Technology is (mostly) wonderful

Well… having backed up everything from Faerie Tales & Other Stories I decided to take the plunge and buy a new PC, dedicated just to music making.

After looking online and in-store I settled on a Dell Studio XPS tower with an Intel Core i7, 8GB Ram, and 2 internal 1TB hard drives. A week later it was with me (great turnaround time Dell!!!).

First thing I did was to completely reinstall Windows 7 (64 bit) because I didn’t want all the Dell resource-hungry applets running and starting up when I didn’t want. And then I thought I’d best start to install all my music software and samples.

I’ve managed to build up quite a library of music software but I thought I’d probably get it done in a day… but alas it was not meant to be. Two days later the job is done, and a massive “thank you” to my wife Sara for being so patient – I have now used up over 200GB of my dedicated music samples hard drive.

Having tried it all out this evening I must say I’m exceptionally pleased with my new setup – I also have a touchscreen monitor now too and I think that’s going to actually speed up my workflow… it’s so much more tactile (well, duh!).

Anyway, enough waffle… tomorrow I start to use it for real…! Next Purple Rhapsody album… here I come, ready or not!

Cheers,

Terry.

Big Purchase – Complete Composers Collection

Well… those that know me will realise that my love and respect for my wife know no bounds. So I can’t say that I love her more than I did, however she has made me a very very very very happy musician!

It’s my birthday next Sunday and after prevaricating for roughly 9 months about whether or not to get more East West Quantum Leap software she has persuaded me to take advantage of the current 70% off the Complete Composer Collection.

I have customised it slightly because I already have the Orchestra and don’t need the Pianos so I’ve replaced them with Ministry of Rock and the Stormdrum 2 PRO upgrade so when it arrives I’ll have almost the complete suite that they produce.

The quality of the Orchestra is absolutely superb, the care and attention they take over recording the sounds and creating the samples is unsurpassed so I’m immensely looking forward to next weekend when FedEx will hopefully have delivered them.

Anyway, enough of an advert for East West and back to figuring out how I can thank my wife for my birthday present…

Cheers,

Terry.

New blogging tool

Well, new to me anyway. It’s Windows Live Writer, and it allows you to write blog entries on your PC and upload them. Supposedly better than using the WordPress browse interface but time will tell…

I’ll try it for a while and let you know how I get on with it.

Cheers,

Terry.

The Mysteries of EQ - Explained!!!!

I’ve never understood anything about EQ - all I’ve ever known is that it can make the difference between an amateur home recording and a professional sounding masterpiece, all without re-recording a single instrument.

I’ve tried EQing various tracks before and although I’ve been able to make some differences using my skill to adjust EQ has been a bit like trying to perform delicate needlepoint with a javelin. Some success but the overall effect is ruined (okay so it’s a really bad metaphor but hopefully you get my drift).

Now, however, I think that there may be light at the end of the EQ tunnel because in this month’s Computer Music magazine (issue 125) there’s a brilliant article and tutorial on how to use EQ. I’ve just tried it out on one of my newer tracks and the results are amazing! There might just be hope for my sound quality yet.

New Toy - Kinetic 2

I bought a new piece of software the other day - it’s Kinetic 2 from Cakewalk.

It’s, erm, a “Groove” editor! I’ve always been a bit sceptical about these programs because to me they harp back to the old days of having an expensive keyboard with some decent built-in beats together with chords and basslines that you could build up a song using just one or two fingers.

In my opinion what you were really doing is just re-arranging or fiddling about with the music, you weren’t actually composing or performing it really. I know that probably makes me sound like a musical snob but I don’t care… I’ve been lucky enough to be properly taught how to play and so I can use my experience, many people haven’t and tools like these are the only way they can use their creative ‘juices’ effectively.

However…. although Kinetic 2 does allow you to choose from hundreds (or thousands?) of preset beats, basslines, chords, etc, etc, etc it also allows you to build up your own grooves from scratch. I’ve used this today in a track provisionally called ‘Echoes of Purple’ to build up a rhythm using an external drum VSTi and then using Rewire to control Kinetic 2 from my main sequencer program, Sonar 7.

I’m still not completely finished but it was a complete and utter joy to work with these 2 programs together - the building up of the beat and drum parts was simple and controlling Kinetic from Sonar 7 was a piece of cake.

I’m glad I was wrong about Kinetic 2 - thanks Cakewalk!

EastWest Quantum Leap - I WANT IT!!!!

Been looking at upgrading my orchestral libraries and visited the EWQL site. They’ve got a ‘complete’ package for only $1000. Can I justify that kind of expense????

Alex Pfeffer has done a great demo using many of the instruments and voices included in the package - check out his blog and listen to Herophobia.