Episodes update.

Ok, Neil and I finished voice tracking episodes 20 and 21 today. They won't have trivia or email readings like the others. There's a reason for this. I move mid June, and I want to have those episodes out as quickly as I can before the move.

FYI, episode 21 will be a long one.

That said, what is to come during my downtime while moving? Well, I won't be able to pick the show back up until I'm settled in, have got everything unpacked (ugh), and have found a job in my new area. May be a month or two, but lets hope it's not longer.

But don't worry, the show won't stop during this time. That's right, Neil McDougall has stepped in and promised to keep the show from the pits of pod fade! Neil will be hosting the show after episode 21 is published and will continue to do so until I get on my feet in the Denver area. He's got some great ideas too!



So if you wanna contact him, just write to him at neil@nielmcdougall.com, or write to me at metalshoppodcast@yahoo.com and I'll forward it to him!

Building a studio? Looking for a soundproofing solution?

This stuff is really cool. While packing my stuff, I like to turn on the TV. I usually turn it to HGTV to get some decorating ideas for my new place in Colorado. They are showing some new hi-tech home solutions, and they showed soundproof drywall. It's a drywall with a polymer coating to reduce DB's and keep sound either in or out. They gave an example by showing a ride cymbal coated with the polymer, and oen without the polymer coating. The one without rang out like normal, but the one with just sounded like a muted pie pan.

This stuff would be great in a home studio! Not only would it help reduce the sound from your control room and other live rooms, but it would help keep the sound away from the rest of your house and away from the neighbors!

Here in Bloomington, I live in a house next to a bunch of party-loving college students. My walls are paper thin. I REALLY wish I had this stuff on the walls in the house I'm renting!

Here's a link to one manufacturer of this soundproof drywall!

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

Of course, there's much more to soundproofing than just putting up soundproof drywall, but it certainly can't hurt! Here's a link to an article with tips for soundproofing.

http://www.ehow.com/how_15992_soundproof-room.html

I've got the packing blues.

Ok, packing sucks. I've got to go through everything I own, which as it turns out is a lot of crap, and figure out what I still want and what I don't want anymore. YAY! But, fortunately, it not only gives me a chance to catch up on podcasts but it also gives me a chance to listen to episodes I'm working on and making edit notes! So right now, I'm listening through episode 19's voice track and making edits. Hopefully episode 19 won't take too long, but I can't give a timetable right now with all the crap I have to do that takes priority.

I hope to have episodes 19, 20, and 21 out to you before I move in a few weeks to Denver. We've found a place out there, but it may take me some time to have enough free time after moving to focus on the show. Sit tight.

Another hold up.

Due to things that I have to do regarding my move (apartment hunting, packing, job hunting, ect), I've got to put the show off for another few days. But I'll get some editing done when I can and hopefully have a new episode out to you in the next two weeks at some point.

Some of the things holding production up.....

Ok, aside from the fact that I'm trying to pack my entire life away so that it'll fit into the dimensions of a U haul truck to take with me from Bloomington Indiana to Denver Colorado, I've also been trying to finish other projects before the move happened. Because of those, the show was put on the back burner while I worked to get that finished.

What was said project? Well, if you asked me a week ago I'd have told you it wasn't finished so I couldn't say anything about it. But now, it's finished, and the artist has the songs on their myspace profile, so what the hell. Here's some audio, as well as what I did to the songs. This may or may not get talked about on the show, who knows at this point.

The purpose of the session was so that my client, a really talented guitarist and songwriter named Kyle Chambers, could get his ideas on tape. He didn't just want a crappy demo, he came to me because he wanted something of quality so that he would come across professionally and stand out from the guys who buy a 4 track and hit record without having any idea what they are doing. He has a drummer named Zack who lives an hour away, so he wanted to be able to give his drummer the mixes of his guitar tracks so that Zack could practice when they weren't able to get together. Kyle also wanted me to put some drum beats down using the sequencer built into the BOSS BR-1600CD so that he'd have something to show off that sounded more like a band than just some guitar tracks.

So into my studio we went. He recorded 6 songs. He was playing a Squier Telecaster with P-90 Pickups through a Line 6 Modeling 1/2 stack. I used the Shure PG-57 to mic his amp, and it didn't take long to fing a desirable tone. We took our time, even though this was just a demo, and layered guitar parts to make it sound more like a pro recording. At the end of the session, I went back through and used the BR 1600CD to put custom drum beats on each song. Though it sounds like a sequencer, it fit the song better than putting down a generic drum loop that kinda sounded right. I dumped all tracks into Adobe Audition, and a few days of mixing and tweaking drum sequences later and we have the final mixdowns!

They are inquiring about having the drummer, Zack, come in to lay down the actual parts on these since they sounded so good to them. Remember that the purpose of this was for a demo, not for a record release, so some things that I would've normally corrected in a release were left in just because of it's demo status.

Now that this is over, I'm going to try to edit the show when I can, but as I've stated before, I'm moving to Denver. Time is limited right now thanks to lots of packing. UGH!!!!!!

So here's the mixes of the songs with my sequencing on them. If you like it, check them out at http://www.myspace.com/angerinstrangers.

New Metallica Studio Vid Added to theYoutube Channel!

Ok, so what if this vid has got me fan-geeking out! It's still worthy f the youtube channel as it shows Metallica in the lab recording the new album. In fact, in one shot you see James using the SM7B, making it worthy of being added to the metal vocalists and the sm7b playlists, but it's also going in the "Bands in the lab" playlist.

Check this shit out!

Just out of curiosity, I.........

I did a quick google search today to see if any other podcasts had followed my model and focused themselves on recording rock and metal.

I found none, but I didn't spend more than 5 minutes looking.

Are there any out there? Does anyone know of any other podcasts dedicated to recording rock and metal? Or am I the only one? metalshoppodcast@yahoo.com - let me know.

It'd be kinda cool to be able to say that I was the first podcast focused on rock and metal!

The Metal Shop Relocating To Denver!

Yes, it looks like I'll be moving from Bloomington Indiana to Denver Colorado! WOO HOO!

The move will be at some point in the next 5-8 weeks, so it may affect the show a little until I get things set up, but I'll be keeping you all updated here on my progress as usual.

Just to give you an idea of how far away I am from Denver right now.....


View Larger Map

If you look really hard over the Rockies, you can see the top of the PSN towers from Denver!

Should be fun! I can't wait! Any listeners in Denver?

Episode 19 update, part 2

Ok, so Neil and I just got off of skype. We finished the final portion of episode 19, including listener email and trivia and such, then moved on to episode 20. We went through the acoustic shootout, and are waiting until 19 has been out for a bit to finish the rest. When we finish #20, we'll do the double ender for #21 and be done with the shootouts.

But I've got to finish the mixing project I mentioned in the last post before I can proceed with the episode editing. So sit tight.

Episode 19 Update.

Ok, so most of Episode 19 has been recorded, though not edited. Neil and I still have to schedule our double-ender to finish the episode and track episode 20, but I might be delayed until after Mother's Day due to a recording project that I have to have mixed by then. So sit tight.