hey hibbs. klotz and i are together at this very moment recording a new tune. we've decided to abandon piano and guitars in favor of mandolin and squeezbox.

micah says he misses you and wants you to rub your venerial disease in his eyeball.

Sunday and Monday?

So, what's going on? You guys get something together?

Roland JC-120

I just saw that also. The JC-120 is known for being able to stay really clean even at high volumes. I think a lot of that might have been related to the speakers. Not that those fender twins are bad speakers either.

I don't know I still think it would be a great amp. And it is solid state so no maintenance and it will sound just as good at apartment studio volume. Also it's true stereo 60 watts per side, there aren't to many guitar amps anymore that are true stereo.

Just to give an example of what they sound like that everyone would know, James Hetfield, the singer/guitarist from Metallica uses a JC-120 in the studio to record all the clean, non-distorted guitar parts. Not that I'm a big 'tallica fan or anything I was just trying to think of something you would recognize. 'cause I know what a head banger your mom is.

Another band, one that I really am a fan of, that uses the JC-120 is Slowdive. Both Christian Saville and Rachell Goswell played JC-120s live. They used them because they kept a decent tone at higher volumes and because they have a stereo effects loop.

Personally, I'd kill for one although what I'd really like is the JC-120h model which is just the head, that way I can match it up with a closed back 4x12 cabinet.

but the descriptions says it has the speakers of a fender twin? what's up with that?

Nate!

Nate, I saw this on eBay, it's Chicago pick up only and a ridiculously good price. I'd buy it myself if I had the cash right now. This amp will blow a fender twin out of the water. Check out this Roland JC-120. If your ever going to own a decent guitar amp for your studio than this would be it.

Dreamlogicc - Machines & Metaphors

Dreamlogicc album Machines & Metaphors is available as a free download at tonAtom Records. It's kind of low budget sounding but fun. The second track "Dew Pattern" is killer.

http://tonatom.net/

Bat for Lashes

Interesting, sort of strange mix. That girl writes freaky lyrics. The song "What's a Girl to Do" sounds like a harpsichord more than a guitar to me. Maybe it's just a weird sounding guitar.

sunday and monday could work i think.

call me 630-740-2239

NATE & JESSE

My interst for guitar tone is clean, clear, and full. A lot of melody..Straightforward melody like in " Once Upon A Time." I feel like jesse could add so much interesting texture and nate could add so much meat to it on piano. I have been listening to a lot of Bat For Lashes. www.batforlashes.com There is a song on their site entitled " What's a girl to do." I love the sound of the drums ! I love the guitar and the keywork . I have been listening to them as well as radiohead, rolling stones, pretenders, the temptations, moody blues, and simon and garfunkel and pink floyd.
What would you guys think of approaching " Once Upon A Time" with a mix that is similar to the approach on " What's A girl to do" except for maybe having the piano and th guitar louder in the mix. Perhaps a little bolder. There is a band from New York called " The Grizzly Bears " that have incorporated a 50's era drum sound with modern/sentimental guitar work . I recently saw a Doo Wap concert with the " Duke of Earl' and " Chantells" and other various era artists. In my mind there is something compelling about that pop sound. The reason I like Bat For Lashes and the Grizzly Bears so much is because of ther incorporation of modern alternative with retro ballad ?

Micah

NATE

Are you sill available sunday and monday ?

Micah

stomps

DS-1 through a Twin will have a really nice timbre. Can you wrangle up one of those?

stomp box distortion? i have some friends with a couple of pretty sweet sounding ones.

Even More On Fender Amps

Okay so here is the other issue. The deluxe and twin are both tube amps. If you record at a low volume the overdrive (distortion) is not going to have the same tonal characteristics. Are you in an apartment? If you are I doubt your going to be able to crank the amp to 11 with out your neighbors throwing a shit fit.

How do we deal with this, or does it even matter?

Fender Amps

These are okay, the twin and the deluxe are both good amps. Not really my style but they have a great clean tone and are sort of a classic. If we are going that route I would suggest that we avoid using the spring reverb which is built into the amp. I just don't think that's the sound we are going for.

I'm sure you have either a plug-in or a rack unit for digital reverb. I like too run the rhythm guitar through a reverse reverb, set at between 60-85% wet. Then record two tracks, pan one hard left and the other hard right. This eliminates a lot of the pick attack and creates a sort of "floating" guitar sound in stereo. I prefer the sound of an Alesis reverb or a Lexicon if you have either of those. If you don't like the sound of the reverse than try just a nice warm hall reverb.

Of course that's what I like, Micah I'm sure has his own tastes, I just wanted to throw this out there to give you some ideas.

Also, what are we doing for distortion? Micah, do you have a good stomp box? I don't see us getting the kind of distortion we need out of a Fender Twin.

i don't have any good amp modeling plugins i'm afraid. but would you consider a fender deluxe reverb or twin reverb to be a decent amp? i borrow those all the time from work.

i'm pretty confident (even with my relatively limited experience) that you would rather go with the real thing every time if you had the chance to actually A/B the sounds together. a friend of mine from around here was just over the other day helping me record some gtr. he's a big fan of going direct in on his own tunes. anyway, he brought over his gear to show me how his gtr run through the right effects pedals would be so much better than the prs mccarty and deluxe reverb i borrowed from work. i was pretty open-minded about it, but when we did the comparison there wasn't really much to compare. of course it didn't help that the gtr he was using was a cheap strat knock-off.

Recording Guitars

I'm still leaning towards recording the guitars direct. It seems to me that it's easier to get a decent tone on a budget. And there are so many good recording interfaces. I mean if we were playing through decent amps to start with, if I could afford to buy a Mesa, Soldano, or a JC-120 than yeah I would mic the amp with that Neumann you just bought. I'd just rather use digital modeling than mic a mediocre sounding amp. Do you have access to Amp Farm, Guitar Rig or Tone Port or something similar?

some sort of notice would be great, micah. keep in mind these work issues of mine:

1. i almost always have friday and sunday off
2. i DO have to work a semi-short day on saturdays (10:30-5)
3. starting after labor day i have to work fridays for the entire month of september (it's a seasonal thing)
4. i do have labor day off so if you came sunday august 31st we could work straight through sunday and monday and maximize your time away from ohio

any thoughts?

Nate

I got your phone mesage. Thank you. I gotta tell you that radiohead was amazing live. I am back from honey moon and luckily my employees ran things rather smoothly when I was gone . Thank God. O.K. Seriously I need to get to chicago. Today I am meetings all over the freaking green earth . Do you need any kind of notice or anything before I come ? I know that cooking crystal meth in the bathroom can be tricky and you may not want any unforseen visitors .

Air Formation 7"

I just preordered the new Air Formation 7" from Distant Noise Records . You can listen to the A side at the Myspace link, plus there is a bunch of other bands on the label you might like. Check it out.

i will be anxiously awaiting your final mix

okay cool

I'm working on an EP, I hope to have it done by the end of the year. I'd be making much quicker progress if it wasn't for the fact I have no fucking idea what I'm doing with this software. It's just a learn as I go experience right now. But I actually got a rough cut of one of the songs recorded so I must be doing something right. Now I just got to get session drummer to play nice and refine the whole process.

So I'm recruiting you and your fancy pro-tools plugins to master this when I'm done.

JESSE!

should be fine. basically, once you have the finished mix you can simply burn it to a cd and send me the cd. i can then drag the finished mix into a pro tools session and use some fancy mastering plugins on dat bitch. if you need my address:

1613 Country Lakes Dr
Apt 201
Naperville, IL 60563

sonar sessions

Nate, if I save sessions in sonar are they compatible with your pro-tools. I mean If I recorded a project here could you master it?

you out there micah or are you still on your honey moon?

how's life in missouri jesse?

holy crap, you got married? seriously? congratulations klotz!

finally made an honest woman out of her.

well i have fridays and sundys off and saturdays are relatively short days for me. this means a long weekend would be ideal to accomplish some recording. however, the month of september is probably going to be bad because of work. the whole month i'll have to work all day on fridays.

Nate & Jesse

I wanted to let you guys know that chris and I were married last week. We eloped to a radiohead concert . We had a wonderful week. Well, I am back from eloping and I guess it is time for nate and I to get together. Jesse that riff was very beautiful . I really found to to be alluring and calming. Very entrancing. All kinds of ideas of where that could go or how it could be sung.. Nate .... what days are good for you to ge together. What is your schedule like ? We should be able to get together soon. Chris and I are going to have a reception of sorts for friends and family. We are going to send invitiations to everyone.

Micah

wow, i think that sounds pretty cool, jesse. i'm not sure how it would fit into any song we have now, but it sounds worthy of having it's own tune built around it.

what do you think about this riff?

I wrote this riff yesterday, thought it might sound cool if we could fit it into one of our songs.
Sorry again for youtube/webcamsound quality sound. Let me know if you think if it would fit with anything we are doing. If not at least it gives you an idea of the type of tones I've been creating and me and micah can work together create guitar sounds that gel.

hi hibbs. i'm just hoping to hear from the klotzster about getting together sometime soon.

if you're out there micah let me know if you can get away to record anytime soon.

?

Anything happening? Are you guys making plans?

A Place To Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash in Your Head

Shellac

sorry last one for now I promise :)

Explosions In The Sky -The Only Moment We Were Alone

Sonic Youth - Incinerate

my new address is:

1613 Country Lakes Dr.
Apt 201
Naperville, IL 60563

yet, my new place is literally just down the street from my old place. so if you're thinking of coming to record guitar and vocals anytime soon you'll pretty much be coming the same way (hopefully bypassing the wisconsin tollway this time).