More about Pale. Steve Christensen and I have had a chance to live with the mixes for 5 days now, and we are still super pumped. All of the feedback on the songs have been positive, and I am unable to find any deal buster faults. Calvin is supposed to get me some press kits tomorrow, (with pictures). I am conflicted about sending out unmastered mixes. I need to talk to Calvin and Tim and get them to nut up for a proper mastering job. The material is just too good not to give it the final push. Plus, going through another set of trusted ears would be great.

FYI: We did not use any digital reverbs at all on the mixes, only our EMT plate, the natural room sound on the drums, and the crazy warehouse speaker/chamber set up we created. Jeff Price from Esotype Records was kind enough to say we had created a 'sound that he had never heard before'. I am truely humbled by his comment, (and I agree).

Tonight!!!! I get to hear Donnie Vondra's latest song he has written. I have also talked with vocal coach extraordinere, Leslie Lundquist about her work with Courtney Powers. I am VERY pumped about that project.

Finally, the word from the UK is that Sarah Sharp is appearing on the front page of newspapers, on the BBC in interviews and playlists, and her shows are selling out. Kevin and I can't wait to get her back here to work.

OH YEAH, Jeff Skiba turned up on my cell phone, AND on the email. Welcome back to cyberspace Jeff, I've missed you. (Check out Jeff's work at www.garageband.com -- he did great!)

OH YEAH AGAIN, I saw MiracleVersusMan last night and they were incredible, and almost indescribable. You must hear them and see them. Start at www.esotyperecords.com

thelove,
Dan

on to country music land

Pale!!!!!

It's done. Yes, the Pale mixes went down big and bold this weekend. I will have more to report soon, but I have to rejoin the human race slowly as to not burn up on reentry. The quick report is that the songs turned out better than I thought they ever could. MVP goes to engineer Steve Christensen, for the WAY HUGE drum sound, and MVP runner up has to go the Pale frontman, Calvin, for his incredible focus and positive vibe during every part of the process.

Highlights include a brief hang during the mix sessions by Jeff Price and Jason Jordan of Esotype Records, (and MiracleversesMan), and an appearance by Mark Ellis, who picked up a copy of the recently mastered Mark Needs A Chick CD.

In other news, Kevin Ryan, Courtney Powers, and I began work on her songs today at Casa Ryan on the north side. Kevin's work on 'Stay' was focused and very cool. I wrote a song inspired by Courtney's lyrics, tentatively titled, 'You Lose'. (Actually, Kevin's dog, Peanut, is the co writer, but I digress).

I'll post again when I can think straight. PALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very late......very tired... must...conserve........energy.


TONS! to report on Pale sessions. Yes, we got the guitars tracked big, bold, and in tune. The vocals went down smooth. I am taking a micro break from editing down in SugarHill Studio B. We mix tomorrow and it looks to be really good.

Back to work.

thelove,
-d

It's Father's Day!

This means that I've got a day off, and man, do I need it. Summer recording sessions and summer family stuff has my schedule packed!

Last night I took the fam. to see Mark Needs a Chick at Java Jazz. Their turnout was amazing, especially considering that the Chili Peppers were playing about 10 minutes away. They easily had 50 kids there. The band played a ferocious set, and in general, kicked major ass for about 50 minutes (one minute per fan?). I felt really proud watching Mark, Josh, and Andrew. They looked , sounded, and acted like total pro's. I cannot wait to work with them in the studio again, (so sell a TON of records, guys).

While we were there, we also saw the band, Next Best Thing, who just finished a CD with engineer John Griffin at SugarHill Studios. Their set was pretty impressive, as well. I can't wait to hear how John's mixes came out.

In other news, I cut vocal demos for songs for Donnie Vondra last weekend, (finally). We have been in long term pre production, for, well, a long time. I am beginning to wonder if my work with Donnie is in preparation for a next step with another producer. I know our vocal prepro has been great, but I'm beginning to suspect that Donnie needs one of Nashville's insiders to lift him up where he belongs. I have discussed this with him, and he always professes great confidence in our work, SO.... I'll keep doing what I know how to do.

I met with a band named Osirus this week. They are looking to make a better sounding record. They are unsigned and willing to nut up for the experience. They are pretty talented in the most important 'band ways', ie. their singer can sing quite well, and their songs are not bad at all--the arrangements are even pretty good. I am going to do a rehearsal with them to see what comes next. Most interesting is that they have a bass player named 'Chicken'. (I swear).

In other news, Kevin Ryan and I have had our last song/brainstorm session with Courtney Powers. Kevin has now gone off to his own studio to do what he does best: work his genius magic on his own turf, generating beautiful ideas recorded onto usable tracks. (More will be revealed).

I still have not finished Courtney's Production Agreement. My office finally was moved this week, and I am tired of the excuses I have offered up to the world at large regarding my lack of organization. (Sorry, Dick).

In other Workman/Ryan production news; Sarah Sharp leaves for a 3 week tour of the UK tomorrow. Good luck, and come back ready to do an album!!!!

Most painful to me still, is my latest Pale produciton report. We showed up Thursday to record the guitars. Calvin, Rob, and (not-really)-British Brian played great! Then I noticed some relative tuning issues caused by the guitars needing to be adjusted and intonated. I got over wanting to punish the guys for not taking care of that chore, and we persevered. Steve got some great sounds, going as far to use the wrong side of a Beyer ribbon mic (on purpose,.... well, mostly). When I reviewed our work, I found that we had spent most of the day cutting parts that sounded fined with their doubles, but did not stand up well with each other. Big relative tuning issues due to 1) my missing the obvious by not monitoring the whole mix more closely, and 2) the fact that the arrangement of both songs have a fairly 'narrow' melodic movement in the chords, with lots of unison guitar parts. SO....were going to cut 'em again!!! Whatever it takes. These songs rock, they are played well, and the band is incredible, so I'm going to make SURE that everything is right. I'll take the heat on this one.

Finally, Robbie Parrish, and Cyd Macname (sp), showed up with a singer/songwriter/homerecordist named John Calcagni from Akron, Ohio. He operates under the name, Poor Little Saturday, poorlittlesaturday@ameritech.net. He is doing amazing things, and wants Robbie and I to produce a record for him. I am VERY excited by his work. His influences and instincts are SPOT ON, and he can sing very well. I don't know how this is going to work, but I hope it does because he is the real deal.

yet again, more will be revealed....
thelove,
Dan

It's Father's Day!
This means that I've got a day off, and man, do I need it. Summer recording sessions and summer family stuff has my schedule packed!

Last night I took the fam. to see Mark Needs a Chick at Java Jazz. Their turnout was amazing, especially considering that the Chili Peppers were playing about 10 minutes away. They easily had 50 kids there. The band played a ferocious set, and in general, kicked major ass for about 50 minutes (one minute per fan?). I felt really proud watching Mark, Josh, and Andrew. They looked , sounded, and acted like total pro's. I cannot wait to work with them in the studio again, (so sell a TON of records, guys).

While we were there, we also saw the band, Next Best Thing, who just finished a CD with engineer John Griffin at SugarHill Studios. Their set was pretty impressive, as well. I can't wait to hear how John's mixes came out.

In other news, I cut vocal demos for songs for Donnie Vondra last weekend, (finally). We have been in long term pre production, for, well, a long time. I am beginning to wonder if my work with Donnie is in preparation for a next step with another producer. I know our vocal prepro has been great, but I'm beginning to suspect that Donnie needs one of Nashville's insiders to lift him up where he belongs. I have discussed this with him, and he always professes great confidence in our work, SO.... I'll keep doing what I know how to do.

I met with a band named Osirus this week. They are looking to make a better sounding record. They are unsigned and willing to nut up for the experience. They are pretty talented in the most important 'band ways', ie. their singer can sing quite well, and their songs are not bad at all--the arrangements are even pretty good. I am going to do a rehearsal with them to see what comes next. Most interesting is that they have a bass player named 'Chicken'. (I swear).

In other news, Kevin Ryan and I have had our last song/brainstorm session with Courtney Powers. Kevin has now gone off to his own studio to do what he does best: work his genius magic on his own turf, generating beautiful ideas recorded onto usable tracks. (More will be revealed).

I still have not finished Courtney's Production Agreement. My office finally was moved this week, and I am tired of the excuses I have offered up to the world at large regarding my lack of organization. (Sorry, Dick).

I've mentioned Adam.....

Well, my engineering gig with Adam Berry took a new turn tonight. For the first time ever, Adam had his band (posse?) with him while recording vocals and doing bass corrections. I mean the WHOLE band. This was a great move. Adam has actually assembled a cohesive team who are focused on the songs themselves while defering to Adam as the principle songwriter. (This is very rare in my experience).

I missed having my daughter, Joe Ann, intern for me today. She is becoming very useful!

Finally, Mark Ellis reports that the Mark Needs a Chick mixes we completed last week are turning up all over, (this is a good thing).
I am pumped!!!!

going home to see mrs. workman (!)

OhMyGod!!!!

So much has been happening at SugarHill Studios. Most important stuff first: Thursday, Steve Christensen, and I tracked Pale's rhythm section for the two songs I have been hired to produce, ('Glowing Black' and 'Love Me More'). Steve and I showed up at 9:30am to prepare for a 12 noon studio call. We started out by making sure that the tracking room in Studio A was free and clear of any other drums so we would have a nice tight room. Once we cleared it out, we started setting up a monster collection of drum mics. The most unusual call we made was to use Neumann U-87's on the top heads of the toms. They sounded really big, not as overamped as our normal 421's. We set up a pair of Neumann KM-86's widely spaced in the room, and for good measure, we set up a Neumann U-67 above Travis' (Pale's drummer's) head. That mic we ran really hot so it would distort the 2" analog tape.

All this prep would have been for naught if either the drummer sucked (he didn't, he was fantastic), or if the kit sounded like ass, (it didn't, Robbie Parrish produced an amazing drum sound). The drums went down incredibly well, then it was time for the bass.

I had followed Steve Christensen's advice, and rented an Ampeg SVT Classic III and cabinet from local backline supplier, (and killer drum tuner/tech), Toby Davis. Steve had used it on a Slovak Girl recording, and I was impressed. Anyway, as an experiment, I nutted up for the rental and delivery, and crossed my fingers that it would be worth it. Well, HELL yeah it was. Stephen, (Pale's bassist), came ready to rock. By the time we set up the rig, mic'd it, tweeked it, and found the sound, Stephen was ready with new strings on the bass. He totally smoked his parts in just a couple of takes!!! They sounded really awesome. For the song, "Glowing Black", we cranked the amp until it just started to distort, then backed it off a bit and the tone just flowed from Stephen's fingers. On "Love Me More" we tried a more aggressive, (read: distorted) tone, and once again, Stephen just owned the sound by playing a really great part.

At the end of the day, we had an unbelievably tight, focused, and rocking rhythm section. Next we will do guitars and keys, I believe, on Thursday, June 12th. In the mean time I will be doing some more vocal pre production with Calvin and (not- really-)British Brian.

Today Kevin Ryan and I worked together to track vocals on Craig Byrnes' song: Blue Day. Craig delivered a really passionate, authentic sounding rock vocal. Kevin is SUCH a bad influence on me......before I knew it I was compressing Craig's vocal with an 1176 limiter with all the buttons pushed in....( 'nuke' mode ). It sounded great. If I had tried that stunt without Kevin's supernatural compression vibe, it would have sucked.

After we finished tracking the vocals, Kevin engineered while I laid in a distorted guitar part on the choruses. Kevin plans to get me a different bass part to round out the tracking on this tune. We mix the first week in July, and Craig is going to have a really great song on his hands.

After Kevin and I finished, we recapped our plans for Courtney Powers, and the looming Sarah Sharp record. We are both really excited about these two projects. We are hoping to reach critical mass on both projects next week and get started recording.

Finally. This is the obituary of my cool office upstairs at SugarHill. For those who have met and worked with me there during the past year, you know my office as the cool sanctuary above the scene at SugarHill. Well, we have decided to move Studio C, (our ProTools mixing/editing suite) into that space. Yours truly will be inhabiting the current Studio C room when it gets finished being renovated. I have already mourned the loss, and have embraced the change. Everyone, including me and all of our clients will LOVE the improved acoustics, and the private surroundings of the new Studio C.

More Adam Berry tracking this weekend, and a (now rare) vocal session with Donnie Vondra.

thelove,
Dan

Busy, busy....


Adam Berry tracking went well. It was nice to sit back and worry just about presentation, (even though I did the Obiwan Kanobe, , advice thing a lot).

I am headed downstairs to track Pale with Steve Christensen today! Whoo-Who!! I'll have a big report on this high-concept session.

laterlove,
Dan