NYC Studio Sweet Spot: Spin Recording Studios
Facility Name: Spin Recording Studios
Spin's Control Room A with SSL 4000 G/G+
Website: http://www.spinmusicstudios.com
Location: Long Island City (L.I.C.), NYC
Neighborhood Advantages: L.I.C. is a very culturally diverse neighborhood that is friendly to all of the arts. Musicians and artists are at home here. We love having the studio here and so do our clients. Extremely close to Manhattan. Very easy to get to using mass transit. There are plenty of places to eat, which is always great when it comes to bringing food into the studio.
Date of Birth: Spin was originally founded in 1996. We were in our original L.I.C. location for 10 years. We have been in our new facility for the past few years.
Facility Focus: Spin specializes in live recording and mixing. Our main live room really works well with acoustic instruments. We record a lot of string quartets and jazz ensembles. On the other side of the spectrum we record many rock bands. Acoustic drums really come alive in our live room. It’s a really fantastic-sounding space. Our B studio is perfect for editing, overdubs, and mixing.
Mission Statement: Our mission has always been the same from the beginning: to make the client’s experience a positive one. If the client is comfortable and trusts the people around them, then they are free to be as creative as they can be. If their studio experience is a positive one, they will become a return client. We want to establish a relationship, not just a booked day or two here or there.
Clients/Credits: Lamb of God, Alex Skolnick Trio, Vinnie Moore, Vamps, Flux Quartet, Blowup Hollywood, Lucia Micarelli, Black Tide, Clown (Slipknot), Interscope, Thirsty Ear Records, Epic, Chirio Yamanaka
Key Personnel: Pete Benjamin (owner), Nik Chinboukas, Kurt Nepogoda
System Highlights: Studio A houses a 68 channel SSL 4000 G/G+. Pro Tools HD3 Accel system with 192 I/O. Studio B houses a AMEK 44 channel console with a Pro Tools HD3 Accel system. Monitors in both studios are Genelec and Yamaha.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Studio A has a large tracking room with isolation spaces. Studio B is a more intimate environment with a overdub booth.
The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it? Our Yamaha C6 piano. It’s the Yamaha that was originally in Bearsville studios in upstate NY. That piano has a really nice history to it. It sounds fantastic! Everyone loves playing it! We get so many compliments on it.
Rave Reviews: The best compliment I ever received was from a well-known and respected producer that was working in the studio. He told me the feeling that he got when working in our facility was something that he hasn’t felt in a long time. He explained to me that we brought the personal feeling back to the business — that by working in our studio he was surrounded by people that truly cared about what was being recorded there. Everybody involved with the studio acted like a family and we treated the client that way.
The other compliment I get is when clients take their tracks home and open them up on their own personal systems. They are always so excited how good the tracks sound — that happens quite a bit.
But I think what excites me most people is our people. I have been lucky to have people around me that truly care about the studio. Each person that is affiliated with Spin, treats it like it is their own studio. That is the greatest compliment!
Most Memorable Session Ever: There are so many memorable moments from so many sessions!
Session You’d Like to Forget: We have been really lucky to not have many sessions I would like to forget. There was one scoring session once with a composer/producer who was completely not prepared. When things started not to go the way he envisioned it, it really started to roll downhill fast. We were lucky enough that we all were able to cut our losses pretty quickly and move on.
Dream Session: I think each one of my guys would answer that differently. For me it would be a session with The Who. For someone else, it would be Zeppelin. We are mostly rock guys here, so I imagine it would be something like that. — Pete Benjamin, Spin Recording Studios
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