Five years ago or so, Ocean Way opened a facility in Nashville. They bought an old stone church at 1200 17th Avenue South. They converted it into a recording studio, and took what I assume was the rectory next door, and turned it into offices. The main room is where the pews would have been, and the stained glass windows are still in place. This lends a very nice light in the space, though everyone who looks out the windows might not approve of the religious images that they see. The woodwork is a light and airy raw sienna color, and is quite attractive. The space that would have housed the altar and back have been converted into a control room holding a large Neve console with GML automation, a machine room, a booth holding a grand piano, and various smaller rooms. Today, just in front of the control booth glass is a temporary stage made from risers, a center stage podium, and a table and chairs to each side. Flanking the riser is a PA system made up of Genelecs and small traps. Today there is...

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Showtime! The first thing that we should say is that the attendance was huge, breaking last years numbers. So anyone who chose not to show at the Summer NAMM definitely lost out. In fact, even Sunday was jamming. Yet Sunday is a day that is traditionally slow in the trade show market because it is the last day and a lot of attendees leave early. The poor economy has caused an impact in almost every part of the country, and the musical instrument business is no exception. This impact has manifested itself as a move to conservatism in product and product releases as businesses try to support and expand on successful products. Though there was no shortage of new products, there were fewer wild and crazy products, and more practical and well thought-out products. Garry and I are a particularly good fit for a show like this. I tend to run around, get an overview of the whole show, and select what I want to check out from what I have seen and from what I already knew that I was looking for. I tend to make snap decisions and judgements, and I fly on instinct a lot. On the other hand, Garry is very methodical. He goes into a booth and slowly chews his way through the information one booth at a time, digests it, and makes his decisions. He also has very good instincts and between the two of us, we tend to see what is good and what is not so good with most products. I know that I can always rely on Garry for a balancing opinion. We don't always agree, but we always watch each other's backs, so to speak, each picking up on things that the other might have missed about a product or solution....

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ATI - The guys from ATI show up with their high end products and just make me drool every show. I bought an ATI mic pre last year, but I've been hot for an API for a long time. Though the models haven't changed, they still warrant your attention. The 512 module is a classic mic preamp and daddy of the 500 series of signal processing and racking choices. The 200 series is a more affordable and smaller solution, with it's own racking options. The 7600 Input Module channel strip and the 7800 Master Control Module are single rack space pieces that can be chained to suit your needs. Of course, you can opt for the Legacy or Legacy Plus full-blown studio consoles. http://www.apiaudio.com. Garry: Moog - Moog introduced the Piano Bar, a MIDI controller for acoustic pianos. The Piano Bar rests just above the keys on the piano and senses their movement and velocity using infrared technology. I attended a demo of the Piano Bar after the show on Saturday. We were in a small...

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Chick singers are a dime a dozen, expensive at that price, and mostly downright forgettable. There are a handful of female artists who can rock my world, but most are from the past or distant past. Yes, I still play the occasional Joni Mitchell CD, and even Judy Collins seminal "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" gets a spin now and then. Janice and Grace get played some, too. But Melissa Ethridge and Mary Chapin Carpenter are about the only contemporary female artists that I listen to with any regularity. Enter Mary Fahl, definitely NOT a ‘Chick Singer". Most certainly an Artist of the finest caliber. Live…. I had been a fan of "The October Project", and I missed my chance to see them before they broke up. So when I saw that former "T.O.P." lead singer Mary Fahl was appearing locally, I made it a point to go and see what she had to offer. Her show was a couple of days after my birthday, in the middle of a celebratory multi-Gemini group-abuse week, and I almost did not make the performance. Life issues...

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I've been upgrading my studio for a couple of years now. Each improvement and change has brought other weaknesses to light. Each improvement has been a double-edged sword, bringing both the joy of better audio and the curse of finding yet another area that could be addressed. All along the way, various friends have remarked upon my lack of a world-class large diaphragm tube vocal microphone. I have an eclectic and interesting mic collection, and there is little to complain about. But when it comes to large diaphragm condensers, my choices are middling at best. I have a Neumann U-89. I have a pair of AKG 414s, one with the C-12 capsule, one with the newer capsule. These are my main choices. I have an Oktava 219 and a pair of Cascade M-20s, none of which I have ever used. It is easy to see that my options are not horrible, but not up to par with the rest of my system, and there is nary a tube to be found in the bunch. I look at mics the same way that I look at guitars, amplifiers, and mic pres. This...

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So, I've been tied up a while, and not as available or hanging around as much as usual. I've been both on the road sporadically, and swamped with work. Now this has never stopped me from participating on line before, so what has been the problem for the last few months? After all, all the hotels and venues are wired… I've had a nice little Sony 505HS for a few years now. Great little machine, with a 500 mHz Pentium III processor, 128 megs of RAM, large hard drive, nice screen, and every type of interconnection I could imagine. Less than an inch thick, and under 4 pounds, it has been my constant companion. I even have done some minor recording projects on this machine. Anywhere that I might be, I could write, work on any of the corporate jobs I might be involved with, or hook up to the internet and keep in touch with all of my friends. Sure, the floppy and CD drives were loose and connected to the computer in a variety of ways, and there was a docking bar needed to get to the video, parallel port, and serial port, as well as gaining access to more USB I/O. So if I wanted to carry all of the accessories and a few blank disks I was really talking about a lot more weight than just 4 pounds....

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Okay, so you know that I have just got the new studio to the point where I can start to put gear into it. I'm chomping at the bit (heh heh, bit…. What, you aren't going to byte on that one?) to get some recording done. But I have other issues. First I need to put in the speakers, run some tests, take some measurements, and properly treat the room. I have done much of this work myself, and with the help of my friends and particularly with the help of my brother Bob. I'm just not up to tackling another DIY project for the studio right now. In the past I have either built all of the studio furniture myself, or contracted out to have it custom built. The new layout requires new racks and a new desk. I did have one custom rack shopped out. Built from all birch, it is a dual 12-space rack with a birch tabletop, on 4-inch wheels. Still, I need a new main desk, and a couple of more rack spaces wouldn't hurt. So I look at the pre-fab offerings. I'm not too excited about any of them, but I was sort of attracted...

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When we speak of art, and in particular the art of music, we are always relating to how the music has affected each of us on a personal level. Few musical artists have so broadly affected not just the music, but also the culture of the western world as the Beatles. That's an undeniable fact. Their impact on the recording world was equally strong. Love them or hate them, the face of pop music, how it is written and recorded, and how artists are treated, changed radically because of the Beatles and George Martin. Many of you are too young to have been affected by Beatlemania. I happen to be just barely old enough to have experienced it. But this was not where the Beatles came to the forefront and made the changes that I spoke of above. That came later. At first, the Beatles were just a pop group. Another, of many others, they were disposable entertainment for the masses like any other here-today-gone-tomorrow pop group of the time. But this is where fans are born and where young lives are affected....

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In the Field So we have had the C-28s at the Benedum Center for a couple of weeks. The Pittsburgh Opera is presenting Puccini's "Turandot". Through the good graces of house sound engineer Chris Evans we have used the C-28 in the orchestra pit. We started out putting one on the violins. We could have moved the microphone all over the orchestra, but the characteristics seemed rather obvious. Thus we decided to live with the C-28 in one spot in order to gather a better feel based upon a longer-term observation. Our reference microphone for comparison is the AKG 460, and we have nine of them scattered about the orchestra. Where we have replaced a 460 with the C-28 the results have been very interesting. We carefully matched the levels. There are no effects in play, and we are using a Midas XL-4 console. What I expected: I thought that the C-28 might be a tad noisier, with a little less low end. Since these microphones are an evolutionary progression from the C-28 through the 480, I anticipated that the earlier iterations would not stand up to our modern expectations....

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Am I in Heaven, or what! The Gibson Les Paul. Quite a guitar. From Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton through the Allman Brothers and Joe Walsh, to Slash and... er... Les Paul... some of the most famous guitar players in the world have used the Les Paul to obtain their signature sounds. The most famous and desirable of all the Les Pauls is the Les Paul Standard. Produced from 1958 to 1960, this was a cherry sunburst instrument with 'Patent Applied For' Humbucking pickups. The "Burst" is the Holy Grail of Les Paul instruments, fetching stunning amounts of money on the international collectors market. A fellow that I know brokered a deal to sell one for $125,000. Unbelievable. But my favorite Les Paul has always been the original, simple, elegant gold top Les Paul Model guitar. The year is 1952. Gibson has partnered with an innovative inventor/guitarist to create a new and different kind of guitar. After several prototypes and modifications, the original Les Paul Model is introduced to the public. The model proves to be very popular... in fact, it is probably the most popular signature guitar ever produced. Within two years there is a Junior model and a Custom model. Over time, there dozens of Les Paul models are released: Florentine, The Paul, The Les Paul, Deluxe, Special, Signature, Triumph, Artisan, Artist, and a host of others. Now, there are signature versions of this signature model guitar from artists like Jimmy Page, Zak Wylde, Peter Frampton, and others. ...

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Outside of the I. C. Light Amphitheater, a multipurpose venue on the banks of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, a small group of stagehands is walking in little circles. Right now. I just came from there, where I was walking in little circles in support of these stagehands. Carrying a sign. Shouting slogans. Giving the ‘Power To The People” fist in appreciation to all the passersby who demonstrated their support. I believe in and support organized labor. The only chance that the average worker has of getting a fair shake from management and owners is ensconced in the power that a united work force brings to the table. This situation is one that hopefully will resolve itself to be a “Case-In-Point”.

The Tattoo Crew We call the I. C. Light stagehands “The Tattoo Crew”. They are the same guys and gals who work many of the smaller venues in Pittsburgh, unloading trucks and humping ever-increasing amounts of band gear, PA, and lighting rigs. At this particular amphitheater they work under a huge...

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How did this project come together? In early September I was brainstorming ways to raise awareness for the studio in the community here. I was also trying to think of a way to raise some funds - and also create a small record label to release some local talent. I have a healthy obsession with soul music, especially the Muscle Shoals sound. I thought it would be interesting to do a tribute to the sound and get some bands in here to record various songs. I walked around the city putting up flyers and even had a small write-up in one of the weekly papers here. You not only got the project rolling, but you managed to make some connections that would not have occurred to many of us. I decided that I'd like to contact Jimmy Johnson to make sure he was okay with the idea, and also to see if he would like to write liner notes. I still planned on the release to be a small 500 run local affair. Jimmy loved the idea and was interested in coming up here to co-produce some of the tracks. After I pinched myself,...

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I don't really know Chris Mickle. I think that this is odd, since we are in the same business and have worked many of the same venues and worked with some of the same artists. Sort of a small word/big world situation. We've recently began bumping into each other on line, and find that we have a lot in common. Chris's live recording trucks turn up at places like South By Southwest and Red Rocks, and the client list includes such artists as Puff Daddy, Melissa Etheridge, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Ani DeFranco, Dave Mathews, and other high visibility artists.

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So Wither the Old? I did get tired of the same old sound of the same old outboard gear. But there were a couple of categories of older gear that I never got tired of. Like I said above, old guitars, old amps, and old microphones really seem to retain their charm for me. Garry Simmons picked up a nice dual-tube large diaphragm microphone a few months ago. I thought that it was a great idea, and that it was time for me to get a new microphone, too. We share microphones back and forth, and our collections really compliment each other. I was considering a Korby large diaphragm piece. I would like a couple of DPAs. A newer Soundelux was calling my name. Even a couple of AKG 480s wouldn't hurt, although I have a few very old AKG 451s. They might not be as quiet or have as much low end as the newer AKG 480, but the 451 will do the same job adequately for my purposes. I have a few newer inexpensive microphones, and I have even picked up a pair of the Oktava 012s and an Oktava 219, which are really...

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Last month I detailed the fun that I had in acquiring a pair of vintage AKG C-28 microphones. This month I have done a lot more research into this model, replaced one of the capsules, corrected some errors in some of my earlier information, and spent a lot of time bending Tracy Korby's ear about my new acquisitions. I had hoped to have the mics and power supplies in hand by now, but unfortunately they are not ready yet. Still, I have discovered a lot about these microphones. Let me share some of what I have learned with you. AKG: A Little History The two men who started AKG got together in 1945 with the plan to make theatrical loudspeakers, projectors, exposure meters, and other products for movie theaters. Post-war Europe was rebuilding its destroyed theater industry, providing a fertile market for the right company. Ernst Pless and Dr. Rudolph Goerike made several profitable products between 1945 and 1947, at which point they founded AKG, which is the acronym for "Acoustic and Cinematography Equipment"....

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So, waddaya wanna talk about? Procrastination is my enemy. By screwing around, I have been scooped by other writers, beaten by changes in technology, or have just run out of enthusiasm for certain topics. I was going to write about the big deal issue that was a major concern to the professionals. Watermarking of digital audio has their ranks in an uproar and has got as much discussion on their forums as Napster has gotten on other, less professional forums. But that has now been done by one of the print mags. I was going to write about DVD-A, explaining it and talking about why we may or may not want it. That, alas, has also been done. I had a great article all assembled in my head about DVD-A packaging. At one point this was the major obstacle to getting DVD-A on the shelves. (Yawn.) Who cares? DVD-A should have been a major product release for this Christmas season, and the post from which would pivot major changes in our software, hardware, and delivery systems. It could have been...

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Drowning in the River... BP: Like you said, everything was hitting. Through the various people that the bunch of you knew, you had the ear of the majors, and a lot of stuff from our area was begining to take off. NN: It was a team effort. BP: As a result, Tom Cossi, Bobby Z, and Harry Turner got together and started River Records. Tom, Bobby, and Harry were pretty heavy-weight industry professionals. This made for a very powerful management team with a huge success potential, and they were all your friends. Yet you went your own way. NN: I ended up not being involved in River Records. Those guys were strong, and they had their own product vision, and they wanted an act to come in and do what they wanted done. I started getting hip.. I was lucky enough to go out and tour with 'Kiss' and 'Ted Nugent', 'Blue Oyster Cult', and 'Kansas' and all these bands. I started to meet the Detroit people, and I was getting offers to play in bands like 'Brownsville Station', 'the MC5'....and I started to...

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Is That A Saftey Pin Through Your Nose, Or Are You Just Glad To See Me? BP: Now, Diamond Reo goes through some serious changes, and morphs from being a pop-rock band through that hard rock period, into being one of the first punk bands in Pittsburgh. I had lost touch with you guys, since I was pretty tied up with the production gig. But I went to see you at the new club, Phase III. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, but I knew that it was way too loud for me. The energy was undeniable and infectuous... you could almost cut it with a knife and the whole room was pulsing with it. Tell us about being into punk and promoting punk before the national labels had grasped the concept and started making money from it. You had packed houses and people were loving it, but at that time it wasn't just an unrecognised music, it was an invisible music. NN: It was a fantastic time, and to this day I feel incredibly lucky to have been involved with Warren King and Frankie Zuri. We were out on the road with...

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Keep On Growing But after a while I realised that I wanted to go to another level. I was getting back into pure music for music's sake. I was getting seriously into playing guitar and my songwriting was developing. The excitement of being an underground star was starting to wear off and I found myself going back to my roots, the Frank Zuri and Warren King thing of working your ass off, singing your ass off, playing your ass off. I wanted to be associated with that and I felt like that was where I had to go. I didn't want to be Iggy Pop... a fifty year old punk rock guy... and I started to see that coming towards me. I was extending my horizons. I wanted to write like Frank. I wanted to sing like Frank. I wanted to play like Warren. And my guys couldn't play what I was writing, and they didn't want to practice. They thought that they could just keep making a living doing what we were doing and if I was any good at my job, they didn't have to work or practice, just show up, do the same schtick and collect...

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Last week I had occasion to attend one of the NARAS "Ask A Pro" Series events. This one was Called "Radio Today" and the panel contained radio execs, program directors, DJs, and label representatives. It was an interesting, if somewhat disheartening event.

The Spirit of Radio Since the late 1920s, it has been all about radio. In the 40's the first rock and roll records were played on the radio and a synergy was created that exists to this day. Rock and roll radio rules the airwaves, and impacts the lives of most Americans at one point or another as they follow their daily routine. The really cool thing about radio was that it seemed to be a place for rebels. Small owners ran stations the way that they wanted to, playing the music that they wanted to, supporting the causes that they believed in, and catering to their own particular if not peculiar audiences. The parallels to rock and roll are inescapable. When I was a kid, I lived for the music on the radio. It was my escape from the loneliness...

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Show day. The grind begins. This years NAMM show seemed to be about percussion. Lots and lots of percussion. All sorts of drums, cymbals, and other hitty-things filled booths and displays on all floors. There were also a goodly number of folk instruments...dobros, fiddles, digeridos, mandolins, etc. This was kind of fun.... it didn't have much to do with computers or pro recording, but as a performer I found the resurgance of 'acoustic' instruments to be refreshing. On our trip through the booths we met Lucinda Ellison, of Lucinda Ellison Musical Instruments, who makes mbiras (thumb pianos) and other interesting acoustic instruments, and Bob McNally, the designer of Martin's Backpacker guitar and creator of his own line of stringed instruments, including the Strumstick. Thier booths were side by side, and right next to the Heartwoode booth. Heartwoode makes a neat guitar strap, constructed from small pieces of various hardwoods. You might have noticed the interesting strap that Carlos Santana uses......

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Roger Norman Roger W. Norman has spent the majority of the past 20 years working in the Personal Computer industry. He has designed networks for the Internal Revenue Service, the US Navy, the FAA, the US Army, and built major programs within the Social Security Administration. Six years ago he left the corporate grind to run his basement facility, SirMusic Studio, as a full-time endeavor. Roger has not looked back since. Seems like my first real memory is waking up singing ‘Davy Crockett' and everything goes from there. I've always had a guitar, even if the first one was plastic with plastic strings. I learned to play piano by banging away and seeing what happened. I've played in tons of bands, I've always liked recording, and now I've got t