Substation Onyx

Welcome to the Substation Onyx blog! If you’re here, it means you’re just as passionate about audio equipment, sound quality, and sonic creativity as we are!

My name is Aric, and I’ll be writing a majority of the blog posts. I’m a metalhead, a djent kid, a worship arts guitarist, an electrical engineer, an audio engineer, and an all-around nerd. I’ve done a lot of stuff in the 10+ years I’ve been fooling around with audio electronics and producing music: I’ve built my own guitar, I’ve been a guitar and amp tech, I’ve modified several amplifiers, I’ve written two full music albums, I’ve mixed and mastered music for myself and others, and most recently, I’ve started building guitar pedals.

Substation Onyx is my studio, designed to offer way more than just standard audio services. Music and music technology occupies my mind like nothing else. If you think you’ve got the same disease I have, then you’ve come to the right place.

Why this gear blog?

There’s a lot of music gear blogs. A lot of gear forums. And a looooooot of opinions. And in all that chatter, a lot of important things get lost. A lot of unrealistic hype surrounding a mystical overdrive pedal or a rare vintage guitar sometimes causes us to lose our own opinions on it and replace them with an agreeing or opposing opinion. What also tends to get lost is perhaps the most important aspect of any piece of equipment: the application.

Necessity is the mother of invention. All equipment is developed to solve a problem. While many pieces of equipment have been adopted for roles they weren’t intended for, in my opinion, providing a solution to a problem should be the primary consideration in determining gear’s worth. And THAT is what this blog is about: the application of gear.

When I was in high school, I got the opportunity to arrange Cheap Trick’s “The Flame” with the choir I performed in. One day, while I was talking with the choir director regarding a certain part of the song, we had a slight disagreement on who got to sing a solo part. The director walked me through his reasoning, and said that while he thought that the person I wanted to perform the part had a great voice, his choice was more suited for a rock song. His belief was that almost every sound is a good one, and can be pleasing, but not every sound is appropriate for a given part. The same thing is true about gear, and I think that’s something that a lot of us forget when we argue over gear on forums or partake in the craze surrounding a new piece of kit.

Maybe one week I’ll write about a guitar pedal that I’ve been toying with. The next week I may discuss my favorite amplifier, or maybe a cool VST plug-in. Each time, however, I’ll assume you can use Google to watch or read about the feature set of a product yourself. I’ll leave reviews to YouTubers. I certainly have no intentions in becoming a gear influencer, telling you what and what not to buy. I’m far more interested in sharing how I use gear to affect my sound and how useful I found that gear in fulfilling a role. I want this blog to inspire you to look at the tools you have at your disposal and find good applications for them. I hope you’ll join me in my little adventures with music equipment.