September 2005
Thursday, Sept 29
11:30 PM eastern time.
After offloading today's audio files from the portable to the desktop and reviewing them, I must say I am very pleased. We had feared the noise floor level to be rather high, but I'm no longer concerned. Toyed with channel eq settings in Logic, and achieved surprisingly good results. It is very refreshing to work with something different from Waves' Q-Series, and was able to dial in quite a good sound.
The Sennheiser MK60 shotgun mic is excellent, indeed. Very clear, very direct. Unmatched for field-recorded spoken word; am excited about a host of other things I'm going to try. The Edirol R4 portable recorder gets high marks as well. Sound is good and solid, operation smooth and easy. The internal hard drive holds around 35gb. At 24bit 44.1k, that's over eighty hours single channel. Recording setup mostly makes sense, with a couple of minor quirks that could only come from creative Japanese cost management. The battery charger with car kit was employed after lunch - majorly handy. The Audio-Technica 825 stereo mic performs as expected, which is to say good quality and high performance to cost ratio. I still need a backpack, optimized for size and compartments.
Large rain pushed by a cold front blew through during first two hours. Underdressed, I was chilled and practically shaking for quite some time. Why'd I leave my nice, new, warm hoodie in the suite? I expected more warm humidity, at least until this evening. A gentle reminder.
Dinner tonight with a different set of folks from the Nashville contingent. For the curious, Tuesday night dinner at Johnny Carino's (outstanding), dinner last night and tonight at Calhoun's (excellent; did not eat ribs).
All sounds good, a successful mission. Field recording is looking like big fun.
It's been a very good trip. Now let's get the hell out of Hillbilly Vegas.
Thursday, Sept 29
12:04 AM...not central, but eastern time..it feels like 11:05. Call time is (we think) eight-fifteen in the lobby.
More groggy at the start of this day than yesterday; could be yesterday afternoon's nice walk up a trail and into the hills and a giant plate of pasta chicken-something before bedtime.
Darrell and I drove out of town up into the hills, into the National Park, and walked uphill about a mile and a half, to a very peaceful place overlooking a back valley, away from the river and road. Recorded some useful ambience; I'm ready to get much more. Got a couple of strategic insect bites. I need the right backpack/daypack for the portable rig. It will take some further looking.
Today's objective was part one of two, to get enough material for as many as ten TV spots, who knows how many radio. Darrell and I had our own little ancillary operation on the bandstand at Patriot Park. Of the many flags encircling the large athletic field, we couldn't figure out whose had a confederate flag inset....Mississippi's? Pleased to find electricity in the bandstand, so no concerns about battery recharging. We hung up two furniture-moving blankets, in a vain attempt to reduce the nearby highway noise.
Many hours of waiting, ready. Maybe one and a half hours actual recording time total. Emphasis is on TV; our operation is definitely secondary. It keeps us out of the line of fire.
We're adjacent to a large and enormously popular restaurant. "Old Mill""...large, fat food, souvenirs, pumpkin-spiced fudge from the Homemade Candy Shop. They put food with everything in Hillbilly Vegas - you don't just see a show, you eat huge amounts of food while you watch. And it is a sight to watch a four-hundred pound male, barely able to move under his own power, waddling out to his car with two large styrofoam takeout containers under his arm.
It's been said that, at this time of year, the tourist population is comprised of the newlywed and nearly dead.
A pleasant evening spent socializing. Big ups to Rebecca the stylist, for transporting seven men to and from the restaurant.
Tuesday, Sept 27
Here we are in Tennessee Tourist Mecca, Pigeon Forge, part of the Sevierville-PF-Gatlinburg triumvirate. We will be at Dollywood for something tomorrow, but the park is closed that day for maintenance or something. So no recordings of thrill ride rushing/screaming.
Today, we did location scouting, which basically means driving to the spots where we'll record the resident/lifelong employee testimonials for the commercials, scoping out the acoustic factors, and having lunch on the agency's tab. Shooting and location recording is tomorrow and Thursday.
I believe the little wonder rig procured for the occasion will do very nicely. It is good to have the desktop system along for file offload, and as a backup.
Right now, I'm in my private suite with the desktop system, listening to Terje Rypdal's "Blue." After an agency/production crew meeting in the lobby at three o'clock, I think my pal from the agency and I might put on a happy face and go check out Gatlinburg.
It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it.
Wednesday, Sept 7
Taps for Bob Moog played on a big old 1968 Moog modular.
Thanks to Tim Wilson for the link.
Monday, September 5
After twenty-four years - LAURIE ANDERSON IS COMING TO NASHVILLE!!!
YIPPEEEEEE...of course, I can only think of one or two people who might possibly consider going with me. I bought two tickets.
Sunday, Sept 4
Well he's not quite dead...
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