i guess this is officially my 'studio' thread now.
i started an earlier one, but since it really was just a diary to the recording of my Planet Records debut album, i thought i'd just link to that here:
Gonzo's diary, of the recording of the new album "Trouble"

from now on, i'll use this thread as the 'studio project' thread.

GEAR-
i've switched from a Roland VS platform, to Cakewalk Sonar Producer edition 4.0

my gear is very meager...

PC: Dell XPS dual core 2gig ram, WinXP, Sonar 4.0
soundcard: MAudio Delta Audiophile 24/96
Outboard gear: ART DPS (used as a convertor into 24/96 soundcard), A Designs Audio MP-1 mic preamp, DBX MC-6 compressor, SansAmp Bass DI, KRK Rokit monitors, Hafler power, Furman power conditioning.
Guitars: '84 Carvin DC200K, '86 Williams custom special, USACG custom strat, Taylor 414 auditorium.
Bass: Carvin LB70, Ibanez SRX 505.
misc: '81 Mesa Boogie Mark IIb 60 watt head w/Graphic eq, Roland 1x12 cabs with celestion greenbacks, Demeter Isolation cabinet with celestion vintage 30, Weber Mass Lite, Palmer PDI-09, ADK Hamburg, Shure sm57, AT4033.
Drums: Toontracks EZDrummer, plus live hand percussion via small conga set, maracas, shakers, tambourines.



the only thing i've changed, in recent times, is the addition of a couple of pieces of gear for quiet recording of my boogie amp at full tilt.

the WEBER Mass Lite, and the Palmer PDI-09.


a little info on the weber and palmer...


https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/masslite.htm


here's how i use it:

i go Mesa boogie Mark IIb 60 watt tube head/speaker out (8 or 4 ohm, it doesn't matter) into the Palmer PDI-09.



so, boogie speaker out into palmer 'INPUT', and then back out via the 'THRU', and that goes to the Weber, for attenuation.

From the Weber, 'speaker out' to whatever cab i want to use (the demeter isolation cabinet if i want to play loud, the celestion greenback cab if i want to monitor 'open air'.)

idea here is, if i want to record in the headphones, i can attenuate the piss out of the boogie, put it in the demeter, and you can't hear almost anything.....
if i want to play loud, and play along with my monitors blasting my backing tracks, i can use my 1x12 with the celestion, and play as loud as i want.. the palmer doesn't know the difference, only the weber comes into play, and since i'm not micing, there's no bleed over from the guitar cab and the monitors......

so, the 'BAL. OUT' on the palmer, is an XLR out, that goes to my mic preamp, digital convertor, and into SONAR.
the switches on the top of the palmer give me line level attenuation, and 3 different 'cab and mic' sounds.
i like the NORMAL setting the best. It's all passive, the weber and the palmer, so i'm not introducing any kind of electrical noise at either of these two units.

I'm surprised you have a single V30 in your isocab. In my experience single V30, especially pushed = thin & harsh sound. I'm thinking of trying gk100 in my cube.

well, i've gone round and round with several different drivers in the iso cab..
i had a legend 112, a carvin british series, a greenback (my favorite) and the v30.

right now, the greenbacks are in my favorite 1x12 cabs, and when i mic cabs, that's what i use.

the vintage 30 just ends up being in the demeter now, because i'm only using it as a load box.

Sorry to post a non-musical question; however, is this Gonzo a former resident of Briarwood? If so, this is Cyndi M. Nadine honey is that you? (had to throw something musical in there...)

hm....
could be.

briarwood, where?

LOL

gonzo's garage records' guerilla recording session

i was hired to run a recording session for a local original music band..."Kettlefish".

and the trick was, we only had one day to record the drum tracks for the entire album!
heheheh


holy cow, on one hand, it's quite the challenge, and could be fun...
on the other hand, What a Headache!

LOL


ok, so, here was the target:

7 good songs, to go on the album, out of 10 songs recorded.

if we're on a roll, maybe we get 12 songs.



so, we set up the gear and cables on friday night...
we then used saturday, as the mix-levels and headphone-levels session....
and the actual recording session on sunday, from 12 noon til 6:30 pm.

we used an alesis HD24 (at 24 bit and 44/1khz), and an Allen and Heath board.
the idea was, to have everyone else in the band, playing live in the same room along with the drummer,
but to have everyone (but the drummer) 'silent recording', with individual headphone mixes for everyone, via 6 auxillary sends on individual channels.

that worked really well, but took all day long saturday, to set up.... levels, mix balances, all that.

we recorded acoustic guitar direct, behind a gobo.
bass guitar direct, electric guitar via a Palmer Junction, and keys direct.


the singer was behind a plexiglass 'door' we built across an adjoining room.
this cut down on 'most' of the bleedthrough from the vox (he's really loud when he's singing).

so we started with setting the drum kit up, minus cymbals, since the drummer had a gig friday night, and had to use the cymbals with his 2nd gigging kit.

we used a matched pair of audio tecnicas for the overheads...
and a Audix kit for most of the drums- one for each tom, one large diaphram in the front of the kick, an akg on the beater side,
an audix on the top snare, and a 57 on the bottom snare....
and a 57 on the hi hats.

we had no external processing at all..

so all levels were set very carefully, with lots of headroom.

(that means, lower than i really wanted em- now that i've seen the files, i was TOO conservative! LOL)



we got 14 songs in 6-1/2 hours.


LOL



now, guess who get's to mix em'?

the kit:



here's the drummer feelin' the love:



the acoustic guitarist behind the 'gobo':



and, chad, the singer, in the box: