Guest Blog: A musical journey through Armenia with Kali Audio, Produce Like A Pro and Hit The Road Music Studio.

The first time I went to Armenia was in 2015 in memory of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, where System Of A Down played. The people were so friendly and we really enjoyed our time, not only because of the great food and wine, but also the hospitable people who hosted us and showed us around the country.

This experience changed my perspective on people and the world in general to a more positive one, which helped me to open up and be kinder to others, so I knew I want to give something back one day.

Seven years later we saw the opportunity to make it happen and started contacting bands to record there: John from Kali was born in Armenia and maintains a vast network of connections there. In just two weeks he found six bands to record with and organized mic stands, XLR cables, and all other things that didn’t fit on our plane.

I came a few days earlier and started working early with local multi-instrumentalist Hayk Karoyi who showed me his neat home studio. We recorded traditional flutes like the Duduk and Blul on the first day to spice up his DJ set which gave us the spontaneous idea to record a twenty-minute live performance outdoors the very next day, using a USB-powered interface.

We drove one hour away from Yerevan to the Azat Reservoir; you can enjoy the whole performance here, recorded in the golden hour for sunset.

The following day, we got to work and received mic stands and XLR cables, kindly provided by Music Store Armenia.

After setting up everything for recording, the band we were scheduled to record informed us of a last minute conflict. I guess this is the downside of spontaneous organization. In fact, we were told we actually chose the worst timing to do this project as everybody prepared for the Easter holidays and many regional festivals.

But hey, I hear that all the time and it always worked out well for me!

Three hours later, we received a message via Instagram from a drummer who invited us to his show. He didn’t knew how lucky he was! John took the chance and scheduled a spontaneous recording session 2 hours before the show at the Kami Music Club in Yerevan with a local band “Kami and Friends”. It was the best place to test our setup together. So we arrived at the club and saw a full stage, ready and set for live shows. The local sound engineer was truly amazing and very helpful, as we started to unplug his system and plug in my cables and setup to record the performance. He had an amazing sense of humor throughout the night.

After setting up 16 mics, I was asked to run the live sound for the show. We soon realized that we could just take the USB output from the venue’s mixing console to record the show and 1 hour before the show starts, we just returned the whole setup to how it was. Another lesson learned! The show was amazing, food and drinks were excellent and we had another great evening in Yerevan while getting ready for the next big day.

The very next day we arrived at the Naregatsi Art Institute, a center dedicated to passing down Armenian tradition to future generations. It’s a self-funded project which provides spaces for bands, art classes for children, creative actions for the physically impaired, art exhibitions, concerts and traditional dances. 
We had the pleasure to record the 24 piece band “Naregasti Orchestra” performing “New Uzundara Artshak Folk Dance” and it truly blew me away.

We used all 16 microphones and captured the whole performances after the third take. The band played so tight together that it simply blew me away. The composition, written in the early 1900’s by the local top composer Komitas, sounded fresher than ever.

Sound wise, I had to consider using the right microphones for the job, so I used mainly dynamic microphones close to the source to capture an image of instrument and blend it back later with the 3 main condenser microphones.

The trick in recording live performances is to capture different flavors of the sound to cover the whole spectrum. It is a bit counterproductive as we usually tend to use the best microphones possible to capture a performance, and that’s also my approach - when I’m in the studio.

This room was not constructed to record performances, and thus had a lot of reverb. I tried to have as little room sound as possible and make sure that the bleeds added up. If I used mainly condenser microphones, I would have the full orchestra in every single of track and would have a hard time in the mix to “carve out” the tone of the single instrument with EQ. 

Believe me, I’ve been there and it took me 7 night shifts to fix the mix for the first orchestral performance I captured with ‘Andalucious’ in Morocco in 2018.

After capturing the best take, we packed our things and went to the historical Erebuni Fortress to shoot the music video. This was another unforgettable day in our life and we hope you enjoy the full music video.

So lets move on with the highlights, as if this wasn’t already enough: the next day we went to an 11th Century Monastery called Noravank in Armenia, close to the “Noravank Brids Cave” where we could see the oldest winery in the world which is around 6000 years old.

Armenia is full with magnificent places. It was such a pleasure to drive to Noravank and record the duo of Sirak Mkrtchyan who plays the Duduk, THE Armenian traditional flute and David Avagyan, who plays the Tar which is an Iranian, long necked lute.

The view was incredible. We recorded three takes outside until we had the idea to capture a performance inside the old monastery, so we tried. The priest wasn’t very pleased at the beginning but John and producer Arsen Barsamyan were able to convince the priest to grant us access to record two songs.  At the end, the priest was so pleased that our whole crew received a private ceremony and personal blessings for the Easter holidays - another happy end! 

No rest for the wicked, right? The very next day we recorded a local pop star, Artem Valter, featuring Meghu on the Qanun, a traditional armenian multi-string instrument played with the hands.

We met in Arsen Barsamyan’s amazing studio and recorded a live performance featuring a mix of traditional music together with modern vocals to convey a love story in Armenian.

The song and video will be out around August so stay tuned for more and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel “Hit The Road Music Studio” as we have many music videos that come out with artists from all around the world.

Near the end of the day, Charles Sprinkle, the director of Acoustics and Systems Engineering at Kali Audio, taught us how to measure a room the speakers the right way.

Here is a video on the whole process of measuring the speakers in the room with the unique and correct approach from Charles. An important and helpful lesson for any producer!

In the evening we split ways: while I went to the Naregatsi Institute for a free concert; Charles and John went to Artems house to enjoy a great BBQ and “Kalibrate” Artem’s speakers as well.

Believe it or not, the last day before leaving for another record session at the Naregatsi Institute, we received an invitation for an interview at the local TV Station “Kentron TV”, to discuss the difficulties recording traditional music and my approach to it. You can see snippets from it here and the full interview here.

After the interview, we went back to the Naregatsi art Institute to record the amazing “Nova Folk Ensemble” and 2 compositions from Komitas. The band is comprised of young artists directed by Helbert Asatryan, who recently won a prize in the local Folk Music Competitions for their performance.

We filmed the performance with a special exhibition in the background to commemorate the 30 year friendship between the Polish and Armenian embassy. The recording approach was the same as with the Naregatsi Orchestra, though this time they had an instrument called the Zurna, which is loud and bleeds into every single microphone. We will be able to enjoy the video from this performance around September 2022. 

Once we decided on the best of three recorded takes, we recorded the music videos on a playback system, shot wonderful pictures together and called it a day.

Although we averaged three or four hours sleep a day, we had an incredibly productive week and I left surprised by how smooth everything worked out. I learned that the roots of a culture can be found in it’s music and art. This experience really helped me to understand the unique culture of Armenia.

A lasting impression for me is the importance of sharing these roots through art with the next generation; to tell their stories and share it with the world. We’re shown once again that music is truly the universal language which connects us. Regardless of if we understand the words or not, the music can move us; can make feel joy and sorrow; can make us dance. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who made this adventure recording journey possible, especially Kali Audio and all the talented musicians who joined us during this special time. Teamwork is dreamwork and we are happy to be able to share this story with you.

Do you feel inspired to go on your own recording journey? Let us know via social media if you have any questions and please follow all the artists we mentioned here on their social media channels to share their story! 

Follow the links below and join us on our mobile recording journey!

I’m back at the desk to finish the Mixes and videos on my Kali Audio IN8 2nd Wave which are now everywhere on my journey! 

Keep on rocking in a free world,

- Adrian “Ady” ParzentnyHit The Road Music Studio