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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1998)
Hetp&ne-,, Student Counseling ftrmmmwmrrr 1 Weekdays 4 pm to 8 am Q/jCT 0”7nf1 Weekends 24 Hours a Day O UU © I'm upset. We just broke up & I need to talk to someone. © I think I hate my major. How can I find the right one for me? © I'm stressed outi What can I do? © I'm on scho pro-worried about grades. How do I improve my study skills? © How do I make an appointment to see someone at the « Counseling Service? © Mom just called & I'm worried about what's going on at home. © Does the t Student Counseling Service have a group for someone like me? © I'm lonely. Can we talk a while?© IS Call the Helpline at 845-2700® Page 4 • Wednesday, November 11,1998 Now Hiring Part-Time Positions Universal Computer Systems, Inc. seeks candidates for the following open positions at our College Station office. All majors are encouraged to apply and training is provided. • Clerical • Customer Service/Help Desk • PC/Tech Support We offer flexible hours and real world work experience with opportunity for full time after graduation. EOE. To apply, please call our Personnel headquarters or visit our website: UCS Inc. 1-800-883-3031 http://www.ucs-systems.com yVggielife fMsua|:Arts 6aHery ^ 'Guest: Samuel rRlidder AttftitSpp? v Movie to|oUpWX$:$^ 'Tfckets:|ij?rers^g| Day of ffte Show - Record making Harry Os offers local musicians a BY STEPHEN WELLS The Battalion E ntering the city of Wheelock from Highway 46, it is very easy to miss County Road 312. The dirt track gives it the ap pearance of little more than a dri veway. More than a mile through the mud, there is a mobile home with an old gray dog and what looks like a large tool shed from the outside, something a rancher might keep his tractor in, but there is an advanced digital recording stu dio— Harry O’s studio. It is where Harry Ohanian and Steve Carr have been helping to ful fill musical dreams for the past two years in the Brazos Valley. The studio began as a practice spot for Ohanian and his friends, but eventually evolved into the full time studio it is today. “This started out as just a place some friends and I built to practice in, just like a spot at a storage place,” Ohanian said. “Then I start ed to dabble in recording. Some people got interested in having me help them to record, and it just took off from there. “I began with a drum machine and moved up to four-track and so on all the way up to the 96 tracks and multitude of processing gear we have now. ” The increasing demands on his time and expertise forced Ohanian to look for help, and he found it in Steve Carr, a professional sound engineer. “I’ve worked the studio for years and just got tired of working here,” Ohanian said. “By the grace of God, I met Steve who was looking for engineering work, and my stu dio was a great outlet for him to do his work.” The location of the studio may not inspire confidence in the qual ity of the recording, but Ohanian said he has good reasons for keep ing the studio where it is. “In a small town like ours, when people hear that you are recording an album, they always drop in to say hello or listen in, and that can interrupt the recording process,” Ohanian said. “By being out of the way, we minimize that. Plus, I al ready own the property, so I don’t need to rent space in downtown Bryan. Another thing is that when I go to a studio in Houston and walk outside for a break, all I hear is a garbage truck. Here you can sit back and listen to the coyotes and look at the stars.” Any doubts about the quality of the recording from Harry O’s will be dashed when the clientele and final products are taken into account. “Anybody who has a name in music in the Bryan and College Station area has recorded here,” Ohanian said. The studio’s reputation has spread to distant locales, and Har ry O’s serves an impressive num ber of out-of-town musicians. “I have clients from as far away as Galveston who come here to record,” Carr said. “1 don’t think you’ll find anyone that will work harder for you than me. Every product that comes out of here is an advertisement. The quality of recording is very good for the price you pay. That’s why people come from Galveston. There’s a lot of studios between here and there, but they come to us.” Carr is not the only person expect ed to work hard while in the studio. “Guys come in here who work hard and play three shows a week, and tell us that recording is much harder than playing on stage,” Carr said. “Of course, you can come in here with a cooler full of beer and have yourself a little party while you record, but that’s going to be an expensive party. ” Perfection is almost never achieved on the first take, Carr said. “As a producer, 1 call the shots to try and make the song sound as good as it can,” he said. “A singer can sing something 20 times in a row, and if none of those times is just right, they have to do it again. And the singer must perform with the same energy on the thirtieth take as on the first. It can get tiring.” While perfection may sound like a lofty goal for the folk singer who performs only on open-mic nights, Carr said the studio has a solution for everything. “Sometimes people will just come in here for an hour and play random things on their guitar while I record it,” Carr said. “Later, I’ll build a song around what they’ve played and call them back in to do the vocals,”. ■ Even those who do not have the backing of a full band can record if they have an idea for a song. “You might have grandma come in here with a Casio keyboard or somebody sing along with a karaoke tape,” Ohanian said. “We can offer them studio musicians to come in and play their arrange ments, we can help them write the song and fill in instruments until it sounds good, or we can just mix what they bring in.” On the other hand, those with STEPHANIE CORLEY/rmH | Steve Carr mixes a CD for the Galveston-based band One Spirit a full band can be accommodated as well. “We have about a thousand square feet of space in the studio devoted to musicians,” Ohanian said. “We can easily record a full band live, where they’re all playing at the same time.” Carr said what separates a full-scale CD from tinkering around is money. “What separates a demo from a CD is the budget,” Carr said. “In this business, the size of the bud get, up to a point, determines the quality of the recording. On a demo that’s just used to get more gigs, we let things slide we would n’t let go otherwise.” One rule for the studio is to al ways be prepared for the time spent in the studio. “If Whitney Houston.came in here with a backing track, it would only take us 30 minutes to finish,” Ohanian.said. “But when grandma decides to make a rock album, that can take a while. Haywood was re cently in here and had everything ready to go, so it only took about 30 hours to make a full-length CD. ” The studio caters to all types of music and people from all different walks of life. “This job is all fun,” Carr said. “We’ve had all kinds of music from country to rock to folk to black gospel to a polka grou| had accordions and everyi Each type of music is anew lenge to record.” The studio is not only for ing musicians. Ohanian said body with something to singi/ come at the studio. “We get all kinds of pef here,” Ohanian said. Tveieca everything from guys who® living playing music to guy hand me their work schedulf we try to work with them.” Texas A&M students ® strangers to the studio. “We’ve had.a lot of colleg dents come through here,”01i said. “We know they’re on ah budget, and we will workaroiT Aggies will be around for foil or six years, and so wecanstreiQ project out to suit them.", - Depending on the needsot musicians, Harry O’s cattpi anything from a live albumtoa fledged CD. Ohanian said similar to man tivities in college, one’s expos# recording may blossom into ah “Some guys play golf, some drive cars and some guysd things,” Ohanian said. “Some! just want to hang out at thestui they save up their money and# a weekend out of it. And welw fun job when they’re in here.” The International Student Association (ISA) presents 2 nd INTERNATIONAL CAREER FAIR ’98 Going crazy looking for a job??? Here's your chance to meet your future employer Wednesday, November 11, 1998 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. MSC Flagroom Don't forget to bring your resume! All majors are welcome!! Meet your future employer at the banquet: Royer’s Cafe 2500 Texas Ave, College Station 6:00 P.M. For more information contact: Henny Kurniawan (henny@tamu.edu, 260-6423), Yanti Herlambang (herlina@tamu.edu, 846-8361), Ping-Ya Hsu (pingya@tamu.edu, 764-8040) 'CpKUMf (UfrftU OUT DINE IN OR CARRY OUT Texas Avenue South • College Station, Texas 77840 • (409) 695-0985 • Fax: 409-696-3322 Open Monday - Saturday ~ 10:30am - 8:30pm (Next to Discount Tire) $ 5 FREE FOOD ON US 5 off purchases over $10 w/coupon ‘Food Items Only* ‘Must have valid College I.D Offer good 1:30p.m. - 8:30p for carryout only Offer expires 12-15-98 50% OFF BRIDAL BRIDALS * VEILS * BRIDESMAIDS NOW IN PROGRESS Ladies & Lords “Bridal & Tlixedo” TEXAS AVE & WALTON AT THE EAST GATE OF A&M OPEN WEEKNIGHTS UNTIL 7 PM SALE ENDS NOV. 25, 1998
