Jeff Zahos

On Saturday, March 7th, 2010, I had the pleasure of recording my friend Cody Jensen’s Senior percussion recital.

Shown here is a Gangsa duet written by I Ketut Gede Asnawa. This is the premiere performance and features Matt Plaskota along with Cody.

embedded by Embedded Video

Gangsa Ro – I Ketut Gede Asnawa. Cody Jensen and Matt Plaskota, Gangsa

You can view more of the recital at:
Cody’s YouTube channel

During January and February 2010, Andy Krumeich and I began work on a Digital Audio Station (DAW) based studio at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Verses That Hurt is a Poetic/Theatrical/Musical performance that took place March 5th and 6th, 2010 at the Armory Free Theatre on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I collaborated primarily in the area of sound, but also contributed in the original development of the performance, along with the project’s originator, Grant Bowen.

A main element of my sound design for Verses That Hurt was the subway atmosphere.   A main idea of the treatment of the performance space was that we wanted to place the audience actually in a subway station.  The main environmental element of the experience of being in a subway station is its sound (or maybe its smell, depending on which city…).

Here is a short clip of the subway atmosphere and a train arrival that I created for this show.

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More details on the show and sound design can be found in the documents and photos below:

Verses_That_Hurt_Documentation

Verses That Hurt System Diagram

This semester, I have been assisting Jon Schoenoff recording the New Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director and Conductor, Kirk Muspratt.

On April 23rd and 24th, I had the opportunity to record the orchestra myself, which was a great learning experience.  This example is from one of the concerts from that weekend:

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This is the documentation for the concerts I was involved in recording:

New_Philharmonic_Recording_Documentation

New Philharmonic Recording System Diagram

The following photos are from the January concertized opera performance of Puccini’s Turnadot.  The orchestra mic’ing was supplemented by microphones on the front edge of the stage to highlight the solo singers, and mics were placed in front of the choir and on the organ loudspeakers.

Soloist Mic Placement

Choir Mic Placement

Organ Mic Placement

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 1 (4.11.2010):  Bernard-Francois Machet – Phenix (for vibraphone and 9 tom-toms)

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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:

Recently, Faster Forward played a short recording session at the Krannert Center for students in the audio production class (I am not in the class – I was just drumming and singing background vocals. In fact, I was forbidden from touching microphones or other audio gear – I could just “Ask questions”. I asked many annoying “questions”!). Sound files from this session

…will never be heard in public! (You could say it was an “off night” for FF, which is to say “a night”. That said, we did 3 songs in as many hours, which is an insane pace).

The good 2/3 of Faster Forward

Jay on bass

Hamptone keeping it real on kick and snare

Robert at the DDA console

Chris, Beth and Robert, our engineers for the session

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.

Here's the view from the mix position in the Great Hall Studio.

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!

Another view of the Archive Room in progress.

This is the room that will be Sound Design Studio.

The future location of the voiceover booth in the Sound Design Studio. Construction started this weekend (4/3/10)!

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.

Future site of video editing studio (coming summer 2010).

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

On Friday, April 2nd, I assisted Scott Malinowsky of STTM Productions (http://www.sttmproductions.com/) and Andy Krumeich of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (http://www.krannertcenter.com) and Entertainment Technology Group (http://entertainmenttechnologygroup.com) doing sound reinforcement and live recording for a concert by the a-capella group ChaiTown (http://www.chaitown.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai-Town). We had a lot of fun! Check out the photos:

Scott at work at FOH mix position

Sound Check

Sound Check - ChaiTown

QSC K-12s - Worked great as monitor wedges for this show and many others

Scott at work

On Tuesday, March 30, 2010, Krannert Audio had a great time setting up the system and running the show for R&B/gospel legend Mavis Staples and Hammond B3 master Booker T. It was a ton of fun – one of the best shows I’ve worked on or seen.

Booker T's Band

Darien Gray's Drums

Contemplating monitor placement...

Beautiful Hammond B3 from Analog Outfitters (http://analogoutfitters.com/)

Andy mixing at FOH

The view from the FOH mix position

Aaron mixing monitors at soundcheck

Nexo array and Bag End 4X18in subs