Album Release: New West – Black Ink
New West has finished their debut album, Black Ink. A melting pot of indie rock, electronic and a hint of soul, Black Ink is a strong album and deserves a little over a million listens. While Chris Zurich (singer/songwriter/guitarist) was working with his producer in Brooklyn, Carl Bahner came to us to record the drums (on our killer in-house DW kit) and then the entire album was mixed here by R&T engineer Ben McGuinn. Countless hours of work have gone into this album and we believe that it definitely shows.
Take a listen to a few of the tracks below and don’t forget to pick up the album direct from the artist on New West’s new website or on iTunes!
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident engineer, on March 29th, 2012.
R&T’s New Isolation Booth
Rough & Tumble recently bought a brand new Whisper Room isolation booth. This booth not only offers the complete silence that is required for quiet, hushed vocals but also allows us to record blaring electric guitar. You can tweak amp tones or try out new pedal combinations without having to go deaf by being in the same room as the cranked amp, but also without having to run back and forth between completely separate rooms. While there is a large window in the booth, it still offers privacy to a vocalist. Having this bit of isolation allows a singer to really focus in on the music by blocking out other distractions (bandmates, groupies, etc.) and also gives nervous, first-time vocalists some solitude.
We christened the booth with some guitar tracking with Igor’s Egg, as you can see in the picture to the left. Guitar tracks are sounding fantastic, can’t wait to dive into string tracking!
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident engineer, on March 29th, 2012.
New Studio Computer
The time has come. The prayers have been answered. My sanity has returned. - R&T has a new computer!
Upgrading from a dinosaur Power Mac G5 to an 8-Core Mac Pro, it’s like a whole new universe of computer processing! Let’s break this down:
| Specs | Old Power Mac G5 | New Mac Pro |
| CPU | Dual 2.0 GHz G5 PowerPC Processors | Dual Quad-Core 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon Processors |
| Processing Cores | 2 | 8 (16 virtual cores, hyper-threaded) |
| RAM | 1.5 GB | 16 GB |
| Boot Drive | 320 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive | 128 GB Solid State Drive |
| Audio Drive | 500 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive | 1 TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive |
In other words, it’s ridiculous.
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident engineer, on January 2nd, 2012.
December Studio Update
First and foremost (only because I’m really excited about it), Rough & Tumble will be taking delivery of a brand new 8-core Mac Pro. This computer upgrade more than quadruples the power of our previous system; I can’t wait to push that computer to it’s limits!
I’m sure I’ll have plenty of chances to challenge it seeing as Eminence Grey has officially finished tracking and are already into the mixing phase. Can’t wait to hear the finished product!
New West’s new album, Black Ink, is coming along nicely. Lots of cool and interesting moments on the album that everyone should definitely check out!
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident engineer, on December 26th, 2011.
