Never properly introduced myself...

[sonicolonic]

Hey folks!

New to the forums so I thought I'd post an intro.

I'm a 27 year old full-time line cook, I've been playing drums since I was 9, trumpet since 10, guitar/bass since 12, bass seriously since 19. I studied drums with a private teacher for about 7 or 8 years and did trumpet through school. I got to take a couple of intro music and composition courses in high school, interned at a recording studio for a semester, and attempted to study Recording Engineering at MTSU. I also first heard of Linux in high school as well. Almost immediately I started building a sweet K6-3 RedHat 5.2 recording rig. I got part-way there and the head gasket on my car blew so I replaced that and never returned to the project. I got back into the game financially a couple of years ago and have been collecting the bits and pieces when I could. Unfortunately, I've been hindered for the past 7 or 8 years by living situations that either don't allow for music playing, or are so short-lived they don't allow for unpacking. So, as a musician and amateur recording engineer, I've been painfully unproductive. I played in a classic rock cover band with some friends off and on for a few years. Mostly, I've been doing homework, studying forums, researching gear, and visualizing a plan.

Right now, my folks (who are awesome music lovers and musicians themselves) are letting me use most of their finished basement for a recording/practice space. Right now, I've got 90% of my gear there. Drums are all mic'd into the mixer for easy application to whatever recorder I happen to be borrowing at the time, mainly a 2-track 8-channel digital tascam tracking machine, or a fostex 4-track casette machine. Supremely disappointing given my current resources. Once I get a new interface, hopefully this space will gel into a functional space. I have room in my apartment to turn into a mixing space when the time comes. The one track I managed to produce the only other time I had all of my gear set up came out pretty good for a copy-cat recording in an untreated basement and basically no experience and very little polishing or retakes. I offer it for listening displeasure via myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/sonicolonic which is where I keep some rough drafts I've collected. The track I'm talking about is the cover of Back to Basom by Ween. Everything else was done in a less recent context. I apologize for myspace quality, but you'll get the idea. Actually, to back-pedal a second, I've done a little bit of tweaking since this version, reigne dthe bass a bit, changed compression and effects, who's knows what else.

My goal is to grow my project/hobby studio into my own small recording business. I know I'll never be the best engineer in the world, but if I was good enough to make a living from it I would be happier than I am now, and I'll be proud to have done it my way. How am I going to achieve my goal? Steady pursuit of the studio as a creative vision, making informed and relevant gear buying decisions, taking planned and logical steps, and gaining tons of experience through self-promotion and networking!

Here's my rig for reference.

Instruments
-Gretsch 5-piece birch catalina kit, double bass pedal, cheap sabian B8's
-My first beat-to-pieces no name 4 piece drum kit (the 5th piece literally fell apart)
-Squire Strat, Korean, SSH, rosewood fretboard, Floyd Rose double-locking tremelo, prototype model?
-Kramer Fretless Aluminum Neck DMZ5000 bass (serial # within 500 of my dad's fretted!!)
-New Vintage Signature Handmade Bass, Swamp Ash body, natural finish, nosewood fretboard, red tortoise shell pick guard, chrome pick-up and bridge covers (usually off)
-OLP MM-clone
-Marlboro 562A 2x12" amp, w/Carvin Vintage 12s
-Roland Blues Cube 30 w/Celestion GT75-T
-A.M.P. BH-420 bass amp
-Avatar Neo 1x15" bass cab @ 8ohms
-Avatar Older 2x10" bass cab @ 8ohms
-Lyle Archtop/Acoustic/Electric circa 1960's (a well preserved toy)
-Homemade cigar-box style hobo slide guitar
-Benge trumpet
-Doumbek
-6" Remo talking drum
-Also at my disposal are a number of chord organs, a flute, recorder, regular/toy/circuit-bent keyboards, leslie, etc.

Computer
-under constructions... yes plural. I built one ok system that didn't work well with my old interface (SeaSound Solo Ex plus Expander) so we'll see how a new interface does. Hopefully this'll turn into my tracking machine, and I can built myself a nicer mixing rig. Unfortunately, the mixing rig will also double as my daily user.
-will be using 64studio and ardour mainly

DAW
-workin on it... looking for an RME Multiface.
-RCA to 1/4" patchbay for home stereo implementation (Marantz 2270 receiver, SAE mark XI speakers)
-KRK VXT4 monitors
-Allen and Heath SR-12 plus

Mic Cabinet
-Shure SM58
-Audix OM-2 (repaired)
-Radio Shack, the more expensive of their offerings
-2 old shotgun mics, mix-matched EVs
-1 metal bullet syle mic, came with reel-to-reel deck
-Shure Unidyne-B, w/gooseneck & momentary switch (can you say, talkback mic?)
-Studio Projects C3
-the following were in a package deal on ebay:
-Audix fusion 6 drum mic pack
-Rode nt1a
-Audio Technica AE5100
-MXL 990
-Sennheiser e822s

Forthcoming
(In development, in this order)
-2x Yamaha m1516 mic pres
-2x Yamaha pm1000 mic pres
-2x Yamaha pm700 mic pres


Kudos if you actually read that, I appreciate it. Drop a line if you want to talk gear or Linux or whatever. Peace!

~Brian

[sonicolonic]

PS ~ that recording was done by a friend and myself. After 2 or 3 attempts to produce the song for fun, we decided to start over from scratch and retrack the whole thing as a more serious excersize with my full setup. Tracked in a day, probably got to this point messing around every once in a while for 2 weeks. I am aware for issues regarding talent and tempo, noise floor, metronome, etc... but can you find the drum fill I edited back into time? A wav version is on my streaming media server... not sure if it works though.

http://radio:head@heres.myftp.org:8000/ ... om.wav.m3u

[autostatic]

A belated welcome sonicolonic.
And yes, I read it all!
Ween is cool, got "God, Ween, Satan" lying around here somewhere.

[studio32]

Mhh I'm thinking about learning trumphet too... Great instrument

[sonicolonic]

Thanks AutoStatic... it's nice to find someone with enough time to read my long-winded posts. I'm about to go make another right now actually.

I like Ween's live recordings more than their earlier studio albums, but I think their more recent stuff, when they started writing with the full band, made for more cohesive recordings. I can see the potential in those early albums, but sonically it's disappointing (in retrospect, had I heard them when they first came out, I might've been more forward thinking and those might've been my favorite albums because of the potential).

Studio32: I haven't tried recording myself with trumpet yet but I have a few tunes I'm going to try once I'm operational, The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down by The Band, Let It Die by Feist, and Life in a Glass House by Radiohead, and also if I get some friends (ie. horns) in the studio, National Anthem by Radiohead. I suppose a Cake song might in order as well or some jazz tracks which would give me an excuse to learn jazz guitar/bass. Trumpet is more fun the once a year I pick it up than it was when I was learning. I've grown a lot musically since studying trumpet and have a very diferent approach than I used to. I feel much more free when playing now, instead of feeling locked in the mechanics of the instrument. Also, it's the only monophonic instrument I play.

I can't wait!

~Brian

[studio32]

Life in a Glass House by Radiohead

Wow, great song!

Any tips for starting to play trumphet?

[sonicolonic]

First off, don't get discouraged. It takes a lot of strength to play trumpet, between your breathing and your embouchure. Your lips/mouth/face will get sore at first bbecause you're using muscles you've probably never used like this before. Once you get a trumpet, start by just making noise on the mouthpiece. It'll sound like a duck call. Try moving throughout your range or playing some simple melodies on the mouthpiece first. You probably won't be able to quite get it to pitch, but you should be able to get close. The rest of the instrument helps you focus that sound by resonating and amplifying that duck call sound you're making. Work on getting a good tone out of the horn. With trumpet, you kinda need to be able to sing them note before you play it, so practice singing melodies (but note the key difference I mention below) of whatever material you're practicing with.

You should be able to find some resource online to learn the fingerings for different notes, practice your scales and whatnot, pay attention to your attack and breath support. Oil your valves occaisionally or if they start to stick, empty your spit valve if/before it starts to cut out the sound. Trumpet is a Bb instrument, so if you play along with guitar or piano or another C instrument, you'll be a whole step higher than them (trumpet C = Concert Bb).

There are some good books out there. They range from the Breeze-Easy line of music books for beginners which if you have musical training already you will breeze through,to the Arban's book, which is basically the trumpet bible which you could devote a lifetime studying that book and never master it. My advice with literature is before you purchase it (hopefully at a store so you can flip through it) seek to understand what it is trying to accomplish and assess how it may or may not help you meet your goals.

Hope that helps! Any questions feel free to ask.

I just learned Life in a Glass House on guitar/vox. I like how big the chorus is but I was thinking about simplifying the verse a bit. I've got a friend who can play clarinet or sax on it, I'll play some trumpet and maybe try to pick-up my brother's trombone or get my hands on a baritone tuba. I've a keyboard/midi controller at my disposal and could probably handle the piano part but I'm thinking about just doing that on guitar. This'll be an excuse to get my dads upright bass into the studio as well... maybe. Might string out the end too if the horns are feelin it. I've got the drums close mic'd right now but I depending on who shows up I might go for the room sound, make it sound more open like the original, if we can get good balance.

~Brian

[prem123]

Thanks for this post and welcome to the forum! I am very glad to become a member of this community and hope you will enjoy here.