Valve Compressors and Angry Bees / August 28 2008
What the hell is happening in the control-room?
Insects and other creepy-crawlies love it in there: spiders, earwigs, flies, beetles, even Audrey – who is, of course, not an insect – has chosen an area under the mixing desk as her favourite sleeping-place in the whole house. And whenever anyone comes to visit, they always gravitate [...]
Morning Glory / January 31 2008
I slept so well last night, for the first time in ages.
I awoke feeling absolutely marvellous and leapt out of bed like a character in a mattress commercial. I had some difficulty putting on my trousers due to the spectacular case of morning glory I was experiencing – a prominence so uncharacteristically proud that I [...]
That Anti-Midas Touch / January 30 2008
Nelson Galaxy has been writing on his blog about his adventures in pro-audio equipment annihilation while he was here at Christmas recording his album. He isn’t alone. In my experience, his unfortunate potential for localised destruction of expensive electronic apparatus is quite common.
I had to ban a young bass player called Joe who was inflicted [...]
Evil Science / January 15 2008
Computers, like cars, are entirely problematic creations.
Yes, I know that without them, the world in general, and my life specifically, would be, in many respects, a far less remarkable place. I would not be writing this blog, for instance, if it were not for my PC; and I would have to maintain very bulky and [...]
Studio Monkey Enquiry / September 24 2007
I have just received a phone call from a young man who used to be one of my students when I was teaching at WNC.
I taught a two year BTEC course in Sound Engineering, but over the six years that I was doing it, I am sorry to say that out of the hundreds of [...]
Unexpected Landscape Feature / September 14 2007
I was searching last night for some technical information regarding dynamic microphones and valve compressors, when, after being online for about seven hours, I came to the end of the internet.
There is nothing there except a blank page that bears the legend: ‘You have reached the End of the Internet. You can now either: 1/Go [...]
Carpet Burns / May 14 2007
If ever you need someone to come to your home and do foolish things with the electricity supply, I’m your man. Similarly, if you have any expensive floor-coverings that you need to be comprehensively damaged by fire, red wine, strong coffee or superglue, give me a call.
This weekend, instead of benignly watching the Eurovision Song [...]
Air Indoors / March 26 2007
I’ve just bought a new air ionizer for the studio and it’s brilliant.
Ionizers reduce the amount of positively-charged molecules – ions – in the air that lots of electrical equipment such as one might find in a recording studio can produce. These positively-charged ions are converted into negatively-charged ions such as one might encounter in [...]
