Maxsound Presents...
A Live Concert CD
Hear Live Music Recordings of
12 Memorable Performances
This is how a soundman hears music.. Direct from the Concert Stage to your ears..
Maybe you've never known a soundman. A soundman is usually at the back of the club, hidden behind a mountain of audio gear.
Over a forty year career in music production, I've had the good fortune of working with some amazing artists, with stage names like Captain Sunshine and Starchild, and some amazing bands, like Heavens Radio and The Magic Circle, The Full Circle, The ChoirGirlz, The Lost Babies, The Sweet Spots, and the Vibrations.
I started my musical career as a singer, appearing on tv as Bob Singer, with two bands, SouperJazz and The Garden Party Dance Band.
Thanks to this vocal performance experience, my specialty now, as a soundman, is mixing sound for voices. With Max Sound, the voices are up close and personal.
Over the years, I have learned that singing might be the most fun a person can have in life, maybe next to sex. But to be honest, I'm a better soundman than a singer.
For the best sound services around, ask for Max Sound. To hear some sample live music recordings, play the sample Max Sound Collection at the top of the page.
MAX SOUND
Live Concert CD
is now available
12 Live Recordings
from 12 great shows
Purchase the
Max Sound CD
($12 plus shipping)
www.maxsound.ca
contact maxsound
MAX SOUND * LIVE CONCERT RECORDINGS
As a soundman, I love recording concerts, with a Live Concert Sound.
Live Concert Sound is better than living room sound, that's my philosophy. There's a quality to live sound that everyone loves.
Live sound has more heart. You can hear music anywhere, but you can FEEL live concert sound.
One might ask, why is live concert sound better than living room sound. It's because a live concert creates larger and more powerful sound vibrations.
It's an energy thing. An audience at a concert feels like they're inside a vibrating sound bubble. It's a question of how much you can feel the vibe.
Live shows have more vibe, ie. sound vibrations.
At a live concert, sound vibrations come in waves, vibrating all around us and vibrating inside us.
When you listen to Max Sound recordings, you can feel the live sound vibrations, especially when you turn the volume up to concert levels.
The louder you play this special collection of live concert recordings, the more you can feel the sound vibrations.
Some say live concert recordings are not studio perfect, for it's only one take in front of a crowd. Still, these musicians created musical magic, and the magic was recorded for everyone to hear.
Every soundbite tells a story. The story of Max Sound lives on in this very vibrational music collection.
MAX SOUND * MUSICAL MEMORIES
Some of my favourite concert performances, by 12 different artists, are included in this Max Sound Collection of Live Concert Recordings.
It's not easy, but achieving studio quality sound in live concerts is the goal. Some of these live concert recordings sound as good as studio recordings, in my humble opinion.
The first song in the collection, AVE - TODAY, could possibly be one of the most beautiful piano solos ever recorded. The official release title is Avery Singer - Gardenworld Suite.
We recorded Gardenworld Suite in an Ottawa piano lounge called Fridays, with patrons sitting around a baby grand piano, sometimes banging their drinks on the piano bar to mess up the recordings. Their drunken laughter still echoes in my brain.
To make the piano sound like five pianos, we used five microphones, all strategically aimed at different parts of his baby grand.
It took two hours to place the microphones in their perfect locations for recording the song. When the mikes were finally set up, Ave played the song twice for the recording.
Both Takes 1 and 2 sounded great, but for an encore, Ave, the brilliant piano player, lost the recorded master tape original. He left it at a party somewhere.
But I had a backup cassette copy of the original recording. This is what we hear as the first song on the album, Ave - Today, as recorded on a cassette.
The second song in the collection is a swinging version of WABASH CANNONBALL with jazz virtuoso, BOBBY MILITELLO.
As Dave Brubeck's sideman, Bobby Militello is known as one of the world's great saxophonists. This recording comes from a Bobby Militello Show at Toronto's Pilot Tavern, as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. Talk about live shows..
The SYNCONA recording of JUMPIN' JUMPIN' was performed live in an open air park in Toronto's Greektown. People were dancing under the stars with this music, and they wanted to party all night.
Syncona's bandleader and featured singer, Dick Smith was famous in Toronto's theatre world as the Lion King percussionist, and a brilliant drummer.
MOSES REVOLUTION's rocking version of MELODY IN ME HEAD, also had people dancing, but indoors, on a rainy day, at Toronto's Harbourfront Center.
For the Moses Revolution Concert, we had set up the sound system outdoors, for an on air radio broadcast, but the rain drove us indoors.
All the sound gear had to be moved inside quickly and set up in a rush, so the radio broadcast could start on time. And still the audience kept dancing.
SOLTRIBE's performance of LEAVE THIS PLACE is a special memory. The band was delayed in traffic. We had 20 minutes to set up their equipment for a CBC radio show.
Setting up a band in 20 minutes is like mission impossible, but we did it, with seconds to spare.
I plugged in the last cable as the CBC Director yelled, "We're on the air. Start the music."
Soltribe performed brilliantly. The sound gods were with us that day. You can hear how Soltribe was musically inspired, in this Max Sound Collection.
MAUREEN BROWN is another award winner, with a voice that grabs your heart and won't let go, when she sings "EVERY DAY I GET THE BLUES".
Maureen has a unique drumming style which pushes her musicians to achieve musical heights. With her very original approach to establishing the rhythm, Maureen Brown and her musical friends provide an inspired musical experience.
The HARBOURFRONT CHORUS performed the song, A QUIET CENTER, in a local community centre.
There's something about singing voices that microphones love. Some say, the most interesting musical instrument is the human voice.
In the world of singing, the CHOIRGIRLZ are known as supurb songstylists. The way Dorothy McDonall sings CHOCOLATE BLUES is pure passion.
Performing Chocolate Blues at an Artfestivus Party, The ChoirGirlz are only three voices and a guitar but they create an orchestra of sound with their multi-part harmonies. The ChoirGirlz virtuoso guitarist is Debbie Fleming.
MARY ELLEN MOORE recorded ANGEL WINGS accapella, not on a stage, but in her living room before an audience of children, as they played together in Mrs Songbird's Daycare Centre. I recorded her singing as she entertained the kids.
In this live recording, she does amazing things with her voice, like a vocal cirque de soleil.
We recorded a few takes and mixed the multi-part harmonies together to create an album of childrens songs called Mrs. Songbird.
CHRISTIAN VON DER GOLTZ, from Berlin, performed his original composition, "FOREVER TRUE" at a Toronto Jazz Festival concert. His flying fingers create musical combinations on the piano I've never heard before or since.
EVERGREEN GAMELIN performs ONJEUNE (You), as the final selection in this collection. Onjeune was recorded in a public park called the Toronto Music Garden. If you can imagine an orchestra of huge bells spread out around a park, it was a magical moment.
MANY THANKS
Many thanks to The Toronto Music Garden, Harbourfront Center, Harbourfront Community Center, Toronto Jazz Festival, Ontario Place, Canadian Music Week, Afrofest and Worldfest for letting me manage sound for their live music shows.
And a million thanks to the amazing musicians who said Yes, when they were asked if I could record the concert. There were some beautiful concerts that didn't get recorded because permission wasn't given.
These live concert recordings are special moments in musical history.
Live music is a special feeling. There's an energy in live music that studios can't seem to capture.
These live concert recordings are so real, you can feel live concert energy vibrations. So turn up the volume and dance.
Thanks to the nature of show business, musicians move on and sometimes can't be found. If you find yourself in this collection of live concert recordings, please contact us.
MAX SOUND CONCERT COLLECTION PLAYLIST
Ave - Today (Piano Lounge Mix)
Bobby Militello - Wabash Cannonball
Dick Smith & Syncona - Jumping Jumping
Moses Revolution - Melody in Me Head
Soltribe - Leave This Place
Maureen Brown - Everyday I Have The Blues
Harbourfront Chorus - A Quiet Center
The ChoirGirlz - Chocolate Blues
Mary Ellen Moore - Angel Wings
Christian von der Goltz - Forever True
Madewaska Strings - Pachelbel Canon
Evergreen Gamelin - Onjeune (You)
Max Sound * Live Concert Recordings
$12 (plus $2 shipping & taxes = $14)
