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Studio News |
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May 2005
April 2008
Amy
Sanchez from "Amy in the pocket",
(featured several bands down) stopped by to pick up a finished mix of her
song "Women of the world". We chatted about the gig scene and
her plans to get the band gigging into the local area. She is excited about
the recording and looks forward to the next opportunity to lay some tracks.
4-25-08
The Dirk Lang Band is
a rockin' four piece group that play with a "No holds barred attitude".
Dirk contacted me to do a live recording of his band because he is in need
of a
professional demo. I met up with Dirk and the band at the Folsom Hotel in historic
downtown Folsom last night, set up and recorded two sets of raging
Rock-N-Roll much to the delight of the packed house. These guys were non
stop rockers with very if any little dead time between songs. They put on a
fine show. The band features Dirk on lead guitar and lead vocals,
Paul on lead guitar and vocals. Davin on bass and vocals and
Mike on drums. The songs were well executed and the repertoire was
straight ahead rock-N-roll.
Frank Lizarraga
was back on Monday to supervise the mixing of a song from
his jazz group "Amy in the pocket", featuring Ami Sanchez.
Meanwhile Valerie Marston of Sister
Swing (pictured on the left) was working on a tight schedule in
preparation for a gig that happens tonight in the Bay Area. It was a long
day for me, but a fruitful one.
Alex, Jamie Celia and Frank, all from the group Luvtaxi were back in the studio for a vocal overdub session last Friday. Alex and Celia sang a duet as did Celia and Jamie. This group continues to record and produce new music to the delight of their fan base and for their own satisfaction. Frank keeps writing and the band keeps arranging new material. They are getting lots of airplay on Internet radio stations which are drawing larger audiences. We are in an exciting period of time where artists have many new ways to promote their music and don't have to rely on radio and record company's to get the material in to the public domain. 4-7-08
Jimmy Spalding returned to the studio to record a solo guitar on his song "Arrowhead". First we needed to straighten out some timing errors from the original recording. Once that was completed Jimmy started searching for just the right guitar tone for the solo. In about an hour we had the solo in the can. As often happens, Jimmy wants to augment the song by having another bass player come in to lay down a new bass part. The tune is coming along quite nicely and I should have a demo mix soon. 4-5-08
March 2008
Scott Calapp picked up his freshly mastered project. Next stop is getting the master duplicated. Here is one of the 19 songs on this album. It's called Legendary Expression. (Click to hear) 3-22-08
Gloria Heidi and Peter Shaw paid a visit to Pudding Stone to record two songs for Heidi's new show. The last time they came in was about a year ago. Once again we were here to record the music with John Wielder at the keyboards. John can lay down piano, bass and a combination of string and horn patches all at the same time. This is not programmed or slight of hand using midi. This is real time full range all from his fingers at one time. All four of us were involved trying to get the arrangement correct for a difficult song. It took several tries but in the end we prevailed. We ran out of time and had to schedule another time to finish. More later as this tail unfolds. 3-19-08
Lauren Ona was the winner of a local American Idol type of contest that was presented by the Good Morning Sacramento show on cable Channel 31. Lauren is twelve years old and was the youngest to compete in the contest. She has a very good voice considering her age. She quickly adapted to being in the studio and did a good job once she was in the booth. She took direction well and with the help of her mother Fay, Lauren turned in a good performance. Now she has a professional demo to present to movers and shakers in the music business. I have little doubt that we have not head the last of Lauren Ona. (Click to hear) 3-15-08
Nat Brown returned on Monday to have me master the sound tracks less his vocal and horn parts for his single act. Nat regularly gigs around town to the delight of his fans and the general audiences. Now Nat will have some new tracks to perform to. Meanwhile here is a cut from his now completed CD project. This song is titled "Saturday night before Christmas". Have a listen. (Click to hear) 3-11-08
Ilon Griffin
has finished his long over due CD project. But the
finished product is worth the wait. Now Ilon will begin promoting his CD by
performing personal appearances. He has some inside tracks with local radio
stations and the Sacramento Bee news paper. Here is a song that Ilon
wrote both the lyric and melody lines to. I recorded a rough track of him
singing acappella. Then I took his vocal line and wrote, arranged and played
the music for his song. Personally I think this song hits hard and
really shows off Ilon's vocal power. The song also features Dave McAsey
on the bongo and conga drums. I played the guitars, bass and
programmed the drums and strings.
February 2008
Geneva Garrett has been having me record her playing her ebony Steinway Baby Grand piano in her living room. Capturing her performance on her piano is a job calling for my mobile recording rig. The sound quality was excellent. Meanwhile Nat Brown has been in the studio recording vocals and sax solo's for his up coming album. Nat told me that he was nominated for a Grammy this year. Nat's vocals are smooth and he is gifted with a vibrato that really catches your ear. 2-20-08
Lulu's back in town. Lulu Small (pictured on the left) was a singer and a band mate in my band Puddingstone back in the mid 70's. She has been living in Alaska since 1978 when the band did a gig in Anchorage and she felt so at home that she decided to stay. Lulu came to town for a rare visit. Along with Lulu was her old side kick and our mutual friend Sally Alexander. Together we had lunch and discussed old times at Fanny Anne's in Old Town Sacramento. It's nice to get back together with old friends and get caught up on what has been happening in our respective lives. 2-18-08
Mark Tyler has completed his twenty week Recording Connection Audio Engineering course. We had a good time during our weekly meetings and now Mark plans to continue recording with his Pro Tools setup. Mark has several friends who want to have him record them. In addition, another friend wants to have Mark score a movie that is to be shot in Mexico. He was even offered a role in the movie. Here is a song that Mark wrote recently and was used as his final mix for the class. "Se Cavo, The story of Gringo Loco". (Click to hear) 2-13-08
Shelly Jagd stopped by today to have me edit her a demo that she can put on her web site as well as on Myspace. Shelly had recorded a meditation CD last year and this Mp3 added the final touch to this project. (Click to hear) 2-11-08.
The jazz group "Amy In the pocket", featuring as pictured Amy Sanchez, Frank Lizarraga and Bill Taylor. Frank and Amy paid me a visit last week to transfer and then record a vocal track on one of the groups new original songs. Amy was in the booth for a little over an hour and when she emerged we had her lead vocal and two back ground harmony vocals in the can. Frank has been recording basic music tracks with his Yamaha digital recorder. Then he'll come to the studio and transfer the tracks into Pro Tools. After which we record vocals and sometimes solos as needed. This is proving to be a very cost effective way for Frank to get his material recorded. It works for me too! 2-4-08
January 2008
Greg Coffin
(seen on the right in the first photo) is a composer and a playwright who
wrote the play
The Corporation Kids under the direction of
Mike Martin came in to record the intro and outro music for a kids
television show that Mike is producing for Channel 17. The kids consisted of
six girls ranging in age from seven to twelve. Their voices were just what
Mike needed for his show. With each kid there was a mom in tow to drive the
kids to the studio. As I have mentioned before I never know what new
adventure awaits me in the studio. But variety is my cup of tea.
(Click to hear)
Darrell Dobbs AKA Pretty Boy Flord came in to
get some dubs copied from his latest project. He's sending off CD's to get
some feed back with hopes that he can acquire some backing and continue with
the entire
CD project . Check out his song "So Heavy".
(Click to hear) 1-12-08
Caught in the act, pictured on the left is
Bruce Bolin working on some guitar lines for a new
original song. Photo taken by Monster Labs mastering engineer Eric
Broyhill as Bruce turned in surprise to find Eric taking his picture.
Center is 16 year old Vanessa Lopez in
the booth belting out a song for her demo. Although it was Vanessa's
first time in the studio, she quickly overcame her nervousness and performed
rather well. A visit from R&B singer Beverly
Rivers who had been out of touch for several years was welcomed
as we got caught up on the news of her career.
Barry Weiner stopped by for some final tweaking of his mixes
before mastering.
December 31, 2007. The last day of the
year. I am sitting here reflecting on this past year, I am filled with
many memories of the people that I have had the joy to have come in contact
with. Both new and old, I am truly blessed to be in a business that allows
me to touch the dreams of so many artists. Each bringing their own
special talent to the studio to be recorded. I can't think of any other job
that would bring me so much happiness. So to all of my friends that started
out as clients, I raise my glass to you in hopes that your path to
musical happiness will be as sweet as the time that we have spent together.
When the bell tolls at 12 midnight to the sounds of "Auld Lang Syne", our combined memories (yours and mine) will be resonating in my mind. I wish
you well in the coming new year.
Jerry Cook stopped by to pick up another song that was custom made for his project. Jerry plans to launch his night club project in the new year. His style is very R & B, blues and funk. But Jerry brings lots of that old school soul to his music when he sings. 12-22-07
Barry Weiner and Dave Davis were back to finalize the mixes before mastering the CD. Barry had me include three previously recorded tracks to serve as bonus tracks. The guys are seen here in the booth preparing a voice over track that will introduce the bonus tracks. Soon all will be finished and the Bluez Catz can begin distributing their CD's amongst their awaiting fans. This entire process from live recording to mastering will have taken just about two months. That's pretty fast! We at Pudding Stone wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. 12-21-0
Bruce and Greg
are still at the it, writing and recording original
music. Here is a song that Greg wrote and we collectively arranged.
It's called "Say you love me". Give it a listen.
(Click to hear) 12-8-07
Bluez Catz Barry Weiner and Dave Davis were back for another mixing session. We moved quickly through several songs and are almost at the point of shifting our attention to mastering this live CD project. It sounds good. Ilon has also been a regular visitor also as we finalize the mixes of his CD project. 12-6-07
Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, Dr. Barry Weiner and lead singer Dave Davis of the Bluez Catz were in mixing their live CD project last night. We were able to do some cleanup recording and mix four songs in just three and a half hours. These were rough mixes as we home in on the Bluez Catz sound. All in all it was a productive session that included a lot of laughing once the good Dr. stepped into the booth. We plan on getting back together next week to continue the process. 11-30-07
Jamie and Rudy who play percussion/vocals and bass respectively, with Luvtaxi stopped by to continue mixing their project. But because of conflicting schedules, Frank Lizaragga (leader of Luvtaxi) could not be there for the mix. We worked of the fine balance between the drum set and the percussion which is the backbone of the Luvtaxi sound. Then turned out attention to the rest of the mix. The song sounds strong and clear and is ready to be added to the up coming CD. 11-28-07
Ilon Griffin has been a regular at the studio as we have been mixing his project. Ilon has had many balls in the air and is looking forward to getting this project wrapped up and in the can. The good news is that the end is in sight with three original songs and eight popular and classical songs that showcase Ilon's talent as a Lyric tenor. 11-21-07
Jimmy Malone was called into action to record some keyboard tracks for Ilon Griffin's original song titled "Springtime". With Ilon standing by, Jimmy crafted a nice piano part for the song. Then we turned our attention to some strings, after which Ilon mentioned that he felt the song needed a bridge. Jimmy came up with an interesting eight bar bridge that gave the song a contemporary twist. With the addition of a cello string line in the bridge the song was sounding pretty complete. The next day Ilon and I got together and I programmed a percussion part for the song and I edited the bass line to work more smoothly with some of the new piano chord changes. As it now stands all we need to do to finish the song is to add Ilon's lead vocal and some back ground harmony parts. 11-12-07
The B Street Theater routinely puts on plays six days a week, every week for the general public. They also have two programs that cater to children, exposing them to live performances. One of these programs is known as The B Street School Tour. An acting troop travels to local schools within a distance of 100 miles and performs for groups of kids in cafeterias and gymnasiums at the schools. The troop performs up to 12 times per week. These plays are very popular since many schools have dropped artistic programs from their curriculums. The B Street needed a demo of the play to display on their web site. I was hired to record a portion of the hour long play with my mobile recording rig for that demo. I have cut together a sound track and imported pictures into a program that plays both sound and pictures with interesting transitions between the pictures. It's a time intensive project but the results are worth the effort. 11-8-07
Mark S. Allen of Channel 31's Good Morning Sacramento and Pudding Stone Recording Studio have entered into an agreement. Pudding Stone will record the winner of a weekly segment on the morning program called "Small Town Superstar". This segment will run for four weeks. Good luck to all of the participants and I look forward to working with the winner. A camera man from Channel 13 and their sister station Channel 31, came by yesterday to shoot some "B" roll for a small spot that is to be aired during the program. I was recording a session with Ilon Griffin when he arrived. So the camera man shot some footage of Ilon in the booth performing his song. Look for the spot on the morning show from 6 to 10 am. Keep those cards and letters coming in. 11-6-07
Greg Ayala and Bruce Bolin (that's me) continue our weekly song writing adventure. We have been working on a song titled "Gas Ronda". It's the story of a hot, modern day lady that loves to drive fast and race. I have to say that it's a lot of fun to have a successful collaboration and to see your efforts materialize onto a song that brings a smile to your face. "Hey we still have it"! Check out Gas Ronda. (Click to hear). 11-3-07
October 2007 Barry Weiner met with me yesterday to pick up the rough mixes to begin to evaluate the songs that will be on the CD. We plan of getting back together in two weeks to begin mixing. Barry intends to release this album by the end of February next year. We're on the fast track, but that's Rock-N-Roll! 10-25-07
The Bluez Catz are a band that wanted to record a live album at a local gig. I got a phone call from Dr. Barry Weiner. I was told that four times a year The Catz throw a party at Zagoto's located in the Canterbury Inn off of Hiway 160 and they wanted to have the band recorded live. The band consists of Barry (Guitar), Danny (sax), Charlie (drums), Vinnie (bass), Waylon (guitar) and Dave (vocals & harp). The band got off to a rousing start cheered on by a house full of fans that had come for the recording party. When ever the Blues Cats play at Zagoto's, the band includes a Mexican style dinner for the patrons. It's a win, win situation for everybody. Intercept is a popular band from LA who started off the night with a tight set and features Barry's son Jason playing drums. It was a good show that included a guest appearance from the manager of Zagoto's singing a James Brown song. I recorded two sets and now must get down with the business of mixing and mastering for the album 10-23-07
Valerie Marston of Sister Swing (pictured here on the left) has been burning the midnight oil to produce a new photo demo for the group. First we cut together a sound track made up of songs from several of their five CD's. Then we imported hundreds of photos taken over the last ten or so years. We worked out transitions between the pictures and dropped the whole thing onto a CD. This is quickly becoming the way to show your group without having to go through the expense of making a video. Ilon Griffin is back in the house of Pudding Stone and ready to finish his current project that was put on hold several months ago because of other conflicting business interests. Ilon also has his eye on doing a Christmas project before this Christmas. We will be working many days straight to accomplish this feat 10-11-07
The American River Music Festival took place
Sept. 22 & 23rd on the banks of the American River near Coloma, CA.
Mother nature didn't
Jerry Cook came in to the studio to master his songs onto a performance CD. We worked through nine songs, to get ready for his performance this Friday night (9-21-07). It's been a long a long road for Jerry and myself. We were pleased with the way the music sounded and are looking forward to getting into some new songs. Life is good. Now Jerry, "GET OUT THERE AND WORK IT!" 9-19-07
Felipe Lariz has finished the tracking portion of his current CD project. Now I will transfer the tracks into Pro Tools for mixing and any additional production. Two of the songs feature Felipe's five year old daughter Natalie. She's very cute and had no fear in the vocal booth. Felipe has exposed all of his three children to music and all three can play and or sing. Felipe wants to have a family band that performs in the area. Greg Ayala and I continue to collaborate on our original songs during our weekly meetings. We have also recorded some live drum tracks for Jerry Cook's live back up performance music. 8-30-07
Hillary Garrett has been my audio engineering student for the past twelve weeks. In that time Hillary has made a major leap forward in the audio program and in particular the study of Pro Tools. Hillary has moved to Portland Oregon to pursue her career in the music field. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to have helped her to begin to realize her goal as a recording engineer. Felipe Lariz continues to make his weekly trek to the studio as we move through his project. Interestingly, Felipe is playing all of the instruments on this album and providing his own back ground harmony parts. Lloyd Mason has finished and picked up his CD masters and is planning to contact Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to offer his songs and performance abilities for the campaign. 8-21-07 .
Nick Vang is a former client of mine. I
recorded his first two CD projects with his group The Loners.
They were a popular Hmong group that hailed from Sacramento back in the
90's. Nick has been doing his own recording with a Roland Digital 16 track
machine. Nick wanted me to record two guitar solos on a couple of his
newest songs. We got set up and were able to get the solos finished in
just one hour.
I had done some solos on his previous CD's. Sean Bahry
returned to work on yet another new song. Sean just keeps crankin' them
out. 8-2-07
Anthony White paid me another visit today. We tried to get together last week but just as we began to record, my board blew up and failed. So Monday with a spare board in the temporary position we got underway. Anthony rapped both free style and from the written page. I can tell that this is a well read person that is opinionated and has logical convictions associated with those opinions. I enjoyed both conversing with Anthony and hearing his raps. His is a refreshing escape from the normal bang rap artist. Anthony really has something worth listening to. We were able to record 18 songs in just four hours. 7-24-07
Luvtaxi is back in the mix. Last Saturday we did a mobile
recording at their place of practice. Trying to beat the heat we started at
10 am.
Felipe Lariz and I have been working on the graphics for his CD project. We have settled on the pictures and layout design and have submitted them to the graphics designer that I work with regularly. We hope to have everything finalized in a week or so. 6-26-07
Christine June called to say that she wanted to make a quick demo. We got together about two hours later and began to work on her song. Christine wrote the lyrics in the studio as I programmed the music. We needed to take an hour break as Shane Kalbauch came in to record the violin parts for Lloyd Mason's song. Soon we were finished with the demo and Christine had her first ever recording of herself. Another happy ending! 6-26-04
He's back. Sean Bahry has returned with another song to record. This young man is a song writing machine. We did not finish it but Sean wanted to hear what we had so far. So here's the rough mix of the yet unfinished song "You got me singing". (Have a listen) 6-5-07
May 2007
Noah Agruss finished the string parts for Mai Cha's six songs. Noah is a gifted composer and delivered the parts on schedule. Now I will load the string wav files into Pro Tools and add them to Mai's songs. Soon after I will need Mai to come in and re-sing his vocal parts. 5-24-07
Greg Ayala made his weekly visit to the studio and we recorded the lead vocals to Greg's song titled "Is it love". I find the song to be an interesting mix of modern Reggae with an big 80's drum sound. Have a listen and judge for yourself. Now Greg and I will get to work on one of my songs that Greg penned some lyrics for. It's working title is "Without a clue, but happy". Here's "Is it love" (Click to hear). 5-23-07
Paul Fury booked some time to record several songs that are to be added to his current project. Paul has become a veteran in the studio and was in and out of the booth in a very short time. We had a few laughs, but we got the work done. 5-22-07
Hillary Garrett has signed on as the newest
Recording Engineering student this year. With a music major background in
college Hillary wants to get on the inside track of the recording studio
business. Welcome aboard Hillary. Greg Ayala and I continue to get
together in the studio once a week and the results are promising. Greg's
latest song is asking the question "Is it love". It's a reggae
song with huge 80's style drums. We have worked on the arrangement
and a guitar rhythm as well as two guitar solos. Once the vocals are
finished being recorded I will post it so you may have a listen. 5-17-07
Lloyd Mason decided to have me add a fiddle to
two of the songs that we recorded some years ago. I contacted Shane
Kalbach, a violin player and sent him two Mp3's so he could get prepared
for the session. Here is one of the two songs prior to his parts being added.
Krissi Gray and Kash
Villiani are a musical team that got
together several years ago to collaborate on projects. They work
together on the music with Krissi singing, rapping and playing several
instruments. Kash is the music producer and
programmer. I met them when I bought some software from them a couple of weeks ago. They
decided to come to
Sean Bahry returned for the second week in a row with yet another new song. We worked on the song and found a nice groove. The song is called "I see the road ahead". This rocker is a bit of a departure from the two ballads that Sean has brought to the studio in the past. We really rocked it out and I like it a lot. The big guitar sound has always been a hook for me. With this song there is something special about the sound and feel. Sometimes things just flow together. This is a product of magic in the studio. Can you figure out what it is? (Check out the mix) 5-6-07
Sean Bahry and I got back together this weekend to put together yet another song. Sean has been busy implementing some of the concepts that I suggested with regard having his songs ready before coming to the studio. We were able to complete this song in just one session of four and a half hours. It seems to me that Sean's future looks bright as he continues to hone his song writing craft. This song is "A different way". (Click to play) 4-30-07
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