Sound Off

HIgh Tech Recording Studios let students crank up the volume

By: Keaton Postler

Posted: 2/5/10

Renovations are stil going , but the fourth floor of the Communications/Music complex features two state of the art recording studios, both of which are now fully operational.

In the fall semester of 2008, the new studios were not yet finished, preventing students from gaining access to some of the anticipated new equipment. A year and a half later, the two relocated studios are open to use for all of the university.

The larger studio, Studio B, offers a 1,600 square foot live room complete with ceilings that rise 30 feet high and a $200,000 control room designed by studio designer, George Augspurger. The smaller studio offers five acoustically treated isolation rooms as well as its own separate control room.

Both studios are the same in terms of what they can do. They have the same equipment, the same software, and both can be operated independently of each other. Thus, the choice to use one studio over another is dependent upon the kind of sound that is desired.

The smaller studio, for example, which is wired throughout the entire Communications building, gives musicians the option to record their music in Roussel Hall, with the sound being fed back to the studio’s control room.

The space for the studios became available after administrative changes. Following Hurricane Katrina, the College of Social Sciences disbanded both Broadcast Journalism and Broadcast Production and space on the fourth floor of the building became vacant. The music industry studies program then got control of that space. Jay Crutti, professor of music industry studies and coordinator of technology within the College of Music and Fine Arts, helped put the studio together and is in charge of operating it.

“When I first opened the doors to some of these rooms, they had cobwebs,” Crutti joked. “They looked like they had never been used.”

According to Crutti, a recording studio was on the second floor of the Communications building. In 2007, however, the studio was relocated to the audio production facilities on the fourth floor. Through grant funding, the music industry studies program expanded the facilities to include not only one but two recording studios, each with cutting-edge equipment and state of the art software. The music industry studies program spent $400,000 renovating the studios.

“In terms of square footage, we probably have the largest studio space in the country,” Crutti says.
This past fall, New Grass Country Club, a folk rock band made up of five Loyola students, recorded its new album at the recording studio. New Grass wanted a high-quality album that would help to expand the band’s fan base both inside and outside of the state of Louisiana. In seeking out a studio, New Grass was looking for one that offered great equipment and experienced personnel at the best possible price, band members say.

“The idea to record the album here at school made sense to us because of our close relationship with Noah Adams.” New Grass admits that Adams’s role in the studio had a large part to play in its selection.

Adams, a music industry studies junior, is the president of Vital Sounds, a student-operated company that partially manages the school’s studio as a commercial company.

“Without Noah, we may have recorded somewhere else,” New Grass front man and guitar player Jack Donovan says. “Noah has been to our shows and he knew what kind of sound we wanted.”

Teaming up with Adams, New Grass spread its recording session out over three continuous days, working from approximately 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. each day.

“It was a long process,” Peter Campanelli, who plays mandolin for New Grass, admitted. “You’re stuck in that studio and you start to lose your mind.”

For their next album, the band members say that they will probably shell out more money in return for more professionalism and a lighter atmosphere.

“We were very impressed with the personnel and their professionalism, but another studio would probably know more,” Donovan says.

New Grass bassist Andrew Landry says, “this was probably the best start that we could get. It was a cheap way to get a solid recording, still.”

In the end, the members of New Grass gave the studio their “full endorsement” and would recommend it to musicians who are trying to find a place where they can record their first album.
In addition to bands like New Grass, who used the studio to record a full-length album, teaching assistants, students in the studio courses, and members and apprentices of Vital Sounds are all using the studio on a regular basis. But the entire Loyola community is allowed to access the studio, either by taking studio classes or by hiring the studio for a project.

According to Crutti, Vital Sounds, the student-run company, also hires apprentices who are interested in learning about engineering.

“There is an apprenticeship program for people who want to learn the engineering craft and be employed on commercial projects that come in,” Crutti says. “Anyone can apply to be an apprentice with the studio.”

Addionally, The studio offers discounts to university students in the New Orleans area as well as all of the faculty, staff, and alumni of Loyola.

The additions to the studio are in no way complete and, according to Crutti, probably will not be for a long time. The music industry program filed for state tax credit, so they will continue to receive regular checks. And with that money, they will be able to update the studio.

In the future, they plan to pull up the carpet in Studio B in order to put down some wooden floors, and they also intend to close off a section of Studio B to turn it into an isolation room.

In the less immediate future, they hope to wire both studios together so that students can record in both at the same time. They also hope to wire the studio up to Nunemaker Hall so that they can also record sound from there. Lastly, they even want to wire the studio into the radio station so that they can record and feed the audio straight into the radio station.

“In about ten years,” Crutti says, “these studios will be really advanced.”