Key Of Grey

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

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 Steven Snodgrass September 15th, 2009 - The friend I'm staying with here in Osaka is quite a busy musician. Up until now though, he's been mostly playing covers but lately he's been working on original material. He asked me how I start a song and how I build up its production. I'm not experienced enough to be able to write songs a certain way every time, so I was unable to tell him a magic formula. Sometimes an idea just comes ... Read More

Photo courtesy of fd September 2nd, 2009 - I've discussed why I use Logic before, and Joe Gilder over at HomeStudioCorner wrote a counterpoint to my article. I've also stated that I use different software for different jobs; I might use Reason, Ableton Live, Logic and Protools at any one time. Which DAW, dear reader, do you use and why? Do you use multiple software titles, or stick with one? If you were presented with a new DAW that looked better than what ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Edvill August 10th, 2009 - I was reading about Velvet Revolver today, and apparently they are looking for a singer to replace Scott Weiland. It got me thinking about how few super groups actually succeed. Is it because the expectations are so high? Or is it just because there are so many egos that its difficult to get a good product? Sometimes I think that record labels think that the star power of a band alone will carry them, but ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Dave Malkoff July 30th, 2009 - Today, there was a post on Gizmodo about DeltaLab studios in Denmark. I had seen the studio before, but the comments got me thinking. How important are the aesthetics of your studio space (home or otherwise) to your creative process? I'm not talking about ergonomics and I know everyone likes to have nice equipment, but does having a pretty space make you more creative or productive? I've had the great fortune of working with ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Steven Snodgrass July 26, 2009 - A few weeks ago, I asked for some reader questions and Sebastien Orban was kind enough to oblige. Today, I thought I'd take some time to answer one of his questions. Sebastien wrote, "My goal while learning to play the guitar was to learn enough about music so I can create new work. But well, I have a hard time to wrote something that got a duration of more than 30s, maybe 1 ... Read More

July 17, 2009 - There are a lot of products out there that promise to rid your life of pesky wires. Wires for your headphones, wire for your media server, wires for your speakers; the magic of radio waves eliminates the need for a rat's nest of audio cable. Personally, I do not use wireless methods to listen to my music as I'm not crazy about signals flying all over the place and causing interference when I'm recording music. However, when I'm visiting ... Read More

April 23rd, 2009 - Like many of you who were enjoying music before the rude awakening of the late 90's boy-band, I had a garage band with my high school friends. We thought we rocked hard, and we even practiced in a garage to complete the cliche. My time was grunge, and we played our fair share of Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and even some Doors. The running joke in our band was that, while I had the attitude and fashion (ugh), ... Read More