Josie Tuck - Xylophone

Here is a picture of Josie from our recording session last week. I said I was going to take a photo and she wanted to pretend she was actually playing so I recommended she play the super hard chord from one of her songs which is what is happening in the above photo. We recorded most if not all the Xylophone for her songs.

Both the Xylophone and Vibraphone have recorded a fair bit brighter than what they sounded like in the room but I think I'm happy with how they sound, its far easier to make them warmer than to make them brighter later on and I have a feeling that I might appreciate some of that high end when they get layered up with all the other instruments.

Josie Tuck

Josie Tuck has gone through a few name changes recently and I think she intends to come up with a band name eventually but for now lets call her Josie Tuck. We started work towards her album this week, recording guide tracks for almost all the songs and some Vibraphone for the few songs that will be based around Vibraphone (It might appear on other tracks too at some point but we'll have to wait for later in to the project to see)

This should be a really good album, its something a fair few people have been waiting for for quite some time.

Valvecaster Overdrive

I built this simple Valve overdrive and just finished putting it in its case. Sounds pretty good, not much drive but just like you turned a valve amps volume up. A fair amount of volume boost though so pretty nice to drive the input of a Valve Amp. It works really well with my AC15 as I find the pedal to sound a little scooped and the AC15 has a bit more midrange than the princeton.

Its a pretty simple circuit almost all wired off the valve socket (which was a bit fiddly) so essentially its all point to point plus it runs off a standard 9VDC power supply! (but I want to read up and experiment with slightly higher voltages)

I currently like the bleak utilitarian look of the aluminium case but I might paint it later. Its pretty nice to have made something from scratch and be able to open it up and know what everything is. Will have to try some more in the future, I already have parts for a super simple feedback looper.

If you're interested in making your own its based on the Valvecaster from http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/

It even glows!
 

Teacups EP Drums

Spent the day recording some drums for Teacups EP with Jackson (Sharpie Crows), Chelsea and Liz. Talita is in France making beautiful food. Some of the photos on her blog make me want to cry with how delicious they look.