dBu Ranch Recording, San Diego, CA (2025)

01/03/2025

Happy New Year at , cutting a new track for today. Special thanks to for bringing us his funky bass chops, for the solid rhythm, and for the smooth keys.

Tomorrow we move on to overdubs.

11/19/2024

Gotta love this kiddo. Gotta love his shirt even more! Kudos to mom for picking the ultimate ‘let’s make light of a horrible situation’ shirt.

Bodie is doing solid with his new heart despite the usual up’s and down’s associated with . As we head into his first holiday season with his new heart, it’s sobering to remember the life that gave this kiddo his second chance.

My heart goes out to . Thank you for the ultimate donation.

10/12/2024

Another two day session with here at the ranch. We printed tracks for a new tune and wrapped up percussion on Sam’s new record. This one is really turning out to be something special, nearly a concept record exploring the subject of death and loss in a visceral way. A highlight track, ‘The Day’, is turning out to be a cinematic analysis of the moment life ends but frozen in time. It’s pretty moving.

We also wrapped up mixing the latest work for last night and sent it off to mastering. These were the songs I recorded 2 weeks ago at 4th Street in LA. Quick turnaround on this one!

10/10/2024

A day later the is repaired and working as good as new. Thanks to Joey for coming over and cleaning out the remaining 1883 routing modules while I dismantled and replaced the broken Amphenol connector on the damaged reissue 1073.

It was a giant PITA to remove the damaged connector and put the old stock one in. It was harvested from a donor module and in great shape. Note to self - those preamps used crappy connectors- many of them are cracked and breaking in less than a decade. Real garbage. Meanwhile original parts that are 50 are working great.

Gotta love they really knew how to make mil-spec gear that lasted a lifetime. We’re so fortunate to have this sort of legacy equipment to compare the modern stuff to. New stuff pales in comparison to the craftsmanship of an old desk like this.

10/05/2024

We hosted the lovely yesterday as she sang guest vocals on a new track recorded here for .

sounded fabulous on our classic - just outstanding! After spending 45 minutes tracking a lead vocal for the new song, we spent the rest of the day working out some really complex background vocal parts reminiscent of Karen Carpenter.

The seemed to live on to fight another day. I’m not sure what caused its upset the day before but I’m leaning toward demand on the grid causing the problem. We were running the studio at or about 110V, which is a touch low for such a sophisticated piece of gear.

10/04/2024

Yesterday’s session with . This time cutting three new tracks from scratch onto .

For live acoustic I chose one of my two with the custom Shannon Rhodes capsule in it. It’s a prototype he made that sounds gorgeous, unlike any capsule I’ve heard before. Similar to very early U67’s, it has a very sweet pronounced midrange but with the heft of a kk47. Cool mic in desperate need of new shock mounts.

We had a hell of a challenging day. The Neve was acting up, Pro tools was unhappy, patchbay issues and surprisingly the Studer had problems with the remote forcing me to run the session from the tape machine. Lame issues reminding me I’m overdue for facility maintenance.

Still, despite the setbacks we finished on time and got what we set out to do.

10/01/2024

What kinda recording studio sells chicken and duck eggs and pomegranates?

dBu Ranch Recording, that’s who.

(And we didn’t even talk about our own homebrew (sorry can’t sell that-you gotta book here to taste that)).

Yup, fresh eggs and organic pomegranates for sale daily here. Gotta love our crazy passions.

PM if you’re local and looking to buy.

09/30/2024

hosted tracking vocals and guitar to our trusty . Sam is knee deep in recording a follow up to his bands last record recorded here, Americana the Way I Wanna.

Sam’s new record, which is much more introspective than the last one, examines heavy themes of life, death, loss and persistence. Much of the record features acoustic instruments miked in stereo with a pair of our vintage ’s taking center stage.

Normally I don’t record solo instruments directly to tape because the noise floor can be a bit distracting to the modern listener and I don’t have big arrangements to hide the noise behind. Sonically much of this record is pretty naked. I have to confess at 30ips, the noise floor is surprisingly quiet to and we battled the AC rumbling in the room more than the tape.

09/30/2024

Friday marked two weeks since Amy and Bodie returned home from the East Bay. It’s been a challenge getting Bodie back into the swing of his school schedule again but he’s slowly adapting. Doing homework and focusing on getting an education takes discipline, something that went by the wayside this summer just trying to get his spirits up to heal and survive. I’m optimistic he’ll find the appropriate balance soon enough.

So what has the guy been up to now that he’s sleeping in his own bed and hanging out in his own room again? If not gaming with his friends online, he’s building (and rebuilding) Lego sets that he inherited while on his trip up north. I’ve managed to get him out on a couple of walks and to go through all of his old clothes now that he’s actually able to grow like a w**d.

Last weekend a good family friend spearheaded a community yard sale for Bodie’s benefit to raise money for his medical expenses. He was there with his friends out at the street corner waving signs around to grab attention. Yesterday was his first Homecoming dance as a freshman and big sister Sierra was there to introduce him to the finer parts of High School life.

Anyways, Bodie and Amy will be returning to Stanford next Monday to have a follow up visit just to check up on his progress. He’s definitely adapted to his new heart but the risk of rejection is very real. We just keep praying that the next year will be event free and give Bodie the long needed chance to grow uninhibited.

09/23/2024

Another successful here at making the annual for . What went into the fermenter tasted delicious so I can only hope this matches previous batches.

Gorgeous orange in color, very noticeable pumpkin aroma, and just enough spices to make you think you’re drinking pumpkin pie!

Clients of will soon be able to sample a flight of two different honey wheat ales, an IPA and a DIPA, our House Common and Pilsner, the pumpkin, a Black IPA and a root beer. Not bad for a small mountain recording studio.

Book today to reserve your flight!

09/21/2024

We hosted on piano today tracking an original tune. We spent some time beating down a redundant A minor that kept reappearing but once we got the structure down it went quick. Maybe 4 takes. Another day of recording to oxide .

on drums on vocals on bass and acoustic guitar and our assistant Mitch stopped by for a bit to tune guitars and watch me chase my tail on some pro tools anomalies.

Thanks to Mario and Amy for providing some delicious sustenance.

Just when you think you’re comfortable with it all, throws a wrench in the works attempting a rude forced upgrade when the tape machine is locked to . Something they probably know little about.

When will the village idiots that write code understand WE DO NOT WANT TO BE ASKED TO UPGRADE IN A SESSION?!?!?! I don’t want to be asked ever, to be honest, but definitely not in the middle of a session. One of the main tasks I issue to Pro Tools is to print SMPTE. Can’t do it when we’re updating rookies. Get with the program. Not all of us use laptops for music.

09/16/2024

We hosted .norcal here Saturday to wrap up recording for a new track. These guys really outdid themselves, kudos to Matt for bringing in the final touches this song needed to send chills down your spine.

His guitar was picking up some strange RFI so I rigged up a bracelet to ground his axe. Always fighting some astrological nightmares here.

I hope to have clearance to start mixing this week. I can’t wait to share the work!

dBu Ranch Recording

01/03/2025

11/19/2024

10/12/2024

10/10/2024

10/05/2024

10/04/2024

10/01/2024

09/30/2024

09/30/2024

09/23/2024

09/21/2024

09/16/2024

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