Record a Demo for Free at Hocking College
By Matthew Toledo - 11/22/2004
Hocking College is interested in recording your band and doing live sound at your next event. Located north of Athens in Nelsonville, Hocking College focuses on technical training in various fields from EMT and nursing, to computer networking, to something called eco-tourism. They have had an audio/visual program for a few years now. However, they have only recently expanded their broadcasting tract to include multi-track recording and audio field production.
Bands who want a free demo recorded in a professional studio should contact Professor Greg Obrien via email. Greg, in addition to being a teacher, is also blues rock guitarist. Bands interested in recording need able to record from 2 in the afternoon to 8:30 in the evening so that the students can get hands on experience.
Hocking College's live audio class is willing to travel to your next live indoor or outdoor event to do sound for free. The only stipulation is that the event has to be non-alcoholic.
I recently had an opportunity to talk to Greg and ask him some questions about the new services he is offering to the community.
AMN: Greg, what sort of equipment do you have for doing live sound?
Obrien: We have a Mackie 24 x 8 bus, Crest power amps, JBL mains, lots of microphones of different types, Carvin subs, 4 or more monitors with up to four different monitor mixes.
AMN: What sort of events can your live sound group handle? Are we talking weddings at the local Elk's lodge or arenas?
Obrien: The class can handle large venues like the opera house hear in Nelsonville, which holds upwards of 550 people. They can get a hold of enough gear for larger events.
AMN: So can you guys do sound in a bar?
Obrien: No, unfortunately. This is for a class, so the College won't let the students do sound where alcohol is for sale.
AMN: I know that the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe will record a band for free. What services do you offer that are different from them.
Obrien: At the Workshop, you give them your band info and they call you for one night of recording. We will record your band for up to five days if you want, so a band can walk away with a full length CD that is mixed and mastered. If you want to keep the tracks, the band just needs to buy a hard drive. We did Pete Shoe's Back Porch Swing band before Bill Worell left and even after. We also recorded a CD for 2 Short and Mc Breed from LA, and his friend Mc Rude. They did five songs. Mc Rude was actually my roommate for a while. A song Mc Rude did ended up on his debut album "You wanna be a G like me" Local bands like Fuse have recorded too.
AMN: What do you use in the studio to record bands?
Obrien: We are recording with Pro Tools on a smaller Digi-02 which is a digital 8 track recorder that can actually go up to 32 channels. We use that for a foley studio as well. For the big guns we are using a Macke D8-B which stands for digital 8 bus. That is the board which is fully automated. For the recording medium we are using the Macke hd24/96 which means we our sample rate can go as high as 96 Khz. Most computers can only get to 44.1 Khz. Some newer computers are faster though. We have tube and other types of preamps, condenser mics, Zenheiser mics, Marshall mics, and tons of other drum mic packages as well as the standards 58's. Yeah, we have a lot of stuff. Plus tons of software plugins for the Macke stuff.
AMN: How do bands get on the list for a free recording session?
Obrien: Any band that wants to do a recording session after should email me now. If they want to keep their session, the band needs to buy a hard drive. Contact me for the specifics on which drive you need. We started this service on October 28th. School breaks for vacation about midway through December and starts up again the first week of January. Hocking will be doing this permanently from now on. We just need to be in session during the dates bands want to record. Check out Hocking College's web site and look for the academic calendar to find out when that is.
