Studio Updates Underway

Hey there everybody, it’s been a few weeks since the family and I moved out to the country. I had expected that I would have the updated studio put together by now, but I simply had too many other things to unpack and/or do that I didn’t get to work on it until this last weekend. However, I am pleased to announce that the studio is about halfway put together by now and I have already played around with pieces of it to make sure it’s working normally.

Here is what I have done so far:

  1. I have had the Mac setup and running this whole time but I just recently hooked it back into the Lexicon so my studio feed can go out through the mixers.
  2. I purchased two JamStand monitor stands, assembled them, and put the studio speakers (my KRK Rokit5’s) up on there.
  3. I ran the audio out of my Lexicon and into my Behringer Xenyx mixer.
  4. The mixer board now gets the studio feed as a hard channel (in the past, I would only plug in the mixer when I was doing some recording with my friends) and I can have full mixing (and FX control) from my studio source before they hit the speakers.
  5. I have already attached the condenser microphone to my mixer and ran some tests. I was able to distort my voice using the Behringer FX options which is something that had only worked part of the time with my last build. Not to mention, the kids had a great time playing with the different tone shift mixers on the board to make their voice sound different. So far, our favorite is FX number 78, I call this “The Dark Lord of Evil” pitch shifter. It literally makes even my 4 year old boys voices sound like Darth Vader or Diablo.
  6. Lastly, I decided to test my ability to do a hard mix out from something pre-recorded so I used the opportunity to make my oldest daughter twitch. You see, she has taken a liking to Luke Bryan’s song “Kick the Dust Up” which comes from one of my least favorite genres – modern country. I got her very excited when i told her that I would allow her to listen to her favorite song on ‘daddy’s big speakers’. I queued up the iTunes feed (remember, my Lexicon now directly connects to my mixer) for the song. As soon as she would get to singing a portion of the song, I would fire off a different pitch shifter (such as the Dark Lord of Evil FX mentioned above or it’s polar opposite, a high-pitch tone shift that sounds almost like the chipmunks without boosting speed) and screw with her. She thought it was funny the first time but after the third or fourth, she started stomping her foot at me or otherwise expressing her frustration – mission accomplished. After all, what good are your children if you cannot screw with their heads every once in a while?

That is to say that the studio is about halfway together. I already have some more wiring on order so that I can run some more leads into the mixer and switch the near-field speaker wire feeds to something higher grade. When I originally purchased my near-fields, I was at a local big box retailer and wanted something quick to hook the feeds of the speakers in from the Lexicon. As a result, I purchased some cheap leads at the store. They worked for a while but I noticed that they tend to pop and hiss from time to time because they are not as well shielded as they could be. That being the case, the new wire leads will be much better quality. I should have those today.

Other updates that I plan to do shortly:

  1. Purchase a powered amp like an Alesis that will push wattage from the mixer to the speakers without clipping the audio.
  2. Get my Casio keyboard wired into the studio so I can go back to recording some synth melodies.
  3. Convert my studio Mac into a table-mounted monitor so I can pull it above the keyboard for compositions ( I have the parts but have not installed them).
  4. Add a second monitor to the table mount to provide me more screen space for my mixing freedom (again, the parts are here, I just have to install them).
  5. Connect my guitar and pedals to the studio mixer and test some guitar riffs in new songs.
  6. Invite some local musicians to come in the studio and jam with me to test some recording.

Ambitious, I know, but I have never been one who is prone to cower against some big challenges – in fact – I would say my ability to take those in stride is part of what has made me what I am. Hope to have some new tunes for you guys soon enough! DJ6i Out!

Transfer Complete!

Hey there everybody! I know that everyone has been watching my site with pained breaths waiting for an update (okay… maybe I WISH everyone was). Well, after several months, my family and I have officially moved to what we hope will be our family home for many years to come. It has enough space for my family to run and play and – of course – enough space for me to have an awesome studio! We have only been in our new place for 3 days now so it is pretty chaotic. However, I have already reassembled my studio desk and will be hooking up all of my equipment over the weekend. I have also acquired a few more interesting pieces of equipment that I hope to include in the setup. When the studio is back up and running, I will be finishing up the “Scoops” song and dropping some brand new stuff once things are back in place. Until then, enjoy the last few days of summer as you prepare for fall!

DJ6i Out!

Requiem of a Fantasy – New Track!

Hey there friends! I hope this finds you well. Despite the demands of twin babies, full time employment, transitioning to a new job and various other things, I managed to spend some time in the studio to do a project that is a labor of love. You see, one of my hobbies for many years has been playing video games but when the game systems got more and more complicated and the games longer and longer, I stuck with my NES and  SNES games. As a result, I have become somewhat of a retro gamer (see my RGB Blog).

One of my favorite games of all time is the Super Nintendo classic “Final Fantasy II” (FF4 in Japan). It has so many great elements in it that set the stage for so many of the RPG’s to come and really set the tone for the future of the Final Fantasy series as a whole. You can read why I love this game so much by checking out my post about it on the RetroGamer blog.

The first song you ever here… literally the way you are introduced to the game is with a song track that essentially consists of a rising and falling harp arpeggio. This song also plays any time you are in a “Crystal Room” in the game. The actual name per Nobuo Uematsu (the song’s composer) is simply called “Prelude” but it has also been called “Requiem of the Crystals” and even “The Final Fantasy Theme”. It is this song that I have decided to remix.

Please check out one of my favorite remixes I have ever done: Requiem of a Fantasy

My Daughter’s Remix

I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that my daughter was playing around in the studio and learning a few things. Well, she finally got serious again yesterday. She wanted to play Hot Cross Buns but had no instrument to play it on. I told her she could use my studio to play it on any instrument she wanted. As a result, she made her own remix of “Hot Cross Buns”. It’s not a very long track but I have to say she did pretty good work for a 10 year old with little experience. Check it out for your selves:

I promise that I had very little to do with this at all. I seriously just pulled up the sheet music for the song and helped her put the first note in. After that, I explained that she needed to keep any additional stuff she added in the “G” Key since that is what the song was made in. I am pretty impressed with what she came up with. This may be the start of a wonderful new musician!

DJ6i Out!