A short pencil is better than a long memory.

Forgot my password. So, Haven't posted in a while.
Wow... so much going on.

I am feeling a little less smart after getting a new Apple Pro - Dual Quad Core - Thingy? You know, the silver 'tower style' computer? It's for producing video - along with Final Cut Studio 2.
Thankfully the manuals that the Apple Pros use to learn all this stuff are available at peachpit.com. Until I get them I'm basically fumbling around.

Also, Google Scott Copeland. He's a singer/songwriter and a really funny guy. He's had his songs done by Cross Canadian Ragweed. (They are friends of his.) He came in and did ten hours on a project. He'd intended to just come in with his guitar and do 'demos', but when his friends heard about it - they all wanted in. The result is a "damn Fine Sounding Bunch of Songs" that we might turn into his next CD. The best part was how they just got together and jammed. It's a sound you don't get so much these days. Makes me glad I went ahead and built a bigger room for this kind of project.

Now that gets me on a personal Soap Box; Musicians come to me upset with the projects they did at other studios all the time. Their main complaint is that they can't do one thing or another... They can't play all together, or they can't use amps, or they have to record vocals a certain way. Since when are there rules on how to be creative?

I had a decidedly Punk inspired band in to record. The singer had been in another studio and thought he had to do his vocals in the vocal booth. He was surprised that we could give him a quality hand held mic with a long chord and let him basically sing like he does on stage. His, and the rest of the band's performance was off the charts compared to the way he'd been forced to do it. (Plus - it took less time.)

Is the 'forced conformity' with hack producers and studios another reason so much music sounds lifeless and uninspired? Hhhhhmmmmm.

Trying to beat the rain

The final push is on to get the add-on in the dry before expected rain this week end.
This morning I ordered the metal for the roof. It rained on this last part once already and that was enough.
Folks got a laugh when they saw my little Beetle pulling a trailer with the motorcycle on it this morning. I wanted to get a bunch done today, so - after going to Garner Pipe to order the metal roof (and prepay for it - new policy) I pulled the bike to the dealership in Ft. Worth. They'll have it a while.
Then I took the Beetle in for some service it needed. When they said they need to keep it over night we had to stow the trailer at the dealership because they didn't have a loaner that could pull it home.
When I finally got back I was able to put some skin on exterior walls before clients came in. That felt good, but tomorrow will have a big hole knocked in it when the dealership calls. They are glad to provide the loaner, but the agreement says to basically bring it back the minute my car is fixed.
I'm not complaining, really. It's good to be busy... especially now that the studio is my full-time job.

Blogging takes more Commitment than I have

Between recording most every day and building on in the time left - there isn't much time to keep the blog going. Maybe thats a good thing.
Calvin Milburne is in the middle of his CD project. We may even record some live shows for "hidden tracks".
Mickey Moody is producing and it's not going to sound like every other Texas Country CD out there. In fact that came up in conversation tonight. Has anyone else noticed how so many artists in all the genres are sounding so much alike?
All night my phone was ringing. (silently) Tomorrow I'll be returning those calls and hopefully booking more studio time.
It is hard to be working all the time with this great motorcycle weather we're having.

60 hours in

Brady Bowen's project is sounding great! The PlayBoys are as fantastic as ever and Tommy Alsup can hear the slightest out-of-tune note deep into the mix. Overall this is the best project Brady has brought to our Little Ol' Studio.
Principal recording is pretty much done and we've been shaping up the mix as we go.
A few vocal parts here and there and we'll have it.
Now we're just trying to get it finished up before Tommy goes to England again.

Not "The Call", but it'll do.

The day starts off bad. Girl wants to sing with a track... so far so good. But she doesn't like the track she has and wants to take the vocals off the original. "Oh, but we don't have the CD. Can we use this mp3 I downloaded?"
As if mp3 doesn't have all kinds of weird artifacts - try listening after it's had it's vocal channels cut out. (I think I heard a message from space in there.) The splashy sound from the track is affecting the vocal.
But at least she has a track for the person putting her video together, and they promise to bring the real CD back later. These are the days I wonder if it would be better to have a 9 to 5.
Back to the add-on and I'm laying tile in the soon-to-be completed downstairs bathroom when Brady Bowen calls. I almost didn't get to the phone in time.
He was checking availability for a CD project to follow up one we did in 2006!
Tommy Alsup (Google him) will be producing another western swing CD for Brady here at RoughWood Studio!
He set up the dates and will be bringing the "Original Texas Playboys" back again.
Tommy is walking history and sought after by modern artists in all genres. It's gonna' be great to work with these guys again!
Wow.

Rappers

The guys from GrindHouse came in to record some more material for their upcoming CD.
Just to blow off some steam, they did an extended freestyle over one of the beats they brought in. They rapped right over the chorus parts and just riffed till the music stopped. The intention was to loosen up before the real work started.
After they left I pulled up those tracks and started assembling them into a pretty good sounding finished track. It's amazing how you can take parts and assemble them together without it being obvious.
Of course this was just for fun and practice... Their real tracks are start-to-finish with no editing. That's how they roll.
(I know. I'm so white.)

A Great Day

Wesley Orbison, Roy Orbison's 's son, brought his band by the studio today. In four hours they had 4 songs tracked. They sounded great and everyone said they had a great time.
Last year we did a CD on Delbert McClinton's son, Monty. (Notice a pattern here?)
I started back to working on the building when I got a call that really made for a super day.
Maurice Davis called from New York to tell me they expect to do two projects at RoughWood.
That could mean a six week lockout, or longer!
Now the reality is starting to set in that this could be some of the most crucial work I've done yet. Major market release and all. I hope I'm up to it.
Oh, and the stairs turned out perfect. I should forget how I did them pretty soon.

An update on Wesley's project:

I always tell clients to live with the music for a few weeks. Listen to it often and pick it apart.
Their drummer has a great ear, and he came in to 'tweak' the mix. Actually we made some major changes. It really sounds great now!

A big hole in the wall

When she came home and saw that I'd cut out the wall going into the new part of the second floor my wife said, Wow - we've got a giant hole."
I'd planned on skinning the wall on the outside - putting in the header, etc. - and leaving the wall in place for a while. (The inner-most part at least.) But everything was going so well, I just wanted to get it opened up. Also, I couldn't start putting in the ceiling in the addition till the wall was gone.
Well now the ceiling is up and we even got the super-duper attic door put in.
The 8 foot by 8 foot opening is sealed with a tarp and several moving blankets from the recording studio.
Tomorrow, the stairs!

Maurice Davis

Maurice Davis came in from New York to do his second annual Christmas concert at RoughWood Studio. He had to change up the songs because he'd blown out his voice, but he still sounded great. A few days later we were having dinner and he wanted to re-sing some of them to send to his manager. We recorded the songs that night.
Maurice is an amazing talent. Check out his myspace and listen to some of his music. His CD will be out in '08. "All lies are one size" is one of the new songs that made the cut. Fantastic!
You'll be able to tell your friends you knew about him before he became famous.
Also, I just found out that a producer from the glory days of Sugar Hill wants to come in to do new vocals on some previously recorded tracks. I'm proud he's coming here because vocals are some of the most critical parts to record. He heard good things about RoughWood and chose us over studios he'd worked with in Nashville.

Walls are easy - stairs, not so much.

This has been a slow time for the studio in years past. I thought it would be a good time to work on the add-on we've been wanting. Clients didn't let up this year, but I've been able to spend parts of days working on the 2 story project.
Walls, floors, even the roof have gone well. The part that has me stymied is the stairs. It's a simple run of stairs with no turns or fold back... but I haven't been able to get it done.
When I built the original building I did the same thing. Then, when I knew I couldn't put it off any more, I built the stairs in one day. (And that was with a turn on a landing.) But it was a month before I could build a little 4 or 5 steps to a room over the main studio.
It reminded me of an old star trek episode where a computer did all the thinking for a group of very nice, but simple people. When they needed to do something outside their abilities the computer would tech them how. Problem was that the know-how only lasted as long as the thing they had to do. Afterwards, back to idiotville. That's how I'm feeling about these stairs.

"Famous People"

Have you met many famous people? I've met a lot of them between broadcasting and the recording studio. From actors and musicians to politicians, I've noticed some consistencies.
Genuinely nice people tend to stay that way.
Not-so-nice people get much worse with fame.
There still seems to be a pattern of needing to be nice at first, then needing to be left alone as they get famous, and then getting nice again as they gain confidence.
If someone isn't really that much of a celebrity and they know it - they tend to overcompensate.
In fact, I almost don't want to meet someone I admire for fear they'll be one of the 'not-so-nice' folks.