The Eye Socket is the name of my personal studio: the ever-changing work space and collection of recording equipment and instruments that I use to make records.
A short history: The original Eye Socket, established in Los Angeles in 1992, was the private studio of my band at the time (called Eyeball) and was equipped with little more than a four-track cassette recorder, a PC-based MIDI sequencer and a few synths and samplers. In 1995 I expanded the Eye Socket into a proper business and began making records for clients with 16 tracks of digital recording, an automated digital mixer and a larger (but still modest) collection of other gear. In its “classic” Venice Beach location (1995 – 2009), the Eye Socket grew into a quite capable recording studio – its heart a Mac-based DAW with 26 channels of Lucid and Crane Song I/O – and was home to many musical projects and hijinks. I have built and rebuilt and revised and relocated the studio multiple times – equipment, layout, wiring, patch bay, acoustic treatments, computer software – making the studio itself a kind of perpetual recording project.
Now in its sixth incarnation and located near Boston, Massachusetts, The Eye Socket Mk VI is a powerful composition and mixing suite well tailored to my working style and idiosyncrasies. Its central recording and mixing system is a Mac Pro with two UA Apollo 16s and a Crane Song HEDD-192, feeding an SPL 2384 analog summing mixer. This is surrounded by an array of instruments, recording equipment and noise machines all wired up and ready to play.
I use a lot of common equipment and software (Logic and Pro Tools, Izotope, Universal Audio, Native Instruments, SoundToys, Brainworx, Valhalla DSP, et al), but the more esoteric hardware pieces are my favorites:
Hammond F-100 “Extravoice” analog organ/synth
Wurlitzer 555 “Funmaker” organ (with Orbit III analog synth)
Roland CR-78 analog drumbox with Kenton MIDI retrofit
Yamaha SS30 analog string synthesizer
Yamaha SK15 analog symphonic ensemble synthesizer
Waldorf Q Rack (32 voice) digital synthesizer
Waldorf Microwave XT digital synthesizer
Clavia Nord Rack 2 digital synthesizer
Access Virus Indigo 2 digital synthesizer
Eowave Ribbon controller/synthesizer
Moog Mother-32 analog synthesizer
Oberheim Matrix-1000 analog synthesizer
Kurzweil K2500RS digital sampler
Ensoniq EPS-16+ digital sampler
Ensoniq Mirage-DSK digital sampler
Klemt Echolette NG-51 S tape echo
Tesla Echolana 2 tape echo
Maestro Echoplex EP-3 tape echo
Master Room XL-305 spring reverb
Master Room CSR-3 reverb system
Bandive Great British Spring Reverb
Furman RV-1 spring reverb
Sherman Filterbank 2
ZVex and EH pedals
GB Equipments and Astatic microphones
etc.
I designed and built an Arduino-based remote for my Sound Skulptor monitor controller. The build, including design details, resources and code, is extensively documented here.
To inquire about my services, please contact me.