Tim Smith

The room is 99% empty now and that's what I'm concentrating on instead of a studio replacement at the moment. Today I ripped up most of the carpet and padding. Two things in there need to be re routed/ re located. One is my modem router setup. I'll need to pull wires so I can put it up high. Still trying to decide on a location more central to the core of the house. I ordered a new ASUS router( WiFi 6)because some of my smart home devices were dropping on the old router. I need to see if the modem router by my service provider is bridged since I have another router plugged into it. I had an Orbi extender on my system but it kept dropping out. I have a lot to do before I even begin to remodel the room. Only THEN can I begin on the new studio.

Looks much better.

Thanks for all of the comments from everyone! Very helpful. I decided to remix this tonight based on the suggestions received here. Things I changed- I removed the Abbey Road Chambers and replaced it with Phoenix reverb using a wide chamber. I did EQ work on the guitar softening it substantially using a combination of dynamic EQ and normal EQ. I changed the tempo from 122 to 115. I replaced the Bass in Modo Bass from a Fender to a Paul Mcartney style bass. I made the touch softer and lowered the volume making various other changes in Modo Bass. I remastered the track to be less aggressive so it sits lower on the LUFS scale now. I corrected the cut off tail at the end. -Tim

My dog did me a big favor and forced me to clean out my studio. He was accidentally locked in and shredded the carpet. Everything had to come out of that room. That space has a lot of colorful history in it. A bathroom sits on the other side of the wall that is a closet in my studio. At one point the valve for the shower leaked inside the wall soaking the carpet. After that repair it took a long time for things to dry out. Things I found in there- Very old software I went to the trouble of putting in a fire proof lock box. Old recordings that sucked so bad they weren't worth the CDs I burned them on. Boxes. Boxes I thought I might use in the future 'if' I ever decided to store or sell the item. Cords, connectors, wires, adapters and more obsolete technology and software than I ever remembered buying. All the other stuff that's in a studio that is used by someone who likes things with strings and keys. Probably the single most surprising thing to me was how much stuff I managed to cram into that small room. That stuff should have filled two rooms, not one. I threw all of the obsolete software away along with a bunch of other stuff I knew I couldn't sell and would never use. I did keep my old BBE Sonic Maximizer. Not sure why. A Pair of M-audio studio monitors with a buzzy tweeter. I remembered I put in a replacement tweeter but never used them after that because the new tweeter still had a slight metallic sound to it. My old quad core DAW. I was thinking I might re use the case for a new build. Took two days to displace and sort all of it. I have it in various other places right now. I'm set up in my dining room temporarily. Not the best, but it works. Mixing mostly on headphones using Sonarworks because I haven't set my monitors for the space. That room will be a bedroom now and I hope to move to another space that's larger. Realistically I could be in the dining room awhile. My advice to anyone with a home studio- Do this a little at a time. Don't wait 10 or 15 years. I had a custom desk built for recording back in the day. It has dozens of slots for hardware. I never used any of them working mostly ITB. It's WAY too large and I'm thinking I'll down size to something smaller and more manageable. This is probably my last lap so whatever I do I probably won't ever do again, other than computer builds and software upgrades. Any similar stories here?

Probably reiterating some of what was already said. I had a website. I am glad I stopped it. It's a full time job to maintain security. I hope 8dio can get things cleared up completely. For every attempt though, there may only be a few real threats. Some attacks can be to hack someone's info for dishonest gain. Some attacks can be more political. One site I frequent allows anyone to join, however it has a strong percentage of people from a certain persuasion ( that's what they are there for). One of the few sites on the web for this group that is well maintained and monitored. MOST of the time only people with good intent join, but sometimes there are the trouble makers who pretended to be something they really weren't. They get in and are dealt with by the mods. Either booted completely or warned a few times first. I have to hand it to them for running such a tight ship. Hats off to the mods here as well.

Nice work on an old classic! Never heard this song with this much energy in it. I like it. -Tim

Hey Steve, I read up on your bio. Interesting the changes through the years. You really have the cover thing down as this shows. I would love to know how you put all of this together. I'm guessing mostly midi instruments you played in. You have the vocal ability to copy almost anyone pretty close. Kudos! Great mixes too. -Tim

@ABull Great music! I'm not sure what your goals were so far as the mix is concerned. What I heard was a dynamically even mix with plenty of space between the tracks. No extreme upper or lower end, however enough low to hear the bass line. I think the vocals sat well in this. On my studio head phones the mix was fairly dry. If you have reverb on it I imagine it's a simple plate or similar. Belief is an interesting concept. I think we need help to believe. The chair I'm sitting in is holding me up, therefore I believe in the support of the chair. An interesting subject to use as a subject line.? Congrats on this one. -Tim

Thanks @Wookiee @Jimbo 88 It almost seemed to me as if the flute and violin blended to one instrument in the second half. Probably too much so. In real Irish Traditional music seldom is there any counter melody. The music itself is very basic with a melody line and rhythm line and percussion. No counter point. No harmony. I have a tendency to want other elements in it. Then I would be westernizing what it really is. In my celtic material I color outside of those lines frequently. @steve@baselines.com I played the bass today heh heh. At least I guess it qualified as playing it. I should probably trade the active rock bass for a Fender. Your screen name reminded me of bass. I guess you're a bass player? Thanks for those comments. I was in Dublin once before COVID and that whole city is hopping at night...or was. @mark skinner Thanks for comments. I attempted to make it something Irish people could dance to. Me not so much. I am the worst dancer ever....except for that time I stepped in the fire ant bed. I pulled some moves that day

The one on the left would double nicely as a back scratcher.

I purchased a few Windows 10 pro licenses last year and have had zero issue with all of those installs. I am going to hold out on Windows 11 until they get the bugs worked out.

I had a Schecter Hellraiser and sold it. Nice guitar!

I have been having some issues with SC . I will look into it. Thanks. Yeah, the more I put out the less attention my channel gets lol. Maybe I should go back to one tune every three months.

I didn't have this issue in version 5. I didn't find anything specifically on YouTube. I'm going to check the version of Vocalign I have. It's probably version 3 since I have not upgraded it in awhile, and as I understand it, they don't plan to update that plugin. At this point I can't open 5.5 at all. Thanks, -Tim

SO 5.5 is hanging on me with Vocalign project VST3x64. Not sure how to drop the file so I can open the program.

Cubase is moving to version 12 soon. We'll see what's new. Interested to see the new licensing scheme too. I haven't had any issue with 11.0.41. The piano roll in Cubase is hands down my best midi editor. I'm glad I have it for that reason alone. I haven't downloaded SO5.5 yet but the mastering section sounds like a real treat.

Yep it's hard to beat the sensual sax. Gotta watch that knob though. ?

Sweet! We have had quite a few upgrades now on V5. It's almost like getting new software for free every quarter or so. Heck yeah let's go until V5.999.

I hope they are making direct connections from Cubase to Dorico similar to the way S1 and Notion play together.

One more for today. I did this one all this evening. It's a jazz rendition of the old Hymn " Amazing Grace". Mostly Kontakt instruments. The sax is sensual sax. -Tim

Thanks Jack. Much appreciated. -Tim

Having sat in and played Irish sessions I tried my hand at duplicating that feel with some original music. Comments welcome. Thank you CbB for allowing me to post it here. -Tim

I liked this one. While it was plenty loud enough it didn't quite pop like a master track. Maybe a little weak in the mids and some limiting would help? I kept wanting to hear more of the backup singers in there. The song itself is excellent ?

@jack c. @PhonoBrainer @Paul Bush @Larry T. Thank you to all for some more direction on this one. I'm going to try and dig up the project to work on it some more. Some great suggestions there Tom and others. I guess I have some work to do yet. Thanks to all who commented and listened. -Tim

I don't notice the difference between VST2 and VST3 much if we are talking 64 bit. VST3 64 made some improvements to the way audio was handled in and out of the plugin in terms of channels. I never used the capability so I wouldn't know. I don't generally stream multiple audio channels out of my plugins. Maybe some improvements to control and automation. Once again, I seldom see the need to automate a plugin. I believe VST2 has a bunch of that capability already. CbB plugins can all be automated in the PC. GUIs are bigger in VST 3 plugins or can be. To condense, the differences are not differences I have really minded much other than the larger GUI. I never use the seat memory in my car either. Tech is great if you use it. If you don't.............