News

Dec

2014

Tita Hutchison Releases “Hello Love”

I was fortunate to work with one of my dearest friends, Tita Hutchison, on her debut EP “Hello Love”. Throughout the years we’ve worked on many different projects and shared the stage many, many times but this project is the most special to me and I was extremely honored when she asked me to mix “Hello Love”. What I didn’t know then was that it would be so much more than just mixing….

“Hello Love” Available On iTunes

I got to spend about a week and a half mixing, arranging, recording, and re-recording with another one of my best friends Tim Pedersen. We had a blast and did a LOT of experimenting. On two songs we tracked drums using a gorgeous ’67 Rogers drum kit with a 20″ kick, 12″ rack tom, 14″ floor tom, and a 14″ Yamaha Anton Fig snare. Tim let me experiment with some very unconventional micing techniques too. The goal was to capture a sound that fit the emotion of the song with tons of vibe.

Here’s one of the unique setups:

On the kick we used an SM57. There was no hole in the kick and the 57 gave us a nice punch. We used a pillow against the outside head to make the note nice and short. An Audio-Technica AT4080 ribbon mic as a mono overhead placed above the floor tom, a Shure S55 placed between the rack tom and hi-hat, facing the snare and angled slightly down, and an MXL Cube for a mono room mic. All I can say is WOW! What a cool sound. Tim didn’t use any crashes. He used two rides instead; a Paiste Formula 602 and a Paiste Dark Energy Mark I along with 15″ Paiste Formula 602 hi-hats.

We re-tracked Tita’s vocals on one song too. She is such a fantastic singer and super easy to work with in the studio. We used an Audio-Technica 4060 tube mic going into an Overstayer VCA compressor and GAP Pre73 DLX mic pre. It sounded simply amazing. Of course when you have a great singer recording is easy! 🙂

Tim and I took quite a few chances during the mixing process too. I prefer mixing mostly analog so we had a pretty old school process. We used our hands for automation, we panned things in ways that modern music wouldn’t allow, and we treated mixes likes takes. Doing multiple passes until we got a good one. The entire process was very musically satisfying. I’m very proud of our work and I hope you all enjoy it too.

Tita put a fantastic cast of characters together for “Hello Love”. Michael Thompson on Guitar, Leland Sklar on Bass, Tim Pedersen on Drums (and producing!), Christian Klokovits on Piano, Lao Tizer on Piano, Justin Apergis on Bass, Travis Newlon on Guitar, Tim Mcintyre on Drums, Sahara Thompson on additional backing vocals, Zach Thompson on percussion

I would like to say thank you to Tita and Tim for the opportunity to work with them on “Hello Love“. I’m really proud of this EP!

Charlie

More info about Tita and links to purchase “Hello Love”.

www.TitaHutchison.com
Tita’s Facebook page
“Hello Love” on CD Baby
“Hello Love” on iTunes

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: Charlie, Tita, & Tim

Dec

2014

Rockin’ Music For Your Christmas Festivities!

King Crazy – “A Rockin’ Christmas” EP!

A Rockin’ Christmas on iTunes!

King Crazy didn’t simply cover a few holiday songs, they put their own twist on them with some clever arrangements, rockin’ guitar riffs, thundering drum grooves, lots of cool vocals and a touch of organ just to top things off.

King Crazy’s band members Brian “Hacksaw” Williams (vocals), Ernesto Homeyer (guitar), Menno Verbaten (bass) and Charlie Waymire (drums) are joined by a truly talented cast of musicians including Tony Landers (piano on “White Christmas”), Gary Pritchard (piano & organ on “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”), Leslie Jones (sax on “White Christmas”) and Nicole Carson & Aubrey Buchanan (all background vocals).

With rockin’ and fun renditions of “Jingle Bell Rock” & “White Christmas”, the groovin’ blues shuffle version of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to the AC/DC-esque track “Winter Wonderland” we’re sure that “A Rockin’ Christmas” will not only be a great addition to your holiday music catalogue but will jump start your holiday office parties too!

It’s time to bust out the Eggnog and crank up the Christmas tunes!

“A Rockin’ Christmas” is available on iTunes and at CDBaby!

Get yours now!

Check out Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow. Enjoy!

Nov

2014

Marty O’Reilly Live in Studio! (w/Video)

I love working with bands live in the studio. It’s such a wonderful way to record. It’s not always easy when you have drums, amps, and vocals in the same room playing at the same time but I love the challenge. When it works it’s just fantastic! Recently I got to work with Marty O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra. They were on tour and had a day off after their show in LA. Derek from PMI Audio had worked with them before and wanted to get them in the studio to track through the Trident 88 console and shoot some video.

Our goal was to capture true live performances of Marty and his band with no overdubs whatsoever. Marty has such a cool vibe and the band really felt comfortable playing together in the room with no monitoring or headphones. Very, very organic.

For this session bleed had to be my friend because everything was bleeding into everything! Because of that I wasn’t too worried about getting a lot of separation and decided to use as few mics as possible. The drums have 4 mics, guitar has 1 mic, vocals, 1 mic, the upright actually had 3 mics but I only ended up using 2. I had 2 room mics, one in the middle of the group about 2 feet off the ground set to omni, and a spaced pair of condensers facing the wall behind the band. Getting the mic placement correct was imperative since I wouldn’t have a ton of control after the fact.

Everything was recording through the Trident 88. See below for a complete list of mics used.

Enjoy the music!
Charlie

Kick: Audio-Technica AT4047
Snare: Audio-Technica Pro63
Overheads: Studio Projects C4s
Guitar Amp: Cascade Fathead II
Bass Amp: Audio-Technica AT4047
Clipped to Bridge: Audio-Technica ATM350
Mounted on bass: Troll Ribbon Mic
Room 1: Audio-Tecnica AT4047MP set to Omni
Stereo Rooms: Audio-Technica AT4050

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Enjoy some photos!

Oct

2014

Lots Of Great Music Happening @ Ultimate Studios, Inc!

The best way to make great music is to work with great musicians. And that’s exactly what’s been happening at the studio! In our ongoing quest to bring great music to music lovers all over the world we’ve been trying to capture as many performances on video as possible. This is just the beginning!

“We’ve been hard at work on some really exciting projects that we’ll be releasing very soon. Both audio and video. I’m extremely excited and can’t wait to get this stuff out to music lovers everywhere!”, says Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire

We’ve put together a playlist of some recent live studio performances. We hope you enjoy them and feel free to share!!!

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Oct

2014

Drew Chadwick Recording Live @ Ultimate Studios, Inc! (w/video)

Drew Chadwick (formerly of Emblem3) was recently at Ultimate Studios, Inc recording a live version of his song “Jaiden”. He is an amazing talent and is currently working on his first solo release. We’ve been honored to have it at Ultimate Studios, Inc a few times now and captured a great performance, with video, at a session recently. He’s playin’ solo and using a loop box to build his arrangement. It’s pretty cool!

Charlie’s rundown of the gear!

“I’ve had a blast working with Drew. He is such a talented guy. When we talked about this session it was just going to be a simple acoustic song but he went out of his way to come up with a really cool arrangement using his loop pedal. It’s still just Drew playing acoustic and singing but the use of the loop pedal really allowed him to add some cool rhythmic and vocal layers as the song progresses.”

“For the vocals we used an Audio-Technica 4060 tube microphone. I really like how the 4060 sounds on his voice. We used it on a previous session and loved it. For the vocal that was going through the loop pedal we used a good ‘ol fashioned SM57 and it worked very well. Since it’s not remotely as open and upfront as the 4060 the layered vocals sat well behind the lead without having to do too much to it. We decided to take a direct feed of the guitar instead of a mic since he would be moving around while performing. It sounded good and made it easier for Drew. We split that feed; one direct into the Trident 88 and one to the loop pedal.”

“The loop pedal fed my Bugera BC30 amp. It’s clean and works rather well in a situation like this. We used two mics on the amp. An Audio-Technica 4050 large diaphragm condenser a couple feet away from the amp and an MXL R144 ribbon mic. They provided a nice contrast to each other and blended nicely together.”

“All of the mics and direct signals were recorded through the Trident 88’s discreet class A mic preamps. They are fantastically open and full sounding. Everything just sounds really good through them. I also mixed the song back through the console using a little eq here and there. Not too much but the eq on the T88 is wonderful. A little here and a little there and I get just what I need”

For more information on Drew Chadwick visit him at:
www.facebook.com/truechadwick
www.twitter.com/truechadwick
instagram.com/truechadwick

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Oct

2014

Recording Strings w/Sandesh Nagaraj (w/video)

Sandesh Nagaraj (aka. The Sonic Chameleon) is no stranger to Ultimate Studios, Inc and is an immensely talented musician, composer, arranger, and conductor. There is a reason he is known as the Sonic Chameleon. Sandesh has recorded at Ultimate Studios, Inc for many years now and no two sessions have been alike. From rock, metal, and jazz, to indian and classical. Sandesh moves through styles with ease and always brings top notch musicians with him.

On this session Sandesh is conducting a string quartet, featuring Mary Keating & Jordan Slocum on Violin, Brandon Encinas on Viola, and Billy Tobenkin on Cello, recording on a track for MTV in India. Here’s a little video from the session.

Charlie gives a rundown of the gear used

“We were going for a very natural and open sound and the class A mic pres on the Trident 88 are perfect for this. They sound absolutely wonderful and did a fantastic job of capturing a smooth and open string sound.”

“For microphones I went to my trusted Audio-Technicas. They really make fantastic sounding mics! I always get the sound I’m looking for from them. For the violins I used AT4051b small diaphragm condensers, on the cello I used an AT4047 large diaphragm condenser, and a pair of AT4080 ribbon mics in a blumlein arrangement to capture the entire ensemble. The viola was a little darker compared to the violins so I used an AKG 451b which helped bring out some presence. I really think we captured the perfect sound for the track.” says engineer Charlie Waymire

Mary Keating & Jordan Slocum on Violin, Brandon Encinas on Viola, Billy Tobenkin on Cello, and Conductor Sandesh Nagaraj

Charlie on working with Sandesh

“Working with The Sonic Chameleon is always a pleasure! Besides being a fantastic musician he is a wonderful person too. We have a lot of fun working together. His music is so diverse that I have to treat every session completely different. There is no standard mic setups. He also allows me to experiment and really try to come up with mic/gear setups that will fit his music. We’ve done some pretty strange setups! I’m always looking forward to the next session with Sandesh!”

Enjoy some photos from the session!

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: Sandesh Nagaraj discussing chart changes

: Sandesh conducting the string quartet

: Mary Keating & Jordan Slocum on Violin, Brandon Encinas on Viola, Billy Tobenkin on Cello, and Conductor Sandesh Nagaraj

: This area is for strings only! 🙂

: Sandesh Nagaraj conduction the string quartet

Sep

2014

Mike Avenaim & Sun Rai Live @ Ultimate Studios, Inc!

Real Drum Tracks Now recently had it’s launch party at Ultimate Studios, Inc. It was a fantastic night that featured some amazing musicians playing music.

“We had an absolute blast at the launch party. I’m honored to be working with so many great drummers. A few of the guys put bands together and performed for a fun and energetic crowd at the studio. Let me just say that these guys are all awesome!!!” says engineer and Real Drum Tracks Now CEO Charlie Waymire.

We’re still working through some of the video from the evening but we are happy to put out to the world a fantastic performance by Sun Rai and Mike Avenaim. Sun Rai is an amazing keyboard player and songwriter and Mike is one bad ass drummer. If you’ve never seen either perform then you’re going to LOVE this video. Sun Rai is playing moog bass, keys, and singing at the same time!!

Mike’s groove is simply amazing! He’s rock solid and knows how to get a killer sound out of the kit. Because of that skill Charlie was able to capture Mike live with only 5 microphones! Great drummers make recording easy and fun!

Real Drum Tracks Now is the premier service for getting amazing drum tracks. We have 8 amazing drummers on the roster, an amazing engineer (Charlie Waymire) that knows how to record drums, and a studio built for awesome drum tones, Ultimate Studios, Inc! Meet the entire Real Drum Tracks Now Drummer Roster!

For more information on Real Drum Tracks Now visit www.RealDrumTracksNow.com. To hire Mike Avenaim for your next recording visit Mike’s Real Drum Tracks Now profile page and click the HIRE button!

Enjoy the music video!

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Sep

2014

View All 3 Trident 88 Teaser Videos!

The new Trident 88 console has been working overtime since being installed a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been completely blown away with how this Trident 88 sounds both while mixing and tracking and are excited to show you this fantastic console!

I am extremely excited to have the Trident 88 at Ultimate Studios, Inc. Whether I’m tracking drums, guitar, bass or mixing the Trident 88 just makes everything better. There is a reason why some of the best rock records of all time were recorded on Trident consoles and the new Trident 88 is destined to continue that tradition!” says Ultimate Studios, Inc owner and engineer Charlie Waymire.

Check out the 3 Trident 88 teaser videos below and be sure to follow Ultimate Studios, Inc on YouTube! Learn more about the Trident 88 at www.TridentAudioDevopments.com.

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Sep

2014

Trident 88 Teaser Video #1 (w/video…duh)

Judging by all the messages we have received there is a lot of interest in the new Trident 88 Console….Well we’re going to tease you with a few short videos while we’re working on some bigger stuff.

Visit www.TridentAudioDevelopments.com for more info on the new Trident 88.

Here is the Trident 88 Teaser Video #1!!!

Featuring:
Charlie Waymire – Drums
Ernesto Homeyer – Guitar
Pete Griffin – Bass

Stay tuned for video teaser #2 tomorrow!

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Sep

2014

Raz Azraai Releases New Single! (w/video)

Guitarist Raz Azraai has just released his new single “I Feel Alive”. The drums for “I Feel Alive” were recorded at Ultimate Studios, Inc by Stanley Love. Along with Raz Azraai on guitar and Stanley Love on drums the vocal duties were handled by Evan Rodaniche of Cage 9.

Fans of rock and real guitar playing are going to love this track. It’s energy will flat out floor you!

“We had a fantastic time recording drums on this track. Despite the song’s high intensity the vibe in the studio was super laid back and fun. Raz gave Stanley and I plenty of time to find the right drums for the track and ultimately the right tones. Stanley did a fantastic job on the track. I’m looking forward to working with them again!” says engineer Charlie Waymire

“Charlie is very enthusiastic about his work, he knows what to do right away, and make the drums sounds world class. Satisfying experience working with him and Ultimate Studios, the place to record in LA.” says guitarist Raz Azraai

Give yourself a treat and check out the video! For more information on Raz Azraii visit his website at www.razazraaimusic.com.