Almost done with our new Rock Ridge Bluegrass Band recording while fun, it is still stressful and very time consuming. Just to listen to each song once, it takes 45 minutes. Here is a pic of Victor recording, I think the moon was out a bit early this day.

In the studio

Here is a pic of recording Mando in the Home Studio. Yes, I live in a train wreck, but I am mentally organized. The mic was a Neumann KMS 84, which I could never get into, some people love them, but it has never worked for me. Must be the Mic Pre. Also in the pic is a U89, which we used for vocals in almost all of the recording.

Wictor being Wictor. That is an Apex 460 with a 6072 tube and a MXL 2003b capsule. Was trying for low gain the get rid of the grain. Good instrument mic, too much air for vocals though.

New recording and other junk.....

New recording
We just finished our first Rock Ridge recording (Amazon Rock Ridge & iTunes), and we are ready to start the second project. I have gotten a bit of feedback, most of it positive, some negative, but in the form of helpful critique, which I actually appreciate.  Unfortunately, I knew some of the shortcomings of the recording and figured I would hear critique about this one aspect of the recording. It was the most difficult to deal with and frankly, I didn't get it under control, and didn't realize it until the mixing near the end. It was a result of tracking with headphones and thinking I will fix it in the mix. It was the bass, which had no definition, more boom, no wood, the Bass gave me fits. I will deal with this in one of many ways on the next recording. No more recording in bedrooms, we will be in bigger rooms, bass traps, I will not listening to mic placement with headphones. Seems OK but just doesn't work on bass. I am pretty sure that the bass mic was too close also, again, small room, close mic-ing, and fn headphones.

This may not make sense to those who haven't mixed before, but while mixing you create these chains, after one finds an issue, it is usually faster to fix the issue, only after a while, all the fixes add up and the audio can sound processed. The only fix is to really reset and start all over, which is impossible at the end of a project. In mixing, all mistakes are additive.......

Other Junk
I spend a great deal of time practicing the last couple of years, somewhere between 1-8 hours a day, depending on workload. Trying to get rid of that lameness in my previous recordings, although that may be impossible, it is certainly the goal. While recording the last project, there were thing that I changed to sound better. It was very time consuming and there was a lot of frustration and self-analysis, things progressed and hopefully this next one........ The band wants me to play more fiddle, so I am, and of course, that takes away from songwriting and Mando. If feels endless, and with work stress, there just isn't enough time to get a lot done. All would have been easier if I would have found Bluegrass as a child. Progress as an adult, nobody gives a shit.....but it is really fun.

The Shock-Ra-Nome

I have been thinking about designing a DSP metronome that using hard-coded AI, an onboard mic and a instrument pickup, extracts a normalized band beat, and when the player gets off tempo, the metronome shocks the offending musician. I am thinking both 110 and 220 volt models, maybe something custom for Banjo players (440 VAC three phase). I bet it will fix timing issues in a hurry.

New Music

My Band Rock Ridge Bluegrass has finished our recording. It was a very long process, and quite a learning curve, at least for me. While we may not be "Nashville" it certainly is the most musical organization I have had the honor to be part of. Not sure if anyone will read this, listen, or care, but I enjoyed producing the music. We will be putting the mp3s online next couple of days and the music is out for duplication.

We started the project as a loose demo, and it became more serious along the way, not sure why, just made sense, no discussions, just all made it happen. I engineered, mixed, mastered the CD. Mostly on my Martin Logans, PMCs, and Stax headphones. All in the band gave input, and it helped, but it only takes one off night to throw the audio out of whack. If anybody has ever tried record an acoustic audio project themselves, it's difficult, after a late evening and wondering what the hell you were thinking the next day. Ear fatigue makes for bad decisions, as does wanting to to be done. Early in the recording process threw up a mic that I would have never used otherwise thinking "it's only a demo" (which it is). Not a good idea, every time I hear the Mic, I cringe, but I doubt if anyone else would notice besides Victor, who used the mic in question.

We ended up using a MXL Revelation with a MXL 2003b capsule that I put in it on Guitar/Mando. MXL 2003s are excellent mics, as are the Revelations, I know the guys that designed it (including the owner of MXL mics), they take mics seriously, contrary to what the population and the "cheap Chinese mic" people say. The audio community.....    Oh, while I do work for MXL, I would use the mics I used no matter what, and have a fairly good size mic locker (as does MXL), some MXLs just sound good. I can't stand KM84s, AKG451s, (even own them). I would never sabotage a project, too many hours in it. Vocals were Neumann U89. Kinda surprised I used the Neumann, but it just sounded good in the mix after all was done to the vocal chain. Bass was a Gefell M7 cap, Banjo was mostly a Apex ribbon. All in all, fairly happy with they way it turned out, Joise's & Jon voices had the air that I like so much, but not too much. Engineers always say "use the mics in the mix", that is so true, choosing a vocal mic without the rhythm just doesn't give good results.

Why I decided to write

While writing software for MXL/Marshall Electronics, I can spend weeks in my office, working long days to late at night, not talking to anybody. Reading this software blog how-to-write-without-writing  talks about how import it is to communicate/write, which really something I avoid at all costs. Communication in general, is not my strong suit, so I have decided to break out of my software shell and start interacting with the world.  If something goes wrong in my life, I usually just work harder and "shut-the-f..k-up". I don't think that helps communication.

Recording acoustic music is extremely challenging, I love playing/recording with new recording gear, hopefully writing will open up dialogs with other musicians or audio engineers. There is so much to learn and no place to really learn it online, or to even look over a shoulder while an important session in underway. Recording appears to be a who you know business, and holing up in an office writing software in Chico doesn't create the environment for learning about recording.

M600 Dinosaur mixing console project,

Ebay is a exciting place to get vintage and new recording equipment, which I am using to record Rock Ridge Bluegrass Band. I am taking a Tascam M600, which I bought new in 1998 and hacking in different channel strips from the better vintage and newer consoles. Oddly, they are still making new analog consoles...... This picture shows two D&R Orion strips, 1 MCI strip and a very old Langevin AM16 sitting on top of the Dinosaurs power supply.  I need take the time to hook up my o-scope fix the Langevin, which use to work. I have another that is still like new.

The AM16 was probably built in late 50s, early 60s. There was a time when transistors were used with transformers on both the input and output of the mic pre-amp. McIntosh amps did this for a while also. Now, they usually use a cheap capacitor on the output to AC couple.

When I bought the Tascam M600, it was the last one shipped from Japan and they sent all the spare modules from the factory. Interestingly, the M600 has discrete Mic pre-amps and sound very good, the EQs are a bit harsh but I have recapped them to make them sound better. These consoles are found in some pretty high end studios around the world, and have been modded and used by some big names, but here in the states.....it's just a Tascam.