Jim Ragsdale " Why Didn't I "

Dixie here, just back from doing my syndicated radio program where I played some cuts from a wonderful new cd on my show. This cd comes from lyricist Jim Ragsdale. Most of Jim’s songs fit into the Country/Americana genres, with some being sung by demo musicians (most of whom he’s friends with) and some by Jim himself (although in my opinion, he needs to sing more of his own material).

The cd is titled “Why Didn’t I” and from the first track of the song (the title cut) to the last of this 11 song cd—Jim takes you through what can only be called a lesson. You can’t listen to Jim’s songs without hearing the commercial value of his songs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the songs from this album get picked up by major artists for their own repertoire. Jim’s songs explore a variety of subject matters, but no matter what that may be—the songs are sure to make you think.

Jim’s “Friends” are quality musicians and vocalist from all over the US and the cd was produced at Bayou Recording—one of the best studios for turning out quality tracks. It’s quite evident that a great deal of work by all involved went into this cd. You can listen to clips of the songs on Jim’s website at http://www.JimRagsdalesMusic.com Any artist looking for quality material to cut for their tours or next cd project, can contact Jim at jandtragsdale@cox.net In this reviewer’s mind, Jim is well on his way to being the type of lyricist whose songs stand the test of time and become CLASSICS. So keep an eye out for Jim Ragsdale as a name you’ll hear bantered about a lot around Nashville. For although at present, he’s an undiscovered lyricist--with quality material like this hitting the airwaves, I don’t think he’ll remain undiscovered for very long.

For my product review this week, I’d like to review a couple of pieces of software from NCH software. Both are very handy for the Do It Your Self Independent artist. The first one I’d like to touch on is Wavepad—something that I find invaluable in my own studio. WavePad audio editing software is a sound editor program for Windows and Mac OS X. This audio editing software lets you make and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction. WavePad is a wav editor and MP3 editor, and supports a number of other file formats including vox, gsm, Real Audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and more.

WavePad is designed to be a very easy and intuitive to use audio editing package. Within minutes you will be able to open or record a file and edit it. But if you take time to explore the other features you will find many powerful tools designed with the professional sound engineer in mind.

Features include:

• Sound editing functions include cut, copy, paste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and more.
• Audio effects include, amplify, normalize, equaliser, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse, sample rate conversion and more.
  • Supports a number of file formats including wav (multiple codecs), mp3, vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and many more.
  • Batch processing supports up to 32000 files allowing you to apply effects and/or convert your files as a single function.
  • Tools include spectral analysis (FFT) and speech synthesis (text-to-speech).
  • Recorder supports autotrim and voice activated recording and more.
  • Audio restoration features including noise reduction and click pop removal.
  • Supports sample rates from 6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits.
  • Includes its own CD ripper with 'ultrafast 'rip mode and cddb music database lookup.
  • Works directly with MixPad multi-track audio mixing software.
  • Links directly to the Express Burn CD Recorder to burn your sound files to CD.
  • Edit tracks for the Zulu DJ software.
  • Easy to use interface will get you started editing in just minutes.

  Price-wise it’s very easy on the pocket as well compared to lesser programs out there. So take a look into it for your home studio today.

  Now speaking of the Express Burn CD Recorder—it’s a handy piece of software in itself even if you’re not in the market for editing software. Express Burn Plus is a program that lets you create and burn audio CDs, data CDs, video DVDs, data DVDs or data Blu-ray discs under Windows or Mac OS.

  With Express Burn Plus you can record an audio CD, video DVD or data CD/DVD/Blu-ray quickly and easily by dragging the files you want onto the Express Burn icon and clicking Burn. You can also use Express Burns easy to use interface to navigate to your files and add files or folders as you please. The software does the rest, including converting the files if required. So as a program, it’s an incredibly easy piece of software for even the beginner to use.

  It also has more advanced features like the ability to create and record ISO images and support for many more file formats. Express Burn is also the fastest CD/DVD writing program in the world using proprietary optimizing systems.

  Again, the price is very easy on the pocketbook—something mandatory for the independent artist. Hey, they don’t call us “Starving artists” for nothing!! If you do most of your recording from your own home studio (or even a decent studio but you master it yourself), look into these two pieces of software, you’ll find them to be invaluable additions to your ‘toolbox’.

Legends In The Making (The Blog)

Dixie here, back from the front lines of the war to get independent artists heard. We have a wonderful cd to review this week. I arrived at work one morning to find an album by Steel Blue Rose on my desk. I couldn’t tell from the band name whether they’d be Country, Americana, a jug band or what description they’d end up fitting. “Steel” in the band name lent me to think there might be a lot of steel guitar in their music. Ah well, nothing to do but slide the cd into the player and see what surprises might lie behind the name.

And surprises there were! Far from being easily pigeonholed into any one of the categories above, they fit them ALL and more. This band easily crosses genre and sub-genre boundaries from Country to rocking Americana, to songs heavily influenced by the blues or jazz. Quality production was evident throughout the nine song cd. So in short, Steel Blue Rose is a band that is sure to keep its audiences jumping and leave them wanting more. Steel Blue Rose can be found on the internet at www.steelbluerose.com. Check out their schedule and if they’re coming to your area, go see the concert—you won’t be sorry.
For my product review this week, I’d like to focus on products that would be useful for the DIY artists and bands. The songs have been written and recorded, what’s the next step? Make and release a cd, of course. You come away from the studio with that master in your hand thinking NOW WHAT? You want to sell cds at your gigs or possibly sell them from your website. That means making more of them than the one you have in your hand. Sure there are companies that will do this for you—usually at a hugely inflated price. But we’re talking the DIY crowd here—I can DO this. So it’s time to look around for duplicating equipment (turns one cd into many over time). Most people starting out don’t have the financial resources to buy the robotic arm wonders that duplicating companies use. Do it one at a time in your cd burner? Let’s get real here. Say you want to burn a hundred cds to take with you on the weekend to your gigs. You’re just looking for a simple way to burn cds as you need them. Well I’ll let you in on a secret, it doesn’t have to cost the proverbial arm and leg to get your cds ready for sale. The duplicators I use at my studios all come from Vinpower Digital. I can burn 100 cds in around 15 minutes and each is note perfect compared to the master.
These duplicator systems feature "DHP Technology", which creates a hard drive partition to the size of each master disc image so no HDD space is wasted. It also features two new password protection modes to restrict unauthorized use of your duplicator. All of which is enclosed in an up to 13-bay durable casing and feature a screw-less thumbscrew design. Also the enhanced vented air circulation design will improve the life of your duplication need. These durable cases are an ideal match for use with our high performance CD Duplicator Controllers and the combination makes them one of the fastest and most reliable duplicators on the market today. Now let’s discuss features, and there are plenty of them:
• Complete stand alone, up to 11 target CD duplicator system
• 2 easy to use Password protection modes to prevent unauthorized usage
• DHP "Dynamic" hard drive partition Technology
• Ability to load disc image to HDD and rename the partition
• Support Counter Function
• Master Error Proof
• Supports CD-R & CD-RW blank media.
• Burn 220+ 650MB CDs per hour with an 11 target system
• Includes 64MB buffer memory for 11 target systems and 32MB for 3 target systems.
• Auto Start Strategy
• Auto Source Disc Analyzing
• Set Burn Speed
• Select Source
• Audio Track Edit
• Utilities & Tools
• Button Beep
• Error Avoidance Technology
• 4 "Eject On Start" modes
• Clear Setup
• Intuitive user-friendly LCD panel
• Rigorously tested for performance & reliability
• Customizable controller LCD display
• Enhanced vented air circulation design
• Comes with a one year warranty (parts & labor included) and free life-time technical support.
This duplicator is the workhorse that it looks like—running for hours in my case without needing to cool down. Since you can buy it with a wide number of drives, you’re sure to find the one that’s perfect for your needs.
Where to buy it? Vinpower has offices all over the world, but that leads me into my next review—a great place to buy equipment for all your musical needs. It’s always been hard to find great deals for musical gear online without a great deal of searching. One thing the hardworking independent artist seems to be always short of besides money, is time. Well I’ve found a site run by a company that wants to help out the independent artist by doing all that searching FOR them. They find the best deals on various needs for the musician, then place it all in one site. How simple is that for getting everything you need with a minimum of hassle? The name of the group is a bit different, but then how different is it to find someone in the music industry that wants to HELP you? So check out U-Ni-Que-Music.com One glance through the pages let’s you know someone really cares about the independent artist. All the best deals on the net have been gathered into one place for your convenience. I found them when searching for deals on Vinpower duplicators and found it to be the most inexpensive price I’d ever paid for the exact same duplicator. So if you want a great ‘one stop shop’ for all your musical needs, U-Ni-Que-Music.com is the place to head to. You’ll be amazed at the prices you’ll find on even items as ‘pricey’ as Fender, Takamine or Gibson guitars. Take a look at them today, you and save yourself the money for gas to get to your next gig.

The Eastern European Answer To Garth Brooks

I was pleased to receive a cd last week from a new artist in Nashville. Nashville producer David Walker had sent it on for my review after having worked with this artist. To tell the truth, I didn't expect much from an artist from Slovokia now living in Pennsylvania who was finishing his first complete project in English. The artist, Roman Vitkovsky, proved how wrong I could be. From the opening bars of the first song, Roman had me totally captivated with his original material and fresh outlook on country music. Not only would you not know this artist wasn't from Nashville itself, but his smooth voice is very reminiscent of Garth Brooks, one of his influence. An eleven song project, Roman's cd titled appropriately "No Stone Unturned" leaves the listener wanting more, much more from this artist. Roman has apparently left no stone unturned himself in his desire to be the next rising star of country music. And in this listener's opinion, he is well on his way. Roman's cd was released in the spring of 2008 and you should be hearing him tearing up the airwaves on a radio station near you.





A product that I'd like to review this week would be Magix Music Maker 14. I've never run into such a versatile and user friendly piece of software for creating music on your computer. Five minutes within getting your hands on this software, you can be creating radio quality music on your home computer, whether you use loops as the basis for the backing track or wish to plug your own instruments in and record like you would in an expensive studio all at the comfort of your own computer. But wait, the software isn't just for the budding recording artist, it's the perfect solution for the podcaster as well. Ability to crossfade tracks makes for seamless shows that rival that found on am/fm stations. Hard to believe? Well, I use Magic Music Maker for my syndicated shows that are heard on am/fm stations around the world. So if it's good enough for am/fm stations to pick up, the sound levels and production quality needs to be darn near perfect, otherwise a show would distort on their equipment. Each blip or crackle would multiply itself several times over as it hits the air. So for note perfect production for your songs or a inexpensive solution for most podcasters for a production software, Magic Music Maker 14 is the software for you.