The Atrium Studio - Tommy Lee

[Mnemosound]

Just saw a link to Tommy Lee's studio. Looks nice!

[shanabit]

Quite nice

[biggator6]

Wow.

I guess being rich and famous doesn't suck for building a badass studio, eh?

[Preme Diesel]

soak it up, vintech haters

[shanabit]

Originally Posted by Preme Diesel

soak it up, vintech haters

I didnt want to say it, glad you did LOL

[Faderjockey]

I wonder if he knows what's in there? Did he pick the stuff or hire an engineer buddy to do it?

[Mike Caffrey]

You probably don't really need the famous part.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by Faderjockey

I wonder if he knows what's in there? Did he pick the stuff or hire an engineer buddy to do it?

I'm the engineer who helped Tommy put the place together. He was quite involved with the whole process of the build.

[Dean Roddey]

That is serious studio porn. I wouldn't even need to record anything. I could just go in there and caress the knobs for a few hours a day and be completely satisfied. There should be a bowl of condoms at the door.

[shanabit]

So this is just his personal writing and recording setup and for his FRIENDS? WOW

Are you guys going for hire thee as it could easily do that?

[Makinithappen]

What they don't show is the MBox Mini under the desk that is the core of the whole studio.

Thats an incredible room, though...

[The MPCist]

Love the vibe of the place.

[seagleson]

Awesome vibe! Do you work out of there pretty often Freebase?

[Slikjmuzik]

I'm liking that the SSL looks like it's still in good shape, most that I've seen are pretty beat up. I wonder how much he got that for? I also like that he's going into his Masterlink with Lavry converters, smart idea!!

[Slikjmuzik]

FREEBASE!!! Do tell buddy, what made him go with so much Vintech. I have a 273 and love it, but had I had the money for 2 real 1073's, which we all know Tommy has, that's what I would have done....can you please elaborate a bit on some of the gear choices please? Why 8 channels of Universal Audio pres? A lot of what's in there makes sense, aside from things like why someone would get 6 1176's but only 2 Distressors? Granted 2 of them are white faces and have an absolutely different and amazing vibe in British mode on guitars, but only 2 Distressors? And why not 2 white face, 2 black face and 2 Mc77's by purple? Too Clean? Anyway, if you wouldn't mind please....

[dbbubba]

Nice room(s.)
I guess that after participating in the rock and roll game as long at Mr. Lee has you deserve AT LEAST that.

If I could get my family out of he house I could do that with my place.
AS IF!

Also... that SSL is nice, but as I hear, in L.A. they are easier to score than you would think.
There are lot's of them just waiting for someone to pick up payments or lease as I hear.

[Infernal Device]

Very cool looking place.

Vintech and Peluso?

Interesting.

[emdub123]

In the guitar room there's a BLUE flight case, presumably that's a Bottle?

Man, what a nice place. Gotta have one helluva hit song on your hands to justify the daily rate I would imagine...

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by seagleson

Awesome vibe! Do you work out of there pretty often Freebase?

It was only finished in February. But I've been working there on a project w/Tommy ever since.

There is some talk about a few well known bands using the studio this summer while Tommy's on tour w/Motley and it's where I'll track the majority of my upcoming projects.

C.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by Slikjmuzik

FREEBASE!!! Do tell buddy, what made him go with so much Vintech. I have a 273 and love it, but had I had the money for 2 real 1073's, which we all know Tommy has, that's what I would have done....can you please elaborate a bit on some of the gear choices please? Why 8 channels of Universal Audio pres? A lot of what's in there makes sense, aside from things like why someone would get 6 1176's but only 2 Distressors? Granted 2 of them are white faces and have an absolutely different and amazing vibe in British mode on guitars, but only 2 Distressors? And why not 2 white face, 2 black face and 2 Mc77's by purple? Too Clean? Anyway, if you wouldn't mind please....

We wanted to build a place that was a hassle free as possible. The concept behind the whole studio (and my typical approach to working in a studio) is to have everything setup at all times, so that we can punch in a drum fill in the middle of a mix, or record a guitar solo while we are tracking drums, etc. In order to do this we needed a good chunk of outboard gear. Obviously going all vintage for everything gets very expensive, but even more important than that... needs a lot of care/repair. Most studios (especially this size facilities) don't have full time tech's. and we wanted equipment that was going to be reliable and consistent. As for the Vintech's... the last studio that I worked out of (The Chop Shop, no longer around) had a rack of vintage 1073's and 1081's that I used all the time. About 3 or 4 years ago I arranged a demo of the X81's and subsequently bought a pair for The Chop Shop to use alongside the vintage units. When I was putting Tommy's place together we decided that the slight sonic difference (depending on which vintage unit you A/B'd), if any, wasn't worth the price of not only the unit, but the maintenance, downtime, inconsistencies between 2 of the same model, etc.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by Slikjmuzik

FREEBASE!!! Do tell buddy, what made him go with so much Vintech. I have a 273 and love it, but had I had the money for 2 real 1073's, which we all know Tommy has, that's what I would have done....can you please elaborate a bit on some of the gear choices please? Why 8 channels of Universal Audio pres? A lot of what's in there makes sense, aside from things like why someone would get 6 1176's but only 2 Distressors? Granted 2 of them are white faces and have an absolutely different and amazing vibe in British mode on guitars, but only 2 Distressors? And why not 2 white face, 2 black face and 2 Mc77's by purple? Too Clean? Anyway, if you wouldn't mind please....

8 ch. of Universal Audio 610's??? Because they're great

1176's??? Tommy already owned the silver faces and I needed a few more 1176's so that we could always have them patched in and setup at all times.

Over the years, Tommy, his longtime producer Scott Humphrey and I have tried many different setups/signal chains and have a certain way we like to do things and which gear we use on what. The nice thing about owning your own place is not having to have a bunch of everything to try and satisfy every engineer walking through the door... we bought the gear that we have already determined was best for our specific setup. So if we like the sound of an 1176 on vocals, drums, guitars? Why would I buy a Distressor and set it up to sound like an 1176 just so one day I could maybe change the setting of the Distressor to sound like an LA2... we just bought a bunch of 1176's. That's not to say I don't love the Distressors... I do, probably one of my favorite pieces of hardware, but we purchased everything to be very application specific as opposed to versatile.

Hope that gives some insight.

C.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by emdub123

In the guitar room there's a BLUE flight case, presumably that's a Bottle?

Man, what a nice place. Gotta have one helluva hit song on your hands to justify the daily rate I would imagine...

Blue case is a vintage Telefunken u47 refurbished by Blue (pre-bottle) when they were a mic shop. The studio Tommy used to work out of had 3 vintage RFT bottle mics (WWII era)... those are a real sight to see

C.

[jbsg02]

Have they been working on the studio for a while, cause I remember seeing something on TV quite a while back with him in his studio. It's attached to the house, correct?

[Oroz]

Hi freeBase, another question if I may, what made you decide to put the 8050's horizontally? As I remember Genelec recommends putting them vertically.

Thanks.

[Meriphew]

Very cool!

[James Meeker]

Awesome vibe! One of the nicest looking studios I've ever seen. It look like you could just lay down and take a nap.

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by James Meeker

Awesome vibe! One of the nicest looking studios I've ever seen. It look like you could just lay down and take a nap.

True that! I'd never get anything done, you couldn't keep me out of the pool!
I like the idea that the studio is purpose built for an artist, kind of like a home studio on a grander scale. I think it's a breath of fresh air to see a place that isn't focused on bringing everyone and their rich uncle in, but more on getting out music in quality and painless fashion. No agonizing here, use the kickass gear at your fingertips and get it done son.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by jbsg02

Have they been working on the studio for a while, cause I remember seeing something on TV quite a while back with him in his studio. It's attached to the house, correct?

We started construction in October of 2008. I think what you're referring to is his old house in Malibu.

C.

[freeBase]

Originally Posted by Oroz

Hi freeBase, another question if I may, what made you decide to put the 8050's horizontally? As I remember Genelec recommends putting them vertically.

Thanks.

When we ordered them from Genelec they didn't suggest one way over the other, but I found that they sounded better at the mix position because of the the tweeter being closer to ear level. The meter bridge on the SSL puts the tweeter so high up when they're mounted vertically, the highs seem to get shot over your head (sounds too dull). May not be the recommended position, but it was a unanimous decision over here.

C.

[James Meeker]

It makes sense that Tommy Lee would have a place like this because he's very musically gifted in a number of instruments and seems to live/eat/sleep/breathe music. Plus he's one of the grooviest rock drummers to ever walk the face of the earth...