MIXcellaneous: performances by other artists, recorded and/or mixed at Rosemill Studios
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Four Songs of Innocence is a suite written for classical guitar and voice by composer, Tony D'Addono. The songs are based on William Blake's "Songs of Innocence" with the lyrics being taken from Blake's original text. This is an exquisite performance by Mr. D'Addono and vocalist, Melanie Zhang.
Credits
Tony D'Addono: classical guitar Melanie Zhang: vocals Composed by Tony D'Addono (Copyright 2014 Tony D'Addono) Text by William Blake Cover art: original cover to "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake (1786) and now in the public domain. Recorded at Rosemill Studio 2022 Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mark Minassian |
Comments:
■ Oh my gosh! These are AWESOME!! ~ Lynne Frederick (owner of Malvern Music)
■ Outstanding job. I enjoyed Tony's playing and the vocalist (Melanie Zhang) did an outstanding job! The tunes are reminiscent to Madrigal tunes, although the Madrigal was without instruments. The tunes have both great parts...guitar and vocals. ~ Teddy Tedeso
■ They are beautiful! The vocalist has a really lovely voice! ~ Maureen Adams
■ Masterpieces all! ~ Al Colucci
■ They're absolutely wonderful. ~ Bonnie Sumerfield
■ Loved the Blake suite. The music is very accessible and has an organic and collaborative quality with the poetry. Those are things that I think are important when setting text. ~ Thomas Smith
■ They sound great! Great playing and Melanie Zhang did a wonderful job. ~ Ignatius Hneleski III
■ Oh my gosh! These are AWESOME!! ~ Lynne Frederick (owner of Malvern Music)
■ Outstanding job. I enjoyed Tony's playing and the vocalist (Melanie Zhang) did an outstanding job! The tunes are reminiscent to Madrigal tunes, although the Madrigal was without instruments. The tunes have both great parts...guitar and vocals. ~ Teddy Tedeso
■ They are beautiful! The vocalist has a really lovely voice! ~ Maureen Adams
■ Masterpieces all! ~ Al Colucci
■ They're absolutely wonderful. ~ Bonnie Sumerfield
■ Loved the Blake suite. The music is very accessible and has an organic and collaborative quality with the poetry. Those are things that I think are important when setting text. ~ Thomas Smith
■ They sound great! Great playing and Melanie Zhang did a wonderful job. ~ Ignatius Hneleski III
Sleepy Boy performed by Two for Tea |
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The duo Two for Tea out of Bethlehem, PA, visited Rosemill Studio in the summer of 2022 to record their interpretation of the song I wrote called Sleepy Boy which I performed on WHYY's House Concert Series in 2021. The talented duo Two for Tea consists of keyboardist/vocalist Matt Asti and vocalist/actress Madelyn Dundon (star of Getting Grace) who perform classic standards from a bygone era. It certainly was a thrill to have them both in the studio, as their rendition of my composition places it firmly in the great American Songbook tradition.
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Sogno (Dream) written and performed by Tony D'Addono |
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A wonderful and masterfully performed song called "Sogno", which means "dream" in Italian. It was recorded and mixed in my home studio and written and performed on classical guitar by my best friend and guitarist extraordinaire, Tony D'Addono. Be sure to visit Tony's website.
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I' Te Vurria Vasa (I Long to Kiss You) performed by Tony D'Addono |
A beautiful Neapolitan song called "I' Te Vurria Vasa" recorded and mixed in my home studio. It was performed on classical guitar by my best friend and guitarist extraordinaire, Tony D'Addono. Be sure visit Tony's website and listen to his own brilliant compositions and transcriptions for classical guitar.
Tony D'Addono |
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Itchycoo Park
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Rosemill Studios mix of James Maddock's version of Itchycoo Park originally recorded by the Small Faces
Mixed by Mark Minassian (aka I Am Winkle) and Leo Valentino |
We completed this mix in just one week, faced with the looming deadline for Eventide Audio’s Itchycoo Park Challenge, a remix contest in which hundreds of professional and home studios produced a new take on the classic 1967 psychedelic song by The Small Faces. Veteran Americana artist James Maddock and his band of studio musicians recorded the raw tracks at Hobo Sound Studios in New Jersey (full credits below). Rosemill Studio in Pennsylvania had the pleasure of molding them into the finished product that you’ve found here. We didn’t stray much from Maddock's version of the original song, making more subtle tweaks, except for the addition of the solo vocal opening and acoustic guitar/ukulele tail.
Recorded at Hobo Sound Studios in Weehawken, NJ
Stewart Lerman - Producer
Pete Bischoff - Engineer
James Maddock - Lead Vocal & Acoustic Guitar
John Weber - Drums
Tony Shanahan - Bass & Backing Vocals
Christian Colabelli - Electric Guitar
Peter McCulloch - Keyboards
Tony Agnello - Ukulele
Mixed at Rosemill Studios in Chester County, PA
Leo Valentino & Mark Minassian (aka I Am Winkle) - Mix & Post Production Engineers
Copyright 1967 S. Marriott and R. Lane
Recorded at Hobo Sound Studios in Weehawken, NJ
Stewart Lerman - Producer
Pete Bischoff - Engineer
James Maddock - Lead Vocal & Acoustic Guitar
John Weber - Drums
Tony Shanahan - Bass & Backing Vocals
Christian Colabelli - Electric Guitar
Peter McCulloch - Keyboards
Tony Agnello - Ukulele
Mixed at Rosemill Studios in Chester County, PA
Leo Valentino & Mark Minassian (aka I Am Winkle) - Mix & Post Production Engineers
Copyright 1967 S. Marriott and R. Lane
Let Her Know performed by IVO |
Rosemill Studio's Mix of IVO's "Let Her Know"
Mixed by Mark Minassian (I Am Winkle) & Leo Valentino
Mixed by Mark Minassian (I Am Winkle) & Leo Valentino
In the Fall of 2017, Rosemill Studio had the pleasure of participating in Softube’s “Mix with the Masters” contest, along with hundreds of other home and professional studios from around the world. Everyone was provided with the individual vocal and instrument master tracks of a song recently recorded by the European artist, IVO (www.ivo.cd), called “Let Her Know.” Contestants were then asked to produce a final stereo mix of the song.
After completing our work (actually, more fun than work) and uploading our final mix to the contest website, we listened to a number of the other mixes and found ours to be satisfyingly unique. If you sample some of the other entries on SoundCloud, you’ll find that nearly all kept to the more electric nature of the song, starting with the short, opening electric guitar riff. After combing through all of the supplied master tracks, we instead decided to feature the lone mandolin, to the point of grabbing an interesting mando section from later in the song and placing it at the very beginning, to clearly state our intentions for the listener. We also highlighted the acoustic guitars, cut out some of the early electric guitar and piano parts, and removed a section of the doubled lead vocal, allowing the song to build more gradually.
As the song progressed, we went in the opposite direction and started adding things. We took the last section of the electric lead guitar and had it repeat what we thought was a catchy riff a second time, placing it under the lead vocal. We added some Oooos (that were previously sung) right before the break, prior to the first outro. They fit quite well with the vocals there. During the second outro, we boosted the upper-most background vocal part, grabbed it and placed it above the “I know, I know” section (which we made more prominent), removing one of the lead vocal lines to create a natural space. And finally, we added an octave lower vocal part to the lead vocal in the final refrain to add a bit more texture.
While many of the other contest mixes ranged from very good to excellent in sound quality, we were pleased with the distinctive differences---the musicality---that we also brought to our mix, which reflected our vision of the song.
After completing our work (actually, more fun than work) and uploading our final mix to the contest website, we listened to a number of the other mixes and found ours to be satisfyingly unique. If you sample some of the other entries on SoundCloud, you’ll find that nearly all kept to the more electric nature of the song, starting with the short, opening electric guitar riff. After combing through all of the supplied master tracks, we instead decided to feature the lone mandolin, to the point of grabbing an interesting mando section from later in the song and placing it at the very beginning, to clearly state our intentions for the listener. We also highlighted the acoustic guitars, cut out some of the early electric guitar and piano parts, and removed a section of the doubled lead vocal, allowing the song to build more gradually.
As the song progressed, we went in the opposite direction and started adding things. We took the last section of the electric lead guitar and had it repeat what we thought was a catchy riff a second time, placing it under the lead vocal. We added some Oooos (that were previously sung) right before the break, prior to the first outro. They fit quite well with the vocals there. During the second outro, we boosted the upper-most background vocal part, grabbed it and placed it above the “I know, I know” section (which we made more prominent), removing one of the lead vocal lines to create a natural space. And finally, we added an octave lower vocal part to the lead vocal in the final refrain to add a bit more texture.
While many of the other contest mixes ranged from very good to excellent in sound quality, we were pleased with the distinctive differences---the musicality---that we also brought to our mix, which reflected our vision of the song.
