AndyB01

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum (hopefully a Mod will move it if required). I'm interested to know what folks use to make tutorials. So, filming and recording a narrative whilst capturing the sound via an audio interface either from a MIDI instrument or guitar. Just looking for tips on effective software/ workflow. Cheers Andy

Great tune Nigel and the usual very high production standards. I don't know how you guys remain so consistent - you must write the odd clunker, no? Great job Andy

Genius lyrics, perfectly described and very well performed. Don't ever stop writing. 🙂 Never been to Glasto but I went to collect my daughter and her mates from V Festival once. Took me ages to find her as I wandered around what looked the aftermath of a refugee camp after a nuclear strike - people wandering around half-dazed with abandoned tents, debris and litter strewn all over the place. 😂😂

Agreed, some folks get way too bent out of shape around this stuff and your predictions are spot on I think. I've literally today just replaced my 1Tb spinner with a 1Tb SSD; so now I'm all SSD. Many of my sound libraries were on the spinner and I've noticed two immediate impacts: 1. Noise - the fan fires less often, runs for less time and the disk noise has obviously disappeared (I never realised how significant this was). 2. Speed of sample loading - e.g. Ivory II down from around ten seconds to just a couple and faster boot time overall (although main drive was already a SSD). I'm less fussed about the speed impact but the noise reduction is a massive and very noticeable benefit. However this is a debate that will outlive us all. 😂 Andy

According to the guy who rebuilt mine, SSD failure is much exaggerated and something of an urban myth. True in the early days of SSDs apparently but not these days, provided you stick with reputable brands. I don't know, just glad to have mine back and working again. Andy

Not my style either but there's a lot going on here and it gels pretty well to my ears. I'm not going to comment on the mix, you've already had better advice from Wookiee than I could ever give. Overall, I thought you did a great job on this. Andy

Yeah, funkin' awesome! Great groove. Andy

Another great song, cello is really nicely blended and the vox and BGVs are a stand out. Nicely done. Andy

Rex that's a beautiful piece of work. Truly stunning vocal - the clarity really cuts through and such a simple stripped back arrangement. I absolutely loved it and was reminded a little of some of those Eagles ballads. Top work all round fella. Andy

Well it's back from the repair shop - full hardware diagnostics and a verdict of no (hardware) fault found?? Guy in the shop reckons the recovery image of Windows was somehow corrupted and not doing a clean install. So he binned off the entire thing, cleansed the disk and has reinstalled a fresh vanilla version of Windows. So I am slowly starting to rebuild all those VSTs and apps but so far (fingers crossed) it does seem better. Time will tell I guess... Thanks to everyone for suggestions, support and advice. Much appreciated as always. Andy

I use Carbonite for backup, it isn't cheap but it does seem to have a low footprint (runs as a background process) and is rock solid for recovery. It has saved me a few times as you can also access your data remotely on different devices. Fairly sure you can use your own private encryption key if you want better security. OneDrive is cheaper but I've never really got on with it. Other than that I use local storage on the device. Andy

I shall, that and a probable dent in my bank balance!

Cheers Craig, I've had the lid off as I thought it might be a badly seated memory module (it wasn't). The option to revert to last good state is there under recovery options but only using the DefaultUser(0) account (which is a temp account) and of course it wants a password (but there isn't one) so that's effectively a no can do. It's an odd one as I had just installed a minor update for a VST, did a restart and that was it - game over. I'll get to the bottom of it eventually, all good with a bootable USB - I have that. Andy

Thanks John, I don't plan on giving up on it just yet. I know a bloke who is far better than me at this stuff and very reasonable - so will ask him to take a look. I have the original OS on a bootable USB stick and everything is backed up on an offline hard disk and an online cloud backup service - so zero risk of data loss hopefully. Might be a chance to put a bigger SSD in anyway as the current one is only 500Gb. Thanks all for the support, much appreciated. I'll post the outcome when I know more. Andy

Think I'm going to be offline for a bit - after a rebuild (that was going well) and a routine re-start, laptop is now in an endless cycle of blue screens. ☹️ I suspect the SSD has died (just three years old) but could be anything. I'll get it to a local repairer I know next week - see if he can salvage anything. Don't fancy shelling out for a new machine at the moment. Ah well, could be a lot worse than a busted laptop... Stay safe Andy

Very sharp, great production and wonderful lyrical craft. All round superb. Andy

Allan that's a very clever arrangement - so many influences I'm hearing there and I like those harmonies - they're kind of dark and slightly menacing. Truly a great job! Andy

My son has a Behringer UMC202HD he uses for his DJ stuff. I borrowed it to test on my laptop as my Focusrite was playing up and I was extremely impressed with it. A very solid little unit that sounded every bit as good as my Focusrite 2i4 Gen 1. I also had a Behringer GMX110 practice amp for a few years and it was a grand bit of kit. Andy

Having a few older siblings, as a kid I heard a lot of Motown, James Taylor, Moody Blues, Simon & Garfunkel, Carole King & The Beatles. In the 70s I would listen to most stuff but 10cc (not considered cool), Supertramp, The Eagles and Queen were stand outs. I discovered prog (and Genesis specifically) in 1978 and subsequently became a big follower of their stuff and Hackett's solo career. I kind of passed on the whole Punk and New Romantics vibe but Simply Red, Dire Straits, Alison Moyet, Billy Joel, Elton John and Level 42 were all on my play list, together with Chris De Burgh (especially his less commercial stuff). My kids say I stopped buying music in the 80s 😂 (they're probably not far wrong there), but I was also blown away by an eclectic mix of artists from Oasis, Anita Baker and Beverley Craven to the possibly more obscure like Mike Silver, and Gretchen Peters. Real songwriting craft does it for me, every time. Other notables include Stevie Wonder, Bowie, Deep Purple, George Benson and George Michael (but not in his Wham days)! 😂 I think I've been influenced to a greater or lesser degree by any number of the above, but in recent years I have really got into classical music - mainly because it's brilliant to work to and blocks out external sound without the distraction of lyrics - but that's a whole different thread... Andy

I'm 58 Gary, I kind of get it (but then again I'm also a Genesis fan). 😂 The Wall is overrated - I agree - with one single exception: that guitar solo on ABITW Part II. One of my favourite riffs of all time. Andy

I've been mulling over this problem, over the years I've accumulated piles of crap and I would say I only use around 20% of virtual instruments and effects on a regular basis. I'm considering a nuclear laptop rebuild and re-install of just the stuff I actually use. I am sure some of the old stuff is causing regular blue screens and crashes. However, I also have a nagging 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' at the back of my mind. Andy

I've got some Shure SE425s I've had for years - not cheap but if you get the right foam inserts they do insulate well and sound pretty good. They are brilliant plugged in direct to my Yamaha SLG200N silent guitar. Also great on planes for when the babies start crying (not that I've needed them for that recently). 😂 The SE535s are even better by all accounts but I can't justify that much outlay. Andy

You nailed another one here Steve. Great job. Andy

All good here on the Sony MDR7506 cans Nice kick back groove Andy

Nice work - the vocal really shines. I'm in two minds about drums and further instrumentation, I think I've ruined many a half-decent ballad over the years by adding a drum track but then again maybe it would add something - all you can do is try some and see which you prefer. On balance, I like this as it is - very well written and performed - I enjoyed the listen. Andy