The Best of Simple

2008-01-29T07:02:00.000-06:00

Revolution Mother Studio Session

My tech nerd-dome landed me a gig recording a song for Revolution Mother at Studio in the Country; recorded my Ben Mumphrey and myself.

Studio in the Country is an amazing studio in Bogalusa (of all places) that has been around since the 70s. Stevie Wonder, Kansas, Neville Brothers, Blues Traveler are just a few of the artists who have recorded there over the years. It's got this great 70s sort of vibey thing going on and the gear selection is fantastic as well.

First up... a couple drum setup pictures... with gear selection:
Kick: Beyer M88 > API 312 > DBX 162
Snare: Beyer M201 > API 312
Overheads: Neumann KM84 > Calrec PQ-1161
Toms: Sennheiser MD421 > API 512C
Spot Mic: Nuemann U67 > Neve 1064
Room Mics: Scheops Tube > Calrec PQ-1161

Drums Setup 1

Drums Setup 2

The bass player had his tone dialed in nicely, so tracking bass was painless. We used 2 mics and took a direct off an Avalon DI.
Mic 1: Sony C-500 > LA-2A
Mic 2: Sennheiser MD421 > 1176 Rev D

Bass Setup

The guitarist also had his tone dialed in nicely, so it was just a matter of setting up some different mic combinations and seeing which ones we liked the best. The guitar setup pics show the size of the live room. The 4x12 cabs look quite small in that room.

Guitar Setup 1

Guitar Setup 2

I think we ended up using a gritty SM-57 > Calrec PQ-1161 combination on each cabinet... though I must admit I preferred the Beyer M-160 and Sony C-37A.

And, of course, a shot of Ben tracking some guitars to the Pro-Tools at 3am in the morning. (Notice the Studer A-800 sitting just behind Ben... and yes, we recorded straight to Tools)

Guitar Tracking

2007-12-26T13:18:00.000-06:00

Window Restoration (Part #3)

I am finally finished the sash work on the two windows in my spare bedroom. I added weatherstripping and re-attached the sash chords and weights.

Sash Chord

I used zinc weatherstripping at the meeting rail, head, and sill. This type of weatherstripping is extremely durable and should last for many years, unlike that cheap stick-on squishy stuff that might last 2 years. I used v-shaped spring bronze (attached to the sashes) to stop airflow from entering around the sashes. This type of weatherstripping travels with the sash, so the weight pockets are still accessible. This also gives the window a more historic look since no weatherstripping is seen as the window sashes travel up and down.

Meeting Rail Weatherstripping

Bottom Sash Weatherstripping

The Completed Windows

Interior

Working Sashes

Exterior

Next up... finish the mill work around the windows and doors.

2007-12-15T16:52:00.000-06:00

Window Restoration (Part #2)

The exterior side of the windows...

I let the putty (glaze) dry for a solid two weeks. Priming/Painting the exterior is a much slower process and requires more patience. I typically use Benjamin Moore Penetrating Primer Alkyd, but this can cause the putty to wrinkle. Instead, for the glaze, I opted to use Benjamin Moore Fast Dry Alkyd with no Penetrol, and didn't experience any sort of wrinkling or warping of the putty. I used the penetrating primer with Penetrol for all other wood surfaces. Once this is dry, I'll apply two top coats of BM Atrium White.

Bottom Sash Glaze Dry

Top Sash Primed #1

Top Sash Primed #2

2007-11-27T20:49:00.000-06:00

Window Restoration (Part #1)

I've spent the past couple months in my spare time restoring the 70+ year old windows in my spare bedroom. They are fairly typical, double-hung sash windows. The window casings and sashes were extremely weathered and in need of some attention. I'm currently restoring the sashes of the second window. The first window is complete.

I first completely de-glazed (removed window panes) and stripped the many, many layers of paint off the casing and sashes, similar to my methods in previous posts. This process is rather painful and I hate doing it. But it has to be done. I then applied an oil-based exterior primer (make sure the primer has linseed oil) to the interior side of the sashes. Due to the humidity here, it takes roughy a week to dry.

Bottom Sash Primer Only

After the primer has dried, I applied two coats of 100% acrylic (latex) paint and lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper between all three coats (1 x primer and 2 x paint). I like to let the latex dry overnight, but 4-8 hours is generally ok between coats. It's kind of difficult to tell from the pictures, but the painted top sash pictured below definitely looks better than the primer only sash. The paint is much smoother and richer.

Top Sash Primed and Painted

Moving on to the exterior side of the sashes, the window panes need to be installed and re-glazed to form an air right seal. Many of the panes in this particular sash were broken, or I broke when de-glazing, so I'll need to get some glass cut at the local hardware store. Before glazing, it's a good idea to apply glazing points to hold the pane in place. It's the small, triangular piece of metal.

Glazing Points Installed

After the glazing points are installed, I used an oil-based glaze (putty). I do not recommend using any form of water-based glaze, or anything that comes in a tube. Those products are generally crap and won't hold up over time. There are many methods to glaze a window, and it actually takes a little practice to get the hang of it. But the nice thing being oil-based, there is plenty of time to scoop it out and start over if the glazing isn't going well. The picture below shows an empty pane, glaze applied, and then the glaze smoothed to form a nice beveled edge.

Glazing in Progress

Glazing Done (Still Missing Panes)

Once the glaze is dry (takes about 7-10 days), I can apply primer and paint (similar to the interior of the sash) to the exterior of the sash. Once it's dry, the sashes are complete.

More to come on the window casing, weatherstripping, hanging counterweights, and putting the window back together.

But for now... beer time... Cheers!

2007-11-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

October Travels

Austin:

Brooklyn:

Coney Island:

Bye, Manhatten:

Hello, Schwenksville:

2007-08-27T19:15:00.000-06:00

Haarp Does Truck Farm (08/17/07-08/19/07)

After a two year break from recording, I finally got myself together for a weekend session with Haarp (Ex-Rat in a Bucket) at Truck Farm Studios. I didn't really sleep much that entire week, as my anxiety level was toxic and my mind continuously went through every possible situation that could arise. In short, I was obsessed, and I have to thank my trusty assistant/co-engineer Eric Martinez for keeping my head on my shoulders the week prior.

The Studio
A few shots of the main tracking room and control room:

Live Room

Live Room from Control Room

The Console

mmmm... The Gear

Eric and I arrived just after lunch on Friday for an afternoon and evening of setup. Since we planned to track Haarp live (with the exception of vocals), we needed to get everything right the first time. No overdubs. Truck Farm has a nice selection of gear, but there are some pieces in my gear collection I just cannot do without... so I brought them along:
- Neve 31102 preamp/equalizer modules (2)
- Calrec 1161 preamp/equalizer modules (2)
- Type 312 preamps (2)
- Type 1272 preamps (2)
- Bloo Technologies LA-2A
- G4000 Stereo Compressor

The Studer
Even though the mixes would eventually be transferred to ProTools and taken back to my mixing studio, my love for analog tape still forced me to record to Truck Farm's Studer A80VU MkIV first. This is one of the best tape machines ever built, and it is, by far, the best I've personally had the pleasure to record on. I spent an evening prior to the session aligning the machine (+9). I kind of hate aligning tape machines, but it's very important to have every track to spec.

Here she is in all her glory:

Studer A80

Drums
I typically like to work on drums first. They usually take the longest to setup and mic and are probably the most complex. Keith plays a typical 5 piece set with a kick, snare, two rack toms, and a floor tom. His drums sounded very good in the room and needed little tweaking, but I immediately knew his cymbals would present a problem becuase they were very low; just over his toms. It took us several takes and mic adjustments before we settled on final placement. All in all, the cymbal bleed was minimized and very manageable. Some shots of the drums:

Replacing Drum Heads

Drums (in Mid-Setup)

Fuzzy Coles 4038

Keith Says Hello!

We did some additional tweaks Saturday morning, but ultimately settled on the following setup:
- Kick: Beyer M88 > Type 312 > API 560B > Distressor
- Snare: Beyer M201 > Type 312
- Overheads (stereo pair): Neumann KM84 > Type 1272
- Rooms (stereo pair): Coles 4038 > Calrec PQ-1161 > G4000 (sounded awesome !!!)
- Rack Toms: Sennheiser MD421 > API 512C > API 550B
- Floor Tom: Electrovoice RE-20 > API 512C > API 550B

Bass
I absolutely love recording a bass player who has his shit together. Pomes came with a nice bass setup, new strings, and tuned to C (damn!). We pulled a DI (clean) and a mic (little dirty) for a nice blend and flexibility when mixing. Final setup:
DI: Avalon DI > API 553 > Sta-Level
Mic: Beyer M88 > API 560B > LA-2A

Da Pomes (in Best Borat Voice)

Bass Setup

Guitars
Getting good, solid guitar tones took a bit longer than I had originally planned. Both guitarists had way too much bottom end, and not enough clarity in their tones for recording. For both guitarists, we swapped cabinets and/or heads until we got what I was looking for. It may have taken some time, but the tones we got were killer. Big, thick, rich, and creamy... and heavy of course.

Grant's Setup:
- 90s Les Paul > Randall Head (model?) > Mesa Cabinet
- Mic #1: Beyer M160 > Neve 31102 > Blackface 1176
- Mic #2: Sony C37A > Calrec PQ-1161

Grant is Mysterious

Jason's Setup:
- Guitar? > JCM800 > Randall Cabinet
- Mic #1: Beyer M160 > Neve 31102 > JoeMeek SC-2 Optical
- Mic #2: Shinybox 23C > API 512C

Jason Rockin' It

Vocals
Shaun is a maniac. The most challenging aspect of recording Shaun was getting him to feel comfortable. At shows, Shaun is used to holding a microphone, moving around, raising his hands, and screaming his ass off. I knew that if he had to stand still in front of a mic on a stand with a wind screen, his performance would be terrible. So I opted to give him a microphone that he could hold and run around the room. We tried a couple different recording setups, but settled on a Shure SM7 > Neve 1272 > Bloo LA-2A, and we tracked straight to ProTools.

Shaun Screaming

Shaun Relaxing

Sir Martinez
We did this entire project in a weekend, and easily spent over 35 hours. Eric was with me through it all... and shitty drunk most of the time. He made my work that much easier by setting up mics, keeping things neat and tidy, and just drinking alot of beer being Eric. I couldn't have done it without him.

Eric (Photo by Keith)

Cheers... can't wait to do it all again.

I'm Tired and Need a Beer.

2007-08-23T06:45:00.001-06:00

Who-Dat DIY

I am pumped for Saints football season... and I am such a gearhead it's kind of ridiculous. So I thought it would be best to combine both worlds in my latest piece of home-brew DIY recording gear. I introduce the "Black and Gold" G4000 VCA. It's a stereo VCA compressor based on the quad compressor in an SSL Series 4000 console. This one has a couple unique features. It has a 5 position selectable sidechain HPF (err... High-Pass Filter) and a 10 segment gain reduction LED meter, with a selectable range of either -10dB (1 dB/LED) or -20dB (2dB/LED). It uses gold can DBX 202C VCAs. The gold cans originally sparked the little Who-Dats in my brain to do something with a Saints theme.

I finished it just in time for football season... and it sounds wonderful. I used it this past weekend during the Haarp sessions at Truck Farm (more to come on that).

Go Saints !!!

(Click for larger)

2007-08-06T06:20:00.000-06:00

Why Don't We Say Pop?

Replacing underground plumbing is no easy task. I spent the first 3 or 4 weekends as a homeowner digging a hole in my front yard. It was nearly 4' x 12' and over 5' deep. And after the first 2' or 3', the ground is clay... not fun. And it smells, or maybe that was the broken sewer line, whatever. So eventually I get down there and remove all the sections of separated/broken terracotta, and eventually the plumber shows up to fix everything.

So why didn't you just pay the plumbers to dig the hole? I asked myself this every weekend, but then I remembered they wanted $99 per hour for a two man crew to dig it out, and then I snapped to my senses and kept shoveling.

Wanting no part is backfilling this hole, I put it off until this past weekend. I spent a few hours filling Friday after work, and decided it better to wait until Saturday morning when it'd be cooler.

As a side story, Entergy is replacing all the underground gas lines in my neighborhood with higher pressure gas lines. They actually subcontracted it out to some company from Wisconsin. Needless to say, there is plenty of dozers and backhoes and things to break up concrete on every block.

This is where my story comes to its climax. One of the workers (from Wisconsin) must have had pity on me as he watched my skinny, weak ass labor filling the hole. He pulls up in one of the fancy dozer/backhoe combos and says (now please imagine the heaviest Midwest accent), "Yeh want me to fill that?"

My eyes got big and of course I said, "Sure."

So I sat on my stoop drinking Gatorade while this guy dozered and backhoed a huge pile of mud and clay into my hole. The guy saved me at least a couple days of work. He did it in 10 fucking minutes.

When he was finished I asked him if he wanted to get some lunch at Panola down the street. On me, of course.

He yells, "Naaaah, I gotta get back to work... just brang a 12 pack of pop for da crew on Monday!"

(Me thinking).... Pop? hmm... oh, ok. Soda! duh.

"What kind you like?" I yell.

"Uhhhhh, Mountaaain Dew."

So, there you have it. I got my hole backfilled for a $2.99 pack of Mountain Dew.

PS - I have some nice pictures of the whole process but they're on a camera that's in Canada right now... eh.

2007-07-20T06:07:00.000-06:00

PooTools --- Strike One !!!

In my previous blog post, I hinted at my skeptism and dislike for digital recording. I'm not necessarily referring to the sonics, but just the process of having to deal with computers all the time in a recording studio. Well my experience last night further strengthens my love for the analog tape machine and the recording console.

Since my house plumbing is completely fixed I decided to do something fun, right... ya know, get my very first ProTools, which I'm now dubbing PooTools or ShitTools, system up and running. Wrong! Let's go back a little... I downloaded the PooTools manual and read it thoroughly so I'd know which system settings I had to change in my MacPro, as well as the entire process for installing PooTools. Easy enough.

After changing a couple "System Preferences" and installing PooTools, I excitedly and anxiously started the PooTools application. The screen slowly faded from blue to dark blue and a little box appeared telling me in 4 different languages that I need to restart my computer by holding down the "Power" button. My initial impression was that this was routine and part of the installation process. Once again, Wrong! Every time I tried to start PooTools my computer locked up and I got this message.

Totally bummed, I called my ShitTools guru friend and explained to him my problem. To make a long story short, I basically fell victim to the whole pre-Intel Mac vs post-Intel Mac tomfoolery. I thought I installed PooTools for Mac OS X Tiger, which I did... but they failed to mention that this was the version for Macs pre-Intel processors. In the latest Mac line of computers, the MacPro, Mac switched from Mac processors to Intel processors. Translation for the user - NO SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY!

After realizing that I repeatedly crashed my Mac (and who said Macs don't crash, hah and pft), my ShitTools guru directed me to immediately uninstall PooTools and click here, click there, click nowhere and repair the hard drive which I probably just screwed up. After this wonderful experience, it seems my computer is working fine, but the three hours I spent working on this are all for nil. But... I think I will have my hands on the correct version to install today.

Perhaps I'm oversensitive and entirely impatient with recording software and computers, but I'd much rather just take a mic, plug it into a preamp, and plug that into my tape machine... and start recording. Hopefully PooTools won't bitch slap me around today when I attempt to install it again... this time, with the correct version.

2007-07-07T08:26:00.002-06:00

Dear ProTools, Don't Let Me Down...

Having prided myself on being a recording engineer working entirely in the analog domain, it pains me to say that I just bought one of Apple's MacPro computers to be the brawn behind my very first ProTools rig. This is a beast of a computer. I've never owned anything that comes even close to the processing power of this machine.

Specs for the techies:

Two 2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon Processors (with independent 1.33GHz buss)
4GB Memory
250GB 7200rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive
NVIDIA GForce 7300 GT 256MB Video Card
16x Superdrive
WiFi with 802.11n capabilities
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
OS X Operating System

I had to rationalize this purchase, but it really will serve the greater good. I've got a recording session scheduled with Haarp (ex Rat in a Bucket) at Truck Farm Studios from August 17-19. We're going to do all the tracking there on a 2" Studer (analog of course, duh), then dump it into ProTools so I can take it back to my mixing studio. ProTools will allow a seamless transition in and out of many studios to my mixing studio. I don't have much experience with ProTools, so hopefully the learning curve won't cause me to physically destroy my new MacPro, which cost me a small fortune as far as I'm concerned.

I should have it in my paws sometime in the next week or two...

2007-06-26T06:28:00.000-06:00

Bedroom Renovation (Part II) - Paint Stripping

Instead of just repainting everything in my spare bedroom (which already has at least 4 coats of paint), I decided to return some of cypress moldings to their original glory. Since this involves removing lead-based paint, I used a chemical stripper 2 or 3 times followed by a belt and palm sander with 50, 80, and 120 grit sandpaper. A respirator is a must for this job... when sanding, lead particles become airborne and can cause serious health problems if inhaled or ingested.

I started on the baseboards first, with the help of JT. The paint stripper causes the paint to bubble and form this goo-like substance.

After the first stripping, it doesn't look much better.

But after the third stripping, I finally get down to the cypress.

After sanding... beau-t-ful.

My trusty brother showed up and we took care of one of the window casings. These are definitely going to stained and urethaned, so we took extra care in sanding to get all the imperfections out of the wood. That is... except for the gouges that I really liked. They look amazing.

Once all the wood is stripped of its menacing paint, we'll begin the staining process. I still haven't decided how dark, or light, I want the wood to remain. But for now, more paint stripping and sanding awaits...

2007-06-21T11:18:00.000-06:00

Library Renovation (Part I) - Floor Demolition

In keeping with my "seek and destroy" renovation style, I decided to remove the vinyl flooring in my library area at the top of the stairs. A couple "before" pictures for the record.

My brother helped with the laborious task of removing the vinyl from the subfloor and then removing the subfloor from the original pine floors. Upon removal, the original flooring was littered with nails that had to be removed. I snapped a couple photos of the nails up and down the hall.

As of yesterday, all the nails are removed and I've started removing the shoe molding and baseboards from both the bedroom and the library area. Next is to strip and sand the paint from the moldings to get back down to the original cypress. At this point, I'm thinking some of the moldings will be stained and clear coated and some will be painted again. But it changes daily.

2007-06-12T05:48:00.000-06:00

Bedroom Renovation (Part I) - Demolition

My brother and I started to renovate the spare bedroom in my house, where he will live, a couple weeks ago. This is the first major project I've undertaken, that is except the huge 5 foot hole I had to dig in my front yard to fix a seperated sewerage line. So I guess this is the second major project. Anyway, the original room wasn't aesthetically pleasing to say the least. The green carpet and pegboard all over the walls was hideous. Ouch!

We ripped out the filthy, dusty carpet and to our surprise there were very nice pine floors underneath... just like the rest of the house. We discovered some very cool wallpaper underneath the pegboard. That stuff had probably been on the walls for 50+ years. But it had to come down, which was a real pain. As of yesterday, we finally have all the wallpaper removed.

Wallpaper photo by E.J. Martinez

We're done all the "demo" aspects of the project, and are now moving on to the more detailed work. The windows don't work, so I started to take the window casings apart to fix the counter weights. The windows will also need to be removed, scraped, sanded, and repainted. The plaster walls will need to be touched up where the pegboard nails went through, and there are a couple spots where the plaster is cracking. All the moulding will need to be prepped for paint as well. My goal is to be ready for paint in two weeks. The pictures below show the progress as of last Friday.

2007-05-10T08:27:00.000-06:00

Audix 35102/35302 Project

Many months ago I was asked to rack some Audix 35102 modules. These are close to being entirely discrete (one chip in the preamp section) with an inductor based EQ and a class A/B output stage. I don't know the entire history of Audix, but these are apparently some sort of spin-off from Neve.

I quickly found out that many people who had these were having issues with distortion when trying to drive a line level. After some digging around, it was obvious that these babies were never meant to drive a line level. Thinking back to the original design you'll see these were actually part of a large format console. Another module, the Audix 35302, presented the Audix 35102 with a high impedence load and it was used to drive the necessary line level. So, instead of trying to find many Audix 35302 modules, which would be expensive and take up valuable rack space, I found the schematic for the Audix 35302 and designed a small PCB to do that very task... which I called the 35302 Line Amp.

So with the Audix 35102 modules, the 35302 Line Amp, and a pair of Sowter 4127 output transformers, I got to work... here are my results.

I have six racks like this in total to build. These modules sound great and I hope to keep a pair for myself.

2007-04-14T17:38:00.000-06:00

No More Negotiating

I am definitely buying the house at 7802 Sycamore. The inspections proved a couple problems, but the seller and I have come to an agreement. I found out yesterday as I was in the middle of helping Eric M. build a loft in his house, and I signed the response papers today. I'm uber excited and can't wait to move in. The Act of Sale is scheduled for May 18. Let the waiting begin...

2007-04-09T14:37:00.000-06:00

Bloody Pipes!

I started my home inspections today. The guys who came to video the pipes/plumbing that connect to the city quickly found issues. The big problem is that the main underground pipe to the city is broken, and it's buried about 4 feet. They marked where the break is, and luckily it's not under the house... but this is a problem that has to be fixed before I can buy the house. Also, where the kitchen and bathroom tie into this pipe is also broken... in half. So basically all the water draining from the sink and toilet goes straight into the ground... yum yum yum.

Here's another funny one... the flue on the gas furnace isn't entirely connected to the exhaust, so combustion gas leaks into the house when the heater is on. Nice one, yea!

Let's see, what else... the chimney flashing is shit so water drips into the attic when it rains.

The negotiations will continue... I still really want this house I hope we can work something out.

2007-03-14T12:46:00.000-06:00

Duke and Buddy

Was thinking about good ole' boy "Duke" today... I miss him.

This guy "Buddy" is my current canine amigo. He has way toooo much energy. He ate a hole straight through my bed spread.

2007-03-08T13:57:00.000-06:00

My "Neve"r Ending Projects

Now that my house bull is now put to rest, back to my true love audio. I finally finished working on two Neve racks; two Neve 31102s and one Neve 31099 . This was probably the most difficult racking job I've ever done, but I've got it down now. All I can say about these modules is that they sound amazing, and I wish I had some for myself. Cheers to Neve !

2007-03-01T09:17:00.000-06:00

Nail in Coffin

As of tomorrow, the deal for my house will expire. The stupid seller didn't have clear title on the house so she can't sell it until all that bullshit is straight. She wasted a month of my time and now she's trying to blame it all on the city. Screw that I say !!! I think buyer's should have some recourse against seller's that do this. I basically pissed away all the money spent on inspections and all the vacation time I used at work to do various things for the house.

And while this woman sues the city and tries to get the title resolved, rain and wind and mold will continue to destroy a beautiful home. That probably pisses me off even more. People who have nice homes in nice neighborhoods and treat them like total shite.

But this rambling is pointless and it won't do any good.

Maybe Lauren will find me another, even better, house... in the meantime, here's Eric, me, and Celeste a couple weeks ago. Fun night !!!

2007-01-27T13:38:00.000-06:00

Inspections Are Exhausting

After a week of work and inspections out the wazoo it's safe to say I've had enough. The termite guy gave me bad news, the shoring guy gave me so-so bad news, but the plumbing guy gave me good news. My families general contractor came to see the house yesterday and spent almost 2 hours walking the place and giving me tips and ideas and advise. Rock on!!! I've decided I'm going through with the contract... welcome to home ownership. Act of Sale is Feb 23, 2007. I'm tired already and I haven't even started.

I ran into my soon to be new neighbors, James and Kara, last night at Molly's. We had some nice convo and lil James is no longer lil James because he is 21 today. Happy Birthday scotch drinker!!! Ran into Gina and Jason and got drunk with my brother.

2007-01-24T13:38:00.000-06:00

Termites - 1; Greg - 0 !

I had a termite guy and a shoring guy come check out my potential house today. The shoring guy made this nice structural floor plan of the house that shows all the piers and chain wall. He also had this nifty device to make an elevation map of the house. He quoted me the worst case scenario (cost wise)... I still have to decide which parts of the house I want to raise based on what he gave me, which will obviously change the cost.

Now the termnite guy really didn't have anything good to say, but I will say he did a very thorough job and was a nice guy. He found termite damage in the attic, but couldn't tell if there were any active termites because it was cold and had mold and mildew up there. He then proceeded to crawl under the house to find more termite damage to some of the sills. He didn't see any activity in the wood, but he also said it's cold so they won't be moving much today... and this guy knows his bug... trust me. The worst part is that when he dug a lil hole in the ground with his flashlight, he definitely found active termites. My translation > the house has active termites in it... so this is NOT good !!!

He didn't know the extent of the problem so he didn't give me a quote, but him and his bossman are coming tomorrow for further inspections. Then I'm sure they'll hit me with the damage. And there's standing water under the house, so that'll have to be built up over time.

Good news > > > both the termite guy and shoring guy really liked the house. And my agent also told me a two car garage might be part of this property as well. Nothing like a little langiappe property ya know !

2007-01-22T08:42:00.000-06:00

The Purchase Agreement

I'm now under contract to purchase a house on General Taylor, just off St. Charles. It needs a complete renovation, but I'm very upbeat an excited about this project. Eric M took a bunch of pictures when we went to check it out with the agent. My soon to be wrecked house !!!

2007-01-13T01:54:00.000-06:00

I Made My Very First Microphone

I made a "true" multi-pattern tube (EF86) microphone. I received the last components I needed this week and finished it last night... but it didn't work. I made one change today and it's works great. I am very happy and this was probably the most fun I've had on a DIY project. I will get the PSU properly encased and post some pics when I'm done.

AM is very nice, too.

I'm going to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

2007-01-11T14:05:00.000-06:00

Back in the Studio This Year

Even though I absolutely love designing and bulding gear... and doing anything eletronica really... I'm hoping to get back into the studio in 2007. I've gotten three phone calls in the past month from bands who want to record. I've been talking with Jack at Truck Farm and I'm hoping we can do the projects there. Truck Farm is a great studio in the Bywater, and I must say I fancy the outboard gear and mic collection. Since I've been recording, 2006 was, by far, my most unproductive year... 2007 is bound to be better.

Last year was also my most unproductive year as a musician, but I'm going to change that this year. I had a jam session with Mr. E. Martinez, and even though I couldn't get my clumsy fingers fingering as they used to, I had a great time. Eric even got me to play the drums. I did ok... I think. Eric and I are going to write and record a couple songs... purely for self gratifying reasons. I think we should come up with a name... but I'm not really good at that type of thing.

I've been waking up at 4:45am this week and going to the gym before I go to work. Usually, I go the gym after work, but there's a million+ people there at 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I think I like the mornings better, but it's actually kind of exhausting and I fall asleep at 9pm every night. Gearing up for the CCC 10K... I think it's in April.

Enough rambling about what I want to do this year... gotta get back to work.

2007-01-08T15:01:00.000-06:00

A Bad Start to 2007

So 2007 has started out with another wrinkle. Someone broke into my storage unit and stole a bunch of my recording gear... rough estimate is between $6000-$7000 worth of lute. Worst of all they stole my 1978 Fender Precision Bass; my baby. I got it about 8 or 9 years ago. I remember selling two basses I had at the time and my mom giving me $200 for my birthday to get it. I bought if from Mike Blum's shop on Oak Street. I also lost two pieces of gear I hand-made... a GSSL compressor and a G1176 compressor. I lost a bunch of other shit too but those are the things that can't really be replaced.

THIEVES DIE !!!

My 2006 resolution was to keep up my blog, but that didn't last more than 2 or 3 months. My 2007 resolution will be the same... so here's to another year of blogging.

2006-02-07T17:08:00.000-06:00

My LA-2A Is Complete

I finished building an LA-2A a week or two go, and it's an absolutely amazing compressor. I love it bass and vocals !!! Smooth, big, round, clear... you name it. It took me a good 6 weeks to build (in my spare time), and was tedious as there's no circuit board.

She's beauty, too !!!

2006-02-06T14:46:00.000-06:00

Gyraf Audio G9 Tube Preamp

Today I received the latest addition to my slutty gear collection... it's a Gyraf Audio G9 Tube Preamp w/ High Pass Filter. It's an all tube design, with nothing but transformers, tubes, and passive components in the audio path. The power supply uses some semiconductors, but that's fine by me. This is the first piece of gear added to my collection in quite some time that I didn't actually build. It was built by a friend in the "The Lab" at the Prodigy Professional Forum. I'll be testing it out tonight...

Isn't she a beaut:

In other gear news, I completed a point-to-point LA-2A with Sowter transformers. It's definitely my most complicated build to date, and it sounds fantastic. I still have to get it calibrated and get some pictures posted.

2005-10-13T13:52:00.000-06:00

Type 312 Preamp

There's nothing I love more than building electronic equipment and sniffing solder fumes. This is my latest creation... a Type 312 Preamp. It's based on the famous API 312 preamp; in fact, it's a direct clone with a few added bells and whistles (like relay switching and a line input option).

Some more details:
- Jensen JT-110K-HPC input transformers
- Profile 4804 output transformers
- API 2520 opamp (Huntington, NY) on channel #1
- Melcor 1731 clone on channel #2

This preamp sounds amazing. I particularly love them on drums and other percussion.

Known problems: There's a slight instability with the Melcor opamp at low gain settings. I have a feeling it's a problem with the feedback cap in the opamp, but it's minor because I usually use them at higher gain settings. I'll investiage this further.