Guitarist Denis Taaffe's Official studio and gear Blog

Digitech rp vs line6 pod xt live

2010-08-28T00:31:00.006-04:00

I recently acquired a digitech rp70 which is a all in one amp modeler ,f/x unit and pedal board in one. Now keep in mind that this pedal is less than $100 new and mine was a whopping $35 used. My main unit is a line 6 pod xt live and it is similar as it is an amp modeler,f/x unit and pedalboard in one as well,but is closer to $500 new. I have used the line 6 pod xt live for a long time and have it setup the way I like it. I have had the rp70 for 2 days.My initial impression of the rp70 is very good.

The fact that I can even compare it to the $500 line 6 pod xt live is impressive from this cheap pedal. It incorporates the new audiodna2 chip which is also found in digitech's higher priced models. After playing and recording with this unit I found several things. First, the presets can be useful though most require a lot of tweaking to be used normally.however, it also had some amp modeling presets that were just right,especially marshall like sounds. It also has some really great amp models and good effects like the pod xt live.

Smoothness
Overall they are much smoother sounding than the pod xt live which is very rough sound. however, for recording the rough sound of the line 6 wins out as it sounds more realistic than the digitech which is a bit too smooth to sound or feel like an amp to me. the softness of the rp70 can be useful for clean sounds and rhythm guitar at times.

Lead sounds
the rp70 makes lead easy to play in comparison to the line 6 feel wise.But the line6 is much more convincing and balanced in this area.Part of this is to how clean the rp70 sounds are in comparison to the line 6 which is a bit noisier in a good way,much like a real amp.

Cleanliness
the rp70 and its sounds are very clean.no hiss,no noise ,just really clean. This makes for good recording, however, the line6 is nosier but in a good way in that it's noises are more like what you would find in an amp such as a bit "grumbling or growling noise, some hiss at times,etc.." very minor ,but the end result makes a big difference.This is why again ,the rp70 is better on clean sounds and "soft sounds" compared to high gain settings that are much more convincing on the line 6.

OVERALL
I am glad i got the rp70 as it is convenient ,very small and sounds very good. It also made me appreciate the line 6 pod xt live much more. the pod xt live is rough harder to play feel wise but the recording results are much better than the digitech rp's.The hype online is that the rp's blow the pod's out of the water.I totally disagree. The line6 sounds more realistic to me and better results when recording. That is not to say that the rp's are nice and in fact with some tweaking can yield some great results as well.It is a much smoother sound than the pod and really almost has its own sound and its very clean. Spending some time with it, one could easily come up with there favorite patches that sound good, recording and live.That said, to me the line 6 pod xt live is a more professional sounding unit but the rp is not very far behind and in fact can shines in some situations better than the pod and its fun to just to turn it on and experiment. For the money the rp70 is amazing but to dismiss the pod xt live is a big mistake with its pro and realistic sounds.

Audio studio on the Cheap

2010-08-20T16:12:00.004-04:00

Cheap audio furniture: The microwave stand
For home audio studio furniture, there are a few companies that make this type of furniture and it is very expensive with a typical desk with some rack cases built in going for $2000 or so.now that is $2000 less that could be spent on equipment recording gear etc...Well, I was in need of a desk and rack case to carry a mixer and 2 ADAT machines and a power amp.About 12 rack spaces altogether and then a mixer on top. A rack case like this would easily be $200-400 or more. So, instead I substituted a used $10 microwave stand from a thrift store. I painted it black and it turned out very well. I removed the drawer to make more rack space. As luck would have it, the power amp and the 2 adats fit in the space perfectly. With the equipment in the stand , one would be hard pressed not to think that it was audio studio furniture custom made for this purpose. With some creativity and experimentation, one can get standard furniture to be functional audio studio furniture.

ok, well, my home studio has been growing at a steady pace. along with that came huge bundles of cables, equipment everywhere and soon no space to work in. Well, I added these computer desks and though that I could use these desks in my home studio to double as desk to do computer video and audio editing.Well, that ate up space and while it worked ,I was just very cramped.So out they go!! I just recently replaced my old crt monitors with flat screen monitors and that does help cut down on the space needed. We will look at some ways to save some space next time.

new gear

2009-08-07T17:23:00.004-04:00

visit http://www.dtguitar.com/, Denis's website

Kahler Tremolo

My Schecter/Ibanez guitar that I had played for over 20 years finally gaveout. In particular, the Kahler guitar tremolo was no longer working. I though I could order a new one. how wrong I was !! Turns out they went out of business for several years and I could not find a tremolo anywhere. Well!! I am pleased to announce that Kahler tremolo's are back in business!! I just bought a brand new Kahler black tremolo from http://www.kahlerusa.com/ , http://www.kahlerparts.com/ & http://www.wammiworld.com/ .Amazing quality and quick shipping. Recommended. Kahler is back and there tremolo's are awesome!! Much nicer than the standard floyd rose. As a result my schecter guitar is back in business too!!

Behringer v-amp 2 guitar amp modeler

I recently bought a guitar amp and they threw in a behringer v-amp 2 modeler. you can get these for very cheap (under $100) from american musical, amazon.com and musiciansfriend. I tried it out direct first andwas blown away by the guitar sounds. In particular, the guitar "rythmn" sound. real Marshall sounds, fender amp sounds and more. Excellent. For direct leads it was lousy. I then tried it through a guitar amp and it was lousy again. bottom line, this thing has one purpose and that is rythmn guitar distorted when recording direct!! no other setup sounded good, but when used direct for recording rythmn guitar, it was amazing.

Denis's CD's at amazon.com

For a limited time only, purchase Denis's 2009 modern rock guitar Vol.133 "guitarglyphs" on CD at amazon.com. It's $20, but keep in mind that this is a rare independent CD release.Unlike a major label release which prints millions of CD's, there are very few of these made. Support Denis and allow him to create more Cd's.buy it here!!

new studio setup

2009-06-03T17:42:00.001-04:00

coming soon a new studio look and new gear

update and new gear

2009-05-22T00:03:00.008-04:00

visit Denis's official website at http://www.dtguitar.com

alesis sr-18 drum machine 9/10

I was a big user of the alesis sr-16 drum machine which hasn't changed in ten years or so until the release of the sr-18. street price around $259 though you can find it for $200 or so if you look hard enough. ok, the sr-18 has much better sounding drum sounds in all kinds of styles than the sr-16. they also added lots of percussion sounds and even a bass track. The bass track I found rather silly and useless,however guess to play along with its ok. Thank goodness you can mute the bass track. It syncs to midi very well and the drum sounds realistic. It also has a ton of drum kits so one pattern can sound like lots of different kits. It acts like an sr-16 in many ways. It has the magic fill button which gives you drum fills on command and drum variations.sweet!!! foot controllable via pedal. The drum pattern themselves are usually laid out by default in 4 measures which is kind of long and I prefer the old 2 measure patterns of the sr-16 then the fills come in real well. but no big deal, as you can copy and then change any pattern. Also, new is a roll button which allows you to do drum rolls. By itself it sounds great, but mix the sr-18 with drum samples or other drum machines and it is simply awesome!!!

Alesis sr-16 drum machine 9/10

The alesis sr-16 is a different beast than the new sr-18 which is just a great drum machine. the patterns are simpler but punchier and the fills are great and the drums sound not as good as the sr-18 especially the cymbals, but the core drum sounds are very good.They are different enough that the sr-16 is definitely worth while to use. In fact, After selling mine long ago, I was able to find a used one for about $60.00 or so. The fills are great as I mentioned but again when mixed with the sr-18 and/or session drummer, ez drummer or acid drum samples, it is just amazing,especially for recording.

Lexicon Jamman rackmount phrase sampler/ looper 10/10

This unit was discontinued in the 90's and are rather hard to find and go for some high prices .What is it? Well it is a rackmount phrase sampler looper. It comes stock with 8 seconds of looping time but can be expanded to 32 seconds. In one word these are simply AMAZING!!! I own 4 of these for the simple reason that they are for all practically the only looper that actually syncs to midi!!! Perfectly every time!! To this day,not one looper can sync to MIDI worth a dammn. I found out the hard way after getting burned on the roland rc-50 ultimate looper (pooper is more like it) and even the electroharmonix 2880 looper. weak these other units have midi jacks too but cant sync worth squat. the exception may be the gibson echoplex buts its pricey and not as simple as the jamman. For me they make playing and looping bass tracks on the fly effortless as well as phrases and backwards looping. but its main force is the way that it just takes anything you play into it and syncs to midi clock (no song pointer,mtc or smtpe crap). Just your basic midi clock like a drum machine. the morons over at digitech came out a few years later after acquiring lexicon with a digitech jamman pedal which is a piece of crap, as they removed the best part of the lexicon jamman, you got it, the midi sync capabilities. this is perhaps the biggest blunder in music gear history!!!!!!! fools. In any case, if run across one of these grab it as they are rare and getting rarer and are not made anymore and nobody has duplicated its midi sync capabilities. In fact there is a stinker engineering design among us which is a midi sync method employed by the roland rc-50 and the electroharmonix which requires sending starts and then independently trying to resize loops and it just doesn't work worth a damn.IT is downright embarrassing when I tried using these compared to my lexicon units. the lexicon kept a constant synced tempo while the rc50 and 2880 were losing sync and changing their tempos constantly.who is the brilliant doufus engineer who thought that one up and sadly these poor sap companies are using it and then wondering why their sales are lagging when they could have copied a super simple lexicon jamman rackmount unit that came and went sadly.

Mackie 1642-vlz3 4 bus mixer 10/10

this a 16 ch 4 bus mixer with ten mic pre ch's and the rest are stereo ch's. direct outs, insert, 2 auxes and 4 subgroups. Perfect fro the home recording studio. I know of no one who uses more than ten mic's at a time for a home studio. Even with drums you could do a sub mix. Well, I got this unit after missing the mackie 32x8 8bus I sold.sounds amazing on recordings and mic pre's are super.The sound quality of the mackie is just incredible!! highly recommended

revelations!!!! gear

2009-03-04T23:44:00.002-05:00

Revelations

I am stunned to find in my experimentation with gear that sometimes the simple setup wins out over the complex setup. In this case, a fancy Emu sound card and Sony Sonar Daw VS. a Roland vs890 (stand alone 8 track 24 bit digital recorder with digital mixer). Ok, the DAW system costs about $1000.00 if you count the software and a cheap pc, mayb e more with a decent pc.t's modern and state of the art if you will in terms of recording. The roland vs890 is about 11 years old, yet boasts similar technical specs as the DAW (digital audio workstation on a pc hah). 24 bits in this case at 48k then converted down to 44.1 16buit for cd replication.

I recorded the exact same thing on both systems. First let's talk about setup time. It took a good hour or two to get the sonar all set up and ready to go with samples loaded. The roland stand alone daw took about 15 minutes. Now, amazingly, the results were almost identical. I could not tell the difference after recording or mastering for that matter!!! Hard to believe. The plus side for the sonar software was it sure looked cool to have the the meteres going and the graphic mixing console and all the plug ins. But for simplicity, the roland is jsut as easy as could be to record on , though I then had to transfer the mix to soundforge softare and master it that way. Took about the same amount of time as it did for the sonar software to mixdown.

Anyway, this is great news. I plan on using both. the sonar, does offer more features such as plugin's on individual tracks and all this amazing midi sequencer triggering samples (aka session drummer and other samples). I am also thrilled with the roland that actually sounded better on guitars than the sonar is still amazing with its pristine sound quality. Anyway, this was an eye opening experience.

tube vs solid state amp for guitar
I have always favored tube amps for guitar. they have a smoothness and feel about them. however, this was until I used a true amp modeler like the pod xt live (from line 6). all of a sudden, solid state sounds so much better with it than a tube amp. ?Now I am using some crate tube amps and it could be the speakers which aren't the best, but the solid state sound sounds better and it makes sense as the line 6 is modeling/emulating different kinds of tube amps and for recording it is just a perfect controllable sound. I am still torn between the two. I love just plugging in to a tube amp to get that really nice chimey glassy tube sound, but with the pod and tube amp it just not meant to work with that.

So, this is definite and it is hard to come to grips with. Everyone raves about tube amps,but usi ng the pod xt live into a tube amp is just not where its at as far as optimum tone. In fact, a cheapo solid state combo amp will sound ten times better. tighter and less noisy too. So, here I have learned a big lesson. Just because everyone says this is the best, it is not always the case. I have 3 of these crate tube combo's and they are extremely loud and that is great if your playing in a band with a drummer going nuts and so on, but in the studio it is not ideal at all. IT all comes down to the modeling. I suppose if you are using a tube amp direct with some pedals that works,but don't run a modeler through it. SO I will definitely sell two of my tube combo amps and keep one when I want to go direct into the amp.

netgear vs dlink router
By the way, I was using a dlink 614+ 2.4 ghz internet router in my studio to connect pc's and found that the connection was droppping out and to transfer audio files from one pc to another took ages!!! the company described the unit as reaching its end of life cycle, though I was comptia a+certified so surely I coul get it working....not!!! I did get it to sputter for a while but it would take ages to transfer files. Finally I went out and bought a netgear router (one of those white ones) and it did the trick. I highly recommedn the netgear wireless routers, thye are really great and fast too. D-link was a real dissapointment for me. Now my studio pc's are humming on a network and it works great.

Mixer
After having the luxury of having an 8 buss mixer which i sold the mackie 32x8, I do miss that ease whith which you route things together and audio signals to whatever you wanted. In particular, I enjoyed just being able to hit a swtich and route the signal from my studio monitors to my p.a. systtem for drums and bass. So I am looking into the purchase of a new mixer perhaps.

Other Gear
Other gear I am intersted in is 2 solid state combo amps, 2 avatar 2x12 cabs with celestions, an alesis sr-16 drum machine which is always fun especially with software to trigger drum samples, perhaps the new sr-18 they just came out with which is an upgrade of the sr-16. then I am intersted in a solid state power amp for guitar (maybe a rocktron velocity). Also, the digitech gsp-1101 looks and sounds very interesting or/and the pod xt3live. Anyway, these are things I am looking at, but it all depends on price and so on and next week it wil be something else hahaha. Anyway, I now know exactly the direction I need to go in music gear wise after a lot of expensive experimentation and that's 1/2 the battle.but the experimentation of new gear is a must to try to get a better sound and it may open musical doors for you as well. Howeve, I am glad I held on to my main setup which turns out to be the right thing for me and so I can expand on that.

Updates; good bye to old gear and hello tonew gear

2009-02-22T01:34:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been a while, but believe me, I have been busy as ever working on my guitar playing, my guitar gear, my stuio geqar,mystudio room and gear ideas. so let's get to it!!:

Denis bids a farewell to the mackie 32x8x2 8 buss mixing console
Ok, here is the scoop on th Mackie 8 bus 32x8 mixing console. I sold it after having worked with it and have created about 4 or 5 albums with it.Why dod I sell it? well, for many reasons. One, it is a great sounding mixing console. It's analog, it's warm, the mic pre's sound great in that things fit well in the mix and have there own space and the EQ's are very good as well. Now for one person, 32 ch's is a bit of overkill and many ch's I didnt use. Also, the thing is huge and my recording room was small, sure it was cool to have a big board like that, but when you try to cram that ,pc's,pa and a wall guitar amops and so on, it does get crowded. Also, beaue it has so many routing options ,its also not a very direct sound. Also, this particular baord was getting old and would soon need ribbon cables replaced as I had to constantly turn up the gain for a ch to activate and things. But not uncommon for an older board such as this. Also, I was going into recording with sonar so I would not need it quite as much. In any case, I sold it and was glaed to have it when I did and glad to be able to use and experience recording with it.As an alternative, I am interested in just working with some outbaord mic pre's , so heading in that direction.

2 Akai 42" LCD hdtv's as minotors
go one ande then another, these are jsut the best as pc monitors!!! 1080p ,great resolution ad they look great. I like these when recording with Sonar or doing video editing. anyway, the problem was getting a desk big enough for these. In the end, I lucked out and found three computer desks used that were the same and fit perfectly together to give me a 9ft desk area and it was the same size horixzontally and vertically, so perfect for the dual 42" lcd's. Sure I could have gone with puny 22 or24" lcd's, but I jsut love these, for audio I can see tracks horizontally and the virutally mixing console on seperate screens,etc...anyway, I got each one for about $400 which is a bargain but found a repair cetner in bloomington that refurbished thm for cheap. works great. however, just as I get them setup , my audio pc internet connection takes a dump, DAMN IT!!! No way to fix it. Tried for days, but lucky i had a laptop with internet access, so no big deal. but tim to replace these cp's which i had been thinking about for a while. now would be a good time.

XP internet access
ever sicne vista came out, xp seems to be getting crappier and crappier, coincidence? Probabkly not. Well, all of a sudden my audio pc interenet connection took a nove dive. No one can seem to fix it. No space for a new network card,maybe I can try a usb netork deal. anyway, it does slow me down. Well, isp has a tech coming out on thusday, but I doubt they can do anything for it. by then I hope to have ordered some new pc;s anyway,

Modern rock Guitar vol.136 is complete
YES!!!!! its done and lik many of my albums, it was done in the midst of chaos and experimentation in the studio room, this time it is changing the room aaround with new furniture and new monitors and chaning amps too. But ,littl by littl4 it took shape. turned out to b a prety cool album too!!! Also, have the intro track for vol.137 done. Lsitening to it now in fact. You know, I have to say, it is so hard to change your methods when you are use3d to doing things a certain way and it woudl be easy for me to continually jsut do what I did on the last album. but facing these challenges is the only way to progress musically!!! for example, I have been using my roland recorders forever, though after experimenting with sonar I see that I may be abl to get a better recoridjng sound out of it, but there is a big learning curve and adjustments that need to be made gear wise to accomadate it. But that is very difficult. anyway, it will be worth while!!!

TUbeOMANia Crate v33 tube amp
ok, here is the deal with these beasts!! The preamp tubes that come with them are total junk!?!! I mean the v33 was producing so much hiss in the clean ch and made the f/x loop totally useless and the reverb was jsut useles too.Solution: a $10 12ax7 preamp tube!!!! Hard to believe the difference. If you have one of these, replacfe the the last tube in the chassis and its like a miracle, all of a sudden the amp is crystal clear and no hiss, f/x loop works grat and is quiet and the spring reverb is actually in a useabkle range. So, I went out and bout 2 more. I used elextroc harmonix tubes and they worked grreat. I also have aq third amp and will try a JJ tube as they didnt have nay mroe electro harmonix. so we will seee. but the difference is night and day.Wonder if switiching out the remaing two preamp tubes might make a difference two. I also noticed that the speakers are set for a certian sound and they sound very good, but I am so used to a jensen tuype of sound and wonder about repalcing them for that. but may be not, as I noticed that some eq goes a long way. anyway, the difference of these crates and my utratwin amps is quite something. the crates are beasts and are clearere and louder yet somoother becasue of the power amo tubes. oh and grabbing the low end is something to experience!!! now will it trasnlate into recordings? We will see!!! note:I was very proud of doing the handy work of replacing the preamp tube myself which requires removing the chassie k, well really titlting it at 90 degrees.anyway i dont like doing that stuff or seeing the actual inner working s of the amp, especially when you have to play through it later, its asusperstitous guitar thing I guess haha. But the seocnd I plugged in, I was thrilled that it actually made the amps useable!!! they used to be hjsut way to noisy to do anything with other than annoy the neighbors.now they are clean enough to use on recordings!!!

BOSS 2 way footwitch
ok, I use alot fo a/b switches in my guitar rig.Its simple and eifficient. however, my morle a/b/y switches and my startouch stereo a/b pedals use these darn massive footswtiches, yes they are heavy duty and work great but one flaw: They CLICK loudly!!!! So when reocridng they are fine for loud passges but can be picked up during transients,drives me crazy!! Yes, I could move the footswitches to an other room ,etc...but for my home studio its not practical and I like playing by the amps.. Solution: Well iwas looking in a catalog and found this Boss a/b footswitch and isntead of the heavy duty clicker, they use a silent switch found on the boss rc-50 looper as well. well, when I was in a music store to pickup 2 12aqx7's preamp tubes they had a used boss switch. the exact same one I was looking at. so I bought it fo $29.00 used. As long as it works ok and is clean it should be a nice break from those dam loud clicker footswitches. we will see!!!

Expensive
music crap is so darn expensive, its horrible. locally after the 7 percent sales tax, I ended up spending $57 for one a/b swtich and 2 preamp tubes. Maybe its jsut me, but I thought it would be less. So much so, I had to leave the store when they told me the price and go smoke a cigarette hahaha!! I do recall a music store owner years ago who once told my friend about me "he just doesnt like to part with his money" hahaha after trying to get me to spend $1000 on a amp; how right he is. Not because i am cheap, but because I am trying to acocmplish something musci wise inclduing my cd recordings so I have to be very careful money wise. anyway, I spend the $57 bucks, but I dont know why it seems like quite a bit.But, those preamp tubes make those crate amps actually useable and sound vey very good. so it will work out well.

On the horizon
Amazon has gotten my latest cd's up for sale and are manufacturing them which is jsu awesome, rather than mp3 only albums. They have vol.119-135 so far. I think.so working on that. Also, am thinkging of getting an Alesis sr-18 drum machine, as i had an alesis sr-16 and I enjoy plying with drum machines more than samples because I play differrently with them. I hope to be able to use both. anyway just a thought.Also, looking at the digitech gsp1101-sounds nice!!! ALso looking into control surface for sonar, but i hate pc daws, so much can go worng, the roland standloanes jsut turn them on and they work everytime. not so with a PC dAW. anyway, we will see. I do know my next album will be very different as it will be reocrded with diferent amps and diferent hardware, should be interesting!!!

Looping pedals and pedalboards & more

2009-02-01T00:19:00.004-05:00

visit http://www.dtguitar.com,Denis's official website

Line 6 variax 300 update
I bought this guitar used and it models all kind s of guitars such as acoustic guitars and banjo (a must have if you want to rock) ,sitar, dobro, etc...(see a previous post on it). Well, this guitar needed a setup badly, the action was super low to the point where not all frets sounded. I fixed a lot of it by adjusting the truss rod a bit and got 5 of the 6 strings working perfectly. but the sixth needed an adjustment and I didn't have an Allen wrench. I took it to a local music store and they were very cool. The guy was really nice to take it to the back and he fixed it in a split second for n0 charge. That was really cool!!! Anyway, I dropped off an amp to be worked on there as well and bought a 12ax7 tube as I plan to attempt to change out one of the preamp tubes of the crate v332x12

Crate v33-212 update
WEll, I do like this tube amp but I get hiss on clean ch and f/x loop to the point of being useless and the reverb is too huge. I read that swapping out one of the preamp tubes makes a huge difference, so we will . I got an electro harmonix 12ax7 tube ironically,but it just has to be better than these cheapo preamp tubes in the crate right now. we will see. Also, i am starting to really like the ballsy sound of the crate more than my solid state amps for regular guitar in my setup, though so far it stinks for f/x sounds. Hmmm, well, we will see....I guess I have a lot of fun trying stuff out and trying to work it into my system which is setup for live & recording at the same time.

I once tried out a $1000+ tube amp, a Genz Ben as I recall, and it sounded good, but I could not for the life of me get it too sound right with my setup?! Go figure. I actually am having better luck with the crates. bottom line for gear for me is very simple, it either works great with my other gear or sounds great and can fulfill one specific purpose or else I just cant use it. I actually have found that certain combination of amps,f/x and other gear works and some just doesn't work at all though each item may be of super high quality/reputation. Also, some of the cheapest gear sometimes works and sounds better than more expensive gear.

Looping pedals and pedalboards
Ok, an update. The two music stores did indeed refund me the total price for both the electro harmonix 2880 and 2880 foot controller. A hefty $500 or so. I just had a bad experience with it as it would not sync to midi very well at all,but may have been a faulty pedal. In any case, I got a chance to try it and I will say that the sound quality is excellent and by itself it could be a decent looper though very sensitive and the foot controller stwitches are way too loud and it takes way too many clicks to loop stuff. anyway, it did work well as a standalone looper (but I have too many that do that already) .it's gone!!!

Boss Rc-50 looper recap
the other looper that claimed to sync to midi was the Boss Rc-50 looper. Funny that both the rc-50 and the electro harmonix both took similar approaches to syncing to midi and both failed miserably in my book. In fact, to date and after a thousand dollars spent and recouped, the only true looper that syncs to midi is the lexicon jamman (the discontinued rackmount unit, not the cheap digitech imitation). Now, I have been harsh on the boss-rc50 and I did keep mine because I did find that by itself it was able to loop in a way that reminds me of old tangerine dream stuff and the sound quality is great. So its not bad, just the sync part is not up to snuff.

Overall, both unit s are good units, but I just dont like the approach they tried to use to sync to midi and if you want a midi looper hat syncs to midi, avoid these two like the plague, but both are decent for stand lone looping.

Akai 42" LCD Flat Panel HDTV Monitor

Ok, what the heck does a 42" LCD flat panel have to with guitar and audio studio gear?! Well, not much really ,but its essential as are lava lamps to provide the rigth atmostphere hahaha. Ok, sriously though, I happen to live in Bloomington, In and most of the broken or discontinued lcd hdtv''s in the country get shipped here to be fixed or liquidated by PTS,corp. Well, lucky for me they have an utlet store in town and they have incredible prices. I have long wanted to replace my 21"crt monitors with an lcd.So, I tried the outlet store and they had tons of 720 p hdtv's but only one size of 1080p and it was the akai for $400.25 which is an amazing price for a full 1080p lcd. In fact, online I have seen them average for $699-1300 plus $199 shipping.

Ok, the ones they had are more of a monitor than a TV as they dont have a built in tuner, but I didnt mind at all. I was going to ue it for my studio PC monitor for audio and video editing. I had read online from do-gooder nerdy wimps that "oh my, you will have to sit ten feet away to use a 42" size TV". YEAH RIGHT!!! I got it home and just plugged in my VGA cable into it and put it right on my desk and the picture came up at 1280x1024 85hz and was jsut simply amazing!!! I mean , it made my 21" monitor look like a puny little monitor, I even got the resolution up to 1600x1200 at 60hz which is nice ,things were a bit smaller ,more on the screen but duller too. And that is without hooking up a true dvi to hdmi which I plan to do to get higher resolution. Anyway, the difference is startling.

In my audio editing plugin's, they have graphics of hardware rackmont equipment and on this tv it is as if they are lifesize!! Crystal clear image and the resolution is high enough that the icons and text dont look stupidly big like old crt monitors when you set them to 800x600 or 640x480 god forbid. I mean I am sitting back in my studio chair about 31/2-4ft away and the picture is great. running multiple apps all on one screen a the same time is just great.Anyway, I highly recommen that you run out and get a 42" lcd and replace your pc monitor!!! MAn, you wont ever go back to puny little monitors ever again!! guitar wise its like playing through a cranked 50wt marshall 1/2 stack for the first time after plucking away on a 15wt practice amp. I also cant imagine anyone complainging abut the resolution at all, nothing looks jagged and the text is crystal clear!!

For sudio applications its great as I often monitor audio levels and use plug in's while also being 1/2 way across the room clicking on pdealbaords etc...so no more sqinting for that. I tell you I thought a 32" would be overkill, how wrong I was, I could even see a 46", but really a 42" is just the perfect size!!! you know those little you tube windows that the video's play in by default well on a 42" they dont look so small anymore. anyway, for the price of $400, I am considering getting another- yeah , dual 42" lcd monitors,thats the ticket hahahahah!!! Thrilled with purchase!!! and healthier for you too as you dont get that crappy radiation from those crt monitors.

Line6 variax 300 guitar

2009-01-28T22:36:00.003-05:00

Line6 variax 300 guitar

The ultimate guitarists toy!! What is it? Its the line 6 variax 300 guitar. Its the closest thing to a midi guitar without being a midi guitar. It models/emulates 25 vintage guitars from the fender stratorcaster,les pauls, semi hollowbody guitars and acoustic guitars. Throw in a banjo and sitar for good measure. PRice paid $250 used +$40 s/h=$290.00 . About the price of a decent acoustic guitar. Now the fun of this guitar is that you can instantly switch to an acoustic guitar sound to a fender strat sound. Perfect for my live recordings andI have played this type of guitar before on my 97th album as I recall.

It has no pickups to speak of, instead the "pickups" for each string are under the saddles. My guitar came in good condition ,but the setup was complete crap. The frets wouldn't fret and so on. well, I adjusted the trussrod and voila, every fret sounded great and if I can remember where I put the tiny tool I need to adjust the top string it will be a good guitar setup.In any case, I am very pleased that it does work. the hex pikcups under the saddles are delicate and usually on used variax the pickups can be damaged. so only 5 strings work;here all 6 worked great.

Ok, now ,I would not trade this for my main guitar,but in addition to usual recordings this is a great instrument. $250 is a great price for it, as new they were about $500 and in fact even when closed out they were $399 or so. In fact, in a marketing ploy, line 6 discontinued the variax 300 and instead put the variax technology in higher end guitars like the variax 500,700 and so on, problem is they are $1000.00 or so?!!?!?! Now I am sorry but Its not worth that. No way!!! At $250.00 its good deal because it can emulate an acoustic guitar really well and much more and a cheap acoustic with pickup is abut 250 or less.

Interestingly, they have software where you can design your own guitar and do weird tunings too. In fact on mine, I have a preset where the 6th string is automatically tuned to a d and at a flick of a switch it can be changed to an open G tuning and so on. The possibilities are interesting. The banjo sound is must have;it seriously sounds like a banjo too the point of being silly. Oh, the semihollowbodies are great too. ok, the twelve string guitars stink, they sound stupid. overall, I am thrilled with this purchase and the price was right and they are a blast to play and I didn't have to spend $1000.00 for a variax 500,700 etc...very cool indeed!!! The variax 500,700 are more expensive because of the wood and components used but the variax technology is the same and if it were your main guitar I could justify the cost otherwise ,I just cant see the cost being worthwhile. .

I would hate to guess how much the guitars they modeled cost, I am sure its a fortune. Ar they exact? no, are they close to the real thing sound wise, definitely. One recommendation, if you get a variax ,spend the thrity bucks for the digital cable and it works great with the pdo xt live which allows the guitar amp preset and the guitar varia preset to both be switched at one time. Sweet!!! With a littl setup time, the variax 300 becomes much more than a toy and becomes a real useful addition to recording. no guitarist or studio should be without one . ok, well, at least its just very cool to be abel to have an acoutic guitar sound and then in a moment have a distorted fender strat sound.

Electro hamronix 2880 looper and foot controller review

2009-01-28T01:33:00.003-05:00

demanding the most out of your gear

Perhaps I expect too much out of my gear. Especially consumer semi pro gear. not realizing that a true pro studio may pay a quarter of a million dollars or more for their gear and I expect the same audio quality out of gear costing a tiny fraction of that haha.Perhaps I have been spoiled by the sound quality of my Roland Digital recorders which are outstanding and can be had for a couple of hundred dollars these days. Maybe so, but any gear that is not performing well or does not do what it should , I have to dispose of.

Electro Harmonix 2880 Looping pedal and foot controller
Gone, sorry Charlie, while I hoped that this would be the holy grail of looping pedals that would actually sync to midi flawlessly.I was mistaken!! The pedal has been a nightmare since I foolishly handed over $500 bucks or so. Granted, The company thought i may have received a faulty unit as it would lock up after trying to sync to midi and would lose the midi sync for no apparent reason. I would have to pull the power adapter regularly for it to function. Also, it seemed very straight forward but not intuitive. In other words to get the right timing for the pedal without quantitzing, was very difficult and just not practical. Also, the foot controller pedal was the worst idiots delight i had ever witnessed.Each switch had to be pressed 2-3 times to engage the record function and each switch was loud as hell!!! I mean really loud and sure to ruin any recording I would try to make. It seems that the midi sync function was based on the infamous boss rc-50 in its approach to do midi sync, which , as the rc-50 has shown just doesn't work very well at all.

I do give the 2880 points for an excellent sound quality, not musical ,but just straight forward good sound quality. (Musical as in a boomerang pedalboard that just has a very intuitive musical sound). Also, the physical box and paint are really cheap and scratch super easy. I cold only recommend this pedal to someone who wants to fart around on it in the studio, but for any serious live looping forget it.

I finally decided enough is enough. I promptly arranged full refunds form the 2 companies I bought the pedal from and the foot controller from. Was I sent a bad unit out of the box? maybe,maybe not, maybe its a design flaw. The company itself wanted to send it in to be repaired?! Wait I just got this thing. Ok, so how long would I be without it?! Also, The pedal seemed fine of the most part except the sync issue and like the boss rc-50 it just failed int hat respect. I boxed both up and mad3 arrangements to return them for a full refund!! Note: it costs me $25 to send both units back. I wont mention the companies as they may be great companies and will give me back a 100% refund or they may be really shady companies who charge restocking fee's and take away shipping fee's etc....time will tell. If a company sends a defective unit and then wont take it back for a full refund that does reflect poorly on the company.

In any case, we will see what kind of companies I was dealing with and the end result. Anyway, nice to get the 2880 looper out of my studio and guitar setup for ever. It just didn't work for me at all. I really hope the company I bought the actual pedal from comes through an does issue a 100% refund and doesn't slap me with all kinds of restocking fee's shipping fee's,etc...as they seem to be a decent company and in fact got the pedal to me in two days and it seemed to be in good shape and midi sync is quite a specific function that not everyone uses; so its easy to not see a flaw or problem in that area. Ok well, I will post the results of my returns here!!

Mackie 32x8 8bus mixing console
It's up for sale ($650+$150s/h with power supply email denis@dtguitar.com if you want to buy it). Ok,this is a love hate relationship. I love the mackie board's routing and the sound quality. However, for me, Ineed otbe able to record quickly, sometimes I only have an hour and getting board prepared eats way too much time and also for one person ,32 ch's is overkill. Also, if the board were brand new, that would help a lot too because with older boards some things are a little glitchy here and there. I mean it works, but the slightest touch of a cable ,etc...can create a drop out etc...also, and this is the big one, I need room in my studio room!~!@!!! I mean I am tripping over stuff and am lucky nothing has broken. It's just too big a board for my needs. though , I will misss its great sound and I recorded few albums with it.

What do you do if your sound is getting bad in the studio?

2009-01-21T00:57:00.007-05:00

Visit http://www.dtguitar.com, Denis's guitar website

rewire

Ok, after a couple of albums ,ok 4 albums, my studio sound was kind of dying on me. It was getting me way down.It really bothered me. maybe I just couldn't record anymore, maybe 135 albums was it. I was just not pleased with my recordings or sounds in the studio. so much so, I was going to sell my mackie 32x8. I still might ,but for different reasons such as going with different mic pre's,except its working so well. anyway, here is what I did and it was a cure all!!!

Ok, first I unplugged it all and that was a big job. Turns out, the cables I was using were cheapo test cables, some were ten years old. Ok, next I did some reading and experimenting to hook up the mackie board. Rather than going direct though, I actually utilized the 8 buses. This allows me to mix some guitar sounds together before going to the recorder. Ok, the I also set the levels to unity gain. Also, and this was the big culprit, I had to reset my emu emulatorx sound card!!!

Ok, it turns out that the emu was causing a loop causing feedback. It was driving me crazy and the sound just sucked big time. Finally, I wised up and it turns out that the software mixer of the card was "hiding" the wav out fader" so I could not mute it when using the digital i/o. Anyway, after that my sound was back. That great sound that seemed to be disappearing. I thought maybe it was my playing, yet I thought I was improving. Well, I am and it was this card problem and rehooking up the mackie that did the trick. I did a short recording and it was just a fantastic sound, warm,crystal clear and clean.

Lesson learned: when your sound seems to be degrading, take a 1/2 hour and go through your setup as it was initially. I discovered that after a album or so, it is surprising how many settings need to be reset to their initial values. I will sleep well tonight to be sure!! I had forgotten that I had never swapped out my test cables, as I was eager to get to recording. Anyway, I did a quick test recording to be sure I had it right.

ok, you can hear an mp3 of the test recording which is made up of sony drum samples, bass emulation on guitar looped from one of my rack units & synced to midi and then a stereo clean guitar loopped via one of my pedalboards .Now I can assign any of the 32 tracks to one of 8 buses. This allowed me to test bus 1-2 to my gtr rack unit and direct digitally to inputs 7-8 of my digital recorder.Then I used bus 3-4 for the mic's (the clean stereo guitar loop) which went to track 3-4 of my recorder. Then I used bus 7-8 to track 1 of my digital recorder for the looped bass emulation. Cool beans, that leaves me bus 5-6 free which I will assign to tracks 5-6 for vocals, samples, extra guits whatever. Also, I can use bus 8 if using bus 7 only to do mono bass which I often do. I only use an 8 rack recorder as All of my recordings are performed and recorded live with overdubs.

Hear the test sample here: http://www.dtguitar.com/rewiretest.mp3

Now the p3 will degrade the sound a bit as it is only 128k,but anyway, I hope you can hear that the sound is clear. Its not mixed well and the bass emulation was done 1/2 assed really as here is a glitch in the bass sound where I had not done a clean loop,but it ok for the test; it served my purposes. Anyway, this was a really big lesson as I was getting really down about my sound!!

electro harmonix 2880 !! AMAZING

2009-01-08T23:43:00.002-05:00

electro harmonix 2880 !! AMAZING
Its simply amazing, it does everything it says it does, it syncs to midi and the sound is incredible!!!Through the boss rc-50 in the trash at this point, I just tried it for the fist time and it was very straight forward to operate and the sound is simply great!!! someone should send one of these to boss/roland so they can figure out how to do it right, if your looking for alooping pedal this is it!! It is so clean and what you put in you get out, not as musical as the boomerang pedalbaord which has a mind of its own, but this is just the pristine looping machine!!!

Modern Rock guitar vol 134 "Guitar Shrimp"

2009-01-08T00:47:00.006-05:00

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Modern Rock guitar vol 134 "Guitar Shrimp"
Ok, I am pleased to announce that I completed and released my 134th modern rock guitar album. This was not my usual style, but rather was a traditionally recorded album that I was inspired after hearing some modern heavy metal albums or whatever you call 2000-2008 metal guitar, detuned 7 string, death metal, etc... I had a lot of fun with this album, and there were some tracks I really liked as they really hit the spot of what I had intended. This album is not fo the fint of heart though haha. Still very musical, but geez it is heavy!! Oh thats a hale shark on the cover and there are little guitars (guitarshrimp) swimming around it .....cool!!
Ok for the metal guitar sounds, I used the Crate v33 tube amp $xxx new and the digitech rp-50 multif/x pedal ($59 new at the time, now can be had for $30-40 if not less?!?!). The rp-50 is one of my favorite pedals!! Cheap and does so much and soudn is of really good quality. Ok, I came up with some crazy guitar sounds, some really are pretty unique and I think I did nail the typical modern metal guitar sounds, even down to detuning my guitar low e string to a B to imitate the seven string stuff on two tracks. My cat tiny even makes a vocal appearance as he meowed into the microphone. Anyway, I just did this album for fun and its not my normal style or gear at the moment

the crate v33 tube amp and rp-50 make a potent combination of guitar sounds..wow!! Though the crate is inherently noisy when on idle, so a noise gate or a rocktron hush unit would have been nice. Still that simple setup gave me the guitar sounds I was looking for. Granted a couple are over the top bordering on sheer controlled harmonic musical noise.

I also used a fender mexican strat with a crazy humbucking pickup seymour duncan sh-8 invader pickup which has a super high output and makes notes feedback and easy to get that zakk wylde harmonics. The guitar I had bought used for $xxx which was a good deal as the invader pickup is $80 by itself. If you look in the picture, you can see the invader pickup (the other pikups are white, the invader is black). I have no regrets buying this guitar and when I need a rock guitar sound or a feedbacking guitar, this is it!! The mexican strat has a fender type neck rather than a fast ibanez type neck and in fact this one has a weird setup for now, where the bridge comes forward against the body of the guitar to make it almost like a guitar with a locking nut. I plan on changing it back to a standard setup eventually.

Overall, I like this album, however, I found it tedious, to record track by track, I am so used to improvising and looping that this was a bit like pulling teeth, I am pleased with the results but it is no where near as fun as how I normally record. Less stressful because you can go back and fix mistakes, but geez. especially the bass. My hats off to all those bassists out there who have the patience to play bass. It is quite a repetitive task. Anyway I am really pleased with this album and it made me really appreciate my normal approach to recording which I took for granted after all these years.

ART x-15 ultrafoot & Electro Harmonix 2880

2009-01-07T23:22:00.007-05:00

ART x-15 ultrafoot Pedalboard

ok, it took a lot longer than it should have to arrive , but i finally received my ART x-15 ultrafoot pedal board. This is the companion pedalboard to the ART SGX express 2000 guitar preamp and f/x unit. Ok, initial impressions was that well-packed, this thing was filthy dirty, with a layer of crust dirt on it, no power supply (how do i turn it on?!) and the red led cover seemed broken off. Ok, fearing the worst, I took the pedal board and with my fingers I moved the red led cover back in place and it tuns out that it is a piece of red plastic that covers the actual led lights on the circuit board. Ok, cobwebs under one of the pedals was pretty weak as well. Now, I paid $59.99 + $35.00 s/h=$94.99.

Ok so, initially I was a bit worried, but lucky for me, I use a one spot which has a bunch of connectors to power pedals. So I hooked up th x-15 and it came right up and the led lights were intact and it seemed to function well. So I needed to just clean this pedalboard and suddenly it went from pawn shop quality to a really nice pedalboard. Ok, this pedalboard is huge with a big wah pedal and a volume pedal as well. All metal construction. The 80's,early 90's paint really makes it look a little flimsier than it really is. I also cleaned under the 2 pedals. This thing is a monster, each pedal has 2 large bolts (mine have a tiny tinge of rust,not bad). Also I found Little circuit boards right under the pedals which seems a little strange but they are bolted down as well. Ok, the pedal connectors are simple though 3 midi jacks, a pedal bypass jack for an optional footswitch and a power jack .

Ok cleaned up and powered up, I tried the actual buttons on the x-15 and they ware working properly. I like large pedalboards and this one does not disappoint, in fact, it is the largest individual board I have seen other than perhaps a custom bradshaw board. Ok, well, it seems fine, I wonder when it was made, I would guess pretty early on, maybe 1990 or 1992,I say that because I recognize some of the numbers on the serial number. Anyway, its an oldy but goody. all in all it has 14 footswitches and 2 pedals. I download instructions for it and also a firmware upgrade which i may attempt and also a factory reset.This will get this "vintage" pedalboard in shape.

Ok, so overall, the art sgx express 2000 and the matching x-15 ultrafoot make quite a semi "vintage setup". Now I need to hooked it all up and get the sgx 2space rack unit in my rack and gett he pedalboard upgraded and hooked up; then before recording is choosing some preset sounds to use and then record!!!! that would be great!!! The art sgx 2000 was in truly excellent condition like new, while the x-15 was in good shape (not very good or excellent), on the other hand it is old and was really cheap and it works and a pedalboard gets stomped on, so I guess year after year it does take a beating, but I have to say the art x-15 seems to be built like a tank.

Electro Harmonix 2880 Looping unit
Ok, so I was checking out some youtube gear video reviews and run across a review for a not so well known looping unit, I almost lost control of my bowels and frantically searched the internet to see if I could find one. Bellame music in Georgia had an electro harmonix looping unit ready to send me for $408.00 with free shipping. I noticed that I could not fidn this unit at zzounds or american musical supply. Ok, this was a big purchase, but after getting burned on the BOSS RC-50 looping pedalboard that is full of glitches and doesn't sync to midi at all, I had to take a chance. So I ordered it and it was here in 2 days!!! Ok, its about the size of a big electro harmonix pedal and is like a 4 track multitrack recorder and each track loops and it claims to sync to midi. They call it a desktop unit and you have to order the optional pedal to control it.

So I ordered the optional foot pedal from another vendor, big mistake so far, instead of getting it in two days, I get an email saying sorry but the last unit we had isn't working , so we will be getting one in a couple of days to ship to you..I am sorry but that really sucks. there are plenty of vendors who have that pedal in stock and you should know this when you order ,not after they have your money,but stuff happens as they say. Anyway the price for the pedal to control the 2880 is about $111.00 which is inexpensive compared to the 2880. So, I said fine jut get it tome as quick as you can. However, if it has not at least shipped by Friday I will cancel my order and order elsewhere. In any case, the only way this vendor can redeem himself is he gets me the pedal by Friday. Won't happen though I suspect. But we will see. If anything it gives me time to work with the 2880 itself and go though the manual. If it does what it says it does, it would be perfect, everything that the boss rc-50 claimed to be but wasn't. I mean the 2880 seems straight forward, has an octave and reverse function, 4 tracks and can be mixed down to do 4 more tracks and with the footswitch live!!! It also claims to have midi clock sync capabilities and if it does then this could be the holy grail of loopers.

The rc-50 was a dud and I got taken for $500.00 only to discover that the midi jacks were for looks only for one and the software glitches are unforgivable. I guess I have kept it because it can function nicely on its own/by itself, but not incorporated into my usual system. This gave some nice tracks for my albums;a break form my usual setup. but Roland really screwed the pooch on the rc-50. I don't recommend that turd to anyone. I saw the you tube video demo of the 2880 and have read the manual and it really seems like a dream come true. But if the 2880 really functions as advertised, then the rc-50 will go on the auction block and join the shitheap of useless gear. I have only run into a couple of shitheap units, the rc-50 is one, most of the cheapo dod pedals, and many of the practice amp distortion ch's come to mind and other crap I ordered and then returned the same day because it was so weak.

Ok, the electro harmonix unit is metal and the buttons feel ok, not terribly sturdy but not flimsy, it hard to believe they got a looping unit and 4 track recorder and everything in this little unit. amazing. I have yet to try it out, but I will shortly and am hoping for the best. After my rc-50 fiasco, it is hard to believe that this little known looping unit can do what the big corporate mass market boss/roland could not accomplish with the rc-50. we will see....If so, then I am sold!!!! I would even get another one as a back up as these kinds of pedals seem to go out production quickly.

ART SGX 2000 Express arrives!!!

2009-01-02T21:42:00.006-05:00

visit http://www.dtguitar.com ,Denis's official website!!!

ART SGX 2000 Express arrives!!!
Ok, As I was driving home from work, I looked and sure enough there was a box waiting for me!! Allright!! on a friday too , that leaves me a little time to check it out!! Ok, I get the box and open it up (I still dont see how this cost $50 to ship, but I digress......) SO it was $127.00 for the sgx2000 express 2 raqckspace rack unit plus $50s/h=$177.00 . By the way, I am still waiting on the x-15 ultrafot pedalboard which I understand is on its way.

First impressions
upon opening the box was that I did get the expresss version (not the non express version which is not as good,noiser and less presets and missing some f/x's). Ok, mine actually looks like the one in the picture. I was immediately taken by how it was all metal consturcion,not cheap plastic, all the knob were tight and it looked like new!! Mine was the latest ver 1.10 of the software and was built in 1994, the year they discontinued the art sgx 2000 express. Also, The pink versions really looked like a toy and this has a little pink lettering but th face is black and it looks very professional, so no scratches, its jsut a great looking unit, even for being 15 years old.

I also noticed that on the back of the unit were 2 f/x loops, line and isntrument level outs, midi inout and thru and 2 XLR outs as well. WOw, this was no toy!! My fear was that I didnt get a unit with the 475 presets and extra features (art claims they improved it 400% compared to the older sgx's)). Yet I did have the latest firmware. Also, the front of the unit was well laid out and upon plugging it in, I was overcome by the number of red led's, geez, at least 20 or so, flashing and so on. Wow!! So I tried some knobs and hooked up some headphones to the headphone out jsut to try it out. WEll, some of the pots were scratchy which concerned me. But, after giving thm a few twsits they cleaned right up. This is common among old gear that hasnt been used in a while,I would guess this is one of those units.

Art turns to a F art.....?
So I plug in my guitar and get this squealing into the headphones and hardly any sound. I try the pots and I get this scratchy sound. TERRIBLE, this was no ART it was a F ART!!! I suddenly had buyers remorse. I fiddled with the knobs and suddenly there came this tone, that sounded pretty good. I then tried another preset, memories of the 80's and early 90's filled my headphones.Still , where are the 475 presets? Instead I get about 16 presets from some schmo user who preferred the sound I dislike, its the distortion after the delay and reverb type sound, man, every preset, yuk!!! I was becoming discouraged, now I was thinking they should have called it the the F ART 2000 express, like a bad joke, add an F and that's what it sounds like.

F art clears the air and the ART surfaces
So I went to the internet and decided to do a reset back to factory specs!! Voila!!!!! AWESOME!! The F ART was gone and now only the ART remained. suddenly , I had all 475 presets, 4 banks->classic, performance,production and contribution. AMAZING SOUNDS!!! I had presets emulating amps ,fantastic f/x and great sound quality. The ART had surfaced. I was really taken a back. The presets were really fun to play with , it had 20 or so fender twin simulations, marshall amps, VOX and so on and it had artist presets as well. Some were really fun and telling of the times, zztop presets, SRV,nirvana, pink floyd ,eagles, eric johnson and 1 joe satriani patch haha some metal patches. Loved em all!!

Ok the sounds thus far, amazing for just presets, I mean the clean sounds were really nice, and the distortions ranged from classic rock to 80 n 90's rock /metal. IT just has that old tone even on f/x, I just dont hear that older tone from my modern f/x units at all. IT had black sabbath patches and they really do sound authentic haha. Anyway, just a lot of fun tones and they sound great. I would not recommend this to a beginner as far as editing patches as there is just too much there to really make a mushy sound, but if you tweak the presets a bit it certainly shines and gives this sound that you just cant get with modern pre's and f/x.

I had a blast with some of the jimi hendrix patches, they sounded just right, not crazily distorted and with that hendrix type sound. Anyway, it is easy to overdo the f/x such as reverb in particular as it has reverb and also an acoustic environment simulator. It even has a sampler which I tried. It seemed kind of short. Bu th e ping pond delays and panning effects were great and the pitch shifter/octaver was fun to.Also, it has Extensive EQ I mean bass lowmid etc...and presence.Anyway, I just scratched the surface but after the reset I immediately heard quality sounds worthy of using this unit to record tracks for an album.

OVERALL
This is great piece of semi-vintage gear and will certainly eventually be true vintage gear. It has truly old "80's " sounding f/x and preamp as well. so much so, I had forgotten what I liked and disliked about that sound. I mean it also had the Van Halen presets. Ok, dont try to find 7 string death metal sounds here but the distortion can really deliver a good metal sound. The f/x can be overdone on the presets,but with some tweaking they can be just right too. It also has a production patches which can be used for vocals and drum machines, bass and so on. When I compare it to the line 6 pod xt live, it actually holds its own, though the line 6 pod xt can get a ton of hi gain which the at cant, but they have diffrerent sounds, I think the line 6 would have a tough time recreating that old 80's soundf/x wise especially. So, the art is not a replacement for the line 6 but is a breath of fresh air with its retro sounds. It is everything I hoped it to be. Ok, will posts some tracks and some mp3's of some sounds I get with it. VERY COOl and worth every penny of the $177.00 I paid for it, maybe even cooler with the $94 x-15 pedalboard, we will when it arrives.....

year end audio studio house keeping

2008-12-30T23:56:00.019-05:00

Visit http://www.dtguitar.com , Denis's official music website!!

Housekeeping
Ok, the years about up, so, I had to tidy things up, first order of business was to get outstanding albums completed and sent off to be manufactured, so I had to design some guitar album covers and finish some unfinished albums up, ok I came up with the following album artwork. I got the cd's ready and sent them off. Very pleased with each album, I had to cut out a few mistakes here and there, but overall each album came as intended; very pleased.

I used the mackie 32x8x2 8 buss mixing console for these albums and it really did change my overall sound and gave each instrument its own tonal space which really gave each album a polished touch. I still have to put the finishing touches on vol.121,123 and vol.125.

Art SGX Express 2000 Guitar PReamp and x15 ultrafoot

Have not received this near vintage guitar tube preamp and f/x processor and footswitch, I am looking forward to testing out its 475 presets and then tweaking some sounds, we will see though. Price paid was $271.00 for the sgx2000 and the footswitch including shipping and handling. Bastards charged $50 to ship just the 2 space rack unit, it must be pretty heavy for that haha...oh well, too bad, I live in bloomington, IN where you have to pay an arm n a leg to get anything musically sweet shipped here from the east coast where they seem to have everything (the unit and footswitch would have been under $200)haa. Still a bargain when you consider how much the sgx2000 and x15 pedalboard were going for close to $1000.00 new for both units!!!!! (thats in 19990 dollars haha) The 2sp rack unit could be had mail order for about $645-800 and the pedalboard was about $200-300.Turns out the sgx only has 1 12ax7 tube in it,but there is no doubt this unit will become a classic and they are cheap to get now, but in a few years watch out!!! Very cool and thanks to some incredibly insightful faithful users, manuals and presets and software upgrades were easy to find and download no thanks to the company ART itself sadly. SO I am not complaining, I figure $270.00 for a $1000.00 setup new is a bargain and I cant wait to see what sounds I can coax out of the sgx2000. surely there must be some decent sounds out of it. It wont replace my current gear,but what a great system to get different sounds in the studio!! Using the same sounds int he studio gets old after a while, so this will be great variety, and for me this is true Vintage gear that is still usable without being stupid (like a 1/2wt 1942 wwII surplus tube amp with .5" speaker, wow real vintage but its sounds like pooop)!! hahah. The sgx came about 1990-1991 the near death of hair metal and grunge was taking over hahah...sweet!! So plenty of 80's metal guitar sounds to be sure!! but I also hear it has really good clean sounds as well...

Crate v33 tube amp and Digitech rp-50
Just for fun, I hooked up my trusty digitech rp-50 pedal ($59 new) which has 8 f/x and amp modeling and plugged it in to one of the crate V33 tube combo amps (all tube amp for $249 new) and recorded a track and it gave a just frightening guitar sound, super overdriven but musical, great sound like an out of control guitar sound but still clean and a quality sound good & fun for recording, but I would hate to think if it was your main sound hahah, but anyway it was such fun to just slam out overly distorted not quite metal not quite feedback guitar sound for a track and it really sounds pretty cool!!! It almost sounds as if you have a sustainer on your guitar, wow what a combination,defnitely a unique guitar sound, perfect first track for an album that will be mostly be the crate v33 tube amp with no f/x, man that amp is such a beast of an amp, really fun to play.Well, anyway, I highly recommend this little digitech rp-50, the default presets are amazing , modeling guitar preamp and 8f/x in a tiny pedal (its also a tuner, and drum machine?!) and the sounds are really great. its just a cool little pedal and for $59 new ,now they are abut $30-39 or so, its just a steal no joke,take any crap practice amp and get one of these rp-50's and it makes the amp sound great. I have seen this first hand. Digitech could make a boatload of money if they would put the rp-50 in a cheap small practice amp. I mean these are studio quality delays reverbs, cabinet simulations, distortions, chorus, pitch shifting and on and on,but stay away from the rp-100,rp-200 etc..those are total crap, maybe its the chip they use, anyway, I have played entire gigs with just a cheapo crate practice amp and an rp-50, your whole guitar setup its in your guitar case, very cool indeed!!! Anyway The combination of both is really a great guitar setup, run the rp-50 though the f/x loop for a quality sound ,run the rp-50 into the input of the v33 if you want to get that out of control sound using the peramp of the amp as well. but usually just running the rp-50in the f/x loop is really great for just the f/x on clean sounds such as chorus reveb or delay or for soem extra gain if needed for more modern metal tones or higain rock tones. Just a really fun cheap guitar setup that actually can yield pro sounds!!!

vintage vs modern for recording

2008-12-22T23:45:00.005-05:00

Vintage vs modern for Recording
ok vintage gear is all the rage , you will get that warm tube sound using vintage gear compared to the shrill digital sound.....everyone has hear this schpeel before, but is it true? Sorry Charlie!!! It has been my experience that this is total BS!!! I think people sometimes forget all the crappy audio faults with old vintage gear, for example recording to CD vs a cassette tape (recall the hisss and the hum and distortion.Now for recording, why are all many studios going digital if recording vintage analog is so great?! Why? Because its not!! There is noise ,hiss and hum, all enemies of a good recording. However, there are some true vintage mic pre's and consoles that do in fact sound better.

When I was younger I bought all these purist's BS about vintage gear, but now I am hear to testify that just because its old doesn't mean it sounds good.Sound different or Interesting? , maybe. Then again a tube mic pre sounds great. In fact, I have found that the best is a combination fo old and new really works great. You get the best of both worlds and hopefully eliminate the nasty stuff of the old. In fact, some old "vintage"gear I treasure but little of it can be used daily. However, some pieces are exceptional and can not be recreated it seems.

Vintage Amps vs modern technology
There is no doubt that old tube guitar amps are really great sounding, however, they lack a lot of modern sound capabilities which I need. I decided to pas on the Vintage 70's Alamo amps simply because they are one trick pony's musically, which is nice, they get a couple of sounds and they do it well. However, I also found that for recording that modeling technology works so well as well., especially in imitating preamps of different amps, they cant seem to nail the tube amp section,but the preamp I assure you they can.So I am still working on a happy medium. The line6 pod xt live is just an amazing amp modeler and it really sounds great. So, I have recorded most of my albums with the pod xt live and took for granted just how good it sounds. It emulates many "vintage" amps that would cost a fortune to own them all and to use them all in one recording session would require a lots of space and roadies too haha.

Ok, well, now line 6 has the pod xt3 live , similar but basically 2 pod xt live's in one pedal, so you can mix amp models to get one sound. This is very interesting, but is it worth another $500? Probably not, I am quite please with the pod xt live and $500 could buy a couple of crate tube amps or other gear haha. So I am torn between buying a vintage amp that sounds great but is limited to what it does or a emulator that comes so very close and also offers many sounds.

I have to remember the lesson I learned long ago when I had 2 huge rack full of tube amps, tube preamps, f/x units and so on and found that A little digitech rp-50 pedal could do the same thing, except the little pedal was about $50.00 compared to the $5000 or so for the rack setup, sily really. Its like buying a marshall 100watt 1/2 stack fro your home studio and finding that you cant get any toe out of it unless you crank it up so loudly that it kills yours ears and your neighbors complain etc....silly. So its a trade off, for me, I want that quality that a vintage
tube amp can provide but it has to be able to mix with my modern gear,...anyway rambling a bit...

Patience
I am really enjoying being patient in terms of music gear, rather than buying things on impulse because it sounded good at the time or in the music store haaha. Several thousands of dollars would be gone and I would have enough gear to start a small music store. (not a bad idea hahah). So, I am complementing purchases, such as mic preamps, microphones, more amps, guitars,f/x,etc.. but it really has to be something I need or that provides a sound that is an improvement and that I cant get with existing gear.

Old guitar tones vs new tones
I recall playing was easier when I was younger ...why? Oh yes I recall now, because my guitar sound was drenched in 80's distortion and hid my sloppy playing and you could not hear each note clearly. Over the years, my playing became much better and I notice that I use 1/10 the amount of distortion and notes ring out clearly for the most part these days. So, guitar tones have pro's and con's. however, I still don't like fender amps for the most part, I suppose for the clean sounds they are decent, but the gain ch is just wimpy and I have hated it since I first heard it years ago. Then again, I was after 80's metal tones which required a hi gain amp which a fender. twenty years later, I have grown to appreciate the fender clean tones, but still cant appreciate the gain ch on a fender amp, sounds like poop.

PC in Studio: new or Old
These days, a used (refurbished /pre owned) PC consists of Dell pentium 4 single core 2.4 ghz system with ide drives. WOW!!! That more than I use now and I can get the system tower described above for about $89 +$25s/h. That's hard to beat and fo audio it covers just about anything you would want to do with it. However, for $89 you could also get a dual core amd motherboard cpu combo which would be an amd x2 3800 which would be really fast and for me overkill for an audio pc, but could double as a video PC for video editing. SO i am torn as to which to get. Then again, my existing 1.7 amd semptron is doing great and has covered all my needs thus far. It wold be nice to split duties between different pc's though. One for audio sample playback and storage, one fo audio recording and editing and one as an editor for my roland recorders and line 6 pedalboard, though all of these functions could be done with one PC.

I still use the old crt 21" monitors and love them. however, I do plan to move to lcd's eventually as I sure could use the room,but again is it essential no? not for me and I like the picture of my 21" monitors for now. In fact it would be nice to use a hd lcd TV as a monitor like a 37 or 40" would be great as most of the audio software is graphic based, essential no? cool? very...ahaha,but for now, I am working on my 132nd album and the existing gear is working well, though I must say my poor pc is doing its best but could at least use a memory upgrade. I us about 1gb of memory and it would work so much better with 2gb.Lucky that my audio card has it own processor and the video card has its own memory and processor so that helps a lot. Also, I have a dual core laptop and I did video on a single core and the dual core and the dual core didn't process all that much faster.

Bass sound recording
I take for granted that I use my guitar to emulate bass and then use loops for bass lines. Well, I had a track where the bass didnt record, so I had to go back and add it, gees, I didn't realize how boring that is yawn!!I mean to hold down the bottom end over and over and over again is plain boring geez. I much prefer my method of looping a bass line most of the time.

Mackie 32x8x2 Mixing console
I love this console, it sounds really good, but its a lot for one person,I like the routing options, sounds of the mic pre's and EQ's,but don't use all the ch's. I am also curious to see if I could get better quality with external mic pre's, so I may sell this mixing console. I haven't as I am constantly using it to record my albums. But I think I may at some point. It would be better for someone recording a full band needing all those ch's or in a live situation. But It has a sound of its own that I cant recreate with my 14ch mackie mixer, so I hesitate...we will see....

80's metal guitar tone

I am currently playing back a track I recorded with a new guitar tone (courtesy of the line 6 podxt live) which emulates a "cranked" soldano amp head. Wow!!! Its nice, though its a little exaggerated, the tone is very 80's metal and sounds a bit like randy rhoads [though not as processed as his "reamped" guitar tone on the tribute album (live he did not sound like that really tone wise)] . Anyway, kind of fun to play with but I wouldn't be happy if that were my main or only tone you see and this goes back to soeme amps gettting one good sound and thats it.

ok, gotta finish up Modern Rock guitar volume 132!!!........

Mic Pre amps and Modern ROck Guitar Vol.131

2008-12-17T11:55:00.005-05:00

Visit Denis's website at http://www.dtguitar.com

Mic Pre amps

Well, reading online discussions about mic preamps online can be a frustrating experience. On one hand, you have people voicing their opinions about mic preamps And the mic preamps are often either really cheap low end mic preamps or high end mic preamps. It seems that there are those mic preamps in the $500 range or less such the FMR rnp, ART PRo VLA, Behringer tube t1953,M-audio p3, DBX and other units with the RNP at the top of the list. The next set of micpreamps are the highend mic pre's such as NEVE, API, Manley,SSL, Green River, DAV etc...the really good stuff, but new your looking at OVer $1000- $2000 for 1 or 2 ch models.

Out of curiosity I recall seeing guitarist Joe Satriani using a micpreamp in his protools HD , it turned out to be a Millennia Media STT-1 recording system which is in the $3k range.WOW!! thats out of my price range and this mic re includes all kind of solid state and tube options.

In any case, it turns out that mic pre's are so subjective , some people rave about the sound they get out of a $99 behringer rackmount 2ch mic pre or the ultragain 100 which is a $29 mic pre?!! ANd then not to mention the mic pre-s in the mackie mixer which some people really like. So there are a lot of choices out there. I would love to try out soem fo the se mic pre' s and record with them. So far, I have only tried mackie mic pre's and roland vs mic pre's and the mackie 32x8 8busss mic pre's sound best thus far. So we will see.....

Modern ROck Guitar Vol.131
My 131'st album is compeltted and ready to go, it was recorded with the mackie 8 buss mic pre's and the roland vs recorders and I am really pleased with it!!! Very nice sounding!! SO I am working on completeing the artwork cover!!

MIC PRE AMPS for the Home Audio Studio & Most albums by single artist ever

2008-12-15T16:27:00.005-05:00

see Guitarist Denis Taaffe's website at http://www.dtguitar.com

MIC PRE AMPS

Mic preamps boost the signal coming from a source via microphone. Ok that is pretty basic, but it is surprising at how the quality of a mic preamp effects the overall sound of the recording. I have spent sometime looking into that and discovered that there are 2 kinds of mic preamps, or two mic preamp philosophies: 1)WIRE WITH GAIN - this is where the mic pre boosts the signal but is transparent and does not color the sound, the other 2) MIC PRE is just your mic pre with its tonal coloration and shaping, these include mic preamps with EQ,cmpression,de-essers and so on.In other words one is juts boost the signal and the other boosts and changes the tone as well.

For me, I have used the mic preamps in the Roland VS880 and VS890 recorders, these are weak and in fact can hardly be called mic preamps as they have little boosting capabillity and no phnatom power. Phantom power is used for microphones requiring power from an external source as opposed to dynamic mics that do not need any power to work.

Mixing consoles have mic preamps ,usually on each ch. in addition to an eq section which is why vintage mixing consoles are so expensive and are sought after,because they usually have amazing mic preamps and EQ sections. I started using Mackie xdr preamps which are found in the pro vlz mixers. I have a 14ch MAckie board and used the xdr preamps form it. the sound quality is very good. However, there is much better out there.I now use the preamps from a Mackie 32ch 8busss mixer and the preamps sound better than the xdr preamps yet are older. as I have mentioned before.

However, I am very curious to try some outboard mic preamps, usually they take a mic preamp and put it in a rackmount case or a 1/3 rack case. One in particularr has an outstanding reputation and that is the FMR RNC 8380. It has 2 Wire With Gain mic preamps in a 1/3 rack case. It is supposed to sound better than the mackie and better than mic preamps that cost much more. Is it true though? I don't know yet. But, I would very much like to try it out. However, it has a price of $499.00 new. Well we will see.....

I am even considering selling the mackie 8 buss console in favor of some outboard mic pre's ,but we will have to see.....I do like that board so that is premature to say definitively.

Most Albums Ever? World Record?

I have completed and released 131 albums and am completing album 132. That's a lot of albums and I guess may be more than anybody?! I certainly did not set out to do more albums than anyone, but supposedly, this may be the case. see this link where someone asked who has put out the most albums. Well, they should specify full length (over 60 minutes), during their lifetime, all original material and no rehash posthumous or greatest hits rehash hahaha. Frank Zappa had 67-80 or something like that. They mention a puento Fuentes somebody, I don't know, he had 125. So, I guess I am in there somewhere. I plan on completing and releasing a lot more albums. I guess one distinction is that they release major label albums and I release no label albums just independent.Also, after my first album, alll the rest were performed and recorded live and were improvised on the spot and I continue doing my albums this way. It is so much more fun and interesting than rehashing worked out parts Its more work and much more dangerous musically as it is easy to fall on your face and make a mistake,but it also yields some amazing musical moments. Anyway, Maybe I have a world record hahah, maybe not, its silly anyway; who really cares, but its a fun tidbit. truth be known, I hope to continue recording my Modern Rock Guitar series or albums until its not fun or inspiring or until I have nothing more to say musically. Truth is it feels Like I have just begun really. Anyway, you can own all my albums by purchasing them at http://www.dtguitar.com or at least I have audio samples of each album. I am listening to a draft of vol.132 right now. Anway, I don't rush my albums to get them completed, rather I do my best to get the best quality and theme of them.

DAW on a PC or Standalone digital audio workstation for Audio Studio, Recording and guitar

2008-12-12T00:18:00.004-05:00

Visit Denis's website at http://www.dtguitar.com

Pc VS stand alone DAW Recommendations for Audio Studio

My friend called me the other day and had problems with his studio Pc computer. he runs a layla card in a rackmount PC, I was stunned to hear that he runs a 3.3ghz machine with 4gb's of ram!! Yet his machine constantly crashed running Cakewalk Sonar and a Layla 24/96 audio card. It was slow too, like pond water. For comparison, I run a bottom end AMD 1.5ghz semptron system with 1gb of ram, yet my system is as fast if not fast in opening applications and hardly ever crashes.

So what gives? Well, I guess he says that his overheats and then crashes. He has a special rackmount case. There must be a problem with it, perhaps the motherboard is shorting out on the case or something similar. I mean I have not even 1/2 of his processing power and 1/3 of his ram. So there is a serious problem there. Perhaps its software, but he isn't hooking that pc up to the internet. Geez and still has problems with it..

Now my friend, PSB, has his own studio and was abut to record something when his system crashed as I understand it. For me, this is why I would be miserable with a computer based recorder (a DAW-digital audio workstation on a PC). I much prefer a standalone hard disk recorder, no software worries no crashes,etc...Ok, so lesson learned and I have worked on many many pc's over the years and they just are not too reliable and are taxed when recording multiple tracks of audio.

anyway this does not help my friend,who has a great recording setup with his layla card. SO, I suggested that he just replace the motherboard and cpu in a cpu combo, $100 will get him a dual core cpu which would be nice. The only other real potential problem will be his memory, but my guess is that his motherboard and or cpu are flakey. bad memory will explain crashes but not overheating!! And he has plenty of fans and and huge processor fan to begin with. So that was my recommendation.

for me personally, I am considering spending $89 a new motherboard combo which is an amd dual core (an x23800). It might be nice as loading long 20 minute sound files takes a little while.On the other hand maybe just a stick of ram might do wonders for my system. truth be known it is very solid and works great. I wold like to get a drive dedicated to holding samples though and one dedicated to recording. SO we will see. I do know, that for audio, you don't need much. Truth is, any Pentium 4 xp system would do a great job in any studio and I have found pentium 4 2.0 systems refurbished dells for $89.00 Hard to beat and would be plenty fast for most audio applications.
Rackmount vs desktop case for audio studio PC
ok, I removed my tower case and put the PC in a fancy pants new black rackmount case, not realizing how long the case would be. You see rack mount audio units are usually 15" long as best ,some specialty items maybe 19" in length, but in the pc world standard is 23" or more!! And try to find a 4 sp 15" rackmount pc case, good luck, you wont find it, you might find a 2 sp rack at best which is 15" but requires riser cards or does not have enough 5.25" spaces and so on. Yes the rackmount case looks cool,but in practicality, its not so great, first off they are noisy as hell,mine sounds like a darn air conditioner, it sucks for that, and heat can be an issue which is why it needs all these fans. That sucks too. So, either have the rackmount pc in another room or buy fans that are silent including case fans, power supply fans and the cpu fan all of which are loud in mine. I think, I would go back to a desktop case if it were quiet. I still have not conquered the silent studio in that my pc is still in my studio room. the cables!! they just aren't long enough to go to he next room, spdif cables at 12ft need to be in the 20ft range and that is hard to find. well, don't get me started on that.

Recordings

Always clear off the recordings when your done with them and save them to your PC or you will eventually write over them as I just did ,5 minutes of a track gone, overwritten with a new track, well, no big deal, but frustrating just the same. Anyway, looking forward to the weekend. I am going to try to tackle the pc in the pc room dilemma and reorganize the studio room

MAckie Onyx mixing consoles ,multiple studio monitors , Vol.128/129&vol.130 +helix

2008-12-08T14:21:00.001-05:00

MAckie Onyx Mixing Consoles
I had wanted to investigate the new Mackie onyx mixing consoles as people have raved about the new Mic pre amps and in fact they have a rackmount unit without mixer offering 8 onyx mic pre's which is interesting. Well, as it turns out the onyx mixers have a flaw which make them great live mixers but lousy for recording if using the firewire option. It is that it bypasses the compression and Perkins' eq's, so you get the mic pre amp and thats it. Also, people have have had horrible latency issues with using the firewire option to their PC's. Perhaps, they would work ok a a traditional mixer without the firewire option. they seem to be priced expensively as well.
Hm,, more investigation is needed. For now, I Will stick with the MAckie 32/8buss.

Picking tracks for Modern Rock Guitar vol.128, vo.129 and vol.130
I am in process of picking tracks for my 128,129 and 130th albums. These are tracks I have already recorded and completed. Most for vol.129 and vol.130 were recorded with the mackie 32x8 and the tracks for vol.128 are tracks not used on vol.125,126 and 127. It is really hard to come up with a line up that flows well and ha themes for the albums. There is no question the mackie 32x8 recorded tracks have their own sound and it is better. So far, I have the line up for vol.129 completed and am listening to a draft. I am agonizing over the first track though, as it has a sample that runs throughout the tracks and it is somewhat overbearing, but it seems to fit the album decently. I have to say the mackie 32/8 makes it sound as if I went into a pro studio and rented some time on it and it is just very different than even volume 128 which were the last recordings using my 14ch mackie mixer.

Multiple Studio Monitors
I use the MAckie HR824 powered near field monitors and they sound very very good. I had gone through a set of behringer truth and MAckie's cheaper tapco s8 monitors. Both were weak in comparison. However, I also hae a pair fo JBL bookshelf speakers and I often find myself mastering my tracks on the hr824's and then would get a "Second opinion" on the jbl's as a hme spekaer. So I may move the jbl's to the studio room for this purpose. IT helps me guide the bass repsonse a bit better. Though it is starting to get crowded in the studio room.

Used Gear Discovery's and guitar playing/recording

2008-12-07T00:57:00.006-05:00

Visit guitarist Denis Taaffe's Official Website at http://www.dtguitar.com

Alamo Tube Amp – sweet 70’s tube tone

Well, it was Saturday and I needed to get an instrument cable and thought I would go to a local music store to get one. They also happened to have some amps I was curious about. After seeing the strange Yamaha amp, I recall that they had something similar, a Sunn ½ stack that quite old. Well, While I was there I looked at there fine assortment of amp. Yes, they had a lot of Fender amps, truth be known I am not that big a fender amp fan , but can appreciate their amps none the less. They had a 60’s fender bassman with 2x15” cabinet. Geez,I would hate to lug around a thing like that. The cabinet was about 5 ft tall and the amp head about another foot. So, I browsed and came across this crappy looking ancient tube amp, it said early 70’s on the tag, it had maybe 2 knobs per ch and looked like it came out ofr a sears or radio shack early seventies catalog. The tube amp was a brand I had not heard of. An Alamo tube amp. The tubes were exposed and the speakers were quite old looking, they looked like old jensen’s, but were not. Still it was a tube amp and just for fun, I though I would try it out.A salesman was interested to try it too. IT had 2 12” speakers, yet was small and light.

I expected a tinny clean sound which was weak. However, I was wrong; instead this amp produced some really amazing clean tones. Just a direct sound, super clean and warm!! I mean I loved that sound. It had 2 ch’s, one with vibrato, the other was just clean. It was a solid sound, no crackling or anything, just a great tube sound. WOW!! ,then we tried the vibrato circuit, just as amazing, there was a directness to it that I have not heard in other amps.

Well, I was sold on it, then the salesman brought out an older Alamo combo amp, it looked a little similar but it was white. Same simple layout and very light, maybe from the sixties or early 70’s to, but this amp sounded even better or at least different and had a screaming lead ch. Hmm, it was tonal bliss!! Both amps had more of a marshal clean then a fender clean and I hate to say a Marshall, because the clean sound was better than that, just a directness and warmth.

I asked how much for the white one and sadly one of the salesmen who worked there had already purchased it on layaway, well he had good taste and I would have jumped on it otherwise. In fact, he did give me a great price to consider on the other one, about $275.00. Geez, I was so tempted, but have learned not to buy guitar gear on impulse. If I did, I would probably have bought ½ the store hahaa.

Also, this leads down a dangerous road, vintage amps aren’t cheap and starting a collection of them is sure to ruin someone financially. However, I have come to really appreciate the “vintage” tube amp, especially uncommon brands, as I said I have never really been a fender amp fan and the marshal clean sound leaves something to be desired.

Yes, The Alamo combo amp would be a joy to use in the studio, it’s just so clean and direct and warm sounding, the recordings would just be ideal. My mind was racing a bit and I was already thinking about how to incorporate it into my studio guitar setup ahaha. However, I came back to my senses.

Well, I prudently told him I would think about it and who knows maybe I will go back there and buy it. I would love to have that “Alamo” amp, I guess they were (are?) a small amp company in texas . I would have never guessed that such an old amp from the 70’s would sound so very good. I was expecting a cheap crud sound, but I was blown away. Well, we will see!!

So in three days, I have seen 2 amps and a mixing console I would lik to purchase, the Yamaha ½ stack for $127+75 s/h=about $200, the Alamo tube combo amp for $275+7% sales tax=about $300 and the behringer mx9000 console for another $500. So that is about $1000.00 , wow!! In three days. While I have a passion for music gear of all kinds, if you are not careful, you really can ruin yourself financially.

I guess one must think logically and practically on such things. How much would you use it. Do you need it?? Would it make a difference to your sound? And most importantly can you afford it? Well, for now I settled for the $17.00 instrument cable I bought;It’s a nice one, it’s a ten foot Fender Vintage voltage cable (see photo) mine is like the last one (on the right) in the photo...fancy heh?... I like those, I had one in the past but it broke and got stepped on. As it turns out it like the Fender California cables, I can send them in and get replacements supposedly. So I should do that.

Well, I would hate to guess what my amp and guitar collection would be like if money was not a problem haah; I am sure it would be obscenely huge. On the other hand there are very few amps that impressed me like that little Alamo. Jut a very cool little amp. So maybe I might get it. The other stuff, well, Do I really need it? No…but maybe…Well, ok no,. I just got my Mackie board, but wow 2 consoles would be nice….haha..

Anyway, financial struggles for music gear and making CD’s has always been a problem, over the years I learned to be more prudent and to really get the most out of the gear I do have. In fact,I am quite pleased that If something worked for me, I stuck with it. For example, my Roland digital recorders are quite ld, yet they work great for me and I never had a need for or envy for some of the new models which cost a lot. I am kind of like that with guitars, I only have a few and I play them for years and years and years. My last one lasted 20 years or so and hopefully after I get the new bridge it needs it may last 20 years more. So lesson learned, there is always something you run into music gear wise that at the moment you seem not to be able to live without, but the next day it may be something else. Well, for the little Alamo amp, I will think about it and maybe if I really still would like it and have a need for it, I may just get it, but then again………

Improvement In my playing

I played and recorded most of today and noticed that I have been improving in one specific area. Before this, it was in my composition and lately though it has been in my guitar soloing and melody. I guess I have been working on this for a long time.

I used to be blazing fast but sloppy as can be in my soloing, I mean it sounded fast, but you couldn’t hear all the notes clearly. So , for the longest time I really slowed down and took the time to make sure each note was clear. Well, this taught me a lot about phrasing and also using silence and economy of notes to solo as well as melody.

Now though, my technique has improved greatly and even on fast passages each note is clear and round sounding which is what I had been striving for.

Also, I have been working on arpeggios for quite some time too, maybe sixth month’s, I don’t mean sweep arpeggios,but just standard arpeggios and it really ha affected my solo’s, just a really melodic sound and before I use to play arpeggios like you would her most guitarists play (shred guitar, neo classical ,instrumentals stuff), but hen I changed and went back to basics as I did not like the standard sound of sweeped arpeggios, instead it very much sounds like classical arpeggios. Using the neck pickup it just gives you a really neat sound.

I was very slow while playing the arpeggios to get each note to sound clearly with that hollow tone that makes them sound so good. But, lately, I have increased the speed of them when needed and to my surprise the sloppy playing is gone. I guess the lesson to learn here is to incorporate something new into your soling ,even if very difficult or complex, is to start out slow and make sure you can play it cleanly first before you play it at full speed in your solo’s. I recall that I used to frantically play some arpeggios and would miss a few notes or it was just not clear sounding well, using this new approach yielded much better results.

Improvement In my Recordings

Also, I don’t if it’s my Mackie board, but my recordings keep sounding better and better. I think it partly has to do with that, but also just playing and recording. Help too as over time you hear what you need to work on. Anyway, I just love this stuff!!! It’s a great hobby!! For those brief moments when playing and recording, your creativity really comes alive!! I am listening back to the recordings of today. Very nice! Good mix and the guitars are good. Its different than my previous recordings. Can’t explain how, just the approach I guess.

Improvement in my playing and recordings

In any case, I am just pleased that my solo playing is getting to be pleasure to listen too. What mean by this is that ,for many years, my soloing was about sqweals and running scales and things, but musically it was not pleasant to listen too. I think this is changing. I have give credit to Eric john son and joe satriani as Eric Johnson just has a great tone and his soling is really smooth and musical and joe satriani’s is melodic and every note is heard clearly. Funny though, it is when I try to play like them rather than myself that I mess up playing wise. But they certainly influenced and inspired me to have my soloing be pleasant to listen to and have each note be really clear. Still working on it and will be for years to be sure!! Haha

A tip: Find a good Balance

Also, just a small note of caution, while it may seem that my life revolves around guitar and recording and gear, I also realize that it is a really good thing to get away from it for a while too. For me it’s working a day job all week and watching a movie, working on computer stuff, movie scripts and writing and films too. I suppose this balance has kept the guitar music and recording fresh and fun for me for having played about 32 years or so on and off…….Ok till next time

Oh yeah, I still haven’t rearranged my studio, too busy using it aah

Finding your CD, Used studio Gear Bargains and more

2008-12-05T23:27:00.003-05:00

Visit Guitarist Denis Taaffe's official website at http://www.dtguitar.com

Finding your Old CD’s

I happened to stop in to a Goodwill Store on my way home looking for old audio bargains and sometimes find things like amplifiers, receivers and things. Well, I thought I would look at some CD’s and I happened to find one of my own CD’S!!! Yes!! How insulting, It was Modern Rock guitar vol.II “alien Guitar”. There are about 1,500 in existence. Well, I immediately bought it back hahaha. Yes, I have to say it not exactly what one shoots for when you spend a year working on a CD. for it to end up at Goodwill. Hahaha. You know you have really made it big when your CD ends up here.

Well, I was glad to get it back. This also occurred to a friend of mine who also has a few CD’s he has released and one of them suffered the same fate. I was browsing and sure enough there was a copy of his CD. I called him to let him know and he immediately jumped in his car and went and bought it. Haahh. It’s Kind of silly really, but these CD’s from independent CD’s are not like the major label CD releases where there are 100,000 to millions made.

I suppose one would hope that it would fall into the hands of someone who may enjoy it, but I would rather resell it online to someone looking for it. Anyway , moving on….

Behringer MX9000

I just got a Mackie 32x8x2 mixer which is really great, but a used Beringer mx9000 recently is available locally used for $500.00,not bad for a $1300 board new. However, do I need another huge board, probably not, hmmm..Something to consider…

External Mic Pre’s vs Mixing board Mic Pre’s

This is a fairly new trend to take a ch strip out of a really expensive and great sounding mixing console and put it in a rackmount unit.Also, there are several rackmount units touting great mic pre amps. One of the most amazing one’s, is from solid state Logic,inc, that right the $250,000 or more SSL consoles found in some of the biggest studios in the world. Well, they have created a rackmount unit with 2 mic pre’s found on these ssl units. However, even the rackmount versions are at least $1000 if not $2-3k range. Still how amazing they must sound. For me personally, for now, I am pleased with the Mackie mic pre’s, but to be honest it is all I have ever used,so it would be nice to see hwo some external mic pre’s would sound. Then again, there are cheapo rackmount mic pre’s such as ART, Blue tube, M-audio,personus,etc... but these don’t offer much in the way of sound quality compared to some of the higher end units and not much more if any than the mackie mic pre’s….

Used ,but Not Quite Vintage Gear

Ok, a Pre CBS (pre 1965) Fender Stratocaster is considered to be a truly vintage guitar and fetches incredibly inflated prices of $10k or more. Ok, that is real vintage gear that is way overpriced and not all that great. Also, every year, most of the music manufacturers come out with a new line up of gear, sometimes better ;sometimes worse than last years model. Well, what happens to these last year’s models? DO they disintegrate? No, do they find their way to goodwill (only if you shop on their online auction site-ever wonder why you never find a guitar amp in a goodwill store?!) ebay? (yes, sometimes). However, and this is my point, there is an abyss of amazing gear that is neither here or there, its in limbo, not old enough to be vintage, not common enough to be popular and yet yields incredible sonic bargains. For example, in the early 70’s, Yamaha made a stand up 2x12 cabinet and solid state amp head (see photo), an early ½ stack for guitar and you sometimes run across those in tiny music stores for Less than $150 .Along the same lines are all the incredible rack ear offerings, old f/x units like the Roland GP8 ,Alesis quadraverbs,old lexicon units and on and on, these can be found for such small prices , its amazing and they sound great!! Sometimes these units are much better than than many of the new offerings that cut corners to save on manufacturing costs.

Also, the most fun of all, is running across a really exotic and wonderfully strange and rare unit that no one has ever heard of. I did recently, For a mere $65, it was a 2 rack dynamics processor that restores dynamic range, the inventor was an audiophile and when he passed away so did his invention. Of course new it costs thousands of dollars and the unit and the idea behind it has never been imitated or reproduced. For recording, especially for guitars in my case, finding an old unit that gives you a certain sound that is not like all of the new processors is really interesting. It is when I began recording that I found this kind of gear really really interesting.

Reaaranging my audio studio furniture Again

Ok, it turns out that I spend much mroe of my time with my digital recorders and PC for mastering and editing than I do my MAckie 32x8x2 mixer which I use for recording. However my MAckie HR824 monitors are on a shalef I built that goes over the MAckie mixer and then at a 90 degree angle is the desk with the digtital recorders and PC's. Result, is I constantly have to turn my head to hear both monitors properly. So I have to switch where the MAckie console is and where the PC and monitors are. Luckily, I built the shelf so that t was not attached to th desk that holds the Mackie. So this will be a simple to move at first glance, then I recall that everything has to be rewired, unplugged and replugged in and nothing must be broken in the process. ok, this will take considerable time, but it will be worth while for me. My monitors need to face me when I am working with the digital recorders and PC and for the mackie I need to be able to turn faders up and things like this , so monitoring is not crucial here.

Mackie gear

Over the years, I have become a Mackie Fan, there products are just excellent in quality and durabillity. Ok, they are not like Solid State logic, but they are of as high in quality as your going to get with my modest home studio budget. Their mixing boards, power amps and monitors are simply amazing and great sounding. Even my little 14ch Mackie mixer when replaced with a cheaper behringer mixer simply blew the behringer out of the water sound quality wise.however, the behringer had smoothe faders and was 1/3 the cost as well. So let' give Mackie a pat on the back and behringer a runner up badge, yeah..a feel good movie like ending!! everyone's a winner, ok now shake hands, ...moving on....

What not to do when sending out a press release about being a 51st 2009 Grammy Nominee Hopeful

2008-12-05T00:22:00.018-05:00

Visit Guitarist Denis Taaffe's official website http://www.dtguitar.com for more info...

51st 2009 Grammy Nominee Slap AKA What not to do when sending out a press release about being a 51st 2009 Grammy Nominee Hopeful

The Press Release Blunder (aka My Press release Blunder)
Well, I was included in this years Grammy entry list from which Grammy nominees are chosen (the top 5 in each category become Grammy nominees). For an independent virtually unknown guitarist with no label this was really cool to be listed and who knows maybe suddenly even becoming a Grammy nominee and then taking the music world by storm and winning a Grammy!! YEAH!!! I can see it now [screen begins to fade and we are taken to the "Grimey Awards" announcements: "presented by the gloved ones, Michael Jackson and O.J Simpson, the Worst Press Release Award goes to Guitarist Denis Taaffe......Thank You Gloved one's, I would especially like to thank...."[screen fades back in] oh, sorry I was day dreaming,ok where were we,oh yes.....,Well I had been included in the entry list in the 44th,45th,46th,49th and 50th Grammy entry lists in the past(see Denis's website http://www.dtguitar.com for info on past awards), but did not garner enough votes to become a Grammy nominee.I was hoping this yea would be perhaps a little different. This year they put me in the pop category mostly, actually in the following categories:

Best Pop Instrumental Album: Modern Guitar Vol.110 "The Station" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Performance -for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Performance -for the track "Terrorists" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Composition - For the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Arrangement - for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Record of the Year - for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Album of the Year - Modern rock Guitar Vol.1110 "The Station" see listing here

Well, again I did not garner enough votes to become a Grammy Nominee, but really I was pleased just to be included in this years Grammy entry List.That makes my sixth year and next year I will try for a seventh time. For a unsigned and mostly unknown independent music that is not bad at all and I was thrilled to be listed with some really well known musicians and bands that I grew up listening too. Well, my only gripe is that it has everything to do with album sales and popularity and nothing to do with the quality of the music. Couldn't they have a "mammy" awards where it was all voted on by the quality of the music? Well, anyway, next year is not that far off, i better get to recording.

Oh one more catastrophe and file this one in the totally Lame department: Ok, I figured a little media exposure for my Grammy entry list was in order as I have done in the past. So I set about crafting a press release with the title "Indiana based Guitarist Denis Taaffe awaits results to see if he is a Grammy nominee" or "Grammy hopeful" or something similar. Well, I thought I had read online that they would announce the Grammy nominee's on Dec the 6th. So, The evening of the 4th I sent out my press release to newspapers,radio and TV stations figuring that maybe they might mention it. One small problem though, As it turns out , unknown to me, was that the Grammy Nominee's had actually been announced earlier that day on the 4th (not the 6th). hahaahaa..priceless!!! SO here I as sending out my press release saying that I was awaiting the results of the Grammy nominee announcements when they had already happened and not only that; but I wasn't listed!! A major error on my part haha,

How could this happen?!!? Of course I had to be diligent and contact every radio tv station and newspaper in not only my town ,but my state...hahaha, allI could do was shake my had and laugh at myself, what else could I do. This was an honest mistake, but talk about a slight error hahahaaa...I feel bad for the poor folks who got my "late" breaking news. well, I certainly felt like the boy who cried wolf.

AM Radio Station Blunder
now, even worse and was that an am radio station I usually set my alarm to began talking about the Grammy's and they were spouting off names in each category and so I thought "wow, they must have a copy of the entry list and surely will mention me as I was on the entry list and had sent them my ill-fated press release. At that time i didn't realize that the nominee's had already been named!! hahah.Well, suddenly I hear on the radio, a news DJ say "oh yeah, well speaking of the Grammy nominations, well we got an email {slight Pause}....from some guy I never heard of.....".It had to be my press release , I was sure of that. Looking back,I am thrilled that he spared me the shame and embarrassment of mentioning my name haha. Worse , the guy must have thought that I was either making it up or was a fry short of a happy meal as the nominee's had already been announced and I soon realized that they didn't have the entry list that I was on, but they had the results list which I was not on. haha

Now , without exaggerating, I had even called that station at 6am thinking that they may have thought I was saying I was a Grammy nominee and that no, I was just on the entry list and as I thought they were discussing the entry list, I did call, so I try to explain and the guy on the other end says "congratulations, yeah...we will look for your email"..hahaha oh I should of left bad enough alone hahaa. He probably thought I was some loony tunes wacko crank caller or something...you know it reminds me of when I once tried to call a radio station to tell them "uh yeah ...there's no school today" when i was 15 or so...and I am sure they probably got a few calls like that a week haha.

Well, this big flub up by me was par for the course, the whole day was pretty much like this haha.Well, if anything, it certainly kept me humble as I was happy to just put this years Grammy entry list and nominee announcements behind me. As I drove to work, I kept switching stations in the hopes that No station mentioned my late press release,I could jsut imagine a whole radio hour laughing about that. I mean I have to admit I would have found it hilarious.

I even had contacted the well known radio comedy commentators BOB N TOM,hey it would have been nice fro them to say "hey A Indiana based guitarist you never heard of may become a Grammy nominee" ,not news but interesting anyway. Well, my fear was than when i got to work that they would call me at work while on air and say something to the affect of: "DEnis, this is bob n tom and we got your email press release, just one thing "they already announced the winner s and YOU LOST" ahaahhehhoo and then hang up. actually,I think it would have made for a wonderful BOB N TOM skit episode of "Mister Obvious" hahaa.

Well, what can I say, I had not thought it through and assumed that the date of the announcements was correct (not two days behind). hahaa. Well, anyway, I had a really good laugh about this and I think my ego will survive or at least whats left of it haha. Honestly, For this year i am just really grateful just to have been on the entry list and I thought the competition was amazing for this year. I mean bands I grew up listening to and some of my favorite bands were listed, so it was an honor for me to be just listed with these well known musicians.

The Cat's Meow or The Cat's Cradle in the audio studio
Let's Get back to whats important, oh yes, recording in a home audio studio. Well, Yesterday I wanted to recorded a couple of tracks and tryout recording with one of the Crate v33212 all tube combo amps. WEll, I got everything hooked up and the recorder ready to go and setup the sm57 beta microphone a couple of inches from one of the crate combo amps 2x12 cabinets, cool this was going to be en experiment, I had my old solid state 2x12 combo in the left ch and the all tube crate v33 in the right ch. Well, before I recorded I noticed that my cat was hanging out about my mixing console and I tried to get him to leave the room before I recorded. I left the room for a moment and saw that cat was following me out. Ok, I then went back into my studio room and closed the door. Ye, finally a moment to record with my new tube amp. this was very exciting, I started recording and playing and played for a good 5 to 10 minutes and got a good groove of a track where i could then launch into a chimey tube clean solo. Oh it sounded great while I was playing.

ok, I was all excited to hear back the results, betting the tube amp would sound great. So, I put down the guitar and begin to playback the recording on my recorder. First I get no sound?!! at all..nothing..natta...zip..so I looked over the mixing console and find a few channels being soloed...ch' I was not using...that was odd. Anyway i turn off the solo and all the ch's begin working again. What I heard back as the recorder played was some drum samples ,this huge bass guitar sound which muffled a tiny guitar tone why int h distance being drowned out by the overbearing bass sound. I was like "What is this?!?" This is what i recorded? sound's like crap...I was distraught. I then looked on the console again and noticed that my ch that had the bass sound was feeding into my recorder as it should, but there were several extra buttons being pushed down?! The result was that the bass sound was being fed into every ch of my recorder.Surely i could not have been that careless.

I then dawned on me, that my Cat Tobey had been using the mixing console as a step ladder to get to his perch on top of one of my PC monitors. DARN IT, ten minutes of useless recording and my great tube amp test recording was ruined by Tobey. I exclaimed "Tobey BOaB!!".Well,moral of the story, i am not sure, I guess don't let the cats into the studio, but mine like to be in the same room I am in . Well, I learned to double check all my settings before recording before getting unwanted engineer help from my cats. Well, its ok, son,\I will have a all weekend to another test.I do keep the door closed when i record loudly and when i am away, but am happy to have their company, but maybe I should ban them from my studio room, its just when spend hours in there. Anyway, no harm done and for example my old gear the have learned not to disturb it at all.So maybe I need to just not let them hope on the mixer too.

Ok, out of time again....Though next time , I will have the results of my tube amp recording tests, we will see how the crate v33212 combo amps hold up.

Recording winter woes: Furnance has no place in an audio studio

2008-12-02T22:16:00.006-05:00

Heat or Audio

Ok, I was in a recording mood this evening and wanted to record a few tracks . It's cold out, so I had a gas furnace chugging away keeping my room temp at around 65 degrees. I had just rearranged my studio only to discover that when my furnace would turn on and off and with it,my spdif digital connection from recorder to PC. Basically it would reset my recorder and anything I was recording was gone and of course this happened during an inspired recording where at was at my best playing wise. Darn it!! Robbed of my musical moment of glory!!

I think I am pushing my electrical limits for the house wiring with the furnace , water heater, refrigerator, and all my recording gear throughout the house. so my solutions are to call an electrician and his $150/hr sidekick who watches him work or turn off the furnace before and after I play or perhaps I could rearrange where I plug things in to avoid this. I am on the same circuit as the furnace so this wont do. I suppose I could turn it off before I record as my sessions last an hour or two at most that might work well too. Well, we will see. I guess its part of the trials and tribulations of recording in a home studio.

I am lucky that I did capture about ten minutes of good quality recording before the abrupt cut off. I am very pleased with the recording that I did capture. but I also lost some of the best material. So I have to figure out a solution eventually.

mackie 32x8x2 console in recording
I thought it would be a good idea to turn off the mackie mixing console while I was away to conserve the wear and tear on the board, power supply and conserve electricity. Well, this was a big mistake I have found, in that it seems for the board needs a little time to "warm up" to get the best sound , perhaps having it on will avoid any cold solder joints if there are any, in any case, after 15 minutes to a 1/2 hour the sound I really liked from that board came back. I think I will leave it on 24/7, yes it will perhaps shorten the life of the board and the power supply, but I could also see where turning it off and on all the time could be hard on both units as well and then there is the sound. Also,I have lost a lot of pc and guitar gear this way , in an way turning on a unit shoots a lot of electricity at one time rather than a constant flow of electricity. In fact, recently an ADAT recorder suffered from a damaged power supply because of turning it on suddenly. Lesson learned.

Agenda
WEll, I have a lot to do musically.Gear wise, i have to restring and setup 2 guitars and restring the parker guitar. Eventually I need to order a new kahler bridge for my schecter guitar but they are pricey (about $300) ouch.Also, there is this rackmount tube amp that needs a new fan badly. Then I need to send back stuff that broke (see below). also most importantly, I need to send some of my new albums to amazon.com/createspace for them to sell online. I was able to upload an album but it was always a delicate way to do things. Many times the transfer would get interrupted and the fles would not come out correctly. So I have to end them the audio cd's to transfer.In particular, albums 121,125 and vol.127. vol.127 is completed and I tried to upload it several times and each time when i got the proof back it has blank spaces and things. so I need to send it instead. i addition, I need t edit a coupe of tracks on vol.121 and vol.125. After that i need to send them both old vol's 5 to 115 or so and new ones vol.128 and vol.129 which i am completing now. Also, I need to rearrange my studio now that i have an idea of how the mackie board works in my setup and I am still fighting with my rackmount music PC which is so noisy I drilled a hole through my wall to put it in the next room, but the cable s the cables!!! DAMN those cables!!! haha, I ordered cables , as long as I could get them and they are still to short, I mean a spdif cable is 12ft and needs to be 20-50 ft and on and on , so I need to figure that out as well. In addition, I need to put a new 500gb ide drive into my PC as 1 of the 80gb's is almost filled up. so its remove the 80 gb or remove one of the cd-r drives. Audio over the network and from ext drives is a bit too slow for me. Also, I need to incorpo9rate my tube amps into my guitar setup. I need more cables,but they cost a lot really locally, like $10 a cable ouch. Then I need to update my music website and that will take time too. In any case, besides all that I need to play a and record and promote my music as well. So, I chip away at these things a little bit each evening.

Furman power distribution unit rackmount
Then I need to send back this furman rackmount power distribution unit which has had a faulty switch. Its an illuminated switch so it s a pain. In any case, I contacted furman and they were very reluctant to work on it. They preferred to just send me the switch, but I also wanted the unit checked out because it may have been a surge that caused the switch to go out. Anyway, we will see what happens. I will contact them to get an rma number to send t back for repair. It was an expensive unit new (of course I bought it used with the bad switch...haha), so it would be worthwhile to pursue. Speaking of:

Fender Cables
I bought a bunch of fender California 1/4" instrument cables because they are cheap and have a life time warranty. Well, over the years, 1/2 of these cables went bad from wear and tear or just over time,not sure. Well, one day I want to send Fender all the bad cables I have bought; I probably have ten or twenty cables. Would they replace them under the lifetime warranty ? well, I don't know but if they would it would be worthwhile. Maybe one weekend I will gather them up and send them out.

new metallica album
my coworker lent me the new metallica CD, they are very metal for me, but I can appreciate the guitar work, this album was produced by ric rubin and I found it really aggressive and percussive,even the guitar parts (much like their old "battery" song period). Also, they seemed to mix in some acoustic bits like the black album and ride the lightning albums, but to me it falls a bit short as it is just not as musical as the ride lightning acoustic bits and is closer to the acoustic bits in the black album.Anyway, it was fun to listen too and it I think they turned out a really good Metallica album. I could absolutely hear some of the production techniques they used in the studio as far as overdubs and so on. Interesting.

My music

Ok, been listening to the music I did record this evening and in it there are two tracks I want to keep. The first was more of a guitar riff orientated instrumental and the other is my favorite rock/atmospheric instrumental. SO I will master these tonight on my pc for an album either vol.129 or vol130 depending on how they fit. Wow that second track is definitely one I want to keep.

Studio Gear secret: Roland Vs890 Studio Recorder

2008-12-02T00:49:00.004-05:00

The Roland Vs890 was the last of the Roland Vs880 recorder upgrades before they went on to the vs1680,1880 ,2000,2400 series. It looks like an orginal vs880 and is an 8 track digital recorder like the original vs880. However, it is much improved version for several reasons:it has a black casing rather than gray, it has 24 bit a/d and d/a converters (as opposed to 20 bit vs880's), it has spdif and optical i/o and has 2 f/x cards built in, it has an 8 track digital mixer, records at 44.1k or 48k uncompressed (which was not possible on the original vs880), it also has mastering and automation, oh, and it records 8 tracks at once!!! and full midi automation as well. I recently got a second one of these to make sixteen tracks of vs890. For me this is ideal, because quality wise the vs890 is beyond reproach and is the biggest secret bargain in recording today!! It's sound quality is as good if not better than any digital recorder including pro tools setups or other computer based daw's. Granted I still edit and master on a PC ,but to track I use these and they work great. I originally paid $2400.00 for a vs-880 when they first came out, I picked up a vs-890 for $199.00 used!!! Seems crazy really, as it is not obsolete by any means, there are newer recorders with more tracks and built in drum machines and so on, but the f/x on the vs890 are usually of higher quality and the sound quality of the vs890 is excellent and usually sounds better than many newer units!! record at 24bit 48k is more than one needs to produce great recordings, I suppose you could pay the extra $1000 to go to a 24bit 96k recording setup,but can you hear a difference between 48k and 96k? or 192k? doubt it, I in fact use 24bit 44.1k to avoid dithering down to 44.1k later to burn to CD. I any case, these are biggest bargains around ,not to mention the 8 track digital mixer with full automation. ALso, from my experience, The vs is really steady, it never crashes like a PC daw, it never locks up and there is zero latency like many PC based daw's. For me its perfect as I hardly use more than 8 tracks to record live and they can be linked together. I have 2 8tr vs890's as well as 2 vs880xpanded machines for a total of 32 tracks. Also, I move the final recording via digital spdif into my pc for further editing and mastering. Sadly, Roland kind of went crazy and discontinued the vs890 and the new vs24track is really expensive, the 8track VS went to to Boss, a division of Roland and they have a unit similar to the VS, but cheaply made and not as good in my opinion and it will set you back about $1000 or so. If you really need tons of tracks then a pc based daw might be the way to go, but I have used these Rolands for almost 20 years now and still have not found a recorder that sounds better (unless it cost an obscene amount of money (several thousands of dollars and even then I am not sure it would sound much better at all as it is digital...). I highly recommend the roland vs, even the original vs880 is a great sounding recorder. In fact, other than more tracks, the additional bells and whistles to new machines to charge thousands of dollars like f/x plugin's which is covered by my PC and DAW like editing which I do on pc as well. Were talking about just hard disc recording, the Roland vs 890 is hard to beat and at under $200.00 it cant be beat !! Ok, the vs890 doesnt have great mic pre's or lots of inputs which is where the mackie 32x8x2 mixing console come in as a front end, it really is a great combination . I have an emu and cakewalk sonar computer daw setup as well, but I prefer recording with the mackie console as a front end to the roland vs machines. I just prefer the ease of use and recording quality!!

Well, today in my studio I got a laptop hooked up to my home PC network (just a pc and laptop hooked up to router) and I got an external usb drive shared between the pc and the laptop. the pc is my music studio PC. More on this later.....!!

Recording Results wih the MAckie 32x82 mixing console

2008-11-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

Recording Results

Ok, As I mentioned in my last post, the mackie 32x82 mixing console was really a pain to get setup correctly. However, after a few days of having it setup , recording is a real breeze and an enjoyable experience. TO my ears, the depth and detail of the recordings were much better than when I was using the 14chmackie mixer, Hard to explain in words, but it is af is I had tken multiple stereo sources and panned them all to the center of the stereo field with the 14ch mixer, with the 8buss mixing console, there is a much larger stereo field and each instrument has its own space. Much more balanced and more depth and nice detail as well.

My friend came over and I played him a CD of tracks recorded with my 14 ch mackie and then a track recorded with the mackie 8buss 32x8x2. Right away he could tell a big difference and mentioned the stereo field and the depth and detail were better with the 8 buss Mackie.I was glad to hear that he heard was I thought I was hearing. In any case,at the height of my frustration getting it setup, I can honestly say that i was about to pack it back up and sell it. I am now glad I didn't and took my time getting it connected and in use.The audio results is where it really paid off.

The mackie sr 328b 32x8x2 mixing console is analog but works so well with a digital recorder. Even a small Roland VS-890 Digital recorder (the vs890 has 24 btui a/d and d/a converters but almsot non exsistant mic pre's). Withthe mackie baord I found a real nice balance ebtwen the analog nd digital worlds. I highly recommend picking up one of these boards. Prices have come way down for used analog boards because everyone is going digital or to a mixerless digital recording studio via PC. However, there is no question that using the mackie 32x8x2 as a front end for the digital ercorder really works well ad for routing signals ,it's great with tons of options. I can't wait to mix several guitar amps (2 solid state and threee tube amps) into buss 5 and 6 and route those to tracks 1 & 2 of my digital recorder.Very nice!!!

Mackie 32x8x2 mixing console update

2008-11-28T00:04:00.001-05:00

MAckie 32x8x2 mixing console update

Ok, I got the Mackie sr 328b 32x8x2 mixing console and it was huge; I was in awe of the sheer size of the mixing console, all those knobs!!! wow, but why did I get this board? Well, I have a 14 ch mackie 1402 provlz board and it was to record my albums, 127 so far (you can hear samples at my website http://wwww.dtguitar.com).

So this board has 32 ch's and more importantly 8 busses. What I was not expecting was the amount of cables needed to rewire my home studio to incorporate this board. I mean it's unreal really. It took at least 15 new cables and ultimately about 40 cables overall. Secondly, I assumed I knew how to hook this board up and use it. I thought it was like my 14ch mixer4. totally wrong!! It took me three days of hair pulling frustration to get it wired right and that is just to one of my digital recorders. Just figuring out which jacks to plug in my speakers/monitors was a challenge, do I use the min studio outs? The control room outs? The aux outs? How do I avoid running into problems with the digital outs of my PC? more on this later...

Ok, so, like all used big consoles, upon first hooking it up you get crackly potentiometers,knobs, eq switches turned on or patched incorrectly,etc...I got burned on big mixing consoles before such as a wheatstone tv/radio board where the cables to hook it up cost more than the board, it used amp connectors which are obsolete and hard has hell to find and expensive as can be, I had another board and it was no good ,too noisy, so at first I was losing patience with this used mackie board. however, I have used mackies in the past and they are great sounding boards. Finally, after some trial and error and reading manuals, I did get the board hooked up and the kinks worked out. I had to make my way passed the spaghetti of wires to actually get to my guitar and try my first guitar. I was using the inserts of the busses to go to my recorder..Ok, RECORD!! ..upon playback I got this crappy sound, worse than my 14ch mixer, sound muddy and just lousy. Ok rewire the board and try again, this time I used the tape sends/returns to go to my recorder (conveniently located on the back of the board.NOT!!).well hidden...ok RECORD!! This time the recording was clean and sounded amazing!!! I didnt get any extra noise from the board I could hear, the digital inputs of my recorder took care of the digital drum samples, the mackie handled the mic's and line level analog stuff.

Ok, the recording was clean and heavy; guitars sounded like miked guitars through the 32 ch mackie mic pre's,plenty of headroom and the eq is amazing, like a blanket was removed from the microphones. Very nice!!! Also, the mic pre's and the eq ch sound more defined than the mic pre's and eq on my 14 ch board (almost like the 14 ch board was a similar to the 8 buss which sounded like the real deal).Also, for a digital recording , to my ears, the board sounds almost "vintage", that is the be the word to describe the sound, vintage as in warm sounding. I could easily hear more depth and warmth in my digital recording compared to my 14ch mixer to digital recorder which sounds much more modern ,no warmth at all, and themic pre's on the 14ch are the vlz pro mic preamps I felt they lacked detail compared to the 32x8 mackie mic pre's.

To explain the mike pre's, the mckie 32x8x2 mic pre's have depth and detail, when you mike a sound cabinet, it sounds like a miked cabinet, on the 14 ch mackie, you get the guitar sound but you dont get as much depth and you can't really tell its a cabinet being miked. Overall, my recordings sound much more like a band recording with the mackie 32x8x2. Just the real deal in my recordings where as the 14ch sounded good but not as much depth.Also the 32x8x2 has 100mm long throw faders and they are nice compared to the 60mm faders on the mackie 14 ch board which are crappy. SO, its a great sounding board, and granted there are better sounding boards (up to $250,000 hah or more), but for a home studio, this board is a really great.Its analog but plenty clean for digital.

The 14ch mackie gave me some good recordings and sounds more modern in a way, but the mackie 32x8x2 does give you a warmer "big" studio sound I have found.The trade off, is the 14ch has simplicity when recording that is great compared to the 8 buss 32ch mackie. I mean it can be really complicate to setup, but after its setup and then recording is easy. I guess its getting there which was tough.Now I know how to record with the 8 buss mixer so that it makes it as simple as the 14ch mixer. What I discovered is how I was used to having my gear setup a certain way in the studio ,even guitar cabinets, moving them caused chaos for a few hours trying to get the sound I am used too.

I will post some recordings of the mackie 32x8x2 on some tracks I did with it. I was tempted to sell the board as I was getting frustrated with it and figured why make the recording process more complicated. But, now that its setup and I understand it ,I think I may keep this board.The sound quality and ease of use should be the determining factor and so far, compared side by side, my new recordings with the mackie 32x8x2 are simply better sounding than my previous recordings.

I also learned some important lessons,one, you have to patient with new gear, especially one as complicated as this board, secondly, to improve musically,you have to be "brave" enough to take the risk of changing things. This is a tough one mentally,as when one is used to having things sound a certain way and it sounds god, then why mess with it.I felt this way, but now I am thrilled I took a chance and worked with it. So we will see.

My friend PSB , who is a great musician with good ears and a studio of his own, will come to check out the board and the recordings I made with it. I wonder what he will say about the old vs the new board and the sound quality. Wow talk about growing pains, incorporating this board was really difficult to do. I was so used to doing my thing with the 14ch mixer.I guess its called change, and to change the way you record your music is really a tough thing to do, it was a mini crisis in a way for me. Thoughts of "oh no, why did I change anything I was getting a great sound,now its ruined" or "now, I get a worse sound than I had",etc.. But, I think I made a good choice in working with the bigger board and the sound is better. So anyone out there who is comfortable with the way they record, it pays to take a chance and force yourself to try to keep improving your recordings!! Happy thanksgiving by the way!!

mackie 32x8x2 and Crate tube amps

2008-11-19T19:29:00.003-05:00

Crate Tube Amps update

I received 2 more crate v33212 all tube combo amps, they are blowing these amps at $xxx.00 each!!! WOW, I did not hesitate as the list price on each amp is $650.04, which is a little below average for most tube amps as most all tube combo amps are about $1000 or more , for example look at the price of a 2x12 marshall:

Marshall JVM Series JVM205C 50W 2x12 Tube Combo Amp
Price: $1,999.99 Item Ships Free!
List Price: $2,850.00

SO as you can see the Crate all tube 2 ch 2x12 combo amp is an incredible bargain at $xxx.00 and see my review in an earlier post. I will post picks at my website at DTGUITAR.COM.
I will post a better review of the amp.

Mackie32x8x2 update

ok, I haven't received the board yet, but it should arrive tomorrow in fact and it is used, but new they still sell the board for $3299.00 and that is from a discounter online wow!! mine was not even 1/3 of the price. too good to be true? we will see.

Studio setup
I have been trying to plan for how to setup the studio, the board will make it easier as it will be based around that. I had it setup previously,but there have been so many changes, well we will see.

crate all tube amps: v33212 and v212b 2x12

2008-11-16T21:04:00.003-05:00

Crate v33212 all tube class A 2x12 combo amp

ok, ams had these amps at ridiculously low blowout prices, the 33 watt 2ch 2x12 combo amp had 3 12ax7 preamp tubes and 4 el84 power tubes and 2 12" speakers with f/x loop, boost, presence and extension speaker jacks for $xxx.00 list is somewhere between $599 or more, similar all tube combo amps are easily $800 or more and if handwired boutique amp then prices range from $1000-3500. So I was very skeptical. I went ahead and ordered one but was thinking I would get some toy tiny practice amp I could play around with while watching TV; I couldn't have been more wrong!!

The amp arrived and as I unpacked it, I couldn't come over the size of the amp, I mean it is a full size combo amp. IT looked great and was as solid as could be. Has a power and standby toggle switches and I plugged it in and was blow away!! The clean channel was as clean as could be, glassy almost chimey as any quality tube amp (think jimi H's little wing or Wind crys mary), it has plent y of bass and mids and high's and I was expecting a puny sound, instead , you would swear you were playing a 4x12 cabinet. The clean channel can also be overdriven and has a 3 band eq and reverb. The reverb was a simple spring reverb and is the weakest link of this amp, but usable at about 1 or 2 settings, but the f/x loop and an external f/x unit would take care of that easily. anyway, any kind of clean sound is easily attainable and reminds me of a fender twin or a vitnage marshall.

Then the lead channel, now here is where I was really amazed!! This amp is a total beast, I mean it is loud as can be, I mean it reminds me immediately of a 100wt vintage marshall, the overdrive is all tube and it sounds like it, it reminds me of a marshall jtm 45 1/2 stack or a marshall jcm 900, (think old sabbath,ac/dc,judas priest, jmi hendrix) more than a hotrodded marshall jcm 800 ala van halen, just a thick growling marshall tone, the speakers were clear and handled any volume with ease. the tube warmth was amazing,. For any modern metal sounds you would need to add a distortion pedal. I was just amazed, I could not turn it past 3 at the most and that shook the walls of my house.

I then tried it with my pod xt live and compared it to the solid states I was using, WOW!!! The line 6 offered the exact same preamp sound as the amp, however my 2x12 solid states amp could not provide the tube amp dynamics and growl that the crate tube amp could. I was sold.You just cant imitate the sound of a tube power amp and the speakers broke up at just the right time.

Overall, these are the most amazing amps and reminds most of all like a true "vintage" marshall amp!! yet they are $xxx.00 (the price of about 2 12" speakers?). They should have called this amp "the poor man's Marshall".I liked them so much I have an other on order.

Crate v2112b 2x12 speaker cabinet
Equally as impressive is the crate v2112b 2x12 speaker cabinet. Comes with two crate 2x12 speakers wired for 8ohm mono and 16 ohm stereo. Again, I was amazed at the price and even more amazed by the sound and size of these cabs. Blowout price new was $xxx.00 (about the price of one raw celestion speaker?!!). These cabs are as big as the v332112 amp and sound just as good. ?I was afraid they would put some poor sounding speakers in these but instead I got 2 outstanding sounding speakers that are firm, warm and clean sounding. the cab reminds me of a 4x12 cab in that it has that bassy sound that most 2x12's do not. just a great deal!!!!

Overall
The crate v series of tube amps and cabs have made my guitar setup sound so much better that I cant wait to record with them, all tube!!!! great!!

Mackie 32x8x2 8-buss mixing console
I have been using a 14channel mackie 14ch mixing board which is tiny and was doubling in my guitar rig and also as a mic preamp for my studio recording setup. Well no more!! Mackie came out with these new onyx mixing consoles which sent the price of their analog mixing consoles plummeting, yet the quality is superb sound wise!!I found a used mackie 32x8x2 mixing console used for $xxx +xx s/h, not bad for a board that new sells for $3699.00 (even now on sale?!).32 as in 32 channels, 8 as in 8 buss and It is huge, about 4 feet across and looks so cool, but more importantly is the sound, great mic pre's and super quiet operation. So it will work great with my digital recorders. I love the mackie analog sound!!!I use my little 14 ch mackie ,but now it can go back to my guitar setup.

I had tried to replace my mackie 1402 mixer with a behringer but the difference was terrible, so bad that I immediately took back the behringer. The mackie is just a great sounding board. I plan to use the board for recording of course, but into my roland digital recorders, adats and emu emulator x with sonar. Best of all for me is I can record several different amps at one time and mix those amps into one buss which will feed one of the digital recorders. super cool!! It will just be the centerpiece of my home studio. It should arrive soon then I will know much more.

Optionally it has a meter bridge which is about $500 and give led metering on all channels, Mine doesn't has the meter bridge, but I may add it if I find for a decent price in the future.

the silent audio studio : move PC out of control room

2008-11-11T11:54:00.005-05:00

The silent Studio Idea

This is actually a great idea. The silent studio . IT should be a no brainer but I have seen almost no studios base don this simple idea. I have been in studios including my own where they are trying to mix and master and record for tat matter and in the same room they have a super noisy PC whirring away. Terrible noise form the cpu fan, power supply fan and additional fans, even noisy hard drives. In my case it was like an air conditioner running. It was really irritating especially when recording mixing and mastering.

Solution: put PC in other room
obviously remove the computer from the room. You could put it in a closet but then there are heat issues,etc..So, here is what I did. I put about a 2.5" hole in my wall to the next room. I put it near the ground as the next room is my living room, the hole was simple to do as it was dry wall. I just used a simple drywall saw and made a round hole. ALso, I found these metal chrome covers that attached at each end and really gave it a professional look. ALso, I made the whole in the living room to be easily hidden by my home theatre speakers.

Considerations: Cables
ok, the PC is crutial to my home studio for recording ,mixing and mastering audio, so I had to get extension cables for everything, an expensive proposition if you buy locally , I checked and saw cables for $30.00 each!?! NOT!! online I found discounters who had extension cables for cheap ,about $10.00 for a vga cable, and then 2 p/s2 cables and ethernet cable and usb cable,etc... One thing I could suggest is to consider a cheap KVM switch used to switch PC's while still using the same keyboard,monitor and mouse, the cbales for this are cheaper in the long run.

Also, instead of lengthy cables, if you have a laptop, you could use remote desktop to access the noisy PC. This may work, but the video is the problem, if you have a fast video card in your pc ,you lose that performance as video is over an ethernet cable. I opted for just extension cables so far.

OVERALL
This sounds like a simple task, but I found this to be quite a task. Poking a hole in your wall is a nerve racking thing. After you have done it though and it looks good and you have not destroyed anything and have nice wall plates covering it, then its not so nerve racking. Also, after that there is no turning back, as your almost there. Then there are the cables, lots of them, 2 midi cables, spdif i/o cables, toslink cables, etc...and the regular pc cables and finding the right length. IT gets expensive. You can easily spend $100.00 on the cables alone. However, it may be the best $100 ever spent to improve your studio. When you think that people buy audio tiles and audio foam and so on which is really expensive, then this is not so bad and while a pain in the butt,; the result will make it worthwhile. My studio room now is really quiet and I can hear things so much better on my monitors. I wont ever put a noisy pc in my studio again. ever.a laptop would be fine, but my audio interface cards require a pc , so this was a great solution. Also, buy your cables online and you can get a deal. Local stores (not all) tend to sell the $40 vga cable extender that can be had for $8 online. You wont regret this simple way to really improve your studio.

Hard Drives and Backup for guitar Audio studio, 51st Grammy awards

2008-11-02T12:16:00.007-05:00

Hard drive failure
Ok, back in business, I had 2 500gb lacie drives fail and they contained all 127 album masters since 1999 and the motors seized up on both drives. SO I had to get the data recovered which i did. I highly recommend lowcostrecovery.com ,they got all my data back and it was 1/2 of what others charge. EXCELLENT!! Ok, so, I also sent back the faulty usb 2.0 lacie drives and got warranty replacements on both. So, now I am all set. I also got 2 sata 500gb int drives for $39 each from geeks.com, what a deal. So, lesson learned. backup your data and set it aside. I made the mistake of backing up my data on external hard drives and thn using those drives in my setup which was a costly mistake. So at the very least i will set aside one of those 500gb drives if not both. I also learned that for my critical data, the only real back up is on DVD. I should have known this as I had cd-r's from 1997 that were still god and the data had been lost on hard drive ages ago.

In addition, let me tell you of my experience with external drives:

1)LACIE 120gb external firewire- firewire drives are the way to go, faster than usb 2.0 and much more reliable, I had this thing going 24/7 for several years now

2)iomega 1tb ext drive usb 2.0- decent so far, but it really only works well with vista, xp is has a problem about a write delay ,because of the mother board chipset wich is totally lame

3)LAcie 500gb usb 2.0 Porsche - really decent ,wrks well with xp and vista, but dam fragile!! I had drives in my pc tower where the tower got knocked over an yet the drives were fine, here the tiniest of thing and its game over, I would wrap these in 4" of foam all around and even then that may not be enough, I should go into the data recovery business because lots of people are going to lose their data from ext drive errors, or being dropped ,etc.. just super fragile

4)int 500gb drives sata and IDE - internal drives are the way to go, they are faster than ext drives, more reliable and in the case can take more of a beating if something should occur

Grammy Awards entry list

Ok, I made it!! I am officially listed on this years Grammy entry list. Very cool for an independent musician like me. This is my sixth year in the Grammy entry list. Now keep in mind this is not the same as a Grammy nominee. To be a nominee you have to be one of the top 5 in a category which is voted on by the voting member's of the recording academy. They vote from the people listed in the entry list. So, if I get to be one of the top 5 in a category I am in then I would be a Grammy nominee. But, this never happens sadly, at least not so far. For me, i am just pleased to be included on the entry list and to participate. This year was weird because they put me in the pop category?! best pop instrumental performance and best pop instrumental performance. I am not disagreeing because in a way my music is not super heavy rock all the time, though I would consider it rock. Though rock gets heavier every year. Well, not big deal, especially as I would not stand a change in the rock categories this year when there is Joe satrini, RUSH (one of my favorite bands) and others. SO, I am fine with it, next year though I hope to be in the rock category. So , I keep my fingers crossed as you never know. I hope to participate ten times, so this is number 6. We will see. This year was harder as I had to get a cd with general distribution (thank you amazon.com, create space, cdbaby !!) which I did for modern rock guitar vol.110 "The station"!! Sweet!!!

EMU emulator X 1010 pci Sound Card and EMU 0202 i/o card

The Emu sound card is amazing sound quality wise. I was using a creative labs audigy which was ok , but it was nto a pro sound. The emu can do 192k/24bit!?! WOW!! I usually use 44.1k/24 or 48k/24 or 96 depending on the application. anyway, this card has 8 adat in/out, 2 spdif in/out, midi in out,optical in/out and analog in/out, hardware dsp F/x's which are really neat and don’t eat up cpu cycles, hmm, let's see what else, oh yeah , it has a mixer of sorts where you can assign sends and returns which is useful for monitoring and recording. Its also a sampler and I have not even used that yet. Well, the sound quality through my Mackie 824's is just fantastic, really pro quality, great fro doing my albums!! Just super clean, it has the same a/d and d/a converters as the digidesign protools hd3 $super expensive setup...so ork for me, I wont be going back to my audigy anytime soon...oh yeah its got 12 in/12 out and firewire too...I like this emu card so much I am thinking of getting the breakout box which will give me an additional 8 adat input/outputs, so that would be a total of 16 adata in/outs and i have to adat units so that would be great, that would give me 16+24+4+4= 48 tracks a/d, ok cheating a bit as my vs's can record 24 tracks digital, but can only transfer 1 stereo master . Anyway, plenty for me and with really great sound quality. I should also mention that this card w3as given to me by PSB!! PSB is an accomplished musician as well and decided not to use this card for his setup. So I do appreciate him passing it on to me!!! He has helped me out a lot and we get along even though our approach to music, home studio recording could not be more different. Each has there way of doing things....very cool!!

Modern Rock guitar Volume 128

Listening right now to new tracks I just recorded for vol.128. Really pleased with my guitar tone , the actual recording quality and the track is really good. It's all coming together and this track for me is a good representation of my style. It has a lot of atmosphere almost like new age yet it's rock a well. Hmm, even though it is improvise on the spot and recorded live, I do hear (see) a definite direction and this track is a real improvement sound quality wise. I think I am still improving even after 127 albums. I am still amazed at where these tracks lead you musically. Awesome!! It's like a different world...musical world....

Lionsgate calls Denis...1/2 a call from Sharon

Ok, so I get this email from lionsgate from someone who says he is fom lion'sgate and he wishes to speak with me about working on some lionsgate projects. YEAH RIGHT!! Was my first thought, however I do recall sending lionsgate my music like a year ago and getting rejected immediately. SO curious to get this email a year later. however, it cant hurt to see if its legit or not. Saps (friends and others) enjoy messing with aspiring musicians and pass them selves off as representing such and such,etc...I have been around long enough to know this form experience and there are very few legit "calls" in the music business. So I am playing it by ear, however, my music would work great with film projects and so on. In fact, films do inspire me and my music is designed to create moods and atmospheres which films do as well. Anyway, we will see, I may never hear from him again. In any case, I am perfectly happy just doing my albums and enjoy playing. It is not fame and fortune I seek, it is to continue playing and develop my style and approach to music...ok that sounds sappy as hell, but it is true. I just really enjoy creating my albums and trying to develop my style. So, I am skeptical with emails like this. Some people create music to please others and its good as a form of communication, but for me, I create my albums to please myself as selfish as that may sound, though I hope others will like it as well..

oh now what is this 1/2 call from Sahron, well let me explain, my friends were in line for some concert tickets and over heard a guy telling people he got 2 calls from sharon ozzborne to play guitar for ozzy, supposedly he went on to say that he partied with keel in their tour bus and so on...hahah, well , my friends were amused and told me about it, so ever since that has been the crowning achievement...to get 2 calls from sharon?!?! haaha, so silly, so if you get a call from metallica and they need a replacement guitarist quick, well that would be 2 call from sharon, if it would be only temporary gig then that’s 1 call from sharon, if it an audition well that’s only 1/2 a call from sharon, hahaah....so stupid and silly, but so funny and over the years I can honestly that I have gotten many "1/2 call from sharon" and one or two times "1 call from sharon" but never "2 calls", also if a call/email/contact is suspicious or turns out to be a scam then that was "1/2 call from sharon but the phone got disconnected.....). Lame, you know, the truth is , for me anyway, people are gullible and I guess they want the brass ring of fame fortuen so badly that they lose sight of just the fun of playing and creating. Years ago I was very naive, having played a year or two, I thought I could get into a really well known band and so on, I am glad I didn’t as I realize just how long it really takes to develop your own style and to play proficiently. Anyway, for 1/2 call from sharon...leave a message...well see....hahha but for lionsgate, I wish it were true because I think my music would be really ideal for film...

Film/script idea
ok, I have this idea for a film script, opening scene is as follows: a realtor shows a family a home, its feel good candyland family with white house picket fence etc,, so the family dog gets out and runs around to the back yard while the family is being shown the house by the realtor (you hear him saying "yes, its just the right size for a family, little billy can have a room all to himself" and you hear the fate asks the kid where "muffy the dog is" the kids just mention of she is outside, she is ok, the realtor says its ok the back yard is fenced in, now the camera panned to the back yard and yes there is little muffy running around ,she stops to take a dump and then continues running in the back yard , she is barking a bit and having a great time, then suddenly, she falls into a sinkhole and you only hear a faint yelp, later th family goes outside and they call for muffy but she is nowhere to be found?!?!?! CUT- ok that’s the opening scene , oh except for the little muffy dog laying dead after falling a good 10 stories in a sinkhole. YES!! CUT!! ACTION!! haha..the movie would be about a family who buys a house only to discover it is slowly being swallowed up by a sink hole and then the sinkhole is the largest in history and threatens to eat up a development and then 1/2 the state hahaahha.....wow I would go see this movie.... actually I read in a paper long ago about a young teacher who just had a child;he went to his kitchen one morning and then fell to his death when a sinkhole opened up in his kitchen. I mean talk about a freak accident, anyway, this would make for a good horror movie though I could see where it could be done very poorly and would be almost humorous rather than a drama or horror film as I envision it.

Studio Furniture and projects from hell

ok, even with the added used desk for $25 I still have issues with this studio room. I need access to all my stuff but still need space to play and record. Its coming along, but what a project geez... I finally realized that I have just too much stuff in this one room. I am tripping over stands and stuff.SO today is Sunday and I will finally get to take this stuff to storage and set up this room. It's fully functional and I am please about that, but there are still things I want to implement that I have not had time to do, such as swapping out a rackmount power amp single space with a 2 space amp which is much cleaner better, but to do that I need the right cables, then I have to hook up my 2 other v digital recorders, as I am using only one at the moment, then I have a tube power amp I need to experiment with , will it work better than solid state with my modeler? Also I have rc-50 looper, do I incorporate it into my main system or do I use it as a separate setup, i was thinking of creating a small setup for small solo stuff, t would work with these two small fender monitors, then I have 2 guitar to setup a yamaha pacifica that has ten's I need it to have 099's string wise. then I have a mexican strat that needs to be set up properly. Hmm, i also have to replace a fan in a tube amp and I have to return a furman rackmount power strip deal as it has a faulty switch. I tried to do this but the saps haven’t gotten back to me. Well, then I have sonar DAW software that I have to experiment with and see if I will use that to record with, this could very cool, but just not had the time and most of all its this furniture. I have this microwave stand that I painted black and my PC that I rack mounted will fit in there with the adats perfectly. 19" so I would not have to buy a separate rack case, but haven’t had time to do that and will the cables fit from the recorders to the pc and so on , truth is I want to get the pc out of the studio so it is really silent either that or I need to replace the fans in it. I have these laptops I could use which are silent, but then the audio card and all that would get lost and buying really long cables seems a bit silly as t would be 50ft midid cables, 2 50ft spdif cables, 1 adat 50 ft optical spdif cable, to 1/4 t0 xlr etc...it would cheaper to just change out the fans, I don’t even know if they make a 50ft spdif cable...Ihaev see 3 or 5ft but thats it. anyway stuff to work out as usual. I am slowly learning that you just don’t setup a n audio studio one time, it evolves continually. Also, I need to continue playing and recording so I only a small amount of time to mess with this.

Cable wraps
Last night one of my monitors suddenly started making a hum, turns out it was the cable was going bad. So I opened my closet to replace it and found instead a jungle of cables, all wrapped allover the place, it took me an hour to untangle everything. Lesson learned, use cable ties for all your cables when not in use. Then you never have to mess around and untangle cables and you actually know what kind and how many cables you have. After spending an hour I discovered a had a cable that I was about to order. I would rather spend a minute cutting a cable tie than I would spending an hour untangling (and probably damaging) a mess of cables. Plus it easier to store them.

Gear Maintenance
recording 128 albums has been a challenge as far as gear maintenance goes. Just laying and recording taxes your gear. I have been lucky in many ways as I have only had a few pieces of equipment crap out on me. But this is because I really try to maintain my gear. Granted I have worn frets down to nothing from playing but there is not much to do with that except a re-fret job, but its the same with gear. Cables in particular I discovered they just end up going bad at point or another. I make them when they have been replaced so I wont use them again. ok that’s a lie, that’s what I should do , but I haven’t until now haha. But I really am doing this now. You know when I played gig's , the equipment took such a beating it is had to believe. I mean I would get cable ends torn off, tubes broken, rack ears bent, rackmount case covers bent or broken, and on and on, even footswitches would just come back from a show all bent up, same when recording, it is not that I am not careful. but I do use the gear I have often. Some gear I use isn’t made anymore so I had to go and hunt and find a back up, in particular the lexicon jamman (not the new pedal that sucks) but the old rack mount units. I now have 2 as if one dies I would need the other, it is essential as it syncs to the drum samples for my emulated bass. The roland rc-50 was supposed to replace it but those bozo's couldn’t get the midi part to work /sync haha, even now!!! So I had to resort to gong back to the lexicon. So I found aback up which I should not use unless it breaks. anyway, I guess I should count my blessings that most of my gear is still functioning properly.

studio desk 2

2008-10-30T11:05:00.002-04:00

Room Divider: part 2

ok, still struggling to get my home studio into shape. However, after much thought I decided that the best way to use this room divideer was to remove the legs and mount it to the wall. TO my suprise this was the right idea. It removed sound reflections from my amps and seems to have improved my guitar sounds a lot. SO that worked out well, though I had to use a drill to get this done and it was tricky as I was only one person to mount the 5x6 room divider to the wall. IT nicely covered a window (at least for the winter) and now that it is up, I hardly see it Its not in the way and it really makes a difference. Now, I also had to move a seris of small shelves which held soem cd masters and software discs. SO that was easy enough to do, so I mounted to a different wall in the studio room. Thsi was not simole at all to try to get it to be level for one and I had to use quite a few supporting screws. But it worked well!!! So for $20.00 and some work, I really improved my sound and the studio looks better as well. In the summer, I will take down the room divider and put in the window air conditioner, but we will see about that later.

Audio Studio Desk & Speaker Stands

While I really like the $2000 ready made audio studio desk with built in racks, the $2k price tag is jsut not for me. If I had $2k to invest in my studio, it would be in gear not the audio desk. So I scratched that idea. However, visiting a thrift store, I found a desk made out of wood which was just the right size and it was $25.00. It has a nice shape, looks quite modern shape wise and the maple color, is solid and looks fairly new . Now this is more like it. I went home , measured and then got into my trusty 82' minivan which I use for hauling things,etc.. and got the desk. It's nice and sturdy and looks like maple. So, I got it into my studio room. Perfect, except for one thing. Do I keep my studio monitors on speaker stands? or not? Truth is, the speaker stands are a bit too high and with foam under the speaker to mute vibrations; the speaker seems a bit at risk of falling off and these are my Mackie hr824's at about $1300.00 pr, so I dont want to take a risk. On the desk they seem safer , more secure. On the other hand to have them on stands and out of the way leaves a lot of room for other gear. Well, I will try it both ways, but in a way the stand s might look nice, but they are a bit dangerous for the mackies I would think. Perhaps I would put the mackies on the desk and a different pair of monitors on stands later? Just not sure yet, still working this out. Also, positioning the desk is trial and errror (more on this later). Though ,wow, how nice to have a place to put some of this extra gear that was laying around.

2008-10-18T03:10:00.003-04:00

Backup hard drives
One would think that 2 500 GB ext usb2.0 drives each with the same data would be quite secure as a backup. However, this is not the case at all. In fact, a few weeks ago my 2 drives both took a fall from the top of a minitower case to their untimely death. On both drives: bad heads, motors seized up and damaged platters = an expensive recovery service. As many of my albums and recordings from 1998 and on were stored on these drives, recovery was the only solution or those albums would be lost forever (at least the masters, some mp3 copies of some of the albums remained but with inferior quality). So, for a week I researched and got quotes on data recovery services. It is horribly expensive with an average recovery at about $1400.00-3500.00. A physically damaged drive requires a clean room to be recovered which is an expensive as well. Finally, I discovered low cost data recovery in CA and they could do it for $649.00 if the data was recoverable at all. So, I sent them both drives and I am glad I did as they said I was extremely lucky to have 2 drives with the same data. As a result, they were able to recover 220 GB of data, that’s was everything except ten files!!! I highly recommend them as they were first rate and low cost and did a great job, miraculous really.
SO, I got the drive data back on an Iomega terabyte drive I had purchased for this purpose (as I already had one and figured this would be a good backup as well). I copied the data on to my other terabyte drive. I also received the 2 500 GB drives back and as they are in warranty, I will send them in for replacement. The 1terrabyte Iomega drives cost about $200each, but hopefully these will last.
Conclusion, backup your stuff and not just on hard drives, but on to DVD’s!!! It's a pain in the ass, but it will be well worth while. I will never go through that again as my backup behavior has changed for the better. In fact, I should have known that I have music and data I created from 1990 which still exists on cd-r's and the hard drives have long since died or have been replaced. Having DVD’s with a 50 year shelf life (my neighbor informed me) make it a worthwhile backup medium. For a hard drive, its not if it will fail, but when will it fail.

Rackmount Case PC
As a result of my drives falling from my minitower and sick of having my pc on the floor, I ordered a Rackmount pc case. It was a 4 sp Rackmount case with 6 drive bays int, 3 5.25" ext bays and 1 3.5" and space for 2 power supplies and packed with fans. The cost of the case was about $50.00 which for new is quiet inexpensive. It's nice, with a locking door where the ext drive bays are. Though the fans aren’t that great, they pretty quiet ,but in an audio "home" studio you ant it to be as quiet as you can, so this will require replacing all the fans, the power supply and the cpu fan as well. But a silent fan is about $6-7 bucks. So not bad really.
One other flaw I discovered later was that while the case is 19" like most rackmount gear, the specs for the width of rackmount music gear and computer gear are comp0letely different. For instance, this case is 23" in depth which is huge really and is pretty standard for PC rackmount servers. However, most music gear is much smaller, with most racks dealing with up to maybe 19" or less cases. In fact, a lot of music rack ear is only about 14" in depth!!! So the choices are this:

1) Use existing case at 23" with about 5" hanging out the back of the rack case. This would not work if this was for portable use. However, in a studio the rack is not going to move form its current location and even if the case hangs out the back, so what?! Who cares? The front will still be accessible and what people will see.
2) On the market, I found a 4sp rackmount PC case with a depth of 18.5" instead of 23", much better, but more cost at $80 without power supply.
3) I also found a 2 sp rackmount PC case with an amazing 13.9" depth. Perfect, but all your pci cards will be on risers and your power supply will be proprietary and you only get 1 5.25" bay ext and 2 3.5" bays int, so 2 hard drives and that’s it. That kind of sucks for a studio pc where you need DVD drives, cd-r drives, etc.I need at least 3 .But for portability it’s really cool, oh did I mention the price? About $213 without power supply. So you pay for a small depth.
So for studio use, this rackmount pc will do ok. its more quiet than my minitower and looks cool and I can mount it in a rack where its out of the way, off the floor and accessible, sweet!!

Audio Desk Furniture
I seem to be consumed by this idea of a new studio desk/console for my studio. I think this stems from the fact that I keep my monitors on some speaker stands and it just doesn’t seem safe for the equipment. I mean the stands a re sturdy, but why tempt fate. Also, for the design I want which is quite classic, I found a company who makes something similar but for $2k. I am at the point where I know for a fact that this could be built for $200 maybe $300bucks. In fact, I am on the verge of doing this myself. I just add a countertop on some prebuilt rack cases and go form there. I mean the $2k desk, at least 1/2 that must be there profit. Wow, I should build some of these and sell them as there really isn’t anything out there that is similar at a reasonable price and for $200-300; you get a tiny desk which just won’t work for me. I have 3 vs. digital recorders I need access to as well as 2 adat recorders and add to that 2 laptops and a couple of control surfaces (with moving faders cool!!), my desk console just is too small and cramped.
I have struggled with this for years. There just isn’t much studio furniture out there, especially not locally which is a shame. So, I learned to make due with a spray painted microwave cart which holds a pc and some other rack gear and it works just fine. Anyway, as most would, I want a good looking studio environment but without paying obscene prices for furniture when it could be invested in gear and stuff that makes your recordings better, but I think if you build it yourself, you can do it cheaply and get what you want.

Alesis adat blackface and adat XT
These are coolest "obsolete" digital recorders out there. I recall when each was about $3500.00 and now I got 2 recently for less than $150.00!?! Amazing, one must consider that digital gear is never really obsolete. In fact, I suddenly have added 16 a/d and d/converters to my studio in that each adat has 8in's and 8outs and I can run that into cubase or sonar via adat optical light pipe. Very cool!!! And inexpensive way to get 16 a/d converters!! Luckily the emu 1202m has 8ch's of adat and the ext box has another 8 for a total of 16 ,plus its own inputs and out puts. So with the three vs's and the adats and the emu card, that's almsot 48 in/outs!! Wow!! Though the VS digitally can transfer about 2 ch. at one time, so that would be closer to about 24 in/out a/d.
The darn adat optical cable is expensive for a cable, at least $25.00 for three feet?! Locally. So mail-order I found closer to twelve feet for $1.99!! Well, its more if you put the adats in a rack not near your console then you will need a long adat optical cable. Well, this brings me to that desk I have wanted to build. It would be nice. Oh yeah, the adats can sync with my Roland recorders as well. Wow, I want more of these, the black face is limited to 48k 16 bit, but the 20 and xl have 20 bit, something like that.

Audio recording studio Ideas

2008-10-17T10:49:00.006-04:00

Room Divider

Ok, I often look for common furniture that would work well as part of my audio recording studio. Well, this leads me to look in thrift stores, used furniture stores, goodwillls,etc...On this particular occasion, I was looking around and came upon a room divider, an office sectional if you will. It was $19.99 and it was really in great condition. It had a steel frame painted light gray and two steel "feet" to keep it upright. It had carpeting on each side which was spotless in light grey as well. It didn't seem that big in the store, but this goodwill was quite large (and in fact I was amazed at the size after I got it home). Well, it didn't take long before I was thinking of applications for this room divider for my home studio. As I record in stereo live, I often have wanted something like a room divider to isolate each guitar amplifier, I use 2, so I thought this would work well. Also, it would work really against a wall to remove early reflections .In fact, it could even be mounted on the a ceiling for acoustic purposes (though this would be quite a task because of its size).

Well, for $19.99,I had nothing to lose, so I bought it without thinking of how to get it home. I have a mini van and I use it for purposes such as this. I discovered that even in the mini van it would barely fit. SO I got it in the van with the back doors open and slowly made my way home. When I got it in my living room I thought I had made a mistake and how terrible that I would have to return it (meaning I would have to reload it in the van yuk). However, just to try I moved it into the studio room. But, not before I fixed the legs so that it would stand up straight. The thing was huge, a good 7ft high and 6-ft wide. However, in my studio room, it suddenly took a life of its own and fit perfectly. I realized that it would be perfect against a wall ,especially one with a window, and it is opposite my guitar amps so it Will absorb many of the sound wave rather than reflecting them. Also, at any time I can use it to divide the amps so that each microphone picks up only one amp.

I want the room divider to be able to divide the room so that each microphone picks up the sound from only one amp for an important reason. I played a concert in 2005 which was professionally recorder and the mics they used , as well as the space between the amps, gave a lot of separation. The result was a really pleasing ping pong effect when I used delays that would pan left and right, with sound coming out sometimes on the left amp and sometimes on the right and the stereo separation worked. SO, I want recreate this in a much smaller room. If anything, the $19.99 was well spent as it will enhance my studio room acoustically and also allow me to enhance my recordings hopefully by providing separation of my guitar amps.

2-room studio

this also brought up an idea of putting my amps in another room. Ideally this would work well, however, I would then need some monitors to continue playing in my studio room (so I can hear what I am doing). However, I did think that a studio snake would make this possible. a Studio snake is a bunch of cables wrapped together into one cable that then attach to a box that has xlr and 1/4" jacks. So if I did put amps in the other room I could do it neatly. However, for pedalboards that I use, I would not be able to use the pedalboards in the studio room without very long cable. In any case, When I play , I do like having the actual amps in the same room. I will experiment and see how it works out. The mics I use for the guitar amps are so close to the amps that they don't really pickup too much ambient noise anyway.

Studio Furniture
The studio console is must in any studio, even a home studio. It is where I mix, edit and master my recordings. My desk is quite small and is a standard computer desk. It works perfectly for me as it holds 2 digital recorders,PC, monitor and so on. however, I seem to have outgrown it. I have my mackie monitor speakers on speaker stands and this makes me quite nervous as they were expensive and the speaker stands don't seem to sturdy. My computer desk just doesn't have space for them as I use 2 monitors which takes up most of the desk space. I wish my desk was longer and that it had 2 rack units on the desktop that I could put my monitor speakers on. So , I looked into upgrading and I was quite astonished at the prices of studio furniture. In fact, I found the desk I would have loved to have and would fit well, but it had a price between $1500-2500.00 .It is quite expensive, especially when this is money that could be put toward gear haha. Ok, well, truth be known ,if one was handy, it would not take much to build something similar for $200-300.00. However, I have a fear of power tools, well , I just would like to keep all of my fingers. So this is a dilemma. In fact, for rack cases that sell anywhere form $88-400.00, it would be easy to build one for $20-50.00 . So I am toying with this idea.

DGUITAR.COM Denis releases 110th album

2008-09-08T17:15:00.000-04:00

DTguitar.com, Denis releases 110th album jut in time to get the CD on this year Grammy(C) list from which Grammmy /nominee's are chosen. This will be his 6th year participating in the music awards. Htpp://www.dtguitar.com