Guitar market strikes a nostalgic chord

Guitar market strikes a nostalgic chord

Even with prices slightly dropping, it looks like guitars are solid investment. “A Gibson Les Paul Standard that sold in 1958 for less than $300, including the guitar case, can now fetch $420,000 or more — an average annual gain of 32% since 2000, according to vintage guitar price guides.”  Not a bad return I’d say.  Hey, can anyone spare half a million so I can pick up a couple used guitars?

Coldplay to give away live CD at concerts

Coldplay to give away live CD at concerts

I think we’re seeing a pattern emerge from name bands like Coldplay — recorded music as a way to generate interest in a tour. I wonder how long before this type of thing filters down to indie artists like myself. Will all recorded music be free in the future? Yes, I know anyone can get just about anything on P2P networks right now, but I like to think there’s still a belief that recorded music has value. Maybe I’m just being naive and the die has already been cast. The picture is becoming clearer to me though — to make a go of it as an artist, you have to play live. A lot.

Reaching Out Through Music – Fundraising Concert

I’ve been teaching guitar at the Reaching Out Through Music program one afternoon a week since last September. The program’s chief mandate is to offer private instruction to inner-city children and youth who cannot otherwise obtain music lessons for financial reasons. There’s a fundraiser for the program happening on Saturday, May 9th. If you’d like to lend your support, here are the details:

Time: Saturday, May 9th at 7:30 p.m.
Location: St Simon-the-Apostle Anglican Church
525 Bloor St East
Toronto, Ontario
M4W 1J1 (map)

Concert, Reception & Auction (including a week stay at an 18th century stone farmhouse in the south of France). Evening to be hosted by Classical 96.3’s Mike Duncan.

Performing Artists: ROTM Children’s Choir; St Simon’s Choir; Patti Loach, piano; Patricia Parr, piano; John Sheard, jazz piano; Jean Stilwell, mezzo-soprano; Alejandro Valdepenas, violin; Joaquin Valdepenas, clarinet.

Patrons $100 ($60 tax receipt), Adult $40, Seniors $30, Students $10. For tickets, call (416-923-8714) or e-mail (rotm@stsimons.ca).

Live

Here’s a couple shots of me playing with Audio X last weekend…

(Photo by David Leadbitter)

Jamie Bonk (Guitar) | Dave Patel (Drums) | Lori Nuic (Vocals/Guitar) | Wendy Irvine (Keys/Vocals)

(Photo by David Leadbitter)

Jamie Bonk (Guitar) | Dave Patel (Drums) | Lori Nuic (Vocals/Guitar) | Wendy Irvine (Keys/Vocals)

USB FireWire Audio Interface Showdown

If you lurk on various music tech forums like I do, it’s pretty hard to miss all of the talk regarding USB and FireWire audio interfaces. The general consensus seems to be that for audio, USB is vastly inferior to FireWire — that you’ll get far less performance out of a USB device than you will out of a FireWire one. Well, I’m a hands on guy, so I wanted to test this out for myself. This clearly is not an exhaustive, definitive test, but honestly, I was surprised by the results.

Here’s the gear I used for the test:

  • 17″ MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/ 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
  • Logic 8.0.2
  • Apogee Duet (FireWire)
  • Edirol UA-4FX (USB)
  • Edirol UA-1EX (USB)

All of the “stress” tests were done at a 128 sample I/O buffer setting. I could have bumped up the buffer, but I work at 128 and that seems like a “real world” test. So here’s the lowdown:

  • 1,280 simultaneous notes using the Basic Decay 1 patch (EXS24)
  • 255 mono 16bit/44.1 khz off of the internal drive on the MacBook Pro. (I’m sure I could have done more, but I didn’t have 255 stereo 24 bit files handy…)
  • 15 Space Designer stereo 3 sec reverbs on inserts for a single audio track (16 bit/44.1 khz)
  • 47 tracks of audio (16 bit/44.1 khz) with a 3 sec Space Designer reverb inserted on each track
  • Playback of Apple demo (Shiny Toy Guns) roughly 1/3 of CPU meter (audio + video)

I had the exact same results from both Roland interfaces and from the Apogee Duet. Not only was there zero performance difference in terms of maximum number of notes, max plugins, etc, I found there was no difference in the response/latency of Guitar Amp Pro (a guitar amp modeller included in Logic). I’m not a great keyboardist, but the keys and drum samples I played seemed equally tight through USB and FireWire.

Again, this obviously wasn’t a comprehensive test.  For instance, it’s possible that there’s a differential in performance between USB and FireWire on older computers. It would have been nice to have had a number of different computers to test, but that will have to wait for another day. For newer computers though, my take is: If you’re recording, mixing and/or playing in the box, either FireWire or USB will work just fine.

Meet My Little Friend

Actually, meet my two little friends — the Mackie SRM150‘s. Without a doubt these are some of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in a long time.

So what exactly is the Mackie SRM150? Well, it’s a lot of things. Mackie calls it a Compact Active PA System — an apt, but fairly broad and non-committal description. It can be used as a PA, but it has so many other uses. With a three channel mixer, three band eq, phantom power, an audio “thru” with a mic/line switch, 150 watts of power and the ability to mount the speaker on a mic stand, I think you get a sense of the sonic possibilities that the SRM150 presents. For the past year I’ve used the SRM150’s as my stereo guitar amp. I come straight out of my pedal board into the SRM150’s — best sound I’ve ever had. My Line 6 POD 2.0 sounds amazing through this set up too.

I have a few minor quibbles. First, getting the decent bass response that SRM150 has I’m sure wasn’t an easy job. However, a combination of very low bass frequencies and high volume cause the mic/line button on the back of the speaker to vibrate and produce an audible noise. This happens on both the SRM150’s I have. Basically, I’m guessing Mackie had to find a way to port the speaker and the mic/line button and the XLR thru were their answer. In day to day use this buzzing/noise is an absolute non-issue for me (I never play that loud), but still, I think Mackie could have found a better solution to the problem.

My second quibble is that I would have preferred that the SRM150’s had mounts for speaker stands and not, as they currently do, for mic stands. I get where Mackie is coming from — a performer comes into a club and is able to easily mount their SRM150 on one of the clubs mic stands. But from my point of view, putting 7 + pounds of gear up on a mic stand is just asking for trouble. I can’t even begin to count the number of mic stands I’ve seen knocked over. I’m sure there are (or will be made available) connector/adaptors to allow the SRM150 to mount on speaker stands, but still my vote would be to have the speaker stand mounts built into the speaker.

So what do I like best about the SRM150’s? The sound, the weight (7.6 lbs), the size (it’s smaller than a bread box!) and the flexibility (it’s a PA, it’s a guitar amp, it’s a monitor…). This one’s a winner!

Safe Computing – Part 1

Over my almost thirty years of working with computers, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that I’d like to share. I’m going to start very generally and over the next few months (hopefully!), I’ll get more specific. So here we go!

  1. Suspenders and a belt. I think everyone knows this one… But still, I’ve seen lots of people lose LOTS of data — including songs and entire albums (yikes!). So… If the only place that your data exists is on your one and only hard drive, your data (meaning your songs, your contact database, etc.) simply doesn’t exist. If you believe this to be a computing law, then your life will be so much better. So, BACKUP your drives. And do it often.
  2. Two places at once. Backing up is just the starting point though. Ideally, you should have your data exist in two geographically unique places simultaneously. Let’s say you have your backup drive permanently hooked up to your computer. What happens if there’s a fire? If you’re robbed? Water damage? Well, what happens is you lose both your main drive and your backup. So, you should backup up your drive and then take the backup to a secondary location. In the best case scenario, the backup would be stored half way around the world, but if you’re like me, that isn’t a practical possibility. Try to, at the very least, move the drive to another room in your house. I take my backup drives down to my storage area.
  3. Take a nap. To me, it’s surprising how many people leave their computers on 24/7. Computers need to sleep just like people do. From my experience, many cases of computing wonkiness (that’s an official term!) can be cured with a simple restart or shut down. I turn off my computer at night and then turn it on again in the morning. It’s easy to do and it gives me a better computing experience. It’s also better for the environment.

The Sweet Indie Label Software Suite

So you’re a musician and you want to start up a record label, eh? Well, it’s not all fun and games. For me, the most not fun thing is all of the business I have to do. And if you’re an indie musician like me, you’re going to have to do the same not fun things that I have to. Lots of not fun things. If you want to keep your focus on music and not business, I’ve found one “trick” is to streamline your business software. And the best way, in my opinion, to do that is to buy a Mac. Yeah, I’m biased. I’ve used Macs since the early 90’s and yes I do some music seminars for Apple. But still… buy a Mac. You’ll thank me later. So this is what I’m using to meet my day-to-day business needs:

  • Bento.  It’s a kind of FileMaker Pro lite, but not really.  If that makes any sense.  You get some of the functionality of FileMaker (which I’ve used for over 10 years) in a much simpler, clearer interface and you get the ability to sync up your contacts with Address Book.  Which then syncs up to Mobile Me and your iPod/iPhone.
  • Mail. Sometimes I think my life is e-mail. Sure there are lots of e-mail programs out there, but Mail is integrated with many other Apple programs. I don’t think e-mail can be too much easier.
  • iCal. If this program can keep me organized, it can keep anyone organized!
  • iChat. If you’ve never done video conferencing, you don’t know what you’re missing. With iChat when I’m talking with someone, I feel like they’re sitting right across from me. Works brilliantly. I also use it for file exchange when I’m working on a project.
  • Mobile Me. You can back up all of your important files to Mobile Me, use it for file exchange, and the web gallery feature is my new best friend. If you use iPhoto you can create a photo album that can be instantly posted to Mobile Me. Saves a tremendous amount of time, and the web galleries look first rate.
  • iPhoto. Keeps all of my photos organized and makes editing photos a breeze.
  • Safari. I like it because the browser is super quick and works with the other Apple programs I use.
  • Quickbooks. Clean and lean. Does what it says it’s going to do. Invoicing and accounting don’t get much more simple.
  • Square Space. I’ve just started using this service (my site is hosted by Square Space) and it’s made any work I have to do on my website a breeze.
  • Firefox. I primarily use this as a secondary browser to check out my website. I like the program, but right now I’m more into Safari.

That’s about it! With this setup you’ll have most of the tools you need to get your music out to the world and still leave time for the most important thing — music!

Record Companies Rediscover Innovation

This seems like a good idea.  The bundling of records, merchandise, live shows, etc. has been done before, but whether through creative thinking or simply lack of choice, the record companies look like they are changing.