"Explore the studio space with the cowbell"
—Bruce Dickinson

Below is my gallery of all the shots I've taken of the new space thus far. Scroll horizontally to see 'em all and click any pic to enlarge. If you're still thirsty for more dirt on how it all came to this, there's a brief history of the Great Magnet directly below the studio gallery. Press on...

Money shot. Click to enlarge...

Money shot with deranged guy. Click to enlarge...

A clean live room. Click to enlarge...

More of a working look. Click to enlarge...

Only part of the collection. Click to enlarge...

Master of his domain. Click to enlarge...

Drummer's eye view. Click to enlarge...

The mic pres. Click to enlarge...

The line-level rack. Click to enlarge...

"Shred mode". Click to enlarge...

More guitar wankery. Click to enlarge...

Session management. Click to enlarge...

Tracking vocals Click to enlarge...

End-of-session bliss. Click to enlarge...

a brief history of the great magnet

Clown car recording.
Click to enlarge... This is really the third incarnation of Great Magnet Recording, and by far the most fully-featured. When I started doing this, I was living in a 650 square foot house in Napa, and when I wanted to have a band in to record, I'd basically have to kick my live-in girlfriend out for the weekend and take over the whole house. Just so I could record some crappy garage band that never (ever once) gigged out and would probably be distributing about ten CDs total...all of them among close relatives.

Good times.
These were the salad days.
Click to enlarge...

Then we moved to the Petaluma farmhouse, and those really were good times. The place was on 150 acres looking out over the Petaluma river with zero neighbors, and boy was it cool for everyone. Our rent was insanely low, and the garage and back bedroom became my scene. I got a ton of work from some seriously talented bands from S.F., Berkeley, and Oakland...many of whom I'm still friends with today. That's why I moved to the 101 corridor but nonetheless I was still amazed that it actually worked. Everyone loved being out in the "Big Country" and the atmosphere was just the best. But at the end of the day I was still a rent slave there and my landlord wanted to move in herself after a couple of years.

I can has a corms?
Click to enlarge...
So finally here I am up in santa Rosa now in my first-ever "owner" home, and although the property is not quite so opulent, we did make an effort to stay out in the country a bit and it still feels that way. Say hello to my chickens!

And while I might not be sitting on 150 acres, the studio by comparison is about a billion percent more neato. Finally I was able to build nearly from the ground up just the way I wanted everything, acoustically and practically.
Me and my dad the day we finished.
Click to enlarge... It sounds great in here and is just a dream to work with compared to all the MacGyver bullshit I had to deal with just to get things done before. Plenty of room to move about and access things that will ocasionally need fixing or modifying. Simplified signal flow and therefore workflow. And whereas in all my previous situations the control room was aaaallll the way across a house with only a mic for communication, for the first time I'm finally looking the band right in the eye from ten feet away through the classic "Big Window"...which feels just great. If there's a problem in the live room, I just walk that ten feet and fix it.

Seems like such a small thing, but you learn to appreciate that when you've been working without it for so long! Below is my gallery of all the shots I've taken of the new space thus far. Scroll horizontally to see 'em all and click any pic to enlarge...