Jupiter Studios

Martin Feveyear and Christian Fulgham opened Jupiter Studios in 1994 but are running their first local print ad this year. Word of mouth, artistic focus, great sounds, and plenty of vibe have attracted a steady mix of enviable projects. In their years of operation, Jupiter has seen the likes of Mark Lanegan, Tuatara, Presidents of the United States of America, Sir-Mix-a-Lot, Nevada Bachelors, Super Deluxe, and many other Seattle artists. In the process, they've proven themselves an excellent place to track, mix and, master albums or demos.

Aside from the comfortable vibe, a noteworthy assortment of colorful mic pres, and a well maintained Otari MTR 90II 24-track, Jupiter's most valuable asset is the aural aptitude of it's in-house producer/engineer/mastering engineer/part-owner, Martin Feveyear. Martin grew up in Hadleigh, England, but wound up in Seattle at the request of the Screaming Trees, who he'd been working with on tour in Europe, doing live sound. "I was in bands in England for ten years or so," reflects Martin, "recording pretty much from the word go. I had no particular training of any kind — just two ghetto blasters, bouncing backwards and forwards. I bought a 4-track, bought an 8-track, put it in a little barn, recorded local bands, and recorded my band. Then I started working on a 24-track in England and toured with The Screaming Trees in Europe. They asked me to come to the States and work, and I came up here. In between touring, I was making records with the funds that I earned on the road. I started making albums in basements and local studios — getting a clientele and a reputation that way."

It was during this time that Martin hooked up with Seattle musician, Christian Fulgham. "I was in a band called Sister Psychic in 1992," says Christian. "Martin was getting ready to go out on another leg of a Screaming Trees tour, and he came and saw the band live. He liked us a lot and ended up producing some records for us. Around 1994, we decided to make a little project studio where between projects, we could be working on some stuff with bands and that kind of thing."

"The main thing for me," Martin adds, "was that I wanted to create a space with the right kind of vibe to it, so it didn't feel like you were working in a studio and that you weren't under pressure."

Martin had already come a long way with a small studio before meeting up with Christian but was quickly outgrowing the basement. "When I'd be touring," he says, "I'd come home and spend the money I earned on the road on new equipment and built the basis of a little studio — a couple of ADATs and an 8-track analog that I locked up. I did some records that way. I did the first Super Deluxe record — It did pretty well — a Model Rockets record, and stuff for Sister Psychic, as well as other bands around Seattle at the time. It just seemed logical that Christian and I would get something together. We were always looking for a space. Christian found that initial space for us in 1996. All we had were three ADATs and eight tracks of analog. We have the two- inch 24-track now. We still have the ADATs but we also have a full-blown Pro Tools rig."

Though the studio has certainly stayed afloat financially, Jupiter's founders rest more comfortably on their laurels knowing that they've had an artistic prosperity from the get-go. "It was much more successful than we thought right off the bat," Christian explains, "partly because there was demand for a low-key, artist-friendly studio that was focused on results with no frills. We wanted to have a place to work that was comfortable for musicians, that was reasonably priced, and that was word-of- mouth. But, we really wanted to focus on the most important piece of equipment, which is the person operating the equipment."

A move to Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood

As the number of projects grew, space began to run out. Jupiter had to move. In 1998 they did, and now fit like a glove in their new location. "We were just growing too quickly at the old space," says Martin. "When we got that together we didn't expect to have the kind of clients that we were getting. I mean, we had Tuatara, The Screaming Trees, members of REM, Cornershop... you know... pretty cool clients. It got to the point where we were too busy and that place was getting too small for us. Even though it was fairly spacious compared to a lot of studios, it just seemed like the right time to move. The live room's really cool," Martin says of the new space. "It's nice and big... high ceilings. It's been around for 20 years [It used to be called Crow]. It got a little run down. We spent a lot of time and money on it and it's pretty saucy in here now."

Martin had help with the move from Jupiter's newest staff engineer, Jon Ervie. Jon appeared on the scene just as Martin was getting ready to move. He'd been in the Northwest since moving from Missouri in 1994 to form a band. He started working at another Seattle 24-track studio called The Ranch, where he recorded bands like Zeke. He spent some time working in a studio outside Bellingham and put a call into Martin when moving back to Seattle.

"I've known Jon for several years," says Martin, "and mixed some records that he engineered. He sat in on the mix sessions and we met that way.He just kind of reared his head again when I was about to move the studio."

"I was wanting to move back to Seattle," Jon finishes, "and Martin had an opportunity to help him move so I came down to help. It turned out to be a good project. I'd seen this space before. I'd come to look at it when it was Crow and I was really glad that Martin took it over."

More space for drum sounds

One of the new perks Martin, Jon, and Christian took fast advantage of was the newfound spaciousness of the high-ceilinged "big" room. It greatly enhanced their well-defined knack for getting outstanding drum sounds by cleaning up low and upper-mid range waves that low horizontal ceilings often produce, as well as eliminating early reflections from above. However, Martin attributes the majority of this sonic success to the ordinary — yet hard to come by — building blocks: great drummers and great mic pres. One drummer Jupiter has had the opportunity to work with extensively is local dynamo, Jason Finn. Over the past year, Jason's been in the studio with several bands, including The Presidents, Subset, and The Nevada Bachelors. Martin has taken advantage of these opportunities to craft Jason's infallible playing into individual mixes on a case-by-case basis. "Jason's drum sounds are very consistent," claims Martin. "The stuff I've been doing with him and the Presidents, the Nevada Bachelors, and the Subset stuff — they're all slightly different but they feel like Jason. They're amazingly dynamic, and have a great snap and bite to them, but they're not overly bright, overly EQ'd, or compressed. They're natural sounding but they have this dynamic to them that's definitely his. It's all about capturing the drummer's style. With some of [Jason's] bands, it's more of an open kind of earthy sound. At other times, it's tighter and more focused — the resolution of the magnifying glass is a lot higher. Other times it's not as high because it doesn't need to be. He changes his style or we change the way we track or mix dependant on the artist and the song."

It's all in the mic pre

The tracking of drums, as well as most other instruments at Jupiter, is commonly executed through one of a handful of favorite mic pres and compressors, namely their Telefunken and Kendrick supply. "A big part of the drum sound here is the Telefunken piece that we have," explains Martin. "We have a lot of gear custom made for us by a gentleman called Oliver. He runs a company called Jester Enterprises and he's bought the trademark and trade name for Oahu and he remakes the Oahu amplifiers, all class A. He's been selling them to people like Keith Richards and Billy Gibbons. He used to work for Telefunken so he has all the plans and designs for everything they made. He makes this wonderful stuff, which he's actually retailing now. We doalotofR&Dforhim.Hebringsstuffinforusto try out and I give him pointers. He's also made some Telefunken compressors. We have one right now and he's making another two more for us. It's basically the Telefunken Varicom. It's the most useful compressor I've ever used. It's absolutely beautiful... very colored, slight harmonic distortion, very crispy, with a nice low end bump, but very smooth — and very, very musical. It reacts to stuff that other compressors don't react to. It doesn't react to the low end like most compressors do. It doesn't seem to react to voltage — it seems to react more to frequency, which is what we like. And then he made us some other Telefunken compressors too. You have some V-72s, which are huge, and then these old solid state models, which are basically — from what I've been told — the model that Neve used for his solid state and boy, they sound fantastic."

Another colorful favorite is the Kendrick "6- Shooter," a very cool looking six channels of class A mic pres in a two-unit space, with a smoking gun on the front panel. It's mostly used for toms, kick, and vocals. "My partner Christian bought that a couple years ago," claims Martin. "He'd used the [Kendrick] guitar amps and raved about them. It's a very expensive piece of equipment and when he bought it, I was like, 'Wow, what'd you spend that much money for? We could get some Focusrites for that!' So, I thought I'd try them out and send them back or something. Well, I brought some Focusrites in and A/B'd the Kendricks against them. I got the best sound I could with the Focusrites, with EQ, and ran some tape. Then, I used the same mics, same position, with the Kendrick and it just completely blew the Focusrites away, even without EQ. They're great for real rich, dynamic stuff that needs clarity, but also a tonal picture. We use those a lot. That's the main pre-amp that did all the vocal tracking on the Mark Lanegan record that came out last year."

The singer is the sound

Working with great singers like Lanegan is one of Martin's favorite aspects of operating within the environment he's created. "I just like working with people who know how to interpret songs, whether it be their own songs or not," claims Martin. "You can always find good musicians. If the drummer's bad, you can work it out or whatever — but the singer's the most important thing — and the song of course. I also enjoy people who will take some chances too. I hate egos — no egos in this place. If you show one in here — I don't care if you're paying or not — you get out. It's only music. If you can't have fun making rock and roll, you better go jump off the Aurora Bridge."

In the producer's chair

Generally, if an artist books Jupiter, and Martin is at the controls, he's likely to be producing the project. This is, perhaps, his greatest specialty and certainly a favorite hat to wear. He truly enjoys working on songs with a band, throwing ideas at them, and helping them to see the light of day. At the end of the day, he gets a warm feeling from knowing that he's brought something to them that they didn't have before.

"Most bands I see have great ideas," says Martin. "Most bands are very musical and come up with really great ideas. Normally, there are too many ideas or they're in the wrong order, or they're at the wrong tempo, or the wrong damn key, or parts of them are in the wrong key. Or, they're all in the same key and they really should change some of them. I try to make people take chances. And sometimes you've got to do that a little bit at a time and then they see the light of day."

This is, naturally, the step in the process where dormant egos creep up. However, Martin handles confrontation with a professional attitude. "If a band has asked me to produce them," he explains, "then they already understand. I'm not dictatorial. The way I state things is: 'Look, you asked me to produce you and I expect you to listen to everything I say, and try everything that I ask you to try. If you give it your best shot, and you don't like it, then that's totally fine. But unless you give it your best shot, then how do you truly know that it's not a good idea? If you do give it your best shot and you don't like it, I'm not going to make you do it.' What I like about it is the connection with people. When you're working, and suddenly everyone turns around and says, 'This is better than any of us could have done on our own,' that's what really makes it work. It's all about connections with people, having a good time, interpreting people's music, and capturing some artistry and some expression."

Recording Vocalists

Because Martin knows that vocalists come in all shapes and sizes, he never sticks to one mic or any set of customary recording techniques to record them. "If the vocalist is a technician," he explains, "then it's easy to do a single vocal track. You can illustrate to the vocalist what's needed and they can deliver it. Other people are 'feel' vocalists. If you go forward and backward over a phrase, you drive them crazy and they just don't get it. You've got to do five or six passes and then tell them to bugger off for an hour or two and comp the vocal. It just depends on the artist and what kind of vibe you get from them. A microphone we use a lot for vocals is the M147, the new tube Neumann. It's basically a U47 copy, and it's very nice. Also, the Equitek E200, which we use a lot. We tracked all the Lanegan vocals with that. The Oktava is a very interesting vocal microphone, and also the [Shure] Beta 57, which I A/B'd against a very good C12. In the track, it sounded almost identical, granted not quite as open. During a session, the singer wanted to hold the microphone and he couldn't hold a C12, so I tried to find something else that sounded okay. I grabbed my Beta 57 and A/B'd it in the track. It was unbelievable. I'd tried the Beta 57 on vocals before, on a lot of the Super Deluxe stuff, because it seemed to suit Braden's voice, but I hadn't A/B'd it against anything in particular. I just knew that it sounded pretty good."

In-house Mastering

Although 90% of Jupiter's clients opt for the two-inch analog, the studio's Pro Tools setup is logging many hours, mainly at mastering. Martin still isn't ready to work on projects entirely inside the digital world of a workstation. "The Pro Tools is used for additional mixing, overdubbing, locking it up, and flying stuff around," claims Martin. "Sometimes we track into it. I think I prefer the way things sounded from the two-inch, initially. But there's certain features of the Pro Tools where you have to kind of give up part of the instantaneous flexibility of the two-inch and the console. You trade some of that for the flexibility of being able to fly stuff around, correct things, and end up with better performances and better arrangements, and maybe not feeling quite as good as it did before. It's a trade off. I've tried mixing internally in Pro Tools and I'm not a fan of that. I like the features of it but I don't like the way it sounds when it's all bussed internally. That's my own personal choice. I like to get it out into the board and basically use it as a random access multi-track tape machine with some automation features. We use Pro Tools for that kind of stuff and for mastering. We do quite a bit of mastering. The main reason I got the mastering stuff together is because I'd been tracking records with bands and then they'd go somewhere else, and it would just be horrible. It's just an additional service to the bands that we work with if they want to use it but it's also brought a lot of other business in too. We don't have the kind of amazing equipment that a lot of mastering houses have, and we don't advertise ourselves as a mastering house. However, word of mouth has got around that records I've mastered, people have liked and other people have come on in and I've mastered for them too."

As far as mastering gear, Martin admits that Jupiter utilizes nothing fancy. "I use the Avalon [SP737s], the [Aphex] Dominator, a lot of plug in software, my ears... It's very simple stuff. If it needs a lot of manipulation, it just needs to be re-mixed or re-recorded. If it needs more than a dB here and there, or gentle touching in the right places, then it's probably not put together properly."

Unlike many, Martin prefers to master projects he's mixed, if given the opportunity. "Sometimes when records get mastered elsewhere," he claims, "if I know it's going to a reputable house, and know the kind of work that's been done there, I'm happy about that. But, I don't mind mastering stuff I've worked on in fact — I quite enjoy it, especially if I know that it's pretty damn close. Sometimes it's obviously very nice to have another set of ears brought to the table, but sometimes the other set of ears are completely wrong and can mess up your project."

Mixing

All the staff at Jupiter put the artist and the project first. For Martin, the most satisfying stage is mixing. "I love mixing," he claims. "I really do. Especially stuff that I haven't tracked. It's a certain feeling that you get when someone brings something to you and you are involved in taking it to the next level. You've hopefully improved it quite a bit. That's why it's nice to get something that's tracked fairly well, Quite often, you can take it to another level and people go away very, very happy, which is really nice. That's why we're here... to make people happy. When I mix," Martin explains, "I tend to start each song from scratch, so that each song has a different feel to it. I drop all the faders, start balances from scratch, and really look at each song as an independent animal rather than just a continuation of the tracking session. I tend to track songs in that way too — a song at a time from start to finish — rather than do a week of guitars, and a week of drums. Instead of having a conveyer belt, you focus on the song and keep working on it until you know what it needs. When it's got everything it needs, it's done. You move on to the next song."

Jupiter's new board is the 80 input Amek Einstein Super E Automated, which they've had for a few months now and are really excited about.

The Future

Martin's expert style with songs and bands increasingly attracts calls from non-Northwest artists, producers, and managers. Though he has no intention of turning down opportunities to travel and make more records, his immediate plan is to continue on where he is. He recognizes the fact that he's developed a successful blend of artistic style and business philosophy. Of the latter, he states that many engineers don't listen to their clients, musically or personally. "What people have to understand," he explains, "is that when they're starting to run a studio, the minute they say, 'We want money to do what we do', they have to be professional. That means, they have to deliver, and that's real important to us. Don't let people down — don't slack. I know it's the music industry, and you're allowed much more slack than you are in many other industries, but if you don't do that, you'll get much better results."