dbstudios-shanghai.com

Though not quite looking down on creation I (along with ace Jersey bassist Luke Kessel & NYC drummer-on-drugs Joe Mahone) was not far from it, as we provided the musical backdrop for International Soul Brother Carlton J Smith at the world’s highest bar the Park Hyatt’s 92nd floor-no-less Music Room from 21st October 2009 – 23rd February 2010… packing the house with a heady mix of jaw dropping funk classics and always emotionally charged CJS originals… the crowds at times had to be seen to be believed and that would even include (as the band’s keyboardist) folks strutting their stuff on the back of my Yamaha boudoir grand.

And boy we saw it all… broken down elevators… flying bar stools… proposals of marriage… even had a guitarist walk off stage with his knickers in a twist mid-Summertime (now that was a first… and you can be sure he didn’t get to walk back on again) but hell we had fun… learned some new tunes on the way… but perhaps most of all we all took one step forward in that heady journey we think of as life and to quote our ever-the-man band leader:

“get down…”

cos when you’ve been on  top of the world what else is there you can do… unless maybe it’s time to start reaching for those stars… you just never know what might happen!!!

She’s young, beautiful and abundantly talented (and sxsfly – I’m not talking about you!!!) of mixed Han and Mongolian Ancestry, playing gu zheng, matouqin (Mongolian horse head fiddle) whilst singing in four languages (Mandarin, Sanskrit, Tibetan and her own personally invented language) Sa Ding Ding is the future of world music and when in 2008 we heard she was winning the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for the Asia-Pacific region we knew we couldn’t be far wrong.

So when at dbstudios we get a call asking if we have a spare two hours to record gu zheng for her next single we find ourselves (in spite of a completely overbooked diary) magic-ing an extra two hours into the day; a Sputnik a pair of Pulsars and away we went.

Zhang Yi (who is already an acclaimed pipa player and no stranger to dbstudios) made three flawless takes and before you could say Holy Himalayas the tracks were being Rapid Shared (www.rapidshare.com) to Beijing and from there Universal Studios London.

Learn more at:

http://www.sadingding.co.uk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_Ding_Ding

db studios (with all our purist analogue/high brow musical pretensions… who am i kidding!!!) has finally acquiesced and the DJs are rolling in thick and fast to do their mixes… well what does it take?!?

Aside from our standard studio rig… the macs… the project mix i/o… protools 8 (and ozone 4 mastering plug-ins) not much!!! A pair of Pioneer CDJ’s that fit your budget a decent submixer (a DJM 2/400) is just great and then that all important connection a pair of high quality RCA/jack leads.

These were not that easy to come by and i ended up getting my man james (see blogroll: sunnytone) to make me up a set; the net result… (dj danes was the first through the doors – hailing from Barcelona he produced a heady mix of house trance and techno)… blistering.

Then all you need to understand is normalisation the media you are mastering to and hey presto… mix-tastic!!!

http://thirdshift.nu/portfolio

Talk to any band leader and am afraid you’ll hear the same old cliche… things ain’t what they used to be… guys not rehearsed up… not knowing the changes… the hooks… the bridges… whatever it may be… you get the picture; well after yesterday’s dbstudios’ session I’m afraid I experienced very little that would persuade me otherwise.

We were “hohnered” (no prizes for her instrument of choice) to welcome Marion Campbell all the way from Stirling Scotland; now at 81 you might expect there to be a few glitches a few lapses of memory a few forgotten chord changes, but indeed nothing could be further from the truth; she laid down well over two hours of music played pretty well back-to-back ranging from Irish folk to Scottish ballads with even 45 minutes of modern tunes thrown in, with out a single sheet of music or chord prompt in sight… just wonderful!!!

A big thanks to Nick Watson (who many of you from Shanghai will indeed know) for bringing Marion (who is indeed his maternal auntie) to our attention and he’ll be the man to contact for the three album boxed set when all the material is finally mixed and mastered.

All studio buffs wondering how we recorded… well because of time constraints were we obliged to mike externally… a pair of Lunas (essentially one for each hand – the left hand mike (assuming a right handed player must have a good bass response) and a pair of overheard Pulsars to fill things out; more details check out:

http://tinyurl.com/cyjv8a

http://tinyurl.com/cdtw8o

Anyone living in Shanghai and hasn’t heard of Carlton J Smith then we can presume one thing… you don’t get out much!!!

And that would pretty well much apply to anywhere on the international music scene cos this cat’s a brother and a known brother… when you’re getting called “Soul Brother Number New” by none other than Alan Leeds (road manager for James Brown/Prince) then you know the man is packing; and along with his red hot band the “Mighty Magnificents” Joey Mahone (drums), Luke Kessel (bass), Menace (guitar), Joel Lindberg (keys) & the delightful Anne Evenou (lead/BVs) he’s recording his next drop at dbstudios.

We’ll keep you posted… meanwhile check out some of his previous tunes at:

http://www.myspace.com/trubeatproductions

Musicians and studios alike often put off buying or owning ribbon microphones (the ribbon refers to a thin aluminium, duraluminum or nanofilm ribbon placed between the poles of a magnet that may be damaged with careless usage) partly because of their at times heavy price tag, their (perhaps not entirely deserved) reputation for being overly fragile or maybe just a greater familiarity with the available range/s of cardiod and dynamic microphones; but from #dbstudios perspective all of those considerations will fly out the window when you actually listen to these babies, in a word unbelievable.

Originally developed in the 1920’s by Dr Harry F Olson of RCA; they went on to be a staple of radio and television broadcasting for many years to come because of their accuracy and to a certain extent flattering capture of sound, being it vocal or instrumental; only recently being featured extensively in studio and stage scenes from Olivier Dahan’s stunning recreation of Edith Piaf’s life both on and off stage La Mome.

Once again fast becoming a must-own for any serious studio you could do a lot worse than consider the AEA range, beasts such as the R44 or R84 (which even comes in a slightly more robust DJ version) available at outlets such as: 

http://atlasproaudio.com

http://mercenary.com

http://wesdooley.com

you can even pre-listen to your purchases at:

http://studioauditions.com

now you have no excuse!!!

As a studio engineer/producer if you don’t know something about click tracks you darn well should.

Nearly every band/musician (apart from those who really know their s###) will fight you tooth and nail… cos they want to record “live” (whatever that really means in a studio setting) and would prefer their drummer’s meandering sense of rhythm (seeing it as glamourously creative and spontaneous rather than is often the case downright meandering) as opposed to the discipline of playing against and recording over a click track; but if your goal is a truly polished end product then I advise you (& then it is for you to advise them) to think again!!!

So for each and every recording you make (with very, very few exceptions) go to Track (assuming you are working within Protools) and select Create Click Track; then you’ll have to think about the song’s tempo and meter (e.g. 92 bpm 2/4) but believe me this will, with some practice, come quicker than you think.

Set up some foldback headphones for your drummer and then in most instances (after laying down a guide/scratch guitar +/- vocal track) get your drums down, switch your session to “grid” (as opposed to “slip”) mode and your songs template will be ready.

From there… bass… guitar… keys… horns… vocals/BVs etc. and so on and very soon you’ll be one step nearer that studio sound you’ve heard a thousand times over yet never been able to achieve.

musicians struggling send ‘em off to: http://www.metronomeonline.com

limited click sounds try adding Xpand: http://tinyurl.com/bbftl5

In the old days (good or bad it’s all a matter of perspective) in addition to the house monitors (which would always include (and somebody please tell me why!!!) the inevitable Yamaha NS 10s) we would run any final mixes through a small set of radio speakers… why you may ask… well cos it was, and to a certain extent is, a place where a great deal of music is still consumed.

But nowadays there is a new standard (or to be more precise format) the MP3 and it’s why at #dbstudios we always “switch” all our final mixes at some stage into MP3 format and have a good listen… initially on our Harman/Kardon Sound Sticks II and then via i-tunes on our coveted nanochromatic using the standard suppy earphones, cos that is how the vast majority of music, at least for now is consumed.

You know it makes sense

#dbstudios is getting ready to welcome Anna Hughes’s Tricycle to the studio… and believe me if you haven’t heard of them yet… you’ll be downloading them to your sweaty little i-pods as fast as your firewire will allow before the summer’s over.

Comprised of Anna Hughes on bass and vocals (see ’nuff said) Gilbert Kuppusami on djembe & vocals (no stranger to #dbstudios having been involved with a host of projects including the Jimi Graham trio and most recently Lions of Puxi) and Gauthier Roubichou on all things vocal & percussion (also of Lions of Puxi) these cats are taking Shanghai by storm.

A heady Sade-esque (and I don’t use UK’s greatest soul voice of the 80’s name lightly) Latin American influenced djembe driven cocktail these guys in the right hands (and that would me!!!) could really go far… watch this space for updates.

When recording more is often less… in that you can decide not to use a track at the mixdown stage but you can’t (other than by digitally cloning) whip up a track out of thin air if it wasn’t recorded… well at the recording stage.

So that’s why at dbstudios you’ll often see us multi-miking in situations where many engineers may save themselves time and energy by using just one source microphone. Above is the way we miked Sam Hooper’s Fender Deluxe Reverb for his rhythm tracks.

An M-Audio Luna over the cone edge (which we later digitally cloned and panned to -33 and a Shure 57 which we later dropped through an Eleven LE vintage amp simulator and panned to +33). The resultant clean, rich, warm sound can be heard on Sam’s forthcoming album recorded at #dbstudios where the “only limit is your imagination”.