Hello from Florida!!

Until now, I have not mentioned my “day job” on the JWR blog.

That changes today. As I type this, I am riding in a private luxury Town Car on my way to a resort hotel. Why you might ask? Bose.

This week is the American Sales Team Meeting in Orlando, FL, and while I’m not yet a store manager, I am a guest of the North Atlantic district here for 3 days.

I am hugely honored, humbled, and excited! I’ll be busy while I’m here, but I will try to post as often as I can (no trade secret spoilers) and upload some photos of my adventures.

Free Plug-In from SoundToys

SoundToys is offering their Little Radiator plug-in for FREE (for the next 8 days at the time this was written). The plug-in is a unique twist on the classic sound of the Altec 1566A tube mic preamp.

So follow the link below and crank it up!

https://www.soundtoys.com/sxsw2012/&rc=247-8543-185

Could this be the future of guitar pedals!?

In addition to my love of music and gear, I am somewhat of a technology junkie. To get my tech fix, I frequent The Verge. While Josh Topolsky and his crew had amazing coverage while at Engadget, I find that they have  much more substantial coverage of developments in music technology at the new home that they created.

Usually the music news is about a new recording app or a piece of hardware from a tried and true company, but today we may have just seen the future of guitar pedal technology. In an article by Adi Robertson, we learn about some engineers at Perdue created a virtual guitar pedal for their senior project.

Read her article here.

The only thing even remotely like this is sensor clip that comes as a part of Korg’s Wavedrum Mini. I however find the mobility of this ghost pedal far beyond that and if it is ever paired with a rackmounted effects processor, I must say, I think I’d have to buy it – if only for the WOW factor of it all.

Ain’t technology grand?

We’ve Moved!

JWolffRecording has moved!

I have recently relocated from the ‘burbs to South Philly and after many trips in the new car, the vast majority of my worldly possessions are now at my new location.

Thanks to the unique size and design of the apartment that my girlfriend and I found, we have an unorthodox (but extraordinarily awesome) living room/bedroom. While she and I are proud of that room, more important for my readers is the fact that this setup has allowed me to dedicate a decent sized room in our home to being a recording suite.

I’m sure some acoustic treatments are still in order to get the place sounding perfect, but it’s an elegant use of space that’s already up and running! I’m excited to put my new location in South Philly to use.

Rock ‘n’ Roll

-Jon

NEW CAR!!

This is by no means a music related post, but definitely a personal milestone worth mentioning and celebrating. NEW CAR!!

The old Subaru Legacy served valiantly as my companion and chariot for many a road trip and gig, but she has been retired.

Meet the new wheels. My brand spankin’ new 2012 Kia Soul. Brian Martin at Kia of Lansdale was a huge help during the entire process. Friendly, knowledgable, and accommodating – the salesman trifecta.

When it came time to get the car, I ordered one car from their incoming vehicles. When issues arose with the car’s delivery time, the Kia of Lansdale team really stepped it up. Without me even asking, they tracked own the car that I wanted – all the way to Delaware to find it for me. When Brian confirmed that what they had found was exactly what I wanted, they BOUGHT, not even traded to make sure they could get me my car. Brian and the team at Kia of Lansdale stepped it up and made my first experience buying a car (and a new one at that) a truly memorable experience.

Here’s to many years of adventures behind the wheel of this bad boy.

Radio silence has ended

The holidays were hellaciously busy at Bose and as a result, most things musical in my life had been placed on hold.

January and February will be equally as crazy as Justine & I prepare to move to South Philly.

However, as I begin packing I couldn’t resist the urge to post the updated picture of the pedalboard – including my new Pigtronix Distnortion pedal that Justine got me for Christmas!

The Bose Holiday Song is available!

This year’s Bose Holiday song has officially launched!

In the words of North Atlantic District Manager Jed Levinson:

Last year we flashed back to 2005, with our rendition of Green Day’s “Holiday” as a thank you to all our corporate colleagues. We had a blast doing it!… This year we searched the vaults for something… epic! We reprise Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” as a holiday tribute.

We had a blast again this year as well. I’ll upload the song in the near future.

The Bose Holiday Song

The second annual Bose Holiday Song of the North Atlantic District has been completed!!

Not much more that I can say publicly at this point. It was a lot of hard work and I thank the lyricists and musicians for making this year’s song a BLAST.

Congratulations to all involved.

SoundCloud

For those of you interested in hearing the latest in original music from me, I am now featuring some of my original music on SoundCloud!

Click here to check the location of my newest musical outlets.

Thanks!

Ozone 5 – First Impressions

Ozone 5 is worth every penny. As a prior Ozone 4 user, I wasn’t quite sure how much of a difference the new revamp would make, even after I had seen the very impressive demo at AES.

Let me just say, it’s BIG. Every sound is just plain gutsier and cleaner –  at the same time!! On the user side of things, Ozone has always been a user friendly interface but the new GUI really does take that to a new level. Instead of just being able to move faders in the compressor section, now you can just reach in, grab the graphics and manipulate them to get the same results.

Also new and very pleasant is the real-time frequency view. This allows you to see not just how much compression is occurring, but also EXACTLY when and where. Want to make sure you hit that transient or that it’s squashing the kick drum just right? Simply put, just see for yourself.

Ozone 5 is well worth the upgrade, or if you’re new to iZotope products, I can’t think of a better one to start with. Head over to their website and give them some money, or if you’re not sure just yet, just try out the full-featured demo. Your ears will thank you.