Recording

My interest in recording began in 1995, when a friend (Mark Anderson of Monroe Crossing) allowed me to record some of my first solo banjo tunes on his ADAT deck. The immediate result of this session was ‘For Brian’ – a short tape containing a few Christmas carols and one original composition. The recording session had much longer-term results, however. It awakened an interest in the recording process which has become an integral part of my artistic efforts.

Note: The title cut of this first project, and the recording itself, were dedicated to the memory of Brian Friesen – a 7-year-old boy with a particular love for the banjo, who had died of a sudden brain aneurysm. In Brian’s memory, Deering Banjos had agreed each year to give a top-of-the-line banjo to a young banjo student who ordinarily couldn’t afford a high-quality instrument. In 1995, became the first recipient of this ‘Brian Friesen Award’.

Eager to explore the possibilities of multi-track recording, I later asked Mark how much ADAT decks cost. His wise advice to me was to wait a bit, because he foresaw computer-based hard disk recording overtaking ADAT decks in the not-too-distant future. This realism of this possibility was further shown to me at the IBMA‘s annual trade show and conference that year, by a demonstration of Pro Tools given by my good friend Leo Eilts.

After messing about with borrowed ADATs and 4-track cassette recorders, in ’99 I finally got my first Pro Tools rig from Leo – a 300MHz MacIntosh beige G3 with an AudioMedia III card. The turnkey system also included a pair of Mackie HR824 monitors, a Mackie 1202 for preamps and signal routing, a 4GB external SCSI Seagate hard drive, Waves Native Power Pack, and a few other bells and whistles. I subsequently spent many, many hours on the Digidesign User Conference, which I would still credit as having taught me at least one quarter of my practical knowledge about recording.

Around this time, I was also getting to know a percussionist by the name of Todd Running. Gradually, the idea of setting up a recording studio together took shape. Sometime in 2000, we moved my system to Todd’s town home, upgraded my Pro Tools system to 24 MIXplus hardware, and added a few other tools.

As we set about removing a hot-tub from what was to become our control room, I began using the PSEO to take classes from Hennepin Technical College, in their excellent audio recording program (I’d been home-schooled until this point). These classes helped fill in some significant gaps in my recording knowledge, and also allowed me to obtain Avid 135 and 235 certification as a Pro Tools operator. After burning myself out in seven classes (19 credits) the first semester, I opted for one 4-credit Independent Study in the second semester, which I used largely for the exploration of DSP theory.

The first project the studio undertook (which required us borrow equipment in order to meet the technical requirements) was Monroe Crossing‘s Across the Blue Mountains, on which I appeared as banjoist and bass vocalist.

Shortly after completing this project, we began a series up hardware and software upgrades, adding Apogee AD16 and DA16 converters, Waves Gold Bundle, Bomb Factory Classic Compressors, a Digidesign Control|24, a Roland V-Session V-Drum kit, and a number of other goodies. We also removed a wall, in order to expand our control room into an adjacent room.

We did a number of small projects with this new configuration, two of my favorites being the song Slow Down, for the now-defunct local hip-hop group Mo’Angels, and the beautiful piano instrumental These Tears, for my dear friend and ‘surrogate sister’ Bethany Madison.

During this time, we’d also built up a formidable arsenal of MIDI equipment, including an Alesis QS6 and QS7, a Roland RD-600, an Ensoniq Mirage, assorted drum machines, and my two personal favorites – a Roland JX-3P and Juno 106.

Unfortunately, we realized that we were already outgrowing the space available to us. With interest rates being especially good at the time, we began looking at the possibilities for relocation. Ultimately, Todd purchased property in a housing development in Mayer (about 35 miles west of Minneapolis/St. Paul), and had a new house built with the studio in mind.

We’ve hit a number of delays along the way, but progress slowly continues on the construction of our new recording environment. At the time of writing (October ’07), we’re mostly finished sheetrocking our inner layer, and we’re getting ready to tackle the construction of the critical wall between the control room and main performance area.

With the studio out-of-commision for the time being, I did a couple of on-location projects over the summer of 2005. The first of these was recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered in a garage just North of Stillwater, for a teenage bluegrass band called Blue Hazard. The second project, for Long Time Gone, was recorded live in the living room of two of the band members, using three coincident pairs and one bass mic, and then edited, mixed, and mastered at home, using JACK, Ardour, LADSPA, and JAMin. (Just for the record, I am fully aware of the benefits of having a recording mastered by an objective third party, but this simply didn’t fit the budget or timeline of either of these two projects.)

In August of 2006, I was hired by Calvin Records to put together a Bluegrass Tribute to Audioslave. This meant that I got to translate 10 of Audioslave’s songs into progressive bluegrass music. This CD is available from my web site, as well as through various online and brick/mortar stores.