recording | Apothecary Shed

The Riverside Parlor Series (aka the Castleman Concerts) Kicks Off

August 22, 2025

gem art, music Adam Foster, Barbara O'Brien, classical music, concert, eighth blackbird, fine lines, flute, live music, Nathalie Joachim, piano, poulenc, recording, Riverside Parlor Series, Rodrigo Ojeda, sonata Leave a comment

How cool is this? Across the street in the middle of nowhere (in the main house of the 311 acre farm over there) there’s a new concert series budding. So incredible to have world class musicians perform just up the hill! Don’t tell anyone that we drove over both times since it was 94 degrees outside.

The Riverside Parlor Series is a dream of Barbara and Adam’s involving the beautifully renovated River House. The house has only had four owners since 1790.

We went to both performances, the first flute and piano and the second, two flutes.

The music was excellent.

Friday 8.15: Barbara O’Brien and Rodrigo Ojeda

Your host Adam Foster.

I particularly love the Poulenc. Here is an unretouched rough recording.

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The piano plays the Moonlight Sonata by itself.

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Sunday 8.17: Barbara O’Brien and Julie McGough

Fine Lines was composed by a then 9 year old Natalie Joachim (and honestly you can kind of discern that) who later became a member of Eighth Blackbird

We are looking forward to the next Castleman Concert.

Windmill Lane Recording Studios

October 6, 2024

gem art, music boy, dublin, kate bush, miley cyrus, recording, recording studio, tourism, u2, windmill hill Leave a comment

I guess visiting a recording studio and scratching the surface of the craft is appealing for some. Windmill Lane certainly has its share of history. But when you have recorded a ton of records, the magic becomes more like hard work. Anyway, we paid a visit to Windmill Lane while in Dublin to see where Voodoo Lounge really is.

U2 records all of their records with these guys…including my absolute favorite. Mastering is done elsewhere.

A bunch of others record there too, including Miley, Kate Bush, and Springsteen. Run up that hill much?

The tour itself is interesting if you don’t know anything at all about recording, but beyond basic if you do. That’s OK. Hilarious that the space is really not all that expensive to build even with the top stuff. I guess for me, music is the people and not so much the place.

We signed the wall and walked on by.

Where’s Aubrey Hole, Post-production

October 22, 2023

gem music hole, moonshine, one more roadhouse, original music, production, recording, studio, where's aubrey Leave a comment

Production studio work (setting levels, sound for each instrument, balance, stereo targeting, effects, and choosing tracks) took a couple of days. Jeff Reid’s studio console looks like this.

Day 2…same scene.

Moonshine came along and he was mostly bored.

Here is what happens during production in three snapshots using the song “One More Roadhouse” as an example.

Raw from the studio tracks, unproduced, arbitrary balance and no targeting

Final studio production, unmastered

Final mastered cut

Where’s Aubrey Recording in Wilmington

May 25, 2023

gem art, music, ocean charles, charles arthur, dogs, gem, music, ocean isle beach, original music, recording, rhine, studio, the stick, where's aubrey, wilmington Leave a comment

All work and no music makes gem a dull boy. So we fixed that. Music refactoring at the Stick followed by recording in Wilmington. Here are some highlights.

Where’s Aubrey was joined by the incredible Charles Arthur in the studio.

And yes, we started at the Stick (on Ocean Isle Beach) where we practiced. Our schedule was tight, and sleep is for the weak. But first things first. Since Rhine flew into ILM, we set up an impromptu rendezvous with Adrian and Julie. Dinner was excellent, and Moonshine made a fast friend of Ralph.