MasterSuite News

The Grammy nominations have come out and we're happy to again have a "pony in the race." The album, in the Latin field, is "Intimamente" by the multiple platinum selling group, Intocable, mastered by Jay Frigoletto and Gabriel Wallach. The single from the album, "A Donde Estabas" was also nominated for a Latin Grammy a couple of months ago.

In other session news, we're working with a production company doing 5.1 HD concert projects for broadcast and DVD. Some big names are on deck... more news as it develops. Other live projects we've been working on in stereo include Saliva, Tesla, and Damage Plan. We were shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic onstage shooting of Damage Plan guitarist and Pantera founder, Dime Bag Darrell. We're glad to be able to preserve one of his last performances.

Spock's Beard is releasing their 8th studio album, "Octane" on Inside Out records. In addition to mastering this, plus a Bonus CD for a special edition release, Jay also mastered the last CD, "Feel Euphoria", along with a special edition, plus several projects for front man and drummer Nick D'Virgilio, including recent live DVD and CD releases. Nick was also recently on the road again with Tears For Fears. You should check out the new TFF CD. It's not rehashed 80's synth pop, rather more mature, layered rock and pop, showing their early Beatles influence.

Legendary rap producer Johnny "J", best known for several albums with Tupac, has signed rapper Napoleon, also a Tupac alum, to his Klock Work label. Jay mastered the 2 CD set plus a single and video. The drum sounds are classic Johnny J punch and impact, and many of the tracks feature a real bass. Why sample a classic bass line when you can hire a great musician to come in and create one? Very cool stuff.

Punk pop band from Spain, Suzy y Los Quattro had their latest album mastered by Jay as well. This band is fronted by an English language female vocal in a style reminding one of Blondie or even the Go Gos, but with an updated Euro twist. The album will be released on the European No Tomorrow Records.

To round out the list, we've also mastered an incredible CD from Swiss funk band, The Funky Brotherhood. This is a no nonsense large band with a full horn section, male and female lead vocals (in English), and a solid, funky rhythm section pulling off big numbers with infectious grooves and brass arrangements in the style of Earth Wind & Fire, Tower Of Power, and other great soul acts of the 70s. Coupled with more modern production, updated rhythms and subject matter, this is a modern neo-soul record with deep roots that's a must hear for funk-o-philes.

Dallas area producer/engineer Alex Gerst has kept a steady flow of hard rock and metal acts coming through the doors including Downward and The Feds to name just a couple. He now has his own SSL 4000 mix room and the new mixes coming out of it sound great. On the New England front, hard rockers Somadrone are hard at work on their first full length album, and Cherry S/T is scheduled for February to finish their debut album done in Vancouver with the producer of Nickelback. Other acts including Leaving Eden and Krambarrets have had their live sets from the Locobazooka festival sweetened.

September 2004
Makin' Tracks...

Mastersuite has made tracks... back to the east coast. OK, here's the scoop. My wife and I have decided to start a family and we thought that the smog filled, gang filled, silicone filled environment of L.A. was not the most child friendly place we could be. Plus, we have built in family babysitting back east! So we've closed the L.A. business and relocated to the 'burbs outside Boston. The brand new studio, now under construction, will sit on a 100-acre hilltop next to a Storyk designed SSL 4000G+ mixing/recording facility with scenic vistas and luxurious accommodations available for out of town clients (www.studiometronome.com). The anticipated completion date is Summer 2005. Currently, Jay is still available for mastering in affiliation with Studio Metronome, working in a dedicated studio with with a beautiful lake view. Can you blame us for leaving L.A.?

Since the move, we've completed projects from around the country and the world including Spain, England, Texas, New Hampshire, our existing clients from California, and plenty from our new home state of Massachusetts. We even have travelled back to L.A. to take on some projects that needed to stay local. To ease the transition, we've kept our Los Angeles phone number. Give us a call at 323-314-3562, or email us through the contact page at this website. Thank you for your continued support.

Also, check out the March 2004 issue of MIX to see Jay and Mastersuite featured in an article by Maureen Droney. (or click here)

December 2003
Autumn Leaves, Holland arrives

Late breaking news: Mastersuite has three projects nominated for Grammy awards this year. Intocable is nominated in the Latin field (category 62); Jay and Gabriel, mastering engineers. The Yellowjackets are nominated for best contemporary jazz album (category 46); Dave, EQ engineer, and Jay, edit engineer. Jim Brickman is nominated in the pop field (category 10); Dave, mastering engineer.

Hi all! Here's what's been happening this fall. Legendary writer and producer, Brian Holland of the amazing Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team was in mastering a project for a new R&B artist with Jay, along with mix engineer Rick Novak. Brian is executive producing with his daughter, producer Linda Holland. We aren't sure which label it will be released on yet, but Brian has reportedly been in talks with Tommy Mattola. If you want to see the craziest credit list ever, do an allmusic search on Brian.

Vocalist Marva King was recently in with Jay mastering her latest release. In addition to her own dance and neo-soul album, she has been collaborating on a Brazilian Jazz CD, has appeared as a writer and/or vocalist for what seems to be just about everybody in the world, and is an alum of Prince's band, the Revolution. She is also nominated for three Black Music Awards this year. Good luck Marva! (Late note: she won two - for best neo-soul record and best neo-soul performance. Congratulations Marva!)

Some of Jay's other sessions this fall have included the Boston band Sed, produced and engineered by P.O.D./AiC front of house (FOH) engineer, Chad Olech and mixed by John Ellis at Prism Sound Studios. Alex Gerst of Indian Trail Recording outside of Dallas TX has continued to keep a steady stream of hard rock projects coming from bands including Advent, Zero Story, Halto Bravo, Give, and Shovel Face. Alex is up for Producer of the Year for the fourth time in the Rock 97 sponsored Dallas local awards. Good luck Alex! Rap artist Jai Mike was in mastering a great debut album mixed next door by Chris Frame. Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard, Tears For Fears, Genesis) is a regular visitor and was just in mastering a new NDV CD and DVD from a summer duo tour with guitarist Rick Mussalam. A new Spock's Beard DVD is also in the works.

On the latin front, the Intocable CD mastered by Jay and Gabriel went to #1 on the latin charts and has been certified platinum by the RIAA, earning Intocable their 14th gold or platinum award. Congratulations! Also handled by the mastering duo were several projects from EMI Latin including their Christmas album, projects from Voces Del Rancho, Los Cocodrilos, Ivan Diaz, and two compilations featuring artists including Kumbia Kings, Soraya, and Plastilina Mosh. Gabriel also recently mastered a project for independent rock artist, Jamie Gunn.

Dave Collins is always busy, recently completing projects from Andy Summers (guitarist from The Police), metal band Death Angel, the soundtrack from Under The Tuscan Sun, and a benefit show compilation featuring Dave Mathews, The Who, and Neil Young among others. Dave has just marked the one year anniversary of making Mastersuite the home base for Collins Audio.

July 2003
All my friends... know the Low Rider

Producer Jerry Goldstein recently showed up with a trunkload of interesting masters. In the piles of decades old 1/4" tapes were the original masters for such classics as Low Rider, Spill the Wine, Cisco Kid, and Why Can't We Be Friends. After a few days, a little baking, and a lot of mastering, he left with "The Very Best of War", a 2 CD set for Rhino Records. Dave Collins was the EQ engineer with Jay Frigoletto editing. Also in with Dave recently has been new age artist, Jim Brickman, and more projects from internet bad boy "Mixerman".

Mastering with Jay last month was bassist Bryan Beller, finishing his debut solo CD. Bryan has been seen live and heard on record with Dweezil Zappa, Mike Keneally, and Steve Vai. The project was mixed by Nick D'Virgilio at Lawnmower Studios in Pasadena. Speaking of Nick, Jay also mastered a German released bonus tracks version of the new Spock's Beard CD, Feel Euphoria, the standard USA version which he mastered last month.

Also just completed is the debut CD by Stacy Golden. This project interestingly was not only mastered at Mastersuite, but also mixed by Jay next door at Studio Atlantis on the 9000J in Studio A. Producer Armando Plata's multi language project "El Bagre" mastered by Jay some months ago recently got picked up by Sony. A steady stream of projects keeps coming from producer/engineer Alex Gerst as well, including Project 232, Generic, Astrec, Big Loo, and others.

Our new engineer, Gabriel Wallach, along with Jay, has been working on the latest album from Tejano superstars, Intocable, for EMI Latin. Jay and Gabriel also completed Chuy Jr. Y Sus Jardineros for EMI Latin. Gabriel is now available for demo and indie mastering during off peak hours at a very affordable rate.

April 2003
The X-Men Cometh

The X-Men 2 soundtrack has just been completed at Mastersuite with scoring mixer, Casey Stone. Our very own "Professor X", Dave Collins, has been working out of Mastersuite for the past several months, and Jay and Dave have been tag-teaming many projects, with Dave EQing and Jay editing.

In addition to X-Men 2, mix engineer Brian Dobbs has brought us a pair of double live CDs. The first is from California rockers, Fu Manchu, the second from NYC hard rock favorites, Life of Agony. Also handled by the Dave & Jay tag team were some remixes from Maverick/Warner artist, The Wil Seabrook Band, whom you might remember from the December 2002 news entry.

Talented mix engineer, Rich Breen, know for his work with the biggest names in contemporary jazz, has also brought us a couple of great projects. Working from 96 kHz masters, We've completed an SACD for Telarc/Heads Up Records for multiple Grammy nominated, longtime jazz giants, The Yellowjackets. Bandleader/pianist, Russel Ferrante was in attendence along with Rich. Brazilian guitarist, Sandro Albert was in with producer, Tim Yalda, a couple weeks later to complete his newest CD from Rich's 96 kHz mixes. Sandro plays around L.A. quite a bit, and his band is definitely worth seeing if you're in the area. Another Mastersuite friend and client, Chris Golden, plays virtuoso fretless bass on the gigs.

Some of the other projects have included an indie band called Riva, and a couple tracks from mix engineer and internet audio personality, "Mixerman" (wink, nudge). It's been great to have Dave around, and we look forward to enjoying his company for some time to come.

In addition to the edit projects with Dave, Jay continues to master album and indie projects. One of the most popular bands in the prog rock scene since 1992, Spock's Beard, has recently changed record labels. Having joined Inside Out, their first worldwide release on the new label has just been completed from their 96 kHz mixes at Mastersuite with Jay. Rising engineer/producer, Alex Gerst continues to send a steady stream of projects, including rock band Tokyo Calling, and hard rockers, Zero Story. Also recently completed was a single with producer Armando Plata titled "El Bagre" and mixed in 4 languages by John Czornyj in the suite next door. Also a repeat customer, the east coast hard rock band 4:20 inc. sent a song west for remixing and mastering. Their live sound engineer, Barry Kimmel, remixed the track "Falling Down" next door on the Pro Tools/Control 24 rig at Studio 5109, and then mastered with Jay. To book a session with Jay or Dave, call us at 323-962-1002, or you can reach Jay directly at 323-314-3562, or Dave directly at 213-448-0616.

NEWS Continued...


	News (page 2) December 2004 Grammy season again The Grammy nominations have come out and we're happy to again have a "pony in the race." The album, in the Latin field, is "Intimamente" by the multiple platinum selling group, Intocable, mastered by Jay Frigoletto and Gabriel Wallach. The single from the album, "A Donde Estabas" was also nominated for a Latin Grammy a couple of months ago. In other session news, we're working with a production company doing 5.1 HD concert projects for broadcast and DVD. Some big names are on deck... more news as it develops. Other live projects we've been working on in stereo include Saliva, Tesla, and Damage Plan. We were shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic onstage shooting of Damage Plan guitarist and Pantera founder, Dime Bag Darrell. We're glad to be able to preserve one of his last performances. Spock's Beard is releasing their 8th studio album, "Octane" on Inside Out records. In addition to mastering this, plus a Bonus CD for a special edition release, Jay also mastered the last CD, "Feel Euphoria", along with a special edition, plus several projects for front man and drummer Nick D'Virgilio, including recent live DVD and CD releases. Nick was also recently on the road again with Tears For Fears. You should check out the new TFF CD. It's not rehashed 80's synth pop, rather more mature, layered rock and pop, showing their early Beatles influence. Legendary rap producer Johnny "J", best known for several albums with Tupac, has signed rapper Napoleon, also a Tupac alum, to his Klock Work label. Jay mastered the 2 CD set plus a single and video. The drum sounds are classic Johnny J punch and impact, and many of the tracks feature a real bass. Why sample a classic bass line when you can hire a great musician to come in and create one? Very cool stuff. Punk pop band from Spain, Suzy y Los Quattro had their latest album mastered by Jay as well. This band is fronted by an English language female vocal in a style reminding one of Blondie or even the Go Gos, but with an updated Euro twist. The album will be released on the European No Tomorrow Records. To round out the list, we've also mastered an incredible CD from Swiss funk band, The Funky Brotherhood. This is a no nonsense large band with a full horn section, male and female lead vocals (in English), and a solid, funky rhythm section pulling off big numbers with infectious grooves and brass arrangements in the style of Earth Wind & Fire, Tower Of Power, and other great soul acts of the 70s. Coupled with more modern production, updated rhythms and subject matter, this is a modern neo-soul record with deep roots that's a must hear for funk-o-philes. Dallas area producer/engineer Alex Gerst has kept a steady flow of hard rock and metal acts coming through the doors including Downward and The Feds to name just a couple. He now has his own SSL 4000 mix room and the new mixes coming out of it sound great. On the New England front, hard rockers Somadrone are hard at work on their first full length album, and Cherry S/T is scheduled for February to finish their debut album done in Vancouver with the producer of Nickelback. Other acts including Leaving Eden and Krambarrets have had their live sets from the Locobazooka festival sweetened. September 2004 Makin' Tracks... Mastersuite has made tracks... back to the east coast. OK, here's the scoop. My wife and I have decided to start a family and we thought that the smog filled, gang filled, silicone filled environment of L.A. was not the most child friendly place we could be. Plus, we have built in family babysitting back east! So we've closed the L.A. business and relocated to the 'burbs outside Boston. The brand new studio, now under construction, will sit on a 100-acre hilltop next to a Storyk designed SSL 4000G+ mixing/recording facility with scenic vistas and luxurious accommodations available for out of town clients (www.studiometronome.com). The anticipated completion date is Summer 2005. Currently, Jay is still available for mastering in affiliation with Studio Metronome, working in a dedicated studio with with a beautiful lake view. Can you blame us for leaving L.A.? Since the move, we've completed projects from around the country and the world including Spain, England, Texas, New Hampshire, our existing clients from California, and plenty from our new home state of Massachusetts. We even have travelled back to L.A. to take on some projects that needed to stay local. To ease the transition, we've kept our Los Angeles phone number. Give us a call at 323-314-3562, or email us through the contact page at this website. Thank you for your continued support. Also, check out the March 2004 issue of MIX to see Jay and Mastersuite featured in an article by Maureen Droney. (or click here) December 2003 Autumn Leaves, Holland arrives Late breaking news: Mastersuite has three projects nominated for Grammy awards this year. Intocable is nominated in the Latin field (category 62); Jay and Gabriel, mastering engineers. The Yellowjackets are nominated for best contemporary jazz album (category 46); Dave, EQ engineer, and Jay, edit engineer. Jim Brickman is nominated in the pop field (category 10); Dave, mastering engineer. Hi all! Here's what's been happening this fall. Legendary writer and producer, Brian Holland of the amazing Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team was in mastering a project for a new R&B artist with Jay, along with mix engineer Rick Novak. Brian is executive producing with his daughter, producer Linda Holland. We aren't sure which label it will be released on yet, but Brian has reportedly been in talks with Tommy Mattola. If you want to see the craziest credit list ever, do an allmusic search on Brian. Vocalist Marva King was recently in with Jay mastering her latest release. In addition to her own dance and neo-soul album, she has been collaborating on a Brazilian Jazz CD, has appeared as a writer and/or vocalist for what seems to be just about everybody in the world, and is an alum of Prince's band, the Revolution. She is also nominated for three Black Music Awards this year. Good luck Marva! (Late note: she won two - for best neo-soul record and best neo-soul performance. Congratulations Marva!) Some of Jay's other sessions this fall have included the Boston band Sed, produced and engineered by P.O.D./AiC front of house (FOH) engineer, Chad Olech and mixed by John Ellis at Prism Sound Studios. Alex Gerst of Indian Trail Recording outside of Dallas TX has continued to keep a steady stream of hard rock projects coming from bands including Advent, Zero Story, Halto Bravo, Give, and Shovel Face. Alex is up for Producer of the Year for the fourth time in the Rock 97 sponsored Dallas local awards. Good luck Alex! Rap artist Jai Mike was in mastering a great debut album mixed next door by Chris Frame. Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard, Tears For Fears, Genesis) is a regular visitor and was just in mastering a new NDV CD and DVD from a summer duo tour with guitarist Rick Mussalam. A new Spock's Beard DVD is also in the works. On the latin front, the Intocable CD mastered by Jay and Gabriel went to #1 on the latin charts and has been certified platinum by the RIAA, earning Intocable their 14th gold or platinum award. Congratulations! Also handled by the mastering duo were several projects from EMI Latin including their Christmas album, projects from Voces Del Rancho, Los Cocodrilos, Ivan Diaz, and two compilations featuring artists including Kumbia Kings, Soraya, and Plastilina Mosh. Gabriel also recently mastered a project for independent rock artist, Jamie Gunn. Dave Collins is always busy, recently completing projects from Andy Summers (guitarist from The Police), metal band Death Angel, the soundtrack from Under The Tuscan Sun, and a benefit show compilation featuring Dave Mathews, The Who, and Neil Young among others. Dave has just marked the one year anniversary of making Mastersuite the home base for Collins Audio. July 2003 All my friends... know the Low Rider Producer Jerry Goldstein recently showed up with a trunkload of interesting masters. In the piles of decades old 1/4" tapes were the original masters for such classics as Low Rider, Spill the Wine, Cisco Kid, and Why Can't We Be Friends. After a few days, a little baking, and a lot of mastering, he left with "The Very Best of War", a 2 CD set for Rhino Records. Dave Collins was the EQ engineer with Jay Frigoletto editing. Also in with Dave recently has been new age artist, Jim Brickman, and more projects from internet bad boy "Mixerman". Mastering with Jay last month was bassist Bryan Beller, finishing his debut solo CD. Bryan has been seen live and heard on record with Dweezil Zappa, Mike Keneally, and Steve Vai. The project was mixed by Nick D'Virgilio at Lawnmower Studios in Pasadena. Speaking of Nick, Jay also mastered a German released bonus tracks version of the new Spock's Beard CD, Feel Euphoria, the standard USA version which he mastered last month. Also just completed is the debut CD by Stacy Golden. This project interestingly was not only mastered at Mastersuite, but also mixed by Jay next door at Studio Atlantis on the 9000J in Studio A. Producer Armando Plata's multi language project "El Bagre" mastered by Jay some months ago recently got picked up by Sony. A steady stream of projects keeps coming from producer/engineer Alex Gerst as well, including Project 232, Generic, Astrec, Big Loo, and others. Our new engineer, Gabriel Wallach, along with Jay, has been working on the latest album from Tejano superstars, Intocable, for EMI Latin. Jay and Gabriel also completed Chuy Jr. Y Sus Jardineros for EMI Latin. Gabriel is now available for demo and indie mastering during off peak hours at a very affordable rate. April 2003 The X-Men Cometh The X-Men 2 soundtrack has just been completed at Mastersuite with scoring mixer, Casey Stone. Our very own "Professor X", Dave Collins, has been working out of Mastersuite for the past several months, and Jay and Dave have been tag-teaming many projects, with Dave EQing and Jay editing. In addition to X-Men 2, mix engineer Brian Dobbs has brought us a pair of double live CDs. The first is from California rockers, Fu Manchu, the second from NYC hard rock favorites, Life of Agony. Also handled by the Dave & Jay tag team were some remixes from Maverick/Warner artist, The Wil Seabrook Band, whom you might remember from the December 2002 news entry. Talented mix engineer, Rich Breen, know for his work with the biggest names in contemporary jazz, has also brought us a couple of great projects. Working from 96 kHz masters, We've completed an SACD for Telarc/Heads Up Records for multiple Grammy nominated, longtime jazz giants, The Yellowjackets. Bandleader/pianist, Russel Ferrante was in attendence along with Rich. Brazilian guitarist, Sandro Albert was in with producer, Tim Yalda, a couple weeks later to complete his newest CD from Rich's 96 kHz mixes. Sandro plays around L.A. quite a bit, and his band is definitely worth seeing if you're in the area. Another Mastersuite friend and client, Chris Golden, plays virtuoso fretless bass on the gigs. Some of the other projects have included an indie band called Riva, and a couple tracks from mix engineer and internet audio personality, "Mixerman" (wink, nudge). It's been great to have Dave around, and we look forward to enjoying his company for some time to come. In addition to the edit projects with Dave, Jay continues to master album and indie projects. One of the most popular bands in the prog rock scene since 1992, Spock's Beard, has recently changed record labels. Having joined Inside Out, their first worldwide release on the new label has just been completed from their 96 kHz mixes at Mastersuite with Jay. Rising engineer/producer, Alex Gerst continues to send a steady stream of projects, including rock band Tokyo Calling, and hard rockers, Zero Story. Also recently completed was a single with producer Armando Plata titled "El Bagre" and mixed in 4 languages by John Czornyj in the suite next door. Also a repeat customer, the east coast hard rock band 4:20 inc. sent a song west for remixing and mastering. Their live sound engineer, Barry Kimmel, remixed the track "Falling Down" next door on the Pro Tools/Control 24 rig at Studio 5109, and then mastered with Jay. To book a session with Jay or Dave, call us at 323-962-1002, or you can reach Jay directly at 323-314-3562, or Dave directly at 213-448-0616. NEWS Continued...