The Efficient DAW

dav | April 10, 2021, 7:26 a.m.

Ever find when you're recording or mixing that once you start using too many tracks or plug ins you start to get system issues and error messages? I've had this happen to me many times! You're just about to record the take of your life when the music stops and a message box appears telling you your computer has run out of processing power. It's extremely frustrating.  

The lap top I use for recording is older and only has a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). HDD's are a lot slower than the newer Solid State Drives (SSD) and have a mechanical arm that jumps around writing information to disk, they are also quite fragile meaning they can be quite easy to damage. SSD's have no moving parts and information is stored on integrated circuits. There can be issues with SSD's failing however after excessive writes to the storage circuits. Have a read of this article to learn more about the drives and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Why the discussion on drives? Well it turns out you can make your DAW work far more efficiently by using a separate external drive alongside your internal drive. Using only my internal HDD to run my DAW and all other aspects of a session puts a lot of pressure on the drive to process the large amount of information I'm asking it to. Making use of a separate external drive means work can be shared between the drives leading to efficiencies and less system issues. The way I work it is that I have my DAW software running off the internal HDD but save my sessions to an external SSD. This frees up the internal HDD to run the DAW software while audio recording is written to the external SSD. 

I've found this set up has worked well for me, I still get error messages sometimes but it's far less frequent. By the way, I could have used another HDD as my external drive if I wanted to, the idea is to 'share the load' between drives. If you experience this issue, give this idea a try - I don't think you'll be disappointed.  

Comment →

Create a virtual analogue studio

dav | March 29, 2021, 7:23 a.m.

If you've been recording and mixing for any length of time, you've probably come across analogue simulation plugins such as virtual tape machines, consoles, channel strips and even mic pre-amps. I own some analogue simulation plugins myself including Tape by Softube and Steven Slate's Virtual Console Collection. While I understood the point of these plugins, at first I struggled to both hear and appreciate the subtle qualities the plugins were adding to a track, and to a mix as a whole. 

The purpose of using analogue gear and analogue simultion plugins is to add to your mix some of the sonic qualities of recordings from times past. Recording and mixing through analogue mixing consoles onto tape added warmth, saturation and colour some feel is missing in modern recordings, particularly those recorded and mixed in a 'clean' digital environment (i.e direct to your Digital Audio Workstation). It wasn't until I heard an A - B comparison of a mix with and without the emulations that I really began to appreciate what these tools could do for my mixes. 

If you'd like to learn more about using analogue simulation plugins and hear what they can do, take a look at this video by Dylan Roth from Musician on a Mission: How to Create an Analog Studio in your DAW.  

Comment →

The career / hobby quandary

dav | March 15, 2021, 7:38 a.m.

A question that comes up a lot for people in the music industry, regardless of where you are in the field (e.g. front of house engineer, mixing engineer, musician or even venue manager / booking agent etc) is 'should I pursue this as a career?' It's really an excellent question and one most of us have needed to think long and hard about. I can very clearly recall my own inner struggles with this. I was in my mid 20's, I'd graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Australia and I was working as a music teacher. I was playing around town in various bands and ensembles a few nights a week, recording fairly regularly and my life was music 24/7. I was earning OK money but there was always this instability about work that I found hard to come to terms with. It was probably a little irrational in hindsight because I always seemed to have enough work. I began to look at older people I knew in the industry - musicians, teachers, professors and others that had made music their career. Many were coming up for retirement and I suspected weren't really that comfortable financially. Others were OK financially, but because of the transient nature of the music industry found it hard to find partners and were often very lonely. The questions I began to ask myself were:

• Do I love this art form enough to continue in it no matter what?
• Am I prepared to face the consequences of my decision?
• Are there other things I would like to experience in life, other interests I would like to pursue and talents I'd like to develop?

After a lot of thought, I decided I would pursue a career in something else and keep music a hobby. I went back to university and eventually began to work in another field. When I look back, I believe it was the right decision for me. Choosing another career path doesn't mean the end for your musical dreams, and perhaps you can look at it like an investor might - you're simply diversifying your portfolio.  

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best. If you think I might be able to help you talk it through, send me a comment.

  

Comment →