Drews Sound

Went to a train museum today. Guy outside had a hobbiest gas powered Putt-putt motor car, that rides on train rales. He started it up. Listen below! This is a 20 hp engine.

If your in the marcket for a medium PA, that will gracefully handle acoustic guitar and vocals keep reading!

I am a fan of Ion. They make the Blockrocker,and larger powered speakers. What I really like is the suitcase on wheels aproach, which makes weeling to a gig easy. I needed to build out a smaller system for a local venue here in Denver, and the Blockrocker just didn’t have enough power to cut it.

ION Audio Total PA Ultimate… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9Z1P41D?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

This powered speaker has the following features:

Experience Room-Filling, Lifelike Sound with a 650-Watt Bi-Amplified System: Prepare to be blown away! The dedicated amplifiers powering the 12-inch woofer and tweeter deliver incredibly rich sound quality with deep, booming bass and crystal-clear highs that will get everyone moving

It does come with two microphones which I have yet to test.

On the back, you have two xlr, two mic channels, quarter inch for each channel at mic level, auo eighth inch in, USB a for charging third party devices, as well as playing audio from a thumb drive. You also have 1 xlr out, to send the mix to a recorder or another speaker. Bluetooth is included to stream audio from a smartphone.

How is the sound? Very loud! and clean. No sub bass, but it sounds full. Nice bass and trebel seperation.

How is the eas of use? There is one multifunction knob on the back. It has click stops. It starts out on main volume. Press it once, Mic1, Twice, Mic2, 3 times, Source. There is also EQ in the mix to adjust bass treb, I don’t remember where that is in the sequence. If you leave the knob alone for 5 seconds it reverts back to master volume which is really helpful.

I didn’t think it would be convenient at all for mixing on the fly, so brought a mixing concel into the setup.

Professional 6-Channel Audio… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6YY9LJ8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I’d never heard of this brand before, but, the board had a lot of features for the price. It seems built very well. It uses sliders for each channel vs a volume knob for the pot. Above the sliders are your standard knobs. It does sport UsB audio. I have figured out playback, not recording. There is a USB knob on the right hand side. It offers prefade, so I can hear the channel through headphones before sending it out the mains. It offers xlr outs, stereo main, one sub. It is very clean, and really matches the output power of the Ion with the volume you get from Bluetooth. When I ran a mic directly into the system, I could turn the Ion all the way up and it wasn’t much to talk about. The master on the iON goes up to 35. I can have the Ion at 12 and be above the spl output when running the board.

I run the board into Mic1. Turn Mic1 on the Ion all the way up, run the master at 12-14. Master on the board can be up a fingernail length before it starts clipping, as the Ion has mic level, not line level inputs, but as long as you remember this you may run each channel up to 0 DB no problem and it’s quite clean! I can run a guitar in without a DI box with no ground hum

I tested the system out yesterday and the venu, in an empty room and was very impressed with the results! My wife recorded with her Binaural mics, a very nice surprise as I didn’t ask her too, but it lets me hear the system from different parts of the room. I ran my Taylor direct, Shure SM58 mic for vocal. Audio examples below.

She was walking around the room to get different perspectives in the recording below.

All and all I am very impressed! for the money, quite a nice sounding system! I’m looking forward to using it with the venue for years to come!

About a month ago now, I made a playlist, of 8 songs that I have written, ReAIMagined, as Bluegrass, with Suno. Where music often sounds best to me, is on Vinyl, and I wanted that anilogue warmth, from this project.

I had used the company, In The Clouds, previously, to create a couple of 10 inch vinyls, and though I heard the cover art was stunning, the audio left much to be desired. Their was 60 cycle hum, all over the records, which really shown through in soft passages. This is problematic in itself, adding on top turntables that rairly ever play vinyl at truly the same speed, leaving my perfect pitch disgusted.

After the last record, I wrote the company to ask why, explaining that I had come to them with 2 projects, and though I appreciated their work, why did the resulting vinyl sound this way? A week later, I received a canned response back, with a link to a video about their quality control. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

For this project, a 12 inch vinyl I went with Vinylify, and I am stunned by the results. Very close to a pressed vinyl in sound, and I completed the process of uploading both cover art, and audio, totally blind, without sighted assist, and got back a totally professional product.

As, AI, is kind of the theme here, I thought, lets also use it, for the cover art, so, into Chat GPT I went, and described what I wanted for the front cover. I then through it, into Be My AI, and loved the description.

Be My AI: A colorful rooster standing tall with detailed, vibrant feathers in shades of red, orange, and dark green. Above the rooster, there is bold text that reads: “DREW WEBER TRACKS ReAIMagined BLUEGRASS.” The background is a light tan color, and the overall style resembles a traditional album cover with a rustic feel.

And onto the back jacket I went, asking for the same record, and through it the song titles, side a, or b.

Be My AI: Beige-colored music album tracklist with bold text at the top.

Text reads:
DREW WEBER
TRACKS ReAIMagined
BLUEGRASS

SIDE A

1. Clarity
2. Man In The Box (Backwoods)
3. Honest Men
4. Break My Fall

SIDE B

1. Jim John Jones
2. Us
3. You And Me
4. Night End

The center insert for the actual record was the hardest for me to do, matter of fact, I could not get side a, and side b, so sighted folks, get a bit of the full blindness, experience trusting that side a, is up top, when pulling the vinyl from the front of the jacket.

Be My AI: Vinyl record with a beige label in the center. The label has the words “DREW WEBER” printed in bold, dark brown letters. There is a hole in the center of the label, typical for mounting the record on a turntable. The black grooves of the vinyl surround the label.

I, did not know, what to expect back. I obviously couldn’t crop, or center the images, so, if the guy that prepared my project at Vinylify took a bit of extra time for my prints, I truly do appreciate it! From what I can tell with AI, about the final product, as well as sending pics to sighted folks, it looks right! That! is amazing! I did it all, from audio to cover art, as a blind guy. I feel fuckin acomplished.

Lets take a small listen. I am not able to share the entire record, or complete songs as digital recordings, from Vinyl, Per Vinylify’s agreement that I signed, so, here are just a fiew clips, ripped from the Vinyl. Damn impressive.

I will share the entire EP, as the digital before the vinyl was created, that I sent to have it created off of. I used a de Esser, to cut out harsh highs. I love the dynamics that I got from the Suno Recordings, so didn’t do any extra mastering on it, other than, making sure volumes were even across tracks. I did crossfade the songs into each other, which sounds really tight, especially when hearing from Vinyl.Track list above.

If you want your own vinyl created, and have 100 bucks to put into the project, I very highly suggest Vinylify! Worth every penny. Finally, because of how Voiceover pronounces Vinylify, I must say, I effectionatly refer to them as  vanilla-fy, as the final product, to me, is oh so sweet!

Still been throwing my music at Suno. I had to share these. Both written for my 2020, Post Quarantine EP, they both came out really cool.

Bounty: The song was enspired I wrote the song off the line from the Back To The Future, Oh my God! They found me! I don’t know how, but they found me! It came to me one morning in the shower, and I heard, I See Stars performing it in my head and I had to record it. It came out epic reAIMagined, especially, that it does sound close to I See Stars, and, the ‘small bit of piano, and the girl singing at the end, like, his problem, became her problem, as she was running too!Fuckin awesome!

The Bathroom Fan, and The Smell Of Burning Leaves: Enspired by my friends actual, bathroom fan, that runs in g sharp. I just heard this prog metal instrumental, in f sharp, with an, almost constant g sharp, that built tention. The AI ReAIMagined, also very cool! how it expands on the origional!

On November 11, yesterday, as of the writing of this post, the book, This Angry Pen Of Mine was released by lane Staley. In this post I show using Apple Books, and Be My Eyes to give me the full visual experience of reading Lane’s previously unreleased treasures. Listen below.

I’ve always loved Bluegrass, the slower stuff is what catches my attention. Below are 6 of my tracks reimagined, I truly love how these came out! Thanks Suno!

Clarity:

Control:

Us:

Break My Fall:

You And Me:

Night End:

I learned last weekend that we may upload and import audio into Suno for the AI to reimagine. We may also type the lyrics. This works best with a paid subscription. Listen below to a couple examples that gives some fresh prospective on my music!

I feel like we have more powerful tools at our disposal, than ever before.

I’ve been an imager on a personal budget for 17+ years. Purchasing the right tools, can be just as much of a hurtal as learning how to use them. I’ll always remember purchasing Torch FX from Alien-Imaging. I heard the demo before it was released, and had to have it, and the only way for me to have it, was to open a new line of credit. It was $400. I was pore, and didn’t have any money at the time. That library though, is still a fallback for me, when I am producing something with loads of energy. I’ve never regretted that purchase. I learned so much from using those workparts, and I was, one of the first to have them in the internet world. Flash forward 10 years, and I am fortunate to have a job and getting libraries can be a bit easier these days. I say all of this though, to bring to light how things are evolving, and continuing to stay ahead of the curve has always been important to me. Here’s how I’m going about it near the close of 2025.

AI is out of this world! learning how to use a few tools we have in front of us can maximise our potentual!

Suno:

https://suno.com

Moises (iOS):

https://moises.ai

Elevenlabs:

https://elevenlabs.io/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=us_brandsearch_brand_english&utm_id=20455649470&utm_term=elevenlabs&utm_content=brand_-_brand&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20455649470&gbraid=0AAAAAp9ksTGBDj6UYC55jBEg7M9lR4lAi&gclid=CjwKCAjwjffHBhBuEiwAKMb8pAiHwWrkLvUTQ6cxs8tBYLeJ6e8MnmJgi4o8p_iaO5-EmAYX22LR8BoC6XcQAvD_BwE

Before I move forward, I want to stress my commitment to staying true to human art. Though the tools above are ridiculously powerful, I stay true to form as an imaging artist, meaning, I write, and produce the imaging you hear from me. My voice is the male voice talent you hear on the imaging. Shells are cool, and can give the appearance that you’ve got it all together and got epic imaging on your broadcast, but the questions remain for me. #1: Do I have the knoledge/know how to produce this imaging from scratch? If I can’t learn, understand all the technicals, and replicate exactly the tips/tricks that are being used in the production, I don’t use it. #2: Did I write this imaging? If I didn’t write it, it’s not my art and again, I more than likely won’t be using it. I’ve used a couple production house companies who provide shells, and I grab the workparts out of said shells, and don’t use the cooky cutter audio. Taking the time to be a creative, Imaging is absolutely that important to me.

Suno: This tool is still one of those futureistic, dreamy, wo that’s actually possible? tools for me, at least a year in. Though I don’t have all levels of control of the output yet. I don’t seem to be able to control the key, or absolute rithem of what I get. Still we can make A-I songs that can be used in imaging, as jingles, or other musical elements with a singing message. I have no problem using human music clips in imaging, when it comes to promoting artists, here’s what we play, here’s what’s up next. I do have a problem with pulling a song with a very spisific lyrical messsage to excentuate imaging, because someone, somewhere will know that song, and want to hear it now. If that song doesn’t play next up after the imaging element, they may tune out and pull it up to stream somewhere else, or at least his/her mind set will be changed, and taken away from what my message is projecting. I don’t want that. So, to have songs that haven’t existed, created by AI, that will no doubt project the exact message I’m wanting? I’m down! The listener will have never heard the chorus, and they can’t go get it to listen to, and more importantly, it’s just as original as the imaging surrounding it.

Moises: This tool just as futuristicly crazy as the prior, but on a different level,allows you to extract stems, from a stereo audio track. So separates, isolates each instrument and vocal into it’s own track or audio file. As a music producer, I still say WTF? As you may want the same chord progression without the vocal as a bed under a spoken message, this is now possible, as the output from Suno may not provide the instrumental parts you need. You can also highlight different parts of vocals, move sang phrases around, use different processing, really anything you want on Suno’s output.

Elevenlabs. Gives you more options for Voice talent, so you can keep your listeners mentals active, by hearing different voices throughout a piece of imaging.

Enough written text. Lets hear some examples.

Top of hour, legal. A musical jingle element can really make these pop! ssound big and professional. Suno and Moises to the rescue! staying true to human art. I wrote out the lyrics which the AI sing.

Imaging with singing music elements to excentuate the message. Also, a couple of mixed jingles without imaging surrounding them

Suno, also will spit out instrumental music. So? naturally, beds come to mind.

In closing. I always do my best to stay sharp, cutting Edge. AI is opening up an entire new world, allowing us to stay true to human art and add AI elements to really enhance the imaging we produce! Don’t forget my Imager course is available to help you grow and learn more about my workflow!

https://drewsound.com/2023/06/04/numberoneimager-radio-production-course-now-available/

Well, it’s been a minute sence I’ve driven. I think the last time, I was around 16, 17. Naturally, I’m a lot more cautious these days. Lol. The opportunity presented itself as we were changing an alternator in the car, and I was already in the driver seat manning the engine to verify we had the right voltage levels. This audio flips between a binaural recording, in the car, and out to the perspective of audio from a video captured with an IPHONE 13 mini. always so fun smiley face 

So all credit goes to Suno on this one. This is the coolest thing I’ve heard Suno put out! I typed Fuck You! like 20 times and told it to make a metal song? This is what came out of it. I did this 3 day’s ago? It’s all I’ve listened too… That’s saying something.