enter the good people at tumblr who run one of the coolest blogging sites around.  they have a really easy interface and it's straightforward even from our mobiles.  as a result, we normally keep that up to date every few days, so pop along and have a visit.  it's a mix of reports, musings and pontifications, but it's all us!

but the thing we are most stoked about here is the fact that we will have a 500 seater auditorium and stage to play with as well - oh the possibilities - whuuhahahaha!

strange tale wows NfN!!

to read the reviews, visit the new album website here

i'm still recovering.  in the same issue, the first p-a-d album postcards from aunt cordelia was also awarded 8/10.  a really long sit-down was in order after that!

'strange tale'  is still available thru the tollboothshop for just £10!

new artist mj recording with tollbooth

mel is also the first artist to road-test the brand new tollbooth mobile recording rig.  early indications are that this rig provides a very fresh way of working, and the venue chosen for the guide tracks was a relative's very bright & airy garden room.  though her first time doing such intensive recording, mel seemed very comfortable using this approach in very familiar surroundings.

though many of the songs will be kept very stripped back, one or two of the numbers lend themselves to fuller production - a great test for the integration of the mobile rig into the host studio back at base.

though we are currently trying to schedule additional musicians (including phil & aly rainey from eve & the garden), it is hoped that mel's e.p. will be out sometime just before christmas.

new mobile hi-definition rig now available

we're delighted that new tbm artist mj is the first to road-test the system and it is already delivering some excellent quality recordings.

for full details of the rig and rates, please visit the tollboothmobile page.

strange tale out now!!

visit the new album website here

remarkably, not only was it out ON TIME but we even managed to ship out pre-orders to arrive a few days before the official launch date of 24th june.  huge thanks to all those good & kind folk who took up the pre-order offer and thank you for your positive feedback so far!

the process of promoting the album is well under way and as well as putting a live band together for a small tour type thingy later in the summer.

strange tale release date

visit the new album website here

the album is again mostly instrumental but unfortunately for you there are 3 vocal tracks as well!  the album runs to 13 tracks and also includes 3 bonus tracks; one taken from the forthcoming e.p. 'the buzzing of bees' based on the events at Fatima in 1917 and two tracks from a forthcoming ambient e.p. called 'internal reflections'

full details of the album can be found at the dedicated microsite (opposite) and sound samples will be available soon.

new services!!!

first off, we can now offer recording and production for PODCASTING!  if your band/company/organisation is interested in finding out more about the new field of podcasting, please contact us and we'll talk you through it.  though it's fundamentally quite straightforward, the technical side of preparing podcasts for sites such as iTunes etc is quite specific and we will be pleased to handle all aspects of getting your message across; from writing copy, through recording, right the way through to uploading & maintenance.

our second exciting new development is our imminent roll-out of a full MOBILE recording service.  this service will integrate fully with our studio-based system and allow the capture of high quality recordings out in the field and then feed that into the studio to mix and master.  whether it is a choir/orchestra recital, pub or club gig you want for an official 'bootleg', or a record of your rehearsal studio jams for pre-production - let tbm capture up to 20 simultaneous live tracks at up to 96kHz at 24bit.  we will be using the same high quality sequencing/editing software and hardware pre-amps in the field as in the studio to allow us to do quick 'look-see' mixes as we go along and then transfer them straight into the studio.  we can even provide interim mix CDs 'off the board' so you can see where you're up to!

contact us via the normal email for more details.

help! i can't get in!

in the meantime, we will continue to work on 'house' projects such as finishing strange tale and also a few other projects close to home, we just won't be scheduling much major new outside work.  however; copying, design, foley, podcasting, AV, V-O, and other similar work will continue as normal.

hijacked email addresses

PLEASE DON'T BLAME US!  URGENT!

Thanks to someone (or insert your favourite derogatory term) called 'Bruno', it would appear that one of our email addresses has been hijacked!  The tollbooth inbox was filled with Spam returns this morning from no less than 7500 addresses!

The result being that it would appear that tollbooth have suddenly given up the studio game and taken up the 'male pharmaceutical enhancement' business.  Though this would undoubtedly be more lucrative, please be assured that any emails that appear to be from us on this subject are DEFINITELY NOT!

We have checked our server and these emails are NOT as a result of virus/worm here.  However, given that we had nothing to do with this, we do not know the status of the email concerned.  Samples of the email returns have been forwarded to the police, our ISP, and trading standards.  If you are Bruno, please feel free to be very afraid.

Once again, I can confirm that the 'info@' email address is not an outgoing email and our server is fully virus & spam checked - our email address has been nicked off the site and copy-and-pasted into a bogus email as a return path.

I would apologise, but actually, we're as much victims of this as anyone - at least you only got one email - we got 7500 returns!

Please note therefore that all email addresses to tollboothmusic on the site are now IMAGES ONLY.  As a precaution, there are no live references to this email address.  You will now have to type our email addresses into your new message window i'm afraid.

spyhop

ilze and chris have come to tbm to record all their vocal work following ilze & paul finding a creative spark with each other during the candy threats sessions.  ilze is great fun to work with and produce, being happy to be pushed and challenged.  hopefully they'll be back to finish the album here as well as we've already done some rough mixes, adding some of our dynamic processing magic!

mike was kind enough to play several tracks from strange tale and we spent a good half hour nattering about the work of tbm and playing some of the tracks from the tbm sampler.

mike is particularly taken with matt dixey's new e.p. "out of the nighttime".

p-a-d will be back at CRfm when strange tale is released to do a feature on the album.

visit the new album website here

the album now features a number of vocal pieces including the newest track "down the line".  ilze from spyhop has also just very kindly put down an alternative lead vocal to "something to hold dear" which has added a new energy to the song.

one track remains to be written and again, it is the concept track (in much the same way as after the tone from PfAC).  "the buzzing of bees" is a part dramatised soundscape / part songscape portrayal of the events surrounding the visions at Fatima in 1917.  it's always fascinated me as a story and some recent material that has come to light from a couple of portugese researchers has resparked my interest. 

the latest addition to the sonic armoury has been Stylus RMX from Spectrasonics, makers of the wonderful Atmosphere soft synth.  Stylus allows astonishing manipulation of beats and loops all fully sync'd into the host software.  i'm delighted to report that it works seamlessly with DP and is already producing some fantastic results.

i've been looking for a long time for a really good programme/soft instrument that would fit in with some of my current musical leanings towards more dance oriented tracks, and i thought i'd got there with Battery by NI (which is good) but.. RMX is just so flexible and creative that i can't praise it highly enough.  

for those savvy, we've also installed a number of the SAGE Expanders which extend RMX's palette immensely.

priced just £4, it features 12 whole tracks by the likes of helen turner, miles cain, matt dixey, p-a-d, and enygmartyr.

also included with the CD is a voucher for money off full albums.  £2 off a single album - £5 off two titles and £1 off matt dixey's e.p!  we're too good to you!

if you are buying any two tbm titles, we will send you a tbm sampler CD free of charge with your order!

need i remind you christmas is just around the corner?  no - the demon singing teddy bears have probably hit your nearest shopping precinct too.

PayPal have an enviable reputation through their association with eBay, and though no online services are entirely free from risk, PayPal have an excellent track record, and having used it frequently to buy stuff for the studio, i felt happy enough to trial it.

so finally, all those wonderful CDs are just a single click away!  did i mention it was just in time for christmas????

however, to the rescue have come Mackie with yet another spiffingly good product.  even more however, they just had to call it the Big Knob.  mainly because of its main feature. a... big... knob.  so there you are.  but it has improved matters immensely.  

sitting beside the main control desk, the BK speeds up switching and audio routing in the studio immensely, and gives us enhanced flexibility for patching 'guest' mixers/turntables/mastering eqmt etc.  it's built in high quality phono amp also means that we are now happy to take in vinyl-to-cd archive work.

other new toys this month: Digital Performer v4.5 update, IK TRacks 24 mastering software finally working!!!! (yaaaaaaay!), Tech21 Trademark 60 combo. coming later this month, tc powercore element PCI card with Master x5 plug-in.

recorded by enygmartyr's alison eve, and hauled to tbm for mixing and mastering, the album also features two remixes by paul d.  recorded in Digital Performer v3 in Bedford, the tracks were imported easily into tbm's DPv4 for mixing and mastering.  utilising many of tbm's new software toys, including the Waves Native Power Pack mastering tools and reverbs, Atmosphere dream synth and the wonderfully rich Bosendorfer piano on MOTU Mach 5.  Sadly T-Racks 24 was still not working in time for the project, but IK have now provided a working patch (at last!!!)

the new powercore element card was also not available for the mixes which given the reliance of this project on big reverb spaces, is a shame.

'tears of earth' is available from tollboothshop

click image for more pics!

a fantastic evening was had by all and had everyone umming and erring about the possibilities of putting on a tbm show for real sometime soon.

huge thanks are due to paul ganney of eternal sound & light for making everything sound and look fantastic.  boy's a genius!

even huger thanks to rev janet henderson for hosting us all and collecting a fantastic and warm audience at nuthall!

paul d is busily finishing the mixing and post-production of a 5-track sampler to be released in time for this year's Greenbelt Festival.  

ali is currently in the process of doing a few retakes with nChant so that mixing can be finished on the remaining tracks.  the album is expected out sometime in september 2004.

more details can be found on the nChant microsite.

most of the sessions were discussions over direction for a new album, which it is hoped will see a number of writing as well as production collaborations with paul d.

first up was helen providing a vocal track to one of paul d's compositions, "things i know".  though originally slated for paul d's forthcoming 'strange tale' album, it is possible a version of the track may appear instead on helen's new album.

an entirely new track also took shape called "break it over again".  within 2 hours of mastering a rough mix, the song was previewed at Visions church in York during their sunday alternative service!

paul d and the talented parker at miles cain's recent launch gig in york

 + 

producers never being creatures to sleep and be idle, paul d has been devoting time recently to new material as well.   'postcards that never got sent' is the 2nd half of 'postcards from aunt cordelia' released last year.  the new collection features mainly tracks that didn't make it to the final version of pfac (plus a few tracks written at the same time, never destined for pfac) and will be released in two versions - as a two-disk package with a remastered version of pfac, and as an 'upgrade' for existing owners, called pfac v1.1.

paul has also begun compiling tracks for  the follow up album to pfac (current working title, 'strange tale') due for release later this year.  about 3/4 of the tracks are written and roughly recorded, but now starts the long haul of refining, arranging, and producing into some semblance of acceptability!

again mainly instrumental, the album does feature a number of vocal tracks as well. "a little something to hold dear", "things i know" and "in my dreams"  currently feature paul on lead vocals however discussions are underway with a number of artists who may provide much better performances!

the album will also see some of the first tracks featuring paul on chapman stick!

July 12th sees the official release of 'different destinations' by miles cain.  described by crossrhythms magazine as 'a fascinating listen... hearty congratulations', the album is an 11 track eclectic mix of miles' work over the last few years.  8/10 from tony cummings!  full details on miles' tbm webpage

on august 4 - matt dixey's debut 5 track demo 'out of the night-time' is released.  featuring some beautiful songs, passionately performed, 'out of the night-time' is some of the best work we've turned out of tbm recently!

helen turner & miles cain (now married to reduce studio fees) luxuriate in the new control room

following the success of helen's 2000 release 'permission', h will be back at tbm in july to start work on her new album.

updated software

july 04

though we've been OSX on a nice shiny new G5 since february, it's taken more than a little while for some of the plug-in and soft synth developers to catch up - but i am delighted to say that bar one company (you know who you are!!!) the whole studio is OSX/AU functional.

though i was beginning to think that tbm was one of the world's most extensive beta-testing facilities; products that have recently become fully integrated are:

Spectrasonics Atmosphere - now AU and LFO sync-able / Native Instruments: Battery, Reaktor, Absynth v2 + new soundset / Reason v2.5 now rewire-able to DP.  Waves Native Power Pack v5, YellowTools Culture, MOTU Mach 5 and Digital Performer v4.12.

huge thanks are due to rob williams and rob holsman at jigsaw systems in nottingham for their dedication to getting everything running smoothly.  if you are doing this studio thing on an anywhere near serious basis, give these guys a call - they don't shift boxes and leave you for dead - they are dedicated to getting it right!

matt dixey loses lettering from t-shirt shocker!

miles cain's album called 'different destinations' has now been mixed and mastered and will be available in the next couple of weeks.

discussions are underway with helen turner for a follow-up album to 2001's 'permission'

a new tbm venture in audio drama has begun with demos for a brand-new comedy drama series centred around a rather unusual welsh lawfirm being produced in april/may.  initial test recordings are sounding good and a new production company is being discussed at present.

the ongoing discussions in eve & the garden over the launch of their two new albums have resulted in a change of the name of the band to ENYGMARTYR and the final decision to release all of their new material as a special two disc album.  mixing is about to begin and mastering is planned for may.

the new tbm facility is now fully open for business and rate cards have been published!  we look forward to seeing you soon!

non-pecuniary thanks again go to dave banthorpe, jane campbell and su for all their help in packing up the studio from reading.  was a sad day but a necessary one!

first drum session run entirely on DP and i'm pleased to announce the system behaved wonderfully & sounds great!

22-06-02     yep - finally bored of that text only thing, i designed a new logo - hope you like it!

(click mac to see bigger picture of system)

tbm is proud to announce that the latest version of MOTU's Digital Performer is now installed and running.  this extends support for 24bit/96kHz recording; multiple undo; surround sound (5.1, dts + others); rex2 file import; improved digidesign (protools) integration plus many other new and exciting features.

Other new software includes Pluggo, adding VST plug-in support to DP3; Absynth, a brand new type of soft-synth allowing limitless creation of new and wild sounds; Recycle, a loop based sampling package allowing highly flexible and creative manipulation of rhythm & groove material; and a new hardware controller - the Contour Shuttle, allowing much easier access to key transport and menu-driven features.

links to the manufacturers can be found on the resources page.

using the inbuilt POLAR programme in DP, the strings were looped and multi-tracked to give an impressively large and rich sound.

following the addition of some spectacular drum work from mr bono (ex-flow), a 3 - track demo of miles cain's forthcoming album is now available.

It features the tracks: Don't Care About The Weather / Waking Up (with the house on fire) / Other Side of Midnight

the rest of the album is currently being mixed and mastered by p-a-d and will be out as soon as humanly possible

yep - after 3 billion years in the making and in dire danger of being engulfed by the next ice age, p-a-d finally let go of postcards from aunt cordelia into the wild blue yonder.

full details can be found by going to the special PfAC section of the website.

a reading-local singer/songwriter called matt dixey is currently in tbm recording some tracks for a demo.  matt has a very laid back style with a voice vaguely reminiscent of both bryan adams and del amitri.

though exploring some production ideas at the moment, it is hoped that a demo will be out very soon.  matt is turning out to be a one take wonder at the moment, which is always useful and welcome.

following some excellent sessions recently, a four-track demo is expected to be finished by mid july.

ttfn

click here for news piccies!!!