Ted Cohen Goes The Extra Mile for PureSolo at Midem

This man is a legend..

Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, you’re looking like a fool with your pants on the ground!

And the most played track of the DECADE is….Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars

Despite only making it to number six in the UK singles chart when it was released in 2006, the song has maintained its popularity over the last three years and now claims the coveted title of most played track of the decade according to music licensing body PPL.

Read the full article on BBC News here.

How to get the best from your PureSolo recordings

We contacted renowned sound engineer, James Collins, to see if he had any mixing tips he would be willing to share with our PureSolo users. Read on for James’ advice to ensure you’re getting the best from your recordings:

So you’ve selected your favourite Karaoke track from the vast library of downloads available…..you’ve put on your best clothes, combed your hair and done some la la las into the bathroom mirror.

It’s showtime…you tense up…no one is listening…you hit record, start to sing and the magic is happening…….you get to the end and give yourself a bow to the imaginary audience. Coming back to the real world you press the save button and on the next screen you give the take a title and add some reverb to taste…must use the Concert Hall because that sounds expensive…and maybe just turn yourself up a bit more as you sang it soooo well? You save the track and burn yourself a CD to listen to in the car on the way to work later…..

Some time later…

Hmmm……hang on, whats happened? That doesn’t sound so good in the car…all you can hear is your vocal and no backing track…and where did all that reverb come from? sounds like you’re in the Grand Canyon!!!!!

D’oh!

Ok…here are some tips for you to help you get the most from your recordings using PureSolo. Not just for vocal, but for instruments too.

Approach

You’ve probably chosen a piece of music you know very well as you can be confident singing/playing over it. That’s great, but remember that doesn’t mean you need to play or sing extra loud over the top of it when you record. Most studio recordings are thrown out if the approach isn’t sympathetic to the backing track, so try and think of how the original track sounded that you know and love. Was the original artist shouting the vocal or singing nicely? Stand up if you can while you perform, a straight back and lungs with maximum air in will help you breathe more easily which will help your performance.
Recording

The next thing to think about is the distance you are performing from the microphone. If you’re too close to your laptop mic, turning down the “mic” slider on PureSolo’s recorder will not stop the microphone overloading, it’ll just make your distortion quieter. If you’re too far away from the microphone, you’ll have to sing unnecessarily loud or turn up the “mic” slider on PureSolo’s recorder. The result of which is that you will also turn up the sound of the washing machine in the background. If you have an external mic plugged into your computer, it should be between 3 to 8 inches away from your mouth/instrument. Once you’re comfortable with your distance from the microphone, then adjust the “mic” slider so that the level meter is just below red when it’s the loudest part of your performance. Experiment, do 2 or 3 takes to get this bit right, then you are ready to make the most of the recording.
Mixing

When you’re mixing your track it can be tempting to want to hear yourself much prouder than the track – but in reality this isn’t how studio recordings are mixed. Ideally you should be able to hear all your words/notes and the backing track equally well and a good gauge on this is to play your mix back with the computer speakers turned down so you can just about hear the vocal. If, at this lower volume, you can hear voice but no backing then the voice is probably too loud. On the other hand if you can hear a lot of backing track but are missing some of your beautifully recorded words/notes, then you can turn yourself up a bit. Most mixing engineers will check the mixes they do in this fashion at some point just to check your relative level against the backing track is correct.

Reverb

PureSolo allows you to add reverb to your mixes just like the professionals do. Again, overuse of reverb is a common mistake! Certainly with instrumental recording it’s easier and more common to use longer reverbs like the Concert Hall or Club. But, with vocal tracks, shorter reverbs work better for most genres like rock, pop and jazz, so try the Studio or Small Room settings. There are exceptions of course, if you are singing over a classical track then a longer reverb will fit your voice better and help you blend into the track, if it’s a Hip Hop track then using no reverb is often the best thing to do – just like your idols practice. Reverb is all about blending, it’s available to use so you don’t sound like a cardboard cutout on top of a backing track that will itself have been mixed with varying amounts of reverb.

Remember, we are not using tape in an expensive studio where to sing another take you may have to erase an older one. This is you, on your computer, in your own time. Try different takes, try different settings, make yourself sound the best you can and you can and be proud to email/burn/upload your tracks to the whole world using PureSolo.

Have fun!

About James Collins:

James Collins is an experienced music recording and mixing engineer having spent nearly 20 years honing his craft. If you are interested in his credits visit http://www.jcmusic.co.uk

UK’s very first chart-topper, Al Martino dies

Al Martino, the man who had the UK’s first ever number one record with his song Here in My Heart, has died at the age of 82.

The song stayed at the top of the charts for nine weeks – a record which few have managed to beat since November 1952, when NME launched their chart.

Al Martino is equally famous for his role as Johnny Fontane in the 1972 iconic film, The Godfather, in which he also sang the opening credits. However, the success of his music, with hits such as Spanish Eyes and Volare, ensures that he will be best remembered for his music.

You’ve heard the rumours…

…and they’re true!

We’re the ones powering The X Factor Karaoke service which officially launched today.

Come and meet Johnny at the British Music Exhibition tonight!

The London O2 is currently hosting The British Music Experience and our resident musician Johnny Thirkell is due to appear there tonight, delivering PureSolo masterclasses to groups of students interested in the music industry. John will also be sharing his own wealth of industry knowledge, accumulated after several years of touring and recording with some of the world’s most successful recording artists.

The British Music Experience allows its visitors to virtually experience some of music’s most defining moments in recent history, and there are many iconic items of British music memorabilia featured there, including David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes clown suit and Ziggy Stardust costume, Noel Gallagher’s Union Jack guitar, Roger Daltrey’s Woodstock outfit and a vintage Amy Winehouse dress.

The Gibson Interactive Studio lets you hone your skills on guitar, bass, drums and vocals while your ability to dance like a pro is tested in Dance the Decades.

If you’re planning on attending tonight make sure to come and introduce yourself to Johnny and get one of his special PureSolo demonstrations…

See you there.

I want to live forever….

The much publicised remake of Fame is coming to our cinema screens any day now, check out the trailer here:

What do you think? Let us know.

ETA: The Fame title track is on its way to the PureSolo karaoke store any day now.

Soundsurf Tour 09 – Education Through Live Music

We’re really excited to have joined UK Music, Gibson Guitar, Hard Rock Café & The British Music Experience as a key sponser of the 2009 Soundsurf Tour, a new music initiative which aims to promote the positive use of the internet for music development.

Between 14th – 17th September the Soundsurf ‘09 Tour will travel to four UK regions aboard the exclusive Gibson Guitar Tour Bus, visiting schools by day and partying at the Hard Rock Café by night with some of the best emerging talent in the UK providing the evening’s entertainment.

Each event includes creative lyric writing workshops and music business clinics, giving kids the opportunity to learn about the music industry and try their hand at re-writing the lyrics and melody to published well-known songs in order to effectively learn about copyright.

We are also launching a competition alongside this event to win a Gibson Les Paul guitar as well as other prizes. To enter, you need to re-write the lyrics to Natasha Bedingfield’s hit song “These Words”. Then go to www.PureSolo.com/soundsurf09, to enter.

Be creative and make the song your own. The winners will be chosen by key industry figures and they’ll be looking for originality and a real flair for writing, as well as a memorable hook. Good luck!

SoundSurf 2009 Tour Dates

Monday September 14th – Folkestone – Where and When
MORNING – UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOLKESTONE IS HOSTING THE EVENT WITH STUDENTS ATTENDING FROM A SELECTION OF SEVERAL KENT SCHOOLS
EVENING – QUARTERHOUSE @ UCF, FOLKESTONE

Tuesday September 15th – London – Where and when
MORNING – NOWER HILL SCHOOL IN HARROW
EVENING – HARD ROCK CAFE LONDON

Wednesday September 16th – Cardiff – Where and when
MORNING – CANTONIAN HIGH SCHOOL
EVENING – HARD ROCK CAFE CARDIFF

Thursday September 17th – Manchester – Where and when
MORNING – MANCHESTER COLLEGE HOSTING STUDENTS FROM SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
EVENING – HARD ROCK CAFE MANCHESTER

PureSolo has evolved! Get it now…

Firstly, we’re very sorry for being a bit quiet on the blog front recently, but it’s all been for good reason! Our tech guys have been working non-stop to bring you a completely new version of our site and software.

“Why?” I hear you cry…

We realised quickly, that while our users loved our software, they wanted to be able to use it with their web browser rather than having to download it as an application- and the more we thought about it, the more we realised it was the right thing to do.

So, off we went to do the mountains of hard work required to make it a reality, and, after weeks of our dedicated tech team working non-stop, it’s finally complete.

Some of the new features include:

• Re-designed music stores
• Download and record tracks directly on the PureSolo website
• Brand new dedicated Guitar Tab/Guitar Backing Tracks store with new content added weekly
• New and improved social network, with featured member recordings on the PureSolo homepage

Coming soon:

• New artist pages
• Shop by artist in the Music Stores

Please go and check the site out for yourself. If you already have a PureSolo account, all you need to do is sign in with your existing log in details – all your songs and recordings will be waiting for you. The only extra step is installing the plug in software to your web browser so that you can use the recording functionality, and we strongly recommend switching to Firefox if you’re not already using it as your preferred web browser – you can download it here.

We look forward to hearing what you all think of the new-look PureSolo.