Hi Friends.

Been awhile since I posted here about my studio work. It’s all good… for I’ve been busy playing out and about. It’s been real fun getting back out in front of an audience…Come to a show. See my tour page: www.johnsonntag.com/tour.

Studio News:

Thunder Pumpkin is working. Working on my own record. (me -John Sonntag).
Andrew Dunn in in working on his 3rd record.
John Flynn (of Lambertville, NJ) is continues to work on singles.
Arlon Bennett continues forward on a new collection of tunes.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer

Peace – John

Hi Friends

Thunder Pumpkin is moving along nicely. Keeping busy with a couple of projects.
Arlon Bennett once again is putting together another project. I’m pleased to say I have a co-write with one of the tunes so far.

Robin Tricker of Gypsy Moon is working on two tunes to follow up her lovely Life’s A Beach single.

Lambertville’s John Flynn returned this year for a single that made the Lambertville’s Historical Society’s Christmas Compilation.: “Christmas Time For Them.  This track was fun for I recorded the Shackers rhythm section on location (at the shack) and the Shacker Choir  on location as well. Lots of fun.

One of my oldest friends, Charles McCoy finally put out an album. I met Charles in the early 80′s. (Very early 80′s). I auditioned for his cover band he was assembling. Not long after he started singing melodies to me and I’d work up charts for them. We’d tape songs where ever just to capture the ideas. After 30 years he’s finally got it going on! It’s a wonder collection of songs. Very proud of it and happy for Charles. I hope you all check out his stuff: Very Seldom Serious.

One more thing:
Just added to the Studio: Pendulum Audio “Quartet.”

All The Best To You -John

Hi Friends.
We’ve fixed the email problem. Sorry if you haven’t gotten any reposes from me. Do try again if you have questions regarding recording.

We took the plunge here and invested in the Native Instruments Komplete 10 Ultimate package. Tons of sounds and possibilities.

Getting adventurous and recording live on location. Recently recorded Chris LaVancher and his wife Esther, in their home outside Boston this past spring. Last month recorded a live performance of myself and Mike Lorincz at Caffe Galleria in Lambertville.

Finishing up a tune for Arlon Bennett. Finishing up a 10 song project by Charles McCoy.
Starting my 3rd album. Seriously!

The Studio has a few items for sale. Please write me for details.

Soundcraft 200B plus extras
MOTU PCIe 424 card
MOTU Digital Timepiece
MOTU 2408 w/324 pci card

Hi Friends

It’s true. I haven’t been keeping up to date here at all.  My bad.
Thunder Pumpkin continues to work with local and regional artists. The studio has gone through some changes this year with new AD/DA converters and console. Please visit Our Studio page to see what we’re working with these days.

We are selling some gear on craigslist.com. Check it out:

Soundcraft 200B
MOTU PCIe 424 card
Isolation Box
MOTU Digital Timepiece
MOTU 2408 w/324 pci card

Here come the Holidays. We’ll catch up again soon.
All the best

Hi Friends,

The Fall was quite a busy time here with The Dashboard Hula Girls recording and mixing. Please check out their videos when you get a chance. You’ll find links on their site.

The Winter. What a winter. A disruptive one at that. But now we’re heading into spring and along the way Thunder Pumpkin has made some changes. We’ve moved into a new frontier with Antlelope Audio’s new Orion 32  AD/DA converts with AFC clocking.
Also added  is Focusrite’s Control 2802 mixing console. I’ll be updating the gear page later this week to reflect all the changes. New plug-ins will be listed there.  There will be gear to be sold. I’ll be posting that shortly.

That’s all for now.
Happy Spring

john

Hi Friends,
Summer sure flew by. Busy time for sure. Now it’s October and I’m gearing up for Halloween. How about you all?

Latest news here:
John Flynn (along with the Shackers ) asked me once again to produce a new Christmas song for the Lambertville Historical Society’s 2nd holiday cd. I ended being a guest guitarist on the track doing some rhythm and solo work. Check out Happy Christmas Time.
This track was recorded at Hopetown Sound with Pier Giacolone engineering. We had a blast this day.

Arlon Bennett keeps sending me tracks to work on. He’s in sigles mode.
Old friend of mine, Charles McCoy,  is finally working on stuff we did together many years ago. (I’ve stopped counting the years).

Will be returning to my own songs as well. Keep you posted on that front.

all the best

John

Hi Friends,

Boy am I late wishing you visitors Happy New Year.
Holidays wore me out. Fun just the same.

Thunder Pumpkin continues to rock. John Flynn is about to press his first cd effort “Heading For The Sun”
Arlon Bennett’s “World Of Possibility” is officially released.
New faces are talking and planning to work here this year.
And I’m turning on the mics for myself. Yup! Recording my 3rd record.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oh. One last note. We are going to put up Album samples. Seems while putting this site together we missed that point.
All the best

John

Hi Friends

It’s September all ready! It’s true – Time flies when you’re having fun.
These past two week were no exception.

Anita Harding, Maureen Fichten, and Ansel Matthews came in to record backing vocals for Arlon Bennett’s new album.
We had a blast  and the tracks sound great.
Deni Bonet also recorded violin parts for Arlon. She rocks!
One more song for Arlon and we mix.

John Flynn in one step closer. His buddy Steve (last name escapes me right now)  came in to record saxophone.
His buddy (and mine ) Jason Bonthron laid down more bass.

Speaking of Jason.
Jason brought in a new song and with a tweak here and there it’s ready to mix.

Doug Jay returned with his wife, Julie, and his brother, Pat, to lay down harmonies and bass lines.
This session was so much fun. I’m still smiling. Julie get’s parts done in one or two takes. Same for Pat.
Then we fired up a bunch of mics and record a new song live. Third take’s a keeper! I love it!

Studio Gear:
At this time no new additions.

All the best
John

Hi Friends,

Hope all of you have been having a great summer.
Arlon Bennett’s record is nearing completion. Yes it’s true. I have to say just when you think
you’re on top of everything he writes a new song to be included. What can I say… he’s an artist.

Boxcar Lilies came and sang up a storm on a couple of his songs. Jennifer Smith (of Naked Blue fame) contributed wonderful cello last month. We had a great time recording and working together.

John Flynn (Third Rail, Shackers) is continuing to work here. What started out as a “let’s just record these tunes so I have a record of them” into a full blown album project. He’s posting on Broadjam if you want to check him out. If so… check out his photos for Hunter Mt. Rock and Soul Review.
Look closely and you’ll see John in bottom left on keyboards and that’s me behind him with my Tele. Fun gig.

 Thunder Pumpkin Additions:

Pro Tools 10 has arrived.
Eleven Rack (came along with PT 10. Fun gadget)
Waves Master Bundle
Melodyne Editor 2

I’d love to turn the mics on for you.

John

Boy Time flies when you’re having fun. Really it does..

I’ve very excited that the Boxcar Lilies are coming in this weekend to record vocals for Arlron Bennett’s record. We’re near the end of this project and a lot of good stuff is happening. Also
we’ll be working Jen Smith of Naked Blue fame out of Baltimore later this month. She’s going to record cello for Arlon. I don’t know if i can stand it.

All the best
JOHN