There’s something splendidly reassuring about strolling right into a studio that feels prefer it has been constructed round music first.
Not hype. Not style. Not the limitless pursuit of trying like a studio on Instagram.
Music.
That’s precisely what Marc Urselli has created with Audio Confidential, his new studio on twenty ninth Road in Manhattan. Marc has had the room for just below a yr, nevertheless it already feels settled, purposeful and filled with character. It’s a studio designed by somebody who has spent a lifetime working with musicians, accumulating microphones, studying rooms, making data and understanding that nice recordings are hardly ever about one single piece of substances. They’re about individuals enjoying collectively, listening to one another and being given an setting the place they’ll carry out at their greatest.
Earlier than we get into the room itself, it’s value underlining precisely who Marc Urselli is, as a result of his résumé provides Audio Confidential an enormous quantity of context. Marc is a three-time Grammy-winning, seven-time Grammy-nominated engineer, producer, mixer, sound designer, composer and musician, based mostly between New York Metropolis and London. His credit span rock, jazz, steel, pop, avant-garde, experimental and modern music, with artists together with Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Mike Patton, U2, Elton John, Kesha, Joan Jett, Les Paul, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Esperanza Spalding, John Zorn and Laurie Anderson.
Marc has recorded and combined a rare quantity of John Zorn’s catalogue, together with nicely over 100 albums for Zorn’s Tzadik label. He additionally recorded and combined AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex, produced by Hal Willner and that includes artists corresponding to Nick Cave, U2, Elton John, Kesha and Joan Jett. His Grammy-winning work contains Les Paul’s ninetieth birthday tribute album Les Paul & Buddies: American Made World Performed and Lila Downs’ Una Sangre. Past data, Marc has labored in opera, movie, tv, dwell sound, schooling and music journalism, and he continues to function Chief Head Audio Engineer at EastSide Sound, one among New York’s longest-running recording studios.
He’s additionally broadly thought to be one of many world’s foremost collectors and consultants on ribbon microphones, with a set that runs into the a whole bunch. That deep information of microphones, particularly ribbons, is central to the best way he data, the best way he listens and the best way Audio Confidential has been constructed.
That makes his newest collaboration with JZ Microphones particularly thrilling. Marc has labored with JZ for a few years, and his expertise mixing ribbon and condenser microphones instantly formed the thought behind the brand new JZ MU-1. The MU-1 is a hybrid studio microphone designed by Marc Urselli for actual studio workflows, combining ribbon heat and large-diaphragm condenser element in a single phase-coherent microphone physique.
You may pre-order the JZ MU-1 right here for an enormous low cost: https://intshop.jzmic.com/merchandise/mu-1
A full assessment of the MU-1 is coming ASAP, the place we’ll dig a lot deeper into what makes this microphone so particular.
In different phrases, Audio Confidential shouldn’t be merely a room filled with fascinating gear. It’s the private workspace of somebody who has spent a long time recording among the most adventurous, iconic and musically numerous artists on the planet.
Audio Confidential sits in an fascinating a part of New York’s post-pandemic studio panorama. As places of work emptied and business areas turned extra accessible, Marc discovered that Manhattan out of the blue supplied extra choices, and higher worth, than some components of Brooklyn. He had initially been trying round Williamsburg, the place he lives, nevertheless the search pulled him again into Manhattan.
The result’s a studio in the course of a surprisingly vibrant recording neighborhood. In Marc’s personal constructing alone, there are a number of studios. Inside a number of blocks, there are rooms run by buddies and fellow producers together with John Kilgore, Pat Dillett and Dave Darlington. It’s a reminder that New York’s recording tradition remains to be very a lot alive, not simply within the well-known legacy rooms, nevertheless additionally within the smaller, deeply private areas the place persons are quietly making outstanding music.
After which there may be the daylight.
Which may sound like a small factor, nevertheless in New York Metropolis studios, pure mild can really feel virtually unique. Marc is aware of this higher than most. He’s additionally Chief Head Audio Engineer at EastSide Sound, a legendary New York studio that has been working for many years. EastSide is a ravishing, historic room, nevertheless as Marc factors out, there is no such thing as a daylight within the management room or dwell room.
At Audio Confidential, the sunshine comes into the management room within the morning and into the dwell room later within the day. That adjustments the sensation of the house. It provides the room a way of life. You may stroll in, see the town, see the day and begin working with out feeling minimize off from the world.
For a studio designed round lengthy days, actual gamers and deep inventive work, that issues.
A Neve Genesys Blue on the Centre
The centrepiece of Audio Confidential is Marc’s Neve Genesys Blue console.
It’s a 32-fader desk with 64 channels accessible throughout layers, plus extra returns, and it completely displays the best way Marc likes to work. The Genesys is totally analogue, nevertheless it additionally has a digital management layer that permits it to function as a DAW controller through HUI. Meaning Marc can work historically by the console, or flip into digital management and write automation instantly into Professional Instruments.
This hybrid method is a big a part of the room’s workflow.
Marc will usually begin a mixture at residence within the field, convey it into Audio Confidential, break it out throughout the console, set the analogue faders at zero, then use the digital layer for rides and automation. That provides him the texture of a console with the recallability of a contemporary Professional Instruments session.
The Genesys additionally provides him recallable EQ and dynamics on the desk itself. The management is digital, nevertheless the processing is analogue. Choose a channel, entry the EQ or compressor, make changes, and people settings may be recalled. For somebody who loves the sound and really feel of analogue, nevertheless understands the fact of recent recollects, that’s an extremely sensible center floor.
The console additionally has a private historical past. Marc initially purchased it from S.A.E. in Mexico, the place he teaches workshops yearly. After being decommissioned and saved, the console wanted vital work to convey it again to life. It frolicked at EastSide Sound earlier than being positioned into storage once more when that room moved to a brand new Harrison console.
And, in a method, that turned the push Marc wanted to open Audio Confidential.
He had a Neve sitting in storage, and that simply felt mistaken. The studio turned the house the console deserved.
A Monitoring-First Philosophy
Though the room has outboard gear, Marc is refreshingly direct about his method. He isn’t making an attempt to impress anybody with racks and racks of apparatus for the sake of it.
His monitoring philosophy is straightforward.
Microphone, preamp, Professional Instruments.
Normally, he likes to protect the efficiency with out over-processing it on the best way in. That doesn’t imply he’s anti-outboard, removed from it. The studio has instruments corresponding to a Distressor, an optical compressor, a Purple Audio 1176-style compressor, DBX models, reverbs, AEA preamps and high-quality Japanese Sym Proceed preamps. There’s additionally a customized mastering-grade limiter and EQ being constructed for him in Italy, meant for the grasp bus.
Nevertheless Marc’s precedence is at all times the music. If the supply sounds proper, he doesn’t really feel the necessity to stamp an excessive amount of processing onto it whereas monitoring. In mixing, he can use plug-ins, the recallable Neve EQ and dynamics, or chosen outboard when it really serves the tune.
The converters are dealt with by a Lynx Aurora 32, which provides Marc 32 channels in a single rack unit, completely matched to the console’s principal I/O. There’s additionally an HDX interface feeding the headphone system, giving musicians within the cubicles particular person management and permitting the studio to assist full-band periods comfortably.
Screens from Latvia and a Room with Persona
Audio Confidential’s principal screens are made by Reflector Audio in Latvia. They’re a coaxial design, with a tweeter and 4 woofers pushing sound ahead in a targeted, directional method. Marc makes use of them as his main screens on this room, with Adam Audio screens as a second reference.
The Reflectors are hanging audio system, each sonically and visually. The corporate additionally makes bigger, much more dramatic variations, together with brilliant purple fashions which might be virtually inconceivable to disregard. Nevertheless the vital factor is that Marc has chosen screens he is aware of and trusts. That’s the level of any monitoring system.
It isn’t about whether or not a speaker is legendary. It’s about whether or not the engineer understands it.
That concept runs by all the studio. Audio Confidential shouldn’t be a generic assortment of trendy gear. It’s a curated set of instruments, chosen as a result of Marc is aware of what they do and the way they match into his work.
Pedals, Texture and Unusual Machines
One of many joys of Audio Confidential is Marc’s love of bizarre sound-making instruments.
There are guitar pedals accessible for musicians who need further colors, together with customized and boutique items from Mexico, Italy and elsewhere. There’s a Fuzzonauta pedal from Tamayo Amps in Mexico, the PhA fuzz by KURO Customized Audio in Italy, a Metallic Muff, a Tremendous Enhance and different oddities designed to spark concepts.
Then there may be the Demon Field by Everlasting Analysis.
This isn’t a traditional results unit. Marc describes it in easy phrases as being virtually like three guitar pickups. It responds to electromagnetic fields, permitting you to “play” it with objects corresponding to an iPhone, a drill, or something that generates a magnetic discipline. The altering velocity of a drill, for example, creates totally different sounds. The Demon Field can even output MIDI, making it a software for creating unusual, darkish, digital textures.
Marc has used it on data with Jim Jarmusch, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi. That provides you a reasonably good sense of the type of inventive world this field belongs in.
Audio Confidential isn’t just a room for capturing typical sounds. It is usually a laboratory for locating sounds you didn’t know existed.
The Reside Room and the Yamaha C2X
The dwell room is compact, nevertheless extraordinarily practical. On the centre is a Yamaha C2X piano with MIDI functionality.
It is a actual acoustic piano, with hammers, strings and motion, nevertheless it additionally has sensors that enable Marc to file MIDI from a efficiency. He can then ship that MIDI again to the piano and have it replay the half acoustically, with the hammers and strings bodily performing the music once more.
The plain use is correcting a mistake. A pianist performs an amazing take with one subject, Marc can edit the MIDI, ship it again to the piano and file the corrected efficiency by microphones.
Nevertheless Marc has discovered different makes use of which might be much more fascinating.
For instance, in a dwell session with a number of musicians within the room, he can file the piano efficiency as MIDI whereas capturing the band. Later, he can play the piano half again by the true piano and re-record it with out the unique bleed from drums, saxophone, bass, or different devices. Meaning he can protect the texture of a dwell efficiency whereas gaining the isolation wanted for a cleaner last combine.
He has additionally used it for a piano duo without having two pianos. A pianist can file one half, play it again by the acoustic piano after which carry out alongside themselves.
It’s a sensible instance of recent know-how serving an natural recording course of, not changing it.
Guitars, Basses and the Vital Classics
Behind a velvet curtain within the dwell room is a set of guitars and basses chosen to cowl the important studio wants.
There’s a 1977 Les Paul, a Fender Stratocaster, a Telecaster, a Yamaha acoustic, an Ovation 12-string, a Yamaha five-string bass and a outstanding 12-string bass. Marc has round 30 guitars and basses in whole, with a variety stored on the studio and the remaining at residence.
His considering is sensible. Most guitarists convey their very own instrument and amp, as a result of guitarists are, as Marc says with affection, specific individuals. Nevertheless a very good studio ought to nonetheless have the classics accessible. A Strat, a Tele, a Les Paul, a six-string acoustic, a twelve-string acoustic and some surprising colors can save a session or encourage a brand new half.
The 12-string bass is very enjoyable. Reasonably than 4 single strings, it has 4 units of three strings, with a low string and two greater octave strings in every set. Performed by distortion and octave results, it turns into monumental. Marc used it on SteppenDoom, a doom steel file that includes throat singers from Tuva, Mongolia and Siberia, enjoying gradual, heavy music at 50 or 60 beats per minute. You may hear the album right here: https://steppendoom.bandcamp.com/album/steppendoom
That’s the type of element that makes Marc’s studio really feel like Marc’s studio. It displays a profession that strikes between jazz, steel, experimental music, movie administrators, avant-garde gamers and every little thing in between.
A Critical Microphone Obsession
Marc Urselli is among the world’s foremost collectors and consultants on ribbon microphones, and that zeal is seen all through Audio Confidential.
His whole microphone assortment is someplace round 300 to 350 microphones. Solely a few of them dwell at Audio Confidential, with others at EastSide Sound or in storage. The studio’s mic lockers comprise a specific group of condensers and ribbons, chosen for the work Marc does most frequently.
He owns a number of RCA 44s and a dozen RCA 77DXs, which tells you quite a bit about how deep the gathering goes. He additionally has a behavior of shopping for a number of examples of the identical piece of substances, testing them, conserving the most effective one and promoting the others. He does this with microphones, amps and keyboards.
It isn’t hoarding. It’s choice.
Classic gear varies. Two supposedly equivalent items can sound totally different relying on age, situation, parts and restoration. Marc’s method is to match, pay attention and preserve the most effective instance for the studio.
That degree of care is strictly why musicians and producers belief rooms like this. The gear has been chosen by ear.
The JZ MU-1: Ribbon Heat, Condenser Element
There’s additionally a really thrilling announcement from Marc and JZ Microphones, and it’s one which makes excellent sense given Marc’s lifelong love of ribbons.
The brand new microphone is the JZ MU-1, a hybrid studio microphone designed by Marc Urselli for actual studio workflows. The thought behind it’s splendidly sensible: what in the event you might get the physique and weight of a ribbon microphone and the element and readability of a large-diaphragm condenser in a single completely aligned microphone?
The MU-1 is described because the world’s first studio microphone to mix a ribbon and a large-diaphragm condenser inside one level-matched, phase-coherent, completely aligned microphone physique. Constructed round a patent-pending hybrid capsule structure, it combines a ribbon capsule with JZ’s Golden Drop™ condenser capsule, capturing ribbon physique and condenser element concurrently.
That could be a massively helpful idea. Anybody who has blended ribbon and condenser microphones on a supply is aware of how highly effective that mixture may be. You get heat, weight and smoothness from the ribbon, with readability, transient element and articulation from the condenser. Nevertheless you additionally must cope with placement, section, degree matching and repeatability. The MU-1 is designed to resolve that by placing each capsules into one aligned physique.
The MU-1 provides you unbiased twin outputs through a 5-pin XLR break up, so engineers can mix each alerts or use both one independently. Meaning you aren’t locked into one sound. You should utilize the ribbon facet, the condenser facet, or mix them collectively relying on the supply and the manufacturing.
It’s designed for any state of affairs the place you would possibly usually attain for 2 microphones. That features drum overheads, saxophones and horns, electrical guitar amps, acoustic guitar, piano, strings, vocals, room sounds and atmosphere recording. In different phrases, any supply the place you need physique and element, weight and readability, on the similar time.
The technical particulars are spectacular too. The condenser facet makes use of JZ’s Golden Drop™ capsule know-how, with a cardioid polar sample, 20 Hz to twenty kHz frequency response, 134.5 dB SPL dealing with, a really low 6.5 dB-A noise degree and 128 dB dynamic vary. The ribbon facet makes use of a figure-of-eight sample with a 1.2 µm aluminium ribbon, 35 Hz to fifteen kHz frequency response, 125 dB SPL dealing with and a toroidal transformer design.
Every MU-1 is hand made in Latvia and comes as a whole studio package deal, together with a customized shockmount, wood storage field, devoted 5-pin to twin XLR cable and possession certificates. It additionally comes with a 5-year guarantee.
The MU-1 is on the market to pre-order now for an enormous low cost, with transport listed for August 2026.
Pre-order the JZ MU-1 right here: https://intshop.jzmic.com/merchandise/mu-1
A full assessment of the MU-1 is coming ASAP, the place we’ll dig a lot deeper into what makes this microphone so particular.
Keys, Amps and Color
Audio Confidential additionally has a wholesome assortment of keyboard devices, together with a Rhodes 88 with stereo vibrato, a Wurlitzer 200 with upgraded amplification and variable-speed vibrato, a Korg CX-3 for drawbar organ sounds and a Nord.
There is no such thing as a Hammond B3 within the room, merely due to house, nevertheless Marc has entry to actual B3s elsewhere within the constructing and at EastSide Sound when wanted. Once more, the studio is sensible. It provides musicians instant choices whereas staying linked to the bigger neighborhood of rooms round it.
The amp assortment is equally various.
There’s a superbly restored 1967 Fender Twin Reverb, restored by Matt Wells, one among New York’s go-to tube amp specialists. Marc purchased three Twin Reverbs, had all of them restored, then stored the most effective one. There’s additionally an Ampeg for bass, Quilter amps, an Ampeg Gemini, a metal-friendly Genz Benz and a transformed Italian Geloso amp with easy Italian-labelled controls for quantity, lows, highs, on and off.
The Geloso is very charming. Initially related to turntable amplification slightly than guitar, it has been transformed right into a guitar amp and produces a bluesy crunch when pushed.
For cupboards, Marc has two approaches. One speaker cable runs by the ceiling into an remoted cubby gap containing a completely miked guitar cupboard with an SM57. That permits guitar amps to be recorded with out filling the room with quantity.
Nevertheless for guitarists who need to stand close to a cupboard and really feel the air shifting, there may be additionally a customized 4×12-style cupboard loaded with 4 totally different audio system. Every speaker has a unique character, which means that merely shifting the microphone to a unique cone adjustments the tone dramatically. Mixed with mic placement, mic selection and amp selection, the vary of doable guitar sounds turns into monumental.
A Studio Constructed for Musicians Enjoying Collectively
One of the vital issues about Audio Confidential is that it’s designed for individuals to see one another.
The vocal sales space can operate as a vocal room, upright bass sales space or isolation house, nevertheless it has sightlines into the management room and dwell room, plus a direct line of sight to the drum sales space as nicely. The drum sales space is positioned so the drummer can see the dwell room, the vocal sales space and the management room. Even the hallway is wired, which means it may well turn out to be one other isolation space for an amp or instrument if wanted.
This isn’t unintended. Marc believes in musicians enjoying collectively.
He does a variety of jazz and a variety of rock, two genres the place efficiency interplay is crucial. He isn’t considering constructing data one remoted half at a time until the music calls for it. He needs gamers within the room, responding to one another, making musical choices collectively in actual time.
That philosophy feels particularly vital now.
In a world more and more fascinated by generative AI, Marc is obvious about the place he stands. He isn’t pretending AI doesn’t exist, nevertheless he’s deeply dedicated to creating actual music with actual musicians. Audio Confidential is, in some ways, a response to that second. It’s a place the place the human factor shouldn’t be solely preserved, it’s prioritised.
The studio has headphones and private mixers in each room, so musicians can management their very own balances. Nevertheless they’ll additionally look throughout the room, make eye contact, breathe collectively and play.
That’s the place the magic nonetheless lives.
The Drum Sales space and the MU-1
The drum sales space is compact, nevertheless very nicely geared up. Marc has two drum kits accessible, a bigger Ludwig package for rock and a smaller Gretsch bebop package for jazz. There are extra snares, percussion devices, handpans and different choices tucked into the house.
One of many key microphone decisions within the room is the JZ MU-1, which Marc has began utilizing as a real centrepiece microphone. That could be a huge assertion coming from somebody with Marc’s microphone assortment and information. When one of many world’s foremost ribbon microphone collectors and consultants begins leaning on a brand new mic this closely, it’s value paying consideration.
On drums, Marc makes use of a pair of MU-1s as overheads. Earlier than that, he usually used Coles ribbons for rock periods and 414s for jazz periods. With the MU-1, he can seize each ribbon heat and condenser element from a single, phase-coherent microphone physique. For drum overheads, that’s extremely highly effective. You may mix the load and smoothness of the ribbon with the articulation and element of the condenser, with out organising two separate microphones after which preventing section.
This is among the most enjoyable components of the tour, as a result of the MU-1 isn’t just being proven as a brand new piece of substances. Marc is already utilizing it in actual periods, on actual devices, in an actual studio, with a lifetime of expertise behind these decisions. It’s designed for precisely that type of work: sooner setups, constant outcomes and the flexibility to mix physique and readability in a musical, sensible method.
A full assessment of the MU-1 is coming ASAP, so keep tuned for a a lot deeper have a look at what this microphone can do. It’s also possible to pre-order the JZ MU-1 right here for an enormous low cost: https://intshop.jzmic.com/merchandise/mu-1
On kick, Marc has used mixtures corresponding to an AKG D12 and a Sennheiser e602, with the e602 being one among his favorite kick drum mics. His absolute favorite is the Lewitt DTP 640 REX, which mixes dynamic and condenser capsules in a single microphone. He already has one at EastSide Sound and plans so as to add one other to Audio Confidential.
The snare setup contains the basic SM57, with a condenser beneath. Toms are captured with classic white Sennheiser MD421s, one other instance of Marc’s desire for confirmed instruments with character.
It’s a drum room constructed for flexibility, not extra. Rock, jazz, experimental music, tight grooves and open textures, all of it may well occur right here.
Why Audio Confidential Issues
Audio Confidential shouldn’t be the largest studio in New York. It isn’t making an attempt to be.
What makes it particular is the mix of Marc Urselli’s expertise, his gear decisions, his musical curiosity and his dedication to dwell efficiency. It’s a private room, nevertheless not an arrogance room. It’s a working studio constructed by somebody who is aware of what musicians really need.
There’s a Neve console with hybrid workflow. There’s pure mild. There are uncommon microphones, sensible devices, nice amps, unusual sound-design instruments, considerate sightlines and sufficient isolation to seize a band with out killing the power of the efficiency.
Most significantly, there’s a clear philosophy behind it.
Audio Confidential exists to seize individuals making music collectively.
In an period the place a lot manufacturing is assembled, corrected, prompted or generated, there’s something deeply thrilling a couple of studio that claims, “Let’s put the musicians within the room and file what occurs.”
That’s the coronary heart of Marc Urselli’s Audio Confidential.
And that’s the reason rooms like this nonetheless matter.
