‘CHASE THAT FEELING’ SCREENSHOTS

We recently finished shooting the filmclip for ‘Chase That Feeling’ – the first single off ‘State of the Art’. Here’s some ungraded screenshots…

‘Chase That Feeling’ will be released on iTunes May 1st. International dates to follow.

AUSTRALIA’S WORST KEPT SECRET

Judging by the emails we’ve been getting over the last couple of days we’re not very good at being covert.

Pharoahe Monch has been down in Adelaide this week working on ‘State of the Art’ with us.

For those that don’t know, get familiar…

DRUNK HISTORY

How these videos have escaped my attention so far is fucking beyond me.

THE JJJ MORNING SHOW LIVE FROM THE HOODS STUDIO

Tomorrow morning the JJJ Morning show will be broadcast live from the Hoods studio in South Australia.
We’ll be doing an interview, bumping out an old track and may even be sharing snippets off our forthcoming album.
So join Robbie, Marieke & The Doctor as they wake the Hoods up earlier than they’ve ever been woken up before.
The broadcast starts at 6am tomorrow morning. Our international friends can stream the morning show live from the JJJ website. For more information visit…
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/breakfast/

***UPDATE***
For those of you that missed out on hearing a preview of the Hilltop Hoods new album ‘State Of The Art’ when JJJ broadcast live from the Hoods studio this morning check out a snippet of ‘Hillatoppa’…

THE HARD ROAD RESTRUNG ORCHESTRAL SCORES

For our musically gifted friends.

Right-Click and Save-Target-As…

http://www.hilltophoods.com/downloads/RESTRUNG_SCORES.zip

Enjoy!

CHEAP HOME RECORDING

We get hit up by a lot of punters wondering how they can record at home. A lot of people have a tight budget so we thought we’d get our resident audio geek, Mr DJ Debris, to walk you through some options for setting up a cheap home studio.

THE BASICS:

If you have a relatively new PC or a Mac (less than 5 years old) recording yourself at home is quite achievable with a small budget.
The 5 main items you’ll need to purchase are:

* Audio interface for your computer
* Microphone
* Microphone stand & cable
* Headphones
* Software

AUDIO INTERFACE:

Line 6 Toneport UX1

A good audio interface to start with is the Line 6 UX1. These can be purchased from most online music equipment retailers for around $89.

Manufacturers link: http://line6.com/toneportux1/index.html

Retailer link: http://www.jrrshop.com/line-toneport-p-5445.html

The Line 6 UX1 is good for recording microphones and guitars but doesn’t have any stereo inputs for sampling. If your goal is to make beats and record vocals I would suggest spending a bit extra on something like the Yamaha Audiogram6. This is a great unit and offers many more options. It includes a built in mixer & compressor which will make your recording sound much better. The Yamaha Audiogram6 can be picked up online for around $149.

Manufacturers link: http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/audiogram/index.html

Retailer link: http://www.jrrshop.com/yamaha-audiogram6-6channel-audio-interface-p-7754.html

Both of the Audio Interfaces I have suggested work on PC or Mac and because they are USB they work great on laptop’s too.

MICROPHONE:

MXL 990

A nice microphone to start with is a MXL 990. They have an amazing sound for the price. The MXL 990 can be purchased online for around $59.

Manufacturers link: http://www.mxlmics.com/condenser_mic/900_Series/MXL990/mxl990.html

Retailer link: http://www.jrrshop.com/mxl-marshall-990-p-4875.html

A mic stand, headphones and cable can be picked up altogether for around the $100 mark from most music equipment retailers. You might want to consider a pop shield for your microphone if you have a loud vocal delivery.

Retailer link: http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/studio/

SOFTWARE:

Reaper

The Yamaha Audiogram6 interface that I suggested before comes with Cubase AI which is a cut down version of Cubase. That should be sufficient for basic recording but if you want some really great production/recording/mixing software that works really well on PC and Mac then try Reaper. It sells for $50 from their website but you can try it for free for for 30 days before purchasing. Reaper has been getting rave reviews everywhere and there really isn’t much this software can’t do. It has been compared to Logic and Pro Tools which is amazing considering the price tag.

Manufacturers link: http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

If you get stuck using this software they have an good online manual which is easy to digest: http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Reaper_Documentation

When you finish a song you’ll need to burn it to disc. Most of you will have some sort of burning program installed but in case you don’t you can try these free programs.
PC: http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
Mac: http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/
They have great options for backing up your data and burning your final audio disc.

If you just want to burn audio discs then iTunes will do the job for PC and Mac.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/

As for production and recording techniques…
If you search Google, Youtube etc. you can find some great tutorials for making beats and recording.

TOP TEN TIME PART 3

DEBRIS TOP TEN ALBUMS

Masta Ace – Slaughtahouse
Black Sheep – Non Fiction
A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders
KRS One – KRS One
Organized Konfusion – Stress (The Extinction Agenda)
Main Source – Breaking Atoms
Eric B And Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em
Notorious B.I.G. – Ready To Die
King Tee – At Your Own RIsk
Braintax – Biro Funk

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Wu Tang Clan – Enter The 36 Chambers
Slick Rick – The Rulers Back
Public Enemy – Yo Bum Rush The Show
Swollen Members – Balance
Beatnuts – Intoxicated Demons

TOP TEN TIME PART 2

PRESSURE’S TOP TEN ALBUMS

1. Organized Konfusion – Stress (The Extinction Agenda)
2. Brother Ali – Shadows on the Sun
3. Masta Ace – Take a Look Around
4. Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die
5. Commonsense – Resurrection
6. Nas – Illmatic
7. Erik B and Rakim – Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em
8. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions…
9. Gravediggerz – 6 Feet Deep
10. Jurassic 5 – Power in Numbers

‘CITY OF LIGHT’ NOMINATED FOR AN ARIA

Today our DVD ‘City OF Light’ was nominated for an ARIA (non-Australians ARIAs are our Grammys/Junos/Brits).

It’s recognition of the great work the people at Oasis Post do (they’re the crew who put together our last two DVD’s). We ‘d like to thank Richard Coburn, Martyn Zubb, Marty Pepper, Kate Butler, Jade Robinson and Annalise in particular.

Here’s a snippet – a track we did with Lowrider exclusively for the DVD…

Here’s another snippet – ‘Breathe’ live with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra…

I’ve got to admit I’m still wondering why Drapht didn’t get a nomination for Best Urban.

HUMAN RACE – MELBOURNE

Here’s some pics from our recent trip over to Melbourne with Lowrider. Played at 11:30 on a Sunday morning to a small but vocal crowd. Thanks to everyone who stuck around to see us play!

Human Race – Melbourne – Hilltop Hoods Feat. Lowrider

Human Race – Melbourne – Pressure

Human Race – Melbourne – Suffa & Pressure