the Studio
The People
The people is where every project begins. It is our desire to partner with each artist we work with to bring our experiences alongside yours to make your next project really shine. In addition to being a multi-instrumentalist myself, we also have contact with some exceptional talent in town in case you need musicians for your project as well.
Instruments
The pride and joy of our collection is our Yamaha C7 grand piano. Suitable for jazz, rock as well as concert piano recordings, this instrument is a powerhouse able to fill the space or tickle the ear as needed. Also featured is a Pearl Reference Pure drum kit, in official FSU garnet, a pump reed organ, StudioLogic NumaOrgan, multiple MPE and analog synths and even a Wet-Dry-Wet guitar amp rig centered on a fully MIDI controlled and recallable H&K GrandMeister 40. We also own a number of unique guitars and basses, a Leslie-style rotary speaker, numerous percussion options, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass and many others. Many of these instruments are played by us at the studio giving us multiple options for creative exploration.
Virtual Instruments
Virtual orchestration has been a passion of mine for many years and today's modern virtual instruments have become a staple of the modern production process. As such we maintain a solid library of virtual instruments, including the entirety of East West Collection, including the Hollywood Orchestra and more eclectic collections like Ra and Silk. The synth side is filled out with NI Komplete and various other synth options.
Facilities
Sound of Cypress Studios is an 1100 sq. ft. home-based project studio, fully sound isolated and equipped with a beautiful 22x28 ft live room with 16 ft. vaulted ceilings and adjustable acoustics. Other recording spaces include a dedicated dry vocal room suitable for singing and ADR work as well as a amp room with re-amp returns allowing guitarists to perform remotely from the live room.
Control Room
The control room is the nexus of every studio. Our room features Reflection Free Zone (RFZ) geometry, a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos monitoring with DynAudio reference speakers, customizable acoustics, and a separate production station for working collaboratively with the artist. Mixing is performed on a analog/digital hybrid setup supported by Avid’s S1’s and an Avid Dock. We can handle music tracking, mixing and production as well as ADR and post-production work.
Equipment
Our recordings begin with a clean analog signal chain featuring 30 inputs available from the live room, 6 inputs from the vocal room, and 4 from the amps room. There are 8 channels of cue mixes.
MICROPHONES & PREAMPS
It is our conviction that the best sounds begin with a beautiful room, a great mic and a great pre-amp and mostly important an inspired performance. We feature pre-amps from UAD, RME-Audio, Avid Carbon and SSL. These are clean pre-amps with some colorization available. By excluding the typical recording console we are able to keep our signal chain clean and short. As such this encourages us to focus first on mic choice and placement and capturing the best musical performance.
Analog-Digital Hybrid Workflow
The studio is principled on an analog-digital hybrid workflow featuring analog compressor and EQ’s from SSL. With everything from SSL buss compression to multi-band analog compression from WesAudio, much of the setup is digital recall, allowing for quick creative comparison supporting the creative flow process.
PLUGINS
Plugins are a central part of any studio these days and we feature plugins from UAD, Waves, Plugin-Alliance, Slate Digital and many others. It is our conviction that any tool whether digital or analog is a tool for the presentation and reception of music. There are no "magic" boxes, but the best creatives can make even the cheapest of boxes "magic".