It's very complex, difficult, expensive, interesting and fun to be an independent music producer. And when you restart your music career again at the age of 50 people look at you sideways. O.k., maybe I AM nuts but I am having fun.
Volume three star...
After a long summer I have finally had enough of being lazy. I have an awesome tan that will soon fade away and fine memories of great times with my family at various beaches. We have some great ones around here.
But this was a very trying summer for my family and I still feel the pain. We all do. Usually, by now, the music making machine called Featherhead Media would be up and running again but my adult kids have had it rough and they are priority! Two of them had breakups this summer and all three need moving to a new place within three days (two on the same day!).The music had to wait and that is completely fine with me. So, the pain I'm feeling is not feeling sorry for myself. The pain is that I can't lessen their pain. I can only offer them listening ears, some food, help to move to a new home and loving hugs. I'm not the best at it but I try.
Although the end of the summer was quite tough I did get a lot done before the storm began:
Acoustic treatment of the studio
So, what have I done to get the music done this summer before the trouble and in between the struggles? I already mentioned in the previous chapter that we created acoustic panels and installed them along with bass traps. Let me mention the upgrading that happened this summer.
Waves
I upgraded from Gold to Platinum (Waves had a sale) and got some new plugins to explore like the One Knob Pumper and the One Knob Driver- will have to wait. I downloaded (for free) their new Studio Rack plugin and started playing around with it. Awesome! I'm sure that it takes a lot of CPU but it is promising. As with all new plugins - you need to play around with them and test them a bit until you get the hang of when and where they are needed. But I am sure that this is one I will be using. Hope to share that later. For now, you can find all sorts of videos on how to use this gift from Waves.
Logic Pro X 10.5
Logic updates are cool but I usually wait until all the bugs are fixed until I dive in. That being said it was time. An advantage of waiting is finding all the great videos the experts make that explain all the nuances and tricks that are new for the update. I started looking at MusicTechHelpGuy's intro to Logic 10.5 and got stuck in Live Loops (so cool!) - now everyone can do EDM, hiphop and RnB. There are new drum beat tools and more. Check out this great video from the guru himself!
MAC OS 10.15.6
When you update your Waves they usually use/need the latest operating system on your Mac to work optimally, so I just had to upgrade to Catalina. (Here, I again waited until Apple's bugs were worked out.)
This was great but caused problems with my mail and I still can't synchronise with my Google Drive folder. Did any of you have this problem? UGH! I'm still working that out....Also I can't scan anymore because Brother hasn't created a driver for the scan function for Catalina. Grr again! But by now I am getting used to this nonsense every time I upgrade and I just fix it. Wish me luck!
Antivirus
When I upgraded to Catalina, I was forced to update my antivirus. But thankfully, that went well. Check!
Updating my Homepage
I spent some serious time fixing my homepage in Wix this week. As an indie musician, I have to do that, too, by myself. (No income, no ability to pay a web designer!) It is currently and officially under construction during the month of August. Check it out and give me some feedback if you'd like: featherheadmedia.com.
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Instrument Practice
I have a lot of things left to do - a lot of loose ends so to speak when it comes to getting back into the flow of creating music, such as playing my instruments regularly. I got seriously into my electric bass and my Udemy piano course for the first time since summer break. I did a few songs on my guitar as well. One breathing exercise before singing was all that I could fit in. How in the heck am I to get all this to work? Instruments, singing, mixing, songwriting, homepage etc? (This is the dilemma we indies face daily).
Scaling down
I am removing myself from irritating and unnecessary email lists. Less junk = more time over to mixing.
Discipline
All this won't go forward unless I have discipline and keep myself from getting distracted.
But my adult kids come fist and my hubby too! When they come or call, I drop everything! They are never deemed a distraction. They are the reason I do this....
When I think about it, I'm off to a good start and I have already gotten a lot done. Just writing today's post made me feel better. Hoping you are enjoying the weather wherever you are!
