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Post by keymod on Jun 13, 2015 5:55:59 GMT -6
Might have a silver lining. As mentioned in another thread somewhere here on RGO, this is the year I have been seriously looking to purchase a property that will allow me to finally have a proper music room. About two weeks ago I stumbled upon a listing online which met several of my criteria: price within my universe, style - New England Gambrel Colonial with attached garage, number of rooms, all the usual stuff. Knowing it is empty, I took a ride up on my motorcycle on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to scope it out on the sly. The property is almost an hour and a half away from where I am now, which would make my daily commute suck but, for the right place, it would be worth it to me. My excitement grew as I walked around the place. Beautiful, but overgrown, gardens. Birds singing in the trees. Rabbits and squirrels dancing in the grass. It felt like another world. Being in the construction business for thirty years, I knew what I was looking for. OK, the place is really run down and needs a LOT of exterior work. Dry-rotted trim, peeling paint, a rear deck that collapsed and fell off of the house, replacing screens, cutting trees that were growing onto the house, cleaning up the landscaping........ But the place has character, and I already wanted to buy it. Peering through the windows, I really couldn't see too much. I figured the inside probably needs as much work as the outside. But the place has character, and I already wanted to buy it..... So I knew that I had at least to contact the listing agent. He told me that the place is in foreclosure. ( now I know why the price is in my universe ). The owners both passed away and the heirs ( kids?, no idea ) let the place go to hell. The Bank finally got fed up and took over. This explains the condition of the place.
So I told the Listing Agent that I have always been looking for a place to set up a music room and that this one might be it. Could we please meet to take a look inside? We couldn't find a mutual time to meet there but, since I am a licensed and insured electrical contractor, he gave me the code to the lock box " so I can check the electrical in the house" for him. Nice. I headed up there after work on Thursday.
"Oh, by the way" he says, "the previous ( and original ) owner ran some kind of business there that had to do with music, or videos, or something...." Did I mention that the place has character, and I already wanted to buy it?
I open the door, and get down to business, acting like a home inspector for the mortgage company. Start at the top and work my way down. Everything is a little bit dated, but with some cleaning and painting, certainly livable. Anyway, being single, I only care about a place for a bed, a bathroom and a fridge. Nothing wrong here that would shout out " don't buy it! " I could fix just about anything and, if I can't, I know someone who can. All in good time.......
In the basement there are lots of empty metal shelves with labels designating what was stored on them: 2". 1". Demo. Erased. Mic Cables. Patch Cords....... ( see where this is going? ) One end of the basement has a door and, as I approach I think to myself " so he did some kind of recording down here in the basement ". Open the door and all I see is what appears to be a little kitchenette. Lighting was bad throughout the house because of burned out bulbs. Worse down in the basement. With my flashlight I look around a spot a small spiral stair at the far end of this room. Head towards it, fumble for a wall switch and turn on the stairwell light. Guess what is at the top of those stairs?
Foyer. Half-bath. Door to the outside. ( OK, so that's the door that was locked ) To my left a door leading to a control room. Carpet and parquet floors. Stone on one wall. Angled ceilings with some foam in the corners. Angled wooden soffit. Guess what is in the soffit? ( see my post about JBL 4315 ) Huge wall boxes with XLR connectors and labeled designations: 24track. 16track. Live Room. By now I can hardly breathe. The doors are proper acoustic design. The control room glass, almost ten feet wide, is properly angled, separated and caulked.
I go back out into the foyer and another door leads to the live room. More wall boxes. Angled ceilings, at one point probably up to 14 feet. Nice sound in there, but probably needs some help. I clap loudly, shout loudly and pretend to sing. Listening for any anomalies. A bit of a flutter echo at the skinny end of the room. The other side of the live room has a large vocal booth, separated by a sliding glass door. Some angled walls, so it sound pretty decent inside. Could probably fit six people in there. Might be useful for some acoustic instruments.
Next to the vocal booth is a much larger booth, actually another room, with a label on the glass slider designating " Video Editing ". Could be a killer drum booth, or a place for a Grand Piano.
So I go back into the control room, still trying to breathe. " I wonder where all the tie lines are from all of these wall boxes? " Found them. Damn, they've all been cut off way too short as the go into the wall. No problem, I'm an electrician. I'll figure out a way to run new ones. The place has character, and I want to buy it...............................
I contact the Listing Agent next morning and mention that I like the place but coyly mention all of the work needing done ( attempt to get a lower price ) . I tell him that I was especially bummed about the way all of the tie lines were cut back and what would be involved running new ones. He tells me " gee, I wish I knew you before ( we ) did the cleanout ". " You?, you mean you cut the wires? ". " yeah, we had to empty the place when the eviction happened. Four twenty yard dumpsters". "OMG, PLEASE tell me that you didn't throw out any equipment!" " Yeah, everything went into the dumpsters. We had a young musician that someone knew come in and tell us everything was old and worthless" "OMG, what about the mixing desk, the tape recorders? Did you see any microphones? OMG, my heart. I'm going to die!" " Everything. I didn't think it was worth saving. The Bank wanted it cleaned out ASAP. Do you want to make an offer? "
Well, yes. Did I say the place has character, and I want to buy it? We reached a price that the Bank agreed to. I sign papers tomorrow with the Listing Agent. I'm praying to get a mortgage. Sometimes dreams come true.....................................
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Post by jcoutu1 on Jun 13, 2015 6:50:39 GMT -6
Which direction are you headed? My way or towards NY? Congrats on finding a spot.
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Post by jayson on Jun 13, 2015 8:13:41 GMT -6
I just did something very similar about two years ago. I'm really glad I listened to that little voice saying "buy me!"- closed on it May 10, 2013 - the place has a lot of character and I'm REALLY glad I bought it!
Mine was a foreclosure too. A couple words of caution there; first make sure that there are NO delinquent taxes on the property. I was blindsided by that because it didn't come up on the title search. Check with the county and city, NOT the agent or title company. I was pretty lucky that it was only about $1k but I obviously would've liked to have known about it before I closed on the place.
Also make sure that all the customization that may have been done over the years was properly inspected. My place had the entire basement finished into an apartment(making it an excellent studio), but it had been done off the radar, with no building permits or inspections. This actually turned out to be a bit of a blessing because it had been done right, yet I was able to use that fact to knock $15k off the original price and use that savings to get everything properly checked out and inspected. I was even get some tie-lines and additional AC runs installed, all for a fraction of that 15k.
It is now by far the most important piece of gear I've purchased yet!
Good luck!
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Post by jsteiger on Jun 13, 2015 8:51:17 GMT -6
Congrats on the place keymod! Sad story about the gear. Very sad.  |
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Post by tonycamphd on Jun 13, 2015 10:05:18 GMT -6
Very well written story key, u took me on a little trip, for god sake I hope u never find out what was in there! U may never get another night of sleep!
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Jun 13, 2015 10:54:11 GMT -6
sleep wtf,,, where the hell did they take the dumpsters  ?? boy I sure hope you get it but how easy is it to get to for clients ? |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 13, 2015 12:22:32 GMT -6
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 13, 2015 12:23:19 GMT -6
At least the agent didn't say something like, "yeah the desk was some old looking thing...Peve maybe?"
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Post by tonycamphd on Jun 13, 2015 13:01:16 GMT -6
sleep wtf,,, where the hell did they take the dumpsters ?? boy I sure hope you get it but how easy is it to get to for clients ? clients? why would he give up a gainful occupation like electrical work to starve in his for hire studio? He's got the right idea, now where'd they take those dumpsters!! |
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Post by keymod on Jun 13, 2015 13:37:39 GMT -6
Jesse, it's towards you, not New York. If it went the other way, it would simply be too expensive.
Jayson, all good points, thanks. The beauty of this place is that it's in a mixed-use zone and it was designed and built right from the beginning, in 1978, to be a legitimate business, so everything was permitted, etc. ( and taxed  )
Jeff, the gear story is definitely the heartbreaker. Now, if this goes through, Spiritworks will have a proper place to showcase your gear.
Tony, I already know what the big-ticket items were, but I don't sleep anyway. LOL, you're in construction - you must know all about chasing money there too.
Kcat, never intended to make this( a studio, anywhere ) a commercial endeavor. However, it does seem to have some possibilities along those lines. I may get my son involved, but only if he has a day gig lined up. Forget about the dumpsters. The place got cleaned out two months ago.
John, it wasn't Neve. It was an all MCI-based studio. The recorders were a JH24,a JH16 and an MCI 2track mix-down deck. The desk was an MCI500 Series. Classic late seventies/early eighties. I have to wonder who this "young musician somebody knew" was, who told them the stuff was worthless. Probably some kid with an Mbox and a laptop using all pirated software. I'd like to stangle him.....................
Funny thing is, during that time frame I worked for a pro Audio broker ( there were no big-box or online "pro" dealers back then )called Audiotechniques, whose main line was MCI. We probably supplied this place with most of it's gear. I was in shipping/delivery and installs at the time, though never set foot in this place.
I hope I can bring it back to glory, just for the karma. LOL, I should buy a MARA Machine from Chris and name the place " Welcome to 1978 " |
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Jun 13, 2015 13:40:26 GMT -6
all good and sounds like a great find !!
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Post by tonycamphd on Jun 13, 2015 16:11:43 GMT -6
Jesse, it's towards you, not New York. If it went the other way, it would simply be too expensive.
Jayson, all good points, thanks. The beauty of this place is that it's in a mixed-use zone and it was designed and built right from the beginning, in 1978, to be a legitimate business, so everything was permitted, etc. ( and taxed )
Jeff, the gear story is definitely the heartbreaker. Now, if this goes through, Spiritworks will have a proper place to showcase your gear.
Tony, I already know what the big-ticket items were, but I don't sleep anyway. LOL, you're in construction - you must know all about chasing money there too.
Kcat, never intended to make this( a studio, anywhere ) a commercial endeavor. However, it does seem to have some possibilities along those lines. I may get my son involved, but only if he has a day gig lined up. Forget about the dumpsters. The place got cleaned out two months ago.
John, it wasn't Neve. It was an all MCI-based studio. The recorders were a JH24,a JH16 and an MCI 2track mix-down deck. The desk was an MCI500 Series. Classic late seventies/early eighties. I have to wonder who this "young musician somebody knew" was, who told them the stuff was worthless. Probably some kid with an Mbox and a laptop using all pirated software. I'd like to stangle him.....................
Funny thing is, during that time frame I worked for a pro Audio broker ( there were no big-box or online "pro" dealers back then )called Audiotechniques, whose main line was MCI. We probably supplied this place with most of it's gear. I was in shipping/delivery and installs at the time, though never set foot in this place.
I hope I can bring it back to glory, just for the karma. LOL, I should buy a MARA Machine from Chris and name the place " Welcome to 1978 " possible they took it to an electronics recycling place, or resale place? you never know, might be worth investigating? I believe AC/DC back in black was recorded on some of those pieces.... mehhh... |
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Post by ericn on Jun 13, 2015 18:34:57 GMT -6
Great find good luck I hope it all works out !
A couple of years ago So a Craigslist ad for Ampex 8 track , 2 track and a mixing console. Called the guy he's in LA and his dads old house is in foreclosure he's not sure if anything else is down in the basement studio. $500 bucks and boxing his old tapes buys me the 440-8 440 1/4 2 track and a I grabbed the modules from the weird console
Nothing special.
2 months later a see one of the consoles sold on Ebay , send the seller a message asking him to tell the buyer I have a full 24 ch of modules and PSU. Buyer buys it all for $500 and shipping and packaging I end up with 2 Ampex 's for free! Thing was I looked everywhere in that studio because the seller and the rest of the house because the guy says he thinks their are a pair of Km84s and some RCA ribbons Never found the mics Did find a bunch of old military bays I donated and a real of install mic cable that rewired the kids old school theatre.
I bought the Status for $750 because the guy wanted it gone.
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Post by swurveman on Jun 14, 2015 9:54:54 GMT -6
What's sad to me is that while all these studios (which were collaborative places with people dedicated to their instrument, their engineering
and their acoustic design) get abandoned, they have been replaced with kids alone in their rooms sampling chord progressions with Maschine and using 30 year old drum beats while quantizing everything to grid lines.
Just as autotune made everybody a singer, Maschine and other computer based programming is making everybody a musician. And not just a one instrument musician, they now are both all the musicians and the band leader/conductor. And they can do much of it with a 12 pad controller. They don't even have to learn how to play a chord.
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Post by winetree on Jun 14, 2015 13:52:10 GMT -6
"Just as autotune made everybody a singer, Maschine and other computer based programming is making everybody a musician. And not just a one instrument musician, they now are both all the musicians and the band leader/conductor. And they can do much of it with a 12 pad controller. They don't even have to learn how to play a chord."
They're not musicians, They're Button Pushers.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jun 14, 2015 15:39:47 GMT -6
What's sad to me is that while all these studios (which were collaborative places with people dedicated to their instrument, their engineering and their acoustic design) get abandoned, they have been replaced with kids alone in their rooms sampling chord progressions with Maschine and using 30 year old drum beats while quantizing everything to grid lines. Just as autotune made everybody a singer, Maschine and other computer based programming is making everybody a musician. And not just a one instrument musician, they now are both all the musicians and the band leader/conductor. And they can do much of it with a 12 pad controller. They don't even have to learn how to play a chord. Your first 2 paragraphs made me think of was Sound Summit / Music Head at the old Playboy club. Last I heard it was being used as an Augsperger designed day care! |
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Post by keymod on Jun 27, 2015 5:37:04 GMT -6
Update: Things are going smoothly and it looks like this deal will go through. Hoping for a closing sometime mid-July. Wish me luck.
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Jun 27, 2015 6:08:37 GMT -6
Luck !!
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Post by keymod on Aug 1, 2015 4:05:12 GMT -6
Closed yesterday, and now it begins. Lots of cleanup to do before I can even move in and start on the studio. Thirty yard dumpster being delivered this morning.
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Aug 1, 2015 4:20:58 GMT -6
Great: it was suppose to happen; enjoy the work, sounds like a great space and new home !!
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Post by tonycamphd on Aug 1, 2015 6:39:33 GMT -6
Closed yesterday, and now it begins. Lots of cleanup to do before I can even move in and start on the studio. Thirty yard dumpster being delivered this morning. congrats Key! |
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Post by gouge on Aug 1, 2015 19:35:00 GMT -6
This is awesome. I hate you now but this Is awesome.
Best of luck.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Aug 1, 2015 19:56:53 GMT -6
Closed yesterday, and now it begins. Lots of cleanup to do before I can even move in and start on the studio. Thirty yard dumpster being delivered this morning. Awesome news! |
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Post by NoFilterChuck on Aug 2, 2015 9:40:11 GMT -6
Im super jelly right now. We're not looking for a house yet (1.5 more years on the lease and we dont own a car) but when we start, I'm gonna want to do the same thing. The only problem is that i live in brooklyn and my wife works in manhattan so we'll never find a house like what you found!
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Post by keymod on Aug 3, 2015 3:49:49 GMT -6
Hey Chuck, I'm probably less than two hours from Manhattan so, at the very least, I hope you can come visit once I'm all set up. Same goes for Martin and Jcoutu. We Northeast RGO members need to hang out.
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?? boy I sure hope you get it but how easy is it to get to for clients ?
)
