Studio Recording

“Recording our first collaborative CD at Empty Sea Studios was thebest decision we’ve yet made musically. Michael’s technical expertise, gentle handling and freakishly acute ear made for an extraordinarily positive experience. We are thrilled with the result and absolutely spoiled for any other recording engineer. Guess you’re stuck with us, Michael!”

Georgia Browne
Brownesville Highway

Though our weekend schedule is dominated by concerts, during the week, Empty Sea Studios operates as a traditional recording studio, working on projects in a variety of acoustic genres.

If you’re shopping around for a studio for your next project, you’re aware that Seattle has a large number of studios to choose from.  Here’s how Empty Sea sets itself apart:

We Focus Solely On Acoustic Music

As my background and discography make clear, my passion and primary area of work is acoustic music.  That can span the range from singer/songwriters to traditional music from a number of cultures to acoustic jazz, a cappella, blues, Americana, and almost anything where capturing the true acoustic sound of instruments and voices is a priority.  There are better places to record a metal, hip-hop or electronica album in Seattle, but if you need to capture real tones and real acoustic ensembles playing together, my goal is to make sure that Empty Sea is your first choice.

Your Engineer is a Musician

As a lifelong multi-instrumentalist, I have played in a wide variety of genres and situations on a number of instruments, from playing clarinet and mandolin as a symphony member to playing Hammond organ and Rhodes piano in rock bands to playing accordion and violin on tour with the Indigo Girls.  I have taught private lessons on several instruments for a number of years, and pride myself on communicating clearly and constructively.  I bring this experience to the table on every project, offering as much or as little coaching as you desire to help bring your project to its best possible endpoint.

You Can Work in Analog and/or Digital

These days, the speed and convenience of digital recording makes it the standard for recording projects.  We offer it too, with digital recording up to 24 bit, 96 kHz rates and a variety of plugins for mixing “in the box.”  However, if you’ve never mixed a song on an analog console, you owe it to yourself to give it a try!  These days, I mix most album projects “outside the box” on our Amek Angela analog console, using a combination of software plugins and outboard hardware to yield a spacious, “three-dimensional” mix.  With tube and solid-state outboard gear, analog summing, and SSL A/D/D/A converters, the sound of an analog mix is big, satisfying, and musical.

We also record to analog tape! For a warm, truly “larger than life” sound, nothing beats the sound of a well-maintained analog tape machine.  We can either import your basic tracks into the digital workstation for additional editing, or mix straight through the analog board to your finished product!