Don’t take that tone with me

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.

David was back in recording the CD examples for the Christopher Parkening Method books, so I snapped a couple pictures.  You can see the micing technique we used for the Legacy CD here.

(Also note the fancy cardboard box we used as a music stand!)

I got back from a great trip to Austin.  Everytime I work with Bobby Bookout I am impressed with his songwriting.  This is going to be a phenomenal album.

I start recording the metal band This Soul Divided Friday.  We had a preproduction rehearsal tonight and I dig where they’re going.  I’ve wanted to record a metal project for a long time and these guys are great.

Ben (my chief engineer) has been working with some amazing hip hop clients. I really dig ABC…  Check ‘em out.

I’m down in Austin this week producing for Bobby Bookout.  I’m having a great time making music (even finger picked on a track called One Drunk Kiss), and Bobby’s record is going to be amazing.  But yesterday I realized on an even deeper level how valuable it is to have a great staff around you.

I had a jingle due this week.  We got the music bed put together before I left and my chief engineer, Ben Mercado, was set up to run the voice-over session.  I had a couple of my best vocal talent set up to handle it for me.  They record it.  I approve it.  And I send it to the client.

I’m sure any of you business owners can relate to the next part of this:  the client hated it.  They liked the track, but we did a 30s gangster treatment on the vocals.  I thought it was great.  But the client didn’t.  Not a problem.  Except that I’m 500 miles away. So I call Ben and the talent.  And it gets remade in 3 hours and is back to the client.  And approved.  Hurray!  I am fortunate to have an exceptional group of people around me who truly care.  And it’s my mission to take care of those people.  After all, they take care of me.

PS-  On the design front, FarisWheel is currently building Noblefence.com,  and I’m doing an album cover for Richard Smith.  Oh, and we’re redesigning our woefully outdated fariswheel site.  More later.

I’ve had a ton of people ask me about interning at my recording studio, The Amusement Park.  Here’s what we’ve worked out: All internships are determined by the recording faculty at South Plains College (in Levelland, TX) with final approval by me.  If interested, a student needs to talk to Dolf Guardiola, Chris Neal, or Stuart Moody.  If approved by them, the student signs up for the internship class.  College credit is provided for the work, which is a comittment of about 12 hours per week for the semester. This semester’s intern has already been chosen.  Kyle Jacobs  is a super cool cat who has already helped on 2 sessions at the studio.  We’re excited to have Kyle on board and super proud of our relationship with South Plains College.  It’s one of the best music/sound/digital media schools in the country.  For more info about the internship program, contact Dolf Guardiola at (806) 894-9611.  For  more info about the school, contact Cary Banks at the same number, ext. 2280.

David Brandon was back in the studio the other day to begin recording guitar tracks for the Christopher Parkening Method Books (book 1 & 2 published by Hal Leonard), so I figured it was finally time to get back and finish my thoughts on recording classical guitar.  

 After discovering a mic position we both loved, we still were getting too much nail sound.  David is an impeccable player, but even a player with stellar technique squeaks and clicks a little.  Classical guitar, traditionally, is meant to be warm and round with no nail clicks or extraneous noise.

To solve the problem, we moved some of my bass traps around.  The traps have a 15-inch external diameter and a 12-in internal.  They are hollow and sealed on both ends.  I placed one in front of each microphone so the pickup pattern went just through the curve of the trap (see the diagram).

As the sound of the guitar hit the edge of the material, some of the high frequency energy was absorbed.  The lows and mids came through beautifully. Viola, instant warmth without the clicks or squeaks!

The album is available on iTunes and Cdbaby.

I can’t believe I haven’t touched this in so long. I have a tendency to get too busy and lose track of time. So here’s an update on what I’ve done since my last post on Sep. 1.

Web Design
Shane Shepherd, my partner in the web design firm FarisWheel Productions, and I launched a major website rebuild for WestMark Realtors™ and their sister site Pat Ham Realtors™ in our hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Their original site design was very dated and didn’t function properly. We updated the graphics, navigation and developed a database application that searches over 50,000 properties. It was a huge amount of work and a really rewarding project. These are before and after screen shots of both sites.

I also built an initial .psd design for the Apostolic Orthodox Catholic Church, Western Rite. It was extremely well received and the site is currently under development.

I’m in process for another site, as well. Juanita Ulloa is a phenomenal singer whom the Hispanic press has called “The High Priestess of Operachi.” A unique stylist, she blends Mariachi and Opera in a stunning fashion. You can check out her current site, and here’s a shot of where I’m headed on it.

In some old web design news, Shane and I also built a new site for country music legend Johnny Lee. You might remember Johnny from the ’70s movie “Urban Cowboy” and for the hit he sang, “Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places.” We did a cool knob-turning effect with Johnny’s favorite amp, a Music Man, for the navigation. Check it out: JohnnyLeeFanclub.com.

Producing, Recording & Album Covers
Les Eason and the Steen Regime
At the Amusement Park Studio, I finished mixing Les Eason’s debut release, New World. We’re super happy with the record. Les is an great songwriter. If he plays in a town near you, don’t miss him. He’s got a great sense of melody and some really infectious songs. You can here them on his myspace page. Listen now! The CD was mastered by Jim Wilson at Airshow Mastering.

I also am finishing up Les’s album cover. I’m finishing the text layout tonight so we can press it. Here are some proofs (without text).

Bobby Bookout
I’ve been working with singer/songwriter Bobby Bookout on his debut disc. We’re working with Travis and Paul, owners of the Slanted Shack Studio in Austin, TX. I’ve spent several months (with me ferrying back and forth from Lubbock to Austin) in pre-production with Bobby, and he is so talented. He works until the song is right. He doesn’t give up on a line, and I’ve never heard him say, “Aww, that’s good enough.” His caring level about his art form is off the chart, and that thrills me. I got back from Austin last week where I got to track a couple of my fav guitarists: Keenan LeVick and Cale Richardson. The tracks sound stunning. Great songs, great players, great tones. Man, pinch me. I’m having fun! I’ll be posting some rough tracks in the future. Cale will be tracking more guitar and Hammond organ with me at the Amusement Park next, as the band he plays with (Ryan James) will be a guest artist on Thursday Night Live at South Plains College.

No Fences and some final thoughts
Finally, Ben and I tracked a quick demo for local Texas country band No Fences. They are super nice guys. A cool thing happened on this project. They came in, and in a week, we handed them a five-song demo (including 200 units… I now own a duplicator). Back when I was full-time at the college, I couldn’t do that. My schedule was too full to work on projects like that. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have gotten to do any of this if I hadn’t jumped off the cliff.

Thanks to everyone for supporting me in my leap of faith. Special thanks to all my friends out there who have and are praying for me and my family during this transition. I feel it, and it brings me closer. Next blog, I’ll finish with the David Brandon sessions… and I have a big announcement as well. Until then!

Time to get back to David Brandon’s CD, Legacy. When David called me to record him, it was a massive honor. Here is one of the greatest living classical guitarists and a mentor of mine entrusting me with documenting his life’s work. It was a great opportunity… and a little daunting. David is known for his incredible tone. Afterall, he was a student of Andrés Segovia and Christopher Parkening. He knows what he wants to hear and has impeccable taste.

We started the project by listening and analyzing many of Parkening’s great recordings. Most classical guitar is recorded from a distance. The tone is round and warm, and the distance from the mics minimizes nail clicks and squeaks. But it also increases the noise floor. David wanted to capture the depth of a Parkening recording, but he wanted to develop his own sound. He was looking for something intimate. Something immediate and close but rich and human feeling.

We wanted to record with a little bit of space. Afterall, you normally wouldn’t mic a nylon string the way you would a steel string (the old 1 mic on the sound hole, one on the 12th fret is out). Close micing magnifies all the things classical guitarists hate: nail clicks and string squeaks.

So here’s our solution:

My “large” room isn’t that big. We’re talking about 10’ x 13’. We’ve got a 9’ ceiling. The room is treated well and sounds really balanced. We’ve used broadband absorption and diffusion, with a special emphasis on the ceiling.

I placed David at the back of the room facing length-wise. I made sure to get a bench for him to sit on that was the perfect height for him… and that wouldn’t squeak or make odd noises!

I wanted to kill the reflections of sound from the wall behind him. Eliminating that would help with a lot of phase issues. So I used a series of bass traps I own (custom made by Ryan Dixon, a fellow engineer and studio owner) in a semi-circle behind him (see the diagram below).

We spent 12 hours (yes 12) testing mics, preamps and positions. We tried a pair of vintage U87s, a pair of Peluso P12s, a pair of KM81s, and pair of Scheops MK4s, along with a few other pairs. We tried MS, XY, and numerous other techniques. All of the mics sounded good, but the Scheops took the cake. I borrowed the pair from a friend, Matt Quick, who is the director of the Live Sound Program at South Plains College. The MK4s were extremely transparent. The frequency range was balanced from top to bottom. What an amazing pair of mics. I have to own a pair.

As far as preamps, we tested a stereo pair of Amek 9098s, an API A2D, and a Hamptone tube unit. The API was the clear winner for this application. It’s got a tight low end and beautiful top and matched with the MK4s perfectly.

Before the session, I did my homework and researched classical recording techniques. I tried every one of the textbook approaches. We’d find elements of what we were looking for in each position we tried, but we were still missing the magic. So I finally decided to do what my gut told me: walk around the room and listen for sweet spots!

That’s my first approach when recording a more pop-oriented project. I found 2 spots at the front of the room (about 8 ft. apart, 5 ft. above the floor) that sounded beautiful. So I put the mics there. Viola! Richness, texture and magic!

But we’re not finished, yet. Next time, I’ll share the “secret” David and I discovered about minimizing nail clicks and string squeaks. Until then…