In the Mezzanine with the Transport Group Theatre Company

This week we had the pleasure of working with a longtime friend-of-the-studio, the Transport Group Theatre Company. For those unfamiliar, Transport Group is a premier off-Broadway production company with a slew of Tony, OBIE, and Drama Desk awards and nominations to their name. We can’t say much about the specific project our sessions will be building toward, but we can share some photos from the session, in which Dubway engineer Zach Grappone tracked a beautiful drum kit in our spacious Mezzanine Studio’s live room.

You can follow the Transport Group’s goings-on at the above link–even during this time of closure and crisis for the performing arts, they’ve managed to stay alive, busy, and strong, which is no easy feat! For the real theatre fans, information on upcoming streams can be found here. If you’re feeling more in need of reflection than entertainment, they also release a weekly newsletter from performers and artists associated with the group.

Jonathan Reid Gealt tracks vocals with an all-star cast

Jonathan Reid Gealt (top left) and crew in our Main Floor Studios, via the artist’s Instagram.

Composer, singer, and performer Jonathan Reid Gealt is working on a new project at Dubway, featuring a who’s-who of vocal talent from Broadway and beyond… but we can’t say much more than that, for now. At the studios, Gealt and his cast have tracked vocals over several sessions with Dubway engineers Pascal McGilvray Guard and Keenan DuBois, including vocals from the composer himself. We’ll be sure to have more information later, but for now, check out these session photos (showing the telltale Zoom workflow of the current times) and one of Gealt’s previous pieces below.

Singer Natalia Bychkova records performance video at Dubway

Singer Natalia Bychkova joined us in our Mezzanine studio the past month to record an audiovisual document of her performance of a series of vocal pieces. The sessions were recorded–both sound and video–by Dubway engineer Pascal McGilvray-Guard, using our Yamaha C-5 Grand Piano and SSL 4064 G+ console, and our Mevo streaming-camera rig. We had an excellent time recording Bychkova and her lovely voice, and look forward to hearing more from her in the future!

Richard Kogan's "The Mind and Music of Mozart" edits, mixes at Dubway

Richard Kogan at Rockefeller University.

Work on speaker, pianist, and physician Richard Kogan’s newest lecture-recital on psychology and music has wrapped up at Dubway, and we’re excited to share it here! The piece focuses on Mozart, and was produced by Dr. Kogan’s longtime collaborator, the Grammy-Award winner and ex-Deutsche Grammophon producer Thomas Mowrey.

Producer Thomas Mowrey.

Video editing and mix engineering was done by Dubway engineers Pascal McGilvray-Guard and Keenan DuBois, respectively.

Dr. Kogan’s programs on the psychological origins of musical creativity in the great composers are presented at prestigious venues throughout the world, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Rockefeller University, in New York.

For more of Dr. Kogan’s lectures, click here.

Devlin Miles and her Bloodhounds continue tracking

Singer/songwriter Devlin Miles and her band Sweet Little Bloodhounds continued work at Dubway last week after their earlier session this month (which we posted about here). Building on earlier tracking sessions, Miles and crew laid down vocals, violin, trumpet, and more, with studio engineer Keenan DuBois capturing sounds from behind our SSL 4064 G+ console. Check out some pictures from the session below!

Carla Harris and Shawn Lucas take the Mezz

Producer Shawn Lucas leading from behind the Motif 6.

Gospel singer and Wall Street-powerhouse Carla Harris brought an amazingly talented group of musicians to our Mezzanine studio last week for a recording with studio engineer Zach Grappone. The session was produced by Shawn Lucas (Mariah Carey, Idina Menzel, Bobby D’Ambrosio), Harris’ usual collaborator–both of whom we’ve had the pleasure of working with on a number of previous occasions. Unlike many of her previous sessions, this one also involved video, with a camera crew in attendance to capture the performers as well.

Take a peek at some pictures from the Mezzanine session below, and find more about Harris and her work at her website!

In the Mezzanine with Devlin Miles

Singer-songwriter Devlin Miles (who also fronts the band Sweet Little Bloodhound) is back at Dubway for a series of recordings in both our Mezzanine and Main Floor studios! The ongoing sessions have been recorded by Dubway engineer Violette Furton, and are produced by Miles. Thus far, the band have worked through the drums and lead vocals, with many more layers of instrumentation to come.

We’ll have more on this project as more and more of the parts come together. In the meantime, you can hear some of Miles’ previous work here. Stay tuned!

Broadway actor Kyle Banks & friends record benefit collection for diabetes patients

Triple-threat performer Kyle Banks (The Lion King) and a band of top-notch talent took over our Mezzanine studio last month for a multiday recording session with studio engineer Zach Grappone. The group included several of the performers from the original cast of the Broadway production of The Lion King, with Banks producing, singing, and acting as the central organizing force of the sessions.

Songs recorded during these sessions are destined for a fundraiser to provide access to diabetes medication to children in New Orleans with Type 1 diabetes. You can learn more about Banks’ work and story here and in the video below.

Gregory Omar Osborne records in the Mezzanine

Artist, performer, and Progressive Theatre founder Gregory Omar Osborne took to our Mezzanine studio earlier this month to record numbers from The Gospel at Colonus. Osborne brought in a crew of talented musicians for a selection of the musical’s songs, which feature choir, organ, and vocal arrangements. Dubway engineer Zach Grappone tracked the session, making judicious use of the Mezzanine’s bay of outboard gear and SSL 4064 G+ console.

The Gospel At Colonus is an African-American retelling of the Oedipal story. Created by Lee Breuer with music by composer Bob Telson, the show opened nearly forty years ago, just across the East River at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s first ever Next Wave Festival, in 1983.

There’s no release date currently set for Osborne’s rendition of these pieces, but check back here or at his website (linked above) for future release information! Until then watch an unbelievably star-studded 1985 staging of the play below.

Roc Nation preserve archival Jay-Z tapes

Dubway engineer Merter Yildirim recently completed a series of transfers for hip-hop giant Roc Nation, taking a large collection of archival tapes and footage reels of concert and studio material (including reels from and including the agency’s owner, Jay-Z) and converting them to digital formats for archival purposes.

While individual collectors may often choose to digitize their physical media, it’s a near-necessity for labels. Recording labels of all sizes need to ensure a stable copy for reference and future license, reproduction, or re-release; otherwise, you run the risk of a catastrophe like the 2008 Universal fire, in which irreplaceable master tapes and records burned without leaving a digital legacy behind.

We’re proud to have contributed to Roc Nation’s effort to preserve their historic catalogue for future listeners. Find everything Roc Nation at the link at the top of the article, and give us a call if you’d like your collection to be digitized next!

Young MA live with Tito's Made To Order series

Dubway was honored to be involved in production for Brooklyn rapper Young MA’s set for the Tito’s Made To Order series of streaming events. Our engineers worked alongside a talented team of creatives from Panopticon NYC, Hook Studio BK, and First Tube Media, plus Young MA’s team and everyone at World Central Kitchen. Tito’s Made To Order shows are benefits for World Central Kitchen and feature sharp lineups with artists like Bun B, A-Trak, Kali Uchis, Portugal. The Man, and Claude VonStroke. Dubway engineer Louis Fisher and assistant engineer Jake Zacharia recorded the set, with Pascal McGilvray-Guard mixing and editing the recordings for post-production documentation.

Catch a recording of the set below on the Tito’s Made To Order YouTube channel, or revisit the record that put Young MA undeniably on the map here.

Life In A Blender premiere "Soul Deliverer"

Glide Magazine just premiered a new video from friends-of-the-studio, Life In A Blender, “Soul Deliverer”. You can find the article here, which includes some comments from songwriter Don Rauf, and video co-creator Mark Lerner.

“Soul Deliverer” arrives as Life In A Blender gears up to release a new album, Satsuma, next month on November 20th. The song, and much of the album, was recorded throughout the Dubway facilities, with studio head Al Houghton (who plays guitar in the band) producing. Dubway engineers Russell Castiglione and Zach Grappone engineered tracking of the song.

Check out the video in Glide (above) or at the below link, and look for Satsuma in November!

The Astor Project: "Dump Trump (Out The House)"

The Astor Project just released a new single from songwriter Astor Forman, Dump Trump (Out The House). The single was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Dubway with studio engineer Keenan DuBois. Astor’s crew of studio musicians brought the track to life over several recording sessions in both our Mezzanine and Main Floor studio spaces, with some funk instrumentation courtesy of the clavinet, secondary percussion, and a tight rhythm and bass section.

You can find The Astor Project in all online stores today (and on Spotify by following the link above). Congratulations to Astor and the band!

John Luther Adams and the JACK Quartet release new music, "Lines Made By Walking"

Composer and friend of the studio John Luther Adams has recently released a brand new collection of new pieces on Cold Blue Music, titled Lines Made By Walking. The album was recorded at Tippet Rise Art Center with the critically acclaimed JACK Quartet, who the New York Times called “the nation’s most important quartet”. Dubway’s lead engineer Nathaniel Reichman produced and mastered the album, alongside a production dream team made up of Dubway personnel and Tippet Rise’s incredible technical staff, including Monte Nickles, Jim Ruberto, Austin Wulliman, Chris Otto, Jay Chop-Cheese Campbell, and John Richards.

The album was released September 18th and is available on the Cold Blue site, as well as from most major retailers and purveyors of contemporary musics. Many thanks to the team at Tippet Rise and in-house photographer Emily Rund for the excellent documentation of the studio session. Check out the photos below, and check your local classical music retailer for the release!

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Astor Forman records protest song in the Mezzanine

The talented vocalists of Astor Forman’s studio wrecking crew, pictured in our Blue Room mixing suite.

NYC songwriter Astor Forman brought a lively crew of musicians to Dubway’s Mezzanine and Main Floor facilities this past month to track, mix, and master an original protest tune. The single is in finishing stages, with plans for a release in the next two weeks.

Studio engineer Keenan DuBois tracked and mixed the ensemble of talented session musicians and longtime collaborators, who put down parts for drums, keys, clavinet, guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, and rapped verses. Sessions began in the upstairs Mezzanine before moving downstairs for dubbing, mixing, and final touches, utilizing the different strengths of our studio’s various rooms.

Cantor Nancy Dubin records performances for Tashlich service

Nancy Dubin and Keenan DuBois in the studio lobby after the session.

Cantor Nancy Dubin found a creative way to address the problems of holding religious holidays while also observing distancing measures, and took to our studios last week to record a series of songs for Rosh Hashannah’s Tashlich service. Dubin (who is also a registered nurse) sang all the parts for the songs she recorded, which were accompanied by piano. Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois tracked and mixed the recordings, and Pascal McGilvray-Guard edited together the final videos.

You can find an example of one of Dubin’s lovely performances here. Shanah Tovah!

Joshua Bell transfers childhood recordings

Last week, we had the honor of digitizing a collection of childhood tapes for world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell. The collection included audio and video of Bell performing at as young as six years old. Dubway engineer Merter Yildrim made sure the transfer and digitizing process completed smoothly.

In case you’d like a refresher on Bell’s playing, here’s an excellent recent performance with the Bamburg Symphony Orchestra of Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor (Op. 53).

Black Circle Symphony streams live from the Mezzanine

Bandleader and percussionist Ras Ujimma (left) of Black Circle Symphony. Picture courtesy the artist’s Instagram (@blackcirclesymphony).

This past week, Dubway’s largest room became an impromptu venue to host reggae group Black Circle Symphony for a livestream concert–the first one we’ve hosted in our Mezzanine studio since the pandemic moved all concerts online. The eight-piece group played an uplifting 30-minute set, tracked live through our SSL 4064 G+ Series console, with the band’s engineer Alex Elsammak mixing and Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois assisting.

In preparing for the livestream, the band set out to sound just like they do on record. With a band of this size and musicianship, it follows that the engineering quickly became quite involved, using absolute heaps of outboard equipment and mixing from the board to both a recording computer and a separate streaming computer with an additional independent gain stage. Take a look at the pictures below to see the outboard rack and several extra sets of preamps set up and ready for the stream (left), and the corresponding patch on the console’s patchbay (right).

You can also check out a live video from the session at Alex Elsammak’s Instagram (behind the image of the Mezzanine’s console), and catch Black Circle Symphony at their Instagram (linked above) where they announce upcoming live shows.

"The Late Late Show With James Corden" hosts Jeremy Zucker pre-production in the Mezzanine

Jeremy Zucker in the Mezzanine’s live room. Courtesy the artist’s Instagram (@jeremyzucker).

We were thrilled to be involved with a recent episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, in collaboration with our sister studio in LA, Dubway West. Our Manhattan facility’s Mezzanine studio served as a pre-production facility for the musical guest of Corden’s show on August 18th, the Spotify-dominating singer and songwriter Jeremy Zucker.

You can see the live performance of Zucker’s “Supercuts” on the show here, and stream the album mix of the song here. And if you want to go deeper, there’s a making-of “Supercuts” available, too.

Mixing in Red with Jack Tracy

Tour de force musician, actor, and producer (and more) Jack Tracy has been dug in in our Red Room this past month, mixing an album in a slightly different way than the average mix session. While most musicians would direct the engineer creatively, Tracy and his production company Necessary Outlet have instead opted to treat the sessions as instructional mixes, in which Dubway engineers help instruct Tracy on the technical aspects as they mix his tracks together. Studio engineers Violette Furton and Russell Castiglione have been pairing with Tracy on this recent collection of songs, many of which have been recorded in-house as well.

To facilitate learning in a practical way, the studios have set up the control room’s computer as an identical mixing environment to the in-the-box setup Tracy has on his laptop. Everything from the DAW to the plugins are the same that he uses at home, except that it runs on the studio machine (and through our studio monitor chain). This means that everything that Tracy’s learning in the studio is directly transferrable to his at-home mixes. For the producer learning to mix with the technical ear of an experienced engineer, you’d be hard pressed to find a better way to quickly improve the quality of your mixes.

Check out more of Jack Tracy’s work at the link above, and stay tuned for new music soon!