Hi !
Welcome to my blog about music/video related things.
I will update when and if I have something to say, but for now this site is mainly going to be talking about things I’ve done (building/modifying/setting up) or things I’ve learned (usually things that I have struggled with and eventually figured out) on music/production/recording/video related subjects.
I will also post things I have created here from time to time.
This is purely from a personal interest point of view though and also by a guy who never had any formal music or related production training.
A little background on me:
I would consider myself a bit of a ‘jack of all trades master of none’ type of muso.
I make music from time to time (not often enough at all, mind you)
and sometimes my mind and internet habits gets me to a place where I am tempted to actually get up and attempt something, beyond just reading up on it, watching hours of Youtube videos and generally obsessing about it)
I am also an I.T. geek, so although I read up on a lot of things I have basically no physical manufacturing/building/technical skills beyond knowing what end of the soldering iron not to hold on to.
Having said that – I am way more excited/passionate about chord structures in a song than OU structures in Active Directory…
🙂
I don’t want to call it a home studio, but I have a space set up in my garage at home that is rigged with microphones, a green screen and some cheap lights.
Equipment I acquired over the years:
D.A.W. PC (Digital Audio Workstation):
Intel i5 with 16GB Ram and a SSD
GeForce 1050ti for video editing
Microphones:
Rode M3 (for acoustic guitar recording as well as the mic I stick in front of people when I record them for news/interview videos)
Rode NT2A (Large diaphragm condenser microphone that I use for vocals and sometimes acoustic guitars)
Shure SM58 for vocals and general recording mischief
Sound card/Audio interface:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (I had a Scarlett 2i2 that I unfortunately fried and then in some cosmic re-alignment I had the chance to replace it with the 18i20)
And it is awesome…
For video recording I use a Canon DSLR as well as a couple of lights (umbrellas) that I bought on the cheap from various places and two muslin green screens that I got from my uncle.
Software:
My main audio recording software is Reaper (http://reaper.fm)
Awesome, cheap and very capable – certainly waaay more than what I can use/comprehend at this stage.
I bought Native Instruments’ Studio Drummer sample set for making my electronic drum kit’s sounds sound awesome, as well as ‘The Grandeur’ for piano when needed.
The Focusrite audio interface came bundled with some plugins and virtual instruments (the Scarlett Red range as well as the Focusrite Plugin Suite of their own making, but also Addictive Drums 2 from XLN Audio). These are really awesome and I am very pleased that I got them
Focusrite also have what they call the ‘Plugin Collective’ for registered Scarlett owners and through that I got the RX6 Elements suite from iZotope and a couple of very cool plugins from Softtube, as well as Addictive Keys (grand piano) from XLN Audio.
All of these are top notch and all the plugins that I can use/need at the moment.
I just have to give a shout out to the RX6 Elements’ noise reduction plugin (De-Noise)
That thing is next level.
I also got BiasAmp (lite) from positive grid through the plugin collective as well as Guitar Rig 5 from Native Instruments when I purchased Studio Drummer and have only recently started fiddling with ‘real-time in-computer’ guitar amp/effect VSTi’s, so I am not trusting my opinion about it properly. On the surface it is awesome though.
For video editing I am using Magix Movie Edit Plus (2015 Steam edition).
I have upgraded to 2017, but somehow I am struggling with freezes and jerky response on it. I will upgrade my PC to win10 shortly, so I am hoping to give it another go then and have the issue sorted.
I also use ‘Hitfilm Express’ (free) with a couple of add-on packs that I purchased for what I need.
Very powerful and (again) waaaay more features than what my limited grey matter can deal with.
For now this is all, but this is also the 1st day of this blog’s existence, so things will change and get updated.
I have recently finished my 1st BlackBeard’s Den kit guitar and that also happens to be the 1st entry on this site:
http://blog.route42.co.za/?page_id=70