I'm old school.
My first computer was a Timex which used a cassette tape for it's "hard-drive". I recorded my first song on a 4-track cassette recorder. I learned the art of studio recording using vintage Neumann microphones and an Ampex-451 two track reel to reel as the main recording medium. During many of my live shows, I plugged my guitar directly into a Fender Bassman 135-watt tube amp connected to a 4-12 cabinet cranked up until the speakers distorted.....
So how the hell do I use a computer to record?
This was my biggest question a few years ago when I decided I wanted - rather needed to get back into writing and recording music if I would remain somewhat sane. Go back even 10 years ago and I would have laughed in the face of anyone telling me a digital recording studio could create anything worth listening to - and with good reason, as the technology in 2000 fell far short of recording to tape! I'd been an "analog" snob for so many years, even the thought of 0's and 1's translating into something meaningful seemed preposterous to me. It just was not going to happen.
After leaving the music scene and eventually my home-town of Seattle, I looked at my situation and realized I would need to convert to digital if I wanted to continue doing what I love. I no longer had access to recording studio's with free recording time. I no longer had a list of accomplished musicians to take into the studio with me....... I was completely on my own! Not only would I have to figure out how to record my music on a low budget, I would also have to do all the instruments myself.
It was the summer of 2007. After literally walking away from music for the better part of a decade, my wife urged me to get back into it - (lest she have to deal with a pouting husband for the rest of her life!). I started figuring out how to record my guitar onto my laptop and found a Line6 device called GuitarPort (a fantastic little device with 32kb recording capability) which came bundled with a trial version of RiffWorks recording software from Sonoma Wire Works.
I had already purchased Sony Vegas Pro 8, a full featured video production software that included a multi-track Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). On a week long business trip to Dallas, I holed up in my hotel room and recorded some new guitar ideas. It felt great to be recording again, especially since my little recording studio was completely "mobile". But after the novelty wore off, I was let down a bit. Although I had accomplished what I set out to do, record my guitar, that was about all I had done - just recorded my guitar over the built in "click-track". HOW BORING! I needed a drummer, bad!
That's when I remembered that the trial version of RiffWorks that came bundled with my Line6 gear touted a feature called "Instant Drummer". I dug out my installation disk and installed it on my laptop and fired up the program. At first glance, it looked like it was going to be very complicated to figure out, but I was so wrong.... within a few minutes, I had a drummer to play along with and was recording the first "riff" of what would be the first complete song I had written and recorded in nearly a decade. Very quickly I recorded all the parts of the song, but I was not sure about the arrangement. Each riff (or section of a song) is recorded separately (loop based recording) and then each riff can be added to the song line. With a click and drag of a riff from one point of the song line to another point in the song line, I had completely changed the arrangement of my song... ON THE FLY!! This is when it hit me, how powerful this software is - I didn't have to re-record the entire song from the beginning to the end if I wanted to change the order of the song! Back in my analog days of recording, this was simply not going to happen. Unless you were Aerosmith and had the luxury of writing your album for weeks on end in a recording studio to the tune of a $4,000,000, you needed to have your songs written and performed to the point of playing them flawlessly before you even thought of going into the studio. If at mixdown time, one of the band members said "You know, I really think the song should vamp on the first chorus for an intro and then break into the first veres.." -- it was a a wash. It meant going back into a tracking session and re-recording the entire song! Now, with a click-drag of a mouse, I had done the impossible....
So here's some of the features of RiffWorks that have made me want to spend my own valuable time ranting on a frickin' blog about it...
1. Able to make arrangements on the fly. RiffWorks is loop-based recording which allows the artist to record each section of the song separately and piece them together to make a complete song. If the order is not working out, just re-arrange the parts and see if it sounds better, or record a completely new section and "plug" it into the song where you need it.
2. Instant Drummer to help you get your groove on. RiffWorks comes with a built in drummer to help you lay down your tracks in time and with the feel of a real drummer. Nothing sucks worse then trying to come up with new ideas to a metronome. Give me a drummer with average skills and I can come up with new ideas all day long! The Instant Drummer comes with multiple different demo's for you to get started with and new drummer sessions are $10 each to add to the software. Each drum session is a professional sounding recording with many different beats and feels. You can dial in the feel and intensity for each beat. Although it's not quite the same as a real drummer, it's usable and pretty darn good for 0's and 1's! Riffworks also allows for Rex Files to be used which can augment or even replace the Instant Drummer.
3. Built in effects! Sonoma has included their own award winning effects bundle for you to use, including compression, reverb, delay and sound modeling to name a few. Although not as flexible as some other DAW's, RiffWorks allows you to use some other VST's for your input recording (such as PodFarm or Amplitube, etc..)
4. One of the greatest features of this software is it's ONLINE COLLABORATION via Riffworld.com. Got an idea but don't know where to go with it? "Riff-Link" your song on Riffworld.com directly from the software and within days, if not hours, you will have amazing musicians from all over the world contributing to your masterpiece!
I literally could talk for days about this software and what it means to me. Although I don't use RiffWorks exclusively for my music these days, I still can't find anything else that comes close to it for overall functionality. The greatest feature for me is the ability to write your song out and then change the order of the parts on the fly, seamlessly... that is well worth the cost of the software to me! The software has an incredible and positive, supporting community behind it on RiffWorld.com, a world-wide community of musicians like none other in the world (at least that I've found so far).
To sum it all up, RiffWorks recording software by Sonoma Wire Works is an invaluable tool for me to create music. If I did not find this software 3 years ago, I don't know if I would have ever gotten back into music and licensed my songs for film and tv placements which I did in 2010, my first official "music deal" in my 20 plus years in the music biz.
Hats of to Sonoma Wire Works for creating RiffWorks recording software!
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