Just spotted this on Flickr. The two pretty ladies along the front there are, respectively, Rus-Bass's girlfriend, the lovely and talented Catherine B. the pale, but obviously smitten brunette is my wife, the vocal and snarky Karen Q.
Also poking his wee face in from the back there is the great Dolbro Dan. You should really stop what you're doing and watch/listen to his Micro-chipping Song here, now.
It's genuinely one of my favourite songs I've heard in recent years, even if I don't agree with its paranoid sentiment. If I get set up with recording equipment soon, it's my mission to get a decent recording of that, even if only for my own enjoyment. Also this performance in Terry Hooley's Good Vibrations shop in Belfast is worth seeing as well.
Y'see, when you're in a band, it's really handy to be able to record stuff yourself, even just to demo how it sounds.
In my band this task seems to have fallen to me, for a number of reasons.
1. I'm the only one who seems to have a clue how to do it.
2. The rest of the band have spent enough money on gear without worrying about spending more on computer hardware.
3. I like messing about with recording software.
I'm a Mac person, me, and I would normally mess about using Garageband to record stuff. However, the most recent release of Logic Studio has prompted me to have a go at getting a bit more serious. Plus, some of the plugins and effects it offers seem like it might be just the ticket for recording a young(!) rock band on the go!
I need HARDWARE though, and preferably something with a lot of inputs, as I'm intending to record drums. So I sold my old Line6 Toneport UX2 and started looking for an 8-channel replacement. Which is tricky, as there are loads, and quite a wide price-range (like, from £200 to £800). Also, I'd prefer one with all XLR inputs, rather than a mix of XLR's and Line-level inputs.
So, I've kind of settled on this one, the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R. It isn't cheap, but it does seem to be pretty much what I'm looking for.
This guy gives it a favourable review - his caveats, like the low headphone level for live recording, aren't going to affect me as it'll all be done in our practice gaff.
Then, to record drums, I'll need drum microphones. These seem to be appropriate - CAD DMTP-7
But then, you see, I'm going to have to buy another 5 or 6 XLR leads to go with the 2 I already have, and they're about a tenner each. I'll also need a drum mic-stand and probably 2 overhead mic stands, all at £20 each!
It mounts up so fast, and at this stage I'm not even positive my laptop will be able to handle recording 8-channels at once while running Logic and the virtual mixer that comes with the audio-interface.
What to do, what to do? This is all coming close to £400 of gear, and I'm worried it'll be a waste of time.
So, I'm going to be an extra in this movie that's shooting in Belfast, and I just got told my days are 26th, 27th and 28th of August.
Oh, and they're now night shoots. Isn't that great!? From 6 pm to 6 am the following day. Which means I'm finishing just before breakfast the day we go to play this show in Derry.
Can I do this? After 3 nights of night-shoots? I really don't want to be flopping around the stage like some sort of barely comatose fool. I'm kind of hoping the running order resembles the poster a bit, as I might be able to grab some shut eye for a while then.
Looks like it may be another Red Bull fuelled set.
Plus, this gig is actually on my birthday, and we'd been planning to spend the weekend there, maybe even kick back in Derry until the Monday, which is a Bank Holiday. But I've been told I'll definitely be working on the 31st, so no Bank Holiday for this scruffy peasant!
I mean to say, there were loads of great pics of us on the day, yet this is the one on the BBC flickr page.
I look like I'm in the middle of a how-down that no-one else cares about. Still, maybe I'll get the time together to create a Black Bear Saloon flickr tag and I'll share that.
