System rebuild....aw yeah.

[Hardrock69]

I was told last night of an iPhone app called Jam-something or other that offers a shitload of songs in multi-track format.

For instance, my friend was downloading tracks by Rush for .99 cents each....shit like Geddy's bass line from Limelight....it has gone crazy....


AND....I saw a Seagate 2 TB USB external drive at Walmart today for 89 bucks!

Though I would research it first....Seagate is hit or miss on the quality of their drives....

[Hardrock69]

Wait a minute...7000 files? Good lord!

[jhale667]

Crazy, huh? And yeah, I've heard similar things about Seagate... I have Maxtor and Western Digital Drives...but doesn't Maxtor own Seagate?

[FORD]

Crazy, huh? And yeah, I've heard similar things about Seagate... I have Maxtor and Western Digital Drives...but doesn't Maxtor own Seagate?

Yeah, Maxtor and Seagate are now the same company. And while it's true that Maxtor and WD used to be considered "good" and Seagate considered "crap", it's not that simple anymore. When I was in college, they bought Seagate hard drives in bulk and about half the case seemed to be bad.

On the other hand, the only hard drive I've ever had which suffered a complete mechanical breakdown which made data recovery impossible was a Western Digital.

I've used all three, but I've probably used Maxtors the most and the longest. Not exactly an endorsement.... but what I would endorse is backing up everything, and burning to disc the stuff you really want to keep forever. And solid state drives if you have extra money lying around, though I expect they should probably start coming down in price, as any technology does after a few years.

[jhale667]

Still debating what to get drive-wise this weekend... probably a Maxtor again if I can find one, we'll see what Fry's has in stock. I'm still feeling like crap so took today off, but just installed EX Drummer, and can't wait to learn how to use it...the first "rock" kit I pulled up sounds HUGE through my monitors! Just going to put stuff down as MIDI tracks once I get it figured out, but it sounds great so far.

[jhale667]

OK, said fuck Maxtor or WD, and went with the Pro Tools-recommended OWC 1 TB USB 2.0 external drive, should be here in a few days. Hopefully no recording issues after that. Otherwise all is running well, including getting (finally) Recabinet 3 emulations on some of the older tracks IF I'm able to save them on the old drive, which is kinda hit-and-miss. But what I AM getting done is already sounding pretty cool...

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/drunk-n-hugely

[jhale667]

The new external HD got here just in time for the old one to crap out (still runs, but isn't recognized anymore). New one works great. I think it's the external converter adapter shell connections and not the drive itself that's tanking, so gonna try the $40 OWC conversion kit. Best case scenario it fires up, worst case I'm out close to 3 years of work. We'll see.

I also have been dickering around with EZdrummer and BOOM (the drum sequencer that comes with PT 10) and have finally taught myself how to program drums in Pro Tools. Just think, now instead of "your stuff would sound cooler with drums" I'll hear "your stuff would sound cooler with REAL drums"...upgrade! Turns out if your DAW is set in grid mode, it's very similar to grab patterns or individual drum/cymbal hits, and then drag, drop, cut and paste like you would in Excel -which I work with every day at the office, so it was like "hey!" Here's a reeeally basic pattern I laid down as a test:

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/i-can-haz-drums

That was EZdrummer, and it's similar in BOOM but you're straight up doing MIDI grids in Pro Tools once like EZdrummer you've got it pulled up as an insert on an Instrument track, dealing with learning that now. I'm also gonna install AcmeBarGig Head Case Lite on this machine, just to have a larger stash of amp emulations than PODfarm alone would provide. You can write (in the lite version 5 of) your own based on their presets, and then and logo'd or non-logo'd amp skins. PLUS they seem to have a few more of these emulations goin' on, how COULDN'T I?






"Nice skin, man!"

[Hardrock69]

Right on, man!

[jhale667]

Right on, man!

Thanks. Was able to combine the track I did Saturday in EZdrummer with one in BOOM.. works pretty cool!

http://soundcloud.com/jayhaleguitar/i-can-haz-drums-and-boom

[twonabomber]

Don't go all Tommy Lee/Methods of Mayhem on us now...

I have been playing around with loops in Sony Acid. More of a techno thing so far, but it's pretty fun.

[jhale667]

Don't go all Tommy Lee/Methods of Mayhem on us now...

[jhale667]

More fun stuff...again.

Installing a few EZdrummer EZX expansions kits (more heavy sounds so as NOT to go all Methods of Mayhem with BOOM)... can't be a bad thing, right? Got the "Metalheads" kit, the "Classics" (still awaiting download), and the "Drum Kit from Hell" EZX packs...(pre-Black Friday Musician's Friend half-price dealio). The drum samples sound killer!



And "The Classics" pack has the "Glyn Johns (sp)" 4-mic set up too, for the whole classic Zep, Cream 60s-70s vibe...

[jhale667]

"DKFH", "Metalheads", and "The Classsics" sounded so good I grabbed the "Twisted" kit as well...gotta love 2-for-1 sales.



Pretty stocked up.

[jhale667]

It. Never. Ends.

Seems I still need the "Vintage" EZX at minimum, due to the fact IT's the one with all the Ludwig kit samples (think Ringo poppy, or Bonham and Banali heavy). The OWC HD adapter will show up this week, hopefully that will solve the issue and I can start writing drum tracks for all the (pre-existing) tunes. Dragging and dropping the beats, once you've found them (another cool thing, all the new beats you get with each kit work with the other ones, so you can mix & match drum tones) is pretty easy. Hardest part so far seems to be figuring out, once you've got the basic beat down, how to throw in fills from the library that fit what you've already laid down. I guess eventually I'll figure out how to do them from scratch with MIDI but not quite there yet... did I mention I need a MIDI controller now?

One extremely cool job perk I also made use of this week is the Microsoft Home Usage Program...basically got shot a link through the office IT guy that allowed me to download Office 2010 for like $20 (including a backup disc they'll mail later). So now at least if I can't recover the tracks I know all the tempos and what guitars and tones I used on each of them since I can open my Excel track log again...



Already logged the info for the Bomber guitar and the two tunes I've started on working on the new drive, too... if your company offers the HUP do it, saved like $80...!

[jhale667]

So, should I install Reaper to run amp emulation programs that aren't PT compatible? Hardrock, that's your primary DAW isn't it? It seems like a long way to go as far as "workarounds" go, but I DO like what I've heard of Headcase....