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  • Home
  • Piano Suite
  • Studio Views
  • Discography Recordings
  • Demo Recordings
    • Classical
    • Graduate/Undergrad Applications
  • Control Room + Monitoring
  • Microphones
  • Bio and Studio Conception
  • Contact Info - Studio Rates
  • Live/Remote Recording
  • Bop Stop Blog Spot

DIS N DAT Band'S New Home- The Bop Stop Studio Recording Sessions

9/25/2014

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Hi Friends of Bop Stop, just some pictures and description of our ongoing recordings with DIS N DAT Band this month.

Well, so much to say in regard to these recording sessions with DIS N DAT Band.  You can see by the title, that this studio is now a new home for the DIS N DAT Band and their multifaceted productions!  I can say it has been an incredible pleasure hosting the recordings of DIS N DAT at every level.  I can say personally, Sista Dee and Rango are two of the finest people you will meet in addition to being incredible musicians.  At first meet, I felt a warmness and lightheartedness, along with a strong level of professionalism.  Sista Dee being born in long line of legendary steel pan players in Trinidad, the birthplace of steel pan, her playing displays a beautiful blend of virtuosity and musicality that is just a pleasure to record.  Beyond that she sings and plays just about every instrument and not just adequately! She is a talented musician, songwriter, and producing team with her synergistic counterpart, Rango.  Rango within minutes opens your eyes to Reggae drumming at the professional level.  His elegant and musical fills an ROCK SOLID rhythms right away communicate SOLID TASTE!!  He has been on several Albums and tours with the legendary Reggae bands Black Uhuru and Sy & Robbie.  Their band consists of highly talented musicians, two of which I knew personally before, Laurie Goldsmith (Laurie Goldsmith Project) and Joanne Maria (Zili Musik).  Special Thanks to Laurie for all her support and sharing her talent!

I can say that preparing for our first meeting brought me back to listening to Reggae.  Years ago I was what you might call religious or at least devoted in my constant listening to Reggae.  Well over 10 years ago I became engulfed and enamored with Jazz.  Growing up in Long Island, NY I remember having my  ear pinned to my beatbox for the very first Hip Hop recordings and radio studio performances as well as the first beginnings of Dancehall Reggae.  

Anyways, it has been a such a pleasure working with this band.  We have had numerous extremely productive sessions now and already we are like family!  

We have tracked an amazing amount of high quality material that I know people are going to love.  They have an incredible balance of ROOTS REGGAE with modern sound.  I think you all are going to be blown away! 


SO some pics below and some amazing MUSIC TO COME.  
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Acoustic Jazz DUet - Stray Fox and Zack Stewart - Acoustic Guitar and Vocals                                  Original Compositions

8/14/2014

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Again Bop Stop Studios was blessed with duties to track a PURE ACOUSTIC DUET with two outstanding musicians, composers, and artists!!!   

 Savannah Grean (Stray Fox) - Vocals
 Zack Stewart - Guitar and Bells


Together they composed some musical and captivating tunes that once you hear the samples you will know they have something special here!!!

Immediately the intimate sound envelope of this DYNAMIC DUO captured the moment.  

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We are excited to get the final mix done as the songs, singing, and playing were just wonderful!! I already know you will agree.   I don't think anyone will not like this music!!  I will go out on a limb and say the vocals are Sweet and Natural and the guitar comping is crisp and tasteful!!
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 Vocal was tracked with a Manley Gold Reference into Grace Designs Preamplifier.

Guitar was tracked with a Stereo Ribbon Royer SF12 into AEA RPQ preamplifiers and a second stereo set of Beyerdynamic MC930 SDCs into Millennia Media Preamplifiers.
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We are extremely happy to have these artists in the Bop Stop family!   


We will have the Mix up here very shortly as not much post processing needed here!! 
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Acoustic Jazz Duet recording session  -             Doug Leaffer and Dr. Geoff Hicks!!!!!

8/12/2014

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Jazz was alive and well today at the Bop Stop Studios.  It was our pleasure to host two EXCELLENT Musicians in Saxophonist, Doug Leaffer and Pianist, Dr. Geoff Hicks!

It was wonderful to hear some beautiful acoustic sounds emanating from the studio.  It was an intimate DUET, by necessity as these gentleman both have such beautiful tone and sweetness!  

10 minute set up, sound check, and we tracked 11 tunes in 4 hours of some gorgeous sounding Straight Ahead JAZZ!! 

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Piano was freshly tuned and most of all had a deep voicing done, which just sweetened it right up!! 

Piano was recorded with a Stereo Ribbon Royer SF12 (into AEA RPQ) above the piano and a stereo pair of Beyerdynamic MC930 SDCs (into Millennia Stereo) behind the sound board.

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Saxophone was recorded with a Manley Gold Reference Tube Mic (into Grace Designs) and a Beyerdynamic Opus 83 SDC (into Benchmark). 
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A U47 clone Stereo Tube microphone (into Earthworks Lab 201) was used to capture the room!

All direct analog monitoring into headphones, meaning no roundtrip latency at all!! 

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Please do check back for some sound clips as these guys are TONE MONSTERS!!!! 


We are lucky to have them as a part of the Bop Stop Family!!!!!



We will update links for their future CD!!!!
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Part III Acoustic Treatment - Building Quadratic Residue Diffusers, Primitive Root Diffusers, and finishing T-fusers

8/8/2014

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SO just to update my ongoing acoustic treatment implementation and development.

Here you will see finally the finished three QRD stack made up of two units purchased from RPG and a custom bottom larger QRD.  It ended up being 9ft and 6 inches tall!!!! Let me say, me and my wife lifted the top two QRD section with the added Period wings and it was about 60+ lbs alone onto the bottom QRD and wedged it between the two stabilization brackets on the sides.  Once we lifted it I really didn't think we were going to be able to do it and I suddenly had immediate visions of a trip to the emergency room as this thing was heavy and if it fell we would be at the hospital for sure.  None the less it is done.  The back section is 6 inch thick Broad band absorption panels.
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OK, so here are the purchased Skyline Primitive Root diffusers purchased from SoundArt.  They were kind of yellowish in the original state.  I began to spray finish these with white primer, must be water based, which I prefer for clean up reasons.  Well, as many have mentioned these type of diffusers just suck up paint and finish.  This after 5-6 coats of sprayed white primer.  I will apply another 5-6 coats looks like, whew.  Even with my new hi volume low pressure spray machine, this takes lots of time and paint!!  Getting close and still debating painting them black or just keeping them white, but they will be mounted into stained wood frames.
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Next are SIX Auralex T-Fusers.  They were WHITE originally and now they are STILL WHITE, but this is an oil based primer, they I sprayed on very light coats.  It looks really nice and flat.  I will paint these flat black next.
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OK, so this is for those who like MDF finishing and pure wood staining.

First is the raw cut sanded MDF boards that will be the 4'x10"x.5" WINGS for the QRD.  You can see them go from light brown to three coats of white primer, with sanding in between.  This was a lot of work, but it is not easy to get MDF nice and smooth on the cut edges.  I used oil based primer, can't be water based.  Then I sprayed a water based Black flat paint, but was learning how to use my new paint machine, so it was thick and had to brush it.   This is just the first coat, but already looks pretty good.  I will apply one more to all sides. 

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Last is the outer frame of the QRDs, which will be stained Spruce.  
You can see the first coat of miniwax golden oak stain.  and the finished second coat.
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Thats all for now, but I promise next time I will have at least one of the FOUR huge 4'x2'x10" black and stained wood QRDs done, finish the Q-fusers, and also be done with the Skyline PRDs.  So there will be more finished products to look at!!!!!  
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ProgRessive ROck Session - "Alibis For Leisure"

8/8/2014

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Bop Stop Studios was thrilled to do a rather last minute recording session for the recently formed band the “Alibis for Leisure”.  Their musical momentum led them to our doors!!!!

The band is led by vocalist, guitarist, and composer Bryan Murphy.  Band includes guitarist Michael Morse, bass Greg Wysch, and drums Andy Henderson.

They came in and 2.5 hours later had laid down several demo tracks. 

Done all in one room without any overdubbing, no click tracks, so I went pure analog into my HP amp dialing each individual instrument on each headphone channel.  Hence, no monitoring latency!

Here are some pics from the session.


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We were thrilled to host a Progressive Rock band with excellent players and a great sound.  Mixing has already begun, so check back as we will post some sound clips and link up some of the band’s media.

You will for sure be seeing these guys out there on some of Boston’s finest stages soon enough!!!  We certainly enjoyed TRACKING THEM!!!!!!!


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Part II MOre Recent Studio Acoustic Development

7/30/2014

2 Comments

 
Some more Acoustic Science Development for the studio.  Meaning more acoustic treatment porn!  Raw implementation, unreserved customization, and some down right nasty DYI.

So I will be updating from the last post some progress on those projects, some new projects in development, and some more steamin Hot tool toys!


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Last time I showed this custom brown stained diffuser on the right here. If you look closely, u can see the back is now attached with a 5 inch broadband OC 903 bass trap and the brackets attached that will mount this diffuser stack on the right.
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Just two better pics of the grid style diffusers I sanded stained and lacquered, attached to the ceiling cloud above the drum kit.
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OK so I got a nice deal on 6 2ftx2ft Auralex Q-fusers. They are nicer than I thought, but still the price is ridiculous!! I will be priming, painting, and lacquering for looks but also for adding rigidity to optimize diffusion. Still debating nesting them in arrays in stained wood frames. I probably will. These are nice and light so hanging is not an issue.
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SO this is a customized diffuser stack. It is Two RPG diffusers mounted in a custom frame and on the back will go broadband Roxul traps. The custom frame employs additional periods to the quadratic array. Total this monster will cover the small wall and measures approx. 32 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and 96 inches tall. It has stabilizing legs and additionally will be attached to the wall with aircraft steel line into a heavy duty steel eyelet.
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OK so given the cost of the nice RPG skyline diffusers and the poor quality and workmanship of many other commercially available acoustic treatments, I have been building custom treatments for some time and have been taking steps to add custom acoustic treatments as an public offering.  I would never state that I am an expert in acoustic science, but my science background does provide me with the ability to understand and integrate many of the tried and proven models and designs aimed at providing effective acoustic treatment integration.  I have custom built over 100 broadband bass traps and various panels, diffusers, sound clouds, gobos, etc....All either comparable or exceeding the quality of what is commercially available.  So, I will be showing a lot of new in house DYI custom built projects along the way!
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This was the beginnings of building four 18x18 skyline diffusers. These are some of the raw 2x2 boards that were cut down from 8 ft. I think I used 26 of them.
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This is less than half of the cut pieces for the skylines. I think this is 280+ cuts. I will be leveling and sanding each and debating doing a little primer and paint on the tips or leave it raw but sanded well or paint the whole unit. We will see!
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So these pics are the wood to become 4 monster 4ftx2ft by 10 inches deep!! Excited for these. This is 15 1/2inchx8ftx10 inches MDF Will be cut, sanded, primed, sanded, drywall compound on the edges, sanded again, painted, and maybe lacquered. These will be the fins
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Bigger than they look 10x1x10 ft. Select Pine/Spruce. Will be the outer frame, sanded, stained and poly.
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smaller cut pine
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This is the foundation for 5ftx2ft rolling GOBO. Keep an eye out for updates. It will get filled out quick!!!!
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Hi Velocity Power Drill. Will be used for 1/2 inch drill holes for some upcoming HARDCORE "BAD" binary diffusion panels. Check back as these are wayyy cool!
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Backside of a 7 ft long 1.5 ft wide 8 inch thick broadband trap for above the piano!!! Aircraft steel wire being attached. Built by Acousitech in NH but I customized it further.
OK so next are some pics of some new tool toys!!!!
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Ahhhh Virgin Dual disc/band sander!!!
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Heavy duty reciprocating saw.
CHECK BACK FOR MORE UPDATES, COMPLETED PROJECTS, and Steamy Acoustic pics!!!
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Recent studio acoustic development

7/23/2014

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OK, 
If you are an Acoustics Geek please read on, as this post relates to our most recent acoustic treatment implementation.  While even some very large established commercial studios have put developing equipment ahead of acoustics, we know that a $40,000 mic is not going to overcome even a great instrument played in a poor sounding room.  It will always be better to track with an average microphone in a great room, then a studio filled with premium equipment with poor acoustics.  We never put the acquisition of components ahead of room acoustics, as the interaction of instrument and the environment is the most critical.  In turn we have invested thousands of $ into acoustics.  We began for example with installing over 40 acoustic broadband absorption panels.  We have been furthermore acquiring and implementing the optimal balance of acoustic QRD, Fractal, and Binary acoustic diffusion.  These approaches yield a room that sounds lively, larger than its dimensions (without echo), and a relatively flat response across the sound frequency spectrum.

So, these last few weeks, I have been working on several projects.

1) I bought 2 large approx 9'x6' and 2 smaller 6'x4' ceiling clouds that were custom built by Acoustech in NH.  Despite buying them, they still need to be mounted and I can't leave well enough alone, so I had to add about 3-6 inches of Roxul broadband absorption to them.  Sounds good but required adding additional support as now they weigh about 30-40lbs each.  I will be hanging them over the drum kit and in the center of the tracking room with diffusion across the front.  Pics below will show the final product goal.
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These are the two large ones. You can see the thick absorption I added to the back.
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These are Grid Array Sound Diffusers or Wavelens. Auralex sells these for $400 for a pair! It is nuts how much sound treatment costs!!! I bought about 20 units of these type of diffusers and buying more.
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You can see these stained ones, ready for adding a hard coat of polyurethane.
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I bought 4 of these Acousitech BEASTS!! Large Diffusers mounted in Absorption Cabinets!! They will be mounted with aircraft steel wire to the rear wall ceiling in the MIXING ROOM. I will be requiring a pro to help with that of course as these weigh about 50 lbs each!
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This is a dual diffusion absorption Primacoustics Flexifuser. Despite being $400 it came with dents and I had to reinforce it and add a new bottom plate. I have a matching one to implement and they will flank the center channel monitor in the MIXING ROOM.
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This is a larger grid diffuser waiting to get mounted above the piano.
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Started by adding these simple supports, but it was not enough. I ended up adding about 10 supports to make sure it was going to hold up with the additional absorption layers. Mixture of Owen Corning 705, Roxul Safe N Sound, and foiled backed polystyrene.
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Here you can see a couple I got from a smaller company and they still need to be sanded, stained, and finished. It is a tedious undertaking.
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This is a smaller example of a finished Ceiling Cloud absorption panel with front grid diffuser. this one is behind the drum kit.
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Here I am prepping some of the SoundArt skyline diffusers to be finished first with a water based white and then with red acrylic. A final layer of lacquer will give it the extra hardness for optimal diffusion. I will be mounting 8 of these units in a vertical array mounted to a custom frame for the Mixing Room.
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This is a new set, consisting of a large QRD diffuser in front of a broadband bass trap. I mounted them together and I will be adding two QRD diffusers with absorption back panels to the top to go all the way to the ceiling.
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Last but not least a pic of my new sexy 12 inch sliding Double bevel Miter Saw!!!
Check Back Again, as these projects are set to be complete in 1-2 weeks max.  Next will be more large scale CUSTOM Skyline diffusers and some Unique Binary Sequence Diffusers!!!  I will be drilling about 6000 1/2 inch holes, but don't worry I bought a heavy duty hi velocity power drill!!  Also more QRD diffusers and next big project will include HUGE soffit Monitor/subwoofer mounts!!!!
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First Post Bop Stop Studios

7/23/2014

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Since announcing the public opening of Bop Stop Studios we have received a lot of support and interest, which we are thrilled about.  Many thanks to our friends and colleagues!  Of course, we strive to support local artists and provide rates that reflect our helping nature.  Bottom line we are in this to make beautiful music and become a resource for the music community!!!!

We have been setting up consultations and nailing down final scheduling on several upcoming projects.  We are excited to already have a range of artists covering music from Jazz to Hip Hop to Reggae and Pop!  In turn we have added a web page for "upcoming studio projects".

I will also be adding a personal BIO for the website to give you all a brief perspective into my how my path has become directed towards music recording and production and my hopes to expand to artist management/promotion.  

I will periodically be posting updates to this blog site so check back, subscribe to our page here, or like us on FACEBOOK.  You can also look me up on Facebook.

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    Bop Stop Studios Blog

    This Blog is written and maintained by George Trksak, PhD., Director of Bop Stop Studios.  It contains archives of posts related to Recording Sessions, Studio Development, and Various News Updates! 

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