My studio workflow.

It bugs me to death when my favorite producer's avoid talking about their production work. Specifically the things they use.

I'm more of the type to want to help rather than worry about someone using the same gear I do. I never want to be like that. EVER! So starting today I'm going to be doing a series on just about everything I use in my production. Today I'm going to do an overview of the things that I use. From there I'm going to be doing reviews based on how I do the music.

So without further delay, here's my gear.

I'm a huge Native Instruments junkie. So I have the following items

Kontakt 5
Maschine
Absynth 5
Massive
Reaktor 5
Guitar Rig 5
Battery 3
Driver
Kore 2

A special note on Kore 2; it's discontinued, however I suppose you might be able to find one used on the web.

The easiest way to get all that if you want it is to get the Komplete 8 Ultimate bundle. Which is what I did. I've been a Komplete user since the 6th version.

I got Driver as a special Christmas promotion and it was free for a limited time. Native instruments likes to do cool stuff like that.

Maschine you can't buy in a bundle but it's definitely worth it!

I run everything in Maschine, doing sound design and primary production in Maschine.

Then I take everything bounced out into stems then mix and master in Logic. Yes I master my own music. I know a lot of folks don't like that idea, including my College. However I have a sound in my head and I don't like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars to someone who doesn't know what I'm going for.

I also do a lot of my traditional recording (vocals, guitars, basses, etc.) in Logic for me it's much easier.

I do all my sheet music in Sibelius 6. They are currently on version 7 however I'm personally happy with the features of 6.

My music computer is a Macbook Pro, it's pretty stable and I like the Operating System, so I go with that.

If you like PC better more power to you.

My recording interface is an Mbox 3 Mini, I got it with Pro Tools 8 LE which I'm not a fan of. So I just use the interface.  But the truth is when it comes to D.A.W. its what works for you.

I have 2 keyboard controllers, M-audio keystation 88 es and M-audio Oxygen 25.

I use two microphones both condensers MXL 990, and MXL 991.

It's a long list, but it's what I use. I'm not listing the physical instruments because all of my guitars and basses are relatively inexpensive, and again it's one of those things based on your own personal preference.

That's a huge thing about Music, it's not necessarily what you use but how you use it.

Keeping that in mind, this has been the most cost effective solution I've ever used. Well everything except the Mac. However it was part of my College requirements so it was provided for me. I still had to pay for it but I was given a huge school discount.

When I return for another blog in this series, I will start going over the items included in Komplete 8 Ultimate!

I hope this series helps with your music.

Finger Picking

Well folks there's something to be said about changing a routine. Though routines are pretty great, I have to say that I am happy with the results. As a musician or songwriter, we get used to doing things the old fashioned way. Doing things all the way we've done them for years on end.

As such I have never been good with finger picking a guitar. I started working on that today and I noticed something really cool. Turns out what when I focus on finger picking when I'm writing I come up with more interesting rhythms than if I would do it any other way.

It really opens me up and gets the juices flowing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of those efforts.

I can definitely suggest trying something different once in a while. Whether that be a new playing technique, or a new genre entirely. It may just inspire your current efforts.

Well even though this one was rather short today, I hope that it helps and you get something out of it.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Music Theory and Alternate Dimensions

Well as you can see from the title this one's going to be kinda weird.

I have been poking around with this idea lately. It's more of a concept that I want to use in a story.

As you guys may know I'm also an amateur writer on type of being a songwriter. The reason I post about my writing in this music blog is simply due to the fact the entire concept revolves around music.

Basically the main character in the story is rather special, he can walk through songs as if they were a place.

It's a plane of existence where sound is a location, and he has the ability to go there and experience music like nobody else has. 

Basically this character is able to listen to a song in headphones close his eyes and be transported into the song. As he walks around inside the song's dimension he can interact with the different musical parts in the songs. 

I've been playing around with this idea for about a year, and even though I generally write horror, I would love to try this out if only in a short story.

What do you guys think? Worth a shot or a complete rubbish idea that I should throw away for all time? 

Concept of a Portable Recording Studio

Recording studios have always been thought of as these massive multi-million dollar structures with way more knobs, buttons, and faders than we can possibly count.

Ever since I was a teenager this never appealed to me. I never liked the thought of having to go to the ends of the earth to record an idea. This brings me to my next thought. I've never imagined a recording studio as being anything more than a sketchpad. I mean you can write your lyrics and chords down. You can even write out sheet music or tabs.

However to have audible feedback is an amazing concept. To be able to digitally document all of your musical works is amazing.

So why do we always think of music in such a stringent and sterile environment?

Isn't music suppose to be as imaginative and raw as we are?

Music in my opinion is the epitome of humanity. The absolute best language for conveying anything and everything about, God, love, hate, or any other thing involved in the concept of humanity. It's anything but sterile.

So I always liked the idea of being able to capture that passion and energy at a moments notice.

When I was about 19 I came up with an idea for a portable recording studio solution. The idea was to be able to fit all of the basic requirements of a composing and recording studio in a backpack.

Even if it was a slightly large backpack.

I realized that beyond all the insane outboard gear you can get yourself caught up in, there's not much to a recording studio at it's most primal level.

Computer
Audio Interface
Microphone
Microphone cable

That's it!

So if you want you can get a mic, a mic cable, a buss powered interface and a laptop.

This is super simple and great for doing basic things.

However over time my highly refined concept needed drastic expansion. But my primary requirement remained the same.

I want a recording studio in a backpack.

I like to fancy myself as a composer on top of being a singer/songwriter.

So as a composer I came across virtual instruments. It was  stroke of genius for whoever thought these things up!

Nowadays a virtual instrument is as expansive as you want and much cheaper and more practical than the real thing.

A primary example of this is Native Instruments. They are a company that makes several virtual instruments.

Let's take Battery 3 for example. It's a product designed around drums. Any kind of drum you can imagine they probably have it in there. From electronic and weird, to orchestral, ethnic, rock, jazz, pop you name it they probably have it.

For a good rock drum set you can be set back thousands.

With Battery you are set back a couple hundred and you have access to thousands of drums!


As you can see from the above link it's not terribly expensive.

I use it almost every day in my work.

Now to run those instruments you can use the piano roll on your recording software.

You could also use a midi controller keyboard or pad controller. This is my personal favorite as far as options go, since you still play the instrument.

Neither way is wrong though and doing what ever works for you is perfect.

I have a M-audio keystation keyboard for my home studio.




I also have an M-audio Oxygen 25 for my backpack studio.

I unfortunately don't have a link for the Oxygen 25 but the keystation link is above.

I use the keystation for piano based things where I need to cover a lot of keys very quickly. I personally use the 88 key one.

However if I'm writing orchestra parts or anything other than full keyboard parts I jump for the 25 key.

The key restriction forces me to think about what I'm playing more and actually results in better music.

This 25 key controller fits in my backpack as well.

This means the list is as follows

-Computer
-Interface-
-Microphone
-Mic cable
-2 usb cables
-25 key controller
-Optional mixing headphones (not optional for me)

All fits in my slightly oversized backpack.

People are shocked and amazed when they see me recording from a backpack or coming up with a full orchestral piece with a tiny keyboard and a Macbook laptop.

Mac vs Pc

It doesn't matter leave it at that.

I have a Mac, because I prefer it. Not because one is better than the other.

If you have any other questions regarding portable recording studios feel free to comment! I will answer all questions to the best of my ability!

Thoughts on music as a career

You know, we all do it. We say we're going to work on songs and we actually do. However there are those times when we really don't and every once in a while we allow that time with music to grow less and less. We spend tons of time on social media, watching tv, or doing anything really. But unfortunately we just don't work on music.

We call ourselves songwriters and composers right? Why don't we ever really get down into the depth's of our souls with music like we used to? Why don't we bleed for it anymore?

As time goes by we tend to forget how wonderful writing music really is. It's definitely unfortunate. However it takes time and discipline to get back into the groove.

Well I can't say that for all of the music world. However for us mere mortals we require time and patience.

It's an old concept of effort and reward. Most people like to be rewarded for their time. For some of us we only require a finished piece to feel satisfied. That sense of accomplishment if you will. For other's they feel the need for more external and non-holistic rewards. Some could desire payment for their work, others maybe praise. I think personally a lot of people would like to have both.

As you may or may not know my primary goal right now is to gain financially from my writing, enough so that I can make music full time.

This is not to say I'm doing it for the money. If I were doing that I would be in another career path. However I would like to make enough to pay the bills and have some extra for play. This way I don't have to hold down regular jobs in order to keep my house.

It's a struggle I believe most artist's or writer's go through in their lives. We want a ton of time to pursue our art without having to worry about where we are going to get food from.

Truth be told even though vast riches sounds nice I think I would be happy just doing music for a living and paying the bills.

What are your thoughts?

Alexander the Great can Teach You to Write Music!

Hello folks,


I've noticed something that most of the people I know in music don't seem to take into account when they work their craft.

A songwriter is an author.

What does this mean exactly? Well in my humble opinion a song writer is similar to a novel writer in some regards.

They are writing someone's story.

For most songwriter's they are writing their own story bit by bit song by song.

Religious songwriter's may write stories from whatever sacred text they follow and put it to a melody.

Other's however write the stories that other people go through. This is one area I like to delve into myself. One of my favorite things to do when writing lyrical music or thematic instrumentals even is to go to my local library and pick up a history book.

Keep in mind that most feel history is a very dry and (bad pun) dated subject. However I'm going to attempt to change your minds today.

The first thing you need to know about history is that it's the most human subject of study you can imagine. History for the most part deals with the actions and consequences of people. Okay most of us can agree with that on some kind of level, however it goes much deeper than that!

Take for example Alexander the Great. You can look at his historical biography and you can try and put yourself in his shoes in your imagination. The more you do this the more you can start to identify with that particular character in history. Because for the sheer fact human emotion is similar in every human being. We all feel love, passion, ambition, distress, confidence, pride, fear, all of it. Imagine the pride Alexander must have felt while conquering much of the known world. Imagine any part of his life and how he would have felt in that moment.

History isn't some kind of dusty old group of stories. It's humanity at it's finest and it's worst. You can literally find inspiration at a moments notice with a simple history book in your hands. After doing something like this I've found myself writing music I didn't even know I was capable of. Such a variety of sounds that can come from writing music based on a story is much more powerful than just playing notes that fit with music theory textbooks.

Music like History is an intimate, grand, passionate, emotional experience. Most of all it is a very human experience.

The combination of the two is a very powerful concept.

I hope everyone can enjoy their time with music and find inspiration daily!

The Genre Debate?

Hello,

Today I wanted to talk about genre.

Specifically whether or not you should pay attention to what genre you're writing for or not.

For most of my musical career I've been writing for the rock and metal scene. I started out by learning guitar and the first accessory I bought was a distortion pedal.

That being said however there are several people that feel you don't need to distinguish genre preferences. I both agree and disagree with that statement. You might be asking yourself if I have lost my mind completely but hear me out!

When writing your music I feel that you should approach it from an emotional standpoint but when selling it or marketing it to other artists pick a genre group.

It does sound a bit confusing talking about music from an "emotional writing" standpoint. How do you write emotion? How does one even go about quantizing something that is intangible?

That's what music is all about. Unfortunately most people though they might say that they know this never try to write this way. It is severely possible and almost a requirement for great music, however if you try to write emotionally without good technique your chances of writing something useful will be severely limited.

Sad to say the greats that can pull it off without knowing music theory like Hendrix are few and far between. That's why they are legends and most of us are mere mortals.

So the first step is of course to know your music theory and know the instruments you are writing for. All that boring preliminary stuff.

But to write from an emotional standpoint you need to change the way you think first.

Don't think based on the standard instrumentation for your usual style of music. Try to open up your mind a bit, and think about what kind of "colors" to use to paint the sonic picture you want to create.

If you want something angry and aggressive, try some distortion on a guitar and palm muting. Or if you want something to imitate sheer beauty. Maybe a severely sparse high pitched piano doing slow solemn notes.

Once you're equipped with the techniques and the knowledge of the instruments you're writing for the possibilities are endless!

The second part of the equation is to market based on genre. I heard once that if you want to make it in music focus on the music first then the names after.

You can learn a good bit from that, focus on the music but then worry about branding later.

Remember you can love the music but if you actually want to make a living with music you also have to think of it as a product at a certain point. Keep in mind being the big fish in a small pond is much better than being the small fish in the big ocean!

So the 1000 fans rule definitely applies here!

However you choose to write your  music, brand it when you're prepared to sell it! So just go with whatever matches your overall sound.

I will have more on both of these concepts later but this is just to get you thinking.

As usual I hope you leave inspired.

Get out and write some amazing music!