Having recently upgraded the live tracking rooms, Ice Cream Factory Studio is now prepared to handle anything from a solo acoustic singer/songwriter to a six piece band with all members playing live with excellent isolation for every instrument. Check out the mixes in the player, and check back for more new tracks recorded and mixed right here!
Ice Cream Factory Studio is also a one-stop shop for all the merchandising needs of any band. Matt is a professional graphic designer who has worked with most of the major brand marketing firms in the Cincinnati area as well as major firms in Austin, and won several awards for his design work. He can provide you with the design of a professional CD package, logo, posters, stickers and t-shirt design to match your style and budget. Check out a portfolio of some of his work for various bands.
STUDIO HARDWARE LIST
Microphones
Modern
Neumann TLM193, Neumann KM184, Blue Ball, Shure Beta 92, Shure Beta 52A, Shure Beta 57, Shure Beta 87A, Sennheiser MD504, Oktava MC 012 (a pair of Tim Harbin/Oktavamod pro upgrades), Red Mic LDC MC-012 capsules, Oktava MKL-2500 tube mic (Oktavamod black gate upgrade, U.K. power), Oktava ML-52 ribbon mic with Lundahl transformer and extensive body mods, Nady RM5 ribbon mic, SM58, SM57, Sennheiser e609 (pair), and more.
Vintage
Neumann KM84, Sennheiser MD221U omni dynamic mics (pair), Sennheiser MD408 (four), EV N/D468 (two), AKG D109 (two), Shure Unidyne III nickel body, BeyerDynamic MD55, Altec Lansing, Uher, and more.
Plugins
UAD-1 cards (two) with basic plugins plus LA3A, Fairchild, Pultec Pro EQ, Plate 140 reverb
Waves L3
Tons of interesting filters, distortions, emulators and compressors
Preamps
Sytek MPX-4Aii (Burr/Brown op-amp option on channels 3-4)
Yamaha PM-1000 - 4 discrete channels, custom racked by Mike Kosacek
Stevenson Interface Electronics vintage two channel mic preamp
Event EMP-1 with THAT op amp upgrade
DBX 386 with NOS tube upgrades
DBX 286A vocal pre
Presonus Digimax
Interface
MOTU 2408 Mk3
Monitoring
EPI Epicure M100
Tannoy PBM8-II
Yamaha NS-20M
Samson Resolv120a active sub
Furman HDS-6 headphone distribution system
Extreme Isolation headphones (2)
Sony MDR-7506 headphones (2)
Nikko Alpha 130 solid state amp
Live Rooms
12' x 12' Vocalbooth.com isolation room
8' x 8' Vocalbooth.com isolation room
4'x6' Semi-isolated and treated amp closet
Instruments and Amps
Drums
Mapex Mars Pro 5 piece maple shell drum kit - 22x16, 12, 14, 16
Premiere XPK birch/eucalyptus/birch 6 piece kit - 22x16, 12, 13, 14, 16
One-of-a-kind black walnut & oak stave shell 14x6.5 snare hand built for the Ice Cream Factory by Spirit drums
One sexy 1968 Slingerland marching snare
Pearl Free-Floating 14x3.5" snare with steel, maple and custom Spirit drums stave shells
Ludwig blue/olive badge brass 14x6.5" snare
Premiere XPK birch 14x5" snare
Alesis D4 electronic drum module with several triggers
Tama Techstar vintage 2 channel analog trigger drum synth module
Basses & Guitars
'74 Fender Jazz bass
'78 Fender Musicmaster bass
'56 Framus hollowbody bass
'69 Norma acoustic (recently set up by Straightfrets)
90's Gretsch Electromatic semi-hollow guitar
'87 Fender Strat
Amps & Speaker Cabinets
'54 Supro Spectator (8" original speaker + external speaker mod)
'68 Silverface Fender Bassman head
Fender Hotrod Deluxe with THD Yellowjacket EL84 mod
Mid-50's Birch suitcase tube amp
60's Silvertone 1482 combo + external speaker mod
80's Univox ULM6 tube 1x10 combo amp
40's Dukane projector tube amp
70's Bogen tube guitar amp
Epiphone Valve Jr. 5watt tube head with vintage Mullard preamp tube
Ampeg SVT-III Pro with EH preamp tubes
Ampeg SVT Classic 6x10 cabinet
Custom Celestion Vintage 10 2x10 cabinet
Avatar 2x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s
Avatar 1x10 cabinet loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30
Pedals & Effects
Vintage Russian Big Muff (green)
EH English Muff'n tube overdrive pedal
'93 B.K. Butler Blue Tube
original Akai Headrush
Tychobrahe Parapedal reissue
Peavey SRP-16 stereo reverb pedal
80's Korg guitar synth (fun noise box)
Soundtech crossover (it does cool things to guitar)
Ashley vintage crossover
Boss GX-700 guitar effects processor
Boss GS-10 tabletop effects processor
Vox Volume pedal
'The Notch' acoustic preamp/tone shaper by intersound
Many, many more random pedals
Synths
Korg Microkorg
Baldwin electronic piano (88 hammer action keys, fantastic piano, wurli and hammond sounds)
Yamaha P-80 88 key weighted action stage piano
Casio SK-1
Lots of kids toys, some circuit bent
Percussion and Misc
tibetan prayer bell, kalimbas, hand drums, shakers from around the world, tambourine, and anything else that makes a cool sound
History
The Ice Cream Factory was established in 2001 in a former ice cream manufacturing plant (Sterling Ice Cream) that had been turned into raw artist's work space. The space was originally built as an old style one room studio in a beautiful, decrepit room with angled 14' to 7' ceilings, ancient brick walls and concrete floors, with thousands of books and Moroccan rugs and purple carpet to diffuse the brightness. The neighbors (varied media sculptors, painters and musicians), worked around the recording time and vice versa, but eventually too many bands were coming in, and a new space was required.
The sanctuary and office of a church built in 1899 in the North Fairmount area of Cincinnati became the new home of the Ice Cream Factory Studio in 2007. Hardwood floors, cathedral ceilings with wood support beams, a semi-circular resonance dampened stage, plaster and lathe walls and several of the original pews with cushioned seats lent themselves to a beautifully dark and open sound in what is arguably one of the nicest sounding drum rooms in the area.
In early 2008, the Ice Cream Factory Studio relocated to Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, this meant I had to give up the lovely church, but I've gained a whole new city full of people to meet and bands to record. I've already tracked a several, and more are on their way. The new facility is comfortable and sonically pleasing, much tighter and more "traditional studio" in sound, but there's still plenty of ways to make things sound interesting. We've got twice the number of vintage and new amps, instruments, mics and pre-amps that we had before the move to Austin.
Now we're making great connections in the music business, bringing in amazing bands and solo artists from Austin, Cincinnati and even the U.K.
Hit that "Send A Message" link to talk about getting the recording you want!
