Labor Day in the studio
By Alan | September 2, 2008
Summer 2008 is rolling to an end. I am currently completing the final mixing stages for the Kevin Howard project titled Far From Grace. This is a 6 song project that we started tracking in early spring with the plans to complete before July, but we took our time to add some special finishing touches. The album features JL Clayborne on drums, Mike Greca on piano, Tony Parlapiano on piano and synth, a young guitar player name Tony from the Manchester Guitar Center and a bassist I havent met yet. Like the Brian Jarvis, Dave Cain and Mike Greca projects of the past, I was heavily involved on both the recording and mixing end of things, as well as some small performance and production input. You can hear me playing guitar at the end of a song called “Hey Little Girl” via the Fender Cyber Twin.
Tracking was done at the new Telefunken USA studio in South Windsor, CT with additional tracking at the new Audio Media Solution studio in East Hartford, CT. Mixing is currently underway at my private home studio. The 6 song EP is expected to be released in early October. For more details visit Kevin Howard’s myspace page here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=10562618
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MAY 2008 - what went down this spring??
By Alan | May 5, 2008
In January I wrapped up recording tracks for the new Mile Marker Zero album due out May 23rd. The band and I worked closely throughout the fall and winter laying down what I would consider to be the most EPIC thing I have recorded yet. MMZ really pushed me to my limits and we even brought in two guest engineers to aid in the drums and guitar tracking. Drums were cut last fall in the garage of the drummer parent’s house using custom built 500 series API copy pre amps by engineer Joseph Master. The drums tracks feature multiple room mics including a prototype of the R-F-T M216 Matrix stereo microphone being release by Telefunken
In March I began working heavily on two new EPs. One from area singer songwriter Mike Greca, and the other from rockstar in the making Kevin Howard. Both projects are wrapping up this May and you can check each artist’s myspace page for the tunes!
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Brian Jarvis finished debut full lenght album - Honestly
By Alan | December 7, 2007
This week I wrapped up the final mixing and mastering of the first full length album release from area songwriter Brian Jarvis. The disc took over 6 months to track and mix and features the incredible rhythm section of Dan Prindle (bass) and Bryan Kelly (drumset) along with Brian Maroney and Lee Sylvester providing the majority of lead guitar parts. David Cain also added ambience and space guitars to the tune Dark Places. Tony Parlapiano filled in the spaces with his wonderus paino and organ playing. Anna Brewer was the icing on the cake adding an amazing female counter vocals and slick piano parts.
The disc will be release officially on Friday, December 28th at a show in
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Fall 2007 - 3 New Releases!
By Alan | October 2, 2007
Three new albums that Alan participated in recording are being released this fall.
David Cain’s Cain and the Neighborhood Band was release in September with two separate CD release parties. Alan produced, engineered, mixed and performed on the album along side Rane members Dan Prindle on bass and Bryan Kelly on drumset. Original Rane drummer Travis LaMothe anchored down the drum position in Cain’s live quartet, which also features keyboardist Tony Parlapiano and David Cain on guitar and vocals.
Keyboardist Matt Zeiner also released his latest album Live on a Summer Night, a full length live performance engineered and recorded by Alan Veniscofsky earlier this summer. The band also includes guitarists Billy McGofna and Mike Bradley, both whom have performed with Rane live in the past.
Lastly. on October 2, composer, trumpet and vocalist Jennifer Hartswick will release her new album True via Trey Anastasio’s Rubber Jungle Records. True was recorded at The Barn, Trey Anastasio’s studio complex in
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Jamming with Sean Kelly of The Samples
By Alan | June 2, 2006
During my stay in Vermont, Rane played a gig at the Higher Ground. It was a great reunion between the band and our dearest friend Wade Wilby. Wade holds the posistion of Production Manager at this famous venue and he treated us well. One of the highlights of the show was one of my personal musical heros, Sean Kelly of The Samples, who sat in with us on a cover of “Did You Ever Look So Nice.” I’ve been a huge fan of The Samples music for over a decade and it ment so much to have him join us for a song. We end up partying in a hotel room with him after the gig for a few hours, hanging out and jamming. We even had a super group going for a few tunes with Sean Kelly and myself on guitar and vocals, Dan Prindle and Lucy Chapin on vocals and Brian Kelly on bear cans and bottle tops, complete with Wade and Griffin howling obscenities off the balcony.
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Recording at Trey’s Barn, Burlington, VT
By Alan | May 24, 2006
Welcome this is our farmhouse, or barn studio. Earlier this month I participated in a recording session at The Barn in Vermont. Engineer Brendan Twitchell and myself assisted Pete Carini in recording a new album for Vermont native (and one of my Hartt School class mates) Jennifer Hartswick. The Barn is a truley magical place, of course being owned by Trey Anastasio of former Phish fame. It was fully equipped with a kick ass API Legacy series console, a Pro Tools HD3 rig and a nice rack of outboard gear. We end up tracking JHA’s vocals through a new Telefunken USA Ela M12 mic system, along with a U47M for a room mic. We also used mics from other manufacturers including AKG, Neumann and Sennhieser and tracked straight to Pro Tools through the API and Grace preamps. The songs were mostly jazz vocal standards, in the style of Dianna Krall or Norah Jones, and we recorded for a benefit CD for JHA’s aunt. As soon as I have more details about when it will be released, I will post it here.
The photo is of me with Trey’s first Languedoc guitar.
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