Hey everybody!  Hope everyone is getting ready to have a great Winter holiday with lots of family, friends, and food!  I added a couple videos for you to check out some of the rehearsal at the Musician’s Union.  Just a few small clips so that you can get an idea of the music and the scope of the project!  Still more on its way!  Don’t touch that dial!

Your Livable Garden is a radio show that I produce every week for broadcast every Saturday on KSEV700 AM.  At 15+ years, it is the longest-running landscape architectural show in the nation.  Every week, the hosts, Shawn and Blinda Kelly come to the studio with a bottle of wine and 2 hours of the most interesting gardening/landscaping/pool stories, tips and jokes.  It’s a very amusing show and I recommend you checking it out if you get the chance.  It airs Saturday mornings from 6:00 am – 8:00 am.

To record the show, I use a Shure SM7B on Shawn and an EV RE-20 on Blinda.  The mics are patched to a pair of AMEK PurePath Channel Strips, with filters and dynamics applied.  The calls are recorded with a Comrex DH20 patch, I make my little comments with a SM57 (going through an Audient  mic pre) and everything is mixed live on a Mackie HUI in Pro Tools.

It’s a lot of fun and we are glad to have Shawn and Blinda working here at Tierra Studios!

Welcome to the beginning of Tierra Studios’ adventure into extreme recording.  We have recently begun a project involving Bernie Hatch, Dennis Dodson, and Dr. Robert Linder – just to name a VERY small few.  We began rehearsal for the first segment of recording on November 4th at the AFM union hall.  The orchestra is rehearsing 2 original jazz pieces written by Bernie Hatch.  Much, much more to come about this project! Stay Tuned!

HOUSTON TROMBONE PLAYER THOMAS HULTÉN
DEBUTS ON CD “SLIDE SIDE,”
TO BE RELEASED BY TIERRA STUDIOS ON OCTOBER 19, 2009

Trombonist Thomas Hultén debuts with Slide Side, a collection of ten original tunes and three jazz standards, set for release by Houston’s Tierra Studios on October 19, 2009.

“To be able to realize one’s musical visions with full artistic freedom is every musician’s dream,” says Hultén. “I’m really excited about this album, and I feel that we’ve accomplished our goal: world-class jazz, written and produced in Houston, Texas.”

Hultén is joined on the recording by his Houston-based ensemble consisting of pianist Pamela York, guitarist Mike Nase, bassist David Craig, and Joel Fulgham on drums. Slide Side is augmented by local jazz greats such as Dennis Dotson, former Woody Herman trumpeter and Warren Sneed, Director of Jazz Studies at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

“You can really hear the years of experience these musicians have when you listen to the songs,” says engineer Glenn Wheeler. “Getting to record the talent this group brought to the studio was truly a pleasure.”

Slide Side also features orchestral backing for Hultén and his ensemble on several selections. Strings were arranged by Daniel Kramlich and conducted by producer Dr. Robert Linder.

“When Thomas sat down at the piano and played me a few phrases from a number of his original tunes, I knew he had something special to say–through his musicianship,” says Dr. Linder. I thought, “WOW! What a combination–a fabulous trombonist that can write and arrange great tunes! ”

Thomas Hultén started playing trombone at the age of ten in the local Salvation Army Band in his hometown of Katrineholm, Sweden. After completing his military service with the Swedish Army Band in 1984, he studied trombone performance at the Gothenburg Conservatory with Ingemar Roos as his primary teacher. After graduating, he won a position with the Bohus Big Band, one of Sweden’s two professional big bands.

Since moving to Houston in 1997, he has performed with Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow, Patti Austin, Johnny Mathis, Michael Bolton, the Moody Blues, the Temptations, the Four Tops and the O’Jays. He performs regularly with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet, Theatre under the Stars, and the Houston Grand Opera, of which he was recently named principle trombonist.

Slide Side is the latest album in a series of jazz releases that features prominent Houston jazz musicians, produced by Tierra Studios. The first CD in the series is No Worries, featuring saxophonist Larry Slezak, available on iTunes and at http://www.larryslezak.com.

For more information, contact Larry Murphy at 713-686-1953 or lmurphy@tierrastudios.com.

The CD release party for Thomas Hultén’s album Slide Side was an amazing success. Many people came together at Tierra Studios from 6:00 pm until almost 10:00 pm on Monday, October 19th. There was music, mingling, food, and a few drinks floating around, as we celebrated the second release in Tierra Studios’ jazz series. We would like to extend a very special thanks to Kathryn Sherman, Jim Sherman, Traey Hatch, Glenn Wheeler, Dr. Robert Linder, Thomas Hultén, Dan Kramlich, Lana Smith, Andrea Sedeno, all the FMI staff, and everyone else that was involved in this project from start to finish. We couldn’t have done it without each and everyone of you!!!!

Just checkin in, internet world!!! I’m here in the studio today doing voice-over sessions. These are always fun because you get to hear people do the voices that you hear on TV. Not sure what spots we are doing yet, but these sessions are always pretty fun and interesting. Hope everyone else out there is enjoying what is probably the most beautiful day of 2009.

Here is the Pay Pal link to purchase Thomas’ album!!!! Buy one, five, or however many your heart desires! The album is amazing, and it will make a present for the holidays for all jazz lovers alike. Enjoy!

Buy 320 mp3s

Buy CD Now

Buy Slide Side on iTunes

Buy a Slide Side CD with Pay Pal

Storms are not fun.  As much as we needed the rain here in Houston, the concomitant effects of the rain can be very taxing and undesirable.  Due to unforeseen electrical issues caused by storm damage to the surrounding grid, our energy supply is experiencing intermittent glitches, causing us to need to reschedule sessions and contact electricians to ensure that our facility can run without risk of damage to equipment.  And thus, we forge on. Yesterday, we had the privilege of entertaining one of the music industry’s top movers and shakers who gave us a little insight on the evolution of the the music publishing business.  It was a fascinating meeting and very informative.  The rest of this week is stocked with various sessions involving a variety of artists and continued preparation for Thomas Hultén’s album release.

Larry Murphy, staff engineer at Tierra Studios, begins his Mic’s With Murphy series with an overview of microphones.  Watch the video and read more about mics below.

(This image is from the Wikipedia Blumlein entry)

The Blumlein pair recording technique is a type of stereo recording technique invented by Alan Blumlein designed to create recordings that replicate the spatial characteristics of the recorded signal.

A Blumlein pair consists of two matched microphones set to the bi-directional, or figure 8, pickup pattern and positioned 90° from each other.  This configuration should allow the transducers of the microphones to occupy the same physical space, or at least as close to the same space as possible. The mics are then positioned so that the audio signal is in a line bisecting the angle between the two microphones.  The pickup patterns of the pair, combined with their positioning, delivers a high degree of stereo separation in the source signal as well as the room ambiance.

Properly used, the Blumlein pair can produce a “true” stereo image.

The traditional microphone for Blumlein Pair recording is the ribbon microphone, although some microphones are purpose-built for the type of coincident arrangements that are required for the Blumlein pair.

Unlike most ribbon mics designed today with an offset ribbon, the Cascade FAT HEAD houses a hand-tuned  ribbon element that incorporates the legendary symmetrical ribbon design. This design offers a true figure 8 pattern. The corrugated aluminum membrane itself is positioned in the center from front to back, thus producing a balanced audio input signal to both sides of the ribbon assembly. This design is very useful when executing a mid-side or Blumlein recording set-up and also great for live stage use.  The FAT HEAD warm full-bodied signature and increased sensitivity is what you would expect and demand from a professional ribbon microphone and the FAT HEAD delivers. The FAT HEAD is suited for guitar cabinets,  drum over-heads, vocal, piano, horns, strings and much more.