Mastering All Saints

This afternoon Dan met with Scott and Mastering Engineer Dave Shirk at Sonorous Mastering to put the finishing touches on the project.

As usual, Dave did a wonderful job and gave the project a nice final polish before being sent for duplication.

Editing with Scott Youngs

Today Dan and and the All Saints Choir Director Scott Youngs spent a couple of hours editing the recording sessions from the past 2 weekends.

Fortunatly, Scott is a pro when it comes to recording. He knows what he needs to get, when he needs to get it and how to get it. By the end of the sessions, we were as confused as anyone as to how it would come out. Today, Scotts talents shined through as everything fell neatly in to place.

We edited 9 tracks, with a 10th track that required no editing.

Tomorrow, Scott will take the editing tracks to Dave Shirk as Sonorous Mastering, and from there it will go to duplication for a holiday release.

All Saints Session Two, the world gets smaller

Today Dan was back with Scott Youngs and the All Saints Choir for the second and final recording session for their upcoming holiday CD.

Before the session began, I had the opportunity to chat with the musicians Amy and Ben. Turns out that the percussionist Ben, was a roommate with our good friends Joe Goglia and Aaron Morales. Both Joe and Aaron have been on staff with Dobson High School for several years. Ironic that of all the years and parties, our paths have not yet met.

Another familiar face at the session was our good friend Erik, also known as Conan from the Conan Musical we have been working on for the past several months. Erik was one of 4 soloists that lend their wonderful voices to the choir from time to time.

The choir performed well. This group made up more of the seasoned members of the All Saints Groups.

This project will resume tomorrow for an editing session with Scott to finish it up.

Dobson Chamber Orchestra

While recording the Dobson High School orchestras concert last Thursday, I kept thinking how great it would be to capture a great ensemble without the…..audience.

Don’t get me wrong, the audience is great and they provide an important element to the performance. But a cough here and a paper ruffle there doesn’t add to the work being recorded.

I spoke with the orchestra director Rob Nichols and he thought it would be a great experience for the students to be part of a more formal recording process as well as make a recording after they have had the chance to be adjudicated at the local festival.

So….This morning, early morning Dan and Mike were at Dobson High School with their 20 member chamber ensemble. Their performance is exactly what we have come to expect from Dobson, nothing short of first rate. I have worked with many professional organizations and I can say with confidence that Dobson is on par with all of them.

This recording, pending copyright permission will become part of our demo package that we send out to showcase the work we have, and are capable of doing.

Thanks Dobson Chamber Orchestra for a wonderful performance.

All Saints, Session One

This afternoon, Dan and Mike were on-location at All Saints Episcopal church for a recording session with Scott Youngs and his children’s choir. The cathedral at All Saints is a wonderful room to record in. In fact, the parish has spent about one million dollars to make the room sound as it does.

Today’s choir consisted of 50 children, along with piano, organ, flute and percussion accompaniment.

This is the first of a 2 part recording. The next session will take place a week from today, where we will add sections from the adult choir.

Conan Drums....Take Two

This evening Dan and Mike along with Joe Goglia recorded “take two” of the drum parts for the upcoming Conan Musical.



The original drum parts were recorded several months ago, unfortunately as the project matured; those parts simply were not up to par with the rest of the music. So the decision was made to bring in valley percussionist Joe Goglia to fill the task and bring a new life to the project.


Joe is an ASU graduate as well as the percussion instructor at Dobson High School. Joe has an extensive background in Latin percussion so he was right at home with the contrasting styles that go on throughout the musical.

The premiere date is currently set for November 12th. Stay tuned for more information.

Dobson Orchestras take the stage

This evening, Dan was on-location at Dobson High School to capture the sounds of their Orchestras first performances of the season. Under the direction of Rob Nichols the ensembles are already demonstrating competence not seen my most ensembles until later in the performance season.

As posted earlier, the Dobson Symphonic Orchestra had accepted an invitation to perform at Music for All, also known as Orchestras of America. For this prestigious honor, the ensemble will travel in tandem with the Dobson Symphonic Band to perform in February 2007 at the National Concert Band Festival.

Great things are always happening….. in the words of Rob Nichols "I tuned them......"

www.dobsonmusic.com

Dobsons Concert Bands are off to a great start

This evening, Dan was at Dobson High School recording a live performance of the three concert bands.

Under the direction of Jon Gomez and Rob Lubbers, the ensembles performed many works that most ensembles do not attempt this early in the school year. Being that this is also the first performance of the year, it gives us a great preview of what is to come for the rest of the performance season.

While in some respects we feel like proud parents watching a child grow, they really do keep getting better with each new year, and they have the accomplishments and accolades to prove it.

Dobson Bands Recieved Second invitation to Bands of America

The Dobson Symphonic Band has received an invitation to perform at the 2007 National Concert Band Festival and National Percussion Festival presented by YAMAHA March 15-17, 2007 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This is the second time the Dobson Symphonic Band have applied, and received this prestigious invitation. The first time the Symphonic Band performed at the National Concert Band Festival was in 2004. At that time, as well as today, they remain the only Arizona School to receive this invitation.

This year, also marks another first for Dobson and Arizona. Dobsons Full Symphonic Orchestra has also been invited to perform for the Orchestras of America performance.

We are looking forward to a great performance.