To better understand why you might like to work with me in my studio, I am sharing with you,with the artist's permission, three sample sessions: what preparations were needed, what their music was like and how it was produced and recorded.

Cassius Khan

I have been told, and I believe it, that Cassius is the only professional performing artist in the world who can play tabla and sing Ghazals simultaneously - a phenomenon unheard of in Indian classical music. He is a very well known and electrifying tabla player with uncanny intuition and charismatic personality on and off the stage. He was accompanied by Amika Kushwaha (harmonium) and Ustad Majid Qiyam (Rubad).

setup...

The performances were recorded in the live room. It was essential for the musicians to hear each other 'in the air' for them to be comfortable playing together. The players were positioned further apart then they normally would be in a concert which helped with reducing the spill into their mics from the other instruments. Using single mics also helped reduce spill as well as eliminating the phase problems the wider pickup spread of stereo mics might have created.

The mics were cabled to the MOTU 896HD audio interface and recorded into Digital Performer recording software. A track was assigned for each mic and everything was recorded raw (i.e. no effects).

miking...

Cassius: vocal, RØDE NTK (1), tabla, RØDE NT5 (1), Amika: harmonium, AKG C 480b (1), Majid: Rubad, RØDE NT5 (1)

post...

As with most improvised live performances of acoustic music, mixing and mastering the recordings was pretty straight forward. Levels were set for each track and remained there. The only processing was a concert hall convolution reverb.

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Talia Toni Marcus

Talia Toni Marcus, a concert violinist and composer, has composed for film, television and theatre, and recorded with numerous outstanding classical, jazz and rock performers. Her classical training and improvisational skills have been influenced by studies with Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Pran Nath and time spent in the Jazz & Rock music world. She received "Most Valuable Player of the Year Award" for her work with Van Morrison in the late 70's including the CD "Into the Music".

setup...

Talia was recorded in the studio. She recorded a lead track and then three additional accompanying tracks for each of four pieces. She played her viola under a matched pair of AKG C480b's set close together to form a focused stereo spread. The composer, Hidayat Inayat-Khan was present and many revisions were made as we recorded

The mics were cabled to the MOTU 896HD audio interface and recorded into Digital Performer recording software. A track was assigned for each mic and everything was recorded raw (i.e. no effects).

miking...

Talia: viola, AKG C 480b (2)

post...

At the time of this writing there is only a preliminary mix. With composer in Germany and France and the performer in Seattle it takes a little longer for approvals. The processing on the sample recording is a small concert hall convolution reverb.

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Laurie Clark

The seven track musical story 'A Journey' was produced in the Gary Sill Music Studio November, 2007. To Facilitate funding for this recording Laurie received a Professional DEMO Award from The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent (FACTOR), Alberta Art's Council.

Laurie is a Banff storyteller who sings and illustrates musical tales for children. She says that children inspired her to write and illustrate the story. Laurie's live storytelling performance exhibits colourful illustrations while characterisation is expressed through puppets and her lyrical songs.

For this project, Laurie brought me a collection of (mostly) edited sound clips in a number of formats including recordings done on a Zoom recorder. Pretty cool. This could have been an editor's nightmare since there were many, many very short audio clips. Fortunately Laurie was super organized and very clear about what she wanted. The entire CD was done over three days.

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