June 1998

Dear Dan Daley,

Thank you for your call yesterday and our phone interview. It is my hope that the information that I gave you was useful. The most recent studios that I have finished are for Jazz recording artist Jonathan Butler and Sony pop artist Maxwell. Most of the rooms that I do now are totally self contained production centers. Everything from composing to recording and even making test CDs is at the operator’s fingertips. As I stated the most challenging client to date has been Herbie Hancock. He is a great person to work with because he is a real free thinker with no limitations as to what is or is not possible when he wants to try something new.

On the topic of minority ownership in the studio business, I was trying to let you know that even though your demographic numbers do not show a large amount of minority owners, that is primarily due to the fact that most minority owners are focusing on the bottom line. The bottom line is consistent work, and being self sufficient. We could do a large article strictly on the topic of the imbalance that is prevalent in the reporting of the activities in the studio business. I guess what I am trying to say is that if I were to go by the info given through ads, product reviews and articles, the only guys who the magazines feel are doing “real recording” are Bruce and Roger, all else seem to be invisible. I say that to be honest and not to knock either one of these gentlemen’s work (I studied their work in school).

I also studied the other studio designers that you asked me about. I think that the new breed of studio designer is here because of the work done by the big name designers. I think that in my particular case I am around at a time when the cost of high quality recording equipment can be obtained readily. The same way a person can get a high end machine for a reasonable price, they should also be able to get a studio and other support services at that same reasonable price. Also as a minority, building a room is a undeniable reality that shuts anyone’s mouth who would say, “He can’t do that- he doesn’t know what I know.” I suffer from a problem of not knowing what I cannot do so I will attempt anything. You must remember the physics of sound do not change, only the application of the principles will vary job to job. Now please do not take this as a woe is me tale, it’s just my angle as I see it. I have met many good people who are my friends past the sale of their gear. We get together, they know my kids. In the end it’s really about what kind of person you were when you were here not how many rooms you built or how many machines you sold.

I think if there were anything else I could tell you it would be that I try to work with my clients past just getting their studio built. Committed relationships are a hard thing to come by in the business world.

One other thing that I thought that I would mention is that there are a handful of guys that are personnel support for some very well known artist/producers. These guys like myself have to have knowledge in many areas i.e., music, MIDI, synthesizers, and recording. You hear their work and to guys like me they are heroes as well as my friends. The next time you listen to Marcus Miller you should know that Dave “The Cat” Ward is the guy behind the scenes. The next time you listen to George Duke you should know that Wayne Holmes is the guy behind the scenes. You also have Khaliq Glover engineer/producer, Ralph “P Funk” Sutton engineer, and Joe Wolf tech/producer. If you ever want to do an article on the unknown stuntmen, these are some of the best in the business.

Sincerely,

Dave Hampton