Don’t take that tone with me

Once in a while you find yourself without a necessary tool and you have to improvise. Many of you seasoned engineers are going to laugh at this one… because you’ve done it, too! I’m talking about none other than the pantyhose pop filter!

Amy and I were demoing a song real quickly tonight so we can give it to a drummer. Amy recorded the piano part and then we needed to lay down a scratch vocal. The studio is booked tonight, so we decided to record at the house. I had an Oktava mk219 laying around (which is great on female vox, by the way) and my modded digi002.

When I left the studio I forgot to grab a pop filter. So I had to remember back to the days when I didn’t even own one (and couldn’t afford one!). We made them. Pantyhose and a coat hanger is the trick!

1. Take the leg of the pantyhose and place the coat hanger inside it.

2. Stretch the hose all the way over the entire hanger.

3. Wrap the rest of the hose around the stem of the hanger and insert it in a separate mic clip.

4. There ya go… a pop filter for next to nothing. And it works every bit as well as an expensive one.

By the way, it’s seems to be a good rule of thumb to place the pop filter about 3 inches from the mic. That way the diversion of air has room to disperse away from the mic.

I recently completed a site for Mike Christiansen (mikechristiansen.com). Mike is the head of the Utah State Guitar Program, an amazing player, and a really cool cat. Featured on his new site is a book Mike developed called “My First Guitar Book.” It’s the most innovative teaching book I’ve ever seen for young children. It utilizes a unique color-coded system to help young children make connections between notes and strings.

Because of my long history in guitar education and with the instrument, Mike hired me to lay the book out. It was a challenge, as it it needed to be very clear and easy to read for children. I’m really proud of it and, more importantly, so is Mike!

mikechristiansen.com - developed by FarisWheel Productions

Another milestone for the Amusement Park Studio: I was hired to record all the classical guitar pieces for the Christopher Parkening Method Books, Vol.1 & 2 (Hal Leonard Publishing). David Brandon performed all the pieces and I captured them in Pro Tools.

Chris and David were so pleased with the sound I captured on David’s “Legacy” CD, that they asked me to do the project. I used a stereo matched pair of Schoeps MK4s into an API A2D directly into Pro Tools at 24/96. I mixed it using a few plugins - very subtle eq and compression mainly to handle a peak in David’s Ramirez guitar that centers around A 440 and its related harmonics (his guitar is really prominent in A) along with a couple instances of Altiverb, then summed it out through my Amek console into a TLA semi-parametric tube EQ. We then went back into the A2D analog-to-digital converter into a Masterlink at 24/96. The first CD has a total of 99 tracks!

David felt so strongly about my work that he had it put in the contract that my name had to be printed in every book and on every CD as the recording engineer. Kinda cool.

I was the stage manager for Lubbock’s Centennial concert Saturday night. It was a pleasure to work with Mac Davis, Joe Ely, David Gashen, Ralna English, Donnie Allison and a ton of other great artists… Not to mention I was super proud to watch my wife Amy play keyboards with them. I even got to play another practical joke on Mac… this time on stage.

It was a really long and grueling day (18 hours non-stop) of behind the scenes work. Once in a while, in the middle of those kinds of events, something happens that just makes everything worthwhile.

One of my jobs is to make sure everyone knows where they need to be and that they have everything they need. I guess Ralna took a liking to me because, as I handed her the microphone for her last song, she said, “You are just wonderful!” And then she planted one on my cheek.

It was a really sweet moment. And I wore that red lipstick on my cheek with pride.

Amy and I took our daughter to Ft. Worth this weekend to acquire point shoes (my daughter is a budding ballerina). We had a grand time, and I came away with a new prized possession: another wedding ring.
A brief history: I handmade Amy’s engagement ring. Then we had her grandfather (quite a hobbyist jeweller in his day) make us matching rings. Mine was, unfortunately, stolen out of a hotel room when we were on the road with 100 Love Sonnets.
Amy bought me a ring soon after that I dearly love. And I still have it. But we went to the Modern Art Museum in Ft. Worth and we found another one. So now I have two!

My second wedding ring, purchased after my first was stolen from a hotel room in Abilene, TX.

My new wedding ring from the Modern Art Museum in Ft. Worth.

We’ve been busy in the FarisWheel camp, lately! Here’s a quick run down of what we’ve been working on:

FarisWheel Productions - Graphic Design
I just finished a website for national singing sensation “The Cactus Cuties.” If you haven’t heard these girls’ rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, you are seriously missing out! The’ve gotten over 5 million hits on YouTube in 3 months!

I also just completed an album cover for Texas Country veterans, Honeybrowne. Fred Andrews, the band leader, songwriter, and singer, is a great cat to work with.

At the Amusement Park Studio
I’ve created a new track for Bobby Bookout that is a rendition of an old Frank Sinatra tune. I can’t wait to debut it… we’ve twisted and mutated it like only the Amusement Park can do!

I’m finishing up mixing The Archers. They are a screamo band based in Lubbock. I really dig these cats. Check ‘em out!

We’re also finishing vocals for the up-coming This Soul Divided EP. The tracks sound great and I can’t wait to start mixing them!

And, last but not least, we found a few spare moments to mix a tune by Amy and Scott called “I Forgot.” Those of you who know our past, the song is a continuation of the 100 Love Sonnets spirit. Look for a new musical project soon!

Visual Art

I had the pleasure of being included in a gallery exhibit of musicians who are also visual artists at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, TX. I have two sculptures (Bite and Brian No. 3) and four photographs in the exhibit. Ben Mercado, the Chief Engineer at the Amusement Park Studio, also displayed his photography and painting. The show will be up for a month.

There’s an old quote that says, “A plumber always has leaky pipes.” That’s because they work so hard fixing other people’s problems that they never have time to work around their own home. Well somehow in between producing websites, album covers, music and graphics for countless others, we’ve finally upgraded our own pipes. FarisWheel.com is reborn! Please check it out and let us know what you think.

I’m at the SXSW Interactive Festival right now soaking up the good vibes. Just heard a talk by Josh Grober (Daring Fireball) and Michael Lopp (Apple). Inspiring!