Some of my other activities have led me to produce a Proof-of-Concept for another project. It's called Awesome Amps and has proven how quickly I can get a multi-site Drupal installation up and running.

The Concept

The idea started as part of the gift ideas for guitarists series. I was thinking of money-is-no-object amplifiers. As well as that, it fits with the activities over at Earn More Than Before.

I've been writing the series of articles on Musical Creativity and how to overcome composer's block for a while now and I'm always curious about the creativity part of it. No matter how well I prepare a composition, some of the best compositions become better by improvising a new melody.

Dr Charles Limb's research into the brain's activity during jamming and improvisation is enlightening.

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in more complicated structures and then a song brings back the joy of a simple structure. A lot of pop/rock songs have been based around three chords, hey some popular songs had only two. That should be no surprise. I'd expect most readers to already know that.

But when was the last time you wrote a song using just three chords?

So you've got Kontakt to work with Logic and now one of the instruments is a bit too loud in one section so you want to automate.

Great, reduce the volume (using track automation in arranger) for that instrument. Only thing is, one of two things happens:

1. All of Kontakt's instruments change volume
2. None of Kontakt's instruments change volume

There is a way to control each instrument separately. It takes a bit of setup, but once it's done, it will soon become second nature.

Templates

I'm glad that Kontakt and Logic work together. I just wish it were easier.

Versions

The upgrade to Logic 8 has helped a lot. For me, the Logic upgrade was a no-brainer. I waited a couple of moths to see what the bug reports were coming through, then took the plunge. Regardless of how it interacts with Kontakt, the Logic upgrade was worth it. If you include the tighter integration, then it becomes even better.

Templates

Guitar Player featured an article back in April 2006 about 99 ways to Play Better Guitar.

I've just read it again and it's still as relevant now as it was then. I'm now curious how many of them I do on a regular basis.

Like most things in life, it's easier to accumulate clutter. Every professional and most amateurs involved in digital media know it's getting more awkward as time goes by and as we accumulate more files.

I've just worked my way through every folder on my audio workstation from now back to January 2008 and a few before.

As part of the clear-out of our house in preparation for redecorating, I've been going through my CD collection. They're going into 3 or 4 piles depending on what I think they'll be useful for. Many of the collection wont feature here, just those border-line CDs that I couldn't decide on without listening to again. I'll add to the list as I go along.

Discard

Dark Angel - Leave Scars

If you've bought Apple's Logic Studio including Logic Pro 8, then you've also got the Compressor application sitting in your Applications folder.

The application isn't for audio dynamic compression, it's for converting file formats, specifically encoding video files from one format to another. It can also convert files from one audio format to another.

Why bother?

also known as "Is it wrong to apply effects to an accurate recording of a guitar amp?"