I guess I'm a Cubase guy after all

When I first got into the world of digital recording the DAW I was using was called Cakewalk. I can't remember the version but I think it was either 1 or 2. At that time I really didn't know what I was doing. I only had two things that mattered to me at that time. The first was just recording my guitar riffs so that I wouldn't forget them. And then that eventually grew into doing demos for songs for the band I was in. But that was pretty much it.

When I decided to get serious about my music career I decided to upgrade my system. I ended up going with Pro Tools, version 7.3 at the time. Then there were some huge improvements with the MIDI aspects  made in version 8 and I eventually upgraded to Pro Tools 9 and was happy with it, for the most part.

But as I began to grow and evolve as a composer and move towards doing more virtual instrument type compositions, I began to run into the limitations of Pro Tools being a 32-bit application. I was hoping very much that when Pro Tools 10 finally got released that it would be a 64-bit application. Instead, I found that it was still 32-bit, they introduced a new plug-in format, and my hardware interface was not going to be supported beyond PT 10, and the upgrade cost was $300, for an application that didn't seem to have, in my opinion, $300 worth of improvements over the software that they had just released less than a year before in PT 9. I was disappointed about that and decided to start looking around at other DAW software.

I use a PC and had no desire to switch to a Mac so that took out a few choices right away. I had a copy of Reaper 4 that I had tried for awhile but I just didn't like the GUI of it so that wasn't going to be the one for me. I reached out to a couple of people who were also frustrated with PT and had moved to Cubase. I ended up downloading the trial version of Cubase 6 and by the end of the weekend I was up and running and recording at nearly the speed/ease of use that I had with PT 9, mostly because Cubase lets you customize your shortcut keys so I spent a couple of hours trying to get it to emulate PT as close as possible. That made it really easy to hit the ground running.

One of the big appeals to me about Cubase 6 was that it was 64-bit. I created a test session in which I added 20 instances of Kontakt 4 with a violin ensemble patch, 15 instances of PLAY with a cello ensemble patch, 3 instances of Stylus RMX and 3 instances of Omnisphere each with one instrument loaded, and then an instance of Ivory with a grand piano loaded. I imported one midi track to all of the various instruments and then record enabled the piano track while using a buffer setting of 128. It played back and recorded flawlessly. I wanted to cry :-) That was just not possible with my Pro Tools setup. Not even close. 

So in November 2011 I took the plunge and moved over to Cubase. The only real issue I had with Cubase was the mixer. It just wasn't as user-friendly to me as what I had in PT. I eventually got used to it though but I was always longing for it to be more like PT. Then late last year Cubase 7 was released with the brand new mixer they dubbed the Mix Console. When I saw the previews I felt like it was going to be the answer I was looking for.

So on the day it was released I got my copy. After a painless install I opened up an existing session. I was a bit disappointed to find that this software really didn't seem release-ready. There were some issues with VST performance as well as some audio drop-outs but the biggest disappointment was with the new mixer. Whenever I would try to view the new mixer, I would only be able to see portions of the faders. I wasn't able to see the track labels at all. Needless to say, this made the mixer unusable for me. I was very disappointed.

Then last month they released a service patch for it. Unfortunately, that didn't resolve my problems. So I thought I would try the trial version of PT 10 to see if I should have given it a try back in the day. I affirmed one thing and discovered another by doing this. What I affirmed was that even with the new extended disk cache feature in PT I still ran into the 32-bit limits when using a lot of VI tracks. And what I learned was that after using Cubase for over a year now, I actually PREFERRED it to Pro Tools now. Mostly because of how much work I do with MIDI. Cubase is just so much further ahead of PT in that department. 

And now I'm happy to report that with the most recent patch (v7.0.2) that Cubase released this week I can finally use the new Mix Console window! There are still some bugs they need to get fixed but I'm at least able to use the software now. The new mixer is definitely an improvement over the old one. So it looks like I can finally say with certainty that I'm a Cubase guy :-)

I actually remember how to blog!

Looks like my last entry was nearly six months ago. I knew it had been awhile since my last blog but I hadn't realized it had been THAT long. So much has happened between now and then. Some of it important, some of it, not so much. Let me start out with the least important stuff first... updates on music placements...

I landed my second main title theme for the show It's A Brad, Brad World that is currently airing on Bravo. I've also had numerous placements in a variety of other shows such as Access Hollywood, Auction Kings, and Little Couple. And the movie that I wrote the score for, Decision, made it's television debut back in October. I've also been busy writing cues for a variety of other shows but have yet to find out how many have been used yet.

In November of last year I made my annual trip to L.A. for the TAXI Road Rally. This was my fourth time going and it might have been my favorite one. It was great getting to see friends and "family" while I was there though it's amazing how fast the time flies while you're there. This one seemed to go by really fast.

After the Rally I made a big change in my recording setup. I switched from Pro Tools 9 to Cubase 6. There were lots of reasons for the change and maybe one day I'll do a blog post just about that, but after making the switch to Cubase, I can honestly say I've got no regrets. I'm LOVING Cubase!

Now on to some of the important updates... The last couple of weeks have been a sobering reminder of just how fragile life really is. Almost two weeks ago, my papaw (mom's dad) passed away. Even though he had been in a nursing home for over eight years and had been battling Parkinson's Disease for sometime, his passing was a bit of a shock. While it's never easy to see someone you love pass away, we know he's in a much better place now and we have faith that we'll see him again someday. I was able to spend about a week up in KY to be with my family. I wish I could have stayed longer.

I was just about to get back to a bit of a normal life last week but this past Friday saw an outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest and the South. We were fortunate here in that we didn't see any damage. But the area that I grew up in, Laurel County, Kentucky, was not as lucky. In East Bernstadt, at least five people lost their life and as many as 40 others were injured. It broke my heart to see the pictures and video footage of some of the damage. While I grew up in London, we went to church for many years in East Bernstadt and I have some friends and family that live there. I basically consider all of Laurel County as "home." And to be away from there right now is definitely tugging on my heart. My body may be in Tennessee, but my head and heart are in Kentucky right now.

I posted this on facebook and will do the same here. I'm trying to find 5 people who are willing to donate $20 to the United Way of Laurel County to help out the tornado victims in East Bernstadt. I will match those donations myself and will also buy you a drink or desert the next time I see you in person. If you're willing to help, here's the link to donate at:

https://volunteer.truist.com/cng-uwa/donate/?fdn=19100&_vm10302425432_=UWW_LUW

Until next time...

Stories From The Studio: Printing FX

I recently signed a deal for a song that I co-wrote with my buddy Joel for our Big Blue Shoes project. It's more of a Pop-Rock/Indie Pop/Rock kind of "band" and a definite departure from my Crushing Gray project and the "typical" Big Blue Barry metal tracks. But I digress... so, the library that is signing the track wants an instrumental version of the track as well as the full version with vocals. No problem. So I thought...

Though it feels like I've been doing this a LOT longer, the truth is, I've only been at this film/TV/production library and songwriting "career" for about two and a half years now. Granted, I've been playing music for a long time, and I did write my first song YEARS ago. It wasn't until January of 2008 that I truly became serious about it.

During these last two and a half years, I've had to learn quite a bit. Some of it was about songwriting. A LOT of it was about song production. I can pick things up pretty quick when it comes to "techie" stuff, but I didn't have the formal background or training that a lot of my peers, colleagues, and competition had. I've pretty much taught myself every step of the way. That's been a very fulfilling process, but I know that I've missed out on some things here and there. Which brings me to the topic of this post... printing FX.