by January 2016 marks the opening of the new Beehive Sound recording studios in Snohomish WA. After a nearly year-long renovation on the historic Beehive building at the corner of Maple and First Street along the river walk in Snohomish, the world class studio is ready for action. Owner Derek Smith has spent most of his life as a musician and owner/manager in the software and sound installation fields, while his head engineer and business partner Sean Walker has worked freelance for over eight years at pro studios in the area and just completed the exclusive Mix with The Master’s program at the residential Studios La Fabrique in the South of France with the legendary Chris Lord-Alge.
Beehive is a full service studio with a reconditioned Neve Amek Big 44 console for tracking and mixing in the analog domain “out of the box” with analog mic pres, processors, compressors, etc. This retains the warmth and detail of sound. Beehive uses Pro Tools in the digital domain “in the box” as their multitrack recorder with all the latest plugins. This gives them best of both worlds. The two rough brick surface tracking rooms with 18-foot ceilings creates a natural sound without the need of additional diffusion or heavy dampening.
Derek Smith describes the Beehive mission with the following: “We want to service people’s needs. The pop music coming out today has so little soul and character. We wanted to build a space that an artist, singer-songwriter would be comfortable in. So many studios are antiseptic and cold, with all this very expensive equipment around so you don’t even know where to sit. We used all natural materials and colors as the theme to create an environment for creativity.”
The building was built in the 1930’s as the P.U.D building to house the switching and transformer equipment. It was a day spa in recent years called The Beehive, and thus the name stuck. The walls are 18-inch-thick brick so it is quite naturally insulated, with floating wood floors and isolated rooms built with all the principals and specs of a world class studio, on a much more affordable and comfortable scale.
Sean Walker relays his philosophy: “There is a magic to being able to record your music at a real pro studio, and have that environment and vibe you don’t get at somebody’s basement with the dog barking and neighbors yelling at you. I’ve done many records at small home studios, but you lose the creativity in the technical details of trying to make it all work, so there is a gap between home recording and high dollar studios. We want to fill that gap. price-wise but not quality-wise,” Smith says. “We chose downtown Snohomish because of its music background and the community around first street is really happening, with the river walk and all the shops and restaurants, all within walking distance. We are part of the downtown core.”
Contact Derek Smith at Beehive sound for project rates for more info go to http://www.beehivesoundstudio.com or call 425-876-0997.
