MONOLisa: A Mixing and Overdub Studio Livens Up Long Island City

Da Vinci – it’s a damn good starting point for inspiration.

In Long Island City, experienced mixer and engineer Denise Barbarita is just the latest craftsman to find a connection with Leonardo’s famed painting, dubbing her studio MONOLisa. A hard-working participant in New York City’s audio scene since the late 1990s, Barbarita’s wide-ranging credits veer from rock to hip-hop to classical, including Philip Glass, Morcheeba, The Roots, Big Pun, Herbie Hancock, Arto Lindsay, Mary J. Blige, Krissy Krissy, The Nevermind Orchestra, and much more.

LIC’s MONOLisa makes mixing and overdubs happen in relaxed fashion.

Barbarita considered Kampo Studios her home base until the NoHo studio shut down in 2010. For a while, she and her husband, drummer Rich Kulsar, made a go of using a bedroom in their Forest Hills, Queens home for editing, overdubs, or mixing – an inexpensive solution that nonetheless got old in a hurry.

“I started really mixing a lot from home, but I found myself in a Catch-22,” Barbarita says. “I was getting tracking sessions, but I couldn’t adequately provide overdubs from home, and you know, it’s not the most professional environment. For some clients, it was more cost effective to just go to another studio to do overdubs rather than have to pay me plus a studio. Plus some clients are allergic to cats — and/or Queens.”

Barbarita had been looking for a suitable place to start shop for almost a year when she started mixing Krissy Krissy’s excellent Dream EP in August of 2012, with the hope of finding a space in Long Island City where she wouldn’t have to make an outsized investment on building from scratch. “That’s harder than you might think!” she laughs. “One of the reasons I wanted to be in LIC is that it’s a quick commute for me, and it’s a hop, skip, and a jump from Manhattan and some areas of Brooklyn. Plus the G train makes it super easy to get to Brooklyn now.”

As it just so happened, Dennis and Jermaine of Krissy Krissy’s management team Bigger than Buildings had a sizable space in LIC and were looking for an engineer to take over the studio they built. Barbarita started renovations in October and opened MONOLisa in January, as a mix facility and overdub room for handling vocals, guitars, drums and more.

Setting the (MONO)Tone

The iso room holds a full kit comfortably.

The experienced mixer/engineer set out to make a studio in the image of what she likes best: clean, chill, and comfortable.

“I don’t want people to feel like they can’t sit on the couch,” she notes. “It doesn’t need to be the Taj Mahal, it needs to be inviting and relaxed. I think we accomplished that. And I like when things work: It means I can do what I need to do, get the job done, get in and get out. No drama.”

Once the image of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece popped into her head, the interior design got easy – maybe too easy. “I went a little nuts with the décor,” Barbarita concedes. “I found a ton of Mona Lisa pop art and other spoofs — you know, Mona Lisa cat, Mona Lisa smoking a blunt — all kinds of pictures online. And I thought, ‘You know? Isn’t that what art is about?’ It’s a commentary on our culture. Just as music is.

“Take something like the Mona Lisa,” she continues. “It’s timeless, it’s untouchable, it’s mastery. But artists from Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, to graffiti artists like Mr. Brainwash and DeathNYC have taken this image and created something completely their own and changed it’s meaning to the viewer. Take what’s come before, nod to your influences, and create something new.”

The Tech for Tracking and Mixing

Running Pro Tools HD2 and Logic, MONOLisa is fully prepared for its dual mission of mixing and overdubs. “I think MONOLisa is a great environment for overdubs,” Barbarita explains. “It’s private and cozy. We have a good mic/pre-amp selection for everyone’s needs, and I get tons of compliments about the room sounding really good. Mixing is also a breeze.”

Emphasizing that every session is different, Barbarita has a wide variety of tools at her disposal for any situation, hardware and software. “I do lots of different types of sessions, lots of different music — some call for ultra clean, some call for mangling and dirty processing,” she observes. “At MONOLisa, we’re set up for overdubs and mixing, so I have what I need to accomplish those jobs. In terms of mics/mic pres, nine times out of 10, I want clean, not a ton of coloration on the front end. The Earthworks SR-77 (matched pair cardioid condenser) does a great job of that when overdubbing acoustic instruments, although there are times when they may be TOO clean. There really is no coloration, so if that’s what you’re after, they are the wrong choice — what you give them is what you get.

“For vocals, the ‘go to’ mic is the Lawson L47, but if that’s ‘too much mic,’ I’ll go for the Shure SM7. I’ve been known to hand an AKG D112 wrapped in foam to a screamer. That works too. I’m interested in capturing a performance first and foremost.

“I want the artist to feel good and feel like he/she can do anything at any given moment, microphone choice/placement is a big part of that. If the artist wants to scream balls to the walls out of the blue, they shouldn’t have to worry about whether the mic will distort, that’s my job. Their job is to be themselves. I must choose the mic to fit the artist.”

A busy mixer, Barbarita finds herself gravitating lately to surgical EQs , all the better to mix through her newly acquired Equator D5 monitors. “I loved the RND ‘Uniqualizer!,” she says. “THAT was my favorite EQ plug in. Sadly, I made a mistake and chose the challenge/response code option rather than the iLok option, the company is no more, and I can’t authorize the plug in. Sad, very sad — freebies for anyone who knows how to fix this problem. That being said, I use the Sonnox Oxford EQ quite a bit on every session, more in a subtractive nature than additive. My other ‘go to’ is the URS FullTec EQ. Then there’s the Eventides and the analog spring for mangling and spatial texture.

“If I had a favorite plugin, I think it would be a tie between Ohmforce’s Predatohm or Ohmicide. Talk about coloration! When in doubt, especially on drum tracks when some added spice is nice, or vocal effects, they are my ‘go-to.’ In situations where ‘parallel compression’ is called for, there’s nothing better. They can be subtle and they can be downright obnoxious — there’s a time and place for both.”

Another perspective on the studio’s mission control.

Maintaining A Fast Start

Less than a year into existence, her formula looks to be working. Clients working at MONOLisa already include The Shivering Brigade, The Halley Devestern Band, The Nevermind Orchestra, Krissy Krissy, Joell Ortiz, and the New York Film Academy.

An accomplished singer/songwriter herself, Barbarita is careful to keep in the mind that the studio and accompanying gear are there to serve the client, and not to make a fashion statement.

Denise Barbarita masterminded MONOLisa.

“At the end of the day it’s really not about ME,” Barbarita points out. “Yes I have specific tastes, but since I come from an artist/songwriter background, I like the collaborative approach and I’ve amassed a ton of tools to get whatever is needed on any given day. The artist is my boss, I do my best to make sure that what they hear in their head is what they hear from the speakers. Hopefully it’s even better.”

The name MONOLisa is a funny twist, but beyond getting attention, Denise Barbarita has found that her studio’s moniker is as motivational as it is playful. “I think when musicians get into a studio they can get too obsessive over small details — we all do, including me,” she says. “But having this artistic idea surrounding us in the studio, makes us think a little more of the possibilities of what could be, rather than what should be.”

– David Weiss

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.