Getting Started into Recording

 I'm making progress with recording and mixing and all of that fun stuff. And I'm the first to admit I have a long way to go. But over the last couple of years I've learned a lot and I feel like there are some rabbit holes that are worth it and some that are not. So if your looking into learning this stuff I thought I'd start compiling a list of things. Some of these things are things I forget and need to remind myself. 

The order of importance

What's important? At the end of the day the song comes first, everything you do needs to be there to serve the song. To add to and not take away from, but this is subjective. And it's easy to think oh if I had a different DAW or Microphone (or pedal) or what did Stevie Ray Vaughn use? But none of that really matters. What matters first and foremost is the song. Is it good? Maybe. Now what about when it comes to recording... A great song recorded on a cassette tape through a cheap mic will be better than an ok song recorded at the legendary Ocean Way Studios and perfectly engineered by one of the masters. Ok? 

Second- The performance of the song is the second most important thing, and I think it's a close second. There is nothing like nailing a song on stage with the band and when recording it's the same. Yes you can time-align everything after the fact in most modern DAWs but when everyone nails their part it really does sound better for some reason. 

Third is the quality of the instrument.... ok we have a bit of a caveat here. Samples can go a long way to helping a lot of instruments and I've heard some incredible stuff done with samples. But it will help if the main instruments recorded. If your song is a just a vocal and a piano you should really try to find a real piano to record if at all possible. It will sound better. Are you playing an acoustic instrument? Tune it between every take. Is there a better quality acoustic guitar you can borrow for the recording do it, if not don't stress over it just make sure you nail the performance. 

Fourth is Mic choice and placement. If you look around on tutorials you'll find a lot of different mics mentioned but also a lot of people saying you just need a large condenser mic and that's it.  More and more I think that getting one large condenser mic and using that is fine for almost everything. But the reason for that is that it forces you to listen to the more important factor and that is PLACEMENT! How the mic and instrument and the room work together. One of the biggest pop stars on the planet right now is Billie Eilish and for her first two albums her brother recorded her with a $100 AT2020. Learning how to place the mic, and use it to get the best sounds is way more important than buying another mic. SOOOOO why does everyone spend all this money on more mics? Well they do sound different and some mics WILL lend themselves to different voices and instruments. But not nearly as much as placement. 

Fifth and way way way way down on the list is outboard gear. Preamps, compressors, EQs and all of that stuff is kind of fun, and expensive. Do you need it? nope. Can it be useful? yep. The fact is that most of that stuff can be modeled in your DAW by plugins. BUT I do believe it is better.... but only marginally. If you've got the budget then spend the money. If your trying to make things 2% better then do it. But if your mixes sound like mud (which mine did for a long time) no outboard gear is going to help. Sorry. 

Sixth and even farther way down the list is the analog to digital converters. The reason for this is that most AD converters these days are really great and you don't have to worry about them unless you going in and out of your DAW to run those sounds through rack gear. 

So if You don't need that what do you need?

Where should you spend your money? My vote for most people is lessons, there is a lot of people on YouTube showing you different ways to do things at different levels. But find a couple of people who explain things to you in a way that makes sense to you. Maybe that's Recording Revolution, or Joe Gilders Home Studio Corner, or Produce like a Pro, just to name a few. If you're on a budget sign up for their mailing list and then wait for a sale. 

The next thing is to start recording stuff. Do you remember when you started playing guitar (or whatever instrument you started on)? Could you play like Steve Vai right away? nope, I've been playing for years and I still can't. But if you're like most people you started learning easy songs, I think my first one was Rock you Like a Hurricane. Revisit those first few songs and record them, You'll learn a ton, including what you don't know and what you need to work on. 

I've messed around with recording for several years and it's only in the last couple of years that I find myself getting to where I am happy with the sound of my mixes. My vocals on the other hand, that's going to take a lot of work. haha

Ibanez JD9 Jet Driver Review

The Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer is a big favorite of blues and rock players everywhere, whether your playing through a high gain metal amp or a Fender twin it's great for boosting solos and cutting through the mix. It's also the most copied drive pedal circuit in history, almost every overdrive, amp in a box, and even quite a few fuzz circuits are tweaked versions of the classic TS9. Even Ibanez has put out more than a few variations on their classic pedal. I love overdrives and I almost always have some variation on the TS pedal on every board I've ever used. But this classic circuit does have it's share of complaints. Some people feel it needs more gain, more output, true bypass, more bottom end... ect.

Ibanez JD9 Jet Driver

I recently picked up an Ibanez JD9 Jet Driver. Ibanez markets it as a distortion which in my mind is a mistake. It's a TS9, with a few tweaks. First off it's true bypass, there is no tone coloration when this thing is off. There is more output (level or volume, what ever you want to call it) so it's great for pushing an already crunchy amp into drive just by doing that. There is also noticeably more gain than the typical TS pedal. It still has the famous JRC4558D chip, which some people feel is a big deal. But the real selling point of this pedal is a mids knob that allows you to adjust the 650 Hz frequency of the pedal. Mids are an important part of the guitar sound and help you cut through a band mix, but a lot of todays pickups are wound hotter which naturally boost the mid frequencies and paired with an already mid heavy pedal can sound muddy. With the mid knob on the JD9 you can take the mids to as flat as your pickups. It doesn't scoop the mids it just flattens the eq of the pedal.

With vintage single coils in my strat this thing can nail the Stevie Ray Vaughan sound that he used various TS pedals to make. Keep the Drive low and give it a bit of Volume boost in a cranked Fender sounding amp. Start with the Mids and Tone knobs in the 12 o'clock position and dial in your tone from there. I'm pretty familiar with the TS sound so I start with the Tone knob and then roll the mids to where I need them.

Playing a little #SRV today with my new JD9 and trusty Strat. #bluesguitar #tonetools

A video posted by @adhd_guitarist on Dec 28, 2015 at 9:07am PST

Most players will use this pedal to boost and cut through the mix for solos and the JD9 excels. All TS pedals are perfect for this but as I stated earlier a lot of todays hotter pickups are already mid heavy and can sound muddy when paired with a TS style pedal. So having the Mid knob comes in handy to roll back those mids a bit. Of course with vintage sounding PAFs or single coils this isn't a problem. The extra gain is nice and I guess that's why Ibanez decided to call it a distortion pedal but I always think of distortion with a bit of scoop in the mids and more bottom end. That is one thing to note: this pedal cuts the bottom end like a typical TS pedal. If your looking for more bottom end check out the TS9dx which also has a bit more gain than the standard TS9.

I've read that this pedal doesn't clean up well with your volume knob and while it doesn't go to perfect cleans from the higher end of the Drive knob it does clean up. With vintage single coils and PAFs if the gain is around 1 o'clock or less it will clean up just fine. With higher output pickups or the gain up around 3 o'clock it rolls back to a nice crunch tone. I've also read of a loud audible click when engaging the pedal but mine doesn't do that. It does add to the background noise with single coils but that's to be expected.

Interestingly this pedal averages $10 less than the typical TS9 and often gets discounted even more, so pedal snobs won't like it. There are more amp like screamer pedals, many with a different mid hump frequency or less of a mid bump. But I feel this pedal is a gem in the Ibanez TS line, in fact I would go so far as to say this is my new recommendation for a budget TS pedal! If your looking for a pedal with more gain, volume, less mids, or true bypass while keeping with the overall tube screamer flavor you owe it to yourself to checkout the Ibanez JD9 Jet Driver.

This review was completely unsolicited, I received no compensation for it and all views and opinions are my own

ADHD Guitarist Christmas Wishlist 2014

It's Christmas time. And for most of us that means scheduling Christmas parties, buying presents for kids and significant others. It's a crazy time of year, and often we can be caught off guard when someone ask "what do you want for Christmas"? So I figured I'd post a few guitar related ideas of things most of us wouldn't mind finding under the Christmas tree.

Pickups- Experimenting with different pickups is always fun. You can dramatically improve the sound over cheap pickups or just tweak the sound of your favorite guitar. You can add more mids or more scoop, a little less top end, or pound the front end of your amplifier with a really hot pickup.

Seymour Duncan Jason Becker Perpetual Burn Humbucker- Jason is one of my biggest inspirations for more reasons that his phenomenal guitar playing. Sitting between the legendary JB and a classic PAF the Perpetual Burn is hot enough for shredders but dynamic enough for blues and fusion players. The reviews have been impressive.

Fender Noiseless Pickups- It seems like every couple of years noiseless single coils keep getting better and better. Most of them can be tapped to give you true single coil sound. These really are versatile and able to deliver the goods in the tone department.

Pedals- While your tone should be based around your guitar and amp pedals are fun, they are one of the easiest ways to add a whole new dynamic to your playing and discover new sounds. And they are available at most price ranges.

Overdrives

EHX Soul Food- This krazy klon kone has captured the attention of the guitar world, everyone seems to like it. A low gain drive with a slight roll off on the outer frequencies and a slight lower mid bump, it also includes an internal switch to add a nice buffer or not depending on your taste. Think of it as a more button

Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet Overdrive- One of the early more versatile boutique tube screamer based pedals, the recent price drop makes this a killer deal. It has switches for more or less base, and a smoother tone as well as a boost you can engage for more gain or solos.

Wampler Dual Fusion- While this may seem like an expensive pedal at first, your really getting two great overdrives at a great price. Wampler worked with fusion guitarist Tom Quayle for this dual overdrive pedal tweaking their Paisley Drive (Brad Paisley's pedal) and their Euphoria Overdrive (Dumble sounds). It's extremely flexible, you can stack either pedal first, or use the dual in and outs.

Xotic SL Drive- Mini pedals are all the rage right now and how Xotic shoves this much marshall flavored tone into this little beast and leaves room for a 9v battery is beyond me. Internal switches let you select between the sound of a SuperLead for Jimi sounds or the SuperBass for Duane Allman flavors. It's a very organic, dynamic sounding pedal.

Fuzz Pedals

Mojo Hand Fx Iron Bell- Mojo Hand is one of those companies that keeps knocking it out of the park with each new release. The Iron Bell is not a straight up Big Muff clone but is smoother and adds a midrange control that allows you to dial in tones from the scooped early muffs to the mid heavy soviet era. It also makes a nice overdrive sound. Whether you need to cover David Gilmour or Billy Corgan this can do it.

Dunlop Mini Fuzz Face- Dunlop has released a whole slew of these mini Fuzz Face pedals in different fuzz flavors but this germanium based pedal has quickly become a favorite of fuzz freaks. It's fat and dynamic sounding in front of a slightly over driven amp. But read up on germanium quirks, it doesn't play well with other pedals and can sound different on cold or warm days.

Fulltone OctaFuzz- I've been a bit obsessed with octave fuzz pedals lately, and this one leads the pack. It's mostly a clone of the old Tycobrahe Octavia but with a switch to take out the octave circut giving you a fatter sounding fuzz. Versatile and built like a tank.

Modulation

Mooer Eleclady- Mooer has released a whole range of clones that have been hit and miss but many people are saying this is the best clone of a vintage EHX Electric Mistress Flanger. More subtle than the jet sounding MXR flanger, think more Andy Summers or David Gilmour in the late 70's.

MXR Phase 45 Script - Have I mentioned how much I like phasers? Different from the Phase 90 the Phase 45 is slightly smokier, sweeter variation of phase. Hand wired like the originals, this pedal does not have an LED indicator and is battery powered only.

Delay

TC Electronic Flashback- These have been out for a while and have gotten rave reviews. The new toneprint program from TC allows you to tweak settings for days or just beam toneprints from some of today's biggest players. It also comes in a X4 for access to more delay settings or a mini pedal to save space.

Way Huge EchoPuss- A true Analog delay similar to the MXR Carbon Copy but voiced more like the old EHX Memory Man. A beautiful sounding delay and highly recommended.

Loopers

TC Electronic Ditto- With the recent price drop making these more affordable that ever your reasons for not having one are getting fewer. There is a new X2 version with more features but the original Ditto Looper is a great practice tool.

Accessories

Strings are pretty personal. I've been using GHS Boomers for years and really love them but I also talked about the new D'Addario NYXL strings here and they are fantastic. Pickup a multi pack and save some dough.

Picks- We guitar players go through picks like crazy, they wear out and get lost constantly. I love experimenting with different sounds from different materials like metal, nylon, TUSQ, and plastic. Recently I've jumped on the Tortex band wagon, they sound beautiful and give you a lot of attack when you need it. You can never have enough picks.

Inspiration

Gary Moore: One Night in Dublin- It's no secret that the late Gary Moore is one of my all time favorite guitar players. In this tribute to the late Phil Lynott, Gary and other Thin Lizzy alums tear up the stage in front of a home town crowd. This is classic blues based rock at it's best.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet- Jason Becker was an amazing up and coming guitar player who was just hitting his stride when given the worst news of his life "your going to die in the next three to five  years." That was 1990 and he is still here working on music, puzzling doctors, defying disease and inspiring people around the world. He is a testament to the human spirit, positive thinking, and the will to live. EVERYONE, not just guitar players, should watch this movie.

David Gilmour: Remember That Night- David Gilmour's live performance of his 2006 album On an Island, and classic Pink Floyd songs culminate in a breath taking performance at Albert Hall. His incredible tone and masterful playing is a lesson in phrasing and feel.

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Live from Austin- This DVD features both of Stevie Ray Vaughn's performances on Austin City Limits. One in 1983 and one in 1989. Both fiery performances, the staggering differences between them are the subtleties between watching an insecure, drug addled performance in 83 and a bright eyed, full of life performance in 89.

The Fulltone Fulldrive 2, the Ultimate TS Pedal

I'm an Overdrive junkie. It all started with a friend of mines Tube Screamer back in the early nineties. It was versatile and could be used for so many different sounds, whether or not you needed a boost for a solo or used it to smooth out or fatten up your tone it could handle the job. Or maybe you were trying to get the Stevie Ray Vaughan sound. It seems like there are endless TS variations in the boutique market. Some people on forums like to point to all the Tube Screamer variations and laugh but the truth is the TS9 circuit is very tweakable.  It can have more bottom end, or less of a mid hump, more gain, or more touch sensitivity, there are really are a lot of different variations to be had. And of course experimenting is part of the fun here. One of the original and best boutique clones out there is the Fulltone Fulldrive 2.

There are even different versions of this from Fulltone and a lot of boutique builders have used this version of the circuit as a jumping off point. It features more gain, more bottom end, standard or mosfet clipping (for even more smoothness) and a transparent boost at the front to push the pedal into even more gain. This is perfect for everything from Steve Ray Vaughan to Steve Vai. The other day while thinking about my next overdrive I happened to look up this monster of a pedal and noticed the price has dropped everywhere to $119.20. Not sure when that happened or if it's permanent but if your looking for an Overdrive and haven't tried one, I highly recommend this beast. Check it out below.

Does it matter how fast can you tune?

I saw this a while back and while the whole thing is pretty interesting but the part that amazed me was at 9:17. Tony McManus retunes that guitar into an open tuning in about 10 seconds. So I timed myself, it takes me about 60 seconds to tune my guitar maybe a little more depending on what I'm doing. So I think that tuning a guitar to an entirely different tuning in 10 seconds, by ear, is pretty impressive. But then when I'm watching a free lesson on youtube where someone is tuned a half step down and people are complaining about it being in a different tuning I just can't believe it. First off it's a free lesson! Often, with the half step down thing its a Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimi Hendrix song which was played in half step down to begin with. Secondly it's just not that hard. I'm not trying to call anyone out here but think about it. If it takes you longer than 60 seconds to retune your guitar maybe, just maybe, you should practice tuning your guitar. I'm not trying to be an egotistical guy here either. When I saw Tony McManus do that I knew I had work to do. I have several guitars but because of my kids I only leave two out at a time. One in standard tuning and one in half step down. One in my living room and one in my office. I used to grab the other one if I needed it but now I make myself retune no matter what. Locking system? who cares, let's stop making excuses. Honestly if it's to much trouble, give up on the instrument now, and I'm not saying that to be mean but really retuning a guitar is pretty easy. If that's the toughest thing you have to do today thank the guitar gods for your blessed life.