Author Archive

I am thrilled today to announce the release of my brand new eBook, The #1 Rule of Home Recording. This is an eBook featuring to-the-point advice on how to mentally approach recording, editing, and mixing in the home studio. This one simple “rule” will change the way you view home recording forever. I know it has for me!

Instead of simply giving you techniques to follow, I want to revolutionize the way you tackle anything musical in the studio. This rule can and should be a guiding principle for the way you work on music.

Applying the #1 rule will help you:

• Save money on gear
• Get better takes in the studio
• Edit and mix faster!

As with all the material I present here, this eBook lines up with my mentality of being productive in the studio. The #1 rule will help you sift through the hype and nonsense out there, allowing you to grow as both a musician and as an engineer. And ultimately, applying this rule will help you make better music, now!

There’s One More Thing…

And that’s not all. The best part about this eBook is that I’m giving it away FREE! That’s right, absolutely free. To get your copy of The #1 Rule of Home Recording right now, simply sign up for my newsletter at the top right of this site. You’ll get an instant download of the eBook, so you can read it and start applying the rule right away.

At TheRecordingRevolution.com I truly want you to succeed at making incredible music in your home studio. I personally feel this eBook will help you do that. So please, take 10 seconds and sign up for your free copy right now. Read it and let me know how it helps you in YOUR musical endeavours!

If you’ve sat down to use an amp modeling plugin you may have fallen in love. These plugins sound fantastic as of late and they give you the ability to get great tone in your DAW, without needing an amp. Plus you have the freedom to switch “amps” after the initial recording. It’s like time travel in the studio. Pretty sweet!

The problem comes when you realize that too many of these plugins (matched with 30+ tracks) tend to slow your computer down, and that is a royal pain. So the question becomes, “how do I save computer power without losing the freedom and flexibility of using an amp plugin?” This video should help you out…take a look.

Everyone, in some way, has a predisposition to what I call “brand snobbery.” That is, the phenomenon where people won’t even consider certain brands as they are viewed as inferior. We favor certain brands of a product over others, but usually without having tried the “lesser” brand. It’s based more on what other people say and less on what we actually know about the brand.

This is especially true with the audio gear industry. There are certain “elite” brands and there are certain “accepted” brands. And of course there are certain “garbage” brands that you’d be a fool to purchase any of their products. But who determined that to be true? Have you or I tried out each product of each brand to know this to be fact? I think not.

Do You Behringer Bash?

Let me give you an example. One brand that seems to always be in the “dog house” of audio internet forums is Behringer. According to “people” they are a cheap company that makes even cheaper gear. If you own or use any of the gear you’re not a serious player. And if you DO happen to own some Behringer gear, then you wouldn’t ever consider using it on a “real” project. Would you? I would…and I do. Over and over again. Why? Because it sounds great. I could care less what brand is on the faceplate of a preamp or on a microphone. If it works and sounds good, then bring it on!

There Are Two Problems Here

The problem you see is laziness. People are too lazy to actually try a product out for themselves. So instead, we just buy something based off of reviews and hear-say, and then defend that purchase to the death. Is that logical? Heck no. Instead we ought to assess our needs and our budget, do some research, try out some products if we can, and then make a decision. Then use that product like crazy and don’t look back.

The other problem is simply that it “feels” right to us that expensive always equals quality and affordable always equals lesser quality (or just plain garbage). “You get what you pay for” people will tell you. Well strictly speaking, that may be the case. You do get beautiful, premium made components, and a heritage of excellence when you buy a Neumann mic let’s say. But you could also just spend $100 on an MXL mic and get just as good of a result in your studio. Can we still justify the more expensive purchase? That is up for you to decide. I’m just trying to make a point.

The Point

The point is, don’t knock something till you try it. Don’t assume that a low price tag means low quality and bad results. It would be wise to spend as little as possible on gear that gets you the results you want, that way you can still have money take your girl out to dinner!

Bottom line, use the tools for what they are and don’t align your self worth with your purchases, good or bad. OK? Cool.

As many of you are starting to build your home studios you are having to make a choice of which recording software (or DAW) to go with. With so many great platforms available these days, and new ones launching almost every year it seems, it can be hard to pick one.

One of my readers, Jeff, asked me a question about Presonus’ brand new DAW, Studio One:

I’ve been reading your Blog for several months now and am preparing for my own studio. I know you are a ProTools guy, but I was wondering if you’ve tried Presonus Studio One, and if you have thoughts on this DAW.

Here are my thoughts

Presonus is a great company that makes some wonderful products for the home and professional studio. They are well known as of late for their audio interfaces and multi-channel preamps. I personally use (and wrote about) their digital mixing console for my band at church every week for practices, services, and live recording, and am very pleased.

Since launching their own recording software, Studio One, in 2009 I haven’t actually gotten my hands on it yet. But from what I’ve seen in development and since the release, it looks to be a fantastic option. Should YOU use it for your DAW? Here is the main thing to consider:

Do you already own a Presonus interface?

If so, then this could be a no brainer for you as Studio One integrates beautifully with Presonus hardware. Studio One comes in two main flavors, the Artist version (for $199) and the full version (for $399). The big difference between the two are the number of plugins that come bundled with it, plus the cool mastering features that come in the full version. In either case, Studio One offers a nice “self-contained” platform that should give you all you need to make quality recordings.

One thing to consider is that if you buy an interface from Presonus (even their $149 AudioBox USB) you’ll get Studio One Artist for free (a value of $199). Pretty sweet deal indeed! So if you own Presonus hardware, I think you’d be a fool not to at least try Studio One and see what you think of it!

Remember the big picture

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what platform you record on. No one is going to listen to your mix and say “Hey, sounds like this was recorded in Pro Tools…” (or Logic, Cubase, Studio One, etc). What DOES matter is your studio needs, your budget, and your creativity and drive to make great music. If Studio One happens to fit those needs and budget, then go with it and don’t look back!

For all you Pro Tools users out there I wanted to do a quick video tutorial on using the Elastic Pitch feature of version 8. No one really talks about this feature too much for some reason, but it can come in really handy when you want to transpose the pitch of any note or chord in your session, in real time!

Elastic Pitch is part of the amazing Elastic Audio engine that Pro Tools shipped out a couple of years ago in version 7.4, but with the release of version 8 it has added some great functionality. I ended up using it a little when doing my One Song One Month Challenge so I figured I’d share it with you guys!

So check out this quick video and let me know how YOU like to use Elastic Pitch in your session!

Since wrapping up January’s One Song One Month Challenge I have had a number of you readers email me and drop comments about how much you’ve enjoyed the challenge or were inspired to take on the challenge yourself this month. I am so encouraged to hear this! To me, the challenge has been a huge sucess if it has motivated others to be creative and productive.

One of my readers, JR, was kind enough to share his final song from the challenge with me and brave enough to allow me to post it here! Here’s a guy who before last month had never as much as touched Pro Tools or used real recording gear. He did a phenomenal job of taking the advice and challenge head on. The result? Major growth in skill and ability (and a great song) in just 4 short weeks!

Below are his thoughts on how this whole experience has gone. Read it, listen to his song, and be inspired! Thanks JR for sharing!

When the One Month, One Song Challenge was introduced I had barely even assembled my new recording setup.  After years of recording my demos using a computer microphone and Sony Vegas movie editting software I was now equipped with gear that I had purchased upon the recommendation of one of Graham’s earlier blog posts.

I forged ahead rocking my new MBox 2 Mini and AT2035 condenser mic and after numerous humbling attempts of trying to record my main guitar part to a click track (a new endeavor to me) I finally had my guitar parts recorded.  I got some quality tracks laid down and auditioned numerous drum loops that came with my Pro Tools software until I had spliced together percussion for the entire song.

After laying down some virtual instruments, vocals, and a bass line, I was able to follow along with Graham’s video and add some delay, EQ, and compression to get a quick mix on what would be my first ever recording using a real set up.

Did I sacrifice more than a few hours of sleep trying to figure out what I was doing till 3 or 4 am some nights?  Sure.  But in those hours I spent messing around attempting to find my way around a completely new system and with the assistance of Graham’s video blogs, I was able to record a song in one month as a complete Pro Tools rookie. I know I’m only scratching the surface but for a first time recording I’m pretty please with how it turned out.

Crazy by JR Mondell

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Today marks the official end of our One Song One Month Challenge here at the Recording Revolution. It’s been a busy and productive month of January, one that I definitely will remember. If you’ve been following things the past 4 or 5 weeks then you know that I was putting out videos weekly to walk you through recording a whole song start to finish.

If you’re new here or just want to do the challenge again on your own, I’ve put the links to all 5 weeks below so you can do your own challenge. I figured if you can finish a song in a month, then you can do a lot in one year. And that’s ultimately what I want for you guys is to be more productive in your home studio and to have fun. Let’s spend less time lusting after gear and more time creating killer recordings!

Week 1 – Creating your session, setting tempo, initial recording.

Week 2 – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the session.

Week 3 – Using virtual instruments to enhance your arrangement.

Week 4 – Comping vocals and overall cleanup.

Week 5 – Basic mixing tips and technique.

And just for fun, I’ve included my song for the challenge. You’ve heard bits and pieces during the videos, but here is what came of it all. I hope you enjoy and I also hope to hear from you about how your challenge went this past month!

A Song For Chloe

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s crazy to think that a month has already passed us by since we began this challenge. If you’ve been taking the challenge with us, you should be pretty far along at this point. Ideally you’ve got all your tracks recorded, cleaned up, and ready for mixing. If not, no worries, these videos aren’t going anywhere so you can go at your own pace of course.

Today we are going to cover some basic mixing techniques. Now, mixing is a complex art that can take years to perfect, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump in and get after it! All of today’s popular DAWs (Pro Tools, Logic, Sonar, Cubase, etc) come with a wide array of professional mixing plugins for you to use, and they sound great. So fire them up, watch this video (it’s in two parts) and make it happen!

Just a reminder if you’re just joining us…below are the 5 weeks of this challenge with links to each video. Enjoy!

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mixing tips and technique

Part 1

Part 2

Depending on how you work with Pro Tools you may end up importing a lot of files into any given session. These could be drum loops, tracks from another session, or sound effects from an external sound library. Whatever the case may be, when you import audio into a Pro Tools session you want to have a few import settings in place to insure you get not only the best possible quality of conversion (if your audio requires it) but also the best file structure so you don’t lose anything down the road.

It’s All In Your Preferences

Pretty much everything you can tweak in Pro Tools is done from the Preferences box. You want to become very familiar with this as you dive deeper into this program. To access the Preferences in Pro Tools simply navigate to the Setup menu and choose Preferences.

You’ll see a dialog box with a handful of different tabs up top. Here is where you can change anything from the colors you see in the Edit and Mix windows to how long the clip indicator stays lit on your tracks. For now we want to click on the Processing tab.

Keeping Things Where They Belong

Over on the left you’ll see a section called Import. Here is where you need to make just two brief adjustments. The first thing I highly recommend is that you make sure the box labeled Automatically Copy Files On Import is checked. This tells Pro Tools to do exactly what it says. By default, when you import audio into your session, Pro Tools is simply playing that audio from where it is on your computer. If the file is deleted at some point, then it will no longer show up in your session. That is not cool, trust me on this one.

Instead check that box so that the next time you import something it will put a copy of it in your sessions Audio folder, allowing it to stay nice and safe with all your other recorded audio. This is especially important when backing sessions up. You want all your audio to be there in one place.

Choose Your Quality Bar

The very last option in the Import section is the Sample Rate Conversion Quality. Some imported files may come in a different sample rate from the one you’re using in your session. A drum loop, for example, may have been recorded at 48khz but your session may be at 44.1khz. Pro Tools has to convert the loop in order for it to play at the right speed. This menu determines how good that conversion is.

There is a drop down to the right that gives you a handful of options. Just choose TweakHead and be done with it. It doesn’t matter that it’s the slowest since this is a one time conversion to get the audio into your session.

One and Done

That’s pretty much it. Once you’ve made these switches in your preferences, Pro Tools will remember them for each session you create on that computer. You don’t even have to remember what you learned today once you’ve done it! It’s a one and done deal as I like to say. Enjoy!

Here we are in the year 2010, an unprecedented age of technology and accessibility, where the prices of computers and recording equipment have dropped tremendously…while at the same time the power and feature set of both have skyrocketed. It doesn’t get any better than this people. That being said, I believe we are living in a point in history where I can firmly say that every musician in America should have and use a home studio. With a complete powerhouse of a studio available for under $500, there is absolutely no excuse. Let’s take a brief look at three reasons why.

Home studios help you write music

I’ve written before that I believe the home studio to be the ultimate songwriting tool. Having the power and ease to be able to dump your ideas into something like Pro Tools is incredible. It not only allows you to remember what you are writing, but it actually helps you create music you never would have thought of.

Many artists today are using their home studios to help write their newest albums. Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, T-Pain are just a few top label artists who begin their hit song writing in front of a computer with just an idea or two. Mike Shinoda  of Linkin Park mentions in an interview that “most of the songs on our first album were written on my Pro Tools setup, and we still use our Pro Tools rigs to demo ideas.” Which brings me to my next point…

Home studios help you demo your songs

If you are a singer/songwriter or are in a band and are preparing to do an album, your home studio demos can speed up that process and help you get a more polished final product. Demos allow you to try arrangement and production ideas before you really sit down to record the album.

Shinoda says of demoing in Pro Tools. “Demos generally begin…as a basic sketch with a scat vocal. Then we meet once a week to listen and vote on the songs. The good ideas can be quickly bumped over to our communal Pro Tools system, where we develop them further. It’s a very streamlined, organized system, and because we generally have so much music, that’s exactly what we need to keep track of what we’re working on.”

Home studios help you collaborate

Combine the power of the personal computer, the affordability of today’s DAWs, and add to that the accessibility of high speed internet and you have a perfect storm for music collaboration. More than ever musicians are working on recordings with other musicians around the world…at the same time!

The best example of this in recent years is the “band born online”, Pistol Youth. Bradley Carter (of New Zealand band Steriogram) wanted to collaborate on something new so he decided to write and record a 6 song EP with three other friends in three different countries! The guys never met up during this entire process. You can check a video interview here.

Now this is an extreme example, but it shows the power and opportunities afforded you if you have a basic home studio setup.

This is the year

If you don’t already have a home studio, or maybe you do and you just haven’t tapped into it’s full potential…make this the year that you step out in confidence that you can have the right tools (for not much money) to create more music in 2010!