Nicholas Toone

Blog

blog – verb (Merriam-Webster)
1: intransitive : to write or have a blog.
2: transitive : to write or write about (something) on a blog.

  • Another Step Away

    Since 2015 or so, I’d been trying to get synths working, mostly for live performances, and found myself frustrated with Kontakt, Ableton, and the like. I’m not knocking either of these programs. I know they’re tried, tested, and true. I know a ton of pros live and breath by them. For me, I just couldn’t get them to click. I found the learning curve steep and the cost high. I never made it past the trial stage.

    I turned to Apple’s MainStage which made everything easy. Thanks to this app and my trusty 12-Step, I was able to not only record synth parts for Opium Winter, but also play them live.

    An Opium Winter set loaded up in MainStage.

    However, as anyone who happens to read this blog knows, my MacBook Air is on its last legs and I’ve mostly moved away from Apple. I had to start looking at alternatives.

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  • Gods, Prophets, or Slaves

    Dropping another new track: “Gods, Prophets, or Slaves”.

    Click here for lyrics.

    N. Toone - Gods, Prophets, or Slaves
    ©2024 Nicholas Toone

    Song Notes

    The bones of this song have been around for at least five years; I’ve been messing around with the main bass groove 1 since early 2017. It’s been through a few variations over the years and last fall I decided that this was the first one I was going to record entirely in Linux.

    I scrapped the original takes I’d done in Windows and re-recorded everything in Fedora on Reaper and Mixbus 32c using native plugins. 2

    As of the beginning of December last year, all it needed were lyrics and vocal tracks, which were all completed in the past few weeks.

    Main plugins used:

    • ToneLib GFX. My god I love this plugin. “Gods, Prophets, or Slaves” was the final test; once I had the guitar tracks laid down, I bought GFX without a second thought.
    • Flying Delay by SuperflyDSP. While it sometimes forgets its settings after you close out a project, this is a great delay, especially for vocal effects.
    • EQ10Q LV2 Plugins. I use the EQ10QM Equalizer on most channels as a compliment to the Mixbus channel strips. I also use it, along with the CS10Q Compressor on my “NYC Compression” bus.

    All in all, Linux is pretty solid for recording something from start to finish. While there is not as many options for native plugins as there is for Windows or Mac, it’s a reminder that it’s always better to use what you have rather than spending your time looking for “the perfect plugins”. Remember: it’s not the plugins alone that make the song, or the sound.

    So here it is in all its nerdy glory: “Gods, Prophets, or Slaves”.

    1: Fun note: The working title of this song was “Spy Hunter” because my main bass groove reminded me of the 8 bit music version of the Peter Gunn Theme from the 1983 arcade game.

    Side note: An early version of this tune can be heard in one of the LBL YouTube videos (starting at around 03:35).

    2: Tracks were recorded into Reaper, stems exported to Mixbus 32c for the final mix. I record in Reaper as it’s lightweight and easy with the latency. Linux in Reaper is not overly great for mixing simply because  it just does not like LV2 plugins or having ToneLib on more than one track.

    For mixing, you just can’t beat Mixbus 32c. Not only is the inline EQ and compression on each channel strip so damn good you could get away with not using plugins, Mixbus just sounds better. While I don’t have “golden ears”, I do hear a pretty big difference between the output of Reaper and Mixbus.

  • Music, Labels, The Internet, And Streaming Services

    The other day I shared Benn Jordan’s latest video regarding Spotify and mentioned that I’d post some thoughts. When I started to write this, I went back and re-read two pieces that I keep on hand:

    Both of those articles opened a can of worms, especially when you think of them as older companion pieces to the video.

    While a lot of people thought (and still think) the music industry was/is evil, no one was really prepared for Big Tech.

    (more…)

  • Spotify …

    I’ll add some thoughts in the coming days. For now, this is an important watch/listen.

  • Linux Almost Six Months In

    Almost half a year into the Great Linux Experiment and I’m still here.

    HP Linux Whoo!!

    The last time I tired running Linux as a desktop OS was back around 2001. It went so horribly sideways that I lasted maybe two days. Then again this was 2001 and while I could get Linux (Mandrake) installed, couldn’t get the damned thing online. So it was essentially a weekend of yelling and screaming to myself because I had no Internet to yell and scream into.

    Now I can scream all I want, anytime I want. Here are a few things I’ve discovered:

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  • 2023 – Here We Go

    To start 2023, I decided to move everything back to where it began. I registered nicholastoone.com well over a decade ago, so that’s where everything is going to be. The Low Budget Lifer domain will not be renewed and will fall by they wayside sometime in late April. No more clever URL’s. No more content creating on whatever the big platform of the day is. No more playing with SEO or whatnot. Just me in my little corner of the Internet.

    I was going to post a big, blathering piece about 2022 but I couldn’t find the right tone. Everything I wrote sounded overly bitchy, or overly elitist, or overly preachy. In the end, I’ve settled on a short list of what could be called resolutions.

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  • 2022: Books

    I read more in 2022 than I have in recent years. I was a voracious reader in my teens and early twenties but tech got its hooks into me over the years and reading books just fell by the wayside. I’ve been working on changing this and for 2023, I plan to read even more.

    I’m not what you’d call a fast reader. My rate is a little more than a book a month; a “book” being +/- 400 pages. I have a habit where I will re-read sentences or paragraphs that I find particularly excellent. I also spent too much time on my damn phone and not enough time with my nose buried in books.

    So without further ado..

    The Storyteller – Dave Grohl (7/10)
    Decent read even though I (and everyone else) knew most of the stories in advance.

    Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett (5/10)
    This has been sitting in one of our bookshelves since I can remember. I decided to give it a read and… Eh, it was ok. A pretty good snapshot of a period in time however, it meandered and didn’t really go anywhere by the end.

    Girl on The Train – Paula Hawkins (7/10) *
    Well written. Twist was good and not overly obvious.

    The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt  (10/10) *
    This was surprisingly excellent. I’m not big on westerns (ask me what I think of Lonesome Dove sometime), but this book stands out as one of the best I read this year (or ever, really). Highly Recommended.

    Greenwood – Michael Christie (10/10) *
    Excellent. I had low expectations as the description made it out to be hippy dippy, which it absolutely was but not in the way you’d think. Highly Recommended.

    Room – Emma Donoghue (6/10) *
    I was really, really into this book … until the escape. I mean, I wanted them to escape but considering all the work the captor did to control her and ensure that she and the boy would never escape, I was honestly surprised he fell for it. It was very paper thin. This took me right out of the whole story making the rest of the book not hit as hard as it could have.

    Can I Say – Travis Barker (5/10)
    I don’t like Blink-182, but Barkers drumming made that band what it is. He plays drums lots. Likes Cadillac lots. Drug abuse. Survived a horrific crash. Run of the mill rock bio.

    Sing Backwards and Weep – Mark Lanegan (4/10)
    While the book contains some good insights into what it’s like being in a 90’s Seattle band that didn’t get really big, I found it a slog because Mark Lanegan is an insufferable, egotistical piece of shit. I really don’t understand why everyone holds him up as a genius. His music and lyrics aren’t all that great and he’s a complete asshole.

    The Only Girl: My Life and Times on the Masthead of Rolling Stone – Robin Green (6/10)
    I thought there would be way more about her time at Rolling Stone but it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good read, it just didn’t cover a lot of her career at RS considering it’s literally the title of the book.

    Infinite Detail – Tim Maughan (4/10)
    Great idea. Ho-hum story. I don’t know what else to say about this one.

    The Institute – Stephen King  (7/10)
    Typical King; good story, fun easy read. I like Stephen King as I know I any book of his is usually a good read and this is one of the better of his more recent ones.

    The Way Home – Mark Boyle  (10/10)
    Well written, fantastic read about someone who has gone pretty much completely off grid. If you haven’t head of Mark Boyle, look him up. He’s an interesting person with an interesting outlook on life and how he fits into it. Highly Recommended.

    Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records – Jim Ruland (5/10)
    Some ok, yet rehashed history of SST Records can be found here if you could be bothered to wade through unnecessary, super fanboyish reviews of records that no one cares about from bands that no one remembers which all read like Patrick Bateman talking about Huey Lewis and the News. This would have been a better book if the author had just stuck to the story of SST and cut out the incessant navel-gazing.

    Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell (10/10)
    My favorite movie of all time. Decided to give the book a go and it did not disappoint. Highly Recommended.

    Bringing Out The Dead – Joe Connelly (4/10)
    Another title that’s been hanging around in our bookshelf for a long time. I know Scorsese made a movie based in it so why not? It has some good bits and it’s well written, but… while I like dark stories without happy endings, this one didn’t really have anything to say and started to meander about two thirds of the way through to the point of eye rolling. Don’t think I’ll be watching the movie any time soon.

    Find Her – Lisa Gardner (5/10)
    Back and forth between a really well done psychological trauma backstory and a somewhat lame, paint by numbers detective/revenge plot. The payoff is just dropped on your lap, however it’s written like you’re not supposed to notice until the BIG REVEAL a few chapters later.

    * A local, second hand book store does a yearly “Book Advent Calendar” where they have tables and tables of bags marked like “Popular Thriller” or “Science Fiction” etc and each  contains 24 pre-wrapped books. Our family has been doing it for a couple of years now; it’s a good way to reuse/recycle and much more fun than the standard off the shelf garbage Advent Calendars you get at box stores.

  • They Knew You Before You Were Famous – The Just Stop Messing With It Mix

    Here is a song I titled: “They Knew You Before You Were Famous”

    Click here for Lyrics (Yes! Lyrics!)

    They Knew You Before They Were Famous
    They Knew You Before You Were Famous ©2022 Nicholas Toone

    Song Notes

    I’ve been working on this track for far, far too long. My problem is that I just can’t settle. I tweak and tweak and re-do and tweak some more. “If I just add this one more little bit…”

    I need to learn to stop fucking with things and just get the songs done. Less is more, as they say.

    So here it is. I finally just stopped where I was and decided to put it out there. Maybe there will be another mix at some point but, for now, it’s done.

    This one was started on Windows and finished on Linux. I really tried to get the song going in Mixbus, but ended up making a righteous mess of it all. No matter, Reaper was  here to save the day. The final mix was done using Reaper Plugins (mostly ReaComp and ReaEq) and Room Reverb from ElephantDSP.com.

    The big thing about this tune is that it has vocals. This is the first time I’ve written lyrics and actually sang anything (other than backing vocals) since early 2013. It took a while for the words to come, but once an idea formed, I put pen to paper and it all came together.

    Now that this one is done, I’ll work to complete the next tune, which is only lacking finished lyrics and recorded vocals. I’ve promised myself that I’m not going to keep tweaking and just get it done. Hopefully I’m not lying to myself; especially since there are another thee songs in half finished states that need my attention.

    For now, enjoy “They Knew You Before You Were Famous”

  • Cheat Sheets

    I’ve never really liked the term “cheat” when it comes to learning and doing things. When I was young, the expectation was to memorize everything, be tested on it and the more you remembered, the better grade you received and, I guess, the better person you were.

    We were taught that using any kind of aid was cheating, and cheating was wrong. It was an automatic fail if you got caught finding a way to complete the questions you couldn’t remember the answer for.

    At my first “real job”, I remember frantically trying to remember some piece of SQL code I had learned when a Dev said to me:  “Jesus, dude, just look it up”. I seemed to have forgotten that when I was building websites on my own, I constantly referred to my HTML and CCS books. By myself, this was ok. Being an actual employee made me believe I had to know everything. They hired me because I was smart or something so how dare I cheat?

    Turns out that in the real world it’s called using a reference. It took me a long, long time to shake the mindset that not using reference material was the only way to go. There is simply too much to know at any given moment to be expected.

    This is true with anything, including music. Whether you’re just starting out, or have been at it for most of your life, there is so much to know and remember.

    Those people out there who seem to know their craft by heart? They’ve been doing it for a long, long time and they will always refer to resource materials as there is always more to learn.

    It’s not cheating. It’s experience.

    The Experts Guitar and Bass Cheat Sheet. This is a good one. It gives you the basics on what to cut, boost, or roll off for guitar and bass while also giving the simple reasons why. For example, on guitar cut a little  around 250 Hz to reduce overlap with the bass.

    No-Name Music EQ Cheat Sheet. Graphical page showing the main frequencies between 50 Hz to 15 kHz and what a cut or boost on each will do for guitar, bass, and drums.

    Drum EQ Cheat Sheet. I love this one. It’s a perfect starting point for mixing drums. I’ve used this cheat sheet to setup personal presets in my EQ plugins and always start with them tweaking (usually a lot) as I go.

    EQ Cheat Sheet for Over 20+ Instruments. Need something a little more comprehensive? This one is for you. It covers general EQing as well as all manner of instruments; not just guitar/bass/drums.

    The Frequency Spectrum… I use this one when I have keys of any kind in the mix. A good, quick glance cheat sheet.

    As with anything, these are not magic and will not turn you into a professional mixer overnight. What they will do is help you get started and are great as a resource while you work. Bookmark them. Print them. Make use of them.

    Remember to listen as you make changes to EQ. Don’t just boost and cut exactly where the cheat sheets tell you to and call it a day. Pay attention to what is happening to the sound as you work.

  • The Second Linux Recording

    This one is all Linux. No WINE, no recording on Windows or Mac and bouncing over to this computer.

    It’s Reaper and Linux native plugins running on Fedora

    This few seconds is raw and not anywhere near a final mix. The drums are completely dry. The guitars are run through ToneLib. There are no plugins loaded on the tracks, buses, or master channel. I just “threw up the faders” and hit render.

    All mics and DI were plugged into my beloved US-16×08.

    Drums were miced as follows:

    Still a work in progress, but it turned out much, much better than I anticipated when I started this whole experiment.