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Tracking for San Luis

May 15th, 2011

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Tracking San Luis at Myspace Recording, Nashville

Recently, Producer Iker Gastaminza came in from Miami with two of the founding members of Venezuelan pop sensation Voz Vies. Santiago and Luis Castillo are finishing production of their first release under the new group name San Luis. Part of the new sound they were looking for was the synergy of great musicians tracking live, something done less and less often in latin pop music. Toward this end Iker suggested coming to Nashville to work with myself and arranger Chris McDonald. Read the rest of this entry »

Midi: Four letter word or composer’s best friend?

March 31st, 2011

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Orchestra session using tempo maps

Preparing and using midi files and tempo maps for live recording

If you’re a composer today, you’re often tasked with twice the work you once were. Not only are you composing a score, but also creating an elaborate virtual instrument mock-up (or even final master recording) of the composition at the same time. When you add all of the hybrid musical styles used in scoring for games or picture, you end up with an almost infinite number of combinations of work-flow, software, and virtual/live instrumentation to manage – all within the allotted time and budget.

If only there was a tool that could allow you to successfully manage all these tasks, from composition to final audio master.
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4 weeks of Disco

March 22nd, 2011

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The Saturday Night Fever Rhythm Section and Production team

The Saturday Night Fever Rhythm Section and Production team

In the early 1970′s, music was getting heavier and more serious all the time. Rock bands were writing album long epic journeys, and Funk became the soundtrack for a wide audience as race relations changed in America. Disco, on the other hand, was more about feeling good and forgetting your daily cares, so it’s little wonder that, at the time, Disco was thought by many to be a mindless or soulless musical movement. Read the rest of this entry »

That guy can sing!

December 5th, 2010

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Artist Matt Doyle at the tracking session

Artist Matt Doyle at the tracking session

When I arrived home last Friday, after a long day of tracking, my daughter asked me how my day was.
“Really fun, I was working with a great singer today”, I replied.
“Did you have to, you know… work on his vocals?” she asked. Daisy knows too much about studios.
“Not a bit” was my reply.

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129 pieces

November 19th, 2010

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Orchestral Recording at Ocean Way Nashville

Orchestral Recording at Ocean Way Nashville

Wow, what a month. In just four weeks I’ve recorded orchestral scores for 4 productions I’m doing. Two great projects for Disney, The Little Mermaid and an adaptation of Winnie The Pooh, an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, and a new Christmas show for Busch Gardens Williamsburg featuring scoring from the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremony. All told, 129 pieces of music.
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31 flavors of excellent

October 8th, 2010

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In an age where being versatile is not only respected but essential, I feel very privileged to work on such a wide range of excellent projects.

Recently, among other things, I’ve finished production on a development project for alt-indy rockers The Pursuits; a production of Miss Saigon for MTI; Camp Rock, The Musical for Disney; mixing for new pop diva B.E.T.A (watch for her…. she’s killer); and mixing of a re-record by cowpunk rockabilly legends Dash Rip Rock of their hit Johnny Ace for Rockband.
Here are some selections I’d love to share…. pass it around!

Music Game Studio

If you don’t know already, my company Music Game Studio makes game play versions of artists songs. more on that here. And we have Youtube and Vimeo channels of our game creations as well!

Goings on

September 3rd, 2010

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RBN creators club workshop
Just an update on what’s been doing and what’s coming up in the near future.

I’ve finished mixing a 4 song demo for Latin rockers FLUX, produced by Jose Miguel Velasquez. The band is one part Blink 182, one part Green Day (and maybe a dash of Latin Kings).

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MTI’s Miss Saigon

April 17th, 2010

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orchestra for MTI's Miss Saigon

Orchestra recording for MTI's Miss Saigon


I am currently working on a new recording of Miss Saigon for MTI (in conjunction with Cameron Mackintosh). David Weinstein did the modified orchestration and conducted the orchestra during recording last week. Because of the pit-sized orchestra, I elected to record this on here at my studio tracking Drum kit, electric bass and guitars separately from the Strings, winds and brass.

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Lose Weight While You Sleep!

March 17th, 2010

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A first-timer’s GDC take-away

Tom Salta, Paul Lipson, Marty O'Donnell, Chance Thomas and Laura Karpman

Tom Salta (H.A.W.K.S), Paul Lipson (Iron Man 2), Marty O'Donnell (Halo), Chance Thomas (Avatar) and Laura Karpman

Not a particularly hefty guy, I was truly surprised to find that I’d lost 3 pounds while attending the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2010) in San Francisco. 3 pounds in 6 days. As many people would kill to know how to do that (and I don’t much like killing), I thought I’d elucidate the three steps of my accidental accomplishment.
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Rock Band Network goes live

March 7th, 2010

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music game studio logo

Happy to pass along the announcement that on March 4th, 2010 the Rock Band Network went live on Xbox in these regions: US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Singapore.
RBN is a great example of a community rising around an idea and a passion, then becoming bigger than the idea itself; shaping and refing that original vision.
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