Kensington Sound
Located in the heart of Kensington Market, Kensington Sound is Toronto’s oldest operational recording studio. Since 1972, Kensington Sound has worked with hundreds of artists and is home to multiple gold and platinum records.
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Carey Ott’s “Coming Up For Air” – How 3 Studios Made One Killer Song
“Coming Up For Air” has always been one of my favorite songs by Carey Ott. I started working on the production last fall, after hearing a very inspired first draft from Carey’s home studio in Nashville.
I then brought it to Kensington Sound, by way of Carey sending me the Logic session (via Yousendit). When I opened it on my end, I chose to add some new sounds: a rewire with Reason adding synths and strings, some recorded vintage tremolo guitars, as well as some backwards vocals and drum textures. I then sent out the 55 (!) continuous audio tracks to Ashwin Sood’s studio in Vancouver, running Pro Tools. Ashwin added his signature drums, programming, strings and production, and final mixed the tune with Chris Potter. What a killer track it ended up being! 3 studios collaborating on a singular (and unified sounding!) musical entity. The chemistry was just right – this doesn’t happen every time, but when it does it can yield some amazing results. It think that this was really just a confirmation for me that cross-studio collaboration not only works, but can often yield better results than one studio can on its own. Especially when we’re talking about source material from a home studio – nothing beats something mixed in a professional environment. I would encourage everyone who has great songs started, but needs a polished edge for the commercial cut, to consider a final production and mix treatment at a pro studio. You may just be surprised at the results – I was!
-Ben Pelchat
Listen to the song here.
