n-Track Studio's Featured Artist of the Month

JANUARY 2003


The Five W

Featured Artist's Web Page: http://www.nortillo.com/


Where:

Millburn, NJ, USA

Who: Justin Nortillo (30) ( Guitar, Bass, Pianos, Drums, Vocals )

When:
NA

Why:
As a way to keep in touch with friends.

What:
Blues, Rock, Jazz, Funk, Thrash.

In Short:

Influences:
John Denver, Doc Watson, Wes Montogomery, Fugazi.

What I listen to: Beck, Jimi Hendrix, The Strokes, Vivaldi, Woody Guthrie, Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

Where I play: My basement mostly but I have done the off coffee house acoustic show in the past 4 years.

Justin Nortillo
by Alessandro De Murtas

Featured Songs: 

Songs By Nortillo
#note:
42 songs!!!


[..] I'm just a guy who has a normal job and a wife and a mortgage who loves to write songs. It's total therapy to write a piece of music and record it. I'm not in it for the money. I work for an international company who pays me too much and allows me some nice downtime. I write music for myself and for two of my musician friends. I started nortillo.com when my best friend Ian moved to the West Coast. I used to give him tapes of my work. Now I can create mp3's with n-track and post them on my website for him to listen.
I've been in bands since I was 15. Now I do everything myself, all the
composing and all of the playing. I can pretty much play all standard rock instruments. I'm now trying to figure out how to play a banjo. My roots in music start with the Doors then to Crimpshrine and Filth then to Jimi Hendrix and Beck to Tom Jobim. I'll listen to any music except for late 80's glam rock.


Tips and Tricks from Justin Nortillo using n-Track Studio.


[..]
I use two mixing boards, one for drums and the other for everything else. I have them connected directly into my IBM A30p think pad notebook's sound card.
I use 6 microphones on the drums, snare, bass, tom, floor tom and two
overheads. I usually write the music on guitar, bass or piano, get the tune in my head, then record the drums. Occasionally if I've played to fast, I'll make the drum track a bit longer, slowing it down. I then switch my mixing board connection, and record my guitars, basses, pianos, keyboards and vocals. I have an inexpensive condenser mic I use for vocals, acoustic guitars and for my Rhodes piano. I go direct through my POD 2.0 on guitar and sometimes go direct into the mixing board for bass. I also have a bass POD and a 1965 Fender Bassman with some rack effects. I almost always clone the guitar tracks then pan them, one right and one left. I depend on drawing volume envelopes. It allows me to record my tracks sloppily and then silence my mistakes or cut out unwanted sections of a track. I also use the punch in tool quite a bit. I colorize each track based on the instrument. This helps me keep track of what is what. I also depend on Fasoft Compressor v1.1 It gives my tracks the depth they sometimes lack. N-track is so brilliant. It's completely easy to use but full of useful features. There isn't much you can not do with it.

What's Being Cooked Up?

Featured Artist of the Month - Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Are you an n-Track Studio's User? Would like to be reviewed? Send email to alex@n-track.com, reporting as much info as you can. Also including your recording equipment, procedures, tips & tricks for advantage of all the n-Track Studio's users.


More songs coming soon...