The song from video bellow is called “The Dress Looks Nice on You” (Nataly ;)) from Seven Swans album (2004). Simple but effective arrangements send shiver down my spine. I think live performance is better than the album one. Enjoy.

First single “Under The Sheets” released in November 2009 I regarded to be the perfect, well structured song. Obviously I became curious about more songs from young and talented Ellie Goulding. The question was if she could proudly stand besides her strong predecessors Adele and Florence And The Machine. Although this is like mixing pears with apples as we Slovaks say – soully-jazzy Adele, indie Florence and synthpop Ellie.

But let’s have a look at my thought about album’s tracklist:

1. “Guns And Horses” – one of the best songs on the album, probably the most acoustical with cheeky sang finish
2. “Starry Eyed” – good current hit, a dancesong
3. “This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)” – very beautiful piece, great work with thick analog synth sounds, especially the bass one is really amazing, cool chorus, certainly my best song on the CD
4. “Under The Sheets” – Ellie’s first hit with interesting intro, super rhythm, bass and filling riffs, funky mood,  chorus makes me feel like on carousel, just don’t know if it’s the world that’s spinning or myself, tastily chosen raising arpeggios
5. “The Writer” – a bit too sweet pop for me but nice chorus
6. “Every Time You Go” – not bad, although one of weakest songs on the album
7. “Wish I Stayed” – totally catching song, Ellie’s got interesting “shivering” voice, energetic chorus and great song atmosphere
8. “Your Biggest Mistake” – electro pop, quite popular these days thanks to La Roux, though this is a softer one
9. “I’ll Hold My Breath” – 80′s? A bit of Wham!-style chorus. Sweet but a bit strange to hear in 2010 ;)
10. “Salt Skin” – I almost sang “bulleeeetprooof” at the beginning…

All and all, vibrant modern album with some of the songs I wouldn’t listen to, not knowing it’s from Ellie Goulding. Intelligent, not artificial music (as there’s a lot of such music in this style), definitely something fresh worth of listening.

If you’ve yet to upgrade to the full version of Toontrack’s EZdrummer, now’s the time to do it with this special 20% discount offer exclusively from Time+Space for CM EZdrummer Lite users…

Sounds really good, doesn’t it? 5 minutes of counting a budget and I found myself replying to the email. Two days later filling in the order form and the day before yesterday receiving upgrade DVD.

All together, €9 for mag with EZdrummer Lite, £46.20 for upgrade and £11 for delivery. Roughly €63 (+ €12.50 delivery) for full version of EZdrummer worth €119 – HALF THE ORIGINAL PRICE!

You still have time until 31st January 2010 to get yours!

Read also When I want something, I do stupid things.

Electric guitars

Aria STG-004
My second very own electric guitar. (Actually probably the first real one as before I had bought some kind of Russian guitar (or whatever it was) for €17.) I bought this sunburst Fat Strat-like on Christmas 2002 after my third salary for around €170 as far as I remember.
I like it very much, mainly because it was my trusty companion during countless hours of exercising. The cheap price shows off these days, though, as electronics are a bit rusty already, doesn’t sound good, but that can be caused by not playing it for 3 years since I’m in Ireland.

Ibanez Artcore AK95
I’ve always dreamed of jazz guitar in style of Gibson hollow body ones. The prices were too high for me before Ibanez released Artcore series. And because I was working as translator of manuals for musical instruments, I got even a discount when buying it for €400 in 2005.
Pickups on this beauty are not as good as I would wish for, they sound quite muddy, but how the guitar feels in hands is incredible. I love to play AK95 very much and miss it here.

Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom
Squier’s vintage Fender Telecaster Custom 1972 copy is flawless to me. My first music gear I’ve bought from on-line store for just €215, but haven’t regretted for a sec.
This blackie stays with me in rainy green Ireland and I’m using it for most of my recordings. It both feels and sounds very good.

Acoustic guitars

Cort Earth (don’t remember exact model)
Cheap first steel string acoustic I bought again with discount in 2006 for €150.
I liked the sound although left hand is pretty crippled moving on table-leg neck… Still have this guitar, but considering selling it away.

Vintage V300
Bought in one music shop in Cork for 150 and am so satisfied with it, I can’t even tell. Beautiful Martin-like shape, great playability and very good sound.
Well, this guitar was voted for the best acoustic guitar under £1000 by Guitar Magazine. When you’re buying a new budget acoustic, definitely give this piece a try.

Bass

Harley Benton Hot Rod Bass
The newest member of my guitar family. Surely, bought from Thomann.de internet store for €109 (incredible, isn’t it?). My first bass so I need to practice more (although I left it at home…).
Sounds pretty good, looks pretty good and definitely the right choice for beginner.

Effects units

Zoom GFX-8
Hm, pretty robust multi-effects pedal for the beginner. At the time I bought Zoom GFX-8, it cost me 4 month savings to pay €540 for it. Madness at the time, I have to say.
Nevertheless it helped me to understand a lot from mysterious guitar effects world and I was able to produce a few of my best sounds. But as time goes by, the usable sounds reduced really just to a few and I’d say in today’s market it is almost priceless piece of 2000′s electronics. I’ve got it since 2003 and didn’t take it to my current living place as it is not that portable…

Zoom G2.1u
When I needed something more portable I had to look around again. Electric guitar is nothing when you have no amp. You need at least some effect pedal to produce the sound, and in Ireland when buying my Squier Tele, I invested also to this small effects box. Again Zoom, again sounds are not astonishingly good, but this one is actually better than GFX-8 (at least in terms of sound quality).
Well, it’s new generation, so it has to be. Big advantage is USB connection to a computer. I used it for many of my earlier recordings as external audio interface. But be aware that original ASIO drivers are pretty shit, I had much better results using free ASIO4ALL driver.

Line6 Studio UX2
Love this unit although it caused me some headaches too. Versatile USB audio interface, first from Studio line with phantom power for condenser mics. Ships with Line6 POD Farm modeling plug-in which is great (except you can’t use multiple effects from one category, so no 2 delay units in single effects chain for example).
My issues were caused by multiple crackles, but finally it was most likely problem of my laptop and after tweaking whole system, it works fine for me now (although previous Zoom haven’t had that problems…). Price €185 in February 2009.

Amplifier

Behringer Vintager AC112
For me this was beautiful hybrid (solid-state power amp with one tube in pre-amp) with built in multi-effects processor costing me €370. Still is my only combo. Half-open back with 12″ Jensen speaker, 60W. I was happy when I bought it, but as you can expect, doesn’t sound pretty right to me now.
Well, unless you don’t play something else, or better, some real classic for at least couple of days, you can’t tell good from bad… These days I’m using Line6 POD Farm plug-in which sounds way much better, but, I have to turn the computer on for it. Surely I left Vintager back home.

Percussion

Tambourine, bongas and shaker
Need to say anything about? Maybe prices: tenner for tambourine, 19 for bongas and caster filled with rice as shaker.

Microphones

The T.Bone SC450 USB
My first mic. I thought it would be great to have condenser one and especially with USB connection. That way I didn’t have to buy audio interface with phantom power and throw away more money. Mistake.
This mic is good for spoken word, podcasting and similar considering USB connection. Otherwise if you buy normal version you did well. In price of €99 you will be surprised with sound. I’ve recorded a song for my girlfriend with it, used on acoustic guitars and vocals and recordings sounds pretty good. But if you want better quality, you need to pay more, and I needed to pay also for new audio card.

SE Electronics SE2200A
Far more than great replacement for T.Bone and, of course, higher investment too. They say this mic is a new classic. I bought it for very good price of €179 and am completely satisfied.
It’s quite heavy so you need sturdy stand for it and not really good for traveling due to a big case. But sound is brilliant! Actually you can hear it on my videos (although I’m not recording the speaking word the same way I record vocals so noise level and therefor overall quality is very different). All in all, go and buy one! The best condenser microphone for the money. But I still need dynamic one and considering Sure Beta 58.

Keyboard

M-Audio O2 (KeyRig 25)
I wanted small portable keyboard and with M-Audio KeyRig 25 I got O2 25-key keyboard and KeyRig software. I haven’t tried it before buying but would recommend doing so. It really is small, but still a bit wider than M-Audio Oxygen 8 and that fact make it difficult to fit into my special backpack. Also modulation and pitch bend buttons are mistake. The wheels are simply the best for this functionality.
Low action keyboard needs some time to get used to but still I am not able to control dynamics the way as on standard size keys. I would buy something else these days although the price of this package is superb in €88.

Laptop

Dell Studio 1737
It would be long story about this Dell laptop… It looks incredibly good though but it is not worth of the name. Completely not suitable for recording purposes. The only good thing about it besides the design is ability to install second harddrive, which I’ve surely used. I’m trying to tweak it somehow and constantly make it better, but it I haven’t bought it for this reason originally.
Considering rising the speed to maximum with buying a SSD drive although still this laptop will be hell loud as fan is spinning constantly under Windows Vista. Price was €500 in April 2009 but by now it costs me around 150 – 200 more… Rather have a look at something else for recording.

DAW software

Cakewalk Sonar
For Windows platform it is definitely the most complete and the most powerful Digital Audio Workstation software that you can get.
In comparison to competition, even price is not that catastrophic – from €270. My choice number one for how recording software should look like!

Headphones

Behringer HPS5000
Big mistake, and I think these headphones have something to do with my ear problem now. Always try headphones before buying them. If not due to sound (as I found these Behringer phones sounding pretty good) then definitely due to comfort of listening!
Ear covers doesn’t have movable hanged so you would have to have very narrow head for HPS5000 to cover your whole ears. In my case these headphones pushes quite hard on top of my ear while there is a space at the bottom… Never again! Even for the price of €35.

I almost have no space to store all those things, but am sure some new stuff will be added…

For a long long time I have known about audio latency (which can be resolved to some extent by ASIO drivers) but a couple of months ago I happened to read something about DPC latency. I didn’t pay attention that much at the time, thinking it was not my problem, although the article reminded me fighting with Line6 UX2 and POD Farm and repeated crackles I heard when playing the guitar. Then Dell released a new BIOS upgrade for my laptop with description “1. Added Win7 support. 2. Fixed DPC Latency”. What? No way! Well, yes way…

What DPC latency is?

DPC stands for Deferred Procedure Call meaning that different hardware drivers on your computer request processing power of computer’s CPU (processor) to deal with particular tasks. CPU then reserves a certain amount of power for these tasks leaving fewer resources to process your recordings. Resulting in crackles, dropouts and glitches in the sound.

Of course not every aforementioned sound problem is caused by DPC. You can experience the same also when you set the buffer size of ASIO driver too low or use too many effects plug-ins or tracks in the project. So be careful and check those first before you blame DPC latency which usually causes sound issues repeating every so often.

DPC latency can affect all computers regardless of how powerful machines they are. Most vulnerable are laptop computers because DPC is mainly related to wireless cards and battery management. And, of course, we are talking mostly about PC platform as Apple guys have – again – much better situation…

DPC diagnosis

But how can you find out for sure that you have DPC problems? Thankfully there is a little program called DPC Latency Checker by SysInternals that you can run without installation. Than just wait for good news in form of green (or occasional yellow) bars or bad ones of red bars.

DPC Latency Checker

Surely, the lower and more consistent flow of the bars the better performance of your system. If the graph displays bars going to red area (more than 2000μs) regularly, then your system is highly prone to audio dropouts.

Cure

The first step you can take when trying to resolve the DPC latency problem is to update all drivers and also BIOS in your computer.

Secondly, make sure you are not overloading your DAW software and your computer with tons of tracks, virtual instruments and plug-ins. Freeze some of the tracks and try to rise the ASIO buffer to acceptable level (during mastering, mixing or any post-recording processing you don’t need as low buffer settings as during recording).

If this hasn’t resolved your audio dropouts problems, third thing you can try is turning off Windows Aero if you are on Vista or Windows 7, set up Sleep mode to “Never”, turn off screen saver, disconnect from network, disable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

If that doesn’t resolve the issue, you can also try disabling hardware devices and checking the result. Run Device Manager (can be found in Control Panel) and try to disable (in right click menu) just one device at the time and check for change in DPC Latency Checker graph. However, don’t turn off all of the devices! Hardware that you should try to switch off are: wireless (WLAN) cards, built-in soundcard (if you are also using external, more professional device), some USB and FireWire devices. If there is no change in latency graph, re-enable the device.

The last solution I heard about is very risky and rather extreme as it suggests disabling Windows’ system driver ACPI.sys. This driver, among other functions, takes care about power management on laptop computers. I haven’t tried to disable it and would recommend to do so just at your own risk as it may take out some other Windows vital functionality. Generally it is easier to disable ACPI.sys on Windows XP machine than on more recent Windows versions.

Final advice

My last words about this issue would be “better do deep research on the computer before buying it than trying to resolve DPC latency problem after you spent the money“. Check many different resources, like manufacturer’s or other forums. Don’t trust the fancy names like “Studio” as most of these laptops are not suitable for music production (oh dear, I wish I knew about DPC earlier – I own Dell Studio laptop…). And read my website to be aware of similar issues!

Wish you all good nerves and a lot of luck fighting DPC and other latencies! ;)

Singer is newborn Jim Morrison-meets-Ian Curtis!!! No kidding, have a listen! I needed to check the band’s bio whether they are really Slovaks… impossible yet so true. I’m very pround now :) The best Slovak band so far! Sorry for talking nonesense most of the time this late hour but what a thing coming to my ears…

It seems to me that Lavagance hadn’t disappointed. Probably all new great Slovak indie bands are produced by Lavagance’s singer Marek Rakovický or at least have something else in common with him.

Welcome to new era of Slovak music! :) Oh, “I’m so happy, happy so…”

Don’t forget to visit Plastic Swans’ space.

Plastic Swans live

I will be back soon again I guess ;)

Here is the link: myspace.com/talkshowmusic. Song “3” is really great! I guess we will hear about these guys again. The same I thought about Lavagance when I was leaving Slovakia and I was not wrong…

I didn’t expect that much considering the strange name reminding me some American punk bands. But was amazed about the guys when I saw some videos on YouTube. Unbelievable simple, almost 1960′s sound, great great songs influenced heavily with classical music! The Beatles rang at the back of my mind when listening to some songs…

This young band of four boys from New York released their first album “Vampire Weekend” early in 2008. Unfortunately I couldn’t buy it in Ireland these days (or I didn’t try that hard) but finally get it on the net. Immediately I was in mood of grabbing a guitar and playing along. Songs like “Oxford Comma” and “M79″ jumped high enough to become one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.

Inspiring fact for me is that guys recorded their first album mostly on their own in basement and barn as they say ;)

Everybody who loves fresh good indie music should check this band out, you won’t regret. Ezra Koenig (vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboards),  Chris Baio (bass) and Chris Tomson (drums) can be found on VampireWeekend.com.