New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

[Hot _Grits]

Just spent the weekend perfecting my studio tan. Overdubs and mixing for three tunes in the can. Here's some pics (apologies for varying quality):

-in the rack this time: Am std tele, LP jr, Tele Custom ri, PRS CU22, Gretsch, 57ri Strat

-My fave new toy. LP Jr. The silverface Super Reverb is the studio amp. very nice amp.

-The studio's Gretsh. Heavy bastard, but if you want that sound...

-Napalm in a box. Digitech synth wah pedal. Think of it as a mutron crossed with a talkbox crossed with a dying cat. Used with the strat and soldano for a solo.

my trusty Blue Angel with the new boy in town, a Soldano hot rod 50+. Man, I am so happy with the soldano.

Here's the main live room. We tracked Drums, bass, guitar, percussion and keys live in here. It's a decent sized room, a bit deeper than the shot suggests. Enough to get some room sound, though perhaps not as much as we'd like.

The LAB's old Neve desk with Pro tools.

-Me sitting in my favorite place.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

NICE...I love studio pics and that board looks great!

I have to ask...is that a pink flower guardplate on a 2 colour burst Strat?!

 

[J Moose]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

That's such a tiny little Neve...dig it! Looks like a Prism or some varient of the 81 series, cool desks.

Though I gotta ask, with all that space and I can see the RCA 77 hanging there, did you get any room tone on the amps? Tossing an SM57 on the grill when there's SOOOOO much other stuff around is criminal.

Looks like it was a lotta fun though, the way it should be!

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

It's pink paisley. Definitely divides opinion. I get dudes coming right up to the stage just to check it and make sure their eyes aren't decieving them. I like it, but it's coming off at some point for a tortiseshell guard. I'll be keepin the pink guard for a black/maple strat in future...

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

That's such a tiny little Neve...dig it! Looks like a Prism or some varient of the 81 series, cool desks.

Though I gotta ask, with all that space and I can see the RCA 77 hanging there, did you get any room tone on the amps? Tossing an SM57 on the grill when there's SOOOOO much other stuff around is criminal.

Looks like it was a lotta fun though, the way it should be!

We got room mikes on the overdubs, plus plenty of bleed (on purpose) on the live basic tracks, especially through the drum overheads. We also sent out some of the basic tracks to a speaker in the main room and grabbed another track through the room mikes for a bit more depth. Dunno what mikes we used, though I know one of them was an ancient ribbon mike.

The Neve is an old radio New Zealand desk, I believe, and some of the channels are getting a bit finicky in their old age. There aren't too many decent desks around in this country, though I heard that Neil finn just bought The Who's old Neve and is installing it in a new studio downtown.

The engineer digs us: live tracking, plenty of bleed and room, very few fixes, plenty of room for 'character'. Very un-like the other acts they get through, where it's protools hell from go to whoa. It's funny, I talk to other guys in local bands and they just look at you like you're an alien when I tell them how we record.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

That amp setup looks sweet. Is that your Gretsch? One pedal I think you'd dig is the Electroharmonix Q Tron. I liked it even more than the Mutron Envelope filter. I used to have the Q Tron, but sold it...Wish I had it back.

I'll bet Neil Finn will have a hell of a studio, since he's got the means to hook up his own studio, first class all the way. Do the guys in the pic own the place?

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

That amp setup looks sweet. Is that your Gretsch? One pedal I think you'd dig is the Electroharmonix Q Tron. I liked it even more than the Mutron Envelope filter. I used to have the Q Tron, but sold it...Wish I had it back.

I'll bet Neil Finn will have a hell of a studio, since he's got the means to hook up his own studio, first class all the way. Do the guys in the pic own the place?

The Gretsch is the studio's. I like them, but there's planty of guitars I'd buy before I owned one myself. Cool to have around for a different sound, though.

I dig the Q-tron. I used an original mutron 3 on the basics, and it sounds awesome, but they're expensive and not very reliable. I've been thinking about getting the Line6 filter modeller as a more roadworthy version of that kind of thing. I love envelope filters. It comes from listening to way too much 70s fusion back in the late 90s and trying to make my guitar sound like Herbie Hanc*ck, Jan Hammer and Joe Sawinul's keys.

The studio is owned by the major live sound rig outfitters in my town as a side thing. They keep two engineers on salary. The dudes in the photo are the engineer and our drummer.

Neil Finn's place is three stories. Our engineer is going to work on that project with another guy who used to work with Bob Clearmountain, and he told me that they've just laid the floating floor for the main studio, so that won't be complete for a while. Apparently they've set up a very impressive temporary studio on the floor above for the album. I'd love to get a look in there, apparently he has a mountain of old gear.

 

[Hoss]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

now that definitely looks like Good Times!!!!

sweet gear to work with too!!!

 

[GuitarSandwich]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

very nice stuff indeed! How's the Blue Angel? I've heard that they don't make them anymore.

GS

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: New gear pics from this weekend's trip to studioland...

very nice stuff indeed! How's the Blue Angel? I've heard that they don't make them anymore.

GS

yeah, they don't. Mesa are pushing the lonestar special instead.

The Blue Angel is a great amp. it's not like any mesa out there, which is one reason why I own it. One channel, no master volume, just crank it. Two different sets of power tubes, 6V6 and EL84, that you can run separate or together, so you can get a fender deluxe-type tone or an AC30-type tone or mix them together. Superb reverb too.