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About EL's MystERy

EL's MystERy^® (BMI) is the name of Crater Rock Music, LLC progressive jazz rock fusion recording artist and composer, Tony Belcastro: a high functioning autistic savant with Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) who plays guitar, bass, percussion, drums, piano/keyboards and various other instruments, although his primary instrument has always been guitar.

Tony first began showing an interest in music before he was one year old, when he was humming notes of familiar songs in key; by one year of age he was twanging rhythms on spring doorstops. Tony began playing drums at the age of 10, bass guitar at 11 (which he played in his first band at the age of 12) and by age 13 he was teaching himself electric guitar. Tony wrote his first song in 9th grade. He tried forming many cover bands up until he left high school, but eventually decided to never play other people's music again.

By the late 80's, after several failed attempts at keeping bands together, Tony began performing acoustic blues and improvisational jazz guitar. In the early '90s, not long after becoming a Christian, he stopped playing guitar to pursue a career as a freelance magazine photographer. Tony also began writing computer programs in the late '90s after getting his first modern computer. He began experimenting with music again in 1999 and in 2006 his first CD with Crater Rock Music, ENTER THE MISFIT, was released under the name Theory of Mind. In 2007 Tony began to explore jazz once again and by 2009 he decided to focus mainly on recording improvisational jazz fusion. He soon began exploring collaboration and recorded guitar, bass, drums and percussion parts over keyboard tracks that Dick Metcalf had recorded. Two of those songs were completed in a single day.

Music is a natural form of expression for Tony. He is able to convey the emotions and experiences within himself to other people through his compositions more effectively than he can verbally. Because of Dyscalculia (a mathematics learning disability), Tony has had extreme difficulties trying to understand and learn much of the technical aspects of music theory; he firmly believes his musical abilities are spiritual gifts.

It is Tony's hope that his music will help to cultivate the acceptance and appreciation of autistic people everywhere, as well as demonstrating that autism should be seen as a blessing instead of a curse, or a disease.

Meaning of the Name

The name EL's MystERy is multidimensional in nature and this is merely an attempt to describe some of those dimensions as they apply to it's origin.

"EL" is the Hebrew name for God, which is derived from the plural word "Elohim", which is frequently used in the Old Testament where the English word "God" appears. The common belief is that it is plural because it refers to "the Father, Son and Holy Ghost", which is not the case. The plural refers to the multitudes that inhabit the "body" of God/Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament (e.g. Ephesians 5:30: "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.").

"MystERy", in part, is a direct reference to "the mystery of godliness" as defined in 1 Timothy 3:16: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." As for equating Jesus Christ with God, Colossians 2 is a good reference, in particular verses 9 and 10: "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power..."

The capital letters in "EL's MystERy" spell the word ELMER. In amateur radio an Elmer is a ham radio operator that mentors new operators. The truth is that the capital letters were chosen for aesthetic purposes and no thought was given to emphasizing the word ELMER when the name was created. However, it ended up giving the name a deeper meaning, as I sincerely hope that my efforts provide encouragement and inspiration, as well as knowledge and opportunities to help others achieve their goals.

-Tony

The Studio Process

The music of EL's MystERy is all created in a small custom high definition studio in Hampton, VA. Each recording is engineered from beginning to end by Tony Belcastro. The following process represents some of the current techniques and equipment used by EL's MystERy in the studio.

Guitar amplifiers and acoustic instruments, including guitars, acoustic drums and percussion, vocals and special sound effects are mic'd in mono, stereo, or with a mid-side technique using MXL, Sennheiser, Shure, Rode, or Samson microphones.

Electric guitar is recorded with, or without effects through Mesa/Boogie and VHT amplification, or recorded direct. Acoustic/Electric guitar is recorded direct and/or mic'd.

Bass guitar is recorded direct, either with, or without effects.

Keyboards are recorded direct with the analogue outputs into the line input of a preamp, or via MIDI into a software synthesizer plugin.

Digital drums are painstakingly created with dedicated drum composition software and/or MIDI controllers. Addictive Drums provide the final samples.

All analogue signals, including microphones and instrument outputs are routed through either a PreSonus ADL-600 preamp, an Empirical Labs Mike-E, or a pair of custom modified PreSonus Eurekas. The audio is converted from analogue to digital with a Burl B2 Bomber before going into the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

Connections to the DAW are via AES, and/or S/PDIF cables running to the input of an RME HDSPe AIO PCI Express card on a homemade Intel i7 based PC running Windows 7 Professional (64 bit). A Burl B2 Bomber serves as the master clock for recording, mixing and mastering.

Audio on the computer is recorded, mixed and mastered in SONAR X1 at 32-bit 96 kHz resolution before down-conversion to 16-bit 44.1 kHz for compact disk, or MP3 audio. Universal Audio UAD-2 effects are used throughout the process. Har-Bal is used when adding final equalization during the mastering process.

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