2 posts from April 2008

Watch or listen to the Chris Pierce live session here

Watch or listen to the Tjupurru live session here

I mixed two feel good performances this week...  Chris Pierce with his "neo-sou"l and Tjupurru playing the digiribone.  Chris Pierce and band just made me feel good that day, they were excited to perform and a bunch of nice and talented guys.  Among the band was Jon Butcher on guitar, who has had a long and successful career of his own with a Grammy nomination.

The didjeribone

Tjupurru walked in with a didjeribone, ( see above) fx pedals in his bag and a few tricks up his sleeve.  When members of the KCRW staff walked into the studio to watch, they asked me if he was playing to recorded tracks. When I showed them that there were no recorded tracks, they were amazed that everything was coming from one person.  I think of the music as aboriginal trance music with some hip hop in it.  This is a performance worth watching if you get a chance. (here) There was a great trick with a pitcher of water that he did live on the air. 

The interview ran out of time before the conversation could touch on some of his incredible stories: From his plight to share the stories of his aboriginal heritage and the suffering of his people in their own country, to the people he has met and played with over the years.  He has many stories to tell and uses his unique talent as great way for him to spread the word and open doors.

Watch or listen to The Black Keys live session here

BK_Guys

Hold on to your seat here come the Black Keys!  With all the sessions Ray Guarna and I do in our studio, the goal is to bring you big time studio quality sound.  Sometimes We get in a groove and reach for a certain microphone that we know works all the time.  But when guys like the Black Keys come in- anything is game. 

The two-man duo comprising the Black Keys is singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. They definitely have an ear for what they want their signature sound to be.  They asked me to get some grit on the vocal and get that squashed drum sound in the mix and helped me acomplish this in a few ways.  For Dan's vocals I ran it not only through our trusty Grace mic pre, I also ran it back into an Avalon 737, hit it with the compession and gave it that overloaded sound.  For the drums we used a room mic going thru another Avalon (squashed) and a grouping of the drum mics going into a vintage 1176 limiter (pegged the meter the whole time). 

Avalonhammered

During sound check we taped a song and then the guys would come into the control room to listen. When the blend was right, I got the aproval and we went to air.  Although I was aware of what I was doing, it kind of played with my mind. Usually, hearing distortion and the overloading of the gear makes me quickly back off the gains and try to fix something.  The guys are also their own engineers so with their aproval I knew I was doing something right. 

I made a note on our archive notes thinking how funny it will be when years from now somebody listens and wonders what was going on...  I wrote, "Distortion Intentional."

Mario Diaz
KCRW Sound Engineer