Forgotten Genre Productions

It has been another busy season for us at Forgotten Genre Productions. We just finished an album for John Gerdy that should see a September release. We also did some mixing for a hip hop project that we came into contact with. These tracks were done for a live show to act as the back up for the MC’s. It was an interesting project. I had a stereo track that they took a classic song and sped up and then put beats over and then each song had about 3 mc’s rapping over the track. Each mc had like 4-6 tracks of vocals from rapping to shout-outs to echos to yeas, boys and other expletives. So it ended up to about 16 tracks of vocals and 1 stereo track of music. This was very unusual for me. I am used to spending hours getting good drum sounds and mixing other musical elements into it. With this I was limited because the music was a stereo track. So it was more of a mastering approach to the stereo track and then spending  hours trying to find ways to let all those vocals sit in the mix in the right place. You use a lot of filtering and different delays and verbs and some distortion to help it sit.

On June 21 Switchfoot was in town for a show at the American Music Theater and I got a chance to stop over and catch up with Andrew Shirley who plays guitar for the band. Andrew and I met years ago when he was working with his prior band Alltogether Seperate. He also was close friends with Kevin from Smalltown Poets and we hung out in San Diego with him briefly while we were taking some time off. He is a great guy and also a humble guy. We were able to discuss Switchfoot’s new album and how they did the lion share of the production and recording in their studio and, the fact that with technology today you can take an mbox and laptop on the computer and record or produce while your touring. This is great because with established artists there is a lot of downtime between sleeping and sound check and gigs. It is helpful to be able to do something productive while touring.

We also have met with quite a few people that are looking to do work in the future.

June 27-28 saw the return of the Celtic Fling to the Renaissance Faire and I got another chance to run a stage and do live sound for the weekend. I will post more info on this but it was a good day.

We also saw music released on the Music for Everyone vol.2 Compilation. The Faux Minxhad a song selected that I mixed and engineered. Congradulations to those guys.

Stay tuned there is more to come from Forgotten Genre Productions in the future. Feel free to contact us if you have music that needs to be captured.

I have lately been reading this book by Glenn Kurtz. It has intrigued me and encouraged me to think about practicing again. I love the tag line on the book, A Musicians Return To Music. I love the imagery of a musician doing his thing, going through the motions, then being compelled to return to what drew him originally to music. It’s fascinating to follow Glenn on his journey. Glenn started playing the guitar when he was a pre teen and he grew more and more into the instrument as he played it. As he continued to practice his ears and abilities developed to the point that he was making new discoveries in the music he listened to and tried to emulate. Notes that were before miscellaneous suddenly transformed into intervals and arpeggios. At some point Glenn determined to go to music school and pursue music as a profession. After Glenn became a professional he ended up putting aside music for the day to day grind and family issues. Then as he approached mid life he had a longing to return to music and he started to go back to a regimented practice schedule. After the frustration of “loosing,” so much dexterity and ability, Glenn discovered that he loved music. He loved practicing. The way he describes the minutest of details of his experience was compelling. He maid me want to practice to see if I could experience the same things. The way he described the process of filing his fingernails was exciting.

I have started to pick up my bass to really explore the possibilities. My method of practice has been to import a loop into Reaper and loop it for about 6-8 minutes or so and run through scales and modes, slowly at first then building up speed. For me, much of it is finger exercise but there is also the rhythm aspect of playing to a loop that works on my timing. Soon I will work on intervals and theory.

To improve in something is a noble quest. Whether it is with instrument or brush, pen or paper, tool or trial. To gain proficiency and understanding is good. Of course we all have a level of involvement that is appropriate for our season of life based on family responsibilities etc. I often find it interesting that people will say that they don’t have time to practice and yet they do have time to watch there favorite tv show or sleep in, or any of a myriad of excuses. Of course that is  a whole other post.

So get out there and practice. If you need some encouragement check out Glenn Kurtz’s book Practicing

Here are some quotes about the book.

Practicing is elegant, methodical and deeply engaging. It is science and poetry in one book.”—Rosanne Cash

“’Practicing’ is a fantastic example of what memoir as a literary form can best deliver: a person delving honestly, profoundly and fearlessly into… life’s big questions.”

—Samantha Dunn, The Los Angeles Times

As I referenced Brian in my last post I discovered that Brian has a new album out that will be on my new favorites list. First off Brian is one of my favorite drummers. His work with Daniel Lanois I have always enjoyed. He comes from such a deep place. I was not aware he  played anything other than the drums but not only does he play a little guitar but he writes and sings also. His new album Mama Rosa is mellow and folky in a Ray Lemontagne or Amos Lee kind of vein. The song writing is excellent. This is more than a drummer wanting some face time and writing Roses are Red Violets Are Blue and I love You rhymes. This is thoughtful stuff. I have been enjoying it thoroughly. Sonically it is great. It has that Lanoisish focus on the bottom end that is rich and full. Enjoy this video of the process and download the album from Amazon. (Just please not itunes) Let me know what you think.

This past week I have been trying to get my new dbx 900 rack up and working. To do that I have had to pull out the soldering iron and solder. Now for some, soldering is a terrifying idea that causes them to procrastinate doing or compels them to hire out for someone else to do the work. This is embarrassing and if this is you and you claim to be an engineer you need to rethink your title. Soldering is an important part of being an engineer and a necessary skill to have. Let me clarify something here. I am not saying I am good at soldering. I am certainly not a pro but I do enjoy soldering on some level. I received most of my soldering learning from my brief tenure with Clair Bros. I had to repair and test cables and make new cables and looms for various installs. For the most part soldering is therapeutic for me. Let me give you some of my rules for soldering so you can be encouraged to give it a shot. These are in no way definitive or official it is just what works for me.

1.) Always have soothing music playing while your working. For me, jazz works . This helps you get in a zone and relax. It is difficult to solder if you are tense and bothered. Last night for me it was Brian Blade & the Fellowship. I chose his Seasons Of Change album.

2.) Always have good tools. Weller is the industry standard as far as irons go. I use a Radio Shack iron that is less than stellar but allows me to choose between 20 watt and 40 watt which is nice. some things you don’t want the extra heat for (like board work or small pieces).

3.) Keep your soldering iron tip clean. Impurities can get into your solder and make iffy connections and you do not want that. Have a wet sponge handy and clean your tip after every solder. Also tin the end of your iron to keep it clean. Don’t cut corners on this. You can get a small “tin” of tinner at Radio Shack for a dollar or so.

4.) Use a holder for extra hands. Most of the bad, ugly solder joints I have done have been because I was too lazy to get my mini vice and because I couldn’t hold things properly I melted something or burnt my self. Come on people.

5.) Apply solder to both surfaces you are joining and they will go together more easily.

6.) Do not rush. Just don’t.

Like I say this is not a definitive list. I am certainly not an instructor or a pro as you can see by my work. For those of you wondering, this picture was of a connector partially done, that is why the solder is not full on pin 1 and 2. If you need some practice soldering try to repair some of those cables you have laying around that you keep forgetting are bad and throw back in with the good ones. Yea, I know how you roll. If you have any questions do some research. Google is your friend.

I will let you know when I get my dbx900 rack going. The 900 series racks were modular and dbx had different pieces that you could mix and match and put together to suit your needs. You can combine compressors with de-essers or parametric EQ’s or noise reduction or any of there other doo-dads. Aphex also made 9000 series modules that work with dbx900 series racks. Unfortunately that is all that works with this rack. I have six of the 903’s which were their compressors. They are similar to DBX’s 160 series and I am anxious to see how they do. I will probably use them on bass and drums but who knows until I try them maybe I’ll find other uses for them.

This Past Friday we were out recording a follow up to The Faux Minx’ Volume Blue EP. They have been playing out quite a bit lately and the Volume Blue EP is doing really well. They wanted to broaden the product available for their growing fanbase and show a little of the diversity of their live show so we set out to track some live material to see what we could capture. It was a fun night and of course the Faux Minx had to pick there home base, Building Character to play for. Tony from BC was good enough to let us haul in equipment on a busy First Friday and set up shop. The band had a great night and we got some very usable material for the release. Of course now is the fun of sorting through 3, 45 min sets to find the gems. Special thanks to Bobby Bradley who let me use his Vintech x73i and Universal Audio 710 to track with. I will try to post something on the site as soon as I get clearance. Here are some pictures to enjoy from the endeaver.

I have been doing  quite a lot of mixing lately and there have been a couple of tools that have been been Indispensible to me. It has been a quest to find usuable tools for me and I have been reviewing and playing around with plug ins from Waves and of course Universal Audio. My birthday present this year was a UAD-2DUO  card. It has been amazing getting the performance upgrade that the UAD-2 gives me. I had a UAD-1 card that I used but I was always limited to a few instances of plugs and often wanted more. The new UAD 2 has given me a whole new group of options. As far as quality goes, the plugs are world class. My favorites are The EMT140 plate reverb. The Harrison EQ which I find I use on vocals, The SPL Transient Designer which is incredible at controling unruly snare or kick tracks, the helios EQ for electric guitars and of course the La2a and La3a and neve 33609. There are so many uses it sometimes is distracking trying to choose which one to go with. The other Plugs that I have been using a ton of are the Waves JJP.

 These plugs are modeled after Jack Joseph Puigs personal vintage fairchild 670 and pultec eq. The fairchilds are compressors that were used a lot by guys like the beatles. Jack is a mix engineer that has done mixes for everyone from the Black Crows to Tonic, John Hiatt, Switchfoot, Semisonic, The Rolling Stones and many others. He is a heavy hitter. I tend to like the puigchild 670 on vocals and as a buss compressor for different things. I have grown quite attached to it. The waves API plugs have been great too. particularly the 550b for drums and guitars. For someone like myself who mixes primarily “in the box” these plugs have allowed me to get into the game and have some cool tools to enhance sounds. I am not one of those guys that sits around wondering or obsessing on whether th 200$ plug in sounds exactlly like the 5000$ piece of analog gear. I don’t care I just know when I use a plug and mouse around with the knobs cool sounds come out. Thats good enough for me. Can Plug ins be a crutch? Absolutely. Again the rules are if it sounds good it is good. Try some new plug ins today, who knows you may be inspired.

Tonight My wife and I went out with Some Friends to take in the Rosa Rosa Cafe’s new Jazz night. The opening band was from Italy and I had worked with them on a technical front to get some microphones and other items while they were statesite. The Max Puglia Band is a flamenco world jazz band that leans heavy to the smooth jazz end of the spectrum. They were extremely nice guys and the music was relaxing and nice. After Max was done, Central PA’s own The Reese Project played from midnight to 2AM. Let me tell you, I was really impressed. The Reese Project is led by Tom Reese who plays a mean Jazz Flute. Tom also teaches jazz at Lebanon Valley College. When I hear the words Jazz Flute it conjures up pictures of Will Ferrill dancing on tables kicking over glasses and playing Jethro Tull. The Reese Project was nothing like that or at least not too much like that. They were tight and played real jazz, not some watered down Kenny G version. They tore it up. Their guitar player, Bobby Brewer, was great and definately had some John Scofield influence and yet totally did his own thing. And his tone was great (which is a pet peeve I have with jazz guitar and the bad tone that often characterizes jazz guitar.)

Stop in to the Rosa Rosa Late Jazz Cafe. They did it right. The vibe was great. Oh yeah and tomorrow night The Reese Project is playing with my boys The Faux Minx at Bubes Brewery in their Alois Martini Bar. If your not doing anything come on out. Bubes is rethinking their music offerings and are trying to guage the interest in music in the area. It’s a great time to stand up for live music and let them know you care.  And it’s  a great night to see some great music. Schools in for all you musicians out there.

I just ran out of my first 100 FGP blank discs so it was time to call up Josh Cranmer at Fortress Audio and get my next batch ready. They just got here today and I was thinking how much I was hurting without them. The cool thing about Fortress Audio is they were able to provide me with a disc with my logo on it for a very reasonable rate. Now let’s be real. You can get discs for cheaper at Radio Shack or the internet or wherever but these discs have my logo on them so it is like advertising. Everytime I finish a project everyone in the band gets a disc of rough mixes for review. Now they have a disc laying around the house with my logo on it. It is very professional looking. It communicates to my clients that I care about the little stuff. That I plan on being around to use up those 100 discs. Fortress uses high quality blanks. I have never had a bad read on a disc. Each one was good. Fortress is also a local company that I want to see succeed. I want a duplicating house that is close by. If there is an issue I can go see them or call them. And this time Josh Cranmer even hand delivered the discs. You can’t beat that. So I want to see your logo on the next demo that comes to me. Why not?

Check out the album of the week tab to see our latest review of No Line On The Horizon.

It has been a while since we posted so we thought we would get something out quick. It has been a busy season with many cool projects. We just finished a song for the Main Street Mystics to enter in the Music For Everyone Compilation Project. The mystics are great guys and it has been fun working with them. We look forward to more tracks to record in the near future. Cross your fingers and hope they made the Music For Everyone compilation. We are also wrapping up mixes for the John Gerdy project.

We have also been spending a lot of time at Building Character They are on their way to becoming the premier venue for music and creativity in Lancaster. We have spent time recording the Faux Minx Ep there, Hiram Rings CD release party, where Tony mixed the audio for the live performance. We also took in a stellar set by Bill Mallonee, that was produced by our friend Chuck Zuch and SoundFocus , and coming up, a Trash & Glory show on March 20th. We are working with Building Character on some upcoming events that will continue to set the bar higher for musicians and performance in PA. We are also looking forward to participating in the Launch Music Conference in downtown Lancaster this April16th - the 19th. Stay tuned for more information.

Forgotten Genre Productions is also partnering with Fortress Audio in downtown Lancaster to provide the artist we work with, with professional affordable duplication and design and layout. The guys at Fortress Audio are committed to being your strategic stop for that final step in the process of getting your art and music to the masses. Stay tuned for more detailed information.