Karaoke – Seriously??

Like most of you, the only reaction I’ve ever had to the word “Karaoke” was laughter. When I think of it, I think of lot’s of overly indulged (if you know what I mean) individuals singing to cheesy back tracks most likely in a dingy bar, none of whom are good singers and pretty much all of whom, unbeknownst to them, are making complete fools of themselves.

Or at least I did think that.

Until I had the opportunity to start building a client base of karaoke singers. That’s right, people actually do come to me to record themselves singing karaoke. Prior to my first session, I was ready for a laugh fest. What surprised me is many of the people are good. Really good.

As time has gone on and my client base has grown of people who record these projects, my appreciation for the art has grown in turn. In fact, lots of them are better singers than the many lead singers for “normal” bands. Check out this sample, recorded by a gentleman named Buzz who I’ve worked with over the last couple months. One take:

Buzz Clip – Karaoke – Sinatra

On a given night, Buzz records 8-15 songs, one take each. He doesn’t need autotune, and doesn’t warm up. He has no proffessional vocal coaching. He just loves karaoke. And he’s a contractor.

Never let your preconceptions fool you. There are some really talented people out there. It’s been my priveledge to work with Buzz and some of his friends. Are (some) people who do karaoke talented? You better believe it.

Posted by Justin Piercy on July 8th, 2010 | 2 Comments

Fuse – Promotional Video

Bumper package put together for the “Fuse” worship event at Connexus Community Church.

Photography by Michael Steingard

Stock Data – Revostock.com

Posted by Justin Piercy on May 8th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Day After Tomorrow

This was a demo project that I did a while ago. The first clip, without anything except for dialogue was what I started with. Everything else I added on my own, from the wind, the helicopter sounds, the crashes, and pretty much everything else under the sun.

Some interesting sound design notes. There are 2 helicopter fly by’s in the clip which are the only real sampled helicopter sounds. All other helicopter sounds are a combination of a looped machine gun, a jet turbine, and various truck/bus/van engines. To make the helicopter “blades beating” machine gun sound less monotone, I automated a high shelf filter with a randomly sweeping frequency. A small touch that made a dull fake  thumping sound all of a sudden totally realistic. Other intersting things..the sound of freezing is actually a combination of squishing a bag of marbles in my hand, and a campfire. The door opening at the end was actually a music stand being pushed upside down along a linoleum floor.

Posted by Justin Piercy on February 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment