YOUR HOME STUDIO DOT COM NEWSLETTER Issue 1
Well, here it is at last, the first issue of the Your Home Studio Dot Com newsletter. Before I begin, I suppose I should give you a bit of background information. My name is Thomas Rabalais (Yes, that Thomas Rabalais – just kidding) and I’m a 40 something, married guy with an almost legal daughter who’s spent the last 6 years or so teaching myself how to produce music. The first instrument I learned to play is guitar, which I started on in junior high because all my friends were in bands and I didn’t want to get left out. I continued to play guitar throughout high school in several groups in my hometown. After high school, I sort of drifted away from music for about 15 years or so. A neighborhood kid asked me to teach him guitar about 8 years ago and I viewed it as an opportunity to relearn guitar. I knew all I had to do is stay ahead of him. One of the tools I used in teaching was for my students to record their guitar parts into Cakewalk to midi drums and bass parts I that I had downloaded. Well, one thing led to another and I had recorded myself doing a couple of covers. Shortly after that I started playing in a band that included a friend of mine, my daughter and a friend of hers from school. We produced our own CD – you can check it out @ cdbaby.com . Since then, I’ve produced a CD for a church, several demos for local artists, done some live recording of a local high school’s orchestra, and live recording of my daughter’s band in Lafayette, Louisiana.
One of the things I really wish I had been able to find is a basic tutorial on the recording process back when I was just starting. I tend to be the kind of person who will dig into something and figure it out for myself but I also don’t think it’s necessary to re-invent the wheel either. That’s why I decided to put together my website and blog to pass along what I’ve learned. So here goes:
1) New Products – Check out new products from M-Audio, Cakewalk, PreSonus, Tannoy, KRK, and Yamaha
2) Newbie Info – Compression- what is it and what is it good for?
3) Recording and Mixing Techniques –Recording Part 1: Pre - Production
4) Recording Industry News – Lexicon Lambda Studio, Rain’s Element 64,
Pro Tools 7 upgrade, Propellerhead’s Reason Drum Kits 2.0 and
5) Member Questions – Here’s where I’ll answer questions concerning home studio setup, recording, mixing and mastering. I don’t have one this month as we’ve just started but send them in to questions@yourhomestudio.com and I’ll answer as many as I can. Keep the questions general in nature as I can’t possibly know the ins and outs of every software package or piece of hardware.
Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel might find this useful or interesting. As always, you may unsubscribe from the newsletter by sending an email to unsubscribe@yourhomestudio.com.
Next month I’ll be touching on gating and expansion for the newbies, continuing with the discussion on the recording process with the focus being the drums, bass and lead vocal, and hopefully answering some member questions.
Thanks for subscribing and please let me know how you like (or don’t like) the newsletter
Oh, I almost forgot – I’ve changed my policy concerning the hurricane relief fund. I’ve expanded it to include relief for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita , Wilma and any other hurricanes during the 2005 and 2006 hurricane season. Just go the website and buy something after clicking through to Barnes and Noble, Musician’s Friend or Alienware via the links on the website and your donation is assured.