old studio story Posted by poolboyjames on May 25, 2010 at 3:18 PM comments (0)1st off.. if ur not into music recording then DO NOT read this.. it is only for other people who do music.. this is just for me to put some of my recording background out there for my fellow music peeps
ok yesterday i was at a store and i got the idea to talk about my old studio setup i've gone through multiple different phases with setups, i started making beats on playstation music generator, then i went to fruity loops, then i went to acid, then the reason demo.. the list goes on however i'm going to talk about my main setup i used for when i made love is elusive the setup i used for love is elusive was the best possible quality i could get with the tools i had ok so here we go computer - vpr matrix/ ram 512mb/ hard drive 60gb http://www.vprmatrix.com/products_desktop_180R.asp its obsolete now however i got this computer in fall of 02.. it was during the first generation of computers without the huge glass screens with the protruding backside.. so people would be like wow ur flat screen monitor is dope! and it was for the time, however i still had to carry around that huge tower between school and home and it was HEAVY.. i want to say it was at least about 60lbs this computer held up well until it died in summer of 08 mic - sony asked for one for Christmas and got it.. it was from best buy.. just a regular old cheap mic.. this was before best buy sold actual real audio gear.. my mom probably found the mic in the karaoke section.. it had an 1/8' hook up as opposed to xlr my computer had a mic-in which wasn't the best however it worked with a little messing around.. for example i realized that holding the mic was ruining the sound a lot so i got my sister's lamp stand and used it for a mic stand (thanks tia, lol) .. i took a bulb out and put the mic in it.. i shoved a sock in there too to absorb shock or potential movement of the mic at the school of audio engineering one thing i always remembered was what they taught about mic screens or (pop-guards).. they said the only proper way to have it is to have 2 layers due to how sound works, so i got the proper pop-guard and i started using it.. then i realized the acoustics of my room were bad for recording, so i wrapped a shirt around the mic to capture all sound and create a "warm" environment.. this way instead of hearing the acoustics of my square room with echo and extra garbage, u just hear my voice coming in through the pop-guard in a steady condensed stream of sound some people didn't really understand why i did this, but essentially a thick shirt (i used a polo) has the same effect as carpet or foam.. it absorbs sound as opposed to reflecting it basically it took a little time to begin to understand all these subtleties of sound but after a while u begin to see that music is a series of small details.. each change u make is a subtle change, but when u combine every alteration together then u have a superior and easily distinguishable sound quality audio editing software - nuendo 2 i ran into this guy named Q and he knew a lot about music.. he helped me out for a while with learning how to do it properly like for example i had been trying to record vocals in stereo and he was the guy who told me basic stuff like vocals are always recorded mono etc. Q gave me a ton of software to help get me started on the right path in music.. among the software he gave me, there was nuendo 2.. i didn't really know how to use it but i knew it was better than what i had at the time, so i switched and never went back.. nuendo 2 is great, i never really hit a wall with that software.. i always seemed to be able to do what i wanted to do with it interface - m-audio firewire 410 i HATED this thing... i hated it so much it got to where i actually took it outside one day and threw it on the ground and stomped on it and everything it just never worked right.. the headphone jacks were screwed up and i'd get static, and don't even get me started on the whole "install the driver" thing.. i'd do it and hey what does system32 mean? oh crap my whole hard drive has just been formatted! LOL.. i HATED that thing Q was the one who gave me the interface.. i didn't really understand what an interface did, because my computer had a mic line-in.. and i didn't have real studio monitors, i just had speakers that i hooked up to my computer via stereo red and white and a 1/8' jack.. i remember the interface just having latency issues and just being garbage.. but if i remember correct, i had gotten it to work a few times and so i used it for the time keyboard: one day Q said "i need a mac laptop" ...i had one from going to the school of audio engineering.. so he told me he'd buy mine if i let him.. so i agreed so i could purchase a keyboard he told me not to get such a big and pricey keyboard but i didn't listen because i still thought i'd need it.. it was a huge yamaha.. it was more for like personal enjoyment and live performances but luckily it still had usb midi capability so i used it with reason 3.0 for the time music creation software - reason 3.0 full version and re-cycle reason 3.0 was pretty much perfect for me for the time.. i told my friend derek i wanted it and he somehow got it for me online and mailed the discs to me.. i was SO thankful, it was crazy because i didn't have the money for it.. and derek wasn't even into making music, out of nowhere one day i just told him that i wanted this thing called reason 3 and he said some ish like "give me ur address and hold tight" next thing i knew i had the whole thing at the doorstep (it was somewhere around $300 or $400 at the time) i used it for years so thanks again derek! i used reason as-is for a while until i finally realized i wanted to try and sample a bit.. then i learned about re-cycle.. which is reason's main way of sampling however it is an add-on.. i just got on the computer and attempted to find it.. luckily i did and i was able to crack the code and get everything working on it.. because of the re-cycle i was able to capture and sequence the guitar on "hott-friend" and the melody on "rain" speakers - just a regular old stereo system i had hooked up to the output of my computer.. i got the stereo in 1998 for my 14th birthday so it was just a regular thing, nothing special or professional ok that should cover it.. i just found a picture also.. it shows pretty much everything i talked about
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
JaimsHere are my 2010 blogs. I can honestly say I like looking back over these, so check them out. They're teh hotness. Archives
December 2010
|