Jordan Potter and Matthew Conrad
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Jordan Potter (originally from Texas) had recorded at BeSharp a few years ago with his two Sisters, Lauren and Leigh. He was referred to me by the John Marshall family and I guess he was a satisfied customer because I got a call from him again, , booking some time to do two albums in just one week. He was bringing his friend, Matthew Conrad, a trumpet player from Baltimore. Matthew and Jordan would each do their own solo albums with Jordan accompanying Matthew on his album and Matthew making a guest appearance on Jordan’s solo piano album.
I had a pair of Neumann TLM-103s on the piano (which I had used on Jordan’s previous project. For Matthew, I set up four mics and we did a quick shootout while soundchecking. I set up a Mojave Audio MA200 (large diaphragm tube condenser), an upgraded Cascade Fat Head (ribbon), an Apex 205 (ribbon) and a Heil PR-40 (large element moving coil). Without telling Matthew which one I preferred, I soloed each trumpet mic and he picked the Fat Head (my choice as well — surprise, surprise).
We actually managed to get through all of the material in just over four days. I was practically editing as they were walking out the door but we did complete the project on time. I mixed it and uploaded files for them to approve before mastering both CDs.
Jordan released “Jesus Paid It All” and Matthew released “Send the Light” independently. I’ve seen it around on a few online retailers like Sacred Music
and Hyles Publications
http://www.hylespublications.com
Unfortunately, neither Jordan nor Matthew maintain web sites that I know of. For more information about them and their projects, write to:
pianopraises [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com
Tags: 205, Apex Electronics, Cascade Microphones, Fat Head, Heil Sound, HV3D, Jordan Potter, MA-200, Matthew Conrad, Millennia Media, Mojave Audio, Neumann, PR 40, sessions, TLM 103
February 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Great show. Now you make me want to bring studiography back. Lololol. Keep up the great work.
Reeves
February 9th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Hey Kevin — Glad to hear its inspired you in some way. Might we see a Studiography episode soon? I just noticed a blurb on Briefing Room about a weekend workshop in Nashville sponsored by AES. Man, I’d love to attend and finally visit Music City but I’m swamped with work and nwo the podcast. Soon…
Can’t wait to hear the new stuff. How about you come to New York for a few days and we can mix it when it’s ready? Now, wouldn’t that be an episode?!
February 10th, 2009 at 1:57 am
I like these ‘behind the scenes’ type episodes. It’s interesting listening to the process for making an album, and I look forward to hearing more clips from actual sessions. While making music isn’t my forte, I certainly do enjoy listening to it and am fascinated by all of the work that goes into recording an album. Keep it up!
February 10th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Thanks William,
I intend on including as many sessions as I can. It is truly the most time-consuming type of episode to do, of course, but it often does have the widest appeal. Stay tuned for more of these after a couple of shootouts.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:01 am
Thanks for the show. I too like hearing what goes into a studio session as well as learning the requirements for the studio musicians. Your narratives are very professional and entertaining. Keep up the good work.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Thanks, Isaac. I hope to include as much “behind-the-scenes” stuff as I can. That will probably be session excerpts as opposed to me just turning on a recorder while I encode vinyl LP records for a client, for example. (grin) The next episode is in the tube — a shootout with (gasp) 11 mics. Geez, who has the time to listen to this stuff? (smile)
February 25th, 2009 at 12:04 am
This was a great show! Especially since I know Matthew Conrad, he was my church’s assistant pastor/youth pastor until now he is a missionary in Hong Kong. I heard about how he went up to a recording studio in New York, plus not too long ago I heard about your show. Took me a while to realize he recorded at YOUR studio, very cool. I actually have the CD, very very nice. That’s probably the best sounding piano I’ve heard. The trumpet had a great tone as well. I look forward to hearing more episodes.
February 25th, 2009 at 3:48 am
Wow, what a small world, eh? That’s so cool! Having revisited the masters, I was reminded of how nice it was to work with those guys. Unfortunately, after working on clients’ album projects, I don’t usually spend the time to sit down and just listen for my own enjoyment. Frankly, by the time some projects are completed, the last thing I might feel like doing is listening yet again. It’s nice to have some distance and have a fresh listen months or even years later. It’s actually quite rewarding to appreciate it after the hard work is done and it sounds good as an objective listener.
Thanks so much for the comments!