Moranhead Music Industries

So Apparently I Do Mixes Now

2011-03-27T08:05:00.001+01:00

Ligofe, Transmissiononlinemixnumberone by Cathal Mccormack on Mixcloud

Adebisi Shank & Jogging in The Button Factory 12th Feb 2011

2011-02-13T19:37:00.007Z

I wanna die in a city...

At a gig...

In a class venue like the Button Factory

Where the beer's cheap(and delicious)...

Jogging started class... really explosive sound and great camaraderie on stage, these guys are havin' fun, doin' their thing and making excellent noises.

I were pure amused at people tryin to mosh to the third song.. Pure weird timing, lads in the front visibly straining to bob around in time, you can see it in their faces the "I know it's not working but I'll continue to try and mosh". Just enjoy it lads, that's what i say Jogging are a class band, stop what you're doin' for a second and have a listen...

There was an incident with water and spitting that almost caused a fight, but it just turned into banter between the lads that was very fun, and very genuine, a really good quality to see on stage.

"No small lads on stage when they're playin'..." - Ronan Jackson, (Jogging bassist and small person) on Adebisi Shank coming up next...

I feel almost sorry for Jogging because they're so classy and on any other night they woulda been unbeatable, but what was to come next would blow my mind....

I'd definitely need a haircut if I moved to a city..

What is there to say though about Adebisi Shank? You've heard the EP, the album, and the other album, but nothing i could say, no video/audio you could see/hear could prepare you for this live show... It's a strange and wonderful experience. These 3 young men are possessed by purest rock and purest roll!

International Dreambeat from the second album started us off and it just never let up for however long they were on stage.

Truly inspirational to watch a band with such a sound play with such precision.. These guys are using plenty of effects but in the right way, they're making them an extension of the instrument rather than just goin; "lookit this, makes the guitar go like "WOMWOMWOMWOM" lulz!"

I just don't know, I've been trying to pinpoint it since last night. They are just great, and if you haven't seen them before (like me until last night) make sure you do soon.

Seeing bands like these makes me aware of how much I personally need to up my game, not because I want to be the new Adebisi Shank or Jogging, but because they are having so much fun doing what they're doing and they have a proper presence, and it helps to have great songs.

Both bands also made it clear how important it was that the bar was well used and they showed their gratitude to the staff and management of the button factory for the hugely successful night..

Adebisi Shank! Best thing I ever saw so far in my life bar nowt!!

World, we have some catching up to do...

G'luck!

be excellent to each other

-Cathal

some Adebisi Shank photos from the gig:

http://www.kieranfrost.com/?p=2641

New Year, Spnewb Year!!

2011-01-01T01:18:00.004Z

Right,

Me and my dad just went out for a few pints... Saw some good music bein' played in The Coosan Tavern, 2011 is currently in session.... We'll see how it goes.. I hope all my favorite people enjoy it. AND i hope it goes good for JP13, i'm gonna push that a bit more and hopefully the world will hear more from us...

I love youz all, innit?!

Let us have a deadly year!

Peace, Love and Taco Chips,

-Cathal

TEST

2009-12-06T00:53:00.001Z

This is just a test to see if this client yoke works!!

Peace, love and taco chips...
- Cathal

Instrument Technology - End - Set up and that...

2009-04-20T12:11:00.008+01:00

Set-up was relatively simple.... its basically putting strings on like i've always done and then if the action is too high you bring down the bridge sadle by sanding the under side of it, and the same with the nut if it's needed more from that end, if the strings start buzzing off the frets you've gone too far..

at this point the guitar is a loud noisy thing that you've been waiting ages for, so tune it up and get playin!!

that's dónal mulcahy playin it there

i found a guy in dublin : http://www.theguitarworkshop.net/ who shprayed it up for me and got her all shiny and nice...

It seems that that’s all I have to say, I hope it shows that I’ve learned something, I feel I’ve learned a lot, I played guitar for years and now know so much more about the instrument, I find I appreciate it more and feel like I could look after a problem or two in a guitar if it came up.

I just want to make another now, having learned from experience and form my mistakes I feel I could already make a better one, and I’m proud of the one I have… I’ll be playing it a lot in the future I’m sure…

Heres pictures of the finished product:

musicfordeadbirds

crack there from side-bendin

bear claws!!!

Instrument Technology - Week 26 - mmmmmm hmm

2009-04-17T11:47:00.001+01:00

This was pretty much all set up, the guitar was smooth and sanded from before and the neck felt very nice with the fret board attached, there were no loose ends or sticking out type sharp bits.

The nut is one of the first things I needed to do, first I sloped the base of it so it would fit in with the slope between the fret board and the face plate of the headstock. Then I measured in 3mm from each end of it and then marked straight across the nut, these are where the top and bottom slots will be then using a special ruler I was able to mark the other four notches, the ruler, once it is lined up with the outside two will evenly space the other four for you, I used a needle file to get the notches started, I used the wound strings themselves to finish off the notches

Next I went to the bridge, the holes for bridge pins were already in the bridge when I bought it so all I had to do was drill the holes through to the body. Then a reamer is used to make the holes just big/small enough to make the bridge pins fit in tight.

The reamer is a tool with many cutting edges, it is used in the same motion as a cork skrew, you should never do too much without checking, because it is very easy to go to far.

Now I installed my machine heads so I was able to string up the guitar, since the nut was slotted well the bridge saddle just sorted itself out.

It is easy to see whether the nut or bridge saddle are too high once the strings are on, I could see that my saddle was too high, so I took it out and sanded the bottom of it and brought it down a bit. This made the action easier.

Instrument Technology - Week 25 - i've run out of lines

2009-04-10T05:01:00.006+01:00

Towards the high end of the fret board there was some

warping happening, this would cause the strings to buzz at those frets. I

first tried to sort this out by sanding down the back of the fret board in the opposite direction, then

I sanded the body itself at the point where the fret board would be

To attach the fret board to the neck the truss rod is put in and glued just barely on the non-moving parts.

Next the back of the fretboard is covered in glue, it is left on the neck to get a bit tacky, it is then clamped down, not too hard but hard enough, the nut end of the fret board is left the thickness of the nut away from the maple face plate on the head, now the nut will fit in snugly between the two.

Instrument Technology - Week 24 - The Clamps

2009-04-04T13:11:00.002+01:00

It’s all little jobs that have to be done at this stage, one of them was lining up the machine heads and marking where the screws go and then drilling little guide holes for the screws.

I Cut a piece of maple to stick on to the bottom of the heel, It’s called a heel cap and will be shaped around the heel, it’s purely for decoration…

I marked the centre line on the body of the guitar, the centre line is improtant in the next two steps:

Fitting the neck wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, it fits on fairly straight and you can add to or take away from the area of the joint in order to straighten it up one way or another, to check the straightness of the neck a long ruler is held up to the centre line on the body and you see if it lines up with the centre of the neck. My neck joint was just tight enough to be glued and then pushed together by hand and didn’t have to be held in place while gluing.

The next step was lining up the bridge, the centre line was already there so the centre of the bridge lined up with that, to get the bridge straight lines are drawn at a right angle from the centre line, this is where the front edge of the bridge will go. The bridge was then glued on and clamps go in the sound hole to clamp it from above and below

Instrument Technology - Week 23 - Hammered

2009-03-27T12:50:00.006Z

To secure the frets in to the slots on the fingerboard some glue is added ito the slots and then the pre cut frets are hammered in, the hammer has masking tape on it to avoid marking the frets, it’s a handy enough process.

Afterwards, I cleaned off excess glue using a scouring pad and some white spirits, I also trimmed the loose ends of the frets, this is probably the most important part of the guitar to not have sharp edges on.

The next thing I did was for the end of the body, its just a little triangular piece that gets inlayed in the guitar, the gap is routed out and then chiselled, the new piece is then glued on and held in with masking tape.

;lovely lookin

Instrument Technology - Week 22 - WORK

2009-03-20T23:25:00.000Z

the binding turned out perfect but there was obviously a bit of overhang

this was first scraped off and then sanded i also had to sand alot where the neck met the bodyand all over the body, i spent a few hours at this moving higher through the grades of sand paper

i eventually had it looking very clean and smooth

it turns out i put the maple piece on the head in the wrong place, if i had put it in the right place it would have lined the nut up perfectly with the fret board, i chiseled off the excess and left it at an angle to straighten up the nut.

the frets are all different sizes so i cut ou the fret wire for the whole fret board

Instrument Technology - Week 21 - BTK

2009-03-13T23:09:00.000Z

a channel was routed out around the sides of the top and back, this is for putting on binding. the bining on the back was one strip of light wood it was soaked and then bent on the bending iron just like the sides were, then it was stuck on with glue and held down to dry using masking tape.
the top had a second channel further in and higher up, this one had a darker ornate piece of binding, bound up in the same as was used on the back.

The fret board was tapered to the same gradient as the neck and i cut a desig into the end of it. i also drilled holes into certain ones where i added dots on the 3rd 5th 7th 9th 15th 17th 19th 21st and 2 dots on the 12th, there is no rule to the dots but that is the way i am used to them.

the headstock now had to be finished:
i drilled the holes, which i had already started for the slot, through the maple on top, i then joined the holes up to create a slot:
i also beautified the top of the head, creating one similar to the mandolin i made last year:

Instrument Technology - Week 20 - Shaping the neck

2009-03-07T22:21:00.000Z

i started shaping the neck using a rasp that was a bit like a cheesegrater, it was pretty slow so i just used the belt sander and the band saw

the saw got it most of the way there and then the belt sander got it closer and smother
i also had to sand by hand to finish it off
i drilled holes where my machine heads would go
and two other holes for each end of the slots, i did this on both sides of the headstock...
i clamped a piece of maple on to the head, this is mostly just to look good

the yellow clamps weren't strong enough so i had to use many smaller ones...

Instrument Technology - Week 19 - White Riot was an excellent song!!!

2009-02-27T22:12:00.005Z

There was a template from stewmac which gary fashioned into used to cut out the heel of the neck to fit into the neck block.. the router runs along it and keeps it from going too far in while the bit is at an angle.

i cut the fret slots in the fret board, this is where the wire will go in to. the positions of the frets are determined by a mathematical equation, it involves successively dividing the scale length minus the offset to the previous fret by 18, if you dont want to abuse your brain calculating, lining up, checking and re-checking then you can buy this thing:

the fret board piece sticks on to a movable bass with double sided selotape, the movable part has notches in it which move it along in the other jig at the correct distances for the individual frets, the vertical part of the jig keeps the saw vertical and keeps it from cutting too deep.

Instrument Technology - Week 18 - Stuff happened

2009-02-20T21:59:00.005Z

I came to the realization that I'm extremely messy with glue, and that it is a fair bit easier to clean the glue off wet than to shcrape and sand it off afterwards, so in all of my entries where it said i glued some thing to some such other thing, it should have said after that that i cleaned off the excess glue. it's not a problem but hopefully i'll remember it again...

Anyway, this week i came back to my body which had been fused together, i took the top plate in the rest of the way so that there was no overhang over the body -and i cleaned off excess glue- and i also cut off the part of the top plate that was hanging over the neck block, i mostly chiseled it, sanded a bit afterwards.

Before i continue i should probably briefly explain the truss rod; this is a picture of the truss rod:

it is basically a metal rod with an adjustable bolt which adjusts the tension of the guitars neck

a channel is routed in the middle of the neck, a stopper on the router keeps it in the middle and keeps it in a straight line, the truss rod just fits straight in, simple.

Instrument Technology - Week 17 - What are ya gonna name it?

2009-02-13T20:26:00.006Z

i was going to start cutting the slots for the frets in my fret board, this involved screwing it on to a jig to hold it in place, putting the screw in only cracked the wood. I put glue in the crack and clamped the ends to hold it together as it set, it turned out grand in the end...

i used the thumb plane to shave the top closer to the sides, this will avoid cracking when gluing the top on to the back and sides and it will be less work to clean it up after that too.
i had to cut away some kerfing to make the braces fit in snug, the braces also needed to be trimmed to fit within the confines of the sides.

once that was done i was able to glue the top on to the rest to make the body, it was clamped down with many spool clamps, this aplies equal pressure around the whole edge of the guitar

Instrument Technology - Week 16 - Ebony; The Blackest Substance on Earth...

2009-02-06T00:30:00.006Z

For a start this week i cut three pieces off the end of the neck piece and stuck them on top of eachother on the end of the neck that will be attached to the body of the guitar, these pieces will be shaped into the heel

i also got my piece of ebony for my finger board, i squared off the sides on the planing machine and flattened the top and back on the thicknesser and thickness sander, then to sand the curve in the finger board i wrapped coarse sand paper around a block which had the curve in it, i sanded it down, this was extremely messy, ebony is an extremely hard dark wood. It took hours to finish and my hands were destroyed in black dust.

Instrument Technology - Week 14/15 - Absolutely, Positively.... Necessary....

2009-01-30T23:56:00.000Z

i had to take a week and a bit off there, shame it was so near the start of the semester but i can catch up... anyway gary understood and the guitar was still waiting for me.... it's startin to look like a guitar... i'll have to think of names!!!!

Anyway down to business;
this week was mostly just gluing the top braces on to the plate,
all sorts of awkward angles were involved... some of which meant i couldn't glue them all at once

So After a few different goes of gluing i had all the braces glued in along with the bridge plate

as you can see there were pieces of wood protecting the wood on the braces and the top plate itself...

in between times i was getting the neck started, this involved cutting the piece of mahogany at an angle and then i sanded it to a flat surface and turned the piece around so that the angled side of the smaller piece lay flat on the flat back side of the other piece, these were then glued and clamped together....

Instrument Technology - Week 13 - Holiday!!!

2009-01-15T18:05:00.002Z

Just had the old Christmas holidays there!!!
and just one day this week... so here's what went on:
I cut the sound hole out of my guitar:

do do this a routed a circular channel in the top plate and then i scalpoled the remainder to leave a circular hole in the piece, i just cleaned it up enough to stick on the sound hole patch:

this was them scalpoled out and finnished with the pillar sander

some of the braces on the top need to fit underneath other ones so i cut notches into some of them so that they could fit together, these will be glued on to the top next week.

Instrument Technology - Week 12 - these tag lines aren't even funny!!!

2008-12-05T01:08:00.005Z

having left things gluing i had a few things to do this week.

Firstly, I thicknessed my top plate on the sander. I then chose which side of it would be the outside of the guitar then i marked on the top side where the centre of the sound hole would be, i drilled a 5mm hole there and was able to use the router to cut a channel in the top plate to fix the rosette into. i glued in the rosette and then clamped it down heavilly with a board on top and bottom and two G-Clamps on them:

This is the rosette stuck in:

i also planed and sanded the back of the guitar which was well stuck on to the sides at this stage, i did this because some of it was coming out over the edge, it didnt have to be perfect though as we will be routing out a channel for binding around the edges anyway.

i then started on my braces for the top plate, these are more important tonally than the back braces and are more complicated.

Instrument Technology - Week 11 - Braces; Can they really be too small?

2008-11-28T01:07:00.005Z

This week i put the back through the thickness sander again to get the inlay down to the right height. Then i sanded and cut off the stray edges of the back.

having marked the positions of the braces on the back i checked that they would fit in such a way that they would be able to go underneath the kerfing on the sides, i cut one to a different length and redid another as it was too short, i then proceded to take some of the bulk of the wood off the braces, this should help to give the guitar a more bass-end tone.
I glued on the braces and clamped them in for extra pressure and to keep them in place.

while that was glueing i started my top plate, i planed off the edges of two pieces of spruce until they were flat and fit together... i then glued them and held them together with three clamps

then i cut out slots in my kerfing for the braces to go under, just enough to make it a snug fit, this makes the whole thing structurally more sound and also makes the sound of the guitar better.

i was then able to glue the back on to the sides and clamp it on with special clamps for a good hold

Instrument Technology - Week 10 - I swear it's a guitar!!.... or it will be...

2008-11-21T09:56:00.007Z

that's the guitar as i left it last week, as you can see it just about looks like a guitar now,

I started this week by planing and sanding down the kerfing, you do this to make it slightly at an angle because the back and front will have a slight bend on them and therefore will not meet the kerfing on the sides at a flat right angle, there needs to be as much of a gluing surface as possible
i then marked out the shape of the guitar on the back piece, this piece had been stuck together last week but needed an extra sanding on the sander to bring the thickness down to it's proper size

i then marked out where my braces will go using a template from stewart mac donald

i prepared the back braces but didnt stick them on yet

I cut the back to shape on the band saw, i then set up a bench for routing a trench through the centre line of the back, the set up was a straight piece of wood clamped to the bench at 72.5mm away from the centre line.

i then ran the router along the peice of wood, this placed the trench in the centre

to the trench i added a decorative strip of wood. it will match a piece that will also be added to the tail of the guitar and it will in some way match the binding of the guitar

Instrument Technology - Week 9 - Weak Week

2008-11-14T17:25:00.004Z

NO PICTURES

This week I was fairly useless really, I'm not as far as i should be.

Although I did get my kerfing stuck on to my guitar sides, I had it cut out from the last few weeks, to stick the kerfing on you cover one side in glue, you then line it up with the edge of the guitar side and let it sit just proud of the top, less than a millimeter is all that should be seen over the side, to hold it in place you put clothes pegs along it, for extra strength there is elastic bands wrapped around the pegs.

I also started work on my guitar back, it consists of two pieces stuck together.
these two pieces star their life as one large piece, it is thicknessed on the thicknesser and then cut in half, then the best matching edges are marked as they will go together, these edges are then planed until they are flat enough to be glued together. I glued mine together and then held them in place with 3 big clamps, i then put some weight on top to stop the whole thing from buckling under the pressure of the clamps.

Instrument Technology - Week 8 - The Shape of Things to Come

2008-11-07T12:16:00.005Z

i joined my sides together by sticking them to the neck and tail piece, before i did this i planed off the edges to make it a completely flat join. also before i could do it i had to make sure it was going to be level, I planed down the top and back and made them completely level with the ther side.

i also made the kerfing which is what goes around the top edge of the inside of the sides to join them to the top and back of the guitar

this is how kerfing is made on the band saw by cutting a slot in a triangular strip of wood, this makes it flexible enough to bend around the shape of the guitar.

Hi Kids We're Home Early (Part Deux) - The Computer Age, begins

2008-11-04T18:50:00.005Z

I started this as one of my very first posts, just as a means to talk about how i came to be in this course, I've been updating the other one but i think it's better having it continue in real time....

WELL... not REAL time, because i've been writing this particular post for 2 or 3 years! and it's not that it's gonna be a masterpiece, it's just that I'm lazy...

As i mentioned in part one I have always had a fascination with the recorded sound, or audio in general, i liked to hear music, song and chat in the house, isn't sound remarkable, like? Sound recorder for Windows95 was an absolute beaut! My friends or my brother and I would use it for hours in the silliest of ways, experimenting and figuring out ways of making funny little minute long clips.

One of my favorites was realising that i could record things off the radio into the computer and make a high quality digital copy, the only problem being that it only took the average length of a song in WAV format to fill the hard drive, and the Giga-Byte was a long ways away. Music piracy would have to wait..

Another thing was me and my brother and his friend Adam would play with the sound effects board from worms two and make it seem like the worms were getting into rude situations using the jumping sounds and phrases like "oh dear"

Obviously none of this works without samples... with i'm hoping to have soon...

this has been the unreadable post about my early uses of "SOUUUUUND RECORRRDEERRR" I'll hopefully get a bit better at writing as time goes on...

Peace!

Be excellent to each other.....

- Cathal

Instrument Technology - Week 7 - Just a Little Bit More

2008-10-24T02:22:00.004+01:00

yeah that bending is a mighty slow process, finished it though

then i marked the former to the point on it that i need the sides to be at length with
i then marked the sides at that point and cut off the excess

i also made an internal former out of cardboard, this was marked from a template and cut out then another was cut out and they were stuck together with wood blocks in the middle

then i stuck more wood blocks on top

Instrument Technology - Week 6, Part 2 - Slow and Steady

2008-10-18T12:35:00.004+01:00

Two posts this week, lots to talk about in metalwork so i didn't want to clutter it up with this,
In woodwork i started on my real guitar sides; I cut them to the right shape after marking them off a template.

i then soaked them in water for a few minutes

i bent them using the bending iron, this is a slow process but is very important, when you apply heat from the iron to a specific spot on the side you can then take it off the heat and let it cool at the angle you want to bend it to, you can then hold it to the former to get the shape right.

I'll hopefully have the two done next week....

Instrument Technology - Week 6, Part 1 - The Cathal, Triumphant

2008-10-15T18:38:00.010+01:00

I finished making my guitar stand, I also brought in the camera so I could show some of the process;

the part that will hold on the the guitar neck was made of a long piece that was bent to close to a right angle, there was also the piece that was bent in a U shape, the diameter of the semi circle is just slightly larger than a guitar neck.

this piece was made using a piece of round aluminium, this was put in the lathe and a hole was drilled through the center of it for the part which holds the neck to go into, two sides of it were then flattened.
The two other pieces (steel i think) were drilled on both sides and one was drilled in the middle, these were then welded to the flat sides of the round piece. then the hole that was in the middle of one of the flat pieces was drilled into the middle of the round piece, that hole was then tapped so that a screw could go into it, this will keep the part that holds the neck in place at different heights.

the legs were cut from one piece, this makes the angle identical on each of them, they were then marked and drilled.

The legs were then riveted to the other piece.

to make the arms that hold the guitar pieces were cut to length and bent at a ninety degree angle

the arms were then welded to the legs

the base of the stand is just two pieces cut to length they are then put into that jig with the legs so that it can be welded at the correct angle.

The full finished assembled stand looks like this:

Instrument Technology Week 5 - something slow(me)

2008-10-10T11:30:00.004+01:00

In Metalwork i almost got my guitar stand finnished, i made the arms that the guitar will rest on, these had to be bent at a right angle. I also made the arm that will hold on to the neck, this had one main piece that had to be bent and another piece that was bent just big enough to hold on to the neck of the guitar, these were then welded together, this arm can move higher and lower depending on what height you need it at so i threaded a hole in the main part of the stand to put in a screw that will hold the arm in place. i marked where the legs of the stand will be welded on but did not get to weld them as we have to do that in a different room....

in wood work i continued practicing the bending of guitar sides.. i also made the braces for the inner back of the guitar, there were four of them, i mostly used the belt sander after i had marked them from a template.

i started making my real sides, i put the wood for the sides through the thicknesser and then through the sander, got them down to size and the marked the exact shape of them from a template. I will cut them out next week and have them ready for bending... this scares me like you would not believe!!

Instrument Technology Week 4 - something real

2008-10-03T15:08:00.009+01:00

still no pictures-i don't actually own a camera.

metal work saw me at my peak, measuring and cutting like a mad person... we got two legs made and holes drilled for attaching arms to them... i also riveted them to the top piece but not too tight so that they will be able to open out.
i have to bring in dimensions of a guitar next week so that the measurements of the stand aren't too small

Woodwork was eventful as i got two new pieces done... the neck block where you join the neck to the body, and the tail piece which is at the end of the body,

these pieces are both internal so they have a curve to go along with the inside curve of the body, this was done on the sander.....

i had a mishap with a router which thought me a bit more about thinking about what I'm doing, and also nearly ruined everyone elses good time, i burned my arm while practicing bending guitar sides on a bending iron(long story but not my fault)
to bend a side properly though you thickness a piece of wood to 2.5 using the thicknesser and leave it in a vat of water. Then warm up the iron, when the irons hot you take the piece of wood and hold it up to the flatter side of the iron(which is more hot) when you feel that the wood is softening you can move it to a curved side to bend it slightly, with your former you can work out where the wood needs to be bent and shape it the way you need...

i'm not very good at instrument technology, but i do enjoy the classes..

Instrument Technology Week 3

2008-09-26T12:57:00.003+01:00

Started making a guitar stand in metalwork, involved lathe work and welding, arc welding is difficult

Re-built my former in woodwork and finished it off by bending ply wood around it and screing and nailing it on, it is now a fairly flat surface on which you can bend a guitar side.

pictures to come...

Instrument Technology Week 2

2008-09-19T13:13:00.003+01:00

We cut out some pieces of wood to put between the two formers to nail them together

These should be nailed on with a small amount overhanging from the former so that the whole thing can be sanded flush

i unfortunately did not do this, some were inside the lines,

so i took it apart and will start again next week..... beautiful!

The Blizzards-It was still a valid excercise!!!

2008-09-17T21:50:00.001+01:00

The Blizzards are playing in Scribes tonight, while they were here they were going to do an interview for Aarons new podcast and play an exclusive acoustic song.
Three microphones we're set up on one side of a table for three blizzards. One was put on the other side for Aaron the interviewer. We did a test run to get some levels on the microphones, with Anthony, Tom and Enda as The Blizzards, it was hillarious and i will post it up here some time if i can get my hands on it!!!

Anyways as it happened the Blizzards decided not to turn up until about eight or nine and it was too late. Either way it was a good excercise in studio work and the likes of radio interviews..

Instrument Technology Week 1

2008-09-12T10:09:00.010+01:00

When we started our first Instrument Technology woodwork class we were shown around our new workshop which has many new machines which we will use this year such as thicknesers and surfacers and also beter versions of the machines from last year such as the sander and the band saw.

We had to make the decision between two different guitar types:

Dreadnaught

OOO(or Triple O)

I picked tripple O as it is a different design than i am personally used to, it has a slotted headstock and a different shaped body.

We made a start at making this former for bending the sides of the guitar.

It starts with the template which was given to us by Gary

We drew around the template onto 2 pieces of MDF

We then cut them out on the band saw and sanded one down to the line on the belt sander and by hand

One was then screwed onto the other

This is then clamped down onto the bench and routed.

the router follows the line of the one which has been sanded to perfection

the scraper is then used to get them completely flush

2nd Year - I have neglected my internets for too long!!!

2008-09-03T18:03:00.002+01:00

Welcome back....

i realise i've told you nothing about my tin whistle or my mandolin or any of the recordings i was involved with last year but i will patch it up as i go along!

anyway, there have been a few changes:
the sound engineering studio has been acoustically treated,
we have a sound engineer (Ruth) to teach us sound engineering,
there are two new subjects, Enterprise Developement and Project Management
also we have a new workshop for instrument technology, in which we will make a guitar...

Recording!! - Dancing in The Moonlight by Thin Lizzy

2007-10-26T01:45:00.000+01:00

Aidan - Drums.
Ricky - Bass, Vocal, Guitar.
Eugene - Guitar.

hell of a day!! 2 out of time guitars, one extremely noisy guitar, badly recorded drums and an accidental extra chorus for good measure!

The guitars were recorded in the control room some using a DI box and others through a Line6 Pod or Ricky's rack amp(noisy for some reason).

The drums were recorded in the studio with a mic in the kick drum and two mics overhead. These three tracks didnt sound very good and will be redone using more mics.
Paul using Pro Tools

Sound Engineering Assignment

2007-10-24T01:14:00.000+01:00

translate this:

and this:

into this:

1st Metal Work Class in Instrument Technology

2007-10-22T15:21:00.000+01:00

We eventually found our room after a week.
We began the cutting and soldering of copper pipes.
we cut 1/2inch copper pipes into two pipes of short lengths, one of these was then stretched so that it could fit the other piece into it. we cleaned the parts of the two pieces that are going to meet with steel wool. then flux was put on to these parts to chemically clean it, this will help the piece to not rust. We then put the pieces together and put them in a vice. They were then ready to be soldered.
The first was soft soldering. Soft solder has quite a low melting point for a metal, this meant that we heated up the pipe with a flame for just a few seconds before we were able to melt the solder on it. when this was done the pieces were stuck together and needed to be cleaned with steel wool again for appearance purposes.
we then tried silver soldering this was the same as soft soldering except it needed alot more heat(red hot literally)..

these processes were repeated a few times for practice.

by the end of our time in metal work we will have made this tin whistle:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/6611/makewhis.htm

Blackout Athlone

2007-10-21T14:04:00.001+01:00

For a few years now a man called Marc Keegan has been putting on gigs in Athlone for young bands to showcase tallent, and also to give youths something to do, I've played at these gigs a few times and it is a great idea, and a great way to see bands that otherwise rarely or never get a gig.

it's still going strong and i just wanted to make sure i said something here, they gave me my first few gigs and kept me out of trouble for a few years.

Building a Recording Studio For Dummies

2007-10-18T01:30:00.000+01:00

we assembled some of the furniture in the studio... this was a fun few hours, argosy flat packs everywhere!! at the end of it we had a nice looking few pieces ready for electronics...
and so this is our studio:

this desk (Soundcraft LX7II) will be replaced with the Yamaha controller when they get around to it:

the 2 screens are run by a mac computer which has protools on it and that keyboard is a special digidesign one with all sorts of shortcuts and the like for pro tools.

The HI-FI system:

Tascam CD, mini-disc and 2 audio cassette player... i think there may be an AM/FM tuner to be added....

the mapex drumkit:

nice!

IMACS!!

2007-10-15T10:43:00.000+01:00

These are our recording studio imacs.. We will mix our audio on Pro Tools LE on these... The blue boxes beside them are called "M" boxes, it connects to the computer by USB, you need it to run Pro Tools and your audio source goes into the computer through it.

We learned how to start a session and record our voice on a microphone and then cut and paste this piece of audio on different tracks.

Besides getting used to this new programme i was not used to the apple opperating system.

Our first computer was Windows95 and now i use XP. Apple is very different...

For a start: the lack of a right mouse button!!! some would argue that this would be easy to get over but i put it to them to give it a go!!!

Even with that said, after two days of using it i can see that apple is best.... i'll just get used to it!!

2nd Instrument Technology Assessment

2007-10-13T17:26:00.000+01:00

got a four or a five out of ten in the second assessment(a cd rack)

this is what a proper one should look like, courtesy of joe "9 outa 10" rellihan.

Work experience

2007-10-10T12:36:00.000+01:00

for our course we have to do at least 80 hours work experience. we were supposed to start in the student bar scribes helping to set up the childline gig.

We all helped to carry in the various speakers, leads, microphones and the mixer.
The sound engineer gave us all various jobs to help him with. He gave us an insight into how his job works and he also gave us a demonstration on his digital mixing desks and it's features. Throughout the night we helped set up the stage for each band who all had different preferences on their set up, I mostly worked on the guitar and bass amps. there were 5 bands, one of which chose to set up their own gear.

At one stage a drummer was playing so hard that me and ricky had to hold his drumkit to keep it from getting away from him.

Sound Engineering

2007-10-05T20:24:00.000+01:00

The mixing desks are quite the interesting things!!! I am getting quite excited about everything we're going to do!
Recording a song will be great no matter who plays on the tracks, but i think everyone should have a go at something on it... Then we can all do our own mix on OUR imacs....
This studio is gonna be great though!!.... and top of the line!

Passed..... Still hard though..

2007-10-05T09:55:00.000+01:00

I passed the assessment in Instrument Technology, three excellent clamps! well done me!

Second Day of Acoustics

2007-10-04T10:57:00.000+01:00

When it comes to grade A production and reproduction of sound Acoustics and Sound Engineering go hand in hand.. Everything you do as a sound engineer could be worked out mathematically before a machine is touched... Maybe not EVERYTHING but a fair good amount... It's a bit mad... and hard... But necessary..

Sound Engineering- I promised myself I wouldn't say this....

2007-10-03T10:13:00.000+01:00

It's better than everything!!!!
For years now I've wanted to do sound engineering, I originally came into this course because i liked the idea of sound engineering but the more i thought about it the more i said instrument technology and business and the like would be just as good and to at least give them a chance. And yes they are excellent subjects and essential to getting a well rounded view of music-especially Business-but at this point I still see sound engineering as being... just great!

Instrument Technology 2+3

2007-10-03T09:49:00.000+01:00

Blood, sweat and sweat.... not very easy..... hopefully wont gain too much more momentum.. I like the idea of making an instrument or two... this should be fun.. hopefully i'll pick up the techniques.
Sharpening a blade is a bit annoying... has to be done though.... wood is difficult to work, but how and ever it must be done....
Made about three joints... pretty good work by me! If i may say so myself i think they were alright..

The assessment has begun!!
A bit of a scary concept for the third class, but once i thought about it i realised they can't be expecting much... hopefully it wont gain too much more momentum..

Acoustics

2007-10-01T10:57:00.000+01:00

Sound is compression and rarefaction of molecules in the air.... that is all

Sound Engineering

2007-10-01T10:53:00.000+01:00

Interesting interesting stuff!!

Business.... Pretty Great!!

2007-10-01T09:35:00.000+01:00

The music industry is linked with the economic environment of Ireland in that when the country is doing well people have money to spend on entertainment such as recordings, merchandise and live music.... if the economic environment doesn't go well the music industry will suffer because the first thin people will usually stop spending their money on is music... The success of the music industry also depends on the talent available...

What can be done to allow the showcasing of new talent?
Nothing that wont cost allot of money.
Music classes in primary and secondary schools as standard would help to develop any talent... showcasing this talent would take more than education, it would take money and a forum in which people can show their own talent and view others... this forum is quickly becoming the Internet but many people will agree that this will never beat a live show..

a forum for new, live talent could be created with the help of the Irish Music Rights Organisation or the Arts Council, these organisations fund and organise events in music in Ireland.. The music industry would not be where it is in this country if it weren't for these organisations.

First day in Instrument Technology

2007-09-24T09:14:00.000+01:00

We met Gary, our teacher along wit Mr. Tony Dunne... nice guys! we had a tour of the fas building we're using for the module. we were given the names of all of the tools on our benches.. We went over safety procedures and maintenance of tools. sharpening, proper use, dismantling, assembling, that kinda stuff... learned more about woodworking tools in the three hours than i did in three years of secondary school woodwork.... the instrument technology course seems like it will be fair good anyway.. more to be said on this later!!!

"freshers" ball

2007-09-20T11:34:00.001+01:00

starman=good
the word "freshers"=so rubbish...

Hi Kids We're Home Early

2007-09-18T10:16:00.006+01:00

i used to love this thing =============================>

but my computer couldn't keep up with it!!

We could never get a mic to work with it.. you were supposed to be able to make a spider-man cartoon and then put the voices and stuff in it, we made some excellent silent cartoons. That's alot of what drew me here though... I always just loved messing with sound and images... but as time went on sound won over to an extent, probably because i started playing music, but never had the likes of a video camera...

When i was younger i also had this:

The Deluxe Talkboy from Tiger(Batteries Not Included)

A cassette recorder with a built in microphone, it came with a tape that was blank on one side and had clips from "Home Alone Two: Lost in New York" Staring Macaulay Culkin on the other... My friend also had one. We discovered multi-track Recording with them... We would record us singing a song or something on mine and then play it back loudly and record us singing again over it with his one.... just figuring out what was possible with it!!! such as the slowing down and speeding up functions, this had lots of entertaining uses when it came to recording.

my love for recorded audio goes further than this.... a little bit...

When i was a lad used have an old record player at home with a tape deck(I'm not sure if we still do). My dad got these two microphones once that you could put into it, they had this weird connection, I've never seen one like it since! a bit like a midi one except It had about 25 pins and was as big as your fist!!! Me and you brother would spend our time recording our voices, doing bad impressions of Bart Simpson and stuff like that.... I've just always loved the fact that any noise made could be kept on a tape or heard over a loud speaker.

As time went on my father invested in a gateway 2000 personal computer, it had windows 95 and ran on a turf fueled steam engine, when you turned it on and waited the standard two hours for it to get to the desktop you would then click restart as the whole thing has frozen, once it restarted for the forth or fifth time you had a world of possibilities before you..... i found a gem that goes by the name of "Sound Recorder"

NOTE: i've been updating this post as i went along but from now on if you want to read more just go find part two in 2008

ओह तेरे ई ऍम!!

2007-09-18T09:44:00.000+01:00

oh there i am!!

My name is Cathal Mc Cormack, I am a first year in Athlone IT doing a brand new course called Business with Music and Instrument Technology, doing this blog is part of the whole experience... i will come here to write all my thoughts about my course.... stick around here if ya wanna know anything about my next two years in school and music...