Thick Voltage Interview

Here is an interview I did with a new young band from Brooklyn called Thick Voltage. They made a cool DIY record in a basement. Check it out at Performer Magazine. 

recording drums tomorrow at The Buddy Project

Check out Tallahassee. They are a great band with a lot of potential. I am recording drums tomorrow with them at The Buddy Project.

Fast Years Debut Single

Fast Years Debut Single

I produced this single with the band Fast Years. We tracked at The Kennel Studio in Brooklyn and mixed at The Buddy Project is Astoria Queens.

Recording With Parade Grounds at The Kennel Recording Studio in Brooklyn NY.

A new band, Parade Grounds, spent two days recording basics for an EP with me at The Kennel Recording Studio in Williamsburg Brooklyn NY. We recorded all live (drums, bass, electric guitar, organ, rhodes, piano, vocals) to 2″ tape (Otari mtr90 mkII)

The tracks sound great so far. The songs have vibe, “perfect” mistakes, a sense of space (live recording…) and it all happened in two days. If this method of making records sounds inspiring to you, email me shane@shanemix.com

Xylofaux live @ Bowery Electric

This is a video of a show I recorded and mixed (both live and post production) at Bowery Electric in Manhattan. The artist is Xylofaux.

I regularly mix shows at Bowery Electric, which is owned by singer/songwriter Jesse Malin. Jesse takes care to make sure his club is viewed not only as a fun place to hang out but as an ideal listening environment with top notch mix engineers running sound. Most of the FOH engineers at Bowery mix records primarily, but mix live sound at Bowery because it is viewed as legitimate and artist friendly.

Thoughts on Reverb

Specifically in rock music, ambience has become a major player in the distinction between sub genres. It can make or break the production difference between indie-twee-pop and surf-chill-wave. A trashy spring reverb on guitar can imply one sub genre, where that same spring generously applied to vocals creates a whole new production direction.
There is a big difference between using reverbs and ambience in a creative manner and using them in an abusive and misguided manner. In home recordings I find that this is a major giveaway of a poor production aesthetic. Even with minimal tools in a bedroom studio, it is possible to create ambient effects that are tasteful and distinct. Often it is more about how the engineer uses the ambience than the ambience itself.
Reverb is frequently described as a mechanism to move and instrument up front or in the distance within a mix. Although on a rudimentary level this may be the case, more reverb on an instrument does not necessarily mean that the instrument is set back further in the mix. Depending upon the settings of the reverb, more reverb may just result in….. more reverb.
In a real room, when an instrument is perceived as far away it has more room reflections associated with it (reverb) but those reflections are more complex and often have a diminished high end content. The depth on an instrument is not just defined by the amount of reverb but the complexity of the reflections and the EQ of said reflections. In home productions I find that this is not taken in to consideration when setting an instrument within reverb. If the goal is to create an ambience that is lifelike, one must consider the components that make up the reverb, not just the amount of reverb.
In other productions where realness is not the goal but lots of reverb is, I find a different problem occurs. The recordist wants lots of reverb like records that they love, but their reverb muddies the mix and sounds cheap or less authentic than desired. Usually, I find this problem is not due to inadequate equipment but from a lack of EQ within reverb sends and returns.
A good starting point with reverb sends is to consider what part of the instrument being sent really needs reverb. A lead vocal that needs a crazy spring reverb may only need 3khz to be sent to the reverb. This way, the reverb can do more to the intended frequencies without meddling with frequencies that are needed for other instruments or other parts of the vocal. Likewise an EQ on the return of the reverb should be considered to shape the effectiveness of the reverb. For example the high end of a long plate reverb may sound excessive in sparse verses, but shines through nicely in a loud bombastic chorus.

EMT 140 Plate Reverb. Not pretty looking ,but pretty sounding.

Interview with Sonicscoop.com

I was recently interviewed by David Weiss at Sonicscoop.com about the Brooklyn Heat Compilation Project.

You can read the interview HERE.

2010 A Year In Review:

This has been one of the most exciting years in music for me in a long time. On a personal level, New York City has become a great place for me to develop relationships and grow as a producer, engineer and a musician. From a recording industry standpoint, I am seeing more big studios close, and more small studios pop up with new ways of providing awesome service to niche markets. The home studio gear, even in the last year, has jumped leaps and bounds in quality and affordability.
As a musician, I am seeing more and more artists finally accept that the old guard of labels has come to an end and is a fools dream. I see this in increased crowd funding, smarter merchandise and more creative touring strategies. What I haven’t seen disappear is the need for a tribal association that a label once gave. I am seeing collaboratives on bands/ musicians/ artists popping up and developing great alliances that are far more valuable than a former label association.
This collaborative spirit was the inspiration behind the Brooklyn Heat compilation project that I launched last month. If you aren’t hip to the project yet, I was granted some free studio time to create a document of some interesting rock bands from the Brooklyn area in the summer of 2010. The project was released for free, digitally at http://www.brooklynheat.bandcamp.com I am brainstorming with some other people about the future of the project and what I may be able to do with it. I don’t want to start a record label, but I would like the artists that I work with to have a community to lean on for booking, promotion, creative backing, as well as physical resources. You will hear much more about this project in the new year. We are doing a project launch:

Brooklyn Heat Project Launch
January 20th 9pm
@ Coco 66 (66 Greenpoint Ave Brooklyn NY)
Gunfight/ QuietLoudly (collaborative performance)
Shark?
Quilty
Magnetic Island
Little Racer

As suggested by Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com) I am compiliting a list of projects that I did this year, and I highly suggest you do the same. I think as creative people we often get so wrapped up in our current endeavours that we forget about the pile of completed projects behind us. In general, I think this is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with being in the moment with our art, but it is also good to evaluate what has been completed as a trail marker.

“Lifelike”- LP by: Xylofaux www.xylofaux.com
“Notorious Darling Asteriod” -LP by: De Osos www.deosos.com
“Gunshot Lover”- EP by: Blackbutton www.myspace.com/blackbuttonmusic
“Dogs On Television” -LP by: Dogs On Television www.myspace.com/dogsontelevision
“The Jangula”- EP by: The Jangula www.myspace.com/thejangula
“The Duck Wife”- LP by: Grub Animal www.theduckwife.com
“ Kyle Hernandez Trio”- EP by: Kyle Hernandez
“The False Alarms” -EP by: The False Alarms
“Classy Like A Money Shot”- LP by: Orphan Killbot www.myspace.com/orphankillbot
“Neko Neko”- EP by: Reign State www.myspace.com/reignstate
“ Brooklyn Heat”- Compilation www.brooklynheat.bandcamp.com
“For A While” – Single by: Kelli Eagan www.myspace.com/kellieagan
“Burn 2 Quick/ Undone”- Singles by: Befellows www.myspace.com/544587914
“Everything Changes” -LP by: Ted Strauss
“ Wolf With An E” – Feature Film Mix by: David Zuckerman www.zuofilms.com

I am probably forgetting a lot of projects, but these are the ones that I can remember right now. I hope to continue making your records next year. I have some new projects lined up already that are bound to be really exciting.

Hit me up with your plans for 2011. Lets make it happen info@shaneoconnorrecording.com

www.shaneoconnorrecording.com

-Shane

here is a review i did of the ADK mics f

here is a review i did of the ADK mics for instrument recording: http://ow.ly/3f9Jk

Brooklyn Heat Compilation Project

I am excited to announce the launch of Brooklyn Heat. Brooklyn Heat 2010 is a compilation record of Brooklyn area artists that I feel are doing something interesting right now.

There are 6 bands involved. I recorded these bands in the summer of 2010 at Monsterland Recording Studio. Each band took one day to complete one song to completion. I mixed, mastered and engineered each song.

You can download this record for free: www.brooklynheat.bandcamp.com

Thank you to everyone involved. Quilty, Quietloudly, Gunfight, Little Racer, Magnetic Island, Shark? and Jocelyn Cabral for great artwork.