Session Buzz: The Year in NYC Recording

GREATER NYC AREA: There have certainly been some down years in recent recording biz history, but 2011 was not one of them.

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.

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.]

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.

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, 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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

 

Upstart Startups: Spins.FM Connects Radio to Social Media

EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN: Radio still rules. Sure, we all spend a lot of time with our heads in headphones connected to our streaming devices, but as Spins.FM understands, there’s plenty of action happening on the airwaves.

Borne and bred in the East Village, Spins.FM launched its Social Radio Requests App this summer, a handy gadget that helps to bridge social media and radio stations via Facebook-driven song requests. Listeners use it free to ask for their favorite songs, while artists and radio stations purchase it to implement campaigns, measure results and interface with listeners.

Born in Hawaii and raised in Arizona before making New York City his base of operations, Spins.FM Founder/CEO David Baker is passionate about terrestrial radio’s place in connecting to the fan base – and he has numbers to support it. For example, check out this chart Paul Resnikoff created for Digital Music News: “The traditional radio audience still dwarfs the streaming audience,” Baker explains.

For a look inside a scalable startup on the rise, see what Baker has to say about hatching a communications hybrid like Spins.FM.

How did you first get interested in radio?
I’ve worked in Web development and music for the last twelve years – and in the past few years working with music labels I learned that, contrary to common opinion, traditional FM radio is still very, very important in terms of leveraging a fan base and helping music artists make money. I also learned that there was no tool that existed that enabled them to do that using social media yet, so I started Spins.FM.

After creating an initial prototype and testing with a few of my clients, we launched over a year ago and have had success with top artists like P Diddy, Chris Brown and Britney Spears, and labels like Jive, Interscope and Capitol Nashville.

Congrats on getting yourself out there! When you were setting up Spins.FM, what opportunity did you see to bridge social media and radio?
Unlike a lot of Internet and emerging radio platforms, the economics of traditional radio are well established: Artists know that they make money when their songs are played on the radio, and they know that it is the most proven way of getting booked for local shows across the country. And radio DJ’s really care about listener feedback. Before Spins.FM existed, it was very hard for fans to connect with radio stations the way artists wanted them to.

There are three products that we offer:
1.     For fans: Free Social Radio Request tool on Spins.FM homepage that allows any fan to request any song on any radio station,
2.     For artists: service for artists and managers to start their own Spins.FM campaign – promoting their single on a targeted list of cities and radio stations,
3.     For radio stations: a Facebook app that allows listeners to request songs on the station’s Facebook page, and for stations to engage with local listeners — and filter out the noise.

Our main competition right now is the listener request line since no one else has made an online request form that is easy to fill out.  Mediabase, which is owned by Clear Channel, also has an online request form that makes you manually enter in info about you, which is not very fun and takes a long time to fill out. Even for the super uber fans who are willing to make a phone call — old school! — the system doesn’t work: It isn’t easy getting through to the radio station and discouraging.

Can you tell us about a specific project that Spins.FM has worked on lately? What were you able to accomplish?
Hot Chelle Rae started a Spins.FM campaign recently for their single “Tonight Tonight.” Before they started, they hadn’t had any radio play — the head of Jive was curious to see if Spins.FM could help with Hot Chelle Rae so they connected with us. A few months later, Hot Chelle Rae is platinum and “Tonight Tonight” hit number 7 on the Billboard charts.

Here’s how it worked: Hot Chelle Rae got the National Premium Request Campaign which includes a landing page on our homepage at spins.fm/hotchellerae and a Facebook app on their Facebook page. The feedback we got from Jive’s radio promotions team was that the radio stations actually like it when they hear directly from fans.

Shifting gears, launching a new initiative in this business takes some guts. What’s giving you the gumption to get Spins.FM going?
While the music industry is changing, music creation has never been easier which makes it an exciting time for musicians. I believe that music will thrive and grow – and that artists just need the tools to connect with their audiences.

We need to bring the DJ back. People like having their music curated by a human, but services like Pandora and Grooveshark — which are great in their own right — completely miss this part of what makes radio radio.

Did you go after venture capital/seed funding to get Spins.FM started, or did you bootstrap it?
We bootstrapped it from the start and have focused on growing revenues and growing a real business. We are in the process of raising additional capital for the next phase of the company, more on that to come!

In your experience what are some of the financial considerations that a startup needs to take into account to launch? And tell us you learned about making a strong business plan during this process?
Things take longer than you expect them to. Early stage companies should be aggressive with their timelines but also realistic with budgeting. The easiest way to fail is to run out of money. Sweat equity can only get you so far. It’s still crucial to keep in mind that it’s still a business and it takes money to move things forward. Each quarter, we plan knowing that things are going to change in another three or four months. We try to “get real”, to quote Jason Fried, as soon as possible — which means get feedback from our customers as soon as possible instead of forecasting and forecasting.

Are there other music business innovators you can point to that are pushing the envelope right now, especially in the online space?
Extension.FM, run by Dan Kantor and Charles Smith, is an incredible company. Their Google Chrome extension is hands-down the best music discovery service.

And we always want to know: Why make NYC your base of operations – why is this the right place to get Spins.FM spinning?
New York is the best place for us to be located because we are a 15-minute subway ride from any record label, radio station or media company we could want to talk to.

Not to mention it’s the music capital of the world: The startup scene here is very inspiring and provides a great environment and support system for entrepreneurs.  Institutions like General Assembly and New York Tech Meetup are critical for keeping it all going strong.

– David Weiss

Session Buzz: Who’s Recording In & Around NYC — A Monthly Report

GREATER NYC AREA: Both through the grapevine and straight from the source(s), we’ve been hearing about a number of different recording projects going on in studios throughout the NYC area. The following is but a sampling of recent sessions, and works in progress…a snapshot of what’s going on around town:

Starting in Williamsburg, Chrissie Hynde and J.P. Jones are cutting their new album at Mission Sound this month, with Victor Van Vugt producing. Hynde and Jones released their debut collaboration, Fidelity, as J.P., Chrissie and the Fairground Boys last summer.

A couple stops away on the L train at The Brewery, Staten Island-native hip-hop veteran JoJo Pellegrino and producer Lofey (Nas, Foxy Brown, Beanie Sigel) wrapped up mixing Pelligrino’s upcoming mixtape with engineer Andrew Krivonos.

For the song “Love,” which features Chris Brown, they guys completely mashed up the track with a new instrumental and had to make pitch and time elastic audio changes in Pro Tools — complete surgery — spending 20+ hours over a three-day stretch tweaking and perfecting little details.

“We really wanted it to have a certain feel so we worked until we got it right. We’re totally psyched about hearing the feedback on JoJo’s project,” says Krivonos. Pellegrino released the track on Monday… check it out!

Meanwhile, at J Rock Studios in Chelsea, engineer Jamie Siegel recorded with Fall Out Boy lead singer/songwriter Patrick Stump for his upcoming solo album. With Stump producing and playing drums and Matt Rubano on bass, Siegel recorded a couple key parts for the opening track of Stump’s new solo record.

“We tracked live bass (with an octave pedal) and a drum solo that added a really interesting depth to a mostly electronic track,” says Siegel. “One week after the recording session, the EP Truant Wave debuted at #5 on iTunes.”

Downtown, the new Will Knox album was being produced entirely within Flux Studios on the Lower East Side. Produced by Fabrice “Fab” Dupont and recorded by Flux chief engineer Meredith McCandless, the album was tracked live to a minimal amount of tracks over 4 days and mixed the following week over a couple of days by McCandless and Dupont.

“There was no editing, no tuning, no MIDI, just a few B3, Wurlitzer and Glockenspiel overdubs,” Flux manager Chris Sipes relays. “Old school spirit for a new school sound!” Dupont also mastered the record, which is being released as a comic book with download codes for the music — no CDs are being printed.

And at Germano Studios, Keith Richards has been writing and recording new material with NYC native multi-instrumentalist producer Steve Jordan. NYC-based Dave O’Donnell engineered these sessions in Germano’s Studio 1.

Across the Hudson, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Jennifer O’Connor has been recording at Tom Beaujour’s Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken. Beaujour is co-producing, recording and mixing, and collaborators include Jon Langmead on drums, Michael Brodlieb on bass, and cameos by Kendall Meade (Wurlitzer), Richard X. Baluyut (vocals and guitar) and Amy Bezunartea (vocals and guitar).

And just a ways up the River, at Bicoastal Recording in Ossining, jazz singer/songwriter Michael Franks and bassist/producer Mark Egan worked on a new song, featuring Clifford Carter on keys, Joe Bonadio on drums and Chuck Loeb on guitar. Bicoastal owner Hal Winer was the engineer. In another recent session at Bicoastal, NYC string quartet Ethel recorded with engineer/producer Dave Cook, and Francois Moutin tracked some new material with trumpeter Lew Soloff and vocalist Anne Sila with Winer engineering.

Back in Manhattan at Threshold Studios, Freelance Whales were recording and mixing a new track with Jeremy Sklarsky engineering and co-producing. Sklarsky also recently engineered sessions with composer Tim Janis and Alexa Ray Joel. Check out Threshold’s new website/blog at www.thresholdstudios.com.

Over at Stratosphere Sound, where songwriter/producer Amanda Ghost and producer Dave McCracken have recently taken up residence, Florence Welch was in for writing sessions with Ghost — McCracken producing and Andros Rodriguez engineering — and John Legend was also in for sessions with the duo, engineered by Adam Tilzer.

And as previously reported…

Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Yoko Ono are making a record together at Sear Sound in Midtown Manhattan. Chris Allen is engineering.

Fluxivity, Nat Priest’s custom Neve 8048-equipped Williamsburg studio, recently hosted Matt Mays with engineer/producer Ted Young, and Juan Son with Blonde Redhead drummer Simone Pace producing and Brian Thorn engineering.

Also, portions of Kurt Vile’s latest Matador album, Smoke Ring For My Halo, were recorded and mixed by producer/engineer John Agnello at Fluxivity, along with a few other local studios, including Magic Shop, Headgear, Water Music and Vacation Island.

Speaking of Vacation Island, it seems Beirut recently mixed their latest record at the Brooklyn studio with producer Griffin Rodriguez.

And speaking of Headgear, Agnello has also been working there with Joy By Proxy, Andy Shernoff and Sons of Bill. And coming up, he’ll be tracking and mixing a new album there with Staten Island-based indie rock foursome Cymbals Eat Guitars.

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.

Chile’s Los Tres Mix With Joe Blaney at Fluxivity

This summer, Chilean rock band Los Tres traveled to New York to record, mix and master their new record. Working with producer/engineer Joe Blaney, Los Tres tracked the record up at Dreamland Recording, outside of Woodstock, and then mixed and recorded overdubs at Fluxivity in Williamsburg.

This is the fourth record Los Tres has made with Blaney, who brought the project to Fluxivity to mix on the automated Neve 8048 console with Flying Faders. Fluxivity owner Nathaniel Priest notes that this is the same console Blaney used to record Ron Woods, Bob Dylan and Steve Stevens on in the 80s!

The session was recorded and mixed on ATR analog tape, which Priest notes “sounded fabulous and performed flawlessly.”

“Joe brought in two of his own racks of outboard gear to Fluxivity that he had at his former studio in Greenwich Village,” Priest shares, adding, “We are set up here to interface with racks of users’ gear, either on DL connectors or XLR’s.

“Los Tres is a band that very much knows music, music history and appreciates the art of playing fine music and making a record that will endure as a notable example of artistic expression,” Priest adds.

“The record has 16 songs which expertly covers a range of styles, from rock to more traditional Andean tunes. It was made in the classic authentic style of record making with particular attention to sonic quality and detail, drawing on the many finely-honed skills of Joe Blaney.”

The group finished mixing the last song within the hour of the start of the mastering session at Sterling Sound, and Priest relays, “left here with a reel of warm tape!” The record was mastered by Sterling’s Dave McNair.

In other recent sessions at Fluxivity…Chris Brown visited the studio to wrap up mixing the upcoming Abrams Brothers album Northern Exposure with Grammy-winning engineer Brian Thorn. And for its 21st Anniversary release, Matador Records mixed a live 1999 Anniversary show from Irving Plaza. Jesper Eklow produced and Tom Gloady engineered.