VINTAGE
KING'S
Rift Studios, in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, offers carefully curated vintage equipment, top-shelf modern gear, a spacious live room (high ceilings, pinewood walls), and a large studio console with legendary preamps at the heart of it all. The best part? Tom Gardner, the GRAMMY-nominated engineer/producer behind the studio, made it his mission to build a state-of-the-art space that could cater to established artists and be affordable enough to welcome young, up-and-coming artists as well.
We sat down with Tom recently to find out about the work Rift Studios does, what led him to purchase the Neve BCM10/2 Mk2 console, what it was like working with the team at Vintage King during the purchase and installation, and how the new console has impacted his workflow.
Tell us a bit about Rift Studios and the work you do.
Rift Studios started out as a desire for more. Prior to this, I had worked out of an established studio for six or seven years, and the music was great, I got a lot of experience, but I wasn't really working with the kinds of bands I wanted to work with. So when I built Rift in 2013, the goal was to build a place that was affordable for newer, up-and-coming artists, while also being high-end enough to cater to established artists.
A lot of my bread and butter is new bands, people very eager to be in the studio – maybe it's their first time, or it's their second or third record, and they're looking to elevate their sound a little. I get a lot of indie rock, indie pop, and singer-songwriters; a lot of people who are making music because they love it, and I really feed off that excitement and that energy. That's what makes this job so rewarding.
That sounds really great because it also makes the studio integral to the local music scene, instead of just being a good but generic studio that someone books for a session.
Absolutely. I’ve developed a lot of really close relationships with artists. It’s funny, so many of my friends are former clients of mine who have now come back. I spend so many hours with them in the studio that we just become friends; it’s expanded my friend group as a result, which is amazing!
Are there any favorite projects that you’d like to highlight?
There are some I can't talk about, because of NDAs, but two come to mind recently. I do a lot of work with the electro-funk band Chromeo. Sia asked Chromeo to remix one of her songs and they wanted Chromeo’s Dave [Macklovitch] to sing on it, so I got to work on that. Sia is a legend, so it was super cool working on that project!
I have a close relationship with Eugene Hütz from the band Gogol Bordello. They're a gypsy punk band, they tour the world, and they're incredible. Eugene recently created a record label called Casa Gogol Records, which has all these amazing New York artists signed to it. There’s a great act called Puzzled Panther, featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ drummer Brian Chase. They have incredible artists on the label, so I'm very proud to work with Eugene.
What drew you to the Neve BCM10/2 Mk2 console?
The short answer is the preamps: the Neve 1073 preamp is arguably the most famous preamp ever made. The longer answer is that I had a Trident console prior to the Neve, which is from the early ‘80s, and it was fantastic, but I was really looking to elevate my sound.
I knew I wanted 1073 preamps, so I had a big internal debate… actually, it was more of an external debate. [Laughs] I bothered my fiancée and my friends relentlessly about it, asking: “Do I get a new console, or do I get one of those mastering desks, which has banks and preamps in it?” It was a big debate because I was worried I'd be dissatisfied if I just got a regular desk with some preamp modules in it.
I started my career working on consoles, and to me, the console is still the heart of the studio. I want to walk in here every day and be excited to work, so I ultimately decided to go with the console. I knew I wanted 1073s, and there's really not a ton of options out there other than a vintage Neve, which can be very expensive and very hard to maintain; it just wasn't worth it, so, really, the BCM10/2 Mk2, which is a super well-known console, was the best option.
It had everything I needed and it's become the heart of the studio. It's exactly what I wanted! Every time I walk in that door and see it, I get excited, and I can see it in my clients’ faces, too. They walk in, see this big console, and they know that we're here to have fun.
Several engineers tell us that mixing on a good console feels almost like playing an instrument.
I completely agree! I got a 32-channel board, which is arguably too big of a board, [laughs] but I'm glad I have it. Even with a band like Gogol Bordello, we're maxing out 32 channels, and there's something special about running all those microphones to one giant machine.
If it's running to all these different preamps, I feel like there are some phase things that happen, but since it's all running to the same place, going to these transformers, there's something that glues it together – some kind of gelling – and it just sounds great.
Let's dig into some of your favorite features of the Neve BCM10/2 Mk2.
Preamps, again. When you tell any artist what preamps are in there, they're like, “Great!” They know you're serious.
Aside from that, I was most surprised about the Simple Inputs. It’s got 32 extra transformer-based line inputs on it, and when I was buying it, I was like, “That's great, but I don't know how much I'll really use this.”
It’s fantastic, I use it all the time! I use it when tracking, I’m monitoring on the Simple Inputs, I use them for summing… I changed it so Pro Tools outputs directly to the Simple Inputs. Now, instead of just mixing in Pro Tools, I'll output stereo pairs to the board and sum through the Simple Inputs. That’s quickly become one of my favorite features of the console.
What do you think of the sonics of the console?
It adds some sort of depth or width to your mixes that's hard to describe, but it's improving the sound, and you don't know how it's doing it, which is very cool. There's something really special about it.
Certain plug-ins do that, too. You just add it and you’re like, “I don't know what that's doing, but it sounds better when the audio is going through it.” That's the case with the console as well.
There’s a ton of headroom, so you can really crank it up! That's what the 1073s are great for – you crank the preamp, pull down on your line trims so you're not clipping going in, and it just sounds great. It adds warmth and depth, and it’s what every engineer wants when they're recording or mixing.
How has the console impacted your workflow?
One of the reasons I got the console is that it really did match my workflow: some awesome preamps, auxes, and faders – that’s basically what I need. I don't need any fancy LEDs, I don't need faders that move on their own… I don't need all the fluff. It’s a beautiful console in its own right; it doesn't need this extra superficial layer of lights and stuff.
It works and it integrates so easily into my studio, which is great. The Simple Inputs are what impacted me the most, I would say. Monitoring on those and summing through them is what gave an immediate boost to the quality of my work.
How easy or difficult was it to install?
I made a decision that I wouldn't recommend other people make – I installed it myself. [Laughs] I had Cedric Yee, Vintage King’s Technical Service Manager, on email and phone, and my God, he was incredible! He's a tech genius, and he was instrumental in getting it up and running. It could have been so much worse had I not had Cedric to contact; he made it surprisingly easy. The hardest part was getting it in the room. It took six of us to get it in, but once it was in place, there are DB25s on the back which connect right to my patch bay.
The installation – aside from the physical load of getting it in place – was surprisingly easy, thanks to Cedric and his troubleshooting, and also Brett Flaherty, my contact at Vintage King, who was fantastic too. When I needed to reach out about something, two of the channels needed to be replaced – he was so quick to respond. It was super helpful.
I was just going to ask what it was like working with Brett and the team at Vintage King.
Brett was part of that external debate of ‘Do I go with the mastering desk and just buy a bunch of modules, or do I get the console?’ I was going back and forth with him, and if I recall correctly, he was encouraging me to just get the mastering desk and the individual modules. But, like I said, I was worried about being dissatisfied with that long term, so I decided to go all in, and once I decided, I could tell he was excited too – he knew this was going to be special. He's so easy to work with and talk to. Everybody at Vintage King was very, very helpful and made the process as easy as it could be.
What are some of your other favorite pieces of outboard gear at the studio?
This is maybe my most boring answer, but I have a UA 1176 compressor that is probably the most used piece of outboard gear here. It’s a studio classic for a reason; it just sounds great!
I have an LA-2A as well – again, a boring answer – but they're incredible. You can put it on anything and it sounds good.
There’s a Revox PR 99 quarter-inch tape machine which is fun to use.
I also have a Shure M267, which has these preamps that you can really crush, for a guitar or drum sound, or vocals even. It's a lot of fun to play with.
You have a great mic locker at Rift – what microphones do you find yourself using most often?
The standout mic is a vintage Neumann U 67. I reached out to Neumann and they said it's from 1967! I had it completely refurbished and it’s just incredible; it sounds like butter, it’s so rich, the high end is amazing, and anything you put behind it sounds great.
My second-most-used mic is probably an SM57. Again, really boring, but it’s a studio classic and it’s great for a reason. If I could only use one mic to record a full band, I would use SM57s on everything.
I also love my Royer ribbon microphones, and then there’s the normal stuff I love, like the Neumann U 87s, AKG C414s, and the Sennheiser MD 421s as well.
What monitors are you using?
I have a pair of NS10s, but I normally work off ADAM Audio A7s, one of which is actually busted right now and I need to fix it, so I have a pair of Genelec 1031As up and a pair of JBLs that rarely get turned on – they’re just for when clients want to listen loud.
How do you feel about plug-ins?
I feel great about plug-ins! What's not to love? [Laughs] Plug-ins are extremely useful; they're tools, like anything else.
They are incredibly versatile and help you achieve sounds that you might not otherwise be able to achieve, depending on band budgets and how much time people really have in the studio – you can pop a plug-in on and get what you need. It’s like asking a painter what their opinion on a shade of blue is or a certain brush – everything has its place.
I will say though, there is a special feeling I get when I have a new band in, we spend hours getting drum, guitar, and bass sounds, everything sounds incredible, and I look at Pro Tools and there's not one plug-in up. [Laughs] There's something special about that.
Plug-ins absolutely have their place in music, and I use them all the time. Why would you handicap yourself? Plug-ins are so powerful these days, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you're not using them.
My favorites are probably also pretty boring answers: FabFilter and the Soundtoys bundles are all fantastic; Oeksound’s Soothe is also becoming a studio classic.
I also use Crane Song’s Phoenix plug-in quite a bit. It’s a less well-known plug-in; I haven't seen too many other studios that use that. It’s like a tape emulator and is one of those plug-ins where you don't know what it's doing exactly, but it sounds better when I start processing through it.
Do you have a go-to signal chain for recording, or do you use something different every time?
For vocals, my hardware go-tos are the U 67 to the Neve to the 1176, and the LA-2A.
For other instruments, it's really band-dependent. If a band has no budget and we have to record way too much music in too little time, I do my standard chains and we’re good, but when there's room to play, I fight against that instinct to use my go-to signal chains because I think if you do the same thing day in and day out as an engineer, you get bored and complacent. I really try to challenge and push myself.
It’s a learning curve. The first five or ten years of my career, I was figuring out how to record and how to fit in as an engineer in this industry. Then you hit a level of comfort where you're not worried about what bands might throw at you when you're sitting behind the console. So if a client says, “Let’s record this violin and then run it through a guitar pedal and then to the organ’s Leslie cabinet” or whatever, you can just throw up mics and start doing it. You’re not worried about having a go-to signal chain for that; you’re just capturing the sound in the moment.
I love pushing the boundaries and trying to not do the same thing every day, just to keep things more interesting and to grow as an engineer and be better.
What is a typical day in the studio like for you?
I would say there are typical hours that I work, but the day is always different. I work from roughly 9 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m., depending on what I have booked, but one of the wonderful things about this job is that every day is different. So even if you have two bands with the same instrumentation from one day to the next, just having different personalities in the room and different music playing makes it feel different.
I'm in the same space, but every day feels different, which is my favorite thing. So a typical day could be recording, editing, or something boring like sample replacing, vocal tuning, mixing, mastering, or anything in the world of production. The variety is what excites me and keeps this interesting.
Are you working on any exciting projects right now that you're able to talk about?
Let’s see, there’s an artist called Dan Saulpaugh who is fantastic. He’s indie, kind of folk, and very lyrical. I’m also excited to finish up the mixes in this three-EP project by my friend John Zdrojeski. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention longtime clients of mine called Night Coast, they're a lot of fun. I'm privileged to work with so many talented artists, and I wish I could mention them all!
