MANHATTAN

Due out March 26, 2012

Let’s first zoom in on Greenwich Village, where mixing sessions for Madonna’s upcoming album MDNA have been running out of Germano Studios with engineer/mixer Demo Castellon.

Jon Bon Jovi also hit Germano for writing and recording sessions with co-producer John Shanks and Dan Chase engineering. And singer/songwriter Marc Cohn – with producer/songwriter and Dobro master Jerry Douglas – recorded here in sessions produced by Russ Titelman and engineered by Kevin Porter.

Also at Germano…K’naan recorded with Nas and Chuck Harmony producing – Dave Rowland and Ryan West engineered the sessions; The-Dream recorded new material with Brian “B-Luv” Thomas engineering; Keri Hilson was working with The Phat Boiz and Ne-Yo producing, Kenta Yonesaka engineering; and songwriter/producer Sandy Vee was mixing for various projects.

Nearby at The Lodge, mastering engineers Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta, Sarah Register and Heba Kadry have gotten off to a busy start in 2012. In recent sessions, The Lodge mastered…Garbage’s upcoming full-length Not Your Kind Of People – mixed by Butch Vig and Billy Bush; The Raveonettes’ new EP; Narada Michael Walden‘s new album “Thunder” – engineered and mixed by David Frazer and Jim Reitzel; two new singles by the Cold War Kids – mixed by Richard Swift – and Bear in Heaven’s anticipated new album I Love You, It’s Cool – produced and mixed by David Wrench.

The Lodge also handled remastering Indochine‘s “Paradize” album (Sony Music France) for a 10^th Anniversary re-release, and mastering St. Lucia’s debut EP for Neon Gold; Light Asylum’s new album for Mexican Summer, and Nymph’s new record mixed by David Tolomei for The Social Registry.

Down in the Lower East Side at EastSide Sound, recent sessions engineered by Marc Urselli include: vocals and drum tracking for Martha Wainwright’s new Yuka Honda-produced album; two new John Zorn albums, one a trio featuring Bill Frisell; Sean Lennon recording an album with Kemp & Eden; David Krakauer recording and mixing his new album for Tzadik Records, as well as a recording for a movie soundtrack; and Japanese french horn player Yuko Yamamura with Taiko player Ryota Kataoka for a duo record of Japanese traditional music.

The new Jets Overhead record was mixed over at Flux Studios in the East Village. Producer/mixer Emery Dobyns mixed the album out of Flux’s freshly-appointed Revolution Room. Also at Flux, producer/mixer Fab Dupont recently finished mixing a new album from jazz saxophonist Bob Reynolds – produced by Mat Pierson, and featuring John Mayer.

Singer/songwriter Cris Cab and producers 88 Keys, Wyclef and Sedeck Jean have been working up at StadiumRed in Harlem, making Cab’s debut album for Mercury Records, and the just-released Echo Boom mixtape, presented by Billionaire Boys Club. StadiumRed engineer Joseph Pedulla worked alongside Cab and co. on these two projects – writing and recording in StadiumRed’s A, B and C4 rooms, with assistant engineers Keith Parry, Mike Kuzoian and Phil Consorti. In-house mastering engineer Ricardo Gutierrez also mastered the first single off Echo Boom, “Put In Work”.

Click to watch some studio footage from these sessions…

StadiumRed also hosted Cee Lo Green while he was in town preparing for his Super Bowl performance. The session included vocal tracking and mixing for his upcoming single. Graham Marsh engineered these sessions, with assistance from Keith Parry.

Meanwhile in Midtown, Sesame Street was invading Sear Sound! As part of a video shoot for Pool Worldwide from The Netherlands, produced by Tim Carter, Bert & Ernie got acquainted with Studio C and its custom Avalon/Sear console as well as Sear’s chief engineer Chris Allen. Jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane also paid a visit to Studio C, tracking and mixing his new album with Allen engineering, and Joe Lovano producing, and contributing tenor sax and his specially designed double sax.

Lovano also tracked and mixed his own album in Studio A for Blue Note Records, with James Farber engineering, and Ted Tuthill and Owen Mullholland assisting. In other recent Sear Sessions: Imani Wind Ensemble recorded with Silas Brown engineering, and bassoonist Monica Ellis producing; NYC-based producer Andrew Wyatt (of Swedish indie-pop band Miike Snow) has been working on Xander Duell’s new album; and Philip Glass tracked the score for a new documentary, BESA, with Christian Rutledge producing, Dan Bora engineering, and Trevor Gureckis conducting.

Sesame Street also took over KMA Music in the Brill Building, recording “Elmo’s Elf-a bet Challenge” in Studio A, with engineer by Serge Nudel. R&B singer Chrisette Michelle recorded “Get thru the Night” and “Kiss Kiss” at KMA with Serge Nudel engineering. Nudel also engineered tracking sessions with Amanda Cole for the track “More Than I Can Handle”.

Mos Def tracked his remake of the Jay-Z/Kanye track at KMA Music.

In other recent KMA sessions… Yasiin Bey(Mos Def) has been tracking with Colin Norman engineering; Producer/engineer Emily Wright mixed an upcoming Owl City release; Roc Nation’s J. Cole tracked a new album with Mez Davis engineering; Mike Posner also did some tracking with engineer Mez Davis; Carole King cut vocals for her memoirs with Colin Norman engineering; and hit songwriter Claude Kelly and producer Chuck Harmony have working on new material with Ben Chang engineering.

In the midst of planning a large-scale renovation, Daddy’s House Recording Studios in Midtown has been busy tracking and mixing on records for Machine Gun Kelly – “Wild Boy”, mixed by Steve “Rockstar” Dickey; French Montana – “Shot Caller”, mixed by Matt Testa; and Red Café – “Let it Go” among other tracks, recorded and mixed by Steve “Rockstar” Dickey.

In addition Daddy’s House has reportedly hosted quite a bit of independent label work, and choir recording sessions. Once renovated, Daddy’s House will be re-launched as a commercial studio, but in the meantime this facility – with its SSL G-equipped and Neve VR 60-equipped studios, and writing room, is officially already open to the public.

Big film and television projects were underway at Avatar Studios – including songs recorded for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games for Lionsgate. Produced by T. Bone Burnett, and engineered by David Sinko – assisted by Bob Mallory – music for the film was tracked to tape in Studio A. Burnett has also been recording music for a new Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis at Avatar – co-produced by Burnett and the Coen’s, and engineered by Jason Wormer, with Mallory assisting.

Music for NBC's "Smash" has been recorded at Avatar and mastered at Masterdisk.

And music for NBC’s new show Smash was recorded with producer Mark Shaiman and engineer Todd Whitelock, assisted by Charlie Kramsky.

And, in time for Super Bowl XLVI (as we reported yesterday), NYC-based composer Joel Beckerman brought his new theme for NBC’s NFL Show in to record with an orchestra in Avatar’s Studio A, with engineer Dennis Wall.

In pure music sessions at Avatar…Herbie Hancock recorded a piano duet with Lang Lang in with producer David Lai and engineer Kirk Yano, assisted by Tim Marchiafava. Esperanza Spalding also recorded with Hancock for the same project. Placido Domingo recorded duets with Bobby McFerrin and producer / engineer Rafa Sardina, as well as with Harry Connick, Jr.  And Broadway cast albums for Bonnie & Clyde (producer David Lai, engineer Isaiah Abolin) and Once (producer Steven Epstein, engineer Richard King) were also recently recorded at Avatar.

Some of those singles mixed at Daddy’s House were mastered nearby at Masterdisk. Tony Dawsey (assisted by Tim Boyce) mastered Red Café’s “Let It Go” f. P Diddy, French Montana, Machine Gun Kelly’s “Wild Boy”, and French Montana “Shot Caller” f. P Diddy, Rick Ross – all for Bad Boy – as well as the Steve Sola-mixed single by DJ Absolut “Untouchable” f. Ace Hood, French Montana, Pusha T, Nathaniel, on Addicted For Life.

Meanwhile, Vlado Meller was mastering songs for the pilot episode of NBC’s Smash produced by Marc Shaiman and Scott Riesett, and mixed by Lawrence Manchester at Avatar. Meller will reportedly continue mastering songs for upcoming episodes, which will get released on iTunes. Meller also recently mastered Say Anything’s upcoming album, Anarchy, My Dear, produced by Brooklyn-based Tim O’Heir.

And Scott Hull mastered So Brown’s Bryce Goggin-produced album (from tape). Masterdisk also recently installed several Antelope Audio Isochrone Trinity Master Clock and 10M Rubidium Atomic Clock units in its mastering suites – reportedly “to maintain stereo imaging and the overall sonic integrity of projects passing through its studios. Additionally, Masterdisk is installing multiple Antelope Audio Zodiac D/A converters at listening stations throughout the facility for quality control purposes.

BROOKLYN, QUEENS & BEYOND

Let’s get started out at a quintessentially awesome Brooklyn spot – The Motherbrain, in Gowanus, where owner/producer/engineer Brian Bender’s tracked and/or mixed a few noteworthy records in the last couple months. First up in our report is… Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds’ latest, Pound Of Dirt. Bender produced, recorded and mixed this album for NYC’s Modern Vintage Recordings, with assistance from Jon Anderson. Bender also recently finished mixing Langhorne Slim’s upcoming album The Way We Move, which was recorded up at Old Soul Studios in the Catskills by Kenny Siegal.

José James

And particularly notable is the latest by José James – No Beginning, No End. Produced by José James, Brian Bender and legendary bassist Pino Palladino, the album began with tracks recorded at The Magic Shop with Russ Elevado, and in London by songwriter/producer Fink, and continued with tracking at The Motherbrain, where Bender will also mix the record.

“We ended up doing the majority of the basics for the record here and Jose called in an amazing band: Grant Windsor, Richard Spaven, Pino Palladino, Emily King, Solomon Dorsey, Nate Smith, Kris Bowers and Nir Felder,” Bender described. “Pino was in town for D’Angelo rehearsals so he was splitting his days between this session and rehearsals uptown.

“The sessions were effortless. We were nearly two full days ahead of schedule the whole time. Also very exciting, this is the first record that I have been able to use the WSW to track with! Overheads and the suitcase Rhodes went through it. (Best rhodes sound ever!)”

Nearby at Bryce Goggin’s Trout Recording, David Sylvian and Joan As Policewoman’s Joan Wasser began work on a new record. Fred Cash and Parker Kindred were laying down the rhythms, with Bryce Goggin producing and Adam Sachs engineering. And Ches Smith & These Arches (Tim Berne, Tony Malaby, Andrea Parkins and Mary Halvorson) also began cutting a new album at Trout, with Shahzad Ismaily producing and Goggin engineering.

Another cool NYC percussion-based ensemble Loop 2.4.3. – founded by Clogs’ percussionist Thomas Kozumplik (The National, The Books) – has been tracking a new project at GödelString in Park Slope with engineer Joel Hamburger.

According to Hamburger, the Loop 2.4.3. album, called American Dreamland, came together via somewhat experimental sessions in the studio. “It was a bit of an unusual hybrid process for this type of avant-classical music. It allowed me to work with a mixture of in-the-box and outboard gear to sculpt the sound.”

Hamburger, who recorded and mixed the album, also noted: “What was extra exciting was the extremely wide variety of musicians/styles who came together to make an organic whole. This album expanded on territory the duo was exploring through their previous album, which I also mixed.”

The album will feature vocals by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and Scott Bearden, Jon Catler, of La Monte Young and Forever Bad Blues Band on electric guitar, and Todd Reynolds, of Bang on a Can All Stars and Ethel, on violin.

Over in DUMBO, Joe Lambert mastered the new Ben Allen-produced Reptar album, Body Faucet for Vagrant Records, due out this Spring. Lambert also mastered Reptar’s EP “Oblangle Fizz Y’all” last year. Frenchkiss artist Young Man also mastered his upcoming album, Volume One, at Joe Lambert Mastering.

Bowerbirds' "The Clearing" will be out on Dead Oceans March 6, 2012

Producer/engineer Nicolas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) will begin production on Young Man’s next LP this month out of his Rare Book Room Studio in Greenpoint.

Other recent sessions at the Rare Book Room include…Matthew Dear’s new EP Headcage and forthcoming LP for Ghostly International which Verhes is mixing; Bowerbirds’ next LP for Dead Oceans The Clearing, mixed by Vernhes (first single out via Pitchfork); Exitmusic’s upcoming LP, This Is Not A Dream for Secretly Canadian on which Vernhes mixed and lent additional production; and Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear’s solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile for Warp (first single “Saint Nothing” via Stereogum).

In Williamsburg…indie-pop songstress Ingrid Michaelson recorded a cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” at Grand Street Recording, with bandmate Chris Kuffner producing and mixing, and Bobby Mosier engineering the recording session. Kuffner also produced sessions at Grand Street with singer/songwriter Allison Weiss – recording for her new album with drummer Zach Jones.

In other Grand Street sessions news…Pop singer Charlene Kaye was finishing up her upcoming record, Animal Love, with producer Tomek Miernowski – including tracking a string quartet featuring Dave Eggar on cello, Whitney LaGrange on viola, and Coco Taguchi and Jonathan Dinklage on violin, with arrangements by Andrew Sherman. And indie-folk band The Hollows recorded basics for their upcoming  EP, with Miernowski engineering and Grahm Galatro producing.

Blocks away, Raekwon was at The Brewery putting final touches on some tracks for his mixtape Unexpected Victory, with engineer Andrew Krivonos. The Brewery hosted tracking and mixing sessions for this release in 2011 – Raekwon even named a song after the studio.

And hip-hop artist Rilgood made his debut JFK at The Brewery, with producers Woodro Skillson and RC Bankwell, with Krivonos engineering. The 11-track album, which Krivonos notes “is one of the most exciting hip-hop projects I’ve worked on in a while merging dance and pop elements,” is due out later in February.

Kyp Malone with engineer Alby Cohen at Rough Magic Studios

At the newly opened Greenpoint music complex, The End, Brooklyn-based trio Monogold has been recording a new album with Chris Boosahda. In other recent sessions at The End, Television Personalities tracked a new song, with James Richardson of MGMT, and Ron Johnson from the Warren Haynes Band was also at The End working on new projects.

Kyp Malone, of TV on the Radio, has been tracking a new solo project at Rough Magic Studios in Greenpoint, with engineer Alby Cohen, assisted by Chris Pummill.

Cohen has also been working with Talib Kweli, and recently started using a new mic on the Blacksmith recording artist, for his soon to be released LP, Prisoner of Conscience, on EMI. Two new songs have also been tracked with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) on the new Blackstar collaboration. Yasiin reportedly brings his own Shure Super 55.

And Joe Moose Demby recorded the new Creative Arson project with Angie Pontani at Rough Magic. The Valentine’s Day released podcast will feature filmaker Suki Hawley, fashion designer Garo Sparo and comedian Murray Hill

Singer/songwriter DM Stith has been working on a new album at The Buddy Project in Astoria, with the new music ensemble Ymusic accompanying, and Kieran Kelly producing/engineering. Kelly has also been working with singer/songwriter Shawn Walsh on an upcoming release.

At Zeitgeist Sound in Long Island City, James Cruz mastered Mary Mary‘s song “Go Get It” to be released by Sony Music. The track was produced by Warryn Campbell and mixed by Bruce Buechner.

American Fangs are recording out at VuDu Studios in Port Jefferson.

Houston-born alt-rock band American Fangs migrated out east to Long Island where they’re recording a full-length album with producers Mike Watts and Steve Haigler at Vudu Studios. Located out in Port Jefferson, Vudu has two seriously equipped studios and a nice big live room, and is home base to Watts (As Tall As Lions, The Dear Hunter, Saliva) and Haigler (The Pixies’ Doolittle, Trompe Le Monde, etc., Brand New).

And not as far out east, there’s Cove City Sound Studios, where Dream Theater recorded their Grammy-nominated album A Dramatic Turn of Events. The album was produced by John Petrucci and engineered by Paul Northfield (assisted by Joe Maniscalero) for Roadrunner Records. Writing, recording, and rough mixing went down at Cove City.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

Jungle City's Studio A made it clear that NYC would be off to a strong start in 2011.

Like any battle worth fighting, there was a constant sense of two-steps-forward one-step-back pervading the action for most. Those who successfully navigated the music-to-picture minefield, shot straight with their startup, made a name in video games or were allied right in publishing may have had a banner year.

But just as often for NYC producers, engineers, mixers, studios, labels, and businesses of all levels, this year felt like a nonstop guessing game. Would Spotify and the Amazon Cloud help business, hurt it, or none of the above? Does a hit record matter anymore? Advance with reckless abandon – or retreat while there’s still time?

As we did in 2010, we review the year’s primary news and trends, filtered through the fog of war that was 2011.

On the recording, mixing and mastering front, studio openings far outnumbered closings, as facilities large and small showed their confidence in NYC by starting up, building out, or renovating.

Ann Mincieli elevated world-class studio expectations with the opening of Jungle City Studios on Manhattan’s West Side.

Downtown Music made a big statement with the addition of a vintage Neve 8014 console.

NYC mastering cornerstone Howie Weinberg departed Scott Hull’s Masterdisk for Los Angeles.

The door revolved back into Masterdisk, as another legend – Vlado Meller – exited the suddenly defunct Universal East (closed down on April 1st) and set up shop at the West Side complex.

RIP Gil Scott Heron: 1949-2011

Studios and the social scene intermingled in a new way at the first “Inside Sessions”, presented by Avid and SonicScoop at Stratosphere Sound.

NYC recording icons whose musical presence loomed large here and worldwide passed on. RIP Nick Ashford and Gil Scott Heron.

The upstate studio scene got yet another addition with the opening of the WSDG-designed World Harmony Studios, built into a 3-story 4500 sq. ft. redwood lodge.

The intense success of a Broadway smash still held sway, as evidenced by the groundbreaking work that went into Frank Filipetti’s recording of The Book of Mormon cast album.

Brooklyn remained fertile ground for new spaces, as the multiroom studio The End debuted in Greenpoint.

The End was one of a crop of next-gen large-format Brooklyn facilities opening or about to come fully online, including the bigger-better Studio G, a sizable new two-room home for The Bunker, Strange Weather, and The Motherbrain.

Facilities supporting classical music were full speed ahead, as plugged-in new mega-rehearsal space The Dimenna Center came online on West 37th Street.

Electric Lady upped the ante by installing a Neve 8078 (from Clinton Recording) into Studio A, while a vintage API 3288 starred in a new mix suite on the second floor.

The much buzzed-about branding exercise that was Converse Rubber Tracks arrived in Williamsburg – reports of the demise of the rest of the NYC recording industry prove greatly exaggerated.

723 7th Avenue became the loudest location in Times Square when Quad Studios launched Studio Q1, with three different analog summing mixers, a pair of custom Augspurger Dual 15” main monitors, and two subwoofers.

Small studios showed they were more than willing to reinvest in themselves, as seen at busy facilities like Galuminum Foil which dramatically upgraded their control room.

Smaller studios still rolled the dice and introduced themselves. Greenpoint’s Tiny Thunder Audio was emblematic of producers banking on the growing number of Brooklyn artists needing a professional space to track vocals, or otherwise focus on one aspect of the production chain.

Mobile audio remained a niche in motion, giving birth to spirited outfits like Equal Sonics.

All about the music in mastering, as at The Lodge and their treatment of Neutral Milk Hotel's boxset.

Experimentation between artist and studio ran rampant, such as with La Dispute’s “no reverb allowed” adventure at Stadium Red.

NYC mastering stretched its own technical and creative legs, with ambitious projects like the Neutral Milk Hotel box set being finished by Joe LaPorta of The Lodge.

Ears of experience convinced Anthony “Rocky” Gallo (Cutting Room Studios) to open his own production/tracking/mixing facility in Greenpoint.

Ten years to the day after starting the world-class Bennett Studios in a converted Englewood, NJ railroad station, Dae Bennett closed its doors.

As one door closed, another opened across the river in Garrison, NY, as the prolific singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik made his residential destination, Sneaky Studios, available to the outside world.

Recordists and artists alike took a momentary break from sessions to converge at AES 2011 in NYC. Although the base of operations was the Javits Center, the real heart – as usual – beat under cover of darkness at unforgettable parties ranging from Brooklyn’s raw new Studio G space  to the East Village environs of Flux Studios.

And tracking/mixing sessions just flat-out abounded, with our best-of-2011 “Sezzion Buzz”, showing the world’s top artists and producers working nonstop throughout NYC and the tri-state area.

**

With Madison Avenue, film production  and TV series abounding – and a NY tax incentive for them to work in state – audio post activity remained fast-paced. Even as facilities dealt with constant downward pressure on pricing, there still seemed to be plenty of players in the game.

Audio post mixers and sound designers with followings remained a hot commodity, as suite-switches flew thick and fast.

Howie Schwartz closed HSRNY after a 36-year run.

The Audio Branding Congress moved from Europe to New York City in its 3rd year, attracting some of the brightest minds in the business to the Columbia campus in November.

Gotham bid adieu to HSRNY, the city’s flagship audio post facility since 1975.

Just as quickly, composer Andrew Hollander helped launch the full-service post boutique Goodpenny.

And multiroom midtown facilities like Pomann Sound demonstrated that they had staying power.

New amalgamations of synch licensing and music composition emerged at innovative places like Brooklyn’s Melody Robot.

The studio-in-studio trend continued, as video editorial house FLUID gave birth to audio post room Mr. Bronx – headed up by former audioEngine mixer David Wolfe.

Longtime musical thought leaders like Philip Glass kept NYC in the global spotlight, powering opera from Austria to BAM via his East Village HQ.

And film scoring quietly thrived, with leaders like Carter Burwell splitting his time between TriBeCa and the Hamptons to complete the hotly anticipated score for Twilight.

**

From manufacturing to music licensing, inspiration sprang eternal for the business-minded in the five boroughs.

Hardware proved it could still be born and bred in Manhattan, as Origin Point Audio introduced itself with the Senator non-linear compressor.

Original music/music supervision specialists Search Party were of many in the field that expanded, adding reach (to Oregon) and roster (Chris Funk of the Decemberists). Labels like Decon Records sharpened their internal focus on licensing with new hires. Streamlined new music supervision ventures of every stripe continued to arrive, like Synchtank, JuxMusic, and The SongHunters.

Boutique publishers saw their chance, such as the newly-opened 401k initiative from Veronica Gretton.

Forward thinking for the five boroughs and beyond: LegitMix.

Creative online businesses enabling previously untenable levels of creativity launched. Brooklyn’s LegitMix, for example, vastly streamlined the clearance process for the fast release of 100% licensed remixes.

Venture capital and funding rounds were still the name of the game for many, as seen by the $6 million cash infusion received by audio fingerprinting technology company Tunesat.

Experienced professionals recognized NYC service voids yet to be filled, founding niche-but-necessary businesses such as Dr. Julie Glick’s Musicians Hearing Solutions.

No less than Sir Elton John invested in the area, as a co-founder of Rocket Music Entertainment Group. Located within Beat360 Studios, the NYC offices join its London and Tokyo brethren in managing producers, mixers and elite songwriters.

“NYC is still the greatest city in the world. It always will be. It doesn’t matter the genre, beyond NYC and into the tri-state area, it’s still the place to be. People move here for a reason: There’s an energy about being a band in NYC that’s unmatched anywhere,” Matt Pinfield told us. This on the heels of the loss of the rock radio format at WRXP, and the triumphant return of his “120 Minutes” series for MTV.

Matt Pinfield returned with "120 Minutes" on the LES, but was stymied in his crusade to advance NYC rock radio. (Photo: Mike-Stypulkoski)

Live gatherings kept on multiplying, as examined in the 2nd year of Brooklyn’s Tinderbox Music Festival.

Digital streaming/mechanical royalty players – like upstart Rightsflow and seasoned veteran Harry Fox Agency (HFA) – competed for position.

Some NYC record labels, like savvy survivalists Razor & Tie, grew by connecting solid talent with a broadening range of media possibilities.

Established digitally-based innovators like TuneCore, took advantage of M&A activity in the music publishing sector, pouncing on experienced pros to form new ventures like its Songwriter Service, providing a slate of global copyright/licensing/royalty collection services. Other startups in the sector came of age, as Downtown Music’s SongTrust celebrated its first full year in business.

Retail got the gear into the people’s hands, providing equipment of course, but also NYC-elite levels of support. Top sellers like Alto Music NYC continually kept its customers informed with live group sessions, while B&H re-examined the microphone purchase process.

Talent buying for live venues, events and festivals remained a solid pillar of the industry, as evidenced by the launch of Blue Note Entertainment Group, and the busy agent/artist rosters of longtime midtown talent agencies like The Agency Group.

NYC-based virtual instrument developers Heavyocity and SampleLogic are in it to win it, with increasingly popular music creation tools for scoring and original music production.

Leading area studio design firms saw sufficient demand to expand overseas operations. John Storyk’s WSDG implemented German and Spanish offices, and Troy Germano’s Studio Design Group teamed up with Mexico’s Jose Reyes to form RG Germano Studios Tampico.

Avid made near-simultaneous announcements of a landmark product release and corporate restructuring.

The passing of Steve Jobs caused the audio industry – and many, many more – to pause and reflect.

On the night before AES, Avid announced Pro Tools 10 and the new Pro Tools HDX DAW systems, which the company called a “gigantic leap in sound and speed”.

Exactly seven days later, Avid announced its latest restructuring, eliminating 10% of its workforce.

The AES welcomed its new Executive Director, Firewire audio pioneer Bob Moses, who assumes his new role on January 1st, 2012.

Special thanks to SonicScoop’s  many talented bloggers, reviewers and contributors who helped make all of the above possible in 2011. Equal thanks to all to our great visitors who are coming along for the journey. Happy New Year, from all of us at SonicScoop!

– Janice Brown & David Weiss

By all accounts, this was a big year for recording in NYC: There were the major mainstream Made-in-NY albums, i.e. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (Germano Studios), John Mayer’s upcoming release (Electric Lady), Beyonce 4 (MSR, Jungle City), Sting’s latest (Sear Sound) and Tony Bennett’s Duets II (Avatar). There were the critically-anticipated indie releases, i.e. Bjork (Sear Sound, Avatar, Atlantic Sound) and Beirut (Vacation Island) and of course a ton of indie activity emanating out of Brooklyn, as well as big moves in the way of new and newly renovated high-end facilities for record production.

Drink it all in with this “Best of 2011” session highlights and studio hits:

We’ll start uptown at StadiumRed in Harlem – home to a team of engineers and producers that includes David Frost, Just Blaze, Sid “Omen” Brown, Ariel Burojow, Tom Lazarus, Joe Pedulla, Andrew Wright and mastering engineer Ricardo Gutierrez.

StadiumRed hosted Chris Brown (Jive Records) for a stretch as he worked on his Grammy-nominated record, F.A.M.E. and a future album. The single “She Ain’t You” produced by Free School was recorded in Studio A at StadiumRed, and two additional songs off his upcoming album were produced by Just Blaze. Rick Ross also worked quite a bit with Just Blaze and StadiumRed this year – his albums Self Made Volume 1 and I Love My Bitches were both produced, mixed and mastered at Stadium Red with Just Blaze producing, Andrew Wright mixing, assisted by Keith Parry, and Ricardo Gutierrez mastering.

Drake's “Lord Knows” - produced by Just Blaze, Andrew Wright and Ricardo Gutierrez at StadiumRed

The track “Lord Knows” off Drake’s acclaimed new album, Take Care, was produced by this same StadiumRed team – Just Blaze, Wright and Gutierrez. The choir in this song was recorded in Studio A.

Other highlights include Ariel Borujow mixing three tracks for Chiddy Bang’s (EMI) debut album Breakfast, Joe Pedulla and Andrew Everding producing and engineering the new album by rock band La Dispute (click to read our feature about this album produced with no artificial reverb) and the Grammy-nominated Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music From Slide (David Frost, producer and Tom Lazarus, engineer); Far Away: Late Nights & Early Mornings by Marsha Ambrosius (Just Blaze, producer and Andrew R Wright, engineer); and J. Cole (Keith Parry, assistant engineer).

Rufus Wainwright (Universal Music Group) tracked portions of his new album “Out of the Game” in Studio ‘A’ (Neve 8038) at Sear Sound in Midtown, with Alan O’Connell engineering and Mark Ronson producing. Sear’s own Ted Tuthill assisted on these sessions.

“During his sessions at Sear, Rufus’ new opera Prima Donna premiered at the New York City Opera,” says Sear Sound manager Roberta Findlay. “They recorded using our Studer A827 2″ 24 track with BASF 911 2″, as well as Pro Tools. Tracking and overdubs varied from piano and vocal, whole band takes (piano, bass, drums, vocals), to piano overdubs, bass overdubs, keyboard overdubs, electric guitar overdubs, choir overdubs, drum machine overdubs, and many more. Mark Ronson brought in a wide variety of his personal vintage synths.”

Sear also hosted recording sessions for Bjork’s latest Biophilia, with Damian Taylor co-producing/engineering, and Sting tracking for his latest with engineer Donal Hodgson and co-producer/arranger Rob Mathes. And Iron & Wine tracked and mixed their song “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” which can be heard in Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Tom Schick engineered with Brian Deck producing. Rob Berger wrote the arrangements. [Click for a video of this session.]

Regina Spektor is working with producer Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Mastodon) on her upcoming album.

In other highlights, Joss Stone tracked new material at Sear with an all-star band (Ernie Isley on guitar, James Alexander on bass, Latimore on piano and Raymond Angry on B3 and keyboards), and Steve Greenwell engineering and co-producing with S-Curve’s Steve Greenberg. “At Joss’ s request, we built a western version of a resplendent ashram for her, to stimulate her creative juices,” says Findlay. “I believe it worked!!”

Meanwhile, mixing sessions for Regina Spektor’s anticipated new album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats went down in Studio A at The Cutting Room – with producer Mike Elizondo, and engineer Adam Hawkins, assisted by Matt Craig. The album is due out in May 2012 on Warner Bros Records.

At nearby Germano Studios – where Joan Jett & The Blackhearts have been recording this month – it’s been a huge year of pop, rock, rap and R&B. In addition to Jett, who’s been in with longtime producer Kenny Laguna, and engineer Thom Panunzio, Germano’s hosted writing and recording sessions with Ne-Yo, OneRepublic and Alexander Dexter-Jones recording with engineer Kenta Yonesaka for his The Last Unicorn album, and mixing sessions with Sony Italy artist Fiorella Mannoia with Dave O’Donnell engineering.

Highlights from the year include the recording for Lady Gaga’s Grammy-nominated Born This Way, Adele’s Grammy-nominated 21, “Moves Like Jagger” by  Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera, Beyonce’s 4, and the new will.i.am album…The studio also added new Exigy subs, and launched a joint-venture into Tampico Mexico, creating RG Germano Studios Tampico.

2011 has also been an epic year of releases out of The Lodge. Mastering Engineers Emily Lazar & Joe LaPorta mastered Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, which received six Grammy nominations including nominations for Lazar and LaPorta in “Album Of The Year” category. And the team mastered countless records released to critical acclaim, including Tuneyard’s Whokill, mastered by LaPorta, Liturgy’s Aesthethica, mastered by Heba Kadry, the Cults debut, mastered by Lazar and LaPorta, EMA’s Past Life Martyred Saints, mastered by Sarah Register, and albums by Dum Dum Girls, Cold Cave and Hooray for Earth – all mastered by LaPorta.

As covered here on SonicScoop, LaPorta also mastered the huge Neutral Milk Hotel release, the band’s first (an all-vinyl complete box-set) since ’98′s classic In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Lazar and LaPorta also mastered Boy & Bear’s award-winning Moonfire, produced by Joe Chiccarelli.

For EastSide Sound and chief engineer Marc Urselli, it’s been a year of recording some of NYC’s finest avant-garde, jazz, fusion and acoustic music greats like John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Chihiro Yamanaka with Bernard Purdie, and more recently John Zorn, John Medeski and Mike Patton. Citizen Cope and Swiss crossover jazz band The Lucien Dubuis Trio have also been recording albums with Urselli at East Side Sound.

In the Fall, Broadway veteran singer Wren Marie Harrington teamed up with arranger/producer jazz wunderkind Art Bailey to record a collection of jazz and Latin infused American and world standards at EastSide with Lou Holtzman engineering and Eric Elterman assisting. Bailey, Dave Acker, Marty Confurius and Diego Lopez formed the band for this record.

Plenty of jazz, avant and orchestral sessions recorded at Avatar Studios this year, including Stanley Jordan, James Carter, Steve Reich / So Percussion, Joe Jackson with Elliot Scheiner, Esperanza Spalding with Q-Tip and Joe Ferla, Chick Corea, Zak Smith Band. One of the big, ongoing sessions of the year at Avatar was Tony Bennett’s Duets II album, produced by Phil Ramone and engineered by Dae Bennett. In March, Bennett and Sheryl Crow recorded “The Girl I Love” in Studio A.  In July, Bennett sang and recorded “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” with Aretha Franklin in Studio C, and at the end of July, he recorded “The Lady is a Tramp” with Lady Gaga in Studio A.

Other pop/rock artists recording at Avatar this year include Paul McCartney recording a Buddy Holly tribute, Ingrid Michaelson recording her upcoming album, Human Again – both with producer David Kahne and engineer Roy Hendrickson – Elvis Costello,  James McCartney, and VHS or Beta.

Members of Delta Spirit with Producer/Engineer Chris Coady and Asst Engineer Adam Tilzer.

And Avatar’s Studio A and C were used on many a Broadway cast album, and TV and film score/soundtrack recording sessions, including: Boardwalk Empire featuring Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks with producer / engineer Stewart Lerman, and Mildred Pierce, also ft. Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, with producer Randy Poster; Louie, produced by Louie C.K. with engineer Robert Smith assisted by Bob Mallory; Glee, with producer Tommy Faragher and engineers Bryan Smith and Robert Smith; and the films  Moonrise Kingdom (the new Wes Anderson),  A Late Quartet, Friends with Kids, and So Undercover.

Across town, some of the biggest pop artists were working out of Stratosphere Sound in Chelsea, where songwriter Amanda Ghost and producer Dave McCracken were stationed much of the year working on new material with Florence and The Machine, Santigold, John Legend, the Scissor Sisters, The xx and Daniel Merriweather.

Ever the awesome rock recording studio, Stratosphere hosted several album projects this year including Canadian band Jets Overhead with producer/engineer Emery Dobyns, Japanese band The Telephones with Alex Newport, The Static Jacks with Chris Shaw, and Delta Spirit with Chris Coady. And, switching gears, both Sarah Brightman and Aaron Neville recorded at Stratosphere – both tracking vocals with Geoff Sanoff.

Finally, The Sheepdogs, a rock band from Saskatchewan, were paired with Stratosphere owner/producer Adam Schlesinger for Rolling Stone’s “Choose the Cover” contest. They worked on several songs with Adam…and they won!

BIG YEAR FOR BROOKLYN

In 2011, Manhattan saw the opening of Ann Mincieli’s impressive, golden-age-reviving Jungle City Studios, and major renovations and new rooms at the legendary Electric Lady Studios, but Brooklyn has been the real hotbed of new studio activity. Converse opened its Rubber Tracks Studio this year, and The End in Greenpoint recently opened the doors to its recording and live performance complex. And much building has been underway elsewhere…

2012 will see three new serious recording facilities open in Williamsburg – all three bigger/better versions of existing local indie favorites.

The Bunker co-owners Aaron Nevezie and John Davis back in early October during construction of the new studios.

The Bunker, for one, has already held inaugural sessions at its impressive new two-room facility which features an exciting new Studio A with large live room with 25-ft ceilings and three isolated sections which can be closed off by sliding glass doors.

In one of the room’s first sessions, Bunker co-owner John Davis tracking the new record for funk band Lettuce (featuring Soulive members Eric Krasno and Neal Evans).  “I tracked all the basics live to 2″ ATR on my Studer A80, and we had drums, bass, 2 guitars, keys (B3 and clav) and one sax going down live,” Davis describes. “Additional horns were later overdubbed. It was a great, super funky party in there the whole time, with a bunch of friends hanging and generally great positive creative vibes going on.  We went for (and captured) a live, raw, authentic funk vibe.”

Meanwhile, across town on the Williamsburg/Greenpoint border, Joel Hamilton and Tony Maimone are preparing to open the new Studio G – this is one of the original recording studios in the ‘Burg now expanded into 5,000+ square feet. Studio G will house one of the city’s only commercially available Bosendorfer grand pianos (to our knowledge), and three full featured studios – a 48-input SSL 8048 “A” room, and an equally spacious Neve 5316-equipped “B” room – with ample tracking space and isolation…built by musicians for musicians. (Look out for our upcoming feature on Studio G!)

According to Hamilton, they’re booking the A room for January and beyond, but “things are already booked in super tight, so call now!”

Besides building an insane new studio, Hamilton’s been making records all year too. He worked with the electronic artist Pretty Lights tracking the band in a live-to-two-track analog scenario – all analog and vintage signal chains with no isolation. The band played live in the room together and the masters went straight to vinyl – only to ultimately be sampled by Pretty Lights (Derek Smith) for his album, I Know The Truth. It’s a production style the artist calls “analog electronica.”

Another engineer/producer with an ambitious new studio in the works for 2012 is Marc Alan Goodman who you may recognize from his “Building Strange Weather” blog here on SonicScoop. While work has been heavily underway at his studio’s new location on Graham Ave in Williamsburg, sessions have continued across the ‘hood at the existing Strange Weather Recording. Among the year’s highlights were Here We Go Magic recording overdubs for their upcoming album with producer/engineer Nigel Godrich who was over doing television sound for Radiohead.

The band Friends also recorded two singles and an upcoming full-length album at Strange Weather with co-producer/engineer Daniel Schlett. And the band Lakookala made an EP at the studio (“start-to-finish in 3 days”) with Goodman co-producing and engineering.

Over at Fluxivity, 2011 was the year that the studio’s recently-completed tracking room got a workout, with everything from full tracking with drums to guitar, vocals and all manner of overdubs. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has been working at Fluxivity, with Spencer and engineer Brian Thorn mixing the new album. Ed Mcentee assisted.

Says Fluxivity owner Nat Priest: “This was primarily a tape-based project, mixed to the studio’s Ampex ATR 102 tape machine in the ½” stereo format. Jon Spencer and Brian Thorn used quite a few pieces of the studio’s vintage analog equalizers, compressors and delays including the 1/4″ slap machine and EMT plate reverb.”

Black Dice also made a new record in Williamsburg with Matt Boynton recording, mixing and producing at Vacation Island Recording. Free Blood (members of !!!) and Suckers also made new albums at Vacation Island with Boynton this year. And, Zach Cale is currently in the studio completing mixes for his latest EP, Hangman Letters.

"The Internet" is a new project from Odd Future DJ Syd The Kyd and producer Matt Martian

A couple 2011 Vacation Island highlights were Beirut mixing their latest release The Rip Tide with engineer/producer Griffin Rodriguez, and the “Recorded for Japan” compilation which saw Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, Chairlift and R. Stevie Moore through the studio. Boynton recorded and mixed a lot of this record, and the rest was mixed by Jorge Elbrecht. Vacation Island engineer Rob Laakso mastered the album.

Over at The Brewery Recording, also in Williamsburg, members of breakthrough rap group Odd Future tracked vocals for three songs and started mixing for their new side project The Internet, due out in early 2012. Matt Martians and Syd tha Kyd produced and Andrew Krivonos engineered on these sessions.

The Brewery reports they had 700 sessions through their one-room facility in 2011, running round the clock. Another highlight is happening currently with WZRD, the rock duo formed by Kid Cudi and producer Dot Da Genius. Noah Goldstein has been engineering these sessions.

Brooklyn producer/engineer Allen Farmelo – who you may remember designed this awesome custom console with Greenpoint designer Francois Chambard for his own studio The Farm – just finished mixing a record with noise duo Talk Normal, a project by artist/engineers Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro, with producer Christina Files.

Farmelo also produced/engineered an album for Brooklyn-based children’s musician Elska, out of Mavericks Studio in China Town and back at The Farm, and mixed/mastered two new film scores by Cinematic Orchestra, produced by band-leader Jason Swinscoe for Ninja Tune Records. “These two scores were for films from the 1920s: the Dada-ist masterpiece Entr’acte and the early city portrait called Manhatta. Both were performed live to a packed house at London’s Barbican Center this year, a beautiful night of music and film.”

And, as covered this month in the New York Times, Farmelo produced and mixed a new album by 85-year-old jazz pianist Boyd Lee Dunlop which was tracked at Soundscape in Buffalo by Jimi Calabrese, mixed at The Farm and mastered at The Magic Shop by Jessica Thompson

“An old friend and photographer met Boyd in a state-funded nursing home in Buffalo and began recording him on his cellphone and sending me MP3s and asked if this was any good,” says Farmelo.

“I was blown away by what I heard and arranged to record Boyd with bassist Sabu Adeyola and drummer Virgil Day. Buffalo has few studios, but thankfully I found a room tucked away on Buffalo’s West Side with a Steinway and amazing vintage mics and pres (RCA 77s, Neumann U47s, Neves, etc). I put  up and tracked the session in one day and mixed on the API/Studer combo here at The Farm. I aimed for a vintage sound (late 50s Atlantic Studios in particular), and feel I got it (mono is a big part of that). Jessica Thompson just nailed the mastering perfectly.”

Ville Riippa and Marko Nyberg from Husky Rescue recording vintage Moog 15 tracks at Carousel in Greenpoint

Next, to Greenpoint where Joe McGinty’s unique Carousel Recording – with its heavenly collection of vintage synths – recently hosted Finland electronic act Husky Rescue. Led by Marko Nyberg, the group booked a week at Carousel to lay the groundwork of their next record, utilizing many of the vintage synthesizers in the studio. “They were ace analog synth programmers,” says McGinty, of Psychedelic Furs, Losers Lounge fame. “It was great to see them in action, and I learned a few things as well!

Carousel has also opened a second room to accommodate that ever-expanding keyboard collection, which we featured earlier this year. Recent additions to the collection include a Moog 15 Modular, Freeman String Symphonizer, Yamaha YC-30 organ, and Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand Piano.

In DUMBO, Joe Lambert Mastering had a record year. First off, Chief Engineer/Owner Joe Lambert was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Engineered Album, Classical” category for the aforementioned Lonely Motel: Music From Slide by Steven Mackey and Rinde Eckert.

And other highlights include: mastering the major label debut by Fanfarlo (Atlantic Records/Canvasback), produced by Ben H. Allen, and recorded by David Wrench, the popular Washed Out (SubPop) album Within and Without, also produced by Allen, the Atlas Sound (4AD) record Parallax, produced by Bradford Cox and Nicolas Vernhes, and the Panda Bear (Paw Tracks) album, Tomboy, produced by Noah Lennox and Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember.

Over at The Fort, engineer/producer James Bentley has been working a bit with Brooklyn-based Goodnight Records, including tracking for the new KNTRLR LP, and recording/filming an in-studio performance with the venerable Brooklyn band The Big Sleep. “There were about 40 people and a keg, it was an amazing party,” says Bentley.

The Big Sleep performance/recording/party at The Fort

OUTSIDE THE CITY

Emerging Brooklyn band Thieving Irons trekked up to The Isokon in Woodstock to make a record with engineer/producer D. James Goodwin, Nate Martinez and Josh Kaufman co-producing. “Incredible songs, deconstructed, then put back together in a left brain way,” says Goodwin of the project. “Very few cymbals, tons of space. Lots of Kaoss Pad!” Stream a track “So Long” from the album.

The Dennis Haklar Project at Big Blue Meenie. Photo by Paul Sky.

Goodwin also made an album up at the Isokon with art-folk group Bobby – tracked and mixed the full LP for Partisan Records.

In Jersey City, Big Blue Meenie is still going strong, and hopping with sessions all year. Highlights include Rainey Qualley mixing her EP with Tim “Rumblefish” Gilles and Matt “Dasher” Messenger (the single “Peach In My Pocket” is featured in the 2011 Sundance-winning film To.Get.Her), and Alright Jr tracking their new EP Scratching At The Ceiling with Chris “Noz” Marinaccio, Colin “Gron” Mattos, Matthew “Debris” Menafro, and Jeff “9/11″Canas, and mixing with  Gilles and Messenger.

Also six-piece NJ prog-rock band The Tea Club mixed their “Live at Progday 2011″ show with Messenger, Marinaccio and Gilles, and – most recently – the jazz-fusion oriented Dennis Haklar Project tracked new material (9 songs in 2 days) with Marinaccio engineering, assisted by Colin “Gron” Mattos.

What a year, and those are just some of the highlights! We can only imagine what 2012 will bring to NYC in the way of new recordings — and we can’t wait to hear them.

The Neutral Milk Hotel boxset will include 7 records (two 12”s, 2 10”s and 3 7”s)

The box set, along with pay-what-you-want MP3s of the previously unreleased songs, will be available in December. (Pre-order here.)

In Mangum’s absence, his music has gained legions of new fans over the years, transfixing listeners and leaving everyone wanting more. The new box set features the full-length albums on vinyl, as well as some lost recordings and alternate takes of classic tunes – it’s a collector’s item to be sure, but it’s also the “more” that all Neutral Milk Hotel fans have been waiting for.

To assemble this latest release – compiling recordings of varying quality from various sources – Mangum needed a mastering guru and facility accustomed to a wide variety of indie sounds and sources. His colleague/coordinator Ben Goldberg, of Ba Da Bing Records & Management, called Joe LaPorta at The Lodge Mastering – having mastered Tuneyards’ whokill with him earlier this year. But it was Mangum himself who worked through the material with LaPorta in extensive mastering sessions at The Lodge.

“He had a really clear vision of what he wanted, with regard to sonics – EQ and compression – down to how he specifically wanted to sequence and space the tracks”, says LaPorta. “If one song was a little sibilant, we’d work through it together. He was very methodical so his attendance was key.

“If he had any doubts, he would immediately let me know and I would try to give him an unbiased opinion.”

The classic Neutral Milk Hotel albums, On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, are decidedly lo-fi, recorded on 4 and 8-track machines back in the mid-90s, and beloved for their imperfections, their fuzz, and their blistering, in-your-face vocals and drum sounds. While these records are part of the vinyl box set, they were not re-mastered for this latest release.

Instead, LaPorta focused on all the previously unreleased material, including the tracks making up the two 10” EPs – Everything Is, which features alternate versions of the songs from the band’s original debut EP plus bonus tracks, and Ferris Wheel on Fire, featuring eight previously unreleased acoustic recordings. He also mastered/re-mastered the music for two 7″ records (Little Birds and You’ve Passed/Where You’ll Find Me Now), and a 7″ picture disc with fold-out poster (Holland 1945/Engine).

The unreleased material came into The Lodge on a variety of formats – digitized 4-tracks, cassettes, vinyl, even home video. LaPorta took it track-by-track, enhancing the quality and – moreover – the sonic experience of the material, considering that Neutral Milk Hotel sound.

Joe LaPorta

“This was a really interesting process as far as the engineering challenges were concerned,” says LaPorta. “The key in creating a final product that was cohesive and natural was making the most out of the incredibly varied source material, while still making each track sit well next to the other.

“For example, some of Jeff’s acoustic material was tracked extremely hot on his 4-track, so with all that gain and distortion, the track yielded a compressed lo-fi quality that he wanted to preserve. My inclination was to make the listener feel like they were right there with Jeff while he was recording the demo and just subtly EQ’ing it to bring out the presence and liveliness of the room and his vocals. So I kept a very light hand on compression.”

Other tracks, however, needed a complete facelift. “On some of the demos and live recordings, there was quite a bit of hiss and noise warranting some restoration work right off the bat,” says LaPorta.

“Every track posed a different challenge so it was great to have a few options to audition how well the plug-ins responded to the material in question and see which would treat it the best.  Jeff had a lot of input as far as how much ‘cleaning’ up he wanted me to do.  Things sometimes can get lost in that process – like the charm and the realness of the recording.  Ultimately, the restoration work had to be subtle enough not to distract the listener from the actual music.”

From there, LaPorta would process the audio through an analog chain that he modified for almost every track. “Before I would start working on any song, Jeff and I would just spend some time listening to it and figuring out what was necessary. I ran some of the tracks through The Lodge’s vintage Pultec EQP 1A’s which add a lot of tonality and greater depth,” he notes.

“The Pultecs are positively superior for midrange control and perhaps the most musical EQ because of their unique shelving circuitry. Other items in the arsenal included the Avalon 2077 and the TubeTech SMC 2B multi-band compressor that was sometimes patched in at the end of the chain to ‘seal the deal.’ But it’s never one set formula.”

There were a few even more extreme cases of track revival during these sessions as well. “On some of these songs I really had to pull out all the tricks,” he says. “I had to do some of the most drastic enhancements I’ve ever done.”

For example…LaPorta salvaged a song/performance Mangum had brought in on video. “Jeff played an intimate show in what looks like someone’s apartment and he wanted to include that particular performance on the album – but it hadn’t been properly recorded,” LaPorta describes.

“It was extremely thin: the recording was basically whatever was fed into the camcorder’s tiny little mic. Here, I really had to dig in and try to bring some life and warmth while working around the limitations of the recording. I was really happy with the end result on that – it’s the B-side of Little Bird.

“Another track was pulled from a limited 7” release that only existed on vinyl”, LaPorta explains. “We used this great VPI turntable and Dynavector cartridge and mastered directly into the analog chain.”

"Holland 1945" 7" Picture Disk

Speaking to LaPorta about mastering Neutral Milk Hotel, we expected the unreleased full band tracks would be way raucous and loud, as on Aeroplane, and that this would be the unique challenge in mastering all this material.

“Well, the band tracks on Everything Is are a bit tamer compared with Aeroplane,” LaPorta notes to our inquiry.

“I did master one song off of the Aeroplane album, “Holland 1945”, which is included on side A of Holland Picture Disc. But yeah – the Aeroplane album is pretty loud! (laughs) I was surprised at how loud it is, compared to today’s releases. Jeff told me how they used some heavy normalization in the mastering process at the time. Personally, I think it sounds great – it’s raw and aggressively in your face! A daring aesthetic that was not very popular with indie music bands at that time.”

Only a mastering engineer who can appreciate this bursting-at-the-seams sound could do justice to the work. Having mastered records for sonic renegades like Sleigh Bells and Matt & Kim, along with plenty of bands influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel’s brand of fuzz-pop, LaPorta was the right choice.

Check out the Neutral Milk Hotel website, and hear some choice cuts as MP3s and buy the box set!And get in touch with Joe LaPorta via www.thelodge.com/mastering.

Starting smack in the middle of Times Square, producer Salaam Remi has been working with Jennifer Hudson on music for a new commercial out of Quad Studios. Meanwhile, Sean Paul has been working on new songs at Quad for an upcoming album, as has Atlanta MC Future, who recently signed with Epic Records. Producer Rico Beats has been working out of Quad as well, with various writers. Quad’s Q1 and the Q Lounge has been a listening session hotspot, hosting recent events for Young Jeezy and Mac Miller, and serving as the location for MTV’s Sucker Free Countdown with DJ Envy.

Trevor Gale, drummer/SESAC VP, and Steve Addabbo at Shelter Island Sound

In Chelsea, BMI and composer Rick Baitz held a string arranging workshop with the string quartet Ethel and several string arrangers at Shelter Island Sound.  Nona Hendryx and band were tracking at Shelter Island, with Richard Barone producing for a new album for Tracy Stark – featuring drummer Trevor Gale and guitarist Ronnie Drayton. Steve Addabbo tracked and mixed. James Farber mixed jazz singer Alma Micic’s new album, and Ian McDonald of King Crimson fame was in tracking with Steve Holley on drums.

Addabbo also recently finished a 5.1 mix for the Robby Romero long-form music video “Who’s Gonna Save You” (a song co-written by Addabbo), which premiered at the American Indian Film Festival.  The film will be featured and officially released November 28 at The UNEP Conference in Durban, South Africa.

Downtown, OneRepublic has been recording their new album in Germano Studios, with singer/songwriter Ryan Tedder producing and Kevin Porter engineering. In other recent sessions at Germano: Fabian Marasciullo has been mixing T-Pain‘s new album; Isabella Summers aka Isa Machine (from Florence & the Machine) has been producing NYC-based artist/songwriter L.P., and working on her own solo project, with Kenta Yonesaka engineering; Asher Roth recorded vocals, with Oren Yoel producing, and Porter engineering; CJ Holland has been writing/recording with Swizz Beatz, and Kenny Lloyd engineering; Alicia Keys has been recording with Ann Mincieli engineering; and Sandy Vee returned for more writing sessions, and recording and mixing sessions with Jesse McCartney.

Just up the block, The Lodge’s Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta, Sarah Register and Heba Kadry have been super busy this last month, mastering Garbage’s cover of U2′s “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” for Q Magazine’s AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered, the new Shiny Toy Guns album mixed by Tony Maserati, Arcade Fire’s “Sprawl II” Remix by Damian Taylor, Delta Spirit’s new album produced by Chris Coady and mixed by Tchad Blake, Daniel Bedingfield’s latest, Maya Postepski’s (of Austra) side project TRST – mixed by Damian Taylor – and an album by Tender Mercies, a 20-year-project by David Bryson and Dan Vickery of The Counting Crows.

The Lodge has also mastered recent releases by Brand New (Your Favorite Weapon reissue), Dion DiMucci, Harts, Future Islands, Frankie Rose and Porcelain Raft.

Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka in Engine Room Studio A.

Further downtown, at Engine Room Audio in the Financial District, Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka recorded in the Penthouse Studio (equipped with an SSL 4064G+) with Ben Lindell engineering, and Chris Albers assisting.

And Mark Christensen mastered two new mixtapes for Trey Songz (Atlantic Records) – LemmeHoldDatBeat 2 and Anticipation 2 – and his Inevitable EP – as well as albums for Brooklyn band The Color Bars and UK indie rockers Tiger Shadow, Lloyd Banks‘ Cold Corner – also mixed by Albers at Engine Room – and War Music by Dr. Dre protégé Slim The Mobster.

Over in Queens, Department of Eagles’ Fred Nicolaus and Christopher Bear (Grizzly Bear) recently recorded drums and piano for an upcoming release with Kieran Kelly at The Buddy Project. Pianos for singer/songwriter Kyle Patrick’s new EP were also recently recorded at The Buddy Project, with producers Ben Romans and Jarrad Scharff, and Kelly engineering.

And in Gowanus, Brooklyn – Lady Lamb the Beekeeper has been recording at Let Em In Music with Nadim Issa. Aly Paltro aka Lady Lamb recorded this cover of Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do” for Brooklyn Based. According to Issa, Paltro liked Cher’s cover of the song, recorded in the 60s with Sonny Bono producing and “as such, we went for a really roomy sound with the whole band playing live in a room. A huge part of the mix is actually my two room mics, which were set up in MS.” Next up, Issa will work on the Lady Lamb full-length.

Nearby at Bryce Goggins’ Trout Recording, sessions for the new Martha Wainright were underway. Goggin, assisted by Adam Sachs, recorded drums for three songs as well as some vocals and electric guitar, with Wainwright, Yuka Honda and drummer Yuko Akari. Goggin also recently mixed a song for Marco Benevento. And Adam Sachs recently engineered a recording session with Space Hog at Trout. The band recorded three basic tracks live while being filmed for an upcoming video release. There were no overdubs, and Sachs also mixed one of the songs in the following week.

Out in Park Slope, Dan Romer has been recording, producing and mixing Jukebox The Ghost’s next record at his studios. And fellow-Rocket Music producer Mark Saunders has been writing/producing and mixing Amalie Bruuns’ next EP at BEAT360 Studios in Manhattan.

Little Silver at Fluxivity

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based duo Little Silver recently tracked songs for a new EP at Fluxivity Recording, using the studio’s Neumann tube mics (U67, U47, M49) in the recording sessions, engineered by Gary Maurer. Also at Fluxivity, composer Gordon Minette and engineer Matt Shane mixed an album of Christmas songs – Under The Holiday Star – for Stella Artois via Human Worldwide. And music educator, songwriter and professional bassist Mariana Iranzi visited New York from Boston to record a 12-song children’s record, Hola Hello. A four-piece band recorded the songs live at Fluxivity, with producer Billy Herron and engineer Jeremy Loucas, assisted by Ed Mcentee.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn band Oberhofer has been recording their new full-length album for Glassnote out of Mission Sound in Williamsburg, with Steve Lillywhite producing. Also at Mission, NYC-based blues guitarist Dave Fields is in with producer David Z cutting tracks for his upcoming release, and the Cassette Kids are back to cut tracks with engineer Oliver Straus.

Nearby at 3 Egg Studios in Williamsburg, engineer Brian Penny has been working with I’ve started working with drummer Charlie Zeleny on some upcoming projects. To kick things, Penny reports, Zeleny decided “to play a drum solo in one take up all 6 stories of the 3 Egg building, involving more then 80 drums, 100 cymbals, 90 microphones, and four Pro Tools rigs. Video to come!

Meanwhile, Suckers have been recording their latest album at Vacation Island in Williamsburg, with Matt Boynton producing. And going back over the past month or so, Vacation Island has been destination to a number of cool sessions, including Marnie Stern and Justin Pizzoferrato tracking some new music,  Christina Files mixing Talk Normal, Free Blood finishing up tracking and beginning to mix their upcoming release with Boynton, as well as mixing sessions with Lucy Michelle.

Also out of Brooklyn, Joe Lambert Mastering in DUMBO has been the final location of production on a couple anticipated new records. First, Lambert recently mastered Sharon Van Etten‘s new album – for CD and vinyl – produced by Aaron Dessner of The National for Jagjaguwar Records. According to Pitchfork, the album was recorded in Dessner’s own studio and features performances by Beirut’s Zach Condon, Julianna Barwick, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, the Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, and Thomas Bartlett of Doveman.

And Lambert has also mastered the new School of Seven Bells full-length, Ghostory, produced by Ben Curtis for Vagrant Records. Other albums mastered out of JLM include Peter Salett‘s new EP and the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet‘s Love, Peace, and Soul, produced by Hanz Wendl for Nottuskegeelike Music

And recently out of Rough Magic Studios in Greenpoint…Blacksmith artist Idle Warship (Talib Kweli and Res) released Habits of the Heart – largely recorded by Rough Magic chief engineer Alby Cohen. Kweli came back to Rough Magic recently to record two new tracks with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), for their Black Star project. The first new, Madlib-produced single “Look Sharp” debuted on The Colbert Report. Cohen engineered those sessions, assisted by Chris Pummill and Aaron Mason.

Also at Rough Magic, drummer Sim Cain (Rollins Band/J. Giles Band) and keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic) came through to record on Myself’s latest Punk Floyd project.

"Punk Floyd" sessions at Rough Magic, featuring Sim Cain and Bernie Worrell

Bernie Worrell's Clavinet D6

Up in Yonkers…at Oktaven Audio, engineer Ryan Streber has been recording, editing and mixing new works by flutist Claire Chase, and composer Reiko Fueting – both for New Focus Recordings – the debut album by new music ensemble, counter)induction, for New Dynamic Records, and pianist Max Barros‘ recording of the complete piano music of composer M.Camargo Guarnieri for Concert Artists Guild.

Oktaven and Streber also hosted recording sessions for new works by composers Vivian Fung, Ryan Francis, and Jakub Ciupinski, pianist/composer Michael Brown, and a film score by composer Gil Talmi and Konsonant Music for a documentary feature. Streber also engineered tracking sessions on location at the Academy of Arts and Letters on 155th Street, with the Talea Ensemble for an upcoming CD of music by composer Anthony Cheung.

Down from there to Avatar Studios…the legendary Studio A has been hosting some big sessions, including the cast album for Follies – featuring the largest orchestra on Broadway with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Page – recorded with producer Tommy Krasker, and engineer Bart Migal assisted by Bob Mallory and Tim Marchiafava. The Morehouse College Glee Club was also recorded in Studio A – for Spike Lee’s upcoming film Red Hook Summer – by Jonathan Duckett, assisted by Charlie Kramsky. And America’s Got Talent star Jackie Evancho recorded with an orchestra for her holiday release Heavenly Christmas, with producer Rob Mounsey and engineer Lawrence Manchester.

The orchestral film score for So Undercover was also tracked in Studio A with composer / producer Stephen Trask and engineer Greg Hayes. Additional recordings were done in Studio B and the 5.1 mix was done in Studio G with engineer Tim O’Hare.

Nile Rogers and Adam Lambert at Avatar Studios.

And on the album recording front, Ingrid Michaelson recorded in Studio A with producer David Kahne and engineer Robert Smith; Billy Ocean recorded with producer Barry Eastmond and engineer Anthony Ruotolo; Joe Jackson mixed an upcoming release with engineer Elliot Scheiner, assisted by Aki Nishimura; and Adam Lambert recorded with producer Nile Rodgers, and engineer Rich Hilton.

Also in Midtown, Area 51 NYC Studios has been abuzz of late, with Talib Kweli also logging time on numerous projects, with engineer Michelle Figueroa and John Lurie. Jive/RCA artist Jacob Latimore has been tracking at Area 51 with producer Chris Jackson and engineer Alberto Vaccarino. And R&B artist Deborah Cox was also recently in to work with producer Devo Springfield, and Figeuroa engineering. Interscope artists Far East Movement were also in working with engineer Jay Stevenson.

In the Brill Building at KMA Music, EMI writer/producers Twice as Nice have been holed up in sessions with Pete Wentz and Bebe Rexha of Black Cards, August Rigo, Neon Hitch, Andrea Martin, Elle King and James Bourne in Studio B, with Serge Nudel engineering. KMA also hosted CNN interviews with both Peter Gabriel, and R.E.M.

In other KMA sessions…Neyo recorded vocals for the upcoming T-Pain album, with Ben Chang engineering, Unique has been recording and mixing his new album, with production by Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly, and Chang engineering. That same team — Chuck, Claude and Ben — also worked with Jade Alston on an upcoming release, and with Sony artist, Karmen, and Universal artist, CJ Holland. A$AP Rocky finished up his album at KMA, with Pat Viala, and Roc Nation’s J. Cole recorded and mixed his most recent album at KMA, with Juro “Mez” Davis engineering.

Across the Hudson in Hoboken, Caligula – a hard rock band featuring Erik Paparozzi of Cat Power and Bambi Kino – have been working on a record out of Nuthouse Recording, with Tom Beaujour mixing. Beaujour has also been finishing up a new track with Doug Gillard of Guided by Voices.

And new to “Session Buzz” is a private facility we recently came across called Newkirk Studios – home base to producer/engineer Ben Rice, in one of those awesome landmark houses in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. There, Rice has recently held sessions with the band Blackbells, who tracked and mixed a song for Surfrider, and The Wicked Tomorrow whose EP Rice is mixing. He also tracked and mixed a full-length “pop rock” album for Nocera (“Summertime, Summertime”) out of Newkirk, with bassist/producer Antar Goodwin, Reni Lane and Gian Stone.

Finally, and as previously reported…the members of Vampire Weekend were at Excello Recording in Williamsburg writing and recording material for their next release, tracking to tape with Ethan Donaldson and Nathan Rosborough. Engineer/producer Chris Shaw was also Excello working with the group Nick Casey – which is Nicholas Webber and Casey Spindler with the rhythm section of Dan Rieser and Tim Luntzel. This crew tracked between 20-30 songs over just two days. Also at Excello, engineer/producer Scott Solter recorded cellist Erik Friedlander‘s latest solo project, and mixer/engineer Hector Castillo recorded with singer Sophie Auster and singer/songwriter Clarence Bucaro, and recorded the soundtrack for the film, La Camioneta, with composer Todd Griffin.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

Meanwhile, will.i.am checked into Germano to record new material in Studio 2, and then to produce/engineer on sessions with Jennifer Lopez; Nas recorded with Vernon Mungo engineering in Studio 1; and Earth Wind & Fire recorded with Philip Bailey and Fulton Yard Unltd (Neil Pogue) producing. Germano also hosted writing and recording sessions with Cheryl Cole and producers Alex Da Kidd, Jim Beanz and Ann Yvette; Rhianna with songwriter-producers Sandy Vee and Cri$tyle; and Javier Colon with Ryan Tedder.

Passion Pit

The new album by Passion Pit (Columbia Records) is underway at Gigantic Studios in Tribeca, with Chris Zane (The Walkmen, Asobi Seksu, Friendly Fires) producing and Alex Aldi engineering. Zane also recently mixed an album for synthy indie-pop band Geographer (Modern Art/Warner), and produced/recorded and mixed five new songs for pop singer Ruby Frost (Universal).

And noise-rockers The Big Sleep recorded a long-awaited new album for French Kiss Records at Saltlands Studio in DUMBO with engineer/producer Eli Janney (The Obits, The Soft Pack, Ursula 1000). Janney mixed the album at his own mix room, Blistering Sound, where he’s currently in the midst of mixing an album project for Peter Salett, the singer/songwriter known for his music writing for films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models.

Janney also mixed the new album for Ursula 1000, recently released on Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, featuring vocals by Fred Schneider of the B-52s, French avant-jazz singer Isabelle Antena, Thievery Corporation chanteuse Natalia Clavier, and Big Mike Geier from Atlanta’s premier big band Kingsized.

Next, over at Fluxivity Recording in Williamsburg, HEM brought in a chorus and overdubbed vocals on tracks for a new album. HEM’s Gary Maurer engineered. Maurer also used Fluxivity’s new edit room, featuring a Neve 10-Channel Kelso console and ATC monitors. Engineer Brian Thorn also recently worked on a Japanese release for Blonde Redhead in this new suite.

In Fluxivity’s main studio: Thorn engineered a session for French artist Daran – remixing songs from the 5.1 surround film Monsieur Papa into the stereo format; Randy Wooten recorded vocals for his new album, engineered by David Schoenwetter, assisted by Ed McEntee; Brooklyn-based singer/composer Maria Neckam mixed her forthcoming album; Lily and The Parlour Tricks mixed for their new album – largely recorded at Daptone Records in Bushwick; and Brazillian-born television star Guto Bittencourt recorded vocals for an upcoming release.

Gary Maurer mixed the new HEM album in Sear Sound Studio A, mixing down to (½” RMGI 900) tape on the Studer C37 2-track machine. This machine and 3 more like it at Sear Sound – as well as a Studer J37 1″ 2 track machine – were all acquired from Abbey Road and converted to 2 track machines by Walter Sear.

Sear Sound also recently hosted Bob Dylan remixing sessions, with Steve Berkowitz producing and Tom Schick mixing on the Neve 8038. And Joss Stone recorded tracks for a new album for S-Curve Records, with Steven Greenwell engineering and co-producing with Steve Greenberg.

Atlas Sound's "Parallax" comes out in early November via 4AD.

Over in Greenpoint at the Rare Book Room, Nicolas Vernhes (Dirty Projectors & Bjork, Deerhunter, Animal Collective) is mixing Matthew Dear’s new LP for Ghostly International. He also recently mixed the new Bowerbirds LP for Dead Oceans, and has been working on the new Palms record for his own label, Rare Book Room Records.

Over the summer, Vernhes co-produced/engineered/mixed Atlas Sound’s Parallax for 4AD, and he also recently mixed the new Light Pollution LP for Carpark, and co-produced/mixed Lia Ices’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” for Mojo. Bon Iver and Josh Ritter also recorded at the Rare Book Room, in separate live sessions with Tom Gloady.

Back in Manhattan, a 65-piece children’s choir recorded on the stage in Manhattan Center Studio’s Grand Ballroom in a session shot by Spike Lee for State Farm Insurance, and engineered by Jonathan Duckett.

Manhattan Center also recorded an 85-piece orchestra for the Universal Studios film Tower Heist, starring Eddie Murphy and Matthew Broderick, directed by Brett Ratner. The music was composed by Christophe Beck and engineered by Casey Stone. The facility also hosted a 24-hour shoot in the Grand Ballroom for “24 Hour Climate Change” featuring Al Gore, which was webcast all over the world – with feeds coming in from all over the world. The shoot was produced by Suite Spot.

And TV1 at Manhattan Center is now up and running – with its first show currently in production: “Would You Rather” with Graham Norton, produced by So TV.

Down at The Lodge Mastering…The Lodge’s Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta have been busy working on several late summer/fall releases including: Neutral Milk Hotel‘s highly anticipated massive vinyl box set, Matt & Kim’s track “I’m A Goner” featuring Soulja Boy & Andrew WK for Converse, Icelandic folk artist Ólöf Arnalds cover album, “Ólöf Sings,” (One little Indian), power-pop songstress Katie Herzig’s new album “The Waking Sleep” (Downtown Records) – mixed by Justin Gerrish and produced by Cason Cooley – Tiësto’s latest Kanye West remix of “Lost in the World”, and The Raveonettes “Bsides & Rarities” album featuring 28 unreleased tracks.

Emmanuelle Seigner at Stratosphere Sound

Over on the West Side, at Stratosphere Sound, the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Folding Legs (whose members hail from Stockholm, New York, Vienna & São Paulo) spent two weeks tracking their new album with producers Craig Roseberry and Rudyard Lee Cullers. Cullers engineered, with Adam Tilzer assisting.

French actress/model/singer Emmanuelle Seigner was also at Stratosphere working on her upcoming album with songwriter/producer Adam Schlesinger, and Arjun Agerwala engineering.

In Times Square, the Broadway Cares Foundation checked into Premier Studios for multiple days of tracking with all the top casts from the major Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys, Addams Family, Sister Act, The Lion King, Godspell, Mamma Mia, Billy Elliot and more. For Premier, this means a diverse schedule of sessions, including everything from tracking large string and horn sections, to large choir and ensemble performance recordings.

The upcoming Broadway Cares release is being produced by Lynn Pinto for Rocket Science Records, with tracking and mixing engineered by Andros Rodriguez, and assisted by Sam Giannelli.

Also in-session recently at Premier: boy band Big Time Rush (Columbia) recorded vocals, with producer/engineer Chris Rojas; Trey Songz (Atlantic Records) produced music for his new album, with engineer Anthony Daniel, assisted by Colin Rivers; Bluey Robinson (Sony UK) recorded vocals with Pawel Szarejko engineering; The Roots tracked music for a series of Captain Morgan commercials, with Robert “L.B.” Dorsey engineering; and Estelle (Atlantic) tracked vocals, with engineer Anthony Daniel.

Meanwhile, at KMA Studios in The Brill Building: “rockjazz” pianist/songwriter ELEW (Eric Lewis) was producing and composing music for an upcoming ballet production, as well as an independent film with Harry Lennix called Mr. Sophistication; rapper/producer J. Cole dropped in for a session; rapper Wale rolled through for a listening session for his forthcoming album; and Akai hosted a preview/consultation with the next generation MPC with a pretty killer focus group that included Q-Tip, 88 Keys, Prince Paul, Sean C and LV, Salaam Remi, KG of Naughty by Nature, and DJ Marly Marl.

Producer/musician Joe Darone and recording engineer Chris “Noz” Marinaccio during Suit of Lights sessions at Big Blue Meenie

Across the river, at Big Blue Meenie in Jersey City – “indie rock manifestation” Suit of Lights tracked and mixed the follow-up to their last studio record, Bacteria, with producer Joe Darone (The Fiendz), recording engineer Chris “Noz” Marinaccio and mixers Tim “Rumblefish” Gilles & Matt “Dasher” Messenger.

According to a BBM insider, the new Suit of Lights album has a creepy carnival feel to it with Beatlesque vox and superb guitar playing from Dan McGowan (The Tea Club) and always amazing Roy Van Tassel (Ghost Orgy) on Drums. The album will also feature Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, John Zorn, Secret Chiefs III) on bass.

NYC punk band The Dead Tricks also recently recorded and mixed their debut EP at Big Blue Meenie with Mike Gallo (Agnostic Front and Stigma bassist) producing, Marinaccio engineering, and Messenger mixing. The album is currently being mastered at West West Side Music by Alan Douches.

NJ pop-rock band Catch Wild also finished their debut album at Big Blue Meenie.

Andy VanDette recently mastered the new live Rush album – Time Machine 2011 Live in Cleveland – at Masterdisk. The album was mixed by Richard Chycki and recorded by Chycki and Joel Singer (of Music Mix Mobile). Also at Masterdisk, Vlado Meller mastered the new Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration – Lulu. Producers on the project were Reed, Metallica, Hal Wilner and Greg Fidelman, who also mixed the record. As on the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers album Meller recently mastered, there was a unique iTunes-optimized master created for this album.

Warner will release the "Lulu" (Lou Reed / Metallica) album November 1

Meller also recently mastered Susan Boyle’s latest Someone To Watch Over Me for Syco/Sony – produced by Steve Mac, mixed by Ren Swann.

Back in Williamsburg, at Grand Street Recording…Charlene Kaye just started pre-production on her new project, Animal Love, with Tomek Miernowski producing and engineering. Grand Street’s Ken Rich has been mixing a new album for Nancy Magarill, produced by Daniel Mintseris. The album was tracked over the summer at Grand Street with Thad DeBrock on guitars, Yuvall Lion on drums, and Christopher Kuffner on bass, Dave Eggar on cello, and Rachel Gollub on violin.

Eben D’Amico (from Saves The Day) produced a new song for hip-hop artist XV at Grand Street featuring Charlie Z on drums and Jesse Fischer on keyboards. Miernowski played guitar and engineered. Noe Venable is in the process of tracking her new record with Ken Rich,Todd Sickafoose on bass and piano, Mathias Kunzli on percussion. And Ohio rocker JP Olsen is wrapping up tracking his record with fellow Ohio-ans Mark Stepro, and Aaron Lee Tasjan of the Madison Square Gardeners producing / Miernowski engineering.

And finally up North at The Wild Arctic, Dean Baltulonis is producing an EP for the band w/o (without), featuring members of The Hold Steady and Primitive Weapons, and co-writing/producing new songs for UK singer/songwriter Rosie Vanier with James Wells of The Gay Blades. And Tad Kubler, guitarist in The Hold Steady, has also worked out of The Wild Arctic on some original composition for advertising campaigns by The Martin Agency and McGarry Bowen.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

The Neutral Milk Hotel boxset will include 7 records (two 12”s, 2 10”s and 3 7”s)

Due out November 22, this box-set is the band’s first official release of any kind since their beloved album In The Aeroplane over the Sea came out in 1998. And Neutral Milk Hotel’s singer/songwriter and indie rock icon Jeff Mangum visited The Lodge to participate in the mastering process with LaPorta.

Look out for our upcoming feature interview with LaPorta on the mastering of this momentous release, which includes a total of 7 records – the band’s entire catalog plus 15 unreleased tracks .

According to the Neutral Milk Hotel website, the box-set will include (more specifically):

“…two gatefold 12″ records (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and On Avery Island), two 10″ records (Everything Is EP with bonus tracks and Ferris Wheel on Fire EP featuring eight previously unreleased acoustic recordings), two 7″ records (Little Birds and You’ve Passed/Where You’ll Find Me Now), one 7″ picture disc with fold-out poster (Holland 1945/Engine), and two 24″x24″ posters.”

Every newly-released song will be available as a pay-what-you-will download via BandCamp as of November 22. And tune into the brand-new Neutral Milk Hotel website now to stream unreleased versions of “Oh Sister” and ”Ferris Wheel On Fire.“

For more on The Lodge, visit: http://www.thelodge.com

The Isokan

Website: www.theisokon.com / www.djamesgoodwin.com

Location: Woodstock, NY

Neighborhood Advantages: Woodstock is a vibe place. It’s surrounded by mountains and trees, and lots of waterways, so you just get this feeling that you’re among some pretty deep juju up here. It’s also a cute town with an obvious history. And there’s a reason that a lot of heavyweight free thinkers end up here…

Date of Birth: March 2010

Facility Focus: I mainly produce records from start to finish, or I am brought on to mix. Tracking and mixing are the two primary focuses here.

Mission Statement: Working here is intended to be a distinctly “non-studio” experience. We work under our own rules, and no clock. We use the word isolation very loosely. In fact, The Isokon is more like a lodge in the woods; a retreat built on the side of a mountain that just so happens to house an immense collection of rare and specialized recording gear. It’s a home-away-from-home, where we work without boundaries, at a pace worthy of kings.

Clients/Credits: Yellowbirds, Thieving Irons, Bobby, Kelli Scarr, Matt White, The Bravery, Nova Social, New London Fire, Partisan Records, Rykodisk, Warner Music.

Key Personnel: D. James Goodwin

System Highlights: MCI 416a console; MCI JH24/16 2″ analogue deck; Barefoot MM27 monitors; Pro Tools HD3 (full UAD suite, SoundToys, Waves) w/ Lynx AD/DA; collection of Lomo valve mics; a huge collection of keyboard instruments (Baldwin Piano, Pump Organ, Optigan, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Polivoks, etc); a great collection of vintage drums; and tons of oddities.

Distinguishing Characteristics: This place feels so different from a typical studio – it distinguishes itself easily as a creative refuge. Even though the control room is a serious dedicated space, it feels as though it’s part of a relaxed and extremely comfortable vacation home. We’re surrounded by trees and open sky, not the typical concrete doldrums of the city. That’s enough for me. And it sounds amazing here. Period.

The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it? All kidding aside, I’d save my mic cabinet, and I’d throw my Lucas limiter in there for good measure.

Rave Reviews: People love the fact that this becomes their home while they’re here. They love the way the place feels. They also love the sounds…. there’s so much here to explore sonically, everyone comes away feeling creatively invigorated.

Oh, and they LOVE my sofa in the control room…. red velvet… need I say more?

Most Memorable Session Ever: My most memorable session here was most likely the BOBBY sessions. 7 people, all living here for a month, making the most incredible music, tweaking and experimenting. It was the moment I said, “Yes. I love my studio.”

Session You’d Like to Forget: I can’t go there… not enough space…

Dream Session (if you could host ANY session with any client, living or dead, what would it be?): Miles Davis. Electric period…. then again, I love those records, so they obviously didn’t need me. More modern would be Jaga Jazzist or Tortoise.

D. James Goodwin in The Isokan control center.

– D. James Goodwin, The Isokon

Visit www.theisokon.com for more information and to get in touch!

Zambri "Glossolalia" will debut November 8, 2011 on Kanine Records.

Zambri’s unique avant-pop sound mixes experimental beats, moody synth soundscapes, and dueling female vocals with soaring melodies. Led by captivating sisters Jessica and Cristi Jo, with Will Spitz and Seth Kasper on live drums and keyboards, this band is something to see live. Keep up with them on Facebook.

According to Zambri’s announcement…

“Most of the sounds on the EP are homemade, many of which are built from vocals, which is perhaps what inspired the title. ‘Glossolalia’ refers to speaking in tongues; it is a mystical language. They met a like-minded friend in preeminent indie producer Chris Coady, who handpicked Zambri as one of his favorite upcoming New York bands.  While Coady scores production credits on “To Keep Back” and “News,” Noel Heroux  (Hooray For Earth) lends a hand with mixing “On Call” and “On Call (biddibiddi).”

Other tracks on the EP were mixed by Rick Kwan. Glossolalia was mastered at The Lodge.

Justin Nozuka (here with band) has been recording at Germano with producer Steve Jordan, and Dave O'Donnell engineering.

Starting at Germano Studios downtown…50 Cent has been writing and recording new material with Araab Muzik producing and Ky Miller engineering, Ne-Yo was in writing and recording with Swizz Beatz producing and Moses Gallart engineering, and Justin Nozuka recorded basic tracks with Steve Jordan producing and Dave O’Donnell engineering – all in Studio 1.

In Studio 2, will.i.am continues to record new material which he’s self-producing and engineering, and Oriane recently recorded vocals with Walter Afanasieff producing and Jason Agel engineering.

Nearby at The Lodge, Mastering Engineers Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta and Heba Kadry have been busy working on Björk‘s epic multimedia release, Biophilia, due out this Fall. The music for Biophilia – featuring a 10-song album and 10 musical iPad apps themed after each song’s scientific subject matter – was mastered at the Lodge in March by Lazar and LaPorta alongside Björk and her longtime engineer/producer Damian Taylor.

Bjork's new album, "Biophilia," was mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta alongside Björk and engineer/producer Damian Taylor.

Other recent releases mastered at The Lodge include Chris Taylor’s CANT LP, Morgan Page’s new album, In The Air, Ronnie Vannuci’s (of the Killers) solo debut Big Talk – produced by Joe Chiccarelli and mixed by Alan Moulder – the new Boy & Bear album – also produced by Chiccarelli – and Large Professor’s latest for Fat Beats Records.

The Lodge also mastered Ronnie Spector’s tribute cover of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black – produced by Richard Gottehrer – Surfer Blood’s cover of Nirvana’s “Territorial Pissings” for SPIN’s Nevermind compilation, new releases by Zechs Marquise (band formed by Marcel Rodriguez Lopez from the Mars Volta), and Junior Mance, and the new Wooden Ships album – produced by Phil Manley of Trans Am.

Over in the East Village at Flux Studios, Todd Whitelock mixed an upcoming album by jazz saxophonist and flautist Kenny Garrett in the Revolution Room. Garrett – who was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and Miles Davis’ band – will release his upcoming album via Mack Avenue Records.

And down in SoHo, The Magic Shop has been going steady…Shooter Jennings tracked for his upcoming album with engineer Brandon Mason, assisted by Brian Thorn, Burning Spear tracked and mixed for their upcoming album with Thorn engineering, assisted by Kabir Hermon, and Tom Schick was in mixing for She and Him’s upcoming Merge album.

Other recent sessions in the Magic Shop’s unique Studio A include: The American Secrets tracking and mixing songs for upcoming freecreditscore.com commercials with producer Neil McClellan (The Lodge Music creative director) and engineers Ted Young and Colin Thibadeau; The Gaslight Anthem tracking an iTunes exclusive live session with producer Jason Marcucci, and engineers Ted Young and Mike Judeh; and tracking sessions for new albums by Elliot Sharp (producer Joe Mardin/ engineer Ted Young), Lee Feldman (engineer Ted Young), Ben Carroll (producer Adam Levy / engineer Brian Thorn), The Virgins (engineer Emery Dobyns) and The Universal Thump (engineer Kabir Hermon).

The Virgins tracked new material for their upcoming Atlantic release with producer/engineer Emery Dobyns at The Magic Shop.

Meanwhile in the Magic Shop’s Blue Room, Warren Russell-Smith has been doing restoration work for the second season of Boardwalk Empire. Recent mastering sessions at the Magic Shop include albums for Rockstar Games, Anna Volgelzang, Warpaint, Nightplane (mastered by Russel-Smith) and Nâ Hawa Doumbia, Vic Varney and Pretty Good Dance Moves (mastered by Jessica Thompson).

At another studio down in SoHo – Serious Business Music – producer/engineer Travis Harrison has had a steady stream of bands in to appear on his BreakThru Radio show. In the last month, “Serious Business on BTR” has featured performances and interviews (by Harrison) with A Million Years, Fort Lean, Les Sans Culottes, El Jezel and Quiet Loudly.

Harrison has also been working on a number of album projects, including an album with a new band called The Cosmos – formed by Dougy Payne and Andy Dunlop from Travis, and Cinjun Tate from Remy Zero – a solo 7” with Doug Gillard from Guided By Voices, and a record with Rocketship Park for Serious Business Records.

In Park Slope at Seaside Lounge Recording, engineer/producer/musician Josh Clark mixed a record by Nashville native Luke Roberts, The Iron Gates at Throop and Newport, to be released by Thrill Jockey Records in 2012. Initial tracking sessions for the record went down at The Beach House in Nashville and Atlantic Sound in Brooklyn (with “Seaside Lounge” rounding out the coastal recording theme.)

On the West Side at Stratosphere, Japanese electro-rock band The Telephones tracked their new album in Studio A with producer/engineer Alex Newport, recording everything to tape on the studio’s Studer 2″.

The Telephones in Stratosphere Studio A. Photo by Yuki Shingai.

Also at Stratosphere…Ice T booked an afternoon of vocals and filming for upcoming documentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap. Stratosphere’s own Adam Tilzer engineered. Aaron Neville returned to record vocals with producer Matthew Ferraro and engineer Geoff Sanoff.

Daniel Merriweather was back for sessions with Dave McCracken, Amanda Ghost and engineer Chris Shaw, Florence + the Machine was in with engineer Andros Rodriguez, and Nathan Larson (A Camp, Shudder To Think) tracked and mixed music for an upcoming film, Tiger Eyes, with Geoff Sanoff engineering.

Up at Carriage House Recording in Stamford, cellist Dave Eggar (Evanescense, Coldplay) and his band Deoro finished mixes for their upcoming record in Studio A with engineer/mixer Brendan Muldowney, and art-pop songstress Rachael Sage tracked basics for her upcoming release with engineer John Shyloski.

Back in town, at Sear Sound, NYC denizen Donald Fagen tracked in Studio A on the 8038 Neve with Michael Leonhart producing and Charlie Martinez engineering for Warner Bros. Records. eONE Music was in Studio C, reportedly “classisizing” Frank Zappa songs for a new release. In this process, Zappa’s original songs were rescored for classical orchestral instruments and tracked on Sear Sound’s custom Avalon/Sear console in sessions produced by Susan Del Giorno with GRAMMY-winning engineer Silas Brown.

Producer/engineer Gary Maurer also checked into Sear to track an ensemble of 22 musicians for his upcoming HEM album in Studio C. He will reportedly return to Sear Sound shortly to mix a 24 song double album.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' tenth studio album "I'm With You" comes out August 30. Produced by Rick Rubin, Engineered by Greg Fidelman and Andrew Scheps out in LA; Mastered by Vlado Meller at Masterdisk

Further west at Masterdisk, Scott Hull mastered Sting’s three-CD box set, Sting 25 Years, featuring remixes and a previously unreleased live concert DVD with 10 tracks recorded live in NYC, produced by Rob Mathes. Also at Masterdisk, Vlado Meller mastered a Julio Iglesias two-disc “Greatest Hits” set, with songs re-recorded and re-mixed by Alberto Sanchez, the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m With You, and the Jane’s Addiction single “Irresistible Force,” and upcoming album, The Great Escape Artist.

Andy VanDette recently mastered the Spiderman Turn Off The Dark cast album and albums by Blessthefall, The Static Jacks and Barefoot Truth, and Ellen Fitton remastered Debbie Harry’s Koo Koo, and Jellybean’s Wotupski.

Premier Studios in Times Square hosted Demi Lovato working on a project for Disney Pictures – a song produced by Sandy Vee, with piano overdubs played by Mikkel Eriksen from Stargate. The session was engineered by Sam Giannelli. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas produced tracks for Lil Wayne, working with engineer Mike Cadahia with Kevin Geigel assisting. DefJam artist Ace Hood, produced by DJ Khaled, was at Premier recording vocals and mixing an upcoming release with engineer Ben Diehl.

Atlantic artist Wiz Khalifa recorded vocals, with engineer Josiah Hendler, EMI Artist MoZella was in with producer Scyience, mixing with engineer Anthony Daniel, and Scyience was also in with Epic artist Alice Smith, mixing an upcoming release with an engineer by the name of Push Buttons.

Over at Avatar Studios, strings were recorded in Studio A for the upcoming Lou Reed/Metallica album with producer Hal Willner and engineer Greg Fidelman, assisted by Bob Mallory. NYC/Ireland rockers Suddyn recorded their single in Studio G on the SSL 4000G+ with producer David Kahne, engineer Roy Hendrickson and assistant Tyler Hartman. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus was in Studio A recording with producer Bryce Dessner, of The National and Clogs, and engineer Lawson White, assisted by Aki Nishimura.

Music for the upcoming film, A Late Quartet, was also recorded in Studio A with producer Alan Bise and engineer Bruce Egre. The cast albums for People in the Picture (producers Mike Stoller and Steven Epstein, engineer Todd Whitelock) and A Minister’s Wife (producer Tommy Krasker, engineer Bart Migal) were also recorded at Avatar.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.