Ken Rich's grand street studio in Williamsburg is excellent. There is a live room large enough to accommodate a band, a really nice control room where we set up to record scratch vocals, plus a smaller room for isolation. Nice mics, good headphones and amps, great selection of drums. Keys players...while there isn't a real piano, the Wurlitzer and Rhodes pianos are in excellent shape. There is also a groovy vintage electric organ which holds some interesting possibilities, and also a Clavinet.
Ken and his assistant that day (Tomek) were friendly and efficient, and most importantly really adept at getting good sounds quickly. We didn't waste any time with pro tools melt- downs or equipment malfunctions; everything seems to be in great shape and more importantly they know how to use it.
One thing I really dug about the engineering was that Ken is an accomplished musician. I never felt like he was forcing his advice or opinion on us, but if asked he always had good input. Some engineers try to step in and ""produce"" unnecessarily but Ken would wait until his opinion was sought. In that regard his etiquette as an engineer was great.
When not recording the control room or office are also great spots to hang out, drink coffee, peruse a selection of music books or order take out from many of the restaurants conveniently located around this Williamsburg location.
All in all a great studio and a great experience. I'm really looking forward to doing more work here in the future.
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