About myself & the studio:

I built this studio in 2001 when I was forced to stop playing live (I'm a drummer) after a car accident that nearly finished me off. I've been producing my own recordings since I was a teenager in high school and opened my first studio right after I graduated in 1990 where I began producing records for bands & artists. Although the studio was small and I was in a basement it did very well until the mid 90's when everything went digital adat and I couldn't afford to upgrade and closed. I started running live sound and playing in bands until June of 2000 when I was hit by a drunk driver coming home from a gig. It took nearly two years to recover and there was alot of time to plan and build the Rec. Room Studio.

Alot of things have changed through the years. I constantly upgrade the studio to keep current with todays Digital recording and also hold on to the art of analog recording. There used to be a time when engineering and recording audio was an art form in itself and the mix was custom designed for the music with the artist. Todays cut, copy & paste.... simulated.... emulated & sampled audio strips music of its human aspects and created an entire generation of half-ass lazy musicians. I "DO NOT" use presets of any kind!! That's known as the "mix in a can" and comes from engineers using the same settings on everything they record. Hell.... alot of engineers actually make artists & bands use house instruments, drums & amps so they never have to change their canned settings!! That's not engineering, that's re-recording the same thing over & over again. It's even worse when 10 different bands of the same genre go to the same place to record and get identical, not similar, but identical recordings. I'm amazed at the fact that noone seems to notice, or care. It seems to me the only concern is being the band that does it better.

The abuse of todays digital "shit shining" with computers has gone too far in my opinion. It's turned the art of recording into something more like shopping for clothes with everyone wearing the same shit.......... Need a visual? .......... I hear the exact same drum samples, guitar & bass simulator settings....etc. on every recording of completely different genres of bands as if they were coming off of the assembly line. Whatever happened to origionality?

There are however real bands out there and that's what I love to have walking into my studio. If you are wondering what I mean by that I'll explain....... The difference between a real artist, and an idiot musician is simply this.....

"A real artist walks in knowing what's going to happen.... An idiot musician walks in and asks what's going to happen".

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I'm not the type to sit on the other side of the glass and let you record an entire record out of tune and put my thumb up every time you ask how it's going. When I'm recording a band or artist I listen for pitch, tuning, timing & tone only.... the music is entirely up to the artist and I stay out of it. That's how I am as an engineer......

When I'm asked to produce a record with a band or artist I'm kind of a prick!! That's what I've heard anyway. If you ask me what I think you will get an honest answer........ regardless. If you don't know how to play your instrument and ask me why it doesn't sound good I will tell you that you don't know how to play your instrument. 80% of what's on your recording comes from you, the artist. If you walk in to the studio and you don't even know your own music well enough to record you are a retard!! Your recording will take longer, cost more money & make it alot more stressful to finish a record that might not even turn out good regardless of time & money spent. Your writing, arrangement, preporation & rehearsal of your material along with your performance in the studio accompanied with the experience of the engineer / producer is what makes a great recording.

It's all about Pitch, tuning, timing & tone.....

Cliff