Saturday, July 25, 2009

Before


I feel like I have written this before… probably because I have.

Once again, I am determined to take this jumble of musical instruments and electronic equipment and turn it into a proper home studio. After the “Disaster of ‘08” where my workstation collapsed from the weight of a 110 pound “portable” keyboard, I have not had the motivation to start again. Just the thought of tearing it all apart after the unenviable task of connecting old analog and new digital equipment and having it all play nice with each other… it just sits there taunting me every time I walk in the room. So I stopped walking in the room.

Recently, my music muse has been calling. I have been playing my piano more frequently, I want to get the old calluses back so I can play guitar like I used to, and I feel the desire to compose and record again. Only one way that can happen – got to put the old studio back together. So here are some images of the current disarray:


What you see:
Three keyboards, two rack-mounted synthesizers, two guitars, signal processing equipment, analog and digital multi-track recorders, mixers, two stereo systems, miles of cable organized in neat little containers, a laptop ready to synchronize it all, and a bunch of extraneous bells, whistles, and musical thingies to make any home studio owner proud. In the not-so-proud department is a buch of old software, old PC, files, a bicycle, and other junk that needs to go bye-bye.






What you don’t see:
Strings on the acoustic guitar
The mandolin hiding in the closet
A single keyboard in the upright position (you know, the way you would actually PLAY it)
Not one piece of equipment connected to another.

My muse is not happy with me. Since my writing has pretty much fallen off the radar, I have no creative outlet and I NEED a creative outlet. I hear bits of new music in my head and I have no way to keep them from dissolving into oblivion.

OK, I think I am ready to tackle this thing. It may take some time, but I am determined. Stay tuned (pun intended), with any luck I will be posting “after” pictures so you can see what it is supposed to look like…