studio and gear
Sasquatch Recording’s home inside the historic Bingen Theater is a unique, vibey atmosphere for creative inspiration. Located about an hour east of Portland, Oregon in the heart of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge, the theater itself is a 1940’s era movie theater now an operational performing arts center – you can find out more about the Bingen Theater HERE.
The 2000+ SF theater live room / auditorium has high ceilings and excellent, warm natural acoustics that sound huge yet articulate and intimate, perfect for almost any style of music. Isolation rooms at stage L and R provide the option to record and isolate loud instruments or amps while tracking drums or other instruments live.
Our control room features a comfortable, acoustically treated mix / listen space with an additional isolation room / vocal room attached.
equipment
Our gear list is modest but quality – see HERE for a full list. We run an analog front end by way of our 32 channel mid 1990s era Soundcraft Ghost console into Universal Audio Apollo and Focusrite convertors for a total of 32 in/out and up to 6 independent headphone mixes ( more if shared) to the live room stage. Both in the box and out of the box mixing are possible, with a range of plugins including Slate Digital, Universal Audio, Soundtoys and more. We record and mix primarily in Logic Pro X.
We have an assortment of quality microphones and DI boxes, highlights including a matched pair of Neumann KM184s, a Neumann U87, a matched pair of AKG414s and many more.
For analog submixes and final masters, we have a Fostex E-22 1/2″ 2 track reel to reel tape machine capable of running at 15 or 30IPS – perfect for adding some extra warmth and punch. We have tape reels available in house for clients’ use.
instruments and amplifiers
Clients recording with us have at their disposal a range of instruments and amps including our 1968 Fender Bassman 50 Watt amp head; our Vox AC15 amp; our Orange RV-50 amp head; our modded Marshall 1960A cabinet with greenbacks; our Gibson SG; a selection of Fender stratocasters; Fender P-bass; our Fender acoustic 6-string guitar; our Alesis v49 midi keyboard ( full line of Slate Digital and Apple synths available); numerous guitar effects; a 5 string banjo and more. See HERE for a more complete list.
We have access to and can arrange for many instruments including several drum kits, keys and synths, acoustic instruments and more – just ask.
Recording style and approach
We approach our recording sessions selectively, accepting clients we feel confident about building a strong working relationship with. We work to create a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere for artists in which they can feel free to explore the boundaries of their music and capture a real performance. Our studio is uniquely equipped to record bands and artists with a ‘live’ feel as it is located in a live performance venue and we lean into this approach in most of our recordings.
Our philosophy has always been to use the tools available, but to also approach recording much as one would have in the analog tape era. In other words, we take the time to get top notch-sounds before recording rather than relying on digital editing to ‘fix it in the mix’. Our sessions often take more time on the front end to explore various microphone choices and placement, instrument and amp choice, preamp and signal path options, and fixing problems before they arise – with the result being a well-rounded recording before the mixing stage even begins.
Our artists always have the full range of digital editing options at their disposal when working with us, from mixing completely digitally ‘in the box’ to analog ‘out of the box ‘ mixes on our Soundcraft console.
We’re open to working with any style of music; our experience and interest as both an artist and a recording engineer centers on rock recordings, specifically in the psychedelic / stoner rock / jam band / indie rock realm.