ProSound News - December 2008 - (Page 36)

The Ears Have It L by Steve Harvey ocated on the second floor of an upscale building just one block from Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, a short distance from the upscale beach hotels and close to the 10 Freeway, Atlantis Group is well placed to serve its post-production clientele. But a little diversity doesn’t hurt, and having established a new music division, Eargasm, and a flagship room, Studio A, for music mixing, three years ago, owner John Chominsky has just unveiled a new tracking room. “When I first decided to open Eargasm and create a music wing, a couple of people almost tried to talk me out of it,” recalls Chominsky. “They said, ‘You have a successful post company, why don’t you expand upon that?’ But we’re so passionate about music.” He may be the sole proprietor, but Chominsky is quick to stress that his staff, comprising Jamie Siedow, Micah Johnson, Brook Fraser and Chris Wonzer, take part in all business decisions. “We’re not departmentalized; all four of us share the same responsibilities, and truly, everyone almost has equal say in what decisions we make as a business. And because everyone has a personal attachment to the facility, it doesn’t seem like a job.” The relaxed atmosphere at the boutique facility, which opened over eight years ago, also attracts loyal and inspiring clients who love what they do, says Chominsky, noting that 70 to 80 percent of the work is voiceovers and post production. “We do a lot of videogame-related stuff, and those people aren’t just doing their jobs—that’s their life!” The raw space in which Studio A was constructed was occupied by composer/producer Ron Cohen until the company could afford to build it out. “Ron took over this space for two or three years. He put his own setup in here and didn’t soundproof or anything.” Acoustician Lawrence P. Swist was brought in to design the control room. “Larry put together a very nice room with the ceiling clouds, diffusers, flutter-free panels and bass traps, and we had the room tuned by Bob Hodas. No matter where you sit in the room, it’s a relatively good sweet spot,” says Chominsky. But the studio soon outgrew the 10x10-foot isolation room that was initially constructed. “When we opened we thought we’d focus more on mixing, but more music clients came in here that needed to track,” he says. So Swist was brought back in to design a new 20x20foot tracking space. “We were trying to offer things a lot of indie artists couldn’t get at home,” Chominsky explains. They might more accurately be described as self-funded, he says. “They might have an investor or they might be funding it out of their own paychecks, and every time they save up enough they come in and work. There’s definitely a trend for artists to work on portions of their project.” For example, he offers, “We had one band, Girth, who self-funded their album. They didn’t have the resources—the acoustic space, the microphones, the preamps—-to record live drums. They recorded about 10 tracks’ worth of drum here. And a few artists come to us solely to do piano tracks. They might do the temp tracks in GigaStudio at home then come to us to do the piano overdubs.” Not that Eargasm hasn’t seen its fair share of major recording artists. Taylor Swift’s engineer recently came in to mix some of her tracks, and Donna Summer has recorded vocals at the studio. Brandi Carlisle, Of Montreal and others dropped by to record web-exclusive material for Sony’s now defunct Connect portal. postshowcase vitalstats EARGASM STUDIOS Studio Owner: John Chominsky Room Design: L.P. Swist Designs; tuned by Bob Hodas Mixing Consoles: Digidesign ICON D-Control (32 Faders), API 8200A (2) DAWs: Digidesign Pro Tools HD3 Accel, Apogee Rosetta 800, 192, Sync I/O Monitors: Dynaudio Acoustics Air20 and sub; Genelec 1031A; Yamaha NS10M, Hafler amp Outboard Equipment: Effects: Lexicon PCM70, PCM42; TC Electronics M3000; Teletronix LA2A; Empirical Labs EL-8 Distressor; Summit DCL-200; Urei 1176; dbx 162; Panasonic SV3800 DAT; Gentner AP10; Mic Preamps: Neve 1073 (2), 1272 (2); Avalon 737; API 512c (6); Summit MPE200; Aphex 107 A custom drum set assembled by Drum Doctor Ross Garfield takes pride of place in Eargasm’s new L.P. Swist Designs tracking room. The diversity of clients keeps it interesting, says Chominsky. “In the ‘good old days’ a band would lock out a room for six months, and it was the only project that came through the door. I think it’s neat that we have a significant turnover of clients in here.” The Yamaha C5 grand piano has been a draw for rock, jazz and classical music clients. But Chominsky, a drummer since childhood, expects the custom drum set, assembled by Ross Garfield, the L.A. area’s renowned Drum Doctor, to be a big draw. “We thought lugging drums up from the parking garage and down the hallway might be a pain in the ass. If we could put the Ferrari of drum sets in here, drummers would prefer to use the one here.” The first session was a huge success, Chominsky reports, “It was the coolest drum sound I’d ever engineered. Being a studio owner, I was like the proudest pop!” The control room is outfitted with a Digidesign ICON: “We were the second studio to buy an ICON. We signed an NDA and bought it before it was announced at NAB,” he reveals. “We try to incorporate some of the old-school, real-world outboard gear, which is normalled to the patchbay to insert points. Without having to patch or go through a significant amount of effort mixers can use a real LA2A or 1176 in the Pro Tools environment just as easily as a plug-in.” Microphones: AKG 414-TLII (2), D112, C562; AudioTechnica AT-4060; EV 408 (6); Neumann U67 Korby modified (matched pair), U87, KM184; Shure SM57 (2), SM58; Sennheiser MD441, MD421; Sony C48 (2); Yamaha Subkick, PZM Not that there’s anything wrong with plug-ins: “The Waves SSL plug-ins sound 98 percent as good as the real thing. But the art isn’t to make it sound like a vintage piece of gear, it’s to get the song done. It’s really just a tool.” The new room—not too small, not too large, not too dead yet not too live—has turned out well, he says. “It’s a very focused sound, so you can get great sounds in the box but still have a little flexibility to work with the sound later.” The timing seems to be right for a move into music mixing and production, believes Chominsky. “The music industry is changing, the whole model is evolving, but I don’t think it’s dying. The fact that Atlantis Group and our post-production side has been successful and supported our business has given us the opportunity to take some risks and tap into the music market. We’re not completely dependent on the music market so it gives us an opportunity to experiment and work on projects we’re excited about.” Eargasm Studios www.eargasmstudios.com prosoundnews.com December 2008 http://www.eargasmstudios.com http://www.prosoundnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProSound News - December 2008

ProSound News - December 2008 Sound Business Contents Hank’s Best Yet Sound Recording Studio Showcase: Great City Productions Software Tech Tracks Sessions Anticipating Post’s Future Post Showcase: Eargasm HD Audio Post The Business of Being Creative Sound Innovations: VRsonics VibeStudio Spatial Design Suites Field Reports: Product Profiles Yes We Can Hear Obama Live Sound Showcase: Stone Temple Pilots Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View From the Top Product Spotlight Classifieds Advertiser Index Company Index Music, etc

ProSound News - December 2008

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