On a recent Tape Op journey that took me through Athens, GA, Nashville, TN, and Chapel Hill, NC, I had the pleasure of visiting about a dozen recording studios and photographing them and their occupants for our magazine. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Wes LaChot, a Chapel Hill based studio designer and the proprietor of Overdub Lane in Durham, NC. Wes is a genuine southern gentleman — friendly, laid back and hospitable. He's also one of the most brilliant and inspiring people I've met in the music business. He's built and/or redesigned studios for David Barbe [Tape Op #14], Mitch Easter [#21] and Man or Astro-man? The really amazing thing about Wes is that he's completely self-taught and hasn't gone to school to study architecture or acoustics. He's a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, and says he learned about architecture from carefully studying blueprints of Wright's buildings. Wes also believes that building a good studio shouldn't cost any more than building a good house on a square footage basis. In my mind, Wes LaChot is the first DIY, punk rock studio architect.
How did you make the transition from working in studios to designing studios?
I designed my first studio in 1984 and it was out of necessity that I had to learn about studio design. I had been running a studio in a funky old house in Durham, and a friend of mine that owns a music store asked me if I would build a real studio in the back of his store. He just thought it would be a good tie-in to have a recording studio in the store, and he thought it would be good for me to get a lot of exposure, which it was. That was over where the Cat's Cradle [local club] is now. I had to build it from scratch — it was just a big wide open place. It had been some sort of manufacturing place, so there were no walls. Since I had to completely build the place, and it had to be soundproof from the music store, which was really loud, I had to learn a lot about soundproofing just to make it work. I had no choice — I couldn't just throw up baffles and call it a studio. So I went and bought the books everybody's read by F. Alton Everest. He's published like five or six of those books now. Sort of just writing the same book over and over, but updating it. They're great books. I read those and a few others, and talked to some other studio designers that gave me a lot of advice. Since I had to throw in a lot of money building these walls, I wasn't content just to have it be soundproof, I decided it needed to have good acoustics too. So I learned about room modes and non parallel walls, all that kind of stuff. And of course, I figured that by the time I was done designing it and building it I thought it was gonna be the perfect room. It wasn't, 'cause it was the first one I'd ever done. I learned a lot about it. I spent several years while I was there trying to improve the acoustics and just did a lot — building this sort of bass trap, and so on and so forth. I learned a lot, but during the late '80s several friends of mine asked me to build studios for them and, one friend in particular, had been introduced to the concept of reflection- free zone control rooms which was just coming into being in the mid '80s. He had been involved with building a studio with the originators of those concepts and so I started reading up on that whole thing, including the RPG Diffusors, which is profoundly more scientifically advanced than the older types of designs I had been reading about. I got really interested in that and I got a chance to design a couple of studios more along those lines, and they worked a lot better than mine. When Overdub Lane recording room I designed my current studio, although it was really inexpensive and small compared to some of the other ones I've designed for other people, I used those concepts. The place has been booked solid for six years and you can't find anybody who doesn't like the sound.
How did you learn all the technical details and stuff involved in actually building a full scale studio building?
I was always into math in high school and college so I had the math background. Studio acoustics gets into some pretty interesting math. I was also interested in Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminister Fuller and some weird esoteric music math like Carlos and Harry Partch and weirder stuff like that. It all ties in. Control rooms are really musical instruments — they're actually scientific instruments if you get right down to it. It's a little bit like designing telescopes or something. I've never designed a telescope but I imagine if you did you'd know pretty much instantly whether it worked or not after you built it. It either looks fuzzy or it looks clear. And with the studios it's the same thing — they either sound clear or they don't. Unfortunately it costs a lot of money to build one to find out. But, I'm happy to be in that field because other areas of architecture are just sort of faddish you know? I mean you design a house in a particular style and five years later it might go out of style. With control rooms, if they work people are gonna like them and use them and reuse them.
So you're completely self-taught?
Yes.
You haven't gone to school or college and you don't have a degree in architecture or acoustics?
I have no degree in architecture or acoustics or any of that stuff, but I studied music in college. Actually I studied music pretty much from the time I was seven years old, so I have a lot of background in music theory which does translate, believe it or not, into architecture and architectural acoustics, but only in the most esoteric way. But I learned architecture through trial and error and I learned to draw blueprints by basically tracing Frank Lloyd Wright and some of my other favorites. I tend to haunt the Frank Lloyd Wright public buildings — most of the tour guides know me at those places. And I just studied the blueprints and kept a tape measure with me at whatever university or libraries they happened to be. I've got hundreds of books at home as well, and I just studied them for years. One of the things about working in the recording studio is when you get home at night, you don't want to hear any music so I would just open architecture books and stare at what's basically visual music. So after years of doing that, when my friends started asking me to design studios I realized all of a sudden that I had the architectural background. I had absorbed it without even thinking about it. I was studying for fun, but I realized that I had the background in recording studios. I had been working with them for years. I had learned about acoustics. But the aesthetic part I just sort of absorbed from Wright.
How do you get around the fact that you're not a licensed architect? What are the building codes that apply to that?
If it's a building, then you'll have to have an engineer stamp. I work with engineers. It's very difficult to find architects or engineers with a music background to design studios. So a good number of studio designers are actually in the same boat that I'm in. Design has always been a team sport, you have a design team and you work on structural issues with engineers. I think that recording studio architecture probably requires more music background, or just as much music background as studio engineering. It's hard to separate the two. I would certainly hate to work in a control room that was designed by someone who didn't also work in a control room. How could they ever have the experience of knowing what it's supposed to sound like? How would they design one and know if it was a success or not? Just by what people told them?
Yeah, I like to skateboard and there's all these public skateparks designed by architects that don't skate and they suck. Then there's parks designed and build by kids that skate and they rule.
Exactly! I feel one of the reason why my rooms have been successful, is that when I design them, I'm constantly thinking what it's going to be like to be in them. And I think that's half the battle. But, I'm sure that there are some fine architects doing this sort of work too.
You're not breaking any laws right? I mean everything you're doing is legal.
Haven't been arrested yet.
You didn't answer the question.
Um, yes, everything I'm doing is legal and like I said we're careful to get engineer stamps when they're necessary.
That's really inspiring that you learned to do this on your own and to do the blueprints and everything. I'm assuming the engineers may make one or two minor things, but then they're holding up right?
Yes. Frank Lloyd Wright did not have an architecture degree and neither did Buckminister Fuller. The only degrees Fuller ever had were honorary degrees. As far as I know Wright never accepted any honorary degrees. Architecture is something that can be learned. But, I'm careful to call myself a designer. Some states require that to call yourself an "architect" that you have to pass the test.
Like in California with all the whole earthquake codes?
Yeah, right. In this state there are plenty of homes that are designed by designers, while others are designed by architects, some have stamps of engineers, some don't. Some are designed by the owners on the back of napkins.
So technically you're a building designer, or a studio designer.
I'm a studio designer, exactly. And like I said, there's so many things that come into play into studio design besides structural engineering that it's hard to imagine getting all of those things unless you were studying by yourself.
There's no program or anything.
Not that I know of, maybe now, but I've certainly never heard of it. It's a pretty small niche, you know. I've been able to gather a lot of the information off the internet, but mostly I've gone to libraries and gone to other places — talked to people, learned by trial and error However, having said that, there are a lot of structural issues that get rather tricky. These rooms are not square boxes — they're lots of three dimensional angles that have to be supported and held up somehow. We've had to come up with some innovative structural solutions in some of these cases.
I have a detail question. All the brick work in Mitch Easter's studio [The Fidelitorium] looked like it was brick, but it looked like RPG diffusors. Did you make those bricks?
They were made in Asheville, NC. They're actually licensed from RPG. It's an RPG product and we used them on a large scale. Two of the entire side walls in the large playing room, which are 16 feet high- quite large, are made completely from those blocks as is the back wall of the control room. It's the first time that I've used them and I have to say that they really sound good.
You obviously have a close relationship with the RPG people.
Yes, I highly recommend their products and I've worked with them on a lot of projects and I really think very highly of their organization. They're doing some of the most far reaching, forward thinking science imaginable. So, yeah that product, the block, really appeals to me. Because of the cost factor, RPG diffusors, the wood ones are quite expensive. Not because of the profit margins, which aren't that much, but because of the intricacy of them and the difficulty of building them. But when you're molding blocks you really have this opportunity to make any shape you want, and it's a really cost effective solution. And it's architecturally pleasing to me. I've always liked the Frank Lloyd Wright block houses in California, and this is a similar aesthetic. In fact, I'm looking for more opportunities to do work with the blocks.
One last question. Mitch had mentioned how one of the things that had attracted him to working with you is that you brought the whole thing down to a level that he could understand and even more importantly, that he could afford. It wasn't just some crazy voodoo, "Here's my bill" kind of thing.
I really believe you should be able to build a studio for the cost of any other building, and I'm very proud of the fact that Mitch's studio didn't cost anymore per square foot than it cost to build anything else. And that's really remarkable. If you go there and look, you realize you have a full blown recording studio — a large scale recording studio that sounds great and has all the details. It's soundproof and it's got good acoustics and everything, but it didn't cost a lot of money That should be completely feasible. It's just a matter of good design. So much money is wasted on design concepts that aren't really to the point, or on superfluous design elements — maybe fancy materials that are inappropriate. That's what design is all about; efficiency. Anybody can design a great place for a million dollars, but the question is can you do it with a very modest amount of money which is what is usually the problem you're confronted with. And that's what I really enjoy. I've never had a project where there was an unlimited amount of money and I don't think I ever will. And as far as Mitch Easter goes, you couldn't ask for a better client in the world. The guy is a musical genius, he's got great architectural taste and he is just an incredible pleasure to work with. I'll probably never have a client that's as forward thinking as Mitch again, so I'm excited about working with him in the future. I just hope I can build my studio as cheaply as we built his. I'm gonna build myself one someday soon now. [laughs]
