Training
Here at Noware, we’re passionate about music production. Some might call us obsessive. As such, we find ourselves constantly seeking out the latest and greatest in innovative recording software, production tools, and virtual instrument libraries.
As not only producers but as educators at heart (with a combined 25 years of experience in curriculum development and classroom instruction), Noware can offer manufacturer certified commercial training in both Ableton Live and Digidesign’s Pro Tools software and personal support in a wealth of other studio and production related arenas.
If you’ve considered updating your skills in Pro Tools 9, or if you’ve ever been curious about how Ableton Live can reinvent your creative process, drop us an email, friend us on Facebook, just let us know. We’d be happy to help.
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a rolling stone gathers no moss.
Chips and capacitors have been ordered for the Omni with an expected arrival date of December 28th.
So what do you do until THEN?
Sure, there are paying clients to attend to, but what about after your clients LEAVE? For us, the answer was clear- start working on another restoration job. The new culprit? Our battered Wurlitzer 140B. That’s right, we have an early Wurlitzer 140B- the venerable wood version that preceded the 200A.
Or at least, we thought we did…
With the help of Vintage Vibe and several other online resources, we’ve downloaded the schematics for the 140B. Note: the amplifier in our Wurlitzer is clearly marked 140B. However, upon further research (and the careful removal of several panels), none of the wiring within our Wurli matches the 140B. Actually, we now believe that wehave a 145 body, with a 140B amplifier. Sound complicated? It was, we were stumped.
But, at last, we’ve made some progress. We’ve stripped all the wiring throughout the whole instrument, and we’re starting to rebuild all of the electronics bit by bit. We think this is pretty exciting. First, Wurlitzers are really cool. Second, the early 112s (tube versions) and 140s sound really amazing- rounder, warmer, and more metallic than their later and more popular 200 series siblings. Think Ray Charles’s “What I Say” for the seminar Wurlitzer 140 tone…
Right now, this poor piano is a mess. But, give us a week and we think we’ll have something really special. Cross your fingers for us.
The ARP Omni is cool.
Something new wandered into the shop today- an ARP Omni 2. We’re kind of excited. Omnis, a string based vintage synthesizer, were used heavily by the Cars, Joy Division, Tangerine Dream, New Order, and countless others.
Full disclosure, this little guy is going to need some work. Scratchy pots, a fuzzy output, and some strange static suggest that we’re going to have to dig in deep on this one. That said, when it is up and running, we’re going to have the lushest and most gooey string sounds imaginable. Mmmmmmmmmm.
This sort of challenge is just the type nerdology that really gets us going. Its sad but true.
Giggity-giggity, giggity, goo. Samples and Sound Sets will be forthcoming.
Facebook sees the future.
A few weeks back, Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. We just finally got around to watching the video, and found it pretty interesting. When pressed regarding future monetization strategies Facebook might utilize in the future, Zuckerberg responded with a very leading suggestion:
“Anything that involves content or specific expertise in an area – games, music, movies, TV, news, anything in media, anything e-commerce, any of this stuff. Over the next five years, those verticals are going to be completely re-thought. There are going to be some really good businesses built. Our view is that we should play a role in helping to re-form and re-think all those industries, and we’ll get value proportional to what we put in.”
In response to this statement, Silicon Alley Insider led with a headline that suggested, “Mark Zuckerberg And An Army Of Insurgent Entrepreneurs Just Declared War On The TV, Music, News, And Movie Industries”.
We think that might be a little extreme.
All in all, Mark is right. Socialization (or social recommendations) does add tremendous value to content. We get into something because our friends recommend it (not because an editor of a specific rag or print outlet gave it a certain number of “stars”).
Facebook likely will play a role in reshaping how media is promoted. But, so will Twitter, and Ping, and blogs, and Apps, and…
Overall, quite a few economic models will likely be rethought over the next few years. And, the music industry will certainly be part of that process (it already is). That said, as we’ve maintained before, we think the net benefits will be positive. We’ve never had the opportunity as creatives to tap into a community of 500,000,000 people like Facebook (half of whom visit the site daily), a community of 200,000,000 like Twitter, or develop an App with 100,000,000 potential mobile customers.
We’re excited. To create, and to share. Check out the video, it was worth the time…
We (still) love the internet
You’ve heard of it right? The Internet? And, the Google?
Even despite its near ubiquity in our lives, we’re still amazed on an almost daily basis how the world wide web can bring so many people and so much information together in one place.
Matter of fact, it seems like any problem is solvable and any question is answerable with a few clicks, Tweets, or searches. That’s kinda cool.
As many of you know, we have a Mellotron. Number 752 from the factory. Well, as many of you also know, Mellotrons are beautiful, yet persnickety beasts. You don’t so much play one as coax it into letting itself be played. That day. For around 20 minutes.
Lately, we’ve been trying to keep the niggling problems to a minimum and finally turn old 752 into a playable studio machine.
Today, we think we’ve done it- thanks mostly to Ken Leonard and his Mellotron resource site (www.kleonard.com). We had never heard of him before, but we were searching around on the interwebs at 3 in the morning and wham- one of the most comprehensive Mellotron resource sites we’ve ever found. Tuning issues- they have the fix. Grounding noise? They suggest several solutions.
Read all about it here.
Thank you Ken, you should hear 752 now.
Seasons change and so does… iTunes?
We had a mild snowstorm over the weekend. And despite the unfortunate need to break out shovels and find our boots, we took the time to reflect on the season. Recently back from AES, there is alot of change in the air. Protools 9. HD Native. New plug-ins. New consoles. And active AES participation from a variety of online and mobile / app based music services.
And what happens in the midst of our contemplative mood? Apple posts another ominous announcement on iTunes. Could this be the stream service we’ve all been waiting for? Will this new potential feature disrupt the already flagging recording industry?
We’re not sure. But if the mood and creativity that was on display last week at AES was any indication, the music business, equipment business, and creative business is thriving and we’re more than excited to continue watching it evolve. And, we’re pretty optimistic as well.
Yep, we’re excited. ProTools 9.
Hating has become a somewhat popular activity. And, not surprisingly, the ire of the media-Tweet-o-blog-o-sphere is usually directed at who ever is the current king of the roost. For a while, everyone rooted for Apple. Then, they became the second highest market capitalized company in the United States, and everyone started gnashing their teeth at every iPhone dropped call and feature Fail.
In our world, ProTools has taken quite a bit of heat lately. But, now, that might change. It’s here. After months of speculation, ProTools 9 is here. And, while manufacturer presentations are always filled with at least a little hyperbole, we think Avid is right- ProTools 9 has a bunch of great features that people have been waiting for. Automatic Delay Compensation? Yep. ProTools untethered from Avid/Digidesign hardware? Check.
Its true. ProTools has left the protective bonds of their hardware-software cocoon and anyone can get up and running on a PT rig with their choice of Avid or 3rd party converters (word on the street is the new Avid HDs are amazing). We think this is an amazing step. All of us here at NoWare are educators and work with hundreds of aspiring audio and music creatives every semester. For them, this is a big step. Users can get into a ProTools system that works for them, and scale the system as needs warrant.
We’re really excited. We’ll be waiting in line on November 12th for our own copy. And a new HD Native system. Are there other DAWs out there? Absolutely. Do some tools work better for certain applications than others? Of course. But that said, we think ProTools is a great tool. We use it everyday. No hating required. Users and creatives should feel liberated to use the tools at their disposal. All things considered, with today’s processing power, plug-ins, software feature sets, cost of computing, and cost of storage, its a really exciting time to make music. Game on.
Speaking of good news…
We’re leaving town. No, that’s not the good news. We’re heading to San Francisco for the annual Audio Engineering Society gala. We’re going to drool on new gear, see old friends, eat good food, and find out the latest and greatest in the audio world. Rumor has it, we’ll also see the newest version of one of our favorite DAWs.
(someone cue “Revolution #9″ to celebrate not only John Lennon’s 70th Birthday but also the release of…)
We’ll post on all the goings-on. Giggity, giggity, goo.
Isn’t it time for some good news?
We’ve all heard it. The music business is dead. Right? Sales are down, Target and Best Buy are cutting floor space, lay-offs at Universal (again). EMI- well, that’s another story (good luck on that one Guy).
But a predominant narrative in our industry is that you can’t sell records anymore. Actually, some naysayers suggest you can’t sell anything in this hyper competitive and saturated world. That said, a 20-year old named Taylor Swift just moved over 1 million albums since the release of her latest title, “Speak Now” last Monday. Yep, 1,000,000. Now, this record may not be on heavy rotation here at NoWare, but we think this is newsworthy regardless. There’s a great piece by one of our favorite writers, Ben Sisario, at the NYT right now. Check it out.
And, compare and contrast with another positive take on the greater music industry from the Economist last week. In the words of the great Jon Stewart, “these aren’t the end times, just difficult times”. Our industry and our world is changing. And, while we’ve all been faced with innumerable challenges over the last decade, we think there’s a silver lining out there somewhere.
Here’s to making music.
Need Studio Time?
Do you need a recording studio? Don’t book ours. Converse is building a brand new state-of-the-art recording studio in the heart of Brooklyn. And, studio time will be free.
In all honesty, this doesn’t surprise us at all. Following other initiatives from the likes of OK Go and others, there seems to be no end to businesses, corporations, and other institutions partnering with artists in a new modern form of patrongage. Apparently the application process for studio time will involve making videos wherein you pledge your allegiance to the iconic shoe.
Is this selling out? I dunno. Actually, we’re inclined to think this is one of the more creative alliances that could be drawn between art and commerce. But maybe we’re biased- between the NoWare partners, we collectively own 7 pairs of ‘Chucks.
Read the whole story at the NY Times…
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