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I installed my new Echo Audiofire 4 firewire based audio interface last night on my Windows 7 desktop and at first I ran into some issues.

The big issue is that I couldn't get any playback. My computer recognized the driver and apparently installed it correctly and when I opened REAPER it seemed to be "seeing" the input while recording - but there was no playback. From there it got worse and on repeat attempts to get it to work it would even say "error starting device."

I spent about two hours pulling my hair out and trying to get it to work. I tried all of the different audio related settings I could find, reinstalled the driver a few times, tried a different firewire connection, restarted the Echo Audiofire 4 and my computer multiple times.

I was extremely frustrated at this point and close to giving up when I found this support FAQ on Echo's website.

The very first one starts off saying: "For those having issues in Windows 7 with FireWire devices, try rolling back to the legacy FireWire drivers."

I'm thinking: Well that's me. Maybe this is what I need to do.

I followed these directions:

Open the Device Manager.

Expand "IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers"

Select your IEEE 1394 (FireWire) controller

Click on the icon "Update Driver Software" at the top.

Select "Browse my computer for driver software"

Select "Let me pick..."

Select "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)"

Choose Next and it will install.

I think it worked right away. But I might have had to restart my computer first. I can't remember as it was about 4 AM last night.

But the point is: This worked; playback (and everything else) appears to be working fine now. And if you are having a similar experience you should probably try this first before driving yourself crazy like I did last night.

Today I drilled 9 holes into my wall looking for a stud to screw my new Ukulele String Swing. This is not unusual for me. I have always struggled to find studs! By the way: I'm not exactly the most "handy" dude around. Not my strong suit.

Anyway, to get to my point, I decided to search Google for any tips on how to find a stud without making thousands of holes in the wall first. I came across some stuff about an electronic stud finder which I wasn't too excited about because I had tried one of those in the past without any success but then I came across something I somehow had never heard of before and had never thought of before either: Using a magnet to find a stud.

The idea is that you run the magnet over the wall and when you run it over a nail you feel it tugging. Luckily I happened to have some little magnets that I bought a hardware store (I think they were like 50 cents each.) I tried it out with one of these and this technique worked like a charm. I was even able to get the magnet to stick to the wall!

Yes you have to rub it around the wall a bit before it picks up on a nail, but it didn't take me long at all. And it's definitely better than making a bunch of holes in the wall.

There are magnetic stud finders built specifically for this purpose and they probably work even better (being larger so it's easier to find the nails.) But my little cheap magnet worked fine for me and I plan on using it from now on whenever I need to find a stud.

Hopefully this post will help someone out there who has similarly driven themselves crazy (and driven a bunch of holes into the wall) looking for a stud.

After doing a ton of research (reading lots of reviews mostly) I've decided on the firewire/1394 based Echo Audiofire 4 Audio Interface to replace my E-MU 1616M which I had for about a year and half.

The E-MU1616M started causing random glitches & pops and I couldn't find anyway to stop them. During my search around the internet for a solution to this problem I found that it's a common issue. So I would probably not recommend it to you, although I was reasonably happy with it before the problem began.

I went with the Echo Audiofire 4 because of the universally good reviews that I found for it. Everyone raves about it's sound quality and its steady drivers. And it certainly didn't hurt at all that I found it on Amazon for just $260.

Because I do not record live drums I don't really need more than the 4 inputs this device has. But if you do want more than that you can go with the Echo Audiofire 12 (which as you may have sussed out has 12 inputs.)

In the end my final decision was between the RME Fireface 400 and the Echo. They both had similarly positive reviews, the big difference is that the Audiofire 4 is just $260 and the RME Fireface 400 is $1300. Considering that I even found some reviews saying that they actually prefer the Echo and that the general consensus seemed to be that they were at about the same level (although the RME probably had slightly more glowing reviews) it didn't seem reasonable to spend another $1000+ on the RME.

With that saved $1000 I could buy all kinds of great gear. Perhaps a new compressor to replace my broken FMR RNLA (I recently discovered it does not work anymore.) Perhaps I could upgrade my monitors? Maybe I could buy another great mic. And eventually I'm going to have to replace my PC, maybe I can save the money for that?

Once I get the Echo Audiofire 4 delivered I'll be updating the comments with my experiences with it. Hopefully it's as great as the reviews make it out to be. At this price it seems like a real steal.

No one would expect to pick up a guitar and play "Stairway to Heaven" well without first learning how to play guitar in general and also learning to play that song in particular.

Yet people do expect to be able to start singing a song well without ever training their voice in general or practicing singing that specific song. And when they can't do so they say "I can't sing!"

This doesn't really make any sense.

The human voice is an instrument too and it can only be used to the best of it's capability with practice. Yes, unlike a guitar, it's an instrument that you're born with - but it still requires practice to use properly.

No one should make the claim that they can't sing without first really training their voice and practicing hard (just as hard as you would expect to practice to learn how to play guitar or piano.)

To be clear; I'm not claiming that everyone has the same quality voice only that training/practice is required to get the most out of the voice that they have. To continue with the instrument analogy you can play "Stairway to Heaven" on a cheap $60 acoustic guitar or a $3000 Martin and of course there's going to be a sound quality difference between the two instruments. But far more important than the sound quality of the instrument is the skill of the player. And that skill is gained only through practice.

My big point is this: If you want to sing well, start practicing - stop expecting it to be some God given gift, it takes work! Check out some of the resources below to get started.

I should also mention that I think ear training is an important element with singing (and all parts of music, really.) It's much easier to hit the right note, if you know what the right note is!

The distance between your monitors is important when you're mixing. If they aren't the right distance apart you are likely to have problems getting your levels right.

If the monitors are too far apart then sounds panned to the sides will sound louder (and sounds in the center quieter) and conversely if the monitors are too close then the sound in the center will sound louder (and the sounds on the sides will sound quieter.)

For example if your monitors are spread far apart you are very likely to compensate for the lower volume of the sounds placed in the middle by raising their volume. This will create a mix that will not translate well.

So how do you find the right distance? With your ears! You can't see the right distance, you can only hear it.

You should play a mono song (being a huge Beatles fan I use Beatles songs from The Beatles in Mono Box Set) and then move the monitors closer together and farther apart listening from your listening position. Listen for a place where the song sounds like it's evenly spread across the distance of the speakers rather than bunched up in the middle (too close) or coming too much from the sides (too far apart.)

The reason you should use a mono song instead of a stereo song is that when you play back a stereo track there's too much information to deal with. You may hear a guitar on the right and a tambourine on the left, but that has to do with the specific stereo mix of that song, it doesn't tell you anything about your speaker placement.

I think the importance of having good sense of time as a musician cannot be overstated. You can play all the right notes, but if you don't play them with a good sense of timing/rhythm then it's not going to sound good.

A very simple (and very effective) thing to do to improve timing is to clap along with a metronome and attempt to make the click "disappear."

When the click disappears that means you are perfectly in time. If you can still hear the click through your clapping that means you are either rushing or too late. When I'm off it's usually because of rushing, and I think that's a more common problem.

What's great about this way of practicing your timing is that you get immediate feedback. If you hear the click you know you're not in time so you need to adjust (most likely you are rushing.)

If you do a short session like this everyday (five minutes is probably plenty) I think you will see marked improvement in your timing.

You will likely find it very difficult at first, but when you do start to make the metronome disappear it will be like a revelation!

You should try doing it all types of different tempos. And don't assume that faster is harder, really locking in at 40 BPM may be a tougher challenge.

I should also mention that at first you may think that you just need to clap louder, but that's not the case. If you can hear the click, it's not because your clapping isn't loud enough - it's because you are not perfectly in time.

***EDIT***

After not doing anything with this for awhile I've decided to try a different approach. I'm including all of the ascending intervals (with harmonic included) here. When I finish the descending intervals training, I'll add a link to that here too.

******

I'm working on a set of interval ear training practice thingies and I'll be putting them all right here (and on YouTube.) I'm starting with minor second and I'm going to be making my way all the way through to octave!

This is how they'll work:

1. Piano (NI Komplete VST) plays an ascending interval.

2. That interval is repeated but this time with vocals (singing the name of the interval.) The idea is to get the name of the interval associated with the sound of it. I think this is even more effective if you actually sing along with it too. I use Melodyne to make sure vocals are in tune (I wouldn't want to throw you off!)

3. Descending interval with vocals.

4. Harmonic (both notes played at once.) No vocals.

MINOR 2ND

A lot of beginners in the world of recording music don't really understand the importance of monitors. They may spend thousands of dollars on all kinds of gear and not even think about investing in some serious studio monitors. Or they may totally miss the point and spend a lot of money on something like this Bose system thinking that the idea with monitors is the same as with a stereo system you might buy for your living room.

It's not. It's a different concept entirely. It's not about wanting what you're mixing to sound "good," it's about wanting to accurately hear what you're mixing.

A good example of what I mean is the way a fancy "hifi" stereo makes the bass boom. This may sound great to your ears, but if the system is making all of the bass boom regardless of what it actually sounds like then this means you don't really know what's going on in the low end of your mix. It may sound good but it is not an accurate representation.

And when your mix is played back on some other system it will sound completely different.

You don't want this. You want to hear what's happening in your mix as clearly as possible! This way you can make your mix sound as good as possible on any playback system. Whether it be those fancy Bose speakers or earbuds or tinny laptop speakers.

What about headphones? While good quality headphones (such as the Audio Technica M-50's I have and recommend) are a good investment and I do think it's good to check your mixes on headphones (I personally love listening to music on headphones and many people listen to music that way these days) it's not good to rely on them as your principle monitors.

Why not? Because they tend to exaggerate the actual sound. Something that may sound great on your headphones may actually sound not so hot when playing back on good quality monitors. Most obviously they exaggerate the effect of panning, but it's more than just that. More importantly they also exaggerate fletcher-munson effects.

You must make it a priority to invest in some decent monitors. I use KRK5's which I'm happy with. They are $300 for a pair. But this post isn't so much about recommending any particular set of monitors, it's just to get across the point of how important they are.

Also extremely important: The acoustics of your room. They really makes a huge difference when recording and when mixing because poor acoustics can distort what you're hearing (and what your mic is recording.) I recommend reading this book to learn about the topic (it includes very good information on how you can make your room sound better.)

It may be much more fun to buy various effects and plugins or whatever, but the accuracy of what you are listening to is far more important and it depends on the quality of the monitors you are listening to and the acoustic design of your studio. If you want to get serious about the sound quality of your recordings you need to get serious about hearing what you are mixing as accurately as possible.

I've been creating some ear training posts/videos lately (and I'm working on some more) but I haven't yet written a post dedicated to the EarMaster Pro Ear Training Software that I use everyday (or at least try to use everyday) and that I really strongly recommend to anyone who wants to improve their ear.

It helps you learn intervals (ascending, descending, and harmonic), how to identify chords, and how to correctly tap out different rhythms.

I've been using it for awhile now and what's great about it is that you can really keep on using it forever because it gets more and more complex so you can keep on improving your ear until the point where you really have superhuman hearing (I'm not there yet, unfortunately.) And because of the way the program works, there's no chance of you "memorizing" the answers (because the questions are randomized.)

It starts off simply enough where even someone who has a very poor ear will probably be able to get past the early tests but then it gets progressively harder over time so that it continues to be a challenge (and a challenge is what you need to improve, that goes for ear training and every other kind of training really.)

Another thing I really like about it is how I don't have to think that my ear must be getting better, I know it is because I'm now able to pass tests that I couldn't pass before.

This isn't to say I rely on the software entirely for my ear training. I do make these videos for my own use as well as for others. I think there are certain tricks we can use to advance our ears more quickly. Ways to "unlock" our ears faster. I'm trying to find those tricks and share them with these videos.

For example associating certain intervals with certain songs: an ascending perfect fourth sounds like "Here Comes The Bride" and an ascending tritone sounds like the theme to "The Simpsons."

Anyway, I do strongly recommend the EarMaster Pro Ear Training Software. I think it's definitely worth the $50 price tag.

I'm only about a third of the way through reading Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison but I'm already sure it's worth it's purchase price because it's really opened up my mind as far as how to approach writing lyrics.

It's given me a sort of framework that I believe I can use to write lyrics that are both meaningful (to me and to others) and that work in a song (this is important, poems are not lyrics - we always have to remember that lyrics are to be sung.)

... And The Rant Begins ...

Too often I think people have this crazy idea that should just know how to do something. That real talent comes "naturally." That's such bullshit. Everyone who is good at anything has studied it in one way or another. This attitude gives people an easy excuse to quit.

"Oh, my lyrics aren't as good as Bob Dylan's on my first try, I might as well give up."

"My music sounds like crap compared to Mozart, I'm done with this."

If you really want to do something, you have to put in the time to learn how to do it. And it's not all just about "being creative." Creativity doesn't mean that much without having some clue about what you're doing. Not to say that you have to be a total expert of all things music theory to make great music, I don't think that's true. But knowing some technical stuff definitely helps.

And even if someone doesn't know the names for something, that doesn't mean that they don't know it on another level. For example people often make a big deal about Lennon & McCartney not knowing how to read music and not knowing technical music theory stuff. Sure, that's true. But they definitely knew a ton about how to construct great songs from their many years learning how to play hundreds of other people's songs before they wrote their first hit.

And while I think it's true that creativity without some clue as to what you're doing doesn't mean much, I also think it's true that knowing the technical stuff on it's own doesn't mean anything either. You have to have the spark of creativity too to make something that's truly special. That's the thing, you can't have just one or the other. You need to learn how to do something, and then you've got the ability to let your creativity take over (if you've got any.)

I know this has turned into a bit of a rant, and it echoes some of the ideas from an earlier rant "What People Call Talent..." but I really think it's important. So many people have this crazy idea that if they aren't born knowing how to do something that they shouldn't bother. Nobody is born knowing how to do anything. Nobody.

"People make a great mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to compositions as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.