Third Eye Blind Outfits Morning Wood with S777

San Francisco--Third Eye Blind producer/partner/engineer Jason Carmer encountered Sony's DRE-S777 digital reverb at a mix session for "Eye Conqueror," a song the group penned for the film, A Knight's Tale.

"I was impressed by the sound Micheal Brauer was producing with it," Carmer says. When Third Eye Blind vocalist/songwriter/producer Steven Jenkins, bass player Arion Salazar, drummer Brad Hardgraeves and Carmer decided to build a studio, the S777 was one of the first pieces of gear they acquired for their in-house rack.

The group's facility, named "Morning Wood," is located in San Francisco's downtown South Park district, and they've used the S777 to take care of some space issues. "Our live room is on the cozy side and rather neutral," says Carmer. "I've been using two room mikes to create a 'distance' sound, running it through the S777 then taking the output and mixing it into every mike on the drum kit to simulate a live room. I've experimented with a number of the reverb spaces in the software series, but lean towards Ocean Way Studio B. Bill Putnam built some terrific rooms, and that's one of his best."

Carmer, whose credits include producing Run-DMC, Merle Haggard, Paleface and Mark Eitzel, is currently working on the new Third Eye Blind album and plans to use the S777 sampling software to create new aural spaces for the group. The plans don't end there. "I know the unit can be used in live performances," Carmer notes, "and I may talk with our FOH mixer, Joel Lonky, to see if he'd like to buy his own to take it on the road with the band. I've worked with lots of digital reverbs, and they've all got plusses and minuses, but the S777 is the first to truly sound like a natural space."

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