Day #23

The final show for the 2011 Battle of the Bands was at the Rialto. Allusion Studios was the sponsor, in fact. The six finalists were all talented bands, including Alisha Peru who recorded at the studio. She sang amazingly and I was impressed hearing her sing live! During the last band’s performance, Jim took me backstage so I could see what it was like and what went on. I thought it was the most incredible thing! It is a completely different feeling when you view the musicians from the side rather than from the front. Jim showed me the individual monitors that each band member had on stage. They each had their own mix of what they wanted to hear while on stage. Also, there was a monitor engineer who had control of what sounds would be heard in the monitors and occasionally he used his own monitor to achieve the sound the band wanted. I will never forget that experience!

Day #22

Vera Farmiga was in the studio to record voiceovers for the movie Source Code. There was a live mic in the control room and Jim used the phone patch so the producer of the trailer could be involved even though he was in another state. Vera had several lines she went through, and she said them in many different ways. Sometimes the producer for the trailer company, Adam, would tell her to say things faster and let her know when she could move on to the next line. She was polite and did exactly what he asked of her. When Jim heard her lips smacking, he gave her water to drink. It made a huge difference. When Adam was satisfied with the way the lines were said, she left the studio after being there for only a short time. Vera was polite but very direct; her visit was all business. Jim explained to me that she was probably in town for some reason and when they decided to redo her lines for a new trailer, they looked for a local studio and put her in it to work. He truly “mirrors” his clients. If they are like Vera, and are just strictly all business, he accommodates them. Yet, not all clients are like that. Some will talk for a while and hang around the studio. Jim edited the recordings and made the edits really obvious. I believe he did that because someone else would continue to edit it for the trailer. As well, he made it stereo 48kHz, 16-bit, which he told me was the number you use for video. I asked Jim if he always took clients who are famous, like Vera, even if he was busy. He said that if he can’t fit them in, then no, because he can’t do everything which I think is completely understandable. I have already seen the trailer for Source Code on television and it is extremely cool to think that I was there when she recorded those lines! I didn’t think I would have an experience like that!

I continued to work on the website like I had before. I fixed any words that may be wrong or something other than they should be.

Later, Jim told me that he wanted to put a grand piano in the live room. He has been looking for about two months and wants to find a really good one. So, Chase, Jim, and I went in there to measure the space it would take up just to see if it would fit. In addition, we measured specific places in the live room and guitar room because he is getting new acoustics. This is part of Jim’s new educational video, The Studio Edge Recording Series Vol 2.