Some say Kenny Aronoff is simply raving mad - he’s certainly a, um, bundle of energy - but we were fortunate enough to grab some video of the legendary drummer when he was in our recording studio playing on Owen Sartori’s Burst Records debut, Another Beautiful Day In The Cube. Check it out :

Cool link from Coudal Partners Fresh Signals this morning :

Recording Technology History

I sit here simultaneously speechless and bursting with questions.

Celemony, the makers of the amazing Melodyne, have announced Direct Note Access, which will be integrated into version 2 of their Melodyne plug-in. It offers… (wait for it)… TOTAL CONTROL OVER EACH NOTE IN POLYPHONIC SOURCES!

Beyond my initial reaction of “How the f**k is that even possible?”, I am already teeming with ideas. Watch the video right now.

(By the way, the video is NSFW if your boss doesn’t approve of its employees crapping in their pants).

I know, right? So many possibilities, so many liabilities (Daniel points out that this could forever alter the laws regarding sampling). Rest assured, Celemony will get a couple hundred of our hard-earned dollars, post-haste. [ms]

Coudal’s Fresh Signals points us to the incomparable WFMU, where they posted a video of Teo Macero talking about producing Miles Davis and his legendary Bitches Brew.

Absolutely worth a look if you love making music, recording studios, and record production.

Busy busy busy this month at Tosa Village’s finest recording facility :

• In Studio A : Hindsight has been finishing vocals for their full-length with Justin Perkins and liked it so much they decided to stay and track an entirely new song. Great having the guys around lately.
• We have 4 edit stations rocking seemingly around the clock getting the final pieces in place for the physical launch of our production music catalog. Thanks to Kyle, Josh, Mike, Belle, Renee, and Justin for chopping up the 30 second bits.
• Also in Studio A : we’re finishing up tracking the debut for The Color Truth, and we’re deep into vocal recording right now. Zach is sounding great, his voice gives off a little Rob Thomas vibe every once in a while. After an extensive microphone shoot-out, we decided on our vintage Telefunken U48 > Shadow Hills GAMA mic pre > DW Fearn equalizer > Distressor through our Crane Song HEDD convertor. Super stoked to start mixing soon.
• Gabriel, Kurt, Mike, and Barbara have all been in tracking at some point in the past few weeks, and we wrapped up tweaks on an AT&T project for Purple Onion (thanks, Nick!).
• And we hope to start a full length project with The Farewell Circuit soon… finalizing details over the next few weeks.

If you’re in the area and want to come by and check out the studio, give our chief engineer, Kyle, a shout via email… we’d love to show you around and find out more about your project.

See you soon!

One of our favorite new bands has been featured as one of 8 acts to watch in 2008 by Spin Magazine.

Chester French is gearing up for their spring ‘08 debut release, Love The Future, on Pharrell’s Star Trak/Interscope imprint.

As we’ve posted previously, we were stoked to be part of this project back in July of last year when we tracked horns for these up and comers.

Now they’re revving the hype engine and regularly updating their myspace blog and facebook page, so get signed up as a fan as be ready to brag that you knew ‘em before they blew up!

From the Spin article :

“With its watery keyboards, minorkey melody, and poor-little-rich-girl lyrics, the band’s “She Loves Everybody” brings the smoky pop genius of the Zombies oohing and aahing back to life. Likewise, “People” and “The Jimmy Choos” — rife with chugging guitars, wafting vocals, and oddball sound effects — could be lost singles dug up from Brian Wilson’s sandbox.”

Congrats, D.A. and Max! Looking forward to cheering you on to some precious metal!

We leave you here with a vid of the one and only Pharrell talking about discovering Chester French :

For all of our friends and fellow songwriters and producers : check out the new Omnisphere from Spectrasonics.

Justin Perkins began tracking new vocals for Hindsight this week in Studio A.

Work began this week on a new project for The Color Truth, with Justin Perkins and Daniel Holter serving as recording engineer and producer respectively.

Drums are being cut in Studio A, set wide open (with our variable acoustics at their most live) and a full complement of drums provided by Frank, the band’s drummer.

Pictured above are (L to R) Zach Steinbach (vocals and guitar), Justin Perkins (engineer), Frank Babeck (drums), Dave Streese (guitar), Daniel Holter (producer), and Dana Nielsen (bass).