Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Console and Microphone Check


It's a continuous never-ending quest to make sure everything is functioning properly in any sized recording studio. I'm often reminded of the very first thing I learned in Audio 101, actually it's the THREE most important things in audio:
    Signal Flow
    Signal Flow
    Signal Flow

Downtime is a scary word to any studio, but using it to make the studio a well oiled machine is a great way to turn downtime into a very productive day. The longest hours I've ever spent here at the studio were days when nothing was booked. It's a great time to tear stuff apart and put it back together again.


Rack
...knob your enemy
We recently ran into a rash of problems with our API mic-pres. We have a total of 12 channels of them. The op-amps inside of them were intermittently failing. Intermittent problems are perhaps the hardest to solve, especially in the midst of a busy studio schedule. When you finally get that narrow window of time to investigate the problem, you can't make it fail.

The "soundtrack" to the video above is me while I was testing one of our API mic-pres. There are well over 20 tracks layered on top of each other (not all of them made it to the final rough-mix of my silliness). The mic-pre in question didn't fail me once, there wasn't even a detectable hint of an issue that I could find. Yet, the very next day, in the middle of a full band tracking session it failed again. Sometimes I think these problems have their own personalities and will only show themselves while paying clients are in the building.

If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to believe that the problematic API was showing off to a neighboring compressor. This may be a method of gear attempting to gain "rack-cred" and garner the respect and admiration of all the other gear in the rack.

We've thankfully gotten past our API issues, and have logged in some pretty heavy sessions since experiencing the intermittent politics of the democratic rack. Vote for us for your next recording session!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

We extend our deepest sympathy to Jeffrey Steele and family

Jeffrey Steele and his wife Stephanie, lost their 13 year old son, Alex LeVasseur, in an ATV accident Sunday.

You are in our hearts and prayers throughout this difficult time.

A foundation in Alex's name has been set up through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Donations may be sent to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Attn: Lani
P. O. Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244
Regarding: Alex LeVasseur

Or you can go online to www.cfmt.org.

As a father myself, I simply cannot grasp this immeasurable loss for the Steele family. There is nothing I can conjure up in my mind to bring rhyme or reason to this horrible tradgedy. I know I've certainly spent a little more quality time with my own son since hearing about the accident earlier this week. I think a lot of parents are giving their sons and daughters extra hugs this week.