American Vinyl Company managed to combine both with its American Sound Truck, which I personally experienced recently. I had noticed the gray van parked next to the firm’s building on my regular walks up the South Slope but didn’t bother to drop by to see what it was all about. I guess I was afraid I’d be interrupting a recording session.
I became even more intrigued after seeing a local TV news segment on the operation that described how AVC offered analog recording and vinyl record pressing. In a previous blog I had written about my tour at Citizen Vinyl, a company across town that also records and manufactures vinyl records, but it only dealt in minimum runs of 500 copies. That would entail a significant investment for a lowly independent performing songwriter like me. I’d also have a difficult time selling that many records.
American Vinyl, however, offers short runs so I could get a few copies made at a reasonable price. I booked a session online just to see how the whole thing would work. I also thought it would be cool to add a record to my collection of CDs, cassette tapes, and digital downloads.
I arrived with my guitar early and went upstairs to where the company has its record pressing and cover art printing facility. That floor also contains a museum of vintage recording equipment and a wooden recording booth for solo sessions. There’s a stage, as well, but for now there aren’t any live music shows scheduled.
I was told that my engineer Ryan was already in the sound truck getting things ready for my appointment so I went back to the parking lot and climbed aboard. The mobile studio with its checkerboard-tiled floor had a chair and a variety of microphones and stands. It is large enough to accommodate a small band of four or five so there was plenty of room for me to stretch out.
Ryan, a musician himself, maintained a cool vibe, letting me know when he was “rolling tape,” and allowing me to start over when I messed up an intro. I’m used to multi-tracking at home where I can punch in corrections to the separate guitar or vocal tracks so this was a different concept for me. I had to play and sing all the songs live, but it was much less difficult and intimidating than I expected. My tendencies to be a perfectionist and control freak had to be put in check.
After recording five songs I chose four to be put on a 10-inch record (two on each side) and left Ryan to do some mixing. AVC also offers seven-inch and twelve-inch records.
After having a craft brew (yes, as in most places in “Beer City” American Vinyl has cold drafts on tap) my sweetheart Pat and I walked downtown to get something to eat. I returned about an hour or so later and my two records, packaged in white sleeves and brown poster board covers were ready for pickup. They even had center label stickers with spaces to write down the names of the songs.
When I got home and played the records on my stereo I heard my music as never before. I could really tell the difference in the warm analog sound. The balance between guitar and vocal was perfect.
Needless to say, I was very pleased with the experience and will do some more recording there. Maybe next time I’ll try squeezing into that four-minute recording booth with my guitar and giving it a spin.