Destination Studio Sweet Spot: Outlier Inn — Moutaindale, New York

“Sensory memories”—they’re what drove engineer/producer Josh Druckman from Gotham into the Catskill Mountains. And that’s exactly what he’s creating for other people with his ace destination studio Outlier Inn.

Nestled within one of New York state’s many beautiful regions, Druckman’s facility in Mountaindale, NY is a place where everything winds up complementary and copacetic: Studio A with its magnificent John Musgrave-modified Neve VR for mixing and recording, Studio B’s synth heaven, the vibe with the visiting artists’ creativity, the complete studio complex with the surrounding countryside that immerses it.

Above all, it’s the joining of an audio warrior’s vision with the reality he strove tirelessly to see through. Almost done in by the slog of scrapping for sessions in Manhattan’s gritty Garment District, Druckman rose again like a phoenix upstate. What he’s built there isn’t just a testament to engineering excellence, but the spirit of sharing unique sonic experiences—giving creators the opportunity to go all-in on the experience of making their music.

(Engineers who can’t wait for a project to get up there have a unique opportunity to partake: A Mixing Masterclass Retreat with 11-time GRAMMY winner Mick Guzauski, held in collaboration with Audio Sin Fronteras, is happening November 15-17—full details here.)

Josh Druckman and the never-duplicated Neve VR72 at Outlier Inn.

Facility Name:  The Outlier Inn

Location:  Mountaindale, NY – Catskill Mountains

Clients/Notable Credits:  Big Thief “Capacity”, Snail Mail “Lush”, Parquet Courts “Sunbathing Animal”, Guerilla Toss “Twisted Crystal”, Luke Temple “Good Mood Fool”, Delicate Steve “This Is Steve”, Yeasayer “Amen and Goodbye”

Mission Statement:  Rest, Relaxation, and Rock n’ Roll

Neighborhood Advantages: I opened a studio on 38th street and 9th avenue in 1998 called Contra and ran it for two years before closing it.  It was just too stressful and hectic of a hustle to keep the lights on.  I wasn’t plugged into a scene back then, so I just worked on whatever came through the door and it ended up being kind of a bummer.

I was ready to leave NYC and moved out a month after 9/11.  After traveling for a year and making a record on a laptop (Bundok – Cusp) I ended up moving to the Catskill mountains, two hours north of NYC.  My grandfather was born up here, and he and my grandma owned a children’s summer camp in the 60’s and 70’s.  I came up here for the first time when I was two weeks old and spent summers up here as a kid, even though my family had relocated to south Florida when I was two.  I had a lot of sensory memories of this area so it felt like a homecoming.

I set up a small studio in the house, never thinking I’d run another commercial studio.  Seventeen years later, after moving the studio into a small bungalow (now Studio B), then adding a tracking room in the garage next door and finally a new control room in the same building (Studio A), I’m running a commercial facility once again.  But this one is very different than the one I ran in the city in every way.

The view into Studio A from behind the Neve.

In my opinion, destination studios are where it’s at—literally.  I contend that a band can get twice as much done in the same amount of time when they are disconnected from their normal routines and commitments (and relationships) and can immerse themselves in their work, undisturbed and inspired.  Making records is a stressful process so why not do it in as stress-free of an environment as possible?

At Outlier, bands have 24-hour access to the studios and there is no noise restriction.  They stay mere footsteps away from the studio so there are no commuting issues and no rushing.  It’s chill.  When they take a break and step outside, they can lie in hammocks, chill by the pond, play with the chickens, walk in the woods or make a bonfire.  I made sure that both studios have a lot of natural light filtering in so even when you’re working, you can experience nature and the outdoors.  The energy of the Catskills definitely ends up on all the records made here, and I’m really proud of that.

Date of Birth: Studio A – September 2017    Studio B – November 2002

Key Personnel:  Josh Druckman, owner and engineer/mixer; Greg Castro, engineer/tech; Joe Maltese, assistant engineer/drum tech; Joe Hensey, assistant engineer; Beulah Lee, studio pup

Facility Focus: My goal for the studio is to run half of the sessions with our in-house staff, and to rely on outside engineers to bring clients in for the other half.

Before Studio A was built two years ago, bands were coming here to write and track their records but no outside engineers were staying here to mix.  The B room is an incredibly fun and inspiring zone to create and track but it really isn’t a mix room; I was the only one mixing in there and it was a bit frustrating when trying to get the low end right.

So I hired Wes Lachot to design and Brett Acoustics to build the new A room and now have a fantastic mix room which measures completely flat down to 26 Hz and sounds insane.  For the first time in my studio life, I can hear the low end so clearly and mixing has never been more fun, especially with the VR72 desk and ATC 110 mains.  Outside mixers are coming in and loving it and bands can now write, track and mix under one roof.

Studio B has gone back to what it originally was, which is an electronic production studio with a booth big enough to track a drum kit.  It’s perfect for electronic producers who want to get out of the city and have the retreat experience but who don’t need the big live room or console.  It’s also great for smaller budget bands, tracking drums in the booth and guitars/bass direct in the control room.  There are tie lines connecting the two studios so the routing is very flexible and bands can rent both studios at the same time and work simultaneously in the two rooms, using B for overdubs, vocals and editing.  The two studios complement each other really well.

Combination Console: When it came time to design the new studio, aside from wanting a great sounding room and monitors, I knew that I wanted a large format analog console.  I looked at a lot of consoles but have always loved the Neve sound and I started to get fascinated by VR’s because you can get a whole lotta console for relatively little money.  I wondered why?

And that led me way down the VR rabbit hole……I learned about the extensive maintenance that is required by VRs, due to the fact that they run incredibly hot due to a design flaw.  The modules were not vented properly from the factory and there simply wasn’t enough ventilation out of the top of the faceplate to properly cool them.  VRs run super hot at 118-120 degrees Fahrenheit, when electronics are happy at around 72-74 degrees.

Outlier Inn’s Neve VR72 is a fine-sounding, cool-running Frankenstein.

So pretty soon after they were rolled out (around 400 were made between 1985-1995), they started to fail en masse to the point where Neve had to employ a large number of techs to start recapping the brand new desks.  One of those techs was John Musgrave who ran a company called Mad Labs in LA.  John’s a genius and has recapped about 60 consoles in their entirety.

I guess around the second one he recapped, he started to work on mods for the channels and also for the frames themselves.  He ended up designing and manufacturing a set of custom motherboards for the VR as part of a power/grounding modification and beefed up the copper throughout the desk, significantly dropping the noise floor.  His channel mods to the mic pre, EQ and small fader were the inspiration for the 88R.

There are only seven Mad Labs-modified VR frames and one of them was at Capitol in Studio C.  When Capitol decided to switch it out for an 88R, Tom Elmhirst bought it and was planning to swap it out in its entirety for his VR at Electric Lady.  I guess when push came to shove, swapping out the frame proved to be too much of a hassle (crane from the street, windows removed, etc..) so Tom just took the modified and recently recapped modules and faders from the Capitol desk, and I ended up buying the Musgrave modified frame and guts (power supplies, patchbays, meters) plus Tom’s stock modules and faders.

I got the desk a year before the studio was built and during that time brought in techs from LA, Nashville and New York to recap and modify all of the modules.  Now the console is fully modified and sounds absolutely incredible!!!!  Musgrave flew out to modify his original power/grounding box to work with the new Atomic power supply.

But the only reason that I decided to move forward with a VR is that I discovered the Bobby Summerfield “heat” mod; a customized exhaust system developed by Bobby for his VR which involves custom duct work and a dedicated exhaust fan to extract the heat from the back of the modules, which I painstakingly routed vents into.  The heat mod works really well and drops the internal temperature of the modules to 83 degrees.  The console has been running for two years now and it is rock solid and cool to the touch.

I’m hoping that keeping it cool will save me a few recaps, because re-capping a VR truly is a bit of a nightmare and there aren’t too many techs left around who know how to do it.  Fortunately we’ve learned from some great techs (Musgrave, Kevin Nimmo, Joel Scheuneman) and can now do a lot of work on the console in-house, thanks to our tech Greg Castro.

Everyone who works on the console absolutely loves it and my decision to invest in a big console bore immediate fruit when the very first band to track on it was right up on the desk, pushing faders and engaged in the process rather than sitting on the couch, spaced out on their phones while the engineer just clicks away on a mouse.

“Otherworldly flutter echo.” Inside Outlier’s geodesic dome reverb chamber.

System Highlights: I’d say our most unique secret weapon is the geodesic dome reverb chamber.  It’s a 30-foot dome that sits in the forest, 800 feet away from the studio.

We ran direct burial Cat6 cable out to it and have a Focusrite Rednet X2P that gives us two nice mic pre’s out there, and two line level returns.  We’ve got a stereo mic that is permanently installed 14 feet up in the peak and a powered speaker on the floor.  There are Audinate dongles that convert the signal back to analog in the studio and the sends/returns just show up as points on the patchbay so we can feed whatever we want out there and easily record it back in.

The dome has a crazy, otherworldly flutter echo that’s really cool on a lot of things, from snare drum to background vocals.  It’s really unique and it gives us that Dome of Sound!

Additional Distinguishing Characteristics (big live room, vibe, inventions, etc…):  Vibe, vibe, vibe.  With all the gear, it’s easy for studios to turn into spaceships or doctor’s offices.  I wanted a studio that would integrate seamlessly with the natural landscape and with everything else I’ve got going on here on the farm.

We re-used the barn wood for the live room and made our color scheme sepia tone to match the photo of the Band that hangs on the wall.  From the mix position, natural light streams in from both sides and one can look out through the live room to the field at the back where the sheep, goats and alpacas graze.  The entire studio is equipped with the Philips Hue lighting system which is great for setting the mood.  And just for fun, we wired up the recording Red Light button on the console to control a disco ball in the live room.  Gotta keep it vibey……

Room for music to move, in the Studio A live room.

The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it?  My dad’s Giannini classical guitar – easy choice

Rave Reviews—What do people tell you they like/love about your studio?  The natural light and the comfortable couch.  Oh yeah, and the SOUND!!!

Most Memorable Session Ever:  Luke Temple Good Mood Fool.  That record started a chain of events which led to building the new studio…and to meeting an amazing group of friends.

Session You’d Like to Forget:   Guerilla Toss Live record when the new A room flooded.  It was bad.  But we patched into B and finished the session.  Still, would happily forget it.

Dream Session: Still and always, Bob Dylan.

— Josh Druckman, Outlier Inn Proprietor + Recording Engineer + Farmer

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