Mirrorkill's Outer Discordian Recordian Bureau of the Perpetually Confused

We now have something more closely approaching a pro studio (still keeping a safe distance, mind), which with typical obstreperous perversity I'm calling Mirrorkill's Outer Discordian Recordian Bureau of the Perpetually Confused. While I flatter myself that anyone cares, I realise that putting this page up is simply indulging my own spoddery, no need to point that out.

  • I've acquired a new laptop (Toshiba U940-11n, i5-3337U 2.7GHz, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD with 32GB SSD, running Linux Mint), with
  • an NI Komplete Audio 6 USB interface &
  • a pair of M-Audio BX5-D2 near-field monitors.


    • & while previously I'd had to use Windows (dual-boot or a VM) in order to run DAW software, I've now discovered:

  • Cockos' Reaper, an incredibly light-weight & fast DAW at a reasonable price that actually runs (under Wine) on Linux.


    • In addition to decent quality recording, with an incredibly low noise floor, I've also now updated my rig. Listening to the excellent & imaginative Lonelady's albums, I was struck with a hankering to use a drum machine again. Unfortunately my old Roland TR505, better known as Charlemagne, has gone to the great WEEE skip in the sky, so I ended up acquiring a brand new

  • Alesis SR-18 drum machine. His name is Dieter. The Little Drummer Droid.


    • & while I've fallen rather in love with the sound of my

  • Ovation 12-string electro-acoustic, & didn't want to do anything as obvious & clichéd as distorting it, I thought that a few pedals might be in order, so I'm now running the guitar through a
  • Compressor,
  • a wacky pitch-shift/detuner
  • & a Delay Pedal, along with a tiny
  • DI box with built-in Cab emulation.


    • I've seen no reason to replace my trusty

  • AKG C-1000 condenser microphone, but have now acquired a
  • TC-Helicon Mic Mechanic, an all-in-one vocal effects processor which does a very fine job of automatically smoothing everything out.