Those might be aware we haven’t been receiving your website Emails recently.
Luckily, the problem has been resolved, and we’re now receiving all communications. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Pulsworks Studio News
Band Warz 5 Concludes
After 17 weeks of tough judging at The Roxy on Broadway, Band Warz 5 draws to a close
After 17 weeks of tough judging at The Roxy on Broadway, Band Warz 5 draws to a close, proudly announcing the winners as eXide (rock category) and Delusions Of (metal category). Both bands walk away with a prize of $1,500 worth of recording time as well as a number of other prize goodies. “This year’s competition took it to the next level,” explains head judge & Pulsworks in-house record producer Carl Bateson. “Not only was it our first year as the official sponsor but we had some really talented bands competing.” Carl shares the same passion as the studio management when it comes to promoting new local talent.
“A lot of these bands just need one chance,” he continues. “They have the ability but need help creating their demo or album. That’s where we come in.” The judging panel for Band Warz 5 consisted of Carl, Andy Coulic and Aeden Chan. Guest judges this year included recording engineer and session bass player Dean Dynna, session drummer Brad Zimmer of Midday Rival (previous Band Warz finalists) and Sal from Rock 102.
To keep the ball rolling, more competitions and events are planned for later in the year. Watch this space! Results: rock category; 1st Place – eXide, 2nd Place – Lost in the Fire, 3rd Place – Fragile Transit. Metal category; 1st Place – Delusions Of, 2nd Place – Harmful Effects, 3rd Place – Brutal Machine.
Another busy week
It’s been another busy week of recording here at the Pulsworks Audio Arts studio.
The highlight of the week has been the recording of Saskatoon Children’s Choir in the Grand Hall, one of the few tracking rooms in Canada big enough for such a task. The Choir were singing in support of the “Yellow Fish Project” – a environmental initiative concerned with protecting our natural water supplies. The choir was conducted by their leader Phoebe Voights whilst accompanied on piano by the composer of the piece, Sheldon Corbett. Sheldon’s music arrived as a MIDI file which was then rendered into Pro Tools using Garritan Personal Orchestra and Sampletank.
The magic was captured by engineer Kyle Berezowski whilst studio owner David Puls dashed around like a mad thing helping to co-ordinate everyone. As ever our Lawson microphones did an excellent job, yielding a rich, warm and spacious tone. Over forty pairs of headphones were used so that everyone in the choir had a chance to hear what was going on.
Also busy in the recording studio this week was Shelley Christian, whose album is really starting to take shape. Our friend Dean Dynna came by to play bass on all twelve songs and, later in the week, well-known fiddle player Jason Heistad dropped in to add his magic to the proceedings. Jason, who used to own Eagles’ Wings Recording Studio in Regina, loved being at Pulsworks and is bringing his next album project here to record. We tracked Jason’s fiddle with the amazing Beyer M260 ribbon microphone, which imparts a lush, smooth tone to any bowed instrument.
Whilst he was in the studio, Jason also contributed some fantastic violin parts to Beauty Faulkner‘s song “Lit From Within“, which features a huge chorus including strings, synthesizers, glockenspiel and, of course, vocals. The production of Beauty’s album is now in full swing for a release around May with a big concert event.
A busy day @ Pulsworks
It’s been a busy day here in the recording studio at Pulsworks Audio Arts, including a visit by CJWW’s Sharon Jacobs
First of all songwriter and performance artist Beauty Faulkner got some great acoustic guitar recorded for her album by our old friend Rod Kaminski. The Lawson L251 microphones proved an excellent choice in The Live Room, giving a full, warm tone with plenty of space and “air”. Beauty’s new album is progressing at a rapid pace and Rod is composing music for several of her songs. As usual Beauty’s instrumental choices are diverse and varied: the song we were working on today, “Mother”, will feature a recording of Beauty’s own heartbeat as part of the rhythm tracks.
Once Beauty’s session was out of the way, gospel singer Shelley Christian came in to record some scratch pianos and vocals in preparation for her album’s drum session for the following day with drummer Glen Peregrym. Working to MIDI “block tracks”, Shelley played the studio’s piano whilst David took a rare turn at the controls as you can see here. Shelley’s album is now moving into full production and we’re very excited to be involved in this project which is being produced by David and engineered by Kyle.
Finally our friends, artist Codie Prevost and radio presenter Sharon Jacobs, paid us a visit to see the studio and talk all things recording. Sharon, who broadcasts on local country station CJWW, has become friends with engineer/producer Carl Bateson who’s been discussing a lot of our projects with her. It was a pleasure to see Sharon and Codie at the studio and we look forward to them visiting again soon.
Joe Polsfut
It’s been a month since the incident but now a hero’s been immortalized in recording a song here at Pulsworks Audio Arts by Joe Polsfut.
Country singer Joe wrote the song “Sully’s Plane” to pay homage to pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who saved 155 lives by downing his Airbus 320 in the Hudson river after the engines were damaged by a flock of geese. “Sully’s Plane”, a humorous guitar-driven country song, is to be sent straight to Sully himself and promoted on the radio. Bass and backing vocals were provided by local songwriter and guitarist Tony Toews, closest in the picture, with Joe’s son Shawn at the back.
Arriving on the same day as Joe was in the recording studio tracking his song was our second set of Lawson microphones. We were so pleased with our first pair – the L251 and L47 – that we decided to invest in a second pair, not the least of which reason being for an important upcoming session. These mics are amazing in any application, being faithful re-creations of the classic Telefunken ELAM251 and the Neumann U47FET. What’s even better with the Lawsons, though, is that the capsules may be swapped, giving you four mics for the price of two. So now we have eight for the price of four. Great!.
Maria Epp
Singer songwriter Maria Epp from here in Saskatoon joined us recently in the studio to record her song “Cruise Control”.
The song, a folksy indie ballad about how love goes wrong when you’re not paying attention, has been submitted to a local film company to audition Maria’s voice for one of their projects. Apart from Maria’s acoustic guitar and vocals, engineer Evan Bueckert played bass and percussion on the song. Here you can see Evan and Maria working on their final mix. It’s been a pleasure working with Maria and we hope to see her again soon.
Josephson C720
Pulsworks Audio Arts are both pleased and really bloomin’ excited to announce the acquisition of the incredible Josephson Engineering C720 microphone, today at the recording studio.
Created to celebrate Josephson’s twentieth anniversary, our C720 is one of a limited run of only twenty of them for the whole world. Ours – serial number 16 – is the only one in Canada and one of very few in North America. To give you some idea of the fierce competition to get hold of these things, even prestigious studios like Abbey Road just got one. So this amazing mic is almost as rare as hen’s teeth and we are very privileged to own one here at Pulsworks.
But it doesn’t stop there. The twentieth anniversary Josephson C720 has some rather unique engineering features such as a metal foam pop screen and a dual-output capsule. That’s right; you don’t have to choose your polar pattern at the time of your recording. The polar response of the C720 can be changed right up until your final mix by de-matrixing the outputs of the two capsules through the mixing console. This gives you the choice of any pattern from cardioid through omnidirectional to figure-8 right up to your final mix.
The C720 is so far ahead of the curve technologically that it’s almost the mic from Area 51. Some of the materials in the mic are so advanced that they’ve only just been declassified by the U.S. military, to whom Josephson has been supplying “special projects” for years.
Come to the studio and see the rare and ultra-cool Josephson C720 or, better still, have it on your next session.
As a Josephson dealer, Pulsworks Audio Arts is the only company in Canada to supply the full Josephson range. We and our clients love their mics, which have become a ‘go to’ recording tool round here. In addition to the C720 we use the C42, the C617 and the almost indestructible E22S.
Aaron Zepick @ Pulsworks
Guitarist Aaron Zepick joined us for a day bringing his great-sounding Taylor acoustic guitar to record tracks for his mum’s latest album here at Pulsworks Recording Studio.
Well-known gospel artist Debbie Zepick is on her eighth album and recording with producer Roy Salmond in Surrey BC where our tracks will be imported to Roy’s iZ Technology Radar system.
Aaron proved to be a great player, providing some awesome parts and really lifting the two songs ‘Counting On You’ and ‘Lenten Seeking’. For the first, engineer Evan used the Josephson C42s for their close, intimate sound and wonderfully smooth top end. For the second song we changed it up with the omnidirectional, metal-diaphragm C617 to get more ‘air’ round the guitar. The C617s have amazing phase-coherence, giving sounds that are captured with them a real presence, almost as though you’re in the same room as the instrument.
Aaron enjoyed his time at Pulsworks and the tracks are already winging their way to BC to join the mix.
Beauty Faulkner
Having worked on Beauty Faulkner’s first album, Sandy was asked to produce her second, ‘Mother’, currently recording here at Pulsworks music studio.
Beauty has a most unique approach to songwriting, usually coming up with just a clear melody and her words. She then passes the material on to another musician who fills up the remaining space with chords, rhythms and the like. Whilst this is an atypical way of working, it produces some very interesting and diverse results. Along with Sandy who’s composing two songs for Beauty’s album, other musical contributors include our friend Rod Kaminski, who finished his own album with us a couple of years ago.
Beauty’s instrumental line up promises to be quite varied. In addition to the usual guitars, bass and keyboards we’ve so far recorded various kinds of drums, percussion, ethnic flutes and, for the song ‘Rainbow Woman’, a didgeridoo.
Sandy said “Beauty’s not only great fun to work with but she’s such a sweetheart. She bought me a potted plant. That doesn’t happen very often!”
Mat Twist
Here at the recording studio it seems like Mat Twist’s debut album has been in progress for years… and it has!
Mat’s sensibly taking his time over the recording of his first CD, allowing himself and Sandy, who’s producing it, to make some really well-informed creative decisions. As they say, “all the best dishes cook slowly”.
One decision that worked out very well was to engage the services of bass player Dean Dynna who comes from Prince Albert. Dean, an old friend of David’s, brings a wealth of skill, musical knowledge and somewhat twisted but nonetheless inoffensive humour to his sessions. Mat is really pleased with Dean’s contribution to his songs which range from hard rock to reggae and electronica.
