New Drums

Posted in Gear, Recording on March 21st, 2007 by bwack

I have a few new drums that have already been used on tracks for the new record. I’m gonna try and post what drums I use throughout recording for my own sake (my memory is pretty useless) and to give anyone who cares a little breakdown.

We played about a month ago at a church in Austin where a good friend of ours is the pastor. I used the church’s kit that night and it had a Yamaha Copper Snare. I loved it. All the attack and “crack” of a Ludwig Black Beauty but with warmer tones and a little lower pitch. This copper drum was on ebay pretty cheap so I couldn’t resist. The hammering and cast hoops only makes it darker and warmer. It was immediately used on the first two tracks we did “Can You Feel It” and “For A Thousand Tongues”.

Dan Hamilton of The Robbie Seay Band has an old Rogers Wood Dynasonic - Superten hybrid that has been a staple of Crowder records. I think it can be heard at its finest on “All Creatures” on Illuminate, but it has been used on numerous tracks over the years in many, many different ways. It’s basically a wood Dynasonic shell with Superten hardware, which I’ve read was a common thing to do in the seventies. It sounds fantastic. Anyway, I wanted one bad but thay are hard to find and pretty expensive, so i had Kieth at Risen Drums build me a clone. Ten Ply maple shell with reinforcement hoops, with a completely round bearing edge. It’s 14×6.5 and I think it really compares well to the original Rogers. We used it on “Glory of it All”.

I should also note that Kieth at Risen finished the drums from “A Collision”. We were gonna do a cloth wrap that was gonna look very vintage (like they had sat out in a barn for a hundred years) but it didn’t work out. So we did this kinda 70’s retro green fade with silver sparkle which looks crazy good. It has 24×16 and 26×14 kick drums (very big) and 12 14 and 16 inch toms. he also made a 14×8 snare to go with it.

4 Comments »

Recording Links

Posted in Recording on March 20th, 2007 by bwack

We are in the thick of it. I’ve done three drum tracks and we’ve got bass going today. David even let his xanga crowd vote on some tones. Here are some more links to the madness…

my camera

more cameras

the dcb site

myspace

dave

cartography

leave comments: the dcb guestbook

clip of the day

Leave A Comment »

Shane is coming…

Posted in Recording on March 17th, 2007 by bwack

this is pretty significant. if you do not already know, shane d. wilson is our engineer. he has been our engineer in the studio for as long as i have made records with the dcb. we like him a lot.

shane lives in nashville and does what most engineers do, deal with musicians and labels. his coming is significant because it means another recording begins tonight. see for me, recording begins the moment the truck that brought his gear to waco is unloaded and the aroma of nag champa begins to fill the studio. it is a smell that means recording to me. sometimes on tour or out shopping i’ll get a whiff of that scent and immediately i miss being in the studio, making records.

so with a bit of nervous excitement for whats to come, i now head to the barn to make another record.

Leave A Comment »

Modular Circuit Bending

Posted in Gear, Circuit Bending on March 14th, 2007 by bwack

Here’s a short video of the keyboards kinda acting out a little song. I kinda lose control there at the end but for my first attempt i think this is kinda fun. I’ll have some better pics of the building process and final layout soon…


Leave A Comment »

Live Webcam!

Posted in Recording on March 14th, 2007 by bwack

Over the next few weeks we are going to be working on a new album. Some of you might remember watching the making of “a collision” on webcams two years ago. Well, I set this one up last night and it should follow me around for most of the process. Enjoy…

Leave A Comment »

Modular Circuit Bending Project

Posted in Gear, Circuit Bending on February 16th, 2007 by bwack

Here’s a photo of my latest circuit bending project. I wanted to build a MOTM Modular synth after hearing a friend’s System 700 but decided that doing a more circuit bent version could offer me more of the sounds i wanted. This is the first part in a series of units that will all integrate together. This unit consists of a Casio SK-1, SK-5, and a Yamaha VSS-30. All bending points are banana plug with 1/4″ ins and outs. Its about 90% done at this point and will hopefully be finished for beepcon.

I’ll post a lot more pics when it is finished…

other inspirations:
http://www.anti-theory.com
http://highlyliquid.com
http://frederic.letaconnoux.free.fr/cpg135/thumbnails.php?album=27
http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=76364#76364
http://www.jz-server.de/forum2/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?233

Leave A Comment »

Wired

Posted in Magazines on January 1st, 2007 by bwack

Finding Wired in my mailbox comes in close second (losing out only to on-time Waco bound American Eagle flights) for stuff I wish happened more often. What gets me about this magazine is the sheer magnitude of topic diversity covered in a given issue. Its like they’re building a Hitchhiker’s Guide to Geekdom. If you like the information age as much as I do, you’ll want to give Wired a good read.

Leave A Comment »

Beep…

Posted in Music on November 17th, 2006 by bwack

I found this on burnkit’s blog. Pretty much sums it up for me…

“Video game music has been around for, well, almost as long as there have been video games. Those square waves have been permanently etched into our brains as a result of countless sessions of pixel blasting and button mashing. If you told me when i was a kid, that in the future i’d be listening to video game music on my car stereo, i’d say you were nuts. Video game music at that time, like the graphics, was thought of as imperfect facsimiles of what music was supposed to sound like. Just as you were supposed to imagine that the little green pixel moving around on the screen was you, a noble knight battling the forces of evil, so too were you supposed to imagine that the series of squeaks and buzzes emanating from your PC’s tiny piezo speaker were an orchestra of finely-crafted wooden wind instruments providing your noble knighthood with an acompanyment of victorious fanfare.

But something happened when some of us video-game damaged children grew up. We felt nostalgic for those old square waves.”

Leave A Comment »

Films I Like.

Posted in Films on November 15th, 2006 by bwack

.primer
.zorba the greek
.seven years in tibet
.ai
.matrix trilogy
.star wars (the originals)
.lord of the rings (extended editions)
.dune (david lynch version)
.dogtown and z-boys
.bjork .live at sheperds bush empire
.cold comfort farm
.minor threat .dc space - buff hall - 9:30 club
.garden state
.napoleon dynamite
.harry potter
.i robot
.hero
.kung fu hustle

Leave A Comment »

Some of my favorites…

Posted in Music on November 15th, 2006 by bwack

Here is a very scaled down look at my music collection. I’m actually using 23 out of the available 60 gigs on my ipod without video. So as i said, this is a very miniscule favorites list.

.fugazi .repeater
.alanis morissette .so-called chaos
.the postal service .give up
.dinosaur jr .green mind
.bjork .vespertine
.switchfoot .the beautiful letdown
.reeve hunter
.damien rice .o
.jimmy eat world .clarity
.dj hurricane .the hurra
.justin timberlake .justified
.aaron sprinkle .moontraveler
.death cab for cutie .the photo album
.foo fighters .one by one
.athlete .vehicles & animals
.minor threat .complete discography
.the roots .phrenology
.sinead o’connor .gospel oak
.n.e.r.d .in search of…(version 2)
.chili peppers .stadium arcadium
.the killers .hot fuss
.snow patrol .eyes open

Leave A Comment »