Jim Sabella, Lissa Lauria, and Eric Olsen
The Picture is of Jim, Lissa, and Eric at The Bitter End. Jim has been working with Lissa Lauria since was 16 years old. Now 19, Lissa is back from California and calls Jim to jam at the Bitter End. Also depicted Eric Olsen (Sr. VP Island/Def Jam Records)
With all that’s going on in Haiti, its hard for us here at Sabella Studios to not think about all the great Haitian kompa players we have the honor of working with. We hope and pray that all of you and your families are safe.
Over the weekend Sabella Studios welcomed Italian singer song writer Tani to the studio. Tani is a talented musician who hasn’t recorded a full length CD in quite some time. Our resident engineer Mike was hired to play guitar on the record. When Tani mentioned he was looking for a studio to record at Mike naturally suggested Sabella. Tani and producer/drummer Gabrielle loved the idea of tracking to tape and couldn’t believe we have 9 Pultec EQ’s. Gabrielle is extremely particular about drum sounds. We brought in our drum expert Mel Gassman to properly tune the kit. He also brought in one of his vintage Gretsch snares, an array of cymbals and a 14″ Gretsch floor tom. In addition to Mels gear we also used our vintage Premier kick and Ludwig Vistalite toms. We mic’d the drums with a vintage RCA ribbon for the room, a U-47 FET and D112 on the kick and U-87’s for over heads among others. Mike used his 1980 Silver burst custom Les Paul and his 40th anniversary Strat through one of Jims custom made amps. Bass player Fabrice plugged into the Ampeg B-15 and split the signal to 2 different DIs. One was our Demeter tube DI and the other was a Radial DI specifically for an octave pedal. Tani recorded his scratch vocals through a Sure SM-7. Basic tracking for the first four songs went great. Every one was pleased with all of the sounds and performances. Guitar over-dubs for the project will start very soon.
Tani recording scratch vocals
Mike with Strat
Fab tracking bass
Gabrielle getting drum sounds
Its a rare treat to get the opportunity to work on a project for a good friend. I’ve known Jill since we were in high school and I loved the sound of her voice from the first moment I heard her sing a note. She was very shy about her voice in those days and always told me how jealous she was that I spent so much time recording and playing shows.
After hearing an album that I mixed for a friend of her’s, she finally sat me down and said she was ready to record her album. The excitement I had was immense. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in Dunkin’ Donuts listening to her iPod and singing duets of 90’s alt songs together. That’s where it all started and here we are today, hard at work on a production together.
Hearing her songwriting progress over the last 5 years has been a great deal of fun for me and it seems like she gets infinitely better each day. But there lies the challenge of this project. Its quite difficult to tell a friend that a song you liked a few years ago isn’t good enough anymore. But that aside, the project is moving along quite well. Of the 5 songs, I played drums on 3 and thanks to Jim and Mike’s ever so reliable talent behind the Neve board, the drums sound fantastic. I cannot express in words what it means to me for them to be a part of this.
I also had another awesome opportunity last week to add another good friend of mine, Patrick Goodsell, to the equation. While I know I could have asked Mike to lay bass tracks or get one of Jim’s usual session players in, Patrick has never failed me in the past and after the years we’ve spent playing together, I know all too well what he’s capable of. Patrick’s an incredibly talented bassist as well as a luthier. I was lucky enough that he brought one of his own creations (a gorgeous handcrafted bass that looks like a work of art from another dimension) that he played on Jill’s song, “Oh California.”
I’ll be burning the candle from both ends this weekend to wrap up the rest of the overdubs and I can’t wait to see what turn these songs take next. Jill will be in next week to finish her vocals and then mixing can be begin. Stay tuned and check out the album.
–Rich
Recently, up and coming Rock band Memphis Crawl visited Sabella Studios. The band was preparing for a label show case at the world famous Whiskey in California; so they needed a new EP to hand out after the show. They chose Sabella Studios based on gear, experience and our 24 TRACK STUDER TAPE MACHINE. Most of the other studios they contacted attempted to talk them out of recording in the analog realm. You could imagine how pleased they were to find 2 free reels of tape ready to go upon their arrival. They know that a Studer Tape machine and a Neve console sounds better then any digital platform under the sun. If a studio tries to talk you out of recording on tape it is because they don’t have the means to do so. Not because digital is easier and definitely not because it sounds better or even just as good. The fellas from M. C. brought in great instruments and were well rehearsed. They recorded and mixed 4 songs in 2 days and it came out fantastic. We are sure the label reps attending the show case at the Whiskey will dig their cd. They might even ask if it was recorded to tape at a real studio.
After playing drums on other tracks for artist Ben Moon, we decided to get Steve Holley back here to bring the thunder for the song, Running in the Sand. Steve brought a great new sound to the song playing drumset, maracas, tamborine and suspended bass drum. Check out the video from the session!
Jim Sabella with Les Paul
Les Paul has always been a true drive and inspiration to me.
Before I started studing guitar the sounds of all great jazz artist were heard in my house.
A favorite of mine was hearing sounds of Les Paul.
Read all about his inventions and the art of sound and recording.
Later in my years I would watch him at Fat Tuesdays in NYC.
The man love to talk on recording and music.
I remember telling him I had a bunch of Tube Pultec Eqs he went on how for 20 min. about these units.
Later he Moved over to the Iridium, I would always go 4 or 5 times a year and later for his bithdays which were such great nights.
Les has a book out “In my Own words” I would say one of the best books I’ve ever read. Strongly advise this reading for any who wants to be a professional musician or involved in the music business.
I will truly miss this man, he had such a full life and lived every day to it’s fullest when it came to his music and his ideas that always were on his mind.
I’ll Miss you Les
One of my favorite guitar solos of all time is the solo on How High the Moon, Check it out
You have the chance to win 1 free hour of studio time here at Sabella Studios if you can tell us WHAT this item is and HOW it was used.
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I wonder what it could be!
Here’s some footage of Jim playing guitar live with Pam Betti on July 31st 2009
Recently CaRiMi has been working on new music at Sabella Studios. At their latest session they brought with them French Pop sensation Princess Lover (pictured below), for some wonderful vocal work. Find out more about these kompa stars at www.carimi.com and www.princesslover.fr
