Category: Music

It Might Get Loud

August 8th, 2010 · Marc Meyer · Film, Music No comments - Tags: , ,

I love guitars. I love reading about them, browsing around vintage stores for a find, and most of all, listening to other guitarists talk about them and the art of playing.

Aside from Keith Richards, probably three of the most influential guitarists in my own feeble attempts at rock stardom have been Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White…Page for his versatility and sheer volume of work, Edge for his embracement of technology and explorations, and White for his creativity within a structure and old school approach.

“It Might Get Loud” is a documentary by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, released in 2009,  that just happens to bring these three guitarist together for my viewing pleasure (thanks Davis; glad you got my email…perhaps we can try to get together Plant, Bono, and Jagger for another installment?).

How he managed to get these three together is beyond me, but he did. They talk about guitars and music, both separately and together. In the transitions between, back stories are introduced and we get a glimpse into their specific musical approaches and history.

Sequestered together in a large warehouse in LA, they play some of their signature riffs for each other and talk a little bit about their craft. One of the highlights of this portion of the film is when Jimmy Page launches into his opening riff of “A Whole Lotta Love” and as soon as Edge and White recognize the song – both begin to beam like little school kids, just like you and I would be if Page launched into it in our living room. It is just a really honest, unscripted moment.

The film ends with all three launching into a version of The Band’s “The Weight” for a fitting end to a great film.

This film doesn’t uncover any secrets or little known facts about the three, it isn’t meant to. It is meant to bring together three great guitarists who love playing. The joy they find in doing so comes across both to each other and on screen.

Reaper

August 8th, 2010 · Marc Meyer · Music, Technology No comments - Tags: , , ,

I am often playing around with different audio software in an effort to a) make my life easier and b) find a different twist on an old method that might inspire some newfound creativity.

A program that I have been using for the past couple years called Reaper, made by Cockos, has certainly helped with both. Reaper is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) used for audio recording and editing. That is probably a gross over implication, but to name just a few features; it is a 64-bit, unlimited track count, draggable sends, MIDI routing and triggering, full plug-in support…powerhouse.

Best of all, it’s cheap! It is described as a “reasonably priced, uncrippled, unexpiring shareware” by its creators, which basically means you can download it for free for personal use and need to tolerate a reminder to purchase every time you open it. My copy has yet to expire. Full commercial licenses run $225 and discounted personal editions run $60. In my opinion, it is probably worth five times that.

A community has sprung up around the software developing skins, plug-ins, and other customized add-ons. The updates that Cockos provides to the software are truly remarkable. They come out with improvements to Reaper faster than any software I have ever used. They make Chrome and Firefox updates look slow in comparison.

Why the big deal about this software? Well frankly, I got sick of using Pro Tools. While Pro Tools is definitely the industry standard, it became a real pain to deal with hardware dongles. Meaning you had to have their approved audio hardware plugged into your computer to make the software work. Or, if you wanted to edit “on the run” you had to purchase a small USB dongle to use with your laptop. That became too much of a pain…and too expensive especially for those of us not trying to record an album for a Grammy or score the next Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Enter Reaper. A simple, lightweight (10MB installer), yet powerful DAW that can do most if not all the things the big boys can at a fraction of the price. It opens quickly, responds like a charm, and is often my go to editor for audio. It fills a nice void between the expense of something like Pro Tools and the oversimplification of Audacity.

Cockos the company has an interesting story. It was founded by Justin Frankel who created Winamp and invented the gnutella peer-to-peer network (Wired article about him here). One of their most appealing new products is called NINJAM, which is promoted as a “unique way for musicians to collaborate over the Internet in near real time.”

If you have wanted to experiment with editing or recording your own audio, give Reaper a try, you won’t be disappointed. It is available for both Mac and Windows.