Studio Blog
Sound and Motion Joburg goes HD!!!
The original studio is being upgraded to include a Protools HD system, complete with 32 inputs and outputs. The modified Protools HD studio, will become the dedicated band recording studio within the facility. The studio will have 3 separate recording spaces, surrounding the raised control room.
White Room Sessions | The Plastics
- Artist: The Plastics
- Title: Jersey Girl
- Album: White Room Sessions
- Genre: Indie Rock
- Length: 4:31 minutes (4.5 MB)
Here is one of the long awaited songs from The Plastics that performed at our studio launch/white room session. This dynamic four-piece band emerged onto the South African scene in late 2007. WIth crowds immediately taking to the band's innovative music style and guerilla approach to marketing. The Plastics pay homage to retro and throw back music and imagery by incorporating improvisation and catchy melodies into modern dance rock jams. "Their sound is something not often heard on the local music scene – it evokes a certain amount of nostalgia. Combine that with catchy tunes, not too deep lyrics and refreshing beats which allows for easy listening on the ear and you get an unsullied debut album from these newcomers." Rachelle from Overtone
Studio Launch
So all the construction has come to an end and we’re left with an AWESOME new studio! Tuesday, the 24th March 09 was the night to celebrate the opening of this amazing new Sound & Motion studio that we’ve all worked so hard for.
We were joined by various people in the music, film and animation industry. Thank you to everyone who could attend and helped celebrate this great evening with us! Thanks to The Plastics for performing the 1st White Room Session in our new facility. Your set was thoroughly enjoyed by all there!!!
Paul Bothners once again sponsored the PA system for this event - thanks so much guys! Also thanks to City Varsity for all their assistance.
Video footage and pieces of music recorded on the evening, will be loaded within the next week, so stay posted!
Feel free to pop around and check out our new facilities.
We look forward to seeing you!
The Sound & Motion Crew
Sound & Motion Studios Biggest Upgrade, like, EVER
Hi all, here's some info on our most ambitious upgrade since we opened for business late 2002.
Those of you who've visited the studio before will be familiar with the old layout, with the mastering room and main live room on the ground floor and the main control room on the middle floor connected by camera. This was a requirement of the order in which we took over the various floors of the building, but after Fuzzy's recent adventures in studios in America and England, he decided it was time for a change—and the whole crew came up with a killer design, with Matt being responsible for the cool plan on the top of this blog entry (one of many) and Carel designing a new electrical and power system. After many redesigns, meetings and comparison's to what Fuzz had seen abroad, Matt, Carel, Jenna and Koos all had a mud wrestling match and settled on the design you see here.
WHY THE CHANGE?
There are many ways to record a band, but the one that's always proved very successful in the history of the art has been having the whole band, all togther at once, PERFORMING together. Sure, there will be overdubs, layered additional parts and drop-ins, but the ability to capture the energy of that initital performance is what's made so many great songs.
These changes are being made specifically with this in mind. With a substantially bigger live room, a new “dead booth” with a decent high ceiling, and a control room big enough to eat our 4-seater Coricraft couch, we reckon these changes will have a huge impact on our overall sound—and of course our baby grand piano isn't quite so cramped anymore!
THE STORY SO FAR
We naturally called on the services of Toni Van Vuuren of SMF designs to oversee the construction as they've been with us from the beginning and were involved in both the CT and Joburg branches. (www.smfdesigns.co.za)
After all the planning was done it meant moving a few of the studios round. Mainly the mastering room was moved to Paul Ressel's old studio next to our cinema, since the Humanizer now lives in the UK.
After clearing out the White Room (no White Room Sessions till March!!) we were ready to build, thankfull for the other studios in the complex so business could go on more or less as usual.
We're about halfway through the overall, which is scheduled to be complete for the 1st week of March, and we're making some great progress! Check out some of these pics and pop back again soon for updates!
White Room Sessions | Cabins in the Forest
- Artist: Cabins in the Forest
- Title: Toast
- Album: White Room Sessions
- Genre: Acoustic
- Length: 3:52 minutes (3.6 MB)
  Cabins in the Forest are a Cape Town based acoustic duo that began writing and gigging together in mid 2006. The song writing is eclectic, making use of didgeridoo, 12-string & lapsteel guitar. It is somewhat of a Nu-Folk, Americana, Jazz, Rock Fusion. They have developed a reputation for their captivating and intimate live performances as just a duo where as their album features a full band and subtle use of Indian signatures such as sitar and tabla. The sound is curious at times, refusing to push the usual buttons but seems to lodge itself firmly into the hearts of those it speaks to. |
Recording "The Plastics" at Sound & Motion Cape Town.
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Monday 3rd November saw the beginning of what promises to be a long and thoroughly enjoyable relationship with "The Plastics." Having been lucky enough to record and mix for many fantastic rock bands, the first thing I came to realize when watching the boys live was how vital it was to capture that live energy. The first day was spent setting up in such a way that the band could all be in the same room for the core recording process, feeding off each other just as they do at gigs. Sure enough, by the time we did our first round of scratch takes, we were tracking solar flares of energy, prompting Matt (senior engineer) and myself to mutter such cliche's as "I love my job."
Between photo-shoots and TV interviews, we wrapped most of the occasional punch-in's and overdubs this week and next week look forward to getting the final takes down for the first few tracks of their first full-length album, set to be recorded and mixed early next year. Yeah, it seems like a long way down the line, but the good news is 2 of the tracks will be making it onto their next give-away CD, coming out early Jan 09. Here are some links to The Plastics. www.theplasticsband.com Watch this space for more details! |
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