Tech
Weebl's Stuff - "Yesterday's Lemon" Thursday, 14 January 2010 19:41 |   
Track list: The first three tracks on this album are a trifecta of addictive electronic beats. "Amazing Horse" soars with tight synth melodies with a nice panned drum kit to back it up. "Electro Gypsy" sings a ballad about future music while bringing credibility to the title. And then there's "Narwhals", a happy go lucky tune about nature's oddest sea mammal. These three tunes will be stuck in your head for the next two weeks after you hear them. You might even sing along. It's an incredibly strong opening to an album. Ironically this album has no songs about lemons. Five of the nine tracks are dedicated to animals. This album should have been titled "Weebl's Menagerie." "Yesterday's Lemon" relies heavily on comedic value, since most of the songs were designed for looping Internet cartoons. It's really obvious where the loops were meant to end, because it's where the breakdown of the song is. Some of the songs have a children's music feel to them similar to They Might Be Giants. However, when you produce an album with the line "Look at my horse, my horse is amazing... With a stroke of its mane/It turns into a plane/And then it turns back again/When you tug on its winkie", you've exited the realm of children's music. The humor of this album is superb in my opinion, but if you've ever watched a Weebl cartoon and thought to yourself, "Fuck this noise," then you won't like this album. The only other song on this album I found notable was "8bit Shrooms", because I'm a Mario fan (I grew up on the NES) and its the sole heavy metal song in "Yesterday's Lemon." Weebl's vocals are clear and solid throughout, and some of the tracks are even supplemented by female vocals. Personally I'd like to find out what kind of home studio setup Jonti Picking is using. The production values of this album are slick, and remind us how pretty much anybody can release a record these days. The only shortcoming of this album is the remix of "Electro Gypsy", which has a hard hitting edge to it that sticks out like a sore thumb (too much compression on the drums). I didn't find the remix particularly creative, and would have preferred more original songs. If you are willing to give these tracks a chance, they'll worm your way into your regular listening schedule. The songs may be short in length, but their brevity is made up for by their replayability. If you don't already love narwhals now, you soon will, and realize that they are in fact the most awesome sea mammals in the world. |
Anybody who knows anything about the Internet knows about Weebl, or at the very least about Badger Badger Badger. Turns out that Weebl, otherwise known as Jonti Picking, has his own website, where you can find all sorts of cool animations. His signature style is to make a cartoon with his own music that makes no sense and loops indefinitely. Lo and behold, he has released some of his tunes on his new album, "Yesterday's Lemon." I picked up the album on iTunes, and after listening to it on repeat for the umpteenth time, I am ready to review it.
Various Beat Machine Programs Various Beat Machine ProgramsThursday, 14 January 2010 19:38 |
Many of these programs contain training sequences for the beginner. These will allow you to practice and learn how to keep rhythms, how to pick differently for guitars, and various other beginner fundamentals. There are also beat machine programs that hold a variety of pre-set beast and rhythms. These are typically made for music that has a more definite beat, like rap and salsa, but sometimes have a general theme-like the 80's. If you're looking to dance, or add your own words to the music, this type of machine will make the process much quicker. When it comes to the more advanced beat machine programs, these can come in many different forms. Most of these products cost money, but some of them are available to you through the internet. They typically allow you to make more than one track, edit and mix them, lay multiple tracks on top of each other, and add your track to a video. The more expensive beat machine programs also come as soundtrack software and allow you to create a bigger sound with more types of instruments. Some also allow you to publish your work when you're done. Keep in mind that when you are trying to find the best beat machine software for you, to look for the quality, make sure it has what you will need for your project, and is worth the money. Voice Over Software - How the Simplest Software Can Give You the Highest Quality RecordingSunday, 10 January 2010 23:53 |
Well, they are definitely not engineers first! There is so much that you can do with recording software today, and as a voice actor, you need to use about 1% of that. When you're doing a music or film production, there are a TON of variables, and those advanced features in Pro Tools sure do come in handy. When you're recording just one voice however, all those variables will vary you into a confused apathy! I don't need to spit out technical jargon here to show you that there is enough of that in any software to make you want to leave it all alone. I'm sure you've looked at the back of a box, or read a bit from a manufacturer's website, or even had a friend try to explain software to you, and you went completely blank! For voice over you don't need to worry about 99% of that nonsense! Most voice actors are doing auditions & not full productions at home. For that here are the 3 things your software does for you:
Just about any software will do that. In fact, your computer most likely even came with some. If not you can grab some for free, just look for a program called Audacity online and that will work fantastically for VO. Myth: More expensive software sounds better. Mythbust: Not true. The quality of your recording is determined by your microphone and interface. The software is just letting you do things with it once it's already recorded. Myth: You need lots of plugins to make your voice sound good. Mythbust: Who are you kidding? You're voice sounds GREAT! Seriously, that is why people hire you. Furthermore, if you process your voice with lots of plugins there are 2 terrible things that can happen. One: you can screw it up and make your voice sound BAD. Two: when the engineer gets it on the other side, there isn't much more they can do with it. Once it's been processed and sent to them, they can't un-process it if you did something to the sound they need to change. Let me ask you something: When you don't know how to use or are confused about something do you go and use it to it's fullest? Of course not. You back off from it. Maybe you "don't want to break" it or maybe you're "busy" today. But the fact is if you're afraid of it in any way, you're not going to dive right in and attack it. So my recommendation to you is, when you're looking for voice over software, don't fuss over whizbangs and features, go for what's simple, go for what works, go for what you'll use. Long-time studio consultant Erik J Martin offers you a 4-part FREE VIDEO MINI-COURSE at http://www.homerecordingstudiodesign.com to aid you in your home recording adventures. Erik makes the toughest task fun and simple for all skill levels. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erik_Martin |
Beat machine programs are commonly used throughout the hip hop and rap community to create new songs and demos. Depending on the program, these have many different qualities that make creating songs a lot easier.
Do your eyes start to roll back in your head when you start thinking of what to do about voice over software? You are not alone! Lots of actors are actors first, and engineers...