I’m real happy with this new audiobox, the Focusrite 2i4!!! This thing sounds like you’re recording in an actual recording studio which is what I wanted. Like I said, the sound is perfectly clean and clear. No background hissing, audio humming or other unwanted noises at all. The guitar sounds really good on it and so does the vocals. Now that I finally have phantom power, I am finally able to use my Shure SM86 condenser mic which I bought a long time ago. That mic has been unused after all this time.

Now I gotta get a DAW to record with once again and I think I’m definitely gonna go for Acoustica Mixcraft 7. I’m still curious about “Mixcraft 7”. “Mixcraft 7” is supposed to be really good. It’s a $90 program so it’s not bad at all.

I just gotta wait for those PreSonus Eris studio speaker monitors to get here which will be sometime at the end of Feb.

The cool thing is with this Focusrite Audiobox, it has MIDI input/output connections so I am now able to hook up a MIDI controller with it so soon I gotta buy a keyboard stand and MIDI connection cables. That’s another reason I got this thing so I can get MIDI controller devices and learn how to use ’em. That way I can start making my own backing tracks and stuff.

So yeah, I’m pretty much good to go to make a demo CD or my debut album. I’d like to make my debut album to release online at some point. I wanna release an album so I can release it to Itunes, Spotify, bandcamp, youtube and every where else I can think of. Will I release my album on a physical CD with a cover and all? Probably not right away. The first album will probably an online only release. I don’t think I will release my albums on physical CD at all ’cause lets be honest, who’s buying CD’s anyway, ya know? I think it’s better to release my albums online.

I’ll design a cover for the albums so pretty soon I’m gonna have to buy Adobe Photoshop for this computer. Before I release it, I should sent it away for copyright and all that stuff. The first album will probably be all acoustic for now, though. Full band stuff will be sometime down the road. Before I release albums, though, I should send it away to get it copyrighted and all that stuff once it’s completed.

When I release my first album, I’d like to promote it as best as I can by sending it off to local radio stations for possible airplay, possible radio interviews, press and all that stuff. I’ll also play some gigs and open mics to get it out there.

We’ll wait and see. I’d like to make it all happen. This is the goal that I wanted to get a good enough clean studio sound so I can make my homemade record. I think I finally achieved that goal after all these years.

The album will happen soon. I’m thinking of making my first album a double album, though. The 1st side will be all new originals. The 2nd side will be classic songs of mine, the old stuff as a “greatest hits” kind of thing, ya know? I wanna do a “Greatest Hits” kind of thing as a thank you to my true fans who actually supported my music over the years.

Yeah, I have people who actually support my music and it means a lot to me, ya know? I got fans who are not even musicians. I may not have a very large fan following yet but yes, I do have “fans” and I know they are out there. An album will happen pretty soon.

I may not be an established musician yet but that’s okay as long as I’m still making music for people who actually do like it and that’s all that matters to me. Who cares if I don’t make the cover of Metroland or play on the bigger stages. I would like all that sure but I’m happy where I am now. I’m not that desperate to get big and popular. I just wanna do what I do, play my music and rock out. \m/

Kev

I’ve been messing with Ableton Live and it’s actually a pretty nice DAW. It actually came with the Focusrite audiobox. This is just the Lite version so they don’t really give you much but when you pay for the full standard version (which will cost a couple of hundred) they’ll give you the rest of it. I’ll just use Ableton Live the lite version for now until I find a DAW that I’ll decide on.

I’m real impressed with the sound quality on the Focusrite though. Perfectly clean studio sound, just the way I wanted it.

My studio speaker monitors won’t be available until Feb 20th so I’ll have to wait longer for those. The company ran out of stock for the speakers so I’ll have to wait until they get more.

I really gotta decide on a DAW. I should really go for something affordable. Something not so pricey. Maybe I should go for Acoustic Mixcraft or Reaper. Either one will do.

For now, I’ll just use the free version of Ableton.

Now it’s time to start writing some new songs!

Kev

So today, I officially purchased all that recording gear I wanted. Just ordered the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface, the PreSonus Eris E4.5 studio monitors, a set of studio headphones and a pop filter.

How did I come up with the cash so fast? Well, I’ll tell ya, I’ve been going to Bingo games at the Fire Dept. down the road quite a lot just for something to do and hopefully win some extra money. Last night, I just won the $300 jackpot at the end of the game… no lie. So fuck yeah, you can betcha, I put that money toward all that recording equipment right away. I don’t know how it happened, I just got lucky winning the jackpot… it was awesome! That’s what Bingo is all about. You’ll never know if you win or not. It may seem like a silly game but it’s unpredictable and fun. I’ve been going more often.

So I got all this stuff ordered and should get dropped off here sometime next week.

Pretty psyched to get this stuff. I choose my recording gear very wisely and seriously. I just read the customer reviews and see what they say and if they say it’s good, it probably is. The customer reviews will tell ya whether the product is good or not so you should take customer reviews very seriously. What if you waste money on a bad product, ya know?

Can’t wait to get that stuff! Hopefully, I’ll be happy with the Focusrite and the studio monitors. I’m sure they will be good.

Kev

I have never made my debut album yet ’cause I used to believe that CD duplication would be pretty expensive. Not really. I just started doing some research on CD duplication online and I found some sites where you can make professional CD covers that are pretty affordable. There are CD duplication sites out there where you can make album covers for 300 copies for about $500 or a little less. This is for those who have a small budget, though.

Yeah, I definitely wanna make my first album someday in the future. All I would need to make is like 300 copies ’cause it’s not like I’m gonna sellout a lot of copies, ya know?

I refuse to crowd fund through Kickstarter and all that shit, that’s not me, ya know? I just learned that CD Duplication pricing is not all that bad. I’m just gonna pay for the CD duplication from the pockets of my own money by saving up for it. That’s how it’s done. If you’re begging money from people, you’re doing it wrong, in my opinion. I have nothing against other bands & musicians doing crowd funding. If others wanna do it, that’s their prerogative. Not for me, ya know?

Making my first record is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m not gonna record it in a professional studio. It’s gonna be homemade. I’ll record it, produce, mix it and master it all by myself.

If I were to make my first record, what kind of music would be on it? Probably mostly rock n’ roll. I’ll still do acoustic songs and ballads too, though.

I do wanna make an album to sell physical copies and to release online through Itunes/Spotify and everywhere else I can think of. Of course, I’ll try to sell copies at the gigs ’cause I’m gonna wanna play a few gigs in support of it.

I would like the album to be full band stuff. Would I be working with MIDI or have real musicians? I would like to have real musicians on it if possible. I want the album to have big riffs, tight rhythms, long guitar solos (improvised), etc.

I’m not gonna make an album right away… just sometime down the road. I’m sure people who are actual fans of my music are probably wanting an album from me. I would like to make it happen for them. Someday it will.

Kev

So this week, I finally got around to learning how to play piano/keyboards. I’m just learning beginner stuff through an instructional book I have for the Ipad. I want to take piano and electric keyboard lessons seriously so I can prepare myself to use a MIDI controller sometime in the future. I know nothing about keyboards and MIDI controllers but I’m learning now.

I want to get into MIDI controllers and electric keyboard stuff so I can get into MIDI recording for the DAW sometime in the future. That’s pretty much the way to go if you wanna make your own backing tracks for your songs.

Learning piano is fun and it doesn’t seem all that hard either. Seems like a piece of cake so I can probably get good at the piano in about a year if I keep at it.

I have an old cheap electric keyboard that somebody gave me for free a while back so I’ll just use that to learn on for now until I get an even better and more professional MIDI controller down the road.

I really want to get into MIDI controllers… that way I can add all kinds of orchestration, strings, violin, brass instruments (like sax, trumpet, etc), and can add some organ sounds to my songs. That’s pretty much what I wanna do.

I wanna make the kind of music where you can make hard rock and classical together kind of like what Dream Theater does. Make progressive rock music.

I would like to experiment making some techno/electronica music as well.

This is why I want to get an audio interface with MIDI hookups ’cause the Focusrite 2i4 has that. I didn’t get the Focusrite 2i4 yet but still saving up for that stuff which is gonna take a few months. Soon, I’m gonna order the Focusrite, the two studio speaker monitors, the studio headphones and I should get a pop filter too. I should get a pop filter for the microphone so I can record clean vocals to avoid pop sounds and breathing into the mic, ya know?

Can’t wait to get all this stuff. I wanna make some serious music. Take my time with it and make something really good. You can do all of this in the comfort of your own home instead of paying a lot of money on a local studio. You can make a professional sounding album or a demo right at home. That’s the beauty of home recording.

Kev

In home recording, trying to find the right DAW is pretty tough. Why? In this day and age, there are too many DAWS out there that it’s hard to choose from. In the past I used to work with Pro Tools, Cakewalk and Music Creator 5 but those programs are old, outdated and they don’t support Windows 7 64 bit.

I am planning on buying the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface so whatever DAW comes with that, I’ll start off with that DAW for now until I find something even better.

As for DAW’s, I’ve been looking at FL Studio and Propellerhead Reason. I think I’m gonna avoid ProTools and Cakewalk and go for something different.

So after I buy all that new recording gear which is gonna be the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, a pair of studio monitors and a set of studio headphones, I’m gonna have to make a decision on a DAW to save up for. I think I’m gonna end up going for FL Studio ’cause it looks pretty cool. Looks right for creating full band music with which is what I’m looking for.

The goal is I wanna find something to make full band stuff with using MIDI. Make my own backing tracks. I wanna make a full band demo or an album. I’m tired of acoustic solo and wanna go full band. I’m not giving up acoustic music, I just wanna do something different, ya know???

I just wanna make rock ‘n roll songs. Something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ll continue to write slow ballads but I wanna rock out too. I believe I can make some good rock music and that’s what I’m after.

Hopefully, I can find a DAW that I’ll be happy with. I wanna good DAW. Something professional. I’ll find something, though.

Kev

So that Richard Linklater movie, “Boyhood” is out on DVD already and right away, I went to the Netflix site and put the film on my “DVD rental que” so the film should be coming in the mail this week. When I get the movie in the mail this week hopefully, I’ll watch it to see what the fuss is about and see for myself on why everyone thinks it’s so great. Maybe I will like it a lot, who knows.

Also on my Netflix DVD rental que, I put on the James Brown biopic “Get On Up” for rental but it’s not available for rental until Feb. 3rd and I added the “Ghost In the Shell” anime on my DVD que too.

I also added a bunch of James Bond 007 movies on there as well ’cause I’m trying to re-watch all 23 Bond movies.

I love renting DVDs from Netflix and I love streaming movies/TV shows as well. Netflix is a good service, I don’t get all the hate.

Kev

So you ask, what kind of full band music I wanna make??? The vision I’m hearing in my head is that I’m planning on using very little effects. I don’t need a lot of effects for my own rock music. All I need is a little overdrive and a little crunch. That’s it. I’m going for a Neil Young/Hendrix kind of feeling. The jams are probably gonna be long ’cause I’m probably gonna do a lot of soloing.

One thing when I’m soloing is that I don’t like to write out solos note for note and in my opinion, I hate when guitar players do that. I love improvising and winging things out. Ya know, just play the guitar solo once and never play it again. That’s how you become a great lead guitarist, in my opinion. That’s why I dig guitarists like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Neil Young, Satriani, Trey Anastasio, etc. They never wrote out their solos… they were mostly improvised. That’s the direction that I’m gonna head into.

Yeah, you guess it. I’m planning to play jam rock kind of stuff. Just sing a few vocals with the lyrics and just jam out most of the time. I love that stuff.

I kind of want to bring back what the 60’s and 70’s did. I don’t need so many pedals and stuff ’cause it’s my belief that all that stuff is just to cover up your bad playing. You wanna stay true to yourself and not play with so many effects. I don’t know why some guitar players obsess with pedal collections. I could have a large pedal collection if I wanted but I don’t need to. All I need is overdrive, a little distortion and for the ballads, I would play clean with a little bit of reverb maybe.

I just wanna rock out just like the good old days of rock n’ roll. I think I can make some pretty good rock music.

A lot of times people have accused me that I don’t have what it takes to play full band stuff but watch me, I can show ’em.

Kev

Ya know, I think it’s a pretty good idea to start off with a cheap and affordable DAW for now until I get something even better down the road. Maybe I should start off with the $60 Reaper and then sometime down the road, I could get something like Reason, Cubase, etc.

I just wanna start off with a small basic studio.

To get a small basic studio all you need are:

1. A good computer (which I now have)

2. An audio interface

3. Studio headphones

4. Studio speaker monitors

5. A good microphone (which I now have)

6. Of course, musical instruments like guitars

7. A DAW

8. A MIDI controller/keyboard is optional too

I’m gonna start job hunting this month and if I get a job, I could save up for these things a lot faster. Even though I don’t have some of these things yet, I am still able to make music and record it. I’ll just record song ideas into Garageband on the Ipad for now.

Home recording is great. I don’t know why a lot of unsigned bands & artists neglect home recording ’cause it’s much cheaper and you’ll save money than wasting lots of money per hour in a professional studio locally. When you record at home you have complete control of your own sounds and ideas. You can be your own boss. You don’t have to have the engineer telling you what to do and giving your songs on how he wants them to sound like.

Home recording is the way to go, in my opinion.

I would like to learn how to produce, mix and master on my own so maybe I should start looking for books to tell me how or I could just figure it out all on my own.

I love home recording. I’ve recorded in a professional studio once before and I really didn’t like it too much to be honest. You can still get a great sound at home. You just got to know your stuff and do your research.

I gotta continue to make music ’cause it’s what I love to do. Can’t live without it.

Kev

I think the DAW that looks just right for me is “Propellerhead Reason 8”. It maybe a $400 program but maybe it’s worth it??? It seems like it’s the best program for creating full band rock music with. The program have also been getting positive reviews from home recording musicians.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Reason8

Again, it may be a pricey program but maybe it’s worth it, ya know? Maybe it’s better to get a pricey program ’cause usually cheap music recording software isn’t really all that good. They make ’em cheap for a reason.

I could go for Pro Tools but I think Pro Tools is overrated as hell so I think I’m gonna try something different. Propellerhead sounds awesome to me.

I think it’ll make more sense if I buy the Focusrite audio interface and the studio monitors first and then I’ll start saving up for the DAW software.

Saving up for new music recording gear will begin this week.

I also think I should get a set of studio headphones and a music stand too. I need a music stand so I can have something to set my notebook on… the notebook is where I write all of my lyrics and stuff.

Since the Focusrite will have a MIDI connection… I’ll have to soon get MIDI connection wires so I can hook up my MIDI keyboard to it. I would also need a keyboard stand. I gotta get around to learning how to play keyboard/piano first, though and will this year.

I wanna turn this room into a mini recording studio and that’s my goal.

Kev