Award winning producer/guitarist Dann Huff recently chose to use The Grip studio to record multiple album projects, including tracking for Rascal Flatt’s new album. The Grip is owned by Jay DeMarcus, founding member and bass player of contemporary country super group, Rascal Flatts.

“I had been explaining to Dann for a while how deceptive the size of The Grip’s drum room was and that Carl’s design made the room sound far larger than it appeared,” noted DeMarcus. 

DeMarcus has been producing tracks at The Grip for country artist Jeannette McCurdy, pop artist Jason Scheff of Chicago fame and gospel artist Marshall Hall.

Dann Huff was already a big fan of the studio’s unique Carl Tatz Design (CTD) SpringLoad amp closet, where he had been doing all his re-amp recording as well as taking advantage of the Grip’s ISDN line capability for his West Coast projects. On DeMarcus’ recommendation, Huff tracked sides for a new Michael Bolton album there and became convinced that the extraordinary acoustics would be ideal for the new Rascal Flatts album’s drum sound.

The tracking session featured seven players, including two guitars, drums, bass, scratch vocal, grand piano and synth set-up. The Yamaha C7 was recorded in Jay’s beautiful marbled floor living room with its own video feed and monitor in the control room, and the extensive keyboard rig was installed in The Wine Cellar, a production room in the studio complex with its own video feed.

“Everyone commented on how very comfortable the sessions were,” beamed DeMarcus.

Because veteran engineer Justin Niebank has long relied on vintage Genelec 1031 monitors, they were set up in a flexible PhantomFocus System (PFS) array, so that The Grip’s Dynaudio M1s could be switched out upon request and still maintain PFS imaging and accurate frequency response for either set of monitors when in place.

Carl Tatz Design
The Grip Recording Studio
Genelec
Dynaudio