Category: Location Recordings

Summer 2019 has been my best yet!

I recorded Megan Thee Stallion’s vocals for her hit song Hot Girl Summer which peaked at number eleven on the Billboard hot 100. The track featured Nicki Minaj, and Ty Dolla Sign. This is the first time something I’ve worked on reached the Billboard Hot 100, and will most likely be certified gold very soon. Looking forward to that plaque!

I’ve been recording a fair amount of live comedy shows at some great venues. At the historic Friar’s Club, I recorded Turner Sparks’ debut album. It released in September, and quickly the second best selling comedy album on iTunes. The staff at the Friar’s Club told me that although there have been several TV broadcasts done at the venue (Comedy Central Roasts), it was the first comedy album recorded at the venue.

I was also lucky enough to record several comics at the Village Underground at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan for a program to be released later this year. Lastly, I recorded Dave Hill and his band live at Union Hall for his comedy album to be released by 800 pound Gorilla Records. More to come!

Jason Bembry released the finished video of his live performance recorded at Mighty Toad Recording in Brooklyn. All things video done by Sound and Color Media.

The mobile rig has mostly reached it’s final form. I built and added in a CAPI 312, an API style microphone pre-amp to the collection. The rig now has a tube pre-amp from Five Fish Audio, a Jensen 990 style pre-amp from Hairball Audio, and the CAPI 312.

And as always, I’ve continued recording at Pete’s Candy Store – the total number of sets recorded has reached the 50 mark! I’ve updated the Pete’s info page with some released recordings.

2019 has been pretty wild so far.

• I recorded an interview with Future for Beats One Radio that aired for his on-air album release event last month. You can listen to the entire interview on Apple Music, and some excerpts here.

• Samaria, an artist signed with Republic Records released my mix of “Useless”. She’s a young artist with a promising career ahead of her and I was flattered that she put out the “rough mix” at the end of the session.

• SAFE also dropped a single I recorded. He’s a rapper from Toronto signed with Bando Records who built quite a following.

• Although I rarely record audiobooks, some books I recorded last year have gotten a good amount of attention. The Beastie Boys Book was released late last year with the audiobook featuring lots of incredible narrators including Steve Buscemi, Elvis Costello, Chuck D, Michael Diamond, Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, Adam Horovitz, LL Cool J, Spike Jonze and many others. My location recording rig went on it’s longest journey yet to Rev Run’s house to record his contribution to the project. It has since been nominated for Audiobook of the Year by the Audio Publisher’s Association. In fact, a handful of books I recorded last year were nominated for Audies, including: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, narrated by Richard Armitage, nominated for Best Fiction, Sadie, narrated by a very large cast (including myself!), nominated for Best Multi-Voiced Performance, and Best Young Adult Work and Black Star Renegades narrated by Dan Bittner, nominated for Best Science Fiction.

• B Boys released their live performance at Rough Trade that I recorded last year in partnership with Brooklyn Brewery and their label, Captured Tracks. They were gracious enough to send me one of the 500 vinyl pressings of the album. It’s the first time a project I’ve worked on has made it to Vinyl. It’s a cool feeling for sure.

• I used my location rig as a digital FOH console for a live event at Douglass Recording with performances by Jukebox the Ghost, and Earthquake Lights! Digital consoles for FOH normally aren’t my thing, but I actually really enjoyed it. Of course, it always helps when there’s a fun group on stage. You can watch the performance which was streamed live on Youtube here.

• I was back at Birdland recording a live album by Ann Hampton Callaway singing the songs of Linda Rohnstadt. Keep an eye out for that release!

• The rig now has tube power! I built Five Fish Audio’s VT-73 – their discrete microphone pre-amp that uses a combination of tube and solid state for gain. It sounds great, and was a pretty simple build. The DOA didn’t scare me away.

• And as always, I’m always at my usual haunt Pete’s Candy Store for live recordings.

Looking forward to the rest of the year!

Party band The Barnstorm released their 2018 promo video that I recorded on location and mixed. Check it out here:

I was in some unique locations with my mobile rig lately. Recording B Boys at Rough Trade NYC for a limited vinyl release (only 500!) with the Brooklyn Brewery Presents series,  Iris Lune at H0l0 in Ridgewood for a live performance video, and Sirintip at the YouTube Space NYC for another live performance video. All of these acts are super exciting and deserve a listen. And of course, live recordings at Pete’s Candy Store continue, with avant-guarde duo, Wit and Daniel, rock group A Crystal O, and Pete’s new monthly series Crypto Conversations which is released as a podcast here.

I’ve stepped away from recording audiobooks to devote more of my time recording music – but some more books I recorded were awarded Audiofile Magazine’s earphones award! The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley, read by Susan Bennett won for September 2018. It’s a modern take on Beowulf, and frankly, one of the best books I’ve ever read.

This year has been great so far!

Live recordings at Pete’s Candy Store has kept rolling on with six more awesome recordings. Acoustic singer-songwriter The Balladeer, released the recording of his performance on all available music purchasing sites and listen on Spotify, mixed and mastered by myself.  Poet/Songwriter Blythe Gruda will be doing the same in the coming months! Other performances included early Beatles cover band, The Giordano Trio, rock group The Witch Ones, solo rock artist Mark Dylan, and rock group Cat Dail.

I recorded on set for party band The Barnstorm‘s music video.  I’ve been busy mixing the tracks, and it’s set to be finished within the next few months.

Working with Douglass Recording on location in the Hamptons, I recorded an abridged performance of Far Travelers, an upcoming opera, AND also ran FOH for the performance. Quite a feat for me. More information can be found on composer/librettist Jeffery Leiser’s website. Check out a video of highlights below!

Far Travelers Opera – Highlights from Jeffrey Leiser on Vimeo.

At Douglass Recording (in Brooklyn this time) I engineered my largest session ever for an upcoming video for Earthquake Lights with the Shattered Glass Orchestra. Look out for that video in the later part of the year.

I finished my 8 channel, balanced microphone splitter! Based on Jensen’s schematic, I designed the circuit board for it to fit inside of the ART P-16 XLR patch bay. It will live happily ever after in the rig. I’ll soon be making another unit, giving me even more balanced splits.

The rig and I has also gone to a few other awesome places, including the Bushwick Public House to record Reindeer Castle live, the historic Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook to record The Brooklyn Flyers, and even a restaurant basement to record a podcast. It’s been a wild year so far.

In audio book world, two more books I engineered won Audiofile Magazine’s monthly earphones award, bringing my personal total to five! Song of a Captive Bird, a historical fiction novel about the life of Iranian artist Forugh Farrokhzad written by NY Times best selling author, Jasmin Darznik and read by Mozhan Marno, was released by Random House Audio in February. An Irish Country Practice, the 12th book in the series by Patrick Taylor, read by John Keating was released by Macmillan Audio, and won the award in February. Both titles were recorded by myself at John Marshall Media.