Finally back at it!!!!!!!

Yes!!! Finally I'm back at it, but what is it? Well, both blogging and the education game. After completing the BTEC I spent the summer months generally working and shamefully doing very little with sound. But now I've just commenced studying a Foundation Degree in Sound Creation Technology at De Montfort University (undertaken at Leicester College) and here I am to blog about it, along with some other bits and bobs I've been up to.

I'm only three weeks into the course and currently there seems little difference from when I was on the BTEC, I'm still studying at Leicester College and it's with practically the same set of tutors. There is so less assignments to do but they certainly seem more intense.

I've already made a start on the recording module by scouting for bands and artists to record with Mr Bryn James. The first mission took us on a trip to Leicester's legendary venue the Shed. A place I haven't been to since I last played there about 10 years and I'm afraid to say that the place hasn't changed a bit in all those years. Unfortunately the first mission was unsuccessful but we did get to see a great singer at the Looking Glass called Amy Wyke. After a small amount of Internet scouring and another scouting trip, we've hopefully secured our first recording artist. So recording should commence in the next week or two, posts to follow.

Last week was busy one for live sound with me being the sound operator for the Little Theatre's last production "Entertaining Angels" and also engineering (amongst other things) at Leicester's Oxjam Festival. The day was a fun and adventurous day with practically everything going wrong us and with the mixing console located on the side of the stage, half of my day was spent standing amongst the crowd making signals to Bryn (located on stage with the mixing console) instructing which instrument levels I think should be raised or lowered. But later on in the day I had to engineer another stage, so that  gave me a chance to get some good, lonesome, hands-on experience with the (lets say) more professional setup.

So that all contributes towards the 30 hours i need to complete the work-based learning task in the business module and there's more work to come this week with me crewing at a couple of the "special" shows at the Little Theatre, but I'll speak more about them later in the week.

Time for a beer, me thinks!

The Long Overdue

As the title suggests, this post is undoubtedly long overdue.

So here is a brief rundown of what i've been up to since the last post:

• Finished College.
• Sat stage side at Ray Davies's show at the Royal Festival Hall in London, accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus.
• Passed Apple's Logic 101 course, becoming an Apple certified pro level one.
• Did a bit of crew work on the Little Theatre's production of Brassed Off, which was an awesome show. 
• Became 26 years of age.
• Was saddened by the deaths of Ryan Dunn and Peter Falk.

There has been one or two adventures i really should have dedicated an entire post to, especially the Ray Davies show. But i'm a fool and didn't. I'm Also in the market for getting a Tascam 488 Mkii (Look here), it'll be great to have a crack a producing some 8-track cassette recordings.

Album i'm currently listening to is the White Stripes second album De Stijl. It's noisy, distorted and has rhythm issues, but it's an awesome album so go listen.

Book i'm currently reading is George Orwell's classic, 1984.

Here is this,

Listen and enjoy!!!

More Of The Same!

Well, I've not kept to my promise of regularly blogging, but it certainly has been another long week.

The Little Theatre has just finished a run of Three Sisters. The show contained two visual scene changes and so more crew members were required to assist than on a usual play.  I managed to work on 5 or 6 of the dress rehearsals/shows, so a valuable experience was gained.

Thursday night, myself along with Ricardo, Roland and Luis ran the sound for the yearly LEBC fashion show, held at the Athena in Leicester. As well as controlling the sound, we were also in control visual effects. The show was certainly run as professionally as could be, with the music run by iTunes and the visuals being run from the shitest windows laptop, it was certainly challenging task to keep on cue. To add to that some of the PDF's and DVD given to us by the acts were a mission in themselves to get working and one act didn't even provide us with music, Paul's iPod to the rescue. However, the show was a success overall with only a few minor sound hiccups. 

Right, time for college work so I'll leave you with this.

Time to snap out of my online laziness!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a while since my last post, admittedly I have been busy but that's no excuse for not keeping this blog updated.

So what have I been up to.

Well, the past couple of weeks I've been running the sound for Billy Liar at the Little Theatre. The show was fairly simple to run, with there only being 14 sound cues during the show. But the experience was invaluable and i'm looking forward to running another. Here's a review!

More exciting recording news as Ricardo Wheelband has just secured us an opportunity to record the Leicester Symphony Orchestra at their upcoming show at the De Montfort Hall. So we're super excited and currently planning how to conduct he recording.

Educational wise, my college class is currently working together to put on a CD launch party for a compilation album, containing bands that members of the class have recorded. I was voted into manage the project and it certainly seems a hard task with each meeting turning into a riot. But it's certainly fun and the project is being to pick up pace. Check out Peter Collins and Jake Brennan's blogs to view their side of the project and also to see design plans.

Check out these:

Right as for now, time to watch a bit of the horrific England Cricket display, then it's off to college, before crewing for the tech run for Three sisters at the Little Theatre tonight. So a long day ahead!

Laters Potatoes 

Comedy Festival and on to Billy Liar

Well the Leicester Comedy Festival is over for another year. Thankfully I managed to be a part of it this year by crewing for 3 of the acts (Jo Caulfield, Count Arthur Strong and Shappi Khorsandi) at the Little Theatre. The work literally involved me sitting and watching the act on the DSM monitor and it got me thinking that if I could do this as a profession, then life would be easy.

Jo Caulfield was good, didn't know what to expect having only every seen her on shows like Mock the Week and Nevermind the Buzzcocks, but the crowd reacted and interacted well. There was a few technical difficulties at the beginning, with Jo forgetting to bring her pre-show music CD. But the situation was easily overcome once all the crew members had listed the CD's in their cars.

Count Arthur Strong was amazingly funny and played to a packed house. This time there was a little more work involved with there being a scene change in the middle and there were a few shenanigans after the show, but thats another story.

Shappi Khorsandi was equally as funny. The show opened with support act Matthew Hardy and as with the Jo Caulfield show, there was little work to be done. Both Shappi and Matthew were very friendly and engaging people, with the show again being played to a packed house.

Now that the Comedy Festival is finished it's on to Billy Liar which I'm co-running the sound with Mr Atter. Hopefully this opportunity will be a massive learning curve for me and help me to hone in on some vital skills.

On with the busyness!!!

More Barbershopping and Comedy Festival

Well it's been another busy week again. The Barbershop recordings have been fully mixed and are currently being mastered. So hopefully they'll be finished by tomorrow afternoon and then it's time to think about packaging. Thursday night i participated in a recording session as a musician for the first time in a long time, helping Ed out with his recording project. Me and Rich blasted out Teenage Kicks, it's a little loose and my guitar playing is somewhat rusty but i'm sure it will sound alright after some tweaking. 

Saturday i was paralysed by a titanic headache, but nothing a little set destruction at the Little Theatre couldn't take care of. Tonight I'll be back there crewing during Jo Caulfield's performance in the comedy festival.

I'll Leave you with this snippet of audio i found on my old PC. It's a radio shout-out from DJ Hype from a few years back. Not overly sure who DJ Hype is, but nevertheless, at least i was on the radio.
Hype Shoutout by Paulie_h3

Super Long Sunday To End The Week!

After the laziest of lazy Saturdays, today (Sunday) i attended the fit-up for the Little Theatre's production of "A view from the bridge". Arriving at 10:30 this morning and leaving just after 8 this evening, its been a hard and long day indeed. However tiring it has been, it certainly feels good to be creative using hammers and drills. Today saw the crew constructing a raked stage with a surrounding set mimicking 1950's New York city. A full and rewarding day and topped off by my return home to a sunday roast made by my darling lady.

As for the weekdays preceding the weekend, the final preparations have been made for Thursday evenings recording of a barbershop choir. So a full report with pictures and hopefully a time-lapse video will be posted soon after. I've also been developing an idea for a new website with the needs of sound engineers at heart, so i'll soon be begging, stealing and borrowing whatever i can to make it a success.

The week ahead looks set to be a musical one, with Alley Barber soon to be visiting for some synthesis and electronica experimentation.

Right then, time to watch the football highlights and mix a few drums.

TTFN