Hoboken Recorders

It’s a real pleasure to record a great band live in the studio… This week we’ve been busy tracking the inimitable Stephanie Carlin for her upcoming debut release. Her music is a thoughtful and unique blend of R&B, Soul, Jazz, Rock, Folk and Blues. The basics were tracked as a 5-piece for the most part, with the piano and drum set in our large live room (gotta love that bleed!), Steph in an iso booth and the bass and guitar amps isolated. The two songs that were tracked live as a 7-piece (with a saxophone and trumpet) were done with the horns in a separate iso booth, with line-of-sight to the rest of the band. Fortunately we have enough inputs and space to record all of this live with as much isolation as we want! and yes, the pianist is playing a steinway, our wurlitzer, *and* our rhodes.

We’ve gotten a hold of a 2002 Steinway B in perfect condition, which is available for use–for a relatively low fee–for recording sessions (at least two weeks advance notice is required). This is the mother of all grand pianos! There’s no mic positioning that doesn’t sound incredible on this thing. The action is incredible and the sound – perfection.

The Jupiter Deluxe’s single “Faceplant”, recorded at Hobo Reco, will be featured on the season finale of the TLC hit NY INK on Thursday, 7/21 @ 10pm. Apparently the song will be used during a key montage. The timing of this couldn’t be better as the guys are near finishing a full-length release with us. The Jupiter Deluxe is one of our favorite bands to record – we’re psyched that they’re getting more exposure!

We love pedal steel at Hoboken Recorders. This is a picture of John Widgren playing on Chris Koch’s current work in progress. Every once in a while we get to record a really great Steel player and Widgren is definitely one of those. This steel is a Mullen, built in Colorado. A beautifully machined instrument which really sounded great through our 1963 blackface Fender Showman amp through a 1961 slant-top Marshall cabinet.

Yesterday we had the pleasure to record a string section with (from left to right in the picture) Jenny Sheinman on Violin, Mazz Swift-Camlet on Viola, and Marika Hughes on Cello. If you don’t know who they are… look them up and hear for yourself. suffice to say it was an excellent string section. Since we added the extra iso booth and changed the shape of our live room, it sounds even better than it did for recording acoustic instruments like strings, horns and percussion.

Jenny Sheinman, Mazz Swift and Marika Hughes

Chris Koch’s record, Scenes from a Coastal Evacuation is finished and pressed. Koch and Hoboken Recorders Engineer Pete Thompson have been hard at work on this far-reaching record for quite some time. The final product is available through cdbaby and other outlets.

There are lots of clips, some videos and info on where to get the music on Chris’ website: www.maintainorbit.com

“Scenes” was tracked at Studio F by Ernie Fortunato, at Hoboken Recorders by Pete Thompson and Alan Camlet, and mixed at Hoboken Recorders by Pete Thompson. Mastering was done by Roman Vail at Joe Lambert Mastering in Brooklyn.

Available now from Fresh Sound records!

“The Delphian Jazz Orchestra performs music that stretches outside of the typical parameters of a traditional big band. The music drastically morphs styles that fall anywhere from the influences of Ellington and Monk to Stravinsky and Frank Zappa. Hoping to free itself from the confines of formal structure, The Delphian Jazz Orchestra expresses a full range of emotion and thought through unique musical artistry.” (from the Fresh New Sound website)

Tales of Pan and Eyes of Argus was mixed at Hoboken Recorders by Pete Thompson

We just finished building a large, completely isolated vocal/instrument booth with full line of sight into the large live room and all the way across to the small live room. Pictures to come…