halftone.

Madi Diaz - "Skin and Bone"

2007-02-08T23:40:40Z

Today was the last official day of production for the Madi Diaz record, which is now titled "Skin and Bone". The record sounds great and Jonathan Wyner of M-Works Mastering (www.m-works.com) did a great job tying the whole thing together. Everything sounds great and as soon as the album art is finished the record will be ready for duplication. Look forward to a release date of mid March.

Frank and I are also packing up and getting ready for the big move to LA on Monday morning. If you want us to stop in your town, give us a call!

new website

2007-01-26T20:12:05Z

if you are reading this then you should go to http://www.halftoneproductions.com to check out the new website that frank made yesterday. we will probably be using the new site for most of the journaling and picturing from now on. go check it out. in other news we just finished mixing one song for the Madi Diaz record and we are up bright and early (7:30am Hawaii time) to start mixing again. lunch at the beach is in the plans for today followed by more mixing.

also, check out john mayer's blog at http://www.johnmayer.com/blog
its funny stuff.

mahalo....and hello.

2007-01-25T02:35:20Z

back in hawaiiiiiiii to mix the record. the weather is beautiful, too bad we have to be inside all day. in case you haven't heard, madi is going to be playing SXSW (south by southwest) this year in austin, tx on march 17th, so save the date. in other news, James Farrell is moving up the ladder in the International Songwriting Competition so good luck to James! more news as is happens. aloha.

madi diaz record is coming along

2007-01-18T23:23:27Z

hola.

we're heading back to boston to start overdubs for the madi diaz record at Rich Mendelson's studio. we will be working with Adam Ollendorff as well as Annie Lynch to add some finishing touches to the songs. keep checking back for more updates on the album.

madi radio interview

2007-01-03T19:50:00Z

hey guys,
madi and the guys were interviewed by tracey shavone of kkcr radio hawaii, and the interview is going to be played live today (wednesday january 3rd) at 2:20PM hawaii time, which is 7:20 east coast time. feel free to listen in at kkcr.prg and hear some of the rough mixes of some of the songs we've been working on, as well as a live in studio performance of "we were wrong."

martin's going to do some rough mixes in a few minutes, so i'll get going on pictures.

man i am sunburned.

oh hey,

more to come.

hawaii

2007-01-01T22:00:07Z

hi guys.
life has been too awesome to have 10 minutes to post an update. tomorrow's a day off, so hopefully we'll post some pictures and some video.

it sounds soooooo good.

aloha

2006-12-26T00:58:18Z

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Tomorrow is the big trip to Kauai, Hawaii to start work on the Madi Diaz record. Stay tuned here on livejournal because we are frequently going to be posting pictures and video of the sessions. Happy Festivus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeQz5HwfoI

rehearsal

2006-10-23T04:24:32Z

hey guys. here's a movie of the rehearsal for the george massenburg session.

ladies and gentleman, madi diaz.

2006-10-23T03:48:46Z

hey guys.
so there's been a TON of stuff going on lately. the main thing is that halftone is going to be doing a full length record at the steelgrass ranch in hawaii with madi diaz. lots of details there that will eventually spill over here.

on top of the record, we were asked to do a session for george massenburg with madi at berklee. i had the fortunate chance to produce for george, wish was the thrill and chance of a lifetime. madi was backed by good friends adam ollendorf, james farrell, zach mangan, kyle hurlbut and adam popick. want some pics?

we also started rehearsal for the album today:

oh. i just bought a video camera. so expect some cool stuff comin soon.

later.

-frank

New music from James Farrell

2006-09-06T19:40:47Z

Hey kids. I've posted three songs we did with James Farrell on the halftone website. Go to http://www.halftoneproductions.com to check them out. Enjoy.

Martin

Eric Glassman

2006-08-12T01:49:55Z

good friend and halftone artist eric glassman has just been diagnosed with lyme disease. for the past week he has been undergoing days full of testing and waiting, and today some tough results came back. the next few weeks are going to be the begining on the path to recovery for him. please keep him in your thoughts.

for more information about lyme disease, please visit the american lyme disease foundation

we've been working with eric all summer on a three song demo. one of the songs, "undergound" is going to be put on hold until eric is back to good. the other two have been turing out beautifully. one, "hold me now" is being considered for integration into the berklee mixing curriculum. weeee.

audio from james farrell and eric to come.

arlight, back to mixing.

the latest

2006-08-04T20:53:52Z

hey gang.

been veeerrrryyy busy lately, wrapping up james farrell and eric glassman songs.

that was james' whiteboard drawing.

martin proudly displaying the 1/4 inch master reel. we've been slowly encorporating more analog back into our work, and it's been making a great sonic difference.

the studer 1-810. we've been doing some mixing to 1/4" lately, some with dolby NR.

martin's doing a weird face, as always.

the heads of the studer.

my sweet lights on the NS-10s.

more audio stuff and a website revamp coming soon.

reelin in the years

2006-07-22T15:26:45Z

thanks to martin's craiglist scanning, we got three more reels of 2 inch gp9, bringing the grand total to five reels. we got an insane deal on these things.

the new reels are getting on pretty well with the old ones. there were a couple tiffs during the first few hours, but they've settled down.

an RE-20 and Joe Meek pre-amp are on the way. more soon.

i ain't makin one move, until you make one first

2006-07-20T17:01:42Z

just a few pics from vocals with james for "moment of closure"

stuff is sounding great. i'm about to go in with eric to start on vocals for "emma" and "underground." last night we had a rehearsal for the third song with adam ollendorf, charlie worsham and ian kagey. we're going to to try to do the majority of it live without headphones. it shall be sweet.

We're going through some changes...

2006-07-15T15:59:24Z

this is a curtain call for ex loved ones

2006-07-10T04:42:30Z

hey hey.
halftone has been stupidly busy lately with projects. we did basics for two of james farrell's songs yesterday.

one of the few times that kyle wasn't wearing a cowboy hat.

kyle's phenomenally good sounding amp.

adam ollendorff. one of the only lapsteel players at berklee, and he is incredibly good.

the songs sound so good. great sounds, great arrangement and great players. expect some stuff up on the web within the next month or so.

i just did some guitar tracks with eric glassman tonight for "underground." the whole song has gotten a rougher edge to it which is going to be great.

more pics soon when we track vocals.

emma you never have the time

2006-06-17T19:19:04Z

hey hey.
so the latest project has been working on some more eric glassman/this car up songs, the first being "emma."

i am so pumped about this song. the drum sounds are amazing, and we just finished up bass today. even the rough mixes are sounding phenomenal. it's great to be back in the studio again with these guys. more stuff to come in the following weeks, including some new james farrell sessions. stay tuned.

freudian slip

2006-06-10T20:36:47Z

hey campers. just hopped in the studio today to do basics for one of katy pearson's songs, "freudian slip." the drum sounds ending up being really nice, and i'm pumped to start overdubbing. there's been a bit of a buzz about katy in mp&e lately thanks to some visiting artists showing interests in one of her other songs, "the world is numb to me." i'll keep you updated on the latest.

-frank

berkleemusic.com

2006-06-01T17:34:51Z

Hey Guys,
Martin stumbled upon an online directory at berkleemusic.com where students/allumns can post profiles.

Feel free to check out Martin and Frank's new pages.

Also expect some more professional info/contact stuff going up on the site soon.

back in the saddle

2006-06-01T04:08:35Z

so it's summer, which mean halftone will sure to be busy. the fun started tonight helping longtime friend holger record some demo's with a jazz quartet.

also frank just got back from hawaii, where he was helping record a surround sound gamelan record. he was able to work at the newly built steelgrass studios of kauai. hopefully martin and frank will be able to work out there sometime soon. for more information about the gamelan group, check out thier website and check out the steelgrass ranch and the power of music series of kauai at his website

stay tuned for more projects and site updates.

done and done.

2006-03-29T16:20:29Z

we have finally finished mixing two songs with this car up. check out www.halftoneproductions.com to hear the mixes. also, check out www.thiscarup.org.

myspace

2006-03-07T03:41:24Z

we did it. it's done.
http://www.myspace.com/halftoneproductions

add us please. myspace has become a surprisingly powerful force in the music industry, so we're jumpin on board.

and the award goes to....

2006-02-27T23:37:02Z

Both Martin and Frank are being honored with awards from the Music Production and Engineering department at Berklee.

Martin is winning the MP&E/Music Synthesis Dual Major Award, which is "awarded in recognition dual majors who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in both departments."

Frank is winning the Mix Magazine TEC Award, a fund established by MIX Magazine in recognition of continuing MP&E majors and achievement in the audio field. This award was established in response to Berklee receiving the 1985 TEC Award for best recording school. Recipient gives the college the right to notify MIX Magazine of their name and biographical information in connection with the promotion and production of future TEC Awards programs.

It's a phenomenal feeling to be recognized for our efforts. A big congrats to all the other recipients of awards. You can find out more here

Corny handshake pictures to follow next week.

and that has made all the difference

2006-02-27T20:13:45Z

glorious. just look at it. ah. the ssl listen mic compressor. till now we have never used it in mixing, only recording, not knowing we could. but on the sll g+ series (berklee only has one) you can.

basically the listen mic compressor was developed to allow people in control rooms to listen to people in the studio. it crunches everything loud down to be as quiet as the soft things.

it has been used all over the place, most notably on the big drum fill on phil collins' "in the air tonight." we used it on zach's 2nd drum part in blindly. and it kicks ass.

so yesterday we started mixing blindly, and i can say pretty happily that martin and i are developing a great system for working. not only that, but we're making all of our mixes totally recallable, documenting every setting on every peice of gear, so that in 50 years, we can come back to it and it will sound exactly the same. pretty sweet.

some more pics:

done with expect

2006-02-16T23:45:18Z

so, the very next day we all went back into the studio and finished the expect mix. since i took pictures of all the gear, we were able to get the exact same mix back and tweak it even more. we also were able to calculate where the rope lights and good luck trophy were supposed to go. seriously.

the mix turned out amazingly well. i think we can all say that we're proud of how hard we all worked. it really paid off. you can hear it on this car up's myspace page, and hopefully a higher quality one will be up on our site in the near future.

so 1 down, 2 to go. blindly is ready to mix, and we're tying up some loose ends on waverly this weekend.

ps. its an awesome feeling when people keep coming up to me saying they're thinking about working with us. rock on.