2013 - Year in Review

[Manning]

So it looks like I will keep doing this every year. I always enjoy reading everyone's responses.
Last year's thread (with link to the 2011 thread).
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7081

My year was spent expanding into TV with my wife's collection of demo songs turning into a full scale children's television production that now involves seven people. I am also well into scoring my first motion picture (a horror/slasher masterpiece).

Studio Laughing Duck actually made a bit of money (nowhere near break even, naturally).
https://www.facebook.com/manning.bartle ... 014&type=3

I finished my home studio.
https://www.facebook.com/manning.bartle ... 014&type=3

Gear Acquisition Syndrome - I was fairly disciplined this year. A Magnatec clone of a Pultec EQP1 and a Blue Bottle were the stand-out acquisitions. I bought a stupid amount of virtual instruments, of which Sonokinetic's Sultan Strings in my favourite.

Personally my health is good, my non-music income is good (able to fund my "musical" life) and my marriage has made it to five years. Really can't complain.

So how was your year? Professionally? Personally?

[Text_Edifice]

First 12 months in forever I have been employed full time. It's been a trip. Many compromises, may be my age but serious existential angst... Getting old.

[Kurt]

Lots happened this year, unfortunately little of it to do with recording!

My band broke up (more upsetting than I thought it would be)
Used my small inheritance from my Dad's passing to buy some PA gear
I had been working in a family business that no longer needs/can afford to keep me
We bought out house, maybe in a few years I can afford to build a little garage studio...
Married my partner (on our 20th anniversary!)
Had a heart attack!

So, didn't do much musically but it's been a big year...

[walding]

Been a solid year of work for me, but I pushed it a tad to hard in Oct and suffered burnout which was a blessing in disguise as hard as it was.


Been tying up loose ends since then, having much needed time off and the setting up 2014 which at this stage is looking like a year of adventure, of change and one of hope.

[stosostu]

I'm still working on the studio, it is taking far longer than I expected and i am now getting the hurry up from 'she who must be obeyed' probably because i have studio gear stored in her office. Band wise, the pub band is still going but it is getting harder to get gigs at the money we want, so i have put together a two piece with a local guy and that is picking up quite a few bookings, less money = more work. Amp repairs still provide my major income, with live sound in second place, though there are a lot of 'love ' jobs, more if I wanted them, funny how there are plenty of opportunities for live sound if you will work for nothing!

All in all, 2013 was just more of the same.

[Wiz]

2013 sucked the big one for me.

Did my last gig in January 2013. Shoulder issues, had surgery in April, Shoulder Froze... only just started playing a bit around town (doing a set here and there) in the last month.

Did a few vocal recording sessions.

As soon as I could get my arm across my Maton, I tracked a 5 song EP. Just acoustic and voice no tricks ... www.ozlandmusic.com go to the New EP page if you wanna see.

Used the time off to focus myself (after 3 hours of rehab a day, you have some time to think 8) )

I can't wait for the year to end.

2014 baby!!!!

I know I don't want to go back to playing covers if I can possibly avoid it. We'll see ...

[Drumstruck]

... still 2 weeks to go in 2013....

My primary focus this year has been my Mum's declining health - 93yo and has been fighting hard.

My Mrs and I reached 24 years together - I'm very lucky there.

The above has made me appreciate my day job (15 years now) and the people I work with - all smart, all nice - I'm lucky there too.

On the studio front, I've just consolidated my (small) setup by selling (nearly) everything that didn't serve an immediate purpose and fine tuning it to higher quality.

Nearly finished my long term dream of a custom made drumkit of all Australian made drums and cymbals. Also took up a pitched instrument and am enjoying learning scales - who woulda thunk it?

Wishing a better 2014 to all

[rick]

image.jpg

You know i spent a disproportional amount of 2013 talking to lawyers trying to get my divorce to a final conclusion and judgement ... it has ..and hopefully it wont spill into 2014 with appeals ..

I have got the Turtlerock studios to a workable and open state .. but with the drain of the divorce in every way
I dont think they can ever be what i planned when i started .

I have been producing and engineering again .. and taking sessions outside my studio .. interstate and locally dropping into other people studios as often as I can... which is GREAT for the soul .

Its so easy to get stuck in your own little studio world year in year out .
A highlight a few weeks back was Jason gave me a look see into the opera house spare no expense 2.5 million dollar new studio fitout ..

IF somebody is going to have a much better studio then you could ever have
it might as well be the sydney opera house .. ! its looks astounding !

I bought the kids a dog for christmas to replace the dearly missed jackie the jack russell

meet new studio dog
stephie the staffie ..

onwards and upwards .

[Sammas]

My year started great. New place with my partner, great spot, room to setup my little studio, room for my partner to setup her business, good times.

But its ended with me single, between places, and everything but a backpack of clothes sitting in a storage locker. I guess you win some... and you lose some. Its still a far sight better than some of my close friends. One of them has had their year end with 3 months of heavy chemo followed by a double mastectomy... at only 27 years old too.

A strange, roundabout wake up call for me I guess. Even with the turbulence, you won't catch me wishing away the rest of this year.

Have a Merry Christmas, T'rockers!

[mylesgm]

Well I guess some of you have been following my travels, some contributing with advice and some with gear so you probably all have some idea of how my 2013 has been. It's been quite the roller coaster and the last few months since I left Swaziland in September have been freebooting around the globe catching some great music and food but I'm getting itchy feet to be home in Melbourne. Wonder what 2014 will bring...

[Kurt]

Terrible weather, hipsters and trams?

Well I guess some of you have been following my travels, some contributing with advice and some with gear so you probably all have some idea of how my 2013 has been. It's been quite the roller coaster and the last few months since I left Swaziland in September have been freebooting around the globe catching some great music and food but I'm getting itchy feet to be home in Melbourne. Wonder what 2014 will bring...

[Paul Maybury]

My year has been a good one.
New on air processing at PBS, new studios, new processes and software (Reaper! bye bye No Tools) too.
A new (oldish) console at my studio, new monitors, re built control room and an (un?)healthy obsession with CBS Labs limiters from the middle 60's and Altec 604 monitors.
More and better clients, repeat clients, fast turnarounds, happy customers.
I am actually PLAYING music seriously again after a long break of just playing in party bands occasionally.
I have seen old sparing partners create the best work of their careers. That makes me very happy.
I like the records I am helping to create.
But I am beat. Shagged. Burnt out. Ready to snap like a rabid dog.
My resolution for 2014 is, O.S. travel and avoiding burnout.
Is it beer o'clock yet?
Cheers,
Paul
Oh, and Nick Lowe came to me in a dream and told me to play more guitar. Thanks Nick, you were right, I need to get my calluses back.
Is it beer o'clock yet?
Is it beer o'clock yet?
Is it beer o'clock yet?
etc.
And thanks to all the Turtlerockers for keeping a good thing going.

[Chinagraf]

First part of the year was hideous workwise and vibewise. Took a trip OS for a month and was looking at it as an opportunity to decide whether i want to get out of recording all together. Came back, decided no more remixing/dance/sampley same old kick drum productions and took an indefinite hiatus from that. For the last six months I've been working with an increasing number of bands/artists that gravitate around the St Kilda music scene which has been great because
1. It's so diversified.
2. None of them seem to care about getting rich or famous, they just want to make music.
3. They are all so passionate about it it has rubbed off on me.

So in the second half practically everything I've worked on has been 100% live instruments played by real people all playing different stuff as opposed to the sitting in a room by yourself playing/programming everything. I've recorded more drum sessions in the last 6 months than i have in the last 6 years. I'd also forgotten how much I love producing other people. I think I'm the most into recording now that I have ever been. I'm not going to be able to retire early on the takings, but at least I like getting up in the morning now. Sometimes in the afternoon too.
Added a bunch of nice mics this year, the odd new amp and finally gave the NS10's a well earned rest and got some Focal twins. I am hanging for a console again now but would need to move to a bigger space I think to get one in comfortably.
So a crap year turned around and finished up pretty good. Bugger me. Not like me at all.
Have a great Christmas T-Rockers.
Cheers.

[Paul Maybury]

Nice one Andy.
Following the music will always lead to interesting places, if not careers.
Is it beer o'clock yet?
Paul

[Chinagraf]

1 hour 16 minutes.

[dave01.cooper]

2013 has been a good one but a weird one too...

Ups:
Paul (co studio dood) & myself started a few new A/V jobs that took time away from the studio but has the studio bank balance rolling better and for once we broke even & made some this year with projects we worked on which is a nice addition! Got some cool new toys (majority bought off the Turtlerock folk - kudos to you Rick once again for a fine place) but the main ones would be a Soundtracs Quartz 32 channel console & my baby Neve 542 16ch frame sidecar. Work so well together!
Started playing music (drums/gtr) a lot more again in an At The Drive In-esk band which is keeping the head & soul where it should be, on music.
Have recorded & mixed a fair few eps, singles, productions for shows, commercials and have the studio sonically where we like it now which has taken sometime so overall our workflow for us is hunky dory

Downs:
We have somehow acquired an A/C filtering buzz coming through all speakers and psu's very irregularly which we can't pin down. Have had the ACMA down to try and pinpoint where it may be coming from (nearby factory etc) but even he can't figure it out. From his radio freq generator, in the area of 660mhz but we think it may be from a nearby factory with dirty power leaking into our lines as I can actually hear it emanating from the halogen tubes in the factory sometimes.... hopefully will pin it down early next year or mask it with some AC filters. Thoughts?
However my main gripe for this year is late invoices... At what point do you guys say enough is enough? Relationships is such an important thing in this industry and if you step on a toe the wrong way once, then that toe is more than broken.

Merry Xmas y'all!
Dave

Paul - beer time is all the time!

[dave01.cooper]

And on that note - check out the new and finalised website:

www.soundmachinestudios.com.au


The control room pic is a little old, has the old mackie (uhg) in there so plz excuse that!

[Paul Maybury]

Hi Dave, we need u.p.s.'s at our place, the mains voltage fluctuates a lot in the industrial area where we are. Most of the analogue gear is okay with that, but the digital stuff hates it.
As for invoices, the ones that take the longest to pay are the bigger record labels. (Hello Sony...)
Most of the shit kicking local bands playing gigs for beer, pay cash on the day, or invoices within a fortnight.
And what do you know, it's a quarter past beer o'clock! And I have a gig tonight, playing guitar in a shit kicking local band, at The Tote, for beer.
Happy festive season festivities to all of you.
Cheers,
Paul

[Chinagraf]

Tote...nice one. So cool they saved it.
Jeez if I had known you were such a beer hound we coulda gone a had a few the other day. I even got one of the good parking spots. Then we coulda gone surf fishing...

[Paul Maybury]

Maybe next year Andy.

[jasound]

Thanks Rick nice to have you over to the studios. After being in there for a year I've gotten used to it, so thanks for reminding me how lucky we are.
The new studios have made for an extremely busy year working on all types of productions from live music Youtube streams to a marathon 10 hour live stream of the International Naval Fleet Review. It's been exhausting and I have just started 5 weeks holiday(first time ever for such an extended vacation).
The studios went from 1 audio studio and a small final cut video suite, to 2 audio and 2 HD video broadcast/streaming studios. Lots of steep learning curves on new video/camera gear and on Mediornet and Nexus signal transport systems.
I think once the studios are totally finished we'll have a Turtlerock members open day.

Highlights for me were recording one of my alltime favourite bands The Sunnyboys and getting a song on their new best of album. A live Youtube stream and CD/DVD boxset for Neil Finn and Paul Kelly, I recorded 5 shows and mixed the web stream and Bob Clearmountain mixed the box set, it was pretty cool to see my name beside his.
Sarah Blasko, Chic and Nile Rogers, Yoko Ono, TedX were also great to be involved with.
I went and saw Bruce Springsteen live for the first time and had my mind blown, and Television were honest and amazing.
Time to get back to my prawns and beer.

[waitup]

Gang,

Congratulations to everyone who enjoyed some success this year and sorry to hear some stories of dark times too. Upwards and onwards in 2014, eh?

Looking back at 2013, I reckon it was a ripper for me. Even though sometimes it didn't feel like it.

The main change for me was moving my mix room out of the second bedroom of our flat into a space at 301 Castlereagh St in the city. Separating work and home life has been a serious revelation for me, and I couldn't recommend it enough. It was a nervous move for me financially but it seems to be working out OK so far! I would urge anyone who's thinking about taking their thing to the next level to give it a red hot go. The move allowed my partner and I to move into a smaller place in the city which has also be an excellent lifestyle change. The studio is a 5 minute walk/2 minute bike ride from my house now!

One highlight engineering wise for this year include recording Unity Floors debut album 'Exotic Goldfish Blues'. This band/album might not mean a whole lot to a lot of you, but amongst the Sydney indie/DIY/whatever-you-want-to-call-it scene these boys are very well respected and the album got a lot of attention and good reviews in these circles. It was FBi radios Album of The Week and the single turned out to be FBi radios second most played song this year. Not exactly the Passenger record, but small steps, eh? I recorded that one at Linear then mixed it at my place.

Probably the favorite thing I recorded and mixed this year was this little 7" EP for this band Loose Pills http://loosepills.bandcamp.com/ I mainly enjoyed it because I love power-pop (or however you want to label it) but also because these guys are an absolute blast to work with. They're older (than me) guys and have been around the traps. Hell, some of you guys have probably worked with them in other bands. They just know how to do it. Makes it a breeze. We started recording that EP on a Saturday. I mixed it during the week. Mastered it the following Saturday and it was sent to the vinyl plant that Monday. 8 days from first mic on an instrument to the pressing plant. When does that happen?!

I engineered/mixed/mastered/had-some-involvement with a whole bunch of other stuff that I won't go in to detail about such as Ted Danson with Wolves, Oslow, Making and No Art. All great bands and great projects but we'll be here all day if I go in to any detail about them!

The band I play the drums in, The Fabergettes, released a 7" EP (on green and pink wax!) and we played a whole bunch of shows in support of that. Even one in Perth. That's been fun because they're very good mates and we like to hang out together. It hasn't been quite as successful as the first EP but it was Brag Magazines album of the week and it had some reasonable reviews, so that's something. However, if another mate says "Save me a copy of the record" instead of just buying it, I might loose it!

I also started making a record for my own baby project The Metal Babies. I went to Linear Recoding for 3 days with the guys and had Wade Keighran on board helping out. Wade is a bloody legend, by the way, I would recommend working with him to anyone. We had a blast. We used two different vintage drum kits, 3 completely different mic setups and even blasted a couple out with all the amps and drums in the same room. All live to 16 track tape with no click. I've just started mixing a couple and because we spent so much time pulling good sounds it is honestly a breeze. There's nothing I could do to make this sound bad! I'm barely touching anything. I can't wait to show you guys this record.

The year ended on a slightly sour note (and yes, I know this is so so pale compared to the shit some of you guys have gone through this year). A band I've been making a record for for over a year decided to take the last song elsewhere for mixing. I've mixed all of the other tracks but this one track has got me stumped and I just can't get the sound they're hearing in their heads. It's a pretty weird piece of music and they've got this vision for it I just don't know how to get. I know this happens all the time, but having committed a LOT of time to this record it stings a bit not to be able to take it to the finish line. Trying to look on the bright side though. I still did record and mix the other songs, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a reasonably successful record that I can be proud of.

I got some new gear. Rick helped me build a box for some Telefunken V74 preamp/line amp modules which I'm using all the time. I built a stereo JLM audio mac compressor which I'm using on every session! I also got one of those little Presonus Faderport for writing automation which is awesome, I reckon!

Anyway, sorry for so many words. This is the first time this year I've had a chance to sit down and have a good gander at this forum. The better I get at this "sound engineering" thing, the more I realize it's about working months at a time with no days off, and this year's been no exception!

I'm off up the coast to eat too much food and drink too much beer and hopefully get my head out of the studio for a week. A very Merry Christmas to all of you and I'll see you on the other side!

NF.

[heathen]

I'm still alive, totally new direction for me, sold most of my audio gear, bought the best metal detector money can buy a Toyota Prado and other fossicking gear and have been digging holes, getting out in the bush and fresh air and have never been happier to be honest. So I'm still using my ears for something.

Have not found any decent yellow stuff yet but have found quite a few beautiful sapphires and other gemstones while fossicking in creeks and other places.

Rick said I'd be buying a train set if I got rid of my audio gear.

Anyone else hear enjoy digging holes and finding shiny things in the bush?

Few Sapphires and Zircons from my last trip.

Sapphires.jpg

[SteveL]

Nice pile of rocks, Heathen! My property is about 15kms from Grabben Gullen, which is some of the best sapphire country in NSW. For those that don't know Grabben Gullen, it is an intersection with one pub (but a mighty fine one, The Albion Hotel). Each year they host a sapphire safari, and crown the Sapphire Queen. If you ever want to come down fossicking Heathen, feel free. There's gold (alluvial) in the creeks round here, and trout too, which is one way to get a result in the pan at the end of the day.....

Steve

[jkhuri44]

nice heath!
they look prety clean, did you polish those up?

[heathen]

Nice pile of rocks, Heathen! My property is about 15kms from Grabben Gullen, which is some of the best sapphire country in NSW. For those that don't know Grabben Gullen, it is an intersection with one pub (but a mighty fine one, The Albion Hotel). Each year they host a sapphire safari, and crown the Sapphire Queen. If you ever want to come down fossicking Heathen, feel free. There's gold (alluvial) in the creeks round here, and trout too, which is one way to get a result in the pan at the end of the day.....

Steve

G'day Steve, I know Grabben Gullen quite well, have camped at the bridge on Sapphire Rd before and have found some nice stones there on a few occasions, such a beautiful part of the country, which most people have never heard of. Would love to buy a block of land down there too. I had never heard of the Sapphire Safari, sounds fun.

Would be great to come down and meet up, would you be keen for a dig sometime? Will send you a PM.

[heathen]

nice heath!
they look prety clean, did you polish those up?

Hey Jamil, thanks mate, no not polished they are wet, took the pic just after washing them, have you done any cutting yet at that lap club? Got heaps of Black Spinel to practice on if you need any.

Come out with us (Poet Laur and I) sometime if you like, I'll dig the holes and you can sort through the stones.

Will give you a call over the next few days to say G'day.

[jkhuri44]

hi heath,
yes i have....cuttin and polishing is awesome, unfortunately the lapidary club closes over the holidays, and since i broke my elbow i was only able to get started 4 weeks ago...
i have a nearly finished Agate cabouchon
looks pretty sweet for a first cut.

[rick]

A have more then a passing interest in gold
And fossicking heath

Its the same as studio stuff but nothing like it
But the same

Glad to see its got you in its grip !

[heathen]

Glad the arm is recovering Jamil, Agates are a great stone, one of my fav's. Will probably join the local club around here soon myself. Should catch up for a beer when you get the chance.

G'day Rick, yes it sure is in a way, studio stuff is a little more like Alchemy though, would you agree?

I bought a GPX 5000 detector, do you own 1? I couldn't resist the Sapphires this year, am concentrating more on Gold in the New Year.

Both audio and fossicking are very addictive hobbies, firmly in this ones grip now also.