John Cooper

I first observed John Cooper’s work a little over 10 years ago when he was mixing Wynonna and the company I was working for at the time provided production for an acoustic show on a military base. I was impressed with his mix, but equally impressed with his demeanor and approach to the day. It’s always stuck out with me, so I was especially interested in this video I ran across recently on the Waves site profiling John’s techniques and tools mixing the Ringo Starr All Star Band. It’s definitely worth a watch.

Pensado’s Place

I mentioned this on Twitter a few weeks ago but figured it was worth a full blog post. A little while back I happened on a weekly video podcast led by Dave Pensado called Pensado’s Place that has quickly proven it should be required viewing for anyone serious about mixing. If you don’t recognize the name, I promise you that you know Dave’s work. Dave has mixed hits for bands like The Black Eyed Peas to Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Jamiroquai, and Christina Aguilera. In 2002, Dave received a Grammy for his work on the hit single “Lady Marmalade,” featuring Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa, and Pink. Do I have your attention yet?

Every week Dave and his manager Herb Trawick host a roughly 45 minute program that is full of techniques, q & a, and interviews with well known current mix engineers. The content is really well done and it’s really important to me that we support Dave in this since it is highly unusual to find someone as successful as Dave creating this kind of resource.

One of my favorite episodes was #4 when he interviewed Tony Maserati. I’m linking to it here to get you hooked and then go check out Dave’s site to catch up on the rest of the back episodes already in the can.

Boom Boom Pow

For all of my new friends at NLC.tv, today I’m going to pull back an old video post that, while potentially embarrassing, it also still pretty cool to me.  This is from almost a year ago when I made my official stage debut at Kensington.  I had to pull the video for a while after we first did the element so its exposure was limited to only a day or two.

Our arts team at KCC had a crazy idea to rewrite the lyrics to the Black Eyed Peas tune “Boom Boom Pow” and use it as a major production element to reinforce Kensington’s core values – loving God and loving others, locking arms with others in authentic community, and living openhandedly.  Below is the result of all of our work.

At 1:15 into the video, I make my first actual appearance on the KCC stage (along with the rest of this weekend’s team in the booth) to rap the bridge.  I was pretty apprehensive of doing it but it ended up being a lot of fun and was a cool memory.  I worked with a really incredible group of people!

If you can’t figure it out, I’m the “SOUND GUY”!  That’s also my wife carrying the soul to my left.

Videoblog… MJ: This is It

I’ve written in the past about how much of a fan I’ve become as of late of Michael Jackson.  Growing up I was always put off by his off the stage troubles of the past 15 years or more so I never really explored his music or the stories from the studio or stage.  Sure, as a man, he was creepy.  But as an artist, the man was a creative genius.  I believe there is lots that we can learn in the Christian creative field from his abilities as a storyteller and his drive for excellence and perfecting his craft.  It also blows me away how many of his records have stood the test of time sonically.  In fact several of his tracks have earned a place in my system tuning playlist because they just sound so pure, even with 30 year old technology.

Do yourself a favor if you have never seen it and rent/buy the documentary/concert that came out last fall called Michael Jackson: This Is It.  This film will give you an excellent glimpse into what goes into creating excellence.  I would be very surprised if you don’t thank me for it…

That’s all for this week!  Next week we’re going to start diving into PA optimization and room tuning.

AH-MAZ-ING

I have no words…

Incredible on so many different levels!

Mixing a Rock Show strategy

Since I’ve been on a Dave Rat kick as of late, I ran across this really informative video on Youtube a few weeks ago from Dave that explains a bussing and compression strategy he uses for mixing.  I’d read about this, maybe on his blog, a few years ago.  This is more concise and easier to follow than those articles.  Definitely worth the watch…