The Life and Times of a Backyard Producer

Why does this pre-amp SUCK!

2005-07-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Cedub and I were sitting in the studio talking about the current level of power required by our Shure 57s. The 57 is the workhorse of the industry and to this day is often the first mic put on a speaker cab for a guitar (next to the 421), we love ‘em and use them all the time. The problem with the 57 is that you need a strong pre to make them get the level output that you want into your

96 degrees and no AC

2005-07-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Out of the blue comes this wicked hot day in the bay, and I mean seriously hot. Like a Texas hot, not a wussy San Francisco hot. We had to wrap up this weeks lab report recording and start the editing and mix down process. The issue with being in the studio is that you are surrounded by a ton of heat producing equipment. From computers, to monitors to amps and tubes and everything is like a

New Toys

2005-07-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

I have been looking that the new MOTU Traveler for a while now… drooling over its amazing ability, portability and the fact that it can be 100% firewire powered. Some days I would just dream about getting a Traveler and an X-Session USB controller and think about hooking up a killer live rig for doing shows. Last week I was booked to play a gig at the False Walls photo exhibit and house

Our New Mobile Rig

2005-05-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned in the previous post that we used that Audio-Technica AT835b shotgun with the Marantz flash-rom recorder for the Nick Mason interview. Chris and I had been discussing where we want to go for our own mobile rig.Chris did some digging (such as talking to some peeps at Alice) and I read some interesting articles about what other audio journalist use out in the field. We found out

Sunny California

2005-04-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t checked out the podcast yet, you really should. We have an interview with Nick Mason, the drummer from the seminal band Pink Floyd. It was an amazing experience to meet up with a hero and at the same time be part of a groundbreaking interview for an emerging medium.I haven’t had a chance to document the day so I will take a few seconds to write down how the interview went and some

Checking in again

2005-03-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

I was just handed the new Sia album (she sings for Zero 7) that I purchased from Amazon. I had to order it as an import because it seems to not be released here in the states (it appears to be the Chinese version), so of course it cost me an arm and a leg. I heard a version of Breathe remixed by Four Tet on Aurgasm and I just had to get it. I totally don’t regret it. Wow does she have such an

The show is live!!

2005-03-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Well, we finished our first podcast. It has been almost a month since we started and it feels great to have it done. At the moment I am sitting in the studio listening to Steely Dan’s Aja while waiting for the show to upload to libsyn and then I will push the new site when I get back to the house.Aja you ask? Yeah, well the more I listen to Steely Dan the more I get it. It is

The dude abides...

2005-03-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

So its posting season again. I seem to post every two months or so and I almost always promise to post again soon. Ha suckers! Anyways, I have been amazingly busy in the studio and trying to make Fake Science a reality. The good news is that FS is coming along brilliantly and we are doing some really exciting things. On the forefront we have been diligently working on our upcoming (or

The remix (or maybe its re-master) has begun

2004-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

A few years back Cell Culture (halon and cedub) started a project to write an atmospheric drum and bass album in Reason (version one at the time). The album became a five track EP and eventually it was finished about 2 years ago (version 2.5 then). Since then it has sat on a shelf and was something that got passed around via MP3 and a few burned copies to friends. So why did it sit around for so

Time flies when you are having fun

2004-05-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, its been almost 6 months since I last sat down and added to my blog. As usual, I have been swamped with work and other projects and I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write something up. Here is a quick overview of what we have been working on. Since the Terry Barnes project Chris and I have had a few acts come through the studio. One of the sessions was with another single

Mentally Dissecting Music

2003-12-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I had a chance to sit down and layout some thoughts for this blog. Time has been limited and work has been crazy. At the moment I am waiting for a new build to kick off, so I thought I would ramble for a moment. Over the years I have heard many people talk about how a person’s perspective of a subject changes as they learn more details about said subject. I guess this

First Lessons Learned

2003-10-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, we have recorded our first session. Chris handed me the mastered CD the other day and I have listened to it a few times. I passed a copy over to Niki and he made a comment about the stereo panning on track 5 being off to the right. As soon as he mentioned it, I realized I had been hearing it but just put it off in the back of my mind. The more I think about it

New York, New York

2003-10-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am back from a whirlwind adventure in NYC. I met up with Dave E. at the airport and we bounced into Brooklyn to see Anne. From there it was couple of days of record shopping, toy shopping, window shopping and good eats. Yesterday was a big day for Cedub Studios, yet (as usual) it seemed anti-climatic. Chris’ close friend and Code of the West front-man Terry was in town from Waco. Terry has

A Tale of Sound Nodes and DB Readings

2003-10-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a few days since my last post. Okay, actually almost an entire week. It has been a busy one for sure. Chris was spent all week working at home and I spent as many days/evenings as possible over there working on getting everything up and running with him. Chris spent most of his time setting up gear (computer, synths, etc) and wiring all of it together. A slow, methodical process

Simple moments

2003-10-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

Chris came up to me a few moments ago and had his lava lamp in hand. This is a pretty big symbolic moment for him. A few weeks ago we where talking about the key moments we have had since we started this endeavor. These moments may be obvious or maybe something small and simple but they still leave a lasting impression. One good example was breaking ground. Going over to his place on that

Big Weekend

2003-10-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

First off, I didn’t have a Friday entry because I was stuck in Jury duty. This was my second day back at the courthouse and I was not looking forward to getting picked for this 4-6 week case. I think that getting on a case would be fascinating but I have already purchased tickets for NYC and they were non-refundable. Joy. Luckily for us the case ended up settling out of court and I was free

The Big Box is dead, long live the Big Box!

2003-10-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

My good friend Niki of "Snowdonnas" fame IMed me today with a link to this Wired article. Here we are building a full production studio and you read an article like this and you think to yourself "Oh shit... there goes the planet." From one perspective this article is totally dead on. The music studio that we all know and love is a dying breed. There are a handful left (relatively speaking)

Fire up the van, we're going on tour!

2003-10-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am not going on tour but I had a recent conversation that has been gnawing on me for a little while. What does it take to make it?The old way was with your band. You practiced, and practiced, and practiced. Once you and the gang felt "tight" or "ready" you put together a demo tape with a beat up four-track. You put the tape in a manila envelope, added some pictures of your band in

Another Musical Match-up

2003-09-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Over the years as a DJ I often find out that an Artist that I am a huge fan of turns out to be the man/woman behind multiple projects. Sometimes I am aware of this connection, but sometimes it blind-sides me. Just a few minutes ago I tuned into Rhapsody and Amon Tobin was jamming along. One of the cool things about Rhapsody is they have these little blurbs about the artist you are listening to

What weekend?

2003-09-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

As usual my weekend was 80% work, 15% entertainment, and 5% home maintenance. One of my main focuses over the weekend was preparing for the next MAX conference. I have been invited to be one of the featured presenters. I will be presenting a session on Object-Oriented programming ActionScript: Design Patterns. MAX is the newly re-named Macromedia Developers conference. It used to be called

Google and Advertising?

2003-09-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

When I first set up my blog the advertising space above just said "This blank space provided by Google". I came back later to tweak my blog template, so it no longer said editMe! in the link section, and I saw that Google had put in some Ads. This is expected, since I am cheap and I am not currently paying for this service, but I was surprised to see advertising for Tannoy Studio Monitors and

Reasons?

2003-09-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah... I am starting a blog. This is my first one, thought it was a good idea, jump on the bandwagon, blah, blah blah. With everything that is going on at the moment I needed a place to dump some thoughts and post some links. For the moment this blog will only be updated by me (James) but there is a good chance that I will make this a collaborative blog with my business partner, Chris.