Some of you will remember my trip to Montana last June to mix
a western swing record that had been recorded on ADAT in the
client's home.

Fiascos that I ranted about included the inability of the local studio
owner to operate his own gear, bad transfers from ADAT to Alesis
HD-24, a TC Finalizer placed in the signal path which I failed to put
in total bypass resulting in frequency specific limiting that we did not
hear in the mixing process, etc..... - with all of this being preceeded
by drum tracks that had been recorded one part at a time, household
background noises, some poorly 'synced' overdubs, yadda, yadda,
yadda. (And thanks again to all of the listeners here who helped me
to define the problems and attempt fixes).

Today I received a letter from the client saying that they'll probably be on
tour with Ian Tyson this summer, and they expect to be hitting Dallas...
probably in a room that I've been working FOH in for over 18 years.

I never thought the record would see much success and was killing myself
for not having been able to talk them into spending the money to come to
Dallas and let me record the whole shabang over again. Although I was
very impressed at the fact that someone was writing original material these
days in the vein of western swing, and I did my best given all of the mitigating
circumstances. It's not a very crowded genre, but I was again impressed
and more than a little surprised that he included the following report in his
letter...

"On another note...things have been going well with the CD. We've
gotten 7 nominations for it with the Academy of Western Artists, yee
ha!

best western swing album
best original western swing song (Swingtime in the Rockies)
best new western album
best western swing duo/group
best western swing male vocal
best western swing female vocal
best western swing instrumentalist "

Maybe it wasn't quite as rough as I had believed it was !! Apparently the
DJs in the genre are liking it, anyway. Shows to go ya'... all things aren't
necessarily as futile as one might think, and polishing the 'droppings' isn't
a lost art after all. It probably didn't hurt anything that I'm also a swing fan.

Thanks again for everyone's help, especially those that were able to pick
out the Finalizer as the source of the frequency loss. Tip o' the hat to ya'...

--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com

For some reason I thought it was Colorado, or maybe that was another
poster. But, none-the-less, good for you. This prompts me to never
toss anything out. There could be gold in them there songs. :)

DaveT

wrote in message oups.com...
For some reason I thought it was Colorado, or maybe that was another
poster. But, none-the-less, good for you. This prompts me to never
toss anything out. There could be gold in them there songs. :)

DaveT


I had a lot of group input from a rap-er in Colorado who offered to
help out close by if it was necessary. His spectrum analysis of
the frequency loss was the first to point a finger at the Finalizer
(which was hardwired into the signal path prior to the Masterlink)
for having done frequency-specific limiting. I wasn't very familiar
with the unit and was told that it was just a protection device for
the Masterlink... later discovering that the last person to use the
studio was doing some serious heavy metal.

DM

I like to think that the sound quality is of the utmost importance, but
of course, the music always wins in the end.

Glad to hear of the success!

Mike

wrote in message oups.com...

I like to think that the sound quality is of the utmost importance, but
of course, the music always wins in the end.

I do too. It's kinda' like the kids from the Dallas arts magnet high school,
Booker T. Washington... when the record I did for the jazz combo took 13
awards from Downbeat Magazine a couple of years ago... and last year's
took 9. I'd like to think quality was a part of it, but they were judging the kids
far more so than the recording. I guess in this case, the DJs who made the
nominations were listening to what the arrangers and players were getting
across more so than the quality of the product. I'm very happy for the guy
who flew me to Montana... maybe the expense won't weigh so heavily now.

DM