Photo
A shot of the studio, Roxy Recorders, in its early days. It started off with the simple goal to build a separate control room off the rehearsal space but mushroomed into a ten-month project consuming all my spare time. The control room was built as a box-within-a-box, floating on 90 neoprene vibration isolators with heavy double doors and double plate glass. You can just barely see the Steinway baby grand through the window and the vocal booth beyond.

After the picture was taken for Mix Magazine, I upgraded to a 2" machine, a 24-in console, several synths and lots of digital toys. The studio did well, recording for artists like Scandal w/Patty Smythe, Kenny Burrell, David Sanborn, Tony Williams, Diane Keaton and others. We also worked with composer Wendy Carlos for the Disney movie, Tron, which was partially responsible firing up my early interest in computers.

While we worked with the occasional celeb, our meat and potatos were industrials, songwriter demos and local bands. Unfortunately, by the late 80s the quality of home recording gear was getting so good that it knocked studios like mine out of contention. This was an expensive place to maintain and I was occupied with a new computer career at the time. So I shut it down to clients in 1990 and reclaimed it for my own use. No regrets -- it's a great, sound-proofed bedroom on weekends when hell is breaking loose outside on lower Broadway.

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Edited 5/12/95 by Steve Manes