Studio A at 513 Recording
Catherine Vericolli, owner of FIVETHIRTEEN Recording/Audio Engineer/Teacher, extended an invite to a small group of interested individuals to view her studio. Starting in the 'B' Room -Catherine and one of her studio engineers, Dominic, began discussing the layout of her studio. She has a large variety of analog outboard gear available for use. The 'B' room, built in 2010, is primarily the mixing suite. Catherine had Jeff Harris, an acoustician that works at CRAS, help her design the room. Studio B is an elevated addition to the original building. The mixing board choice for this room is a Trident 80B. There is a Studer 880 1/2" tape machine in great condition sitting next to a Studer 800MK for full tape options. FIVETHIRTEEN Recording is one of the only Tape Conversion studios in Arizona.
We were then led through the main control room (known as Yellow Room) to the live rooms. The live rooms are split into three spaces, the Main Room, The Green Room, and the Red Room. Each has a different sound and various uses. The Green Room has sand beneath it's floor to separate it from the main room. There is a permanent RCA 44 ribbon mic and Neumann U87 set up in this room. The Main Room is the large tracking space with 8+ sides to help the sound. The studio keeps various amps, guitars, keyboards, and percussion instruments inside available to the artists. The Red Room is the ISO room, and it has a couple M149 and 4038 microphones in it. Every room has built in wall paneling and there is a 16 channel tie line between studio A and B. The control room has a Neve console and various outboard gear available in this room as well.
Next, we spent time discussing what it meant to be an audio engineer and a small studio owner in this day and age. Catherine advised getting experience at other studios first before even thinking of opening your own, one needs time and experience to know which gear they wish to have in their own studio. She added "Sometimes having a stable platform to work from is more important than making sure you have all the newest and updated gear". Finally, before we headed out she and Dominic stressed to have proper etiquette when renting out someone else's studio. Make sure to zero everything out, reset Pro Tools I/O settings, and clear your files.
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