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

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.