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I'm finally finished with the plate reverb upgrades! Yes, it was worth the 2 months of work. Here's the youtube playlist of the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y58nroQ0DMw&list=PLD06U8lFwF5U_6tmUQMC24tv4_0-ypW_U
The final video is here: https://youtu.be/ao3Bx9bAC6g
Nick Gelyon was the session drummer on this record. He played the house kit on this. I used about 11 mics on the kit and recorded them mostly with vacuum tube preamps that I built. The overheads were recorded with Beyerdynamic ribbon mics into LBA Trinity channel strips. I know I used a lot of analog equipment when tracking not just the drums, but everything. EQ and compression was used on many of the drum microphones during tracking to get as much analog love happening before going into the computer. My sonic goals were warmth, punch, and clarity, and all of that with a colorful tone. A lot of creative production ideas happened during all aspects of the recording. For the vocals I chose to use a microphone and preamp combination that would naturally create a ton of color and even a subtle amount of distortion. That particular preamp choice was my old Altec 438C, which I heavily modified. If you put my Pearlman tube mic into that it breaks up in a very pleasing and subtle way. The 438C is a tube preamp from the 60's, but its also a variable-mu compressor. I think the sound of that compressor is similar to tape compression. Its just so darn colorful that I needed to use not one, but two EQ's after it to get the clarity needed for this record. Those were my tube powered passive EQ's, which are somewhat based on Pultec EQ's.
I played my frankenstein bass on this one. Its an Ibanez SR505 5-string bass in which I removed the stock electronics and replaced them with my own vacuum tube electronics. Yes, a tube powered bass. The bass was recorded DI into an LBA Trinity channel strip with a bit of compression from my DIY LA2A tube compressor. The signal was split and recorded "TI" into the computer for later reamping through my 1960's Ampeg B-15 bass amp, which was also recorded with a Trinity channel strip. I used those things on a lot of stuff on this record because of the wide range of tones you can get from them. The guitar recordings were all tracked through Trinity channel strips, as was the Theremin, the Leslie (hammond organ), and the percussion. The Hammond organ player on this record was Alex Sabuda. He of course played the house organ. I have 2 Leslie 147 speaker cabinets, however they are very different from each other. One sounds very pristine and looks it too. The other one is the one used on this record and I chose it because it sounds raunchy. That old beat up Leslie has a story to tell, but that's for another day! The Lead guitar parts were played by Paul Graves and the rhythm work was done by Doug Osborne-Coy. Both gents played their own guitars and recorded direct with an amp simulator. Later I removed the simulator from the session and reamped the guitars through various house guitar amplifiers. There's plenty of photos on facebook and instagram of this session if you dig around. You can learn more about this record by visiting www.facebook.com/osbornecoy/ or www.twitter.com/OsborneCoyMusic. You'll need to contact Doug Osborne-Coy through social media if you'd like to buy a copy of this 45. I can always help you get a copy if that doesn't work out. You can listen to it (in lesser quality) for free on sound cloud. 12 volume controls added and output amplifier improved. I was able to lower the noise floor of the board, which was already reasonably low to begin with. That just makes every mix through this board sound better. Unrelated to that I also expanded the headroom of the output amplifier by doubling its operating voltage (250v B+). She sings! This lowered the THD a little bit, making the board sound bigger, cleaner, and punchier. The low-end sounds tight! :)
I'm really loving being able to control volume of individual channels right on the board. Previously I had to do it either in Pro Tools or with outboard analog gear. It feels so much more natural and creative doing it right on the board. There is a sonic difference that I'm picking up with controlling volume on the board vs. in Pro Tools. Its subtle, but the board seems to have a cleaner/more natural tone to the tracks when adjusting volume. I think I'm in love :) I made some big upgrades to the studio's analog plate reverb over the past couple days. It sounded nice to begin with, but I recognized room for improvement with its sound after hearing some audio production in the movie, Black Panther, in which a plate reverb was used. After the work I did this week I can say the reverb now sounds significantly more rich and detailed than before, as well as having a smoother overall tone. It now also has a much lower noise floor. What did I do to it? I built better tube amplifiers for it.
The driver amp I built for it is the 5th driver amp I built for this reverb. Its very different from its predecessors (each one better than the one before). This time I decided to go for clarity over warmth. Its essentially a high fidelity power amp designed in the 1950's by Dynaco for music reproduction, which I built from scraps and spare parts using the original schematic. This amp is 75% smaller in physical size than the previous driver amp, so I now have a bunch of free space in the rack for more gear! The power output is roughly the same as the previous amp, but it has about half as much noise and offers a more detailed sound. Finally, I set out to build a new stereo output amplifier for the reverb. This is the 3rd output amplifier I built for this reverb. Same controls as its predecessor, but different tubes, a more Hi-Fi sound, and a much lower noise floor. I was very surprised by the sound of this new design. It's so richly smooth and detailed and has a velvety dark background. Beautiful! In contrast, the previous output amp was bright and not as detailed sounding... and now in retrospect, maybe it was even a touch gritty. All in all the reverb sounds to my ears as being 50% better than before. Is it on par with the dreamy reverb sound of the movie production? I don't know yet, but I suspect its much closer now. I just finished mixing an 8 song album for JB Martin Smokin' Dogs, a 3 piece act from the Little Valley, NY area. That's going to be getting sent off for mastering by Carl Saff (Saff Mastering) later today. The album is original music in a classic rock style that makes me think of a mix between Steely Dan and John Fogerty. I did what I do best, I gave it a warm analog sound with clarity. There's a lot of analog plate reverb on this record, plus natural room reverb and a healthy bit of tape echo (slap back on the lead vocal). It sounds big.
I mixed an album for the Elektra Kings (Warren, PA/Jamestown, NY) recently, but I think they may want to go back and revamp some elements of their performances on it. Great sounding record that I'm super proud of. Keep an eye out for that one! I mixed an EP for Buffalo, NY rapper, Soda Pope last month. Not sure when that's planned to be released, but it is definitely his best work so far! Mastering tracks for LA based artist, Marvin Etzioni recently. Today I'll be working on another one of his older tunes. These are tracks that were pulled from some low quality analog tape recordings made back in the 1970's. Cool songs. MORE GEAR! (see Equipment)
If I recorded, mixed, and produced your album, you no doubt have heard me say, I will not Master your album. These are words I say often, yet I also offer a Mastering service. Strangely enough, I get a lot of Mastering business. Why is that? The answer is quite simple and effective... assuming the goals are for maximum quality. "No one is perfect." Despite this obvious truth, there is another realization that must be taken into very serious consideration. It is always best to have another set of highly trained ears on any given project at some stage in its development. These are words I live by and tell all my clients. Its a critical element. I will gladly Master a project that I never had anything to do with up until that point. I will NOT Master a project in which I played all other professional roles of production services. To say it simply, another set of skilled ears will definitely hear things differently from me and hopefully that will lead to finding things I missed, or could have done better had I heard it his/her way. Lets face it, no matter how good I may be or become, I will never be a perfect record producer. Truth be told, everything is an ongoing learning experience... at least from a personal standpoint. I hope you can see it that way as well. It makes life more enjoyable when you never have a brick wall stopping you from moving forward. Avoid the brick wall by having another set of ears on your project at some point in its development.
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AuthorMike Congilosi II, Producer and founder of Lightning Boy Audio shares occasional snippets of whats going on in the studio. 
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