I am going to call the studio build done at this time. (for all practical purposes, lets call the date 5/1/10)

I will no longer be updating this site, and when I do, it will likely only to update this particular entry with back links of key studio construction points.

If you wish to contact us to schedule studio time or a book a remote session, the new Dark Pines Studio website is up and running.

I want to thank a couple of folks…

First and foremost, my wife - “TheBoss©”… She’s busted her butt, lived with the mess, frustration, anxiety and the joy of finally realizing this dream come true.

Next, I have to give major kudos and thanks to Rod Gervais for his design, patience and friendship. For without Rod, my dream could have NEVER come true.

My contractors have all helped make this happen as well; Electrical Service Providers (ESP), Johnny Brooks Plumbing, WECO Concrete and Penland Heating and Air. A HUGE thank you to all of you! If you are in the central North Carolina area and need ANY of the above services, you would do well to contact them and give them your business. They say what they’ll do, and they DO what they say they will.

A HUGE shout out to the following suppliers; Joshua Aaron @Audiolot, Brad Lyons @Sweetwater, Reid Black @SPI, Pete Montessi @A-Designs, Murph @Nashville Pro Hammond, McPherson Rock and Stone, Mebane Lumber Company and a very special thanks to the GREAT folks at The Hardwood Store!

No studio can be built without help… and some individuals need to be thanked, not only for their help, but also, and more importantly for their support, understanding and most importantly… their friendship;

G_Cubed -  You ARE my brother in arms… thanx bro! You’ve got a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the place. You, among everyone else, KNOW what it’s taken to get here, and I could NOT have done it without ya’!

The Ribshack Crew; Spock, Romulan Commander and Moodrider made it down to help with the initial layers… and the initial jam session. We busted butt, which took things to the level that I could actually progress towards the finish line. You guys stepped up to the plate when I was left high and dry by my hired help. That’s what friends do for ya… They step in when all the others walk away.

Another Ribshacker who’s stepped in/up is JoeRogers. What started out as a “stop by and share an adult beverage”, has resulted in friendship and huge impact on inspiration, direction and even a “bit” of sweat equity.

The rest of the Ribshack crew; bubba, MudCat, e-cue, fajtiatone (aka TacoNoise), Kenny Gioia, mousdrvr, Magicchord, bunnerab, leester, Sausage Maker, gesturizer, fulcrum, maccool, otek (the cupped crusader), pimp-x, st robert, tammiku, TSTW and lebouche… Thanx for lettin’ me gripe, whine, complain and and ramble on about this place over the last few years.

I wanna single out one other Ribshacker… THE Chinga Tourista himself… Halligan, I really wish you were gonna’ be here for the opening, but understandable that Australia to the US is a bit of a journey for ya’ to make for just a week. We’ll heft one in your name. I appreciate your insight into the world of POST and all of our conversations. I’m glad you were at least able to stop in and see the place while you were on holiday.

The guys at Recording.org, the old RecPit, The Womb, John L Sayers and StudioTips; Thanx for the comments, feedback and encouragement!

The guys in Hot Politics also need mention here, along with Eric Welch. Guys… I do want to thank you. Again, a studio takes a lot of hands and sweat to pull together. You guys stepped in and busted it out. Thanx!

To the guys that are signing on here now… Sam, Daniel and Michael… and hopefully others… We’ve accomplished a lot up to this point, and while we’ve still got a lot to do, but we’ve got a lot of future ahead of us too! As long as we care about the things we do, are passionate about it, do what is right, do our best, and treat others as we wish to be treated, and offer our clients the best value that we can, we can at least lay down at night and know that we’ve done it right.

The studio is dedicated to two very important women in my life. First, my mother. For if it had not been for her, I would obviously not be here… and my grandmother. It was her strength and fortitude that became an inspiration for our family. She simply would not not take “No” for an answer when she knew it could be done.

To this end, the studio, Dark Pines Studio… is dedicated to inspiring musicians to be the best that they can, to play like they’ve never played before and to capture the best performances possible.

The place is really starting to shape up and come together. I just hope it’s enough… and fast enough!)

The bridge is almost done, and the landscaping around the fire pit is coming along nicely. (I know, I know… no pix or it didn’t happen)

I ran into a minor snag a couple of weeks ago, when I found that I had a bit of a problem with patchbay interconnect cables being about 3 feet too short. (ARRRRGH!)

I bit the bullet and ordered the raw cable and connectors. I’ll start building those next week and should finish them in time for the grand opening… I HOPE!

I’ve been transferring some tracks off of ADAT, into ProTools from sessions that Aaron Meadows tracked in a remote session, awhile back. We’re going to finish up a few OD’s and mix this thing up over the next month or so, then get it off to mastering and duplication.

A big shout out to Adam Donohue for referring an A Capella group in Elon, to the studio. They’re coming in this evening and tomorrow for a tracking session.

Not to get too political, but as the Easter bunny and colored eggs are not really an integral part of the religious doctrine of Easter or Passover, I found these quite humorous.

Got these in an email yesterday, and just had to share….

(I wish I knew who to credit these to, they’re wonderful!)

I had several folks suggest that the studio is purdy enuf to submit to Mix Magazine’s “Class of 2010″… I’m certainly happy with the (just about) end results, but I didn’t think theplace was THAT pretty… but with some prodding…

I put the polish on the place and took some pix, filled out the form, answered the questions and clicked the “send” button.

In a few weeks, good Lord willin’, and if the creek don’t rise too high, we might get picked.

I’m not counting on it, and I hope not to be disappointed if we don’t make it… but like they say about the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes; “You can’t win, if you don’t enter.” So… cross yer’ fingers and say a lil’ prayer, put a good vibe out, or otherwise… wish us luck that we make it.

As soon as I got all the pix off in email this afternoon, I breathed a big sigh of relief and jumped on gettin’ the bridge done… that will go from the back door of the studio, over to the fire pit.

Sam and his buddy Andy came in this morning, and we got the holes dug and set the posts in concrete for the bridge, this afternoon.

I hope to get the bracing done later tomorrow afternoon. Gotta get the yard mowed, trimmed and maybe start the edging around the property, before Sunday.

I’ll try to get some progress pix of the bridge up this weekend.

My body is achin’……. bad…… but my brane bukit is happy!!!!

Yesterday was insane paced, but it was worth it.

It is supposed to rain all day Friday, so getting the gobo’s ready to paint is the priority.

So, while I was waiting on Sam to come in, I figured I’d drag the gobo’s outside, sand em’ and get the 2nd coat of mud on em’.

I needed to go get the rest of the stuff out of one of my rented storage units. It was mainly a bunch of laminate flooring.

When Sam got here, we knocked out the sanding and mud on the gobo’s. As we were getting ready to go get the laminate flooring and empty out the storage unit, the guy I’ve been talking to about a Hammond and Leslie called…

We reached an agreement on price…

Now we gotta figure out when to get the beasty…

Uhhh… ok…. in an HOUR!

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!! The Hammond and Leslie are coming home to the studio!!!!

So, we scramble around trying to make sure we’ve got room for everything to fit.

As we’re getting things ready, we zip up to the house and sitting on the porch is a big brown box…. huh??? What’s this???

OOOOOOO!!!! It came a day early!!

My buddy bbkong sold me a Fender Precision bass he had… and it came in! (albeit a day early)

So… we run the bass down and open the box…. great packing… the bass made it just fine….

I open the case and I find all kinds of fun stuff in there. Bubba’s got a GREAT sense of humor, and ALWAYS throws extra stuff in anything he sends ya… kinda’ like Sweetwater does… but funnier!

So, we drool a little bit and pack the bass up. About that time, the call comes in to come get the Hammie!!!

OOOF!

We go get the beasty and we now have a Hammond A100 w/Trek II preamp and a Leslie 122!! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!

After we unloaded the Hammie, I discovered that the platform I built to hold the E100 is about 2″ too narrow for the A100…. <cuss> <cuss> <cuss> <cuss> <cuss>

I’ll have to man handle the Hammie around a bit, and trim out the side pieces a bit, so she’ll sit on the floor of the platform.

It may not end up lookin’ all that pretty… but we got a Hammond A100 and a 122!!!!!!

Pix… and LOTS of em!!! will be coming later today or tomorrow morning… as soon as I can get past playin’ with the new toys!

Here’s da’ pix…

We’re now on Facebook as Dark Pines Studio,  and the new DarkPinesStudio.com website is in final testing… so those have been getting updates as well as posts to the studio build blog at Recording.org.

I’ve also been busy getting quite a few “biz” items taken care of…

We’re now set up to accept credit cards and debit/check cards  as well as being able to accept on-line payments.

If you’re interested in booking the studio, we are taking bookings.

Our “Grand Opening” is scheduled for May 1st through May 9th. It looks like we are all filled up with musicians, engineers and songwriters from out of town… which is GREAT!

We’re planning on tracking and really pushing the envelope of checking the room and the gear. If you’re a local musician and would like to stop by during that week to check out the studio, please contact the studio at 336-525-2177.

The hunt is on for a summer intern position to be filled.  This position is unpaid for up to 20 hrs. Good knowledge of PT is a must. The ideal candidate is a self starter who can learn and move up to paid A2 role within months, not years.

Clean driving record is a plus.

Please send resume to max@darkpinesstudio dot com

I’ve been busy working on a couple of other things as well…..

I’ve now made two guitar amp stands, moved in a bit more furniture to make things more comfortable, made a riser for a new Hammond A110 and Leslie 122 that should be here this weekend, and started on 3 gobo’s for the tracking room.

The gobo’s are made this way… 1″ 703, 7/16″ OSB, 1/2″ Hardie Backer, 3/4″ MDF and 5/8″ gypsum. I’ll get pix up as soon as I can.

Tracking and mixing with Hot Politics is going well. The guys should be back in the studio soon to finalize the last 3 tracks and then mix it up.

We have a tracking session coming up soon with Reggie Jefferies. Reggie will be doing a variety of work, including a solo piano gospel collection, as well as recordings with with other musicians.

Another band is coming in soon to track a demo album. I’m really looking forward to working with them on the project, as they are an 8 piece band with horn section. I think they’ll enjoy working here in the room. More about their sessions as the details become available.

Jeff McLean and SG are reviving a long sought after project. We anticipate that the project will be another great set of tunes from these guys.

So, as you can probably tell, things are pretty wide open right now… So, I better get back at it and get some more things done!

I discovered that the batteries in my UPS units had not been disconnected as I had previously been told, prior to putting them in storage. ARRRRGH!

It’s my own fault for not double checking them, but I was told that they were disconnected. And the units failed to display any indicators when I checked them out. Which they will not display any indicators when the batteries are indeed disconnected.

The units have been sitting in the basement for almost 3 years in a discharged state… instead of a charged stated with the batteries disconnected. So rather than risk a fire or explosion by hooking them up and letting them charge, I need to take them to the local automotive center to have them tested to see if they are sulfated or if they can indeed be brought back to life. (Which I seriously doubt.)

UPS batteries are sometimes able to be replaced with batteries that are used in riding lawnmowers or motorcycles. So… we’ll see if that’s the case with these APC units.

From APC, the replacement batteries are over $300.00. From two different on-line stores, they’re $135.00-220.00/pack… (x 3 packs)… while your typical sealed lawn mower/motorcycle battery is the same price or slightly higher, having a local warranty can offset any small price difference. But, you really do have to look at everything from the warranty to the shipping costs and disposal fees.

Once this battery situation is squared away, I can go forward with hooking up the rest of the server block…. <sigh>

The fact that Talor Swift is a sweet kid, pretty, and well spoken only makes wanting to dig my ears out with a claw hammer only that much more painful.

Was she set up to be exposed as another pretty face who can only be brought to market with otto-toon? Can the girl actually sing on key and in tune, or did the Grammy go to the wrong person??? Namely the mixer who created the actual performances on the album… if that is indeed the case.

Several brilliant performances last night were seriously overshadowed by the use of otto-tuned stem vocals used in a live performance… not necessarily that they were used.. but that they were lip-sync’d too!

Lady Gag Gag can actually sing and play, but even with Sir Elton there, I wasn’t all that impressed… Sorry. Though she sings as strong and with more verve than Sir Elton, I think her overall performance was a bit too much showboating… as with Pink’s performance.

The Zac Brown Band’s performance was definitely live, real and quite enjoyable…

Same with Jeff Beck’s tribute… except the lip sync’d vocals. His was probably the most outstanding performance of the night, followed closely with Zac Brown’s.

BEP’s were somewhat robbed, but then too, I’m biased as I know Dylan (3-D) Dresdow,  and was pulling for him. I know he worked hard to pull that album together, and with the BEP’s album being so high in the pop charts for so long, you’d think NARAS members would have appreciated the overall work a bit more than what the voting reflected. (Especially in light of what was revealed in Swift’s performance.)

The overall impression of the actual awards program I’m left with is pretty much… meh… a lot of hard work for not much of a payoff in entertainment value.

The program was mainly tarnished by the excessive minutes of silence that the censor’s had to bleep during the final performance. In my opinion, the foul language that so permeates pop music and pop culture is totally unwarranted for a show where kids are likely to be exposed to it. Granted, at 11:00pm, there shouldn’t be children up watching, but I’m sure there was a significant number of kids still up. Poor form overall.

I kinda’ wish they’d cut back on the stock performances and actually spend more time on the presentations. Exposing other genre’s of music to the public could only help an industry that is plauged by both a weak economy and theft of intellectual and copyrighted property.

NARAS president, Neil Portnow’s comments were welcomed by my reckoning, but almost failed in strength of delivery.

“So many milestones, but what of the challenges in the decade ahead? Well, for starters, let’s all pledge that 10 years from now when we look back we can say that this was the decade when every child received the benefit of music and the arts education in our public schools!

Now, what if someone told you they really appreciated your work but didn’t think they should have to pay you for it anymore. What would you do? How would you pay your bills, support your family? How would you survive?

This evening, you’ve seen performances by the most successful artists today. And you know about their generosity and giving back. But standing right behind them are thousands of unknown and up-and-coming music makers who face the question of survival every day. In the coming decade, unless they can make a living at their craft, the quality and creativity of the music will be at risk.

Well tonight, we’re all fans and music lovers who want to ensure that the future of music is a bright one. New technologies will bring music whenever and wherever you want it.

But as fans, let’s all truly value the music and the songs that change our lives by supporting and compensating these gifted creators of the music we treasure. And together, let’s make this next decade a time of renaissance for the music that plays as the soundtrack of our lives.”

Right On, Neil!

That blue eyed monster is the REDDI…. WICKED Bass!!

Yes, that’s a sax in the control room!

The SF-12 on overheads… butter!

P12 through an Avalon for sax scratch runs… was crushed by the P2247 through a 1073… with the natural verb of the lounge (SF-12 through the Great River MP2MH)… very tasty!

I didn’t use any flash during the session, and these were shot through the control room window, so I had to really jack around with the images to get em’ to show up this well.

Hopefully, I can get at least one good photographer here during a session… I’m too busy to get any decent shots from anywhere but the control room…….