GUITARDOG

DCO's Homepage

BUGLAS1.jpg (29089 bytes)

My name is Doug Oliver and I'm a composer, musician, and producer. For the past five years I've been setting up my home recording studio and studying the art of recording, which these days has become very dependent on technology. The main reason for all the investment of time, money, and effort has been to record, mix, master, duplicate, and distribute CD's of my original music.

In addition to the engineering standpoint, I've also had to develop as a musician in order to be a true solo artist. Having been a guitarist for over twenty years, I had to learn drumming, bass, piano, and singing. This also was a large investment of time, effort, and the expense of buying drum sets, keyboards, a bass, and several vocal microphones.

       My style is mainly a classic rock sound, although I am always trying to inject some blues,fusion,and even classical elements.One example of something unique that I do is to write a classical string arrangement and after an intro and a verse or two, I'll then introduce a rock beat with drums and bass.I'm always experimenting with arrangements, sounds, technology,and harmony.

    My set-up is as follows:

             Instruments: Guitars-Fender Strat,Ibanez RX,Ibanez RG,Ibanez RS,Turser ES 175, EpiPhone"Everly" acoustic, Yamaha FG180 acoustic, Fender 12 string,Roland GR700 w/707 synthesizer.  Bass-Ibanez TR. Drums-Roland TD-5 electronic, SunLite 5pc acoustic set. Keys- Roland Juno-6 synth, Casio CTK 601, Casio CTK-620. Amp - Johnson Millenium, Processors - Degitech RP7, Zoom 4040,Zoom RT123, Crate 4x12 cab, Morley Wah.

        Recording Studio- DAW COMPUTER: Pentium 4 1.9 Ghz, 512mb RDRAM,M-Audio Delta 44 24 bit sound card,CDR, two IBM 40 gig hard drives,4 SCSI hard drives. MIDI AND GENERAL COMPUTER: Pentium 3 -933mhz, 512 mb SDRAM,20 G Maxtor hard drive, CDR, ZIP,USB,Midiman Midisport 2x2 interface,internet cable modem. Sound System:  Fender 3212 mixer,Peavy M3000 power amp,ASP stereo power amp,Tosh PA8250 mixer/amp,Yamaha NS-10 monitors,AKG K240 pro headphones with Apex headphone amp,Boss VT-1 Vocal processor, Symetrix CL 150 compressor,Roberts 2 track Reel/Reel. Stereo Subsystem: Optimus 500w receiver,Optimus duial cassette deck,Technics cassette deck,ADC stereo EQ , 5 pair speakers w/selector box,Scott turntable. Mics: SM57, AKG C1000 and C3000,MXL V57M, Shure BG1.5,Shure Beta 87C,RS 3001,Vtech 1040,PZM mic. Software:CEP 2.0,Cakewalk 9,SAW,n-Track,Sound Forge, Plug ins: Waves,DSP-FX, Cakewalk FX,Timeworks. SoftSynths: ARP X8, SES 303, Reactor, Generator, Lateral Solutions Guitar Synth 2.0. Samplers: Virtual Sampler, Gigasampler.

   Current projects: With over 60 songs, I had a hard time deciding which ones to put on my first CD, but I finally situated all my exsisting songs (and I write new ones all the time)into four or five CDs, the first one was finished in December and I made 50 copies.After reviewing the songs and getting feedback from various people, I've decided to re-record some of the vocal tracks (which seem to be the weak point)and will re-release an improved CD soon. I plan on a rigorous campaign of promotion which will include using the internet to its fullest potential, joining several promotional agencies, submitting my music to dozens of record companies,submitting selected songs to contests, and any other angle possible...

    ....I'm already half finished CD #2 and should be finished by the end of 2005

....I've teamed up with a drummer named Lou Zalvino and a singer - Kevin Anderson, to establish an originals band. We've just started to situate our originals and will soon find a bass player and keyboardist. I create the basic foundation and riffs of the songs, then we all work on the melodies, lyrics, arrangements, etc. Its a fully interactive and creative environment and I personally like the coordination with other musicians (as opposed to my total solo projects and CDs.) Once we're ready, we'll start playing at local venues and hopfully can establish ourselves in the very slim originals band niche. Thusfar we sound GREAT (in my opinion).

    ....I have just finished writing a book entitled "Mindpower for Musicians" which deals with how to sharpen the mind in ways that directly apply to musical creation and performance, such as memory, creativity, concentration, stage fright,dexterity and other aspects of musical skill. I have been working on this for four years, most of which has been research. Its being published by a company called BookSurge and will be ready for sale sometime in January or Febuary. Aside from being promoted on a website I'll be setting up, it'll also be on BookSurge's website as well as Amazon.com. I'll also be working to have it distributed in major music and book stores.

    ...until I start my official website (with domain name), I want to post the following credits for singers who performed on CD #1: Mike Kapler sang on 5 songs. Mike sings and plays guitar for a local cover band called "The Famous Strangers" and has a substancial following in the Levittown club circuit. Paul Bowman sang on one song and also composes and records original music.Examples of his music can be found at http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Paul_Bowman/. Mickey Lee sang on one song and has sang for various local bands over the years.

Bye for now. I'll update this as things develop. Also, I'll be starting a new website ,with its own domain name, to promote as well distribute the CDs.In the meantime I have occassional MP3's posted at http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3rkpk/dcomp3s2222222/ , check them out.

   E-mail: DCO.STUDIOS@VERIZON.NET