HODGDON, Maine — Tucked in the Aroostook County woods, about 500 feet off Benn Hill Road, John Pasquarelli has been designing, constructing, soldering and insulating the professional sound studio of his dreams.
Sixteen years in the making, Vibrations Recordings is just about ready with Pasquarelli completing some final sound tweaks before a Sept. 22 grand opening celebration at the Hodgdon studio.
“This is a work of love,” said composer and musician Randall Schumacher who was rehearsing at the studio on Tuesday.
Pasquarelli said he’s been blowing up amps in his Dad’s garage since he was a kid, and that was really the beginning of his dreams to build his own studio. As a kid he started playing accordion but switched to guitar to attract girls, adding that he was always the band sound guy.
“From elementary school on up, my folks allowed our bands to practice and rehearse in the basement, garage and backyard,” he said. “My dad trucked us around to gigs and things.”
Vibrations Recordings is unique in its old school approach, he said. It’s the kind of studio seen in Martin Scorsese’s “Last Waltz” with Robbie Robertson and The Band. And it sits in stark contrast to popular at-home bedroom recording studios.
Pasquarelli said there are smaller project studios in The County, but there is nothing like this north of Bangor or east until you hit Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The studio’s thrust is really a give-back to the community, he said, explaining that he wants to give kids in the area a chance to do what he did.
“I worked as a clinical therapist for 30 years and worked with a lot of kids. There is such incredible talent around here,” he said. “Then I’d read in the paper they’d end up in jail or end up drugged up or in an institution. It made me sick. And I swore that’s my main mission, for kids.”
Pasquarelli is also a member of the band The Circle of Fifths, and their drummer is the music director at the local high school. They are working together on programs that will let the kids come into the studio every school quarter for free.
“It’s an opportunity for them to learn audio or play and record,” he said.
Vibrations Recordings rates are far below most professional studios at $40 an hour with one free demo song. Kids 19 and under get a half-rate discount.
Schumacher said that he has easily paid $1,000 to record one song. With Pasquarelli, it would be more like $120.
“I’m not in it to make money other than to pay the bills,” Pasquarelli said.
Since the project was spread out over 16 years, Pasquarelli said it’s hard to say exactly what it cost to build, but he would guess close to half a million dollars out of pocket. About $250,000 in equipment and the rest in construction costs.
“That does not include my average of 10 hours a week for 16 years or the generous help by family and friends,” he said.
Rod Gervais, owner of Sound Solutions, which builds studios around the world, designed the sound intricacies of Vibrations Recordings’ two-foot thick walls, 300-pound doors and construction that must be precisely within one-sixteenth of an inch.
“I laid out a grid pattern and he designed it,” Pasquarelli said, adding that Gervais also designed all the HVAC that took nearly three years to build because the microphones are so sensitive any sound would get picked up.
And all the various wiring is isolated from everything else to avoid hum or unwanted interference, he said.
Once open, Pasquarelli has the capacity to record 40 channels simultaneously and offers tracking, mixing, editing, producing and mastering.
“We can provide multi-format transfers, archiving, assistance to song protection and referral services,” he said.
Schumacher said it’s a top class, five-star studio on 25 acres, and that will attract artists from other locations.
Pasquarelli said that Vibrations Recordings is a location studio and artists will come because they can bring their families. There are walking trails, cross-country skiing and a comfortable chill space for musicians between takes or for families to hang out in.
A large tracking room is available for bands, and a separate isolation booth is used for recording final vocals as well as audio books.
Every space has its own sound, even the bathroom, where Pasquarelli said a retro reverb effect can be created.
“Back in the day when they did reverb, they would take the mics into the bathroom,” he said. “So the bathroom is wired. We can throw an amp in here, say we have something recorded, bring it out through the amp, we have the microphone and you’re recording the ambiance of this room.”
The control room, where all the mixing magic happens, has differently designed layers of sound insulation that goes back six feet.
Before opening, Pasquarelli, along with a consultant from Massachusetts, is tuning the control room sound, he said.
“We are testing the room right now to know whether we might have to move the speakers back, or closer together,” he said. “We are at the final stages.”
Pasquarelli is quick to say that there is a long list of people and businesses who have helped him complete Vibrations Recordings.
“I told them, we’re going to have a party when this thing is finished,” he said.
The grand opening, 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 22, at 175 Benn Hill Road in Hodgdon, is open to the public with guided tours, free food and door prizes totaling $1,000 of music.
