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Tis’ the Season to Upgrade Your Home Studio! November 7, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios, Project Studio, Studio Setup , 2comments

…so the holidays aren’t here for over a month, but now is a good time to start deciding on what new studio goodies you’ll be looking for.

Upgrading your recording setup is a very tricky and important process.  Spending the right amount of money on the right piece(s) of gear can be daunting.  The last thing you need is to be in debt on a piece of gear that you don’t actually need or to get an awesome deal on an insignificant upgrade. (more…)

Basic Pro Tools Troubleshooting November 6, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digidesign, Pro Tools, Troubleshooting , 6comments

If you multiply the number of Pro Tools versions by the number of operating system versions available, that equals a HUGE number of potential bugs and problems.  Add in plug-ins, additional hardware/software, and user preferences, and the number of potential Pro Tools problems skyrockets.  Even a simple bug can stop a session dead in its tracks.  Knowing how to identify and fix problems will help you keep your sessions running and your clients (and yourself!) happy.

While this article is aimed mostly at Pro Tools users, the general troubleshooting concepts apply to any other DAW out there.

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Mixing 101: The Mute Button November 5, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital Audio Workstations, Mixing, Project Studio , 2comments

To make great mixes, you need great ears and knowledge of your processing gear/plug-ins – but one of the most simple and most important mixing processes comes in the form of the mute button.  In my opinion, the mute button is often more important than any plug-in, whether its the Compressimaxer 40000 that cost $5,000 or a simple DigiRack plug-in. (more…)

Pro Tools (8.0.3pr) and Snow Leopard October 29, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios , 2comments

Digidesign has released a (prerelease) Snow Leopard-compatible version of Pro Tools – 8.0.3pr

While this software is not ready for full release, (more…)

Pro Tools Problems?? Check here – October 28, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios , 7comments

In my absence, I missed a lot of questions from people having problems with their Pro Tools setups.  Many are having the same problems, so I thought I’d do a general post that addresses a lot at once.  For anyone having a problem, (more…)

Return from a hiatus… October 28, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios , add a comment

Hello to all!

After quite a long period of absence, I am back… I’m going to try to answer a lot of the questions I’ve gotten in the past, but if you are still having problems, please post them again or send me an email to remind me.  Its an exciting time for (more…)

Digidesign: Future Here or End is Near?? October 28, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digidesign, Digital Audio Workstations, Pro Tools , 6comments

Anyone on an emailing list from an audio retailer knows that Digidesign is slashing prices on both new HD systems and trade-ins.

Here’s a page from Sweetwater offering the trade-ins

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=ptle_pthd_exchange

Unfortunately I must have deleted my original email from Sweetwater, but I remember a 002R/003R trade-in (for an HD2 system with free 192 i/0) came in around $6k…  That’s an astonishingly low price.  To my knowledge, a company offers ridiculously low prices on their flagship product when one of two things in happening:  either they are about to release a new product, or their company is about to fold.

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DAW In your pocket: Xewton Music Studio September 8, 2009

Posted by Damon Sink in : Apple, Digital Audio Workstations , 3comments

This is pretty cool. Anyone get this app yet?

128 track sequencer, full editing capabilities, send the mixes to your computer with wi-fi. I really like that you can stretch the keyboard. This would be pretty cool to use to demo a theme to a client or director, or scratch down an idea that comes to you during a long walk in the woods…

Xewton Music Studio.

Jeffrey Crace: Hotel Lagonda August 27, 2009

Posted by Damon Sink in : collaboration, Mixing, Music distribution , add a comment

Mornin’ everybody. (Damon here)

One of the projects that I’ve been working on this summer is a first release from a singer-songwriter, Jeffrey Crace. Jeff found us through The Studio Files a few months ago and asked about some help mixing some songs that he had recorded on a Korg 16-track MDR. He sent me the individual tracks for one song and I shot him back a quick mix. Well, he liked it, and decided to have me mix and master the whole project. He has decided to go with digital distribution first, plus an inexpensive short run of slimline CDs to sell at gigs and for promotional packets.

We went with TuneCore and the album is now live on Amazon and lala.com.
Check out Here We Go Again:

Here We Go Again – Jeffrey Cra…

I’m going to go through several of the mixes in the next couple of weeks and talk about what plugins I used, and other techniques. If you listen to a track on Hotel Lagonda and want to know something specific, just ask!

More soon,

Damon
The Studio Files

Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94 – Obituary Obit – NYTimes.com August 14, 2009

Posted by Damon Sink in : Digital home recording studios , add a comment

Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94 – Obituary Obit – NYTimes.com

…I’m back (?) July 10, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digital home recording studios , add a comment

Howdy all -

Sorry for the lack of posts and answering comments lately… times are busy.  I tried to knock out a bunch of comment replies today, and I’ve been pretty good about email questions.  I’m traveling a lot lately and working on a number of different projects at once.

Coming up soon here, we will have tons of posts, videos, and other goodies from the DalSegno Productions (Damon’s personal studio) remodeling project. (more…)

BJSR (Ben Rivet) music video shot with the new iPhone July 2, 2009

Posted by Damon Sink in : Digital home recording studios , 2comments

Our own Ben Rivet teams up with DP Kenny Mosher (Showdown Productions) to produce this amazing video shot in Dayton and Yellow Springs, Ohio. Stay tuned for some amazing behind the scenes footage real soon. Ben is recently back from a six month performing tour and recorded this original song at dal Segno in Dayton and then sent the tracks to Connor Smith to mix and master. I do believe that a longer version of the song will be available soon at BJSR’s Myspace.

Pro Tools Rules of Thumb June 8, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digidesign, Pro Tools, Troubleshooting , 5comments

I thought I’d post some of the general Pro Tools rules of thumb (both for functionality and troubleshooting).  A lot of the emails and comments questions we get on The Studio Files are concerning some of these Pro Tools FAQs.  Here goes – I’ll just bullet point them in no particular order.

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Find People. Make Music. Online – Indaba Music May 11, 2009

Posted by Damon Sink in : collaboration, Composing, social media , 5comments

Find People. Make Music. Online – Indaba Music

OK. This looks pretty cool. I haven’t had a chance to check it out thoroughly yet, but I would be interested to know if there are any Studio Files Users out there who would like to do a project with me to check it out together. What do you say?

Indaba is an on-line music creation/collaboration site with a browser format mixing environment. So I would lay down a beat on my end, you add a vocal or other overdubs, or vice versa. Heck, we could make a whole Studio Files album this summer! But we’d have to call it something better than “The Studio Files Album”

I’ll suggest this “Nothing in the Way”

Damon
The Studio Files

Help me help you! April 13, 2009

Posted by ConnorSmith in : Computers, General Announcements , 143comments

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately on computer problems/DAWs crashing/etc.  Please keep them coming, I’m glad to see systems are working the bugs out (plus it helps me document trends and figure out problems with patches/gear).

We’ve been able to solve a high percentage of problems, but often it takes 2-3 emails back and forth before we have all the information available to help.

If you are emailing us (or even posting in the comments) about a problem you are having, please include the following information, as it will make it possible to help you:

(more below the fold) (more…)

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