Bandcamp is joing Epic Games?

Wow, did not see this coming. Bandcamp is joining Epic Games? Wild stuff. I wonder if they are going to make a easy pipeline to get artists into video games or something. Interesting for sure.

“I’m excited to announce that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and champions for a fair and open Internet.

Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team. The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), you’ll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site. However, behind the scenes we’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp, from basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services.”

Portland music scene overview

Back in June, I played a show that was recorded and posted to youtube. Super fun night and the videographer was just the nicest person. This morning I was curious about if she has done any other videos since and god lord man! Looks like she goes out almost every night and records local music here in Portland. A really interesting look into the scene here and who is doing what. Check out her channel at Blue Heron Video.

EP Artwork. We Are Parasols

Just finished up the artwork for another We Are Parasols EP release and got the permission to post it here. All done in Houdini and Redshift. I am tinkering with the idea to give Karma / Solaris a try and see how those work. Would be nice to stay entirely native to Houdini for the renders. I’ll have to do some testing.

International Grey resurfaces

A band I did a recording with back 2010 called, “International Grey” has just re-released a few of the tracks and they hold up surprisingly well. Give them a listen! They merged it with another project Named “Allegra Gellar” for the re-release since it is pretty much the same people besides me.

Music Friday

Snowed in pretty good up here in Portland, so snuggle up and listen to some tunes will ya?

Reaper

So I dabble in recording stuff, because, hey, why not? But with COVID, not being able to record new stuff, and all of that I have been pretty burned out. Also, I have been using Pro Tools for the last few years and it has gotten really stale. Just opening the program is depressing somehow. They are like the Maya or Photoshop of DAWs. Don’t like it? Screw you.

But recently one of my friends has started to track stuff at their place and wanted me to lay down drums on it. I think I recommended Reaper to him as an affordable way to record years ago, but not too sure about that. But after working with his files a bit I figured to make sending the project back and forth smoother I would give Reaper a try.

Man, it so far has been way nicer to use than Pro Tools. I took the entire project from Protools to Reaper without even have to google anything. The UI is just that easy to follow and find stuff. If anyone else is looking to escape the Pro Tools nightmare of dongles, license crap, crashes (oh my god the crashes!), I highly suggest giving Reaper a shot.

Folder instead of busses are just so simple and awesome to use. Guitar bus? Just make a blank track and drag them in. Done. Super clean and customizable interface. So far the only real hitch is that the free plug-ins that ship with it are downright ugly, lol! The 7 band EQ is pretty slick and has some nice functionality but it just looks like something from 98. Also, I can’t get my Sound Toys plugs in to load which is a bummer. But FET compressor and pretty much all my other ones load no problem. Get FET now. It’s so worth it.

The next step is to install it on my recording rig and get all the mics configured and try out some tracking with it. In Pro Tools I have been having a lot of crashes that when I am playing and it locks, it just starts screaming in your ear. So bad….

Is it possible to play music together over the internet?

Here is something my friend Steve sent my way that I have yet to test out, but it looks like it might work? The Windows client is in Beta though which could be troublesome. If I get the time to run some tests, I’ll post the results here. Musicians Together Apart.

The hardest number to hit for most people will be the ping which from the Network Testing page needs to be under 50ms, best if under 30ms. All the other stats seem very doable with most broadband.



Tape Op!

Just got my new issue of Tape Op magazine and if you are into any kind of recording this is a must have. So many great interviews and stuff to check out all about studio recording, home recording and more. Plus, the magazine has a FREE subscription. If you play any music, it’s a no brainer to subscribe. Tape Op!

Home Studio Setup Costs Compared - 1980s And Now

I have been dabbling in home recording for about 25 years now and this article is a really fun read.

“As you can see, the cost of entry to get the same, if not better results than those afforded by recording setups of the 1980s, is around a 10th of the price, as a community member pointed out, if you account for inflation then the cost today would be an eye watering £33,580.65. Furthermore, modern systems are more flexible, take up far less space, burn far less electricity and use far fewer user serviceable parts.

Gear has never been cheaper or been as flexible and powerful. The next time you want to moan because a piece a software or a plugin doesn’t do everything you wished it did then you may want to remind yourself of how lucky we are to record and mix today!

Modern recording gear is a bloody miracle, there is no other word to describe it. Now go and make some music!”

Check out this awesome UI!

Moon Hooch!

Kinda feel like everyone could use a little Moon Hooch in their life right now. And it’s Friday so Fuck It.