By George Petersen
WALKING AROUND THE AES SHOW LAST WEEK, ya couldn’t miss it. Right out in the middle of the exhibit floor at New York City’s Javits convention center was a huge 30×30-foot pad of astroturf, with a rustic-looking cabin sitting right in the middle of it.
What is it? It’s a copy of Peter Gabriel’s backyard songwriting sanctum, equipped with a Solid State Logic AWS 900+ console /workstation controller, SSL XLogic outboard gear and additional Gear provided by Guitar Center Pro, including a Pto Tools HD rig, Auralex acoustic treatment, Argosy studio furniture and Henick-Lane air conditioning. Mix editor Sarah Jones and I sat down with Gabriel during the show and got his take on this. (Click here to check out the video interview.) Bringing “turnkeyâ€? to a whole new level, this “Shed of your Dreams” studio costs under $250K, depending on exact finish, specifications, the exact gear you choose and location—the user only need provide a concrete pad and electrical service.
Evidently the reaction at the show was overwhelmingly positive and from what I hear, several orders were placed. But $$$ aside, the concept of having a cool, prefab studio laid down at your location over a matter of days has a lot of merit.
The building itself is a 240-square-foot Summerwood Cheyenne cabin and it had a great vibe of its own. Gabriel’s own shed is decorated with some amazing (and quite valuable) artwork that’s NOT part of the purchase price. But as an avid art collector myself, I’d have no problem finding stuff from my own to spruce the joint up.
As an aside, my wife and I collect a variety of styles, but lately have been focusing on illustration art from science fiction. To get an idea of how cool some of this stuff is, you can check out one dealer we occasionally buy from—Worlds of Wonder at www.wow-art.com. Hey, just don’t complain to me next month because you spent all you money there, but even if you don’t, it’s a great source of eye candy—or a way of finding the right artist for your next album cover.
And while I was on the web, I checked out the Summerwood Products site www.summerwood.com (the guys who built the Gabriel shed) and was impressed by the array of designs and possibilities offered. More eye candy to be sure…
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com and check ‘em out.
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By George Petersen
EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAPPEN IN THREE’S. I’m not sure if it was my good or bad luck, but all three of the Fender tube amps in my studio have died in the past couple weeks. I’ve got a 1972 Deluxe Reverb, and two 1969 Bassmans—one with a stock 2×15 cab (we use that for bass) and the other set up for guitar with a Fender Showman Tone Ring single-15 cab, with the original JBL D130 woofer and the bizarre—yet cool-sounding—ported design.
The good luck part was that these things have run for decades (some, like the Deluxe—with the original tubes) and almost no maintenance. The bad luck part was that they all finally stopped working. Anyway, I figured it was time to go through these thoroughly, clean ‘em up inside and out and start from scratch—with all new tubes. I called Groove Tubes and they were very helpful with suggestions on exactly what tubes to use. They rate their power tubes with individual distortion ratings, so you can tailor the tunes to the spacific application/musical style/tone you’re looking for. So getting the tubes was the easy part.
I must be getting old, because I had nearly forgotten the weirdness one encounters when disecting old Fender amps, with their arcane (those four long screws) method of hanging the amps upside down—bat style—inside the cabinet. That itself isn’t so weird as trying to figure out who actually has hands with fingers skinny or long enough to hold the nut in place while reassembling the thing. But reassembly wasn’t the problem. The hang-up (pardon the pun) came from the amp assembly getting stuck on part of the sheet metal that shields the top of the amp (under the handle) from stray cosmic radiation from other galaxies. So on one of the Bassman heads, I had to completely remove the front grille and take the amp chassis out the front of the cab. Yuk!
From, there, things were a lot easier, especially when I saw that all the caps looked good. Somehow I was expecting to see sweatly blobs of goo and drippy caps, but these looked fine. But ALL of the pots exhibited noise, so each one got a shot of Caig DeoxIT and came out sweet—no static at all… And besides blowing a ton of dust out, I also hit the tip contact on each jack with a couple light file strokes—just to clear the light corrosion that can build up. Then came a cabinet wipedown and reassembly the retubing, which was all Groove tubes, except for a favorite Mullard 12AX7 that went onto one channel on the “guitar” Bassman. I did have some Groove Tube 12AX7M’s (these are the modern recreations of the vintage Mullards), but since I did have one nice NOS Mullard, it went in anyway.
After a quick bias check (highly recommended) and a couple hours burn-in—probably not necessary, but after spending an afternoon working on the amps, it was Miller time (actually Dos Equis time) at the local taqueria, which provided a nice respite before giving the amps the listening test. All were greatly improved, but the Deluxe Reverb was absolutely amazing, with exceptional tone and sustain. Morale: if an amp’s worth having, it’s worth retubing—definitely.
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com and check ‘em out.
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By George Petersen
HERE WE ARE AND AES IS JUST A MONTH AWAY! It doesn’t seem so long ago when we were at AES (at least the San Francisco show) and now AES is upon us once again. If you haven’t done so already, now–or at least 21 days before the show to get those advance-purchase fares–is a good time to lock in those cheap plane tickets. Or if you’re really lucky to live within a manageable distance—train tickets.
Or to steal the lyrics from a song about another U.S. city, “GONNA TAKE A BUS. GONNA TAKE A TRAIN. EVEN IF I GOTTA WALK, GONNA GET THERE JUST THE SAME…
New York AES is the place to be if you’re an audio pro. By all indications, the show’s gonna be great, with hundreds of exhibitors hawking the latest hoo-hahs and a great selection of workshops, papers and events to keep you way busy on October 5, 6, 7 and 8th.
But the magic of AES isn’t necessarily the show itself, but a gathering of the tribes and often the best place to find the real action is late night, at the bar of the Marriott Marquis or any of the dozen other official AES hotels. In fact the number of products on the show floor that are directly attributed to sketches made on rum-soaked cocktail napkins from last year’s AES is just as staggering as the comical gait that many attendees have when exiting the bars at closing time.
If you’re really smart, call the Iridium Jazz Club (212/582-2121) and snag a couple tickets for one of Les Paul’s shows, Monday night October 8th. Les is really an American icon and in a day when the word “living legend” is bandied around to apply to nearly anyone, Les is the genuine article. The shows start at either 8 or 10 pm, but it’s best to get there early to get good seats, as there are no reserved seats and it’s first come, first serve. Check it out at www.iridiumjazzclub.com.
If you’re really, really smart, bring something for Les to sign after the show. He’s usually pretty nice about such things, unless you walk in carrying a Strat. In that case, you’re on your own, and you certainly don’t want to mar your New York experience by needing to drag yourself into an emergency room to have a (Fender) guitar neck extricated from one of your body cavities. My advice? Leave the Strat at home, bring a CD, LP or your ’58 gold top Les Paul guitar to get signed. And watch out, because Les sometimes “forgets” to return your pen after he autographs something. In any case, a performance by the Les Paul Trio is a wonderful and unforgettable experience that’s well worth the $45 ticket price. Don’t miss it!
And if you really need a great reason to attend NYC AES, just say the words “Ray’s Pizza” three times and you’ll be magically whisked to the doors of the Javits Center. But if that fails for some reason, just grab a cab… from anywhere. And for more info about the AES show, visit www.aes.org. You’ll be glad you did!
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com and check ‘em out.
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By George Petersen
IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A RECORDING STUDIO (small or large) and can write and produce a song—you have an amazing amount of power within your grasp. So what am I talking about? Power. Political clout. And it’s all yours for the taking.
Here’s how it works: With the presidential election just 16 months away, candidates are starting to line up for the process, both before and after the primary. And if you have the gumption, talent or wherewithall to write a campaign song—either espousing your views or slammin the opposition—there are plenty of outlets to get YOUR message out. These can range from podcasts to political websites, to conventional broadcast radio and TV stations. And hey, sending or uploading an MP3 of your work to people who can spread your creation out to the masses ain’t necessarily expensive either.
As a case in point, before the last presidential election, I wrote, recorded and produced a song that took a humorous poke at one of the candidates. [I won't say which one, because Blair Jackson mentioned it in one of his blogs and it roused up a flurry of hate mail by some people who felt mixing politics and music was a bad idea—which it certainly is not.] But this particular song went on to rack up a startling 500,000 downloads and massive amounts of national airplay—not bad for a little ditty that took an hour to write and three hours to record/mix. So for a couple hours work, I could get my message out to a huge audience. And it isn’t hard at all…
Writing/producing the song is up to you, but it doesn’t have to be elaborate. In the spirit of simple = fun, mine only required nine tracks—three for drums (stereo+kick), one for bass, two for lead/backing vocals, acoustic guitar, flute and banjo. I will say that people (listeners and hosts) like humorous songs more than dirges, so a light-hearted approach is usually best. Once done, cut a couple MP3′s—I did a lower-res 128 kb version and a “broadcast-quality” 256 kb version—and host them and the words on your site/myspace page/whatever. Then start hitting up newsgroups, bloggers, podcasters, websites, broadcasters and others (particularly those allied to your cause), send them the link and watch the numbers grow. At last count, there were more than 500 links to my song and dozens of mirror sites hosting it. In fact, when you enter its fairly generic, 2-word title into Google, it comes up #1 out of 1.5-million results, so it’s definitely working.
Several people have told me that I should have charged for the downloads, because 500,000 downloads at $1/each is a decent return for a couple hours work. Great idea, but there’s something here called George’s 100,000-to-1 rule, where for each person that will pony up a buck, there are 100,000 who won’t. So given the choice of spreading my message with hundreds of thousands of downloads (and potentially millions of listeners) or making five smackeroos, I’ll take the big audience alternative, anytime.
YOU have the power. So get out, get involved, make some music and get YOUR message heard!
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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By George Petersen
OK, I’LL ADMIT IT—I’M A SUCKER FOR A GOOD FLEA MARKET. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in Italy, where they have the concept of a “flea marketâ€? down to a science. The “fleaâ€? part of the name has European roots, back to the days when goods brought in for sale from distant lands–particularly rugs and textiles—needed a good shaking out before putting them in your house. Even now, whenever I’m in Europe, I‘ll check out a good “Floh Marktâ€? or “Marche aux Pucesâ€?
But these days, in-between my cravings to seek real Eurotrash, I get my fix at locally, at the weekly flea market in the parking lot at Oakland’s Laney College. Now before anyone gets off on one of those “my flea market’s better than yours� trips, let me say there are certainly larger markets around here, but this one has a nice local feel and besides a goodly percentage of guys who week-to-week are hired by local estates and people who want stuff hauled out of a basement/garage/attic and then bring the leavings to sell every Sunday. So you’ll never know what you’ll find there.
Flea marketing is a lot like fishing. You may hope to land that 110-pound sturgeon or 35-pound salmon when you go, but more often than not, there’s a lot of very small fish in between the big scores. And you never know what you’ll find there. I haven’t found that LA-2A or box of old Neumanns there yet, but I once scored a pile of Stratocaster neck plates with ‘70s-era serial numbers for a buck. Another time it was a pristine 1953 lowboy Leslie for $20 or $50 for an Ampeg 810 bass cab. The latter had some Tolex tears and as the seller said it was blown, so he musta been telling the truth.
YOU CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING A SELLER TELLS YOU, BUT IF THEY SAY SOMETHING’S BLOWN, IT’S PROBABLY TRUE.
At that price, I figured I could patch it up and put new speakers in it, but later, we pulled a couple speakers, which were fine, except for the fact that all the push-on wiring was loose–meaning no sound. Some 90 seconds later, it worked fine. Still does.
Can you can find anything at a flea market? Sure. For the past few weeks, local musician/producer/performance artists Jon Brumit and Lisa Mezzacappa (helped out by a grant from the city of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program) are operating an open-air, free recording studio in a flea market stall to archive performances by passerbys. The program goes through May 20 and each participant gets an on-site acetate flexi-disk of their creation and a chance for their sounds to be on a compilation CD unveiled at Oakland’s 21 Grand Gallery (www.21grand.org) on July 6. Who needs “American Idol� with a deal like this???
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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By George Petersen
PRE-PRODUCTION IS ONE OF THOSE ESSENTIAL PARTS of making the recording process more efficient. These days, that usually entails selecting the patches, samples and loops you’re planning to use and may be edit some MIDI sketchpad sequences to get them just right. But when you’re working with a solo singer/guitarist/songwriter, the “pre-production” stage is probably a little different.
Such was the case when my studio/label partner JJ Jenkins and I discovered RJ Hutchinson. Actually, we didn’t really “discover” him–any more than Christopher Columbus discovered America, as RJ existed well before we ever heard him. But heard him we did–in of all places, at one of those “open mic” nights at a local bar. There were a lot of people signed up to perform–some admittedly more talented than others–but RJ had something that was magic and writes amazing songs on the level of a James Taylor or Gordon Lightfoot. You don’t run across people like this everyday, so after hearing him perform at some other venues, we decided to do his album on my Jenpet Records label (www.jenpet.com).
RJ doesn’t have a band–no problem–in fact, sometimes that’s even better, because he has the flexibility to perform with other players or do amazing one-man shows. He can play solo to support the album, which is a lot easier than maintaining and touring four or five other players—and he sounds great either way. But before cutting any tracks, RJ brought in his friend and sometime songwriting collaborator, pianist David Kaff (probably best known as the keyboardist in SPINAL TAP) and we assembled a studio band, with RJ on guitar, myself on drums, Jenkins on organ and Walter Bush on bass.
So for the past few weeks, we’ve actually been REHEARSING (yeah, I know that’s something people rarely do before recording) and working out arrangements, carefully adding to the tunes without changing their character. The cool part of this is actually working the songs out in a collaborative environment with everybody contributing to the whole. I think too often, people go the “auteur” route in recording, but the whole process is a lot more fun when you’re on a team.
Besides working with RJ, one of the real delights is Kaff, who’s a brilliant player in his own right and keeps us entertained between tunes with a million stories about his life on the road with a zillion Brit bands during the late ’60s and ’70s. I’ll have to sit him down one of these days and get some of these (at least the printable ones) on tape for blog or podcast…
Rehearsing–what a concept!
SPEAKING OF SPINAL TAP…
It seems the boys are back together for a reunion set at London’s Wembley Stadium during the “Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis” 24-hour worldwide music event slated for 7/7/07. To help promote the event, Rob Reiner and the Tapsters put together a very funny 14-minute mockumentary clip, at www.liveearth.msn.com. Check it out!
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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By George Petersen
This pre-NAMM week is pretty slow on news, so I figure I’d launch a personal crusade…
Everybody who produces audio is blessed with a talent to create and the ears to separate the good from the… well… not so good. And these days, just about everybody who works in audio has access to the tools to make great recordings–just add talent on both sides of the board and magic can–and will–occur right before your (eyes and ears). Affordable, accessible gear offers the TECHNOLOGY to make it all happen. There’s a lot of great music and artists out there waiting to be uncovered, but for most, this will never emerge due a lack of money and/or access to gear and tech talent.
Here’s where the recording community can come in. Since so many of us have access to gear and know how to use it, why not not devote a session–at least once a year or so–to helping out someone who is talented and could use a break, but otherwise would have no chance to get their music out.
This puts you in the gloriously enviable position of grandmaster label boss/A&R head: Certainly, there’s plenty of needy talent out there to select from, whether at a club, coffeehouse, church choir, school recital, streetcorner, local orchestra or whatever. It’s all up to you to do that good deed, discover and encourage someone with talent—even if it’s just knocking out a quick live to 2-track demo or embellishing someone’s guitar/piano +vocal performance with a few quick overdubs to fill it out. A quick mix, burn a couple CDs to go and they’re on their way to stardom—or at least a better gig.
Lawyers refer to such occasional voluntary good deeds as “Pro Bono”–essentially unpaid work done for the public good–and if that oft-maligned caste of legal practicioners can do a freebie every once in a while, certainly those of us in the music biz could do the same. I’m not implying or suggesting that recording pros need to take an oath of poverty (beyond what we norally experience, anyway) or turn down paying gigs, but doing a good every once in a while could be great thing. Besides, it could be YOU that discovers and gives a break to tomorrow’s rising star. Imagine…

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
I just got an e-mail from South African engineer Peter Thwaites (whose credits include co-engineering Paul Simon’s Graceland with Roy Halee, as well as working with Pavarotti, Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Mutt Lange, Trevor Rabin and many others). Thwaites referred me to some consumer/pro speakers from South African manufacturer Vivid Audio and designed by a staff that includes ex-B&W engineer Laurence Dickie. The line consists of four freestanding systems, with elongated ovoid enclosures cast in a carbon fiber-reinforced polyester compound that’s available in five colors. The speakers look cool and have some intriguing design aspects and tout some impressive specs. Check ‘em out at: www.vividaudio.com.

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.

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By George Petersen
Here we are, welcoming in a new year. At least today, we’re all moving slightly faster than yesterday, when we were all feeling the pain and paying the price for the all excesses of the night before. Mine weren’t too bad, I guess, but after hosting a party at my house with a huge music jam that finally broke up around 5:30am on the morning of the first, anyone can feel pretty burned out the next day or so…
But if anything, a new year marks a new beginning—a fresh start so to say. And rather than call them “resolutions,” this is good time to plan out the coming year. Live sound companies know this period pretty well and (after winding all the cables from the New Year’s shows) find the January lull provides a chance to check their inventory and examine new purchases with the traditional moving of components from their “A” systems down into their “B” systems, “C” systems and so on. The hand-me-downs from the “C” and “D” systems can be sold/cast off to someone else, providing a constant cycling (or recycling) of new items into the chain.
This is also a good time to inject a little maintenance into your lives. No, it’s not as exciting as buying new toys, but even something as simple as sitting down and checking all your cables for shorts, opens, missing grounds or reversed polarity can–and will–pay off in terms of avoiding hassles down the road.
Especially in a virtual studio world, maintenance is essential, even if it’s no more than coming up with a regular schedule of backups for that day when (NOT if) your system goes south. This might also be that special moment when you should think about adding more RAM or looking into a new CPU, especially with the eventual arrival of Windows Vista or Mac Leopard.
Even the little things count. Whether you’re working live or in the studio, those small touches like cleaning the mic windscreens every once in a while is a great idea. On the gross scale, few things pin the needle faster than a stinky pop screen, so every once in a while, give them a quick cleaning dip (do make sure you remove the mic BEFORE doing this) or a least scrape the little bits of brie off them now and then. Your clients will thank you for this….
Anyway, welcome to 2007. But while we’re at it, let’s make this world a better place. Don’t forget those occasional unprovoked acts of kindness. If everybody gave some random motorist a break on the road just once a day, that would equate to a billion good deeds a day…. a pretty good start.
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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By George Petersen
Last week, an industry friend of mine sent me a sad and disturbing link to a article in last Saturday’s Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003480664_stormdead16m.html) that recounted the story of noted audiobook performer/producer Kate Fleming, who drowned in her studio during the recent flooding in the Northwest. Evidently when her basement project room began filling with water, she went down to salvage some of her gear when a sudden water surge filled the room and trapped her inside. Like many home basement studios, Kate’s room was a single-door, windowless design that left no exit possibilities in case of disaster.
Certainly this was a tragic freakish accident that’s hardly the norm, but how many of us work inside maze-like confines with no outside windows and behind heavy studio doors that may be difficult–if not impossible–to open in the case of flooding? More likely, perhaps is a situation where we could be trapped in case of fire, which could come suddenly when fueled by sources such as natural gas leaks, heating oil or simply a vehicle rear-ending a gasoline tanker in front of your facility.
Whether you have a mullti-room recording complex, rehearsal facility or small project studio, taking a few minutes to review disaster preparedness plans is good advice. Are exits marked? Are there exits at all? Are exit doors chained shut for security reasons–we’ve all see that one more than a few times. Besides alarms and extinguishers, sometimes an available large axe or two can provide lifesaving access or egress, especially when dealing with double wall construction.
Thankfully, most of us won’t be in a studio flood, fire or other disaster. But a more very real danger is crime. The studio biz has odd hours, often with a single engineer working alone in a room filled with thousands of dollars of highly desireable, easily fence-able equipment, making studios a target for thieves. Here, the solo project studio owner, is especially vulnerable, especially when taking bookings from people they don’t know. Several years ago, this exact scenario played out at a small project room, where the owner was shot dead and then the room completely cleaned out. I know of a dozen of so instances over the years in which such robberies have taken place (fortunately rarely with deadly force), but often with studio employees being beaten, tied and one handcuffed to a water pipe while the thieves took their time and loaded out everything in the place. These aren’t pretty stories, but it’s better to be prepared than a victim.
Be safe, be healthy, be street smart and have some great holidays.
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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