Tone. At Home.
“The Hermit’s Cave” is my little home recording studio. This is a general catch-all tag for anything about me and my gear.
When I was doing my research into studio monitors, there was a concept that kept coming up time and time again. All the pros said the same thing: you’ve got to learn the sound of your monitors in your space.
This week – almost 18 months after getting my studio monitors – I finally understand what that means.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #33: Things Are Clicking With My Studio Monitors”Last week, I finally did it: I replaced all the home-made wiring in my rack with professionally-made cables. And, seeing as I was taking everything apart anyway, I used it as an opportunity to give everything a much-needed clean too.
Why did I do this? What was involved? How long did it take? And was it worth the trouble and expense? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #32: Rewiring The Studio Rack”
Attenuators are one of the reasons we can enjoy valve amps at home without upsetting the neighbours. I’ve never really thought about how they affect the overall tone … until now.
In this blog post, I’m going to look at the two attenuators that I have – the Two Notes Captor and the Fryette PS-100 Power Station – and work out what they sound like. And I’m including some sound samples, so that you can hear the differences for yourself.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #31: Attenuators Colour The Sound”A couple of months back, I bought the MXR version of the legendary Timmy overdrive pedal. Since it arrived, I’ve been far too busy using it to write about it 😂
If you’d like to know a bit more, here are my First Impressions of this pedal.
Continue reading “First Impressions: MXR Timmy Overdrive Pedal”Let’s be honest … it’s past time that I did something to acoustically treat this room.
Here’s what I’ve done so far, and why.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #30: Acoustic Treatment For The Home Recording Studio”
Last summer, I bought what is probably the bucket list amp for me: a re-issue of Fender’s legendary Tweed Deluxe amplifier.
Nine months or so later, how am I getting on with it? Was it a good decision, or do I regret paying the perceived Fender tax for an almost 70-year-old amp circuit that’s been heavily cloned?
Continue reading “Short Term Review: Fender 57 Custom Deluxe (aka Tweed Deluxe) Re-Issue Amplifier”Last summer, I bought a Fryette Power Station PS-100 as an emergency purchase, so that I could use my Tweed Deluxe at home volume levels.
Nine months later, how am I getting on with it? Would I buy it again if anything happened to it? And would I recommend it to you? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Short-Term Review: The Fryette Power Station PS-100”I’ve recently switched back from Universal Audio’s LUNA DAW to good old Reaper. Why? Because I need to work on some midi drums, and LUNA doesn’t really support that yet.
This is partly a note to myself, and partly a tutorial, on how I setup Superior Drummer 3 and Reaper to work well together.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #29: Setting Up Superior Drummer 3 In Reaper”We’ve just started band rehearsals again, after a 2 year break because of the global pandemic. That means that my time with LUNA has to come to an end, at least for now.
Continue reading “Studio Diary #28: Returning To Reaper, After 2 Years Of LUNA”Earlier today, the fine folks at Andertons posed this question over on Twitter:
I don’t think I’ve talked about this on the blog before, so here’s my take on it.
Continue reading “Worth Upgrading To Locking Tuners? My Experience”