This section contains links to audio experiments, performances, installations and exhibitions.
As many of my friends in high school and college in the mid nineties were able musicians, I found myself interested in audio engineering. Being gifted a large 80s Yamaha mixer by Bill Dillon, and assembling a hodge podge of amplifiers and PA speakers, I began a long adventure in probono amature sound engineering. Focusing on hardcore punk rock shows and avant-garde experimental musicians (well I guess I really was working with my friends and the weirdo stuff we’re into) I attempted to not only provide sound reinforcement at shows, but also to document the events in high fidelity and multitrack when possible. Upon moving to Philadelphia I found an important role for myself in the new weird psychedelic folk music scene in fishtown. Studying under the amazing Eugene Lew, I acquired a pair of Mackie SRM450 powered PA speakers and an assortment of microphones(also some ancient MIDI gear). Using this as a main portable setup, I would grab a PhillyCarShare rental for 30 minutes and run the PA speakers, mics, mixer, cables, and stands down to the Big Jar Books, First Unitarian Church, Latvian Society, or whoever’s house/backyard/artspace in South or West Philly. This technique allowed me to get a round trip scheduled for 530p load in and 1230p load out for about $25. By drastically reducing transportation costs, and offering a modest setup, I was able to provide a decent service for my friends and the philly arts community.
Following shows, I would immediately delve into mixing and mastering the evening’s recordings, posting an mp3 on my electricityforprogress.com/Audio site (really just an index) and I would then send out a link to the bands, curators, and friends in the early morning hours the next day. This was my favorite part of the whole process, after thinking really hard about what I could capture and amplify with the minimal setup on-hand, riding the mixer and following closely along with each musician through the evening, I was then able to tinker and tweak the stereo or multitrack recordings in order to provide something which I thought captured the sound of the evening/performance. Many guests (Rich, Mark, Lea, that young guy) would video record the performances, which always lead me to hope for a future documentary where we combine all the media and recordings from the music scene to produce and share a documentation of the performance and experience. This work is still pending 😉