Blogs
I re-re-re-uploaded a much better mix of "Shoot Her Memory Down". Please give it a listen.
http://www.mixposure.com/sam-houston/audio/10395/shoot-her-memory-down
Not sure what's going on, but I tried to upload a new song and was informed that I exceeded my quota. I kept deleting songs until only one is now left... I still can't upload! WHat's eqaully bad, I can't even log into the forum... it defaults me to my home page here on Mix.
Well, if this is a system glitch, I hope it gets fixed and I'll re-up just the songs I think are best. Otherwise, I'll just remain frustrated. I put a lot of work into getting the radio going on what is now Mixposure. If this "downgrade" is the thanks, well thank you too.
Best,
Mike
DrC - organ, drums programming, production and mix. Farrell Jackson - songwriter, guitar, bass, and all vocals.
DrC and I are working on a blues album of various blues styles. This is one more song closer to completion.
The lyric is a humorous look at the amount of time folks spend on social media and how it can affect relationships ie. Personal Computer Blues.
http://www.mixposure.com/farrell-jackson/audio
Farrell Jackson
BUY MY NEW CD 'B-FORCE'!!! COMPRA MI NUEVO CD 'B-FORCE'!!! EN http://www.reverbnation.com/store/view_item_album/artist_346016?item_id=1913187 BAMIL OFFICIAL REVERBNATION STORE!!! Featuring The Top 40 Hit Single 'Things Of Life'
I have TONS of new merchandise, and more is in development! Very excited about this! You can check it all out at http://www.cafepress.com/thawindmills There is a TON of "Super Trashy" merch after the song of the same name, and a few 5lb Piranha items, and other cool stuff. Check it out. Makes for great Valentines's gifts!
The TrueVulgarians are pleased to announce the release of a new collaborative effort by us and the incomparable Scotswolfe entitled "How Come?" Words and music by Bill Thompson. Lead vocals and acoustic guitar - Bill Thompson Back-up vocals by Jacki Grapentine. Scotswolfe provided all other instrumentation and production work on this song. Certainly the most ambitious tune in our collection of songs. Hope you enjoy it!
The 2014 Mixposure Rock and Country Music Awards are underway and voting will begin soon! Everything has to have rules so here they are.
All Music must be posted on your artist page on Mixposure.com.
If you are not a member, please join. Mixposure.com is free.
Please change the genre to MCA2013 or MRA2013 for Country or Rock Genre
No Cover Tunes!
We would prefer the song be from 2013 or 2014 but we have no way to stop earlier songs so upload what you want
Voting will be from anyone signed up on Mixposure.com so yes, the people will vote!
The contest will end on Saturday March 30th
MixStream Radio will have all songs in continuous rotation
Winners will receive a Trophy and some other perks from Mixposure.com
Please let us know if you have any questions!
As a home studio owner, or soon to be one, you should be aware of how the professional studios operate and what techniques they employ. In the end we are all trying to do the same thing: get sound onto a recording device, spice it up, and mix it to a final product. We all want to get the best sound possible. The differences in techniques directly affect the quality of the final product.
Why Your Favorite Recordings Sound So Good
Cue up your favorite recording, one that you think is recorded well. Sit back and listen closely. Notice how all the instruments blend together well, how no instrument sticks out of the mix more than it should. Notice how you hear virtually no background noise. All the instruments sound present, the drums don't sound far away, and it sounds as if you're in the same room as the band. The recording has a smooth and polished sound to it, no harshness to your ears. These are all qualities of good engineering, good mixing, and good mastering.
When you listen to a professional recording, realize that you are listening to months, if not years, of hard work recording and mixing the music. Big studios also have access to the finest equipment, the best microphones, acoustically perfect rooms, and most important of all, experienced engineers to run the sessions. Does this mean that your home studio masterpiece will sound bad? No, not at all! With some basic equipment, a little knowledge, and your inspired music, you can make professional-sounding recordings. Recording sessions are broken up into three main components: preproduction, production and engineering, and postproduction.
Preproduction
Preproduction involves everything that comes before the actual recording session. This can include selecting the right material to record, rehearsing the band, and getting ready for the recording sessions. For the home studio owner, this involves working out your material so that you can record it. It also might include purchasing gear to facilitate a particular project, such as buying a second vocal microphone to record a vocal duet for a new song. Basically, anything that you can do in advance to make your recordings go more smoothly is preproduction.
Production and Engineering
Production involves the actual recording sessions. At the sessions, the engineer runs the recording show. It's up to the engineer and any assistants he or she might have to set up all the microphones, place the microphones for optimum sound, get proper recording levels, run the mixing board, operate the recording device, and make sure everything sounds good. The engineer is the most important link in the chain (besides the musicians themselves) in getting a great-sounding recording. Engineering, like any other skill, requires a certain level of artistry and practice for proficiency to improve. An experienced engineer will be able to identify problems and quickly find solutions.
Editing and overdubbing might take place in subsequent sessions, but it's still considered production. In your studio, you will most likely be wearing all of the various hats needed to make a recording. It will be up to you to properly set up your equipment and the microphones, run the recording device, and engineer the recording. This can be a tall order to do all at once, but the chapters to follow will show you how to get started easily. With a little practice you'll be off and running!
Postproduction
Postproduction includes anything that happens after the recording sessions. Most often, postproduction involves mixing the tracks to a polished uniform sound. Mixing involves several key elements:
Track levels: Loudness of each track
Panning: Side-to-side placement in the mix
Equalization: Boosting or cutting certain frequencies in the mix
Effects: Adding signal processing such as reverb, delay, and compression in order to achieve a polished sound
Mix down: Mixing all the tracks into a single stereo pair suitable for distribution or mastering
Even the most basic studio has the capabilities to do all these things. Remember that the basic sequence of events is always the same: sound capture, recording, and playback. Now that we explained a little about the history of the recording process and got you thinking about some concepts, it's time to shift gears and move into your home studio to find out what you need to get started.
We live in the digital age. Everywhere around us technology is changing the way we work, play, and communicate. The computer has become a fixture in the home, and it's hard to imagine life without one. The need to create coupled with advancements in technology are allowing even the average hobbyist the chance to create and share quality music without going into considerable debt.
The Advancement of Technology
Analog multitrack recorders capable of recording twenty-four or more tracks can cost a lot of money. Even now, though they are less popular, it is easy to spend $30,000 to $50,000 on a good one. Their prohibitive cost meant that for a while, home studios were available only to rich, successful musicians. Digital technology has brought the cost down considerably. Digital tape machines such as the ADAT, while not cheap, are nowhere near as expensive as multitrack analog tape machines. When they were introduced in 1992, Alesis ADATs went for around $3,500. These modular tape machines started showing up in professional studios, and more and more home studios were getting equipped with digital recorders.
As the technology and time advanced, recording studios turned to the personal computer. Digital audio can be stored on its internal hard drives, and the monitor and mouse take editing to a whole new level. Software provides an interface for laying out tracks and editing them visually in ways that were never possible in the analog or digital tape world. As we discuss in later chapters, digital audio uses nonlinear technology. This means that the audio is free to be placed anywhere in time, unlike a tape-based machine on which you record at a specific point in the tape. Unless you cut out that section of tape and splice it somewhere else, you can't move things around with analog tape. But with digital audio, moving audio is as easy as pointing and clicking.
Using computers in studios came with its own problems: The computers themselves were not able to handle the tremendous strain that digital audio required. To a computer's brain (the central processing unit, or CPU), digital audio is very complex to work with. The addition of signal processing was too much for the computers of the late 1980s and early 1990s to handle. The solution was to use add-on cards inside the computer to help process the digital audio signal. One of the most successful products is Digidesign's Pro Tools. Pro Tools uses a combination of hardware to perform digital signal processing (DSP) and software to arrange music. Professional Pro Tools and other systems like it are still very expensive. It's easy to spend $30,000 to $50,000 on a nice Pro Tools rig. Pro Tools was one of the first proprietary systems available, a combination of software and hardware for recording music in a computer. Today Pro Tools is the standard in recording studios around the world. Other systems exist today, but none with the popularity and compatibility of Pro Tools.
How Technology Made the Home Studio Possible
The home studio has followed a path similar to that of professional recording studios. In 1979, Tascam invented the Portastudio, a 4-track recorder that used standard audiotapes. It was priced around $1,000, which was very inexpensive for a unit of its type. It caused a revolution, and in one step created the home studio market. The unit was small and compact and could be taken anywhere. Four tracks could be recorded and mixed separately in the unit and later mixed down to a final stereo cassette. Musicians quickly began using the Portastudio for creating their own music and making demos. The Portastudio line by Tascam is still popular today and comes in many shapes and sizes, both digital and analog.
In the digital world, in the 1990s, the hard disk began showing up as part of standalone recorders, greatly increasing the quality of recorded sound. Because hard disks were able to hold more data, they became a viable solution to storing digital audio. Digital audio is very large: each monophonic track takes 5 megabytes of memory per minute. A typical ten-minute song consisting of eight tracks requires 400 megabytes of storage space. By today's standards that's not very much, but in the early 1990s most home computers shipped with 500-megabyte drives, total! As the computer grew in popularity and power, it became feasible for a computer with a simple audio interface to handle the demands of digital audio without the need for additional DSP cards. Computer recording software such as Cubase, Digital Performer, Sonar and Logic answered the call by providing MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) and digital audio in one package. Computer recording software is immensely popular because of its ease of use, relatively low cost, and the power of what you can achieve with just your home computer.
What does all this history mean for you and your home studio? Being able to layer track upon track is a critical part of the home studio experience, especially if you work alone. Many bands record albums one layer at a time for greater control.