Studio Stats

CREDITS: Various projects for Billy Bob, with artists such as Slash, Warren Zevon, Dwight Yoakam, Billy Gibbons, Robbie Robertson, Daniel Lanois, Styx, Jewel, Marty Stuart, Ricky Medlocke and many others.

CONSOLE: Custom modified Trident Series 80B with 56 channels of Uptown Automation, Mackie 24x8

MONITORS: Custom Tannoy FSM, Genelec 1031A, Yamaha NS10

AMPLIFIERS: Yamaha PM4002

RECORDERS: iZ Technologies RADAR 24 with 24 bit 96khz converters [2], Panasonic SV3800, SV3700, Fostex CR 300 CD recorder [2]

EFFECTS: Eventide H 3500, H 3000; Sony R7 [2], D7 [2]; Yamaha SPX 90II

OUTBOARD: DBX 160 [8], 160XT [2], UREI 1176LN [2], Avalon AD2044, VT747SP, 2055 [2]; API 525 [2], 560; Empirical Labs Distressors [2], Drawmer DS201 [2]

MICROPHONE PREAMPS: Neve 1073 [6], Avalon AD2022, VT737 [2], API 312 [2]

MICROPHONES: Various by Neumann, AKG, Audio-Technica, Shure, Sennheiser

KEYBOARDS/SAMPLERS/MIDI: Hammond B3 with Leslie, Wurlitzer piano, Alesis D4, and Voce DM1-64MKII, Sans Amp PSA-1, Antares Auto Tune ATR-1,

INSTRUMENTS: Vintage guitars and amps by Gibson, Fender, Vox, Ampeg, Danelectro, Martin, Marshall, custom drum kits by Gretch, Mapex, and Pearl, Line 6 amps, Pod Pro, Bass Pod

Pulling up the gated driveway in the Beverly Hills hood dimly lit by blue lights, muted pulsating rock beats can be heard. The front door swings open and a guy with long dark hair and a gentle smile invites us into the sanctuary once owned by Guns n’ Roses guitar slinger, Slash. We enter the living room. There sits the Werewolf of London himself, Warren Zevon who is taking a break from the sessions downstairs, munching on a burger and fries. He smiles hello and gets back to his fuel for the evening. In walks the master of the house, Billy Bob Thornton looking more like a member of Creed than an Oscar-winning director. “Come on downstairs to The Cave, I want to play you some music and introduce you to my friends. Now, do you like to rock or do you like it down low?”

Über-producer Daniel Lanois joins us in the control room and Thornton plays the instrumental track they worked on earlier. Lanois’s guitar playing is haunting on the Thornton/Lanois collaboration. “Nobody is a better storyteller than Billy,” states the six-time Grammy winner producer.

It’s almost midnight when country crooner Dwight Yoakam arrives with guitar in tow, ready to add his part to one of the tracks. While producer/engineer Jim Mitchell, loads up the RADAR for Yoakam’s overdub, Thornton’s production manager, Kristin Scott, informs him that Tommy Shaw from Styx is on the phone wanting to know if he should come down to do vocals later. The activity seems almost mundane, but once Thornton puts on his producer/artist hat, it’s obvious to even the casual observer why the industry’s best musicians are lining up to be a part of his record. “Billy’s style of getting things done in the studio was so dramatically different from Styx, I found it to be an artistic holiday,” mused Shaw. “At Billy’s there was an obvious mission, but the method was more laid back, with a relaxed, open door sense of creativity and spontaneity. He has an ear for the organic and recognizes when something pure goes down, even in it’s roughest form, and he is a born leader of creative people.” Shaw summarizes, “Someday when we are old (really, really old) we’ll all be heard talking about the halcyon playground days in ‘The Cave’. We who were fortunate enough to have experienced it.”

Fig. 1: This processing rack in The Cave includes an Eventide H 3000 and H 3500, Sony R7’s and D7’s, dbx 160’s and 160XT’s, Drawmer DS201’s, Empirical Labs Distressors, an Antares ATR-1, a Sansamp PSA-1, and Alesis and Voce sound modules.

Fig. 2: The Cave’s tracking room includes a road-ready stage monitoring system for band rehearsals and for that “live” feel. These Crown amps and Klark-Teknik EQ’s, located in the studio’s “utility” room, drive the wedges and side-fills.