Once a month, Christopher WIllits, the electronic musician and guitarist guides us through recording and production techniques, basic electronic programs and other technical skills that he uses to create music. In this episode, Willits explains automation clips—setting them up, as well as their role in recording and playing live. Past episodes have included techniques he’s used on his albums, like processing sounds through MIDI pick-ups and synthesizers.

Tune in once a month as Christopher shows us some of the ways he produces his own music, as well as the many cool things you can do with recording software. According to Christopher, “I simply want to excite people’s imaginations and creative process so they can more easily create the sounds and music and art they love.”

http://xlr8r.com/tv
http://christopherwIllits.com

Join Sound Arts at Blakes in Berkeley and support the Obama Campaign…Brought to you by Abject Era and KGE Productions, with live art from Wall Eye Creations and music by The Dervish, The Red Fox, Pride City Purpose and more!

Amongst several other prizes and giveaways, Sound Arts will be raffling a $250 gift certificate for a half day of recording and mixing (engineer included).

2367 Telegraph Ave
$10 Min Donation
Doors Open at 7:00

09/18/2008

Energetic, excited, organized-what else can you ask for in sound engineers?  How about creative, on-time, professional, confident and clever?  I’ve worked with sound engineers across the country and Canada and this crew has the fundamentals down with an eye on the future and YOUR finished product.  I feel very lucky to have found them (after an exhaustive internet search and word of mouth) and look forward to working with them more in a variety of venues.  I would absolutely recommend them to anyone, they have true experience in theatre, film and digital media.  Their studio is 1 part downtown “Soho workspace” theatre, 1 part Star trek media console and 1 part relaxed artist space and no pretense.  I ‘m reluctant to share my “diamond” find but they do such a great job, they are a good partner to have in the artist community.
Saylor Billings - Billibatt Productions.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/sound-arts-san-francisco

And if you have some thing nice to say about Sound Arts…feel free to let us know by writing your own review on Yelp!

Brian has designed a variety of interfaces and controllers that communicate with vocoders, synths, sequencers, and self built VST plug-ins via Usb, MIDI, or OSC. For Brian and for Sound Arts, this is the tip of the iceberg!

Check out the aricle.

http://makezine.com

Today, during their mix session, I overheard Lily Taylor mention to Ryan Kleeman that they were looking to add some texture to a track…make it more vintage and vinyl-like. So after a quick hunt, I found a cool free plugin from iZotope, from Boston, MA. Check it out!

The ultimate lo-fi weapon, iZotope Vinyl uses 64-bit processing and advanced filtering, modeling and resampling to create authentic “vinyl” simulation, as if the audio was a record being played on a record player.

KeyToSound, a designer, developer and manufacturer of digital audio technology, musical instruments, and audio signal processors has just released an upgrade to a free instrument plug-in called “Remedy”. Great presets, a bunch of knobs to sculpt, and a classy old school design.

Download Remedy 1.1r3 for Mac.
Supports VST (including 2.4), AU, RTAS 6 and RTAS 7

Download Remedy 1.1r3 for Windows XP.
Supports VST and RTAS on Windows XP

Download the botkiller Remedy preset pack by brian botkiller
Arps, drums, lots of sounds in this little package!

Download the Remedy Preset pack by Aaron Jasinski
Great sounds to get you going! Find more info on Aaron at www.AaronJasinski.com

Download the Remedy Preset Pack by Elwood

Wow!

What an awesome week. Over 15 tracks recorded, 10 artists and bands, and 80 solid hours of hands on experience for our interns and engineers. I think we all learned a ton about recording, producing and coordinating. Everyone did an exceptional job! Mixes are now in progress and should be ready to review by the end of this month.

We are currently playing with the idea of showcasing the work from the week through an event sometime around October or November. Depending on funding, location availability, and potential partners this could be a big promo opportunity to connect with other artists, engineers, and labels plus a chance to field questions about everyone’s experience and creative process. In the meantime, check out the pics, learn more about the participating artists, and keep on blogging!

Project Renovate
Wisecrack
60 Watt Kid
Christopher Willits
Gabriel Coan
The Blank Slates
Sean Niesen
League 510
The Dervish
Max Paz
Midori/Audioclique

- Adam Shaening-Pokrasso

An incredibly young band, called Midori and Audioclique, were taking session. The singer, Midori, is a very beautiful girl who is only 15. Her band mates, Conor and Kevin are 20 and 19, respectively. They were working on a song called “Bangkok,” about a girl who just may be too hot to trot.

Adam cued up the machines and they were rolling. As Midori started her vocal overdubs, Conor and I chatted on the sofa. He told me that they were currently in the restructuring phase, that soon they were be focusing on the real star (he forked a finger at himself and smiled.)

Both Conor and Kevin were very playful. They play keys and bass respectively. While watching Midori enunciate the ‘kok’ in ‘Bangkok’ and joking that it’s their song too, they told me a sliver of their story. They all grew up in Santa Rosa, and are currently in the running for “Best Indie Pop Song” in the Hollywood Music Awards. Midori has been singing since she was 13, in fact the song up for the award, called “Go,” was recorded when she was only 13.

Midori’s father Ron and her mother have been very influential in helping her get this far. Her father actually plays guitar in the band and helps with management and audio production. Her mother fills in as the resident PR and booking agent. The awards take place at the Kodak theater, November 20.

You can listen to Midori and the Audioclique at:

http://www.myspace.com/midorilongo
http://www.audioclique.net

- Jean Yaste

Sean Niesen was the featured artist in the studio today. Accompanying Sean were a couple of his friends on drums/percussion and on bass. Jonathon Wong was the lead engineer, while I was the assistant engineer. The group combines an eclectic mix of sounds/timbre, ranging from the ordinary to the more abstract. They are able to combine traditional styles of music with more experimental sounds. I really enjoyed watching the group work through various sections of their track. They were able to incorporate a decent amount of layers to a section of their track without it sounding cluttered. Sean’s timbre and arrangement on guitar was definitely something I’ve never heard before.

What I really enjoyed most was watching more of the creative process as the group worked through this track. They started with a 5-6 minute jam to work on various ideas. Then, decided to focus on shorter phrases to possibly loop. Overall, it was a great experience for myself, and hopefully the other guys working on it. In my opinion, if you’re a fan of groups like Grizzly Bear and earlier M83, you’ll enjoy whatever Sean Niesen puts down. Check out some of his other music here.

- Scott McCoid

Today we are recording two tracks with local, up-and-coming Indy rock group, “The Blank Slates.” (Troy Lawton is lead engineering, with Jonathon Wong as assistant engineer.  All of the interns have been helping out this week and rotating responsibilities.) Featuring Andrea Iacopini on guitar and vocals, they produce a high-intensity, earthy nuance with a forward drive. According to Andrea, “The Blank Slates” is a “concept of ever-changing sound, where each song has space to develop into its own without allowing the band itself to be easily categorized.”

Andrea was joined by drummer Cochrane McMillan in January of this year, with bassist Martin Fowler adding to the mix later that month. Not only are they solid musicians, but their tracks are chock full of well-blended harmonies and tight fills.

In “My Only Regret,” Cochrane takes the lead on drums and has been playing solid all day, with Turkish hand-hammered cymbals adding nice texture and shimmer.  Martin has a solid ear in this tune with dead-on rhythm and innovative fills. Andrea is a natural songwriter, and struck gold with his addictive opening guitar and bass lines.

www.myspace.com/theblankslates

The goal of today’s session is to create the majority of a demo for distribution to local radio stations.

Good energy, good times, good clean fun.

-Emily Hendricks