April 5 - Finished! Well... not quite....

Well... I am back. :)

Believe it or not... we finally got this thing open and running for our first session... which was Monday, April 2nd! I am gonna do some commentary on these pictures below.... but just a little blog-style ramble here first:

Well.. I lost it. I completely lost it. I mean off the deep end. No.. I am not gonna share all the horrid details... but in the last few days before the first client was scheduled in I was so far from being done... that I was doing all-nighters. Literally working round the clock. The console didn't get finished (more on that below) until literally 9 hours before the first session. So... there was much I could not check out (mic lines, etc...). Oh well... ya know... it's embarrassing... so I will just say... it's probably gonna take me a while for my wife to really forgive me for losing it like I did. Oh well... ya know... this whole process has drained me further than I have ever been drained in my life and I guess everyone has their breaking point. The good news is the studio is open... our first client is in there working right now... and my wife says she is not going to divorce me.... .....yet (although there was mention of changing the locks on doors). Ha Ha! But seriously... I think everything (at the studio and at home) is going to be just fine. :)

Sure... there were some things that didn't work right on the first day... and little problems... but the client is a friend, it was cool. I gave them a free day to make up for it. The really good news is that the drum room sounds really, really, really good! Even better than we had hoped! More on that below. The console sounds amazing too (it ought too considering we just about re-capped the entire thing! Most of the patch bay works... most of the patch panels work... ya know... not too bad all the way around! :)

Ok... these pictures above tell a small part of the story. So... let's see if I can sum it up:

First of all... I found this console through David Rochester of Technical Audio Services (the fellow working on the console in the picture above). Dave is one of the greatest guys I have had the pleasure of meeting in a while and I would venture to say no one in the world works harder than he does! A friend knew I was looking for an Amek Mozart and recommended I contact Dave Rochester. So I did. He did happend to know of another tech guy/broker who was selling a Mozart. This guy is ALSO a really nice, super cool guy. I talked to him about the console... the price was very good, the owner stated that it had been in very good condition and working properly when it was recently decommisioned. They told me there were a few non-working channels, but over-all it was in very good condition. So... we bought it. We couldn't check it out because it had already been dismantled so it could be moved (weighs WAY too much to be moved while fully assembled). We flew to Denver, rented a truck and brought it back... very, very, very carefully.

So.. the day finally come to move the console in and get it running. I had included in my budget money to hire Dave Rochester to come help me set it all up and get it running (including fixing the known bad channels). Well... let's just say... that once we got it all set up... and I started passing signal... it was bad shape. Real, real, real, real bad shape. I did not find a SINGLE channel that worked properly! I couldn't believe it! Long, long, long story short... Dave was here for almost two week for long hours and we just about re-capped the ENTIRE console. Each channel has around 70 caps! You just can't imagine how much work went into this thing. The bad news is that it's gonna cost me quite a bit more than what I had budgeted for getting the console going. The good news is that the console now sounds AMAZING and is working really well for the most part. We got the first 32 channels going and the last 8 still need a little work.... but 32 will cover just about everything we need it for right now.

So.... here is what happened (I think). Dave knew about the console. He knew the guy that was brokering the deal (and knew he was very honest and a great guy)... so he had no problems recommending the deal to me. The guy brokering the deal is also a really good guy, and had serviced the console some time ago and went on his recollection and the word of the console owner that it was is in the condition that he said it was. Clearly, the owner of the console misrepresented the condition of the console to the broker. It is also possible that parts of the console were stored in a non-climate controlled storage area (unbeknownst to the broker) despite the assurance that was not the case.

So.... the broker felt sooo bad about it that he actually gave me his commission as a refund. Dave Rochester felt so bad about that he is cutting me a HUGE break on his time. I still feel like the owner of the console should cover some of the expense (if Dave billed me straight up the time alone - not counting the caps and other parts it would surely be more than I paid for the console)!! However, evidently he is pretty unreasonable and the broker does not want to put me in contact with him for fear of the guy being pissed off at him. The broker has offered to pay some of Daves time in addition to what he gave me... but it just makes me feel bad... because he really is a good guy. I am just trying to decide now what to do. I don't want to let this guy pay the repairs... it's not really his fault... but he won't let me deal with the owner either. So.... hmmmmm. Oh well. I will figure out what to do this week now that all the dust is beginning to settle.

All that to say... the console is REALLY rocking now... and it oughta be! ;)

Ok... this is fun story. So...andybody know what this is? It is evidently one of the rarest parts in the world. In an experience that really (in my life) could classified as a truly "if it can go wrong it will" kind of experience... this is just one of the many examples. So... for the studio mains I wanted a speaker that really put out some power, but that would also be a good near/mid-nearfield monitor. I have always loved the original KRK Embassy 8's (E8's) for that. I found a good used set (the new one with the titanium tweeters are a little harsher). Like a FOOL, while going through the console I set up the KRK's to monitor through instead of one the cheaper monitor speaker sets I have. Well... sure enough... when when the bad channels was selected.... it blew a tweeter. Well... I didn't think this would be tooooo big a deal.... until I started tryin to find a replacement. Well.. guess what.. KRK outsourced this speaker to another company. That company now makes their own speakers and quit making KRK parts. So... no tweeter is available for it. So... I am began a massive world-wide search to try and find one. Pepper at GCPro here in Nashville is the kind of guy that knows where EVERYthing is. He turned me onto a spot in California that might have one. They didn't but knew another place that did, they actually had two! I figured I would buy both so I would have a spare.... guess how much they want for it. No... higher... yep... higher..... $389.00!!! For a tweeter!!! I only bought one (did I tell you we are already WAY over budget). This bad one can be repaired so I am going to send it to the same place (they repair them). *sigh*.

Ok... so... quite a few people have felt sorry for me in this process... and come to help out! Ha Ha! This crew from my Church in the pictures above came in the last days and helped out and really lifted my spirits! Here is a list of people that just came and helped... for free!!!

Mark Kelly
Sam Harrison
Scott Shiveley
Dave and Paula Foster
Randy Ditchel
LeeAnn Ditchel and her son Jacob
Ken & Barbie Isham
Dave & Debbie Seldon

I think that's it... if I left you out... please let me know... I am still not fully recovered from my sleep deprivation stint!





So above are a couple shots of JT's drums and one of my guitar rigs setup for "show" at one of the parties/events we had to celebrate the grand opening.

And... all these shots above are of our first recording session!! The producer was Kyle Lee of Clean Productions, and the artist was Brad Sullivan. There were a few little glitches, but we worked through them and everyone seems very happy with the experience! I now have a list of things to fix, but we are very gratified to be rocking and rolling here. I have a little time between now and the next session to fix the things that need to be fixed and so life is good! :)

Would I ever do this again? Only if I either have way, way, way more money than I know what to do with... or a death wish. :)

Steve Lamm
www.crypticglobe.com
www.cgrnashville.com
www.clubcubasenashville.com

March 13th - Console is in!

Well, we have been working like crazy! We have gotten a lot done, and there have been a lot of high’s and lows. I will give you list of some of them here in a minute.

There are of course pictures of our progress below… they are kind of backwards with the oldest ones at the bottom.

First of all… a little explanation of what’s going on. We finished the isolation of the drum room and we are quite please with the results. We got an amazing amount of isolation from outside noise without having to add a huge “double-wall” structure. A combination of mass-loaded vinyl, insulation, sheet rock, green glue, and more sheet rock did a really great job. This room had really zero insulation. We didn’t expect that when we rented the building but we are quite satisfied with the final results. You really can’t tell we did anything at all (well you won’t when we get paint on the walls), we preserved the windows so they could be re-used later by simply removing some isolation boxes (a request of the owner of the building) and we got really good isolation! A win/win/win to us!

We got the treatment of the walls of all the other rooms (except the wood room) done, and fabric is going up on those as we speak. Once it’s all up, we will cover the seams with a wood trim to finish it out.

The middle section of the box behind the console is going to be covered in fabric as well. We have most of the cable run, and now it’s just a matter of soldering the ends. :)

So… high’s and lows:

Low: We spent a lot of money on a balanced power system with 2 isolation transformers and two separate tech circuits, one for 240 (the console) and one for 120 (everything else). After hooking it all up… it failed the “guitar amp test” miserably. That is the test where I plug in one of my high gain guitar amps and see how quiet it is. This test is very important because… well… we record a lot of guitar players. The amps/guitars have to be as quiet as they were designed to be and the power they are running on plays a huge part in this. Well..it was REALLY bad, hum, noise… uggghhh. But….

High: David Rochester for Technical Audio Services sold us the transformers and the hookup instructions. His partner Murphy Odom is an electrical “jedi” from WAY back in the day. He had been helping us over the phone (he is based out of Memphis), but he agreed to come help us with a solution for the problem we were having. He gave us several suggestions and a list of things to reduce “tesla fields”. The basic tweaks he gave us solved the main problem and now the power passed the “guitar amp test”! Yeah!!! We still have more to do to eliminate the “tesla fields” (which will take even more noise out of the signal), but I am greatly encouraged! If you don’t know… “Tesla Fields” are electrical “fields” that can cause a guitar to hum that can be created by items that are improperly grounded, or have ground loops, etc.. If you have noticed that when a guitar player is standing there with the volume knob on, and as he turns… the hum changes/increases/decreases, you have observed the effect of these “tesla fields”. We are going after eliminating these fields completely and Murphy was able to identify several things causing these fields (hot water heater hooked up incorrectly, AC with improper ground, etc..) So… we are fixing each of those things which will be great. The problems are already solved almost completely and these few last tweaks will be the “cherry on top”!

Low: Well, I have been having to work really, really long hours on all of this I really miss my family. My oldest daughter (3 ½) has made it pretty clear she doesn’t like Daddy being gone so much, and it’s been forever since my wife and I have been able to have a date. It’s been a real hard haul.

High: My family has been really supportive! My wife has been just amazing. Really encouraging and the kids have been great too. Even Georgia (though clear she wants me around more) and has been supportive. :) So… .it’s great to have such a wonderful crew to come home too!! I know I would have given up by now were it not for them!

Low: Wow… we have spent a lot of money. Everyone told me it would cost more than I thought it would… so I added a lot of “extra” to our budget to cover that. However, it’s gone even beyond our “extra” expectations. It’s a pretty heavy weight on me, but we know this is gonna really take off once we get it going and believe it’s worth it. (We are accepting donations from anyone that feels sorry for us of course!!) :) :) :) Anyway… if you ever do this…. get a really good estimate of what you think it’s gonna cost… then double it. You should be real close.

High: Despite the risk God has continued to provide and we are moving towards getting the studio open. We already have some days booked in April and more interest! My faith and my family have kept me going and we still believe that is going to be a place where a lot of great music of all kinds will be born!

Low: We are behind schedule. We had to push back our Grand Opening a week. We had family coming to town for that… and I feel bad about it… but it’s unavoidable.

High: We ARE having a grand opening party for friends and family despite the fact that it will be late. It will be fun, and though I know we won’t be 100% finished for the party… I am looking forward to a party!!! :)

High: JT and I both are getting really excited about getting things fired up here over the next week or two!! It’s hard to believe that I won’t have to haul my mobile rig around from studio, to studio any more! It’s hard to believe I will actually have a place to work that serves clients in a way that we can be proud of and will allow us to develop our own production company on our terms and schedule!

High: Well… it’s spring here in Nashville… or right on the edge of it. The temperature is warm, little bits of green are starting to show up. I just LOVE this time of year. It’s my second favorite season (full on heat of the summer is my favorite).
So… life is good! Whatever comes I know we have given this our all and the best of what we have. I take real comfort in that. We only have a one life… and I think we might as well try to live out our dreams so we don’t end up at end saying “what if?”, or “why didn’t I?” We know that we are going to enjoy this spot and that our clients will appreciate greatly all the work, planning and attention to detail that is going into this project!

Rock on!!

Steve Lamm
www.crypticglobe.com
www.cgrnashville.com
www.clubcubasenashville.com

February 27th

Hey everyone,

Sorry I am so far behind on this blog. We have had a few setbacks, and I got really sick and so I just haven't had it in me to post. However, now I am recovering and feeling much better.

So... what setbacks you ask?

1. We called Michael at Comfort Zone Heating and Cooling to come and put returns in the new rooms that will be quiet and provide adequate returns so those rooms will heat/cool. When he came to look at the building he discovered that there was an old vent system in the attic and it was coated completely in asbestos. It also had been moved around a bit and some of the asbestos had gotten lose. So.... it was a health hazard and had to be removed. At first the owner of the building (we have a long term lease on the building) didn't want to do anything about it, but he quickly came around and did the right thing and paid to get it all removed. The AC guys are coming friday.

2. We also discovered that there was no ground AT all in the electrical system in the building. Yes... that is VERY dangerous. So... we had to have a ground put in at the meter before we could move ahead with our 2 isolation transformers and our tech power scheme for the studio.

3. We have decided to fully isolate the drum room that we need to use several layers of isolation material. This has slowed us down as well. Why all the isolation you ask? This part of the building is a converted garage and doesn't have much isolation from outside (car and airplane noise was getting through) We are doing several layers because we wanted to preserve the size of the room as best possible, but isolate completely from outside noise. We are very satisfied with what we have decided on. Here is what we are doing

We put a layer of mass-loaded vinyl (auralex sells this branded as "sheetblok") on the existing sheetrock. Next, we attached 1 x 2's to that, that we will attach the next layer of sheetrock too. Then we filled all the gaps with 703 insulation. We are then going to add a layer of sheetrock. Once that is one, we are going to attach another layer of sheetrock using a really cool new product we found called green glue. The STC figures look amazing on it. We have really good isolation already with just the mass loaded vinyl and the 703, so we are sure that with the sheetrock and green glue we will be good to go.

An update on the console. I was finally able to get the missing piece fabricated, and it fits perfectly!! So... I am getting what I can together on the console. We are planning on having the control room done and closed off, and all the sheetrock up in the drum room by friday so we can move the console in over the weekend and begin to set it up. We don't want to move it in before that stuff is done because of all the construction dust that will be stirred up.


Anyway... here are some pictures of the progresss. Those funky things that look like bombs are our isolation transformers. The picture of the meter shows the connections that were jut put in (the electricians were amazed that the building never had these). There is a ground wire going to a new ground rod that was put in, and another lead going to the water pipes under the house so we can tie in additional grounds there.

Oh... one last thing... if you have e-mailed me with questions, or comments, etc... I am sorry I haven't responded. I have really been overwhelmed lately with being sick and having so much to do to get this finished by our deadline. I will certainly try to answer e-mails as I can... but if you get tired of waiting... re-send it. :)

Thanks for reading!!

Steve Lamm
www.crypticglobe.com
www.cgrnashville.com
www.clubcubasenashville.com