I just bought a bass. The missing link. What separates the boys from the men. A good bass line can save a bad song. OK maybe not any of mines, but bass is an important part of any band because it is the link between melody and rythm. The glue.
I had been looking online for a couple of weeks when I saw this metallic blue 4-string Peavey Grind BXP (passive) bass. For the price ($130) I thought it was a nice bargain compared to the rest of what I saw around those prices. I tried it clean and throught my Line6 POD and I love the sound of it. It will need tuning and messing around since the fret harmonics are not in line with the 12th fret notes, but I'll take care of it later. Right now I'm enjoying that fat rich sound :-)
Budget wise, I'm left with $20. I'll sit on those for now even though I'm still eyeing Valhalla Room. I did somehwat learn how to use the epicVerb plugin I have now (sidenote: whenever I'd bring this guy in, the sound would just immediately disappear in the depths of the abyss; only after several tries have I noticed that the wet pot was all the way up :-) Bringing it back to more standard levels breathed life back into the verbed track. Weird default setting if you ask me), but I'm not totally convinced: when I turn it up, it makes me cringe. Not good. Maybe Valhalla Room as some demo mode I need to check out. But Valhalla Room is $50 so I'd go over budget. We'll see :-)
On another note, I have decided to enter the GearFest PureMix contest. 620 entries right now :-( What I have listened to so far makes me think I have a chance: overuse of bad reverb, lots of FX on pretty much everything... Yuck. Not on a rock song recorded on a stage by Fab Dupont. We'll see. I'll post my mix on recordingreview.com for critique (this forum).
Showing posts with label bass guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bass guitar. Show all posts
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Goal tracking - update
I went into a shopping spree.
I decided that I needed better sounds and some awesome synths to complement some of my music. I had to take out flutes and violins from one of my songs because they sounded so wrong :-) Synths I need because I like electro and I plan to make more, with some layered guitars and stuff. So I went for Komplete Elements from Native Instruments. It's got all the basic sounds I need, plus some awesome synths plus a sample engine and also guitar effects to complement my Line6 POD if I need to. For $60.
It came with a voucher so I decided to buy The Mouth from the same company. Turn your voice into anything: beats, sounds, ... Can't wait to try it :-)
Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: a bass guitar. Yes! A found a Peavey Grind (new: $600) for about $130 used. I plan to replace the crappy midi stuff in my songs with some direct input bass and trigger/mix samples into that to get some better sounds. Can't wait to try it as well :-)
Budget wise, I was down to $270, minus Elements ($60) minus Mouth ($60) minus the bass (130) and I'm left with... $20.
I still need a good reverb plugin. Although I have been testing a few of them, I can't say I'm happy with what I see :-( Valhalla still makes more sense and looks easier to use. I'd go under my budget for the year, and we haven't reached end of April yet :-) We'll see. I might pull the trigger if I continue to struggle with adding space and context into my mixes, although thanks to The Recording Lounge podcast, I have learned that addind delay instead of reverb might just do the trick in some cases. More later :-) (maybe...)
I decided that I needed better sounds and some awesome synths to complement some of my music. I had to take out flutes and violins from one of my songs because they sounded so wrong :-) Synths I need because I like electro and I plan to make more, with some layered guitars and stuff. So I went for Komplete Elements from Native Instruments. It's got all the basic sounds I need, plus some awesome synths plus a sample engine and also guitar effects to complement my Line6 POD if I need to. For $60.
It came with a voucher so I decided to buy The Mouth from the same company. Turn your voice into anything: beats, sounds, ... Can't wait to try it :-)
Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: a bass guitar. Yes! A found a Peavey Grind (new: $600) for about $130 used. I plan to replace the crappy midi stuff in my songs with some direct input bass and trigger/mix samples into that to get some better sounds. Can't wait to try it as well :-)
Budget wise, I was down to $270, minus Elements ($60) minus Mouth ($60) minus the bass (130) and I'm left with... $20.
I still need a good reverb plugin. Although I have been testing a few of them, I can't say I'm happy with what I see :-( Valhalla still makes more sense and looks easier to use. I'd go under my budget for the year, and we haven't reached end of April yet :-) We'll see. I might pull the trigger if I continue to struggle with adding space and context into my mixes, although thanks to The Recording Lounge podcast, I have learned that addind delay instead of reverb might just do the trick in some cases. More later :-) (maybe...)
Friday, February 8, 2013
Goal tracking
I said I would not buy for more than USD500 of gear/stuff for my studio in 2013.
Boy is this gonna be hard! :-)
I needed a second mic stand so that I could track acoustic guitar right off the bat without having to circle around the room for 20 minutes setting everything up (see this post for why that's important). I bought it for a bit less than USD 70 including shipping. A nice Samson BL3, like the other one I have.
So that's USD430 left.
On my buy list, there currently is:
God forbid something breaks. Do I get a break? :-)
Boy is this gonna be hard! :-)
I needed a second mic stand so that I could track acoustic guitar right off the bat without having to circle around the room for 20 minutes setting everything up (see this post for why that's important). I bought it for a bit less than USD 70 including shipping. A nice Samson BL3, like the other one I have.
So that's USD430 left.
On my buy list, there currently is:
- Addictive Drums by XLNAudio: my drum samples suck bad. Drums and bass are the most important things to get right in modern music. AD gets the job done for a very reasonable price. I have my sight set on the a nice bundle of AD + the Reel Machine ADPak with electro sounds
- Valhalla Room reverb plugin: the guys over at http://www.homerecordingshow.com have been raving about how good this plugin is; why buy a reverb? I can't hear a bad EQ or a bad compressor (yet?) but I can definitely hear a bad reverb. Plus the guy who makes it (Sean Costello) is really cool.
- A bass guitar; yes, I can't play the bass, but the sound I get with my crappy sample and the keyboard is plain horrible. A real bass, even a cheap one, either direct in or through my Line6 PocketPOD will definitely sound better
God forbid something breaks. Do I get a break? :-)
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