When setting up my office/recording area, I needed a shelf of some sort to hold my outboard units and the Mac Mini and the stereo and store my bits and bobs. Always with the and. I wound up with one of those Ikea HEJNE (the older version that was 50cm deep), plain pine storage shelves. Sure it held everything but it was chaotic. And ugly. I mean, they look fine in storage rooms and garages, but in a home office?

Another problem with big shelves: Not only do they take up excess room, they give you an excuse to keep everything.

I mean, just look at this monstrosity:

Last week I walked into the room, took one look at that giant eyesore and decided that it had to go.

What to do though?

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Here is a snippet of a composition I’ve been working on since April. This is one of the most recent variants of the song and includes testing the GLS ES-57‘s I bought last month.

That recording is dry. There is no eq or compression on any of the tracks, just panning and volume.

I used my LTD EC-200QM (with 12 month old strings – I really need to change those) and a Schecter Revenger I borrowed from H, Opium Winter’s guitar player. Both guitars were played through a Kustom The Defender tube cobo amp ¹ (also thanks to H) miced with an ES-57.

• • DAW: Reaper
  • Interface: Tascam US-16×08
  • Three rhythm guitar tracks miced as mentioned above
  • The melody guitar that comes in at 0:25 is straight DI with an amp/pedal sim on the track
  • Bass: straight DI
  • Drums:
    • OH: M-audio Pulsar II matched pair
    • Snare: Behringer Ultravoice XM1800S with the windscreen removed
    • Toms & kick in: Audio Technica drum mic set (I think they’re the KP-Drums KitPak)
    • Kick out: Samson C01
    • Room: Behringer Ultravoice XM1800S through a Behringer MIC2000 with the gain cranked up

The drums were recorded about two weeks before the ES-57’s arrived. I did get four of them and plan to test them on snare and toms as soon as I can (I also need some more mic stands and/or drum mic clips). If the sound as good on drums as they did on the guitars, then they’ll be used when I lay down the final takes of this piece.

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^1: The Kustom is out of this world. H can get it to howl and scream with distortion and effects but up until now, I’ve never heard it clean in a quiet environment. This thing has colour and a well rounded tone. I’ve played a lot of budget amps in my life and this has to be my favorite.

I’m a big fan of budget equipment. I honestly enjoy digging around and researching all kinds of lower end gear. It’s really awesome when you manage to find something amazing that does exactly what you need, especially when it doesn’t break the bank. This is how I found the Tascam US-16×08 and the 12 Step.

That being said, there is something that’s even better than new budget equipment: buying second hand.

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This is a follow-up on the old post I put up about Neil Young and the way music sounds.

Through a small stroke of luck I’ve begun stepping into the world of vinyl records. I have a Fisher turntable and a Pioneer receiver – coupled with a Realistic stereo preamp ¹ – that came included with the house we bought two years ago, and a set of speakers that I bought second hand from Mez, Opium Winter’s drummer.

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I wrote and posted this bit back in July 2015 after Neil Young announced he was pulling his music off of streaming services because of sound quality. I wanted to put it back here as it’s a nice precursor to a piece I’m finishing up about vinyl albums.

To note: Neil Young’s music is currently available on all the streaming services. Guess that Pono thing didn’t work out as well as he thought it would. that being said, he’s still on his damn soapbox.

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This entry is going to cover the editing/mixing portion of the recording process and my thoughts along each step of the way. This not going to be a step by step entry that covers every EQ setting and compression ratio on each track. 

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The recording process began in early April 2018. All instruments and vocals were tracked by the end of the month. The plan was to release the debut Opium Winter EP by the beginning of the summer. Instead it was officially released April 1, 2019… almost exactly one year later.

What happened? The answer is simple: Mixing.

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