Steph's Summer Intern Blog Day 2

            Day 2: My second day interning at Tapeworks was equally as eventful as the day before. The first thing I learned that day was how to make the coffee, an important thing for all interns to know. After that I went into Studio B and uploaded the organ concert onto that computer. Once it was uploaded, I mixed the concert on Pro Tools. It took me about an hour and a half to mix the roughly fifty minute concert. The most difficult thing about the mix was that there were extreme dynamics; parts of the concert were very loud, while other segments were almost inaudibly quiet. Through the use of automation and light compression/limiting, I was able to even out the contrast in volume, while maintaining the variation in dynamics to keep with the intended sound of the concert. Classical recordings are supposed to sound as natural as possible, so when mixing a piece such as this, it is better to not do to much to the original recording. I used light large church reverb on a few of the tracks to enhance the natural reverb of the cathedral in which it was recorded. I used a little bit of EQ, mainly to accentuate the highs and lows of the recording. I used a compressor on a couple of the tracks, which were not as loud as the others, to try to make them heard a little better.  Once that was done, I bounced it to the hard drive and went and sat in with Chris on the Lego project of the day.

            After lunch, which after much deliberation was decided on Chinese, I sat in on a radio voiceover for Crested Butte, a bike park out in Colorado. Voiceover actors Teresa LaBarbera and Craig Edelson came into the studio to record their pieces, while Brad Hartz was dialed in and recorded through ISDN up in Boston. The whole segment took about an hour from start to finish, with several changes to the script being made along the way. It was interesting to see first hand what goes into recording a radio commercial. Most people switch the station or just zone out during radio commercials, but ever since I have thought about the commercials in a different way. The time constraints, annunciation, inflections, and back ground music are all given careful thought, and crafted in such a way as to deliver the short message in as clear and enthusiastic way as possible.

 After the initial recording, I sat in with Bill as he worked on and edited the recording, by cutting down empty space, adding minimal effects, and background music. It turns out the members of The Dave Matthews Band ski at Crested Butte and allow the company to use their music in their ads. Once the recordings were all edited and mixed, they were sent off for review and we were done with them for the day.

            Mixing the organ concert was very fun to work on, and seeing the time and work that goes into recording a radio spot was extremely interesting. Two days in and I have already learned a lot! I am excited to see what next week brings!