It’s fitting that a studio named the Fun House would be built with 900 pounds of rubber. However, this one-room facility located just outside of Denver in Aurora, Colo., is more than just a padded playroom for musicians. The new recording/mixing home to owner/producer/musician Craig Patterson’s PME Records (www.pmerecords.com), as well as occasional outside clients, features a Nuendo Version 2.2 workstation and Mackie 32×8 housed by two Argosy desks at its core, with ample plug-ins, a select list of outboard gear and a collection of more than 100 vintage keyboards.
Designed by Patterson with the help of the late Tom Norton of Kinetics West, the Fun House offers isolation by virtue of a damped ceiling hung from Kinetics ICW spring-loaded hangers and the aforementioned rubber. “It’s neoprene, about ¼-inch thick, and it comes on 300-pound rolls and was installed above the Sheetrock,” explains Patterson. Because of that, and the fact that Patterson wanted no parallel walls or right angles in the Fun House, “The drywall guys were not my friends.”
Custom removable broadband absorbers and diffusers and assorted RealTraps panels enhance acoustics, while colorful modern and art deco — style furniture give the room a quirky yet comfortable vibe. Patterson’s Nuendo rig offers Ultrafunk, Kjearhaus, Samplitude, SAW, GigaStudio, Stylus RMX, BFD and PlugSound plug-ins, which are complemented by UREI 1176 and dbx 160 compressors and various other outboard effects, processors and preamps.
The studio area features a sizable vocal room with removable full-range absorbers and a 20×50-foot live room that, in addition to serving as prime tracking space, houses Patterson’s extensive keyboard collection, which is used on his roster’s projects and his own.
Patterson’s 12-year-old label (run with the help of VP Gary Dunn) boasts nearly 25 acts, ranging from rock, pop, folk and acoustic to heavy metal, church choirs and new age. “It’s fun that way,” says Patterson (no pun intended!). “Everything is always new.”
