dB Sound Factory - News
Current
and Upcoming Projects
July-October 2011
We have been busy since we moved
in to our new facility. We
have finished three full CD’s for three different artists:
- Maya Caldwell -”Screw The Pop”
- FUME Bros. – “Soldiers of
Insanity” CD
- Sedona Academy of Chamber Singers- A collection
of sacred
and popular choir pieces.
Currently we are working with the Knockabouts to finish up
their new CD and a metal EP from Brent Sutton a local artist. In
addition we
are working on some new songs for the “Iron Mice “ CD.
February-June 2011
I have been looking for a
place to relocate the studio in Flagstaff. Well the search
is over! I am now working in the "Psycho Ranch Production
Facility." It is a fantastic 2500 sq ft facility built from the
ground up. It is acoustically perfect and features a control room, live
room, 2 isolation rooms and a wonderful lounge area. I am working with
Jason and Trish the owners of the facility to make this the best
facility in Northern Arizona. We already have several bookings
including the "Knockabouts" and look forward to working with artists
and talent from every genre and from around the world. I am extremely
happy and humbled to be working in such a fantastic studio of this
caliber. Look for pics soon!
November--January 2011
I am continuing to work with
Jonathan on his three song music video project. We are
finishing up the second song and are starting on the third. He is
working with the film director in February to start introducing these
newly mixed versions of the songs into the video. The songs are very
intricate with more tracks than I have worked with in the past. They
have very strong compositional elements, are put together extremely
well with all the details they contain. During this time I
upgraded my converters which was a bonus but changed my work flow and
the mix somewhat. so we had to work through that. But in the end we
agreed it was worth it.
I have also recorded a demo for a local cover band "Rewire." These are
a great bunch of guys and musicians. They are exciting and
entertaining on stage getting a lot of consistent work in Northern
Arizona (which is not always easy) because of their efforts. They
have been written up in a few publications and needed a demo to land
additional jobs in the area. We had a great time in the studio and I
will be checking them out at some future gigs!
Upcoming I will have the Knockabouts back in the studio along
with some other new talent.
August-October
2010
I have been working with an artist from Las Vegas, Jonathan Gilcrest,
who has a three song music video project. It is original material
featuring Jonathan in the videos. Jonathan is an extremely talented
multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. He plays with "Yellow Brick Road "
and with the "Two Live Duo" in Las Vegas. His original music is
intense, lush, vibrant and creative featuring Jonathan on most of the
instruments and the vocals. He had much of the material already
recorded so we were doing mostly a mix job but we did rerecord
some tracks to get a better vibe or fit. I have been
working with as an engineer and collaborating with him on some
production elements involving the audio.
May-July 2010
Hi
everyone! We just completed Luminaria's New CD "The Blue Hour." They
have some great songs that are produced very nicely and
cover a lot of sonic territory. It is eclectic as well as
eccentric is a very good way ranging from cool ballads to some heavier
material. It was great working with them again and they have taken
their music to a new level. Randolph says hi to you guys! I
upgraded some preamps in the studio getting some API pre's in the
infamous "lunchbox." They sound great, very punchy and forward
sounding, and I am excited about putting them on the drums
and other sources. The mysterious metal band continues to record in the
studio and has completed one song, tracked another and has 2 more in
the works so far. Very strange but exciting.
February-April 2010
These last months have been
very busy. We finished up the
Knockabouts CD “Pog Mo Thon”. This CD has 16 songs with 2
of them recorded live
at Charlies here in Flagstaff. It came out great and we had a lot of
fun doing
it. We finished up some original songs by Jennifer Chavoz. Jennifer had
just
recently learned guitar and then went ahead and wrote some of her own
songs on
top of that! Her fiancés Dustin got her some recording time for
Christmas and
she was brave enough to come in and do a great job recording her own
music. We
are currently working with a very talented singer, Katie Wamble, who is
finishing
up a CD of cover songs which includes songs with bagpipe accompaniment
played
by her Dad. We are continuing to do
voiceover work with Transperfect and also completed recording a radio
spot for
the Arizona Wildlife Federation. Luminaria has returned to the studio
and is
completing a 10 song CD. It is great to see these guys again and the
first few
sessions have been great fun along with hard work. Their new material
is
sounding great! Bryan Reese is returning to the studio in May to record
some
new material and we are excited to get some new material from him. We
have
picked up some great new gear including a dangerous music summing box,
an API
2500 stereo bus compressor and a new Neuman mic. Also a mystery Band
has
started recording in the studio and I am not allowed to say much about
them.
But they are a “metal” band with a strange twist and they
should have some of
their material out soon. Wish I could say more but it is some of the
strangest
sessions I have ever been involved in.
November/December
2009 January 2010
We completed some voice over work for Transperfect and have been
adding some additions to the studio mainly a new vocal booth, upgraded
plug ins, some new preamps and a summing mixer. An Irish band The "Knockabouts"
a local favorite have been in the studio recording their
4th album which will also include a few live songs. We will bring out
our live recording rig to Charlies Bar in downtown Flagstaff for a
night of recording and fun. We will have some links to the album once
the project is completed. I
am still at Winestyles playing a variety of music and instruments for
all the wine enthusiasts and since I love wine it has been an awesome
gig! Thanks to Peggy and Alex, the owners, for having me!
September/October 2009
We recorded a collection of Blues songs performed by a
local group "Cat Black and the Midnight Blues Band" The band is a
tight Blues ensemble fronted by Cat Black a powerful and dynamic female
singer. Dustin Willams a graduate student from Dallas is working with
me as an intern in the studio and worked with me on the Cat Black
project. We are scheduled to record a group from Prescott 'The
Havenites" in November. They are doing a 12 song CD. We upgraded some
equipment in the studio purchasing a fully acoustic drum kit a Pearl
Masters series shell kit which sounds great along with our collection
of snares which includes a Ludwig Black Beauty.We also added an Apogee
Big Ben to clock our HD system along with our other digital
peripherals. I performed at the NAU Axxer Auction and continue to
perform at
Winestyles.
July/August 2009
We recorded a local artist
Ashlee Graham . Ashlee is a talented singer songwriter and she along
with her mother "Cricket" recorded a collection of both Christian
and secular songs in the studio. Along with recording their
performance dB Sound Factory also did some production work on the
collection adding rhythm and keyboards. I played a few venues
during these months, the Hotel Monte Vista, A Wedding, Winestyles for
their wine tasting events and Wine and Dine in the Pines a
large fund raiser for NAU. I continue to do work for Transperfect
recording a local Navajo talent translating English into Navajo.
April/June 2009
These last few months have been
interesting and
exciting. On the recording end I have
been doing a lot of voice over work for a company in New York. They are
translating written English material into the Navajo language to create
an
audio file of the material. The language and the process are quite
fascinating. I will be doing some
editing work for
them in the near future as well. I finished
recording the NAU Jazz chorus
for their promotional CD (about 10-12 pieces) and I am currently
mastering the
final pieces. It was a great experience having up to 15 vocalists on
some
songs. They had a 3 piece group backing them, drums, piano and bass and
they
did both current and classic pieces. They were great musicians and
vocalists
and we had a great time. They are also scheduled to come back in the
fall to
cut some more music. I will have some of their music on the site so
check it
out. I have had various mixing projects along with some small recording
projects
covering metal to accapella singers. I am scheduled to record some
local country and
blues bands for their demos. I
have been performing at a local wine store at their wine tasting events
and it
has been a lot of fun. I have met some great musicians and have booked
some future
gigs with them. I have been opening up the studio to other engineers
and will
have some of them working in the studio in September. The cabin has been renting out but we need
some producers to come up and book the studio as well! I have purchased some new gear
and have expanded the studio to use another room for guitar amp
isolation. I
looked into some isolation boxes for guitar but was not impressed with
what I
saw so I decided to set up the room and just let the guitarist crank it
up.
They can keep their head in the control room or the live room but can
connect remotely
to the Marshall 2x12 cabinet (or whatever cabinet they want) in the
guitar room for great isolation. I have also
purchased equipment to allow a producer to speak with and listen to
talent over
a phone line so they can be right there with the session as its
happening. I
have also taken some time off and went wine tasting in Napa CA with
family and
friends and was a great time!
February/March 2009
It has been picking up for me in
2009. I have scheduled or completed
sessions for several different clients from Hip Hop to Rock to Native
American
music. I had a live gig playing first chair flute with the Arizona
Deseret
Choir with guests from Tempe. We performed several classical, ethnic
and sacred
pieces for a performance in February in Flagstaff. It has been awhile
since I
played with an orchestra but it was a great time and the choir and
other musicians
were great. I did the engineering for some incidental music for the
play “The
Importance for Being Earnest” which was performed at the Northern
Arizona
University Auditorium. David Holle was the featured pianist and
composer. I am
working with KR Studios in San Diego recording some talent from Utah
and
sending them the files to be included on a CD for a San Diego artist. I have some upcoming music from Bryan Reese
as well as music from soundtracks and some of my own personal music. I
have
several future bookings and will eventually offer some package deals in
which
musician(s) can book several days of recording along with a stay at the
home in
Parks for a great experience! Look for
it, the “cabin” has all the amenities along with a huge
Jacuzzi; satellite tv
and broadband internet with wi fi.
Dec 2008/Jan 2009
Hi
I‘m back again. The winter has been intense with 4-5 feet
of snow out in the forest still. It is beautiful and challenging at the
same
time. I completed my course from Berklee School of Music and now have
my
certification in Pro Tools. Jeff the instructor was very experienced
and was
very helpful. The film Arkin is now completed and scored and I will
have some
of that music on the site soon. Arkin will be showing at some festivals
in LA
this spring I believe. We purchased
another home in Flagstaff but we still have the studio out in Parks. I
will be
doing some composing, live performance setup and teaching at the new
home but
most of my session work will still be done in Parks. The mixing and
mastering for
the band “Luminaria” has been completed and they now have
their demo package. I
have three upcoming recording sessions and will be working on some
sound design
for some upcoming products for a company in Phoenix.
See you soon!
Sept/Nov 2008
It has been an interesting and busy
last few months. I finished a cover demo for Terry Dumdei a local
musician who is a vocalist and guitar player. I finished recording a
local group called "Luminaria" and will mixing and mastering their demo
this month. In addition a local soprano Jody Porter finished recording
some Christmas songs in the studio and I will get those out shortly. I
have some new clients scheduled for recording after the first of the
year that I am looking forward to. In addition I have some new material
from Bryan Reese that will be out in a few months as well.
Arkin the film I have been working on from "Bleeding Hand" Productions"
is nearing completion and is scheduled to be shown in an LA film
festival next spring. I will also be writing a jingle for a short x-mas
film from "Here Comes Two" Productions.
I also had my live performance debut here in Flagstaff at the NAU
conference center for a private function. I decide to limit myself to
vocals. flute and soprano sax for the gig. I performed cover tunes and
got a great reception and and got a few more jobs out of the deal! I
have not played out live at this level since 2005 so it was a nice
change and it keeps my chops up. I plan to start putting some of my own
material in the mix and will eventually sell some CD's.
I have received my teaching certification from Arizona and I have been
working with the music teacher at the local K-8 school doing some
substitute teaching as well as planning to work with the students who
play sax and flute.
In 2009 I will also be offering private lessons in flute as well as
possibly some lessons in beginning recording and using pro
tools.
I will be receiving my Berklee certification in Pro Tools in two weeks.
All in all December will be a very busy month mostly mixing and
mastering a lot of material. If I make it through this month I should
be in good shape.
July/August 2008
We are finalizing the Studio business and will start formally
advertising at the end fo September. The Film "Arkin" is nearly
completed and I have recorded two more songs from the singer song
writer Brian Reese. The control room has been completed revamped and
re-routed to make it more efficient. We have added some new gear and I
had a local pro drummer "Boone Dale" come in and help me dial in the
drum set, he was great! ( as a wind player I am not used to banging on
things just slobbering and spitting on them (-:
We learned that having a real snare with the V drum setup would be a
great option. After some research decided on a 6.5 x 14 Black Beauty
from Ludwig for the studio and will look at a nice maple, as well as a
piccolo down the road. Had to pick up a new mic for the snare as well.
One more course left for the Berklee certification. Great class whether
you are a pro or not. It keeps you on your toes, keeps you current and
introduces you to better and more efficient and effective techniques.
Alwlays chasing down new information and constant learning is the key
to any venture. Keep your eyes open in the next week for the new pics
and new pages about the studio on the site!
May/June 2008
We have been busy. The Faith Purvis project
has been mostly completed with some final touches to be added at a
later date. I am working on a film entitled "Arkin" which is a
dark neo-noir thriller, very cool. Brian will be coming back in July to
record to new songs in the new studio and we are looking forward to the
new material. I have finally received my business license and have been
working with an attorney on a studio contract. I also have to do some
advertising and need to get the word out locally for the studio
although word of mouth seems to be working fine. I really enjoy working
with others and their music more than I imagined.
As usual I am always seeking more knowledge and finding ways to improve
myself so I have been I am just two courses away from receiving my
professional certification in music production from Berklee. I decided
to continue to hone my skills and learn new and better techniques for
myself and my clients. I will be adding some more information about the
studio with some photos soon.
March/April 2008
We have survived the awsome winter up here high country (85 inches of
snow!) and we have been busy. The studio has been up and running
finally! We have a brand new V-drum setup running BFD. I have opened
the studio up commercially on a limited basis to a few clients. A
Sedona Christian group has recently recorded two songs that are being
mixed and mastered and I am working with a local artist on a collection
of songs with a working title of the Faith Purvis Project. Brian
Resse's song "Miss You Most of All" is now on the website so please
give it a listen. Also I have been accepted by a LA based company as a
composer for various media projects. In addition I have been working
diligently on my own collection of music and an intimate live act
that will feature those songs along with some covers arranged by yours
truly. Now that I am longer plowing snow it is time for to put out the
goods....Ciao for now.
January 2008
The studio is nearing completion and I have finally moved my gear in
and started the arduous process of setting up. MY UPS was the only
casualty but the folks at Emerson sent me a new one the next
day...thanks! PIctures very soon! Brians song "Miss You Most of All" is
first up!
November/December
2007
These two months have just rolled into one as well. The studio has been
under construction for these last months. All is going according to
plan and I have traded in my composer hat and have been playing the
role of General Contractor especially since my equipment has been tied
up during the construction. I have been keeping my chops up by playing
with some local talent and writing down some ideas for upcoming
sessions.
September/October
2007
These two months have just rolled into one another so I will include
them together. The music for Issac Chen's film "Turmoil" is completed
and is availabe to listen to on the website. I really enjoyed working
on the film and working with Isaac. I have been preparing to do some
musical therapy work at the local hosptial as well as doing some live
performing locally. I have been organizing backing tracks for live
performance as well as finalizing and mastering some of Bryans
material. The upcoming studio has already peaked the interest of local
musicians asking to book time for demos. Although it was intended to be
setup for media composition it works great as a commercial studio as
well and it provides me the opportunity to barter and get great local
talent to play on my clients projects. A wonderful win win!
August 2007
I am currently working on a film by Isaac Chen which will be completed
in a few weeks. It is an exciting and moving story based in wartime
Vietnam.
Construction has started on a new studio and it should be completed and
ready to occupy by the end of the year.
July 2007
Bryan Reese
a singer/songwriter from Seattle came down to the studio in Flagstaff
to record some of his material for a new CD. Bryan is an accomplished
pianist posessing strong vocals with great song writing
"chops." We were able to lay down tracks for two songs during his brief
stay. His music will be on the website when completed.
June 2007
The New York 48 hour film project
team I am on is gearing up for their
June15-17 date. It looks like another weekend of coffee, little
sleep
and a very short time to be musically brilliant.....arghh...but we all
love it!
"Our Salvation" a film short by
Ryan Coluca. A horror story shot in LA that involves a couple who
cannot have children which drives the husband to take extreme measures
to finally become a father.
"Precious Garden" a film short by
Candace Niikura. A drama involving a childhood tragedy.
May 2007
"Dom" a film short by Joshua Kulic. It is a drama focusing heavily
on the male lead who returns to reclaim the love of his life.
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