Chalk Car
Keeping my 1 1/2 year old son entertained. Move the fuck over, Van Gogh.
It’s 30 years today since the rubber keyed beauty that is the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k was launched.
Here’s my musical tribute to the Speccy and one of it’s best games, Manic Miner.
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…”
Back to the Future DeLorean at the Heroes & Legends convention in Belfast.
Home made pop-screen. The coat-hanger was brand new but the panty-hose were used and unwashed. A little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll ;) (Taken with instagram)
An Introduction to: Static White Sound (Phase I)
I first got a 4-track recorder around 1998/99. A Tascam 414 MkII.
It was my introduction to home recording. Initially I had no interest recording or how it worked. The band I played in at the time had done a few recording sessions and I found the technical aspects of recording to be quite dull.
Over time I found myself coming up with ideas and pieces of music that didn’t suit the band and I started to think about a home recording project that would be an outlet for these ideas. Enter the 414…
Along with my Korg AX 1000G multi-effects unit and drum tracks programmed with Music 2000 on the Playstation, I recorded a lot of music on the 414 with no real intention of it seeing the light of day.
These lo-fi (and in some cases no-fi) recordings gathered dust for years, but with the advent of Myspace I decided to put some music up for people to stumble upon. So I had to give it a name, and Static White Sound was born.
The 414 MkII was eventually retired in 2008 when I got a decent laptop and started using Sony Acid Pro 7.
As much as i love the endless options offered by digital recording, I kind of miss the restrictions imposed by only having 4 tracks to work with. There was minimal messing around with guitar sounds and it was a faster way of working.
But the compromise of the 414 (and any cassette based porta-studio) is sound quality. Sometimes harsh, mostly muddy (especially if bouncing tracks) and a lack of EQing options.
But then again Hi-Fi was never the intention or the point of 4-track porta-studios.
Once I felt I’d learned enough about the basics of recording with the 414 I wanted more tracks available to me and more post-production options.
But I know I wouldn’t be making and recording music today as Static White Sound if it wasn’t for the 414.
What follows is the first piece of music I wrote and recorded on the Tascam 414 MkII.
And if that floated your boat there’s a mini-album available for free download here.
Next time: Static White Sound Phase II: Enter Nate Toutjian…
The gif that keeps on giving…
My wife makes her debut in gif form. Enjoy her in all her retro-foxy glory. I know i will…
