Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

http://www.homemadehitshow.com for the show


Due to the Google enforced changes please let me know if you have trouble downloading the show or if it does not download as expected in your podcast client.
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Welcome to more babbling discussion of our great home songwriting and recording subject from your hosts Tony Butterworth and Dave Criddle.

This weeks discussions include

* Working with a lyricist
* Tony the rhymemaster
* A Nanopad was donated to Tony
* Tools for helping (free/easy/webased) screen catchers
o http://www.screentoaster.com
o http://www.showmewhatswrong.com
* More songs without vocals discussions
* Dave wants to mimic a song, including the mix
* Dave's blanket vocal booth
* Toontrack EZMix http://www.toontrack.com/news.asp?id=171
* A great segment from Dave Chick from http://www.insidehomerecording.com on arranging

This weeks music

* Scott Walker - First Night
* The Morrisons - John Ray
* Basczax - Sexy Robot

See http://www.homemadehitshow.com for videos including.

* My short NanoPad Video
* Videos from the what I've been listening to. Please make sure and check them out. Featuring. Kate Nash, Avett Bros, Nickel Creek, Trampled By Turtles, The Hollaways, Burning Hotels and Aqualung
* EZMix Video

What's a podcast client? Must be a Mac thing.

* Scott Walker - First Night
Sounds good. I'm a big fan of acoustic guitar in home recorded songs. The piano sounds great too, is that mic'd or a VSTi? Good song.

* A Nanopad was donated to Tony
Drums remain the "Great Problem" for all home recordists, but I'm convinced loops are the lazy man's way out. Works for me.

* Tools for helping (free/easy/webased) screen catchers
o http://www.screentoaster.com
I tried out screentoaster using Firefox. Their regular version didn't work but their beta version did. Seems useful.

* Toontrack EZMix http://www.toontrack.com/news.asp?id=171
I had the same reaction as Dave, seems like the Toneport/PodFarm already does this. I generally tweak the presets in PodFarm, save the new version, and use it once. Then start from scratch the next time. Not very efficient, but I actually enjoy the tweaking.

* Dave wants to mimic a song, including the mix
Good idea, tough to do. This is what the studios that create karaoke tracks do (minus the vocal, obviously).

* Dave's blanket vocal booth
Cool. I would never get away with this.

* The Morrisons - John Ray
Sounds like Tony singing. Tony, are you giving singing lessons? Good song.

* A great segment from Dave Chick from http://www.insidehomerecording.com on arranging
Yup!

* Basczax - Sexy Robot
Cool song. Not so much Interpol as Devo. Fun sounds throughout, lots of ear candy.

Great show everyone!

ScreenToaster normal worked for me in Firefox. Another great tool not to ever use.

Well, you've put your finger on it. We really do have NewShinyToyGlut Syndrome these days. Whoever thought there'd come a time when there were too many useful free tools. Kind of crazy.

It's not working on my Nokia phone. In the old feed there is a post "This blog has moved" that links to a web page saying that the feed is now on http://show.homemadehitshow.com/feeds/posts/default. But all posts in the new feed say "no enclosure" so I can't download the MP3s...

Will listen on the computer for now.

And here's where the whole "podcast client" thing gets me scratching my head. Why not go to the hmhs home page on your phone and download the mp3 from there? Surely if your phone has a podcast client it has a browser. Right? Or is there something I'm missing.

The phone comes with a podcast app, which is very handy and straightforward to use. It takes the MP3 straight from the RSS so I don't have to deal with web pages.

Thanks for this episode! Entertaining, as always.

Nanopad - I had one for a weekend but couldn't get it working well with my laptop, experiencing extreme latency. I have a Roland SPD-8 (older version of Dave's SPD-11) and it is how I learned some rudimentary drumming. Good for recording MIDI of drum tracks, so that you can quantize and fix them before getting the audio out of it. (Plus it's a really fun toy!)

Ronan showed in one of his episodes that a pro studio used moving blankets (behind the Persian rugs)... so it's a well known trick.

Chick's arranging segment - Great stuff, Eleanor Rigby turns out to be a very clever illustration. Will need to hear it a couple of more times to pick up on all the details. Very inspiring.

Aimee Mann has a new album!? Or is it Smilers?

The primary advantage of a podcast client is that it handles all the downloads for all your podcasts. I subscribe to around 10 podcast. I usually only listen to 1-2 a week but if I need something to listen to I know it will have downloaded all the latest episodes automatically since I subscribed to them. Very useful though not required if you only listen to one show that sends out a reminder email

Albert, have you tried this one

http://feeds.feedburner.com/HomeMadeHitShow

It's working on iTunes without me changing anything

It all makes sense now. I only listen to one podcast, so it wouldn't be worth the time to add a new piece of software.

This weeks discussions include

* Working with a lyricist
a what?

* Tony the rhymemaster
I used to do this all the time with songs on the radio.

* A Nanopad was donated to Tony
hmm.. you lucky, lucky man.
I liked it and it worked for me pretty well.
I just don't need both it and the NanoKEY.
much like dave, I will just use the keyboard to tap the drums out wih.
But usually, I just start with a basic beat midi file and move/copy notes around.

NOTE: my NanoKONTROL lives on my desk and gets used a lot.

* Tools for helping (free/easy/webased) screen catchers
These look pretty cool.
I'll probably forget about them when I finally actually need one.

* More songs without vocals discussions
It's Gu the magic Djin.

* Dave's blanket vocal booth
I used squeeze clamps from the hardware store to hang them.
Haven't had a chance to thoroughly test them yet, but like Dave, I think I need at least 2 more.
Sungodv used his blankets to treat his room.
this is likely a better way to use them than trying to make a vocal booth with them.

* Toontrack EZMix http://www.toontrack.com/news.asp?id=171
Will be trying this out, if it's got demo version.

Reaper Preset Saving:
There are boxes above the FX main window and one is called "Preset'.
To right of that box is a button labelled '...'
click on it and select 'Save preset'.
it also depends on whether the Preset allows this function.

* A great segment from Dave Chick from http://www.insidehomerecording.com on arranging
loved it when he strung them all together.

This weeks music

* Scott Walker - First Night
a sleepwalker tune, you don't realize your subtley bouncing to it.

* The Morrisons - John Ray
good mix, well played.

* Basczax - Sexy Robot
wow, shut up and play the song already! LOL
Grand illusion
sex on wheels
panorama

kinda liked this, but is seemed like it was all build-up.
as a friend once said, it doesn't really go anywhere.
They fired up the engine and just kept revving it.
never hit the gas and took off.
at least drive around the block a little bit.

Thanks Tony, it works for me too now. It's the feed I was already subscribing to. It didn't show the latest episode but did show that redirection post, which confused me. Probably just an update timing issue from my side.

Another icon free posting. I now type my comments in http://orangoo.com/spellcheck/ than cut and paste. No time to come back and plant icons.

"Singer/Songwriter" is really a first class recording. Good work on that one.

Scott Walker - First Night - Cool George Harrison type vibe to it. Cool piano licks. Nice work.

Hmm...no trouble on this end regarding HMHS access.

Working with a lyricist - Give me a beat and I can write what may pass as usable lyrics. Without a beat, I write mostly just bad poetry.

A Nanopad was donated to Tony - It wasn't me.

I'm back into trying to use Beatcraft. I think the best route for me is the simpler the better. I think I should aim for a Meg White type drumming style. A few simple beats through the entire song, with maybe some kind of difference in style between verses and chorus.

Sungodv - Mr. Thumb's Up (sorry, no icon). I sometimes wonder what would have happened if many of the talented men and women (woman - Trace) on these boards would have been born in the same area Ala' The Beatles. They could have been contenders.

Dave, I think you'll be able to get close. I never could, but you have the know-how to pull it off, I would think.

Dave's blanket vocal booth - We will await the comparison test. I personally don't have the energy for it, unless your test shows great improvements.

Cool band name. Dave, Johnny Ray came to my mind too. The only reason I know about Johnny Ray is from that one hit wonder song "Come On, Eileen," by the Dexie Midnight Riders (sp?), that started out with "Poor old Johnny Ray...". I've researched it and I still don't know why they referred to him as such.

The Morrisons - John Ray - This has a cool mid-late 60's Jimmy Webb type song. Very mellow with very nice vocal melody. Love the guitar break. Nice.

Dave Chick - Interesting but it is all over my head. I'm lucky if I can stay in time on a simple 4/4 I-IV-V arrangement.

"Yesterday" sappy! Dave! I think Yesterday is the most covered song. It's a wonderful song.

I want to like Bluegrass music, and usually do for the first minute or so. I dislike Bluegrass lyrics and most of the songs tend to sound the same to me. Now Johnny Cash. I can get on-board that one.

I've been listening the White Stripes this past week (see comments regarding Beatcraft for reason). I like the White Stripes up to a point. I am not a big Jack White lyrics fan. But musically, they hit all cylinders for me. (Jack White is one heck of a producer though. Check out his song with the great Loretta Lynn called "Portland, Oregon," (the long version if you can). Superb.

Ha! on "Behind the Music" bit.

Basczax - Sexy Robot - This is fantastic. White Soul. I can imagine a 70's funk band doing this on Soul Train. Outstanding production. One of the best I've heard this year. "You're an ice machine." Oh, man, that's tops. Now, as the song fades, it is reminding me of T.Rex. Great song.

Cracks, Audio Loops are the easiest form of drumming. Mixcraft comes with some and there are simple sources for others. You can find a dozen or so loops of different types and that would cover you for all your songs.

Dave chicks section was EXCELLENT - very well put together and informative

Bluegrass - Its like Irish music but with a couple of notes taken out - I like it but its limited :-)

I really enjoyed this show, found the songs to all be great.

First night I liked the start of the song, it seemed like there was an ever so slight timing jolt when the drums and everything came in.

John Ray seems to be the story of a lot of lives these days.

Sexy Robot... What can I say about this tune? it was well recorded IMO but I was driving when I heard it and I thought I heard a police siren coming from somewhere behind me, when I looked around I discovered it was just a synth...

As far as instrumentals go, I find them fun to create these days, and also they help me fine tune my guitar playing by not letting me hide my sloppy playing with a vocal.

I am interested in the NanoKontrol much more than the drums or keys models, I might buy one this fall if money holds out for gear.