No Age live in Los Angeles, 30 March 2014

I recorded Sub Pop duo and die hard KXLU enthusiasts (also where I worked and hosted my radio shows for 10 years) No Age at the first annual KXLU fest, 30 March 2014.


By the way, outdoor recordings with a strong wind are usually the kiss of death, but I managed to salvage this one and the end result turned out better than I expected.

grabby bow sound for violin/viola

OK, I don't know how many of you might be interested in this, but I figure there's no harm in posting it.

I'm working on some original songs. Laptop-based, electronic songs, with many orchestral parts, including violin, viola, cello, and string bass. Presonus Studio One has some very nice VST string instruments, and I have some really great ones for Kontakt. But they all are missing one thing, and I couldn't find the (admittedly esoteric) sound that I'm looking for anywhere on the internet. Being a viola player myself, I recorded myself playing these very particular incidental sounds. Let me explain-

There's this 'grabby' sound that a well-rosined bow makes just is it is first being drawn across the string. Listen carefully to any of the pros and you'll hear it. In your laptop sequences, if used subtly, right at the point where the first note of a phrase is initiated, this sound can give the string part a marked sense of realism*. This, combined with vibrato, reverb and a nice warm/tube/tape saturation setting, nobody will be able to tell the difference between your VST and the real thing.

About the audio-

I tried to keep them as pitchless as possible, thus not limiting their utility. I recorded two sets of all four open strings (C, G, D, A), first close mic'ed, and once from a few feet away, in stereo.

Or to say it another way, the sounds are as follows-

1. open C close

2. open G close

3. open D close

4. open A close

5. open C far

6. open G far

7. open D far

8. open A far

It's totally overkill for me to record all the different versions, but I suppose somebody out there might find one more appropriate than another for their purposes. They work pretty effortlessly for violin and viola, but you might have to pitch them down for cello and string bass.

I added no processing whatsoever, apart from normalizing each individual sound. Aiff, recorded at 44/16. Nady SCM-2090 stereo condenser mic, Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 interface, recorded in Logic. Not the quietest room, but these sounds will be so far down in the mix that it won't matter. Free for all to download, no attribution necessary.

As an example, here's the part I'm working on that motivated me to record these sounds, with the grabby sound in place. See if you can spot the three times I used it.

*pro tip- much the same way I'll insert an inhale breath right before horn or oboe phrases.

[audio] Pussy Riot's new song with added synth bass

I added synth bass parts and other little electronic noises to Pussy Riot's new song. Nothing too fancy, but a definite improvement over the original.

Quartet Nouveau live in San Diego, 8 Feb 2014

I finally had a chance to record my viola instructor's quartet. Quartet Nouveau plays the final movement of Mozart's Quartet #14 in G, live at Christ Lutheran Church, Pacific Beach, San Diego, 8 February 2014.

[video] Continues live in LA, March 2013 and Jan 2014, Babyland live in LA, Aug 2009

Hey, wait. Did I never post this Continues track that I recorded at The Smell in LA in March 2013? Gaaahhhh! Terrible oversight on my part. Sorry about that. Here it is-

I discovered that omission as I was just about to post this new recording of the same song from 30 January 2014 at Complex, also in LA-

And while I'm at it, here's a full set that I never posted to my blogs of Dan's old band, Babyland, live at The Smell from August of 2009. I don't think I was able to get a board feed of the audio for this recording, but my room mics were up to the task. Single camera, on a tripod. Tracklist in the YouTube details-

[video] Former Ghosts 'An Intolerable Reign' live in Los Angeles, 30 Jan 2014

All audio and video production and post-production by Brian Albers at Humorless Productions.

Destiny's Door (Apocalyptic Version by Dancu for Hans Zimmer's Bleeding Fingers Contest)

Here's my submission page for that remix competition for Hans Zimmer (with the link to the downloadable surround sound mix, if you're interested). I don't think how many likes or plays it gets has any bearing on the results, but don't let that stop you-

http://www.hanszimmerwantsyou.com/tracks/885

[video] Former Ghosts with Nika Danilova, live in LA, 30 Jan 2014

Former Ghosts with Nika Danilova of Zola Jesus, live at Complex, Los Angeles, 30 January 2014.



Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Brian Albers at Humorless Productions, as well as all video capture and post-production.

Stereo board mix
Nady stereo condenser mic for room/audience
Focusrite Saffire Pro24 preamp/interface
Presonus Studio One 2 for recording
Logic 8 for editing and mixing
Soundtrack Pro for mastering
Macbook Pro

Canon Vixia HF G10
Canon S100
Sony Action Cam
Final Cut Pro X

[audio] Duran Duran Duran live in Los Angeles, 22 Nov 2013

Duran Duran Duran made a name for himself as one of the leading breakcore producers in the late 90s and into the new century. However, after his initial explosion of frenetic breaks and hyperspeed rhythms, he's forged a more dancefloor-freindly style, albeit still packing plenty of pounding drums and thumping bass to turn your innards into mush by the end of the night.

Duran Duran Duran live in Los Angeles, 22 Nov 2013 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

https://soundcloud.com/duranduranduran
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Duran-Duran-Duran/117669818281421 

Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Brian Albers at Humorless Productions

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Humorless-Productions/190626074303436?ref=hl
http://www.mixcloud.com/humorlessproductions/

Stereo board mix
Nady stereo condenser mic for room/audience
Focusrite Saffire Pro24 preamp/interface
Presonus Studio One 2 for recording
Logic 8 for editing and mixing
Soundtrack Pro for mastering
Macbook Pro

Some of my video of his set here.

[audio] ad.ver.sary live in Los Angeles, 13 Aug 2010

In commemoration of Das Bunker's glorious 17-year run as Los Angeles' epicenter of all things industrial, I went through my archives and found that this recording I made of ad.ver.sary in 2010 was the only set that hadn't been posted anywhere.

Ad.ver.sary live in Los Angeles, 13 August 2010 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

[audio] Sleep Clinic live in Los Angeles, 2013

Tracks 1-3 (0:00-15:53) live at Complex, Glendale, 25 Aug 2013.
Tracks 4-11 (15:53-1:04:53) live at Wasteland at Bronson Bar, Hollywood, 20 Nov 2013.

Sleep Clinic, live in Los Angeles, 2013 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Brian Albers at Humorless Productions.

Stereo board mix

Nady stereo condenser mic for room/audience

Focusrite Saffire Pro24 preamp/interface

Presonus Studio One 2 for recording

Logic 8 for editing and mixing

Soundtrack Pro for mastering

Macbook Pro

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Humorless-Productions/190626074303436?ref=hl
brianhumorless@gmail.com

A simple lesson in remastering audio for dvd

I'm having all sorts of fun these days rediscovering all the magic and frustration of DVD Studio Pro. Because yes, I'll have you know that I still author lots of audio/video projects to standard definition dvd.

I did a personal project recently where I took a high def mp4 file of a movie from the 50s (Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry, remastered and released on blu-ray in 2013) and burned it to standard def dvd. It wasn't easy, but I did it.

Somewhere in the process, I noticed that the audio level was super low, so I decided to take a closer look at it. I exported the audio as aiff using MPEG Streamclip and popped it into Soundtrack Pro. What I got was this:

My first thought was 'WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT!?' Where's the level? Why on earth would anybody master their audio levels so ridiculously, unreasonably low? Is there a purpose to it? Did somebody royally screw it up? Those are serious, non-rhetorical questions, so if anybody has an answer (or at least a theory), lemme know.

I don't know if you can see that picture clearly enough, but the average level is somewhere down at -20dB. Regardless of your home stereo/cinema system, you'd have to crank it up to 100% just to hear the dialog, and even then you'd probably have a difficult time discerning the words over the ridiculous hiss of the jacked up noise floor generated by your amps.

You know what it's supposed to look like? Like this:

This is after I normalized it, and then threw a +3dB limiter (Izotope) on it. Presto. Done. Perfect. Healthy level. Took me only a few minutes to make about a 1,000,000,000% improvement of the audio. Sounds great. I'm at a loss for words as to why the original signal level is so low.

Following that project, I did the same thing with Stanley Kubrick's Lolita from 1962. Whoever authored this one to blu-ray clearly had their wits about them, because here's what the untouched, unaltered audio from that blu-ray looks like:

Nice, healthy level. By the way, just for the sake of comparison, here's what music looks like these days:

If anybody can come up with a reasonable explanation as to those low audio levels, I'd love to hear it. In the meantime, I'll be here in my studio, making the world sound better. Thanks.

Brian, Humorless Productions.

[video] Devo live in San Diego, 12 May 2012

Digging through my hard drives, I found a couple Devo videos that I hadn't posted from when I recorded their California tour in spring 2012, Mongoloid and Smart Patrol/Mr.DNA, live in San Diego from 12 May.

Check out Bob1's epic rock god guitar solo at 5:25.

[video] Besital Mouths, live in Los Angeles, 13 Dec 2013

live Bestial Mouths video that I made of their Friday the 13th performance at Helter Skelter, Los Angeles, December 2013. Music by them, audio and video by me.

a quick note from Humorless Productions

I have four videos up on my YouTube of the live recording I made of Medicine. The two songs that they promoted on their FB have a combined 1428 hits. The two songs they didn't mention, even though they sound and look just as good, and are equally available to anybody to view on that very same YouTube channel, have 239 hits. More than a five to one ratio.

I put up two videos of the Youth Code recording, and the story is the same- the one that they posted to their FB has 522 hits, and the one they didn't has 98. Again, just over a five to one ratio.

When I post a video, I write up some sort of description or info and post it along with the video(s) to my Blogspot, my Tumblr and my Wordpress blogs, my personal FB and my company FB, as well as my LinkedIn (I only have like 3 Twitter followers, and those people are already on my FB, so I don't even bother with Twitter). The bottom line is that I reach only so many people, and the people who I do reach don't always seem to take the ball and run with it.

So if I'm ever fortunate to record you or your band, if you want your fans to see/hear it, it would really help out if you posted it to your FB with a quick little 'Hey, check out this cool live recording from the other day…'. It'll make you look good, you'll sound good, it'll be good for me, it'll be good for the venue, and your fans will appreciate it.

Thanks. Brian Humorless.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BruceBurbank8/videos

[video] Moab live in San Diego, 7 Dec 2013

My recording of doom/sludge metal band Moab live in San Diego. A band that sounds very much like Black Sabbath, with a singer who sounds exactly like Ozzy, doing a cover of an old Rush song. Super.

[audio] Imminent live in Munich, 30 Oct 2009

In the 90s, Somatic Responses and Imminent (ne: Starvation) pretty much set the standard for 'forward thinking industrial'. While SR continued their barrage of releases throughout the years, Imminent took a decade off to pursue some of his other projects like Axiome, Torsion, Ambre, The Incredible Three, Urawa and others. The break apparently did him good, because the album he released under the Imminent moniker after all those years was Cask Strength, which is a monumental work of art and the best album of his career. 

I caught him at Feuerwerk in one of my favorite cities of all time, Munich, on Halloween weekend in 2009. The show served as sort of a record release show as the album officially came out earlier that week, which was fortuitous timing as he played a bunch of tunes from the new album as well as some choice cuts from his previous magnum opus Nord. 

Imminent live in Munich, 30 October 2009 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

[video] Duran Duran Duran live in LA, 22 Nov 2013

Duran Duran Duran made a name for himself as one of the leading breakcore producers in the late 90s and into the new century. However, after his initial explosion of frenetic breaks and hyperspeed rhythms, he's forged a more dancefloor-freindly style, albeit still packing plenty of pounding drums and thumping bass to turn your innards into mush by the end of the night.

Duran Duran Duran tore through California in late 2013, and I was on hand to document his Los Angeles appearance on 22 November.

[video] Richard Devine live in Los Angeles, 22 Nov 2013

Highlights from Richard Devine's performance at CELEBRATE EVERYTHING at Complex, Los Angeles, 22 November 2013.

The full performance was about 40 minutes, and I understand that he has plans on releasing more (all?) of his footage from this night.

I'm currently working on all the rest of the video I shot this night (Loopgoat, (303) 909-1604 (Baseck + CyrusRex's one-off(?) performance), Twin Braids (Baseck + Joy Through Noise) and headliner Duran Duran Duran), and I'll have some clips up shortly.

[video] Mattson 2 live in San Diego, 19 Nov 2013

San Diego surf/jazz/rock fixture Mattson 2 played 91x's Mike Halloran's locals-only night at The Griffin, and I was there to capture the event.

Mike himself has been a long-time enthusiast and historian of the local music scene in San Diego, and is a luminary in the annals of San Diego radio.

After having played for over an hour, Mattson 2 were finished with their set, until Mike jumped on the mic and egged them on to do their interpretation of 'Ask' by The Smiths.