2009 Wellspring adds new guitars and mics Sun, Nov. 22 2009 Over the past year or so, we've gone a little nuts on vintage instruments and mics. We decided that old Gibson acoustics and electrics had a certain sound that our clients would like, so we got a 1956 Gibson ES-225 with P90's, a 1950 Gibson LG2 small bodied acoustic, a 1965 J50 acoustic ( similar in sound to early James Taylor recordings, and a 1928 Gibson L1 that looks like it was dragged behind a truck for few years, butit has a weird , haunted sound that's unique to our ears. It's the same model and year of the instrument played by Robert Johnson, and it has survived a fire, 10 odd cracks all over the body, a bit of bondo repair, a hack job neck reset done with a band saw. We discovered a classic bluegrass guitar, a 1949 Martin D-18, for sale locally and although it needed a huge amount of repair work, it now rocks our world with its huge low end and crisp treble notes. TJ Thompson, who builds world-reknown guitars and fixes instruments for the likes of Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, and Tony Rice, has patiently restored these instruments, and we're helping him put his kids through college. On the mic front- we discovered the loudest, biggest and best sounding ribbon mic on the planet in the AEA A440 ribbon. This mic has a gorgeous low end and a smooth silky top, and is great for edgy voices that need taming. It has been the clear winner in mic shootouts many times, and we often track it side by side with a brighter mic for an interesting balance of tone. It also sounds great on strings, horns, drum overheads and piano. We got serial number 1 and also bought a second one later.

Wellspring Expands Live sound and recording Fri, Nov. 23 2007 2007 has seen a significant expnsion of Wellspring's live sound and recording capabilities

Another Piano For Wellspring Fri, Dec. 15 2006 This fall an opportunity arose to buy a nearly new Yamaha C7 7' 6" concert grand piano, and we went for it. Why two pianos of the same make and model at Wellspring? The simple answer is we'd found over time that one piano, much like one guitar , cannot be all things to all people. Our 1983 Yamaha C7 is still doing fine, but we've found that certain clients preferred a brighter, more sparkling sound, especially for rock and blues projects. The 23-year old C7 is settling into its middle years with a nice medium voice, and seems perfectly suited for classical and certain jazz and folkier styles. We originally planned to sell the older piano, but now it looks like enough people still want it around that we're keeping it for now. Meanwhile the new C7 is getting rave reviews, with players like David Maxwell, Leo Genovese, and Grayson Hugh all using it on their latest projects at Wellspring. Both pianos have easy roll-around casters, and we're getting used to moving them around the studio. We've spent a good deal of resources on expanding and upgrading our musical instruments and amps in the past year , adding a Collings OM-2HD Brazilian rosewood guitar, a 1965 Gibson J50 acoustic, a 60's Hofner bass with Beatle -era pickups, a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special, a Superior Weissenborn guitar, a real 1923 Weissenborn type 1 guitar and a 1973 Marshall 100 watt head.

Summer 2004 Tue, Jun. 15 2004 We've been experiencing an abundance of rock sessions this year, and, in a never-ending quest to create cooler sounds, we've been acquiring some fun new tools ( toys) to make our clients happy. The loudest amp in the studio may well be our new old 1967 Fender Super Reverb which does the nasty about as well as any amp we've heard. Thanks to Ronnie Earle for the inspiration! We've also been acquiring several new recreations of vintage mic preamps and tube equalizers. The Chandler TG-2 is a recreation of the mic preamps used at London's Abbey Road studios in the late 1960's, and has a lovely overdrive feature that sounds amazing on guitars and drums. Similarly, the UA 2108 preamp has an aggressive, forward-feeling tone that helps rock instruments come alive in the studio. In the world of equalizers, we've added 2 25lb. stereo tube EQ's by Manley (aptly called the "Massive Passive), as well as other equalizers by Cranesong and Siemens. These new devices will add lots of extra testosterone to the music and smiles to the faces of our rock clients. Come by and try the m sometime.

Fall 2002 Sun, Sep. 15 2002 Veteran blues/jazz guitarist J. Geils was at Wellspring recently producing a week of sessions with Stone Crazy, a hot blues band that also includes former J. Geils Band bassist Danny Klein. Timm Kelleher handled the engineering duties. Stone Crazy drummer Mark Highlander's drum sounds blew us way, and when he mentioned that he was selling his vintage Slingerland set, we went for it! Fresh from their Las Vegas appearance opening for the GooGoo Dolls, the Adam Ezra Group laid down some fresh high energy acoustic rock tracks to 2" "ahhhhnalog" tape, which were then transferred to RADAR for overdubs and editing. AEG has attracted major label interest, and is currently sponsored by Budweiser. These sessions, recorded live, began the second album AEG has recorded at Wellspring, and everyone was excited by the sound of tape on John Appa's drums. Halali, a Boston-based quartet featuring fiddlers Hanneke Cassel, Lissa Schneckenberger, and Laura Cortesi along with Flynn Cohen on guitar recently finished their first album at Wellspring. Also recorded live with almost no edits, this album showcases Boston's nearest thing to the Dixie Chicks, with a more Celtic/trad flavor. Their album release is at Club Passim on Sept. 17 The Mammmals, a roots band from upstate New York whose members include Pete Seeger's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, were at Wellspring for 6 days tracking a new disc, with Max Feldman ( U2, Elvis Costello) engineering. The Mammals are one of the hottest bands on the acoustic circuit, and recently performed at the Newport Folk Festival. Wellspring's beautiful Yamaha C-7 grand piano has seen lots of work this summer, with sessions for Ed Rosser, the Air Force Rock and Jazz bands, Halali, Ellen Schmidt and many others. What Pro Tools We're Excited about Lately.... Drums! Wellspring has owned a '65 Ludwig kit for years now, but it's only been recently that we had a a great space to record "big" drum sounds in. We've been quietly looking for awhile, and we recently found this 1959 Slingerland set that sounds like God. The kit was originally owned by an eccentric guy who never played them; they sat fully set up in his house for 4 decades! The set has been decribed by Wellspring engineer Tim Kelleher as "The best sounding drums I've ever recorded" and when you hear them, you'll know why. Continuing with our drum shopping spree we also purchased a new 22" bass drum from the fine folks at Grover, who also made the very popular snare drum that gets used lots around here, and a Tama Star Classic maple snare. The Grover bass drum has a deeper fundamental (boom) than a 20" drum and will be loved by all metal bands who ever hear it. The Tama snare has a very open sound with lots of sustain, due to its 8 lug design and thin shell. Microphones - We recently hosted popular local blues/jazz singer Louise Grassmere at the studio to demo about $20K worth of microphones (thanks to PK at Guitar Center for his help). From this test we ended up getting a pair of Soundelux microphones, both based on the Neumann U47, the most revered (and overpriced) mic of all time. Both mics sounded different in a good way from Wellspring's own 47, and with Louise starting a project here soon, we decided to add them to the basket. Lastly, we've been blown away by the piano and guitar sounds emanating from our Schoeps mics; these instruments, along with other strings and drum overheads, seem to sound more real and open than ever before. Check 'em out! What we're excited about lately.... Okay, okay, OKAY already! After many requests from potential clients and freelance engineers, Wellspring recently got a full blown ProTools rig. While there are those who may see this as a sellout to the forces of darkness, we're seeing this step as a recognition that PT dominates the pro studio world, and we need to deal with it on a bigger level than before. Our new system (formerly owned by Aerosmith) features 64 channels of PT Mix3 running at 24 bit and coming in and out of a 32 channel lightpipe bridge to our RADAR system. Which means that the most excellent RADAR converters will be handling anything that goes into or out of ProTools. Why do we do this? Because RADAR converters at 44.1 or 48 K sampling rates sound better than anything PT has ever made, and we didn't see the point of paying an extra $10K to get the fancy new PT system that would only sound almost as good as RADAR already does. The new system will let clients do all the fun, anally-retentive stuff that ProTools allows you to do including pitch correction, micro-editing, automation levels, and countless other track editing chores, all done quickly on a new dual 1.25Ghz Mac G4 dedicated entirely to PT. Wellspring can now handle incoming PT projects on DVD-R, CDR, DVD ram, ADAT, Digital Performer, and analog sources, so the potential for clients to bring their tracks in to edit/mix/export etc is greater than ever before. We strongly recommend that people don't mix their final projects on their computer ( numerous issues resulting in shitty audio), but we recognize that more artists are doing portions of their work at home and this new system should help them. There, are we happy now? Fall 2002-We've had a fun year with highlights including many sessions with J. Geils, a session with Levon Helm (drummer with The Band), and many cool projects with some great new artists. Dave Kidd finished up a CD the features his fine songs, guitar and vocals with guest appearances by Kevin Barry on lead guitar, and Aoife O'Donovan on harmonies. Legendary reggae artist Everton Blender did overdubs and mixes of material recorded more than 20 years ago in Jamaica. We recently recorded a Jimi Hendrix sendup of "Foxy Lady", written by Alice Gollan with Eric Kilburn, called "Fussy Baby",which featured new father Kevin Barry on blistering Strat and Marshall. We finished up a lovely record for Aoife Clancy that has garnered superb reviews and wide airplay on folk and Celtic stations. In the gear world, the 12-step gear addiction classes haven't helped, and we're glad to report some exciting new additions to the Wellspring arsenal. We've been escpecially jazzed about old Neumann tube mics, epecially ones for recording acoustic instruments. We've found 6 nice ones that do wonders for stringed instruments especially. On the vocal side of the street, we recently got a wonderful Soundelux ELUX 251 tube mic, which sounds convincingly like the vintage Telefunken ELAM 251, without the $20.000 price tag that some of these mics carry. It seems especially great for intimate, airy vocals. We've also fallen in love with an obscure Russion mic that sounds scarily like our old Neumann U-47. Wellspring's had a busy winter, with highlights including several sessions with rock legend J. Geils working on some new jazz-flavored tunes, as well as producing songs for other artists. In addition, producer John Boylan (over 40 gold records with Linda Ronstadt, Boston, Charlie Daniels Band, and others), spent several days in the studio working on a demo for Michael Flynn with No Michael No. Flynn won the John Lennon songwriting contest last year, and the band's earlier Wellspring-produced album "Music For the Flood" has garnered rave reviews and sparked major label interest. We're rooting for Michael and the band as they make their way through the swamp of big record labels. On a more local level, the Evan Goodreau Band made a kick-ass album of mostly blues and funk-fired originals. Evan gave the studio's ES335 a serious workout on a variety of amps, and delivered some fine soulful vocals as well. The band's bass player Dino Minoxeles made everyone happy with his nasty bass lines, and Eric Kilburn (who'd never heard the beauty of an Ampeg SVT bass amp before), immediately began a quest for an older SVT. As luck would have it, Dino had a second SVT at home, which he graciously sold to the studio. Needless to say, we love everything about this amp, except lifting it (the head alone is 85 lbs!). We've never heard bass sound so good before... Looking to the future, Wellspring's studio B has been undergoing some major upgrades. The coolest thing is the new Sony DMX-R100 console, a 56-input, total recall, digital board with spectacular sound. The DMX is partly based on technology developed for Sony's $600,000 Oxford console, and has sounds and features comparable to boards costing many times its price. We also added new top-shelf effects units and mic pre/equalizers to Studio B, making the B room an excellent choice for high quality projects on a budget. One aspect of Wellspring´s new space that might not be immediately obvious is our committment to environmentally-sound building practices and materials. We used only US-grown lumber throughout the studio - no rainforest woods like luan, and we recycled the lumber from our Concord studio floors to make all of Studio B´s flooring. All of the subflooring is plywood, and the maple flooring in Studio A is all "made in the USA". We also used environmentally hip paints, water-based polyurethanes, and water-based caulks whenever possible. Our air conditioning systems employ several new technologies that conserve large amounts of electricty, and much of the lighting at Wellspring is handled by energy-saving but visually pleasant compact flourescent bulbs. Overall, this aspect of Wellspring cost several thousand dollars above conventional construction techniques, but we felt it was worth it. We hope you like the new space! Wellspring recently completed some major upgrades of our equipment. Epecially exciting is the arrival of a mint condition 1985 Yamaha C7 Concert Grand Piano, which brings world-class piano tones to Wellspring for the first time. It was an adventure getting it here from Florida, and our thanks to jazz pianist Leo Blanco, who received studio time in exchange for flying to Florida to check out a bunch of pianos for us. He picked a good one, and early reviews of the piano are very positive! Longtime Wellspring associate and acclaimed freelance tech Burt Price recently modified the Neotek Elite in studio A with switchable Neve 80 series output amps. This will allow the mixing engineer to flip a switch and engage the same circuitry that drives the outputs of $200,000 vintage Neve consoles. The result is an audible fattening of the board's output, which especially enhances rock mixes. The original clean sound of the Neotek is still available, but we like this new feature when crunch and ballsiness are called for in a mix. The other major addition is 24 tracks of Dolby SR noise reduction, which can easily be switched between either studio A or B. Dolby SR allows analog machines to sound quiet and great at slower tape speeds (better bass response, dude!), and thus makes quality analog recording more affordable. If you're thinking, "What is that bonehead doing buy a piece of analog gear in the age of Pro Tools?" read the article that follows! After much soul-searching, listening, and chronic "but I love analog" angst, Wellpsring recently added the RADAR 24 hard disk recording system to its multitrack format list. We now have 6 separate formats for multitrack recording- 2" analog, 1"analog (8 track), ADAT, ProTools, Motu 2408, and Roland DM800 hard disk. So why bother with another format? The RADAR 24 is a much-acclaimed system that features superior sound, ease of operation and rock-solid reliability, something we haven't found in any of the other digital hard-disk formats. Many contemporary albums, including U2's latest and Sara MacLauchlan's "Surfacing" were done on the RADAR system. The RADAR system will eventually replace ADAT as the main digital multitrack system at Wellspring. We were able to convince IZ technonolgies (RADAR's maker) to ship us one of the first ADAT/RADAR digital interfaces in the country, so that we'll be able to transfer both analog 2"and digital ADAT projects directly to RADAR. This will allow our clients to use the very hip Nyquist AD/DA converters in the system, and the resulting sounds will be richer, fuller, more open, and essentially more analog-like. RADAR offers our clients the sonic sweetness of anolog, with the conveniences and editing potential of a non-linear digital system. These qualities, combined with how simple it is to use, means we'll be able to keep paying attention to the clients and their music, and not being glued to a mouse and a screen. The RADAR System backs up its files onto writeable 2 sided DVD disks, which safely store 9 Gig projects ( about 43 minutes of full 24 track, 24 bit audio). We'll also be buying a bunch of 18 gig Cheetah drives over the next few months, which we'll lease to clients who want more convenience and security. For more info on RADAR and why we like it, go to www.recordingtheworld.com. And yeah, we still love analog... Kilburn with '68 tele and '99 paslode nail gun _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Why does studio time cost so much? or Why aren't your rates cheaper? Or "You may ask yourself, 'How do I work this thing?'" How much to charge for studio time is a question that has dogged studio owners for years. In the early days of recording and through the early 1980's, studio time at a well-equipped place ran $75-125/hour (add whatever adjustment for inflation you want), and nobody questioned rates much. There were usually only a handful of big studios in town, and if you wanted a good sounding recording it was take it or leave it. Fast forward to 2001, and there are now dozens of places in and around Boston and every other major city, all offering various services, competing for a piece of the music business pie. Throw in the fact that the home recording industry is growing exponentially, with a corresponding decrease is studio bookings, and you start to understand how 5 of the biggest 12 studios in Boston changed ownership, vastly downsized, or went under in the past year. Here's what goes through my head when I'm asked to lower rates... Question #1. What does the studio need to earn every day to keep running? Here's where I have to drop my financial drawers... To support my family of four living in a modest home with two 10 year old Hondas in the Boston burbs takes several thousand dollars a month. To pay the banks, utilitities, creditors, repair technicians , and other folks that keep Wellspring running takes another $4000+ each month. So before I buy a single piece of new gear in the relentlessly changing, constantly upgrading feeding frenzy of the pro audio world, I need to generate upwards of $10,000 a month. Or, as a friend once put it, "before you can exhale" roughly $400 every day needs to be generated. "You may say to yourself, 'My God ! What have I done?'" I ain't crying in my beer, far from it ; I love running a studio most of the time, and wouldn't be in the biz otherwise. But, as they say, "reality counts". Question #2. What's a studio worth? Not in dollars necessarily, but in the value of the work done there. Here's where it gets really tricky, cause people don't typically put a dollar value on art; it's hard to objectively say what your music is "worth". How can you compare it to say, building a house? What if you did? Once, out of curiousity, I asked the $65 /hour guy driving the bulldozer doing some of the early site work on Wellspring's building how much his vehicle cost. About $50K he said, which means that for $65/hour, you get a skilled operator piloting a $50,000 "boat". Wellspring's "boat" is the facilty itself, which cost about $390,000 soup to nuts to build, the vast majority of which is owed to a bank. All the toys in the playpens inside cost about another $370,000 purchased over the past 16 years. (Now, you probably won't use all those toys on your project, but some people do use or have used them all eventually, and that's why we have 'em.) So when you pay for studio time, in a certain sense you're paying for a big boat with a driver. At least in comparison to the building trades, our hourly rate versus investment seems reasonable. I have a friend in the pro audio business, a former studio manager, who often chides me that Wellspring's rates are too low. "If your room is booked over 70% of the time, you're charging too little" he says indignantly. Well, at least one of Wellspring's two rooms are booked over 90 percent of the time, but I have several reasons for not wanting to raise my rates. First and foremost, I don't believe the studio would survive in the ultracompetitive Boston market. Second, my own roots are those of a poverty-line musician living in Boston in the early 80's on $400/month, and I don't want to price the studio out of the range of these artists. I still genuinely enjoy working with people and groups making their first recordings ("Wow man, you can overdub?"), and don't want to lose this end of the street.. . (Incidentally, my friend's studio went out of business ...) Finally, I'm over half-Scandinavian, and we Nordic types are genetically programmed to work hard, rest little, and complain even less! I feel quite lucky to have found a job that's fun and stimulating, involves music, and pays the bills if I work 60 hours a week. So please don't ask me for a lower rate, 'cause I'd only have to work more hours. And if the extra work didn't kill me, my wife surely would... With apologies to David Byrne Quote of the Month "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps walk free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side" -Hunter Thompson _____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Things We Sell" (Besides studio time) Despite a lack of time or any interest in becoming a sales weasel, we recently decided to become a dealer for RADAR ( our amazing sounding digital hard disk recorder). We just love this system ,and believe that it deserves a more prominent role in the pro audio world We've purchased a third unit to meet clients needs better, and also to serve as a loaner for interested studios and individuals. Contact us or check out www.recordingtheworld.com for more info. In addition, Kevin McCluskey, known to some as the "good" Kevin McCluskey (and we certainly think so) is a high-tech professional with audio interests who's recently been working with us on a number of projects. One of his main efforts has been to design and build an affordable 4 channel mic preamp that is based around the much-loved Neve 1272, the mic preamp in vintage Neve consoles. These preamps typically sell for around $600-800 per channel out in Ebay land. Kevin, along with a little help from Eric, has designeda 4 channel unit that will sell for considerably less. The units will be marketed under the name of "Long Sought For Sound", and are custom-built by hand. We have the soldering iron scars to prove it. Please contact us for more info

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