Howling is a collaboration between Âme’s Frank Wiedemann and The Acid’s Ry X. Here, Frank shows us some highlights of the studios where they recorded their debut album, Sacred Ground.
My Studio: Howling
Here’s a picture of our studio in Berlin. One great thing about all the equipment you can see here is that fact that it is all on wheels, so it is a very flexible and creative setup for producing music. There is also no traditional recording booth for the vocals. The room has a great sound and being able to record the vocals in the same room whilst producing makes it a very smooth and organic process.
Photography by Zoë Noble.
Preamps and Converters
Here you can see the preamps and converters which played a very important role in capturing different layers of the track in natural sounding way. They are also powerful tools in adding dirt and grit to the sounds when needed. My favourite pieces of gear here are the Lynx Aurora converters and the Universal Audio UA-610 preamps; they are incomparable pieces of gear and add so much depth to the recorded sounds.
Yamaha & Farfisa Organs
Organs are my true love. You can see two in this picture: the Yamaha YC-45D on the left and the Farfisa on the right. The warmth and additional noise you can get from these always amazes me. We used them on many of the album tracks, including ‘Litmus’, ‘Forest’, ‘Lullaby’ and ‘X Machina’.
Topanga Canyon Studio
These are photos from the session where we developed the tracks ‘Litmus’ and ‘Forest’ to a more finalised state. We were surrounded by a beautiful forest in the Topanga Canyon and we captured the atmosphere of the location by using various field recordings, which added subtle layers of ambience within the tracks. The bowls you can see in the picture are called singing bowls – we enjoyed using these in the sessions. Experimenting with these types of instruments in different ways allowed the overall sound of the record to naturally evolve.
‘Frank’ the Universal Audio Mixing Desk
Unfortunately this is not my desk but it is called ‘Frank’ because Frank Sinatra used to record on it. We used it whilst doing a session out in the English countryside near Bath and recorded ‘Signs’ on it. It has an amazing character and warmth – you can really feel its presence in the recording of ‘Signs’.
Sacred Ground is out now on Monkeytown x Counter. Catch Howling live on tour this summer in the US. Find them at their website, Facebook and SoundCloud.
04.46 PM
Beautiful studio, stunning photography. That first picture makes me want to jump right in and start making music.
05.24 PM
Beatifull images but in Brazil your sounds remain mute thanks “Good To Go Music”. :/
08.59 PM
Esteban – try here https://soundcloud.com/howlinghowling
07.22 AM
What a beautiful studio! Awesome!
03.30 PM
Can anyone name the manufacturer of the desk that houses the keyboard?
10.26 PM
Too bad they didn’t talk about those speakers, or the wall treatments they use.
06.28 PM
best section!, love to watch audio gear.
04.32 PM
Stuck in the stone age and knowing nothing about actual acoustics… typical studio
10.46 AM
‘Here you can see the preamp and convertors’… except they are totally shrouded in darkness. Mysterious.
11.25 AM
@Tommy Did you find out what desk it was?
07.47 PM
Ok, a few things … the desk (and the everything else) was built by friends (www.alexvalder.de – designer) for us. The speakers are Backes & Müller … german brand mainly for hifi-speakers. They are special looking and sounding stunning!
And yes, you can’t see preamps and converters on this pic … so the main converters are by Lynx and RME and the preamps i use the most are a BAE-Neve, API’s, UA 610’s and some old Neumann V476s. And as (very luxurious) DI’s i love the Electrodyne 501s.
Oh and right: the acoustics are not really good yet (working on it) but it feels great to work in this room (which i think is most important) and all recordings i made in there sound great.
Hope this helps!
Frank
06.32 PM
Truly beautiful studio.
07.43 AM
Inspiring shots!!! Would love to know more about the 610 console. Where was that?