Students Produce Music using Reason Software

This semester, the DSU Audio Production program introduced a brand new class: MIDI (The Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Production.  Students are learning to sequence electronic music using a software program called Reason.  These advanced-level students will be given a lot of creative flexibility to incorporate unique musical and production-based ideas.

One of the students, Jacob Ritzman, is well-versed in using Reason and has posted much of his excellent work online.  There are several samples below, and you can also visit his YouTube channel for more tracks. I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of creative new work this semester.

Recording Harp in the Studio

Paul and Dan working on Mic Placement

Student Paul Schipper provided us with a truly unique opportunity last week by bringing a harpist to record. Anna Vorhes is a highly accomplished musician who plays with the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orechestra, as well as the Sioux City and South Dakota Symphonies. She performed three pieces while Paul worked hard at the mixing desk. We utilized a fairly elaborate microphone setup, which included eight mics at various locations throughout the hall.

We received very positive feedback from the session and I’m very excited that we are getting such unique talent to test our recording skills with. Kudos to Paul for such a fantastic project!

Student Blog - Assortment of Audio

Audio Production Student, Jordan Lindgren, has been keeping a great personal blog about his experiences with recording and live sound.  He has been involved with both local music production and working as a crew member for national touring acts.  Jordan is a perfect example of the kind of talent and passion for audio production that we are proud to have here at DSU.  Here's a great video he made from a recording session earlier this year:

Cleaning up Vinyl at the "Transfer Station"

Professor Dan Mortenson, shown above, is hard at work in the studio cleaning up some vinyl records.  Along with our control room and tracking room, we also have a transfer station that can assist in digitizing your vinyl, VHS tapes and cassettes.  We are always looking for new ways to add usefulness to the studio and benefit students and the university.  Additionally, students are given assignments that deal with learning to transfer audio and created a cleaned-up "re-master" that sounds beautifully restored in digital form.

Turning a Speaker into a Microphone

What happens when you connect an XLR cable to a speaker and plug it into a mixer or mic pre-amp?  It simply becomes a microphone!  As a fun project, we took an old speaker from a cabinet and did just that. The best use that I've heard of for this type of microphone is its use on a kick drum to capture the extended low-end.  These are sometimes referred to as a "sub-kick".  We are hoping to find a more professional way to mount the speaker, but for now we have something usable to work with.  It will be interesting to see the results when Paul tests it on a drum kit this weekend.  Here's what we made:

Live Sound class in "The Underground"

In our Live Sound class, we spent some time in the union venue, "The Underground", discussing live sound techniques. We talked about setting up stage monitors, setting gain, DI boxes, and adjustments to EQ and compression. Also, we compared various different types of microphones and polar patterns to see how much gain we can get before creating feedback.  In this vid, student Paul Schipper explains how to properly wrap an XLR cable:

Chris Champion on Acoustic Guitar

The first secret to capturing a great recording is to start with a great musician, and we were lucky enough to begin working with the hugely talented Chris Champion in our Studio Sessions class on Friday.

Chris is a phenomenal jazz guitarist who recently moved to the area from Arizona.  He played an interpretation of "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" with multiple layers of overdubs that ended up sounding like an acoustic trio.

It was great to put some of our techniques into practice, including mic placement, setting proper levels, routing a headphone mix, and multitrack editing in Pro Tools.  We are looking forward to working much more with Chris in future sessions!