GAS

Yes that's right, I have GAS. Sorry, it's terrible, I know.

Woeful fiscal inadequacies forming a prerequisite to be frugal has increased the desire to attain greater and greater amounts of gear. In other words, ladles and gentlespoons, I've got GAS and I've got it bad.

My band has started to record, I'm not alluding to what exactly, we've just started recording. This is great, I love creating, getting ideas down, working them through and seeing the end product, it's a beautiful, if not painstakingly arduous process, but I still love it regardless.

When we're in preproduction mode, I always go through and check the signal chain (in fact I'm constantly doing this to my guitar rig, alas that's a whole post unto itself). Through this, I tend to evaluate each piece of gear/software, and the conclusion is to usually upgrade “something”. I must state that the idea is to increase workflow, always, to the point where creativity flows freely and is not stymied by, for example, a crackly cable. Due to already having the gear necessary to facilitate recording, this upgrade is usually done by me alone.

My knowledge in this area far exceeds my gear. I'm quite sure of this, in fact I'm so sure, my peers seldom, if ever question what I say in this area (I think my ego slipped in there?!).

So Gear Acquisition Syndrome, what have you got for me this time?

Well AD/DA converters to be specific, Ross Martin Audio, quite inexpensive, but very good nonetheless. I know this because I already own his stereo DA and am suitably impressed*. I just want the AD, but lots of channels, but then I have to upgrade from my MOTU 828mkii to save myself a small fortune converting AES to ADAT. That has got me onto looking into word clock architectures, double balanced, nobody does that stand alone...gah...the can of worms has opened...

*PCM1794A Dual “Bare Beast”, but I'd probably recommend his “SUPER BEAST II” as that's the latest model with customer related upgrades.

Timing is key

Bah...late to the party as usual, even fashionable some might say...ironically I'm usually quite tardy.

Anyho, life at the moment is great as much as it is frustrating. Some of us are blessed with the ability to wake when the sun rises and rest when dusk falls, if you are one of these “daywalkers” I'd suggest you frequent a pub somewhere in your vicinity, if you can fit it into your schedule...Have you noticed the animosity yet? Or maybe I'm turning a pale shade of green...

Recently I have been, much to my body's dismay, attempting to get up early. When I mean early, this falls between the hours of 8-10am. For some of you this is a lie in, I know, I've slept much passed that too! Unfortunately, working in the pub trade leads to the ability to function into the wee hours of the morning, and then missing much of the “day” in daytime. But I need to change this, I need to change this because my life happens in the daytime, much like the rest of us...figuring this out was oh so easier said than done. I have found rising at those hours are easier if you have dependency, and I'm not using this as a cop out, you need to be at work at 9am, are you going suddenly start racking up at 1pm? Somehow I think not. That money will quickly stop.

So, I set up a routine, a routine I hopefully would abide by, rise between 8-10am, make tea and breakfast, heading out of the house by 11am with coffee and lunch in tow, return by mid-afternoon ready for my evening shift.

Quickly I found “heading out of the house” was a much bigger deal than I realised...that's the frustrating part.

Now what's great?

I have an adoring girlfriend who loves me in more ways than I could ever possibly imagine, and an originals band that, although moving slowly, is starting to achieve the ability to multi-task on many levels. Far more concise? Yep.