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So everyone is clear

YOU CAN WIN A KORG NANOPAD FOR DOING ALMOST NOTHING
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Yes you can win a Korg Nano Pad simply by sending an email to homemadehitshow@gmail.com. with CONTEST in the title line. If you're in the US shipping will be covered, outside of the US we will review once I know the cost. Read about the Nanopad here watch the video below.

This week Dave Criddle and Tony Butterworth discuss

* Tony's inactivity
* Being in a band is not always that great
* Balanced Cables
* Toneport presets
* Tony's EZMix review
* Read Kevin Selby's R16 site
* Tony has been listening to - Marina and the Diamonds, Genesis, Kate Nash
* Dave has been listening to - Quasi

Songs:

* Joe Holtaway - We Go Sailing
* Kevin Selby - Wonderin' (R16 Demo Project) -
* Leigh Wright - For An Hour or Two
* David Partrick - (I Unfriended You on) Facebook


Sonic State Nanopad Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktCKcPWwHPw

Marina and the Diamonds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_oMD6-6q5Y

Genesis - Dancing with the Moonlight Knight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKIkzGGAG9s

Quasi - Peace and Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dj_Nao5LuA

* Joe Holtaway - We Go Sailing
Sounds great, nice mellow opener. Well sung and performed.

* Being in a band is not always that great


* Balanced Cables


Back for more soon.

I want the nanopad! Please give it to me! I need a new studio toy to get me in there again....

no, give it to me!
Please tony!?
LOL, just joking

Genesis
it's kinda funny that I never thought to look on youtube for their older, pre-80's music.
I had all of their LP's until 'Invisible Touch'.
I just stopped listening to them at all after that.
carpet crawlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToK_CCzW6jw

Sorry for the 10 seconds of silence. My Bad...

Dave

* Kevin Selby - Wonderin' (R16 Demo Project)
Sounds great, but the mix overall seems quiet. Stick a good limiter on the master channel. Nice job, and a great advertisement for the R16. I like the guitar solo.

* Leigh Wright - For An Hour or Two
I'm hooked right from the slightly creepy start. As I mentioned on my review in New Songs, cool Nick Cave sound and feel to this. Atmospheric. Since you're not familiar with him, here's a good place to start:
Are you the One I've Been Waiting For?
Nick Cave - Into My Arms

more later . . .

* Tony's (not so) EZMix review
"Fascinating" (tm)

* David Partrick - (I Unfriended You on) Facebook
Clever, poppy, and topical. Nice job.

Great show gents!

Thanks for this episode.
It was my favourite part of the show!

Balanced cables - Oh no! Dave shares my secret with the world. Now I have to live in shame, hiding in a cave somewhere. Seriously, I'm still waiting for my USB-MIDI-interface, delayed by French holidays and slow postal services - will have it on Monday. If that doesn't work, I will have to get a DI-box.

EZMix - What I'd really like is a VST with good presets for mastering. The PS-04 had some really good presets (easy to modify) and I haven't seen anything like it in the VST world. How does EZMix compare to other mastering products you've tried? (I remember you tested Ozone.)

BTW, Tony is a really heavy breather in this episode...

For free mastering VST plugins, I suggest this thread.

Here's a direct link for the Antress Modern Channel, which I plan on testing out if I get some time today.
I tested the Antress Modern Channel and was not impressed. It comes with no manual, and so takes time to figure out. It puts a pretty heavy load on the processor, so I'm going back to my previous setup, which these days is the free compressor and reverb vst that come with Mixcraft on the master channel. It does the trick.

That's a really interesting thread. Since I was looking for something musical to do and I don't really feel like doing a song I think I'll try a bunch of them and maybe record a segment. I promise you will be fed up of a snippet of one of my songs LOL. He recommends Tesla as the best choice.

Albert I have regularly used PSP Vintage Warmer and Ozone. PSP is simple and I just use a preset, actually I don't understand all the settings at all but it works. However I think 99% of it is the volume increase. I previously used Ozone which is more complex but somehow easier to understand. It has 6 or components, EQ, Multiband compressor, reverb, limiter, harmonic exciter, stereo enhancer. I think it might have a demo. It has a lot of presets but I find it easier to adjust manually. However I found it a lot easier to screw up a mix with it and it didn't give as a pleasant an overall sound as PSP (perhaps I could say it's less "warm").

I also used t-racks a long time ago which Tomas recommended. I found it like a cross between the two.

It will be hard to compare them all, since some are just compressor, or some other odd one trick pony, while others have multiple tricks up their sleeves.

Ozone is good, but I'm too lazy to learn it all and use it properly, so I stick with a compressor/limiter and some reverb.

* Balanced Cables

I have a couple of things to add to the balanced cable discussion. It may help to understand what's going on, if you already understand how a humbucker pickup works. The premise is the same in both applications. You take two similar signles that are 180 degrees out of phea, and put them together. Any additional noise will cancel itself out.

And, for balanced cables to do their magic, they need to be plugged into equipment that expects balanced cables. I'm prettu sure if you run a balanced cable between your guitar and amplifier, you're not going to make a difference to any noise you pick up.

* Tony's EZMix review

I heard enough of a difference in the settings to interest me. But how something sounds in an isolated preset isn't indicative of how it will sit in a max. Still, I do loves me some presets!


Songs:

* Joe Holtaway - We Go Sailing
This had a traditional and authentic feel to it. It sounded real.

* Kevin Selby - Wonderin' (R16 Demo Project) -
I have some homework to do, as I don't know what an R16 is. I dug the vocals and the piano sounded great. The lead in the middle jumped out at me, in a mostly good way.

* Leigh Wright - For An Hour or Two
What a great sound. It was familiar, in a Wait/Cohen sort of way, yet fresh and new. I could see that song and sound translating well in a live situation.


* David Partrick - (I Unfriended You on) Facebook
Give that guy the Nanopad!

Thanks for the links and comments about mastering. I will look into that thread.

Dave taught me how to use effects in Reaper - a multiband compressor and a limiter - to do mastering and I added a stereo enhancer to that. But it is still miles away from what the presets in the PS-04 did. With a better plugin and a little more knowledge, it shouldn't be too hard to improve the end mix.

You might want to toss an EQ in there. I'm not a big fan of sticking an EQ on the master bus, but if you know what you're doing it can probably get you the options you're missing from the PS-04. At minimum, I'd A/B test a mix with a gentle scoop versus one with a hump in the midtones, and see what sounds better.

Here's some info from someone that actually knows what they're talking about (unlike me):

Joe Holtaway - We Go SailingA pleasing mellow track that caught the feel of its subject, quite folky in its repeated phrases. I am inspired by the simplicity of this having recently done a very complex one. I'm heading for a new recording in a simpler vein.

10 seconds of silence.
A meaningful opportunity for reflection that I put to good use meditating on the nature of reminiscence. Is it the same as recall?

Balanced cables.
I didn't really understand this.

Kevin Selby - Wonderin'
Cracking song, and a great technical job on recording and mixing. I love the way its a real song about a relationship. Not a cliche in sight. You don't get this level of originality in mainstream pap. "I'm wonderin' why I re-did our room", straight out of real life. Great writing in my view.

Leigh Wright - For An Hour or Two
Different but equally interesting and attention grabbing. I found myself imagining the scenes Leigh puts across, like a film noire movie thing. A cracking bit of avant garde - or at least what I imagine avant garde to be, since, in truth, I don't have a clue. 'A drink and a meal' - I though prostitutes were more expensive than that.

EZmix. I already read the review and I'm glad I did, I don't need this piece of kit, it seems to replicate what a lot of DAWs already do.

David Partrick - (I Unfriended You on) Facebook
Well the intro won me over. 'It was more abandoned than completed'. Boy, do I know that feeling! This is a really good song, light but not lightweight, witty and a lot of fun. I just loved the timely lampooning of the rubbish that passes for networking. I get so many dumb invitations to dumb facebook groups. Get a life! I recently saw a video of a wedding where, immediately after taking his vows, whilst still stood at the altar, the groom updated his facebook relationship status. Here's the link, hope it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX7HZDbt784&feature=player_embedded

And while I'm blathering on about EQs, I should mention the eye popping deal they're having on the T-Racks 3 Classic EQ, a six-band parametric for $20. Comes with some sort of metering suite thingy that's well beyond my comprehension level. But it looks like a nice EQ.

I really like this one, the voxengo curveeq, and it's free.

http://www.voxengo.com/product/curveeq/