Earth Analog is an analog recording studio located near Champaign, IL, dedicated to the creating of analog recordings of the highest fidelity.
Owned and operated by Matt Talbott, Earth Analog offers free on-location lodging and boasts a great collection of class-A preamps, tube compressors, Studer and Ampex tape recorders for tracking and mixing, and plenty of vintage instruments and amps.
Studio Renovation Diary
11-20-11
While my control room has served the studio and its engineers well for many years, I’ve never been able, until now, to take the time to completely and scientifically finish and perfect the room. It’s been in need of some acoustic improvements and a permanent HVAC solution for some time. That time has finally arrived. It’s a truism that the relationships we build in the music business are more important than nearly anything else. Last year I had what turned out to be the great fortune of hosting a band whose bass player, Karp, turned out to be one of the most talented and creative studio designers in Chicago. He loved my studio and appreciated the immense potential lying within.
Since that time, Karp and I have stayed in touch, and he’s developed a series of plans for acoustic improvements for all of my rooms. We started with the control room in October. This involved closing the studio for a few weeks and completely emptying the control room of all the equipment and stripping away all of the existing acoustic treatments. Given a complete blank slate, we re-did the HVAC, introducing more feeds at the floor level and then a high return in the upper back of the room that gently pulls the air through the room and breaks up any stratifications. From there, we implemented Karp’s plans for trapping all of the corners of the room, adding accent lighting to the upper soffits. Looks awesome. Total star wars.
In the rear of the room, above the large glass block window, we built a structure that contains 40+ swinging bass traps, arranged in a top secret array. That’s all I can say about that. Classified info. Pics coming soon.
I’ve just returned from a trip to Texas. My band Hum played Fun Fun Fun Fest. Right before Slayer. Good times. Also played two shows at the Record Bar in KC on the way down. Our friend at Amateur Chemist has some nice pics, as always.
Back to the studio now. Cool stuff going on. Aaron is in Indiana doing a live recording of Sweet Cobra (opening for The Melvins!). Al and Eric from Life and Times were here last weekend recording St. Elias from Denver, who described their experiences at Earth Analog as “beyond amazing.” Love it.
Peace,
mt
11-12-11
