Sunday 22 December 2013

MandyStar@ StarMount Studio


MandyStar (Amanda) is a regular of StarMount Studio. She's talented with her voice, guitar and drums and we're up for another round of cover songs for her online video contents. We are glad to be part of her musical journey as in StarMount Studio, we appreciate the opportunity to grow together with the clients, (especially new talents) and its always rewarding to be appreciated and know that we are helping them getting better.

Originals are coming up next. We've recorded some really nice demos and music arrangement is in the process. ( we do offer music arrangement and other music creation related services as well, drop us a line for the rates)

Sebastian on guitars

MandyStar

She plays the guitar too.

Group pic.



Friday 20 December 2013

Film Scoring with Ken Hor @ StarMount Studio

We had a thrilling week with Ken Hor on his latest film score for a horror movie coming to the screens soon. We don't think we're allowed to put a name to it yet but we can show you some hardworking musicians responsible for the fantastic music you're going to hear soon.
Ken is a perfectionist and strongly believes in acoustic instruments and tried very very hard to stay away from digital samples as much as possible, so he came to StarMount Studio (we liked to have everything recorded live too) for the job.

As you know the budget for music is tight these days, we worked our best to fit in as many great players as possible for the music. We did the harp at The Harp Academy Malaysia, where we recorded Jee Fei (founder of the school) with our mobile rig consisting Chandler TGII thru Lavry Blue ADDA. It was a straight forward but not easy stereo setup.

We had fantastic strings section back in the studio with violin, viola cello and double bass all together. We love the Audient Zen's pres on strings. They're balanced, clean and with a hint of warmth from the analog board. On the same night, we made use of the Disklavier on the DC-1 Grandpiano, playing back a fugue written by Ken and recorded back as an acoustic piano. It wasn't as simple as we thought, but its convincing after some tweaking were done on the midi.

Lastly the highlight/ theme song was recorded by Mei Sim. Her soulful voice went through sE 4400a to our newly acquired Tree Audio Branch. We loved the harmonic richness and the opto compressor works wonders.

That sums up part of the major highlights for the film scoring. Picture time :)


We do outcalls too

Fantastic Strings section
Tweaking to perfection

The Artiste, Producer and Engineer

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Amanda Bloom @StarMount Studio

Talented Amanda Bloom brought her musical journey to StarMount Studio and we were amazed and mused by her music. It was such an impromptu session as new inputs and variations kept coming and the energy was great.

We had a good 5 days in the studio. We had great sessionist like Lewis Pragasam with his fantastic percussion kit, John Thomas and K7 with his array of Indian flutes. We starting to use the ribbon tubes a lot more often as we felt that its the closest to the natural sound of the acoustic instruments, especially the transients are so smoothly preserved. If we don't need the extras over 16kHz, RT1 of sE will be there.

We love our job. 
John's  drum set up

Amanda Bloom

Colorful and wonderful kit by Lewis
Lewis Pragasam

Back to control room

K7

Choose your key. 


The Voice Season 5 Promo Shoot @ StarMount Studio

We were carried away with projects and live concerts and some were so confidential that we couldn't share thus not updating until now.

"The Voice"Season 5's promo shoot was done in StarMount Studio. It was a star studded day with so many artistes coming in the studio. Here are some behind the scenes.  (by the way they're all taken with film cameras)

Aizat 

Faizal Tahir with the studio's Martin

Moots Pop Shuvit on set

Reshmonu at the control room

J the man directing Soo Wincci


Thursday 11 July 2013

Pay Fong Centennial Celebration Album @StarMount Studio

We were honored to be part of the Pey Fong High School (Melaka) for their Centennial Celebration. We tracked live for most of the music, led by aspiring music director Cher Siang and his amazing bandmates AJ Pop Shuvit, KJ Wong Julian Chan and Joel Woo, where the band nailed the instrumental parts within a day.
We used mono setup for the drums, utilizing only one pencil condenser as the overheads, and mic up the snare and bass drums. Piano were comfortably covered by dense fabrics and comforters, shielding the sE4400 pair from excessive leakage of sound. Bass was direct in to the Chandler TGII and Portico 5043 compression.

We had a pair of RT1s ribbon tube for the room as well, which then being used widely during the mix for its natural and warm character.


Laying down the foundation

The groove master

Happening horn lines

Magic

Beautiful voice by PaulWah Chew

Music Director at work


Alex with the fantastic vocals

The Man

Thursday 4 July 2013

StarMount Studio Supports Bihzhu #CribConcert 3 presented by "Share The Love"




We're all geared up towards the upcoming crib concert of the talented Bihzhu. Happening this Sunday 7th July 2013. We'll be the tech crew and it'll involve location recording as well. 

Previously we were using RME Babyface as our main audio interface. We love the lightweight, compactness and most importantly  the driver is very reliable.

To handle multiple inputs, we linked up another 8 ins from Audient ASP008 via ADAT, which gives us a total of 10 ins. We're liking the pair very much as they are compact and powerful. The mic pres have sufficient headroom to cover the dynamic range and offer solid capture of the sound source.

This time around we would be trying out another powerful workhorse from the RME family- the UCX and also M-81 from Telefunken. Stay tuned and log on to the website on Sunday night 8pm!


Tuesday 2 July 2013

Action Movie Sound Design, Foley and Mix @StarMount Studio

It was action packed in the studio when the producers, directors and sound supervisor from Camwerk Studio came in with their latest action movie project. 
Sound designs, foley, ADRs and Stereo mix downs are the job scope and it was fun throughout the entire process. 

Pad locks rolling everywhere, a few makeshift wooden platforms for different scenes, various types of shoes and even firearms were present in the studio. Ribbon microphones are used most often throughout the session. The knocking sounds especially were very well translated and we're very pleased with the outcome. 


ADR

All set

Movie Director in action

Movie Theme Song Soundtrack and MV Shoot

We had the opportunity to work with Cher Siang and Yellow Movie for their upcoming movie theme song. Cher Siang as the music composer and music director, song was undoubtedly well written and with Stefano, vocal coaching was no joke. Much attention was paid on producing the vocals where we spent 2 days to just get the right feel for the first phrase of the song.

We also had the chance to use Fredenstein F603 EQ and F600 Compresser, and finally into Tree Audio Branch.  End result was amazing where we had huge and full sound on the vocals. Fredenstein has its very unique character on the EQ curves, the sheen is very prominent and the compressor with a very useful high-pass side chain providing the punch needed. The Branch fills up all the empty spaces with rich harmonics. The vocals sits in the centre and as few of us in the studio deemed "untouchable".
The Stars

Fredenstein Channel Strip in Bento 6

Close up on the channel strip. 
Tree Audio, The Branch

Vocal coach, Movie Producer, Music Director, A&R Exec and the Artiste. Taking things seriously.
The Maestro and little admirer..


Wednesday 15 May 2013

FUGU@ StarMount Studio

It was midnight and we had FUGU, consist of Chern Hwei(Electric Violin)  and Chor Guan(Theremin) visiting to have their electrifying moments recorded in StarMount Studio.
All set for Round 1

StarWars

Killing the set
Electrifying session

Live Jazz@ StarMount Studio

Great musical moments were created and captured when Marques (Trombone), Patrick (Alto Saxophone), Wei Xiang (Piano), Kerong (Organ) and Wen Ming(Drums) got together to lay down their works in StarMount Studio. Session was live and we separated the horns, trombone in the Control Room, Alto Sax in the booth, and the rhythm section in the live room.

We tracked the drums and organ through our 16 channel Audient Zen, the horns through the Chandler TG2 and piano through Neve Portico 5043 with the silk on.
We had this on a 2 day session and the sets are great.

Making sure the piano is nice and comfy.

The magnificent trio


Pick your best seat, show is starting.
From left: Kerong,Patrick, Marques, WenMing,WeiXiang, QE and Alex

Monday 18 February 2013

1 Peace for Earth Hour 2013


1 Peace came in to do up a clip for WWF Earth Hour 2013 Band Contest. Definitely a talented bunch and we are confident that they would be on of the finalists to perform on stage during the event! Please do vote for them! 

Click here to vote for 1 Peace!


Friday 25 January 2013

Movie Soundtrack with Jeana Ho

We have the gorgeous Hong Kong movie star/model Jeana Ho in StarMount Studio recording one of the OST for her upcoming movie. sE Gemini MK2 was put up for the task. We love how it captures the nuances of her characteristic vocals. With the help of the dual-valve design, warm and lush tone was expected. 


Going through the parts
With some guidance from Rex, producer


Thursday 17 January 2013

Piano Tuning and Recording with Maestro Tay Cher siang

We cater to all of our clients need even you're on a tight schedule. Recently we had a session that requires the piano to be tuned at 441 Hz. We got Mr Chew over for the job, and get it done right before Cher Siang enters the room. A pair of sE 4400a was space paired, 1 ft above the sound board. Fed it through the Neve Portico Pres and Compressors, the recorded piano was full of warmth, without losing the transients.


Prep up for the job
Maestro Tay on the piano