Angels Dance Recording Studios

Angels Dance Recording Studios

For me, gathering all the studio equipment together was simply a cost effective way for me to record my songs. Way back, Paul McCartney put together a home studio in his basement and recorded an album using 8 tracks, "Ram". Throughout the years I'd heard of many others who had done the same thing so I figured I could do it too. In the end, to put together everything I needed for that first CD "Standing on the Rock" cost me around $6,000 and it took me a little over a year to figure out how everything worked.

Through the years the studio has gone a lot of places. I mean moved from one location to another. The picture above was taken in 2005 when the studio was, you guessed it, smack dab in the living room of our apartment. If you look close enough you can see our cat. He's black so he blends in really well with the decor. Because of technology today the recording of every instrument except live guitar and vocals is internal. I can record an entire album with my headphones on and my wife can be in the same room reading a book and not hear the endless editing of the tracks.

Today I know longer invade the living space of our home with my studio but if you have to start out that way, and have a wife who is understanding, then I think it's the best way to go with recording your songs.

I recall talking to Kevin Mannarino about going from the physical ADAT tape world of digital recording into the Computer world. At first it was a very hard concept for me. In 1980, when Omega III recorded, the recording tape was 2" thick and reel to reel. ADAT tapes are Cassette Video tapes except 8 tracks and as time goes by everything gets smaller. So, going into the computer world were literally hundreds of tracks can go into a hard drive that pretty much fits into the palm of your hand was almost unbelievable. But I took the plunge and kept my ADAT too. It was well worth it.

Corelli's Music Box, BMI

Corelli's Music Box, BMI

Now it was clear to me that if I was going to go back into music I needed to go all the way. I needed something that would cause me to not throw my hands up and say, "I quit". Corelli's Music Box was the answer. Back in 1996, before the internet, everything was done by snail mail. I wrote BMI about what it would take for me to start my own publishing company and they sent contracts and info back to me. The process took a couple of months but on September 16, 1996 Corelli's Music Box, BMI was offical. So I figured if I was going to record again, since no one was jumping at the chance to record my songs, I'd make sure they were published even if it was through my own publishing company.

I never dreamed of publishing anyone elses songs nor did I realize what a valuble learning tool having my own publishing company would be. Then one day my cousin Brett Helling sent me a song called, I am Runnin' and I realized I wanted to record the song. "I am Runnin'" became the first song I published that had been written by someone else.

I am Runnin - Jerry Corelli

Everything in the song was recorded by Brett. All I had to do was record the vocals at my studio. Bretts writing style is very similar to mine so it was a no brainer that I should record and publish the song.

When CMB (Corelli's Music Box) started going I got an invitation to post it in "The Songwriter's Market" book. After the book came out I started getting cassette tape after cassette tape from songwriters. Back then the common songwriter didn't have the capability to burn CD's so it was mostly cassettes. I can't tell you the wealth of information I learned from getting demos from songwriters. Well, actually I can through my book "The Songwriter's Guide to Submitting a demo" If I've learned anything it's to not give away valuable information. The fact is that the book isn't expensive and contains a lot of info for songwriters who, to this day, make the same mistakes over and over again when they send their demos to me. I'll admit it isn't selling off the shelves though. The reason for that, I believe, is the beginning songwriter mentality. Believe me I had it too. There's an arrogance I've seen in myself and a lot of songwriters who have sent me demos that says, "You can't teach me anything."

The book isn't about writing a HIT song. It's about the does and don'ts when sending your demo. Believe it or not songwriter after songwriter make the SAME mistakes time after time. Then they sit back and wonder why they don't hear back from a publisher, good or bad. This book will help songwriters.

The Changing Times

From the beginning I only wanted to be a Songwriter. I wasn't interested in performing and never wanted to get involved with technical things like sound engineering, mixing and so on. My dream was to write a song, give it to a performer like Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, etc and of course they'd record it.

Looking back I realize now that what I didn't do was drop everything, grab the guitar and song books and head for L.A. or Nashville. But, after "Marriage Seed" in 1992 the music scene began to change. I was wanting to go back into music and this time give it a real go. But, looking back I knew that if I was to send demos to publishers I'd need good recordings of my songs. So, I called a local studio and booked some time.

I booked about 3 hours and recorded about 4 or 5 songs on an ADAT tape. The engineer rough mixed the songs on to a cassette and when I got home to listen to them I realized it would take a lot more time and money to produce the songs the way they were in my head. Thus began the journey to gather recording equipment.

Corelli & Mannarino

My best friend Kevin Mannarino who I've known since we were 12 years old was into the engineering side of recording, as well as lead guitar, vocal and songwriting. It was through him and his knowledge of recording gear and experience that I began the slow process of putting together my own studio. Back then since I lived in Tacoma, WA and Kevin lived in Denver, Co we would send cassette tapes back and forth to each other instead of letters. I had been working on a title for a song that I wanted to write but only had the title, "Grandfather Moon". I hadn't talked to Kevin about it but when he sent a cassette letter he had included some lyrics too. And there it was! The lyrics to 2 songs "Angels Dance" and "Grandfather Moon".

It was about 1995 or 96' that "Grandfather Moon" was written and it took until 2008 for me to record it. "Angels Dance" was recorded first on my first CD "Standing on the Rock" in 1998. I named my studio "Angels Dance Recording Studio" and Kevin's recording studio was named in memory of his father "Joe Mann", Mann Recording Studios"

Grandfather Moon - Jerry Corel...

I was thrilled when it worked out that Kevin did the Lead Guitar on my 2008 "Grandfather Moon" CD. But that first CD "Standing on the Rock" was something else to record.

First, I had to put together a studio with physical equipment. A Kawai electric piano with midi capabilities, an Alesis 8 Track ADAT, a DAT recorder for mixing it all down, a mixing board, reverb module, compression module and not to mention good recording mics. So here I was doing what I didn't want to do and that was sound engineering. Now around this time my cousin, Brett Helling, introduced me to the world of midi. Back in 1997 it was totally new to me. He gave me a program called "Cakewalk" that took me about 6 months to learn. In addition to the program he also did the guitar work on "The Rock". The Rock was recorded at his place in Spokane Washington. He named his Studio after his father and called it "Mert's Place Studios". The fact was that he had the same ADAT set up Kevin had in Denver and I had in Tacoma. So, when I went to Spokane to record "The Rock" Brett's set up was in his Master bedroom.

The first tracks were done as Brett doubled as sound engineer and Alesis SR16 drum machine operator. Brett found the beat we were looking for in the verses and then one for the Chorus. He started the machine and I played along with my ovation and recorded my vocal at the same time. So we laid down the drum tracks, ovation and lead vocal in about 2 or 3 takes and then he kept the ADAT to lay down the Bass guitar, electrics and Lead electric. The version here is the newer version I re-released on my "Righteous Man" CD. I wanted the strings in the song and back up vocals but couldn't do that in the first version for lack of tracks and digital midi understanding.

The Rock - Jerry Corelli