Some of our friends have asked about the tools we use to achieve broadcast quality recordings/productions. If you’ve listened to some of the tunes on our ‘Songs’ page, you’ve heard examples of our home recordings. We produced these songs often without any collaborators with our portable studio. Although we continue to look for other artists to work with, we have a method, for now, that gives us the satisfaction of conveying our emotions and ideas.
Our stuff (UPDATE 02/10/20):
1. Laptop : HP E6FDBGHA
> Processor: AMD Ryzen 3
> RAM: 8.00GB
> Windows 10 64-bit OS
2. Audio Interface : Steinberg UR242
3. Cakewalk by BandLab and PG Music’s ‘Band In A Box
Ultra-Pak 2020’
4. A good quality condenser mic (AKG C3000) and a bunch of good old guitars and keyboards
Our Method :
Do lyrics come to you first and you add the music later, or visa-versa? Or do they both happen together, magically at once? For me, it’s all of the above. So I’ve learned to use a basic set of tools that facilitate the ability to capture ideas
as soon as they occur, and to develop them as far as I care to go.
UPDATE 2/10/20: Well, 7 years later smart phones have made it even easier and quicker to catch those ideas before they get away. I use the "Voice Memos" app on my iPhone 7. Beautiful, detailed recording quality.
Band In A Box (BIAB) Basics:
Even before I start tracking in SONAR, I get the ideas flowing in BIAB. Our
version includes ‘Real Tracks’ which are not midi performances but styles recorded by real studio musicians and through the magic of PG Music’s
digital processing and code, we have hundreds of styles that can be used for any chord progression in any key and tempo. The band members can be added/deleted and re-configured in a vast number of ways to suit your style. It isn’t perfect, but it’s the next best thing to actually hiring these guys. The names of the performing artists are available and I have looked them up on several occasions to learn about their professional lives.
UPDATE 2/10/20: Incredible artists have been added since I updated in 2011. See the link https://www.garyandmaureenshoe.com/bossa-with-band-in-a-box.html for an example of the quality of the backing musicians. Unreal...but it IS REAL and they call it Real Tracks and those cats actually played those parts. But I just made up the chord progression NOW...so how'd they do that. Just amazing.
1. As busy as this program looks, it’s pretty easy to get up and running. Like a word processor, there’s an area to enter the chord changes. Cut/paste/copy
to quickly lay out the changes.
All of the parameters can instantly be changed later. For instance, the key signature can be transposed to take advantage of a singer's best range.
Our stuff (UPDATE 02/10/20):
1. Laptop : HP E6FDBGHA
> Processor: AMD Ryzen 3
> RAM: 8.00GB
> Windows 10 64-bit OS
2. Audio Interface : Steinberg UR242
3. Cakewalk by BandLab and PG Music’s ‘Band In A Box
Ultra-Pak 2020’
4. A good quality condenser mic (AKG C3000) and a bunch of good old guitars and keyboards
Our Method :
Do lyrics come to you first and you add the music later, or visa-versa? Or do they both happen together, magically at once? For me, it’s all of the above. So I’ve learned to use a basic set of tools that facilitate the ability to capture ideas
as soon as they occur, and to develop them as far as I care to go.
UPDATE 2/10/20: Well, 7 years later smart phones have made it even easier and quicker to catch those ideas before they get away. I use the "Voice Memos" app on my iPhone 7. Beautiful, detailed recording quality.
Band In A Box (BIAB) Basics:
Even before I start tracking in SONAR, I get the ideas flowing in BIAB. Our
version includes ‘Real Tracks’ which are not midi performances but styles recorded by real studio musicians and through the magic of PG Music’s
digital processing and code, we have hundreds of styles that can be used for any chord progression in any key and tempo. The band members can be added/deleted and re-configured in a vast number of ways to suit your style. It isn’t perfect, but it’s the next best thing to actually hiring these guys. The names of the performing artists are available and I have looked them up on several occasions to learn about their professional lives.
UPDATE 2/10/20: Incredible artists have been added since I updated in 2011. See the link https://www.garyandmaureenshoe.com/bossa-with-band-in-a-box.html for an example of the quality of the backing musicians. Unreal...but it IS REAL and they call it Real Tracks and those cats actually played those parts. But I just made up the chord progression NOW...so how'd they do that. Just amazing.
1. As busy as this program looks, it’s pretty easy to get up and running. Like a word processor, there’s an area to enter the chord changes. Cut/paste/copy
to quickly lay out the changes.
All of the parameters can instantly be changed later. For instance, the key signature can be transposed to take advantage of a singer's best range.
rehearse…
3. Then click on PLAY and start jamming.
That’s the basic flow. There’s a novelty period where it’s fun to explore just how many dozens of ways a tune can be played. There are endless ways to customize the instruments and timing with ‘pushes’, ‘holds’, and ‘rests’.I often end up using only the basic rhythm tracks such as drums and bass and replacing the other instruments with my own playing. This seems to give a more natural feel for me. But jamming with the full band, in the meantime, is really fun and helps develop more original ideas.
Cakewalk’s 'SONAR X1 Essential' and Beyond….
UPDATE 02/10/20: A couple of years ago, Cakewalk was sold to Bandlab by Gibson. So the famous DAW has evolved to its current name "Cakewalk by Bandlab". The thing to note here is that it is now FREE !! When I went to Windows 10, I finally downloaded it. I was surprised to find that it is pretty much the same as it was when it costs hundreds of dollars. Function-wise, pretty much the same. Feature-wise, it has some PLUGINS missing that I had become fond of. In particular, a soft synth called Dimension Pro is gone, as was the pitch correction tool. I since got a pitch correction tool called Melodyne 4 Essentials that plays well with Cakewalk.
BAND-IN-A-BOX, as previously mentioned, significantly improved with their hundreds of new REAL TRACKS by top musicians in all genres. But the other new feature I have to applaud is its ability to appear as a PLUGIN for most DAWs, including Cakewalk. A new BIAB file can be initiated within CAKEWALK, and the familiar interface is right there. Also, once the PLUGIN is launched, an existing file previously made in BIAB, can be loaded into Cakewalk.
Here's BIAB running within Cakewalk as a PLUGIN.
The tracks created in BIAB have been drug into the Cakewalk track view.
I’ve been using Cakewalk since long before their SONAR release. It’s always been a respectable Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). SONAR put them in the upper tier of affordable platforms.
With gear, there’s always something else you’d like to get. For us, the next step was to upgrade SONAR 'X1 Essential’ to 'X2 Producer’, primarily so that we can do COMP’ing and pitch correction on occasion. COMP’ing is a great way to COMPile one good take from several. ‘Producer’ also has pro level soft synths and very good mastering tools and effects. With this rig we have had some of our material forwarded to publishers by TAXI, an independent A&R company that has hundreds of opportunities that require ‘Broadcast Quality’
productions.
The next step is to go beyond the limitations of solo production/performance and collaborate with other musicians/artists. One of my goals is to take my portable rig to artists that need help. Perhaps this sort of work could develop into an occasional source of income in the future, especially in a few more years when I retire from the Manufacturing Industry.
There are a couple of different ways to make Band In A Box play with Windows or MAC based DAW's. BIAB can output MIDI and/or AUDIO tracks that I import into SONAR where all of the great production tools can then be used to combine with our own singing and playing.
Other goals:
I am going to start making VIDEOS of live performances as well as more sophisticated films with lip synced live action, scenery, etc. I have been impressed by the quality of videos made by a friend who uses a Zoom Q2HD handy video recorder. See Jeff and Brooke Williams' videos at :
http://www.seldomsky.com/
A great free program, if you have WIN7, is 'Windows Live Movie Maker'. It has a storyboard where film clips and jpg's can be arranged and moved about to sync up with the soundtrack. Then, it's off to YouTube to post your masterpiece!
I'd love to hear from other artists about whether this BLOG is interesting or helpful. It's just one guy's way of doing it. Let's hear how you produce home recordings and videos.
Best to you,
Gary Shoe
UPDATE 2/10/20: Some of our dreams have been realized since moving to Canon City in 2017. We have become a part of a large musical family and our studio has produced a number of songs for our friends, using the tools described above. Follow the SONGS/ARROYO RECORDS path to some of their works.
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