Tag Archives: Recording

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

In The Studio With Bekah Kelso

If you’re not familiar with Bekah Kelso then you haven’t heard one of the most talented performers(real) around. Take natural talent and  drive it with extensive gigging and you get a performer with laser sight acuity. On Bekah’s last recording, “Departures”, I prided the project on the fact that no pitch correction was used. It might seem careless if you believe at least a “safety” tuning pass is the least you can do to a vocal performance. Bends, vibratos, expressive formant tonality, etc. are, to me, what makes a performance. So again we tracked relatively quickly and let the song tell us where to go.

We took that approach further on the 4 out of the 10 possible songs we started with and decided to work on. We had limited time as Bekah was getting ready to make a big move out of Texas to Seattle. We will continue to forge this project through online collaboration and wrap up in May.

First we recorded “demo” takes (Guitar/Vocal/Click) to about 10 ideas Bekah has been looking for the right time and place to bring into this world. We narrowed it down to 4 songs we fastidiously worked, sculpted, rearranged, manipulated and tracked. We started by adding Bass guitar. After the initial “guide” take I decided to lower the click and feel the original acoustic guitar/vocal take. That gave us a fluidity that can easily be lost or edited out of music.We kept throwing around the idea,”This is what we do.” and suddenly most first takes were right where they needed to be. That wasn’t the case for all tracks but it sure made the aggregated tracks jump and move.

I tried to maintain the flow of one song at a time but if at some point the “feeling” was absent we’d listen to another and if that caught our vibe we’d attack and conquer. After the bass was complete we now had a foundation of groove. Bass against guitar. We’d then track “keeper” acoustic takes and replace the guides. There’ was no real plan or list to follow. It was really based on the vibe or feel we were attuned to and inject as much as possible to the recording of the performance. As chaotic as it might seem there was a calmness about what we were doing that led to some magic and confidence in our decisions. Totally worth it.

We then would move on to electric guitars and other instruments.

The Electric guitar was tracked using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a G&L semi-hollow ASAT mic’d with either and AKG C414B or a Samson VR88(same as “Departures”) depending on what the song called for. We layered some percussion tracks also recorded with the 414. by this time the click was muted and they started to feel like complete songs.

We moved on to Vocals using a Neumann TLM 193 through Universal Audio’s 4110. This combo caught the airy, harmonically appealing, breathiness of Bekah’s voice while maintaing a natural tone. On the last day we both decided that one song in particular was not ready for vocals or just wasn’t matching up to the other songs so with ruthless empirical zeal we scrapped it and reworked, arranged and tracked a completely new song. Talk about magic. In a matter of hours 2 counter point Acoustic Guitars, Bass, were ready for final Vocals and with in a few takes the song was now ready to move forward.

We will track drums when all other songs have been pre-produced and rehearsed to the rough mixes. Ryan Kelso will pull drum duties while Marty Barrera will add more percussion. I am excited about the prospects this project holds in store for us. Stay tuned and please check out Bekah Kelso

 

Photos by Sean-Micheal Argo

Preamp Choice for Acoustic Guitar

Today we’re listening to a few preamps for Acoustic Guitar (Taylor 414 GC). Digi 002 BLA Signature Mod, Universal Audio 4-710d, Universal Audio 4110, and Noetek Series 1E.

Download 16bit/44.1k files (.wav)

Each track is an individual performance of the same 6 bar riff. Levels were matched as close as possible using Waves’ PAZ-Analyzer so there is no post processing.

Signal chain was kept simple to avoid external factors. The Taylor was recorded using it’s Expression System directly in to the mic pres. Then AD was done by DIGI 002 BLA SigMod.

 

 

The Most Transparent(clean) was the 002. The rest have a “heavier” color giving them more weight.
Now, between the Tube and SolidState on the 4-710 there is a tonal change that is noticeable and can help expand the palette helping elements fit in the mix using the same box. The cool thing about this unit is it’s ability to mix both Tube and SS to make perfect blend for your track. The compressor was not engaged.

The 4110 to me, has a more tangible sound and also offers tonal variances by engaging it’s Shape Control Switch
From The Manual:
Position OFF
This position selects the purest signal path, and is called the Modern position; Clean, clear, full bandwidth that is distortion free.
Position 1
This position selects transformer loading, and is called the Vintage position. This setting changes the loading on the mic/line input transformer to provide more of that “iron” sound popular in vintage transformer-coupled preamps. This could be described as warmer and more present, with increased sensitivity to the microphone’s impedance curve; A bit of harmonic coloration enhancing mid- frequency tone and presence, or a more three dimensional character. Higher Gain settings will increase these characteristics.
Position 2
This position is the same as position 1 with the addition of a soft limiting circuit. We call this position Saturate. This setting uses the same transformer loading as Position 1, but also adds additional loading to the first stage preamp, which is perfect for smoothing out transients without clipping. When using this position the input signal is naturally lowered. Experiment with higher Gain settings to achieve greater “saturation” when using this mode.”

The Neotek sounded full and the closest to the 4110 in Position2.
Please download the files above and give a high quality listen.
I’d like to hear from you!

It’s easy

More often we come across someone who has a studio. This studio can vary from a laptop and earbuds to high end gear setups.
As an engineer, you want to get your hands on the best(subjective) gear at the time.
An interesting thing has been happening as my ears mature. The expensive stuff can make recording good sounds easier. The creative judgement to know when to say when is still required. This creative judgement can only be attained by experience.

There are many factors that determine the quality of your recordings even before the mics warm up.
Great instrument, great player, tuning, arrangement and production.
This by no means is a deterrent. I encourage you to keep practicing any and all of these things to be a better engineer.
Keep the tape rolling!

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

I’m In the Studio

I totally get a kick from some first time “artists” in the studio. The room is excited. Everyone has done their homework. We are in the process of setting up; making sure the environment is at it’s best. Inevitably, someone’s phone will ring and I’ll hear,”… yeah, I’m in the studio.” Big smirk and a nod of approval. Before I remind everyone to turn off their phones, I remind myself I was once in the studio for the first time and remember my synapses having their own rave party as I walked around trying to take it all in. The idea the energy an artist is putting forth will permanently be captured either on magnetic tape(analog) or a 0’s and 1’s (digital) can seem magical yet daunting. Don’t be scared my friends. Here are a few tips to make your studio experience a positive one.

Do your homework. It’s a recording studio not a practice studio. Knowing what needs to be done allows one to better explore other possibilities efficiently and effectively.

Be on time. Sounds simple enough. In most cases, the studio is paying for the engineers time with or without the artist there.

Respect the control room. The engineer’s job to listen and capture is a critical process. While the engineer is recording, listening, editing he/she is focused and trying to get the best possible sound for you. Talking or noise that has nothing to do with the task at hand can go to the lounge area or another room. It’s like getting in front of a camera while the photographer is taking a picture of something else. It’s your time, your money and I’m sure you want the best for that.

No such thing as a stupid question. Most of us are happy to share our knowledge with anyone who asks. If you want to know more about the process you are undergoing, make a list of questions, wait for a break, and fire away. You might be surprised. We might not shut up.

Have a good time. You’re capturing a moment. Make that moment beautiful and you’ll end up with beautiful music. This is easier said than done. Maintaining positive relationship between two people is difficult enough. I’m sure a five piece band can provide a deterrent for polygamy.

The studio can seem like a microscope exposing all the imperfections. One should use that to improve and grow as an artist. What happens in the studio, stays in the studio… until the CD comes out.

Happy New Year and thanks for listening!