Very cool to have more people living in the states - something I imagine almost every SA rocker wants to know about, music-scene-wise.

Hope you'll enjoy the forum and share some LA music experiences with us hillbillies back in the South.

If you ever wanna move home I happen to know that there's plenty of work. Although our film-crews in Cape Town are seriously in need of a bit of unionisation. Lotta exploitation of their non-unionised status I've been exposed to.

Good move keeping those amps. You won't regret it.

Welcome Lister,
I also use the 002 and protools 9.
What mics do you use if you do record your amps?

Hi singemonkey and Donovan. Thanks for the warm welcome.

Yeah singemonkey I actually wrote you a long-ish reply but a nano second before I hit post, my screen went black and the MacBook Pro was dead...lost the post. Unusual, I never got a low battery warning and it just went all the way to 0% .....bye-bye....LOL!!!

The jist of what I said is that "24" went to SA to shoot. They only took the highest of the high in terms of people, the above the line types, so us department heads mostly stayed home and started prep here for the upcoming season. I was very happy to hear in reports that the SA crews were really good. Naturally the standard here in Hollywood is very high as the book was written here and continues to get regular revisions, but it was nice to hear my homeboys did an absolutely solid job. They raved about the crews there. Michael Click, the producer would always make some comment or other when I was around him about how much he loved it there and wants to go back. The question I get a lot over the years from people who have been there is..."why would you want to leave a place like that-especially to come here?"

24 was shot like a feature, huge scenes and setups and some of the rigging we did was enormous. There is no room for error in these deals, hurt someone, especially Kiefer and you are toast. The budget was huge....something like $3.5M per EPISODE!!! ? ? And it frequently went over. At 24 episodes it was around $75M per season. That is pretty big for television. LOL, I was responsible for a chunk of that every day so the responsibility was intense sometimes.

Here, just for giggles this is an aircraft hangar I tented, in Van Nuys. We were filming a night scene in the middle of the day so it had to be pitch black in there.



Donovan.... I am embarrassed to say I am very lacking in mic's.

My paltry mic collection consists of: a Studio Projects C-1, an Audio Technica AT 4033a, an Audio Technica C1000s and an SM-57 and SM-58 from Shure. All of these can take a beating from an amp but honestly....I tend to use sims for the controllability of the signal level. I am located in a decent suburb in LA on a somewhat quiet street but I still do not want to advertise to passersby scoping the joint out, that there is a music studio in my garage....... if you know what I mean. Even more so now with the economy tanking..... I think burglary/robbery is going to go up.

Which is why I cannot decide between improving the studio...OR...the Stagg Arms AR-15 I have my eye on.....SWEET piece......223/5.56mm....LOL ? 8)


In the not too distant future I do need/want to upgrade some stuff.......I want to get a very good interface so I have my eye on an Apogee Ensemble and also an RME Fireface UMX. The two mic's I would like to have are a Neumann TLM 103 and a Royer R-122 ribbon. I also might do a BLA mod to the 002R. I just cannot decide....but more than likely the Apogee.

So just for another giggle, here are several images I shot at a show I went to....I stood about 5' from the stage the whole show. :0) Tal Wilkenfeld on bass and Vinnie Colliuta on drums. Great show. Saw him again more recently with an orchestra backing the band a well, also a good show....Dweezil Zappa opened.

I played with these images a little in Photoshop and Photomatix Pro.... I know the HDR processing really dirty's it up, I just like the Grunge look in HDR.



Anyway, sorry for the long post, I'm not known for keeping it short ?

Welcome Highway! My wife worked in pre-pro at Regency Productions for a couple of years, she's loves Cali but I gotta be honest with you... If I had to go back I'd live in NY again in a split second. That said, there's a lot of fun to be had in SA, not least in music... plus living in Cape Town doesn't hurt ?
Enjoy the forum, ignore Singemonkey, he is, afterall, a self-confessed hillbilly (with a mean Albert King style, go figure)...

Thanks buddy.

Hey Lister... welcome. I'd be interested to know how you got into the movie/TV scene from what would have been a 'nonexistent' industry here in Durbs in 1981.

WElcome to the forum ..... good to have you here as i reckon you are a mine of info.

you ever run into Trevor by any chance? ?

PeteM wrote: Hey Lister... welcome. I'd be interested to know how you got into the movie/TV scene from what would have been a 'nonexistent' industry here in Durbs in 1981.

Hi all and thanks. No Trevor sightings IceCreamMan. ? I did see him with Yes in the 90215 tour or whatever it was called.

PeteM....it's a long story dude. I was a motorcycle mechanic in SA, did my apprenticeship there. My pops told me to get a trade and I liked bikes big time so much to his chagrin, that's what I picked. I hung it up not long after I qualified and got back into music full time. I am glad I did it because I was able to get into the US with that. There was a documented shortage of qualified motorcycle mechanics at the time. Well in the end I was so bored with it.....I was a master mechanic but the work was tires, brakes, oil changes, chains etc all the kak work because the bikes are so good these days and the EPA rules on modifying carbs and stuff is so strict in California so there is no performance work for the street.

One day I was at a family wedding. My wife was bitching to her cousins wife about her office job at Disney. Cuz's wife who is a make up artists says " come down to the studio's I will hook you up" I put up my hand and say "Fark, get me a job...I hate the one I have now" ....really as a joke.

Well, my wifes cousin Dom is a shooter and sometimes does 1st AC work...he was on X-Files forever and his dad Leo is a shooter as well, his brother is a Gaffer. His dad Leo was Clint Eastwood's operator for a long time, before Jack Green and now Tom Stern.

So Dom calls me two weeks later and says...were you serious about wanting to work in film?" I say yes and he offers me to come work with him on a freebie he was doing, a 3 day shoot where I could work in any department I wanted to see which of the trades I liked. No pay. So I jumped at it.

The short story is that I did not stop working after that. The guys liked me and called me on other gigs and I was in the Union within 2years...almost unheard of to do it so fast....to get your days and get in. It is very tough. Combination of luck, being in the right place at the right time and having a good attitude and strong SA work ethic ? ?

Woa! Welcome Highway ? {War Heroes - my fave Hendrix album!}

'Sup Hammeron!

I don't know if it is okay to do this here but here is a site where you can grab the War Heroes and a bunch of other stuff too, Jeff Beck yada yada. I am not a fan of illegal downloads, fiercely opposed. These are not being sold though and I am sure they would have been shut down by now if they are doing anything wrong. Don't know...use your own discretion, don't grab it if you feel it is screwing somebody. Look on the left under Blog Archive Dec(11) there is the Hendrix Last American Concert.


Edit 4/22/11: I have since decided to yank this link to the War Heroes blog page as this is too much a grey area as to whether it is illegal or not. Common sense tells me it is. So rather than cause any issues in my first days here...sayonara link. I found it quite easily, just sayin'.....just not cool to actually put it up here.

Thanks. Sorry for any inconvenience.

My goodness, what an excellent site!!! ?

Hey Welcome HC!

I am also expat type thing but living in UK, left '95.

One comment - if I was 5 feet a way from the stage at a Jeff Beck gig I think I would have used up my memory card on Tal! Ha!

Uh ....who says I didn't? ? :? ? ? ........ cell phone too.

Thanks for the welcome. How's the music scene in the UK, you playin'? My bro' lives there also, not a musician though.....project manager type. Lucky bastard! ?

Good man!

To be honest I am not really sure how music scene is as I am unfortunately up to my ears in young kids and a career in financial services. However I am getting very restless and at 39 am starting to have my mid life crisis me thinks! I am a qualified guitar teacher and have about 10 pupils a week which kind of keeps my toes in music so to speak. I was in a covers band for fun but this recently ended so I am currently making contacts and going for auditions etc. Pub scene is pretty average but then I live in Hampshire, places like Manchester, Brighton and of course London would be different.

I hear you about the kids friend. I got married and had mine late in life, so I have two daughters, 10 and 5.

What a nightmare being the only man in the house. That's why I like my PS3 so much. I get those shooter games like COD, Modern Warfare etc and just start killin' shit and blowing stuff up. :woohoo: :dance: ? ? ? ?

LOL after they all are asleep I toss on the headphones and turn all the lights off and lookout! Love when I have a sniper rifle!

I know, I know....should be in the studio. ?

Welcome Dude! And thanks for all the very entertaining posts so far. Hope you regale us with many more tales, which I'm sure you have.

Thanks....I'll see what I can do. ?

Highway Chile wrote: I hear you about the kids friend. I got married and had mine late in life, so I have two daughters, 10 and 5.

What a nightmare being the only man in the house. That's why I like my PS3 so much. I get those shooter games like COD, Modern Warfare etc and just start killin' shit and blowing stuff up. :woohoo: :dance: ? ? ? ?

LOL after they all are asleep I toss on the headphones and turn all the lights off and lookout! Love when I have a sniper rifle!

I know, I know....should be in the studio. ?

Dirt 3 is on the way... s'all I'm sayin' ?

Welcome to the forum!
Sure you have many interesting tales to tell us!