So now we had our space, and let me tell you, it was raw and ugly … but with potential, nice 12 foot ceilings, and a great location.  The thing was, we were renting half of a floor, but there was no wall dividing us from others.  What there was was a depth of dirt and grime that was thick enough to shovel out – no lie.

Now I was beginning to realize that we needed some serious help.  I was not too good at construction, and Gordon and Ann – no better that is for sure.  I mean, yes, we could shovel dirt and paint a wall, but we needed soundproof walls, and help getting a good sounding room.

Luck was on our side though!  Enter Joe Hadlock and Manny Hadlock, from Bear Creek Studio in Seattle.  Joe had a passion for building studios, Manny for running them and making them look real nice.  They both had a passion for their daughter Ann and getting the studio up and running for her.  So they came out 2 times, for about a week each time.  We hired Wylie Wirth to help too.  And we worked 16 hours a day for at least 3 straight weeks.  I shake thinking about that- not good times.  We built a diagonal wall on the outside of our space to the open floor, as square walls generally aren’t the best for sound.  We put in a wall to separate the control room.  (Out of control room is what Gordon liked to call it)  We installed a very cool old window between our rooms I found out on the street in Brooklyn.  And we sewed (I mean Ann sewed) a cool couch type thing that was purple and sat on top of the 3 foot high footer of concrete that was in the back of the room.  We hung really cool purple velvet curtains, made by Manny.  Those curtains and couch cushions are now in my studio here, Leopard Studio (actually everything from TransporterraumNYC is here).  And we painted the walls, red for the live room and blue for the control room.  And then we put sparkles on as the paint was drying, which really looked amazing – Ann’s artistic side was coming out.

Then something really cool happened – Moses from Berlin came by and generously gave us a Soundcraft Ghost mixing console, and a really nice 2 channel preamp and a tube tech EQ.  Yes, gave us.  He said he wanted a cool place to do recording in NYC, and he had become big enough in Berlin as a producer/engineer (one of the best), that he had access to all the great studios and no longer needed to have this.  This soundcraft board is still the center of my studio today – 13 years later.

Then a really uncool thing happened.  One still etched in my brain.  A visit from the arrogance occupying the 4th floor studio at that time.

More about that in Part 3.