FREE PRE-PRODUCTION: before recording an EP or ALBUM with us, spend an evening working on pre-production (song choice, song arrangement, song adjustment and improvement and recorded rehearsal) with one of our engineers/producers for FREE.

RECENT PROJECTS weve been involved in:
We’ve been solidly booked for the last 2 months and well into next month already.

Option 1: Stereo Live Gig Recording:

Why Record your gig?: A Recorded gig is perfect for keeping a record of what you sounded like at a Gig, or for pre-production purposes and depending on your performance these may work as quick demos to send to NZ On Air for New Recording Artist grant Applications.

Method: Two High Quality Large Diaphragm Condenser Mikes at the back of the Room, and/or Stereo Live Feed from the Desk (Optional: Microphone Backup)

Processing Cost**: $50 per band includes very basic Mastering and splitting up of songs so that they can be placed on a CD for playback or converted to mp3s for myspace.

Option 2: Multi-track Live Gig Recording:

Why Multitrack Record a Gig?: Depending on the bands performance on the night multi-track recording has the added bonus that the songs can be mixed to a high quality standard and therefore they can be used to make a Sellable LIVE CD for the band. These will also work well as demos to send to NZ On Air for New Recording Artist Grant Applications. What a great and cheap way to get a whole lot of Good quality Demos!

Method: All the channels from the Desk are recorded on separate tracks so that everything can be Mixed properly within a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) After the Gig. Two Large Diaphragm Condenser Mikes, and desk feed will also be recorded – this captures the crowd atmosphere as well as how it sounded to the FOH (Front of House) engineer.

Processing Cost**: $150 per band includes basic multi-track mixing in DAW as well as full Mastering of songs so that they can be placed on CD for playback for converted to mp3 for I-pod or myspace use.

** These prices are for if The Rock Factory are already doing live sound at the Gig being recorded. If we are not doing live sound at the Gig an additional setup cost of $50 applies because we would have to come out to the gig to setup the recording especially.

Take Away Vocal PA with a Mixing Desk and a couple of mikes available for $150, Its $50 extra for a Sub to go with it. See LIVE SOUND for pictures.

We also have three awesome Concert Sound Systems of different sizes (small to large) that we hire out with Desk, Snake, Monitors, microphones and Sound Engineer for between $400 and $1000 per night. Ring for whole day rates.  Vocal PAs, Lighting, wireless mikes, projector, Mixing Engineeers available too. Ph 09 270 9555, 021 818725,  021 358577 therockfactory@xtra.co.nz. We’ve done everything from Weddings, Conferences to small pubs to several day Festivals setups with several stages.

See LIVE SOUND for pictures.

NEED A MIXING ENGINEER TO MIX ALL BANDS AT YOUR SHOW?**
* $150 to $180 for the night - Up to Midnight
* $200 for the night if the show goes past midnight and till 2AM
Engineer can bring FULL BAND MIKE UP KIT (stands, cables and microphones as necessary and can arrive at the venue between 5 and 6pm giving enough time for some sound checks)

**These Fees Applies if there is already a PA present at the Venue.
***If you need a PA - see Full PA rates above

EXTRA EQUIPMENT can be hired with engineer as needed - eg MONITORS, FX RACK, ALLEN AND HEATH MIXWIZARD DESK, WIRELESS MIKES, LIGHTS, CONTROLLER PROJECTOR ETC - e-mail us at therockfactory@xtra.co.nz for a quote….  when hiring out an Engineer, Equipment rates may be reduced dependent on the amount of equipment required.

ONE OFFS or WALK-IN JOBS  (no equipment required) e.g at THE RISING SUN, 420, SHADOWS, OBLIVION, KINGS ARMS) depends on length of set and time required at venue, so ring for Rates… would rather not just have to turn up to mix only one band -however, will make exceptions for bands who have done recordings with us. e.g Michelle mixed Slipping Tongue as the opening act for Coheed and Cambria at the Powerstation, and Mark mixed The Midnight Youth as the opening act for OK GO at the Studio.

 Ph 09 270 9555 or Michelle on 021 358577 or Mark on 021 818725  or email therockfactory@xtra.co.nz  .

Current mood: stoked
Category: Music

Album Review in RIP IT UP April/May 2008

Slipping Tongue

My Kingdom Falls (Finest Hour Records/ Global Routes Distrib)

***** (5 Stars!)

” A slab of sheer brilliance, My Kindom Falls is pure listening pleasure. A concept Album of sorts with some beautifully powerful songs well weaved together. Moody and huge with sweeping themes, this album is well recorded and certainly highlights the incredible talents of the vocalist Jennie Skulander. ’Fixx’ pushes all the right buttons right from the start with the line ” You talk of me as if I’m gifted” which you’ll be singing all day. ’Swallow the Sword’ is a catchy driven rock track, again with a hell of a hooky melody. ’Bitter’ is a great single already getting lots of airply on C4 and Alt. Slipping Tongue take themsleves very seriously and have done a seriously good job with this album. Divided into four chapters My Kingdom Falls is a journey through four emotion and angst charged seasons. From sweetness to gravel, anger to reason, the band have a firm grip on the importance of dynamics and playing with feel. Insistant drumming motivates and grooves the songs to life and some killer guitar tones colour them. but its the purity and beauty of the vocals that will stop you in your tracks. Alluring and compelling, the songs have real heart and soul. Slipping Tongue Tour alot, work hard, have a missive fan base as well as an unshakable belief in their own talent. They have also done everything themsleves with no help from the ’industry’ - including funding their own recordings and videos. The band have exactly what it takes to be huge, its just a matter of time until an offshore record company signs them up. This album is epic, a masterpiece that deserves its rightful place as one of NZs best rock releases.”

- The Axeman

I particularly love the last line yay! I got to help with that

Another cool piece of news is that Slipping Tongue opened for Coheed and Cambria last week and they apparently sold more Albums at that show than Coheed did!!! Even the Coheed and Cambria Sound Engineer brought the Album! ROCK. lol.

The Rock Factory website is newer and more shiny than before! You can now subscribe to the RSS feed and keep up to date with the latest news (click the orange square in your address bar…) you can comment on all our news blogger styles, you can search the site, and even add your own testimonial.

You can still find the forums if you click the forum button in the top menu bar, and you can still find all our studio and live sound details with a click to the menu on the left.

Website will be being updated throughout this week, let us know if you find any bugs/dead-links/dead-bugs…

Happy NZ Music Month People!

-Kristie

Get your hands on the New Slipping Tongue Album - Available in Shops now!

The Album is a milestone in many ways - the first in a series of Albums outlining the story of a heart wrenching break up and all the emotions that go with it… This first album is written from the perspective of the female character in the story and the music has feminine touch, but still eminates from the Hard Hitting and Massive sound that is SLIPPING TONGUE.

Look out also for the Series of Music Videos that tell the story of the albums different acts - they are not released in sequence so you will have to wait till all of them are released to understand the full story and concept of what happens. Act 1 and Act 4 have been released in the music videos so far. REQUEST the MY KINGDOM FALLS (act 4)music video on C4 select by texting S153 to 4440.

The songs on the album are mainly written by Ray Old (the guitarsit), with the addtion of some lyrics by Jennie Skulander (the lead vocalist), with the other band members Mike Mackie and Jarad Dobbs contributing in various songs (see album inlay for details).

Slipping Tongues Debut Album is also the First Album that Michelle Klaessens from the Rock Factory has Fully Recorded, Mixed, Mastered and Produced from start to finish. Done in a whirlwind month - with not much time left before the due date, Michelle wanted to give the album an exotic overseas production sound. she added atmosphere to the songs by the addition of Orchestration, Organs, Keyboards and backing vocals in her own time while mixing the album. Check it out and let us know what you think!!

For other recordings completed at The Rock Factory you might want to check out is The Twitch’s ‘What the F*ck is going on?” Recorded and mixed by Mark Rawstron from the Rock Factory in early late 2006, and The more recent These Four Walls EP recorded and mixed by Michelle in early 2007 - a song from each of these is also featured on the music player.

I WILL BE FEATURING A DIFFERENT SONG FROM THE SLIPPING TONGUE ALBUM ON THIS MYSPACE EVERY WEEK FOR THE NEXT 13 WEEKS… check back next week for another sneak preview of a different song, or even Better…. Go to your local CD Store are request the album - distributed by Global Routes - it is now available Nationwide!

Listen to THE ROCK FM this Sunday Night for a Feature of the album on Paul Martins Show The Axe Attack.

you can also check out the bands myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/slippingtongue for more Songs and News

The Rock Factory Sylvia Park had it’s official opening party on Saturday the 27th of October - and what a night it was!

In other news Mark and I are excited to announce we have a team of young to youngish Sound Engineers who are working for us as contractors at the moment so this makes the team as following:

Live Sound Team:

Mark Rawstron, Michelle Klaessens, Jason Belcher, Andrew Kerr, Mike Clarkin and Nick Campbell.

In the Studio:

Mark Rawstron (mainly tracking), Michelle Klaessens (Mainly mixing and mastering), Simon Toomer (The whole shabang - this is one talented young man, our resident in house protools wiz, excellent at production and fast!) and Nick Campbell (projects and bits and bobs around the place - also a talented session musician, Nick can play almost anything). Jason Belcher is also great in the studio - so let us know if you’d like to work with him at the helm. Andrew Kerr is also a talented session musician who can play everything under the sun, so let us know if you would like him to be a session musician in one of your songs. Tory Staple - this young man can play the drums and has a lovely kit that sound great recorded. Ring us if you need him as a session drummer in your recording.

Volunteers:

Dave and Tobias will be helping us out in the Studio and/or Live Sound around the place over the spring/summer and into the new year to gain experience and have heaps of fun! We always need help - so if you think you have something to offer us, give us a bell! If you are looking for work, Volunteering is the best and only way to eventually end up working for us as a paid contractor - this way we can quickly find out how you work and if you are the right person to work with us! We like people who are innovative, motivated and can create their own place within the community - above all you must be easy to work with (get along great with bands and can solve problems quickly on your feet), and you must be obsessed with quality of sound production! You also need to be strong (able to lift and move heavy things, and have a full drivers license.