Wee Pig Studios

From Top: Emu XL7 Command Station, Yamaha RM1X, Novation KS Rack, Yamaha SY85. All "hunners" of years old, but stable and very reliable. Shove yer soft synths!

Here's my wee studio, home of the hits (heh heh!) I do lots of recording here; with friends, bands I already know, and people I meet in jams and suchlike. Before the kids came along, I was a typical gearhead, buying the hottest new synth when it burst on the scene. (I've had a Mini Moog D, OSCar, Juno 6, and tons of others...and I am not a keyboard player. I just love to fiddle with pots.) And as its a blog, I am entitled to list my gear like any other gearhead geek.

• Drums are Pearl Maple Masters Custom, 20" Kick, 14" Snare, 8,10,12,14" toms. Cymbals are a mixture or Paiste, Zildjian and Ufip. And a Tama Iron Cobra Double Kick Pedal for those DUBBA DUBBA bits...bass players seem to hate them...

• I've got a cheapo set of Superlux mics for the drums, but until I can splash out, they do a decent job for now.
  
• I've got a Zildjian 18" China type with an inverted Zildjian 14" dark crash on top, to emulate that brilliant "wrecked cymbal chak-chak" sound Bill Bruford used on the King Crimson Red album...everyone seems to hate that one.

• Recording is done onto an Akai DPS16 digital recorder. I am not happy with PC's for making music, as I find them too unreliable.
  
• I use a Focusrite Trackmaster mic preamp and compressor, with a TC Electronics effects unit.
  
• My keyboards are a trusty Yamaha SY85 workstation (never let me down...ever) and a Yamaha P120 piano (not in the pic).
• I have a Yamaha A5000 sampler, EMU XL7 groovebox, a Yamaha RM1X sequencer and a Novation KS Rack for those midi sync'd arppegios! (I'm also a sucker for Mellotrons...)
• Monitors are a nice wee pair of active KRK RP6's on Target stands.
  

I want to finally get round to messing around with the sequencer and some samples, create some nice grooves and textures that will support other musicians. I'll get around to posting some stuff eventually. As with most hobbyists, there are no deadlines, and nothing ever seems to get finished! Meantime, here's some stuff I worked on with BIG MARK and his musical collective, The Mellow Yellows and with Mick and Robert, who I regularly play with in Makaris Park - "Hold On Tight" is finished, whilst "Still Call Your Name" is rough as nick! All recorded in Wee Pig Studios. After doing some stuff with Glasgow band Pablo Eskimo, I realised that recording a whole band in one go doesn't suit me (or my wee studio) so I tend to get one or two people in at a time. (No reflection on Pablo Eskimo - honest!) When I get my finger out, I'll be doing something with the legendary Hugh Reed o' Hagan, AKA Hugh Reed (The Hugh Reed Explosion)

Paul Savage, ex drummer of The Delgados and manager of Chemikal Underground's Chem 19 studio kindly showed me some tips n' tricks on drum mic technique, and how to pump and crush and generally grunge the sound of the kit to get that "Delgados Universal Audio" sound... Chem 19 has now moved, and looks brilliant...