Home Studio Simplified

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The August Edition of the HSS Song Contest is over with Mark George coming out on top as the winner. Although it was incredibly hard to choose a winner, Mark’s song,  “The Other Side of Sound” was picked due to its arrangement, it’s clarity and balance, as well as the interest it generated even as an instrumental piece. You can hear the song and listen to my comments on it here: (https://youtu.be/AN9DeEWihcw?t=3988)

• The September Edition of the HSS Song Contest is on! 

Here are the guidelines for the contest.

• Original non-copyrighted work 
• No lewd lyrics or vulgarity 
• One submission per entrant 
• File submission in WAV or MP3 
• Deadline September 25th 

Upload your songs here: http://bit.ly/September-Submission

• Why would you want to upload your song? 

     The main purpose I started the song contest was to inspire musicians to release more music and to generate interest in others music, while providing insight and constructive dialogue from a professional standpoint on how to improve the song submitted.

     Now, a few months into the HSS Song Contest routine, this segment of the channel has taken on a life of its own! The community it has created and the feedback that has been generated from within the community is amazing! There have been collaborations, friendships, and professional connections made as a result of the contest and so many have claimed that they are learning more and more every single time around.

      The song that is chosen as the winner receives a free mix/master of the winning entry from yours truly and the results are shared on the channel to help everyone benefit from knowing what went into it.    

• Wanna join the HSS Session Players? (https://bit.ly/Session_Player_Sign-up)

From time to time I am asked to help out on a project or need some instrumentation for personal client work. While I can play a Bass, I am not a Bassist. That said, I am creating a list of Session Players that I can call on to work on projects. If you’d like the opportunity to work on some projects and collaborate with other like minded musicians. Sign up!

EAR TO THE GROUND

     Every guitarist knows that becoming a better player takes lots and lots of practice. Positive Grid’s “Spark” amplifier is a Bluetooth-connected practice amp/speaker packed with features including tons of onboard effects, a nice assortment of I/O ports, dual speakers, and a wealth of panel controls and presets. 

     It gets better: With the Spark’s free companion app, you can play along with tunes that you stream through the amp and have your mobile device display which chords to play as you go. Or, you can have the app lay down an accompanying drum and bass track for you to jam along to. The Spark mobile app (for Android and iOS) gives you access to a massive library of amp models and effects that let you emulate the sound you get from classic tube amps, acoustic amps, bass amps, and other types of amplifiers. You can also create customized effects using virtual pedals for Overdrive, Noise Gate, Delay, Modulation, and Reverb, or you can access Positive Grid’s BIAS-powered tone library that contains more than 10,000 amp and effects presets that let you mimic the guitar sounds of your favorite players such as Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many others. 

     If you’re a guitarist and you’re looking for an affordable mobile rig to practice with at home, at work, or even on your commute, the Spark may be the solution you;re looking for..

Temper is a modern digital distortion plugin featuring a rich saturation stage and a unique phase distortion. Use the variable saturation curve to add warmth and edge to your sound, and let the phase distortion bring character and clarity through your mix. Temper also features a simple resonant lowpass filter and a feedback path to drive the intensity of the tone. Watch the Temper Video demo here.

Alter/Ego is based on the award winning technology featured in chipspeech but instead of targeting Vintage voice technology, it focuses on more ‘modern’ (1990+) singing synthesis algorithms and research. It is specially tailored for musical needs – simply type in your lyrics, and then play on your MIDI keyboard. It’s a true synthesizer, the sound can be extensively modified for easy and expressive performances. 

Driftmaker is a delay disintegration device that parses incoming audio, recalls certain parts and adds analog deterioration to the signal.

MAIN THOUGHT

The name “autotune” can have what some people would consider to be negative connotations. The artificial, robot-voice style that is popular in some genres is wildly unpopular with other people. But the truth is that modern auto tuning software is capable of far more subtle vocal correction than simply turning your voice into a robot. For a start, it’s variable, meaning you can apply a little or a lot. And then there’s micro pitch controls, formants and other smaller tweaks that can take individual notes or whole clips and pull them to where they need to be without sounding like they have been processed. Antares is at the forefront of these kinds of tools but there’s also Melodyne, and DAWs like Cubase (VariAudio) and Logic (Flex Pitch) have very powerful tools built-in. Used with care, they can rescue almost any vocal.

This is something you can do to help your performance at the source, regardless of any processing that may come later in the chain. Professional singers have all kinds of techniques and routines they use to keep their voices in shape and prepare before recording takes. You don’t necessarily have to go as far as copying them, but singing a few scales, regulating your breathing and making sure you are hydrated before starting will all help you to nail a better performance than if you just turn up and begin.

You can bolster a vocal performance by adding harmonies, but you may not be confident in singing them yourself. The good news is that there are several ways to do it in software. Cakewalk is one DAW that has a tool for doing just this, and any tool or plug-in that lets you pitch shift audio without changing its speed (i.e. most DAWs these days) can be utilised to create harmonies on a new audio track. However, simply pitch shifting a clip to use as a harmony may not always sound great, and it’s better to get access to individual notes so you can truly control the way they interact with your main vocal melody. SynchroArts Revoice Pro 4 is another very powerful tool for working with the pitch and timing of vocals.

Recording while monitoring through software insert effects is much less of a hassle these days, with computers powerful enough to operate at very low latency, or indeed interfaces with onboard DSP and direct monitoring available. But it’s usually advisable to record a vocal clean and then add processing afterwards so that it can be tweaked and edited in the most flexible way possible. Specialist tools like iZotope’s Nectar provide a multitude of controls tailored specially to vocals like breath control, saturation, de-essing and more. Waves also makes some excellent vocal processors and if you don’t want to spend too much, you can use your DAW’s bundled plugs in a chain to combine things like EQ, compression, de-essing and saturation into a ready-to-use preset to apply to your vocals.

If you’re not happy with your own performance it’s always an option to get someone else in to sing for you. But if that is not a possibility, you could look at software-generated backing or even lead vocals. Instruments like EastWest’s Symphonic Choirs, Hollywood Backup Singers, Voices of Soul and Voices of Opera use something called WordBuilder, a technology that lets you type in text and then has the instrument recreate it using its sample library. Yamaha’s Vocaloid is another “virtual singer” that lets you build up authentic sounding vocal parts from a large library, bypassing the need to sing for yourself.

Not necessarily just the kinds of processing that you would ordinarily do like adding compression and reverb, but consider more weird and wonderful options. A vocal that is perhaps lacking in body can be run through all kinds of effects to change the way it sounds including guitar fx, delays, lo-fi effects and much more. It’s true that this approach might not suit a pop single for example, but for many other genres of music it can help to blend a vocal into a track in interesting and unusual ways. Since plug-ins are all virtual, you can always experiment and try a few things, undoing them later if you decide down the line that they aren’t right.

The way you interact with a microphone can have a big impact on the way a vocal is recorded. Obviously to begin with you’ll need a decent quality studio mic and a recording environment that’s as soundproofed as you can reasonably make it. If you find it necessary to move closer to the mic because your vocal projection isn’t so strong, you need to mitigate the proximity effect by making sure you have at least one pop shield, and possibly even two if you are very close to the mic. Some mics also have internal popshields, though every vocalist should really own an external one as well. It’s also vital to maintain a consistent distance from the mic while singing - around 6-8 inches is recommended but this will depend on the power of your voice. Moving around while singing will affect the recording level, so is to be avoided if at all possible.

For a less experienced vocalist, singing live into a mic, even in a studio, can make them self-conscious. It’s natural to be a little nervous but it can also affect the quality of a performance. You might find that clearing the room of people - the control room if you’re in a studio - can help with this. You may need to keep the engineer around to stop and start recording, but they could also set a loop around the track, activate recording and then you could try several takes in a row, all without anyone else around. 

Home Studio Simplified exists to simplify the complexities of the Home Studio and to help you make professional music in a less than professional space. We can Dream alone. We can Create alone. But Together we can achieve so much more.

Find out more about Rich here: 👉 https://youtube.com/c/ProduceMixFixandConquer

👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/producemixfixandconquer

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁: 👉https://linktr.ee/HSSimplified

𝗠𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀: 👉https://transactions.sendowl.com/stores/5349/205312

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 - 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀: 👉https://www.patreon.com/homestudiosimplified

𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 👉https://PayPal.me/HomeStudioSimplified 👉Merch-https://hss.threadless.com/ 👉https://www.homestudiosimplified.com/p/products.html

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼: 👉The Podcast: http://bit.ly/HSS_Podcast

𝗚𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱: 👉http://bit.ly/Best-Vocal-Tuning-Plugin 👉http://bit.ly/My_Recommendations 👉https://www.amazon.com/shop/homestudiosimplified 👉https://kit.co/HSSimplified/hss-podcasting-kit 👉hhttps://kit.co/HSSimplified 👉https://bit.ly/Ghostfire_Guitar_Gear

𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱: 👉Tube Buddy - https://www.tubebuddy.com/HSS 👉Distrokid with 7% off: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/613476 👉PC Optimizer: https://bit.ly/PC-Driver-Tool 👉Evernote: https://bit.ly/Best-Note-App 👉Thinkific: https://bit.ly/HSS-Thinkific 👉Production Crate: https://bit.ly/HSS-Video-Visuals 👉Promo: https://bit.ly/HSS-Promo-Vids

Today we are going to be talking with a fellow musician and podcast host, "AudiosErgeon".   "AudiosErgeon" is a hobbyist musician that likes to produce his own music and you can tell that he has fun doing it. He recently started a podcast that he uses as a creative venture to open a world of exploration into what he calls Space... the podcast is entitled Life In Space.   The episodes revolve around synthesis, music theory and just a whole lot of other cool stuff.   The website: https://moogcraft32.wixsite.com/mysite   "AudiosErgeon" on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/moogcraft-32

Find out more about MOB here:

👉https://www.instagram.com/ministerofbadness/

Stay In The Know: 👉https://linktr.ee/HSSimplified

Ways To Show Appreciation: 👉https://www.patreon.com/homestudiosimplified 👉https://PayPal.me/HomeStudioSimplified 👉T-Shirts-https://hss.threadless.com/ 👉https://www.homestudiosimplified.com/p/products.html

Listen on the go: 👉The Podcast: http://bit.ly/HSS_Podcast

Gear I recommend: 👉http://bit.ly/My_Recommendations 👉https://www.amazon.com/shop/homestudiosimplified 👉https://kit.co/HSSimplified/hss-podcasting-kit 👉https://kit.co/HSSimplified/affordable-gifts-for-musicians 👉https://bit.ly/Ghostfire_Guitar_Gear

Tools I recommend: 👉Tube Buddy - https://www.tubebuddy.com/HSS 👉Distrokid with 7% off: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/613476 👉PC Optimizer: https://bit.ly/PC-Driver-Tool 👉Evernote: https://bit.ly/Best-Note-App 👉Thinkific: https://bit.ly/HSS-Thinkific 👉Production Crate: https://bit.ly/HSS-Video-Visuals 👉Promo: https://bit.ly/HSS-Promo-Vids

Kris Bradley is a songwriter/producer with credits including Sony BMG, Warner Chappell, Rolling Stone Magazine, Fox, Lincoln, and Miramax.  She heads Boomfox Productions, producing for various sync projects, artists and songwriters.

Find out more about Kris here:

https://www.producelikeaboss.com/ready

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁: 👉https://linktr.ee/HSSimplified

𝗠𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀: 👉https://bit.ly/Click-Here-If-You-Dare

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 - 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀: 👉https://bit.ly/Perks-On-Patreon 👉https://bit.ly/Join-On-YT

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗦𝗦 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲: 👉Merch-https://hss.threadless.com/ 👉https://hss.selz.com/

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗦𝗦 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁: 👉The Podcast: http://bit.ly/HSS_Podcast

𝗚𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱: 👉http://bit.ly/Best-Vocal-Tuning-Plugin 👉https://bit.ly/Kilohearts-Plugins 👉https://bit.ly/Best-Mixing-Mastering-Plugins 👉http://bit.ly/My_Recommendations 👉https://kit.co/HSSimplified

𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱: 👉https://bit.ly/Distrokid-HSS-Discount

This channel is all about helping home studio owners and musicians release music they are proud of. I do this through tutorials, Cakewalk training, gear reviews, interviews with Audio Industry leaders, and breakdowns of chart topping songs.

We can dream alone, we can create alone, but together we can achieve so much more.

Ladies and gentleman, tell me your busy without telling me your busy...

Today's podcast actually took place a YEAR ago! Durning that time I was scheduling a lot of interviews and had a ton of irons in the fire, so this one slipped under my radar. 

There is a ton of value in this podcast! Matt is a wealth of knowledge and as you'll soon hear, he's also a excellent human.

By way of announcement: *There has been a new logo and look rolled out for a fresh start on the new year so head over to the youtube channel to see the changes!

*Leave a review on this podcast and send me a screenshot to [email protected] for a FREE course of your choice on the website or 3 FREE months of VIP Access!

Get all three of his courses for the price of one here:  https://bit.ly/Matthew-Weiss-HSS-Discount

Checkout Matt's Website: https://weissadvice.com/

Watch Matt In Action: https://www.youtube.com/@WeissAdvice

Matt On The Gram: https://www.instagram.com/weiss.advice/

Today we have a very special guest with us. 

Mike is a highly experienced audio engineer, with over 20 years in the industry. 

He has worked on a wide range of projects, from major label pop records to independent film soundtracks, and has developed a reputation for delivering high-quality results on time and on budget. 

His best-selling books Recording Secrets For The Small Studio and Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio provide a complete recording and mixing Masterclass based around the techniques of hundreds of the world’s most famous producers.

Likewise, Mike is one of Sound On Sound’s more prolific authors, and is a respected educator in the field. 

I am very excited to have him here to share his knowledge and experience with the HSS crew!

Mikes Website: https://cambridge-mt.com/

The FREE Multitracks page: https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/

The SOS Podcast with Mike: Recording & Mixing SOS Podcast

• More videos and multitracks have been added to the HSS VIP Membership and there's more coming every month! I also have opened up the pricing to include a one time payment per year for those interested in that (it's essentially like getting 2 months free)
• If you're listening to this podcast on your iPhone podcast app leave me a review and let me know what you think of the show. Send me screen shot of your review and I'll send you a coupon code for a FREE month of VIP membership
• Lastly, I am having a Logo contest! In order to start the new year off fresh with a new look I am reaching out to you, an awesome community of creative people who understand the brand better than anyone else to come up with some concept art for Home Studio Simplified - You don't have to have a degree in digital design or anything either! Included on the form are several links to free online design sites and even a place for you to upload your artwork directly on the form. Every entry will receive a gift, and if you're design is chosen as the winner... a rather nice reward awaits!

Checkout the Wampler Pedal Line: https://imp.i114863.net/DVX47d

Checkout the Wampler YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wampler_pedals

Here's the Chasing Tone Podcast Episode with Warren Huart: https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-ym9y3-...

Wampler Socials:

• https://twitter.com/WamplerPedals
• http://www.facebook.com/wamplerpedals
• https://instagram.com/wamplerpedals/

Join the Rocket Fuel Bundle:

https://www.homestudiosimplified.com/pl/2147575396

Want in on the Mix Conest? Sign up here and gain access to your FREE Multitracks!

Want to become a VIP Member and get a ton of FREE multitracks and exclusive tutorials? Sign up here for that! (As a listener of the podcast that link will get you half-off as well!)

JMG Sound is a company founded by Jason Gibbins, a professional sound designer and ghost producer. JMG Sound plugins use complex audio processing techniques balanced with easy to use controls. From analogue hardware emulations to the latest advanced technology all with superior sound quality. Get that professional sound without slowing down your creative flow.

Find out more about his plugins here

See the video version of this interview here:

https://youtu.be/n1cgF55YPck