Prairie Sun News
- Winter News Update -
February 2007 - Vol 2, Issue 1
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Greetings!

Here at Prairie Sun we've been quite busy the first part of 2007, working on an incredible variety of sessions, and of course continuing our unending quest to find the best gear and make it available to our clients. Read on for session news:

To commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Oakland East Bay Symphony performed "Black Suit Blues," a piece that recalls the day of Dr. King's assassination. Composed by Dr. Nolan Gasser and with text by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., "Black Suit Blues' is one of four movements from the Gasser/Jones collaboration American Festivals. Prairie Sun Recording's sister company, Eugene Productions, was on hand to record the performance.

For the recording, engineer Mark "Mooka" Rennick and assistant Matt Wright brought some choice Prairie Sun gear to the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, including vintage Neumann microphones, our Korby KAT-4 mic systems, and the iZ RADAR 24 digital multitrack. For the main stereo pair, however, Mooka opted to audition the Crowley and Tripp Recordist Ensemble Stereo Kit ribbon microphones, kindly provided for evaluation by Chris Regan at Crowley and Tripp. Collaborating on mic placement with the Oakland Symphony's live recordist, Tom Johnson, Mooka was able to bring back to the studio a reference-quality multitrack recording. The mix was done in Studio B by Mooka and Jason D'Ottavio under the guidance of composer Gasser.

Last week in Studio A, we had the Two Gallants mixing their latest record with respected independent engineer/ producer Alex Newport (At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, the Melvins) manning the board. An all analog session, the multitrack was played back from our Studer A820 and the final mixes were printed to our Ampex ATR-102 1/2" machine. Alex and the band tracked the record at San Francisco landmark Hyde Street Studios, one of Prairie Sun's favorite facilities across the Golden Gate.

Recently Prairie Sun was happy to welcome back to Studio A master engineer Oz Fritz for the mix of artist Wasis Diop's latest solo album project for the French Think Zik! label. Based in Paris, the Senegalese-born Wasis Diop has for years created his own unique blend of traditional African music, pop, jazz, and world music. The project was brought to Oz and Prairie Sun by Malick of the Big Bang Gang managment, promotion, and production team, who visited Prairie Sun for the mix. He, and Oz, will soon be back in the coming months for the tracking and mixing of a new album for another Think Zik! artist; folk, blues, and soul singer Grace.

Recently in Studio B we were happy to host California reggae band Rebelution, who spent a couple weeks tracking their record to 2" tape and Pro Tools with engineer Gene Cornelius. The album is now in the hands of respected reggae producer/engineer Jim Fox, who is mixing the record at his Lion and Fox Studios. As reggae fans may already know, Jim was responsible for engineering the last few records by homegrown reggae heavyweights Groundation, which were tracked here at PSR with Gene assisting. And last week in Studio C we had The Expendables, who returned to finish tracking their new album with producer/engineer Chris DiBeneditto.

Other recent Studio A clients have included shred-master Ethan Brosh, who mixed his first instrumental solo album in Studio A with staff engineer Jason D'Ottavio. The record features guest appearances by previous Prairie Sun clients George Lynch and Greg Howe. Jason also recently mixed Wayward Son's new record, which was then mastered by Tim Gennert for Eugene Productions. Engineer Adam Munoz also visited recently to mix the band Lick, and Oz Fritz was in again to mix a record for Tavana, which was also mastered by Tim Gennert.

Mooka's notes:

The Prairie Sun vintage guitar collection had until recently been severely lacking of one key instrument, but not anymore: we now have a refinished 1967 Fender Telecaster with Bigsby. I've already had the chance to try it out with our Two-Rock amplifier, and it's a rocker! In other gear acquisition news, we are continuing to outfit our new API sidecar with additional modules, including upping the number of 525 compressors to four. And in case anyone was concerned that Studios B and C were going to miss out on the API love, we also have purchased an 11-space API 500-series rack from Dale Epperson at Old School Audio (who reconditioned the PSR sidecar), complete with a couple OSA MP-1 mic pre-amps, that will allow us to take our API EQ's and compressors anywhere. Finally, on the reccomendations of a number of engineers, we decided to try a pair of the ProAc Studio 100 loudspeakers as nearfield monitors. Our staff quickly became enamoured with them, and so they are now serving duty in Studio A with my McIntosh 2500 power amp.

On the subject of gear and instruments, I have another exciting announcement. As you may be aware, Studio B is home to a gorgeous 1960's Baldwin 9ft concert grand, which since its arrival at PSR has recorded beautifully for countless projects. However, like any vintage instrument, this piano requires love and care, and so in recent months we contracted Robert Yambert, piano tuner and tech to the stars, to work his magic. And so, after he carefully worked the action to the point where he and I felt it should be, Robert undertook the arduous task of restringing the entire piano and reconditioning the dampers. The result is absolutely marvelous to hear.

And finally, the latest addition to Prairie Sun's drum locker has arrived thanks to our relationship with DW. Designed to be our compact kit for jazz, funk, or fusion, the set features a 20" kick drum, 10", 12", 14", and 16" toms, a matching 14" snare, and the impeccable craftsmanship and attention to detail that are a hallmark of DW's instruments. It joins the roster alongside our Pearl, Sonor, and larger DW kits.

Before closing, I wanted to offer my congratulations to a couple of Prairie Sun clients on their recent record releases. Just last week VH1 Classic Records released the Jack Blades-Tommy Shaw collaboration "Influence," which features tracks mixed here at Prairie Sun by Michael Lardie with Jason D'Ottavio assisting. And in the last few weeks Tom Waits' much anticipated new Anti release, "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards," has been receiving much critical acclaim and topped the recent Rolling Stone college radio chart. "Orphans" gathers together three CD's worth of unreleased songs and film-soundtrack material, a large portion of which was recorded in the live chambers in Studio C during Waits' 10-year stay at Prairie Sun.

Sincerely,


Mark "Mooka" Rennick
Prairie Sun Recording

phone: (707) 795-7011

  

P.O. Box 7084 
Cotati, CA  94931
tel: 707-795-7011
fax: 707-795-1259
email: info@prairiesun.com