You Get NOTHING!

You get NOTHING!...when you try to play the audio files here on the blog. 

My apologies: my account with FreeAudioPlayerWithHugeUglyAdsThatCannotBeRemoved has lapsed.  Please bear with me, while I find a new host, and re-upload everything.

P.S. Gene Wilder is the one and only true Wonka.

P.P.S. If you haven't already, you ought to check out Speed-Fi Productions.  Mr Przygoda and I can get your album done (record, mix, master) in as little as TWO WEEKS.  Things have been so busy with that - that's why no recent blog updates here...

The Orchestra As Sardines

I spent the first weekend of 2011 recording a small orchestra in a small hall. Or rather, HALLWAY. 8^)#

The performance space measured about ten feet wide by fifteen feet high by thirty feet long. The performers numbered eleven: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, french horn, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, drums/percussion, piano. Plus the composer/conducter Mike Przygoda, and the recordist, yours truly.

There were a few six by eight foot practice rooms attached to the main area, and a baby grand piano in an alcove by the entrance.

With a bit of discussion about the (generally poor) room acoustics, and musician-to-conducter sight lines, and what multiple microphones would be likely to introduce in the way of phase cancellation, we decided on the following:

Still shoot for a stereo recording - mono would solve the phase problems, but finding a sweet spot for it would take too long, and anyway, stereo is almost always better...

Percussion items and drumset in a practice room with a single overhead mic (CAD M179 set to cardioid pattern). Piano lid on half-stick with a few winter coats placed over the opening, mic'ed inside with two AT4040's. Maestro Przygoda in the center of the room, conducting directly under the ten-foot tall mic stand (almost against the wall, holding two more CAD M179's, cardioid pattern, two or three feet apart, angled slightly outward). The rest of the musicians spread out across the room in a big arc, all facing the conducter, strings toward the left, woodwinds toward the right.

Recordist in the other practice room.

So here is a quick mix of one of the twenty-four pieces we recorded that weekend.




This is the primary stereo pair with some added reverb, and the unprocessed percussion track added in to the center. No stereo piano tracks added, as there is no piano in this piece.

After listening, I think I could add just a bit more volume on the percussion...what do you think?

"Dishes" Live At Martyr's

So here's a little example of some live recording - from this past summer's Diana & The Dishes cd-release party at Martyr's in Chicago. The track is titled "If You're Not Mine", and features some groovy banjo work by multi-instrumentalist Mike Przygoda.

This is a "matrix"-ed recording, a mix of the house P.A. (line out) and my binaural recording head Lamont (microphones), time-shifted, equalized, compressed, limited and high-quality mp3'ed for your listening pleasure.

Photo by Bil Gaines



If you happen to enjoy the song, you might want to pick up the album "Take A Picture", HERE or HERE.

WWGJD?

...which of course stands for "What Would Glyn Johns Do?"

Recording the band Rego a few months back, I used the "Glyn Johns method" for recording the drums. I was VERY pleased with the results.

Glyn Johns has worked with such artists as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Easybeats, The Band, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Eric Clapton, The Clash, The Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, Spooky Tooth, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Blue Öyster Cult, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Midnight Oil, New Model Army, Belly, Joe Satriani, Ronnie Lane, Rod Stewart with Faces, Joan Armatrading, Buckacre, Gallagher and Lyle, Georgie Fame, Family, Helen Watson, Fairport Convention and many others. Suffice it to say, THE GUY KNOWS HIS STUFF.

The Glyn Johns method uses only four microphones to cover the entire drumset.

The real backbone to the method is the 2 "overhead" mics: not actually placed overhead in the current mega-mic way, but with the "left side" mic directly over the snare drum facing straight down, and the "right side" mic 6-8 inches above the floor tom, facing the snare and high-hat. These cardioid mics must be equidistant from the center of the snare head. Although I often see people suggesting small-diaphragm condensers for these overheads (and SDC's are a better choice if using them as regular overheads, to pick up primarily cymbals), I don't think that they pick up the *entire* drumset as well as large-diaphragm condensers - so, my pair of AT4040's got used (with the 10db pad engaged). Both forty inches away from the snare (use your tape measure, get them exactly the same distance!). Pan these tracks halfway left and halfway right for a natural stereo balance.

The other 2 mics are just there to reinforce the overheads: a snare mic (I used a Shure BG4.0, SDC, clipped to the top rim, pointed at the center of the snare head, null side toward the high hat) and a kick drum mic (I used a Heil PR40, cardioid dynamic, goes down to 28Hz, 145 SPL, about 6 inches away from the drum, with a surrounding tunnel of a few acoustic foam pads).

No effects on the overheads, some EQ and compression on the snare and kick. Fifteen minutes to set up. Does it get any better than this?



Stephanie Whiton on the drums...sounds a bit like John Bonham to me. Now I've got to find an empty three-story stairwell, so I can get that killer live reverb!

The PAWNS - First Line Of Defense

January 19th, the Pawns had their cd-release party at Martyr's in Chicago. Yes, the album that was recorded in less than a week (and pared down, mixed and mastered in only a year!) is finally finished. It's titled "First Line Of Defense", and if you happened to come to the show at Martyr's, you were treated to a free copy of the album: quite a special release, since the cd came in a 45-rpm-style sleeve, along with a full double-sided lyric sheet, sticker, and three buttons!

The show was a rousing success - the band managed quite well, even though there was barely enough room on stage for the multiple keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, drumset, bass, vibraphone, cello, and a bunch of amps, let alone the handful of guest musicians!

The Pawns rocked - here's the song "Off Limits" which I recorded at the show (with the help of my binaural aide, Lamont):



And because I'm so proud of the work we did on the album (mixed and mastered here at the Moonroom!), here's a song from the album, "Howard Street":



Now, there has been talk in the band that they may make this album a digital download ONLY release. If that ends up being the case, these cd's in this special package are going to be the ONLY physical release of the album.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this special release while there are still some left, contact Mike Przygoda at mprzygoda#hotmail.com (replace the # symbol with the @ symbol). I would urge you to get one while you can.

Voice Actor Mark Kettner

Mr Mark Kettner decided that it was time to get himself a job in the world of voice-overs. So we worked together on producing a demo recording which would showcase his pleasant, trustworthy voice in several different styles.

Several ads were included: humorous "gardening", hot cereal, high-class automobile, and blue-collar Christmas.

Also a few theatrical bits, and some technical medical and office paragraphs, and a couple of historical pieces on the ancient Maya and Rudolph (the Sheik) Valentino.

All in all, a very nice representation of work that seemed very well-suited to Mark's mellifluous tones.

But for the opening "grabber" track, Mark chose a mashup that we did, which included bits of most of those recordings, strung together in a humorous ping-pong stereo presentation.

Here it is:




If you have some voiceover work that needs to be done, please contact Mark at

mark_kettner@yahoo.com

Gus Stagg Records

I hooked up recently with my old friend Gus Stagg, who was out playing a local festival. For some inexplicable reason, Gus did not have any cd's of his music to offer the music-hungry crowd (which is always a good way to make a few extra bucks, especially since the work has already been done).

After a little while catching up, we decided to do some work together: he does the musical stuff, and I hit "Record". Since Gus does his best singing and playing (guitar and harmonica) all together live, that's what we're shooting for in these recorded versions. I've just got him set up here in the Moonroom, with a Mid-Side microphone setup to pick up the performance in stereo, and a clip-in acoustic guitar pickup for a bit of reinforcement.



Here's a video of the song "Einstein" - "He knew his 'rithmatic", indeed!

The Pawns

Mike Przygoda and Company (aka "The Pawns") and I have been secretly working on a phenomenal audio project - we've been working on mixing this upcoming release for several months now. Originally some TWENTY-NINE songs recorded with up to THIRTY-SIX tracks, it has now been pared down to about nineteen songs, and mixed down to two tracks (that's *stereo*, for you neophytes!).

Here is a hybrid from the sessions: the song is called "The Only One". The mix is a composite of a very early live performance of the song (I believe when the song was only a few days old!), a quick mix of the original recorded tracks, and a more polished "prefinal" mix.

And howbout that groovy/ugly cd cover I threw together? "Pawns? I thought you said Prawns!"...just look closely and nod like you get the joke.

Stay tuned for updates about the exciting release...

More Polish Audio Drama

Here's some newly-restored thirty-year-old Polish radio drama, freshly baked here at the Moonroom...as all "quality" Shamrock tape should be. This show is called "Rzeznia", which I believe translates as "Slaughterhouse".

This was about 2 hours of audio, spread out on five reels. I hear lots of excellent acting, even though I can't understand what is being said (bummer!).

I'm not sure whether it's a very HEAVY human drama, or a horror show...maybe it's just better not knowing. Check out the audio snippet below:

The Newest Oldest Recording

This beautiful archaic device is a PHONAUTOGRAPH. Invented in 1857 by Frenchman Leon Scott deMartinville, a printer and writer, it was created to show how sound waves looked: possibly as as an "oral shorthand". The idea being that one could LOOK at the squiggly lines and tell what had been said (!).




The original design (1857) used a barrel-shaped wood-and-plaster horn (the auricle) and scratched the sound waves into a lampblacked glass cylinder. A later design (1859) changed the horn to a more tapered metal horn, and transferred the scratches to a blackened piece of paper wrapped around a cylinder. Notice how there is even decorative scrollwork shown on the original diagram of the machine!




SO - my point being, they've just discovered phonautograms from 1860 that are able to be "played" and are recognizable - predating the other "earliest" recordings (from 1888)! There are a few other, older phonautograms, but they only sound like squawks and warbles...nothing recognizable.





Here is a phonautogram, showing the white scratch in the lampblack (soot) on paper. The sort of sad thing about the phonautograph is that is was NOT for reproducing sound, just for creating a representation of sound on paper. The phonautograms that were recently discovered had to be digitally scanned and "played" in a virtual environment. Leon Scott died in 1879, penniless and for the most part, forgotten. At least Thomas Edison knew that people would want to HEAR their recordings of sounds, and not just LOOK at them! What the heck would people ever use a GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION of sound for, anyway?!?




Listen to the earliest known recorded sound that we can recognize HERE.



"Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit" - it has an otherworldly, sort of ethereal quality to it...and what more would one expect from sound salvaged from SMOKE?!? Time travel, indeed...

Another Sample

And here's another quick sample: this is a track by Paddy Leitsch titled "Untitled Number Two". This was recorded live in a small club this past February. Paddy is the only person playing on stage, the rest of the band is just his own backing tracks playing through the PA. Tentatively calling this "GUITARAOKE", he plans on doing some gigs with this same lineup in the future.

I know that the crowd was certainly interested in what was going on - they kept looking around for the rest of the musicians, surprised to see just one guy onstage, shredding on his lit-up guitar! They hadn't seen anything like this before! Groovy.

This was simply recorded with Lamont (my binaural dummy head), and a bit of reinforcement from the original recorded tracks. Try it with headphones on - you'll get the feeling that you're sitting in the front row, with people all around you. Small club, no way to get away from the patrons...

Go check out Paddy's latest album HERE.

Check out his site HERE. (Yes, "Guitar Dragon Dojo" is him.)

Check him out live, when he plays near you!

Some Audio

Here's an audio example of some of my recent work. This is a Chicago group calling themselves "Her Majesty's Secret Service", doing their renditions of some of the best James Bond soundtrack music. They play the stuff live, IN COSTUME. Too cool.

We did the entire five-song demo in two recording sessions - the first session was drums, bass, guitar and keyboard, laid down live. The second session was overdubs of the four-piece brass ensemble and vocals. A bit of post-production tweaking and preliminary mixing by me, then a few hours of final mixdown with the producer, and voila! (be sure to say the "V", yer an idiot if you say "wallah") - finished demo: ready to play for club owners and get hired and make some money!

I have to admit that calling this "work" makes me feel a little guilty. I really enjoyed the sessions, and working with every one of the musicians involved. What fun! If the recording sounds good, it's mostly their fault. I just hit the "record" button.

Click below for the track.

Enjoy!