Crafted Recordings

Here are 2 sound samples from the Gin Mill Julep demo sessions.

First is an instrumental called Metsakukkia (Finnish for “forest flower”):

Second is a medley of some of their vocal songs:

I recently recorded Gin Mill Julep, an old-time folk trio (mandolin, upright bass, and accordion, all 3 sing). We got space in an old church building in Buxton right on the Saco river. It was a great sounding space. The recording was old-school style, live performance, no overdubs.

Still working on the mixes, but I’ll have an audio sample up soon.

 The doors are installed (thanks for the help, Alfred!). I’m now moving stuff in, and very soon will have a clean slate in the garage. :-)

I’ll have more tabula rasa pictures of the garage soon….

Storage shelves are built, and the last piece of siding is on (top left of pic):

The shelves are standard JWL wicked-solid functional shelves. Ready to hold stuff.

Next: build the doors. I have 4 old barn hinges (thanks Yo and Matt!), 2 of which aren’t flexible at the moment (rusted shut). I need to spend some time with them before I can use them for the doors.

The shed is now almost completely enclosed. Here is the only portion still awaiting siding:

I also installed a trimboard between the existing garage and the new shed. Eventually these 2 wood tones will get closer as the new wood ages:

Here’s more of the trim work, getting all the angles right from the two pitched slopes is tricky:

Here’s the trim board I put at the corner:

And, here’s a full view of the shed as it is now:

Next step is to add that last piece of siding, do the trim at the rear of the shed. Then I can build the doors, and install the shelves.

 The storage shed is nearing completion. Roof is done (thanks Matthew!), most of the siding is up, only some trim remains. After I finish the trim, all that’s left is to build the door, and build the shelves inside the shed. Then I can move all the crap from the garage in and get electricity into the garage. My goal is to have this done before winter kicks in, so I can work on the actual studio itself over the winter.

Here are pics:

^^ Front view. Only half of the door is cut out, I still have to trim away much of the wood siding to expose the other half of the door.

^^ Corner view, with the longest dimension of siding visible.

An overall view. The shed is 8×16, the garage is 12×20. Yep. This will be a cozy studio, barely big enough to get a full band inside.

^^ Here’s the seam where the new siding meets the aged siding of the garage. As the shed ages, this should get closer to a match.

^^ Still plenty of trim work to do, including the soffits to cover the joists.

More progress on the shed. The last wall is built, and all the roof joists are in place:

I have all the necessary materials to build the roof, and a friend coming over Monday to help me do it. With luck, all I’ll have left after Monday is to skin the shed, build the door, and build shelves inside. Then I can move in.

After that, next is to get electricity inside the garage, and start on the studio build proper. Ever closer!

We have decided to run a special on our day and half-day rates ($150/$250), we will WAIVE our normal setup fee (unless you are really far away). If you’d like to schedule some recording time for a rehearsal, performance, basic album tracks, etc. etc. then contact us and we’ll get you scheduled.

Today was very strange, almost supernaturally so. It was extremely bright outside; when I went to investigate there was this large, yellow, fiery ball in the sky. It was frightening actually; I could feel the heat from its fire. I do hope we aren’t doomed to combust in a cosmic fireball from the gods….

Anyway, I used the abrupt and dramatic change in weather today to begin the wall framing. I’m about 3/4 done with the wall framing:

The studs are 24″OC, since it’s a shed. Not gonna worry too much about it.

The wall frames are 6′6″ tall (don’t wanna bump me head….), which allows for a very small slope on the roof. I may have to keep an eye on the snowfall during the winter, and roofrake the snow off it.

All the frames you see there are attached together, but not yet attached to the deck.

I have to pick up another 10 2×4s early this week, and build the last remaining wall. This wall will be more complex because it will have a doorway.

Progress is good….

Three weeks since the last update, eh? That’ll learn me. In the ensuing three weeks since then, there has been LOTS of rain so I haven’t been able to work. Also my parents were in town, my daughter had a birthday and a dance recital (and associated parties)… lots of things going on socially.

But it finally stopped raining long enough for me to get more done today. I finished installing all the floorboards.

One thing I forgot to account for. All the subflooring, joists, and the beams are made of rough cut hemlock. Since they are rough cut, they are larger than the listed weight. The beams, and the front joist beam are both 16′3″ long. But, when I ordered the finished floorboards, I ordered 8′ boards. 2 together means the floorboards are 3″ short. No problem, I also have some 12′ floorboards for the treehouse, so I used one on the edge:

I thought about just waiting for the framing and putting the 2×4 right on the joists, but decided against it simply for consistency.

Also, you’ll notice in the first photo above that the floorboard closest to the garage door is at an angle. I had meant to leave it until I had the doorway cut in, but decided at the last minute to hammer it into place (tight fit between the garage) and fastened it down with screws. Exactly 800 screws later, they’re all in.

Next up: wall framing.