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I will be playing drums for Paul Gilbert at his "Great Guitar Escape" camp on Long Island, NY July 5-9. It also seems I'll be backing up Greg Howe, Tony MacAlpine, George Lynch, Eric Gales and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.

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I will be performing a drum clinic at West Coast Drum Shop, located in Bellevue, WA. on May 15th. If you got to here from the posters at the store or advertised locally, thank you for showing up. Here's a bit more of who I am:

My Work With Paul Gilbert

My Work With Ike Turner

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I've been creating an ongoing series called "Rhythmic Sketchin'" that is geared towards providing inspiration for musicians who have hit a wall in their composition endeavors.

For about 15 years now, I've recorded my "braindroppings" and posted them to the internet for people. During this time, about 50 full-length albums, 3000+ individual tracks have been sent back to me. Too many to keep track of, for sure! However, it's managed to get my name on a bunch of things and I'm thankful for that.

The difference with this project is that I'm making available the full stem file collection (11+ drumset mics + a mixdown of the entire thing) and they are now available for purchase right here in my store.

It's my belief that a good song starts with the rhythmic content; melody aside, the rhythm is often the first thing that begins a catchy tune. Cadence and tempo, coupled with a catchy melody are what sells the thing. With so many folks now creating music, sometimes a lot of it begins to sound the same. These drum tracks aim to help give folks options rather than settle for the usual collection of grooves and common rhythms that seem to pervade in our musical zeitgeist.

Right now I'm having a sale of sorts; you can get anything on the site for a whopping 80% off ($5 USD for each collection of tracks) so if you'd like to take advantage of them, I urge you to do so now, as the sale will be ending March 1, 2021.

I cannot wait to hear what y'all do with these. Most importantly, have fun!

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Preliminary side note: Zoom the camera/audio manufacturer, and "Zoom" the conferencing app are two entirely separate companies which can cause confusion when talking about "Zoom Cameras". Know the difference going in!

TL;DR- Multiple cam/dual computer setup eGPU with OBS (a linked list of my hardware/software is at the bottom of this article.)

  • Zoom Cameras, model Q2n4K.
  • Zoom L-20 Livetrak for sound input.
  • Zoom cams plug into powered USB hubs, with each hub in a separate USB port. I try to maintain "parity", ergo two cams per USB hub.
  • Cams and audio deck go into my Macbook Pro, which renders them. 
  • Using NDI (Network Device Interface), I offload the tasks of rendering audio/video on the Macbook Pro, while allowing my second machine (a Mac Mini) to handle the actual streaming duties. This seems to solve sync issues between the audio and video.
  • An eGPU from Macsales.com w/ a Radeon 580X video card (to offload processing duties)
  • Loopback (by Rogue Amoeba) will solve any audio routing problems you may encounter.
  • Spanning long distances with USB cables will require an "active" USB cable, that enhances the USB signal and repeats it across the length of the cables.
    • Protip: If you span a distance over 10 ft, get an active cable. 
    • Protip 2: Set a USB hub at the end closest to the camera instead closest to the computer.
  • Connect via a wired connection (wireless is considerably slower) all the computers that will be involved in this endeavor. 
  • Check with your internet provider about the upstream speed for your account; having at least 5mbps will make the stream so much smoother and will result in fewer dropped frames.

But Anyway...

I've been fascinated with the world of video for a while now. For starters, I grew up in a "studio environment" due to the fact both my parents were professional photographers and art was always accessible to me. I was so fortunate to have that.