I had a fantastic drum session with Russ Irwin (Aerosmith) and Anthony Thompson (24-7 Spyz).
Anthony is the energetic backbone of the New York band 24-7 Spyz and has a truly unique style of playing.
Russ Irwin is an amazing multi-instrumentalist and composer that has written songs for Aerosmith, Foreigner, Scorpions, and Meat Loaf to name a few. Check him out at: http://russirwin.com
The Duo is working on a new album featuring songs they have written together over the years. I can say they’ve written some great songs and Russ’s melodies are infectious! I will definitely share more when they release these songs!
Tracking musicians together, live, in the studio is absolutely one of my favorite things in the world. The energy between players is contagious and it’s so rewarding to hear the music come out of the speakers with a finished quality to it (well almost finished anyway!).
We decided to record Argus Roh‘s debut EP live. Except for the vocals we tracked drums, bass and guitars all together and it really came out well.
Alexis and Jason tracking together
I have the studio setup so drums can be in the main room, utilizing all the available space, and guitars can be in 2 separate ISO booths.
This allows the band to play together but still have complete separation between the instruments.
Because of this we were still able to do punches for any instrument if needed (we only did this once actually!).
The band featuring Sam Escobar (vocals), Alexis Argueta (drums), Rob Duarte (guitar, Jason Campos (bass) and Tony Atilano (guitar) did a fantastic job.
Most metal music nowadays is recorded in pieces so the band playing together added another level of excitement.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402 https://www.ultimatestudiosinc.com
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music! Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Contact us for more information about how we can help you achieve your musical goals!
Some sessions are brutal and then some sessions are BRUTAL!
Metal maniacs Bloodfeast ritual entered the studio to start recording their debut EP. Initially we did 6 days of tracking. 4 for drums and 2 for guitars and bass (they were loooong days!).
The drum sessions were really fun. Tom Tierney brought in his monstrous Tama Birch Babinga kit which is a gorgeous kit. We put all new Evans heads on everything before the initial tracking and tuned everything just right.
Our goal was to capture the actual drum sound for the EP live and not rely on samples to define the sound. To do that we spent a decent amount of time tuning and dialing in the tones.
With a kit this size it can be challenging to capture everything evenly so we spent a lot of time going around the kit to make sure everything was represented.
Once that was done it was all about getting Tom a good headphone mix and hitting the record button.
I’ll leave the rest of the details to the video but suffice it to say we had a TON of fun.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402 https://www.ultimatestudiosinc.com
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music! Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Contact us for more information about how we can help you achieve your musical goals!
One of my favorite parts of the music making process is when a band wants to record all together at the same time. Live off the floor. Not only is the energy from the band great but it’s also a challenge from the recording aspect.
Especially when their are 6 band member including drums, bass, 2 guitar players, saxaphone, harmonica, keys, sitar, tabla…and a second bass? Yep!
That is Paracosmic. They are funk, they are rock, they are blues, they are psychedelic and they are heavy on improv. That last part is why recording live is so important for a band like Paracosmic. They feed off each other every second of every song and it’s a lot of fun.
So how did we go about recording this band live here at Ultimate Studios, Inc? Very carefully!
We had Brandon Cooke (drums) setup in the live room with 16 mics. To open up some space in the room we decided to record the drums in the corner. Not only do the drums sound great there but it opens up room for the other musicians in the room.
Joining Brandon in the live room was Ashton Slater (guitar), Travis Soto (guitar/bass2) and Leo ‘Toad’ Meginley (bass).
For Toad we had a DI as well as a Mark Bass rig setup in the back room. That allowed Toad to have his tone in his ears as well as options for mixing. Both guitar amps were setup in the ISO booth separated by to 4” thick panels. The ISO is very dead and works well with multiple amps.
So far it’s pretty straight forward but it’s about to get interesting!
In the Control Room
With need for isolation for the keys, sax and flute Evan Hatfield (sax/keys/sitar) and Adrian Johnson (harmonica/flute) joined me in the control where we tracked them live with the rest of the band. To help get a little extra isolation between the sax and flute we setup a clear sonic shield between them. It worked really well too!
On one of the songs we tracked live sitar and table in the control room too. It was crowded for sure but it allowed the band to play together like they were used to. It sounded great!
A Page Unturned was back in the studio recording drums for two more singles. Drummer Ryan Sebold does an amazing job of laying down the foundation for this band. Part of the wave of pop-punk revival acts, A Page Unturned cited influences like Blink 182, New Found Glory, and Ellegarden, Creating energetic, melodic, fast-paced music that captures the essential roots of the 90’s/2000’s Pop-punk sound while creating a new exciting sound of their own.
For all of my sessions I like to talk with the artists before hand about what the goals are for the session. In this case Ryan and I talked at length about what type of sounds the band wanted for this round of songs. That helps me put together a plan on how best to achieve the artists goals. For these songs he wanted a big, aggressive, sound.
Choosing the Drums
Knowing that we used a combination of drums. My 18×22 Gretsch kick with an Evans Emad head, Ryan’s Pearl Forum toms with clear Remo Emperor heads, and Ryan’s Orange County Percussion snare drum with a Remo P77 head.
The Emad on the kick does a great job of giving a tight punchy low end while still having some high end smack to cut through the mix.
The clear Remo Emperors (my favorite) do a little better job of cutting through a mix than their coated counter parts. At least for this king of music where there is a lot happening in the songs.
Miking the Drums
I cover all the mic setup in the video but some of the stand outs for me are the Audio-Technica ATM250/Roswell Pro Audio Mini K47 combo on the kit. This combo give me the good note definition I need with a good solid low end that is fast and punchy.
Add in some DBX 160x on the inside kick mic and we’ve got one hell of a kick sound.
The snare was a combo of an SM57 and AKG 451b on top and a SM57 on bottom. The top mics get a little eq from the Trident 88 and some compression from my Aphex 651 Expressors.
lately I’ve been leaning towards my Heil PR30 for hi-hats. They are not harsh like a condenser but still have really good articulation.
Those mics comprise the core of the setup. The rest you’ll have to watch the video for. 🙂
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Recording Percussion with Ed Roscetti & Maria Martinez
Getting to work with people that helped shape you as a musician is always a special treat. I had an absolute blast recording percussion with Ed Roscetti and Maria Martinez. Many moons ago I studied with both of them at Musicians Institute. Ed taught me how to play a true shuffle (we spent 3 weeks doing 1 single exercise until I could make it feel right!) and Maria helped me understand that latin grooves weren’t mere patterns to better your independence, they were words of a language.
We spent an entire day recording percussion and shooting promo video for Ed and Maria’s World Beat Rhythms Workshops. These workshops are really cool and are totally interactive. Ed and Maria perform using drumset along with a variety of hand drums and percussion instruments, moving from one instrument to another in the ensemble (exactly how they did it while we recorded). Instruments include drumset, djembe, doumbek, shaker, surdo, d-jun-d-jun, conga, batas, clay tones, mambo bell, shekere, klong yaw, tumbadora. But the cool part is how they get the ENTIRE audience involved. Everyone there gets a chance at hands on learning. It’s cool.
For our day of recording I had the challenge of setting of a mic configuration that would allow Ed and Maria to go to any instrument at any time and still capture that sound well. Whether it was the drumset, djembe, shakers, congas, surdo or tambourine, they needed the freedom to create and I had to capture it. At the same time all the instruments had to be in frame since they were recording with only 1 camera.
After a pre-production call with Ed about how they wanted to stage the instruments in the room I came up with a plan that would hopefully give them freedom to move where they wanted and not miss a note. It worked out really well so I decided to shoot a little behind the scenes video of the setup.
Watch behind the scenes footage from the session below.
About Ultimate Studios, Inc
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
New Ultimate Studios, Inc Recording Studio Trailer
Recording, Mixing, Mastering, Video Production. Yes of course we do all of these things. Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio in Los Angeles. Continue reading →
The good vibes and killer grooves of Dankrupt once again invaded the studio. Joined by drummer RJ Shankle and Producer Sean Gould, the band recorded drums for their upcoming EP.
Even though we were only tracking drums the whole band played together in the live room. This is such a wonderful way to make music. Giving RJ maximum vibe for his performance!
Dankrupt is a GREAT band! They is pure joy every time they play. Here is a short video from that day in the studio.
As far as sessions go it went pretty smooth. Working with professional musicians like Chad & Kevin make my job as an engineer pretty easy. Kevin and I had talked quite a bit in the weeks leading up to the session so I had a pretty good idea on what type of tones they wanted.
We decided to use a vintage Rogers Holiday kit restored by a good friend of mine Kurt Berger and drum whisperer Chris Heuer. It is a truly amazing drum set. I love all of my kits but that kit just has the “it” factor. It really is amazing.
Kevin brought his Mark Bass rig which is a piece of cake to record. Although Kevin could make any bass rig sound good the Mark Bass is bad ass.
All in all this was a really fun day in the studio. Tarja joined us via Skype from Buenos Aires and stayed on for the entire session. Once we’d get a track we would also send them an MP3 to listen to. This is one of the great ways that technology has made our lives better. It was an international session!
Tarja is a wonderful person and an amazing artist. Check the new album out at www.tarja-theshadowself.com. Links to purchase the album are below.
Anyway let’s get to the video! I’ll post a full list of the mics used and a few photos below too.
Some sessions are fun…and then some sessions are FUN!
Few drummers can lay down a groove like Chad Smith. Few bass players can lay down a groove like Kevin Chown. Together, they form an unstoppable rhythm section. For most musicians watching them work together would be the ultimate educational experience.
They are not only masters at their crafts but they understand that music is made by collaboration. By working together, they create parts they lay the foundation for great music.
Now mix that formidable rhythm section with rock superstar, Tarja Turunen, and you’ve got yourself one hell of an album!
“Eagle Eye“, from Tarja’s new album “The Brightest Void“, is a track that features Chad Smith on drums. We filmed the entire session (almost 10 hours!) and have put together an awesome, in-studio, music video feature Chad & Kevin with the final audio from the album!
Tomorrow we’ll roll out some behind the scenes footage from the session so stay tuned!
