Hit the studio, cause I'm paid in full...

"Your horoscope is telling you to invest in something small and absurd. Like a recording studio."

- Advice from Chrispy to Misanthrope -

Absurd indeed. Count it amongst the few things we can all agree on, nothing is more absurd than owning a recording studio.

Since my humble beginnings in Munich Germany back in 1964, I have had the pleasure of being a partner in four multi-track recording studios. The first one was an analog eight track room called The Coal Mine, so named on account of the control room being located in the old coal room of my parents basement in West Point, NY.

Once I made the move to Georgia, I re-partnered up with my old friend Brain and couple of other guys in their rented house. We operated a 16 track (Tascam 38 locked to a Fostex Model 80) room called The Mountain Home. With four guys worth of gear, this place was slammin'. What we didn't have we impulsively went out and maxed a credit card to get. Ah, those were the days.

The third was the unnamed studio that was never to be. It was the one we were constructing in Brian's basement before he died. That sucked.

When my wife and I decided to build a house, she'd bring home many drawings of the models the company she worked for at the time were building in the area. While she weighed the finer aspects of square footage and the need (or not) for a formal living room, all I really cared about was what the basement was going to look like. It was there that I was going to build my own studio.

Work began almost as soon as we moved in. I finished out the basement entirely on my own with the help of only Mrs. Alva and my six foot tall sister whose height came in handy while hanging 12' sheets of drywall on the ceiling. (Lesson one: Like cockroaches when the lights are flicked on in your kitchen, so goes your friends when it comes to help on a project like this. Make sure you're prepared to do it all on your own). Alas the results gave birth to Grey Cat Sound, co-named for me (my hair had gone this sexy color by my mid twenties), and my beloved gray tom cat that used to hangout many a late night at the Coal Mine critiquing mixes and eating Doritos that would get dropped on the floor. Mrs. Alva suggested the "Grey" spelling since it sounded snootier.


Grey Cat was indeed a labor of love, but by it's completion my life had already begun to change. Same was true for my many music friends who went on to get degrees, get married, have kids, take on careers, etc... Not much more than some of my own tinkering got recorded, some remixing of some historically recorded stuff perhaps. Good fortune came my way with runaway market speculation during the dot com boom and I was able to make some pretty nice upgrades since first unpacking the old gear. I've added some nice pieces from time to time up to it's current outfit.

Since the re-outfitting, I've really only had three or four big projects: a Christian Rock record that Jackson and Chrispy helped with, another in similar vain, and some work I've done with a local singer song writer. With all that I have going on in my life, the place is severely under utilized and I'm determined to change that. I love recording music and don't get to do it enough. I’ve got some spare time available to take on some projects with my center closing at the end of this year. As you can tell with the whole blogging thing, time is not in short supply.

Any ideas on how to get some spec work in the door? I am opening Grey Cat up to anybody who'd like to do a project. Anyone you know who might want to try their hand at putting together a recording of some sort send them my way. Can put up guests if required.

Vital stats on the studio are:

Tascam 32x8x2 3500 series console, Alesis HD24 Harddisc recorder, 24 track ADAT Blackface, Tascam MS-16 1” analog tape machine w/Dbx NR, Tannoy and NS-10M monitors, Focusrite ISA preamp, Neumann mic, and Studio Projects C1’s, and much more.

May add a DAW if project warrants it.

It’s a pretty big recording space too, with a hardwood floor for drums (have an in-house kit), and multiple rooms for isolation.

If you know of anyone who’d be interested by all means pass my info to them and have them contact me. I loved to do a project in which we tracked to the 16 track analog machine. That would just simply be da bomb.