Modern Electric Sound Recorders Brings History and Heart To The Dallas Music Scene

As Dallas studio Modern Electric Sound Recorders celebrates its 13th anniversary this year, co-owners Jeff Saenz and Beau Bedford have a lot to be proud of. Known for its stellar sound and enviable collection of gear, Modern Electric is more than just a recording studio in the Dallas music scene: it’s a hub of creativity, a sanctuary, and a champion of the vibrant local music community. Located in a historic studio space that was originally built in 1968, Modern Electric has been home to records by beloved artists like Paul Cauthen, Leon Bridges, Nikki Lane, and more. 

The goodwill that Modern Electric has earned over the years became very apparent in June 2021, when Jeff had a near-fatal electrocution accident that led to the loss of both hands and significant parts of his arms. Musicians, engineers, producers, and friends of the studio got together to raise funds and gather resources to support Jeff and his family during this incredibly difficult time.         

Jeff and Beau sat down with us recently to talk about their journeys in music, their vision for Modern Electric, Jeff’s resilience in the face of life-changing adversity, how Vintage King’s James Good recommended gear that helped Jeff get back to mixing after his accident, their picks for must-have gear, and more.  

How did you get started making records?

Jeff: I've been obsessed with music since I was crawling. My dad had Tchaikovsky's ‘1812 Overture’ on vinyl and I used to grab it from the stack to get him to put it on because I loved the way the cannons sounded! [Laughs]

I wanted to play music so badly that I just found a way in. Whatever role I could be in, whatever group of guys I could play with, wherever I could fit… I kept on nurturing that and it turned into a career. I was touring in bands, we had record deals, I got to open for a lot of my childhood heroes, and did some really cool things; it was fun.

Then there was an inflection point where I thought: ‘How do I turn this into the next tier of career for me to have the kind of life I want to have, supporting a family and whatnot?’ I sought some counsel from Dave Cobb, who had produced one of my band's records, and he brought me under his wing. I worked for him at his studio in L.A. for a few years and he was an incredible mentor and friend to me, showing me just how incredible the studio environment was.

I am so grateful to be able to make music with other artists. The access people have given me to their songs and their art is just an incredible feeling. It keeps on developing and it’s a living thing that is in constant evolution. We'll see where it goes from here, but it's been a full scope journey and wherever I can fit in, that's where I want to be.

Beau: I got into music at a young age after a pretty traumatic snowboarding head accident where I woke up not being able to remember the previous five years of my life. What I did remember was that all I cared about was music, so that began my journey of writing songs. At the time that happened, the first iteration of Pro Tools had come out. I had a band and we were pretty obsessed with recording ourselves, so I just started playing with Pro Tools as a 16-year-old. 

Years later, I was in L.A. and working with producers like Dennis Herring and Jack Joseph Puig, who were very important to me. I was watching these guys on computers, [single finger typing] like my dad, and I was like, “Do you want me to hop in there and run Pro Tools?” [Laughs] Now, I'm the slow guy in the room at Pro Tools and we’ve got all these kids who are such gangsters at it. Anyway, I got into production and I've always enjoyed Pro Tools because it taught me a lot about classic gear just from the plug-ins and the format that the program ran on.

I was mostly based out here in Dallas, and Jeff was like, “Hey man, I’ve got this new space. I would love for you to come check it out.” I remember walking into Modern Electric for the very first time and just having my mind blown. At that point, I'd only been to a handful of classic studios, but I understood the feeling that you get when you walk into a sacred space and a historic room. I remember walking into the main room of Modern Electric for the very first time, just melting, and being like, “This is where I feel like I'm going to make my history and my world.” I was like, “Cool, can I move my stuff in right now? I'll bring it over tomorrow.” [Laughs] 

Jeff: I had only had the space for a couple of months and I had the same feeling. I didn't have any big delusions of finding a room like this here in Dallas. I'm from Southern California and these kinds of rooms exist there, but here in Dallas, I thought that maybe I'd build a control room and deal with some noise. But the first time I walked in here, I had the same experience Beau had where it was this overwhelming sense of history and vibe that was just inimitable. It was instant! It's like when you walk into a library and there’s the smell of the books… you can't fake it. It's historic, you can feel it. 

Beau: It’s built in the Sam Phillips method, with cinder blocks; it has the original fabric from the ‘60s… Whether you know everything about studios or nothing, when you walk in here, it feels like church, like something elevated that’s beyond a workspace. It’s a sacred space, for sure. 

Modern Electric Sound Recorders is such a great name for a studio, by the way.

Jeff: It's kind of a funny story! I made a record at Hollywood Sound Recorders back when I was in a band and I love the old school sound of the phrase ‘Sound Recorders’, so when I was trying to think of names for the studio, I kept coming up with that.

I've also been friends with a lot of the tattoo community for years, and at The Pike in Long Beach, they would say things like, “Featuring professional tattooist, Bert Grimm, using modern electric tattooing techniques!” and I always thought that was so cool!

So I thought it was just perfect for a studio that is literally centered around vintage or remakes of vintage-style equipment, all transformers and tubes… It’s a little tongue-in-cheek for the old gear but it stuck.

Beau: I'm sure Jeff had no idea when we were getting together that I would be as radically obsessed with our American radio broadcast equipment. Some of the greatest engineering minds were working on how to duplicate sound in the best way possible. In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, there were the most incredibly engineered audio pieces, so yeah, it’s modern electric but also very vintage. 

Between the two of us, the studio is just stacked with that style of equipment and gear: CCA LA1D, Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, an Altec 230B Tube Console, Langevin 5116 preamp, Langevin EQ-251A. Vintage mics including AKG C24, Melodium 42B, Neumann U 47, Neumann/Gefell CMV-563 with every capsule, Wunder Audio CM49 S, loads of RCA 77s and 44s. In terms of guitars, we have a 1957 Les Paul Junior, 1959 Les Paul Special, 1965 Rickenbacker 365, 1965 335, '60 Esquire, 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird, 1934 Gibson Roy Smeck, '35 Gibson L-00, 1951 Martin 0-17, and a 1949 Gibson SJ. It's a fun, creative space to be in!

What was your vision for the studio when you set it up?

Jeff: There's never a formula that I'm chasing, so I was like: "Where did my heroes make my favorite records? Where were The Stones stopping when they're touring through America in the ‘70s?" I wanted the studio to be like any of those great rooms – I wanted to do my best to make it comfortable, not stuffy, and make it really utilitarian so you knew exactly where everything was; you could reach for it and it was right there. 

I also always want to make sure that when someone walks in the room, they're just lost in the vibe in the best way. There are no distractions, no clutter, none of that stuff where there's kitsch everywhere. We've got our fun things for sure, but I try to keep it centered around a really vibey workflow.

Beau: When it came to the kinds of gear that we wanted, we each have such a reverence for the musical legacy and history of recorded music so we've really gone out of our way to try and have those pieces – for example, having the right Wurlitzer; we have drum kits from all these great eras for different sounds so that whether you're from Berlin, Los Angeles, or right here in Texas, you walk in here and it's like, if you want the sound, we just need to pull the gear off the shelf. Like, we’ll throw a Neumann on it, through a 1073, and you have this sound that is just iconic, legendary, and time-tested.  

Jeff: The acoustics of the live room itself make it possible for us to do all those things that Beau was mentioning. You’ve got space, but it's also not a super reflective room; you’ve got rugs you pull up if you want the hard floors. 

I remember being in the live room, scraping knives across the floor to get a particular sound. One time, I was kicking the side of a road case and recording that to get samples, so whether you're doing something wild like that or trying to figure out where Pete Townsend strummed his Rickenbacker to get that sound – it was way back by the bridge, that’s how he got the tone – it’s a great room for all of it. It’s such a malleable room, if that's the right word. 

What kind of artists are drawn to Modern Electric?

Beau: Artists that are driven towards more organic sounds and live music; artists that play rock, country, Americana… but at the same time, we've definitely boosted our production game and done a ton of pop stuff here as well.

Jeff: Yeah, we had Olivia Rodrigo in here last year.

Beau: Dua Lipa popped by as well, so it's such a broad swath of music and musicians that it's really hard to pin down. But I feel like we especially excel at doing live music compositions.

Jeff: Yeah, the room really lends itself to that and I think that was our passion – getting a group of guys into the room, catching a vibe and going through it until we found where the kick and the bass needed to be living together; getting the right isolation in the right ways but having everyone in the room. We built the studio, logistically, around that idea. 

We have incredible line of sight from the control room – you can see all the way from corner to corner and everything in between; everyone can see everyone. Right now, the song that's happening downstairs was a track that was very much constructed in the box, in the pop sense, but with drums, bass and guitars recorded live, so it runs the full gamut.

Modern Electric is known for building community and supporting new artists. Tell us more about that.

Beau: There’s so much talent here in Dallas, but there isn’t really a music industry. We are so acutely aware of what it means to have an opportunity to create your art in a studio and have that experience. 

And I truly believe the next big leap in music is not going to come from one of my well-established friends who has made it, but from new artists. I'm sure I'll make great records with people that have it all going on, but when you're making your first recordings, it's like you're too young to know any better and I think it’s amazing for us to have that connection with our local community. 

There’s an amazing school here called Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts – Erykah Badu and Norah Jones went there – and we've been really fortunate to have some brilliant young artists from there and from other schools over at Modern Electric. We're really fortunate to be in a city that has an incredible art scene and we really believe that's a big part of our future. There's a lot to nurture here. 

Jeff, I’ve read a lot of third-person accounts of your courage and grace in the aftermath of your accident. When you look back now, what do you make of that time and how you got through it?

Jeff: I don't think that many of us know what we're capable of, or the strength that we have, until we're forced to reckon with it. For me, community and love is something that really got me through what could have been a really dark place.

I left Modern Electric the night of that accident after an incredible day working on a record with Beau for an artist named Kendell Marvel, with an incredible cast of musicians: Scott Lee, McKenzie Smith, Nick Bockrath… it was a really incredible day. And then my life changed.

Beau was the one spearheading the community and there are just too many people to thank, but this community here in Dallas, and far beyond Dallas, just blew me away. It gave me a sense of purpose and a need to pay it forward. I thought: ‘If there's any good that can come from this, if my story can inspire somebody else to just grin and bear it, just get up and keep going, then hell yeah, man, that’s great!’ 

So I'm just doing me, trying to be the same dude I was before all this. I have experienced such a beautiful depth of humanity through this whole thing that it's hard to have any resentment or ill feelings towards that whole time period.

It is an incredibly inspiring story. Thank you for sharing it.

Jeff: Thank you. Somebody who really helped me a lot was James Good, who works for Vintage King. He’s been a great friend of mine for a long time and he was the one who informed me about the Slate Raven monitor. I wasn't aware of it when he brought it to my attention and it is what has allowed me to get back into Pro Tools and be actively engaged in the music process. That is huge for me.

I’ve gotten better with handling things like microphones and stuff over time, but it's still tricky. I only wear one prosthetic, which has a hook in it, and it does good, but it's limited, so to be able to function a screen with all of these macros and all of this thought has been great.

I have a fun anecdote about the Slate Raven, actually. My wife was on vacation, visiting her dad in San Miguel, Mexico. They’re hanging out at a bar and they see these three guys – Swedish triplets – so they start up a conversation with them because they’re so fascinated. Monica, my wife, asks them what they do, and they say, as if she wouldn't have any idea, “Oh, we work for a company that manufactures and develops products, like this software and computer screen for a music recording program called Pro Tools.” And my wife just says, “The Slate Raven?!” She must have blown their minds! [Laughs]  

Later, one of the brothers, Calle Landeberg, got in touch with me and offered to send me one of the new screens for free. We’ve been in touch ever since, and they've been really great. I'm hoping to be able to expose other people who may be in a similar scenario to me to this incredible invention that allows me to do this. 

Beau: Jeff, how long were you in the hospital?

Jeff: Ten weeks.

Beau: Jeff was in the hospital – mostly in the ICU ­– for an incredibly long period of time, but in his first week out, he shows up to a benefit concert that we have for him and he sings at the concert! And then I see him in the studio and he's helping produce and make an album for this artist called About You. I was so blown away! He was supposed to be recovering! 

I know these are his words – that you don't know what you're capable of until you're thrown into this situation – but truly, it's amazing to watch him respond to his situation with such fortitude and grace, and an acceptance of an impossibility. He just accepted it and started moving forward – not that moving forward was easy – but it’s such a cool thing to watch and be around. It inspires everybody in our local community and it's cool to know that the story has passed on beyond just our local friends and family. I hope it's an inspiration to a lot of people because Jeff, you're pretty dope!

Jeff: Like I said before, any good that comes from it, any inspiration or exposure to a tool like the Slate Raven – anything that just pushes all of it into a net positive makes it feel like this was the universe using me as a tool for good to further things. And, you know, I'm alright, man; I'm happy to be here.

Among the great pieces of gear that you have is a vintage Neve 8066 console – what drew you to it? 

Jeff: It’s amazing and, from what I understand, only four of them were ever made. Beau and I have dreamed about having a more substantial A room console. We had an MCI JH-416A for the first eleven and a half years of the studio and then I began to get really serious about shopping around for something else.

I had spoken to a friend of ours called Stuart Sikes about his Spectra Sonics console, and also been eyeballing these other consoles that I'd been hearing about from friends in different parts of the country, and I kept running all of it by Dave Cobb, because he's had so many consoles. He’d keep saying, “No, that's not the one”, until finally, he hit me up and said, “Hey man, I have your console!” and it was a done deal within minutes. I was like: “I want this 8066 with 20 channels of 1073s”. That's exactly what I want!

Beau: The really funny thing about all of this was when Jeff called me about it, I was in RCA in Nashville, which had been Dave's hub over the last few years, and I was working with his full-time assistant and engineer Phillip Smith. So, Jeff calls me to tell me he’s going to buy the Neve console from Dave Cobb. I had eight 1073 modules in a sidecar box and he's like, “Is it cool if we dump the modules in the desk?” And I'm like, “Of course, I would love to hear what these things sound like with the correct power.” 

Jeff and I want the dopest gear in the world and it's hard to know what you're getting when you're shopping an old console, but to get it from a buddy who takes care of his stuff makes it so much cooler. When it came time for the install process, we got it in, almost magically, through our door and hallway, dropped the modules in, turned it on, and started tracking! What a dream! 

Jeff: We decommissioned the MCI, it went out on a Tuesday, the Neve got here on Friday morning and we were tracking Saturday afternoon, which is so cool.

How has the console impacted your workflow?

Jeff: Personally, I would say that we're using far less outboard gear. We still process things and use compressors and EQs, but it's so different to hear those modules through the rest of that circuit as opposed to hearing them in that sidecar rack – it's just a different experience! You just crank those 1073s up, use that fader to attenuate and get your level to where you want it to be, and it’s amazing. Even just pressing the EQ button – without even moving the knobs – it does something and it's been incredible.

Our patchbay is normalled from the live room all the way down to Pro Tools and we have those first 16 channels just run straight and clear: you plug a mic into number 3, it goes to channel 3 and Pro Tools without touching a patch cable. 

What I'm really looking forward to, that I haven't personally done yet, is mixing on it. I'm looking forward to having fun with that; using the 16 busses to do some special things with some songs. 

What are some of your other favorite pieces of gear at the studio?

Jeff: Desert island stuff? Let’s see, I might be kind of boring, but I don't think you could go wrong with either a Coles 4038 or a Neumann U 87, and a 1073 and an 1176. It's generic, but it's incredible. We have an 1176 Rev D and when you put something like a U47 through a 1073 in that, it’s great!

Beau: I would pick my Binson Echorec 2. The motor is messed up, so it warbles constantly and I can't find another one like it, but that piece of equipment has made it onto so many albums. 

Years ago, I got turned on to all these old Gates PGM4 Program Amps that I was able to buy so affordably. They were the most fun, wide-open tube preamps; they're so massive and I think those would be my desert island picks. I hope they keep working on the island. Jeff picked gear that might actually continue to work, and mine's like, “I've got to keep a tech on the island with me.” [Laughs] 

What has it been like working with Vintage King over the years?

Beau: James Good and Vintage King have been unbelievable. Recently, I had a remote session out in Santa Fe and I got there, realized some stuff wasn't working, so I ordered a bunch of converters. James helped get all this UAD Apollo equipment overnighted out to me; he was literally picking up phone calls at midnight from me to help navigate some tech issues that we had going on. 

Truly, our studios wouldn't be functioning daily without James Good and Vintage King’s support. Jeff and I are such fans of old gear, but we very much work in a modern age, dealing with Pro Tools and converters and things like that, and James has been the most valuable person in helping our studio stay alive, awake, and current. 

Every time I get a new interface or something like that, I'm like, “I need James to hold my hand through the whole process.” [Laughs] Once I set it up, I'm going to forget how I did it and I'm going to need him again the next time. I feel like every time I call him, it's an emergency. [Laughs] And he's been able to help every time. It’s amazing to have a support team like that.

Jeff: I've been friends with James for over 20 years now and have watched him grow in this industry. I remember when he went to Vintage King, I was so stoked because I was like, “This is incredible!” He knows what he's talking about, he knows how to help when help is needed, and he knows how to deliver. To have him as a resource is just incredible. He’s always come through for me.  

What is one piece of advice you have for aspiring producers and engineers?

Jeff: I would say the biggest thing for me as a producer and an engineer is: trust yourself. You need to be confident in the decisions you make and you need to understand why you're making them. Pay attention through those early days: know why you like the mics or the compressors that you like; study what you keep returning to, in terms of frequencies that you might be boosting or cutting.

As a producer, it’s very much the same thing. Trust yourself and trust that what you feel about a song is the truth. There are a million different ways to write the same song, but you need to have the confidence to trust that you're steering it in the right direction. Pay attention through every recording so that you can keep learning and keep pushing and not just make the same song over and over again.

Also, try new gear. That's something that I got from Dave Cobb, Greg Gordon, and Mark Raines, who were the engineers that I really learned under. Don’t default constantly, change it up a little. Some of the guys here probably get a little annoyed with me at times, but I love breaking the live room down all the way after a session – putting away every cable, every mic goes back in the locker, every drum back on the shelves, because it forces people to make decisions. 

If there's a drum kit set up and there are mics on it, there's a 90 percent chance that that is what's going to get used on the next recording. We probably have a dozen drum kits here and we have the opportunity to make an active decision to choose the instrument, the microphone, the preamp – all the things that are correct for that moment. I like to encourage that. There’s a happy place in the process where you have things accessible and easy to grab, but you also try new things. You don't need to make it cumbersome.

Beau: I would tell aspiring producers to not only work with people that are talented, but to work with people you love. We spend so much time in a small, confined space, and life is about sharing these experiences together. None of us are really in charge of whether a recording becomes famous or if a recording goes into the abyss of the algorithm, so it's about sharing these sacred moments in the studio with people that you really care about.

It makes it so much more enriching and helps you do the second part, which is most important – not giving up. If you're really called to music, you do it whether you're making tons of money or not. 

Jeff: You have to do it because you love it. In this day and age especially, you're looking at an industry that hasn’t seen a significant pay hike since the ‘80s, and there’s a lot of competition out there. 

Beau: Also, if you plan on starting a studio, do not plan on making any money. [Laughs] Enjoy it while you have it. For Jeff and me, the studio is a creative tool; it's not a business model and, hopefully, if you do it right, it's a sacred space where your community can gather and where artists from around the world feel comfortable stepping in. Do your best to create a space that is worth spending all your time in.

Jeff: It's a labor of love.

What are you most proud of or excited about in terms of your studio’s history and your time in the music business? 

Beau: I'm most proud of the relationships that have formed through the space and the community that's been built. It’s not just a recording studio, it's a cultural hub here in Dallas. I'm planning on having some friends who are from out of town come hang out here, because that's what the space gives me: it's a second home.

Jeff: It’s definitely a second home and it's a sanctuary – a safe place. I’ve had so many conversations here that go so far beyond music; they’re so personal and deep. It's a space that nurtures the humans that are part of the creative side of Dallas, and I think that, honestly, is what I'm most proud of with this space.

There's not any one record or one artist that I’m proud of – there are a lot of proud moments in all of that. Watching people's careers launch from here has been amazing – someone like Paul Cauthen, for example – but it’s not because of here. It’s about this being a home base and it continuing to be recognized by the community and us not moving on from the community that helped us build this place. 

I'm always open to hearing any local artist. It fires me up to know that there are people out there who are excited about coming to our studio to make music because of something that came from Modern Electric that inspired them. 

If you’re interested in purchasing any of the gear mentioned in this blog, we're here to help! Contact a Vintage King Audio Consultant via email or by phone at 866.644.0160.