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Fa-la-la à l’Acadia

We are happy to present a holiday offering for you to enjoy on the eve of another Covid Christmas:

We hope you have been able to stay healthy this holiday season, and also that when you listen to this album you can feel the holiday love that we’re sending your way: from our studio to your ears.

This album was produced over the past five weeks, and it represents a fantastic array of some of the best musicians in Portland, including Jeff Beam, Lindsey Montana, Zud, Steadman’s Landing, Sonic Libido, Quad, The Bumbling Woohas, The Shank Painters, and Frankie Moon and the Dave Mathewses Band. We’ve even rallied a band to support our studio trio, Alice and the Sh*tmunks, which we painstakingly sang at half speed just for your benefit.

So, without further ado, we present a song for each of the 12 days of Christmas: Fa-la-la à l’Acadia.

We’d like to thank all of the musicians who agreed to this project, and then came in with short notice and gave their all to these tunes– we’re forever grateful that we get to be creative with all of you! Also a huge thank you to Pat Keane Mastering for donating his time to master the album.

Acadia upgrades to a new custom patchbay!

Right before the pandemic hit, things were really humming here at Acadia. We had a record number of musical projects in the works and had just completed a major upgrade: the design and installation of a custom 384-point TT (bantam) patchbay to connect every piece of gear in our control room.

Our previous patchbay setup consisted of 1/4″ TRS bays which were unreliable and difficult to keep plugged in properly due to the sheer number of 1/4 plugs and the effects of gravity.

After some research it was clear there was one guy right for the task. We enlisted the services of Bob Hickey – AKA Mr. Patchbay.

We ordered four, high quality Audio Accessories 96 point units and via a large and complex spreadsheet, were able to specify the cable length and connector for every last patch point from XLR male or female, 1/4″ TRS or even DB25 connectors for our AD/DA converters. The new system features high quality, low-noise cable terminated using ELCO connectors on the patchbay side and whatever connector we specified on the other end. Bob hand soldered all of the 1152 solder points and made each line the perfect length to reach it’s associated rack bay. We also set many rows to be “normalled” so that the audio signal flows automatically to another piece of gear without needing a patch cord, further improving the sound and simplifying our setup.

We took great pleasure in getting rid of our large collection of relatively cheap plastic molded 1/4″ patch cables and replacing them with Mr. Patchbay’s custom Mogami TT/Bantam cables, built to last.

Once we reconnected our gear, the difference was instantly audible – we had absolutely gained a db or two of gain and the high end clarity was profoundly improved. We could not be happier with Mr. Patchbay’s work and the price is untouchable!  (Check out Bob’s website – he has worked with a staggering number of studios installing patchbay systems and with artists as FOH engineer including Pink Floyd!)

The improvement in audio quality inspired us to replace all of the existing multi-channel snake cables that connect the live room and iso booths to the patchbay with brand new Canare cable. Several hundred solder points later, we had added new connectors on both ends and we are glad to report that any number of audio gremlins have seemingly evaporated.

We’re loving our new setup – come down and hear the difference for yourself!

2020 at Acadia

Well, this was… a year. But we’re thankful that despite it all we were still able to keep our doors open and make music. We’ve listed more details with links to listen and buy music below.

Row 1 L-R:

Turn Blue (Single) from Crystal Canyon
Biloxi (Single) from Lauren Crosby Feat. Griffin Sherry
The Homebodies S/T
Illogical Irrational Dimensions Lichti Rahn
Phantom’s Made Permanent Eave
Sunshine or Rain G. Stephen Bosk Band
Illumine Jed Wilson and Tony Falco
Heartache & Roses Gunther Brown
Blood of The Swine Megog

Row 2 L-R:

Jeff Beam S/T
Built for Sin Apollyon
Symphonic Liberties Gary Lenaire
Thieves Like Us (Single) Sonic Libido
Another Life Amos Libby with Douglas Porter
Max Mamon
Mémère & Me: Acadian Folksongs from Maine Robert Sylvain, Jr.
Persephone in the Late Anthropocene Denis Nye of Hinge/Works
Honky-Tonkin’ in #Acadia David Scott Norton

Row 3 L-R:

The Perfect Trip III Caleb Hickman
Sunlight Alejandra O’Leary
That Rock N’ Roll it Won’t Leave Me Alone 3rd Shift
Canned(id) Willing Seeds
Lord Earth III: The Return of the Death Rider Lord Earth
Birds of a Feather Andy Penk
Casualties Murcielago
To Lose Everything (Single) Sonic Libido
Local Celebrity (Single) Bad Combo

Row 3 L-R:

SnugHouse Vol 2. SnugHouse
Steadman’s Landing S/T
Every Little Star (Single) Crystal Canyon
Fearless & Peerless (Single) Sonic Libido
Sheepscot Valley Enchantress Lauren Crosby
Revival Chrome Roses
Borrowed Time Memphis Lightning
FBb S/T
Into the Ether Zeke and the Endorphins