Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

Hey Guys,

I have my own site (http://infinitegravity.net) and I\'ve posted two song-like tracks and 15 riffs from a practice session, along with some basic information about me, a supporting weblog and my equipment. I have the worst time naming things (like web sites and an artist name) so don\'t put too much thought into that stuff when visiting my site, etc. - because I certainly don\'t. I\'ve never even had a nickname, everyone just calls me either my first or last name...

I\'d totally dig it if you all checked it out sometime, and of course, welcome any feedback. All of my contact info is both in my profile here and also within my site. I have the most convoluted recording process on earth (so it seems) and the quality is a little bit of an issue. Also, since my process is a little crazy, what I record is only so good because it\'s hard to have the time, energy and discipline to go through with it all (composing, playing, recording and then PC/site work). So...I\'m basically doing the best I can with what I\'ve got. Finally, everything I do is solo - all parts (drums, guitar and bass).

Brian

Hey Hex,
Nice to see ya here. Thanks for joining in and shareing your work. I had a chance to look at your site, which is nicely put together I must say, and I was able to listen to a few of the rifs. Some really Good stuff, I like it. Nice line up of equipment, you are using it well. Your Bio said you played piano and trumpet. It would be nice to hear some of that thrown in with the metal rifs. Some might not agree but I love the trumpet. And to mix it with some heavy guitar might be interesting. Keep playing, Ill keep checkin in.  

hey hey sng,

Thanks a million for your feedback. I really, really appreciate it a lot. To be completely honest with you, I\'ve never even thought about adding some trumpet or keys into the mix. I\'ve just never associated those instruments with metal (although Travis rips it up big-time w/ Buckethead on their jams - so I guess it can be done), but maybe even with special effects, it would be hot. I\'ll have to try it out sometime. I actually have a really dope Doc Severenson trumpet - maybe some blasts out of that ought to wake people up!

Peace
Brian

ANYTHING can be done, if you give the how some good thought - i agree, trumpet and piano would be most welcome additions.

you also mention being stuck somewhere in the sticks of jersey - have you no way out?  there are some good destinations well worth aiming for - if you\'re not happy where you\'re planted, uproot and transplant!

good stuff indeed.

gkg,

It\'s been so blasted long since I\'ve played piano so that\'s not happening, unless Travis cares to lend his talents! But seriously, I\'m not very competant with the piano anymore. Adding some trumpet does sound like a really cool idea, and even cooler when thinking of adding some effects to it.

Getting up and out is a tough thing to do. I have a four year old son that mainly lives with his mother in my area and I feel obligated to stay as involved with him as possible. I\'d only consider relocating if it was a "dream come true" situation - which who knows, may happen. At the same time, money is a huge issue. I\'m barely paying my bills and doing what I want now, so again, a lot of work would have to go into it. About the best thing I can do is try to get gigs and stuff, maybe move, to either northeast Jerz or NYC.

And regardless of anything, I really appreciate your feedback and you make very good points that I\'m seriously considering. Thanks for the support.

Finally, I visited your art/poetry site and I must say that I\'m very, very impressed. Creative Flow is just so cool. Keep up the good work!

thank you for the props on my work - Creative Flow took a giant leap forward when Chris Moss added his music to the deal.

i completely understand the situation with your son, and that is rightly your first priority.  i didn\'t realize you had kids yet - that makes the whole world different over night.  still, keep a handle on yourself and your drive musically - don\'t lose you in the quest to develop him... some day he will grow up and be his own man, and you\'re left with yourself.

the piano thing made me laugh - that\'s like me and the bass - i played it decades ago and my son asked me one day if i wanted to jam with him - i cracked up - i haven\'t touched an instrument in 25 years, the best answer i could come up with to that question is - "that is so sweet but hell no - i\'d fall on my ass."

gkg - thanks again for all your comments. The story about you and your son is very cute! See ya around!

And in other good news...I just picked up an M-Audio MobilePre USB preamp/interface ($145) so now I can run my signals directly into my pc versus micing everything very poorly. The quality of my recordings will improve greatly. I tried it out for the first time last night and it rocks, although my poor Pentium II is choking like all hell. Time for a new pc. For now, I\'ll continue to record separate tracks on the four-track, do a mixdown and then send the stereo signal via line/USB to my pc. With a new pc, I won\'t even need the four-track any longer. FYI - I use Nero for all sound editing. Expect the posting of new tracks to pick up considerably now.

***UPDATE***

I\'ve just posted a new track titled, "Grooved Analysis" on my site.http://infinitegravity.net/music.html

It\'s a short piece, clocking at just under a minute. I just bought a mac mini (which totally rocks) and had to learn GarageBand. So in the process of getting familiar with the softare, this is what I came up with. I didn\'t use any effects from the software; only from my regular amps. All signals were direct; no mics used at all. I\'m going to trying mic\'ing everything too in order to compare the sound quality. My guess is that it\'ll sound better, more even and easier to control the "gain" levels. So I\'d still like to toy with this track a bit to see if it can be further refined.

I hope you guys dig the little jam. Peace.

woo-hoo - hope to get a chance to listen to this later today!

NICE!!
I really like it Hex. I too am interested to hear it mic\'d, just the differences ya know. So please keep it coming. And hey, when you get the mic\'d version up can you keep this one up as well so that we can hear the difference?
Thanks for shareing.

thanks gkg & sng - I appreciate the kind words & support

sng - that\'s a great idea about having the two versions posted at the same time, will do

i really like it!

that\'s very good idea, sngwthme!!  the comparison would be way cool.

we await your next transmission.  

nothin\' major...just added a little bass jam track yesterday: http://infinitegravity.net/music.html

so excited about being able to record properly that I haven\'t gone back to re-edit/build up anything yet, of course I\'ll say something if an older track is revised...

peace.

Here\'s a blurb about recent developments and the corresponding linkages:

So far, I\'ve finished mixing and uploaded 8 tracks (there\'s like 6 more of them I need to do yet) of the opening band who goes by the name of Unoriginal and there\'s three guys that make up the band. They\'re from northeast Jersey. I used two mics, one per channel, ran them into my M-Audio MobilePre interface, then into my mac mini, used GarageBand2, exported to iTunes and converted them into mp3\'s and that\'s it. My biggest challenge was trying to reduce the bad highs and retain the good ones because the soundboard guy had some stuff going on that I wasn\'t exactly thrilled about, in regards to the eq settings live. Anyway, these tracks are the first I\'ve ever recorded live @ a club and I\'m very pleased with the overall quality. Of course, I\'d welcome any feedback whether it\'s about the band or the quality of the recording or whatever. Sorry, I\'m waiting on the set list cuz there was a few tracks I wasn\'t sure of and all. I\'ll post more stuff as it\'s available. Check \'em out:

http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/bullsonparade_track1.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/ratinthecage_track2.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/bitch_track3.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/track4.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/track5.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/sayitaintso_track6.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/track7.mp3
http://infinitegravity.net/audio/021205/Unoriginal/track8.mp3

Peace.
B