Category: Always Be Recording

Recording at home, recording your gigs … if it’s about capturing your music, it’s all in here.

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New Arrivals: January 2022

The Christmas break is always good for getting me to wire up and fire up the home recording studio, and the end of 2021 was no exception. It was a good reminder of just how much I enjoy making music (rather than just noodling around).

So, this year, I want to at least try and have a bit more purpose when I choose which new (to me) gear to try:

  1. Things that will help me record music.
  2. Things that will help me perform music.
  3. Bucket list items.
  4. Things that will help me learn about the gear I already have.

Last year, we had one month when there were no new arrivals to write about. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have several more this year. But not this month 🙂

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#TweedTalk 2: First Impressions: Universal Audio Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe Amplifier Plugin

#TweedTalk is my occasional Tuesday column, where I talk about all things related to tweed amps and tweed-tone pedals.

In the recent Black Friday sales, I finally picked up Universal Audio’s Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe amp plugin to add to my collection of tweed tone options.

Is it going to get much use, or am I going straight back to the real amp? Here are my First Impressions.

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2021 Review: Resolutions From Last Year.

Last year (like an idiot) I posted a bunch of music-related New Year resolutions. Did I do any better than the year before? Let’s find out.

A Quick Recap

Here are my musical resolutions for 2021:

  • Revisit my old music, and start creating new recordings of it.
  • Put together a song-writing process, and practice it.
  • Find my confidence as a guitarist.

Yeah, about that …

Continue reading “2021 Review: Resolutions From Last Year.”
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Studio Diary #26: Rehearse, Rehearse, REHEARSE!

This year, I’m aiming to record four pieces of original music that I wrote in the early 1990s. They’ll be performed on acoustic guitar, and I’ll be doing the engineering, production and mixing myself.

Four songs on an acoustic guitar doesn’t sound like much, does it? After all, your average guitar YouTuber probably has to bang out at least one piece a week, every week. And this awesome chap is on track to record and upload 100 songs.

So why am I only aiming for just the four songs? And how is it going? The clue’s in the title.

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New Arrivals: April 2021

The big news this month (here in the UK) is that non-essential retail has been allowed to re-open. We’re coming out of lockdown, and guitar shops can open their doors to visitors once again. It’s too soon to travel the length and breadth of the country to hunt for hidden gems gathering dust on a wall somewhere, but we’re getting closer to that day.

In the meantime … this month, I’ve managed to pick up a couple of curious pieces to try. They’re a bit left-field, and (he says, having not tried them at the time of writing) probably not for everyone.

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Studio Diary #25: The Roland SPD-SX and Universal Audio Luna

MIDI drums and drum samples. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re a fact of life for just about everyone who records music at home. And, just as most of us can’t accommodate the noise of a real drum kit in the house, most of us have nowhere to keep a digital drum kit either. We’re left with using much smaller percussion pads, or we compromise and use something we can sort-of play like Roland’s SPD-SX.

But how do you get them into Universal Audio’s LUNA DAW in the first place? When I googled, I couldn’t find any instructions anywhere on how to do this.

So I wrote my own.

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Joe Gilder’s Latest Tips On Recording Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar

This year, I’m learning how to record acoustic guitar. I’ve got a lot to learn. To help me learn, I’m keeping an eye out for any helpful YouTube videos from professional engineers and producers.

Like this one 🙂

Joe Gilder has just posted his tips for recording finger style guitar, as a five-step process that anyone can follow.

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First Impressions: Neumann KM184 Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphone Matched Pair

This year (2021), I’m on a mission. I’m learning how to record acoustic guitar at home, so that I can record some of my older, original music.

Earlier this month, I picked up the Roswell mini K47 large diaphragm condenser. Now, I’ve added a set of Neumann KM184’s to my mic locker too. How am I getting on with them? Read on for my First Impressions.

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New Arrivals: January 2021

It feels weird to write ‘2021’. While it always takes a bit of time to get used to writing down the new year each time around, this year it just feels plain weird. 2020 was one of the hardest years many of us have had to face, and it seemed to go on forever. [So far, 2021 is shaping up to simply be Season 2 of 2020 – Ed]

This month, I’ve been focusing on things that will help me hit my 2021 New Year Resolutions. Oh, and I found another tweed-tone pedal too.

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