In January 2003 I opened my dream-come-true studio called The Dream Factory built onto our home. This facility allows me to practice, teach lessons, and record without leaving home. This is a state-of-the-art recording studio where I record the audio for my bands, Pro Drum Tracks (for musician's everywhere!), demos for local bands, and for the CDs included in the instructional books for Hal Leonard Corp. and Cherry Lane Music. The comfortable lounge (for parents during their child's lesson) features cable TV, magazines, a soda vending machine, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for their convienence.

If your band is interested in recording a demo or full CD project at The Dream Factory, please contact me for available times and rates. I also record students' solo & ensemble performances.

The Dream Factory was designed professionally and built to my exact specifications from the ground up as an addition to our home. It features separate heating and A/C from our home and is completely quiet when running with no leakage between the rooms. The doors are 350 pound IAC noise-lock with double magnetic seals and the windows between the rooms are custom made (four panes, 4” apart). The drum room floor, walls, and ceiling are floating which completely isolates it from the rest of the studio (this eliminates vibrations to the other rooms as well as the outside). I insisted on having ample outlets (surface mounted for better wall isolation) on several different circuits. Modern track lighting was also installed (with high wattage dimmers to eliminate hum) for easy mood lighting control. The room dimensions were sent to Auralex Acoustics for professional consultation for the acoustic wall and ceiling treatments to control flutter echo in the rooms and to help obtain an accurate mix in the control room. The studio is also equipped with a monitored security system.

The Gear:
A custom built Intel P4 2.8 GHZ PC running Windows XP Professional (250GB hard drive, 1GB RAM) with dual 19" flat screen monitors in control room, dual 15" flat screens behind drums.
(2) Echo Layla24 digital interfaces
Universal Audio 2-610 2 channel tube mic preamp
Great River MP-2NV 2 channel mic preamp
(2) PreSonus M80 mic preamps
PreSonus DigiMAX LT Eight-Channel mic-preamplifier w/ ADAT Lightpipe Output
PreSonus Digitube mic preamp
(4) Neutrik patchbays
Sony CD player
Sony DAT
Tascam Dual Cassette Player/Recorder
Furman HDS-16 Headphone/Audio Distribution System (musicians have completely separate controlled monitor mixes)
(5) Furman HRM-16 Headphone Remote Stations
PreSonus HP4 Headphone amp
Genelec 1030amp Powered Studio Monitors
Genelec 7060a Powered Subwoofer
Yamaha NS10-M Studio Monitors
(9) IMP2 direct boxes
Countryman 85 DI
(4) AudioTechnica ATHM40FS headphones
AKG K240m headphones
(2) Vic Firth Drummer's Headphones
Akai MPC 1000 Midi sequencer/sampler
DDRUM 3 high speed triggering interface with pressure and position detection, with onboard sampler
DrumKat turbo 2000 v4.5 midi pad/controller
MalletKat Pro with internal sounds
Johnson J-Station

Software:
Steinberg Nuendo
Native Instruments Komplete 5
Drumagog
Soundforge 6.0
Acid Pro 3.0
Tons of plug-ins!

Mics:
(1) Blue Cactus large-diaphragm, multi-pattern tube mic
(1) Blue Kiwi large-diaphragm, multi-pattern condenser mic
(1) Royer R-122 phantom powered ribbon
(3) AKG C414B/ULS large diaphram condensers
(2) Shure SM81 small diaphram condensers
(2) Shure Beta 91 condensers
(1) Shure SM7B dynamic
(2) AKG D112 dynamic
(3) Sennheiser MD421 II dynamic
(3) Sennheiser E604 dynamic
(2) Sennheiser MD409 dynamic
(4) Shure SM57 dynamic
(1) Shure SM58 dynamic
(1) MXL-V69 Mogami edition tube mic
(1) Yamaha Subkick (Low Frequency Capture Device)

Studio entrance

Control room

Control room

Control room

Lesson books

Drum room through control room glass

Another view through control room glass

Noble & Cooley recording kit

Some of my snare drum collection

Noble & Cooley kit overhead

The lesson kit

The practice pad station

Electronic percussion (MalletKat, DrumKat, and PA system)

A view of the drum room from the isolation room

The vocal/ isolation room

Me during the recording of the Guitar Play-along series for Hal Leonard

Doug Boduch recording guitar (and trying to find his place on the music)

Tom McGirr laying down the low end

Warren Wiegratz tracking keys

Engineer Jake Johnson in the mix position (the click master)

The lounge

Another view of the lounge