Backstage Spotlight™
November 2003 Recording Engineer Obie
O'Brien - Page 7
MBADC: You’ve done several albums at
Sanctuary II. If you had to build it all over again, is there anything you wish you’d
done differently?
Obie: Not a thing. Well, except I would have put it on the first floor.
MBADC: It’s on the second floor?
Obie: Yep. So when you have to move really big, heavy things it gets tight. But
that’s the only thing I would change. I love everything about this studio…There
are windows that look out over the property out to the river, and it’s just got a
really great comfortable—it’s like putting a pair of sweatpants on. That’s
what it’s like. And it works great, and the guys that came in and helped me do
everything, all the wiring guys, and all the tech guys, everybody did a terrific job. And
we have gear in there that we all like, that works, that makes sense. So there’s
nothing I would do. I would put it on the first floor, but besides that, I would change
nothing.
MBADC: What kind of design problems did the windows pose?
Obie: You know, there are acoustic things that you run into with that, but you work
around them. And especially in the control room. I have windows in the big room—in
the recording room and in the control room. Because I hate that rat in a box thing. I
don’t ever want to be in a studio anymore without windows. You don’t know what
time it is, you know…So there were a couple little problems, and you work around
them, it’s no big deal. You take it all into consideration when you’re doing the
construction.
MBADC: Is there anything special you have to do to the windows when you’re
recording? Do you have to cover them, or is it all in the construction?
Obie: Pretty much. We have a very live room, and if I need it to be calmed down I have
gobos--the isolator walls you put up and around. And the way the windows are designed is,
they have an alcove where they sit, they’re double-paned insulated windows, and then
I have a half-inch Lexan window that pops in a rubber gasket around it that was made by
our fabricator, Jeff Saitto.
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