Recording WorkshopLearn the Art of Recording

Our campus is a big factor in what makes attending RECW a special experience. Great studios, lab and lecture facilities, all surrounded by affordable student housing. This lets us create a very efficient schedule that maximizes learning time per day. Plus it's just an excellent place to be, immersed 24/7 within a musically creative community.

Our studios are designed and equipped to prepare RECW students for music production as it is found at smart facilities making it happen in the real-world of 2012. Not over the top, not scrounging the bottom, but hitting that sweet spot in the middle.
We also have great workflow between our different studios, allowing projects to smoothly move from room to room. And that follows another reality of current production trends. Music creation is more transient and mobile than ever before. RECW students will be living this new reality as they craft their creative portfolios.

Studios A & B - These two studios are geared for music tracking and mixing at a high standard. Each has been designed by a noted studio architect, with John Storyk lending his talents to Studio A and Steven Durr doing the honors for Studio B. At the core of each control room is a classic Sony/MCI 600 series analog console feeding into an Avid Pro Tools HD3 system. This analog/digital hybrid set-up is a popular production choice.
Control room monitors include Durr-designed custom far fields in Studio B and UREI 815’s in Studio A. Near field options come from Genelec and Dynaudio Acoustics. Racks and racks of outboard gear include choice signal processing devices and mic preamps from Amek/Neve, Manley, dbx, Drawmer, Eventide, Focusrite, Lexicon, TL Audio, TC Electronic, Yamaha and many other leading manufacturers.
On the performance side of the glass, Studios A and B both have exquisite acoustics that offer a flexible combination of live zones and isolated areas. A beautiful Yamaha grand piano is ready for players, as is a large assortment of microphones from AKG, Audio Technica, Beyer Dynamic, Blue, Earthworks, Electro-Voice, MicroTech, Neumann, Rode, Sennheiser, Shure and other fine makers.

Studios C & D - Contrasting the hybrid analog/digital approach found in Studios A & B, these two rooms go full-on digital. Avid Pro Tools is again the platform of choice, mated up to Control 24 consoles in each room.
Studio C has been remodeled several times over the last few decades, but it has the distinction of being the very first studio built on the Recording Workshop campus. There is a heritage in this room that stretches back to the 70's, but all traces of shag carpeting are long gone.
Studio D is used primarily as a mixing room, allowing the studio side to often serve as rehearsal space for students working out song ideas for student projects.

Studio E – This studio is designed to handle sound-for-picture projects as done in a well-appointed audio suite of a film/video production company. An Avid ICON D-Command provides the console functions for an industry standard Pro Tools system. And Studio E's monitoring system is 5.1 equipped, enabling students to work on projects that require surround-sound mixing.
The studio side of E features a foley pit that gives RECW students experience in the re-recording of particular sound elements to picture.

Studio F – Sitting in the “suite spot” between tracking/mixing studios A and C, this room has been designed primarily for mixing. Studio F also has the specialized function as a transfer room where songs trapped in older media formats (DAT, tape, vinyl) can be saved and restored.

Lab - Providing students with extensive personal experience in audio editing is the main function of the RECW lab. However, there are other learning functions done in this 6-station computer environment.
Signal processing is first practiced in a series of lab exercises before students apply these concepts to more complex music production in our other studios.