Archive for October, 2006
Studio Upgrades
Oct.22.2006
A small window of opportunity gave me the chance to make a few needed upgrades to the studio. One was easy. The other very complex.
The easy upgrade was the addition of a new keyboard into the studio. We took delivery of a new Korg TR-88 music workstation. This unit features 88 weighted keys and an impressive sound engine. But, like most things digital, a bit of a learning curve to get up to speed with the more advanced operations. This unit replaces the trusty old Roland JV-80. In service since 1991, it was getting a bit long in the tooth. Amazingly, the JV-80 still works well so it may yet submit a few more sonic riffs in our studio productions.
The tough upgrade was moving the studio DAW to Pro Tools HD 7.1 cs10 from 6.9. This was a major upgrade which required a complete rebuild of the studio computer: new operating system, incremental builds of Pro Tools, upgrades of software plug-ins and system testing.
I am most of the way there.
The Apple G5 tower is a fabulous computer. I have a dual processor configuration running at 2GHz. The unit has 4GB of RAM and almost 2 Terabytes of online storage, two high-speed 250GB internal SATA drives and an array of firewire and USB offline storage. No need at all for me to upgrade this machine at the hardware level. I love this computer. Stable. Reliable. And high performance. Perfect for audio.
I needed to move from a 10.3.6 build of OS X to a 10.4.6 build. My Pro Tools technician highly recommended a clean install.
I did a full image backup of the old system disk and I did a clean install of Tiger 10.4.6. I had a minor hiccup in that I needed to update the firmware of the SuperDrive. The computer would not read the install disc. I know it sounds a bit odd, particularly to Windows users, but I had not updated the studio computer at the operating system level for about two years.
So, a firmware update allowed the machine to read the install disc. And, within an hour, a clean install of 10.4.6 was ready for Pro Tools.
Where to begin? Software licenses had to be registered. Pro Tools, and its related plugins, are all managed by license dongles called iLoks. I have so many plugins that I use two iLok dongles. I had to go online to register the new Pro Tools license and get it deposited into my iLok account. And I had to go to the iLok site to transfer the license to one of my iLok dongles attached to my computer.
Of course, the new install of 10.4.6 did not have the appropriate client to perform this transfer and thus began the night of a thousand downloads. iLok client, Pro Tools 7.0 software followed by 7.1cs10 and assorted plugins.
The iLok update and the Pro Tools HD updates were not bad. But the plugins? My goodness.
I had to update virtually every software plugin in my Pro Tools HD rig. I have somewhere over 100 plugins. Thankfully, some of them are suites, but nonetheless, I had to update about 70 times. Go to website. Download compatible plugins. Run the install software. Test to ensure the plugins instantiated properly by running Pro Tools and exercising the plugin.
Granted, almost all of the software manufacturers provide an unlimited software license for their plugins. Which meant that they had updated their plugins to work with Pro Tools 7.x and offered the download without charge. All but two.
Sony charged me $20 USD to download the upgrade to their Oxford EQ plugin. Okay. A minor annoyance. Waves, on the other hand, won’t allow me to upgrade my plugins without becoming current on their maintenance program.
I initially payed close to $2,000 USD for their plugin suite in 2003. Shortly afterwards, in a controversial move, they decided to implement a maintenance program to allow owners of plugins to keep current. I am not aware of any other plugin vendor that does the same. And so you gamble. Will there be enough of a change to your existing plugin suite that the cost of the maintenance program is worthwhile? In my case no. But now I have to spend almost $600 Canadian just to allow the same plugins to work under the new Pro Tools environment.
The phrase “rip off” comes to mind. I wish I could get off the Waves plugs but I do use a number of them. And virtually all of my sessions over the past several years use them. I am between a rock and a hard place.
A huge amount of time was spent upgrading the software side of the Pro Tools rig. I have been up to about 2am over the past couple of nights getting this stuff done. And for those of you who know me, 10pm is my usual bedtime.
Oh, yes, my blog went down for several hours yesterday. I received a number of emails alerting me to this fact. My hosting service had not allowed enough space for the database service. Their issue and they fixed it relatively quickly. Thanks for letting me know.
Xbox Saga Part II
Oct.20.2006
After a rocky start, it looks as though the Microsoft machine is beginning to gain momentum. I received not one but two emails from my friend XBOX_.0000.NA.00.EN.MVN.MSI.00.T01.REP.00.PI.
The first email:
Dear Customer, We have received your Xbox at our service center. It is our priority to process your Xbox in a timely manner and to get it back to you as good as new. We will contact you as soon as we are finished so you can get ready to get back into the game!
Thanks, Xbox Customer Care
Note: This is not a monitored e-mail address.
And the second:
Your Xbox Video Game system has been shipped! You can expect to receive it in 2-5 days. Thank you for your patience and get ready to get back into the action! Your shipping information is provided below for your reference.
Much better. Hopefully the unit finds its way home sometime next week.
Looks like I was wrong about how long this would take to resolve. A couple of weeks is no big deal. I’ll post the epilogue and close out the series when the machine gets back into active duty.
Talking House Productions
Oct.20.2006
It has been a little while since I profiled a high-end recording studio. Talking House Productions is a new facility designed by the Walters Storyk Design Group. The studio was profiled in October’s Mix Magazine.
Stephen Luczo, former CEO of hard drive manufacturer Seagate, helped to bring the studio up in San Francisco. Check out his compensation here to help you understand what it takes to build a new studio in San Fran.
A nice SSL console in the main mix room. A flickr photoset of the studio construction can be found here.
Dolphins, Water, AIDS
Oct.19.2006
An Ipsos Reid survey, conducted for the Muttart Foundation, found that churches are less trusted than charities that do work for animals, the environment and social services.
One-third of Canadians have little or no trust in church fundraising. The full report on the Canadian view of charities can be downloaded here.
Moving On
Oct.19.2006
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report in August which highlighted an interesting finding: the average person born in the later years of the Baby Boom has held roughly ten jobs between the ages of 18 and 40. These jobs were with different companies and not a different role within the same company.
Seems like a lot of job shifting. A new company every couple of years?
Looking back, I moved around quite a bit in my twenties. Various summer jobs. But, once I graduated from university, I did very little moving around.
Remix
Oct.18.2006
I downloaded the multitrack stems of several songs from the Barenaked Ladies latest CD. I know. I said I wouldn’t. But I was interested in hearing the individual stems separate from the final mix.
The project was recorded at a private studio called Fresh Baked Woods owned by one of the band. I haven’t seen their studio but I have seen the console they are using. It came from Le Studio, a high-end recording studio, now closed, that used to operate in Morin Heights, Quebec.
Bob Clearmountain mixed the project at Metalworks.
The tracks sound great.
I have closed off a couple of remix projects. A lot of artists go at it with little or no understanding of the recording process. And the result is an uncompetitive sound that cannot gain airplay. Self-produced projects are hit and miss particularly if the artist has no production experience.
I worked on one remix project recently where everything was just poorly done: tracking, mixing, performances. Very little could be done to salvage the project aside from starting over.
Why release such a project? Got me. Maybe for friends and family. Competition is really tough out there.
XBOX Saga
Oct.17.2006
Six days have passed since I last made contact with Microsoft. The challenge: replace a defective XBOX. The process: as long and complicated as possible.
I made mention of the experience that I had with Apple in replacing a defective component. Online access, a few data fields and, with a click of the mouse, all done. New component arrived next day.
“Unbalanced!” the critics proclaimed. “It was just a battery!”
Okay. So let’s play this out. It took over two hours on the phone to initiate the first stage of resolving this defective product. Several hours later, I received a confusing note about hearing more from Microsoft when the next stage of the process begins.
I heard nothing further. Six days go by. And, yesterday, we receive a box from Microsoft.
Yup. A cardboard box. An empty cardboard box. And it only took six days to arrive.
There was a piece of paper in the cardboard box. Barely legible, I guess their printer was low on ink, the paper directed me to pack my defective XBOX into the cardboard box, place an address sticker on the outside of the box, and call Purolator to pick it up.
Where will it go? Who knows. How long will it take? Who knows. What happens if it gets lost? Who knows.
I am willing to say that we won’t see an XBOX for at least a month from the date of the first call.
I’ll post on the progress of the XBOX saga.
Kurt Browning and BNL
Oct.15.2006
Lorraine and I were invited to a box at the Air Canada Centre to see Kurt Browning‘s Gotta Skate VI. Also on the headline were the Barenaked Ladies, now known as BnL.
I wasn’t too keen on the skating but I was really interested in hearing BnL in concert. The band and the material were both great. The sound was just plain awful. I cannot recall the last time I heard a professional sound system come across so poorly. Very disappointing.
BnL has a great website with a very interesting feature. You can download the multitrack stems for some of their songs and remix them. I guess the proliferation of wannabe recording engineers has reached mass market. Or, more likely, the proliferation of PCs with recording software.
For a couple of dollars, you can download 16-bit/44KHz stems and remix their songs. Upload them and they will get judged. Check it out here.
Neat idea.
I like the band. I need to pick up their latest CD. Without the bother of having to remix it myself.
25 Greatest PCs of All Time
Oct.13.2006
PC World created a list of the 25 greatest PCs of all time. They used four factors to determine what made a personal computer great:
- Innovation
- Impact
- Industrial Design
- Intangibles
Number one on the list? The Apple II computer. This computer came out in April of 1977 and the model line continued until December of 1993. I owned one of these computers.
Number two on the list: the Compaq Deskpro 386. I was number 17 on the wait list in Canada for the original Deskpro 386. It arrived within days of my oldest son’s birth.
Number three: Xerox 8010 Information System. Never used one.
Number four: Apple Macintosh Plus. I loved this computer. It came out in 1986.
Number five: IBM ThinkPad 700C. The classic laptop. I used a 700C for over 8 years.
I am pleased that I had the good fortune to work on 4 of the 5 greatest PCs of all time. Take a look at the article and go back in time. Some great computers. The picture below is from the original marketing brochure for the Apple II. June Cleaver is preparing food and Ward is checking his stocks. Remember folks. This was the 70s. And is that picture of an apple, to the right of June, by chance?
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
