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.

Spring Robbins in the Studio

Greg Morrow
...pre-cymbolism

Pictured above (l to r):
Kenny Greenberg, Greg Morrow, Corey Robbins, Dennis Robbins, Michael Rhodes, Larry Byrom, Mills Logan, Tony Harrell, and Scott Velazco.

Not bad for a session band, eh?

Lucky for Nashville that the Transformers are fictional. If all of these guys were to assemble into one giant human robot, it would be the ultimate one man band.

Dennis Robbins and his son Corey were the catalyst for assembling this group of Nashville A-list studio session players. It was a special treat to have Larry Byrom from Steppenwolf playing acoustic guitar on the tracking session.

I was finally able to get a shot of Greg Morrow sitting behind what is actually his drum kit. His vintage Gretsch kit lives here at the studio and is available for anyone booking a tracking session here. It is however, still a BYOC* affair for the time being.

* BYOC = Bring Your Own Cymbals

iPhone X-ray

Here's Vibe 56's house engineer, Scott Velazco, showing off his new iPhone. It's bigger than mine, and sadly it's not the first time I've made that statement.

Vibe 56 on Google Streetview

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As most savvy Nashvillians(?) already know, Google's fleet of camera cars came through town last fall. The maps are now up and fully functional. Here's a view of the front of the studio from 17th, also known as Music Square West.

Digidesign Interviews at Vibe 56

Scott Velazco is pretty...
...good at what he does.

Some folks from Digidesign dropped by the studio to interview us about our D-Command ICON console. Technically, the D-Command is a tactile work surface, but that sounds a bit pretentious.

The studio's house engineer, Scott Velazco, and I were both interviewed separately. This was definitely the most professional interview I'd ever done. They applied lots of make-up on my bald head because you could see all the camera equipment reflected off of it.

After I stumbled through my interview, Scott sat down, had some make-up applied, and proceeded to relinquish the most eloquent interview ever.

Hopefully, with some editing-wizardry, they'll be able to use the one or two coherent sentences that I spoke. I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing any of the finished product when it'll make it's debut at the upcoming Mix Nashville event taking place here in Nashville on May 20-21. I'm told our interview footage will also be seen on Digidesign's own Digi TV feature.

Vibe 56 was the first studio to install the D-Command console in the Nashville area. Since the D-Command is designed by Digidesign, it works seamlessly with ProTools, and the many different engineers that have worked here can work between the console and the keyboard/mouse, using either to drive a session along at their own comfort level.

Many thanks to Anthony Gordon and his crew for taking the time and energy to get our opinions on film. Hopefully the shine from my head didn't do any permanent damage to their equipment.

To see more photos from the interview click here.

Here's a video of our D-Command in action:

Muriel Anderson Concert Recap

David Wilson, Muriel Anderson, CJ Sorg

A couple of weeks ago the studio hosted a private concert for guitarist Muriel Anderson. We'd never really done anything like this before, so it was extra-awesome that the whole thing went off amazingly well. Muriel, accompanied by her percussionist Cathy Chalmers, put on a performance that really took advantage of the studio's intimate atmosphere.

Even though we are a recording studio, we didn't make an overly technical recording of the event. In fact, we employed the K.I.S.S.S. method of "Keep It Simply Stereo Seriously". It's a technical industry-term. So, if you've ever wondered what our drum room sounds like with a guitarist, percussionist, and a small crowd in it, I have just the MP3 for you!

Listen to Muriel Anderson impressively pick her way through a medley of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and the Beatles' "Day Tripper":

Muriel Anderson - Superstitious / Day Tripper

Also, if you want to check out some songs tracked here at the studio, visit our MySpace page.