Monthly Archives: October 2013

We love all the musicians we get to meet running a recording studio in New York, just so many of the best musicians really do come through Manhattan. But the coolest thing about the digital age is that we get the chance to work with musicians all over the globe. One of our most popular services is remote mastering, and we were lucky enough to get to do this for Comments and Concerns from Canada. These guys had a pretty cool concept for their album, which was a double EP: one acoustic and one electric. This kind of double album, or A and B side lent itself really nicely to these guys’ indie strengths. Here’s what the guys had to say about their album, entitled ‘Alibi’:

The Alibi project is the debut record from Comments and Concerns. It was intentionally written, recorded and produced as two separate albums, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2. This separation is a reflection of the band’s past, present and a glimpse at the future. Pt. 1 is a fond, child-like, reflection on memories, loved ones and significant life moments. It features acoustic driven, sing-songwriter style songs laced with warm bass lines and intricate percussive elements for an easy listening, lighthearted feel. Pt. 2 is a portrayal of Comments and Concerns present style, with a taste of their future. It’s a mysterious collection of sounds that search for answers through syncopated rhythms and ambient guitar parts. Comments and Concerns has high expectations for their future, but vow to never forget their past. This record is a tribute to both.

It’s awesome getting bands in here to record their full length albums, so we were really psyched to get New York City band Heartbreak Renaissance in to work on their upcoming full length debut album. Heartbreak Renaissance is actually fronted by our very own music producer Roman Molino Dunn, and it is his Emo/Pop-punk project. He’s pretty determined to make sure “emo” isn’t a dirty word anymore, pop-punk for that matter too. And, we know as an NYC recording studio that there really isn’t enough good pop-punk or emo coming out of New York City, that needs to change!

Heartbreak Renaissance has taken about a year to get this album fully tracked, and mixed, and Roman isn’t taking any shortcuts with this one. We’ve spent countless hours with him recording guitars, bass, vocals, and now drums. They’ve spent the last year laying down the guitars, bass, and vocals and getting them perfect before bringing in their drummer to really slam it home. It was a really cool approach since in most albums the drums are one of the first things we do. But doing it this way brought a totally new perspective to it, and gave the drummer such a pivotal role in the flavor of the songs (something we think is really missing these days). No simple backbeats or dime-a-dozen grooves, this stuff is full and intricate, but without losing too much emo or pop-punk flare.

Since the drums were going to be so important for this album, we decided that we were going to record the drum kit as detailed as we could. We actually ended up hanging 14 microphones on a 10 piece drum kit, and boy was it crispy. Here’s all the places we decided to hang a microphone: snare top, snare bottom, kick front, kick back, little rack tom, big rack tom, small floor tom, big floor tom, hi-hat, stereo overhead pair, room stereo pair, and room mono. The goal here was to have more than we needed for parallel compression, punchy toms, and epic space. We can’t wait to hear how these mixes turn out! Follow Heartbreak Renaissance on their Reverbnation Page to follow their release dates.

A few years back we recorded the epic rock band The Orion Experience. They are really well known for their song “New York City Girl” which was used all over the world and placed on TV shows. These guys were the real deal and even had an Off-Broadway show once! Anyway, if you haven’t heard of them, I suggest you go to Spotify right away and check them out. Anyhow, these last two weeks, among other projects, we have been on lock down in the studio with Orion Simprini recording his solo EP. I can’t give away too much about how it is gonna sound, but it’s sure to please. You can check out his work and follow his progress here.