Saturday, October 28, 2006

I do love me some progress! I'm in an excellent mood due to the reviving of four of our modules. Modules are the individual channels on the wonderful, vintage MCI JH-636 console. There were some modules that didn't pass signal due to electronics weirdness and the like, but they have since been given new life...OH YES! Mano, I tell ya maintenence on an old board is tough, but rewarding. The board has been undergoing a rebuild since before I came to North Branch by Mr. Phipps and by the wonderful and busy Soren Wittrup. Legend has it that Soren is the electrical genius brought over from Denmark by engineering great Steve Albini to serve as his tech at electrical audio. Since my arrival, I have been put to work helping out anywhere I can...which includes the board. Who would have thought that a Monday would be the day of great things. Hmmph!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

As I sit here waiting for a one Peter Alb to arrive with some audio to mix, I'm thinking to myself, "hey, I have things to talk about!" What's that you ask? WELL, let me tell you. Yesterday was a great day, John Francis Gran and his band of Iowa misfits were tracking some velvet-ity jazz that was a blast to hear. We tracked about 9 GB's between 6 takes of one song and some miscellaneous percussion on 2 other songs. A true pleasure and it all came together on Sunday when Gran texts me on the possibility of getting in due to him being bumped for SNOOP DOGG! (thats a story for the kids if I ever did hear one) I checked with Mr. Phipps and all was well. And so it was; drums, rhodes, bass, trumpet, and sax all in the same room. If you know Andy, you should ask to see pictures of the setup; I'm pretty proud of it.

For the last 3 or 4 days I've been waiting for a special item to be delivered to NB. The item in question is a pre-drilled and printed circuit board for a SSL stereo bus compressor. You see, one day about 10 days ago, Barry comes to me with an idea. I've been doing soldering odds and ends since my late January arrivial at NB; making cables, replacing various electronics on the MCI and the like. Barry has always kept the idea of making some outboard gear in the background but I thought it better left to someone who has the chops. Well, no more! He's shown me some kits that you can purchase at a reasonable price that are essentially knock-offs of legendary gear. They don't actually come in kit form but if you know what to look for, it can be done. I've yet to begin because as I have said, I don't have the PCBs but I have everything else...except the knobs for the front...we're gonna splurge there because let's face it, looks are most important. (shallow)

Its now 7:32 and I'm gonna wrap up because Peter is going to be here soon. This concludes my first blog entry and I have to admit...it was fun. Best wishes to all.