Customer
Almost Islanders and Sungrown Studios
Event
Trianna Feruza & The Heavy Hitters’ debut album
Products
LAMA Connect Cloud and Pro
Key Numbers
2 Studios, Over 50 audio tracks used in the final mix session, Multiple instances of demanding plugins on bare-metal cloud server via LAMA Connect
Overview
Almost Islanders, led by Troy Nadeau, and Sungrown Studios, led by Nick Tio, pushed this idea further by connecting two home studios using LAMA Connect. By joining their spaces and resources, they created a powerful and flexible recording environment that could compete with top-tier commercial studios.
Their collaboration on Trianna Feruza & The Heavy Hitters’ debut album showcases what is possible when innovation meets creativity.
The Challenge
Capturing a full-band performance usually demands a large studio space with multiple isolation rooms, a luxury that is becoming harder to afford. Home studios work well for solo tracking or overdubs, but they are rarely equipped to handle live sessions with multiple musicians playing together.
Troy and Nick needed a solution that would let them track an entire rhythm section and add guitars and vocals in real time, even though they were in two different locations. They wanted the musicians to interact naturally, preserving the energy and chemistry that can easily be lost when tracking separately.
Maintaining the energy of a live performance while working remotely was the biggest challenge they faced.
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- Troy Nadeau, Almost Islanders
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- Nick Tio, Sungrown Studios
Solution
Using LAMA Connect, Almost Islanders and Sungrown Studios combined their two recording environments into a single, powerful system. The two studios ran LAMA Connect Pro and used NDI Bridge to stream audio between them over the internet, with 24 to 30 milliseconds of latency between locations. For example, from the drums at Sungrown Studios to the vocals at Almost Islanders. This setup worked well for the players and preserved the feel of a live session. The system relied on LAMA NDI Sender and Receiver nodes, which support up to 256 audio tracks per stream, or 255 when using NDI Bridge.
This approach preserved the energy of a group session while avoiding typical problems like drum bleed and phase issues. It allowed the musicians to perform naturally, reacting to each other’s dynamics and timing, despite being physically separated.
The Setup
Sungrown Studios – Rhythm Section Hub
Nick’s studio was equipped with a Craviotto Custom Drum Set and a space optimized for rhythm tracking. It served as the live room for drums and bass. The drummer and bassist played together to a click track while their performance was streamed live via LAMA Connect.
Almost Islanders Music – Overdubs and Isolation
Troy’s studio had two isolation rooms, perfect for recording guitars and vocals while monitoring the live rhythm section in real time. Thanks to LAMA Connect’s low-latency link, guitar and vocal parts could be laid down with full awareness of the live groove and timing, allowing for authentic musical interaction.
Hybrid Mixing with LAMA Connect Cloud
To mix the album, they deployed a bare-metal server hosted in San Jose and installed their DAW and plugins directly onto it. LAMA Connect Cloud gave them real-time access to this high-performance system, making it possible to use over 50 tracks and multiple heavy plugin chains without slowdown.
After each take, semi-mixed playback was streamed back to both studios, allowing artists to hear enhanced versions of their performances. This playback came with a delay of about five seconds, caused mainly by the heavy DSP processing and complex plugin chains running on the bare-metal server. For the artists, it was worth it. Hearing their parts already shaped and processed helped maintain the energy and keep the creative flow moving.
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- Main room
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- Drum room
The Result
The collaboration between Almost Islanders and Sungrown Studios proved that distance does not have to limit creativity. Thanks to LAMA Connect, they were able to record a full band across two locations, while keeping the natural energy and interaction of a live performance.
The cloud-based mixing workflow gave them access to massive processing power without the financial burden of traditional studio sessions. They pushed their mix sessions further than ever before, layering more than 50 channels, using complex plugin chains, and still maintaining lightning-fast responsiveness.
Artists were able to hear themselves in near real time with a semi-mixed playback, keeping the creative momentum alive throughout the recording process. Even more importantly, the finished album captured the warmth, authenticity, and live feel that modern production often struggles to achieve.
Final Thoughts
By embracing LAMA Connect, Almost Islanders and Sungrown Studios transformed their independent setups into a unified, powerful, and flexible production environment.
They showed that with creativity and the right technology, musicians and engineers are no longer limited by geography or studio size. Instead, they can collaborate freely, share resources, and produce professional-grade work that stands alongside the best in the industry.
Thanks to Almost Islanders and Sungrown Studios.
The first album of Trianna Feruza and The Heavy Hitters is released.
“LAMA Connect allows me to treat every other LAMA Connect user like an extension of my own facility and vice versa. Removing physical constraints and sharing resources with seamless ease.”
— Troy Nadeau, Almost Islanders