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As anyone trying to schedule a mixing session at
Prairie Sun this January quickly found out,
Studio
A was booked solid with mixes back to back to
back! Another of these mixes was the new
album for
jazz/fusion jammers Garaj
Mahal, their third studio effort, with
engineer (and Garaj Mahal
drummer) Alan
Hertz at the board. The record, titled
"Woot," is
due for release in the coming months by Owl
Studios. Alan was also in Studio A
this winter with Marin County rockers American
Drag (for whom he also drums), sharing
mixing duties with respected producer/engineer Chris
Manning.
With Studio A spoken
for, a number of clients
opted to mix on the Flying Faders-equipped
classic Neve in Studio
B. For producer/engineer K
IV, however, the choice has always been
obvious: he wants to mix on the Neve,
regardless of A's availability (and he's not
the only one!). A regular Prairie
Sun visitor, K IV was in B this winter to mix
the new album for Portland-based artist Bryan
Free. While here, K IV and Bryan took
advantage of our guest lodging and some
unseasonably sunny weather, while the mixes
made use of our vintage outboard
gear and the live echo chambers. |
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Prairie Sun was happy to welcome back
Memphis- based blues/rock
guitarist Eric
Gales, who
visited to record
his third album
for the Shrapnel
Label Group's Blues
Bureau Records. Having recorded his last two
releases at Prairie Sun, Eric
returned to once again work with producer Mike
Varney and engineers Jason
D'Ottavio and Mark
"Mooka" Rennick. Rounding out Eric's trio
for this album were bassist Steve
Evans, a
veteran of Eric's last two albums, and drummer Jeremy
Colson, known for his work with
Steve Vai. The new album was tracked and mixed in
Studio's C
and B
and mastered by Tim
Gennert for Eugene
Productions.
Another frequent
visitor this winter was R&B
artist James
Elizabeth, tracking vocals for her
debut album with engineer Dale
"D-Wiz" Everingham in Studio's B and C.
Quickly becoming a star-studded affair,
James' album features tracks from such hot
producers as Mike
Mosley and Traxamillion,
among many others.
And while James was here, none other than Bay
Area hip hop
legend Too
$hort stopped by Prairie Sun to track his
guest appearance. To Bay Area hip hop fans,
D-Wiz is known for his work as a producer,
engineer, and/or mixer for such regional
heavyweights as Too $hort, E-40, and Lyrics Born. |
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Returning to Prairie Sun this winter was
multi-talented
singer/songwriter/pianist Kate
Van Horn, for further work on her new
album with staff engineer Matt
Wright at the board. With bassist Jeff
Martin and drummer Vic Carberry rounding out
her nimble trio, Kate recorded her basic
tracks live
in Studio B, making good use of our lovely
1960 Baldwin 9ft Concert Grand. Featuring
Kate's adroit songcraft and undeniable vocal
talents, the album, titled "Truce," is due
for further overdubs and a final mix in Studo
A before a
spring release.
Last but not least, this
winter season saw yet another excursion into
Abolitionist country. A songwriting,
recording, and performing spoken-word
collective, The Abolitionists comprise
primarily of Prairie Sun co-owner/founder
Mark "Mooka" Rennick and poet Jim
Cohn (pictured at right in Studio A), with
an ever- expanding, rotating cast of musicians
contributing their creative DNA. This time
around, Mooka set up camp
in Studio C, with staff engineer Matt Wright
manning the controls, and focused on finalizing
overdubs on a number of Abolitionist tracks
of varying vintages. Contributors this time
around included
Kate Van Horn, Jeff Martin, and frequent
Abolitionist Allen Sudduth, working on tracks
featuring such heavy hitters as drummer
Prairie
Prince and guitarist Steve
Kimock. |
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Prairie Sun Staff Profile: Matt Wright, Staff Engineer
For a young first engineer, Matt has already developed a substantial credit list, including work with the Boxcar Saints, Kate Van Horn, The Cannery, Acute, Jay Farrar, and The Abolitionists, among others. While not in the studio, Matt provides Prairie Sun a number of other valuable services, including gear maintenance, intern recruiting, and editing the Prairie Sun Newsletter you are now reading. :-) Mooka's Notes: As our subscribers know, I love to use this section of the newsletter to talk gear, and recently I've turned all of my gear-related thoughts towards microphones... It started all over again with the acquisition of a pair of vintage, sequential serial numbered Neumann U67's. Absolutely lovely mics, but of course the first step with any vintage purchase is get them to an expert and check them over, do the routine maintenance, etc. This time, on the recommendation of engineer Sean Beresford, I decided to try mic guru Toby Foster in southern CA. I must say, working with Toby has been excellent, and most educational. Toby is one of those individuals who has discovered all of the places where Neumann made questionable component selections, had to compromise design based on market demands, or otherwise did not meet the high engineering standards their microphones tend to exhibit. His minimally-intrusive work on the 67's was such a pleasing sonic upgrade that I quickly had him perform similar work on our KM85's, and give my beloved U47 a routine checkup. We also continue to work with our friend Tracy Korby in Nashville; he currently has one of my Korby KAT system capsules in the shop, which, when returned, will emulate the venerable Sony C800. Meanwhile, as my interest in classical recording continues to grow, I decided to invest in a stereo pair of DPA 4006-TL omni mics, complete with DPA's elegant stereo bar system. DPA, of course, is well-respected by classical recordists as an industry standard for their uncompromisingly accurate microphones, but I quickly found them useful on a pop session, recording our Baldwin piano, where they sounded absolutely huge. I wish I could say that's all, but I can't. Back in our September 2007 Newsletter, I sang the praises of the Barefoot Sound MicroMain27s. While using them involved a short learning curve, when I began translating mixes done on them there was an immediate payoff. Often, mixes can sound amazing in a big control room and not so hot in the real world, but mixes done on the Barefoots simply work outside of the studio environment, perhaps better than with any speaker I have used in the past 30 years. The separation of lows, mids, and highs also gave me more detail and distinction in my mixes than I've been able to manifest with the rest of our monitor collection, which as our engineers know is quite substantial. I was lucky enough to meet the designer and owner of the company, and I can tell you that there will be more to come from Thomas Barefoot. If you remember, in September I predicted that they would quickly gain favor with our staff and visiting engineers. The speakers have proven so popular that I had no choice but to buy a second set! They are on a long waiting list, so I want to shout out to PK Pandey and Vintage King Audio for their help in procurring these cutting-edge tools of the trade.
Cheers,
Mark "Mooka" Rennick
Prairie Sun Recording
email:
mooka@prairiesun.com
phone:
(707) 795-7011
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P.O. Box 7084 Cotati, CA 94931 tel: 707-795-7011 fax: 707-795-1259 email: info@prairiesun.com |
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