West Side Recording Studio

Congratulations Sartaria MS and Beckendorff JH Orchetras

2011-08-04T23:38:00.002-06:00

This is a very proud moment for us in the studio!
Sartartia MS Orchestra is the Honor Orchestra in the String Category and Beckendorff JH Orchestra is the honor orchestra in the Full Orchestra category! West Side was part of the recording process as partners in their success! This is unprecedented in the history of West Side to have 2 Honor Orchestras earn the titles.

These schools have been selected from all the entries in entire state. The state of Texas stands as one of the best places for music education in the nation. Great teachers at both schools have been tirelessly working to teach these kids what they need to know. Ann Victor and Courtenay Vandiver at Sartartia MS and Matt Porter and Susan Steber at Beckendorff JH have to take most of the credit. This also should reflect the parent's support of their children in the pursuit of music education. These two schools are 13.4 miles apart and are in 2 different school districts. Sartartia MS is in Fort Bend ISD while Beckendorff MS is located in Katy ISD.

Honorable mention goes to another West Side client, Cook MS Band, under the direction of Michael Dick, was awarded 5th in state. His first year as a head director!

Tan Truong was the chief engineer at the recordings of the concerts.
Jonathan Lafferty assisted at the Sartartia MS concert recording.

We like to use Neumann KM83 and KM183 microphones for orchestral recordings.
Sytek Microphone preamps
Canare Cable
RME UFX microphone pre/AD converter/computer interface.

RME-UFX Review

2011-03-29T23:20:00.002-06:00

The newest member of the RME lineup is the UFX. This is more than just another interface, it is an incredible high end interface for your daw and great as a stand alone mixer/pre.

We have one in the studio and all I can say is wow! This unit has transformed the way I work and has taken the quality of our recordings up. The internal clock is super accurate which contributes to the units transparent AD/DA conversion. I was using an Apogee Rosetta before and this unit easily makes my Rosetta an optional item now, while it was once the go to converter.
The bass seems fuller and the midrange is smoother, while the highs are silky. The built in preamps are insanely transparent while adding incredible resolution I have never heard before. I was told these preamps resemble Millenia preamps. One thing the preamps have that I have never heard of before is parallel A/D conversion. There are 2 converters per channel. I guess it is supposed to add to the accuracy of the conversion. The pres are ultra clean and for vocals, I still rely on my Sytek with Burr Brown op amps to my Avalons and DBX compressors to power my Neumann M147 tube microphone. Changing the chain changes the color of the sound. I really think I am hearing more clarity and resolution in the audio path than ever before.

The usb connection is rock solid. The low latency of the UFX over USB is incredibly stable. It is now possible to record 96Khz at the lowest latency with no problems.

I have used the UFX as a stand alone device and the interface's ability to recall up to 6 presets is amazing. The different reverbs onboard are very good and sound very natural. The eq, compression, auto gain, is very nice. There is a dsp meter located on the display and I have never pushed it to even 1/4 of a full load.

If you are in the market, these units are incredible and those who recognize the value and quality that is packed inside this unit will buy one asap!
Did I mention it works great with Cubase 5, ad Pro Tools 9

Newbie

2011-03-28T08:26:00.001-06:00

This is my first post ever on any blog. West Side rules....

FIL AM Superstar video sample

2010-06-08T17:40:00.000-06:00

We recently shot the first Fil Am Superstar contest at the Stafford Civic Center and switched it live and shot simultaneously to HD on the cameras. Jason Allison on the switcher, David Graves on Camera 2 8ft (Kessler crane), Jonathan Kinsey on camera 3(wide), and me on Camera 1 (12' crane)

Houston Hearts Haiti

2010-02-04T22:29:00.005-06:00

Ren Patrick (16 year old singer/songwriter) and Ian Crawford (Panic! At the Disco) teamed up to write "Better in Time" for a charity called Houston Hearts Haiti. I produced, engineered, and mixed this awesome song.
Check out the YouTube video!

Cinco Ranch Symphony wins Honor Orchestra!

2009-12-04T13:21:00.002-06:00

West Side Recording Studio is proud to announce that the Cinco Ranch Junior High Symphony Orchestra, from Cinco Ranch Junior High in Katy, is selected to perform at the Texas Music Educators Association convention from a recording we did for them last spring. This is not an easy feat. The orchestra must perform at the highest level and the recording must also be of the highest quality. We are proud to be part of this achievement!

Drobo in the House!!

2009-10-01T18:23:00.002-06:00

West Side Recording Studio has decided to stop playing with fire and began to get responsible with backup with the DROBO. It is an automated robot that will automatically configure any size hard disk drive I put in it and create a way of keeping my data from falling victim to hard drive failure. This is fully automated and requires no special software. The lights tell you when to put a larger drive in or when it has failed. You can pop out the drive while the unit is still on and replace it without shutting down the computer. I will look into getting the Drobo share, a gigabit lan adapter that will let me share the Drobo over the network! Perhaps in the future, there will be an 8 drive version that is called the Drobo pro and it is an iSCSI interface. What that means is multi-user, video editing over the gigabit lan without upgrading what we already have! Very Cool!

Did I mention it is very quiet? I got it on ebay for about $350.00 and saved some money. It is a usb connection and installed very quickly. These things don't come with drives unless you pay extra. I have 2.6 TB installed and have 1.4 Tb of free space. That loss of drive space means I am protected with some sort of redundancy across all the drives.

You should stop talking about it and get one!

Coffee Maker!

2009-07-18T12:25:00.003-06:00

I just got this Cuisinart DCC-1150BK 10 Cup Coffee maker. It replaces my old Krups coffee maker! The old Krups was on its last leg but this new one is awesome!
Some features are cool like:
1. A heated warming plate with a stainless insulated carafe! Usually a coffee maker would have an insulated carafe without a warming plate and a coffee maker with a warming plate would not have an insulated carafe but this has both!!!
2. This thing can have a mode for 1-4 cups of coffee! I hate brewing a whole pot just to drink a few sips and dump the rest! This mode brews the coffee twice as hot so it would taste better for a small batch!!
3. The coffee maker tells you it's time to clean with a clean light. It also has a cleaning mode that overrides the other functions!
4. The coffee maker has a shower head to dispense the hot water on to the filter basket instead of just through a single hole. This keeps the temperature of the water consistently hot through the grounds to make better tasting coffee and I can definitely taste the difference! Very cool!
5. A shorter cord that you can tuck into the maker to reduce clutter!
6. Brew a pour with the insulated carafe. NO unscrewing to pour coffee like the Krups. It also has a nice floating ball valve that closes the hole when it is level and opens up when you pour. It keeps the coffee warmer longer! Not spill proof but definitely great for a few hours of heat loss protection!
7. The auto shut off is better than ever! It will autoshutoff the warming plate and brewing when it is finished brewing after a certain amount of time but that is not that special. What is awesome is that the warming plate keeps the bottom of the stainless steel carafe warm until you pick it up to pour some out in a cup! It instantly shuts off and saves power! It is great if you brew it and can't drink it right away and doesn't keep warming it since it is insulated! Very smart!

You should get one for your birthday!

Recording, Editing, and Koraline

2009-07-09T11:36:00.009-06:00

Our recording season of live concerts have really kept us busy and it seems that the pace has not slowed down all that much.
We are in the midst of cranking out new music and video projects as well. One being a Sleep Apnea video that required a voice over and some custom music. We used a EV RE-1000 microphone for the voice over and it sounded great!

I recorded Scott Rogers in the studio and he brought in his acoustic, bass and electric guitars, macbook with logic express, a Roland Drum kit, and small jembe. For 3 days we recorded and I produced and mixed the album. It ended up being some really good stuff for a guy who learned guitar 2 years ago and started writing in December!

My buddy Gregg, from 7th grade, finally got married in June. I shot his wedding video as a present and am working on it right now!

Koraline is now 1 year old!!!
Hello Kitty came to her party. She partied with the family and got really tired at the end but she had a great time!

Koraline and Recording!

2009-05-16T11:48:00.005-06:00

It has been a crazy time this month! My Dad turned 70 friday! I am shooting more videos than ever! I am recording more than ever and Koraline is 10 months and walking a little!

Ren Patrick in the Studio!

2009-03-31T21:16:00.004-06:00

Ren Patrick has been back to West Side Recording Studio lately! Her voice will make you melt into a slurry! Check out her myspace!
Feels Like Home (from motion picture How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and Gone (Kelly Clarkson) were recorded with Me (Tan Truong) as engineer/producer. Keep an eye on her people! She is a rising star!
Ren and I will be working on her originals and I will keep you updated!

Technical stuff....
(Micropones used: Neumann M147 tube mic for Feels Like Home, and BLUE Mouse for Gone)
Sytek Mic Pre with Burr Brown op amps to DBX 166a to Avalon 737sp to Apogee converters and into Pro-Tools to Tascam DM-24 digital console via ADAT lightpipe to DBX Quantum for conversion to Sound Forge.

Introducing Kelly!

2009-03-16T00:09:00.005-06:00

Please meet the newest member to the West Side Recording Studio Family, Kelly Wunsch!! I needed help taking orders on location at TPSMEA 2008 and Lizzie called upon the powers of her friend, Kelly to help me out! It was a one time thing and she took orders and left like a ship in the night, just kidding! It has been more than a year since I last saw Kelly until recently. Lizzie called upon Kelly's power to bail me out of a Spring Oaks Choir concert when it seemed that no one in the world could help me out! I then asked her to help with the Spring Branch Pizza Theater show one night a few weeks ago and since then, she agreed to come into the recording studio to help on a regular basis and for that I am really thankful, relieved and excited!!
Kelly is a super nice person with a positive can do attitude! I hope that she will help me get my studio office into shape and looking attractive as well as keeping it organized! It will be a challenge since we will be constantly receiving shipping materials and boxes that will clutter her life once she has organized the last shipment and cleared her desk! She helped me prime the studio walls for paint that is going on at the moment and I am hopefull that my color selection is studio appropriate once it has dried! (pictures coming soon) Kelly has put up with my crazy questions and requests so far, (like "please water my brusell sprouts, they are looking sad!") She helped me organize my West Side CD collection as well as my personal collection of CD's! Kelly is so cool and brutally honest as well, so I admire that! I can't wait till she comes back into the studio again!! What will she organize, design, decorate, and paint this time?

People Say I Look Like the Lead Singer from Journey!

2009-02-25T23:27:00.004-06:00

So far, 2 people have told me that I look like the lead singer from Journey, Arnel Pineda! He signed on in December 5, 2007. I guess it's the hair or something. More people have said that I look like the Lou Diamond Phillips. I guess I look like a Filipino/Native American!

West Side Atlanta is in Da House!

2009-01-20T17:44:00.006-06:00

Atlanta via West Side

T boi is a very talented producer/writer/arranger that works very closely with me and my clients at the studio.
A little background.
I met first met his wife, J in college while auditioning for the wind ensemble. She was a freshman and I was a sophomore. It was later that T Boi, her husband, and I became friends and fostered a professional relationship in the recording business. It turns out they were vegetarians as well. (Karen and I later became vegan. Save the planet go Veg! HAHA!) I am proud to know him as a great musician and great friend, devoted husband and father of now 2 young boys.
T Boi and J brought home their 2nd son, W Boi last week. He has promised me a picture but has failed to do so. So right now you must use your imagination! He was 6lbs 13ounces and was delivered 15min. after J drove herself to the hospital.
T Boi is a very talented producer/writer/arranger that works very closely with me and my clients at the studio. We literally work on every project together even though we are in different cities.

When he is not working on West Side projects, he is working with Christian artists, churches, and studios providing them with Open Labs keyboards and showing them how to use them. I may be getting one of these soon!!

Kady Malloy in Chronicle along with West Side

2009-01-13T23:54:00.002-06:00

Katy singer looks beyond Britney impersonation

Though booted from Idol, Kady Malloy determined to build a music career

By JOEY GUERRA Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Jan. 12, 2009, 7:30PM

FOX

Kady Malloy is working on a demo of original songs.

Kady Malloy still gets asked to “do Britney.”

The Houston singer appeared on the seventh season of American Idol and quickly made her mark with dead-on impersonations of pop superstar Britney Spears, down to the breathy voice cracks. Malloy is also able to mimic Shakira, Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox and Cher — but Spears is the one that naturally stuck.

“It does come up a lot. Whenever somebody realizes who I am, they always go, ‘Do Britney!’” Malloy says with a laugh.

“I’ll do Britney. I don’t care. Now I have more songs to choose from. I love (Circus, Spears’ new album).”

But impersonations weren’t what got Malloy into Idol’s top 24. Simon Cowell said he had “a feeling” about her after the first audition. He dubbed Malloy “the best so far” and “super, super talented” after a smoky reading of Unchained Melody.

Things eventually took a downward turn. Malloy struggled with song choices, and the judges cited her lack of personality. She was cut one week shy of making the top 12. The new season premieres tonight on Fox.

“I think about it, of course. But I’m still just so shocked that it even happened. Now that it’s over, it really does seem like it was just a dream,” she says.

“I don’t regret making the choices that I did, but sometimes I wish I would’ve picked something else. I wish that I would’ve just gone with my gut a little bit more.”

Today, Malloy is back in town after a six-month stint in Oklahoma, and her hair is a darker brown. (She returned home during the holidays.) She graduated in 2007 from James E. Taylor High School and is still living by a longtime do-or-die attitude. No day jobs at Katy Mills Mall for her — though she loves partying at Rich’s nightclub, where her brother works as a doorman.

Malloy’s MySpace profile reads, “I’ve never had a backup plan, and I never will.”

“I didn’t have a job before Idol, so I didn’t get a job after Idol,” she says. “I decided not to go back to college. I would probably just be wasting my money. This is all I want to do.”

After leaving Idol, she met with reps in Nashville and New York but didn’t sign a deal. Malloy also tried her hand at country music alongside Alaina Whitaker, another Idol castoff, but decided the genre wasn’t for her.

There have been “a lot” of offers from indie labels, but Malloy is considering them carefully before jumping into a contract. She has more meetings next month in Miami. She has also scored opening gigs for Air Supply and Travis Tritt; performed at parties with Keith Anderson (“He’s really hot”) and Brooks & Dunn; and met Alice Cooper (“He’s really cool.”)

“I’m just exploring my options. I’m going to try and get the best (deal),” she says. “I’m trying to figure out what kind of sound I want. That’s the main problem I had (on Idol). I think I’m on my way.”

To that end, Malloy has taken to her MySpace page (myspace.com/kadymalloy) on her musical journey. She updates it regularly with original songs and pop covers recorded to karaoke tracks at West Side Recording Studio in Bellaire.

“Kady always brings in a positive attitude, (and) her voice is truly amazing,” says Tan Truong, who owns West Side.

“The first time I heard her on the mic, I was completely blown away and had goose bumps. She was not just recording, she was performing. I knew the potential in her abilities as an artist.”

Malloy previously worked at West Side as a digital graphic artist. Her latest addition is a cover of OneRepublic’s Apologize. The output has kept Malloy current for her “Kadettes.” She filmed a sweet video last summer for a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time as a gift for her fans. It features fellow Season 7 semifinalist Colton Berry, who is now living in Houston and performing with Masquerade Theatre.

Her MySpace page has racked up more than 1 million profile views and song plays. (By comparison, third-place finisher Syesha Mercado’s page has fewer than half as many hits.) Malloy is assembling a demo of original tunes she hopes will catch the right ears.

“I really want to make a really good album like Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway. Kind of pop but more on the rock side,” she says. “I really am just a rocker at heart, I think. I’m just going to embrace it and let it show.”

But not, of course, before catching her own idol onstage. Malloy’s best friend bought her tickets for Spears’ concert in March at Toyota Center.

“I’m so excited,” Malloy says, her voice rising into a squeal. “Wow — pretty much all I listen to is Britney Spears. I love Led Zeppelin a lot. Billy Joel, Elton John, Queen. I either listen to really old stuff or Britney Spears.”

joey.guerra@chron.com

My Review of Equitek E70 Modular Dual-capsule Condenser Microphone

2008-12-18T22:50:00.001-06:00

Originally submitted at Abes of Maine

Why decide when you can have both? Omnidirectional capsule for flat near field and ambience. Cardioid capsule for proximity boost and off-axis rejection. Capture your instrumentation with exacting detail. Features include field-effect detection, transformerless drive, dual-frequency hi-pass filter ...

Great mic for the money

By westsiderecording from Sugar Land, TX on 12/18/2008

Pros: Easy To Use, Clear Sound, Professional Functions, Versatile

Best Uses: Amateur Recording, Performances, Professional Recording

Describe Yourself: Professional Musician

The weight and build quality is fantastic! I love the matte black finish. It feels like a Shoepps microphone in this case. I used this for a couple of location recordings with great results. The omni capsules pick up the hall sound nicely. They have a hotter output than other small condensers. Compared to Neumann's they have a higher rise in the high frequencies and sound a little brighter. The package comes with a shockmount and a regular clip! The shockmount holds the microphone very firmly without any danger of letting go. For the money, these are a steal! Great for instrumental recordings!

(legalese)

Recording Season is here!

2008-12-16T12:48:00.005-06:00

It's December and it's recording season! Multiple recordings everyday! So much to do and so little time! Christmas Party is going to be pushed to the 27th of December! We have been going non-stop with recording and editing and have not had much time for anything else!
I'm not complaining, I love the business!

On another note, Koraline is looking cuter all the time and so is Karen!

Koraline update!

2008-11-08T22:39:00.006-06:00

I know you all are wanting more pictures of Koraline and here you go! She is 17 lbs and growing. Koraline has been baptized in the Catholic Church on the same day as her grandmother's b-day Oct 12. She dressed up as a cat for Halloween and fell asleep before anyone could see her! (picture coming soon I promise!) At just over 4 months, she is grabbing her toes (pictures coming soon) and is starting to do word associations! Check back for more pics!

New Iphone compatible contect on West Side!

2008-11-04T13:00:00.002-06:00

I have added sample promotional videos on westsiderecording.com You can see these videos on your iPhone!!! Just putting up some samples of what West Side can do!
Capitol Campaign Video for Mary Queen Demo

Broken Dreams official release by Kady Malloy

2008-10-23T17:03:00.004-06:00

I am officially releasing Broken Dreams today featuring American Idol finalist Kady Malloy! Please enjoy responsibly! Visit Kady on her Myspace and tell her what a great job she did singing her new hit release, Broken Dreams! http://www.myspace.com/kadymalloy

Cary Carroll - Healing Hands

2008-10-10T14:29:00.004-06:00

We are officially done with the Cary Carroll CD release!!!! I have posted the Healing Hands video that I directed and edited.

http://westsiderecording.com/musicvideo.htm
Click on the picture or the link to go to my website and check it out!!
You will need Quicktime 7 or higher to see it on your computer.
It is also viewable on iPhone if you are on the WiFi network!!!

Closing on the New House Today!

2008-08-30T15:14:00.002-06:00

This seemed like forever but our house is officially finished. It started out as a field with a sold sign in the front and now we are the proud owners of our second home. Now the fun of moving in and changing addresses and installing the new studio will begin. All of this in our spare time! What spare time?

Landscaping is in!

2008-07-31T13:08:00.005-06:00

Wow the landscaping is in and the new house is looking like a house. We saw the lights on in the house for the first time. The ceiling fans were also on and the doors were locked so we couldn't really come inside.
I can't wait to add some color to the landscaping. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and Koraline started to smile in her sleep. How very cute! She was officially 4 weeks old!

Studio Recording

2008-07-30T13:27:00.008-06:00

For 2 days, West Side Recording Studio opened the doors to a young band, with no name as of yet, making their first studio recording ever. They came with their drum set, electric guitar, and acoustic. Tyler Womack on vocals, bass, and acoustic guitar, Matthew Womack on vocals, electric guitar and bass, and Kollin Baer on drums. The studio provided the bass guitar which happened to be a great short scale bass with a headless design that proved to be the perfect match for the tone they were going for. They had no bass player so they improvised their own bass line.

The drum set was miked using the following,

1. AKG D112 on Kick - to Alesis Studio 32 console
2. Shure SM57 on Snare - to Alesis Studio 32 console
3. Neumann KM-184 Hi Hat - to Alesis Studio 32 console
4. Pair of Neumann KM140 on overheads on an ORTF - Sytek channels 3&4 - to Alesis Studio 32 console

We used star quad Canare Cable for drumset mics.

We used the new Superlux R102 Ribbon microphone for one electric guitar amp and an sm57 on the other guitar amp. Both mics were run through the Presonus BLUE-TUBE .
A clean signal was taken from the guitar from the Fishman. and on certain song we used the Ampfarm plug-in.

Acoustic was recorded direct with the Fishman and with the M147 tube mic facing the body and the KM140 on the 12th fret.

Vocals were captured with the Neumann M147 Tube mic running through the Sytek pres with Burr Brown Op amps, DBX 166A compression, and Avalon 737 compression.

Bass was run directly into the Avalon 737 with High Gain. The tone of the bass was just superb.

Matt, Tyler and Kollin were willing to use the click track and it made editing a lot easier and they had a great time in the studio as a result.

For first timers in the studio, this band without a name was above average and their writing was good. I performed the role of producer and engineer and was also assisted by Lizzie and Om.
Meredith and Erin stopped by on day one to check it out and while they were in, Meredith picked up my Canon XTi with a 50mm lens and went crazy with these awesome studio shots!

I am 34!

2008-07-24T15:39:00.007-06:00

I am 34 as of July 18th! A few days before my birthday, I received a text from my brother John wishing me happy birthday. I told him he was early and he was embarrassed. My mother wished me happy birthday on the 17th and was wrong for the first time. Ooops. At least she tried. My assistants also gave me a nice present, a homemade card and a homemade vegan strawberry cheesecake! Yummy! Karen made me a homemade chocolate cake with raspberry filling that was incredibly delicious! My brother in law John came to town and brought me a really expensive bottle of Hirsh 20 year Old Bourbon. Incredible stuff! They stopped making it in 1987.

My friend, Tom Hosea came by and took some really nice professional photos of Koraline with his Canon 20D. Koraline was not happy with all the torture but we got some good shots out of it!

The house is coming along and the granite is in, the fencing is in, the sprinklers are in, the tile is in, the bathrooms are in, the finishing touches are being added to the house piece by piece and we are looking to close by the end of August.

Introducing Baby Koraline!

2008-07-05T02:44:00.003-06:00

After a long, complicated, emotional day, Koraline Maria (Minh Thu) Truong was born! She weighed in at 7 lbs and 15.7 ounces!!

Karen was the ultimate champion of pain and suffering! Not once did she lash out at me or change her attitude in the face of pain! She was strong and thanks to the many prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit, we were able to avoid a C-Section and Koraline was safely delivered into our arms! She is so beautiful and so precious!

We were surrounded by so many friends and family so eager to share their love and support, that it was very moving! I was really happy to see my mom, proud grateful, and moved with emotion. It is her second grandchild, and first grand daughter.

John, Karen's brother, has taken the week off to help us out and I can't express enough how much help and support he has been! He is so great with Koraline! I will miss him so much when he leaves for Austin!

It was really great to see Staci, Gerald, and Mer at the hospital! I am so happy they came to share in our joy as parents! Pastor Phil came by and prayed over us early in the morning and came by the next day to check up on us. Grif came by the next day and brought a pillow as a gift from the church as well. Then Linda came by the third day and gave us more gifts! All that love was out poured an felt through the nurses and doctors that came together to jump start this little life that has so much to offer, so much to learn, so much to love!

time to change the diaper!!

Things are Growing!

2008-05-25T16:04:00.008-06:00

Things are growing like crazy! Not just the pumpkin plant but also the soon to be born baby, the new house, and corn! Check it out

!

Garden Growing Bigger!

2008-05-20T07:39:00.009-06:00

Here are some more pictures of my garden evolving. The strawberries are sweet and yummy and better than store bought. Some comments that I seem to get is, "they are so small." I think it is only the initial fruits and they will only get bigger and better. The heirloom tomatoes are really starting to take shape and produce some beauties. And finally, the giant pumpkin plant is starting to take off after another application of organic nitrogen and some Miracle Grow organic fertilizer. You can now see the difference in growth every 12 hours! It is getting exiting!Perhaps Steve, you would like a tour? Of course the Holtzmans are invited to see the garden!

By the way, our house and new studio is in the framing stage. The slab was poured last week and now they are building our future really quickly! I shot some footage of that and will make a video of the project over time!

Don't let all this fool you, I have been working like a mad man and my crew has also been slaving away this recording season! It is a great time to record and keeping it all straight with equipment engineers, and videographers is very difficult but we will persevere!

New Studio, New House, More Garden Pictures

2008-05-09T21:44:00.006-06:00

Our new house and new studio has officially began construction! The forms are made and the concrete slab is about to be poured! The sidewalk and part of the driveway have been made already! It is exciting to see the progress!
My sister, Xuan, her husband, Myron, their kid, Evan, and unborn baby girl are also moving to Telfair. They will be closer to the First Colony side where we are closer to the New Territory side. Their house was already under construction when they put an offer on it and it was theirs. Of course it is bigger than ours but I am not worried. We will be neighbors and that is a good thing. Plus they can now share in some gardening fun!!! In gardening news, the pumpkin plant is getting greener, the corn is getting taller, and the strawberries are getting redder!

Things are Growing

2008-04-23T19:00:00.007-06:00

t

It has been my obsession every morning and evening to tend to the garden. Everyday I see a little more growth and everyday I get closer to picking some delicious fruit from my plants! Here are some pictures.

If you look closely at the strawberry plant, there is a budding strawberry. I lined up my heirloom tomato plants and tied them to the stakes. I can't wait to pick some fruit off of those plants! I also added a trellis for my peas to cling to. I added more organic fertilizer today and watered. I also worked on some video and recorded two bands today so I did accomplish something. HAHAHA!

The great pumpkin is coming this year!

2008-04-15T22:45:00.013-06:00

The great pumpkin is coming to West Side Recording Studio this year as we attempt to grow a giant pumpkin. I know this has nothing to do with studio news but I think it does. West Side has been recycling for years and even switched to Green Mountain energy. So it makes sense to take on organic gardening!
The main focus this year is to grow a 500lb pumpkin grown from Dill Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seed! I tilled the garden 3 times, added over 300lbs of organic fertilizer, mounded the dirt 3 feet high, wrapped it with soaker hose, and topped it off with composed manure. Today the first of 3 seedlings popped out! I am totally excited! Other side projects include whopper strawberries, swiss chard, artichokes, heirloom tomatoes, peas, asparagus, onions, navel oranges, kumquats, rubarb, corn, and figs. Yummy! Did I mention pumpkin?

Time After Time by Kady Malloy

2008-04-08T13:42:00.006-06:00

Well we reviewed the footage, and didn't like what we saw with wardrobe and lighting so we reshot the scenes and added a few more shots to the list! The end result is a music video to be very proud of. Kady was looking really good in Karen's (my wife) black dress that she lent us. Staci was not there although she wished she could have been. Luckily Karen stopped by and rearranged the color scheme to make the sofa scene look good on video! Edeline and Lizzie were key grips for lighting and sound management. The only thing is the guitar track sounds bad and we are going to retrack the music.
Time After Time by Kady Malloy feat.Colton Berry

Time After Time with Kady Malloy and Colton Berry

2008-04-02T14:56:00.006-06:00

Lately, we have been recording many talented artists in studio but Kady Malloy and Colton Berry from American Idol season 7 has graced our humble studio with presence to record Time After Time as a gift for their fans to listen to. We have been shooting a music video with them starting the very day they recorded the single and finished shooting the video on location in Sugar Land. It started out as an idea to shoot it in the booth, but I took it a bit further. We went out on location to Rich's and shot portions of the video in the club , then when we had time again, we went to the Holtzman's beautiful home in Sugar Land and shot some really incredible looking scenes there as well! It is on the cutting room now so expect to see it soon on Youtube.com and her Myspace page!

Thank you to Staci and Gerald for the use of their incredible home and thanks to Mer and Jack for helping out and answering the door when all the fans were wanting autographs!

Employee of the Year Award

2008-03-13T09:19:00.005-06:00

This past year was the biggest year West Side Recording Studio has seen! We have had over 20 people on payroll and made a record number of sales in studio time, CD and DVD orders. One of the most influential people who helped me make this happen is Edeline! She is the recipient of the 2007 Employee of the Year award for 2007. It was a bit late in getting presented, I know!
She really helps the Studio move forward on projects and helps me keep my sanity! Nathan, Lizzie, and I took Edeline out to the Hobbit Cafe to present Edeline with this surpise award. We had a great time and really do recognize and appreciate Edeline for being an outstanding member of the team!

Looking Forward to the New Studio

2008-03-11T19:35:00.002-06:00

Hello again! It will be a very exciting year as West Side Recording Studio builds a new home studio in Sugar Land. We are relocating to the subdivision of Telfair off of University Blvd and 59 south.

The upgrades aforementioned in a previous blog did not happen because the decision was to build a bigger studio and bigger house with custom features that will allow recording studio guests and engineers a more spacious, professional, friendly environment in which to work. In other words, it is going to be absolutely awesome!!

Construction will begin soon and we will move in October or so!

Happy Holidays from a certain corner of the studio!

2007-12-07T10:52:00.000-06:00

The toy Tan gave me today.

'Tis the season to be busy at West Side Recording Studio. I have finished up the projects from the recordings this past weekend and have sent them out [go me!], so be on the lookout folks for them in the mail! We are currently working on the Spring Branch Boys and Girls Choir and hopefully we'll get that project wrapped up by this weekend before next week's fiasco starts swamping up the studio. We literally have recordings every single day, but I'm sure we'll make it through! We always do, unless saying this is jinxing everything haha.

Anyways, back to work I go and Happy Holidays!

Until next time,
Edeline Gacula

Studio Upgrades around $50,000

2007-12-04T23:26:00.000-06:00

Many exciting things are happening at West Side Recording Studio! We are proud to announce the plans for investing over $50,000 towards new equipment purchases to bring a higher level of production quality and a broader range of services to our customers.

Here is a list of incredible gear we plan on getting.

1. Apple Mac Pro 8 Core Computer with Dual 3 Ghz processors and 8 gigs of ram.
2. Samsung 30" Widescreen Monitor
3. Samsung 46" HDTV 1080P client monitor
4. A Pair of Panasonic HVX200 High Definition Camcorders with P2 cards!
5. A Sony V1U High Definition Camcorder with 20x lens
6. 3 Firestore High Definition Hard Disc recorders for capturing HD to HDD!
7. A M2 Cinema Lens Adapter from Red Rock
8. Final Cut Studio 2
9. Black Magic Multibridge Pro for HD I/O from the Mac
10. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
11. Magic Bullet Suite
12. DROBO hard disc array
13. Varizoom Focus and Zoom controls for the cameras
14. SteadyCam vest!
15. Lynx Aurora 16 AD/DA Converters with LTFirewire option!
16. Adam A7 Monitors for nearfield monitoring
17. A Pair of Neumann M149 Tube Mics
18. Schoeps CMIT5U Shotgun microphone
19. 4 Seagate 750 drives.
20. True Precision 8 Mic Pres!
21. Bogen Manfrotto Tripod Kits
22. Waves SSL Plug-ins
23. Waves Gold Plug Ins

This is a Huge list of upgrades and I plan on adding more than that as well. I need some camera lights in addition to all that!
After this lease..
We will have Nearly $40,000 in microphones in our inventory.
We will have 4 High Definition Cameras
We will have some of the best video and audio services hands down!
West Side will be known as the one stop shop to record your music and your videos with the latest gear and with people who know what they are doing!

This is the biggest jump yet for the studio and we are catapulting ourselves into the next level of excellence!

Logic Studio 8 and more upgrades

2007-11-24T10:02:00.000-06:00

Logic Studio 8 is now at home in West Side Recording Studio. For now it is installed in the MacBook. With limited hard disk space, I did not do the full install. Since you need 46GB of space to install the entire sample libraries, I had to postpone in the 39 gigabyte sample library installation!
The GOOD:
Only$500 and you get $1800 dollars worth of stuff!
Action packed and fully loaded with samplers, editors, performance, and studio software.
Nice Shortcuts built in.
The BAD:
Audio editing is a bit cumbersome compared to Pro-Tools.
Markers are Region Based and it is difficult to immediately jump to the beginning of the marker just by clicking on it. Instead you can create a loop of that region (which is great for midi composing) Not so useful for audio editing.

The plug-ins are really setup for people who know nothing about audio editing and need a fast set-up for compression, EQ, limiting, ect.

Depending on what program you use, the shortcuts may change. For Example, in Logic you can hit the esc key and then choose your tool by hitting a number. In Soundtrack Pro, this does not work. The tools are essentially the same, but the shortcuts are not.

The Jam Packs are really kinda cool if you need some quick riffs. The Foley in Soundtrack Pro is not fully there! You need to spend a few thousand more for more a more complete foley library. The screams, gunfire, laughter, and other effects are a bit cheesy and not really that usable. I was hoping for more, but for $500 I am not complaining. I would be for $1800.

As for the sound quality, the samples seem to lack high frequency definition. But for true fidelity, custom sample libraries or really high dollar samples from other providers is recommended.

I am considering using Logic Studio Pro as a replacement fro ProTools. Not convinced of that move just yet. Considering the Lynx Aurora 16 as the converters but Apogee converters are also considered.

Logic vs Pro Tools. I have read over and over again that Logic is great for music production, and Pro-Tools is great for audio editing. I think there are ways to be fast in Logic for audio editing, only that I must discard the years of training in the workflow of Pro Tools and I am not sure I want to do that just yet.

The Presonus Bluetube

2007-10-05T21:32:00.001-06:00

The Presonus Bluetube DP (dual path) has found its way into the studio of West Side and we tested it against the other preamps in the studio.
Features: Stereo Dual Path Mic/Instrument Preamp Using 12AX7 Tube
• High Headroom, Class A Gain Stage
• XLR and ¼” High-Z Neutrik® Input Combo Connectors
• Balanced XLR and ¼” TS Neutrik® Output Connectors
• 20dB Pad/ Polarity Reversal/ 80Hz Filter on Each Channel
• Two Illuminated Analog VU Meters
• Great as a DI for Bass and Guitar

Retail price: $229.95

Using a BLUE "Mouse" as a microphone source, we (Lizzie and Me) compared the microphone preamp against the Avalon 737, Sytek MPX4aii with (Burr Brown opamps and without), the Alesis Studio 32, and the Symetrix SX202.
We connected the mic to the preamp with a Kiwi cable, by BLUE, and from the preamp out to the Apogee Rosetta via Monster 1000 XLR and into ProTools via Adat lightpipe. We recorded our voices in radio show style and played back the results and here are some of findings.

1. The Presonus Bluetube DP - very smooth wide frequency response! In pure class A mode, it was very clean and warm. No harshness at all and silky smooth! Clean and accurate microphone amplification. Sounds like a tube preamp with the tube drive in bypass mode.
2. The Avalon 737sp - silky smooth (as expected), slightly more extended lows and highs than the Presonus BluetubeDP. Quiet and clean yet richer with more high frequency detail above 10khz and slightly more low frequency response in the subsonics.
3. The Sytek MPX-4aii with Burr Brown op-amps - Nice detail and warm sound. Slightly faster transient response, very forward and upfront sound. Great detail in the highs frequencies although not as extended as the Avalon.
4. The Sytek MPX-4aii factory stock - The most clear and detailed high frequency response of the group. Excellent low frequency response as well but not as pronounced as the other mic preamps. Fast transients yet never harsh.
5. The Alesis Studio 32 - Clean and quiet, it exhibits balanced highs and lows with a clean sound. The Presonus pres are slightly more rounded and "tube" sounding than this one.
6. The Symetrix SX202 - Did not sound as extended as the factory stock Sytek in the high frequencies. The SX202 did not seem as smooth as the group. Lows are strong with a pronounced midrange. (Perhaps the microphone/preamp combo was not so flattering.)

In Conclusion: The Presonus Bluetube for a street price of $199.99 is an incredible deal. I would go so far to say it is a mini-avalon (minus the optical compression and tube EQ).
The tube drive is a very useful tool to add character in the form of variable harmonic distortion. If you need a nice two channel for a really great price, get this thing and you will love it.

Lexicon M300

2007-10-05T21:14:00.000-06:00

West Side Recording Studio welcomes the addition of a new toy that is a legend in the recording world, the Lexicon M300! More than a reverb, the M300 delivers pitch shifting, dual mono effects, and frame delay effects that sound really amazing!

You Set Me Free

2007-09-11T10:01:00.001-06:00

Just recorded with Katana this weekend and it was a really nice session. Her voice was very smooth with our M147 tube mic as she sang her song, "You Set Me Free". You can check out her song and her myspace at http://www.myspace.com/starrthebaddest . She is getting the attention of the nation and will soon be releasing her new album.

Weddings Galore!

2007-09-05T14:38:00.000-06:00

Hello, it is the Executive Studio Assistant of West Side Recording Studio coming to you live from... well you know, the studio of course! This blog is finally up and running again. Sucks that we, well Tan mainly since he is the main one who writes in this, could not broadcast to you our summer projects that the studio had to do. It took us awhile to figure out that we needed to convert the blog accounts to the new and latest one taken over by Google. DUH!

Anyways, as I wait here for a DVD to burn, I thought it would be a good idea to type my very first entry in the West Side blog. I am glad to say that we are almost done with our summer wedding projects. Although editing wedding footage takes a long time, it is nice to watch these happy couples tie the knot. I love weddings! Who doesn't? I just need to remind myself that the next one I film, heels will definitely NOT be part of my outfit.

Until next time,
Edeline Gacula

2007-08-07T23:43:00.000-06:00

The Virtuosi of Houston Gala 2007

The Virtuosi of Houston Gala and featured the theme of Sports Legends and was held in the beautiful Legends Ballroom at the Continental Hotel. PreProduction meetings were interesting and demonstrated the demanding nature of Zarine Boyce, the director of the Virtuosi. Video was a concern as she requested that I personally be there to make sure things were run smoothly. I ran the camera crane, Seth ran the FX1 from the rear stage, and Joey ran the video from a spider pod on the left corner and we communicated with wireless and wired headsets. Stars such as Rudy T and Bob Allen were in attendance. The Cameras were the Canon H1, XL2, and Sony FX1. We didn't use the Panasonic this time around. Pretty crazy. We letter boxed the whole thing. A first for West Side. The shortcomings of the small chip cameras were evident in the contrasting areas where the highlights get slightly blown. As a result, we shot things a bit on the safe side but not too dark. Sound was run by the hotel but the recorded sound was run by Brad Sayles, from KUHF. Sennheiser MKH40s in the front and omnis over the rear ensemble were used as well . He recorded into a MOTU 828 into a Windows multitracking software. The video took a while to produce but it came out nicely and was done with only one revision. Nice work all around.

Texas United Nations Pageant

2007-08-07T23:09:00.000-06:00

TEXAS UNITED NATION PAGEANT 2007

This year's pageant was a massive improvement over last years and it was a huge undertaking by West Side Recording Studio. Not only did we provide 3 camera angles, we provided sound and lights for a larger stage and even prerecorded some of the material so that it would go off without a hitch.

We had a shortage of crew members so I was the only camera operator and Nathan was the only sound and lights operator. The event ended up on 2 DVDs and was edited entirely on AVID media composer. I discovered the cool animation tool in the Title tool and learned to animate the lights and the parameters without the use of keyframes! Imagine that. The end result looks better than anything Boris FX can come up with. Here is a tip when exporting a clip from AVID. If you are exporting a QT reference clip, it is natively set at upper fields 1st. The NTSC standard is lower fields 1st. So when you transcode the clip to MPEG2, specify lower fields 1st which is not the default. That will get rid of the jitter problem.

Edeline was instrumental in helping with the body of cutting the angles and applying color correction while I was chilling in San Antonio. Now she can appreciate the time consuming nature of video post production!

2007-04-06T17:22:00.000-06:00

Building the Future

Fundraising videos are challenging to do! Let's face it. How do you persuade the viewer in about 8 minutes to donate and support the massive campaign to raise 5 million dollars by watching a dvd? Well Notre Dame Catholic Church Recruited me to make this fundraising video. There were a list of obstacles in the way. No script, no direction, no source of funds (it was a free bee!)
Luckily I had a bunch of resources at my fingertips..
1. A 10X16 foot green screen with a multitude of virtual sets.
2. A Panasonic DVC200P
3. 2400 watts of halogen power!
4. wireless microphone
5. Notre Dame Church Directory from the 70's
6. Avid Media Composer
7. Ultra 2 (by serious magic, for vector based chroma keying)
8. Adobe Premiere Pro 2
9. Procoder 2.0

Interviews were recorded on evening in the church office. To give us options for different backgrounds and dynamic options in post, we used a green screen as a backdrop. It took about 1 hr to steam the wrinkles out, but the most challenging task was to capture inspirational testimonies. The speakers were picked according to their ethnic diversity and personallity. Some of them were really serious not smiling at all and others were very good. The pastor wrote his script that day and of all the footage I shot, I used a fraction of the testimonies to cut a cohesive message that illustrates the necessity of this huge endeaver. I used huge tracking shots for the unanimated speakers so that it was visually stimulating at least. I then layered the video with footage that takes the attention away from the speaker and shows the faces of the church, the nostalgia of the past and the excitement of what the future was to bring!

I captured interviews in premiere pro and exported them to AVI. Opened them in Ultra 2 and spent an entire day putting them in their virtual realities. I used a Gazebo for an outdoors look, a virtual church, a library, a motion filled room that looked like it was surrounded by shimmering gold liquid. From Ultra, I exported to an AVI using the loss less Canopus codec. Then using Procoder 2, I converted the AVI to Quicklime DVCpro. Then imported the clips into AVID where it was converted yet again to an OMF file! All that conversion made my head spin!

Seth Ward helped me cut the intro together. Intermingling phrases and showing nice shots of people gathering, attending church, smiling, and fading to the crucifix and the stained glass before fading into closed doors to a church that open up and lead you into a tracking shot, moving down the aisle toward the pastor who begins the opening lines! It was the momentum I needed to get the job done right!

Travis Boyette composed, "Did You Know," a religious song that was totally appropriate for this DVD and I used the pop orchestral instrumental to make the magic happen. Music really does pull it all togehter!

Avid is a great editing tool and I like it more and more. I really have gotten used to it's workflow and the powerful options that are there! The audio tools are great but not as good as taking it to Pro Tools. There is an option for that to happen but I don't have Pro Tools for PC. Maybe in the future. Who knows.

The translation was overdubbed by father Rolando and he did it in the vocal booth using an EV RE-1000 running through Sytek, DBX, Avalon, and Apogee processors before going into Pro Tools and out into the Mojo Avid interface! Pretty crazy setup and it sounded great.

The church staff really likes the DVD and will have a viewing party on Tues. The replicators are making 2500 copies and we will distribute the copies amongst the people one week after Easter!

Now all I need to do now is make 2700 double sided color prints for the fact sheet!
Lord have mercy!

2007-02-12T02:26:00.001-06:00

Kady and the GREEN SCREEN

On Saturday, Kady made her actress debut! One moment a singer, the next moment, an actress! This was West Side Recording's 1st attempt at using the green screen and let me tell ya, it was a challenge!

This video is to be used on the Texas Cosmetology Exam Review DVD as an introduction and explanation of the DVD's contents. David Lopez wrote the script and did Kady's hair.

We had recently purchased Ultra 2 from the Video Guys and it was our first attempt to use it for a project! The Ultra 2 program from Serious Magic, is designed to make chroma key effects a snap and to make things easier. It came in a package complete with a 10X16 ft. green screen, a backdrop frame for the green screen, 48 virtual library sets and a training DVD. Let me tell you that the training DVD is great for insomnia! We considered renting studio lights, but we opted for the halogen work lights from Home Depot and they worked great. These lights were 1200watts max each and I bought 2! The heads were easily rotated to cast light were we wanted and for about $50 each, it was worth the money!

A black shirt and black pants is what Kady aka "Vanessa" wore initially. That was a bad idea and it caused "Vanessa" to lack definition and really made her lose her curves! ( She is very curvy by the way.) She could have been pregnant and you would not be able to tell. Thankfully she brought a very nice brown turtleneck that shimmered! The poor girl had to endure the heat of the lights and the layers of clothing for an 8 hour shoot! Yes I said 8. No break either.
We initially tried to use the HVX200 by Panasonic going into the AVID Mojo with component cables, but I quickly got fustrated with it not working correctly so I ditched the camera for the Panasonic DVC200p and ran firewire into Premiere Pro 2.

The next step is cutting the lines together on the timeline and exporting them out to composite in Ultra 2!

I'll let you know how it goes!

2007-02-05T22:41:00.000-06:00

St. Thomas Aquinas 2007 Retreat

So this past weekend I was out at the Christian Renewal Center in Dickinson, Texas for St. Thomas Aquinas' 2nd year Confirmation Retreat. I have been doing retreats for many years now and every time I do one i seem to be taking more equipment with me than the previous one; even when the retreats are only a few weeks apart. Now to clarify my job at these retreats, I am in charge first and foremost with the music. This means that I always bring a PA system with cd players, mixers, mics, etc. But over the past few years it has become increasingly popular for me to bring along lighting and special effects. I think after I did it once it became a requirement because nobody expected any less from me and I'm fine with that. The skit team really loves it because they can come up with awesome light cues and tell them to me and I will program and integrate them into their performance.

For this retreat the new toy was my newly purchased fog machine. Now this is no ordinary lets have a Halloween party fogger. This is a professional high output 1700 watt behemoth of a fog machine. It can also be hooked up with DMX protocol. To test this thing out the day before the retreat I first set it up in my house. After it warmed up I let out about a 5 second blast. About 2 minutes later the house was evenly covered with a clean fog. I also had 3 smoke alarms going off but we will ignore that part of the story. After that i set it up in my garage so i could really test its limits. I let out a full blast holding down the button until it could not let out anymore fog. Before i knew it i couldn't see my own hand right in front of my face.

So back to the retreat, I knew my limits with the fogger after my experiments at home the day before. When it was time to fog at the retreat I let out a responsible amount and it worked beautifully. Within seconds an even, clean fog filled the room bringing my lights to life. I was also testing out the Black Label Brand Fog Fluid I bought from Guitar Center. I've been wanting to try it for a while and I must say I like it a lot. It does just as advertised, it is very clean and hangs around for quite a while. It also doesn't have a terrible odor like some fog fluids. Everything went off without a hitch, like the possibility of the smoke alarm at the facility going off and dispatching a fire truck, and it was extremely fun. So for those of you wondering, here is my equipment list for the lighting and special effects used at the retreat.

1. American DJ Fog Storm 1700HD
2. 2- Martin MX-1 Scanners
3. 2- Chauvet Q-Spot 150 Moving Heads
4. American DJ Show Designer
5. American DJ Co-Pilot Light Controller
6. American DJ Co-Pilot Switch Pack
7. 20' T-Stand
8. 4- 25' DMX cables
9. Gallon of Black Label Brand Fog Fluid

2007-01-30T20:13:00.000-06:00

TPSMEA All-State Concert 2007
location: Laurie Auditorium, Trinity University in San Antonio
The Texas Private School Music Educators Association has this event annually and since 2003, West Side Recording Studio has been the official recording studio for the Band, Choir, and Orchestra.

The Team:
Tan Truong:Producer, mastermind, audio engineer, camera operator.
Travis Boyette:Assistant producer, camera operator.
Wayne Truong:Camera operator, fashion critic, navigation.
Edeline Gacula:Assistant engineer.
Nathan Brittain:Assistant enginner.
Evelyn Sarabia:Sales coordinator.
Abbey Hawes:Sales coordinator.
Kady Malloy:Sales coordinator.
Leslie Malloy:Sales coordinator.
Ken Malloy:Sales coordinator.
Grant:Sales coordinator

Audio Gear

Sytek MPX4A mic pre (4 channel)
Yamaha 01v digital console
Symmetrix mic preamp (2 channel)
24 channel 1/4"Patchbay
Alesis ADAT with Monster Elco Cable
Tascam DA-88
Denon CD recorder
Sony CD recorder
Neumann KM140 microphones (2)
Neumann KM83 microphones (2)
Electro Voice RE-1000 microphones (2)
Audio Technica AT-4050 (2)
150' 8 channel snake
Shure S15a mic stands (3)
Atlas studio booms (2)
2 black standard booms (2)

Video Gear

Panasonic HVX200
Panasonic DVC200P
Sony HDR-FX1
Advanta jib camera crane
3 lcd monitors
cat5/composite converters
reel of cat5
lots of gaff tape
sennheiser body packs for communication

Laurie Auditorium was a challenging place to setup since I had no choice but to block front row seats to set up the crane and the HVX200. The Panasonic DVC200P was set up in the wide shot and slightly right of center. Unfortunately the exit was on center and I did not want to block the exit. It was the first time I was to use 3 cameras at TPSMEA and a first time for the camera crane. First time that Christine and her mom did not go, and the the first time for us to use wireless credit card transactions. It was the first time for Kady, Edeline, Grant, Evelyn, Abbey, Leslie, and Ken to be there. It was also the first time for us to have a reservation at the Hard Rock (we barely made it). Another first is renting a 15 passenger van! A big time first was the price increase which resulted in higher profits! Almost $9000 in an evening of recording! Very nice. The first time is the greatest!

The crew was absolutely amazing! The teamwork and the leadership demonstrated by everyone just amazed me. I felt like I assembled the perfect team or at least God did. We were all there to have fun, do a great job recording/taking orders and have more fun! The crew bonded and became friends. To borrow from the famous quote of the Peace Corps: TPSMEA was more than a job, it was an adventure!

2007-01-21T16:25:00.001-06:00

NVIDIA 8800 GTS!

Today I bought this bad boy. Here are the specs...

>>	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
>>	Bus Type: PCI Express
>>	Memory: 640MB GDDR3
>>	Core Clock: 500MHz
>>	Shader Clock: 1200MHz
>>	Memory Clock: 1600MHz
>>	Stream Processors: 96
>>	Texure Fill Rate: 24 billion/sec
>>	Memory Bandwidth: 64GB/sec.
>>	Shader Model: 4.0
>>	API Support: Microsoft® DirectX® 10 and lower, OpenGL® 2.0 and lower for Microsoft Windows®
>>	Connectors 2 Dual-Link DVI-I, HDTV + TV Out
>>	RAMDACs: Dual 400MHz
>>	HDCP Enabled: Yes

More specs at http://www.bfgtech.com/8800GTS_640_PCIe.html

I was at CompUSA at the Galleria, picking up the replacement battery for my Macbook, when I headed over to the video card isle to look at what they had. I had seen this card online the night before and read incredible reviews about it! It was designed for High Definition gaming, but what does that mean for AVID Media Composer and other video rendering applications? The guys selling me the card were more than helpful and talked me into buying a matching 650watt power supply just in case my stock one was too weak.

I spent over $700 when it was said and done and drove home happy about my decision. I had some difficulty installing it because I did not read the instructions and I also unknowingly unplugged the little sata cable to my raptor boot drive. Ooops. I put the original card back in and reconfigured my bios to boot correctly and then uninstalled the old drivers according to the instructions. Then installed the BFG NVIDIA 8800 GTS! It booted fine and then I downloaded the latest drivers from the BFG website. Once installed I tested the card's rendering capabilities on Avid.

Rendering on Avid was what I was most interested in. The Marquee Title Tool is what I use to make the title screens. On the FX1400 card, the rendering would take about 10-20 seconds. Now it seems almost instant. The rendering bar zips to completion in a few seconds! I was really happy to see that! Totally cool!

Definitely like what I see so far! I even think the screens look better now. It may be all that low res stuff I had to endure while installing the drivers altered my perception, but I think it looks great and the performance gains saves me time and time is money!

2006-12-30T12:34:00.000-06:00

Almost done with Christmas!

We are coming to a close with all the Christmas and holiday orders and I see a light at the end of the tunnel! Edeline and Travis have been the best team ever! Together we pushed the videos and CD's out the door, with a help from Nathan and Marianne. The St. Michaels video we produced on Premier Pro confirmed my frustration with Premiere Pro. I love it and hate it all at the same time! Things like crashing made it frustrating to work with, but the worst thing was a corrupt drive that made it look like I was saving but eventually had a write error and everything we did was lost. We started over about 3 times!!! That was frustrating. But I am now proud to say that we are done with it! Now duplicating it and almost ready to ship. I belief that I will attempt to do all my next projects on Avid Xpress Pro HD. Some things make it a slower program, but quality is high and the program does not crash like Premiere can. I have not given up on Premier yet, but I think increasing my ram may help, but I digress.

More interesting things in the works:

1. Building a Gigastudio Computer to score a Ballet using virtual instruments!
2. Looking for a Handicap van!
3. Shooting a Cosemtology video!
4. Buying another Gigastudio computer!
5. Upgrading gear!

2006-12-16T01:54:00.000-06:00

Recording and Live Sound
Wow! I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and neither can the crew at West Side! It has been non-stop this week and we have to crank out stuff for:
1. The Angelus Harp Ensemble 2. Region 23 JH Band 3. Region 13 Orchestras 4. Spring Branch Boys and Girls Choir 5. St. Michaels Christmas Play 6. Kempner HS Orch and Sugar Land MS 7. Cook MS Band 8. Hamilton Choir 9. Dean MS Band 10. CyWoods Band

e There is just so much going on besides that. Ned Battista has written a new Ballet and we have to record it with Gigastudio, Live engineering with the Fort Bend Boys Choir. Last weekend was the Tim Janice American Christmas Carol show that I engineered for a Fort Bend Performing Arts series. Just so many things..... We are definitely pulling a few all nighters to complete these upcoming projects!
In the meantime, we are making plans on moving into a larger facility, getting a handicap van (more on that later) and getting motorcycles or possibly vespas!!! At least for Edeline!
Wish us luck peoples!

2006-11-25T22:16:00.000-06:00

Current writing projects at Westside Recording:
Right now we are putting the finishing touches on 'Melancholy Blue' and are about to start 'Going my way'. Both are dance/hip-hop/techno tracks with a lot of drive and energy. Here at Westside we are not afraid to touch any musical style! We are using Reason on the G5 with a lot of after market samples to do the foundation for the tracks. Then, we export everything over to pro tools where maestro Tan adds some flava and special sauce to make everything ready to track the vocals and add any other elements that we want to put in. Soon we will be going to pro tools HD, and maybe adding some other cool toys as well, so you can guarantee that whatever we are cookin up here at Westside will first, be all vegan and vegetarian, but also, it'll be hot!!!! Look for these tracks on www.westsiderecording.com soon!!!

2006-11-25T22:13:00.000-06:00

Songwriting at Westside Recording:Segment 1_'Where do I start?'
Well, for all you aspiring songwriters out there; I thought I'd share some of my years and years of doing everything wrong to help you get it right. Or, if you are already an experienced writer, maybe some of these ideas will help you refresh your memory...I thought for the first segment I'd share with everyone how to get past the first, and sometimes most difficult, hurdle in writing a song; getting started!!! First of all, you don't have to own a fancy computer, programs, samples, or any of those things to write a great song. Use whatever methods you have close by, or maybe try a piece of paper and a pencil! One part of songwriting that a lot of people don't think about is that once you have a good idea started; get some help!!! There are people out there who can help you make that polished demo track, don't be stingy with your ideas or you'll never see them go anywhere. Anyway, the best piece of advice I can give most people is that they need to write everyday; practice makes perfect right? Seriously, you'll get better and better at writing, even when the good old 'inspiration' is just not there! Keep a journal or somthing that you can organize your ideas in. Date them, and never, ever, ever, ever!!! throw anything away for any reason at all!!!! You may not think its a good idea, but just turn the page and start a new one! You never know when you'll be looking through your old ideas and suddenly you find the perfect intro in something that you thought was dumb. Second, try to come up with the focus of your song at the beginning, now hold on; here is where we need to decide which comes first; the chicken or the egg? Do you write the melody first, or the lyrics? Well, that's up to you; I've done both, and every song is different. So your focus may be a cool melody/hook, or maybe a great lyrical line...whatever it is, try and build your song up around that focus. Maybe its about your dog, or your best friend, or some really complicated life event that has your head spinning! So, try and stay organized but still, there is nothing better than writing every single day. Make it a daily ritual. You never know, maybe that day you skipped was the day that you would have written the next great power ballad...until next time; happy writing!

2006-11-24T02:37:00.000-06:00

The Jukes
I recently recorded a marathon run of 14 songs with a rockabiliy band called "The Jukes". Quite interesting since that was a new style for me to record. The added challenge was that we were trying to do it all in one day. We recorded drums with Audix dynamic mics and they sounded pretty good. I used KM140's on the the overheads and an AKG Blue line for the hihat. I ran the drums through the usual Alesis pre's and the Earthworks kick pad and eq plugin. Started with an Sm-57 for guitar cab but changed half way through to AT4050. I faced the tube cab into a corder to get the comb filter effect. Sytek, DBX 166a and Avalon 737 was the recording path for guitar. The bass ran direct, and the organ ran into the Syteks as well. I tracked it all throught Alesis ADAT converters into Pro-Tools Mix Plus at 48khz, 16bit. I liked the initial sound but on mixdown I ran all the channels through 16 channels of ADAT through the ADAT bridge and converted to analog, then into the Tascam to do the actual submix of the tracks. This freed up system resources enough to run Antared Auto tune on the lead and bg vocals. It was much better sounding than just mixing through the Pro tools mixbus. It was more dyanmic and open with a much less crowded soundstage. I am convinced that this is the best way to go now.
I still used Pro Tools to automate the mix and I used the TC electronic on board effects throught the Tascam for vocals. It sounded very clean that way. I want to try to get some Lexicon outboard effects like the 300 or perhaps a 480. For a quick tracking and mixing situation, I think it came out great!

2006-11-14T11:03:00.000-06:00

Three Mo' Tenors

11-11-2006

The Three Mo' Tenors came through Sugar Land as part of the Fort Bend Performing Arts series and West Side Recording Studio was contracted to consult live sound for the Williams Trace Baptist Church venue.
I arrived at the church at 9:30am or so and drank my grande soy French vanilla latte while the stage crew did some heavy lifting. I knew that my work was about to begin and I needed to gather my senses through some quiet time and some caffeine! I started with assembly of the drumset. Rico Gonzales called me to get some finite instructions to the church and I went out to meet him in the parking lot. He arrived in a white Infinity FX35 suv. We walked inside and set wired the drumset. We used Audix mics on the kit. The overheads were sm-81s. We used 9 mics total and I made notes on my mac as we plugged. The drummer planned on using a MAC sequencer with 6 outputs coming from his M-Audio interface. We ran it using a 150ft 8 channel snake that we (West Side) provided. We also used a West Side supplied Plexiglas drumshield for the drums. The 9ft Steinway was mixed with AT4050 mics -10db set to cardioid. We ran 2 Triton keyboards through 4 DI boxes. The Tenors sang through DPA headset mics which had a decent sound, a bit more open than the Country Man. But for the price, the Country Man's are a good value at $400 vs $1600 for the DPA's. We put the wireless handheld 87a's on the stage as props although they were on and were ready as backups.
Rico, the head sound engineer from the Potter's House in Dallas, was filling in as the sound guy at this show. I wired the patchbay to the console inputs for Rico and set it all up. I then had to run to the studio to let Greg pick up the equipment for a Region Choir performance he was suppose to record. I got back at the end of sound check and made sure everything was cool and smooth.
Curtis, their lighting specialist really knew his way around the show and the lightboard. Our light guy ended up going home since he was no longer needed. The sound was very dynamic and Rico chose not to run through the 01v for dynamics control.
The show went rather well, but our spotlight crew had problems communicating with the director of the show. She sat outside in the hall and directed the spotlights blind! It was amazing but the distance was too far for good communication and dropouts occurred. Her battery ran low as well so the cues were not always exact. Evelyn and Alex did their best as they restled their spots and the show was very well received.
After the show, we reset everything and wrapped everything up. It was so much stuff to do. I repatched the patchbay, and the crew worked vigorously to get the piano moved, drumset packed, drumshield packed, backwall put back in, etc. There just was too much to do in one evening so we left some small details for the next morning.
The next morning was easy to do and the board required minimal resetting. Sunday night, I busted out with the camera crane. More on that later..

2006-11-08T22:38:00.000-06:00

Live Multi-Cam Switching!
It is such a thrilling thing to produce a live show on the fly! I'm talking about one chance to get it right, calling the shots, 3 camera operators on 3 different angles, a marching band and me.

The location was the massive Berry Center football stadium and the Cy-Woods Marching Band was scheduled to perform at 7:00pm. The odds were stacked against the crew of West Side but I had a positive outlook.
We had never cut 3 angles live before, John had never operated the camera crane before, my brother had never operated the Panasonic DVC200 before with arm mounted focus and zoom controls, we had to setup a communication system along with a composite video to cat5 converter to run video over cat5 from the crane, all the way up to the press box. That morning, I went to AVAD to pick up the composite-cat5 boxes, 1000ft of cat5, a y connector so that I could send a video feed to the monitor for crane and send it upstairs. The converter box was rated at 2200ft and with a split signal I figured I had about 1000ft of good signal left to send upstairs. Otherwise I had thought of getting a video multiplier amp. I also learned to terminate my own cat5 cable. The most stressful part of it was I did it on location and did not know whether or not it was going to work. Plan B would mean that we would have to cut it post, but that wouldn't be as rewarding. I terminated one end and Wayne terminated the other end. I made the mistake of making my end backwards. So initially, I had no signal. When the connection was correctly terminated, I plugged it in and whoo-hooo! I had a signal coming from the camera crane about 400ft below! It was such a miracle that it worked, that I shouted out and disturbed the marching band rehearsal going on below!
Three cameras were plugged into the Tricaster Pro. The Sony High Definition Z1U via Svideo, the Panasonic via composite, and the Sony High Definition FX1 (crane cam) via composite and cat5! I did not bring enough cabling so I had to run the audio into the Z1U. We put up 2 AT4050 mics into the Sony's preamps via 150ft of mic cable. Spencer put the 4050's onto the Shure S-15a mic stands and telescoped them over the balcony. We put socks on the 4050's so that they would not get too much wind noise. Overall, there was no wind noise. Those mics are very wind resistant! The camera audio was set to manual and recorded at a sae level. The mics had the 10db attenuater pad on so that they would not overload. The pres on the Sony were very good! No hiss and plenty of full spectrum sound. Not as good as Syteks but definitely as good as Mackie.
Prior to the video, Wayne did photography for the band in the basketball stadium and he did a good job. The pictures came out great. But now it was time to start the show.
The band had a few run throughs but we really took all the time to set up the crane, tricaster, video recorder, camera angles, power and mics. The distance between the gear contributed to the extremely long setup. We arrived at 4:00pm. We were finally ready about 6:45pm. It was nerve racking.
OK now it was time to start. I gave orders for Wayne to get in on the tight shots, while Spencer stayed wide. John practiced his moves before the show. Panning and zooming and elevating. The crane cam was set to a cineframe 30. It was not intentional, but a setting I used in the last shoot. But that angle looked georgeous! I called the shots, "camera 1 your live! Get ready camera 2.. camera 2 is live.. Get ready camera 3, 3 is live...get on that gong #2, #2 is live." We were totally in tune with the performance! It was a crazy thing too! The cuts came out great and made a pretty good show look totally exciting to see!! At the end of the show, the rain started coming down on the stadium. The crane and FX1 got a but wet but luckily everything else was dry! I made the covers and DVD labels, pakaged the goods and took them to Woods today.
Diana, Mickey and Sue really loved the video! I really believe there is a future with marching band videos and West Side Recording Studio! Edeline and Travis could not be part of the show but the crew I had did an outstanding job!

2006-10-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

All State Orchestra Auditions

On Saturday, October 28, 2006, we recorded TMEA ALL-STATE ORCHESTRA AUDITIONS for Region 17 and Region 23 at Kempner HS and Taylor HS. We recorded 8 rooms, 3 at Kempner and 5 at Taylor. It was the biggest location recording endeavor for audio recording that West Side Recording Studio has ever endured. Travis, Edeline, along with guest engineers, Greg, Rumaldo, Abasi, Wayne, and Mickey helped us with this monumental effort. We pulled out the big guns for this. We took all 13 Neumann microphones, along with all the other incredible mics in our $20,000 arsenal to the recording session. We brought out 8 main CD recorders with an assortment of Hard Disc, CD, ADAT, DA-88, DAT, and Compact Flash recorders for backups! Our preamps and mixers consisted of Avalon, Sytek, Symmetrix, Alesis, Yamaha, and Mackie.
When we first started doing this in 1999, we used tape decks in 3 rooms. Now with CD, it seemed easier to achieve a better sound quality and dynamic range, but the complications of communication crept into the equation. Most of the students knew what order to play their cuts. Some instruments, like the basses at Taylor HS, were not informed about the order of the cuts. Although there were 5 rooms at Cinco, there was poor traffic control. There were students recording upstairs and downstairs and the hall monitors had no radio communication so students recording upstairs seemed to wait longer for their recording sessions and Wayne had no relief so he ended up recording more than others and had no opportunity for a break. Meanwhile I recorded pretty quickly so Travis and I had the opportunity to take a break and head to Subway for some veggie sandwiches.
The recording engineers were provided packets of the music tabbed out with the specific number of tracks and the cuts for each track on the CD. This was particularly helpful in keeping the recordings accurate and the engineers informed to when to pause and when to start the next track! Definitely a game of concentration on everyone's part! Keeping up with all the students with different instrumentation, mic placement, levels, track numbers, and finalizing proofed to be challenging and we did not escape unscathed.
There were two CD's we had to fix and luckily, Travis could do it on his laptop. One CD had 9 tracks on it and it was because there were 2 excerpts with 2 sections to them and Wayne cut them into sections instead of keeping them together. He only did that to one CD so that was easy to fix. The other CD that was rejected was too soft with track one. It was piano and was setup for inside the piano. So the student spoke too softly for a good level and Travis boosted it and fixed the CD with Bias Peak.
All that heavy equipment caused me to reinjure my back so I was in no position to pack the stuff up and my sense of humor was gone. I tried really hard to keep positive and felt like just lying down. My injury was partly due to unloading the equipment at Cinco Ranch which happened to be the wrong school. I called George Engelmann at Taylor and he told me that we were at the wrong school. I could have sworn that Brett Nelson had told me that school. I will definitely double check the location of the recording in the future! It did not throw off the recording schedule. We quickly loaded up the cars and got there with 30 min to spare. The Kempner crew had an easier time with getting to their location. Greg informed me that he had about 6 CD's to redo for different reasons. The underlying reason for these recording errors was communication. Somewhere along the way, the right information to prevent the errors resulted in something bad. Looking at the big picture, out of 2 Regions and multiple school districts, 8 minor details that were easily fixed was not a bad outcome. I am especially proud of Edeline for a flawless recording session, Travis for helping with the setup and fixing the 2 imperfect CD's, Mickey for being diligent and flawless with recording, Wayne for recording non stop and the crew at Kempner for cleaning up the details that went wrong.
I am still exhausted from yesterday! Edeline was a trooper! She started working on the studio when we got back! She broke out a hammer and hung up a new dry erase board plus framed a Depeche Mode poster and drilled a screw into the wall and hung it up! I watched her do all of this as I sat back in my chair nearly crippled by back pain. We were up the night before at a Strake Jesuit shooting Cy-Creek's Marching band. I couldn't believe the energy she possessed.
Greg is on location today, recording a flute choir, while I am at Williams Trace engineering live sound. There seems to be plenty of work to do for the studio. It will no be long until our recording empire is truly established and Houston is taken over by West Side Recording Studio!

2006-10-26T09:06:00.000-06:00

Now Available on Blu-ray Disc!

West Side is proud to announce that all future video releases will available in High Definition Blu-ray disc! Wednsday October 25, 2006 was when we burned our first test BD (Blu-ray disc) on a $29.00 BD-RE (a rewritable format) I was not ready to test burn a single use $20.00 disc. Kinda funny how a BD-RE cost about as much as 100 Taiyo Yuden CD-R's.

If you have never heard of this format, you are not alone. Most techno geeks like us at West Side , especially me, are always trying to be on the cutting edge of "what's new." Let me explain that first of all this format holds about 5 times as much data as DVD! It currently holds 25 gigabytes per layer. There are dual layer discs that hold 50 gb, but I read that the Toshiba corporation has developed a 200gb blu ray disc!!!. That is very promising! The most popular application for this format will be High Definition movies and archived TV shows.

"Available in HD" is now part of West Side's vocabulary! The next step is getting our production van or trailer with live HD switching and production so that the end of the day, it is done and we are on to the next big shoot!

2006-10-24T08:07:00.000-06:00

Meet Kirk Franklin

Last Friday, October 20, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting one of gospel music's superstars, Kirk Franklin. I was at Williams Trace Baptist Church engineering a wedding rehearsal when I saw a guy looking like a superhero with muscles bulging from his shirt and perfect posture walk up to the Steinway and play a few notes. I didn't know that it was Kirk Franklin. Later, I approached the sax player and singer asking for the recessional CD and Kirk was standing there. He heard my question and quickly realized that he had forgotten the recessional CD. He said maybe they could go to the store and buy it. I didn't realize that he was talking about going to Walmart and buying it, because I found out later that he was getting distribution through Walmart! He asked me if he got the song emailed to me, if I could burn a copy. I said of course. Luckily I had my Macbook and was connected wirelessly to the WTBC network. He called his buddy, I assumed it was his producer/engineer, and asked him for a big favor and asked him to email the instrumental mix to me. Kirk told his friend, "I am going to put you on the phone with someone as smart as you so you guys can firgure it out." Kirk handed me his phone (Treo with Fo Yo Soul as a screen saver) and I talked to his producer, gave him my email. Over an hour later, I did not get it. I then let Kirk know. He called his friend back and then I gave his friend, Grant, my other email address. I was successful with the second email address! I sat on the pew and Kirk sat next to me and wathced as I prepared the CD. The groom was very excited as he stood by. The groom wanted his buddies to listen to the groove and I played it for them. Turns out that Kirk was the one who was marrying the couple and did not sing. They were all related and it was all family.

People who know about Kirk Franklin were excited to hear that I met him. Totally cool. I checked out his website and was really impressed! His music video was very well made and used some really expensive movie cameras! Totally cool!

Check out Kirk Franklin at www.kirkfranklin.us

2006-10-19T14:54:00.000-06:00

Blake Zabrek releases his first CD at the age of 12! Recorded and produced by Tan Truong at West Side Recording Studio. The CD is now availble and the purpose is "to raise money and awarness for Cystic Fibrosis, a life threatening disease that affects thousands of children and young adults".

Go ahead, click on the image above and transport yourself into Blake's world and see how you can do your part to help out!

2006-10-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

The Angelis Harp Ensemble

Sunday, October 15, we were shooting at the Unitarian Church down Fanin. The Angelis Harp Ensemble was a really neat thing to do. Bonnie Goodrich, their teacher, put us up to this challenge. She has seen our work in the past and that is why she hired us to do the video. It's all about reputation

The crew consisted of 4 camera men. Travis, John, Spencer, and me. We used 3 Sony HD cameras and one SD Panasonic DVC200P. The Sony camera's we used were all different but all HDV. We used the Z1U, FX1, and HC1. The FX1 was mounted on the camera crane with about 75lbs of counterwieght and operated by Travis. I had a 20" LCD monitor for the Z1u that allowed me to and everyone else to see John's angle. Travis and I used DVD players with external video input to see our camera footage. I used arm mounted focus and zoom on the Panasonic so the monitor was a necessity. I will not use it any other way!

We intend to deliver the footage in DVD and Blu Ray, but it will be an expensive venture into Blu Ray. I used KM83 mics, Canare cable, Yamaha 01v board and the new Tascam CDRW-900 recorder for audio. About $15,000 in equipment was used to capture the audio and video. That dollar amount does not come close to the price of one Concert Grand Harp, which starts at $20,000 and up.

The girls were beautiful and graceful as they played these magnificent instruments. The high definition video should be a treat to watch! I am nearly finished with the cuts in AVID. John and Spencer will complete the HD version on Final Cut. Can't wait to see what comes of it.

I attempted to sync the frames with a camera flash but the cameras were not all rolling when I did it. I synced off of the first bass note they played and watched one of the harp player's hands which was visible in every camera angle.

The DVD's are available for $35 and CD's for $10. The Blu Ray Disc will be $60.00
Over time that price should come down.

Did I mention that it was a blast!

2006-10-16T19:31:00.001-06:00

Travis is on the scene!
West Side Recording Studio proudly announces the addition of a fine producer, engineer, and long time friend, Travis Boyette. This incredible addition of talent, and skills have been invaluable in the past and is certainly now a power move to boost the studio's potential as a dominant force in the full service audio/video studio market. Travis will be a key engineer in studio and on location in all events in the the future. Gimme a beat! Gimme a beat! Travis is in the Hizzouse!

2006-10-15T07:43:00.000-06:00

Messiah Studio Sessions

The gospel group, Messiah, came into the studio yesterday for an 8 hour session. It was the 3rd studio for the group to go for this album. Their last attempt ended up being a bad situation were they ended up not getting what they paid for. The engineer was unwilling to EQ and mix the way they wanted. So they walked away with nothing, Kathy Williams, the founder/songwriter/producer, arrived first with her Roland XP-80 keyboard anmd we spent 4 hours loading the songs track by track into Pro-Tools. We put the keyboard into slave mode and turned on the midi beat clock on Pro-tools. I also wired the midi out of the Roland into the midi interface so that I could track the midi as well, just in case we want to go back and re-record any of the instrument tracks with other sounds.

The XP-80 has only L and R outputs so I routed them into the Avalon 737's instrument inputs on the front of the units. I previewed each instrument before tracking them and adjusted the eq of the Avalons to make each instrument sound just right. For example, the organ sound was a bit cold so I boosted the low mids around the 200hz range. I also gave it a 10khz boost and upper mid boost as well. The EQ on the the Avalons were so smooth, I felt like I could do no wrong. The group members commented on the crisp sound they heard. There was plenty of warmth as well. I feel like I owe a lot of that to the signal path.

The signal path was:
XP-80 to Avalon 737's to MX2424 to TDIF/Adat converter to ADAT Bridge to Pro-Tools. I used mogami, canare, monster, and fiber optic cabling in this signal path.

The vocals were next. The women sang individually into the M147 tube mic. I used the Sytek mic pre with Burr Brown op amps, DBX 166a compressor, Avalon 737, Apogee Rosetta A/D converter and into Pro-Tools.

The men sang into the Mouse by BLUE with a similar signal path as the womens.

Kathy sang tracks in Baritone, tenor, and alto as a model for the other singers in the group. It really helped the group to track faster and we doubled every thing they did and I panned the doubled tracks left and right so that the vocals sounded more stereo.

The entire session was a great experience and they left with a rough mix of one song. Positive sentiments were expressed as they left the studio and planned on coming back every Saturday they can in the next month.

2006-10-13T07:27:00.000-06:00

Cy-Falls HS Orchestra Recording Video and Audio
Edeline and I recently recorded the Falls orchestra concert on Wed. 10-11-06. Edeline was right in there again and remembered exactly what to do. She confidently engineered the audio while I handled the camera crane. The LCD monitor on the crane wasn't fully charged so I just plugged it into the power supply. Mounted on the crane is a Sony FX1 high definition camcorder. The crane has the wiring built into the cord that winds around the pole to connect the video and remote controls at the other end. The cord also houses a hydraulic line that actuates the piston that controls the pitch of the head. I got some great shots with this setup but the lighting was really dim and the colors were a bit dark and that means color correction in post production. The lights even flickered randomly so it was a bit distracting. I am not looking forward to the extra work.
The vintage Neumann KM83 mics were spaced pair and ran into the 01v console and into the Marantz and Tascam recorders. Edeline was very helpful and I don't see how I could have recorded it all without her help!

2006-10-10T23:03:00.000-06:00

The Return of Edeline

After 2 years in absence, Edeline has returned to the West Side Recording Team and this time, she means business! Edeline, is back in action as studio assistant. What is a "Studio Assistant"? At West Side Recording, that job description means several things including CD/DVD graphic designer, assistant engineer, CD/DVD manufacturing, invoicing, garbage duty, errand runner, coffee girl, etc. With so much prior experience, she is a natural choice for assistant, plus I do not have to train her from scratch and wonder what she will forget next.

Please welcome the official studio assistant of West Side Recording Studio, Edeline G.

Applause

2006-09-19T23:37:00.000-06:00

Mixing and Matching
I started to mix the recording we did with Marianne's group. The plan was to submix the drums into an aux track and plug-in a compressor on that channel to help control the overall dynamics of the drums. I used the Rennaisance compressor plug-in for the drum tracks and the Focusrite compressor plug-in for the Aux master Drum track. I set them to a fairly quick attack and about a 4:1 compression ratio. I set the threshhold around -16db. on the individual tracks and eq'd the High Hat and overheads with a bass roll-off so that only the higher frequencies were shining through. I used more subtractive eq than additive. The hihat is the only place where I felt like additive eq was necessary. After panning the drumset channels to create a stereo mix, I added reverb to the snare. I used Lexiverb for the reverb plugin on Aux 5-6. I opened a snare reverb that sounded pretty good. The drums were near perfect. I didn't gate anything and it sounded very clean and punchy. It was definitely groovin.

The sax sounded almost too dull in the mix since it was competing with the other sounds to define itself in the mix. I boosted the upper mid about 3.4khz to brighten it up and then brought it down in the mix so that it would not compete with, but compliment the vocals.
The keyboard was a bit pronounced in the lower frequencies and it sounded too thick, so I carved a bit out of the lower midbass frequencies so it sat in the mix just fine.

The bass guitar had a nice mid range tonality and deep throated subsonics that sounded great. I slightly compressed it to control the dynamics and ended up carving out the lower midbass frequencies around 200hz. It just sounded like a little too much bass so I had to do it. I gave the mids a slight boost but nothing too drastic. The bass line was very prominent after the adjustemts but was more in the mix than dominating the mix.

The vocals were ok but I felt like the Pro Tools internal mixing engine was smearing the sounds a bit too much. Besides, I have to retrack the vocals in some areas with Marianne later. I experimented with the DBX Quantum on different settings to compare different mixing modes. I found a really cool telephone effect that will work well with the intro of a song and then can morph into the full sounding version a bit later in the song. I run it by them to let them choose. In either case, I will most likely create a two track stereo mix of the intrumentals, like a karaoke track, and layer vocals on top of that. I find that to be a great sounding alternative to mixing it all down in one pass, but it can be a subjective process. I was even considering mixing it down in the analog realm while letting Pro-Tools do the processing with all the cool plug-ins that it possesses.

I might be getting obsessed! It does sound pretty darn good so far. Pictures coming soon!

Recording a band, making connections

2006-09-14T15:49:00.000-06:00

I have a recording session in a couple of hours with a cool group, but I am not sure what the name of the band is. I just know that they are pretty cool and Marianne is the lead singer. The group consists of a lead singer(Marianne), sax player (Matthew), bass player, keyboard player, and drummer. They all seem to carry camera phones and took pictures and videos of every cool, which is everything in the studio! They all played fairly well, but the bass player had problems playing the right notes. Not a good move when you are in a recording session and you do not want to waste time. Since time is money in the recording biz.

Today's goal is to record the doubles, fix the bass, and retrack a song. Hopefully it won't take too long. I put a lot of thought into the recording path...

The Drum Kit was run through an 8 channel snake, into the Alesis studio 32 preamps, direct out into 8 channels of ADAT XT for conversion and into Pro-Tools via ADAT lightpipe.
Channel 1 - Kick - AKGD112 on a removed resonator head - Canare cable and an Earthworks inline kickdrum module.
Channel 2 - Snare - Shure SM57 off center 2" off the head - BLUE Kiwi cable.
Channel 3 - Tom 1 - Shure SM81 about 2" in from the rim -10att pad - BLUE Kiwi cable.
Channel 4 - Tom 2 - Shure SM81 about 2" in from the rim -10att pad - BLUE Kiwi cable.
Channel 5 - Tom 3 - AT4050 cardioid about 2" in from the rim -10 att pad - BLUE Kiwi cable.
Channel 6 - Hi-Hat - AKG SE3000B-CK91 bass roll off filter - Canare cable.
Channel 7 - Left Over Head Cymbals - Neumann KM140 -10att pad - Canare cable.
Channel 8 - Right Over Head Cymbals - Neumann KM140 -10att pad - Canare cable.

Channel 9 - Vocals - Nuemann M147 tube - Sytek MPX-4A channel 1
(Burr Brown op amps) canare to DBX 166A (for sweetening bypassed compression ) canare to Avalon 737 for more sweetening some slight EQ (roll off lows) some slight tube compression and mogami into the ADAT for conversion, then lightpipe into Protools.
Channel 10 - Sax - BLUE "Mouse" - Sytek MPX-4A channel 2 (Burr Brown op amps) Mogami cable
Channel 11 - Keyboard L - Rolls Matchbox DI box - Canare to Sytek Pre 3 - to ADAT
Channel 12 - Keyboard R - Rolls Matchbox DI box - Canare to Sytek Pre 4 - to ADAT
Channel 13 - Bass guitar - DI to Avalon instrument input to ADAT.

I tracked the drums in a separate acoustically treated room for isolation and a clean sound. I had the keyboard and Sax in the live room with a carpet laid out for some acoustic dampening but a dry sound was not the desired effect. The bass guitar of course ran directly in the studio control room where Marianne sange scratch vocals into a RE-1000 Electrovoice mic. After doing solid takes on the songs, Marianne went into the booth to lay the vocals down on the tube mic. Time to work on the mix a bit before they come into the studio. I am going to submix the drums into an Aux so I can run another layer of compression. I'll keep you posted on how the mix turns out. So far it sounds great and I haven't really touched any EQ!