12.30.2004 PYTHON RECORDING AT LEOPARD

Just completed a very productive 4-day lockout at Leopard Studio with PYTHON, a very talented young metal band. The project included the tracking and mixing of the band's 6-song debut CD titled "Good And Evil" and also a 3-song demo of some of their newest material. The quartet arrived well equipped with double kick drum kit, Mesa and Marshall guitar amps, Gibson and ESP guitars, great sounding chops and their manager, Joe "The General" Holzapfel.

The session went really well, with everyone tracking live and then punching in some fixes. I used mostly house mics and mic pre's on all the drums, Sennheisers for kick and toms, Shure SM57 on the snare, Neuman TLM193s on hats and ride, and AKG 414s for overheads. We ran the bass direct through the Avalon 737 Preamp, and mic'd guitar amps with Sennheiser 421s through my friend Joe Kelly's Vintech 1272 that I borrowed (I've GOT to get me one of these!) Singer Joe Holzapfel sang through an Audio Technica 4033 and the Avalon 737. We did all the tracking and mixing in ProTools and stored on a Glyph drive.

PYTHON has great songs and a very original slant on the classic thrash metal style. They are certainly one of the region's finest up-and-coming metal acts, and they're playing area gigs throughout January. Check their site for details: http://www.pythonband.com

11.28.2004 PROVAN GUITARS IN THE BASEMENT

iBook and Mbox on the go again...this time to Joe's Mom's basement for some crankin guitars and rattling jars. A few well placed blankets kept the jars from being a problem, but after a few loud rythm parts the amp started sounding a bit thin, even when mic'd with the Blue Dragonfly and Oktava ML-52 Ribbon through Joe's Vintech 1272 mic pre's. Joe did track some solid rythm guitar parts and feedback before the amp started to go.

11.22.2004 ORSUS GUITARS AT LEOPARD STUDIO

Brought ORSUS guitarists Gary and Tommy to Leopard Studio in Stone Ridge NY for a weekend of heavy guitar tracking. We spent Friday afternoon getting tones, and decided that a combination of their solid-state amps and my vintage Marshall tube amp worked best for "crunch" tones. I mic'd 2 cabs, each with a Sennheiser 421 and an AKG 414, all using API mic pre's, and I also used an Oktava ribbon through the Avalon 737 for room ambience. We spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday on the "crunch" tracks. We also used this setup for some feedback overdubs. Sunday evening we switched gears and set up for some "clean" guitar tones, using some of studio owner Jimmy Lonesome's groovy combo amps. We tracked clean guitar through an Ampeg B-15 bass amp, and also did some slightly "dirty" tones through a Fender Bronco, both mic'd with the wonderful Octava ribbon. It proved to be a very successful session. Many thanks Jimmy...we'll be back!

11.08.2004 PROVAN BASS & GUITAR OVERDUBS

"The Trials & Tribulations of Home Recording"

Brought my ProTools Digi001 rig to the apartment of singer/songwriter and guitarist Joe Kelly of Provan to track some of the guitar and bass parts for the second phase of their project. We decided to use his bedroom as the control room and his living room as the tracking area. I brought some fun outboard gear as well, and we borrowed a Joe Meek QCS from a good friend. Got all the gear set up pretty quickly, plugged in the amps and, woh! Buzz city! As is often the case in older buildings, the power and outlets were highly suspect. After trying everything from ground-lift adaptors to attaching jumper cables between amp chassis and pipes we decided to seek some help. We called the music store and asked what power conditioners they had in stock. A helpful salesperson suggested a model called the Monster Power Pro-1000. We took the drive out there and purchased this $150 power strip, brought it back, plugged it in and, guess what? No difference! Still buzz city! By now we'd had used up half our day so we made the difficult but necessary choice of living with the buzz on some of the tracks. Guitarist Bill Lutz did some of his clean guitar tracks through his Roland tube amp. We mic'd this with and Octava and a Sennheiser 421, running through Vintech 72 preamps. That worked out well. Mark Bendian's bass amp had too much buzz to use, so we went direct through the borrowed Joe Meek, which sounded great. Mark didn't want to cut his tracks in the makeshift control room though, so we ran his cords out the window and he tracked on the porch. We got bass takes for all six songs. Between the two day's of tracking, the guys had a gig backing up singer/songwriter John Hovorka, so it was quite a busy weekend, and in the end, both productive and enjoyable.

10.25.04 PROVAN BEGINS PHASE 2 AT LEOPARD

Returned to Lonsome Jimmy Goodman's Leopard Studio in Stone Ridge NY to record drums for 5 new PROVAN songs. The studio now features a ProTools HD rig running on a Mac G5. Very fast to work on.

Colin did excellent takes, and as always was an absolute pleasure to work with. The sounds we got were comparable in many ways to the recordings from March, and maybe even better in some respects. I used a Oktava ribbon mic outside the kick drum and it sounded huge. Also did an x/y placement on the room mics (2 AKG 414's set in figure 8 polar pattern) which was a different approach from the last time, and that seemed better too. One of the new songs "Wreck Of The Kevin Fitzgerald" really stands out as a timeless classic, and I'm sure will make me cry when it's done.

Visit http://www.2000steps.com for more about PROVAN

10.01.2004 ORSUS RECORDING AT MUZIC STUDIO

Tracked Mike's bass guitar takes for all twelve ORSUS songs yesterday at Muzic Studio in Dobbs Ferry NY. Muzic Studio used to be The Pickwick Theater when I was growing up in Dobbs ferry, so it was kind of a trip seeing it converted into a studio! Mike did a fantastic job of hammering out excellent takes, and the whole band was there to root him on. Special thanks to Vito Liuzzi and Gary for setting us up with a great tone and vibe during the session.

09.06.2004 ORSUS RECORDING AT APPLEHEAD

Brought ORSUS to Applehead Recording Studio in Woodstock NY for a very successful drum tracking session. Engineer Chris Bittner did a fantastic job of getting the sounds we were after; big, live and ambient. Chris proved to be a master on Pro Tools as well which left me free to focus on performances.

Adam's drum performances were stellar! He was well rehearsed and nailed down all 12 songs, as well as some great "effect" parts that we'll use for loops and secondary rhythms.

Now we are preparing to track Mike's bass guitar parts, then on to guitars and vocals.  I am really happy with the professionalism and dedication of this band. Please visit their site: http://www.orsusband.com

Also special thanks to studio owner Micheal Burnbaulm for the fantastic quality and vibe at Applehead. Great place!

Vintage Neve and API consoles and an excellent assortment in the mic closet and a large live room make it an ideal place to track! Photo (left) is their main tracking room, which sounds superb! The new photo on my index page was taken in Applehead's control room during the session.

08.20.2004 ORSUS PRE PRODUCTION

Having seen them perform live a couple of times I have begun to work on pre production with a great and as yet unsigned local nu-metal band called ORSUS.  Currently we are working on click and scratch tracks and we hope to begin recording basic tracks in September.

08.05.04 MOM, I'M HOME!

...And I brought my Pro Tools rig!

Spending a couple of weeks in Poughkeepsie recording a CD with my parents. Mom sings and Dad accompanies on his Yamaha electronic keyboard. Their album includes some great jazz standards and a couple of broadway show tunes. A nice change of pace in many ways! (What's for dinner tonight, Mom?)

06.01.2004 MIXING AT CHUNG KING

Mixed PROVAN yesterday at Chung King Studios in the Gold Room on their SSL9000. Great room for mixing! The whole band was in attendance, and everyone had a chance to address their tones and mix concerns. Mixes came out sounding amazing! Special thanks to Suzanne Mates of Chung King's production staff for the booking, and for setting us up with assistant engineer Jessy. The session went really well, we accomplished all of our mix objectives, and I'm looking forward to attending the mastering at West West Side Mastering with Alan Douches in July.

04.20.2004 BACK IN NEW YORK

Working on PROVAN over-dubs and pre-mixing. Planning on being ready for the final mix in May, and looking for a suitable room to mix in. An old friend of mine, Suzanne Mates now manages Chung King Recording Studio in Manhattan so we may be able to get it on for mixing there.

03.31.2004 PROVAN BASIC RECORDING

Just completed basic recording session with New York's premier smart eclectic pop band PROVAN at Leopard Recording Studio in Stone Ridge NY.  Despite me getting the flu we had a fantastic 6 day tracking marathon and even took time out to hike The Rail Trail a bit. We all camped out a leopard for the week, which really allowed us to immerse ourselves in the project. At Leopard we completed most of the basic tracking for the upcoming Provan album. The day after our session I was on a flight back to El Paso to pack up my things, pick up my dog Chaquita and say good-bye to MINISTRY. Piled into my little red wagon and headed up to Dallas for another brief visit with friends. Stopped by Nomad Recording Studio where owner Gary Long is still cranking out great recordings. From there I drove down to Ft. Myers, Florida and recorded a little vanity CD for my parents with my new iBook and M-Box rig. 

03.10.2004 MINISTRY MASTERING

After months of Ministry mahem Al Jourgensen and I have completed the new MINISTRY CD "Houses Of The Mole'" with just hours to spare before flying out to Los Angeles to master at Precision Mastering with Tom Baker. After Tom gave it the final spit-shine we took it over to The Roxy to play it for all our friends in attendance.  Pamela DeBarre made a personal visit for a private listening...a truely historic rock n roll experience I must say!!! From LA: a 7:00 AM flight the next morning to New York to begin recording with PROVAN.