Tuesday, December 30, 2008

year end audio studio house keeping

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 mode
ling 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!!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

vintage vs modern for recording

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!!!........

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Mic Pre amps and Modern ROck Guitar Vol.131

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!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

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


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 s
ometime 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 mi
c 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.





Friday, December 12, 2008

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

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


Monday, December 8, 2008

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

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.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Used Gear Discovery's and guitar playing/recording

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

Friday, December 5, 2008

Finding your CD, Used studio Gear Bargains and more

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

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.