Client Stories

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Bill Jabr is a world-class producer, musician and engineer who has hosted hip-hop elite like Childish Gambino, André 3000, Juice Wrld and Travis Scott at his Blue Room studios. Under the banner of Blue Room, Bill and his partners have built out two amazing studios including Blue South in the ATL and the newer Blue West in Los Angeles. With the buildout of Blue West, Bill was looking to install a centerpiece that carried the weight and punch of a classic API console. While he had always wanted an API 1608, the brand's newly debuted 2448 was an even better fit for the studio and Bill worked with Vintage King Audio Consultant Chris Karn to bring the desk home. Continue reading →

Detroit-based techno pioneer Carl Craig believes that to come out of the Motor City you need to be powerful. This statement not only applies to the town's musical exports, but to the pro audio creations being built here by the likes of Mesanovic. "I'm really proud of Deni [Mesanovic] for coming up with a great speaker," says Carl of the new Mesanovic RTM10 monitor. "I'm ready for his speaker to impact the world in the same way that Detroit music has impacted the world." Continue reading →

Heavy Melody Music is led by a team of composers and sound designers with long resumes in the worlds of film, TV and video games. Since its formation by Dave Fraser and Neil Goldberg in 1999, the company has worked with elite clients like Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Atari, NFL, Sony, Gillette and NBC. In addition to sound design, the brand's sister company, Heavyocity Media, makes award-winning virtual instruments.   Recently, Heavy Melody Music and Heavyocity Media moved into a new facility and found themselves with enough space to fit a large-format recording console. The group had previously worked with Vintage King Audio Consultant Jacob Schneider to install three API THE BOX consoles and wanted to scale up with something they were familiar with. Continue reading →

For over two decades, artists from around the globe have been flocking to Maximus Music to find the key to that Southern sound. Owner and founder Ira Parker has propelled the Queen City studio to success and brought in an incredible array of talent including Anthony Hamilton, G-Eazy, Rick Ross, Jadakiss and many more. We recently sat down with Ira for our new Studio Spotlight series to talk about Maximus Music in more detail. Continue below to find out how Ira started the studio, hear his favorite stories about artists working in the room, and discover some of his go-to gear that he picked up from Vintage King Audio Consultant Anthony Erwin. Continue reading →

Based out of Miami, Florida, Ricardo Sangiao is one of the hottest names in mastering at the moment. Known for his work in the Latin, hip-hop, and dance genres, Ricardo has had a hand in many platinum releases in the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down. He's mastered records for Rick Ross, Danny Ocean, and Diljit Dosanjh, just to name a few. Working under legendary engineer Bob Katz, Ricardo has learned from the best and is now applying his knowledge at his own studio, World Class Mastering. Ricardo recently sat down with Vintage King for a Five Sounds With interview to talk about a number of records he has worked on, his process and the gear he uses. Continue reading →

Serge Espitia is a mastering engineer out of Maplewood, New Jersey. With over a decade of experience in the music industry, he has spent time working in some of the most recognizable studios in the world, including Blue Jay Recording in Boston, and East Side Sound, Stratosphere Sound and Masterdisk in New York. In 2011, Serge began putting together his own Brooklyn-based studio space under the banner of Tiny Thunder Audio. Eventually, he headed to New Jersey and shifted focus from tracking and mixing to predominantly mastering. Recently, we sat down to talk with Serge about the history of Tiny Thunder, his philosophy on mixing vs. mastering, and some of the gear choices that he’s made for his studio. Continue reading →

For IDLES' followup to 2018's Joy As An Act Of Resistance, the British rock band went to France to work with producers Adam "Atom" Greenspan and Nick Launay. The resulting record, Ultra Mono, quickly became a huge success, hitting #1 on the UK charts and making appearances on many 2020 year-end lists. This isn't the first time Atom and Nick have worked together on a record. Their partnership dates back to a chance meeting which led to Nick becoming a mentor to Atom. While both have done incredible work on their own, together they've made albums with the likes of  Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Refused.   We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Atom about his experience working on Ultra Mono. Read on to learn about recording drums in a stone wine cellar, his go-to vocal chain for vocalist Joe Talbot and what it's like making a record with his friend Nick. Continue reading →

Mad Muse Studios is a brand new world-class recording studio in Los Angeles. Owned by In Flight Music Group, Mad Muse combines a welcoming open floor plan with an incredible acoustic response, several racks full of vintage outboard gear, and a custom SSL G+ Series console purchased through Vintage King. Formerly known as In Flight Music Studios, Mad Muse recently moved to a new location and rebranded during the COVID-19 crisis to help bring focus to their recording services and create separation between its ownership group, which offers a wide range of entertainment services. We recently had the chance to chat with Matt Salazar (CEO), Zulma Tercero (COO), and Lucas Flood (CMO) of In Flight Music Group about what it was like building a new studio from the ground up. Read on to learn about their impressive collection of vintage gear and what it’s like working in a non-traditional studio with an open floor plan. Continue reading →

Being one of the most prestigious studios in the world, the bar is set incredibly high for the quality of gear utilized at EastWest Studios, especially for audio converters. When deciding what gear to bring into the studio, EastWest's manager Candace Stewart often looks to her clients as a source of inspiration. "We find out what our clients want and we get it," says Candace. "I can't remember who introduced me to the BURL Audio converters, it might have been Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton / Sturgill Simpson), but they said they needed new converters. The people wanted a better converter." Continue reading →

Wargirl is a six-person garage rock band co-founded by Matt Wignall in 2016. The band combines an eclectic range of influences including current events, world music grooves, dub-centered rhythms, and lyrics of substance. Wargirl makes music that matters, but also makes you want to get down — the soundtrack of our times. The band recently recorded their new record, Dancing Gold, at Matt’s garage-based Tackyland Studio in Long Beach, California. In addition to producing and recording Wargirl’s albums, Matt has also worked with indie-rock icons like Cold War Kids and Mando Diao. Continue reading →