This weekend, the Keene community was welcomed to a three-day event at the Redfern Arts Center as a way for students and community members to get a hands-on look into the world of recording and mixing live music.
Dr. Dan Carberg, KSC’s music department chair, said, “The event was open to the community as well as… all of our students, but it’s really focused on music technology students, so they have a little more experience, particularly with live sound recording, and how it is recording different instrumentation and different styles.”
Carberg added, “It’s a really nice progression because last night was more… a presentation on the recording industry and different styles of microphones and things like that. [Saturday’s] is much more of a practical application, where students are actually getting involved in… the micing, and… getting some recording done. [Sunday] we’re going to listen to the recordings and what the different mics did [and] sound mixing.”
The first day brought guest speaker Ben Rogers from Jaffrey, NH, as a host who provided the overview for the recording industry. The presentation ran from six to nine p.m. on Friday night.
The second day was the first hands-on session. Dave Jamrog, a freelance audio and video producer from Boston, Mass., gave audience members insight into the many different microphones that can be used as well as providing many stories of his own experiences in the industry.
At the event, Jamrog gave a brief explanation of basic physics of acoustics and explained what makes a good hall or a good performance space a good sounding place.
“I think the tech folks up here get a lot of experience with doing live sound from a PA, like a mixing board, for live events, but they don’t necessarily do a lot of recording per se,” Jamrog explained.
Jamrog described the event as a hands-on experience.
“I kept using the word microphone petting zoo… people could really… touch the equipment and see the equipment and rack cables and really help out. I like to teach stuff by doing that, “ Jamrog said. “I like to talk as well, but getting people up there and doing things hopefully that was memorable for them. They seemed to be into it.”
He continued, “I’m not the person talking or being recorded you know… So to come out and talk to a bunch of… interested people was super fun. It’s clear that everybody was into it. I could get as nerdy and geeky as I wanted.”
For Jamrog’s presentation, he was helped by Keene State music performance majors. The audience members helped set up the microphones to record the performance which was mixed on Sunday.
Sunday’s session was hosted by a new professor at Keene State, Peter Martel. “A lot of our music tech students have done internships with Peter,” Carberg said. “ He’s teaching two music technology courses right now. But this will be the first time that a lot of our students see him as a professional recording engineer.”
Benjamin Martins can be contacted at
bmartins@kscequinox.com
