Remixes!

I really have to be mixing or playing drums to keep me sane. Recently I installed a copy of Sonar 6 on my old Windows XP machine, because I felt the urge to mix at home. This little Dell would only run 16bit audio, which turns out to be a plus because it frees up scarce resources on this machine. To get used to this system I remixed a couple of songs at home – “Born to be Wild” from Kicking Harold, and “You and Me” from Ten Times Gravity. It took between two and three hours for each song, and they sound surprisingly good given that they were done in an 8 year old box with 8 year old software.

Kicking Harold – Born to be Wild

Ten Times Gravity – You & Me

Surprise from Australia!

This is why I love what I do! Our latest client has totally blown us away with some really cool songs. He’s from Australia and did the recording in Nashville with some studio guys who really pull off the feel of each song brilliantly – even though at some points I can hear that they’re almost lost! There’s something about that feel when everyone’s just winging it in the studio. This song is an f-ing hit, so listen up:

It’s been over a year since my last post!

It was about this time last year that I got sick and wasn’t really able to function until the end of last year. Buy then the studio had gotten extremely busy, and I neglected the blog. A lot of music has been produced at the studio since then and I have samples posted on the listen page. It’s been all different genres as well, which keeps it fresh for us. Also – one of our recent clients may soon be signing a deal with Blue Note Records! I’ll let you know…

JAY

JAY is a band I used to perform with up until last year. We did a couple songs with them recently and we’re going to be doing a whole album soon. A few weeks ago George, the owner of the studio, asked them to give him a song that was giving them trouble. They brought in “Dirty Lover” which was kind of a mess arrangement-wise, but did include a couple of usable tracks. George, like myself, loves a challenge and this was a good one! He rearranged the song, added piano and orchestration, and later Randy and I played bass and drums to the track. Randy also replayed all of the guitar except one slide track from the demo. The vocals are all from the demo.

I was very afraid that they would not like the track, as they we’re not involved it’s production past the demo stage. I was pleasantly surprised to get a text while out of town last weekend informing me that they loved the track! Relief! I love the track too – here it is:

Mixing The Jits

My good buddy Alan sent me three tracks he recorded a few years ago on 2″ tape. (Alan and I go way back – I remember just out of high school almost blowing our hands off making dry-ice bombs. Good times!) The tracks were converted before they were sent to us as pro tools sessions. Noise was an issue – lots of hiss! Getting it all in phase also took a bit of work. They had limited drum miking, which was a kick, top snare, two overheads and one track labeled “toms”. On one song they opted for a “room” mic instead of toms. George did some editing to tighten up the rest of the instruments to the drums, which had the best performance. He also replayed the organ on “Fly”. Check it out in mixes. This one is called “Free”. Alan plays his ass off in this short jam, and the drums sound really good considering. Hmmm… maybe you don’t need that many mics for a good drum sound?

Drown In My Own Tears

A great bluesy guitar player Seth Lee Jones is in our studio for a few months. Every Wednesday we track a new song. This is his first cover, a song by Ray Charles. It’s just the basic tracks with a great vocal done by Seth. It’s a working mix so there’s more instruments to add in the near future. I kind of like it stripped down with just the three of us. I’ll post the finished mix later.

Fast & Furious

We’re currently in a project with Lennox Buppy Brown and it’s turning out to be very cool. Buppy is one of our favorites, because he always brings a good vibe to the session. His drummer played some great grooves (on my Pork Pie kit!) and and as a result, it’s making the rest of the project run very smoothly. We hope to be done by the end of this month and I’ll post more of those songs at that time.
A while ago, we did a song with Buppy for submission to the Fast & Furious IV movie. It didn’t get picked up, but I thought that it was interesting enough to post. The guys from the studio – Randy, George, and myself – played on this one. It’s likely to get redone for his latest project with new lyrics and a new mix.