Client Testimonials (see articles for others)

"He's the only Designer that can do a beat and run a session and he does the best rooms."
- RZA Wu Tang

"Ritchie is Atomic."
- Craig Bishop co-Owner New York Noise

"Best kept secret in New York"
- SSL quote per Oliver

"Rich is Great!"
- Phil Ramone

"The Genius with a Heart."
- Tony Smythe
Owner of Smythe & Co. (Studios, Productions, etc.)

"Rick is the Alien, he knows what you're lookin for before you ask and he knows what a hot mix is because he can do them himself."
- Power

"Knows what we want because he's top in design and also all kinds of sessions."
- Carlos Bess

"The number one record on the charts in the world when the ball dropped on 2000 was from a room Rick did, then the record that took over the number one spot from that was from a room Rick did-and after he does a crib he shows the boys mix tricks before he leaves. He's straight, -word."
- Chill Treez, Cool Leaves Ent.

"Fantastic Results"
- Andy Munro DYNAUDIO

"Does very good work."
- Rupert Neve

[many more available]

VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE

From A Professional Recordist's Hints for Better Sound

ABOUT RICHARD OLIVER:

Richard has worked on such Major Films as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street 3’, ‘The Making of Mr. Right’, and ‘Amazon’. He has worked on television on such productions as Nickelodeon’s Letters to the Earth, Super Bowl ‘93, and Live at the Apollo. He has mixed Major National Commercials for Oreos, American Express, and Sports Illustrated. On Records he has done such artists a the Rolling Stones, the B-52’, and YES. He presently owns and operates Richard Oliver Productions, Inc. in New York City and among many other recent projects has just completed his own album, titled ‘Green and Checkers’ under TRIP Records,  The Velvet Mafia’s ‘We Know Where You Live’ album, Justin Keyes ‘Believe’ album, and two Independent Feature Films with YSEC of New York, ‘Rock and Roll Vampire’ and ‘Big Dreams’, which is now in post production. He has credits on several Platinum Albums and Gold Albums and credit on a Grammy Album as well and is a Top Studio Designer.  

SESSIONS & STUDIO NEWS

MIX STAFF

Mix, Jul 1, 2000

STUDIO NEWS Richard Oliver designed a new sound lounge room for Rob Sayers, and designed Flavor Units' new three-room facility for Shakim and Queen Latifah...

NY METRO REPORT

Gary Eskow

Mix, Sep 1, 1999

If you want to build a studio in New York City that won't turn around and bite you in the bottom, there are issues besides sonic integrity to consider. The real estate market here is quite volatile, which means that getting a read on your potential landlord is critical-will he or she understand that you've invested a small fortune in your space when it's time to negotiate your next lease? You'd also be wise to check out the kind of tenants that occupy the building and suss out what kind of industry is being attracted to the area; for example, you don't want to compete with a printing press on the next floor. The vibe of the neighborhood is also important. And then there are the acoustical questions.

Songwriters and producers Andy Marvel and Peter Zizzo have enjoyed considerable success over the past several years, penning songs for Celine Dion, Diana King, Jennifer Love Hewitt and other well-known acts. Sitting across from one another at dinner one night, they decided to become partners in a studio where they could write, develop acts, produce some records through the mix stage and prep tracks to be completed at outside facilities. Big Baby Studios is the result of their labors.

Zizzo is no technical slouch, but he says that Marvel, who has a background in studio engineering, is more gear-savvy. So design plans for Big Baby Studios included individual rooms for the two writers, with Marvel's room doubling as the main mixing environment. The recommendation was for designer Richard Oliver. "Rich is really a genius," says Zizzo. "He has a very unique personality-he talks fast and speaks on a very high technical level, which is sometimes a bit hard for me to follow. When you're building space in New York-especially on a budget-you're constantly making concessions to go either for the most acoustically pure solution, or favor the aesthetics. Rich really understood the balance we were trying to achieve, and I think he did a great job of designing a space that sounds great and is a great hang."

You want the talent you're working with to feel comfortable, creative and inspired, and Andy and I are excited because that's exactly what we feel we've got."

Big Baby Studios featured

in 'Coast to Coast' section

Mix Magazine September 1999

AUDIOMEDIA MAGAZINE

    However, Manhattan does not intrude upon Harmony 534. The 3,000-square-foot, three-story, four-studio audio/video/Web design and hosting facility was built inside the shell of a former National Guard Armory. The result is an unheard-of degree of acoustical isolation for the facility's two audio control rooms and three isolation booths. 
    Designed by Richard Oliver and his experienced crew–who also provide engineering and support services at Harmony 534–the audio control rooms host two completely digital consoles: a 252 PATH/24-fader Neve Libra, and a 32-input Mackie D-8. Both audio control rooms and the facility's two video suites are designed for 5.1 surround monitoring and mixing, using Dynaudio M-2 speakers for mains and Dynaudio Contour speakers for surrounds, and all studios are tie-lined for audio, video and network links. Audio recording is to a large Digidesign Pro Tools 5.1 system and E-Magic's Logic 4.7 software. Data connectivity is via a mixed 100/1000baseT Gigabit network. The video post-production suites are fitted with Avid video editing equipment, though Harmony 534's staff can rent and integrate any system a client wants. DVD authoring services will be implemented in the near future. 
    "It's truly a boutique type of service facility, but a vertically oriented one," observes Doug Romoff, Harmony 534's 
CEO. "We can service a project from top to bottom–ADR, Foley, audio recording, editing and mixing, video editing, and 
mix-to-picture–and do it in a very intimate atmosphere where the client basically owns the facility from start to finish." 
    Romoff and fellow founding partner and president Thom Spahn have long histories in the commercial and industrial 
multimedia industry sectors, and both continue to use the facility for their own multimedia productions. Romoff and 
Spahn’s accounts include CBS, Slim-Fast and the University of Pittsburgh Health System, and their projects often engage the 
facility’s entire range of services, including music and voice recording, scoring, picture transfer and editing and layback, 
all within the walls of Harmony 534. 
"    If there's anything that characterizes Harmony 534, it's that the facility is a powerful combination of technology and 
creativity," observes Spahn. "That goes for the staff and the facility itself. It's a very relaxed, creative place to work. 
The kind of place where you're more productive and more inspired. And that's a nice combination."

Oliver as the cover story PAD Signal Path First Issue

Mix Mag Feature article on Oliver Aug 97

Scan below and Typed copy below that for ease of reading

Rich Oliver
Designer Engineer

MIX Magazine
August 1997
pp. 155, 168 and 237
Story by Gary Eskrow


His rooms are home to the creators of thousands of commercial
scores, film dates and record sessions.  Phil Ramone says his work is
"great," and Keith Richards greets him with a hug and a "hello, mate."
Still, triple-threat engineer, songwriter and audio architect Rich
Oliver is something of a secret to those outside of the New York music
scene.

Oliver's career path is easy to follow.  Eschewing a chance to
attend M.I.T., he followed a low road into the world of smoky nights and
dirty panpots.  An electronics buff since his early days, Oliver
parlayed his math skills and engineering chops into a series of studio
gigs that culminated with his work tracking the Stones on Black and Blue
and Emotional Rescue.

In the early 1980s, Bob Blank asked Oliver to design what was to
become Blank Tapes Studio A.  Currently operating as Back Pocket
Studios, this Oliver-designed room has been one of the area's most
popular spot-scoring rooms for over a decade and has attracted more than
its share of film and record dates, as well, with an emphasis on
recording acoustic instruments.  What made his first attempt at room
design so successful?  "I would say that my experience as an engineer
and musician allowed me to come at room design from an angle that's a
bit different from that of some of my colleagues."

Oliver's speech is inflected with bits of techno-speak and the kind
of gutter talk that this writer, for one, is more comfortable with.
Fortunately, he was able to reduce his design theory to a level that
your run-of-the-mill cheesehead could deal with.  "There are three major
tricks that I've used in my work.  First, although you have to have
complete command of all the math involved in the business, you can't be
a slave to it.  Let's draw a parallel between tuning as measured against
a tuning fork or electric tuner, and a way a guitar player in the real
world works.  If he's going to be playing a song in the key of E using
Barre chords toward the top of the neck, for example, the player will
tune his instrument to that piece of music.  Of course, he'll refer to
the tuner and use its mathematical basis as part of the tuning process,
but he won't be a slave to it.

"I use an analogous approach when I design a room," he continues.
"I'll take the blind math and expand it to an extended musical staff --
a big one with super-huge note values standing for the Hz centers.  You
have a problem at 500 cycles?  That's approximately C5.  How important
is that note in relation to the other notes that will be used in the
room?  An engineer knows that cutting and boosting frequencies always
involves compromise based on the relative importance of parts and
frequencies.  When I'm designing a room, I'm looking ahead, trying to
make things easier for the engineer who'll be working there in the
future.

"The second trick is to avoid standing waves not by relying on
padding the walls but in the design of the room itself.  You want to
simplify the construction process wherever possible and minimize the use
of traps.

"Finally, I try to design not a control room but a premastering
room.  Almost every control room has a third-octave EQ on their
speakers, but none of my major rooms do.  I try real hard to make the
room sound correct without any EQ.  You should be able to hear an oboe,
a kick drum or the Dalai Lama screaming in your room without needing any
EQ to make it sound right!"

Oliver's conviction that a designer should blend empirical knowledge
with real-world experience has been influenced by his work with some of
the top musicians of our day.  "Let's consider Keith Richards for a
moment," he says.  "When I tracked his guitar work on Emotional Rescue,
I found him to be absolutely focused on his sound but not wed to a
preconception of what it should be.  By that, I mean that he would
insist that we tinker around until the sound was one that he felt
comfortable with, and then he played wide and open within the sound that
we created.  He'd open up anywhere in that window and release something
special inside himself.  That sense of being tuned in to the larger
issue while you deal with the specific environment is what I strive for
as well."

Tony Smythe was a wildly successful jingle producer who tracked at
Back Pocket Studios extensively before having Oliver design his personal
studio, which he used for his company's dates and would open up for
select record clients, including Chicago's Robert Lamm, who recorded a
solo album there under the direction of Phil Ramone.  Oliver laid down
all the tracks on that project, but commitments kept him from executing
the final mix.  "Robert is another example of a person who is exacting
on himself, needs to have a room that he can hear well in and a rough
mix that gives frequency space for his singing, but he never gets so
caught up in the minutiae that he loses the greater picture," Oliver
says.  "Being familiar with the way things work in the real world --
that knowledge can be critical to the success of a room design."

Piers Plaskitt, former president of SSL in the U.S., has known
Oliver for several years.  "Rich designed Mystic Studios on Staten
Island, which has one of our consoles," Plaskitt says.  "He's an
enthusiastic and perceptive individual.  I see him as an epitome of the
way the industry attracts people who have opposite characteristics
within their makeup!  Rich can seem radical, way off in the stratosphere
somewhere, and yet he can figure out grounding schemes at the drop of a
hat!  He gets things done.

"The notion of working in the real world is an important one,"
Plaskitt adds.  "I would say that a good room designer has the
flexibility to adapt to the needs of the client whilst working within
the constraints of a budget and maintaining timetable dead lines.  It's
all very well to be able to build a room at any price, but most of us
have to live with the fundamental requirements of making mortgage and
lease payments.  Having a room designer who knows the market and what
can and can not be achieved at different price points is essential to a
venture's success."

His work over the years at Back Pocket Studios has earned Oliver the
honorary title of "ultimate hairbag," an accolade that studio manager
Jim Doherty says was well-earned.  "It just seems that whatever problem
you throw at Rich -- from the early days of synching picture when
nothing really worked, to fixing tielines or mixing a session, he always
gets the job done.  And I've never heard any musician, including the
high-end artists who have worked in Studio A over the years, have
anything but good things to say about the room.  That includes horn
players, who generally don't like the way any room sounds!"

Oliver recently put the final touches on New York Noise, a
commercial studio in the up-and-coming Gansevoort Market section of
Manhattan.  New York Noise is the partnership of engineer Craig Bishop
and composer Rick De Pofi.  Bishop has worked a lot of rooms in his
career, which stretches back to his work on Tommy James' Number One hit
"Three Times in Love," and includes mixing stints with Billy Cobham and
Dave Valentin.  He's also a confirmed Oliver fan.  "Richie definitely
brings something to the party.  I strongly believe that we are getting
more room for the money we're spending than any major design firm would
have given us.  Rich uses studios every day as an engineer.  He knows
what sounds good and what doesn't, and he also knows the whys of why
things sound good!"

Oliver sits at the helm of Richard Oliver Productions and his credit
list also includes Sting, Yes, Hall & Oates, David Byrne and the B-52's.
 He's garnered no less than 13 RIAA Awards, including nine Gold and
three Platinum albums, not to mention a Grammy, and his rooms are widely
praised by his clients -- and his clients' clients.  Still, his name
recognition is not yet what his track record would suggest it might be.

"You know, I respect those peers of mine who have made the effort to
extend their business reputation in the industry," he says.  "Maybe if I
could go back and retool myself for self-promotion, I would.  But you
only get to go around once, and I've strived to learn and experience as
much as possible about the music-making part of this industry.  That's
what's driven me since I was a kid playing the guitar and singing in
basements with bands.  I'm fortunate in that by sticking to my guns,
I've gotten to the point where the people I work with view my
contribution as a unique one.  When all is said and done, who could
really ask for more than that?"

- Gary Eskow is a professional New Jersey-based writer, composer and producer.

  
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