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Aspen’s Place Recording
Les Paul and Aspen Pittmann
By Jonathan Widran
Tucked away from the maelstrom of Hollywood in laid back San Fernando,
CA, Aspen’s Place Recording (http://aspenandassoc.com) is
a turnkey vintage “live” recording studio dedicated to producing fullband
live multi-track recordings with a modern meets old school approach.
Clients have the option of using the latest Pro Tools rig after tracking the
way records were made in the golden age of rock and soul.
To understand the deep musical heart and soul that goes into the technology,
gear, vibe and space of this one-of-a-kind studio, it’s best to know
the background of its owner, Aspen Pittman, who opened the facility in
2011. In 1978, he founded Aspen & Associates, a consulting company
that developed music and audio products. Early A&A research discovered
ways to improve vacuum tubes for guitar amps and led to one of the industry’s
most successful products: Groove Tubes. Creator of numerous
award-winning, patented, globally popular studio microphones and tube
based signal processors, Pittman has sold over 120,000 of various editions
of his renowned The Tube Amp Book.
In June 2008, Pittman sold the Groove Tubes brand and entire product
catalog to FMIC (Fender), and he continued as a consultant to Fender and
Groove Tubes through June 2011. Then A&A was resurrected to continue
the business development of his award-winning SFX technology (Stereo
Field Expansion), the patented process that magically produces a 3D stereo
soundfield from a single cabinet for live performance (currently under
license to Fender and other companies). And in his free time, Aspen has
brought his 45 years of collecting and creating great tone to launch his
“bucket list” studio; Aspen’s Place Recording.
Built on the historic site of the original GT factory, Aspen’s Place Recording
offers a classic “big room” recording environment, measuring 48x18-ft.
with a 12-ft. ceiling, with a dual amp isolation closet for recording several
smaller combo amps in a soundproof room. The big room is acoustically
designed to have just the right amount of live and dead areas and has
20+ specially designed Bruce Black (Media Rooms Technology) multisurfaced
“Gobos,” which offer reflecting, diffusing and absorbing surfaces
that can be configured as a “drum cave.”
“What we offer is the ability for a band or ensemble to come in and
literally track in real time live in our big room with all tube analog on the
front-end in a musically creative environment,” says Pittman. “Of course
we can layer it one track at a time, but we uniquely offer bands the chance
to record live with high-def studio quality results. Although the trend in
recent years is to record in home studio setups, young bands are open to
us because most love to record live but their options are usually limited to
a club where the adverse room acoustics get in the way of sonic purity.
“In most studios favoring the one track at a time approach, there’s no
live feeling or connection between band members,” he adds. “But here,
everyone is isolated into a perfect sonic environment where they can hear
through headphones exactly how the song is being tracked, which produces
an immediate and intimate feel for the song. It’s also faster, and
much more fun!”
Another advantage to recording at APR is Pittman’s vast collection of
vintage gear (including classic items he created) that are included in the
hourly rate. Among the options are: the Neumann U47 and U67 tube mics;
a 1965 Hammond A100 organ with dual Leslies, a 1955 Steinway studio
upright piano, 32 channels of tube pre-amps that he designed, including
the Variable Impedance PREamp (VIPRE), the Glory Compressor and the
Stereo Unit Preamp (SUPRE). Recent upgrades include Pro Tools 10 and
two of Avid’s new 16 channel converters, a 5.1 JBL LSR4326 surround
system, Pittman’s own GT classic EQ1 5-band variable passive EQs, and
well over half a million dollar locker of mics, vintage instruments and backline
tone toys.
“We can do it all, big or small, but with heart. We have all the tools and
capacity for large format live recording,” Pittman says “A band can record
live in one big room with line of site to each member, achieving a perfect
mix from a perfect signal chain in a perfect room.”
Contact Aspen @ Aspens’ Place Recording, 818-512-4500
8 December 2012 www.musicconnection.com