I recorded this in the summer of 2004. If it sounds a little sloppy, it's because it was a bit rushed; I was working long hours (shingling roofs, not recording), and I had to get this done, squeezing all my spare time into this project. It only took a few days, actually. I know it's not that great of a recording, and I've done better ones since then. However, at the time, it was the best I'd ever done and still remains one of my finest compositions. In case you haven't figured it out, I am proud of this piece.

This remix was done using Reaper, mainly as a way to ease the software's learning curve by not having to worry about writing and recording something new. I guess you could say I was trying to use it as a turd-polishing kit.

As a way of playing around with, and getting used to Reaper, I'm currently remixing an old favourite of mine. "Amethyst Dawn" was recorded on 4-track cassette in 2004. One by one I am transferring each track of tape into the DAW. Originally I had mixed down to 2-track tape and then made a digital copy.

Today I signed up for PodcastMachine.com. This is my first upload. My daughter and I wrote a song together. She was 8 at the time. I recorded this version with no lead vocal track so that she can practice with her karaoke machine. So far, the best-sounding recording I've made. Also it's my first all digital recording, though some of the drum samples are from analog sources (hence the vinyl crackle).

I'm enjoying a bit of a vacation at the moment.  My wife is in Mexico until the 10th, and so while the kids are asleep or absent, I can spend all my time in my studio if I want to.  And believe me, I want to.  I'm not playing guitar or writing music, or recording anything I've written; I'm getting some Digilog™ vinyl ready to take on the road.  I'm thinking an 80-minute metal compilation is a good idea.  i'm ripping a few Manowar tunes as I type this.  There are only a couple of really epic tunes on their first album; other than that, I'm going to use the best songs from other metal compilations.

I haven't blogged for quite some time, so I've got plenty to talk about.  First of all, my studio has gone from Digilog™, to all analog, and back to Digilog™ again; I've dabbled with DAWs, but so far nothing serious.  The biggest change in my life right now is that I've put in my notice at the café and will be starting my career as an Electrical Apprentice next month.  I'll be on the road a lot, so I intend to get as many Digilog™ LPs burned as I can before then.  Today I started and finished Scorpions' Blackout, and at this very moment I'm ripping Thin LIzzy's Black Rose: A Rock Legend, though it may need a bit more treble. 

Thanks to a generous donation from a good ol' friend, I now have a computer again.  He gave be his old motherboard, CPU, a little extra RAM, and a graphics card.  Now that I'm using my TASCAM 564*as an EQ, my Digilog™ LPs sound better than ever.


*I still haven't gotten it repaired. :(

Did I mention my "drums"?
So, years ago I bought one of those toy electronic drum pad things at a thrift shop.  My intention then was to take out the loudspeaker and replace it with a 1/4" mono jack, so I could use a guitar cable to run it into the four-track.  I finally got around to doing this a couple weeks ago.  It works, but it's noisy and some of the drum sounds are far louder than others.  So I plugged it into the Digitech pedal, and played around with the compression and noise gate, so I can get a decent input level.  There's still a slight noise problem, but other instrument sounds should probably mask it in the mix.  Besides, these "drums" are a supplement to the Digitech's built in patterns, not a flat-out replacement.  If I want to say, switch to half-time, I'll just play along on the drum pad, and then take out the Digitech pattern during mixdown.  Any step towards increasing the dynamic range of my recordings is a good one, even for the lowest-fi.

Okay, so that experiment from last night?  I tried it again, using a reference CD, and I mixed it down to a lossy digital format.  I'll use it to practice along with to avoid extra wear on the tape, as I have one more track to record on this tape before I mix it down for real.

More Experimentation (with mixdown)
A moment ago, I did a quick experiment to see if I could improve the mix of an extremely lo-fi four-track cassette recording (of an absolutely epic new song by The Anderson Council).  First I plugged my headset into the TASCAM Porta07 on which it was recorded, and dialed in the best mix I could get with no processing of any kind.  Then I ran the line out into two of the mic/line inputs of the TASCAM 244, and did some additional EQ.  I patched the Digitech RP300 guitar processor into the effect send of the 244.  I set up some compression and a noise gate*, and just for fun I threw in a little reverb.  Not surprisingly (to me, anyway), the mix sounded far better this way than by just running the processor through the Porta07.  This was just a quick experiment to see how it sounded.  I did not record the mix to two-track, because I'm too tired tonight.  Besides, I wasn't using a audio reference.

By the way, I know that a guitar effects pedal is not the greatest thing to use for mixes, but this is lo-fi.  Besides, I 'm using the best gear that I have right now.


*I leave the DBX turned off, or else it sounds like crap.  A gate is the way to go.

Wikipedia,org's article on Lo-Fi recording.

Which leads to this one on Cassette Culture.

Recording, Planning, Re-recording

A favourite recording blog of mine has advised against the "write as you record" approach.  I however, must defend this way of doing things.  You see, I know that anything I write as I record is not going to be a usable, final product; nor is it a waste of tape (I've mentioned I still use tape, right?).  This is what I call a "pre-demo", and is absolutely critical to my creative methods at this point in time.  I need mistakes to learn from, and I need to get the idea down on tape in order to plan a re-recording of the same song.  

Once I have my pre-demo tape, I can take a step back and think about how I'm going to arrange the next recording.  During my break at work today, I took out my notebook, and drew a flow chart depicting which tracks would be on the first tape, then bounced to the second and so on.

One advantage of having a 4-track running at standard tape speed is that once I bounce to another tape (standard 2-track deck), I don't need to bounce  back; I just move the 2-track tape into 4-track and top it up.  Lately though, I have come to realize that my decks need to be cleaned and demagnetized.  I have ordered a demagnetizer and some cleaning fluid online, but I still wish to record in the meantime, at least just for practice.  I'll still get a nasty-sounding tape in the end, but it's all to gain experience points. 

Stuff happens.

After four weeks of anxious waiting, I finally received my TASCAM 564 Digital Portastudio.  Exciting!!!  But alas, it does not work.  It is an expensive piece of garbage.  Well, the mixer works, but it will not record; the same problem I have with my old TASCAM 244 Portastudio.  Basically I replaced my old junk with newer junk.  Hopefully someone in town can repair the darn thing, as I had big, ambitious plans for that thing.  I want my recordings to sound as good as they can with my low budget, and until it was delivered I had thought the 564 to be my own personal saviour.  Grrrr...

Now, the bright side:  The 564 mixer has a much cleaner sound than the dirty old 244.  Also, I have opened a Paypal dispute which will escalate to a claim if not settled soon.  I want my money back, so maybe I can put it towards a repair job, or different gear, or whatever. 

Perhaps The Anderson Council (The Greatest Band I Have Ever Played In) is destined for low-fi.  If so, I will not stop striving for greatness.

Despite my short sleep last night, today was a very good day. After work, I came home and had quite some time to myself. I got cleaned up, got some chores done, listened to Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies CD (while copying it to tape just to check whether or not the input level was suitable), and even constructed a Snowbot. After that, I sat in front of the computer and sampled some rökken drumbeats while my hot wife cooked my dinner. Later on, I grabbed a 2-for-1 deal on some DQ Blizzards. As if that wasn't enough fun for one day, I then set up a myspace accountfor the purpose of uploading some of my recordings.

http://www.myspace.com/villainsdeeds

Gratitude Helps, but Something's Got to Give

When there's no time to actually be in the studio, I have a chance to brainstorm ideas to put into practice when I do get around to it. That's the nice thing about working a mindless job. And, if household chores are getting done, nobody really complains.

That being said, it gets frustrating when a few days (or more) go by in which I don't have time, or am just too tired to enjoy my hobby. Eventually, I have to pull an all-nighter just to get my latest project halfway done. I'm not complaining, of course. I've had nearly four solid hours of sleep, and my tape doesn't sound too bad.

Sleep is for wimps! At least that's what I tell myself when I've had a lot of coffee, and keep myself occupied in the studio. Anyone who has both a family and a home studio knows that you get your best results when everyone is either asleep or out of the house (the latter is preferred if you don't want to wake them up). It's about 2:00am, and I just finished laying down some tracks.

The Song
Several years ago I composed and recorded an instrumetal piece entitled "Amethyst Dawn". It's sort of a power ballad without words, all dynamic and stuff. Everyone who's heard this tune has said nice things about it, and it is a good composition. However, the tape (recorded on the modified TASCAM Porta07 in the previous post) sounds like crap. I'm re-recording it right now (working title: "A.D. 2010") on the same 4-track machine as the original version, and it sounds much better now; it just goes to show how much I've learned in the last few years.

The Gear
On the original recording (done in a different house than the one I live in now), I recorded the first track, an acoustic guitar, by taping a mic to the inside of the instrument (Jimmy Page once told an interviewer that he tried this on one track but didn't like the result; I tried it anyway). The mic was plugged into my Digitech RP300 guitar processor with delay and chorus. On the new version I still use the mic inside the guitar (though I've upgraded from duct tape to velcro). Additionally I use 2 external mics, one close, and one for room sound (which means sometimes having to wait for the furnace to stop blowing here in the Great White North). All of these were plugged into the TASCAM 244 Portastudio, which is the best mixer I have, though the tape deck no longer works. I patched in the RP300 through the mixer, and ran the deck's line out to the Porta07, and recorded the part onto 2 tracks with stereo delay. As a lark, I added another stereo track of percussive sounds by tapping my guitar with fingers and a pick (the original had no percussion). The original was the complete song on just 4 tracks, all guitar parts. Since All 4 tracks are spoken for, I will have to do some bouncing next. Since my computer died, I'm going to bounce to tape this time, though I might try it with the line-in recording feature on my mp3 player (quite lossy). For the song "Eternal" which I wrote and recorded for my wife during the summer of 2007, I bounced to .wav file, then back to tape to add more tracks.

The Future
I've purchased a TASCAM 564 Digital Portastudio (made in the 90s, uses minidisc) online recently, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. Until then, I'm practicing with my crappy little tape deck (which sounds a lot less crappy running the other mixer into it). Maybe I'll rerecord the same stuff again from scratch, or maybe I'll bounce this latest tape to disc and finish the song in a digital format. Either way, here's to the future: May 2010 be my best year yet.

A lot has happened since my last post (not that anyone will ever read my blog). Most recently, I had to help my punk rock diva of an 8 year old daughter to write and record an original song. As I hadn't done a serious studio project in a couple of years, I was more than just a little excited to help out.
Now, let's talk about some of my gear: I have an ancient Tascam 244, and a Tascam Porta07; both of which are 4-track tape decks @ 3 3/4 ips. Several years ago a friend of mine repaired a loose connection in the power supply area of the Porta07. For some reason, he also decided to replace a belt or something, and now it plays at slightly lower than 1 7/8 ips (which can be corrected with the pitch knob. I was pretty pissed off at first about cutting my recording quality in half, though it can be fun using this modified deck to mix effects onto normal cassette albums, and even play them backwards.
Anyway, the loss of recording quality was the reason I went out and bought the 244, which worked very well, other than having some dirty pots (I have to fiddle with the monitor level a lot as it cuts out a lot, and I like to hear what I'm playing. This can mess up an otherwise good take since I have to take one hand away from my instrument while playing. 2 1/2 years ago, I was recording a very important song, for a very important person, when Track 1 on the 244 stopped working properly. The input worked fine, but anything captured onto that track was a lost cause. The only way to get something onto Track 1 was to play it backwards onto Track 4 and then flip the tape over.
Back to my daughter's recent project: For years I had been used to the problems with both of my 4-track machines, and I was coping well enough. Then after I had about half of the song recorded using the 244, I think I finally lost the belt on that one. The motor still runs to fast-forward and rewind the tape, but it will no longer drive thing to play or record. I had to get out the Porta07 (borrowing back the power supply cable that I gave to my diva for her CD player), and restart from scratch at 1 7/8 ips.
Hard work pays off, however. My girl loves how her song turned out, and I am proud to have done it for her. Now, should I give her plug back? I'm sure she'll ask for it when she tries to play a CD in her room.

internet radio that gets you

internet radio that gets you

Tardcore Link!!!

This is a link to a publicity photo of Cheap Trick. Note the heading: "The Beatles Picture". Tardcore!!!

http://music.ign.com/dor/objects/571208/the-beatles/images/the-beatles-20081017063110471.html

I'm actually bored enough to post on here for the first time in over a year. Hmmm, lets see: I've recently seen Alice Cooper in concert for the second time (the first time being 9 years and 9 days before that), and the show was even better this time. I had a dream in which King Diamond was going to take me out for dinner; he had to take a piss, and I never saw him again. I got married in August of last year, and wrote/arranged/recorded a rocking hit song for my bride. Between that and working fulltime, I barely had time to breathe.

The recording process was a lot of fun, since I was doing it out of love. It was also very stressful, as I had a deadline. I had to have the recording finished, mixed, and burned to CD, with a label and cover art; and it all had to be done before my wedding day, which is when the gift was to be presented. Anyway, it got done, she loved it, and I was exhausted and proud.

This project, entitled "Eternal", led to new developments in digilog recording, which I am currently employing. I record my tracks on tape, transfer each one to the hard disk, and then use Audacity to mix them. It's a happy medium between both worlds; 4-track being too limiting, and all-digital being unfeasible due to inadequate equipment.

It's actually a technique I hadn't tried until more recently than "Eternal". On that one, I would fill up four tracks of tape, bounce them down to a stereo digital track, then copy it back onto two tracks of tape, add two more tracks, and repeat this process until finished. The result: A great song which sounds, well... not very good. With the newer process (actually a higher-tech, higher-fidelity version of the same process), I can record the signal from the guitar or mic onto two or three (or four) simultaneous tracks of tape, to combine them into one digital track. This way, it sounds twice as good as using just one tape track. I still bounce back to the tape deck, but only so I can add more tracks. All of the mixing is now done with Audacity.

Audacity is free. Audacity is good. Download Audacity.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I just found out from Ronnie James Dio's official website, that Black Sabbath has changed their name for the first time in close to 40 years. Wow. I'm guessing the reason for this is that Ozzy fans are dumb and easily confused.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that Tony and Geezer can't stand hearing Ron sing the older material, it's "too gothic" (that's what happens when you write gothic songs, guys!). So, if they still called themselves Black Sabbath, they'd have to perform "War Pigs" with Dio.