Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR-70

We just got in one of the most unusual drum machines I've ever seen, the Ace Tone Rhythm Ace FR-70. It's similar in sound to many of the early Ace Tone/Roland boxes with one big difference: it has an enormous built-in speaker cabinet. It's a monster!
These were originally invented as rhythmic accompaniment for organists so most of the early drum machines you see have preset patterns like foxtrot, bossa nova, waltz and the like and this one in no exception. It's pretty limited but it does allow you to adjust the mix somewhat and there are a couple of rocker switches that will give you a little fill or variation.
Watch this space for more on unusual vintage drum boxes, we have a collection of them in our studio and I'll be taking pics and recording them for posts here in the near future.

Recording A Midnight Gun

I meant to post about this back in December but misplaced the pics, but just found them.
AMG (A Midnight Gun) are a new band we worked with in the studio in December. They have a sound all their own and are really pushing to do something personal and different. The band is Phillip on guitar and vocals, Joe on keys and vocals and Julio on drums.
The EP was recorded over a few weeks, we used a lot of mics we have around, namely the Neumann KM84 which is breathtaking on the guitar, standards like the RE-20, 57's 58's etc. The real star was a cool Audix pencil condenser which shocked us all with it's detail and sheer mojo.
We had a chance to DI through the new Aphex 207 tube pre which performed admirably and we tracked a couple of the vocals through it as well as the shaker tracks.
Of course we had to get some Space Echo on it here and there for some vintage vibe and I mixed using it as a reverb in places.
We made good use of the excellent Sir vst reverb on most of the mixes with a Lexicon 480L hall impulse.
All in all a very creative and enjoyable project and I'm looking forward to working with these guys soon. Check them out on their site or at Myspace and download the EP for free:

http://www.amidnightgun.com

www.myspace.com/amidnightgun

Korg Polysix & SC Drumtraks

Just got a Korg Polysix in. The board's in pretty good shape. We cracked open the case to check out the infamous battery issue and voila! it already has a spankin' new battery. Man, this thing is mean sounding, gritty and begging to rip a lead in unison mode.

Also we got in a super minty Sequential Drumtraks. I've never seen a piece of SC gear this clean!