The Musician's Room: What's New?
12/31/2011 I've found a solution to the mobile issue. Back on the main page (index.html) I've planted a link to a new menu page that works with mobile devices. We are back to having dual portals to the site until I implement something else, but at least formatting will be reasonable, eh? Let's put a link on the main menu as well, ok?
12/29/2011 If you are on an iPhone or iPad and have gotten this far, you are persistant!!! My lovely wife gave me an iPad for Christmas and I've noticed that the screen formatting is a wee bit off in Safari. I've tried Opera and found thigs to be better but let's say I'm working on things, OK?
Christmas 2010 at the Womack Hacienda
12/16/2011 My production year at the studio is over and I'm on stay-cation with my lovely wife, the family, the dogs, and my guitar! May the Lord richly bless your holiday season!!!
12/03/2011 The lights are up! Have a lovely Christmas and Hanukkah season!!! Oh, and try to avoid all the stress!
12/01/2011 If I may, without going commercial, I'd like to draw the attention of iPhone and iPad users to the This Day in Pink Floyd app now available in the app store. As a somewhat reluctant Floyd fan, I'm finding it fascinating and quite fun. The app offers a daily dose of Pink Floyd history (which I love), a selection of trivia, a quiz, an unreleased video, extensive song and album notes that coordinate with your iTunes library so you can listen and read, wallpapers, a ring tone (the lovely intro guitar notes from Shine On, naturally and finally), and internet links to all things Floyd. It's nicely executed and there's lots of stuff that will keep you busy for hours and make it well worth the $2.99US or £1.99 gate fee. Click the vid for a Youtube intro to the app.
11/30/2011 I've updated the review of the Taylor 354ce 12-String after some excellent warranty service on the case from Taylor and my local dealer, Alpha Music, in Virginia Beach, VA. Look HERE for my review. The update is at the bottom.
11/07/2011 I've been looking for a 12-string guitar to record. After a year of shopping I've found one that seems to fill the bill well. Look HERE for my review.
11/02/2011 Today I recorded the vocals and and mixed the main outro theme, a vocal song, for a syndicated television show that will be playing internationally. Although it was a pop song, I worked with a classically-trained soprano who fell right into the pop style, performed marvelously, and took directions extremely well. It is a pleasure to work with pleasant people, no?
11/01/2011 Tonight I miss Larry Norman and Mark Heard. Honk if you remember them.
10/30/2011 After participating in several workshops at the Audio Engineering Society Convention, I thought I might pass on some thoughts on a subject that was making the rounds there: dynamics managment. You can find my discussion of that subject HERE.
"That was GREAT! But give me just one more take..."
10/24/2011 Returned last night from New York and the Audio Engineering Society Convention. It was a great weekend where I learned and experienced a lot! While out wandering Times Square, I came across the building pictured above. This building was the center of the music business in New York for fifty years. It was a one stop shopping location for everything music: labels, songwriters, publishing companies, recording studios, agents. Many of the songwriters working there went on to careers as performers, such as Paul Simon and Carole King. My company actually had a studio there for several years. One wonders how many songs got their start there?
10/18/2011 Preparing to go to the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York this weekend. I attended my first AES convention at the New York Hilton Convention Center (pictured above) in 1983. Boys, a lot has changed since then...
10/04/2011 P.A. afficianados may enjoy seeing what it takes to put together the audio portion of a large live/televised musical event. You can look HERE to see my write-up of a large event that I just finished.
09/21/2011 After ten years of trying various gauges, two weeks ago I dropped down the string gauge on my Taylor Dread from Custom Lights (medium basses, light trebles) to Lights. Okay, so I'm not a macho string boy. But the result is a much more comfortable dreadnought for my style and purposes. Hooray!
09/01/2011 When the power went out, I played guitar by candle light through another hurricane (Irene). I couldn't recommend it more!
07/16/2011 Studio Survivor Files: How many people do you know who own a Neve mixer? Well, now you can say at least "one." Look HERE for more.
07/14/2011 You know it is funny how events kind of ebb and flow. On 06/14 I reported that the WWII B-17 Liberty Belle caught fire in flight and was lost (see below). As someone who had toured Belle, it was a real blow. However, in a funny exchange, it recently came to my attention that B-17 Chuckie has just moved to my town and take up residence at the Military Aviation Museum. Please join me in welcoming Chuckie!!!
07/09/2011 The Plek system is a computer-controlled guitar set up system that has recently been implemented at several guitar manufacturers. Some have said it will eliminate the need for luthier set ups on guitars. I compared guitars set up by both, and have reported the results, HERE.
07/07/2011 Two weeks ago I had sinus surgery. Yesterday I played guitar for the first time since. Between spending a week sleeping off the pain meds and the second week back at work but being worn out by the end of day. Yesterday I spent two and a have hours and enjoyed it completely!
06/18/2011 My son came over for night of guitar practice and jamming. We were exploring the relationship between a major key and its relative minor (example G and Em) and soloing over that. It's a very natural relationship with a nice emotional interplay that just begs to be exploited, and often is!
06/16/2011 Please join me in celebrating our 100,000th visitor since the site opened ten years ago in 2001!!! We started as a tiny little site on Angelfire.com that allowed me to answer questions from members of the Acoustic Guitar Forum (then the Taylor Guitar Forum) in long form.
06/15/2011 Since I wrote up my review of the Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 amplifier, I've discovered a demo video on the Mesa website that can be embedded. You can find the demo video at the bottom of the review page, HERE. Enjoy!!!
06/14/2011 The Boeing B-17 known as the Liberty Belle caught fire while on a ferry flight yesterday, June 13, 2011. The pilot put her down in a corn field and all seven crew members got out safely. Sadly, she was engulfed in flames and destroyed. My condolences go out to the Liberty Foundation on the loss of their lovely plane and I'm just grateful that the crew got out safely. As you may remember, I saw her flying locally and went to visit. You can find that page, now updated, HERE .
06/03/2011 On 10/12/2010 I reported that we were midway through the project of doubling the doors for the studio and control room where I work. I can now report that the job has been finished.
05/30/2011 A few weeks back I received an email from Guitar Center asking me to fill out a short survey for a $10 store credit certificate. The certificate promptly arrived with a May 31 expiration date. This weekend I went out to GC to find a use for it. A TV ad said they had three sets of D'Addario electric guitar strings for $9.99. With the coupon, the purchase came out at $0. That was a first for me.
05/26/2011 I've come across another interesting new guitar in my travels, the Gibson Les Paul '60s Tribute. It's a unique and affordable twist on an old familiar guitar that you might just like. You can read my review, HERE .
04/22/2011 I've updated the Echoplex page with a picture of the heavily modified Echoplex Brian May used in the late '70s and '80s.
04/18/2011 Shall we fight or surf the Iron Triangle of Reality in recording? Look HERE for more!
04/12/2011 Now in pre-production meetings on another album project.
04/02/2011 My current project is mixing videotaped musical performances for inclusion in a broadcast show. We've got seven performances with ensembles ranging from two vocals, string quartet, piano, and two guitars to a simple piano and vocal. We've been budgeted about three or four hours to mix the more complicated songs to an hour and a half for the simpler ones. All the instruments are nicely mic'd with good condenser mics. One benefit is that the same instruments were used throughout the performances - once an instrument is used and I set the EQ for it, I can save that off and use it for a baseline for the next song. There may be some tweaks, but at least I've got a starting point that cuts down on the time investment for the next songs. The challenges? All the vocals were recorded with Shure SM58 mics with the resultant coloration. EQing to reduce the mic's signature is a chore.
03/25/2011 I'm here again:
Mixing music and auto-tuning away...
03/07/2011 I've updated the review of the Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 amp now that I'm three months out from the purchase. Look HERE, at the bottom of the page, for more.
02/04/2011 I ran across an interesting example of the difference a little level management can make to the overall level of your recordings. Look HERE for more.
01/29/2011 Last night, my son and I replaced the pickups in his Epi Flying V with some really cool Seymour Duncan ones. More HERE.
01/18/2011 This morning, for some reason, I really miss Francis A. Schaeffer. Has it really been twenty-seven years since he passed? He was a man of such integrity, compassion, and intellect. I learned much from him.
01/17/2011 Did you ever start narrowing in a some tones you've been trying to get and then, when you finally achieve them and get to bathe in them for a while, feel a little guilty about the pleasure it gives you?
01/11/2011 As promised, here's some new site content: A while before Christmas I came across the Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 amplifier in a guitar store. I've written up a review of the amp, HERE. Enjoy!!!
01/01/2011 Here we are at a new year! We'd like to wish you a healthy, prosperous, and joyful 2011! I look forward to new articles and features on the site soon.
In order to expedite loading of the news page, it has been broken up into multiple pages. Previous news posts can be accessed HERE.
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