SELF IMPROVEMENT

I read an article today about co-creating with the universe, like other self-help and spiritual healing books it stated that thinking in silence everyday in between thoughts, in other words taking time out of the day to think about nothing but while you do it (easier said than done try it for your self) think about your goals or dreams you want to accomplish before you go into, lets call it meditation because basically thats what it is. Concentrating like you are in the center of the entire universe "YOUR UNIVERSE". People and things you surround your self with, effects YOUR universe around you. I picture myself in the sun's position and imagine the planets and stars around me, AND CERTAIN GOALS I HAVE FOR MYSELF before I go into my transcendental state of mind per say. I also read that you shape your life with your thoughts, if you think poorly of yourself say as a failure constantly your most likely heading in that direction eventually, if you wake up every morning and look in the mirror with confidence, tell your self your artistic, that your gonna be rich and powerful and think of yourself as a successful person it can only increase your chances by having and maintaining that state of mind consistantly.

What you just read are bits and pieces of books that I read..1 in paticular is "THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS" BY AUTHOR DEPAC CHOPRA I found that when I practiced those laws consistantly I started to see direction in my life, things were happening for me more effortlessly and it all had been related to what I focused on the most. I'm not saying read the book it'll change your life dramatically but it could help you organize it more thoroughly. I realized that it's not how often you work towards your goals in life but the people's who's lives you positively affect along the way, and the rewards it can bring,:)

Till next time

GBEATS
WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION;COM

BASS LINES

Recording bass guitar can be done several ways, I'm just scratching the surface with this post I'm just gonna tell you about a previous project I recorded with a great and experienced bass player. Now his playing was phenomenal but his gear wasn't the best and being that I didn't have a DI box (my first mistake and being on a tight budget we we were outta luck) I had no choice but to run out of the direct out of his bass head. Which would've been fine except his bass head was a P.O.S.!! So all his good playing could only go so far because with all the "hiss" or "noise" on each track, I now have no choice but to throw a low-pass filter on it. I didn't record the bass with an EQ on it. You can, but then your limiting yourself when it comes to mixing down.


Now had I used a DI box, I would've been guaranteed a clean bass signal. But I didn't so now I'm putting a low-pass filter on every bass track that we did. THAT MEANS THE BASS TRACKS WE RECORDED ARE NOW SCRATCH BASS TRACKS TILL WE RE-RECORD...

I knew after the first second I heard that hiss but I didn't want to ruin the bassists' vibe because he was writing as he went... and as a producer I know better than to do that. So now all the bassists has to do is replay what he wrote instead of stalling the whole process and project, over a lil bit of hiss (which in my opinion could add an analogue effect but to have it in every song is OVER KILL)...We were on borrowed time (refer to New Journey's with old Friends if u have the time)


So besides having to drive 800 miles to re-record the bass lines, I still have a record to make and who knows a Good Engineer can make it work or sound the best it possibly can, maybe I won't haft to replace the tracks after all (at least every track)


****WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, IF AN INSTRUMENT ISN'T RECORDED CORRECTLY IN THE BEGINNING, WELL YOU CAN'T POLISH A TURD (A GREAT ENGINEER ONCE SAID)****


GBEATS
WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM/SOUNDSCIENTISTS/

WRITER'S BLOCK? (RELAX)

Weather writing a book, slogan, jingle, or music, or blog hehe...IT HAPPENS... usually when I experience this stage, instead of forcing, and straining my brain. I'll walk away and do something out of the norm. for example, just take a ride on a bike or car (IF UR ON THE CAR LITERALLY MAKE SURE U TRUST THE DRIVER BEFORE ATTEMPTING J/K), watch a movie, or just experience complete silence and try not to think about anything for as long as I can, similar to meditation (Depak Chopra taught me that). sometimes maybe your writers block has something to do with lack of inspiration, other artists can inspire you as well in seconds.

Point being don't get down on yourself if you reach a plato, because it's only temporary. It's much wiser to just step away for a bit and come back to it, next thing you know creativity will just flow with least effort...

GBEATS
HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

MIC PLACEMENT (VOCALS)

First things first, what kind of microphone are you gonna use?? (and do have a mic pre to choose from if so LUCKY!) Well when deciding, keep in mind the genre of the music, the mood of the song and the timbre of the artist's voice... Also to avoid the P's and B's punching the track (not that those can't be touched up but let's not half to rite?!)(and yes I say "have" like that I'm from Va/Fla) POPPER STOPPERS, they can come in 2 different flavors your original pany hose stopper which is more affordable, or a wire metal stopper which is a lil more expensive (also said to be less effective) but they work and they are way easier to clean. Have you ever smelt a popper stopper after a few months of use straight?! It's the cross between a million different morning breathes and a porto- potty on a hot summer day hehe PUKE

Ok so you've chosen your mic pre (if u have that luxury), picked your microphone to best fit the timbre of the artist's voice and the mood of the song, for example a heavy metal song you might wanna use a mic that requires more SPL (hint: Dynamic Microphones)because you don't want to distort the microphone (or even damage the mic itself) and depending on the frequency response add a lil more grunge to the vocals. Or is it an RnB track? where you might consider a nice condenser microphone that requires Phantom power and is built with better quality components (usually) to add clarity to the artist's voice...

I know this post is about mic placement but there's alot more to the equation than plugging in a mic and throwing a person or instrument in front of it. I always start an artist 6-12 inches from the diaphragm of the microphone and the height of the mic stand keeping the diaphragm of the microphone a lil above the vocalist's mouth...I'll know from the first mic check if I should raise the mic a lil more so it's higher than the artist's mouth to decrease sibilance (the ssss in the s's) or you could also have the vocalist move his or her face off axis of the diaphragm of the microphone, that also helps with not only your s's but with your p's and b's too!


Another thing to keep in mind is the closer an object is to a microphone the lower the tone or the more lower end (or boomier the sound) you will get. ( google proximity effect)

So I put a list together of most of the techniques I've learned over the years.
here's your home work, look em up if interested, try them on your own and listen for the imagery characteristics each one offers....

X AND Y
STEREO
M and S
ORTF
NOS
A/B

Besides phase issues, and proximity effect, I live by 1 rule one of my instructors told me and its stuck with me ever since IF IT SOUNDS GOOD IT IS GOOD!!

THANX FOR YOUR TIME

GBEATS
HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

MY WISH LISTS....(TAKING DONATIONS)

NOT REALLY BUT JUST BECAUSE YOUR BROKE DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T LOOK AT THE MENU...LEMME DREAM DAMNIT!

SP 1200 AND A MPC 60, MPC 5000 XL, MPC 2000XL, MPC 1000 (MY NEW BEST FRIEND) BASS STATION BY NOVATION, A KURZWEIL 88 KEY FULLY LOADED A RACK OF VINTAGE MIC PRE'S AND COMPRESSORS, SEVERAL NUEMAN U-87 AND U-89 TUBE MICS, SEVERAL MATCHING PAIR OF EARTH WORKS OMNI DIRECTIONAL CONDESORS, SEVERAL CAD MICS, SEVERAL AKG MICROPHONES MATCHING PAIRS PREFERABLY, LOGIC FULLY LOADED, PROTOOLS HD 3 CORE FULLY LOADED WITH UNLIMITED PLIUG INS, AND A CONTROL 24 SURFACE OR ICON HHMMM, AND UNLIMITED PLUG INS AND THE SAME VOCAL BOOTH AS EMINEM, SHAQ AND TONY PARKER HAVE IN THEIR HOUSE, A LIVE ROOM WITH 13 PEICE DRUM SET, AND THE BUILDING TO HOUSE IT ALL....


I'M GONNA GO CHANGE MY BOXER'S NOW HEHE, TILL NEXT TIME, BE EASY


GBEATS
WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

The importance of keeping FRESH EARS.....

We all wanna finish an album so we can start the next. I used to mix all day long and still can, as long as I allow my ears a break no matter how long 10-30 min. every hour or so. Ear fatigue (definition below) can cause you to make fatal mistakes when mixing for long periods of time, so a little advice after working on a song for a few hours especially when working on 30 track plus sessions... in stead of making level changes, eq, or plug-in adjustments... save your mix and WALK AWAY and if your gonna do anything save your session as before...(that saving your mix with a number behind the session name or atleast stating what you did different to it, to avoid ruining a perfect mix because your ears aren't hearing the same as they were earlier on in the day) before making your changes... and WALK AWAY. ' nothing like ruining a mix you were so proud of then trying to get it back to where you had it could be another task in it's self. When that happens call it a day go back to it with fresh ears and it'll most likely save you the hastle, frustration and in some cases your job...

Here's a definition I looked up after my writing my blog, Something I learned from numerous instructors @ CRAS and I live by my ear break rule because your ears are your investment, your cash cow, your glory!!, DON'T ABUSE THEM AND YOUR GREAT EAR(s) WILL LAST LONGER!!!

GOOD LUCK!

Ear Fatigue (www.sweetwater.com's definition
The literal translation is 'tired ears.' Ear Fatigue is not really a clinically recognized state, but audio professionals have been referring to it for years. It's caused by a combination of TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift) and general fatigue. The condition we call ear fatigue usually occurs after many hours of listening to or working with audio, especially when working at relatively high SPL's. It causes us to not hear the sound in the same way we do when we are fresh. Sometimes people report soreness of the ears associated with this, but not always. There are ongoing studies of this phenomenon, and the phenomenon of fatigue and how it affects performance in general, but much remains unknown. Suffice to say that making critical audio decisions while in a fatigued state is not advised and generally results in doing the work over again.

GBEATS
WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

YOU WANNA BE A PRO AUDIO ENGINEER FOR A LIVING...

GOOD LUCK,

ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY TOO?! TIME AWAY FROM HOME IS A MUST...ALOT OF TIME! AND IS THE PAY AFTER IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE WORTH THE TIME AWAY FROM YOUR KIDS AND YOUR "AT HOME" PUNE HEHE NOT ALWAYS... IF YOUR LIKE ME AND DO IT FOR MORE THAN THE MONEY, WE'RE ON THE SAME PAGE. IF YOUR THE TYPE THAT LIKES NICE THINGS IN LIFE AND CAN'T LIVE CHECK TO CHECK THEN MAYBE THIS ISN'T THE OCCUPATION FOR U. I'M JUST SAYING...IT TAKES ALOT MORE THAN WHAT YOU KNOW, IT TAKES ALOT OF DRIVE, PATIENCE AND OF KNOWING ALOT OF THE RITE PEOPLE. I'M NOT TRYING TO VEAR YOU AWAY FRM YOUR DREAM OR GOAL, I'M JUST NOT CHURCHING IT UP FOR YOU (WHICH SPEAKING OF CHURCHES ARE PRETTY GOOD GIGS) NOW GO OUT THERE AND BE SOMEBODY!!!

1 more thing don't expect any health benefits unless your union hehe


GBEATS
HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

A QUICK PRO'S AND CONS ABOUT STUDIO MONITORS

This is soley based on my opinion...

        Studio monitors are nice to own for their pretty accurate frequency responses (in a acoustically treated  envirement), and also their slick cosmetics. The truth of the matter is most of our "listeners" don't own reference monitors. They're more likely to be listening through a boom box, in ear head phones, a car or blasting at a night club through Hundreds of thousands of watts while being under the influence of whatever does the job are they really listening for the fine tuning 

        It's my experiences when using oversized monitors in a smaller, under treated room mixing is asking for low end troubles you either have way too much or not enough, and that also can play a part with mixing vocals ... I'm one of those people but what helps me is a lil' A and B'n... When I'm EQ'n with a crucial ear I use my monitors,  to ensure I made the right mix I use my computer speakers or if those aren't handy bounce the mix to cd and take it to the house stereo or car and do what I gotta do....  

 My point being if you can make a recording sound good through a P.O.S. pair of speakers in a boom box your mix will sound good any where. So ask yourself this, do you even need those fancy "monitor speakers" if your working on Hip hop or other electronic music that doesn't really require mic'n  live instruments.

Probably not 

GBEATS

HIPHOPRODUCTION.COM

NEW JOURNEYS with old Friends pt. 4 HOME RECORDING

So it's been 1 night and 1 day that I've been in N.C. we have a deadline to meet thats recording 10 songs in less than a week,  the first nite was just setting up my gear a Digidesign 002r to my Macbook Pro 2 gigs of ram nothing crazy, I'm using Protools version 7.4 a version nope it's  not compatible with my Protools on my desktop at home (Os X) .I'm not upgrading because I'm not losing my mixing goodies period!(check the Protools Plugins blog) So the first day we put in a good 16 hrs in, with an hour or so break in between there for dinner. Those 16 hrs we had 3 songs completed with Guitar and Bass and vocals! With some outside noise delays we could've gotten a lil' more done but remember my friend lives on a busy road leading to a park and across from a bus stop, not your ideal place to cut an album you plan to shop to labels but a good engineer can make farts in a bucket sound good. (instructor at CRAS used to say)

  

I'm also dealing with my wife making sure I know she needs me home ASAP!!! So 2 days go by and we have 3 songs pretty close to completed and 2 songs ready for bass the bassist couldn't make it that 4th night, so we went out and sold hotdogs because my friend is a artist by day and a Hot dog vender at night. We did what any ambitious BROKE musicians would do, try to make a lil cash.

So a long story short...(hehe too late for that 1 I guess) We had 6 songs done by that friday when we started recording Tuesday, granted if we had more time we would've used and did a song a day to make sure Vocals we're completely flawless but we didn't have that luxury plus we we're satisfied with the Vocals anyways.

    Sunday morning comes along and I get a call from the Ol' lady who wants me home yesterday. But we still have 4 songs to complete...I got a lil' worked up stormed out the house to unwind before my buddy wakes up and I blew some steam off before breaking the news to him, that I don't have as long as I want because babysitters fell through for the week and so on... 

Right there we tracked out the 4 songs in the morning I don't even think my friend brushed his teeth he woke up and we right at it! We recorded 3 songs and I'm not liking what I hear. I thought either I blew one of my cheepo computer speakers or the guitar recorded distorted with out distorting into protools...I start to think trying different things and finally I'm looking at his guitar and I see there's a place to put 9 volt battery for it's direct output. DING! We needed a new battery, so we ran to the store ....what do u know it sounded like a brand new guitar. A slight set back but nothing to let it ruin our day especially after the morning I already had with the Mrs.. 

        We did it, recorded all the tracks we needed to get done except for one, I'll get to that next time.  We started I believe around 10:30 that morning and finished Guitar and Vocals for the 4 songs ready to lay bass to, by 6pm leaving me some time to replace the click tracks with drums from my MPC 1000 (the cooler younger brother of the MPC 2000 xl I love em both the same though hehe) The bassist came in business as usual and knocked those last 3 songs out and he actually inspired us to all write a song together pretty up beat too. The bassist did it to avoid recording the fourth song called "Homeless in the Rain" a sad song my friend wrote, sad enough to make you wanna cut your wrist vertically (just an expression) lol so bam 7 songs completed  in less than 7 days 1 was ready for bass and we we're writing the ninth. The 10th song was a song we worked on together 5 years ago that caught the bassists ear so we'll give it a whirl. 

INTERESTED IN BECOMING A GREAT PRO AUDIO ENGINEER AND/OR ASPIRING PRODUCER GOOGLE THE CONSERVATORY OF RECORDING ARTS AND SCIENCES, GREAT SCHOOL MORE QUALIFIED THAN FULL SAIL FOR HALF THE MONEY IF NOT LESS

APPRECIATE YA!

GBEATS

WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

PROTOOLS PLUG-INS TO UGRADE OR NOT TO....? pt. 2

So when I started blogging pt.1 during down time, it was 11pm sharpe, I came to a cross roads because I had recorded my N.C. sessions (???read New Journey's with old Friends if u haven't yet) on PT version 7.4  which conveniently isn't compatible with any Os lower than tiger, that means I can't just open up the session on PT 6.4 and start the creative process immediately....it just added an hour or so to each mix

What I'm doing now is bouncing every single track REAL TIME to disk as a .wav file...It is now 12:23 and I just had to copy the .wav files to an external drive eject. Load the external to desk top with the older version of Protools and my BUNDLE OF JOY:) 

I just tried to import files from my external drive with the DIGIDESIGN(company of protools) database folder on it from my newer version 7.4...So dig this, every time I tried to import my wav files straight from my external and everytime protools (right away) would shut down do to an error. 

So I copied my .wav's from the external directly on my desktops desktop, it took another 5 min. for only 16 tracks(slow to me). Importing directly from my DT's HD gave me zero problems....SCORE! It's a tedious process but for the best sound quality possible it's well worth it...

IT'S NOW 1:16 AM and I'm bouncing my first mix of the night and depending on how this sounds in the car tonight it might be the last song till fresh ears 2MOROW

GBEATS

WWW.HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

PROTOOLS PLUG-INS TO UGRADE OR NOT TO....? pt. 1

       I'm a protools fan to the fullest, I was certified ages ago it seems really since version 6.1 they now have version 8. Now if you don't know about digital recording software...New versions are created every year sometimes twice or more who knows? ( the Version goes up a decimal point every upgrade) It seems they do it just to change the look to compete with other companies, or to fix a few bugs here and there, Add a new function move things around that used to make sense and throw every 1 off due to new programmers undoing what brilliant ideas the one's before them laid out for us LOGICALLY, just to make it their own( if that makes any sense) Don't get me wrong PT 8 has a hand full of new helpful functions but why move options around??! 

      We also haft to keep up with Macintosh's new Os's...and theres where the problem lies. Consumers are constantly forced to update their Operating System in order to upgrade and stay compatible with their software, what ever medium it is...AND THAT CAN BE COSTLY!!!!! (BASTARDS)

Call me old school and a little cliche' BUT IF IT'S NOT BROKE I AIN'T GONNA FIX IT PERIOD

But what if you don't wanna UPGRADE because certain effects/plug-ins you already own will be LOST? So I have a bundle I got from a class mate of mine (thanx!!) along time ago I'm not giving you the name of the bundle(not important) but it isn't remotely cheep...we both can't download the upgrade so of course, I'm up shit's creek. So I'm stuck with my Os X and Protools version 6.4...why? because I'll lose my career saving/making bundle...not that I can't tweek stock plug ins to sound just as good. BUT if you have a choice to drive a Lamborghini or a Ford Taurus or another example run your guitar through  a Berringer mixing board or a SSL g series console. It doesn't take a genius to know I'm not upgrading a damn thang...

AGAIN...Call me old school and a little cliche' BUT IF IT'S NOT BROKE I AIN'T GONNA FIX IT PERIOD

THANX FOR YOUR TIME .... and don't feel like you haft to ugrade your software everytime stick with what works for YOU

GBEATS

HIPHOPPRODUCTION.COM

  

BRING BACK THE DYNAMICS AND SOUL TO MUSIC

     From my knowledge it seems like most music now and days is over saturated with mixes that are sometimes(or alot) TOO loud and in your face, which is fine depending on the genre and the mood of the song but every song no matter soft, fast, slow, and dark doesn't haft to be over compressed and produced. What happend to letting the song breathe and allow the listener to appreciate the difference in amplitude between instruments (or tracks for my electronic musicians) I'm done with trying to "fit in" with the industry. Now and days with AUTO-TUNE all over the radio and PITCH CORRECTION who needs talent?  Depending on digital tools to correct mistakes to me is making the industry and artists today lazy...  

       What ever happend to soulful Vocalists using their RAW TALENT not every artist sang like the Jackson 5 or The Diamonds, but they sang with emotion and I believe that's the difference.very few bring it like they did in the Mo-town, James brown, Jimmy Hendrix classic rock erra to name a few...I 'm not saying there hasn't been good music made since then, I'm just saying the wrong artists seem to get the most recognition and RADIO PLAY these days...example why the hell is there a BIRTHDAY SEX SONG playing on the radio?? if thats the case put on my man DEVIN THE DUDE his lyrics aren't for everyone but  at least he sings with soul!!! How bout hearing some more of THE ROOTS, BLACK THOUGHT HAS MORE CONSTRUCTIVE MESSAGES TO BRING TO OUR YOUTH then SOLDIER BOY.....

On the rock side of things what's going on with NEW ROCK? New Rock stations are still playing bands from the 80's and 90's like OZZY/BLACK SABBATH, PEARL JAM, ALICE AND CHAINS, NIRVANA.....great bands but sad.... its retarded to me how it seems creatively as a whole we're at a stand still atleast "commercially". Is it that everything has already been done?...or is it that the air waves and music video shows portray to the listener what they think, we should think IS "HOT", and they pass it on to younger generations as good music. 

I'm making it my mission to preserve the organics of music to the best of my knowledge by not over compressing mixes every song or over using the T-PAIN effects especially on a whole album (KANYE)  no matter what the genre is, my goal is to create timeless music.. Stride to be original because in the end your ears like your eyes are gate way to your soul. That being said keep an ear along with your mind opened to knew ideas. TURN OFF YOUR RADIO try buying an album of a group you haven't heard before, who knows you could find your new favorite artist underground...Don't live in a commercial juke box just because they repeatedly play an artist or band/group on the radio, because NINE TIMES OUTTA TEN THAT UNDERGROUND BAND/GROUP PUTS ON A BETTER SHOW!!

FRUSTRATIONS of A CIVILIAN (short poem)

Trying to relate, to a planet other than earth to escape the tyranny  

 for every cent that its worth...

the youth aint hearing me 

blinded by  the ignorance on their ipods and tv's

 most americans believe what there told 

so I believe you should know a chunk of america's foreign owned,

 ran by world banks  for a ONE DAY  new world order,

 one government under god poisining our son's and daughters..

.who wanna strip us of our liberties for a world wide slaughter

Till then I ain't got a dollar to lend, 

consider every cent in the jar another blessing. 

so far

I aint gotta lie,I don't gotta cheat, 

but that don't mean i gotta fight to the government's beat, 

yes I'm much more willing..... 

to end the blood spilling f

ind another way to feed my family and keep building

tired of the misuse of powers 

a good example of that, THE TWIN TOWERS....

an excuse for stripping us of more liberties like some cowards?

 who fund both sides of a war as a bussiness 

any presidents dead or alive could be a witness ...... 

so for that there's NO FORGIVENESS

G

Staying Positive

I haven't had the best hand delt to me the past few years with future plans being intercepted by my own decisions ... having an unplanned child( that I adore) and a marriage at that is just 1 of the many blessings and curve balls thrown my way as far as life changing decisions are concerned, still no complaints here just delays...but nothing career threatening.  

           I've found that if you can pick a positive out of  almost every negative situation and use it to your advantage, it can help take the edge off a little bit...

Never Giving Up

            Ever since I was young 10 yrs old or so, I always wanted to be involved in music...I started playing the trombone in 5th grade and loved it. Unfortunately I didn't come from a family with money so 6th grade came around and I had a choice to make football and baseball or band?? It was an easy answer for me I picked band, my father being the hard working blue collar man that he is was like" what??! you gay or something bands girly, I don't have the money to rent an instrument every month or even buy one!" I didn't  know what that meant at the time but I know I wasn't girly and I didn't want to take food off the plate so I picked chorus instead of band and still played football which became a huge part of my life and a strong passion of mine especially entering high school. I wanted to be a pro football player when I grew up that was it!

           

        Well being only 5'10''  215 lbs and not the fastest sprinter of the bunch but one hell of a hitter and switched to blocker(went from DT to Center my senior year), I only received 1 college letter to a community college for a 70% scholarship didn't include a dorm or food...I didn't get my chance to play college ball( a step closer to the NFL really the only step). I was crushed, I didn't touch a drug or drink, or even had a girl friend in High school because I was that dedicated to a sport that played a big part of my life for 13 years...not too mention I injured my lower-back towards the end of the season trying to squat way too much weight to impress my weight lifting teacher, my Varsity head coach, go figure. 

        I loved hearing the crowd cheer after I made a big hit or contributing to my team making a good play, it was a rush.... I realized that moving masses of people was a passion of mine or an "old habit" that I'm not ready to give up on. So I'm 18 and my parents are starting to get on me about college, I went 1 day and didn't return, reading a 100 or so pages from more than 1 class and 500 word essays on what I read wasn't for me, I was a "C" student not a learning prodigy. So then I picked a trade school in ft. lauderdale and while I was there I met a good friend of a DJ that was pretty popular around town at a hand full of clubs down town, I then found myself watching how the people reacted to the music, it was techno/drum n' bass  and the people dancing were most likely under the influence of exstasy and so was I hehe. Even so something clicked it was like I had a revelation, I wanted to be a part of music. I then decided to quit the electronics school and went on to look at Full Sail an OVER PRICED engineering school...

         I had fell into some trouble with the law in between dropping out of ATI and going to full sail, needless to say it was a year delay between paying off court costs, and probation..... So I finally get to see what the hype is all about at the famous FULL SAIL back when it was only 32k to go I believe... The seminar and tour was great because we got to eat at the end hehe but it was that night driving around the school to ask students about Full Sail, l for their opinion about there "world class trade school" 

           One of the very first groups of people I asked told me straight up about a school in Tempe, Az. The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences... "yeah my buddy went their instead of here with me, man I wish I would've went my friend's only paying 12k and he's graduating with more certifications and he only has 12 students per class not 50!" I wrote down the info and went rite home and pulled the number off line.It was my mom's idea to ask the students at night and it paid off, or at least saved me money. Not only did I get a 4k pale grant but with a 1k scholarship for being lefty hehehe I only paid 7k, I believe my pops would probably tell ya different lol thanks to both of my parents for holding me down in Az...I tried to work a job and go to school but their was no way I was gonna be working when I can be in the studio's on campus 24/7 because yes their campus and studios are opened to students almost 365 days a year, pretty damn close.

        What I wanna address is that your original plans, sometimes the second and third, won't always be successful your first time persuing them. It's been my experience that patience,  along with a ton of motivation and drive (heart) will lead you in the rite direction of success..

It's up to the individual on how they perceive SUCCESS...

FOR THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO MAKE MOVES AND GO TO A COLLEGE OF CHOICE, THESE DAYS YOU CAN LEARN ANYTHING YOU WANT BY DOING RESEARCH ON THE NET ESPECIALLY WWW.YOUTUBE.COM OR WWW.GOOGLE.COM  IT SOUNDS LIKE A JOKE I WOULDN'T BELIEVE ME EITHER A FEW YEARS AGO BUT TRY IT PULL UP ANYTHING THAT INTERESTS YOU AS A CAREER THAT U KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND PROVE ME WRONG

I APPRECIATE EVERY ONE WHO TAKES THE TIME TO READ THIS FAR, THANK YOU OR AS I WOULD SAY IN THE STREET GOOD LOOKIN OUT...

 

New Journeys with old Friends pt.2

       So like I was saying I'm heading to N.C. keep in my mind I've been on the road pretty much since Jan. 3rd of this year, with a family it's not the easiest thing to do I give my wife a ton of credit for being so supportive.

        I get to my friends house 9 hrs later, around 7:30pm  on monday set up my gear and after a long drive just wanted to relax... We start catching up for a while waiting for his bro to get off work and I ask him what he wanted to accomplish while I'm here for only a couple days. He says he'd like to get 10 tracks done for a solid album/demo to shop around in Nashville. Right away I'm all for it, but 10 tracks could take ten days I didn't really have that time. I had just finished my last show and with some unfortunate events that took place earlier in the season like cancelled shows,  a couple weeks of getting under paid and 3 weeks of not getting paid at all, then on top of it all  having to find/pay for a new place. After our fairly new "condo" we just moved into 2 months before was found to be infested with black mold that made the wife and kids severely sick. Also made me miss a $1500 show do to moving from place to place on top of that spending $1500, and  investing $800 into my studio thinking I had money coming in to make up for it. Basically I needed to be home as soon as possible to make next months rent some how...

    10 tracks?! I was excited and nervous at the same time, I just heard him play and sing a couple of songs, so I know its not a total loss and I haven't seen my best friend in 5 yrs. so its a win/win situation....I immediately call my wife and tell her we need to make arrangements for the kids for a week or so. Click,  she wasn't too pleased but deep down I know she has an ounce of faith in me..... " We have a record to make... a hit record at that!!" 

New Journey's with old friends pt. 1

A quick introduction...My name is G-Beats I live in the paradise of S.W. Fl.  I turn 28 in a week or so, I'm happily married with 2 kids, a 2 yr old boy, and a beautiful 9 yr. old girl, what's really  interesting about me, at least I think is my lifestyle...I'm not your ordinary family guy I guess u can say. I graduated from the Conservatory of Arts and Sciences in 03' in Tempe, Az where I acquired an Associates degree in Master Recording. Long story short I'm a free-lance Audio Engineer/Beat maker/aspiring producer/ seasonal chef... 

    Late last year I was offered a head position as " Chief Mule"(truck driver/roadie) for a National Dance competition  setting up their P.A. (Professional Audio Equipment and a Video Network and also shooting the entire 2-3 day shows and then Editing all ordered dances for DVD) which meant decent (ok) money, living and traveling around the country for free that is with a 40 ft, trailor with a $100,000 or so worth of equipment... So needless to say a lot of responsibility, I'm not gonna go into detail as far as what went on while traveling with strangers cross country, I'll save that for another time hehe...

So the regular season is done I finally flew back home after 2 months of not seeing my family it almost felt like I was being released from prison or some type of labor camp( the conditions weren't bad just really homesick), I told my boss before I left I was driving back up to NY for our very last show of the season from july 5th- 10th because I had to much stuff I accumulated for the past 5 months to bring back on a plane, and the real reason was I wasn't getting stuck up there for that long again :) So me driving up there left me no choice but to leave before July 4th which had me a lil bugged but we're over it. 

   Two days before I leave I was clearing off old recording sessions from my hard drive one of them being an Acoustic country/Southern rock project with an old best friend of mine through high school, we were pretty close all the way up till he moved to Ohio to marry some bitch almost 5 yrs ago now ( I can say that because they're not together any more and she really was one lol). We still managed to keep in touch, right after my friend married he caught a rare illness that for a couple of years or more no Dr. could diagnose it wasn't till last year that he was diagnosed with Vertigo which is no walk in the park he was bed ridden for a year or more...me being the broke musician I am,  could never afford to visit him but we still spoke on the phone from time to time...

   Knowing he had just moved to N.C. and his illness was almost cured, I thought I'd give him a call and see if he was still writing songs and playing guitar. No surprise he didn't have just a hand full of songs but 200!! So I find out what I just told you and offered my services on the house to record a album for him, he was so pumped so I did what any dedicated Engineer/best friend would do, packed half my gear and hit the road

   So the show in N.C. was a success, I made it back in one piece,  took a day to get the majority of the video editing done, and hit the road asap. Keep in mind my wife and kids want me home and I kind of left out my plans in N.C. till I left NY oops....

 

New Journeys with old Friends pt. 3 HOME RECORDING

      So a hit record....? I'm not your average pessimist,  still I can be very arrogant when I believe in something so strongly I believe arrogance can be a talent in itself as long as its used for a positive outcome. It could also be damaging if your unaware that you possess such character, thats just my opinion

     My friend and I( like I told you in pt. 1) had recorded for almost a whole summer even through a couple hurricanes 5 years ago! What we recorded was good instrumentally all around just lacking in the vocal area, not that he couldn't sing he just liked to push the envelope of his range and tried to sing a little too high at times.

  

      So my friends house is a 2 bedroom/ 1 bath with a smaller sized living room c but big enough for a sofa and a love seat with a tv stand comfortably, connected with a small sized kitchen with a throw rug in the middle of the room....I caddie cornered the walls with blankets to control some of the reverberation, and set up a couple microphones, keep in my mind I'm only recording an acoustic guitar, and plans to record a bassist direct in and had plans on recording a keyboardist and violinist after all the Vocals, Guitar, and Bass tracks were complete.

    

      Alright so the first song we record is called "Roses" we lay the click track down to the tempo of the song and drop the guitar tracks immediately. Satisfied with our takes, I then take one of the mics used on the guitar and set it up facing the corner of the blanket set up.

    Oh...I left out a major factor when recording anything outside of a treated envirement.... NOISE. My friends house is conveniently located on a busy street leading to a park and 100 ft. diagnally  across from a BUS STOP!... the low frequencies from passing cars are bad enough but a bus?! So we didn't even get through the first verse before I cut it. That's when I started thinking outside the box ON THE FLY something Audio Engineers are trained to do. All the forums I read and discussions I had in the past 6 years, one of them being about Vocal booths I can't remember where I read it or who I discussed it with....THE CAR!! The next best thing to a treated vocal booth or a treated room in any case. 

     I had enough mic cable, the only things we needed to get the ball rolling from the beginning was a headphone cable long enough to reach from the living room to the side of the house, a mic stand (FOR THE SECOND MIC ON THE GUITAR), and an extra pair of headphones so for less than 100 bucks I believe we're doing a whole album.( let's not mention time away from wondering how rent's getting paid next  month)

    LUCKILY my friend's brother, another good friend of mine has a Mercury Marquis the big body style. He let us borrow the car  no prob. I'm not going into detail how I set the mic up but let's just say I had ZERO noise floor!! And it was later that evening so less traffic was driving by which allowed us to finish the vocals with no problems for not just "Roses" but "Nation Wide" things are looking up because we had to pick the bassist up at 8:30pm and we then had 2 songs complete!!

    The bassist is classically trained and a musical genius a real "studio musician", it was an honor to even have him want to drop bass on my friends songs (sincerely he really believes in the songs and rehearsed them for a week str8 every nite till 3 or 4 am) at no cost!!  (at least upfront) 

       So the bassist came in ready, very well rehearsed and dropped both baselines in less than 2 hours. I'm gotta say my friend is a singer/song writer for country music is jewish, the bassist is black and plays for a church and a hip hop band, and I'm puerto rican/sicilian very into hip hop myself and rarely ever listen to a country song in its entirety!! So we're not your average Jim's...

        The bassist after we finished tracking said he was kind of nervous in the beginning but he felt like he knew me for years by the end of the second song, I laughed it off but to me thats a compliment being a aspiring producer. Naturally I try to provide the best vibe possible to get the artist to give me the best performance possible... 

         Satisfied with our work that night we decided to celebrate a new beginning by having a few brews at the ale house, well deserved. Let's keep in mind I touched down  Monday the 14th of July and tuesday night is now over.... My friend and I dropped more guitar tracks that night for another song we worked until 4 or so wed. morning. I love my career too bad it doesn't pay the bills all the time but for me I do it for something way more priceless than money....MYSELF

GBEATS

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