Wednesday, September 22, 2010

On a shoestring project part 4

 It's been a week of technical struggles, but all worth it. I feel like kid on a Christmas morning. My web site is up! Now it is still a work in progress, but I think I'll never stop tweaking it anyway :-) The address is http://www.jpkallio.com and please let me know what you think. The shop is not open yet, as I still don't have anything to sale. But we'll get there.




  So I got a loan of a Line6 UX1 recording interface, and had loads of fun... and even more frustrating moments, to get to know this little power house. I am impressed :-) But I must say this: I am only recording Demos at the moment with this machine. My computer is an Acer laptop and it can be bit noisy. You can hardly hear the fan noise, until you start recording and there it is. But I could work around it by isolating the computer... we'll see. I am hoping to get some money together to purchase some of my own recording equipment that would be hand picked to suit my needs. I'll get back to  this subject when we get that far. For now there is a song up on all the usual places, including the side bar of this blog. The song is my alternative Christmas song “Glory to the world”. If all goes well, I might release a proper version of it as a download before the Christmas. But for now, you will get an idea of the quality the UX1 is capable. 
  Oh yeah and currently in the spirit of the project, my recording software is Kristal audio engine which is a free software for personal use http://www.kreatives.org If you haven't seen it, check it out. First it might seem bit simple, especially if you are used to one of the bigger players in the recording business, but this is seriously powerful software. It has loads more stuff under the initial skin. And if your project ends up being worth releasing, the licence for the program is only €24.90. I have worked extensively with Cubase, Protools and Nuendo in the past, and if we lived in some sort of parallel universe, where money was irrelevant, and monkeys could fly, I'd go for Nuendo, with out any hesitation, Cubase strong second In my humble opinion Protools is over rated. Every thing I have recorded on Nuendo or Cubase just seem to sound better, and If you spend endless hours editing tracks, I can tell you Cubase and Nuendo are much easier on the eye. OK enough of this computer mumbo-jumbo. If you want more info or just want to continue the above subject, just email me or leave a post below.
   So I have posted the new song to lastfm as well, a useful promotional tool for any musician http://www.last.fm Most of these sites are pretty user friendly, you just register, upload a track and some info and you're good to go. But I am still scratching my head how to link lastfm to my site. I posted the web address on the bio page, but would be nice to make it bit more accessible. So if anybody has any idea, let me know. At this early stage, and actually any stage, it is important to get your name out in as many places as possible. How otherwise would people find you? I set a target for my Emailing list, a modest one, where i would like it to be at the end of this year. At the rate it is going I'll get there in 2027... So make my day, sign up for it at the bottom of this blog or at the first page of my website. But this all comes down to the same thing, the more links there are on the net, in music magazines, in the notice board of your local music store, hand scribbled graffiti on the toilet wall of your local bar... you got the point, the bigger chance there is that people will visit your site, listen to your music (which I hope you have on your front page!) and possibly sign up to your Emailing list.
The next bit is little off the subject, but at the same time, relevant as well. As you know by now, I have been posting few videos on my YouTube page. I have been recording them on iPhone, and even though I was positively surprised on the quality, I have been hoping for something better. I had all along an older Canon MD101 mini DV camcorder, with those small tapes. But when my old computer resided to call it a day without letting me know about it in advance, the choice of new laptops with a fire-wire port was limited and more on the expensive side... It came to as total surprise to me, that you can not convert from Fire-wire to USB2. I know if you Google, you'll find some adapters, but take my word, these don't work... At least not with Canon Dvs. But out of the blue our loved German supermarket chain (whose name I will not mention, until they sponsor me with endless supply of Brie and Espresso) came to help. They had a special on USB video grabber for €24.90 :-) And my old Canon is back in business. The only problem with this camera is the noise level; you can kind of hear the mechanical tape machine... But it has an input for an external microphone. So now all I would need would be a small mixing desk to boost and connect my good old workhorse Shure beta 57. But I'll get there, one step at a time. Now I just need to wait for the massive 1GB files to upload in to YouTube. But hey, it'll give me more time to write my blog. Talk to you shortly.


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