State of the art analog recording adds ‘tone’
Artists and bands who value the concept of ‘old school’ recording are finding what they need at a unique studio in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s the new home of both Muscle Shoals Sound Studios (MSSS) and Chess Records, and its owner Noel Webster.
See previous post here for more about the history of MSSS and the unique, historic, recording equipment still in use there today.
Artists who come here to record say they achieve a unique tone; a sound they have not been able to find anywhere else. Noel will tell you that comes from the equipment that he rescued and restored back to its peak performance. Consoles, microphones, amps, speakers and control boards from the Hit Factory, Abbey Road, Capitol Records and Motown.
But much of that unique tone must be due to the man at the controls, Noel Webster. A musician himself, he put in twelve years on the road as the ‘sound man’ for acts like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd at major venues from arenas to stadiums. He developed the skill of making an act sound great at live gigs. He fleshed out that skill with his next venture when he bought and renovated the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.
“The music is always going to change, but it all still comes down to the song and the singer. If we can capture them in the most realistic way, the results are astounding.” – Noel Webster
‘It changed their lives’
Thinking back to those days, Noel said, “It started to develop where people would come in and record, but it changed their lives in the way they made records because we didn’t edit everybody in. Such as put a drum and bass down then have everybody build on top of it. We wanted everybody, at the same time, playing together, a core. Then you build on that.”
As we walked through Noel’s studio in Huntsville, his passion for the music and the craft of recording was evident in his voice.
“When we record these [artists], we like to record them ‘live’ on the floor,” he said. “We get as much as we can on those passes. The techniques that we use are based on history. We’ve got our twists and our tools, what we call tradecraft. The little things we like to do.
“At the end of the day, I’m not out to replicate what was done in the past. I just like to keep it alive. The techniques, the way that people record. The music is always going to change, but it all still comes down to the song and the singer. If we can capture them in the most realistic way, the results are astounding.”
Artists who come to this studio will find a refreshing change from many producers they have previously worked with who might have wanted to retain a financial interest in the recordings.
‘We want artists to secure their rights’
“One of the primary ways I wanted to set this up, we don’t want ‘points’ on the record, we don’t want publishing from them, we don’t want anything to do with their copyrights,” he said. “We want artists to secure their rights. We actually teach them how to secure their rights and they own their rights. When they come to us, they pay us for our services, but from there on, they own everything.”
Artists usually expect to record their tracks in one place and maybe find somewhere else to mix the tracks and somewhere else to master them. With Noel, everything is done in house from recording to mastering. I asked him to explain the process.
“We set up everybody in the room in the traditional recording sense,” he said. “A lot of the time, we don’t use booths, although sometimes we’ll put somebody in a different room if they want to use the effect of that room. But for the most part, everything is tracked, mixed and overdubbed live here on the floor; mixed in the studio. All the effects, reverbs, tape delays, things like that. We mix them down.
Straight to the mastering lab
“Once we get our two-track mixes, we’re the only studio around that doesn’t have to use an A/D conversion to get in to mastering. We literally take that format and it appears in our mastering lab. They can mix it there and listen to a mastering dial-up of what they want, trim their tails, get the kind of levels they want. And then we A/B them back in the studio so they can listen in the control room and the main room and mastering to get what they want.
“And when they all decide this is the mix we want for our release, then we just package it and literally just hand it to them on a USB stick and they can then burn it to CDs, play it in the car, put it on iTunes right now. So at least they have control of the complete content of their package. They know what they’re getting, they know what they’re sending out.”
Noel now owns the name, trademark and logo of iconic Chess Records, the legendary label from his home town of Chicago. He is now president of Chess Records LLC. We talked more about Noel and Chess Records in the previous post.
I said to Noel that we think of a record label releasing songs. Is that what he intends to do?
Not running a record label
“No. I have no intention of running a record label in the traditional sense,” he stipulated. “It’s where everything we can use to keep the label brand alive. As long as we’re making product that the artist is happy with, then we’re going to let them use that as a facility to promote themselves. That would be a very simple arrangement for them to get the licensing agreement to use the name and if they want to put our [Chess] logo on their product they can do that as well.”
Sitting at the lovingly-restored console from Capitol Records that is now working again in his studio, Noel talked about how artists can benefit from this connection. “The point of Chess and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios is to have the ability to use those famous names to help them promote their careers, not the other way around. We don’t want to sign and shelve people. We don’t want to put people in stables and say ‘these are our artists.’ We want to lease them these names [of Chess and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios] so they can use these famous marques to their advantage.”
‘Soup to nuts’ recording experience
I was expecting to hear about some hefty fees for all of this, but was pleasantly surprised at the remarkably reasonable daily fees, particularly as this is an ‘all-in-one’ service. Noel even pointed out bedrooms where artists can ‘crash’ if sessions go late into the night!
It is rare to find a studio where everything can be done – expertly – under one roof, from recording the first note to mastering the final product. To have it done on historically important equipment, produced by Noel Webster of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios is truly unique.
To find out more about the opportunity of recording at Noel Webster’s unique Huntsville studio, contact him at muscleshoalssound@mac.com.
“We don’t want ‘points’ on the record, we don’t want publishing from them, we don’t want anything to do with their copyrights. We want artists to secure their rights.” – Noel Webster
Preshias Harris is a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com