The Bunker Studio

We move a lot of tape through our facility! We have several different machines and headstacks from both Studer and Ampex, from two track (quarter and half) to 24-track (2”)
Tape isn’t for every project—2” tape is sadly quite expensive these days—but it’s always a real eye-opener to work in the analog medium
It’s not “higher fidelity” and it doesn’t “sound better” in every case—it’s not that simple
But it *is* a different medium—one that’s very beautiful and perfect for a lot of music
Imagine the distinction between a great, high quality digital photo made on the best camera—and a great film print. Both can be incredibly beautiful, both media can tell stories. But there are times when one or the other is the ideal medium for a specific piece of work

The Ampex 300-series of tape machines ruled the 2- and 3-track era in the US
These fabulous sounding vacuum-tube machines were part of so many iconic recordings at places like Columbia’s iconic 30th st. location here in NYC
The transports from these machines are a bit clunky by modern standards and complete machines are difficult to incorporate into modern workflows (it can be hard to calibrate more modern tape formulations), but the electronics sound so good that people started converting them to mic preamps a couple of decades ago
We have a few channels of these—they’re thick, lush and colorful (the “A” setting on decapitator seems to be modeled thereupon)

We’re so fortunate to have our favorite mastering engineer right inside the building—the great works in this lovely room full-time!
The tight feedback loop between recording, mixing and mastering—while maintaining specialization in these roles—is reminiscent of the late 20th century era when budgets tended to be a bit larger
it’s nice to be able to make that no-compromises ethos just a bit more accessible!

One of our owner-partners is our resident modular synthesis expert, and some of his gear has started finding its way into our mix room!
Use of modular synthesizers as mix processors is nothing new and we certainly didn’t invent it, but it’s full of possibility
Modular gear isn’t just for tone generation; there are some great filters, followers, and sequencers that can all come into play in a mixing workflow