Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Winter Solstice premieres on Pixeldust Films.com

"Winter Solstice" represents my first at-home studio recording. The album was initially recorded for the purpose of testing mic placement in a grand piano, but, it also served as an opportunity to try some other things. For starters, using microphones on a grand piano and getting good results takes a little practice. In fact, the better the piano, the more important this becomes. Then, of course, there was the actual selection of the pieces and reworking them into arrangements (many of the pieces were improvised). Then there was the post-production process, which was all about getting the piano to still sound like it should, but giving it a little bit of depth using Apple Logic Pro.

"It wasn't until I listened to the first day's recording session that I actually decided this album would make a decent Christmas present." -Gino

One of the final experiments was to work with the fine folks over at discmakers.com to get the entire product packaged using custom-designed DVD jewel cases. Using their templates, we were able to do the entire project at their online "self service" kiosk, and there was no need to send any hard-copy media to Discmakers whatsoever. Gino, still awaiting the copies, is excited to see and hold the final product. We'll be using similar packaging going forward for all our Pixel-Produced video biographies, audio projects and just about everything else.

"...The mp3s above represent the entire album. A little classical, some ragtime, holiday music, it's all there. Many of the songs I chose were the ones my family would ask me to play when I was just learning the piano, and I tried to pick out some of the ones I was asked to play again and again. It's cool to look back to the days when I was just learning, and compare it to what I was able to create after all the years of formal training, music school, and the insight that comes with experience." -Gino

Fast Facts

• Pixeldust Films is starting to move into live music event coverage, and this project was done in part to learn the art of mic'ing a grand piano.
• The recording was done on my Steinway model "B." The piano was purchased new in 1995 and took 8 years to pay off. I was lucky enough to buy it when I was too stupid to know I couldn't afford it.
• The recording was captured with a pair of Audio Technica AT-4050 mics placed about 7 feet in the air. The piano was open to "full stick."
• It wasn't until I listened to the first day's recording session that I actually decided this album would make a decent Christmas present. Since the premiere of this album went online before Christmas day, I'm largely banking on the fact that the potential recipients of the gift won't find this area of my website until December, 26th, 2007.
• Many of the pieces were largely improvised arrangements. The classical music was largely read from the score, except in the case of the Beethoven sonata. Although the score for the Beethoven was never consulted, I know I'm playing parts of it incorrectly as I learned that sonata in his mid-teens. I'm ok with that.
• The Beethoven sonata was meant to be a test to make sure I wasn't clipping the mics, but it was kept in although it's only an excerpt.