Bignote yerself

[Manning]

I was writing an email to a fellow T-rocker, and it occurred to me that despite knowing this person online for quite some time, I really had no idea what they did or where/how they did it.

Some members of the forum require little introduction obviously, but there are certainly those of us who perhaps aren't quite at the stratospheric end of the industry and thus whose reputations aren't so well known.

So this is the "bignote yerself" thread - tell us who you are. what you do and where you do it, and just how damn fantastic you are at it. Let your ego run wild and modesty be damned. (Links to your work are welcome if available.)

[Drumstruck]

What a great idea for a thread

[The Tasmanian]

Open E on a upright bass

[Julian Nichols]

Maybe there should be a "littlenote" thread for those of us who sit in little rooms at home mixing ITB and trying to get a million dollar sound out of a $5 headset mic?

[rick]

My name is Rick
I make records , and build my shed , grow my kids,
I am partial to a going for a fish with or without a friend
and am finally getting the hardwood floors laid in my new studio this week and next week
then doors , couple of roofs buts .. paint wireup and

onwards and upwards

Oh yes i own the turtlerock online and offline playground

[wez]

There's an episode of The West Wing where Toby Ziegler loses a bet and has to introduce himself to everyone he meets with "I'm Toby, I work at The White House". After doing this all day, a campaign staffer (unaware of the bet) says to him... "Yeah, can I tell you something? People are going think you're a lot cooler if you don't say that yourself, but rather let them find out on their own."

[Wiz]

There's an episode of The West Wing where Toby Ziegler loses a bet and has to introduce himself to everyone he meets with "I'm Toby, I work at The White House". After doing this all day, a campaign staffer (unaware of the bet) says to him... "Yeah, can I tell you something? People are going think you're a lot cooler if you don't say that yourself, but rather let them find out on their own."

one of my favourite shows of all time...!!!

I have the box set on DVD...

back to your regularly scheduled program...

[mylesgm]

I just lost my wife in the West Wing. Hope she surfaces sometime in the next decade...

[waitup]

I'm Nick. I work in the studios at JMC Academy. I make lots of different records for lots of different bands in any spare time I can find...sometimes they're even my own. I play the drums in this band: http://atombombs.bandcamp.com/ and the guitar in this band: http://richardcuthbert.bandcamp.com/alb ... e-bay-rock

I used to work for Turtlerock for a little while before the move. I hope to work there when it's rolling again again.

Somewhere between all this I build these: nfaudio.com

And somewhere between all that I see my gal.

This is the life of the 2012 sound engineer. Juggling 25 things... I think...

EDIT: As of this post, I have 500 posts of this forum.

[waitup]

I just lost my wife in the West Wing. Hope she surfaces sometime in the next decade...

My gal went down that road too... she came back...

[reddirt]

mylesgm wrote:
I just lost my wife in the West Wing. Hope she surfaces sometime in the next decade...

Thankfully Bill Clinton's not there these days...!

Started in music in NZ in the late 60's, we took over Dragon's gig when they came to Aus .
Began doing the recording thing in 80 when the Ta@#$% 38 came out, moved up to ADAT and wondered where my sound had gone.
Also was studio Mgr/Trg Officer at local indigenous B-16 studio (CAAMA) for a few years.
Have done location / post / mix for several TV and small film productions
On the floor assistant for Stav when he recorded the music for Bruce Beresford's "Black Robe" ( 80 piece Sydney Symphony and 36 piece choir all at once - what a buzz) at AFTRS in Nth Ryde.
In modern times I teach the Music Industry course at the local prison and make the odd album for locals.
I also play bass and acoustic rhythm in local bands.
Eddie McGuire is now my only chance to be rich and (slightly) famous.

Cheers ( still looking for nearfields), Ross

Ross Muir , Alice Springs

[Wiz]

OK I'll play


I played guitar for a bit in my teens....then ...not.

I joined the RAAF (1982) at 17 1/2, after doing 18months of a french polishing apprenticeship.

I became a Armament Fitter, bombs, rockets, guns, ejection seats...

I did that for a couple of years, working at the test and research facility in Adelaide. Then across the Sale in Vic, with the roulettes for a year...that was cool.

I did some electronics training..then became the first ever Calibration Technician in the history of the RAAF from the armament trades. That was a great job.

When I was 21 (1985) I started to play guitar again.

I got out of the airforce in 1988 and worked as a contractor for a year for AWA, at the same place I was last at in the airforce.

Then i got a job fixing fax machines for Ricoh.

Then I got headhunted by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1990, and stayed there for 5 years, going from printers and PC's to Mainframe computers.

Whilst at digital, I met some other muso's there, who were way ahead of me.

Wife goes, wife comes.

I had purchased my first recording gear, a Ta@#$% porta one and fostex dynamic microphone, in 1988 with some money I got back from the RAAF.

There was no internet news groups back then,and I think "sounds" was the only magazine I was aware of. I didn't know anyone who was into recording, and it was all trial and error.

In 1990, at digital, i met some guys who were in an original band, and had a studio at home in their garage. Man I would drive from Lara to Blackburn (1 1/2 hours) just to sit behind the desk for rehearsal....8)

They had a Ta@#$% TSR8 and M320B desk, an atari, Alesis HR16 and MMT8 and Mirage sampler.

They had NS10's and a patch bay...I thought I died and went to heaven.

I still vividly remember one of the guys explaining pre and post fader sends to me...

That was it. I was hooked.

I had started writing songs, and one night, we recorded one of my original songs. I was so enamoured with the process and the combination of creation and technical...it just seemed like it was built for me. Of course when singing my part, I slipped a can off one ear..I had no idea why, I had seen it on TV..what a dick I was....8)

We tracked the song and mixed it....and I was so excited when I left the studio, putting the tape in the tape player, to listen as I was backing out the driveway, that I crashed my goddamm company car coming out of the drive way into a give way sign...LOL....it was worth it. It was one of those nights you have in your life, that stays with you forever.....its a shame there are so few..like the night when I came home from a gig at 4am, and went to check on my baby daughter, who was only little, and she opened her eyes, smiled at me, and then shut them and went back to sleep....damn, my heart nearly melted on the spot, and I knew what true love is for another human....

That first experience in the studio was the beginning of it all. (studio, ha, it was a garage with carpet on the walls and a makeshift control room, but it might as well have been Abbey Road to me.)


Around 1991 I started playing in bands, I stayed at Digital till 1995 then went to Space Age Communications, which was an audio visual company, doing automated audio and visual control systems for things like university lecture theatres, board rooms (audio and visual conferencing) and really cashed up citizens. This is back when this shit was really dear, a 3 gun projector from Sony would run 30K.

In 1996 I gave away the day job, and went full time as a performing musician, and have been since, god, its been 16 years. I had found what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, gigs, and being in the studio.

All the while from then till now its been a slow progression of home studio's. writing, mixing.

I recorded some friends, then in around 2002, I started hiring out my studio....to clients.

Really small to start with. Mainly vocalists.

I then tracked some band stuff, and mixed some songs for bands on the peninsula in Victoria, I was living in Rye back then.

In 2004 we moved to Bundaberg, because the cold weather was killing my back, I injured it in a chopper in 1983.

I had intensions of opening a commercial facility here, and ran out of the house for a couple of years, but people here wouldn't support a budget of 25 dollars an hour. So, in the end I built a personal studio in the backyard about 2 years ago.

I still do the odd client, mainly mixing albums for local artists, who self track or have tracked their projects else where. I charge a set fee to mix the songs, and get good results, I have worked out a system that works for them and me. They give me the songs, I mix em, they come listen, we do touch ups, they pay me, then they leave....8)

I do the odd vocal recording spot, but as I operate out of my house, I am very selective about who comes here and is around my family....also, I just don't have the patience for poor hygiene, attitudes, and dreamers anymore....even at my shallow end of the studio gene pool.

I mastered a couple of independent artist albums, because they had little to no budget, and its not something I really want to do again. I will leave that to those with better ears and gear. Though I do get asked to do it all the time.

I do some electronic repairs for friends...and do some solo work and play in a band here.


Life is pretty good, I spend most days in the studio, seem to pull it apart and put it back together a lot....but I enjoy that. I do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet....

I seem to always be learning, always, and thats the thing I love about it.

The recording studio, just seemed like I was tailor made for it...electronics and creativity, thats been my life in one way or another, since I stopped spraying stain on furniture...

I still have never seen a real U47 in person, touched or seen a 480L, controlled a 1073 EQ, felt the glow of a LA2A or 1176, Fairchild , SSL anything..unless you count plug ins.

I really would love to one day set foot, in a proper commercial studio, and touch and feel and hear, the things I have read so much about over the years.....maybe I will save some cash up, and do just that, once, before I shake this mortal coil.

In another life, I might have been Rick O'Neil....but then there would be two of us...and I think that might get confusing...


Here is a video of the band I am in atm, playing live...I am the guitar player..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ja2HI7 ... _embedded#!

here is the website I did for the band..

www.thebrassmonkeys.biz

my website for my original stuff is

www.ozlandmusic.com

[Drumstruck]

I'll play too - but only a small note ....

Always loved music as a little bugger - JOK was the man when I was 2 or 3. Wanted to learn drums but was told that they're too noisy (grrr) so did a year of banjo mandolin (not impressed).

Got a reel to reel at about 8 yrs old and did lots of playing around with it for a few years (recording / playing back fast or slow or backwards / overdubbing etc).... learned guitar from 11 - 18 but couldn't "shred" so was never very happy on that instrument.....

Canvassed every studio in Sydney for 12 months in '78 but couldn't snag a job. Met the head guy at Festival that year - he was a really good guy and told me they couldn't take anyone on at the time but he took me for a tour of the studio /disk cutting room, introduced me to the engineers who were all nice guys and encouraged me to keep trying. Kevin Jacobsen showed me around ATA and suggested doing the SAE course and said to come back after completing it.

Funded my way through SAE in 1979 by working in a factory by day. Went back to ATA after "graduating" but Kevin had taken someone else on only a couple of weeks earlier - my fault for not keeping in touch and a lost opportunity..... Also started playing drums in '79 and quickly realised it was my instrument. Took lessons with Allan Turnbull (great Oz drummer) who encouraged me to play sessions / weddings etc, but being a young hard-head with a prog mind I wouldn't compromise my "art" (another lost opportunity.....). Garage bands / backyard playing for some years whilst still working in a toolmaking factory ..... Gave it all away, despondent, around '86.

Regular jobs (non-audio) since then and still working a day job. Met my beautiful Mrs in 1989 and everything since that is a bonus.

Took up drums again and started building my studio about 5 years ago - including teaching myself the digital side of audio - which brings us to today where I have all the drums I ever wanted and a nice little home studio.

sorry about the wordiness

[obutcher]

I'm Owen, I also work at JMC Academy's studios alongside Nick. I record and mix bands every so often.
I used to be a live sound engineer but got out once I had a job at JMC as studio work is much more fun and doesn't require me to pack trucks with subs at 2am. My ears also also very thankful for their newfound longevity.
I've been interning at Studios 301 for the past two months, have just over another month or so to go and after that I plan to learn more about electronics so I can build/repair gear.

I have a wife who is lost in The West Wing.

[Senad]

OK...
I'm Senad.
I've loved music since I knew about myself. I think parents still have tapes of me singing and strumming gtr when I was about 2.5 - 3 yo.
I was born and lived til age of 16 in Bosnia & Herzegovina.Started singing in a band there when I was 14. When the shit hit the fan overthere in
early 90s (by now you're working out how old I might be) I moved to
Croatia as a refugee, and then in the late 90s I moved to Australia. Was playing in a couple of bands around Melbourne, with some people I knew from Europe.

When we went to record an EP into a studio I thought I could do a better job mixing than the guy who owned the studio.
Started gathering some gear, got a copy of cool edit pro (which, to this date, I think was a fantastic piece of software and also sounded great) and recorded my first album for
my guitar teacher at the time. By this stage I was sick of live gigs, so I thought I'd concentrate on the recording more, especially as I started getting interest from bands and singers to record
them. I then decided to build my own studio. I was one of those who thought "If I build it, they will come". {Got married somewhere in the middle of the studio build. They were exciting times of my life.}
Well they did come, but probably not as hard as I needed them to, to be able to put the food on the table for my young family of 3 at the time, without having to do a part time job
as a delivery driver.This was one of the best sounding and most sound proofed studios around the town, certainly best home studio.
I wasn't making complete living out of it, but it was OK. I thought I lacked a bit of networking and not having a big circle of industry people around me, especially not having grown up and matured in this city etc etc..

Our home and studio were located in a suburb where I didn't really see my kid(s) growing up and going to school. So we started to think about moving. I had to face a heart tearing prospect of having
to leave the studio that took me 4 years to build. But I wanted to give my kids the best chance I could.
Sold the studio and the house 2.5 years ago (and, no Rick the new owner didn't find the add on this forum, but I'll eventually send you that slab of Coke you asked for anyway haha). The guy wanted me to leave
everything as it was hooked up in the studio, so i just walked out with my computer and converters.

We built a new house which we moved into 5 mnonths ago. Using the skills from my studio build, I did heaps of things on the house and saved about 25% of what a commercial builder would have charged.
I have now set up a mix room in the new house, and slowly getting back into it doing same mixes for the clients from the old studio, and also finally getting around to some of my material a wrote years ago.
2 kids at the moment (one of each) but that'll be it. Planning to gradually get back into studio business, but not in a hurry.

Nice to have all the guys around here, really a great bunch.
Cheers
Senad

[Senad]

Geez, I didn't realize how long that post was...sorry..
Not as long as Wiz's at least

[danander11]

Hmmm.... Welp...

Started drumming at 16.. that would have been around 1975.. a great time to be alive.. though I think I would have been better placed in the 40's and 50's.. but that's another story. Lived in the southern part of the States playing and doing whatever until about 1991.. My life was a complete mess by then and I walked away from all of it... About 5 years or so ago I ended up back in the drum seat against my will, well, mostly, and haven't stopped since.

I had an interest in the technical side of recording but didn't know anyone or much about it so I bought into the protools schmooze with an Mbox, then a year later a 003 that I recorded my first album for the church I was attending at the time.. Since then I've moved up to HD and quite a nice selection of gear, a lot of songwriting/mixing projects for friends and/or Christian muso's over in WA... then we packed and have moved back to the Blue Mountains.. Working at building the analog gear that I've always wanted, (mostly), loving music more than I ever have.. will be building a nice mix-room and hopefully a decent live room here at home for the same sort of stuff I was doing over west.. Learning a bit about Samplitude because the frustrations of flawed basic functionality with PT and Avid have me wanting to throw rocks at someone.. Wanting to work with someone local for a bit just to pick up some more knowledge in general... I'm a pretty quiet guy though and never one for much of the 'networking' thing.

Three kids in the States.. two grown, one moving down later this year.. (Daughter is heading to Afghanistan in a few months to lead a platoon for the 101st Airborne so I'm hoping the US decides to vacate quickly). One kiddo here with my new wife of seven years.. he's 5 and the coolest person I have ever met.. and a drummer! (Two in one house.. I'm certain we'll get Christmas cards from ALL of the neighbors )... Wife is a dream and is lost in West Wing/Sex In The City/Friends depending on her mood.. Oh, and we have inherited a brushy-tailed possum with our new house... He drops by around 1-3 AM for dancing lessons on our tin roof. Payback for being a drummer I guess.

I guess that's me..

[Senad]

[quote="danander11 drummer! (Two in one house.. I'm certain we'll get Christmas cards from ALL of the neighbors )... .[/quote]

[rick]

keep at it the thread I reckon , its got me entertained

[Nowak]

Stefan Nowak. Born 9/4/72, natural birth at King George V Hospital Camperdown.

Started playing piano age 4.

Got into the MIDI side of things when I was 13, "I just need one more bit of gear" was uttered when I was 14.

Shit golfer but love it.

Live in the burbs of Sydney.

Loves good music and midnight strolls along the beach.

GSOH.

S

[rightintheface]

I started my music career in the early 2000's playing djembe, eventually graduated to kit when my mum's drummer sold me his old Tama (beautiful kit, can't remember the make).
Played for a year or so before joining my first band as lead vocals, saw that my best mate could play guitar and decided that it was way cooler than anything else so started teaching myself on a crappy plywood SG ripoff (still got it).
In and out of bands over the years before forming my own (The Howling Tongues) three piece playing funk/rock, me on guitar and vocals. Changed members a few times due to work and uni commitments, but the current lineup looks solid and awesome. And most importantly, it's fun as hell.
Have never ever been happy with the results of local "home studios" in my area (wollongong), and even dropping some coin on our first EP didn't yield any satisfaction. Vocals never sounded right, always too many effects used, drums always sounded shite etc etc. And, to be honest we needed a producer or something as the songs (in hindsight) just didn't cut the mustard. The engineering and production on the EP is actually pretty good (Big Al Wright was our man, if you know him - was Barnsey's engineer way back when), but the songs fall flat now. But that's what happens when you start off I guess.

Despite my lack of satisfaction from recording results, however, I always loved the process of recording: setting gear up, pulling a sound, mixing it together. It's like a massive jigsaw puzzle.

Started building guitars out of warmoth parts and experimenting with wiring, my two main axes are hybrid tele/gretsch things. tried my hand at building pedals but don't quite have the patience for that yet...

Started uni in 2010 at UOW studying Sound: Composition & Music Production, and currently in my final year. Have built up a little home studio based around an old Ta@#$% M512 and a Profire 2626. Not big or fancy, but getting the job done. Couldn't afford expensive mics (being a student), so spent the last 2 years stalking ebay for unknowns and have amassed a sweet collection of weird a wonderful mics, my faves being the Beyer M81's and Turner U9S. Managed to score an MD441 for $200, it's probably my "best" mic.

I have been re-furbing the M512 (my first big electronics project) this weekend, pulling out the channels blocks and cleaning all pots/switches/wiring looms and then replacing the faders (half were busted). I have some crazy blisters from working de oxit through all the pots and then twisting them 50 odd times to clean them up... but now they move like magic! starting on the master/buss section today. Has been a great experience for me as a youngen to undertake a big project like this, good for the psyche and electronic confidence.

Have already started to earn a little bit of crust recording locals bands and friends etc, as they (like me) don't like commercial studios where you are locked away in a sound proof room, looking at the engineer through a window. My control room/live room is the one and the same, I took a lot of inspiration from Miloco's The Pool studio and a few others. So far people really like the stripped back vibe so I'll probably keep heading this direction, with minimal gear and effects, more about the music I suppose. Not using many plugs (if at all), mixing everything live using the

Another point; it always gave me the shites as a kid in a band that we could never afford to have our stuff recorded, as home studios always sounded crap, and commercial studios were just too expensive. So I'm kind of aiming at a middle ground where kids can afford to come and record with me and not get bent over backwards by the cash OR the results. Working well so far and I'm already getting a bunch of bands lining up. People dig the old M512 with it's UV meters, and love the collection of mics they've never seen before. Would love to get to the stage where I can pay the rent/put food on the table by recording bands. Not aiming for a career (too much outlay. and stress.), just a cash hobby.

T-rock has been an awesome source of info, as has TapeOp, SOS etc etc. Thanks for having me here

[Gentleman]

Hi there, My name is Henry, and I'm an alcoholic. Just kidding. Actually I'm from the darkside, 301 and NZ whichever offends you more!! I worked for them for 3 years as a Tech until Byron Bay was finished. I got the job from Steve Crane who was then my neighbour, we worked out that I replaced him at Theatrelite in NZ in the early 80's when he left for England to work for George Martin. Small World!! Been a muso and engineer for around 30 years and really suck at electronics and hate tech work, but you do what you have to, when you have to. When I need serious money I paint houses and I'm also now a qualified Cert III Painter Decorator which I completed last year. If anyone needs Painting let me know we can maybe do a swap deal.

My passion however is songwriting and music! I have a small Home Studio and write and record my own music.

[Manning]

I must say I've also enjoyed this thread.

My story: grew up in Tasmania, studied violin as a kid, took up guitar at 10.

Through family contacts I got a gig as a session player in NYC in 1987 at the age of 19 (chiefly because my reading skills were solid). Also worked on Broadway as the "2nd band" guitarist for A Chorus Line (I played the matinees and slow nights). Then I did a year at Berklee studying jazz in 88, and then spent the next six years going from gig to gig as a sideman and/or arranger with a variety of singers, plus stints in Vegas and Disneyworld. Also became pretty handy with MIDI, I helped write the user manual for MOTU's Performer 3, and even had a gig doing drum sample programming for Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation tour (chiefly because I could operate the appallingly unfriendly TX16W sampler).

In 95 I came home broke and dispirited. I'd somehow convinced myself I needed a "real job" so I went to medical school for 3 years. I quit when I realised I absolutely hated medicine. I moved to Sydney at the start of 98, lied outrageously at an interview about my IT knowledge and somehow became a software developer, which I'm still doing all these years later.

I started a home studio in 2000 and just kept acquiring stuff... just like everyone else at T'rock. Now I have an almost functioning commercial operation, and have now realised I have to build a home studio again because I can't get into the big studio when I want to.

A failed marriage took place somewhere in there, as did a year in Africa, a year in Malaysia and another year in India. Seem to have acquired a healthy marriage now, but no kids unfortunately. I do however have a demented galah named Pinky Ponk.