jeff zahos » Krannert Audio

Matt Jacklin, percussion

Jeff — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:50:25 +0000

Recently I had the opportunity to produce and record a project with percussionist Matt Jacklin. We completed two sessions, one week apart in Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Matt_Jacklin_Recording_Project

We recorded three pieces:

Session I (4.11.2010): Bernard-Francois Machet – Phenix (for vibraphone and 9 tom-toms)

Session II (4.18.2010): Andrew Thomas – Merlin (for marimba), Jacob Druckman – Reflections on the Nature of Water (for marimba)

Session I Photos:

Session II Photos:

Krannert Audio

Jeff — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:06:13 +0000

Krannert's Audio Team for Ellnora '09 - The Guitar Festival

I work and study at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My activities include providing live sound reinforcement, recording and sound design for many of the performances at the center, as part of the audio team.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Recently, the graduate students, Andy (Krumeich, the Krannert Audio Events supervisor) and I have been doing major upgrades to the facilities and equipment.

Current Audio Facilities:
Audio Offices
Great Hall Recording Studio
The Kitchen (storage)
The Vault (maintenance, testing and storage)

Current Audio Facilities being renovated:
Post Production Studio (currently in use)
Graduate Audio Lab (being renovated in to Sound Design Studio)

New Audio Facilities (coming Summer 2010):
Audio Archive
Video/Surround Studio
Festival Theatre Multi-track Studio

Here are some photos of the facilities as they are right now:

Cable storage in the Audio Office

This is the Great Hall Recording Studio

This is the monitoring position for the Great Hall recording studio. This studio is equipped with 8 Channels of Buzz Audio preamps (True Systems, Yamaha, other pres available for more channels), an Alesis HD24 hard disk recorder and Meyer HD-1 monitors. The Midas console is used for live to 2-track (CD) mixing and monitoring.

This is the new Post Production Studio. It is not done, but has been forced into action by the many projects I have going on. Soon to come are: A rack, a small console, a couch and further acoustic treatment. It's actually a pretty good sounding small control room.

Visible here are the acoustic treatment panels on the ceiling. This design was developed by Andy and I.

This is the room that is becoming the archive room. A WORK IN PROGRESS!

The Vault, the KCPA Audio Department's newly renovated maintenance shop/electronics lab.

The Vault also has storage for less frequently used cable and equipment.

The view as you enter The Kitchen, the main equipment storage room.

Gear in the Kitchen

More gear in the Kitchen

Cable storage in the Kitchen

Charlotte Mattax, Harpsichord – Suites of Pierre Fevrier

Jeff — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:38:15 +0000

John Phillips Harpsichord in Follinger Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

On 01.04.10 and 01.04.10, I had the wonderful opportunity to assist engineer Jon Schoenoff in recording harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax performing several suites of baroque comoser Pierre Fevrier for an upcoming release on Centaur Records. The session took place in the Foellinger Great Hall of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, my favorite space (for sentimental reasons in addition to sonic ones). Keyboardist/Choral Conductor Kerry Heimann was present as producer. Added to all that, Mattax performed on a beautiful new instrument by John Phillips of Berkeley, CA, which belongs to the University of Illinois School of Music. Phillips was present to assist with production and with keeping the instrument in tune – a challenge given the extremely cold and dry weather (the instrument had to be moved in on the first day of recording).

Mics used:

3 Schoeps CMC6
1 Neumann U87

Techniques:

Two CMC6s were placed L and R, on high (~12′) Atlas iron-based stands. A single CMC6 (wide cardioid) and the U87 were placed next to each other (giving two options for “main” mics) about 4′ high and about 5′ or 6′ in front of the instrument.