George Inai Session

Justin and I had the amazing opportunity to work with George Inai the other day - one of Denver’s most unique and promising artists.  How can one sum up what embodies the George Inai sound?  Take one part Frank Sinatra, one part Nat King Cole, and throw in a retro tremolo guitar…that’s only the beginning!  It was a pleasure doing this session, as it was a nice deviation from our rock sensibilities for a day.

Our setup was quite simple in theory, but a little tricky to execute.  George really wanted a super-vibey room sound…something that was raw but very present and intimate.  We were doing our best to try and recreate the “Buena Vista” sound, which happens to be one of Justin’s and my favorite records.

A few technical notes: We started by placing a stereo pair of Schoeps Omni’s on the room, ran though the P1 pres and tweaked with the Hammer EQ…and given a little love with the LA-2A.  This was the most important part of the process, since this was going to be the key of the whole recording - getting the room sound JUST right.  We decided to use a Royer 121 through the Germanium to give the guitar amp a thick, warm sound.  We placed the amp about 20 feet away from the Schoeps in the back of the room to give it a more distant and ambient vibe to supplement the Royer sound.  We decided to use the Red mic with the Telefunken 251 capsule about 2 feet away from the source, since it provided the warmth and clarity that we wanted on George’s voice.

Once we set up everything and got it tweaked just right, it was time to roll tape and let George do his thing.  I was blown away with how George really puts the listener in a space.  His lyrical content was very cohesive with the melodic statements he was making - put his crooning on top of it - and you have something truly special.  We can’t wait to work with him again!

Check out George’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/georgeinai

Until next time-

-Dave

Live Recording for NPR’s Jazz Set

Sometimes things just come at you from out of the blue. In my former life as an engineer at Denver’s awesome jazz station KUVO, I worked on a ton of jazz, and had the pleasure of doing remotes for National Public Radio’s Jazz Set from time to time. 

So I was a little surprised when I got the call to head to Glenwood Springs to record New Orleans trumpeter Marlon Jordon and his quartet. I hadn’t done a show for Jazz Set in a few years, but was excited for the opportunity.

The gig was at Glenwood’s Summer of Jazz festival, an outdoor festival that’s been running since 1985. The artists that come through the festival each year are amazing. They get a lot of top-shelf talent. 

So, we packed up the truck with some good mics, tasty preamps and an Alesis HD-24 and headed up. I was worried about weather and wind, so we brought lots of windscreens. Fortunately we had the most idyllic weather imaginable with no problems.

Here you can see my truck driving up on the grass (careful to avoid the underground sprinkler system!) to load in on the stage.

 We were lucky with the setup. Originally I figured we’d park my truck behind the stage and setup the gear on the tailgate. Power wasn’t a problem as they had tons of unused 50-amp circuits, but the tailgate of a Toyota isn’t the best control room ever. Instead, the folks at the festival cleared out a dressing room with stage access for us. It was perfect and easy to run to the stage to move mics.

(Sorry the pic is sideways. I just realized I don’t know how to rotate pics in Word Press!)

We setup the 3 mic setup on drums, using AKG C451’s on overheads and a Schoeps omni on the beater-side of the kick. Upright bass in a live setting is impossible, but we got good results with the DI and a Neumann KM184 blended together. Piano was covered by the usual suspects: Microtech-Geffel M300’s, and the trumpet was covered by a Neumann U87. 

We brought along some tasty preamps to bring the sonics up a notch. We used a LaChapelle 583 on the trumpet (which, with the U87, was AWESOME), A-Designs P-1’s on the two bass tracks, and and a True Precision 8 for the drums, piano and audience mics. 

The setup sounded awesome. The live sound guys were great and kept the monitors sounding good and not too loud. The stage is just enclosed enough that we got some reflections (and not that overly dry, thin sound you sometimes get recording outside) which kept it live, but very tight and dry. The live mixes came out great and the band was excited listening back afterwards. A super successful show. It will likely be aired this fall on stations nationwide.  - Justin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking At The Finish Line…

The Kyle Galanaugh project is almost complete! Justin, Kyle and I spent the past few weeks tweaking the overall mixes, and I must say we are very pleased with the end result.  

We are currently in the process of lining up a mastering engineer.  There are a few people who could potentially be in the pipeline - hopefully we’ll be able to get who we want to make this project really rock! Needless to say, we’ll be making quite a few phone calls in the near future.

The buzz on this EP is really exciting! We’re getting amazing feedback from people both inside and out of the business, and have the support of local radio and indie retailers.  Once the project is finished in its entirety, Kyle will be playing a ton of shows around town - so check it out!

Well, that’s it for now…we’ll keep you posted!

-D