Wednesday 7 September 2016

Mikey Cooling - Producer and Engineer



(please note - Ragged Moon Studios closed permanently May 2016)



Mikey Cooling

is now working as an Independent Producer / Recording Engineer/ Guitarist


please contact by email;

mikeycooling@hotmail.com

mobile 07896204780

Mike is proud to be working or associated with the following artists

Moonlight Drive

Casimir Greenfield

Sophronie

Kuhl

Thee Ones

Slow Falling Sun

Richard Pond

Matt Capener

Robin Fuller

Solar Flares

Change & Decay

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Mega update soon........

OMG it's been so hectic at the studios and yes now .... 

Ragged Moon Records!!!

"still living the dream"



So much is happening, there's such a great buzz
Let's crank up the volume and get those valves to fuzz
I'm running on caffeine and keeping up the pace
of  the Ragged Moon Records crazy creative space......



In the studio recently

Emily Barker - vocal recording

Hattie Briggs - Video recording

Mike D'Abo - demo recording

Lila J - Album recording

Slow Falling Sun - Album recording

Robin Fuller - recording tracks and 'Forever' video production

Lara Conley - Album recording

plus....

Ragged Moon Records releases (Summer 2015)


Eye's Wide - Sophronie -15th May







Bees are Good - The Stamen (featuring Jalporte) 29th May



Immortals - Casimir Greenfield 12th June

and more to come.....

Samantha Hudson - Midnight Blue

Matt Capener - Single releases

and new projects coming in?

Thee Ones

The Raga Babas

Moonlight Drive


Available now

Sophronie - Fire in the heavens

Sophronie's debut album

All through last summer we were piecing together the debut album for Sophronie Edwards, a young singer/songwriter from Stroud. Now available on Ragged Moon label





During August 2014 there was complete bedlam at the studios for a few days. Sophronie invited all her friends in to make a promo video for her website filmed around Stroud.The whole building was filled with bags, boots and make up. The atmosphere was brilliant and the results can be seen on Sophronie's website;


sophronie.co.uk











Thursday 27 November 2014

Autumn update part 1


The last leaves of Autumn....


Here we are at the tail end of autumn now firmly under our new identity 'Ragged Moon'. The trees are looking decidedly bare, the dark evenings and cold damp nights are back. Looking on the bright side, the on-coming winter months are the best time to be shut in the control room beavering away on our recordings and projects. We'll be composing and crafting songs and samples whilst not feeling like we're missing out on the sunshine.

Looking back over the summer and autumn there's been so much going on here...

Lila J


Lila J performing recently at the Prince Albert Stroud



Lila J are an acoustic duo from Newent. A combination of Lisa's soulful vocals and Gav's unique guitar style make their collection of songs an eclectic journey. Lila J came in to record a  'live' performance album capturing the spirit of their songs. With titles such as Gypsy Van, Night Polka, Dearest Mabel, Overboard and Clouds I found the songs inspiring, endearing and enchanting all at once and was completely hooked.
The duo set up in the 'Longroom' and Lisa's vocal was captured with a U87 and the Avalon channel, The acoustic guitars were tracked with a mix of their internal pickups and Rode NT5's mic's for some small condenser detail. The songs were well rehearsed and many were done in one take. Niks and I were aided by our work experience trainees Emily Hawker and Harry Slattery who made great contributions to the whole recording process.
Lila J are currently out there performing at various venues in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire (notably the Queen's Head in Monmouth 18th Dec 2014) if you want to see them.
I hope to see 'Lila J' back in the studio with a new set of songs for the next album!  (Photo's by Geoffrey Head)

Here's a link to Lila J's website

Lila J website


The Racketeers




In August cover band the Racketeers came in to use the Skyspace to make a live performance video in conjunction with Stroud based company Zebrafish media. We set up the band as a live gig and all the mic's were fed back to the control room. Zebrafish's Matt Brawley directed the shoot and Nik's and I recorded and mixed the audio ready for the video editing. (The Skyspace is being used more and more as a location for video shoots and we are planning to expand on this in the forthcoming months.)
The Racketeers are lead by frontman Robin Lewis who also plays guitar and congas. Robin delivered fine vocal performances captured with a combination of an SM58 and our U87. Bass guitarist Simon Ives' tight playing was recorded through a combination of his mic'd bass cab and a DI signal through our TL Audio channel which works well on bass guitar adding some valve edge. Shaun Cook's awesome lead and rhythm guitar work using two mic's on his 4x10cab, an SM57 and an AKG214 which I find really smooth for guitar. Paul Donovan's drum kit was recorded with an Audix D6 for the bass drum and the ubiquitous SM57 on the snare. His well tuned kit sounded great and his playing style punchy and accurate.

The Racketeers are a busy cover band playing a huge range of song from the 50's, 60's and 70's and have a busy gig schedule. Check them out at their website;

theracketeers.co.uk


Casimir Greenfield


Work has continued through the summer on 'Casimir Greenfield' project. The new album is now complete except for a few tweaks here and there plus a batch of alternative mixes. It's been a monster project and the 'beast' will be unleashed when the album is placed with the right record label, one that will do justice to this very unique and rich collection of songs from Casimir. Pulling in many musicians from Stroud, and the surrounding areas, the arrangements and instrumentation are colourful and diverse. Casimir Greenfield deserves a detailed blog entry in it's own right which will be out in the next few weeks with loads of info about this stunning project.
Here is a link to  Casimir Greenfield on Reverbnation

Casimir Greenfield



Look out for huge blog update soon!

Control Room Work Experience....

Emily Hawker and Harry Slattery at the mixing desk


Guitarist Harry Slattery
Early in the summer I had two students from local schools to help out in the control room. Emily Hawker and Harry Slattery spent a week here gaining experience in music production. Both keen musicians they helped out on our commercial recording projects and seeing how it all runs on a busy session. I  set them the task of writing and recording a song in two days. After some deep thought and head scratching Emily came up with a track called 'Caught in the Monsoon' which Emily and Harry crafted into shape, Emily providing main vocals and keyboards and Harry on guitar with backing vocals and whistle. I thought this was the best way of taking our students through the whole process and the end result was a really great pop song. Emily has now uploaded this to 'youtube' and has had it played on BBC introducing. Well done both, I hope their week with us was as rewarding to them as it was to Ragged Moon.
Emily Hawker
Singer/songwriter
Listen to 'Caught in the Monsoon' and judge it for yourself.....

Caught in the Monsoon

Sonic magic - new toys

In August I took delivery of two new tech essentials;


Universal Audio 2-1176 

The Daddy

the classic compressor ( x 2) This stunning unit is the sound and character of so many records and vocals it takes pride of place in the sound engineering hall of fame. Niks and I gaze lovingly at it's shiny new case and kneel daily in it's presence. For those non-geek-techies this lump of electronics squashes the audio....but in  a very nice and characterful way and can make a vocal (or anything else) punch through a mix and soar like an eagle...OK that's getting a little too excited...maybe I have spent too long in the audio bunker.


Avalon Vt737sp

True love

Alongside the daddy of compressors above Ragged Moon have invested in the Avalon 737 recording channel, a vacuum tube beauty which partners our Neumann U87 perfectly, gorgeous transparent compression, a pure and open pre-amp and powerful EQ which can dial in 'air' at 20-32KHz, this baby is now working hard on virtually every session just doing it's thing....very well. Maybe true love does exist after all :)

Further blogging adventures next week for parts 2 and 3 of the Autumn updates...there's so much going on;

Tallulah
Tobias Mapleton
Barney Morse Brown - Duotone
Middle Aged Angst
Sophronie - Fire in the Heavens
Emily Barker
The Pigeon Swing
Joe Chiccarelli Seminar
Southside
Andrew Hopwood
Sunday Sessions....and more more more!

With that I'll leave you with a seasonal image until next time. Now where did I put my coffee?







Wednesday 23 July 2014

Blog newsflash Summer 2014

Newsflash update

Sophronie's EP Eye's Wide is now out....



Available to buy on iTunes, CDbaby soon or in CD format direct from us......

visit Sophronie's website


How I recorded and produced 'Eyes Wide'

Sophronie first ventured into the studio around xmas 2013 bringing her guitar and collection of songs to make a demo recording. This first session was enchanting and on hearing her track "Eye's Wide' my ears pricked up and I had this strong image of Summer festivals, sitting around a campfire with friends and staring into the night sky. After discussions and negotiations the team decided this would be a great debut single. Sophronie's original recording of Eye's Wide is also include on the EP with two further bonus tracks.

I felt this had to be a really organic recording, natural sounds and capturing the essence of Sophronie's lyrics and painting that picture her song conjured up in my head. This arrangement was also going to have to sit in the current market place in the pop/folk genre.

I recruited Paul Boniface to play drums and briefed him that we needed a light summery sound with loads of natural woodiness. I wanted a cycling riff running through the track provided by Cassius Smith Frazer's banjo to give some movement in the arrangement. Sophronie and her brother Rohan played guitar and Sophronie added her Ukelele. The foundation track was recorded live against a carefully set tempo provided by Logic Pro X. Nothing was quantised as I wanted to retain a very human feel with a bit of looseness.
Next I added the vocal parts using our Rode NTK mic though the TL Audio valve channel. I then had the skeleton recording of the arrangement down. Handclaps and tambourine were added as they always help a track to roll, these were recorded live with a Rode NT1a microphone.

I felt that the track needed a little bit more solidity and managed to grab Jazz Pianist Pete Rosser when he was at the studios. He laid down a lovely textural pad of accordion which kept strongly in the organic vain I was after. To add more depth Thol Mason came in and played recorders (big ones and little ones....) to glue the whole track together. Thol then added various parts on Violin again recorded with the Rode NT1a. He played harmonics, suspense sound effects and his lovely melodic solo, picking up on Sophronies vocal melody. I added a very subtle bass part to lend weight to the bass drum and Niks added some Cello parts from our Nord Electro 3 keyboard.

I had all the elements ready to mix but decided to get Sophronie back in just to make some final additions to the vocal tracks. I then mixed and remixed over a few days until the picture I'd originally had was there. Sophronie's vocals had a little post production gloss added and very careful use of reverbs and compression to bring it all together sonically. Niks and I then tinkered with some mastering to the overall stereo mix until the whole track just sounded complete.

Sophronie's follow up single is in the final stages of production and I'm excited to be working on the album this August (and the xmas record....)

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Spring/Summer update from the Skyhook hub Part 1

Spring summer 2014 Part 1

A Blogger's Apology

I can't believe it's July already and this is a long overdue update to the control room blog..so sorry to our followers.... I'm embarrassed to admit the last update was in March. Thanks to some prompting from friends and colleagues here it is.  I will argue that my blogging tardiness is a hugely positive reflection on Skyhook Studios as we have literally been running flat out with all sorts of exciting stuff happening: Bands, demos, project work and music coming from all directions. Tony Davies, our long suffering builder has even been back for a stint....he loves Stroud and Skyhook, he just can't stay away...

Otis Mack and the Tubby Bluesters

Mark and Lee of the Tubby Bluesters


A live weekend session in the Skyspace with Otis Mack's fine band was a sound engineer's dream. Well rehearsed, great instruments and awesome musicianship made my job an easy one. A good conversation  with Drummer Paul Barrett was the starting point. He described the drum sound he was after, that solid and punchy Stax sound. His drum kit already had this tone and his flawless tight  playing throughout the session was just stunning. I carefully mic'd the kit in my usual setup but with some ambient room mics to keep the liveliness. Bass player Lee Hunter ( hope your plaster cast comes off soon Lee) had a mic on the bass cab and a DI feed which blends to a great sound in the mix. In an experimental kind of way Mark Boughton's valve guitar amps were set up in the Skyspace dressing room ( we had to remove all the Diva make up accessories, hairdryers and wigs that normally reside in there) to achieve some separation from the drum kit and I mic'd the stereo cabs with our AKG 241's. Mark's playing is that of a seasoned professional...a youth spent in session work around London's 1980s music scene... serious blues but did I detect a hint of...errr...Bananrama?? Otis delivered fine vocal and harmonica performances captured with our U87 mic and TL Audio valve channel. The mix session for this album project is imminent and is promising to be an outstanding recording. Catch Otis and the guys live on their busy, very busy, gig schedule.....

Awesome drummer Paul Barrett
http://www.tubbybluesters.co.uk

Paul Barrett's Awesome drum sounds will also be available on the forthcoming Skyhook Studios Sample collection CD... thanks Paul!



The Tin Shakers


April began with media chaos as the Tin Shakers descended to record their charity CD. Inspired by Malcolm McDonald (Drums) and Jim Fogden (vocal and guitar) the Tin Shakers were formed to raise money for the Barchester Healthcare's Charitable Foundation. With Ollie McDonald providing bass guitar and vocals with additional singing from Helen Maiello and Mike Parsons the Tin Shakers set to on a marathon session which lasted non stop for three days.


Beginning on Friday morning the pressure was on; Amongst the sea of visitors, singers and reporters from BBC radio and the press the pressure was on to set up the band, test the mic's and have a 'backing track' ready for the huge vocal ensemble on classic song 'Lilly the Pink'. I quickly pulled out all the stops in Logic Pro X, looping drums with bass and guitars into a usable arrangement. With the buzz and excitement going on in the background a major dose of caffeine was needed to focus on the job in hand. By lunchtime we were ready for the vocal chorus from Barchester's finest vocalists which sounded tremendous in the Skyspace. The Tin Shaker's broke the record for the most people squeezed into the control room in one go.....beating the previous record from David Ireland's A good old fashioned Christmas video last October.

Tin Shakers chorus setting the
 Control Room record
Saturday was filled with more tracking and a visit from Tholly Mason to add his magical touches of violin and piano. Tholly is quickly becoming a Skyhook regular having played the main violin and recorders on Sophronie Edward's forthcoming single Eye's Wide (Skyhook Publishing)
Malcolm came armed with loads of percussion instruments including the nicest sounding bell tree I've ever recorded, although he wouldn't leave behind his 'bell tree' he did donate a rather nice Cabasa to Skyhook Studios collection of useful toys.
By Sunday night all the recording was done, all food consumed and a very tired looking bunch of musicians packing away their instruments,  I was finally allowed to go home and rest my eyes and ears. Thank you to Malcolm and the band for a brilliant and totally fun weekend, the CD 'Barch on the Run' is now out on sale.
Tin Shakers with Mike Cooling on our rainbow stairway
To find out more from the Tin Shakers charity work drop an email to

info@bhcfoundation.org.uk

or find them on Facebook.

David Ireland - Boy in the attic album


Work has been steadily progressing on David's forthcoming album which is promising to be stunning, There has been a huge buzz of activity and many recording sessions in the marathon task of assembling this anthology of unique songs. We have been crafting some deep and interesting arrangements and sonic textures with a diverse range of sounds from Chris Egan's amazing Ewi to David's own vintage tambourine and 'Cosmic boot sample'. Here's a little bit about a couple of the tracks

Immortals

David's Euphoric song 'Immortals' captures the 'spirit' of now which beautifully compliments 'Poison Pen' a solid funk number recorded across a generation. Immortals is likely to be released as the first single in time for this summer...Watch this space.

Poison Pen

The Original drum and bass tracks for 'Poison Pen' were imported from an analogue multitrack tape  made in a high end Dutch studio in the 1970s. Playing funky guitars and modern instruments along 40years later have resulted in something really special both in arrangement and audio perspectives. David had the original analogue tape 'baked' at Real World studios near Bath so the recordings could be safely played back and converted into digital files. From a sound engineers perspective those Dutch guys really knew their stuff as the sounds were  just fantastic with that lovely warm and chunky sound beloved of the 70s era. Sax player Chris Egan added probably the most cutting edge sound with his Akai EWI a wind controller instrument which completely 'blew' us away. Chris's control and articulation of the particular analogue synth sound we chose was a joy to hear. I felt privileged to be continuing the work on Poison Pen over a generation after its embryonic beginnings. To hear the results wait for the release of David's 'Boy in the attic' album.

Expansive times at Skyhook Studios

Niks Patel




We have been joined recently by a new engineer and musician Niks Patel. He called in for a visit one day and I found that I quickly struck up a huge rapport with Niks. I was impressed by his recordings and his knowledge. Having been running his own studio (Quercus studio) and being heavily involved in the southwest's Folk scene along with his own act the 'Alchemist's Wardrobe', Niks brings along a huge amount of enthusiasm and experience with distinctly different musical roots and flavour to my own. Niks is an accomplished musician on both Didgeridoo and Tablas and also has a great ear for timing and textures. Niks is also going to be working on the promotions and publishing side of Skyhook and helping our 'artists' to get themselves out there too.
Apart from the relief of having another pair of hands in the control room, I think the diverse perspectives of the Skyhook Studios 'sonic team' are going to enhance and accelerate our progress towards my goal of placing Skyhook firmly on the music industry map. Niks and I are determined to promote the quality of output from the studios as far as we can take it and make some great records on the way.

New Edit Suite

As work has been steadily growing at Skyhook we realised we needed a second audio work area. A quick call to our long suffering builder Tony Davies and hey presto an new room was created... The new edit suite is somewhere we can do fine editing of our recordings, program instruments and loops, check mixes all while the main studio is in use. We have identical software to the control room running on an iMac with Adam A7x monitors. Already it's proving to be a fantastic asset.....thank you Tony!!

Neumann U87

at last our new microphone is delivered. The industry standard recording mic favoured by singers and stars across the globe..... now in Stroud too. It's clarity and detail are legendary, I'm loving it.


Sunday sessions


The end of April saw a young Jazz band from the Ross-on-Wye area perform in the studio. Sax player Oliver Stanton is accompanied by Aiden Pope, Tom Sladen and James Owston. They play atmospheric original Jazz with influences from hiphop quoted too. We mic'd up the drums in the drum booth and the others played together in the Longroom. Sunday sessions recorded 7tracks in a chilled out but highly focused session. Their tracks have become a favourite in my car for late night drives....

Cool Jazz with Sunday Sessions

Find Sunday Sessions on Facebook
Stornoway with Jon Ouin
Early in may we had the pleasure of recording a string quartet with Oboe. Directed by Jon Ouin they performed 'Origami Bird' for use in a forthcoming film. Jon is well known for his work with the band Stornoway. Accompanied by producer Rob Harbron this was an inspiring session making use of the natural acoustics of the Skyspace. Playing cello was Barney Morse Brown who's stunning playing was just captivating.

Barney Morse Brown


Cellist Barney Morse Brown returned to Skyhook Studios shortly after to perform vocally with his family on a track called Our Lands at Highmere. Barney's whole family are incredibly musical and the harmony performances were fantastic. This was a lovely day for us all at Skyhook Studios.

As so much is happening here this blog update will be released in parts....in true 'Lord of the Rings' style!!!

Spring summer update Part 2 coming soon......

hear more about

David Ireland

Work continues on David's forthcoming album "The Boy in the Attic" and the mixing and mastering of his stunning new single Immortals

Sophronie Edwards


Sophronie's summer single Eye's Wide is now finished and ready for release....

so come back and find out more about;

Strike Back

The Longshots

Southside

Samantha Hudson

The Garden Festival

The Skytones

and more more more.........
















Friday 14 March 2014

The ides of March

The ides of March are upon us.... Easter on the horizon....Spring is in the air....and I've been out of the studios long enough to see some daylight after those long winter months. There's wild and exciting talk of Summer festivals and garden parties which feel more real as the days are passing and there's an optimistic fragrance in the air.

In the bunker (control room) at Skyhook studios the blinds have been opened to let the golden rays of the best Stroud sunshine stream through the windows. I'm stopping for a break to take a look at the last few weeks of intense work on some of Skyhook's current projects. There have been a multitude of sessions with widely different musical genres to keep me on my toes in terms of sonic perspectives.

Sophronie Edwards

Sophronie Edwards

Sophronie Edwards a young singer/songwriter based in Stroud has teamed up with Skyhook Studios to develop her promising career. She has a pitch perfect voice and her own self-penned collection of songs with an acoustic folky lilt. Her lyrics show a thoughtful and perceptive style which is amazing from someone of her years. The Skyhook team are midway through production of her two debut singles 'Eyes Wide' and 'Last day of summer'. As well as being supported on acoustic guitar and vocals from her brother Rohan, Sophronie has a fine array of other superb musicians contributing to her work with Pete Rosser (Accordion), Tholly Mason (Violin and recorders), Paul Boniface (Drums) and Cas Frazer (Banjo) oh and some subtle contributions from yours truly too. So far I'm really pleased with the organic sound and textures being created. I am nearly at the 'mix' stage which is going to be a marathon session and I cannot wait.

Silva

February saw a session from the band Silva who recorded a collection of accomplished covers of songs from The Pretenders to Snow Patrol. The band opted to use Skyhook's recording areas on the ground floor to put down the tracks as a 'live' performance but with acoustic separation of the instruments. The drum kit was mic'd up in the drum booth, guitars in the long room plugged into my Mesa Boogie Dual Calibre amp (mic'd with a SM57), Bass was Di'd into a valve channel on the studios A+H console as were the keyboards.
Singer 'Holly Phipps' recorded her faultless vocals using our Rode NTK mic and the TL Audio recording channel. It was amazing to meet up with Holly again having recorded her back in the late 1990's when she was still at school and I was still working on Alesis ADATs (those nasty machines, a sound-engineers nightmare from the past.....) She has been constantly singing since then and her voice has now matured into that awesome quality of a professional performer. A great session and thoroughly enjoyable.
Silva chilling out in the control room

   Here's a link to Silva's Blog


Pete Rosser

Pete Rosser
Jazz pianist Pete Rosser has been in for a session recently. Playing Skyhook's Yamaha U3 in the Skyspace he's been recording Eastern European folk songs. His dazzling keyboard skills were captured using a multi-mic setup. After the piano tuners visit, I mic'd the Yamaha up in the middle of the room  with the top lid open. I used a stereo pair of Rode NT5s to pick up the detail sound from the hammer area of the strings and combined this with the well balance sound from the soundboard using a matched stereo pair of AKG 214s at the rear. I always double check for phase issues when using this arrangement. Collapsing the stereo image into mono will usually reveal any problems and adjusting the spacing between the mic's will normally sort this out.

Pete also played some snippets of his original Jazz which will be appearing on the Skyhook studios website shortly. I also grabbed him for some accordion parts before he was allowed  out of the studio again!!

Here's Pete Rosser's website......

http://www.peterosser.co.uk



piano mic setup, Rode NT5s on the top
AKG 214 on the soundboard at rear


Photo Shoot for Cas Frazer


Cas Frazer


Being happy and versatile people at Skyhook, who love anything artistic, a photo shoot was arranged for Cas Frazer....



I'd wanted to recreate some 1950's and 60's images for a while and being an obliging fellow Cas duly arrived with banjo in hand. 

Stroud songwriter and retro fashion expert David Ireland kindly allowed us to borrow some suitable attire in the form of awesome original suits of the right period.

 David runs 'Time after Time' in Stroud which is a gem of vintage clothing and fashion with superb advice to match....


David is also working on an album project "Cosmic Glue' which is midway through production, more info about David Ireland is available on last months blog entry or at David's website


There will be more Skyhook photography viewable on the gallery at the Skyhook Studios website shortly....

I had the pleasure to spend yesterday working on recordings of Requiems from Mozart and Faure with some fabulous classical singing from Soprano Zoe and Alto Holly. These are for a local Stroud publishing company and the results so far are astounding.


Skyhook has also opened the doors to visits from various interesting artists, musicians and singers. There are some very exciting projects coming up in the next few months so watch this space and stay in the loop with my Skyhook Studios Control room blog.......

And finally for this month:

"Have you heard the one about the sound engineer with a digital mixing desk?"

"no....nor has anyone else....."  (for analogue mixer lovers )

and this was the stunning sunset sky over Stroud last week which reminded me of those anthemic lyrics from "Smoke on the Water"....

"Fire in the Sky"



next blog update due in April.           Mike Cooling (Skyhook Studios)



Wednesday 12 February 2014

The water's still rising.....

It's been over a week since the last update from Skyhook Studios control room, and parts of  Britain are gradually disappearing under the floods (was Atlantis once something like Stroud?). Do we need to start building an ark?

Despite the winds and rain there's been a huge amount going on in the recording zone......



Otis Mac and the Tubby Bluesters

We had a visit from Otis Mac and the Tubby Bluesters who are coming in for a session in March. Otis rocked out last month's Stroud Blues event at Lansdown Hall with some stunning performances and the first bass guitar solo I've seen for ages from seasoned performer Lee Hunter. Some outstanding guitar work from Mark Boughton and the powerhouse beat of drummer Paul Barret made this a great show.  Anyone who's seen Otis perform with his fine band will know that's how tight you get when you've performed 120 shows in a year.

Here's a link to Otis Mac's website

http://www.tubbybluesters.co.uk

We are planning a 'live' sound recording in the Skyspace to keep that punchy groove the Tubby Bluesters create when they are in the gig zone.......... watch this space........

Nancy Grace.....


Last Saturday was a vocal recording session with Nancy Grace accompanied by expressive and inspiring vocal coach Philly Dyson. I opted for our Rode NTK mic through the TL Audio 5051 Valve channel to get a contemporary recording of Nancy's fine vocals. She is showing amazing control and personality in her singing for someone so young and not a touch of pitch correction in sight. I'm sure the world will be hearing a lot more from Nancy Grace in the future.

Alan Tocknell Drum sessions......


The last three days have been an intense and exciting session for David Ireland's forthcoming album Cosmic Glue. Accomplished drummer and drum maker Alan Tocknell has been in the studio recording drum tracks for the project and what we have achieved is fantastic. Alan has been using one of his own kits and the sound is unbelievable.
Alan Tocknell at Skyhook

Alan playing some sensitive brush parts
I first heard Alan play with Stroud performer Patsy Gamble and the amazing sound of the T Drums kit grabbed my attention immediately. Here's the website for Alan's stunning handmade drums;

http://www.alantocknell-drums.com


Alan's website is packed with tons of interesting information about drum technology and the science behind the design of drum shells and the selection of woods

How I mic'd the kit:

I used an Audix D6 on the bass drum about four inches from the beater head  and slightly off centre to get the click and then a Rode NT1a  about a foot in front of the bass drum to get some low end whoomph.

On the snare I used the ubiquitous SM57 pointing at the dead centre of the skin and quite close in to get a bright snap with some body from the shell, Toms and Floor Tom were very close mic'd with AKG D40s on rim clips although I had to use a stand with the floor tom mic as Alan's floor tom had an extra wide rim.

The hi hat and Ride cymbals were individually mic'd with Rode NT5s (we love Rode mic's at Skyhook). I wanted to really capture the bell sound of the ride as I love that in recordings and it is just right for the production we are going for on the Cosmic Glue album, so I spent a lot of time fiddling with the position of this mic.

Finally the whole kit and cymbals were mic'd with our stereo matched pair of AKG 214s in a tried and tested setup
 We are all really chuffed with the classic sound of the kit we've achieved, which needs to fit with David's collection of songs which span from the 1970's to the day before yesterday. David and I cannot wait to get to the mixing stage although we still have many  days of vocal and guitar recording to go yet let alone Sax, Harp, Keyboards and live string parts
David Ireland listening back to drum tracks
It's been an awesome few days fuelled by veggie pasties from Stroud's Sunshine...the best anywhere in the world plus a gorgeous quiche from Sandra Ireland too....happy days!

Sunshine Stroud the best veggie pasties anywhere.....
https://www.sunshinehealthshop.co.uk

A quick peek outside the studio door and it's still raining, maybe what we really need is a hot air balloon.............



more updates coming soon.