Running a Studio

Some epiphany's are not but the benefit of wonderment as to how hard it is to take an ATM35 that is supposed to clipped to a horn... is clipped to a mic stand... AND LEFT THERE!?! <sigh>

In it's stead... a perfectly hot SM58, intended for a backup vocalist is swung down for use as the sax mic... which is now pointed downward... and directly into a floor wedge sitting under the vocal mic.

So... there is a 58 pointing directly into the wedge, the sax mic is apparently ...

Music gave me my life back... For this, I am eternally grateful.

It was my salvation from the pain and devastation to my body, mind and soul from being struck by lightning.

Once I started down the path of recording, and into the insanity of building, owning and running a recording studio, I realized that part of what I had to do, was give back.

As part of my articles of incorporation, I mandated that at least once per year, that all staff would volunteer their ...

I really do appreciate all genre's of music. Obviously, some more than others.

I'm now working with an artist that gets what organic means!

Organic doesn't mean samples of someone else's work, it means that what we get with acoustic instruments... is what we get. And what we're getting is good stuff.

It doesn't mean putting anything on the grid, but following a click as an orchestrated point of reference. It lives and breaths a bit, just like any living thing. ...

Why, oh why???

It's not that I don't want folks to come into the studio... I really do!... but I hate wasting other people's money and MY time... needlessly.


If you book time in a studio, and present the session as consisting of 8-10 songs, it generally indicates that you're group is well rehearsed and ready to track - with everyone knowing the songs... at least well enough to do a presentable job worthy of having the song recorded.

It really would be ...

The 2nd Roundtable will be Monday, Feb 28th.

We'll start the debauchery about 7pm, and start the meeting/broadcast about 7:30pm.

The broadcast will NOT go on and on and on... We'll only run our mouths until about 9:30pm at the latest.

The agenda is:
Intro's
Top 5 things you want from this "co-operative" effort

Content FIRST and Foremost
a) Good Song v. Popular Song
b) Song Qualities
... Production, is it ...

While not a perfect recording (many extra folks in the room) here's links to the roundtable segments...

http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/description.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment01.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment02.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment03.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment04.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment05.mp3
http://www.darkpinesstudio.com/co_op/Segment06.mp3 ...

If you are interested in listening in on the Songwriter's Roundtable discussion on Monday - 1/31, PM/email me to get the link and password. We'll start the broadcast right at 7pm.

If you want to attend, there is still room for a couple more folks, email or PM me ASAP to make your reservations. $5.00 covers some serious chow and copy of the whole evening. (TheBoss is making her world-famous Chili-con-quesa!! WOOT!)

Written a great song, but don't know where to submit it to sell it? Not sure how to market yourself as a songwriter? Come talk to 4 guys who DO know... and are making a living as a working musician/songwriter!

Dark Pines Studio - Graham, NC. is hosting a Songwriter's Roundtable, on Monday, Jan., 10, 2011 from 7pm-10pm-ish. (Longer if there's interest in stickin' around.)

Panel members who have confirmed for the roundtable;
Bill West, Shelby Merchant ...

Happy Holiday's everyone!

Today marks one full year since I got my Certificate of Occupancy, Articles of Incorporation, and I officially lost my flippin' mind!

Man... what a year it's been.

It's been a real joy and a real struggle.

The last few months have been pretty tight, but we're all suffering under the economic melt down.

Some of the highlights of the year...

We've been fortunate to have well over 60 artists in ...

WOW! I cannot believe the quality of the gear that bigtree's convincing these really generous manufacturers to give up!

I'm a firm believer in maximizing acoustic spaces and the soundfield in my mixes.

From what I can tell from the SPL site, their M/S Master is really one heck of a device to contemplate adding to the arsenal.

I prefer to track a LOT of things in stereo using any of a number of methods... X-Y, Blumlein are the two predominant methods I currently ...