I’m a bit of a gear head and love anything analog especially when it’s used in a live situation. Greg Brice is a bit of an Auckland legend when it comes to gear and builds some of the best hand made eq’s and compressors in New Zealand. Greg also has an amazing studio full of vintage gear which I’ve actually only visited once for about an hour but it’s the kind of place I could spend days in tweaking knobs and flicking switches. Greg also makes music and will be taking his “ekadek thunderbird 3 live rig” out of the studio and in to the Dogs Bollix this Thursday supporting “crash test for favourite things ”
Greg describes the rig as “a mad station of unprogrammable 60s-70s sound machines” which he improvises with to create his dubbed out “minimal electro grunge”.

For anybody interested in vintage analog make sure you head over to Greg’s website for an amazing collection of gadgets, effects and tapes. You can check out his tracks and also purchase a copy of his album “New and untamed bathtime beats from ekadek”. I got a copy last week and have spent the weekend soaking up the mixture of analog blibs and beeps mixed with beautiful melodies and atmospheres.

I work with different drum machines and sequencers and love to just improvise with ideas and patterns to see what we (the machine and I) can come up with. Most of the tacks on Greg’s CD are one take recordings of the studio rig which gives them the perfect blend of organic and mechanic. Greg sent me a list of his live rig which includes…

• korg ms20
• lowrey organ rhythm ace fr6 – samba ya face off.
• 3 head tape echo box – dirty echoing.
• grampian spring reverb – spacious verb or filthy distorto.

If your out on Thursday make sure you head down and check out the live show, most of the album came from this rig and I’m sure it won’t sound the same as the CD, which for me is the best thing about using this kind of rig live.
“This rig supports BIG PHAT grooves” – I’ve already placed an order for the first t-shirt!

Knowing where to get your favourite bit of studio gear repaired is something that can be difficult. In New Zealand you can find some links on the web to a few places but you never quite know if they’re going to be able to deal with your old Roland SH101 or Studer tape machine. With this in mind I thought I’d put a list of people together who I’ve either used or have been used by friends of mine. Most of these guys are “word of mouth” type people who don’t really need to advertise their services and are very highly regarded in the audio field.

• Grant Feist – Keyboard music systems – http://www.keyboardmusicsystems.co.nz – repairs keyboard and synths. Used to do all Rolands servicing for about 20 years, well worth getting in touch with for any keyboard problems.
• Brian Laing – Narrow Rd – http://www.narrowroad.co.nz – if you need any custom cables built then Brian is the man to speak to. Brian does a lot of work for studio’s, location sound engineers, great pricing for high end cabling.
• Clarry Schollum – (09) 817 2634 – will repair any type of valve kit and also has a wide selection of new valve’s. Based in Auckland
• Kerry Adams – The Proof – http://www.theproof.co.nz – Studio and production consultant, equipment supply and setup, mixdown and mastering. If you need to buy studio or hitech kit and don’t want to deal with the usual hi street suspects then give him a call. Based in Wellington now, just check his website for his wide range of services.
• Geoff Edwards – tubehead@xtra.co.nz – has kit to test tubes and also sells new stock tubes. Geoff comes highly recommended and is based in Christchurch
• Greg Price – http://www.ekadek.com – will do some repairs of old tape and tube kit, drop him a mail and check. Famous for building some of the best audio kit to come out of NZ, check his site for some amazing gear.
• Tim Farrant – http://www.buzzaudio.co.nz- Buzz Audio build amazing pre’s and compressors, custom audio install’s and also do repairs for all types of studio kit.
• Doug Jane – http://www.djr.co.nz – based in Keri keri and repairs mic’s and electronic gear. Also builds excellent hand made preamps and EQ units.
• Sean Cooper – http://www.myspace.com/thecooparation – based in Auckland and does training and support for Logic, also has some damn fine synths in his collection.
• New Painting with Sound – http://www.paintingwithsound.co.nz/
  – Murray specialising in service and repairs of vintage equipment and is based in Auckland. Also has a great collection of datasheets and manuals.

Do you have anybody else who you think should be added to the list? Leave me a comment and I’ll update the post with their details.

NZSound.net is one of the only nz based audio forums covering a wide range of topics from production sound to live sound; audio software and sound post. It’s not as busy as most of the big site’s like Gearslutz or the KVR but it does have a very NZ based user group which can be really helpfull on local industry based topics.

There’s a classified section, resources section and product info and support section. Although there are only about 400 members the actual people involved in the forum tend to be involved in the audio industry and there is a lot of usefull local information available. Several of the members are award winning producers, sound engineers and post production guru’s so it’s a resource well worth getting involved with. Most of the local distributors also answer questions in the “Product info and support” section so if you’ve got any questions on products like Protools you can usually get an answer straight from the horses mouth.