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Ampex 351 preamps

September 11th, 2009

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Ampex 351 preamps

Ampex 351 preamps

Well, it took a while, but I finally have most of my 6 Ampex 351 pre-amps built. They sound great, I’m really pleased. Following the mods and circuit edits developed by Electrical Audio, we made new circuit boards (thanks to Ian Anderson for his PCB help) and, having gutted the old units of all but the transformers and BIG meters, created our own version of this classic tube pre.

Using real high end components from manufacturers like Mojotone, Vishay and Hairball Audio, the result is a classic sound with low noise floor and a wide range of tone from clean to “OH MY GOD”. I’ve used the prototype with ribbons and condensers (we added an onboard soft start phantom supply) and just love it.

All the documentation from Electric is available in the Schematic Vault http://danrudin.com/Schematic_vault/index.php?dir=Ampex/ and I’ll try to post my own mods and tweaks when I have a minute.

in which I do not record Ednita Nazario (or, how I met Gilles Godard)

August 10th, 2009

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It all began with a phone call from Mr. Gary Burnette.

“Hey Dan, can you track for a couple of days next month?”
I check my calendar. “Sure, I’d love to. What you got?”
“An artist from Puerto Rico named Ednita Nazario”
Well, I love artists from PR… I’ve worked several including Tommy Torres. “Yeah, I’d love to do that!” I reply.

Gary is a major league session guitarist (and a good friend) and in addition to producing projects himself, he often helps clients book players, studios and engineers for sessions. I agreed to do the session and Gary promised to call soon with more details. That, as they say, was that.

“Dan?” It’s 3 days later. “Well, they decided to go with another engineer and another studio”.

This is not that unusual. Ours is a fickle business. “No problem GB, we’ll do it next time.”

Forward 3 weeks to a message on my voice mail.

“Hi Dan,” says a cheerful voice. “This is Gilles Godard from Ole music. I understand from a friend in Miami that you recorded one of my songs with Ednita Nazzario!” hmmm.

So I called Gilles back, introduced myself and apologized but, no, I didn’t do Ednita’s record. After we chatted for a couple minutes I began to think that this guy sounded really interesting. I invited him to come meet me for the usual tour of the studio and hang time.

Today I met Gilles. He is the kind of forward thinking music industry pro that you hope everyone to be (though, usually…) and hopefully we will find ways to work together.

I thought this was a good example of the universe throwing seemingly random bits together to create good.

Oh, and last night my family and I saw a meteor streak through the Tennessee sky.

All is well.

CR&B Naughty Kitty Cat

February 24th, 2009

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CR&B Naughty Kitty Cat

At Last!!! New Release - CR&B Naughty Kitty Cat is availabe now on CD Baby, and will be available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, eMusic, Napster and other digital outlets starting March 12th

CR&B- Drummer/Percussionist Glen Caruba, DJ Tyrus Briggs and Engineer/Programmer/Guitarist Dan Rudin- combine elements of big-beat house, techno and jazz-funk into their own unique brand of dance music.

Caruba and Rudin had been working together on recording sessions in Nashville for several years when Caruba (inspired by a live performance group he founded with Briggs) suggested they have a go at creating their own sound. In 2001 the trio holed up in Caruba’s bungalow jamming, talking about their influences, and churned out some tracks that would eventually forge the basis for their first release, Naughty Kitty Cat.

Caruba has played for Sara Evans, Steve Forbert, Glenn Frey, John Jorgensen, Toby Keith, Hal Ketchum, Tom Kimmel, Barry Manilow, The Mavericks, Kenny Rodgers, Lionel Richie, SheDaisy, Chester Thompson, Pam Tillis, and Kirk Whalum and is internationally recognized for his live and session percussion work.

After more than a dozen years playing in clubs around the southern US and his home town of Nashville, Briggs is now resident DJ and music director of Fuse, Nashville’s only Vegas-style nightclub. 

click to listen

webmix.us is online

December 12th, 2008

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webmix.us is a website that makes high-quality, professional music mixing easily available to a wide range of people. The flat-fee and e-commerce basis of the site eliminates some of the difficulties that artists and producers face when approaching a top-notch mix engineer.

The services offered at webmix are not designed to compete with my full production, recording and mixing services, but to extend my mix engineering to a new group of musicians and artists.  Now that great performances can be captured almost anywhere, the need for an experienced mixer to pull all the pieces together is greater than ever.

Available in 5 languages, webmix has been custom designed to make it easy to hire a pro mix engineer from anywhere in the world.

please visit webmix.us

Musical Whiplash

December 8th, 2008

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IV music‘s German office came in to my studio with an interesting job last week. Working on an ad campaign for German car manufacturer Opel, I mixed 6 different versions of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” (one of which I arranged and produced) in one day! Each version was arranged in a completely different genre; indie folk, lounge jazz, pop punk, euro country, trance, and rap.

I thought it was a very cool bunch of tracks, check it out.

Amps, amps, amps

November 19th, 2008

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Weber's excellent guitar amp speakers

Weber's excellent guitar amp speakers

I’m not sure that it’s an addiction, but I love a great sounding guitar amp.

I just put a Weber speaker into my 1965 Fender Princeton. What an incredible sound! For those who care, it’s a 10F150-T-8. It kept the “chimey” quality of the amp, but added a real growl and punch to the low mids. check them out here at weber
We spent today re-cutting Johnny Cash’s “I’ve been everywhere” for a television commercial, and guitarist Eric Silver used this amp for all the electrics in the track.

Another recent addition to the studio arsenal… a 1984 Marshall JCM800 amp. Totally renovated by Nashville Amp Service, this head sounds killer.

More instrument madness coming soon.

Radio page – real time studio stream

October 28th, 2008

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The Radio at danrudin.com is finally fully functional.  The Radio is a password protected page on the site that enables clients to remotely listen to progress on their projects.  Featuring a real time, high quality stereo audio stream and an integrated jabber chat room, clients can monitor and participate in sessions from anywhere in the world.

Recently, this new technology was hugely successful during a piano overdub session here at the studio. The two clients were monitoring in differnet NYC locations, while pianist Steve Kummer played.  Client comments came quickly via chat to the control room and also to Steve (who had his laptop signed in as well), while they received musician and console talkback via the audio stream in addition to chat from us.

Passwords are changed and issued on a per-project basis.

The Radio page has taken long distance collaboration a leap forward by integrating several internet based solutions into one easily accessible page that works with any internet browser.  Whether monitoring in their own studio or sitting at a cafe wearing headphones, clients can now easily participate in sessions even if they are unable to attend them in person. 

Questions?  contact us here

 

Update (lots of stuff)

August 29th, 2008

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It has arrived! A new Power Mac 8 core (“the Ocho”) and Protools HD3 Accel is now in service as the main PT rig in Studio A.

Work on tracking room A2 got completed JUST enough to host sessions for the new broadway adaptation of Disney’s High School Musical 2. Music adapter/ arranger/ composer Bryan Louiselle was in from NYC to produce and conduct. Mixing for the project is in progress.

Gary Lensenmayer, music director for Busch Gardens, was in to record tracks for the theme park’s hard rock Halloween shows. We all had WAY too much fun getting paid to record a bunch of classic rock tracks!

 

Miami producer (and drummer extrodinaire) Lee Levin was in to capture some pedal steel overdubs, played by Russ Pahl, for an new album by Latin artist Ricardo Arjona. Our brand new radio page technology was used so that co-producer Dan Warner could join the session from miami… it was a big sucess.

I recorded string section overdubs for urban gospel great Dave Hollister’s second release on Zomba records, “Witness Protection”. The orchestrations were done by the legendary Chris McDonald.

Finally, but certainly not least, Composers/ songwriters Larry Lees and Amanda Morton were in for several days to record the score to a new musical theater work “16 days”. If the score is any indication, the show promises to be worthy of note. Pianist Steve Kummer, along with Craig Nelson on bass, John Hammond on drums and Eric Darken on percussion really helped take the project to another level. Certainly a treat for me to produce and engineer.

Musicians for this 16 days and Busch Gardens were contracted by DSB Music, a partnership between Dan Rudin and Chris McDonald to further the turn key services offered through Dan Rudin Audio Productions.

Building Studio A2

July 7th, 2008

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I’m finally in the process of building out Studio A2, the “back” tracking room at My Space Recording. This space has been my favorite for brass recording, percussion, and other sundries, but it has never been thermally or acoustically insulated. So here’s the progress on turning A2 into an “all season” studio!

New Video Reel

June 19th, 2008

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Video Reel screen shot

I’ve added a flash video reel with some of my work for picture. I’ll be adding more clips as I crunch them to flv. These examples feature some of the many fun things I do in the studio, including sound design, composition, mixing and editing.

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