Superfood – Light It Up

I've recently been working with a fine bunch of musicians called SuperFood. The basic tracks are all recorded by Jules Marchent who does all the programming and trumpet goodness, then he simply brings in his Pro Tools file and we record and produce the vocals and do the final mix here at The Garage.

The way the project has come together I think reflects how the role of the recording studio has changed in modern times, from a one stop shop for all your recording needs, to a place you can work with collaboratively - using the studio for it's expertise in certain areas and doing what you are confident doing yourself at home on your own Pro Tools set up.

SuperFood have been gigging their asses off getting some great reviews and recently played to a full and bouncing dancefloor at Dux Live.

Big Amps Heavy Guitars

I recently had the chance to test out the soundproofing ability of the studio while recording some rhythm guitar tracks with Ross Greig. We're working on a 4 track EP project at the moment full of big heavy drums and guitars. All the drum tracks were recorded through Kevin's API 1608 down at Angels Gate Studio so they're sounding big and punchy, while the rest of the overdubbing we're doing here at The Garage.

Ross was able to jack up a couple of nice amps that really suited the style of guitars we wanted through a friend of his Mark Hunter. Mark plays guitar in a band called Setting Fire To Stacey and happens to be a very handy guy to have around when you are looking for the right guitar tone.

The amp which really shone through on the day was the Peavey 5150. This amp is renowned for being ideal for rock, hardcore and metal guitar tones, and it certainly delivered the goods. This was through a Mesa quad cabinet.

The other head you can see in the picture is a Line6 DT50, which also sounded great, and offers a very diverse range of sounds. Line6 is known for it's amp modelling, and this amp models different sounds on the front end, but then the signal runs through all tube circuitry for the rest of the amp, and also lets you switch between a number of true analogue cicuits. It's basically the best of about 4 different worlds in one amp. Pretty nice.

The pleasing thing for me, apart from the good tones we captured, was that we were able to really get these amps nice and LOUD just a few feet away from the control room with no real sound control issues. Also, outside the studio you could hardly hear it at all. Makes me feel good about all the time, effort and money spent on the soundproofing!

As far as recording technique goes - well it's pretty simple. SM57 through the Warm Audio WA12 with the Tone button engaged. Easy. I've tried a lot of different mics and techniques on guitar amps, but it's hard to beat a 57 or 58 right on the cabinet (usually just off centre to the middle of the driver. That's a good starting point anyway).

So with all the rhythm guitar tracks recorded, next we'll be doing lead guitars and then vocals. But with xmas rapidly approaching that won't be until the new year, so stay tuned for some mixes late Jan/Feb.

Music Is Sport - That’s a wrap!

I've just finished mixing the last episode of RDU's radio documentary series, 'Music Is Sport'.

I know that I've already written about this in my blog, but hey, it a celebration that it's finished, and I'm very proud of the result. It's a 12 part documentary series that tries to work out why musicians REALLY do what they do! Witty and slightly subversive, the episodes take a tounge in cheek scientific approach.

Conceived and Produced by the effervescent Spanky Moore!

If you missed them when they played on air you can head on over to the mixcloud page by following this link...

MUSIC IS SPORT MIXCLOUD PAGE!

The Garage Audio - Open for business!

I'm super pleased to announce that now, after months of hard work, my studio is ready to go. It's been a long road for me, to finally get to this point of having my own business to operate from. I've worked with a lot of people over the past 5 years or so, and without their support I wouldn't have been able to get this far. So thanks y'all - you know who you are...Geeze... I told myself I wasn't going to get emotional...

Anyway, all the demolishing, building, insulating, gibbing, plastering, painting and acoustic treating has come together and The Garage Audio is now good to go. I'll be catering to mainly commercial production, voiceover recording and audio post production, but I'm also dead keen to keep recording, mixing and producing music.

Why The Garage? Well I'm a fan of the 'call it what it is' buzz, and guess what? It's in my garage. A pretty new garage though I might add. The initial space was a sleepout, complete with bathroom and toilet facilities, so it only took a little restructuring to get it the way I wanted.

Being in a suburban location, soundproofing was always going to be essential (neighbourhood dogs and lawnmowers...) so I really put a lot of effort into finding the best way to keep any noise out. Using a combination of Silencer batts, Gib Rail (resilient rail), 2 layers of 13 mm noiseline Gib, sound stop acoustic sealant and laminated double glazing for any glass, it's worked very well, creating a quiet oasis in sunny Spreydon :-)

If you are interested in coming to check it out or you'd like to talk about a project, please drop me an email or give me a call. I'd love to help.

Music Is Sport – Episode 1 ‘The Competition’

Here's the first episode of the new series I've been working on with Spanky Moore, breakfast host on RDU 98.5FM. We're having a lot of fun putting it together and it's shaping up to be a pretty interesting series... here's the official blurb from RDU's mixcloud site where you'll be able to listen to the whole series as they are broadcast. They play each week Wednesday at 4:30PM and Friday 9:15AM.

MUSIC IS SPORT | Our quest? To discover why musicians really do what they do.

Music Is Sport is a radio adventure in 12 bite sized episodes. Spanky Moore explores the science, psychology and sociology of bands and musicians through the lens of the RDU Roundup band competition. It's a bizarre yet strangely enthralling experience.

EPISODE ONE – THE COMPETITION: Musicians often claim that art isn’t a competition, but just how competitive are they in reality? And is a little bit of rivalry really such a bad thing anyway?

Featuring a small army of brutally honest guests – including Simon Grigg (ex-manager of True Bliss), Grayson Gilmour (So So Modern) & James Milne (Lawrence Arabia).

Music Is Sport isn’t like other boring radio documentaries about bands, and a number of musicians were emotionally damaged for your listening pleasure.

Produced & hosted by Spanky Moore, mixed by Jonny Pipe, crafted by RDU, and made with the support of NZ On Air.

A Flat City

Last year I was commissioned by RDU 98.5FM in Christchurch to produce and mix a radio documentary series called A Flat City.

As you may have heard... we've had a bit of seismic activity over the past couple of years, and the goal of this series was to capture a snapshot of what was going on before the quakes, what went on during the events, and also get a sense of what people think will happen next.

The piece of audio above is a "best of" type episode, which gives you a taste of what the series is like, however 9 of the other 12, 30 minute episodes focus on a specific genre of music each, with the final 3 episodes telling the stories of the sound engineers, venues, and RDU's own struggle to survive. The episodes also have relevant music woven throughout.

One challenge in creating these episodes was that from the start we decided not to use any voice over or narrator. We wanted the story to be told 'straight from the horses mouth', more like an audio montage. This took the series away from that classic radio documentary format into a more abstract style, with the only way to carry the story along being clever editing. Definitely a challenge!

On a side note I think that although I'm very proud of the result, I think that most local listeners, if not national listeners have been so over saturated with the earthquakes, whether it be first hand or through the news, that they just don't really want to hear about it anymore. I totally get that. But one thing I've always kept in my mind throughout the process was how interesting this will be in 20, 50 or 100 years time. And so just the fact that we've documented all these thoughts and emotions is fantastic in it's own right! But for anyone who does listen now (and a lot of people have done) the series definitely takes you on an honest trip where you'll hear a lot of stories you never heard in the news!

You can listen to the rest of the series on RDU's Mixcloud page.