Category Archives: Music

I’m on a roll. Spotted this on eBay and had to have it. It’s so weird and wonderful! It’s tiny, and comes with a lovely little bag and strap too. Will definitely be travelling with this guitar instead of my $2 market cheapy I’ve been holding onto for all these years.

PS: Still on the hunt for a GREAT left handed acoustic guitar. One day!

Being a left handed guitarist sux balls. All those times when some fucker who can’t play whips out a guitar at the end of a party, but you can’t play it because it’s upside down, and all the times I’ve walked into a guitar store only to find a billion amazing right handed guitars and 3 shit lefties.

I’m always scouring eBay for left handed guitars. I tend to lean towards the $500-$1000 bracket (if I didn’t spend so much money on “cheap” guitars I’d have my ultimate American Strat by now!). Last week I came across this 80’s beauty! A Japanese made Westone Bass (ceased operation in 1991). I’ve never owned a bass guitar and I won this baby for $150!!!

When I went to go pick it up I was greeted by an old Italian man. We got chatting and it turns out the guy moved to Australia and landed a job as a session bassist. He’s been a professional bass guitarist his whole life and this particular bass has played gigs with Tina Turner and Roy Orbison! FUCKING WOW! He used to play it on a boat a lot too, and when the seas got wild he’d find the bass on the floor at times, so it’s got a lot of battle scars, which I love! The action on it is SO LOW, and was set up by a Fender technician who was a good friend of his.

What a score, what a story! Love!

PS: Click here for more info on the guitar.

My flatmate moved out recently and I’m tempted to turn the spare room into a music room, and a piano would sit real nice in there. I’ve had an itch to buy an old school upright Piano for ages now. Mum always had one in the house growing up, and I often would find myself sitting down and playing it.

There are SO many old pianos on eBay for around $300, some are even free so long as you organise delivery. I assume they’re not loved anymore, and people just want to get rid of them to clear up space in their homes.

At the same time I’ve also been super curious about electric pianos. I’ve had a play on some over the years, the weighted keys are feeling better than ever these days, and obviously, sound wise, these new electric pianos are amazing as they’ve sampled some of the world’s best grand pianos. Being able to adjust volume is a massive bonus (I don’t think my neighbours would be too happy about me bashing on an old school piano at 5am), so too having built in instrument sounds. Being able to record digitally makes for better sound quality AND the piano doubles up as a MIDI keyboard too… BUT there’s nothing quite like the old school, right?!

I’m thinking I’ll probably end up with both. Right now I don’t see any old school pianos that really screams BUY ME on eBay, so last Friday I pulled the trigger on a Casio Privia PX-160.

At close to $1k all up (for the package deal with stand, pedals and seat) the PX-160 is a LOT more than what I wanted to spend on a piano but I’m sure I’ve bought something that’ll last (the 5 year Casio warranty is pretty awesome).

The piano sounds great and the keys feel pretty damn amazing. The keys themselves have a very subtle texture on them which I don’t really like, only because I remember all the piano’s I’ve ever had in the house as having smooth ivory keys. The pedal board looks great, but feels too plastic for my liking. I went for the white/champagne model instead of the black one, only because I’d rather not have too many large heavy looking black boxes around the house. I think the piano looks pretty boring, even a tad ugly. If there were no curves on it at all it would have looked so much better. The stand looks even worse than the piano though, and up close it’s pretty nasty (even nastier than IKEA stuff), but hey, it works!

PS: I bought the Piano over the phone from Belfield Music, who delivered it the same day! When it got here I frantically put it all together only to find a dead key. SO ANNOYING! I took the piano to the shop the next day and the guys were super helpful and swapped it for a new one.

PPS: I’m thinking of getting piano lessons! At least a few to get me going. I’ve never learned how to read music, so now could be a good time to start!

Upgrade Made!

I’ve been using Garageband, which has been great so I’ve made the jump to Logic Pro X, which looks and feels just like Garageband (and can open my Garageband files without issues), but has a lot more power.

The first song Star and I made was made with Soundtrap, and it’s currently featured! Sweet!

Lounge Studio.

Gearing up!

My Komplete Audio 6 interface.

KRK monitor speakers.

So this is my lounge room studio set-up! I’ve geared up pretty quick, but I think I’ve got all of the basics covered.

The first thing I bought was an audio interface to plug guitars and microphones into (it sits between the instruments and the computer, and also sends sound to my monitor speakers. Garth gave me the heads up on the Komplete Audio 6. It’s a small little metal box, with a massive metal volume knob to control volume of my monitor speakers. I’ve always wanted monitor speakers! Now I’ve got a set of KRK ROKIT 5’s and they’re awesome! I’m in love! The TRS cables I bought to connect them to the interface are too short so I’ll have to buy longer ones.

I also bought a Rode NT1-A condenser microphone, which came with a cage and pop filter. It all looks and feels a bit cheap and nasty, but the reviews out there say they function well. I figured I’d try to keep the mic on the lounge table so I bought a Rode desktop microphone stand and it blows. With the mic set-up as is it’s so front heavy it wants to topple over. I’ll have to look into buying a proper mic stand next spending spree.

I’ve bought some Samson SR850 headphones for mixing down tracks. Great reviews out there, easy on the wallet too. I’ve also got a little Belkin headphone splitter so 2 people can listen in whilst recording.

Last of all I have my Arturia MiniLab controller/keyboard. It comes with software that makes many amazing sounds, but the software isn’t compatible with Garageband, which is what I’m using now, so I’ve just been using it with Garageband’s built in instruments for now (check The Piano Song the post before!).

Track #2! Had a lot of fun with this one! I used the Arturia midi keyboard to record the emo piano bits in Ved’s cave, and finished the rest of it off at my place in Garageband. I’m hooked!

The perfect “BEFORE” shot. Pretty sure this is gonna change over time!

My first controller, a Korg nanoPAD2.

I was kinda hoping I’d get back into painting this year, but noooo. Looks like the music bug has bitten pretty hard. I’ve been meaning to write music again, ever since the band broke up all those years ago. Having a stab at electronic music with Star has me in a spin!

It’s so easy, which makes me feel so guilty. Unlike being in a rock band, you’ve not got to worry about timing, the synching and note/pitch editing and tuning makes it all so ridiculously fun!!!

I was looking around for a midi keyboard and found the Korg nanoPAD2 for $80 at JB Hi-Fi. Ved and I dropped in to Leichhardt to buy it but no, not in stock, Ved then remembered a much larger music section in Paramatta JB so we made the hike out and nope, not in stock! We dropped into another JB, no luck, then Allans Billy Hyde and still no luck, but Ved was on a mission, and when he gets that way… LOL, it’s a force to behold!

There was one more shop to try; Drum Factory. The shop was above the Guitar Factory, a dark jungle of cables and racks of blinking gear. This older guy in a Korg T-Shirt appeared out of the mist and when Ved showed him a photo of what we were looking for he vanished again only to come out with one in hand. A fair bit more expensive than JB, but hey I’m happy to support the smaller shops AND have it in my hands to play with!

PS: I’m laughing at my minimalist “set-up”. So far; my MacBook Pro (it’s a good start actually), the Korg nanoPAD2 and some Sennheiser HD 471i closed headphones. I’m laughing because I’m sure I’ll acquiring much more gear (it’s inevitable!!!).