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Hot Ringtones
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production news & trends
studioexpresso music community worldwide
In
2006 we're all shook up with great news from studioexpresso's community
of artists & producers
Welcome
to the Year of The Dog!
Elvis
Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel"
Back at #1 in Billboard 50 years later
Presley's famous first RCA Studios session in 1956, just days after his 21st birthday, produced "Heartbreak Hotel" and the song became his first #1 hit. Single is included in a deluxe boxed set "Elvis #1 Singles' released Jan 24 2006 on Sony/BMG. Preserving the look of the original 45's, each CD will be pressed on black plastic with grooves to mimic vinyl. Order yours here!
Mozart turns 250
on Jan 27 - Happy Birthday Wolfy!
Eye
on The Oscars:
Golden Globe winner Rhys Meyers - Named Best Actor in a Mini-Series or
Film Made for TV for performance in Elvis; The Johnny Cash biography "Walk
the Line" won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy film last
night (Jan. 16) and earned acting honors for stars Joaquin Phoenix and
Reese Witherspoon, boosting their Academy Awards prospects.
Get On expresso10!
Each month, new releases (in no particular order) are reviewed and posted
with expresso10 (see home
page), when studioexpresso's community
of producers or engineers email
details of completed projects with their artists.
Please check back with studioexpresso calendar for upcoming mixers & music events
espresso
break for The Beatles
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You
may not find Elvis here, but you're sure to find Vegas' first world
class facility, Studio At The Palms. Owners,
the Malouf Family and veteran studio manager, Zoe Thrall will make
you feel right at home. The facility offers two studios. Studio
X, |
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Drum Doctor
world's finest collection of drums & cures for common drum ailments
Mr Bonzai
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2004 Edition of the
Recording Industry Sourcebook is out
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Watch Video
Interviews with Top producers from Legendary Studios |
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top producers,mixers,
composer and studios
24x7
877-645-9777
toll free
Michael Schenker's
famous Gibson Flying V guitars are now available exclusively from
Brauer
Guitar Rentals
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In-demand bass player Reggie Hamilton discovered a piece of equipment this year that helps him overcome the limitations of the hi-Z instrument input signal chain in the average studio. Since first trying the A Designs REDDI all-tube direct box last July, it has been his constant companion, reports Hamilton. The REDDI ensures that he can consistently deliver exactly the sound for which he has been hired as he moves from session to session. "The first four days I had it at four completely different sessions - pop, rock, R&B and acoustic jazz bass. Honestly I found it to be exceptional, and that's without blowing smoke. I really, really like the box and take it with me everywhere I go. I love the tube sound. It's so natural and warm," says the busy musician, whose resume of live and recording session work includes such diverse artists as Boyz II Men, Ricky Martin, Kelly Clarkson, Seal, Whitney Houston, Warren Zevon, Johnny Hallyday, Bette Midler, Randy Newman, and his mentors, Stanley Clarke and George Duke, among many others. The challenge, Hamilton observes, is that not all studios pay as much attention to the high-impedance instrument input chain as they do to the vocal path. Even some of the high-end preamplifiers most commonly found at many studios come up short due to manufacturing and design compromises. "They're really concerned with how it sounds with a microphone. They're not thinking about how it sounds for a bass guitar or a transducer for an acoustic bass or a keyboard for a synth bass." Carrying the REDDI from one gig to the next eliminates that problem, he says, and allows him to do his job. "A lot of people I work with have nice home studios but there's often little thought for the inputs they're getting from somewhere else. Some people have a signal path that's pretty poor. You could have bad cabling in the patchbay and lose 4dB, which is a pain. Taking the REDDI to a session, especially having 16dB of gain, really helps a lot." He adds, "I know from my bass and the cabling that I use, down to the DI, that after that it's on them - I've fulfilled my part. It's nice to have a DI that I like and trust as much as my bass." Years of recording in a wide variety of locations, from the top commercial facilities to high-end home studios have exposed Hamilton to nearly every DI box available. Compared to some of those high-end boxes, he says, "This is significantly better. Having used all those DIs, I'm really happy with the REDDI." "It might not have the tonal variance that I might have with some units," he continues, "but that's made up by the fact that it's all natural tone, and it sounds excellent. I like the way my sound saturates the tape - or the hard disc, as it were. You can bring a great sound to the table automatically. You don't need anything to polish it up. It's just true, which I like." Not surprisingly,
engineers at Hamilton's sessions have also been impressed. A Designs Audio is distributed by TransAudio Group, founded by industry veteran Brad Lunde For more info, please email Brad Lunde at LVPA or Phone (702) 307-2700
ATC
Loudspeakers Do Stand The Test Of Time Hollywood film score and music mixer and recordist Frank Wolf first heard about the ATC upgrades from Las Vegas Pro Audio president Brad Lunde, and, having changed out the subwoofers in his twelve-year-old ATC SCM100 reference monitors for the company's new Super Linear drivers, could not be happier with the results. "They're dramatically improved," says Wolf. It's an easy do-it-yourself job, he reports. "I pulled them apart myself, replaced the ports, and put the new speakers in." ATC also offered to service the amplifier modules, he adds. "They suggested that if I wanted to pull the amp packs out and ship them they would check them and tweak them and make sure they were up to snuff, which I did. They turned them around fast and didn't keep me off the air for long at all. That's about as good customer service as you could ever hope to get." With his LCR setup of SCM100 monitors sporting new woofers and fresh components in his amplifier modules, Wolf was able to get back to work as one of the top music mixers in Hollywood. "What I've done since the upgrade is recorded and mixed the new Pixar movie, "Cars," which is coming out next summer. I mixed the album for "The Producers," the new film of the Broadway production inspired by the original Mel Brooks film. And I'm just now working on a Spike Lee movie with composer Terrence Blanchard." The hotly anticipated new Pixar Animation Studios feature, "Cars," "looks like it's going to be great," says Wolf. "I've done four other movies with Pixar. I did "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2," "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc." with them and Randy Newman, so this was my fifth one with Pixar. They're a great group of guys to work with." Pixar's animated features have garnered multiple nominations and awards worldwide, and have won many Oscars. Wolf's busy career also includes such movies as "Meet the Fockers," "Seabiscuit," "Tarzan" and "Mulan." These same ATCs
were used for scoring "The Producers." This task was arduous,
Wolf reports. "I spent four months this year working on 'The
Producers.' There are 25 songs plus an underscore, so it was a lot
of work. ATC reference
monitors are a longstanding and firm favorite with many music mixers.
Wolf is happy to report that he was able to find a pair in New York. ATC's drivers are manufactured in-house to exacting tolerances and are legendary for their many design innovations, such as the innovative SL magnet system and the company's renowned Soft Dome midrange driver, which achieves exceptionally broad and even dispersion to produce a flat response anywhere in the room. Situated in Aston Down in rural Gloucestershire, England, ATC was established in London in 1974 by acoustics engineer and musician Bill Woodman. LasVegasProAudio
distributes ATC
in the USA. For
more info, please email Brad
Lunde at LVPA or Phone (702) 307-2700
"I have two of the original Daking mic-pre/EQs and two of the original compressor-limiters," reports Glassman, who, as a session bass player, first met Geoffrey Daking many years ago when he was working as a recording engineer. "I have a lot of equipment in my studio. Some of it is very specialized and much of it is very expensive, but Geoff's stuff is just better, and I use it much more often. The Daking equipment is just more useful and sounds great." Elaborating on why the Daking units have become his go-to mic preamps, he continues, "Sometimes, in the heat of things, when there's a limited amount of time and people's focus is fragile, you don't always have the luxury of comparing different pieces of equipment. It's got to be good immediately, so you have to make up your mind pretty quickly." "The Daking compressor-limiters are equally practical," adds Glassman, "and are also very versatile. They can be transparent. You can put some very light compression on the stereo bus on something that's very sensitive and get the effect that you want. Or, you can use them almost as an effect and squash something amazingly hard and still make it usable." As a bass and guitar player, songwriter, engineer-producer and arranger, Seth Glassman has worked live and in the studio with a truly impressive list of artists, including James Brown, Paul McCartney, Cher, Diana Ross, Aaron Neville, Brian McKnight, Hall and Oates, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers, Carole King, Jennifer Warnes, and many, many others. A musician with plenty of experience working the Great White Way in Manhattan, Glassman recently wrote and recorded several songs with Broadway star Darlene Love.
LasVegasProAudio
(www.lasvegasproaudio.com)
distributes Geoffrey
Daking & Co. TransAudio Group's product lines include A-Designs (USA) AEA ribbon microphones (USA), ADT Toolkit, AEA, ATC Loudspeakers (UK), Brauner microphones(Germany), Drawmer (UK), Geoffrey Daking & Co. (USA), George Massenburg Labs (GML) (USA), Heil Sound (USA); Mercury Audio (USA) Mission Audio (UK) Phoenix Audio (UK), PAULY Superscreens(Germany), SABRA SOM(Brazil), Soundelux (USA), SoundField Microphones (UK), Z-Systems (USA) and Weiss Engineering (Switzerland) and Z Systems (USA). "Crazy Hair Day" at Cups 'N Strings
Firehouse
Sessions On the outside, Firehouse Studios preserve the rustic charm of the original structure, a circa 1889 fire station near downtown Pasadena, California. On the inside, however, the facility takes a quantum leap into 21st century audio technology.
Avatar Duets
Studio C hosted a session for Telarc recording artist, Hiromi Uehara (right), recording a piano duet with Akiko Yano. Sushi Kosugi produced and James Farber engineered, assisted by Brian Montgomery. Recently during AES in NY Student Chapter from Columbia University visited Avatar Studios. The group was given a tour by Roy Hendrickson, Chief Engineer of Avatar. Seen here in Avatar’s Studio A are Roy Hendrickson (far left) and the student group, headed by Chapter Chair, Suman Ravuri (third from right). Parr Excellence!
At the Surround Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on 15th December, Steve Parr (pix above) was announced the winner for Best Orchestral Mix for 'Reich at the Roxy'. 'Reich at the Roxy' is a DVD of a concert by Alarm Will Sound playing the compositions of Steve Reich at the eponymous venue in the meatpacking district of New York in February 2004. The concert was filmed in high definition video and recorded at 96k directly into Digital Performer by Parr. After editing by producer Mike Roberts, Parr and Roberts mixed the concert in both 6.1 surround and stereo at Parr and partner Sharon Rose's Hear No Evil studio in London. Parr commented
'this was probably the most difficult mix I have ever had to accomplish.
It was like rescuing a child from a burning building; the material
was so complex and demanding on the ears that Mike and I could only
work for very short periods of time before audio fatigue would set
in; it took the best part of a year before we were happy with the
mixes.' Roberts added 'It was always my intention to combine the
controlled environment of a studio recording with the excitement
of a live performance' Sweetspot Productions released the recording as the first of a series of high resolution recordings of contemporary music. Parr previously won the award for Most Adventurous Mix for 'The Orchestra' in 2002 and had also been nominated for his 5.1 mix of 'Who Are You' for the CSI title theme and for the movie soundtrack for 'Hound of the Baskervilles'. He was the only European to win an award , other winners include Brant S Biles for NERD, Greg Penny who took Best Multichannel Reissue for Elton John's Captain Fantastic, and Jerry Harrison for Talking Heads. Surrounded
By Faces of Music
In a gala event,
the 2005
Surround Music Awards announced this year’s winners at
the Beverly Hilton Hotel past December. The event, hosted by Ed
Cherney and Elliot
Scheiner – along with some help from past host Al
Schmitt – was highlighted by the presentation of the 2005
Surround Artist of the Year to Jackson Browne by the members of
his Running On Empty band, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Craig Doerge,
and David Lindley. Following Browne’s acceptance speech, singer/songwriter
Andrew Gold and Jeffrey Foskett from the Brian Wilson Band acoustically
performed two Jackson Browne hits – Running On Empty and Stay.
Congrats to all the winners!
While waiting
for the award show, there was a frenzy of book signing when a copy
of Mr Bonzai's book Faces of Music: 25 Years of Lunching with Legends
resurfaced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Pop Up The
Poster & CD Covers
On the heels
of four hugely successful nights at London's Royal Albert Hall,
the eagerly anticipated Cream reunion arrived on DVD (from Rhino)
and CD (from Reprise Records) October 2005. In what was billed the
must-see show of this decade, legendary rock group, Cream -- Ginger
Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton -- reunited for their first concerts
in more than 30 years. These triumphant reunion performances were
brilliantly captured on HD and 5.1 surround sound for the DVD and
CD releases. The DVD features alternate takes of favorite songs,
along with the only band interviews about the historic reunion.
The last time the band played together was in 1993 when they were
inaugurated into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in Los Angeles. The DVD cover features John Hamersveld's wonderful psychedelic art with updated design much similar to Warhol. January 1964, Van Hamersveld, then a famous surfer known as the “Hammer”, is riding one of the first Makaha Skateboards out front of Surfer Magazine. Later that year John designed the iconic film poster for The Endless Summer (John pictured above with the poster). Van Hamersveld
was recently surprised to find a demand and renewed interest in
his posters like the classic Hendrix/Shrine (which he has recently
done a fourth re-printing of). The original first printings of the
posters now go for $3,500 to $5,000, he says. Not everyone can fork
over that kind of money, however, even for a piece of rock history.
Apart from avid poster collectors intent on amassing the original
pieces, the ’60s artists have also found a new audience in
the youth of today’s renewed interest and veneration of classic
rock-their vehicle, the significantly cheaper, more accessible re-prints.
Clearly, as long as rock is around, there will be an interest in
the genre’s posters.
News From
Sundance
Warner Independent Pictures jumped into the big-buy arena Monday at Sundance with the $6 million acquisition of all North American and U.K. rights to writer-director Michel Gondry's (pix above) "The Science of Sleep." WIP moved swiftly to buy the visually dazzling fantasy starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg right after its 9:30 p.m. screening Sunday and closed the deal with Gaumont and Partizan Films at 3 a.m. Monday. "There were six of us who saw it," WIP president Mark Gill said. "We never agree on anything, but we all loved this film. It's breathtakingly original." "Science of Sleep" is produced by Georges Bermann and Frederic Junqua and marks WIP's first Gaumont film. WIP plans to release the film in the second half of the year. In other acquisitions
activity, Ryan Fleck's addiction drama "Half
Nelson," starring Ryan Gosling, and the puzzle docu "Wordplay"
are expected to sell imminently. The Yari Group's "The Illusionist,"
starring Edward Norton, also played well Sunday night and is being
screened "all over Hollywood," according to one distributor
interested in the film, which the filmmakers would like to release
wide. Naked Eyes
Live And On CD
Coachella, The Film
Directed by Drew Thomas, Coachella will feature two-hours of highlights from the previous six years of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. On January 24
there will be a sneak peek one night only event. Click here for
a list
of local theatres. You can purchase tickets online at www.bigscreenconcerts.com
or in person at select theatres. Tickets are $10 advance or $12.50
day of event. No refunds. This film is rated R.
Featured performances by: The Chemical Bros, The Polyphonic Spree,
Radiohead, Red Hot Chilllie Peppers, Beck, Bjork, Perry Farrell,
The White Stripes, Mars Volta, to name a few.
There are approximately 639 million small arms in the world today. Eight million new weapons are produced every year. Nearly 60 per cent of small arms are in civilian hands. The annual number of bullets produced is more than double the world's population. Every year roughly half a million men, women and children are killed by armed violence - that's one person every minute. On December
10th, International Human Rights Day, the first four tracks of the
compilation were made available on amnesty.org/noise as 99 cent
downloads. Make Some Noise is a global venture by Amnesty International that mixes music, celebration and action to protect individuals wherever freedom, justice and equality are denied. What's their New Year's Wish list: To attract one million new supporters worldwide. With Yoko Ono's gift – the recording rights to “Imagine” and John Lennon’s entire solo songbook – MSN is harnessing the power of music to inspire a new generation to stand up for human rights. Black Eyed Peas, Maroon5, Snow Patrol, The Cure, Postal Service and Avril Levine are all involved in the MSN campaign doing John Lennon covers.
Let The Games
Begin
Andrea Bocelli, Lou Reed, Ricky Martin, Avril Lavigne and other musical stars will perform in the downtown medal plaza during the Turin Games. Opera singer Bocelli will open the festivities in Piazza Castello on Feb. 11 after the first day of competition. Organizers expect 8,500 spectators each night. Fifty-five of the 84 medal ceremonies will be held in the plaza, with Alpine ceremonies held at competition venues. To purchase tix click here
Microsoft
Unveils Windows Vista at CES
With more than
90 per cent of personal computers running Windows, security represents
the biggest target for hackers. Focussing on
average consumer needs Vista is featured with new photo-editing
tools, a revamped media player designed specially to improve the
way that Windows tackles media files and improved remote-control
experience. Highlights
from the keynote address included: Van Toffler, MTV Networks (the
music group) president jokingly handed Gates a massive $50 royalty
check for being the inspiration for MTV film "Napoleon Dynamite"
as part of their new venture together called URGE! A cameo appearance by Justin Timberlake who plugged his new album ended the introduction of URGE. " URGE offers artists like myself a new way to specifically reach our music fans with a ton of options to play, interact and buy music. I want to let the cat out of the bag; when I release my new album this year, which by the way features Mr. Gates's singing debut, we'll be doing a duet -- (laughter) -- [singing] "Artistry and technology" -- no? (Laughter.) Whatever, " Says Timberlake. Windows's Xbox 360 took the ceterstage once more. According to Peter Moore who leads Xbox and gaming, the Xbox has achieved an unprecedented global launch for the world of videogame consoles. In the first 90 days we will have launched Xbox 360 in nearly 30 countries, and Xbox 360 is on track to ship between 4.5 and 5.5 million consoles by the end of June. Key partnerships with Verison, MCI, Motorola (the Q) and Phillips were announced promising connecting phones to broadband services and offering richer consumer experience. New TV software packages promise more interactivity, choice and personalization. In this area watch for Vive (rhymes with "five" and "live,") a partnership with Intel. Combined with the Windows Media Center, it's like the 7.1 surround sound. Another partnership with DIRECTV video onto the Windows Media Center PC. "We'll also connect up to our portable devices, connect up to Xbox 360, and so these Media Centers will let you enjoy the high definition and normal definition DIRECTV content and take that away on a portable media device, so a lot of flexibility there," says Gates. BSkyB, is sort of a sister company of DIRECTV over in the UK who has over 8 million subscribers and will be able to do those downloads and use those great capabilities. As for High-def
DVDs coming online this year, the Toshiba HD-DVD player will be
available in March for $499 as a device that consumers can get to
start watching HD-DVD disks. Its A user might get benefit out of
interactivity and compelling content running on a WindowsVista Media
Center PC with tthe HD-DVD player by changing the viewing experience.
Media Center is a platform that enables content providers and software
developers to create all kinds of compelling application experiences
and services that work with a remote control either on your PC,
your Media Center PC, or streaming through extender devices like
the Xbox 360. Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer, in his keynote at CES,"Content is no longer pushed at consumers, it's pulled when they want it and how they want it," Stringer said, who added that the transition to high-definition television would shake the industry. "The scale of the transition from analog to HD (high definition) will make the shift from black-and-white to color small by comparison," Stringer said. Sony BMG, a
joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann AG, was sued last year after
5.7 million of its CDs were shipped with anti-piracy technology
that required a new software patch to plug a potential security
breach in computers used to play the CDs. They entered a preliminary
agreement to settle a class action lawsuit brought against the company
here for its use of copy-protection software that allegedly behaves
like spyware. The move signals a setback to major-label efforts
to control consumer copying of CDs.Sony CEO Stringer said the experience
highlights the conflict at Sony between the electronics division
that wants to make products with features consumers want, such as
the ability to copy music and films to devices, and the creative
units of the company concerned with protecting copyrights.
"We have
to walk the line at Sony between the needs of technology and the
consumer, and the rights of the artist, which we feel very strongly
about," said Stringer who highlighted Sony's upcoming product
line, which includes an electronic book reader, a device that allows
TV shows to be streamed live to a PlayStation Portable handheld
unit, and a new digital movie projector. He said his efforts at
cutting costs and reorganizing the company around several core units
is progressing slowly but steadily. Company
executives intend to meet next week in Hawaii to assess the restructuring.
The company is planning to cut 10,000 jobs.
The Pandora
Box
As the Savage Beast Web site points out: "In an industry where less than 3% of all releases currently account for over 80% of all revenue, Savage Beast is ideally positioned to unlock an enormous lost revenue potential." That's where the Music Genome comes in. Those of you familiar with Alan Lomax's legacy and his Global Jukebox can see the similarities. Lomax's Jukebox was based on a music notation system he called his "cantometrics," a made-up word he defined as meaning "song as a measure of society." It consisted of 36 parameters that could be used to compare musical performance styles across cultures. And, just as the Music Genome would, Lomax employed an army of rigorously trained research assistants to code and input thousands of songs into a central database. There are 4,400 in all, spanning 400 cultures, everything from Pygmy recordings to American pop tunes. This is only a portion of what Lomax intended. A series of strokes in the 1990s prevented him from getting the Jukebox past the prototype stage. Despite their many similarities, the two projects have very different ambitions. The Music Genome is primarily a commercial venture, designed to take advantage of something called the Long Tail—an economic concept with new implications in the Internet age. It holds that in an environment of limitless selection and easy distribution—as created by businesses like iTunes and Rhapsody—there's money to be made by driving people beyond the blockbuster hits to the more obscure, deep catalog stuff. As the Savage Beast Web site points out: "In an industry where less than 3% of all releases currently account for over 80% of all revenue, Savage Beast is ideally positioned to unlock an enormous lost revenue potential." That's where the Music Genome comes in. To date, the system has been used exclusively by in-store kiosks and online recommendation engines for clients like AOL, Tower Records, Best Buy, and Barnes & Noble. But in the next few months, Savage Beast plans to unveil a public interface that will enable listeners to, in CEO Tim Westergren's words, "have a full music genome conversation on the web": query it, input songs, and listen to music. The next step for the project is to expand the catalog to include commercial recordings from around the world. The enthusiastic CEO also talks about a recent visit to Japan, where he encountered a local band that sounded like Counting Crows. "It would be awesome to be able to connect someone in America with a Japanese band where the music is the same," he said. Ironically, this is precisely what Lomax feared most: a day when America turns its ears to the wor |
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