By the way, did you know that Kristi and I are going to have a baby girl in January or February? We were going to wait until I was done with school, but things didn't turn out that way. We are both excited, and I think I am also a little nervous. Her name is Adelaide Grace Stoeber, Adelaide because we think it is pretty, and Grace because that was my grandmother's name who passed away earlier this year. We will probably call her Addy or Addy Grace. You may remember that I will not be done with nursing school until 2011, so feel free to send your financial support to our house. You can make your checks out to me.
One fun thing I had a chance to do more recently was a recording project for some friends in Columbia. They were part of the group from Columbia Crossroads Downtown that has become Riverside Community Church. They had a very closely knit community group from which several members were moving away, and they thought it would be fun to record some songs they enjoy singing together as a way to remember each other and their time together in Columbia. So, one weekend they all made the trip up here and we spent a good part of Saturday recording, followed by a going away party for one of the families at my parents' house.
The CD turned out really well, and while I can't post most of the songs as they aren't originals, one song that I really enjoyed was a short chorus written by Corrie, one of the girls. It is Psalm 34 set to a pretty melody, and you can hear her sing it here.Speaking of music, I've done some exciting new things with sound at Southside. For one, we finally got some new mics and DI's, which have been fantastic. For microphones I am now using a Beta58 on Matt and a Beta57 on James. Both mics have been wonderful, especially the Beta57. Something about the mic just suits James's voice wonderfully compared to what I had to work with before. We also got an Audio Technica ATM410 which has been great. I didn't end up using it on Matt or James, but it sounded good with both of them, and I have used it on other vocalists and even a trumpet. I think it's going to be a very useful mic to have. I also asked for an Audix OM3. This was against my better judgement as I often do not like something about Audix mics. Recently though I have loved using an Audix D6 on kick drums, and also these little Audix micro condensers we have on flutes and other instruments, so I figured I'd give it a try after reading some reviews. It was no good, I did not like it on any vocals I tried it on. I'm sure it has a use somewhere, but I don't want a mic that is that difficult to work with, so Joe sent it back for me.
Other than the vocal mics, I am now using a BSS AR133 on acoustics, a Countryman Type 85 DI on bass, and some small AKG C430 mics as drum overheads. Out of that group, I think the Countryman has been the biggest improvement, but the others have been great too.
I also changed my approach a little back at the console. I tend to push everything pretty hard at Southside. I only run at about 85 dBA slow, which isn't loud, but it seems like that is close to the top for the system. I feel like I am always fighting harshness, and I started to wonder if perhaps part of it was a small amount of harmonic distortion somewhere in there...not enough to hear distinctly, but just to give it some rough edges. So, I decided I would try to not push the gains as hard, but instead run the clusters and the subs louder. I think the extra headroom in the channels has really opened things up a bit, and I even got a comment or two from people who don't typically notice things like that, so I think I am on the right track. I probably should have done this from the beginning, but I'm kind of learning as I go.
The only other thing I've started to do is to run the kick through an outboard compressor. Technically I have compressors in the board, but I just felt like the software compressor wasn't always giving me what I wanted, especially on things like drums. So, while the only compressor I had available was a behringer (yuck), I decided to try it out, and it has been way better. The kick hits harder and has better tone. I may try it on a few more things from here, like the snare and the bass guitar, and then maybe I can acquire a higher quality compressor eventually.
I guess that's it for now, it's getting late and I should probably go to sleep so I can get up and do some yard work tomorrow. As I go, I'll leave you with this...my fantasy football team is 2-0...Go Stoberto's Stallions!
