Igorrr? (Brutal Swing)

What A Fool Believes (Cover) - Michael McDonald

Please Touch Me (Tim And Eric Cover)

Thunder's Truck

I recorded this song for my first project of the Spring semester 2018 at Bloomsburg University. The rules of this project was to basically recreate a grammy winning song from any year and make it as close to the original as possible. After we chose three songs we wanted to do, our professor chose one of those out of the three for us to record. I was hoping the entire time that he would choose "What A Fool Believes" and it turned out he did. I'm not sure if he knew about my past endeavor with this song or not, but either way it was a surprisingly challenging thing to map out at first. It was very fun to do though. I was lucky enough to have Aaron Eldred play piano, synth, and bass on this track. He was very professional and quick. Probably one of the smoothest sessions I've ever done and he was a pleasure to work with. I also had my friend David Falacko on guitar again as I did on the previous Nick Drake cover from last semester. This dude is a really talented guitarist and he knocked out his part really fast as well. The guitar in the song originally is kind of a background instrument (surprising for a rock/pop song) so he doesn't get to shine as much as Aaron did, but he made the whole process fun and fast.

What A Fool Believes - Doobie Brothers (Cover)

Operation P.R.O.V.O.L.O.N.E. is a song written by Kendal Thompson with lyrics written by Jacob Logan. It's a song about astronauts traveling to the moon and finding out that there is a conspiracy involving what the moon is actually made out of: cheese.

There was a lot of in line processing on this particular track. I used Drawmer 69,  68, and 1176 as compressors for the kick, snare, and overheads.

I used about everything I could on the racks in Studio A. After recording the drums, I printed and processed the toms through the 611 EQ and the 525 compressors to give them a more punchy sound. They were very low in the mix after everything was recorded. Which was something that was bound to happen with a mix that has everything run through in-line processing except the 3 tom tracks.

Musicians:
Kendal Thompson - Guitar
Aaron Eldred - Bass, Keys
Mike Shaw - Drums and Vocals
Jacob Logan - Lyrics

Lyrics:

Approaching the moon,
It glows yellow
We will land soon
On the rock below

The closer we get
A pungent odor infects us
What have our noses met
A stinky cheesy must

"Houston, Houston we have a problem
The moon is made of cheese
A squishy yellow gem
Help us understand this please"

"Now you know too much
Farewell men you've served us well
The truth unraveled like a babybel
Free from the fake wax shell"

The truth is revealed and we are damned
We have been left all provolone

The story of the moon has been a scam
Our chances of survival through the void they have flown

I would've thought a lunar eclipse would make the earth a nacho
But I was horribly mistaken
I walked around thinking I was macho
But goddamn the Gouda has me shakin'

As I come to terms with my mortality
Never shall I hear the wind in the trees
Never to see my friends or family
All I will ever see anymore is cheese

Operation P.R.O.V.O.L.O.N.E. - Doviov

Recorded by Chris Kilcullen.

This song is originally a cover of a cover by Thin Lizzy. It's a faster more packed punch version of Bob Seger's song of the same name.

For this project, we had to use all digital plug-ins from studio B. I ended up using a lot of the stock EQs and compressors, and for the most part they sounded alright. I think I prefer analog with a dash of digital. All digital has a different sound to it. I think the mix could improve. I know if I had used the analog gear in A it would have turned out better most likely. It just brings a warmer sound that emulation can't quite reach yet.

Studio B is harder to mix in as the lower frequencies go through the wall it seems. After listening to my mix in other places I noticed that my low end was way too prominent. So I had to make a few different mixes and ended up with this one.

Rosalie - Thin Lizzy (Cover)

Lost In Space - Denon Mix

Landslide - Denon Mix

For this project I had to record a live ensemble of a classical performance. I asked my friends Jacob, Jonathan, Aaron, and Kendal to play a song from their set for their quartet. The song they chose to play is a rag by Scott Joplin, mostly known as the musician who composed some of the most famous rag songs like 'The Entertainer' among others.

The set up we did for this recording was with 8 microphones. Each player (4) had one mic close mic'd to their guitar pointing approximately below the body of their guitar and pretty close. I used 2 C414s, an M160, and a TLM 103 for the close miking. The other 4 mics were pointed towards the entire ensemble a few feet away. I had a pair of Telefunken M60s that I used in an X/Y set up. Behind that, I put a pair of Earth Works microphones that I used as a spaced pair set up.

I think the overall sound that came from this was really pristine. Every mic was first of all very high quality, but that combined with in-line processing helped make the entire project run smoothly. I used the 550As for every channel, and for comping and preamps, I used the board, Drawmer 68, 69, and 1176.

The Cascades - Scott Joplin

This recording is from the Fall 2019 Concerto Competition. It features Aaron Eldred on Guitar and Ron Stabinsky on piano (accompanying Aaron by playing the orchestral part on piano).

For the recording of this track, I had an SM57 close mic'd on the guitar, an ATM450 on the piano, and used 2 C414s upstage by the front row set up as an M/S pair.

I chose to use this particular piece for my lab because I like this concerto and Aaron was also the winner of this year's concerto competition. I thought it would be nice to showcase the results of the competition and show off his skills of pulling off this incredibly hard concerto.

Guitar Concerto I. Allegro Preciso - Heitor Villa-Lobos

The recording for this was very intricate as I was using Performing Arts Facilities gear. I used 17 channels and ran everything on stage with snakes that were for sound reinforcement in the House. I also sent everything to Studio A via the Dante network. This particular mix I did not use the Stereo Track given to me via the console. I chose to mix everything by using individual tracks and putting my own EQ and compression on using the gear in Studio A. The tracks from the start sounded great quality already, though I did tweak some things, and used mostly SSL EQ for every instrument, mostly to bring out bad frequencies and boost good ones (especially in the horns to give them a more nasally sound that the music asks for). The only problem I had (which was expected with Dante) was sometimes there were crackles and pops. I got rid of them by using an RX DeNoiser. While Mitrani has natural reverb, I thought I would add a long and a short reverb and blend them in with the natural reverb of the hall using Parallel Reverb on aux tracks. I think the result has a very big sound and the stereo image it gives with the inclusion of the panning I chose makes everything come together well. I ended up panning everything so that it sounds like you are in front of them watching from an audience perspective based on how they were set up on stage.

The Queen’s Cartoonists play music from classic cartoons and contemporary animation. The performances are synchronized to video projections of the original films, and the band leads the audience through a world of virtuosic musicianship, multi-instrumental mayhem, and comedy. 

Behind the project is a single question is it possible to create jazz and classical music in the 21st century that appeals to everyone? Even people who normally wouldn’t go to concerts? The Queen’s Cartoonists present a concert for everybody - regardless of age, gender, or familiarity with the concert hall. 

Tying this diverse concert together are comedic anecdotes involving the cartoons and their composers. The band is on a musical mission of equal parts performance, preservation, and education. Expect the unexpected from repertoire that includes the Golden Age of animation, cult cartoon classics, modern animation, and elements of a musical circus! 

Since their inception in 2015, The Queen’s Cartoonists have brought their unique sound to performing arts centers in over 20 states and have opened for the New York Philharmonic. The 6 members, all currently living in Queens, New York, are world-class professional musicians. The band has been featured in numerous major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Mashable, and on NPR.

The Pink Panther - The Queen's Cartoonists

Flight Of The Bumblebee Medley - The Queen's Cartoonists

Pitiful Children - Be More Chill The Musical

Them Bones RoughMix

For Special Topics class during my 2nd to last semester, I decided to make a rap/hiphop kinda beat with heavy usage of effects, panning, and automation. Everything you hear is manipulated (sometimes extremely) samples I gathered. 
I also added various clips from youtube. Particularly Carl Sagan's voice in some spot parts. The more "quiet" parts are supposed to be reserved for vocals. I was going to make a chorus with me singing during the horn/flute sections but being in an apartment with wall to wall neighbors right now doesn't really allow me to currently do that. So I guess this is the "first draft" of the song. Instrumental only.

Enjoy...

And if anyone wants to use this beat please just ask me.

Pinky Promise

Here is another track for my Spring 2020 (COVID) semester at Bloomsburg University. Of course with everything going on I had to make a happy song (Hehe).

I think this genre is darkwave? Though not too sure, I never dove too deep into that, but I do like Ulver, which is kind of the influence of this song. Not exactly the same, but drawing from influences of some industrial, dark, kind of futuristic, dystopian themes...

Maybe think Blade Runner, or 12 Monkeys, something like that.. I'm thinking of making a video for this song as well as the other one.

This one is a little more involved and longer, kind of like a story I guess. The first "half" of the song is the City creeping and rustling around. I like to think the 2nd half is when the listener departs from that setting, or the city finally sleeps, similar to how this pandemic has made places that once used to be packed with visitors mere ghost towns now.

Indecision in Rhythmic Cycles is used from a very short, simple poem I wrote earlier in the semester which goes like this...

"Pumping, churning
Patience burning
Excitement fading
Will we be craving?
A hunger at times...
More than ever before
Or not at all..."

MikeAsHimself

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