Introducing myself...

[astrovic]

Hi all,

I just relaised I made my first post here, so I thought I should introduce msyelf.

Seems I'm not the only Chris, or even the only Chris in Melbourne, with an interest in DIY. I stumbled onto the whole Prodigy/Gyraf/Green Pre/etc thing a couple of months ago, whilst generally doing research on how to resurrect all the broken gear I have lying around.

In terms of music, I'm purely a hobbyist, and in fact am enjoying building the stuff more than using it. Building "stuff" is quickly becoming the antidote to my paper-shuffling white collar job - makes me feel like a real man, ya know?

So I now have a Paia Tube Mic Pre finished and racked (great starting point, not a great piece of gear), a 95% complete G1176, and as of last night a 75% complete GSSL. I've stocked up on a bunch of PCB's, which I hope to work through in order of difficulty/danger (from easiest to hardest) and eventually have a rockin' collection of homebrew gear!!

Nice to see a little space for Aussie DIY'ers - kudos to those who have put this together.

Chris

[rick]

welcome aboard chris

the reason i added the diy section ( besides you guys asked me to)
is so i can live my diy dreams vicariously through the eyes of others.
at one time i was mad for it , i pulled apart lots of things i should not have and i rebuilt lots of things i could not have afforded to own ( unless i bought them broken) and learned a hell of a lot about just how and why things work and sound. and without the www to help me along

the thing is i just do not have the time to tinker that much anymore .
my studio is now about as built as i know how so and i am tied down in the business of learning to run it and my life just that bit better .



in the late sixties unless you were a millionaire if you wanted to have a studio you built it yourself with money from your day job.
i did exactly the same thing with turtlerock except it WAS my day job.

i started turtlerock with 1 neve preamp a shure 57 microphone and an invoice book and what turns out to be absolutley no help from the music industry.
and thats the main reason you will hear about Rick O'Neil being a "giving friendly type" i just could not believe the business i loved was so damn cut throat .

in fullness of time when i have had enough and i am gone from this business nobody is going to have a dozen stories about what a @#$% i was to them as they started up their business
and boy could i tell you about some turds that messed with the turtlerock evolution
so rest assured there is no angle going on here with these forums except good will for my business and the want to leave things better then i found them

i cannot tell you how much of my studios have been handbuilt diy style by me, its easier to show you the things i did not do by myself !

DIY audio gave me something small to concentrate on when the task at hand looked a bit too big and frankly just too hard .
little private victories is what my business is about to me , thats the only reason we are still around , hell it sure could not be for the money !

when i started turtlerock the idea of running a mastering studio in australia independant of a multinational record label was as mad as the idea that you could build your own 1176 limiter for just a few bucks.

the trend i see today is the same as the sixties/early seventies all over again
a bunch of enthusists who are really mad for this stuff are building studios at their own pace because they want to , because they are passionate about it and because THATS what they lie awake dreaming about.....

lets be clear about this site what i DONT want to do is steal people away from the other diy sites...

i would like it to be a place where you guys to post links and advice that help others and steer the guys who might be a few months, years or decades behind you onto a fruitful path... a kind of domino effect
help the locals stay local if you know what i mean

with the surge of diy circuit boards that have hit the diy market in the last year or so i expect this field of the studio world to be a really big part of the future just as it was early days of recording studios .

DIY audio is not for everybody i understand , but if your curious if its for i urge you to buy a solding iron order a board and give it a try
who knows where it will take you

you know avalon was a sydney based DIY deal right ..?

and of course you know rupert neve built his first consoles from his garden shed
( have you seen the tube neve console sitting in my loungeroom hidden away in our site..?)

its the the same with most great audio companies actually...
DIY audio i mean who knows ... ?

preparing for the future by looking carefully at the past is something we are pretty big on here at turtlerock

[astrovic]

Thanks for the welcome, Rick, I appreciate it.

And as someone starting out in small business myself, I really enjoyed and appreciated the sentiments in your post. Different industry, but I'm starting from pretty close to scratch like you did (but with a little more support, it sounds like!) and one year in, I'm definitely finding the going tough. I'm going to remember the comment about "little private victories", it's a beaut.

And finally - do you have any of those sifam meters left?

Chris

[rick]

yes $50 each

[rick]

oh i and when i reread that last post it looks like i started turtlerock from scratch, i should make it a bit clearer i was festival records head mastering engineer with 10 years with serious credits behind me when i started turtlerock.

my competition used to delight in saying to people "yes but those credits where at festival so they are festival credits not his credits ask him what he has done lately... what has turtlerock done.."

it took awhile but soon enough when somebody asked that question so they could check if i was good enough to master their $400 local e.p
i was able to say err.. madonna, bryan adams , aerosmith and celine dion what label did you say are you guys where signed to again...?

so as i said its all about little private victories....

[Ausrock]

"you know avalon was a sydney based DIY deal right ..? "

Rick,

Would you care to clarify that comment?

[astrovic]

Cool Rick - I think I sent you an e-mail about this, but not sure if it worked. Either way, I'm after 2....vu meters, that is.

Chris

[rick]

clarify the avalon story..?

winton used to come in to festival with his home brew diy preamps in the 80s, bit by bit they got better and better
i think billy fields from paradise still has the original
home brew ones in a jaycar case and engraved by mister minit !

he tried to get government assistant to market his products world wide ,
not looking for cash mind you just an permit to manufacture without having to pay the huge tax levys that were applied to things at the time , taxes that would make it impossible for a small operator servicing the proaudio market
after 4-5 years of trying , and after lending his protype set to prince at studio 301 for a week somebody in america made him an offer he could not understand he approached the government one last time and said "if you dont help out with these levys i will have to leave australia and do this in america where they will help "

well i think we all know the rest

[astrovic]

Speaking of little private victories - I've posted the results of my "finished" G1176 over at the Lab - http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18037

It's finished, other than the meter and calibration.

Chris

[canon]

oh i and when i reread that last post it looks like i started turtlerock from scratch, i should make it a bit clearer i was festival records head mastering engineer with 10 years with serious credits behind me when i started turtlerock.

my competition used to delight in saying to people "yes but those credits where at festival so they are festival credits not his credits ask him what he has done lately... what has turtlerock done.."

it took awhile but soon enough when somebody asked that question so they could check if i was good enough to master their $400 local e.p
i was able to say err.. madonna, bryan adams , aerosmith and celine dion what label did you say are you guys where signed to again...?

so as i said its all about little private victories....

Rick, I've got all of Brain Adams' and Aerosmith Cd collection. Which ones did you master ? :?:

[rick]

i have worked personally with bryan twice, once on a worldwide radio interview and cd special and again a few years later on australian 4 track tour both pre 2000

i have done two interview/album releases with steve tyler where he was at the sessions and one australian tour e.p for aerosmith .

i am not credited on these releases , ( nor is anybody else as is the normal practice )

i have also done a bunch of australian vinyl cuts for both artists ( at least 4 albums ) and you will see my signature in the run out grooves of a bunch of stuff for both artists if you have been collecting that long .

i have the aussie promo discs sitting around in the studio if your cd collection is a bit short :)
the aerosmith one brings big bucks on ebay

[Kris]

I have heard the Avalon story too... Avalon being the northern beaches suburb where they originated. I think that's right.....