Soundtracks for Everyday Adventures [Bandcamp Album Page]

Lullatone – duo Shawn James and Yoshimi Seymour – have a way of wiring directly into some wonder-filled, joyful place. And we know as artists that requires not just an impulse, but a way of connecting emotionally with ideas. With their release earlier this year, we heard their terrific Elevator Music – but also noted that they spent a little effort even on creating a comfy workspace to keep the music coming.

Lullatone Have New Music to Make You Happy, DIY Keyboard Stand to Make You Tidy

Shawn writes to let us know their newest release, soundtracks for everyday adventures, has arrived. It keeps the hypnotic, charming minimalism of past works, but to me, there’s a new maturity here both in the sound and writing, as the tunes become wordless, poignant ballads on day-to-day life. (“Buying strawberries” is oddly melancholy; “finding a leaf in your girlfriend’s hair” and “the best paper airplane ever” takes on some urgency. That airplane might inspire someone to become an engineer for Airbus.)

In the wrong hands, this kind of music could veer into “twee” sweetness, make your tooth ache, or even be cloying. But that’s why I love Lullatone’s work: it’s unpretentious, un-ironic, serious fun. It’s overwhelmingly, genuinely heartfelt.

And the duo are serious about keeping their life and happiness as high-quality as their output. Check out a feature on how they’ve integrated music in their “work/life” balance while parenting on the Herman Miller blog, going into greater depth on the ergonomics of their setup as we covered it earlier:
Ideal Live/Work Space: Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida of Lullatone [Herman Miller Lifework blog]

That’s something I think we can all appreciate.

What’s also great is seeing their music inspire other joyous expressions, like this montage of laughter (seriously):

If you’re still grumpy, see a doctor.

And now, newly happy, I think us kids should be really good and go clean our studios so we can make some music.

Call it cable addiction. Italian-born musician Alessandro Cortini, known for his live keyboard work with Nine Inch Nails, retreated into the studio with classic and contemporary Buchla modular synths to make “SONOIO.” Guided by his uniquely personal compositional style, he was able to wrangle that mess of chords and layers of analog sound into a genuine collection of beautifully-written songs, stacked high with Buchla timbral goodness.

The first four songs are free, with downloads starting at US$7.99 and physical records with bundled music at US$9.99 and up.

But SONOIO isn’t just a record release. The album itself is accompanied by a a portable synthesizer called the SuONOIO, custom-designed for the record by legendary synth maker The Harvestman (Scott Jaeger). I don’t think this is the first album release to have hardware alongside, but the SuONOIO itself is something special. Not just some toy or player, the creators endeavored both to incorporate the sounds of the album (via pitch-controlled sample players) as well as advanced features that allow you to make your own sounds. The synth, then, becomes a kind of art object reinterpretation of Alessandro’s own working method and tastes, building into an affordable, portable package his love of patch cords and sound tweaking.

All of this might be a stunt anywhere else. But quality and intent interferes: the album and synth alike could be major highlights of 2010. Via email, I talked to Alessandro about his creative process, his rig and how he attacked an all-modular album, and how he made the self-release and synth release work.

Yes, yes, “Create Analog Music.” (I’ve tried to go back and time to tell myself I should include a less literal name for the site, but my past self didn’t believe me.) But that’s the funny thing about it — this is a digital album. It’s also proof that the working techniques from the analog age — from doing recordings in a single take to treating the arrangement as a multitrack tape to patching sounds with chords — are just as relevant today in the world of the eight-core Mac Pro that did the final mix. And without the instinct to write songs, one Alessandro carries from childhood, it’s all just noise. Let’s let the artist explain.

http://www.sonoio.org/ [All purchases, from album to t-shirts to synth, plus free downloads]

On musical creation…

The sound world I think is what people will encounter first in this music, and generally in electronic music, so let’s begin there. How do you tend to think about timbre as you work?

I never know what I am going to write or create. That’s probably the main thing, to begin with.

I usually sit in front of an instrument to fiddle, to play with it like it’s a toy of some sort, hoping to come up with a sound unique enough to trigger an idea.

The idea can develop into a full composition, or stay as a simple two-hour time waster. Both results are very welcome, at all times!

The sense of the songwriting on the album to me is really strong. What’s your approach to assembling the songs, compositionally, particularly as many people tend not to associate sitting behind a Buchla modular with something like songwriting?

I have been writing songs since I was 7 years old. I started recording on a small boom box, with my voice only, making these tapes of songs I wrote for my grandparents to listen to on their way back home (they lived out of town).

I have been thinking of music in a song format as long as i can remember making music. Even the less song0based, more experimental work I released (i.e. blindoldfreak) still retains a song structure, even though it’s less obvious and instrumental, so to speak.

The thing is, I don’t really think about writing them. Each song comes from playing around with the instrument, in this case the Buchla. Sometimes it’s a sequence triggering a chord progression; other times, it’s a drone patch which triggers a melody in my mind.

For the SONOIO album, I tried to let the instrument dictate the structure. A song like “Just Me” doesn’t really have a repeating chorus, and it evolves through quite a few sections in the few minutes it lasts. I forced myself not to cut and paste anything. Everything in songs such as “Just Me,” “Not Worth Remembering,” and “Hold On Let Go” are one-takes, with the Buchla being multitracked and vocals/vocoder overdubbed.

How did that grow into the album, or what was the conception for the whole release?

The album started as soon as i realized that most of my “fiddling” with the modular was taking me into song territory, as opposed to more experimental [ground].

It took me a bit to realize that it would be great to try and write a whole collection of songs strictly on the modular, as opposed to layering instruments as I usually do, but when I committed to this process, things became challenging and refreshing at the same time.

The bulk of the album was written in January ’10, with most of the remainder of the time spent learning to mix it!
the “story” is really not that clear to me either, to be honest. I’ve always been attached to music that , even with a clear lyrical content, lends itself to personal interpretation, so i hope the listeners will take what they want from it.

What did you take away from your time with Nine Inch Nails? Did it impact your sound or the way you approach playing?

Of course it did — especially the time in the studio working on Ghosts. It was revelatory to see how much can come out of a single sound, if nurtured the right way. Also, those sessions taught me not to spend too much time over-thinking: if it sounds good, it’s time to move on.

I also learned that I don’t enjoy playing shows as much as I like being in a studio environment. There is something about the repetitivity of a live show that slowly erodes the magic of the songs. And while there are things you can do to keep it interesting for yourself — look at the spaceship that was my rig with NIN! — it eventually becomes a race to finish and get to the bus to sleep. It becomes the most feared thing: a real job.

What artists are inspiring you currently?

I don’t listen to a lot of commercial music these days, but here are a few of my current favorites: Belong, the last Telefon Tel Aviv album (amazing), Tim Hecker, BigBlackDelta, HEALTH, HowardAmb, Christopher Bissonette and pretty much anything on Kranky and Raster Noton.

Tools and Techniques

What’s your rig like in the the studio for this work?

The creative rig for this album (and for most of my work these days) is based around a Buchla 200 and a Buchla 200e More recently, I have been spending time with a keyboard version of the Monomachine [the SFX-6], which i use as an alternative writing tool.

The recording rig is a Mac Pro 2.26 octo [8-core], Logic Studio + [Apogee] Symphony system and a [Universal Audio] UAD card. It’s been the most stable and powerful rig I have ever had. Not one single crash during the sessions!

There’s a richly-layered, fat analog sound to the whole the mix. How do you balance all of these textures in a mix, and get everything to sit right?

Mixing was what took the longest to complete, and mostly because of the lack of experience/skills on my part. For a series of reasons, I decided to mix the album myself as opposed to outsourcing it, and I figured I would learn from the process, too.

I was lucky to have friends helping with suggestions and advice, including Jon from Big Black Delta who helped me when I got stuck in the vicious circle of “does this sound good enough?” Joshua Eustis from Telefon Tel Aviv was very helpful, too, in giving his feedback. His work on “Immolate yourself” is amazing … that album was a huge inspiration.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there aren’t many layers in each song. I would be surprised if I have more than 16 tracks running, total, including FX buses.

I usually stem out 8 outputs to my mini console, where I can mix the single elements as groups (1/2: effects, pads, drones, 3/4 vocoder, bkvox, 5: main vox, 6: bass, 7/8: drums/rhythmic elements).

An Independent Release, and Releasing a Whole Synth, Not Just a Record

What about the decision to self-release? How has the response been?

I didn’t [rule out] releasing through a label, in the beginning. The album was sent to various places I thought I would have liked to hear feedback from, but even the ones that were receptive were tied to a working schedule which turns days into months. The last thing I wanted to do is to release an album that was a year old, when I am ready to move onto new stuff the moment I master it.

I do miss the feeling of being part of family and some sort of financial support (which would have been limited, regardless, considering I am a newcomer), but I think I made the right decision to release it this way.

The album came out with the aid of the Topspin platform (http://www.topspinmedia.com/)

I took an online course at Berklee Music, since the tool itself didn’t make too much sense to me on its own, in the long run, without a proper marketing campaign and plan of action.

It’s something anybody can do, and not necessarily with Topspin. I chose them because I knew them as real music lovers, and great people I could communicate with and exchange ideas.

The audio player widgets, store buttons and email list/analytics are all their software, which I have learned to integrate in my own site, with the aid of a webmaster. (Phillip Farmer, http://crosshatch.net/)

And then you decide to release a full synthesizer to accompany the album. How did that come about?

I always wanted to release something that wasn’t necessarily a CD, vinyl, or similar, along with my music. I thought about it for a long time, and the synthesizer answer came quite naturally, a few months back.

My priority was to offer something that was unique (and a “first”, if possible), yet relates to who I am and what I do, not simply a publicity stunt of some sort.

How did you and Scott (The Harvestman) work together on the design?

Scott came to mind as the ideal candidate to solve my main problem with designing a synth (besides the fact that i don’t know how to design anything, of course…). How do I create something that is both related to the album AND allows [users] to create new and independent sounds and textures?

I contacted Scott and asked him if he’d be interested…we had a long and fruitful conversation over the phone and that’s how it began.

We then opened an email communication, exchanging ideas and concepts,which in no time led to a prototype.

What went into some of the design features of the synth? How did it evolve? I really like the cross-modulation capabilities and miniature patch cables.

The patch cable implementation idea came from Mike Brown of Livewire, who is a great friend of mine and Scott’s.
He suggested it, knowing it’d be a great way to extend my cable addiction to this instrument…and he was right!

The initial idea was to utilize carefully-selected sounds from the album and find a way to modulate them and make the, interesting with the minimal amount of controls. Scott’s knowledge in the field has allowed the instrument to evolve from this rather simple design to a much more expanded array of options, while retaining the “make sound immediately, no manual required” attitude.

We both wanted the instrument to be:

• Affordable: It’s roughly 160 $ (and even less if bought in the bundle with music, CD, poster, and shirt). We decided to skip the enclosure since it’s the most expensive part of the instrument, usually. BugBrand has pioneered this sort of design, I believe, and it was definitely an inspiration (I own a few of his clever instruments).
• Great looking: The final version’s colors will recall the album artwork, to a certain extent, so it’ll definitely belong to this particular release. In addition, we will create templates for paper/cardboard faceplates that the user can download, print and mount on the instrument. We both thought it’d be a great way to start a community to share designs, but mostly, I wanted mine to have cats on it so that’s why… There is also going to be an option to design aluminum faceplates and get them custom ordered somewhere else. We’ll provide the design and manufacturer’s contact info, if needed.
• Easy to play: There’s no keyboard (yet) for it, only 7 knobs and patch points. Even without patching, you can really mangle the built-in samples and turn them into something creative and different. If and when that will become obsolete, the user can take advantage of the 16 patchable points and add functions such as distortion, delay, FM destination and more. We wanted the instrument to be appealing to seasoned electronic musicians as well as people who had no idea of what it is, but are curious enough to pick it up and make noise.
• Easy to interface: It comes with a battery holder, 9V Boss AC connector, built-in speaker and 1/4″ audio output. It can also be connected to another SuONOIO instrument for further manipulation or to create more complex sounds.

How do you hope this instrument will be used, or what do you hope may come out of getting this in the hands of listeners? What does that mean for the listener/maker relationship? And could you see this idea catching on?

I hope to see people making music with it, or just using it as a hobby tool of some sort — as something you keep on the coffee table and play every now and then, or something you integrate in your state-of-the-art electronica rig.

I think it can be several things except a normal-sounding instrument, because that it is not!

The response has been overwhelming so far, both for the album and the instrument, thanks to the word of mouth of the online community and Trent Reznor who has been very supportive with spreading the word about SONOIO.

Thanks to Alessandro for sharing so much. More shots of his studio environment below.

http://www.sonoio.org/

Operating systems aside, the most important “platform” for your music may be the work environment you create for yourself to produce. Seeing that physical environment for someone else can be an inspiration, and certainly a window into their personality. So, as I look through the workspaces submitted by readers, I asked the terrific blog TRASH_AUDIO to select a few of the favorites from their series, “Workspace and Environment.” Rather than ask the usual, bland music journalistic questions of artists, they explore those artists’ creation spaces, and discuss process through that context. (Eat your heart out, MTV Cribs.)

TRASH_AUDIO also has a new site address, so go enjoy:
http://trashaudio.com/

It’s worth checking out the whole site, but here are their top five favorite workspaces and environments, in no particular order. Some are the tangles of wires you might expect, others more unusual, clean digital environments like the images I chose here (if only because I’m more used to seeing the tangles of wires).

1. Finnish-born Sasu Ripatti of Vladislav Delay and Luomo has found an acoustically-wonderful, isolated environment on an island, an environment surrounded by trees and far from people. On the road, it’s just one laptop, one Korg nanoKEY, and an audio interface, to which he adds Faderfox MIDI controllers, small KAOSS pads, and effects pedals for live gigs.

2. Alec Empire stays true to his Berlin roots with an all-white minimal studio. It’s distraction-free – and having a big, dedicated studio space means no neighbors. Think loud. “Actually you wouldn’t really find much colour in there,” he tells TRASH-AUDIO. “And what surprises visitors is that we have no paintings or posters or anything visual up on the walls. I really find this distracting. Somehow my mind would get off path. The great thing is that we can record whenever we want.” On the road, it’s a Mac and Digidesign gear, but most importantly, a big mobile hard drive, so sounds can come along with him for constant revision. Add to that an iPhone as a musical notebook for sketching ideas.

3. Alessandro Cortini, an Italian-born artist living in the US, focuses on Buchla modular gear as the center of his workspace, with the monome and MLR as the software accompaniment. Corners of the space, he says, are dedicated to different working styles – modular, drum machine, computer – but everything is within reach, which to me is also the epitome of the brilliant Buchla design itself. If you can’t afford a modular (and certainly most of us can’t afford a Buchla 200), perhaps the ergonomics is the single most important lesson to learn here.

4. Mavis Concave, Robert Inhuman and Vankmen of Realicide adapt to a variety of environments – the corner of someone’s room, different homes. As Mavis says, the people in your surroundings often matter more than the architecture: “I need to have enough physical space for my gear and be surrounded by people who encourage the work that I am doing. I can’t be surrounded by people who write off my music production as a nuisance to have in the household. That is probably the biggest creativity/productivity block there is for me.” And for fans of hardware (you’re heard in the poll, don’t worry), that means favorite gear that can go in a car trunk, like the Korg ElecTribe ES-1 (called out by both Mavis and Robert).

5. Atom TM. I just love this, because seeing look-alike studios is boring, because I feel strongly that aesthetics around you can provide visual stimulation for your sonic creativity centers, and because it defies conventional wisdom. So I have to just run the whole quote – decoration instead of gear. (Next – perhaps decorated gear?) Take that, blank white walls of Berlin!

“Decoration instead of gear” became the motto. All my workspaces had to have big windows and if possible a nice view (even though I tend to close the curtains in summer during daytime). I don’t like “studio” atmosphere. I don’t like cables, gear and the entire tech-look. Environments that make me feel well and relaxed are usually of a different type. I like old furniture, warm colours, ornaments and in general everything that does not look contemporary. The contemporary look usually is contaminated with bad taste and pretentious design. Further, the decoration itself helps to absorb reflections and creates a dryer sound. I can say that the decoration itself, that is, obtaining/installing as well as creating amongst it, gives me more satisfaction than obtaining/installing equipment. I can see why “studios” have to look “tech”, that is because the studio owner needs to impress the entirely clueless cast of customers. There is no reason whatever to follow that look, just because it is somewhat implied in the equipment itself. In general I’m very sensible when it comes to “making music”. I find it hard to focus in other studios that don’t fit my aesthetics and sound. I think that my workspace is a perfect combination of the technical-, creative- and aethetic aspects of my work and it has become what it is through a long development of those three components.

Editorial note: In a blinding error of reading on my part, I read the words “Analog Live” as a misprint of “Ableton Live,” as referenced in the original draft of this story. I’ve been looking at software too long. To be clear, this was my inability to read, not a typo on the part of TRASH_AUDIO. I still like the idea of a parody of Ableton’s site redone in analog gear. I will from now on keep that fantasy to myself and stop applying it to the rest of the world.

Whether or not any of these approaches is meaningful to you may vary. But to me, just hearing people make decisions to reorganize their space is refreshing. I find sometimes even an arbitrary change of scenery can help unstop creative juices. Let us know if the same is true for you.

I’m done with posting for this week as it’s time to overhaul my (very, very humble) apartment studio space and gear closet. But that seems the perfect time to ask you how you set up your musical workspace. (I think people imagine that I have rooms full of gear, but I really do a lot of work in-box on computer, which I’m gradually augmenting with some “boutique” – but reasonably affordable – DIY synth boxes. As an urbanist and someone on a limited budget with limited space, that works well.)

I’m a great fan of Lifehacker’s ongoing series on their readers’ workspaces, which show off marvels of productivity, efficiency, and attractive interior design:
Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell [Flickr]
For some of the best examples: http://lifehacker.com/tag/workspace/

It’s funny; the notion of “bedroom producers” is often disparaged, but I think the ability to have personal workspaces are a great thing for music. Now, a musical workspace can range from an impromptu setup on a hotel room desk to a corner of an apartment to a space you’ve built in a barn to a traditional studio. Each of those locations has its own advantages (and in a way, make you appreciate what’s special about the conventional studio even more).

So, whether you’ve worked out a mobile rig with a Nintendo DS and a tape recorder or you’ve got a dream studio you get to work in — or you want to show off how you’ve managed to organize your closet full o’ gear and cables — we’d love to hear from you. Send us a link to a public gallery in comments, or upload to CDM’s Flickr pool:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cdmu/pool/

Also, do us a favor. Either send a note explicitly allowing us to reproduce your image, or even better, license your photo on Flickr as Creative Commons ShareAlike. (Because CDM runs ads against content, we apparently do not qualify as a non-commercial use. ShareAlike, though, means that anyone using your content also needs to share their content, which helps protect against exploitation.) You can add the license directly on Flickr, and then it’s more likely that we can use your images. I’ve actually thought of doing regular round-ups of images on Flickr, but getting individual licenses would be too time-consuming; if people do start doing this, I will easily feature the images you’re sending in!

I’m really eager to see your musical environments. Part of the joy of music is that ability to take your mind and spirit to another place, and that means setting aside physical space. (I recall a Buddhist friend of mine and the importance that had for where he would chant. It wasn’t anything extravagant, just a decision to set aside a location for the activity.)

To kick things off, Thomas Dolby has the location most of us would dream of: he’s got a wind- and solar-powered restored lifeboat on the north coast of England.

Dolby talks about his studio and the ideas behind it, followed by a new song he wrote in the boat, at TED:

Keyboard Magazine took a tour of the boat and covers all the gear contained onboard):
On Board Thomas Dolby’s Solar Studio Boat

More photos at Tiny House Design

But I’d love to see your less-exotic music making locations, too.

An old PC laptop could be relegated to the closet or (worse, since it’s highly toxic) landfill. But filled up with tasty freeware plug-ins, it’s a virtual studio full of tools and oddities. Via the feast of gear that is the CDMusic pool on Flickr, our friend Jumahat Leman aka uncle bigbrown artfully captures his budget software setup, described as follows:

• A 4+yrs old Acer laptop (a desktop replacement to be exact)
• Ableton Live 5.01 w/lots of freeware VSTs
• using same earphones/headphones/ToneportGx for recording

** My observation:
If you’re a “free VSTs/plugins” hunter/user like me, there’s tons of them available for download for the Wins platform in the worldwideweb. That’s where “cheap” Mac users/lovers (like me) are at a disadvantage with our OSX. So its always good to have a Wins machine at your disposal…

The Mac doesn’t get left out either, though. A G4 tower has become a virtual guitar stompbox and recording studio:

• 9 yrs old Sawtooth “Earache” G4 Mac
• Ableton Live 5.01 w/freeware plug-ins
• $80 Toneport GX
• old iPod earphones or $50 Sennheiser Headphones (for recording/monitoring/mixing)

**most times i load the “mixed songs” into the iPod to listen/compare/mix and check eq/volume.

(The guitar is a PRS SE Paul Allender.)

If these visuals got your attention, there’s another lesson to be learned here. Not only does this visual illustration give you a sense of what his workflow is about and perhaps passes along some tips, but he uses photos and illustrations as a great promotional tool. It helps that Jumahat is a talented designer. I love his mini-portfolio, below. He also makes wonderful promotional posters and stickers. As I noted earlier this week, the ability to make something visually expressive that is meaningful to your music can be powerful – starting with album art, but going beyond that.

Or, to make a more important point, Jumahat has one of the only tasteful MySpace pages I’ve ever seen — and that’s a feat.

Happy weekend projects to everyone; hope this provides some inspiration.

drechohead, Jumahat’s MySpace page
echoinmyhead @blogpspot, with more visual goodies

Updated: Plug-in List

Now, the answers revealed. (See if you guessed any of these correctly.)

Mac

• Studio Devil BVC (for my guitar needs)
• Togu Audio Line TAL Tube (to “tubify” guitar or other sounds, or “overdrive” them more)
• Togu TAL Dub (for my delay needs)

PC

• BTE Audio Juicy77 (for most of my guitar distortion needs)
• BTE Audio TSS (tube screamer stompbox simulation)
• Audio Damage Pulse Modulator (for crazy sounds)
• E-phonic Retrodelay (for mild delay needs)

ALL of my plug-ins are freeware coz i’m cheap! ; )

Some magazines have no standards, I guess. Nice work if you can get it, though.

Seriously, though, the folks at XLR8R Magazine have a book out called Bedroom Rockers: Where DJs Call Home; check out a PDF sample plus parties for the book in NY (tonight), Miami, Chicago, Boston, and Berkeley, with DJs (of course) and hopefully free drinks (at least looks that way here in NYC). Now we just need a hardcover book on Laptop Musicians. (Sounds like a job for EM411; see: Your Studios)

You know the problem: computer furniture seems to be built for imaginary people with undersized tower computers who never actually do anything. Want to integrate a music keyboard, computer, monitors, and a rack of gear in a small space? Good luck! But James (of reflexaudio and the fabulous new blog Retro thing) sends along a great solution:

Australian manufacturer M Rack makes fantastically designed studio furniture that’d be great for apartment studios. They racks are expensive (the setup in the attached pic runs about $2200), but they’re beautifully made. As a vital bonus, everything’s within arm’s reach. The site pics are horrible, so I’ve attached a snapshot of Terry Williams’ rig.

Lots of different options, so there may be something on their site that works for you. Thanks, James!

M Rack Studio Furniture [M Rack website with furniture details]

Play guess the gear! James just added the whole gear list from Terry in the comments, so before you peek, see if you can intuit what’s on there. (Especially challenging with the software — you’ll have to do a personality analysis or something.)

So you’ve been reading ths site long enough to see lots of interactive tables — alternative musical interfaces that involve moving blocks around a surface. But what practical use would this ever have, you say?

Clearly, outfitting the workplace of the future — or at least so says Lexus to its designers, which is equipping them with interactive desks. The Ecco Design Personal Pond desk (Trendir story) creates soothing music and lighting effects while you move around your hands or two stones on the table. And this helps us be more productive — how, exactly? Nonetheless, it’s nice to see the mainstream taking note of interactive musical table tech — keep your resumes handy, interactive designers.

(See CDM’s musical table roundup, or check out the pixelsumo blog for more tables.)

We’ve been watching studios for the past months (do a quick search for ‘studios’ on CDM and you’ll see what I mean), from dream DJ rigs to pro post as built by Peter Jackson. But I’m still impressed by the growing thread on the osxaudio.com forum, complete with pics and specs. My favorite is the Dalek-topped Moog Modular. I’ll bet most people don’t realize just how professional the Web community’s gear is. If you’re looking for some efficient space-using tips (well, and some sloppier solutions), here’s a good glimpse. Perfect for keeping the significant other happ– well, perfect for keeping the significant other:

OS X Audio: Post Your Studio

Speaking of which, my own studio is finally moving: posts have been a little thin Friday through early this week as I’m about to move downtown to the financial district of Manhattan. But I’ll be resurfacing soon. Thanks for the heads-up on this to Atariboy, who has his own impressive studio with vintage computer gear.

CDM reader Tim in New Zealand gets our dream 5.1 surround studio prize: 250-input Euphonix desk? Check. Actual movie theater for production? Check. Ultra-sexy mood lighting and furniture? But of course.

How do you get to work in a post production studio that looks like it could double as someone’s evil headquarters in a Bond flick? Simple: wait until Peter Jackson shoots another Lord of the Rings Trilogy in your backyard, let that whole film get done (Tim says he’s not a fan, and turned down a freelance-only FX gig on the films), and then sit back, relax, and get ready to mix in the world’s most beautiful studio.

The Park Post Road site is still under construction; check it out for one nice shot and click the movie screen to watch the studio being built, time-lapse style. But Tim does send a full photo essay on sound design for The World’s Fastest Indian. Let me get this straight: you call playing around with vintage cars and motorcycles work?

Meanwhile, for more of Peter Jackson’s fantasy expenditures, don’t miss Music Thing’s coverage of Peter’s $100,000 nickelodeons. The guy’s got style.