Dean Alan Swanson

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Claude Denjean- Moog!

Recently acquired original 70s vinyl gatefold version of wacky instrumental pop cover tunes highlighting the Moog modular synthesizer by French synthmaster Claude Denjean. Super sweet 70s space-age bachelor pad packaging and cover with a gatefold featuring album info and some excellent moog photos.

Without a doubt the heavily layered- almost proto-synth/dream pop cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ is what put this on my list of must-have Moog records. Admittedly my Dylan knowledge is sparse (gasp!) so had to go YouTube a listen to the original and definitely had a laugh hearing it in comparison to Denjean’s version.

Other favorite tracks on the record include a super dense synth-pad heavy version of Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin and an ominous, almost brooding version of The Beatles’ Come Together with super thick Moog bass line and the lead patch for the verse vocal part that basically sounds like the synth is shooting pure electricity directly out of the speakers.

Recorded at Sofrason Studios, Paris and Studios André Perry Studios, Montreal

Released 1971

#MagneticTempleRadio

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Main goal is to consolidate all of the things I’m doing into one interwoven site where any and all aspects of my work can be found easily with the least amount of confusion-DeanAlanSwanson.com for personal portfolio and more generalized audio/projects, etc. which then leads to MagneticTempleStudios.com for the studio focus; a.sonic electronics more of a future hope to get into electronics and gear building/repair; and then Magnets Large & Small record label for releasing all of my own and maybe (down the road) other friends projects.

Interesting thing- in deciding to go through all of those seeming irrelevant (to me) functions I totally found myself thinking of how I actually could use them in some very creative ways….definitely find my best learning method is hands on, step by step with the device- actually do the thing the manual describes- no matter how seemingly trivial.

Remembering back when I was younger and had much less gear- every new piece I finally saved up enough for and then finally got I would spend as much time as possible learning every function and using the shit out of it until every function would become muscle memory….it definitely felt good getting the chance to do that again with the H6. Got to have some fun in the backyard doing some random recording and testing out the very nice XY internal stereo mic.

ZOOM H6 Portable 6-Track Recorder arrived today!

Going to get cozy by the fire with an old fashioned and dig into that user manual....

Strange thing, getting back to the Orion repair ticket- I used the interface for the corporate AV gig I mentioned in the post a couple days ago and I tested that setup in the studio at a bare minimum four times and everything was working fine- the details of the setup I will get into in a future post, but sure enough on the job first channel we wired up was not working, swapped out cables, did software routing checks and nothing on channel 1 output. I’ll get into it more later but man, first gig with the client and channel 1 nothing! I feel anxiety immediately just remembering that moment...ok time is short so move forward- setup mic 2 and it’s fine...so for channel 1 we go direct to the camera with the in house mic and we are good.

So at that moment it was a baffling clusterfuck and super shitty having to deal with that on a gig with a new client, but jumping forward and after the fact, back in the studio get the Orion hooked back up and no channel 1....swap cables, swap channels, general troubleshooting and sure enough I find the problem is at the hardware interface. Kinda funny that I have 32 channels analog I/O with the Orion and channel mf’ing 1 stops working...and right at go time for a high paying corporate gig...oh well it’s not a bad cable, patchbay point, or whatever- it’s channel 1 at the interface. Also I will mention I reinstalled all Mac drivers, firmware install, all that- total pain in the ass as none of those tasks are straightforward- but reached out to Antelope sending detailed explanations, and video footage of what was happening, and sure enough they say it’s a hardware fail and it needs to be sent in for service. So like $20 for a box and $60 to ship, $65 bench fee to look at it and we’ll who knows what the repair will be...

Lots more thoughts to share on this but for now here is the product link on the Zoom site-

[Zoom H6 Portable Recorder]

[H6 Accessories Pack]

And while I was at it had found this nice little case by [Analog Cases-]

After a couple months of internal debate and research kept going back and forth between that or the Zoom F8n. The F8n has it all- 8 track recording, a really solid timecode in/out, dual flash memory ports for backup...lots of other great features..and more than double the price of the H6....8 tracks at 24/96k. Definitely the full on pro level field recorder. I do think I will want to invest in one down the road and especially if more work of that nature comes my way.

So the things that swayed me with the H6- so it comes with an XY coincident pair attachment and there are a number of other mic attachments that can be swapped out like a MS and shotgun. The F8n can also have these attached but not as convenient box unless adding the extension cable, and at that point you need a tripod or boom, bag for the recorder, etc..

I like the quick easy handheld functionality of the H6 and I feel like the convenient package will make it more likely I’ll use it, avoiding any big setup hassle.

Great resource for DIY Kits ranging from ribbon mic builds, pedals, DI Boxes, synth modules, etc.

Setup this as a new blog site for all things/thoughts/ideas audio- DAS/MTS/ML&S related, etc. with the intention of this being a single, regular, central place for documenting everything going on in the audio related brain-space and physical place. The goal- to make a post every day in this one place that can then be sent down the line wherever it may be needed, mental notes, and general audio journal writing exercise/routine….

Spent some time tweaking the tumblrs, honing things in-

(this blog)

From here everything will be sent out to more specific blogs/sites/social media as needed.

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👆For all studio related tech recording related stuff.

👆for all finished music/projects/label related stuff.