Archive for the ‘Tips For Bands’ Category

Free Sessions That Teach GarageBand

Friday, May 6th, 2011

If you live near a Guitar World and have wanted to learn how to really use GarageBand to record music, then this is your lucky week! Apple and Guitar World are teaming up to offer free workshops on using GarageBand. According to AppleInsider.com:

The workshops will take place in a four week rotation on Saturdays from 10am-11am at all of Guitar Center’s 216 stores. The first class, Signal Flow and MIcrophone Techniques, takes place on May 7. Additional lessons include Virtual Instruments and Loops, Effects and Mixing and Publishing.

I have to admit that I have never used GarageBand, so I don’t know how good it is for recording. Just passing along the information as I know some love Macs and Garageband.  I actually like both Macs and PCs, but the pricetag on Macs usually makes me lean towards a PC. I did save up for an iMac 6 years ago which is still running and I always loved it.  You can get GarageBand for as low as $14.99, so that is a really low-cost recording option.  Well, if you don’t take in to account all of the equipment needed to hook up to it 🙂

There is also an iPad GarageBand application – so I wonder if iPads could become a new form of cheap, portable recording studios? If so, recording demos could become a snap for bands – just connect everything in at practice and use the best take of each song you want to include on your demo.

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Create Music Online with Roc from Aviary

Friday, April 15th, 2011

If you haven’t heard of Aviary – you need to check out this crazy collection of online creative tools.  There are all kinds of image editing/creation tools – but I want to focus on the music tools.  Roc is an interesting tool that can be used to make music without any instruments.  Basically, you get a pallet that lets you click what instruments you want to play what note when and Roc puts the rest together for you.

While bands probably won’t use this to replace instruments, it could end up being a great tool for creating quick demos and sketches of song ideas or song parts.  It is cheap (free)  and quick to put stuff together and share. Here is something I threw together:

The sharing part is also interesting – bands could use it to give fans previews of stuff they are working on, or even to let fans vote on different things they like. It is pretty easy to embed your creations on websites, as you can see above.

Of course, if you do want to mix songs or record your voice or instruments, there is also Myna – the free audio editor.

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The Future of Album Art?

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

One of the main problems with the mp3 revolution in music is the death of album art.  I’m not just talking the making of a cool cover – that is still happening about as much as it used to. I am talking about the layout of the whole package – how you design the credits, how many panels there are, how they fold up, how they connect, etc.  Cassettes began a trend towards killing album art, CDs revived the art a bit (on a smaller level), but mp3s really just started to nail the coffin shut.

I don’t necessarily hate mp3s – they are really convenient and easy to store, they don’t skip or scratch, and – if you get them at a good enough quality – they sound great. But they are just not much to look at while you are listening.  Sure, some bands include digital booklets – but those are few and far between.

But has anyone else looked at those digital booklets and thought “with all that technology has to offer, this is all that we get?”

Maybe the iPad will bring in something new here.  The New York Times recently took a look at how labels and musicians are starting to enhance their albums for the iPad.  There are some interesting ideas in this article that could maybe take the album art to the next level by adding apps, video, and social networking. Some of it may sound real gimmicky, but this is a new area that may take a few swings before it hits a home run.

Personally, I love to actually hold albums – especially vinyl ones – in my hands.  But if I HAVE to give that up, I at least better get something like this to take its place.

So bands, this might be something to keep an eye on – your next album may actually be an app.

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Form Bands With People From Around The World

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

I first read about a site called GigIn through HM magazine.  It is an interesting concept.  From what I read, you can join with up to six other people and jam together online:

GigIn is the ultimate online music hub – a virtual space, social network and creative laboratory, that gives everyone a means to connect, compose and make music together, in real time, at any distance, and totally free of charge. Whether you are an amateur or a professional, GigIn taps into every individual’s inner musician allowing you to explore, create and share your own music, broadcast your live shows, attend online festivals, and participate in exclusive contests.

So, the deal is that you can form a band (or re-unite a band) with members from around the world and practice as much as you need.  Then you can even put on live shows together no matter where you live.  Could be an interesting tool for many of the bands that we cover on Down The Line.  They could get together for practice no matter where the members now live. They could work out new material even.  Then they can put on regular concerts for their fans online.

I still need to check it out to see what it is like.  It certainly won’t take the place of a true live concert, but it could also be an interesting idea to help those that can’t get out and tour.

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Interesting Thoughts on Why Music Should Be Free

Friday, October 9th, 2009

This is sure to be controversial. Should all music be free? Can that be the way to fix the music industry? Check out this article in Relevant Magazine called “Why Music Should Be Free”:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech/features/18542-the-upsides-of-free-downloads

Also, is it a sign of the apocalypse that I actually agree with something Derek Webb says? Some interesting thoughts. They may not all be right, but still something to ponder.

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So You Were In a Band (part 1)

Monday, February 9th, 2009

I never was in a band, but I thought I would start looking at what resources bands can use to reconnect with fans. This might actually prove useful for new bands, also – just remember that it is coming from a fan perspective. There are many free or low cost solutions out there for the non-techie bands to utilize. So, here is part of one of So You Were In a Band, and Now You Want to Re-Connect With Fans: Getting a website.

There are probably thousands of different ways to get a website going. If you have html programming skills or access to a web designer, you probably don’t need to know any of this. But if you have neither and still want a site… there is hope.

First of all, I would get familiar with some free tool for publishing content. Google has a few of these (Blogger, Google Sites, etc). The tool I would recommend is a WordPress.com blog. Why WordPress? Well, most blog programs work about the same. The difference with WordPress is that you can actually create pages and not just blog posts. You can run an entire site through WordPress (like we do) – setting up discography pages, lyrics pages, everything. Your blog doesn’t even have to be the front page of your site. Some programs also do that, but WordPress is probably the most popular.

The most important thing is to pick a tool that works best for you and what you want to do.

But why would you want to blog if your band doesn’t even exist and you have no news to report? Your fans would love to hear all the stories surrounding your band. Why not just add a new story every Monday? Or just go through every song and blog about each one – how it came to be, etc. You might even come across new stuff on YouTube or other places that might be of interest and want to post them.

Finally, a word about domain names. Your free account at WordPress.com will still reside at WordPress.com. If you want to have a domain name that matches your band name, you can still have that domain name point to your WordPress.com blog. Or, if you want to go a step further into DIY land, you can download the source code for WordPress and install it on your own website. Bluehost is one such site hosting option that will let you install WordPress as well as let you have your own domain and email, all for about $6-7 a month. The source code for WordPress can be found at WordPress.org (notice the .org part). Or, if you are interested in the less DIY option, some instructions on having domain names point to a WordPress.com blog can be found on this page.

What about MySpace? That is a different topics, but I wouldn’t recommend running MySpace as your main web page. Many do and it works fine, but it is more geared for active bands. I will cover MySpace in the future – I would recommend having that in conjunction with your main website. Next, however, I want to cover how to share copies of your music that you want to give away.

Any other ideas or suggestions? Feel free to drop a comment.

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