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Last night I took the advice of some folks who know a lot more about things like this than I do to replace the tubes that came in my ART MPA Gold mic preamp with some more expensive higher quality tubes that I bought online.

The MPA Gold is only about $300 but I've heard a lot of people say that if you replace the tubes that it comes with (which are cheap Chinese tubes) with some higher quality ones that you can make it so that it's quality is up there with a preamp with a cost over $1000. I don't know enough about this to say whether it's true or not. But it seemed worth a shot.

One of the cool things about this preamp is that it actually has two different inputs/tubes so I put in two different tubes so I could have some choice as far as different "colors." As each tube is supposed to have it's own sound.

I took some photographs of the process which took me about an hour. I'm sure a lot of people could have done it a lot faster but I had a lot of problems with my screwdrivers. Anyway, check out these photos:

The MPA Gold with the top taken off:

Took one of the cheap Chinese tubes out:

The USA built Sylvania tube I replaced it with:

Took out the second cheap Chinese tube. Put it up with the first one and another one(which I had taken out of my much cheaper MPA Art preamp previously.)
They all appear to be the same.

JJ Tesla ECC83 tube that I put in the second slot:

Where the tube goes:

Of course the important part is, what do they actually sound like? Well so far I've been pretty impressed. I've been using the MPA Gold both as a preamp for my Shure KSM condenser microphone and as a direct in for my bass guitar (I haven't tried it yet with my guitar.)

And last night after I replaced the tubes there did seem to be an increase in clarity and "warmth" but I'm not 100% sure. It's hard to say if it's not just a mental thing of wanting it to sound better so I don't feel like I wasted my money and time!

I'm subscribed to four different magazines focused on recording: EQ, Recording, Electronic Musician, & Tape Op. Of the four I only have a strong opinion on is Tape Op, it's great. I highly recommend it. The groovy thing is Tape Op is actually FREE! The not so groovy thing is that it only comes out once every two months instead of monthly like the other three.

And while Tape Op is free it's not like the others are expensive. Each of them works out to about $1 per issue so they aren't going to break the bank.

Sure, about 75% of these magazines is advertisements for the latest gear, but if you can get through all of that, there tends to be some interesting useful information in there.

And yes I consider the "reviews" that these magazines include to be advertisements too! I think I've yet to read a negative review of anything since I've been receiving these magazines (which is since January or so.)

I've been going through some growing pains lately with setting up my recording stuff (including a lot of cool new gear) on a new computer (64 bit, quad core, 8 GB RAM PC)  and most of those pains seemed to be stemming from Windows Vista.

A couple of days ago I got to the point where I was getting really desperate as I was not able to get Reaper (my new favorite DAW) working along with lot of other really irritating problems (including a malfunctioning internet connection.) I decided that maybe I should try to install Windows 7 on my computer (dual boot style) to see if that would fix some of my problems.

I had heard a lot of good things about it but I was concerned that I would be let down. After all it's only in beta right now. I thought maybe I'd be "trading one set of problems for another."

I downloaded build 7077 (64 bit version) and installed it yesterday morning (I got my key directly from Microsoft.) I was expecting at least some pains getting things working and I figured there was a good shot that a lot of stuff wouldn't work at all.

So far that has not been the case at all. In fact I haven't run into a single problem yet. Everything seems to be working flawlessly and not every problem that I was having on Vista is gone. I'm actually shaking my head as I type this because I can hardly believe it.

Obviously I can't guarantee that everyone will have such a great experience with it, I only know my own situation but for me Windows 7 has definitely come to the rescue. It looks like Microsoft has finally got it right. An operating system that just plain works. Awesome.

Now I just hope they give us (those who are beta testing Win 7) an easy way of purchasing it when the final release comes out without having to reinstall everything again. I'm totally willing to pay whatever they are going to chart for it, I just hope they don't make it a pain in the ass to buy it.

Edit: You can now Buy Windows 7 Online.

For some reason, no matter what I do I can't get this site to look right in IE. It's centering a lot of stuff I don't want to be centered and I have no idea why.

So yes, this site is best viewed in Firefox. I highly recommend Firefox for browsing the internet anyway, it's a lot better than IE. Download Firefox for free.

But I know a lot of people still use IE (unfortunately) so if anyone has a good idea of why I'm having this IE centering problem let me know (in a comment) because I would love to fix it.

EDIT: I was finally able to fix this problem (I needed to put text-align: left in my CSS otherwise IE assumed it was centered for some reason) ... But I still recommend Firefox over IE!

There's a very interesting interview with Sufjan Stevens in this month's issue of Tape Op. I find it amazing how many things he did "wrong" and still ended up with good sounding recordings. Check out this list of things he did "wrong" when recording 2003's Michigan.

1. Used 32 kHz sampling rate (instead of the usual 44.1 kHz.)
2. Mics: Only used two SM57s and one C 1000. No mic preamps.
3. Mixed the album on his headphones. He doesn't even own monitors.

What does this tell us? I think a lot of us (including myself) spend too much time worrying that we don't have the "perfect" studio setup. So what! Work with what you have. A lot of us have much better setups than Sufjan Stevens had for Michigan and I think that album sounds great. We have no excuses.

This website is focused on computer based recording using an audio interface (USB or preferably FireWire 1394) combined with DAW software. And you may have noticed the site has the word "essentials" in it's name. Well, "essentials" can have different meanings in different contexts I suppose. But in this blog post I want to get to what is really ABSOLUTELY essential. The things you need to have to get started recording and mixing music.

#1 A Reasonably Proficient Computer

At a bare minimum your computer should have 1 GB of RAM and 50 GB of available hard drive space. You should definitely shoot for at least 2 GB of RAM and 100 GB of hard drive space. Get as much of both as you can afford. The PC vs. Mac battle isn't one I'm interested in having. You can do fine with either. A PC based system is likely to be less expensive.

#2 A USB Or FireWire Audio Interface

I definitely recommend a FireWire interface, they have less latency problems than the USB models. You can get one of these (with just a couple of inputs) pretty inexpensively these days. The higher price models come with better mic preamps, more inputs, and better overall sound quality so yes they are worth the extra money but you can also get pretty good quality with a cheaper model.

If you are just recording yourself or one or two other people (and no real drum set) then you don't need to worry too much about how many inputs you have. If you are wanting to set up a "real" studio with real drums and the like then you'll want to get more inputs of course. How many? Well that depends on whether you are using a mixer (for mixing down drums, etc) prior to going into your audio device. If you are not you'll probably want 12 or more inputs (drums take a lot of mics/inputs.)

#3 Recording/Mixing Software (Sometimes Called DAW Software.)

You will need software to interact with your audio interface. This software will act as your "virtual mixing board." The good news is it's actually far more flexible and in my opinion easier to use than a "real" mixing board. The bad news is for those who just have to physically touch knobs and all of that because this will all be done with your computer keyboard and mouse. Click Here to read the article about choosing the right DAW software.

In the case of Pro Tools the DAW and the audio interface come packaged together (the cheaper Pro Tools interfaces come with stripped down cheaper versions of Pro Tools.) This is probably one of the things that draws people to Pro Tools. Although some other audio interfaces do come with other stripped down versions of DAW software like Cubase LE.

What does DAW stand for? Digital Audio Workstation.

#4 Monitors Or Headphones

Really you'll need both. But just to get started you obviously need some way of hearing back what you're working on. It's a good idea to listen back to what you are doing with headphones and monitor speakers. You could even burn your mix to a CD and play it in your car or on another stereo system. You want to make sure what you produce sounds good anywhere you play it.

That's It For The Absolute Essentials

While that's it for the absolute essentials you won't get very far with just that. You could plug your electric guitar or bass guitar into your audio interface and record that but that's about it unless you get some of the following items:

If you plan on recording vocals or acoustic instruments you will absolutely need a microphone (and the quality of the microphone you buy will greatly effect the quality of the sound that you get.)

If you plan on using drum machines, synths, or samplers in your music then I highly recommend Reason. It's extremely versatile software that can be used for all of that and more.

If you want to control your synths & samplers (in Reason) then you will need a midi keyboard. You can also control the drum machine in Reason with an electronic drum set (make sure it has midi out.)

It's likely that your DAW will come with some cool "plugins" but you will likely find yourself wanting more (better) sounding effects to work with. I can't classify these plugins as "essential" but you will most likely feel that they are.

There are a lot of factors to consider when trying to create your own home studio. In fact, the amount of factors can be quite overwhelming at first and that's why I have created this site. It will be your guide to knowing what you need to record (and mix/produce) music at home. It will also be your guide on how you use the tools that you have.

Obviously this is a lot to cover and I won't be able to get to it all at once. But that's OK because you won't have much success if you try to learn everything all at once anyway. This will be a learning process. That means that you will not learn everything you need to learn overnight. It will take some time and some patience.

You will be able to order the tools that you need for your home studio here via EBay which is a great place to find all kinds of audio equipment. You can often get great deals on used equipment there but you can also find new unopened audio equipment as well.

Another choice for buying home recording gear online is GuitarCenter.com, they have free shipping on orders over $99 and you can make your order online 24/7/365.