Room and Boards: Ferndale's Home Recording Studios (Part 1)
Ferndale Patch takes a tour of Ferndale's home recording studios of some of the city's local musicians.
Whatever method. Whatever works.
"There's a science to it," said local band Computer Perfection's Gene Corduroy, traipsing delicately through his basement studio, over vintage synthesizers and around a handful of "broken" organs. "I understand that science. But I understand, more, what my ears are telling me."
Chad Thompson reflects on his own basement studio.
"There's so many things, so many variables," said Thompson. "Whatever works, that's my philosophy."
Welcome to the subterranean soundproofed cellars of the all-to-hip city of Ferndale. These Ferndale DIY-audio engineers may be a breed onto themselves. They're bewitched, almost with a reverent, and some might say romantic, fixation with music. And both Thompson and Corduroy have recorded their share of songs in their basement studios.
Over the last decade, the recording industry has seen a substantial shift by audio engineers from analog to digital equipment, from recording to reel-to-reel tape decks to digital workstations, i.e. computers. Yet, mixing songs on a computer has made recording and mixing music accessible to nearly every budding musician.
"A lot of engineers are pissed off about digital and people being able to do most things at home," Thompson said.
Though Thompson said that a lot of bands still stick with an analog 4-track recorder, eventually, they'd need to go beyond that.
"You run out of options after a while and you want to do more, to upgrade microphones, equipment," Thompson said.
Thompson began "upgrading" after he and his brother Keith's band Johnny Headband went through mixing sessions at Detroit's White Room studio for their debut album. His set up began to transition (along with his residencies from Royal Oak to Farmington to Walled Lake back to Royal Oak and finally to Ferndale).
And so what began with a 4-track recorder became an elaborate sound laboratory and the primary means for demoing Johnny Headband songs.
For Corduroy, it's not about the equipment; it's about the song.
"I'm totally not a purist or nerd about digital-versus-analog," Corduroy said. "Lots of basement-recording enthusiasts are tape-only, or analog-only. I'm just not a gear-geek. I care more about the songs, in fact I probably spend more time on the songs than I do thinking about how they're recorded."
How Corduroy -- and collaborator and fellow Computer Perfection band mate Nathaniel Burgundy -- has recorded their songs in the past includes capturing the ambience of vocals in their hallway or drumming in the dining room.
Corduroy and his wife, as well as Computer Perfection singer, Bem moved to Ferndale four years ago. "It was the first thing I did when we moved in - we didn't even have pots and pans and I already had my studio computer already set up," Corduroy said.
One of the best parts of setting up your own studio - it becomes your own world, an escape - a meditative place from which you can shut out the rest of the world.
"I don't want to feel like I'm in a basement," Corduroy said, nodding to the Christmas-tree lighting, the construction-paper cutouts of Hobbit characters and the casual, cluttery spill of the instruments. "I can't write, I can't get into that stuff, unless my environment feels right to me."
Room and Boards: Ferndale's Home Recording Studios (Part 2)
Ferndale Patch talks to local musicians about building out their own home recording studios.
Ferndale's home recording engineers will go to great lengths to establish their set up, whether it means nearly getting crushed by hanging drywall slabs or building an entire garage-sized structure from the ground up -- all for music.
The idea is to build a room within a room,soundproofing a space -- be it a basement, garage or even an attic.
"I can spend the whole day in here and I won't hear a single sound," said sound engineer Robert Buxton and member of the Ferndale-based psyche-blues quartet.
Walking inside the Rue Moor Counts' studio in Ferndale, it's quiet and you forget you're actually in the middle of Ferndale.
The boys in the band hung drywall on each side of the ceiling to reach optimal sound results, keeping out unwanted noises -- suburban traffic, neighbor's TV sets, and to control the reverberation of the instrument inside this room.
The group has been recording a new album as well as welcoming guests like Toronto's Speaking Tongues to utilize the space and equipment.
Meanwhile, in Scotty Iulianelli's (of Bars of Gold and Crappy Future) room within a room, he lifts away a small slab of drywall to show a nearly 12-inch gap between his actual basement wall and sound studio wall.
He also installed a line of seven electrical outlets for guitar amps into the wall with chords snaked, invisibly, up through the ceiling and back to his control room.
"That wall wasn't there when we moved in," Iulianelli said, pointing towards the booth, complete with a beveled glass window that houses his computers and vintage audio paraphernalia.
How did he do this?
"Dude," he said with a grin, "friends!"
Buxton also used familiar faces to help with Rue Moor Counts' studio. "Our dad's and various family members came out to help. We built this entire space from the ground up," he said.
"It was an experience, man," Buxton says, smiling in relief and reflection at the year's worth of steady work it took building their studio. "We know we'll always be making music together, that's what we love doing, but we also love helping other people make their music. I learn so much from other people."
Buxton started recording music on a 16-track reel-to-reel tape recorder out of a makeshift studio inside his grandfather's Pontiac car lot, where he worked as a mechanic through the early 2000s.
When Buxton and the band got to Ferndale, they were looking to set up inside a garage. The only catch was the best deal they found didn't come with one. Band member Nate Rivard said to Buxton: "Well, we'll build one in the back, just give us a year to save up the money."
Buxton said he was "overwhelmed" by the support and enthusiasm of his band mates -- he says he considers them brothers. Rivard and Buxton are skilled in carpentry and have had experience in construction. With their family members coming out to help as well as a visit from an electrician friend, the dream was visualized -- of course not without an excruciating day's worth of hauling 70 sheets of drywall, each weighing 80 pounds.
Buxton's space has slanted drywall and box-frames of sound foam, wrapped in burlap to control echo to sound proof his space.
Iulianelli, who got help from Bars of Gold's crafty singer Marc Paffi in sound proofing the studio, created acoustical treatments in the form of 3 inch by 2 inch framed boxes housing a galaxy of wood slants. These are to keep the room sounding natural but to absorb and diffuse it, taking away any "clang" sound, Iulianelli said.
"As soon as we bought this house," Iulianelli said, "first thing's first: where do I put all the things, the knobs, the buttons, keys and speakers (for the studio)."
Before the studio in Ferndale, though, he had a much more DIY-feel years back in his Highland, MI, home, with 8-foot cubicle walls salvaged from a closed Dentist's office. "Kinda like building a fort out of your couch cushions, I guess," he said.
Now, things are more high-tech. His control booth has its own green screen, too, for live web casting of friends transplanted to far off lands - and he can even do live streaming video and audio of the band's work via UStream.
"It's funny what you can do with your cell phone," Iulianelli said. He can even raise and lower the volume and fader levels on his Mac computer's Pro Tools digital soundboard with his Smartphone from 12 feet away over by the drum kit.
The Rue Moor Counts continue putting the finishing touches on their space while they continue work on a forthcoming LP.
Crappy Future continues to post singles on their bandcamp, while Bars of Gold look to settle down to serious studio work after the New Year.
Read Part 1 to our stories on home recording studios in Ferndale here.
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