Local 6 / Patrick Simms Recording Studio
24-track Mackie HDR 24/96 digital recording (compatible with ProTools, Logic, etc.)
Large, comfortable live room
Experienced engineer
Demo mixing
Remote recording available
Special low rate for members
(415) 373-8874
EQUIPMENT LIST
Mackie 2408 mixer
Outboard Preamps include Shure, JBL Urei, and Aphex 107
3 Tascam DA-38 recorders (up to 24 tracks)
Mac G4 for stereo mixdown
Fostex G16S Reel to Reel analog 16 track
AKAI MG14G analog 12 track
Microphones
3 Nady TCM1050
1 Octavia MK-319
4 Octavia MC- 012
1 Akg D112
2 Naiant MSH – 2
1 Shure KSM-27
3 Shure SM58
2 Shure SM57
1 Audio Technica AT825 Stereo
2 Audix ADX-90
Monitors
Event 20/20
M-Audio BX5
Outboard Gear
1 Yamaha Rev7
3 DBX163x compressor limiter
1 ART tube compressor leveler
1 Digitech DSP128
1 Ensoniq D4
PATRICK SIMMS STUDIOS / STUDIO B (Offsite)
Mackie D8B digital mixer
Mackie HDR 24/96 Hard Disk Recorder
ABOUT PATRICK SIMMS
Patrick Simms is a guitar playing singer/songwriter who began recording on 4-track cassette tape machines in the 80s. In 1994 he left the state of Connecticut where he grew up and worked for the local newspaper as a reporter, and moved to San Francisco to pursue his musical interests. In the years to follow he founded his own studio/rehearsal/teaching space located on Mission at 9th Street, directly across from the old location of the Guitar Center store, where he worked for 3 years. During that time he invested in equipment and learned the ropes of recording, while playing in local bands, working as a part time sound engineer for more than 10 clubs, including The Paradise Lounge, Club 181, Club Galia, The Boom Boom Room, Cafe Cocomo, The Voodoo Lounge and others. He even ventured into booking local bands and singer/songwriters traveling through the Bay Area, and rented audio equipment to the 6th Street Fair, Yerba Buena Gardens, Fairfax Women’s Center, Eagle’s Hall in Daly City, 5 Wounds Elementary School fair in San Jose, and the Filipino Festival in Hercules.
When the AFM Local 6 moved into the South of Market neighborhood from their Tenderloin location in November 1998, Simms approached the organization about his services. He soon joined the Union and moved the recording portion of his studio into the AFM building in 1999. Since then he has sat at the controls of more than 100 sessions ranging mostly in Jazz, Classical, Latin Jazz, Americana Rock, brass quartets, string quintets, big bands, solo acoustic acts, audition tapes for students and musicians, with the occasional remote live recording. In 2000, while supplying a sound system for a band playing the People In Plazas Summer Noon Concert series, Simms met Lynn Valente, the organizer of the event. He has since become the assistant program manager for PIP and host concerts for the program. Simms is also a board member and the audio engineer for CounterPULSE, a community arts and dance space located at Mission at 9th, in the same building as his main studio space. In his free time he is also a DJ on Pirate Cat Radio, where on Tuesdays he hosts the California Music Box from 8 to 10 p.m., a show dedicated to playing local music of all genres.
RECORDING PHILOSOPHY
Simms’ philosophy about recording Local 6 bands is very hands off: “By setting up the equipment and positioning all the musicians using sound baffles, my only job is to capture their performance in a low pressure atmosphere. In doing so I have been privileged to witness some great playing. For singer/songwriters who I tend to choose to work with, I am more hands on. That’s when I put on my producer hat and make suggestions about tempo and instrumentation choices. It is not uncommon for a group to come in with the attitude that they are recording a demo, and in the end put out the finished material as a full blown CD.”
“The heart of the studio has been a Mackie 2408 mixing board and three Tascam DA-38 recorders (24 tracks), along with some pretty decent microphones, a list of which includes 3 Nady TCM1050 Tube Microphones, Audio Technica stereo, Octavia, Shure, Naiant, Audix.”
“I am not a technology junkie when it comes to the studio, so recently when I attempted to “upgrade” to a more computer based format, I found myself adjusting to a whole slew of format incompatibility, bugs, equipment failure, crashing, files going missing and worst yet, doing so during a great take. So, that’s when I reverted back to the old way of doing things – digital tape. After all, this is the Musicians Union and if something was not as good as it could be, it is easier to have these wonderful musicians just do another take. Five minutes later we are done and my wrist is not hurting from clicking a mouse endlessly. There is a saying – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But running a studio means you also have to have good working equipment and there is a constant search to add gear that works well with what is already there. To that degree there have been additions in outboard equipment such as microphone preamps, compressors and signal processors.”
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