Is anyone interested in hearing some basement recordings I made in the early
'70s when I was just out of high school? I'd like to hear others opinions
and other's recordings. I'm pretty proud of what I did back then, being a
newbee and with piecemeal gear). It's an 8-piece horn band doing a lot of
Chicago covers. I'd love to hear other's basement recordings also. Has this
topic been covered before?

I was the sound guy for this band, and for these recording sessions, I set
up my tube mixers in the bathroom of the basement on the toilet. The tape
machine was a Teac 3340 4-track at 15 ips, set on the back of the toilet. In
the intervening years, that recording got transfered to cassette, then to my
computer. I no longer have the 4-track machine, but I have the tape. A lot
of good that does me, eh? From what I read here, it probably needs baking.

Another thing you should know is that the band broke up before we could put
vocals on. So most of the tunes have no vocals. There are two original
songs. And there is only one that does have a vocal.

And I have to say, the guitar player was not the best (but he turned out to
be my brother-in-law). He's a much better player now, however.

I'll post links if there is any interest in these older tunes from the '70s
(Chicago, Santana, Rotary Connection, etc.) Any takers?

RB

"RB" wrote in message ...
Is anyone interested in hearing some basement recordings I made in the early
'70s when I was just out of high school? I'd like to hear others opinions
and other's recordings. I'm pretty proud of what I did back then, being a
newbee and with piecemeal gear). It's an 8-piece horn band doing a lot of
Chicago covers. I'd love to hear other's basement recordings also. Has this
topic been covered before?

I was the sound guy for this band, and for these recording sessions, I set
up my tube mixers in the bathroom of the basement on the toilet. The tape
machine was a Teac 3340 4-track at 15 ips, set on the back of the toilet. In
the intervening years, that recording got transfered to cassette, then to my
computer. I no longer have the 4-track machine, but I have the tape. A lot
of good that does me, eh? From what I read here, it probably needs baking.

Another thing you should know is that the band broke up before we could put
vocals on. So most of the tunes have no vocals. There are two original
songs. And there is only one that does have a vocal.

And I have to say, the guitar player was not the best (but he turned out to
be my brother-in-law). He's a much better player now, however.

I'll post links if there is any interest in these older tunes from the '70s
(Chicago, Santana, Rotary Connection, etc.) Any takers?

RB


Not exactly a basement, but my intro to recording began when I joined
a band in college. The guitar player had a Teac 2340S. He didn't have
a mixer though, so we hooked up the line out of my Peavey 400 PA head
to it.

We had mattresses all around the room because it was an above ground
room in FL, and the neighbors would complain about the noise.

So I had my bass rig (with a DI out on it) this guy's Marshall stack,
and we had a double bass drumset, all crammed into a tiny bedroom

There was no central AC in the house, only a window unit in the living
room.

Because it would get so brutally hot at practice, the guitar player
concocted a "Tube" made out of heavy duty plastic/Visqueen that ran
from the AC unit, down the hall and cut a whole in the door (yes a
hole in the actual door) of the bedroom so we could get cool air
coming in there.

Of course we didn't want the noise on the recordings, so before a take
we'd turn off the AC, do the tune really quick before we started
melting, then run out and cut the A/C on.

Jeezz the stuff you do in college...I bet kids are still doing this
kinda crazy stuff, more power to 'em.

Analogeezer

In article ,
(Analogeezer) wrote:

Of course we didn't want the noise on the recordings, so before a take
we'd turn off the AC, do the tune really quick before we started
melting, then run out and cut the A/C on.

Jeezz the stuff you do in college...I bet kids are still doing this
kinda crazy stuff, more power to 'em.

Sounds like you're describing the recording of my first solo CD in 1999.

Heh.

It was all recorded either in my bedroom or in the hallway outside the
bathroom using a Fostex R8. I had to unplug the refrigerator or the
noise would get on the tracks (one bedroom condo).

The leaf-blowers were the worst.

At the studio we set up for my band's CD the next Fall, the road outside
was a favorite country ride for Harley folks. Just about every other
vocal take was ruined by the rumble of someone's "loud pipes".

As if I didn't hate that crap enough before the session...

CT

"RB" wrote in message ...
Is anyone interested in hearing some basement recordings I made in the early
'70s when I was just out of high school? I'd like to hear others opinions
and other's recordings. I'm pretty proud of what I did back then, being a
newbee and with piecemeal gear). It's an 8-piece horn band doing a lot of
Chicago covers. I'd love to hear other's basement recordings also. Has this
topic been covered before?

I was the sound guy for this band, and for these recording sessions, I set
up my tube mixers in the bathroom of the basement on the toilet. The tape
machine was a Teac 3340 4-track at 15 ips, set on the back of the toilet. In
the intervening years, that recording got transfered to cassette, then to my
computer. I no longer have the 4-track machine, but I have the tape. A lot
of good that does me, eh? From what I read here, it probably needs baking.

Another thing you should know is that the band broke up before we could put
vocals on. So most of the tunes have no vocals. There are two original
songs. And there is only one that does have a vocal.

And I have to say, the guitar player was not the best (but he turned out to
be my brother-in-law). He's a much better player now, however.

I'll post links if there is any interest in these older tunes from the '70s
(Chicago, Santana, Rotary Connection, etc.) Any takers?

RB


RB,

Interesting post.

Me and a few buddies had a hobby band on and off over the last 14
years. Some of our originals were really bad.

About the time, I ran a Yamaha 12-ch FOH board for vocals and backup
music. I had also acquired a little budget equipment, myself.

At the best, I had a few discrete FX pedals for guitar, which were
also used for bass, vocals and keyboard, for that matter. And, yes,
also the obligatory Radio Shack EQs, tape decks and mixers (just when
you thing Behringer gets the worse rep.)

Aside from all of that, my buddies were griping that I was "bringing
the whole house over". What did they prefer? Let's see…a $10 budget
mono tape deck, with ALC, that totally squashed all the dynamics. …No
mixer, it was done from the mike in the $10 tape deck. And they
didn't even want half the instruments hooked up.

One session, I remember us all sitting outside in 40 degree weather
with a "ghetto blaster" serving as a guitar amp, the keyboard was on
it's own speakers, no bass, no master FX, and a cheap mike salvaged
from another $10 radio for the vocals. Yes, the $10 recorder was
doing the master. Although the material was "good"…I can hardly speak
for the quality of the recording, which was about -20dB on a semi-pro
2-track when played back.

The next session was good, when they did let me bring all the stuff
over. The only issues were the fact that Sunny would try his hands at
the mixer, determining that maximum gain on all instruments, FX,
mixers, and tape inputs were the optimum for a recording. Needless to
say that the tape was so hot that the it is presently housed in Los
Alamos National Laboratory.

Sad to say, the third session was even worse than the first. This
time, it was a $5 tape deck sitting in the corner, with Scott
screaming at the top of his lungs to get on the recording. (It was
surely awful, and I doubt I even have the "tape" anymore).

The good thing is that I have quite a bit more to work with
now...nearly have a pro-style studio set up, and will be finished this
coming Spring.

--Rob