Garage Band in the hills

Recently a friend of mine and myself decided to take some time out and head up to the mountains for some rest and recuperation. The pressures of city life are only too obvious these days and the desire to get away from the office and computers were main motivating factors. We planned to do some hill walking, relaxing, eating and drinking. Both being musicians it only seemed right that we take a few instruments with us to help us wile away the nights. It had to be on an acoustic basis so I took my flamenco guitar and my friend took his little Ukulele. Just before setting out on what would be a five hour journey we pondered on whether we should take my friends Apple laptop. After thirty seconds of weak resistance we caved in and decided to take it. As my friend picked up his Apple laptop I noticed his little USB audio/midi interface sat next to the laptop. He looked at me and smiled “well there’s plenty of room in the car might as well take the C1000 and the SM58, just in case we record anything, we can improvise some stands if needed …..oh this little slim line two octave midi keyboard might be good too.” He did not even mention the headphones; they just went straight in the bag. So there it was; a small sports bag with a portable recording studio inside it.

“What music software do you have on there?” I asked as we drove away from the seemingly unending urban sprawl that is London. “Not much really, Garage Band is on there though…. Not really checked it out yet. We can always have a bit of a play with that, let’s try not to get too geeky …….” My friend replied.



We did not even bother plugging in the laptop for the first couple of days and really enjoyed just jamming with the guitar and uke. If you have not got a Ukulele then I can heartily recommend that you buy one. They are such great fun, easy to play, cheap to buy, and easy to carry around with you. I think it was the third night when we decided to try to record an idea that we had been playing around with. Setting everything up was a breeze as the USB audio/midi interface and USB midi keyboard needed no external power units to make them work so we just plugged them straight into the Apple laptop. We used the USB audio/midi interface as the Garage Band audio inputs and the laptops internal sound card for the Garage Band audio output. Normally we would not have needed to use the onboard sound but we had forgotten our quarter inch mono jacks to phono leads. Luckily we did have a 3.5mm stereo jack to phono lead (very useful cable to have lying around!!). To record without using the stereo hifi’s speakers we just plugged the head phones into the hifi’s headphone socket.



At first we had a quick dabble to see how it all worked and we soon found that Garage Band has some very usable midi instruments available. We were getting maybe 8-10 milliseconds of latency using the midi keyboard and one of Garage Bands on board piano sounds. This was more than acceptable. Using the phantom power on the USB audio/midi interface enabled us to record the flamenco guitar and ukulele with the C1000 and we were both surprised by the quality of the recorded sound. Another massive bonus was that the apple laptop was so quiet.



We found Garage Band to be a very useful piece of software. It is great for throwing ideas together and if you really went at it you could probably create something of note using just garage band and live instruments. You have to be careful as there are some very tired sounding drum loops in there but they are useful to sketch ideas with and the time stretch facility works quite well. If you want to piece together a John Bonhamesque drum track it should not take you long in Garage Band. All the built in midi sounds are a little too manicured for my liking but having said that they fit in well and I particularly like the electric piano sounds. My only real gripes are the transport and locator features; after using Cubase for years it feels quite restricting in how you drop in and out and navigate around your little project….. They need to sort this out.



In the end we used Garage Band to record a kind of Eastern European polka type instrumental which featured just the flamenco guitar and ukulele. We obviously used a click track to record and did play around with several midi instruments to experiment with the piece. In the end, though, it seemed quite apt that the piece that became known as Boris the Red should remain a simple instrumental duo of guitar and ukulele. I was that pleased with the piece that I put it on my Royalty Free Music website, Whitebeetle.com. I like the fact that you can hear the acoustics of the room, while it does not have a polished sound it does have character and I find it, ultimately, a believable piece. The simple recording set up we used helped us concentrate on just the music as we wiled away our evenings. Top marks to Garage Band and the little set up we used. It now really fascinates me that one can get away from it all, travelling relatively light, and still have all the marvels of the digital age at one’s finger tips to help the creative process. I am already dreaming of stating in a cottage in the Tuscan Hills…… with my guitar and laptop.

Singing and recording : What has changed?

Following up my last entry I decided to try to write a better article:

The techniques used to record vocals these days are essentially the same as those used fifty years ago. Microphone technology has not really progressed; pre-amplifiers and compressors have not really changed either, though they might sport more features and controls. Even though the way we capture the sound has changed some people still prefer to record onto ferrous tape. Digital recording is no longer new either and dates back to the early nineteen eighties.

So what has changed?

Well, software and accessibility. We are now able to manipulate what we record beyond our wildest dreams. When I started recording in the late nineteen eighties I was using an eight track tape machine which meant when you recorded a vocal it had to be a near to perfect as you could get it because timing and pitch could not be altered at all. Today with a few clicks of the mouse you can move every word around to your heart’s content in an audio sequencer. Auto-tune plug-ins can correct pitch issues in very near real time. To top it all, most people with a pc, microphone, pre-amplifier and a modicum of interest in music and recording can have access to all the marvels of the making music in the digital world right there in their front room or bedroom. It does not, however, guarantee they will become the next George Martin or say, Freddy Mercury but it does mean they can record and edit to a pretty decent standard with limited means. For musicians these advantages are obvious as they no longer need to pay for expensive studio time to record their music. Perhaps they will record just the drums at a studio then edit the results to tighten the performance before laying down the other instruments in the comfort of their own home at their own leisure and speed. There is also so much information on the internet that if you do have a technical issue then someone, almost undoubtedly, will have posted a solution on the internet that you can find within minutes. Go back fifty years and you would have struggled to find someone who knew what phase cancellation was in your own city never mind find someone who knew how to correct or avoid it. Skills are therefore becoming less specialized as more information is available to us all.

You would think that this technological revolution would mean there are more amazing singers being discovered. Sadly, the answer is probably no. Why? Well, software is making people lazy and blunting their performance skills. For instance, I record someone singing a vocal; the take is ok but slightly out of time and out of tune. I try to coax another take out of him but he is tired or needs to be somewhere else. “Come on John, a bit of auto tune and a nip and a tuck here and there and it will be fine” he might tell me. On one level he is right. If it is not too bad then it can be corrected using software and good judgment but that will not make him a better singer. These days everyone thinks they can sing. Probably half the singers in the top forty cannot sing properly and their careers rely on clever engineers and the latest software. Let us face it: you need to have talent or work very hard to become a good singer! If I can offer any advice laymen advice it would be as follows:

It is important with vocals as with all REAL instruments to learn how to ''get them down". By that I mean how to get a good take down. Identify your weaknesses and work to overcome them rather than relying on software that can sometimes often cheapen the results. Always try to get a good signal recorded. You should not exceed -2 decibels. Try not to record with any equalization and if the performance does not need compression to control it then you can leave that until later too. Always use a pop shield.

A good tip is too really practice singing your lines without the music and indentify where you are going wrong. Then break it down and focus on the bad bits. Let the microphone do the work, you do not need to shout or force it. Try to control your breathing from your diaphragm (this takes practice). Practice your vowels and mouth sounds too as this helps develop clearer execution. Good timing is essential but not difficult to master if you know your lines. Try to know your lines off by heart so that you are not distracted by reading at the same time as you are trying to sing.

Most people tend to sing out of tune when they cannot hear what they are singing properly i.e. the mix is too loud in their headphones or the bass is too loud in their headphones. In fact headphones are difficult to use for many singers; some top producers have the mix coming out of the control room monitors with the singer and microphone in there in front of the monitors (you can use a noise gate to take out the spill later). Try it and see if works for you. Remember not to have the volume too loud or the microphone pointing at the monitors. It is essential, however, to always use a pop shield.

The gap between mediocre and great music is narrower these days as more and more people are having a go at making music and in general we are getting used to hearing mediocre music while thinking it is something special. If you are serious about singing, recording, or making music then strive to improve continually in every area. Do not rely on software to make you sound good rather use it wisely to help nurture and express your music. I record royalty free music for whitebeetle.com and album for artists and I am constantly trying to improve what I do. To me it is an endless quest.

Singing and harmonies

Somebody was moaning to me the other day about having lots of trouble singing in tune and laying down harmonies. He had basically thrown the towel in and was looking for software to make him sound like a star. I tried to offer him some encouragement and this is what I told him:

auto tune may help you for small pitch adjustments. I'm not aware of melodyne but it is important with vocals as with all REAL instruments to learn how to ''get them down" so it is really important to work to overcome you difficulties rather than relying on wares that can sometimes cheapen your results.

A good tip is too really practice singing your lines (without the music helps) and indentify where you are going wrong. Let the mic do the work, you do not need to shout or force it. Remember to breath from your diaphram. Practise your vowels too as this helps develop cleaner and clearer execution. Timing is key too ( editing can really sharpen a performance).

Most people go out of tune when they can not hear what they are singing properly ie the mix is too loud in their cans or the bass is too loud in their cans. In fact head phones are difficult to use for many singers, some top producers have the mix coming out of the control room monitors and the singer in there singing (you can gate the spill out) in front of the monitors. This way you might feel more comfortable with the music.

Remember a bit of eq can make all the difference with vocals and always use a pop shield.

Putting down harmonies is fun but write out the part on a midi piano track if you cannot get it and practise singing along with the midi part without the main melody. If you want lush harmonies then put two or three down for each harmony.

hope this helps. Also when I started recording I was really bad at singing and it took me a while to find where I was going wrong

New pieces and more to come

Hello everyone,

Spring is here and everyone sems to be beavering away coming up with new ideas and getting projects started.
What amazes me is the number of people and companies buying our music to enhance their podcasts and other online content such as websites and even trailers for digital products such as Ebooks.

Were busy too and have some secret projects on the go at the moment which we hope to showcase in the coming months.

The latest piece to go live is a reggae number......royalty free music.

laters...

Whitebeetle.com.