About Me
Great Magnet is a recording studio conveniently located 45 minutes north of San Francisco directly off of Hwy 101, minutes from downtown Petaluma. Despite it's easily-accessible locale, the property itself is a quiet and isolated 100-acre dairy ranch stretching all the way from the freeway to the Petaluma River. The performance room is a 500-square foot structure with vaulted ceilings (formerly an oversized garage), and the connected control room resides in the rear suite of a beautiful 1920s farmhouse built in the craftsman style.
The official "birth" of Great Magnet and it's creative philosophy began four years ago in the nearby Napa Valley, where I began recording bands at night in my tiny one-bedroom cottage. This site became known as The Blue Room, a tired moniker derived from the use of blue crushed velour blankets which I would hang from hooks in the garage to create a "vocal booth" and overall diffusor for recording in such a small space which two people also had to live in! With the steady influx of new work and the desire to recruit new clients froma more diverse "talent pool", the choice was made to move to Petaluma, where the conveniently-spacious dairyland environs comingle with a liberal and creative musical community.
My name's Adam. Hello.
I have been a musician most of my life, and recording music in some capacity since my middle teens. What began as me recording my own compositions to a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder in my high-school years (the 80's) eventually became me recording others in a slightly more involved digital environment, and now has come full-circle to integrate large-format analog multitracking and choice analog outboard gear into the digital heart of my recording array. I am not independently wealthy, privately-funded, or heavily invested. As such, you'll not find many of the "big name", high-dollar brand names in my studio arsenal. I have had to make my dollar go far, and as such I have built up my studio out of carefully considered pieces of gear which are perhaps a bit off the map of daily consumerism, but all fall into the category of "hidden treasures".
The heart of the process is most decidedly not the gear, however. I am a musician first and foremost. A singer, guitar player, and most importantly a songwriter. And in my not-so-humble opinion any recording engineer or producer who is not personally involved in song craft on a daily basis should consider a career in VCR repair as a suitable alternative. I treat my clients as fellow musicians and equal partners in the creative process, and for those who have little or no studio experience it is my utmost pleasure to educate you as to what I am up to every step of the way. And if you think there's a better way to go about something, I'm open to suggestions! I have no hidden secrets and don't believe in building a wall between what I do and what the musician does on the other side of the glass. I want to make great fucking records, and to do that you have to inspire the musicians to get excited about the recording process. You just can't do that by making them feel like lab rats or cheap cuts of meat.
At the heart of it all, great recordings all come down to using what you do have to work with really well by relying on your most high-fidelity component...your ears. Having good taste and a good set of ears you can make a great album with two tin cans and a piece of string.
Cheers,
Adam Sullivan
