About
About SUNWOOD
Chris had been jamming in the old second floor chicken coop since middle school. It was dirty. It was dusty. You could hear the birds chirping and rustling in the rafters above. His little brother once got busted throwing a party up there. But man, did it sound good- the old wood, the open space...
Then one day his folks decided to put in solar power for the homestead, right on the barn roof. The required structural work necessitated cleaning out the old coop and bolstering the barn with post-and-beam. Seeing this work underway got Chris thinking... could he take the renovation further? Even all the way? With the help of his wise and spry grandfather, and several musician friends and family, he gave it a shot.
...Behold. Sunwood Recording.
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What Can Sunwood Do For You?
Sunwood Recording offers full-service recording, production, mixing, and mastering. The unique space and carefully curated equipment combined with over a decade of expertise means you won’t leave disappointed. In fact, you've never sounded better.
dialing in guitar tones
Gorgeous sounding Live Room
The barn's footprint is about 25'x50', and with the control room and iso booth occupying merely one quarter of the space, there's a lot of room to breathe. The reclaimed wood walls and draped-burlap ceiling keep the acoustics warm, open and live. No drywall here.
the console
MIDAS Heritage 2000
This 65-channel Midas board was the pinnacle of large-format analog touring consoles circa '99-'00, before things got digital and more compact. Don't let its age fool you; the components and sonics are top-of-the-line, boasting fully parametric EQs, Midas' legendary improved XL4 preamps, 10 VCA groups, mute-group automation and very flexible routing. With half the console feeding the inputs of an Antelope Audio Orion 32+ and the other half receiving the Orion's outputs, your mixes get all that analog punch and clarity you've been looking for. An extensive gear list is available here.
the man himself
Christopher James Ploss
Chris grew up in the farmhouse on the property in Trumansburg, NY. His musical parents treated him to the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, and Fleetwood Mac while he was still in utero... Chris now plays the drums, keyboards, bass, and guitar, all with an ear for taste and tone. He has been writing songs since grade school, and has honed his skills in arranging and production. He studied music technology at McGill University and has been recording his own and other peoples' music ever since.
Rates
Tracking
The hourly rate for tracking is $60/hr. Alternatively, full days (8+ hrs working time, starting at 10am) may be booked for $450. Chris will help guide the session, and can offer production suggestions as well as fill in on a variety of instruments if the client so chooses. Deliverables are rough mp3 bounces of the session's progress at its conclusion (on a cd, email or Dropbox), or the session files on a hard drive or uploaded to a cloud storage account provided by the client.
Mixing
Chris charges $175/track for mixing material recorded (primarily) at Sunwood. Deliverables are mp3 mixes of a first version (V1, based on any client notes on the roughs) and first revision (V2, typically tweaks based on client feedback on V1). Further tweaks are billed at $60/hr. Mixing rates for material not recorded at Sunwood are determined on a per-project basis. Final deliverables are high quality WAV files of the track, to either the client or mastering engineer.
Mastering
Chris's philosophy is that mastering can be an opportunity for a fresh set of ears and an additional perspective on material that may have been handled by only one person. While he enjoys and is skilled at mastering tracks recorded with him and elsewhere, he often prefers to refer clients who have tracked and mixed at Sunwood to a small handful of trusted professional mastering engineer colleagues. He's happy to discuss these options with you further. If you elect to have Chris master your material, he charges $60/track for mastering.