Sunday, February 25th, 2007

These Go To Eleven

It’s been a busy few weeks round these parts. Three weeks of Pro-Tools ‘lectures’, consisting mainly of us watching the projector while we get told about shortcut keys. “Apple + x” does this , “Shift +Apple + y” does that. How about “Apple + if-I-get-fed-up-using-the-mouse-I’m-sure-i’ll-figure-out-the-shortcut-myself” ? That aside, ProTools looks like a pretty handy piece of kit for recording and editing music. In the end we’ve now been given out our fourth assignment, which is editing and mixing in ProTools.

“But ebo man, what about the second and third assignments - did you pass them??” Well, despite being given the FX programming thing in November, it’s not even due until April or something. Almost finished that now, it’s pretty boring but clearly valuable, and at least we’re using some proper equipment now rather than just a rickety old Mac.

Once that’s out the way it’s on to assignment three, Basic Mixdown. I know I’ve used the phrase “now we’re talking” before, but now we really are talking. We’re given 8 different songs to choose from, and each one has eight separate tracks (instruments) that we need to mix together, which involves adjusting levels, panning and EQ for each one. There seems to be a fair bit of scope for creativity, so it should be good fun!

In the midst of all this came the results from the second exam. 92%. Funniest thing about that exam was question 72 ( i think):

How would you acheive distortion on a guitar amp?

  • A) ………..
  • B) ………..
  • C) ………..
  • D) Turn it up to eleven.

    Brilliant!


    Saturday, February 17th, 2007

    Badly Drawn Boy, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 16th February 2007

    You’ve gotta love eBay. A week before the gig, with all the standing tickets sold out, I noticed that the support act was none other than Malcolm Middleton. Maybe worth the effort after all, I thought. Luckily there’s always some poor bugger who cant get rid of his tickets, and has to flog them for half face value. Cha ching!

    Malcy’s short set goes down quite well, but without a full band it struggles to carry the same liveliness of Into The Woods. New album sounds good though.
    The thing about the Damon Gough live experience™ is his ability to reinvent his songs such that you give that bop of recognition to a new song you’ve never heard before, yet go for a wizz just as he starts playing a ska rendition of your favourite b-side. But the crowd has no such trouble with his solo intermission of Once Around The Block, The Shining and probably my favourite BDB track A Minor Incident. Of course I stand corrected during the encore when the piano breaks into my actual favourite ‘You Were Right’, tonights obituary verse namechecking Steve Irwin and Richard Whiteley.

    All in all a superb (and lengthy - 2+ hours!) performance from the badly drawn one, and the best tenner I’ve spent in a long time!


    Sunday, February 4th, 2007

    Basic Mixdown 2


    Credits and stuff

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