Welcome to my new home recording studio.
Well, technically it's the new piano-centric incarnation of my home studio: most of the instruments and recording gear have been moved into the living room where my Kawai upright lives. This living room has unbelievable energy, warmth and resonance - the sun pours in like butterscotch onto those 99-year-old hardwood floors. . .
After spending a tremendous amount of money on recording and mastering my last album (”Radio Runaway”) in a posh SoCal studio, I have decided to take a more frugal tack. I am making some really simple, stripped down recordings directly onto my G4 PowerBook's hard drive using Apple's GarageBand software. A true minimalist rig: everything is captured using a single Shure SM58 vocal microphone on a boom stand, plugged in to a MOTU 828 audio <-> firewire interface. I am also trying to keep things artistically organic and spontaneous by minimizing the use of effects and laying down each track in one take. "Mistakes" will be tolerated unless they are massive train wrecks (actually, I've adopted this philosophy just because I'm too lazy to learn how to use effects and do anything more than once, but that's a secret).
Here are some examples of tunes that I have recorded at home - please take a moment to listen to the mp3's (I plan on uploading a new song each week):
Still In Time.mp3 (composer: Satish)
Greek Song.mp3 (composer: Rufus Wainwright)
Here is a list of equipment I have in my studio for all you gearheads out there:
Keyboards
Kawai upright piano
1961 Wurlitzer 206A electric piano
Clavia Nord Stage 88 (aka The Bomb)
Clavia Nord Electro (simulator of vintage keys)
Kurzweil PC88-mx
Roland Juno-106 synth
Alesis Micron
Guitars
1973 Yairi (Alvarez) acoustic
Givson archtop (that’s right - a GIVSON. NOT a Gibson! This is a genuine $37 Indian axe!)
Ibanez Talman acoustic-electric
Schecter electric
Fender Squire electric bass
Percussion
Roland TD-20k V-Drum kit
Roland SPD-6 percussion pad
Yamaha RX-21 drum machine (old school shiznit, with matching QX-21 sequencer)
Remo Djembe (African hand drum)
Miscellaneous Instruments
Violin (an old German one)
Mandolin
Gemeinhardt flute
Indian bamboo flute
Indian electronic tambora (drone)
Hohner Melodica
Various harmonicas, kazoos, and noisemakers!
Amps
Mackie 408M powered mixer
PAS (Professional Audio Systems) main speakers
Laney 120W guitar amp w/ 2x12 Celestions
Motion Sound KT-80 keyboard amp
Roland KC100 keyboard amp
Behringer HA4700 Powerplay Pro XL headphone amp/mixer
Effects
M-Audio Black Box
Peavey DeltaFex
Pedals: DigiTech Whammy, ZOOM 504 II acoustic, Boss chorus, delay
Recording Gear
24” Apple iMac running OS 10.5 (Leopard)
MOTU 828 audio <-> firewire interface
MidiMan midi <-> USB interface
AKG Perception 200 condenser microphone
Shure SM58 and SM57 microphones
Sony mini lapel microphones (stolen from a news truck - long story. . .)
Grado Labs SR-125 headphones
Software: Logic Studio, GarageBand 3.0.0, Reason 2.0