Friday, June 29, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tracking Bass guitar for "Through the night" & 3rd Bass.VST gear review.
I spent time last night working out the bass line to my latest song project, "Through the night". I had recently discovered a Bass amp simulator plug in called 3rd Bass from http://www.techiepalar.org/3rd-bass-free-bass-vst-amp-simulator-plugin/. I love the sound of the simulator and its gonna be my go to plug in for tracking bass. Check it out.
Friday, June 22, 2012
True Fire Guitar lesson
Check out my Lick Of The Month: Fingers On Fire - Audio Guitar Lessons originally published by Guitar Player Magazine 2001.
Recording Progress of " Through the Night"
Overtime hours at work have slowed down progress of recording my latest song. Yesterday I was able to setup my new interface but not without running into the typical issues of installing drivers. The drivers that shipped with my Lexicon Alpha interface were causing my CPU to freeze when I set the audio I/O to ASIO. After searching the web for solutions I found out that Lexicon had updated its drivers and then downloaded them from, http://www.lexiconpro.com/en-US/softwares/alpha-driver. This did the trick and it works like a charm. I even optimized my CPU by shutting of Windows Media Services which were causing some audio drops. Now I don't have to open Resource Monitor and manually stop the WMI process everytime I use my DAW.
With all this in place I can now start working out vocals, bass & whatever else my crazy mind feels may fit.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Learn how to play guitar
Great site for guitarists of all levels : http://learnhowtoplayguitar101.blogspot.com/?m=0
Jam Tracks
So you wanna Jam! Check out these blues Jam tracks at:
http://www.soundclick.com/paypal/default.cfm?bandID=1242870
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Jamstix VSTi Interactive Drummer review
Jamstix Interactive drummer by Rayzoon , http://www.rayzoon.com/, is used exclusively on all of my music. I have been using it for almost a year now and still continues to blow my mind how real it plays. The interface is very easy to use and like anything else takes a short time to navigate how it operates. It has tons of controls and parameters to modify how the drummer model plays and reacts to the song pattern you create. Rayzoon offers expansion packs and drummer model add ons to give you infinite percussuon possibilities. This is a great weapon to have in any home studio arsenal.
You Rock Guitar MIDI controller review
I had recently purchased the YouRockGuitar, http://www.yourockguitar.com/, to use as a MIDI controller in my home studio. I would have to say that I was pretty pleased with this device after using it for only a few minutes after opening the package. Most of the built in synth sounds are pretty good. However most of the guitar sounds leave much to be desired. My intention is to use this strictly to control the VST instruments loaded in my DAW much like you would do with a keyboard. I cannot see using this device as a primary instrument to take center stage in your recording. It would be suited better as a complimentary instrument to add synth, piano, etc. as color to your music. It does have some limitations but it does beat having to shell out close to $1000 bucks for a Roland Midi system
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=1148&ParentId=53
For a musician with a home studio on a budget, this YouRockGuitar is perfect and will get you decent results. I will be featuring the use of the YouRockGuitar on my upcoming CD release later this summer.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Progress of song #5 'Take it through the night'
'Take it through the night' is actually a song I had recorded a scratch version of a short time before I started work on the album. It was inspired by a song I had written and recorded called 'One more day'. I was never really happy with the chorus of the song so I decided to revamp it and ended up with completely different lyrics and music. I ended up recording 3 totally different versions of the song and decided to go with the more upbeat 16th note rock tempo compared to the slower ballady feel which is similar to a couple other songs intended for my album.
Last weekend I was able to cue up the scratch track and lay down a couple acoustic rythym guitar parts panned left and right. This was also the first time I was able to utilize my Sound isolation shield which I modified with some better foam. The new foam worked like a charm and deadened some of the room reflection I was getting previously. I also discovered some better microphone positions which help reduce some of the boominess that was happening from the lower strings.
Next week I should be receiving my new interface and Midi controller so most likely I will be doing lead and background vocals along with a bass guitar track. I cannot wait!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Welcome to J.A.Raimondi Music!
Welcome to J A Raimondi Music (ASCAP), home to the Music of Singer/Songwriter/ Musician/ & Producer James A. Raimondi.