You wouldn't like me when i'm angry....
Having had a home based recording studio for some years now (10!) i've evidently arrived at some level of proficency in setting things up like pre amps, compressors, effect, patchbays, and computers. As a result, i often get questions from people starting down the same road of home recording on how do do certain things, and i'm always up for helping people and giving advice - i enjoy doing that. It always seems like most questions are computer related, as they are the source of most mystery and headache in the small home setup. Now, with respect to computers, they present an interesting dicotomy in the recording world. They make it very easy to get certain jobs done fast and efficiently, but on the other hand, they are complex systems that can easily get screwed up so bad, they make work impossible.
I hate them.
Which is really funny, in a sad sort of way, because both my primary career (software engineer) and secondary job (recording engineer / musician) both rely heavily on them. The last thing in the world i want to do is fix computers. When they break on me, i basically turn into the Incredible Hulk. I get the bugged out eyes and the white hot rage, i want to do things like break though cinder block walls and flip cars over, or run down the highway barefoot. I don't have the green body paint, huge muscles, and ripped wranglers of course, and there's also no crazy newspaper reporter following me around trying to catch me in my alter-ego (as far as i know), but you get the picture.
Anyway - on sunday i broke yet another rule that i always warn people about.
Never upgrade any part of your computer (hardware or software) during a project if you don't really have to. Especially when the project is near completion.
So, guess what i did... yep. I decided that it wouldn't be a big deal to go ahead and update my OS to 10.4.5 from 10.3.something for no good reason. Midway throught the update, the Apple updater program warns me about something that has failed
and the system needs a re-bootin'. Ooooooh Kaaaaaay. Reboot.
wait
wait
wait
Nothing.
machine will not come back up.
*eyes turn white and begin darting around the room ala David Banner*
I will spare you all the horrors that soon followed, but suffice it to say it looked a little something like this:
In the end i got really lucky, after doing an OS re-install i only had to reinstall
the MOTU drivers for my 2408, the drivers for my little remote control thingy, and copy all my plugs back into the library folder and when i brought up DP, (and the New Ancients project) everything worked. (as far as i can tell). Whew!
So last night we had quite a large crowd stuffed down there; little Nick showed up:
and we finished up the main vocal for "Jesus Master". Christian's voice was still recovering from 2 weeks ago, but he had just enough gas to get about 5 takes of the song down. As soon as we heard him getting tired, we sent Steph and Alex out for some Riccola throat drops... (Ricco-Recon). In the past, i've had great results with this little bottle of throat drops called "Singer's Saving Grace". It's a super expensive herbal tonic of sorts that helps give extra life to a tired voice with only a few drops down the hatch. When we were tracking vocals for Million Time Winner's "Writing The Broken Line", Christian was drinking this stuff constantly, and it really worked! Give him another one Stpeh:
It worked! Here's Christian excited about finishing yet another main vocal part:
Next, it was on to some horn parts for the choruses of"Happy Souls". Matt Pucci came in with his trombone and quickly nailed his part:
He needed a music stand for the notes he wrote, but of course all my music stands have somehow mysteriously dissapeared into the briney depths of the ORB basement. It's like the Bermuda Triangle down there. Here's what i'm now resorting to:
About an hour later, Blue showed up with the trumpet again and played a part over Matt's 'bone. Warm up, QUICK!
Eventually everyone left leaving me and Blue to finish his part up, giving us peace and quiet to get work done. We pushed Blue's lips pretty hard... he hit some crazy high notes for the rideout of the song. Let's just say he wont be blowing up balloons any time soon. I bet this morning his lips are swelled up like 2 big red hotdogs. Ok - 2 more sessions and this thing is done, for real. Thanks as always to the great Tom Sasso for pics and vids.
So there it is.
And here IT is, your moment of Zen, courtesy of Alex:
I hate them.
Which is really funny, in a sad sort of way, because both my primary career (software engineer) and secondary job (recording engineer / musician) both rely heavily on them. The last thing in the world i want to do is fix computers. When they break on me, i basically turn into the Incredible Hulk. I get the bugged out eyes and the white hot rage, i want to do things like break though cinder block walls and flip cars over, or run down the highway barefoot. I don't have the green body paint, huge muscles, and ripped wranglers of course, and there's also no crazy newspaper reporter following me around trying to catch me in my alter-ego (as far as i know), but you get the picture.
Anyway - on sunday i broke yet another rule that i always warn people about.
Never upgrade any part of your computer (hardware or software) during a project if you don't really have to. Especially when the project is near completion.
So, guess what i did... yep. I decided that it wouldn't be a big deal to go ahead and update my OS to 10.4.5 from 10.3.something for no good reason. Midway throught the update, the Apple updater program warns me about something that has failed
and the system needs a re-bootin'. Ooooooh Kaaaaaay. Reboot.
wait
wait
wait
Nothing.
machine will not come back up.
*eyes turn white and begin darting around the room ala David Banner*
I will spare you all the horrors that soon followed, but suffice it to say it looked a little something like this:
In the end i got really lucky, after doing an OS re-install i only had to reinstall
the MOTU drivers for my 2408, the drivers for my little remote control thingy, and copy all my plugs back into the library folder and when i brought up DP, (and the New Ancients project) everything worked. (as far as i can tell). Whew!
So last night we had quite a large crowd stuffed down there; little Nick showed up:
and we finished up the main vocal for "Jesus Master". Christian's voice was still recovering from 2 weeks ago, but he had just enough gas to get about 5 takes of the song down. As soon as we heard him getting tired, we sent Steph and Alex out for some Riccola throat drops... (Ricco-Recon). In the past, i've had great results with this little bottle of throat drops called "Singer's Saving Grace". It's a super expensive herbal tonic of sorts that helps give extra life to a tired voice with only a few drops down the hatch. When we were tracking vocals for Million Time Winner's "Writing The Broken Line", Christian was drinking this stuff constantly, and it really worked! Give him another one Stpeh:
It worked! Here's Christian excited about finishing yet another main vocal part:
Next, it was on to some horn parts for the choruses of"Happy Souls". Matt Pucci came in with his trombone and quickly nailed his part:
He needed a music stand for the notes he wrote, but of course all my music stands have somehow mysteriously dissapeared into the briney depths of the ORB basement. It's like the Bermuda Triangle down there. Here's what i'm now resorting to:
About an hour later, Blue showed up with the trumpet again and played a part over Matt's 'bone. Warm up, QUICK!
Eventually everyone left leaving me and Blue to finish his part up, giving us peace and quiet to get work done. We pushed Blue's lips pretty hard... he hit some crazy high notes for the rideout of the song. Let's just say he wont be blowing up balloons any time soon. I bet this morning his lips are swelled up like 2 big red hotdogs. Ok - 2 more sessions and this thing is done, for real. Thanks as always to the great Tom Sasso for pics and vids.
So there it is.
And here IT is, your moment of Zen, courtesy of Alex:
posted by pete at 11:06 AM
3 Comments:
you animal!!!!
have fun with that thing... it's a great unit!
where'd you get it from?
now all you need is some decent monitoring to actually hear what that can do ;-)
hmmm - methinks you should've invested in monitors first. you have a mackie now, right? those pre's are not bad to start with. having that vintech in your setup there is like having a ferrari with wooden wagon wheels on it.
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