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.
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…)
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…)
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!
There are so many wonderfully documented mic shoot-outs, comparisons and evaluations (some of which are exhaustive) that it would seem that everything that can be said, has. But recently, after modding one of my pairs of ribbon mics ( I put Lundahl transformers into one of my pairs of Cascade Fat-Head mics), I was setting up for a comparison test between the un-modded and modded mics when I decided to add another 4 different ribbon mics and place them all in front of a guitar amp. Some of the results were just as expected, but a few were surprising, even after using some of these mics for decades, and I felt that this was too fun not to share.
The contestants:
note – Because I was using electric guitar for the test, I left a few of my favorite ribbons out, like (more…)
Over the years, I’ve printed a few audio recording, midi and music business tutorials and “how to’s” that have received much positive response from readers. The other day I was having a difficult time locating one of the older posts for myself, so I decided to put together a short list of links to the favorites.
Thanks to those who’ve taken the time to email and continue discussions on these topics.
Well, I’ve now lived in Nashville for almost 24 years, and it’s no secret that I’ve enjoyed watching the city grow up (as I hope I have), and that I really love being a part of a music community unlike any other. Recently, as a city, Nashville seems to be receiving some surprising, if well deserved, attention that I thought I’d share.
Last year, I composed and produced the score to a television commercial for Germany’s passenger rail system, Deutsche bahn. Though we do quite a bit of commercial music for Europe, the spot, beautifully shot, very edgy and very funny, was a bit different than anything I’d done to date with my sister company IV Music, so I really didn’t know how it would be received.
Apparently it was received well! The spot, called Der Chef Kommt, won 8 awards including 2 New York Festivals Awards, EuroBest, Effie, EPICA and 3 DDP Awards. If you don’t know what these awards are… well, neither do I, but it’s always nice to have something I scored get some thumbs ups.
In the score, I was asked to strongly convey the feeling of ennui that the office workers might feel, then move straight to a buffo, Big-Valley Western gunslinger as the Boss arrives back at the office, EARLY, because he’s taken the new rail system instead of driving. No problem… we all know what ennui sounds like, right? Remarkably, my first draft was accepted with a minor revision to the vocal in the second half. It was a great gig.
You can find the long version of this spot on the video side of my work page. Here’s the short version of the commercial
And here is a great article on IV and what CEO/ CCO Steve Keller is doing with audio branding.
Producing music for theatrical productions presents many challenges you don’t often face when doing record, film or tv work. Whether for a Broadway style show or, in the case of “Shamu’s Rockin’ Creepshow”, a multi-media, live animal production, there are dialog, SFX, natural animal noises and odd playback systems to contend with. I find that a first-hand knowledge of the end use and venue can really informs my composition and production decisions for each project. (more…)
Recording the Equinox Jazz Orchestra with members of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra
Last week, I recorded two very different, very exciting projects. First, Equinox Jazz Orchestra leader Jeremy Davis came to town with conductor Tommy Brinson, arranger/co-producer Bach Norwood, and singers Clay Johnson and Adam Jones. Recording for their new CD took place at Sound Emporium Studio A with members of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra filling the chairs. (more…)
