Robert Nath dubs vocals with producer Jonathan Comisar

Composer Robert Nath and his producer Jonathan Comisar joined us in the studio this weekend to record vocal overdubs on a collection of pieces previously recorded with us. With Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo behind the boards, Comisar and Nath directed the vocalists from both the live room and control room, adding group singing to the already rich mix of piano, cello, violin, and clarinet present in the recordings. Frongillo made ample use of the high ceilings in the Mezzanine studio live room for a natural room sound and clear stereo image, both central components of classical-style ensemble recordings.

These pieces will be continuing on to track primary vocals next, before preparing for release.

Jonathan Reid Gealt and Brooke Simpson record at Dubway West

Brooke Simpson in the booth at Dubway West, with Gealt and his producer on the line in the foreground.

Jonathan Reid Gealt’s album Archetype is heading into the home stretch after another all-star vocal session at Dubway West this past month. The guest vocalist in-studio for the recording was singer/songwriter/previous Voice contestant Brooke Simpson, who was a treat to hear behind the mic.

The session was recorded by Dubway West engineer Maja Sazdic, and comes just in advance of another session–this time at Dubway NYC–in which Gealt will be recording a large band for several of his tunes, as the project gets closer and closer to completion.

You can follow Gealt’s work on the album on his website, linked above, and find more recent news about previous collaborators further down in our blog.

"Master Of None" shoots promo "Moments in Love: A Music Experience" at Winston House with Dubway West

Dubway West joined the team at the Winston House to record a concert for Netflix’s Master of None, which recently released its third season. The concert, titled “Moments in Love: A Musical Experience” was a celebration of Black and queer R&B artists, with an amazing lineup of talent that included Tiffany Gouché, Durand Bernarr, Destin Conrad, Avery Wilson, Asiahnn, and a conversation with Maxwell. The Dubway team included engineers Maja Sazdic and Patrick Pak, who worked alongside a creative team lead by director Malakai Johnson.

You can read more about the shoot here, and find behind-the-scenes clips from the show on the artists’ Instagrams (linked above).

John Luther Adams' "Arctic Dreams": out now!

Acclaimed composer John Luther Adams’ newest work, Arctic Dreams, releases today on Cold Blue Music. The album has been in the works for some time, with Dubway lead engineer Nathaniel Reichman producing and mixing its entirety. As with all of Adams’ works, the performers are top notch. From the label:

The composer, photography courtesy Donald Lee.

Performed by the incredible Synergy Vocals, a critically acclaimed vocal ensemble that has during the past 25 years recorded music by Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, David Lang, Luciano Berio, James MacMillian, Steven Mackey, John Adams, Arvo Pärt, and many other composers and performed with the Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco Symphonies, the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, as well as other major orchestras and many chamber ensembles. Their performances and recordings have been deemed “amazing” (New York Times); “beautiful, haunting” and “wonderfully transparent” (Gramophone); “superb” (The Guardian); “dazzling” (The Observer); “exquisite” (Financial Times); and “blazing and stunning” (The Herald, Scotland). With Synergy Vocals is a quartet of notable string players, all specialists in new music: violinist Robin Lorentz, violist Ron Lawrence, cellist Michael Finckel, and bassist Robert Black.

Coinciding with Apple Music’s new support for Dolby Atmos® Music, the album is available in the Atmos® format and can be streamed with immersive sound here, or purchased at the Cold Blue link at the top.

TikTok fuels "Castaways" rise to the top of Spotify's Viral 50 chart

“Castaways”, a song from the Backyardigans series on Nick Jr., has seen a huge rise in streams in the past month, thanks to a section of the song going viral on the video platform TikTok. Sounds often go viral on the platform when used for a dance, or as a soundtrack for a specific topic or meme, and in this case both appear to be true. Users deploy the audio just as often to dance the show’s choreography as they do as a backdrop for skits, instructional videos, and commentaries.

The song was composed and recorded under the auspices of Dubway–back when the studio was in it’s Chelsea location–with noted composer Evan Lurie writing the tune. Dubway produced or engineered the audio for Backyardigans for years, including the sound design, foley, ADR, mixing, and music. It’s been a treat to see this song (and the show) enjoy such broad appeal on TikTok; streams of the song have risen so much that through the weekend, “Castaways” was in the #1 position on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart, before being unseated today by Eurovision entry Go_A’s song, “SHUM”.

Apple Music announces support for Dolby Atmos format

The Dolby Atmos format has been a major player in film and television sound for years, and has recently made significant inroads as a format for music releases. In a press release this week, Apple Music announced that it will add support for the format to it’s streaming services! The service will come included in an Apple Music subscription, starting on June 21st.

Dubway has been proud to offer Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment mixing to our post-production clients, and can also offer Dolby Atmos Music mixing for our music clients. We’ve been lucky to work on several excellent immersive albums in the Atmos Music format, including the highly acclaimed John Luther Adams album Become Desert, and are excited to continue to work in immersive music formats. Check out or services page or give us a call to learn more!

Spill Tab records at Winston House with Dubway West!

NYC artist Spill Tab joined our West-coast crew from Dubway West at the Winston House (LA) late last month for a livestream concert and recording of some of her latest music. We’ve been honored to work a series of these performances, with the venue playing an excellent and safe host for both audio and visual crews as well as the band–no easy feat during the pandemic.

Check out some behind-the-scenes pictures of the show above, and find the video for recent track “PISTOLWHIP” below.

#TBT: Jake Shimabukuro with Crossover Media

This Thursday, we’re giving a shout-out to one of our favorite production companies, Crossover Media, and looking back to a session in 2020 in which they brought famed ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro into the studio for a series of interviews with radio stations all over the country. We frequently work with Crossover on similar sessions, in which top musical talent–often but not exclusively Classical musicians and composers–conducts interviews all over the country or world from one of our booths.

If you’ve never heard Jake Shimabukuro play, you can start below with the video that first propelled him to international recognition, a cover of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps“.

#TBT: Beecher's Fault - Matchstick Kings

This week, we want to share a lovely video from Brooklyn indie band Beecher’s Fault recording their single "Matchstick Kings” in our Mezzanine Studio space, all the way back in 2013! It’s amazing to see how, while equipment and techniques are always coming and going, some things remain the same–like our mic locker, natural live room acoustics, and sense of fun in the studio.

This song was picked up by indie film The Outfield (2015) for use in it’s trailer, which you can catch here, pun intended; the session was recorded by studio engineer Chris Abel, and mixed by Dubway West head honcho Chris Montgomery.

Brian Russell Carey and singers track in the Mezzanine

Local multitalented musician Brian Russell Carey brought a group of beautiful voices through our Mezzanine studio last month, tracking multipart harmonies as part of his newest project.

The session was engineered by Dubway’s Zach Grappone, and made judicious use of the Mezzanine’s 40-foot high ceilings and professionally designed acoustics. With baffles between singers, producers are able to get the best of both worlds in this room–individual spot mics for balancing in post, and a complete stereo image with the natural space of the room for a feeling of immersive accuracy.

Follow Carey’s work at the link above, and drop us a line for your next acoustic recording project!

Jerry Wonda archives vintage Fugees tapes with Dubway

Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis.

Grammy Award-winning producer and bassist Jerry Wonda Duplessis linked up with Dubway engineer Louis Fisher today for a transfer of a 2” tapes of the classic Fugees album, The Score. Jerry Wonda has had a long and illustrious career, working with artists like Miguel, Wyclef Jean, and many more, in addition for his work in the Fugees. This tape transfer gives Wonda total access to the multitrack recording of the album’s songs, which is an excellent way to preserve an album for longevity, or for addition re-mixes or masters down the line.

The Score contains some of the Fugees most famous songs, and is consistently ranked among the best albums of the 90’s. It was a real treat to hear it on the 2”!

We’d be remiss if we didn’t link to at least one of this albums many hits, so below we’ve got what may be the best Enya sample of all time. Keep up with Jerry Wonda at his Twitter, linked above, and give us a call if you too have a 2”–or any other tape format–that you’d like to preserve for the future.

Composer Robert Nath records with piano and strings in the Mezzanine.

Pianist Jonathan Comisar buried in the piano amidst a heap of microphones. Foreground: Robert Nath’s score for the piece “V’shamru”, part of the larger work being recorded. Photo taken in the Mezzanine room.

Composer Robert Nath is working on an ambitious musical setting of Jewish songs, and has been recording at Dubway over the course of the past few months to bring this vision to life. Along with producer, arranger, and pianist Jonathan Comisar, an all-star crew of musicians, and Dubway engineer Keenan DuBois, Nath is building a lush musical world for these songs to inhabit.

Recordings have taken place in the Mezzanine studio, with DuBois and the musicians forced to get creative in recording a classical ensemble in traditional stereo during the distancing-era of COVID (as you can see from the array of stereo techniques in the photo above!). In another hallmark of the current times, Nath produces and monitors the recordings remotely via an internet link to the studio’s control room, allowing him to make performance calls just as if he were in the room with the engineer.

The pieces currently have their musical parts recorded, and are heading into vocal recording and mixing next. Stay tuned!

Dawn Derow puts finishing touches on cabaret project, "My Ship"

Dawn Derow’s performance piece, My Ship: Songs From 1941, won her a MAC Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist. Now, the show–which you can see clips of above, and the entire first half of here–is getting the album treatment, and is nearly closed to finished.

Sessions have been wide-ranging to get a full, old-fashioned orchestra feeling. Along with Derow and her producer Paul Rolnick, Dubway engineer Zach Grappone recorded trumpet, saxophone, trombone, a layered string section, clarinet, flute, and more, to capture the feeling of the time.

Check out some video of the sessions at Derow’s Instagram (linked at the top), and stay tuned for more!

Progressive Theatre's "The Gospel At Colonus" trailer

Check out the trailer for Progressive Theatre’s adaptation of Lee Breuer’s The Gospel At Colonus – recorded in Dubway’s Mezzanine studio, with Gregory Omar Osborne, Darnell White, and Dubway engineer Zach Grappone serving in producing/engineering capacities.

You can read more about the show and company at the New Jersey Stage article from late last year, and at our previous write up of the sessions.

Jonathan Reid Gealt's vocalists continue tracking, featuring Ashley Jayy and India Carney

India Carney, partially hidden behind an AKG C12.

Two more superstar vocalists have added their talents to Jonathan Reid Gealt’s upcoming album, Archetype! Dubway West played host to the amazing Ashley Jayy (Prince, 3rdEyeGirl, Farnell Newton) and India Carney (Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Mavis Staples) during two separate sessions in late March, with engineers Chris Montegomery and Patrick Pak.

Ashley Jayy singing, foregrounded by the pandemic’s omnipresent Zoom call and the Audient console

These sessions continue a series of vocal recordings that Gealt has been conducting at both Dubway HQ in Manhattan, and Dubway West in LA–sometimes using both facilities simultaneously for remote monitoring or producing. Engineers Pascal McGilvray-Guard and Keenan DuBois have contributed to the project during some of these previous sessions, in addition to the aforementioned Dubway West team.

"The Mind and Music of Chopin" by Richard Kogan, completes work at Dubway

Acclaimed performer, psychiatrist, and lecturer Richard Kogan assembled his usual team at Dubway last month for a new lecture-recital on the music of Frédéric Chopin. The piece, which was filmed at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, is out now and can be viewed above.

Producer Thomas Mowrey.

Dr. Kogan and his longtime producer-collaborator Thomas Mowrey–an extraordinary classical producer with a long career at Deutsche Grammaphon and Decca–have created a series of these visual documents with the Dubway team, which transport the viewer into Kogan’s engrossing lecture-recitals on the psychology of famous composers in the Western art-music canon. Previous entries in the series have covered Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bernstein (an artist Mowrey worked with on numerous occasions) Mozart, and more, with Kogan’s masterful playing at the emotional core of each performance.

Dubway editor and engineer Pascal McGilvray-Guard edited the video, and engineer Keenan DuBois handled all sound duties for the studio.

Dr. Kogan has presented his programs on the psychological origins of musical creativity at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Rockefeller University, in New York. 

Cantor Shani Cohen records, films, at Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn

Cantor Shani Cohen brought our audiovisual recording rig to the beautiful Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope last month, for a shoot of cantorial music in several locations within the synagogue. Dubway engineer Marc Frongillo was on-location to operate recording unit’s microphones–a trio of Neumann mics used to capture the piano and voice–and camera.

Marc Frongillo monitors the setup. Right: Shani Cohen.

Jonathan Comisar tracks new music with Camille Dietrich

Left to right: Camille Dietrich, Keenan DuBois, and composer Jonathan Comisar.

Composer/pianist Jonathan Comisar returned to Dubway for a new project of original compositions for piano and cello. He was joined in the session by Camille Dietrich, a regular collaborator, and studio engineer Keenan DuBois. Comisar has previously recorded at Dubway with composer Robert Nath, on sessions that have also involved Dietrich and DuBois. While the project is still in its early days, it appears to be moving fast, and we may have more news on it soon!

Randall Goosby in conversation with Fred Child for Minnesota Public Radio

Violin prodigy Randall Goosby recorded a remote conversation from our studios last week, with renowned radio host Fred Child (host of Performance Today) interviewing the virtuosic instrumentalist over a Zoom connection into our Manhattan studios.

The session was recorded by Dubway engineer Louis Fisher, and produced in partnership with American Public Media and, of course, Minnesota Public Radio.

Have 30 minutes to spare? Check out this beautiful recording of Goosby playing Beethoven’s 9th Violin Sonata (Op. 47) with Zhu Wang–another superstar–with sponsorship and organizing from the Chineke! Foundation.

Robin DiLauri teases new song with Down Neck Productions

Watch a brand new, exclusive trailer for Robin DiLauri’s newest song, filmed and recorded in our Mezzanine studio space last December and now nearing a release date! The tune was produced by a classic Dubway duo of Mike Crehore and Al Houghton alongside Down Neck Productions, and tracked by studio engineer Russell Castiglione.