Monica Dominique Hammond Party @Jano

Tonight's performance at Jano were Monica Dominique on hammond and vocals. Carl-Axel Dominique on piano, flute and vocals. Rigmor Bådal on bass. Justina Lakin on drums, and Amanda Sedgwick as guest artist on saxophone and vocals.

This was the season finale and also our last night at Jano, at least as sound technicians. It has been a fun and educational time there and we have received many appreciations from the Jano staff as well as the members in the audience, which is really great! Our followers will have to work hard. Really hard. ;)

Thank you Jano for letting us have this great opportunity!

The Stage

Rigmor Bådal & Monica Dominique

Amanda Sedgwick

Carl-Axel Dominique

Me, Daniel and our mentor Mats Blomberg

Daniel and I got flowers and a season pass to Jano as a gift

Friday fun @Studio Blue

What is the best way to spend a friday evening? Recording Frida Svensson in the studio of course! ;) This time I was assisting my classmate Carin with a simultaneous recording of grand piano and contrabass.
AB miking with two Line Audio OM1, pointing at the piano, and a AKG480 pointing at the bass. We also recorded the bass via it's contact mike. At the same time as the recording they were doing some video recording for an upcoming music video!

It all went very well, and it was a catchy song that's still playing in my head. :)

Recording of temporary vocals in the control room

Shooting for a music video

Grand Piano Recording@Studio Blue

Another Grand Piano recording session at the studio, but this time I got to be the musician and play for my classmate's Kristofer's project. The microphones used in this session were Line Audio OM1.

Thanks to Rasmus for the pictures! :)

Grand Piano Recording@Studio Blue

Lots of recording sessions this week, which means lots of fun! :) Today it was time to record Emanuel playing my own piece called "Invisible" on the grand piano at Studio Blue! This time we used two AKG480C mikes in AB configuration. Now I just need to get hold of a string quartet, easier said than done...

Teamwork with Viktor

Listening carefully

The Masterpiece "Invisible" ;)

Vocal Recording@Studio Blue

Tonight I recorded the vocals for my school project song call "Satisfied" at Studio Blue. I used a pair of DPA 4050 microphones in AB-configuration. Thanks to Leo for the vocals, and Rasmus for helping me in the control room. \m/ :)

Mississippi Seven@Jano

Tonight's performance was the Mississippi Seven, playing jazz from the 20's and 30's. The setup tonight was stereo output from the piano, 3 singing / talk mikes, a lined signal from the sousaphone and a support mike for the sax.

This evening our classmates from Studio Blue were visiting, and got to see the place and how we work! To sum up; a good gig with satisfied performers and audience. :)

Next week is the final gig for this season, and it will also be the last time Daniel and I will be working there.

Missisippi Seven

The Sousaphone a.k.a Tuba Constrictor

Release of "You Remix"

Once upon a time, in 2009, one of my sisters got married and therefore I wrote a song to her and her fiancé, a song called "You". In 2012 I made a remix of that song, called "Steps".

In 2014 at Studio Blue, I made a new version of the original song for the school's song contest (see earlier post), and now I have made a new remix based on the 2014 version of "You".

Here it is! Crank it up, and enjoy! :)

Audio, Video and Lighting Expo@Älvsjömässan and another mixsession@Studio Blue

Today all students at Studio Blue went to the "Audio, Video and Lighting Expo" at Älvsjömässan as part of the school day. Unfortunately there were more video and lighting products than audio gear so it was hard to find stuff that was of my personal interest, except for a few things and the cool drones of course! ;)

Foto/Video drone

Foto/Video drone

A 3D printed drone!

Cool light

My biggest fan, Rasmus!

Some designed speakers by Void

Rasmus trying a game using Oculus Rift and Falcon 3D joysticks

Roland M-200i mixer console

Midas ProX console

After the expo, I went back to Studio Blue to do some (final?) mixing on the You Remix track. There is just one more thing I need to fix before release, so maybe I can release it later this week! :)

The A-studio at Studio Blue

Guitar recording @Studio Blue

Guitar recording session nr2 for my school project "Satisfied" was made today. Rasmus played the centered distorted electric guitar and Carloz played the electric guitar solo and also the acoustic guitar for the break and outro.

Both recordings were done in stereo with a set of DPA 4050 microphones. The amp of the electric guitar was made through a Peavey 5150 hooked up to a 4x12" cabinet, with only two speakers active.

Next on the ToDo-list is vocal recording.

Recording Carloz on acoustic guitar

Recording for a commercial@Studio Blue and Hayati Kafe & Jan Allan with Carefree Big Band@Jano

At lunch time, me and some of the other students gathered at Studio Blue to take part in a video and photo shoot session for a new Studio Blue commercial! The cool thing is that my song "Satisfied" was used during the shoot and will probably be featured in the final video! \m/
We recorded some drums to the pre-recorded guitar tracks and tried to look as natural as possible as they were filming. It's hard to act natural on command! ;)

Movie stars Selma and Rasmus

Alex and Jonas with the project leader, and Rasmus looking innocent :)

Later this day I want to Täby as usual and made the stage ready for a 19 people big band!

Tonight's performance were Hayati Kafe  & Jan Allan together with Carefree Big Band. We got to be in the auditorium once again and we used up all 8 channels on the mixer for piano(stereo miking), electric guitar, electric bass, vocal mike, a talk mike and two mikes for supporting different brass solos. The drums and most of the brass were loud on their own and were played unsupported.

Me tweaking the audio

The Stage

Jan Allan playing the trumpet

Hayati Kafe singing

Grand Piano Recording @Studio Blue

We had a special task today, and that was to record a number of  piano pupils playing the grand piano at Studio Blue. The age of the pupils were from the age under 10 years up to over 65!

Later we will edit the recordings and maybe put some effects on them, and all tracks will be compiled on a (non-commercial) CD.

It was really fun to meet many new people, most of them (if not all) without any experience from a recording studio! They all did a great job! :)

The Dynamic Duo

Top Three @Jano

Due to a water leak in the main room, tonight's gig was moved to the auditorium. Today's performance was a trio called "Top Three", with Ulf Johansson Werre (piano, trombone and vocals),  Hacke Björksten (saxophone) and Hans Backenroth (contrabass). It was the first time we were in this room, but it turned out to be a lot easier to manage the sound in there! The bass wasn't a problem at all, and was both powerful and clear and the total sound was equally good in all areas in the room.

The bass player had a small bass amp on stage which we tapped to the PA system, but we also tapped the bass contact mike and got to mix the two sources. The piano was miked with two Line Audio CM3 and the saxophone was miked with a Shure SM57, but it was barely amplified as it was loud on it's own.

The audience and the performers was very pleased with the sound, and afterwards people came to us and thanked us for the good sound! Always fun to be appreciated! :)

"Top Three"

Daniel at work

The way of the Audiophile

What happens when you have the kindest parents in the world? Well, you get a set of Ino Audio Pr24 speakers and amplifier as an early graduation gift! Love you guys! :D 

With these speakers a whole new level of audio detail emerge. They are powered by a Denon PMA-720AW integrated amplifier, a good amp that's very affordable. The speakers are resting on (blue) Sonic Design pads, and  another good thing is that I no longer hear the computer's CPU-noise in the speakers which I did with the HS80s.

The next thing on my wish list is to get some acoustic treatment for the room, but as a lodger and a student things are a bit more complicated. :) When I get my own place again, and can make a dedicated listening room, acoustic treatment and correct placing of the speakers will be top priority.

Recording and editing@Studio Blue

A long day full of music recording and editing! Started in the morning with a vocal recording practice session for my own music production school project song called "Satisfied". Also made a quick recording of myself, singing a vocal demo for a Swedish song that's in the making.

Got to use one of the mixing rooms pretty much the whole afternoon, and spent the time trying to find a good kicks and snare for the "You Remix". Oh, I'm still searching. ;) Also made some changes to "WTF?" and also put together a quick demo of the Swedish song-to-be. Still not sure what the name of the song will be, but it will probably be "Ensamheten" (the loneliness).

In the evening I had a reservation to use the A-studio, so I continued to work on the "You Remix".

So that was about 9 hours of work today. :)

Practice vocal session in the B-studio with Leo.

Afternoon editing of a three different songs in the small mix room.

Continued editing of 'You Remix' in the A-studio.

Acoustic guitar recording@Studio Blue

Today at school we recorded acoustic guitar for a classmate's "music production project". Using my classmate's own microphones the setup was AB miking with Line Audio OM1 for rhythm chords, with an additional Line Audio CM3 for mono recording of the melody part.

Needless to say; good fun in the studio! :)

M A Numminen@Jano

Tonight at Jano the main act was M A Numminen, the Finnish guy probably most known for the "Gummiboll" song, well at least for me. On piano and accordion was also Pedro Hietanen, and they both did a fun and appreciated show. This will most likely be the first and only time we put a mike on a telephone book, on which Numminen played as a drum! ;)

The opening act was Martin Åklint Trio with Annie Ternström, four youngsters that also played some great songs and got loud applauds!

The bass player in the opening act didn't have his own bass amplifier, which gave us total control over the bass sound this time. The room has some resonances in the low end frequencies when there are amps put on the floor behind the musicians, but tonight it wasn't a problem and the bass was clear and every tone played could easily be heard.

M A Numminen & Pedro Hietanen

Martin Åklint Trio with Annie Ternström