TRCoA Library

This month we have selected Alesia Lani as our Artist of the Month. Alesia is no stranger to TROCA, having both recorded an album and performed live in our studios. She is a rising R&B starlet that is this generation's Lauryn Hill or Erykah Badu. She has had the great fortune of being on the cover o...

El Paso, TX’s own Khalid has rocked the music scene with a fierceness. We chose Khalid this month because he, like our students, is a self-made artist. His breakout album “Free Spirit” “pulses with euphoric dance beats and Eighties synths”, according to Rolling Stone. Did you know he was a...

Did you know Billie’s dad is her tour manager, and her brother writes and produces her songs with her? We are super excited for the opportunity to profile such a fresh new alternative artist. As an extraordinary, up and coming talent she began singing and writing songs at age 11. Billie started ga...

Trying to break into the music business is no easy task. The amount of people trying to do the same thing can make it seem almost hopeless. Fear not there is a way! Now don’t get me wrong it will be hard work and the industry has changed over the years making the methods to get in a little tougher...

Anyone fresh out of Recording School understands the luxury and allure of analog gear. Audio engineers and producers also know how devastatingly damaging to the wallet outboard analog gear can be. And rightly so! The time and material that is required to produce a compressor as coveted and iconic as...

Every major key has a minor key that exists within it. Likewise, every minor key has a major key that exists within it. These structures essentially share scale tones and chords in their diatonic sequence. Understanding this concept is very essential to understanding and interpreting the major and m...

Tameca made her festival debut at the 2015 Austin City Limits Festival. Austin360 wrote that her “big, sweet, soulful voice” kicked off the festival in the most epic of ways. Her music filled the morning air and the crowd around her grew bigger and bigger as her set went on. She ended the set wi...

Having Trouble With Songwriting? Hooktheory Helps One of best ways to learn about songwriting is by learning songs that inspire you. Getting inside the song structure and understanding the relationship between the form, (verses, choruses, bridges, intros and their relative lengths) the chord structu...

What are printable effects pedals/units? In the world of studio and live effect products, there's been a new innovation in the last few years! These are units that let the user print, or download, to the unit whatever the user wants it to be. Meaning that by a direct computer connection, or by Bluet...

Ableton Live's Groove Pool This week I'd like to discuss one of the features of Ableton which few of my students use or utilize, the Groovepool. Groovepool is a very powerful feature which allows the user to essentially copy the groove, feel and swing of any clip and apply it to another clip. This c...

What are the best music theory apps? There are many free apps that are great portable ways to access music theory tips anywhere, anytime. Learn how to read - notes, scales, intervals, chords; hear - exact pitch of notes; identify - written notation, time signatures, key signatures; & improve – sig...

There are many reasons Universal Audio's Apollo Twin MKII is the best preamp for a home studio. One of the biggest reasons being it's user friendly interface with world class A/D & D/A conversion. The Apollo Twin MKII is thunderbolt compatible, so I plug directly into my Mac OS X El Capitan. The ins...

The Future of effects pedals is here! Check out these guitar tips: If you have not gotten to experience any of the guitar pedal offerings from Chase Bliss, you owe yourself that treat. They all share the best of both worlds: an ANALOG heart with a DIGITAL brain. Dip switches, expression or CV input,...

So why do guitarists need attenuators (load boxes)? Attenuators (load boxes) are another great tool for the recording guitarist. In essence, they subdue the speaker load to the speaker, enabling the amp to be driven hot while keeping the volume down. The permutations of live and recording uses are n...

It is clear EastWest ComposerCloud is one of the best virtual instruments One of the issues I encounter repeatedly among my students is their frustration with the stock virtual instruments that come with Pro Tools. While some of these are quite decent for basic demoing and mockups, many students wan...

Every guitarist should know how to stack gain If a guitarist can only have 2 gain stages on their pedal board, what do you need? If it's any conventional sounds, you need a transparent amp like overdrive, and then you need a mids-heavy punch in the gut. There are many pedals on the market that do th...

What's new in Ableton's Update? Today I'd like to discuss some of the updates to Ableton available in the newest version of the DAW, Ableton 10 which is now installed on the computers at the campus/City Park studio. I will briefly touch on some of the most exciting new features, which include new d...

What are the best desktop tube amps you ask? I have talked ad nauseam about digital amp simulators and direct recording for guitar. A new exciting development is the desktop tube amp, made for direct recording (usually 1 watt)! These desktop tube amps are a great alternative to digital amp simulati...

Recording guitar is an art form. At TRCoA we always tip students to split a guitar's signal path so we have a clean DI track that can later be re-amped or processed through a digital amp simulation. For guitar recordings that I do at home and send out to artists, I like to go one step further. I use...

What are “Impulse Response Loaders”? Digital emulations of a speaker cabinet, a speaker, a microphone, and the placement of the microphone. When discussing all of the options on the table for direct guitar recording like we have in the past: digital amplifier simulations, desktop tube amps, and...

“To get the best reverb just put it on a stereo aux, choose the right preset, and done." Think twice! Though the topic of reverb is far more nuanced and in depth than just a simple statement, you should consider that reverb needs to be treated as another instrument source. As in most tracking and ...

The Red Heroes are a Pop-Punk band that combine the rough-and-tumble pop-punk from the nineties, a la Green Day, The Descendents, and Dude Ranch era Blink-182, with sounds inspired by Emo acts such as The Get Up Kids and Tigers Jaw, as well as more modern Pop-punk, such as The Wonder Years and Man O...

We're honored to have Alesia Lani be a finalist in TRCOA's Artist Grant Program. The past two years have seen Alesia really come into her own as an artist and performer, following the release of her debut project “First Impression” Alesia capitalized on the buzz from the album to catch the eyes ...

TRCOA Presents Brad Blackburn to be a finalist in our Artist Grant Program. Texas native Brad Blackburn fosters a unique blend of pop, rock, and soul driven by his warm vocals and bluesy guitar chops. After years of developing his sound and performing most nights of the week in San Antonio, Brad rel...

We're honored to have Whiskey Shivers be a finalist in TRCOA's Artist Grant Program. Whiskey Shivers spent much of 2014 on tour and in September released a self-titled album (their third) produced by renowned singer-songwriter Robert Ellis. After all, it’s not every day a band who embraces the lab...

We are proud to present Jonny Gray to be a finalist in TRCOA's Artist Grant Program. One of the most nominated and awarded musicians at the 2014 Austin Music Awards winning "Folk Band of the Year," "Song of the Year," & "Male Vocalist of the Year." Jonny Gray has had an amazing year with appearances...

Greetings new TRCoA students! A tip for your “Beat Making & Music Theory” class. While there are dozens of relevant links on our BMT site for resources, don’t hesitate to scour youtube: there are great videos and free lessons on almost any theory mountain you have to climb. Here we will start ...

Join Jet Jaguar from TRCoA as he shows how to track Hip-Hop vocals. Topics discussed include: Setting up your own Hip-Hop template Downloading beats from YouTube... is this ok to do? Getting on the grid Choosing a mic Vocal Processing Working with playlists And last, but not least: Gain structure!

Check out this Ableton Live workflow video by world class game-changing producer DJ, Quantic. This is helpful for Ableton users, but also for Pro Tools users (or any other DAW) as well. Quantic goes through his process step by step, and offers some very valuable information on the way. Definitely a ...

"Kiss Guy", AKA Yayo Sanchez, completely stole the show Wednesday night, when he was brought up on stage and performed "Monkey Wrench" with the band. "He brought his own fucking pick!" Dave Grohl exclaims, as Yayo gets ready to rock. He isn't messing around. Yayo exhibits an insane amount of stage p...

In modern music using drum loops and drum samples is ubiquitous: you can find them pre recorded, sampled from records, traded, free on the internet, etc. These are great tools to sketch a song out with, even if you have the intention of replacing them later. Since many loops are owned by many people...

As discussed before, the versions of Ableton Live 9 and after have the ability to turn any isolated audio clip (isolated drums, isolated melody, and isolated harmonies) into a MIDI file. Last time we discussed this technique for turning a melodic phrase into MIDI data, and this week we'll highlight ...

Charlie Kramsky talks about how he got his start and how he got where he is today! "Charlie began his career as a staff engineer at the famed Avatar Studios in NYC. During his time there Charlie worked with artists such as Paul McCartney, Tony Bennet, Elvis Costello, Bobby McFerrin, Lenny Kravitz, R...

As discussed before, the versions of Ableton Live 9 and after have the ability to turn any isolated audio clip (isolated drums, isolated melody, and isolated harmonies) into a MIDI file. Last time we discussed this technique for beat making, and this week we'll highlight the audio melody to midi fun...

As discussed in our last log: One of the most revolutionary tools to show up in a DAW in recent history is the “Audio to MIDI” function in Ableton Live. Any clip of audio can be converted to a MIDI file just by right clicking on it. Today we'll discuss drum clips! The software flawlessly convert...

One of the most revolutionary tools to show up in a DAW in recent history is the “Audio to MIDI” function. Any clip of audio can be converted to a MIDI file just by right clicking on it. When right clicking on a file, the user can select converting a drum sample, melody, or harmony sample. The p...

We introduced effect switching systems last time, and noted how you can connect a large number of pedals with little signal loss. This is because when a pedal is engaged, all of the others are taken out of the chain, because each is in its own isolated loop. The other asset these systems bring to th...

A new addition to the arsenal available to guitarists and other musicians is the switching system. These systems essentially consist of a number of isolated loops that an effect unit or pedal sits in. Imagine if your signal chain has 15 pedals in it. When you engage one pedal, your signal is still g...

A while ago we discussed the use of “Impulse Responses”. Impulse responses are digital models of a speaker cabinet, a speaker, a microphone, and the placement of the microphone. These are used in conjunction with digital amplifier simulators to help us create a natural guitar signal chain direct...

In the early 70's came algorithmic reverbs. Basically, an acoustic engineer can look at any blueprint and tell you what the reverb will be based on the early and late reflections timing, what the waterfall frequency is, and how long (R60) the reverb tail. That in a nutshell is algorithmic reverbs. O...

Check out these documentaries of pivotal musicians: Jaco Beware of Mr. Baker Chasing Trane

Convolution reverb (AKA Impulse Response, or IR) is the closest thing to being there, without actually being in the room. When convolution was introduced by Sony on their digital tape machine, the PCM series, it didn't degrade the high frequencies, and people didn't like it. Sony basically invented ...

A thoughtful article on the use of Music Theory in electronic music production. Use it, but don’t let it stifle you: How Important is Music Theory?

Check this thing out! I've been using it as a send in my signal chain. Tonal Recall- Chase Bliss Audio Yes, this is the King of Analog Delays. With the footprint of a normal sized pedal, this unit brings to the table an almost unlimited array of options with its dip switches controlled by an express...

Music students, in this digital age we can’t take for granted the unprecedented ability that we have to reach out to anyone we are interested in working with and trade ideas and tracks. With essentially free cloud space and the ability to view other artists' work, this has become almost natural. I...

Plug-in Alert! The band Vulfpeck has been one of my bands for a long time. Check them out But a student told me these guys are making their own plugins to get some of these incredible sounds! Amazing! They are incredible. Check them out: Vulf Compressor- Goodhertz

In our studies learning how to use plugins: What is a processor? What is an effect? What is an insert? What is a send? These are all things TRCoA students will learn in BRT and Pro Tools classes. Plus, you'll learn the order in which plugins are implemented has a huge effect. If you're a guitarist, ...

Guitarist and Gain Aficionados: Check out the new Strymon “Sunset” Overdrive! It has 4 classic overdrive models with a wide range of tonal options, and two different clean boost types. Every pedal that I have played from this company is so well-thought-out and sounds exceptional. The attention t...

There seems to be an amazing number of different reverb options out there on the market today. Some are based off old digital hardware, while others have no real world models. Though many engineers just choose what’s most comfortable for them, or use whatever cracked plugin they have: there are tw...

If a device you are using (whether it's a pedal, synth, or rack-mount processor) has an “Expression Pedal” input, always experiment with it! It can transform a one-dimensional effect into a very useful device. Many older analog devices let you choose only one parameter to control, but most moder...

Part Two: Direct Recording Tips When using amp simulation software, many of us take the speaker cabinet selection's effect on the direct guitar signal for granted.However, the cabinet type, size, and mic have a massive effect on the tone! These days, most amp simulation software lets you turn the ca...

We all love plugins, but if you've invested a good bit of money in guitar pedals, why not use them with your DAW? Many high end pedals beat plugins hands down, and offer a different sound. Radial makes a box where you can connect a line level signal from the recording system; it unbalances the signa...

Check out these Chord Progression Generator Apps. They can be a great way to learn more about writing chord progressions, enhancing your ear training skills, and help you to finish a song or section of a song when you run into a wall. iTunes: Autochords - Chord Progression Generator for guitar, keyb...

Condenser microphones come in two main types: large diaphragm and small diaphragm. The characteristics of each one should inform the decision on which to use. Large diaphragm microphones were created first, their sizable diaphragm offering a very low noise floor. Later, the small diaphragm came when...

The consent decree victory of BMI over the DOJ marks a major change for the PROs and of course, for songwriters! This will allow for fractional licensing, meaning as a co-owner of a work, you can license only your share of a song (as opposed to 100% licensing, where a co-owner can license 100% of a ...

Trying to choose what microphone to use on what instrument and where to put it can often terrify a new audio engineer, because there are almost too many choices that it can be overwhelming! Without getting into the science about how each microphone type works, we have three main branches to choose f...

The career path of an audio engineer is quite a broad one. Not everyone will be an internationally famous producer. But hope is not lost: there are so many other paths and options available, if one keeps an open mind! Although it might not be glamorous, audio for commercials pays very well. Being an...

When beginning your career as an audio engineer, you may see seasoned engineers using light to exorbitant amounts of compression during the tracking process. You may be tempted to try and recreate the same thing when you begin recording, but there are some considerations to be aware of before attemp...

Greetings TRCoA students! A tip for your “Beat Making & Music Theory” class: There are dozens of great podcasts out there discussing music theory, song structure, and writing. Here are a couple of links to ones that I like: iTunes U- Music Theory Fundamentals PlayerFM- Music Theory Podcasts

For most engineers limiting is usually the last step in the process and can make or break the sound of your final masters. Whether you’re trying to compete in the loudness wars or just get your track up to industry standard, some important things to consider when choosing which type of limiter to ...

What is the best drum tuner? Finding what drum tuner is the best can be a time consuming and headache of a process. I have searched for years on the easiest way to tune a drum and have finally found the best drum tuner! Drum Dial drum tuners! These conveniently small and sleek drum tuners are able ...

There’s a common misconception about what “tape sound” is, and what it can do to a mix. When we think about the magic of tape, we usually conjure up bands like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, or even the grunge bands of the 90s. However, we must also consider that “tape sound” also includes ban...

On the BMT site at trcoaonline.com we have included many graphics and reference materials for all of the concepts we cover. I want you to keep in mind that using google images you can find a wealth of many other visual references that can help illustrate any of these topics. We all learn in differen...

A de-esser is a tool commonly used to tame excessive sibilance, an issue often associated with harsh frequencies in the mid-high range. Some de-essers will have a frequency range low enough to deal with plosives occupying the lower and sub frequency ranges. A de-esser operates by allowing you target...