I write and produce songs in my home studio. I usually play/program all the parts myself, and I find that you can get a nice sounding end result by blending real instruments with virtual ones. A few people have asked about the gear and software I use, so here goes:
iMac (about four years old) running Logic Express – I’ve never felt the need to upgrade to Logic Pro. Typically one of my songs might have around 20 different tracks, and the iMac is almost always able to cope – touch wood!
Apple Mainstage - a cheap download that gets you lots of extra instruments and sounds.
An Alesis USB midi keyboard, plugged straight into the iMac.
An SE2200A microphone – this is a great mic, on a long-term loan to me from a generous friend. Apparently it was Amy Winehouse's favourite mic.
A Behringer Tube UltraGain 100 mic pre-amp – this boosts, warms and slightly compresses the signal from the mic. I use it very sparingly, leaving plenty of room to work with the vocal later on in Logic.
A Roland UA-1G audio interface. Effective, simple to use and a bargain… but they don’t make them anymore. You might find one on eBay.
Yamaha HS50M powered studio monitors (70w) – these are designed to be very frequency-flat (but they’re still lovely to listen to music on), so you can hear what you’ve got rather than what a pair of hi-fi monitors tries to flatter you into hearing. But… most people don’t listen to music on frequency-flat studio monitors, so you must check your mix by listening through something a bit more mundane too.
Audio-Technika ATHM-50 headphones – again, these are designed to tell it like it is, frequency-wise.
A cheap bog-standard electric guitar.
A tambourine and a shaker – very useful for adding life and human-ness to a track that’s mostly sequenced.
A Roland Juno-D keyboard – nice, and surprisingly lightweight, but only really gets used for gigging.
My voice and songwriting prowess!
I write songs and multi-track record them in my home studio using Apple Logic. Recently, I introduced a new audio interface into my equipment set-up. (An audio interface is a box of technology that converts sound input (e.g. from a microphone) into a digital form that a computer can handle.)
*I’ll add a pic here of my audio interface in situ.*
My new audio interface is a Roland UA-1G. Setting it up was easy and it was working fine… except that now there was a weird humming noise from my monitors (speakers), a bit like the “white noise” of a TV. This had never happened before, and seemed to be a disaster. The noise rendered my whole system unusable. The hiss was always present, but got louder every time I touched the mouse or keyboard. Pretty infuriating.
It took a couple of hours of Googling to narrow down the likely problem. It seemed I had unwittingly introduced an electrical issue into my system – something called a “ground loop”. I still don’t understand exactly what that means, but I don’t need to.
I then spent more time hunting for a product that would solve my problem without costing too much. I read loads of reviews of various products, and finally chose the Behringer Micro HD 400 Hum Destroyer. All you need to know is – it works. I cabled the Behringer into my system (it basically goes between your computer and your monitors) and the hum disappeared. Phew.
I hope this post helps you to diagnose your hum problem and fix it swiftly.
