New stuff at www.ThompsonMusicRental.com:
Seventies era Wurlitzer 200 Electric Piano: won on eBay auction this week. It hasn’t arrived yet, so it will require tweaking and tuning. The eBay listing didn’t suggest it needed work; it appears to be in excellent condition, but I’m pickier than most about instruments behaving very well. I’ll let you know when it’s ready to make its debut.
Digi Pro Tools 002 rack unit: Another eBay purchase; this is scheduled to arrive today (January 26). A handy rental item that will also interface quite nicely with my studio (www.SweetbriarRecording.com). I am a Nuendo or Cubase 4 guy, but I realize that Pro Tools is still king of the DAWs in popularity. This should make it relatively convenient for clients to bring Pro Tools projects into my studio for overdubbing, or start in Pro Tools and take it to a HD studio for mixing.
DBX 160X: Yet another eBay purchase. (Sensing a pattern here? I need to turn off my computer for a while). A classic compressor, it will be useful for tracking, and will give a different flavor option to the stereo 1176 and the tube AMR compressors. I should be getting it today too as it is in Bellevue.
Audio Technica AT4060: Nicely rounds out my group of AT microphones. Looks and sounds like brand new; I’m off to the ‘net to research replacing the stock tube. It has the nice shock mount, too.
AKG C568 short shotgun microphone with shock mount. This one was a small gamble that worked out. On eBay it was listed as an “AKG H38″ microphone. H38 is the number for the shock mount. The microphone was completely hidden by the mount and the long windscreen. Bottom line is that it is a nice microphone under the windscreen and a good value purchase. First impression is good, similar in tone to a C460 with a tighter pattern. I’ll be trying it on some acoustic instruments.
Y’all know that you can post here. Speak up, be heard, get famous! (or famouser)
I’ve been a Nuendo guy for recording for a while now. I’ve been using Nuendo since about six months before it was available for sale as I was on the original beta tester team. I still really like the program although I’ve been enjoying using Cubase 4 recently as it has some convenient new features and sounds excellent.
There’s no arguing that it’s still mostly a Pro Tools world for DAW users. I quit lurking in the Pro Tools listings on eBay and made a purchase today. I’m easing in, not ready to commit to a big dollar HD system. I won an auction for a 002 rack unit with the Factory software bundle. It looks brand new, and should interface nicely into my studio (http://www.sweetbriarrecording.com/) where I can use my excellent RME converters to allow 16 channels in and out plus two channels through SPDIF. The 002 looks like a nifty package with plenty of flexibility. My dual core computer has 3 UAD-1 cards an a TC Powercore II that can be utilized with RTAS wrappers leaving plenty of processing power for the native Factory plugs.
I figure that with the RME converters – or the 002 converters if preferred – and my fine selection of mics, pres, comps, and of cource the superior sounding rooms – clients can cut excellent tracks in ProTools format if they prefer Pro Tools to Nuendo; if needed they could move the tracks to other more expensive studios with big deal HD systems for mixing.
No surprise that I’ll also make the 002 available as a rental (cheap, too). My next stop will be adding it to the recording equipment page http://www.thompsonmusicrental.com/recording.html
This weekend’s big project has been designing and putting up the website for my recording studio – Sweetbriar Recording Studio. I just now typed the whole name because I’m working on SEO (search engine optimization) to get Google and Yahoo etc. to find me and move me up the rankings. A bit of a pain but I suppose it’s all worthwhile. I have some very good clients at the studio, but there’s certainly room for a few more. At the same time I’m working on a site to sell the Tammy Cochran CD that Anita Cochran (no relation) and I produced together. And no, I don’t do work for hire on websites, I only do it because I’m too cheap to pay someone else to do mine. Macromedia Dreamweaver has been well studied and used by me over the last few days. So make my day and go visit www.SweetbriarRecording.com and check out what has been keeping me from giving all my attention to the family (and football games) this weekend. Let me know what I could do better on the site, I’m an amateur at website design. I’d be thrilled to have some new links to my websites from my cyberspace friends, let me know if I can return the favor.
The blackface Twin Reverb and I made a trip back to Sound Emporium on Saturday; an artist from Virginia is working on his project there. Thanks to Matt for the referral. I took a small sound system for a family reunion on New Year’s Eve, and the Leslie went back to Brian Siewert for additional daytime TV drama music. I’ve had some interesting calls for new work; I’ll tell you about it when it happens.
