Recording Studio Sweet Spot: Ground Control Studio – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The stars are out in Brooklyn. And when we’re talking about Ground Control Studio in Williamsburg, it’s a veritable constellation of attractions that make this facility worth a look.

Synth enthusiasts are Moog welcome at Ground Control.

On the technical tip, there’s a custom Neve A10118 Custom 20 sidecar that consistently knocks clients of all stripes off their feet. When it comes to musical acumen, there are vintage keyboards and synths up the wazoo – and a new patchbay to make them all play at will. The selection of services is equally sweet, from tracking and mixing to audio post for multiple media.

And the stars – the celeb and big brand kind – keep on comin’. Reggie Watts, Joan as Policewoman, Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter (including an Emmy Award win), A&E – are all among the sightings. It’s a wonder they’re so grounded at Ground Control…

Facility Name: Ground Control Studio

Website: groundcontrolstudio.com

Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Neighborhood Advantages: Williamsburg has changed a lot since we started on this corner over ten years ago. Some old friends/neighbors have moved on and some new neighbors have moved in. You’ll never hear us complain about the new gourmet supermarket that opened across the street. We also have many great bars and restaurants nearby like Diner/Marlow & Sons, Peter Luger, Donna, Baby’s Alright.

Date of Birth: We opened in the fall 2003 as a project studio. Eventually, we began taking on more and more outside work. By 2007 we quit our days jobs and shifted our focus to the studio full time.

Facility Focus: Tracking and mixing. Audio post for film, television, and fine art.

Mission Statement: We’re always excited to work with artists, musicians and filmmaker on cool projects. We try to offer a creative and professional environment where everyone can do their best work and the tools to do it.

Clients/Credits: We’ve been working a lot with Reggie Watts. From V.O. for Comedy Bang Bang and JASH videos for YouTube to music projects like his vocals on Joan As Policewoman’s new album “The Classic.”

This past year we worked with The Hollywood Reporter on mixes for their Oscar and Emmy Roundtables. Each series consisted of five episodes which aired on PBS and A&E networks.

We have worked with mixed media artists like Uri Aran on his installation “Here, Here and Here” for the Kuntshalle in Zürich; Meredith James on her video installation “Landlocked” at the Jack Hanley Gallery, New York; and Boru O’Brien O’Connell on his piece “Draft, Capture” at The Kitchen, New York.

Last year we recorded ADR and V.O. for Sam Fleischner’s film Stand Clear of the Closing Doors. This great movie went on to win Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Mics are hot property.

Key Personnel:

Murray Trider – owner, chief engineer, producer, synthesizer geek

Aaron Mason – assistant engineer, producer, problemsolver

Past Personnel:

John Bosch – former partner, musician and filmmaker

Raphael Laski – former partner, video producer

System Highlights: Our Neve A10118 Custom 20 channel mini mixer from 1982. It’s a great sounding broadcast board that looks like a 51 series but sounds like a 54 series as it has 20 x 34128 preamps. Each has 90dB mic gain, 40dB pre fade headroom, 3-band EQ with inductor based mids. Definitely not the color of 1073’s or 1066’s, but a more neutral sounding console that’s excellent for many different applications. Our clients love it.

For monitoring we use Dynaudio BM15a’s, Genelec 8030a’s, Yamaha NS-10’s, Avantone Mixcubes with a Bryston 2B-LP amp. Some of our go-to microphones would definitely be the Neumann U 67, U 87, and the AKG C414 B-ULS. For conversion we’re using two Lucid 88192’s via a Lynx AES16e into Pro Tools. We love the big open sound of these 88192’s.

Set your sights on this distinctive Neve sidecar.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Our collection of vintage keyboards. Highlights include our MiniMoog, Arp Odyssey, Arp Solus, Prophet 5, Oberheim OB-8, Roland Jupiter 6, Octave Plateau Voyetra Eight, MemoryMoog Plus, Linn Drum LM2, TR-909, Sequential Six-Trak, Octave KAT, Korg MonoPoly, Novation Supernova, Nord Lead 2, and more.

Since rewiring our entire studio last fall, all of our synths are accessible via our new patchbay system. MIDI (where available) has been hardwired as well. This new configuration makes re-recording existing MIDI performances using our vintage synth collection a breeze.

The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it? Our Neumann U 67. It’s such a beautiful-sounding mic and would be really difficult to replace.

A panoramic view of the Grounds.

Rave Reviews: Clients generally freak out over the synth collection and how everything is well-maintained and actually works! Another thing that clients always mention is how much they love the comfortable vibe of the studio.

Most Memorable Session Ever: In the summer of 2010 Swedish band Caligola (a side project of the band Mando Diao) came to the studio for ten days of tracking vocals and synth overdubs. By the last day of these sessions the energy in the room was electric. Everyone there knew we had made something really special. The first single off that album, “Forgive Forget” reached #2 on the German charts the following spring.

Session You’d Like to Forget: Not all sessions are easy. I know that different personalities can make for challenging situations in the studio environment. We’re super easy going which I think helps make artists feel comfortable here. I can’t think of any real “stinkers.”

Dream Session: We’re big Brian Eno fans.

You’ll never be bored with these keys.

The Cat is an analog classic — a monophonic/duophonic synth so good that Arp sued their butts!

See yourself right HERE.

The Nord and its rackmounted pals.

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