Studio offers one-of-a-kind experience
By Brenna Moore The Free Press
For music-makers, actors and renowned talent alike, there is one spot in Santa Fe dedicated to bringing out the best of local - and veteran - creativity.
Stepbridge Studios has been offering it's services to the are for more than 21 years, and people from all over the world have traveled to the heart of Santa Fe to record their next project. The studio has recently come under new ownership.
"We are just as good as corporate studios that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this and we do it for a tenth of that," said Stepbrdge Studios co-owner Edgard Rivera.
Rivera said his state-of-the-art studio is a Neve/Solid State Logic facility and offers full service analog and digital music recording. professional audio services for film and video and an experienced staff. Stepbridge Studios is a popular stop for musicians, bands, actors and others working on audio or visual project, he said.
The building houses two separate studios; Studio A, for helping artists record their music , and Studio B, for solo music project, film scoring and voice over projects.
Stepbridge Studios is located at 528 Jose Street, nestled back in a private area within Santa Fe's Guadalupe district.
"You don't know it's here unless you know it's here," said Lynn Marie Rusaw, studio manager.
After expanding the original 1900s adobe structure, the studio is presently a modern facility with a Southwestern feel and has been redesigned to be acoustically sensitive. The walls of each studio are built to absorb all sounds in such a precise way that whatever project is recorded within the walls of Stepbridge will stand up in every environment, Rivera said.
The equipment within both studios is a mixture of the old and new.
"What makes this studio special is there is a classic collection of equipment here that digital isn't able to reproduce nowadays," Rivera said.
"A lot of (our equipment) are prized possessions," said Andrew Click, co-owner and chief engineer of Stepbridge Studios.
One such item is the 1971 NEVE BCM-10 sidecar console of whick Click said there are only three in the U.S. It is classic equipment like this that enables Stepbridge to really illustrate the difference between a home studio and a professional recording studio, Click said. Recording in a professional studio "is more expensive, but you get the work done three times as fast," he said.
"In putting all of this carefully handpicked collection of equipment together the outcome is pretty incredible," Rivera said.
Rivera and Click said they are dedicated to working with every individual who comes into the studio, whereas other studios might just record their sound without actually desiring to produce an excellent product. "(The artists) find that their money is evaporated and they are not getting what they needed," Rivera said.
But when the talent sees what Stepbridge can offer, that is when "necessity meets opportunity," he said. "They quickly become really addicted… it happens a lot," Click said.
They owners however, said they won't work with people who aren't yet ready to record in such a professional setting, saying they feel it is a waste of the studio's time as well as the artist's time and money.
Studio B is mainly used for recording solo project; and as the ADR studio (Automated Dialogue Replacement), one of its popular uses is recording voiceovers during the final stages of a motion picture or television show. The studio has accommodated such actors as Ali MacGraw, Kate Walsh, Gene Hackman, Natalie Portman, Randy Travis and Toby Keith.
"With the kind of film activity in New Mexico, we're seeing, we're expanding on this service," Rivera said.
Rivera and Click bought Stepbridge two years ago. The previous owner was thinking of converting the building into three condominiums. If that had happened, "our musical community would have lost this valuable asset," Rivera said.
Prior to obtaining Stepbridge, Click and Rivera worked at Rancho Digital Studio, located one block from the historic Santa Fe plaza. Rancho Digital is still up and running, but due to Rivera and Click's recent ownership of Stepbridge, Rancho Digital has become more of a practice studio.
"We are proud to tell people who can't afford this to go to Rancho to work on projects at $30 an hour there," Rivera said.
But for the more experienced artist, Stepbridge is the place to be, he said.
"We find that people come to this studio and are so impressed with the sound quality and so impressed with the true nature of their work that they decide to make a true investment in the creativity of their work. And this is the place to do it," Rivera said.
For more information on Stepbridge and to learn about its full range of services, visit www.stepbridge.com.
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Studio Excellence 