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Prairie
Sun News
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Busy Times at the Sun - |
June
2006 -
Vol 1, Issue 2 |
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In
This Issue |
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Quick
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Greetings!
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We
have been quite busy here at Prairie Sun Recording
these recent months, and so for those thinking
they missed the May Newsletter, rest assured,
we didn't have time to write one! However,
should we ever miss another month's newsletter,
remember that we can always be found at our
second home on the `Net, our MySpace
page. Also, plans are at their earliest
stages for the complete redesign of our first
home, PrairieSun.com,
so stay tuned for details. |
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Our
friends in Groundation,
a renowned Bay Area band quickly gaining international
respect and recognition for their jazz- and
dub-inflected roots reggae music, recently
returned to Prairie Sun to record their next
album, "Upon the Bridge," due out Fall 2006.
Reggae
and dub veteran and frequent Groundation collaborator
Jim
Fox engineered the session, with our good
friend Gene
Cornelius assisting. After spending a
week and a half tracking in Studio B, and
then playing some California shows, the band
brought their backing vocalists in to do some
overdubs with Gene before heading off for
another tour around Europe. Be sure to check
them out when they get back stateside!
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Hal
Willner's Sea Shanties |
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Prairie
Sun was once again privileged to record the astounding
bassist Rob
Wasserman in an overdub session in Studio C, tracked
by Wain Hewlett. Master of the electric-upright, Rob's
entirely unique playing style has been heard in solo
records, various ensembles, and collaborations with
such artists as Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello,
Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Neil Young, and many, many
others. The particular song Rob recorded for this
time around was another Lou Reed performance, and
after the session Rob's tracks were transfered to
engineer Marty
Brumbach to join the mix of this tune in New York.
This
song is destined for release on a compilation album
designed and produced by regular Prairie Sun client
Hal
Willner. A veteran producer who has worked with
Elvis Costello, Sonic Youth, Los Lobos, and others,
Willner is also well known for past compilation albums
in which he has brought together ecclectic groups
of artists in tributes to composer Nino Rota, Thelonius
Monk, and the music of Disney films. The current project
is a collection of sea shanties to be released by
Epitaph
Records, and given the roster of artists Willner
has drawn from in the past, one can be certain Rob
and Lou Reed's track will have excellent company.
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In
Eugene
Productions news, the projects for both blues/jazz
artist Linda Ferro and rock/Americana artist Chris
Vinson are moving from basics tracking to overdubs,
each under the guidance of producer/engineer Mark
"Mooka" Rennick. Both projects were tracked in Studio
C and utilized a host of our favorite session players.
In the live sound arena, Mooka recently traveled to
Arkansas to serve as co-producer and sound designer
for the third performance in the American Festivals
series, a set of pieces composed by Dr.
Nolan Gasser with oration text by Robert
Trent Jones, Jr. Entitled "Memorial Day," this
movement was written to commemorate fallen U.S. soldiers
and was performed by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra,
with an introduction by General Westley Clark.
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| Mooka's
personal notes:
If
you've called the Prairie Sun front office in the
last few weeks, then you have already met our new
Studio Manager Matt Daugherty. We're happy to welcome
Matt to the family, and wish the best to our outgoing
manager Nick Tipp as he returns to his studies at
the University of Southern California after some travel
this summer. Matt can be reached via email at MattD@PrairieSun.com,
and Assitant Studio Manager Dan Fajans can be reached
at Dan@PrairieSun.com.
I
am also happy to announce that in our never-ending
quest to remain in the vanguard of digital recording,
we recently upgraded our Pro Tools systems in Studios
A and B to version 7.1 (Studio C's recent HD install
included version 7). Pro Tools 7 is the most substantial
upgrade Digidesign has released in a number of years,
and I expect visiting engineers will be pleased with
the enhanced feature set. In addition, thanks to our
new relationship with Antares
Audio Technologies, we will soon be able to offer
Auto-Tune
4 in all three studios, which when used properly
my engineers have found to be sonically invisible
in a way that even the previous versions were not.
In
recent months I've been expanding my private reserve
of select vintage guitars, so keep an eye out for
a fully-illustrated email feature on our collection
in the near future. Enjoy your summer everyone, and
be safe.
Sincerely,
Mark "Mooka" Rennick
Prairie
Sun Recording
phone:
(707)
795-7011
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