What’s this website all about?

Good question and I’m glad you asked. It’s like this:

I love the fact that you can make studio quality recordings from home these days. Back in the day, that was a totally unattainable fantasy, unless you had a million or so dollars to drop on building a big, fat, real McCoy studio.

In my late teens I spent $1100 on a Tascam 4-Track recorder and, my god, I loved that thing. It was limited as hell and didn’t sound very good, but there I was, my music playing on my stereo. Suddenly, I could lie in bed, listening to my own guitar playing. I could play my tunes for my friends and watch as they felt awkward and tried to change the subject. I was hooked.  

I was even more excited when recording software started to go digital and prices started coming down. Finally, I’d be able to get crisp digital recordings, just like on my CDs, and I’d only have to spend a few thousand dollars, right?   

Well no, not really.

I tried expensive music production software and was often surprised at how difficult it was to use, how limited it was, and, of course, how expensive. I mean I’d just shelled out good money for a DAW, so why did my recordings still sound so rough? Just how much would I have to spend to get that polished, professional, ‘finished’ sound I was looking for?

Then one day I downloaded Reaper and the whole world changed.

Here was a digital recording workstation that was just as good, if not better, than the big players in the market (you know the ones I’m talking about!) and it was mine! I was enjoying a flexible, unlimited trial period, and the whole thing could be mine, outright, for just a couple of bucks. Suddenly, the idea of spending a thousand dollars on recording software just seemed ludicrous.

And that got me thinking: “What else is out there?”

As it turns out, a lot! So I started collecting free music software plugins—amps, cabinets, EQs, drum machines—anything I could get my hands on, and as I did, my own recordings started sounding better and better.

Finally I thought: “I can’t be the only one out there who cares about this stuff. Why not share all this with the interwebs?”

And here we are.

I hope you enjoy your time here, and I hope you find cool things that inspire and improve your own recordings. Hopefully, you’ll be limited only by your imagination.

If you find something here that you like, tell your friends and spread the word. Because the more we share, the better the music gets, right? Share the love and at the end of the day, we’ll all be better off for it.

Enjoy.

Kafka Springtime