 |
|
|
"NEW YORK, NEW YORK: BIG APPLE RECORDING STUDIOS"
BY ROBERT ALEXANDER, Audio Media Magazine, October, 1997
On the eve of the 103rd AES Convention, at the Jacob K. Javits Center in
downtown New York, Audio Media Editor Robert Alexander visits some of the Big
Apple's best known, and widely respected recording facilities for an update
on the NYC recording scene.
They say that people either love or hate New York City. It's one of those places
that you can either enjoy, and get on with, or take an instant dislike to and never
wish to return. Personally, I love the place, and have always been drawn to return.
New York is also, obviously, a favourite place for many recording artists judging by the sheer
number of world-class studios that it has to offer, many of which have recently been further
upgrading their facilities. With a view to exploring some of the arguably best known and
highly regarded recording studios in town, I flew to New York recently to see for myself some of the
changes that have been happening there.
RIGHT TRACK RECORDING AT 21 -- BARRY BONGIOVI
My first stop is Right Track Recording, where I am met by General Manager Barry Bongiovi.
As you may have guessed from his name, he is related to rock artist Jon Bon Jovi (his cousin),
who has changed his name a little from the original Italian. Baryy greeted me in his office which, like most of the
walls in the building on West 48th Street (which Right Track Recording totally dominates), is
covered with gold and platinum discs from just about every recording artist that has enjoyed any degree
of success in the music industry.
Barry Bongiovi evidently delights in relating the success that Right Track is currently
enjoying, as the studios expand further into the building, and new consoles arrive seemingly
constantly -- and all this during Right Track's 21st anniversary celebrations.
"At Right Track Recording we have three main recording studios," Barry told me, "the first of
which (Studio A) contains a recently installed Neve VX 96-input console [see Audio Media
February 1997]. This is our largest tracking room, with four spacious isolation booths in addition to the main live
area. Studio B houses a Neve Capricorn digital console, and is our second largest
tracking room and, in Studio C, we have an SSL SL9096J with a recording space that has
a wonderfully live characteristic. The main room
has a 21-foot ceiling, and we have designed
the surrounding areas to be integrated to make this studio extremely versatile.
All the control fooms are very spacious in the trhee facilities; they are designed
that way to be able to accommodate a lot of electronic recroding that
goes on these days with acoustic recording. I thing I can say, without reservation, that we are
probably one of the only studios in the world where there is as much technology -- and
new technology at that -- under one roof.
"Assistant engineers have to be trained to a very hgih degree because of this. The training
that is done for each of these rooms has to be comprehensive, because engineers have to able to switch
between them. Some projects will stay in one room the whole time, although we have
recently completed a project with Pat Metheny that moved throughout the entire building."
"Pat moves from room to room as needed -- for instance, he will be tracking for four weeks in
Studio A, then he will move to either Studio B or Studio C to do guitar with
various overdubs, and percussion with oeverdubs, and then the musicians will start doing their
vocals and mixing in Studio B for the main project. In the two or three months that Pat
and his musicians were here at Right Track, they used all three rooms."
"We often have outside engineers coming into the facility, so our engineers have
to be that much sharper because they have to be able to run the sessions smoothly
so that the engineers and the clients feel comfortable -- they are all pretty sharp,
our guys."
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
I asked Barry about the 21st anniversary of Right Track this year: "We have 'come of age' as
Simon [Andrews, owner of Right Track Recording] says. The studio atarted out as a small demo-type
studio 21 years ago. Simon Andrews was basically the innovator of the whole thing and, as time
went on, Simon's reputation as a very good businessman and a very honest
person allowed the facility to grow. Right Track has always had the reputation of being
cost-effective, and Simon carried that on through the years until 1981
when he got his first Solid State Logic console."
"It was put in Studio A and, from this day on, Simon has been at the leading edge of technology
with everything that he does, we are a highly specialised
facility that still feels like it
has a very laid back atmosphere, it never boils over, it occasionally boils under [laughs], but
it never boils over. This place is a very nice success story and, although I've only been part of the story
for two years, I am very proud to be involved."
"In Studio B we have the Capricorn, which is actually laid out as a 72-channel
surface, however, it's actually 256 channels/paths. Then, in Studio C, we have
the SSL SL9096J. It's an amazing place. It is an expensive place, but I
think that if there is a reason to come here, if the vibe is good and the atmosphere is conducive, then the
money is not that big a problem. There is always that level of performance and quality that
you need to get in a studio and that's what we offere at Right Track Recording."
Barry Bongiovi went on the answer the question, "What is it about New York, as a city,
that makes it a good place for a recording studio?"
"I've found that it lends an excitement to the industry; New York City has a certain vibe
factor, there are certain musicians in New York City, the way the studios
are situated in the Metropolis, things being so busy, and everybody moving at 100 miles an
hour all the time. It all adds to the excitement level, and I think that people come to
New York to record for that excitement as it makes a differenece to what they do. NYC did around $4
billion-worth of film work here last year, and helped to generate work which added to the list
of great projects we did. We did a lot of great stuff here last year, including music as
diverse as the last Metallica album, Load, to surround mixing the live
recording of Pavarotti and Friends, Warchild."
"The city looks cleaner that it's been in years. It's more alive, and there is a lot
more happening -- you can walk out of this building, go out into the city at one o'clock in the
morning, and there are still masses of people milling around. Six years ago you woudln't do that,
but now 42nd Street and Times Square have been cleaned up tremendously, and there is a
safe, almost carnival atmosphere down there."
"I think that this was the first time that Metallica had recorded in New York. The more I look
back on that time, the more I remember it -- they stocked the place with food and candy, we
had cable in every room and all kinds of games. It was just like a big playground -- and
they were insistent that the staff participated; the food was everybody's, the games were
everybody's. They had Studio C lounge to thenselves exclusively but, othere than that, there
was no territories, it was great."
|
|
|
