For the past several months, Thia Konig has been treating us to a wonderful journal of her photography titled Pioneering the Electric Highway. It documents her adventures with Ben Woodard as they go where no electric vehicles have gone before. And in so doing, they became pioneers of the electric …
Trying new things
This week we have been given a gift. Two of the most talented members of the Jazz fusion community are making a record at Manifold Recording. And they are trying something new: the co-production model of The Miraverse. If you are within 40 miles of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, or …
Acoustic Magic (part 2)
In Acoustic Magic (part 1), we talked about techniques for getting great sounds from players in an indie rock band that plays with a horn trio. Now it is time to turn our attention to Hindugrass, a band that brings together Sarod, Tablas, guitar, cajone, percussion, and a string quartet. …
Acoustic Magic (part 1)
In previous blog postings, I previewed that we would have a very busy spring at the studio, and this has indeed come to pass. We’ve done a lot of tracking, a lot of mixing, and not–unfortunately–a whole lot of blogging in the process. Let’s work on that, shall we? There …
Updates…can't they just write themselves?
Before the studio opened, I had to content myself with taking photos of the construction progress and using Blender to visualize what the final studio might look like. The five years it took to open the studio gave me plenty of time to organize my photos and write stories about …
Hindugrass Recording Sessions
Hindugrass will be recording next week, and they are kicking off their session with a performance on Friday night, April 12th at 8pm. If you have always wanted to be a fly on the wall of a real recording session, the band is inviting a very limited number of people …
Celebrating the Home Town Hero
We live in a paradoxical age: believe nothing unless you have seen it, yet trust outside experts more than the leaders of one’s own community. All my life I have heard the quote “nobody is a hero in their home town” only to discover it’s a paraphrase of a verse …
Zuill Bailey, Superhero
The North Carolina Symphony invited me to dinner on Monday, on stage with Zuill Bailey. I’ve been to fundraising events before, and often they are fun, but I was really excited about this one because Zuill was part of the first-ever session at Manifold Recording. The recording he played on, …
More than a coincidence: Frederic Chiu records at Manifold Recording
When an artist makes a recording at a studio, there is always a coincidence–two things happening at the same time and place. One is the interpretation and the performance of the artist, the other is the creative capture of that ephemeral performance so that it can be replicated and experienced …
Moments of Enlightenment with Béla Fleck and Brooklyn Rider
At the Dōjō where I train, the black belts begin every class by saying “Shiken Haramitsu Daikoumyo,” reminding themselves that “every moment is an opportunity for enlightenment.” I have been training for a year, making good progress, and if I keep it up, I might earn my black belt in …