Forum Rollcall... Who's here?

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 2:08 pm

Now that we have been up for a couple weeks and new people are coming in seemingly every day, I'm quite curious to see who is here... I see this being a good thing for a couple of reasons- one, we get to know a bit about the backgrounds of those that are posting. two, from a purely business standpoint, it is good to know where people are located.

When I went to Sydney, Australia this past July to record a performance, it was the internet and some of my connections that put me in touch with the engineer that ultimately made the gig come off perfectly. The acoustic music community is small and IMO it benefits us all to know who is out there.

So to start:

I'm Benjamin Maas, my business name is Fifth Circle Audio.

I've been operating out of Los Angeles for about 6 years now. Before that, I was working (while being a student) in Rochester, New York at the Eastman School of Music.

My background is originally as a classical clarinetist. I have a number of years of experience as an orchestral player but to save my love for playing, I turned my recording hoby into my profession. (I also played Piano and Saxophone, but was never anywhere near as good on them.)

My specialty is classical recording, editing, and producing, however I do a lot of work in other forms of acoustic music. I do sound reinforcement of acoustic shows, I work with a fair amount of jazz and occasionally with world music and folk music. I have also been fortunate to work on some small indy film scores and as a music consultant and recordist for some production recording of music for a national television commercial.

--Ben

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:01 pm

Great idea Ben.

Here's my info:

Name: Jeremy Cucco
Company Name: Sight and Sound Studios (and Sublyme Records)
Background:
-Classical musician (13 years on violin starting at age 7 and too many years to count of F. horn - notice, I said "F horn" and not "French horn." We hornists get very bent out of shape about that incorrect terminology. No disrespect meant towards the French of course. Smile

)
-Computer nerd - hey, I had to put myself through music school somehow!
-Military Intel. - not sure how this happened, but backgrounds in acoustical physics and computers pays off sometimes.
Specialty: Classical music engineering, production and mastering - I've never had the patience for live sound, so I don't do it.

I've been in the Northern Virginia area now for 7 years and actively recording here the entire time. Prior to that, I spent many years in Arkansas before I decided I had to either commit suicide or move. While in Arkansas, I had the pleasure of recording for several years under the tuteledge (sp) of some very interesting recordists. I believe this is where I learned the majority of what NOT to do. Very Happy

Thanks all!
J...

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 1:15 am

Hi,
I´ll share in here.

Name is Gunnar Hellquist. I live in Stockholm, Sweden.

Daytime job is as business controller at an insurance corporation, in the IT department. My professional history includes 8 years in software design, mainly process control, as well as a number of years in computer sales.

Hobby is playing the bass trombone at an amateur level (ie, not much to listen to). Mostly classical nowadays, used to be a lot more big-band. Does a bit of fiddling with arranging music, has done a bit of plugin programming for the notation program Sibelius. Summertime I keep my private flying certificate current by towing glide planes (no cost for me, a week away from family)

Started recording in earnest a few years ago as a means to save the memory of the performances I was in. This hobby is slowly evolving into something a bit deeper, does not know where it will end up.

Gunnar.

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:31 am

I’m honored and thrilled to be part of this great group of intelligent and savvy “acoustic music recording people”. (Hope that covers everyone!)

About me: I am part of a unique minority group; I do professional digital audio on a PC, I am self employed, left handed, below average height (5’6”), single parent (ok, the kid is almost 23 now…) divorced, Irish-Catholic white male. I’m thinking of starting a support group, but I’m not sure I want to be a member of some group with ME in charge. J

But seriously <G>, I was classically trained on the piano since the second grade, and about that time witnessed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan three Sunday nights in a row in 1963, and it’s been a wild, wonderful ride ever since. The rest of the 60’s and 70’s were a great time to learn everything I could and soak up the music all around me, from Dylan to Creedence to prog rock (and ELP!) to the Who, to Fleetwood Mac, and countless other wonderful artists, both acoustic and electric. (I’ll never forget seeing Andre Watts and the Philly O at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in live performance, either.) From about ‘74 onward, I played keyboards & earned a living at nights in bands and clubs, and worked daytimes usually in studios and/or live sound situations.

For about five years, I did live sound for the City of Philadelphia in an outdoor amphitheater gig, with a diverse ethnic crowd, from Gospel nights to Scottish bagpiper Festivals to Jazz shows with many big band greats (most of them still alive at the time – Basie, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Joe Williams, and many many more, until about 1980.) First real live gig (baptism of fire!) was Ray Charles and a sold out crowd of 10,000 in ‘76.

Somehow, I managed get through college as well; I went to Temple University and decided I did NOT want to be a performance or education major so I switched to Theory and Composition and got out of there ASAP with a BA and my sanity somewhat intact, in 1978.

By mid 1980’s, I got serious about recording as a career and went full time with Magnetik Productions here in Philadelphia, a studio/remote facility catering mostly to classical clients and radio broadcasts with a fully equipped remote truck. (We made VINYL records back then, too!) With my classical background, I felt right at home, and found my niche. Magnetik was owned and operated by WFLN 95.7 FM, the area’s only full time commercial classical music station. I worked up from a service tech to a producer there and went from ½ track and 1” 8-track MCI JH-110 analog machines to early F1 digital, and then DAT. In 1988 the station was sold for the first time. I was “outsourced” by the new owners, and hired back as an independent contractor and began my own company - Weston Sound – servicing the radio station and all the subsequent clients set adrift from Magnetik’s dissolution.

Somehow ten busy years flew by and digital recording took over everywhere. By 1998, WFLN was sold (again) to Greater Media, and (idiots they are), they soon pulled the plug forever on one of the last great commercial classical stations in the Eastern USA. Fortunately mostly everyone (announcers, staff, etc.) moved intact over to WRTI, Temple University’s long-running Jazz/NPR station, and split the format to 12 hrs Classical, 12hrs Jazz. We’ve had a symbiotic relationship with them ever since, and handle just about all of their live broadcasts, for both classical, opera, jazz, etc.

Thanks to that and the arts scene in Philadelphia in general, I’ve been busy, due to the good people here who still appreciate their orchestras, operas and choral music, not to mention a pretty healthy Jazz scene as well.

Philly has managed to save their dying main center city corridor (South Broad St.) by reinventing it as “The Avenue of the Arts”. With the opening of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts right there, in late 2001, the arts are doing ok (and so are most of my clients; but finding the ones with a recording budget is always the tricky part!). Even so, it’s kept me fairly busy with remote recording in “Center City” and suburbs, and post production back at the studio. (You can see the rest of the whole boring story – esp what we’re doing now – at my website: www.westonsound.com. we do try to keep it current, so please stop in once in a while and see what we’re up to, I’d be flattered if you do.)

And again, I’m really thrilled to be in such good company; this is a really fine group, and I hope to give as much as I get from interacting with everyone here.

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:29 am

I hold a degree in jazz studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where I studied classical voice and sang with the university's Opera, Jazz Ensemble and Black Music Ensembles. The latter ensembles were under the direction of renowned bassist, Richard Davis. In addition to classical performances and jazz combo work on piano and voice, I freelance as a jazz vocalist with the 18-piece Jazz Martini and Jazz Works Big Bands. Both bands are comprised of area professionals, college professors, writers, arrangers and staff members of music publishers, Heritage Music Press.and the Milwaukee based Hal Leonard Corporation.

I am in my 14th year as choral director and music department chair at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The choirs have performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City and have appeared in some of the finest invitational choral festivals in the country including San Francisco, Chicago and in New York's Lincoln Center where we'll be performing again in April for some of the greatest college directors alive. I also do much of the arranging for the school's vocal jazz groups who have been fortunate to work with Steve Zegree, Laurel Masse and Kurt Elling in recent years.

As a recording hobbyist, I've learned basic techniques in college and beyond (we learned electronic music on a modular MOOG 9000!) and purchased equipment to allow the school to make regular recordings for learning purposes and fund-raising. In addition to the choirs, I'm currently teaching an "Intro to Music Technology and Composition" class in a regular PC based computer lab, which I hope to eventually publish as a resource for other high schools interested in fostering creativity in their music departments. I am also in my 15th consecutive year of working on a self-produced CD that may or may not ever be finished.

I too am glad that RO could make this forum happen. I'm looking to learn and offer whatever I can to the mix

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:33 pm

Hi Everyone!
My name is John Stafford.
I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1966.
At the age of 29 I decided to get a degree, so I studied music at Trinity College Dublin, and graduated in 1999.

My current academic interest is computerised composition and musical analysis from a linguistic perspective. I also study resurrected dead languages of the Middle East, especially Akkadian and Sumerian, as well as other languages from the region that is now Iraq. I'm also interested in the development and subsequent evolution of Ancient Egyptian grammar, and I'm studying Classic Arabic. I see parallels in the breakdown of certain linguistic theories when confronted with undeciphered texts, and the limitations of some generally accepted analytical techniques in music, and I'm currently attempting to develop these ideas as the basis of a PhD.

I spent several years studying the piano, but my main interest is composition. The only major composition I've had performed publicly was a choral setting of a five-thousand-year-old Sumerian exorcistic incantation in the Chapel of my former college.

I wouldn't describe my recording experience as professional -more of an obsessive hobby! I don't earn a living from it, but it's something I take very seriously, and every aspect of it provides me with endless fascination. There's nothing I enjoy more than setting up my equipment and just recording whatever sounds happen to come along. I love trying to improve the way I capture sounds -any sounds.

I believe recording is as relevant to one's musical development/knowledge as any other aspect of our vast discipline.

I have great admiration for the people on this site who are more than willing to share their expertise, and who have the generosity of spirit and patience to assist those like myself who pester them for every morsel of information we can possibly sueeze out of them Wink

John

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:06 pm

I just discovered this forum a few days ago even though I have been looking for one like this for quite awhile.

I write music around both acoustic and sampled instruments. Actually, most often I will write with samples and sequence a mock-up and then print the score to finally record real instruments. For my current project, I generally write for piano, ac. guitar, cello, ac. bass and clarinet.

So this is just great to have found this site. It's easy to find forums that deal with the challenges of rock music and amplification issues.
But this is the first I've found dedicated to Acoustic Music.
So thanks and I look forward to coming here often.

Jim McCarthy
Ojai, CA

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:30 pm

My name is Xavier Calvera and I have been a mod in RO for a little over a year. I was born in Cuba but came to the USA at age 14. I’ve been in the LA area since then and I have played and sang for a number of local bands over the years. I have a master’s degree in musicology, my master’s thesis done on the history of Cuban Music. I have excerpts of it on my website and curiously enough its gather a bit of attention from Cuban music enthusiasts. here is a link if you want to know more on the subject:
http://www.lordtiger.com/historyofcubanmusic.html
. My main passion is songwriting and I do so in many styles, from Cuban to jazz to rock’n’roll. I owned a recording studio in the LA area, Lord Tiger, for several years, mostly recording local bands. I sold the studio in 2003 and since I have kept busy writing, recording and producing in my home studio. Curiously enough I seem to have gone back to my roots lately and have been recording, playing and writing Cuban music, which means I have been recording a lot of acoustic instruments. I already got a number of good pointers on the subject from some of the members of the Acoustic forum, which is really cool. Besides the Cuban music project, I have also been working on a musical dance production which I hope sees the light of day later on this year. I have also completed a demo for a film I am trying to hook, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one. Sometimes I think I have too much to do and too little time to do it in, but most of the time I like it fine that way.

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:38 pm

Bruce Patterson here. I am trained as a pianist - mostly accompanying. I have a MMus in accompanying/chamber music from Univ. of Mich.

Currently I do quite a bit of studio work [playing] as well as composing/arranging. I am also a church musician. I never owned a computer until a little over 3 years ago when I bought one to run music notation software. I then bought a better soundcard which came bundled with audio/MIDI software [incomplete] which got me interested so I bought a sound module and learned a bit about MIDI sequencing. This made me aware of my need for better software so I bought Sonar 2XL which was wonderful. Things continued and are still continuing! I currently use a Lynx soundcard, a small assortment of mics, and 4 channels of decent pre amps and record into Samplitude. I enjoy recording and, though I haven't turned a profit, my gear has just about payed for itself.

My skills are improving and this year I will engineer and produce a cd of various music for the church where I work. It will be to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the building and will include a variety of genres including solo piano, choir, organ, handbells, guitar, praise band, childrens groups, and hopefully more. I will learn a lot.

I am grateful to Ben, Joe, and Jeremy for helping to add this forum to the recording.org group and feel that many such as myself will benefit from their expertise. Thumbs Up

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 3:49 am

Bonjour,

Jean-Marie Mathieu. I am 45 now... I live in Toulouse, France (sorry for my poor english).

I recorded my first concert when I was 12 years old. It was an organ concert in Chartres's cathedral. My recording gear was quite simple : my father's Philips cassette recorder with the poor dynamic mic. Then I met my future brother in law. He is a flutist and was recording on a Revox B77 with Calrec mics. I was impressed with his chamber music recordings. I was 18, I bought a Teac cassette recorder (I couldn't afford a Revox and the tapes...) and Primo mics and I began recording as a hobbyist all the concerts organized by a classic concert organizer in Marseille for his sound archives. I met a lot of great local musicians and learned to listen before recording. But the cassettes were so bad on the female voices ! I baught my first DAT in 1992. But then I had to change the mics. I had an opportunity for two MBHO mics. Then I tried the Jecklin Disk witch is so good to capture the concerts ambience in good sounding rooms. Now I record with CD-RW700 Tascam recorder and I really regret the DAT...

My real job is computer engineer... So I don't have a computer at home (yes, only an old and minimum laptop). Actually I see too much computer crash to entrust my precious live recordings to these machines. But...

As live performances recordist my goal is to find again at home the concert tonality, balance and ambience (Yes, when I record in bad sounding rooms, I try to have a better recording sound than in the real world). So I only record with one stereo pair. It's often not easy, mostly with large orchestras and choirs. But I don't record to make CD but as a witness for me and the musicians and they are always happy with my natural recordings.

As a musician I am a choir singer and gregorian chant conductor and teacher.

There are a lot of recording forums but I am happy to find here the first one dedicated to acoustic and classical recording. Thank you.

Jean-Marie

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:06 am

Wow, some great people here!

My name is Greg Simmons, I'll be 44 years old in March, and I make many more bad recordings than good ones. If someone doesn't stop me I'll keep writing for ever or until there is no more phosphor left on the screen. Here's a lot about myself:

*I'm an electronics technician by trade, but it is the most boring job in the world. As soon as you fix something, there's the next thing to fix. Where's the satisfaction in that?

*Started playing with home-made synths and so on in the late '70s, while still in high school. Learnt at least 100 stupid things you must never do with mains power. Also discovered that spiders cannot be magnetised, but the scientific world wasn't listening.

*While working as an electronics technician in the late '70s/early '80s, in my spare time I started doing recordings and live sound for bands formed by guys I went to school with. Also enjoyed exploding large electrolytic caps under my apprentice's seat during lunchtime, watching him jump 10 feet and spill his chips.

*My first recording system was a Teac 3440 4-track open reel recorder and Teac Model 6A mixer (6 in, 4 out). I carried it around in the back of a Toyota Corolla 1977 model panel van, and jokingly called it Reels-On-Wheels (an obvious name that has been used by many others, I believe).

*Designed and built my first recording studio in the early '80s. Learnt an awful lot about acoustics the hard way - pull it apart and build it again. And again.

*And again...

*Soon found myself working in 24-track studios in the mid '80s.

*Made lots of recordings (demos, albums, singles) for independent Melbourne bands during the '80s. Virtually all of the albums were released on vinyl only.

*Gave my first lectures in audio in 1985. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

*Got quite ill from a lifestyle that involved teaching, working in studios, doing live sound and abusing my body to stay awake all night. Got an impressive collection of venereal diseases from a groupie.

*In 1987 I moved to Sydney to get away from it all and get healthy, took up a job with a publishing company working on a magazine for sound engineers and musicians called Sonics. Rid myself of venereal diseases, totaly clear.

*Reviewed a pair of ATC SCM20 studio monitors and got introduced to high quality sound and audiophilia. I was hooked.

*Got more heavily involved in teaching audio throughout the '90s. Enjoyed it even more.

*In 1998 I published the first issue of my own magazine, called AudioTechnology. A 50/50 partnership with Philip Spencer (a great guy, by the way). It included the first of a 3-part interview I did with the great Rupert Neve, which really helped to put us on the map.

*After a couple of years I realised that being a magazine publisher was not the life I wanted. Good money, but no time to yourself and you never end up getting to play with any of the equipment! Instead, I spent all day on the phone arranging couriers to send it to the other writers.

*My interest in audiophilia continued to grow, and I eventually put together a rig for recording acoustic music. By the year 2000 it consisted of a Studer 169 console, a custom-made stereo microphone preamplifier, a Prism Sound AD124 24-bit AD converter, a Tascam DA45HR 24-bit DAT, a Marantz CDR640 CD recorder, a pair of ATC SCM20A SL Pro monitors, a Royer SF12 and numerous other microphones. Some volunteer assistants hidden among it all, too.

*I soon got sick and tired of schlepping all that stuff around and wanted to simplify my life. I was making a decent living from magazine writing and teaching, so recording was (and still is) a passion, rather than a form of survival. If it's not fun or interesting, I don't want to do it.

*I met with David Spearritt via email, to discuss the pros and cons of the Royer SF12 (pre-SF24). Turned out we had similar ideas. I recommended he buy the SF12, he recommended I buy the Nagra V.

*Bought the Nagra V and said goodbye to 8RU of stuff that weighed about 30kg, was always anchored to a power point, and required a car to move anywhere. David bought the Royer SF12 and said goodbye to reason.

*Realised that the Nagra V allowed me to record anything, anywhere. So I sold everything I owned, moved out of home, and for the last three months I've been traveling around Nepal and Tibet recording whatever takes my fancy. (I'm writing this in an internet cafe in Kathmandu, where I've bunkered down while waiting/hoping for an ear infection to clear. Fingers crossed...)

*I intend to spend about three or four months of every year, for the next few years at least, traveling around the world recording things. Any objections?

*I enjoy arguing/debating with Mr Spearritt (one of the smartest audio guys I know) over the right microphone choice/technique for a particular situation.

*I continue to do a lot of teaching and writing about audio.

*I enjoy doing the occasional challenging large recording, such as being the Australian contact for the wonderful Hall Choir recording that Ben Maas made at the Sydney Opera House.

*I can type at about 110 words per minute with a tail wind, but I prefer to cruise at about 70 over most terrain.

*I cannot see those Magic Eye 3D images on the posters, no matter how I cross my eyes, stare off into the distance, or do Marty Feldman impersonations. I'm an audio guy.

*My last wishes/instructions are: 1) don't bury me in a suit, and 2) don't bury me in Melbourne. I would prefer a Tibetan Sky Burial, if it's an option, but please make sure I am really dead first.

Nice to be here...

- Greg Simmons

P.S. They say that when you die your entire life flashes before your eyes in an instant. Well, if mine flashes before my eyes in an instant I'm going to feel very ripped off, so I'm jamming as much into it as possible. I want a 3-hour epic movie a la Titanic, or perhaps even a mini-series, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing me. We look nothing alike, but that's how I'd like to see myself at that defining moment and I'm doing the casting around here...

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 12:41 pm

Greg, so far I think you win for the "most interesting" post in this category to date. I really enjoyed your story (so far), and can't wait to hear more about you recording/travels. (You could be the Lomax of this generation...)

It's fascinating to read how each of us has ended up on the paths we're on.

Great to see EVERYONE who's posting here.

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 2:37 pm

I will put my name into this hat I guess. I am mostly a Pop/Rock guy but I do a lot of high school band recordings lately and have learned a lot from that. My name is Dave Runyan and I am in Northern Michigan. Traverse City area actually. I am 41 years old.

Started playing bass at 14.

Started playing in bars at 16 (not a good idea by the way)

Went to Recording Workshop at age 19 (Uh....yeah)

I had such a good time there that I became an Iron Worker for the next few years.

Got married, had kids stayed in construction until 2 years ago.

Anyway I have kept playing bass and learned keyboards and midi along he way. I worked on several local recording projects in the area over the years and decided to start my own project recording outfit in 2004. (Runyan Media)

I have a portable 24 track 24 bit set up with decent mics and pres. I spend a lot of time helping local songwriters get their songs sequenced and layed out for demos and copyright stuff.

I love recording acoustic music and have read the post in this section looking for clues to make these high school recordings shine as bright as they can.

Thanks for all of the good information that has been posted.

Dave

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 5:39 pm

For what its worth, here is my biog.

Come from a musical family, father was an associate prof at University of Queensland, expert in ethnomusicology, PNG music, mother amateur cellist, now, brother in law in Berlin Phil, sister cellist. As a young child, was fed a diet of Victoria de los Angeles singing exquisite Spanish songs exquisitely and choral music, as Dad conducted many university and intervarsity choirs, even at our home.

Went to UQ, studied Mechanical Engineering, graduated with major in Acoustics, left Brisbane for Melbourne and Sydney (big smoke/smog) to become a consulting engineer in industrial sound and vibration with a small amount of architectural acoustics, mainly silencing pub noise.

In my spare time, I studied classical guitar seriously for awhile, to advance my James Taylor fingerpicking technique, met some wonderful musicians from the Sydney School of guitar, and got completely hooked on fine classical music, recordings and performance, mainly influenced by my fantastic guitar teacher, intellectual and mentor, Stephen Snook.

After 10 years of consulting, where I got mainly interested in sound intensity analysis and writing software for processing of machine vibration signals, I went back to uni, while I worked out what I really wanted to do. Studied flexible structure vibration and wrote a masters thesis on damping torsional vibration in very flexible tubes by wrapping piezo film around them and exciting it with antiphase signals.

Again, stupidly, went back to work as a consulting engineer, spent all my time down central Queensland coal mines, when the Moura mine blew up killing 11 poor bastards. Decided it was time to leave engineering for good and become a computer geek. This was 1995.

All this time I was obsessed with classical music and during this period, in particular, I started recording opera students with sound level meters from my engineering firm. I remember one hilarious "session" where the left channel was a B&K 2209 and the right channel was a Larson Davis portable spectrum analyser. The absurdity of that, and a decent salary, prompted me to buy my own kit, so I purchased a Mackie 1202, two Neumann KM130's and a Tascam DA30 DAT recorder.

Signed up to the local community classical radio station, 4MBS, and joined the concert recording team, met fellow consulting engineer, great sound engineer and all round great guy, David Starr, and formed our present recording company together. We now record many concerts, session CD's and auditions and love every minute of it. Dumped the Mackie, and the Tascam and replaced them with a Nagra V, my father took Nagras into the jungle of PNG to record the indigenous music, so I knew they were works of art and engineering. Kept the Neumanns of course and started building a mic collection.

Became passionately interested in Blumlein, ribbons and stereo techniques and theory, got some sensational results in our new theatre, trying these developments. Met Simmo and John Smyth from emails and JS in person. Immensly enjoy healthy and sometimes abrupt conversations with these guys re all things acoustical. Enjoy Simmo's writings in particular, and think he should become a travel writer.

During the day I work for a web development company and write database software. At all other times I am listening to music, going to concerts, recording music, mastering on the PC and arguing on internet forums.

Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:27 am

JoeH wrote:

Greg, so far I think you win for the "most interesting" post in this category to date.

Thanks Joe, but it's probably because I left out all the boring bits. If I was allowed to do the same with my music recordings, that'd be really co