A while ago I wrote a review on the Line 6 Toneport KB37 Audio Interface and MIDI Controller. I really love this little audio interface and it’s been an invaluable tool for my music recordings. I have a larger setup in my main studio but the KB37 goes with me when I need to work on my recordings while on the road. That being said, I have to admit that I use the KB37 in my big studio a lot of the time because it’s so simple to use.
When I got my KB37 it was called a Toneport and came with basic Line 6 amp simulation software. I had to purchase Reason 4.o and Sony Acid separately to get my portable recording setup running with the KB37. That added up to quite a few dollars to get a decent mobile audio workstation going. Continue reading “Line 6 POD Studio KB37 USB Audio Interface Review Update”
The Sennheiser HD380 Pro Headphones are excellent in the studio or for casual listening as well.
Sennheiser HD380 Pro Headphones
I’m not only a live performing musician but a studio musician and producer as well. I have tried dozens of different headphones over the years and almost invariably breathed a sigh of relief when an old pair died just so I would have an excuse to buy another pair. It seemed like finding the perfect pair of headphones was like searching for the holy grail. To be honest, I still haven’t found that perfect pair of headphones but I have found a couple headphone solutions that have kept me satisfied for a while now.
Reason 4 music production software is a must have software for all modern keyboard players. It’s invaluable in your home studio as well.
Reason 4.0 Rack Front
When I started playing in live bands the hottest synthesizer on the market was the Yamaha DX7. Back then it was great to have a keyboard that could play lots of notes simultaneously and do a decent job of sounding like the instrument it was emulating. Most keyboard players brought multiple keyboards to the gigs and there was a lot of setup time involved. I remember spending hours working on the perfect soundpatches for my Roland keyboards. The thing about playing keyboards is you can never have too many sound options. It was an expensive proposition to be a keyboard player as it would cost the player thousands of dollars to get the necessary equipment to play in a live band. The dream was to have racks of synthesizer modules at your disposal to create the incredible soundscapes that you could hear in your head. But only the top paid musicians could afford to live that dream. The rest of us had to make do with whatever synthesizer equipment we could afford. It’s amazing how times have changed with the development of incredibly powerful, software based synthesizers like those found in Reason 4.0.
If you’ve never heard of Reason which is developed by Propellerhead it’s basically a virtual studio rack into which you can load mixers, effects and synthesizer modules. If the equipment that you have access to in Reason 4.0 was sitting in a rack in your studio it would cost you thousands and thousands of dollars. You can place multiple copies of the same equipment into the rack to work with for sound creation. So if you want 15 analog synthesizers to work with, you got it. The virtual rack is infinitely expandable as long as your computer is powerful enough to run all the devices you can load into it. What types of devices can you load? Reason 4.0 comes with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, REX file loop player, mixers, vocoder, studio effects, mastering tools, pattern sequencers and more! It’s amazing how many devices come in this software package. If you have the urge to load 11 compressors and 10 samplers with 5 synthesizers, you can do it. You can chain as many mixers together as you wish to mix all of your devices. You can keep adding gear until your computer chokes but it will take a lot to do that as Reason 4.0 is quite conservative on your system.
Video demonstrations of Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 pitch correction software.
Yesterday on Live Musician Central I wrote a post about the excellent software Celemony Melodyne Studio 3. The software is simply fantastic and it’s almost impossible to do it’s capabilities justice simply by writing about it. So today I’m posting up a couple of very informative YouTube videos discussing Celemony Melodyne Studio software. So if you have a few minutes, it’s really worth watching these videos just to see the amazing capabilites of Celemony Melodyne pitch correction software.
Celemony Melodyne Studio is an excellent program for timing and pitch correcting vocals as well as instruments.
Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Screenshot Collage
A while ago I wrote a post on Live Musician Central about working with Celemony Melodyne Uno to pitch correct your vocal recordings. Melodyne Uno has been a great tool for fixing out of tune notes on my studio recordings. I have really enjoyed working with Melodyne Uno but I finally decided I wanted more features and the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. So I went ahead and upgraded to Celemony Melodyne Studio 3.
Melodyne Studio 3 has been fantastic to work with. As I said, my main motivation for upgrading was the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. It does this perfectly and the ability to work with multiple tracks at the same time means that my recording projects get completed a lot faster. It’s so nice to be able to compare two, three or more harmonies together while having the ability to shift individual notes in any of the lines. Being able to bounce between tracks instantly and then being able to hear how the harmonies play back is really a huge time saver. Continue reading “Advanced Vocal Pitch Correction With Celemony Melodyne Studio”
So you’ve finally got enough songs, enough time and enough cash to get yourself some studio time and record that album you’ve always dreamed about. So what else do you need to do to get ready to make every minute count?
The number one most important thing is to have the songs fully written and learned before going into the studio. You don’t want to waste valuable studio time making changes to the songwriting in the studio. You should have all your instrument parts learned including solos. Your singer should have all the lyrics memorized and everyone should have their backup vocal parts learned and memorized. Continue reading “Preparing For A Studio Recording Session”
