Search Engine

Custom Search
Showing posts with label instrument. Show all posts
Showing posts with label instrument. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010

Home Recording (continued)

Nowadays, recording a preofessional-sounding music at home is possible because home recording equipments with good sound quality have become more affordable. The noisy recordings and tape hiss that plagued home studios are now a thing of the past. Twenty years ago, even an experienced engineer couldn’t make a budget home studio sound truly professional; now, anything is possible.

Every piece of home recording gear is trying to imitate the features of a professional recording studio on a smaller scale. While technological advancements might allow more features, the goal is still the same: achieve at home the quality that the professionals get in a studio.
In my previous post, I mentioned about two types of DAW, integrated type and computer based type. An integrated type mostly refers to a standalone, all-in-one studio, such as the Fostex, Roland, Tascam, and Yamaha. These studios contain multitrack capability, internal effects, faders for mixing, EQ, and, in many cases, built-in CD burners. Everything we need to get start a music recording.

Roland VS

Recording technology is headed toward the computer at this point. Standalone units will always be around, but as the years go on, they are starting to resemble computers more and more. You can even make a computer as a standalone recorder.

If computer can act as a standalone unit, then why bother buying equipment that relatively more expensive than a computer? An all-in-one studio comes with some guarantees. If the box states that it can record eight tracks at the same time and play back sixty-four, then it’s going to do that without a glitch. With a computer, the number of tracks we can create is limited by the power of the machine. Good hardwares on computer (advanced processor, larger memory, faster disk, advanced soundcard) makes the different.

One more advantage of home recording is it doesn’t require huge amounts of space, and usually a corner of a room or a desk area is enough to get anyone started. How about the musical instrument? Many “solo” engineers/players own just a few microphones, usually one all-purpose and one specialized microphone. A lot depends on what instruments we plan to record.

I use only an electric guitar and a headset with microphone plugged into my computer. But, that doesn’t mean we have to own or master a musical instrument to do home recording. If we give our time to learn more about making music with audio processing software, we can make music without musical instrument, even without a mic. In My Music Box tab on the right, you can listen one example about it. I made it completely with FL Studio software.
Many studios involve MIDI to control drum machines and keyboards. But, I prefer computer software that uses wav format because I think the sounds are more reallistic, altough it requires more harddisk space.

I think that’s all for now. To be continued…
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Handle Guitar

Yesterday I was browsing the net about weird guitars and I found this cool guitar, THE HANDLE. The most revolutionary electric guitar of our times. An extremely advanced musical instrument which is a result of combining new acoustica studies, a striking formal identity and cutting edge technology. That's what they say about it.


It is an XOX Audio Tools product, designed by the award winning designer Peter Solomon. The Handle is mono-chassis, from headstock to the body of the guitar is completely manufactured out of carbon fiber (Wow! Just like the body of F1 race cars). Surprisingly, carbon fiber offers a much wider harmonic range than wood.

 The body is mostly cutaway, resulting in an extremely lightweight instrument (4.85 lbs). This also creating a resonance chamber similar to that of a semi-acoustic guitar. Its mono-chassis construction favors direct transmission of acoustic vibrations without sound dampening nor loss.  The fretboard is constructed of a pressure-formed thermostat laminate containing twenty-four full-scale frets, and the neck has a slim tapered profile measuring a 12” radius.

The handle was designed for comfort. Its concave form anatomically fits the body, its thin profile of the neck for all 24 frets, and its lightweight offer truly pleasing experience to anyone who plays it.

More information may be found at www.xoxaudiotools.com
Thursday, October 29, 2009

My Music

Hi all!
If you see box.net on the right bar, you will find there is a song I named Theatrical. I made it using software FL Studio 6 about a year ago. I made it entirely with FL Studio. No musical instruments involved, just the computer software. I've wanted to add guitar solo in it and I'm still working on it.
The song I made as a tribute to Dream Theater, one of my favorite band. I hope they can use it on their album (...just kidding...).
Anyway, there are other songs that I have not uploaded yet. I hope I can publish it in the near future. Feel free to download and listen to it. Don't forget to give comment about it. I know there are lots of weaknesses on the song, especially on mixing. I'm still learning about it.


Thank you.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Origins of guitar

Before the advent of the electric guitar, the guitar was defined as an instrument characterised by a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides. Instances of musical instruments similar to the guitar have been found to date back as far as 4,000 years ago. The roots of the guitar can be traced back thousands of years to instruments found in central Asia and India and is distantly related to instruments such as the tanbur and setar, and the Indian sitar.

The modern Engish word, guitar, evolved from Spanish guitarra (German Gitarre, French Guitare), also loaned from the medieval Andalusian Arabic qitara, itself derived from the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the earlier Greek word kithara, a possible descendant of Old Persian sihtar.

The Romans brought their cithara to Hispania around 40 AD and it is from this instrument that the modern guitar is descended. Further adaptations and developments were made when teh Moors introduced their four-string oud in the eighth century. In other European locations the Scandinavian six-string lute became popular wherever the Vikingstravelled. In many 800 AD carvings, the Norse hero Gunther can be seen playing a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake pit.

By 1200 AD, the four string "guitar" had evolved into two types: the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.

Another important influence on the development of the guitar is the Spanish vihuela. The "viola da mano" is a 15th century guitar like instrument that had lute-style tuning and a guitar-like body.

The Vinaccia family of luthiers is known for developing the mandolin, and may have built the oldest surviving six string guitar.

About Me

My Music Box

Followers

You are :