Tag: summer sundae

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Summer Sundae Sessions album

Still not had time to blog what I’ve been up to….

The Summer Sundae sessions album took a while to mix. Loads of tricks to make the tracks sound as good as possible. Where I could, I wanted the mixes to sound polished… not your usual session-at-a-festival sound. This proved super hard given some of the source material…..

Over the weekend we battled against the Wateringhole stage (we were right behind it), the Energy Drink man (loud man with loudspeakers on full right opposite us), the Loo emptiers (hourly)….. so the idea I had to mic up acoustic guitars went right out of the window… DI’s all the way. Beta 57a mics were a good choice.. nice and cardioid, but even they struggled to blank out the sound. All this made worse due to the fact there were no monitors to listen back.. and when performances were reviewed it was over the din of the other background noise… so lots and lots of guesswork.

When I got round to mixing in the studio (mine and at day jobs) I was pleasantly surprised for the most part.. really ace clean recordings. Not in all cases, though….. weighing up what part the spill and ambiance played in the mix was difficult. Lots and lots of automation: of volume (gating too unnatural) and EQ (so whacking down the 200 hz band on the plosives).

So, here it is… hope you enjoy bits of it. It’s free for god’s sake, go get it

 

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Summer Sundae Pop Up Studio

Had a ball this weekend running recording sessions in a tent at Summer Sundae. Ultimately, it was a marketing exercise for the Leicester College Music and Sound department I run…. the idea was to get right into Leicester’s biggest music festival and benefit local artists by recording and promoting them with a free download album.

Lots and lots of technical challenges over the three days, and I’ll blog on those soon.
For now, here’s some piccies of the weekend.

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Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

Well, since being on holidays, I thought I’d run to the end and get all the studio done done done. But.. fitting it in with spending time with the family, plus bits of mixing and mastering that’s come in, has left me in a similar pace of work….consistent but pretty slow.

Am at the stage where I’ve built all the storage I think I can / need. I need to clear the whole room out, hoover, chuck bits of wood away, then repaint parts of the walls where I’ve grazed it. Then put my gear out bit by bit.

I built a set of drawers.. one will be a mic drawer, so I’m going to make bespoke compartments for those: there’s a day gone! But, I know, if I don’t do it now, it will never get done.

Am still considering desk options: I was pretty set on a Sabre as I’ve used one before, mainly at Seamus Wong. A weird one popped up last month and another since on Ebay: a Mod 3 : I think I love how this looks. It’s modular (as is the Sabre) so I can recap at my leisure. I got outbid on the one on Ebay, so eyes peeled. In the mean time, a Sabre went for 300 quid… a bargain. Hey ho.

Other news..well, being off normally means I forget about the day job, but this year I’ve been in and out due to doing a studio at Summer Sundae festival. The idea being bands pop in and record.. hoping they don’t just do acoustic versions.. really want people to get  all ELO in there so it sounds like a ‘proper’ studio session.

If you’re going to the festival (or playing) and want to book a session with me, more details are here.