Kitchen Songbirds

26/07/2025

Someone in a recording group explained that they're moving into a shared place and that meant he can't use his speakers, so he asked for recommendations for a decent set of headphones for home studio use (mixing etc)

He got a lot of good recommendations. And of course there's always that one person who helps explain why so many people these days turn to ChatGPT instead of asking real people. 🙄

Q: what are good headphones?
A: get a job in a studio.

Yup, very helpful.

15/07/2025

Apparently WeTransfer got so much backlash from the new terms of service that they already updated them. BBC did an article on them (I'm in Canada so I can't post news links) and the company that bought WeTransfer has a reputation for buying struggling services then laying off a bunch of people and the service goes downhill.
Not sure what the new ToS are but taking your content (your songs) and using it to make money without paying you shows they don't have ethics. Just one more company tryng to screw musicians and other creatives out of money. That's the world we live in today. :(

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24/02/2025

Studio is still in pieces so to speak.
I switched to Mac and after a little of "fiddlin' & f " as my dad would say, it just wasn't working out.
I thought assigning midi and audio would be easier since they have a dedicated tool for that, but I still can't get an external midi sound module to be recognized, and adding a digital mixer with a USB connection proved to be equally as frustrating.

The iMac wasn't powerful enough to run my Waves plugins (works great for Logic) and the Macbook Pro did run it but 2 USB ports just isn't enough. Even with powered USB hubs things just weren't working properly in Studio One.

Considering my studio was laid out to take advantage of the iMac, I have to strip things down a bit and make changes to hook up my PC tower and extra wide monitor.

As a tool for writing and other activities I have nothing but good things to say about the Macbook Pro, but I don't want to be constantly plugging and unplugging stuff just to take the Macbook with me to write.

So back to my Windows i7 desktop for audio and I'll use the Macbook Pro for writing. Once I get my studio rearranged and set up of course. Fun times.

In other news, the writing I am talking about is two fold... I want to get back into writing stories and screenplays, and I want to start writing a book or two on home recording.

31/10/2024

Seen this cool guitar strap for sale with a premium floral pattern but I'm not exactly sure what type of flower that is... Any suggestions?

01/10/2024

Fret wrap that's adjustable to "make it fit the PIANO body." I never knew a piano had frets 🤔

A different pic says the fret wrap can "cleanly handle the sound WITHOUT freeing up the hands." 😳
That's rather counterproductive if you have to use one of your hands to hold it in place.
Maybe it depends on what piano body you're wrapping it around? 🙄

30/09/2024

I just learned that Kris Kristofferson has passed away. :( He was one of my favorite songwriters.
Time to fire up my favorite Kristofferson song, "Here Comes That Rainbow Again."

Well, not the same as my video with the scenes from the movie... but there's no use of a worldwide-blocked video. Hope, FOX won't be pi**ed off by stills fro...

28/09/2024

Had a nice time last night at the singer-songwriter masterclass with Mike Shep at Long & McQuade.

I didn't actually learn anything (I've been at this a long time) but it was nice to get out for a few hours and be in the same room with like-minded people talking about recording/mixing.

Much like being an author, writing, recording and mixing your own songs is often a long, lonely process of sequestering yourself to a room with only a computer for company. So yeah, getting out for a few hours to be around like-minded people was worth the price of admission. :)

As future classes are offered and dig deeper into recording and mixing I'll sign up for them too, but last night was a nice refresher of the basics.

22/09/2024

I couldn't sleep so I got up a little past 4am to work on my sockhop song. I recorded a vocal and guitar track as quietly as I could so as not to disturb my neighbours, then I tapped out a basic drum pattern using my keyboards to get a better overview of the song as a whole.

Now that that's done it's time for a much needed nap to recharge.

Now that I finally got all the kinks and lyric problems solved, after the nap it'll be "Record it for real" time. :D

20/09/2024

Just noticed that if you zoom in on my Telecaster keychain, it even has some areas on the bidy where the paint was worn off, and some aging on the neck.
Interesting how they used a pic of an old guitar for a keychain rather than one that's shiny and new.

17/09/2024

Excited to get my white Tele back today!
I switched out the bridge pickup for an Alnico Hot Rail, and picked up a set of brass saddles.

I have no idea what she sounds like until I pick it up from Brett who installed everything and did a setup for me.