By Sheryl Aronson & Mikey Adam Cohen
Studio 1 at East West Studios, Hollywood, was where Andrew Neu, musician/composer decided to record the Bonsera/Neu 17-piece Big Band for his newest CD, which consisted of 8 original compositions and 3 jazz standards.
Neu arranged all the music. The two day sessions were recorded live, which thoroughly excited the engineer, Thomas McCauley and producer, Brian Bromberg. Brian Bromberg commented, “It’s fun to play with human beings rather than machines, because nowadays a lot of music is done with computers. Here we have 17 guys in a room playing their hearts out at this level. Andrew wrote some really great arrangements that are kicking.”
Thomas McCauley
Brian Bromberg
The studio featured a live room, an isolation booth, 9′ Bechstein piano, concert lighting system and one of a limited number of classic Neve 8078 consoles remaining in the world today. Thomas McCauley, the engineer spoke about this classic board, “The board is from the late 70’s when they made console’s standards very high. It’s analog so the sound is warm and rich and has a completely different vibe than digital technology.”
Andrew Neu with Producer and Bass Player, Brian Bromberg
Bromberg elaborated further, ” It’s very wide, it’s very deep, the lows are very low and the highs are very high. Digital is clean and pristine and can be sterile… analog isn’t clear and precise but because of that, it can have a warmth and a purity.”