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Latest BIAB News |
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Paint-Balling for PopstarsThe new special offer is taking off really well where on day 3 of the 3 day midweek package you get to go paint-balling on the new site right on our farm - convenient eh! Below is a pic of Neil from the band Crackerman who brought his own stuff. Published: Saturday 21 June, 2008 London International Music ShowLast weekend as part of the stag weekend bash we went to the LIMS at Excell in Londons Docklands. There was no retail allowed this year which meant retailers were not there to hard sell their stuff but to showcase it. Whilst we were there we popped into see Chad Smith (RHCP) drummer do his exhibition. Heres a couple of shots showing Dirty Laws drummer Matt inside the clearsonic screening system and 3 guys in a drummers playoff where for 15 mins they have to out drum the other 2 - awesome to watch. Published: Saturday 21 June, 2008 Touch FMYesterday we had the lovely Kirsty from Touch FM (96.2FM) visit us at the barn. A brief trip to interview Roger about the studio, its\\\\\\\' background and indeed his, including of course a mention of baby Grace! Thanks to Kirsty for featuring us on the \\\\\\\'Workplace of Today\\\\\\\' item in her show. Our inclusion was mainly due to being members of the FSB. The show aims to help boost the profile to us small businesses. Published: Friday 30 May, 2008 New draw winner for 1st quarterThe last 4 days in the studio have been quite strange. With old fashioned style naming system and retro desires throughout the pieces this band were definite in what they wanted to create - on 1st listen its quite intense, often distasteful and certainly dischordant! Capturing just 3 songs we have proved that music can be pleasant in its abstractivity. Thom has an upsettingly good grasp of English language and paints musical pictures delicately over the ear grinding filthy guitar style of Simon whilst Sam underpins with a trance feel through solid repetitive drumming. Published: Friday 30 May, 2008 Born in a HospitalLittle Grace Rachel Greasby was born at 12.15pm on 16th March 2008 weighing in at 9Lb 14Oz and she is absolutely gorgeous. Laughing, crying, gurgling and sleeping are her first skills in life. Mum is doing brilliantly and we are both over the moon with our 1st born. Pic included here is of her in the hospital wrap. Published: Monday 17 March, 2008 General Studio PhotosHere are just 3 photos of the studio as seen thru the Annie lens. She is great. The live room was cleaned for nearly a day to get it looking this tidy! You can just see the new Knight piano and the ceiling sound reflection boards. In the control room photo you can just make out the new anglepoise mic arm - a great new invention all the way from China via America but it frees up floor space nicely. The B&W speakers are very clear! Thanks Annie. Published: Tuesday 04 March, 2008 2008 1st quarter update!Well here we are in March and 3 months have gone by since any news was put up here mainly due to website problems and general hosting miscommunications shall we say! But finally everything has been sorted so thank-you to our hosting team! Published: Tuesday 04 March, 2008 HospitalityFurthering out services is very important to us at the studio. For great music music to be made comfort is required. The studio is warm and comfy and we have a great chillzone which regularly doubles as overnight accommodation, festival style but we know you want more. So, in January \'08 we will be pleased to open another room with 2 bunks, a double sofa bed with bunk over, 4 hob cooker, shower cubicle & telly. Here you will be able to eat, sleep & wash in private yet remain on site. See yu soon. Published: Saturday 08 December, 2007 Mastering FacilitiesMonths of work and research has gone into bringing you the very best of modern mastering facilities at the barn. We have been out and about talking to people and listening to their desires and tried to act on the results. The studio now offers mastering as a facility to other users or to its own clients direct. Previously we have mostly concentrated on recording and mixing. Any clients who would like previous material remastering to our current higher fidelity standards are welcome to get in touch and we will find time for you. Published: Saturday 08 December, 2007 Singing CompetitionPlease see the flyer for full details. More later as we get closer to the event. Published: Monday 19 November, 2007 Beaver charityCoventrys own rockabilly trio The Eager Beavers have reformed after a short break & have made a backing CD to accompany them at a charity gig held at the Ricoh arena for Children in Need on the 22nd October 2007. Nice one guys. Published: Friday 05 October, 2007 West Midlands Police Brass bandAt last we have completed and finalised the project and once all 15 tracks have been approved this weekend the album will be complete and available for sale. Some taster examples will of course be on here for you to listen to. This was our largest project ever but its a voluntary band and as we always say .... you cant rush art!! Published: Friday 05 October, 2007 Knight Delight.....heck, weve only gone and found a gorgeous new piano to play. This one is Englands 2nd best make by all accounts - a beautiful 1980s Knight - rescued from a flood it has survived incredibly. The main worry was that the support bridge would have weakened and on tuning it may have cracked off but it hasnt. Great news for all youngsters needing accompaniments to their works. Published: Friday 05 October, 2007 Greet PeteOK its been a bloody busy month or 2 but thats because lots of big things have been happening for the studio. At the start of August a fairly big decision was taken - to take Pete onboard at the barn. Pete will be working himself through a 6 month training period whereby at the end he will be mainly responsible for the overall production of most of BB Studios output. This huge opportunity has been embraced by Pete & his first work can be heard thru local band Russian Gun Dogs featured on the MP3 sample page as well as Ego Armalade and Dynamite Dreams. Published: Friday 05 October, 2007 Producer Profile PagesIn accordance with some form of popular demand we will be incorporating producer profile pages into the website very soon, so you can see and read all about the antics of us here at the barn. Published: Sunday 19 August, 2007 Some of the new hardwareThe new Digidesign 192 digital interface has extended our capacity for us to record 16 digital channels at any one time. With the exhisting 192 interface which can service an extra 16 channels of either 8 digital & 8 analogue or 16 analogue we are pretty versatile to cover all your needs - ya buggers! Published: Friday 15 June, 2007 Chinese HolidaysChina was so much fun we thought it would be only fair to share some of the crazy instruments we came across, saw played in performances in theatres, on the streets, and of course we bought a few. Published: Wednesday 13 June, 2007 Chinese InstrumentsAlthought the chinese national instrument appears to be the Guzheng and resembles a zither these were not the most common instruments we found, probably due to their size, but Erhus (like violins loosely) and Pipas (resembles a Lute) were very common and indeed we bought an Erhu - its a fairly foul sounding device and was more fun bartering for it than playing it so far. Published: Wednesday 13 June, 2007 Chinese FunAnyone who has ever seen a monk praying/chanting may have seen them tapping on woodblocks at various speeds. Pictured here I was getting to play a really big one. The tone had a most unexpected softness and depth. I dont think I was suposed to play it as I was grumbled at seconds later, but it was in chinese so I have no idea what was said really. Published: Wednesday 13 June, 2007 Radio AdvertsAnyone listening to local radio much recently may have heard some stuff we did for local lubricants company Forte - a rather appropriate name we felt since we like stuff loud!! The Good Garage Scheme is organised by the rather lovely Rachel and it was a pleasure working for you! Published: Monday 21 May, 2007 We have been getting about a bitJust had a very satisfactory 2 days recording the West Midlands Brass Band in the Coventry Methodist Central Hall. Thanks to all the staff down there as they looked after us very well. Published: Friday 18 May, 2007 Upgrade complete!At last its done - it wasnt fun. Only joking the installing of new gear can be a tretcherous time but thankfully it is complete. To celebrate the new install we are going to rip it all out and go do a big live recording for the WM Police. Most of this year weve been forcing the law to break from their busy schedules and come in sections to the studio. Its been a big project for us, recording mainly traditional British marches. This live recording will add a different flavour to the album and help with some of the more easy pace numbers - rubato has become a very common word at the farm. So, that aside we are now fully 24 input ready for action. We have more headphones and much more flexibility to record how you want us to and not have to break everything down into parts if you dont want to. Published: Tuesday 15 May, 2007 Gigging in the Chelmesley Wood Police StationLast week as a test we went to Chelmesley Wood police station and recorded a rehearsal. Our stuff wasnt quite ready so a mobile recording rig was lent to us for the night courtesy of Pete who works at local venue the Golden Cross - cheers Pete. The rehearsal went ok but the venue this week should have much richer acoustics and we will have our full HD rig to record on. Published: Tuesday 15 May, 2007 Another Little Upgrade - oops!April is the season of newness when everyone Spring cleans a bit. Well cleaning is boring so we just went for the newness and got some more stuff for the studio. Basically we have upgraded our HD2 rig so we are now running the ProTools 7.3 version. Plus added more RAM to the poor old G5 and bought more hard drive space. Then we popped in another brand spanking new Digidesign 192 interface and some more digitals inputs through a second Octopre (8 line preamp). To add the gloss we upgraded the Platinum plugins, and have some new compressors for the desk and a couple of new pairs of headphones. So what - so we are now fully 24 channel input happy which means much more versatility for the bigger projects we do. All good but not installed till next week - ya boo hiss. Published: Saturday 14 April, 2007 Crufts 2007Last sunday we were proud and somewhat crowded to be involved in the production of the music to be used at this years Crufts. We had some big names in from London to help produce the backing tracks and 35 kids from Birminghams Stagecoach school. Whistle Down the Wind and Amigos Para Siempre were recorded for use as the introduction to announcement of the Best in Show or top dog!! This will be shown on BBC1 March 11th live. Published: Wednesday 28 February, 2007 Popular PianosYeah we have acquired a wonderful Collard & Collard upright piano just for the live room as so many folk have been requesting something like that in there. Its a groovy dark mahogany colour with a warm rich sound and by the looks of the photo has hell fire coming out of it. The Estate Agents (Cov lads at Bristol Uni) made first use of it this week. Published: Wednesday 21 February, 2007 Warwick Uni BOTBJust a quick note to all entries to the Warwick University Battle of the Bands 2007 to say good luck and stuff! We have agreed with the organisers to sponsor this event again and are happy to be offering 1 FREE day to the runners up in the main competition. Finals are mid March and winners announced on the final night by independant panel of judges. Published: Tuesday 23 January, 2007 Live Lounge LunacyEvery year just before Xmas due to it being a relatively quiet time, as everyone wants to buy prezzies n stuff not be recorded, we launch into doing some home improvements. Published: Tuesday 23 January, 2007 Live Room refurbishmentsJust a quick note to say the studio will be closed now till Jan 3rd. We are of course not slacking but will be making significant improvements to the live room ceiling and possibly introducing some new 2 sided baffles to the roof structure. its all happening. Photos when its done. Published: Tuesday 23 January, 2007 Christmas came early for BBChristmas shopping is dangerous. We had to buy the studio a nice shiney present since we have some fairly big brass projects on the go. This is the first of some new ribbon mics we are looking at and frankly it rocks! Published: Tuesday 23 January, 2007 Gloucester GuysThe winners of the autumn draw were a band called Final Sense from Gloucester. Metal-tastic with a great feel to the spirit in the band. They recorded one song which changed its name subtley to **With Blooded Hands** during the day and has a very mature vocal with new found vocal power due to our vocal bullying techniques! Check it out on the MP3 page. Well done guys & we hope the new guitarist is suitably inspired. Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 Skint!The 3 minute medley of different tracks is offerd on this site to anyone searching for the real Vernon Burgess Im Skint record. Vernon is a wonderful character who has made life interesting for everyone involved in him and his cause. The singles collection was completed some 2 months ago and is still awaiting some form of release but plans constantly change and we understand Vernon has run away at present. When everyone has been found, people paid and contracts signed no doubt his single will be released. The single was requested by Vernon to be sold for £5 and comprise 7 songs by various individuals with profits going to Vernon of course. Understandably many studios and kind people have been involved to date. The version available through Paul Mannings X7.com site is a low fi original version made by Vernons friends in a flat in Birmingham and is not really for the public but some people just get carried away. Any further questions on this subject please make through the studio enquiries email address. Come home Vernon!! Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 Ben!!Where are you Ben - clearly you are not here but if you see this - get in touch dude!!! Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 End of year releasesLeicester band ** ist ** are due to release their double A side vinyl EP soon and the single is available for download on 4dec06 and the vinyl should be out a week later. Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 BB on the BBCBB Studio has been involved with Vernon Burgess to varying degrees for a few months. Vernon is currently a minor celebrity on the BBC show Skint and there is a follow up broadcast this month to what he has been up to since the series finished in October. Monday 27th November scheduled for 10.35pm. The studio will be shown for about 4 seconds! Its all for a good cause. Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 Jamie Westwood in AmericaJamie has completed his first track for UMG in america in conjunction with Kino. Blue Sky is a fantastic track which can be heard on this site. Double Tap is also developing well and will be available soon. Jamie is from Surrey but studying here in Cov when hes not writing new material or spending hours in the studio - check out the sleepy shot - now thats what 12 hours on a track does to ya! More later..... Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 Vigilante Wing ReturnHailing from a place up north known loosely as chipshop, this band of 4 thoroughly devoted guys are something to be reckoned with. Ben, the new bass player, known loosely as Problem Drinker needs to be watched closely both on and off the stage and as for Carlos the nuisance drum guy, aka Cock Reference, well he clearly likes his burgers, as seen here. Ali vocals (n guitar) is powerful, deep and emotional whilst Barney, on guitars, well he plays guitars but sometimes cheats a bit and uses a magnet (loooooser). Their music is huge, serious, slightly upsetting but very well written. If you get the chance, do do do do do go see them (and throw lots of bad vegetables their way cos they like that). Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 IST and Jay BurnettThe 4 piece band with roots in Canada and Scotland have just recorded 4 tracks under some guidance from top London producer Jay Burnett who has worked with the likes of the Beastie Boys n Hall & Oakes. Jay helped mostly with the vocals on 3 tracks including the proposed 52 second single - Im Jesus and Youre Not. We hope to be hearing much more from them later this year. Have a look for yourselves : http://www.istianity.co.uk Published: Tuesday 16 January, 2007 SKINTLast year a series was run on the BBC called Skint and this year there is a follow up to it starting tonight at 10.45pm on BBC1 for half an hour, then same time for the next 6 weeks. BB Studio was hired to rerecord the vocals to Vernons forthcoming single release - Im Skint - and master the singles collection to promote it with. Its an interesting collection of music but all tracks have Vernons cause in mind and clearly the proceeds will go to helping him on his way. Published: Wednesday 20 September, 2006 The worlds smallest frog!If anyone has lost him then please ask Graham! Published: Wednesday 20 September, 2006 Battle of the Bands prize winnersReplica X are a hard rock 5 piece with big vocals and a great live sound and stage presence. However they came and surprised us all at BB Studio with a ballad called Eternity. This will be mixed with their forthcoming EP and available soon. Well done to the X - see yu soon. Published: Tuesday 12 September, 2006 Block 98Aiming to help the cause of Vernon, Block 98 have come to the studio to mix a dedication track to Vernon Burgess. Supported and managed by Paul Manning they came and experienced a powercut of all things so recorded the verses in the dark. Unphased by the loss of phase to the farm they returned next day to complete the project. See yu soon guys. Published: Saturday 26 August, 2006 Bulldog Bash BarminessThis year for a bit of a break from reality the boys at BB went for a break at the Bulldog Bash, and that was exactly what happened to the tent - it broke. We didnt need to be there and famously we hadnt even got a bike!!! (now - as you can imagine - a `you had to be there` kinda phrase.) But rumour has it we may be sponsoring this event next year! If a dude with a Harley an a big back wheel and a fez (was ours!) reads this - get in touch ya crazy monk! Cheers to all the Angels. Published: Monday 21 August, 2006 The BBC drop in!!Yep tis true the beeb dropped by this afternoon to film Vernon on his trail to success - some may remember him from last year on a programme about people living on the breadline called Skint. Well Vernon has been picked up and is being helped to new found success by Paul Manning who shall be making him rich shortly in conjunction with the promotion of his book X7.com. BB Studio has been selected to help make a secret single - more later. Check out www.x7.com for more details and follow the links. Published: Monday 07 August, 2006 Ouch - we couldnt resistThesales rep at Focusrite was great - perhaps too great so we have bought a new preamp for all yer vocals, rappers and talkers out there so you can waffle on in even more purity now. The Focusrite Voicemaster Pro has built in compression, expansion, limiters, eq and tube sound and de-essers the lot!! Its all good!! Published: Tuesday 01 August, 2006 WarningIf you leave yer boot slightly open after a gig and things start to move around (sounds like erratic driving to me) then things fall out. If they get trapped and bounce around behind you for 10 miles, they get damaged - odd that!! Published: Tuesday 01 August, 2006 Graham!He is new - who knows why - he has got ears and arms and white shoes - no-one is normal in this game - and hes really quite chirpy. We havent bought him - although we guess we may have to. Thats all for now - nosey! Published: Thursday 20 July, 2006 CymbalsYeah ok we got a couple of new cymbals for the house kit too - sssshh. The 18 inch Sabian ROCKTAGON metal crash is awesome! Well if you like the sound of trashy kinda oriental bin lids it is. The 10 inch Zildjian splash just looked all cute on the stand and even tho Matt tried to put it down his trousers we still took it! Published: Thursday 20 July, 2006 More Mics MadnessWe got a day off in June so guess what we did - we went shopping!! It was a bit of a t.bone frenzy really with the addition of a very sexy mic called the SC1100 with lovely figure 8, cardioid and hypercardioid switches plus a bass roll off filter - just ask and you can have a go. We simply could not resist the GM-55 Elvis Mic - a studio must, plus 3 more BD-200 - great on toms and all round workhorses. We snuck in a lil Sennheiser e606 too. OK so we did it all from the pc but its still shopping! Published: Thursday 20 July, 2006 June draw winnersThe Remarks have just finished their tracks and there is one for all to listen too on the MP3 page - odd that! Forgotten Friends was 1 of 2 tracks recorded as planned but they grabbed a live track too - we try our hardest for everyone! Dark, moody even solemn vocals with hypnotic guitar riffs made for an excellent feel to this debut EP for them. More promised later this year. Well done guys - see yu soon. Published: Thursday 22 June, 2006 Myspace account up and activeBB Studio has a second pair of hands working part time and some will have chatted on the phone or through the Myspace account to Matt recently. Matt set up the Myspace account and manages this alongside many other tasks involving the wretched pc!! Published: Thursday 22 June, 2006 The IndigosOK so its a bad headline but we just wanted to say that this was an awesome session guys. Getting things to sound dirty is certainly your thang and watching Arni in Commando with running commentaries was possibly the funniest/strangest experience in a long time! Check this group out soon - if they ever reapperar from the myspace empire. They are keeping themselves a mystery at the mo so we will too!! Top-tastic tunes from Tamworth. Published: Thursday 22 June, 2006 BB signagecos we take note of what our customers say we have added some new signs to the farm tracks, to help you all find where to go once on the farm grounds. Just follow the little bb circle logo signs - there are 4 of them to spot! Published: Sunday 04 June, 2006 V8V8 are an established rock covers band spanning many different rock genres but playing it all V8 stylee! Awesome sound and very tight together this band do around 90 shows a year and if you check their site its clear they have a mad time at gigs. www.v8rock.com Checkout their \'Slither\' in the Mp3 player Published: Monday 01 May, 2006 BB Facelift!worth a mention. Its Spring and to celebrate the studio has had a facelift. A BIG thankyou to the guys at Garden Eascape (friends of Trailer) on the farm for building new doors and helping paint the front of the studio. To those who have visited sadly the dodgy rotten frontage has at last been brought into the 21st century. Not bad for a building which is several hundred years old. There - we said it wasn\\\\\\\'t exciting but you just read it!!! Published: Friday 28 April, 2006 The LadykillersThe Ladykillers are a 4 piece from Birmingham who are recording an album with the proposal to release one of their tracks (Jellybeans) later this summer through various strong connections to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Many will have heard this track already on various compilation charts such as those on www.birminghamusic.com A little behind schedule at mo but more later on this amazing group. Published: Thursday 13 April, 2006 Bootleg PoetsThis 6 day session started strangely and continued to be fuelled by alcohol but the results were far from sloppy. This band are quite straightforward in their style (quite Cribs esque) but have very emotional lyrics and great vocal style. A well bonded band that should go far with their current drive for fame and fortune. Published: Thursday 13 April, 2006 Warwick Uni Battle of the BandsBB Studio was recently involved with the annual Warwick University battle of the bands competition. This year, after some last minute arrangements, we sponsored the competition by giving away a free day in the studio to the runners up, as we did the previous year. Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 The Years - the returnThis band just cant stop ! More tracks ready to record and more time booked later this month - watch this space and hopefully there will be tracks up on the site in no time. Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 Decatone swing throughMarch 11-12 weekend saw a new studio use in its infancy. The studio was pure hired to Decatone, who brought their own engineer just to record, and the tracks will be mixed at their leisure on their own gear. EP due for release date at end of April. It was a packed weekend of musical artistry & general chaos - photos to follow! Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 The YearsThe Years is an inspirational indie, pop-rock band hailing from Nuneaton with 5 members all lunging forward from the hips to get into the local music scene. They found the studio from the basic web-based searches and after a brief chat booked in for their first session - now loosely termed the whiskey sessions! Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 New GearMics - this time by Rode - astonishing response & great sound as expected. Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 Birthday BashOn the 3rd December 2005 BB Studio held a party at the Golden Cross in Coventry, hosted by Jonny Random. 2 bands were booked to play from local area, namely Soul Weighs Three Quarters and Uncle Ghost. Published: Friday 24 March, 2006 |
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