Studio and Instruments

Pretty much my main acoustic this Ovation is a nice complement to any collection. Generally I'll mike it and also plug it in direct mixing both sounds.

I had a lot of fun with this thing. Basically it's a 16 track hardware seqencer with a built in 1028 voice synth. It's got 63 drumkits and loads of percussion instruments. It is also tweakable beyond belief. It has real time manipulation of the different voices through filters and effects and it's all automated so it records and plays back the real time changes. Worth every penny.

The Carvin Tone Navigator is all analog, no digital anything. It's very warm, smooth and rich sounding. It cops the Mesa and Marshall sound very well. What it also does really well is it nails all those inbetween sounds. In essence the Carvin sounds good at any gain level. While the Line 6 is very good on high gain sounds it lacked a bit on moderatley overdriven sounds. Comparing the Line 6 to the Tone Navigator in context to the high gain settings they are really quite different. The Line 6 has a more modern tone while the Carvin has a retro vibe to it. As far as live applications the Carvin wins hands down.

When I first got into this recording racket I always remember reading "make sure you have good monitors that are easy to listen to for long periods of time". Well after auditioning many many monitors I ended up with the Event powered monitors. They have a nice listenable sound, flat response and 8" woofers (which I think is pretty important for accurate bass response).

My Korg X5DR is a nice compact synth module which I really enjoy using. I have it slaved to my old Roland E-5 keyboard. Though not outstanding in one genre of sounds it has a nice all around sound palet that is easily accessible. The menu system is a bit tight as the display window is real small but it makes up for this shortcoming through its power and abilty to be programmed.

So far I've made 5 cd's on this machine and I still haven't taken advantage of all that this recorder has to offer. A bit outdated by today's standards I still find this machine easy to use and reliable. Roland has upgraded the OS so it now has 18 tracks and mastering capablilties. The effects are plentiful and they are high in quality. I swapped in a new 20 gig HD for maximum storage and project organization.

The Line 6 Pod is one of the few preamps I use on my recordings. While I don't employ any of it's effects, except some compression, I really find its tones to be convincing and fun to use. I interface it with my computer through midi and Line 6 software which gives me great patch flexibilty and access to its deeper menus.

This drum machine is my mainstay rhythm composer. I have used the DR-5, R-5, DR-770 and the R-8. I find this machine to have everything that I like under one roof. I like the sounds, its ease of use and also the assignable touch bar. I find the bar gives my snare, ride cymbal and bell ride a much more random sound. Unfortunately they don't make this machine anymore. I have yet to find anything better for my purposes.

My Carvin LB75p has a blacked out fretboard, black quilted maple top with matching headstock and black hardware. As far as electronics I opted for two H22 humbucker pickups for maximum aggression with a coil tap for additional versatility. I also went for the P series option (piezo) as well. You can blend in the amount of piezo sound you want giving the sound a more sparkly character which is useful for slap. It's a neck through design so it has sustain for days even without a compressor. Overall the sound is punchy and articulate.

The Carvin DC747c is my primary guitar and is the main electric used on this recording. Being able to go from a clean jazz sound to a aggro metal sound with only one guitar is very convenient. This guitar was used on all solos and just all the rhythm tracks. It has a hum sing hum pickup configuration. It's tonewood is Koa and it has a black maple quilt.

This preamp was a nice little discovery. I've been using this piece as a base for most of my solo sounds both clean and dirty. It delivers a nice range of sounds, is very tweakable and easy to use. Like the POD it interfaces with the computer via midi making it easy to create and store patches.