The Melvins Live

Thought i'd share this with you all. What a band, a massive inspiration to my friends and me.

Pro Tools 10

Pro Tools 10

Seems like only yesterday I was reading about PT9 coming out. How times change. Pro Tools 10 arrived a couple of weeks ago and it brought with it some interesting questions. Audio regions are now called clips? Export music directly to Soundcloud? The new Avid Channel Strip plugin based on the legendary (?!?) System 5 console?

It appears that Avid are falling in line with a lot of the other DAW manafacturers. The 'pro' side seems to be moving more and more towards film and t.v. post production whilst the audio features are becoming more streamlined for use by the masses. None of this is a bad thing - PT is still my weapon of choice - but it does show that the businesses associated with the record industry are also having to rethink their positions in the market place to survive.

I'm sure there are 101 reasons for these updates and tweaks that we'll never know about but it does seem to be the way things are moving. I spoke to a chap from plugin manafacturer (who shall not be named) who mentioned that if they aimed all their marketing at pro audio engineers they'd never sell anything as most engineers aren't exactly rolling in it and most studios are struggling to keep their doors open. The target for them is the civilians with day jobs and disposable incomes (many of whom are fine engineers by the way) who record/mix/produce music as a serious hobby. Often recording projects for free and often better equipped than a lot of small studios.

Anyone who has read any of my previous blogs will know that i'm not here to shout and scream about the situation, rather that I find it interesting to watch the industry twist and turn to try and find a place to settle. I'm not sure that place will ever exist - hell it may even put me out of a job!

And that concludes todays ramblings,

Kev.

The Heavy Metal Gangs of Wadeye

Pretty interesting documentary. Weird but true. Parts 1 & 2

New TFATD recording sessions

Exciting times! The Fierce & The Dead are heading into the studio again. Hell yes. It's looking like it's going to be an e.p. - 4 tracks, maybe a few bonuses who knows. Watch this space. Looking like it will be released in February 2011, as will the new single from the other band I play in The Murder Barn. Busy times ahead! Here are the two teaser videos for the releases.

That's the shameless plugging out of the way then.

I'm currently working on a new mix project featuring members of two very cool bands that I can't tell you about. Sorry about that. It's the rules y'know - I don't make them.

And how about this - here's the track Creature by The Duke Spirit that i recorded and mixed (well the drums were recorded in L.A. but everything else was me) for the computer game Arkham Asylum. Finally my nephews respect me.

Creature by The Duke Spirit.

And i've been working the inimitable James from Silvery on more shenanigans. You can read his take on it here.

Till next time,

Ta ra.

Kev.