MRT: Christa Levko

This studio observation was also done with Dan Klinger in Studio B late this past Thursday night. We helped him set up for and record a band. Since it was just Dan there and a few other people observing it was really a hands on expirience.
We were able to help set up mic stands and microphones and Dan explained to us how to wire the inputs and outputs on the board. It was really interesting [I feel like I'm over-using this word, but I can't help!] to watch Dan record and to explain what he was doing the entire time.
I realize that these studio observation write ups are shorter than the ones I did previous… I’m not sure why [maybe because it slipped my mine to do the actual write-ups till now] but I feel like I just keep saying the same things over and over again… “It was so interesting watching / doing….” And, while that’s the truth it’s just starting to get boring saying it. I love going into the studios and watching people because I learn from seeing things and I’m gonna continue to do it.

My thrid studio observation was done about a week ago with Brad Snyder and Dan Klinger in Studio B. Jonathan and I watched them mic one of their friends that was playing guitar. Their assigment was to just test out using different mics in different places on the acoustic guitar that their friend was playing.
It was really interesting to help them set up the different microphones and hear the different results. I can imagine that once we get in there to do the same thing it’ll be more fun and interesting because we’re seeing the results of things we’re more knowladgable about.

So, I’m just gonna use this blog for musical talkings =D
I have another Studio Observation to post about, but I’ll do that later today…

Yesterday was the first Symphony Orchstra concert here at LVC - it was really exciting. One of the peices we played was Mozart’s Requiem which was just… epic.

In private lessons I’m working on a Bach peice that I actually really like… I’m starting to like practicing too… cause I finally realize that not all effort leads to failure. That seems like common logic, but it’s never been something that I’ve took to heart.

And finally, piano. I’m working on a handful of things, but I suppose the major peice that I’m working on now is Longing. There’s only one part of the arrangement that I’m playing that I just don’t like at all… it’s over simplified in the melody… whereas the rest of the peice isn’t really simplified at all - it doesn’t make sense to me to all of a sudden simplify it. So, I took out my score book and learned the original melody ^_^

Tonight me and a handful of other people observed Shanon Striefeneder master a track called “Guitarboi” for a midterm project. It was a fun track that seemed to grow on everyone that was listening as the time went on.

Shanon started out by telling us that she wanted to increase the volume of the drums. She tried doubling the track to increase it but that messed with more of the other parts. She told us to follow the general rule of if it fixes one thing but messes with a bunch of other things just don’t do it. That’s logical. She didn’t like the way that sounded so she decided to move the file into WaveBurner.

We had some trouble switching the files. A phone call had to be made and it was decided that the file type had to be changed to a .wav file. Once that was figured out and the file was moved from ProTools to WaveBurner there was some problems with getting sound to come out of the speakers. There was much group discussion and a lot of exploring the program to figure out what the problem was.

Eventually we found out that one of the settings was mixed up in the Apple settings and after that was changed the right option came up in the setting in WaveBurner that Shanon was trying to change previously.

After adding a fade to the end of the track so that it didn’t cut off so abrubtly and not being able to change the drums so that she liked it she ended the session about an hour later.

I thought that mastering was really interesting - I can see myself sitting there for a really long time messing with things. All of this is really exciting and I can’t wait to do more of it.

This afternoon Jonathan and I observed Jon Blass, Andy Mowatt, and Mike Kudrak as they recorded a band, “Dirk Quinn Band”, - a jazz fusion band from Philly. They were really nice guys who definatly knew what they were doing in the studio. They worked very well together and had a great chemistry between them.

Watching the uperclassmen do thier work I realized a lot of things that I never really thought about before. One was that they were recording continuously. I never thought about things like that before but it makes sense that they would record the whole sesion and then go back and take out what was good and what they wanted to keep. I also realized that they could change the way things sounded to them without affecting the recording - much like the sound board at WLVC works like.

All these things make sense now that I’m thinking about them but they were all things that I never really… thought to think about before now. I guess, that’s the point of these observations though - to observe things that we normally wouldn’t and to get us thinking.

The three engineers also discussed how they were going to master the track. Becuase it was a group porject they weren’t sure if they would do it together, in parts, or what. It seemed like the most complicated part of the process. A few things they were saying sort of “when over my head” so to say. They tried explaining to Jon and I how things went in and came out of the board and while I sort of followed what he was saying at the same time I didn’t really get everything.

After the fact I really regret not going in and starting to do this earlier - it’s really awesome! I’m the type of person that learns by seeing things [either written or in person] and it’s really great to see this in action. I really hope to do more soon becuase it seems really beneficial.

Hey - so this isn’t the first blog I’ve ever had… I also have one here.. a bunch of my entries are friends-locked though

My computer had a virus over the weekend [:P I opened one of those e-mail's that you're not supposed to... oops] and I managed to uninstal the program that it was but it deleted my IP address and all the good stuff so I can’t hook up to the internet >_<
I’m at the computer lab in Mund now…