Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Steven Snodgrass January 2nd, 2010 - For the new year, I've started writing an ebook on how to improve your songwriting. It will be a free ebook available to any who wants it and you can copy it, print it out, and send it to your friends. It won't be an epic thousand page tome, but it won't short either. I may post some of it as I'm writing to gauge the reaction to it as well. I plan on ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Grant MacDonald December 25th, 2009 - For those of you who celebrate Christmas, did you give or receive any cool music gear this year? Read More

Photo courtesy of Grant MacDonald December 22nd, 2009 - Tis the season as they say, and with only 2 days left to be a good consumer, shopping malls are getting nuts. As we edge closer to Christmas, the amount of holiday music grows increasingly concentrated. When I was a child, I thought this music was fun. Now, it seems like the music is there to remind us to get out and spend money. In the UK, people fed up with carefully planned marketing around ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Propellerhead December 19th, 2009 - Since the Triton I normally use to trigger MIDI is broken, I've been using a Korg MS20 controller (the one that comes with the Legacy Collection). In Reason, the MS20 is mapped as a standard keyboard. Unfortunately, the MS20 only has 3 octaves, and no dedicated buttons to change octaves. I can change octaves within the transport in Logic but I can't figure it out in Reason. It's a real pain when I'm using Redrum ... Read More

December 1st, 2009 - Since I've added electro to the list of music genres I like, I've become much more interested in using Reason to produce music. Watching the various Reason tutorials on Youtube has gotten me hyped up to use Reason's built-in synthesizer Thor especially. There are so many great sounding presets that it's hard not to find a sound you'll like. As well, Reason's pattern-based effects are very powerful. The one part of Reason that's terrible, and I'm sure why Propellerhead ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Tim O’Brien November 11th, 2009 - Thomas K. asks "I read your article on school and audio engineering. I'm just wondering where you went to school, where you first started out engineering, and how you made that transition. I'm currently going to school, and learning about audio production, and interning (for free). I have pursued a lot of what have turned out to be dead ends in my search for employment in the field of audio production/engineering. I'm sure you're ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Kufala November 3rd, 2009 - Many artists are choosing to release their music completely digitally these days, but there is still a case to be made for pressing physical CD's. For one, many fans want to have a physical object that represents their hard-earned dollars. As well, some people in the music industry aren't particularly internet savvy (you don't say!) and don't know how, or don't want, to visit the various sites you may have created an online EPK (electronic ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Steve Harris October 19th, 2009 - Yesterday, I was visiting Nijo-jo in Osaka which is a shogunate residence built in the 1600's. To alert the shogun to the presence of spies, the floors were constructed to be intentionally squeaky. As such, they are called "Nightingale Floors". I spent a good half an hour recording the sounds of tourists walking back and forth on the floors. People must have thought I was odd. I'm sure it's not even close to the oddest ... Read More

October 9th, 2009 - We're all adults here, but sometimes we still idolize those with talents we wish we had. Well maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone, but I still idolize, and am in awe of, people with extraordinary talent. I'll start off the fanboy-ism. I'm a Danny Elfman super fan. I haven't liked everything he's done, but he is capable of such a wide range of moods, and orchestrations, it's ridiculous. Who do you idolize? Read More

Photo courtesy of Taran Rampersad October 5th, 2009 - When I came here for vacation, I decided to bring my iTunes library which is housed in a semi-bulky external Firewire drive. Instead of bringing that drive however, I bought a small cheap USB-powered one. That got me thinking about how secure my song projects are. Although I have songs for clients that will probably never be used again, I'm still worried about losing them. I currently house them all on my local drive and ... Read More