2014 was such a wonderful year for us. Among the many, many wonderful projects, The Chris McDonald Jazz Orchestra’s No Pews Required and two big album releases in Latin music, Oscar d’Leon’s Classicos de Big Band and Ricardo Arjona’s Viaje were especially fun to contribute to. (more…)
Tag: Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens Celtic Fyre
Here’s a video taken by an audience member at a performance of Busch Gardens new musical, “CelticFyre”. I recorded and mixed the music for play-back with music director/arranger Gary Lensenmayer. The majority of the tracks were recorded here at my studio, with the Celtic dance sections at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin with composer Colm O’Foghlu. I think the choreography and cast are great. Check it out, it’s in three parts if you get hooked!
Tracking Fun
April, May and June have brought a ton of fun recording to my studio.
Disney Theatrical returned once again for 2 new recordings of Aladdin… a kids show and a Dual (Spanish and English) language version. Arranger/ Orchestrator/ Composer Bryan Louiselle was in for production duty along with concept creator Ken Cerniglia. Orchestra recording was done here and at the Tracking Room.
Busch Garden’s Gary Lensenmayer came to town to record tracks for a new show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. A Cirque de Soleil style show, we had a 4 piece rhythm section, 13 strings, 6 brass and 2 woodwinds.
Super-producer Pablo Manavello brought a new pop/rock artist from Italy to track her new project (name to be released). The band consisted of some bad-ass players from Miami… Pablo on guitars, Fernando Perdomo on bass and electric guitar, Derek Cintron on drums. Pat Coil joined us on keyboards to round things out. Very, very cool project; details to follow.
I mixed a song for cuban actor/ singer Alexis Valdez, produced by Jose Miguel Velasquez.
I also wrote and produced 2 remix tracks of Carl Douglas’s 70’s hit “Charmer”. One is a Hip hop/ R&B style track featuring rapper A-J-A. The other is a more straight up House track. Carl is persistent in his quest for a fresh take on some of his classic songs.
Here are some recent highlights
And finally, here is one of the Opel commercials airing in europe
Update (lots of stuff)
It has arrived! A new Power Mac 8 core (“the Ocho”) and Protools HD3 Accel is now in service as the main PT rig in Studio A.
Work on tracking room A2 got completed JUST enough to host sessions for the new broadway adaptation of Disney’s High School Musical 2. Music adapter/ arranger/ composer Bryan Louiselle was in from NYC to produce and conduct. Mixing for the project is in progress.
Gary Lensenmayer, music director for Busch Gardens, was in to record tracks for the theme park’s hard rock Halloween shows. We all had WAY too much fun getting paid to record a bunch of classic rock tracks!
Miami producer (and drummer extrodinaire) Lee Levin was in to capture some pedal steel overdubs, played by Russ Pahl, for an new album by Latin artist Ricardo Arjona. Our brand new radio page technology was used so that co-producer Dan Warner could join the session from miami… it was a big sucess.
I recorded string section overdubs for urban gospel great Dave Hollister’s second release on Zomba records, “Witness Protection”. The orchestrations were done by the legendary Chris McDonald.
Finally, but certainly not least, Composers/ songwriters Larry Lees and Amanda Morton were in for several days to record the score to a new musical theater work “16 days”. If the score is any indication, the show promises to be worthy of note. Pianist Steve Kummer, along with Craig Nelson on bass, John Hammond on drums and Eric Darken on percussion really helped take the project to another level. Certainly a treat for me to produce and engineer.
Musicians for this 16 days and Busch Gardens were contracted by DSB Music, a partnership between Dan Rudin and Chris McDonald to further the turn key services offered through Dan Rudin Audio Productions.