Atlantic Beach Music Festival 2017

/ K Dub

Well, another AB music festival event in the books. What a great day! According to the AB site, there were over 10,000 in attendance! Thanks to Atlantic Beach and all the sponsors for having us out, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
Atlantic Beach, NC

Atlantic Beach Music Festival 2017, Jim Heidenreich – Drummer, Danny Garner in the distance – Guitarist
Randy Hignite – Keys

The lineup was incredible, the crowd was energetic, the weather was perfect. The Mighty Saints of Soul encountered a few technical problems early into the set (bad DI box, bad cable), but after that, the sound was rich and clear. Thanks to Pete Benson and his crew for providing backline and FOH, and doing an awesome job of keeping us all going.

When I arrived, my drummer said he had a friend playing over in the next town and they were having mixer problems. It was for a private wedding and they went on at 6:30. Well, I was mixing the Saints until 6 pm, so that would be a tight timeline. After our show, I rushed over to Beaufort, NC to take a look, about a 15 minute drive. It seems the mixer may have a circuit problem, but we were able to get enough of the channels working to go on with the show. It was a harrowing few minutes; the wedding party was running late in their activities, so that gave us a few more minutes to sort it out. Bottom line is the show went on, they sounded great and the clients were happy with the outcome.

The Jan Michael Fields Band

I had no idea who I was helping, just a friend of a friend. Later I found out who it was. Gentlemen, I am humbled, and just glad as heck I could help get things going again. Thanks for trusting me with your gear!
The Jan Michael Fields Band

Where the Music Takes Me…

/ K Dub

Sometimes I am amazed at where my adventures in music will take me, and who I will meet along the way. While playing a benefit in Tarboro, NC, I met the famous wrestler, Ivan Koloff. Such a super-nice guy, not at all what you’d expect in a wrestler type. I understand he is an ordained minister, too.

Check him out http://www.ivankoloff.com/

Wrestling Great, Ivan Koloff
Ivan Koloff

UPDATE

Since I wrote this article, Ivan has passed away. On February 18, 2017, he died in Winterville, NC. So sad. RIP, Ivan.

Consulting Sound Engineer

/ K Dub

I have been doing a little consulting lately, setting up and training new users on PreSonus Studio Live consoles. Here is a Facebook post from one of my happy clients.

Ken Watson putting his “touch”on our new system. Ken will be a consultant and sound man when available. He currently does an outstanding job as sound engineer for The Mighty Saints of Soul. Thanks to Randy Hignite we were able to obtain his expertise. Digital equipment is like night and day in relation to analog….He knows what he’s doing! Thanks Ken! Oh, if you don’t recognize the drummer, Tim Harper from Red Oak, NC is laying down on the sticks for Ken…

New You Tube page for The Mighty Saints of Soul

/ K Dub

I have been helping recently to get some of the guy’s past performances up on You Tube. Take a listen and like and subscribe!

Atlantic Beach Music Festival

/ K Dub

This past weekend I had the pleasure of mixing a live show for The Mighty Saints of Soul in a festival setting in Atlantic Beach, NC at the Beach Music Festival. This was by far the largest crowd I have ever mixed for, about 6000 people according to Emcee John Moore. The line up was The Holiday Band, The Band of Oz, The Fantastic Shakers and The Mighty Saints of Soul.

It was truly an awesome event and I hope to be a part of it again next year!

Brandon Penny - The circle today!_2016-05-23_12-13-07

-photo credit Brandon Penny

Pig in the Park

/ K Dub

This past weekend I had the pleasure of mixing a live show for The Mighty Saints of Soul and The Downtown Chameleons at the Pig in the Park festival in Goldsboro, NC. It was a benefit to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club.

Man was it cold and windy, but I managed to take one cool pic while I was there. We had a lot of fun and the pigs (24 of them) were great. Thanks to all who came out and supported the fundraiser, local businesses and local music.

Pig in the Park 2016Nothing you can do is cooler than this. Nothing.

Tim Cifers Plays Live at Westridge Grill in Rocky Mount, NC

/ K Dub

Ya’ll come on out to Westridge Grill on March 3rd, 2016 to hear Tim Cifers play live on the patio!

 

The RIAA Introduces A Hi-Res Music Logo And Some Confusion To Go With It

/ K Dub

The RIAA has stipulated that “Hi Res” now means recording music at a sample rate of 48khz and 20 bits of depth, as “originally intended” by the creators.

Well that’s just weird, because most home recording interfaces produce a better signal than that right out of the box (most go to 24 bits).

You can buy hi-res music if you want, but make sure your playback gear is capable of reproducing the sounds it contains (you are a true audiophile, right?). If you have a cheap stereo, buying hi-res music is a waste of money, in my opinion.

If you really want to get into the nerdy evidence of why I say this, read this article on Sample Rates and Bit Depths in recording. some good info there.

I personally think that listening on any upscale playback devices you can buy in the mainstream today, 48khz/24 bit records are as good as you will be able to discern with both that equipment and  your ears. Unless you are willing to drop tens of thousands of dollars on playback gear, don’t waste your money on formats greater than that. Besides, higher quality music makes larger (huge, in fact) files, and it will just take you that much longer to download them. Buying physical media is a better option, in that case.

Thanks to Music 3.0 Blog for the original post,
The RIAA for the logo,
and Applied-Acoustics for the tech.

Fully Mobile

/ K Dub

As of today, Diamond W Studio is a fully mobile recording service. Added to our list of equipment is a Presonus Studio Live 24 channel mixer coupled with Capture software for a fully mobile recording experience.

We can now do live shows, or simply come to your practice space and record what you are doing. Live performances are now part of what we record to multitrack, so we can then mix and master your live performances.

Soon to be added to our list of capabilities will be full live sound reinforcement. Check back later to book your show with us.

Give us a shout today to schedule your recording session soon.

Blast from the Past

/ K Dub

I was going through some old stuff today and found an old Myspace link to some songs I did while I was in Nicodemus. Bad audio quality, but you can get a sense of what we had going on.

Nicodemus Rocks