Category: Recording Session Notes

by Gary Powell, Austin Vocal Producer

Rich Harney is a small man by physical stature, but you’ll think again when when hearing him play piano.

RICH HARNEY PLAYS DEEP!

I have known Rich for a couple of decades just from both of us being in the Austin music scene. He knows I specialize in working with studio singers and studio choral recordings are a mainstay of my production business. I am honored that Rich sought me out for the recording of “Jesus, Lamb of God”, which is Rich’s new choral composition. The piece is haunting and healing largely from the beautiful colors drawn from Rich’s harmonic personal library.

You can hear pianists thinking as they play. Some are linear players always headed to the next line or melodic improvisation. I’m almost sure I can hear Rich Harney thinking vertically. He has a wonderful command of the jazz harmonic idiom and improvises in every vertical moment with great acumen and sense of sonority adventure. Wow, that was a mouthful and probably only made sense to music composition majors!

Rich composed his choral piece, “Jesus, Lamb of God”, with a piano accompaniment which we decided to record first. I have two Yamaha pianos. In the studio is a Yamaha C7 (7’4″) and in the screening room is a much more mellow Yamaha G5 (6’5′). The G5 was manufactured in Japan with a slightly different cabinet and design seemingly voiced for the classical pianist’s ear. Rich preferred the G5 for its softer tone.

Both Yamaha pianos are meticulously maintained by Brian Henselman, owner of Music Masters Piano Service here in Austin, Texas. I purchased the G5 from Brian who is a great source for people who are serious about locating the perfect instrument.

Click Piano Photo to Enlarge
When I want to record the G5, which is not in the studio proper, I record on my Apple G4 powerbook using MOTU’s Traveler interface with a pair of AT-4033’s at 24bit 44.1k . Rich gave an incredible performance which included a solo before recapping the main theme. A couple of takes for microphone placement and a couple of takes for creative decisions and we were done. Studios can certainly mask the marginal skills of musicians. This is mostly not true for the jazz community who do not hide behind technology and navel rings. Rich Harney, from among the best, is a very consistent and deliberate player and this piece proves it.

To prepare for the choir, I took Rich’s piano performance into the studio and built a click track from his rubato performance. I do this just in case we need a click for the singers, but also for good “housekeeping” which makes locating much faster during subseqeunt sessions. This kind of preparation makes for a much smoother and enjoyable session for our Austin studio vocalists.

I am proud to have been a part of this project. I’ll write about the choral recording session soon and introduce those singers.

Rich Harney gigs and records with Austin’s best. In 2003, Rich and saxophonist/flutist Alex Coke released “Soul Prayers”. Rich Harney has also recorded with jazz vocalist Beth Ullmann which you can find at “Heart Music”.

by Gary Powell

I met the guitar-playing audio engineer Larry Seyer in my first professional recording session in 1978. No need to shop around for another Larry. There isn’t one. Over one hundred albums later and we’re still doing it. As Larry’s gift to his family and fans, Larry has made his “Merry Larry Christmas” album available as a free download from his site.

(Christmas is over, now, but maybe Larry will offer this again next year!!!)
Click Here or Photo to Visit Larry Seyer’s Site and
Download “Merry Larry Christmas”

We recorded these songs at Larry’s Austin studio last year. To explain it quickly, it is Larry with three guitars and three takes. The music is simple with a touch of both nostalgia and adventure. Known as the consummate “studio session” player with “ears of God”, this time Larry gets to have it his way and now so do you! Enjoy.

by Gary Powell, Vocal Producer

Songwriter David Barrett lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you watch college basketball on television then you have probably heard David’s work. From David’s site: “The song is “One Shining Moment”—the paean to endeavor that now crowns the NCAA Basketball Finals.” I have only met David once while he visited Austin, but found him to be soft spoken with a kindly and considerate demeanor living a clearly examined life. He’s the guy you wish could have a larger voice in the world of music. I hope you will visit David’s site to learn more about this talented man.

David and I met through my long time friend and colleague Helen Darling. Like most of us, David loves the way Helen sings. Helen brought in an mp3 of David’s song, “Sleeping with the Blues” which we imported into Digital Performer in preparation of her vocal. David’s lead vocal was previously recorded and Helen added a quasi duet and additional backgroud treatments to enhance the lyric. I then compiled Helen’s performance into a single file called a soundbite, one soundbite for each of the three tracks she performed (three part harmony, thusly three tracks).

I recorded Helen’s vocal with a Mojave MA-200, the new David Royer cardioid tube microphone. It was run through a Peavey VMP-2 tube mic-pre and a Manley Vari-Mu tube compressor before hitting the A/D convertors in the MOTU 2408MK3. This is my new favorite microphone and signal path for about 90% of the Austin studio singers who work with me here. Thank you, David, for trusting Helen and me with another one of your great songs. Thank you, Helen, for another musically rewarding and fun day!

by Gary Powell

John Lee is the author of the bestselling “Flying Boy” series, as well as “Facing the Fire: Experiencing and Expressing Anger Appropriately” and “Writing from the Body”. He lives in Woodstock, Georgia, with his wife, Susan, and conducts workshops around the country. BUT, he used to live in Austin just around the corner from me. We met in the studio today to continue an audio project we had actually begun on November 25, 1995. The date is important only in our recognition of where we have both “arrived” in one small decade.

This afternoon in my Austin studio, we recorded John reciting his book of poetry Sleeping in Public. John’s wonderful words are disarmingly simple even though he is dealing with complex personal emotions and the struggle we all share in becoming healthy, loving, whole human beings. My contribution to our effort together is to create a musical compliment for John’s prose and love of writing.

This is an effort born of mutual interest and respect without the trappings of commercialism. We expect it out sometime in the next decade. :grin: I’m guessing it will be sooner than later. Stay tuned. In the meantime, visit John Lee’s website and learn more about his sixteen books and life story. You will find him this weekend presenting at The Crossings, a learning center and wellness spa in Austin, Texas.

by Gary Powell

Walt Disney’s new animated feature movie “Chicken Little” is due in theatres on November 4, 2005. Chances are pretty good that there you might hear the 1958 song “Lollipop”, written by Ross and Dixon, originally performed by the Chordettes.

Ted Kryczko, Vice President of Product Development for Walt Disney Records, calls saying we’re going to cover the song on an upcoming release in support of the movie. When I get the call, immediately my head starts spinning in search of the perfect singers. In this case, it was simple. Which three Austin studio singers could best replicate possibly the most white-bread, bubble-gum infectious tune ever perpetrated on the Amercian musical scene? So who best to deliver the “cheese” factor but Jerome Schoolar, Rebecca Schoolar (Jerome’s sister) and Meredith McCall. Beyond their cheesiness, all three singers have many credits in my studio and active careers themselves in theatre and TV.

Our mission was to pretty much cover the original vocal sound which is a simple three part texture. With these three singers in front on the mics we started running through the parts. What we found was something that happens in many of our old favorite songs. The Chordettes were not very accurate at keeping the vocal texture in three parts. Occasionally, just like with the great “Peter, Paul and Mary”, the singers would accidentally drop into two parts. This happens not by design, but by being unconscious.

So, do we replicate the unconsious mistakes or fix them? We chose to fix them. The only thing most civilians will notice is that the song sounds SO much better. This stealthy integrity is what most professionals build and sneak into their content… despite focus groups. (There, I said it and I’m glad!)

Most of the vocal changes and burdon fell on Jerome, who sang the lowest part, singing more difficult intervals in order to keep the vocal texture full and in three parts. This created a part that a “non-musician” singer would never choose. This takes some discernment and a good ear which is not the easiest route to pizza and a beer at the end of the day.

The result, however, is SO worth it. We recorded the singers in two passes, each pass with all three parts. We panned each pass left and right at about 10 and 2! (If you have questions about what this means, just post the question here.) This is the same technique that “The Manhattan Transfer” uses to get their signature sound. Jerome, Rebecca and Meredith delivered up the goods that are in tune, perfectly articulated as a group all with the bright AM Radio sound of the original Chordettes.

Thanks you guys, for another fun evening in the studio.

by Gary Powell

One of the best aspects of working as a producer for Walt Disney Records is the variety of song styles and orchestration they ask for. Sometimes this calls for discovering talent such as a new Pink, or Julie Andrews, or Jiminy Cricket or, in this case, Johnny Mathis. Believe me that it is much easier to identify a current-day pop singer than a fabulous crooner like Andy Williams or Johnny Mathis. In this case, the song was the 1963 Christmas tune, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Eddie Pola and George Wyle. They also wrote “I Said My Pajamas (And Put On My Pray’rs)”. George Wyle also penned the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island”!

I’m very open to discovering talent…..not press release talent……not headshot talent…..but the real thing. Enter Craig Johnson, sometimes known in the professional conducting world as Craig Hella Johnson, who is the artistic director and founder of Conspirare, a nationally prominent and professional choral ensemble based in Austin, Texas. The recording session took place in my Austin recording studio on July 13th, 2005.

I knew Craig had a broad interest in popular and varied vocal styles. We’ve had several conversations on that subject since meeting in 1990. Our paths run in non-conincidental circles, so this was our first time to work in the studio together. Most singers from the classical world don’t fare well when asked to deliver stylistic nuances not usually present in the classical genre. Popular singing is more about what happens at the intersection between notes and classical singing is more about what happens on the note itself. In the studio, all rules are off and every vocal nuance comes under negotiation.

And what a negotiator Craig is! He moves in and out of beautifully round tones with ease and poises a musical phrase for expression like a cat ready to pounce. This is what makes my job exciting. Craig and I had fun sculpting his Johnny Mathisoinan performance and it was a pleasure working in the studio with this consummate musician and singer. I think we’ll be conspiring together more very soon.