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Surrounded by a console at Ardent Studios that resembles an ocean of knobs and switches, producer paul Ebersold is focused on a flat screen monitor, from which he conducts a symphony by Skillet, a rock band on the Ardent label.
First comes a cello and viola figure and then - with a mouseclick - surges a crunching chord progression from a heavily distorted guitar that sounds like a roomful. Ebersold clicks again and now a single guitar figure leads a full string section, the third of several movements that Ebersold and the band will hammer into something radio-ready.
"This isnt anything like what it's going to sound like," he says before stepping into a neighboring conference room.
There, any notion that Ebersold inhabits the realm of the up-allnight, drug-fueled studio hacks of the 1970s is extinguished by the presence of a pair of baby carriages and several plastic toys. Ardent gets its share of walk-in guests, but they tend to be of the family and friend variety, rather than groupies and revelers. "It's the new rock studio," Ebersold jokes.
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