For me, the new Yamaha CP1 is amongst the most exciting product announcements, and I felt compelled to share what I’ve found to date given that so many of my readers are keyboard aficionados!   Hell, we’ve been carrying on a wonderful discussion about the Roland GX for nearly two years!

The new CP1 is the flagship “no compromise” model of the newly released CP line. The early read would indicate that this could possibly be the best of all worlds – latest acoustic modeling technology putting the sounds on par with the Roland V-Piano, a brand new killer action called NW-STAGE with real wooden keys putting the authenticity of the action on par with the Kawai MP8, and just enough multi-zone midi control to make it equally versatile on stage and in studio like the Roland RD700GX… Could it be possible?

I’m very open to the possibility and can’t wait to try one out – the street price appears to be approximately $5,000 (USD) which is far from trivial, but given the specifications, not surprising and slightly under the Roland V-Piano. What strikes me about the CP1 (vs. the V-Piano) is that it appears to be a bit more versatile in the MIDI realm. The V-Piano is sorely lacking in terms of MIDI control and it’s a huge heavy beast. The CP1 is much tidier, weighs nearly 20lbs less, and has an acceptable range of MIDI controls (4 zones; 2 internal, 2 external).

I cannot comment much further without sampling the merchandise but I wanted to post up a few videos I’ve found to date. If you find others, let me know and I’ll update this post.

Here’s an overview from the 2010 Namm Show!

Here’s a 4 part video from Keyboard Magazine!

Part 1 of 4…

Part 2 of 4…

Part 3 of 4…

Part 4 of 4…

Given then that a hardware upgrade is in many of our futures, it’s understandable that PC users are more tempted than ever to switch to a Mac.

Apple has clearly leveled the playing field in terms of price-performance, and continues to garner market share while Microsoft has only recently acknowledged its Windows Vista debacle.   As luck would have it, I was forced into this decision recently with my business machine, and felt what better way to help my dilemma than give the Mac a try in my work life first – realizing that a laptop migration is far less complex than a music studio retrofit!  So I made the switch to a Macbook Pro for business, and most recently upgraded to Snow Leopard (Mac OSX 10.6) and couldn’t be happier.  Without question – the Mac is a superior piece of kit with an unmatched price-performance ratio.

So why not do the same for my music studio?   Well, I’m thinking about it! But as of now, I view these as very different scenarios.  For work, mobility and multi-tasking are extremely important to me.   And, with desktop virtualization, I can have the best of both worlds on the Mac.  In the studio, my workflow mostly centers around a single application, my DAW.  I require no mobility because I choose not to take my music on the road and my collaboration with other musicians is done over the Internet.

For me, switching to the Mac for music would be justified only if driven by a change of DAW software.  Why?  Because most leading DAW applications are, unfortunately, tied to either the Mac or Windows platform.   For better or for worse, that’s one of the reasons why I opted for Cubase many moons ago; Cubase is one of few supported on both.   Whether professional or amateur, we invest heavily in our DAW relationship; and like any long-term relationship, it ain’t always pretty.   Regardless of your choice, you’ve likely contemplated greener pastures along the way, but I believe a “better solution” today ultimately morphs into “different challenges” tomorrow.

I find it helpful to pose this question: Would a Mac (and/or alternate DAW) help me make better music or make music better?

Forcing that perspective has kept me grounded – and not become distracted by an endless pursuit of perfect technology.  So for all the accolades I can now officially bestow upon the Mac, it’s neither helped me to write a good post, nor has it made it easier to write.  Would it be any different with music?   Or should I say, contribute enough improvement to justify the time and investment to switch?   In my opinion way too much energy is expended upon senseless debate of superior tool or platform.   It’s simply not a binary question; the answer is extremely situational and highly dependent on your workflow and what you’re trying to accomplish.  So until someone can prove to me that the choice of platform materially affects the quality of the end-product, the music, I’m going to do my best to stay grounded with regards to my studio technology refresh.   What are your thoughts?

Like many of you, my sanctuary has been a work in progress… In fact, I prefer to call it a “journey” rather than a project because if held to even the most liberal boundaries of project management, mine would be an abject failure in terms of being “on time and on budget”.   For nearly 3 (expensive) years, I churned through loads of gear, only to settle on premium professional products to replace more crap than I care to describe.  Thankfully, my studio has been relatively “stable” now for the past few years; not bad considering the pace of today’s product lifecycles!

So what’s stood the test of time?  Well, oddly enough the most senior item in my studio (besides me) isn’t even an instrument!  It’s my studio mix desk – the Argosy Dual 15K – or as Argosy likes to call it, the “Rocket Ship”…

Home studios usually have limited space and a purpose built mix desk not only maximizes your space and ergonomics, it provides the framing for your work environment.  Yes, there are many less costly alternatives, including DIY; but looking back on it, I’m convinced this thing has paid for itself many times over.  For one, we naturally “fill” the space we have at our disposal right?  How many empty spaces do you ever see in a woman’s designer shoe closet?   Rack spaces are the male equivalent, I’m afraid…  The Argosy desk has forced me into a “less is more” mode while still allowing me to fit a reasonable amount of gear into a relatively small space.  Oh yeah, and compared to cheaper alternatives, it looks uber cool.  To this day, I am still inspired to man the rocket ship!

I’ve also added a few customizations along the way.  To begin with, I’ve always preferred to use an outboard mixer as the interface into my DAW.  This, too, has proven to be a valuable long-term decision, and I’ll expand on that in a future post.   The Argosy Dual15 provides an abundant surface directly behind the keyboard/master controller, and Argosy sells an adjustable control surface shelf (the MPX) that fits into this space.  But, it’s designed for smaller light-weight control surfaces – which the Yamaha O2r96 is not!   So instead, I had them precision cut the MPX shelf so that the Yamaha O2r96 could be receded – just like you see in other custom consoles.  The mixer is heavy enough that it’s not going to move around, but I support it with a pair of Auralex loudspeaker isolation risers – these provide a stable cushion for the O2r96 and just enough “lift” to allow the the mixer to peep through the MPX shelf, as you can see in the photos.   Next, I secured the MPX shelf from the rear of the desk to provide added stability and balance to support an additional extension I attached to the front for my keyboard and mouse.  I wish I could say this was an engineered design – in reality I experimented with different approaches before settling on what you see below – but it works like a charm and it’s very stable.  The other benefit is that I now find myself relatively comfortable combing the aisles of Home Depot.

The next challenge was positioning my LCD monitors.   Until recently, anything north of a 20” monitor was fairly heavy.  I began with another Argosy accessory, their “Fly Bridge”, a plank which sits across the left and right rack risers (as shown on the Argosy site).   The Fly Bridge is fine for lighter, smaller monitors but was unable to support the weight of larger screens – but even worse, the viewing distance was causing excessive eye strain so you can bet I wanted those 30” LCDs once they became affordable.   But how to solve the problem of supporting REALLY large monitors while getting them close enough to comfortably view at high resolution?   One more consideration: I live in California and the earth moves from time to time out here…

Thankfully, Ergotron came to the rescue with a semi-custom solution that enables me to float my dual monitors right above my mixer!   Go to virtually any hospital and you’ll likely see Ergotron hardware providing industrial-grade mounting solutions (for computers and the like…).  Ergotron provided me with a massive steel “Command Post” that I surface mounted onto my floor.   The Command Post was essential because wall mounting simply would not have brought the monitors to an ideal viewing distance; beyond that, I have  acoustic treatment directly behind my desk – not suitable for mounting LCDs.  An Ergotron dual monitor arm (HD 45) was mounted onto the Command Post thereby allowing me to precisely adjust the height and distance of my dual 30” HP LP3065 monitors.  If you’re going down this road, I strongly recommend visiting their website and reviewing compatible “VESA” compatible monitors.  Perhaps to no surprise, this solution ended up costing as much as the monitors themselves, but what’s the point of investing in high-resolution monitors if you can’t position them, and hence view them, optimally?

Last, but not least the gluteus control surface, aka chair.   Because of the reach and overall elevation (when you consider the height of the mixer, monitors, etc) and that, as a piano player, you want to sit proportionately correct to the keyboard, the recently introduced Aeron work stool… basically a “taller” version of the iconic Aeron was introduced just in time!  Without the Aeron, all of the above would have literally remained “out of reach” so this was the last piece of the puzzle…

My Solution in a Nutshell:

1. Argosy Console Dual 15K – a fantastic mix desk specifically designed to support an 88-key controller/keyboard at its center…  Another great supplier is Custom Consoles – particularly for larger-scale environments – I’ll talk more about them shortly because I use their IsoBox technology to house my computers and an assortment of other (non-instrument) rack gear.
2. Customized solution to frame/recede my Yamaha O2r96 based on the Argosy MPX mix shelf
3. Customized extension added to the secured Argosy MPX to support keyboard and mouse above my keyboard/master controller
4. Customized Ergotron solution to “float” dual 30” LCD monitors for optimal viewing distance and height from my mix position
5. Aeron Work Stool

So my feeling is, bite the bullet once, spend incremental time maintaining it, and save loads of time in the long run as your environment continues to evolve.   There is, of course, a separate and independent need to apply conventional “asset management” such as maintaining an up-to-date inventory of your gear, but this tends to serve financial purposes more so than operational ones.  Things tend to break mostly when we introduce a change into our environment, and maintaining an accurate configuration, from several perspectives, will help you make changes faster and with far fewer headaches.

The diagram above, a topology map, is one of several diagrams that now comprise my studio documentation. It provides a high-level view of key components and connectivity from several perspectives. I use different diagrams to drill into things such as audio signal path, both analog and digital, MIDI routes, and TCP/IP networking.   And of course,  I maintain separate diagrams for machine configurations as well as a mapping of significant software and sound libraries. This is by no means an end-to-end inventory, but provides enough information to get me started in most situations.  For example, if I have my eye on a new sound library, and let’s face it they aren’t getting any smaller these days, I have several choices as to where to place it.

I’ve found it equally important to be mindful of power distribution. Even with multiple dedicated circuits, a must have in my opinion, it is easy (and dangerous) to create an overload if you ignore basic load balancing. I also use uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) that fan current to several intermediate power conditioners which allow me to power up and down the studio in an orderly fashion. But not everything gets the benefit of UPS current as there isn’t much value in providing this to things like my studio monitors.  Basically, anything that I’d hate to lose when a creative moment coincides with a power outage gets the benefit of both uninterrupted and conditioned juice.

View all of my diagrams

I’m sharing my diagrams with the hopes that this may be of help to others. Hopefully they can provide you with a useful reference or starting point.  I used Microsoft Visio to produce these because it’s a simple tool with lots of stencils (especially for diagramming rack mounted gear), and then saved them into a PDF  to make for easy viewing.

Nevertheless, I have long suspected that I was suffering from a low frequency null smack dab in my listening position.  Over time, I was able to compensate simply by knowing my room and literally sliding my chair back a few feet into the sweet spot.   The Ergo took approximately 10 room measurements; so rather than equalizing just your focus position (as is the case with many competing products), the Ergo attempts to build a 3D image of your room.  You use the supplied software to control the measurement/calibration process from a computer attached via firewire.  The measurement process begins at your focus/mix position, and then prompts for additional random positions until the software is satisfied with its room knowledge.   The software then downloads the settings to either the “A” or “B” speaker position on the Ergo- meaning you can store two separate room calibrations on this device (pretty handy)!   After calibrating, you can disconnect the Ergo from the computer and use it as a standalone device anywhere between your DAW and your monitors, or keep it connected via firewire for an elegant DAC interface to your monitors!

In my case, the digital outs from my DAW feed into my Yamaha o2r96 mixing board which, in turn, connects to my monitors (Barefoot MM27s and Avantone Mixcubes).  I simply redirected the XLR stereo outs from the o2r96 into the Ergo, and now use Ergo’s nifty A-B switching to toggle between the Barefoots and the Avantones.

So the question I assume your asking  about now is whether the difference is noticeable?  Candidly, it was very subtle in my case, which I take as a good thing!   This tells me that my room was already dialed in, as I suspected, but I do believe it helped address that nasty little null.  I’ve replayed four recent mixes that I thought were right on, and with the Ergo, the bass guitars were noticeably hot – makes sense because of compensating for that null at 100Hz right?   I quickly revised the mixes and my tests indicate a better, tighter result.  Again, we’re talking subtleties but as you know, it doesn’t take much to get the lower frequencies out of whack.

In summary, the pros outweigh the cons, in my opinion.  The Ergo is relatively inexpensive and it is a better than average room correction gadget because it builds a 3D room image vs. focusing just on your mix/focus position.   It can easily toggle between various filter modes including bi-passing all filters entirely so at the worst case, you’re back to where you started but with a well-built DAC/A-B switching/master volume control between your DAW and monitors.   It’s worth adding that the monitor switching also enables you to configure subwoofer switching – but in my case, not required.  The Ergo also includes a separate headphone out and level control although I wish the jack were located on the front of the unit instead of the back.  Seems to me that the Ergo offers some nice utility beyond its core function so that was the tipping point for me…  And, did I mention that it helped me dial in my mixes in less time?

Verdict: It’s not a game changer, but it’s still a winner!

Here is a link to the most recent trade press review I could find, courtesy of Mix Magazine.

Let’s not forget that an up-to-date studio does for us what a designer walk-in shoe closet does for the female species…

So here’s the list of goodies I’m contemplating…

MUSE RECEPTOR VERSION 2

Ironically, I was considering an upgrade to my Receptor Rev C (circa 2006) this time last year, but decided to hold off in hopes that Muse would create a more significant leap.  The newly announced specifications on the Muse Receptor 2 (Pro Max) were just what I was hoping for, albeit 12 months later…

This baby can potentially replace my dedicated sampling server which presently runs GigaStudio 4 and Kontakt 3 and an assortment of sample libraries totaling approximately 400GB.   Here’s my thinking: Tascam has put GigaStudio out to pasture so my long-run strategy is to consolidate everything onto NI Kontakt.  I doubt I’m unique in this thinking…  Muse has always had a cozy relationship with Native Instruments, but prior versions of the Receptor lacked the overall muscle and capacity to provide this function.  Plus gigabit ethernet support now makes their Uniwire protocol something I can seriously contemplate; up until now, I haven’t used it.  And, they’ve added eSATA support; this is a great solution for adding high-performance external storage (not possible on earlier models).  Sure the Receptor costs more (est $3200 street) than an equivalently configured PC, but the Receptor provides more net performance with less configuration because its Linux kernel is purpose built and the absence of a GUI adds another 20-30% tailwind in my estimation.

The question for me is whether to consolidate everything from my Rev C, which presently runs self-contained instruments such as Ivory and other soft-synth VSTs, onto a Max Pro or simply dedicate the Max Pro as my new Kontakt/sampler platform.  Kore 2 support is also on the near-term horizon according to Muse.  My thinking is that wrapping everything under Kore 2 makes quite a bit of sense these days – if you’re going to standardize on NI stuff, may as well go “all in”.  I’d be curious if anyone has thoughts or experiences along these lines?

UAD-2 Quad

I presently have 3 UAD-1 boards in my DAW, a dual Xeon box built by ADK Pro Audio.  And for whatever reason, my UAD plug-ins have not been performing that well since the advent of Cubase 4.x – I’m not sure why, but my theory is that this coincides with a wrapper for VST 2.X plug-ins as Steinberg begins optimization around its new VST 3.X standard.  Just my personal theory, but regardless, I can buy a single (albeit pricey) UAD-2 Quad and not only get a lot more DSP, but also free up some slots inside the box.  I could then add a SSL Duende PCIe – which I prefer to run on the bus vs. over firewire.  The Duende is also on my radar, but I’m going to wait on that one because I suspect SSL is preparing an upgrade of their own given their recent price drops.  Besides, I’m a heavy Waves user so I have the plug-ins I need for the time being.  It’s clear that the UAD-2 is going to be around for a while, so I think I’m going to bite the bullet and buy the top-end Quad – it’s time to consolidate – and this is best done before year end given the special incentives being provided by Universal Audio.

I also contemplated a DAW upgrade, but I’m getting “good enough” performance to hold out a bit longer, namely so I can make a healthy and uneventful leap into a 64-bit configuration.  I’m seeing signs that Vista is beginning to stabilize, and my bet is that we’ll see a lot more 64-bit support (for drivers, plug-ins, etc) becoming available in 2009.  I’m going to hold out until everything stabilizes.  For now, the DAW falls into the category of not fixing what’s not broken…

KRK ERGO

ERGO stands for Enhanced Room Geometry Optimization – or more simply put, a room correction device that consists of the base unit, a calibration microphone and control software.  These three pieces are used to measure and analyze phase and frequency problems within a listening environment to create a 3D image of your room and apply dynamic filters to control/correct the audio environment.

I haven’t been a big fan of these things in the past, but I believe the ERGO may provide some help particularly since I know I have low frequency nulls smack dab in my mix position.  Notwithstanding, I also have extensive acoustic treatments in my studio including bass traps.  I would not recommend something like this before you apply fundamental treatment, but I figure the combination of a well treated room and this little gadget may provide for some improvement.  It’s all about creating mix transparency and for a mere $550 (USD), I can’t resist giving it a try!  Incidentally, I’ve ruled out the competing alternative from IK Multimedia because I want something that sits outside of the DAW.

Line 6 Pod X3 Pro

My remaining upgrades can be done cost neutrally courtesy of eBay!   In this regard, I’m finding myself attracted to the new Line6 Pod X3 Pro.  This new gadget combines the best of the renowned guitar and bass pod technologies plus it provides a decent pair of line and mic pres – the only thing I see missing is meters but I can live with that.  Basically, this is an audio interface on steroids, and will be great tool for my visiting guitar toting mates.  So the plan is to replace not only my current Pod Pro XT, but also my 2U Focusrite TwinMaster Pro and gain a spare 1U rack space along with 2 additional analog ins for my Yamaha O2r96 while I’m at it.  More for less – always good in my book!

Well, that’s about it for now… I think I’ve just mentally spent about $5000 (USD)?  Not really too bad in the grand scheme right?  I haven’t really done much “gear acquisition” this year so perhaps I’m just in the mood, but some of these recent announcements really strike a chord with me so I think it’s time to do a little upgrading!

Before you know it, you are “collecting stuff” because new gear is cool, and does for you what a closet full of designer shoes does for the female species. Perhaps it is no coincidence that one of the most vibrant and useful online music technology communities is aptly named: GearSlutz.com! Many of its members, myself included, affectionately confess to having dealt with chronic GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Without intention, you can easily become a Gear Slut – but this is a slippery slope.

Here’s some additional food for thought from Carl Beatty, a veteran engineer and Professor of Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music on this topic.

At the risk of being rhetorical, we must remind ourselves that technology doesn’t help us write a better tune; and the more “moving parts” you have in your studio, the more you have to learn and maintain. You’ll end up spending loads of time (and money) learning the ins and outs of gear, and less time making music. This is not to understate the importance of gear, but rather emphasize a going in perspective that “less is more”.

The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity – Bruce Lee

I place a high premium on my time and the results I get from whatever I choose to pursue. From this, I’ve become a strong believer in the application of Pareto’s Law, better known as the “80-20 principal”. The law essentially states that 80% of our desired results come from 20% of what we do. It directly refutes the conventional wisdom of “the more you put in the more you get out”. This is a subject in and of its own, but its applicability to my journey has been invaluable. The bottom line is that you’ll get much better results, with much less effort, by using more of the few things that matter, and much less of the many things that don’t.

Good news!  SoundCloud has officially launched and, as suspected, they are providing a combination of free and tiered fee-based options.

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

The pro accounts appear to be way to go despite having a monthly fee ranging from 9 to 59 euros.  The service level is tied to the number of tracks (uploaded) per month.  I rather like this approach vs. something that would limit the amount of aggregate storage.

I’ve been extremely satisified with this service and have every intention of continuing with it.  At first glance the monthly fees may seem excessive for what can seemingly be accomplished with “FTP”, but if you value your time, you’ll quickly discover that SoundCloud is not only a faster and more secure way to share files, but moreover a vastly superior way to Collaborate with your clients and/or fellow musicians.  My recommendation is to sign up for the free trial – I suspect that many of you will arrive at the same conclusion: this is a no brainer!

That’s the thought that came to mind after experiencing SoundCloud.com, a new site for people who create music and need an easy and effective way to either send, receive, and review tracks.  SoundCloud solves the problem of distributing your tracks to people of interest and provides a powerful collaboration environment that sets SoundCloud apart from other “hosting sites”.   Rather than sending bulky audio files by email, or having people download from FTP, your audience can review your tracks inside of SoundCloud, but even better, you can embed SoundCloud into your own web site (as I’ve done below)!

First, you upload your tracks in virtually any format and resolution.  SoundCloud converts your audio files into “wave forms” that are displayed inside their player tool.   You have the option of making each of your tracks public or private as well as downloadable (or streaming only).  You can also create “set lists” to group multiple tracks into a single player – very useful for reviewing multiple takes… You can also use SoundCloud to receive tracks from other people, regardless of whether they are a subscriber through a handy “drop box” feature – notice the widget I’ve installed on my Sidebar (to the right)…

Send me your track

But for me, the coolest thing is the ability to embed the SoundCloud player just like the example below.   So rather than uploading my “work in progress” audio files onto my blog, I can instead provide the SoundCloud player to my fellow musicians and listeners and consolidate all of my reviews!  Did I mention it’s also very fast?

The above example illustrates a “timed comment” I’ve inserted into Worship.  This is especially powerful because your reviewers can visually place their comments precisely where they apply inside your tune WITHOUT HAVING TO START/STOP THE PLAYER TO NOTE THE TRACK POSITION.   This is extremely useful if you collaborate with other musicians, and virtually eliminates the need for producing “song charts” to describe what’s going on where!

Very cool and a definite time saver!

I’m not quite sure how SoundCloud intends to commercialize their offering.  My guess is they will provide some base services for free, but with some limitations.   For now, SoundCloud accounts are by invitation only, but the vetting process appears fairly straight forward.  I was emailed an invitation approximately 2 weeks after making my request.

SoundCloud is still in their early days, but they clearly address a fundamental pain point for collaborating music professionals!  Thus, another example of how Web 2.0 continues to change (and improve) the way we work!

In the mean time, I wanted to share a promising music collaboration site that I recently “stumbled upon”: IndabaMusic.com

This site appears to be designed around the concept of a creating Online Sessions; meaning, you create a “space” that represents a Project or Session and post your tracks with various tags allowing others to find, listen, and then join in.  You can also specify the type of tracks (and musicians) you’re looking for…  Those who join can then contribute their tracks – and you can even do the mixing online, although I don’t envision this replacing my studio tools.  I’m hoping to use Indaba to find some high-quality musicians with whom I can collaborate with & hire.  I especially like the ability to search for specific musical skills and sample previous work… you can reach out to these musicians and invite them to work on your session.  You can make your sessions either public or private, the former enables anyone in the Indaba community to listen in, comment, and/or contribute.

I’ve been struggling to find professional session musicians for sax and horns.  My music has a lot of interweaving between sax and piano, and despite having some VERY good technology, there’s no substitute for real, live-recorded wind instruments. I have drums and guitars covered courtesy of my friends at StudioPros.com, but I’d welcome an expansion of options since they don’t provide horn players, and I’d just assume do it ALL on line.

Given that music is now mostly recorded into a digital medium, a site like Indaba could really help.  Most importantly, it “appears” to have a growing membership base.  In my brief review I found it easy to search and review a wide range of talent and genres, certainly not all to my liking.  BUT, I did find some very good players, particularly in the realm of jazz guitar and sax – the authenticity and quality of these parts are critical for the kind of stuff I write…

So I think I’m going to take Indaba for a spin – best of all, you get everything you need for your first session for free! But once you need more “space” (as in gigabytes of storage space for more sessions), you pay $10 USD/mo.  Very acceptable.

Check out Indaba when you get a chance, and let me know what you think!

That’s sampling in a nutshell, and software samplers manage all of this, and can be triggered directly by a keyboard or thru a digital audio workstation just like any other connected instrument.

I use dedicated computers for this function… actually two dedicated samplers. The first one is a high-end PC configured to run a leading product known as Tascam GigaStudio. The second sampler is a purpose-built Linux server called a Muse Receptor that can run a wide variety of “virtual software instruments” that conform to industry standard VSTi format. In fact, the piano sound I used on the most recent tune, Seduction, was courtesy of a virtual instrument known as Ivory that runs on the Muse. It’s worthy to note that a virtual instrument is not the same as a sampler, but often provides for similar functionality (I’ll go over this more in a future post). Regardless, there are literally thousands (several gigabytes worth) of sample files organized into “sample libraries” on these boxes, and the sampling software makes them accessible as instruments – just like dedicated outboard gear! And, we’re not talking about “synthesized” sounds here… rather, samplers play back professionally recorded “samples” from real instruments. The sounds/samples of $250,000 Bosendorfer concert grand can be acquired and placed into your recordings for a fraction of the cost! So it goes without saying that sampler technology is a key component in most studios – particularly if your music incorporates acoustic instruments.

Even when you use a self-contained “digital keyboard”, it most likely uses built-in samples to play back acoustic instruments. The difference is that these samples are compressed into relatively small storage mediums such as on-board ROM chips; where as a true software-based sampler can take advantage of today’s low-cost/high-capacity disk drives and provide for virtually unlimited storage. The depth of a sample library is kind of like pixels on a television; the more you have, the higher the resolution… so think of software samplers as a bit like HDTV on steroids! Commercial sample libraries designed for software samplers often require GIGABYTES of storage, just for a single instrument, and from this density comes the authenticity. One well known professional orchestral library requires nearly 60 Gigabytes just for its baseline package… so we’re talking server-grade hardware and performance requirements, but the results are well worth it.

All but the most well-budgeted of films these days use sample libraries to some extent. You can literally be a one-person band, so to speak, if you know what you’re doing. Obviously, the technology doesn’t write the music for you, AND there is an equal craft in knowing how to “articulate” the sound so that it comes off authentically. In the end, technology will never 100% replace a real orchestra, but it comes pretty damn close these days, and for literally pennies on the dollar. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing in the grand scheme because there is truly a special magic to the “real thing”… but no question that more can be done for less, and I believe that benefits everyone in the long run.

Click here to Expand/Collapse a picture of the setup…

The new Roland RD700GX installed

And my view!

Click here to Expand/Collapse the non-technical review…

Click here to Expand/Collapse the musician’s perspective…

I don’t have loads of pictures to share; but I’ll work on it. For now, I came across one that shows a portion of my home studio. We modern day musicians love our gear so I’ll go through the studio architecture in greater detail shortly.

But before we continue, I’d like to first thank Devin Schoeffler for his efforts in designing this site. Your skills and creativity never cease to impress!