Customer Studio Spotlight: Golden Bear Records

Golden Bear Records offers top-notch recording and mixing in the peaceful locale of Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to high-end gear, instruments, and production talent, this über-cozy space includes a bunk room, private bathroom, full kitchen, and lounge to accommodate overnight stays. One of the proprietors of the studio, Bryan Vanderpool, generously agreed to answer a few questions about himself, his inspiring recording space, and his history with Sweetwater.
First of all, I’d like to learn a little bit about you. What’s your musical background? Which instruments do you play? What inspired you to get into music?
I grew up outside of Boston listening to a lot of folk music and playing drums and guitar in a few bands. I briefly went to Northeastern University, but I spent all my scholarship money on a laptop, an Mbox, and a few mics. All my free time was spent in my dorm writing and recording songs on guitar and banjo, so there were quite a few early warning signs that college wasn’t for me [laughs]. After college, I spent a few years working at a coffee shop and playing at open mics around the city. It was then that I met my wife — we fell in love and ran off to California to start our band, The Well Pennies. After seven years in LA, we got to the point where we wanted to tour more, buy a house, and build our own recording studio, so we picked up and moved to Des Moines, where we currently reside, and built Golden Bear Records.

What memorable projects have you worked on, either as a musician or as an audio engineer?
We’ve done a lot of really fun projects — we just wrapped up projects from Louise, Lately and Kiana Valdez, and our own album, Murmurations, just came out last week. One of our most memorable projects happened two years ago, when the studio was still new. Someone sent our band a video of a young woman from Cambridge singing an original song. Typically, you get mixed results with people sharing videos with you, but this was different. We were completely blown away by her songwriting ability. We knew it had to be recorded, and because we had our own recording studio, it provided us with a unique opportunity. We called her up and offered to record the song for free, which turned into a whole album that we released on our record label. It was incredible to have the ability to just do that. The artist is Kaiti Jones, and the record is called Vows; it was such a cool experience to be able to do that on a whim.
Tell me about your studio. How long have you been in business? How did your studio evolve? What kind of gear did you use when you were first starting out? 
We decided it was time to build a studio when we were pricing out our first LP. We were looking at studios in Nashville and were quoted anything from $1,000–$2,000 a day for some of the well-known rooms. We figured we could use that money and buy our own gear and record it ourselves. So that’s what we did. We started off with an Apogee Symphony 8×8 and Avid Pro Tools, and then we rented/borrowed a ton of microphones, preamps, and compressors to figure out what we liked using. Then, when we moved to Des Moines, we started collecting all of our favorite pieces from that session.
It started off as a place to record our own stuff, but word started getting around, and pretty soon we had a calendar filled with bands. We’ve been open for about three years now, and it’s been such a fun experience becoming part of the Des Moines music community.
What’s the focus of your studio (recording, mixing, mastering, voice-overs, video, etc.)?
Mostly recording and mixing music projects, but every once in a while we’ll get something different in here. We had a podcast conduct an interview a while back, and we have the occasional voice-over or narrator stop by to read something.
It looks like you’re an Apogee + JBL + Neve guy — a man after my own heart. What are the key pieces of gear that you use? What are your favorite mics? Favorite outboard gear? Favorite plug-ins?

It seems cliché, but there’s a reason why those brands are so popular. Everything changed when I got my JBL 708s. They were our first serious monitors, and they’re a dream to mix on; no more fighting the mix. The Apogee Symphony is our favorite converter. There are a lot of good ones out there, but there’s just something special about Apogee. As far as preamps go, I was first introduced to the Neve 1073 when we recorded our first EP in LA — I knew nothing about gear, but everything sounded magical through it. When it came time to build our own studio, we immediately bought a pair of them. We also bought a pair of API 512Vs because of how versatile they were. We can get a super-clean sound out of them, or really drive them to get that classic API sound. I also have some Summit Audio pieces that I use if we want to round the corners a bit with some warm tubes. 
My main vocal mic is a Blue Cactus, which unfortunately they don’t make anymore. It was their take on the Telefunken U47, super warm and detailed, and it sounds great with folk music and most vocals. I also often pull out the AKG C414s and Neumann KM 184s, but my favorite cheap mic is the Shure SM7. Whenever I’ve got a voice that doesn’t fit with any other mics, it always sounds great on that.
For plug-ins, I love Waves, especially the Abbey Road Collection — the Reel ADT and TG Mastering are secret weapons of mine. Slate has some great compressors, and I love their Bricasti M7 reverb patch. I also highly recommend anything from Quiet Art; their plug-ins always save me a lot of time.
You have one of the most comfortable-looking studios I’ve ever seen — a bunk room, private bathroom, kitchen — it’s like a bed-and-breakfast for musicians. Do you get lots of out-of-towners recording in your space?

We find that most studios fit into two categories: clean and sterile, where pop artists seem to record, or grungy and gross, where rock bands record [laughs]. We wanted a studio that felt like a living room, where folk musicians would feel more comfortable. We originally built the bed-and-breakfast–style space to accommodate our own band when they come out for rehearsals and tours, but it ends up being used by recording artists more often. It’s nice to have your own space to chill after a full day of recording. As far as our clients go, it’s totally random. We get a lot of local bands and singer/songwriters, as well as quite a few traveling bands that hear of the studio because of The Well Pennies’ music.
Did you build and design the space yourself?
I did, and it was actually really fun. When I was in high school and college, I worked for my dad’s contractor business, and it finally came in handy. We completely gutted the space and started from scratch. I also had a lot of help from friends and studio owners in the business who offered their advice. In the end, we built a beautiful-sounding isolated tracking room and a balanced control space for listening. Next summer, we’ll be expanding and putting in a huge tracking room/rehearsal space as well.
What’s your favorite part about being a Sweetwater customer?

My Sweetwater rep, Darius, has been with me since the very beginning of the studio. He calls me when there are any sales, always answers any questions I have, gets me the best deal, and has felt more like a partner than a sales rep through this whole process. It’s that attention to detail that keeps me coming back to Sweetwater. I also love the Wish List feature! It can get out of hand fast [laughs] — I have enough gear on there to fill Abbey Road!
Learn more about Golden Bear Records: Goldenbearrecords.com

Build the Studio of Your Dreams
Bryan’s production space is seriously jaw-dropping. He and his cohorts put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into building it — and his Sweetwater Sales Engineer partnered with him every step of the way. Are you building a studio? If so, we’ll give you the same professional treatment. Give us a call at (800) 222-4700, and we’ll get started!
The post Customer Studio Spotlight: Golden Bear Records appeared first on inSync.