Music Friday

Snowed in pretty good up here in Portland, so snuggle up and listen to some tunes will ya?

Reaper

So I dabble in recording stuff, because, hey, why not? But with COVID, not being able to record new stuff, and all of that I have been pretty burned out. Also, I have been using Pro Tools for the last few years and it has gotten really stale. Just opening the program is depressing somehow. They are like the Maya or Photoshop of DAWs. Don’t like it? Screw you.

But recently one of my friends has started to track stuff at their place and wanted me to lay down drums on it. I think I recommended Reaper to him as an affordable way to record years ago, but not too sure about that. But after working with his files a bit I figured to make sending the project back and forth smoother I would give Reaper a try.

Man, it so far has been way nicer to use than Pro Tools. I took the entire project from Protools to Reaper without even have to google anything. The UI is just that easy to follow and find stuff. If anyone else is looking to escape the Pro Tools nightmare of dongles, license crap, crashes (oh my god the crashes!), I highly suggest giving Reaper a shot.

Folder instead of busses are just so simple and awesome to use. Guitar bus? Just make a blank track and drag them in. Done. Super clean and customizable interface. So far the only real hitch is that the free plug-ins that ship with it are downright ugly, lol! The 7 band EQ is pretty slick and has some nice functionality but it just looks like something from 98. Also, I can’t get my Sound Toys plugs in to load which is a bummer. But FET compressor and pretty much all my other ones load no problem. Get FET now. It’s so worth it.

The next step is to install it on my recording rig and get all the mics configured and try out some tracking with it. In Pro Tools I have been having a lot of crashes that when I am playing and it locks, it just starts screaming in your ear. So bad….

Is it possible to play music together over the internet?

Here is something my friend Steve sent my way that I have yet to test out, but it looks like it might work? The Windows client is in Beta though which could be troublesome. If I get the time to run some tests, I’ll post the results here. Musicians Together Apart.

The hardest number to hit for most people will be the ping which from the Network Testing page needs to be under 50ms, best if under 30ms. All the other stats seem very doable with most broadband.



Tape Op!

Just got my new issue of Tape Op magazine and if you are into any kind of recording this is a must have. So many great interviews and stuff to check out all about studio recording, home recording and more. Plus, the magazine has a FREE subscription. If you play any music, it’s a no brainer to subscribe. Tape Op!

Home Studio Setup Costs Compared - 1980s And Now

I have been dabbling in home recording for about 25 years now and this article is a really fun read.

“As you can see, the cost of entry to get the same, if not better results than those afforded by recording setups of the 1980s, is around a 10th of the price, as a community member pointed out, if you account for inflation then the cost today would be an eye watering £33,580.65. Furthermore, modern systems are more flexible, take up far less space, burn far less electricity and use far fewer user serviceable parts.

Gear has never been cheaper or been as flexible and powerful. The next time you want to moan because a piece a software or a plugin doesn’t do everything you wished it did then you may want to remind yourself of how lucky we are to record and mix today!

Modern recording gear is a bloody miracle, there is no other word to describe it. Now go and make some music!”

Check out this awesome UI!

Moon Hooch!

Kinda feel like everyone could use a little Moon Hooch in their life right now. And it’s Friday so Fuck It.

New Commisioned Poster Art

Just finished up a commissioned Poster for the Portland band We Are Parasols that I am super happy with. A bit of a breakthrough piece for me for a few reasons. This is the first fully creative piece I have made since recently switching to a new Windows machine from Puget Systems for my full time environment. The Mac be dead people, move on sooner than later. I also contribute the new PC workstation with helping light and build out this set since it is so damn fast. Full on game changer for me. So many more possibilities with a system that does not choke and crash in dense scenes. Another reason is it just looks super damn cool, wheee! Really happy with the feel of it.  I kinda had a breakthrough with Octane Render and understanding the node network and it's slightly quirky take on displacement as well.