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Tony started his professional career in the music industry in 1980 at the age of 16 years old. Playing drums since the age of 3 Tony had been pounding on his dad’s 1948 Radio King drum set that was a fixture in the basement of his Queens, NY home! Not only was Tony’s dad a professional musician but his grandfather and his great grandfather back in Italy were as well. It seems that music was Tony’s destiny. With so many musicians in the family, Tony’s listening palette was broad and wide! Opera and Big band jazz were the main stays on the turntables back then. As was the Beatles, Bee Gee’s, James Taylor and all the pop artists of the day. One influential film Tony remembers was “The Glenn Miller Story”. In the story “Glenn” is searching for that “sound”. Tony’s Mom would often refer to this, as Tony would come up from the basement looking for that “sound” on his drums - bewildered as to how the drums sounded so big and fat on the records. The quest was on for the “Holiest of Grails” a great drum sound! As time passed, Tony went on to work in the Studio and Live concerts with the likes of Phil Ramone, Diane Warren, Amy Grant, Donna Summer, Roberta Flack, Paul Taylor, Discrete Drums Loop Series, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Toby Mac, Keith Thomas, Kip Winger, Bruce Springsteen, Fabrizio Grossi, Many Albums for “Frontier Records”, Cindy Bradley, Jay Soto, Stephanie Smith, Ayeisha Woods, Rebecca Saint James, Britt Nicole, Michael Whalen, Stevie B, Sweet Sensation, Kathy Troccoli, Regie Hamm, Crystal Lewis, Avalon, Twila Paris, John Elefante, Rebecca Saint James, Van Zandt, AJ Croce and on. His career has taken him from NYC to LA to his current residence in Franklin, TN. (A quaint city 14 miles outside of Music Row in downtown Nashville.) Tony is a successful session drummer and producer in Nashville. After years of touring, he had the good fortune to get into the session scene in town. The scene was healthy but still changing. Session work was going through some severe changes due to budgets and technical changes. After an encounter with LA session musician J.R Robinson, Tony was convinced that the future of tracking was going to be done in the home. Now for a gtr track or vocal overdub maybe so, but drums? Here we go again searching for that “sound” in a 25 x 25 Garage built for storing cars and gardening equipment not killer drum sounds. With much investigation and a great builder with vision, they turned the Garage and Utility room into what now is one of the busiest drum tracking rooms in town. For 17 years now Tony Morra has been tracking drums for demos, custom records, indie projects. Sounds about right, but NO! There’s more! ( Billy Mayes moment) Tony is tracking drums for Masters, Television, Film, Loop Libraries, Video Games you hear on TV, Gaming systems and on radio everyday. Tony is one of the leaders in home recording through the Internet since it was possible to do so! He has been a beta tester for many online programs that make it easier to do sessions in real time. What was thought to be a little drum room for some extra work has turned into a livelihood. Tony’s clients span the world! These sessions are done at his home with the sounds rivaling those done in the largest and most expensive studios,which Tony loves playing in, although that is getting less and less these days with the Home recording “buzz”. A big part of Tony’s career was happening when he thought he had no career! In between gigs and tours in NY when work was lean, Tony would find work as an assistant engineer at jingle studios for jingle writer friends of his. He would also get to play live drums for them from time to time, but this was when the industry was moving to drum machines and loops. These experiences, which he took for granted in that he was just “collecting a check when gigs were slow”, gave him a wealth of knowledge of the recording industry and working with midi and sequencers. Mind you this is before Pro Tools! All editing was done with a razor and a prayer. Oh and he knows how to align a tape machine! That knowledge has paid huge dividends in that beyond being an accomplished musician, he is an accomplished tracking engineer. Still Tony will bring in Top Nashville engineers to help dial in new sounds and experiment with gear. His room is outfitted with the best gear there is, Daking, API, GML, Avalon, TL Audio, DBX 160’s, Distressors, Telefunken Pre’s, vintage Orbans and so on! The mics are no joke; Neumann U47, AKG’s, Audio Technica, KM 184’s, modified Ribbons………and a ProTools HDX system. It’s a new world and a new frontier in recording. Tony’s embracing it! Using what’s available to make the finest quality Drum Tracks available for those who might never have been able to afford to do so and for those where budget is not even a concern. Like Glenn Miller, looks like “T MO” Found “That Sound.”
Setup Cymbals
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Details
Sizes: 18", 19", 20"
Volume: Medium
Weight: Heavy
Sound character: Bright, explosive, full, sparkling, warm. Wide frequency range, fairly clean mix. Even, giving feel with a powerful attack, sharp response and a nice sparkling fade. A strong, full, durable and cutting crash with radiant sound.
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Details
Sizes: 20", 21"
Volume: Medium
Weight: Medium
Sound character: Dry, rich, silky, strong. Medium range, fairly complex mix. Very controllable and fairly dry feel. Silvery ping over rather short sustained and dusty wash. Ideally suited for articulated and precise playing in most musical styles such as R&B, Funk, Pop and Country.
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Details
Sizes: 16", 17", 18", 19"
Volume: Medium
Weight: Light
Sound character: Dark body, full frequency spectrum, brilliant highs. Very wide range, complex, pleasing musical mix. Immediate, sensitive response, strong attack, controllable spread, even, layered fade. This crash combines silky, soft qualities with energy and projection for an incredibly versatile application range. Also extremely well suited as suspended cymbals and for mallet rolls.
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Details
Sizes: 16", 17", 18", 19", 20"
Volume: Medium
Weight: Light
Sound character: Dark, warm, smoky. Medium wide range, complex mix. Buttery, soft feel with quick response. Rich, dark, mystical crash sound with tender clarity. Extremely lively cymbal for broad accents and crashes in intimate to semi-loud settings. Well suited for delicate ride patterns or mallet swells. «For those guys who really appreciate just having a cymbal that can do everything, the larger Dark Crashes can do anything. Very crash-able, and if you want to ride on them, they will give you all the ride patterns in the world.» - Gregory Hutchinson
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Details
Sizes: 14", 15"
Volume: Soft
Weight: Medium
Sound character: Dark, full, soft, multi-layered. Medium wide range, complex mix. Soft, responsive feel. Velvety sizzling open sound. Rich, dark chick sound. A sensitive hi-hat perfectly suited for light to medium heavy use within Jazz, Blues, Country and other acoustic music styles.
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