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Author: Dan Rudin

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U47 microphone build

7 min read

The COVID pandemic has changed so much for so many lives, mine included. Deciding to use the gift of discretionary time to full advantage I set out to do something I’ve always wanted to do – experiment with building tube microphones! (Let me be clear that I am hardly an expert on tube circuit design so please be gentle if there are any inaccuracies below.)

For a number of reasons, and fueled by our success in building four extremely musical and often used Neumann U87 clones in 2015 (read that article here), I chose this time to build a pair of U47 type mics. I am fortunate enough to own many great microphones, including 2 Telefunken U47’s (more on those in a minute) but was lacking a set of mics with what I fondly think of as “47-ness,” the warmth, open bottom end; silky smooth extended highs, and a notable proximity effect boosting lows without an inherent compression signature. (more…)

music Theme Park

SeaWorld Orlando’s new POP and Electric Ocean shows

1 min read

This Year, we were honored to compose and produce all the music for two new SeaWorld events; Pop, a bubble art show featuring 19-time Guiness World record holder Fan Yang and Electric Ocean, a night-time EDM event featuring Cirque style acts and ending in a Fireworks spectacular.

Pop was a great team effort… composition by Chris McDonald and Kurt Goebel with composition design by me and orchestrations by Chris. The score features harp and a 16 voice choir along with heavy synth work and a 64 piece orchestra.

Blog Post music Theatre

2015 Projects! Construction! Projects!

4 min read

2015 was just a crazy year with both production and construction. I would never have survived it without the tireless help of the entire team here at DRR&P.

Projects:

We started the year with a full load of productions; Sea Lion High, the new sea lion and otter show for Sea World; new Junior musical versions of Peter Pan (the 1954 musical), Honk, Dear Edwina and Anything Goes; and a new full length musical (and Jr. version) based on the animated film Madagascar! In here somewhere I also managed to mix the score for a video game; more when that’s public.

Construction:

From April to November 2015, we made it through a massive expansion of our studio building, adding a big, new orchestra recording space to studio A and an entire new studio suite, Studio D (complete with another lounge, shop, and two more bathrooms), to our facility. (more…)

Blog Post music

The Big U-87 Mic build post

1 min read

A few months back, we built four U-87 clone microphones here at the studio. They’ve since been in regular use in many of the roles an 87 might play in a busy studio; string section, saxes and other winds, lead and group vocals, guitars and amps, and they are fantastic. They have all the depth, tone, accuracy (and inaccuracy) and proximity effect signature of microphones that cost at least 6 times as much.

Since so many people have been asking for details on the build, my friend and colleague Daniel Noga, who headed the whole mic build project, did this great write up on the entire process from ordering parts to listening to the final build. (more…)

Blog Post music

Santa’s Village Parade Tokyo Disneyland

1 min read

Thought I’d share this fan video of the Christmas parade I just did in September. Though it’s hard to discern the individual float audio, you can get a rough idea of how complicated the audio production for a parade can be. There are looped sections for marches, and each float has it’s own unique overlay music and voice playback that has to be perfectly synched to the underlaying music playing through speaker systems along the parade route.

Caution: the first section loops until around 5:09… this may cause you agony, so feel free to skip ahead!

music Theatre Theme Park

Tokyo, Seattle, Orlando and more

1 min read

I just finished another two projects for Tokyo Disneyland. It’s always great to work with the creative teams form Tokyo and Orlando, and this was no different. The first project is a Big Band Christmas show composed and orchestrated by Greg Smith, the second a Christmas parade composed by Tom Rau and orchestrated by Joe Alfuso. Both were overseen by Disney Entertainment producer Rick Mizell show director Takuji Higashiyama and music director Kuniyoshi Takeda.

We recorded the orchestra at Seattle’s Studio X, a nice room with a good collection of gear and an even better collection of staff. I had the pleasure of working with Anthony DiLorenzo, a brilliant trumpet player that I happened to have gone to high school with (and hadn’t seen since; it’s a small world after all), and the guy sitting next to him was no slouch either… the venerable Allen Vizzutti.

Then back to the studios at Disney world in Orlando for vocals and mix. A lot of work but also a lot of fun.

Back home I got word that Ricardo Arjona’s latest album, Viaje, has been certified Gold and has a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Singer-Songwriter Album.

Blog Post Game Audio music

Gundam Wing – Suiting Up For The Mix

2 min read

At last I can share the latest video game release I worked on, Namco’s Gundam Wing: Blue Destiny, the newest side story remake in the Mobile Suit game set for PS3. The Gundams are mechanized battle suits (much as seen in Pacific Rim) which, along with their pilots, were made popular in Japanese comics, video and games. As you can imagine, there can be some pretty intense battles… I’d want to blow stuff up if I had a suit like that.

I mixed the score which includes some new orchestrations of the original themes as well as all new material all done by New York based composer/ orchestrator Zac Zinger (www.zaczingermusic.com). While most of the score is synthesrated (created with sampled orchestral instruments and sections,) Zac played all the winds live and added some live violin passes for enhanced phrasing. As the score is mostly battle music, the game directors wanted lots of percussion, lots of brass and lots of punch. The result is huge.

Below is the trailer for the game which, while it’s occasionally buried a bit beneath the sound design, features one of the cues from the new score. And while I’m working steadily on my Japanese, I have little idea what they are saying!

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