Posts
The control room of the studio now has a pair of Yamaha NS-10s permanently located alongside our Event Studio Precision 8 speakers. The new NS-10s are being driven with a Hafler amplifier.
Although this addition certainly isn't earth-shattering, it has added greatly to the functionality of the control room. The NS-10 speakers provide a reliable alternative monitoring ability. Some of our clients never leave their personal monitors at home, and now it's easier than ever to swap them out, whether they are powered or not.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Console and Microphone Check
It's a continuous never-ending quest to make sure everything is functioning properly in any sized recording studio. I'm often reminded of the very first thing I learned in Audio 101, actually it's the THREE most important things in audio:
- Signal Flow
Signal Flow
Signal Flow
Downtime is a scary word to any studio, but using it to make the studio a well oiled machine is a great way to turn downtime into a very productive day. The longest hours I've ever spent here at the studio were days when nothing was booked. It's a great time to tear stuff apart and put it back together again.
We recently ran into a rash of problems with our API mic-pres. We have a total of 12 channels of them. The op-amps inside of them were intermittently failing. Intermittent problems are perhaps the hardest to solve, especially in the midst of a busy studio schedule. When you finally get that narrow window of time to investigate the problem, you can't make it fail.
The "soundtrack" to the video above is me while I was testing one of our API mic-pres. There are well over 20 tracks layered on top of each other (not all of them made it to the final rough-mix of my silliness). The mic-pre in question didn't fail me once, there wasn't even a detectable hint of an issue that I could find. Yet, the very next day, in the middle of a full band tracking session it failed again. Sometimes I think these problems have their own personalities and will only show themselves while paying clients are in the building.
If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to believe that the problematic API was showing off to a neighboring compressor. This may be a method of gear attempting to gain "rack-cred" and garner the respect and admiration of all the other gear in the rack.
We've thankfully gotten past our API issues, and have logged in some pretty heavy sessions since experiencing the intermittent politics of the democratic rack. Vote for us for your next recording session!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
We extend our deepest sympathy to Jeffrey Steele and family
Jeffrey Steele and his wife Stephanie, lost their 13 year old son, Alex LeVasseur, in an ATV accident Sunday.
You are in our hearts and prayers throughout this difficult time.
A foundation in Alex's name has been set up through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Donations may be sent to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Attn: Lani
P. O. Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244
Regarding: Alex LeVasseur
Or you can go online to www.cfmt.org.
As a father myself, I simply cannot grasp this immeasurable loss for the Steele family. There is nothing I can conjure up in my mind to bring rhyme or reason to this horrible tradgedy. I know I've certainly spent a little more quality time with my own son since hearing about the accident earlier this week. I think a lot of parents are giving their sons and daughters extra hugs this week.
You are in our hearts and prayers throughout this difficult time.
A foundation in Alex's name has been set up through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Donations may be sent to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Attn: Lani
P. O. Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244
Regarding: Alex LeVasseur
Or you can go online to www.cfmt.org.
As a father myself, I simply cannot grasp this immeasurable loss for the Steele family. There is nothing I can conjure up in my mind to bring rhyme or reason to this horrible tradgedy. I know I've certainly spent a little more quality time with my own son since hearing about the accident earlier this week. I think a lot of parents are giving their sons and daughters extra hugs this week.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
New Year, New Approach
Not only has the studio celebrated the arrival of 2007, but we've also jetted past the 1-year mark of our first solid year of operation.
At this point back in January 2006, we didn't even have our headphone system up and running yet. We've made some huge progress since then.
Currently, we're in the midst of only the 3rd week of 2007, and have already seen some ridiculously cool sessions engineered by Danny Duncan. Danny worked at this studio a lot back when it was operating under the name of "The Dugout", so it's great to see people return and find the same magic they experienced here almost a full decade ago.
Jonathan Butler kicked off our new year with an incredible session. That's Jonathan seated to the left in the picture. With Danny Duncan still in the engineer's chair, we immediately followed up that session with an Israel Houghton-produced project that red-lined our goodness meters.
One of the greatest additions made to the studio last year was an actual human being named Scott Velazco. Scott has taken on the role of our house engineer / assistant. His presence on several studio projects has grown almost exponentially since his first session here at the beginning of last summer. We were really lucky to find Scott, and every session he's been involved with has had an extra layer of smooooth all over it.
We're all very much looking forward to a great 2007!
At this point back in January 2006, we didn't even have our headphone system up and running yet. We've made some huge progress since then.
Currently, we're in the midst of only the 3rd week of 2007, and have already seen some ridiculously cool sessions engineered by Danny Duncan. Danny worked at this studio a lot back when it was operating under the name of "The Dugout", so it's great to see people return and find the same magic they experienced here almost a full decade ago.
Jonathan Butler kicked off our new year with an incredible session. That's Jonathan seated to the left in the picture. With Danny Duncan still in the engineer's chair, we immediately followed up that session with an Israel Houghton-produced project that red-lined our goodness meters.
We're all very much looking forward to a great 2007!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
New Additions: Virtual and Real
We've recently added an immersive virtual tour of the studio! Max Coomer, from StudioVisa.com is the man behind these visual pieces of 360 degree eye candy. We ended up photographing six different areas around the studio:
The Control Room, Piano Room, Drum Room, Kitchen / Lounge, Red Room, and the Front Hallway.
One thing you won't see in our new virtual tour is a brand new guest tie line panel in the control room. Now it's easier than ever for an engineer to bring in a rack full of their own gear and integrate it with our studio.
There are 12 XLR inputs and outputs that go directly to our redesigned patchbay. Two custom-made harnesses are ready to interface with our clients' gear. The panel also includes two elco connections for our headphone stations.
Special thanks to Darren Redfield and his wiring skills that made this a reality. He was also responsible for building and staining the wood box that the panel is mounted in. It's a thing of beauty, and a major improvement to the studio.
The Control Room, Piano Room, Drum Room, Kitchen / Lounge, Red Room, and the Front Hallway.
One thing you won't see in our new virtual tour is a brand new guest tie line panel in the control room. Now it's easier than ever for an engineer to bring in a rack full of their own gear and integrate it with our studio.
Special thanks to Darren Redfield and his wiring skills that made this a reality. He was also responsible for building and staining the wood box that the panel is mounted in. It's a thing of beauty, and a major improvement to the studio.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Nuts and Bolts, Odds and Ends, Hot and Cold
We've been busy putting the finishing touches on several projects around the recording studio. It's been a massive push to get all these things done before the end of summer...almost made it.
It was about a year ago that Vibe56 hosted an open house to celebrate the official opening of it's doors. The first year of any business is important, and that was no different here.
To the studio's benefit, we've seen a wide range of different projects come through. Dozens of mix sessions and even more overdub sessions helped us fine-tune our control room, plug-ins and equipment. The many full-on tracking sessions with a full compliment of A-list session players has helped us gear-up with plenty of microphone cables, talkback switches, headphone stations, patchbay cables, and tie-lines.
Best of all, we've made a lot of friends in our first year. Our clients have come from just about every conceivable genre; country, rock, gospel, bluegrass...they have all chimed in under our roof. A couple of weeks ago we even recorded a 20-piece choir.
Our list of clients continues to grow, and we're very proud to have such a lengthy list in just a one-year period.
Thanks to everyone that has given us a chance to prove ourselves as a rock-solid studio.
It was about a year ago that Vibe56 hosted an open house to celebrate the official opening of it's doors. The first year of any business is important, and that was no different here.
To the studio's benefit, we've seen a wide range of different projects come through. Dozens of mix sessions and even more overdub sessions helped us fine-tune our control room, plug-ins and equipment. The many full-on tracking sessions with a full compliment of A-list session players has helped us gear-up with plenty of microphone cables, talkback switches, headphone stations, patchbay cables, and tie-lines.
Best of all, we've made a lot of friends in our first year. Our clients have come from just about every conceivable genre; country, rock, gospel, bluegrass...they have all chimed in under our roof. A couple of weeks ago we even recorded a 20-piece choir.
Our list of clients continues to grow, and we're very proud to have such a lengthy list in just a one-year period.
Thanks to everyone that has given us a chance to prove ourselves as a rock-solid studio.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)