Closerlook: Quadrophenia: Mixing it up in Pfoho

The campus music scene is a beast of a strangely ephemeral nature. Though the groups themselves persist, the turnover of undergrads combines with the emphasis on performance to create an environment where the music made more than a scant few years ago is mostly forgotten. There is, however, one group devoted to the purpose of preserving music. Deep in the Pforzheimer House basement, tucked between practice rooms and HRTV studios, is one of the Harvard music scene's least known entities: Quad Sound Studios. QSS, or simply "the studio," as members refer to it, is ironically one of the youngest musical institutions on campus. It was founded about ten years ago by a group of quad students with the vision of having access to a recording studio for both themselves and the Harvard community. They obtained the funds and equipment they needed through donations from Pforzheimer House and alum and audiophile Bob Doyle. They then wired the studio themselves in a space formerly occupied by the Radcliffe radio station. Though it was fully functional from the start, the studio has grown over the past ten years into a completely equipped digital facility capable of turning out professional recordings.

"It's cool that it's right on campus and we have this space that we're all centered around," said Al Bennett '00, the President of QSS. Bennett's band North House's album Two Stories was recorded and mixed at QSS, as was A. Ryan Leslie's '98 A Song of my Own. Campus groups like the Cliffe Notes and Glee Club Lite have also recorded in the studio in recent years. In order to foster use by the entire Harvard community, campus groups are charged $15 an hour for recording time with an engineer, in comparison with rates of $40 and up for similar services elsewhere.

The studio's schedule is divided between work done for on- and off-campus groups and the personal projects of the dozen-odd member recording engineers. "It's a great place to produce work that is all your own and preserve it for the future," said engineer Gregor Hanuschak '02. In order to become members, budding engineers must complete a comp that consists of several training sessions on recording techniques and the technical operation of the studio and at least 20 hours of time working under the tutelage of present members. At the end of the test compers must pass a hands-on test of their abilities to record and to troubleshoot technical problems.

Quad Sound Studios is presently attempting to expand both its capabilities and its clientele. The engineers and their bands are putting on a benefit concert for the studio on Dec. 10, and a compilation CD is currently being pressed. "In the past, it's been an underground organization, and we're trying to change that," said Bennett. "It's such a resource and we want to try to open it up to more groups." The main goal of the group will remain the same: to give Harvard students the opportunity to learn about recording and audio production. "It's been my complete access to the field of production and engineering," says Bennett, who like many QSS members plans to continue working in recording and producing after graduating.

Taylor R. Terry is a QSS comper.