A Valentine Post!

I recently purchased a pedal (with some gift cards from Christmas) that has the capability to run an expression pedal out of it (Line 6 M5).  I've seen some of those single knob expression pedals that are small and I decided to try to make one!  


Now I must confess that I enjoy a great pedal as most guitarist do!  And my wonderful wife has a special place in her heart for all my guitar gear and pedals as well :)  Lately she has been decorating the house with some special Valentine motifs (she's an awesome decorator)!  So out of my love for her I decided to compliment her creative decorating and dedicate this special pedal as a beautiful Valentine pedal!  I'm such a romantic!

I've also decided to put my tap tempo (for my delay pedal) in the same enclosure.

First Full Length CD Done!

As most of you (who follow my blog) know I've been working on a project for a good friend of mine.  This is the first full length album that I've recorded and so I'm very excited.  Not only because it's my first one but also for the reason behind the album. 

Shane and his family are adopting a baby girl (Madeline) from China.  He is using the proceeds of this album to help offset the cost of the adoption. Here is a link to his website if you would like to purchase it and download it!  The physical CD's should be in any day now so if you like a physical CD email him and he can get you all the info on it.  

It has truly been a blessing to be able to work on this project and I pray that God will bless it!  Shane is planning on doing a CD release concert sometime at the end of January.  I'll let you know more when things are confirmed!

Serving Him,

Jimmy

What's Up?

So I realize I haven't blogged in a couple of months :(  Things have been a bit crazy around here.  I've been in the middle of working on a friend's project and haven't had a chance to blog.  Things are going well!  We have been laying down tracks slowly but surely and I've been learning a ton!!!  


God has blessed me in so many ways.  A great godly wife, beautiful children, a wonderful home where I can record and create new music, etc!  God has also opened the door for us to upgrade certain things in the studio too! 

The first thing is a second monitor.  If you work with Pro Tools or any other DAW software than you know how valuable a second monitor is!  Most recording software has two main windows a "Mix" window and and "Edit" window.   With two monitors you can seamlessly run between both of these windows and see exactly what's going on simultaneously. A huge thanks to my in-laws for allowing me to use it!  This is a great addition!

Another thing that has helped tremendously is an external hard drive dedicated for recording.  I picked up a great deal at tigerdirect.com.  They have a ton of these and nowadays; they have become a must in recording for a few reasons.  One reason is that it frees up a lot of processing power.  Recording software and plug-ins take up a lot of processing power so the more you have the better your session is going to run.  When you run an external hard drive your computer's processor doesn't have to run it and that frees up processing power. Another reason is that you have more space to record on.  You don't have to worry about filling up your computer's internal hard drive.  Also, it allows you to take your sessions with you to other studios easily.


The next thing that we've been able to upgrade is a new studio desk.  I still can't believe the deal I got on this!  This desk sells normally for $199.99 all the time, and it's well worth it. I just happened to see it on Craigslist for $30.00!!!  I am so thankful for this thing!  My old desk was great but this allows me to have both my keyboard and computer on it at the same time (if you need a studio desk my old one is for sale).  It also has space for the new monitor and more!  

Lastly I was able to get the updated version of Pro Tools (Pro Tools 9).  I have been running Pro Tools 7.4.2 for the last 4 years and its been great.  However there have been two updates since then (Pro Tools 8 and now 9).  Well, I must say WOW!  What a difference!  PT9 has made it so much easier to record and edit.  The plug-in package alone is well worth the upgrade.  I love the way you can comp in PT9.  You can see all of your playlists at the same time.  That's huge!!!!  I also love the way you can have the color of the tracks bleed through the whole track.  You can navigate so much easier (see pic).


All these things have helped me tremendously in my recordings these past few weeks.  What a blessing!  So that's what I've been up to the last couple of months.  What's up with you?


Serving Him,


Jimmy!

Spring Cleaning!

I know we're getting very close to summer but I thought this would be a good time to blog about keeping up with your guitar and equipment!  This week I was with a good friend of mine and I picked up his guitar.  I couldn't help but notice that it needed some attention.  The fretboard was dirty and the strings hadn't been changed in a while.  I offered to take it and clean it up!

First I took a piece of plastic with a sharp edge and scrapped off all the grime and gunk on the fretboard.  Next I took some lemon oil and started cleaning the frets and fretboard.  I went over them several times to insure that they were free from any dirt or build up.

Finally I polished the body and changed the strings.  It's very important to keep up with your strings and to change them regularly.  Changing your strings will help your guitar stay in tune consistently.  Old strings can greatly impact your guitars intonation in a negative way.  

It's like the old adage, "Take care of your tools and your tools will take care of you"!


Serving Him,


Jimmy




P.S.  Here's what my cleaning cloth (an old t-shirt) looked like after cleaning the fretboard!