Sanjay Patel Sound

Music Works in El Cerrito

Sanjay — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:25:27 +0000

Music Works in El Cerrito

If you’re in need of some audio-related advice and you’re in the Bay Area, head over to Music Works in El Cerrito.

I’ll be starting there Monday as a sales guy, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with this little mom-and-pop shop. Not only have they survived being within a mile of a Guitar Center, they stock a ton of great gear that you won’t find in the local big-box store.

Rivera Amps, Modulus Basses, and G&L Electrics to name a few of the brands that I’ve come to love as a Sound Guy are carried here, which I’ll admit, floored me a bit. These brands don’t cater to the masses as much as they work hard to make rock solid gear that rocks hard, so it’s definitely a telling sign for a small store to carry them.

But really, come check us out, and if you’re in need of some recording/concert sound help, feel free to ask for me! There’s a bajillion ways to get in contact with me over at AskASoundGuy.com too.

Summer 2009: VIOLETHOUR Releases “The Spectacle”

Sanjay — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:39:59 +0000

Cover Art for The Spectacle

My friends VIOLETHOUR (yes, it’s all caps on purpose) released their E.P. entitled “The Spectacle” this summer. Why am I writing about this, you might ask?

Well yours truly had priveledge of mastering the record (it was self-recorded, produced ad mixed). It was truly awesome to get on board a project that was a lot of fun, full of challenges, and great sounding.

It’s definitely worth a listen, and of course worth buying (although I am a bit biased).

If you’re interested, follow the linky to iTunes – LINKY

Impromptu Jazz Recordings

Sanjay — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:11:10 +0000

Had the pleasure of sitting in on a practice last night. Threw up some mics and hit record. They did the rest.

Little Extra Info:

Drums: Audio Technica AT2050 in Omni as Overhead

Cello: Audio Technica AT2020 2 feet off about 30 degrees off center to the Left of Fingerboard.

Electric Piano: Shure SM57 Directly on Speakers.

Acoustic Guitar: Sennheiser e609 on Amp.

Mastering twentyfrets Demos

Sanjay — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:07:06 +0000

twentyfrets

Rough Master of “One”

In the process of mastering the twentyfrets demos. Progress has been slow as switching gears from mixing/recording to mastering takes a little time and re-thinking.

I’m definitely enjoying the challenge of mastering with a limited budget, as it’s the kind of challenge that forces you to get creative, find new resources, and ask tough questions.

One of the best books I’ve found that really helps take some of the mystery out of the process is Mastering Audio by Bob Katz.

Mastering Audio by Bob Katz

Anyway, keep an eye out on twentyfrets:

myspace: myspace.com/twentyfrets

twitter: twitter.com/20frets

We should be getting tracks up as soon as next week!

AskASoundGuy.com 100th Post

Sanjay — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:13:27 +0000

Well, I didn’t want to brag about it until I was sure this was going somewhere, but my online magazine, www.AskASoundGuy.com, has reached it’s 100th article posted.

I started the site with colleague, friend, and nerd, Ben Versluis with the idea of creating an online magazine full of useful tips and tutorials about music and audio production. We wanted some hands-on, real-world information for solving problems and honing techniques that were relevant to people with small budgets but a lot of creativity.

We slowly expanded the scope of the magazine to encompass reviews, interviews and other things we thought were interesting and relevant.

I’m proud to say now, that AskASoundGuy.com is here to stay, and we’re actively looking for more writiers and contributors.

Sanjay Patel Guitar Picks Rock!

Sanjay — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:49:10 +0000

New Guitar Picks… they glow in the dark. Awesome.

Thanks Megan.

New Speakers/Recording Mark Choa & Justin Louie

Sanjay — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:48:41 +0000

After returning from visiting family I received my new Boston Acoustics HS-460’s and my Marantz SR-4023 Stereo Receiver. After much finagling and time spent on the floor reaching behind the television console I am proud to say I finally have a stereo nice enough to call a hi-fi. Well, it may not meet everybody’s standards but I had to shell out more money than I’ve ever spent on one purchase for this system.

That’s me looking amazed at how big the speakers actually are. I can’t wait to sit some clients down in front of these to give their mixes a first listen.

Also on New Years Eve, I had the pleasure of recording more basic tracks for a couple of songs being worked on by Mark Choa and Justin Louie. I hope to have some clips in working order to post soon, although I wasn’t able to snag some pictures of them in action

Steve Dekorte, Audio-Awesomeness

Sanjay — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:48:14 +0000

Steve Dekorte is a software developer who has made some cool tools for audio nerds.

I first encountered his apps at school where we used trials of his “soundconverter” to create ogg vorbis versions of sound effects for a game audio class. His audio file converter which can be found here is spectacular. It has a ton of formats you’ve probably never even heard of (many of which I’ve only recently started to use as I get more into editing audio for ringtones). All that and the program batch converts, lets you select sample rates, bit depths and more.

Now audio-geeks, this is the best part: a full license is only $14. If you regularly find yourself needing to convert large quantities of audio files between lots of formats, this is worth the price.

There’s also a cool little app he made for messing around with loops (or throwing together some custom music to read/study to) called Mix.

Definitely give it a try as its a tiny download and requires no installation (though its mac only). All you do is open it up and drag some loops into the window. Closer to the venn-diagram looking blue circles means louder, and left-to-right movement pans. Simple.

If you happen to be a mac user and you happen to like messing with loops, then you also need to check out Soundflower, which is made by Cycling ‘74, (the guys who make Max/MSP).

This little app adds two software “sound cards” to your core audio selections. A two-channel and 16-channel internal audio bus can be used to route audio between applications on your mac. iTunes to Garageband, or Safari to Logic for example. I’ve used it to route Max/Msp into Logic to record some patches, or even routing iTunes into iChat so my friends could listen to my latest recordings. Really, anything that can choose sound cards recognized by core audio can access these audio buses.

I’ll leave what you do with it up to you, but it can do a ton.

Here’s a simple idea that should take you half an hour on a mac.

Download Mix and Soundflower. Drop some apple loops from garageband into mix and record what you get going into garageband using soundflower. Instant loop level/pan mixer with minimum of fuss and processor load… sounds like a dance party in the making.

Recording Rishin Patel

Sanjay — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:47:43 +0000

Got to do a short but fun recording with Rishin Patel, who was in town for just a week between years of medschool.

We tracked a demo of a real simple song that Rishin is working on, and I think he was able to pick up some tricks on recording and software.

This track is going to be tentatively called “One.” And for more of Rishin, I’ll have a link up soon as he’s building a website.

Got to love that black Martin.

Recording Mark Choa

Sanjay — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:47:09 +0000

Spent the weekend doing some recording with Mark Choa, a very talented singer/songwriter.

Here’s an instrumental version of the song we worked on. It’s mostly just basic tracks, with the start of overdubs.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to do the rest of these overdubs.

“Sex Tiger (Instrumental)” by Rocket Love
(Note: Playback functions better with Firefox or Internet Explorer, not Safari)

We spent a good deal of time working out guitar tones, finding a decent organ sound on a sampler and putting together a beat.

Vocals (not in sample) were tracked with an AT2020 and an ST31.

Bass was direct in.

Guitars tracked on a Marshall Tube Combo using SM57.