We often get asked about what we use and love. To the right you’ll find links to other sites we think you’ll find helpful and below are our tried and true favs.
Artist Tools
Tom Jackson is perhaps the greatest live music producer of our time. Not exaggerating. He helps detail the shows of artists like Taylor Swift and his workshops, bootcamps and DVD’s are some of the most effective materials indie and signed artists have access to. Tom can make virtually any artist look like a major label artist.
Website Tools
- WordPress WordPress is a type of website structure that is so successful, it’s used by The New York Times, and the majority of major companies out there. The software is free, all major hosts support it, and in my experience it offers by far the fastest way to build a great looking site that includes search engine optimization (SEO) and all the bells and whistles that search engines need to make your site more popular than your competition. Slight learning curve, but well worth it.
- Custom WordPress Themes After over a year of trying out free WordPress themes and having them crash my site or not offer me what I wanted, I decided to step up to the world of paid themes. I modified the ‘Lifestyle’ Theme for this site. It cost me less than $100 and took just a few hours to completely design the site from the ground and have it working perfectly. Other themes I purchased had me deeply confused with little results weeks into them! Studio Press has video tutorials, a very helpful forum and great support will have you customizing your theme in no time. A free theme may be all you need, but if it’s not, this is the place to go.
- BlueHost The best priced, most reliable web host I’ve ever worked with. Great support too! A web host is basically the home that stores your domain (www.you.com) and all of your website files. You can search for and register your domains at Blue Host too. I’ve seen cheaper prices elsewhere, but unless you want to mess with learning about how to transfer domains, etc. it’s probably worth it to get them here.
Graphics & Promotion
- iStockPhoto There are lots of great places to find quality graphics out there, but I like this one the best. I find they have the easiest search capabilities with the most accurate results and web resolution pix (for e-news letters or your website) only run like a buck a piece. Print resolution (for CD covers, etc.) are more, but the site is reliable and the selection is fabulous.
- iContact This is an e-newsletter program that will allow people to opt in to your mailing list and will help you manage several mailing lists (like ‘family’, ‘fans’, etc.). I’m pretty new to this one but I like it so far. It was a little cheaper than Constant Contact which I used to use. I think they’re both good. There’s a learning curve to really take advantage of what they offer so it’s best to stick with one and always keep backups!
In Our Studio
- Behringer UB1202 Mixer (12 Inputs) I really like this tiny mixer for live situations. Just add a mic, a powered speaker or two and plug in your ipod and you could be a one man (or chick) band
. But it also has enough inputs for a small band to do their thing. Compact, robust and (my favorite), cheap!
- Digidesign Mbox 2 This is a great introductory level recording hardware system. I have the original Mbox too and I could daisy chain them if I got really ambitious but since I don’t record several instruments at once, this is great. At under $500 it comes with Pro Tools software (make sure you get the latest version; you may find these cheaer but they’re usually bundling junk and old software)
There are much simpler (and cheaper) ways to record, but the industry standard is Pro Tools and (in my opinion) it always will be.
- M-Audio Pro Tools 8 I have been using Pro Tools since version 6 and I have to say version 8 is a huge leap in usability. I wish I had started with version 8! It comes with a great video tutorial that I think would help even a beginner start making great recordings relatively quickly.
Love it!
- Rode NT2A Vocal Condenser Microphone While I bought this mic because it’s great for voice overs, I really like the sound of it for vocals. It’s great at brightening the sound, which is especially good for vocals that have to cut through a lot of music, like pop. It allows for 3 simple but important little tweaks that can really help you fine tune your sound. Even if you don’t know what a high pass filter or polar pattern are, you can still play with the buttons until you get the best sound for your project.
- Electro-Voice RE20 Dynamic Cardioid Microphone This is an especially great mic for bringing out the deep booming end of your voice. All the radio guys I’ve worked with over the years use it and it brings out the ‘manly’ in my girlish voice, but I also dig it out to pump up the depth on up close and personal vocals like in jazz.
- Shure SM58 Vocal Microphone This one is the standard for live vocal mics, mainly because it has good sound and it’s fairly cheap. They take a beating which is a good thing too! There are also versions with an on-off switch if you like that kind of thing. Me, if I’ve got a mic, I want it on ALL the time!
- Monster Cables They’re pricey but for someone as cheap as me, I’ve gotta tell you I’ve never regretted shelling out the bucks for a Monster Cable. Especially if you travel with your gear at all, they will outperform and way outlast anything else every time.
