Tag Archives: mixing

August Update

It’s been a fun music filled summer. I trust you’ve stayed suncreened and hydrated. While Austin is becoming more expensive for artist/musicians to exist, San Antonio’s music scene is reaping the benefits. Music, Arts and Culture seem to expand by leaps and bounds. Zinc Media has been participating in Live Music, Recording, Mixing as well as Audio for film. Make sure you scroll down. It’s been a busy one. I look forward to hearing from you!


Bekah Kelso & the Fellas continue to make their music more accesible in the SA scene. Bekah is half way through her four week residency at The Liberty Bar on S. Alamo. Tonight(8/19) Laura Marie and Lucas Jack will be joining her.

Come enjoy the full Bekah Kelso & The Fellas experience Tuesday Aug.26th 7:30-9:30p. We’ll also be at the finale for The Block’s Rock the Block Concert series Saturday September 6th…More Shows

We’re making our way into the San Antonio Music Awards . We appreciate those who’ve already voted. Thank you very much. Here are some suggestions:

  • VOCALIST – BEKAH KELSO
  • KEYBOARDIST – RICKY HERNANDEZ (BEKAH KELSO & THE FELLAS)
  • BASSIST – DAMIAN RODRIGUEZ (BEKAH KELSO & THE FELLAS)
  • DRUMMER – RYAN KELSO (BEKAH KELSO & THE FELLAS)
  • NEW BAND – BEKAH KELSO & THE FELLAS
  • SINGER/SONGWRITER – BEKAH KELSO
  • RECORDING ENGINEER – DAMIAN RODRIGUEZ

New album coming this Fall.

This is from this San Antonio Museum of Art‘s 2nd Friday pARTy. Come find us on Instagram

SAMA Art Party-7


Wisdom Poster 12 RGB

 

Meanwhile, “The Wisdom to Know The Difference” has been making headlines. I saw this at the SA Film Festival and am extremely proud of everyone involved. Congratulations to Marc Cerutti! Here’s a quick rundown.

MANHATTAN FILM FESTIVAL

Best Picture, Best Original Song

LONG BEACH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Best Picture, Best Editor (Marc Cerutti), Best Original Song, Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Wagner)

SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL

Best Picture (Jury Award), Best Picture (Audience Award)

BURBANK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection, Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Daniel Baldwin) and Best Actress (Mayra Leal)

REEL RECOVERY FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection for LA, Official Selection for NYC

FT. LAUDERDALE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection


I’d like to congratulate Rafi Marrero y Orquesta for their latest release “Realizacion de un Sueño”. You can listen to music here.

All musical production was done in Peru by Cesar Hijar and a team of passionate musicians. The vocals were done in San Antonio at Zinc Media and performed by Josean Rivera. We’re expecting to submit for Grammy consideration next year.

Rafi_Cover


This year I’ve had the pleasure of working on an album with Jason Carter III. We are nearing completion and last week we had, Hall-of-Fame Inductee, Bobby Flores laying down some of the most heartfelt fiddle. Also making a guest appearance on drums was Ryan Kelso. There are other guest vocal appearances in the works.  I can not wait to share.


I am here because of you. Thank you for including me in your projects.

Thanks for listening!

 

New Gear New News


I’d like to share that Zinc Media recently acquired a live recording console/mixer. The Allen & Heath Qu-16. This unit is capable of mixing 22 channels of audio with high quality onboard processors. As first of it’s kind, it can record up to 18 separate channels of audio direct to a formatted USB hard drive. We also have the option of running it with ProTools HD.


I’m also pleased to announce that the Film that went to festival earlier this month was well received. “The Wisdom To Know The Difference” sold out it’s first showing at the Manhattan Film Festival and is scheduled for a second showing 7/3/14. This film will also be at the San Antonio Film Festival on August 3rd at CityBase Cinema.


On the music side, Bekah Kelso & The Fellas released a live video from a recent performance at 502Bar. The show was 75% unreleased material we are working up and getting ready for the studio later this summer. This one gem is from Bekah’s second release, “Departures”. Enjoy “Say Something”


Thanks for listening!

Damian

www.zincmediapro.com

Pro Tools 10 with Complete Toolkit 2

Pro Tools 9.0.3 to Pro Tools 10, MacPro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core with 10GB RAM
Sure I was upset at the announcement of Pro Tools 10. It hadn’t even been a year since the release of PT9. I bit the bullet and upgraded anyway. I can understand some concerns such as compatibility and the nuances that come with a studio’s DAW and workflow until recently were mostly negative. I fearlessly, without backing up, upgraded. To my surprise the upgrade was painless. It was easy like a CS update. All my 3rd party plug-ins had no issues(Waves, Serato, Sony Oxford, Slate Digital VCC, Trigger, Tonelux). All my settings from PT9 were intact.
My previous sessions opened correctly and sounded good. I was pleased to find the Input Monitor button made available. That was only on HD systems before. Latency has been vastly improved. I was using 256 samples H/W Buffer and could not hear any. Once I tracked, I began to edit. I felt right at home with the gain adjustment from the “clip”(previously “region”). Being able to set”handles” for AudioSuite processing is also a time saver. You can now process and crossfade with out having to see that annoying warning, buh-bye. I used to process more area than I needed. Then I would Trim the region/clip back to the intended section and cross fade. Every second counts.

System 5 EQ is a great channel strip.  I’ll usually boost a shelf gradually from 4k up to see how the highs do. The sound was transparent and smooth. Dynamics section is usable but not what I would call “vibey”.  The gate gives Metric Halo’s Channel Strip a run for it’s money.

Behind the scenes Pro Tools just feels faster and leaner. Delay Compensation has been extended by 4X(16,383 samples@ 48k), making CPU intensive plug-ins like de-noising, easier to set up and not worry about hand aligning regions, oops, I mean clips.

Most non- Pro Tool users can probably say,”oh, my DAW has had that for awhile now.” like the Channel Strip and the Clip gain feature. That’s ok. I’ve been using Pro Tools for a long time and as a professional still see it as one of the most reliable platforms for digital recording. But by all means, don’t let me stop you. We will use the best equipment  we have at hand at the time.

Avid just brought PT9 users closer to HD.

Highlights:

Possible Audio Tracks(48k)- 768
Possible Aux Inputs- 512
In-application web browsers for AVID account, support et al.
New import and export features
New Control surface/worksurface features
Storage and dick performance enhanced
Avid Interoperability- AAF, OMF
Change session settings in the Session Set Up window

Want More Specs

Universal Audio 4-710D Review

It’s in my rack now and will not be going anywhere.

The 4-710D blends tube and solid state signals for”tone-blending” 4 channel microphone preamps with 1176-style compression. This unit also has 8 channels of Analog to Digital(A/D) conversion. 4 Channels of Mic Pres. 4 Line Ins. On every mic channel there are insert points that expand routing capabilities. The Inserts can be engaged from the front panel. Visit Universal Audio for specs and more info.

My go to mic pre, lately, has ben the UA 4110. So I am familiar with Universal Audio’s pedigree. My first concern with an all-in-one box was the A/D converters. My current set up is a Black Lion Audio Signature Mod DIGI 002. I recorded bass and vocals into the 4-710 pre and went out ADAT into the BLA 002 and Line out into the BLA converters. Well, there are no bad guys here. The 4-710D’s sound was “punchy”, “more tangible”, “upfront” while the BLA 002 seemed more open on the top end. I could see both getting used for different tasks. My concerns were immediately quelled. I compared the unit with GENEX and Apogee Rosetta 200 converters. The 4-710D sat nicely between the 2 with “punch” and “clarity”. This makes a great front end for any studio, project or professional.

I also ran a couple of recorded tracks through the 4-710D. I normally run track outs of Pro Tools(9) into hardware for that “special” something. In this regard, the 4-710D offers more still. Just running the track through the Tube side gave the track some depth. Being able to blend the Solid State signal in, I was able to “sit” that track in the mix almost immediately.Tip: a little tube saturation goes a long way when you’re stacking tracks. You should of seen the smile on my face when I realized I now had 4 1176-style compressors in my arsenal for mix-down. Listen To Audio Samples

This is an investment that will serve me well into retirement.

It’s not Neve or API, but nothing else is. It is 100% Universal Audio

Thanks for listening