Archive for the 'music' Category
(There’s a shorter version of this on the Tape Op blog.)
I’ve recorded a lot of very loud bands — including my own — in cramped practice spaces, using a mobile rig that I bring in for tracking. It’s a challenge, but it’s kind of cool. And laptops have gotten powerful enough that even older ones can loaf through a 16- or 24-input session.
But a few years ago I started getting bit by a nasty problem: intermittently, my DAW (Cubase) wouldn’t stay in record for more than a few minutes. A few minutes into a take, Cubase’s hard drive performance meter would freak out, then I’d see a “Too many tracks recording” dialog as recording stopped. This is the Nuendo version of the same dialog, but you get the point:
This really rattled me — how can you focus on what matters if you’re always worried about your recorder failing? — and it was hard to track down the cause. I had upgraded some hardware and software on my laptop, and the problem was very intermittent. But it always seemed to happen during real takes (ugh).
Reaper – My interview with Justin and Christope is in this month’s Tape Op. Good read for music nerds and software nerds.
Tigon have a few splits out with the songs we did this spring. We tracked basics at Sharkbite in Oakland, and did guitar/vox overdubs at good old TTJ. I love this stuff. Dense mathy punk, sludged out heaviness. Listen.
Kowloon Walled City – If you missed it, a few months ago we did a split with Fight Amp and Ladder Devils. We tracked at Sharkbite. Download/buy. (Also, tour was great. Lots of pics.)
Cartographer – I recently finished a full-length with these fine gentlemen, tracked at Mr. Toad’s in San Francisco. This record rules and you should hassle Ben about releasing it promptly. Carto.
After I saw Top 14 Most Common Band Names this morning on Invisible Oranges, I wrote a script to list the most common words in those 75,000 metal band names.
Here’s the top 20:
Dark / Darkness – 649
Black – 637
Death – 574
Blood – 320
Dead – 318
Hate – 221
Eternal – 218
Dawn – 210
Silence – 186
Soul – 181
Hell – 175
Funeral – 168
Pain – 162
Chaos – 154
Evil – 153
Angel – 146
Fear – 142
Beyond – 139
Flesh – 138
Fire – 137
We did the RPM “write and record a record in a month” thing again this year. We actually needed to finish tracking midway through February because I was leaving town, and because I wanted to give Greg more than a few days to mix.
We set up shop at glamorous Turk Street on a Friday night, then wrote and recorded basics over two long days of gear failure. Things that fucked up: my recording laptop, my backup recording laptop, Pace’s Ampeg, my VTM60, the Laney Supergroup we borrowed, two mic stands, Cubase, a 1spot power supply, my 2-ch A/D converter. On our first afternoon I was sitting in Jeff’s car, installing Cubase on a borrowed Macbook Pro while we drove back to the space. It’s like Abbey Road around here.
Gear problems or no, we got basics done. We spent the next few days writing and tracking vocals and guitar overdubs in my basement whenever we could find time. I uploaded a gig of files to Greg the night before I left town, and listened to his mixes on headphones in a hotel room. I thought the roughs were really good, but Greg just killed on the mixes. Next level shit. How does he do it?
Anyway, here’s the result: Ten songs about bigfoot(s). Narration by Friday the 13th author Victor Miller. Mix desk manned by a genuine Grammy winner. Mellotron. Riffs. Feel it.
