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Creating the Soundtrack for Halloween at Beat Street Productions(Press Release | Posted 2003-10-31)  “Van Helsing’s Curse will hopefully be to be to Halloween what Mannheim Steamroller is to Christmas,” states Joe Franco, comparing his latest production to the world famous Christmas Season classic. Joe Franco producer, composer, world-renowned drummer, and owner of New York City-based BeatStreet Productions, recently wrapped production on Van Helsing’s Curse with Dee Snider, former Twisted Sister front man and Strangeland creator. The first Van Helsing’s Curse project, entitled Oculus Infernum (Latin for “The Eye of Hell”), takes the listener on a hellish journey of story and music. It combines arrangements of some of the darkest music ever created, including The Exorcist theme, rearranged and re-entitled Tubular Hell, and the Omen, through Beethoven, Stravinsky, Paganini and a host of other dark classics. The haunting epic is augmented by a full orchestra and Latin choir creating the perfect sonic assault soundtrack for Halloween. Expect Van Helsing’s Curse to tour the northeast United States in October 2003 as a terrifying stage show.
Some of Joe’s recent work consists of HBO Family’s I SPY, an animated version of the Scholastic book series, and PBS’s BETWEEN THE LIONS, a children’s program which combines live-action puppets with music videos. BETWEEN THE LIONS was nominated for 17 Emmys during its three years of Production. Joe, personally, was also nominated twice for Sound Editing. The impetus of Van Helsing’s Curse, “was Dee’s brainstorm,” states Joe. “Dee wanted this to be a Halloween story that each year would develop with new chapters, in an ongoing multi-part story in constant transition, complete with elaborate stage show. Dee approached Al Pitrelli and myself in May 2002, since we all played together in the band Widowmaker, in the early 90s.” Interestingly, Dee does not sing a single note on Van Helsing’s Curse, he simply narrates his story. Joe states, “Dee made it clear, he didn’t want to sing, since he didn’t want it to become a Dee Snider record. I suggested that he narrate the story and become the Vincent Price of this Halloween fable. There are vocals and Gregorian chanting throughout the album, but for authenticity, and of course-extra darkness, they are all sung in Latin. We invented this thing as we went along- it was the most fun project I’ve ever been involved with.” Joe continues, “We initially recorded a three-song demo starting in May 2002 and shopped the project to several record labels in October 2002. The project was signed by Koch Records, who are the world’s largest independent record label”. Fulltime recording commenced immediately upon Koch Records inking the deal and Nick Cipriano, Joe’s 23-year old wunderkind engineer, was tasked with “all the heavy lifting,” quips Nick. The ten-song project, with some sessions taking up to 100 tracks of Digidesign’s ProTools HD, was recorded to an Apple G4 computer, using two 192 interfaces. The project was recorded to 36-Gig Seagate Cheetah hard drives, housed in a Glyph Trip Box. Joe states, “We live in ProTools at BeatStreet. In Studio A, we use a 16-channel ProControl surface, with a great sounding analog front-end. We have a wide range of mic-pres including vintage Neves, a rack of APIs and Dakings. Our compressors range from vintage dbx 160s and 165s, and my beloved Distressors.” A master session drummer, Joe has recorded and toured with Twisted Sister, and has also recorded with Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Joe states, “My role as drummer really took a backseat to my role as producer. I’m used to recording the drums in a couple of days, and moving on to the next project. On Van Helsing’s Curse, my work barely started after the drum tracks were laid down. Besides arranging all the music with Al Pitrelli, I had to deal with the Sound Design and segues between tracks. I was constantly asking everyone, ‘Is this scary enough?’” 
Joe’s drums were recorded in Studio A of Beat Street’s three studios, with the other two rooms utilized for various overdubs. Microphones were Sennheiser 409s on the rack toms, 421s on the floor toms, double AKG D12s on the inside of the kick drums, and Audio-Technics 4050s on the outsides, as well as a pair of AKG 451s on the overheads, an SM57 on the snare, and a pair of Neuman U87s on the room. Nick states, “Dee’s narration was recorded using a Lawson L47 tube microphone, which is a remake of the coveted vintage Neuman U47. We basically ran Dee through an API and a Distressor to get a really compressed and in-your-face sound. Then, in post-production, we heavily EQ-ed his voice with a Neve 1093 to get a really scary and whispery type of sound to his voice.” Nick is fast to point out, “This isn’t a guitar, bass and drums session with a backing orchestra. The orchestra came in from the beginning, because the project was arranged so that the orchestra wasn’t going to take a backseat to the rock band aspect of the project. The orchestra and the rock band were to come across as a duo, so it was important that as we were arranging it, we had to record both the rock band and orchestral parts together.” The development of the orchestrated parts, “were different from song-to-song,” adds Nick. “Everything was originally arranged via MIDI, which sounded okay, but we realized that we wanted realistic performances in the finished product. We relied on meat-and-potatoes orchestral instruments: two French horn players, one trombone, and one trumpet, which were recorded with Royer R121 Ribbon microphones. Additional sampled sounds, such as woodwinds, oboes, bassoons, and the more exotic orchestral instruments were all generated via MIDI. Al Pitrelli’s guitars were recorded with the Royer R121 microphone, through either a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with a 2x12 cabinet or an old Marshall head with a custom 2x12 cabinet. Nick points out, “The Royer R121 Ribbon Microphone made the guitars sound absolutely fantastic.” Greg Smith’s bass guitar parts were primarily recorded direct and with an Ampeg B15. All of Mark Wood’s string ensemble parts were recorded at his home studio and then brought into ProTools as OMF files. Mark’s violin solos were recorded at Beat Street and all of his electric violins were recorded direct to ProTools. “But,” Nick adds, “There were certain spots where Mark’s violin solos required a bit more flare and we’d plug the violin into Al Pitrelli’s Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, for a more Hendrix-like vibe.” What was really unique about this project? Nick replies, “Once we finished tracking and we started editing and mixing, we came to the realization that we had some songs coming in at over 100 tracks of information. The overall challenge was to get it all to co-exist to peacefully and still maintain a big, cohesive – and scary – Halloween sound.” Joe states, “I don’t know how I could have done this project without Nick. I never had to worry about anything technical, and his musicality was invaluable to us throughout.” http://www.vanhelsingscurse.com |
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