*The Brushes Project* notes

Asked by a friend in Glasgow, I ‘splained:

RE  The Brushes Project (a E.P.), by Vlayman

The Brushes Project (a E.P.), by Vlayman 5 track album

“Emotional Rescue” is my inspiration for the falsetto.

Seriously – how lame is that?

The mic is a CAD M9, what is a very nice and inexpensive toob mic with a pretty colored sound, said to be the tube version of the M177 and M179, which are known for clarity (I like ’em on OH’s and toms). I used the Eureka pre with its compressor, set very clean to maximize the mic’s sound.

Their current tube mic is the Trion 8000, also sweet.

Lotsa 12 string from my new-2-me Dean

And I used a Chinee offset from England – have you heard of these Revelation-brand guitars? Very cool, the RFT60, and I have a Bass VI from them also.

Amps was mostly a HRDX, with a Vox Nite Train 50 on some leads. The guitarts went thru a cheap EV N/D mic or a EV 609 into a ISA One that was cranked and padded to get a little tranny onnint.

The basses was all thru a little Ampeg BA108 what is like 20w. and a 8″ mic’d with a Peavy 520i (a nice variation on the SM7b – a CH brighter and 1/2 the price, I often prefer it – into a Groove Tubes Brick and a dbx160XT), along with a DI thru a Meek VC3Q. I used different effects on every bass, but, and I found this interesting, while they all sound fairly similar, I noticed the sounds inspired the playing.

Actually, the “lyric” tab on each song will gi’ ya the gear.

The songs all started with these very spare brushes tracks I downloaded offa the net, then bass, then vox, then guitars, and everything was done in one weekend, alternating eves of manhattens, martooonies, and red wine.

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Vlayman: *The Brushes Project (a E.P.)*

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1. A Better Knot 04:10
2. Eradicate 03:30
3. Walkin’ on Air 03:41
4. Got Away 04:00
5. Different in the Dark 04:20

Teeth, hair, snares and death – brushes is important.

released September 26, 2017

All music by Vlayman except as listed.
Conceived by Vlayman, played by Vlayman, derranged by Vlayman prodooshed by Vlayman, roadied by Vlayman, recorded by Vlayman, assisted by Vlayman, mixed by Vlayman, masturd by Vlayman, refreshments by Vlayman, listened to by?
Fartwerk by Beans on Toast
All activities at Feta Central Recording DDL, 9-23-17 thru 9-25-17, except #5 re-mixed a few times through 9-26-17 and I still ain’t satisfried …

ADULT WARNING: “adult lyrics”, because yer kids would hafta be aiight to even find this shite, and you may think yer too “mature” to diggit. Also, I sing “f*ck” a lot and about bondage and murder – you know, Dizzknee themes.

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I mix with olive juice.

Discussing loud computers in the studio

… at TOMB, I said:

I had this drunk concept* once – if ya build it you owe me – of putting a mic onna noisy sound source and hooking it up to a amplifried speaker broadcasting a phase-reversed signal loud enuff to eliminate the initial sounds – kinda like the concept of N/R headphones …

*Prob’ly/mebbe absinthe or mushroom tea.

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I mix with olive juice.

I am a Foos Fighters fan but …

This nails it:

“Dave Grohl, being rock’s most eager-to-please superstar, has offered up a plethora of new serving styles using his same core ingredients: churning guitars and chugging drums, vague sentimentality first sung with a whisper then a roar, and nostalgic nods to seminal influences.”

Also,

“You’ve got the punctuated breaks between verses, pre-choruses, and choruses, the fist-pumping rhythmic pulse, and plenty of exaggerated guitar tones and effects.”

https://www.stereogum.com/1960762/premature-evaluation-foo-fighters-concrete-and-gold/franchises/premature-evaluation/

MVX2: *The Last One*

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1. Sompin’ You Know 03:56
2. True Grit 03:30
3. Prescient 03:47
4. Snardsong 04:09
5. Hip Hop 03:15
6. Lethargic 02:59
7. Hemp Bag 03:06
8. Bleeds the Daylight 03:19
9. The Last One 03:36

A sleep-deprived tub-thumper and a perpetually unhungover string-stroker bash out some choons.
Play loud, please.

released September 5, 2017

Vezina: impact protocol
Vlayman: lubeless fingering and gargles
TomS: guitar on #9

Drums recorded at Renae’s Place along with bass and guitar on #9; all else recorded at Feta Central Recording DDL where the alleged mixing and masturding also occurred.

Fartwerk by BeansOnToast

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THD; blog.
I mix with olive juice.

Cell-phone confrontation therapy, yep

So I’m dozin’ on the train in the quiet car about 7:45 this AM and dooshie sitting right behind me  takes a cell phone call and keeps talking. I give him a minute or two and ask him to take it down to the vestibule. He tells me, “mind your own business.” I repeat myself and he says, “Fuck you!” I say, “No, fuck you and get outta the quiet car.” He says, “Shut up or I’ll slap the shit outta you!” I say, “You are threatening me over a cell phone call? Fuck you and back it up, tough guy!” He says, “When we get off the train, I’m gonna slap the shit outta you, you’ll see.” In the mean time, of course, he loses the call, and shuts up for the last 15 minutes. I get off the train-car first and wait for him. About 40 people get off and he’s still sitting on the top deck, as I can see through the window. Another passenger gets off and we have a conversation and he commiserates with the conclusion that this guy is not coming. I realize that almost everyone is gone and I’m about 100 yards from the station, he’s still not out and when he does come, we’ll be alone, so I walk into the station and wait for him.  Now I’ve walked 100 yards thinking this guy is behind me so I stop just inside the station and await him. After a couple more minutes he comes in, one of the last of the entire 12-car train (ours being #11 from the station). His eyes get big and I walk up to him and say, “C’mon tough guy, you threatened me, let’s finish.” He devolves to calling me, “fat boy” and saying he’s gonna kick my ass. I note out loud he needs a shower. (Greasy face, 6′, 175 lbs, mebbe 28-30 inna hoodie and kahkies and workboots …) “Let’s go, you loudmouth pussy”, I say, and he says “It wasn’t even a quiet car!” WTF? I say, “Not only are you a loud-mouth pussy, but you are stupid!”  There’s 100’s of people passing by from the trains, many stopping to watch. He quickly walks away in the opposite direction of where I’m going (the Loop) and then calls out from about 25 yards, “C’mon, we’ll go outside and I’ll slap the shit outta you!” I laugh at him and repeat what I just said and he hurries away.  A really nice (and actually notably attractive) woman approaches me and says, “Let him go, it’s not worth it”, etc. Never saw him before, but I do look forward to seeing him again!   Moral of the story? Don’t assume the dozing fat, old guy is gonna take yer crap.

162.205.198.38 carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

Asked Re: Choosing the Right Monitors, I answered

(I note that this response was to a fellow traveler looking for monitors under $200, and whether or not to be concerned about lack of room treatment.)

Aiight, I am not a pro but I am a prolific and long-time experienced recordist (read, “old”), with a fairly extensive but low-cost collection of gear in my bedroom studio (“bedio”).

Glad to meetcha.

So, my $1.280 is to do a little research, and seek out used gear. I rely – have for years – on Tannoy PBM 6.5 II monitors, which can be easily found on the Ebog for under US$200. I recall certain KRK’s, Alesis and even Samson speakers being praised in years past, such that 5 or 10 years later might be extremely good buys. (FWIW, I used Optimus 5’s for a long while, and OK results, with cross-references in the car, the home stereo, etc.) I have a pair of Auratones which, while not “nice” to listen to, sure give me good mixes, and I paid far less than your limit. For that matter, I have a $50 Tivoli that I am confident I could use along with a shite stereo boombox and get presentable ruff mixes of the rock stuff I do.

I wouldn’t be too concerned (place any particular greater emphasis) about low-end reproduction in that cross-referencing can help, low-pass filters can help, etc. You can always add a cheap sub later, if you need to get a rough idear of what’s down there … (Hate subs for mixin’, myself, but they come in handy on certain material, such as EDM and even noise/industrial.) Front vs. back vs. no port is something of a matter of preference as well as a dictator of monitor placement (rear port has to be farther off the wall for accuracy), but ports are basically seemingly essential if you want reasonable low end from small monitors and drivers.

Room treatment? Understand that I am speaking of low-budget approaches, entirely un-sanctioned, and from my own particular [lack of] taste and experience. That said, one of the purposes of near-field monitors, and indeed headphones, is to minimize the effect of the room you are in as you go about trying to blow minds. That’s not to say simple issues, such as trying to be in the center of the room (I’m not) and and least 6-12″ off the walls (I get 6″, ahem) should be ignored. The heavy blanket thing may feel useful, but ultimately gets oppressive, and fucking dusty. I do things like open the closet doors, keep lots of pillows on the bed (It is my “bedio”), use sensible volume levels (I like 82db at the listening position, but start much lower and try at least one mix much higher) to maximize that “near” part of “near-field”, toe the speakers and keep them at proper height while trying to keep reflections minimized re the desk, etc. I do have a cuppla bass traps … And like I said above, I change out speakers, and sometimes use headphones (I like Sony MDR 600’s for their imaging and bass exaggeration), and I often drop into mono for multi-track level-checks, as well.

Finally, ” to be able to accurately hear an honest representation of what I have tracked and be able to make the correct mixing decisions” is as much abut experience – particularly including your non-standard listening environment and gear (by what I mean, you are not moving from one expensive pro studio to the next) as it is the room and the gear itself, which latter two things arguably only make things easier/quicker/more repeatable, but not necessarily better.

Or at least so I tell me.

DISCLAIMER: a pot of coffee and the Sunday morning news shows, as well as a slight hang-over and rapidly building heat and humidity, have gone into the drafting of this novella

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I mix with olive juice.