Introducing The Sound Up Studio @ the Pink Garter Studio

(Published by Planet JH Weekly)There’s a new studio in town, but not in the traditional sense. A joint venture between audio engineers Noah Waldron, Marshall Davis, and Capsicum Pro Audio Visual, The Sound Up Studio is utilizing the Pink Garter Theatre as the foundation for a service that will record, mix and master live recordings from theatre events, then making them readily available for consumption via a website. Waldron, Davis and Dusty Nichols-Schmolze—an audio engineer/musician that is currently recording an EP at the studio—weighed-in on the beginnings and the progressions.Aaron Davis: What sparked the initial idea of adding a recording element to the theatre?Noah: Dom [Gagliardi] and I had talked about doing live recordings since our early days at the Mangy Moose, and creating something out of that, like radio podcasts, etc. Some things got swapped around at the Pink Garter and that room [above and behind the stage] became available as a control room.AD: What improvements took place to make the studio a reality? How long did I take?Noah: We tore out some shelving, moved and rebuilt a wall, and re-did all of the electrical for the control room.Marshall: It all started in mid-May. It's a work in progress that gets addressed more aggressively as funds become available. It's certainly a fully functional space now, but further improvements will be coming soon.AD: What types of projects have been using the studio and what’s been your role?Dusty: Three local bands have been or will be recording in the space. With Black Mother Jones, I engineered, produced and mixed. For the Canyon Kids project with Bo Elledge I am producing, engineering and playing. The same goes for Maddy & the Groove Spots, except I will mix that album too. I’d like to call myself a producer, though I’m still learning. Between Noah, Marshall and I, we all bring different things to the table. Those guys have a ton of experience and knowledge in the recording world, and I think that I bring more of a creative element to it.Noah: We’ve also been doing some voice-overs and some film work in there, and we’re looking to take things in that direction as well. But our main goal right now is for the sake of recording live shows, which will require an additional engineer onboard for each show. We haven’t pushed out our first live recording yet as we are still short on some equipment.AD: In terms of functionality, what’s the long-term focus of the studio in combination with the website you are building?Marshall: The website, ThatLiveShow.com (still under development), will promote live and recorded music within our community, and establish Jackson as a viable and well-known musical destination. The website will eventually become a rich archive of live recorded performances that provides access to the high-quality shows coming to the theatre. We have several elements to the studio's functions—full studio tracking, live show recordings, post-production, and original composition for film and video.Noah: We want to record bands in the space—we’re getting some amazing recordings out of there and that theatre sounds amazing when you use room mics for drums—but it’s not the main objective of what the studio is there for. For the website, we also plan to incorporate a photo stream from each featured show courtesy of Kali Collado’s photography.AD: What’s the biggest challenge right now with the entire concept?Dusty: In terms of recording bands, there are a lot of people coming and going around here, so that’s a concern. Of course, we have to work around theatre shows too. I feel confident that I can make a band sound good, though it’s a work in progress to make the studio fully professional.Marshall: The development of the website. Creating a streamlined interface to make the user experience a great one will be key.Inquiries can be directed to info@TheSoundUpStudio.com.