who wants big drum sounds???

ok- i'm pumped.  ever since the day my friend renovated his barn i've been wanting to cut some huge rock drums in the hay mow...and i booked a band that wants to track their album there in late june. i'm bringing all my vintage gear there and were gonna do it right.

did i say i'm pumped?

after i track the rock stuff, i've got a few days off before starting another project that'll keep me in MN through the end of july...so i thought i'd see if there's another band who has a sense of adventure and wants to cut some kick ass sh*t in a non-studio environment.  its gonna be a blast...there's plenty of room for a band to crash out there for the duration and really make an experience out of it.

lookin' at the 3rd week of june for dates, fyi.  hit me up here or at cym@mindspring.com 

you can learn more about me at my site(s) www.chrismara.com , www.myspace.com/chrismara  .  you'll see that i do a ton of studio work (its what i do for a living) and more and more of what i've been recording takes place outside the traditional studio setting, including several projects at "the barn" -- 'cause i think its fun and really interesting!

hope to hear from some folks!

chris mara

i've been getting a lot of repsonse on this...tons of questions, which are good.  i've been up here at the barn for the last few weeks tracking and it's sounding great.  i thought i'd post some session pics to help connect the dots on this slightly-left-of-center recording concept.  i've extended my trip through mid-july...so there's some dates available - hit me up with any questions.

I can personaly attest to the kickassness of the sound in this barn.

I am not one who can usually hear the subtle acoustic flavors of various rooms and what not....but the sound in this barn blew me away.

 How do you keep the pigeons and barn swallows from pooping on your gear?

Thanks Shon- can't wait to see the footage you shot of us in the "studio".

Bird Poop? the birds stay away while we're tracking...and at nite we just cover everything up with drop cloths, and i put ziplock bags over my mics to protect the vintage capsules from just such things! LOL.

I also have mp3's available if anyone wants to hear the barn for themselves.

rock!

Chris Mara

 I've often dreamt of tracking my drums in such a place! I think it would lend itself to my hip power. (body part, not quotient)

cjmnash:

I also have mp3's available if anyone wants to hear the barn for themselves.

How about from here...

how do bands combat the heat of a barn on a summer afternoon?

Donny Ride:

 I've often dreamt of tracking my drums in such a place! I think it would lend itself to my hip power. (body part, not quotient)

here here. I've also had a desire to track in a wide open field, in the middle of nowhere, at night. Obviously, power would be an issue but I think that would be a cool session. Tommy Shaw did some Styx vocals while singing outside.

hey donny-

hit me up if you're interested--it's pretty affordable and the artists stay in the finished part of the barn, so you're not spending a ton of money on fuel.

daryllh- the heat isn't bad at all.  we take lunch around 2pm every day to get out of the worst heat of the day.  it's in a nice shady valley so it's usually 5-10 degrees cooler than it is in the cities. beer helps too. lol

i've recorded a couple of projects outside this year too.  i use a power inverter off of my truck battery, then into a isolation transformer to clean it all up.   pretty sweet getting outside once in a while! 

cutting lead guitars and vocals at the barn today and using room mics for each instead of fakie digital reverb...really nice!  cut some horns (sax, trumpet) there last week too and it sounded very nice.

-chris

I just added several pictures of recording The High Crimes and Irie Sol in the barn to my myspace page.  www.myspace.com/chrismara 

Got to pics, then you'll see a photo album called "The Barn".

Enjoy!

Chris

 That's me in the far back left corner.  Chris didn't know it...but I was totally spankin it behind that Tripod........with John the drummer watchin apparantly....

silly left handed drummers. lol

how'd you know he's silly? lol

i added some video clips that i shot with my digital camera to my myspage page to, just go to www.myspace.com/chrismara and go to videos.  there's one of cutting some full band (it's really short), a couple of doing some lead guitar overdubs, and one that's just plain crazy times in the country....enjoy!

-chris

Very cool idea...All that space.. All that wood. A couple of very nice ribbons (Kohls/Royers) rigged way up high would sound incredible. Im sure you have to time adjust the tracks in the session,  but the ambience from that would rule.

My goal is to someday convert a barn like that, or an old church (ala Two Fish in Mankato) into a studio. Unfortunately, as Im finding out rapidly (and already knew), startup costs in the business are insane. Which sucks when you have tons of work coming in and nowhere to do it from.

i started out with the u87s and c12a room mics on omni...but found it way to ambient and boomy...cardiod pics up just the right amount of room vs direct for the stuff i've been doing.

i can put you in touch with the owner of the barn if you'd like to rent it (as i do) for recording.  i've had a couple engineers look at renting the barn + my gear; which i think is a great idea.

lemme know.

chris

You've got brass balls setting a C12 up in that environment, bud. You get a chance to check that tape ;>

Byrne:

You've got brass balls setting a C12 up in that environment, bud. You get a chance to check that tape ;>

man- my mics (and any gear i own for that matter) are just tools to me...they go where they gotta go to get the job done.  besides- i've seen some pretty sweet guitar rigs in some pretty scary dive bars! LOL.

i haven't checked the tape i bought from you yet- gonna hold off 'til i get back to nashvegas next week and can throw all of it on my machines.  don't worry - we have a deal no matter what condition the tape turns out to be, ok?  thanks for asking!

-chris

well, i'm getting settled in back in nashville, i had a GREAT summer of recording in the barn!  i have one band that really wanted to track while i was up there-but we just couldn't make our schedules work....so they'd like me to come back up in early september to record them for a few days before the weather turns cold and we can't track in the upstairs of the barn.  

the only problem with that is i really can't make the TN to WI trek for 3 days of work...since i got such good response here i thought i'd check to see if another band here would like to pony up for 3-4 days of recording to make the trip doable for me, and help me accommodate the other band.  striving for a win/win situation here.

i added a video tour of the barn on my myspace page- www.myspace.com/chrismara  and one of the bands i recorded there posted a few songs on their page- www.myspace.com/thehighcrimes  .  so check it out!

anyone interested??

-chris