I am an extraordinarily blessed guy. I haven’t been here long at all but already I’ve learned a wealth of information and gotten to see some amazing stuff. Like today, for instance, I got to sit in on a session at a professional studio called The Sound Kitchen. You should check the link for their roster of clients. Yes, there were platinum albums hanging on the walls in the hallway. Yes, there was a sheik chill room / kitchen. Yes, it was amazing. And yes, I got pictures for you to marvel at the cool opportunities God is giving me.

One of our teachers “canceled” our once-a-week class because he had an opportunity to record a big band at the Sound Kitchen. He turned it into a kind of field trip for us.

We started off the trip with a stop a Wendy’s and, since I’m a ham, I couldn’t resist.

The high-class entrance to the studio.

The aforementioned lounge area.

The magical control room in the “Big Boy” studio.

The required console (custom API Legacy Plus, 80 inputs) shot.

Logo proof of the custom design on the end of the console and stereotypical lava lamp.

More console porn.

Me badly faking mixing on the board : ) I had to be careful not to actually touch something during the recording process or tick off my teacher who was kinda busy doing real work while I was taking pictures.

The beautiful Pro Tools HD and G5 heart of the beast.

The Pro Tools monitor that says, if you can make it out, “Pro Tools HD 7.3.1″ in the top left corner. Those tiny letter and numbers cost so very much money.

Our crack team of graduate students adeptly and enthusiastically observing the session.

A broad shot of the, as they say in the biz, “tracking space”.

Some very cool diffusers/absorbers that did a mind boggling good job of isolating the piano while an entire big band played.

And the tracking space from the other side.

Did I mention how blessed I am? : )