Recording and Mixing

Published by Brance on July 18th, 2006
Filed under Studio News

I’ve been working hard and haven’t had a lot of time to post to the site. Here’s a couple projects that I’ve worked on in the last couple months.

I mixed an a cappella CD for a group that call themselves Streets of Gold.

I recorded and mixed a bluegrass CD for a group from Giles County, Virginia. The group is known as Gold Rush.

Neither of these groups have websites that I know of.

I’ve also been busy working on a super secret project that I can’t disclose just yet. It will be announced soon though.

Ross Nickerson Instructional DVDs

Published by Brance on February 28th, 2006
Filed under Studio News

I was busy in the studio all last week working on 2 new DVDs and some pay-per-download banjo instructional clips with Ross Nickerson.

Ross travels all over the world teaching banjo and performing. He has a very relaxed demeanor and a great personality. Plus he has the coolest traveling partner. Bones is a Schipperke, and he’s the most well behaved dog I’ve ever had visit the studio.

One DVD is instructional, focusing on playing by ear. The other is a “jam along” format. The pay-per clips are short lessons and tips ranging from 3-20 minutes in length.

As soon as these projects are available I’ll provide a link. Until then be sure to visit banjoteacher.com and check out his other products and his tour schedule.

Mass Mailer for Wordpress

Published by Brance on February 14th, 2006
Filed under miscellaneous

Here is a handy little plugin that I adapted from a Wordpress MU plugin writen by Inviz, and Georges Gabereau. All it does is add a submenu “Mass Mailer” under “Write” in the wordpress admin that allows the admin to send a mass email to all registered users of the blog. I couldn’t find anything simple that did this, so I modified what they had written for wordpressmu.

Here’s a screen shot of the admin.

You can download it here: massmailer.zip

Recording The Lonesome River Band

Published by Brance on January 16th, 2006
Filed under Studio News

Over the weekend I had quite a thrill to be able to record the Lonesome River Band. We tracked 5 songs on Saturday and Sammy will be coming in later this week to mix those five.

The band has a couple new band members and the purpose of this recording is to showcase the new band and what they sound like. The songs will be available as free downloads from the band website later this month.

Concert DVD shoot in Myrtle Beach

Published by Brance on November 25th, 2005
Filed under Studio News

The 36th Annual South Carolina State Bluegrass Festival started yesterday on Thanksgiving. The line up is pretty impressive and if you’re in the area this weekend you should consider attending.

I’ll be leaving in just a few minutes myself. It’s a bit of a drive for me (about 7 hours) but I should get there in plenty of time for the evening’s activities. Hay Holler Records has hired Clear Blue Productions to produce a concert DVD of The Bluegrass Brothers from this festival. So, on Saturday I’ll be recording and taping both of their performances for inclusion in this project.

I’ll be multi-track recording the audio from their performance using my trusty Apple powerbook and DigiDesign 002 unit. Of course, Pro-Tools is the software I’ll be using. The video will be captured using three digital cameras run by myself and David Wells. One camera will be set up on a static wide shot of the band while David and I will run the other two from various locations throughout the hall. I’ll also be capturing some footage of the band at their merchandise table meeting the fans, and who knows what else will come to mind on location!

If you are attending the festival, be sure to come up and say hello. I’d love to visit with you. Just look for the guy with the video camera. Who knows, you might end up on a DVD!

mixing gospel a cappella

Published by Brance on November 14th, 2005
Filed under Studio News

Currently working on a gospel a cappella CD. It’s very good stuff. Not really bluegrass, just old time quartet gospel singing. Interesting to mix stuff like this. No instruments to deal with, just the voices. But I’m surprised by how challenging the mix is to get right. Finding a place in the mix for all the voices both panning and sonically harder than I would have thought. And since the same person doesn’t always carry the lead all the way through the song, it makes the mix more involved than I had guessed it would. Lots of automation to get the dynamics just right between all the parts.

It’s fun though. A nice departure from the in-your-face banjo stuff I’ve been working with so much of this year.

Performing in Roanoke tonight

Published by Brance on November 12th, 2005
Filed under miscellaneous

This weekend is the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend. RBW is a three day instructional event that is sponsored by AcuTab and Herschel Sizemore. It’s always a lot of fun and there’s some great picking and instructional opportunities. On Saturday night each year they host a faculty concert. This year they’ve asked me to participate. I’ll be singing the Bill Monroe tune Close By while Shelby Eicher, Aubrey Haynie, and Bobby Hicks cut the triple fiddle parts. Wow!

UPDATE: I was let off the hook last night as Herschel decided to do Close By with his group Sandy Ridge. John Miller is the guitarist and singer in the group and did a fine job 0n the tune. I did get up and sing a number toward the end of the show. I sang Pick My Up On Your Way Down with a stellar line up of musicians helping me on it. It was quite an evening.

Speaking engagement at RU

Published by Brance on November 11th, 2005
Filed under miscellaneous

Yesterday I spoke to the music business class at Radford University. They have a class of people interested in engineering and producing this semester. I don’t think any of them are crazy about bluegrass music, but they asked some good questions about the biz. It was a fun experience for me and reminded me of the days when I was in class and dreaming of owning my own studio some day. Now I’m speaking to a group of kids much like myself and living my dream. Isn’t life amazing? The Lord has truly blessed me.

The GrassCast - Episode #2

Published by Brance on November 11th, 2005
Filed under Studio News

I just published the 2nd episode of The GrassCast over at The Bluegrass Blog. This one features excerpts from a number of interviews. The topic is IBMA 2005 reactions. John and I interviewed a bunch of bluegrass personalities and asked them all for their opinions about the first year of the event being held in Nashville. It’s pretty interesting.

Link: The GrassCast - episode #2

The GrassCast

Published by Brance on November 3rd, 2005
Filed under Studio News

IBMA was a great event this year, but it wore me out! I’ve been trying to catch up all week. Lots of stuff to do here.

One of the things I’ve been working on this week is a new podcast over at The Bluegrass Blog. It’s called The GrassCast and will be published weekly. Most of the episodes were recorded last week at IBMA. I’ve just been editing, recording introductions, and setting up the web delivery.

Go check it out.