What Does It Cost to Make a Punksters Animated Short?

 

Someone recently commented on one of my animated comedy shorts on TikTok and asked what app I use to make my animations. It was a fair question, and I answered respectfully. But it made me wonder if the person pictured me putting these videos together with a phone app.

I wish it were that simple.

I told them that I animate in Reallusion’s iClone. I create my characters in Daz Studio, export them, and use Reallusion’s Character Creator to convert them into characters I can animate in iClone. That is the short version of the process. The longer version includes a lot of purchases, computer hardware, and time.

The characters have to come from somewhere

Daz Studio is free to download, which makes it a good place to start exploring character creation. But if you want to build a wide variety of distinct characters, you will probably end up buying content and add-ons.

That is how I get the control I want over my characters. I can change the size and position of their eyes, reshape a nose or mouth, adjust ears, and alter their bodies. Those details matter when you are trying to make a cast of characters who each have their own look and personality. Once I have created a character, I export it and bring it through Character Creator for use in iClone.

Character Creator is another purchase. Depending on the version, sale, or bundle, it can cost a few hundred dollars. Then there is iClone itself, the main animation program, which can cost several hundred more. Prices change, so I would check the current offers before buying either one.

The software includes some content, but the characters still need places to stand, things to interact with, and sometimes clothing or other assets. Props, environments, and add-ons can become an ongoing expense. I can also buy assets for Daz Studio and convert some of them for use in iClone. Each new idea has the potential to send me looking for something else I need.

Then you need a computer that can handle it

Animation also places demands on the computer. You need a capable graphics card, plenty of system memory, and storage space for the project files and assets you accumulate. My own setup uses 32GB of RAM, and I would welcome 64GB for more room to work. Reallusion’s published requirements vary by edition and feature, so anyone considering iClone should check the requirements for the version they plan to use.

After the animation is rendered, I still have to edit the video. I use CyberLink PowerDirector, and my subscription costs me over $80 a year.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten an expense or two. That tends to happen when you’ve been building a creative setup over time. The point is that the cost is more than the price of a single program.

A 30-second short can take hours

The financial cost is only part of it. When the characters and sets already exist, a 30-second comedy short can still take me a couple of hours or more to make. If the joke calls for a new set, building that set might take a few hours or even a day or two.

That time is an investment, though. Once I’ve built a set, I can use it again in future videos. The same goes for the characters. Every reusable piece gives me more possibilities for the next joke.

I understand why people are drawn to AI video tools. They may offer a less expensive and faster way to make something. My process is the one I’ve chosen because I enjoy creating the characters, building their world, and deciding how a scene plays out.

So why do I keep doing it?

If I looked only at the cost and the hours involved, especially knowing it could take years to earn much money from animation, I might ask myself the same question.

The answer is simple: I love doing it. Animation is one of my biggest interests and my main hobby. I enjoy coming up with the jokes, putting the characters into a scene, and seeing the finished short. It also feels good when people watch them and tell me they enjoyed them.

So call me crazy if you like. This is what I do.

The next time you see a short Punksters video, you’ll know a little more about what went into those few seconds on the screen.

 Bob Craypoe
Founder of Craypoe Productions® and Creator of the Punksters™ Characters  

 

Why “Jamming for Fun” Isn’t Really Fun for Some People

 Reprinted from an article originally released Dec 2, 2021 

Intro

Maybe you have been playing your instrument for years or maybe you are a beginner. Either way, if you ask a musician friend who has been out playing paid gigs, he might not be as entertained by the experience of “jamming for the fun of it” as you would, and there are plenty of reasons as to why that would be.

 Ulterior Motives

So, let’s just say that the friend in question is me. Let me explain each situation from my perspective. I have been out playing paid gigs for a while. That means that I have reached a certain level of professionalism. Maybe you would like to be in a band with me and you want the opportunity to sell yourself to me, for that purpose. Maybe you didn’t tell me that when asking me to come over.

Now let’s just say that I was never interested in being in a band situation with you and thought I had made that clear to you. It could be for any number of reasons, not just your skill level. But in any case, I’m not interested and once I discover what your ulterior motive is, I will be annoyed.You Start Playing Songs You Think Your Friend “Should Learn”

Everybody has their own taste in music and the same is true of musicians. Now you want to start playing some songs on your stereo you think I should learn. One or two might be one thing but do one after another and watch my reactions. Does it look like I am getting annoyed now? Maybe I didn’t come over to learn new material. Maybe I just came over thinking that you might just want to learn a few things from me.

If I have been out playing paid gigs for a while, there probably is a big repertoire I must keep up on. And if I don’t keep up on them by practicing them, I will forget them. I probably went through a lot of effort to learn those songs and I probably must continue to put in a lot of effort to stay up on them. The last thing I need to do is learn songs I don’t really want to learn.

I only really make the effort to learn a new song if it falls under certain criteria. It must be a song I would want to add to my repertoire, or it has a technique of some kind I would like to learn or become more proficient at. As far as learning a song I would want to add to my repertoire, it must be something I could sing as well as play guitar to, since I primarily play out as an acoustic solo act.So don’t go playing songs for me to learn, one after another, let me just teach you something new. It would be a win/win situation for the both of us. You get to learn something new, and I have the satisfaction of having helped you to learn it. To me, that is fun and a lot of people who are just starting to take up a musical instrument enjoy learning new things too.

Multiple People Getting in the Way

Okay, it turns out that there are a few more people present than I had anticipated seeing when you invited me over. Maybe I’ll shrug it off at first. But when that one other guy who is your friend starts banging on the drums, not having a clue as to what he is doing, while I am trying to show you the chord progression on the song we are jamming on, he is starting to become quite the nuisance. A real source of irritation. Not fun. Not fun at all. I am now becoming annoyed.

Not only is that guy banging on the drums a nuisance, but his wife and kids are there, and the kids are playing with my expensive musical equipment, but the parents don’t have either the sense or the decency to tell them not to touch it. Sure, just let your kid knock over one of my guitars onto the floor. What’s a few more dents, scratches and nicks? After all, it’s all for the sake of fun.Oh, it turns out it was a party and it’s a free-for-all on all the instruments. Everybody who wants to, will decide they can just walk on up, grab an instrument without asking the owner of the said instrument and start to bang on it, making nothing but noise. And the people who are doing it are drunk and you have to worry about them ruining your equipment. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?

Another thing that I fun is a drunken idiot taking it upon himself to get up on the mic start screaming a song well above his vocal range, sounding like hell at high volumes.

Not Enough Room for the People Jamming

I was expecting only a few people, but a bunch of people show up. Some guy shows up with a drum set, some guy shows up with his bass and a big bass amp and cabinet.d then a so-called, self-described “singer” shows up with a large PA system. The really sad part is that it is all crammed into one small room in your house.

The drummer is not an experienced one and he hammers on the drums at high volume levels. Then, to keep up with his volume level, everyone else cranks their amp. Being in a small room, this makes for a very annoyingly loud situation. Also, it is quite cramped. A crash cymbal is right next to my head, practically a few inches from my left ear. Then I try to play a song and the out-of-time drummer hits it out of time throwing off my playing. Yeah, lots of fun jamming just for the fun of it. 

 

o me, a worst-case scenario would be an occasion where all these things or any combination of these things were to take place. I mention these various scenarios only because I have experienced them myself. On some occasions, I did experience a combination of the annoyances I have just described.

The Host is Responsible for the Whole Thing

Ultimately, you as the host are responsible for the whole thing. When you invite a bunch of people over that have hyper kids and you know the parents don’t keep after them, you need to tell the parents to watch their kids, so they don’t just go up and start touching someone’s equipment. You also need to tell that one drunken jerk to get off the mic so that someone with singing ability can get back on the mic.

Maybe you shouldn’t invite a load of people over either. Or at least let your jamming for fun buddy know you are going to have a lot of people over and that it’s not going to be just the two of you. Try to look at things from the other guy’s point of view and really think as to whether it might actually be more fun than a nuisance.Summary

I realize that, to some, I might be coming off as either a Primadonna or a snob. But when you have had a guitar knocked over by someone, resulting in a serious dent or have some guy crank a song, “you should learn”, full blast through a speaker five inches from your head or have their kids play with your equipment without being told by the parents to stop, you might feel differently. But at least now you know why jamming for the fun of it may not really be that fun or fun at all for some people.

Bob Craypoe
Founder of Craypoe Productions® and Creator of the Punksters™ Characters

 

  

 

The On-the-Spot Venue Audition

 

My Experiences

When I first went out to play as a solo acoustic performer, I had to go out and score some gigs. I had already had the benefit of some experience in playing out live because I had been in full bands before and have also been part of a music duo as well. I had even done a lot of open mics where I had played solo.

Since I sing and play acoustic guitar, I can pretty much play anywhere without the reliance upon a sound system. So if I am asked to perform right there on the spot, I can, as long as I have my trusty guitar in my car. So I went out shopping for gigs. I would have a demo CD with me, business cards and my guitar in the car.

I had stopped one day at a bar during the day and went in to ask about the possibility of playing there as an acoustic solo act. I asked who did the bookings and the guy tending the bar said that he did. That was great because, often, the person that actually handles the bookings might not be there. Then the guy asked me if I had my guitar in my car and I said that I did. Then he told me that if I went out and got it, he would give me a listen. Well, I went out and got it.After I got my guitar out of my car, I came back in, took it out of the case and started singing and playing right there at the bar. There were a couple of customers there and they had made some requests and I played them. The bartender booked me for a gig and told me that if it worked out, he would book me for some more. It went well and I ended up getting a lot more gigs there.

I had done this at a few other establishments as well. It really expedited the process of finding places to play. Each time I just went out, got my guitar out of the car, sat at the bar and played and sang. Each time I was given that opportunity, I was able to score a gig. After scoring those initial gigs, they were satisfied to the point where they booked me for some more. So just a few on-the-spot auditions actually led to a good number of paying gigs.

Don’t Be Shy

Look, if you want to be out there playing, you just can’t be shy about it at all. Shyness gets you nowhere. If you have a problem performing in front of people, do open mics to get some experience playing in front of an audience. It will help you to be more relaxed when trying the approach I just mentioned.I do mostly solo performances myself and so when it comes to doing a quick audition, it’s going to be just me anyway. That leaves me with no excuses if someone asks me to play right there on the spot. If you hesitate when they ask you to go out and get your guitar so that you could play right then and there, they will have reservations about hiring you. They want to see some level of confidence on your part. Just think if you were someone that handles the bookings for an establishment. What would you think if you asked a guy to do an audition right there on the spot and he was hesitant? You’d think there might be something wrong with the guy or that he was inexperienced.

Have a Good Idea What to Play

The first thing I thought, when asked to play, was what songs I was going to play. It’s good to do something that shows your abilities but you could easily pull off without a high likelihood of making a mistake. You will probably do at least a few songs, so make sure they are not all by the same artist. Show that you can do a variety. That’s what I would do each time I got the opportunity.

Another thing that could work to your benefit is knowing what the person who is doing the booking likes. For example, I knew the one owner of an establishment really liked the Beatles. He had pictures of them on the walls all over the place. So I started out with a Beatles song. Then he asked if I knew more songs from them and I played them. I got the gig. If you can find out in advance what kind of music is generally played at an establishment, you might want to learn some of it and use it for audition purposes. You could go there one night and see what songs get played on the jukebox. That will tell you the kind of music the regulars like.

Being prepared also means that you may just want to make sure that you have decent strings on your guitar. Old strings that are hard to tune won’t work to your benefit. Have a new set on the guitar and make sure they are well stretched and ready to go. You should really want to make the best first impression that you possibly can.

Always Try to Be Polite

I would always go into the establishment and order a drink and sit at the bar for a few minutes before I would approach the subject of playing at the establishment. If there was a conversation going on, I would try to take part in it. I would try to get myself at ease with the people at the bar because that always made it easier to approach the subject of playing there. Also, it helps them to be at ease with you and would make them more inclined to give you that break. After all, who wants to give a break to someone they think is a jerk? So politeness matters.

If they don’t ask you if you have a guitar with you, don’t be afraid to mention it. Just don’t be too pushy. They may say that they are too busy at the time. So ask them when would be a good time. If you are too pushy, you could blow your chances of getting a gig there. If they request a certain song that you don’t know, apologize and say that you don’t know it but try to offer an alternative that you think would be as close a substitute as you can. Never tell them that you don’t do a certain band’s songs because you hate their music. You may offend the person asking you to play one of their songs.

Being polite is even helpful if they don’t decide to give you a gig right away. They may say that they are booked solid for the next couple of months and to give them a call in a month or so. If they say that, be sure to call in a month because they might forget you. Remember, there are a lot more musicians than there are establishments to play at. There will always be someone that you will be competing against for gigs. That’s why you don’t want to pull an attitude if they don’t book you right away. Don’t burn any bridges.Getting Booked Again

Okay, so maybe you scored that first gig at an establishment. You most likely will want to return. So make sure that you act professionally when you do that first gig. That’s how you will get more. Don’t go thinking that since you are doing one gig there, you are a shoe-in to get more. It doesn’t quite work that way. You have to provide a positive experience for the people at the establishment. Don’t take it for granted that they will ask you back again.

So Give It a Try

What are you waiting for? Give it a try and see how it works for you. Between using open mics as an audition and just going around wnd doing on-the-spot aucitions, I scored more gigs than by handing out my demo CD. In fact, there were only a few places that I had gone to that asked for a demo instead of me doing a live audition. So maybe you should give it a try.

© 2021 Bob Craypoe 

 

Reliability Versus Talent

 Reprinted from an article originally released Dec 2, 2021  

 

Late For The Show

As a musician who has been in a number of band situations throughout the years, I have met my share of fellow musicians. Some were blessed with a considerable amount of talent and natural ability and others, well, maybe not so much. I have also known some musicians who would work hard as well as some that did not work so hard. Regardless as to where anyone stands regarding any of those qualities, much really comes down to reliability in the end.

Knowing the Songs

In a band situation, everyone has to know the songs. You can’t just have four members of a five person band know the song while having the fifth person there screwing up because he doesn’t know the songs. One of the biggest problems regarding reliability as far as a band goes is making sure that everyone in the band knows the songs. You need a lot of material to be able to go out and make money playing steady gigs. The longer it takes for you to get that repertoire together, the longer it takes for you to get out and make money.

Now, I’m not saying that money is everything but if I had a choice between playing paid gigs or playing for nothing, I’d take the money every time, unless it’s for charity of course. But you can’t make a living playing solely for free. To play anywhere for money, you usually need two to four hours of music. There is no getting around that. So any excuses that someone may have as to why they did not learn the songs they were supposed to learn really does nothing to get around that fact.

I have seen some excellent musicians who played great, had great technique and were quite talented but they just did not know a lot of songs. They spent most of their time strictly working on technique. It’s great to push yourself and try to broaden your horizons but you have to know a lot of songs. That’s all there is to it. So when someone says they are going to learn the songs that the band has decided to perform, they need to learn them. Talent really is no substitute for knowing the material.

Basically, if a band wants to play out, they need to decide what songs they want to do. There should be some compromising in the decision process. For example, I may agree to play some songs that I don’t necessarily like that much in exchange for being able to play some of the songs that I like. Not everyone in the band is going to like the same type of songs. So that’s where compromise comes into play.

If you have one member of the band that is not willing to compromise and learn some songs that he might not necessarily be too enthusiastic about, he has no right to expect others to be willing to compromise. It’s a two way street. One old trick some people like to play is to not learn the songs they don’t like and hope that after a while, the rest of the band will decide to drop the song. But no matter what the reason behind someone not learning the songs, in the end, there really aren’t a lot of acceptable excuses. In the end, they are just not being reliable. Everyone needs to be reliable regarding learning the songs they are expected to because it really comes down to having enough songs to be able to play out.

Showing Up On Time

Another reliability related issue besides learning the songs you are expected to learn is showing up on time. That means showing up to rehearsals on time. Or maybe even showing up at all. Then, of course, you need to show up at the gigs on time as well. That great guitar player without a drivers license could be a bit of a burden. Arrangements may have to be made to pick the guy up and drop him off before and after gigs and rehearsals.

But even if everyone had their drivers license, some people just can’t seen to ever be on time. They will show up late to practices and gigs as well. Unfortunately, venue owners expect you to be there, set up and ready to play by a certain time and that is usually agreed upon prior to the gig. It doesn’t matter if four out of five band members are there and ready to go. You have to start at the agreed upon time and if that one missing band member is not there and you are not able to start without him, You have a problem.

I understand that there may, on occasion, be an emergency that may prevent someone from being able to be somewhere on time. Emergencies are one thing but someone being habitually late is another. I have had to deal with people in the past that were late all of the time to both rehearsals and gigs. The bottom line is that you just can’t tolerate that sort of thing.

I have had to put up with tardiness from one very good musician. He was great at learning all of the songs he needed to learn. He was great at playing his instrument and a great harmony vocalist as well. His only real problem was showing up on time. He was constantly late for practices. He would show up at the last minute for gigs. Sometimes he would call to say he would be a half hour late for a band practice. The half hour would pass and he still would not have arrived. Then he might call again and apologize for not being there yet but that he was on his way. We would have to wait another fifteen minutes to a half hour longer. There were a number of times where he was from an hour to an hour and a half late. Eventually, we had to get rid of him. Very talented guy. Totally unreliable though.Tough Decisions

Life is full of tough decisions and knowing when to get rid of a band member can be one of them. But most of the time, the reason for getting rid of someone has to do with unreliability. Sure, there are many other reasons but, in my experience, most of the time it had to do with a person’s unreliability. What often made the decision as to whether or not to get rid of someone so difficult was the fact that the person was a talented musician. So that often increases the overall reluctance.

So what you really have to think about in the end is whether or not you will be able to meet your goals in a reasonable span of time. Your first goal as a band should be to get enough material together to play paid gigs. The second goal should be to be out there actually booking and playing those gigs. Is this person going to facilitate that or be an impediment to that? If they are going to be an impediment to those things, then it doesn’t matter how much talent they have. So when the choice comes down to talent or reliability, you should probably lean more towards reliability.

Tough Decisions

Life is full of tough decisions and knowing when to get rid of a band member can be one of them. But most of the time, the reason for getting rid of someone has to do with unreliability. Sure, there are many other reasons but, in my experience, most of the time it had to do with a person’s unreliability. What often made the decision as to whether or not to get rid of someone so difficult was the fact that the person was a talented musician. So that often increases the overall reluctance.

So what you really have to think about in the end is whether or not you will be able to meet your goals in a reasonable span of time. Your first goal as a band should be to get enough material together to play paid gigs. The second goal should be to be out there actually booking and playing those gigs. Is this person going to facilitate that or be an impediment to that? If they are going to be an impediment to those things, then it doesn’t matter how much talent they have. So when the choice comes down to talent or reliability, you should probably lean more towards reliability.

Bob Craypoe

Founder of Craypoe Productions® and Creator of the Punksters™ Characters  

 

Creating a Comic Strip in DAZ Studio

 From an article originally released Jul 28, 2017

One of the characters from the Punksters.net Comic Strip Series within DAZ Studio.

About Daz Studio

I create an online comic strip called the Punksters.net Comic Strip Series. I only use a few programs to create it but the first graphical step begins with DAZ Studio. For those of you not familiar with the software, it is a 3D artwork and animation program. It is currently available as a free download, which can be found at http://daz3d.com. DAZ stands for Digital Art Zone, in case you were wondering.

There is also a lot of content available for sale on the website. Things like different character bases, hair of various styles, clothing, props, scenery and so on. When you do the free download, though, they give you some free content just to get you started. You can then experiment with the program to see if you like it and then, if you determine that you do, you could slowly buy some content here and there over time.

Setting Up a Scene in Daz Studio

Experimenting With the Program to Create a Test Comic Strip

When I initially set out to do the comic strip, the first thing I wanted to do was just create a test comic strip to see how doable it was to make a series of strips using DAZ Studio. So I created a few characters, placed them within a scene and rendered the image. It was a basic square image that would be a single frame.

After rendering a single image, I rendered three more to make a basic four frame comic strip. The initial images were 800×800 pixels in size. I re-sized the four images to a size where they could be placed in a single image with all four frames. The final size for each frame was 360 pixels by 360 pixels. I allowed for some white space between frames, so the total size for each four frame strip would be 740 x 740 pixels.740 x 740 seemed to be the right size. It fit well in web pages and it worked fine for the layout of e-books. One of my plans was to release e-books featuring collections of strips. So, setting up the scenes for each frame and seeing how they would fit was step one in determining if it could be done.

The next step was to create the dialog using the speech balloons you normally see in a comic strip or comic book. I use Manga Studio for that. So I tried that out and it worked just fine. Then I set out to do an actual strip since the test one worked out okay.

A Frame in Manga Studio Where Captions are Added

Creating the Characters and Scenery

At this point, since I had determined that it was definitely doable to do a comic strip series using images created in DAZ Studio, I decided to do my first actual comic strip. Now that I decided to go all out and really do it, I figured it was time to set things up for the series.The first thing was the creation of various characters. I decided to create the main four characters, their family members and their co-workers. That led to the creation of about a dozen or so characters.When you start out, you begin with a base character, which is sort of generic. You may then change various facial features as well as body features.

The facial features can be fine tuned. You can set the eyes higher, lower, closer together or further apart. You could make the mouth wider thinner, higher or lower. The ears could be set higher, lower, further back and you could even make them bigger or smaller. Basically any facial feature could be made smaller or larger. You also have the option of aging the character. You can edit the size of various body parts as well, or make someone muscular, heavy or thin. This all allows you to make very distinctive characters.

The next thing I created was the sets for where they would be placed. I started thinking in terms of how they do a sitcom on television. They basically have a set for the various important locations in the series. So I created each character’s homes, their workplaces and other sets that I thought I would need. The beauty of DAZ Studio is that once you create the characters and the sets you intend to place them in, you can merge them into the scene you are working on.For example one of the characters works in a diner. So I open up the project that has the diner set that I created. I then bring in the characters I intend to use. I then place the characters where I intend to have them within the scene. Then I pose the characters and render the scene to create a frame.

Base Character Compared to Edited Character

More About the Other Programs That I Use

I import the rendered image from Daz Studio into Manga Studio and add the dialogue, using speech balloons. After that, I re-size the frame to 360 x360 pixels in G.I.M.P. Then I import each frame onto Windows Paint to put the four frames together in a single image.

So I use DAZ Studio, then Manga Studio, then I re-size in G.I.M.P. and then put all four frames together in Windows Paint. That’s four programs I use to create the strip.Daz Studio is a free program that you can download from DAZ3D.com. G.I.M.P. is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, which is also free to download. Manga Studio is a program you will need to purchase. It is made by Smith Micro, the same company that makes Poser, another 3D program similar to DAZ. You could even use Poser instead of DAZ Studio if you would prefer. However, you must purchase Poser, whereas DAZ Studio is Free. The user interface of DAZ Studio differs greatly from the one that Poser has. I have both programs but I started using DAZ Studio first and have gotten quite used to it, so that is my personal preference. And of course Paint comes free with the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Frames Being Put Together in Windows Paint

Back to Daz Studio

Anyway, Daz Studio is where it all pretty much starts graphically. I create all my characters and scenes in the program. You can buy a lot of pre-made content on the DAZ website. It can cost you a bit of money over time. The main thing is to try to start out on a somewhat small scale at first. I do buy some pre-made content and customize some of it to build the scenes the way I want them.t can take a while to create a character in DAZ but once it is created, you can import it into any scene, so it is just a one-time thing. The same is true regarding the scenery. The only things left would be where you would place the characters within a scene and where you place the cameras. DAZ Studio uses cameras in a way that is similar to how a photographer would use one. Setting up a scene in DAZ Studio is similar to a photographer setting up a photo shoot. Although, it is cheaper to set up a scene in DAZ because you are only dealing with virtual sets and virtual models and actors that you don’t have to pay.

Summary

This article deals with more of the technical aspects of creating a comic strip as it pertains to the use of the software, and mostly as it pertains to DAZ Studio. I have another article that I have written that covers some of the other aspects of doing a strip. It covers some of the details you need to think about regarding the process of starting out. I will write more articles on the subject that may deal with the other programs I use, eventually. I just wanted to get this one out there so that anyone wondering if DAZ is a good program to try to do a comic strip in could get some information or assistance.

 

Bob Craypoe
Founder of Craypoe Productions® and Creator of the Punksters™ Characters   

Know Your Equipment

Throughout the years, as a musician, I have purchased a lot of musical equipment. Some items I have kept right up until this day and other items I sold for the purpose of using the money to buy something else that I thought I needed more. Priorities change over time and sometimes we make bad purchasing decisions and so we get rid of the stuff we don’t use.

One thing is important though, regarding equipment and that is to really understand what you are either purchasing, considering purchasing and the equipment you have. Knowing your equipment can save you money as well as allow you to get the most from it.

Knowing What You Need

There are two categories regarding the purchasing of music equipment. The things you want and the things you need. For example, you need a sound system in order to play out. So you or your band mates will have to purchase one. Or maybe you all will have to pitch in. But you need to know what kind of system you will need.

As and example, I am a solo performer. I mostly sing and play guitar. I also don’t play very large venues. So technically, I don’t need a massive sound system. I use a powered mixer with just two speakers. I only use a few channels on the mixer. So anything beyond what I currently use would be overkill and more expensive.

Now your situation may be considerably different. You may have a full band. You may also have a very loud drummer, which means you are going to have to be able to match him in volume. You may also be wanting to play larger venues that take full bands. As a solo performer, I can play many of the smaller venues and still make good money. As a full band, you will have to play larger venues that can afford a large band in order for you each to be able to make decent money.

So what you need to do is assess what your musical goals are and then do some research on the equipment you think you might need to meet those goals. Making the right purchasing decision will save you money and will make you sound better. So step one is to know what you are looking for and know what you are buying.

Learning How to Use Your Equipment

Once you get that sound system, you need to learn how to get the best sound possible out of it. Or maybe you just purchased a new guitar effects unit. The same would be true regarding that or pretty much any other type of equipment you are using.

It is best that you have band rehearsals using the same equipment you intend to use playing out. That way you will know what settings work best before you even play at a venue. Otherwise, you will be spending a good portion of the night trying to tweak your sound at the gig.

I mostly practice with the use of an acoustic guitar. I play the guitar and sing without the use of a sound system. But I have practiced at home with the use of the sound system I use playing out. Then I wrote down the settings so that I can try to reproduce the sound at the venue when I play the gig.

I generally have an idea as to the sound I am looking for. As a solo performer, I seek to have the fullest sound possible, due to the fact that I have no one else playing along with me to fill the sound. I play out with an acoustic guitar as well as an electric. The acoustic guitar provides a nice full sound without much tweaking but the electric takes a bit more effort to get a full sound.

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

The first thing I do when I get a new piece of equipment is to look over the manual. Sometimes I will download the manual for a piece of equipment before I even buy it. It gives me an idea as to what it is capable of before I make that purchasing decision. Most manufacturers offer PDF manuals for their equipment on their websites, for download.

Since I often view the manuals before I even get the equipment, I usually know something about the capabilities available. So I can basically hit the ground running when I finally do get it. But once I receive the equipment, I spend a good amount of time experimenting with it. That way, I learn about its capabilities as well as its limitations.

Most often, before I make that final purchasing decision, I will watch a lot of demo videos for whatever piece of equipment it is. YouTube is full of demo videos for music equipment. I usually view them before I buy something. But I also view them even afterward because sometimes you can learn something more about the equipment from the way the person demonstrating it is using it. I often view more than one demo video because different people usually demonstrate and emphasize different features in their own videos.


After watching some of the demo videos, I will often try to recreate what they are doing if I find something they are doing to be interesting. So I will experiment with those sort of things. I have seen some pretty good demonstrations online that have provided a bit of inspiration.

How to Save Money by Knowing Your Equipment

Everybody wants to save money. There are a lot of ways to do that, regarding music equipment. You see, if you know your equipment and what it is capable of, you may discover that you don’t need to purchase something because the equipment you already have may be capable of doing it instead. Maybe not as well sometimes but maybe to a satisfactory degree. The experimentation process can help you to make that determination.

Learning what certain pieces of equipment are capable of before you buy it prevents you from purchasing the wrong equipment. You just have to know what you are looking to achieve. That will help you to make wise purchasing decisions.

If You don’t Use It, Sell It

Perhaps you have made some bad purchasing decisions. Or maybe you’ve purchased something new that either does things better or does more. I have had some pieces of equipment laying around not being used anymore. So I have sold them and used the money to buy the things I needed to achieve my various objectives. Sure, I took a loss on those things by selling them used but they were doing me no good by laying around gathering dust.


Priorities change over time. Maybe your musical goals have changed as well. You need the equipment necessary to meet those goals. Keeping old useless junk around won’t do that. It just takes up space and the money you could get by selling it could be used for better things.

Summary

So knowing your equipment can save you money and help you achieve certain objectives. You must learn the capabilities by experimenting with the equipment and you will also learn its limitations in the process as well. You will get the most out of the equipment you have and you will be able to achieve a better quality of sound. Read the manuals, experiment, read articles on it and watch demonstration videos online. You will be amazed by some of the ideas and inspiration you will find just by doing all of those things and knowing your equipment.

Bob Craypoe
Creator of The Punksters™
Founder and Creative Director of Craypoe Productions®

The First Five Guitar Effects Pedals You Need for Electric Guitar

 

Introduction

Maybe you have a multi-effects unit and want to start using stomp boxes for gigs for the sake of simplicity or maybe you are starting out on guitar and just want to start building up a pedal board. In either case, you need to prioritize what pedals you should get first. I break it down to five pedals with some of them being a choice between two options. I have two very large pedal boards loaded with a variety of pedals, so I know from experience which ones are most important and which ones are used most. I feel that I know enough to make some qualified recommendations. These recommendations, though, are ones based on the fact that you are playing an electric guitar. I would not make the same recommendations for acoustic guitar. 

 

1) Distortion, Fuzz or Overdrive

I would make different suggestions based upon the type of music you play. For someone playing Jazz or Blues, I would probably recommend an Ibanez Tube Screamer. It’s not a lot of distortion and it provides a very warm tube-like sound. You can also use it as a boost pedal before an amplifier and use the distortion of the dirty channel of the guitar amplifier. You can use it as either a clean boost or a dirty boost. The Tube Screamer works great in either case. Randy Rhoads use to use an MXR Distortion + as a boost for his Marshall amplifiers. He would use mostly the distortion from the dirty channel of his Marshall with just a little drive from his Distortion + pedal.

If you do Heavy Metal, you could still use just a Tube Screamer but solely as a boost and use an amplifier’s distortion for most of your distortion needs. A lot of guitar players from the Classic Rock era used boost pedals prior to using an amplifier’s distortion. They either use it just to boost the guitar for a lead solo or sometimes just leave it on all of the time. You can get a variety of distortion sounds by blending a distortion pedal with the amplifier’s built in distortion; using a little of each or one more than the other. It’s definitely something worth experimenting with.

Now, if you play Heavy Metal or hard rock and want to get all of your distortion from a pedal, a Tube Screamer or Distortion + just won’t cut it. You need something a little heavier. A Pro Co Rat is a very versatile distortion unit. By playing around with the Distortion and Filter knobs, you can get a variety of distortion tones. If you want an all-out metal sound, then I would recommend some of the ones by MXR and Boss. They have a nice selection of distortion units that are useful for a number of different genres with some of them being more suitable for Heavy Metal. Electro-Harmonix even has a version of the Muff Fuzz for Heavy Metal that they call the Metal Muff. They have a few different models of the Metal Muff with a variety of features.

There are some cheap alternatives as far as distortion pedals go. There are brands like Behringer, Donner and Mooer that offer cheaper pedals. So if you want a variety of distortion sounds, you could get a cheap Tube Screamer clone and a cheap fuzz pedal. Those manufacturers I just mentioned offer some pedals that are below $25. So you could get a few different types of distortion pedals for the price of one from the more expensive manufacturers. Then later on you could replace the cheaper units for the more expensive ones from the bigger brand names.

2) Noise Gate or Noise Suppressor

If you are going to use distortion, fuzz or any type of overdriven sound, you will definitely need a noise gate or noise suppression pedal. The names vary depending upon the manufacturer. The most common terms are noise gate or noise suppressor. In any case, they basically cut out the noise when you are not playing. This comes in real handy when you are playing songs that may have a pause here and there. Who wants to hear a bunch of noise, hiss and hum coming from your guitar whenever you pause or have a moment in the song where you stop playing your guitar?

If you are using the distortion from an amp, you will have to use a noise gate in the effects loop. Some noise gates even have an effects loop of their own. I actually own one that does but I don’t use the effects loop, I just plug straight into the input and that’s it. You can get them fairly cheap from the same manufacturers I mentioned above. It depends on your budget and what you are willing to spend. But make no mistake, if you use distortion, you need a noise gate.

3) Chorus Pedal

As far as modulation effects go, I would recommend a chorus pedal over any other type of modulation effect. It adds so much depth and/or ambiance to your sound. You can use it with or without distortion and it works with pretty much any genre of music. It sounds great with Jazz guitar as well as with Heavy Metal, so it’s good for just about anything. It’s also an important component in New Age and anything involving ambient guitar.

I generally place my modulation, delay and reverb effects after my noise gate. You can use it before your amp but if you use the distortion in your amp, I would recommend you use it in your effects loop in your amplifier, just as I would with any other effects pedal.

4) Phase Shifter or Flanger

Phase shifters and flangers are modulation effects that sound a bit similar. The flanger is a much harsher sound that you probably would not use as much as you would a phaser. Some brands of flangers do have a lot of control over the sound to where you can get a very light flange sound that comes close to a phase shifter but some brands do not. So, in the cases where they don’t, you are stuck with a very strong flange sound that sounds a lot like a jet taking off.

If I were to choose between the two, I would probably choose a phase shifter over a flanger because I would use it more than a flanger, due to the fact that is is not as heavy or dominant a sound. Phasers and flangers work great for lead solos or rhythm guitar parts. Eddie Van Halen used an MXR Phase 90 quite a bit in his early years for his lead solos, including the song “Eruption.”

5) Reverb or Delay

Reverbs and delays really provide a lot of depth to your sound. Since a lot of guitar amplifiers come with reverb built in, you could just get away with having to buy a delay pedal. But it is a hard choice if your amp doesn’t have reverb. They both provide depth to your sound but they do differ in sound and it’s a pretty tough decision as to which one I prefer over the other; especially since I like to use both at the same time, in my current rig. But if you have an amp with reverb then the choice becomes obvious. You get the delay pedal.

As far as reverb goes, I like to use hall reverb sounds. But some reverb pedals offer a few different types of reverb like hall, spring and plate. Some have a toggle switch that you use to choose between those three types. Cheaper units have just one knob that controls the amount of reverb. More expensive units have controls over the delay time, room size and so forth. Sometimes it’s just easier to get a unit with one knob just for the sake of simplicity, especially for live situations.

Delay is probably a bit more complicated than reverb because the wrong delay time could conflict with the tempo of a song. For the sake of simplicity, I often just use a quick slap-back delay. That causes a lot less conflicts with songs of varying tempos. With longer delay times, it can be difficult to match the delay time to the tempo of the song but it does sound great when the song’s tempo and delay time are perfectly synchronized. It’s a beautiful thing.

Just as with the modulation and distortion pedals, you can find cheap delay and reverb pedals as well. So maybe you won’t have to choose between the two if you buy a couple of cheap ones under $50 or so. For some reason, reverb pedals cost more than delay pedals. You can get delay pedals for under $25 but the cheapest reverb pedals I have seen are around $50 or so. So price may come into play when you are making your decision as to which one of the two effects you will purchase.

Conclusion

I am not saying that you will be able to achieve every possible sound with just five pedals. But you have to start somewhere and five pedals are a pretty good start. You can always build upon it later. I have a couple of pedal boards with over a dozen pedals each. I have more than a few types of distortion pedals alone. I have a boost pedal as well as auto wah, reverb, delay and modulation pedals. I even have a few Guitar synth pedals. I often use more than one at a time. I can get a variety of sounds, tones and effects. I can mix and match to a countless number of variations. I am always experimenting to either come up with new sounds or to improve the sounds I currently use. It’s a lot of fun sometimes just to play around and see what I can come up with. So after you get those five pedals, play around some. Experiment and have some fun.

Bob Craypoe
Founder of Craypoe Productions® and Creator of The Punksters™ Characters