What's Up?

So I realize I haven't blogged in a couple of months :(  Things have been a bit crazy around here.  I've been in the middle of working on a friend's project and haven't had a chance to blog.  Things are going well!  We have been laying down tracks slowly but surely and I've been learning a ton!!!  


God has blessed me in so many ways.  A great godly wife, beautiful children, a wonderful home where I can record and create new music, etc!  God has also opened the door for us to upgrade certain things in the studio too! 

The first thing is a second monitor.  If you work with Pro Tools or any other DAW software than you know how valuable a second monitor is!  Most recording software has two main windows a "Mix" window and and "Edit" window.   With two monitors you can seamlessly run between both of these windows and see exactly what's going on simultaneously. A huge thanks to my in-laws for allowing me to use it!  This is a great addition!

Another thing that has helped tremendously is an external hard drive dedicated for recording.  I picked up a great deal at tigerdirect.com.  They have a ton of these and nowadays; they have become a must in recording for a few reasons.  One reason is that it frees up a lot of processing power.  Recording software and plug-ins take up a lot of processing power so the more you have the better your session is going to run.  When you run an external hard drive your computer's processor doesn't have to run it and that frees up processing power. Another reason is that you have more space to record on.  You don't have to worry about filling up your computer's internal hard drive.  Also, it allows you to take your sessions with you to other studios easily.


The next thing that we've been able to upgrade is a new studio desk.  I still can't believe the deal I got on this!  This desk sells normally for $199.99 all the time, and it's well worth it. I just happened to see it on Craigslist for $30.00!!!  I am so thankful for this thing!  My old desk was great but this allows me to have both my keyboard and computer on it at the same time (if you need a studio desk my old one is for sale).  It also has space for the new monitor and more!  

Lastly I was able to get the updated version of Pro Tools (Pro Tools 9).  I have been running Pro Tools 7.4.2 for the last 4 years and its been great.  However there have been two updates since then (Pro Tools 8 and now 9).  Well, I must say WOW!  What a difference!  PT9 has made it so much easier to record and edit.  The plug-in package alone is well worth the upgrade.  I love the way you can comp in PT9.  You can see all of your playlists at the same time.  That's huge!!!!  I also love the way you can have the color of the tracks bleed through the whole track.  You can navigate so much easier (see pic).


All these things have helped me tremendously in my recordings these past few weeks.  What a blessing!  So that's what I've been up to the last couple of months.  What's up with you?


Serving Him,


Jimmy!