AUDIBILITIES
By Emmet Robinson         King Street Recording Company
Professional Audio Services for
Any Purpose You Can Think Of –
Video and Photo Too!
Volume 65, Spring 2017       610-647-4341
www.kingstreetrecording.com         kingstreetrecord@aol.com
Blog: www.emmetrobinson.com/wp/

   Celebrating Fifty Years in Business!

How to Prepare for Your Recording Session

For someone who hasn’t recorded before, the first experience in a recording studio can be a little intimidating. Regardless of what you might want to record, organization and planning can make the difference between pain and pleasure for your first time in a studio. For an enjoyable and productive experience, follow these handy hints:

For music recording:
1. Decide in advance exactly what you will sing or play. In submitting a demo to a record company, 3 or 4 songs may be enough.
2. Determine the final order for your tunes, then rehearse them in that sequence until you can perform them in your sleep. For a guitarist using a capo, grouping same-key songs together will make it easier to keep in tune.
3. If you’ll be using music charts or lyric sheets, bring extra copies to the studio. Someone else may hear an error that you miss. It’s faster and more economical to record another take immediately.
4. On the day before your session, check your instrument(s) for the condition of guitar strings and cords, amplifiers, rosin, valve oil, reeds, power supplies for keyboards, extension cords, etc.
5. On the night before your session – sleep! Although there is a certain “Show Biz” mystique about working long hours without rest, your performance will suffer as a result of fatigue.
6. On the day of your session, arrive early to become comfortably acclimated to the studio environment.
7. Listen carefully to all playbacks, then direct all mixing and editing.

For spoken word recording:
1. Review your scripts until they’re perfect, have them reviewed by a trusted associate, then add indications for all pauses, emphasized words, etc.
2. Rehearse your material until you can read it smoothly and naturally.
3. Prepare extra copies for use by studio personnel.
4. Get a good night’s rest before your session.
5. Arrive early.
6. Record re-takes as you go along to maintain consistent vocal tone and control editing time.
7. Listen to all playbacks, then direct all editing.

Regardless of what you might want to sing, say or play, the best time to get started is now. To schedule your session, call 610-647-4341 now. 

IN THE STUDIO
Words

Working with excellent voice talent provided by the company, we had completed and submitted the narration to accompany an online promotional video for Siemens Corp. 

When revisions were requested, we decided to record the complete script over again rather then “paste in” the new text. As vocal characteristics can vary slightly from day to day, this gave us more consistent sound quality. Also, with the clock running, this approach was both faster and more economical. 

Music
Teen Talent

With her family waiting in the control room, a talented young lady recorded her latest original song. She started off well by arriving early and completely prepared. I consider that a very good sign, regardless of her eventual career choice. 

Although still in her early teens, she demonstrated skillful guitar work and a knowledge of music structure and arrangement far beyond her years. Her voice was a smooth soprano that I found most pleasant. She was a pleasure to work with, and I hope she comes back soon with more new songs. 

Have you always wanted to learn to play guitar – but didn’t know how to begin? Call me at 610-647-4341 and schedule a lesson. I’ll be happy to teach you what I’ve learned over the last 60 years.

FROM THE ATTIC
AUDIO
Word
Being something of a pack rat has occasional benefits. I received a carton of old reel-to-reel tapes on small reels. One of the reels was so small that it wasn’t safely playable on a professional recorder. The large motors are so powerful that they would have stretched and damaged the tape. So, the tape was transferred to one of the larger reels I keep on hand “just in case.” The larger reel reduces the torque (tension) applied to tapes, and protects the original recording from damage.

Music
Still Rockin’
They were called “Sweet Life,” and were a cookin’ band! Back in the day, they played covers of popular tunes of the ‘60s and ‘70s, with an occasional tasty detour into country. Along with excellent musicianship, they featured a dynamite female lead singer.

They carried their own sound system, a Shure Vocalmaster, and captured their performances by connecting it to their tape recorder. 

Brought here for conversion to disk, one reel of tape required special handling as it had become sticky and difficult to play. Special handling made it playable long enough for a successful transfer to digital. Another tape suffered from “dropout,” and would occasionally stop playing in one channel. Combining the two fixed the problem for comfortable listening.

What was so gratifying to learn was that, after all the intervening years, some of the musicians are still playing, doing what they do so well, and having a terrific time!

The Big Voice
A vintage open-reel audiotape was recently discovered, and sent here for restoration and conversion to disk. The recording was of a 1977 live performance of a singer with an amazing operatic bass-baritone voice.

The tape was unhappy. Luckily, though, the first fifteen minutes or so were playable and could be captured and digitized. The rest of the tape simply began to self-destruct. This is why.

Beginning during the ‘70s, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the manufacture of audio recording tape was toxic to the environment. So, they mandated that all manufacturers change the chemical composition of their products. No one could have known that, eight to ten years later, these newer tapes would begin to become unplayable. 

The lesson, here, is this: if you have a vintage open-reel tape to be converted to disk, send it here now. There are combined analog and digital processes that can frequently capture the complete recording before it’s lost forever.

VIDEO
As a former dancer and dance instructor, I enjoyed converting a dozen VHS tapes of a young girl’s dance recitals to disk. The dancing I saw was so superior to mine, that I felt seriously threatened!

As the client lived quite some distance away, receipt and delivery were accomplished with the aid of the Postal Service.

In sending your original recordings through the mail, please send them by Certified Mail, with a Return Receipt. Over the years, this method has proven remarkably dependable.

The New Baby
Although many new fathers enjoy making videos of their kids, Tom is a notch above the rest. Beginning about an hour after her delivery he created the most complete video record of a child’s growth and development I’ve ever seen and heard! From birth to her third-month celebration, through baptism and first communion – and so on, it’s all there, captured on more than 100 VHS tapes – all of which require careful transfer to DVD disk. This might take a while! 

How many videos do you have of your kids? Bring ‘em here!

Adapting
The family videos from long ago, 

were recorded in VHS-C format, and required an adaptor for use in a standard VHS videotape player. Extra attention was required as adaptors can malfunction and damage the tape. The instant a problem occurs, the tape must be stopped, re-wound, then reinstalled in the adaptor and started again.  

In this video series I enjoyed watching a family Christmas morning and the traditional opening of gifts (sometimes known as the Paper-Shredding Festival). I thought the blue sweater was especially nice!

IN THE PHOTO SHOPPE
Slidin’ Along
The slides of a honeymoon from long ago arrived in a ziplock bag, all mixed up. Following the markings on the slide frames, I carefully placed each one in the alignment tool and began scanning. About halfway through I found a photo of a sign that seemed to be printed backwards. Oops! When the slide film had originally been developed, some of the slides had been mounted incorrectly in their frames! Okay, start over again.

The project was completed by converting all images to the Jpeg format for final transfer to videodisk. Now the happy couple can review and relive their romantic getaway on their big screen TV. 

As with all other images, I scan slides at high resolution to allow the option of retouching at a later time.

The Old Fashioned Way
Modern software will do a lot – but it won’t do everything. Adapting still photos for use in a video, for example, required two different computer applications – and the two don’t play nicely together. 

The photo application allows complete control of the image, including size and dimensions. 

The video program, however “sees” the same image differently, and some of an original photo may be cut off. To prevent that, adjustments will have to be made, and this is how it’s done.

In the photo format, each picture is contained in an adjustable “frame.” 

Gradual adjustments to frame dimensions will eventually allow the original photo to appear in the video in its entirety. Because the “Help” file was no help at all, it was necessary to experiment – good ol’ fashioned trial and error. Some photos required as many as eight attempts in order to achieve the desired result. Carefully hand-written records allow further adjustments later.

To avoid damaging the client’s carefully edited video, a separate file was created to contain the modified images. When they all pass inspection, they’ll be carefully transferred to a clone of the edited video. If that works, the images will then be transferred again to the primary video. 

This is King Street Recording Company’s fiftieth year of operation! That makes this small business the longest continually operating sound studio on the Main Line! Thank you for helping to make that possible!

FAQ
Q: How long will my digital disks last?

A: Although opinions vary widely, the truth is that nobody really knows.

A music CD I made fifteen years ago still plays properly. Will it continue to do so in the future? Again, I don’t know. For safety’s sake, I recommend retaining all original recordings – just in case.

Q:  In transferring sound, movies and pictures to disk, why do you use such labor-intensive and time-consuming processes?

A: The idea here is to produce the very best result possible for the client. Every order received has to be completed to the very best of my ability – regardless of the complexity of the work or the time and effort required. For example, absolutely every original becomes a computer file first in order to allow as much control as possible. So far, no one’s complained.