Best session ever

[Dave Zirbel]

I had the pleasure of working at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley Ca this weekend.
What a great facility! It was one of the most painless sessions I've done and I think it was because I was surrounded by professionals and top of the line gear in working order! The headphones worked great. Usually I like to be in the control room playing through monitors because most places have terrible headphone mixes. We tracked live in the studio. Each musician had the own mix for the headphones. It was a vanity project and the song was a cover tune by George Harrison called All Things Must Pass. Live is the way to go to get the right feel! The producer and drummer was John Cuniberti. He's done some major suff for Joe Satriani, Grateful Dead and a list of others. The bassist was Chris Solberg who has worked with Carlos Santana, Chris Issac, etc. I go back tomorrow for some overdubs on more tunes.

Having everything in working order with great sounds and a great vibe really makes it fun and painless. I've done too many nightmare sessions and thought they were all like that. Now I'm spoiled!

Just sharing!

Check it out:
http://www.fantasystudios.com/

Dave

[Tony Prior]

Dave, sounds great ! Although I have a very limited session career, about two months back I was hired to do multiple sessions for a MUZAK collage CD, 35 tracks of which I played on I think 6 or 7. One of them was written and produced by P Huxley of ELO, the studio was really fine, the gear, the engineering, the attitudes all great, but when I got there and it was P Huxley producing , man what a rocket ship ride . !

He sat in the studio with me telling me he had no idea what to expect so we talked , I played a few variations, he shared what he was looking for and low and behold he just pulled it all out of me smiling all the way. Basically a Piano based ballad with a really fine female vocalist with the Steel filling in between the holes, not Country, but Country'ish...A few licks here and there but more middle of the road phrasing. He really knew how to match tones and phrasing. He made it seem so easy.

When it was over he wrote my name in his little book and said to not be surprised if I get a call someday to come to up to DC and do a project with him..ok...sure..I'll wait here !


Reading your experience reminded me of this in a flash, I don't do many sessions so this one really stood out as being a real moment.

tp

[Gordy Hall]

Dave,

I've been in that studio a couple times, and it IS really nice. We worked with engineer Richard Hart (I don't think he's there anymore) and it has a great sound, especially for live recordings. Probably the nicest studio I've been in.

Built with funds provided by CCR, by the way.

Gordy

[Mark van Allen]

There's really nothing like a truly sweet session. Makes all the effort worthwhile!