Some new song samples are now up in the listen section of this website. Check em out.

This Blog Post is a must read for anyone struggling to make it in music.

My buddies in Technoir MA got a great review of the EP I produced with them earlier this year. We just finished another EP at The Moontower Recording Studio which should be out sometime later this year. The new material sounds completely amazing and takes their concept of a band to a whole new level.

Small Estuaries Blog

Hey,

As some of you already know, I will be moving to Brooklyn in October. Throughout the fall I will be back and forth between Boston and New York working on records. If we are currently working on a project, or if we are in discussions about recording together I want you to know that I am still 100% commited to Boston music and what is going on here.

For New York folk, I will be working out of two studios.

Seaside Lounge in Park Slope Brooklyn will be my primary tracking facility. The A room is equipped with a beautiful Sony/MCI console, as well as a 2″ tape machine and boatloads of outboard gear. Great rock n’ roll room. The B room, although smaller also has a similar MCI console and a great selection of guitar amps and toys. Perfect for tracking guitars or vocals.

As a less expensive alternative, I will also be working at The Buddy Project in Astoria Queens. This is a small overdub and mix room. Perfect for singer songwriters or a band on a tight budget.

Back in Boston, I just finished an EP with Afro-funk band The Macrotones as Barefoot Recording Studio. We tracked entirely live with 10 musicians to 2″ analog tape. The record sounds amazing and they are wonderful players. Totally worth going to see live.

I also finished a 3 song production with To The Masquerade at Barefoot. Jeff Liption of Peerless Mastering will be mastering their record. The record release show is September 17th at Great Scott in Allston Ma.

Next weekend I start a new record with Technoir at The Moontower Recording Studio in Cambridge. I am looking to borrow or rent Roto Toms for this project, so if you know of anyone with Roto Toms, let me know.

There are also projects in the works or starting with bands such as Rusty, De Osos, Whitney Jones, Justin Shapiro and Kelli Eagan. All of them are going to be awesome and everyone is keeping me on my toes with different genres and ideas.

Let me know what you are doing with music, recording, writing and anything creative. I always have a way to help.

-Shane O’Connor

www.shaneoconnorrecording.com

Last week AfroBeat rockers The Macrotones spent a day with me laying down 3 songs at Barefoot Recording Studio in Brighton Ma.

We tracked all instruments live (3 drummers, organ, bass, guitar, 4 horns!) to 2″ analog tape. We then dumped to Protools for mixing. This session was so fun for all of us. It is really a beautiful thing to work with musicians who are prepared and ready for a real recording session. No one in the room had any expectation for “the studio” to create something that was unrealistic to what The Macrotones sound like in rehearsal. It was just a more focused version of what the band is, and for this band, it was the real deal classic production.

behold the guitars!

horns in the back isos, opend up to one big iso booth

racks

organ-land

Last night I went out to see Jonny Rodgers at Toad in Porter Square. Toad is the tiniest club on earth.

I was dragged to this by producer and studio owner Nate Christie of Karmic Music. He kept calling me insisting that I had to check this show out. Being that I was in the neighborhood anyway, and the show was free, I took a chance on this guy.

I was certainly impressed with his material in a way that I wasn’t expecting from such a small venue which usually hosts very amateur artists. I suggest checking out his myspace and picking up a copy of his record.

What creates depth in a mix?

- great instruments/ mics/ preamps used in tracking. It always helps to have a great foundation

- properly eqed reverbs and delays that complement the source instead of masking it.

- out of time delays and reverbs in places where the ambience should be “noticed”. In time reverbs and delays where the ambience should be “felt”.

-automation of delays and reverb levels to create greater depth intensity throughout the song. Often bridges can come off as more emotionally compelling if they have a different vocal delay than the verse.

- room mics

- room mics that are properly pumping with the tempo of the song

- automation of room mics to fit each section of the song (especially for drums)

- space in the arrangement to allow for depth to be precieved (a rest?)

- harmonic distortion from analog equipment.

What creates width in a mix?

- key elements panned hard left and right.

- a strong sense of “center” channel comprised of kick, snare, and bass.

- low end material panned to the center from 700hz and below.

- stereo movement from less wide to wide. For example, choruses get wider than verses.

- a juxtaposition of stereo and mono ideas.

- delays used over reverbs

- two mono delays, or two mono reverbs instead of stereo delays and reverbs

- doubled rhythm instruments panned hard left and right, but not all of the time throughout the song.

- A GREAT ARRANGEMENT

Last week I sat down with a good friend and fellow recording enthusiast for a drink at his new studio. We started talking about what makes a mix good versus great mix.
I came to the conclusion that a good mix has balance between instruments, and works well within the dynamic range provided. It isn’t terribly hard to get a mix to this point. A good mix is like a B+ paper. There is nothing remarkable about it, but it gets the point across.
A great mix goes beyond balance and into the emotional content of the music. For example, the stereo width of the mix should relate to the emotional ebb and flow of the song. The transient attack of instruments should relate to how the instruments sit in the depth of the mix in an intentional manner. Basically, a great mix moves you emotionally with the song. It is beyond a representation of a song.

Karmic Recording Studio will be installing an API 8200 16 channel summing mixer into their mix room this week. I try to shy away from reviewing gear on this blog, but this is a huge upgrade for Karmic and I am excited for them.
Barefoot Recording Studio, which is affiliated with Karmic (think A Room/ B Room) has installed a Neve summing mixer this year also. Everyone is jumping on the whole summing mixer bandwagon is seams. The great thing about Karmics’s API mixer is the variation in tone from the Neve summer. We now have two classic console sounds to choose from in the same building.
For mixes that are in need of a warm, subtle distorted kind of character, the Neve summing mixer will be a great choice. For mixes that need some fast punch, with very clear high end, the API mixer will do the trick.