I'm an independent country-pop/rock artist in Hamilton, Ontario. I don't have a band, a producer, or a studio booked by the hour. I have a room in my house, a handful of gear I chose carefully, and a DAW. Small Town Wanderer was written, played, tracked, mixed, and released from that room by me.
Why this site exists
When you do everything yourself, every question lands on you. What pickup for this part. Which Headrush model is actually a Deluxe Reverb. How to make Superior Drummer sit in a country mix. Whether a plugin is worth the money or just the marketing. I spent years googling those questions and getting generic answers from people who owned different gear than I did.
So I started answering them for the gear I actually own. First on YouTube, with reviews that come back six months later to say whether the thing held up. Now here, in writing, with tools built for specific boxes instead of advice that applies to everything and helps with nothing.
What you'll find
- The rig. Every piece of gear in the studio, what it does on a record, and everything I've made about it.
- Reviews. Long-term, first-person. I paid for all of it.
- Tools. Interactive, built for specific gear, free to use.
- Straight answers. One question per post, the way I wish someone had answered it for me.
How I work
Direct, no fluff. I assume you own the gear we're talking about. I skip music theory unless it changes what you should do with your hands. If I haven't used something, I don't write about it.