This past Wednesday, I had the chance to overdub keys for alt-country artist , Keith Moody, at Synchromesh Studios in Birmingham, AL. The studio is owned and operated by engineer/producer, Jason Elgin, who cut his teeth in the late nineties recording Collective Soul and has since then established a steady stream of clients ranging from bluegrass to rock.
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- Syncromesh Lounge
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- Control Room
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- Oram Console
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- Amp & Outboard Gear
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- Guitars & Basses
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- Vocal/Amp Isolation Booth
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- Drums Duh!
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- Main Tracking Room
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- Main Tracking Room
From the street you’d never know there was a studio upstairs inside the walls of the old downtown Birmingham storefront. In previous lives, the building had housed a clothing store, a boxing ring and at one time sadly served as a KKK meeting place. Elgin insists that the place is haunted and told of numerous encounters. One reoccurring incident involved catching someone out the corner of your eye in a doorway or window and then seeing them step out of view. The odd placement of the two couches in the artist lounge is in response to this. After numerous configurations, they placed them strategically to have no doorways or windows in your peripheral view. This put a stop that specific spook, but Elgin will still occasionally experiences the control room door drift open while he is mixing alone late at night. Despite the “ghosts”, many of the artists that record there tend to stay overnight at Synchromesh as the studio also hosts a kitchen and shower.
The studio has two main tracking areas; the vocal booth/amp space & main tracking room. The control room looks out at them and is separated by two sliding glass doors. Additional spaces are wired and there is a hot-roded Leslie in the lounge area that is wired to the control room. There are numerous amplifiers (Bogner, Soldano, Marshall, Matchless, Mesa & Fender Vibratone), guitars (Strats, Teles, a P-Bass & numerous acoustics) & effects to choose from and there is even an electric sitar. Yikes!
Elgin has been working with Pro Tools since its inception but likes to have faders. He records to the tools through an Oram Console (their version of the Trident Series 80) and the use of outboard pres and the like. While I was there, he was in producer/engineer mode coaching vocal ideas and capturing them. We recorded my Nord Electro 2 (not 3 damn it!) through a Dr. Z amp from the control room. The organ patches sounded pretty good, but the electric pianos are still no match for the real deal. Wurlitzer and Rhodes represent!
The studio has a really cool vibe and seemed like it would be a great place to flesh out some tunes with Elgin’s aid. Lately, he has been working with many solo artist who have recently split off from bands and are eager to do something on their own. With Keith he fleshed out a number of the tunes using alternate guitar tunings and having music ideas weave in and out to make each verse its own beast. You can listen to one of the tracks, pre-mastering, here; “Up” by Keith Moody.
