Patchwerk Session

Alllllright! Legit Engineering post! (but only cuz J was trying to one up me with the Tony post....shout outs to Tony to, I know he's a regular to the blog). Got it in the other day up at Patchwerk 9000 working on some song ideas for a few peeps out there....Here's some low rent pics (you guys are just gonna have to get your deal with it on, J dropped a gem on a fly camera to make his post crispy cream, I dropped a jem on software that i'm using in the super lowfi iphone pic...)



...a bit hard to see in the pic, but I"m actually running ProTools 8 as I was talking about in my previous post. Most all studios (at least in ATL right now) aren't on 8, but i've gotten used to it, and have all my plugins are presets save on my home computer....so what I did was actually CLONE my internal hard drive from my rig, and carry that cloned drive to studios and boot off that. So in essenece, i'm only using their work rig for processing....all the software (OSX 10.5.6, ProTools 8, ALL MY PLUGINS, Logic, my personal itunes, etc...) is all off on my boot drive. So that's pretty cool...and handy.

Here's another in action:



this one you can also see something new i'm trying out...I'm having all the artists we work with sign my gear rack...only a few on there now...when it gets respectable I'll hit a proper pic then....

Alright team....that's about it for now...but I'll holler back with more soon......let's goooooooooo!

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Mix Views: Tony Maserati

Finding the focus when it comes to mixing is something im sure every engineer struggles with from time to time. Here Mr. Maserati talks about what is or will peak his interest during mixing and what he thinks will be the most compelling part of a track hes mixing. Great series on youtube that I will post the entire 4 series episode in the next few days. Heres part 1, enjoy!

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Kicking it Six Feet Steez

Aight...another lenient post about engineering...but I was hanging out with engineers all night!! My homie J got back in town, so tonight we had to kick it up at 6 feet under and get our scrimps on. After that is the obligatory return to patchwerk to hang out and watch a game of madden between Leslie and Snotty pop off....the proceedings:



yeah...sorry J, ya boy isn't rocking the Nikon D90 mark II beta lense phase omotoper camera....straight iphone status. Which adds the hot mysterious effect, no extra charge. Shit was proper. Well....that's about it, but more to follow. Actual work post tomorrow. Ya boy is back on the blog tip J! Only took 6 months! But we're back Mortamer, we're back!



(am I more like randolph in this pic?)

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Don't front on Tap Defense....

aight....so this is REALLY a studio based topic, but it's important to be able to let your mind relax after hours of hard work in the studio (or at least that's the bullshit reason i'm using to post this on the blog)....

And when doing so, you know it's all about iphone apps/games. Here's my personal favorite:



Tap defense.....what can you say other than this game is completely ill. Like, utterly and insanely awesome. You build towers and smite demons from getting into heaven. SMITE DEMONS SON. After a good round, I feel like silent Bob in Dogma...."holy shit, Silent Bob is an instrument of god?!?"



Not to be left out, is my homie's favorite game...



Crazy Penguin. I'm not gonna front...I don't have this one....so I can't comment too much, but I did see Jay rocking it one day and it looked pretty fresh....shout outs to the polar bear on the far right in the helmet making a face like he just dropped a hot one.

Well...I'm curious to see what everyone else does to pass time in the studio before cranking out the next hit. Let ya boy know! Hollertreezy.

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The coolest part about working Vegas...

Was the studio, and working with P and Chad. Great people = great times. Had so much fun hanging with the assistants and staff at The Palms. Also I wanna shout out Mick for hooking us up with some BBC and Ice Cream gear. Definately had a great work experience meeting guys I really respect and look up to, and getting to actually work side by side was the shit. Heres some pics of the randomness that occurred.

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New in ProTools World

So....first off, let me say, J I know this took way to long to come up with, but I hope it's up to par.  I know you doing ya thing out in vegas...just like my dude here:



To everyone else, what's really good....this is Miles Walker.  I'm also an engineer based out Atlanta, GA.  I'm a self proclaimed gear head and full on studio rat too, and have been given the opportunity to share on my biggest homie's blog, so I hope I do it all justice.  For those that don't know me, I think an ichat convo between me and my homie AJ pretty much describe how J and I are linked in the universe...



I've felt the key to a good blog is to keep it short and sweet, and have a lot of pics.  I hope I can meet those requirements....

It took a while to come up with a topic I wanted to hit the mean streets of gridlock with, but it's something that will undoubtedly become a part of all our daily engineering and production lives.  The newest version of ProTools...version 8.   Most all studios have not yet upgraded to this version, while I only know of a few comrades that have upgrade the LE rig.  I decided to NOT go my usual route on this one and get all the facts in and go ahead and upgrade to PT HD 8 for my personal rig.  There is a lot to be said about this update.  The most obvious is the HUGE interface  update.  The visual is completely different than older versions and takes a good deal of getting used to.  Things off hand that jump out are the change of pan sliders to pan knobs, additional 5 mix insert points (10 plugins per track, not 5), and improved audiosuite/disk performance.  Here's Killface holding a channel strip:

Some things that don't jump right out, but are also nice changes include: DRAMATICALLY faster session load times, backwards compatibility without saving as a different session type (you do lose a few features however), as well as the option to load a session without plugins (for quick references), Some really nice bus and I/O listing options (as in, when you use a bus it is now color coded and easy to see) New included AIR effects plugins ( all kinds of distortion, modulation, filter, verb, etc), as well as AIR synths (piano, organ, drum mods, etc).  I think these upgrades are in direct competition with Logic, as the MIDI tracks and sequencing is also improved.  I'm not going to delve into that faction too much on this post, but trust....for a producer looking to use a software sequencer, I would have never recommend ProTools 7...but the more time I spend with 8, i'd consider it. 

Well...i'm going to cut it short there for my first big outting...but if you guys have any particular questions about PT 8...just hit me on my beeper

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The Trip so far...

So i decided i should put up a lil update of my trip here in vegas. I absolutely love the studio here at the palms casino. I cant stress how cool the assistants and studio staff are here. The funniest guys ever work here and they stay on top of orders and client demands. I dont care for vegas the city as much but I havent really had a chance to get out and see what it has to offer. If failure or broken dreams had an Olympic games, lets just say vegas would be the front runner to host the event. Other than that ive had a pretty good time hanging with Drew, pharrell and chads engineer, and getting to know P himself who is just about the most humble and down to earth guy ever. Super funny and talented at that, a rarity in this industry. Weve tracked several songs at this point and I dumped my regular setup as far as pre amp and compressor's go, and opted to use The avalon 737, which is what Drew uses from time to time on P. We still rented a M1 and the studio has 2 tube tech CL1B's which I used to cut the first days record with. We have 2 Sony C800's setup just in case we cut vocals in seperate rooms. This is pretty much what i use as far as vocal chain when I work with Ush, on the road or back in Atlanta. About the coolest part so far has been watching the guys make beats and them writing songs together. This week will be no different, 2 very huge artists are on there way here as we speak to do songs with Ush, stay tuned for updates!

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Another day, another star

So today in the studio was especially cool. We had all sorts of people come through the yo to visit with the guys. Micheal Rapaport came through to interview P about A Tribe Called Quest, which I totally missed cause I was watching the game but I was around when Adam Levine from Maroon 5 came in to visit not knowing we were working. Really cool guy and super animated. He played guitar on one of the tracks we were doing and it came out hot. enjoy some pics and check back for more updates.

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Studio At The Palms: Usher and Neptunes Sessions

I love the studio here. Definately one of my fav's so far. Awesome staff and great amenities, this studio is ran near perfect. The assistants are always good for a laugh and know the rooms very well. If your ever in town and working make sure you ask for Conor or Ryon, their they best. Working here with The neptunes has been great. Ive learned alot just watching them work with their engineer Drew Coleman on the several songs theyve done so far. I will definately remember these sessions for years to come and would like to share some of my photos from the day. Make sure you check out my flickr page for the rest of the joints and updates.

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VEGAS!!!

So im finally in Vegas and getting used to the new city since I've never been here before, let alone to be working with some of my favorite producers ever at the same time.
I met with my couz and we kicked it over at the bar downstairs, which i might add is crazy enough with all the gambling going down, was fun and enlightening. This city will leave you broke from what I hear and ya boy aint even having it so dont worry, ill be leaving with more money than I came with lol. Heres some pics I did shoot some vids but I wanna put some more stuff together before I do all that, stay tuned!

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