hello everyone. Welcome to the episode and today as rich alluded to there we're gonna be talking about overcoming obstacles in the studio. AKA appeasing the audio Mid technology gods that rule our lives in music recording and production. So Rich, thank you for starting off the episode with such a rousing plea to the gods. Uh, hopefully they
Well, you know what I gotta say I've angered them because now as we record, I. I know you hear me, but I can't hear anything in my headphones, at least on my end. I could hear you, normally you wanna be able to monitor yourself when you're talking into the mic here, and I can't hear myself. So I think I did myself in with that little stunt.
they're letting you know who's in charge. They're like, you know what? You can record your episode. You can record your little episode here, but we just wanna remind you who's in charge here. So we're gonna take the audio monitoring out of your headphones randomly. Good
Yes, yes.
times. But yeah we, this is something that you and I experience all the time and really anybody who does this kind of thing, recording music production they experience as well these seemingly random issues that pop up, whether related to, getting an audio signal or getting MIDI to work properly or, you name
you I'm sorry, I gotta interject here. I'm sorry. you're way too calm about this. Come on. Let me know how you really feel
I don't wanna anger them rich. I don't wanna anger them. Look, they've already made themselves, clear with removing audio from your headphones that, that they're, I. Listening, they're watching. So you know, we're, we wanna be respectful.
I'll try to temper my anger, but all of the late nights in the studio that I've spent where I'll have a project and there'll be one little issue that just randomly arises where outta nowhere. Something doesn't work and this precious time that you set aside to record and you're like, I'm gonna be productive. I feel so creative right
Yeah, I'm inspired.
You sit down and then suddenly it doesn't work. Something doesn't work, and then you spend the next two hours laboring to figure out the one thing. The one little button to click in a sub menu of a sub menu that randomly got turned off to be able to continue working. So this is, this episode is for you, that person who's lived through this, who feels this frustration, this episode is for you.
We feel your pain and your dedication to this craft and appeasing the gods of audio, omi and technology. So Rich, tell us about that. Let's start there. When you're in that studio situation where you're running into these problems, Where does that. Epic journey of troubleshooting begin.
After I've waved my fist at the heavens and I've thrown something across the room and I take off my glasses, but then I realize I shouldn't break these glasses like that would be just wrong. I start with some of the basics. So the mother of all troubleshooting advice. restart. That's my first thing I do. I just restart. I used to like sit there and like kind of sift through the menus and to try to figure it out. Ooh, I know what to do. I know where to go.
I'm gonna go click this and click that and click itty clickity clack.
So much clicking.
I just shut it down. I just shut it down and then when I restart it, I would say a very high what would you say the percentage of success is For the
I it's in the, it's in the double digits for sure. It's up there. So you restart the software is what you're saying? Like you quit like your DAW or something and restart it. Okay.
So my first is I go like, um. What is it? DEFCON five, they call it? I guess I go Defcon five. I restart logic. I'll talk from the perspective of logic here 'cause that's what I use, but, so I'll be like, oh, there's an issue. I have a problem. I'll restart logic first. I'll be like, this will do it. I do that. Then the issue persists, so then my next course of action is okay. Let me restart the hardware. So then I reboot the computer that's, or the, keyboard or the drum kit or whatever.
I I restart the hardware. So that's like the first line of defense against this kind of frustration. And then when that fails, what I do next then is I go and I start checking the physical connections. So are all the cables plugged into the right thing? Is anything loose? Are the MIDI cables secure? Are the USB cables secure? Are the audio cables secure? Is everything really connected? That's my next global kind of check.
Something you might even want to do every once in a while in your studio if you find you're having issues. that could be possibly cable related is sometimes I. Test your cables. There are devices you can buy that are built for that, that have a bunch of different connections in them where you could test your XLR cables for your microphones. You could test your quarter inch cables for your guitars, et cetera, et cetera.
Having an extra cable on hand that is like a very important cable, like sometimes a thunderbolt cable having an extra thunderbolt cable. Especially with the newer equipment on hand, it's sometimes not a bad thing. 'cause then you could kinda rule that out right
Yeah, really great advice and I actually had an experience where I didn't have a mid cable connected and I had this plugin I was trying to use with an older synthesizer that I have, and I fired up this plugin and it was working great, but then I went to use additional features on it that sent MIDI from the device to the computer and it just wouldn't work. And I was baffled. And I went so far as to do everything you said, restart the duh logic in my case and.
I even reached out to the software developer. It's it's just this guy who creates this plugin. So I sent him like screen recordings and was like pulling my hair out and I was like, why isn't this working? What am I doing wrong? And I told him like, I've got all the settings, how you said, to have him and everything. And then I just was like surely it couldn't be that I'm missing a connection. And I couldn't think of anything else.
And lo and behold, I crawl back behind my rack of gear, and I'm missing the MIDI output connection from this synthesizer. Into my daw. And so I made that connection and boom, it worked perfectly. And my, my setup's a little more complex and so there's just so many different wires and cables and stuff going on back there. But I had lost track of what was actually connected. So it is true, sometimes it is literally just the thing is not connected.
And as soon as I connected it everything fired up and worked perfectly and I fired back an email to that guy and I was like, Hey, false alarm. I. I found the problem, so Just
Did you admit that to him? That you didn't plug in the midi?
I was like, yeah, no, I didn't
Yeah. You did?
connected, so Yeah. But yeah there's a lot of these little gremlins that can sneak in and sometimes they're really easy and obvious, like once you look for them and other times they may not be. something like that might be like your internet connection. So this is something you want to check. If and when it's relevant. Sometimes certain plugins have to authenticate. I actually had this happen with a plugin. I. I think it was like an EQ plugin that I had, and it just wouldn't fire up.
And I realized oh, it, it needed to do like a validation or something like online. And I think it was like for some reason I didn't have. The internet turned on or the internet was out or something like that. And so I was able to eventually resolve that, like once we got internet back here at the house. Another thing that you can do is to check for software updates or updates to drivers of your hardware
definitely. That's uh, something that's coming up more with both Macs and PCs. I know for a while when I was using a Mac for all this stuff, I didn't, I. Run into as many of these kind of driver things, but now as there's more cross pollination with different kinds of devices and whatnot, you're gonna have to have drivers for a lot of things for both Mac and pc. So definitely check
And what tends to happen is that like Apple will update their os, their Mac os, they'll update that and then that'll do something funky to the drivers of like your audio interface or other hardware. And then those companies have to catch up to Apple and release drivers. And so it's. Because you're using this sort of complicated ecosystem that's just a reality is that, company A has to catch up to company B and so on and so forth. So it's just something to think about.
Especially, as you update your os like that's a big one. If you do that check for updates to your software and any hardware drivers that you might be using. And of course, confirm compatibility with the OS and your
Mm-Hmm.
Things like a plugin not working well, make sure it is meant to be used on a PC or a Mac and make sure that those plugins have been scanned and validated. It's a pretty common thing now in, in Dawes where. They will scan the plugins and just validate them, make sure they're able to be used. So if you use like Ableton Live or Logic Pro, for example, they will scan the plugins and if they don't pass validation, then you know that plugin won't be available to use.
That's a whole rabbit hole, but, it's something to
Yeah, in general to talk about, yeah, that's good thing. Like, and remember that listener, like all of the stuff we're talking about, we're just trying to go global here. Give you some general things to look at. Obviously there's a lot more detail to some of this stuff.
And something that can happen. Just to caveat, another caveat to all of you out there listening is that updating a plugin can seem like a really good idea to keep it working. However, sometimes what can happen when you update a plugin is. It can remove the settings that you've labored over. You've dialed in over hours and hours, and that's pretty devastating.
And you know it, I think the best practice is if you're working on a project and there is an update, if everything's working fine, hold off on doing the update until the project is
Oh yes.
second of all. You might wanna consider saving that, snapshot of the plugin as a preset. plugins allow you to just save whatever settings you have as a preset. That way if you do update and it zaps everything that you've set up, you can at least go back to the preset. That you've saved, so you're right back where you started. And of course you can always bounce to disc. In other words, you can just, print whatever audio that you have going to a new fresh audio file.
And that way you don't have to worry about, if the plugin gets messed up or whatever. Just some things to consider. Updating is generally a good thing to do, however. In certain scenarios it can,
Asterisk.
it can nuke your project. So just be cautious.
Oh yeah. Be careful with operating system updates as well. I've learned the hard way with that one. 'cause sometimes the operating system update, like you said earlier, the companies that own the interfaces and whatnot. Have to get up to speed with their software. And sometimes when you do that operating system update, that can set you back a few days until that firmware update comes out. So just hold off.
I would say if everything's working okay, like Justin said, and keep working on your project, and then wait a little bit and maybe even do a Google search and be like, are there any problems with the new update if you're really worried. But definitely good
Yeah, absolutely.
the next thing I want to add to this is, so after I do my initial troubleshooting that we heard earlier with the power and all that, and then the checking, the internet, connectivity, all that, and I've sacrificed my goat already and
Hello? Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Did you try, okay. You tried quitting the app? Okay. Okay. Did you update the os? No. Okay. Yeah. I, let's do a screen share later. I think I have some ideas to help. Get that synthesizer running. I've done some similar work with it before. Yeah. Okay. So we will, we'll hop on FaceTime or something and we'll get it sorted out. Okay? Okay. Cool. All right. Yep. Talk to you then. All right. Bye.
What you just heard, my friends are the most glorious words that you can hear when you're stuck and you don't know where to go. And that is phone a friend. If you have any people in your circle who know what they're doing better than you do as I do. Don't be shy about reaching out to a trusted partner to brainstorm and troubleshoot together, of course, if they're available and account for time differences. our buddy Barack, who lives in Norway has quite a time difference, but he's one of my
Miraculously though he seems available almost all the time, so
Yeah. He's a night owl and the problem is in Norway, I think it's 24 hours nighttime right now. So he doesn't sleep. in all seriousness, like I have done this many a times where I get stuck and I will reach out to Justin, shoot him a text and be like, please help And. We have that kind of working relationship. He logs on and we dig at the problem
Yeah. I think that sometimes you just need a second pair of eyes on something because you've been staring at a problem for so long, and then you get somebody else in there and they can suggest different things or validate certain things that you've done already. And it's just a really great process to drill down and solve the problem together. So yeah, it's a great
Yeah. Another thing you can do if your friend isn't available at that late night hour is hop on to some forums. There are various forums and blogs out there dedicated to the software you are using and the equipment you are using. Just go into Google, type in your question and see what comes up. There might be some sifting to do, but you'd be surprised I have solved some of the most obscure issues just by. Typing literally what I feel the problem is into Google.
And then something, some random post from six years ago buried like five pages into some forum. One person named Bill in Oklahoma will have solved the problem. So you just have to dig around a little bit. It's frustrating, but it's great that we have that resource that didn't exist back in the day.
Yeah. And you've also mentioned something to me that I think, is a unique resource, which is the q and a section and reviews. If you go into Amazon, for example, people are asking different questions and so sometimes you can validate, does this hardware do X, Y, and Z? And then somebody bill from Oklahoma has come in there and confirmed, no, it doesn't do that. And you're like, okay, I thought I was losing my mind, but Bill has validated this for me.
And that, that can be a really helpful thing as well. And of course, I think another great. Resource that we have at our disposal. Pulling on that thread a bit more is YouTube, so it's a great way to get instruction or troubleshooting tips and just learn more of the details about a specific aspect of your software or hardware
what's great about YouTube is oftentimes someone will handhold you through the whole process. They'll literally do in real time, clicking on the buttons and the menus walking you through
Yeah. And you can just have your phone out, for example, and just sort of. watch it step by step, pausing it when you need to, to, you know, set certain things up in your software or, or change some things. So it's really handy. social media is a great avenue for finding troubleshooting tips as well. So scouring things like Facebook, Instagram, or X can also connect you to helpful resources that can lead to troubleshooting and solutions in your studio.
I didn't want to have to go here. to talk about this.
effort, man.
Yes. The last bastion of support notice the keyword support contacting the manufacturer or customer service of said hardware or software. Oh man, this is a tough one. 'cause I've had mixed results with this kind of thing, but if you've reached this stage where you just can't find it anywhere and none of your friends are up at the hour, you're working on stuff, you might want to do this. Some companies are better than others. Like I've had great success with Yamaha.
Anytime I've had an issue with anything Yamaha related, usually the people are a very knowledgeable very. Polite and can talk you off the ledge. And they'll even send you follow up correspondence to make sure everything is okay. So not all companies do this though and it also sometimes depends on who you get on the phone too. Uh, but Justin, can you talk about what kind of things you want to prepare for when you get on the call with customer service?
I think just having. Some basic information at the ready, like serial number or model number or software version. Make sure they have your contact info. And having things like screenshots of the issue or screen recordings, if and when it's relevant can really helpful, if you're able to to provide those as well. It just makes explaining the issue a lot easier. When they're able to see or hear kind of what the issue is.
And of course, keep a record of the message or, the call in case you need to reference it again. I actually had this experience with my MIDI controller here on my desk. a company called Nectar. So this is the impact GX 49. I was trying to get certain aspects of it to work with logic. And I emailed the customer support, they emailed me back. We went back and forth a few times, but they gave me some steps that worked and solved the problem.
I have that email still and I've actually had to refer back to it because I. For some reason, probably something I did, I don't know. But for some reason it stopped working again. But I went back into reference to the email, followed the steps again, and got it working so yes, it isn't always the case have a a friendly and helpful resource on the other end of the line, as in your case, rich, or as in my case, with my MIDI controller. it's, not something that is a guaranteed good time, let's say.
Yeah. I like what you said about you saved that email with that information. I think that's an important thing to talk about Briefly. What I do is when I'm. Running into problems like that, I will, once I figure out the solution, what I will do is I have a master note that I put all this kind of stuff in. So if I had a specific issue that was very difficult to resolve, I'll copy the link and put it in there If I found it online, or I'll type out the process of how I fixed it. 'cause guess what?
Like you might think that, oh, I'll remember this. if I run into this again, it won't be a problem. I'll remember what I did. But sometimes that it'll happen two years later and then you'll be like, oh wait, I remember this thing happened, but I can't quite remember. You don't want to go through all that trouble again of finding that info. You wanna be able to go back to the note and be like, I wrote this down. So Justin, can you tell us some other considerations
something else when facing these issues is simply instead of doing tech troubleshooting for hours, which doesn't really lead to a lot of creative output, use another piece of equipment or, you know, use some kind of workaround to stay in that creative flow. I think there's a time and a place for the technical troubleshooting thing, and I, I think it's a good idea to schedule that time or go into your studio with that intention.
But if you're sitting down with the intention of being creative and something just isn't working like it's supposed to, it's very easy to let that, pull you away from the intended purpose So. If if a hardware synthesizer isn't working and you can't get the audio to get into your da, fire up a plugin instead. For example, or your drum machine plugin isn't working. Okay, go find a loop instead. You know, In logic there's 10 kabillion of them. there's other ways to keep moving forward.
So I think that's the idea, is that what can you do to keep moving forward when when that creative energy just welling up inside you, it's so easy to get that. Just zapped out of you altogether. When something doesn't work, you're like, oh, I know I have the perfect sound in this piece of equipment, or this plugin, or whatever, and it doesn't work. That can be really deflating. And so I just wanna encourage you to think about, know, staying in the moment.
Try something else, do something else, and. Because invariably that's gonna, that, that sort limitation. We've we've talked about that Uh, you know, You didn't necessarily impose it, but the audio guides decided for whatever reason to impose it on you, find a different path. And that can probably lead to some really cool creative output. it's not like you can't go back later the next day and be like, okay, I really want to use this synth.
And let me let me figure out, why it's not working and, back to our earlier part of the conversation. You know, Try to some of those steps then when you're in a place where you can troubleshoot.
creativity is paramount. That's why we're doing all of this. We're not in it to be fixing equipment. Hopefully, I mean, I know it's unavoidable sometimes, but the ultimate. Aspect of all of this is the creative process and having your ideas come to life. So if all it means is okay, today, I'm just gonna use that different device just to get the idea down.
Especially if you're recording with a synthesizer or whatever, you have the mid data, you could always go back later, troubleshoot, get the other device working, and then use that sound from that device. 'cause the mid data's there, so try to push it forward. If possible, get the idea down and you can always go back and revise and revisit later. I think that's great advice. Justin, another thing that you could do is borrow or rent the equipment you need.
If it's something that needs to get done or that's more important, that needs to have exactly a specific piece of equipment used for it. I know that's easier said than done, but hey, we're just offering kind of possibilities here.
Yes. And. Last, but not least, it can't be said enough back up,
Oh,
always back up all the time. So it allows you to revert to a project when something is working correctly and not having a backup, can, can be pretty devastating sometimes. I, I've had situations where my time machine backup wasn't working working properly and I I tried to revert to a project and I couldn't, and it's like, oh, it's so frustrating. To lose the, you know, hours and hours of work. So just making sure that backup is working properly and, and regularly is good advice.
Yeah, especially if you have something that's really important and special to you. A project have that external drive or that cloud storage available for doing this kind of thing. Alright. All right, so let me touch upon all the points we discussed earlier. first. Way of troubleshooting is start with the basics. Restart the hardware and software and check your connections.
Then Justin brought up, check your internet and make sure everything is up to date and validated for plugins, phone a friend. Reach out to trusted people in your circle who can help you. Also, don't be shy about going onto the forums and. Asking questions or reading archived information. YouTube is a great resource which can handhold you through the whole process sometimes.
Also, last but not least, of the big stuff, contact customer support, customer service or the manufacturer if you're having an issue. And then other considerations. Use another piece of equipment, find a workaround, rent. Borrow what you need and don't forget to back up your important projects.
Great episode. Great conversation, rich. I feel like we've exercised the demons and appeased the gods of audio mid and technology. And until next time,
take care and good luck in the studio and don't forget to sacrifice that goat
Bye everybody. Thanks for listening.
Bye.