Jul 13, 20232 min read

Cloud gets Anti Social with Songwriters in NYC

Educational summit at Berklee’s Power Station recording studio

Recognizing Cloud Microphones as an innovator, BerkleeNYC professor Danny Ross reached out to with an invitation to Anti Social Camp, the largest songwriting camp in the world, which he founded. When Danny mentioned that there would be an orchestral recording session, we were thrilled at the opportunity to showcase the rich, authentic sound of our modern ribbon microphones.

The songwriters collaborated in recording studios all across NYC to produce over 115 songs in a three-day period. Songwriters, artists and producers came together for intense four-hour sessions to prepare their songs for world premieres by the end of the camp.

Of the many thrilling social events - which included a Nashville-style Writers Round, a red carpet Gala, and a rooftop champagne party at the famous Flux Studios - the highlight for Cloud was working with Red Convertible Recording Studio to record an original piece composed and arranged by Grammy winner Kristine Kruta (orchestrator and producer as wells principal cellist for the Eagles touring orchestra) and fellow orchestrator and producer Erica Swindell (songwriter, vocalist and concertmaster for the Eagles). We were able to show the extraordinary capabilities and dimension of the Cloud 44-A’s as stereo Mid/Side room mics. The Cloud JRS-34 and 44 Midnight mics combined with the new Cloudlifter Xs shined as spot mics while recording an ensemble of 4 violins, viola, 2 cellos, sax, flute, and trumpet played by top notch professionals. The output selector on the CL-X was especially helpful when jumping back and forth between recording a muted and unmuted trumpet played by Matt Owens, who tours with Miley Cyrus.

Recording session at Red Convertible Recording Studio

After the orchestral session, engineer/studio owner Ricky Berotti found himself rethinking ribbon mics, “I didn’t use ribbons much until I used a Cloud,” he added, “[It is] much much easier to use than most ribbons I’ve used before, I love how quiet it is. Since I'm in the heart of Williamsburg, there’s a ton of interference all around the studio and sometimes that’ll leak into the mics - especially ribbons with their larger-than-usual magnets. Didn’t have that issue at all with the Cloud though. Wonderful mic and super easy to use!”

At Friday’s Playback Party, everyone was touched by how full and rich the strings and horns sounded on the final product, which was written in part by Grace Vanderwaal, Nicholas Petricca of WALK THE MOON, as well as Alex Kline and Alexis Idarose Kesselman.

Kristine Kruta at Friday's playback party

As we boarded our plane to come home, Berotti let us know he was continuing to explore and fall in love with his Cloud mic, “I ended up using the 44-A in the drum room, bass amp room, and guitar room — basically a room mic for the day and it was awesome.”

More scenes from Anti Social Camp: