Back in the good old days, cutting a demo could cost you anything from 500 to a few thousand dollars. Add to that mastering, jewel cases and covers etc. and you would really need to WANT it really bad. Nowadays, of course we have the ability knock out good quality demos with a laptop and an audio interface. Even if it is just to get a new idea out to the guys in the band or to speed up the creative process, the ability to quickly lay down a track is IMHO really changing the way that bands work and create.
In some ways this is good, you don’t need to spend hours in a rehearsal studio coming up with ideas and parts for new songs, in some ways this is bad as essentially an individual is able to write a whole piece without the input of the other musicians. I like to think that the input of all the musicians in a band actually gives songs a signature that is unique to that group of musicians and that a good band is not necessarily full of virtuosos. Essentially the mix of creative inputs and the relationships within that band is reflected in the songs and that the sum of the parts is not mathematical and usually exceeds the individual talent involved.
That’s not to say that we cannot virtually continue the same process by emailing mp3 and bouncing ideas that way, but there are some things that can only be learned on a tour bus or in dark smelly rooms under railway lines, if nothing else it is an experience and adds to the legend of a band.
NASA Mission Control
Some of these software recording studios really do look like the flight deck of a 747 and I have tried a few of them and basically come to the conclusion that you would need a degree from MIT to fully grasp the potential of the software, not to mention the price attached which is usually the equivalent of making over a room in your house or a holiday. Then garage band came along, which IMHO revolutionised the home DAW set up, it does not have the bells and whistles of its older brothers and sisters (nor should it) but the learning curve is substantially smaller and even the biggest technophobes could (with a little RTFM) produce something reasonable. The main criticism I have of garage band is that it is for the MAC only and despite U2’s unflinching sell of the Apple cool aid, I have yet to be tempted into buying a product just because it looks nice. Having played with garage band and seeking to be unbound from my Mac Mini (which I essentially use as a region free dvd player and jukebox at which it excels), I was really looking for something which did the same job on my windows laptop, a GarageBand for windows pc if you like, which is when I found the Acoustica site.
Enter Acoustica Mixcraft
Mixcraft is very much like Garageband to use (get a trial download here), I bought my copy when it was at version 3 the latest version is 5, which I have since upgraded to. I opted for the Musicians Bundle 3
which includes their Beatcraft product (which is a drum sequencer and a good one at that). At under $100 this is really inexpensive compared to its older brothers and to my mind produces equivalent results and has a lot of similar functionality. Some notable omissions are midi controller compatibility (you cannot control Mixcraft with one) but you can use a midi keyboard to interface with the bundled virtual instruments and it has a really cool midi editor so you can fix your f$&%ups… err solos. For those of you with a VST fetish you can use your favourite ones with Mixcraft too. As with any home recording set up you need to have a decent audio interface, especially if you want to record guitars/vocals etc. and after trying a few I have come to the conclusion that for a guitarist/song writer you can't go too wrong with the line 6 pod studio range. I have a Pod Studio UX1 which basically has zero latency and can record a vocal and guitar at the same time. If I am looking for a quick zero roadie set up I actually do small gigs with mine (see here for a better explanation of what it does)
Now I am not a professional recording engineer, so I am ducking now as a bunch of professionals start throwing mic stands, amps and other bits and pieces at me, I am not saying you can record the white album on Mixcraft, but if Beck could do most of Mellow Gold on a three track then I am sure you can produce something pretty good on it. In fact I have on numerous occasions and have even got some great live gig recordings out of it.
What it does, is essentially help build a new entity in the music business….. The Bedroom Band! And more than that you don't need an MIT degree to operate it!
For a limited time only readers of the Guitar blog can get an exclusive 10% discount on the recommended retail price for Mixcraft (Thank you Acoustica!) just click on the image below to be taken to the Acoustica Checkout with the discount automatically applied.
