A sense of place is ingrained at Studio 2501 at Lane Tech High School, yet the feeling in the room is fluid.
Studio 2501 (named for the school address, 2501 W. Addison) is the only high school in the state to offer a sound engineering class. Future George Martins are learning industry-type recording software such as Pro Tools II.
Studio 2501 is in an open, hangarlike room where in the 1940s students built airplanes, one of which flew in World War II. The space later was an auto shop and has now been remodeled into an area that resembles a train station from the Crosby, Stills and Nash hit "Marrakesh Express" with clocks and train/class schedules. Studio 2501 had its ribbon-cutting Nov. 8.
The "studio" consists of four spaces: a live (recording) room, a control room with mixing board, a large instruction area for up to 40 students and a loft with computers and headphones where students mix recordings and program drums for hip-hop, etc. A camera connects the control room with the live recording room, 100 feet away.
Studio 2501 was built with school fundraisers and grants from the House of Blues, the school's Century Foundation alumni group, a parent booster club and Donor's Choose, a national nonprofit organization that helps people donate to public schools. Lane Tech would not disclose the building budget. Students painted 99 percent of the new studio. The school partners with Chicago Music Exchange and Guitar Center, which donates instruments.
Word jazz cat Ken Nordine and crooner Frankie Laine attended the school, and in the 1970s, 26 members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were Lane alumni. Current enrollment at Lane Tech is 4,200.
"Many kids have been turned down because it is such a popular class," Vice Principal Damir Ara said after removing a Guns n' Roses album from the small turntable in his office.
Principal Christopher Dignam green-lighted the studio after seeing growing interest in the school's guitar program.
"We went from having one section of guitar seven years ago to eight sections (350 students) this school year," said Dignam, a rock guitarist who is influenced by Jimmy Page. "We offer two sections of the sound engineering class. This studio is a nice blend of performance and engineering that has not been designed in many high schools across the country."
Ara, a former bassist, added, "Students work in all the zones. One day they will learn how to mic a drum or they will go upstairs and try to program a drum. A lot of kids in the class have already taken guitar or orchestra, so they are experienced musicians."
Nicholas Cameron is a senior keyboardist who plays in the school's jazz combo and is taking the sound engineering class. "This room far exceeded my expectations," said Cameron, whose father Chris is a Chicago studio musician and former rhythm and blues keyboardist for Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows and Mavis Staples. "It's like a major-label studio. I'm learning how to use stuff at home. I have drums, bass, acoustic piano, guitar. I can have Pro Tools at my house and record all that stuff."
Back in his father's day, musicians gathered in one studio and played together. There was an immediacy to recording. Throwing down parts on a computer does not have the warmth of face to face recording.
"A lot of it is communication," Cameron said. "Say you want cello, you can email, call them on the phone and tell them your thoughts. Whomever you are sending your songs to probably has similar software. They can record something, send it back to you. If they don't like something they can edit it. Musicians can collaborate without ever seeing each other."
Sort of like how modern musicians are singing "duets"with the long-deceased Elvis Presley.
Students record the Lane Tech performance groups including chorus, orchestra, band, gospel choir, jazz band and combo and the popular guitar ensemble. During a recent visit harpist Alexandra Madsen was recording Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and harpist Joanna Newsom's "81" for her college audition as a solo click track (for audio cues) before students remixed "81" with drums. Madsen and a clarinet trio (for another session) sat in the recording room with sound buffered from salvaged California movie theater curtains.
Matt Hudson, music technology coordinator and co-director of guitar ensembles, stood in the control room watching Madsen on a monitor as she played her beautiful string harp. "Currently these students are working in Pro Tools to mix these sessions," he said. "While this is happening, Mr. Sweet (Joe Sweet, guitar teacher) is preparing his Guitar II class for a college guitar ensemble we have been invited to participate as performers. We have managed the space in such a way that all these activities are able to happen concurrently."
Sweet, chairman of the Music Department at Lane Tech, self-published the student songbook, "Introduction to Guitar for Ensemble," with foreword by Chicago jazz guitarist Bobby Broom. The guitar students were practicing a regal rendition of Stevie Wonder's "I Wish," among other songs, as Madsen was playing in the cozy recording room.
And wishes can come true in Studio 2501.
Email: Dhoekstra@suntimes.com
Twitter: @cstdhoekstra
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