Powerhouse Studio
THE PROJECT STUDIO (As featured in Mix Magazine)
A Florida Drummer Comes To Rest In Rural Massachusetts by Chris Michie
"I guess it was The Beatles on Ed Sullivan," says Stuart Covington when asked how he got started in the music business. "I always loved music as a kid, and seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan was bigger than life." By the time Covington reached high school, he had saved enough money to buy a drum set, and he played in a band called The Epics through the mid- to late '60s. Citing Ringo Starr, Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell as influences, Covington picks Vanilla Fudge's Carmine Appice as his all-time favorite drummer. Growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., Covington went to high school with future members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and later played with Skynyrd bassist Leon Wilkerson in The King James Version.
After spending his college years in Atlanta, he returned to Jacksonville and formed a band "with some guys out of Indiana."The group, Powerglide, stuck together for 12 years. "I always loved recording, so as Powerglide progressed, I kept buying more recording gear," recalls Covington. "I was always the person, in all the bands I was in, who put the P.A. together. I was the audio tech in the band, even though I didn't run sound."By the time Powerglide broke up, Covington owned a major portion of the band's recording gear, and in 1991, having paid off the debt on the remainder of the equipment, he found himself with the components of a 16-track, 1-inch studio setup. "I said, 'Well, what the heck, I might as well make some money out of the studio business,'" he recalls. "I haven't quit spending money on it since!"
Occupying about 1,000 square feet in the basement of Covington's house in rural Ayer, Mass., Powerhouse Studios consists of five rooms: a 13x20-foot main room with an attached 12x14-foot amp room/iso booth; a 13x18-foot control room, also with an attached 5x7-foot iso booth; and a 12x20-foot lounge that can serve as an additional recording space.An experienced carpenter, Covington designed the studio with the help of a friend "who sells audio gear" and built most of it himself, including a floating ceiling and double-thickness sheetrock insulation throughout. "We didn't use any technical equipment to tune the rooms," says Covington of the acoustic design."We basically just used our ears and experimented with sound treatments until we liked the way it sounded.
"Though Covington may sound casual about the studio's design, the equipment list is serious. The console is a 48-channel Soundcraft Ghost (24-channel mainframe with 24-channel expander), and monitors include Genelec 1030s, Tannoy 6.5s and JBL LSR32s in soffits. Recorders include an Otari MTR-90 MkII 24-track (15/30 ips) and 24 tracks of Panasonic ADATs. Covington typically mixes to Panasonic 3700 and 4100 DAT machines and also cuts reference CDs.Outboard racks are crammed with modern and vintage processors. Reverbs and multiprocessors include units from Lexicon, Yamaha, Eventide and SPL Electronics. A Korg 2000 and an Ad/a D4 round out the delays. Compressors include two UREI LA-4s, a UREI 1178 (stereo), an Audio Arts 1200 and four channels of dbx. The studio also boasts a UREI 546 stereo 4-band parametric EQ, gates from JBL, Ashly Audio and Symetrix, and a TC Electronic Finalizer for tweaking final mixes and mastering CDs.
The microphone selection is comprehensive. In addition to prime recording mics such as a Neumann U87, two AKG C414 EBs, and an AKG SolidTube, Powerhouse offers a range of Beyerdynamic ribbons and condensers, plus such staples as Shure 57s and 58s, Sennheiser 421s and EV RE20s. Keyboards include a Hammond C-3, Yahama CP-70, Fender Rhodes and Arp Odyssey. An IBM 166MHz computer with a 5GB hard disk runs Cakewalk Pro Audio and Sound Forge 4.0, and the MIDI setup includes a Kurzweil PC88 keyboard, Alesis and Kawai drum modules, an Akai sampler and a Roland Octapad. Covington also owns a vintage Linn drum machine. Among the many vintage amplifiers on hand are Ampeg SVT and B-12 bass amps and Mesa/Boogie, Fender, Marshall, Silvertone and Kustom guitar amps. Drum kits include both new and vintage Ludwig sets. Additional amenities include a private yard, Sega Genesis and Sony Playstation video games, TV, VCR and microwave, a coffee maker and a fridge.
Covington records all types of music, including gospel, blues, jazz and singer-songwriters, but his most frequent bookings are with Boston-based rock bands. "Sometimes I engineer, sometimes I produce, sometimes I co-produce, and occasionally I play drums or keyboards for the artists that come in,"says Covington. "In general, though, I try to help the band realize what it is they're after and guide them into making things sound good.