LEON'S FARM

Léon’s Farm is a studio situated in an old farmhouse close to the A73, the highway that connects the north east and the south part of the Netherlands. The farm can be found in the village of Boekend, a suburb of bordertown Venlo, in the provence of Limburg.

The studio is runned by producer/sound technician Léon Bartels, one of the country’s finest young sound wizzards and songwriter/guitarist/producer BJ Baartmans.
Although there is plenty of high end studio gear and a lot of nice cool sounding vintage stuff present, the studio has a very homely vibe, you wouldn’t tell you were in a recording room…

Guests can cook or heath up their own food (or go out into a crazy town ofcourse), sleep on the notorious green seventies pillows or hang out with the rabbits, big birds and
little ponies outside. Plenty of parking space too. It’s a vivid environment, it’s a great sounding house and it’s a beautiful building!

A lot of cd’s were produced at Léon’s Farm over the last four years. Mainly roots orientated music: folk, blues and jazz but also some mean rock and roll sounds were captured on various digital and analog machines. Bands still play as a unit, leakage will be welcomed as ambience and provide for more energy (if it must be). Dead rooms are for stiff people ain’t that right…?!
The recording room is consistently being praised for it’s organic sound. Every now and then live shows are recorded on location by the way.

Still there’s a lot of modern technology involved. All sorts of editing on a professional level
is possible and some fine mastering tools are present.
So experience meets experiment, as old school meets new standards. It sounds like a slogan but it actually makes for great records.

Selected list of bands/acts that recorded at Léon’s Farm Plain Song Shannon Lyon JW Roy MonkeyTale Iain Matthews Arno Adams Ongenode Gaste BJ’s Pawnshop Mike Roelofs/Ryan Carnieux Fat Time Surfcake Project Eugene Ruffolo Mike Roelofs Quartet Gerrit Christiaens Double Shots Groupies Revenge Ad VanderVeen

SELECTED GEAR LIST Recording machines: Nuendo multi track PC set up 24 bit/96 khz Yamaha AW 4416 multi track 24 bit/44 khz HD recorder Tascam 38, 8 track reel to reel Onyo and Sony DAT recorders, CD recorder Play Back Systems: Tannoy active system Custom Build A.K. High End system EV Nearfields Pre amps: Focusrite Red One, Focusrite red 8, Avalon 737 tube, TL Audio C1 Ampeg vintage tube mic pre amp Joe Meek, Focusrite Voicemaster, Line 6 Bass POD, Soundcraft mixing board Outboard stuff (compressor/limiters, eq, reverbs/delays): Focusrite, Joe Meek, Drawner, Burnie (hand crafted Drawner replica’s), DBX DBX graphic EMT vintage plate reverb, WEM vintage tape echo, Fender tube reverb Lexicon reverbs, TC Electronics,Yamaha SPX 900 Microphones: Neumann 147 tube, Neumann KM 184’s, Neumann TL 103 AKG 414, AKG C3000’s, AKG D14, AKG D112, AKG 451, AKG 535’s Gonzo Audio hand crafted tube mikes Röde N2’s Shure 57’s, 58’s EV RE 20 Sennheiser MD 421’s More Stuff: Headphones: Beyer and Sony A box full of of vintage guitar, bass and keyboard stompboxes Various guitar/bass amps like Matchless, Fender, Silvertone, Music Man, SWR and AER Various vintage keyboards, guitars can be used Pearl and Sonor drumsets

BJ’s GUITAR GEARPAGE Electric guitars: Various vintage Fender Stratocasters Custom Eleveld Telecaster Duesenberg Starplayer K.Yairi F-Hole Jazz Box Yamaha SA 2100 Shergold Masquerador Silvertone 60’s lipstick Yamaha BB1000 bass Acoustic guitars: Seagull, K.Yairi westerns Aria classical Hand crafted small sized spanish guitar F-Style BJB Customized No Name Mandoline Amps: Matchless Tornado Fender Vibro King, Princeton, Champ and Pro Junior amps Silvertone 60’s amp in case Music Man HD 130 AER Acousticube Main Stompboxes: Emma Reezafratzitz overdrive Carl Martin tremolo/vibrato Boss delay Ibanez Tubescreamer Fender vintage Tube Reverb BJ endorses AER Acoustic guitar amps and Emma stompboxes