While Matt continues to sun himself in Australia (and see his family!) the rest of us are getting busy with it again after a few days off for xmas. November through to xmas is a crazy busy time in the studio and I’ve had the pleasure of working on some really nice projects including yo yo yo litvenyenko, The Hendo San Project, Wild Hope, Matt May and Esqualeto. We’ve also had quite a few really young bands through who sound far too professional for their age!
I’m wrapping up the ‘Great British Public’ album over the next few days which is a project ive been working on for the past year with a guy called Rob Gregory. Ive tried to remember how to play drums on the album which has been fun and it also features many guest musicians from around these parts, should have some tracks for display very soon. Dan Flays mini album (which has also been dragging on for the past year!) is also nearly done and is sounding really sweet. The tracks are all being recorded here at half -ton and mixed by a guy called TW Walsh who produced the recent David Bazan album. Matt has also finished the Model Horror album which sounds amazing. Its strange how slowly the music business can move sometimes in that the three major projects that were done at the studio last year probably wont see the light of day until at least the spring, probably summer.
I get asked alot at the studio to explain about mastering and the importance of the different stages of the recording process. I found this really nice post by TW Walsh (whos mixing Dan flays stuff) about how the world of recording has changed with the development of home recording gear etc and how mastering can not salvage a badly recorded or mixed track.
http://twwalsh.com/the-mix-is-the-thing
I guess its all about how important your art is to you but im always amazed when bands try and do a recording on the cheap and then end up chasing their tales trying to make it sound good. You do hear some great DIY stuff mind but its usually done by someone in the band who has a bit of recording experience and has taken great care at every stage of the process to get the right sound. If your budget is tight, talk to your recording/mixing/mastering engineer about how to get the balance right and give your music the best chance of sounding good!
October has been our busyiest month to date. Feeling the burn but loving all the happy bands coming and going from the studio. A few new pieces of gear have arrived in the last few days in the form of a UA 1176 x 2 and a vintage Neumann U87 mic. Looking forward to trying them out on Model village tomorrow!
Cheers!
The studio is nice and busy with all our engineers working on a variety of projects such as albums for Model Horror, Daniel Flay and The British Public as well as singles, ep’s and demo’s for the likes of yo yo yo litvenenko, newspeak, Karmadillo etc
As well as all the usual bandy stuff the studio has also started to do more voiceover and podcast work which keeps us busy and can be a nice change!
Recording is finished for ‘The British Public’ album which is also being mixed by bugs at half-ton in June/July.
Dan Flays album is nearly finished as well with just a few vocals to do..
The studio has a stonking new drum kit which has already found its way on to a few recordings and sounds huge!
Activity
Plenty of exciting projects have been through the studio in the last few months with Model Horror in with Matty moon recording 3 tracks for their new single. Daniel Flay is putting the finishing touches to his album which features Micky for the broken family band on drums. Arkan horror and beautiful sleazy have just finished recording with us and Wild hope, model village, and esqueleto are all finishing off some really great sounding projects over the next few weeks. Thanks to all the acts who have used us recently!
Winter Kings single launch
The winter kings are releasing their 1st single proper ‘black caravan’ which was recorded and mixed at half-ton studios last year. Their having a launch party at the Soul Tree in Cambridge on Saturday the 4th of April. They have a video out as well which can be seen here: www.myspace.com/thewinterkings
New Gear!
The success of the studio recently has enabled us invest in some new equipment, the 1st of which is a four channel API 3124 pre-amp. These beauties cost £50-60 a day to hire on there own which makes the studio even greater value for you dough than it already was! Plenty more juicy outboard and mics on the way soon to keep our engineers happy and make your recordings shine!
We’re donating a prize to the competition this year and if you fancy entering but still need a demo recorded, get in touch as we still have a few dates available before the closing date!
The heats are taking place at the Soul Tree (Tuesdays 14, 21, 28 April and 5 May) and the final is at the Corn Exchange (Friday 15 May)
Details can be found at
www.cornex.co.uk
Happy New Year!
The studio closed for a few weeks over xmas, i managed to get in a holiday to Morocco which was great, Matt is off visiting family in Australia for a few more weeks and Rob is running around doing seven different things at once as usual! Was good to reflect on what was a very busy last few months of 2008. Bands in and hopefully leaving happy included: Lonely the Brave, The Incredible Flight of Birdman, Toy Radio, Palatino Hills, Screwd, Mono Effect Ed, Beverley Kills and Ripping Yarns.
Evening Sessions
We started doing evening recording sessions in December and they went really well. For bands looking for a quick, fairly live recording they are a great option at £100 for a 6pm-12pm session.
January
Is a lot more relaxed with gives me a chance to put some time in on some of my longer term projects I’m doing with Fuzzy Lights, Daniel Flay and Rob Gregory, looking forward to this and hopefully i might even get round to doing some of my own stuff!
We’re currently enjoying the use of our new control room, which we completed work on in October. The room has been built and treated to provide the most accurate mixing space we could achieve, and the whole studio is a much better place to work, with space for bands to chill out in during the recording process without getting in each other’s way! Have a peek at the new photos or better still come down and have a look!
Special Xmas offer on studio time for December!
For the month of December only we’re offering 3 full days studio time for the price of two! We ran this offer earlier in the year and it proved very popular so get in there quick! See the rates page for full details
Hello Matt!
We’ve also been joined by another engineer/producer in the form of Matty Moon. Matt has recently produced recordings for Toy Radio and Lonely the Brave at the studio and seems to be coping well with our sense of humor…it’s great to have him on board.
‘Lonely the Brave’ were the 1st band through the new room at the end october, everyone is very pleased! More pics on the way soon!
