Free downloads for my blogger pals

Hey guys, I have talked often about the recording process and marketing the music off my new record, so here is two FREE SONGS for you guys! Tell me which song you like the best! Thanks for reading!

Brand new grunge inspired FREE MUSIC below! Wheew!
http://lastrelapse.bandcamp.com

Album Release

There is a lot of technicalities that go into the release of an album. I am slowly finding out and the hoops to jump through as I work through it with the Last Relapse release. 

ISRC codes are an integral part of all your favourite digital media and it is a code that I have just learned about when applying it to my own content. Basically ISRC codes digitally track the lifespan of digital media- all of it's plays and downloads. And reports the data to Sound Scan and SOCAN so they can accurately chart your songs and pay out due royalties. This is one amazing benefit of the digital media culture we live in: the ability to accurately track and report album stats without relying on major labels to coax Billboard reporters to bump up album spots. 

The ISRC codes come with a small price of $50.00 for an album. After paying this fee you get a unique ISRC code for your band and each song is issued a sub code as well. Typically these codes are burned into the disk with mastering software, but being a digital audio file the code can be embedded without major surgery to get into the file. 

It's amazing that you can get world wide distribution and album charting with a couple clicks of the mouse as a small payment. Of course you need a quality product and a solid fanbase to achieve real success, but it I great to know the tools of the trade before Ozzy comes knockin on your door to put you in his show roster. Cheers! 

Visiting a Mastering House

Two weeks ago my band, Last Relapse, finished mixing our first EP Glass Empire. We messed around with minor changes swapping out guitar solos and layering vocals till finally we were happy with the final mixes. So what next after that?

We then entered the process of mastering and sent our 24 bit mixes over to Scott Pinder at Polyphonic Mastering Labs. Mastering is essentially the process of applying precise EQs, compressors and limiters to create a stereo audio file that sounds great and loud on a wide range of systems. 

A big selling feature thsy attracted our business to Polyphonic Mastering Labs was the premium analog gear that is used in house. Analog mastering is simply in parelelled: you get the warm sounds of natural tape compression that sounds incredibly smooth to the ear. The instrument of choice to achieve this effect is the Manley Slam ADA Converter, which takes a digital signal and cycles it through an analog signal chain bringing out all the nuances and buried harmonics. 

After this conversion is complete then the signal moves through a couple premium EQs where slight corrections are. Made with great precision. Then back in the digital real, the audio is converted back to Wav digital audio where it enters the SADIE disk editing system. 

This was the point where Nolan and I jumped in to name our songs and come up with the order of songs to appear on our EP. Thankfully we had an idea. We decided to make the first song end right close to the beginning of the second song so they almost blend together: that was a pretty spur of the moment creative call the turned out great. 

Lastly we updated the ISRC codes, which actually tracks each audio file and how many times the song is copied ect. We printed two disks after Scott shared a story of how a previous client slipped getting into his car and ran over his only copy and had to come back. 

The EP will be available this weekend! 

Sound Garden guitar cover

Hello six string slingers

I have finally come across an accurate guitar tab that brilliantly transcodes one of my favorite songs from the 90's, Burden In My Hand by Sound Garden. I remember many hang ups as a teenager trying to learn this song and have a rough time because the song is in an obscure open turning and every "free" tab out there was getting baffled by this right off the start—pretty gruelling to learn a song that is tabbed in the wrong turning to say the least!

This last year I came across a website that has transformed my guitar playng by making tabs much more accurate and the rhythm of the song is built in so there are no guesses with the time signature or any other important piece of musical information that free tab sites seems to frequently get stumped on. Don't get me wrong, the LE version of this tab site is also free, but what makes it great, is that it employs a strong interface that is incredibly intuitive for the guitar player.

Check out the website, http://www.songsterr.com/ and skip the frustration that faulty tabs will bring you! Unnecessary frustration when a guitar player like yourself should be focusing on developing your own style and recruiting more groupies. Below is the cover tune, it is an ode to my former tab-frustrated teenager self and the awesome readers of my blog, enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/79762346 

E bow Demonstration Video

I have created a demonstration video to follow up from my Ebow post. I have been having fun with my new guitar tool and thought that it could be useful for those considering picking up one of these awesome gadgets.

Music First audio production seminar

Hello

I have recently taken on a new position as head of audio post production for film and new media with the Music First school.  I will be teaching intro to audio post production on October 21st at Skull Space studios at 125 Adelaide St. I am excited to announce that this will be the last seminar at this location because we have newly acquired the former Absurd Machine Studio space and are in the process of converting it to be a fully operational recording space! In November all of our classes will be held this premier location. Esteemed Colombian electronic producer, Felipe Munoz, will be teaching electronic music production and I will focus on teaching  production techniques for live instruments and of course the film and broadcast side of production.

I am very thrilled to have a co-teacher with Felipe's great talents and I know from experience already that we make a great team in the studio. We are newly renovating our program outline for the new space; we will be able to offer a much wider range of subject matter. When the classes aren't in session the studio will be working on client projects., which will be engineered by Felipe and myself.

The greatest thing about the space is that we have the capacity to launch huge album release concerts in house because  of the 600 person capacity of the space. I will post a demo teaser of our seminars after we record the intro session  on  October 21st. Keep checking in! I will update you on the  renovations of the studio.

Cheers!

Blackbird Studios

I recently got to use a product create by one of my most favourite producers George Massenburg. I got to sweep the master mix of a couple new Last Relapse tunes and to fill out mix before we sent it out to a mastering house. I always try to do a bit of a pre-master before I sent any records out to a mastering house: so they know the over all sound that we are trying to achieve for the final product.

I was working with the GML 8200 on the stereo mix bus to treat the final left and right mix. I was amazed at the surgical precision and incredible transparency of this mastering EQ. I found the design to be very ergonomic with the pots having a certain weight to them so you could turn them within a fraction of a Db to target the specific frequency.

I remember a photo of George Massenburg's EPIC studio intrigued me at a young age just starting my career in sound with Sound Art Calgary. The photo was half way through an issue of Mix Magazine and it just jumped out at me as one of the most amazing studios I have ever seen. The design is acoustically brilliant and doubles as a modern art installation. Check out Blackbird Studios below:

Fully functional surround sound mixing space.

I was surprised to learn the George Massenburg coined the term "Parametric EQ," this term is consider part of the essential studio vocabulary in any modern studio. His products were at the fore front of their day and many of the EQs George uses in the studio have earned a world class reputation for delivering the most true high fidelity audio.

Even more shocking than the reputation of the studios renowned gear is the client list that has put in blood sweat and beers to create great albums at his studio. I wonder how many ground breaking artists visited each other in this multi studio facility: there are 10 separate sections of this studio for high quality recording... I think he's just trying to rub it in haha

I was happy to get my hands on an innovative piece of gear that sings true just like the legendary studio that has been a long standing fixation of my pipe dreams.

The Amazing Ebow

I have recently purchased a new and amazing guitar effect product called the Ebow. I really didn't know what to think when I first saw this little gadget that looked very alien and fit in the palm of my hand. I was instantly blown away when I saw this mysterious handheld device in action as it hovered over my friends guitar and produced some of the most rich fully sustained guitar tones that beautifully mimicked a cello or violin—this sound was popularized by many artists notably Frank Zappa and Metallica. I was especially impressed at how the Ebow could sweep all six strings in one solid motion and unleash super fast arpeggios that sound like Jimmy Page gone mad splintering one of his massive cello bows.

I used this device on one of the guitar solos on my bands new record keeping it low in the mix and soaked with lush delays to create a sort of ethereal texture in the background of a guitar solo. The Ebow is a great tool for create complexities in this way: it does wondrous things to a mix when it is used as a guitar re enforcement tool. I highly recommend playing around with this unit to see if this tool suits your sound!

There are three stylistic ways to use the EBow as a tool for guitar expression:


1.) Arpeggio bowing - Run through arpeggio shapes as the Ebow is swept across the strings the ascend and descne the arpeggio notes.

2.) Spiccato bowing - Touch the Ebow to the guitar string in quick motions to target individual notes. Let the note sustain as you see fit. This sounds great with reverb and delay.

3.) Bowing - Move the Ebow back and forth to gently "massage" the string and let the guitar sing like a cello or violin.

All these styles can be incorporated together to create the most dynamic and crowd-stunning riff runs. A 9v battery fits into the top of the unit and weighs it out beautifully for great playability.

Happy bow'in!

Production Collective

Remember that office building that used to be a dance hall back in the 50s that I was blogging about acquiring? Well I have recently collaborated with the Exchange District based business Music First to develop a section of this building that was formerly Absurd Machine's production studio and turn it into a collective studio space.

We are currently drafting up a membership plan to serve about 25 members of film makers and musicians. This space is incredibly modular and acoustically modified to capture great recordings and is a great set for visual artists. There is an office section below where the Music First company will claim as their home base to construct cutting edge events that promote community solidarity and myself and Dj Tubescreamer will be the studio managers on the upper level.

The challenge will be filling the empty studio with gear that will maximize the capabilities of the space while still being on budget! The 4 keys members (including myself) that are fronting this project have quite a bit of studio gear already between us, but the major unit that we will need to puchase is a studio mixing board or several preamp channel strips for processing.

We have a couple ideas for the mixing board we will use for the studio:

The main question that all new studio owners face is, "Do we go digital or analog?"

Here are some of the digital products we had in mind:

SSL Nucleus - Is a DAW control interface which has automated fader controls and full parametric sweeping EQ.

Avid C24 - 24 channel mixer with analog inputs optimized for ProTools.

Here are some analog mixer products:

Toft Audio ATB16 - A great vintage analog sounding mix board.

SSL AWS 16 channel mixing board.

We will be pooling our resources in the next month to find the perfect configuration for our new studio. I will keep this blog updated on how the project is rolling out and studio rates when we are up and running. Cheers!

Last Relapse finishes our studio EP

I recently had my first experience as a recording artist with my band Last Relapse as we put together our first studio EP at Bedside Studios. We were taken under the wing of the chief music producer and owner Len Milne. He impressed us with his Juno nominations, wall of Western Canadian Music Awards and the several Perpetrators albums he produced.

The project began with Len coming down to our practice studio spot for a pre-production session and we decided which of our original songs would best fit the EP. Now that I look back on it, this was the moment when our songs were the most raw and this is when Len started carving away at the big piece of raw songwriting we dropped on his doorstep. Our goal with the EP is to achieve radio playability while still maintaining our songwriting integrity and heavy sound: this required some musical carving and shaping...

I am sharing this experience because I felt that co-producing and playing guitar on a professional record has significantly challenged and improved me as a musician and as a person. Different stages of the process were humbling as we dissected some technical guitar parts under the microscope and some parts were celebratory as we pieced the 7 odd guitar tracks (played on 3 different guitar models) and the pieces fit perfectly like puzzle. The experience has made me realize that I want to hone my craft as a songwriter for my entire lifetime; it is the greatest sense of satisfaction I have ever felt to play my ass off and nail a track when recording.

I have worked with a couple studio engineers with previous bands, but never a record producer. The big difference is that the producer crafts the arrangement of the songs as well as the technical studio wizardry. I could see how many songwriters could feel this process to be intrusive and difficult, but I was fortunate to have the same vision for this record as our producer and we both supported each-others suggestions. Listening to Lens advice was incredible training for my critical ear and he helped me extensively to listen for a song and not just my instrument. The process was difficult at times when we were discussing how to make the radio friendly four minute mark on our main radio single Miss Misunderstood when the song was written by us to be 5:15 mins. With Lens expert advice we were able to merge the pre-choruses and choruses making one technical but deliciously condensed main chorus that is much more progressive. After cutting and chopping our radio single we moved on to the others to perform surgery by simplifying and combining some of the technical drum and guitar parts.

Len expressed it well when he said that basically he was baking a layer cake with our song lol as a very proper metaphor for tightening up each layer of from the recorded instruments and merging them together in the mix.

I wanted the record to be stamped with my home town in some way so we used Garnett Amplification and Kel Audio microphones: all famous Winnipeg manufacturers. We just finished tracking the last guitar and vocal harmonies last night and I cant wait to hear the mixed product this Wednesday.

Summer film projects

The summer took off to a busy start as I jumped right into filming the movie Bunks for Disney XD in early June. The film was for a teenage demographic based on camp stories that come to life in mildly jarring horror fashion. I realised the golden rule of film continuity to be absolutely true on this film: avoid shooting child actors and animals... at all costs. Many of the child actors had difficulty remembering their exact actions for the "turn around" shots and made it challenging for the script supervisor to maintain continuity—oddly enough she was one of the most pleasant souls on set and was just an absolute sweetheart everyday.

Most of the shooting was on a remote island in Lake Of The Woods about a 30 minute boat ride from the Kenora harbour. The morning boat ride every morning was wonderful; we would hit breakfast catering in the hotel lobby then bring our coffee on the boat and enjoy the morning mist on our faces and the beautiful sunrise. We had a pretty moderate shooting schedule capturing 5 pages of script a day on average with plenty of options for angles and inserts. We were shooting on the Arri Alexa camera with two camera units and one splinter unit, which made my job difficult programming the time code and frame rate synchronisation for 3 cameras shooting simultaneously. There was many out-of-town crew on this show and I met some really great new friends from Vancouver, Toronto and L.A. I really enjoyed the company of director Tibor Takacs who is very Hungarian—if the name didn't give it away—our families are from the same region in Hungary and on top of that he also managed one of my favourite Canadian punk bands, The Viletones. Tibor told me some great stories from his life managing and producing a popular punk rock band in the height of the scene. My favourite story was when Tibor mention that once after booking Johnny Thunders (from the New York Dolls) to headline a show for The Viletones, Johnny pulled a slide of hand move and quickly snagged $100 extra on top of his show payment to buy smack outside of CBGBs and then disappeared for a couple days—what a crazy scene to have financial investments. Lets just clarify that I love Johnny Thunders for of his dirty-blues guitar playing and not his tragic lifestyle choices. There were some chaotic moments during the film, but that's how the business goes sometimes when the marketing vision and the creative vision don't exactly mesh, and do they ever really?

One of the most memorable moments on set was when the special FX department was rigging some weaponry, which the hero's were to shoot at the oncoming ghouls, and they over calibrated the launching device (I can't really give away too much here) suddenly the unit fired the projectiles high into the sky.. Well a couple seconds later, I was calmly programming my audio board and I notice everyone looking up. As I looked up, the projectiles were just about to rain down on me and a couple of the stand-in actresses that were sitting beside me. I ducked for cover under my mobile desk/mixer board but still got pelted by these things as did the actresses! It didn't hurt or anything, but we found it to be just hilarious seeing the shocked look on every ones face as these "things" came raining down. 

During our lunch breaks we had this gorgeous beach with plenty of swimming points to enjoy and suntan on with catering right on the shoreline, it was the best. The special FX department had underwater gear and they were pranking people relentlessly... I guess the crew members from California are always on shark alert. I worked on a couple more films throughout the summer, but this was the most fun. 

Music Roots

Hello

Today in poetry class we were assigned to write a poem about a relationship with someone close to us. I chose to write about my grandfather Glen, and explore our mutual appreciation of early blues music. My English side of the family has very little interest in music other than my gramps, so it is very nice that he makes the effort to relate to me and expose me to music that he enjoyed when he was a teenager. Here is the poem that I wrote about inspired by this:

Dusty and Sincere

Dusting off old records that were once filed alphabetically when my grandfather was in better health

Blues music from a faded golden era brings nostalgic memories to him 

New discoveries 

A song that once was once banned

He is proud in his ability to stream the latest blues over Internet radio

As I am leaving he slips a neatly written paper with the link for future recall

But what he doesn’t know, is that I look forward to browsing his vinyl collection in his company

Or maybe he does

I listen to his recollections and musical questions

I bring my guitar from time to time

He sits and listens with a warm smile

Old blues tunes being re-incarnated by young hands

I always make time to learn his favorite songs

As I nostalgically visit my early roots in music, I invite you to do the same. It's always great practice to learn a couple songs from a different era, genre, country and time signature: this will help you grow versatile and complex as a musician and/or producer. Versatility can get you alot of work as a session player and increase your impact at open jam events, but also you can adopt your own new style by borrowing and elaborating elements from the past, like a couple notes from a particular scale. Dont forget your roots and use elements from your early passions into your new compositions. Constantly re-invent.

Cheers

Band Business

Good day

The boys and I have recently upgraded our band practice studio and all I can say is: wow a little paint goes a long way! It is essential having a creative space that has proper ambiance to inspire the artistic visions to manifest themselves and come into fruition within comforting walls. Who said heavy rockers don't know how to dust every once in a while? This recent upgrade was asssisted in a big way by our drummers sister Caroline, who has become one of my best friends over the years. Caroline manages an interior design compnay and was able to provide really top quality paint at a very low buddy rate.

We have a neighbouring band that is next door, Hey Pilgrim!, and typically we schedule our jam days so we dont over lap and cause sonic overload through the walls, as both our bands play through pretty heavy hitting amp stacks. It worked out great this time, however, because Hey Pilgrim! showed up right after my band, Last Relapse, finished a 4 song quick set. Usually we pass the torch when we are both practising with a 3 song band battle with excessive cheering and high fives after each of our 3 song sets--usually turns out to be hilarious and alot of fun. But this time, we had all the paint supplies and having the band show up really gave us the motivation to put down our guitar and pick up the paint rollers while we rocked out to our neighbours epic indy rock set. The cheering and hilarious comments were still in full effect of course and I must say, it was a hell of a fun way to paint a room with the whole band doing their part.

Our drummer came up with a great idea to put the tape of our band logo on the wall as we ran over it with paint rollers, leaving behind an incredibly epic band logo. I'm sure we will go over it again to make it stand out a bit more and also some of the paint peeled off when we removed the tape, which actually gives it a really cool grungy look.

This is just another fun creative project that the band has undertaken together. It will make a great scene for montage shooting this weekend.

Also on the band agenda, we are in talks with a local promoter to play a benefit concert for Mental Health Awareness week commencing May 6th to 12th. The concert will have participating bands cover Elliot Smith songs, an artist that was deeply affected by mental health issues and took his own life October. 21st 2003. I have been a huge fan of Elliot for a long time, he has been the soundtrack that has comforted me through hard times the way a close friend would lend understanding. I will be truly honoured to pay homage to an artist that has given me so much and raise funds for a great cause at the same time. Here is a little taste of one of the cover songs we plan to play for the benefit concert.

http://snd.sc/16yPznp

Have a great one guys!

Digitally Impoted

Hello All

This last weekend I made a very interesting discovery in the realm of Internet radio. I was browsing Facebook, as I rarely do, pouring through the stampede of messages thrown at me from concert promoters living mostly in Calgary—It can be brutal sometimes getting invited to all these cool events when you don't even live in that city anymore—I was intrigued when I came across an invite to tune into my friend and former musical collaborators radio showcase on www.di.fm. He was heavily promoting his show for a good reason: I tuned in and it was like having a personal DJ in my house while I was hosting a small dinner party with friends at my Wolseley residence.

When I was living in Calgary I was working in the audio industry and had close relations with the regional Bose dealer that led me to a great deal on a Bose Surround system that is wired throughout my place, so needless to say the bass was kickin' that night. The digital format of this radio station is great. I was able to cue it up on my phone and using the option to output through my apple wireless station: I had the station bangin' with to wires for my house guests to trip on with their full wine glasses. 

I've been to many shows hosted by these guys DJ Coda and Phantohm Soundsystem, and they always play the kind of electronic music that flows nicely for a chill event without being too in your face with glitchy synth break downs. I was treated once again as I tuned into to the smooth Liquid Dubstep, UK Garage and Speed Garage tunes that were swelling with low end out of my speakers. I am quite new to the UK Speed Garage sound, but I am quickly becoming a big fan. My problem with classic garage or "speed-less garage" (haha) is that it is very slow—watching people dance to the slow rythym makes them inadvertatntly look very intoxicated because of its slow swagger style shuffling beats.

After a glass of wine with my friendly company, I over heard many compliments about the music that was accenting our party, so I decided to send a message to my Dj friend giving the text form of a solid pat on the back. He responded by giving me a shout out on his radio show, which was very unexpected as I almost choked on my sip of Vallpolicella—It was very awesome! One of the tracks that really stood out to me was by a group called DB; their track Joy is a really cutting edge amazing blend of Speed Garage, House and Dub accompanied by that signature 90's horn section that just makes the girls rush the dance floor. The track leads you in with its funking vocal track and then unleashes pulverizing garage bass-lines that are tamed by the smooth rhythm. Check it out below.

https://soundcloud.com/dista/db-joy-dista-bradshaws-5am-mix 

Perhaps the promotional tactics worked on this affected music fan, but now after enjoying a night of having a personal Dj in my place I've become completely spoiled. I now tune into the stations sprawling catalogue of new music and electronic Dj mixes every chance I get when I am at home and it's at an hour that my neighbours won't wish for a lightening strike to short circuit the power to my PA.

This experience has influenced my music listening habits and expanded my horizons to some very cool new music genres. I have heard about digital radio stations and have tuned in to Itunes radio often, but out of every song I like on the Itunes radio, there is usually 5 I don't like at all. Digitally Imported FM really lets me zone in on the genre that I want to hear and delivers a great bang for no bucks! I would recommend getting into Internet radio: it is a great way to discover new music and who doesn't want their own personal DJ spinning the dub-plates that are hot off the press.

Pump Up The Volume

I am currently in the market for a new guitar amp. Myself, like many guitar players, have many questions to answer in this market: The most predominant one being, do I go all-tube or solid state? There are many benefits to each that we will examine in this blog post.

Tube/Valve Amps

Tube amps are legendary for their unique warm tones; every tube amp has its own signature sound. The saturation from multiple stage vacuum tube amplification colours the players guitar tone in such a way that could never be digitized or recreated in an engineers lab. 

Tube amps are a favorite among classic guitar players and those seeking a warm vintage tone. But these sweet tones come at a heavy price in the wallet and on the poor sucker caught carry this iron cast amp head to gigs—Hopefully you have roadies to tempt with beer for this! Allas, both of these factors are a mere sacrifice to achieve the classic tones that are different with each amp, getting boutique quality sounds in every piece of gear.

Solid State amps have come along way since the hair metal days! Solid State amps are made with the "modern" guitarist in mind and they are transistor driven. They are significantly ligher and embody a much different tone with more un-even harmonics compared to tube amps, which creates a more harsher dry sound. These amps are favoured among metal guitar players because the tonality is at the other end of the spectrum from the warmth and lush qualities of tube amps offering dark and compelling swells for metal playing.

These amps are much lighter and cheaper—so you wont break your roadies back or your budget! With modern advances in technology these amps are at the fore-front of getting digital modelling treatment. You will notice that many of these amps have an FX section, which offer controls for digital guitar effects—So you can leave a couple guitar pedals at home so it doesn't look like space-craft mission control. The amps work best with hum-bucking guitar pickups, so if you are a guitar player that uses this technology you might want to look into solid state.

A new emerging technology is taking studio guitar players by storm: Axe Fx|| is endorsed by some of the greatest modern guitar players and has been featured on some impressive albums. The tube amp purist will stay far away from this technology and many feel that completely turning your guitar signal digital is sacrilegious—I was included in this group until I heard the impressive leaps and bounds this technology has made. Digital modelling is the technical term and most units come designed to fit in 2 rack spaces. The units, especially the high-end, don't come cheap but they sure offer an incredible pallet of sounds.

Being a tube amp analogue purist I am looking at Mesa amp heads predominantly, but as soon as Axe Fx|| comes with tube amp integration in their amp heads it will be very tough to pass up that opportunity.

A Thousand Farewells

Nahlah Ayed’s memoir, A Thousand Farewells, is riveting collection of life experiences relative to the author’s connection to the Middle East. The authors personal account of war in the Middle East presents a relevant perspective on the effects of modern warfare: The book illuminates not only the scars inflicted to soldiers and infrastructure, but also the (emotional and physical) scars worn by countless families caught in the crossfire as they struggle to manage their daily lives.

When our Western hand of intervention turns into a fist to force change, it is common for our media to censor the graphic violence that is prevalent in the regions of conflict. Most of us are quite disconnected from death in Canada, even living in the murder capital of this nation, many of us will never see death in our streets. War coverage on American television pacifies the violence even further by showing The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator dropping bombs with the press of a button—while the operator sips his morning coffee in the Nevada command centre. This glorification of tactical assault is eerily familiar to the Call Of Duty video games that dominate modern teenage hobby interests. It is apparent that we as civilians are disconnected from seeing the full effects of our intervention in the Middle East and other areas of involvement. A Thousand Farewells highlights the daily devastation felt by the people of the region and is not diluted to appease the faint of heart.

The reporting by Nahlah Ayed is very observational and sometimes poetic in its nature: I found this stimulating and enjoyable. I often felt that I was looking through her eyes, as a looking glass, when she was describing vivid events. Reading Ayed’s work has given me respect and appreciation for the small, specific observational details included in compelling journalism. When Ayed wrote about the shaking ground from the dropping bombs, I felt as though I was next to her tasting the dust in the area with remnants of black powder. During the reporting of bombs dropping in the distance, the author does not include descriptions of her emotional state because the scene is so descriptive the reader is engaged to connect their own emotions to the circumstances. It is so effective when a writer can show you a scene and not tell you; this makes the reading experience much more intimate and vivid. I believe many journalists can take a helpful example from Ayed’s work when using poetic language to help color a scene. Notably, the scene with the “angel of mourning” really captured the emotional state of Hillah when its dark secrets were being un-earthed. Ayed is really an expert at painting a detailed scene for readers with her extensive and carefully selected details. They say, “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” I felt the same effect from Ayed’s descriptive language painting a picture in my minds eye.

Ayed’s writing bears the professional structure and prose of a veteran journalist, which is demonstrated with every stroke of her pen (but most likely keyboard). There are many interesting metaphors contained in the pages showing the delicate balance of observational poetic expression and facts that add to the story. For example: the connection between candy bars and characters that sound as if they were crafted in a child’s imagination.

The use of similar names was often confusing for me throughout the book, but there isn't exactly a way around that while still maintaining integrity. Perhaps some non-essential characters throughout Ayed's experiences could have been omitted, such as, one of the many Abdullahs in the story. I was also surprised that there were never any mentions of romantic interest while traveling in the Middle East. Many details of the authors personal life are investigated and analyzed heavily while other areas are completely ignored. 

A very close family member of mine was in the Middle East for a short diplomatic objective, so in addition to the emotional response from an already compelling story I felt a strong connection when Ayed was feeling fear for her safety during the onslaught of conflict. Reading Ayed’s accounts of the dangerous elements in these troubled Middle Eastern cities prompted me to think of my family member and what he must of felt when touching down in that region for the first time.

I can honestly say that I have learned many important and practical lessons that will be a helpful influence on many future journalistic projects. I have always had a lot of curiosity about the recent invasion of Iraq and what the Iraqi citizens must have thought of George W. Bush’s allegations that subsequently led to war in their homeland. I strongly believe that it’s infinitely valuable for two cultures engaged in conflict to understand each-others perspective because war ultimately is the product of indifference affecting diplomatic failure. Books such as “A Thousand Farewells,” contribute to the very antithesis of war itself: understanding.

Daemoness Guitars!

Alright, it's time to talk guitars... And I ain't talkin' about the rows on the assembly line at the factory.

I have recently come across a very cutting edge guitar company hailing from Bristol, England, which is operated by Tom Waghorn and Dylan Humphries, who are world renowned professionally trained luthiers. The company is called Daemoness Guitars, they are determined to make the worlds best metal guitars for the modern player by integrating original designs and an ethos that is true to the metal player. The first thing I noticed about this English guitar builder is that each guitar has a central design concept; each guitar is like a work of art that boasts breakthrough creative concepts. Many of the central themes embody genre specific occult themes of death and demons—such is the way of the metal—but there are also many designs that are truly a thing of artistic beauty. Below is one of the customized guitars called the Shark Star. I really can't think of anything more hardcore than a shark inspired guitar...

Courtesy of Daemoness Guitars

I was first exposed to the small boutique guitar company through one of my favorite modern metal bands, Periphery, as their lead guitar virtuoso Misha Mans slung a big beautiful blue guitar (shown below) with the most intense 7 string tones. The Daemoness Guitars are installed with boutique pick-ups as well, and most of them are equipped with fellow English company and guitar innovators Bare Knuckle Pick-ups. These pick-ups really accentuate the playing style of the band Periphery, as they are central figures in the new metal genre (or guitar tone style) known as 'Djent.' Below is the gorgeous guitar that inspired me to seek out this company and research some of their other creations.

Courtesy of Daemoness Guitars

To me personally, there is something breathtaking about a thing of beauty like this guitar crafted from nature that unleashes a heavy wall of sonic ferocity.. Yes it is quite safe to say that I am quite captivated by this instrument.

Daemoness Guitars uses a variety of different wood for the body for different purposes. They often use combinations of Redwood, Mahogany and quilted maple layered together. Also the guitar neck is layered with three different varieties of wood to prevent warping and twisting. This method of layering wood is a very advanced and technical procedure only masters of the craft can pull off in an economical way. There are no prices listed on the website, but there is a section to send in your specs to receive a quote. With this kind of craftsmanship I wouldn't be surprised if the guitar build is well out of the price range of many of us mere mortals. The website confidently boasts, "Daemoness guitars can build you an exact replica of pretty much anything you want,"I definitely believe they can back that one up!

I was surprised to un-cover that all inlay work on the guitar neck is custom drawn out on a drafting table in the middle of the shop, a combination of white mother of pearl and abalone are custom cut and fitted into place to create yet even more character to these guitars.

Courtesy of Daemoness Guitars

All in all I am very impressed with the quality and world class expertise that goes into these guitars—larger guitar manufactures just cannot ever come close to this quality and attention to detail for logistical and economical reasons. 

These guitars are clearly designed for gods among men and if I ever get the chance to play one of these beasts, I am sure the under world would salute me with lighters in the air. Here is another pic for your enjoyment, cheers!

Post-production project complete!

I have recently completed the post-production audio edit for a 35 minute film I have been working on since the July. I was sceptical at first taking this project because of the very rough location audio that had a lot of destructive wind noise and interference throughout many dialogue intensive scenes. I saw the opportunity to take on an intensive challenge that would further refine my ADR and audio masking skills and add impressive elements to my portfolio and freelance business reputation. My freelance audio production business, Vigilant New Media, has finalised yet another post production project, but this one wasn't a cake walk.

The first stage in production was to do a rough edit the director and myself could determine which scenes will need ADR recording. After many review sessions we determined that roughly 1/3 of the film needed to be re-created in the studio, which by comparison to other indy films, is quite a lot. I would normally recommend re-shooting some scenes under these circumstances but the scenes were quite difficult to re-create and many of the actors are from Vancouver and Toronto, basically I was asked to make a miracle happen. The production company agreed to pay all the studio time and production expenses required to get the audio to a professional level, so I called up my good old buddy Andrew from Precursor Productions and booked about a week of studio time.

The ADR sessions were a lot of fun, all of the actors did a fantastic job despite the many takes we went through! It is a key tactic in ADR recording to use the same microphone at roughly the same placement as it was recorded on set-It is usually a safe bet to have the mic pointing downward from a raised mic stand to emulate how the boom mic is typically used on set. I was using Apple Logic Pro and engage the look take recording feature made it ideal for capturing the perfect ADR takes, because it allows you to seamlessly cut individual words from a variety of different takes to suit the scene.

Next on the agenda was a rigorous Foley recording session that took a couple months to completely re-create from the ground up. The wind noise was so destructive on some scenes that they had to be deleted completely, so every gust of wind rustling branches to every footstep and passing car had to be fabricated with some studio magic. This process was very challenging and time consuming at times, but the finished product really is something impressive. I can barely tell that the audio was re-created, it sounds to me like pristine location audio!

The most difficult Foley, however, is the roller skating scenes. I used contact microphones and boom mics spatially position around the streets at 4am - 5am when there was little traffic noise. The mixed roller skating now sounds dynamic, thunderous and amazing. After many mixing sessions with the director I finally have the finished product ready for the Cinematheque and film festival release this spring. I highly recommend checking out this film!

The Waiting Room

The Waiting Room blog post

It is easy to take for granted our free health care system as a Canadian citizen. If we were presented with receipts stating the cost of our latest doctors visit paid courtesy of the Government of Canada, I am sure it would put it in perspective just how fortunate we are to live in a nation where visits to the family doctors office feel like a basic inherent civil right. Sure we have our share of problems with the system here in Canada, but have we ever been frustrated enough to consider trading places with our Southern neighbours? The documentary film, The Waiting Room, offers an 81-minute candid journey into the perseverance and daily reality facing patients, doctors and staff caught up in the American healthcare system at the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. This film offers an insider’s perspective on the inner workings of a health care system that is so different from our own in some ways.

Many young Canadians learn, in the early years of junior high school, the basic fundamental differences between our two healthcare systems and that we are privileged to be living in a nation that will not turn away it's citizens in our most vulnerable moments. The American healthcare system is often a hot topic for debate between Republican and Democratic leaders during election time, which in turn spills over into our Canadian media content. When I hear about the healthcare debates in the U.S I often wonder: how can a nation with an estimated GDP of $15.8 trillion in 2012, according to the U.S National Economic Trends, deny its citizens a very basic right to be treated in the direst times? It was curiosity that motivated me to see Michael Moore’s film Sicko in 2007, to shed light on this issue that is merely 140 km away from my hometown. I thought Sicko was a great and informative journey into the backward policies of American healthcare, but of course some of the messages were extremely dramatized to garner shock-value in true Michael Moore fashion. I appreciated the journey by boat to Cuba too seek health care, it made for great entertainment, but the majority of Americans aren’t travelling in boats making highly dramatized entrances for medical care. You will find most Americans in the countless waiting rooms strewn across their vast nation, many of them nervously waiting with their fate in the hands of their insurance provider, if they are lucky.

This documentary film The Waiting Room covers the very diverse and captivating stories of Americans inter-woven in the system at the Highland Hospital. The documentary is shot in an observational style, often called cinema verité, which presents a reality soaked multiple-character driven account of the many trials facing an un-insured patient in the U.S. health care system. The filmmaker, Peter Nicks, skillfully chooses diverse characters that have very different outlooks and are facing very different situations to color the greater message of the film looking at the broken system in its entirety. I was heavily captivated by each characters story and often pulled into the characters shoes: from a father fearful for his daughters well-being to an elderly man needing dialysis but more accepting to death than another waiting room at the hospital. The filmmaker does an amazing job empathetically connecting the audience to each patients fears and frustrations by offering a strip down bare bones account of their thoughts and reactions to the developments in their medical problems. The sound was predominantly natural ambiance in each setting, which evoked connectivity to the environment, and effectively transported the audience to the sensory surroundings of the waiting room. The film demonstrated journalistic objectivity by showing positivity in the systems as well by showing cheerful staff members trying to make the most of their daily work—the nurse with red rimmed glasses giving a gangster  patient a comical tongue lashing—and also glowing results from patients that had undergone emergency procedures stating the superiority of American emergency room surgeons.

One relation that Canadian and American health care systems share, is the inevitability of wait times. It was shocking in the film when patients of the Highland Hospital were given wait times as long as a month for MRI scans, it was a dramatically highlighted point in the film. In Manitoba, Canada, the average wait time for an MRI at the Health Sciences Centre is 16 weeks according the Manitoba Government's website: a very similar range of time.

In a recent experience of mine at the Health Sciences Centre I was waiting in the emergency room untreated for 7 hours suffering from severe food poisoning. After wait times were pushed back yet again, because of an insurgence of ambulance patients—not un-common for Manitoba—I decided to leave un-treated so I could attend school in the morning. This all-too-common situation allows one to see a common factor between our two systems: that health care is often a safety-net institution. This speculation is also tactfully suggested in the documentary. In fact, most of the patients that were ahead of me on the waiting list at the Health Sciences Centre knew the staff by name.

I wonder if the Highland Hospital has ever had mortality in their waiting room like the tragedy that happened to Brian Sinclair who died while waiting untreated for 33 hours in the Health Sciences Centre. Perhaps the U.S systems has mortality problems of their own. On May.15^, 2012, a message was given to physicians by T.R Reid, a notable journalist specializing in healthcare systems, at the 67th annual Ogden Surgical Medical Society conference that stated:

“Roughly 22,000 Americans die every year from treatable diseases because they can't afford to go to a doctor.”

Upon watching the documentary film and experiencing the Canadian health care system for myself, it is evident that each of our healthcare system’s in our affluent nations are far from perfect. But one thing was definitely made very clear by The Waiting Room documentary: the Americans health care system has a long way to go.