Star date -77695.1: No, I’m not really that much of a Star Trek fan ( I love the campy original series) and the photo is just cool.
Damian Baca talked about journaling. There will be MUCH more on Damian because what a journey and story he has!
Never really did it for music production like he speaks of but it is a great idea. Also, I don’t like the fact that as I write this, I have this bogus content on the site as I get it ready for prime time. You could say people can watch this site changing over time. It’s tough having the full time job sprinkled with music projects in there and of course family and every day life.
Yeah, yeah, waa-waa! Just start typing pal!!
Having only come back into this a few years ago, things have changed since my analog days. But the basics haven’t and keeping them in mind has served me well to reacclimate myself. Not just with audio but with my approach towards music and marketing. I am online all day for work and the thought of doing the same when I get home is mind numbing so I just don’t! But then again, I don’t have to because I am not pushing myself that hard to fill my plate seeing I work full time. To be honest, I’m not looking at all because I don’t have to. And the ironic part is that people are still finding me online!
Also, what I have for work projects lined up will take me through 2024. MASSIVE projects, business infrastructure projects that will make my studio work seem like a vacation.
What I have been doing in the realm of music and audio is going to the local clubs, prefer the ones that host live original music. I usually talk to the engineers and those who play. I started doing sound once a month for the Rose Garden Coffeehouse in Mansfield, MA recently and record the shows in multitrack format to SSD off a QSC Touchmix . They get remixed and mastered in my studio and sync’d with the video taken by Steve Ide, Manager of Rose Garden. All this networking expands not just my reach but my mind. I learn new things, get inspiration and ideas from where I go, what I see and who I meet. It all means something. While Steve gives me credit for the audio, I just captured the audio from the board to send to his Zoom but Killeeshil didn’t want to use the PA and would only let me use an X-Y mic pair to capture and that’s it; can’t do much with that. Too bad, they were entertaining and should have because their sound didn’t fill the room either. I recommended against not using the PA and it surely hurt the quality of the show because they didn’t. I have since set an audio quality standard that Steve understands and appreciates.
So let’s contrast the video audio from multitrack raw audio I did capture straight to SSD. From right after the preamps direct to the SSD. I also did a 5-minute quikmix after the show when I got home around 11PM ( I had to hear it!) of first act, Erin Ash Sullivan’s first song, Radio Show from a previous show; cool track and love her voice! This was my first attempt to pull audio off the Rose Garden’s QSC Touchmix I never seen, never mind worked with. I didn’t mix this night either; just captured the audio and brought it back to my studio on separate tracks.
Erin’s Radio Show:
Multitrack Raw Capture direct to SSD:
The 5-minute Quikmix/master of the above RAW Capture
The wheel has been turning slow lately because life keeps getting in the way and a lot of it hasn’t been good. This weekend, I planned to mix but we had a Noah-type flood, our sump pump clogged (unbeknownst to us) and when we came home after going out to dinner, we had 8″ of water in our basement. My wife, Suzanne and I spent awhile doing the bucket brigade to get the level down and then I was able to unclog the sump pump. Any higher and we would be spending over $8,000 to put in a new furnace. I would have rather have had the 22″ of snow they got up north. I chatted with David Case in Vermont and Rob Gourlay in New Hampshire who were heading out to both play Mr. Plow. We have the strangest weather in New England. it throws the best laid plans to ruins constantly. Next thing you know, power lines are down, streets are blocked from flooding and all you can do is WAIT! It will take weeks for the water table to go down where it’s not filling the basement but the streets are fine and no power lines down this time. I have to keep a watch on the sump pump for a bit before I can get in the well and give it a thorough cleaning. Yes, this all interrupts what is suppose to be a daily flow but such is life. Deal with it!
But I digress.
Right now I just sent a rough mix of a song I am working on over to Steve Shola; Janice McWilliams‘ brother’s F*cked Side Of Town. Very 70s vibe to it. Pretty good players for sure but it is a garage recording; tons of pops and clicks, bleed and everything you would expect for something recorded in a garage. You can only get it so good so you introduce elements to detract from what you can’t fix and I do not replace someone’s legacy for the sake of making the track sound like it was recorded at a million dollar studio and I can feel good about it. Not my style! Janice did the bulk of the songs for the album and talk about audio boot camp! She will definitely come out a far better engineer at the end than when she started. She is eager to learn and works hard. I can hear her progress.
F*ck Side a bit of a tough going but Janice is a sweetheart who has collaborated with us and did parts like she was a fly on the wall listening to us talking about what we hoped she would do in certain parts of the song. She NAILED it! When she needs my help, I am there because if I do, she’ll be there. That’s how many of us roll in TRE.
There are bigger plans for this yet-to-be-released song than there was just yesterday. A confluence of events that began with the lowest of lows could turn into something beyond incredible. National organizations could be involved. And if that wasn’t freaky enough, I spoke to some in TRE today who wrote something with a very similar message that may be able to be added to what is in the works. The plans are very big and very bold. The thing is, we have access to all the right resources to make it REAL!
I just can’t talk about it due to legalities at this time and we are dealing with sensitive matters. Some things need to be ironed out but once they are, watch out!
The biggest thing Steve and I have done to date we didn’t anticipate nor would have ever dreamed of; the work we’ve done with Abby “AJ” Javery (her studio nickname is Abs – a hockey thing because I am big into hockey and I always swim against the stream. That defines who I am.
Read Abby Javery’s story here!
I spent yesterday and today reaching out to people on Abby’s behalf to see if they would write to Berklee to put in a good word for her and sent the article that is on the Rehoboth Reporter website to other area papers to get it PRINTED! I will be very ticked if it ends up in print in those papers and not my home town paper because I wouldn’t PAY to have news printed in it.
That’s not news, it’s a freakin ad! Let’s hope I am wrong when the April print edition comes out.
Okay, that’s enough for now. I’m tired… Ciao!
Andy
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