Ezomz Productions

When I started working for the Clubhouse, I prepared myself to handle a variety of tasks that I assumed would be thrown at me…setting up and striking session gear, running Pro Tools, Melodyne, and other programs, getting drinks for clients, food runs, cleaning, and so on. One thing I did not expect myself to be doing was running a photo shoot…for a guitar!

A certain rather well-known friend of the Clubhouse had taken a classic guitar, ripped off the strings, and repainted the whole thing in a very unique color scheme. Unfortunately I can’t post any pics on here, but I can provide some verbal imagery…the main colors are semi-dull shades of red and green, dividing the guitar body into roughly two solid color sections with a gradually curving border between them. The color scheme reminds me of one of those racecar beds that kids have (I never had one, I swear!). The whole thing looks very rough and uneven; this is done intentionally to give the instrument a very rebellious look and to farther separate it from the very polished-looking models that dominate music store shelves currently.

Anyway, the recording session that was supposed to take place today was cancelled, so the remaining Clubhouse staff spent the day doing various small projects and maintenance tasks. Paul, the studio owner, asked me if I was any good with a camera. Wondering where this was going, I told him that I was decent thanks to my experience working for Albany Alive. He asked me if I could photograph the aforementioned guitar in a variety of settings and angles, as the person who designed it was trying to sell his design to a guitar company for mass production. So, I proceeded to set up my first ever guitar photo shoot: shooting the guitar all over the studio, from the library, to the live room, to the control room, and even outside on the porch. This was definitely not the kind of thing I would have ever expected to be doing when I came to work at the Clubhouse, but I have to admit it was enjoyable.

Some of the pictures are quite good, but sadly since the guitar’s styling isn’t copy-protected in any way as of yet, I can’t post any of them here. Of course, if the guitar manufacturers are as impressed by the pictures I took as Paul and the guitar’s designer were, you can expect to see a very unique guitar for sale in your local music store sometime soon; a guitar that will conjure images of racecar beds in your mind as you stare at it, though you can’t quite figure out why.

-DS

I’ve decided to attempt to start making more regular posts about what’s happening at both Ezomz Productions and The Clubhouse. For those of you who haven’t seen the updates on the Bio page, The Clubhouse is a pro studio in Rhinebeck, NY, at which I work when I’m not at my own studio.

Today is a dreary Friday at the Clubhouse; the last couple days have seen torrential rain plague the region, to the point where the driveway to the studio is partially flooded. Luckily the work schedule for the day is pretty light; we have a vocalist coming in to record vocals for one track. The interesting thing is, he wants to use speakers to monitor his recording with the rest of the tracks instead of the usual headphones. This presents a fundamental recording problem in that the microphone he’s singing into will pick up the audio from the speakers as well as his voice, which kind of makes it impossible to record a clean vocal track…

…or does it? Studio owner Paul Antonell and our tech guy Chip devised a great solution to this problem. We took the Yamaha NS-10 monitor speakers from the control room and set them up for the vocalist to monitor on, but we purposely wired the speakers 180 degrees out of phase. What this accomplishes is that the sound from the speakers will theoretically cancel out with the phase-opposite signal at the point where the microphone lies, and thus although our vocalist will hear the speakers, the microphone won’t.

Did it work? Well, as I type this, our vocalist is in the live room above me recording his umpteenth take, and no problems have been reported thus far. Fellow assistant Patrick is running the Pro Tools session from the control room, and I’m currently hanging out in the lounge below. My services will be called upon shortly though; as the resident master of Melodyne, a computer program that is used to change the pitch of audio to make it more in tune, I’ll be heading up to the control room to tune the comped vocal recording once our vocalist is done for the day. To his credit, the vocalist seems to be pretty well in tune when he’s good from what I’ve heard, so my job for today shouldn’t be too difficult. After that, we’ll just have to break down our crazy reverse-phase speaker setup and return everything to the control room for the next session.

So that’s it for this first studio update. If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to post a reply! Thanks a bunch, and keep rocking out everybody!

-DS

The Ezomz Productions Music Studio is now open and accepting new customers for recording, mixing, and orchestration of music! Equipped with the latest recording and sound processing equipment, the Ezomz Productions Music Studio is the ideal place for you to record your music, regardless of the genre or style. Plus, the cost is less than half the price of any studio in the capital region! Check it all out here.