The making of Sonic Clang's Studio Videos (updated 11-06-06)

BAD --- ASS ! ! ! I don't think anyone simply casually LIKES Dream Theater. You either love them, or you hate them. And when you love them, you REALLY love them. For at least 5 years they were the only music I listened to and the only concerts I ever went to. My friends and I are official DT nuts. We love them. :)

I'm sorry I've taken your thread so far off tipic... (Well, kind of sorry. ;-)) But I'll just say, I understand, and it's always great to make acquaintence of fellow fans. 8) As far as the custom window tint job goes, I was kind of inspired by this car from a few years ago. Mine's a little more subtle though. --Keith :mrgreen:

Part 4 is now up! :) This is a fun one. Lots of drywalling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NI-iUplQQg

Nicely done! But I think you need some more "don't do it like this" disclaimers! ;-) Some people might jump into a later episode and miss all the stuff you said in the first one or two. --Keith :mrgreen:

I'm just trying to cram as much footage into them as possible. You only get 10 minutes per video on youtube. I figured since I had the disclaimer at the beginning of part 2 that would cover me. I suppose I can start putting more disclaimers in from here on.

Great video... I saw the info about "9/11" on the screen but what about the other dates?? Were they correct? Thanx!

You could sprinkle the disclaimers in now and then -- kind of like you corrected the "Z channel" reference. (Nicely done!) Just remember -- every single one of us was completely ignorant of everything at one point in our lives. ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

camistan, every date was correct. Every now and then I may have forgotten to switch the time for daylight savings time or whatever, so it may be an hour off or so, but the dates were all correct. There was a point I think in part 2 where someone accidentally turned off the date, but we noticed relatively quickly. Good point sharwood.

sharward wrote:

...Just remember -- every single one of us was completely ignorant of everything at one point in our lives. ;-) ...

Hey! I resemble that remark!.... (btw, what does that mean?) AND! you've just GOT to see the video on that site of the crazy cats...

Did you see the one of the cockroach controlling the robot???

Luftweg wrote:

sharward wrote:

...Just remember -- every single one of us was completely ignorant of everything at one point in our lives. ;-) ...

Hey! I resemble that remark!.... (btw, what does that mean?)

Argh -- after I posted that I wondered if that would cause confusion and/or hurt feelings, neither of which is what I intended. My esoteric and awkward point is that we as human beings start out as blank slates, knowing virtually nothing, and that the ignorance melts away as we learn. I should also point out that the footage is about six years old, which is several years before this forum was launched and more than five years before Rod wrote his book. My intent with the remark is to underscore that learning from the mistakes of others is a great thing, and that we all are very appreciative of not only the efforts but also the courage to post these videos for everyone's eduacational benefit. 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

That's right, I started my studio before John had this site. John and I used to talk a lot back at the homerecording.com forums in late '99 and 2000. After I started posting a bunch of pictures of my studio, John decided to start the "Studios Under Construction" site, and for a while his and my studios were the only ones on there. When I started my studio I remember not being able to find any pictures of studios actually UNDER construction. The pictures I did find were not very detailed at all. So we made up a lot of stuff when we started my studio. The sharing of information over this site and others like it has really made things a lot easier. If I were to start over, knowing what I know now, I would have made a lot less mistakes and we would have wasted a lot less time doing stupid crap.

sharward wrote:

Argh -- after I posted that I wondered if that would cause confusion and/or hurt feelings, neither of which is what I intended. My esoteric and awkward point is that we as human beings .....

When I was very small, and I heard 'human being', I thought people were saying 'human BEAN'.... Anyway, I don't think there was any offense on your part, and I myself was just quoting the Three Stooges.... lol

SonicClang wrote:

Did you see the one of the cockroach controlling the robot???

Just saw it.... Okay. That guy has got waaaayyy too much time on his hands.... Just think: people are out there striving to find ways to end World hunger, cure AIDS and cancer, stop wars, etc.... And THIS guy is spending his time building golf carts for insects to drive themselves around in .... And as if there isn't enough cars on the road, now we'll have to waste another hour driving home from work because it's not good enough for some lame-ass cockroach to simply crawl to it's next infestation site.... I'm sure the Nobel Foundation is listening in on this one.... LoL :lol:

Well honestly you could make the same argument about my videos. :) Sure, I could be out there looking for a cure for cancer, but I choose to make videos of my friends and I acting like dorks in my basement building a studio.

You are right. Point well taken... (and besides, I was just trying to do a sardonic rant -- all in 'fun', and not serious) Frankly, I enjoyed your vids... and who knows? ... maybe through some strange serendipidy, you will create a polyurethane foam creature thingy that MAY resemble the molecular structure of some cancer-killing drug? THAT might not only put you in the running for the Nobel, but could also land you on Leno, and in the National Enquirer.... as well as scoring a contract with Merck. AND I shouldn't be talking; I have just recently been convicted of re-inventing the UPS (No, not the United Parcel Service -- the uniterupted power supply... yet I only really did an adaptation to a specific need)... :lol: Lesson to be learned, in the Twilight Zone.... :shock: So, keep them vids coming to us! K

SonicClang wrote:

Well honestly you could make the same argument about my videos. :) Sure, I could be out there looking for a cure for cancer, but I choose to make videos of my friends and I acting like dorks in my basement building a studio.

The truly long-awaited part 5 is finally here. I apologize for the long wait on this one, I had been putting one out every week for a month and this one took me 3 weeks to wrap up. I had a good reason though; I was actually trying to FINISH the studio, which I’m sure you can understand. The reason for wanting to finish it up was because a reporter for a local newspaper came over to interview me about the studio and take pictures. There was a ton of work to be done before things were photo friendly, so my wife and I worked every day for two weeks straight mudding and painting and installing doors so it wouldn’t look like a construction zone anymore, but rather a real studio. Sometimes in life you need those little outside influences to push you to get work done that would normally take much longer. The reporter came and he was very impressed by what he saw, and the pictures he took looked great. So once the story runs in the paper I’ll scan some of it for everyone here so you can share in my joy. We take a slight departure from construction in this episode, but that's only because I've got some footage from Halloween 2000 that's too funny not to share with people, and when else will I get the chance to show it to anyone? Everyone who's watched all the videos so far feel like they know us, so it's the perfect opportunity. I hope you enjoy it and don’t feel like I’m ripping you off of quality studio construction watching. Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98MOYVfyKy4

You guys are a hoot.... The video is great, replete with white guys dancing, and man-titties... Btw, I was totally convinced by that shower-cap-bald-head thing.... K

I rather enjoyed the Return of the Jedi re-enactment. I bet you never knew George Lucas cut out Luke setting down his beer to take off Vader's helmet at the end. Amazing. :)

I seriously think you guys should form a comedy troupe... Look out Mad TV, SNL, and even Dane Cook!!...... Of course, you would still need some theatrical training/coaching and a serious sitdown to write material.... I'd think about it.... From Sonic Clang... to Comic Clang.... K

Have you seen the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia"? I can't find proof of it anywhere, but a friend of mine told me that show go its start on youtube. Hey, I'm open to anything. :) If my friends and I somehow became TV stars from this I wouldn't mind. It would be pretty wacky though if that happened!!

Part 6 is finally done and live on youtube.com!!!! Please check it out! http://youtube.com/watch?v=jSse-vWlQrE

Cool! I was getting tired of the reruns. ;-) So, are those junction boxes actually accessible? :roll: I'm interested in your "what you would do differently if you could do it all over again" thoughts. I'm also curious how long you guys thought it would take you to finish! If you're like the rest of us, it was way shorter than reality! :lol: Another thing I'm curious about... Who owns the house? --Keith :mrgreen:

The junction boxes are accessable, as is everything above the ceiling. The ceiling we put up is completely removable... you'll see more of that in part 7 :) It would take two people and a couple of 2 X 4's as wedges to take a ceiling tile down, but it wouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get down. It's important to point out that I soldered all the wires together in those junction boxes. Loose connections are the enemy. This is the kind of work I do for a living, electrical stuff. I'm the most paranoid person I know about fire safety. I'd do a hundred things differently if I could start over. Most of what I would have redone though I already have. I've done a lot of re-work over the last 6 1/2 years. Since I had done some construction with my dad I of course thought it would only take 6 months to finish the studio. But man, the 6 month mark passed when we were still working every day down here and every weekend for 16 hours. That was obviously a completely unrealistic goal, which I soon realized once construction got under way. In 2000 both my brother and I owned the house, but I had the money for the down payment, so it was "more" mine than his. But now my wife and I own the house. He hasn't lived here for 3 years.

It's all like a 'Norm-Abrahms-meets-The-Three-Stooges-meets-Charlie-Brown-meets-the-Real-World' kinda thing.....