And now for something completely different...

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I have a small connection to the song. Gloria Gaynor used a Lauten Atlantis for her vocals. She used that mic because my buddy, Jack, bought one after borrowing mine one time and loving what he was getting from it on a variety of sources. Gaynor did a few sessions there and recorded an album's worth of music. She loved the Atlantis so much that she bought one for herself.

Small connections are often what makes life both fun and exciting. Those little connections-achievements-things, do add up. Most certainly your wise words have made a difference on AGF.

You can add me to the list of people whom you influenced to buy the Atlantis as well. I already heard tons of great reviews from others, but your reference stating that it had nearly the sound of your Flea 47, put me over the top.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

Small connections are often what makes life both fun and exciting. Those little connections-achievements-things, do add up. Most certainly your wise words have made a difference on AGF.

You can add me to the list of people whom you influenced to buy the Atlantis as well. I already heard tons of great reviews from others, but your reference stating that it had nearly the sound of your Flea 47, put me over the top.

Appreciate the kind words. Thank you.

The studio, for anyone who's curious, is EKO Productions located in Deer Park, NY. Their client list has a little something for everyone, i think.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I was back in the pro studio today. My buddy who works there came down with Covid so I filled in for him again. They got some exciting news there yesterday. A while back they had Gloria Gaynor (famous from the disco era) and they did the video, recording, and mixing for the song in the studio. They got a call yesterday letting them know the song is going to be up for a big award next year.

I have a small connection to the song. Gloria Gaynor used a Lauten Atlantis for her vocals. She used that mic because my buddy, Jack, bought one after borrowing mine one time and loving what he was getting from it on a variety of sources. Gaynor did a few sessions there and recorded an album's worth of music. She loved the Atlantis so much that she bought one for herself.

That's very cool. A good friend of mine did a few dates with Gloria last year (as bassist). I have to ask him if he did that recording date.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

That's very cool. A good friend of mine did a few dates with Gloria last year (as bassist). I have to ask him if he did that recording date.

That would be a very cool "small world" story if your friend did those sessions.

[Bob Womack]

Looks like fun!

Bob

[jim1960]

I subbed in at the studio a couple of times this past week. Both sessions were a lot of fun and the bands were really good. I'm not sure what the studio's minimum hours commitment is but all the sessions I've done so far have run three hours. I usually show up about a half hour before the band is on the clock and as they're warming up me and the guy working the board get the levels set for both the mix that is fed to the band on stage and what is being sent to Pro Tools. At the end, I transfer the Pro Tools session to a usb drive and that goes home with whatever band member is in charge. The studio also gives them the video but I don't know what formatting or device they use for that.

The group this past Wednesday was called A Step Ahead. They mostly did covers from the 70s and 80s. They two women singers were really good and the band was very tight. This was also the biggest production I've done there. The drum kit had 10 mics, there were two guitars, a bass, keyboard, sax, and three vocalists. The girl in the black leather really had a great growl when she needed it. She was the better of the three.


The band last night had two personas. They first came out as a cover band doing songs from the 70s through today. They they turned into a Led Zeppelin cover band. The singer had a very recognizable Ann Wilson vibe even if they didn't do any Heart songs. On the last song, the drummer was playing pretty hard and sent one of this cymbals and stands crashing into their blind bass player (yes, blind with a walking stick and all, but that dude played a great bass).

[Bob Womack]

Looks like a good time was had by all!

Bob

[DupleMeter]

Looks like a big production...and a lot of fun.

[jim1960]

It was a blast and my friend just came down with Covid (he needed that like a hole in the head) so I might be back in there soon.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by jim1960

It was a blast and my friend just came down with Covid (he needed that like a hole in the head) so I might be back in there soon.

Well, he's lucky to have someone he can lean on. At least you can take that off his shoulders while he recovers.

[jim1960]

Subbing in the studio was pretty stress free until last night. I open Pro Tools, select the template, rename it, and... I get an error message telling me that all the buss paths are not linking up as they should be. I had no idea why that was happening but as the old computer tech preaches, "When in doubt, restart."

Same issue. Then I think maybe I just need to start a new session with a new name because perhaps some corruption got saved when I created the session the first time. So I restart again and... uh-oh.

I really didn't want to call my friend, Jack, because I knew he was mostly out of commission that night ...after all, that's why I was subbing in. But I had no idea why that was happening and I had no choice but to call him.

Turns out, the last time he was in the studio, he started pulling sessions off the system drive and putting them on a portable drive because the computer was getting sluggish. To do that, he had to disconnect the cable that goes from the usb hub to the board. But when he left, he left the portable drive attached and never reattached the cable he had to pull.

I've never come across that issue and I was never going to figure that out. Good thing he was still coherent enough to sort it out over the phone.

Another curve ball was thrown to me at the end of the night when I attempted to transfer the session to a USB drive for the client to take home. This is something I do at the end of every session there. When I attempted to copy the session over, it wouldn't transfer and the computer gave me no indication as to why. I was able to sort that one out on my own though... the usb drive wasn't formatted correctly. A quick format and the session copied as usual.

Anyway, the band was a Joan Jett cover band. It was just a two-hour session during which they did multiple takes of five songs for a demo reel. They weren't bad but the singer sang flat quite a bit. At some point she said she was doing it on purpose because Jett often sings flat, but on some songs she took it to an extreme that just didn't work well. Wisely, on the retakes she sang on key so they have that to pull from when they put their demo reel together.

[DupleMeter]

Glad you got that sorted out. Nothing worse than starting a session with problems. Keeps you on edge the rest of the day

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

Glad you got that sorted out. Nothing worse than starting a session with problems. Keeps you on edge the rest of the day

Very true. But in fairness to my friend, he left things as they were because he expected to be walking in to do that session. It was 20 minutes of pure terror for me though.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Very true. But in fairness to my friend, he left things as they were because he expected to be walking in to do that session. It was 20 minutes of pure terror for me though.

Yeah, I get it. You do your thing & never expect that one day you won't (or can't). I think about all the times I do that same kind of thing & think "it won;t matter, I'll take car eof it next time before anyone else has to deal with it". And one day, I may not get to it first.



Best wishes to your friend.

[Bob Womack]

In the biz we have a term for what is expected between engineers who share control rooms: "normalization." Typically, there is a "normal" standard for the room, where every connection and control is expected to be set. Operators are taught the normal and are expected to return the room to its normal. That way, if you are called in for something with last-minute notice you can make the room work. In the places where I worked this was considered good courtesy and mandatory. You could get a bad review if you caused difficulty on another production because you did something that caused disruption on the next shift. Back then the consoles were manual Neves with no automation, so that meant resetting EVERY knob.

There was a period when I was recording and mixing the show elements (show open, bumpers, next-day promo) for a live network TV show on the morning just before the show aired. I had a cohort working the night shift who felt free to monkey around with connections, audio, data, and synchronization lines and not return the room to normal. I'd be on a crushing deadline and something crucial simply wouldn't work. It happened over and over and over and was always a stressful, heart-stopping crisis for me. In the end I learned the system so thoroughly that I could diagnose and troubleshoot quickly Frankly, he came to our facility from freelance and I think he thought that making other operators look bad boosted his career. There was a short-term boost for him but that attitude sort of came back on him eventually.

Of course, your situation is different, but I can at least commiserate.

Bob