Info Product Blueprint

Hey there movers and shakers

A slight departure from the norm for today. I want to tell you about the Info Product Blueprint. It's an information product by Ken McArthur and essentially what it does is it takes all the experience Ken has as a successful internet marketer and gives you a step by step process for developing, creating, marketing, and selling a product on the internet. It's pretty great. I know this because Ken tapped me to work on it with him. Now I'm no internet marketer (although I did have a marketing concentration with my business major in college), I was simply editing and mastering audio for the project. But now that it's finished and 'out there' I've already started working through the package myself and am developing a product of my own. Anyone with any ambition can use this package to successfully create, market, and sell a product on the internet.
It's got me pretty excited because it takes the guess work out of it. It tells you exactly what you need to do to run a successful launch. So if you've ever thought about selling something on the internet, get Info Product Blueprint.

Right now I'm listening to Jeffrey Foucault Ghost Repeater. It's pretty good, but if you've never heard Jeffrey Foucault, get Miles From The Lightning. That album is beautiful.

Rock on

Ben
www.javboyrecords.com

Lexicon Omega

Howdy Humbuckers

While I'm on the topic of giving bad reviews...Let me revisit the Lexicon Omega again. If you will recall, I purchased this to up the ante on my remote recording rig so that I could record 4 tracks simultaneously to my laptop for live records and such. My experience with the Omega has only gotten worse and I find something distasteful about it every time I use it.
Right now my biggest complaint is the noise floor. To put it bluntly, it sucks. Every recording I do with it has some kind of hum or buzz lying underneath that I have to use a denoiser to remove. I'm currently recording some teleseminars for internet marketing big-wig Ken McArthur and as if telephone recordings weren't bad enough, the Omega adds its own noise to make it worse.
So add that to the unusable hum this unit gives with phantom power engaged, and it's a pretty frustrating piece of gear. Which is too bad because if everything worked correctly, it would be a nice unit. Drop it to 2 stars out of 5.

Right now I'm listening to the sounds of the world through an open window on an unseasonably warm Philadelphia day. But soon I'll probably hear the sounds of my wife snoring while taking a nap next to me ;-)

Rock on

Ben
www.javboyrecords.com

Audix D6 Kick Drum Mic

Hey there kick drum thumpers

(Note: After you read this negative post, read on for the addendum added a year later...)

Something I've noticed with reviews on the internet (and in the media, etc.) is that the reviews are usually favorable. I realize that I am not exempt from this as the reviews I've put on here have all been good for the most part. I think sometimes it has to do with purchase validation and in the cases of paid advertising, it's good business not to piss off your customers. But I have no problem writing about a product that I own and falls short of expectations. That is this post in a nutshell.
I'm talking about the Audix D6 Kick Drum Microphone. I've had this piece since June (so about 4 months now) and I've used it numerous times because I'm convinced that I just haven't used it right or something. But now I'm willing to read the writing on the wall. This mic sucks. It's touted as an excellent kick drum micing solution and I've heard nothing but good things about it which is why I tried so hard for so long to like the sound it was giving me. But it's really been nothing but a headache.
The first time I used it, I used only the D6 to mic the kick (inside the shell, no outer head, pointed towards the beater, about three inches away) only to end up having to EQ the hell out of it to get anything but mush. And of course you can't salvage a good sound from mush if you EQ all day so I just ended up with a dull kick. Dull really is the best word to describe it. The mic has no high end response and the low end is just mushy and undefined. I thought that maybe this was just the sound of my kick, so I tried the D6 on a bunch of other things too including a guitar amp, figuring that if the highs don't come through there, they won't come through on anything. Again mush. Bummer.
Maybe I have a defective one. But I doubt it. Maybe I'm just used to the fantastically crisp sound of the AKG D112 (which incidentally costs the same as the D6, about $200). Now I guess I'll try craigslist or ebay and try and trade it for a D112 which I know sounds great. Just another reason to never try new things.
So Audix D6? 0 out of 5 stars. That's right, zero. It has no redeeming qualities in my book.
Alright, that's not true. It seems to be made well. Quality metal casing, cool look, nice adjustable clip. But that don't mean squat if it sounds like crap, and it does.
If you want a more technical description of what it sounds like, email me at ben@javboyrecords.com
I'm too annoyed with it to go into any detail right now.

Listening to a Ray LaMontagne bootleg, 2005-05-05 Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rock on (but not with the D6).

Ben
www.javboyrecords.com


Addendum added December 4, 2007:
I hadn't thought of this post for a long time, but I just received a comment from a reader about it so I thought I had better update what was written.
The Audix D6 is NOT a terrible mic. Apparently it's just terrible on ME. All of the test I did with it before writing the above post were on projects where I was playing the instruments. Since then, I've used it on other people's kick drums and bass cabs to much better success. I still end up EQing a good bit of low mids out of the kick, but it does sound much better than my previous uses. I should mention I also started using it further away from the beater; just barely inside the shell.
I think I wrote in another post somewhere that I did have better luck with the D6 on people who have a heavy kick foot (mine is pretty light), so that may be part of the difference.
So I hope that sets the record straight. D6 gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. (it's still no D112...)

FXpansion VST to RTAS Adapter

What's up, bit crunchers?

Sorry it's been so long since my last review, but things have been crazy and I've been out of town.
Anyway, I'd like to talk about a piece of software that doesn't do anything. Ok, so it does something, just not the usual something (process audio) that other audio programs do. It's the very popular FXpansion VST to RTAS Adapter. This plugin/program/wrapper has been around for quite some time but has recently been updated to v2.0 to work with VST v2.3 and ProTools 7 (MP, LE, and HD).
I've been hearing about it for the longest time and heard mixed things about it's functionality and stability. Enough that I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger and spend the c-note to buy this "do nothing" program. But then I just got the urge to have about a million new plugins and VST instruments to play with so I gave it a couple of hours' thought and finally decided to go for it. And am I glad I did! This thing is fantastic!
So I bought it from the FXpansion website and was able to immediately download and install it without a hitch. Then I read the manual to make sure I was setting it up correctly (imagine that, RTFM!) as I have nearly 500 VST plugins and instruments, not all of which are good or even worth having in PT's list of plugs. It was easy to figure out how to set it up, simply start the program, indicate which folders your VST plugs are in, and have it search them to populate a master list of available plugs. Once it identifies them, it give you info such as manufacturer, type (effect, midi-enabled effect, or instrument), I/O, and location. Then you manually choose which plugs you want to be 'wrapped' and appear in your RTAS list in ProTools. Couldn't be simpler. Well actually, it can be. They give you the option of automatically wrapping everything so no work is required at all. But as I said, there are a lot of bad VST plugs out there (and on my computer) so unless you're completely computer illiterate (why are you working on a DAW?) I wouldn't suggest it.
That's it. Start PT and you're off and running. So I went through and tried a bunch of plugs that had never before seen ProTools on my system to see if I'd have any new 'staple' effects and instruments in the arsenal. The biggest plus are the instruments, as there are some really good ones out there and until Digidesign had not provided any freebies of any worth. There are some good resources for finding free VST plugs. Try KVR and one of the DUC's superusers spkguitar's site for starters. But remember, there are A LOT OF POOR plugs out there. So to avoid cluttering your system, try them out one at a time and just deleting them if they're not up to par. I'll try to remember to post some good ones as I come across them.
The biggest concern I had with the wrapper (and one of the main reasons I didn't buy it sooner) was that I thought it would use CPU that I couldn't spare and it would be unstable. Wrong on both accounts. It's virtually transparent as far as CPU usage and I have yet to experience a wrapper-based crash. Only two things that have been annoying since I got it: 1) When certain plugs were included in my wrap list, when starting PTLE I would get an appellate that said something like 4CC ID. It didn't mess anything up; you just click "ok" and it continues loading, but it's a small inconvenience. I think it refers to a display problem?? 2) When using plugins from the Kjaerhus Audio Classic Collection (Classic Compressor, Master Limiter, etc.) sometimes I lose the GUI and have all but an empty plugin window. That's kind of annoying because I like that effect series for certain apps and I don't really want to use them if they're unstable.
But that's it. For under $100 I now have a lot more effects processing and virtual instrument options. Kudos to FXpansion for making a great product that does its job simply and effectively.

Other big news...Javboy Records is moving! By the end of the year I'll be in a new place in Douglassville, PA, still about an hour from Center City Philadelphia but now within a few minutes of the Reading, PA community as well. The studio will be bigger, better, and ready for business!

Right now I'm chilling out to the sounds of Tim Buckley Goodbye and Hello.

Rock on

Ben
www.javboyrecords.com