Well, I had a very productive three-day weekend. We were able to take care of a lot of boxes — got our books on the shelves, got some artwork onto the walls, etc.
And I was able to start setting up my basement music studio. Got my Korg 01-W and battered old Toa amp from my mother’s garage, where they’ve sat dormant for years.
And the piece de resistance, the Sansui 6-Track Multitrack Recorder that we used to affectionately refer to as “God”.
The last time I used it, I thought it was broken — I got a horrible buzz in the left channel and couldn’t get anything to play normally. Hooking it up last night, I got the exact same problem. But, being a little smarter about electronics than I was at 20 (although, let’s be fair, not much), I was able to reason out that the problem lay not with the recorder itself, but rather with the RCA cable still attached to the stereo outputs after 9 years. A quick cable replacement and it’s good as new!
I dug through the box of tapes and regaled myself with some early-90s Wayward Sun esoterica that I’d completely forgotten about — Matt’s instrumental “Back to Reality”, Sam’s early gem “Just As I See You”, my power-ballad “Megan” (with lyrics by the eminent Weed), and hours of screwing around.
While I have no intention of living in the past, it’s fascinating to dig through some of these old recordings – rejected takes, partial songs – if for no other reason than to recall where we were at the time. And as I’m trying to go back into songwriting for the first time in nearly a decade, it’s nice to hear where I’m coming from.
I’ll try to hook it into my laptop and record some mp3s from time to time.
God
I worship at the altar! And if you remember, I called you four years ago asking for you to please send the god to me so that I could re-master some of that old stuff before the tape decays beyond repair.
Very cool that you dug it up. I think the masters will probably actually sound quite decent on their own, but with the regular high-end heavy stuff going on.
As always, my offer still stands 🙂 If you send the god to me, along with the tapes, I’ll happily re-master as much as I can, along with decent EQ, gain, and re-tracking in a modern studio to make it better than the original. I’m far more of an engineer than a musician these days…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Yes
I do remember the conversation. And it’s not that I don’t trust you – it’s just that now that it’s in my house and working, I’m just reticent to put it in the mail and part with it.
But that gives you even more reason to move back to the east coast!
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Ben
I might be able to help facilitate..
Perhaps this summer I could borrow “God” on Matt’s behalf. you could teach me how to use it (I’m only a half hour from you)..
I have a Computer with two stereo inputs on two seperate sound cards… That means I can send in 4 tracks seperately.. Matt could teach me the logistics of how to do it.
then I could email the seperate tracks to Matt and let him play.
Just a thought.
And Matty, you’re still a fine musician, mr. “I’m a big bad video game composer now”.
Big and Bad
Unfortunately, no matter what you do, you’re going to have some sync issues, since it’s a six-track.
Add another sound card to your system, and you’re perfect 🙂 Even then, though, I’m guessing there will be odd freewheeling artifacts.
The best way, if we wanted to actually do this, would be to dump all six tracks, make a .bun file, .zip it up. Ship it to me (one of several ways, we’ve done this before); perhaps the ideal would be to put as much as we could on a single DVD (you have a DVD burner, right?), then I’d extract the .bun files, adjust the levels and pans, change the EQ to match today’s standards (loud and compressed is always the best, they say), go about patching in the effects digitally that we did manually the first time (can you say “digital delay footpedal” and “crap, I missed my punch-in again!”?)…
It would be a project, but a fun one, that I’d gladly undertake in order to get digital copies of my old crap. It’s crap, but it’s my crap, and that of my best friends in school, darnit!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
DVD
Yes, i do.
Its a thought.. but lets let it lie till simmer.. (and of course.. if Ben is up for it..
(on a free day I would even trek out to him and load up my computer.)
Hilarious
Amazing to think what’s still works now. I still have the Korg T1 and the original PA system we used as my current computer-office audio system. Stuff works great.
It’s interesting that the last 10 years has seen a shift from recording hardware to recording software that can be managed off a single computer. Most of today’s recording and production is done on a single station.
Yeah..
check this out..
http://www.timpane.com/crawl.mp3
All done on a computer in my basement.. with only a computer (good sound stuff on it) a crappy mic, a keyboard just for MIDI input, a guitar and an amp, and thats it.
Recording Software
Yup — additionally, a friend of mine is supposed to be sending me some recording software (Adobe, I think) so that I can play around with some new tracks.
So perhaps, under Justin and Matt’s sage guidance, I would be able to dub all six tracks at a time directly from the multitrack onto the computer, and then ftp the whole business to Matt.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Go for Cakewalk Home Studio
If you have a PC, there are other options, but Justin and I use Cakewalk Sonar. Cakewalk Home Studio is the budget version of same, with almost all the same capabilities but lacking the high-end features like some expensive plugins.
You can pick it up for $150.00 direct from Cakewalk (for V2) or $229.00 (for V2 XL). Or you can frequently find new copies on eBay for less than $70.00. If for no other reason, I’d recommend using Cakewalk Home Studio or Sonar than for the fact that you can seamlessly trade tracks with Justin and me 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Don’t Get Adobe Audition
It’s not what you need. Get Cakewalk. It’s less expensive, and more home-user-friendly than Logic Pro.
Cakewalk!!
Sam.. if you have cakewalk.. collaborating may be easier than I thought.. Matt and I each have it.
OK I’ll see
Since I’m getting it for free, beggars can’t be choosers. One guy was going to send me Adobe, but another friend of mine offered me his software. Don’t know if it’s Cakewalk or something else, but I’ll find out.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Ben
Would you like Cakewalk? What version?
I’ll see what I can do.
Weed
Weed
You da man.
I don’t know – whatever’s good.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
What’s Good
I’m a computer geek, not an musician. Is Sonar ver four Prod Edition any good?
Weed
Yes, it’s good
Yes, I paid several hundred dollars for Cakewalk Sonar 3 Producer Edition back in August; 4 is the next version. If you happen to have money laying around to pick it up for Ben, more power to you 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Uhm..
Is there a place I could store about 684 MB of data I happened to find lying around in ISO format?
Weed
To BSA Watchdogs
For those of you reading this post who happen to be legal-action coordinators of the BSA (Business Software Alliance), everything you’re seeing here is TOTALLY legal.
Trust us.
FTP
Matt’s got an FTP site — I’m sure he can hook you up — I only have the vaguest idea of how it works.
Then I can download the ISO files of…uh…those pics from college that you found.
Thanks dude!
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Ooooooh!
Goth Justin!
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Goth
I, lord of darkness, thank you.