Prometheus

Yeah, it's an old one that... Late 1990's, maybe 2000.

I made this before I learned audio engineering, using a four-track, a ten quid microphone from Tandy and a DI'd guitar with distortion and a sweeping phaser added with CoolEditPro. The bass was DI'd as well and the drums were provided by Fruity Loops. I then sent the backing track away to Paris where the brilliant Amélie Lenoir put the vocals on it. I then added backing vox by a girl called Katrine whom I used to work with, still using the ten quid mic. The piano is one of those little botempi keyboards for kids. You could say that it's rebellion against the good produced sound... And let's be honest, Amélie looks absolutely stunning in the photos.

I guess it was always going to happen sooner or later. It caused me a fair amount of heartache and pecuniary liability moving everything across to 64 bit, but there's no doubt that it pays for itself in the end.

Reaper is fully compatible with VST plugins. As far as RTAS plugins go, I'm fully into letting closed architectures die.

I don't think the problem is the songwriters. The problem is that the industry has stopped being product driven and become sales and marketing driven instead. What I mean by that is that the product in music hasn't changed since the 1960's. Back then the product was a two track stereo mixdown of a song. In 2016 it is still a two track stereo mixdown of a song. Since the product hasn't fundamentally changed in decades and is the same from one distribution company to another, the drivers behind a company's success become sales and marketing orientated. This means that the people who are promoted and rise to the top of the company are the sales and marketing people and not the craftsmen who create the product. What happens is that you have people running the industry who frankly are not of an artistic bent and know nothing about songwriting or music and who often don't feel particularly passionate about music. The product (the songs and music) then becomes something that is not considered of great importance. The only thing that matters is marketing it. That is why mainstream music is now banal shit and the only stuff being created that's any good is underground music that is being created by people who have no sales and marketing teams behind them and therefore never will become widely heard. It took Pink Floyd eight years to go from releasing their first records to creating Dark Side of The Moon, a complex album that deals with complex questions of the politics and ethics of "us and them". The Sales and Marketing guys who run the industry now are not going to wait years for a band to mature. The end result of a monopoly run mainstream industry that has lost sight of product development is music that is sold by people with no taste to people with no taste.

I agree with Tom, more information is needed. If you're using electronic drum beats, bounce each drum onto a separate track so you can still mix them individually in the DAW. That gives far more flexibility and a better sound in the end. Compressing beats with a release time between 50 and 100 milliseconds is a good idea, particularly on kick drums.

I concur. There were certainly things I could do with a couple of mouse clicks in Cubase that require a philadelphia lawyer to navigate in Reaper, so I take your point on that. I would certainly take on board that a lot of music producers would rather focus on the music than the intricacies of digital software designed by geeks for geeks, after all, there's nothing digital about us. Anyway, you are right. In matters of personal taste there's no argument.

That's the answer... ^^ You don't have to be a demigod to do your own masters, you have to educate yourself, practice and make well thought out pragmatic decisions. I would say this to anyone who is thinking of handing over exorbitant sums of money to a mastering engineer. Recording an album takes weeks. Mixing it takes days. Mastering it takes hours. Anyone who already knows how to mix to a professional standard already has the necessary attributes to do the mastering if they just do some homework. Re-mastering an old reel of tape with oxide shed from the binder is very hard, sometimes impossible. Mastering a broadcast quality product that was mixed by a professional engineer is not hard.

I think that might be me you're referring to. I served my time on Cubase and Pro Tools. I've also used Logic, Cakewalk Sonar, FL Studio, Cool Edit Pro and Reason among others. I don't use Reaper because I'm a miser. I can say with honesty but hopefully without arrogance that I could go straight out and buy a Mercedes Benz if I sold off the audio equipment I have in this house. I would defy anyone on Earth to tell the difference between what I've produced in Reaper and what I've produced in Cubase or Pro Tools. Much as I loved my old Cubase setup, I don't want to download the latest Nuendo from Pirate Bay and I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for something that will do the same job as what I can get for $60. Either of those aforementioned approaches seem to me inconsistent with reason. Reaper is a geek's paradise of configuration possibilities. I love it. Even if I were a multimillionaire I would keep using it. It has immense functionality for those who can be bothered learning to use it, and I can be bothered.

After a two or three year haitus from music I've suddenly started taking on new projects again and had to go through the painful process of updating most of my software to stuff that will run on a 64bit PC. I thought I was going to have to fork out two or three hundred dollars for a DAW. I used Cubase and Pro Tools before, which are very expensive to obtain legally. I decided to try Reaper 4.7 just out of curiosity and found that not only did it have the functionality of my old Cubase and Pro Tools systems but in fact it was considerably more advanced than them in some areas with them being old. And it was only forty quid, which includes updates till the end of version 5. For anyone looking for a DAW it's well worth checking out. It's not a cheap compromise, it's an excellent piece of kit.

That's not actually true. You can program tempo and signature changes into the click track in any modern mutlitrack software.

It's an absolute rip off. I'd want an entire suite of tools for that kind of money. You could actually buy an outboard EQ, Limiter and Compressor for $250.00 if you shop around.

Indeed, and I appreciate you taking the time to clear that up. It's good to actually hear someone putting the counter point to my views in a lucid and intelligent way. I have a feeling I could have been rightly accused of being one of those types in my youth, but sadly, to call myself a youth now would be a bit of stretch... I have met the type you are referring to here. I've gotten to the point now where I just say "Yeah, go for it." and look forward to hearing what they think of how the music business will never dent their artistic integrity after they've been in it for a couple of years. I can't disagree with you there at all. As a matter of fact, twenty years ago I'd probably have signed a contract before I even read it. Nowadays I'd be far more careful.

I don't think I've ever considered myself above a label contract as an "uber artiste", nor have I ever considered the idea of mass distribution of my work "crass" but I have worked with a few label insiders in my time and I wouldn't let most of them near me with a rolled up news paper, let alone a legally binding contract. I'm not being egotistical in pointing out that dealing with record labels can be a dodgy game. I'm being pragmatic. To be fair, that is not the point I made. What I said was that fiscal remuneration isn't the only metric for success, not that penury was beneficial to success or in any way, shape or form desirable. Obviously if someone offers one a lucrative contract without any dodgy clauses in it, one would be a fool not to pursue it. That said, if one is not offered a contract that they feel they wish sign up to, that does not necessarily reflect on the quality of their work or achievements. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just to clarify, Blake was not a down and out, he was a successful calligrapher. I'd imagine like many old men his eyesight probably went downhill, his general health and energy levels probably dropped off and his hands may have become less dexterous. I'm all for having an understanding state pension system that stops retired rock stars, painters, poets and anyone else for that matter, from ending up destitute when they become too aged to work. I'm not saying this to be a braggart, but because I want my position to be clearly understood. Back in the day I spent the thousands and thousands of dollars on my studio. It took me two years to build it. I also spent the two decades learning to play musical instruments, studying musicology, psycho-acoustics and acoustic engineering at University, serving my time as a live sound engineer and serving my time as a studio engineer doing recording, mixing and mastering. I'm good at what I do and by f*ck I take pride in what I do. I have industry experience, I've seen it from the inside. I've worked with promoters, label owners, one or two fairly well known personalities whom certainly most of the people on the forum from the UK would have heard of. I'm not saying this stuff because I'm some silly kid who thinks he's going to be the next Andrew Eldritch. I had the chance to get in and I didn't want it. Every time I dealt with an industry insider, I felt a little piece of my soul turn black, so after ten years doing work in the industry I walked away from it. Now, I'm happy driving a forklift and flying a PAT Tester for money, and saving the music and other artistic endeavours as something I love. Maybe one day I'll strike it rich, maybe I never will. As long as I get to keep producing what I want to produce, I'm fine with that.

Other people may need audio interfaces.