Human life is not, and should not be, easy.
But if you’ve played your cards right, certain things will be made easy, in order that the unavoidable difficulties which stand in your way might spur you towards ever greater challenges. You and you alone will decide which fences will be climbed, which rules will be broken, and which conventions will be disrespected, in order that the rest of us mortals may benefit from your labours!
This is my studio. I work with lots of people, but in the end the place is very much a reflection of my ideas about human life (and the work that humans do), and that’s why I’m telling you all this.
A recording studio is a place where people go to be creative, whether what they’re creating is for personal or strictly commercial purposes. Most of what we do here is music, or sometimes it’s sound for films and videos, voiceovers, sound effects, that sort of thing; the process is pretty much the same. Most recording studios fall into one of two categories: either they’re very personal, often in cellars, with a bunch of equipment standing in a room and tons of vibe, or they’re sterile, factory-like institutions, designed by architects, with carefully chosen equipment and emphasis on theory rather than vibe. FSS is neither and both.
I made this studio with my bare hands (sure, power tools, too). I chose the space and built the walls based on a single idea: a studio should be friendly and comfortable, congenial and full of good atmosphere, but must be designed and built to professional standards and with professional results in mind.
Why go into a studio at all, you ask? You work so hard to create a “homey” feeling at your studio, why shouldn’t I just spend my hard earned money on some recording gear, and then do it all for free at home? Those are valid questions, and the answers are simple.
Here are my FIVE REASONS WHY you should book studio time:
- 1. These rooms are purpose designed and built for sound. A better sounding room means better sounding recordings.
- 2. There are lots of ways of doing things, but there is nothing which compares to living humans making art together in rooms that were made for the purpose.
- 3. You probably spent as much as you could afford on your musical instrument, or your musical (acting, writing, producer’s, etc…) training. But you go to the computer shop and someone convinces you that THIS AMAZINGLY CHEAP little box is JUST AS GOOD as what the big guys use! I’m very sorry, but you’ve been led down the garden path.
- 4. You make the art, I press the buttons.
- 5. Your mom is not going to come here and tell you to keep it down.
By all means buy that cheap computer interface and a couple of microphones, and use them to to prepare yourself for the real thing. But when the time comes to make it count, there has never been a better facility than the professional recording studio, and there never will be. It’s a place where you can go to realise your musical dreams, where you don’t need to worry about technical details, because somebody (me) has made sure that that all those preamps are phase accurate, and somebody (me) is constantly testing and maintaining and improving the equipment and someone (me) cares enough about the things that you shouldn’t have to care about, and ABOVE ALL: someone (me) wants you to ENJOY doing what you do best, in a world that is rife with ENOUGH obstacles to making art.
This, my friends, is the spirit which guides me.
There is at least one important difference between Freeborn Sound Studio and all those other studios out there:
Here, your well-being is considered your most important inspiration.
I think you’ll agree: the studio should not stand in the way of your vision. That’s why I have given my best to create an environment where you’ll feel at home, but where you will have every faith that your professional needs are met- day in, day out.
That’s it, in a nutshell.