Forgotten Genre Productions

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.