Mixing at The Hit Factory

In April of 93 Last Tribe was in the process of putting out our 1st record. The band and the label collectively decided that Alex Perialas' original recordings/mixes were troubled. After a tense meeting with the owner of Energy Records, Charlie Caronia, it was decided that I should try and salvage the tapes myself. At the time I had no experience mixing in a large studio so at the urging of Bear Tracks studio manager Chris Bubacz (who by the way engineered the first Metallica Record!) we decided to use mix engineer Doug Oberkircher. We started off in Suffern, NY at Bear Tracks but a scheduling snafu forced us to move down to NYC and the Hit Factory. I was very excited to be working in it's hallowed halls, for a little while anyway. The following is one of many journal entries made while we were there. I will post others. I typed a translation because I scribble like a doctor!
April 2, 1993 Sitting in the Hit Factory lounge for M-1. Work is slow but sounding good! Right down the hall is Studio A-3, home for people like Springsteen, the Stones, Clapton, Paul Simon (who's downstairs right now), Phil Collins, Madonna, Bryan Ferry etc. etc. It's weird, I just pictured something larger and more glamorous like the new building. This place is so low key and small, but it works, when it's not breaking down! Next album I'd love to record at Bearsville in Woodstock, that would be way cool! And maybe mix at Bear Tracks, a great studio. Last night the guy in A-3 came over to listen to what we were doing and thought it was great. He's working with the engineer who did "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley and "Africa" by Toto, the guy is good. Anyway, we did "Do You Really Know" and "Until the Break" yesterday, sounding large! I went to Tower and got a sound FX CD and we've got great rain and thunder along with bagpipes in the start of "Until". We're starting "Shoot" right now then Whither and possibly a remix of Only I. We shall see. These long days are making us tired! I miss my love!

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