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Archives for June 2010

The Trouble With Self-Hypnosis and Self-Doubt – I Don't Believe Myself

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I should preface this post by explaining why I’m talking about hypnosis on a home recording studio blog.  the reason is that audio recording can be of great help to people in the hypnosis arena.  Induction scripts, trance content, etc. is often recorded for patients for them to listen to regularly.  Whether you’re a hypnotherapist or someone wanting to benefit from hypnosis, knowing how to make good quality hypnosis tapes (funny how we still use the word “tape” isn’t it?), hypnosis CDs or hypnosis mp3s can help immensely.  So now for the guts of the post:
In much of the hypnosis literature and training I’ve been through, much emphasis is placed on “congruence,” how well the behavior of the hypnotist supports and is supported by her words and body language. It makes sense, especially considering how much communication occurs on a subconscious level between humans. So the early phases of trance work involve using conscious and unconscious means to establish rapport with the other person. That trust is at the heart of everything.
What do you do, then, when you don’t trust your hypnotist? Well, most would agree that not much is going to happen between you. It may not be that you think the hypnotist will do something bad. It may be just a bit of doubt that he does not truly have confidence that what he is doing is going to work. That’s enough.
By extension, this means I can rarely, if ever, successfully engage in self-hypnosis! Oh sure, I know on an intellectual level what hypnosis is and isn’t. I also know how powerful a tool it can be to help people. These are certainties. What is NOT certain, however, is whether hypnosis will work the same way…even with the same underlying techniques, with every person. In fact, since people are so very different, the skilled hypnotist needs to be able to adapt to the personality, belief-system, etc. of each individual. And even then, some will not respond…at all. This I have experienced.
Residing next to the knowledge that hypnosis can and does work…for many people, is the sure and certain knowledge that it does not work for everyone. THAT is enough doubt to make me not trust myself enough to hypnotize myself! Do I think I’m “one of those people” who can’t BE hypnotized? Nope. I don’t believe those people exist, especially since trance states are naturally-occurring. I believe that if I had the right hypnotist, I could realize some of the changes I want to make. But I’M NOT THAT GUY, apparently. One part of my brain is always saying to the other, “oh, I know what you’re trying to do there.” And though I may successfully enter a relaxed trance state, I can not utilize it…or at least have not to this point.
This entire article really points to the importance of rapport and trust between hypnotist and subject/patient. It isn’t that I don’t trust myself, it’s that I don’t really believe myself fully. And that, unfortunately, amounts to the same thing.
Record hypnosis audio at home, and learn to get the best quality from Home Brew Audio’s tutorials.

How to Put Out Your Own CD

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As with anything else in the business world, in order to succeed, you’ve got to have some product that another person thinks is valuable enough to pay money for. That holds true to recording musicians as well. It really isn’t that hard to put out a CD; I’ll show you how easy in just a second. What is hard is getting people to buy them…assuming that’s your goal. If all you want is to “have” a CD, and you really don’t care if anyone likes or buys it. Then this is your lucky day. But if, as I suspect, you really do think you have talent and can put out a product people will want to buy, read on my friends.

First you need a list of songs to put on the CD (assuming it’s a music CD).

Things will go a lot smoother if these are songs you have written, otherwise own the copyright to, or are public domain.

Then you need to actually record those songs.

That last bit is where most people get hung up;). Allow me to just set your mind at ease, shall we? If you have a computer with a sound card and a microphone, you can make multi-track recordings starting today, without spending a dime on gear or studio time. Just download the open source audio software called Audacity, and you are ready to rock.
If you need to buy a mic, you can actually get this done with a cheap plastic PC mic for about $5.00. But if you can afford to spend at least $25 on a USB microphone, that will be a quantum leap in sound quality. Now just open up Audacity (or whatever audio recording program you might have). For simplicity’s sake, let’s pretend your example song has two guitars, a tin whistle, and three voices singing 3-part harmony.
The first thing to do is to “lay down” your first track. Set up the mic, press the “record” button in the software, and have your rhythm guitar player play the song all the way through. That’s track 1. Now have the lead singer sing along with the guitar track that was already recorded. For this, the singer will have to listen to the playback of the guitar through headphones. You don’t want to record the speakers. Everyone should be on their own track. Then follow suit with the other singers, the second guitar player and the tin whistle. Now your song is recorded on six tracks in the software.

Time to Mix!

Adjust the volumes of all the tracks so they blend correctly. Then pan one guitar to the left side (sound will come out of the left speaker more than the right), and the other guitar to the right. Keep the lead vocal in the center, and pan the harmonies one left and one right. When the song sounds good, “mix it down” by exporting it as a stereo wave file. Now do the same thing with all your songs.
Once you have all the songs recorded, decide which order they will play in on the album, and burn them to a CD-R in that order. Now all you need is the artwork for the CD insert and label. No problem, there are lots of graphics programs out there to help, some for free like Audacity. Design 4 graphics files, a label for the CD itself, one for the cover, one for the back of the cover, which will be visible on the left when the CD is open, and one for the tray card. Most graphics programs have templates for these.

Making and Packaging Your New CD

Now you have a choice. You can manufacture these one-by-one, which I recommend you do at first, but getting empty CD jewel cases and printable CD inserts at an office supplies store. Print your inserts and labels. Peel and stick your labels on your blank CDs, stuff the jewel cases with the inserts, plop the CD inside, and your done. You could also but them into CD-sized jewel bags (a few pennies apiece) for protection and a bit more of a professional look.
If you’ d like to step up the professionalism check out Kunaki, an on-line service that will make and ship your CDs on demand, after you get an album set up with them.  This saves you having to keep large inventories of CDs around.
Make 10 or 20 copies, take them to your gigs with you and you’re done! Just don’t forget to tell your audience that you have CDs for sale at your show. In the next article I’ll talk about how to go “global” with your CD. If you want to learn more about the recording process, visit the Home Brew Audio website and make your first recording in the next hour. Now go to it!

5 Secrets To Quality Audio on Your Home PC Recording Studio

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Everyone wants to learn audio recording don’t they? It’s so easy and, as it turns out, inexpensive to do.  With a pc recording studio, you can do everything from transferring cassettes and records (remember those) to CDs, create audio books, voice-overs, put great audio onto your video files instead of the crappy audio that usually comes from camcorders. You can release a CD, start your own record company, be a 1-person band, etc. Audio is everywhere. Have I convinced you? Good, now read on:).
Before you do anything else, read the rest of this article. It will be your shield against the advice you might get from a salesman at your local music store, or from some other audio experts. Here are the five secrets:
You DON’T need to lay down a bunch of money to get started.
Try this just for fun. Walk into your nearest musical instrument store (the kind that has a “recording” department) and ask them what you would need to get started recording audio from home. My guess is that you will be told you need a condenser mic, cables, mic stand, computer interface and special software; all of which will end up costing at least $500, but more likely, over $1000, and you still won’t know how to use it! The only other option, you’re told, is to go to a commercial recording studio, which will cost around $50 per hour plus the hassle of getting there with all the stuff (or all the people if you’re in a band) you’ll need. Most people believe those are their only two options. Well the truth is you probably don’t need to spend a dime on gear, OR a studio. All you need is a computer with a sound card (just the onboard one will do for starters), the microphone that probably came with your computer (which you can get for $4.00 at Target if you didn’t get one), headphones (the kind you use with your mp3 player will do), and an internet connection. I’m betting most folks have all that stuff RIGHT NOW. It just takes a little knowledge about how to get the most out of what you have….which brings me to the next point:
Knowledge is far more important than gear.
Fact: you can still make bad recordings with top-notch (read: “expensive”) gear. This is extremely common. Just pick up a copy of “Recording Magazine” and look at the “Readers Tapes” section some time if you want to see for yourself. Their reviewer is constantly dumbfounded at the great recordings that come in with cheap-to-modest gear, as well as the crappy recordings that are produced on high-end gear costing up to $10,000 (or more) most of the time! If you would like to hear a real-world example of this, listen to our podcast here.  Fact: now that the technology is available to virtually anyone with a computer, the world is flooded with really terrible-sounding audio. That’s because most people (and I do mean like 80-90 percent here) don’t know the basic principles of audio recording, mixing and producing. With so many amateurs cranking out audio, the only real discriminators that will set YOU apart from the rest are “content” (your song, your podcast, etc.) and “know-how.” Fact: if you’re just starting out, and you have $300, you will produce better recordings after spending the $$ on knowledge than if you buy any equipment or software..
You don’t need to know HOW a television works in order to learn to USE it.
What? Said another way, you don’t have to know how to rebuild an engine in order to drive a car, do you? What you DO need to be taught can be learned very quickly (about a minute in the case of a TV). You could go your entire life and not know what a “catalytic converter” is, and it wouldn’t stop you driving the car. Heck, I’ve been watching television for 35 (or moreJ) years, and I STILL don’t know what a “cathode ray tube” really was. I didn’t even notice when you didn’t need one any more! The same is true for recording. Having gone through this as a beginner, I can tell you that MANY of the “experts” you’ll find on the newsgroups or forums will offer beginners some version of the following statement: “You can’t really learn recording overnight, or from books; you just have to do it over and over again for years to really learn it.” This is simply not true, and it stops a lot of people trying. It’s a little like saying “you can’t really understand how a TV works unless you go to TV-repair school, or at least have an electrical engineering degree.” That’s true, but I don’t NEED to understand all that stuff! I just want to change the channels! It will depend to large degree on what kind of recording you are trying to do (spoken-word, music multi-tracking for a CD project, or full-on CD mastering), but a large percentage of folks can learn to do ALL they NEED TO from in less than an hour from the right teacher. Many beginners take one look at, say, a mixing board (or its virtual counter-part), get information overload, and run screaming from the room. Heck I still do it after 30 years in this business! The bottom-line truth is…you really only have to learn 4 or 5 of those 80 or 90 buttons and scary commands to do what you need to do to start! Then as you choose to go deeper down the rabbit hole, you’ll have to learn maybe 15 more…seriously! I’ve engineered hundreds (probably thousands) of audio projects over the last 30 years, and I estimate I probably only know about 1/5th of what my programs and gear can do!
You DON’T Need a Mac!
Oh, this one goes back to the 80s. When every-day people started to buy computers (yes, kids…there was a time when households did not have a computer! And a short time before that, they didn’t even have televisions! Shock, Horror….sorry, I’m better now), the early Macs had some built-in features that made them better-suited to music-production. But over the years, things have evened out, and the recording landscape is about 50/50 on the issue. It’s like Pepsi and Coke. Some people prefer on over the other, but one is not INHERENTLY better than the other overall. Our tutorials are geared toward teaching skills REGARDLESS of the OS. But DON’T be talked into buying a MAC for audio just because a salesman tells you their better. It’s just not true anymore.
You Don’t Need “Pro Tools”
This is another myth that persists from the “old days.” There was a time, in the late 80s, when the software program called “Pro Tools” was only available for the Mac. Early versions for PC were often unstable. That was pretty-much fixed by the mid-late 90s. But since Pro Tools was marketed directly to the professional market from the start, on the Mac, it sort of became standard to associate “good” recording software with both Pro Tools and the Mac. Pro Tools is still regarded as probably the most commonly-used audio software in the world. But in the 21st century, “common” does not necessarily mean “better,” and it ABSOLUTELY does not mean “mandatory.” In order to use Pro Tools, you not only need the software, but also very specific hardware as well! The program will not work without one of several approved hardware interfaces. At the time of this writing, the least expensive Pro Tools system available is “Pro Tools M-Powered,” combined with the M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface. Total cost: $450. Compare that with the minimum cost of gear/software I mentioned above, which comes out to…..hmmmm…let me think….oh yeah, $0.00! Will that budget get you EVERYTHING Pro Tools can get you, in terms of capability or quality? No. But it will get most folks what they NEED, right NOW. Then when you need the next steps up in features and capability, there are incremental steps to climb (like $50 for the first 3 jumps) so you don’t pay for more than your need. Why buy a Lexus when you only need a bicycle? One day you may want a Pro Tools system. But for Pete’s sake, don’t dive right in with Pro Tools! Now go forth and record! And start today…without the 2nd mortgage:).
Cheers!

How to Set Up a PC Recording Studio for $5.00 and STILL Record Good Quality Audio

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I see guides all the time that purport to instruct new home recording hopefuls on the best equipment and software needed to start their home pc recording studio.  There is one thing these “how-to” articles seem to have in common, which is that they explain very well how to set up an intermediate home studio, not a starter one.
I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I first started recording my own stuff, mostly music, but then audio books, voice-overs, podcasts, audio-for video, etc.  That was about 20 years ago, and to be honest, there are STILL topics in the realm of audio recording that confuse me!  And I’m an engineer and producer!  So I’ve developed a rule-of-thumb for what constitutes “audio recording guidance for beginners” that goes something like this: If that guidance contains the acronym, “MIDI” (or any acronym for that matter), it isn’t for beginners.”   Why?
First, let’s look at why someone might want to start recording audio from home.  Guess what?  Not everyone is a musician!  In this multi-media, internet-dependent, YouTube-watching age, audio is everywhere; well, at least crappy-to-mediocre audio is everywhere;).  From podcasts to audio books, advertisement voice-overs to e-learning, and video narration to, yes, music, we consume audio just about every minute of every day.  So it is a mistake to assume that all, or even most, of the folks out there who really want good beginner advice on setting up and operation their own home recording studio are musicians.  There is little need to tell those folks anything about the musical the instrument digital interface (MIDI) protocol.
Second, let’s talk about musicians who have little-to-no experience recording.  A LOT of these folks are singers and guitar-players, garage rock bands or folk singer-songwriters.  In other words, they just want to get their music “out there” in the world in the form of recordings.  Musicians tend to be artists…yeah, I know, that’s a shocker, eh?  Well artists are not always fabulous with the hard sciences, like electrical engineering or computer science.  So even among the recording newbies out there, MIDI is not something they need immediately, if ever.
So now that I have described what advice for recording beginners does NOT look like, I suppose you’d like to know what it DOES look like.  Okay, here goes.  Download free audio recording software.  There are a few good ones out there that are open-source “freeware,” like Audacity for example.  Total cost so far: $0.00.  Next, get yourself some headphones or ear buds.  If anyone in your house has an mp3 player, you already have at least one set lying around.  Total cost so far: $0.00.  Now all you need is a microphone.  Your beginner home studio only needs a PC mic.  Thanks to on-line role-playing games and internet communication, most folks will already have one of these as well.  Total cost so far: $0.00.  If you don’t already have a PC microphone, you can get one almost anywhere for about $5.00.  So the most expensive beginner home recording studio so far is $5.00.  Once you have those things, you have your home studio!
Now I did promise in the title of this article to explain how to record good quality audio from a $5.00 studio.  So what do I have to say for myself on that score?  Only this: when it comes to audio quality, knowledge trumps gear.  If you understand just a few key principles of audio recording, you can produce better quality audio from your $5.00 studio than someone with a $500 studio who doesn’t know what they are doing!  I’ve seen/heard this all too often.
Oh now I suppose you want me to “reveal” those few key principles, huh?  Well, if you insist.  First, and most importantly, record as little “noise” as possible.  Second, be able to reduce and/or eliminate the noise you couldn’t prevent.  There will always be some, especially with the $5.00 studio.  Said a different way, record as much of what you WANT people to hear as possible, and minimize stuff you don’t want them to hear.
You can learn more about those key principles from the tutorials on the Home Brew Audio website.  The video tutorials there start out assuming you’re a beginner…a REAL beginner, and will show you how to set up the $5.00 studio and make your first recording in the first 5 lessons, which are FREE by the way;).  Come check it out.  I promise that “MIDI” isn’t even mentioned in the first several videos;).