2009 is here, and so is the new Mothership Mastering site. The last three years of work to get the studio ready for professional use is nearing completion, with installation and tweaking, sourcing vintage goodies, recapping and cleaning, rebuilding completely in some cases...Gear. Vintage analog gear. Some of you will know exactly why I stop and ponder at the meaning of those words. With modern day developments and the direction things are heading, those words are gaining more meaning every day. Granted, few of those pieces I obsess over were ever meant to be portable...and by portable in the days of the early recording equipment, there was still attached the notion of a vehicle. Not a bag slung over one's shoulder, more like a crew still had to offload the precious cargo at the end of the haul.

My years of constant travel are in direct conflict with these concepts. I enjoyed travelling, very much so...but as the years passed, and I had spent all my energy keeping my few belongings and my growing music collection together...the one nagging issue was one to do with creativity. I was too restricted by the limitations that a nomadic lifestyle bring.

A friend of mine travelled with his Mercedez full of beat up old suitcases, all containing analog synths, a rather impressive collection, and one he could get really great sounds out of. Now, supposedly, all that flavor resides in a folder on one's laptop, to be summoned at a whim, presets at the ready. I appreciate that immediacy quite a bit. But deep inside I long for the clunky wooden panels, and the direct interfacing, complete with a certain personality that each synth had.

With most "developments" there is a healthy degree of caution required, in order to become advancement, which brings the essence of that which has been learned, and challenges the intended "improvement" before simply accepting the added convenience as the result, thereby disregarding the reason why the technology existed in the first place.

There is much to be done...more soon.

Jeremy