Tuesday, October 27, 2009

In todays audio recording world you could pretty much get your hands on any combination of any piece of gear that has ever been made. You want that Beatles sound? get the EMI shit, you want to have Sticky Fingers? go yourself some helios. Home recordists and small studio can get scary close to these sounds because all the gear has been reissued or made available by way of a trust fund. And that great!

One of the reasons I pay good money to go to places like sunset sound to track my records isn't because of the 100 u47's or bucket of C37's they have on hand. Sure the mic closet isn't a bad thing but for me, it's the custom made consoles. A sound that cannot be found elsewhere on the planet. This is something that is becoming extinct in the industry. With the popularity of Ebay where it is more financially enticing to rip consoles to shreds to sell as parts, you see less "whole pieces" all the time. Why did chess studios have a sound? How about Abbey Road? How about Sun or anywhere from when you went to a studio for THAT sound? They existed in a time where you had to have gear built. You couldn't just order a limiter on the interweb. The only option was to get a tech at the radio station to build one for you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is home recording is a great thing especially in these times where the record industry can't figure out how to invest in their products or take chances with artist that fans would actually feel compelled to pay for. If you want to make a unique quality product you have to be precious about it's creation. From the songwriting to the documentation. Studio's like Sunset Sound offer decades of beautiful one of a kind signal path. Of course you could do it at home but dont be stunned when megaupload is the only distributer moving your records. Invest in the art. Especially if you are an artist. Over here at GBP we are working our way towards some of these one of a kind pieces that will give us our own sound. When someone comes here to make music they, for better or worse, will leave with something they could have not gotten elsewhere. That's the idea right?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tough Titty

It may not look like much right now but this box is the prototype for The Icarus Line's firstguitar  pedal called "Tough Titty". In partnership with world class guitar effects designer Dave at VintageFX; we are developing a unique notch filter/ fuzz. To be released firstly as a part of the new record in a special box set that will contain other few of a kind collectibles. Each unit will hand painted and tested by the band. The Icarus Line has officially dipped its black toe into the world of Audio products. More custom pieces to come.

Posted via email from The Icarus Line

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Farmer Dave is what we refer to as a kind brother. Although I had been a fan of his work in Beachwood Sparks we never met until an off night in Germany sometime ago. A couple of us went down to the club cos we heard All Night Radio was also in town. We ended up smoking the Kush and they did a great show. Check out the second of his new tunes here. Great stuff.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

You caught me smilin..again...


Caught in the act. Producing a tune for NightHorse...came out pretty rocking for a 6 hour session. Quick and the Dead.

Soundtoys is the shit.

I know it's old news to get all bothered by the Soundtoys plug ins but here I go anyway. First off I hardly ever use plug ins. I'm not sure if I just have crappy ones or whatever but I can always hear how fake they sound and it bums me out. Last week my eventide took a dirt nap. Came into the studio to work on the mixes for The Icarus Line's new record and it was just dead.  At that moment I realised why people buy plug ins. They tend not to break. Even then I only had my hopes on one bunch and that was the Soundtoys jams. Now that I have been using them for a couple days there is no going back. I really can't  believe my ears. They just don't sound like plug ins to me. I guess the best way to put it is that they bring some of my half-ass engineering back to life. Like maybe I had a piano part in mind, knew I would forget it so I threw a  mic up where ever, started banging away and that was that. With a little filter freak that track has life again and not in some weak hyped computer way, more like this sounds like records sort of way. If you record music and dont have these plug ins yet you need to skip desert and pony up.  This is the Eventide box and way more...Space is the place.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A word from our sponsors...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Gear List

Console- API 1608

Recorder- ProTools 8 HD

Monitors- ProAc studio 100 powered with a Marantz 16

Outboard- UA 1176
UA LA3A (x2)
Chandler/EM1 TG12413 Zener
Eventide H3000
Yamaha Rev 7
Multivox Anoglog Delay Rack

Mics- U87
Coles BBC (x2)
Beyer 201
Pearlman Tm1
AKG D112
some 57's
Sennheiser e609
Sure SM7

Misc- Upright Grand Piano
Guild 12 string
Fender Strat
Fender Tele custom
Black Beauty Les Paul
Whurlitzer electric piano
Fender Bassman 70
Ampeg flip top bass amp
Ampeg Jet
Ampeg SVT (blue face)
Supro Thunderbolt
Supro Custom
Marshall Jcm 800 50 watt
Marshall greenback cab
and a bunch of pedal and other cool crap...

Welcome to GangBang Park!

If you found this blog then I'm pretty sure you know who is involved in the community surrounding studio GBP. It takes a village. The studio was built to facilitate high quality recordings to dear artists at a fraction of the cost they would usually have to spend. Can anyone record here? No, not really. The criteria is pretty simple though, either you know us or you can get a recommendation from someone who does. The only other way in is just having a musical point of view that is strong enough to convince someone involved to get its back. This isn't non profit nor burger king. So far this year, The Icarus Line has done most of the new LP here. Giant Drag has been working in here too. Stay posted on this blog for od sound bites, tests, video, picture and whatever else we might be involved in.