Seeking engineer to share recording studio space--$150-250 month

Alameda CA

Description

Amazing rent for small but decent recording studio (and occasional rehearsal) space: I’m a late 30's sound engineer/producer who has been making records for 10 years (40+ albums/projects) and have always rented at pro studios & don’t own a ton of gear, but I found a pretty sweet spot at a great price in the city of Alameda! For me, it'll be my secondary spot--but I need a place where I can record drums and occasionally rehearse loudly, which is difficult where I currently am. Looking for a sound engineer/producer like myself (possibly two for 3-way split, depending on shared interest/gear/need) to split a small two-room glorified project recording studio—the space has not yet been moved into but I got the green light to start planning. It’s inside of a commercial warehouse (shop noises only occur 9am-6pm M-F) SUPER isolated sound on nights and weekends. Private security rolls by hourly every night. It’s fine for us to be there during business hours but it’s neighborly to not be tracking a metal band during work hours... good time for mixing & electronic stuff. Two rooms—one small “control room” 12x7, one larger live room 12x11. Amazingly, there’s a clear window as you’d want for a separate studio. Perfect for recording drums! Plus there’s PLENTY of hallway space for isolated amps and we could even ad hoc a temp “echo chamber” during non-shop hours. Currently there’s one overhead fluorescent light (I plan to never use) and the current carpets are old, stained, and shabby—will either clean and cover, or pull and replace. Wood walls, and no echo’ing in the room—reflections seem to be reasonable. So we'll need to work on the vibe/decor but I could see it get there. Huge glass windows (SUNLIGHT, if you want it!) but has blinds and we could devise some acoustic friendly blind situation if we're getting nasty glass reflection. The only catch is that I have another “main location” where most of my “main gear” needs to live, so that means I’ll only need the space for 1/3 of the slots (or less, really) & really only want the room for Saturdays & sometimes Thursday nights when I don’t have access to my other spot. So if you have rack gear and mics that you want to live there, I’d appreciate it, as I won’t be able to leave that there & would prefer to not lug things back and forth. Things I CAN leave there (also fine NOT bringing anything if you have better stuff and don’t mind sharing): 1. Mac Pro with 32gig ram (later intel model) running both Sierra (with Pro Tools if you have your own ilok like I have) and also for emergencies OS 10.9.5 with Pro Tools 10 HD installed with all the third party goodies. Logic installed, you could install Ableton etc. if that’s your thing. Or we could have it set like BYOLaptop 2. 27” matte video monitor 3. Ikea Jerker desk (two levels and I have the floating rack ears, not too ugly) 4. a decent drum set 5. basic instruments—’68 fender mustang bass, fender strat, fender black acoustic guitar, & parlour guitar, a decent array of guitar pedals 6. drum set / percussion 7. amps—’68 Gibson, ’74 Peavy half-stack 8. PA system (with allen & heath mixer)— when rehearsing might be necessary 9. my third “backup emergency” monitors — Events, really hope you have something way better! 10. some acoustic foam if we need it 11. Studiologic Sledge synth + Arturia MIDI controller 12. super basics—mic stands, cables, dynamic mics, empty rolling rack. 13. Oh and I have a snake. I have permission to drill a few holes in the walls too for inter-room connections. 14. DI boxes and a JHS colour box which is a pretty sweet pedal based on a Neve board. 15. Non-exciting space rack stuff like BBE Sonic Maximizer, Yamaha SPX90, dbx 166 16. “medium room” air filter--might get stuffy. Things the space will need: 1. At least an 8-channel audio interface (Apogee Ensemble or better)—will be needed—first thing I’d buy if nobody has a good one 2. A few nice mics that live there would be nice (I can travel with mine if needed) 3. Outboard pre’s —depending on interface, 4? (mine are racked at my main spot) 4. Better rugs 5. Mini-fridge and microwave) 6. Lamps 7. Bonus: more outboard gear like compressors (mine are racked at my main spot) 8. Bonus: summing mixer (a boy can dream?) 9. Headphone mixing amp i.e. Furman system—although I do have a really basic DOD 460H handy. 10. Patch bay (for small space, can live without it. 11. Bonus: tape machine (I rarely use em anymore but I recorded on a 388 for years) 12. Bonus: dash of artwork for the walls. So the total rent is $450 & since this is my secondary space my budget is $200—ideally I meet one person with a ton of cool gear who wants to use the space more than I do, and is OK with paying $250 for more time and use, but depending on who hits me up, I’m ok with two people who are scrappy with modest gear and we just do a 3-way split—if you think of it as 7 night time slots, and 2 weekend days, that’s 9 “slots” that could be split 3 ways evenly. I won't ever use Sundays or Mondays but will probably want 3-4 Saturdays a month. Or we could just plot out 10-15 days a month each if you prefer to do it lockout-style--I'm flexible right now. So send me a line if this sounds interesting--tell me about your projects, gear, and how much you'd use the space, and I'll share pics and more details. If you're low on gear but willing to buy a thing or two, or really put time in to make the space look nice, that might even be more important! No deposits, no lease. And the business that runs the warehouse is extremely chill and seem secure.