drpat (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} drpat) wrote,@ 2006-04-09 18:17:00 |
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Day 11
We spent all today working on the tune of “Underpass”. Toby sang it every which way he could. Halfway through this epic task Toby mentioned that he had a "sore front of the neck". Whether this was a superstitious way to refer to a hoarse throat, or a strange crick in his spine, we never found out. Speaking of superstitions, there's another one we follow: never ever say out loud "this is going to be easy" for it will not be.
And what is being in the studio like? I hear you ask. It's a very nice mid-budget studio apparently. Wayne is very taken with the API desk; bass is API's specialty. The Seedy Underbelly studio was relocated (desk, gear and name) from Minneapolis, Minnesota a couple of years ago. Wayne also informed me that with American studios, the most exclusive have the oldest and rarest analog gear. For example the holy grail of studio equipment (so-called on the internet) is a Fairchild 670 compressor which Ocean Way Studios would have. They are worth upwards of $30,000. A large sum. We had to hire a Fairchild 670 "emulator" for mixing because we are mid-budget.
And speaking of cool gear here, especially stuff that we've used frequently, there is; a sixties Ampeg B-15 N flip-top bass amp, a Sears Silvertone guitar amplifier (originally available on mail order in the fifties), a custom copy of a Fender-Six bass, 2 racks of seven Neve Pre-Amp thingoes, and a Neumann U-67 microphone. Very good stuff.
It's tight quarters in the control room. There’s only a limited space in front of the desk and only a small sweet spot where the mix sounds balanced. Plus if you are near the back wall there is the interesting (and sometimes confusing) phenomenon of the bass-less pocket, where the low-end disappears.
What else? There's a Mac computer which runs the program Pro-Tools. History lesson: Pro-Tools was released in 1987 as the first "tapeless recording studio" and these days it seems, to this non-expert, to be almost universal in professional recording studios. I say almost because I'm sure that people like Steve "Stupid Verb" Albini keep to analog recording. Our studio B in the house is Pro-Tools set up on Toby’s Mac using an M-Box which is sort of pre-amp/computer interface into which we (meaning Cameron) plug either microphone or a keyboard into. I obviously don't understand it at all. It's a credit to Cam that he can run it.
This is Toby taking care of the “front of is neck” with a Model-Tea
We spent all today working on the tune of “Underpass”. Toby sang it every which way he could. Halfway through this epic task Toby mentioned that he had a "sore front of the neck". Whether this was a superstitious way to refer to a hoarse throat, or a strange crick in his spine, we never found out. Speaking of superstitions, there's another one we follow: never ever say out loud "this is going to be easy" for it will not be.
And what is being in the studio like? I hear you ask. It's a very nice mid-budget studio apparently. Wayne is very taken with the API desk; bass is API's specialty. The Seedy Underbelly studio was relocated (desk, gear and name) from Minneapolis, Minnesota a couple of years ago. Wayne also informed me that with American studios, the most exclusive have the oldest and rarest analog gear. For example the holy grail of studio equipment (so-called on the internet) is a Fairchild 670 compressor which Ocean Way Studios would have. They are worth upwards of $30,000. A large sum. We had to hire a Fairchild 670 "emulator" for mixing because we are mid-budget.
And speaking of cool gear here, especially stuff that we've used frequently, there is; a sixties Ampeg B-15 N flip-top bass amp, a Sears Silvertone guitar amplifier (originally available on mail order in the fifties), a custom copy of a Fender-Six bass, 2 racks of seven Neve Pre-Amp thingoes, and a Neumann U-67 microphone. Very good stuff.
It's tight quarters in the control room. There’s only a limited space in front of the desk and only a small sweet spot where the mix sounds balanced. Plus if you are near the back wall there is the interesting (and sometimes confusing) phenomenon of the bass-less pocket, where the low-end disappears.
What else? There's a Mac computer which runs the program Pro-Tools. History lesson: Pro-Tools was released in 1987 as the first "tapeless recording studio" and these days it seems, to this non-expert, to be almost universal in professional recording studios. I say almost because I'm sure that people like Steve "Stupid Verb" Albini keep to analog recording. Our studio B in the house is Pro-Tools set up on Toby’s Mac using an M-Box which is sort of pre-amp/computer interface into which we (meaning Cameron) plug either microphone or a keyboard into. I obviously don't understand it at all. It's a credit to Cam that he can run it.
This is Toby taking care of the “front of is neck” with a Model-Tea
