Holland and More

well, i definitely joined up with Stellar Kart at the right time - just in time to go play Flevo Festival in Holland. i played it last year with TFK so some of the people were a little confused.

let me just say that Amsterdam is amazing. you should definitely go sometime in your life. i know i know...everybody thinks of amsterdam as one giant city of debauchery, prostitutes and illicit drug use. ya, that stuff is there. everybody's read about the red light district. but honestly it's really a beautiful city with canals running through the city, old architecture, museums and great shops.

the shows were great. we closed out mainstage on friday night. the production at the festival is always top notch and they treat us very well. here's cool video someone uploaded on youtube:






the next day we also played a show at the beach stage which was honestly probably the most fun i've had playing a show in a very long time. the stage is actually in the water facing the beach. the kids at the first 10 feet of the stage were actually standing in water. when things got crazy, water was splashing all over the place. we were having so much fun we didn't care that it was getting all over our gear. thank god nothing got fried. here's a crowd shot:



also, i had three different people come up to me and ask for a high five because they read my blog. that is so awesome and unreal to think people halfway around the world are interested in my ramblings.

Also, i have some big news. my wife Tricia, who is the singer for Superchick is working on a solo worship record. the first question from everyone's mouth is if she's quitting superchick and the answer is NO. tricia's got a great voice and has always wanted to do a worship project and this seemed like the right time.

another piece of good news is that i'll be producing the project. we're excited to work together. we've been working on a lot of co writing sessions and are pretty pumped about the songs. i'll also be possibly taking on an intern during the recording process. the internship would include helping me beef up the acoustics in my studio, basic pro tools editing and generally helping out. the intern will receive album credit as an assistant engineer and a small weekly stipend to cover gas expenses. recording school is not required, but a good attitude is. pro tools experience is a plus. you must live in the nashville area from october through early december. anyone interested should send a resumé to NickBaumhardtIntern@hotmail.com

i'll definitely be posting more blogs during the recording process. next up will be a mic shootout to find the best vocal chain for tricia's voice. i would say "stay tuned" but that's kinda stupid. so i'll leave you with the funniest thing to hit the internet in the last month.

Stellar Changes

all right everybody, here's the deal. i've got good news and bad news. what do you want to hear first?

save your breath. this is a blog. i can't hear you. or maybe i'll pull a little stage trick and act like i can hear someone in the crowd shouting what i secretly want to be first.....what's that? one more time, please?? you want the bad news first? well, all righty then...

I've decided to not play for Stephanie Smith anymore. :(

Stephanie is incredibly talented and was a lot of fun to play for. She treats her band very well, she's down to earth and she has great message. I've only played for her since January, but me, Steph, @nathantbass and @stephenkadaradar have had some fun times. She's working on her next record now and i think it's going to be great. Be sure to follow her on twitter at @stephanaynay. I'm definitely going to missing playing with them.

And now for the good news!

The reason I'm leaving Steph is because God has opened a door to start playing guitar for Stellar Kart. Yup....these guys:



except, see the third guy from the left with the black vest? right now i want you to open up photoshop in your head and past my head over his. except make sure my head is way out of proportion with the body. that way it's kinda funny looking. and maybe give me some muscles. anyway, he is @jonY2K and i've known him for a few years now back when he used to be in a band called Dizmas.

Anyway, this last weekend i played my first show with @AdamAgee, @JordanMesser and @BrianCalcara and i seriously had probably the most fun i've had in a long time on stage. It was a fun road trip. I kinda already knew the guys from seeing each other at festivals, but now that i'm starting to get to know them for real i'm pretty excited. we all like a lot of the same bands, we all enjoy late night fast food and we all like to have fun - and if sometimes having fun means listening to boys II men on the bus, then so be it.

Anyway, we play in Maryland next week and in two weeks we'll be at Flevo Festival near Amsterdam. Come out to the shows and come say hi. if you come to the signing line and tell me you read my blog, i'll give you a free.....wellll....hmmm...i'd like to give some sort of prize but i don't have any prizes to give out so how about mad respect and a high five??

Ok, so that's the big news. i guess i could have just summed it up and said i'm leaving stephanie smith to play for stellar kart, but then it wouldn't have as much fun, right?

late night shopping

my wonderful wife left for some shows a couple days ago. and of course, whenever she leaves, i work like crazy. when i work like crazy, i also neglect the basics like grocery shopping. so when i finish doing some work at some late hour and i'm starving and there's no food in the kitchen, i kind of enjoy going to the grocery store for late night snacking. and that is the story of how i am getting fat. most people would agree that my late night snack raids are breaking two rules - 1. don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry and 2. don't eat after 9pm. well, you're absolutely right. but to give some semblance that i'm trying to do the right thing, here's a list of late night snack food items i love but are like stepping on a minefield except when you step on a landmine, you blow up, but when you eat these, it's only your stomach that blows up.....well, sometimes the next morning...well, you get the idea...


1. Pickles

ya, that's right pickles. kosher dill spears. only the ones that are white. urban legends say that the green ones come from rotten cucumbers. if the internet says it, then it must be true. and plus, it's a vegetable, right?

2. EZ Cheese - a.k.a. cheese in a can

i honestly haven't had this in years, but i used to LOOOOOOOVE IT SO MUCH. i would eat EZ Cheese everyday if it weren't for the promise of a heart attack at age 34 and the shameful looks from friends and family.

3. Fruit Rollup and Sparkling Grape Juice

but nick, that's two things! you're dang right that's two things, but they go together. a buddy of mine that i grew up with introduced me to this one-two sucker punch of a late night snack. i don't know what sort of chemical reaction happens when these two concoctions come together but it's magic in my mouth. and i'm willing to bet ten american dollars that last sentence made @nathantbass giggle.

4. Popsicles

oh man, these are like kryptonite for me. if the fate of the world rested on me not eating anything for one hour and you handed me a fruit juice popsicle or a bomb pop, the world would end in less that 2 minutes. and yes, they're bad for you. i mean, i rationalize by eating fruit juice popsicles because, hey, it's fruit, right? ya...the fruit to sugar ratio is like creamer to coffee. that analogy only works if you like your coffee strong and black...just like your.... i'm not going to finish that joke because it would be inappropriate. whoever said i don't have an inner censor, TAKE THAT!

5. Steak

yes, i have done this before. sometimes it's 1am and i feel like a steak. so sue me. well, it's not sue i'm worried about. it's the heart attack. but then again someone told me once how not eating meat adds a couple years to your life or something. well, i'd rather enjoy juicy steaks and die a little early. sounds like a good trade to me.

i'm gonna stop at 5 because this is just getting embarrassing. what's funny is that most of the food that i love to get at the grocery tend to be lunch snacks and i think i've figured out why. my mother, like any good mother, didn't load me up with junk food in my sack lunches as a kid. but of course, every now and then she'd throw in some snack like a fruit rollup and i savored every bit of that processed piece of dehydrated faux fruit. i wished i could have more. well, i'm grown up now and have a job so i do what i want and eat what i want. don't even get me started on capri suns. if popsicles are my kryptonite, then capri suns are like my crack cocaine. i would do horrible, horrible things for just one more capri sun. one time i had a piece of gear up for auction on ebay and some guy bid 4 capri suns and i stopped the auction right there and sold it to him. well, not really. i just made that up. but you get the picture.

but seriously, i'm trying to lose weight. i'm cutting out dairy and most breads and all soda. take that, fat american stereotype! that's all i have for you all, unless you speak german. if you do, read on...

Ich lerne Deutsch sprechen. Ich würde gerne mit jedem sprechen, der Deutsch spricht, um mein Deutsch verbessern. Ich habe viele Leute auf meinen Reisen traf nach Deutschland. wenn einer von diesen Menschen lesen, lassen Sie mich einen Kommentar und ich würde gerne reden!

studio update 8.2.2010

so it's time for another studio update. i know it's a couple weeks late, but in mid july i went into the studio with a band from Illinois named The Ashland Project to start tracking drums. I usually go to Darkhorse, but they were booked out for the weekend. I actually ended up getting a rare treat by being able to track at the Quad Studios (www.quadstudiosnashville.com) A room. the room is outfitted with an 80 input SSL 9000 J console and what's even more impressive, an incredible tracking room. it's been a couple years since i've been at this place, but i've always remembered how great the drum room sounded. i've changed the way i do things since then so i was excited to come back and try some new things out.

Here's the console....mission control.



what's ironic is that this console has 80 channel strips. that's 80 channels. and theoretically, you can bring in another track on the small fader so really, 160 channels. even with all my drum mics and scratch tracks i was only using about 15 of those. overkill? yes. but it still feels good. haha

They had a bunch of neve 1073 mic pre's so of course i had to use them.



although i used these for mic pre's, on some of the channels i ended up using the console EQ just because it's a lot more precise and better for carving out the sound. those neve's only have one sweepable band and two shelving EQ's as opposed to the SSL's fully parametric EQ.

The rest of the pre's i used were console pre's and this vintage API unit.



i don't know much about the history of API, but apparently this was one of the first incarnations of the famous mic pre's according to the studio.

and of course, some distressors. this will be my next purchase.



but like i said earlier, the most important element to a good drum sound (other than the drums and the drummer) is a good sounding room. this studio actually has a vaulted ceiling with adjustable acoustic paneling to control how live the room gets.



as you can see, the whole room is covered in wood paneling which has acoustic properties much more palatable to your ear than typical drywall. that curtain on the left isn't there so much to keep light out as it's there to deaden that wall when closed. the room mics in the foreground are Neumann u67s in an XY pattern as i've been using them lately. what you can see are the Coles ribbon mics behind the camera. i've only use those mics one other time and i really love their smooth sound.

and speaking of those mics, i've been messing around with compressing room mics lately. i've had some success with the Amek 9098 stereo compressor at darkhorse. Quad had a Neve stereo compressor. Rupert Neve also designed all the Amek gear so i figured it would be similar...



maybe i was using it incorrectly, but i couldn't get the same sound. i mean, it sounded fine. it compressed, but not the same crunchiness from the 9098.

monitors at the studio are always tricky. i never really know how the drums turned out until i get back to my place. and they actually turn out pretty good. that's all for now! talk to you all later.