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A couple of years ago I bought the Behringer BCR2000 and ever since it’s been of no particular use to me. I never understood the hype. While the rest of the MIDI community was screaming what an incredible value for money this thing was, I was sitting cursing at my desk as the BCR2000 crashed, stopped responding, franticly spit out random controller data, and did whatever the hell it felt like doing. Sometimes it would even stop responding to the power button altogether. It’s like there was an evil demon living in it. Which could be cool I guess. Except it wasn’t.

My instinctive response to such behaviour, especially when exposed by a device that I’ve just bought, is denial. I must have hooked it up incorrectly. Maybe the MIDI cable is too long. Maybe I forgot to check some SysEx configuration setting or a MIDI base channel or something. Maybe there’s a conflicting device somewhere else in my setup. Maybe I should download the latest firmware. Maybe it’s in some kind of special mode. This thing just couldn’t possibly be malfunctioning straight out of the box!?

So I tried and tried a bunch of things, until after a while I just sort of stopped trying and resorted to other, cooler devices to produce music. Since then the BCR2000 just sat on my desk, annoying the hell out of me by giving me that maybe-one-day-I’ll-have-enough-time-to-figure-out-what’s-wrong-with-it-feeling. Sometimes I felt like throwing it out the window, but then I didn’t. It was cheap, but not that cheap.

Today I learned there’s a time for everything. Only moments ago I picked up a screwdriver and fixed the problem. I also learned why Behringer products are cheap. Any moron who would’ve given my BCR2000 a five minute test run before it left the factory would’ve prevented it from doing so. Also, I don’t know what that shit was they used as isolation material, or how they’d managed to get it in there, but it looks like somebody basicly just sneezed in it and sealed the cover. Large parts of the circuit board were covered in some kind of yellowish, transparent snot.

So, if anyone else experiences this problem I’ve got just the remedy. Get a screwdriver,  hack away all the superfluous crap in your BCR2000 like a maniac, screw the cover back on and be done with it. Mine works like a charm now.

And finally – the first mix by legendary producer’s duo Steve Hehanussa and Yvo Bogers featuring Cecilia Nordin (what a voice!) is here. Together we are known as Scochy:

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This production is a remake of this excellent song, but be sure to stay tuned for upcoming own productions…

My latest purchase, the Elektron SFX60. Just bought it today at Feedback, at an incredible discount price cause it was a demo. Awesome! It’s going to sit nicely next to its older brother.

And what do you know, turns out Elektron are holding a Christmas lottery so if I get really lucky I might win another one!

The future of DiscoWolf78 is uncertain. Erik the Awful is leaving us for at least a while, and the rehearsal rooms in Älvsjö are being scaled down. So we figured it would be a good idea to record some of our latest tracks before it’s too late. We recorded on 8 tracks in a live room, including some of our first own productions! Check it out!

Led Zeppelin – Rock ‘n’ roll

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AC/DC – Shot down in flames

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DiscoWolf78 – Demo5

DiscoWolf78 – The extension of the groovy shit

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DiscoWolf78 – Let’s take a walk

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I think I’ve sort of put together the mobile recording studio that I’ve always wanted to have. Gonna try it out today at the Älvsjö replokal. I’m curious what the drum microphones sound like. It’s a kit from JJlabs, a Swedish brand, and at around 2500 SEK it was an absolute bargain. Four dynamic tom clipons, a kickdrum mic and two overheads. The guy at Jam said I would not be disappointed, and if I was to be anyway, I could return it. Nice.

The C214 I picked up mainly for vocal recordings, but from my time at SAE I remember that its slightly bigger brother sounded really good on hihats as well. The C214 is supposed to be exactly like the C414, but it lacks the figure-eight and omni switch; it can only do cardioid recordings, which I think is actually just fine.

Then there’s the ProFire2626 which I’ve had for a while. A great firewire audio interface which comes with good Mac software and pretty good mic preamps. So I should be able to live without  separate mic preamp for a while, though of course that’s still an item on my wishlist

Completing the set with, of course, a MacBook running Logic Studio, and my DT770 Pro headphones which I’m actually looking to replace cause I think I’ve been hearing a strange crackle in them.

All in all, a sort of portable solution… Kind of heavy though, and I don’t have a car yet so I’ll see how my mood holds up in Stockholm’s public transport…. If today’s recording works out the way I want it to, I’ll post some stuff online. Meanwhile, if you need me to do a recording for you, give me a call

Snygga frilla eller hur?

Spending the weekend in Örebro with Sinis parents. Yesterday we went hiking in Kilsbergen, a beautiful Scandinavian forest area with mountainbike roads and stuff. At night we went to see the second movie in the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy called Flickan som lekte med elden. Cool movie, though there was something weird about it. Some parts were slow, others were suddenly fast. First time I ever saw a movie in a cinema which was completely Swedish!

In other news: Rutger and I started blabbing about our punk rock ambitions yesterday, and it’s made us ambitious again. Next weekend I’ll be recording some live drums to Welcome to Sanity and I’m on a Roll. You can find an earlier recording of the latter song here, but it’s got a dodgy drumtrack which basicly came straight out of the sampler. Will be fun, I’ll finally get to try out Logic Pro 9, it’s been sitting on my desk for a week…

Teaching Sini to play drums

This weekend is Stockholm Jazz weekend. Me and Steve went to see a couple of cool concerts last Friday, which I so totally needed after a long week of hard work. July in Sweden means everyone gradually starts vanishing from your project to go on a five week vacation That makes it pretty difficult to get anything done, but Friday was a successful day; time for some well deserved beers and music.

Stockholm Jazz is like a small festival in Skeppsholmen, with all sorts of artists. I finally got to see Marcus Miller for real! Sony Rollins was also pretty amazing. Having been infected by Steve’s enthousiasm, I went out yesterday and bought the missing instrument in my collection: my first bass guitar! DLX music were having a sale so I got my hands on a Fender Jazz bass for a good price. Time to start learning some songs now

We concluded last night with a barbecue at Norrmälarstrand and some music at Fasching. Very gezellig! I’ve uploaded some pix on Picasa.

The last couple of afternoons I spent exploring K-Rauta, a big Swedish byggvarahus. The Swedish Praxis, if you like I needed screws, bolts, hooks, drills, wheels and a bunch of wood to construct a 19″ rack for housing some audio stuff. It was a nice hobby project that I finished yesterday. Now the Waldorf and the Mackie aren’t clogging up my precious desk space any longer. Other modules in there: AFB8, SLM162, MDX2200, REV500 and the Warpfactory.

Why didn’t I just buy a 19″ rack? Well I could have, but they are hardly ever exactly what you want, plus they cost ten times the amount I spent now.

Next hobby project is setting up a beginner’s guide to MIDI and Audio routing….

Last weekend I sold my Philicorda to a friend. I drove it to Hoeve Weltevreden, where the Dutch Youth Association for Astrononomy (JWG) was at that moment organising a camp for kids. It was great to be in Holland and to spend the evening in Het Brabantsche Land. Me and some friends spent a few hours ridding the Philicorda of dust, admiring its design and tubes, and played some awesome tunes on it, much to the joy and amusement of all the people who were trying to watch Back to the Future in the room next door. By the way, if anyone possesses a Philicorda service manual, model AG7500, please contact me. We were unable to find one on the internet, which must mean it doesn’t exist.