Have you tried recording at your practice space or at home and you keep getting a hum for some reason? Doesn’t make those demos so good does it? Or say your PA in your practice space hums no matter what you do? The solution might be in this little box, the Rolls Buzz Off Hum Eliminator. It’s a two-channel box made to sit between your mixer and PA or possibly between rackmount effects you might be using. Just put this in the signal chain and you should hear all that hum disappear.

To educate yourself on ground loops read this epanorama article. If you’re recording or working with live sound for the first time, this is valuable information you should know.

Some of you have pages at one or more of Purevolume, Myspace, Virb, ReverbNation, Garageband, etc. The overwhelming trend though is to use Myspace. It still has the best tools for artists and also the best audience to for promotion. So there are two options for when you create your own domain name (yourband.com):

1. Set up your own web site.
2. Point your domain name to myspace, so that when someone types in yourband.com, they get taken to your myspace.

Obviously the second option is considerably cheaper and less time consuming.

There are a couple ways to do this, but the best way is if you host your site with a domain host like dreamhost.com. You can use settings within your host to “redirect” the domain name to your myspace page. Here are basic steps to do so.

1. Log in to your domain host.
2. Go to the page where you can manage your domains. It will be called something like “manage domains,” “configure domains,” “domain settings,” or the like.
3. If you have to, navigate further into the settings pages for the specific domain.
4. Look for a “redirect” section. It should include a box for you to type in the “URL” for the page you want to redirect to. In this case, it is your myspace URL, so it should be something like: http://www.myspace.com/yourband.

This is a nice method because you can still set up functional email addresses @yourband.com that you can receive mail at, while using your myspace (which is easy to edit, and free) as your web site.

If you look all over your host and can’t find redirect settings, don’t be afraid to shoot them an email and ask how you can redirect your site. If you have a host that doesn’t have this feature, never fear. Just download the attached file (named “index”) and make it your home page, after you replace everything that says “yourband” with your band name.

index

Miracle Max has contributed the song, “Flying Down the Road,” to the compilation, “Rock 4 Life International, Volume 1.” The album is available at Amazon MP3 and other sites as a digital download. There is also a physical CD that the band will be selling at shows and through the mail. The compilation benefits PSC Partners, a non-profit dedicated to working together to provide research, education, and support for people affected by Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC).” PSC is a liver disease that currently has no cure other than a liver transplant.

Rock 4 Life International, Vol. 1

Bass Tab

Here are a couple of files you might find handy: guitar and bass tab text files. The next time you need to get down a new riff you wrote and email it over to a friend, grab one of these guys!

Guitar Tab (4 KB Text File)
Bass Tab (3 KB Text File)

Amazon MP3 is offering the new All-American Rejects album for $2.99 as a digital download! The album is titled, ‘When the World Comes Down’ and was released on December 16th.