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Bar shore control room. The MC/ 36 -input JH -536 console and autolocator are in the background; outboard rack on the right. Tales from Famous Producers School Down hcme at the studio with Bill Szymczyk, Part 2. by Crispin Cioe

WHILE HIS TRACK RECORD with the With all of that activity. squeezing in dio. We set the drums up on the porch, and (see PartI. No- recording sessions for his own album was facing the mountain across the valley. vember) might indicate otherwise, pro- not easy (it ended up taking two and half Then we set up a mike in the woods be- ducer Bill Szymczyk has been very much years to complete), particularly when low the porch. for what you might call involved in the albums of lesser -known they had to fit into Szymczyk's equally 'room ambience.' " The instrumental, as artists. So far, through his Pandora Pro- full schedule. To record the appropri- one might guess, has an extremely ductions. Ltd.. he has brought drummer ately titled Theme from Cabin Weirdos. spacious drum sound. and Jefferson Starship lead the two men met at the producer's cabin Szymczyk has known Vitale since singer Mickey Thomas to Elektra Rec- retreat near Mount Mitchell in North 1972 when he produced "Barnstorm," ords. Vitale's album, "Plantation Har- Carolina. Vitale drove south with his the eponymous debut album of a group bor," was released last summer; "Alive drums in his van and Szymczyk drove Vitale and Walsh put together in Colo- Alone," which came out in the fall, rep- north from Coconut Grove. Florida rado. The drummer describes his pro- resented Thomas' solo debut. (home base for his Bayshore Studio). ducer as "very, very musical for a non - Vitale plays with Eagle 's with a twenty -four -track console. musician. In the studio he's like the fifth band; he also toured with the Eagles last "I made a control room in the bed- member of a four -piece band. He won't year and plays on John Entwistle's "Too room," Bill recalls, "and a vocal booth in let you cheat yourself out of a track. We Late the Hero" (see story, December). the hallway: :he living room was the stu- in the band may think we've got a song

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