Fix what's not broken?

I started this studio about two years ago after a long hiatus from doing any kind of recording. I had a few previous stints with home recording, but mostly electronic music back in the early days of the internets. Then I ended up playing bass for The Mud Flappers for nearly a decade and kind of forgot about recording music. About two years ago I needed an escape from life. I had a small pile of equipment I'd picked up over the years, so I decided to give the home studio another try.

At the time I was dead set on recording without a computer. I purchased a Tascam Model 12, a MicroKorg and a Novation Circuit Tracks and started creating music free-form, recording directly to the Tascam. Well, then I forgot I work a shit ton of hours, and unless you've tried it before it's a total pain in the ass trying to keep track of all the settings of all of your cool analog shit in a computerless setup! I can't deny, it was fun. But it was not going to last. Then came the DAW.

I ended up picking FL Studio. I used Fruity Loops back in it's infancy. Back in the 90's, I would use Fruity Loops mostly for drums, exporting them to use in ACID Pro. I honestly hadn't used anything Fruity Loops related since. But since I'd used it before, I figured I'd give it a shot, mainly because of all of the other synths and whatnot that come with it. I went into this knowing I wanted to record guitars and bass, but I also knew I'd want to have fun messing with electronic music again as well.

So I purchase FL Studio, and let me tell you. It took me a year to figure this shit out! It is very much different than any DAW I've used in the past (Logic most recently). I was nearly regretting it for a while, but honestly now that I have the hang of it I think it's better than Logic or any other DAW I've used personally. It records audio just fine.

Slowly from there things got out of control. A preamp here, a guitar there....don't get me started on effects pedals. Needless to say I've nerded out big time.

My most recent and very special acquisition, is a 60's Airline tube amp combo. I have been screwing with tone a lot lately (getting ready to record this album), and wanted to try a few things before committing to just running into my main preamp like I have been. I've been very happy with it, but just wanted to be sure that there wasn't a reason to mess with wasn't broken...wink wink. Anyways, this sort of fell in my lap for dirt cheap. It looks like a pile of dog shit, but it sounds so so so good. To me, it sounds as good as my nice preamp, but breaks up just a little bit more - and in a very good way.

So I'm glad I did screw around with what wasn't broken. Sometimes it pays off. Now I have something I will keep forever, and it will provide some interesting textures to this album. Enjoy the photos....they're UGLY! But she sure sounds perty! -J