Notes From The Woodshed – February
Last month I promised to post my guitar practice studies on the first Monday of every month. Well, this clearly is not the first Monday of February! A mix of travel and convalescence has meant that I’m late to the party with this month’s notes from the woodshed. Remember, this isn’t really a “lesson” series. [...]
OS X Mountain Lion
Apple has unveiled some of the new features of OS X Mountain Lion. As many of us expected, it shows Apple further blurring the distinction between its desktop operating system, now called OS X instead of Mac OS X and the mobile iOS system. More iOS Features On Your Mac Mountain Lion further embeds the [...]
Neil Young On The Quality Of Digitial Music
The following clip, of Neil Young being interviewed at the D: Dive Into Media conference, is doing the rounds of the internet. It’s not long, about ten minutes, so if you love music, I’d encourage you to take a listen. At the end of the clip, Neil Young makes an extraordinary comment, “Steve Jobs was [...]
SOPA And The Creative Shift
Right now there is a wave of international protest over legislation being considered by the US government that would, effectively, break the internet. Smarter thinkers than me have tackled this issue and unpacked the detail of what is being considered. If you are an original content creator, or simply enjoy using the internet, then it’s [...]
A Better Music Scene In Singapore?
Tomorrow I’ll be attending a music industry forum here in Singapore. It’s exactly the kind of thing I swore I wouldn’t be doing this year. I’m going out of respect for the organisers, the speakers and because I actually believe it could be the start of something good for the local music scene. But, with [...]
Notes From The Woodshed
Today is the second Monday of the year. But, it’s the first Monday “in the office” for most people. To mark that, here’s a little series I’ll be writing throughout the year – Notes From The Woodshed. On the first Monday of every month I’ll posting some notes, from my “office” so to speak. These [...]
My Favourite 25 Songs Of 2011
I’m going to wade into murky waters here, by offering up my 25 favourite songs of 2011. Are these the best songs of 2011? Maybe, maybe not. OK, probably not. Truth is I’m not normally a big fan of “best-of” lists. And, listing best songs, as opposed to best albums, always makes it harder to [...]
Guitar Etudes – Warmup Exercises For Guitar By Pat Methany
For the past few weeks I’ve building my guitar practice sessions around Guitar Etudes – Warmup Exercises for Guitar by Pat Methany. This book is an exploration of Methany’s pre-show warm routine and features eleven studies, based on transcriptions of his actual pre-show playing. At first glance the book looks like a set of classical-music [...]
Don’t bring demos – Bring product
This morning I was reading Eric Beall comment on Berklee’s recent Perfect Pitch music and songwriting event. What Berklee is trying to do (as always) is prepare musicians and songwriters for the realities of the music business they will encounter. In his post Eric made this startlingly honest comment, “In case you didn’t get the [...]
12 For 2012
Around this time last year I wrote two lists; of things I wanted more and less of in my life. Last year’s lists were an exercise in setting goals, articulating hopes and ending frustrations. Yesterday I went through those lists and made some comments. Although it has felt like a frustrating year, it’s good to [...]
Mainstage – Almost A Gift!
Up until recently, Apple’s high end music production application, Logic Pro, was sold as a suite, or bundle of programmes that included Mainstage, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro and previously Waveburner. But, last week Apple moved Logic pro into it’s new online App Store and in the process unbundled Mainstage from its parent (and perhaps also deleted [...]
The Math Behind Storing Music For Production
Not that long ago storing your music was simply a physical challenge. We used shelves, drawers, boxes and occasionally weird shaped towers to store our tapes, reels, vinyl, CDs then MiniDiscs. But then came the big revolution and we started to store music on computers and portable devices. Bit Rate And Sample Rate When we [...]
Singapore And SoundCloud Searches
Earlier this year I played a small part in helping kick-off HKSocial, a monthly breakfast meeting, for creative types in Hong Kong who are interested in better understanding Social Media. Despite having moved to Singapore, it’s nice to see they haven’t forgotten me, yet, as I was reminded on Friday when my Twitter stream lit [...]
7 Kinds Of People You Need In Your Creative Universe
Sustaining yourself in a creative endeavour, be it photography, music, design, writing or any other art, requires relationships. You can’t do it alone. People won’t just “discover” your work and you’ll struggle to bounce back from the inevitable setbacks and disappointments. Moreover you’ll need folks that can help you stay true to your goals, focussed [...]
Plans For The End Of The World
2010 was a great year for me, loaded with fulfilment, adventure and a surprising degree of success. By contrast, 2011 has been a grind. It hasn’t been a bad year; though at times life and work have been hard to manage. Of course, that’s partly self-inflicted; changing country while taking on a lot of work [...]
Home In Singapore
My recent adventure in Mexico was so full of highlights. I’ve stood, in scorching sunlight, on a mountain filled with 2,500 year old ruins and crouched by candlelight among locals keeping vigil for Dia de los Muertos. But, now I’m back in Singapore and there are definitely some things I’m looking forward to; like seeing [...]
Oaxaca’s Soundtrack To Dia de los Muertos
I’ve heard a lot of great music on this trip. A little bit of it was Mariachi, but most has been either upbeat Banda (Brass Band parade music), or heartfelt guitar driven Boleros (and some Tangos). There’s been no bigger surprise, for me, than the quality and energy of the Oaxacan Brass marching bands. Funky, [...]
On Being Kicked In The Butt
Create Digital Music is one of my favourite blogs; consistently good writing and insight. A recent post, What You Don’t Need To Make Music, featured Zack Wright, who is currently recording under the name Dkon. Apparently Dkon works under a manifesto, which, I have to say, gave me a kick in the butt. Dkons Tips [...]
Mutli Output With Logic Pro And EZdrummer
Readers asked a number of questions in response to my recent post on using Logic Pro. In particular there was interest in using multi output. Soft synths and sample players usually default to a stereo or mono signal, but you can set some of them up to feed Logic with a multi output. The number [...]
Learning From Listening (and Whitesnake)
Clearing out my email inbox brought a reminder that Whitesnake, an 80s band synomous with power ballads, big hair and less-than-subtle music videos, will soon be touring Singapore. I won’t be attending the concert. But, I couldn’t resist a quick trip down YouTube memory lane. It was fascinating to compare two versions of one their [...]
The Software I Use
At least once a year I like to audit the my software. This week I’m been going through that exercise; deciding which programmes to upgrade, buy or ditch in the coming few months. Given that I’ve been asked in recent weeks about the applications that fill my hard drives, I thought it made sense to [...]
Logic Pro 104b
I’m regularly asked to offer tips on using Logic Pro. Typically I don’t think of myself as “good with software” so I resist (same is true when I’m asked for ideas on using Lightroom for photography). But, I keep being asked and to be honest, we all need a little encouragement and left field inspiration [...]
Yours For Free
A few weeks back I had some correspondence regarding a cool new project. The client wanted original music and was unhappy about the licensing fees on the piece they had planned to use (are the warning bells ringing for you yet?). Creating “sound-alike” music can be ethically dodgy, but I felt that in this instance [...]
Hong Kong Recapitulated
I’ve come to the end of a quick visit to Hong Kong. This was mostly work with a little bit of relaxation thrown in. Saw very few people but had the chance to walk a little in the paths I trod during my five years here. As always happens with these kinds of return trips, [...]
Fernando Gros is a musician, photographer & writer based in Singapore. Born in Santiago de Chile, Fernando grew up in Sydney and has also lived in London, Delhi and Hong Kong.