Panoramic House, Summer 2023

Hello!

Welcome to the first Panoramic House Substack newsletter.

If you are getting this email then we have likely corresponded at some point, or you have been our guest out at Panoramic House. I will be sending these out once a month or so to keep folks updated with what we’re doing at Panoramic, if you’d like to be removed from this list, just email me directly or go to the link at the end of this email.

Panoramic 2.0

First things first, we are still here and still making music with our friends and acquaintances we’ve met over the years here. After hosting a full time client through covid for the last three years, we are back to managing the house and studio ourselves and have some exciting plans (we think) for the next few years at Panoramic.

If you are on this list, then you are somebody we would love to have as a guest out to the house and studio to make some music, so please reach out if you have any projects that you think might be a good fit for the space.

New more affordable rate structure aimed at longer stays and residencies

As much as we might wish we didn’t need it, we all need money right? Unfortunately we are in a time where artists and especially musicians are often not compensated fairly for the work we do. We’ve always tried to keep our rates low so that artists could afford to work here, but we found that over the years the business model we had created just wasn’t working on a variety of levels and we’re no longer able to offer what we would consider an affordable day rate for working in the studio.

However, we’ve significantly lowered the rates on monthly stays and we’re hoping to get more folks who can come to Panoramic for a month or two to live, work and enjoy the beautiful area around the house and studio.

We can still do shorter stays however the daily cost will go up a bit. But again, if you’re getting this email we’d love to have you as our guest, so please reach out if you have a project that you’d like to do here and let’s see if we can make it work.

Please email me directly if you’d like more info on the new rate structure.

Simplified Studio operation

At the core of the studio is our 32 channel custom API 1608 console modified with Avedis op-amps, our vintage RCA tube console, an Apogee Symphony II 32 channel converter, our echo chamber, EMT 140 tube plate reverb, and a fair bit of outboard gear and instruments. We’ve simplified the outboard gear, instruments and microphone set-up and some of the gear is now off site and the studio is bit more like what you’d see if you walked into a studio in the 70’s or 80’s - A console and enough mics and gear to make a record. Over the years, our gear list grew a bit wooly and it created too much physical and electronic clutter, and may have presented a few too many options when starting a session. The basic instruments are still here, but the main tracking room and control room are much more open now with far less “stuff” all over the place. Less is more, but our full slate of gear is available if you need it.

Think of Panoramic 2.0 as a great studio and a studio rental service combined at an affordable price. Once you get us an input list from the available gear, you’ll show up for your session and all the microphones will be on stands with cables and power supplies line tested and ready to go along with any instruments you need.

All the things you don’t need will be out of your way.

Cottage Studio/B-room

Our guest cottage/ADU studio has been up and running for almost 2 years now, but mostly as a private studio. More recently though we’ve been hosting guests and sessions in the space with folks like Maryam Qudus/Spacemoth, OTRA, Robert Cheek, Claire George, Yeemz, Logan Farmer, Bad Tiger, Late Aster, Sonny Smith, and Jake Mann. The cottage is completely self contained with it’s own kitchen and and full bath and is a great place to for one or two people to work together on projects that don’t need a full studio or band situation. Great for songwriting sessions, overdubs and mixing sessions. We recently added an Undertone Audio Pyra-Sum mixer into the space so it’s a great place to get a mix out of the box. You can even print to our 1/4” Otari MX-5050 if you want to get the sound of real tape as part of your mixing process. This space is much more affordable and manageable than the main house and studio so it’s much easier for us to accommodate shorter stays.

Fall Workshops

We’re hoping to start a series of workshops at Panoramic this fall focused on unique experiences for small groups. We’ve been talking to our friend Bryce Gonzales of Highland Dynamics and he’s going to host a DIY tube compressor building workshop and live to 2-track tape recording session. We’ve also been talking with composer/synthesist Suzanne Ciani about a Buchla masterclass and quad concert. Nothing firm yet on dates, but we’ll keep you posted and look for more events like this in the coming year.

There’s a lot more going on, but I’ll leave it at that for now and end with the photo below.

The best part of Panoramic is not the gear or even the house, but the area around it. Mt. Tamalpais, the Pacific Ocean and all the creatures big and small who call this area home. In the spring and summer we get all sorts of animals coming out of the woods so to speak. The quails, who seem to have tight family units, show their new chicks around the property running around in little sprints between the bushes. The Coyotes are maybe a little less cute as they grow older but the little pups are really playful and fun to watch play together. And then there’s the deer. Every year we seem to get a new family of them around the property and they get used to me and I give them names and talk to them. Below is a photo of Double-Stumps with Mini-Stumps behind him, both trimming our weeds, such nice guys.

Hope we see you soon!

John and Bobby