The Valves recording studio

The Studio - Phase 8 Things Are taking shape of things to come together,right now, over me and Bobby McGee! Important Announcement!: The name of the recording studio has been finalyzed, and it will in fact be called This is a temporary logo, till I can come up with something better As we move forward, the changes in the studio become more subtle. Construction of the control room is almost finished and electronic gizmos of all kinds will soon be wending their way within. We have ordered snakes. What are snakes you ask? We believe that it is only through the handling of venomous serpents that we may show our faith in our Lord and Creator, knowing it is through his will that we not be harmed by the poisonous fangs of the... oh wait.. sorry... Snakes are special cables that are used to get the signal from the studios themselves into the control room and finally into the mixer. Stay tuned for more snakey goodness in a future episode, meanwhile...
	Before we continue, I felt it was important to show the latest addition to our stunning chintzy boom box collection. it was found in a dump. Does it work? Actually, it works spectacularly well, provided that you don't really care which track of the CD you are listening to or whether it plays all the way through.
	And another critical component of the studio, the refrigerator. As you can see, it is only partially filled with alcohol. Remember kids, it's not necessary to be falling down drunk to be competent and creative musicians. Michael is the exception, not the rule. Only dopes use dope, and only drunks, um... use.. drunk?
	The entry to the control room is through 2, count'em 2 doors. Both are lined internally with foam, and when closed, batter can be added to make giant waffles. Bring on the Mrs. Butterworth baby!
	The other door, duh...
	The first thing you might notice upon entering the control room, provided you generally walk while staring at the floor, is this awesome rug. It will serve multiple purposes, first off, it's damned attractive and stylish, but more importantly, it absorbs some sound and even more important, the pattern is such that beer and vomit stains will hardly be noticeable once dried and vacuumed.
	There it is kids, what will soon be the nerve center of The Machine Shop™ More stuff is on the way, the right side of the desk will be taken up mostly with computer equipment and donut boxes, the left side will have the recorder, patch bay and some effects
	Did you ever want to know what it feels like to be Geoff Emerick or George Martin? Well, put on Abbey Road and look at this picture and you will get a sort of vague approximation. This is the Mix Position. And if you don't know who Geoff Emerick or George Martin are, then don't ever talk to me.
	The Mixer is a Mackie D8b digital mixer. It may not look as impressive on the surface as one of these 40 foot long behemoths you sometimes see in studios, but it is actually a fully functional 96 channel completely automated recording mixer.
	Yes, I have a mixer fetish, so sue me. Isn't it cool though? Don't you want to just run your fingers lovingly across the 100mm motorized faders, wouldn't you go insane letting your inhibitions fly to the four corners for a chance to press the channel select key? Press it, oh yes, press it, oh baby!! Press it again.. Harder, HARDER.. well, not that hard, we don't want to break the nice mixer...
	And more equipment porn, these monitors are Mackie HR824s, considered by many to be the state of the art in self powered studio mixers. Oh to sit back and listen to Dark Side of the Moon through these babies, that is what life is all about. And these are the SMALL monitors, we have much larger ones on the way.
	Even with the computer stuff that has to go here, there is plenty of room for hot chicks and groupies to sit too. I should take this opportunity to mention that the desk itself is not finished yet. There is Mahogony Rush, er.. Mahogony trim going on it and it will have a mahogony rush.. I mean, mahogony rail across the front as an armrest.
	And finally, we see these odd looking items glued in the corner. What are they? They are bass traps. Fortunately, my bass is in Studio A and is in no danger of being trapped, but any loose bass that try to sneak through will find themselves held fast in the bass traps of doom!
	We leave the control room by magically passing through the main window into Studio A, watching as the sun streams in and casts it's sunly goodness upon our fabulous control room, showing only a hint of the snack shelf to the right and what appears to be a brightly glowing apparition of the (surprisingly small) Flying Spaghetti Monster floating above and blessing our mixer. May it's noodly appendage cause nothing but super duper audio to pass through this room.
	And finally, here are some shots of the B3... Why? Because I think it's cool. It occurs to me that some of you may not even know what a B3 is, even though I've been mentioning it over and over as if it were as much common knowledge as Paris Hilton's aureola shading. The Hammond B3 is an electric organ that is no longer made, but it has a unique sound that has been used in some of the most famous recordings of all time.
	A few of the more famous B3 players include Booker T. Jones, of Booker T and the MGs, Keith Emerson, of ELP, John Lord of Deep Purple, Rik Wakeman of Yes, and the list goes on and on. My personal favorite "B3 song" is Dreams by the Allman Brothers with Brother Greg doing the tickling of the ivories, As I type this, I'm listening to Chest Fever. by The Band which has one of the all time most amazing B3 tones ever recorded. There is no sound in the world quite like the sound of a Hammond B3 being overdriven through a Leslie speaker cabinet... .
That's all for now. By next week, it is hoped that the final lighting will be in place and Rosie and the Still will have been moved out of Studio A, and electronic devices of every stripe will begin to be installed. Should be an exciting time, join us, won't you?