I was skeptical about 2013. "13" had me kinda freaked out.. but as things progressed, things got awesome. Here it is.. 13 reasons why I was way into 2013:
1. First full year of Sonelab. We opened in May of 2012 so 2013 has been our first 365 day routine. I have absolutely no complaints!
2. A shit ton of records I worked on in 2012 were released and it felt really good to see these bands go out and promote these records. I don't need to name names. I didn't work on a single stinker!
3. I got to work on a shit ton of awesome records that will see release in 2014!
4. I upgraded my console. I recorded on a Tac Scoprion for a long long time. I had two of them in fact! in 2013 I upgraded to an MCI JH636 console. I love it. It's got decent mic preamps, EQs that totally rock (especially the four Troisi EQs), and a TON of awesome headroom.
5. I got another Lynx Aurora A/DD/A. This means I have 24 simultaneous Pro Tools I/O. This is not a very fun purchase, but every aspect of it makes me feel like a "real studio owner" - plus.. 16 i/o is not the type of limitation that's fun to work with in the digital world. And I guess this paves the way for me getting a 2" 24 track at some point!! Though a 16 track would be awesome, too!
6. My Tascam MS-16 is fully functional. All channels work and sound good! I cut at least 8 records on tape this year and I had just gotten it cal'd in June!
7. My Ampex 440c is now fully functional as well! This means I can stop using it as a tape echo and start cutting mixes to it!
8. I started using Coles 4038s in conjunction with my ADR Compex compressor for overhead mics. I hate it for some records and absolutely LOVE it on other records!
9. Working my ass off: I worked on more projects and logged more hours in 2013 than I ever have in my career. Because of this, I feel that I've become a much different engineer. I spend less time thinking about tools (microphone preamps, etc) and more time thinking about arrangement and performance. I'm very happy about this- but I still think about gear a lot.. haha
10. I attended the 2013 Potluck Audio Convention. This is an audio convention hosted by Craig Schumacher in Tuscon, AZ, where I was asked to speak on a panel about vocal recording. I was extremely honored to be asked to participate, but I also got a lot of great information out of the other panels. I also met a lot of amazing people in the field! I hope I can attend 2014!
11. I was in two music videos: Bunny's a Swine's Greetings from the Bottom and Magik Marker's Bonfire. My wife, Julia (many of you know her from scheduling sessions with me) was in Bonfire, too!
12. I was able to work in and build up the studio of my dreams (more or less) this year. I feel settled in, proud to be a part of it with Mark Miller, and satisfied with the hard work he and I have done to make Sonelab the studio it is! Our studio has definitely grown and now has it's own unique identity.
13. in 2013, Julia got pregnant with our future baby. We're expecting at the end of February and we could not be more excited! Our home is just about ready and it's been a lot of fun preparing it for the new addition.
That's it. Those are my 13 reasons why 2013 was a great year.
Happy New Year, all!
