March 31, 2013 All the stuff that used to live in the old Navy electronics rack needed to find a new home- which was a good thing, because it made me put this together- It's that sweet Giulietti amp perched atop a rack Bruce gifted to the studio containing: 1- a 4-way headphone amp. 2- an Altec 1567A tube mixer 3- a DeMaria Labs tube compressor/limiter 4- 2x TC Electronics 1128 equalizers This is useful stuff to be rolled around to various locations in the room. Headphone amps for multiple players playing together. The mixer and compressor for whoever feels the need for old school tube sounds. And the EQs just because you never know when you need to eq something, like old school tube sounds...

March 29, 2013 This morning I started reading an article that began with this sentence- In one of the European galleries at the British Museum, there’s a bronze medal of Erasmus made in Antwerp in 1519 by the artist Quentin Metsys. There are seven references here by my count. It can be intimidating at 7 in the morning. But I got through it, mainly by counting them and musing about how that was certainly a hell of a way to start an article. Fortunately, as they say, it gets better. What this ends up being is a really insightful piece about the music of Wagner. It touches on a lot of the questions I have about Wagner's music, such as, why do I like it even though it's terribly oppressive? Seems it strikes a lot of people this way. Anyway, well worth a half hour or so of your time. It's about music, and how music works on us, and there are even samples of the passages he talks about (oh, the promise of hyperlinks fulfilled!) if you're not totally familiar with Wagner, like me. Why bother? Well, apparently, he was all about breaking through barriers- or maybe, just ignoring them altogether. Which is always interesting, innit? Next, there's some excellent band photos on the Sporting Hill Ramblers page. Really, excellent, excellent photographs. Not the greatest subject matter, mind... And finally, a continuation of a previous post. Those cheapo piezo triggers I'm mounting in my cheapo ludwig set? Well, there was a breakthrough of sorts, and it looks as if they might sort of be useful afterall, and tonight I configured this old Navy Surplus rack into the drum trigger, sampler, and MIDI recorder rack. Pretty sweet! (yes, it's a Mac Plus, with a whopping 20 Mb hard drive) For the first time I don't have to bend down and peer at my DM Pro to see the stinkin' tiny screen! (it's mounted above the Mac)

March 27, 2013 Oh jeez, more Lou Donaldson goodness! (later) in the studio tonight...

March 26, 2013 Hoo-wee, mama! Yes, every now and then I get a bug up my butt and just rett up the website. I've been meaning to expand the entries, but I just wasn't into the way it was going, and if you know me, you know I can't force myself to do anything I don't sincerely want to do. Today, it just clicked, finally, and I got THE VISION. It may not seem like much, but now there is substance all over the page. Substance. I mean, content. Not some other kind... ahem. Anyhoo, I hope you like the new, sort of tabloid look.

March 25, 2013 If you've been following Steam Powered Studio for a while, you'll know about my attempts to make usable drum machine triggers from things like piezo-electric buzzers. I invested in a great drum box, the Alesis DM Pro, years ago, and have used it on many projects. I want to use it to "double-up" on natural drum sounds, so I've stuck some of these piezo elements to the insides of the drum heads on my cheapo Ludwig kit. It will definitely work, the only question is how well, and for how long?

March 24, 2013 There's a good long read in the online Virginia Quarterly Review about books and publishing and how they make money doing that, and, and... really covers a lot of ground, much of it relevant to the music business as well. They make the claim that book publishing isn't about selling physical objects called books- it's about the ideas in the books, and how they can be used to earn money for authors (and publishers, etc). Can this be applied to music?

March 15, 2013 It's the little things... I was a long time looking for a good deal on this studio workhorse, the Shure SM57 dynamic mic. Entire albums (Sufjan Stevens?) have been recorded using nothing else, but mostly people use them on snare drums. Because recording live drums didn't happen very often back in the basement studio, I was in no rush to get one of these, but now that I'm in a big space (and actually own a sort of cheap-ass drumset) I feel it's a necessity. A studio without a 57 is like a carpenter without a hammer. And they have been used as hammers! They're really tough mics, and heavy for their size, and, well, sometimes people just grab whatever's handy... But this one wasn't used that way. It's something like my second "flea-bay" purchase ever, and a nice deal. I got the mic, the 20' Monster cable, and the AT matching transformer for a "buy it now" price $20 lower than most asks for the mic alone. Works perfectly, made my entire day- thanks, Kevin! (later) Turns out I was lucky- E-Bay is swamped with Shure mic knock-offs. By all indications this is a real 57 (mostly by weight and capsule impedence measurements). It also sounds right, and one of the first things I did when I got it was to spin the plastic windscreen around- as I remember they were always real loose, and this one was. At the time I did it it was just for a laugh, but it turns out that's one thing that can be a "tell" about the fakes- they don't spin like that! Be careful out there.

March 12, 2013 Sadly, I did not get one picture from Saturday night, but I did get this souvenir glass. Looks just like milk in there, doesn't it?

March 07, 2013 Happy day- it's release day! Check out Linzi's new page, and her song, freshly remixed- The Last Girl

March 05, 2013 Oh, kids these days. I've been adding to the Locals List and found these guys, Mutant Love Child. That's a link to a video of a rehearsal, something with a drummer, at the rented room at Drums Etc. Fun stuff, it's why I spend my time doing this! See their locals link for more live videos as a duo.

March 04, 2013 William's Burg So I'm mixing Last Girl again, and I'm comparing it to some iconic CD's, including Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow. That record has a classic sound which has aged well, and I notice it's produced by Bill Bottrell, so I gotta find out what else he's done. Turns out, a lot. But the thing is, he now has his own little studioo in sunny Cali, and when I saw it I thought brother mine! because he has speakers hanging from chains and the whole thing is in one room. Granted, it's a room with a view of the Pacific ocean, but one room none the less.

March 03, 2013 Two guys trade a rare blues record for a rare Crumb drawing. Value is in the eye of the be-trader.

March 01, 2013 This month features a photo from an album that is sort of iconic for me. It was a record by RCA, made to be sold at Acme Markets called it's Coffee Time. The music on it is some saccharine Percy Faith and Skitch Henderson arrangements, but it was the cover I loved. Man, those kids are sure having fun, aren't they?