No, this post is not about how Todd and I have some connection that you haven’t heard about. Anyone who knows me knows that Todd Rundgren’s music is more important to me than anyone’s, except for my own. Does the influence show in my work? Perhaps. Regardless, if my records affect someone as profoundly as Todd’s have affected me, I can scarcely imagine a more gratifying outcome from all of my hard work.

Though it’d be a great read for me to lay out exactly how Todd Rundgren and I are similar, the most I have to offer is a striking and frankly telling piece of extreme contrast that I had a laugh about last week.

Consider the following quotes. One is the introduction to A Dream Goes On Forever: The Continuing Story Of Todd Rundgren, Volume 1 by Billy James.

“While giving birth to my first born, I had a remarkable experience; deeply anesthetized. I had this vision: It seemed as though Doomsday for the Earth had indeed arrived, but the spiritual essence of my husband, myself, and our child were chosen to be projected off to a new plane. In some wondrous way, we’d been selected to preserve and perpetuate the human experience.

I was euphoric for days, and have known since then that death is not an end, but a new beginning of a better existence, quite beautiful and progressive in that I sensed some system of graduation which led to ever better levels.

The child born through this experience is named Todd.”

Ruth Rundgren

“Do you think I care if you ever make a record?”

My mother (to me at age 13)

True story, friends.

A friend of mine wanting to get his feet wet in audio recording asked me about my studio. I started to describe what I believed was my very simple setup. As I described it to him, I realized that it isn’t too much, but not as simple as they come.

My signal path is this:

1. Microphones and instruments into a small mixer (Mackie 1202).
2. Mixer into sound card breakout box.
3. Breakout box into the sound card (Echo Layla 3G) mounted in my computer.
4. I record using Sony Acid and Vegas.
5. Software out to sound card and breakout box to monitor control mixer (Mackie Big Knob).
6. Monitor control mixer to headphones (Sony 7506) and powered studio monitors. (M-Audio monstrosities that I’d love to replace)

I don’t monitor through the computer, so everything that I’m recording goes from the 1202 into the computer and also to the Big Knob. I have a small rack with a DBX 166 compressor, a Furman power conditioner, the Echo breakout box and an Alesis multi-effects unit that I use for adding effects to the monitor signal. (I almost never record what comes out of that. It’s just to put reverb or delay on a signal for my headphone mix while I’m recording it. Because of latency, I don’t use plug-ins or monitor through software.)

The Echo Layla 3G is also my MIDI interface. I don’t own any software synths at present, so it’s my controllers into Acid and out to a Roland XV2020. I had a Roland keyboard controller, but I worked it too hard and it gave up. I had to replace it with an M-Audio 88-key one last year. I also have a Trigger Finger controller. What sucks about those M-Audio controllers is that they are USB-powered and USB midi-capable. That means you’re supposed to be able to have a single USB cable power them while delivering MIDI messages through that same line. Sounds really convenient, right? That’s great if you don’t have Windows Media Center Edition like I do. (A completely random yet horrible configuration determined by my computer’s manufacturer.) Believe it or not, Media Center Edition does not recognize non-PCI audio devices! If it’s not on the motherboard, it won’t work. Thank Christ my controllers have standard MIDI outputs.

I’ve gotten pretty used to this rig of mine. There have been very few situations presented by my current album project that required any modification of it at all. Here and there, I’ll route signal to some odd piece of outboard gear for a special effect or something, but this configuration is getting the job done for music, production and voiceover work.