In July of 2009, I received a rather unique inquiry; a lady from East Timor writes her own songs and would like to record them. On our first meeting, and upon hearing the songs for the first time I recognized the musical and logistical challenge that the project presented; we’ll have to decipher and transcribe each song from the vocal parts, then arrange musical parts and conform the rather unique beats and rhythm of the original format to pop standards.

Randa Santo music production team at Sound Weavers.

Fast forward to December 2009, we delivered 9 songs in a master CD format, all songs complete with lush orchestral sounds, ready to be pressed for commercial release. During the course of the production, we enlisted the genius of arranger Carlo Gaa for the bulk of the music arranging and programming duties.

We recorded the lead voice of Randa with the highest fidelity signal chain, employing our Peluso 251 tube mic on certain songs that needed a creamy top end while the rest of the tunes were recorded with our standard Neumann u87 microphone. For the orchestral sounds and programming, we employed our vast collection of orchestra samples and virtual instruments. We also recorded additional guitar parts to add rhythmic movement to the songs. The result is a CD with breathing and dynamic songs with the potential to be radio hits on any Top 40 oriented radio station.

The above music video is of “Dear Mother”, one of the songs by Randa Santo, the singer/songwriter from East Timor. She came to Sound Weavers for help with her compositions; from transcription, song arrangement, music arrangement, recording and production. Soon this woman will release her unique music to her country and we wish her the best. Accept this gift from all of us at Sound Weavers, a music video for the song Dear Mother.