You heard it here first; we’ve added the MXL Genesis Tube Condenser Microphone! The Marshall Electronics Genesis is the newest release from the guys over there and it is long awaited. It features a 6 micron, gold-sputtered diaphragm, cardioid pattern, 20hz-20khz frequency response and much more. The tone is so warm, you know it is a tube mic, but it’s also so pure, you second guess it. Coming soon to American Musical Supply!
~Ryan
Archive for September, 2008
New Tube Microphone
09/30/2008Moving the Mixing Suite
09/30/2008Ok, so as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m working on moving my mixing/production suite from my temporary location (which happens to be my porch) back to the original location which is 1 of my 4 bedrooms. It isn’t exactly huge but it is definitely a better working environment than a 4 season porch. As you can see from the photographs in my earlier post, it’s crammed and ultra messy.
As I was starting to tear down gear and haul it upstairs to the new room, I realized that I am missing some much needed furniture. I have a desk and some other stands and tables but for the setup I want, I need to get myself a different desk. My current desk is all awkward and tall and has a very small work surface. This will not do. I actually loaned the bassist in the punk band a desk that he has yet to even move from the living room where we left it upon delivery. I’ll just get that one back and continue the task of setting up my room. The toughest part of the setup will be the task of getting used to the hideous paint job. I’ll post some more pictures once I make a little progress. I may also be picking up an On Stage MIX400 Mixer Stand from American Musical Supply for use with the MV8000 in the next couple months that should help the flow of my space.
~Ryan
Roland In the House Continued
09/29/2008So, in my article about Roland coming to the office and bringing tons of toys to show us and get us more in-the-know, I neglected to actually talk about all the pieces of equipment they actually brought. I covered the majority but not all.
Another one of the keyboards that was shown was the Roland Fantom G6 61 Key Synthesizer Workstation Sampler Keyboard. This is definitely one of the coolest and feature loaded keyboard workstations I’ve seen all year. Some of the features include the Roland patented key bed that is not manufactured by a third-party but developed and built in-house. The Built-in sounds are already phenomenal but when you add an ARX card, get ready to witness the true differences between these keyboards and the competition and that is the SuperNATURAL sound engine. You’d be very hard pressed to find a better or even equal sounding board in this price range.
We even got to check out the new and improved Roland MV8800 Production Studio. It is officially the beefy son of the ultra-powerful MV8000. The MV8800 has an updated look, included mouse/video card for easy mouse based navigation, faster processor and the latest and greatest firmware as well as a built in color LCD screen. Everything is very intuitive and simple once you spend a couple hours with this machine. Sampling, making beats, and even creating songs…It really doesn’t get much easier.
The Roland Juno G Workstation Keyboard is reputed to offer Old-School ease with Cutting-Edge features and it really does. It is one of the simplest workstation synths I’ve used besides the original Juno 6 which was an analog synth and it did not have any sounds besides what you made out of waveforms and filters etc. That being said, buckle up…this this will have you ripping incredible sounds in not time at all. It accepts an SRX card to add even more sounds and shares the same high-powered processor as Roland’s famous Fantom-X series.
Visit American Musical Supply to outfit your studio with our Easy Payment Plans and get a Free Extended Warranty with our Gold Lock Protection!
-Ryan
Pics from the Weekend!
09/29/2008I was able to make it home over lunch so I took some pics and brought the camera back here to the office for you all to see them. Comments welcome, in fact, I want to know whether you think I should strip, sand and re-finish my new dresser or not. Not music related in the least, I know but I want to interact with some of my readers so lets hear what you think. Enjoy!
-Ryan
Getting ready for the Move
09/29/2008So, this weekend was a pretty full one. My Punk band played a show in St. Cloud to an audience of about 20 people at a coffee shop. Not a very good turnout but I can’t say I’m too surprised since we generally play to the bar crowd and when we play all ages shows, our typical group of hooligans go to the bar instead. It was still a super fun show. That was Friday…we drove home after the show and got back at nearly 1 am. Pretty early since we usually get done playing around 2 am when we play the bars. We usually hit the road around 3 to get home around 4 or 5 am if we decide to drive after late shows. Always a good time though!
Saturday was spent doing a lot of work around the house, mainly in my future studio space. The room is simply a bedroom in which my punk band used to rehearse until my neighbors called the cops on us 2 too many times. After that the room was used as the so-called “Staging Area” during construction of my baby’s room. It’s coming down to the wire, my wife is due to have our baby on November 9th so I have to get stuff cleaned up, especially that dirty room that was covered in sawdust and lumber. It’s all cleaned out now so I will start the process of moving my gear from the temporary place which just happened to be our 4 season porch. Talk about fun…disconnecting tons of cable, hauling heavy gear up to my 2nd floor then setting and hooking it all back up again…I guarantee there will be issues. That however is what I am looking forward to when I get back from my workout at the YMCA after work. I’m seriously thinking about putting an ad out in a classified somewhere to get myself an unpaid intern to my this type of stuff in exchange for some on-the-job training. I’ll post an update regarding the move and try to take a few pictures of the process.
Oh, I also bought a cool, old 4-drawer dresser that needed some modification to accommodate some new drawer pulls. Thinking about re-finishing it but it’s in pretty good condition. I’ll take a picture of it and put it to a vote on whether I should re-finish it or leave it original. I think it may have already been re-finished once, but they did not do a very good job with the staining process. I’ll try to post a photo tomorrow since my camera is at home at the moment.
In regards to the studio, the paint job is terrible, I’m thinking about getting some Ready Acoustics Chameleon Bass Traps. The Room has fairly nice hardwood floors and the previous owners of the house did the unspeakable…Sheetrock hung over existing plaster, YIKES! I used to be in the drywall finishing trade and trust me; this is not a fun thing to fix. I’m thinking that since the walls are the way they are, I’ll leave the pain the way it is with maybe a single coat of primer just to brighten it up in there. The current paint job is super cheesy green sponge paint over a really dirty light brown color with a fly fishing themed border in the middle…I’ll snap a photo and show you that tomorrow too. Stop back tomorrow for an update on my progress and to see pictures of my new dresser as well as current and future studio spaces. Thanks for reading!
-Ryan
Cool little trick with Google
09/26/2008A co-worker of min just came to me with this pretty cool little feature that I have never even tried.
Here’s the trick, go to Google.com. Now, type “ams zoom h2″ into the search box and click “I’m Feeling Lucky.” Check it out…you’ve landed on the American Musical Supply page with the AMS Zoom H2 Accessory Package, Cool! It’s sort of like a gamble except you really can’t lose. Any way you slice it, you land on a page. I tried it a few times with different combinations. The key is to always start with “ams” then you put in something you are looking for and most of the time you land pretty close if not exactly where you want to be! Just something cool a fellow AMS employee showed me this morning. Have fun and have a great weekend!
-0′Ryan
