STUDIO 9 AT THE PORCHES

A WORLD-CLASS RECORDING STUDIO

right in North Adams’ BACKYARD

BY CHRISTOPHER MARCISZ

NORTH ADAMS

From a tablet in his hand, sound engineer David Dennison can demonstrate how to completely reconfigure the space in Studio 9, the armadillo-like structure that popped up in 2020 behind The Porches Inn at Mass MoCA. While the building itself sits as a marvel of elegant design and sustainable efficiency, with its curving wooden arches and net-zero power systems, it is as a space for recording and performing music it achieves the remarkable feat of uncanny flexibility.

By activating the building’s elaborate sound system of microphones and speakers, Dennison can change almost everything about the sonic quality of the interior. With a clap and a shout, he shows how he can make it sound like you are at the bottom of a cavern, or in a Gothic cathedral, or in a closet with pillows on the walls.

“The whole idea is about playing the room,” he said. “Or letting the room play you.”

That’s the effect of the Meyer Sound Constellation Acoustic System, a network of 46 speakers and 16 microphones spread through the curved space’s ceiling and walls which gives it a unique sense of feedback and response that can be changed with the flick of a finger. This kind of “electroacoustic architecture,” as Dennison describes it, is still uncommon, and usually can’t be found in a space on the grounds of a high-end boutique hotel and across the street from one of the world’s great contemporary arts spaces.

There are other things you can do with it as well. Dennison calls upon the tablet a choral piece for eight voices and plays it back. By choosing a specific channel, he can focus on a single voice, mix it higher or lower, move it around the room.

For musicians, this system opens up all kinds of possibilities. It shapes how you set up for recording — that you can put microphones on each instrument as in a regular recording studio, or you can capture the sound in the room itself, for a more immediate and intimate recording experience. It gives musicians the ability to set aside headphones and face one another and just play, as if they were in their basement or garage. Or a singer might want a room with more reverb, while a jazz quartet might want a tighter and more precise sound. 

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUG MASON

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUG MASON

Located on The Porches Inn campus, Studio 9 is a state-of-the-art recording studio and performance venue. Built with music and sustainability in mind, the studio is 100 percent carbon neutral and equipped with a Meyer Sound Constellation Acoustic System.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUG MASON

The Meyer Sound Constellation Acoustic System, a network of 46 speakers and 16 microphones spread through the curved space’s ceiling and walls, gives Studio 9 a unique sense of feedback and response that can be changed with the flick of a finger, according to Dave “Decibel Dave” Dennison.

“It creates a nice vibe, and everyone loves playing here because of that flexibility,” Dennison said.

Among them is Claire Chase, an experimental musician who plays flute and percussion and was at the studio in May for an intense four-day recording session for a series of albums that will be coming out in November.

For her session, she set up on a riser in the center of the studio space, where she could play flute and use mechanical sensors to play various tom and bongo drums nearby. There were also an assortment of other rhythm instruments around — rattles, bells, tambourines. Her work is about creating complex and intricate soundscapes, and it took a lot of careful work to set up the precise acoustics she wanted. But it was up for the challenge, with settings that were adjustable and could be remembered for additional takes.

In the end, Chase said she was excited by the results, calling the place one of the best recording studios she’s worked in.

“What they’ve created here is, in a word, magical,” she said. “As an artist, I feel privileged to make music here, and to collaborate with the people who make this happen.”

Studio 9 was completed in 2020, and over the course of the pandemic has quietly begun to take its place in the Porches business model. The building, with a 1,110-square-foot assembly area with giant windows that open up onto the green space behind the Porches’ familiar row of converted rowhouses on River Street, just across the street from Mass MoCA.

The idea came from Porches owner Jack Wadsworth as a way to fill in the campus. And while it is a top-of-theline recording space, it is also used for any number of other purposes — it can become an intimate performance and conference space with room for about 80 people, it can host weddings and other functions (it has a catering kitchen in back accessible from Veazie Street). During the pandemic, it sometimes served as a breakfast room for the hotel.

Chris Wadsworth is Jack’s son and the founder and director of the FreshGrass Foundation, which manages and operates the studio. He said his father wanted the building to have an arresting design, which would include wood and sustainable sourcing. They found a company in New Hampshire, Bensonwood, that designed and fabricated the wooden arches, which are black pine, the interior panels of western red cedar, and a copper-clad roof.

Among its other features is a completely net-zero building. Its heating and cooling systems are a geothermal heat exchange system powered by four 400-foot wells, and it is powered by an array of solar panels on another hotel 

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DAVE DENNISON

Roomful of Teeth members record at Studio 9 under the direction of Carter Burwell, legendary film-score composer (“No Country for Old Men,” “Fargo”). According to Roomful of Teeth’s website, the group was recording the soundtrack for the film adaptation of “Catherine, Called Birdy” which will be released by Amazon Studios in the fall.

building across the sidewalk.

All these features are designed to work together to appeal to elite-level artists and musicians, especially those who probably already have easy access to high-quality recording equipment and are looking for something a little more. “There are plenty of beautiful recording spaces around the world,” Wadsworth said, and that it is having something unique like the Meyer Sound system and the appeal of the region is what makes the difference.

“The objective was we wanted to create a really unique space where artists feel very comfortable, to innovate, to experiment, to do whatever they want to accomplish,” Wadsworth said. “Those spaces are always in demand.”

That means relying on the tried and true selling pitch for the Berkshires all along — a tranquil yet creatively alive spot a step removed from New York and the Northeast corridor, but close enough to be just a few hours drive away. The combination of a high-quality — and notably adaptable — space with a hotel right on site, where musicians can come with their families, talk a walk around Mass MoCA and North Adams, or a hike up Mount Greylock, and spend a few days getting their work done. Like when the band Dispatch spent a few days there ahead of last year’s FreshGrass Festival for rehearsal.

And a big part of the context is having a pro who knows the system like Dennison at the controls in the mixing room, which is below the main space and connected with video cameras. A native of western Pennsylvania, Dennison moved to the Bay Area after studying music in college in the late 1980s, playing in bands and more and more frequently helping them record.

Through friends, he got to know the legendary mandolin player David Grisman, who called him one night at around 9:30 asking if he could come by because he had a friend over and they wanted to record a few things. He dropped everything to go and realized that friend was Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead who Grisman had bumped into earlier that night at a record store.

“It was just those guys, hanging around and talking and me setting up microphones as quickly as possible,” he said. Those sessions became an acclaimed album that was nominated for a Grammy, and Dennison began his decades-long career as an in-demand sound engineer, including for Garcia’s bandmate from the Dead, Mickey Hart. He grew into the job, which he said requires “communication skills and a good ear that lets you hear what people need.” Garcia would work with Dennison — who he gave the nickname “Decibel Dave” — until his death in 1995.

From there he began working with Meyer Sound, a specialty audio equipment company based in Berkeley, Calif., becoming one of their traveling consul-

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUG MASON

Claire Chase, an experimental musician and 2012 MacArthur Fellow (middle, standing), during a recording session at Studio 9 in May.

tants making sure their complicated and intricate systems were set up and maintained correctly. It sent him around the world and led to work with big-time musical acts like Metallica and Celine Dion, and unexpected clients like the Dalai Lama.

Dennison was living in Australia when he was called in to help with a project at the then just opened Studio 9. It was for work by the acclaimed Kronos Quartet, who were working on an album of Pete Seeger songs that had been commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation. He thought it would be a nice fit, and in summer 2020 he relocated to the Berkshires.

Since then, the project has been picking up steam and getting busier, even if Wadsworth admits that they are a bit behind schedule.

“We’re two years behind where we’d want to be,” he said. “Our hope is we’d have two years of working out the kinks as a venue, as a recording spot, how we integrate into the community … no rush, but we’re learning now. It feels like the beginning.”

And what that will evolve into is still taking shape. Dennison imagined the possibility of hosting intimate remote concerts — of having a performer in their own studio somewhere else, and using the Constellation system and the video screen to recreate it almost exactly at Studio 9. He also imagines what could happen there with virtual reality or augmented reality, and the sonic possibilities of EDM performance at the space.

Wadsworth said he believes the specific qualities of the space would be great for sound artists and for composers, especially those working on film scores. Recently the production team for a project that will be on a major streaming platform recorded there. `“We’re still trying to figure out our sweet spot for how we present the place and how we want to book it,” Wadsworth said. “This will be a year of experimentation, then I’m sure we’ll get our groove.”

“I think the space is limited only by our imagination.” ■