This is actually a blessing, as it allows me only to take on projects that I’m really interested in, or feel like I could do a very good job on. So keep contacting me if you are interesting in having me record you. We can work out details, and I am always happy to take on new gigs as time permits.

It’s been fun recording the people I have so far. We “test drove” my new, laptop-based mobile recording rig in making the Freakwitch album Interconnected for the RPM Challenge. For those who don’t know, the RPM challenge is the music equivalent of National Novel Writing Month. We had to complete the album, start-to-finish, in one month. So the final result is OK, they all are rough mixes (no more than 2-3 hours spent mixing each song), and I violated The Golden Rule Of Mastering (never master your own work).

As such, they are great songs, hastily recorded, with crude drum programming, rough mixes and hack mastering job. :-) But hey, it sounds decent, and it was a good warmup for the next round of recordings, in which we wait until they are really finished until we release them. The best recording, sound-wise, was The Rain Song which you can hear on the Freakwitch RPM challenge page.

I’m now working fulltime for RealTraps as well. So I spend a lot of time thinking about how to achieve good sound. :-)

As of late, I have been learning Google Sketchup, which is a great tool for doing 3D drawings. It’s quite easy to draw studio plans with it, once you get the hang of it.

I know acoustics well enough, but adding this skill will help my Studio Design/Acoustics Consulting. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Additionally, it will help my work with Realtraps. I’m pleased to say that I’ve accepted a fulltime job with them.

I’m also rethinking the rack design, although they are built they are just huge. I will likely keep the computer rack and modify it some (I want to change the angle of the screens). I also decided to go with a laptop for more portability. I can go with some smaller cases and be much more portable than these 2 racks. I won’t even need a trailer. :-D

I didn’t announce it, but I have booked my first client, even though Crafted Recording’s doors aren’t yet “officially” open. He’s a singer/songwriter; I’m looking forward to recording him.

I’ll mostly be working in a “tech support” and public-educational role for them to begin, and it could eventually grow into more hours and duties. Time will tell. Anyway, this is a good relationship for both of us; it results in some income and a good “foot in the door” with a growing company/industry opportunity for me, and for them it’s another knowledgeable person on board to help them with their workload.

So if you’ve seen my forum posts about acoustics on various forums online, you will likely be seeing more of these. And I’ve recommended Realtraps (along with GIK acoustics) products without hesitation in the past, this end of things will also step up ;-) although I will still be helping DIYers with their projects as well. One of the things I admire most about Ethan is his aforementioned intellectual generosity as opposed to forcing his company’s products down peoples’ throats; he above all wants to help people understand room acoustics and get their rooms sounding good. And luckily, one of the simplest and least-expensive ways to do this is to invest in Realtraps products, so of course he doesn’t mind getting his excellent products into more listening rooms and recording studios along the way.

The computer rack is great. I have a fantastic computer case, and 2 LCD widescreen monitors (20″). This is by far more screen real estate than I’ve ever had. It’s a treat doing audio work with this much space! I also have quite a bit of hard drive space, including space for backups.

Presently I am using WindowsXP and Sonar for my DAW, Sonar is great software that runs on a horrid operating system. I do plan to investigate audio production tools for Linux, most likely I’ll install Ubuntu-Studio (a version of Linux that is customized for multimedia production, which runs the Ardour DAW among many other things) on a spare partition and give it a try.

Anyway, I have 16 ins and outs, 16 mic pres, and a whole bunch of microphones. I just traced down the last wiring problem tonight (one of the channels wasn’t working…. turns out it wasn’t wired up correctly. All fixed).

Also, I got a chance to fire up my new Weller soldering iron. In testing the mic preamps, I discovered that one of my dynamic microphones wasn’t working correctly. No output at all. So I took it apart, poked around a bit, and discovered it was intermittent. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Did a little more investigation and found a cold solder joint on one of the wires connected to the XLR output jack. All fixed.

So the rig is fully operational now, but it is not yet portable as I still have to finish building the lids. Given that this is a holiday week, that it is supposed to precipitate for the remainder of the week, and that I don’t presently have enough carpeting, I doubt I’ll get the lids finished this week.

But in the meantime, the rig is in my living room, up and running so that I can work on music production. I’m rediscovering the joys of drum programming and audio editing, it’s been a few months since I’ve done much of this. I’m very happy to have this rig available to me at a moments notice.

I’ll post some photos soon….

The drawer for the headphone mixer is now installed in the analog audio rack, and I have the computer rebuilt inside the new rack-mount case. The new monitors rock, lots of good screen real estate, much more than I’m used to.

Weather permitting, I should make tracks (pun intended) on carpeting the computer rack tomorrow; once that’s done I need to build the lids and then I’ll be pretty much done.

More pics soon….

Here are the pics…. One is further along than the other, the right on has the sides and the removable front and back panels done. These racks will ultimately be painted black and then covered with black carpet.

This is hopefully what the view from above will look like…. a mixer in the top of one rack, and 2 - 20″ LCD monitors stacked in the other.

A side view.

Back view. The one on the left has the sides and the removeable rear panel in place.

The view with the rear panel removed, leaning up against the rack.

The front panel installed.

The front panel removed and leaning against the rack.

For size reference, this is my beautiful 10 year old daughter posing.

The 2 racks. Indeed, a luscious pair!

Nice pair of racks, coming right at you…

This means Crafted Recordings should be open for business by the end of October. Watch this space.