Bass Ventura aka Sean Brodnik, is an old student of my from SAE Sydney, and therefore that history puts a great spin on the client/ mastering engineer relationship. Across the last four singles his production has gone from strength to strength with the subtle feedback that both mastering and mastering engineers can give re total mix balance and dynamics.

Here are the first two singles from this first batch of 4 masters. Enjoy and follow Bass Ventura at any of the below locations:

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Check it all out at the below locations:

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Sweetie are a solid 4 piece rock band, so the mic tactics were somewhat standard, but the presence of the producer, Jono Boulet, always gives the recording engineer a bit more time and leeway to focus on the sounds.

The mic input list can be seen below from the studio pics. Stand out combinations of mic, preamp and compression that come to mind are as follows.

Firstly, the inputs at Stranded are restricted to 16 channels, so some compromises were made, that including just one mic for the kick drum. In this case we used my AKG D12 and Jono pushed it in further than usual to get as much beater sound as possible. This combined with the preamp choice of a Vintech 573 and some punchy 1176 compression was one of the best kick sounds I’ve pulled as yet. It also help that we were using the beautiful in house Gretsch drum kit.

Beyond, the kick, the toms were recorded with Toshiba RB-1 ribbon mics. I’ve become a fan of ribbons on toms over the years for two reasons; They have the ribbon thick, fat tone, and further, being a figure 8 polar pattern, they reduce the bleed from cymbals and other drums. The RB-1s worked a charm on this record as expected.

One last interesting mic combo worth mentioning was Jono Boulet’s stereo crotch mic technique. Rather than standard options for a crotch mic, such as Sennheiser MD 441, Jono likes to use a stereo XY pair of Neumann KM-84s. It was a cool stereo close pair, and whilst it takes mixing a record to really love and appreciate certain mic techniques, it looked like it was going to be a great option in the mix for Jono to dial in.

Last reflections, Sweetie were the first band I’ve recorded that wanted to start at 8am in the morning. Unusual, but productive! The two baffles pulled together in Stranded forms a quiet dead vocal booth.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the session.

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