Hey. I'm Tim and for the last 25 years, we have made more released records than anybody on the East Coast of this nation. Hands down. It's not even close. Like. 700.

We've made them for lavishly appointed Majors, every conceivable type of Indy, vanity artist "part-timers" with day-job money to burn... And MOST of them... for broke-ass mofo's who play in a great band that needs to get heard.

We've made records that ain't all that great musically, in my estimation... including one's that got shiny RIAA plaques for me. On the other hand, I've made records that didn't sell for shit, that are real art, as valid as anything ever made by anybody, to my ears.

I started with almost NOTHING in the basement of my old Hackensack house in 1988. Got noble results(for those days) with TERRIBLE equipment. Built a fanatical local client following. Spent every single penny of income on improving the shop. Built and built, and eventually ended up buying and moving into one of the  the biggest "open for hire" private production house for rock and rock related music in the NYC/NJ area.

Yep. In 1998. The storied and impressive legacy of "Quantum Sound" became "Big Blue Meenie". I think Madonna would be rolling around in her grave... if she were dead that is. This place is where her career, and a whole lotta other one's from the 80's thru the mid 90's were launched.

Along the way: I tried to conduct myself like a gentleman, seriously bust my ass to meet the usually anemic budgets, help the bands as much and whenever possible... and make the best records in any practical sense that I could possibly muster.

ON EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM.

This is because(among other reasons)... ain't a TALENT CONTEST.

That's not my GIG. To JUDGE you. My gig, is to take what's in YER HEAD, however trendy, bizarre, droll, clever, abusive, or what-ever-the-fuck other superlative you wish to attach to it and try my level best to make it come out of a vast variety of loudspeakers, with some great and purposeful sense of AUTHORITY, AUTHENTICITY and, ostensibly... with some semblance of UNIFORMITY... all over the world.

It's also about GROWING as a record maker: I never worked a day in audio production I didn't learn something. Best reason to keep doing it.

By the way: When I say "I", I mean "We".

Big Blue is a PRODUCTION COLLECTIVE. About a dozen people who don't wanna get a day job and grow up. They wanna "make rekkidz".

Most are in their mid 20's. Every single one of them came here, usually right outta "audio school"... and worked like a filthy animal for little or no bread for a coupla years, before we started PAYING them in MONEY. Because, FIRST, we PAID them in "learning how to make records". Something "Audio Schools" are UTTERLY INCAPABLE of doing as far as I can tell. And I've had my choice of the best and brightest, from the best "Audio Schools" in the country, and even around the world, for about 15 years.

Which is when the whole "Audio School" scam really took hold. And believe me... by and large... IT'S A FUCKING SCAM.

In any event, that's the way it works here. Every single guy you work with here, was shaped from the ground up, by persistent and practical intersection with PROFESSIONAL RECORD MAKING, trained by guys who ALREADY KNEW how to do this... until THEY knew how to do this.

Record Production as an apprenticed craft. Who woulda thunk? Only sounds easy.

All things considered: Each one of these jokers has a single 4 phrase mission statement.

GET BETTER.

TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING GREAT.

DOMINATE THE CRAFT.

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON.

BTW. The whole "Engineering collective" thingie was something we were doing 20 years before it became "the new paradigm".

Anyhoo. I'll say it one more time for the record: We are as good as ANYBODY, and better than most, at what we do. Making records(for lack of a better term).

Look: We ain't even remotely the cheapest guys on the block, but our services and facilities rival shops in NYC that charge 3-4 times what we do. This is a REAL RECORDING STUDIO. Purpose built at a cost of MANY hundreds of thousands of dollars(BEFORE THE GEAR!).

And speaking of the gear: We have more money invested in our mic locker alone than most of our "competition" has in their entire studio. In here, you track and mix on equipment that initially cost much more than most peoples houses.

Does it make a difference?

Yes. It does.

The vast majority of persons who will dispute that statement are persons who DO NOT POSSESS such equipment, and maybe, just maybe... we should consider the source. In short: We have EVERYTHING THEY HAVE. And ALL THE THINGS THEY DO NOT HAVE.

This includes the acoustic spaces, the marquee audio equipment, and, of course, the SKILL SET to run all the things they use... and all the things they will most probably die without ever having the privilege of using.

Just a happy thought.

So... let's talk about "da money": This place is between $500 & $750 per 10 hour studio day for tracking, and $500 & $1000 for mixing dependant on who you are working with and in what room. Unless you get "the old guy" personally involved. Then it's gonna cost you more.

Reason being: I'm old, I'm actually quite good, I'm modestly insane... and I also don't work with just anybody. I'm getting picky in my twilight years.

MATTERS NOT!!!

Forget me: Let's talk about the guys who ACTUALLY DO make the vast majority of the records here, and have been for YEARS. You can scope out their "credentials" on the staff page at the website. Which is a click button somewhere around here.

OK. Back to the money BS.

We don't do "hourly". We don't do "package deals". We don't do "off hours". Those are all bullshit parades thrown together by people who GOTTA hawk that shit because they can't get the work without smoke and mirrors. We ALSO DON'T DO: "Hidden costs". "Bait and switch production estimates". "Drag our feet session pacing", or any of the other fuck-wittery you will regularly run into at certain other joints.

We WILL HOWEVER... "Work" with you on an "all in" price if we think we CAN. That is, if it's FEASIBLE.

FEASIBLE happens after we know a whole bunch MORE about you, and what you expect from us, and what we think we can expect from you.

Safe to say, we don't generally cut 40 minute long full length records front to back in 2-3 days... Unless it's live Jazz or Bluegrass. Which is hardly our common client. That, for modern rock music productions expected to compete with Major label records sonically... would make us clueless dumb-asses who need a good beating.

GREAT NEWS!!! The NYC/NJ area is FILLED with those guys. They're cheap, they just got out of audio school, they know slightly less than nothing about anything beyond ProTools Hotkeys, and, most importantly... compared to us on our WORST FUCKING DAY EVER... their end product sucks royally.

Many of these fellaz DO know how to get it LOUD though. So do we.

Difference is: We know how to get it LOUD, without making it sound like cock and balls. To coin a phrase.

And LOUD is already turning into the OLDEST, CHEAPEST, SADDEST and MOST PITIFUL TRICK OUT THERE.

Reason being... people are discovering the VOLUME knob on their various audio devices and when they can't raise that same volume knob above 9 o'clock without blowing their heads off in a searing wall of distorted white noise... they are starting to realize... that LOUD and GOOD CAN POTENTIALLY be mutually exclusive ideals. Train a monkey to mow that lawn if ya put him out there enough times.

OK. You lasted this long. Here's a little analogy for ya:

You want a really great steak dinner, you might wanna reconsider dropping by McDonalds. On the other hand, if you CAN'T AFFORD "Ruth's Criss Steakhouse", you may know of an excellent local restaurant, that's great beef, modestly priced, and has been serving meals to satisfied customers since you were just "a twinkle in yo daddy eye".

That would be: US.

FYI. Here's a basic explanation of the BBM drill:

A typical "self-funded-run-like-hell" record in here is made in about 1.5-2 days per 3-4 minute SONG. So like: A six song EP might take ABOUT 10 days. That would be $5k. Tracked to mix. HOW MUCH time it's gonna take to do YOUR particular record, is going to depend massively on a number of factors. Not least of which is whether your band can play it's own music. Please realize: Doing ONE song is a RICH MANS way of making a record. It forces the ratio of engineering and production effort vs. band performance time into a high number.

Reason being: Ya got 2 big "production/engineering hills" to climb that aren't "artist performance time" related, in the making of any collection of songs, right?

1.) Basic tracking and all the acquisition of the various instruments sounds. Cue(headphone) mixes, edits, set-ups for any and all overdubs and downstream computer tom-foolery. See... here... we actually do stuff like... TUNE YER DRUMKIT. Which is basically something that happened on every single decent sounding record you own, and is a skill set that a TINY MINORITY of the surrounding audio community seems to be even aware exists... much less has mastered. We ALSO have a tendency to fuck around with the OTHER instrument sounds a little bit... because, if we don't... We, once again, start to sound like those OTHER GUYS.

Ya know, the ones I keep talking about who suck profoundly, and desperately need to be eradicated from the craft..

2.) "Framing" of the sound of the record in mix. This is often a full day affair for the FIRST song.

Sound crazy? Bad news. Yer delusional if ya think that's uncommon. Rome wasn't built in a day, there is often MUCH to do... and the finished sound of our records compared to our "peers" cleanly demonstrate this.

Because the remaining songs will have a tendency to "inherit" the wisdom of the "framing song"... subsequent mixing efforts usually start speeding up inertially. That is: They usually start taking less time than the first mixed song did to complete.

So, if ya take these 2 big HILLS and ya don't subdivide them across a body of songs... You basically TAKE A BEATING for ONE SONG.

Not recommended.

OK. That's enough of this dreadful torment. Fact is: If ya got any brains at all... you'll read it ALL AGAIN. Maybe TWICE. In the end: The most compelling reason to come to a place like this is:

These days, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE... Nobody wants to IMAGINE anything anymore... If yer material doesn't SOUND BETTER when somebody clicks on yer link... Yer in much greater danger of being just another tiny silver fish in a gigantic sea of internet sardines.

If you don't believe production value can make a profound difference on "Ya never get a second chance to make a first impression".

Don't come here. Go to the bargain basement bozos. We'll see ya later.

Or not. Your call.

Best regards, and thanx(hopefully) for your patience and good humor,

Tim "Rumblefish" Gilles