A Recording Venue, Not the Popular Post-Processing Effect.

May 11, 2013 7:57 AM

Hello. DJ Flula (who's commentary on English idioms was discussed previously on MeFi) has discarded the conventional wisdom that the best place to make your recordings is the bathroom, choosing instead to record in cars.

Because he shuns the use of pre-recorded audio when making his "AUTO tunes" tracks, many of the videos, such as this cover of Psy's Gangnam Style, begin with him laying down the loops that he uses for his background tracks.

They also test the limits of how much DJ equipment and musical instruments can be crammed into one vehicle and still be usable, as shown in his rendition of Thrift Shop by Macklemore (NSFW, Explicit Lyrics).

He will also ride along with other passengers, as evidenced in his video for Seven Nation Army that he made with his parents, and this cover of Bel Biv DeVoe's Poison in which he colaborated with Turquoise Jeep, instead of riding in one.

Full playlist can be found here in all its glory.

DANCE!

posted by radwolf76 (13 comments total)

Heh, I can see the driving range in the background of the Gangnam Style video from my fire escape in Koreatown. And oh God the bike cop at the end! Perfect.
posted by carsonb at 8:22 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I quite enjoy these. Doing Thrift shop outside of goodwill? Good thing he's quick, he was about to get kicked out.
posted by Apoch at 8:57 AM on May 11, 2013

Wow. That's a lot of prep work.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:09 AM on May 11, 2013

The inside of a car is very "dead" sounding, as opposed to a bathroom which is very "live". Recording spaces in the 70’s were very dead and it goes in and out of fashion, but extremely live spaces have rarely been common except in special effects uses.

So if you don’t have a good space to record the inside of a car is not the worst idea sonically, just comfort and practical issues.
posted by bongo_x at 9:38 AM on May 11, 2013

My favourite: Can't touch this !
posted by Pendragon at 10:14 AM on May 11, 2013

I've always thought a car would be good for vocals -- I mean you have convenient mount points, lots of damping on the bottom (especially with velour, I'd suppose) and big reflective surfaces on the top.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:33 AM on May 11, 2013

Pretty sure Steve Miller did the vocals on The Joker in his car. That was his iso booth.
posted by Trochanter at 3:04 PM on May 11, 2013

I sound way better in my car and shower than in a recording booth.

Well, to me.
posted by infinitewindow at 4:20 PM on May 11, 2013

I sound better anywhere there is not a recording device.
posted by Trochanter at 4:43 PM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

This popped up in related videos for me: Flula @ Let's Talk About Something More Interesting: The first and most funny thing about you is that you talk like a German person, but you look just like a normal person.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:42 PM on May 11, 2013

OK yes good post but i must mention that he does use the bathroom sometimes
posted by rebent at 9:08 PM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I want to correct the way he is holding that french horn while he is playing it. He's doing it so he can point it at the microphone, which is reasonable. But it's so very wrong.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 10:14 PM on May 12, 2013

here he is interviewing Larry King
posted by Ironmouth at 11:07 PM on May 12, 2013