Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Marc Arsenault March 10th, 2010 - Yoshi Akai, who's apparently a steampunk aficionado, has created a sequencer that uses Lego to program 3 channels and 8 steps. Each coloured block has an embedded resistor, and stacking them controls effects. The website is sparse on details but it looks like the synthesizer is built into the unit, and it doesn't look like there's MIDI out. Still, very cool implementation and bonus points for bringing the original Lego pieces back. Who needs ... Read More

Photo courtesy of woody1778a March 9th, 2010 - If you're an independent artist, one of the best ways to make a living from your music is to license your music for use in films, TV, or video games. Of course, it's not as simple as putting your music out there and having the money roll in; you need to work with a company that has connections to businesses that need music like yours. Finding a good company to represent you is a daunting task ... Read More

March 8th, 2010 - These days if you aren't promoting yourself on sites like Facebook or Twitter, you're losing out on a huge amount of potential fans that could stumble on you and promote your music to their friends. Facebook in particular seems quite powerful at connecting your music with new listeners. The problem is that the fan pages on Facebook leave much to be desired. Root Music is a site that connects to your Facebook fan page, and it allows you to ... Read More

March 6th, 2010 - A couple years back, I had a chance to move to Austin for work. More interesting to me than the work, was Austin's vibrant music community. The crown jewel in that community is the annual South by South West conference which combines music, business, and technology all together into a huge party. I've never had the fortune of attending, but it's on my list. Many bands first break at SXSW, and many established bands also play it. Each year, ... Read More

Photo courtesy of mattthegamer463 March 5th, 2010 - Have you ever wanted to ditch all the batteries in your guitar pedal rig? For someone like me that doesn't get out of the studio much, it seems like a waste to use up all those nine volt batteries when I don't really need the portability. Instructable user mattthegamer463, has created a $25 DIY power supply to daisy chain through all your pedals. Of course, dealing with all that electricity can potentially be dangerous, so ... Read More

Photo courtesy of 3 Sons Productions March 4th, 2010 - So lately, I've been thinking a lot about sampling. Legally it's pretty straightforward, if you take a piece of someone else's recording then you have to secure rights to do that. Whether or not you agree with the way the legal system is set up, is not what I want to discuss here. I've discussed my take on sampling before and while my feelings on the subject have evolved slightly, I still largely feel ... Read More

Photo courtesy of frigante March 3rd, 2010 - One of the hardest thing to do in music production is record a drum set properly. A close second, is mixing that same drum set. Fortunately, AudioTuts has a great step-by-step series on how to accomplish just that. What I like about it in particular is that not only does the author tell you exactly the settings and plugins he's using, he tells you why he's using them so you can expand on what he's ... Read More

March 2nd, 2010 - I thought I'd start a new segment with recommendations of classic albums that you might not have heard yet, but really should. The albums don't need to necessarily be old, but they do have to have that "classic" quality that transcends time. They can be any genre, but I thought that today, I'd start off the series keeping the classic feel in mind. Donny Hathaway is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He was ... Read More

March 1st, 2010 - It's March 1st, and I don't have an album done for the RPM Challenge. As for the main task of writing an album's worth of material in 28 days, I failed completely. My main problem was that almost every song I wrote was for a different genre, probably a remnant from my days working in a song factory. Not only did this mean that there were never enough songs to complete a cohesive album, but most of the ... Read More

February 27th, 2010 - There are a lot of different types of jobs in the audio industry outside of music. One of the sectors that's rising in profile is sound design. Sound designers can work on movies and television, or on video games. They work with sounds they've recorded, or vast libraries that they maintain and apply effects to. It's their job to accurately aurally portray the speed of that Porsche, or the sub-woofer rattling roar of a gigantic octopus-faced sea monster. I've ... Read More