A studio can be a tremendously unnatural place. To make performers and producers more comfortable, most studios go through all sorts of lame, tired tricks to create “vibe”.
If you’ve spent any time in a studio, you probably know the drill:
Lava lamps.
Incense.
A couple of sad strands of mismatched Christmas lights.
Beaded curtains.
A ratty Persian rug that’s seen far, far better days.
But what if going back in time to 1973 doesn’t excite you? What if all this isn’t “your thing?”
As a performer, you’re probably used to being on stage, under the lights, feeding off the energy of the crowd, inspired by the colors and the mood of the lights shining down on you. But when you get to the studio, you find yourself in front of a microphone, probably wearing headphones, with nary a screaming fan in sight. How can you capture lightning in an acoustic glass-enclosed bottle?
In designing our recording spaces, we asked ourselves: what can we do to make the studio experience more like the experience of being on stage?
Step into ISO 1 or ISO 2 and it’s like you’re walking into a small black box theater. With dark ceilings and long rails of theatrical-style lighting fixtures over your head, these spaces are ready for a show–your show. The two ISOs feature 39 Chauvet SlimPar Hex3 RGBAW+UV fixtures, each of which can produce over 274 trillion different colors.
Got a Christmas masterpiece that needs to be recorded in July? Deck the room out in red and green. Need to sing the Blues? Try a little blue and purple to compliment the mood. Heck, you can work in nothing but black light, too–whatever colors make YOU feel creative.
Our recording spaces feel like a stage. So you can perform like you’re on one.
Plus, over your head in the Control Room, and along the walls and acoustic treatments throughout the main studios, there are over 150 linear feet of RGBW LED pixel strips, controlled by 16 full universes of DMX lighting control (8,192 channels). These individually addressable pixels can display smooth streams of gracefully changing patterns and “scenes”, rather than just solid colors along the whole length of the strip.
Maybe you’re not a “studio rat” and you’d like to let a little of the great outdoors into your session while you’re mixing. Open up the “Skylight” and watch the clouds passing over your head. Feeling festive? Maybe a little “Fireworks” are in order. Ever seen the “Northern Lights”? You can here, from 22 feet below street level.
Do you really, REALLY need a lava lamp to get your creative juices flowing?
