Located in Willimantic, CT (due east of Hartford), USA, I offer services related to audio, music, video, radio, and electronics at very reasonable rates.
Audio Recording, Mixing, & Mastering
Need your song(s) mixed or your self/band/chorus/orchestra recorded? Want a highly professional sound at very reasonable rates? You’ve come to the right place. Please peruse the examples below.
I can record remotely within a reasonable distance from eastern CT. I have all the mics and channels necessary to record small or large bands, choruses and orchestras as well. I can also record acoustic bands and individuals in my home studio.
I’m especially interested in mixing your song(s) or albums. I cut my teeth mixing live concerts – where you need to be fast and accurate. Mixing is both art and science and I’ve spent decades learning, honing my skills, and acquiring equipment and software. People sometimes start out thinking they can mix, but they soon find out that it’s very much like playing an instrument: you can’t expect to be good without a great deal of study and practice.
I also often master my client’s projects when they lack the budget for specialized mastering services.
An Engineer-Producer (as opposed to a Producer-Engineer), I’ll work closely with your producer or, if you don’t have one, I can produce. I can suggest changes and arrangements and add parts to your music. (See the Continuum Fingerboard section.) I’ve worked in many genres as the examples below show and I’m keen to try more.
Rock
The producer wanted a Pink Floyd-like sound and I believe we succeeded.
I recorded most of the band on-location in their practice space. Overdubs, mixing, and mastering were done in my studio. Electric rhythm, lead, and bass guitar were recorded direct & dry to eliminate bleed and I sculpted the tones by re-amping in software. (It’s amazing what you can do nowadays.)
Folk / Rock
This quick demo for a 5-piece band was recorded and mixed in my apartment studio.
Classical
Broadway
The client told me this live album sounded better than his studio album.
Avant garde
I play three different presets on the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. Many more examples of music from my band (recorded, mixed, and mastered by me) can be found on this page.
Country-Western
This one was recorded entirely in my apartment studio.
This is an on-location multitrack recording, mixed and mastered in my studio.
Drama & Educational
(Some silence has been removed where there was puppetry action.)
Audio Book
I’ve begun recording an audio book reading of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. Here’s chapter one. All completed chapters are available here.
Video Production
I offer video shooting and editing services. Examples of music videos of my own are below. I also do promotional videos for clients.
You’ll find a few more examples of my work on my youtube channel.
Continuum Fingerboard playing
I play a rare and unusual synthesizer called the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. Let go of all negative asociations you may have with the idea of “synthesizers” because the Continuum is the world’s most expressive and evocative electronic musical instrument. I can add Continuum to your project (whether I mix it or not). You can hear Continuum in sound examples in the Audio Recording section of this site and lots more on my band page.
Continuums (or Continua) are built one-at-a-time by the inventor, Dr. Lippold Haken, with his father-in-law. There are only 900 or so in existence. Lippold developed the technology over more than 30 years as a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Illinois.
The Continuum is not a keyboard (though it has the form-factor of an 88-key electric piano). Instead, you push your fingers into a continuous fabric-covered neoprene rubber surface (like a wetsuit) and move them in 3 dimensions. Each finger articulates each note as pressure is added and released. For those familiar with synthesizers, your finger is the “envelope generator.” Think of the instrument as a polyphonic 3-dimensional ribbon controller or, perhaps, a polyphonic “touch Theremin.” Portamento (glide) notes individually by sliding fingers left and right. Create vibrato like a violinist by wiggling your finger. Adjust timbre and add more expression with foot pedals or by sliding fingers fore and aft on the surface.
The Continuum can be used as a controller of other synths so-equipped with a new standard called MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) but it also has a very sophisticated built-in sound engine called the Eagan Matrix that uses a variety of synthesis techniques, some capable of creating remarkably rich and acoustic-like timbres, all under the intimate and immediate control of your fingers and pedals. The Eagan Matrix, developed by Edmund Eagan in concert with Professor Haken and Christophe Duquesne, is now available in a Eurorack module and has been licensed by Expressive-E for use in their highly expressive Osmose keyboard which I also own.
The fingerboard is the primary instrument I played with the New London Drone Orchestra and now play with my own band.
My older full-size Continuum was recently rebuilt and upgraded by Dr. Haken himself. Thank you, Lippold!
I also have some skill as a hand-drummer and keyboardist. I have a large collection of musical instruments and I like to attempt musical sounds on any instrument I can get my hands on!
Contact
Best: johnEDIT-THIS-PART-OUTschwenk -AT- juno -DOT- com
John Schwenk
315 Pleasant St
Willimantic CT 06226
860 423-6691 (cell)