We finished the first CD of children's songs for holiday company
Siblu, and took the chance to go to France and visit one of their holiday sites
to see the songs 'in action' with the children and holiday staff - great fun!
The CD is now selling well, which is nice...
We've also been working on some Gregorian Chant tracks for Focus Music, something
completely different for us! They've worked well though, so we're hopeful they'll
be released later this year.
As a total contrast, we wrote a cheesy-60's-style library track, which is on
a compilation that should be out later this year.
We're currently working on the Credit Music for a new animation "Little
Kingdom" - this is by the same people who put one of our tracks on the
Bafta-winning children's series 'Peppa Pig' a while ago, and should be onTV
during Autumn this year.
It's been a busy time, with a mixture of writing various things, plus devoting quite a bit of time to our music download website. We've been adding music from several new writers, plus making changes to the audio engine on the site - it looks and sounds great now!
Here's a quick update on what we've been up to this autumn:
Our choral recording project finished nicely in September, and is now being
prepared for release next year by
Focus Music. We've written a track for another music library
Red Igloo
based in South Africa, and been asked to provide some more over
the next few months. Holiday company Siblu
continue to work with us in writing and recording various bi-lingual childrens
songs for live / web / CD projects based around their holiday business. Additionally
we've completed a few radio commercials, and been working hard on updating the
content available via our music download website, to include several new writers
over the next few months.
Saturday 23rd June saw the premiere of two choral pieces by Liz, performed by the Wessex Singers. "Lullaby" is a setting of a poem by William Barnes, the other is an arrangement of the Vaughan Williams setting of "Linden Lea". Both pieces are arranged for SATB choir, the performances went well and were excellently received! The brass section of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra have commissioned Liz to write a brass arrangement of "Linden Lea", to go with the existing Choral arrangement, for a performance later this year. "Lullaby" has also been requested by another choir for a performance next year - all very exciting!
We're now approaching the end of the choral recording project, we have all the vocals finished and edited, the choir sounds really good! It's been a good chance to try out the new studio and vocal booth on some vocals where the recording is quite exposed, and we're really happy with how it's been working. The plan is that over the next few weeks we'll have this project mixed, it'll be nice to hear the finished results after two years of steady work on this one project! Probably the longest project we've ever done, thinking about it. Our music download site has taken some of our time lately, with a few minor upgrades and a server move, the result is that the site's now working more smoothly, which is good, now hopefully I'll get some time to add some new music to it! Other work lately has been varied, from radio ads to commissioned songs, plus we've been focusing on getting more distribution for our own catalgue of works. A couple of new additions to the studio too, the favourite being Focusrite's Liquid Mix - what a fantastic tool! A whole bunch of fabulous EQ's and Compressors in one box, I'm starting to wonder how we managed before it arrived :-)
The last few weeks have been a busy time, with a lot of work on
a new musical project we're planning for later in the year. The studio's really
been working well, we've had quite a few vocalists recording for us here since
we finished the new rooms, and the results have exceeded our expectations, the
rooms work acoustically really well! Which is just as well, as we're currently
in the middle of recording a choral project, so the vocals need to sound good
- and they do. We've also written a couple more childrens songs for Haven Europe,
which are now approaching the finishined production stages, and have been fun
writing for 4 years olds. Another of our tracks was placed with the successful
cartoon series Peppa Pig, so the pre-school theme continued. Another thing we've
given a fair bit of time to lately is making some much needed improvements to
our website selling instrumental music downloads for media. We've made some
major upgrades to the audio on there, so the demos now play in full stereo and
start really quickly, which makes it a much better experience for the site's
visitors.
Sophie Milman, who performed our song "Back Home to Me", is making
her first visit to perform in the UK in April, but the date's not great for
us so it looks like we may not get to meet her this time, which is a shame.
The album is still going well, so far it's achieved #1 Jazz album on itunes
USA, Canada, Japan and France - not bad!
January 5th 2007: The new studio is finished! It looks good, but
more importantly it sounds fantastic :-)
Pictures here.
A few days later we had a party to celebrate, great excuse to invite all our
friends round. No photos, to protect the guilty :-)
Finished 3 songs for Haven Holidays, which included vocals in French and English
recorded in our own studio as well as at Mark One Audio in Rushden, and we also
produced a couple of radio commercial jingles.
30.12.2006
Is that a week already?! Wow...
It was nice to have a break for Christmas, but on Boxing Day it was straight
back into the studio, things to do! Four days later, and it's finally done,
all bar a few odds & ends. Liz has been a complete star, looking after the
kids while I immersed myself in wiring etc, apart from a couple of trips out
to do some good family fun things. Like seeing "Happy Feet" at the
cinema - what is it with moviemakers and penguins lately, how many more flippery
films before they move on to another species? Good music though :-)
Since last time I've taken the studio equipment out of our old 'studio' in the
spare room, and installed it in the new rooms, and also I've been able to take
a lot of stuff out of storage from our recent house move, sorting it and putting
it in the loft/storage area of the new studio. Finally everything's in place,
and it works - not only that, it sounds great! The booth is really dead sounding,
perfect for recording nice 'dry' vocals, which is a relief after all the planning
and the wondering. The main room also sounds good, with the minimum of acoustic
treatment in at the moment. We have some proper panels to install at the start
of the new year, but for now it's great to hear what the room 'sounds' like
with music playing, and it's really good! I'm really looking forward to recording
and mixing in here, we should get some great recordings. So here's how
it looks at the moment, 95% complete.
23.12.2006 new video of studio here
- finally the decorating is finished!! Lots of varnishing, loads of emusion
paint, we now appreciate the growls and curses the plasterer made as he worked
on making the main ceiling for us - it was a real pain to paint too. It does
look great though... :-)
Finally I've been able to start on the 'studio' stuff, like fitting the acoutsic
foam tles in the vocal booth. The video shoes that half way through, since then
I've finished them and the booth looks really good - more pics and video later.
I've also spent a day fitting the carpet tiles, a job I've never done before,
but I'm really pleased with the result. I've also assembled the main studio
desk - it's a monster to move, not helped by the fact we had to move our fridge/freezer
(full of food for Christmas) to make room to get it through our kitchen on the
way into the studio! However, it was worth the struggle, it's a really nice
piece of furniture, and will be just what we need as well as looking good. It's
Christmas in a couple of days so no work for a short while, then I'll be able
to start moving the rest of the studio furniture and equipment into the room
- can't wait!
11-12-06 Studio update - no video just yet, to be honest I don't
think you'd see much difference since the last one! Although actually, close
up, there is a big improvement, as we've been starting on the cleaning up &
decorating, finally finishing the 3rd coat of varnish on all the woodwork. It
looks great now, although I still *hate* decorating. Fortunately Liz loves it,
so we make a great team :-) Next on the list of seemingly endless decorating
chores (can you tell I like this?) is the first coat of paint on all the plasterwork,
I'll post a video here then - at least that will actually look like we've been
busy!
Meantime work is going on, including a children's pop song for a corporate client,
which involved recording vocalists from two countries in two separate studios
and incorporating them into the same mix...interesting!
04-12-2006 Studio build update: Tomorrow is exactly one month since my first post here describing the new studio build, and should also be the final day of the main 'build' part of the project. Another layer of floor-levelling compound, a second pane of glass to the booth window (6mm & 4mm laminate to form a 10mm sheet), plus a few tidying up jobs. Since last time the main windows have been fitted, the floor's had it's first layer of levelling compound, there have been lots of odd jobs completed (the sort of small things that get left until later - well, 'later' arrived...). We've also started on the decorating by sanding & staining the beams plus the booth window frame. From here on it's mostly decorating that needs doing next, before I can finally start moving everything in. Video Update Here
23-11-2006 Studio build update: You can see the progress so far on this video, since last time there's quite a few things been done. All the plasterboarding's finished, and all plastered too. That took a few days. The doors are fitted, and the booth window frame is built and half-glazed (the final glass pane will go in later). The skirting board & architraves are also fitted. Today the glass roof is being installed (started yesterday), we've to wait a few more days to fit the windows as some of the glass units have been made to the wrong size. The air conditioner is now working too. Once the main build is finished, I'll fit a separate silent venitilation system, but at least we now have cooling when we need it :-)
16-11-2006 Studio build update: More video here, the control room is now ready to plaster, except for a window frame. The plastic roof is gone, the new frame is build ready for the glazing units arriving soon - cue the bad weather! Hope that tarpaulin holds... Hoping to get the room plastered this weekend.
14-11-2006 I've added some new pictures to the gallery, showing the progress so far...
13-11-2006 Cut a hole in the wall between the main room and the booth, which will eventually be a window. Click here to see gallery
11-11-2006 Studio Update: This week the roof was insulated with acoustic plasterboard, thermal and acoustic insulation, plus the remaining external walls were lined with rockwool, stud frame filled with rockwool, then plasterboard. During the next week we are hoping to get the remaining walls lined with plasterboard, plus the door frames & booth window built. The external windows and plastic roof are due to be changed for double glazed units, maybe they'll be ready this week too. They're being made with as large a gap as the structure will allow, using 6mm & 4mm glass to improve sound efficiency as much as we can. Here's what it all looks like today... video of studio build 11.11.2006
5-11-2006: Building work starts on our new studio. I'm intending
to keep a diary here as the work progresses, though how reliable I will be at
keeping up to date only time will tell! Today being the 5th, there are fireworks
outside, and the building work started just a couple of days ago. The story
so far...It's a case of coverting a workshop, which was formerly a garage but
has been extended & adapted in the past, into a main studio room/office,
plus a booth for recording vocals. I've been planning this for a while, and
it seems to have taken ages to find the right builders for the job. After having
the concept in my mind's eye, it's great to see the construction/adaption actually
start! First job was to cut a hole in the wall that currently separates the
garage from the workshop - this will be the door from the studio to the booth.
Next the plasterboard and insulation (for sound, as well as thermal) starts
to go onto the walls & roof. I've taken a bit of video to give an idea of
the layout etc., you can see, there's quite a bit still to do!
Studio Build Video 5-11-2006
The last month has been a time of settling into our new home, and enjoying it. Lots of changes for the us all, such as the kids starting at their new school and nursery. Amongst it all there have been some radio commercials to write music for, plus the usual on-going work to do with maintining our websites. We've also been taking tha chance to look ahead and make some plans for our work, as much as you can in this business! Part of this includes a plan for a new album of library music, of a style/niche we haven't come across before, but that we think will be really good popular for TV use. It's a fairly longterm project with high goals - more on that as the months progress!
A busy month, as we move our house and studio. Dismantling the studio and re-assambling it is always an interesting experience, it's amazing just how many leads and connectors there are once you start taking everything apart! Eventually it's all up and running again in it's new temporary home in a room in our new house, where it will be while we undertake some building work to renovate a workshop into a brand new studio space. Despite the chaos that always comes with a house move, we still managed to get some work done, including some radio commercials, recording an exact soundalike of "Golden Brown" for a Bryant Homes TV commercial (they're one of the UK's leading building firms), and some music for a new BBC talking book of John Peel's biography. We were dead chuffed about that one actually, both of us being big John Peel fans for years. We still look back with fondness to when we did our one and only "Session" for his Radio 1 show, when we got to record at the BBC's Maida Vale studios- that was fun! G.
Watching the Tour de France, and noticed that the title sponsor
is using one of our tracks :-)
Spotted one of our pieces being used sponsoring re-runs of "Ground Force".
It's funny where they end up...
Used a new vocalist Deb from Nashville for a radio ad, worked really well -
it's great what you can do these days over the internet! G.
Peppa Pig ( a childrens animation) are using one of our pieces.
For those without children this probably means nothing, but we have two young
boys (ages 3 and 4) so Peppa Pig is a BIG DEAL! The episode comes out in October
in the UK, so it'll be great to point at the TV when they're watching and say
"That's Mum & Dad playing that music"...credibility at last! We're
happy too since it's widely syndicated, going out in over 120 territories around
the world. I never knew there were so many!
Have just completed a track for the Ministry of Defence, to be used on a training
DVD.
BBC Talking Books have licensed one of our pieces for a new John Betjemen tape.
On the housing front, we're still waiting for the lawyers to do whatever it
is they do - takes forever.
The Christmas CD is finished, so it's off to be manufactured, then it'll be
time to start the mailing-out process all over again. G.
Had a call from the record company about our song "Back Home
To Me". i-tunes USA promoted it as the 'song of the week' in April, resulting
in a whole heap of interest in the album it's on (Sophie Milman's debut) and
it rose to no 1 on i-tunes Jazz charts, and no 14 on the Billboard Jazz chart
- great! Big thanks to Geoff Kulawick at Linus Records in Canada, and for Koch
records for the distribution into the USA.
Taking a holiday for the last week and into June, we certainly need a break.
A trip to France should do us all good. G&L.
Busy working on a few Radio adverts.
A lot of writing for the new Notepad library CD "Rip-Roaring Christmas",
basically Christmas music but with a modern take. Seems odd to be doing it in
April!
Universal got in touch re the movie, apparently the scene with our music didn't
make the final cut - shame. Seems funny after they went to the trouble of licensing
etc, but it's the same as ever in this business - don't believe it until it
actually happens, and then not until the money's banked. Like a lot of businesses,
I suppose.
We found a house at last, and had our offer accepted. Also found a buyer for
ours incredibly quickly. So here we go - into the realm of solicitors, contracts
& endless conveyancing! G.
Contacted by Universal Studios about using some of our music in a new Movie American Dreamz, starring Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid. Very exciting! Started house-hunting, as ever it's hard to find the right house at the right price in the right area. We need a great room for the studio, so that kind of narrows the choices, but it's fun looking. G&L.
Quite a few radio adverts this month, which is good, it seemed to go quiet for a while in the new year.
Mailing out copies of "World Grooves" CD. It'll be interesting to see how this one works, the last 'world' CD we did was a few years ago and was more traditional, whereas this new one is much more contemporary - sounds good!