Artist development, music education, and embracing technology—these are the three pillars upon which Trilogy Sound Studio is built. Co-founder and CTO Erin Wallace tells us that the studio, based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, wants to do more than just record music for the artists that come through—it aims to empower them with the tools required to build a career in the music industry. 

In this edition of 30 Years / 30 Studios, Erin tells us about the studio’s goals, their favorite gear purchases from Vintage King, and their approach to embracing the innovations in technology that are changing the landscape of the music business.

What was your vision and goal for Trilogy Sound Studio when you started?

Trilogy Sound Studio came about from working with a lot of artists in the area—we wanted to focus on the independent artist and on growing a platform. We put a big emphasis on education and teaching our clients how to navigate the industry, so instead of just making the music, it’s also about what to do with the music afterward.

We’re always looking for new artists and creatives to work with in the studio and also focusing on the educational side of things. We recently partnered with Fairfax County Public Schools and have been working with the students of the West Potomac Academy. What we do is pretty diverse and it started from a simple idea of wanting to support independent artists.

Tell us about some of the memorable artists you've worked with over the years.

One of the most memorable artists we’ve worked with is the concert pianist Lenny Seidel. One day, just randomly, he came down to our studio—he was driving by, he saw it, walked in, and one of our staff members gave him a tour of the place. We have this massive wall in our lobby, where we’ve got a grid of album covers on display. Lenny takes a look at the wall, points to one of the covers, and says, “Hey, that's my record!” Sure enough, we actually had two of his albums on the wall! There was no reason really for which albums we had selected—we just had all these albums in the studio and my wife Sarah Benrazek, who's also the CEO of the company, said “Let's put these on the wall.”

Lenny was actually looking for a studio to record his final album and we were just thrilled by the opportunity; especially me, because I'm a classically-trained pianist. We worked out the logistics, got together a couple of our staff members, interns, and students, and basically dismantled our main studio, went to his house, and recorded the one-of-a-kind, custom-made grand piano that he's had for years and years. We recorded him playing his piano at home and produced his final album, which is called "Finale."

Oddly enough, even though I play piano, this was my first time recording it—as an audio engineer, most of the time at the studio I'm recording vocals, guitars, drums, and things like that. I have to give credit to our staff member Matthew Faunda, who did a lot of research on the actual recording process and what we would need. We brought our Apogee Symphony I/O interface over; the LaChapell 992, and the Stam Audio 1073 preamps; we had eight microphones set up including the Warm Audio WA-251s, the Stam SA-47 and SA-87s, and a couple of Telefunken shotgun mics, and we also brought a bunch of custom-made panels from the studio to acoustically treat his house a little bit better—we went there overprepared. [Laughs] Lenny was thrilled and he kept thanking us for working with him and coming out to his house. It was an incredible experience overall, and plus, we got our students and interns involved as well; it was just great. That is definitely one of the most memorable sessions that has ever transpired here, just because of the way it came about—it felt very serendipitous, almost spiritual.

Another memorable artist I’ve worked with here is actually my wife—she’s a singer and we've been working together ever since we met each other! A third artist I’d like to mention is a guy called Benny Lake. I really appreciate his process—he really takes his time approaching his music and he's not trying to rush anything. He’ll come into the studio, record something, we'll do a rough mix and he'll be like, “Okay, I'll see you in two weeks”, because he'll take the time to listen to the mix and figure out what he wants.

What sets your studio apart from other recording spaces?

All the people who work at Trilogy really invest in the artists and projects that are coming through. We get a lot of stories from people who say they've worked with engineers who hit the record button and then just turned around and didn’t really pay attention to the project. We try to actively work with recording artists to get the best out of them.

We also place a huge emphasis on education, so we're asking questions like, “What do you want to do with the music afterward? Are you signed up with a PRO? Are you protecting your intellectual property?” We're not trying to lock the artist into a 360 deal and take away their rights, we're really trying to get them on their own two feet. Hopefully, they have a good experience and come back to record with us again or take lessons through our educational program.

We've got a four-month program called MPACE (Music Production & Audio Engineering Combined Education) where we teach students all the basics, starting from music theory, all the way to video game sound design. It's a program that lets the student get comfortable with the different areas of work that exist within the music industry, so they can decide, for example, “I don't really like sound design, but I like mixing or recording.” It gives them a little bit of direction and all of our lessons are one-on-one with our instructors. We also just launched a publishing company, so I’d say we would like to be a one-stop shop type of studio that puts an emphasis on the independent artist.

We’ve also won the Best of DC award for “Best Recording Studio” three years in a row now so that's pretty cool too.

How did you first become aware of Vintage King and what was your first experience working with us? 

In my early days of making music, when I started looking for gear, I was aware of Vintage King, but my first time actually working with you was when we purchased the Slate Raven Z3 desk. They had only made about 40 of the consoles, so when we placed the order they had to custom-make it and it took around three or four months to arrive.

What are some of your favorite pieces of gear that you have purchased from Vintage King?

Definitely, the Slate Raven Z3—that purchase helped us brand our entire studio because everybody that walks into the room is like, “Oh my God, this looks like a spaceship!” [Laughs] We're into the space theme and traveling the galaxy with our music, so we kind of just ran with that—we call our Studio A ‘The Starship’.

Since then, we've also purchased the Barefoot MicroMain 26 monitors, which we actually became aware of through VK.

How has Vintage King helped you with gear selection, purchasing, and servicing in the past?

Just recently I reached out to you guys to try and find the proper stands for the Barefoot monitors. I had gone online and was kind of confused; there were some stands that were for the Barefoot MicroMain 27s and I really didn't know if I could use those but I couldn't find anything that specifically were for the 26s in my research. I kept seeing conflicting information online so I reached out to you guys. The reply was really quick and that helped me lock in on the specific stands that I wanted, which I bought from VK. 

What sets Vintage King apart from other pro audio gear companies?

I’d say it’s the great service, and also knowing that when I reach out to you, I’ll get a quick response. I also really like the selection of gear you guys have. For example, nobody else was selling the Z3 desk—that was pretty much exclusive to Vintage King as far as I'm aware. You guys have some cool stuff.

How has the industry changed since you first opened your doors and how has your studio adapted to those changes? 

The biggest change is the onset of AI. The digital realm has been creeping up on the analog realm for a while now. You've got companies like Universal Audio that have been digitizing their hardware for years, but there was still a heavy emphasis on getting the proper hardware for certain things and that's becoming less and less of a necessity. I really do think that within the next 5 to 10 years, your average mega studio is not going to have racks and racks of crazy expensive gear. Everything is going to be through software because it's way more convenient. 

I will say that capturing the initial recording as best you can is important, so things like good preamps, for example, are really important, but after you've recorded the audio, software compressors are just as good as hardware compressors.

Now, you’ve also got these AI plug-ins that will analyze your mix and detect things; like it’ll tell you, “Hey, you have too much low end, try this EQ option. Do you want me to do it for you?” Music is always going to require a human ear, though. The audio engineer's job is not at risk because there's always room for that creative expression, which the computer might not be able to do or execute in the right way, but the digital side of things has definitely taken a huge leap with the onset of AI.

Our studio was already very technology-focused; we were already investing in all types of software so we really didn't have to adapt that much. I would say some other studios that don't place a big emphasis on the software side would have to make more adjustments. Also, if you're a studio that's invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in gear, you're going to want to use that gear; you're not going to want to buy some plug-in that can do the same thing, right?

It is still important to understand what the hardware does and to know what the software is modeled after, but after that, it's just about what sounds good. I guess it's always been about that, but it’s easier now because you can try out so many things and see which one you like working with the best.

We’re super excited about all these changes. It’s more about being aware of what's going on and just going with the flow. We do have gear, we've got the preamps and some compressors, but that's pretty much it; I've been mixing in the box for the most part. 

Looking back, what are you most proud of or excited about in terms of your studio’s history?

The studio has definitely been through its ups and downs. We’ve overcome a lot of obstacles and I'm grateful for our resilience and our ability to find a way to keep moving forward. This industry is not forgiving and if you're not with the right people, it can be extremely draining. Our studio has four owners—my wife, my father, our business partner John Kyle, and myself—and we just held on, even through the pandemic, when sales slumped, we pulled together and worked hard to keep it alive. We have bounced back and the studio is now the most stable that it’s been in its entire history.

You can have moments where it seems impossible, but if you really want something, if this is truly your passion, and if you just hold on a little bit longer, you'll find something that will hopefully take it to the next level. I'm just very, very thankful for that and excited and proud of the people I work with.

What are your plans for the future of your studio?

Expanding our partnerships with local county schools and educators is something I definitely want to do. Like I said, we're partnering with Fairfax County Public Schools and I feel like that's just the beginning. We will be working to broaden and strengthen that relationship and then expand to other opportunities within the educational side of things. 

At the same time, we've got a music studio and we have artists that come through and I'm hoping that we can help artists not just record their music, but also release and publish it—we want to release more and more good music through the studio so I'm excited for the projects that we're going to be working on in the future.

I’m also very excited about the tech side of things and I want to bring that awareness on how to use these tools to make better music to the new artist or the new producer who comes into our studio. The tech is not going to take anybody's jobs, but the people who understand how to utilize it will be sought after more than those who don't utilize the technology. Start experimenting with it, start understanding it, and everything will be fine.

I don't think we’re ever going to get to a place where computers completely take over because music needs the human spirit. You can compare it to all this AI image generation stuff that’s going on—you can generate all these images and they look beautiful, but what's the story behind them? That’s what people really connect with; it's not just a pretty picture, it’s about how the picture came to be. That's why art is what it is—it's not just the photo, or the drawing or the painting, it's the story behind it, and that is something that computers will never be able to replace 100%.

   

Jack ReedIf you’re interested in purchasing gear for your studio, contact a Vintage King Audio Consultant via email or by phone at 866.644.0160.