Tone. At Home.
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”This month is a tale of two eras: before land war in Europe, and after the war started.
My plan was to get Hedgehog back in action, and (if they came into stock) pick up a couple of things I felt I needed for some planned recording. And that’s how the month started.
Then Putin launched his invasion of a democratic European nation, while willy-waving his nuclear arsenal at the rest of the world. While we’re almost certainly safe from major consequences ourselves, I decided to bring forward my major planned purchase of the year anyway.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: February 2022”The Christmas break is always good for getting me to wire up and fire up the home recording studio, and the end of 2021 was no exception. It was a good reminder of just how much I enjoy making music (rather than just noodling around).
So, this year, I want to at least try and have a bit more purpose when I choose which new (to me) gear to try:
Last year, we had one month when there were no new arrivals to write about. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have several more this year. But not this month 🙂
Continue reading “New Arrivals: January 2022”
After a couple of months of waiting, my Synergy IICP preamp module pre-order has finally arrived. Yay!
Was it worth the wait? And how is a tweed-tone nut going to get on with a recreation of an amp most famous for being the sound of progressive rock and classic metal? (Spoiler alert: this thing sounds fantastic in tweed … 😎)
Continue reading “First Impressions: Synergy IICP Preamp Module”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.
Previous articles: [2019][2020]
Continue reading “2021 Review: Pedal Platform Amps”I’ve finally done it. I’ve gone and bought an actual 5e3 circuit tweed amp. I wasn’t planning on getting one, but when a different planned purchase didn’t happen, I went for it. And then, by an amazing stroke of luck, the amp arrived months earlier than expected – right when I’ve got a short break from work between jobs.
This is going to be one of the longer First Impression posts. I’ve got a lot of notes to share with you, even though I’ve only had the amp a couple of days.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Fender 57 Custom Deluxe Amp”Rather than do a ‘best of’ style post, every year I’m going to do a rundown of what amps I’m using for pedal platforms, and why.
Previous articles: [2019]
Continue reading “2020 Review: Pedal Platform Amps”Recently, I picked up a BMan preamp for my Synergy rig. How did I get on with it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Synergy BMan”It’s been the second full month of lockdown. eBay remains quiet, partly because sensible folks are reluctant to head out to post parcels, and partly because eBay has been limiting their discount sales fees to once a month.
The blog’s been quiet too. I’ve had some other things in life to deal with. So many basic, run-of-the-mill things are difficult-to-impossible to resolve when most of society has shut down. It’s one thing to know it, it’s quite another thing to experience it first hand.
Here’s what’s arrived this month. Spoiler alert: it’s all really good stuff, and there’ll be full First Impressions blog posts for each of them soon.
Continue reading “New Arrivals For May 2020”