Sign Of The Whale

I am pleased to report that the final sound mix for the indie film Sign Of The Whale has been delivered to North Coast Productions.  This is a great narrative piece from the mind of Director Noah Weisel and destined for film festival screenings.  Clocking in at under 20 minutes, Sign Of The Whale stands on it's own as completed vision yet also serves as a preview of what could be a full blown feature, given support and funding.  A shout out to everyone in the town of Point Arena, CA who welcomed us with open arms and to a superb cast and crew, especially our rock solid DP Brian Bradley.  Hands on Sound has been onboard thru the entire production and post efforts, providing location sound in Point Arena, CA and following up with mix and sound design back at the studio.  You can watch Sign Of The Whale right here.

 

"Sharks For Life"

The San Jose Sharks have just rolled out two more commercials in their "Sharks For Life" campaign.  Hands on Sound gets the Location Sound credit for these spots that were made For SJSharks Productions and their ad agency, Division Of Labor.   Go Sharks!

Stranger Than Fact- Mastering the album "Magnetic"

While I enjoy all aspects of music production, one of the most rewarding parts of the process is album mastering.  This final step before a project gets released to the world adds the final layers of detail to help a collection of recordings play as a cohesive program to the listening audience.

One such job that recently came to me was from the artist Xaina and her Stranger Than Fact music project.  Their new album, Magnetic, had just wrapped up mixing and was ready for mastering. I was tasked with helping get the album finished in time for their Northwestern US tour.

This record was recorded at Tiny Telephone by Samantha Perez and then mixed at Survivor Sound by Jonah Strauss.  My job as mastering engineer was made a lot easier by the fine work they did.  Big kudos to all involved.

You can learn more about these fine folks here:    

Tiny Telephone: http://www.tinytelephone.com/    

SamanthaPerez:  https://samanthaperezaudio.com/

Jonah Strauss & Survivor Sound: http://www.survivorsound.com/

Here are a couple tracks off Magnetic that I particularly like:

True Sight- A Series By Valve

I received a location sound call in mid- September to join a production team that was embedded with the professional video game team, Evil Genuises, to capture content for a documentary series being made by Valve.  The experience was my first foray into the exciting world of eSports and all that surrounds this emerging industry.  Our cameras and microphones followed the Evil Geniuses Dota 2 team as they trained and prepared for an upcoming competition in China.  During the time of our production work, another crew was busy in Malaysia...following a rival gamer team that was also in training mode.

The documentary, True Sight, is being rolled out in episodic fashion and here is the trailer:

To learn more about the series, visit Valve's website: http://store.steampowered.com/app/539730/

San Jose Sharks- "Sharks For Life"

It's September and that means NHL hockey is just around the corner, plus it also marks that it's time for some San Jose Sharks work at Hands on Sound.  Recently I did the location sound for some TV & Web commercials with the Sharks and their creative agency, Division of Labor.  Once they had their picture edits locked I moved onto the sound mix to creative the final deliverables.

Here is the first of the new series...The Spelling Bee. Two variations on this spot are currently airing.   Enjoy....and GO SHARKS!!!

Applied Weather Technology

This past week Hands on Sound provided location sound recording at Applied Weather Technology (AWT) in Sunnyvale, CA for a marketing & trade show video shoot produced by Pete Geer and Moto Agency.  DP on this job was Roy Kurtluyan from New Circuit Films.  Once again our work gave us a glimpse into yet another interesting world....that of worldwide shipping...and in particular... weather routing services and fleet management.

Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT) leads the industry with 50,000 ship voyages routed annually, award winning fleet management tools and more than 5,000 ships using its BVS onboard route optimization system. Its weather routing, marine weather forecasts and other products are designed to help ship owners, charterers, operators, fleet managers and captains identify the safest, most fuel-efficient routes for their fleets. Our goal is to make shipping smarter, safer and more profitable while reducing environmental impact.

The Wok from Albuquerque to San Francisco Chinatown

So often I find that answering the call for a gig, brings more often than not a fascinating adventure and opportunity to experience something unique and memorable.  One such job was location sound with filmmaker Maxwell Duryea on his short The Wok from Albuquerque to San Francisco Chinatown.

In this piece, Tane Chan, the owner of the Wok Shop in San Francisco Chinatown, shares how an act of kindness done by her parents in Albuquerque was paid forward to her many years later. This is the true story of how Tane was able to get her store because of an act of kindness performed many years earlier by her parents; the second Chinese family to arrive in Albuquerque.

Watch The Wok Shop here

Earth-Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

Neil Young's new live album hits the streets today, entitled Earth.  Taking songs recorded during the Rebel Content Tour in 2015, Neil went into the studio with producer John Hanlon to add a choir and an assortment of sound effects to the concert mix. The sounds of the natural environment as well as the manmade world blend themselves into this song cycle to form a cohesive tale.  I'm honored to once again be part of a Neil Young release and to have some of my field recordings used on Earth...all captured at high resolution 24 bit 192kHz.  Quality ...whether you want it....or not.   Enjoy.

Earth is available at the Pono Music Store  and the usual online retailers such as Amazon.

 

Out Standing In A Field

Here is a little tone poem that I put together, featuring nature field recordings and 1950's Kay acoustic guitar, inspired by a week out in California's Central Valley.
Early morning bird and cow ambience- Snow Ranch, Farmington, CA May 2016

Tracking The Treacherous French

I'm really enjoying bringing recording artists into Hillside Recorders in Hayward, CA these days.  Such a great sounding room and the staff lead by Bob Nunes and Jim Hawthorne make for smooth and productive sessions,

A few weeks ago we had the Bay Area indie group The Treacherous French in for a day and they walked away that evening with 5 songs tracked, overdubbed and and mixed.  One nice surprise was a twist on Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", to which they lent the band's signature swampy, Cajun, folky Celtic sound to… this time including accordion and glockenspiel.     Treacherous indeed!