Lush, reverberant spaces for recording in NYC

[mahler007]

Hi Slutz,
I am currently scouting places in NYC for recording a CD project. The CD is all nylon string guitar music, with one piece for guitar, flute, viola, and harp.

Rather than recording in a studio, I *really* want to find a nice reverberant space that will bring out and amplify the body and resonance of the guitar, in addition to really helping the ensemble piece congeal in a sonically beautiful way.

Along these lines, I'm wondering if any of you know of some places that I could check out? My first choice, the St. Marks Church in the Bowery (on 10th and 2nd Ave) is pretty much as perfect as I've been able to find so far, but they charge $300 and hour for rental!! I'll do whatever I have to, but figured I'd see if anybody else has any good leads on places that might be cheaper.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Andrew M. Lee

[bove]

As I read your post, one place that comes to mind is the chapel at Columbia University... a very reverberant room. The walls and floor are tile, and there are no pews, it is somewhat of a large open square with a circular dome. You can probably visit to take a listen sometime fairly easily.

I don't know what their rental situation is, but I know groups rent it for live concerts and weddings etc.
Panoramic View

[themaidsroom]

St. Marks church offers alot - i have been there many times in the past twenty
years - it is steeped in the best of what is new york culture for a long time
$300 seems reasonable if you could capture the piece in a couple of hours



be well


- jack

[mahler007]

Originally Posted by themaidsroom

St. Marks church offers alot - i have been there many times in the past twenty
years - it is steeped in the best of what is new york culture for a long time
$300 seems reasonable if you could capture the piece in a couple of hours



be well


- jack

Thanks for the information- I will definitely check out Columbia.

I have no doubts about St. Mark's cultural significance in NYC- it's a great place for sure, but I am not sure how valuable that is (to me, anyway) in the making of a recording, where the actually physical properties of the space are far more important than any particular cache that the place may have within the community!

Anyway, the search is on... Does anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks again...

Cheers,
Andrew

[mpdonahue]

While NYC is littered with decent sounding churches, virtually all of them suffer from noise problems that would make a chamber music recording like the one you describe impossible. The only place in the city that I would attempt such a recording is the "American Academy of Arts and Letters" up at 155th and Broadway.
All the best,
Mark

[Jim vanBergen]

Nicely said, Mark.

The other issue is... anywhere you go, from Christ Chapel in Riverside Church (where I did Bjork, and sounds great) to St John the Divine or their small Synod Hall (all wood, really interesting acoustics!) still have to deal with truck rumbles, the rare chopper, taxi horns, even just the sound of heating pipes clanking. I did a great jazz orchestra recording at a church near Lincoln Center and a pipe organ recording over in the Christian Science Church on Park in the 60's- all of them had ambient noise issues, and... every one of them cost over $300 for use of the hall.

Originally Posted by mpdonahue

While NYC is littered with decent sounding churches, virtually all of them suffer from noise problems that would make a chamber music recording like the one you describe impossible. The only place in the city that I would attempt such a recording is the "American Academy of Arts and Letters" up at 155th and Broadway.
All the best,
Mark

[Legacy]

Hi Andrew,

The Academy of Arts and Letters (212.368.5900 Ardith) comes to mind. It is a spectacular space for all of the things you mention and is quite quiet compared to local churches. Tons of recordings happen there. Its about $ 130 an hr and is booked in 4 hour blocks. (EDT-Sorry- I see Mark already said most of this...)

Purchase PAC outside of White Plains is also top notch acoustically but will be faster / brighter. The Academy is pillowy and darker.

Many recordings have been made at St. Peter's in Chelsea. It has the same noise issues as other churches but is acoustically beautiful. Its a smaller church but has a very fine traditional church sound. Go to: represented by: sandra elm and click on facility. Contact Sandra Elm for more info but I think its like $300 for a 4 hr block.

I hope this helps,
Silas

[resound]

There are some fine places in Jersey, too, if you're willing to cross the river.

[RobAnderson]

There is also LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College. It is quiet enough if you can get it between semesters (like now) and if you unplug the soda machine in the hallway :-)

Nothing like a church though - a brighter, shorter reverb. It's a pretty good space for chamber music.

I don't know what they charge per hour for recordings.

[themaidsroom]

i was writing less of cache and more of vibe - those ghosts will be all up in
your recording


- jack

[Musiclab]

try Trinity church at Wall Street and Broadway. If you can record in the evening, it will be quiet and the room reverb is wonderful. BTW if you need a pipe organ, the trinity organ
is tough to beat

[mpdonahue]

Originally Posted by Musiclab

try Trinity church at Wall Street and Broadway. If you can record in the evening, it will be quiet and the room reverb is wonderful. BTW if you need a pipe organ, the trinity organ
is tough to beat

FYI, the organ at Trinity Wall Street was destroyed on 9/11 and replaced with a sampled organ from Marshall and Ogletree. I actually did some of the work on the surround demo of the organ when it was being voiced.
While many of the organ purists are screaming about the fact that they are not putting in a new pipe organ, the M&O Opus 1 is really a pretty amazing instrument.

All the best,
-mark

[aracu]

Hey I see you live in Brooklyn. When the weather gets nice again, which could
take a while, check out the tunnels in Prospect Park. I'm not kidding.

[Musiclab]

Originally Posted by mpdonahue

FYI, the organ at Trinity Wall Street was destroyed on 9/11 and replaced with a sampled organ from Marshall and Ogletree. I actually did some of the work on the surround demo of the organ when it was being voiced.
While many of the organ purists are screaming about the fact that they are not putting in a new pipe organ, the M&O Opus 1 is really a pretty amazing instrument.

All the best,
-mark

Holy Cow, Larry King who was the organist there for 20 years or so before he passed away must be turning in his grave. I worked there in the 70's and that was one amazing organ.

[bove]

Originally Posted by Legacy

Hi Andrew,

The Academy of Arts and Letters (212.368.5900 Ardith) comes to mind. It is a spectacular space for all of the things you mention and is quite quiet compared to local churches. Tons of recordings happen there. Its about $ 130 an hr and is booked in 4 hour blocks. (EDT-Sorry- I see Mark already said most of this...)

Purchase PAC outside of White Plains is also top notch acoustically but will be faster / brighter. The Academy is pillowy and darker.

Many recordings have been made at St. Peter's in Chelsea. It has the same noise issues as other churches but is acoustically beautiful. Its a smaller church but has a very fine traditional church sound. Go to: represented by: sandra elm and click on facility. Contact Sandra Elm for more info but I think its like $300 for a 4 hr block.

I hope this helps,
Silas

The hall at the Academy of Arts and Letters is a beautiful space for recording, but they are currently not renting the space out. They're doing some demolition/construction next door and have noise issues. They plan to begin booking new times this summer.

[mahler007]

Thanks so much for all the information, y'all- I really appreciate it.

Not to beat a dead horse, but if anybody has any suggestions for places in boroughs other than Manhattan, or in NJ, I'm certainly amenable to that as well. The tunnels in Prospect Park sound fantastic, I'm sure, but perhaps not worth the aggravation in the long run.

One thing I should probably mention is that I'm pretty specific about what I'm looking for. I'm sure you guys already know this, but the guitar is such a quiet instrument that *large* spaces often don't do it justice, even if they are reverberant, since the guitar simply doesn't have enough power to "activate" the space. It's an instrument with a great deal of potential dynamic variety within a relatively small dynamic range. A great space really amplifies and expands that dynamic range, which is really what I'm looking to capture in the performance (hopefully)

FWIW, below is an excerpt from a recording I made in a medium-sized stone vestibule at Princeton University that I really loved playing in. Unfortunately, it is a somewhat high traffic area, with students passing through fairly often. I got lucky enough one day during the summer to record a demo of a piece in there, and I really love the way it sounds- super 'verby. Although it's perfect for what I'd like to do, it is a bit impractical due to circumstances. I would really like to find a place around town somewhere very similar to this one:

https://silvertone.princeton.edu/~amlone/Variation.mp3

Thanks again for your input...

Cheers,
Andrew

[mahler007]

Originally Posted by themaidsroom

i was writing less of cache and more of vibe - those ghosts will be all up in
your recording


- jack

Indeed- a little paranormal mojo never hurt anybody, at least AFAIK

[aracu]

You can also go another route, to create a sound absorbant room without any ambience, by covering cieling and walls with thick acoustical cotten, then add high quality artificial reverb later. It can sound fantastic with quiet instrument(s).

[resound]

You could check out Sacred Heart in Bloomfield:
http://www.sacredheartbloomfield.com/
It's not a small space, but it has a great sound and is about a 5 minute walk from NJ transit. I had a guitar piece played there on a recital a few years ago. The archival recording sounded really nice: the performer was really able to "play" the space with the piece. I'm not sure about their rental policy. The music director is a composer, too, so there may be an advocate there in him.