2010... my new era

I remember the year 2000. I was really young (still in high school actually) and wide-eyed about my future. There was so much I wanted to do and accomplish with my life and I was eager to get started. 10 years later I'm proud of where I've been and I'm still very excited about the future.

This year I've resolved to make several changes in my life and strengthen the things that have worked for me in the last ten years.

This year I'm going to spend some extra time on my blog writing helpful articles, posting reviews of gear, pointing you to other helpful resources to help you grow as a musician/recordist/writer!! It'll be fun and I hope you'll find it very informative.

WHAT DO YOU NEED? HOW CAN I HELP?

I get emails from time to time from young recordists asking questions, soliciting advice, etc. These questions could often be answered in the blog.

If you have a topic you'd like me to address on this blog, please let me know by posting a comment or emailing me at producerkeith1@gmail.com.

Here we go!!

Family Force 5

I've become a big fan of these guys. Family Force 5 is really unique, blending tons of influences. Their stuff has energy!!!! It's so entertaining. In the spirit of producing great records, take a look at this article on how they produced their record. There's a major focus on how they tracked guitars. Hopefully you'll get a picture into how they made the record. (Pay attention to the comment about using small amps for big sounds... even a cigarette mini amp!)

Happy guitar tracking!

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/family_force_5_exception_to_the_rules.html

Tips for tracking guitars.... using microphones and don't forget to use strings!! ;)
(on a serious note, I love SM57's blended with a Royer 121 or an ADK S7 through API 512 pres into a distressor or LA-3A limiters! Peace out!)

REPOST: Buss Compressors and Parallel Compression

This post was published originally on May 3rd, 2009 but I realized that the link was bad. It was worth posting again. Check it out and learn :)
*****

There are SOOOO many ways to use compression. I consider Michael Brauer a genius when it comes to mixing with compression. He is unbelievably innovative and has worked long and hard to develop his fantastic technique.

I remember hearing Coldplay's "Violet Hill" and being so impressed with its unique sound only to find out that Brauer mixed it (he's mixed a LOT of Coldplay stuff). I found this article where he talks about the process of mixing this fantastic song. Check it out...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/articles/itbrauer.htm

Also be sure to check our Michael Brauer's website and try to read through all of through and contemplate all of his Q&A stuff. WOW!

Plugins are so dang expensive!!!

As you know, plugins can be very expensive. I think I'd be jaw dropped at the amount of money I've spent on plugins in the last five years or so. Without counting, I must have about 100 plugins and software instruments and I've purchased every single one of them. (I'm a big proponent for PAYING for the tools and music you use... anything else is stealing, right?)

There is hope though! Have you ever considered buying plugins on ebay? Well, if not you should! In the last few years I've purchased many plugins and plugin bundles on ebay at massive discounts. I paid about $60 for Smack!, $125 for the Focusrite Bundle and I purchased the Waves SSL TDM bundle for $600 and the entire Sound Toys Suite for $750. Now, that's still a lot of money, but it's still a great deal! I've purchased the above plugs as well as things like TL Space, the Pultec Bundle, Moog FX, Fairchild Compressors, Auto Tune, etc.

So, before you go spending full price for your plugins, do an ebay search for what you need. You can save your search criteria and ebay will notify you when what you are looking for becomes available.

Merry Christmas everyone. Enjoy giving gifts but I pray you'll spend some time enjoying your families and celebrating Jesus Christ this season.

Are you a learner??

I love to teach and I love to learn. Neither should happen without the other. Those who have learned (I believe) have an obligation to teach and those that teach have an obligation to continue learning. When we refuse to do these things simultaneously we stunt our growth. We'll watch others in our field pass us by. We'll watch them make strides professionally and creatively, then wonder why we're not able to do the same thing. We'll say, "They're no better than me, why are they successful?" or "Must have been luck!"

Learning and teaching are important. After all, someone provided information so that you could learn. Maybe you had a teacher who invested in you (as I did). Maybe you are self-taught and found the information on the internet or in books. Either way, someone provided you an education. Consider this and then spend time investing in someone who wants to learn.

MACPROVIDEO.COM

I am always searching the internet for new ways to learn and new things to present to you. My latest find is macprovideo.com. It is a tutorial site for just about any piece of software used for creative mediums. Tutorials for Photoshop, Reason, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic, Native Instruments, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, etc.

For $25/month you'll receive internet access to ALL of their dozens of tutorials. These videos are amazingly done, in depth, and taught by industry pros in their respective fields. WELL WORTH THE MONEY!

I just finished a watching a tutorial for Spectrasonics' "Omnisphere." It was Incredibly in-depth and easy to understand. One of the best lessons I've seen. Additionally, the tutorial gave a fantastic overview of synthesizer programming in general; a topic I've always had trouble wrapping my head completely around. I can say safely that I not have a firm understanding of synth programming at its core. I can't wait to dig in and build some new synth sounds from scratch!

Subscribe, you'll learn a lot!!

Maybe in the spirit of teaching you'll turn someone on to this blog. I'd love to have even more subscribers. The more the merrier!!

It's all about the song... and the LYRICS

If you wanna work in the music business you'd better be incredibly good at your job. As an engineer you'd better get better drum sounds, better guitar sounds... better EVERYTHING sounds than anyone else. As a producer you ideas better be more fresh, cleaner, more emotional, etc. than the next guy.

Those things are great but if you REALLY want to make it in "the biz" learn to write a hit song. It's the only real way to make money and retire on it. Now, I'm not suggesting that this is a silver bullet but it can't hurt!

Check out this article on lyric writing. Very basic and fundamental but basics and fundamentals should be drilled into our brain. For this reason I suggest reading this article over and over and over again!

Blessings to you! I hope the economy isn't rocking your world too bad! :)

http://blog.tunecore.com/2009/10/the-lyric-holy-trinity-writing-a-breakthrough-lyric-by-wayne-cohen.html

P.S. I'm moving to Nashville this week!! Lots to do. Pretty excited though! I'll blog about my new city endeavors soon!

Track labels

Color coding your tracks can help you find things quickly. Here's my colors of choice and the order they go in.....


DRUMS - RED
PERCUSSION/DRUM PROGRAMMING - PURPLE
BASS/SYNTH BASS - ORANGE
GUITARS - LIGHT GREEN
KEYS/SYNTH PROGRAMMING - LIGHT BLUE
VOCALS - YELLOW
MASTER BUS - DEFAULT COLOR (DARK RED)
FX BUSSES - DEFAULT COLOR (DARK GREEN)


(BELOW: Screen shots from John Stearns' song "Believe")