MICROPHONES

AVANT ELECTRONICS CR-14 RIBBON MIC
In my quest for an affordable ribbon microphone that I like with my voice, I found the Avant Electronics CR-14. It's a dual ribbon, which gives it a bit more gain, and a lot of richness. I tried it at winter NAMM, and liked it so much, I had to take one home with me.
Avant's philosophy is to build affordable, quality products for musicians, whether you're recording in your bedroom, and using the closet as an iso-booth, or if you're in a formal studio environment with all the advantages that brings. Just talking to Ken and Sue Avant, and their crew, you realize that they are excited about building mics that people really want to use. The NAMM show is directed at business-to-business sales, but seeing me fall in love with their mic, I think made the Avants just as happy as any other sale they made during the show.
I am looking forward to putting this mic through its paces like I did with my Heil mics. I run a mic through my own set of experiments to see what I can get out of it. Often you find there are several off-axis colorations that sound interesting in addition to the intended on-axis sound of the mic. I get to know my mics so that I can use them in different ways when I'm recording.

HEIL SOUND PR20 & PR30 DYNAMIC MICS
The Heil Sound PR-20 is my go-to performance mic, and I have also used it for recording. When I got a PR-20 and a PR-30 from Bob, I began experimenting with them and A/B-ing them with my Beta 58. Within the week I had sold my 58. There simply is no comparison between the Heils and the Shure. In comparison to the Heil, the Shure sounded thin all the way through and then turned harsh on my head voice. The Heil sounded rich, smooth and full all the way through.
We did some rough tracking recently, and just used the PR20 as a room mic to capture the performance. What a pleasure to listen to a playback that sounds exactly the way it sounded when you were performing it.
Even if he wasn't making a product I could use, I was honored to meet Bob Heil, designer of the Heil Talk Box. I remember seeing and hearing the Frampton Comes Alive album almost constantly in '76 and '77, and somehow I knew that Frampton used a "talk box" for the effects.
I've always have huge respect for the technical people involved in the music I love, who make it come alive for us all. People like Les Paul, Tom Dowd, and Bob Heil. Without these men, there would be even less music heard between radio commercials...

GUITARS

TAKAMINE w/D'ADDARIO PHOSPHOR BRONZE STRINGS
My first guitar was a Takamine G230. When I bought it, I knew nothing about guitars at all - I just wanted to learn to play and write songs with one. It was inexpensive and easy for me to play, so I brought it home, and it is still my only 'songwriting' guitar.
I have two other guitars that I use for gigs, and because I liked my little G230 so well, they are also Takamines: an EG540C in a maple-top cherry burst and an EG561C in Johnny Cash Black.
I like each of these instruments for different reasons, but the things I like the most about Takamine guitars as a whole is that they are inexpensive little workhorses. They sound great, and stay in tune under duress - the biggest assets for performing with them. No one likes to see a performer diddling around trying to keep her acoustic in tune.
Unfortunately I bought mine before they introduced the cool tube technology, but my favorite feature on the two gigging guitars is the onboard tuner. A true stroke of genius.
I've messed around with different strings on my guitars, but I keep going back to the D'Addario phosphor bronze. I don't profess to be a tone-head, but I tend to like a warm, round sound out of my guitars as well as my vocals, and those strings on these guitars give me that.

SIGNAL PROCESSORS/OTHER

DEMETER REVERB
There are some things that you just know are right, immediately. Jimmy Demeter's Real Reverb is one of those things. The first notes I sang through it sounded like God was kissing my vocals. There just is no substitute for analog reverb, and this one sounds incredible. Known for designing and building high-quality components, Jimmy Demeter is also one of the nicest people you could know. Need I say more?

BOSS DR880 DRUM MACHINE
Of all the gear I have, the Boss DR-880 is probably the most surprising. When I would write, I would hear certain rhythms or grooves in my head, but it would be so difficult to try and explain them or demonstrate them. Imagine the musician's version of going to the mechanic and making the 'car noises' your car is making, while the guy in greasy coveralls looks at you like you have two heads. Yup, that's what it's like.
This drum machine is great for finding tempo, putting at least a working rhythm under a song, or experimenting with tempo and groove till you find what 's right. For pre-production, it's perfect, particularly if you're working alone, which I have done a great deal. But the surprising part is that with the effects options, that seem to be infinite, you can make this little drum machine sound damn good! I've rough-tracked with it, and once I pick the drum set, and apply the room effects I want, it sounds terrific. The image of the monkey with the toy drum vanishes into thin air when you hear this drum machine on your tracks.
And the best part? I don't get that funny look from my drummer anymore!

OTHER ESSENTIALS

JPS LABS CABLES
These cables are unbelievable. JPS Labs makes high-end, home audio cabling, but they also make cables for instruments, etc. We use the XLR cables, guitar cables, speaker cables, and power cables. Unless you've compared them with other cables, it's hard to believe that a lowly wire could make a difference in what you're recording, but it absolutely does. The JPS cables give us a louder, cleaner signal, and a richer, fuller sound. And they're purple... One of my favorite colors! But seriously, I don't care if they're plaid, paisley or polka-dot - I wouldn't record without them.

VOCAL-EZE VOCAL SPRAY
I love this stuff. It's jam-packed with echinacea and other natural ingredients that are good for you.
Although its main intent is soothing over-used voices, its combination of herbals, especially the echinacea, helps fight off colds and what I call the 'creeping crud' where it's not a cold, but you feel really crappy and it's all in your throat - something that happens a great deal in Buffalo winters.
At NAMM '06 in LA I met Ocea, the president of TravellWellness.com, who developed Vocal-Eze and several other products that are geared toward performers and frequent travelers. What a fabulous woman!
The products she creates, and the others that she distributes, are top-notch. She obviously knows her stuff when it comes to using herbals in really contemporary, effective ways, and you can tell that her products have evolved from careful listening and thoughtful design.
Oh. One more thing. She has this really cool stuff called Palm Dry. Whoa! Ever get that slimy-hand thing going? A couple drops of this dries your palms and leaves a nice, silky powder on your hands. Guitar players, pay attention. This is good stuff. No more dropping your pick because of sweaty hands.
And no, I don't have an endorsement. This stuff is just that good.

INSTRUCTION
I have a lot of voice coaches to credit for the approach I now take to singing. First, my weekly coach for many years, Cheryl Hudson. Cheryl has been incredibly open to the new materials I have brought to our sessions, and she gets down in the trenches with me to fine tune my technique and help me make it second nature. I have used many resources to round out my study, but the materials that made the biggest impact, and through which I made the most tangible improvements are the books by Seth Riggs and Karin Ploog.

SETH RIGGS: Singing for the Stars
I got this book/CD a few years ago, and worked on it while on summer break from my regular voice lessons with Cheryl. Like most vocal instruction books, especially post-American Idol, it has a hokey title, but don't let it put you off. If you want to sing, if you do sing, and even if you think you can't improve, the Seth Riggs book is a must-have. I improved my range, tone and technique so much that Cheryl nearly fell off her piano bench when she heard me warm up the first day back from break. If you had to get just one instructional book, and you have already been singing a while, get this one. Its focus is proper larynx position for singing through the break and improving natural range.

KARIN PLOOG: Voice Coaching
The moment I picked up this book and scanned through it, I became an instant fan of Karin Ploog. Her instruction holds the key to singing pop/rock without sounding 'overtrained' in the classical manner. Because of her classical German (not classical Italian) training, Ploog has a very different approach to vocal warm-ups.
The classical Italian training focuses on consonants and resonance. All great stuff, and quite necessary, but for rock, it's only about half the bag. Ploog gives you the other half of the bag. She emphasizes the coordination required to keep consonants on pitch, which is very difficult if you haven't learned to separate tone production from pronunciation. The reason this is necessary for us 'rockers' is that we're singing in English, not Italian, and English is a more gutteral language (like her native German). And rock is even more so. I can't tell you how many singers I talk to who say they don't want to do too much vocal training because they are afraid they will begin to sound too 'classical' or too 'polished.' Especially iIf you've done vocal training, you must pick up this book. The coordination you think you have isn't nearly what you will have once you've done her exercises for a week.