Sound Spot Studio's Blog

New gear, new times!!

2010-03-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Recording music in the HD era

I would like to announce the addition of an Lynx Aurora 16 Analog-to-Digital Converter to the studio's equipment roster. This is one of the best sounding converters in the industry and along with the new MacPro Quad Core Nehalem, allow the studio to perform seamlessly on High Definition formats!!

New web site up!!

2010-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

The new web site is up and it looks SWEET!!

I would like to thank the people that helped make it happen:

Graphic Design by KRDG - My great friend Laura, whom I've known since we were 5, and her husband Emi.

Photos by Parana Films - A.k.a my older brother Sebastian.

Models - Sandra, Cherri, Jamie and Tony.

Programming by Ezekiel Victor - Brilliant programmer and piano virtuoso.

Recent Releases

2009-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to check these out!!

> Ezekiel Victor - Color Picture
> Veronica Bianqui - Live+In-Studio
> Palenke Soultribe - Oro

Upcoming Releases

2009-02-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Coming soon fresh from the Sound Spot Oven:

THE REACTIVES - A hard rock power trio that will blow you away with thudering guitars, grooving bass lines and some raw nasty drums. Coming soon Spring 2009
CHRISTOPH BULL - The story of a broken heart mixed with some soulful piano. Bull is a true musical genius. Coming soon Summer 2009
VERONICA BIANQUI - A live in studio performance by the beautifully talented Ms. Bianqui and friends. Coming soon Summer 2009
MANWHORE - A mix of hilarious and explicit rock. It doesn't get any more raw. Coming soon Summer 2009

Stay tuned!

V.O.Z. (working name) Rocking album!!

2008-10-16T15:53:00.001-07:00

I confess: I have been bad at keeping up with my blog. It is mostly because it's been non-stop. If you have session pics from Sound Spot send them my way and I'll post them, I promise.

Here's some pics from the V.O.Z. (working name) sessions. In the pics you can see the guys honing in on the perfect sound. We put a lot of attention on guitars and finally arrived at a sweet stereo image. We had a Fender Deville isolated in a reverberant room and miked with the Cascade Fathead II ribbon mic running through an Avalon 737sp with some EQ. Then we setup a Marshall amp in the live room and miked it close with a Senheiser 421 and far with an Audio-Technica 4050, both running through the Neve 1272. The result is some really focus driving crunch and lots of space. Bass is a given at Sound Spot. I have yet to see someone prefer their own bass rig to mine. As usual we used my Marcus Miller Fender Jazz Bass and my Mesa-Boogie cab; killer tone!

When this power trio comes out you got to get your hands on a copy!!

2008-08-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

click here to see more videos like this

Check out this cool video of the Glass Plastiks recording at the Studio!!

2008-07-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Check Out the Glass Plastiks blog!!

2008-05-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

They do give me a very good review. I love these guys! Check it Out!!

The Glass Plastiks Part III

2008-05-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

Chris is back from his touring duties and finally we got a chance to lay down the guitars for the Glass Plastiks up-coming record. Don't let the looks fool you, this kid is full of rage when it gets to playing that thing. This guy has a hard-core mean in-your-face tone; full of angst and fury. It doesn't take him more than a take to have everyone in the control room at awe.

We had two amps set up: a Mesa-boogie in the booth and a Fender Twin Reverb in the room. We pretty much settled for the latter for the most part. I set up two of the new broadband absorbers on the sides to get a more focused sound on the close mics. I miked the front with a Royer R-121 a little off-center from the cone and the back with a SM57. Also, I had my AT4050 some 4 feet away to get the room sound. It was blasting!

Don't forget to check out the Glass Plastiks' cool sounds when it comes out!!

Custom Made Broadband Absorber Panels

2008-05-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

I don't really know how do I manage to make time in-between sessions for my DIY acoustic projects but somehow I did. With a little help from the Glass Plastiks I made six broadband absorber panels. These are 2 x 4 panels that hang 4in away from the wall. Three are now set up in the control room to help critical listening conditions and the other three are in the live room to shape the sound of the reflections. They work great! You can find the complete recipe on how to make these yourself here, courtesy
of the great guys at PME Records.

XOPH Vocal Tracking

2008-05-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Before leaving for germany singer-songwritter and long time friend Xoph managed to crunch in a vocal session for his upcoming record "Lo-Fi." The session was a two full two day marathon and the record is that much closer to being done.

We began with a mic shoot out of Titans. On the pic you can see lined up a Neumann U47, an AKG C12, an M149 and a U67. We finally settled down for the U47 for most part of the record, except a ballad where we had both the U67 up close and the U47 for far miking (as seen on the picture).

It was an outstanding performance. Good going my friend!

Now accepting all major credit cards and Paypal!

2008-04-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

The studio can now accept all major credit cards through paypal's email payment system. For more info contact me.

The Glass Plastiks Part II

2008-04-22T12:03:00.001-07:00

Vocals are the most critical part of tracking. Fortunately for us, Trevor Lissauer's incredible sense of pitch and unbeatable stamina allowed for some amazing kick ass vocal tracks. The session was a marathon of 20 hours in two days tracking the whole album including back up vocals.

For main microphone we got a 52 year old Neumann U47. Valued at $40,000 this mic is known for being Sir George Martin's favorite during the Beatle's sessions. The sound was incredible, it really doesn't compare to anything built nowadays. I also had the power supply for the mic running AC from my Topaz Ultra-Isolation Transformer and that alone made a huge difference. The second mic in the picture is a Cascade Ribbon which we used occasionally for an added tone.

Don't forget to check out Trevor's awesome vocals when the record comes out!

The Glass Plastiks Part I

2008-04-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

A new sound is 'round the corner and it's here to stay. The Glass Plastiks up-coming album is going to break ground like no other. We began working a few weeks ago and it's been so intense that I didn't even get a chance to make a blog entry. The band has my good friend Keith Tenenbaum on drums, Trevor Lissauer on vocals, Dimitri Farougias on bass and the so far evasive Chris Null on lead guitar (who is currently on tour). They sound amazing. Keith is a master at tuning drums. It helps show off the fancy equipment I have. We've been working 10 to 12 hour days non-stop on this full-length release.

The last picture on the set is what happens when you spend too much time in the studio. All I got to say about that is that you are looking at Keith in his underwear filming me and Trevor (also in his underwear) while he is singing scratch vocals for Dimitri who is recording bass. You figure it out by yourself, I won't tell you what I was doing.

Drum mics featured the usual U87s on overheads, AT 4050s on the room, plus double snare mics, an AT4033 on Hi-Hat and two mics on the Kick drum (a 421 looking at the kicker and an AT 4033 a little bit further away outside the head). We tracked the 12 songs in two full days. Sound was great and we got to capture some really energetic performances which you'll hear when the record breaks ground.

For bass we used my own MM Fender Jazz bass and my Mesa Boogie cabinet with Dimitri's GK head. I miked the cab's 10" speaker with a Royer R-121 run through my Avalon 737sp with minimal compression and recorded direct through my U5. It was so fat we still can't believe it! Recording with my bass was Keith's idea because we've done that on the Dirty Royals record and it was fat (coming out soon).

The Glass Plastiks are gonna pull out a full in-house album. Meaning we'll be overdubbing the complete album and mixing it at the Spot. So stay tuned, there's more to come...

Sonido Palenkero

2008-03-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

This are some pics of last drum tracking session for Palenke Soultribe. This guys have some very innovating concept fusing traditional rhythms from their Colombian motherland with electronic dance. The group is run by the producer duo J.D. Borda and Popa. I've known these guys for years now, and worked with them repeatedly. We rented out some U87s for overheads, got them thru the 1272s; we also had the 4050s thru my modified Bellaris and the usual 737sp on the Kick. Again, the sound was a success, I kept rercieving calls from these guys over the week saying how happy they were listening back to the drum sounds. For me the session was relaxed as it gets since these guys do ProTools for a living as well. That is to say I got a chance to chill and sit back, it was sweet (the people on the picture working at the equipment are the artist themselves). The drummer for the session was Colombian Andres Zuluaga, an up and comming drum virtuoso. Dont' forget to check out Palenke's upcomming Oro album, the first in a trilogy of tribute to their motherland.

NPR's Market Place recording sessions

2008-03-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

Back in January I played bass for a very interesting session. My friend Ben arranged the cued music for NPR's Market Place for arabic instruments. You can hear those themes on the airwaves nowadays on KCRW. The session took place at the legendary Village Recording Studios in Santa Monica. Check out the music and an interview with picture slideshow here:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/middleeast/music/session.html

Pretty cool, uh?

Recording a Steinway Grand Piano for Xoph's Upcoming CD

2008-02-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I took the studio on location again. This time it was for something grand: a Steinway & Sons piano. A real beauty. The record: Xoph's "Lo-Fi" (working title) to be released Summer 2008. Let me tell you, there was nothing lo-fi about this session. The piano sounded so good naturally that it was quite a feat to capture. After a few tries we decided for a quite innovative sound scape perspective: the player's. So, for the two solo piano tracks we had a closed pair of Neuman U87 right on top of Xoph's head. Then for the rock tunes we moved them in front of the keyboard, right at the player's eye level as a spaced pair. For the room I had a pair Audio-Technicas 4050 in a 10ft equilateral triangle from the piano about 8ft above the ground, and capturing from the front and back. I run the U87s thru my Neve 1272 pre-amps and the 4050s thru my modified Bellari and both into my Apogee analog to digital converter. From there to ProTools. The result was outstanding, I am proud to say so. Xoph, whom as a classical music professional performer has been to all kind of studios, including some of the biggest names says this is the best sound he ever got from a piano. It has the perfect balance between the acoustics of the Hall and the percussive attack of the instrument. In all, the session was a success, tracking a total of 14 songs in two days. I'm sure I will be posting audio samples once the record is officially released in the Summer, so tune in for that.

2008-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Recording Christoph's Organ on Location

Christoph has a beautiful vintage organ in his living room and had the marvelous idea of tracking some of it for his upcoming record. Well, forget about taking it to the studio, the beats weights half a ton!! So, thanks to Carlos Cuellar of Q-Wave Sound we turned the studio into a mobile unit and setted up in Christoph's own living room. It worked, the living room happenned to have high ceilings and it sounds great. We micked near and far, runned the signal through the Neves and the Apogee and were done within record breaking 6 hours.

PS: Sorry for not keeping up with my blog, I'll try to be more consistent in the future.

Xoph sends his Regards

2007-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Some time ago virtuoso organist Christopher Bull came to Sound Spot to rock. This guy is not only an amazing classical musician and amazingly funny but he is also a songwritter of amazing talent. Somehow he found time between his duties as a touring classical musician and a faculty member at UCLA's music department to come over to Sound Spot and record his latest songs with us: The usual suspects (Tony Montavlo on drums, myself on bass). This is what Cristoph had to say:

“I loved recording at your studio. Rock ’N’ Roll atmosphere, good sound quality, and easy-going style. You rock!”

Keep an eye on this guy, you might want to check what he's been up to

La Pestilencia gets Gold

2007-07-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

I am very proud to anounce that Colombian EMI punk band La Pestilencia has recieved Gold for their numerous record sales for their most recent release 'Productos Desaparecidos.' La Pestilencia recorded all drum tracks for this record at Sound Spot. Apart from going Golden record, they had a Latin Grammy nomination for it as well as an MTV Latino awards nomination and numerous other awards. Rock on!!

THANK YOU SHIREEN!!

2007-07-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

Check out the e-mail I just got from Shireen, the super talented Puerto Rican singer/songwritter.

Alejandro and Keven,
I just finished listening to the CD all the way through and I was almost brought to tears. It sounds fantastic...like a part of myself has been fully realized because of the fine ear, incredible skills, and integrity of Alejandro Leda and Kevin Brennan. Words will never achieve the level of gratefulness I feel. I'll say it at least a few times...thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't wait to send you both a copy of the complete package. You have done amazing work...I couldn't have asked for two better producers.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Shireen

No Shireen, thank you....

New Gear

2007-06-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

As of July 2007 the Studio will have an Apogee AD-8000 A/D converter. For those of you who have a big question mark on your mind, Apogee is #1 in high-end signal conversion. The unit's only purpose is to convert the analog signal that comes out of the mic pres into a digital signal it feeds to ProTools. As simple as it sounds, it makes a HUGE difference.
Also, coming up: a pair of Audio Technica AT4050s. Nice...

Shireen's Project

2007-06-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to announce that super talented singer/songwriter Shireen Amini's project is nearing completion! The session included a number of talented musicians, including Tony Montalvo on drums, the BatUCLAda Brazilian percussion group, string and horn sections, myself on bass and Shireen on everything else (she played everything from guitars, keyboards to varied percussions).

I first heard her play on the courtyard of UCLA's music building and I was awestruck. Kenny Burrell who was coincidentally passing by, stopped on his track until she finished her song and said it was one of the best he heard in the past decade. I kept bugging her that we needed to get her songs recorded and we finally did.

Check out what Shireen is up to at www.myspace.com/shireensounds and don't forget to get her up coming release as soon as it is out.