big blue meenie former type production house genre recording studio predecessor quantum sound founded hackensack new jersey 1991 1991 founder tom aldi julie gilles tim gilles joe mahoney defunct january 11th 2015 headquarters jersey city new jersey u.s. key people sal villanueva producer kevin neaton engineer jeff canas engineer matt messenger engineer erin farley eng g prod . assistant alex eddings engineer owner tim gilles number of employees 12 website http www.bigbluemeenie.com big blue meenie was a production house in jersey city new jersey famous for its clientele . contents 1 history 1.1 quantum sound 1.2 big blue meenie 2 equipment and features 3 notable recordings 3.1 mixing editing 4 references 5 sources history edit the facility is located on 512 paterson plank road near washington park 1 and was built in the late 19th century . prior to 1981 it was used by a chandelier factory 2 until it stopped operation in the late 20th century . the front entrance to big blue meenie . quantum sound edit in 1981 3 the producer of madonna s self titled first album reggie lucas purchased the building and opened a recording studio quantum sound studios . 4 by 1986 it was reported to feature the first ssl mix room a 48 input ssl 4000 console with total recall 5 in northern new jersey as well as an extensive collection of midi synthesizers and gear and a synclavier digital audio system . 6 grammy award winning music studio engineer and producer andy wallace mixed tracks for helmet and rage against the machine 2 as well as and many others at quantum in the late 1980s and early 1990s . 3 other musicians and producers used lucas studio for hire approach for recording 2 like inxs and queen latifah . by 1994 lucas left the studio and although he had spent a lot of time and effort fitting the original factory with the control rooms and recording spaces by the time it was purchased by its successor in 1998 the old quantum studios were in a state of extreme dilapidation . 2 big blue meenie edit in 1991 7 8 tim gilles nicknamed rumblefish 9 and his then wife julie as well as joe mahoney and tom aldi started big blue meenie studios in the basement of his house 2 in hackensack new jersey primarily using an 8 track recorder . after several years of growing success and a positive reputation among musicians in the area the group began closing down their original locations and made arrangements to buy the former quantum sound studios in 1998 ; 8 on february 2 1999 the building was officially purchased . 10 on june 18 1999 8 the facility officially opened with the then first of its kind mixer an amek 9098i analog console built by console engineer rupert neve . 7 the amek at big blue meenie is one of about twenty in the world . 11 under the producer sal villanueva and the rest of the engineers several post hardcore bands began their career recording at the studio ; thursday recorded their debut album waiting in 1999 12 and taking back sunday recorded tell all your friends in 2001 which on its 2005 reissue featured a bonus song called the ballad of sal villanueva . 13 thursday has continually gone back to villanueva including his recording of the breakout album full collapse in 2001 . 14 throughout its existence 24 gold and 10 platinum records have been mixed or recorded at the 512 paterson plank facility ; 3 and some of the gold and platinum records are displayed in the reception area upon entering the studio . equipment and features edit the amek 9098i console in control room studio a. the 2 floor building has a total area between 8 500 square foot 790 m2 3 and 9 000 square foot 840 m2 2 and has 3 main performing studios named studios a b c and a fourth room d 11 as well as the batcave 15 a mixing room solely for beat making and editing . overall big blue meenie contains 4 control rooms 2 live performance spaces 8 and features 4 iso rooms and 3 editing support daw suites . on the second floor big blue meenie had its own mastering outfit named surgical sound 2 but the second floor is now used by studio d. the studio has used analog and two inch tapes to record the initial take and then upload them into a digital environment for further editing . in an interview regarding the reasoning behind this approach gilles stated we don t even mention the d word around here . i have digital gear around here but everything gets done on analog and 2 inch . we re old school analog guys . and a huge amount of staying in the business is keeping the studio operational and we suffer zero downtime . 2 he also states that he is most comfortable using the two inch tape 12 as he is familiar with what this process does to the recordings . processing the sound in this manner according to gilles gives the music the studio mixes and masters a unique thumbprint and an authentic sound . 12 but depending on the client request or specification the team does use digital recordings and are not limited to either process singularly . big blue meenie has worked exclusively with apple and uses their software logic pro for mixing after analog recording . 12 other high end equipment and devices used in the studio include an amek mozart rn adam s3a monitors yamaha nsto s and sl1200 turntables 11 as well as an extensive mic locker with limited and vintage microphones and boutique outboard equipment . since the facilities inception in the 1980s all genres of music have been worked on ; although under quantum more pop and r & b artists were mixed as opposed to many of the bands that record at big blue meenie today which are mainly more rock or metal oriented groups . 16 with the equipment and editing software and hardware it has the recording studio offers studio time for any genre of music from rock to hip hop and voiceovers . 17 over the years the facility on paterson plank road has been renovated several times and the business has grown from about 2000 of gear used by gilles in his basement to record and mix his own band to an estimated 2 million studio . 2 it is considered one of the oldest and largest open for hire studios on the east coast . 3 notable recordings edit records on display at reception desk from left to right inxs helmet s.o.d. taking back sunday artist album s personnel taking back sunday tell all your friends sal villanueva thursday kill the house lights war all the time five stories falling full collapse waiting sal villanueva calico system they live 18 family jewels chuck and louise citation needed catch 22 washed up and through the ringer 19 tim gilles agnostic front riot riot upstart dead yuppies tim gilles tim gilles erin farley s.o.d. bigger than the devil speak english or die platinum edition and 20th anniversary edition seasoning the obese 20 tim gilles inxs kick 21 queen latifah come into my house 21 22 vision of disorder for the bleeders 23 tim gilles breaking pangaea phoenix 24 tim gilles 9 erin farley mixing editing edit pet shop boys jodeci rage against the machine the toadies jeff buckley sepultura references edit hagstrom hudson county . a b c d e f g h i chun kimberly december 1 1999 . big blue meenie recording studios . mixonline . penton media inc. retrieved october 27 1999 . check date values in access date help a b c d e about us . big blue meenie . jamjodesign . retrieved october 27 2010 . whaley p. 139 . dupler december 20 1986 p. 50 . dupler october 18 1986 p. 77 . a b verna september 25 1999 p. 47 . a b c d verna june 12 1999 p. 36 . a b tim rumblefish gilles . big blue meenie . jamjodesign . retrieved october 27 2010 . property detail . tax history . retrieved october 27 2010 . a b c rooms . big blue meenie . jamjodesign . retrieved october 27 2010 . a b c d in the studio big blue meenie studios . apple . apple computer inc. archived from the original on april 22 2006 . retrieved october 27 2010 . tell all your friends reissue . dayton metro library . overdrive digital library reserve . retrieved october 27 2010 . thursday full collapse . cd universe . muze inc. retrieved october 27 2010 . the batcave . big blue meenie . jamjodesign . retrieved october 27 2010 . sharpe young p. 349 . bbm rate card . big blue meenie . jamjodesign . retrieved october 27 2010 . sharpe young p. 75 . washed up and through the ringer credits . allmusic . retrieved october 27 2010 . the albums . s.o.d. site . archived from the original on november 15 2010 . retrieved october 27 2010 . a b music recorded and or edited at quantum sound studios . queen latifah come into my house . discogs . discogs . retrieved october 27 2010 . vision of disorder for the bleeders credits . allmusic . retrieved october 27 2010 . breaking pangaea phoenix credits . allmusic . retrieved october 27 2010 . sources edit dupler steven october 18 1986 . a quantum leap . billboard magazine . nielsen business media inc. 98 42 122 . issn 0006 2510 . dupler steven december 20 1986 . sound investment . billboard magazine . nielsen business media inc. 98 51 80 . issn 0006 2510 . hagstrom map 2008 . hudson county new jersey street map . hagstrom map company inc. isbn 0 88097 763 9 . sharpe young garry 2005 . new wave of american heavy metal . zonda books limited . p. 376 . isbn 0 9582684 0 1 . verna paul june 12 1999 . studio monitor . billboard magazine . nielsen business media inc. 111 24 100 . issn 0006 2510 . verna paul september 25 1999 . big bad and blue . billboard magazine . nielsen business media inc. 111 39 108 . issn 0006 2510 . whaley julie 1988 . songwriter s market where & how to market your songs . writer s digest books . p. 512 . isbn 0 89879 333 5 . coordinates 40 45 19 n 74 02 37 w 40.755222 n 74.043517 w 40.755222 ; 74.043517 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title big blue meenie recording studio & oldid 742488572 categories recording studios in the united statesbuildings and structures in hudson county new jerseycompanies based in jersey city new jerseymedia in hudson county new jerseymusic of new jerseyculture of jersey city new jersey1991 establishments in new jerseyhidden categories cs1 errors datesuse mdy dates from october 2012all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2010coordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 4 october 2016 at 01 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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