StinkFight.com

(Including “How to soundproof your home studio for under ten bucks.”)

I’m often asked how I get such a great sound on my home recordings, be they Podiobooks, podcasts, or especially music. (Listen to my great new band, Right Arm of Wyoming.) (get MP3s of these songs on Amazon)

Well, I’m gonna lay all of my secrets on ya, here and now.

There is a lot of stuff out there that they try to sell to musicians. I’ve tried a lot of it, and ended up selling most of it. Here’s what I’ve kept that has stood the test of time (thirty years of playing music and recording, and 12 years of computer recording):

First thing you need is a good microphone and a good sound booth. Both are easier than you might think.

The best mic for the money is the Rode NT1-A. Buy it for $229 here. It is a very low-noise high-quality condenser microphone. Since it’s a condenser, it will need a pre-amp, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

You’ll need a shock mount, a pop filter and a mic stand. I use these. The RODE SM1 Shock Mount for NT1 Studio Microphone, 25 bucks.

Nady MPF-6 Nady 6-Inch Clamp On Pop Filter is 17 bucks.

Mic cables, you’ll need at least three. These are cheap and good. XLR male to XLR female Microphone Cable.

Here’s a good microphone stand for 25 bucks: On Stage Spotlight Tripod Microphone Boom Stand.

SOUND BOOTH:

(How to soundproof your home studio for under ten bucks)

This is easier than you’d think, and easier than I used to think it was. At our home in California, I’d spent a lot of money and time converting a whole room to be a studio. At our new home in Wyoming, I simply stuck some rugs up in a closet. It didn’t cost any money, works great, took about ten minutes and only about ten nails. Some of the rugs and foam are just wedged in there, not even nailed up.

This is a closet in the basement. If you don’t have a closet, you could even hang up some ropes and make a little tent-type room with blankets.

SOFTWARE:

I do my drum looping and multitrack recording in Sony Acid Pro 7. It’s an incredibly versatile program.

For mastering, and MP3 creation, I use Sony Sound Forge 9.

My book $30 Music School has good basic tutorials on using Acid and SoundForge.

Mastering is probably the trickiest thing I do of all of this, and it’s a bit of an art. If you want, I will master music for 50 bucks per song. Most people charge 100 bucks per song, and totally sap the life out of the music, trying to keep up with the Loudness War. As you can tell by my samples above, I master plenty loud, without squishing the music and ruining the dynamics and tone. You’ll like the result. e-mail me if you want that done. e-mail address is

kittyfeet70

at

yahoo.com

HARDWARE:

For headphones, I use Sony Pro MDR-7506 headphones, the best phones in the world under 100 dollars.

For a microphone tube preamp and compressor, I use the SM Pro Audio TB202.

Here it is at night, working in the spooky studio darkness:

They’re 250 bucks new, I bought mine used on CraigsList for $150. It smooths out vocal dynamics and adds a “warm” sound. It also has an instrument input which makes bass guitar sound great, and it has a powered output for your condenser microphone. I plug it with XLR mic cables into my $133 Alesis MultiMix USB 8 Mixer (which also has a powered output, if you’re on a budget and need to skip the preamp). This is a great unit, and has USB output to plug into your computer.

One secret about this unit, it is great except for an engineering flaw whereby it overheats and dies. This can be fixed by putting it up on a couple of blocks of wood so you get an airflow underneath it, and turn it off when you’re not using it. I’ve had mine for three years with no problem, whereas people I know who haven’t put theirs on blocks fried it in a few months.

A power conditioner is a good idea (to plug everything into, including your computer) to protect from surges and keep noise out of your signal. I use this Furman unit.

My guitar player, the mysterious Office Huttskew (who must disguise his identity due to the the highly sensitive nature of his day job) records his Fender Stratocaster direct into the board, without an amp, using the amazing Line 6 POD 2.0 for tone.

I record the drums, bass guitar and singing, and e-mail an MP3 to Office Huttskew. He pulls it into Garage Band (comes free with Mac computers, but here’s a good book on using Garage Band), and adds guitar. He sends me the separate guitar tracks as 192k MP3 files. I drop them into Acid and mix.

I do a bit of cutting and pasting in Acid. I’ll usually take the best four measures of my bass playing and loop it for the verse, do the same for the chorus, and the same for the middle eight. That serves two purposes: 1) it gives a more consistent and precise performance than playing all the way through the song. 2) it interfaces well with electronic drum patterns to give a more “industrial” feel, while still maintaining the “rock” sound and feel of actual playing. (Think “Nine Inch Nails.”)

I’ll often do the same thing with the singing on the choruses - I’ll sing several tracks, either doing harmonies, or on the more “punk” numbers I’ll overdub several tracks of yelling in unison (for that 80s hardcore “the whole band yelling backup in brotherly unity” feel), then mix down to a single stereo track, then cut and paste everywhere there’s a chorus in the song. I do the same trick with the more “industrial” sounding rhythm guitar parts, especially on the verses.

I’ve been recording the guitar with me playing on some of the later songs. Here’s a thread on what I use.

I think that’s about it, people. This is all you need to make kick-ass music without spending a fortune or bugging your neighbors with the noise. This is the basis for a totally functional, professional home studio, just add talent!

–Michael W. Dean

“With money running out, $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program will end on Monday. The tally so far: 457,000 cars and $1.9 billion in rebates……Dealers have complained that the Transportation Department has been slow to process rebates — slowing their rebate checks and putting them in a financial squeeze” (from CNN.)

——=

And people want to put this same government in charge of our health???

It’s going to be an interesting next three-and-a-half years, as everything Obama tries “for our own good”, fails.

Leave everything up to the free market. That makes a lot more sense. That works.

So, there is a grassroots (?) boycott circulating on the Internet, trying to get people to stop shopping at Whole Foods. It’s because their CEO John MacKey (a libertarian) wrote this piece in the Wall Street Journal offering suggestions for alternatives to ObamaCare.

Many people who are for the ObamaCare “redistribution of wealth” (i.e. I buy you health insurance because you can’t afford it) are UP IN ARMS about John MacKey’s article. (Well, they’re actually up in Twitter posts, because most of them are anti-gun, so no real “arms” are involved.) Typical is this guy. He says “I too will boycott Whole Foods because those comments could hurt our fight for a free lifestyle for all. What the heck the government can afford it.”

Free lifestyle? Does he mean “free” as in “Freedom?” if so, he’s wrong. Me thinks he’s caca cuckoo. I think he really takes “free lifestyle” to mean “everything should be free, maaaaaan!”

He says “What the heck the government can afford it.” ??????

The government gets their money from me. And you. You know, taxpayers.

Redistribution of wealth is stealing.

Here’s a snip from John MacKey of Whole Food’s Wall Street Journal article:

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.

He goes on to list eight alternative reforms that would be great. Check ‘em out at the above link if you’re interested.

(For what it’s worth, he puts his money where his mouth is. I have several friends who work at Whole Foods, and they love working there. The pay and benefits are great, and employees have a lot of input in the company, as well as taking part in profit sharing.)

John MacKey’s article is one of the sanest things I’ve ever read. People who strongly oppose it are insane, and criminal. They are stealing by voting in people who will steal for them.

I used to think that everyone had a right to their opinion, no matter how much it differed from mine. But now I do not want to “agree to disagree” with the leftists, because it’s more than just opinion. It’s aggression, in the form of action, in the form of trying to steal from people who don’t want to contribute to their plans.

And some Democrats in Congress are now talking about passing their health care reform “by any means necessary” (yes, they’re actually using that socialist/terroristic phrase!) even if they don’t have the popular backing. In other words, they’re saying, “a majority elected us, but we’re going to instate things not supported by the majority, because we know what’s best for you.”

Liberals tend to think that they have to impose their will on everyone, because only they “know what’s best” for all of us. Whereas conservatives tend to just want to be left alone. There are exceptions to both rules, but that’s the way I’m more or less seeing it now.

If you are in favor of this health care sham, you are no friend of mine. Period.

–

By the way, the phrase “by any means necessary” is usually attributed to Malcolm X (who was an influence on Obama), but here is the original Jean Paul Sartre quote where the phrase “by any means necessary” comes from:

“I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.”

>Official site

INFLUENCES: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ron Paul, Dead Kennedys, Nine Inch Nails, Ted Nugent, Bomb, The Happy Flowers, The War Hippies. Listen to the songs here

A lady named Ruth Ludlam in Isreal posted a really good review of the book here.

Excerpts:

Readers may wonder if a method based on recovery from addiction is applicable to people who have never been addicted. LifeAmp assumes that many people may never have been addicted to substances and destructive behaviours, but that remaining in negative relationships is also a form of addiction. Many people are in codependent relationships, or simply allow others to waste their time and drain their energy. The method calls upon people to free themselves from these destructive relationships and become self-sufficient.

Another aspect of the book is the author’s libertarian ideology, which permeates every aspect of the program (and of his life). I have encountered this sort of ideology mainly in my reading of various science fiction authors, and feel very ambivalent about it. This is an issue that will require further study for me, and I intend to write on it further one day. In the context of this book, the libertarian ideas of freedom and individual self-sufficiency make sense, both for recovery and for thriving as a productive person. But I am aware that many readers may feel some discomfort about some of the ideas presented. As with any experience, wise readers will take what they feel is good from this work and apply it to their lives.

Michael W. Dean’s life is an interesting story, told with great passion and sincerity. He has been through a lot that most readers may find difficult to identify with: addiction to alcohol and narcotics, several destructive relationships, the death of his daughter (one of the most touching descriptions), and eventual recovery and success. He has become a healthy, happy, productive and useful person, and is devoting his life to helping others recover and thrive.

Yet another friend dismissing me because I do not toe the popular party line of dismantling America and robbing from the productive to reward the lazy…..Another person “de-friending” me because I do not trust the powers that be to take care of me like a benevolent overlording nanny….and wishing I’d go back to having nothing to say, just shut up and make cool party music.

Long-time friend of mine, Symon Michael, of San Francisco, posted this Amazon review of my book “A User’s Manual for the Human Experience.”

More bandwidth needed…, August 6, 2009

By	S. Michael “.” (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Hmmm… I dunno about this. I remember Michael when he wrote great music and pithy lyrics, before he got obsessed with politics and started toting a loaded assualt rifle around while emptying the trash. I suppose I need to read the book first, but at the moment I am reading three or four books simultaneously and honestly don’t have any extra bandwidth. I’ll give it a cautious one star for now, just to get these comments pumped through the Amazon CGI.

Michael once advised me to change my cat’s name from “Stella” to “MILF”. When I mentioned that my live-in girlfriend might object to something like this, his advice was to “do it anyway”. (My girlfriend and I both had a good laugh over this, then we broke up. The cat came with me and is still named Stella.)

I miss the guy, and sure hope that he rediscovers his sense of humor and somehow manages to stay “happy all the time” (especially now that he’s packing heat!)

=====

I may or may not have the user review removed, because it’s false (I don’t carry a rifle while emptying the trash, at least not yet…I carry a revolver while emptying the trash, and a semi-auto sidearm while tootling about town, my FAL is usually at home or in the car), but moreover THE GUY DIDN’T READ THE BOOK! He admits it! He’s just using Amazon as a bully pulpit.

Regardless, this has been happening a lot lately. My “hip” long-time “friends” don’t like that I don’t see the glorious reign of Comrade Obama as the second coming of Christ, and are dismissing me.

Oh well, like my mother used to say, “If they don’t stand by you, or at least ask you for your take on something, they aren’t real friends anyway.”

Howdy all!

Since several people have written me saying “why did you move” (or sometimes “why the hell would you do THAT???), here’s pix and reasons.

Photos (go to these links and click on the little pix to get the big pix. Also, you can listen to audio on Radio Free Nestlandia for more info.)

Pix of our new place:
http://www.stinkfight.com/2009/07/16/a-tour-of-our-new-home/

pix of the move:
http://www.stinkfight.com/2009/07/12/we-made-it-to-wyoming-yay/

pix of Casper:
http://www.stinkfight.com/2009/07/17/renouncing-our-kalifornia-residency/

pix of Wyoming:
http://www.stinkfight.com/2009/06/08/open-carry-vacation-to-wyoming-day-5-and-6/

SO WHY DID WE MOVE?
- California is experiencing economic collapse. Wyoming’s economy is booming.
- California is experiencing social collapse. Crime is going up, even in the “nice neighborhood” we lived in.
- Wyoming is the state that voted the most strongly AGAINST Obama (I believe Obama is destroying America)
- there is no income tax in Wyoming.
- Wyoming is gun friendly. (you can get a carry permit, you can open carry without a permit, and you can buy any gun in a store with no waiting period, there are no limits on number of bullets you can have in your magazine, and there is Castle Doctrine. And the neighbors don’t look at you like you’re crazy if they see you loading guns into your car to go shoot. They’re more likely to ask you what you have, then tell you what they have.)
- the air is clean here
- Wyoming is sparsely populated, and crime is low.
- People are friendly instead of distrusting
- It’s a beautiful place to live
- people would rather work for a living here (not many people on welfare, and people don’t look to the government as much to solve their problems.)
- it’s libertarian friendly. Even the democrat Governor is more libertarian than most republicans. He’s currently sponsoring a resolution that would enforce the 10th amendment (state’s rights over federal encroachment.)
- Wyoming is one of four states with a surplus, rather than a deficit, in the state budget.

I could go on, but I’ll just say we’re very happy here!

MEW!
MWD

Today when I went to check on updates for my Podiobook of “A User’s Manual for the Human Experience”, I found that Podiobooks.com was down. Checked again a few hours later and it was still down. I e-mailed Evo and he said that a lot of websites were down, and sent me this news link.

Firefighters rescue man shocked on power pole

…..Rescue efforts began shortly after the unidentified patient fled from an enclosed patio at the back of the mental health complex….The patient climbed through a small hole in first-floor patio and onto the roof, where he shimmied across the power lines and was sitting between what appeared to be two large power transformers….While he was sitting up there, he turned and was shocked.”

I say let ‘em fry. NO ONE messes up my Internet experience! (I’m partially kidding, but partially not. Darwin might agree, and might wonder “why save someone like this?”)

Actually, if the guy had just read “A User’s Manual for the Human Experience”, or listened to the Podiobook, he probably wouldn’t have ended up in the loonie bin anyway. The book is just that good.