New Studios: Spice House Sound – Philadelphia, PA

Listen in…

25′ ceilings are just the start. (All photos by Cheryl Fleming Photography)

Turn your ears Philadelphia way, and you just might hear the call. It’s coming from the new studio of a young engineer they call “The Gear Whisperer.” He takes sonic devices and gives them a vibrant new life.

Now Alex Santilli has got a facility of his own called Spice House Sound, and he just may have brought something spectacular to the region. Designed by John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group in a circa-1885 former stable, the live room has a 25’ ceiling, a groundbreaking ceiling cloud its designers call one-of-a-kind, and can open up to a huge 16,000 cubic feet.

Also in the 2,000 sq. ft facility is a 400-sq. ft. control room that can comfortably accommodate 10. All the better to listen through the unique system: By retrofitting state-of-the-art components and op amps, utilizing direct-coupled and transformer-coupled circuits, and expanding bandwidth performance for zero phase-shift in the audio band, Santilli created a distinctive sonic signature for Spice House.

Santilli is just in his early 20’s, but he spent eight years designing the loudspeakers and reproduction system, focusing on sensitivity, transient response, true full range response, and linear absolute phase.

In this first in a SonicScoop series featuring just-born facilities, Alex Santilli tells you all about his New Room — but you’ll have to hear it to believe it.

Facility Name: Spice House Sound

Website: http://www.spicehousesound.com

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Before I Started This Studio: I started by being hired to fix equipment in a basement studio full of hidden treasures. This basement just happened to be under a spice warehouse. It smelled delicious.

That beginning is the namesake of Spice House Sound. I graduated to engineering sessions and eventually managing and rewiring the studio. I spent years with a lot of that gear, restoring and modifying it, and it’s at the heart of our system today.

What I’ve Done: We only are just opening! I’d hesitate to mention anything not recorded in my facility, as my signature will inevitably revolve around my unique equipment and space.

Lots of cool things are coming down the pipeline at the moment. I’m working on a debut record by some good friends of mine with a group called Flyermile, and I’m beyond excited for it to see the light of day.

Location Location Location: I hesitate to say this, but Fishtown is often referred to as the “Williamsburg” of Philly. When I first moved in 5 years ago, the neighborhood was a full of dilapidated buildings, unsavory characters, and a lot of grisly shit that can only considered charming in retrospect.

What started out as a couple art galleries in old buildings turned into dozens of hip gastro-pubs, exotic restaurants, and kitschy bars. What followed was a huge influx of what I’d call hipsters, or what the Fishtown natives call ‘dirty yuppies’. To me, it’s a rapidly growing 20-something playground, an ideal home base for musicians, and an increasingly cool destination to out-of-towners seeking authenticity.

A customized Auditronics board and space to spare in the control room.

Date of Birth: Hard to say, the old location (not my incarnation) was open 2 or 3 years. We’ve been constructing for what feels like an eternity, and are just wrapping up our month-long soft open. We just announced our public opening as Monday, August 18^th. So date of birth? I’d say it’s happening right now!

Ideal Designer: This question is a real tough one only because I can’t imagine this project happening any other way than with John Storyk and the WSDG team. He had all the experience, the credibility, the skill, and, most importantly, he truly cared about this project.

I had a clear vision about how I wanted the studio to look, feel, and function, but I had no way to realize it. Mathew Ballos, our WSDG Project Manager, and John worked with me extensively to hone every detail of my vision – they made it real. I truly believe this project wouldn’t exist without John Storyk and WSDG.

And, one of the coolest parts of this adventure (so far) was when I called WSDG cold and asked to speak with John. He got on the phone and we had a serious conversation that led directly to Spice House Sound today.

What We’re All About: The space is built to be incredibly flexible. The quality of equipment and reproduction in our space is easily at home mastering the most sensitive solo record or recording a full up classical music session. We are already using it for those kinds of gigs along with “dirtier” genres like Rock, Indie, Electronica, and everything else under the sun.

The exciting thing is, with such a pure input system, you can color the sounds purposefully to sound like anything the heart desires. There is so much possibility here that artists and musicians who work at Spice House will inevitably define our sound and style.

I’m totally psyched to be able to produce and realize visions with artists in this beautiful, comfortable, and inspirational studio.

16,000 cubic feet of tracking space can be at your disposal.

I Engineer, Therefore I Am: I always knew I was going to audio. I bought my first pair of hi-fi monitors at 13, and went from tinkering withthem to building my first pair of speakers at 16. I constantly worked at trying to improve their sonic accuracy in order to unlock that perfect listening experience.

I moved to working on amplifiers, consoles, converters, etc…, alongside the speakers to realize their full potential. By thinking outside the box and questioning conventional wisdom I believe I’ve made great strides in those areas.

With my electrical and acoustic understanding, and my access to great monitoring, I thought I could make records that sounded better than a lot of what’s out there. I got raw tracks from a studio and began training myself to mix. I ran into the limitations of the recordings and thought I could record it better since I knew what I was looking for. I took in as much experience and information as I could in the effort to find exactly the sound I heard in my mind. This is a lifelong goal and I push towards it every day.

My idea of fun is taking on a seemingly impossible, ideal objective, and making it happen somehow. Spice House Sound would certainly be an example of that.

Realistically, nothing on paper about me would indicate I have any of the qualifications to collaborate so intensively with WSDG to design this space, or tomanage a business, oversee studio construction, to have the gall to improve the sound of existing, professional audio equipment, build my own equipment, design and pull my own systems integration, etc…etc…

It takes years for a person to excel in any one of these fields, so how could a 22-year-old kid pull it off? Honestly I’m not sure. All I know is John believed in me, and it turned out great.

“The Gear Whisperer” gave Spice House a sound all its own.

The Equipment List: Our console is what used to be an Auditronics 710. It was already an incredibly rare and unknown board, but it was designed by some of the best minds in the industry, and contained the most advanced components of its time. I fully restored it, and then redesigned every circuit that audio passes through to make it as detailed, big, and powerful as the current state of technology allows.

Our tape machine is a redesigned Otari MX-80. Post modifications, the accuracy of the frequency response is about as good as you can possibly get from a tape machine. It’s also tremendously more clear and responsive than stock. I keep a couple of unmodified channels for sonic flexibility, and to A/B the difference (it’s huge).

Another key component of our system is our ADA converters, redesigned by Jim Williams, the guru of sonic accuracy. In my spare time, I’m also working with Ross Martin on the design of a “secret weapon” in this field.

We’re Different Because: The incredible detail and accuracy of the monitoring system really changes the way you work on a record in this space. During the tracking process, you can hear more than most mastering engineers ever do.

This connection and experience with the music lets you pick and feel exactly your sound, with the added bonus of avoiding the dreaded “sonic surprises” when you leave the studio and listen at home. Our studio has been called a, “proving ground for innovative technology,” we are all that and more. Thanks to some unconventional variable acoustic installations, we have the huge sonic flexibility of large and small dead and live rooms.

We’ve established extreme-precision and realism in capturing sounds and a thousand ways to distort themto meet or inspire the artist’s vision. All this takes place in a big, beautiful, comfortable space located in fun and accessible neighborhood.

At heart we are laidback people who are insanely passionate about sound. I think people all over the world who are as passionate and creative as we are will find a home at Spice House Sound.

If I weren’t in audio, I’d be doing…Designing speakers, but that’s still audio. I’d have to say nothing, there is no other choice!

Sonic Inspiration: Eleanor Rigby. It was one of the first songs I ever listened to on my own.

I plugged in my headphones to a 5-disc changer. The strings sounded melancholy, but dignified, just like the character in the song. The way they interface with the unusual vocal sound, fascinated me the way they fit the mood and message of the piece. It sounded so incredibly unique. It was completely unlike anything I had heard.

Alex Santilli in his personal sweet spot.

It was such a life changing experience I asked my parents angrily after, “How you could not have told me that me that this exists!” I couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. I was a strange child.

Blatant Shout-out — what working artists do you fantasize will come and work at Spice House Sound?

Snowmine

Suuns

These are two bands that have something in common; they are full of absurdly creative and talented musicians, they have a mind-blowingly amazing live show, and when I listen to their records I can hear ways I would love them even more.

The last would be Damon Albarn. This man is simply a legend. He is always growing, changing, and conquering new genres. No one really knows what he will come out with next. I grew up listening to his music, and it defined many of my tastes later in life. Working on one last epic Gorillaz album would have to be my ultimate fantasy.

— Alex Santilli, Founder, Spice House Sound

Stretch your mind.

Headroom extends to the control room.

Booth with a bonus.

One more view on the HQ.

It’s an expansive addition.

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