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Welcome to Northfire Recording Studio, conveniently located near downtown Amherst, MA. We have lots of information about the studio on the site, but we love to show the studio in person, so feel free to get in touch with us directly to learn more or arrange a tour of the studio. Visit the site weekly (or monthly, or quarterly, we'll see. . . ) to see new content. 06.18.07 It's been quite some time since my last blog entry, not because nothing has happened, but because an astounding torrent of sessions and gigs have kept me hopping. The past week has been a good picture of how the past few months have been. We started out with 4 days of english country dance recording (the Bare Necessities), followed by a day of Jamaican dancehall legend Mr. Vegas, some gigs, some heavy metal (4th Demention), and a location recording of classical trumpeter Jesse Hazzard-Watkins with organ accompaniment in a church. Other recent projects include everything from contra dance music (The Latter Day Lizzards) to grindcore* (Agoraphobic Nosebleed). We at Northfire feel pretty lucky to have so much work with so much variety and talent. We have a new Czar of CD Duplication. His name is Jay. You may already know him as the director of operations, the intern boss, that coppertop who plays keys for The Alchemystics, or 2scoops. He's taming the robot and turning around orders like a line cook flipping pancakes quickly. Congratulations to our clients who've released their recordings in the past few months: Elixer, Seth Glier, The Gypsy Wranglers, Gary Roodman & The Band of Friends, Maeve Hughs, Gaia Roots, The Eich Dees, and Abu Nurah to name a handfull. Extra extra special congratulations to Northfire engineer Angelo Quaglia on the birth of his lovely baby girl, Ariana. This brings the count of adorable Northfire daughters up to 3! Enjoy the summer, and remember to go outside — come January you'll be glad you did. - Garrett *just know that it's loud, fast, and uses blast beats. It evolved from crust punk. If this is unfamiliar, just ask Demse about Spasm. 02.18.07 mmmm, nothing like that new gear feeling. Northfire is now the proud owner of a Chandler EMI Abby Road Special Edition TG2 Dual Microphone Preamp & Direct Injector. I'll call it the mic pre for short. I received the mic pre last night in Boston, and just installed it this afternoon. I haven't tried it on a wide variety of sources yet, but I am very pleased with what I have tried it on so far. It's most distinctive character as revealed to me thus far is in it's top end - very open and with a really nice vintage colour, very present and crisp, but somehow not harsh at all. This pre is definitely in the euphorically colored category, not the clinically accurate category, and the sound it lends is an entirely different flavor from the selection we already have. I look forward to experimenting with it in the near future. It's possible to get a pretty wide range of sounds out of it thanks to switchable input impedance and separate input and output attenuators. The significance of the last is that you can run it hot, but pad down the output to get some saturation of the circuits, and sorta nevey mic pre compression. mmmmm. Lest I geek out about gear all afternoon, I should probably mention some of the sessions we've been doing here. Since my last blog update so very long ago, we tracked and mixed a lovely record for Gary Roodman. Gary is a choreographer for English dance. Think granges, not raves. The record was really diverse, containing everything from renaissance recorders to jazz vocals. I think the count on musicians was 14, and on instruments about a dozen. It was a pretty complex project (different instrumentation on every song, lots of different players for a given instrument), but it came out beautifully thanks in large part to the very high caliber of musicianship that Gary and Gene Murrow(producer) put together. I look forward to the release in April or so. Kora player and vocalist Youssou Sidibe finished his solo record this past month. For those who are not familiar with it, a Kora is an African harp with a gourd body covered by a skin top. It's sound is subtle: usually soft, lush, and gentle, though it can be bright and percussive if played hard. The record is music for meditation. The album is wonderfully tranquil, I've rarely had a more relaxing session. It goes to mastering soon, and should be released in a couple months. Work continues on his next record, a duet project with Neville-Brother Charles. Continuing our eclectic selection, we just finished a single for local artist & social activist Julis (he's one of the main guys behind the monthly culture shock events). His music really does not fit into a genre-slot. If I tried to describe it, I guess I'd call it operatic soul/punk/folk/21st-c art music with the wisdom and heart of a 60's protest song, and the artistic sophistication of a post-atonal composer. The song is called "New Orleans," and you should be able to witness it at an upcoming culture-shock event. Angelo Quaglia (one of our engineers) finished mixing a record for M-pakt productions artist Eich-Dees. The record is straight-ahead hard-core hip-hop. Angelo really outdid himself on these mixes, they are crystal-clear, just the right amount of gritty sonic attitude, and they kick you in the chest the way a good hip-hop record should. Watch these guys - this record should move. Other projects in the studio included a Korean pop single (Tom Hong), a demo for a great contra-dance band (Elixer), continuing work on the Problemadddicts (hip-hop), Gypsy Wranglers (gypsy jazz), Gaia Roots (west African drum and vocal group), Alchemystics (hip-hop/reggae), Anna Patton (clarinet jazz and dance music) and 4th demention (metal/modern rock) records, and a whole lotta other projects that would make this run-on sentence run on a lot longer. On a more serious note, it has been a really great month, and I would like to thank all our clients for trusting us with their music. In the year and some months that we've been open, we've been blessed with some outstanding music to work with. Somehow, we really don't seem to get the kind of project that makes me want to skip some hours and go home, and the variety and high quality of our clients keeps me loving this job despite the 14-hour days. -Garrett 01.03.07 If ever I forgot how much I love our interns, now I remember. Winter break came for our local colleges, and with it came a great (but thankfully passing) evaporation of our intern pool. It suddenly became impossible to set up mics, print rough mixes mixes, make coffee, and pick up food at the same time. The one place at one time rule is tough to get around. To any interns reading this, thank you for your help. You are the oil in Northfire's engine, the sugar in our coffee, the ball-bearings in our hard drives . . It has certainly been a busy couple weeks both in the studio and out. Holidays, a slew of gigs (I play bass with The Alchemystics, Gokh-Bi System, The Pangeans, Loose Caboose, and a few others), and a good bunch of sessions made the time fly. Artists in the studio included The Gypsy Wranglers (finished off all the overdubs on their record!), Gaia Roots, The Problem Addicts, Hi-Style, and more. Last week we had a lot of fun doing a dub mix for Danny Pease and the Regulators (I really do love mixing dub <ub> <ub> <ub> <ub>), tracking drums for fantastic drummer and music historian Dave Noonan, and cracking into the brand new Alchemystics record. It may be a bit before the next update, the next few weeks are loaded with sessions, but I'll try to dash out an update before too long. Still waiting for the blizzard . . . -Garrett 12.18.06 It's the first official Northfire blog entry! I'll be trying to do one of these every week or two, so check back to find out what's happening at Northfire. The ultra-exciting news from this past week is that we got a robot. I can't really come up with a name for it, it's hard to anthropomorphize an over-sized printer-lookin' thing, but it has this robotic arm that moves cd's around an automated production system. It marks our entry into the short-run cd duplication business. We will initially be offering 3 packages: bulk cd's on a spool, cd's in slimline cases with a full color one page insert, and cd's in jewel cases with tray card and a 1 page insert. All of these include full-color printing on the disk itself. If you want graphics done, we can do that too. Prices can all be found on our rates page. Our other acquisition of the week is a vintage (early '60's) dynamic mic from an little-known British company called Grampian. I had to rewire the thing, but now it works well. I certainly wouldn't place it with our hi-end mics, but it's got a funky and useful sound. Different tools for different jobs . . . This week we had a nice diversity of projects in. We continued our work with The Gypsy Wranglers, cutting fiddle and some accordion. If you haven't been yet, you can check these guys out at Black Sheep Café in Amherst on Sunday mornings/afternoons. They are a lot of fun, they do a great gypsy jazz meets New Orleans thing. I've been enjoying these sessions a lot, they are a bunch of guys who play music that makes me smile. This week also included the start of an album that is looking like it's going to be an excellent one. The artist is named Anna Patton. She plays clarinet in a style that taps into everything from Benny Goodman to traditional folk. The band backing her is tight, and they're all great players. Other projects included Sam Bass (gospel), a nice collection of hip-hop artists (Cincinatra, Abu Narab, Rocko, Lyke Minds), and some Avant-Garde Jazz from Terry Jenoure. Well, that's all from the inaugural blog. Have a great holiday season, and watch out for that eggnog! -Garrett |
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