Nonetheless, advances in technology make my work as a recording engineer a lot easier than is was, say, 15 years ago.

In the context of this post, I’m referring to the arduous task of backing-up sound data. Way back in the late 20^th century, audio back-up was done in *gasp* real time. Those of us who fondly remember the first advent of affordable digital recorders (the Alesis ADAT, and Tascam’s DA-88) also remember that in order to back-up your project you needed at least two machines, and after digitally connecting the two, you slapped a blank tape in the receiving machine, armed all the tracks, and hit ‘record’. The result was that an exact duplicate of the material was recorded. Pretty cool, huh? One problem—it took a lot of time.

With the next generation of digital audio, that being DAW’s (digital audio workstation) and computers, backing-up became a lot easier. The reliability of CD burners increased, and their price decreased, enabling back-up times to be based on the burn speed, rather than real-time transfers of data.

But, as 16-bit increased to 24-bit, and projects increased in size, DVD-back-up became the norm. I remember when I switched from CD’s, with a full 700 Mb of space (wow) to DVD’s, with their consumer-based product maxing out at around 4.7 gigs—nirvana!

Which brings me to my point: I had received an email a fews weeks ago from an old friend who wanted ‘drum-less’ tracks of something that had been recorded back in June of 2001. Most studios have an ‘expiration date’ for their clients’ data, but I just happen to be a bit exacting when it comes to backing up projects. I recall an article by Craig Anderton a while back where he was recommending that if you have projects where there were very specific parts that are being played by software synths, you should render those parts as .wav files, since it’s likely that you will eventually move to a different OS or even a different DAW, and won’t be able to access the synth or to reproduce the settings on it. Great advice, and it applies to DAW’s in general as well.

The 2001 project had been recorded in Logic 4.8 on Windows ME, which is by now about as obsolete as a floppy disc. Once the backed-up CD’s were located, I only had to load everything up on my system, which runs a newer version of Logic on Windows XP, and the songs all came up beautifully.

CD-R's at the ready, sir!

With the price of computing coming down, it usually makes sense to hang on to your old tower (rather than constantly changing out motherboards, CPU, and hard drives) just in case you need to have access to older projects. Another method is to render or bounce everything as continuous wav’s or aiff’s before backing-up, but that can be time-consuming.

NOT gonna be firing any of these up, though...

These days I no longer use DVD’s (let alone CD’s) for backing up files—I use a SATA docking station and swap out between a few 2-terabyte drives—just select and drag, baby!

Either way, I thought it was really cool that with very little fuss I could totally recall an old project and satisfy a client’s wishes.

Look, Ma—I'm backing up Tim's valuable data!

15 year's worth of DAT's, CD's, and DVD's.

Nathan Overbey is a young singer/songwriter from Elkhart with whom I started working in September of 2014, and he’s gone from merely demoing out a few songs to recording a full-length CD project. That’s usually what happens—someone comes in to record here, maybe on the recommendation of a friend, and they get hooked. “First taste is free”, says the dealer… (o:

Nathan sings, plays guitar, and has also worked in some Melodion into the mix! This instrument really adds an organic touch to things.

I have been adding my own touches to the songs, playing drums, bass, organ, some guitar, and using MIDI to write any piano or strings parts.

But it’s all about the songs with Nathan. Drawing from his own experiences he weaves some pretty interesting and poignant lyrics.

We typically record a scratch vocal and guitar with a click track to get the basic arrangement, then we dive in and flesh the song out. He usually has a pretty good conceptual idea of where he wants to go with his music, but of course I add my two cents as well.

Below, I’ve posted a couple tastes of what will no doubt be a really listenable and (and slightly enigmatic) project.

Fraud The Lion Sample

Lonely Throne Sample

I’ll update as we get close to a finished CD.

Can’t wait…

Nate Butler and gang put a lot of heart, soul, and sweat (literally—recording in the summer can be taxing even with the A/C on high) into this record, from the lyrical content to the drum tones, from the smallest details to the overall vibe. Going for a sound that encompasses what I call “Edgy Americana”, the combination of sonic and lyrical ingredients convey a soundscape full of yearning, hope, love, and even a little regret, but always centered on truth. The records are being promoted on social media with socialboosting.com to get more viewers and engagement on each project.

My personal favorites have to be the evocative and welcoming Lights On, opening track Look Me In The Eye, with its western/cocked-hat attitude, and Oh Darlin’, infused with genuine Irish-style fiddle, and a haunting slide guitar courtesy of yours truly.

You can read more on previous posts here, here, and here. May success and fulfillment be yours, SSB, as you are indeed “Travelers” and sojourners here…

Nate Butler is happy...

This year almost every band’s performance was captured live on an HD24 Alesis 24-track digital recorder, and the tracks then came to your truly for mixing and mastering.

It was a lot of fun and a good challenge, as mixing live, unadulterated tracks really puts a band’s groove and skills on display—there’s no room to hide on stage! Stay tuned to the Pinestock website for future release dates…

Like a scene from 'Andy Griffith', Tim and Nick on the front porch.

Lee Holderman on some massive keys:

Lee on my good ol' Hammond M3

Trying to find the perfect Fender Rhodes

No pics yet of Shawn or the banjo player, but Nate and I went outdoors to record hand claps. We over dubbed like crazy, but I made sure to end up with an odd number of “people” when it totaled up–there’s a weird, psychoacoustic rule that dictates an odd number of people for claps. Don’t ask me how it works–it just does.

A Nice Day to Clap Your Hands!

The reason that we went ‘out’ is so that there is absolutely no acoustic artifacts present in the claps. My room has a bit of a 400 hz ‘bump’ that would be magnified by multiple overdubs. This is the 3rd time I’ve gone outside to record:
1. Recorded a chain saw for the Grand Rapids-based “Defiant Nature” (you can also hear Hannah screaming in the background–it was kind of a tribute to the character from “Army of Darkness).
2. Recorded Alan Plickerd’s Harley coming up the drive for “Fallen’s” Big Bad Harley.
3. And now–hand claps.

My soupy old MXR analog delay pedal--Nate loves it!

Then we recorded the bass, using my trusty SansAmp bass driver in combination with bassist Bryan Chris’ micro-sized Ampeg SVT head into a 15″ cabinet of mine. He plays a 70′s Fender Mustang,  and you can almost hear Carol Kaye’s Motown tones peeking through.

Bryan Chris on bass

Then we have Nate’s guitar–and here’s where it gets to be interesting (and fun!)

Nate Butler mugging with a borrowed Gretsch White Falcon

He has a cool rig of his own, incorporating a Line-6 pedalboard, Radial “ABY” box, a Traynor Dark Horse head, an teeny Orange amp encased in a stereo 2×12 cab loaded with vintage Jensens, and pushed into retro heaven via an Epiphone with a Bigsby on it. But that simply was not enough–we needed more (and more) amps and more options to get the stellar tones we were seeking!

So we are in the middle of guitar tracking as we speak, and there will, no doubt, be more to come on this project. Stay tuned…

LPB-1, anyone?

Grant Beachy's AC-30--cool...

Old 1948 Gretsch New Yorker with custon (homemade) pickup

Steve Harris's Fender Silverface

Nate's stereo rig

Someone's Fender Something-Or-Other

Nate on Venus with the White Falcon

Nate Butler puttin' the smack down.

Well, maybe not attention, but at least some more gigs. They’ve asked me to produce their newest CD, and I must say: I am honored.

I'm confused--there's a fruit symbol on this computer...

We’re doing this in a hybrid fashion: record the drums at the old Goshen Theater, then fly them into my rig, record everything else here, and also mix here.  I love it–I would always rather do everything here, but man–those 60-ft. ceilings and brick walls on the stage make for some real unbeatable ambiance. Nate is a great recording engineer, and I love the tones he’s already getting…and I believe that he’s more painstaking than I am!

...but Nate gets everything back on track.

We re-tracked a few tunes today, and I hope to bring my “A-game” with the guitars and vocals. This material is just brimming with Americana, surf swells, and healing lyrics. Just wait…

Notice the 'drum tunnel'--actually there are two full kick drums underneath.