Looking for a suggestion in Pittsburgh

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mpedrummer
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Looking for a suggestion in Pittsburgh

Post by mpedrummer » Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:53 pm

I need a room. Not even a studio, necessarily, in fact, potentially preferably not. The last album I recorded was done in a stone barn, with 3-story vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, etc...but that's a 6 hour drive from where I am now.

Between my gear and my band's, we have enough to record the album ourselves - we just have nowhere to do it.

Is anyone familiar with Pittsburgh? We'd even consider renting a loft apartment for a month, if we could find that situation. Ideally, it'd be something we could keep as a practice space, but everything we've found is full with a waiting list.

Thanks
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Post by record-olotta » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:10 am

Yinzers Unite.

I'm one of the owners of the Machine Age, an analog recording studio in in the North Oakland/Bloomfield/Hill District/Polish Hill area (right next to the bloomfield bridge on the Sugar top side)...

Come check it out... i mean.. i know you'd rather do it totally diy but... our room really sounds great...

the loft has these issues: security deposit + rent + other tenants getting pissed off.

let me talk to some people i know, cause there's a decent storage building near the jail that has some reasonably sizeable/affordable spaces that some bands use, which would probably be big enough to make a record in...

(either way, let's hook up sometime, it's nice to meet other engineers/musicians, and i'm sure i can at minimum help you out with acoustic treatment plans for the space you get...)

Joseph Leo Bartolotta

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Post by mpedrummer » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:19 am

PM sent :)

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Maurice
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Post by Maurice » Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:26 pm

Interesting about Machine Age--I'm sorry, I had no idea you were there. I'd like to check out your room sometime.

No disrespect meant, but some other things that come to mind:

TapeOp editor Garrett Haines has a really nice room in Churchill, Treelady. Nice guy, too.

You might be able to rent out The Schoolhouse Yoga, which is a third floor gymnasium in Lawrenceville, near the 40th St. Bridge. It's a gym, so it's an exceedingly live room, but I've played there, oh, three times. Don't set up the musicians facing across the short side--if you do, there's an evil bass hump in the room. Long ways, it's easier to deal with. Great reverb tail, but it might be too much for your purposes.

I've not been in the Union Project yet, but it's a former church now converted to a community space, so you might be able to rent it out. It's at Stanton and Negley in Highland Park.

And yeah, we should have a Pittsburgh meetup. The unfortunate thing about Pittsburgh is that there are a lot of little scenes which don't interact much. I'm plugged into my avant/electro/improv scene, but I think most of us are completely invisible to everyone else. Also, if you think the music scene is insular, the belly dance scene is even more so. (I do live electro/acoustic music for the troupe Baya.) There are a lot of them out there, but many of them don't seem to know each other.

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Post by mpedrummer » Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:19 am

Well, I feel silly...I live less than 4 blocks from Schoolhouse Yoga, and didn't even think about it. And I bought my Christmas tree up at the Union Project. Hmm...

I think that the Schoolhouse Yoga building would be a bit too live for my tastes, but it could be an interesting drum room...any idea how much they ask? Could be interesting even to do an impulse of the space for convolution reverbs.

I've never been inside the Union Project, actually, but that's a good idea too.

The decision's been made to use my basement, so we can take our time with things. I've been recording our rehearsals with one KSM44 in omni, and we're all really happy with the sound we're getting in the room - the drums have a really solid, balanced tone, and despite being a small room, the bass still feels solid without an awkward buildup. We just need to clean things up a bit, and maybe take out a set of stairs that (literally) goes nowhere - just takes up space and provides weird reflections.

We should totally have a TapeOp bar night in Pittsburgh. Maybe sometime after the holidays? I'm in Lawrenceville - where are you located?

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Post by Maurice » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:49 pm

mpedrummer wrote:I think that the Schoolhouse Yoga building would be a bit too live for my tastes, but it could be an interesting drum room...any idea how much they ask?
Unfortunately, no idea--I only played shows others had set up. I'd just ask them. It might be very little for an off-night, if you're just doing one track.
mpedrummer wrote:We should totally have a TapeOp bar night in Pittsburgh. Maybe sometime after the holidays? I'm in Lawrenceville - where are you located?
Squirrel Hill. After the holidays would be fine. I'm going to be part of a show at Brillobox on Thursday January 26, but other nights should be fine. As a new parent, however, I'm not much able to stay out late on non-gig nights, but we could set up an early evening at Brillobox. (Mainly there because it's equidistant, very good jukebox, not too loud, and the owner's a good guy who's letting us do a rather odd show there.)

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Post by mpedrummer » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:51 pm

Heck, they're walking distance. We're actually looking at a full album or more, probably 15 tracks in all, so the more we've thought about it, the more we've come to the conclusion that we'd be better off putting a bit of money into the space we have, rather than renting somewhere else - it'll be more useful for our next album.

Anyway, feel free to contact me off the boards - tim at komta dot com.

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Post by Maurice » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:58 pm

Eric at Brillobox tells me that early Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays would be good for such a meetup. Let's figure something out.

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Post by mpedrummer » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:13 am

Sure, want to set it out two weeks or so, so people have more of a chance of seeing it? Say, Jan 18th, around 6?

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Post by Maurice » Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:06 am

That could work, pending my rehearsal schedule for the show on the 26th. I'll be able to confirm one way or another tonight.

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Post by Maurice » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:45 pm

Turns out, Wednesday the 18th is good, so far, for me. What about the rest of yinz all?

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Post by mpedrummer » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:00 am

I'm going to start a new thread about this - Joe (the dude from the second post) PMed me, he's coming too.

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Post by JES » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:56 pm

Damn, I move from Pgh to Montreal, and all these cool Pgh people show up on here.

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Post by Maurice » Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:10 pm

Thanks! Remember, though, you're in Montreal. That ought to take the hurt off a little bit.

I'll have to check out your .mp3s--the concept is interesting!

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Post by mpedrummer » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:58 pm

Bumpity bump.

Just a reminder, gents.

I'll be there at 6, provided the traffic doesn't suck too bad on the way home from work. I'll have on a bright yellow t-shirt.

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