A Note from Dave

This article is the first in a series of about six studio profiles I have planned to do over the next year. I'm having a look at a variety of home and project studios that serve a variety of needs for their owners. These are studios that all of us might aspire to, in one way or another, and I expect we can all learn from what I manage to find out.

These articles won't be puff pieces, with glossy color set shots of some serene control room with beaming staff hanging around the console. Instead, I'll be looking for things like: what are some really neat cost-cutting details? How did the owner cope with zoning, neighbors, the nearby airport/bird-sanctuarybiker bar? What will the owners tell us was their biggest mistake?

We'll also do some rudimentary costing of these facilities and within reason ask the owners how they're making out. Enjoy!

What's Going On Here

The purpose of these profiles is to give you, the readers of Recording, a batch of information about studios run by people who may be your peers or slightly ahead of you in this game. Mostly, these are project studios built by their owners to service their own production projects and/or musical goals. They are situated in a variety of settings: urban, residential, rural, etc, while their owners have a variety of credits and levels of standing in the business. Mostly, the owners were students of mine at one point or another and I'm happy to take credit for their successes! Also, the sharing of their horror stories may head off some of yours.

Testing, testing . . .

I plan to take the TEF analysis system along when I visit and we'll take some measurements, such as noise floors, RT60s, monitor response curves and the like. I plan to have at least a brief listen to their monitor systems, and I'll share with you what I and they think about it all.

Tweaks, fiddles, 'n kludges

One of my favorite parts of all this is getting the owners to spill the beans about their favorite little design features, which little tricks they tried that really worked out (such as a 6-inch long $4 bass trap, f'rinstance, or the 65 dB studio door they made out of leftover concrete for $11.25), as well as what they did that while seeming sensible at the time turned out to be really major-league stupid.

About bucks, ha, ha, ha

I'm not going to probe very deeply into their business operations - it's a little private, and quite reasonably it is subject to a fair amount of misdirection. I will try to get some idea about costs, and the basics of their financing process, but don't expect them to share profit & loss statements, or what they tell the Feds.

And now for egos

These studios really reflect their owners in a way that major studios usually don't. So, one of the most interesting aspects of this series will be the owners themselves. They are an interesting bunch, hustling away in the business, trying to make great music as well as their way in a tough profession. Hopefully, you'll get to know and like them. May even get to work with them someday. Tell 'em you first read about 'em here.

Avanti!