new website

[rick]

mark has been slaving over the new website for longer then we care to talk about but he just lauched it, if something doesnt work or looks wierd let us know and we will get it straightened out while its still easy to do.

[templar]

Looks good.

The w3c validator has some minor issues, check out:

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.t ... tering.com

Just some other small points:

cleints.htm -> should probably be renamed clients.htm (and links too)
##FIXED##

and perhaps

abou.htm -> should probably be renamed aboutus.htm
##FIXED##

just to make naming consistent and meaningful.

The forum link could be a little easier to find...
##(Rick wanted it a little hidden)##

cheers,
Templar

I have a question of my own....why the organ in the big room???

[rick]

yes there are a number of spelling mistakes that we have found since prelaunch that we are working through, but it all seems to work ok

but feel free to lets us know where they are , as you work through it you will see the site is very big

as for the organ well its not just any old organ its a mint condition 1964 hammond c3 with a leslie tube 122 cabinet and a hammond 3 tone tube cabinet, besides being the best recording organ even made , and a wonderful thing to look at , it is actually working as a acoustic diffuser !

the back wall sounded a bit dark to me but basically pretty good, i was in the process of working out what size and configuration of quadradic diffusser i need to install to lively things up just a touch

then the hammond turned up
its big and it to go somewhere it wont fit in the overdub booth and my wife laughed at the idea that it came home and it was about the right size so i just had to try...

the hammond breaks up and diffusers some top end and sends it back in the room
i will move it when i eventually make the new quadratic diffuser,
but i just stuck it there to see if it did anything like what i imagined a diffuser would and it sure does,
the joke is the hammond is worth a fortune, but the diffuser will cost more then the hammond

sell the hammond to buy a diffuser to do what the hammond does..?
nope i am going to have to build one ( like the one we built in the other room)

i havent even started on the new diffuser

have you been to turtlerock? the hammond fits in the decor just fine

i am keeping the forum tucked away - far away from the russian ladies

[JulienG]

Few minor comments:

* Front page - Try lowering the font size of the contact details (and perhaps make all except the address a single line)
##I tried that, looks a bit odd##

* Other pages - You might want a smaller image on the other pages, it causes almost all of the content to appear "below the fold" (at 1280x768 in both Opera 8.5 and FireFox 1.5)
##That was intentional, we want you to scroll##

* Engineers - Mark's photo looks a little odd whereas Rick looks more relaxed. Wording of "Other Engineeers" section not great and title is not displayed as a heading
##Changed the wording, heading, but I can't help looking odd##

* About Us - Again, some of the working isn't great
##Changed a few words##

* Services - big space down the bottom, "At Turtlerock Mastering all masters are included free of charge." might that be better stated as "masters are included in the cost of your session"?
##Space if meant to be there so when the Acoustic Consultancy link is clicked the paragraph appears at the top of the page, not half way down##

* FAQ - "Do you work weekends" - might want to include that doing more than 8 hours could impact the quality of the result. “Can we record at Turtlerock?” - link broken
##Link fixed##

* Contact - "FTP Services" might just want to say "electronic delivery" and list ftp as one of the methods

* General - Don't like the font, would rather you just left my default alone
##We like it!##

Code comments:
* Why the mix of inline and external CSS? Any reason it can't all be in the external CSS file?

* You should move the javascript to an external file (like the CSS)

* Code could use some general cleanups to make it easier to maintain
##Agreed##

[Ausrock]

Rick,

Like the site, it's comprehensive and informative but doesn't get bogged down with "bells and whistles" some web designers insist on using to show how great they think they are................just my opinion, but great work.

OK, some things I spotted....................:

On the 2nd last line of the "Rates/Services" page.........reralistic.
##Fixed##

Same page, in the "Mastering for Vinyl" section........the word "History"........just wondering whether the capital "H" is necessary.
##Fixed##

"Engineers" page........I'm sure Jackie would appreciate his breed having capitals :-).
##Fixed##

Same page, last line........."so money" probably should be "some money"
##Fixed##

Apart from that, since when have we adopted the US spelling "analog" in preference to "analogue", haven't we already been over-influenced by US culture?
##Rick's call, thinks the other way looks odd##

ChrisO

[rick]

i cannot understand how anybody likes the english spelling of analogue
i am going to stick with the www majority spelling of analog because it looks nicer.
but please keep on showing us the mistakes and mispellings so we can fix them today ! before the rest of the world sees it.
the damn thing is too big for me to be able to see objectively

[Simon B]

I think the site looks awesome, and is well laid out. Mark has done an awesome job.....

the only concern is the second sound australia mag, reocording the lowbabies.... the last paragraph, is all over the shop. really hard to know what the words are meant to be.......

ps congrads on the birth of your son.

[Kris]

Regarding the "At Turtlerock Mastering all masters are included free of charge." might that be better stated as "masters are included in the cost of your session"? suggestion.....

no way... leave it. One of the things that really burned me about going to 301 was that my master disc cost $86 dollars on top of the $200/hour fee. Listening copies were a further $16 dollars each. I would say that is an important distinction to make and cannot be repeated enough, although if you read further down it's said both ways anyway.

Re: the FTP change to "electronic delivery".... the term electronic delivery is somewhat ambiguous.... all clients know what FTP is.... even the dumbest of ad agency people (read: most of them). It's a generic term. Again, I say leave it.

I would lose the whole archiving service. I think you're going to open yourself up to a world of pain if you offer that service as many clients will assume that you will keep their masters forever (Tony Turkey anyone?).... especially if they have paid for it at some stage. Save yourself the legal hassles and drop the service. It really shouldn't be your responsibility anyway.

Great job Mark. Your pic is very Trent Reznor. Overall, just small issues that can easily be fixed in regards to spelling/grammar. Only thing that irked me was when clicking on the the transfer room's pic it made the page go back to the top so I had to keep scrolling back down to the blurb and pic.

Nice work.

[toddd]

Looks really good guys, the transparency in detailling the whole process, including realistic costing is something we just don't see enough of in this industry. Really impressive.

Only niggles are the occasional spelling error, but you know that already.

The Hammond looks amazing (it is the model that was used on 'Like a Rolling Stone' right?)

And who can't get enough of Rick's pearls of wisdom.

Nice job.

ps. I'm pretty sure 'The Doves' are just 'Doves' ;)

[rick]

c3 hammond is a b3 hammond but in the upmarket "church" cabinet
it was top of range version,
i dont actually know what organ is on" like a rolling stone" but i would presume its a hammond

festival records had a pretty c3 that we used on the dylan sessions i did when i was a boy

(band of the hand)

tom petty asked if we had a b3 and i said no sorry JUST a c3
he smiled and called in benmont tench who set me straight on our lowly c3

it broke my heart when tom miisner bought the festival studio complete with a c3 he cannot play or would ever use.

stuff it i said i will just have to find a better one
which i did

[chris p]

.... but can it play a MIDI file like my Logic Audio EVB3 plugin???

*** WARNING - THE PREVIOUS STATEMENT HAS IRONIC CONTENT ***

[davidspearritt]

What happened to Mark's arms. They look like they've been amputated below the elbow. Very nice website though.

[rick]

you guys are not allowed to tease mark if he takes his cricket bat and goes home i am stuffed

[headman]

Re: Like a Rollin' Stone. Believe it or not, it was not a Hammond C3 but a large console Lowrey organ played by Al Cooper bought in at the very last minute.

The C3 Hammond seems to be in greater numbers in Australia than the B3 and the opposite is the case in the U.S. The C3 was originally designed to be used in a church where the 4 scrolled legs (B3) seemed a bit secular.

As regards moving to gigs. Both weighed over 400lbs (thats a lot of kilos), but at least the you couldn't break the C3's legs off. If Rick's Hammond has a PR40 tone cabinet as well as a Leslie 122, he is indeed fortunate as both sound terrific, but different

headman

[wez]

i have a client - and i swear this is true - who moves his C3 around (in & out of the van, venues, studios etc) BY HIMSELF. he is something of a hammond guru, but it's the way he shifts the thing that's freaky.

if you ever have a B3/C3 to shift, i'll put you on to him. apparantly he has it down to a fine art.

w

[Peter Knight]

From the articles section:

This studio will be free of almost all acronyms because everything will be so well interfaced you won't need a dictionary to sort out problems. It's also going to be expensive, but that's okay because the product will be superior to the cheaper acronym studios in every way. Musicians will line up for miles to realise their true capabilities, without being bogged down by options they don't understand, need or want. Professionals will do what we need them to do - make informed decisions, not read manuals.

ROFL

[rick]

whats up pete , spelling mistake or do my ten year old rants really make you laugh, read the old ones while you can folks by the time mark loads all of the articles you will probably never be bothered looking through them again

[Peter Knight]

No spelling error Rick (I'm sure the editor already did his job there), I was just floored by the concept of musos lining up to realise their true capabilities!

I thought they were there to tell me how to EQ the snare?

[rick]

come pete
it was ten years ago and i was describing my "perfect studio of the future"

because of your post i reread the article looking for mistakes just a minute ago and got a little scared at how right i actually was !

my new studios are big, with no acronymn problems and musicians are lining up around the globe to use it, and nobody ever tells me how to eq the snare
and oh yeah
( it IS expensive) well more expensive then the home guys anyway

the only thing i really got wrong is i thing is the digital revolution it still has not wiped out the big knobs and heavy boxes, but there is 5 more years to go before i am offically wrong so who knows..?

next door in electric avenue it is the same story its big , fully booked and always lots of noise blaring out oh yeah
oh yeah its expensive as well.

we are the expception to the rule in this town at the moment but that is why we are full because we are the exception

i think Phil punch and i went to different schools together ( in different decades)

but the real point is those articles are actually up
computers are doing something good in my life for the moment ..
buy a lotto ticket, its a lucky week

[otto ruiter]

"We recommend contacting Sony Mastering at Huntingdale for 5.1 DVD Audio mastering,"

Sony Mastering is in Huntingwood, not Huntingdale...