9 things i can't live without:

1. chocolates - who wants vegetables anyway?

2. coffee - i'm not addicted i just need to stay awake till the mix is right

3. pen and paper - where all good ideas start

4. my phone - annoying when it rings, frustrating when it doesn't

5. music - because my life is a movie and i need a soundtrack

6. my guitar - because a rock god is nothing without it ;)

7. my sneakers - they witnessed - almost - all my adventures

8. ctrl+z - because even i can make a mistake ;p

9. my macbook - i just don't want to record with anything else

before staining the guitar

now that i'm happy with the shape and contours of the guitar i can stain it. i'm using real wood stain for the dark stripes - mulberry - and just normal clothing dye for the lighter red parts. but before staining the wood you have to wet it with a flannel/cloth soaked in hot water. then vigorously rub the wood where you're going to stain - why? because when wood gets wet the cells swell and when it's dry you can sand it off to nice smooth surface. after you've sanded back the raised grain - wait till it's dry - you can stain! i used the back of the guitar to test the stain because the longer you leave wood stain the darker it gets. it's not the same for the clothing dye.

mic protection from humidity

saw these "Glad - Snap Lock" bags the other day when i went to the shops and thought it would work great for protecting my microphones from the humidity here in Auckland. i also threw in a silicone bag for some extra dryness :) i guess if you're going to record vocals every other day it's going to be a royal pain to bag and un-bag all the time, but it's perfect for my needs.

guitar body cut and carved

at last i'm satisfied with the contours of the body! even though it looks like i copied the strat contours it's actually my own body contours. i simply pressed the guitar against my body and traced the line with a pencil - i pressed it pretty hard! and then the same for the area where my arm will rest. luckily the bass wood is easy to work with! i only used a rough file to create the contours - something like this. next i'll wet the body to raise the grain of the wood to make it ready for the wood stain. isn't that the meanest ankle biter ever?!

guitar headstock design

here's what the headstock looks like. i'm quite happy with it. oh - and i see you can now buy decal paper for lazer printers. i'm definitely going to make use of that for the headstock logo! i wonder if the lacquer will dissolve it? i'm almost done with the body shape and contours too so check back soon!

Toontrack - EZDrummer - Nashville EZX - recording blooper

Nashville EZX - if you whack the second tom and let it fade out to silence you'll hear the recording engineer's radio play in the background (turn up the volume though - it's not that obvious) Not what I'd expect from these guys but I guess we all make mistakes now and then.

Other than that it's a really awesome kit and well worth the money.

great site if you ever need help

http://www.recordingreview.com is probably my most favourite recording site out there. register and join the community. Brandon Drury is in the driving seat over there and he's a really nice guy with loads of advice too. he's also about to release a few recording books "Killer Home Recording"

find the bad spots in your room

use this bass tone (wave sweeping from 40Hz to 300Hz) to hear the bad spots in your room. it will sound like the volume goes up but it's actually the bass waves building up. if you use logic you should put eq on it and see how the eq graph "walks" from left to right. so as soon as you hear the bass waves clash in your room - getting louder - check where the eq graph is peaking - that's where your problem eq is.

http://www.hometracked.com/2008/01/25/quick-home-studio-monitor-tests/

Logic Express 9 and Guitar Rig 3 - bug?

installed logic express 9 yesterday and - yup - it's worth all the hype! just one thing that caught my attention, when i load Guitar Rig 3, with a few amps and FX, everything works fine until i try and select another preset. for example: if i want to select a different reverb preset and switch from the default "init" to "nice room" it doesn't work. it took me a while to figure out that you have to hold your mouse down and slide/drag it to the preset you want to select instead of clicking on the drop down menu - release the mouse button - look at preset list - click on the preset you want to select. a bit annoying really but i guess they made up for it by adding other cool stuff!

Room Acoustics by Steve Kindig

hey everybody! i just found this really good article on room acoustics.

glass for bass traps?!? "...The sound-absorbing effectiveness of some common room surfaces. Fibrous materials like carpet and drapes provide significant absorption above 500 Hz, but have little effect on lower frequencies. Conversely, window glass and drywall can absorb bass frequencies, but are very reflective above 500 Hz. The most successful approaches combine materials like these with professionally-designed room treatment products..."

glass? (:0

enjoy!