You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Opinions’ category.
GarageBand on iPhone. Not as easy to use as on a MacBook but Amplitube iRig and MultitrackDAW seriously want to rethink their pricing! This top dog of “prosumer” Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) is killer at AU$5:50 on the App Store, yet pretty much does most of what it’s Macintosh sibling does, except mayby track counts and inputs.
Onscreen instruments are better suited to iPad, I think, but still quite usable 
for sketching a melody or bass line. The Automatic Instruments seem at first play to be a little “samey” but I think there’s a knack to how you you use them which will come with experience. It’s certainly better than having a favourite drum loop and using it over and over in the same song, though. (Guilty as charging myself…)
The interfaces for tracks are familiar, too. The effects are done in a typically iOS way, but make sense in a GarageBand way. There guitar amps (shown), effects pedals (shown), loops and recording tools are are all really nice simplifications for use on a smaller screen than your usual music DAW.
Like I say, familiar in evry way. Also, I’m told 4S has full USB classes, so I’ll be 
getting a camera adapter kit soon to try out my iMic, Singstars and GuitarLink. GarageBand for iPhone, worth every cent of its $5:49 price tag.
Many of my friends and colleagues in music over the years, even myself, have played in covers bands. The reasons vary but usually have some link to it being easier to attract and hold a crowd with songs the audience “know.”
But do the punters really know the songs they hear? In one band I formed with long time friend, Deadman Turner, punters sometimes asked about the, “Midnight Oil song we played.” The song was an original of mine, arranged by Deadman and me, and was one of many originals peppered through a setlist that was a mix of original and cover. We played across rural northern Tasmania for about 6 months and in towns we were told originals would never be accepted, the originals were what the punters talked to us about, and it was always favourable.
Then there’s the vice versa. I’ve had people suggest that, “You guys should do <insert song here! It's awesome and would fit you guys so well!" Guess what? We do, it was the last song in that set, we finished 2 minutes ago. No, we didn't do a strange arrangement, we've been told it sounds like the record. This everyguy loves the song, is always front and centre on the dance floor, and doesn't know his "favourite" song while we play it "like the record."
Basically, a musician is not a juke box. A musician is a passionate artist and music fan. Why waste your talent promoting the work of others who are already famous enough, to people who aren't there for you, but for somebody else they'd rather was playing. The punters who appreciate the music, who hear what YOU create and value the new and different, they are your fans. The knob who wants you to, "Do Enter Sandman!" or "Do Mustang Sally!" isn't after music, they're after a party and might as well go home and throw one. Do Mustang Sally? Not even with your dick, mate.
If you write songs, don't play covers. Stand proud of your work and fight for its right to party with you and the audience. Admire your favourite artists, by all means, but don't hide your light behind their's. Stand out front, loud and proud, and give voice to your muse. The audience you attract will be better than any cover hunter punter.
…but today, I’m not. Not on your Nelly. This idea’s too good. Usually it doesn’t matter what you call something, if it’s a rose, it will smell like a rose, and a turd, like a turd.
However, this idea for a band name is staying top secret, it’s too good. If all other things are equal, two bands, one with this name, would not succeed equally, because this name says perfectly what those two, hypothetical bands do.
I’m an ideas man, hey, if nothing else 
Now here was a pleasant surprise. I went into Moorabbin Music Emporium intending to buy a $70 squash box delay and came out with a $270 Korg Tonelab AX5G pedal, but for WHOLE lot less than that price!. Stupidly less! Stupidly, insanely less, with a bit more knocked off for cash, too! Daftly cheap. OK, I’m labouring the point, but the reason for my excitement is they’re a great pedal for list price. It’s a WHOLE bucket of win for even the usual 10% off, let alone the insane markdown mine was.
Through my Strauss’s clean channel, the amp sims sounded huge. I still wish somebody made an affordable pedal where the amp models could be bypassed to a real amp, but the Tonelab is flexible enough to go into Ludwig’s effects loop without affecting the signal levels. (It will need tweaking, but it’s doable.)
Of the 40 presets there are maybe half a dozen I like out of the box, one being the Gibby Ac, a sweet Gibson acoustic simulation. Warm, woody and not a hint of artefaction. I’m sure the guitar it’s modelled on would sound better than my Ibanez Blazer in juggernaut’s clothing, but only by a fraction, and only if hooked up properly. The clean, crunch and lead sound have a richness cheap multieffects shouldn’t have. The chorus, flange and phase sounds are versatile and the reverbs and delays are as close as you can get to having your own big, timber and carpet lined concert hall.
The downsides are it’s only a 32k sample rate and it looks a little placcy. The placcy is only a look as it’s actually quite sturdy and the expression pedal feels really nice under foot. The 32k sample rate means it can audibly whistle a bit on the higher gain settings when not being played, but only if you’re less than generous with the noise gate and only JUST audibly.
For the money, there is nothing to gripe about. For the pro on a budget, it will deliver the goods. For the beginner, you can hide behind these effects and actually get away with it to a degree, but if you don’t over do it, you’ll get a few years great work out of this machine before you’re hankering for a Line 6 board, for sure.
There’s a question, hey. Another question might be, do you remember your favourite song from 2 years ago? Not just any song you liked, but one which really classifies as your favourite song. Some will, most won’t. Now there’s a statement.
Listening to music, such as playing an instrument, buying records and going to shows, is sort of important. We all need fun and outlets, and music is one of the best outlets there is, especially if you play it, but is it any more important than, say, playing a sport?
If a piece of music is held aloft as a banner to a historical event, it may be important to history, but is that piece of music important in itself? The Battle Hymn of the Republic was a rallying cry during and beyond the American Civil War, but it could be argued to be a bit facile and pompous as a song in its own right. There are far more arguably inspiring songs which are barely remembered because they “incite” peace rather than glorify war.
Closer to the day-to-day, is a song more important than the singer or the songwriter? We remember Beethoven or Bach because of a body of inspiring work. Their works sound to many as marvelous pieces of art, yet many were commercial or religious commissions, hardly art, more like corporate propagandising, although not always. Is the piece something more than the mind from which it sprang?
And when we need to let our hair down, we party to our favourite tunes. We go to concerts and raves and place the songs on virtual pedestals. We like the artists because they wrote the songs but, remember this, the songs come from the artists, not the artist from the song.
Is a song important? One, even a few, may be important to you, individually, but is any song more important than the person who gave it voice? No, not really, so you should all stop deifying or vilifying musicians on the strength of them singing a particular song. The singer makes the song, you don’t have to like it, you don’t have to hate it, but respect the person who makes it, because they are human and have a unique voice, mind and passion – even if you don’t understand it.
After 30 years REM is breaking up, something they should have done 30 years ago 
Yeh, I know, they have a lot of fans and gave a lot of people a lot of pleasure, but I’ve never rated their songcraft, nor Micheal Stipe as much of a singer, and that’s my right as a music listener. Good riddance, I say.
Yet another rehearsal room to check out tomorrow night. Had to relocate rehearsal to Thursday night. Bakehouse was booked out, so The Collectables are off to The Jam Hut, in Preston. Coming from a small town like Launceston, via an almost as small one like Hobart, I’m just not used to so many rehearsal places to choose from. Population has its advantages, for sure. No link because they don’t seem to have a web page.
I hate singing to a mic on a stand. I tend to be mobile on stage and there’s always a point where I’ve run off to have fun with a bandmate and then have to bolt back to my mic for a backing part. (Well, not so much during the last 20 months, “thanks” to the “magic” of TC Helicon Voicelive :-/ live music should be live.) I’ve decided this baby, the Shure WH20XLR head mic is the go for me in the new band. Stage mobility and vocals from any part of the stage. Perfect (Nice price, too.)
…for churlishness on the author’s part.
I’m rather liking the look of the Behringer iNuke3000 as a front of house amp. At 2x1500w into 2 ohms or 2x880w into 4 ohms, one of these will nicely beat four shades out of the bins I plan to get. (2x300w RMS, 4 ohm, 2×12″ and horn, with 2 more after the band is working.)
The iNuke amps seem to be great value, too. All 3000 watts of grunt in a 3U rackmount case for $399. Yum.
