Adrians Bass an da Tomatoes.

So, I keep forgetting to take pictures during the sessions.

I'm too busy!

So instead here is a picture of my young Tomato plants.

Every respectable Home Studio should have a Tomato garden.

Another really great session last night.

Adrian D'Aguilar came to put Bass tracks on 2 of Peters songs.

Fantastic ! As usual.

The first was a Reggae song. Adrian used his lovely 5 string Musicman bass guitar. We ran it direct into the front of the API micpre with no compression. It sounds really nice and punchy.

The second was a gorgeous mellow song that Adrian used his Double Bass on. He used the bow. It was incredible! If you have never heard a double bass live and close I highly recommend it. Its a beautiful, sad, huge sound that seems to cut right through you. Very powerful instrument.

I miked it differently this time. Usually I use a large diaphragm dynamic at the F-hole (Heil PR-40) and a small diaphragm condenser up the neck facing the body. This time I only used one mic. I put my Rode Classic 2 large diaphragm tube condenser directly in front of the middle of the body abou 2 1/2 feet away. Adrian is always commenting on how nice the room sounds with his double bass and I wanted to catch some of that sound. So I set the mic pattern between Omni and Cardioid. The results are unbelievable! I caught just the right amount of the room and the bass was just perfect. I am going to be trying the Rode Classic 2 on more sources, it really sounds great.

All in all it was a great evening.

Huge.............

Ossie Bowes session was really big.

Every mic pre was used and then some,

8 APIs, 2 TnC acmp73, Grace 101 and the 4 pres from the Digi 002. 15 channels! That was a record breaker.

Full drum kit miked, bass DI, Rhodes and 3 vocalist in the control room with Ossie and his son. The amp (Ampeg Jet) for the Rhodes was outside in the front room so that we could run everything live.

The drummer was absolutely fantastic, a little busy for my taste but really really good. I will definitely be giving him a call in the future.

All in all it was a good night and a great learning experience. Ossie is the man.

Tonight is Peter Peters again. We are getting closer and closer to finishing his project.
I have 4 of his songs mixed and almost ready for mastering. We are now waiting for some percussion tracks to be finished by Neil Symonette and to get him back in the studio to re-do one of the songs.

I am booked for the rest of the week and weekend.
Saturday I have a new Client coming in to do a track. Jazz! He plays sax and I think hes bringing a drummer and a keyboardist.

Next week Wednesday I have another new Client (no names yet). A local 4 piece rock band wants to come in and track a single song. They have pre paid 10 hours.

I have got to soon put my hourly price up. I am getting way to busy and have no spare time at all. Its all good but I don't think its fair on my marriage. My wife is very tolerant but............

Sleep is not an option.(T Manning)

Hallelujah Gospel time

Gospel at THS ?????

Yes its true!
Peter has a Gospel tune, I will let it slide this time.
It actually sounds really nice. This is the song that Peter says he is going to let some of his music buddies come in and partake in the recording. Should be fun and interesting.

So yesterdays session with Peter was vocal guide tracks for his last song (I think) on this project. Now we can start bringing in the other musicians to do their part starting with the drummer, then bass. Peter also wants to get a bunch of different people singing on this song.

I am hopping to have a drum session with Neil Symonette this evening. He is supposed to put drums on 2 of my songs and possibly re-do one of Peters. I should know by this afternoon.

AND, SpookiFish "Thursdays Paper" ,My EP/CD finally arrived on Friday afternoon!!
The duplicators/Printers (Nationwide ) did a really nice job, the artwork is great.
I have already started to hand them out. Give me a shout, its free!!
I made lots of mistakes (musically) on that EP, but I have no regrets. I know that the next album is going to be way better. I have already started.

Toodaloo...................

Busy Weekend.......

Comping and editing tonight.

Peter Peters is coming tonight to comp the bass tracks that we did last session.
I cant see it taking too long. When that's done we will do some editing on the the drum tracks for the last few songs.

And Then,

Saturday has been booked by Ossie Bowe to do 3 Gospel songs live with a 6 piece band! Well, 3 vocalist, drums, bass and Rhodes piano. This should be very interesting as I have not done much live recording in my studio.
Ossie is coming by early Saturday morning to set up and make sure everything is up and running. The session itself will start at 6.30pm. This way I can still go to the Culture Fest with the wife.

Sunday afternoon will be another session with Peter. Not to sure what we will be doing but whatever it is will be fun.

More more more....

Drums went great on Thursday past.

As usual I forgot to take pictures of Neil Symonette doing his thang.
Needless to say it was a slamming session. 2 more song drum tracks are done, now its time to get to work and get these ready for mastering.

Sundays session with Peter Peters was vocals and bass.
We are still trying to get the perfect vocal sound for song #3. Like I said before, a very difficult song to sing.
Then Peter put scratch bass guitar tracks on the 2 songs with the fresh drum tracks and took them home to practice.
Monday was a holiday so we had another session. All bass. We ran a few bass tracks on the 2 new songs. The bass tone was awesome! 83 Fender (Fullerton) Jazz bass direct to API pre and into my Lucas Limiting Amplifier, Really Fat bass.
We plan to get together on Thursday to comp these bass tracks and decide whether he will use them or get a different bass player. Peters decision.

Got a call from Tommy Goodwin last night, just calling to hail.
I asked him if he would be interested in putting some lead guitar tracks on my new song "Mr. Jones"? He said yes and is going to call and confirm a time hopefully this week.
That song is coming along really well. I put a few hours into it over the weekend. I ended up with a lovely acoustic guitar intro and outro. Hopefully Neil will come sometime soon and put the drums on this and another older song that I am working on.

In more news.

As of 1.30am this morning my SpookiFish albums were in Atlanta Georgia in route from Texas to Opa Locka Florida. They should be in Florida by tomorrow afternoon so I will have them by either the end of this week or early next week.
Now my big decision is what the hell am I going to do with 300 copies of this CD??
300 was the smallest amount that I could get done.
The plan was to get a few done and give them away for critique and keep a few on hand at the studio so clients could see what can be done and I could walk them through. I guess I will stick to that plan, its just allot more to give away.

La De Da.

Drums Mon.

Tonight is a huge drum session.

Neil Symonette is booked to come and do 3 more drum tracks for Peter Peters AND if we have time I have 2 new songs ready to go.

I spent a couple hours last night setting up the session mics. As usual I am trying something different. I am using an A-B stereo technique for overheads using my TnC AMC1200's. I read an article that said Omni was the best pattern for this. I usually used Cardioid, so tonight Omni it is. Also I did not put the mics up as high as I usually do. They are about 3' above the highest cymbals. For the snare I used the SM57, for these songs I want something a little brighter than the usual PR40. On the Bass Drum the RE20 remains ,no complaints. for the ride/tom duties I used a Rode NT-5. This time I actually set the mic stand behind the drummer and on his left. This way I will get more of the ride and tom and less of the rest of the kit.
For the room I am using the wonderful Lucas CS-1. I put this mic at the other end of the room facing away from the kit in Cardioid.
All of the mics are running through the API mic pre's. I did a few sound check tracks and they sound awesome! L&R O/H are panned hard Left and right, the ride/tom is hard right and the rest is center.

In other news, SpookiFish's first ever EP will be shipped to Florida on Friday (9/10/09) so hopefully by the end of next week I will have them.
AND I should have my new Fender Telecaster by tomorrow afternoon.

Life is good.

My New Fender.

Fender Custom Shop NOS 63 Maple Cap Telecaster.

Here is a picture of my Birthday gift.

It arrives in Florida today so I should have it by weeks end.

Happy B-day to me

Compin an Editing.

Sunday session with Peter Peters.

We spent the afternoon doing some finish editing and comping on Peters third song.
I think this will end up being the most difficult song out of the batch.
Peter had a real challenge with the vocals on this song. The music is gorgeous.

Now we are moving on with four more of Peters songs. They are ready for drums and bass and we will hopefully be having Neil Symonette come in this week to play drums on three of them. The forth will have percussion only and will be tracked at Neils studio, "Reel Time Sound".
Not too sure when Neil is coming, will be talking to him later today. After that its onto bass, I think Peter has decided to play the bass on one of these songs himself and have Adrian do the other three.
Then we have a song that Peter has decided to let some of his musician friends play and sing on. Its an old time Gospel sounding song, I'm sure it will be lots of fun getting it done.

I did some more work on my new song "Mr. Jones" on Sunday morning. Its coming along nicely.
I experimented with a new microphone that just arrived. A Shure SM7B dynamic cardioid. It worked really nice on my vocals. I was able to get really aggressive with it without using a compressor. I like it.

And in other exciting news, my EP should be ready to ship to Florida within the next ten days AND my new Fender Custom Shop 63 NOS Telecaster should be here by the end of the week, this was a birthday gift to myself.
I also have a shipment of NOS tubes for my Vox AC30 and the Fender Blues Jr coming in next week. I am constantly amazed by this little Fender amp, it completely blows away ANY low watt amp that I have ever heard. I cant wait to hear what it will do with these really nice tubes.


Fun Fun Fun.