Reader Spotlight: Tony Cobian

Here’s another example of a band taking a simple home studio and producing a polished, radio ready mix. Today’s ‘Reader Spotlight’ features Mintaka Studio owner Tony Cobian and The Feel, a young band from Mexico. Their recent single, “Make It With You” was recorded all with one mic and a USB audio interface. And now it’s on the radio. How’s THAT for a recording revolution?!

The Studio Setup

Tony has a simple home studio comprised of an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8r  USB interface, Cubase 5, and a couple of mics from MXL and Blue Audio. Everything was recorded right into the M-Audio box, no external mic pres or outboard gear. Simple, solid, and great sounding.
 

We recorded a rough draft of the song with the MXL 990 for the voice and two acoustics plugged directly into the the DI of an M-Audio Fast Track. Then we started to add pianos, strings and others rhythm instruments to have the final arrangement. The last thing was to record the final takes for the voice and the guitars with a Blue Bluebird. – Tony Cobian (Engineer)

I love how Tony took time to think about pre-production. He had a plan. Setting up a guide track with scratch guitars and vocals will save you so much time and hassle and allow you to get better recordings faster. Nice.

The Key To Recording Well

With only a couple of microphones and one audio interface, the key to getting a great recording for Tony and the band was to take his time and experiment. This is so easy to gloss over, but so powerful when it becomes a habit.

The Recording Revolution has taught me that I don’t need a $1000 microphone to make good recordings or a a high end mixer, or even an expensive audio interface with a control surface. Instead I tried to get the best results with my actual setup, mic placement. Now I can get a good sound that I know the clients like to hear. – Tony Cobian

This guy gets it. Mic placement is paramount to a great sound. And the time it takes to discover great mic placements in your studio is an education in itself that is priceless. Don’t pretend you can shortchange this process with gear. You can’t, and you shouldn’t want to. Tony gets it and his results speak for themselves.

On The Radio

Not everyone’s musical goal is to get played on the radio. I get that. But there’s something to be said about delivering mixes that are quality enough sonically that the radio would play them. Kudos to Tony and The Feel for making that happen in Ensenda, Mexico.

The single is coming out to the radio this week, so i think we have really good quality audio with hardly any equipment. Which is a big thing you teach in your articles and videos. – Tony Cobian

Just another great example of what can be accomplished with a humble and affordable home studio setup. If these guys can produce a radio ready track (literally) what’s stopping you from doing the same?

Check out Tony’s studio website here. For more great music from The Feel,  follow them on their official Facebook page. For more music from guest vocalist Mafer Gonzalez in the video, check out her page.