About Me



I am an independent musician/engineer who has been recording since 1978. Well, I started recording music off the radio when I was about 10 in 1968 on my dad's old tube reel-to-reel recorder. (wish I still had it)

Some of my philosophy: In the past, ideas like "a fair days work, for a fair days pay" were at the heart of many businesses. In that age, when greed was a bad thing, fairness to one's customers included being careful about costs, waste, and being willing to actually work for the profit one makes. People seem to expect more and more for doing less and less these days. 'Maximized profits' is an evil of our modern times. All things in the modern business philosophy seem to pay homage to this idea of taking every single thing you can, do anything to anyone in the name of profit, and leave nothing for anyone else now or in the future. I reject these ideas. I have found that the ideals of the art and craft movement in early 20th century America are more in line with my thinking. I consider myself a craftsman. I am not a hot shot electronics designer. The circuits I work with are simple and the techniques are well known. I don't claim to have any magic, but I do care very much about build quality. I focus on function more than form. Making custom units pretty adds a lot to the cost. I prefer to spend the money on better components and make the appearance nice without spending too much on it. I am now retired and no longer doing electronics work.

My history with analog and digital recording: I started my own recording efforts bouncing tracks between cassette decks through a mixer and adding tracks each time (1970's.) When I could afford a decent Tascam multi-track reel-to-reel, I got one and started really learning what recording was about. By the time I came along, the days of walking into a recording studio and asking to sweep the floors for free in order to learn the trade were long over. I know. I tried at every commercial studio in the DFW area. I dropped out of college (as a physics major) because I had screwed up and lost my scholarships. My family couldn't afford to pay for my college and I wanted to be a musician anyway, so off I went into the bohemian world of rock music in the 80's. Why did I ignore my natural gifts and pursue this crazy dream? The folly of youth? Because all my heroes were musicians? I don't know. Anyway, back to the relevant stuff: After coming off the road in the 80's, I became enthralled with midi, computers, and the upcoming revolution. I started doing masters in PCM format on videotape in the 80's. My first computers were TI99 and Commodore 64. My first PC had an 8086 CPU. The next machine was an 80386 (1989) and marked the beginning of combining music with computers. I used a time code generator to sync my computer to my reel to reel and started recording midi tracks along with my audio tracks. I still play my WX7 wind controller but have fallen in love with recording real instruments again. The upgrades to my recording chain over the last few years have opened up a whole new world.

I'm a pretty open book. My web sites, my artwork, and my music reveal a lot about me as a person and as a technician. In the 80's, I worked in a variety of project studios as engineer and consulting engineer/producer for some local bands. I don't claim to be some top professional engineer.


I am a sculptor, also. Please visit my artwork site if you are curious. EyeCandy ArtWorks

I am a very self reliant person. I do my own home remodeling, electrical work, electronics work, welding, mechanics, computer building and repair, saxophone restoration, and lots of other stuff. I am an expert mold maker and ran my own business doing sculpture reproduction, mold making, etc. for 10 years. I built my own vacuum chambers and many wet sanding and polishing machines. As a youth, I attended college as a physics major on full scholarships, but girls and music cut my formal education short. I come from a lower middle class family who couldn't even think of paying for college for their kids. I am still fond of cosmology, physics, and all the sciences. I abhor pseudo-science. I taught high school physics at a local high school for a year. I rose to head of R & D for a small company developing products for use in metal foundries, but that was when the rust belt was dying and I left to start my sculpture business. Through all my life, music and music production has been my main love (besides my wife of 35+ years: Lisa.) I "gave it up and sold my stuff" for a few years, but there was no escaping that easy and I was soon back at it. I play the following instruments: Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet, Trombone, Baritone horn, Electric, Acoustic and Bass guitars, WX7 wind controller, keyboards, and percussion. One of the things that surprises a lot of people is that my brother and I built our own 43,000 gal. in-ground concrete swimming pool.

I've been married to, and kept alive by, my beautiful wife Lisa, for over 35 years now. We have lived a simple, quiet life out here in the boondocks Northwest of Ft. Worth since coming off the road for the last time in the late 80's. We have no children but we have other creatures we share our lives with: dogs, llamas, a cat, plus the many wild animals that roam our land: coyotes, road runners, deer, hawks, owls, wild turkeys, raccoons, armadillos, beavers, etc. etc. etc...

The closest I ever got to "making it" as a musician was when the band I was in (Dreamscape; renamed to Strength in Numbers for obvious reasons) won Musician magazine's national best unsigned band competition. We had a manager named Jim Hammond. He was negotiating a deal with a label in NY for us when he was killed in the Reba McEntire plane crash. After that, the record deal and the band died too. C' est la mort. RIP, absent friends.

I appreciate listeners and my best music is available here: http://jim-n-lisa.com
Someday I'll finish a CD for sale, ... if I can beat down this perfection monster. Most of the music was recorded a few years ago before I started building my tube preamps. I have been busy with building my preamps and establishing a reputation, but there will be some very different sounding material coming from Jim-n-Lisa if the fates allow.

2021 update: I am no longer doing electronics work and the fates did not allow. A variety of health and disability issues ended my working life and my musical skills have deteriorated to the point where attempting to play is an exercise in frustration.


Jim-n-Lisa
JnL link