Electric Guitars Changed Music

Electric Guitars have changed the face of music. Wikipedia states:

"An electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings (sometimes nickel) into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as reverb or distortion. While most electric guitars have six strings, seven-string instruments are used by some jazz guitarists and metal guitarists (especially in nu metal),^[1] and 12-string electric guitars (with six pairs of strings, four of which are tuned in octaves) are used in genres such as jangle pop and rock."

Tremolo, reverb, distortion, wah wah, voice augmented electric guitars are amazing instruments. They made such an impact on the music scene that it has barely recovered. Wonderful fascinating sounds come from these instruments. Accompanied by voices, basses, drums, horns, organs, pianos and whole symphonies they are an indelible part of today's music.

And I think that music is better for it. Although I do not own an electric guitar, I may someday. In the mean time I use my Seagull 12-String Guitar with it's Seymour Duncan Woody pickup to play through my Toneport UX1 and Gearbox software to make electric guitar like music. Computer assisted as it is, it the best I can do for now and it satisfies my desire to use the above mentioned effects that you can get with an electric guitar. I just can't reach those high notes on the neck of my guitar.

Today's image is about electric guitars, I used another textured background and the Thredgeholder filter for the guitars. Added a couple grunge font typestyles and a black frame. I used Corel's PhotoPaint for all the effects and object manipulation. Kudos to Corel Products for such fine graphic tools.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Bonnie Raitt - That's Love Sneakin' Up On You
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Home or Project Recording Studios

You love to write and sing and play your songs, but you want to share them. You need a way to do so. Today that is not a problem as digital products are in an abundance and many recording programs are even free. (Audacity for example.)

A simple home recording studio needs at least one microphone, a computer, an amplifier and some speakers, a headphone, a recording interface, a recording program, a mixing and modeling program, and you the songwriter with your instrument. Online access to some real drum loops is a plus as well if you don't have any percussion instruments.

Hopefully you have some good acoustics in the room you use. But we cannot always be picky about that unless you are prepared to spend some money to make an acoustically smart room.

Tweak's Guide to the Home and Project Studio has great information, and you can always do a online search for "home recording studio" to find plenty of help.

Wikipedia tells us that:

"A small, personal recording studio is sometimes called a project studio or home studio. Such studios often cater to specific needs of an individual artist, or are used as a non-commercial hobby. (italics are mine) The first modern project studios came into being during the mid 1980s, with the advent of affordable multitrack recorders, synthesizers and microphones. The phenomenon has flourished with falling prices of MIDI equipment and accessories, as well as inexpensive digital hard-disk recording products."

If you read my Bio on my blog you know that I have a very simple set up for recording my songs. I have everything I listed plus my 12-string Seagull guitar. I'd like to add a small keyboard in time, but for what I do, I have just enough equipment and programs to make some decent recordings. I still am not that good at mixing, that is a longer learning curve for me.

I have shared a manipulated photograph of my "studio". One thing that does not add to better acoustics is a window that overlooks a view of the lake below us. But the lake is a great view to have while songwriting, and it has played a part in some of my songs.

If you have any tips for a home studio write me or leave a comment.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - I Want You Back
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