Tag Archive for: general

Leavin On A Jet Plane

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We are leaving Toronto enroute to Tampa through Philadelphia. I am waiting in a crowded lounge area near gate B8 at Terminal 3.

Poorly designed terminal I’m afraid. Check-in to boarding gate is quite a journey. Good exercise I guess.

My youngest son, 7 years old, is having a great time playing with his stuffed animals. Our flight should start boarding in a few minutes.

I sneaked my Blackberry with me on the trip. Looks like I will be able to keep the blog updated after all 🙂

Grand Floridian

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We will be spending a couple of weeks at the Bermuda Bay Club on Anna Maria Island. And, due to some difficulties booking our return flight, we had no choice but to spend some time at Walt Disney World. This will be our twelfth vacation at Walt Disney World as a family. We will be staying at the Grand Floridian resort.

And, as you can tell from the pictures, we won’t be missing the snow in Canada 😉


Anna Maria Island

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In a few days I will be at Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island with my family. I can hardly wait!


Back In The Saddle

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I will be heading out on vacation next Thursday for three weeks so fair warning as I won’t be able to update the blog during most of that time.

My next project starts up in January and it should be an interesting one. I have not yet held a preproduction meeting as last year was so intense. However, I think the project will involve more synthesis and sample work. Much of the recording that we do is working with instruments played live. MIDI-based production can be interesting and combined MIDI and live recording is always fun.

I have also put a hold on studio bookings after this project as I am in discussions on another potential effort to work on a compilation project.

I have a few more tune ups to do in the studio before heading out on vacation. I also picked up a new iPod last night which pleased my son very much. He quite likes the trickle down effect of my technology upgrades as he now receives my old iPod.


G Whiz

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In the event that you might have a need to do a crash course on the SSL G Series console pictured below I have good news. SSL has put up a shortform overview on the board here. Don’t worry about the registration step. The pdf file will download just fine without any registration required. I was asked to help out on a session with a G and it had been a while since I had worked on that class of console. A good refresher. And, if you are interested in getting a sense as to why studios still use these types of consoles over say Behringer and Mackie, then the overview will give you some hint as to the complexity and capability of the G platform.

The SL 4000 is a standard in music recording studios worldwide. And, according to Billboard magazine, almost 75% of US No. 1 singles (Hot 100) were recorded on G series consoles.


I Can Play This Here Guitar

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A little fun in the spotlight. Not quite on Broadway but a nice photo from the concert I played at last week. Looks like the fingers moved too quickly for the camera 😉


An iTune A Day

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Apple has finally opened iTunes in Canada. Songs are just 99 cents each and albums are $9.99 each. I opened my account yesterday.

I have migrated most of my CD collection to a media server and I carry about 200 albums on my iPod. I burn to AAC using 256kbps at 44.1KHz. The resulting output is approximately 8MB per song. I have tried a number of approaches to compressing audio and, prior to the iPod, I had pretty much stayed with 192kbps VBR using MP3. With the iPod I moved over to AAC. AAC at 256kbps seems fine to my ears. I cannot reliably differentiate between source and copy.

I’m not too sure about the iTunes standard which is 128kbps AAC. I will need to do some listening tests to see if I can live with it. Otherwise, despite the convenience of the iTunes music store, I may still purchase CDs and rip to a better standard than 128kbps AAC.

The Gambler

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The Gambler was a Don Schlitz song that was recorded by Kenny Rogers in 1978. The record sold tens of millions of copies and won a Grammy for Song of the Year. Larry Butler, who produced this project, won Producer of the Year. The Gambler spawned five made-for-TV movies as well as a mini-series.

I did some work in the studio where The Gambler was recorded. The studio is now called Sound Emporium. In 1978, Kenny Rogers recorded The Gambler in Studio B. Studio B was a small L-shaped tracking room and the control room held a Quad 8 console and an Ampex MM-1000 16-track recorder with JBL 4320 monitors. Today, Studio B hosts a Trident 80-B 32-input/24 buss console, a Mitsubishi X-850 32-track digital recorder and an Otari 90 II 24-track analog recorder.



I did not hear from The Gambler again until yesterday when he removed all the money from my bank account. The Gambler had somehow compromised the debit card and withdrew all of the money at the Windsor Casino. Looks like I will have to hold off on any equipment upgrades until the bank replaces the funds.