Each Spring the Musical Instruments world descends upon Frankfurt, Germany for the planet’s largest MI trade show; Musikmesse. Cakewalk’s had a presence at the Frankfurt Musikmesse for decades and with one small exception this year was no different. This year I was a part of the crew. And this year I wrote a blog about it!
Some artists spend more time trying to catapult their image into the status spotlight than they do actually creating music. Some artists lay low under the radar diligently doing their thing. In this day and age, there really is no right or wrong way to be an artist in the music industry, you just have to do what you do best and run with it. If the content is great, it will find its way.
A great artist example of this notion in my book is SONAR X1 Expanded user Jon Lee. Working and residing in Santa Monica, Jon Lee lays low under the radar while creating music and sound-scapes for some of today’s most popular “verite” style TV reality shows. If you have seen the show Cops, than you are probably familiar with one of the most prominent production companies in the biz, “Langley Productions.”
In part two of the series let’s take a look at another crucial element for recording guitars, the microphone.
Just as a speaker plays a large role in the sound of an amp, the microphones used to record it are just as important to getting that tone into a recording. And just like speakers, all microphones have a different sound. Huge differences in sound can be heard even in mics that sell for the same price so experimentation is key when looking for a mic (or mics) to capture your golden tone. Continue reading “Recording guitars- A survival guide pt2: Microphones, your DAW's ears”
A 3 Part Resource for D.I.Y. Acoustic Sound Treatment and Room Development
As a conclusion to my series on Building Cost Effective Acoustic Treatment, I wanted to put a link to all three articles in one place along with a “before and after” video. I also wanted to put this up on our forum in one place in case anyone has any questions about what I did with my studio. If you are planning on trying to save some money by building your own acoustic treatment panels these three articles are worth reviewing.
Part 1: Building a sound cloud over your mix position
The effort to build all this acoustic treatment was not minimal, but well worth it. Besides saving a lot of money I was able to customize the panels so that they fit the room well. Using the QuadCurve EQ which comes with SONAR X3Producer is where I can really tell the difference in my environment. The QuadCurve EQ is very advanced and allows the user to surgically tailor frequencies. Now that I have my room treated properly, I can really hear the difference between the EQ modes.
So the first step is to get going with a version of the SONAR X3 family, and then do your homework and figure out the best listening environment FOR YOU.
Looking for a way to create dub style delay effects in SONAR? Look no further, by following these steps you can easily get that classic dub sound.
First, insert two stereo busses into the project. The first bus “Delay feed” will send the drum signal to the other bus “Delay” which will house the delay plugin. Continue reading “Create Dub-tastic delay effects in SONAR!”
You’ve seen it before. That painful scanning procedure on startup that makes many DAWs seemingly take forever to let you start actually making music with them. Is it a necessary evil? I mean without it you wouldn’t have all your plugins available to you.
Or would you?
SONAR X1 has a very sophisticated and clever mechanism that only scans your plugin folders for changes – and it does this with incredible speed. In fact, it’s almost imperceptible. With “Scan VST Plug-ins On Startup” checked in SONAR’s preferences you get the best of both worlds; newly installed plugins ready and available and yet a blazingly fast startup time without the painful wait of other DAWs. Who wants to wait for an excruciating VST plugin scan when all you want to do is rock? Continue reading “Why you should use "Scan VST Plug-ins On Startup" in SONAR X1. Really.”
The success of SONAR X1 user Chris Standring’s groundbreaking 2010 CD Blue Bolero, which topped several year-end lists and produced a No. 1 single, made it tough for him to create a follow-up record; but all early indicators are showing that he managed quite nicely with the new Electric Wonderland recording which came out yesterday.
As of this morning, Chris woke up to find out that Electric Wonderland has hit #1 in its genre on the Amazon.com sales chart, as well as #1 on the BDS Radio Tracking Chart (Billboard) for the same genre. I would say that’s a setup for a pretty great day, especially considering the “sales” climate of the music industry in general. Electric Wonderland is a 10-song CD of original songs that fuses elements of the last record Blue Bolero’s orchestral touches with a deft jazz-pop touch that’s been a hallmark of Standring’s stellar career.
One of the changes Chris made on Electric Wonderland besides going from SONAR 8.5 to X1 was mixing the record on his own. Continue reading “How Chris Standring Used SONAR X1 to Hit Two #1 Chart Positions”
Getting awesome guitar tones recorded in any setting is not as hard as you might think. After recording a huge number of different guitarists including myself over the last 20 years, I have found that great results can be achieved in almost any space.
While there are no rules when setting out to record the golden tone, these are some things that my years have taught me and in coming installments of this series I’ll be sharing more aspects of getting the tones you’re looking for in the home setting and in general. Continue reading “Recording guitars- A survival guide pt1: Taste testing speakers”
After a long road of hard work and perseverance, the new Cori Yarckin record titled Part of Me was released today in Japan on Spinning Records. Cori is a busy international singer/songwriter who is also signed to BMG publishing in the United States. In the past, she has toured extensively, being known for her powerful voice and stage presence, and has even been seen in Rolling Stone magazine and the ever-famous MTV show TRL. This new record, which was recorded and produced in SONAR X1, is initially available in stores and here in Japan and eventually will be released in the United States.
I’ve had the privilege of working with Cori on a few different records/projects as a producer, mixer and co-writer, and I think this record was the most fun out of them all. This record has an interesting twist to it as we recorded and produced most of the tracks entirely in SONAR X1, with various people jumping in to assist. Brandon Ryan did a lot of the preproduction and bed tracks, while Robin Kelly laid down a lot of the synth and drum programming. Then it was my job to take everything and completely mess it up… I mean put it all together 😉 Continue reading “Cori Yarckin's New Record "Part of Me" Released in Japan Today: See How SONAR X1 was used in her living room…”
Anyone who has used the Matrix View in SONAR X1 can attest to its awesome music creation powers. But it can also be used in combination with the Browser View’s flexible audio preview routing in a DJ setup to make instant remixes on the fly!
There are several ways this can be done depending on the equipment being used. Continue reading “Take the Matrix to the stage with cue mix style clip auditioning.”
