Tag Archives: Indiana

Farewell Muncie… At least for now.

Tomorrow I will be packing my bags and moving to Chicago, Illinois to stay with my good friends Erick Sherman and Richard Knapp for the duration of my 2-3 month internship at the esteemed Electrical Audio recording studio. I’m psyched about the internship and yet at the same time I’m bummed to be leaving behind my beautiful fiance and two cats for the next couple of months. I’m also going to miss my family, friends, and my recording studio. I’m at the studio on a daily basis so it’s going to be weird to be away from it for weeks at a time. I’m still going to be making the voyage back to Muncie on a somewhat regular basis for work but it’s not the same as being there every day.

Right now I’m making a list of things that I need to take with me. I am going to be staying on a couch in a living room so I want to pack pretty light. I’m going to be taking a portable recording studio with me so that I can continue to work on my own music and do some basic mixing. Well, I’m going to wrap this up because I need to get back to packing… Can’t lose focus!

Take it easy!

Shredmageddon 2011

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Shredmageddon

Shredmageddon 2011

Reber Recording has teamed up with Doc’s Music Hall to organize the first Shredmageddon Guitar Solo Contest in Muncie, Indiana! Our goal is to find the best guitar players in Muncie and bring them to the stage to share their talents with the music-loving public.

RULES

  1. All contestants must register @ Doc’s Music Hall and pay the $10 registration fee before April 13th in order to compete.
  2. Contestants must perform ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS ONLY.
  3. Each contestant will be given a 5-minute time-frame in which to execute their solo. It’s up to the contestant as to how much of the five minutes they wish to utilize. Solos may be shorter than 5-minutes but no longer than 5-minutes.
  4. FX Pedals of all makes and models are allowed in this contest.
  5. Loop Machines are allowed under the condition that no pre-recorded loops will be used. All loops must be created within the 5-minute performance.
  6. No refunds will be issued for any reason other than the event being canceled by either the venue or the event organizer.

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JUDGING CRITERIA

The contestants will be critiqued by a panel of five people. Four of the judges will be experienced guitarists with the fifth representing the non-guitar-playing populace. All contestants will be judged based upon the following criteria.

  1. Originality (20%)
  2. Creativity (20%)
  3. Technical Proficiency / Technique (30%)
  4. Stage Presence (10%)
  5. Versatility (20%)

Judges will be announced one week before the event.

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PRIZES

  1. 1st Place: $100 + Plaque + 3 10-hour days of recording time at Reber Recording.
  2. 2nd Place: Plaque + 1 10-hour day of recording time at Reber Recording.
  3. 3rd Place: Plaque

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New Band + New Upgrades

Since I opened my recording studio I’ve been so busy recording everyone else that I hardly have time to make my own music. It’s been a while since I played in a band that did more than just make noise and record. That being said, I’ve put together a new band, an actual band, that I’m hoping will go beyond the recording phase and actually break out of the studio and into some venues. We’ve already started practicing and working together to hash out and develop the sound that am aiming to create.

It’s been a while since so much has been demanded of my fingers in terms of bass playing. I have had to implement a rigorous practice regiment in order to build up my endurance and stamina. I need to get back into rockin shape in order to pull off the energetic bass lines that I’m wanting to deliver.

One of the exciting things about forming this new band is that I’ve found myself revamping my bass rig and pedals and making sure that everything is in tip-top condition for tonality. For instance, I’m replacing my home-made wooden pedalboard that has served me for many years. I ended up finding a deal on SweetWater for a “Open Box” Pedaltrain board with a hardcase for 50% of the normal cost. I couldn’t pass it up. I mean, take a look at this beauty!

New Pedal Board

New Pedal Board

I can’t wait until this arrives! I’m also scouring Ebay for a few used effects pedals that I want. So far I’ve found one of the three that I’veI can’t wait until this arrives! I’m also scouring Ebay for a few used effects pedals that I want. So far I’ve found one of the three that I’ve been searching for. The Electro-Harmonix Blank Finger Compressor! This should be arriving sometime next week and I wish time would move just a little faster so I can start playing with it. I apologize for being so vague about the band situation for now. I am not wanting to give out too many details until the EP is done.

The Bashville Boys: Cornbread Road EP

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The Bashville Boys

The Bashville Boys

After much deliberation, I have finished the “Cornbread Road EP” for Muncie punk/folk sensations The Bashville Boys. The swell fellas in The Bashville Boys have given me permission to post their “Cornbread Road EP” on Musical Family Tree under Reber Recording for all of your listening pleasure.

Link: http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/reber_recording

Feel free to leave them a few kind words in comment form.

Introspective Culinary Philosophy

Fish Stock Noodle Pour-Over

I love to cook, even more then I enjoy eating (which is a lot!). Next to writing and recording music, cooking is my favorite thing to do. Lately I’ve been on a big Asian kick with inspiration being drawn from Thai and Vietnamese cooking styles. Tonight I made a noodle dish that consisted of mushrooms, red bell peppers, chili peppers, cabbage, and leeks. I tied everything together with a fish stock that I had made the night before. Delicious!

I’m not a fan of following recipes. Most of my cooking is improvised. I have a firm understanding of ingredients and how they work with one another. I like to think that I cook in a fashion similar to how a jazz musician approaches a performance. I like to keep things free-form and open to suggestion. The element of surprise keeps the act of cooking fresh and exciting. Each dish is an improvisation that could easily become a disaster but more often then not turns out to be delicious.

I more or less use recipes to help give me ideas but I rarely follow them… and NEVER to a T. Despite my lack of interest in following recipes I want to make it a point to start documenting my culinary creations. Not that I’m some amazing chef trying to force my culinary ideas into your brain cavities. No. I’m doing this for me. If anyone else happens to find a use for my documented culinary endeavors it will merely be a byproduct of my original intention. But then again, I am putting this on the internet for everyone to see. What’s that all about? Perhaps I’m kidding myself. If I really wanted this to be just for me I would write it in a book, not a blog. I blame it on all of the episodes of Anthony Bourdain that I’ve been watching via netflix lately.

So yeah, call it a New Years Resolution if you will (I can’t stand those things).

Oh, and just in case you were wondering… I’m not going to include a recipe for the soup photographed above. At least, not in this post.

New Years @ the Fickle Peach

First thing first… Here’s the video. If the video doesn’t leave you thoroughly satisfied and you’re looking for a little something extra, you can proceed to read through my random thoughts and reactions after.

From time to time I get asked to help organize a show or event for a friend or acquaintance and I usually take care of booking bands, in addition to securing a PA and running the sound. I don’t mean for that to come off as some snoody sounding, I’m-full-of-myself-style, comment. I just have the privilege of meeting a lot of musicians as a byproduct of being a recording engineer. I can recommend different bands depending on how well their sound meshes with the event at hand.

I received a call from Chris Piche asking me if I could book a couple of bands for their big New Years celebration at The Fickle Peach. I enjoy working with The Fickle Peach and the owners are swell guys so I jumped on my phone to make a few calls and write a few emails. Although my original line-up proved to be full of holes, I was able to secure three solid bands; The Pottersfield Boys, Cowboy Angles, and We Are Hex.

The only hiccup in my night involved trying to locate a mixer for the show that night. I ended up purchasing a used 12-channel Electro-Voice mixer instead of renting one. I figure that it will be a good insurance policy to have in the future if I run into a similar problem. I don’t want to find myself relying on someone else to provide a mixer at the last minute and fall through. Nope, better to have my own.

Anyway, here’s some video of We Are Hex performing at The Fickle Peach for New Years 2011. I set up a few microphones to capture the live sounds and then synced them with the video.