A brilliant young singer/ songwriter, George Croft, played down a sets of tracks for me in the Spring of 2024 at Sound Union in Redwood City that yielded his solo album “Better To Be Tough- Songs of Love Hope & Redemption”. Mixed at Hands on sound and mastered at Wildwood House on Salt Spring Island in BC. Check it out on apple Music Spotify etc and look for George’s extremely entertaining and informative Instagram account. George Croft Music
When a Podcast Becomes a Book
Capping off a very successful 4 year run of producing and editing the “Lost or Found” podcast, host Dr Michelle Choi took on the task of writing a book abut her life and then go it published. Entitled, “Untangling- Liberating Myself From an Enmeshed Family and Impossible Medical Career”. It was my honor to work with Michelle on the audiobook version, with her doing all the voiceover recordings here at Hands on Sound and me editing the final product. The book and audio book are available on Amazon and a Barnes and Noble. The podcast is on all the usual platforms and can also be found on Michelle’s website. Dr Michelle Choi MD
Inflatable Decorations - San Jose Sharks
I was thrilled early last Fall to get the call asking me to work on the 2024 San Jose Sharks Holiday video. It was the 10th anniversary of the ever memorable and popular “Holiday Sweater” video that I had created with them and Bob Kilburg. It was a blast recording the players, providing sound for the video shoot and doing the mixing.
A Year Of Working Remotely
This tidbit of a post has been sitting around and collecting dust for several years…making it go live just a memory of the COID era. I just realized that the Blog here hasn’t had any entries in almost a year. While the page has been quiet, Hands on Sound has been keeping busy.
Like so many, I have been working remotely for much of 2020 and 2021, serving my clients from a distance for most of the year. With the exception of a handful of location sound gigs, it’s been all Post Production editing and mixing, Podcast production and Music Production.
The Lady And the Dale
Often times projects take a while to get completed. One such project is the documentary film The Lady And The Dale, which premieres on HBO later this month. It was back in 2017 that I did some location sound work on this interesting story.
Neil Young Archive Volume ll Box Set
Pleased to see that the second volume of the Neil Young Archives has just been released, currently in a limited box set and scheduled for a CD version to hit the streets in March 2021. I put a great deal of time into this project from 2010-2014 as a Producer and Project Coordinator. Many feel that this period of Neil Young’s career might contain his finest work.
Cooking with Nanu Series
Sharing a fun and informative YouTube cooking series that I had the pleasure of doing the Post Production Sound Mix on recently. This is Cooking with Nanu and features East African dishes that are both easy to prepare and delicious to eat.
Here is the series teaser….
A Home for Uneasy Listening Music
For those interested in what I’ve been doing musically as of late, there is now a Bandcamp page for one stop shopping, free streaming and downloads of number of compositions.
https://handsonsound.bandcamp.com
Music Out Of Thin Air
While Sheltering In Place for the past couple months, I’ve been working on some techniques to create ambient music tracks and have put together a few compositions. In particular, the task has been to make music using items that interact with air movement in some manner. Currently this involves a 4 string aeolian wind harp placed in an open window, some sensors with Arduino boards and a theremin that I built from a kit. All of these are interfaced with Logic Pro X and software instruments. It’s a very organic process which is as simple as capturing wind generated signals and then playing the theremin live to the recordings.
Without any further explanation, here Is “Music Out Of Thin Air #1 and Music Out Of Thin Air #2.
enjoy….
Project Tiny Home
Back in February, a film crew from StudioB and I joined forces with the production team from Project Tiny Home to shoot the tail end of an episode of their web series.
Project Tiny Home is a venture between Sutter Home wines and Operaton Tiny Home that helps build homes for those in need. The show we worked on focused on a traveling nurse, her getting a tiny house and moving it from Oregon to San Jose. As someone who moves every 3 months or so, this housing choice was a good fit and also a new lifestyle to get accustomed to.
As with these reality shows, host Zack Giffin, had surprises for our nurse, including some great gifts and a grand reveal featuring a surprise visit from her mother. All in all, a real feel good experience.