Phil Free is an artist that is in the rock genera with a unique vocal sound. I have had the pleasure of performing with him and bassist Joaquin Zamudio to make his latest record. Looking forward to hearing the end product.
Please Remember Me
I did some drumming, percussion, and engineering on a 3 tracks with Domingo DeGrazia that were included on the new Ted DeGrazia Jazz/Big Band compilation CD entitled Please Remember Me, which is available now through the DeGrazia Gallery gift shop.
There will be an official release party for the DeGrazia Centennial Concert DVD on May 1, 2011, at Tohono Chul Park. Mark your calendars now for this all-ages show, featuring the Domingo DeGrazia Band. The show is set to begin at 8:00pm.
This has been a freaking crazy year, my friends. Two trade shows, three different performing live bands, nine studio drumming projects, multiple photography projects, two DVD’s released, four new staff members, and a whole new redesign and studio philosophy implementing as we speak. Can you say no sleep? I can. Barely! I even finished 95% of my script for The Studio Edge Vol 2. Seriously? And I have 14 days left till new years. Hmm. What else can I get done? Yikes!
Now that the TSE series has just debuted, I will be doing more clinics. On DVD 2 I will be talking about how to build a studio, including philosophies and implementation. I have already built and filmed a studio as a case study for the appendix of the DVD. And now that I am rolling, I hope to possibly get Vol 3 recorded this year too. I haven’t decided which topic to do next, but I have 8 more outlines ready to go.
Ten Times Gravity
I just spent two days in the studio recording drum tracks for my friends Ten Times Gravity. In the middle of it all, we did a live interview with DJ’s from New York and Ireland using our phone patch system. The station has already taken a liking to one of the releases “When It Comes To The Night.” Now it’s time to follow up with the rest of the album. I ended up using 15 microphones to capture my 7 piece kit. Since the songs will be using loops, real drums, and effected drums, I wanted to have many sound options with the live drums; Room mics, an extra ribbon on kick, MS stereo setup and 6 snare drums with two up at a time. Now that’s options! We spent 6 hrs setting up the mics, pres and session files so all the headphone monitoring, EQ, and routing was already finished. All we had to do, when it was time to record the drums, was open the file, do a line check and start recording. I did 7 songs in one day and two the next. It was very stress-free. I let Chase, my trainee, run the session. We videotaped the whole session and hopefully will be YouTube-ing the results in the coming weeks of making an album. Google Ten Times Gravity for all thier sites.
Once again I 
have had the opportunity to work with some of the worlds finest doctors in the studio.
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44 open mics on stage, 4 direct boxes, 6 audience mics, and stereo front of house. And this is just a rock band. Craig Schumacher has a long history with recording with Calexico. When Craig saw how big of an operation this was going to be, he called me to come help out. I have a lot of experience doing mobile concert records. 
(Check out the show I recorded in China with Alicia Keys and Cyndi Lauper.) 48 Channels of True System mic pres were brought in to get as clean as a capture. With this many mics an musicians on stage, it was imperative for me to be monitoring the gains at all times. Sometimes the trumpet players would face the vocal mic instead of the horn mic which kept me on my toes the whole time. Here is a little sample of my photography. I love it.
Yes, you can tell
it was a busy year for me. Ryanhood has recorded several projects with me over the years. Their last album was recorded by Ross Hogarth. They decided to record a DVD of the CD Relase party which was recorded in Arizona’s historic Rialto Theatre. “The World Awaits Live In Tucson” is full of all the harmonies, humor, and musicianship that’ve made the award-winning duo Ryanhood a “must-see live” band. I bought out a 24 track mobile rig to capture this event. I did some initial mixes for youtube when Ellen DeGeneres tweeted 1.4 million people about this recording/event/band. Sweet. I wish you guys the best!
