Recorded in a bigtime studio last night

[Greg_L]

I did some tracks for one of my bands in a major pro studio last night. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

Sugarhill Recording Studio

Supposedly this is the longest continuously running studio in the US.

I recorded in the exact same room that The Big Bopper did "Chantilly Lace". Lol. I walked the same hallowed halls and rooms as Beyonce. Double lol. Beyonce apparently has a big presence at this place. She was everywhere. And Willie Nelson. Pretty diverse mix of shit was done here.

Anyway, it was really cool. The vintage gear they have there is mind blowing. I've never seen so many tape machines in one place. Lots of 1073 channel strips and other Neve this and that. And the building is like a maze. Watching the engineer fly around from console to rack gear, always fiddling with stuff that made no discernible audible difference to anything was a lot of fun. I can't wait to go back.

My weapon for the night.

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The mics - U47, MD421, and an RE320. It was really interesting to watch the engineer mic my cab. He spent little to no time worrying about anything. And then it just sounded great. I *think*, I'm not 100% sure, but I think I saw/heard him "phasing" the mics with a knob on the console. He didn't worry too much about lining up the capsules. They were close, I looked, but he did it by ear with a knob. Anyway, the sound in that room was glorious. Honestly though, my pro recorded tracks didn't sound any different from what my hack ass records here at home. We'll see what the finished difference is.

Control room and live room. I didn't snap many pics. Felt weird. I'll be back in two weeks. I'll get more.

Big Bopper was here.

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[JD01]

That's really fucking cool.
Your amp? Did you end up with your sound?

[Greg_L]

That's really fucking cool.
Your amp? Did you end up with your sound?

My amp, their cab. They had a lot of cabs to choose from. I went with an early 80s JCM 800 cab. Shocker!

Yeah it still sounded like me.

[Lt. Bob]

That's way cool ...... the amount of room a big studio has is wonderful ..... it feels so .... well, roomy for lack of a better word.

That's cool mang!

How'd this come to be?

[vomitHatSteve]

That's pretty sweet.

I feel like loud guitar amps are probably pretty forgiving to record. They impose their will on the room and mics rather than the inverse.

[Greg_L]

That's way cool ...... the amount of room a big studio has is wonderful ..... it feels so .... well, roomy for lack of a better word.

That's cool mang!

How'd this come to be?

I joined this band several months ago and they already had the time booked. They'd started five songs already and we went back in and redid them with my parts added. We were there for about 4 hours last night. The other guys redid rhythm guitar and bass, I did my rhythms and leads. Drums stayed the same. It was all very orderly and efficient because we've been playing these songs for a while.

That's pretty sweet.

I feel like loud guitar amps are probably pretty forgiving to record. They impose their will on the room and mics rather than the inverse.

That's an interesting way to put it, and I think it's probably true. It might partially explain why my tracks in that studio with all that gear still pretty much sounds like what I'd get at home. Maybe colors and character that's inherent in recording gear goes out the window when you smash them with 120db guitar tracks.

[JD01]

I joined this band several months ago and they already had the time booked.

So this isn't Crank Case or the weird clean tone death-metal guys?

[Bill L]

That's awesome! Something I always wanted to do. The band I just left in the spring was supposed to do this. I might still get a shot as a friend of mine will be doing his cd at Lakewest Studios and I'm trying to talk him into letting me play slide on a song or 2.

[Tadpui]

That is truly bad ass, man! Nice looking rooms. The treatment in the live room is making me drool.

[Greg_L]

So this isn't Crank Case or the weird clean tone death-metal guys?

Nope. This is the high-speed hardcore punk thing. The weird clean tone death-a-billy guys comes to an end this saturday.

That's awesome! Something I always wanted to do. The band I just left in the spring was supposed to do this. I might still get a shot as a friend of mine will be doing his cd at Lakewest Studios and I'm trying to talk him into letting me play slide on a song or 2.

Cool man, I hope that works out. I'd been in serious studios before, a thousand years ago when I didn't know anything or care, but as someone that's now really interested in recording, it's a big deal for me. I can appreciate it now.

That is truly bad ass, man! Nice looking rooms. The treatment in the live room is making me drool.

Dude, I honestly thought to myself "Tad would love this". They had your distressors as part of the rack. And patchbay madness! So much gear. You would have loved it. The bass traps in the live room were like columns. I thought they were actually concrete columns at first. I leaned a guitar case against one of them in the corner, and whoa, that thing is kind of soft. It's not a concrete column at all. It's a fucking three foot diameter bass trap.

[WhiskeyJack]

I uave heard of the place in my days of internetting and sniffing around for studio ideas and other odd ball stuff. That soinds pretty rad. Really cool to see how that all turns out. Nice mic selection on that cab too. Mighty sexy.

[Greg_L]

I uave heard of the place in my days of internetting and sniffing around for studio ideas and other odd ball stuff. That soinds pretty rad. Really cool to see how that all turns out. Nice mic selection on that cab too. Mighty sexy.

Yeah it was a lot of fun. I'm gonna get more pics and some vid next time.

[Minerman]

Very cool dude, definitely some eye-candy at that place...I myself like rack gear, although the only rack things I've ever used are my Tascam 16x08 & Furman power conditioner...

I just acquired a 65" tv, so I'm gonna try my 42" back here in the music room & eventually another bigger room that's in the works...I've been thinking about making a rack for my entire setup (computer, interface, etc), so I can just roll it in/out if I wanna (with the 19" monitor), like taking it to the church (where my nephew finally got electricity back/running again), for trying my hand at real drums...I'm gonna wait until it cools down later in the year though, I almost had a heat stroke a few days ago, literally...

Honestly though, my pro recorded tracks didn't sound any different from what my hack ass records here at home. We'll see what the finished difference is.

This is what first hit my mind when I started reading this thread, it'd be cool if you could get the raw tracks to compare to what most of us do at home...

Cool stuff man...

[Greg_L]

This is what first hit my mind when I started reading this thread, it'd be cool if you could get the raw tracks to compare to what most of us do at home...

Cool stuff man...

I doubt I can get the tracks but I heard them solo'd. It honestly just sounded like guitar tracks. It sounded like me, sounded like my usual tracks. There was no magic in any of it. All three mics blended together had a little something cool to it, a fuller sound with no harshness, but it was nothing mind blowing. The experience was great, the results were pretty typical. We'll see if something amazing happens during the mix.

[musicturtle]

Nice! It must feel good to just do the performing and not have to all the leg work and hit record.

I have only done it a few times in my life but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Plus it looks like a mighty nice place to make a record.

[Greg_L]

Nice! It must feel good to just do the performing and not have to all the leg work and hit record.

Yes! That!

[rayc]

Excellent. I hope to hear as well as see some time soon.

[Greg_L]

Here's a poorly narrated semi-drunken drunken video tour series

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/hfO7ntv-zhA[/BBvideo]

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/_e5h5wYaIz8[/BBvideo]

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/dA4jvCCKUNI[/BBvideo]

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/dYj-6d-KiDM[/BBvideo]

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/DFVGihPxgbY[/BBvideo]

[JD01]

That's really cool, mate.
They have a lot of old shit there that's probably gathering dust! Did they even have a vinyl press?

The guy tracking vocals in video 4 sounds British.

Greg, do you own a pair of trousers

[Greg_L]

That's really cool, mate.
They have a lot of old shit there that's probably gathering dust! Did they even have a vinyl press?

Actually, I think they do. All that ancient tube/tape gear actually works and you can use it...for a fee. A reel of tape is like 350-400 dollars. That's 30 minutes of music. No thanks, I'll stay with unlimited 1s and 0s.

The guy tracking vocals in video 4 sounds British.

Lol he definitely isn't. He's a boozy smoker.

Greg, do you own a pair of trousers

You mean jeans? Yeah, lots. But it's summer, and it's triple-digit degrees. I'm not fucking wearing jeans unless there's a damn good reason to.