Player service automatically, but upgrade my Cloud Drive capacity from the standard free-of-charge 5GB, up to 20GB, for a year. That's pretty major, in my opinion. Checking with iTunes first just to make sure before I commit, they are currently charging $9.99 for their AAC digital files of that particular album, with no "digital booklet" - another thing I look for when considering a new music purchase. iTunes offers a digital .pdf file of liner notes and credits for many of their albums - Amazon does not. However, Amazon still got my credit card digits for this one. Sorry iTunes, but this offer was simply too good to pass up...

So this is my very roundabout way of saying that I eventually went with Amazon MP3 for this purchase, in part due to my intrigue with the offer of 20GB of free cloud storage for a year. How I plan to actually use this 20GB, I don't know, but I'm sure some opportunity will come up before the year's through, haha. Apple has been long-rumored to announce some sort of cloud-based version of iTunes, but it has yet to materialize. With this new cloud service from Amazon, I'd say an announcement from Apple can't be far behind.

The subject of cloud storage and cloud computing is big in the tech news world these days, and it's quite apparent with introductory deals such as these, companies like Amazon are looking to be early facilitators of this new technology that allows users to store and access their data. It looks as though we, the public, will very soon be relying less on our personal computers and mobile devices for data storage, and more on companies willing to host (and hopefully backup!) our data. Meanwhile, these companies will be finding new ways to make some dough off of us (either on the front or the back end), for the use of these services. Yes, these certainly are changing times...

Cloud Drive - Mostly empty, for now

Cloud Player

iPod Resurrection with CompactFlash, Part 1

Well, here I go - my maiden voyage into this blogging thing. Many, many years after everyone else has gotten into it, but I've been a late starter at most things in life. Anyway, here's a description of the first of many "fixit" projects that I have planned this year...

I'm currently on a mission to revive my until-now-ever-reliable 4th Gen iPod that I've had since 2006 or so. It's given me years of musical enjoyment, especially over the last year when I installed it into my car stereo system. But over the last month, it started giving me occasional trouble, until one day...

He's been sick...

Not a good sign when you turn on your iPod, you hear the hard drive making strange noises, and get that screen! Tried as I did, I could not get it going again (even with the helpful URL that you see in the pic). So I took a breath and resigned myself to the fact that my old friend was no more, at least the hard drive was.

Online searches for replacement drives came up with very little. New drives for old iPods such as mine are simply not out there, far as I can tell. The websites that have used drives for sale are asking more than I'm willing to pay. Why bother buying a used hard drive that just may die on me in another year, perhaps sooner?

Further searches uncovered some interesting reading about people who have replaced the drives in their old iPods using CompactFlash media cards, with the help of a special adapter.

I found the adapter on Amazon for about $7.00 and some change. Another quick Amazon search pointed me to a 32GB CF card for about $50. Cheaper than the price of a used hard drive, and about half the cost of other CF cards of the same capacity that I've seen (I think due to the speed of the card itself). Definitely cheaper than a whole new iPod! Besides, I really like this particular model, and combining it with the benefits of flash storage (no moving parts to eventually fail like a hard drive can), it's the best of both worlds, I think.

Ready to go to work

Well, I ordered all my parts and waited patiently for their arrival. Once delivered, I made plans on a Saturday to do the installation. All was going well at first, until... I realized that the adapter card was not going to fit my model of iPod. It has a connector on it that's compatible with newer iPod models than what I have. Then things went worse... Soon after, I managed to rip a piece off of the iPod's logic board - so it's now ruined.  Insert curse word... here.

But all is not completely lost just yet. I made arrangements with the Amazon merchant to exchange the adapter for the correct one, and I managed to find someone selling used, tested iPod logic boards that won't cost me an arm and a leg. Stay tuned...