Chris Vibberts on SoundBetter

I'm obsessed with sound. I own & run The Rabbit Hole Recording where I produce, engineer, arrange, perform on, & mix albums for other artists. I've composed music for award winning feature, documentary, & animated films. I've toured and recorded with David J (Bauhaus/Love & Rockets) playing keyboards, sitar, lap steel, guitar, Melodica, & flute.

I've been passionate about creating & capturing intriguing music & sounds since I started playing guitar in the mid 80's & recording my own songs on my 4 track Portastudio. Since then I've learned to play many more instruments (keyboards, sitar, bass, lap steel, Turkish saz, Native American flutes, zurna, accordion, Melodica, cello, ocean harp, mandolin, banjo, percussion, drums, musical saw...) & graduated to a full fledged recording facility with isolation booths. I am constantly inspired by artists & producers like Brian Eno, Danger Mouse, Dave Fridmann, Joe Henry, Nigel Godrich, Prince, John Congleton, Daniel Lanois, Tchad Blake, & so many more!

My compositions & sound design can be heard in a number of award winning short, animated, documentary, non-profit, & feature length films, as well as on TV. My work includes campaigns for AAA, Honda, Marriott, Lagunitas, Beats by Dr. Dre, ESPN, Subway, National Geographic, & many others.

At The Rabbit Hole Recording I've worked with many artists including David J, Sean Hayes, Chrystal Für, Rose Logue, Darwin, Arann Harris & the Farm Band, & comedian Wilfredo. I love the act of discovery in the studio...listening to where the song wants to take us. It is important to allow the time to find new sounds through experimentation, but also create a space where the artist can achieve their goals in a comfortable, but efficient manner.

Click the 'Contact' above to get in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Credits

3 Reviews

Endorse Chris Vibberts

by Rose Martini
Chris is not only a creative genius, he's professional, kind and extremely easy to work with. As a singer/songwriter I worked with Chris on every song I've ever released- and I'm so happy I did. Chris brings so much to the table: musicality, production, composition, engineering- truly a jack of all trades. I love the songs we created together and could never have brought them to life without Chris and his talent. I highly recommend this man and his ability!
by Ali Mann
We loved working with Chris! His studio is a delight to walk into, amidst the trees of Petaluma. He's got an eclectic mix of instruments adorning the room and better yet, he can play them all. Whatever your musical needs are Chris will be able to take you in the right direction. We recorded our entire album "What Love Can Do" with Chris and are continually pleased with the outcome. He is kind, patient, worldly and extremely talented when it comes to musicianship, engineering and producing. I highly recommend Chris and Rabbit Hole for all of your recording needs.
by Christopher Lods
Chris is just brilliant.
You can listen to his production and engineering skills on my site musicofstratus.com.
His ability to understand my ideas and produce the highest quality of my songs is perfect. He has an amazing ability to offer perfect musical ideas to my projects. Great composer, offering interesting engineering techniques that are quite dynamic.
You can also watch our crazy video production “son of tone monster” on YouTube. Nine episodes of pure fun.
We shot and produced them together in his studio. I’m in front of the camera, but he is the Star.
Christopher Louis Lods

Interview with Chris Vibberts

Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Yes and yes. I'm concerned with creating and capturing sound and music. How it is done is of no concern to me except that the medium certainly influences the course of action, flow, and ultimately the final product. Digital can sound beautiful...and it can sound flat, stale, and cold. Analog can sound rich and gritty...and it can sound noisy, amateurish, and even annoying. They are all tools...sometimes super inspiring tools, but just tools nonetheless. Don't get me wrong...I geek out like mad over analog synths, reamping things through old tube amps, and my Echoplex tape delay, but it is up to the artist and craftsperson to make magic with those tools. Be it a ten thousand dollar vintage Martin acoustic mic'ed with a Neumann U47 or a broken down toy piano with a SM57 on it. It is all about the player and the composition. It is more important to know the tools you have intimately and squeeze the most you can out of them, than to own every shiny new box on the market as soon as it comes out.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: I am constantly inspired by the production genius of folks like Brian Eno, Danger Mouse, Dave Fridmann, Joe Henry, Nigel Godrich, Prince, John Congleton, Daniel Lanois, and Tchad Blake. Producers who take chances, have a unique sound, coax and capture the best performances out of the artists, and are always trying to push the limits and chart new territory. There is such a long list of artists from so many genres that spark my musical flame daily. The current short list? David Bowie, David Byrne, Beatles, Radiohead, Queen, Ravi Shankar, Stars Of the Lid, Of Monsters and Men, OK Go, Kronos Quartet, The National, Marisa Monte, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Santigold, The Magnetic Fields, Pink Floyd, Sufjan Stevens, Caetano Veloso, The New Pornographers, Sigur Rós, Leonard Cohen, Beck, Black Sabbath, Depeche Mode, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Wilco, TV On the Radio, Peter Gabriel, Björk, Death Cab For Cutie, Los de Abajo, Porter, Gary Numan, Henryk Górecki, Beach House, Fela Kuti, Oingo Boingo...oops! Not so short...
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: Being a multi instrumentalist - instrumentation, arrangements, and creating the right tones and sounds to convey the emotions of a song are of high importance to me and my studio reflects that. I have hundreds of instruments, noise makers, and sound manipulators at hand to be able to create the sounds I hear in my head...or to experiment and be able to discover new sounds I never even dreamed of. I have a large collection of analog keyboards: Rhodes, Wurlitzer 200A, Hohner Pianet, Yamha CS15, Roland TR808, Hammond A100, Wurlitzer Compact Organ, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 & Pro 1, ARP Odyssey, Stylophone, Optigan, etc... Guitars and amps, many vintage: '67 Gibson 335, '84 Gibson Les Paul, '67 Fender Coronado II, '55 Martin 00-17, '59 Kay Barney Kessel Pro, Fender Fretless Jazz Bass, '67 EKO Violin Bass, '67 Vox 12 string Tempest XII, '80 Fender Lead II, 50s Fender lap steel, Fender Twin Reverb, 60s Gretsch tube amp, 60s Fender Vibro Champ, 70's Fender Champ, 60s Supro tube amp. Ethnic instruments: Indian sitars, Turkish saz, Turkish zurna, Thai khim, Native American flutes, Brazillian berimbau, Moroccan gimbri, Moroccan qraqeb, Tibetan singing bowls, Indian tabla. Tons of pedals and effects. Vintage drum machines. A huge sounding 1965 red sparkle Ludwig drum set. I love Apple Logic Pro as my DAW. I have been using it for about 15 years now. I use the UAD Apollo 8 as my main interface. I have Neve preamps racks by Dan Alexander that I love. A large mic locker. My studio has one main room that I have the control room set up in as I am often the producer, engineer, and performer! I also have vocal, drum, and amplifier isolation booths. I love great gear, but to me the most important gear is your ears and ability to listen...to the song and to the artist.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: My time is split fairly equally producing and mixing albums for other artists (which sometimes entails co-songwriting and often entails arranging and performing various instruments on the recordings) composing music and creating sound design for film, TV, and commercials.