Designed by Rosati Acoustics, Rear Window Recording Studio offers an 8,500-cubic-foot main room (20 ft. ceiling) and three iso booths, one with variable-distance microphone pulley system. Major equipment includes a Trident 80-B automated console, a Sony APR-24 track analog 2"tape deck, Digidesign ProTools Mix Plus v.5.0, Genelec monitors, and an extensive collection of vintage mics, amps, and outboard gear.

Structure: Rear Window Recording Studio was built in 1996 as an addition onto a one hundred year old house in the Boston area. The 19X21 ft. live room is an entirely new structure, whose floor is ten feet below ground level to allow for a 20 foot ceiling, which is suspended by 150 springs and weighs 10,000 lbs. The floor and walls also float on elastic media, and the overall effect is that the room "breathes", handling transients in a natural and forgiving way, allowing for liveliness without harshness. The studio has been featured in Drum magazine as one of New England's premiere drum rooms. A heavy, theatrical grade velvet curtain lines one entire wall for variable acoustics.

Most of the spatial effects achieved on Four Piece Suit recordings derive from placement of ambient room mics, not from digital effects. Something for Cat and Strip Search from the Ready to Where? CD and Roxotica and Old Cape Cod from the Matinee Idylls CD are tracks where you can really "hear the room".

Adjacent to the studio's live room, the main isolation booth has the full 20 ft. ceiling height, and with a 9X10 ft. floor, can accomodate a full drum kit. In terms of wall acoustic treatment, the booth is designed to be very live at the floor to 3 ft. high level, is diffused for an additional 3 feet above that, and then progressively dead , moving from the 6 foot level toward the ceiling, which is maximally dead. Microphones hang from a pulley system on the ceiling, which allows easy access to sample all the degrees of liveness at various levels.

Also adjacent to the studio's live room, there is a 4X10 ft. iso booth with a 9 ft. ceiling, ideal for amps. A 6X7 ft. vocal booth is located on the studio's upper level, just off the control room, which is 12X18 ft. and was originally the kitchen and pantry of the old house. The control room window looks down upon the floor of the live room from a height of 10 feet, in an arrangement similar to Abbey Road Studio B. The window is actually at the rear of the control room (hence Rear Window ), which allows for optional visual contact between engineer and artist, depending on the artist's preference. The control room is diffused at the back wall, and dead from the mix position forward, with non parallel walls and angled ceiling.

All rooms are interconnected by tie lines and speaker lines.

 

GEAR: 

Recording Media: Sony APR 24 analog 24 track 2" machine. TASCAM DA-88 digital 8-track. Panasonic SV-3700 and SV-3800 DAT machines, with Troisi A/D conversion. Ampex 351 two track analog deck (1962) with Inovonics replacement electronics. ProTools, Performer, Deck, Cakewalk Metro 4. Akai S-5000 sampler. Toast CD burner.

Console: Trident 80-B: 30 input/ 24 buss/ 4 band EQ/ split fuction with 24 monitor channels of 3 band EQ (all recruitable as additional input channels), fully reconditioned, with chips upgraded and output section redesigned and built by Trident maven Paul Fucile of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Wood's Hole MA. Trident proprietary System 4 automation (VCA faders and mutes).

Monitors: Genelec 1031A, Yamaha NS-10 S, Custom-built all tube headphone reference amp with Sennheiser MD-580 headphones.

Microphones: Telefunken U-47; Audio Technica: 4050, 4051 (two), 25 (two), 33a (two, mounted on ceiling); Neumann KM 88; AKG: tube, 414 TLII (two); Sennheiser: 421 (three), 504 (three), and 409; Spieden stereo ribbon mic; Josephson open capsule condensors (matched pair); Earthworks 40K (matched pair); Shure SM57s, 58, and bullet; Beyer M69; RadioShack PZMs and tieclip mics; assorted ancient no-name mics.

Mic-Preamps: Telefunken V72, V72a, and V78; Amek/Neve 9098 (two); Kendrick Six-Shooter prototype; Ampex MX-10.

EQ: Neve 33122(pair); Amek/Neve 9098 (pair); Summit stereo tube EQ; API 554 (pair); Manley Enhanced Pultec and mid-frequency equalizer; Rane PE-17 parametric EQ.

Compression: Manley VoxBox; Summit TLA 100A mono and DCL-200 stereo; Anthony Demaria Labs ADL 1000 mono; Tube-Tech LCA 2A stereo; Urei LA-3A (pair), 1176; Fairchild 663 (pair); dbx 165A; Gates dual limiter.

Reverb: Lexicon 200, PCM 60, LXP-1 (pair), PCM 41; Yamaha Rev7; Alesis Midiverb II; Fender 1962 tank; Kendrick spring reverb; Victoria Reverberato; Fostex 3180 spring; Peavey valverb; Alamo tank; Echoplex tube tape-echo, Roland RE-150 Space Echo; Ecco-Fonic tape echo; Chandler stereo

Harmonizer: Eventide H3000-D/SE digital echo.

Guitar Amplifiers:

FENDER (tweed):Twins, Harvard, Deluxes, Tremolux, Supers, Bassman; FENDER (brown): Vibroverb, Super, Pro; FENDER (black): Twin, Showman, Vibroverb, Deluxe Reverb, Bassman; FENDER (new): Vibro-King, '65 Twin reissue, Bassman reissue.

VOX: AC10, AC15s, AC30s

MARSHALL: '68 plexi 50watt head, reissue plexi head, Popular, '68 Bass cabinet

AMPEG: B-15 Bass amp, Reverborocket, Reverborocket II, Jet,Gemini VI, Echo-Twin prototype, VT-40, V4B, V2

SILVERTONE: 1482s

MAGNATONE: 260, 280

SUPRO: Thunderbolt 1x15, Champ type

MATCHLESS: DC-30 and 2X12 cabinet

KENDRICK: Champ 118, Do-Awl, Texas Crude 35, 4000 head, 2112

GIBSON: Falcon GA19RVT, Stereo GA77, 1X15 Pro type Maestro

MESA: Blue Angel

VICTORIA: Super, Double Deluxe

CAGE: 30 Watt Head

TRAINWRECK: Climax

Guitars:

Many vintage, recent, and specialty guitars and basses available on request including Fender, Gretsch, Gibson, Kendrick, Rickenbacker, Hofner, Silvertone, Danelectro, G&L, Jerry Jones, Martin, Guild

Kay acoustic bass

Keyboards:

Steinway B, 7-ft. Grand Piano (1927)

Hammond B-3,Leslie 251

Wurlitzer electric piano, and tone center organ

Hohner Clavinet

Vox Continental Organ

Korg M-1

Drums:

Rogers sixties kit, Slingerland Radio King snare

ARTISTES:

Four Piece Suit, Susan Tedeschi, Combustible Edison, Entrain, Esquivel, Terry Adams, Fathead Newman, Seks Bomba, Brother Cleve, Bellevue Cadillac, Radio Kings, Barrence Whitfield, Sleepy LaBeef, Pooka Stew, Dick Curless, Robin Lane, Chandler Travis, 3 Ball, Sky Heroes, David Maxwell, Stovall Brown, Rick Barron and the Quavers, Jeb Loy Nichols, Bruce Katz, Mike Williams, Two Bones and a Pick, Ricky "King" Russell, Tarbox Ramblers, Soul Kitchen, Sugar Twins, Amphibian, Michael Barry, Joe Deveau

LABELS:

A&M, Capitol, Coolsville, Interscope, Rounder, Tone-Cool, Swang, Upstart, Ocean, Hollywood, BarNone, Fort Apache, Harmonix 

For More Info on Rear Window Recording Studio Check out www.rearwindowstudio.com