Whoa, dude.

Something to think about.

Some people think that one can become a buddha through meditation. This is wrong. The potential for Buddhahood is within your own nature. If it were true that Buddhahood depended on meditation, then if you stopped meditating after you became a buddha, you would become a common person again. The objective of practice is to be in accord with the natural way, so that your true nature can manifest itself. Just practice according to the methods taught by the Buddha and do not worry about being a success.

–Master Sheng-Yen

Just another day in paradise.

We know, it's been a long time. We have been working hard on the Corporate T-shirt record and it's due to be released September 18th!!! The mixes are done, now off to mastering. All I can say is we like it. We hope you will to. It's a stressful time around here seeing our baby handed off to the public, we will miss her.

Singer guy from Bullet 2 Black came by and laid down some backing vocals for there song Screaming Freedom. He was late. He got lost. He stayed for 10 minutes. Weird. They want a ton of stuff done for this one song, it will take some time to sort it all out.

Another group Mercy Screams recorded a tune a few weeks ago. The SBS animal contingency was scared to death of these guys! It's headed for a compliation CD due to be released sometime/somewhere. There are 4 bands we recorded for this so far. We are wondering what the future holds for the CD, guess we will see. We are in the 2nd mix revision for these tunes, and should be completed by the end of next week.

We started tracking a new band, Ash and the Standing. Amazing voice Ash has, and the band is just the tops. Really good people, we're hoping we can do them justice. Just watch out for Bongo Fury!! They will be putting out a 6 song something er other soon.

The "actual" SBS guitar cocktail lounge has been making progress as far as an album goes. Bucky Chairsteppin "stepped" in and laid guitar tracks and vocals for a song called "This is my life". Herman from Little Blue Pill has done some vocal work on it as well, and it's turned into a duet of sorts. We would like Clay from Corp. T. to do some vocals on the chorus parts, and Higgs Boson from SBS will be on bass and drums more than likely. Higgs will also be locked in the studio the September 12th and 13th to do the two acoustic guitar only songs going on the album.

Speaking of Higgs, did we introduce him yet?? OK, there he is. Go Higgs, Go.






In other news, Little Blue Pill has a new finished song out, called Short Bridge. Look for it, you will be glad you did. First tune with "Little Drummer Boy Danny". LBP seems to go through drummers like crazy. Wonder why? Well, here are a few:

1. How can you tell when your drummer is at the door?
When the knocking starts, it speeds up, slows down, speeds up..........

2. Why are band breaks only 20 minutes?
So you don't have to retrain the drummer.

They call me Higgs.

Ok, it's been awhile. Were busy. The gatekeeper of all things internet has granted us with a new super-duper hydromatic thing-a-ma-jig so we can broadcast once again. It's so fast I can't think of a darn thing to say.

Now Booking.

It’s a great time to book a session @ SBS! As you can see, Moxy our accountant is once again asleep at the switch leaving Steve in charge so you better hurry and get a great deal!!

Picture this.

Universal Bass Drum Movement Compensator

Yes, on sale now at your favorite guitar center store, only $129.99!!!! The UBDMC-2000!! We got one, why don't you?

I'm back.

Whew! Loud weekend. Friday brought LBP with the new drummer Danny. He's good, I'll post something with him on it somewhere on the Internet soon. Were still without bandwidth, but I found a spot I can drive to and "borrow" it. Worked on some new stuff and some old stuff till the weeeeee hours of the morning.

Saturday Frantic Past dropped by and cut two songs for a soon to be released something or other called "Kombat Kontrol". You can find there page HERE. It's great stuff. You need to check them out! Were all still jammin on it here @ SBS. We hope they decide to stop by again!

Saturday evening, Danny came by and did some tracking for the ever-ongoing-soon-to-be-released widget called..something or other for Little Blue Pill.
It's going great, he's got some of the older tunes and working on replacing the parts from that other dead-beat drummer guy who used to play for them (me...I'm the guitar rock monster guy now.)

Sunday morning saw vocal tracking in the "great room". For our mystery guest. It's best to do that early before all the animals wake up.

Sunday afternoon was mix time for Frantic Past.

Sunday evening 7th Sun hung out and practiced and played and played and played and played and played.....till the inky blackness of the early morning.

Monday we took a break and packed the bus up and went to Richmond. Schedule updates later as we find out just what the hells going on this week.

The 'EPI Bass'' LIVES!

Yes, the EPI has been resurrected. After several hours of 'surgery' last night I think we brought the old girl back to life, and she's chompin at the ampeg to be played once again! Which I did, till 2am. Now she's resting comfortably till Sunday when 7th Sun comes over. This isn't the real 'EPI', just a represenative photo I 'googled'. The real 'EPI' dosen't have a phase switch like this one.

LBP came by Wednesday evening after Ron from 7th Sun did his practicing, and 2 new songs are now in the first stages of being songs, instead of random thoughts. Friday night more of the same, this time with a drummer!

Corporate T is playing a show at the "Grapevine" this evening. Good luck you guys!

That's it for now. I gotta go break up Mr. Hamster and Steve. {AGAIN}

Guitars, Kadielack's and......Mic Placement

Yes sir, I met a dude named Kadielack. The next creature I meet that needs a name gets that name.

Below is the mic placement technique I used to record CTS last night in studio.

Real full, no need to double track this way. I was happy anyway. Phase was not an issue, you'll see. The album (or CD for you kids out there) is coming along great. I'll put up a sample of the guitar sound tomorrow. My thinking was since this amp has one speaker, putting a mic on each side of the speaker should get a little variation of sound if I pan each mic hard left and right. Since the speaker moves in and out I was hopefull it wouldn't move the same on each side with every push. It seemed liked when he picked the strings the speaker moved a little different on each side. This created a very slight chours effect, but more like the parts are doubled, without all the hassell of getting the player to try and play the parts exact 2 times. When he corded the parts the speaker seemed to move the same and no chours effect.

At least that's how my ears heard it last night. Today who knows.....

That's it for now.

No on-ramp to superhighway, from SBS.

The protectors of our Internet gateway decided to fly away and as a result SBS has no connection to the outside world. I have been forced to drop our posts inside a bottle and send Steve to the river to let them (we hope) float to the right blog. If you are getting this post in error we sincerely apologize.
Band happening updates:
Little Blue Pill thinks they found a drummer. Should know more next Friday provided the ENTIRE band shows up…(hint, hint). Clayton is back on guitar (thank God!) This isn’t the LBP blog, so go there to find out. The link is here somewhere. LBP is following me. Or I’m following them……I’m not sure how that works..
7th Sun is still planning world domination, but they aren’t doing much about it right now. I’m told to be patient and just hang on, so I’m trying to do just that.
Misc. SOLO projects:
The 4th song in the series needs lyrics. It goes like: “ Da-de-de-dum-da-da-do-BLEH! “ If you can think of something catchy, give us a ring! I’m sure we can arrange a nice prize for your troubles. (or not) It’s gotta be cool, I just can’t think of anything cool right now.
Studio happenings:
CTS is due in Monday. Guitar parts. Again. More BIGGER BIGGER I want the guitar sound HUGE!!! I tried to get them to just use bigger guitars but that wasn’t the answer. They couldn’t reach the frets.
Tuesday: A lonely day of mixing in the mix room. Just me and the hamster powered mix machine.
Wednesday is 7th Sun drummer practice. Then work on Lottery for LBP. I FOUND the swishy guitar part I was looking for so I’m going to try and make that happen. It involves a donkey, a mouse, a rusty bucket, and some plastic shiny nickerboxers known only to SBS. It’s gonna be cool. Steve is tracking down the donkey as we speak. It’s the elusive musicall don-… oh never mind.
Thursday: Were going to Denny’s. OK were not really, but I can dream can’t I? Nothing so far.

Hampster 'fighting' mad.

Mr. Hampster pictured above was quoted as saying "I'm fighting mad over the lack of posts here at SBS." After punching Steve in the ear he said, "Now get to it!!" Punching Steve in the eye this time he said, "I fight all of you's lazy bit***s!!"

That's one angry rodent!! Too bad for Steve today is Friday.....and the phones are out, and it's not raining, and my car's stuck......and..........Good luck Steve.

New Stuff in a Huff.

It's 10:37pm..... Do you know where you are??? I'm here at the "Brilliante Moreno Soindo" as usual. I need to get out more I guess and see some of the sights I guess.

Update#1 SBS or for are spanish fans, BMS : The Little Blue Pill song An Answer has been remixed and it's mucho calliente!! . It will give you that warm and fuzzy feeling hopefully or not hopefully.

Update#2 Corperate T-Shirt's next song on there soon to be titled album "Perfect" was mixed today. We all here at SBS are humbly awaiting the guys input on the song. OK not Steve, but he's been drinking all afternoon so the dog farting sounds fantastic to him right now. I only threw away 10 CD's this time...I'm getting better I guess. I had this idea for swirling vocals around a center distorted vocal, and was asking Sister Mary Terri why nobody had done that before. She was right, stupid idea....

Update#3 Band night for the band 7th Sun has changed to band DAY! Sundays Noon-3:30 pm. Be there (if your in the band) or be square. Nothing on the recording front just yet. I'm trying to get Leroy out of the 80's still.

That's it for now, get off the computer and go outside! It's nice out!

UPDATE.

'Sister Mother Mary Terri' says I should get go get Steve, and in exchange for some magic beans I traded back from the guy on the hill, along with a power supply, so I set free the hampsters and the wheels.  It's a beautiful thing to see them in the wild, chugging along in those shiny new wheels.  Now it sounds like a 747 is taking off in the mix room when I turn on the new computer.  If you enter, please wear a hair net.

Tonight a re-do of the LBP song "All Wrong" on the drums.  The drums sound is all wrong for the song 'all wrong'. Steve will be assisting with the set up. If time permits, more work on 'Lottery' as well.  I'm still looking for that swishy guitar part.  If someone knows where it is, let me know.

Later, Corp. T-Shirt is coming by.(I think)  Tim "Kenau Revees" What's-His-Face needs to finish his bass parts.  I hear tell there is another song floating about also. 

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New Mix POWER!!

That's right, SBS now has a dedicated mix computer in the mix room!  It's a quad, dual thing-eee with 'overhead underhang' and a chrome spun sprocket rocket.  I got it from a guy who lives on a hill.  I traded Steve for it.  I hope Steve likes living on a hill.  More later as I need to buy more hampsters and wheels to power this thing up.

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Logo Idea #1

Well here it is, picture is worth a thousand words I guess.........

Time to SELL SELL SELL!!!

I'm thinking of selling some gear, if anyones interested.(before it goes on ebay/craigslist)

1. UX2 Line 6 computer interface -
2. Line 6 Bass Pod Pro rack mount with footswitch
3. Fender Bxr-250 bass amp - needs a little work
4. Ludwig rocker drum set 2 rack toms, two 22 bass drums, 1 floor tom
5. big muff PI russian (green) distortion pedal.
6. Peavey TNT 150 combo bass amp w/15"
7. Brother-in-Law - free to good home.

How many of me does it take to change a light bulb??

So if you've been to SBS you know the quality of the speaker mains on the stage have been somewhat lacking for awhile. The left side horns or tweeters in the mains have been "blown" for some time now. Last week, while driving the mixer "under the influence" I lost the right sides. At least that's what I thought. Yesterday I finally get around to dismantling the cabs to see what's going on with them. I looked on-line for replacement drivers for the horns, or the "magnet" so to speak..seems there $300.00 per. WHAT??? When did this happen? Are they some sort of martian alloy I'm not aware of??

S.B.W. (saved by Wickipedia) once again.
I'm, frantically calling everywhere trying to get 2 for Friday nights session with Little Blue Pill and surfing with haste for over night delivery to no avail. Just then at the very bottom of the page for "compression horn drivers" on wikipedia I see the last entry that tells me Electro-Voice, Myers, and other speaker manufactures used light bulbs as limiters and speaker protection for their cabs.... OK....back to the stage, flashlight in hand, yep sure enough...mine got 'em to...and there blown. Now, where in the heck do I find a light bulb that looks like a fuse in Fredericksburg at 7:00pm??? Off to google search.."light bulb fuse"...zippo, "pa fuse light"..nada.."PA speaker bulb fuse"..ok! Parts-express.com has them, there 6.00 each....free shipping!! oh wait, standard ground service..5 days away....

In a crisis, think clearly Clay.....OK...call Guitar Center....(is this thinking at all?)
I ask for the guy I deal with, on hold for 5 minutes....he's unavailable meaning..."he's out back having a smoke"..."ok fine" I say with authority and like a man on a mission, <> "then..give me pro audio"...another 5 minutes goes by...SAME guy picks up..."pro audio, can I help you?" - are you f'n kidding me? Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess..."OK" I say, " I need a fuse bulb for my pa speakers". Long pause, and the reply I get, "We don't carry fuses sir"....translated means "I have no idea what your talking about, please go away, I need to sell some more of this craptastic stuff we have on the floor here." ....there's 30 minutes of my life I can't get back, thanks Guitar Center.

More google searching......I type "I need a Fuse Lamp Dammit" I get back "mini indicator lamp" @ Autozone website....no shi!!, now I'm getting somewhere....I pull up autozone, says they have them, but I can't see them cause I can't tell autozone what make and model my car is that needs one.....

OK, I'm on the right track, let's do this the 'ole fashoned way'....phone book and tele, call advance auto parts, there open till 10pm... COOL..mini indicator lamp did the trick as well. Got a box of 10 for 4.87.

After replacing them in the speakers, all is well. Glad I bought a box cause there is 2 each in each speaker cab....whew!

More T-Shirt, recording fun and life in general.

Last night recording the "T-Shirt". More bass and drums. My mix computer at home is downloading the songs from the recorder as I type this. Basically, the recorder has a built in FTP server, so I can transfer the songs to the mix computer and also back up the data. I really never thought about backups all that much until now...I noticed the other day as I was recording them, I got an unexpected error message on the adat..."Drive to slow" WHAAAAA???? In the 2 years working on the Alesis HD24XR I've never seen that message! Now, I'm scared to turn the damn thing on or off......Alesis makes a firewire solution for this. Pull the drive, plug it into another box and plug it into the computer..sounds cool...I think I'll sell that goofy UX2 thing and get one. There is also a soulution I read about over the HD24 groups @ yahoo that's a little cheaper. If you own one of the adats, you should be a member of that group. It's better tech support than Alesis!
There album is comming along nicely. The band is getting used to recording the way I do and things are starting to flow.

Corp. T-Shirt 1st test mix, for your pleasure..or horror..

First test mix for Say It - Corp.T-Shirt is up at 4Share. If your not in the band or affiliated with SBS well don't D/L it.

Please leave me comments...Play it in the car, in the shower, etc....

My thoughts:
This mix is really for bass and drums. I added the scratch guitar just for flavor, so don't pay much attention to it.

The kick drum has a little 'metallica' flavor to it...when newsted was in the band...not the receint stuff... You should hear a BIG "ca-thud" on a big stereo, or one with a sub-woofer, and hear the click with a little sub-bass on a laptop or computer speakers. One layer of the snare is panned to hard to the left. This was not intentional and will correct it later...Its the verb tail and it's to loud on the left side.

The rack tom and floor toms are panned hard left and right and a little uneven at the moment. I pan them all the time like this, and don't really have to, it's up to you guys. I think it gives a good stereo image of the drums, like if you were standing in front of the kit, that's what you would hear, it's just not balanced just right yet to me.

BASS - I bumped up the mid-range freqs and sprinkled a little distorted bass in the backgroud. That sounds not for everyone, so let me know what you think. For this song, it just kinda fit there, but while I think it going ok with the drums, I think a little drop in the mids on that rack tom may be in order. There is a ruff spot here and there with the bass but I can edit this if you like, or not... again let me know what you think.

I know you said you wanted to sound like those bands you mentioned, and it dosen't really but the mix just took me in this direction so far. That may change as guitars, vocals, and the like are added...

Line 6

So, the newest toy here is a line 6 UX2 with "guitar farm". It's got two mic xlr mic inputs with 48v phantom power, and two line inputs. I think the lines are for active/passive pickups for guitar/bass/what ever else you can think to plug into this thing with trim controls for the mic inputs, oddly none, for the line in jacks. I got this thing two weeks ago, but with the flu and just plain laziness as usuall, well I haven't done to much with it. I got it for the mix room, just in case I got "inspired", or need to add something without going down to the studio and taking all the time for set-up.

I did get it interfaced with the mix computer, and my DAW now can see two new inputs and outputs, but I can't seem to get the timing right. I played a new tune I'm working (184 BPM) on, and sounded on time till I played it back...way out...I think there is a BIG latency issue...More later...I'll post some sound samples later and more impressions of this thing.

New Recordings up @ myspace

Well, another Saturday........yawn

Music up for 7th Sun. I put them up on the Clayworks myspace.

I'm the drums and bass, and a guitar here and there.

Leroy Surles - Guitars, vox on "The Key"

Vic Tyler - Vox on "Eternal Lady"

Lottery - New tune from the 'Pill. or Recording yourself.

I'm working on this tune for 'the Pill, called Lottery. I spent most of last night on just one guitar part. One damn part! WTF? Seriously? I'm trying to get what i hear in my head on tape, it's just a bitch for some reason. The tune isn't all that complicated, really, just a few cords. I think the trouble is the way I hear it. The guitar I did finish, is panned to one side , and now it's time for another panned to the other side completing the parts of the first. Panned right and left, but not really panned full, just a bit.......or even at all...if I can pull it off. Now I need a sound for the second guitar. well, even a guitar for the second guitar. More of a wave thing I think, up and down, or something.
As I do this more and more, I can hear the little mistakes here and there and it just kills me. So I stop, start, stop start........

Welcome to SBS

Okay. Here we are at the Shiny Brown Sound Guitar Cocktail Lounge. The idea here a place to discuss current projects and 'goings on' at SBS. SBS is the name given to my audio studio that is currently under construction. So far we got a stage, pa, lot's and lot's of amps, two full sets of drums, mics, and the like. Planned is 12X14 control room, 20x15 live room, 3 isolation booths 5x7, another live room that's 25x30 with wood floors and vaulted ceiling about 32' tall.