The Portable Studio

About a week and a half ago, I played with this fabulous rock band from Los Angeles called Powdered Monster. In addition to playing a show in New York City, they were also in the process of recording a full length CD simultaneously as they traveled across the country from New York back to their home in L.A. They brought a portable mixing device, and a Macintosh computer with a program similar to pro tools, and also had a couple of mikes. Within fifteen minutes, they were able to set up a makeshift studio in a Steinhardt practice room and begin recording my violin overdubs. They had already recorded themselves on guitar and drums (Two man band). After being kicked out of the practice room prematurely, we decided to finish the recording in my partment early the next morning. I overslept a little bit, so when they arrived, I literally climbed out of bed, let them in, and again within 10 or 15 minutes began recording mulitiple violin tracks (I was harmonizing with myself over several tracks) literally in my pajamas. I find this a radical development music technology; by the time they are finished with their CD, they will have various musicians from New York, Chicago, and even Denver all playing on the same songs on an album, and they have never even met each other!