Another year

2012 has been mainly about the studio. I spent (with some help from my amazing dad for water and electrics, Gary for plastering, and Nick for plasterboarding) converting the garage to a studio. I learned lots and lots and lots, but my god it was time consuming!

Still, I had time for music stuff, as ever. I mixed a couple of albums, mastered a few EPs and singles and albums, and squeezed in a handful of remixes.

Leaving 2012, the studio’s done except taking delivery of a new (well, 23 years old) mixing desk. The desk was always part of the plan, and the Sabre was my  number one choice within budget and what I could do with it: its modular, so I’ve just removed 8 channels and 8 groups.. meaning I can , with a blanking plate, have my MIDI keyboard , Alphatrack and Macbook in the middle of the desk. Anyway, what you tend to forget with desks is, really you need patchbays, and for patchbays you need looms…. So that’s the next thing: to patch the whole thing up.

I digress. So, a busy year.

Good music this year? Enjoyed albums by The Shins (my god, ‘Simple Song’ is so ace), Grimes, Bat For Lashes, Saint Etienne, Magnetic Fields (sickly, but great), Jessie Ware,  Hot Chip (hated it at the start, but grew on me lots),  Pet Shop Boys (patchy), Richard Hawley , Sebastien Tellier, Tame Imapala and the XX.

Next Year, more of the same, but with a primary focus on ‘the biggie project’. Looking forwards to it.

Happy New Year