Category — Music

By the way, here’s a pic of my home studio.  I managed to actually use the Tascam US-428 and now with VMWare Fusion I am running Acid on my Mac!  I chose to use network drives attached to another PC so I could still access my data from a PC, but it works like a charm.

The cool Henry Rollins and a couple of the prints are by way of Gabe Richesson.  He’s an awesome artist and a friend of mine – I love his work.  He also has a website that I helped him with, though he mostly just keeps his blog updated.

Well, I recently did a session with a great local singer (Megan Fong) that sealed the deal for me – I am moving my recording and production chores from the PC to Apple Macintosh. 

 While were were able to cut some rough guitar / vocal demo tracks, we had a few problems with the PC and eventually switched over to ProTools on my MacBook and things went flawlessly.

Even installing all the right firewire patches, etc. on my PC didn’t make it run smoothly – I would still get blue screens from time to time when running firewire devices during both recording and playback.

 Therefore, here’s my new rig:

•  Apple MacBook 2.0Ghz Core Duo, 80GB HD, 2GB RAM
• 2×500GB Maxtor OneTouchPlus 4 FW/USB 2.0 HD (one for audio tracking, one for libraries and instrument files)
• 1×750GB Maxtor OneTouch Plus 4 FW/USB 2.0 HD (for backup)
• ProTools MBox2 Pro Factory Bundle w/ProTools LE 7.X
• Steinberg Cubase 4
• TC Electronic Powercore Firewire
• Focusrite LiquidMix
• Event Studio Precision 6 Monitors
• KRK RP-5 Powered Monitors w/RP-10S Powered Subwoofer
• Alesis Monitor One Monitors

I have a pretty nice selection of mics and a couple of decent pre-amps, but need to add more in this category, especially the pre-amps:

• Neumann TLM 103 Studio Condenser
• Blue Dragonfly Studio Condenser
• Shure KSM-42 Studio Condenser
• Rode NTK Studio Tube Condenser w/Pre
• DBX 586 Dual Tube Pre w/Digital I/O Option
• Tons of miscellaneous dynamic and lower end condenser mics

I also have some interesting outboard gear, some of which isn’t in high utilization any longer but I’ll list it here for information purposes:

• TC-Helicon VoicePrism Plus
• Electrix WarpFactory
• 2x Alesis ADAT-XT20
• Sony PCM-500 DAT
• MOTU Midi Timepiece

This is the stuff that only works on my PC and thus probably won’t get used much anymore:

• MOTU 2408 MKIII Core
• Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 6.0
• Sonic Foundry SoundForge 8.0
• Tascam Gigastudio Orchestra 3 (might use a PC to run this as it sounds great)

Some other audio interfaces I have lying around:

• Tascam / Frontier US-428 (remember this?)

Software Synths and Instruments (some Mac, some PC, some both):

• Steinberg The Grand
• Steinberg Virtual Guitarist
• Steinberg VG Acoustic Edition
• BFD
• BFD 2
• Spectrasonics Stylus
• Spectrasonics Stylus RMX
• Spectrasonics Atmosphere
• Spectrasonics Trilogy

Finally, I am experimenting with VMWare Fusion – I think I will be able to track into Acid on my Mac, then send the files over to ProTools for mixdown and production.  I will update you more on this as I learn more, as it sure would be nice to be able to do this so I can still use my cool Sony software and my Gigistudio.  Gotta figure out how all the disk stuff works though.

Ok, so you might know of this band because of the movie Once.  Glen Hansard is the leader of this group and he was the star of the movie.  His band has been around a while and this is an album that probably puts them in the mainstream.  The grammy award winning song “Falling Slowly” is also on this album, but I don’t think it’s the version from the movie.   http://www.theframes.ie/

A group of guys that love the harmonies of the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.  Their debut album is just coming out.  www.lowstars.com

Lamour.mp3

A little techno-house something something I did.  Can’t remember when.

Foolish.mp3

“The first lie, was not the last lie..”

Written in 1991 or 1992, a tape deck special.

Friendly Fire.mp3

Written after the first gulf war.  Another one of those sequenced keyboard things with just a mic and cassette player.

A Classical Christmas.mp3

Recorded in 1992, this is a sequenced, semi-classical track that I wrote around Christmas in 1991.  Just a keyboard.

Wishin’ For A Miracle.mp3

This is one of the first demos I recorded when I was putting together my studio in the mid-nineties.  My partner, Chris Raspante, did the guitars and sung the track – I did the rest.

Walk Away.mp3

I wrote this in 1992 or so – just me, a cheap keyboard, tape deck and mic.  This is another one that I will produce someday.  Pretty crappy recording, but passable.