I have decided to catalog my shenanigans in audio tinker land, here on my website and also via facebook. Some of it may be interesting, some not, but I want to share damn it!  I am always reading up on various forums (some listed below) and I always get inspiration to play and create. From preamps, compressors, vintage gear, plugins, DAW tutorials and everything else, it’ll be posted here. For my first post I’ll start by listing a few great websites that I frequent almost daily in search of inspiration and knowledge:

• Gearslutz – Are you a slut for any and all gear? This is the place for you. It is mainly focused on studio gear and ideas, but there are so many reviews and tutorials, as well as opinions and advice from quite a few high profile engineers.
• The Andy Sneap forum - This is a sub-forum of The Ultimate Metal forum which is geared toward recording metal and more aggressive music. There are several high profile engineers, such as Jason Suecof and Joey Sturgis who regularly post on the boards.
• Home Recording forum - This forum is the best source for anything regarding music, recording, marketing and the business in general. It’s user-base consists of mainly project and home studio owners, who like swapping tweaks, tricks and tips.
• Sweetwater - This is a great resource for pricing out gear and accessories. Sweetwater has more mid to high end gear, including all of the cheaper stuff you could find at Musicians Friend, Music123 and zZounds. Part of gear acquisition is customer support, and these guys are second to none.
• Amazon – You may be saying “Amazon!? What? That has nothing to do with gear or recording.” You are partially correct, but I have included this for one reason: SHIPPING. Amazon has a membership program called Amazon Prime, which is absolutely invaluable for ordering gear, parts and pieces. Prime membership gets you FREE 2 day shipping on items and one day shipping for only 3.99 per item. This is a big deal because if you have ever ordered anything with expedited shipping before, you’ll know it costs an arm and a leg. Sign up for the free month trial, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
• Craigslist – I was debating on adding this to the list, but I can’t even count the number of times I’ve found stupid deals on this site. Either people need a little quick cash or don’t know what they’re selling and you can get it super cheap while also avoiding shipping charges. Enough said..
• Ebay – Most everyone knows what eBay is, but we all need a reminder of how useful it is. Give it a visit when you’re bored, you never know what you might find.

So there you have it, my list of absolutely GO TO recording and gear sites. I’ll probably be referencing most of these in future posts at some point. Stayed tuned for more updates and thanks for reading!