Upgrading to Pro Tools 8 HD!

Vibe 56 has upgraded from Digidesign's Pro Tools HD 7.4 to 8
Last week we braced ourselves for the long-awaited upgrade to Pro Tools version 8. It's difficult to know when the right time is to make such a significant upgrade. We had heard from a number of Nashville's highly respected engineers who were giving the upgrade their own thumbs-up. We were getting antsy ourselves as we looked forward to using some key new features built into the new version.

We were fortunate to have Marc Meeker from Meeker Audio in the driver's seat for the upgrade process. Marc has been at the helm of hundreds of upgrades for pro audio folks all over the Nashville area. Marc was on hand four years ago at the studio, as we were assembling the equipment before we had even opened the doors for business. Even after all that time, I still spelled his name with a K in my address book. That changed too last week. Special thanks to Marc with a C for all his help in getting this upgrade rocking on our system.

The studio's house engineer, Scott Velazco, decided to take the new upgrade on a test drive by using it on a 6-piece band demo the very next day! Most demo sessions use a band consisting of A-list session players who are tasked with knocking out at least five songs within a three-hour session. This session was no different, and in this environment a well-seasoned engineer is the only way to keep up with the rapid-fire pace. We found the upgrade to be very intuitive, with no major changes in the actual functionality of what we depended on with the previous version. The new changes are there, and wonderfully customizable, but the default interface is calmingly familiar and functional.

For the time being, we are still able to boot into our old system with version 7.4 installed, although we had to commit to some of the plug-in upgrades that are now only available in 8.

Social Networking?
You can now find Vibe 56 on both Facebook and Twitter! Friend us! Follow us! (respectively) Thanks!

Sometimes Leslie is More

Murph Wanca
Maintaining the Leslie cabinet.

We recently had a visit from Murph Wanca from Nashville Pro Hammond. He was here to add a half-moon switch to our Hammond organ. He also installed a new relay inside the leslie cabinet itself to help reduce the clicking noise when flipping the tremolo back and forth.

Murph has been our go-to guy for both our Hammond B2 and also our Wurly. He recently repaired the sustain pedal on the Wurlitzer that lives at the studio as well.

Maintaining our gear at the studio is a never-ending cycle. If you stop to consider just how many components are involved in making one full-band tracking session successful, it can add up quick.

Wasted Rain

David Leonard, Dani McCulloch, Tony Harrell
Mixing "Wasted Rain"

Last year we were fortunate enough to have Dani McCulloch completely track and mix her song, "Wasted Rain" here at Vibe 56. It was also a treat to have David Leonard come in and engineer the mixing. Tony Harrell, co-owner of Vibe 56, not only played keys for the tracking session, but had a hand in writing this song as well.

A few months ago Dani released a music video for the song, which is directed by John Paul Clark. The video and single are available via iTunes.

Floating Sessions

During tracking sessions for new recordings by The Floating Men, photographer Ed Hade took dozens of photos that come as close to documenting the actual creative atmosphere as I've ever seen. As Ed states, "The creative juices were so thick they were making puddles on the floor." It sounds messy, but really it's all good. We have a wet-vac. You can view Ed Hade's photos from the session via this link.

The Floating Men, which consists of Jeff Holmes and Scot Evans, were recording a new project entitled "No Clocks, No Calendars, Act 1". Engineered by Shane Wilson, the album / opera has just debuted on their MySpace page. The entire project will be available on iTunes this Valentine's Day!

Special thanks to The Floating Men for hooking me up with a special "No Clocks No Calendars" calendar. I'm looking forward to "Official Temporary Insanity Day" which falls on February 19th this year.

Wasting Your Time

Producer / engineer Jason Gantt has tracked a number of uniquely special projects at our studio over the last few years. Recently he started an all-encompassing blog featuring funny antidotes, audio shows, and interviews.

Vibe 56's house engineer, Scott Velazco, was interviewed for a segment entitled "3 Questions With A Music Professional". You can hear the interview via this link:
3 Questions with Scott Velazco
Additionally, Scott was featured on another segment called "Liner Notes" which can be found via this link:
Liner Notes with Scott Velazco

What makes this all blog-worthy now is the fact that I had a chance to contribute to Jason's blog via my own interview for "3 Questions". Since I was there during the actual recording of the interview I can attest to Jason's complimentary editing work. Listen in for yourself via this link:
3 Questions with CJ Sorg

There are several extra snippets from these interviews and much more goodness available via Jason Gantt's Wasting Your Time, which is regularly updated every Monday and Thursday regardless of your level of interest.

Around the Piano Room

Jason Gantt just sent us this awesome collage photo taken during one of our first tracking sessions of 2009! Jason was producing a project with Chris Ayer. This is a wide photo, so it's best to click on it to experience the excellence of it's width. Some might even call it a little sideways.

Another Year Over...

Christmas Cards
Happy New Year!

Writing an entry for a business blog can be a tricky thing. It's difficult to express true sentiment without it coming off as a sales pitch. Regardless of anyone's feelings, at the end of the day, Vibe 56 is a business that needs paying clients to survive. We've worked hard to earn our place in such a musically historic city. The studio has just passed the three-year mark of it's existence on Nashville's Music Row, and we're thankful to have built-up a reputation for solid tracking sessions in such a short time-span.

We're very much looking forward to 2009 and continuing to play our part in Nashville's music community. We're thankful for the successes we've had, and excited about what lies ahead.

So what's the pitch? The fact that there is no catch. We're here for the right reasons, and hope you will be too.

Happy New Year from all of us at Vibe 56!

Call 615-321-3056 to schedule a studio tour.

Mary Barrett Session

During the final week of October, Vibe 56 had the opportunity to host a very special recording session with artist Mary Barrett. The session consisted of eight full days of tracking and overdubs with some of Nashville's finest session players, and of course Mary herself.

The premise of the session was daunting. Mary had been diagnosed with Carcino-Sarcoma, which is a rare form of cancer and known to be life-threatening. She had been given less than six months to live. Mary was determined to finish recording one more album project.

We are saddened to learn that Mary Barrett passed away during the evening of November 10th.

Producer Joel Wild helped Mary set-up a YouTube account and posted video diaries each day that documented how the project was progressing. The videos are presented below. For more information about Mary Barrett you can visit Mary's website.

Even Diabetics Love Sweet Dynamite Dynaudio Monitors!

Dynaudio Monitors
New pair of BM15Ps in the house!

For anyone monitoring for any changes here at the studio, we're very happy to announce that we've acquired some new monitors! The control room now features Dynaudio BM15P monitors for your playback pleasure.

I've made a point to ask the wide-spectrum of engineers that have come through our facility their opinion of what monitors work for them. Nearly everyone had a different answer of course. Dynaudios were consistently mentioned on most engineer's short lists for ideal monitoring choices.

It would appear then, that the studio is a Democracy. Please vote for Vibe 56 for your next recording project!

Thrownin' Down on the Upright

Thrownin' Down on the Upright Piano
...soundtrack of my life.

The studio has acquired a second piano! In addition to our all white Yahmaha C3 baby grand, we now have a Thos. Goggan and Bro. upright piano.

Tony Harrell, one of the co-owners of the studio, arranged to have this ridiculously beautiful upright delivered to us earlier this week. It has a few battle scars from many years of service. I'm not exactly sure how old it is, but it appears older than I am, which is getting increasingly more difficult to say.

With regards to keyboarded instruments living here at the studio, I think we're doing pretty good. Along with the two pianos in our aptly-named piano room, there is also a Wurlitzer, a B-2 with leslie cabinet, a Rhodes, and even a Mellotron available to every client that comes through our doors.

Now we need to get this thing tuned. I'm off to call a soon-to-be-unhappy piano tuner. Our new upright needs some extra love after traveling to its new home.

Music Video Shot At Vibe 56 Studio!

Vibe 56 exists within a house that was built in 1911. Much of the original beautiful woodwork is still here. It served as the backdrop for a video shot here earlier this year.

Megan McCulloch Li not only shot the video here at the studio, but also recorded the song "Blood in the Water" here as well.

This also serves as proof that we record music other than country. In fact, we've had several rock, gospel and bluegrass projects come through our recording space. We're always excited to take on any recording project that takes advantage of our recording space. That natural presence easily comes through on the tracks recorded here.

Full disclosure: Megan McCulloch Li is the daughter of Paul McCulloch, who is one of the owners of Vibe 56.

More information about Megan is available on her website: meganharp.com.

Music Row Photos From Above

Next to the UA Tower
Vibe 56 sits one property away from the 'Artists Building'.

What is most commonly referred to as the UA Tower, the nine-story hexagonal building on Nashville's Music Row, has served as a landmark for us when explaining the location of Vibe 56. There is only one property between the studio and the iconic building.

The building itself was erected in 1973, the same year I was born. I love hearing the stories from folks who worked in one of the many recording studios, radio stations and publishing offices that once occupied the tower.

Newly renamed as the 'Artists Building', it has sat vacant since a 2005 fire that occurred a few weeks before Vibe 56 was born. The building has since been completely gutted from the inside and work is currently underway to transform it's interior as a mix of residential and commercial spaces.

I recently had the opportunity to take some photos of the studio and the rest of music row from the top floor of the tower. Borrowing from an often-used phrase here on Music Row, the view from the top is amazing.

The studio from above:


Looking North:


The GAC building and some Curb buildings, located West and East (respectively) from the tower:


Finally, a couple of photos facing South:


One bonus photo with "Secret Sound" in the foreground, but don't tell anybody:

Engineer By Fire

Engineer By Fire
...figuring it all out.

The Music Industry Glossary defines an intern as this:

Intern
An intern is usually a student studying to eventually become employed in the music industry. In the recording field, they are usually allowed to sit in, and observe recording sessions for the sake of learning the trade. Their responsibilities include anything that nobody else cares to do, including, but not limited to, making and serving coffee, answering doors and phones, scrubbing toilets and cleaning up barf from a highly toxic lead singer.

Tim Brennan, currently one of Vibe 56's interns, has already been "thrown into the fire" a couple of times. Lucky for us that Tim appears to be fire retarded, but sincerely capable with audio related subjects.

The Return of the Yo-Yo of Trust

Yo-Yo of Trust 2
...feel the trust.

Here we have intern Jeff Baker experiencing the business-end of the yo-yo of trust. Thrusting out the trustworthiness would be house engineer, Scott Velazco.

It's my hope that uploading videos such as this might actually diminish the number of telemarketers calling to offer insurance plans. Would you want to insure this kind of activity? I didn't think so. Please stop calling.

Red, White and Blue

Rob Gervia in the Booth

On the whole, summertime is usually a little slower with regards to booking sessions here at the studio. Typically we'll use this period to reach out to independent artists and bands that have a need for a killer-sounding recordings, but may not have previous experience in a professional recording studio.

Vibe 56 was honored to host a session for Sargent Rob Gervia, which took place (appropriately) just before the 4th of July holiday.

Rob is currently serving his country as a member of the United States Army.

During his short leave between deployments, Rob traveled to Nashville to record vocals on some tracks that we had prepared in advance of his arrival. We worked with Mary Jo Burden, Rob's manager, to record the instrumental bed tracks that he later came in and recorded vocals to.

As the summer progresses, our business will get back into the swing of things. Rob Gervia is already back to serving his country as I write this. Helping Rob achieve his dream of recording in a Nashville recording studio has helped put a lot of our daily worries into perspective.

Thanks to Rob Gervia (and Mary Jo Burden) for giving us the opportunity to serve someone who is serving for our entire country.

The song was debuted during the Fourth of July celebration at Fort Lee, Va. At the event over 200 copies of the song were given away to the military, family and friends who were there in attendance. His brief stay while at Fort Lee is helping to shape his future in ways he never could have imagined.

For more information about Rob, visit his Myspace page at:
myspace.com/robgervia

A Matter of Trust, Yo!

Yo-yo of Trust

Vibe 56 is proud to have earned the trust of many talented music professionals here in Nashville. Staying consistent with what we deliver can only be accomplished with the help of some key folks that are dedicated to serving up only the highest quality of themselves.

As Ben Folds sang, "If you can't trust, you can't be trusted." It's important to have trust between the folks you work with.

Here's a short video clip of an exercise we refer to as "The Yo-yo of Trust". Scott Velazco, Vibe 56's head engineer, introduces producer/engineer David Wilson to the business-end of the yo-yo of trust.

We ARE Going to Talk About Fight Club...and Pro Tools

Fader-aide

Technology is fun...and scary. Major updates to our fundamental system are always a little stressful, but I understand a little stress is actually healthy. We're all very healthy after successfully upgrading to Pro Tools 7.4cs5 earlier this week.

As a former studio technician myself, there is a real feeling of confidence when knowing that all technical aspects of the studio are at 100%.

The most troubling technical issue we've faced recently was having to intermittently "fight" with the faders on our ICON D-Command console. The software upgrade and the included firmware upgrades have directly addressed our fader fighting issues.

Special thanks to Gil Gowing and Mike Ziemba from Digidesign for their help in putting our fader fighting days behind us.

(...and thanks to breezy421 for the photo of our console!)

Gantt-O-Rama II

Jason Gantt returned to Vibe 56 with Chris Ayer for a full week of tracking earlier this month. Jason is handy with a fader and a knob, and not too shabby with a camera either.

Last time Jason was tracking here, he put together a cool photo collage that included the front inside of the studio. You can view it here. This time around, Jason put together a couple of photo collages inside our control room.

The Montgomery Gentry Entry

Revival Chorus
...from Montgomery Gentry's newest release.

Last February Blake Chancey was in the studio recording the last bits and pieces for Montgomery Gentry's Back When I Knew It All. Interestingly enough, the stuff that was recorded here ended up becoming the intro to the entire album, which was released today. Gordon Mote played our Hammond organ and did the vocal of the preacher.

Every preacher needs a congregation right? Blake Chancey invited our neighbors from SESAC to come on over and congregate to tape. I even ended up being part of the congregation myself.

My free copy of the album still hasn't shown up at the studio, but I did find this video interview on YouTube featuring the The Big Revival:

[UPDATE]
I just became aware of this video footage that was shot during the recording of the congregation voices. This either makes more or less sense in the context of this post:

Jason Gantt-o-Rama

Recording engineer Jason Gantt assembled this photo collage during a recent tracking session. I made him promise to send me the results of his photo experiment. He's cool like that.