My new CD has been recorded, mixed and mastered- I finished this morning. The sound is incredible and I am very proud of it. However, my labels boss told me that some tracks may need a bit of rework at vocals level. This is no problem anymore, I will do that. It’s now time for me to take a resume. The past 1,30 years was full of learning and this CD exhausted me. I improved my bass-guitar playing, my design skills for the web, learned how to record, learned about necessary equipment, about synthesizers, improved my harmonic and melodie skills, mixed, learned what filters, eq and compressors really are and finally started with the great area of mastering. I survived, i succeded. I have only less power left, I need to rest before I step onwards to a new album. But all that stuff was exciting; my horizon is open by now.

COMPOSING
When I started with CULTES DES GOULES, I didn’t know anything about creating music alone. In fact, i was alone, and nobody of my former friends could tell me how to start. In 2006 I bought Magix Music Maker; this was a frustrating piece of software. Once I had something, one could name a “song”, I couldn’t develope it the way i want. You are built in a golden cage; everything simple and well designed, but you have not the chance to do something which the developers have thought of. Well, only good thing was that I felt that i -could- do it: I could compose songs.
In 2007 i bought my Mac Mini; a new life started, everything is simple, well designed and ready to use. I will not leave my Mac again, I love it. Included was a programm called GarageBand 1. I started it and recognized quickly that this easy-to-use programm could help me with making music. GarageBand 1 didn’t have any support for a “virtuall keyboard”, so i bought a keyboard from M-Audio. It’s connected via USB, quite simple, ugly, without dynamics keys, but usefull and cheap when you just work with midi files. With that equipment I composed my first songs. However, i quickly switched to GarageBand 3, cause this is so much more comfortable. I bought some Jam-Packs and then I had everything I wanted. BTW, if you are thinking you set up your Mac Mini and off you go- wrong. The Mac Mini has NO cable slot for microphone in. You need to get a soundcard for that. I bought a simple Hercules USB-Soundcard for 30 euro. That was enough for my tests.
Later I bought Logic Express, but it was fucking hard. I learned how to use it, but the MIDI editing stuff is uncomfortable. I used it a while for mixing, but had to learn that my money was wasted. I was happy that I didn’t bought Logic Pro which is much more expensive.

RECORDING
After the MIDI editing, I figured out that my sounds are OK, but I need real, analogue instruments to make my music work. I put in my bassguitar into the Hercules card. It was OK for a try-out but I recognized that this isn’t enough for a professional CD. Later i bought a Phonic Firefly 808 and hell what, this hardware is so fukking great- smooth integration into my mac, works perfectly with Core Audio on Mac OSX 10.4.x. Very fine- I started to record.
This was easier with Logic Express; you can record tasks here, one loop over and over again, and at the end you choose the very best and off you go. With GarageBand you have to click “start” for every loop. Well, in the latest GarageBand version this feature is integrated, but I didn’t want to buy it. Maybe the next version; this one has to less features which are of interested of me (who to hell wants a virtual band??).
However, cause Logic Express is so ugly and hard to handle, I used GarageBand again to record.

MIXING
For mixing, GarageBand is very very hard to use. You simply cannot have exact positions, cause everything is to small. Logic Express is perfect for mixing. It also offers the possibility with lots of VST-Plugins, which are usefull this task. I used Logic Express, opened my GarageBand songs and everything worked out well. I made some of the standard-errors a beginner makes, but cleaned that out half a year later.

MASTERING
Mastering- a new field for me. I learned that WaveLab is one of the best pieces of software, but I didn’t want to buy that for a important but short task. GarageBand has some features in this direction, but it looks very gory and low level- I really don’t understand what they want us to use here. However, Logic Express is of course possible. You have to construct your enviroment, and all that just for improving your song. Next problem: you cannot have multiple songs open, which is great for a beginner. However, I remembered Audacity, and thats it! Easy to use it was, and it could integrate all my Logic Express Compressors, Eqs etc. pp. At the end I mastered everything with this great and free Open Source tool.

FAZIT
At the end is clear, a combination of all that tools is the very best for me. My CD sounds great- ok, professional people may have there problems, but the rest will enjoy it like I do. I read very often about “use that, that is cool” and figured out, that this idealism is not worth to speak of. All products have there pros and contras. For a small production, this all is perfect. You don’t need expensive stuff. Just ignore all the “pros” out there or the “semi-pros” who try to tell you that you ONLY can have fun with the most expensive product. They are lying- it’s possible to have professional products without stealing software. I guess, it all depends on your quality and your ears.