profunk music board meeting

Fremont Park was the setting for a recent Profunk board meeting. Carmen Baraka (art director) and Don Baraka (operations) attended. David Gray (quality consultant) and Jerome Kimsey (talent acquisition) were absent.
It was decided to maintain a focus on core values: Creative integrity through non-alliance, acting as an independent corporation, seeking a new economic paradigm for uncompromising artistry. As working wages for musicians have declined through the past 40 years in relation to inflation, it is more important than ever to use the thinking of Marshall McLuhan, and seek mechanical replication of notable performances to leverage time and dollar investment.
In the near future: production of audio CDs as our premium product, and audio MP3 files meeting a less stringent standard for freebies and promotion. But sensing evolution in the marketplace, and less demand for non-video product in the future means developing a video capability. This will likely involve working cooperatively with already skilled videographers and also developing in-house skills and capability. Eventually DVD enhanced CDs, live video recordings of performance arts and instructional videos for an educational market will supplant the audio only releases.
In support of renewed product focus, I've put on my operations hat and recently reconditioned studio resources. Profunk is truly a shoestring startup, with no more than a couple of hundred dollars available in any given month for capital equipment or materials. Recent expenditures included a new DVD/CD burner for PC profunk1, 2 Gigabit ethernet cards, and an everyday pocket mp3 player to complement the existing 20GB mp3 recorder/player. On the horizon, a headphone mic for Carmen's "poetry and jazz," an overhead stereo mic stand for drums and percussion.
On the positive tip, Cool Fire has been recording almost every Saturday. (Only slowing down because of Don's involvement with the legendary Bingtones.) We've been grooming our studio setup, so that a live stereo mix will result in mp3s, and with a submixer we are now running 12 inputs live. The submixer handles 1 vocal and 3 mics dedicated to percussion, plus a stereo keyboard input, delivering stereo out to 2 of the inputs on our 8-input (14 track internally mixing to stereo) digital recorder.
There's a MIDI arranging studio upstairs, permanently wired up with vintage small box synthesizers and keyboard, 2 different drum machines, mostly used for scratch tracks and songwriter dubs. Also, a DVD recorder coupled with a failed camcorder (good as a static NTSC quality camera) giving us live video of practice sessions with CD quality audio coming off the 8-input BR1600.
The studio itself is going through a slow but sure makeover, with Carmen contributing inspired low-cost improvements such as a color-coordinated throw rug, a classic Southwestern print bedspread over the west windows for insulation and sound control, posters and collages, and she has a vision for some carefully coordinated interior paint that will come to fruition sometime this year.
With the infrastructure fairly well groomed, there is only incidental maintenance. I'm on a tight personal budget, so it only makes sense for me to spend more time in the studio. I spend 2-3 hours a day on health, mostly walking (and listening to mp3 recordings of practice sessions). The mix of my Profunk studio time is shifting. In the winter it was rudiments and computer maintenance, but now it's getting the instruments in my hands more and more, and simply playing.
Because of budget restrictions, much of the CD quality work will have to be done through multi-tracking and MIDI. The great danger with this method is that one's chops go down because you're spending so much time operating computers and recorders. All in all, we're trying to leverage our time and limited money by wise use of resources. So there has been a lot of planning and development of methodology. The ability to use MTC (MIDI time code) to link drum machines, sequencers and a 2-in 8 track (BR-8) digital recorder to the master machine allows developing song "beds" and may lead to some looping techniques for sweetening Carmen and Don's duo performance as "the Barakas."
With a backlog of over a hundred "rare groove" rearrangements and a handful of originals, work proceeds in parallel on several titles at any time. A decision to use a "LIFO" (last in - first out) prioritization means fresh and evolutionary "product" will result, but it all stays "in the can" until properly groomed for release. When there's (at least) a 3 CD mastering surplus, it will be time to consider perhaps a $5K investment in CD reproduction and appropriate promotional and professional expenses of another $5K. The goal is to get some releases on the Internet, selling well enough to finance the next round of releases.
Live performance is seen as a distraction from studio production, yet it's necessary to keep your "edge." Anything more than a 1 to 2 set outing is taking creative time away from the studio efforts. So "playing out" is held to a high standard, $100 per person for an hour and a half to 2 hours when you can get it, otherwise "no-bid." =>) In this regard, promo packs for Cool Fire will be forthcoming, with an eye toward booking art and wine festivals, street fairs and maybe even weddings. The 3 piece rhythm section of Bill Castro (bass), Carl Palermo (drums) and Paul Diddens (guitar) [in order of seniority] forms the nucleus for Cool Fire, I'm the "frosting" with woodwinds, keyboard and some vocals. Paul and Carl sing also, and we have found a unique mix of jazz and blues with the addition of the very talented and hard-working Gene Washington as lead vocalist and guitarist. Gene is very much in demand, so we have to be strong as a 4-piece, but there's also the potential to augment the group with Carmen on percussion. And we back our good friend and pianistic genius, Will Nichols on special occasions.
That's the profunk business update. Look for more, shorter postings from time to time!