Saturday, October 20, 2007

Third Sound Generator

Is officially out to CD Baby. Links to purchase, :

http://cdbaby.com/cd/tafaro

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Music..............

Well Wicked Society, the band my brother is in, is starting to get on a roll and put a few gigs together. I mixed and mastered their "demo" CD, which is still a work in progress and I hope to get more music soon. Check them out here are their dates so far:

09/15/2007 08:00 PM - molly blooms
140 merrickrd. amityville harbor, long island, New York - n/a

last minute show thanks patty dt!!!!!!

09/22/2007 01:00 PM - mainstage
222 wanaque ave pomtion lakes, pomtion lakes, New Jersey - n/a


10/11/2007 08:00 PM - dingbatz
van houton ave, clifton, New Jersey - n/a


11/16/2007 08:00 PM - dingbatz
van houton ave, clifton, New Jersey - n/a

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Pre Production

This week I begin pre-post production on my next project. Using both Elad Fish and David Berry.
Soon, very soon.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Professional Wrestling

While I do do other things than music, and my day job prevents certain opinions from being posted at all. Without it none of this would be possible, so I respect it, and will comment on what I can when I can.

Firstly from my research and personal experience, Professional Wrestling more than any other sport is a tough field regardless of the physicality it entails. It is basically a "gypsy" lifestyle where an athlete travels from show to show hundreds of days out of the year, hoping to become the "brand of the moment", or just scraping by to be discovered.

As adults, or as a lot of talent, get involved in Pro Wrestling in their teens, it may need better oversight from it's employer the "WWE". Mabey WWE needs to invest into it's product a little more on the "lifestyle" kind of things, evaluate the total person, from the cradle to the end of their carreers. As the talent gets higher up in the scheme of things, check them psychologicially, socially etc. The Lifestyle the culture, breeds the Benoit's of the wrestling world.

And yeah there are those folks who can handle the travel and workschedule, use the enhancing substances and because they eat right and do healthy things, don't wind up a whack-job. I think it's more than "time" for Vince and the WWE to begin to slow down the meat-market industry and really begin caring and putting in programs to edjucate and teach the young talent how to live right. If you start grooming kids in their teens to bring you millions down the road, you have a responsibility, to make sure these kids don't continue to become the dark side of the industry.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

What I am up to........

I have had to switch gears and put my recording project on hold for now. I have a window of a few months during the year to release something. I have learned so much more in the past 6 months about the digital domain. I have been doing post production audio for 10 years, starting with video production. This lit the fire. There is more to come, we switch gears now, and I wait to come across some more work. Learning more along the way. I love working in audio!!

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The curve, the learning curve........

A nifty program, Cockos Reaper. google it!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Weighing in on Don Imus.....

What every form of media medium fails to address in the Don Imus situation, is again the obvious. Rap music and the hip hop culture which morphed from the 1970's "Jive speak" and " blacksploitation" cultures and vernacular, prominently expouse the common terms of " Ho" " My Nigga" and the modern day inner city gangster terms and lifestyle. Why doesn't the media at large get to the source of the vernacular, and folks like Al Sharpton, go after the Music industry that feeds the negative connotations and culture that spawn the Don Imus events.

Don Imus, in my view was trying to be hip, by using inflammitory words that are used commonly in the "New Age" Hip-Hop culture. Trying to be Hip and cool, this is what got him in hot water. And it is absolute silliness to attack phraseology which your own culture idolizes and promotes. If Don Imus, or myself even can't say these terms, than no one should. Thats whats fair.

All I have to say on this.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

changes...updates......something new

Due to an expected update of some of the softwares used, things have slowed. We are still awaiting updates to the Liquid Mix software, it's coming early April, it's not here yet. It has to be checked out, just in case it is a vast improvement. Added Helios 69 EQ to our UAD-1 arsenal for mastering. More to come soon.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Steadily Moving

The Funny part about doing it yourself is, as you learn something new, things change and the music changes Graduated to mixing and mastering with my KRK studio monitors. I found acceptable volume in my room, finally. So the songs are morphing beautifully. Sounding beautiful. Progress!!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

New Songs!!

Two Guitar Based Jazzy numbers are completed. Dave Berry handles the Drums, Bass and Guitar.

Another Fast Romance

Midday Winds

Enjoy!!!!

Monday, February 12, 2007

The DIY dilemma Some tips....

Being a MIDI artist where I have instrument parts created, and then I spent time tweaking the data to get as good results as I can. Here are some tips from over the years and countless forums:

1) Stay away from Creative audio products. There are big differences between "Pro-Sumer" and "Professional" audio cards. The 1820-M is using an outdated digidesign A/D converter. The quality of converters is a big deal and should be for the home recordist. Remember Pro-Tools hardware is up to Digi-003 now, they know how important their technology is towards keeping people buying "Pro-Tools" hardware. As a "starter-card" ok , but you will begin to wonder why, I don't sound like this, or that. This is an expensive hobby and profession, close to an even amount of your budget should go toward a "firewire / PCI / PCIe" based solution by top brands such as MOTU, RME, TC-Electronic , Lynx etc.

2) Midi music by itself is lifeless, sterile and just plain teriible. You should re-search the various message boards out there and TWEAK them files.

3) Hire session musicians to finish your songs. Most string instruments don't translate well with midi, drums are machine like, ( Tak, tak , takkey , tak ). Try these studios:

http://www.studio-aid.com
http://www.drumsforyou.com

I had made these mistakes, and I feel relieved helping others avoid them.

Sharing is caring

Recording and my whole process is flowing smoothly. Five songs featuring Dave Berry on Drums, Bass and Guitar. The process of protecting your "art" takes longer than the initial mixing and mastering. Registering copyrights and then registering with your Performance Rights Organization, I am a BMI affiliated writer.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

In between.......

When I am not working in my project studio, recently I began taking on some design ideas for this CD project. Working working working.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Who am I, and why am I here??

Hello and welcome to John Tafaro music blog. I am a state employee, of the wonderful Garden State. I am going to be ambiguous because where I am employed, I have hmm.. rules as to what I can say and about what I can say. So there will be no political tirade here I am sorry. But in a culture in which everybody desires to sue everyone for everything, all the time I guess these rules aren't so bad to a point. Welcome .

Welcome BB Friends

I would like to welcome my music friends from PG music boards. Enjoy the music here. Feel Free to comment. Suggestions are always greatly appreciated.

My little Sounding Board

Pictures are totally unimportant.
I am an independent artist who is planning his first release. First release per-say because what came before was not very good. Quite funny actually, with machine gun drums, rubber band bass guitar. Very frustrating . I was very new to midi programming, and the whole idea of what I was doing,I spent alot of money crawling with the "Sound-blaster" type cards, cheap outboard gear. And what I turned out was not up to par. I did everything though. DIY even now, I recorded, edited, mixed and mastered everything. Baby-Steps actually. well now I present to you the "Third Sound Generator" totally produced by myself through internet collaboration with Dave Berry on Bass Guitar and playing the Drums. Hopefully this blog allows you to stream and download!!

Unseen Love

An Exotic Dream

Talking about the Girls

Enjoy , More to Come!!