KVR Audio

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:20 am

So, I had a disaster recently. My basement studio flooded. 4 inches of standing water from a blocked main drain and a toilet that kept running all night from a kinked chain. A perfect storm of petty problems adding up to a small nightmare.

Because my basement never floods from rain, I had left stuff on the floor, microphones, my laptop, my drums, all got soaking wet.

It wasn't as bad as it could have been. My microphones all survived, because I put them in a jar of rice. And my drums were miraculously unharmed. Slingerland made drums well in the 60s. But my laptop died. We got insurance money, but it got spent on many things, and I don't have a replacement yet.

Anyway....I picked this stupid time to start recording again. All I have to record with is a very old pc running XP, a Tascam US-1800, and a copy of Tracktion from 2005. I can't use any of my newer software so I have had to use older freeware like Vanilla Compressor, DDMF ColourEQ, ProteusVX, even Plugsound Free.

And yet, I have had no trouble using all of this old technology to record more music than I have in 5 years. I am having a blast, in fact. It is positively exciting to have the honor of using this outmoded crap to turn the songs in my head into sounds coming out of my speakers.

We live in a great time to be a creative musician. And we already did 13 years ago, when I first discovered Tracktion and KVR.

Something to think about.

Anyway, thanks KVR.

(Thread title changed to avoid religious connotations.)

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:13 am

Give me nothing more than any machine capable of running Logic 9 and I'm happy camper, what an amazing package to make noise.

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:03 pm

Zexila wrote:Give me nothing more than any machine capable of running Logic 9 and I'm happy camper, what an amazing package to make noise.

I understand.

It isn't what you use per se, but rather, how you can interact with it. Once you make that connection and start making music, it can change your life.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:05 pm

sorry to hear about the flood
glad to hear it got turned in to a positive

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:23 pm

That's a great way to live your life. Turning negatives into positives ...

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:24 pm

So you discovered and can confirm: it is not what you use, but how you use it.

PlugSound Free! Had to look that up, never had that one... Are the filters also "warm" for modern standards?

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:19 am

vurt wrote:sorry to hear about the flood
glad to hear it got turned in to a positive

thecontrolcentre wrote:That's a great way to live your life. Turning negatives into positives ...

I wasn't feeling very positive when I walked downstairs and saw the mess. In fact, the wail of despair could be heard half a mile away.

But I just had this deep need to make some new recordings for MYSELF (as opposed to recording other people's bands like I did all last year), and I started out thinking it would be impossible. I was actually kind of shocked to find that I was wrong.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:05 am

BertKoor wrote:So you discovered and can confirm: it is not what you use, but how you use it.

I wonder if John is using his Yamaha kit in preference to freeware soft drums...

JerGoertz · Post by **JerGoertz** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:28 am

Way to land on your feet and show resilience.

In 2005 I was using a brand spanking-new AMD Athlon 3200 laptop with a massive 2gig RAM. I could go back to that if I had to; it's tucked away under my bed, along with my external HD's and Trigger Finger.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:50 am

It's your old PC and DAW, so you got back to it, I actually still use and could use happily my old machine with my old DAW and that is all I written, don't need new shinnies to be happy.

woggle · Post by **woggle** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:02 am

great combo of a good news and bad news story. I was happy making stuff with reel to reel back in the 70s and 80s. In many ways I am increasingly finding the "IT system" has wasted a lot of my life for no actual benefit to me - it has just displaced one activity with another and reduced the amount of time I spend with others - which is way more valuable personally and career wise (as a composer) than anything offered in my experience of using IT. On the other hand I finally have a workflow that is ... working. So I aint going Luddite just yet

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:14 pm

As to gratitude: I had a horrible year materially, 2017. After the 3rd absolute catastrophe I had again no way to get music done. And no way to re-up. I had no computer. I had nothing. If it wasn't for friends, I don't know what was next. I was able to get back up and running in a day due to basically love and kindness, some from people I have not actually met in person. I got 14 tracks to happen off the street in 9 mos of '17 I was so grateful and such.

Also too, we definitely live in a time where things beyond my wildest dreams when I started really writing (ca 1981, late 1980) are affordable through computer tech.

As an instrumental musician I can't really go for 'it's not what you use'. Yes, I can get a pretty good melody line going on one string on a cigar box, but I would prefer something set up, with a couple more strings, and even better woods.

By the same token I would prefer something ITB that sounds fantastic. Maybe it's not what host you absolutely require, but again, workflow. Some things actually work better than some other things.

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:06 pm

jancivil wrote:
Also too, we definitely live in a time where things beyond my wildest dreams when I started really writing (ca 1981, late 1980) are affordable through computer tech.

Yeah, that's about when I got going too. The only sampler available (Fairlight) cost more than a car. Yikes!

As an instrumental musician I can't really go for 'it's not what you use'. Yes, I can get a pretty good melody line going on one string on a cigar box, but I would prefer something set up, with a couple more strings, and even better woods. By the same token I would prefer something ITB that sounds fantastic. Maybe it's not what host you absolutely require, but again, workflow. Some things actually work better than some other things.

I agree about the importance of one's personal instrument. You will pry my kit from my cold dead hands as the hillbillies say.

But when it comes to eq, compression, and even reverb there is a shit ton of freeware that I am more than happy to work with. My old pc has both Sir and the alpha release of Ariesverb and both yield results I am perfectly happy with.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:35 pm

wise words from the departing,
eat your greens,
especially broccoli.
remember to be thankful,
for all the things,
you never had.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:39 pm

I've said this for years, in the 80's I was lucky to have a cutec 4-track and thought I was on top of the world. Then stupidity and living a party life got in the way for a bit. I would sit there with catalogs in front of me often looking at my dream studio but blowing it up my nose. Soon I was down to a guitar, a small amp and a boss distortion feedbacker which I got a lot of mileage out of, but no recording set-up. Got my act together and got back on board starting with a 4-track, then getting a Tascam 8-tack R2R that was all in one with a mixing board on it (for fx I just had the cheapest digitack rackmount). The Tascam I thought was gonna be cool but really two tracks had issues, I could record an FSK on one of the bad tracks but audio wasn't great on those tracks so really it was a 6-track. (with syncing I made up for that in a way, but then all I had was Yamaha RX-17 drum machine for midi). From there I took a huge step imo then to an Akai DPS12i and my journey into digital began.

I am so amazingly humbled by what I can do now, my dream studio is beyond my dreams and I even have the house (in Maine which was like the ultimate dream back in the day). I like stories like herodotus's as we all come to obstacles and somehow our passion always finds a way to seep through and find it's way out, hell just this year I spent a fortune on dental work and for the first time in over 15 years I can whistle again and I am ecstatic about that

As to the age old it's not the instrument, I almost play both sides of that coin. Most people who know me know I deplore paying for names so one could say that I agree that it's not the instrument. On the other hand I am blessed with the diy gene and a degree in machining/tool and die making. I absolutely agree that some instruments are shite and there are a lot of shoddy guitars out there, I find between the crap and the elite is a nice midsection of guitars I can put a little work into and get all I need out of*. (of course also two I have put together myself as well). So it is the instrument which also relies on my skills as a craftsperson to ensure the instrument is best suited to me. In the past and (hopefully not) in the future if need be the lack of wont stop me though it might alter the course I am on.

*edit: the exception is my Ibanez Prestige, very high end Ibanez (I got for a great price) i Have had 4 or 5 years now I think and I have yet to do anything but change strings on it, it still is 100% stock and one of my most played guitars.

Gratitude