Stormcellar Band Home Page

Howdy Folks.

To answer the inquiry of a regular reader, I've been a little light on shots from the gig recently because I've been testing out a new fangled piece of kit.

its a miniaturized stabiliser for a phone camera.

Yeah I know all you cool cats with Black Magic Cams and high end DSLR's with 4K resolution are making with the yuks, but I use what I got cos I don't have the bucks :-)

I shot our last two videos on a phone and a tablet with a camera.

Having a fixed focal length is a drawback but crikey the image quality from these little things is pretty darn impressive, especially considering the size of these devices.

Regular readers would know that I have been messing with camera stabilisation for a while, having built our own Steadicam-style sled. 

Mind you, I never managed to get the thing balanced enough to use it. Sad.

Thanks to ebay, I had a crack at one of these - a steadicam smoothee

I read a lot, compared a bunch  of different style units, all pretty cheap ($100AUD thereabouts) that I thought might be worth trying. I found a 'brand name' version on ebay (normally around $250AUD) but scammed this one at a decent price and figured what the heck, lets try it.

First thing it taught me was that Dynamic Balance - ie - centering the camera so that it 'floats' in a neutral position, is UNBELIEVABLY FIDDLY

Let me re state that so that anyone who wishes to try this, gets a clear message- Balancing your camera and your stabliliser and getting it right may take you @^#*#$&$*@ing forever.

Well, not forever, but you have to be super super patient and methodical to get it right. That's a general statement, the smootheee was not too bad but the lesson came when I relaised how small/minute an adjustment it took to affect the way it behaved. I had no idea the tolerances were that tight (ie; as you get closer to getting the thing centered, you have to make finer and finer adjustments - yikes)

No wonder I had trouble with the big one we built. Now that I know just how fine the tolerances are, I can probably make the big one work better.

The steadicam smoothee has a reputation for 'boating' (swaying) like its bigger brother, the steadicam Merlin. Both the smoothee and the merlin use a design that puts the balance counterweight in an arc arrangement, as opposed to the traditional sled configurations with a central shaft with camera at one end and weights at the other.

the Smoother is designed for teeny little cams like the go pro. I cant imagine hanging anything with a significant lens off the front of it.

Gotta say, despite my protestation about how tough it is to get the balance right, t's doable and the boating problem is manageable with a little practise. The single thumb control option works for me. Look up at the picture...see where his thumb is? You use your thumb to pan and tilt - err  - look left right up down for you non camera readers - but what's not apparent is that a tiny little bt of friction from resting your thumb on the plastic bit above the turn bit (gymbal) stocks the swaying motion.

I was surprised how effective this little device was, even with bugger all practice.

So there you have it, a long winded explanation for my reduced gig pics of late, but here's a sample of what i have got when trying out the stabiliser

As you'll see, my skills need quite a bit of honing, but I like the effect and it ought to make for some interesting new videos.

We've shown the back of many a head in a mixing studio, but few wiser than Russell.

Howdy folks, back from mixing with a copy of Twice Shy Girl in my hand...on my disc...err..stick.

But enough of that. One more song done, one more set of lessons learned.

Lessons? you say..Such as?

Funny you should ask, I was just going to rant a bit anyway..

-We Like Room Mikes and Real Amps

I've been banging on about ambient sound for a while now. This recording saw us using mike'd amps and room mics and such like to get a live sound, as opposed to Direct Input.

This meant using the original pedals and configurations that Rosie and Mr Wizard have on their gear during live shows.

Theo is also a big fan of John Bonham sounding drums and likes lots of  room sound in his drum mix..

- Don't pro tools the life out of it.

A great quote from Russell, in response to a request from Mr Wizard for removal of a teeny extraneous noise in his slide track.

Instead of removing all the bits between phrases, a lot of the squeaks and pops have been left in. As Russell said,'if this was pop music, you'd clean it all up, but you guys are an earthy, rootsy klnd of band.'

By that I think he is either referring to Facial hair or a general look of being Broke. 

What I think it does is sum up the air in the recording. Each track has a little 'Air' or ambient sound it it.

Add it all up and you get quite a lot of 'Air' (LOL the sound of nothing).

When you edit all the silent bits out and the little clicks and pops, you get a progressively more sterile recording.

Russell went on to say that over zealous trimming and editing in pro tools takes the life out of things

- Keep your Harmony Notes Straight

Bah, this ones for me. I added some harmony stuff to the song but I forgot to keep my note straight.

Singing harmonies is different to singing lead solo vocals (seems so obvious yes?)

In lead vocals you can fiddle around with the notes and the inflection, but if you do the same thing in the harmony and then try to match the two up. Eeek.

I did remember that....mostly.

I kind of forgot in the middle bits and remembered at the ends of phrases. Going to have to work on that.

- Harmonies Are Weird

Stuff that works as a harmony can sound downright funny when sung on its own and only makes sense in context. Don't freak out when they solo the harmony channel and it sounds like WTF?

The song is now ready for Mastering and then release. It's currently timing in at around 6:35 so this is quite an epic. 

Cheers to Russell for his hard work.

Our first show of the new year, up at The Entrance. 8:30pm at The Lakes Hotel, The Entrance.

201 The Entrance Rd, The Entrance NSW 2261

It's Terry Time again!