From Empty Room To Finished Record

A Successful Recording Songwriter’s Path to a Productive Home Studio

The feeling of being in a room in perfect silence, not preoccupied with potential mistakes, brings a type of focus that I rarely find on stage. It could be the most meditative experience a music-maker can have if it weren’t for the two very distracting factors: time and money.

I was sixteen the first time I ever set foot in a real recording studio. I was the guitarist for the Colorado Conservatory for Jazz Arts “Messengers” band and we were making an album of student compositions. I was in the main room with the horn section and I vividly remember how good everything sounded in the room. I even remember being surprised at how my talking voice sounded in my own head!

My amp was in an isolated box with a Royer R-121 ribbon mic on it. The engineer told me to turn off my compression pedal so he could compress the signal in mixing. At the time, his statement upset the teenager in me that “knew what his tone was,” but once I heard what an 1176 sounded like, I didn’t care for my BOSS CS-2 anymore. The whole experience fascinated me. Needless to say, I caught a bug that week that I’ll certainly die with: I love recording music!