I found out about Shaking Through from Dr. Dog’s Facebook stream about a year ago when Scott McMicken (guitar/vocals in Dr. Dog) was featured as curator for a few of these projects. It’s hard to explain exactly what it is they do, as each project inevitably takes on a life of its own, but it is very awesome, and some serious eye/ear candy for recording enthusiasts.
Everybody who has even a small interest in recording/audio engineering experiences what we affectionately term “G.A.S.” – Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I define it as a rare kind of lust that manifests itself in a persistent mental longing for that which you don’t (yet) have. It is a rare, peaceful moment in life when you realize that you’re not pining over your next equipment purchase but instead simply enjoying and making the most of the toys you already have.
So a few years ago it occurred to me that a way to circumvent this never-ending cycle is rather than obsessing about the ‘latest and greatest,’ you can improve your setup in cheap and economical ways that barely break the bank but still add to the functionality of your studio. A good example of this would be my Behringer BCF2000. Yes, I’m not ashamed to own one. I cut my teeth on an ICON digital console while in school, and I was finding that in my own work I was missing the ‘hands-on’ feel of pulling up a mix using your fingers on the faders rather than using a mouse, which can sometimes feel clumsy as you can only do so much at one time with it. When I started researching control surface options, I was floored by the possibilities and also somewhat irritated at A) the general price point and B) the overabundance of features that I really didn’t need or care about. When I stumbled upon the BCF2000 I realized that although Behringer has kind of a black sheep reputation for making low quality with cheapo parts, it had all the features I needed and since no audio was passing through it (it controls your DAW using MIDI information via USB) the sound quality of my recordings would not be negatively affected in any way. It cost $100 and took all of ten minutes to set up, and now it is a vital part of my workflow – the last thing I do before bouncing a final mix is zero everything out and re-do the mix with my fingers and ears, instead of a mouse.
The other day I made one other low-cost addition to my studio: inspired by this post from ikeahackers.net (I think I found it through Gearslutz.com originally) I noticed via Facebook that my wonderful ladyfriend was at IKEA with her girlfriends so I quickly got in touch and asked her to pick me up the appropriate table. Blah blah blah, anyway I finally got around to assembling it and I can’t believe I’ve paid over $50 in the past for pretty much the exact same thing. It looks cute, you can stain it however you want, and was the perfect size for the rest of the stuff I needed to rack up.
My next low-cost improvement? A (most likely rackmount) tuner that NEVER LEAVES THE STUDIO.
Well, here’s my intro post. I’ve tested most things and the site seems to be working well; the point of this was to get something online and then in the future if my needs exceed my abilities, I have a great web designer who can hopefully take me the rest of the way.
Currently I’m working with Kyle Rasche of Chain of Lakes. We’re about halfway into it and have already done some interesting stuff; like recording kick and snare drums as an ‘ensemble’ for a ‘drumline’ type effect, and using a microphone that was set up in an adjacent room for the main percussion track.
I’m also finishing up some of my own recordings that I began last year. They’re sure to be much different than anything I’ve done in the past, not that anybody has heard those… 
I’m also working with Nathan Kalish and the Wildfire on a new 5-song EP. We’re dividing various engineering/production responsibilities among the different band members, so it will definitely be an interesting final result.
What else? Uh… I’m really REALLY itching to work on an electro-pop album with a female vocalist, and also to work on some hip hop recordings. I have no idea how to get either of these projects started, but we’ll see what happens.
So, with the boring ‘what are you doing lately, Justin?’ stuff out of the way, I leave you with this:
