Why the name 'Floating Filk'?

The inspiration for the name "Floating Filk" was the multiple recording sessions for Kathy Sands' first CD, each one in a different place and floating around the New York area.   We didn't repeat a location until we returned to Brooklyn – now one of our regular locations for recording Kathy's music – during the production of  her second CD.

"Floating Filk Studios" is the name I decided to call my recording studio, in honor of the travelling I've done to Worldcon and other science fiction conventions around the Northeast (Philadelphia to Boston) to record filk songs for CDs and myself.  

Who is 'Floating Filk Studios'?

Harold Stein.  I have met Harold Feld (who I am not).  I don't write songs nor do I perform.  I do occasionally join in on the chorus at filk sings.  I go by HMS42 on LiveJournal and on FilkHaven.   Nor am I Harold Groot.

Where will I be publicly recording next?

The only definite recording dates are October 2009 at Albacon (NY) and OVFF, November at Philcon, and I plan to be at GaFilk and Conflikt in January 2010.    Beyond that, I am planning on recording at the next New York City area housefilk, date not set and I must be nuts...  I volunteered to run sound again at Contata 2011.  (Dates/guests not announced yet.)

Housefilk and convention recordings will occasionally have songs appear (pending ALL permissions being granted by performer AND composer AND lyricist) on the FilkArchive at http://www.filkarchive.org.uk.   Currently, there are 33 songs on filk archive that I have uploaded.

Where else have my recordings appeared?

In February 2007, Rob Balder put the recording of "Muppet Laboratories" from Philcon 2006 on The FuMP.  Also, vocals for Rob's November 2007 FuMP song "80s Chords" were recorded by FFS at OVFF.    In addition,  Dr. Seti's 3rd CD, Demented!, includes songs from his Philcon 2006 concert.  And Sudden Death of  The FuMP played 3 songs from The FuMP concert @ I-CON 26 on his Manic Mondays page. (Show #MM-101, March 26, 2007 Topic: Live from I-CON).  A few songs have been provided to the Conterpoint 2007 songbook CD and the Consonance 2008 songbook CD.  

Also, many concert recordings have been donated to Interfilk with the kind permission of the artists.  

If you know of another usage, please inform me for listing here.  

What do I do with the recordings I make?

The open filk and theme circle recordings I make tend to get listened to once, burned to CD-R and put on a shelf, unless a performer asks for a copy of a song he/she sung.  I might contact you about permission to post your song to filk archive since I felt I got a good recording of your song and liked it.  

For housefilk recordings, the host is provided with a DVD-R copy (or two if needed) of the housefilk as a thank-you gift for hosting all of us.  NO rights are transfered with the recording.  I tend to listen to the recording once, burn it to DVD-R and put it on a shelf, unless a performer asks for a copy of a song they sung.  I might contact you about permission to post your song to filk archive since I felt I got a good recording of your song and liked it.  

A recording of a concert that you performed that I captured will be burned to a CD-R (or DVD-R if long enough) and handed off to you as soon as I can find you post-concert.  The recording is for your private use only;  I'm NOT granting permission to share the recording on the Internet or publish it for sale unless you arrange it with me IN WRITING.  (For one thing, if I wasn't the one running sound, I might know how to contact the person who was–he or she may be able to provide a higher-quality recording of your concert.)

The ONLY exception to this is: permission is granted to donate the burned CD-R to an Interfilk fund-raising auction, as long as you drop me a note telling me what convention it was sold at and what price it fetched.  Likewise, on occasion, I may bother you for permission to burn a CD-R of your concert for Interfilk donation.  In a couple of cases, I do have blanket donation permision, but the artist is informed of the donation, post donation and how much the recording goes for.

OVFF 24 (2008) recordings - All recording copyrights belong to Mark Peters (Ivanhouse Productions), I was assisting him in running the sound at the convention.  

ConCertino 2009 (NEFilk 19) - All recording copyrights belong to Love Songs Productions and MASSFilc.   While I was a guest and they did keep me out from behind the sound board, I still ran around with the digital recorders all weekend.

Do Not Record requests are always honored!

What equipment am I using to record?

Currently:
        6 Shure Microphones (4 SM-58 and 2 SM-57)
        2 Behringer mixing boards  (Xenyx 802; Eurorack MXB1002)
        2 Monster XLR Cables, 1 XLR to 1/8" cable (came with the Shure microphone)
        MacBook Pro laptop as the recording device. 
        Zoom H2 digital recorder. (QTY 2)

    Software:
        Audacity 1.39beta for Mac OS  (capturing)
        Adobe Audition 1.5 & 3.0 (editing road/home)

Formerly:
     Hardware:
        3 microphones (AKG D4400, Digital Reference DR-VX1, Shure C608) Sold @ Contata on the Interfilk table.

The old microphones were replaced at Conata 2008 and raised about $50 for Interfilk.


Last updated September 19, 2009