Recording Electric Guitar On A Budget

So it's been a fair while since I posted anything and if you'll pardon me, we've all had exams and after a hectic week of band work I'm now somewhat more free. And so here we are again another blog! This is another of my sort of 'budget' blogs - if you haven't noticed I'm rather short of money. I'm going to run you through the two main ways of recording electric guitar on a budget but still with pretty high quality results.

We don't all have a multi-million pound recording studio in our garage, yet technology has advanced so much that we can achieve remarkable results for a fairly low budget. As you'll see throughout this post I'm going to spending my imaginary budget on gear, showing you the pitfalls and the tricks in order for you to (hopefully) get the best results. For those of you who are completely new to recording maybe check out THIS blog as it will run you through some basics of the home studio. I'm tailoring this post more towards recording electric guitar - the other post is somewhat more generic. I'm going to work with 2 budgets here - one for amateur recording/playing (£100) and one for intermediate recording/playing (£250).

Amateur budget (Interface, cables/headphones) - you may think £100 is a lot of money, or next to nothing. Now in recording terms £100 is handy but it won't build you a high quality studio. What it will do though is give you the bare minimum. First things first, you need an audio interface. As I said on the other blog post this is like a controller - you plug into it, and it sends the signal to your computer. If you will, it acts like an amplifier would - indeed that's exactly what it is. This little Alesis iO2 costs around £80 and will do the trick nicely. Its USB so you can plug it into any laptop. You've also got 2 channels for mic/line in so you could record with a microphone or an electric guitar output straight from the jack. If you're looking at buying a microphone then you're going to spend over the budget.

However if you also download a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Reaper (great software) then you can record with this absolutely fine through direct input (DI). There are also plugins in your DAW to tweek your sound and you can even download AmpSimulators to dial in distorted and overdriven tones. Your excess £20ish could be spent on cables, or a pair of over-ear headphones - these headphones work a treat.

Intermediate budget (interface, microphone, cable)- here you can really have some fun and whats great is that this gear will last for a good long while as long as you're kind to it. So we start with £250. First things first we need an interface. Instead of going through USB however we're going to use firewire. This is effectively a more advanced and faster version of USB so you will get less audio lag and be able to record more channels at the same time. The interface above will work fine but it may well suffer after a few years and it is incredibly limited. What you see to the left is the Focusrite Pro 14 interface. This is firewire and extremely high quality (and brilliant - both Jim and I use them). On the front you've got 2 of Focusrite's legendary preamps and on the back and other two instrument inputs. This is going to cost you about £160 (from Gear4music) which is well over half the budget. However the trick is that this thing will last and will keep you happy for a good long while.

Next you're going to need a microphone. There is a great trick to be found here as you can get something multi-purpose - the Shure SM58. You may know a little about recording and think 'I thought SM57 was for recording, not the 58?'. Ah well, multi-purpose, like I said. Having tested both I can safetly say that the difference in two microphones comes down to that one has a grill, the other doesn't. The great thing is, you can't really use a 57 for live work for a singer yet it's industry standard to use a 58. So go for the SM58 as oppose to the 57. Some of you may dislike me for saying this - I care not. You don't even need a stand - just get a pile of books and balance the mic on top (little tips and tricks people!). That mic will cost you £81. You've got around a tenner left to spend on an XLR or whatever you may need. So this budget will give you the capability to record both through an amp and through DI - all you need!.

So there you have it! Need I say anything else? Of couse if you don't have a guitar, a PC or a guitar cable then you may need to include those in your budget! However these two outlines should give you some guidance. Any questions just post below!

Peace, Linus

Review - Ibanez 25h Anniversary Edition S1XXV

What up good people. A blog on request here from SwopCovers on our YouTube channel - remember if you want our opinion on any gear we'll check it out and let you know what we think! On with today's review though - the Ibanez S1XXV (£450)

What we have here is a truly different guitar. Ibanez are rather good at making unique looking guitars - anyone familiar with the Steve Vai signature range will know this all too well. These special editions are no exception  so lets take a closer look and see what we're really playing with.

Body & Neck - Solid mahogany body with Ibanez's Wizard III maple neck which looks pretty thing so you'll be able to get up some good speed. Jumbo frets as well and a handy 24 of them. Something that you will have noticed as well - this guitar comes with florescent strings and a florescent paint job on the body and the headstock. Its all personal preference but I can't say I'm a fan. For me, it's just going to get annoying having a glow-in-the-dark guitar and to be perfectly honest with you I think you'll look at it one day and think "why the heck did I buy this?". The strings though are nothing to worry about as you can easily change them to a nicer set and to be honest the paint will quickly come off them anyway.

Pickups & tone - maybe the reason you bought this guitar is then simply because of its tone. And there you certainly have a decent point - this guitar has that 'Ibanez' sound. The mahogany body and maple neck work brilliantly with Ibanez's Infinity pick up series in. You've got two humbuckers and a single coil to play with - more is better? I'll leave that up to you, but the INF pickups are at the heart of Ibanez's S series so they can't be too shabby. In my opinion though they lack some clarity and punch and are too bottom endy so they'll get lost when you start cranking an amp. If you're a beginner/intermediate player they'll do you great but I think it won't be long before you're going to want to look at putting a Dimarzio, Duncan or EMG in there. Like I say though its all personal preference and a lot will depend on what you play and the amp you're plugging into.

Bridge - a locking tremolo system here, not an actual Floyd bridge but a good tremolo nonetheless. This bridge is pretty highly regarded and from what I can see it stays in tune fairly well. It also has the added advantage of being altered to a floating trem if you so desire. Also you can easily adjust the tension of the springs without an operation worthy of a master surgeon. The guitar sustains pretty nice too from what've heard.

Overall? - this guitar ain't my cup of tea if you want my honest opinion. I'm not an Ibanez found, they've always sounded a bit fake to me. BUT what I say is far from the bottom line and you need to try this guitar before you buy it (as you should with any really). I should also say having never actually played this guitar I'm by no means a good judge but having checked the specs and heard it plenty on videos this is my honest opinion. I'd rate it 6/10.

One last thing - this is a great review from Rob Chapman (review of the RG1XXV as well) - Its a great laugh to watch as well even if you're not thinking of buying this axe.

Any questions just drop a comment below or on one of our videos. Thanks for reading as ever

Peace, Linus

Cheap & Cheerful SS Amps for under £100 - Bargain!

Now then. Hello all. Having read the title of this blog you may be thinking one of two things:

"£100? For an amp? Well it'll be terrible!!" 

Or

"I've never heard of them before, I want a Marshall, everyone uses Marshall, so they'll be better than everything else, end of" 

However I'm here to tell you all that, even if you're an advance player looking for a portable bedroom/practice amp, help is at hand, oh yes! Here are my top 3 cheap and cheerful less than £100 SS (this stands for solid state by the way, i.e. there are no valves/tubes to worry about) combo amps! These are in particular order it should be said.

Orange Crush Series - the one over in the picture is the 30w version. I own a 15w version from the previous series (still called the crush) and I couldn't believe how 'real' it sounded! Having heard plenty of Jim's Tiny Terror I thought Orange would struggle to get a sound even half as good - sure enough they have done. Its an 8" speaker inside the wicked orange casing. One thing I love about this little amp is, unlike a lot of SS small amps, it really has some character and life to it. Sure it doesn't have the same kind of clarity and texture of a tube amp, but when its up towards 11 it still sounds amazing. The cleans are really pretty vibrant and with a little bit of overdrive you can dial in a sweet 'classic' rock tone. Couple of other nice features - its got a solid back but a small hole so you can threat the power cable in so its not hanging out. Nice and light and if you're playing on single coils it sounds brilliant - top amp this one. Kudos Orange.

Crate FW Series - another one I own (but its the 65w version) which is really rather impressive. The one on your right is the baby of the series, the 15w version First off its so simple to use. You've got 2 channels (clean and overdrive) with a volume, high, mid, and low tone gages. Along with that you've got a really handy headphone socked for when you want to still play but your neighbours have been round to tell you to pack it in. 8" speaker again in this one with an open back for a couple of leads and a pedal or two. In terms of sound? Well the 3 band EQ gives you a nice variety of tones. The cleans are good and bottom end'y so if you want to run a distortion pedal infront of the amp, you'll still have a nice beefy sound (that is one drawback of the orange above - it can get a little aggressive in the top-end). What about the overdrive? That's got a really good tone to it as well for a SS. Lovely little amp to have tucked in the corner of your bedroom for when you wanna do a little practice - probably don't carry it out with you at a big gig though - it might get a little scared! 

Roland Cube XL Series - we're looking at the 15w version here because you can get one for under £100. I've played on this one a couple of times in shops and it's so awesome I actually spent a lot of time (where I was trying out guitars), playing with the amp! This one is a little bit more 'gismo'ed up' compared with the others so its a fraction more expensive £85ish. You've got a huge variety of tones and the 'select' button on the electrics allows you to chose from 4 different overdrive/distortion tones. I shall admit the 'extreme' tone is rather nasty, but the rest sound pretty reasonable given the price. Its seriously sturdy (albeit its not much of a looker) and the main thing is you've got a huge variety of tones. Only drawback I would say is that in comparison with particularly the orange, its not as loud. But I suppose when you're just practising that's actually an advantage as oppose to an issue. 

So there you go! Proof you don't need to spend big money on big names to get a decent sound! Any questions just post below and I'll get back to you. 

Peace, Linus

1 Year Anniversary

A fairly short blog this week but nevertheless an extremely important one for Jim, Adam and I.

We've now been in the virtual world for almost a year to the day and for us its been a lot of and actually, pretty successful. Up on youtube we've made a lot of progress. From 1 video this time last year, we've gone to 24. Up there we've got 15 detailed and HQ reviews of pedals including BOSS's famous DS-1 and EHX's Big Muff. Also we've produced several vlogs and tutorials along with some videos showing the production of my band's latest single.

On the blog I've covered a wide variety of topics and have learnt a bit doing some investigations and research of my own to tell you good people.

All in all its been pretty good fun for us and we've racked up an amazing 60,000 views in 12 months which works out at someone viewing one of our videos once every 10 minutes. Along with that we've hit 164 subs (as I'm writing this) which is awesome for us.

What's to come? Well more reviews, more blogs, more tutorials and hopefully some new ideas. So all that is left is to say a massive thank you to everyone who has viewed any of our videos or read this blog. We didn't really set out with any ambitions so its all a bonus for us.

And on that note I wish you Happy Easter!

Peace, Linus

Guitar Twins: A Logical Impossibility

Some ideas in life are truly ridiculous. Time travel, teleportation, a universal language. And if I said to an alien 'we've strung 6 wires to a very high tension to some wood to make music' you may well get a funny look. Yet its an instrument that has shaped the world of music. More importantly though is something you may not have considered - for such a widely used instrument, is every single one different? Its a silly question, but the answer is undoubtedly yes. 

As I've probably said recently I bought a Fender Jaguar not that long ago. I went to the shop, tried it out and knew it was the guitar I wanted. Sadly, though I didn't have the money to pay for it there and then. What bothered me the most was that someone else might buy it because I knew that the one the shop got in to replace it wouldn't be the same. 

Guitars are a very personal instrument in that they really are all different. In some ways they're a lot like people. Without going into the depths of human biology, it is commonly known that no two children (even coming from the same parents) are entirely the same in personality. There is no difference in a guitar. You can put the same pickups, body wood, neck wood, strings, into two guitars and they won't sound the same - you needn't go to a shop to try that one out!

Lets look at this a little further. Start with the wood of the guitar. Even if two supposedly 'identical' guitars are made from the same wood type, perhaps even the same tree they will give out a different sound. The density of, for example, maple varies from 0.6 - 0.75 (103 kg/m3) so every tree will be rather different sounding! Take into account that when the wood is shaped this will have some alteration to the make up of the wood again modifying the sound. 

Pickups and other electrics will change the shape of your tone. The way in which a pickup is wound changes the tone. Because the pups are wound so minutely and how the tone is 'picked up' (as such) is through a slight change in the electromagnetic field around the pickup any even slight alteration to the coiling is going to make a difference. The electrics themselves are again pretty fragile and slight resistance caused in the tone and volume pots (and the wires it should be said) will alter the overall output of your tone. 

But lets move away from the science of it all. Truth be told each guitar feels a little bit different as well even if they came from the same factory and were made by the same worker. I'll reiterate - guitars are a personal instrument, there is some feeling about them and you certainly form a relationship with them. Why do you think people keep guitars from the 1960s? Sure its partially because they sound rockin' but moreover because people don't want to part from. They become an obsession and a part of you. 

You may not believe a word of what I've just thrown at you, but if you don't, just think about it for a minute or so. There's more to a guitar than meets the eye I'll tell you that one for sure. 

Peace, Linus  

Tonal Sapping

Evening good people welcome to another blog post! This week we're going to be talking about tonal sapping! Now quite simply this is the biggest pain in the neck for all guitarists - but let me explain what it is first before I go into why its about as annoying as Justin Beiber on live television.

Take a simple guitar signal chain. With no other gubbins in the way you've got Guitar --> Amp simple as you like. Put a pedal or two in the way and here we may well discover the issue of tonal sapping. The signal from your pickups is sent through all the electrics on your guitar, out the jack and down a cable. Now on many pedals we have what's called a bypass (in other words the pedal isn't on) - for the purpose of this exercise we don't even need to switch a pedal on to experience the problem. The signal comes out the cable and into your pedal and then through all the circuit board (PCB) in your pedal. A small amount of physics here so bare with me. Throughout all the components on your PCB you will experience resistance and without going into any more detail, that results in a loss of your sound! BAD TIMES!

So how serious can this be? Well all non-true bypass (we'll come back to this in a minute) will sap some of your tone, that's just the laws of physics I'm afraid. However so are certainly worse than others. Take wah  pedals, they appear to be a real issue pedal. CryBabys and in particular Vox base range wahs (V845) eat a whole lot of tone for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Worse than this though are multi FX units. The PCBs in these are quite simply enormous and you lose a tremendous amount of tone. I actually sold a BOSS ME-50 because of this issue. Note here, it is particularly bad with single coil pick ups from what I have found.

Can you get around this issue? Yes! There are two ways. First is extremely simple - buy only True Bypass products. True Bypass simply means that instead of going through the PCB when your signal hits the pedal, it goes in and straight out again without losing any tone! This isn't ideal though because the day is going to come when you want a pedal that isn't true bypass and there is nothing you can do about it. Or is there? Ah! Well the second way is a little more complicated. It is possible to make a pedal True Bypass. The aforementioned Vox wah series can be modded pretty easily see - here! And there are Youtube videos on how to mod other products - especially CryBabys - these are a popular mod.

It must also be said I suppose that this problem isn't always THAT bad. I run several pedals in my board that aren't true bypass (all BOSS's compact range are non-true bypass) and they function just fine. So don't simply discard buying non-true bypass and definitely don't aim your non-true bypass for the nearest 5th story window! The best way of testing how bad a simply bypass pedal is plug your guitar into the pedal and play a bit. Then plug straight into the amp and check for the difference. Sometimes the difference is unattainable - sometimes it sounds like epicmeal time guy has bitten a chunk out your signal!

A couple of note worthy pedals -

• MXR (tend to have true bypass) 
• BOSS (do not)

Final thing - even if you do have true bypass on a very long signal chain you may experience some tonal sapping - a preamp or a micro amp can sort this out 

Peace, Linus 

Warm Ups - 3 Of My Favourites

Morning morning.

 So then, I'd like to pose a short question to you, before you play guitar (or any instrument) do you ever warm up? Have a quick think. You see you wouldn't go into a football/tennis/rugby/whatever training session without doing at least a short warm up would you? The idea behind it is not only to get your muscles warmed up and prepared but also to get hand-to-eye co-ordination up to speed and generally get the brain into the mindset of playing the game. Well my friends music is no different.

If anything warming up in music is more crucial than in sport. Ok fair enough you're not going to tear or pull a muscle (or at least I hope you won't!) playing guitar. But the point is that until you've been playing for a short while your body isn't going to be used moving both hands quickly, in particular your left hand. I spoke to the drummer from Embrace - a British pop band if you don't know them (and yes this is a bit of a name drop) and he said that if he didn't warm up before playing he wouldn't play his best stuff until he was halfway through a set. Warming up then is key. This is generally what bands do backstage at gigs, aside from drink and ,potentially, smoke heavily. So then, here are my 3 favourite warm ups, 2 for the left hand and 1 for the right hand.

1. The Spider (left hand) - this is designed to get all 4 of your fingers on the left hand moving in tandem. Particularly if you're playing metal or hard rock or anything of that calibre, this is a great warm up.  Method - You're going to walk your fingers over the fretboard and up the strings. So start on the low E string, first finger at the first fret. Individually pick 1,2,3,4 moving up a fret with a different finger every time - you get a walking action moving across your 4 fingers. Then when you're at fret 4, move down a string and up a fret, 2,3,4,5, etc etc until you get to the high E string. When you're there start going down but carry on working up the fretboard. So once your on the high E string your pinky finger should be on the 9th fret. Then go down so on the B it would be 7,8,9,10 and so on finishing on the low E with your pink on the 14th fret. 
2. Jumping 3s (left hand) - you're probably only going to want to do this with your 1st and 3rd finger. This is a useful lick as well if you can get it nice and quick but start with doing it at a fairly slow speed. Method - pluck the low E string and then hammer on fret 3 and then fret 5. And that is pretty much it, its very simple but you can develop it tonnes. So you could work your way up the strings in that shape. I like to play the pattern and alternate between the E and the A string, getting it really quick. Its cool to play it backwards as well so pluck the open string then fret 5 then 3. Simple as that, but its about building up speed. 
3. Right Hand, Right Cramp (right hand - duh look at the name) - you definitely  need a metronome for this one. Its worth doing all exercises to a click. I actually do this as a drum exercise as well so if you're a drummer you can apply this too. Mute the strings with your right hand and put a click on at a tempo of about 100bpm, we're going to be playing semiquavers (16th notes for those across the pond) so choose a wise speed! Start by playing crotchets for 2 bars, then quavers, then triplets and then semiquavers. If you're feeling adventurous then you could go up to sextuplets or even demi-semi quavers (32nd notes). Tips - play it with alternate picking, otherwise you may die. And keep on going till you start to feel a bit of cramp coming on - hence the name! 

Warming up is crucial good people, and you'd be surprised how much better you play as a result. Only needs to be for 5 minutes max, and then get playing! Hope these tips help, post any questions below. 

Peace, Linus

Practice Makes Perfect - Or Does It?

Excuse the slightly strange title for this post but it is the phrase from every music teacher's mouth. 'Practice makes perfect' a catchphrase so often used in the musical world that it becomes engraved into every musicians' concious. However Jim and I were discussing all of this. Practice helps yes, but can we ever get to being totally satisfied with our playing ability? An interesting question I hear you ask.

On most days, once I've taken a look at the huge pile of work I have to do and come to the conclusion I won't get any of it done, I pick up my guitar (or some drum sticks, or even a pad and paper) and play. Why? Simply because we (scientifically proven) get pleasure from playing music. The ability to play and listen to music releases certain chemicals in the brain resulting in the feeling of 'having fun' - if ya like. Practising though can drive us so close to insanity sometimes it is atleast a fraction unhealthy. Should we though just be satisfied with how good we are at playing? Should we stop practising because we hate it?

No. Is the correct answer to the question my friends. Practise is a fantastic thing because in short, it makes us better. There is no fancy way of putting it. Learning a scale, a chord, a sequence or a new rhythmic pattern or indeed whatever, is going to help you on that journey to getting better and better.

Take a quick thought now. Think of the first time you played your instrument, whatever it is. Think how terrible you were - how you had little concept of rhythm or pitch. Now look at what you can play. Maybe you're a great sweep picker, great improviser or a great rhythm. Nonetheless you've come a long way no doubt. And so you would never consider stopping practising once you've come all that way.

Here is the truth - practice doesn't make perfect - it just makes you better and better and better and better. There is no limit to your ability apart from yourself. Everytime you pick up that guitar (or any instrument for that matter) you improve. Even on days where everything you play sounds like a fat man falling down stairs choking on a sandwich. Those days you learn from mistakes. You can never be perfect at playing, and this is why music is amazing. Its not like completing a game. If you like, its as if you're playing an eternal never ending game. The only thing stopping you, is you.

So next time your teacher says to you  'practice makes perfect', tell them 'no it won't', because the awesome thing is never being perfect. Keep searching for that extra bit.

Practice is fun my friends! As is beer for that matter so I'm going for a cold one.

Peace, Linus

3 New 2012 Releases & *Update* 12/02/12

Hey y'all! Before we crack on with this post just a quick update. Jim and I are currently working on a project with my band and we're making a few videos along the way so check part 1 out here and part 2 should be up in the next few days. Also we'll hopefully be shooting a batch more of reviews in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Anyway...on with the blog. 

Recently the music production world went crazy for a few days in Anaheim, California. The NAMM (an enormous show where all the biggest and smallest names in gear production go to show off their stuff) show hit and my word if there was place I could go in the world it would be there.

Sadly there was no way I could go, its not open to the public. Nevertheless though I've picked out 3 products that will have been noticed by many at NAMM. 

1. MXR Custom Badass Modified Overdrive - this was voted best guitar pedal of NAMM 2012 and you haven't heard a good overdrive pedal 'till you've heard this. Its got real tube like overdrive quality. MXR took a standard overdrive circuit and (as they call it) 'hotrodded' it. Some of the features include True Bypass, EQ and a cool boost at 100Hz to give you an added punch to your tone. From what i've heard from this it sounds incredible and when they release it in the UK I'm going to do my best to get my hands on one. Last thing - it looks so mindblowingly awesome! 

      2. Fender Select Series 2012 - 'Select instruments for Select individuals' as Fender put it. These are some of the best looking guitars on the block at the moment (in my opinion). They're an all new design, based up on the existing Strat, Tele, P and J Basses. It seems at the moment Fender on a big production drive to capitalize on Gibson's lawsuit problems and the Select series is driving it. Brand new pick ups, necks and many come with locking tuners. They were a hit at NAMM with many. Some 'true' Fenders will outcast them and admittedly they are rather pricey, but I think they could be a real one to look out for. 

        3. Orange Micro Terror - we use Jim's Orange Tiny Terror a lot at Jimstudios and it's a wicked sounding amp for something of its size. And now, Orange have gone one step further. NAMM was full of 'pocket' and 'baby' heads this year, it does appear to be the new craze as I pointed out in the a blog several months ago. This Micro Terror has a similar sound to the Tiny Terror series but is even more portable and best of all it costs £99 - an absolute bargain for a tube amp. Of course it only has one valve and its not going to be able to kick out the same kind of volume as its bigger brothers, but a good practice amp? I think so!

So there you have it, 3 brand new releases for 2012 that will keep you playing till the cows come home. Enjoy!

Peace, Linus

Amateur Recording Project

This is quite an exciting blog for me. After a quick reshuffle in my band, I've taken over as lead singer, we decided we needed to get some recordings down. In the past I've always considered booking a studio or asking someone with plenty of experience to help engineer and produce. This time, I turned to myself, and our good friend Jim. This blog is going to be all about our current project, and how you can go about your own. 

There are 5 key stages to any good recording - writing, planning, tracking, mixing, mastering.

1. Writing - this doesn't involve your producer at all really. Its so important that your band (or artist) is familiar and comfortable with the song they're recording. The reason being, they can play to the best of their ability without thinking too hard about what they're actually playing. Don't go trying to record a song you wrote an hour earlier - it's going to be a real headache. 
2. Planning - next up is a stage many people miss out and I think its really important. If you plan out your recording, when things are going to be recording, what mics you'll use, how long its all going to take (realistically). Here, bring your producer into play. Let them know about the song and what your ideas are. Jim and I talked in a lot of depth about what ideas I had for the song and how we'd get the best recording. Plan it out and you're recording is guaranteed to be improved from a shabbily planned affair. 
3. Tracking - probably the most amusing part of recording, but also the most stressful if you're time pressured. I could write you a 10,000 essay about tracking but the most important thing is to be well planned and give yourself time. If you've followed the past 2 'phases' then you'll have fewer problems with tracking. But quite regularly on amateur recording you're likely to have problems. When we recorded kit for our track it took Jim and I a good 30 minutes to sort out why we couldn't get any sound from the headphone output. These little slips can compromise a recording massively. Spend some time also placing mics and getting the correct sound - don't just rely on EQ for the best results. 
4. Mixing - once you've got all your tracks down you can start to mix. This involves levelling your tracks (turning them up and down to balance all the instruments), EQing and adding FX. At this point you're somewhat on your own because it vastly depends upon the nature of the recording and the quality of it. Spend some time mixing as well, making sure you open up plenty of space in the mix and ensuring everything you've recorded can be heard. Aim for some subtle little parts that will make your recording stand out. If you have time and you're not happy with something, go back and re-record or add parts. Extra percussion, guitar parts etc can make the world of difference. 
5. Mastering - something I understand very little about. What I do know is is that your mix needs to be great by the time you master it. You don't want to be relying on mastering to make it sound good for the simple reason that good mastering is something difficult to master (oh I'm so amusing...). I suggest if you really want to get into mastering I'm not the person to ask - Jim is going to be mastering my new track whilst I shout at him to tell him to make it sound better!

This is a really brief summary about amateur recording. But if everything is well planned you're more than capable of doing a decent recording (if you know enough about recording in the first place). Keep an eye for the videos of us recording the new single and post any questions below.

Peace, Linus

The Power of Music

Alright, this week there is no blog on sound, guitars, playing, technique...anything like that. No this week, I'm going to be a little philosophical.

A great man once said - "Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music"

This man would've been ordinary had it not been for music. This man would've ended up in the army had it not been for music. This man wouldn't have changed lives had it not been for music. Indeed, this man would not have changed the world had it not been for music. 

Who this man was is irrelevant for what I'm talking about. You see there is something incredibly special about music - there is nothing in the world quite like it. Most humans cannot speak more than one language fluently and yet they can hear a peace of music and be equally 'wowed' by it in the same way that another would. Music is the most powerful thing on earth. Fact. 

I challenge you to name one other phenomena on this earth that can make every hair on your body stand upon end simply from what you hear. There is nothing that can make you just sit back and think 'that is truly mind blowing' - it is a concept that is remarkable. That humans can make music, record music, write music and of course appreciate music is beyond belief. Many people would look at a piece of literature or art and be completely unmoved by it. But I'd place a high bet that there are very few people who aren't moved by each of these pieces of music. They are all completely individual in their own way. And yet all 3 of them so powerful. 

One

Two

Three

If you are not moved by any of these pieces - and moved does not mean saddened or upsetting - then its safe to say there is something not quite right with you. Music has this power. Music has something that humanity cannot quite put its finger on. No science can fully explain why we feel so connected why people have lived solely because of a love of music. You do not need to know the story behind each of those pieces to know that they have such an emotion behind them. Regardless, I shall explain.

One - was Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre. Very little is said about the meaning of the piece (in fact it is a poem written by Edward Esch) but what is astonishing is that the recording is 185 people who recorded themselves singing the piece. From all over the world people created this - not only is the piece a feat of incredible standards but the recording is simply fantastic. Humanity can do this? What else?

Two - was So Far Away by Avenged Sevenfold. It was written after the death of their drummer Jimmy Sullivan. Its 5:27 long and in that time you can experience the kind of pain and anxiety that the band and his family must feel. The emotion that comes across in that short time makes your spine shake. RIP 

Three - was Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Perhaps the greatest rock song ever written? The meaning behind the song is somewhat irrelevant but the shear epicness and musical talent expressed in this song is beyond belief. Most of the band tragically died in a plane crash and a song of this nature may never be written again. But the song itself is a memory of the band. 

In a world of hatred and fear there are very few comforting notions. Music is without a doubt humanity's greatest trait and my it continue until the end of time. Peace, Linus

 "Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music" - Jimi Hendrix 


Peace, Linus

Room Acoustics - Part 2 (Recording with Acoustics)

Hope you've all enjoyed reading part 1 of this blog, if you haven't, check it out first (it'll make me feel happy even if you do know it all). Recording acoustics is absolutely crucial to a good recording. End of. But what makes great acoustics for recording? Well there you have a question.

Remember how I said in the last post that all rooms have acoustics? Its never more prominent in recording because here we are listening to back to the sound, over, and over...and over again. When you're playing live, you can sometimes get away with playing against your acoustics. In recording its imperative that you use them to your advantage OR do something to change them. But more on that later. First things first though.

Take a look at these two images.








Quite clearly what we can see is a very very well acoustically managed room and well, a rather upmarket looking hotel toilet block. Lets start in the toilet. If you've ever noticed it, toilets have an extremely harsh acoustic. They're echo-y and aside from the smell probably not the best place to record. Or are they? There's a couple of famous examples of sections of recordings being made in a toilet. Indeed there is a clip of Muse recording finger clicks for their song Time Is Running Out in the bathroom. The bathroom gives off a certain acoustic that might work well occasionally, but not all the time.

Im using it as a very extreme example. But its possible that if you're making your own little studio (or maybe even building a huge multimillion pound one) that the acoustics of your recording room are very harsh. Take a look now at the picture on the left. Look at all the carpet, all the stuff on the walls, all the wood on the ceiling. What these properties do is absorb sound - unlike your bathroom walls which are going to reflect it back. This acoustic treatment is going to benefit the recording hugely. What it does is it allows your sound engineer to capture the perfect sound of just the instrument. He/she doesn't have to compromise the quality of the recording by taking into account a slightly dodgy acoustic. This is why when you see professional recording studios they're covered in insulation and acoustic treatment (its not just to keep the neighbours happy)

So how can you test your room and how should you treat it? Well the chances are you can't afford a huge amount of treatment. A few decent acoustic panels is going to cost you at least a couple of hundred pounds. But putting them in the right place can benefit you hugely. First off you want to do some clapping. This short sound will allow you to hear if your room is reverberating much. If its not, don't bother with any acoustic panels. If you've got some carpet lying around, put it up against any walls that are near the instrument you're recording. If your room happens to be terrible but you can't afford much, carpet is a great place to start. However, if you do have some money proper acoustic treatment works wonders. I can't explain it all in great detail but this here article is fantastic.

Your only other option for this sort of problem is moving rooms! I know when we record at our school we try not to record actually in the studio because the walls are horrible.

Happy acoustic-ing people! Any questions, leave a comment and we'll get back to you.

Peace, Linus

Room Acoustics - Part 1 (Playing with Acoustics)

For those of you who are unaware of what acoustics are, the simple definition is - the properties or qualities of a room or building that determine how sound is transmitted in it. Ok the pedantic of you will realise that isn't simple. We all know that acoustic is about making noise (acoustic guitars and acoustic drums are loud!) but what do we mean when we say rooms have acoustics?

All rooms have acoustics. This is a simple fact because they have walls. When you make a sound it 'bounces' of the wall and this is one of the ways we hear it. You'll all be familiar with the concept of echo, or as most of us musicians know it - reverb. This is the reverberation of the sound off the walls and our ears hear it slightly later with a slightly different sound. So what is the importance of acoustics? Well...

Like I said all rooms have acoustics so the venue you're playing/or recording in has to be taken into account. This being part 1 we're going to just talk about playing. Now I am to be permitted some slight bragging rights at this point, but hear me out. I sang in Westminster Abbey in London a few months ago, and the acoustics were simply incredible. It rang around the place for about 10 seconds after. As a result, we had to sing precisely because every mistake was echoed for what felt like an age.

Now lets move back to a more likely scenario. Say your band is playing in quite a big venue and its got what we'd call 'helpful' acoustics (it gives lots of reverb). There's certain things that you need to take into account. Your drummer is the worst one, especially un-miced. He/she is going to be seriously loud so you need to tell them (and being a drummer this is a horrible thing to hear) play a little quieter. However that isn't the only thing. Remember how I was saying in Westminster Abbey things sounded huge? Well they could've easily sounded muddled. With a band, this is a definite issue. So you're gonna want your guitarist to back off his distortion in particular.

You also want to try and use these acoustics. Playing in a dry room can be horrible (and by dry I mean very little acoustic feedback) so you want to use these nice acoustics you've been given. For example, tone down any reverb on your clean tones because they're going to sound golden in a big room. Your singer should revel in the occasion - good natural reverb can make a good singer sound fantastic. It'll make your band sound huge if you do it right!

Sadly though and certainly for most amateur bands, the majority of gigs will be in a pub/bar/shed. Unless the bar happens to be enormous your acoustics aren't going to be anything special. And to make matters worse the venue is probably going to be tiny! This means yet again you'll have to have a quiet word with the drummer and tell him to back off a bit. Guitarists, try not to let your amps get too top-endy. Because they're being cranked up towards 11 they tend to get a bit on the high-end side. A really tiny, distorted guitarist will sound dreadful and is often the mark of a bad band.

Sound checking is crucial. If you've got an engineer working with you, listen to them. Also remember that what you hear on stage is not what you hear off stage. So work hard to get your sound right and use that room well. If you happen to be outside, the sound is going to get a bit lost the chances are so make sure its nice and loud (oh you can see the grin on the drummers face) but make it clean!

Hope some of this helps.

Peace, Linus

*Update* 04/01/12

Welcome to the year we die good people! And happy new year from Jim Studios! We just wanted to let you know what we're gonna be getting up to early 2012.

First off, Jim and Adam recorded a series of videos including this jam and a review of the Boss Compressor. Our aim is to try and release a new video and a new blog post every two weeks (but bare with us if that happens slightly irregularly - we're busy guys).

Hopefully in the next few days we're going to be starting on a series of videos on micing techniques and recording techniques. We're starting with acoustic and electric guitar micing.

But the most exciting thing is a JIM STUDIOS PROJECT that is now in the pipeline and hopefully you're gonna love.

That's all from us, a happy new year to you all, make it a good'en

Peace, Linus