BongStuff

Yep get some BongStuff on http://www.myspace.com/BassHighway

He hops in, complains about a missing sock, and hops out again! BS

Try this...on a track that you're at the very final mixing stages with, don't listen to it for 24 hrs or so. Then come back and bring the mix up again - BUT - keep your monitoring volume *very* low. Just low enough to make it a bit frustrating! Tease yourself Now your challenge is to make the track listenable *without* turning up your monitoring. I'm not saying just compress the hell out of it - cos it won't sound good, and we're going for listenable - just "louder" so that you can enjoy the track again. Once you've squeezed frequency bands you never even knew existed, and been through your whole arsenal of toys, dump it to CD/WAV and listen again, this time at higher volumes. Doesn't it sparkle a lot more? Don't a lot of the most positive instruments take centre stage rather than the atmospheres and embellishments? Of course now you can go back and more traditionally hone the mix you've just left with. But I'll bet you a few beers that you'll have a less cluttered, more powerful sounding track. BS

10/10 Harri... around the same time as Peter Gabriel's "So", Kate Bush' "Hounds Of Love" and The The's "Infected" as I remember. Quite a year for good muso-friendly albums...! BS ( sorry for hijack Donna )

ps. K141's actually a bit cheaper than I thought now...about 70 euros http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/fl.../product_id/922

Yeah you certainly want to be testing your mix on as many sources as you can, but for producing in your studio you want something as neutral and "revealing" as possible. Reference monitors and a decent power amp. If you *must* use a hifi amp dont f**k with the tone controls. Take the loudness off and keep it flat flat flat. But bear in mind a hifi amp will have been tuned to assert its own character on the sound...as will any set of hifi speakers. Headphones I know are an unfortunate necessity for those of us who make music in the residential home...but dont rely on them for mixing. I made this mistake many years ago, taking my lovingly honed track to a record label and the first thing the guy said was "did you mix this on headphones?" I now use a pair of AKG K141's which are about as good as you'll get for mixing work. Cost around 100 euros. As recommended by Didier!!! ( merci mon ami ) BS

A man walks down the street He says why am I soft in the middle now Why am I soft in the middle The rest of my life is so hard I need a photo-opportunity I want a shot at redemption Don't want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard Bonedigger Bonedigger Dogs in the moonlight Far away my well-lit door Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly Get these mutts away from me You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty when you call me You can call me Al...

Fab article Mr. P Nothing to add m'lud... BS

Hmmm!! Neat idea! BS

Nice link. But weren't UK music sales up in 2004 despite all the hysteria over illegal downloads? We were all taping albums 10-20 years ago too!! It's not a new phenomenon in that sense. Steve - if you want a good combo - first try AllMusic then buy Play - most CDs 9quid delivered BS

Yeah that's true. I wonder if in general our collective span of attention is diminishing?! BS

Definitely. But I still think we have more choice in music than in "fashion" - diverse music is in all the big High Street music shops. Sure if you wanna get *really* obscure - and I count myself in on this one - you'll need to find a e.g. specialist or mail order source. But your average HMV / Virgin / Tower will stock a decently huge range in terms of era and style - much more than your average GAP / Next / FCUK. As for Pop Idol....!!! Nothing boils my blood more than that karaoke stupidity! AAAARGH!!!!! ( I need a beer ) BS ps. oh here's one!

wow talk about thread hijack no sorry no idea - let me guess - some old rocker? BS

Hey Lazz! Yeah, not a big fan if Winamp either, other than for streaming. But then again I dislike RealPlayer and MediaPlayer just as much. Its half the reason I still prefer to buy CDs and listen through a good CD player and amp, rather than download - legally or otherwise! However, I've just downloaded about half a dozen tracks from Songstuff's MUSIC pages ( using right-click and "Save Target As" ) - all play fine in Winamp 5.1 "Full" version. Note I use the "classic" skin which eats less CPU. Donna - you might wanna try WinAmp 5.1 "Lite" version with the classic skin, if you're getting PC performance troubles... BS

You also might wanna try running these two programs first. AdAware which will cleanse your PC of most nasties and Spybot which will get rid of some other nasty stuff. Both are free and well tried and tested. Might help improve your winamp performance. In any case it's good to run cleansers like these once every so often anyway. BS