shameless

Hey what can I say? It's really pretty simple. If you want to support what I'm working on here, you can feel free to go ahead and donate (could really use better equipment). I'd really appreciate it, but as long as people enjoy reading this blog and checking out the content on my site, I'm grateful. Thus, I've added the PayPal button to the menu on the right.

riffs

It has been ages since I've recorded anything. Yet lo and behold, I recently did. I just finished uploading some new guitar rhythm tracks to my site. During a few parts, my picking and muting combinations sound real tight. These are from a fifteen minute jam session the other day. About half of them were improvised and the other half were jams I've been working on a while. I still have about 5 more tracks to edit and upload, which I'll do soon I hope.

A little bit about these recordings. My basic setup starts with my Spyder amp and my Ibanez guitar. Here is my amp settings: Model = Insane, Drive = 10, Bass = 10, Mid = 1, Treble = 8, Chan Vol = 10, Effects Off, Delay = halfway on Tape Echo with Tap at Max, Reverb = 1, Master Vol = 4. I recorded the whole session as one track on my fourtrack. I just set up my mic about 9 or 10 feet across the room from my amp and ran directly into my XLR jack on Channel 1. For the longest time I had been running straight from my amp out of the headphone jack into the 1/4 inch jack on Channel 1. This time around, I thought I'd change the approach and room-mic the amp instead. To me, the tone sounds so much better when mic'd. OK, I'm obsessively rambling, sorry about that shit. Anyway, my eq levels on channel 1 basically mirror the same settings as on my amp. So I record the track and run the mixdown to my Denon dual tape deck the has L/R audio jacks on it. Then I test all my various levels on the fourtrack, along with the input level on the deck. Once everything's balanced, I go ahead and do the final mixdown recording to the deck. Now at this point, I have to run the L/R Line Out from the back of the deck into the jacks on the front of my tv. The speakers and the sound kick ass out of this thing so I use them as monitor speakers. Then I take this pair of headphones that have a small mic to speak into at the end of a flexible wire, and then I just position it directly in front of the speaker. From the tv to the mic, and the mic to Nero Wave Editor. MP3, edit; done deal. Upload, madness ensues.

I truly have so much work to do with all of my music. At this point, I'd prefer to let the riffs do the talking instead of my mouth. So yeah, go check out my new tracks and please let me know what you think.

dimebag

My man was shot dead two nights ago...very upsetting. He will always be one of my biggest influences. And he will be missed a lot.

Well, three thousand years later I rear my ugly head. Life has been quite busy for me over the past two months or so. They've gone ahead and authorized overtime at work since there are several year-end projects to complete. So I've just been working late a lot and I'm usually fried by the time I get home. I've the got ultimate commute from hell (remember I live in NJ!). This just all means I haven't had the time, energy or patience to do any recording.

Also, how the fuck can I record anything if I've lent my four-track to one of my best friends? Yeah, he's got a punk band and I've helped them record a practice session and then let him just use it for songwriting and arranging on his own. I certainly don't mind lending it out, especially to him, but if he's got it - I don't - so recording is impossible for me. Painfully obvious...anyway...

So yeah, I've been hanging out with Me The Captain & Some Guy and went to one of their shows recently in our hometown. They have a great sound and I think if they just focused on locking up their timing, they'd sound perfect. As I mentioned, they're into punk. That's not my style, but I've had a lot of fun listening to them play, and occasionally, I've done a few of their basslines with them. The bass player was learning some new vocals and stuff so I just sat it a little. But it was fun and I got to double the amount of beats in the bassline! I'm a metal player so the punk line seemed slow so I ripped it up! These dudes rock though and I'll probably be hosting their material soon via my web site.

Alright, now that I have the recorder back in my possession it's time to start getting back to work! Not having it around made me miss it so now my motivation's high again. As a result of hanging with M.C.S.G., I'll be doing an opening act for them sometime early in the New Year. I'll put my work on tape and review it them prior to the actual performance so it's good I got my 4-track back.

That's all folks. Updated.