This past Saturday I traveled to the Loess Hills of Iowa to assist with the removal of some dead trees. One of the men working on this project owns cabins in that area and also a small town convenience store/cafe. Adjacent to where most of the cabins are is a small public pond that is apparently Home Sweet Home to a beaver or two (or more). So what does all this have to do with tackling a big job. Well just this, two examples of how to do it were visible near the pond – the beavers providing the evidence. They had gnawed two rather sizeable trees, causing the one to topple already and the other would have soon followed with a few more nights of activity. As we were examining the chips of wood and torn off bark, it became very apparent how these trees met their demise – one gnaw at a time. The beavers weren’t overwhelmed by the size of their job, they just tackled it a bite at a time and kept at it. Eventually they had their desired result.

So we came away with an object lesson in strategy and perspective. When faced with an enormous obstacle or task, we need to just take it a step at a time, stay at it consistently and the job will get done in due time (maybe I can apply that to getting all the studio upgrades accomplished). And oh, my friend obtained permission to remove the two tree trunks that had been “destroyed”, and at least one of them will hold residence in his store as a conversation piece (or platform for a duck decoy) – and maybe a reminder or two about tackling huge jobs.

On a side note, the studio is extremely quiet right now. The old Pro Tools system has been turned off – one major step toward the goal.

We were able recently to get a taste of flavor from our yet-to-be-installed equipment (and it whetted my appetite for sure). Tesco Productions received a call from an out-of-state producer, Helton De Jesus who was looking for a studio to record a local artist’s Spanish vocals. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles here, I’m in the process of designing and preparing to install several new hardware and software offerings. Among those planned additions are a variety of higher end 500 Series microphone preamps. So I explained to Helton that I could temporarily set up some of the new equipment (new and new to me), and we could run the session if he didn’t mind additional visible wires connecting the gear (until the permanent installation). He said the sound was more important than what it looked like (I agree, but I try to accomplish both whenever possible), and we booked a short afternoon session. A dual microphone setup was utilized with each mic feeding two preamps each, so Helton was able to provide himself and his client with four sound pallettes to choose from. He operated our current Pro Tools system and I provided technical assistance and setup. Zoey performed with Helton’s guidance and they were both happy with the results. Helton asked me to provide a runoff of the songs the next day so Zoey could have the two songs for listening and to share the preliminary product with her family and friends. Thank you for coming in. Wish you the best!

It’s been many months in the planning, building and implementation, but Tesco Productions is officially transitioning to a new recording system. It’s a big change – and challenges of learning and implementation will not be few.

Among those changes is the big step of our main production computer leaving the world of (dare I say it) Mac OS and moving to Windows. We have been solidly running in the Mac world since our first DAW (Digidesign Session 8) in 1994. Watching the myriad of changes both in the Apple OS and hardware infrastructure has been dizzying in the past few years. Even software and hardware developers in the audio/visual world have been frustrated to varying degrees trying to keep up with the pace. A close friend whose DAW is on a much newer Mac OS than I’ve ever run has had more than one complaint along the lines of “my system isn’t working again because of another update or change”. The other factor for me is that I’ve been building a repertoire of audio plugins and software for years that are all Windows based and it only makes sense to be able to utilize those. This transition is not really a big one for me since I’ve been operating a secondary production system on Windows for a number of years.

The other major switch is (again dare I say it) the abandonment of Pro Tools as our main DAW. In looking at all the viable options available now, the cost/feature factors, and Pro Tools compatibility with various hardware/plugin options (or lack thereof) caused me to make this decision. I’m moving to Cockos Reaper, and so far have been quite impressed with its flexibility as well as it being quite a powerful DAW. In contrast to some other more mainline DAWs, Reaper is constantly implementing customer input upgrades and making improvements to an already agile software. The fact that it can be years before they actually charge you for a major upgrade is also appealing.

And now so as to not panic or create major concern for a rather large company of clients that have created projects on Pro Tools, let me state that the existing system is remaining in place. The newer technologies require much less space and so I’m able to leave the existing items in their locations. I won’t miss the heat that system generates (nice in the winter sometimes) or the multiple fans running that attempt to keep that system cooler, however. I will not likely start any new projects (certainly not large ones) on the old system, but older projects can be exported into Reaper if extensive rework or additions are being made. And for those who really need and prefer to work in the Pro Tools environment, I’ve been looking into adding a newer version of Pro Tools with an adequate interface for basic sessions.

There’s still a lot of work to do with rewiring (with the removal of many wires no longer needed), installing new hardware (which includes a 500 series rack loaded with preamps), and the integration of a blend of our prior headphone monitoring system with the new Behringer P16-M units. It’s going to take a while yet, but I think we’ll all benefit greatly when it’s completed.