Enjoy

Much better than this one!

Yet the damn thing persists. I keep looking at the latest top model and thinking “wow, my setup would DEFINITELY be better with that!”. Even worse is the thought of “I should wait until I have X piece of gear before I continue working on anything.”

CODSWALLOP

As an owner of Logic Studio, this is the stupidest thought you could ever have. Logic has everything you need to make music. Yet sometimes I sit and wait. Hell, my interface has always been good yet I’m on my fourth interface in the span of two years. And still I want to ‘upgrade’ my interface.

So I came up with a set of questions that I ask myself whenever I have GAS. Read these and memorize them well, they work!

1) Is your setup broke?

Simple question. Look at your setup and identify if there is ANYTHING that is stopping you from doing what you do. If your interface has 2 inputs and you need to record a drum kit, if you simply can’t get the sound you’re looking for out of all the synths you have, if your computer is freezing and crashing every time you open that current project, then proceed. If not, then stop looking at eBay and carry on working!

2) Explain how it is broke.

Actually try and write this down. This question avoids the cheeky way that GAS makes you think something you have isn’t good enough. Sure, those 8 core Mac Pros look awesome and they have a ton of power, but are you seriously maxing out your Macbook Pro yet? And yes, an Apogee Symphony system promises low latency and stellar converters, but is your music sounding that awful at the moment? Wow, those new Genelec monitors get good reviews but are your room acoustics going to make that irrelevant even with your current speakers? Be rational, harsh and realistic.

3) Will item X fix this state of being broke?

This question should only be answered by a resounding YES. As in, YES having 8 inputs will let me mic up the toms at last. YES I can finally score this film with a full VI orchestra without restarting my computer every 5 minutes. Yes my room is perfect and those speakers will really help my mixes translate better. Any doubt and you need to re-evaluate the previous questions.

4) Can you afford it?

Simple, really. No use spending £3000 on that Symphony system if that leaves no money for cables and preamps to run it with.

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’ or is doubtful then at the top of your voice, say aloud:

“IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT”

Then shut the hell up and make some goddamn music.

Hope this helps

Vinnie

Dreamsilent Productions

Drowning in Infinite Light
Uploaded by DrowningInInfiniteLight. – Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Also, there’s a Myspace page for the film, www.myspace.com/drowningininfinitelight

The film is up as a torrent too for those wanting to have a look-see. I’m downloading it myself as I type to make sure its all good and proper, and then I’ll shove the link in here for everyone.

Exciting stuff!

Its been quite a while since the last update, so I’d thought I’d post something.

On the work front, I’ve been working on an indie film called “Drowning In Infinite Light” by David Hayward. The film tells the story of an OCD Agoraphobic, looking back on her past lives and involves two separate versions of herself existing in parallel universes. Its a very abstract film, shot in black and white, and I find the concept and story quite intriguing. The soundtrack is literally awaiting final approval before the final mixdown, then it should be finished! I will be sure to post sections of it for my showreel on Vimeo and possibly youtube (pending rights from the director) so watch this space.

There’s also a sci-fi short action animation which is still going through some pre vis and CGI work before I can resume working on the soundtrack itself.

Onto the studio, here’s some pictures of the new setup:

I’ve moved up to an old Mac Pro, Quad core (2 x 2.66) with 10GB RAM, finished off with a Dell Ultrasharp 24″ display. This is the main workstation, with Logic Studio 9 and Native Instruments Komplete 6 ready to go.

I’m currently plugged into an Apogee Duet interface which is fine for what I’m doing at the moment – a couple of inputs and some great converters for the output, with added portability should I need to be moving about. This feeds a pair of Yamaha HS50m monitors which are doing very nicely at the moment.

I’m planning on building a website pretty soon, once I find the help and funds needed to construct it. That and a constructed showreel will take some time and work, but hopefully I’ll have it completed soon and start getting some more work in.

Until next time

Vinnie
Dreamsilent Productions

I’m a recent Mac convert. But don’t worry…I’m not a fanboy. I won’t defend the Mac to death because I know for a fact that there was a damn good reason I used PCs for ages. But I use Macs now, and I’m much happier.

There are many reasons why I prefer the interface, but there was only one reason that I eventually dived in and made the switch.

I wanted to use Logic.

I had Sonar and got lost so quickly. I didn’t know how anything worked, everything was dark blue and very claustrophobic. On the other hand, we’ve recorded with 2 producers who used Logic, and from watching them work I could see how easy and intuitive everything was. The final clincher was my bordering-on-stalker-obsession with Porcupine Tree frontman and producer Steven Wilson, who…surprise surprise…does everything on a Mac and Logic.

So I wanted to give it a go. I had to. Wilson gets such good results, there’s gotta be something about Logic which just works.

So I sold off my piece of shit Packard Bell laptop, and the high-end Asus gaming laptop that I had, and bought a 2.4Ghz 4GB Macbook pro from eBay for £800. Once I had my copy of Logic 8, I was set to Roll.

But this post isn’t about Logic itself, this is about Macs. So did I say I prefer them? I think I did.

The change, as it always is, was hard at first. Its weird, its an alien interface. But it has right click, so thats one norm that is still there. The keyboard is still QWERTY, so thats cool. From the start, everything looked so simple and logically laid out.

OSX is genious. The PC crowd claim that the tweakability of PCs and Windows is what sets it apart, and I agree. You can’t tweak the Mac as much, even with countless third party Apps installed. But after years of being on PCs and Windows, I knew deep down that I was not a tweaker. As much as I romanticised the idea of building a cheap powerful PC from scratch, I don’t have the patience or passion to do so. When I buy a computer, I want to switch it on and for it to work how I want it to. I want to install a program and then use it off the bat. I don’t want to have to adjust performance settings, upgrade this and that, get rid of useless clutter and worry about whether its safe to get rid of this or that.

And for me, the Mac delivers that. I switch it on and within the blink of an eye its logged in and ready to go. Actually ready to go. I remember with my laptops, even new, after switching them on I’d have to wait a few minutes for them to “settle in”. I’d have to go and turn off all the unnecessary things that slowed it down when it started up. It got to the point that I was in standby or sleep every time I was done with it, rarely switching off because it took so long to get it back up and running. I don’t have this problem with my Macbook, so I have no qualms with turning it off.

Sure, Macs are expensive. But I’m comfortable paying a bit extra safe in the knowledge that it will work. The lack of viruses is a huge relief too…paying for anti-virus software that only just worked, or using inefficient free software, was always a ballache.

Games? Yes, I wouldn’t think twice about playing games on a Mac. If I want PC games, I will get a PC and not settle for anything less. But I’m glad of that fact with my Mac! My Asus laptop was filling up with games (I could get a console, yes. But I need to buy a TV/monitor, plus its more money and space. I prefer FPS on PC too…goddamn I cannot aim with those bloody joystick!) and other stuff, and since I’d purchased it for recording in the first place, I was starting to lose track. My Mac has Logic, iWork and iLife on it, and thats it. Everything I need to work is on there, and not a thing more. I have a couple of Apps for fan control and cleaning, but apart from that my Mac is relatively clutter free. Thus, with the abscence of Call of Duty and Left 4 Dead, I get more work done.

Do I miss gaming? Yes, terribly. But I need to get work done, and its a boon to my productivity having that possibility completely removed. I may get an Xbox or a Gaming PC in the future, but as of now there is too much that still needs investing into the studio for this to be a viable prospect. But I’m comfortable with that.

I had a look at the concept of the “Hackintosh” not too long ago. Tempting. A higher spec mac for a lower price.  But as I said, I’m not a tweaker. I want it to work, and continue working. There are some minor issues with Hackintoshs (aside from being illegal!) which their users say can be fixed by doing X Y and Z, but even so thats not me. I don’t want to have to do X Y and Z to keep my computer working! I want it to work and carry on working!

I’m the same with everything. I recently bought a £20 LG phone handset to replace my flashy Sony Ericsson C90 (5mp camera, games, mp3, the lot) and I’m so much happier! I have polyphonic ringtones and a camera not worth mentioning, but I can call and text people so I’m happy. Same with my guitars and amps…I run single channel amps with Les-Paul style guitars, and few effects. I’m much happier than I was when I had a pedalboard-of-doom and infinite tweakability. Sometimes, you don’t need that many options. And thats how I feel with computers.

Of course, its different for different people. For me, I only need to do a few things with my computer. I need to run Logic, I need to use the internet, I need a word processor and some basic video editing for youtube. iWork is a hell of a lot cheaper than Microsoft Word and I’ve done a huge load of final essays with it with no real problems. iMovie does what I need to do – very basic cutting of video and adding titles, then rendering for Youtube. Firefox runs on Mac with no problems. And Logic…self explanatory.

So for me, I love Macs. If I got another PC, it’d probably be for gaming and playing music (25 Gb and still expanding!). For everything else, my Mac works fine. I’m saving up for a 24″ iMac so I have a home-based computer which is as powerful as my Macbook but with a nice 24″ screen for serious work on Logic. My Macbook runs it fine, I’d just like to have a bigger screen as it can get claustrophobic on a laptop sometimes. Ideally I’d have the iMac clutter free for serious production and editing, and then use the Macbook for emails, admin, word processing and also as a portable DAW for tracking outside of my main studio and also writing/producing on the move.

It may have been the one program that made me switch, but in making that switch I’ve discovered that there are so many other things which I love about Macs that I’m happy where I am. I’m a Mac =P

Take it easy

Vinnie

Dreamsilent Productions

Well…yes and no. It has some great features though – for example, every amp sim has the same controls: Gain, eq, prescence, master and an effects (tremolo or vibrato and reverb), and when you change amp models the settings remain the same. Handy if you’ve got a basic sound setup and want to try it with a different amp.

The micing is a lot more thorough than the Pod – you have a selection of 3 mics (Dynamic, Condenser and Ribbon) but a more full control of the mic placement – you can move it along the speaker but also away from the speaker, giving you tons of options for mic placement. I can’t see any settings for room size, which is something the Pod has over it.

Brief overview of some of the sounds avaliable:

Clean sounds – Very good. Lots of nice Fender blackface and tweed models, a great selection of cabs. Probably the best bit of the amp sims.

Low-mid gain sounds – Very nice for bluesy break-up leads. Feels more natural and fluid than the Pod’s lower gain sounds. Some nice rhythm tones.

High gain – Here’s where it loses out a little. For high gain chords it sounds pretty chunky, but after tweaking and tweaking for ages I only got a barely usable metal rhythm sound. For chug-chug riffing and technical riffs, I have to give this one to Line6. I can fire up Pod Farm and have a great metal tone in seconds.

Another annoyance is that the amps are very noisy, and there’s no gate on the amp or pedalboard which works like the Pod’s gate. There is the Logic gate plug-in, but that’s more processor power and its a more fiddly gate. Also limited on reverb choices in comparison to the Pod.

The Pedalboard is very nice – a quality selection of delays, choruses, phasers, flangers, univibe, ring mod, distortions, fuzzes, even a wah (although you’ll need a decent pedal controller to use it properly) and there’s a splitter and mixer for more complex routing options.

But there’s another point that it missed which the Pod has – pre/post routing. You can’t select individually where the effects are, the only way to have effects Pre and Post is to load up two instances of Pedalboard before and after Amp Designer.

So its give or take. Line6 wins on flexibility and funcionality (as well as metal tones!) BUT some of the amp sims on Amp Designer are much better sounding IMO, and the micing and cab options give you a bigger range of more true mic’d sounds.

There are Fender, Vox, Marshall, Orange, HiWatt, Mesa and Bogner sims on Amp Designer, and as mentioned the latter metal amps are pretty badly done. For clean effected sounds and crunchy rhythm tones, Amp Designer works wonders and sounds great.

But I have my VHT in my room, so I guess there’s no big deal with the lack of good metal tones. The Pedalboard has a great range of effects, the only one I really really miss from the Pod is the Tape Eater. But I think, for now at least, it can work well. We’ll see how it runs in the long term but I think Logic has done a good job in stepping up its amp sims. Not as amazing as promised, particularly for the metal crowd, but very versatile and easy to use…sort of.

1) – Ghost Town Drum Kit

This is one of the Ultrabeat drum kits, and its the one kit where I don’t immediately feel the need to remove all the plug-ins on the channel strip settings. For electronic and soundtrack stuff, the tempo-specific delay adds some real space to the sound, and a lot of the hits make great sounds for adding atmosphere. The track “New Beginnings” on the Dreamsilent Productions Myspace (link on the right) and also the soundtrack that I’m currently working on both include this fantastic kit preset. I just love this drum kit.

My current favourite acoustic kit is ‘Indie Kit’. Very natural sounding kit as far as Logic’s instruments goes, with a nice kick and snare. I usually double a track of Indie Kit with Roadhouse or Studio (on the kick and snare) to fatten it up, and have gotten good results so far.

2) – Space Designer

So many people sing the praises of Space Designer, and I’m joining this club. The amount of things you can do with its convolution impulse response parameters is just mind boggling. Mixing more wet than dry helps to smooth out the ‘fake’ feel of the orchestral instruments, and using 100% wet and no dry adds an interesting effect to instruments and drums if you’re looking for something different. Being able to EQ the reverb is invaluable to avoiding the ‘muddy mix’ if you like using a lot of reverb on everything. Just tweaking the different stuff creates so many interesting sounds, I really couldn’t live without SD.

3) – Class AU Compressor

Tends to be my general ‘fatten up and enhance’ compressor. I try not to compress everything but I love how it reacts with recorded guitars and especially bass guitars. Even just a subtle bit of compression where the dynamic range isn’t significantly altered but the warmth and fatness is added…I love it.

4) – Rotor Cabinet

I love rotary cabinet emulators. Probably sprung from my love of Porcupine Tree, but I love them. So I was pleasantly surprised with the sounds I got from Logic’s Rotor cabinet simulator, and the adjustable parameters avaliable within it. Even sounds good with synths and other instruments. Gives a nice spacey sound and can also thin it out a bit for that ‘mids only’ spooky effect.

5) – Electric Pianos

These all sound great. I like the warped presets too, some cool sounds. Theres a preset with distortion which just sounds fantastic! I’ve wasted many an hour just improvising with these instruments, and even recorded a couple of these noodles. One is up on the Myspace, entitled “Windowledge Doll”

6) – Cinematic Textures

I do have a gripe about this one, and that is the sheer amount of choice. There’s samples across every possible octave of my keyboard, and going through each and every one can be a nightmare (I should really start making notes on which ones are where!). For soundtrack work, as you may guess, they are a great way to find noises that build tension and add atmosphere. More to the sci-fi end of soundtracks (as is the soundtrack I’m currently working on, luckily) but subtley they can be quite versatile. I find them misleading with all the bundled effects turned on though – usually I take all these out to audition the sounds as they are, and then add some tape delay for that distorting, degrading tail-off.

7) – ES P Polyphonic Synth
I’ll admit it. ES2 is still confusing me. The amount of parameters on offer is mind boggling. ES P on the other hand, is a lot simpler and makes great sounds without too much to worry about. Sure, you can’t create the crazy things that ES2 can, but sometimes its easier to find out what’s making your synth sound less how you want it to when there are only a few parameters as opposed to 50! (I don’t know if ES2 actually has 50 parameters, its just a fairly big number)

Ok, so most of these are probably “yeah, I already knew about those and how good they are”. Just thought I’d share my learning experience as it develops

Take it easy,
Vinnie

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?p=34374117&mode=linear#post34374117

Basically a load of audiophiles arguing about the need to spend countless millions on the best A/D/A converters, being able to hear the differences in quality and such.

A few times, somebody pointed out the obvious – what does it matter if your mics, room, monitors and acoustics etc aren’t taken into account? And even rarer was the statement along the lines of “Who cares? Make music that sounds good”.

See, I subscribe to this latter statement. Whilst I’m always tempted to delve deep into spending money I’ll never have on gear I’ll never own to get the best results, I’m always brought back to earth by one man; anyone who knows me knows how much I idolise Steven Wilson. The music which Steven Wilson makes, whether it be Porcupine Tree, Opeth, his own stuff or any one of his side projects, has always sounded blisteringly amazing to me. I don’t pick it apart because he doesn’t use £10000000000 worth of expensive analogue gear. Not only is the music he writes amazing, but the production sounds stellar and the mixes and arrangements are perfect.

And being the obsessive stalkerish fanboy I am, I know pretty much what he uses. An Apple Mac G5, Logic 7 and some Digidesign hardware (as he’s a fan of ProTools plugins). No tape, no huge expensive desk. He does a lot of mixing in his old bedroom with 5″ monitors. Fuck, the dude uses a Pod XT on half the guitar parts. The original demo vocal parts are usually what ends up on the released product. But the music this guy produces sounds AMAZING.

Which is why I’m happy I’ll never have access to a huge pro studio with all the outboard gizmos. Like Steven, I like the idea of embracing the new age of digital technology and its convenience. I know for a fact that I’m not making music for snobby audiophiles that will complain that the high end of the cymbals sounds “smeared”. I make music because I love music. Once I make it sound good, I will release it. My projected studio will have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface (currently running the standard Saffire!) and I can’t see why that wouldn’t do for now. Of course, the Apogee Ensemble is on ‘the list’, but it’ll be years before I can think of being able to afford it. I still need new mics and cables!

The point is, I know its not the best there is. But personally, I don’t have a desire to make music which sounds so good that only the elite few can appreciate it. People couldn’t give a flying fuck about mp3 quality these days. I write music, and I intend to record it for what it is…music. As long as people can hear the music, mission accomplished.

So keep your eyes peeled, as over the course of 2010 the Bridge The Void album will be recorded. It’ll be a learning curve, but we will be recording and producing it ourselves. Check back this time next year and you can hear the results and see what you make of it

Take care

Vinnie

Short version: A glass of water was spilt over the aforementioned laptop.

Panic ensued…paper towels, cloths, everything was unnplugged. I don’t know if the hairdryer was a good or bad idea. For a few hours, it was slow to turn off and glitched every now and then. Very worrying.

But I am glad to report that I am posting this Blog from the very same macbook, and it is still alive and well. Needless to say, EVERYTHING has been fully backed up and backed up again now. God knows what would have happened if I had lost all my college essays, including 2 whole Logic projects of mine and a friends songwriting assignments!

Phew

Good news…well, exciting at the least. I found out that Logic 9 is out and about. Logic 9? I didn’t even know they were doing an update! The features have me VERY excited though, most of all the guitar amps and pedals. Usually I’m skeptical about in-built DAW amp modelling, but they seem to have stepped it up quite a bit. So much so that I may be able to get away with not buying that Pod X3 I was going to get. So for a £159 update, I save the £300 that I was going to spend on the little red bean, and I can probably squeeze £100 or so out of my copy of Logic Studio 8, which means that I save a little money along the way! Ain’t that grand =P

All you Logic fans and studio people, take a look at the new features and drool: http://www.apple.com/uk/logicstudio/whats-new/

That’s all for now, ta’ra!

Vinnie