Electrical Audio is a

recording facility A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

founded in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

by musician and recording engineer

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

in 1997. Hundreds of

independent music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording a ...

projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refuses to take any

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from musicians who record at the studio. Founded during an era of increasing popularity for

digital recording In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storage de ...

, Electrical Audio was unusual for using only

analog recording Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which, among many possibilities, allows analog audio for later playback. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. ...

technology, including

mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...

s and many outboard

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s. The rooms are also designed to offer natural

reverberation Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

rather than adding the quality in post-production. In a 2007 post on the studio's message board, the studio's technician Greg Norman revealed that the studio had acquired a

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

rig for computer-aided recording and editing, saying it had become "as important to have as a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

". Norman also went on to write that Albini, who dislikes digital recording, "won't be recording with ro Tools So don't ask him about it."

Studio layout

The facility was built by gutting an existing building and customizing the space to Albini's specifications, including walls made of adobe bricks shipped from New Mexico. Electrical Audio comprises two separate studios, A and B.

Studio A

Studio A is the larger of the two studios and has three separate performance rooms. Center Field is the largest at , Alcatraz is a 'dry environment' room and Kentucky is a brighter live room with improved low frequency linearity. The control room runs a 48 channel Neotek Elite console and can accommodate up to 132 inputs.

Studio B

Studio B is the smaller of the two studios with an live room and a isolation room. The control room runs a 36 input Neotek Series II console.

Product manufacturing

Electrical Audio produces a two channel microphone preamp
EAPreq
an
Mid Side Matrix
They were listed for sale starting in 2013.

References

External links