Watchmen Recording Studios is a

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

recording facility owned and operated by Doug White, located in

Lockport, New York Lockport is both a city and the town that surrounds it in Niagara County, New York. The city is the Niagara county seat, with a population of 21,165 according to 2010 census figures, and an estimated population of 20,305 as of 2019. Its name d ...

, U.S. The studio opened to the public in 1995, and as of 2013 over 4,000 bands and artists have recorded at the location. These include regional and national acts such as

Gym Class Heroes Gym Class Heroes was an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including hip ...

Psyopus Psyopus (sometimes written as PsyOpus) was an American mathcore band from Rochester, New York. History Formed in 2002, the band is noted for the unorthodox and extremely technical guitar techniques of Christopher Arp, often referred to as "Arpm ...

, The Bunny The Bear, and

Brutal Truth Brutal Truth was an American grindcore band from New York City, formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990. The group disbanded in 1999, but reformed in 2006 and continued to release musi ...

, as well as labels such as

Relapse Records Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists. History The label w ...

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thur ...

Metal Blade Records Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distr ...

, Willowtip Records and

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Ol ...

History

Founding by Doug White

Watchmen Studios was founded by musician and producer Doug White in 1989, after he returned home to

Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY i ...

from

The Art Institute of Atlanta The Art Institute of Atlanta is a private art school in Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by Education Principle Foundation. The school is one of eight Art Institutes. It awards associate's and bachelor's degrees, including Bachelor of Fine Arts (B ...

with an

associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. Th ...

in Audio Engineering and Music Management. The studio originated in White's parent's basement, where he and his band mates at the time built a small facility to do their own recording. White's band's name was the

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...

, a reference to the

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...

comics. Because only his band was recording at the time, the studio itself inherited the name. A few years later the business went commercial as Watchmen Studios and the name stuck. The Watchmen disbanded with some members going on to form

Snapcase Snapcase was an American hardcore punk band from Buffalo, New York. Their records were released on the Chicago record label Victory Records. During the course of the band's initial run of fourteen years, they released six studio albums befor ...

, while White stayed on with recording, building up a base of clients. In 1995 he moved the studio permanently into a commercial building in Lockport, creating a small eight room studio.

Releases

The band

Lemuria Lemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the d ...

recorded all their albums as of 2008 in the studio, including 2007's ''Get Better''. Doug White was given two awards from the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

for 1,000,000 copies sold for the single "

Cupid's Chokehold "Cupid's Chokehold" is a song by American rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, featuring the vocals of Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. The song relies heavily on the music and chorus from Supertramp's hit song "Breakfast in America" written by Roger H ...

" by the band

. The other award presented to White was for 500,000 copies sold of the Gym Class Hero's album '' As Cruel as School Children'' (2006). White also produced the debut album '' ...For the Kids'' for the Gym Class Heroes. As of 2013, over 4000 bands and artists have recorded at the location. These include small regional acts and larger names such as

, The Bunny The Bear,

, as well as working with labels such as

, and

. White notes: "Working with many different types of budgets has been the key for Watchmen Studios, big or small, turning out consistent product for many years."

Associated bands

Tearwave was Doug White's next band, and they've been associated with the label since their founding. They were signed to

Projekt Records Projekt is a Portland, Oregon-based independent record label started by Sam Rosenthal in 1983. Projekt releases music in the styles of darkwave, ambient, shoegaze, gothic rock, ethereal, dream-pop, and dark cabaret. Projekt artists include S ...

, which is owned by Sam Rosenthal. Tearwave released two albums under Projekt Records, the first (in 2007) was self-titled and the second release (2008) was titled ''A Different Shade of Beauty''. Tearwave was disbanded in 2009. In an interview with ''The Apparatus'', Doug talks about Tearwave: After Tearwave disintegrated Doug White assembled Makaras Pen, also signed to Projekt Records. In 2010 they released a self-titled debut album, followed in 2011 by ''A Petal Among Bricks.'' With a consistent shoegaze and

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

sound, the band continues to record music and create music videos.

Studio equipment

As of September 2013, the following equipment is in use at the studio: *

Allen & Heath Allen & Heath (also known as AH or A&H) is a company based in Penryn, Cornwall, England, specialising in the manufacture of audio mixing consoles. Allen & Heath also makes sound management systems for industrial installations and DJ mixers ...

32X8 Bus Console *HDR 24/96 Mackie Hard Drive Digital Editor *ADAT XT-20 24 Track ;Effects *

Lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...

Reverb * Zoom Effects *DOD effects *

Alesis Alesis is an electronic music company that designs and markets electronic musical instruments, digital audio processors, audio mixers, drum amplifiers, amplifiers, digital audio interfaces, recording equipment, drum machines, professional aud ...

Effects *Ashley Compression *DBX 266+166 Compression * Peavey Compression *PreSonus Compression * TC Electronics ;Mics and Preamps *Allen & Heath (Neve Modeled) *Preonus *AKG Mics *

Sennheiser Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, telephone accessories and aviation headse ...

Mics *Sure Mics *York Mics ;Amps/Guitars *

Mesa Boogie Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969. Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a ...

Triple Rectifier and Cab *

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

Valve State 100 and Cab *Orange 50 Watt * Trace Elliot and Cab * Fender Deluxe Deville *Custom

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...

Paul Reed Smith Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) is an American luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars, a high-end guitar maker. Early life Smith graduated from Bowie High School in 1974. He also attended St. Mary's College of Maryland wh ...

Ten Top Custom *Acoustic Martin *

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...

Electric- R6550 *EBO *Full line of

BOSS Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

Pedals ;Headphones *

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Headphones *AKG Headphones ;Full Soundforge Mastering *Steinburg Plugins *

Melodyne Celemony Software GmbH is a German musical software company that specializes in digital audio pitch correction software. It produces Melodyne, a popular audio pitch modification tool similar to Auto-Tune, although the program itself is a manua ...

Vocal Correction *

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-produ ...

L.E.

Studio gallery

The following photographs of the inside of the studio were taken in 2008.

Discography

References

External links

* {{Coord, 43.132931, -78.693813, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-NY Recording studios in New York (state)