Loh Productions

Recording Studio Internship Tips - Tip #4 - Maintaining Relationships

2012-01-06T13:27:00.000-05:00

Happy 2012 everybody. Sorry I fell off of keeping the blog updated the last couple of weeks. Here's a new (but very short) article for Recording Studio Internship Tips.

While I have been away the past couple of weeks in Paris, and having been previously occupied with the Stone Cold Fox project, I haven't been to either of my internships in over a month. Interns come and go all the time at studios, make sure you keep up your relations with the engineers and studio managers. You never know what opportunities may arise, or what connections and contacts they may have that can be helpful to your pursuit of a music career. I have seen a lot of interns during my time at Stratosphere and a lot of them leave because the internship wasn't working out for them, but a lot of them are friends with the studio manager and engineers and their professional relationship continues outside of the internship at the studio.

During your time at your internship, make sure to get to know all the personel there well! Get friendly with the other interns too. They are your colleagues and are pursuing their own careers alongside with you. The music community is about supporting each other and helping each other out. Once you befriend these guys and gals, keep in contact with them. Send them holiday greetings via email, try and meet up with them for a coffee or a drink sometime.

2011-12-26T07:24:00.000-05:00

We have just released the Stone Cold Fox EP. They are available for free download for a limited time, as a holiday gift. Check it out and pass the word along to your friends! We will be playing some shows in NYC this coming year.

Stone Cold Fox - American

2011-12-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

We just released our first track off the Stone Cold Fox EP. The rest of the EP will be out shortly.

AMERICAN by STONECOLDFOX

Songs by Kevin Olken
Produced, engineered, mixed by Ariel Loh
Mastered by Jonathan Jetter
Performed by Kevin Olken, Ariel Loh, Skylar Adler, and John Cummings

Stone Cold Fox + Duplex Update

2011-12-11T23:50:00.000-05:00

I realize I have been slacking on updating the blog. Today Kevin Olken and I finished mixing the Stone Cold Fox EP. We are sending it out for mastering soon and will hopefully have the final masters back within a week. A first song will be released on Christmas day, you can find it here on the blog then.

I am finishing up finals this week and will be heading out to Paris this Thursday to enjoy my winter break and work on music for Duplex with Gaspard.

Stone Cold Fox Recording Update

2011-12-04T23:55:00.000-05:00

Kevin Olken and myself have been on a recording marathon the last couple of days. Unfortunately I have not been able to update much, and failed to take any photos during the recent sessions. We our nearing completion on our 5 song debut EP. On Thursday, we re-recorded some guitar parts. I spent all day Friday mixing. Yesterday we did a nine hour session recording trumpet and vocals. Today we worked on synths and finishing production touches on the songs before our last day of vocal tracking tomorrow. Things are really starting to take shape and I'm excited for the mixing stage that will be in full swing by this weekend. Stay tuned for more updates.

Stone Cold Fox Recording

2011-11-30T01:08:00.000-05:00

Kevin Olken and I have been working as a new band entitled Stone Cold Fox. We spent all day today at Stratosphere recording electric guitars for our debut EP coming this winter in the new year. Here are some photos from today's session.

Kevin in Studio B with a selection of a Gibson Les Paul, Fender Telecaster, and an Epiphone Casino, all used on the recordings.

Using a e-bow and slide to achieve a cello-like sound.

Recording all the guitars through a Vox AC30 with an on axis SM57 and off Axis Royer 121.

Recording Studio Internship Tips - Tip #3 - Learn The Basics

2011-11-26T10:53:00.003-05:00

So you got your internship and you are starting your first day. An intern's job is to do all the dirty/busy work that needs to be taken care of in a studio to help things run smoothly. So before you try and stick your head into the control room, learn the basics of what you need to do to help the studio function on the lowest level.

Every studio will have a different "routine" for the interns, especially at the beginning and end of the days, and then a separate routine for throughout the day. For the most part, the basics are pretty obvious: general cleanliness, make sure that there is coffee, that the garbage cans are emptied, that the bathroom/kitchen is stocked, and any day to day tasks the studio manager/owner or engineers ask of you. These are pretty general things for all studios but the details will vary from studio to studio.

Of course you'll be excited to have your new internship but it's not all glamorous. Pay attention to detail even in the mundane cleaning tasks and stay busy (or equally important, look busy). There are always things that can be cleaned or reorganized. Once the studio sees you can master these simple tasks and responsibilities in an efficient manner, they will then give you more trust to help IN the studio. Before you jump the gun, prove yourself, be nice, and stay humble. Being helpful and easy going along with a good work ethic will take you a long way (much further than a know-it-all).

When I first started my internship at Stratosphere Sound, I was still in the entry stage where my only responsibilities only required cleaning. A famous client was in the studio, we'll call him JJ to leave out names, and had just finished smoking a joint. I was on my toes about cleaning and threw out the roach after he left. I was then told I shouldn't have done that since it was huge joint and there was still a lot left in the roach and I didn't know if she was going to come back. That was my first major mistake at Stratosphere, but luckily they were understanding of it. Since then I've been known as "the intern who threw out JJ's joint" and the story is told to all the new interns we get. You live and you learn.

Stay tuned for another edition of RSIT (hopefully on time this Monday)

Street Level Revisited

2011-11-23T19:32:00.004-05:00

Happy early Thanksgiving! I realize I haven't posted an internship tip article for this week so I will have to make that up to you guys. I've been back home in Chicago this week and had a chance to go back and visit Street Level, a youth media center where I spent a summer learning and helping at in 2007. They have moved to a new location since, and have been building out their need recording studio space (picture below). I also swung by Electrical Audio and said hi to everybody there. It was great to see and catch up with everybody. Best wishes to Street Level and their new space, if you are in the Chicago area, make sure to go check them out.

Music I'm Currently Diggin' - The Naked And Famous

2011-11-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

The Naked And Famous have 2 EP's entitled This Machine and the other No Light. Go check them out, they are an awesome combination of the hip-swaying upbeat feel in hipster dance electronica and the dirty distorted synth and guitar in Nine Inch Nails. These were released a while back but I just found out about them now and can't stop listening to them.

InSound Presents Fred Perry Artist Lounge

2011-11-16T22:00:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the AES parties that took place at the two studios I work at. One of which was Stratosphere's Artist Lounge event which hosted a number of bands in a live recording session marathon. The final product has been released as a free mixtape by InSound. Feature acts include Weekend, Gauntlet Hair, Widowspeak, Caveman, WATERS, Tall Ships, and 1, 2, 3.

Check it out at InSound

Mid Side

2011-11-16T21:37:00.002-05:00

Here's a picture from my recording session today of a Mid-Side microphone setup. This is the first time I've personally experimented with MS miking and it turned out really nice. We were recording acoustic guitar and it's really nice being able to control the center and the sides separately giving you total control on width and focus of the sound source. It's nice compared to recording in XY or spaced pairs where it's total stereo, in MS you can get a pretty focused mono sound (which I usually prefer in acoustic guitar tracks) and give it a little bit of width, dimension and space.

MS miking is pretty simple. You'll need 2 microphones, one in cardioid and one in bi-directional/figure-8, in my picture below the Violet Amethyst (pictured on top) is the cardioid condenser microphone acting as the center or "mid", which will face directly at the sound source, and the Cascade Fathead (pictured on the bottom) is a bi-directional ribbon microphone acting as the "side", which will face perpendicular to the sound source. Once you have them recorded on two separate tracks, run them through a MS matrix/encoder and you're done. Now you can adjust your stereo balance by changing the levels of each track.

My New Toy Piano

2011-11-14T19:07:00.002-05:00

My new toy piano came in today

Recording Studio Internship Tips - Tip #2 - Interview

2011-11-14T17:47:00.000-05:00

Today's installment of Recording Studio Internship Tips will be about obtaining and interview and the interview process itself.

Getting an internship can be just as competitive as the limited amount of jobs that are out in the field. First things first, do NOT expect to get paid, paid internships in the studio world are nearly extinct. You might be able to pull minimum wage if you get picked up by the likes of Sony or Universal but it's an understanding at most privately owned commercial studios that you are working for free in turn for experience and opportunities that may arise.

Timing: When To Apply

So how do you even get an interview? Well, a lot of is luck and timing. For the most part, a studio will have at least a couple of interns each "season". I use the term season loosely, usually somewhere between 3-4 months, many times coordinating with semesters at school. Some studios will have a couple of interns in a day, whether it be 2 interns in the morning/day time and 2 interns at night (or any number really, depending on the size of the studio and how booked the studio is). So a good rule of thumb is to try and contact the studio at least a couple of months before when you want to start working. In the past, I have always applied for summer internships, and I would get in contact with the studio I am trying for in January after the holidays. The response is almost always the same: thanks for your interest, we will keep you in mind and touch base again when the time comes closer. I then follow up again in March or April and they will give me a more definite response, usually (and ideally) asking to set up an interview.

Email, Don't Call

Now to back up a bit, I find email is usually the best way to go about contacting them. As an intern applicant, you don't want to busy their phone lines with relatively petty stuff while they are trying to do business. Now what to put in the email? Keep your email short and get to the point. Introduce yourself, what school you attend/have attended, your availability, and maybe a quick something about your past experience. If it's a studio that really appeals to you, you can mention why you would like to intern at their particular studio and what makes it seem like a good place for you to learn and work at, careful not to border ass-kissing.

Submitting A Resumé

As for a resumé, either mention you have a full resumé and references you can provide if they need (which you should have prepared before you even start looking for an internship), or include it in the email. If you do include it in your first email, DO NOT attach it. Nobody likes opening emails with attachments from people they don't know, so either copy and paste your resumé into the email body, or upload it online where you can provide a link to it in the email (IE: google docs). I won't go into detail about writing a resumé as there are plenty of online resources for that.

Interview Day

Hopefully with some of the guidelines I've given, you're able to land yourself an interview. Congratulations, you're almost there! In fact, getting an interview usually means you're more than half way there, closer to 75%. An interview means they have interest in, or rather a need/space in their schedule to have you as an intern. A large portion of the interview is not to see how much you know about audio but rather to meet you in person to see if you are competent, sane, if they can trust you in taking care of simple maintenance tasks (glorified term for taking out the trash and cleaning), make sure you understand your role in the studio and what's expected of you, and your work ethic. The other part of the interview is very similar to an interview for any other job: to see where you're coming from, where you are trying to go, personal strengths and weaknesses, etc. If you manage to convince the interviewer you won't break their $10,000 microphone and ask famous clients for their autographs (a big no no in studio etiquette), and that you are willing to do as your told and work for the opportunity to learn from the engineers and assistants at the studio, then you'll get the job.

Check back next week for another installment of RSIT!

Drum Session

2011-11-14T00:25:00.000-05:00

Pictures from today's drum session

Crystal Stars

2011-11-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

Sharing with you guys an assignment I had to do for school. We needed to create a composition using samples as well as self created synthesizer patches. This instrumental piece contains splices from an old recording, bass from a Moog Little Phatty, lead synth from a Roland Juno 60, and drum programming done in Reason.

Crystal Stars by LohProductions

Top 10 Reasons Not To Become A Recording Engineer

2011-11-08T11:50:00.002-05:00

A very interesting read on the Top 10 Reasons Not To Become A Recording Engineer, and a little discouragement after yesterday's internship tips! Check out this website and blog Trust Me I'm A Scientist, lots of good stuff regarding recording in NYC.

Recording Studio Internship Tips - Tip #1 - Importance of Field Experience

2011-11-07T21:21:00.003-05:00

This is the first installment of my new weekly postings about Recording Studio Internship Tips. This first one is the importance of having an internship and experience in the field.

Some audio schools have good internship placement and career services department that is great to take advantage of. As a student in the audio field, it is never too early to start interning at a recording studio. A lot of schools will not stress the importance of an internship until the near end of the program.

Why is an internship important? Well there are a lot of reasons: experience in aspects of recording and business, networking, appreciation of the craft at a professional level, just to name a few. Regardless of what path you plan on taking in the audio world, whether working up to an assistant engineer and eventually becoming a staff engineer at a studio or working freelance and starting your own studio, an internship can help put things in scope and give you a better understanding of the recording process that you can't necessarily learn in school.

I have had friends and acquaintances ask me if I know places that they can get a job at once they graduate. A "job" in the recording field doesn't really exist, there aren't really any vacant positions that need to be filled, so you have to go out and work for free while you can andcreate a job for yourself. Unfortunately, even with a four year degree and a 4.0 GPA, you're not going to get hired in the studio world unless you work your way up. A lot of the pros out there making hit records didn't ever go to school for audio or even music, they're all the go-getters who learned recording by working in a studio or from playing in bands that were always in the studio recording.

An education in audio is a great foundation, but an internship and experience in the field will teach you things that aren't taught in schools. If you're an audio student, go out and find a studio to learn from!

Hope these little articles are helpful to the readers out there (let me know, I'd love to hear what you guys think!). Check back next week for my next internship tips on how to get an interview and the interview process.

New Duplex Song - "Nos Coeurs Battent"

2011-11-07T18:03:00.003-05:00

Our band Duplex just released our new single available for free download. Check it out and let me know what you think, would love to hear some feedback! I played keys/synths, did part of the recordings and also mixed it. Also don't forget to like our Facebook page.

Nos Coeurs Battent by DuplexMusique

Music I'm Currently Diggin' - Chris Cornell

2011-11-06T12:52:00.005-05:00

Just checked out this new Chris Cornell solo live EP entitled Songbook, really amazing performance I recommend you guys go check it out.

Recording Studio Internship Tips

2011-11-04T10:28:00.001-04:00

I am writing a new segment on the blog to give tips and share my experiences working as an intern in a professional recording studio. A lot of the emails I receive from readers are about my internship at Electrical Audio and Stratosphere Sound so I thought I'd write more about recording internships. I will be posting the first one this coming Monday and then a new one weekly so make sure to check back every Monday for more intern tips.

Kevin Olken - Wildcats - Coming Soon

2011-11-03T23:05:00.003-04:00

I have been working with Kevin Olken (from past Olken projects) on his new solo EP. We are currently finishing the pre-production stage and will soon begin recording. Here is a little promo video preview of one of the songs entitled Wild Cats.

Wild Cats from Filipp Kotsishevskiy on Vimeo.

Electrical Audio Guitar Mic Shootout

2011-11-03T13:38:00.003-04:00

I posted this while I was an intern at Electrical Audio but the link went dead and many viewers have requested me to put it back up, so here it is. You can also access it under the newly added Resources column to the right of the page, where I will be adding more useful free resources in the near future.

Music I'm Currently Diggin'

2011-11-02T20:23:00.003-04:00

Check out Phantogram's new EP Nightlife. If you haven't heard of Phantogram yet, you need to check them out, they are a happy blend of sampling elements á la hip hop, with drum and synth programming of electronica and trip hop all sprinkled with the soothing voice of Sarah Barthel.

AES Parties

2011-11-02T17:00:00.003-04:00

Two weekends ago, the AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention took place in New York City. The two studios I have been working at hosted parties for industry guests. I was lucky to have been a part of both events, check out Sonic Scoop's report on Stratosphere Sound's Fred Perry Artists Lounge which featured a number of live in studio performances and also Studio G 5000's progress party (the new studio that I have been helping with this past summer, more details to come in future posts)

Stratosphere Sound (photo courtesy of Sonic Scoop)

Duplex

2011-11-02T14:18:00.004-04:00

First things first, for the past 6 months I have been involved with a new band with my friend Gaspard Murphy. The project is a pop/rock/electro band and is in French! I am playing keyboards and co-writing on some of the songs. We will be playing a couple shows in Paris this winter, but meanwhile we have a handful of songs available online.

We are called Duplex, check us out on SoundCloud
Duplex-ep by DuplexMusique

And don't forget to like us on Facebook

Back At Attempting This Blogging Thing

2011-11-02T14:05:00.001-04:00

It has been a while since I've been blogging and my site traffic reports still shows over 100 visitors weekly so I am trying to do the viewers justice by posting some new things! Stay tuned as I post about some things that's been happening that I should have blogged about at the time instead of now!

Will Do

2011-04-05T02:19:00.004-04:00

Trying to update the blog more often, seeing as I haven't done much of that this year. Check out this new TV On The Radio song off their new album coming out soon.

Help Japan

2011-04-01T01:48:00.002-04:00

2 weekends ago I recorded a song with the band Run On The Sun to help fundraise money for Japan. We recorded the song at a studio in Queens called The Buddy Project. I mixed the song and it was mastered by Roman Vail from Joe Lambert Mastering.

The song is available on iTunes and 100% of profits will go towards Red Cross to help Japan.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hold-on-single/id429244370

Xinh Xo Nguyen: Afterlife

2011-01-25T13:30:00.004-05:00

An album I mixed late last year was finally released this month. I mixed all 8 songs on Xinh Xo Nguyen's album entitled Afterlife which was released in Vietnam (although the songs are in english) and digitally online.

You can purchase the online downloads, or sample the music at Amazon.

Winter Update

2010-12-08T23:04:00.002-05:00

This semester is coming to an end and I haven't kept up with the blog at all so here's a quick summary of the year and what I've been up to.

I've still been interning at Stratosphere Sound throughout the semester, going in about twice to three times a week. I will be taking next semester off from the internship and continue again in the summer. I've been able to sit in on a lot of great sessions and have learned a lot from all the engineers and producers there.

I haven't done a lot of recording on my own this semester, mostly with my band Dharma, and a couple of random gigs here and there. We have been working on our new EP which we hope will be out early next year.

Aside from that, I've been doing a lot of random mixing as well with clients over the internet. In the fall, I was lucky to have worked with Xinh-Xo Nguyen on his debut LP which will be released in Vietnam and the U.S. early next year as well. I will update more on that as I receive the tracks back from mastering.

That's pretty much it. I'll be recording a recital for Devon Dixon at Purchase this coming Tuesday, hopefully I will be able to get some tracks and photos up of that.

Dan Glaude 2010 Recordings

2010-12-08T22:43:00.002-05:00

Haven't updated the blog in a while, here's some tracks I recorded for Dan Glaude at Purchase. These are all original pieces written by Dan. I will be submitting these tracks to the Downbeat Magazine Student Awards for the audio engineering category.

Dan Glaude - Chelsea Kate

Dan Glaude - Drive Home

Dan Glaude - Huntington Ave

Dan Glaude - Identity Crisis

Dan Glaude - One Plus One

Dan Glaude - View

Alto sax: Dan Glaude

Trumpet: Tristan Napoli

Bass: Walter Stinson

Drums: Pat Morrison

Piano/Rhodes: Noah Kellman

Let's Just Party

2010-08-19T15:25:00.004-04:00

A song I mixed for Lyrical Profet and Khela is now available on iTunes.

Check it out.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lets-just-party/id383563160

End of Summer

2010-08-04T11:13:00.004-04:00

Haven't updated in a while so here's a summary of what I did over the summer.

I just finished my summer courses at NYU and I am moving out of NYU housing today. I will be flying back to Chicago on Thursday and will be at Lollapalooza for the weekend (August 6-8). I will be taking some time off between then and August 22nd when I will be back in NY to start the fall semester at school.

My internship has been amazing and I have learned a lot from working at Stratosphere. I was able to assistant engineer two sessions by the end of summer which was originally one of my main goals going into the internship. I will still be interning there during the school year as much as I can and hopefully become an assistant engineer on a call basis.

I have a lot of projects lined up for the fall, mostly mixing (for clients that found me through my Craigslist ads) and some recording. More updates to come on projects as they get closer.

Internship

2010-07-09T13:18:00.003-04:00

I have been busy working at the studio doing my internship. I haven't been doing many projects on my own so I haven't had anything to update the blog with. I'm not suppose to post what's going on in the studio while I'm working there but you can follow who's in the studio on the studio's Facebook Page

I'm currently living in NYC, doing my internship and freelance mixing on the side. I will be back home for August and will be back in NY in September for school and to continue working at my internship.

Summer

2010-05-19T11:44:00.002-04:00

Starting this past Monday, I have been on my summer schedule. I'm taking an acoustics class at NYU on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening, and the rest of the time I have my internship at Stratosphere Sound. The studio specifically asked me to not blog about what's going on in the studio, what clients are in, etc because of obvious privacy issue, so I will not be updating much about the internship this summer. However, I am starting my third day today, and I have met most of the staff and I am loving the internship so far.

Phil Leone

2010-05-11T18:04:00.002-04:00

I haven't had a recording session in a while and I had the chance to do a session yesterday with a fellow Purchase student Phil Leone and his group. Everything was tracked live in Studio B and mixed the same day. The project was for their demo CD to get shows. They are a 5 person cover band comprised of drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and vocals.

Phil Leone - Dancin' Til Dawn

Phil Leone - If I Ain't Got You

Phil Leone - Tell Me Something Good

Phil Leone - Billie Jean

Dharma's First Show

2010-05-11T16:35:00.004-04:00

I've been spending a lot of time this past month with our band. We played our first show a little over a week ago at our school's student center. Here are some pictures from it. We also have a show coming up on May 13th in New York City at Crash Mansion.

Show poster I designed for the show.

LohMusic.com V3

2010-04-20T13:13:00.004-04:00

I've been very busy lately and haven't gotten a chance to post anything new. We have been working on getting artwork and printing arrangements for our band's EP. We are playing out first show on April 30th at The Student Center at SUNY Purchase. We have also been recording a new song that we will release as a single along with our EP.

I also redesigned my website. Check it out: LohMusic V3

Piano Recording

2010-03-08T18:49:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago. Maddie Mandrola, who is the singer of Justin's old band, came to Purchase for her audition into the Studio Composition major. She stayed for a couple of days and we recorded a couple of songs.

We recorded vocals and piano and Justin is going to arrange other instrumentation on top of the raw tracks. I am assistant engineering everything. We were able to book out the school's recital hall and had the luxury to record a freshly tuned, full size concert grand Steinway. We used 2 pairs of microphones, Josephson C42's for close mics a couple inches above the hammers and Violet Amethysts as room mics.

Maddie and Justin at our mobile recording rig

Violet Amethysts

Josephson C42's

DHARMA

2010-03-07T20:41:00.000-05:00

The band I'm in have finally come up with a band name: DHARMA. Our EP has been finished and is currently getting mastered by Steve Berson at Totalsonic. I just designed our myspace page today where you can listen to our EP for free. A full quality download package will be available soon once we finish mastering and get album art work. We are now looking to book shows for April in New York City. Below is a video of our recording session for the song Mary B (video courtesy of Miles Roxas).

Minor 4 Recording Video

2010-03-07T19:06:00.007-05:00

Here is a video that was made during the Minor 4 recording sessions at Electrical Audio. Thanks to Naveen Rajadhyaksha and Will Sullivan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORmmGugy-eg

Dayus - The Penthouse Suite

2010-03-05T16:38:00.004-05:00

Over the winter I recorded and mixed a full length album for rapper Dayus at Unearthed Audio. The full album is available online on Amazon. Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AVKY20/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1267818929&sr=8-2

Solomon Grundy

2010-03-05T02:04:00.007-05:00

The Olken song Man On The Moon that I produced is featured on a short film by Mattson Tomlin, a fellow SUNY Purchase student. Mattson was my suite-mate freshman year and is a very talented filmaker.

Check out his short film Solomon Grundy on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ymHIJfC5I

He is also trying to raise money to fund the next couple parts of this short film series. For more information about Mattson's work and supporting his future films visit:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wackeychan/bring-solomon-grundy-to-life

Stratosphere Sound

2010-02-18T17:31:00.003-05:00

Today I had an interview with Stratosphere Sound in NYC for a summer internship. It's a studio I have been looking at for a while. The interview went well and they have offered me an internship. I will be working 2-3 week days a week plus weekends when they need me/when I want to come in. So I am planning on living in NYC this summer to do this internship and take some courses at NYU.

Olken Recording

2010-02-15T17:58:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday, I had an 8 hour session with Olken. We were originally planning to track 1-2 songs live with the full band but the drummer couldn't make the session so we just worked on one song called Control.

The whole session went really well. It was one the few times that I have spent with a band developing a basic song into a full recording. We started with the basic clean electric guitar and worked everything off of that. We recorded everything to a metronome/click. I also tried some different things out during the recording process for this song. It was the first time I used omni mics for piano, second time I've used a ribbon mic on a guitar cab, and my new discovery of using a Sennheiser 421 for Kevin's voice, which works extremely well along with the Purple Audio MC77. It was also the first time I was extremely satisfied with a bass DI tone with compression on the way in from a Distressor. We also went out of our way to get a hold of a Fender Twin Reverb, Fender Blues Junior, and a Fender Champ 600 amps for guitars.

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the recording and the session. It already sounds near completion even before mixing. It was a good experience to start and finish a full song from arrangement to recording in one day. Here are two pictures from the session. Unfortunately I didn't have time to snap too many. I will post the audio as soon as we finish recording anything else extra and mixing.

Kevin and Bob, Little Blondie microphones on piano

Sennheiser 421 and RCA 77B on Fender Twin Reverb

Tristan Napoli Jazz

2010-02-01T01:00:00.007-05:00

This past weekend I had a chance to record Tristan Napoli (trumpet) and accompany group Pat Morrison (drums), Walter Stinson (bass), and Asaaf Glizner (piano). I did the recording with a simpler approach on miking with only 2 mics on the drum kit. This was recorded for a jazz scholarship application.

Studio B view from the control room

Drum setup: Violet Amethyst and Nuemann KM184

Too much bleed on the RE20 for bass so I wrapped my scarf around it

Tristan Napoli - From This Moment: download or play:

Tristan Napoli - But Not For Me: download or play:

Tristan Napoli - The Best Thing For You: download or play:

Tristan Napoli - Stardust: download or play:

Sneezy Trio

2010-01-21T20:11:00.004-05:00

Here is some more work from the end of this winter back home. The band is Sneezy Trio. I went to high school with these guys and did a recording with them last summer at Unearthed Audio. We never got around to finishing those recordings until this winter, and we also recorded some new songs. The band consists of Brett Oconnor on vocals, Jack Holland on vocals, guitar and harmonica, and Colton Lutter on djembe and percussion. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many photos of the recording session, so enjoy the few pictures and check out the recordings.

Sneezy Trio - Party In The USA (Miley Cyrus): download or play:

Sneezy Trio - Duffel Bag Boy (Lil Wayne): download or play:

Sneezy Trio - Ghetto Gospel (Tupac): download or play:

Sneezy Trio - Put Your Records On (Corinne Bailey Rae): download or play:

More Minor 4 Pictures

2010-01-15T12:38:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple more photos from the Minor 4 session at Electrical Audio

Carl and Brandon on guitar (left to right)

Carl on scratch vocals

Tom on bass

Fender Dual Showman used for Carl's guitars

Ben messing around on the Wurlitzer (which I later played for Blue Revolution)

Ben on drums

Back In New York

2010-01-14T01:45:00.003-05:00

I just flew back to New York today, ready to start the spring semester. I am moving into a new apartment in White Plains this coming weekend. It will be a 10 minute drive to get to school, but we are conveniently located near grocery stores, restaurants, and a 5 minute walk to the train station that has 35 minute express trains into Manhattan.

I will be taking a lot of classes this semester, as well as doing a lot of writing, playing, hopefully gigging, and recording for our band (which we still have yet to come up with a name for). I will also be doing some recording work with the band Olken, as well as odds and ends sessions with musicians from the jazz program.

I will also start applying for summer internships. I am looking to spend this summer in New York City, and have a couple of studios in mind for an internship opportunity, I already have an interview offer for one of my top choices. Hopefully, I will be able to get an internship in Manhattan and spend July and August taking a NYU summer course as well as interning.

So there's a little update on my life, I still have more stuff to post from work I did over break so stay tuned!

Stage 5

2010-01-14T01:38:00.003-05:00

Here is a recording my friends and I did over winter break. I'm part of this side project that I haven't brought up on the blog. We are called Stage 5, consisting of Kevin Thomas, Faisal Hussain and myself. We write R&B and rap songs with Kevin singing and both Faisal and myself rapping. I also do most of the arranging as well as the recording, beats, and production. Anyways here is our most recent song called Feel The Vibe.

Stage 5 - Feel The Vibe: download or play:

Minor 4 Recordings (and tech info)

2010-01-11T22:22:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of the songs we recorded.

Minor Four - Blue Revolution: download or play:

Minor Four - Mexifunk: download or play:

Minor Four - Art's Jam*: download or play:

*We did a version of Art's Jam last summer at Unearthed Audio, the newer version not only sounds better but has added instrumentation.

Technical Details

Here's some technical information about the recording for the audio savvy.

Recorded in Studio B.

2" tape machine: Studer A820 MCH

2" tape used: Ampex 456

Drums recorded in B Live Room.

1. Left overhead (spaced pair): Lomo 19a-18 > Neve 3115 > GML 8500

2. Right overhead (spaced pair): 19a-18 > 3115 > 8500

3. Kick in: Beyerdynamic M88 > Neotek

4. Snare 1: Beyer M201 > Neotek

5. Snare 2: M201 > Neotek

6. Hi tom: Josephson e22s > Neotek

7. Mid tom: e22s >Neotek

8. Low tom: e22s > Neotek

9. Front of kit/room: Gefell UM70 > Neotek > Urei 1176

Guitars and bass recorded in B Dead Room.

10. Guitar 1: Fender Twin Reverb > RCA 74jr > Ampex 351 > FMR RNC

11. Guitar 1: Twin > Josephson e22s > 351 > RNC

12. Guitar 2: Fender Dual Showman > Sennheiser 421 > 351 > RNC

13. Guitar 2: Showman > 421 > 351 > RNC

14. Bass: RE20 > Neotek > Urei LA4

15. Bass: e22s > Neotek > LA4

Overdubs.

Harmonica: Coles 4038 > Urei 509 EQ

Tambourine: 4038

Vocals: Neumann 563 w/ M7 capsule > Neve 3115 > Urei 1176

Minor 4 at Electrical Audio

2010-01-11T21:57:00.006-05:00

Ah, finally got a chance to put up some new stuff. I have been extremely busy this past month. I have been interning again since I've been back in Chicago for the winter and on December 22nd and 23rd of 2009, I got another chance to run an internship session at Electrical Audio's Studio B in Chicago. I brought in Minor 4, whom I worked with last summer, to do a 2 day tracking session. We recorded everything live onto 2" analog tape using 24 tracks. Here are some pictures from the recording session.

RCA 74jr and Josephson E22s (difficult to see in the picture) on a Fender Twin Reverb

Sony C73p and Sennheiser 421 on Fender Dual Showman head into a Marshall

Guitarists in the dead room: (from left to right, Tom Hannum not pictured) Carl Lundsted and Brandon Hunt

Lomo 19a-18 (tube) spaced overheads

Drum setup: Beyer M88 on kick, Beyer M201 on snare, Josephson e22 on toms, Gefell UM70 mono front of kit

Ben Paulson on drums

Studio B outboard gear

Studer A820MCH tape machine

Me in front of the Neotek console

Stay Tuned...

2010-01-10T11:43:00.002-05:00

Well it has been over a month since I've posted anything, Christmas and a decade have already passed but I've been staying busy. I'll be posting a bunch of my recent projects up here in the next couple of days, lots of audio and some pictures eventually. Stay tuned.

New Unearthed Audio Ads

2009-12-08T12:51:00.004-05:00

Olken - Atticus Lola Release

2009-11-29T14:39:00.004-05:00

Olken's debut LP Atticus Lola is now available for purchase, limited to 1000 copies. The CD is $9.95 with free shipping to anywhere in the U.S. The album will be up on iTunes in a couple of weeks as well.

Front cover

Back cover

Disc

More Pictures

2009-11-18T12:58:00.004-05:00

Here are some more pictures in no specific order of recording our EP.

LohMusic.com v2

2009-11-16T19:19:00.003-05:00

I redesigned my portfolio website LohMusic.com. New design, updated info and I changed the sample recordings. Check it out.

Something In Between

2009-10-15T12:58:00.006-04:00

I have been very busy with the band and we've been working non-stop. We are pretty much done recording our first song and have begun to track drums for our second song currently entitled Something In Between. We recorded drums in Studio B for this song. Enjoy the pictures. More updates soon.

Studio B setup

Sal on drums

Justin on bass

More Recording

2009-10-12T16:46:00.005-04:00

This past Wednesday we did a live session with one our teachers Dan Castellani for a master class. We recorded three takes of another one of our songs (temporarily called Temptacles). Here are some pictures from the recording session.

Setting up

The setup

Gaspard's pedal board

Recording

Dan and master class in the control room

Last Dividing Stem Recording

2009-09-28T11:26:00.012-04:00

We spent this last Saturday in a 14 hour recording session with our still unnamed band recording our first song entitled The Last Dividing Stem. We recorded drums, bass, and parts of the guitar. We still have to finish guitar, record keyboards and vocals. Here are some pictures we took of the recording session.

New API 1608 console in Studio A

New studio A control room

Mojave MA100's in XY stereo for overheads.

Snare miking: Beyerdynamic M201 for snare top and Shure SM7 for snare bottom.

Salvatore Gallassio on drums.

Gaspard Murphy conducting.

Justin Bright recording bass.

Bass cab miking from left to right: Heil PR40, Mojave MA100, EV RE20.

Guitar miking: Sennheiser MD421 and Shure SM57

Music I'm Currently Diggin' - Kiss Kiss

2009-09-27T12:35:00.003-04:00

Check out Kiss Kiss' new album The Meek Shall Inherit What's Left. Kiss Kiss is a SUNY Purchase alumni band and they came and played here last week. Make sure to take a listen.

Olken Update

2009-09-20T19:45:00.002-04:00

I have spent the last couple of days finishing the Olken album. We mastered all the songs and the production stage is now over. We're looking to get CD's made and have the album available on iTunes. The CD will contain 11 tracks (10 songs). I will keep the blog updated on when the album is set to be released and other progress from Olken. Meanwhile here is a music video made last year for Man On The Moon by Olken that I just found out about today. Enjoy.

Quick Update

2009-09-14T11:10:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update. I've been back at school for 2 weeks now. I'm settled in and I'm beginning to get back to work. In the past couple weeks, I helped out our teacher Peter Denenberg continue and finish the studio upgrades that took place throughout summer. I helped label all the studios and we spent an afternoon in studio A hanging acoustic clouds in the live room. The studios at Purchase are now completely renovated and it has been a huge improvement. We have new equipment in each of our 4 studios.

I have also returned back to work with Olken. We are currently finishing up the mastering process and finalizing their debut CD which will be released on iTunes. More to come.

I have also been practicing with our new band with Gaspard Murphy on guitar, Justin Bright on bass, Salvatore Gallasio on drums, and myself on keyboards. We have 3 songs written and are planning to start recording soon.

Also, this Friday will be our first recording session with Wool Over Eyes.

I'm hoping to get some pictures of the new studios up as well as pictures of our band's rehearsal space and pictures from this coming Friday's session.

Back To School

2009-08-28T23:34:00.003-04:00

Today is my last day of summer break. Unearthed Audio will be closed until December. I will be flying back to New York tomorrow and I'll be moving back to school on Sunday. We recently received major upgrades to our studios at school so I am extremely excited to be at school this year. I already have a couple of projects lined up for when I get back so I will keep everybody updated on my work.

Dan Pierson Jazz

2009-08-26T01:04:00.008-04:00

Here are the final recordings of Dan Pierson done at Electrical Audio. The first set of songs features Dan Pierson in a trio with John Tate on bass and Matt Carroll on drums. The second set of songs features Dan Pierson on piano and Wurlitzer electric keyboard, and Wills McKenna on tenor sax in a duet with 2 free pieces.

Dan Pierson Trio. Recorded on 2" tape - 16 tracks.

Dan Pierson - Like Someone In Love: download or play:

Dan Pierson - Conception: download or play:

Dan Pierson - Darn That Dream: download or play:

Dan Pierson - Stablemates: download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson Duet. Recorded on 1/2" tape - 2 track.

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - I Remember You (Take 1): download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - 317 E 32nd St: download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - Peace: download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - I Remember You (Take 2): download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - Free 1: download or play:

Wills McKenna & Dan Pierson - Free 2: download or play:

Technical Details

Here are some technical details of the rooms, tapes, microphones, preamps, and outboard gear used for the recording.

Recorded in Studio A.

2" tape machine: Studer A820 MCH

2" tape used: used Quantegy 456

1/2" tape machine: Ampex ATR 102

1/2" tape used: new EMTEC 911

Drums recorded in Kentucky.

1. Kick - Beyerdynamic m380 > Neotek Preamp

2. Snare - Altec 165 > Neve B002 (1073 preamp w/o EQ)

3. Hi Tom - Josephson e22s > Neotek

4. Lo Tom - e22s > Neotek

5. Drums Left Overhead - Coles 4038 > John Hardy M2 >(insert)> FMR RNC

6. Drums Right Overhead - 4038 > M2 >(insert)> FMR RNC

7. Room Mid - Josephson C700 >(insert)> Urei 1178

8. Room Side - C700 >(insert)> 1178

Piano recorded in Center Field.

9. Piano Left - Lomo 19a-4 > Neve >(insert)> GML 8900

10. Piano Right - 19a-4 > Neve >(insert)> 8900

11. Piano Room Left - AKG C24 (xy - cardioid) > M2

12. Piano Room Right - C24 > M2

Bass recorded in Alcatraz.

13. Bass Body/F-Hole - RCA 74jr > Neve >(insert)> Manley compressor

14. Bass Neck - e22s > Ampex 351 >(insert)> Manley compressor

Tenor Sax recorded in Kentucky.

15. Beyerdynamic M201 > Neve

16. Royer R122 > M2

Special thanks to Gregoire Yeche for helping me with the session, Steve Albini for allowing me to use the space and equipment, Cedric and Jud for helping me setup and tear down.

Last Day Of Internship

2009-08-25T18:42:00.003-04:00

Today was my last day of my summer internship at Electrical Audio. I have been working there two days a week for the past 3 months and I have really enjoyed my time there. This was my first experience in a big and major recording studio and have learned a lot from my experience there. Here's a picture that was taken earlier this summer with the Electrical Audio staff and myself.

From left to right: James Gasson (intern), Greg Norman (engineer, technician), Ben Flint (engineer), Steve Albini (the man himself), Stephen Sowley (studio manager), Ariel Loh (yours truly)

Minor 4

2009-08-25T18:26:00.007-04:00

This past Sunday (August 23) we recorded a local Libertyville jam band called Minor 4. They have played with The Shenanigators and the band consists of Carl Lundstedt on vocals and guitar, Brandon Hunt on lead guitar, Tom Hannum on bass, and Ben Pauslon on drums. We spent about 4 hours on Sunday tracking live, and I spent all of yesterday mixing. We recorded a total of five songs. Here are some pictures from the session and 2 of the songs. Enjoy.

Minor 4 - I Shot The Sheriff: download or play:

Minor 4 - Art's Jam: download or play:

Minor 4 warming up

Brandon Hunt's pedal board

Overhead shot of the drums

Drum miking

Panoramic shot of the drum kit used

Empra - Technicolor

2009-08-24T00:39:00.002-04:00

This has been a busy weekend so far. I spent all day today recording Minor 4 (stay tuned tomorrow for more info) and we spent all of yesterday (Friday, Aug 22) recording a 4 piece band from Chicago called Empra. Austin Lutter and myself produced this track called Technicolor. Check it out.

Empra - Technicolor: download or play:

Dan Pierson at Electrical Audio

2009-08-21T23:59:00.014-04:00

Today was a big day for me, I had the chance to do my "internship session" at Electrical Audio in Studio A. It is sort of an unofficial final internship project for me. I arranged for jazz pianist Dan Pierson, who I went to high school with (featured on one of the Corey Richardson recordings), to come in with a trio and then a duet to do some recording. We recorded 4 songs with the trio (piano, bass, drums) on 2" tape with 16 tracks and 5 songs with the duet (piano/wurlitzer, tenor sax) on 1/2" tape with a stereo mix (2 tracks). This is my first time recording with analog tape so it was quite the experience for me. I want to thank Greogire Yeche at Electrical Audio for mentoring and helping me through the whole session. Here are some pictures from today. I will have audio up by mid next week.

The official Electrical Audio label on my master 1/2" tape

Lomo 19a-4 running through Neve 1073 as piano overheads

Drum kit miking

Coles 4038 for drum overheads

Altec 165 on snare

Patch bay

Studer A820 2" tape machine

Looking through the window from Studio A control room

Gregoire and myself in Studio A control room

Kyle Licocci Jazz

2009-08-17T13:40:00.005-04:00

Here is some work from two Fridays ago, August 7th. I recorded for Kyle Licocci's jazz audition for Jazz Band of America. The recordings came out pretty good besides the drums which got a little over-compressed on the way in. Enjoy.

Billies Bounce: download or play:

Groovin' High: download or play:

Recordame: download or play:

Music I'm Currently Diggin' - As Tall As Lions

2009-08-17T01:56:00.002-04:00

Haven't updated the Music I've Been Diggin' section in a while. As Tall As Lions' new CD You Can't Take It With You is coming out this Tuesday, August 18. You can check out the album streaming on their myspace. After the first listen, I'm loving all the songs. Their music is unique and their production is outstanding every time. This will definitely be on my top played albums in the near future. Already starting my second listen!

L Villains

2009-08-08T14:50:00.004-04:00

This has been a busy week for Unearthed Audio. This Thursday Austin Lutter came in with his new band the L Villains and we tracked a bunch of songs. They are a blues/funk band, you can check them out at myspace.com/lvillains. Songs will be posted when they are completed. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the session.

Colton Lutter on drums

Mics: Josephson C42 for overheads, Audix D6 for kick, Beyer m201 for snare, Audix i5 for rack tom, D112 for low tom

Austin Lutter on bass

Austin and Colton

Jack Holland on guitar and vocals

Olken - Church Bells

2009-08-06T14:24:00.005-04:00

Kevin Olken from the band Olken that I record at school was in Chicago for a couple of days and came up to Unearthed Audio to mix the album/demo we recorded at school as well as redo a couple of parts and record an acoustic song. The album is near completion as we just have to finalize the songs. Here is the new song we recorded called Church Bells.

Olken - Church Bells (2:56): download or play:

Stephanie Chan - Wherever You Go

2009-08-06T13:55:00.008-04:00

I've been very busy with recording this past week. This last weekend, our family friend Stephanie Chan came in to record a CD's worth of church songs. We spent all of Saturday and Sunday recording and arranging parts. Here are some pictures and one of the songs we did called Wherever You Go. Piano and strings were done by me on MIDI.

Stephanie Chan - Wherever You Go (3:16): download or play:

Stephanie and myself in the studio

Stephanie recording drums

My mom recording guitar for a song

LohMusic.com Updated

2009-07-22T15:16:00.003-04:00

I posted up 4 "new" songs on my web page LohMusic.com. These songs have already been posted up on the bog but feel free to check them out again.

Electrical Audio - Guitar Mic Shootout

2009-07-18T17:58:00.004-04:00

This is from a couple weeks ago, haven't had a chance to put it up until now. Gregoire Yeche, one of the engineers at Electrical Audio spent a day with another intern and myself comparing microphones from their extensive mic collection on a guitar cab. We did 5 rounds of comparisons, 4 mics each round miked on the center of each of the 4x12 cone on the HiWatt amp we were using. The mics we used includes:

Shure SM57, Beyerdynamic M201, Sennheiser MD421, Sennheiser MD409

Beyerdynamic M88, Shure SM7, Sennheiser MD441, Electrovoice RE20

Shure KSM141, Josephson E22, Audio Technica Pro37, Audio Technica ATM450

AKG C414, Audio Technica AT4033, Sony C48, Shure KSM44

Coles 4038, RCA 74jr, Beyerdynamic M160, Royer R122

You can download the Pro Tools session at:
http://audiotecture.com/audio/ea-guitar_mic_shootout.zip

Electrical Audio Mic Setup

2009-07-15T01:08:00.004-04:00

Haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with my internship and studio. Here are some pictures of Steve Albini's mic setups for a session at Electrical Audio (studio B).

Royer 122's as overheads

Josephson e22 for tom mics

Beyerdynamic m380 on cab

Audio Technica ATM450 on speaker

Beyerdynamic m88 on speaker bottom

UnearthedAudio.com

2009-06-12T12:37:00.003-04:00

The official website for Unearthed Audio is now up and running. Check it out:

www.UnearthedAudio.com

Special thanks to Corey Richardson for designing the website.

Olken - Dinosaurs On Jupiter

2009-06-04T14:17:00.004-04:00

Haven't posted a song in a while, here's a new one for you guys that I have been working on. This one. This is one of the many songs off of Olken's new record that we have been working on since second semester. All of this was recorded at school and the mixing was all done in the newly built Unearthed Audio studio. Hope you enjoy, more songs to come soon.

Olken - Dinosaurs On Jupiter (4:01): download or play:

Unearthed Audio - Finished Studio

2009-06-04T02:21:00.003-04:00

Unearthed Audio, my summer home studio project, is now up and running. Here are some pictures of the finished studio:

Control Room Angle 1

Control Room Angle 2

Live Room w/ Korg Triton

Live Room w/ Seagull acoustic and AKG headphones

Mesa Boogie Combo miked with Beyerdynamic m201 and Shure 330

AT4040 Vocal Setup

Our collective microphone collection

Unearthed Audio - Live Room

2009-05-21T17:54:00.007-04:00

Thank you for all who donated, the studio is nearly complete. We are calling the studio Unearthed Audio (website soon to be up) and we have a whole list of musicians and bands who want to record with us already so this summer will be a busy one. Here are pictures of the finished live room (recording space). The control room (mixing space) is still in the works.

Before

After

For a more detailed blog on the construction of the live room visit:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/photo-diaries-recording-studio-construction-projects/391959-unearthed-audio-live-room-treatment-photo-journal.html

First Day Internship

2009-05-21T01:48:00.006-04:00

This past Tuesday, I had my first day of internship at Electrical Audio in Chicago. I met Steve Albini (owner of Electrical, most famous for producing Nirvana) and I was shown around the studios. The first day of internship was basically just learning the procedures of cleaning and the other duties of interning. I had to clean the recording space, wash dishes, prepare coffee, etc. I learned how to make Steve's signature "Fluffy Coffee" which consists of maple syrup, steamed milk, an espresso shot with cinnamon, all steamed and fluffed out. Right now, my internship is 2 days a week. I work every Tuesday and Friday from 11am to 5pm. Here are a couple pictures I snatched in Studio B of the equipment.

Equipment rack in Studio B

Large collection of vintage Ampex preamps in Studio B

Original Mellowtron in Studio B Live Room

Poster in Electrical joking about the Steve Albini endorsed e22s microphone

Aside from the internship, I have been extremely busy everyday building the summer studio. The recording space/live room is almost complete. The walls and ceiling are treated and it sounds much better than it did before although there are still some acoustical issues that still needs to be figured out.

All that's left to be done is curtaining off half of the hallway into a control room, waiting for all the equipment to arrive in the mail, cabling, and cleaning. Hopefully the studio will be 90% functional and complete by tomorrow.

A big update with a photo journal of the construction of the studio will be put up all together upon completion. Stay tuned.

Done With School

2009-05-09T12:08:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates. I just finished my last final yesterday and am officially done with freshman year of college at SUNY Purchase. I finished my year end production portfolio CD and got 30 copies printed. You can check out the album art work: front, inside, disc, back

I've also registered for my classes next year. I'll be taking 21 credits first semester:
-Studio Arranging
-MIDI Composition
-Digital Audio I
-Models III
-Studio Ear Training III
-American History, Society, and the Arts
-(1) Production Masterclass
-(2) Production Masterclass
-Keyboards Studies III

I'll be flying back to Chicago on Wednesday where I will start building this summer's home studio and begin internship for Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. Thank You for everybody who donated!

I'm Still Alive

2009-04-14T23:29:00.002-04:00

Just letting everybody know. I've been extremely busy with recording and will be until the end of the school year (only another month left!) I am working on a compilation CD of a selection of the recordings I have done this school year. I will be giving the CD to my teachers and anyone who donates 20$ or more to my summer studio project.

CD cover artwork:

First Donation Received

2009-03-07T10:43:00.003-05:00

I just received my first donation thanks to Maria Loh.

I will be updating the blog soon with one of the Olken tracks we have been working on.

Donations

2009-03-05T11:18:00.011-05:00

To the visitors of my blog,

I have put up a donation link to the left of the page for anybody who is willing to help me in the cause of buying new audio gear for use in school and at home. My friend from high school, Austin Lutter (who is also attending recording school at Flashpoint Academy in Chicago) and I plan on renovating a room in the basement back home this summer and turning it into fully functional commercial home recording studio.

Audio equipment is an expensive market, and unfortunately there are many things that I need to buy to make this project happen. Any amount of money donated is greatly appreciated and will go directly and exclusively to help me in the funding of the home studio. As a gesture of gratitude and goodwill, 10% of all income generated through the studio over the summer will be pledged to St Jude Children's Hospital.

Currently on my wish list, I am looking to buy:
- a used Apple G5 computer for the recording studio (600-800$)
- a Presonus Digimax LT (800$)
- Auralex acoustic treatment products (400$)
- an upgrade to Pro Tools 8 (150$)
- various other expenses such as cables, mic stands, headphones, etc (350$)

Total, I am looking to raise about 2,500$ by this summer. If you choose to donate, you may specify exactly what you want the money going towards. All who contribute will be credited on the blog (if you wish to make an anonymous donation, please specify in PayPal), and I will keep the blog updated about how much money is raised, the new equipment I purchase, and all the recordings that was made with help of the equipment. To stay updated, you can always go to the left hand side of the blog, and under the menu 'View By Labels' you can click 'Donations' and it will sort out all of my donation related blog updates.

With PayPal, you can securely donate over the internet through any major credit card, as well as your bank account. Any amount pledged as little as one dollar is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Purchase College Faculty Recordings

2009-03-03T00:09:00.004-05:00

My school's website just put up a new page on recent recordings our faculty have taken part of. Check it out to see what the music staff has been doing in the industry outside of teaching. Included in the list are teachers who I currently have classes with: James McElwaine (Studio Compsition teacher), Jim Koepel (Songwriting), Dan Castellani (Models and Ear Training), and Jonathan Jetter (Masterclass).

http://www.purchase.edu/departments/AcademicPrograms/Faculty/RecentRecordings.aspx

Dan Glaude Jazz

2009-03-01T14:27:00.005-05:00

So here are the 4 songs we recorded for Dan Glaude's jazz demo. We recorded everything in Room 0081 which is our school's jazz recital hall, also the live room for Studio B. The recordings feature Dan Glaude on alto sax, Walter Stinson on bass, and Pat Morrison on drums.

1. Have You Met Miss Jones (5:35) - download or play:

2. Darn That Dream (7:15) - download or play:

3. Cherokee (6:26) - download or play:

4. Mr. PC (6:16) - download or play:

We recorded using 7 mics. For drums we used 2 Audio Technica AT4033's as overhead drum mics and a Violet Amethyst in front of the drum kit, on bass we had an AT4040 on the neck and an Electrovoice RE20 on the bridge, and on the sax we had a Beyerdynamic m201 and a Shure 330 vintage ribbon mic. The mic we used for the neck of the bass turned out with a lot of drum bleed so we ended up using that mic more for a room sound than using it for bass. Everything else was recorded and mixed pretty straight forward.

Dan Glaude Jazz Recording Session

2009-02-28T12:16:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from our Thursday night jazz session with Dan Glaude on alto sax (our suite mate) accompanied by Walter Stinson on bass and Pat on drums.

My 2 new mics we used for miking alto sax (Beyerdynamic m201 and Shure 330)

Olken Recording Session

2009-02-27T14:21:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of our recording session on Wednesday for the band Olken.

Me in Studio B Control Room

Drummer Zeb Reynolds

Singer/Guitar Kevin Olken

Celloist Kjartan Code

Keyboardist Chlöe Tompkins

My friend Gaspard Murphy adjusting the guitar amp

Cables

Gaspard, Jusin, and myself

My new Shure 330 ribbon mic that we used on vocals and guitar

Down Time

2009-02-22T17:39:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Recording has been slow. We (Justin Bright and myself) are continuing to work with Mikey B and his album. This week, we have 2 big sessions lined up.

On Wednesday, we are recording for an indie style band here on campus called Olken. The instrumentation of the band includes vocals, electric guitar, drums, keyboards, cello, and accordion. The session will be a live recording and we'll be recording 2 songs so hopefully we'll get both songs done in that day.

On Thursday, we are recording my suite mate's jazz demo. The instrumentation for that session will be Dan Glaude on alto sax, accompanied by guitar, bass, and drums. We will be recording a couple of jazz standards.

Speaking of jazz, last night jazz legend McCoy Tyner played at the Performing Arts Center here at Purchase College. As students, we were able to get tickets for only 5$. It was a great show, and definitely an experience that might not come around again.

I'll update the blog again later this week after the sessions take place.

The Messenger - Talk To Me

2009-02-01T13:06:00.004-05:00

If you remember from back on the older version of the blog, I had the section to the left about artists I'm currently working with. One of them was the rap group Leave One. One of the 2 members of the group just released his solo album which I have a song with one of my beats on it. It's called Talk To Me, the last track on the album. The whole album is on iTunes and this is the first ever track I have available for sale on iTunes.

You can buy the album at:

and you can listen to the song at:
http://www.1812recordings.com/TheMessenger/Music.html

Albert + Fatum

2009-01-31T13:30:00.003-05:00

Progress is being made although things are going slow right now. I'm busy working with Mikey B as soon as I got back to school, and meanwhile I'm working on finishing up these jazz recordings for the Fatum Jazz Orchestra. We are working on Mikey B's album and hopefully will have it done by mid February. Sometime soon I'm doing a jazz quartet recording for my room mate's Dan Glaude (alto sax, jazz major) demo/EP. After all of this I still have another project lined up with a band at Purchase called Olkien.

Anyways here are two new songs I got up. The first one is the Albert Goold song "Alone In The World". We've had this song recorded a long time ago but never got around to finishing it up. It's mixed and done now so check it out.

Albert Goold - Alone In The World (2:56) - downoad or play:

Here is the second song of the day. This is another one of the jazz recordings from the Fatum Brothers'. More of them to come.

The Fatum Brothers' Jazz Orchestra - Love For Sale (4:30) - download or play:

More Fatum Jazz

2009-01-09T13:18:00.010-05:00

This is my 100th post since the beginning of this blog. It's been over a year since I've been blogging about all my recording efforts. Here are some more pictures of the recording session for the Fatum Brothers' Jazz Orchestra. Also, here is the first completed song:

The Fatum Brothers' Jazz Orchestra (ft Wills McKenna on lead Tenor):
Good Bye Pork Pie Hat (9:53) - download or play:

Wills playing on Good Bye Pork Pie Hat

The band

The rhythm section

Alex Kulyk and I working on the recording

The Fatum Brothers' Jazz Orchestra - Recording Day

2009-01-03T16:29:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures of the recording session of The Fatum Brother's Jazz Orchestra. We recorded in the auditorium of Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, IL. We used 24 mics for this recording. Alex Kulyk and I worked together on the recording, tracking 16 channels on his computer using 2 Presonus Firepods and Logic, and myself tracking the other 8 on my Presonus Digimax LT with Pro Tools. After the recording we swapped audio files so we can merge the two seperate recordings together. I will update again shortly with some audio samples once I get around to mixing them.

Our two system recording setup

The brass

The saxes

The rhythm section

The Fatum Brothers' Jazz Orchestra

2009-01-01T16:57:00.003-05:00

Hope everybody had a good holiday. I've been busy getting nothing done these past weeks. A lot of my projects are on standby until I return to Purchase. However, tomorrow I'm going to be recording a 17 piece jazz orchestra along with two other producers. My friend Dan Pierson (pianist, who played on a set of the Corey Richardson jazz pieces) got me this gig recording for the group. We will be recording at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, IL. I will update the blog again in the next couple days with at least some pictures of the recording session. You can check out their band on their website: www.FatumJazzOrchestra.com

Updates for December

2008-12-14T21:00:00.003-05:00

I've been working hard on recording and mixing these last weeks. I'll be done working on Albert Goold's project by the end of this week. My colleague Justin Bright and myself have been working with Mikey B everyday this past week. Tomorrow, I'm starting on another project working on a couple of songs with my uncle who will be doing some vocal tracks accompanied by piano. It's also finals week so I'll be extremely busy between all these projects and getting my finals and papers done. I'm flying back home to Chicago on Thursday and will have more projects waiting for me back home. I should be uploading some finished songs later this week.

Music I'm Currently Diggin': Q-Tip

2008-12-09T00:07:00.003-05:00

Q-Tip's new album The Renaissance is maybe one of the best hip hop albums this year. It's been a good year for rap overall. I really enjoy the new Ludacris album, as well as the new T.I. album. I still think Q-Tip's album is the best of the 3. It's got a real old school vibe with a real fresh sound to it. Check it out.

More Albert and Mikey B Recording

2008-12-08T23:26:00.008-05:00

These past days have been filled with intense recording sessions where my colleague Justin Bright and myself have been tracking instruments and vocals for both Albert Goold and Mikey B projects. We recorded bass for Albert's song on Sunday in Stuio B. We also recorded a new song for Mikey B on piano and vocals. Currently we have one major song with Albert, and about 4 other songs we are simultaneously working on with Mikey B. We spent all of today tracking bass for Mikey B's songs in the Blue Room studio. More recording updates coming last this week as we continue to work on these 2 projects. Here are some pictures from the past 2 days.

Justin's new Aguilar amp and head miked with an Electro Voice RE20, Neumann KM184, and Audix D6 (12/7/08)

Albert's brother Charles Goold on bass for Albert's song. (12/7/08)

Mikey B tracking piano (12/7/08)

Our piano mic setup with Schoeps CMC5 stereo pair, RCA ribbon mic, and Violet Amythest at the end of the piano (not pictured) (12/7/08)

Mikey B rehearsing some parts in the Blue Room. (12/8/08)

Albert Goold Drum Session

2008-12-03T21:12:00.005-05:00

I've been busy the last two days with recording in Studio B. We spent all of last night recording drums in Studio B with Zeb Reynolds (Studio Composition Major) for Albert Goold's song we've been working on. We also recorded some drums for Mikey B's songs. Studio B is connected to the Jazz Rehersal Room which is the most ideal room/studio for drums recording. We used the following microphones for drum recording:

-Snare top & bottom: Audix i5
-Kick drum: Audix D6
-Left & Right Overheads: Nuemann KSM184
-Tom toms: Sennheiser MD421
-Room mic: Violet Amethyst

Here are some pictures from yesterday's recording session.

Mikey B recording drums in Studio B Live Room (Jazz rehersal room)

Zeb Reynolds on drums for Albert's song

View of Zeb Reynolds drumming from Studio B Control Room

Albert Goold (Left) and my colleague Gaspard Murphy in the Studio B control room