Its been a hot minute since my last blog entry, and not without good reason. Since my last blog, my wife and I were given the opportunity to move into the perfect apartment, and in order to do so, I had to find a new home for the recording studio. Long story short, SpeakerSonic has moved.
It was inevitable that I would need to find a new space for the studio. The loft in Brooklyn was being inundated with bands and dubstep fans, to the point where I had to often check in with neighbors and schedule sessions around so many different sounds. Headache much?!
In scouting potential spots, I spoke with fellow recording engineer, Mark Ospovat of Emandee Recording-Rehearsal. He and I have been swimming in the same sea of artists for most of our careers. He has a great space in East Williamsburg. Large, built out with a big live room, two nice size isolation rooms, a vocal booth and a pretty good size control room. We had been in discussion for a long while thinking that it would be a good mashup for when the time was right. Once this apartment situation came to light, my wife and I put pedal to the medal to make it all happen in just over a months time. So, I brought my mass of gear and instruments over to his joint.
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| Boo Hoo listening to playback. |
My first session in the new space was with Ty Rone, Roosevelt "The Dr." Collier and Paul "P.K." Kuzik. We recorded about 4hrs of ripping blues lap steel and then 3 hrs of mondo bass. Its nice to have different amp options as the new space has its own collection of amps, instruments and outboard.
Since then, I've recorded a Crazy and the Brains single, and spent two weeks with the new Boo Hoo record. I'm really getting a good feeling in the space. The sonics are sweet, the vibe is growing with every chance I have to do a little reincarnation of SpeakerSonic at Emandee, and the gear is ridiculous! All the guitar tracks I've recorded, acoustic and electric, have such a shimmer. Thick, articulate, spectacular!
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| Not pictured are the baffles we added to deaden reflection. |
I also had a recent drum session for the Boo Hoo record. We were going for a very low, punchy, tom heavy, Bowie sound. Drummer Johnny Dydo played a 1968 Slingerland kit, tuned and tweaked, 1962 Ludwig 6 lug snare (fat and squishy), 15 mics up close and personal. It sounds like the drums from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, only with a little more kaboom on the floor tom. I've always wanted to try that sound, and it just works great with the sparkling clean acoustic guitar that Boo Hoo played.
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| We tried out an AKG C414, but decided on the U87. |
Some nerd stuff: For the acoustic I put two mics on the instrument itself. A U87 up close off the 12th fret aimed in at the hand. Probably about 6 inches from the instrument. Then off the base of the guitar, I placed an AKG C414 aimed in towards the bridge. I always use my ears to find the best spots. Moving the mic even the smallest amount can net the most glorious sound. Then we sent an output to a 70's Fender Princeton in one of the iso rooms. The amp sound gives a completely different tonality to the mix. The more you use the more classic it sounds. Its got a lot of presence and a room mic adds a great deal of ambience. An MD421 up close on the cabinet and a Pearlman U47 Clone for the room mic about 8 feet back on axis. We used this same setup for every song, but we have in our playbook a varied of sounds according to how we mix it. Wanna sound old? Use more amp. Wanna hear a Nick Drake sound, use mostly the U87. Wanna hear the Beck Sea Change acoustic guitar sound, use the two instrument mics and roll off most of the bottom, then boost the hi. 1+2 = 23!
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