Steve Dekorte, Audio-Awesomeness

Steve Dekorte is a software developer who has made some cool tools for audio nerds.  

I first encountered his apps at school where we used trials of his "soundconverter" to create ogg vorbis versions of sound effects for a game audio class.  His audio file converter which can be found here is spectacular.  It has a ton of formats you've probably never even heard of (many of which I've only recently started to use as I get more into editing audio for ringtones).  All that and the program batch converts, lets you select sample rates, bit depths and more.  

Now audio-geeks, this is the best part: a full license is only $14.  If you regularly find yourself needing to convert large quantities of audio files between lots of formats, this is worth the price.  

There's also a cool little app he made for messing around with loops (or throwing together some custom music to read/study to) called Mix.

Definitely give it a try as its a tiny download and requires no installation (though its mac only).  All you do is open it up and drag some loops into the window.  Closer to the venn-diagram looking blue circles means louder, and left-to-right movement pans.  Simple. 

If you happen to be a mac user and you happen to like messing with loops, then you also need to check out Soundflower, which is made by Cycling '74, (the guys who make Max/MSP).

This little app adds two software "sound cards" to your core audio selections.  A two-channel and 16-channel internal audio bus can be used to route audio between applications on your mac.  iTunes to Garageband, or Safari to Logic for example.  I've used it to route Max/Msp into Logic to record some patches, or even routing iTunes into iChat so my friends could listen to my latest recordings.  Really, anything that can choose sound cards recognized by core audio can access these audio buses.  

I'll leave what you do with it up to you, but it can do a ton. 

Here's a simple idea that should take you half an hour on a mac.  

Download Mix and Soundflower.  Drop some apple loops from garageband into mix and record what you get going into garageband using soundflower.  Instant loop level/pan mixer with minimum of fuss and processor load... sounds like a dance party in the making.

Recording Rishin Patel

Got to do a short but fun recording with Rishin Patel, who was in town for just a week between years of medschool.



We tracked a demo of a real simple song that Rishin is working on, and I think he was able to pick up some tricks on recording and software.

This track is going to be tentatively called "One." And for more of Rishin, I'll have a link up soon as he's building a website.


Got to love that black Martin.

Recording Mark Choa

Spent the weekend doing some recording with Mark Choa, a very talented singer/songwriter.






Here's an instrumental version of the song we worked on. It's mostly just basic tracks, with the start of overdubs.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to do the rest of these overdubs.


"Sex Tiger (Instrumental)" by Rocket Love
(Note: Playback functions better with Firefox or Internet Explorer, not Safari)


We spent a good deal of time working out guitar tones, finding a decent organ sound on a sampler and putting together a beat.

Vocals (not in sample) were tracked with an AT2020 and an ST31.

Bass was direct in.

Guitars tracked on a Marshall Tube Combo using SM57.

Royer Labs Listening CD

It's here! Just got my royer labs demo cd, "Inside the Mix"

It's a cd full of samples of recordings made with Royer Ribbon Microphones.

It's kind of a audio-geek's dream to hear this cd, and it's a great learning opportunity because the recordings aren't just songs that happen to include ribbon mics. You actually get to hear some isolate ribbon mic tracks in addition to hearing those tracks in a full mix.

Hearing what these mics are capable is really what the Cd is about, but to anyone who is interested in music production, its a cool chance to learn with your ears.

You can order your own cd, or listen to the audio online at
RoyerLabs

So fellow audio nerds, check it out.

Session with Mark Choa/Reel Up and Running

I added some new clips to the Reel page of songs I've gotten work on in the last year.

The song "When You Find Me" was recorded on 10/24/08 in my home studio with Mark Choa.
Definitely one of my new favorite songs to listen to, as we got to spend a couple of hours just trying to find some interesting guitar tones.

Then we layered about ten vocal tracks together resulting in some surprising moments.

Hopefully get to record with Mark again soon (this time with pictures).