my life, my thoughts, my world.

From the looks of things I’ll have a more consistent jamming schedule for the rest of my rotation here in Iraq. One of my associates from work and I got together at the little coffee shop here on FOB Warhorse and had a good little jam session the other day, and plan to make it a normal event. When we polish up a few of the songs I may drag out the BR864 and record some of the jamming.

In other news I’ve got GAS again. Indeed, once more I am horribly afflicted with a severe case of Gear Acquisition Syndrome. You would think that with four guitars, three amplifiers, bongos, and a digital recording station that I would be about set for gear. You would be wrong. What more could I possibly need you ask? Keep reading.

Lately I have been messing around with several tunings beyond the normal set – Standard, 1/2 Step Down (Eb), and Dropped D (DADGBE). I’m a pretty big fan of both DADDAD and DADGAD. Just about all of the Open tunings are fun too – Open G and Open E in particular. What does this have to do with GAS? Everything! With only four guitars how can I rapidly change tunings without worrying about which guitar my strings are about to snap on!? My own personal experience tells me that in one day you can change tunings on one guitar about four times before you have to worry about being slapped in the face with a breaking string.

With one guitar effectively retired from active duty, that leaves me with three. I really don’t care for alternate tunings on my Stratocaster – if anything I might drop it half a step, but that’s pretty rare. Now we’re looking at two, both being Alvarez acoustics – one AD60CK and one RD20S. The setup of the AD60CK is fine for standard tuning, and dropping half a step – but I don’t care much for the tone or playability in other tunings. The RD20S is a great all arounder, and for the price it can’t be beat – the only drawback here is the lack of a pickup. I intend to fix that eventually.

My solution here is to get another acoustic – either a nice Yari, or if I can find one that meets my tonal and neck requirements a Martin – for open tunings, slide work, and fingerstyle. On the electric side I’ve wanted a set neck, solid body, dual humbucker axe for a long time, and with a good stopbar tailpeice they are perfect for different tunings. This should let me run the gamut pretty well on the tuning front. Keep the Strat in standard tuning where it belongs, the AD60CK in standard tuning where it shines, the RD20S dropped half a step or in DADDAD (also easliy covering DADGAD), the other two can cover whichever tuning I feel like – the Yari or Martin can handle Open G or Open E, and the dual humbucker can hold up Eb or Dropped D and any need for open tunings on an electric.

The demise of my Boss GT-3 multieffects processor this past Christmas was a sad, sad event. The release of the Boss GT-8 multieffects processor is a joyous one. The feature set includes a digital output, which alone makes the device worth the $450 price tag in my opinion. I’ll be getting one, and hopefully setting it up with copies of my custom GT-3 patches. It should go nicely with the BR864 for recording, and it should also be great for use with all three of my amplifiers, or going directly into a PA sound board.

poor checking account ;_;

Chances are if you’re here you’ve heard some of my music. Here I’ll break down how I actually record it. None of the equipment is horribly expensive, or ultra-high end, but it works well enough for me. That said, I’m no recording guru, just a guy that knows what he likes. If you just so happen to like the same thing, read on.

Using the Mic
On the last few things I’ve recorded there as been very little direct recording of the instruments. The BR-864 has great onboard COSM effects, for both instruments and vocals, but I personally like to mic my equipment whenever possible. There are at least a billion theories as to how one should mic any given piece of equipment, I myself just set a mic somewhere and move it untill I like the sound through the monitor (headphones in my case.)

First thing first, if you’re going to mic anything you need a microphone! Now of course that’s a hair past obvious, but there are a LOT of different kinds of microphones at about an equal variety of prices. The BR-864 has an onboard condenser mic that is quite sensitive, and not too horrible for recording in a room. For “studio” work however, it’s a bit too noisy for my liking, even with a compressor. Below are the two mics I have, neither are quite studio mics but they both work.

Now there is a lot of “technical” mojo that goes with mic placement, in fact there are enormously thick books on the subject. You can, and if you’re trying to be a sound engineer probably should, read thousands of technical pages dealing with everything down to the wavelengths and frequencies of your sound source, resonant frequencies of the materials in your sound stage, and the acoustic properties of…. well you get the picture. For the person just wanting a decent sound on a home/live recording, it’s all about trial and error. I’ve read some of the books, and understand a fair deal of the theory, but in the end I go with my ear. The pictures above are the result of my personal trial/error, and are meant to be a sort of starting point for anyone interested.

Recording Sequences
This part is highly subjective, as far as I can tell. You can record your tracks in any order you want, and there is no real set way to do it. However, one thing seems to remain consant in most suggestions I see: Record your drum tracks first. I personally have had limited success with that. I’m not a percussionist, and I loathe drum machines. I can hold a beat, but I do it much better with a guitar. Usually, I record my rhythm guitar track first, followed by the drum tracks, and then any vocal tracks, and finally any lead guitar tracks I may have.

A helpful tip I ran across for vocals, which for the record is my least favorite part of recording/performing. Record it in layers. If you’re not comfortable with your voice, or feel like you’re lacking tone or whatever, record a few tracks of your vocals. Doing so allows you to harmonize with yourself, and can help lose some tonal inbalances in the mix. If you have a multitrack station like the BR-864, you can cut pretty much as many virtual tracks of your vocals as you’d like, and mix and match the final tracks that will be active, moving pan in various directions, and adding loop effects (like chorus) as you please. I’ve only done this a few times, but it made a notable difference, and is a much cheaper solution than hiring a vocalist!

I may edit this to add more content, or make a whole new entry. This is it for now.

There are a lot of things I’d like to accomplish with my music, and I’ll write about them here. My guitar lessons, recording tips, and my original recordings will wind up here eventually.