Making Music #2: Blocking Out “Ragged Perceptions”

Making Music is where I share the process as I write, arrange, record and release my music. You’ll get to read it all: what went well, what really didn’t, the decisions I had to make along the way, and why I made them. I hope you find it useful!

When I’m recording music, my first step is to create a tempo / section block map. What is that, and how do I go about doing it?

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Making Music #1: Choosing A DAW

Making Music is where I share the process as I write, arrange, record and release my music. You’ll get to read it all: what went well, what really didn’t, the decisions I had to make along the way, and why I made them. I hope you find it useful!

I’m finally sitting down to record my music. The starting point? Deciding whether I’m going to use Reaper, Universal Audio’s LUNA – or a mixture of both.

Continue reading “Making Music #1: Choosing A DAW”

First Impressions: Universal Audio’s LUNA DAW

The thing I hate most about digital recording? Latency. Even though I’m about as far away from a technically-accomplished player as you can get, I really struggle with coping with latency when I’m recording with Reaper. It’s the main reason that I bought my first UAD Apollo interface back in 2016.

So when Universal Audio announced LUNA, and made a huge song-and-dance about how it enables recording with virtually zero latency, I had to try it.

That was at the end of April 2020. I’ve been using it on-and-off throughout May, and scribbling down notes as I went along.

When you read this, please remember that it’s perfectly possible that some of these points may have been addressed in more recent releases of LUNA. UAD seem to be doing a great job of getting regular updates out for users.

That kinda hints that I ran into a lot of pain points with LUNA …

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Customising The Mouse In Reaper

Over on Reaper TV, Paul Charlton has posted a great video on how to customise Reaper to speed up your workflow. He shows you how to setup macros that you trigger via a keyboard shortcut – and that act on whatever the mouse is pointing at.

Yeah, it’s difficult to summarise succinctly. Paul does a much better job than me on explaining it:

Reaper’s low price makes it seem like a baby DAW, but as you can see in this video, it’s anything but. If you’re recording at home and looking for a DAW that you probably won’t ever outgrow, Reaper should be the first DAW you check out.

I’ve been using Reaper for several years now, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do. I’m a huge fan of Reaper TV. I think it’s one of the best resources out there for learning what Reaper can do, and how to use Reaper.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Paul’s video.

Spectre Sound’s 1,500 Dollar Studio Challenge

Can you record everything in a rock / metal band for a budget of just 1,500 dollars? Including a real drum kit? That’s what Galen Fricker of Spectre Sound Studio set out to prove in his latest video.

If you’re looking to start your own home or project studio, this is a good place to start. There’s some really good information in here, including a look at some of the mixing plugins Glen used in Reaper for the demo track.

Please head over to YouTube and leave a like and a supportive comment if you like Glen’s video.