Slowly but surely I'm getting down with Web 2.0... got the blog up and running, been uploading a bunch of pics to Picasa, have been trying to record some video clips to post to YouTube, even signed up for a Facebook account (which I've done absolutely nothing with). So today, while poking around the 'net for info related to Egnater amps, I found the following entry on Bruce Egnater on Wikipedia. So I decided to beef it up with a bit more information about Bruce's history, Randall MTS amps, the new Egnaters for Guitar Center (Rebel & Tourmaster), and amp-building seminars. Check it out...
Wikipedia article on Bruce Egnater
Now, having set up a Wikipedia account, I'm trying to figure out what else I could be contributing to. Or perhaps I should stop before I become too White & Nerdy...
--B
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Concert-induced G.A.S. - courtesy of Porcupine Tree
Just got back from the Porcupine Tree concert... they played at Bogarts in Cincinnati with opening act "3". I started listening to P.T. a couple years ago--think it was a Yahoo Music recommendation ("...if you like Marillion, you might like Porcupine Tree..."). Of course, they'd been in Cincinnati about a week before I got turned onto them... go figure!
Anyway, "3" was a pleasant surprise--I hadn't heard of them before, but they had more than enough chops to keep me entertained for an hour. As expected, Porcupine Tree was killer... they did almost all the tunes off of Blank Planet, a handful I knew from In Absentia and Deadwing, plus quite a few I didn't recognize--definitely need to check out some of the older albums in their discography. I always dig groups that can go from textural (acoustic, synthy, trippy) to over-the-top (heavy, hooky riffs) and back in one beat or less--P.T.'s tightness makes transitions like that look easy.
As always, it was a G.A.S.-inducing show... both Steven Wilson and John Wesley had a drool-worthy stash of Bad Cat amps and PRS guitars, including Custom 22's, Singlecut Trems, Hollowbodies, and at least one of the new Tremonti models. Definitely got me jonesin' for more PRSi... in the car on the way home I found myself thinking "... let's see... if I sell these 4 Gibsons it would give me enough money to buy these 3 PRSi..." Which, of course, means that I'll probably have a couple Gibsons up for sale by the end of the month. :)
--B
Anyway, "3" was a pleasant surprise--I hadn't heard of them before, but they had more than enough chops to keep me entertained for an hour. As expected, Porcupine Tree was killer... they did almost all the tunes off of Blank Planet, a handful I knew from In Absentia and Deadwing, plus quite a few I didn't recognize--definitely need to check out some of the older albums in their discography. I always dig groups that can go from textural (acoustic, synthy, trippy) to over-the-top (heavy, hooky riffs) and back in one beat or less--P.T.'s tightness makes transitions like that look easy.
As always, it was a G.A.S.-inducing show... both Steven Wilson and John Wesley had a drool-worthy stash of Bad Cat amps and PRS guitars, including Custom 22's, Singlecut Trems, Hollowbodies, and at least one of the new Tremonti models. Definitely got me jonesin' for more PRSi... in the car on the way home I found myself thinking "... let's see... if I sell these 4 Gibsons it would give me enough money to buy these 3 PRSi..." Which, of course, means that I'll probably have a couple Gibsons up for sale by the end of the month. :)
--B
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Cool article on Bruce Egnater
Just caught wind of this article in yesterday's Detroit Metro Times about Bruce Egnater, amp guru. Talks a bit about Egnater's history, the Amp Lounge, the modular amp design, and the amp-building seminars. Great thing about Bruce... not only does he know his stuff & have a great ear, but he's also one of the most friendly, down-to-earth folks you'll ever meet.
Poke around the blog a bit, and it's probably pretty obvious I'm an Egnater junkie... I currently have an Egnater M4 rig, have a Randall RM50B (Egnater-designed) for a backup, and also have a JTM45 head from the Egnater amp-building seminar (from the first-ever seminar last fall). Plus, over the years I've owned a handful of other Egnater-designed amps, including the Rocktron TOL100, Rocktron Vendetta, Randall RH50T, and several Randall MTS-series amps (RM4, RT2/50, RM100C, RM20B).
--B
Poke around the blog a bit, and it's probably pretty obvious I'm an Egnater junkie... I currently have an Egnater M4 rig, have a Randall RM50B (Egnater-designed) for a backup, and also have a JTM45 head from the Egnater amp-building seminar (from the first-ever seminar last fall). Plus, over the years I've owned a handful of other Egnater-designed amps, including the Rocktron TOL100, Rocktron Vendetta, Randall RH50T, and several Randall MTS-series amps (RM4, RT2/50, RM100C, RM20B).
--B
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Naughty Butterspoon's Fantasy Pants - remixed!
I took a little time this weekend to clean up the hard drive on the studio computer... fun stuff, I know. While poking around, I found the original Cakewalk project files used for the Naughty Butterspoon Fantasy Pants recording project back in 2002. It was a challenging project at the time... I didn't have the best gear at my disposal, and I didn't really know what I was doing with it. Thankfully, both my gear & technique have come a long way during the past 5 years.
Anyway, I decided to crack open the project files to remix the tracks... even if I can't go back in time to use better microphones/preamps, I can take advantage of some of the plug-ins I've picked up over the past few years and put some of my hard-earned knowledge to work. I started out by remixing the six tracks that did not make the transition from Naughty Butterspoon to The Burning Sensations. Check 'em out...
Overall, I think the new mixes are a lot "crisper" sounding... the original mixes always sounded dull/muddy to me. Granted, I haven't had an opportunity to try the new mixes on the home stereo or in the car, but at least they sound better on the studio monitors. I'll probably make a few more tweaks to the remixed tracks over the next couple weeks as I get a chance to listen to them on different stereo systems.
Also while cleaning out the hard drive I found a Burning Sensations rehearsal recording with about a dozen tracks that we never got around to doing formal recordings of... I'll probably take the time to mix those tracks properly, too, so that I can have some record of the original tunes we cranked out back in the day.
Well, I'm out for now, but one more piece before I go... cleaning up the Fantasy Pants tracks also encouraged me to "revive" the Fantasy Pants write-up from the old Naughty Butterspoon website, the contents of which are provided below. Hard to believe that was over 5 years ago! It's interesting to look back at the guitar & recording gear I used then vs. what I use today. Of all the gear listed, I think there are only 3 pieces I still own and use in the studio today... the Shure SM57 mics, the Takamine 12-string acoustic, and the Peavey StudioMix console. That's a lot of gear turnover for 5 years!!
Enjoy!
--B
Fantasy Pants in the news...
"Local rockers Naughty Butterspoon will release their debut CD, Fantasy Pants, on Saturday at the Mad Frog, joined by special guests Stonewater. NB(SP), which formed out of the ashes of bands like Inception, Serenity and Dr. Paradox, mixes Progressive Rock and Hard Rock guitar stylings with a Funk-ish backbeat and an overall Modern Rock glaze. For more on the group, check naughtybutterspoon.com."
-- Mike Breen, CityBeat
"Naughty Butterspoon plays a CD release gig Saturday at the Mad Frog, McMillan and Vine, Mount Auburn. The quartet is releasing its debut CD Fantasy Pants, which flashes an intense, gritty prog rock meets funk sound."
-- Rick Bird, The Cincinnati Post
The Making of Fantasy Pants (An NBSP Documentary)
We first toyed with the idea of recording a CD early in 2001. Not knowing a great deal about home recording or even having the best of gear at our disposal, we rented a set of drum mics and tried to improvise with some of the gear we had sitting around. We recorded 6 songs over the course of one weekend by recording the drums first and later overdubbing guitar, bass, and vocal tracks. As we started the mixdown process, we started to notice that each song we recorded suffered from a number of "quirks" that we could never quite clean up properly. We abandoned all hopes of making a real CD pretty early, polishing up only 3 songs to put on a demo EP that we could send out to club owners.
As the year progressed, and the number of quality songs we had written continued to grow, we began to once again think about recording. The big decision--do we pay a lot of money to go into a studio, or do we try the home recording again? Well, after much debate and a lot of research on recording techniques and studio gear, we decided to try the home recording process again. We purchased the appropriate studio gear early in 2002 and began the recording in March. As we spent more time learning how to "tweak" the gear, the quality of the recordings significantly improved. We even learned how to take advantage of the unfinished basement walls as a great natural ambient reverb! We spent the next few months recording the songs--all rhythm tracks (drum, bass, guitar) were recorded live, then additional tracks (vocals, guitar solos, acoustic guitars, keyboards) were overdubbed. By the end of summer we were ready to mix and master all of the songs (12 in all were recorded) and send the master CD off to be professionally duplicated.
In the end, the home recording process was very time consuming, but we're all a lot smarter now about the wonders of pro audio. By recording it ourselves, we saved hundreds (probably thousands) of dollars and had significantly more time to spend on the overall production than we would have been able to afford spending in a pro studio. And when we're ready to record our next CD, we have all the gear and knowledge from the last recording session at our disposal, so we should have a substantially faster and less expensive recording process.
The story told, here is a list of pretty much all of the gear we used on the recording (for all you techno-geeks out there):
Brent's guitar (generally panned left):
Various Ibanez electrics ->
Morley Little Alligator volume pedal ->
Morley Bad Horsie & Dunlop Crybaby 95Q wah pedals ->
Boss DF-2 & DS-1 distortion pedals ->
Mesa/Boogie Triaxis preamp ->
TC Electronic G-Major FX processor ->
Mesa/Boogie SimulClass 2:90 power amp ->
Johnson 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30's ->
mic'd with Shure SM57 ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ added
Dave's guitar (generally panned right):
Various Ibanez electrics ->
Dunlop Crybaby Special Edition wah pedal ->
Boss DS-1 distortion pedal ->
Mesa/Boogie Nomad 55 2x12 combo ->
Rocktron Replifex in FX loop ->
mic'd with Shure SM57 ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ added
Brad's bass:
Peavey Cirrus V bass ->
ADA S1000 digital delay ->
Yamaha SPX-90 FX processor output split->
[ Carver PM350 power amp ->
(2) Toa cabinets ]
direct to Lexicon Core 2 analog in
later compressed with Alesis 3630
Scott's drums:
Pearl World Series drums & Zildjian cymbals ->
mic'd with Nady DMK7 set ->
Carvin Studiomate SM162 mixer ->
dbx DDP Digital Dynamics Processor ->
SoundBlaster Live stereo in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Reverb added
Dave's vocals:
mic'd with Nady SCM900 condenser ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
later compressed with Alesis 3630 ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Chorus, Delay, Reverb added
Brent's / Dave's acoustic guitars:
Takamine EF385 12-string ->
mic'd with Nady SCM900 condenser ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Reverb added
Brent's synth:
Korg Triton ->
Lexicon Core 2 stereo analog ins
Final mixing/mastering:
Mixed in Cakewalk Pro Audio Deluxe ->
Cakewalk CFX Reverb added ->
Enhanced, compressed, and normalized in SoundForge XP ->
MP3's encoded with SoundForge XP
Master CD normalized and recorded with Magix Audio Cleaning Lab
Studio monitoring:
Carvin AG100D acoustic amp/PA
Carvin H40M headphones
Carvin HT150 power amp / PM5 monitors
Sony 3-way stereo speakers
Computer gear:
Gateway PIII 550Mhz 256Mb desktop running
Windows 98 SE
Cakewalk Pro Audio Deluxe 9.0.3
Musician's Toolbox III
Cakewalk Groovemaker 1.2
Sonic Foundry SoundForge XP 4.5
Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0
Magic Audio Cleaning Lab 1.04
Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.0
Mass storage: (2) Quantum Ultra2 SCSI drives (9Gb, 18Gb), Panasonic 4x SCSI CD-R, Plextor 32x SCSI CD-ROM, Castlewood 2.2Gb Orb drive
Lexicon Core 2 interface with MP100 daughterboard
SoundBlaster Live interface
Gravis MIDI adapter
Cakewalk/Peavey StudioMix console
Anyway, I decided to crack open the project files to remix the tracks... even if I can't go back in time to use better microphones/preamps, I can take advantage of some of the plug-ins I've picked up over the past few years and put some of my hard-earned knowledge to work. I started out by remixing the six tracks that did not make the transition from Naughty Butterspoon to The Burning Sensations. Check 'em out...
Overall, I think the new mixes are a lot "crisper" sounding... the original mixes always sounded dull/muddy to me. Granted, I haven't had an opportunity to try the new mixes on the home stereo or in the car, but at least they sound better on the studio monitors. I'll probably make a few more tweaks to the remixed tracks over the next couple weeks as I get a chance to listen to them on different stereo systems.
Also while cleaning out the hard drive I found a Burning Sensations rehearsal recording with about a dozen tracks that we never got around to doing formal recordings of... I'll probably take the time to mix those tracks properly, too, so that I can have some record of the original tunes we cranked out back in the day.
Well, I'm out for now, but one more piece before I go... cleaning up the Fantasy Pants tracks also encouraged me to "revive" the Fantasy Pants write-up from the old Naughty Butterspoon website, the contents of which are provided below. Hard to believe that was over 5 years ago! It's interesting to look back at the guitar & recording gear I used then vs. what I use today. Of all the gear listed, I think there are only 3 pieces I still own and use in the studio today... the Shure SM57 mics, the Takamine 12-string acoustic, and the Peavey StudioMix console. That's a lot of gear turnover for 5 years!!
Enjoy!
--B
Fantasy Pants, as it is affectionately known, is our debut CD. It was recorded and mastered March - August 2002 in Brent's basement, which is affectionately known as Spanky Munky Studios. Anyway, the full-length CD contains 12 of our original tunes:
- Color Me
- Around
- Majority
- Freed From You
- Moral
- Gettin' it Done
- Left Behind
- Nothing to Say
- Fill 'er Up
- Under
- Let it Go
- Early Climax
Fantasy Pants in the news...
"Local rockers Naughty Butterspoon will release their debut CD, Fantasy Pants, on Saturday at the Mad Frog, joined by special guests Stonewater. NB(SP), which formed out of the ashes of bands like Inception, Serenity and Dr. Paradox, mixes Progressive Rock and Hard Rock guitar stylings with a Funk-ish backbeat and an overall Modern Rock glaze. For more on the group, check naughtybutterspoon.com."
-- Mike Breen, CityBeat
"Naughty Butterspoon plays a CD release gig Saturday at the Mad Frog, McMillan and Vine, Mount Auburn. The quartet is releasing its debut CD Fantasy Pants, which flashes an intense, gritty prog rock meets funk sound."
-- Rick Bird, The Cincinnati Post
The Making of Fantasy Pants (An NBSP Documentary)
We first toyed with the idea of recording a CD early in 2001. Not knowing a great deal about home recording or even having the best of gear at our disposal, we rented a set of drum mics and tried to improvise with some of the gear we had sitting around. We recorded 6 songs over the course of one weekend by recording the drums first and later overdubbing guitar, bass, and vocal tracks. As we started the mixdown process, we started to notice that each song we recorded suffered from a number of "quirks" that we could never quite clean up properly. We abandoned all hopes of making a real CD pretty early, polishing up only 3 songs to put on a demo EP that we could send out to club owners.
As the year progressed, and the number of quality songs we had written continued to grow, we began to once again think about recording. The big decision--do we pay a lot of money to go into a studio, or do we try the home recording again? Well, after much debate and a lot of research on recording techniques and studio gear, we decided to try the home recording process again. We purchased the appropriate studio gear early in 2002 and began the recording in March. As we spent more time learning how to "tweak" the gear, the quality of the recordings significantly improved. We even learned how to take advantage of the unfinished basement walls as a great natural ambient reverb! We spent the next few months recording the songs--all rhythm tracks (drum, bass, guitar) were recorded live, then additional tracks (vocals, guitar solos, acoustic guitars, keyboards) were overdubbed. By the end of summer we were ready to mix and master all of the songs (12 in all were recorded) and send the master CD off to be professionally duplicated.
In the end, the home recording process was very time consuming, but we're all a lot smarter now about the wonders of pro audio. By recording it ourselves, we saved hundreds (probably thousands) of dollars and had significantly more time to spend on the overall production than we would have been able to afford spending in a pro studio. And when we're ready to record our next CD, we have all the gear and knowledge from the last recording session at our disposal, so we should have a substantially faster and less expensive recording process.
The story told, here is a list of pretty much all of the gear we used on the recording (for all you techno-geeks out there):
Brent's guitar (generally panned left):Various Ibanez electrics ->
Morley Little Alligator volume pedal ->
Morley Bad Horsie & Dunlop Crybaby 95Q wah pedals ->
Boss DF-2 & DS-1 distortion pedals ->
Mesa/Boogie Triaxis preamp ->
TC Electronic G-Major FX processor ->
Mesa/Boogie SimulClass 2:90 power amp ->
Johnson 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30's ->
mic'd with Shure SM57 ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ added
Dave's guitar (generally panned right):
Various Ibanez electrics ->
Dunlop Crybaby Special Edition wah pedal ->
Boss DS-1 distortion pedal ->
Mesa/Boogie Nomad 55 2x12 combo ->
Rocktron Replifex in FX loop ->
mic'd with Shure SM57 ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ added
Brad's bass:
Peavey Cirrus V bass ->
ADA S1000 digital delay ->
Yamaha SPX-90 FX processor output split->
[ Carver PM350 power amp ->
(2) Toa cabinets ]
direct to Lexicon Core 2 analog in
later compressed with Alesis 3630
Scott's drums:Pearl World Series drums & Zildjian cymbals ->
mic'd with Nady DMK7 set ->
Carvin Studiomate SM162 mixer ->
dbx DDP Digital Dynamics Processor ->
SoundBlaster Live stereo in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Reverb added
Dave's vocals:
mic'd with Nady SCM900 condenser ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
later compressed with Alesis 3630 ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Chorus, Delay, Reverb added
Brent's / Dave's acoustic guitars:
Takamine EF385 12-string ->
mic'd with Nady SCM900 condenser ->
ART Tube Channel preamp ->
Lexicon Core 2 analog in ->
Cakewalk CFX EQ, Reverb added
Brent's synth:
Korg Triton ->
Lexicon Core 2 stereo analog ins
Final mixing/mastering:Mixed in Cakewalk Pro Audio Deluxe ->
Cakewalk CFX Reverb added ->
Enhanced, compressed, and normalized in SoundForge XP ->
MP3's encoded with SoundForge XP
Master CD normalized and recorded with Magix Audio Cleaning Lab
Studio monitoring:
Carvin AG100D acoustic amp/PA
Carvin H40M headphones
Carvin HT150 power amp / PM5 monitors
Sony 3-way stereo speakers
Computer gear:
Gateway PIII 550Mhz 256Mb desktop running
Windows 98 SE
Cakewalk Pro Audio Deluxe 9.0.3
Musician's Toolbox III
Cakewalk Groovemaker 1.2
Sonic Foundry SoundForge XP 4.5
Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0
Magic Audio Cleaning Lab 1.04
Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.0
Mass storage: (2) Quantum Ultra2 SCSI drives (9Gb, 18Gb), Panasonic 4x SCSI CD-R, Plextor 32x SCSI CD-ROM, Castlewood 2.2Gb Orb drive
Lexicon Core 2 interface with MP100 daughterboard
SoundBlaster Live interface
Gravis MIDI adapter
Cakewalk/Peavey StudioMix console
Friday, October 5, 2007
New guitar - Gibson Explorer Pro
Here's my latest acquisition in the Gibson "Guitar of the Week" series...
That's the Gibson Explorer Pro in Heritage Cherry (week #13, 1 of 400). Overall, it's got the most laid-back finish (though not laid-back shape) of any of the Gibson's I've picked up recently. From a specs standpoint it's similar to the X-plorer and '76 reissue models, but with a smaller body, bound fretboard, and no pickguard; no real difference from the mass produced Explorer Pro's (aside from the color). The reduced body size definitely makes it a bit easier to manage... it's not too heavy, pretty well balanced as is. The 496/500 pickups feel hotter than anything else I've got around here... they practically sustain forever (makes me wonder what the full-size Explorer would feel/sond like). Between the shape and tone, it's the perfect guitar for hard rock/metal... don't think I'll be taking it out for too many jazz gigs at this point. :)
The Explorer brings one more Gibson "Guitar of the Week" model into the collection... here's a pic of the Explorer along with the Firebird, SG, and Les Paul...
This, of course, raises the question of "what's next?" I've been poking around e-bay and various forums and there just hasn't been much in the way of guitars that have been catching my eye. I'm really happy with my amp rigs and the recently assembled pedalboard. Could this be the end of G.A.S.? At least for a couple weeks?
--B
That's the Gibson Explorer Pro in Heritage Cherry (week #13, 1 of 400). Overall, it's got the most laid-back finish (though not laid-back shape) of any of the Gibson's I've picked up recently. From a specs standpoint it's similar to the X-plorer and '76 reissue models, but with a smaller body, bound fretboard, and no pickguard; no real difference from the mass produced Explorer Pro's (aside from the color). The reduced body size definitely makes it a bit easier to manage... it's not too heavy, pretty well balanced as is. The 496/500 pickups feel hotter than anything else I've got around here... they practically sustain forever (makes me wonder what the full-size Explorer would feel/sond like). Between the shape and tone, it's the perfect guitar for hard rock/metal... don't think I'll be taking it out for too many jazz gigs at this point. :)
The Explorer brings one more Gibson "Guitar of the Week" model into the collection... here's a pic of the Explorer along with the Firebird, SG, and Les Paul...
This, of course, raises the question of "what's next?" I've been poking around e-bay and various forums and there just hasn't been much in the way of guitars that have been catching my eye. I'm really happy with my amp rigs and the recently assembled pedalboard. Could this be the end of G.A.S.? At least for a couple weeks?
--B
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