If you’re building out a space for a recording studio, you should check this new-ish product Roxul out. I’m in no way affiliated with the people at Roxul, who might be cool or they might be total bastards.
The styrofoam you see in the pictures was pulled from the trash in New York City to have a more environmentally responsible space.
Mr. Vanderslice is an accomplished recording engineer. I’ve seen articles about him and his San Francisco studio. I dig the way his records sound — he really gets some great tones and creates a very intimate sound.
His arrangements are very complex, sometimes to the point where the arrangement overcomes the song.
This tune, Sea Salt, does not lose its focus as a song. It’s very engaging, and the sort of demented one off piano notes/broken melody is really creative. The whole tune moves and changes without feeling like too much. It stood above the other tunes on the record, and any song that starts with the line ‘Sun shines on the Gaza strip’ gets respect for boldness.
Here’s some music I put out:
Here’s how I spent much of my Thanksgiving weekend. The green batts are Roxul, which is a relatively new insulation product made out of rock. The yellow is clean foam donated by friends who don’t want to throw perfectly good foam out on the street. The white boxes are high end New York City grape boxes stuffed with styrofoam gathered on the street.
That’s right very green and very ghetto.
Mike Gamble’s improvised, downtempo guitar/drums dub influenced record Loomer is in stores today.
You can hear it here:
http://thecrosspollinator.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/mike-gamble-loomer-mp3/
Those are California table grape boxes.
It doesn’t get much more ghetto than that.
Added note: If you are a free jazz listener or an open minded music listener, I would really like to add you to my email list. I promise to respect your mailbox. Send me a note at steven dot engine at gmail dot com. Thanks for finding this page.
Here is a video clip of Kidd Jordan, Warren Smith, and Harrison Bankhead playing/tracking music for the record On Fire which is going to be released on my label Engine Studios on October 14, 2011.
You can buy some or all of the music on this record here:
kidd: http://kiddjordanonfire.bandcamp.com/
In case you were unaware (and I spaced out) if you have foams on your headphones they do affect the sound of the phones and are not just there for comfort.
The foam filters out bass and if you let them get too thin and busted your music listening pleasure will decrease.
Just tryin to help out.
music
I’m listening to the title track from Taylor Swift’s new record, Speak Now. I really can’t believe how sharp and unconvincing it sounds. I am a guitar player and I know how an acoustic guitar sounds in a room. It doesn’t sound like it does on this track. I don’t believe her voice could possibly be without any resonance — she sounds like an 8-year old girl with a tiny chest cavity. The human voice is supposed to resonate in the body when a person sings.
Folks need to consider the possibility that people would buy more music if it sounded better and more convincing.
