Tower Heights Studios

Hammond B3.

2010-09-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now the proud owner of a Hammond B3 Organ.

Needs some work but they all do. I also need to find a leslie Tone Cabinet for it.

Here it is as I unload it at my warehouse.

2010-08-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

The baldwin R1 series baby Grand piano.

Here it is shortly after I aquired her.
No legs and no pedals.

Its a work still in progress. I have had the body re-finished and have new legs and pedals to install.

Long Time No Post

2010-08-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls.
I have not posted for a while but here I am again.

I have been quite busy with my new client, David Forbes who is doing 12 original songs with me.
All of his music is very guitar centered and that's great with me.
David is an awesome Guitar and Bass player and his song writing is also impressive.

So far we have 5 songs down to click tracks. One has real drums.
So we are now overdubbing guitar tracks and editing.

The plan is to get all the songs as close as we can then have the drummer come in and knock off as many as he can. Will also do Bass guitar at the same time.

David also wants percussion, keyboards and piano in some of the tracks.
So we have lots to do as he wants this project to be done by Christmas.

In other news;

I have acquired a vintage Rivera Amplification amp head from the great Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios. I cant remember what model it is but its an incredible sounding guitar amp, So far I have been running it through my 2x12 Sonic closed back cab with nice results. The amp itself is quite different from others that I use in that it is very tweak able (lots of knobs). Similar to the Mesa Boogies but the big difference is that this thing sounds incredible. It is all tube and is actually 2 amps in one that can be run as stereo left and right or double the power.
It also has its own reverb tank for both channels, the reverb is by Hammond and is by far the smoothest reverb that I have.

AND

I have also aquired a Baldwin R1 series Baby Grand Piano.
Long story on the piano that I will include with photos of the Rivera and the Baldwin.

I am also not taking any big projects at the moment as I am now working on my stuff again. Details to follow.

Fun Fun Fun.................................

Rolling along

2010-02-02T05:28:00.000-08:00

Started working on my newest song called "Coffee".
Its about the devastation in Haiti and selfishness.

I wanted the 2 rhythm guitars to contrast heavily from verse to verse so this is what I did.
I used an electric guitar for one and an acoustic for the other. I wanted the electric to sound lush and swirly. So I ran my Telecaster into a GT Brick pre-amplifier > Peavey ValveVerb > Leslie 60 speaker system.

I miked the Leslie system with 2 x TnC AMC 900 ribbon mic's into API 3124 pre.

Awesome sound!
The left and right separation is incredible and the sound is full, swirly and lush.

For the contrasting acoustic rhythm guitar I wanted something that sounds LoFi.
So I used my Martin Backpacker travel guitar. This guitar sounds great but it sounds very small. I miked the Martin with a single Beyerdynamic M-130 ribbon mic into the API pre.
Really nice LoFi sound that contrast nicely with the Tele/Leslie track.

Next will be drums.
I have already sent Neil Symonette an MP3 to listen to. He will be coming iether tonight or tomorrow night.
Hopefully if we have time he will also put drums on "Mr Jones".

Neil also has an old song that I did with Donny Ferguson on bass. When it was originally done we had used a drum machine. Neil is going to replace the drum machine with real drums. This song has a jazz vibe so I asked Neil to do the drums at his studio because he is set up for jazz and has an awesome drum kit.

Rolling along.

Ha!

2010-01-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

So much for doing my stuff.

Looks like I have a new client, no names yet.
Wants to do 12 originals and is an awesome guitar player, says he plays bass as well.

But, I'm sure that I will still find the time to work on my stuff.
In fact Neil Symonette (awesome drummer) is booked to come to my place on Tuesday to put tracks on 2 of my songs. He has a third one that he is going to do the drums at his place, its kinda jazzy and his gear is really nice for that sound.

Yes man, fun fun fun...................

2010

2010-01-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here we go.

So, I just came back from vacation a week ago. Same place, same thing.
I wrote 2 new songs! One of them I really like allot.

I have decided that at least the first part of this year I am going to work mostly on my music.
My first EP was OK and quite a few people said it was nice BUT that's not good enough.
My next album will be much better.
I plan to stick more to what I am hearing in my head and not try to chase some sound that I think other people will be able to relate to. What I am hearing in my head is far from mainstream.
But anyhoo.

Today is 21 January, I should have Peter Peters albums by tomorrow.
Finally. Peter has been very patient.

Did I mention that I also acquired a 1974 Wurlitzer 200 Electronic Piano?
AND it came with a Leslie 70 speaker system that sounds gorgeous on the Wurli and guitars.
I will post a picture later on.

So here I go again...............

Masters arrive.

2009-12-21T06:02:00.000-08:00

21st December, the Masters have arrived.

I kinda don't think that this album will be ready for X-Mas.
Or New Years.
I'm thinking mid to late January.
Everything seems to stop around this time of year.

So, Friday past I was setting up for a session with Tommy Goodwyn and a new drummer and Alfred Kenny on Bass.
After I had all the mics up I went into the control room to start my rig.
As I enter the room I hear something ticking. Tick, tick, tick.......
I don't have a clock in here.
The air conditioner is leaking water down on the left side of my desk!!!!!!

Patch bay
Lexicon
Digi 002
HHb CD burner
Tascam CD burner
Rosetta converter
5x Glyph hardrives.

Luckily I had just turned on the AC so there was not too much water.
My new security camera monitor and switcher got the most of it.
I cleaned everything as well as I could and turned on the other AC and put a fan in the CR to dry up what was left.
I didn't turn anything on until Sunday afternoon, everything seems to be fine.

La De Da.

See Ya........

2009-12-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

That's it for the year boys and girls.

Peters music is finished Mastering and will be sent to Nationwide for duplication.
His artwork for the album cover is already there.
He should have his album by mid January.
All in all it was a great learning experience. Both Peter and myself enjoyed the entire experience and I look forward to doing more. But for now, I want to work on some of my stuff.

Besides for a little work on my stuff and an occasional jam the studio is closed until next year.

Also, I am booked out next year until the end of April.

Have a great X-Mas and a wonderful new year.

Later.

Its all over.......

2009-12-01T11:37:00.001-08:00

The fat lady has sung.

I sent the last 3 songs to the Mastering house last night.

All that's left to do is approve the Masters and get the album artwork done.

Tom Waltz(Waltz Audio) has already sent 4 of the songs, by tonight I should have the rest. So, tomorrow night Peter and I are getting together to listen to the Masters so that he can decide if he is happy with them. I am sure he will be, Waltz is the man.

Then, Peter will decide the song sequence and Tom will create the Master album CD.
Then Tom will send 3 copies of the Master to me and I will send 2 of those copies to Nationwide so that they can start getting the duplication and printing started.

6 Months from when we started this project........... W O W !!!!!!

next.

Last Day.......

2009-11-30T06:21:00.000-08:00

Today will be the last day for Peter Peters music.

Saturday and Sunday was spent mixing Peters last 3 songs.
Sunday afternoon Peter came by for a quick listen and to take the CD copies with him to listen to and pull apart.

He is coming tonight so that I can fix any problems that he has with them.
Then I will send the WAV files to Waltz Audio to be Mastered.
I sent the other 5 songs to Waltz on Saturday and he confirmed that he got them.
Mastering will not take long, I'm hoping that they will be finished by the weekend.

The last thing we have to do now is get the album cover designed and ready for printing.
Nationwide will be doing this.
They have already been paid and are waiting for us to send the information so they can start.
As soon as they get the Mastered CD copies the printing and duplication will take about 20-25 days.
I don't think we will make the x-mas deadline, perhaps New Years.

We shall see.

I am now really looking forward to starting work on my own music again.
As soon as Peters project is finished.

NEXT!!!

Holy Crap Batman!

2009-11-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

3 more to go!

After an 11 and 8 hour marathon session on the weekend and every night this week, I still have 3 more songs to mix!

Who would have thought that it would take so much time.

However the results have all been fantastic, Peter is very happy.

We had a session last night to do some corrections on the first 4 songs that I had mixed and burned for Peter to listen to. He also heard the final mix of the Dream song #3 and was blown away. He said that there was nothing to fix. I am sure after he listens for a day or 2 he will find something.

We also started the final mix on "Soul Survivor". I don't think it will take too much to finish that one. Then hopefully by Saturday I will finish the Calypso and rock song.

The plan is that whatever is done by Saturday will be sent to the Mastering Engineer Tom Waltz by Saturday evening or Sunday so he can get started. Then hopefully finish up by Sunday afternoon.
This is the plan, we shall see.

Peter and I also have to start working on the album cover with Nationwide in Texas.
This should be pretty straight forward. We are actually paying Nationwide to do the design work so all we have to do is send the info and whatever Peter has on his mind.

Will this album be ready for X-Mas?
One can be hopeful.
It was lots of fun and I learned allot but, I will be very happy when its all done and Peter has his baby in his hands and is happy.

Mix x 8

2009-11-18T07:32:00.000-08:00

One down and 7 to go.

I started mixing Peters songs last night.
I started with #2 because it was already almost finished mixing. Just a couple adjustments and double check the vocals.

Tonight I will burn it to CD so that I can check it on a couple different stereos. I'm sure I will have to do some minor changes with the bass and /or vocals but it should be pretty much done.

Then I will start on another song, not sure which one yet, that will depend on what mood I am in when I get home.

I am feeling kinda reggae at the moment.

Almost done..............

2009-11-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight is Peters last time for tracking on this project.

Its been almost 6 months working on 8 songs for Peter Peters album.
He is coming by to do one more vocal and one more percussion track and that's it.
Its now all up to me to mix these songs as good as I can get them and then send them off to the Mastering house.

Yesterday afternoon was quite fun. Peter had saved the last song so that he could invite some Friends over and they could all have a chance to put something on it, either vocals or an instrument. Peter brought a few beers and some pizza and it was a good time had by all that showed up.

To me mixing is the more relaxing part of this process.
I get to do this by myself with no one disturbing me. As I get them done then Peter comes back in and gives his opinion.
If he approves, off it goes.
If he disapproves then I fix it till he is happy.

I am hoping if we get finished tonight that I will be finished mixing by Sunday.

That is the plan.

Gospel Success.

2009-11-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

Another great session with Ossie Bowe.

Ossie was able to get the Gospel group together again last night and again everyone left smiling.
Ossie worked them hard but at the end of the session they had another really nice sounding song.
I think Ossie likes working in my studio. He emailed me this morning and told me the sound on the tracks were wonderful.......... Nice!

Last night was drums, Rhodes, Bass guitar and vocals.

The drums were miked with 2xACM1200 overhead, SM57 on the snare, RE20 in the bass drum, 2x e602's on the first 2 toms and another 57 on tom 3. Also one of the new Rode NT55's on the Hi-Hat and another NT55 on the ride. Like I said, its Ossie's session and Ossie likes plenty mics on the drums. The drums sound Awesome!!

The Bass guitar went direct into the API mic pre.
The Rhodes was amped with the old Ampeg Jet and miked with an EV RE15. Again we had the Rhodes amp out in the front room. That amp makes the Rhodes sound gorgeous.

The vocalist were in the control room with Ossie with handheld mics.

Twas a great session.

I'm off tonight.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are all booked with Peter Peters.
Hopefully at the end of this all of his songs will be really close to sending off to be Mastered. As long as Peter does not decide to keep adding things we should be on schedule.

This is going to be a great album!

I'm getting hungry.

Drums and Percussion uploads

2009-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Slamming drum session with Neil Symonette last night.

That man can play some serious drums.
Neil re-did the drums on the first song and the song came back to life. Peter was very pleased.

Neil also brought the percussion tracks for three of Peters songs that he did at "Reel Time Sound".
I didn't have time to really listen to them but what I did hear was Awesome. Neil is very talented.

Tonight Ossie Bowe has my studio booked to record the Gospel group again. He confirmed yesterday but he still didn't sound too sure. We shall see. If he cancels, Peter wants to have the time .

On and On.

Closer and Closer.........

2009-11-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Vocals and comping with Peter Peters last night.

We have one more lead vocal to do.
One more song to re-do drums.
And three songs to put percussion on.
Then its mix, master and off to the printers.

The lead vocal is on the very last song. I think the guide vocal track that we have is awesome but, Peter thinks he can do it better, so he's going to give it a try.

The re-do drums is on the very first song. Again I think these drums are fine but Neil Symonette the drummer wants another run at it. I have to agree that the song has changed a bit since he put the original track down. We shall see.

The reggae, calypso and last song all have percussion tracks that Neil did at his studio, Reel Time Sound.

Neil is booked to come tonight to upload the percussion tracks and re-do the drums. Will be a great session as usual.

The Great Ossie Bowe is trying to get the Gospel group together for a session tomorrow night.
I wish him lots of luck. Hopefully it will come together again.

Friday night and Saturday will be spent mixing all of Peters songs.... Finally!

Sunday will hopefully be the last day of tracking on this project. We will be working on the Gospel song that Peter put lead vocals on last night. This is the song that Peter has invited a few musicians/freinds to come by and put something on. Vocals or instruments. Should be a very interesting afternoon. I must remember to take some pictures.

Now its time to start working on Peters album cover and duplication. He has decided to use Nationwide after he saw how my project turned out. I'm going to give them a call later today and get that ball rolling.

The mixing of these songs should not take too long. Peter and I have already spent quite a few hours comping and editing so basically it will be adjusting levels and final tweaking.

The Mastering will be done by Tom Waltz at Waltz Audio. He did a great job with my project and I am looking forward to working with him again. I don't think he will take more than 3 days. Once we give him approval the Maters will be FedEx to Nationwide and they can get started.

Peters goal is to have this all done in time for Christmas.
Good luck Peter!

Soon Come!

Rate increase.....Oh NO !

2009-11-06T05:22:00.000-08:00

Yes its true.

In the last year or so that I have been actually charging for my time, gear and services I have learned a few valuable lessons.

I had decided to keep my rates really low, basically just enough to cover my cost with electricity.

This does not work.

Some folks seem to think that if the rates are low then my my time and service are of no value.
They have no trouble booking time with me then not showing up and not even calling!!

This has happened more than once with more than one client.

It takes me hours to set up a session in my studio depending on what I am setting up for.
Mic placement, session set up in ProTools. All this time I am running 2 air conditioner's, warming up guitar amps PLUS all the gear that is running in the Control Room!

No more.

My free time is extremely valuable to me!
Money cannot pay for my free time........... definitely not $35.00/hr.

What are these people thinking?

Then it dawned on me.
1. They have no respect for me or my time.
2. They have nothing to loose financially, no deposit and only $35.00/hr.

No more.

As I have said before here and on my Website, I am not doing this for the money. I am doing this for the love of creating music.

It is my passion.

As of next week my rate will be increased, still a good deal but its going up and will go up more in the very near future.
I will also be taking a 4hr deposit before I will consider a booking. NON REFUNDABLE.
48 hour notice for a cancellation or pay 2 hours, if not paid the intire project will be cancelled and NO REFUND.

There are many "Studios" on the island.

Sorry for the rant,................. not really.

On the other side of the coin.

There are folks that come into the studio and totally appreciate what is being offered.
These are people with experience and knowledge of music and studios and the whole process.
This is the reason I record. Pure creativity, pure passion.
This is another reason that I refuse to record cover music, anyone can sit down and learn "Knocking on Heavens door"!
What is it with cover bands in this country?
Then they sit around and complain that there is no music culture in the Bahamas.
Gee I wonder why?
Have you ever been to a club any where else in the world and had to pay to hear a Cover Band?

Super Stars!!!

Didn't someone write a song called "Local Rock Star" about this same topic? LOL
I'm on a roll now, am I stepping on your corn?

Hey, its my BLOG.

Reggae n Rock n Roll

2009-11-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

Compin and Keyboards last night.

Had a very fruitful session with Peter Peters last night.
We spent the evening with his Awesome Reggae song.
First we tracked a couple Piano fills with Peters keyboard. I must say for an ancient Yamaha jalopy keyboard Peter gets some really nice tones out of it.
We spent the rest of the evening editing and comping the song.
3 guitar tracks comped, piano and Rhodes comped.
The song really came together nice.

Time to start mixing!

Tonight I am booked with Andrew Beckford and his band to do one song.
I have no idea what the song sounds like.
Drums, bass, guitar and keyboard. I am not sure if we will do vocals.
Becky says its Rock n Roll and all original.
Should be fun.

Thursday I am booked again with Ossie Bowe and the Gospel group.
Haven't got confirmation on that yet, last time it all went very smooth and everyone was happy.

Sunday should be a full day in the Studio.
Neil Symonette says he will be finished with Peters percussion tracks and will bring them to import into the sessions. He is also coming to track drums on 2 of Peters songs and possibly 1 of mine. I plan to s[end Saturday mixing as much of Peters songs as I can.
Will soon be time to send them off to Tom Waltz for Mastering.

Moving along..........

Sax & Rhodes

2009-11-02T08:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday was interesting.

There was supposed to be a 3 piece jazz session recording 4 songs. Sax, Keyboard and Percussion.
Of course the Percussionist was a no show but the other 2 decided to go ahead with 2 songs anyway.
As soon as the Keyboard player saw and heard my Rhodes piano he left his Keyboard out in the front room.
I recorded them both live. I set up 4 mics for the Sax player to choose from. Of course he chose the Lucas CS-1. I miked the Ampeg Jet for the Rhodes with my RE-15 dynamic.
Both songs went very well, they ran 5 or 6 takes of each song and left with a big smile.

Sunday, Peter Peters is wrapping it all up.
We finished comping the Funk song and started editing and comping the Calypso.
He is coming tonight to re-do the guitars on the Reggae song and possibly some more vocals on the Gospel song.
We are getting really close to finishing this project and Peter is coming as often as possible.
He is still waiting for Neil Symonette to finish a couple percussion tracks that he is doing at his studio.
Peter will be coming again on Tuesday.

Wednesday I have a new client coming in to record a rock song. No idea how that's going to go but am looking forward to getting it done.

Thursday, Ossie Bowe is booked to come back in and do another song with the Gospel band.

When these are all done I think that's it for this year. No More Bookings! I want to concentrate on getting Peters album done ASAP and start working on a few of my own ideas.

Busy Busy
Fun Fun.

Adrians Bass an da Tomatoes.

2009-10-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

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.............

2009-10-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

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.......

2009-10-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-10-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

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.

The Studio Termite.........

2009-09-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the assistant.

Mr Shadow McDermitt Termite.

Peters Acoustic Session.

2009-09-25T05:24:00.000-07:00

Peter Peters on the Gibson J160e.

Both Peter and I were blown away by the gorgeous tone that we got last night off the J160e.
It was really nice.
Peter put a rhythm track on song #3 and a scratch track on the new song #8. That's correct, song #8!. One more song to go, some editing and comping and Peters album will be off to the Mastering Engineer.

I used my Beyerdynamic M130 Ribbon microphone direct to the API pre. Its amazing how much more gain the ribbon mics take compared to others. The API was almost wide open! but what a wonderful sound. Ribbon mics don't add anything to the sound, just nice full and accurate. I find the condenser and dynamic mics make the acoustic guitar sound exaggerated in the higher frequencies and I end up having to pull it down with an EQ. So far with the ribbon mic I have not touched the EQ. Really nice.

So, no sessions booked tonight. So that means I will be working on my stuff.
Saturday afternoon is a session with Tina Cartwright and Sunday again with Peter.

Reminds me what a "friend" used to say to me when I told him I was recording local talent.
" Your waisting your time!"
What an idiot.
Hey, its my Blog, I can write whatever I want.

Too much fun.

Huge Drums.......

2009-09-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

Drum session with Ossie Bowe last night.

Ten microphones on one drum kit!!

What a night. Ossie has a project that he is working on. Its an album for a local band. At least one of the songs has programmed drums, I'm not sure if all do. Ossie was not happy with the drums and wanted to put real drums on the track.

So last night I set the room up with nine mics all over the drum kit.
Of course when Ossie arrived he added one more in a special (secret)position.
After an hour or so of tweaking and setting the mics we started tracking.
Awesome sound! Ossie completely took full advantage of my room. The drums sounded big and punchy. The drummer that Ossie brought is a church drummer who's name escapes me, did a great job.
All in all it was a great experience and I learned allot of techniques that I will be putting into practice. However, I am still not a fan of using a million microphones on a drum kit. Four or five is more than enough unless you are going for a specific effect, IMO.

Tonight.

Acoustic guitar with Peter Peters.

This is going to be great. I love recording guitars, especially acoustic.
Peter has a rhythm track to do for one song and an intro and bridge to do for another.
He will be using my lovely Gibson 160e. I will mic the guitar with a single Beyerdynamic M130 Ribbon mic into my Grace 101 mic pre. I will also run it into the Lucas tube EQ, just because I can.
Peter also wants to try another vocal run on one of the first three songs if we have time.

So much music, so little time.

2 Ready to go...............

2009-09-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Peter Peters has two songs ready to Master.

Peter and I spent Sundays session comping and editing songs #1 and 2.
They are done and they sound awesome.
Now I will start mixing song #3.
Peter says there will be 9 songs in total and he wants the album done by X-Mas. Should not be a problem. He is going to be blown away when he hears these songs after they are Mastered.

We now have 2 songs ready for drums and bass, hopefully we will be tracking them by this weekend.

Tina Cartwrights session was on Saturday.
She brought her brand new Yamaha Motif keyboard. It sounds incredible, her music has just gone up a couple levels with that.
We re-tracked a song that she is working on and it sounds awesome.
When she gets the structure worked out on this we will be ready to put drums on it then have Adrian come and put bass on her first 3 songs.

Moving along.

On Saturday morning I put the first scratch guitar and vocal tracks to a new song that I am working on. "Mr. Jones", one of the 3 songs that I wrote when I was on vacation in Abaco.
Its gonna be great, Peter listened to it last night and made a few suggestions on the structure. I agree with him and will hopefully be working on it this evening.

Peter is booked for Tuesday and Thursday this week.

Progress is fun.

The Countdown is On.........

2009-09-18T04:52:00.000-07:00

SpookiFish " Thursdays Paper"

My proofs were finally approved yesterday afternoon.

The first SpookiFish release is on its final stage. Duplication and art work printing. The folks at Nationwide said it would take about 20 days. We shall see.

I am putting this EP together for two main reasons.

Firstly, ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!,
Time to make that next step, time to throw my soul out to the Lions and see what comes back. Time to give some people including some professionals a copy so that I can get an honest critique, good or bad so that I will have a better idea of what I need to work towards. All that said I am proud of what I have accomplished and really look forward to doing more. Thanks to everyone that helped.

Second. I wanted to go though the whole process of recording, mixing, getting it Mastered, getting artwork done, getting all the printing and duplication done so that if and when a client wants it I will be able to give some first hand advice. And let them see and hear a finished product.

Its really nice now that I have had a finished Mastered copy for a couple weeks to listen to. I feel that I know what direction I want to go in with my music. Its almost like stepping outside and looking in. You hear it from a new perspective. I can only see my work getting better and better.

I can't wait!

Vocals, Keys and Proofs....

2009-09-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Another productive session with Peter Peters last night.

We started with guide vocals for 2 newer songs, all went well.

Then onto some Keyboards, this time with a little different twist.
Peter has this ancient Yamaha keyboard that he loves the sound of. To me it sounds so so at best. We were running the left and right output directly into the API pres.
Last night I had an idea. The sound that Peter was using is a Hammond B3 type sound. Instead of running the signals direct I took the left mono signal and ran it into a low watt Fender guitar amp with a 12" alnico speaker. I miked it with an SM57 then into an API. It was glorious! so much nicer than going direct. The Fender amp gave the keyboard a nice round warm sound. It was great!
I will be experimenting more with this.

I am now in the process of proofing my new album cover with the CD duplicators.
It is truly a pain but I would much rather catch the mistakes now before they are all printed and shipped.
It looks like I will not be getting the albums shipped until the beginning of October. Oh well

LA DE DA.

Rhodes & Keys,Thunder & Lightning.

2009-09-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

Peter Peters a couple weeks ago working it out on my lovely 1979 Mark 1 Rhodes Electric Piano.

I love the sound of this instrument, everyone that gets on it loves it.

Recently I have been running it through the 60's Ampeg jet with a touch of chorus and reverb.

My mic of choice for the Rhodes is a vintage EV RE15 that I won on ebay out of Canada.

Really great tone.

Sundays session was cut short by an electrical storm that came out of nowhere.

Even though I have all kinds of surge protection, nothing really helps against a lightning strike.

However we still got lots done.

Top picture.

Peter brought his ancient Yamaha Keyboard and we ran tracks on 2 songs. The Yamaha actually sounds quite nice going through the DI's of the API3124 mic pre's, nice and phat.

The first song was song #1 that I had spent the morning mixing. Peter was blown away by the mix. He put some finishing touches with the keyboard that I will mix in tonight then that song is done. I should have song #2 mixed by the time he returns on Wednesday evening.

Hmm, I have to return the Prototype Lucas Microphone this week to Compass Point Studios.

Much Thanks to Terry Manning.

Lets see......Oh yeah!

2009-09-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

The mastering Engineer will be sending the Masters on Monday.
Soon as I get them I will forward them to the duplicators along with the artwork.
So hopefully before the end of this month I will have my first album!
What am I going to do with it?
Anything?
Nothing?
Bla bla blee?

Peter Peters is coming back on Sunday to continue his quest.
We had a session last night. We worked on 2 guitar tracks and did a little comping.

Tommy Goodwin stopped by to say hello and pick up his guitar and amplifier.
He says he will be on the island for a couple weeks, so I'm sure I will be seeing more of him. Hopefully he can get his drummer to come and finish the song we started a few months back.

Tomorrow I will begin mixing the first 3 songs of Peters. Peter will decide later if he will go with my mix or get someone else to do it. Either way I think he will be using the same Mastering Engineer that I used for my 5 songs. I am still quite impressed.

T G I F !!!!

Peter Peters an da 5 Masters

2009-09-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night.

Another very productive session with Peter Peters.
We did vocals on 2 of his newer songs that are now ready for drums and bass.
The reggae song I really think we got the final vocals. Peter loves the Lucas prototype mic and I had the signal dialed in just right.
He has one more song to re-do guide/scratch guitar tracks then we will call in the drums and bass.
Its gonna be good.

My Masters are done!

I got the final 2 masters yesterday for approval. I approved. They all sound incredible.
Tom Waltz of Waltz Audio, http://www.waltzaudio.net/ did an incredible job and I will use him again.
We decided on the song order and Tom will FedEx the PMCD redbook reference and master copies.
I already have the album covers and credits done, and have paid for the duplication. So as soon as the masters arrive I will send them to the duplicators and in about a week or so I will have my brand new EP copies. This will be a first for me, I am very excited.

Busy Busy Busy............

2009-09-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Great weekend !

Saturday morning I was in the Studio at 7am. I emerged after 4pm that afternoon.

5 of my songs mixed and edited and ready to be sent to the Mastering Engineer. It was a major decision to draw the line on when to stop tweaking these songs because they are really never finished and I can go on forever trying to make them sound better.

But its done! The Fat Lady has sung, No Regrets.

The first song that I sent is called "Dennis". The engineer sent back a 1.30 minute sample of the song and asked for my opinion and whether he should make changes. It sounds perfect to me but I will listen to it on a few more sound systems before I commit.

I never realised how important Mastering is until the very moment that I heard my newly Mastered song being played back.
Fantastic sound! Nice and smooth, perfectly balanced, not only left and right but also dimension and frequencies. The song sounds like a real professional finished product ready for radio play.

The Mastering Engineer said that he can hear a Pink Floyd influence in my music!

I am a happy camper.

Sunday.

Peter Peters session went great.

I dialed in the Lucas prototype microphone a few hours before he arrived. When he spoke into the mic he had a big grin on his face. He said he thought he could hear his heart beating!

After the first track on the vocals for song #3 it was obvious that we were dialed in properly this time. Peter commented how effortless it was to sing into the mic. 3 takes and we were done. 1/2 hour later we had a finished vocal comped from the 3 takes and moved on to the next task at hand.

We went back to the #1 song, Peter wanted to hear all the guitar solo tracks that I had done a rough solo comp from. We spent some time and created an awesome solo for the song. Hopefully its the final solo.

Tuesday we have another session. Vocals and keyboards. The plan is to have 3 more songs ready for the drummer and bass player to come in and do their thing.

Wont be long when these songs will also be going out for Mastering.

Rock n Roll......................

Comping over here............

2009-09-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

..........and comping over there.

2 songs comped last night with Peter Peters.
Vocals, guitars, keyboards all done. Time to mix.

Peter has decided to increase his sessions to 3 times a week. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursdays.

We got a really incredible sounding guitar track on song #2 thanks in part to Gavin Knowles elcheapo Fender Blues Jr. What a great sounding little amp. I have heard a couple of the vintage low watt Gibson amps that cost a fortune and this thing easily blows them away and its reliable. Dont believe all the hype about vintage gear, its just people getting rid of their garbage. Think about it, if you had a great sounding nice old amp would you sell it? If you had a troublesome old un-reliable bad sounding amp would you sell it, especially if there was a market full of morons that swallowed all the hype and were willing to pay outrageous prices sight un-seen? Sorry for the rant but hey, its my blog.

Thanks again Gavin!

BTW, I miked the Fender amp with an SM 57 > cheap Rapco cable > API3124 pre.

So, Sunday is vocals on song #3. We comped the guitar and keyboards on that song last night and it really does sound great. Its really nice to be able to hear these thing grow from a sketchy idea into a full blown song.

Tonight if I have time I will warm up the Lucas CS-? that Mr. Manning leant me. I want to experiment with compression and EQ settings before Sunday.

Saturday morning will be spent doing the final edits on my 5 songs to be sent away for mastering, and I think that I have a session with Tina Cartwright on Saturday afternoon.
Hmm, Tina should have her new keyboard!!!!! Lovely.

Creation is fun.

Good to have Friends.

2009-09-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

After talking with Peter Peters about song #3 we decided it would be best to redo the vocals on that song.

This is the first time I have recorded and attempted to mix this type song so I put up a question on ProSoundWeb Forum for suggestions.

As usual I get lots of great answers from Pros from all over the world.
Mic placement, compression, EQ, Mic patterns. All kinds of techniques to try.

Then to top it all off, I get a phone call at work from Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios!!
He asked me a couple questions then offers to lend me a new prototype Lucas CS-? microphone that he thinks would do well in this situation. Of course I accept the offer and go pick up the mic from Compass Point after work. Mr. Manning is a really cool humble guy. I feel extremely privileged.

So, Peter Peters decided that tonight will be editing and some Rhodes tracks and we will do vocals on his Sunday session. He is also very excited to try the New Lucas Microphone.

This whole recording thing just keeps getting better and better, and to think that I had a Friend that kept telling me that I was "wasting my time". What a moron!
Ever time I go into the studio I learn something. Every session is different and they all have different challenges. As far as I am concerned its not possible to waste time as long as I am trying to achieve something.

I love it!

Up an runnin.......

2009-09-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

Yes man!

The great Mr. Ossie Bowe came by last night.
Less that an hour and I was up and running again.
For some reason the patch bay was switched to 1/2 normal instead of normalled so I was getting a loop. I have no idea how it was working before we did the move? Ghost in the Machine.

Anyhoo, now its time to finish my 5 songs for Mastering.
This should not take much time as everything else is pretty much done with the mixes. Just got to get the vocals treated properly and seated nicely in the mix.

This is going to be exciting.

Almost done.

2009-08-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

Wow!

What I thought would only take an hour or 2 turned into an all day affair.

Ossie Bowe is a perfectionist!

Ever single wire and cable has to be neatly strapped together and then perfectly strapped to the desk frame out of the way. He took a great big jumble of cables , wires and power chords and made them all but disappear.
Of course when we fired the rig back up we had a problem with a couple pieces of gear not passing signal. It was quite late by then so we decided to shut it down and continue this week. I am sure that Mr. Bowe will figure it out.

However this did not hinder me from having a great session with Peter Peters on Sunday afternoon. We did a guide vocal for song #5 and re-did the scratch guitar track for song #6.
Peter also finally let me play him the first mix on the first 3 songs. He was quite impressed with the sound and is looking forward to doing some final editing on them. We both decided that the vocals on song #3 has to be re-done and that we are going to experiment with an array of microphones to try and catch it just right. We are getting together again on Thursday afternoon.

I also spent some time during the week doing some final tweaking and editing on the songs that are going to be Mastered. They sound awesome IMO. However because I cannot use my Lexicon reverb unit until Mr. Bowe is finished I still have not been able to finish the vocal tracks. I refuse to use D-Verb on a finished vocal, the Lexicon is Far superior sounding.Hopefully I will be able to finish them this week and send them off.
Starting to think of an album cover for my EP. I have a couple ideas........................

Control Room Re-Do

2009-08-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Finally all my new cables and extensions have arrived for my Control Room.

I will be able to take the tower of gear on the left side of my desk and move it all into the new Raxxes rack on the right side where the file cabinet used to be. This will make the room much more functional and sonically more accurate.

The great Ossie Bowe is booked to come in tomorrow morning between 9.30 and 10am.

I cant see it taking too long even though lots of gear has to be moved.

So now I can finish all of my mixes properly with the outboard API compressor and Lexicon reverb. I tried to utilise the D-Verb Waves plug in whilst the Lexicon was disconnected, ain't happening! The Lexicon is far superior. Now if I can only get the 224 unit back from New York, I would truly have a great reverb sound.

Soon come hopefully.

Roots Rock & Reggae

2009-08-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

Yes I !

Peter Peters session last night and he put the guide vocals on his reggae song. Fantastic!
I cant wait to hear what the bass and drummer are going to do with this song.
Really great lyrics and a nice old school Reggae vibe. Think Peter Tosh, my kinda stuff.

We also re-tracked the funk song to a slightly faster tempo. The session players are going to love this one too.

This album is going to be a very interesting mix of all sorts of music genre. Rock, Blues, Reggae, Funk and Ska so far.

Looking forward to Peters return on Sunday afternoon.

In other news

Its time for my music to make that final step. I have 4 or 5 songs almost ready to go. The thing is, most of them have been almost ready to go for a long time. I think I have been scared to present my work to the general public for obvious reasons. So I am now shopping for a Mastering Engineer and C/D duplicator.
My plan is to put an EP together. 4 or 5 songs mixed by me and Mastered by a pro. This will serve a few purposes.

1. To finally push myself to move on with my music.

2. To finally get a professionals critique not only on my songs but also on my recording and mixing.

3. Good or bad when its done I will have a product that I can show clients.

4. I will have gone through the process so I will be able to offer clients advice when they are ready for Mastering.

So, between now and the end of the weekend, I have lots of mixin and fixin to do.

Fun and exciting........

Tina's Drums

2009-08-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon Tina Cartwright and Brian came in for a drum session on song #2.

After a quick re-do of the guide Keyboard part to change the tempo Brian got on the drums.
We did 4 takes. The 3rd take was the best but the 4th take has the best outro. So I will be doing a little editing, but other than that it was a great track with an awesome sound.

For this session I used 2 different mics.
For mono O/H mic I used a Rode Classic 2 positioned almost directly over the snare drum and about 8 feet in the air.
For the room mic I used a TnC ACM12oo positioned 9 feet in front of the kit and 6 feet in the air. Both into API mic pres.
The other usuals were used on the rest. RE20 in the bass drum, PR40 on the snare and a Beyerdynamic M130 ribbon on the ride/tom panned hard right. Everything else was panned in the middle.
The drums sound great.

On Sunday I did a few final vocal takes on my "Hopeless" song.
I used the great Lucas CS-1 mic > API > Lucas EQ > Lucas compressor.
The vocals sound OK but I think I can get better. I dont think I had something dialed in propperly. Its a little difficule trying to dial in a mic pre/EQ/compressor when you are out in the live room singing. On my next try I am going to bring the mic into the control room so that I can dial it in propperly before I start tracking.
I also spent some time comping the Rhodes track for Hopeless that a session pro from NewYork did for me last week. Sorry I cant remember his full name, Lou someone I think.
He did an incredible job!
We ran the Rhodes through the Fender Reverb unit > 65/66 Fender Bassman amp > Sonic 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Greenbacks. I used a vintage Electro Voice RE15 dynamic mic > API mic pre. The Rhodes sounds Awesome, its fast becoming one of my favorite sounds. I wish I could find someone to play it on a regular basis. In fact, I wish I could play it. Hmm.

FUN FUN FUN.

Moving on.........

2009-08-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Peter Peters tonight.

We will start tracking the next three songs on his project, really looking forward to hearing what else he has to offer.

Last night I finished comping his final guitar solo on song #1 and comped the Rhodes track on song #2. Both sound great IMO but it will be up to Peter to make the final call.

Saturday is more drums for Tina Cartwright's project.
We will be working on a drum track for song #2 with her Husband Brian on drums.
I will be using a different mono O/H mic for this session. I want to get a slightly different sound for this song than song #1.

What mic for mono O/H? Hmm, WE shall see.

Forward.........

Best Vocals Yet !

2009-08-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon was finish vocals with Peter Peters with his first three songs.

We were both blown away with the sound that we got on the first two songs. I think by the time we got to the third Peter was getting tired and we had changed mics. So I gotta check that out and see how it sounds.

The signal chain was, Lucas CS-1 Tube LDC mic > Lucas Limiting Amplifier > Lucas Tube EQ > API 3124+ mic pre. AND I am also now converting with my new Apogee Rosetta AD/DA converter.

Truly the cleanest most real in your face vocals I have ever recorded! They seem to just drop into the mix perfectly and I have done zero internal EQ or compression yet. Just beautiful.

I have recorded with this chain before but never with these results. The Apogee is definitely making a huge difference.

So I can now start final comping and mixing these three songs. We will decide later if the vocals need to be re-done on the third song which is a very difficult song, very challenging. Lots of work to do but its really starting to come together nicely.

NEXT...................

Thursday Peter returns to start laying scratch tracks for the next three songs.

Its gonna be fun..............

Les Paul and da Rhodes.

2009-08-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

Tracked guitar solo's and Rhodes piano last night with Peter Peters.

It went really nice. For two of the guitar solos we used the 65 Fender Bassman with an SM57 mic running directly into the API micpre. For the third we used the 66 Ampeg Jet for a more clean jazzy sound. Peter used his old Gibson Les Paul.

BTW Mr. Les Paul died yesterday aged 94! . He was a musical genius and was responsible for many of the recording techniques that we use today. And of course the electric guitar. RIP.

WE then tracked the Rhodes piano on two of the songs. Both songs we used the Fender Bassman amp. One clean with a little chorus and the other really dirty with the TS808 Tube Screamer. As usual the Rhodes was lovely For a 30 year old instrument she really sounds lush.

Sunday is final vocals for these three songs. Peter and I are really looking forward to this.
I will be using almost a complete Lucas rig for vocals besides for the micpre that will be API.
The mic is the now world famous Lucas CS-1 LDC Tube microphone into a Lucas Limiting Amplifier (Tube Compressor) into a Lucas Tube EQ.

Its going to be fun.

Hopeless Percussion.

2009-08-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Remember when I went on vacation to Abaco?

I wrote 2 new songs, one called Hopeless and the other Mr.Jones.

Anyhoo, a few days ago I tracked acoustic and electric guitar and guide vocal tracks for the song called "Hopeless".

Whenever I need a musician I hire them and they come to my studio and I record them telling them what I want. This time I did it completely different. I did not want a drum set in the song but I did want percussion. Neil Symonette is the session drummer/percussionist that I call for my stuff. Neil is the absolute best on the island. So this time Neil took my tracks back to his studio and tracked percussion on the song without me even being there. When he called and said it was ready I did not know what to expect.

I was Blown Away!

Neil had created a whole landscape of percussion and sounds that took me on a journey from beginning to end. The sounds seem to blend with the story in the song and created a vivid picture in my mind.

This experience has me re-thinking how I write, create and record my own music.

Last night I was invited to the Oyster Bar by Adrian (Bass Player). He told me that he would be playing with a pro Keyboard player in from New York. So I went for a listen. He was Fantastic!
I spoke with him after the set and asked if he would be interested in doing a couple tracks on my song and he agreed. AND he says he loves Rhodes Piano!

I cant wait.

Conversion Upgrade.

2009-08-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Apogee Rosetta 800

My latest aquistion in my quest for greater sound.

The Apogee Rosetta 800 is top quality Analog>Digital/Digital>Analog conversion.

Until now I have been using the Digidesign 002 and Presonus converters. They are OK but not good enough.

With the Apogee I now have 8 channels of Studio Standard AD/DA conversion that will make everything sound cleaner and more real.

My sound will go to another level!

The Great Mr Oswald Bowe will be stopping by the studio this evening to install the converter and go over some other issues with me.

Edit, Comp, Edit.............

2009-08-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday was editing and comping with Peter Peters.

Great session, long session! 4 hours long!

But, we now have 3 songs comped and ready for final vocals hopefully to be done Sunday coming.
We are also getting together on Thursday to do some work on the Rhodes electric Piano and final guitar solo tracks. Its gonna be lovely.

I don't think most people realize how much time it takes to edit and comp a song and its a very personal thing that requires the artist or producer(or both) to be present to make the final decisions. Comping and editing takes as long or longer than the actual recording and requires lots of patience and concentration.

This is where you can make or break the impact of a song.

Peter did very well, 4 hours and only one break. The 3 songs are coming together really nice and I am looking forward to final vocals and moving on to the next 3 songs.

Fun Fun Fun.

Brian on da drums

2009-08-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Friday night was drum setup and mic check for Tina's drummer (Husband) Brian.

What started out as a mic check turned into a drum session.

After a brief warm up and mic check Brian nailed the first song with 2 great takes.

Drums were miked with 5 mics.
OH was an ACM900 ribbon.
Snare > Heil PR40
Bass drum EV RE20
Ride/toms Beyer M130 ribbon.
For this session I tried an AT 4070 LDC for a room mic.

The snare and bass drum was run through the TnC ACMP73 mic pre's.
The rest was run through API's.

Great drum sound!

One song ready for bass, Wednesday we will work on the second song.

Progress is FUN !

Mo Bass in da Place.

2009-08-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Last nights session was really cool.

Adrian was back to put bass tracks on the third song for Peter Peters.
A few runs and it was done, fantastic lovely bass in no time. This is the way to record if you dont have a really good tight band. Hire a pro and tell them exactly what you want. In the long run you save money and time AND walk away with a far superior product.
This song is all out Rock n Roll, and it really Slams!
However the Bass put the icing on the cake.

I recorded the Bass with the usual culprits, Ampeg B-18 miked with the Heil PR40. This time I ran the signal direct to the API pre with no compresor. Nice big and punchy bass.

After Adrian was done we did Piano tracks for Peters other 2 songs. I must say these 3 songs are really sounding great and I look forward to the rest. AND Peter says a couple of the other songs are Reggae! I love Reggae.

Peter and I have decided that the next session will be dedicated to editing and comping tracks. He wants to be there when I do this and I think he should. His input at this point is very impotant, I told him to bring a pocket full of patience.

After we finish the editing we will be ready for final guitar and vocals, some more percussion here and there and then mixing.

NEXT>>>>>>>>>>>>

Greatest Studio picture Ever!

2009-08-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

That's me with Terry Manning(http://www.terrymanning.com/), Dave Schools(Widespread Panic, Stockholm Syndrome), and my wife at the World famous Compass Point Studios. We are standing behind the Wonderful SSL board in Studio B. Go and look at the Discography on Terry Manning's site, incredible!

What a great experience!

Sunday Sessions..........

2009-08-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day for music.

Started out early this morning and put down scratch tracks for my new song "Hopeless".
Acoustic guitar and vocals. I used the Gibson J160e with a Beyer M130 ribbon mic into a Grace 101 pre. Really nice tone, the more I use these ribbon mics the more I like them. Very accurate sound and don't add anything. I also used the same mic for the vocal track. The song has started out very nice.

Everyday is a great day for music.

Later that afternoon the real fun started. Peter Peters came for his session with Adrian D'Aguilar for bass tracks. It was great! As usual Adrian was right on, a couple runs and it was done.
The first song has an old time smokey vibe and Peter decided to have acoustic bass.
What an awesome instrument and an awesome player. The acoustic bass was miked with 2 mics, a Heil PR40 on the F-hole and an ACM310 a little further back.

Did I mention that the Double Bass is huge!

The second song was more upbeat and Peter decided on electric bass. Adrian used his 5 string Music Man bass guitar. We ran it directly into the Ampeg B-18 and miked it with the Heil PR40 microphone into the API pre. Wonderful punchy bass that works perfectly with the song. We were all happy with the results.

Here is Adrian with his Music Man bass.

Peter and Adrian at the end of a great session.

Saturday Keyboards and scratch vocals.

2009-08-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tina Cartwright's first session went very well this afternoon.

2 really nice original songs and many more to come. No problems playing to a click track, hopefully the rest of the musicians will find it as easy.

We ran the keyboard directly into the API mic pre and got a really nice piano. Both songs are now ready for drums.

Tomorrows session is with Peter Peters. We have 3 songs ready for bass tracks. Adrian D'Aguilar is booked to come by( I think). We shall see.

I also spent some time comping the drums that Lucas Manning did for one of my songs. Really didn't need too much work but I definitely have to track another bass line as the original bass was run with the original drums and the bass does not quite work. Hmm, perhaps if Adrian has time tomorrow ?

Vox AC30 Top Boost

2009-07-30T08:21:00.001-07:00

Here is my Vox AC30 Top Boost.

This is a reissue of the guitar amp made famous by the Beatles, Keith Richards and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of The Who, Brian May of Queen, The Edge and Bono of U2, Tom Petty and many more.

I bought this amp in the late 90's. It was made in England by Korg. It is a 33 watt amp and originally came with Celestion Greenback (ceramic) speakers. I have since upgraded the speakers to two 15 watt Celestion blue speakers (alnico). This gave the amp a much earlier overdrive so you can walk away without your ears bleeding. It really is loud!

This amp can do most things really well, from nice fat buttery clean tone all the way to screaming overdrive. I use it mostly in the normal channel with a Fender reverb unit and an Ibanez TS808 in front of the guitar. Really nice tone that can cut through any mix!

Great amplifier.

Sunday,editing & New Client.

2009-07-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoons session was with Peter Peters.

We now have 3 songs ready for bass tracks.
After comping a few scratch guitar tracks and re-doing the vocal intro on one of the songs they are now ready for the bass player to come into the studio and put down his parts.
Bass is always fun and a challenge to get just right. 2 of the songs are going to be electric bass through the Ampeg B-18, the other Peter is going to decide between electric or acoustic (double bass). Hopefully it will be double bass, those instrument's sound fantastic.

I had a meeting with Keyboard player,singer/songwriter Tina Cartwright later that evening.
She has decided to put an album together of her own original music.
She is booked for Saturday at 2pm to start with scratch keyboard and vocals for the first song.
Should be very interesting.

Speaking of "Booked", I am now fully booked and cannot take any more big projects. I have a couple other small projects to finish and I also have 2 new songs of my own to start working on.

Too much fun!

Saturday Afternoon Drums....

2009-07-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

Ribbons Rule!

Mono overhead ACM 900 ribbon, Beyer M130 on ride/tom panned hard right and another M130 ribbon mic out in front for the room. Re 20 in the bass drum and PR40 on the snare. Awesome sound! The ribbon mics take all the edginess out of the cymbals and make them nice and smooth. Even the drummer commented on the room mic.

Speaking of the drummer;

Lucas Manning on da drums.
Great drummer, the more we did the better it got AND he didn't wanna stop!

We did 1o runs of a song that Lucas had never heard. No problem.
Take 8 and 9 were the best and are the ones that that I will comp to make an awesome drum track.

Thanks again Lucas, I'm sure we will be doing more this summer.

Peter Peters session this afternoon, not too sure what we will be doing. What ever it is I'm sure it will be fun. I comped a nice guitar track out of the tracks we did last week. Its up to Peter whether we use it or not but the comp really shows the structure and dynamics of the song and the song is very dynamic IMO.

I was contacted by another local artist via Facebook this weekend. She wants to do an album and we will get together and discus her dream.

Its all fun!

Alfred in da place!

2009-07-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

Alfred Kenny tuning his wonderful old Fender Bass.

Another great session last night!

WE did 6 runs and for some reason the first and last takes are the best! To the point that both are usable with no corrections needed. The first take sits in the song just right and the last take gives the song a nice mellow vibe that I really like. It will be a difficult decision between the two OR maybe I can blend them? Hmm...........

The tone of the bass was supreme!
Direct into the Ampeg B18 via the Heil PR-40 mic with no effects. I decided to use the Lucas Limiting Amplifier last night, it was a good decision. The bass was punchy and thick and seems to sit perfectly in the mix. No comping tonight, at least for this song.

Thanks again Alfred I know you had fun!.

Bass in da place........

2009-07-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Bass session tonight for one of my songs that I have not named yet.

Alfred Kenny is coming with his lovely old Fender bass guitar. Alfred is a great bass player and a really nice guy. I dropped off a copy of the music to his shop yesterday so he could have a listen.

I will be miking the 66 Ampeg B-18n for this session. I will try the Heil PR40 mic > Summit tube limiter > API 3124. I always get really nice thick and punchy results with this setup. However if hes not in a rush I may experiment with a couple other mics and my new Lucas compressor. Always fun to explore.

Last night I did some work on Peter Peters rhythn guitar tracks. After an hour and 1/2 or so I had a nice track comped. Tonight before Alfred arrives I will smooth out the rough edges and make it sound awesome. I still cant get over how nice the guitar sounded, even for a Les Paul!

Saturday afternoon should be very interesting. Terry Manning of Compass Point Studios mentioned some time ago that his son Lucas plays drums . Lucas is working at lowes for the summer with me in the warehouse. My un-named song needs a better drum track. Lucas agreed to come by on Saturday afternoon and give it a try. So, drum session Saturday afternoon.
There will be pictures!

Fun Fun Fun.......................

Great Session......

2009-07-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

After a killer guitar session last night Peter Peters has decided to put an album together!!
I am really glad, Peter is very talented and fun to work with. Great song writing skills.

So far he has started off with the best idea, hiring the best session musician's possible to put down tracks. Starting with Neil Symonette to do drums and later on Adrian D'Aguliar for bass. In the long run he saves money and time. When these guys come in there is no time waisted trying to catch a groove. A few runs of the song and they are finished and out the door.

Tonight I will be comping Peters rhythm tracks. We really dialed in a gorgeous tone last night. After trying a couple amps he settled on the Fender VibroVerb, running the Les Paul though a TS808 then a Fender Reverb. Really nice and smooth with a touch of crunch. I think we bypassed the reverb. After about 10 tracks of rhythm we took a break. Then we made a few runs at some guitar fills. For this we used the same rig but added a Vintage Rat pedal after the 808, and turned the reverb back on. This made the amp go bananas, massive overdrive and sustain, it was lovely! We recorded 3 tracks of fill, a quick listen back and that concluded the session. To be resumed on Sunday afternoon. Pictures coming soon!

Too much fun!

Tuesday Session

2009-07-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

Got a session tonight at 6.30 with Peter Peters.

We have 3 songs to work on that Neil Symonette put drums down to scratch tracks before I went on vacation. Sounds really good, Neil is awesome on drums and percussion and a really nice humble guy.

Tonight we will be working on overdubbing the original scratch guitar tracks, should be easy enough. The challenge will be dialing in the perfect guitar tone. Peter uses an old Gibson Les Paul standard, sounds nice as long as it stays in tune.

When thats done we will work on bass guitar. Peter says he spoke to Adrian D'Agullar and he agreed to come and do it. Adrian is a fantastic bass player , both electric and double bass. He is always fun to work with, very professional.

I gave Gavin his two mixed down songs yesterday, he seemed quite satisfied. Gavin is migrating to Australia on Friday. Big move! Best of luck man.

Homeward Bound.

2009-07-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Finally!

1.30 pm ferry boat to Marsh Harbour, taxi to the airport, 2.30 Abaco Air flight to Nassau.
Should be home by 4pm. 15 minutes for the A/C to cool the studio............ Should be mixing no later than 5pm. I will be working on Gavins bluesy tune. Started out as a simple instrumental, has now morphed into a great blues song with lyrics by Peter Peters. Harmonica and guitar solo. I want to get this project done tonight if any way possible. Gavin is leaving for Australia!! Brave man chasing the dream. I wish him the best.

Met a guy named David Edwards on Facebook whilst on vacation. He posted some really cool music on Facebook. Looking forward to doing something with him.

Peter Peters also has a few songs that he wants to work on. We already have drums down for 3 of his songs, done by Neil Symonette (Awesome drummer!). So we will be overdubbing guitars, bass, vocals and whatever else he wants on those next week. Really nice tunes! Should be fun.

AND, Tommy Goodwyn should be back in town. We have at least 5 songs started, 2 of those are really close to being done. For those who dont know Tommy played with Eric Clapton back in the day, he always has a few great stories to tell. Always fun.

I love recording music BUT what I love the most is recording guitar. Especially electric guitar. Its always a challenge trying get that perfect tone that is happening out in the live room. Drums are very chalenging to record but I get more satisfaction with guitars. Possibly because I play a little? The correct microphone with the best placement. Too much fun.

Extreme Boredom...

2009-07-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

.... is great for writing.

Did some more work on the "Hopeless" song that I didn't really have much expectations for.
But, it came together really nice. I am really looking forward to tracking these new songs, see where they end up.

I read somewhere on the net, at a site about song writing. It said that the most important thing to do to learn how to write songs is to write everyday. Doesn't matter if its good or bad just keep writing even if its just a couple lines AND never throw any of it away.

Another day .........

2009-07-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

Another song, well almost.

Two more days in Abaco......

The wife went diving conch today(she got 30 today and 40 on Monday), I stayed at the house and played guitar, read a book and almost finished another song. Strange song called "Hopeless". Not to sure if its gonna make it to actual recording but I am going to try and finish it.

Really jonesing to get back to my studio. I have a bunch of things I want to try with mic techniques. I am going to experiment with my new Beyerdynamic M130 mic on acoustic guitar. Never put a ribbon on an acoustic guitar, should be fun and nice. AND seeing as I now have 2 of the M130's, I can also try them as overheads for drums. Hmmmmmm...........

Here is the sunset tonight that the wife took in the back yard.

Bahamian BBQ Ribs, Peas&Rice, Potato salad and Macaroni and Cheese. MM MM Good!
And really healthy.

Thanks David!!!!

2009-07-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Wireless up and running.
Apparently a key code # issue.
Much Thanks.

I luv PCs.......N O T !!!!!

2009-07-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

For some reason yesterday my wireless connectivity went down on the wife's PC that we brought with us. I am a computer retard, especially PCs. We had a freind come over that knows more about computers and he figures it was the wireless router, perhaps the local electricity supplier (BEC) fried it? So I got a new wireless router from the mainland $105.00. SAME THING!!!! same message, same no wireless, Im sure it is pilot error. La De Da....................

So, the song I wrote a couple weeks ago)Promise Land) does not work with the riff I came up with. However I came up with a different progression that seems to work well with it, wont really know till I get home and work it a bit. The other progression/riff got me thinking about Jonesers(local crack addicts). I have another song written, well, the first 3 verses and a chorus/bridge titled Mr. Jones. I like it! I will work some more on that today, perhaps after the beach.
I highly recommend the little Martin Backpacker to guitar players that travel and dont want the hassle or risk of toting a valuable acoustic with them. Fun to play, stays in tune and really does not sound all that bad. Smells good too, kinda like cedar.

Martin in Abaco.

New tune

2009-07-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Still on vacation.

Got up early this morning, got the Martin Backpacker tuned up and put a nice chord progression together. I actually wrote the progression down this time so I don't forget it.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a song called "Promise Land", kinda religious vibe. Perhaps I can put the two together. I really should have brought a drum machine and headphones.Makes making music more fun, perhaps without it I will get a more rootsy feel? We shall see. la de da.

Our two house guests just left, the wife is carrying them to the dock for the 11.30 ferry boat back to the mainland. Now my vacation starts.

Bought a case and 1/2 of beer yesterday, $95.00 !!!!!!! Gonna be the best beer I ever drank!

Missing my studio big time..........................................

Vacation pictures

2009-07-11T05:55:00.001-07:00

Here is the house that we are staying in on Hope Town. My father and Grandfather built it a million years ago. It now has running water, electricity, A/C, and a water heater. I remember when it did not.

Here is the view from the back porch looking out towards Man o War. Right on the entrance of the harbor.

Flying the colors for Independence.

Here is a picture from the north side looking towards the world famous Hope Town Lighthouse.

Lunch on da grill mon!

World famous Tiffy Burgers..........

Suns going down, Like a big bald head.

Pretty!

A Fluva (Abaconian for "A Flower")

I'm on vacation

2009-07-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls,
This is my first blog.
At the moment I am in Abaco on vacation, Bahamas Independence.

So, I now have a nice Web Site for my Home Studio and I asked for a Blog so here it is. Thanks To Chari.

I will be here a few more days then back to Nassau, work and my studio. Any suggestions about this blog or my web site is most welcome.

Seeing as I am on vacation I will post some vacation pictures..............

The New Home of the THS Blog

2009-07-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Tower Heights Studio Blog. Please stay connected to this blog for all new things coming from THS.

- Cliff