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My visit to Ohma Microphones, one week until show time, and removing vocals from any song

Heya folks,

I've been thinking I need a name for this newsletter. I've got nothing, but if you have any suggestions, please throw them my way. :)

I got to visit Ohma Microphones

Earlier this week I visited the Ohma headquarters in East LA and met the founders. What's immediately noticeable about Ohma mics is their removable and interchangeable front grills, each of which imparts a different frequency response to the mic. Not only this, but Ohma hand-builds all their capsules in house—something that can't be said of many brand name mics out there. I went home with their condenser and ribbon mic, which I'm excited to test and review for you. In the meantime, check out Recording Studio Loser's reviews here and here.

About one week until my next show

We're nearly a week out from my next show at Friday at the Fox Den, Jun 30 at 7pm, here at my home in South Pasadena. I've got a quiver full of new, unreleased songs that I'm very excited to perform for you. If you haven't yet, RSVP now before capacity is filled. And if you can't make it, check out these performance vids of Everybody is a Fool, Seeking a Friend in LA, and The Other Shoe, kindly filmed by my friend David Whiskey.

Removing the vocals from any song and performing vocal covers

Something new I'm doing with my voice students is removing vocals from a commercial recording and having them perform with the instrumental. Using iZotope RX's Music Rebalance tool, I can effectively mute the original vocals. Though the processing does leave behind some audio artifacts, the result is an instrumental version that's of better quality than a karaoke track and more familiar to some students than piano or guitar accompaniment. If you want to try this for yourself, check out this Chris Liepe video wherein he shows you how to do so with free tools.

Odds and ends

Peace,
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