here is a picture
of my new studio.
please note the drum booth on the left.
a Ludwig jazz kit lives in there.
there's a vocal booth too.
it took a lot of work to build those rooms,
because i don't know what i'm doing.
the ceilings are only 7 feet high.
it's the basement of our old Brooklyn crib.
how do i present myself to you?
i'm not a pretentious cat,
and i'm really tired of marketing hype.
so my studio is not pretentious,
and i won't hype it to you.
however, if need be, i can hit you with
tracks i have recorded in this studio.
misinformation about recording is plentiful.
what does it take to make fresh recordings?
1. time.
2. a desire not to imitate -- no great record is a copy of
another great record.
3. a focused and loose band.
4. an engineer who listens to many styles of music.
5. some high quality digital converters.
6. the best pre-amps you can afford.
7. a good tape machine to master with.
8. a light touch with the compressors.
9. knowing when you're finished.
(to the right is my basement before i started building.)
here's a picture of sun studios in memphis.
a lot of killer records were made there.
it doesn't look complicated or fancy to me.
hey, nirvana's first disc cost $600.
you need a lot of loot to make airplanes.
anybody can make music.
however, not everybody makes great music.
the greatest studio in the world can't capture
a vibe that isn't there.
if you're a newbie, you need an engineer pointing you in the
right direction. if you know what you're doing, you need a collaborator.