We have been visiting recording studios (I will reveal no names at the moment for discretionary reasons) in and around Chicago. We feel our band is in peak form, we have 20 new songs written since our last recording, and we are looking for a new recording studio experience. Our goal: to record as live as possible, in an acoustically fabulous room with the full 7 piece band. We also want to record vocals live with the band, with very minimal post- session overdubbing, or futzing.
A cool challenge, no doubt. We feel our band is up to it. And we want to spread our wings a bit and see if we can make a great record in a new (for us) way. We have always recorded the band live in a pretty much sonically dead room, with "scratch vocals" which were replaced with final vocal takes recorded in a another session. The results were great, but there was a lot of post session mixing and overdubbing involved. This time we are looking to a more retro, live and challenging approach. Also, we want to collapse the recording, mixing and mastering process significantly.
We have visited 4 studios. All of them have magnificent "live" rooms. Yesterday, we visited two studios, one by previous appointment and the last one on a total off the cuff whim: a legendary studio, with a famous owner, thinking it was totally out the question for our budget. We were in the area, and we phoned up the studio and asked if we could drop by for a visit. My partner thought we came across as "yahoos" just calling at the last minute, but like I said, sometimes you just follow your intuition: WHY NOT?! We still live in an analog world. Let's Make the call!
The answer was yes, we jumped on the bus, and headed over! We were so excited just to get a glimpse of this famous studio. The legendary owner greeted us at the door, and showed us around. Surprisingly, we had made the phone call at the perfect time. Famous recording engineer, not busy, just hanging around, glad to give a tour of his wonderful place. So many great records have been recorded in the building. We were totally, completely knocked out.
AND, it looks like we actually may be able to afford to record in this studio. This morning, the smoke clears, and we have a grand new vision. 4 studios, all contenders, the last one on whim, might just be the winner. We shall see.
