Having taken courses in audio recording and critical listening during my first semester at SC, I was eager to apply the knowledge I was learning in class. Although I had no formal music training and didin’t play any instruments, I wanted to get more involved with the music making process.

I figured the best thing I could do was to spend time in a studio. Because I was way under qualified to get a meaningful job, I decided I’d build my own. Moreover, this meant that campus-based recording artists would want to use my studio because I’d grant them access free of charge.

I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas working out the logistics… acquiring the gear necessary, sorting out rental agreements, and doing everything else that isn’t fun about building a studio in a fraternity.

By January 10th, after I’d returned from break and had two days to work on the setup, we were moved-in and ready to rumble (sorry for the lame music jokes).

It was a traditional bedroom studio with a desk, two near-field monitor speakers, a 10-inch sub-woofer, a midi keyboard and a sound card.

“The Stu” also had 2 DJ kits – one with vinyl turntables to pull samples from our vinyl records and one with CD/MP3 players so I could spin parties at the house using USB’s.

The room’s system was designed for dual-output. Whenever I hit the decks, I was able to spin on the house’s speaker system using the master out and the studio’s speaker system using the booth monitors.

By using a four channel mixer, I could use up to 2 players, an iPod via Auxiliary and connect another sound source via bluetooth… so I could play music and walk around, or even use my Apple Watch to control the tunes throughout the house.

A lot of amazing music came out of The Stu:

The beginning stages of RUST’s first remix

A jazz-influeced Memmi track

And even a Justin Jay & Friends Promo Mix!