The FRY PHARMACY, keep as much of the building's amazing
1930's-style interior intact as a time capsule.
Try not to change anything maybe not even paint ...
the kind of pale hospital green
paint from the 50's (literally)
is such that you can't recreate it.
When you step into the Pharmacy you
really get transported back in time...
it has the feeling of going into
Motown, Stax, Sun, or Chess,
back in the day...and the vibe is REAL,
it is not trying to be retro, it just is.
Keep the front windows are boarded up
(so nobody knows what we are doing in there).
Good old construction ... brick and plaster.
Keep the 1950's tile (you know,
like the floor at Sun Studios in Memphis)...
that sounds kind of dead but in a really
excellent way. One really bright reflective
room and one neutral sounding room is good.
For recording bigger really is better
(you can always make it small,
but you can't realisticly fake big) the Pharmacy is pretty
big but not huge. ...
the size of the room and solid construction amplifies the feeling
that you want to keep
playing music in this building...
We don't have a control room...
all the gear is out just open air style,
on the neutral side of the building.
So everybody is in the same room...
which I really like...it is more
like you are hanging out and not sitting
behind glass passing judgment. The old front window
displays are slowly becoming our iso booths...when we need them.
We have a nice Furman multi-channel
headphone system that we haven't used in months.
We have discovered that if you just get
people comfortable with their live blend of
the amps and drums and stuff, people
play much better (as opposed to the individual
PERFECT headphone mix "kick and snare only please...
I don't need to hear those other guys")...
we even set up a vocal PA in the room and
just deal with the bleed. I would rather have a good
performance then no bleed. I have been hanging
out a lot with this old bass player dude, named
Bob Babbitt....we was the house bass player at
Motown...played on like 200 or something ..1 hits
(listen to the bass on Midnight Train to Georgia...
that's him, damm) anyways, I have been learning a
lot from him. He told me that at Motown they didn't
have headphones, they all plugged into ONE amp and
just made a blend...if they couldn't hear the drums
they played more softly and the drummer played harder...
but they were making a sound as a whole.
THAT is what we are after at the Fry Pharmacy. We are more into
documenting what is happening in the room.
Of course, it we do whatever it takes for the artist to comfortable
and whatever feels the best for putting the song down to tape.
We are heavyly into esoteric forms of mic placement
(I was obsesed with Mid-Side recording for years)
but also "one 57 in front of the drums"
is what is sound right to me these days.
Something about the lowly 57 that just
holds things together in the mix.
Maybe it is the mono thing I don't know.
What we are recording to:
a ragtag bunch of vintage recording equipment,
a decent stockpile of NOS USA tubes and amps
(between Phil and I, we have a shit load of
FENDERS and Ampeg gear that is waiting for you
to use on your next record) An Ampex 351
(with mono and stereo heads) from RCA Studios.
It is the actual deck that was in the RCA
mobile truck throughout the sixties...very well
maintained because it was RCA.
It is also the same model that my idol Rudy Van Gelder used to
record all the beautiful Blue Note records.
We still have it and use the preamps daily...
almost every overdub goes through it,
and two things when we track a band.
An Ampex AG440 from the 60's that we mix to
(we are Ampex freaks) and also record
kick and snare to first when we are recording digital.
WE ALSO HAVE AN AMAZING 1974
AMPEX MM1100 2 INCH 16 TRACK that we record on
then transfer to Protools to overdub
if we need more tracks (and don't want to bounce).
When we do an all digital session we do try to mix to
tape AND we also use our house reels to process stuff through (mostly drums)
on the way in on almost every session. By the way, our digital rig is a 24/96 Protools
system which gives us 16 ins and outs, plenty for the stuff we do.
We WANT the limitations of 16 ins!
Honestly we truly think we are getting good sounds to digital...
we use a lot of tube / transformer based gear,
hit tape on the way in AND our room sounds really,
really good. However, as good as digital gets,
it still really sounds flat and boring to a well
made analog recording. Buy a reel of tape and do your project
analog you will not regret it. - Scott McEwen