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Hi guys (girls),

I thought it would be fun to hear your plans for 2017. Any of you have already planned changes, new products or productions ?

Myself, I plan to put more effort in marketing and present better video solutions. (a few more lens and better lighting)
Also, I'll continu my DIY experiments, I want to mod my Studio projects C1, it seems it could sound more like a U87, I'll start the year with this. I also wonder about building an LA-2A clone.. but I need to think about this for a while...
I'm still searching for a way to get more business without becoming a youtube freak. ;)

Finally I have 5 songs of my own, I'd like to make it a full album.

About you ?

Happy new year to all of you my friends !

Comments

audiokid Thu, 12/29/2016 - 16:20

I'm excited to see what you come up with next, Marco. Looking forward to hearing more about the marketing and seeing any related video's as well. You do an excellent job at those.

  • I'm piecing together a new 2 DAW system that should be interesting

  • I'm preparing a new CMS section for RO which should be very cool
  • I'm getting my children more involved with this business

All the best to everyone in 2017!

Brother Junk Sat, 12/31/2016 - 07:27

I'm going to try to get a hybrid daw system going. Not really for the "New Year" per se, it's just next on the "fun" list. I built a computer for my grandmother 6 years ago or so, and she can't use it anymore, so I'm getting it back. Plus my 19" monitor. I like 3 monitor setups, and now I'll have 3! One at every station, and my keyboard is wireless...it's a neat little home setup.

So my first thing to buy is the RME Babyface Pro, and I'll use the Mbox Pro as the second DA....then to find a summing board!

I also hope to have a much better grasp of music theory. Lessons every other week are working out well. It's much easier to write songs when you understand what is happening mechanically. "Feeling" your way through it, with no knowledge of what is going on musically, can be quite frustrating.

AND!!! I hope to be able to read sheet music fluently by EOY. I understand it, drums and grand staff..but when playing, I often have to stop to figure it out. I can't sight read yet.

AND I want to learn more drum grooves. I can play them a tiny bit, and then drummers say, "Yeah, you play drums fine for a beginner. I mean, how did you just play that?"

My answer is always, "I have no idea?!?! That just comes out...but I have no idea what I'm doing!" I want to learn how to do all the fancy counting, and understand groove making better.

Basically, everything I do right now is just from "playing", and I find stuff that seems to work together. I want to be able to write with intention instead of chance.

Guelph_Guy Mon, 01/02/2017 - 19:51

Okay, I'm building studio "C" ... Which is a MIDI "scratchpad" studio ,

I recently purchased some of the Roland Boutique Synths ( re-issues of popular analog synths of the 80's) which are amazing ... and have an organic analog quality to them ...( and sliders and knobs too)

I'm getting back to the "twist the knobs" way of sound creation as opposed to diving through 3-5 menus of digital options and hours tweaking patches for a particular sound..

Davedog Wed, 01/04/2017 - 16:38

I'm currently working on a project that the songwriter/artist had previously recorded to a Roland 1680. There were lots of tracks and not all of them well recorded. But the music is truly great and inspirational. As it should be since its a praise record. He is planning a mission and to travel spreading His word this summer so we have a bit of a deadline.

It basically came down to re-recording a lot of the content while still trying to capture his original vision for the songs. I enlisted my friend Mr. Howard Helm to play keys and a drummer friend Mr. G.T.Albright to interpret the 'drummer in a box' that the artist had originally. I left it to me as Producer to play the bass, various guitars and what I like to call 'utility' tracks to replace things that weren't going to easily lend themselves to editing. The artist is a singer/guitarist so keeping a certain amount of what he already had was a priority except when it wasn't possible due to quality control issues. These tracks we would replicate as far as feel, dynamic content, and purpose as best we could.

When all the backing tracks were finally in place with a decent ref mix to them, we replaced all the lead vocals. At this point the artist, who had never been able to let ANYONE touch his material, decided that I was called by The Lord to make his vision happen (which I am, BTW) and finally relaxed and let it all flow. The new tracks are inspired and we got great vocals. we are still waiting on some girl backing vocals and a few tracks will get horn arrangements.

All of the pitch correction, timing issues, and content edits have been done and this is proving to be a very very good sounding project. Certainly there is a guiding hand at work here. More when I'm able to post a sample.......not yet.....

I'm also going to be finishing several projects that have been lingering due to lots of circumstances. Most not in my power to control. There's an R&B old school single coming up soon. The final mixes have been sitting on the drive for a while while that artist makes up his mind to not try and fix every little nuance, most of which are only noticeable to him and make no difference in the song's final groove and impact. They're both really cool though and I'd like to get them mastered and 'out there'...Very much a 70's white soul vibe and well played. Most of the tracks NOT tracked here with me but all the vocals and mix done here. Those of you who are track roasters know of what I speak when I say "there were issues".....

I've chose 2017 as the YEAR TO GET THINGS DONE. I'm going to restore some 1" sixteen track masters I've stored for quite a few years. That project never gott finished and its time to do so. There's no reward for this other than to complete it. Once its restored to digital and onto wav files I'll dump it all into PT HD and either rerecord things.....mostly to get the ghastly reverbs we used back then (there's some really DEEP Lexicon'd tracks here!!! sorry) off the recordings and to finally put the rest of it together. Then I'll master it and send it out to everybody who was involved. I know where most of em are.

One other project is to finish a recording I did for a friend. I've gone back and forth and agonized about how to best produce it. Right now its just vocal and acoustic guitar. It will probably stay that way. Most of the probelem was when we tracked it, he couldn't really play to the clik and he had a hard time playing without singing. So its going to be tough to separate these two without the bleed. So its old school recording 101 again. Maybe some backing guitar work and a fiddle....maybe nothing....but it'll damn sure get done finally!

I conclusion...I had a complete knee replacement done in October. I'm getting the other done in late February. Then I'll be able to walk and chase the granddaughter and whatever the one she's cooking up now is gonna be! Bio-Grandad! It'll help the golf game too. Peace to everyone.

I love the new look of the site Chris.