Music Stuff - Cool Stuff

It's Video Time Again! Hi People!  Here is a short video of the new recording studio setup at Haggard Studios. We still have a little work to do with some finishing touches, but so far so good.  Here is pic of the new console layout.    Until next time... Enjoy the Music Jimmy

  Haggard Studios Pulls Out as a Sponsor of the Triangle Blues Society.

Wow.... Sorry about that.  Well, maybe not really, but anyway.  We are doing a lot of cool things at Haggard Studios these days.   It's Going Down At Haggard Studios. We have had a steady stream of rock musicians recording music for demos and for personal enjoyment.  We are picking up more and more hip-hop and rap artists to record.  Somehow, word has gotten around that the mastering work done at Haggard Studios is really good, so that business has been picking up.  We've got Rock, R&B, Carolina Beach, Blues, DC Go-Go, Gospel and Reggae going on We have also had the pleasure of meeting some excellent smooth jazz musicians who have been rehearsing at Haggard Studios lately: Nicholas Cole who had a Billboard #1 Smooth Jazz hit in January 2014, plus Marcus Anderson has been back in the house rehearsing with his music project, which currently has a song at #18 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart.  Have I mentioned our record label, Wild Falcon Records?   We wrapp

I picked my red Fender American Standard Stratocaster and plugged it straight into my "very" modified Fender Blues Jr.  Interested in More?  The original midnight blue body (i.e. dark blue purple metal flake) is hanging on the wall.  I bought a sweet body on Ebay and moved all of the hardware and the neck to the red body.  I added Lindy Fralin Blues Special Pickups and modified the tone circuit (no tone on the neck, with tone control on the middle and bridge).  The Fender Blues Jr has a bunch of resister and capacitor changes, the power tube sockets were changed to octets with JJ 6V6S tubes (in place of the el84 tubes), a Mercury Output Transformer was added, and it was topped off with a Celestion G12H Anniversary speaker.  Until next time... Enjoy the Music! Jimmy

Seriously, I could not imagine trying to run my Recording and Rehearsal Studios and have to pay someone to work on and fix computer problems, and do amp maintenance and repair work. Thanks to over 20 years in the computer industry I gathered some knowledge that is very useful for running my recording studio.  Think about it.  You need to get a pretty powerful computer.  I went with a PC instead of Mac, and got a quad core with 16GB ram and 2 TB disk space.  I am going to have to invest in a small SAN (storage area network) within the next year so I can offload some of the stuff on the recording PC's hard disk, because 2 terabytes just is not enough. On top of that, I have a MOTU PCI express card that I installed on my computer, plus a huge pile of software (DAW, effects, editing, mixing and mastering software, et al).  Beyond that, you have the audio drivers that must be setup perfectly for integration with the computer, DAW (digital audio workstations) and Analog/Digital MOTU

You can skip to the fun stuff or read the boring stuff and the move on to the fun stuff. Whatever gets you movin!  :)  BORING STUFF Along with my recording and rehearsal studios, I own a small independent record label, Wild Falcon Records.  It is a small and very young record label.  By small, I mean that the label is not a cash flush label like many established and large indie labels and major labels. The big labels have big budgets and when they sign artists the label is the executive sponsor/producer (i.e. the people with the money paying for recording studio time, paying for artist development and management, and paying for all of the marketing and advertising). Wild Falcon Records works differently and partners with the recording clients of Haggard Studios and provides services (the grunt work and paper shuffling) to set up global digital distribution and to collect and distribute earnings to the artists.  Because Wild Falcon Records does not pay for the recordings and all o

Rule #1 - My band does not play for free Rule #2  - The band will make exceptions for non-profits and some causes - not always though. So anyway, on Sunday, Feb 16, 2014, we played a show for RMC TV (RaleighMusic.com - aka  Raleigh Music Industry Association) and Live & Loud Entertainment at Deep South The Bar in downtown Raleigh NC.  The show is part of a project for Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau and the video may be broadcast on Local TV affiliates of major networks, and some local TV. What does that have to do with a band not playing for free, you might ask.  Simple, we were not paid cash for this gig. Say what, you played for free? Well, yes and no. Instead of cash, we will receive the video and audio of the performance that the Producers decide not to use.  The producers are going to select one of our songs to use, and we get the rest of the video footage and audio. To have that done with the quality of video equipment that was used would have cost

Yep, not only do I own the place, but I am client too.  Here is recording that my band mates and I laid down this month (Jan 2014) at Haggard Studios. I wrote the rhythm guitar part about 15 or 20 years ago.  About five years ago the words started to come together during a blues jam.   The band has been playing various versions of this song live for about four years. Warm Me Up (studio version) - Jimmy Haggard Band The bass player, Rodney Winley, and I have been working on music together for about five years.  He wrote the bass lines for this groove. The drummer, Syneca Foster, joined up with Rodney and I about three ago. Syneca writes all the drum parts. The keyboard player, Sheldon Pugh, is a bassist most of the time, but he plays keys with the Jimmy Haggard Band for the recording sessions, and we are hoping more permanently.  Sheldon wrote the keyboard part for this song during the recording session.  Enjoy the Music! Jimmy