My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[silky smoove]

That sounds familiar, what was the name of the band? Kevin is fantastic at that style of vocal.

Vigilante Justice. I was the original bassist and later the drummer. Kevin was the guy on lead vocals for the band's entire run. The whole project is retired now that the band leader has relocated to Vegas, but I still see Kevin somewhat regularly. Great guy. He officiated my wedding!

Chapel or Rice?

Rice

 

[Packard Goose]

Vigilante Justice. I was the original bassist and later the drummer. Kevin was the guy on lead vocals for the band's entire run. The whole project is retired now that the band leader has relocated to Vegas, but I still see Kevin somewhat regularly. Great guy. He officiated my wedding!


Rice

Kevin is a good dude. He hooked me up with a deal on a set of Tbird pickups for a P with T-birds build I did a couple years ago, and recently rewired a G&L pickup for me for a special build I’m doing.

I haven’t seen Kyle in ages, but we were in a couple bands together 20+ years ago now where he was on bass and I played keys. First one was called Kuato, which then morphed into something called Superchief.

 

[silky smoove]

Kevin is a good dude. He hooked me up with a deal on a set of Tbird pickups for a P with T-birds build I did a couple years ago, and recently rewired a G&L pickup for me for a special build I’m doing.

I haven’t seen Kyle in ages, but we were in a couple bands together 20+ years ago now where he was on bass and I played keys. First one was called Kuato, which then morphed into something called Superchief.

Super small world indeed!

 

[Gopherbassist]

Super small world indeed!

Last I saw there was a pretty significant water leak, has that been resolved?

Also, in the last 10 years there has been a lot of progress in what one can achieve recording at home in a bedroom. Has that affected the studio? Ten years on, does it still feel like a worthwhile investment?

 

[silky smoove]

Last I saw there was a pretty significant water leak, has that been resolved?

I missed this one. The leak was resolved in 2017 as part of the construction process. The building contractor put in a door that met my specs (fiberglass, full lite, etc.) but did an absolutely horrendous job installing it. They came out, removed the door, did what they considered to be a repair, only for it to leak again in exactly the same way. After a particularly heated phone call with one of their representatives, I went out and got a quote from a quality local door company to remove the current door, provide a new one and to do the install along with providing the warranty, as well as a quote from the painter to come back and redo any work that was necessary upon removing and replacing the door. I sent both of the quotes to the representative I was previously yelling at (not quite yelling, but close) and told him to refund me the combined amount and I would go away and remove them from warranty responsibility on the door. He must have been tired of dealing with me because he agreed straight away. The replaced door is still there and working great.

Also, in the last 10 years there has been a lot of progress in what one can achieve recording at home in a bedroom. Has that affected the studio? Ten years on, does it still feel like a worthwhile investment?

I would argue that all of the substantive advancements that allowed for home recording to be (somewhat) on par with commercial studio recording was achieved a lot longer than 10 years ago. The biggest aspect that will not change with technology is the sound of a room. A great sounding room gets printed onto every track recorded with a microphone inside of it. There are very few great sounding bedrooms, though I'm sure they exist. That's not to say you can't get great room tone from a bedroom, but generally as room size decreases your options for how you utilize room tone or what options you have available greatly diminishes. My room sounds fantastic, but even it can be outpaced by larger rooms when recording certain sources, most notably drums.

The use case for my studio has gone through several changes since I opened it for business in 2018. When I started out, I was taking any job that wanted to hire me. My first commercial job was to do a John Carpenter inspired soundtrack for a horror film. Super fun. After that I had a few bands come through that were great experiences, a couple that were pretty middling experiences, and one that was frankly quite a bad time for everyone involved. A year later I booked a job to record a woman doing the voice actor work for a series of workplace harassment training seminar teaching materials. It was agonizing despite paying well. I've since refined my approach for the studio. I'm in the enviable position of owning a studio but not needing it as my source of income, which allows me to be as choosy with projects as I want to be. These days if a project sounds bad, I'm not going to be the one to make it sound good. If it's uninteresting, or I don't like the material, or I don't get along with the personnel, which is rare, then I won't take the job. If I'm interested in doing it but it's going to blow up my schedule to get it done, I probably won't take the job. For now I just do cool stuff in various capacities on a schedule determined entirely by me. Sometimes I'm a session bassist or drummer. Sometimes I'm a recording engineer. Sometimes I'm a mix engineer. Sometimes I'm a mastering engineer. Sometimes all of the above. I've recently done work with people local to Seattle, semi-local to Washington, and spread out as far as LA, Las Vegas, Manchester and Melbourne. I'm mid-production on an indie pop record, I'm working on mixes for a record of lute music where I was also the recording engineer, I'm mixing and mastering singles for a blues rock plus bari sax band, and I'm about to start mixing a Breton record where I was the session bassist and will probably also be the mastering engineer. Beyond that...? No idea, but more work always presents itself.

 

[Wood and Wire]

My first commercial job was to do a John Carpenter inspired soundtrack for a horror film.

This I need to hear.


(also, I can't imagine that one utilised much room tone....?)

 

[Gopherbassist]

A year later I booked a job to record a woman doing the voice actor work for a series of workplace harassment training seminar teaching materials. It was agonizing despite paying well.

These are also miserable when you're the employee who has to sit and listen to them.

 

[silky smoove]

This I need to hear.


(also, I can't imagine that one utilised much room tone....?)

I would love to share this one, but the film's creator decided to shelve the project prior to releasing it, or at least that's what I think happened. He reached out to me a year or two after completion for some files, which I provided but then things went silent. I asked him about it a couple years ago and have gotten nothing in response. We follow each other on IG and it appears that he's moved on to other projects without releasing that one. All of that said, I make a point to not share material done in my studio prior to the owner releasing it on their own. If I ever want to share it without him having released it, I'll only do it with his permission.

As for room tone, there was quite a bit. It was definitely John Carpenter inspired but not a direct lift. There were live drums, guitar, bass, percussion, etc. on some tracks. Some were just layers of synths direct to my former Apogee interfaces with no recorded room sound, but some of it was full band instrumental material and you can definitely hear the room on it. His drummer bailed on him the morning of the session and he showed up without a plan for how to handle that. Fortunately I'm a good session drummer and offered to engineer and drum on the record. The tunes were super simple and we knocked them out in two days of work.

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

These are also miserable when you're the employee who has to sit and listen to them.

Mr Memes on Instagram: "You must complete the HR mandatory safety training” Me: 😅😅 Toy Story is an animated movie released in 1995 by Pixar and Disney. It follows a group of toys that secretly come to life when humans aren’t around. The story cent

mrmemes2.0 on January 17, 2026: "You must complete the HR mandatory safety training” Me: 😅😅 Toy Story is an animated movie released in 1995 by Pixar and Disney. It follows a group of toys that secretly come to life when humans aren’t around. The story centers on Woody, a cowboy doll who has...

www.instagram.com

 

[silky smoove]

These are also miserable when you're the employee who has to sit and listen to them.

I had the same thought having sat through a few. Now imagine multiple takes of each section and being the one to do all the comps and edits.

 

[silky smoove]

For anyone still following my old thread, which is now eleven years old (crazy), I've got a new single out from my indie pop group, Phone Number Friends. Kind of a yacht rock inspired piece. Check it out if you're feeling yacht'y.