ARCHIVE: February 2005

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February 26, 2005

Edirol Joins Cakewalk, Microsoft, M-Audio in 64-Bit Space

Edirol Corporation joins Cakewalk, Microsoft, and M-Audio on the growing list of players offering 64-bit compatable audio processing hardware and software. Edirol products incorporating the 64-bit drivers include a line of Edirol keyboards and MIDI and USB interfaces. What's... Read More

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February 25, 2005

Rock Stardom: "Slow-Cooked Success"

A good article by Joe Taylor about the time investment required to become a successful performing and recording musician: Unless you stumble upon an extraordinary amount of media coverage in a short period (a la William Hung), it doesn't work... Read More

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February 24, 2005

Cakewalk Sonar, M-Audio, Microsoft, Move To 64 Bit

Digital home recording studio technology improves every year, allowing musicians to create increasingly complex arrangements and recordings easily. At the recent NAMM Show, Cakewalk announced a 64-bit compatable version of Sonar. Meanwhile, Microsoft is close to having a 64-bit version... Read More

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February 23, 2005

Use of Online Channels Scores Big Success for Wilco

Lawrence Lessig wrote an interesting article in Wired about the band Wilco. For those not familiar with Wilco, the indie band experienced great success with its album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by using a variety of online communication strategies to build... Read More

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February 22, 2005

Good Band Names Destined for Failure

Busy day today = short post. I recorded an acoustic guitar track for my song, "Spinning Daydream," finally. For all those independent home recording musicians trying to decide on an artist alias to use once hitting it big, an amusing... Read More

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February 20, 2005

Propellerhead Reason 3.0 To Launch in March

Propellerhead Reason 3.0 will hit the shelves March 10th. Home recording studio jocks rejoice! For anyone who is not familiar Reason, it's considered by most (including me) to be the best software synthesizer available. Here's a quick blurb from Propellerhead's... Read More

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February 19, 2005

Indie Band Want Ads at TAXI, Artist A&R Service

TAXI, in its own words, "Helps unsigned bands, artists, and songwriters get record deals, publishing deals, and placement in films and TV Shows." Check out one of several rock band "want ads" (thanks to Mark at the Rock and Roll... Read More

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February 18, 2005

Home Recording Software Vs. Home Recording Hardware

My own home recording studio preferences lean towards software-based digital audio workstations (DAWs). However, hardware-based workstations will remain a solid, niche market for quite some time. Dan Daley writes about the various home recording studio niches in the software- and... Read More

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February 17, 2005

Subscription Services Good For Indie Music, and Film, Too

Home recording studio musicians and indie film makers face a similar challenge: getting their work seen and heard by the public. In my last post, I argued that music subscription services help indie music by facilitating discovery of new bands... Read More

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February 15, 2005

Napster, iRadio, Satellite Radio - Great For Indie Artists

The explosion of portable music subscription offerings is good news for home recording studio musicians and indie labels.Napster To Go, XM and Sirius satellite radio, iRadio, and MusicGremlin are all included. An iPod owner buys music he or she already... Read More

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Let Your Voice Be Heard

Thanks to a series of suggestions from friends and readers, I have a list of ideas for future home recording studio posts that I'm excited about. If you have a suggestion, don't hesitate to drop me a line! In addition... Read More

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February 14, 2005

Web-Only Distributed Jazz Recording Artist Gets Grammy

Maria Schneider, jazz composer, may be the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album distributed solely on the Web. Using ArtistShare, an Internet-based music delivery service, Maria actually funded the cost of her original budget before she... Read More

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February 11, 2005

Simple Website Creation Services for Independent Artists

As our numbers increase (those of home recording musicians), the number of services jumping at the chance to cater to our needs increases as well. Over 100 services now offer webhosting solutions to musicians and garage bands looking for... Read More

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February 10, 2005

Majority of Musicians Embrace Online Medium Despite Piracy

So says a Pew Internet survey. So what? Well, it's significant considering many musicians' views 5-10 years ago, which were cautious or unfamiliar with the term (as was the music industry). Results indicate most US artists and musicians now embrace... Read More

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February 09, 2005

Turning a Mac Mini into a Cheap Recording Studio

Barb Dybwad of Engadget wrote an excellent article about turning a Mac Mini into a low-cost recording studio. If you prefer Macs to PCs and are interested in diving into the realm of digital audio home recording with Apple's Garage... Read More

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February 08, 2005

Nick Lachey in Audio Recording Studio Reality Show

Guess who's joining the world of digital audio home recording? Nick Lachey, formerly of 98 Degrees, and current star of "Newleyweds" with Jessica Simpson. The show, "The Nick Lachey Project," will follow everything from: "Nick building a studio inside his... Read More

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February 07, 2005

Free, "Open Source" Audio Recording Software, Ardour

For all of you open source freaks out there, Ardour is a free, digital audio recording software programmed by members of an open source community. Its roughly-constructed home page states: Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-linear, non-destructive region based editing... Read More

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Cakewalk® Announces Free Maintenance Release SONAR™

Hey, all you Cakewalk Sonar users...get the free download!... Read More

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February 05, 2005

Hit Factory Recording Studio Closes, Due to Home Recording

It looks like we (home recording musicians) are part of an industry-changing movement. In MTV.com, James Montgomery writes about the Hit Factory Recording Studio, well-known for producing hits by artists such as Springsteen, Lennon, Houston and 50 Cent, Michael Jackson,... Read More

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February 04, 2005

Locomotion, Inpiration, Perspiration, Music

What I wouldn't do for a few weeks with nothing to do but write and record music. A project without a deadline can be a difficult one to complete. I wish my problem was solely motivation-related. Recently, my creative projects... Read More

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Digital Audio Recording Software: Sonar vs. Cubase

Of the big music editing software giants I mentioned earlier, Sonar 4 Producer Edition and Cubabse SX 3 are two of the biggest. DigitalMusicDoctor.com produced an excellent, detailed software comparison between the two. The comparison is a good benchmark to... Read More

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February 03, 2005

Music Videos = Future Viral Indie Music Marketing Tool?

Ok, this is stepping a little out of the realm of digital audio home recording, but it's interesting. Music videos have traditionaly been used to visually promote bands and their albums, offered at no cost to television networks and other... Read More

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February 02, 2005

Digital Audio Home Recording Software

There are many music editing software companies putting out great digital audio recording products for home users. Some of the bigger names are: Cakewalk (Cakewalk, Sonar) Digidesign (ProTools) Steinberg (Cubase) Sony (Acid, Sound Forge) FASoft (N-Tracks) Apple (Garage Band) Adobe... Read More

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February 01, 2005

A Dumb Digital Audio Home Recording Book

Though I don't like being marketed to as a moron, Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies is actually quite good. Despite the fact that it's a little out of date (published in 2002), it does an exelent job of outlining... Read More

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