Zech Marquise Live @ O Zone Lair

Zechs Marquise, along with 13 Day Mission, performed live at the O Zone Lair for a slew of Atlanta area fans. This was the first real show that O Zone Lair hosted and we definitely tracked it. Unfortunately the 13 Day Mission set audio did not turn out so great, and we did not get any video. We did however get some really great tracks for Zech Marquise.

Zechs Marquise were all really great guys and their music was jamming hard. For a review of the evening please visit O Team Press.

For a review of microphones and other ideas used, read on :)

Before the show I decided to hit up the music store and pick up a few more stands, wires, and a new mic that I had been eyeballing and hearing good things about. The Sterling ST51. It's nothing too fancy but received quite a bit of good press throughout the internet and was definitely in my budget. Come to find out it is not the greatest at recording toms like I had hoped it would be, based on my previous use of the M-Audio Nova that seems to be a bit warmer. The Sterling is very bright and somewhat crackly the way that I used it for this recording. I look forward to testing the Sterling out with some vocals, and I am positive it would do better as a room mic for the drums than pressed right up near the toms.

Drums
- 2 DR-HX1 Condensers - Overhead
- 1 SM57 beta - Snare
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic
- 1 DR-STX1 - Floor Tom
- 1 Sterling ST51 - Toms

Bass
- SM58

Guitars
- Audix I-5 (picked up a lot of surrounding drum noise)
- 1 DR-STX1 (hardly any surrounding drum noise)

I would like to pick up a few more 57's or 57 Beta's for live guitar recording. From past experience they pick up very little noise from the sides unlike the I-5. The DR-STX1 that I used for this show is actually a tom mic but turned out a decent recording.

The entire set will be online in the near future, but for now enjoy this video plus a pretty solid mix of the audio.

Attila

I had been talking to Attila for some time about coming out and recording some jams...and they finally have.

Last night we managed to track drums, guitar, and bass for 2 songs to be used for an upcoming demo. Normally I do not like to do recording on weeknights, I like to leave enough time for everyone to be comfortable and not rushed doing their thing, it helps the creative process. I am glad we got this worked out though regardless of what night it happened on.

They showed up a little later than we had agreed but were prompt in setting up their gear, knocking out some rehearsals of the songs, and being ready to record. Within an hour of their arrival we were tracking drums. Sean was interested in working with a click track, so we tried that a few times, but we ended up doing the final takes without it. He blasted everyone in the studio for a while but laid down some really solid drums. I opted not to use a room mic and instead used a mic on the beater side of the kick in hopes of a more awesome kick on the final mix. Nate did the reference tracks so was already warmed up and ready to rock out his guitar parts, we busted through those and ended around 12:30 AM(when I saw my neighbor in the morning, I waved to her and she just gave me a stern look of disapproval.....uh oh). Last up was Paul on bass, he toughed it out till the bitter end and then recorded his bass tracks with the quickness, probably spent 25 minutes on the bass total.

Attila was great to work with, very easy going and open to suggestion to overcome some small hurdles which is very beneficial when trying to do so much work in so little time. I am stoked to get some vocals on these mixes and have them finished up and ready for the people and their tour.


Drums
- 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead
- 1 SM57 beta snare
- 1 DR-STX1 Floor Tom
- 1 M-Audio condenser over toms
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic
- 1 DR-STX1 beater side of kick


Bass
- PostEQ Direct Line from MARKBASS SD800

Guitar
- SM57 Beta on cab
- 1 DR-HX1 condenser @ 3 feet

The Fifth Sundays jazz group

On the first Sunday in December the Fifth Sundays came to record at the O Zone Lair. They also responded to my ad looking for jazz groups. We did things a little different than normal due to some band scheduling(some members had gigs that day..hardcore!), by different I mean started later in the day and not bright and early.

A little after 1 pm Michael showed up with his drums, strategically placed to fit inside his mitsubishi 3000 GT, a very impressive packing job in deed. We had planned on him showing up early to set up and test out some mics he owned verse the mics that I own. This was great, I was able to set his mics as well as my mics all at once while he played the drums. We listened back and his Oktavas sounded outstanding as overheads. The mids were in your face bringing the toms out like I have not heard before. The condensers I typically use were more airy and bright. Both sounded good but I wanted to go with the Oktavas since I had the opprotunity. We also tested out kick drum mics, and his AKG112 sounded really good in comparison to mine so I also used that.

The rest of the group showed up a little after 3 and we were recording tracks by 4. All 4 members were very prepared and very easy to work with. They brought an acoustic bass, a guitar, and a lady on sax and flute. The guitar and sax also wanted to record some vocals so we decided to overdub them after we laid down the music and that worked out great.

I enjoyed recording jazz the past two days because, as far as sonic energy is concerned, jazz is much different than rock. Everyone played very low key, the drums were very quiet in the room, but I was unable to jack up the trim levels to get more drum sound due to the occasional hard snare pop or anything else loud that happens. Doing that would peak out the track. Thankfully the Firepods preamps are extremely quiet so boosting the gain on the drum tracks does not bring much extra noise.

Drum Mics
- 2 Oktava condensers overhead
- 1 DR-STX1 on snare
- 1 AKG-112 kick drum mic

Bass - He played an Upright acoustic w/ a pickup and a mic attached going into a combo amp
- Direct line from combo amp
- DR-STX1 on amp

Guitar Mic
- SM58

Horn/Flute/Vocals
- 1 M-Audio condenser

Willis Wilson Jazz Group

A few months ago I put up an ad about free studio time for jazz groups, to try and get some working jazz in the studio that I could record live instead of track by track. Willis Wilson hit me up about his group. We scheduled some time and then he broke his hand....

He has finally healed and brought the group to the studio. I was a little uneasy at first because the drummer, being the first one here, told me he had never met Willis or played with his group. Fortunately all 4 of the musicians that recorded were very professional and had no problem clicking together.

The guys got set up and worked out the first song, Red Clay. We tracked Drums, Bass, Trumpet, and Trombone first, then Willis and Davey went back over that with keys and guitar. Once they were satisfied we moved onto Tell Me a Bedtime Story. For this we tracked Bass, Drums, Keys, and Guitar, then Willis went back over it to lay down the trumpet.

The two tracks came out sounding great just as a raw mix, I was even a bit shocked myself at how good it sounded. With some quick mixing of EQ and some light effects the final mixdowns already sound pro. I think everyone had a good time and we were able to record some really good tunes. Willis is a beast on the trumpet, I would really like to hear him do some straight ahead jazz and let it all out, and the other musicians were all on top of their game as well. I look forward to doing more recording with each of them.

Drum Mics
- 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead
- 1 DR-STX1 on snare
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic

Bass - He played an Upright acoustic w/ a pickup attached going into a combo amp
- Direct line from combo amp
- DR-STX1 on amp

Guitar Mics
- SM58

Horns
- 1 M-Audio condenser

Keys
- Direct line from Hartke 3500 head

Miles from Pangaea

Miles from Pangaea made another stop by O Zone Lair studios to do some more recording. The first day, drummer Jared, could not make it out to the house so we spent the day setting up equipment in preparation. Since I play drums I took a seat behind the set for what we thought would be a quick jam session, but turned out to be far from quick at all. We ended up playing for about two hours. Bret picked up his guitar and he and Dave played off each other over the top of Frank and I holding down the rhythm section and in some places invoking changes for the other two to play off of. We played a few short jams that were cool, but the real fun came out of a 30 minute jam that left us wondering where we had been the past half hour. If you would like to listen to this jam click here. After that it was time to call it and day.

Sunday was my first time being in control of the recording session. Bret was there the entire time to guide me through the process, as well give me suggestions about how and why to do things a certain way and what type of levels to aim for. It was a really great experience, and since I really enjoy the music Miles from Pangea writes and records it made the process even more fun on my behalf.

Everyone showed up around 12:00 to begin work for the day. We started with the drums and as always Jared was right on point with his beats and knocked out his tracks in a decent amount of time. After he was done laying down his drum tracks it was now Frank’s turn to do his bass work. By this point it was getting later into the day and spending a full day in the studio can be very daunting. We managed to finish up the bass tracks for all of the songs but did not have time to work the guitar at all on this night. Dave came by later in the week to finish up the guitar tracks. Dave did a great job on his guitar and we got through all of the tracks in one evening after work.

These guys make great music and it’s always fun to work with a band that has everything together when they come to the studio and are ready to record. We try and give all bands that record with us a relaxed atmosphere and a creative environment. Hopefully that will help us to keep producing quality recordings and music for all to hear.


-Steven Mosley

Beatrix Kiddo

Beatrix Kiddo, from Athens GA, finally made it to the Lair. There was a bit of confusion on time of arrival because I had to work the day after Thanksgiving and no one else did, so they showed up in the morning and Steven entertained them for the rest of the day. They were staying the night and recording all day Saturday as well so we had plenty of time. By the time I got to the house, they already had all of their gear set up and had rehearsed their songs a few times. We had recently removed the ceiling from the studio giving us about 2 more feet of height in the live room, so all of the equipment was in another room. Steven brought it all back in and had most of the drum mics set up and all of the recording gear in place which was great. I felt like an A list engineer being able to walk in and just start pressing buttons.

Once I got settled, we started working on drum tracks. Chris is very talented and did a great job busting out his tracks. He knew exactly what he wanted to lay down and stayed in high spirits and focused the entire time. We did drums until about 9:30pm. Wes attempted to record some bass for one of the songs, but had spent too much time with his bottle of whiskey throughout the day to really make it happen. I do have to say he made a very honest attempt at making it happen though. We decided the rest of the night should be spent sharing new music and enjoying some drinks and company....and everyone passed out at 10:30(these are real rock stars) leaving me to spend some time doing some work online.

Saturday everyone woke up bright and early ready to get back on it. Steven hooked us up with breakfast and we jumped on the bass tracks. Wes, being in a more stable state of mind, ran through all of the songs with the quickness. I really enjoy his style on bass and we were able to record some really awesome tracks. After about an hour and a half of bass, it was time to color the songs with the guitar. Taylor was already set up and ready to go with plans for each song already laid out. We worked through one song a time until complete. He mixed and matched guitars and pedals throughout which came across on the recordings really well.

All three of these guys are very talented and they work together really well. There was no drama and the entire session was balanced with collaboration and agreement from everyone. This is exactly how I like to work and I couldn't have asked for anything more. I am really excited about mixing these songs and continuing to work with Beatrix Kiddo.


Drum Mics
- 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead
- 1 DR-STX1 over toms
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic
- 1 M-Audio condenser on the snare/hi hat
- 1 DR-STX1 on snare
- 1 SM58 room mic

Bass Mics
- Direct Line w/ Ibanez Soundgear 5 string

Guitar Mics
- SM58
- DR-STX1

Wes Kyatt

Wes Kyatt plays with a group called Beatrix Kiddo that is coming from Athens GA to record in a few weeks, they were supposed to stop by this weekend but things didn't work out, leaving an open spot. Wes hit me up asking if I would work on his solo stuff with him and I agreed.

Wes and Lauren were prompt showing up which was nice. We started with guitars, Wes laid down some great rhythm and lead tracks, then worked on bass for a while. He worked out the bass line and I have to say, it is stellar and going to sound great when I get done with this mix. He gave drums a try but as he does not have a kit of his own, it was choppy at best and we agreed to have O Zone take care of the drums, Steven will be working on that and will most definitely dominate the situation. After a few vocal takes I had to make him stop singing, he changed the key of the guitars to be much lower than he originally planned and he needs to work on it a little more and then come lay it down.

I am not sure that I am interested in working with too many single musician groups, mostly because I really enjoy recording a working band, a band that can play all of its songs already and knows how they want to lay them down. The whole process goes faster and the feel of the finished project is a bit different. Wes is a really talented artists though and we will continue to work with him for sure.

Mac Morryzon

Mac Morryzon, a local Atlanta producer and rapper came to the studio one night with some other kids via his friend Brandon that I was in contact with about free studio time. He laid down some lyrics for a mix tape and eventually called me back just the other week talking about recording vocals for his album. I agreed and our first session was this past Saturday morning.

Tried to get started around 10am but it ended up being more like 12. When Mac showed up we immediately started working. I think this kid has a lot of talent in both areas that he is working in, production and rapping. His beats are eclectic and his raps are truth speaking if I have ever heard it. For a young mind he has a lot to think about and I think he expresses himself well.

We knocked out 3 tracks Saturday, I personally would recommend redoing a few parts here and there or redoing 2 of the tracks completely, but working with Mac is easy and I am excited to be a part of this album.





M-Audio Condenser direct into MBox

Forever Fades Away

Forever Fades Away spent most of Saturday hanging out at the O Zone Lair this past weekend. Overall the session was successful, a little unprepared and a few milestones to overcome but they did it and we laid down some excellent tracks.

They were prompt showing up, didn't have much gear with them as they didn't have much storage room in their vehicles, but we have some gear in the studio that they used and worked out really great. I was not even aware that my Peavy 2x12 could sound so huge on record but it was a nice surprise. Also we played out the night before as 13 Day Mission and somehow lost the clutch for the hi-hat and they had to go pick one up before we could record. I enjoyed recording our gear with other people playing it getting different sounds from it.

We tracked the drums almost as soon as they returned with the clutch. The drummer really knocked it out and laid down a solid drum track. Afterwards the bass was laid down with about 3 takes, rhythm guitar was also laid down very fast, Sean is an excellent musician and knew exactly what he wanted to do. A couple more guitar layers and the instruments were done. Total of maybe 2-3 hours of actual recording of instruments, 1-2 hours of prep including getting a new clutch.

This was my first time recording female and male vocals over rock music which I was excited about, unfortunately the vocals were not prepared before coming to the studio which made tracking a lot slower. They spent some time writing and re-writing lyrics before we got started. Once she entered the booth and we started laying down tracks, everyone had an opinion on how she should sing and what she should sing and when, several people going in and out of the booth giving advice, etc. etc. All the ideas were good but this is the easiest way to stress out a vocalist which es no bueno if you want solid tracks. But we worked through it and I feel we have some really great vocal tracks to work with, I'll be able to make this song sound very good.

Sound clips will be posted soon on the music page.

Drum - Pearl Export series
- 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead
- 2 DR-STX1 under toms
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic
- 1 M-Audio condenser on the snare/hi hat

Bass - Ampeg SVT head/Avatar 2x10 - MusicMan
- SM58
- Direct Line

Rhythm Guitar - Peavy Ranger 2x12/PRS
- SM58
- 1 M-Audio condenser

Lead Guitar - Custome Goodsell head/Vox 2x12 - Standard Strat
- SM58
- 1 M-Audio condenser

Miles from Pangaea

Miles from Pangaea stopped into the O Zone Lair yesterday for a really great session. This was our first time working with this three piece, but they all showed up ready to work and very professional.

They set up and rehearsed a few songs while we started putting mics all over, things were already sounding pretty good. Once they got ready we started with the drum tracks(more info below), Jared started off a bit tense but dominated the set over all. Frank then tracked his bass, after having just done the reference tracks with Jareds drums. He tore it up though, I wanted to stand up and start cheering during the break down in The Green Door, he KILLED it. We took a food break then Dave laid down the guitar, and I have to say I am very happy with the tone that came through, it sounds really good.

Sound clips will be posted soon on the music page.

Drum Mics
- 2 DR-HX1 condensers overhead
- 2 DR-STX1 under toms
- 1 DR-KX1 kick drum mic
- 1 M-Audio condenser on the snare/hi hat

Bass Mics
- SM58
- DR-KX1
- Direct Line

Guitar Mics
- SM58
- DR-STX1 @4ft
- DR-HX1 @ 6ft