Neely Johns

I have put this off way too long...

2010-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

So much has happened since my last post, so I will try to get you up to speed quickly without boring you or shooting stuff over your head (which I'm sure I tend to do with some of my technical talk from time to time).

I have had continuing problems with my Mackie MDR 24/96 multi track. I took it back to the repair shop, and he started doing stuff with it while I was there. I kept trying to tell him that I had already tried this, that and the other, but he insisted on continuing to try some of these same things. I was getting frustrated with the situation, and I think he was too because he was starting to realize that he had never fully fixed the thing in the first place. He said he would look at it some more tomorrow, and that he would appreciate it if I could bring some other hard drives for him to experiment with. I'm not thrilled about it, and I'm pretty sure he wants to figure out what the problem is without me around so that he does not have to admit that he didn't do a proper job the first time around.

I'm not really upset with him though, he has helped me out for free with some other stuff. I had a blown crossover on one of my mains (Behringer Eurolive b1520), and he rebuilt it for free right on the spot. He also hooked me up with a free Yamaha 8 inch to replace one that was dry roting on a pair of really nice dual 8 tower speakers I have. He has also offered to replace the e-prom on a guitar processor that I picked up recently for about $10 (including parts, I will discuss this processor later).

So, I also recently made a few purchases on eBay, and got some new toys. First is a ProCo Rat. I have owned 2 of these in the past, this now making my 3rd. I always remembered it as having crushing drive and great tone. I got it in the mail and scrambled off to band practice early so I could play with it. I was less than pleased with it oddly enough. While the amount of drive you can get out of it is devastating to say the least, the tone left me wanting more. there is a point on most distortion pedals where once you turn the input gain to that critical mass point, you expect to get nice warn saturation after exceeding that point. Such was not the case with this pedal, it gave me more of a sloppy fart sound, almost a synth sound. I didn't enjoy the way it sounded, especially when I compared it to the on-board distortion on my Ampeg VH-150, the Ampeg completely destroyed the Rat. Tone, Balls, Saturation, every department hands down. It's still a new pedal, and I got it for a great price. I still have the box, manual, all that. Anybody want to buy a Rat?

I also picked up an Alesis M-EQ 230 and a Digitech RP-1 from the same seller, he cut me a break on shipping, and I managed to get both on pretty low bids. I was happy for a time. Then when everything arrived, to my surprise the EQ didn't come with the power supply. He was relatively quick to remedy that though, even though I am still waiting to get it. I also discovered that the it is an unbalanced unit, which is not the guys fault, I bought it without looking up the specs. I was a little upset at first, but then I realized that I am going to be running it through the mains inserts. which are not balanced anyway, and they are going to be on short cable runs too.

The Digitech RP-1 has not been a completely happy story either. One of the other guitarists in my high school band had one in addition to some other pedal board he had, and let me use it for a while. It ended up being the core of my tone for one of our albums. After the album was done I went back to my old stand by, the Digitech GSP-7. Anyway, I recently got another GSP-7, and the old high school band has been getting back together every once in a while to do some re-hashing of the old tunes, make a re-release album and maybe even do a show or two. This inspired me to get both the Rat and the RP-1 since I (at least thought) I missed the tones I got from them, and that they would be useful for the reunion. So I went out of my way to find them (and trust me it was not easy finding an RP-1 in good shape). I left the RP-1 on over night one day shortly after receiving it, not on purpose, but I did none the less. After having done that, I was fairly certain that it was in pretty good shape. It has a dark tone, almost too dark, but it's easy enough to fix with some of the filters it has on-board. I was happy, until a few days later I broke it out again to do some recording and it started rebooting every few seconds. It was an as is sale, and I think the guy knew exactly what he was selling me. I'm a little pissed. I have not left any feedback on his page for that particular sale yet until he responds to me about working with me on the issue. If he doesn't want to work with me, then I'm gonna trash him.

Parts-express.com is one of my new favorite places to do business. I have been having a roller coaster experience with my first transaction with them, but at the end of the day, it has been a good experience. I ordered 2 Peavey 400 watt (200 RMS) 15 inch drivers for a 215 cab I picked up for free a while back (I'm pretty sure I posted pics of it a while ago). They were only $50 or so each, with free shipping. Sounds like a great deal, and it is, except... When they got here, what they had shipped me were passive radiators. So they gave me a return ticket, picked them up the next day and checked them out (since I didn't recognize them for what they were at first). They sold out of them since they got the returns back from me, so they said they would do whatever they had to do to get me back in business. They promised me a pair of 600 watt (300 RMS) Eminence Beta series. I am quite pleased with this resolution. Now granted I have not seen them in the mail yet, but I am not really in a hurry, it was really more of a project cab, something to have in case I decided to pick up my bass again.

Max Thrash IV went well, mostly because it finally happened and didn't get cancelled due to snow a third time. About 60 people showed up, which is one of my better turn outs at the studio (which only has an 80 head cap). This was due mostly in part to the fact that I had Woodbine Hotline play, they always draw a crown.

I had a few problems with the system though. At one point during a set change, I hit the mains assignment buttons for the 7-8 sub groups (for no particular reason), and there was a massive boom, which made the Crown CDi 1000 (powering the subs) go thermal, and it would not come back up. I was pissed, but I had to roll with it. I had a Crown 800 CSL in the rack that was not being used, so I switched the subs over to it real quick and prayed for the best. Well, I have to say I was quite pleased with what I heard. I would venture to say that the 800 was punchier and had more bottom than the CDi.

Later in the night the amp I used to power the center stage monitors and the drum riser monitors went thermal on me and also wouldn't come back. For the sake of the artists who had to suffer with only 2 of 6 monitor cabs running I felt bad, but not for myself, I was almost relieved. It's a Gemsound EAX 1000, and I paid about $100 for it new. I have known it is a lesser amp, and have been looking for an excuse to replace it for a while now (even though it has served me well through some rather abusive situations).

Well I came back to the studio the next day to do some cleaning up and to check out the possibly damaged equipment. Everything seemed to be working just fine (except for the multi track of course). I'm VERY relieved that the CDi 1000 is still online, it is after all about the most valuable piece of gear I own (monetarily anyway). But it got me to thinking. #1, not having bins is not good, I need to split the load with another amp, which I have. #2 not having monitors is almost as bad, again I need to split the load, which brings me to #3.

#3, I don't just need to split the load here. I was using my smallest, cheapest amp to do the hardest work. That little EAX was pushing 2 different mixes over 4 different wedges, and the 2 most important mixes at that, center stage and drums. I have been getting a lot of drummers tell me that they need more in their monitors, and drummers usually do need the loudest mix. So I thought to myself "Why not get another amp and another crossover and use the 215 cab you just got once the new speakers arrive?" So I think that is exactly what I am going to do. One of the local music supply houses has a decent number of Peavey CS 800's for $200 to $300. That's a pretty solid investment on a work horse of an amp. I may pick up 2 of them once I get a chance to set some coin aside. The only problem now is to find space in the drum riser for a 215 cab, a 12 inch wedge and a 15 inch wedge...

I am going to post some videos at the end of this, but before I get to that, I need to tell you all about my latest find. I stumbled across this company the other day while cruising through eBay. They are called Seismic Audio, and they have STUPID low prices on their own brand of pro audio gear. They don't make instruments, mixers, mics and prob a few other things, but they make a lot of stuff that the struggling musician and/or studio engineer can use. They have 400 watt half stack cabs for a little over $200, with free shipping. They have 24x8 100 foot snakes with parallel XLR and TRS 1/4 returns for about $250, again free shipping. They have 350 watt 15 inch stage monitors for $260 a PAIR, not each. Or you can step it down to 250 watts for $210 a pair. And of course this is all with free shiping too. I think they have free shipping with everything. I don;t know if their stuff has the best tone in the world, or what their spec tolerances are like, but for the price, it's worth looking into.

So here are the videos I was promising...

First is an acoustic ditty I wrote, and Rachel maned "Tranquility" for me.

Next is an example of a harmonic minor scale/exercise in D played on an Ibanez RG-470 through a Digitech GSP-7.

the next 3 are sets from this past weekends Max Thrash IV

Woodbine Hotline

Big Whiskey

Brethren Boys

Well that's about all for now. Sorry if that was a lot. I probably missed some interesting stuff, but I'll be sure to let you all know about it if I remember.

Later,

Neely

snow and cancellations...

2010-02-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Life as we know it has been cancelled, indefinitely. We have had 65 inches of snow so far this season, which is a record in this area, and the snow continues to fall as I type. I have been killing my back and my arms, constantly shoveling every few hours to try to stay ahead of the accumulation so that we can get to our cars in case of an emergency, or who know what.

CARBONSTONE's benefit show for Haiti was cancelled completely by the venue. But otherwise things are looking up for the band. We have a number of other shows lined up, and we are constantly networking, making new connections. CARBONSTONE has just signed up for Radiolicious.fm, which is a streaming audio service. If you are a local musician, YOU MUST CHECK THIS OUT. The sign up and set up process is as simple as can be, and you are live and on the air as soon as your first song is uploaded. Our broadcast was up and running before I could even finish uploading all our songs, and their uploader is fast. You can check out or station at http://www.radiolicious.fm/artist/CARBONSTONE/38049.

I also managed to finally finish some video projects I was working on from a show I recorded at Fish Head Cantina on December 11th of last year. It was fun, and I managed to get some interesting results. See for yourself.

Some of the videos have rather unique musical style. Please feel free to hit me back with some comments about the music, audio quality, video quality and over all finished product. I'm not really looking to get into video production, it was just something I did for fun. The audio I was being paid to do, and it's what I do, so if you have any advice or constructive criticism, please let me know.

Postponed...

2010-02-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

CARBONSTONE's Rock for Haiti show was postponed in anticipation of snow. This is probably a wise move as we are expecting more snow in the Baltimore area than we have seen in some years this weekend. We are still waiting to hear from Rams Head Live as to what the reschedule date will be. It could be the 10th, the 15th or the 16th. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

Have not been here in a little while...

2010-01-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

A couple interesting things have happened since I posted last.

CARBONSTONE scored a show with Evolver on March 19th, which is cool. Brian, our buddy at Baltimore Sound Management has really been hooking us up lately with some good shows. Then last night we get a call from him again with a spot on a 98 Rock Haiti benefit. This is huge in 2 ways. One we get to finally do a show for/with 98 Rock in front of what will probably be the biggest crowd we have ever played in front of, and we get to do something good for people in need in the process.

Threshold Productions also has a show this Saturday at Jams Music Store, barring any inclement weather. I'll put up fliers for all of these events at the bottom of this post.

Last Sunday I was at the studio having band practice and managed to spill egg-drop soup on the console. As can be imagined I freaked out. So I ran to CVS and grabbed a can of WD-40 and a can of compressed air. Didn't seem to help, channels 2 and 3 were doing bad things when I tried patching them in. I was ready to resign myself to being the proud new owner of a 30 channel board instead of 32. The the owner of the store called me on Monday asking my why the mixer would not turn on so that he could play a CD. I was a little nervous at first, but we figured out that the power switch is backwards from what he was expecting it to be, so no biggie. Then he calls me Tuesday and asks me if I had come in the night before to mess with the system. I told him no and he proceeded to tell me about my worst nightmare. The system was making horrible noises, even with the console powered off. I started running through all the outboard gear over the phone to make sure he had everything turned on properly. I did hear the noise over the phone by the way, it was not pretty. So I said "you know what? I'm just gonna head on over there. Because if the mixer is out of commission, then I need to get the other one wired up in it's place for the show on Saturday". I show up and fire everything up, and guess what? EVERYTHING is working fine, even channels 2 and 3. I'm more than a little confused at this point as well as the store owner. I called the repair shop and told them to get me a number on a new 8 channel module just in case since it is being so unpredictable.

I also took the time to do a real nice, neat job of wiring the stage. I have never seen the stage look so free for the roaming, and there are 3 half-stacks and an SVT Classic 8x10 cab and head on stage, all mic'd up and ready to go. I Put the snake box under the drum riser, and took advantage of some of the rather well thought out holes that guitar repair guy drilled in the floor of the stage, and ran all the cables under the stage. I also tied the multi-track back into the system. That was the first time I fired it up since getting it back from the shop. I was happy to see it fire up and do it's job without flaking out on me. So, I'm all ready to do a multi-track recording of the show, broadcast a live board dump and video over the web, and still be able to offer a another board dump to anyone who happens to bring in their laptop to the show to record a particular bands set. I really need to set up my last spare aux out for broadcasting so that I can get a different mix, one better balanced for broadcasting.

That's about all for now. Here are the flyers...

Too many irons in the fire...

2009-12-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

Well first of all, last nights show went swimmingly. CARBONSTONE had the highest draw of the night, we even upstaged Psychostick, and we destroyed Dead by Wednesday. Bourbon Street was just about completely empty for the first two sets. The the place filled up all at once as soon as we took the stage. Once our set was over about half the crowd left. Two sets later Psychostick took the stage and did their thing. They did a great job, I loved their set, and even got a signed set list and a free CD. I almost felt bad that we had a bigger crowd than them. Once they did finish their set the place cleared the f*&% out, and there was nobody left to watch the last 2 bands.

We are in talks to play Noise In The Basement soon, hopefully that pans out.

And one other bit of news about the multi track, for those of you who have been following the roller coaster ride (see last post). I talked to the local Mackie repair place and they said there was a rash of problems with the main boards needing to be replaced because of a bad bios update and chips burning out, and that Mackie was honoring them as warranty claims because it was a problem they created. Thought I might be getting a new board for free, but such was not the case. They called me up and told me that it was the SCSI controller and it would cost $150 to fix it.

So, on to the "Irons in the fire". I have been cursed/blessed (depending on how you look at it) with a multitude of opportunities, all of which look appealing. The problem is that none of them are a sure thing, not even my current day job, which I love.

I am in 3 bands, 2 and 1/2 really since one is more of a one time project. CARBONSTONE is a fun band to be in, and we are being met with a lot of success and potentially lucrative offers. War Driver is also a lot of fun and lets me enjoy the heavier side of my musical tastes even though our progress has been slow, partly due to my cancelling practice a few times lately. The KATZI reunion project is sort of something that has been 10 years in the making, and something that has been put off for way too long. Then there is the studio and the shows I promote. 3 bands, a studio, a production company and a day job, none of which I am interested in parting ways with.

Problem #1, the obvious one, time in the day. How do I fit it all in with 3 kids, a fiancé and all that goes with it?

Problem #2, unpredictable schedule. Work has been slow, really slow. But I can't be sure from one day to the next if there will be work for me, so I can't schedule other endeavors around that down time, otherwise I would be in pretty good shape.

Problem #3, one of the bands takes off. If that happens I would have to pretty much drop everything else. The studio, the day job, everything, especially if touring is a part of the picture. We actually got a tour offer last night, but I think were going to pass on it, because it was one of the last bands, one that had no following. And were all in a position where we can only afford to go on a regional tour, one that allows us to be home most of the time, only be gone for a day or two at a time.

Problem #4, which could actually end up being a blessing. I just had a meeting tonight with a local "dude" who is trying to start a studio that is funded by doing corporate sound reinforcement. Mostly spoken word type stuff, maybe DJ stuff too. Sounds like a good idea, and he is also interested in promoting local music. He has a bunch of really good ideas, a small team of guys with some real world skills, a knack for marketing and sales and some good connections in the industry with real name brand people. What he lacks is lot of physical assets, assets I do have, and of course I have some skills to put on the table too. But this brings me back to the whole time issue. In order for this to work I would have to integrate this guys goals into the scope of Threshold Productions, and/or mine into his operation. I need to find a new name for my operation anyway since there is some techno DJ out of Scandinavia who uses that name. Otherwise we are back to the whole time in a day issue.

Well I guess that is all I really have to complain about today. We did broadcast the show last night, but we used a different service, www.bambuser.com this time. I will be adding an embedded player for that service at the bottom of this page as well. Check out the show archive, not the best quality, but fun to watch from my biased point of view.

Neely

Such a roller coaster we ride...

2009-12-09T21:22:00.001-08:00

I'm of course talking about my guitar and recording equipment as usual.

Slope #1, down: The Classic Chorus 212 dies.

Slope #2, up: Looks like it's not dead after all. I went to the studio on Sunday and lo and behold it's working just fine, even at high volume. I must have been using a crap instrument cable or something the other day when I thought it was dying.

Slope #3, up: I did a mobile multi-track recording at Fish Head Canteena this past Saturday, and mad e a few bucks.

Slope #4, down: I bring the multi-track home, start exporting the tracks to my computer and the thing takes a dump on me. Error code 43. Anybody good with a Mackie MDR 24/96? PLEASE let me know, I'm DESPERATE. I don't exactly have $1200.00 to replace this thing.

Slope #5, up (sort of): Upon dis-assembling the MDR I discover that I can add more RAM, RAM I already have several sticks of laying around the house. Part 2 of this semi-up slope is that I was able to remove the internal hard drive and salvage my tracks, so I can finish the project and get my pay, which I should really be working on right now.

Slope #6, up: Josh, bassist from CARBONSTONE has an Ibanez RG-6 that he is letting me hold onto, knowing full well that I will not be in a position to give him any money for it for months to come. It's a pretty nice guitar, medium blue with lots of sparkles. Humbucker at the bridge, single in the middle and a another humbucker at the neck, with a 5 way switch. Floyd Rose floater. I don't like floating bridges or locking nuts (which this guitar has both of) but this one is a little different, it stays in tune like magic. The action is low and fast. Again, I'm weird, I normally like my action a squeak high, but this one seems to work well for me nice and low. Oh and the pickups are supposedly something special, they have fancy model numbers on them. V8 (bridge), S1 (middle), V7 (neck).

Slope #7, up: I got a new toy in the mail today. A Digitech GSP-7, guitar processor. Apperently it's a guitar synth. Yes Brian, I'm playing digital distortion, or am I? That's what I really need to figure out. These things have an actual 12AX7 in them, but I have heard rumors that it is only for looks. The one Distortion setting that has the most saturation and gain is called "Digi-Tube", which of course is a contradiction in terms. There is also a "Metal Tube" Which has a nice dark warmth to it, but lacks a hair in gain and saturation, "Heavy sustain" which looses tone as you let it ring out but it does keep ringing, "Overdrive" typical flat over driven solid state sound, and then there is "Rock-Tube" which is good for low gain rhythm crunch, but with strong emphasis on the "low gain" part of the statement.

So I spent the late half of my afternoon sawing, cutting and drilling. I installed the GSP-7 into the Stereo Chorus head, and I think I did a fine job of it, I'll throw in a pic here at the end of this post. Then I ran off to a meeting, and afterwards I spent the majority of the night running through the different programs and fine tuning them. So far I have...

Patch #1, "Bitch": Basic high gain tube distortion for most metal power chord needs

Patch #2, "Low Gain Crunch": I think that one pretty much describes itself.

Patch #3, "Croon": For all your long, drawn out, half time, melodic solos. Little chorus, intermediate amount of reverb and lots of stereo multi-tap delay.

Patch #4, "Scream": High speed, high gain soloing patch. Much like "Bitch" but with a swell in the upper mid frequencies, simulating a volume boost.

Patch #5, "Deep Slow Chorus": A clean patch for ballad picking. Kind of like a clean version of "Croon", but with more emphasis on the chorus.

Patch #6 "Clean Delay": Just what is sounds like, with a little slow multi-tap delay and not too much feedback.

So now all I need is a midi foot-switch. I just want a basic 12 button without expression pedals. 1 - 10 and up and down buttons. I have a feeling I will have a hard time finding anything without expression pedals, oh well. You may wonder why I might not want expression pedals. First of all, I already have a volume pedal. Second the GSP does not have a Wah effect (which I don't use as part of my style anyway. And third, I dont think the GSP even supports it anyway.

Brain, Guitarist for War Driver, dropped me a link to some software that I need to look into. It uses midi to interface the GSP-7 with various recording programs. To what end I'm not sure. I have never fully understood Midi, or at least not all aspects of it, but it sounds like it could be a useful tool.

Oh, by the way, it's official. My phone does every F&^%ing thing in the G@$ D#%& world. I now have apps that make a my phone a chromatic tuner, a guitar (yes, a guitar), A piano, a drum machine, a bass synth, a VERY advanced metronome, a chord/scale reference (with modes) and lots more.

OK, that's all for now...

Neely

And here is a good funny I couldn't resist throwing in.

With a tear in my eye...

2009-11-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

I bid farewell to a guitar amp. It was a Peavey Classic Chorus 212. I bought it right after I met Rachel. It served me well in many ways. I used it as a guitar amp of course, but I also used it once to power a pair of bass bins, as a stage monitor, as a vocal amp and lots of other uses. It endured a lot of abuse, in particular using for the past 5 years with a missing heat sink. It also spent a lot of time in the rear cargo area of a compact SUV, constantly exposed to extreme cold and heat. I used it once to scratch track guitar for a local band I was recording, and the speakers blew apart violently. once that happened I bought a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 to replace it, which was the amp I really wanted when I bought the Classic. I hung onto it though, left it in the corner of the basement for a while.

Then I started upgrading. I got an Ampeg slant cab (w/ Celestians) and put the Classic Chorus back in service to power the cab. But then I got an Ampeg VH-150 head for the cab and back into the corner it went. Later down the road I got my hands on 4 more Celestians and put them in both the Classic Chorus and the Stereo Chorus and took the 2 Scorpions from the Stereo Chorus and put them on ice, wondering what I would do with them. It had been my intention for a long time to break out the saw and turn the Classic Chorus into a head one day.

A few months ago I decided it was time to get a straight cab and load the extra set of Celestians into it, giving me an Ampeg full stack. Got the cab, loaded the Celestians and finally got around to chopping the Classic Chorus down. So now I had either a full stack with 2 different heads to choose from or 2 half stacks, and of course the Stereo Chorus with the Scorpions returned to where they belonged.

Then about a week or two later I decided to switch the guts between the Classic Head and the Stereo Combo, which I did. The Classic Chorus was finally whole again, and not just whole but improved. It now had casters (which came with the Stereo Chorus), a vented top panel (standard on the 2nd generation Stereo Chorus), a semi-closed back panel made from parts left over from chopping the Classics's original chassis, a modular power cord(which I added) and I also added switchable external speaker jacks. It was an awesome amp, and I really loved it just as much as my half stacks.

Then one fateful day, 5 days ago to be exact, I went to the studio for band practice, powered up and started pulling levels. Something was wrong, I had to turn my distortion channel up way more than I usually did in order to get the same volume, and it sounded like crap. Switched to the clean channel, same story. I was upset, but didn't show it much, I just cranked it up and enjoyed my last few hours with it.

I can't tell if it's the main power transformer or if it's the transistors, I'm leaning towards the latter on account of the missing heat sink, but who knows. I may put some resources into figuring out what the problem is, but I probably won't get it fixed either way. It's a good parts unit to keep around. I will probably get another Stereo or Classic Chorus 212, I need a practice amp. What will I do with the speakers? I don't know, I will keep them on hand for something. I have always wanted to build a Scorpion loaded 4x12 cab, or even a full stack. No, I shouldn't, but I probably will one day.

So the amp is still at the studio, I need to bring it home and put it properly to rest. Let me know if you need any Peavey guitar amp parts.

Neely

Live video and other cool stuff...

2009-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

I get carried away sometimes with new tools and technology, anyone who knows me well knows this is true. I have a friend I used to work with at a summer camp who is in a band called iLyAimy, and she had put out a twit-book status update that you could watch her band play live by clicking on the link at a particular time. "Neat", was the first thought that came to mind as I began to recall my first experience with live Internet broadcasts. It was a Korn concert, and it was one of the first things of it's sort I would guess because their servers were slammed and it was hard to get in the Que if you lost your feed. The picture quality left a LOT to be desired and the audio was just as bad. After a while I gave up, it was too much of a fight to maintain a connection to a stream that was not so hot anyway. This was sort of what I expected when I saw the link sitting there in its glowing blue shiny-ness, waiting for me to click it. But boy was I wrong. The sound and the picture quality blew me away, especially since I was watching and listening to content being broadcast from hardware on a cell phone.

I have to hand it to www.uStream.tv, they have a really great service provided you have some half decent hardware, and I really mean it when I say say that it really only has to be half decent and not whole decent. For all of you out there with smart phones, GET THIS SERVICE!!! It's awesome and it will save you room on your micro-SD card as well as some hassle publishing your content. It streams audio and video from your phone (or your web cam enabled computer) live over their server, AND it archives it to their server for future viewing. You can also archive without broadcasting or broadcast without archiving. Once your content is archived you can then either download it to your computer as a .flv (other formats coming soon) or you can pipe it over to your YouTube account with a single click. How cool is that? They are also API'd all over the place, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc... including this blog. You can embed various parts of your account to other sites and services.

So I have added content from my uStream account to my layout here. Go to the bottom of this page to watch live video of the events I sponsor and more. There is also a chat box (uStream account required to participate) or you can tweet me live during my events. If you hear more than one audio source at a time, that is because I also have an MP3 player on the top of my layout. Just stop the MP3 player and enjoy the show. Now mind you I will be using a laptop with an external cam, broadband card and audio coming from a professional sound system, so the quality will be even better. I will probably start getting into the habit of dumping the MP3 player while I am doing live events soon so that you will not have to deal with stopping the MP3 player manually.

I was going to talk about other stuff in this post, but I got carried away with all this video stuff so I will get to other news in a later post. In the mean time, enjoy the live video whenever you manage to catch it.

Neely

A few videos and gearing up for the next CARBONSTONE and Threshold Productions shows

2009-11-10T11:14:00.001-08:00

LA Guns went well last Saturday. CARBONSTONE's fans seems to be very happy with the addition of my guitar.

OK, on to the videos. The first one is a video of Will and Clayton going into a wind tunnel ride at the mall that simulates 78 mph winds (supposedly a tornado). Enjoy...

The next one is Daniel eating a mini-cupcake in record time, if only he would eat his dinner this fast...

So I have 2 other shows coming up soon, well maybe 2, maybe 1, I'm not sure yet, I'll explain. The first show is CARBONSTONE opening for Psychostick at The Quarter at Bourbon Street Baltimore on December 11th. I'm more excited about this show than I was opening for LA Guns. The other show is a Threshold Productions show on December 19th at Jams Music Store. There however is a meeting with the store owners on Thursday. I have no idea what it may be about, they have never done this before. It is mandatory for all Employees, and all contracts (which is what I am) are cordially invited. I hope they are not closing their doors, that would really suck. I have a really good relationship with them, and if they close their doors I will have no where to set up the studio and no way to put on shows anymore. So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Maybe it's good news, who knows.

So anyway, I am trying to reload Adobe Creative suite, and it takes an absolute eternity, I wish it would just finish already so I can make these fliers.

Thrash or Treat IV, summary of a day...

2009-11-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

It was an interesting and eventful day for me, Halloween that is. Daniel was Pirate, Clayton was a Ninja and Will was Jason. CARBONSTONE had a bunch of candy bars made up with the bands logo and info in the outer wrapper. The chocolate sucks, but it's a pretty good idea. Anyway, Rachel and I took the boys around the neighborhood for about an hour. As we went from house to house I gave the CARBONSTONE bars out to some of the parents, the ones who looked like they might be into our music. The boys did pretty good on the candy, but oddly not many people came by our house, not that I really care though. After Trick or Treating, it was time for Thrash or Treat. Will and Clayton jumped in the car with me and we took off for the studio where I was about to have my 4th annual "Thrash or Treat" show.

This was the first show I have put on in about 10 months or so. This was also the first show I have put on since acquiring a couple new amps and a compressor for the mains. It took me the better part of the first set to get the compressor dialed in good, but once I did, it sounded great. It was impressed upon me though that I need to upgrade my monitor amps badly. The drummers for the last 2 bands told me that they needed a lot more than I was used to putting into the drum riser monitor, power wise that is. I did it, but noticed some funny smells and inspected the stage rack and found that the channel driving the drum monitor was really cooking, clipping badly. Nothing ever went up though, fortunately. So now I am thinking I should reconsider my plans to put every speaker enclosure on it's own amplifier channel. Instead I may parallel the mains again and use the 2 smallest "good" amps for the monitors and take the present ones out of service now. It would probably be a good idea, who knows, we will see what happens. One of the monitor amps has a little buzz to it anyway.

The first set was Redwud, these guys were really good, not what I was expecting. They were metal, but not as heavy as I might have expected. They are kind of like a metal jam band. It was really good though, they put on a really good show.

The next band was Entropy, I already knew what to expect from them as they are half of a band that has already played for us previously. Kind of Tool influenced hard core. Hard to imagine, but they pull it off.

The third band was New Wives. I don't really know how to describe these guys. It was just 2 guys. Vocalist/guitarist and a drummer. If it were not for the fact that there were only 2 guys on stage, they would have been hard to mix because the guitarist likes to run his amp LOUD, claiming that he gets better tone that way. I don't know how you get good tone out of a Mexican Strat run through a 4 x 8 vintage Fender combo at full blast, but that's the sound he wanted. I will try to keep my personal opinions about his performance out of this, and will therefore move on to the next set.

4th was The Devil's Last Stand, a Christian hard core act from southern PA. There were not many people there for their set, but they played like there were 1000 people there anyway, and they were really good. I can't say enough good things about them. Click the link at the beginning of this paragraph and check them out. I am defiantly going to hire them again.

The last act was Shane Conor, who is a very young kid with a bunch of very young kids behind him, performing some original and some cover songs in the pop-punk genre. I normally don't get into this sort of thing, and didn't expect much, but I was surprised. Shane sings for another band call Buck Fifty. His drummer also plays for The Doug Forester Band, who I have produced in years past. Shane's voice is slightly awkward, but he is on key and has a lot of heart. Between that and his ability to seek out talented musicians to back him up, as long as he keeps his heart, he will go somewhere. By the time he took that stage, there was hardly anyone there and it was pretty late, but they gave it their best anyway.

So how did I do? Well I didn't expect to pack the house, and I didn't. Halloween is a hard night to book, and as such we had 22 people pay to get in. I ended up with more security than I needed (that's a first). I took a loss for the night, but that's not a big deal, it was less than $100 lost, but it would have been nice to at least break even. Maybe next time. It was OK for a comeback show. I just need to get into the planning stages sooner and give myself more time to promote, which is what I always say. Maybe I will really do it this time. Wish me luck for the future...

Neely

What I accomplished today at the studio.

2009-10-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well first of all I slept in since I didn't have any work AGAIN! Then I went down to the studio to get they system ready for the Halloween show on Saturday.

I had to find a ground fault somewhere between the control booth and the stage, there was a horrible buzz, and it was even worse with tracks on the multi track armed and piping into the system. I also had to get the clean channel bypass working on at least one of my 3 rigs. It was not working on any of them. I need it working for the CARBONSTONE gig I have on the 7Th of November where we will be opening for LA Guns. We also recently secured a spot opening for Psychostick December 11Th. Sweet.

So I get to the studio, grab a diet coke from the Chinese food place next door and get to work. First thing I do is start taking EVERYTHING out of the loop as far as outboard gear goes. But then I reconsider my approach. In the back of my mind something has been telling me for months now that the problem is a phase difference between FOH and the stage rack, and more recently I have considered the possibility of A/C converters (wall warts) also being the culprit since I recently put all my outboard gear into a nice big rack that I got from a friend in trade for a smaller portable rack (we both think we got the better end of the deal). So I put every thing back in place and then run the splitter all the way up to the stage and plug it into the same outlet that the Furman (power conditioner) that all the amps are running through. The buzz in gone, sweet! But not so fast, I arm a track on the multi track and there it is again. Dammit! So I go poking around and find that when I move the Amphenol connector on the D-Sub cables back and forth the buzz cuts in and out. OK so I have an intermittent ground on the D-Subs, not a big deal since I can just push them around until the buzz goes away and pray that they don't migrate. Before I did all that I also moved the wall warts away from all the equipment and there was yet more improvement.

I did notice that there was an awful amount of hiss coming from the multi track with lots of channels at unity, but just hiss, no buzz. I generally am not running the board at unity when I am recording because the multi track is more sensitive than the amps anyway, so that's not a big problem, but one I would like to tackle eventually. I think the hiss is a result of the multi track not running balanced signals due to the fact that I do not have direct outs or returns, and as a result I have to use the channel inserts. I have a line on a 24x8 that does have them though, as well as a built in meter bridge, I just need to get some decent paychecks in first.

I'm also trying to put some money aside for a pair of Crown amps (2 more?, yes 2 more) that I have my eye on, to replace the monitor amps. So speaking of amps, I figure now that I have the buzz licked I should give the Peavey CS 800 another chance (that was the first piece of gear that I thought was at fault for the buzzing). Worked like a charm. So now I have the Peavey CS 800 running the top pair of full range cabs and the Crown CE 1000 running the lower pair. Then there is the Crown CDi 1000 running all 4 bass bins. The Crown CSL 800 is not doing anything right now. I need to change it around so that it is set up as follows...

CDi 1000 - Sound Bridge bins
CE 1000 - Behringer bins
SC 800 - CGM full range cabs (lower full range cabs)
CSL 900 - Behringer full range cabs (upper full range cabs)

Anyway, now on to the guitar amps. The Ampeg VH-150 (with Celestian loaded V-412TC) has a clean channel, and distortion channel and a separate level for the spring box for each. The Classic Chorus 212 (which was chopped down into a head) has a clean channel and a distortion channel with spring reverb and stereo chorus. The Stereo Chorus 212 has a clean channel, a crunch channel and a lead channel with stereo chorus and digital reverb and delay. But, as I mentioned above, the clean channel bypass button on the foot pedal on all 3 rigs is out. So the first thing I needed was a half stack with at least 2 working, switchable channels. Since I can dial the gain all the way down on the crunch channel on the Stereo Chorus and use it as a clean channel (which is what I have been doing in practice with CARBONSTONE) it made sense to switch the guts between the Stereo Chorus 212 Combo with the Classic Chorus head. So now the Classic is a 212 combo once again and the Stereo is a head. Now on to the foot switch. I opened it up and stated wiggling the cable around trying to find the intermittent part. I thought I found it, cut the insulator back and cut and spliced the lead to the clean switch. Didn't make a difference. Repeat process a few times, add head ache, add a few swear words and you get the idea to replace the cable altogether. But where are you going to find a shielded 6 wire cable on this kind of notice. I thought about using multiple PW291's and taping them together. It would work, but look like crap. The answer? Cat5! That's right, I wrote down the sequence and reassigned the 7 pin din connector to schedule 568B (minus the white/brown). I was worried because it is a smaller gauge cable than what Peavey had originally used, and I made it a bit longer than the original cable. But it worked like a charm, it's all just contact closure and some LEDs (which operate at only 1 volt), plus I saw that there was a bank of resistors in-line with each switch and LED, so I figure there can't be too much current running through it. If my foot pedal cable catches on fire during a show then I know I'll need different cable.

The Classic Chorus by the way decided it was going to behave, the clean bypass didn't give me any problems. I may go ahead and replace the cable with cat5 anyway, just to be safe. The Ampeg is only a 2 button pedal that uses any standard TRS 1/4 inch cable. It should not be too hard to sort out, if it become too much trouble I may just replace the switches or look into a whole new pedal, they can't be too much. Oh yeah, the output jack on my Schecter it being funny too. It may be time to re-do all the internal connections in that axe. Or maybe just the ones to the output jack, or it may be as simple as bending the spring for the tip in so that it makes tighter contact. Oh and one last thing, I put a modular service cord jack on the back of the Stereo Chorus head, so now the head is completely sealed. I may consider putting a cooling fan in it, but it has 2 huge heat sinks on the back so I should be in pretty good shape.

Until our next adventure...

Neely

The end of a sleepy weekend...

2009-10-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time "catching up" on sleep this weekend, Rachel and I sort of took turns dozing and watching the boys. Clayton finished his box finally.

He is pretty happy with it. I remembered why I like satin stain paints over gloss/high gloss. They run less and dry a lot faster. The most use these boxes have gotten so far is a place for the boys to store their MP3 players. I'm sure they will start to put other things of interest/value in them eventually, maybe money, etc... at which point I guess I will need to put latches and locks on them. I already have locks for them, they are cheap gym locker locks, but they will do the trick for our purposes. We have an extra PDA phone laying around the house that I have been dangling in front of Will in order to get him to straighten up at school and at home. I let him turn it on once a day to make a journal/diary entry and then he's done. Once he has earned it he will be able to use it whenever he wants as an MP3/video player, camera, diary. If it is still supported by the time he is old enough to have an actual working phone, then he will be able to use it as such also. I will need to get a memory card for it. Anyway, the point behind all that was that hopefully he will use his box to store that also.

Tomorrow I will drive in to work without calling first because I never went in on Friday, so I will still have a check waiting for me. If there is no work still, I will head straight to the studio and chase down a ground fault that has been plaguing the system there. At first I thought it was the in one of the amps, but it's a CS 800, those things are work horses, they never have such problems as an internal ground fault. The next thing to exhibit problems was the 2 channel compressor/limiter/gate I just bought. It seemed like one of the channels had some issues, among which was a 60Hz buzz. I am still inclined to believe it has a problem though because it is used for one, and second, it's a Behringer. So I took it out of the loop. Still have a buzz. The next thing that was showing problems was the crossover, it's a Peavey, but I bought that new, and have only used it a handful of times. Can't take that out of the loop. Then I noticed that I get a horrible buzz when I arm channels on the multi track, which is necessary when using channels 1 through 24 on the console because the multi track is tied in through the inserts, the console does not have direct outs or tape returns. The board is also a Behringer, but the buzz was defiantly coming from the multi track, and it's not channel specific. I have a hard time faulting the multi track though, it's the most solid piece of equipment I have, a Mackie HDR 24/96.

So what do I do? Because I seem to be getting buzz from the 2 Crown amps I just bought also. I guess I'm just going to have to buckle down and bench test every piece of equipment I have a all on it's own with some sort of battery powered source with a balanced output (which of course I don't have). Wish me luck tomorrow, I either finally get some hours, or I get the chance to spend some time sorting out this problem at the studio, which I really need to do since I have a show in less than a week.

In the music world, War Driver had their first practice in quite a while that included a bassist. Kevin was a little rusty, but he seemed to remember pretty much everything pretty well. I have practice with CARBONSTONE tomorrow night. We really need to get our butts in gear, well at least I do. I have only about 2 weeks to learn a bunch of new songs for our opening for LA Guns. That's a pretty serious gig for your first show with a new band. I don't want to mess this one up.

Neely

Day 3, no work still...

2009-10-23T10:30:00.001-07:00

I have half a mind in calling unemployment, but I know as soon as I do work will pick back up.

It's been sort of nice staying at home, getting to see the kids off to school, letting Rachel sleep in, getting to catch a few extra Z's myself here and there. Thank goodness I have band practice tonight though, or I would start going a little stir crazy. I should show up a few hours early for practice and get the studio in order. I have a Halloween night show and the PA is not fully operational right now.

If Monday is a bust at work I am going to start booking studio work, and if work comes up I will just cancel or reschedule the studio work. It frustrating. I wish either the sound/studio work would start filing in in enough quantity to keep me busy enough that I would not need a day job or that work would give me 40 plus and I could keep the studio as a hobby.

I have added music to my layout if you have not already noticed. It's all stuff I either performed, recorded/mixed or both. There will be a link to download stuff if you like what you hear soon.

Neely

Too much to do...

2009-10-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

I am racked with all sorts of things I want to do to stream line my life, but there are too many things to streamline. I need to make a list. The biggest thing is getting the house in order, but it's just too easy to put off.

I just found a program that will fix my mp3 collection, but that doesn't help me with the pile of CD's that I still need to rip to the hard drive. I started using Outlook, and to some degree it helps me plan my day better, but it doesn't make the cleaning any easier.

Rachel and I cleaned the bedroom a few weeks ago, and I'm talking about some serious "turn everything upside down" action, but it looks like it needs it again.

There is just too much stuff that belongs to too many different people, some who don't even really live here.

I need to manage my time better too, I could be doing better financially if I did. I have a lot of free time on my hands these days, due to hours being cut back at work, which I could be spending in the studio making extra money. This is assuming I had clientele...

Well, I should stop wasting time writing this blog and do something about all this. Wish me luck...

Neely

Again?

2009-10-22T08:23:00.001-07:00

Still no work today, and probably the same thing tomorrow. It wasn't even this bad this time last year when the economy crashed. I mean I guess we are still recovering, or trying to, but this is bad. I can't wait till a new job hits the books and they put me in charge of it, then I can get my hours, maybe even over time.

What's worse is that I still have not really done anything productive with all this extra time I have been spending at home.

We now have music...

2009-10-22T07:53:00.001-07:00

I have added music to my layout, as I'm sure anyone other than IE8 64-bit users have noticed. I'm going to be playing around with my layout a bit. I want to do all sorts of customizations to my blog, but I'm not sure how to do it. Rachel has all sorts of cool stuff done to hers, so I know it can be done, I just have not figured out how to yet. I'll get there soon enough...

Google is the S#*%!

2009-10-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Google is the answer to my social networking issues. If you are not so clear on what these issues are that I speak of then check out http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=9182012&blogId=515196175 that link.

Anyway, I came to the realization that Google offers just about every service one could possibly need, the only problem is that they are all spead out as seperate services under all different names. Now there is Orkut, and I litterally just completed my registration as I type this blog, but I can't think of a single person who uses it. I'm going to do an expiriment and invite a whole bunch of people to use it and see what happens, I don't suspect much.

I personally want all my eggs in one basket...

A sleepy lazy day...

2009-10-21T12:04:00.001-07:00

When I left work yesterday my boss told me to call in the morning instead of just coming into the shop, which usually means that there is no work. This always comes as a relief and a nuisance at the same time. I got to sleep in, a little bit anyway, which is always nice, but I would rather have a 40 hour check. When I stay home for the day Rachel usually assumes that it means she gets to sleep in and that I will get up with the kids, which is usually what happens, including today. But, once she got up for her work day, I hit the bed again.

Now I'm up, and have been for a while. I went with Rachel to drop Daniel off at school and then we went grocery shopping. Now I'm sitting in front of the computer with a long list of things I could do, but I don't really feel like doing any of them, and some of them are things I really need to do...

I have been spending more time lately doing wood working projects, well at least 2 projects anyway. If any of you know me well, you know I always say I can't cut a board straight with a table saw. I don;t know what it is, but I have really been wanting to overcome this lately. Last night I finally got started on building some hinged boxes with Will and Clayton. The boxes are very crooked and somewhat unsightly, but they don't care because they got to play with tools and do it themselves. I'm glad they enjoyed it, it was fun for all of us. Here are a few pics.

The boys should be home from school soon, we will probably do some last min. work on the boxes as soon as their homework is done. I should pick up my guitar today. I should also do some planning for the Halloween show I have coming up. I probably will not do either, well who knows, maybe I will...

Neely

My first blog, well here anyway...

2009-10-20T19:11:00.001-07:00

So who am I? I'm Neely.

I have 3 great kids

William is 10, likes science, his MP3 player, Cartoon Network and all the things the normal kids his age like. He has a new interest almost every day, but I guess that's pretty normal for 10 year old kids too. He has a guitar and a trombone. He says he's good at both, but he rarely ever picks either of them up. I will eventually start him back on trombone lessons, once the 40 hour paychecks start rolling back in anyway, and I should start giving him some instruction on guitar. He sat down in front of a keyboard the other day, a really nice Korg sampled grand piano, and just started playing. Now mind you it was not exactly a masterpiece, but it was rhythmic and had thought put into it. I was surprised since he has never really spent much time behind a keyboard.

Clayton is 8, likes run, run, run and run. He also has a guitar, and likes to play keyboard, or at least likes to talk about it. He is really good in school for the most part. He has a tendency to be a bit silly for his age still, but it can be refreshing sometimes, not all the time, but still sometimes. He likes his MP3 player too. He loves to go to my studio with me when I have shows on the occasional Saturday night (as does Will), and is always right behind me or under my feet, full of questions about all the equipment and what it does.

Daniel is 4. He comes with all the trouble that 4 year old kids are known for. But he is soooo cute and smart that it's worth it. I'm sure most parents of toddlers would say the same thing. He likes Thomas the train, Lightning McQueen, Backyardigans, Max and Ruby... He has nearly every single die cast character from Cars, and a whole bunch of trains. He loves his older brothers to death, and tries to emulate everything they do and say.

Rachel (www.rachellikestoramble.com) is my fiance. She is an admin for www.justmommies.com (which is owned by www.eHarmony.com). As the name implies, it's geared towards moms and moms to be. It's nice because she works from home, which affords her the opportunity to take care of the kids and home and still pull in some income. She has 2 children from a previous marriage (Sarah is 20 and Earl is 18), and then Daniel is our together. You you could say the kids break down into his, hers and theirs categories. She is big into photography. She is pretty good, and very knowledgeable with the various settings and styles, she doesn't give herself enough credit sometimes.

I am a musician and audio engineer. I install high performance audio/video systems and voice and data networks during the day. In my free time I play guitar in a local band, run sound for local bands, record local bands at my studio and promote local bands through concerts I sponsor at my studio in Eldersburg, MD. I like aggressive music, weird music, relaxing music, funny music and any music that has image invoking lyrics, is well thought out or thought provoking. I like my job a lot. It is something that I am truly good at and truly enjoy doing. This is a rare combination unless you are self employed. My boss is cool, understanding and funny. Most of the people I work with are musicians or in production also. I spend nearly as much time talking to most of my co-workers after the work day as I do during. We work together on projects outside of work a lot.

Well, I think that is enough for now, I can't even be sure how many people will end up reading this. I will try to be good about updating this, and start sharing pictures soon. Thanks for lending me your time.

Neely