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.
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.
Recently At R&T…
The summer has been pretty busy here at Rough & Tumble Studios. Check out some of the music coming out of R&T!
First up is the new Igor’s Egg EP, Landscapes.
Recorded and mixed by Ben McGuinn at R&T, Landscapes is an instrumental prelude to their upcoming album/comic book trilogy, Revolutions. Be sure to check out the fantastic companion illustrations of each Landscape.
The recording and mixing of Revolutions Part I: The Wanderer is scheduled to begin this winter at Rough & Tumble Studios. It will be epic.
Ben also started mixing the latest New West record, Black Ink. Super psyched about this album and we can’t wait for everyone to dig into it! Eminence Grey is about to wrap up vocal tracking and start mixing their meticulously crafted album starting this fall. Be sure to keep an eye out for this release in the new year! R&T artist Matthew finished vocals on his final song today; all that is left now is a little mixing and mastering.
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident recording engineer, on September 18th, 2011.
String Sessions At R&T
This past weekend, R&T had the pleasure of tracking a phenomenal group of string musicians. James Cooper (Cello), Burchard Tang (Viola), Valissa Willwerth (1st Violin) and Wallace DePue (2nd Violin) played an arrangement written by Ritchie Rubini for Matthew’s upcoming debut. They hit it right out of the park, not surprisingly considering their long list of credentials including Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Philly Pops.
Matthew’s upcoming debut is well on it’s way to being complete – all that is left to record is final vocals on 3 songs, then it’s off to final mixing and mastering.
For all the recording nerds: AKG C414 XL II on 1st violin, AT 4060 on 2nd, AKG C414 B-ULS on viola, AT 4047 on Cello, AKG C12VR in omni for room ambience. All running through API 512b mic pres with the room mic getting a taste of compression with a TubeTech CL-1B.
Posted by Ben McGuinn, R&T’s resident recording engineer, on May 2nd, 2011.
The Unfortunate State of the Industry
The record industry is still in very bad shape. Over the course of 2010, album sales in the United States fell 12.8 percent, to 326.2 million units from 373.9 million units in the previous year, according to sales figures released by Nielsen SoundScan.
CD sales were especially hard hit by the overall sales decline, falling nearly 20 percent for the fourth year in a row. Only 13 albums — including those by Eminem, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga — managed to sell more than a million copies in the year, an all-time low in the history of SoundScan.
U.S. Album Sales Fall 12.8% in 2010, Digital Tracks Eke Out 1% Gain [Billboard]
Posted by James DiLella, R&T Producer/CEO/Founding Partner, on January 6th, 2011.