Dogland Studios

Dogland Studio is located in rural Mt. Airy, MD; nestled away among the rolling hills, farms, and forests, offering a peaceful sanctuary for Senior Engineer and Producer Mic Wynne.  Dogland is named for Mic’s life-long love of big dogs, and not a day mixing and recording would you not find two or more of Mic’s big furry studio mates lounging on the couch near by.  Currently Dogland includes a high-quality vocal booth and amp isolation rooms, and a medium room for drums and bands, a lounge area, and of course a couch for the dogs in the mixing room.  Expansion is ongoing to include a large room and a small bathroom.

 

Dogland operates as a hybrid studio with Pro Tools, a large analog Midas console with that famous and distinct British sound in its pres and EQ sections, along with a host of outboard vintage and modern gear personally selected by Mic Wynne for unique qualities that only analog gear can deliver.   Mic has helped many artists with song composition and arrangement, moving an idea to a polished final product.  Whether it’s helping complete the idea, record it, re-mix it to get more out of it, add production elements, etc., Mic’s touch is always highly acclaimed.  Mic’s sense of melody and harmony are superb, and with his own strong capabilities in vocals, guitar, and keyboards, he often is called upon to add to great songs making them soar with multi-layered huge vocal harmonies and other classic arts.  Mic collaborates with artists around the world as well providing guitars, vocals, and writing support to various projects via file transfers.

 

Dogland is not a high-volume churn ‘em out studio.  Mic likes to work on projects he vibes with and feels he will add value.  He feels this is the most honest way to work with clients, and allows him to dedicate all of his attention to the project and give it 110%.  His love is of most all things rooted in rock, whether that’s pop, metal, modern country, punk, etc.  His love of rock music is very diverse and his personal tastes are rooted in classical, jazz, fusion, and progressive rock/metal with a touch of thrash and grunge in the mix.

Dogland's Gear 2021

The studio includes a significant number of hand selected gear to make music produced by the studio unique, warm, and anything but sterile.

 

The studio operates in Pro Tools with an enormous collection of plug-ins from great designers such as Slate Digital, Waves, FabFilter, Softube, Brainworx, TC Electronic, etc.  If a tool is needed for the job he doesn’t have he gets it.  Mic personally also utilizes Reason for his own writing and the many soft synths it includes.

 

The center piece of his studio is a medium format analog Midas Console with superb pre-amps and very British aggressive EQs.  Midas and other British consoles like Neve, SSL and Trident are on countless famous recordings.  Mic does mix all in the box when it is needed, but prefers to use the console hybrid technique for most applications.  For most sessions tracks are surgically treated in Pro Tools, and reduced to manageable STEMS.  Inserts are used to tap the console EQs and wealth of outboard compressors, aux sends to verbs, and so on as well.   The console pres come in to play as they can be driven and the faders pulled back to level match. This allows real analog saturation where needed.   Automation is done in Pro Tools by hand and with an AVID Artist Mix.   Tracks then bus to the console hitting outboard comps, etc., with the final mix stage typically including the Tegeler Creme into the Handsome Audio Zulu Tape Simulator, and mixed back into Pro Tools via the routing matrix.   This all maximizes analog feel on the tracks, busses, and final stages, while allowing automation recall in Pro Tools.  Mic developed a graphical tool for recall of all of the outboard gear and console settings utilized in the process.  Is it more time consuming, yes it is.  But it imparts sound and feel only analog gear has, including classic tape.

 

Automation of Pro Tools is via an AVID Artist Mix and AVID Artist Control applications.

 

Outboard Gear as of the start of 2021 includes:

 

EQs – Midas Console, KT DN-410, and PulTec style via EPQ-WA, and Tegeler Crème

 

Compressors – Tegeler Crème, WA-76, WA-2A, GAP Comp-3A, WesAudio Dione, Lindell Audio 77X, Chandler TG Opto, Pete’s BAC 500, Neve 535, DBX 560As, DBX 118, DBX 163Xs, BSS DPR 422, UREI 7110s  MPA Pro VLA II (Many of these have had custom circuit mods to enhance their performance further by Revive Audio), Handsome Audio Zulu

 

Gates and De-Essers – BSS DPR 422, DBX 263Xs, DBX 363Xs, DBX 463Xs

 

Pre-Amps – Midas Console, GAP Pre-73 Deluxe, MPA Pro MP-IIA

 

Saturation and Enhancement – Midas Pres, EHX PSA-1, Aphex Aural Exciter Type C

 

Effects – Orban 111B Stereo Analog Reverb, Pioneer SR 202W Sprig Reverb, Sansui RA 500 Spring Reverb, Line-6 Echo Pro, TC D-Two, TC M-One XL, TC 2290, TC 1210 plus dozens of guitar effects such as TC GMajor 2s, Eventide ModFactor and TimeFactor, Keeley Comp, Timmy OD, Bob Sweet Ultravibe, and on and on (you should see Mic’s touring rig)

 

Amps in house – Mesa Mk IV Head and Half Back Slant 4x12 Cab, Mesa Blacface Dual Rectifier and Recto 2x12 close cab, Roland JC-120, Mesa .50 Caliber with Thiele EVM-12L Extension Cab, and a Mesa .50 Caliber Plus with a JBL extension Cab, and for modeling an AVID Eleven Rack with the Bogner etc. mod

 

Mics – Many including the classics like SM-57, SM-81, SM-7, Bk1, e906, e835, MD 421….

 

DIs – Pre-73, MP-IIA, Radial Active, Radial Passive, Radial Piezo, PSA-1, and several of the comps

 

Keyboards – Roland Juno-106, Korg M1, Nord Electro 4D