Lenny Kravitz’s personal studio is built 100 feet from the beach on eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, a 110-mile- long sliver of land 50 miles east of nassau. “I’ve always loved my roots,” says Kravitz. “My grandfather was born on an island called Ingua, the most southern Bahamian island closest to cuba. My parents used to send me down here for summers;we’d come here for christmas and holidays.” as if locating the studio in a caribbean para- dise wasn’t enough, Kravitz stocked it with a dream collection of gear collected throughout his career. From the start, Kravitz always knew the sound he was going for, which started his analog love affair. “I started recording at [henry hirsch’s] waterfront in 1985 or ’86, and I knew I wanted to make a certain kind of record,” Krav- itz remembers. “I saw the way technology was going in the late ’80s. records were sounding very processed—it was all about those big gated drums and everything sounding unnatural; in some cases, it was cool for different artists, but it didn’t work for me. I knew I wanted an intimate- sounding album.” Through his association with hirsch over a number of albums, Kravitz would be introduced to and then buy the gear that cre- ated his desired sounds. Gregory Town Sound started as a garage built by Kravitz to protect some of his belongings dur- ing hurricane season. It is a ranch-style concrete structure poured in place with a cantilevered roof. “It’s the most amazing studio that I’ve worked in, and it has the gear I’ve been collecting for 20 years,” says Kravitz. “It’s an incredible place to be creative.” also being an interior and furni- ture designer, Kravitz started with an aesthetic in mind and then brought in Miami-based acousti- cian and designer ross alexander, who has been doing studio integration and design since 1981. “what I do is put on paper what I want: wood here, cork there, do this and that,” says Kravitz. “Then ross does his mathematical measurements and tells me what I can and cannot do. From there, I can go forward with that design or change out a specific material so I’ll get the sound I want.” It’s the gear that shines at Gregory Town Sound, where vintage signal flow is king. It starts with an all-star array of mics from Schoeps, neu- mann, coles, aea, Sennheiser, Telefunken, Shure, aKG and more. all can be recorded through the studio’s wrap-around helios console or an eMI- designed reDD 37 once owned by abbey road and used in Studio 1. “The helios was henry’s choice,” says studio manager, gear and guitar tech alex alvarez about hirsch’s positive influ- ence in Kravitz’s gear-buying decisions. “[Kravitz] purchased a helios and was trying to go after more of a Stones and Zeppelin sound. That started off around the Circus album when we went that route.” after the Circus album, Kravitz sold the console and bought a strawberry-red he- lios from 10cc, which had some key components missing and ended up being racked for optimal use. Kravitz bought the current helios at Gregory Town Sound from leon russell about seven years ago. It sat for two years in a locker and then was refitted by tech Dave amels before it came to the Bahamas. The reDD 37 was purchased 18 years ago by Kravitz, who was urged to make the leap by hirsch. “Lenny had to take every dime he just made,” says alvarez. “he hadn’t sold a million al- bums yet and he took a chance at it.” other vintage gear is housed in the racks and includes eQ and dynamics processors from API, Fairchild, eMI, rca, Universal audio and retro. (For a complete list of lenny’s gear, visit mixonline.com.) Speakers are ATC ScM200 aSl and B&w nautilus 805 monitors, among others. The studio also has a collection of analog multitrack machines including a Studer c37 2-track, a J37 4-track once owned by abbey road, an 827a 24-track and an a-80 2-track, as well as a 3M M79 with 16-track headstack. There is also a Pro Tools system with apogee converters clocked by antelope audio.

The newest piece of gear is endless analog’s closed loop analog Processor (CLASP), which ties the analog recorders and Pro Tools together. “we have five machines now in the studio,” notes alvarez. “Three machines are dedicated to CLASP, the other two are for delay ef- fects.” Kravitz likes CLASP because he can use his tape machines as he would an ef- fect, jumping between tape speeds and machines. “I can say I’m going to record the drums through the 3M, or take my vo- cal and go through the Studer or the eMI. I get to pick and choose track by track, and then I’m in Pro Tools through my converters. I’ve finally got the best of both worlds.” CLASP stores setups for three machines, and CLASP creator Chris Estes is custom-designing an accessory for Kravitz that relay switches between his three machines with the click of the mouse. apart from alvarez (who wears many hats at the studio and on the road), the rest of the team at the studio includes engineer T-Bone edmonds and guitarist and Pro Tools operator craig ross. when asked about workflow, edmonds says, “we mix as we go. as it comes in, lenny will say I love that or this needs a little bit more top or bottom. once it’s gone through CLASP through whichever tape ma- chine we use and into Pro Tools, craig does what- ever editing and manipulation has to happen. we’ll add a plug-in here or a plug-in there, but normally if we want to change something, we’ll take it back out of Pro Tools and run it through what I call the ‘Juke Box,’ which is my playback system in the helios. I’ll eQ it, maybe run it through a Fairchild depending on what it is I’m trying to do and then send it back to Pro Tools. It’s really a team effort between, Craig, Alex, myself and Lenny.”

As for what’s ahead, Kravitz spoke about going to the oscars and upcoming projects, including a world tour to support his current album in prog- ress, Negrophilia. “I did this movie called Precious, I’m doing another film this spring with lee Daniels and I’m doing a photography show in europe this year.” For now, Kravitz couldn’t be more at home in the Bahamas. “I’m finding that I’m able to get all the sounds I’m looking for. I owe that to ross alexander who did an amazing job on the room. The flow of the writing is going well out here: Be- ing in the middle of nowhere, living a simple life is conducive to writing.” Click here to read the entire article @ Mix Magazine Online

Tags: Lenny Kravitz, The Beatles