What an inspiring space. I particularly like the idea of having acousticians build the shell and then musicians design the inside environment. Demonstrably better than having 'tech scientists' do the whole thing. Brilliant video, brilliant stories.
There's just not enough credit to be given to Linda and her thoughtful stewardship of the land there! That arial shot should be the poster for sustainable land preservation!
That for me was one of the greatest studio designs I have seen... I'd just love to make a record there. It's so inviting of creativity over sterile tech...
And they perfectly highlighted the importance of RECORDING studios being a place that's inviting and facilitating for the ARTIST FIRST as priority over the engineer as opposed to the other way round. If the studio's for mixing purposes then that's a different story. But the versatility of this studio is probably the best I've seen in RU-vid or real life.
The reason how the garden and the soil saved the studio from the fire as Richard explained, is spot on ! That's the whole crux of Sadhguru's #SaveSoil movement.
Happy to see Christian with Richard here! Richard is awesome #CBC 😉! I loved the insides on the building process of the studio. And of course the story of catastrophic fire was insane. Glad to see the studio still standing with glory. I wish to have the pleasure to work there one day! 😁
I'm only 9 minutes in but I had to stop and say how much I love this video already. I've been looking up and reading about Woodshed Recording for years and I've been absolutely mesmerized by it, so naturally I'm really excited to get to watch this video. But other than that, I'm really inspired by how humble Richards Gibbs is and what lovely conversation the two of them are having. Great video, I honestly appreciate you putting the effort into making it!
Lol.. I was an engineer through the late 70s- 90s in NYC, Boston, Bangkok and Singapore! What caught my eye was the Aja remark. Sans any one recommendation or suggestions I always used Aja as a reference! That was 40yr ago! I can't believe that I wasn't alone and it still works! Dire Straits was also good.
KOAN Sound - Chilli Daddy you need to hear it, its that kind of electronic wall of sound that breathes life into large systems and makes small ones shine
Always 'Aja' as a starting point, and then "The Nightfly", after that, prettty much any Steely Dan/Donald Fagen song. But I do like 'Poison' by the prodigy for a bit of heavy bass ;)... I do have some heavier go-to's, but they will blow your cones out.
I must admit, I was expecting this to be some kind of 'carrot and donkey' marketing thing for Spitfire Audio. How wrong I was. What a wonderful story of an amazing studio, and actually really moving in places! That drone shot of the studio after the fire is pretty mind-blowing. Loved the gong sequence, too! So, not a marketing thing at all. Although I like Spitfire a little bit more now, so maybe it was!! Either way, genuinely excellent stuff!
Love that space. At an earlier stage of my life, I helped move some gear from an old studio into that one, I was asked by Bear McCreary to help out that day, who was Gibbs assistant at the time-- before Battelstar Galactica ever happened. I remember the amp rooms below, you had to go outside, through a small door into this basement crawlspace to get to there. So interesting to hear the story of how it was saved from the fire and that drone view of everything else destroyed was crazy.
I'm not in the recording field, but I enjoy watching studio tours because I enjoy music and like to see the "behind the scenes", but this place is truly amazing.
My two favorite tracks to test Speakers are Dire Straits "Calling Elvis" and Toto "I Will Remember". I guess the clarity of these two recordings are to my taste ...
Monitor test tracks: 32 Frames for Amplified Orchestra by Andrew Poppy, Sun is Shining by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Deranged by David Bowie, for a start…
I remember reading that Mike Garson (legendary piano player for David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and more) lost his home and home studio in that fire. There was an awful photo of his burned-out grand piano in the aftermath.
One of my album to uses for testing out speaks is Individuality (Can I Be Me?) by Rachelle Ferrell. I like the low end and the clarity of all the songs on this album. Great interview and thanks for sharing again.
@@morbidmanmusic I also willl throw in "No Light, No Light" and "Breath of Life" by Florence and the Machine. I have no idea how they can use so much reverb on those mixes and yet have everything be so clear.
I kind of agree with Christian on sample heavy music for listening tests. Because it lets you hear how precise the speakers and room are. I like Photek's Form and Function album. For pop, I like the second half of Kate Bush' Aerial (Abbey Road), but skipping past Rolf, from Sunset to the end. For guitars, I like Red House Painter's Ocean Beach (Coast Recorders, San Francisco).
Incredible space by a man passionate about his craft. As far as test tracks, I've had many through the years. Sting's "Englishman in New York" and several others. A selection of Tower of Power tracks. Yes, I've used Aja. In the 80's it was Manhattan Transfer. When I've wanted to scare people during live system startups, I'll grab "Intro" & "Eat the Rich" from Aerosmith's Get A Grip. But for the last few years when I'm shaking out a system it is "Downside Up" and "San Jacinto" from Peter Gabriel's New Blood.
Interesting video. Hilarious sub-titles. My first guitar was the Hofner President 1958, which I still have. Beautiful resonance, but mine is due for some restoration (all my fault). Favourite Albums to test audio gear has to be Weather Report - Black Market, Heavy Weather, Billy Cobham - Drum & Voice 1, Daryl Way's Wolf - Canus Lupus, Focus - Hamburger Concerto and Steely Dan - Aja.
Reference tracks, I have a few from James Newton Howard, Herbie Hancock, deadmau5 to Bruno Mars depending on what I am about to mix. But I always start my day with: Sunken Treasure by Wilco and He won’t hold you by Jacob Collier.
No reels on wheels? Just messing with ya Marty (oh it's a The Searchers thing). It would be a dream to record there and mixdown one day. I'm on the lookout for a publishing deal. Got 500 Logic Projects from 12 years of writing in many genres and the list is growing. All up in the air at the moment upgrading spec and home studio.
Loved this episode, the passion, the story, the asian elements. One little niggle; "As I come back" was mastered by Tom Coyne, so you can bet the song can serve as a test for speakers.
Remarkable that this place exists, surrounded by lesser structures (made from ticky tacky). Wonderfull departure also, from the usual affair of gear-centric rundowns. Thanks for the insights, guys! #permaculture #holisticarchitecture
I plan to watch this at least one more time but first viewing has me blown away and of course extremely jealous. I'm not prone to be envious of much in the world but a space like that would be a dream come true. Once I and a couple partners had a live music venue called 'Club More' here in the Tampa Bay area (1997-2001) and we had all of our cables under the floor where there was two foot of crawl space. My building was post and beam construction of Heart Pine and the greatest compliment we had was when Dan Hicks played our room and complimented me at the end of the night because the room sounded so good. Richard's space obviously adheres to that proof. Wood is good for many things - especially music.
Wow: such an inspiring space and story. Pretty much my dream space as both a composer/musician and engineer/producer. The best of both worlds is so important. As for some of my reference tracks when trialing speakers or other gear, here are a bunch of mine: 'Bombtrack' - Rage Against the Machine (heavy rock); 'Trafalgar Square' - Jonathan Wilson (rock/pop); 'Lionsong' - Bjork (electronic/deep bass); 'Go Down Moses' - Charles Lloyd (jazz); 'Monomom' - Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano/deep bass); 'Complicated' - Mac Miller (hip hop); 'Don't You Wait' - Solange (hip hop); 'Hammers' - Nils Frahm (piano); 'We Added it Up' - My Brightest Diamond (classical/pop/deep bass); 'Ascension Day' - Talk Talk (deeply layered pop/rock chamber recording); 'My Black Ass' - Shellac (big drums/room sounds)
Such an interesting interview and tour. I would test speakers with Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon, and something with good acoustic piano and some Stevie Wonder.
Wow, what a great place to be inspired and record. And a gong trained Coy, that’s a first 😊I also love that SSL Matrix. I want one but it is but a dream.
Wow this was without a doubt my favourite Cribs, what a great humorous guy Richard is. and what an absolutely stunning musical environment . The shots of the green garden surrounded by so much destruction is both terrifying and beautiful in equal amounts. keep it up christian amazing stuff
Ref track: ‘Jason Bourne’ O,M,P,S-John Powell & David Buckley, recorded by Nick Wollage, Rupert Coulson, & Andrew Dudman. Mixed by Shawn Murphy. Studios: Abbey Road, Rak, & 5 Cat. 🎙🎛🎚🎶🪬
