Timeline

This week has been pretty good, finished the tracking on the ‘Idle Mans Band’ session, which went really well. I start mixing on Monday and should have it confirmed by the band the following week; to be sent off to mastering.

In other news, History of the Hawk have signed a digital release contract with In at the Deep End Records, as well as their vinyl deal with Speedowax, so massive congratulations to them, once again!

I am just finishing up the pre-production for the up coming Inertia Blooms album, a project in which I am Engineering and Co-Producing with the band. We demo’d the tracks about a month a go and have a better idea of the aim of the record, and should begin recording within the next month!

As always drop me an email if you are interested in involving me on a project..I’m always interested in new work prospects =).

Joe

So, one of the acts I’ve had the pleasure of working with have been signed to Speedowax Records!! I was one of the tracking engineers for the project and it was mixed and mastered by the band, aiming for a DIY edge. Hopefully getting them back into the studio ASAP to get crackin’ on some more material.

http://www.punknews.org/article/44075

Vinyl release TBC (and I’m definitely picking up a copy =P)

Had a pre-production meeting with the band this week, and we are on a tight schedule! The drummer is a session musician, he has been called upon for a European tour with a well known band, so we have to start very soon.

Studio time is booked in two weeks, and I can’t wait. Good group of guys and are very passionate about what they do.

About a week ago I had the pleasure of working with a group of real talented guys from Stourbridge. They came into the studio after a quick recording to create a demo EP to throw at their fans during gigs.

The drums went down without any problems, followed by a DI’d bass, mic’d Hughes and Kettner amp for guitars and a korg synth, the vocals and backing vocals were laid down; All between 9am and 6pm. The tracks were then mixed down the following day, with a brief mastering session after.

Other than losing the snare somewhere along (probably excessive reverb) I’m happy with the result, considering the quick turnaround we achieved; however I would jump at the chance to keep them in the studio for a few days to get the best takes from them. I’d like to work on their guitar sound, maybe try a tube amp to get the warmth at source…

http://vagueprocess.bandcamp.com/album/vague-process-ep

Credits:

Recording, Mix and Master Engineer, on -

Lonely, Because

Black Fang

Opaque

Empty Thought

The EP Flag & Marker from Drop the Ball has just finished its final mastering stage and is now all over the net. It was recorded and mixed by Chris Traverse (Owner/Engineer @ Temple of Boom & Bassist of Inertia Blooms) and myself at the Temple of Boom in Amblecote.

It was mastered by David Mitson of Mitsonian Institute Mastering.

Check it out =)

http://droptheball.bandcamp.com/album/flag-marker

So I have started working with an animator to help create a 50′s style infomercial parody for a festival.

As it is a 2D drawn animation, the animator needed all voice over and Diegetic sound created and timed even before pen hit paper. This was a different way in which I’m used to working with sound to image, but it was cool to work this way round!! Put a nice spin on things.

Once this was done I began trying to find some music, in the PD..but to no avail! So I decided to compose some. The result is below!! Think of those early TV informative public broadcasts, I think I managed to capture it!

More details of the animation itself to follow =)

So it’s been a while since my last post, so I felt obliged to give a quick update on what I’m up to!

In among other things, mostly the album, I’ve been working on EP’s with:

Drop the Ball

History of the Hawk

Colonies

All of which are destined for release/free download. I have varied credits on each recording, and I am yet to find out whether I will be working on the final mixes of them, but they were all tasty projects none the less!

However the main project that has been eating most of my time has been the Inertia Blooms album Described by the band as their “enviropocolpyse album” boasting titles such as “somethingsomething moscow” and “jamaicanabigmistake” (the latter probably will get renamed but heres to hoping right?!) it moves effortlessly from frantically rhythmic bass-lines to staggeringly well orchestrated guitar solos and loops; I mean, even the bassist uses a whammy/octave pedal..?! So far I have worked on demoing the drums to force the band to create protools templates for their songs, as they have variable time signatures and tempos in every track, and have began to track the bass. The beauty of this particular session is that the studio, Temple of Boom is actually owned by the band, meaning time is no cost. However it is imperative that this does not work against us to create another Chinese Democracy!!! I am really enjoying the challenge and the results are slowly coming together, following its completion it is headed off to a well respected studio in London to be mastered for release by a known-label for future release…and I for one am excited!!

the lights in the control room blew that day..but the show must go on..right?!