CHECK BABY CHECK: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Life Doesn't Frighten Me

I received this as a birthday gift years back from our neighbor whilst living in the US. Yep.. My English is that bad. ; ) This specific one is used for seventh or eighth grade English language arts. And who ever thought it'd be a favorite with my kids. Zahara is definitely getting into the visual of things. So when I asked if she'd want to read her fav book for a picture book style video, she jumped on the idea. We recorded her voice with a simple flash recorder. I used Zoom H2 in Stereo .wav mode in 16bit/48KHz and then edited visually in Garage Band with her help too. The things that kids can do this days!!

Trivia: The pause at 1:41 after the line "Don't show me frogs and snakes.." was unintentional. The distant rattlings you hear in background was actually Leia spilling some beads onto the floor in the living room. :) But the timing was perfect to create that pause to the consecutive line, "and listen for my scream". Sometimes accidents can create a wonderful imagery in audio land. :)

The book in itself is filled with colorful works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and adapted into Dr. Maya Angelo's poetry. It seems inseparable after a while. The two compliment on each other, most unintentionally. I hope you enjoy this pioneering teamwork. So we detest April Fool. People fool each other everyday these days.. If only it was just for the 1st of April, life would have been less complicated for the rest that didn't have a clue. You know who you are. And for the rest of us fools.. don't be afraid.

Thanks to Vika for the piano track she allowed me to have. I actually didn't know when I should use it, but as background ambience, I thought "Summa" would do great. It's a classical piece by Arvo Pärt that she improvised. Definitely visit her youtube page under her pseudo name vkgoeswild. I believe its just a matter of time before we see Vika rockin the big stage. Oh no, she don't only play classical. You'd be surprised! Vika's original recorded track is viewable here. Make sure you subscribe to her too!!

Old pictures that dropped out fm back pages of coffee table bks... Includes a friend whom we lost after 9/11.

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We all have choices. Even with our morning dues.

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Finally time to finish off SLC motor club video.

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So I finally got time to convert, squeeze, chop and crop the shoot fm two weeks ago. The camera was killing itself in that blistering cold ride. Most of the footages captured on top of Nick's GoldWing was either too shaky or it came out with broken time code. Digital gears just couldn't take the rumble and freezin temperature. It was like workin on arctic ice, trying to not shiver while the red lights on. Wish there was some kind of shock mounts I can place the camera on in near future. Maybe a Cine Saddle?

But anyway, this is what I manage to gather for a short music clip. I captured about 25 mins of video.. but even that was killing me to watch and log. Less than half would be good enuf to get into the timeline. All you hear is the low engine rumble and intermittent wind gusts missed by the dead cat I got on the Rode SVM. The high-pass filter that was on the back of that mic really helped a lot to cut off the low throttles coming fm the hogs. They're so loud that I can actually get that back by just pushing the lower 100Hz frequency up on ProTools EQ by 2-3 dBs. To think it was loud while the helmet is on. Think again when sitting in front of the monitors with bare naked ears!! No wonder the mic levels was peaking even after applying that -10dB pad!!

Anyway. Here's the final footage that I came up with in a day's edit. Hope the SLC guys will enjoy it as much as I did capturing it. Well the season's just begun. There's more of this coming up in near future I bet. Let's ride!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Dynamic Range Day with Richard Bona

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The man was here again. In was in conjunction with his new album released entitled "Ten Shades of Blue"

Somewhere in between the show some dude in between the FOH and Stage shouted "Louder!! I can't hear you!" Instantaneously another fan shouted "So shut up!" Bona smiled and said, "See? There's your answer. If you shut up and listen, you can hear me."

Bona is no stranger as a dynamic performer. Which simple means, he detests against having to play good music loudly. Bona's a few artists that I know who emphasises on a performance dynamic range instead of volume. I remember watching him play at the Zinc Bar in NYC and the house had a pretty audible air conditioning system that hummed pretty much louder than his bass amp when its turned on. He requested that they shut the AC for a while so that the music can be better appreciated. And they actually did!

And this little incident of Play Louder is certainly not to be adhered. Coz he knows the venue CultuurpodiumBoerderij has a good quiet and balanced system allowing him to sing and be audible to the point that you can hear his naked voice when he sings even softly without a microphone. What more for his bass and musicians who are connected to the Line-Array speakers on each side of the stage. For that I salute him. The Loudness War should not be brought to stage at all cost. It would kill the performance edge. Instead, Bona entertained the fans to the limit with such poise, attack and humor that yet when you leave the stage to go home, you don't get that annoying buzz in your ears. He wants you to leave home entertained with good times. Now that's what I call a class act. Right here in Zoetermeer.

If you've missed it, March 20th was officially named DynamicRangeDay which has been officialized by turnmeup.org. Its good effort to get the words out for listeners to know what they're missing from the music that they've purchased. And with tracks recorded by Richard Bona you can be certain that music is recorded and mixed the way its meant to be heard when you're there standing in front of the stage. You hear everything, nothing is taken away during the mixdown and mastering.

Thank you Bona for another great day in Zoetermeer. Yep.. the one that you called Swing City Zoetermeer! For more about Richard Bona's music, check out his website.