Treasures are sometimes hard to find, hiding at a place you wouldn’t expect. This song is just like that. Transparant is the third and last song from Mensergerjeniet and to be honest I didn’t ever get really enthusiast about it after the recordings.
But I had to change my opinion. A lot. When I started processing the recordings earlier this month (about 30 audiotracks and 20 effecttracks), they proved to generate a very open and clearly song.
The clearly rimclicks by Paul in combination with the sound of a woodblock, Bart’s lovely muted trumpet solo, the step back taken by the complete band when Dirk plays his solo on guitar, Paul who’s creating his own moment during a break at the end of the song: transparant truly is a treasure!
The Audio Engineer course at SAE is almost finished. Time to hand in the final project. My first attempt was too ambitious, but fortunately I could learn from my mistakes and was allowed to work at a project that earlier visitors probably recognize.
Stop the press! Grab a rubber, tipex, or just old-skool strike it out, but we definitely need to correct history. It was not 4 kleine woordjes that Mensergerjeniet and I wanted to record in the first place in March 2009, but de maat is vol. 4 kleine woordjes was one of the two songs that were recorded in no-time. Nice.
So, de maat is vol it is. For everyone that wondered since July 11th (the date of the previous post) where the other two songs were: here it is. Mensergerjeniet song number two. This time with keys.
Click the mp3 box below to listen. Just below that you can leave your comments!
Mensergerjeniet is a swinging Dutch ska & reggae band. Inspired by “Doe Maar“, a popular Dutch band from his youth, Roy (singer, guitarplayer & writer) started searching for musicians with the same ideas of making music.
We come in contact October 2008. The band already recorded two songs in a studio before but it did not lead to much – the result was never made available to the public. Despite that, they would like to give another studiosession a try.
Mensergerjen!et
Finally we are in a studio on an early morning in March 2009 to record drums and bass of their song 4 kleine woordjes. After the setup, tuning and adjusting drums and microphones (thanks Marco de Jongh for your help!), which takes a lot of time, we have a successful recording after a few takes. While you might come off very well with a little error in a live situation, the studio is very honest and relentless.
Sure enough, we have 45 minutes left before the studio closes, and suddenly the band can’t be stopped. Is it Dirk, the solo guitarplayer, who comes by to socialize and plays along with his trousers up to the ankles? Two more songs are being recorded in no time. At the end of day one, we have the foundation of three instead of one song!
But there’s still a lot of work to be done: two guitarplayers, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and three vocalists: every single one of them comes to the studio to record their piece. Despite my fiery wish there’s is no more time to record percussion.
I started mixing the first of the three songs this month. 4 kleine woordjes (4 little words – you might be surprised once you know which) comes out very well. It’s hard not to move your feet while listening!
Check their website if you care for a swinging and cheerful concert with catching ska! We might meet each other. Don’t be surprised about Dirk’s trousers
Click on the mp3 box below to listen to 4 kleine woordjes.
‘Acoustic slow rock’. That’s how aran describes his own music. It’s definitely acoustic & slow. If it’s rock you have to see by yourself.
We meet in January 2009 during my work as an audio engineer at popei, when he is the support act at a concert, armed with only his acoustic guitar.
MS stereo
Aran visits me in the SSL studio in Rotterdam one month later. On a friday afternoon, we record 5 songs. It takes some time to find the his most pleasent way of recording, and to find the most suitable microphones and their placement for this job, but once that’s been sorted out, we’re on a roll.
In the studio of Theo Vogelaars (ex Tröckener Kecks), aran already recorded an EP. My goal is to create a warmer, opener and more honest sound. Using an MS stereo microphone technique certainly helped. You can listen to the songs by clicking on the mp3 boxes below.
The cooperation with Chasing Tales continues after the demo we recorded earlier. On Wednesday June 3 we will again work together at Rotterdam Rocks in the venue called Exit. Doors open at 21:00 hours, entrance € 3,-.
May I have your attention please? Attention for detail that is…
Chasing Tales
October or november 2008. Once again I am visiting a band while they’re rehearsing. Chasing Tales would love to record a demo and their earlier work was nice enough to visit them.
They play two songs for me that evening. I choose Melody because of it’s composition. The song has a nice combined action of the guitars and a surprisingly end. Thomas, the drummer, plays along well with the metronome, even after I remove his sight to it so he can only hear it. It’s a little test. In the studio he can’t see the metronome as well.
De telegraaf 19 november 2008
When we record their Melody on three Sundays by the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, the 4 gentleman of Chasing Tales definitely give attention to detail. They are not easily satisfied: they had to play perfectly in the various studio’s at SAE in Rotterdam, where Maarten Reinen was so kind to assist and donate studiotime.
During february and march I mix the song using Apple’s Logic. One final meeting at SAE follows for the finishing touch.
The attention to details pays off, if you ask me. But don’t hesitate to click on the mp3-box below and judge for yourself.
Below you can find some videos of the Harvest Moon concert at Popei. I created the monitor- and front of house mix. The videos are filmed by the popei crew; the sound has been taken directly from the mixing desk combined with a pair ambience microphones in the ceiling. Too bad the videoguys once again swapped the left and right audio channels…
Be sure to click the HQ button. Youtube’s sound gets so much better less worse in the HQ version
One of the final assignments at SAE’s course to audio engineer is a postproduction one. One needs to create a soundtrack with music and effects, among others, to go along with an existing movie without any sound. I’ve worked on a edited version of Lifted by Pixar. Fred Westra was kind enough to compose beautiful music for this movie.
The soundtrack is mixed in Dolby surround 5.1 using Protools HD. Several sounds are self-recorded, while some of them were found on the internet. I estimate that I have worked 40 hours on this. So don’t blink your eyes, ’cause before you know it you miss one hour of fine labour
A few video’s from a concert of the band Too red, recorded at Popei. I created the monitor and front of house mix using a 48 channel Aztec Audient mixingconsole. Unfortunately the gig wasn’t recorded by the popei-crew, which is why the recording is of less quality, using just one mic mounted on the camera.
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