PopSmear Studios is owned and operated by Bay Area producer and recording artist Scott Llamas. Scott's recording project DEFLATOR MOUSE charted college and commercial specialty radio on multiple releases, was chosen by SPIN and CMJ magazine for their compilations, was featured at SXSW 4 years in a row and was heralded as "better than 90 percent of the competition" by AP Magazine.
Recent Success:
In the last five years, Scott has been the most featured producer on Live 105's Sound check and has had 5 artists featured on AP Magazine's "100 bands to watch" . Scott's work has also: generated offers and deals from Arista, Hollywood, Elektra, Polygram, BYO, Fat, Mega Force and others; been featured on MTV's Viva La Bam, Road Rules, Made and others; received strong reviews in national and local press such as AP Magazine, CMJ, Magnet, Revolver, AbsolutePunk.net, SF Chronicle, SF Weekly and many others; charted radio for college and commercial specialty charts; won multiple spots to play Warped Tour, BFD, Not So Silent Night and other festivals and been played on LIVE 105 about a million times.
Recent Artists Produced:
The Action Design (Featuring M from Tsunami Bomb), Picture Me Broken (MegaForce), Finish Ticket, Love Equals Death (Fat Wreck Chords), Facing New York (Five One Records), Scene of Action, Letters Make Words, The Downer Party/Two Seconds, Nothington (BYO Records), Tragedy Andy, Panda (Dizzy Balloon), Fighting The Villain, Goodbye Gadget, The Sick (The Edge Records), Arno Corps (Anticulture), Dexter Danger (Orange Peal), Air Show Disaster, Two Left Feet, The Texas Thieves (Dr. Strange), Deflator Mouse, The Silent Film Stars (Thought Riot/Anti Flag), Harrington Saints (Longshot) and many, many others.
Studio:
- Amazing-sounding tuned and gated drum room, iso booths, vocal booth & comfy control room.
- Indoor and outdoor break areas with PS2, DVD player, WiFi and 2 extra computers.
- Pro tools HD 3 with the 192 Interface ($20,000 top-of-the-line version) with all of digidesign's virtual instruments, Reason 4, Waves platinum bundle, and too many plug-ins to list (another $20,000 worth in all!)
- Neve Preamps and Mic's by Neumann, CAD, Audio Technica, Sennheiser and more.
Best Value:
Your time is valuable don't waste it; ultimately, you'll spend less time and save money doing it here. It's been said that one day here is worth two days in other studios, and I'm proud to admit that it's true. I have been using Pro Tools full-time for more than 10 years and constantly study the manual and keep abreast of all the newest developments and techniques. I am exceptionally fast and efficient in Pro Tools and in setting up. My cabs and vocal booth are mic'd and ready. My system is well maintained and backs up every five minutes and I don't step out for smoke breaks every 10 minutes or get stoned during your session. Don't take my word for it; feel free to contact any of the bands on my page and ask them if this is by far the fastest studio they've ever been in.
Rates:
- $450 per day (8 hrs.)
- $60 per hour
- $400 introductory 4-song DEMO Special
- special rates available to engineers/bands who want to record/mix themselves or just track themselves.
Get Produced:
What's the difference between being recorded and being produced? Recording is getting a great sounding recording of your music with all the songs and parts the way you usually play them. Of course, I can make suggestions as we go, but without knowing the songs in advance, I might not notice something that I would have suggested changing until it's too late. For example, once we track the vocals, I might realize we should have used a different drum pattern but it would be too late because all the instrumentation will have been already tracked. However, with production, we can catch these things in advance of the recording and make sure that the version of your song we record is the best it can be. This is done by playing the songs for me in advance of the actual recording (either in a separate session or at the beginning of the first day of recording). This allows me to get to know your songs and make suggestions before we get started so that we begin our recording process on the best possible foundation. I've had over 50 bands played on Live 105 and other commercial stations over the last several years and this is where it starts.
Contact:
You can call me at (415)455-4321 or email me @: scottL@popsmearrecords.com
